Last summer, Danielle and Kate Nolan were approached by Facebook for an advertising opportunity for their outdoor adventure business, DNK Presents.

“It was kind of vague,” Danielle said. “They said, ‘We’re doing this show; we think you might be a good candidate.’”

Last month, the show, “Boost My Business,” premiered on Facebook.

The Nolans are heavily featured, as well as Hard Truth Hills and Brown County State Park.

At the time they agreed to be on it, they didn’t know that the show would be hosted by a celebrity, or that it would reach the amount of people that it has.

“Boost My Business” was originally intended to be on a Facebook business page, not on Facebook Watch, Danielle said.

“Two or three months later, I get an email that says they have a celebrity host,” she said. “I said to Kate, ‘This is getting way bigger.’”

The host was Tan France, one of the Fab Five from the Netflix hit show, “Queer Eye.”

“I was so excited,” Danielle said. She bought France’s book and learned that before “Queer Eye,” he had owned and sold three businesses.

The Nolans met France and Facebook executives in February at Hard Truth Hills to shoot the episode. They filmed on a Monday and Tuesday — two 12- to 14-hour days that resulted in an 11-minute episode.

“It was awesome,” Danielle said. “To have and be able to work with executives, high, senior level people at Facebook is so valuable, to get their opinions, advice and tips.”

“When they were here in Brown County, it was just a whirlwind,” she said. “Tan was awesome. … He’s so funny, down to earth — you just want to sit down and talk with him.”

The Nolans are professional mountain bikers and backpackers with multiple certifications in biking instruction, Leave No Trace, wilderness first aid/CPR, yoga, Reiki and massage. They specialize in organizing and guiding adventure retreats for individuals, groups and businesses. They won Brown County Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year in 2019.

The couple plan on opening a storefront later this year, where visitors can rent, buy and have their bikes serviced.

Since the episode aired on Facebook on July 27, DNK Presents’ Google analytics have shown more traffic to their website, as well as more follows, likes and engagement from insights. Danielle hopes that it will keep improving.

“That week that it came out, it was a lot of buzz,” she said. “We’re going to still be promoting the show and everything in the weeks to come.”

Danielle said she wasn’t sure how DNK Presents had been added to Facebook’s “short list,” to be featured on the show, but she had been on a panel for a three-day, in-person conference for Facebook in 2018. The purpose was to look at how businesses use and grow from the use of the social network.

More than 80 percent of people who sign up for adventure outings and trips with the Nolans find out through Facebook.

Due to the pandemic, many businesses have had to pivot their services and rely on social media to get people together, Danielle said. Operating in the outdoors, DNK Presents is a “safe” option, but in the beginning of the pandemic, their business still made some changes.

“In the first days of COVID, I did a 30 days of health and wellness (series online),” Nolan said. She is developing that further in hopes of keeping services growing, going potentially global.

The Nolans began DNK Presents in 2014, then moved to Brown County in 2018. “We moved here because we loved it so much,” Danielle said.

She and Kate hoped that the Facebook producers would fall in love with the community as well. “We were able to have a good experience for them. ‘Glad that the show got to show some highlights from the town and park.”

Executives from Facebook have kept checking in with the Nolans, giving ideas to help them grow. They even did a live chat on Instagram with France on July 31.

“Hopefully more things pop up that we can do with Facebook and Tan,” Danielle said. “It’s been really fun and great.”

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Watch the episode of “Boost My Business” featuring DNK Presents at facebook.com/dnkpresents.

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