Adam Torres and Peter Hurley discuss the American Rental Association (ARA) Show.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the American Rental Association (ARA) Show coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Peter Hurley, Owner at My Stage LLC, explore My Stage and the American Rental Association (ARA) Show thanks to the support of our sponsor, Vanguard Captive Management.
About Peter Hurley
As a daily practitioner of Ashtanga Yoga Pete was looking for a light weight portable platform to practice at the beach, mountains and jungle. There was nothing on the market to create a flat level surface quickly and easily and be able to fit it in my car. Thus, MyStage was born. After many trial and errors and prototypes we found the the most efficient way to create a truly portable flat level surface in under 1 minute.
Prior to inventing MyStage Pete has been working in Real estate for over 15 years. Originally he was a mortgage banker and residential real estate agent. Then he moved into development and investing both in San Diego area and Costa Rica.
About My Stage LLC
MyStage provides versatile staging solutions for musicians, event managers, fitness and yoga instructors, DJs, drummers, theater groups, and performers of all kinds. Designed to equip event venues, bars, restaurants, schools, churches, campsites, and more, MyStage is the perfect choice for corporate events, trade shows, and outdoor performances.
Based in California, MyStage proudly serves all 50 states and numerous international markets.
With MyStage, every stage, riser, and ramp is built for flexibility and ease, allowing performers and event organizers to create without limits. MyStage transforms stage dreams into reality with sophistication and innovation.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today I have Peter Hurley on the line, and he’s the owner over at MyStage LLC.
Peter, welcome to the show. Thank you. All right, Peter. So we got a lot to talk about today. So I want to talk, get into what you’re doing over at my stage, which is which is described as the world’s lightest and easiest portable stage. So I want to get into that. But first I understand you met my team over at the ARA show.
Now, were you an exhibitor there or just, just kind of see what’s going on there? Yeah, we, this was our second year exhibiting at ARA. Yeah. That’s awesome. What attracts you to that conference? Like, , how was it? I didn’t get to make this one in person this time, but some of my team went out.
Like, , how was it? It was good. It was, it was great show. You know, got a lot of orders, a lot of interest when people see my stage in person, they’re generally pretty excited about it. And if they’re people that use them for a living, like rental companies that are actually dealing with setting up stages for a living, then they’re absolutely.
Thrilled with my stage. Yeah, but how did you originally like, were you always an entrepreneur how’d you get into this business? Yeah, I have always been an entrepreneur. I had been developing real estate in Costa Rica which is extremely beautiful place and I’ve been doing that since 2005 and was looking for a portable platform to create a flat level surface to practice yoga and things like that in the beaches and the jungles of Costa Rica.
So realized there was nothing like that out on the market. That was truly portable. And that’s how that’s how we came up with my stage. Really? That’s, so interesting to me. So it was originally to be able , to do yoga and to travel with it. And so how did, like, talk to me about the development process.
So you’ve never had created a physical product like this prior. Am I off on that or? Yeah, I mean, I’ve, the physical product I was creating was homes , and doing, real estate development in Costa Rica. But like I said, yeah, you know, it’s just this really beautiful place. The ecology in Costa Rica is phenomenal.
And to try and do yoga or meditate in the jungle, it’s primary rainforest. So there’s all kinds of critters that can crawl on you and bite you and things like that. So I was using just shipping pallets, just wooden pallets. And that didn’t work so great. And that’s when I started, started trying to figure out how I could create a lightweight, portable, flat level surface.
Wow. What point did you know, and maybe you knew in the beginning, I don’t know but I’m just curious at what point did you know that this would be a serious business for you and something that like, that you were like, wait a minute, this has legs, like there’s a need for this in the industry.
Like, how did that happen? It has legs, no pun intended. I’m in for the fun, man. I’m allowed at least one. Thank you. I’ll give me that one. Go ahead. Yeah, you know like I said, the stages are generally really big and heavy. I, I didn’t realize that I was even making a stage at 1st. I was just, yeah, that’s what I was imagining by the way.
I’m like, hold on. You didn’t, you were just trying to solve your own problem. Go ahead. Please. This is an interesting story. Yeah, I was just trying to solve my own problem, how to create a flat level surface. Yeah. So I had in mind your typical yoga practitioner, which should probably be a female, you know, somewhat lightweight and you know, picturing like maybe 120 pound female putting something into her car, driving to the beach and being able to set that up in under a minute.
So I set the bar very high compared to what was out there in the world of stage decks and things like that. There’s nothing at all anywhere remotely close to that. And so you know, that’s what, that’s when I started developing it and trying to figure out how to make it work and balancing the factors of, of light, of lightweight.
Ease of use and then strength stability and durability. So those are all different factors and I started off with some real high goals of like 15 pounds and had folding legs and things like that. But the, the product where I am now is after years of research and development and lots and lots of money going into To building prototypes and things like that.
And what we have now is an amazing combination of lightweight, ease of use and incredible strength and durability. Wow. , what an interesting concept. And I, by the way, I’ve been on your website and I’m looking at it and I’m not even going to lie when I. all this. I was like, okay, now I got to get some stages.
Jeez. Cause I, cause we do, I travel a lot and I do a lot of different types of shows and a lot of things out. I’ll do like a lot of live podcasting and I’m like, Oh, this is next level. This is really good. And I didn’t even know it was possible until I saw your website. I didn’t know it was possible to have something that was remotely.
Cause you, know, normally you’re like to do something like this, you’re going to have to hire a pretty big crew. But I mean, even for some of the. Stuff we do locally in LA. I’m like, Oh my gosh, look at this. This is like, and it just would make the event, the ambiance, like just that much better.
It just adds to the professionalism, even if you’re doing something smaller, but the stages are beautiful. And then when I saw the different configurations and things like this, I would have never imagine where it originally started from. You know what I mean? Like you’re in Costa Rica trying to solve a problem and now the, logo makes more sense to me too, right?
Like, yeah, like the yoga feel I was like, oh, there we go. Now it came together to me when I heard this story just now and it’s just amazing. Yeah, the idea with the logo is you see the, square with the, with kind of the person in it and like a yoga position and then there’s a lot of the bindis. So it’s kind of like the mountains and the ocean.
The idea is, you know, portable using it anywhere. So yeah, I think it’s a pretty pretty clever logo. I do too. Now I got it all. Now that I have the full backstory, man, this is a great story. So talk a little bit about how I’m guessing the shipping works and all that.
How people can like the configurations just so people, you know, they’re driving in their car right now. They’re like, okay, , they got the story. They’re like, okay, what does the stage look like? Like how big can they be? How small, like give us a little bit of this. For the people that are driving and listening to this.
Yeah, so generally you know, like, you said at first, that’s, that was the reason I came up with it. But then I realized what I had was a you know, a stage and there was really nothing like this at all on the market. And so I started really focusing on that and really not focusing on trying to convince a yoga person to practice outdoors and purchase it because that.
would be, you know, that’s a little bit harder than the people that are so happy that I invented this because they use them every day, like DJs, for example, they need a stage presence that be, you know, a foot above the dance floor and observe everything really gives them that professional stage presence drummers, you know, they’re seated.
So they want to be on a riser. So they’re at the same level as, as the other performers on, on the big stage. And so it’s great for drummers as a drum riser their churches, schools, hotels, bars, and restaurants that, you know, they, want the table space, but now they’re going to have a live band come in and playing.
So they want a stage that they can move in and out quickly and easily and doesn’t take up any storage space. So generally historically stages have been. Big and heavy decks, they require multiple guys with tools you know, their weight belts on so don’t hurt their back. They’re, they’re kind of a nightmare.
A lot of rental companies, you know, when you say stage, they automatically roll their eyes, even a V companies that rents that rent lighting and audio visual equipment. Most of them that have hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment might not have any staging at all because for that reason, they’re just generally big, heavy nightmares to set up.
And when I was looking at it, I was like, why is that with some intelligent engineering? Why can’t we design it to be lightweight and easy to use, but still create that same strength and durability as these big, heavy duty stages? And and that’s exactly what we did. So, rather than having 100 deck with and building a structure, we went a different direction, making it more like a portable table.
Portable tables are great, right? You can fold them in half and set it up in a minute. You just unfold the legs and they’re light and easy to use, but they’re not. stable and they’re not that strong. Generally, so we wanted to get the ease of use of a folding table, but make it. Mhm. Really strong and stable.
You’re standing on it and performing on it. And there has to be absolute strength and stability to that. So we came up with a lot of totally unique ideas. I have five patents that you know, that make my stage totally different from anything out there. Number one, four by four deck is too big for one person to deal with.
This is called my stage, making it. One person that can carry transport and set it up in under one minute, which was a big goal, but we achieved it easily. I can set it up more like in 30 seconds. If it doesn’t need to be leveled out. That’s what might take a little longer is if you do it on an uneven surface and you make it a little and it’s, you know, there’s dips in the concrete or asphalt and you’re trying to make it level, then it might take an extra minute or so to to make it perfectly flat.
But setting it up is really easy. The 4 by 4 decks fold in half 4 by 4 is too big to fit into any really most cars or even TVs. So by folding it in half, it’s like a 2 foot by 4 foot suitcase. And in fact, each my stage comes with a shoulder strap. So you can carry it like a suitcase over your shoulder.
And you just simply unfold the two by four, you unfold it like a book, and you slide two support beams across, and tighten it in place, and now you have a four by four deck at four inches tall. Each of the cradles where the legs go in, the legs are all stored in their own docking port on the underside of the deck.
You simply pop the leg out and put it into its cradle. And now you’re at 17 inches. If you left the legs stored in their docking ports, each of the cradles that it goes into has a rubber foot pad around the cradle, which acts as a foot. So it can be used at 4 inches. Some people just want a little bit of a.
Of a high of a height, like, for example, at the show and exhibits like that, you don’t want to be a foot and a half above people because that might be a little obnoxious trying to talk to people when you’re, you know, you’re too high above them. So that 4 inches comes in handy. A lot of times people, people just want a little bit of a riser.
Then you pop the legs in it. You’re at 17 inches at the legs and minimum height. And then there’s micro settings from 17 inches all the way up to 28 inches. Yeah, that’s nearly 2 and a half feet. Which is, which is high enough for most people. We also have, spare legs, which are sold separately that are, we call them shorties, which are 8 inches and 10 inches and then these, which go all the way up to 3 feet.
But the stage, the standard leg, so you have heights of 4 inches and then 17 inches. With any height that you want between 17 inches up to 28 inches, 17, 18, 19, 20, you know, all the way up to 28 and that makes it real easy to set up the deck in under a minute. Put it in place where it’s gonna go. If it’s not flat and level.
Just pull the pin out, attach it to the put it in the hole, which is gonna make it flat and level. And then you’re set. Do the next 1 and then they’re real easy to connect. There’s 2 holes on every side. You simply line up the 2 holes and there are wing nuts, wing bulge included and they’re stowed under the deck as well.
You just connect the wing nut, wing bolt, tighten it down by hand again, no tools are needed and you’re, you’re set. Move on to the next one. It’s all 4 sides have holes on them. So you can connect them and now all 4 sides we use angled legs, which is totally unique. There’s no other product at all that has anything like this.
So vertical legs, like a folding table are great for the vertical load for handling the vertical load. But. If it’s lateral movement, if you’re, you’re dancing or jumping around on it, then they’re going to wiggle. So most of my competitors stage, especially , the portable stages, they generally are going to have quite a bit of wiggle, especially if they’re independent.
Now, when you connect them and add multiple units, , they do get more stable and stronger, but my stage uses angled legs. There’s five angled legs. So there’s four on each corner and they are they reduce the lateral movement. So it feels very solid and stable. So even with like, you know, some of the pictures, by the way, so even with just the one setup, if they just wanted the, you know, the four by four, and it wasn’t a larger stage, that thing alone is pretty stable, right?
Because the angle leg. Yeah. In fact, we are now there we’re now the number one. Camera riser or video camera operator riser BNH photo is one of our retailers. And I think we’re now the top camera riser at BNH because they are so, you know, portable, easy to use and then super stable that you don’t want to, if a camera operator and the tripod are on the, are on the platform and You know, the guy’s moving around or whatever.
It has to be very stable. You know, if he’s filming a sporting event or whatever, he loves the crowd or even churches and things. I have a camera move vendor in the life. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, it’s top top camera operator riser and you know, working independently on their own or even connect to to have a 4 by 8 works great too.
And then I don’t know. There’s a fifth leg in the center, which reduces deflection or bounce. So, but with those five legs, it’s really, really solid and stable. In fact, it’s P. E. certified. That’s professional engineers certified to hold 3400 pounds for each four by four deck holds three and almost three and a half thousand pounds, which is, you know, incredible for such a lightweight deck.
The deck only weighs 42 pounds. And it holds three and a half thousand pounds, which is, is, you know, incredible. It’s all aluminum, so it doesn’t rust. It’s great for outdoor use. If it gets wet, there’s no rust or anything like that. It’s a stamped diamond plate surface, anti slip surface. And really, I think everything’s been thought through the all of the pins are attached with a spring cord.
So none of the parts or components are lost. Everything’s stowed and self contained. The angled legs. Another thing that’s pretty cool is the the angled legs. Don’t bump into each other when you’re connecting stages, no matter how you do it. you generally would want the grain of the decks to go in the same direction.
So you would just connect the units together and the legs don’t bump into each other. You start the next row and again, no matter how you turn the decks. The legs are not gonna bump into it. The ankles, they’re angled legs. If they’re straight legs, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm. So that was one thing that we had to overcome using angled legs.
Like obviously angled legs are, are much more stable, you know, an angle. Mm-hmm . Like a wide stance. Mm-hmm. , right? Like, oh yeah. In sports, you want to have a wide stance to be stable. Right. Well, it’s the same thing with you know, with building a structure. By having the angled legs in a wider stance than the deck, it creates really great stability.
Yeah, this is great. What, what a great story. I love it. This is fun. So I have to say, Peter, this has been has been great having you on the , I love to see how a product is developed from beginning to now and to see how the, company’s grown, what you’ve done. I’d make, I’m sure you were a hit at the ARA show.
That being said, if people want to follow up and they want to learn more how do they connect? How do they check out the product? Yeah, 1 thing to mention about the A. R. A. Show. So you know, obviously they’re rental companies, people that have rent, you know, rent bouncy houses and tables and land ends and everything that’s used for events.
So a lot of these companies have been afraid to you to get stages for those things that we talked about so big and heavy and take up space. These only take up a two foot by four foot footprint, and you can stack them as high as you want. So it takes up almost no space in your warehouse. And because they’re so easy to use, rental companies can rent them out as will call.
In other words, customer pickup. It’s like if you want to, you know, if you can rent out a folding table as pickup, then you could rent out the stages pickup. That’s pretty much never been kind of unheard of for stages, because generally , they’re big and heavy and, And require some educated assembly workers to, to set them up.
But these are so simple and easy to use for anyone can set them up. Our website is mystagecorp, C O R P, mystagecorp. com is the website and everything’s on there all under the tech page is all the technical certifications and reports under shop is all of the package deals. You want one message by a ton, you want skirts, railings.
Gear bags, package deals for a big stage, you know, a 20 by 30 stage, anything that you want. Everything’s on the website and contact information, testimonials, lots of photos and videos and all that stuff as well. Perfect. If everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so you can just click on the link and head right on over and check it out.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to, help you along the way in your journey as well.
And we like at this time, I like to thank definitely our sponsor for the ARA show summit overall. And that was Vanguard Captive Management, which enables manufacturers of all sizes to harness the power of innovative captive finance to achieve market success.
You can learn more at vancaf. com. So again, thanks a lot Vanguard Captive Management for sponsoring this episode and the entire ARA show series. And thanks again for coming on the show. This has been a lot of. Peter, getting to know more about your business, how it developed, and really where you’re going with it in the future.
So, thanks again for coming on. Thank you.