Meet Mike Dempsey of Serpentations-Live Snake Presentations

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Dempsey. 

Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
As an Illinois kid who loved to climb trees and wade in creeks, my family summer vacations would often involve road-tripping to those iconic western national parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountain. In visiting these parks, my family would eagerly participate on those scheduled nature walks hosted by the park rangers. I was awed by the National Park Service uniform (especially those hats!) and of course, blown away by what they pointed out to their audiences about the incredible, surrounding natural environment. 

Later in life, instead of following my instinct to become a park ranger, I trained to be an architectural designer. That career had its rewards but I couldn’t help looking out the window, which was a neck-stretch from my cubicle, and daydream about being ‘out there’. 

When the 2008 recession completely halted building construction, it was the kick-in-the-pants I needed to change careers and trade my life at a computer drafting desk for a life of teaching nature to school field-trip children and adults. As the years went by, with no regrets of that change choice, I as a naturalist/park ranger, realized there is an almost limitless amount of nature topics one can speak about to audiences. However, there was one particular topic that was constantly being brought up by audiences… snakes! Questions. Concerns. “Were there any ‘poisonous’ ones in the area?” “What do I do if I see one?” “How do I keep myself / my kids / my pet safe from snakes?” There were so many requests to speak exclusively about snakes that it piqued my interest into possibly making it into my own presentation business. 

After months of business research, advice from family and colleagues, adopting/purchasing various serpent species, and a bit of ‘you only live once’ self-pep-talk, I formed Serpentations-Live Snake Presentations LLC in mid-2019. Since that beginning, from adult safety/awareness ID discussions in classrooms to nature-themed birthday parties for children, program reservations have grown steadily throughout the Denver area and I couldn’t be happier to bring more attention to these often misunderstood and ecologically valuable creatures. 

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?
Actually, the road has been fairly smooth, but I do remember I had so much nervousness about starting the business in the first place. As a bit of a self-doubter, worrier by nature, the idea of spending my past, hard-earned money on a business gamble caused many personal back and forth moments of cold-feet. Once I made the decision to start, it became a daily, weekly search to find an insurance company in the U.S. who even offered a policy for live animal presentation coverage. Also, there was a steep learning curve for me to design a website for the first time in my life, and I still OCD about my site’s font size, picture layout, etc. I am still learning about marketing but so far, plain old word-of-mouth has proven best. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Serpentations-Live Snake Presentations?
I believe I am a good storyteller. I can interpret scientific jargon into a theme in which audiences can identify with and that will keep their attention. This is especially valuable with kids who can tune you out instantly if they become bored. Adults may give you some time to build steam in a presentation but kids won’t give you this luxury. 

When I was a student, it always took me longer to understand a concept as I needed a lot of repetition of doing the task along with step-by-step visuals. So, when I present a snake program to an audience consisting of either kids, adults, or a combination of both, I feel my own learning style helps me to understand how an idea or concept may be received by the audience. 

My favorite teachers all have similar qualities. They are patient and sympathetic with their listeners and I want to be the same for my audiences. 

How do you think about luck?
They say luck favors the prepared. This has been true at times for me, but I have also had good luck completely out of the blue. I love those because they brighten your mood unexpectedly. And I don’t mean it has to be something material. Even something as simple as having good customer service from a person on the phone. 3 minutes with a random person you don’t know who is just ‘on it’ with kind, competent customer service on your particular issue. After a resolution like that, I always say to myself, I was lucky that I got that customer service person.” 

Pricing:

• $145.00 for a 1 hour live snake presentation

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.serpentations.com