Today we’d like to introduce you to Spider Michaels.
Hi Spider, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
To tell my story, I’ll begin in my teens. As high school was ending and college was approaching, I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I knew that I wanted to have a fun life, filled with excitement and adventures. My father wanted me to get a degree in Business Administration but that didn’t appeal to me.
After a big argument, I decided to get a degree in what interested me. I choose a degree plan in Health and Physical Education. I never really wanted to be a teacher. My goal was to get a degree in the Recreation field and then get a job as an Activities Coordinator at a resort in some place like Tahiti or another tropical tourist destination.
It was during my college years that I was recruited to work as a lifeguard at Houston’s very first waterpark. I was in school for the Fall and Spring then spent my summers working at WaterWorld.
I did a good job there and was promoted rather rapidly to the position of Water Safety Supervisor, which was a Lifeguard Supervisor for the entire waterpark. I was always a self-starter and was actually called a catalyst by a junior high school coach. At the waterpark, I utilized my talents at organization, motivation and team-building to create several programs for the lifeguards.
One of the first things that I did was design and offer t-shirts for the guards to help create team spirit in our jobs. Other programs that I developed for the guards were the Cajun Cookout, the Gum Ball Rally, the Tour Across Texas, the Super Dave and Super Wee videos, K-Chet Pirate Radio, and much more. I made maps for the numerous parties that were held and basically functioned as the Master of Ceremonies.
I was the assistant coach and a competitor on our lifeguard competition team, which won 15 consecutive lifeguard championships. I coached our lifeguard softball team that went undefeated for the years that I coached. I was the coach and a competitor on our volleyball team, which competed against other waterparks, and we were always victorious.
In addition to all of the programs that I created and all of the sports teams that I was a part of, I was also always pulling pranks and jokes to entertain. When I was around, there was never a dull moment.
After I graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, I enrolled at the University of Houston for Post-Baccalaureate studies in Sociology. I continued to work at WaterWorld and was there for 13 years. I had lived out my dreams by becoming an Activities Coordinator and Coach while at the waterpark and I lived every moment to the fullest.
At the end of my 13th year at WaterWorld, I was offered a job in Motorsports Marketing, so I left the waterpark behind to pursue a new career with lots of travel and adventure.
With this marketing job, I was traveling to a different major U.S. city every weekend for a NASCAR race, an NHRA Drag Race or an IndyCar race like the Indy 500. I immediately recognized this as a great opportunity.
One of the first things that I did was purchase a good camera and video recorder. My marketing credentials allowed me to go anywhere around all of these famous racetracks like the Daytona International Speedway or the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, etc. I had access to the garage areas and also pit road during the races.
Each weekend, I took hundreds of photos at these races. I also began touring these fantastic cities that I was visiting. I covered all of these races with photos and videos as well as whatever these major U.S. cities had to offer. To name a few of the things that I covered, there was the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge, Seattle’s Space Needle, Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and so much more.
It wasn’t long before I had quite an archive of media from my travels. My goal was always to share these photos and videos with others so they could experience my adventures vicariously through me.
Developing a website to host all of this media was not easy and ended up costing me a lot of time and money but I finally got it developed the way I had envisioned. The website has a photo and video gallery with tens of thousands of items. There’s also a blog where I write about my adventures and offer educational information about the things I cover. The YouTube channel also has many great videos.
During my time working in motorsports, I also began traveling to Europe, where I covered cities like Paris, London, Amsterdam and the Italian Riviera. Those photos and videos are also located on the site.
After I retired from the racing world, I began covering Special Events like the Texas Renaissance Festival, comic conventions like Comicpalooza, festivals like Mardi Gras and the Dickens on the Strand festival. If it’s interesting, fun and colorful, I cover it.
I still travel for events and attractions outside of the Houston area also, like a trip to cover attractions in Los Angeles and also to Vegas for the AVN Expo.
The website has visitors from all over the world and the views for the photos and videos are in the tens of millions. The blog is read in 186 countries worldwide.
For having a goal of living a fun and adventurous life, I’d say that I reached it and continue to enjoy the lifestyle to this day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve definitely had my share of hardships along the way. It took me years in development to get my website to where I had envisioned it so many years before. It also cost me many thousands of dollars in fees to different developers. I went through so many website designers over the years that I’ve lost count of them all.
It was only with the advancement of technology that I was able to find companies offering the services I needed to host a site that could showcase my photography and videography work. And it was through another site that I was able to design my homepage the way that I desired.
In addition to educating myself on website design, I also had to learn a lot about editing photos and videos in order to capture, edit, process and upload the media on the site.
I learned a lot about running a Media company and continue to learn new things. There will never be a time when an education in a person’s chosen field doesn’t pay dividends.
If I had any advice to offer someone about life, it would be to spend time on making decisions about goals, desires and dreams. Once you have a picture of where you want to be in your life, set out to gain as much knowledge about this endeavor as possible. That education could come from a university in the form of a degree, from working in the chosen field and also from doing research on the internet.
It may take years to achieve your goals, but hard work and persistence will pay off if you don’t lose sight of your dreams.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
At WaterWorld, the championship lifeguard team that I was on had a very cool name. We were called S.T.O.R.M., which stood for Strong Team of Rescue Men. As I stated earlier, that team won 15 consecutive lifeguard championships over a 10 year period. That consisted of ten straight Texas State Lifeguarding championships and five Regional championships. I was on the team for 13 of those victories.
When I wanted to create a website to house the media that I had accumulated over the years, I needed a name. Since I utilize some of my lifeguard buddies in the operation of my business, it was decided to use the name STORM. The Media company is called The STORM Factory.
The Factory specializes in capturing the fun in life and sharing those experiences with the world. We take photos of people at festivals and special events while they are having the times of their lives. We then give them a business card so that they may visit our site to download their images for free and share on their social media.
Our service is completely free of charge, and we provide a top-notch photography service to these fun-loving people. We also conduct interviews at these events to give viewers an idea of what it’s like to be in attendance.
Once you visit the website, you’ll immediately notice that we are living a pirate lifestyle, and the site reflects that mentality. You’ll see tabs for everything previously mentioned, including the history of STORM.
One thing on the site worth mentioning is Contraband, which is a clothing and gear company. A good pirate website should sell contraband and we do so through Contraband Clothing Company.
Something else of note is the menu tab for Books. In addition to writing about my adventures for the blog, I have authored three books so far with several more in progress.
The three books that are currently published on Amazon are about my experiences as a waterpark lifeguard supervisor, my adventures at the largest motorcycle rally in the world and a book about my numerous trips to the Amsterdam Red Light District.
Currently, I have books in progress about my many trips to Paris, the Texas Renaissance Festival and two memoirs covering my years in auto racing as well as a book of poetry which is entitled “A Pirate’s Poetry: Rhymes from a Rogue.”
My fellow lifeguard friends and I also wanted to give back, so we founded a nonprofit charity organization called The STORM Foundation.
The Foundation specializes in helping disadvantaged children, the mentally ill and the homeless. We conduct clothing drives and offer support to several organizations like St. Joseph’s Clubhouse, Houston Children’s Charity, Harris County Youth Services Center and others.
Each Valentine’s Day, Easter, 4th of July and Christmas, we provide treats, surprises, games, movies and more to children living in a shelter and host pizza parties for the mentally ill and homeless. Our goal is to expand our reach in order to help more people that are in need of a helping hand to get through life.
You can visit our Foundation site to learn more about us and also donate to our cause of “Helping children for a better tomorrow” by visiting the Factory site listed at the end and clicking on the Foundation menu tab.
I’m extremely proud of creating a Media company that serves the masses, developing a Pirate-themed clothing and gear company and co-founding a charity that offers aid to those in need.
In the course of my life, I’ve been many things, from a champion lifeguard, a well-respected photographer and videographer, a website developer, a clothing designer, an accomplished screenwriter, blogger, poet and author as well as a scuba diver, motorcyclist, traveler, comedian, jewelry designer, and fitness enthusiast.
None of this would have been possible without a healthy outlook on life, which is to live with a zest and zeal to experience as much as possible during my time on this planet.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
As far as surprises about me, I have a few. The first concerns my career as a Lifeguard Supervisor and a Lifeguard Champion. When I was a young child, I spent many summer days at the community pool.
I taught myself how to swim but I was still young and not very strong in the water. One day, I was in the deep end when a classmate began pulling on my legs, which caused me to start drowning.
I had to be rescued by a beautiful, blonde lifeguard named Sheree’. When I was older, she taught a lifeguarding class that I signed up for. After another few years, it was Sheree’ who recruited me to work at WaterWorld because I had done so well in her class. And you know what followed.
There are millions that don’t know how to swim. These people are usually very afraid of the water. I almost died in a swimming pool. This experience would have been enough to cause many to never go back in the water again.
For me, fear never entered the equation. I continued to train myself to be a better swimmer. I had the nerve to take a lifeguarding class and the rest is history. From drowning victim to lifeguard champion. I’d say that’s a story of overcoming adversity.
As far as the other surprises, you’ll have to wait until I publish my autobiography entitled “The Spider Michaels Story.” The book is 80% complete and will be published at a later date.
If you think I’ve led an adventurous life, you don’t know the half of it. There are stories in the autobiography that will have you in stiches and also stories so poignant that you’ll be on the verge of tears.
“The more arrows you have in your quiver, the better chance of hitting the target.” – Spider Michaels
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TheSTORMFactory.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/TheSTORMFactory.USA
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/TheSTORMFactoryUSA
- Other: https://SpidersBooks.com
