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Six years in the U.S. Coast Guard taught Angela Scroggins to lead by example.
“Everything that I would like my [colleagues] to do, everything I would ask them to do, I needed to be able to do myself,” she says. “I needed to go out and prove myself by always being dedicated, motivated and ready to go. The same thing goes for my staff, today, at Escape Countdown.”
Escape Countdown is a company that owns and operates escape room entertainment venues in Fort Myers, Sarasota and Tampa. Escape rooms challenge a group of friends or coworkers to work together to solve a series of puzzles that will allow them to get out of a room they’ve all been locked into for a certain period of time. Scroggins says it’s popular with bachelor and bachelorette parties, corporate team-building outings and families and groups of friends celebrating birthdays and other special occasions.
Escape Countdown isn’t Scroggins’ first foray into the business of entertaining people. Her resume also includes a stint as a “mad scientist,” she says. After the Coast Guard, unsure of what she wanted to do, she connected with a friend who worked at Mad Science, a national chain of educational centers that provide science-based entertainment for kids and families. Scroggins was hired as warehouse manager at the company’s Pennington, N.J., location and then took a position at Mad Science of San Diego as operations coordinator, a role that allowed her to perform for children.
“My Mad Science name was ‘Asteroid Angela.’ It turned out to be a lot of fun. You go out there and blow stuff up, play with dry ice … the kids love it. It was a unique experience that I was able to build on.”
— Brian Hartz
Name: Angela Scroggins
Age: 34
City of residence: Tampa
Employer: Escape Countdown
Title: Regional Director
Birthplace: Joliet, Ill.
Years on the Gulf Coast: 3
Marital status/children: Married
Alma mater/degree: BA, Anthropology
Best place to network: Anywhere
Messy desk or clean workspace: Clean
Eat lunch out or at your desk: At my desk
Best business lesson ever learned: Don't ask your staff to do something that you are not willing to do!
Weirdest job you’ve ever had: Mad Scientist
A website that makes your job easier: Google
App you use the most: Facebook for work
One thing you do every day: Brush my teeth
Favorite off-hours activity: Going to the beach
Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: Bob Marley and Hillary Clinton
What you would be doing if you could pick another career: A brewer of craft beer or police officer
Top item on your bucket list: Going to Iceland
Your happy place is: Snorkeling at the beach
Your biggest fear: Riding in elevators
Skill you’d like to learn: How to dance
Who would play you in a movie about your life: Drew Barrymore
Describe yourself in three words: Easygoing, motivated and adventurer
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