The Suburban Indy Home & Outdoor Living Show!

Nigel (0:09)

That's right, broadcasting live from a hot tub inside the suburban indoor outdoor home show here at the fall home show at Grand Park. My name is Nigel Jason Hammer, right over there, literally sitting in a hot tub. Man, this thing, I think I could do the rest of the show in this thing.

Hammer (0:27)

I'm this close to going to sleep. Like, I'm hosting the show and I'm this close to going to sleep.

Nigel (0:33)

We are on YouTube, by the way.

Hammer (0:34)

Yes, jump over to YouTube, give us a like, give us a thumbs up. And I feel like I should give Nigel the Guy Relford speech. Stop calling your arms guns.

Look at this.

Nigel (0:45)

Look at it. Look, I was going to leave my swimsuit on. You inspired me when you disrobed. Now we're sitting in a master spa hot tub here with a woman who really put this whole thing on. Ten year anniversary, Donnet.

Donnet (1:02)

Ten years.

Hammer (1:03)

Whoop, whoop.

Nigel (1:04)

How are you doing? What do you think of what's going on right now? And how humiliated are you that you have to do?

Donnet (1:10)

I don't know many people who get to go to air quotes work and do what you guys do and what I get to do too. Because I mean, this is right up my alley right here.

Nigel (1:21)

I'm all in.

Donnet (1:22)

I'm all in. Hop on in the hot tub.

Nigel (1:24)

There's plenty of room in here, Donnet.

Donnet (1:26)

Ten years younger, I would be in there right now. Ryan can attest to that.

Hammer (1:32)

Man, we were talking about this earlier.

When we come back here every year, I see a lot of the same vendors. People want to be a part of this because it's so successful. They do.

Donnet (1:43)

Thank God. People ask me, especially since it's the 10th anniversary, what were you going to do if it hadn't worked out? Because I'd been in this industry already for 17 years, and I said, well, there was no Plan B, so I don't know what I would have done because there was no Plan B. Why did you do it? Well, because it needed to be done. Yeah. No, because I love this industry and I worked for someone else.

The shows were sold, Grand Park opened, and I just saw an opportunity. I said, would you like me to bring consumer shows here? And they said, well, we never thought about it, but yeah, let's talk. And that was in 2016, and I launched my first fall show in 2017 And I'm here to help small, local businesses grow.

Hammer (2:24)

That's why I'm in this business. And you've got over 200 vendors here. 200 is the conservative number. There's way more than 200 And so many of these folks are local.

Donnet (2:35)

Oh, yes, I would say 80% are local. I mean, I have the big national companies as well, because they also do good work and give back in our community.

But yeah, mostly local vendors. And they've all been vetted. You know, they're people that I've worked with, or I do my own research on the quality of work they do. And you can look at their BBB scores and all that stuff. That means so much. There are a lot of times that doesn't work. But yeah, so it's just an honor to be able to host as many people and to have 70% of my exhibitors come back to both shows every year.

And I think that speaks volumes to the quality of show it is. And obviously, location is great.

Hammer (3:17)

Sure, sure. But with the success of this, and you mentioned your vendors keep coming back and the people keep showing up. How are you able to keep the ticket prices affordable? Because when we've been talking about this event leading up to today, the last week, it's like tickets are just like $7 online. I spend more on that on junk food every morning at a gas station.

Donnet (3:40)

Yeah, well, I want it to be accessible to everybody.

And the more people that I can get through the door to talk with these vendors, that's why they come back is because the people come. And if the people don't come because their price is too high, then the vendors are going to come back and I'm not going to be able to have my dream job anymore.

So it's simple.

Nigel (3:57)

What's your advice to a first time vendor that comes through here that maybe is a little intimidated or maybe doesn't think that they belong here or maybe thinks that this isn't just my scene, but they show up here and it's totally something different. And then how do you talk to them and how do they communicate with the people that are walking by that are paying?