2023-10-27 17:24:08
To kick off this Halloween weekend, one spooky local business will be swimming with the sharks.
The founders of American Ghost Walks ― a national ghost tour company that started in Milwaukee in 2008 ― are appearing on ABC’s “Shark Tank” Friday, Oct. 27 to pitch their paranormal tourism business to the show’s panel of ultra-wealthy venture capitalist “sharks.”
Siblings Allison Jornlin and Mike Huberty founded the family-owned tour company and will appear on the fifth episode of the 15th season of the hit show tonight at 7 p.m. Central.
American Ghost Walks currently offers historical and thoroughly researched, 90-minute-to-2-hour paranormal tours in 25 regular locations across seven states and Puerto Rico. Many of the unique ghost stories featured in the tours come from interviews with locals in the community like waiters and bartenders, Huberty said.
“We’re having a great time connecting people with these towns and the history and showing people a new side of their cities,” Huberty said. “I’d say 50% of our customers are locals, and a thing we hear all the time is ‘I never knew this, but my family and I have lived here all my life. I had no idea this place was so cool.'”
What is it like to be on Shark Tank?
In the middle of July, Huberty said Shark Tank reached out to American Ghost Walks while in search of businesses to star in an upcoming Halloween episode. Still, American Ghost Walks had to go through the regular audition and legal process in order to get on the show.
“Investment isn’t really something I thought too much about before, but when the opportunity arises, you have to give it a shot,” Huberty said.
Huberty and Jornlin were flown out to film the episode in early September. Even though the pair did not know at the time whether Shark Tank would air their pitch, Huberty said the experience was “really fun.” He also loved the show’s Halloween set decorations and meeting the famous “sharks.”
“I thought that Mr. Wonderful, the guy that usually is hardest on everybody, came in with a really reasonable take and was paying attention like he cared and really wanted to know the business,” Huberty said.
Jornlin echoed her brother’s feelings about Canadian businessman and investor Kevin O’Learythe shark known to fans of the show as “Mr. Wonderful.”
“Maybe it’s the editing that makes Mr. Wonderful look like such a bad guy because Kevin O’Leary was just the most gentlemanly, and he really listened in his approach,” Jornlin said.
Where does American Ghost Walks offer tours?
American Ghost Walks currently offers 25 regular ghost tours in cities in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, Maine and Puerto Rico. They also offer special tours, so Huberty said they typically have about 30 different tours available at a time.
Wisconsin tour locations include Milwaukee’s Third Ward and City Hall, Madison’s Capitol Square and UW-Madison, Lake Geneva, Bayfield, Waukesha and more.
New Orleans is the company’s newest destination, Huberty said. He hopes to expand to more locations and thinks the company’s exposure on Shark Tank will help.
How did American Ghost Walks grow their business before Shark Tank?
Huberty and Jornlin grew up in Big Bend, where they enjoyed listening to Richard Crowe’s Chicago ghost stories on the radio.
While a fourth-grade teacher at Indian Community School in Franklin, Jornlin spent her summers researching the paranormal history of Milwaukee until she was ready to debut her first ghost tour in 2008. The “Bloody Third Ward” ghost walk is still offered by American Ghost Walks today.
“I wanted to bring the same kind of legendary paranormal status to Milwaukee that they have in New Orleans and Chicago,” Jornlin said. “Chicago has had a haunted history tour since 1973.”
In 2010, American Ghost Walks expanded to Madison, where Huberty was living at the time. The company now offers haunted tours of Capitol Square, UW-Madison and State St.
Huberty said the impetus for starting the Madison tours was to find a way to pay his rent after his band was no longer touring.
“I went down to Capitol Square and walked into the Great Dane, … and I asked the waitress, ‘Hey, I know this is gonna sound weird, but is this place haunted?'” Huberty recalled.
The waitress’s response caught him by surprise.
“Well, I’ve seen at least two ghosts, but you should probably talk to my manager; she’s seen four,” Huberty recalls her saying.
“That’s when I knew we were off to the races,” Huberty said. “I started writing, and then by September had the tour running through Halloween. That’s how I paid my rent.”
American Ghost Walks soon added more Wisconsin tour locations. Then, when Huberty moved to Minnesota’s Twin Cities a few years later, he brought American Ghost Walks there with him, adding another state to the tour lineup.
Looking for warm weather destinations to add to the lineup, the company eventually added Puerto Rico, Hawaii and more, often purchasing the rights to existing tours whose organizers were retiring or partnering with friends in the paranormal community across the country.
“We feel like we get a deeper connection to the cities, learning about the folklore and mythology from … a waiter at a restaurant or the busboy out in the alley smoking. …,” Huberty said. “So, you get those stories and connect it to maybe the history of the building, connect the history of the building to the history of the city, and then the history of the city to what’s going on in the world. And hopefully it makes a 90-minute, 2-hour fun experience for everybody on a Friday or Saturday night.”
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