Meet Jack Graves

We recently connected with Jack Graves and have shared our conversation below.

Jack, so glad you were able to set aside some time for us today. We’ve always admired not just your journey and success, but also the seemingly high levels of self-discipline that you seem to have mastered and so maybe we can start by chatting about how you developed it or where it comes from?

Having a diagnosed condition known as Intermittent Explosive Disorder, or emotional outburst syndrome, I grew up with many challenges, to include being easily triggered by agitators, and environmental conditions, as well as overstimulation. While therapy attempted to assist, my therapy was at an earlier time, when it was deemed easier to medicate than educate and train. I was well into my twenties, working constantly, and masking my emotional state daily in order to survive working in the rigorous mental stress of a high volume box discount store.
I had to learn what triggers me most, and how to train myself how to respond in most situations, and even now, I follow a lot of self-help education and training in order to break myself of bad habits that allow myself to unleash the emotional furor that dwells within my mind. I take time in short intervals, considering what it would be like if I did certain actions, accepting the “what if” mindset of anxiety, as the one that needs to be planning for bad outcomes.
I feel that it’s well explained in the movie, “Inside Out” and the sequel. As in most people, we want to be happy, but sometimes the wrong emotion can hold control, and in my mind, anger is often the driving force, over joy. I enjoy researching general anthropology, and behavioral health history, and in that, I learned that behavior like my own, is more common among history, but in most, those people were wilder, and more adventurous. Some had the freedom to go for walks, hikes, or work harder in fields, to exert the energy that the brain builds far too much of, and needs to vent it.
I know that in my daily interactions, and work, I won’t have anything to work toward should I allow an outburst to affect my store, or my customers.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I strive daily to ensure the components of our brand and store are operational to a level of personal satisfaction. I feel the most pride when a new customer walks in, and shares how they feel about how the shop is organized, and well kept.
While I perform most of the day to day operations, I am a member of a team of volunteers that keep the business in order. A team of listed business owners, and several friends and family volunteers make Legendary Phoenix Games what it is today.
We began in my mind, far before our establishment date, as I have constantly worked to plan for such a business in my area.
Legendary Phoenix Games is a store that focuses on a niche hobby of board games, and trading card games. We host events for games like, Pokemon, One Piece, Magic the Gathering, Lorcana, Warhammer, and Dungeons and Dragons. We have a few brands in tandem with these, yet none require a computer, or gaming console to enjoy. Events at our shop are typically tournaments, which encourage friendly competition within the community of customers that enjoy each product.
Tournaments hosted by Legendary Phoenix Games are often on a medium competitive level, as several of our local customers enjoy travelling up to a hundred and fifty miles to visit our shop for special events. Our location is currently small enough where we do not have the luxury of hosting events above twenty four patrons, and while that hinders us in a small way, it maintains our grounded nature at the moment. We as a team, seek beyond the horizon of our small location, but know that growth, and expansion can be exceptionally costly, so we are moving in the direction of improving our weaknesses, instead of weakening our strengths.
Legendary Phoenix Games began as friends in the gaming community came together after arson destroyed our beloved local game store in 2019. The five of us united and decided to aid our friends, and unfortunately, they did not want to pursue rebuilding, and then passed the torch to us. We decided on the name, as a Phoenix rises from the ashes daily, and in so, we work to become a better shop daily.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Personally, my areas of expertise are in many different crafts, and technical work, as I have years of experience as a graphic designer, and more than twenty years of experience with retail management, and logistics. I am only one member of the team, and as such, I can speak well for them as one is a teacher with degrees in physics and sciences, but also, a mediator.
Overall, we have the desire to be a safe location for people to play games after work, and sometimes compete with friends while making new ones.
We have years of knowledge in our favorite games, and with that, aid our customers daily with ideas on how to improve their game play, or how to enjoy the hobby in new ways. This knowledge is vital in our business, as it sincerely aids when customers seek to find something related to their favorite brand. Knowing the product, ensures customers that you have a passion greater than only making a sale.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

Growing pains occur in any business, and sometimes that can be with business partners, as well as customers. One of our current challenges has been with a need to return to the friendly game space that we began as.
While some customers are quite competitive, most of them are not, and that leads to an interesting dynamic where we have the intent to create events for players that want to improve their skills, and travel to bigger events to win greater competitions. The casual customers do enjoy the games, yet are not excited to join the events, and this tracking affects our ability to order new products at times.
The brands are lead by companies that want to see engagement and growth. And sometimes they are blinded by the challenges that the local game stores constantly endure. Encouraging competitive play, while also making the shop a home for fun and casual events, is the current challenge.

We manage it best by working on a rotating schedule, to allow flexibility for both kinds of customers to enjoy themselves in the open game space.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.legendaryphoenixgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legendaryphoenixgame/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LegendaryPhoenixGames/
• Other: https://linktr.ee/legendaryphoenixgames

Image Credits

Photos taken by Jack Graves