Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Fontaine.
Hi Beth, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a fascination with the paranormal. The occurrences I had were normal to me, and it wasn’t until around high school that I realized not everyone had conversations with ghosts. Throughout the years, I’ve chased after the things that go bump in the night and have enjoyed telling others about these adventures.
After a while, people would ask me how I found locations to investigate and if they could come with me. 15 years ago, I started a paranormal tourism company as a hobby. For about 5 years, I organized group travel and took guests all over the place creating haunted and wacky itineraries. It was a wild ride.
However, I was pretty young and truly had no idea what I was doing from a business or legal standpoint. Someone pointed out that I needed business insurance in case someone was hurt on a trip, and I truly had no idea, and I made no profit. But I was able to go see these places for free and meet new friends, so it was worth it. Life circumstances paired with my lack of knowledge, led me to giving up the business. I was truly heartbroken and felt like a failure.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and I started to revive this trip organization, truly as a secret hobby. Only a handful of friends have been invited and this has allowed me to travel more for myself instead of as a business owner leading investigations. During the pandemic, my husband and I started to do YouTube videos for fun, and paranormal investigating was the perfect outlet. He and I were running through these dark buildings all alone (well from the living anyways), and we got to see parts of Ohio & many terrifying locations we had never seen.
From doing the channel, we met other creators, and it was then that we learned there are people out there doing content creation for a living. After some trial and tribulation, I started to take all of this seriously and have been learning the ropes for how to do this as a career.
My past experience as a paranormal tour planner is coming in handy! We haven’t worked out all the details yet as every day has been a learning experience. But I have revamped the blog, where I plan to have full itineraries that are filled with haunted, obscure, and quirky locations! Our social media will be bite-sized posts on specific locations, investigations, and our crazy adventures that we hope to inspire others to do. If they love the paranormal but don’t want to go on their own, we’ll have YouTube videos on certain locations they can watch instead!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. But has any success come without trials? When I was starting my paranormal tourism business, I had just come out of a horrible relationship/business partnership with a man who is a con artist. He destroyed my life. Here I am in the midst of losing everything after discovering who he really was. Our business closed. I lost my house, my money…everything, and I’m starting a fun and happy-go-lucky business.
I was meeting my guests with an empty heart, not even a penny in my pocket with a smile still plastered on my face. My heart and my life were broken, but I was determined to make this work somehow. I wanted to share my love of the paranormal with others, and nothing was going to stop me.
After going full force for 5 years with a full-time job and learning on the fly, I finally hit that point where I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I was exhausted and no longer enjoyed doing the very thing I loved. I hit some more personal snags and had to move back to Ohio from out of state after I’d started building roots there, and everything caved in on me.
For a while, I just gave up. I went back to the rat race with no dreams in my mind’s eye because I had no energy to pursue anything else, and I was truly just lost.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Today I’m a budding content creator, itinerary planner, and paranormal investigator! I’m known for my quirky and off-the-wall adventures. My friends are always asking, “Where are you guys headed to know?”
With YouTube, paranormal investigation videos are all over the place, and it’s really hard to get into that niche and make a living from it. Many people who watch enjoy the investigations, but I’m often asked how a viewer can do what we’re doing. Last year it occurred to me that the way that we can be useful in this niche is to tell them just that.
We’re changing our format to be their paranormal tour guides and trip planner! We go to these locations and tell our viewers the history, where to eat, and what other obscure location is nearby to visit. We take them along for the adventure and the investigation and have the booking details in the description. If someone wants to learn more in-depth about a location and the things nearby, they can go to our website.
My eventual goal is that our viewers/followers can book their entire spooky/obscure trip on our website! We want people to get off the couch and do something weird! We hope to bring awareness to these locations as well because it’s not cheap to maintain these historic old buildings. We want to help business owners build awareness around their historic preservation efforts and keep these haunted gems alive.
I think I’m most proud of my ability to get up when I get knocked down. I heard someone say “Fail Forward” years ago, and I try to keep that as my motto. As long as you’re failing, you’re still moving forward. A failure is truly not a failure unless you give up completely, which I never have.
What sets us apart is the trip-planning aspect of the paranormal. There are many wonderful paranormal investigators out there who focus on the actual investigation and research into the phenomenon of what happens during an investigation. We love that! But my itinerary ideas have never gone away from my past venture, and I wanted to incorporate the “how” into this industry. We wanted to help in a different way to get others into this. Many watch all the tv shows and yearn to do it themselves but aren’t sure how to get involved. Our goal is to show them that side as well.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My husband deserves all the credit in the world for being part of my crazy dream. He came into my life as my business was failing and helped me to see that it wasn’t the end of the world. He truly has helped me grow in all ways and has been my travel partner through all the craziness. He does all of our filming, drone work, and video editing and has been teaching himself the crazy world of Adobe Premiere.
I haven’t had any mentors as of yet, but I’m hoping to change that this year as I get more serious about business development.
Many of our friends and our subscribers/followers have been our biggest cheerleaders and supporters! When there have been days where I felt like giving up, they have been right there reminding me of why we do this.
Several content creators have been a big help in shouting us out and pushing us to their audiences. Pasadena Paranormal has been a HUGE advocate for us, and we truly appreciate all they do in getting the word out about our channel.
Epic Paranormal has also been another creator who we’ve known for several years, and watching his hard work payoff is legendary. He is one that is showing us that this is truly possible as long as you keep your goal in the forefront. He has given us numerous tips over the years, and he and Nick have done several investigations together.
Consistently Curious is a blogger who sent me tips on getting my blog back up and running, and I love her adventures. She has truly inspired me to chase after my itinerary side of writing again.
Also, all the owners of these haunted locations deserve a shoutout. It’s not easy to own a piece of history. It’s a never-ending labor of love keeping these buildings around and safe for us all to traipse through in the dark of night. We love the crew of Fairfield County Infirmary & Madison Seminary for that very reason. It’s hard to match the perseverance and love that this team puts forward for all of their locations.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.skullsandkittens.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skullsandkittens/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skullsandkittenscontent
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/skullsandkittens
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@skullsandkittens
