Las Vegas Mega Nightclub VIP Host Secrets with Adam Sadie EP 31
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From the art of the deal to keeping it real. Live from the Simply Vegas studios, it's the Power Move with John Gafford. Back again, back again for another week post-season.

Christmas party extravaganza. And it was, dude, it was one for the books, Colt. I'm not going to lie, man. That's one thing I'm proud of, of this company. You guys know how to throw a party. Everybody said it was just next level, the best party we've ever had.

Yeah, it's like what happens when you get 600 high net worth or relatively high net worth individuals with a smattering of not so high net worth folks and put them in a room and give them open bar for several hours. Yeah, I mean, it was good. Some of the people showed, but we had a good time over at Tao. Yeah, Tao was good. I mean, and I got to tell you, one of the things I pride myself on with our companies is we always have the best Christmas parties as I see all the other...

you know, real estate company, mortgage company, you see them in like, you know, some stuffy room or, you know, some ballroom or a country club or worse, their office. And I just think to myself, man, that's just, it just makes me sad. It makes me sad. So we go and tell a nightclub. Yeah. And speaking of Mr. Town, which is in a perfect time.

Well, we didn't even introduce this show again. If you're a first-time listener, which hopefully you're not, I'm John Gafford. I'm your host. To the left of me, Colt Greenbubble, Amidon, rewinding your group text one time at a time. Can I stop real quick on that? Because I've got to tell you something. What's your middle name?

Green bubble. He's the green bubble. He ruins his goal in life is to ruin your group text. I literally updated my entire phone yesterday for the sole purpose of trying to get to where I could name a chat group that

with your green bubble ass in it and you can't. I'm telling you, Apple, you think the Republicans and Democrats are driving division? No, it's Apple driving division against the Android people because there was moments yesterday when I really questioned being your friend. I thought you were going to say question the Apple phone because it's overrated. No, I was questioning being your friend anymore because it wasn't worth it to do this.

That's what I do. There you go signal. He's on board with me. I love our new guest joining joining us today in the hot seat is Since we're with since we're you know did the big nightclub thing this weekend and in I mean we're hung out with Adam a little bit earlier in the week You know everybody has this dream a lot of people don't live in Vegas have this dream to come in and I'm gonna work Nightlife I'm gonna work in the clubs. I'm gonna work in the casinos. I'm gonna be part of the scene is what they want to do and

And, you know, this show is all about teaching the hustle from wherever it is, you know, and however it is. And this is the job in Vegas that I think, besides probably drug dealer and prostitute, I would guess, that you've got to really hustle the most is what Adam does. And what Adam does, welcome, Adam. He is a VIP host, man. He is a guy that the ballers roll in, and they call Adam and say, we want to have fun. And he handles the entire experience for them. And then...

He gets paid for it and paid pretty well, I'm guessing. Adam's nightly routine is eat at a five-star restaurant, go party at the hottest clubs.

With the hottest chicks. Yeah. Tell me how hard that job is. It's got to be a terrible job. It's insanely difficult, to be honest. It's insanely. Honestly, like I know your story, John, really doesn't. I don't. We're all going to hear it today. I think Adam's got a cool story. And also, Adam owns a really awesome little restaurant, too. So I'd love to talk to him also. Which I saw for the first time Saturday night. I did not realize. As I am hammered.

and the drive-through at White Castle. Cause why not? Why not? There you go. There you go. There you go. Adam. I think, I think once you talk to people, you'll realize all businesses are pretty much the same, just different experience. And I think real quick, are we doing Adam's last name?

Or what's your Adam? Adam Sadie. Adam Sadie. Okay, all right. Adam Sadie. I didn't know how deep. S-A-D-I-E. There's video. I mean, you got the hat pulled a little low, so you could go Unibomber if you want. It's okay. If you want to, you know, we can blur your face. The WSB just got done. I'm really comfortable. Yeah, we'll blur the face out and make that happen. But no, you know, so first of all, man, where are you from? Like, where's, let's go back to the beginning. You want the story? Give us the whole story. All right. So born and raised in Olympia, Washington.

Okay, love that. Mom remarried and went to high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a couple years. Did you move to Baton Rouge? Moved to Baton Rouge. Okay, so let's talk about that because you went from Washington. Prenominally white school to- To go Tigers, Baton Rouge. To Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge. Yeah, to a completely different demographic than I'm used to and reverse racism and all that stuff that you deal with down south. Yep.

Senior year, moved back to Washington to try to graduate with my friends. And my dad had moved out to a small town called Rainier outside of Olympia, which is like graduating class 38. I think 38 were actually at graduation, like 28 actually graduated. Don't be 28. There wasn't even a street light in the town I graduated in. That's awesome.

Day I turned 21, I got my bartending license, started bartending, and that led into club promotions and done retail. See, I want to go back before that because there's a common theme I want to see if you hit the mark. All right? What was the first way that you made money as a kid? What was the first way you were making money? Paper route. You had a paper route. Yeah. How old were you when you had a paper route? 10. 10 years old. Yeah. All right. You know, my parents, one of those things, my parents and my grandparents, if you want

If I wanted to go get baseball cards, if I wanted to buy a video game, like I make money. So whether it was pulling weeds or watching cars or go get a paper route. And I lived in a decent neighborhood next to our school to where there's a bunch of residential rooftops to where I could actually have a fairly comfortable paper out as a 10 year old. And and yeah, I managed my own little paper out for two years. You did that for two years. So now you're 12. What do you do when you're 12?

12, we just got into sports, right? I'm tired of waking up at 6 a.m. and hopping on a bike. Washington weather sucks. So you're riding a bike in the pouring down rain delivering every day. Yeah, it's brutal. Not Florida. No, it's not Florida. And it's, I mean, you're not making enough money to where it's worth it, right? Yeah. Not a good 401k in the old paper. So I moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and in high school, you know, got a job making $3.62 an hour as a, as a,

stock clerk at one of the grocery stores down there. And that was the first actual job. Yeah. But you always work. See the reoccurring theme I was talking about is everybody. We always have in man. There's, there's always a hustle. Yeah. Like,

Like they were the kid that figured out, I'll get the erasers from the dollar store and I'll take them to school and sell them for three bucks. There's always that hustle, the football pencils. I get all the football pencils. Everybody that gets it was the hustler, man. They were the provider of all of those goods and that seems to be a common thing. We don't get anybody in here that's like, oh, I started working at 22 when I graduated from UNLV. That's people.

Yeah, no, I mean, I definitely, I mean, like I said, I was brought up with, if you wanted, you know, anything, if you wanted a car, if you wanted a bike, if you wanted whatever, it was like, all right, we'll go out and get a job and do it yourself. Start hustling. Yeah. Start hustling. All right.

yeah so back to washington we were 32 38 classmates 32 38 classmates graduated and then uh did you win prom king at least tell me you got it you get it i was picked on my senior year in high school oh really i was the new kid in a you know like i said those kids all grew up in this small town my dad had a nice house and he you know had a five acre house with horses and shit and and um you know i had a car and so you know i was the new kid in school that i also didn't

I'm very direct. Right. I'm very honest. If you haven't met Adam, say Adams is a director going yet. And I love that about it. I think we're all that type of PR people that I love that about people. You, you, you know where you fit in with somebody like us or Adam. So dude, I got mercilessly picked on and like, but the reverse. So like for me, I was in that small town. That's where I started.

And like I was the guy that skateboarded and listened to Love and Rockets and Jane's Addiction and stuff. And all the rednecks were mudding and whatever else. And I did have, even as a sophomore in high school, I had a bad habit, which was hooking up with the quarterback's girlfriends, which I did at my high school. Not ideal.

And the high school, the town next door. Thank you much. Can I get a high five for that? There you go. I'll give you props for that. See, I wasn't exactly, I wasn't exactly, it's called well-liked by the football playing rednecks in my hometown. And I ended up moving to a bigger city to escape that. And then when I got to the big city, I'm like, oh my God, there's other people here that ride skateboards. There's other people that do the stuff that I do. So it was bad. Other good looking people. Yeah. I mean, I had, I had.

If you're familiar with geography and Rainier is a teeny little town and there's a lot of like two way, like literally two way roads out in the middle of wilderness or whatever. And there's people that played chicken with me at 55 miles an hour down, driving down roads, getting up footloose, footloose for real tire slash at high school cars getting egged. Yeah. So it was, it wasn't an amazing senior year. Yeah. Yeah. So that's over. So now you're free. Yeah. So then, um,

Yeah, I started working, you know, worked retail, worked at Toys R Us, then Babies R Us, then worked at Gateway Country selling computers, then worked at Best Buy and was a, you know, manager at Best Buy. And the whole time I'd been doing that, I was bartending. So I'd always been, you know, a bartender since I was 21. And that kind of led into club promotions and people like, you know, I worked at a bar and a pub and then finally the nightclub. And I'd, you know, been around town. I used to throw big parties in my house and had parties.

you know three kegs and 50 gallons of spody and have 300 people in my house and what are you charging for that because i know there's a cover charge yeah we charged uh 20 dollars uh at the door and it was uh all you can drink um cops would show up and be like you're not allowed to have um

you know, X, Y, and Z, are you supposed to have this license? I'm like, no, they're like, you're charging. I'm like, no, I'm charging for the DJ. I'm not charging for alcohol. I'm not charging alcohol. It's free. See, see Colt. There's a, see, it's a, it's a, it's a loophole. There's a loophole. And then the cops like, yeah, but you're like 18 years old. So you're fine. I mean, I had, I literally had, you know, this monster Simone buddy of mine staying in the front door, checking IDs. I'm like, listen, we're as legit, everyone's 21 in here. Like, it was like, we ran it as a club. I mean, and, uh, so I threw, you know, big parties or whatever. And,

Um, in 2003, I was, uh,

bridesmen. I stood up on behalf of a woman named Jennifer and she was getting married to a buddy of mine and me and my sister were both on her side and she asked me to bartend the reception. So she's like, I bartended the reception and she's like, Hey, my buddy drew, who's a Boeing executive. Uh, you guys are familiar with Boeing, right? Sure. So let's talk about it. You want to talk about it? No, I don't know. I mean, listen, if you don't sell the software, I mean like,

See, I was having such a good time and you got to bring the market out. I'm sorry. Dude, literally just ruined my whole day with that. Jesus. So at any rate, so he had him and his buddy and a couple of investors had, again, figured out a loophole, right? So they were going after, they'd found a 16,000 square foot geodesic dome, three-story building on five acre property that was on private property in tribal land. Okay.

So in the state of Washington for a strip club, it's not full nudity. There's no alcohol and a lap dance is a four foot rule. So you give a girl 20 bucks and she stands four feet from you, gets topless and is like, cool, 20 bucks. You're just like,

Is that still a lap dance or is that like a proximity dance? Yeah, I don't know what it is. I mean, it's perfect for COVID. Way ahead of time. With some rubber gloves and a shower curtain involved. So at any rate, they had found a loophole and they planned on opening this, you know, full nudity, full liquor strip club because you're on tribal land, it's foreign sovereignty. So they could do full liquor, they could do full nudity and no one was going to, you know, fuck with them because they were on tribal property, right? Yeah.

So that was 2003. And then over the following, you know, 12, 16 months, I'd always drop by the property if I saw a car there and said, hey, listen, you know, I just want to make sure my foot's in the door. I'm bartending here. Whatever you guys need, like, you want me to help you clean up, et cetera, et cetera. And the tribe kind of just kept stringing them along. So they got their certificate of occupancy and they're like, oh, well, based on your occupancy, you need to now retrofit this building with...

sprinkler system. So then they had to build a well house and then retrofit a 15,000 square foot geodesic dome with a sprinkler system, which costs money and reset everything. I didn't think they could even do that on like tribal land. I thought it was like, I thought that was sovereign to the tribe. The tribe dictates,

Oh, the tribe was dictating this. Okay. So the tribe's... Because the tribe's making money, right? I got it. He's paying a lease. I got it. As it's getting retrofit. I got it. And now it's two years in. And then like, oh, well, the code has changed. You need to rip out your bars when we do your bars. And it was just like this long, drawn-out thing. So...

So they didn't really want the club. They wanted the lease. Yeah, right? Fix the building. Well, they also didn't want to have a destination to people leave the casino, right? I mean, it was just down the street, and they didn't want to take away from their live entertainment or whatever. So he calls me one night, and he says, listen, he's like, we're throwing a private party. I'd love for you to come up and bartend. I was like, listen, I get off at Best Buy at 10, 15. I'll be up there at 10, 45. I'll stop by my house, get changed, and zoom on up there. It's in...

between Tacoma and Seattle. It's like Fife, Milton area. And I get up there. There's like 30 guys. I think there was one or two dancers. The DJ never showed. He's got three family bartenders that are like, I know how to pour rum and Coke. I mean, like, yeah, no shit. So I get up there. Everything's a mess. And I just kind of put my head down, grabbed a bus tub, you know, and just kind of got to work and just start picking up the glasses and reset. I was like, guys, go ahead and smoke a cigarette. I'll reset the bar and wiped everything down. I mean, bottles are just everywhere. There's no organization. You like, if someone asks you to pour a drink, it's like,

fuck's that bottle you know and so um literally just give everybody a break um reset everything bust the entire venue and then uh broke up a fight uh everything's winding down and at the end of the night after everybody leaves i'm sitting with him and and uh i said how much money did you make and he's like i lost about 2200 bucks i was like wow how and he said well i paid the girls i bought the liquor i paid my bartenders and only 30 people showed up i'm like okay i'll rent this venue from you for a thousand dollars

I was like, I'll come up with my staff, my team, my guests. I'll pay for the alcohol. I'll pay for the food. I'll pay for the chef. I'll pay for it all. But I'll give you a thousand dollars. So at least you're making a thousand dollars towards your lease and you're subsidizing a little bit. All right. So wait, at this point though, you're working at Best Buy. Like that's your gig. And bartending. Yeah. How many nights a week? How many nights a week are you bartending? Two nights a week and at Best Buy five days a week as a computer supervisor. All right. So how much money, how old are you at this point?

23 23 so how much how much how much bank are you sitting on? To to sling it out there like that. I want to see that I want to see the level of 23 Yeah, I want to see the level of 23 year old balls. I mean, there's nothing you just pulled this out of your ass when I was 21 I got a dui. Okay the day I got out of out of gl from spending my time in court for my dui My I could have gone to the dmd and got my license reinstated instead My friends are like yo, let's go float the river grab my jeep go float the river

get a, get another DUI, which, which wasn't even DUI. That's a long story, but got that one dropped. So I'd always had these like, and I never asked my family for money. So I was always, I feel like kids are counselors. Not here today. Legal disclaimers. If,

If you're listening to this, drinking and driving is a bad move, especially with the holidays out. Listen, this is pre-Uber. There's no excuses now. Yeah, this is pre-Uber. This is not a... There's no excuses now. This portion of today's story should not be taken as a glory. When I was young, I made some dumb, foolish mistakes. Yeah, this is the down and out part of the story. This is the set

back to become the launch forward is what it is. And due to those, I always work two or three jobs, right? All right, cool. So back to this. You're 23 years old. You just made a promise. You're going to rent this place out. You're going to bring in your whole staff. You're going to bring in the booze, everything else. And how many racks you got in the bank right now? None? None. Zero. Yeah. All right. Paycheck to paycheck, just grinding and living and hustling. Grinding it up. Yeah. Okay, so how'd you come up with the... Okay, so how'd you come up with the money to do the party? How'd you come up with the money? Well, so...

We sold $50 full nudity, full liquor, all you can drink strip club parties to a private event. So me and my boy. So you pre-sold it. Yep. Okay. Yep. So me and my buddy went to every strip club in Washington state and basically like the within, let's say an hour drive. And we just went to all the hottest strippers and said, listen, like instead of you coming here for a night, you're

this specific Saturday night coming up, we have this event. I'm not going to charge you rent or a house fee. So you can just come down and make as much money as you can make, whatever you want to do. It's on tribal land. There's not really, I'm not going to ask any questions and they're like, yeah, whatever. And my jump on that. Right. So I'm, I'm approaching every, the hottest girls in Washington state and they're like, yeah, right. I'm like, listen,

You grab your pimp, your boyfriend, whoever you want. You come down. I'll show you the venue. I'll walk you through and you tell me whether or not I'm legit. Right. So we have this event. We planned it and we sold, I think we sold 140 tickets, 120 tickets. The first time, so $6,000 minus food drinks. I think I made like 2,500 bucks. All right. But let's stop for a second. You got to stop because you understand like,

Right there, that hinge point, man, that moment, that's the moment that most people, that's the difference between success and failure because most people will find an excuse why they can't do it and you found a way to get around it and find a way why you couldn't do it.

What I mean by that is like you look at, you know, people want to buy real estate and shit. No, I'm not just pulling this all back to real estate. Dude, if you say I can't get finance for a house, go find a seller that'll do seller financing. Go sign somebody that'll carry the note. You know, do an AITD, do a wrap, do that stuff. Like you had no money as a 23 year old kid and you were like, you just saw an opportunity and you're like, I'll figure out how to finance this thing later. I'll figure it out. Let me get the deal in place. And so many, what I can tell you about real estate deals, especially big ones, like big, big real estate deals.

So many of those deals are just put in place and tied up in escrow with no money.

They go out and find the money after the fact. And they just do what it is. So I love that. And again, it all runs the same with all the stories we have, that young hustle, the getting it done, and then just finding that hinge point, that place. We just have to come to the balls and just go do it. That's a turning point. Yeah, a turning point. So that was November 2004 was our first one. And so then he's like, well, do you want to do it again? Because now he knows he's going to make a G. Sure.

So we did it basically. We started throwing one every month and every month it built. So the next party was 160. The next party was 200. Oh, it was a G to him. He never took a piece of the house. So after the third one, he was like, I want to split profit. I think the third one we had like 240 people. So then it was like, all right, well, I made like 10 Gs minus fees. I made like seven grand. So if I do that on top of my job, I'm like, yeah, I'm making like 80 grand a year. So now you're in rural Washington making 10 grand a month as a 24-year-old kid. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm guessing nobody's picking on you anymore, are they? Yeah. You're the guy. He calls me, and he's like, listen, this is March, late February 2005. He says, listen, the tribe's given us our licensing, but not to open as a strip club, to only open as a bar and grill and a nightclub. And I said, okay. And he's like, well, would you be interested in being a part of it? And I said, yeah. I was like, but if I'm coming, I'm going to be the GM.

And he's like, okay. And I was like, I'm not like I'm hiring, I'm firing, I'm doing everything. And he's like, okay, but we're broke. And I was like, well, what do we need? And he's like, everything. He's like, we need ice machines. We need cash registers. We need POS systems. We need merchant services contracts. We need the alcohol to supply it. So one of my buddies put me in touch with one of his friends who worked at us bank. And at 20, I just turned 25.

had great credit and went and got $50,000 on credit cards, three different credit cards and max them all out. We'll run around and got all the equipment and got everything up. And that was my $50,000 investment towards the buy-in. That was my buy-in.

And we opened in March. And obviously not knowing what the hell I was doing as a general manager of a nightclub, we opened seven days a week for the restaurant and opened two, three nights a week for the club. But only Saturdays were busy. And Saturdays out the gate were like insanely busy, which subsidized the entire week. Like everything else was in the red. And that one night we crushed. And then...

And now mind you, this is like to your point, rural Washington. There's not a lot of different markets there. Like you're all in one market demographic. Okay. So the night that we had running was a top 40 hip hop night and I was renting collared shirts and renting dress shoes to people that showed up at the club. This is God on story.

So I'd have guys up the club and they'd be like, yo, I'll tip you a hundred dollars. You know, I was like, listen, you can give me $20 and I'll rent you a college shirt and shoes. I ain't wearing that shit. I'm like, all right, well, you're not coming in because that's our, our expectations. All right. Yeah. Go ahead. All right. We haven't really talked about this, but so much story. No, no. But so much of your story is my story. Cause you ran a nightclub, right? Dude, so much of it. And I'll back up. So,

I'm not going to give you the full thing because we're here to talk about you. And I don't even know if we've really talked about this on the show before, but at 18, I was a bar manager. Same thing. Standing in a puddle. Same deal as a bar manager. And you were in Florida? In Florida. Florida State. Hang on a second. Let me just...

The greatest university on the planet. So, yeah. But, yeah, and at 20 years old, I had lost my fake ID. I lost it. And I was like, I'll be 21 in like six months, and it wasn't worth getting another one. Again, kids, fake ID is not good for you. Don't follow that advice. But, no, it wasn't worth getting another one. So my buddy Shag, his girlfriend, worked at this little bar, right? And I started going to this little bar because I could go there and drink and whatever because they didn't card me.

And I started, you know, the owners were these guys that had no clue about anything. And I was like, so finally I started saying, you should do this, you should do that, you need to do this. Guys, you need to do this. You only got one night a week. You need to figure this out. And one night they pull me back and they go, we're broke. I'm like, okay. They go, we got like another solid month of this. And if you can come in and turn it around, you can have a third of the bar. And I was like, okay.

Done. And we turned that thing, I hired all the bimbo girls, hired all good looking fraternity brothers because then bimbo girls bring in guys. If you hire hot guys, they bring in girls who bring in guys. I think that model still works today. Still works today. Still works today. Pretty sure that's still operating. That model has been tried and true. So yeah, literally kind of the same thing going along is you is getting that buy-in and that progressed into a corporate job

And then eventually wound me back up in Atlanta with Cobalt Lounge where we had similar nights. So anyway, back to you. So it's funny because we've never had anybody on that has similar nightclub, very similar stuff. So that was March 2015 we opened. And again, every Saturday was busy. Oh yeah, 2005. Sorry, 2005. And every Saturday is busy, every Saturday. And then obviously the goal is to layer in one extra night to really start making things profitable.

So about halfway through the summer, we had this promoter approach us. His name is Kono, and he was...

You look at him and you'd be intimidated. He's like six foot seven tongan Has one eye because when he was in grade school He got flicked with a paper clip and then he like randomly went into a coma So his eye never healed so he has like one wide eye and he's this monster six seven the nicest guy. Yeah, right? But like a monster, right? Yeah, scary but when he walks in you're like roll him up and lock him He had a promotional he wanted to do 19 and up and because we had three stories we could do so the middle floor was um

all ages and then downstairs in the bar and the bar and grill was 21 and up and the VIP up top was 21 and up. So we do 19 and up and everybody got ID and all the other stuff. And, and, uh, so that was Tuesday night. So now we have a bang in Tuesday night and Saturday night was great. And we really started like hitting our stride. And, and there was a night that Jason Terry, you're familiar with Jason Terry, the basketball player, right? Mm-hmm.

So I get a call at the front door, and they're like, Adam, we need you at the front door. And I get up there, and my security buddy, Lucky, he's listening. He's like, Jason Terry's out here. I think he's at the NBA finals or whatever. And he's like, but they're all out of dress code. I was like, well, tell them to leave. He's like, they want to talk to you. I was like, you told them? He's like, yeah. I was like, awesome. So I walk out, and he's got 10 guys all wearing black. Sweats. No, black jeans.

Jean jackets black boots black jeans and black do-rags and I was like Yeah, you guys you guys can't have you come in the guys. Let me talk to you. Let me talk to you He's like he's like, you know, I got you stairs like this I appreciate it if you guys came in and spent a bunch of money I was like I just can't contradict myself because I can't have you guys walk in this venue. This place will fucking erupt like it's not happening Yeah, and jesus terry pulls me aside. He's like listen. I didn't know it's gonna be like this You know, we'll come back and do it things right and because we had all ages night. I

during 2005 UW university of Washington basketball was great. So Nate Robinson, uh, Brandon Roy, Will Conroy, Trey Simmons. They were like, you know, they made it to the final four, I think that year, but they're all 19 and 20. So they're all in place. They come in. Yeah. They come to you Tuesday nights. They could come down. So every Tuesday night they came down and now I had like this UW crowd that come down. I mean, I had people driving three and a half hours to come anyway. Jeez. So fast forward six months, it's a Tuesday night in the middle of October. I just turned 26 and, uh,

The busiest night we'd had. And again, we have our own five acre private parking lot. So once that parking lot was full, now mind you, I'm on a four lane highway in the middle of nowhere, Milton, Washington. And once the parking lot was full, people were parking across at these like, you know, the Indians where they sell cigarettes and fireworks and shit. And they're parking across the street and running across the four lane highway to get to my club. Oh, God.

So about midnight, we're standing outside the club, and I have a guest list this way for girls and a guest list this way for guys. And we hear this loud noise, and this car slammed on its brake. And we ran up this embankment to get up to the street, and there's this kid laying in the road. Dude, it's like my story. It really is. It's like my story. It's like my story. And here comes a semi. It's 1230 night through the fall. Oh, God. 60 mile an hour. And like final destination, we're just like, oh, my God. Jesus. Woo.

And all we saw was like, you know, and so, you know, blood streak and bone spurs. And, and, uh, we're all just kind of like, well, maybe not exactly like my story. And so, uh, I was like, right. Uh, you guys call the cops. I'm going to go back inside because my bars are overwhelmed. Everyone's already a liquor. And so now like, all right, I have a thousand people inside. I need to go operationally help, but we just saw a kid get killed. So I'm like, fuck. Right. So I run inside and, uh,

I'm kind of just like numb, right? Everybody's like, what's wrong? I was like, oh, no, this kid just died outside. And you're in the weeds, so you're just kind of like just going through the operations of the business, right? So cops come in about 35 minutes later, and they're like, hey, we need you to shut the club down. And I was like, all right, well, can I shut it floor by floor and slowly let these people get out of the club? So you have a mob scene. They're like, no, you need to shut down. Just pull the plug. Yeah, pull the plug. So I go up to the DJ, and I said, listen, you need to tell him. He's like, I'm not telling him. He's like, you need to tell him.

And so I get on the mic and I was just like, guys, this is Adam, the GM. Sorry to cut the night short. You know, we have a fatality outside. Y'all get home safely next week. It's gonna be free cover, you know, be safe, blah, blah, blah. So I think everything's gravy.

who's walking out, you know, seven Q Lill Asian girls. Um, and they're walking out with these two monster Samoan guys. And these guys are like, yo, we just paid cover. We just, you know, we just paid for Hennessy. Like we want our money back. And he's like, listen, he's like, kid's dead. Like, yeah, let me get your names. We'll start jack next week. Yeah. And he's like, no, fuck that.

and spits on Kono. Well, without hesitation, his six foot eight Samoan security guard levels this guy. And then all of a sudden I have a thousand people walking out and they see, you know, Samoan's guys and some, some African American guys like fighting. And so then all fucking hell breaks loose. And in, within, uh,

minutes there's guys running around sucker punching girls running up and down cars people are pulling out guns um you know i had blown riot oh yeah and i had i had 20 security guards and kona had like six we had like 26 big guys i'm i'm probably the smallest one i'm six three although i'm not you know massive like we had this crew right and it was just like a swarm of bees and you break up a fight another fire breakup you break up a fight and another fire breakup

And I ran up to the cops and I said, listen, can you help us come clear the parking lot? And mind you, there is tribal police, county police, city police, state police, all on. All the police. Yeah. There's four different jurisdictions. All the police. Four different jurisdictions dealing with fatality on this highway. And they're like, no, we're told to stand down.

You're on your own. So five minutes in, go back to the cops, like a five minute swarm of bees and fights breaking out is a long time. That's right. That's a really long time. You know, America's wildest video. It's like a 37 second clip. Yeah. Yeah. Um,

So five minutes to run back up. And this has got on a story. I mean, this is like the most surreal day of my life. And that just wouldn't help you. Like no patrol to stand down. So I get on the radio. I'm like, guys, go to your cars. I go grab my nine millimeter Sig P two 39. My boys are putting on Kevlar and grabbing their guns. And then we kind of just show there's like, um, the club was up above and then here's a parking lot. And then it kind of ramped down in the main parking lot. And so we just stood shoulder to shoulder kind of around all the employees and all the girls cars and just kind of let these people fuck themselves up.

Finally about eight minutes in one cop car and one ambulance pulls in the back of our parking lot and everybody like cockroaches scatter Everybody leaves we kind of all started decompressing and go to clean up the club and the cops walk in and some girl cut her foot So walking in the front which is all this white, you know tile white white pole. There's just like this blood streak down It was like a horror movie, right? so the cops come in and

and they're saying, listen, like this is what we see you guys doing, right? This is what we see you guys doing wrong. This is what you guys are actually trying to run a legitimate business, yada, yada, yada. And, um,

So they left. We locked the doors. I paid my chef to stay an extra hour. We all sat there and smoked and drank and, like I said, decompressed. The chef made us all food, and we all kind of just like, what a fucking night, right? And so I walk out to the front door at the end of the night with my security guard, and he's got his bag full of collared shirts because every day we had to go get it dry cleaned for the next night, you know? And he's like, what do you think? I was like, I guess we'll find out tomorrow. So the next day I drove up to my venue, and the doors were chained.

And so trying to be a... Thanks for coming out. Thanks, dude. Thanks for coming out. So just trying to be a white

operator on a tribal lands to get all the tribal members together to, to try to dispute your license. It was never going to happen. It was just over. So I lost my investment, lost my job, was maxed out on credit cards. Um, I'd obviously quit my, all my other jobs to pursue this. And, uh, and you're lost. Yeah. About 90. So let me take you to my parallel real quick. So cobalt lounge, we're running that. Nope. I've got Atlanta now. This is Atlanta, Atlanta. We've got, um,

we wound up with like four busy nights, which was good. Um, one of which was Jermaine Dupri would have a party there every Sunday and it was like live on Sundays before live on Sundays. Yeah. And it was, and dude, it was, and it was everybody and their grandparents would come to this party and we would do like, and this is back in the day and these numbers are going to sound stupid now as compared to Vegas nightclub, but back in the day, this was, this was a banger. We would do, um,

You know, 30 or 40,000 on Friday. We do 60,000 on Saturday, 60, 70,000. And then we do 150,000 on Sunday. That's great. Cause it was all right. It was all just, you know, champagne, champagne, champagne, that's all it was. And anyway, so Superbowl comes around, we get every party for Superbowl. We get NFL pro player party. We get the playboy party. We get the maximum party. We had them all back to back, back to back to back as we go along. And what year is this? This is 2000. Okay. And then so 2000, uh,

A week before, so a week before, we had it during Jermaine's party. Same thing. Can't come in unless you have a college shirt. Can't come in here. But with us, it became a little bit more of a status symbol because you're on the sticks in Washington.

Like we had like when Michael Jordan walks up and he's wearing sweats. Okay, Mike, I'll let you in. Yeah, you can come in So what happened was with all the athletes in the in the super rappers? It kind of became a status symbol that you could get in to where about without where the fuck you want it, right? And so anyway the Sunday before or two weeks before Super Sunday We had a murder outside somebody got murdered in parking lot cross didn't make a lot people remember that because that wasn't a big deal and

we were the only place in bucket open on Sundays. We were open as a restaurant, even though we had some cheese trays or whatever, it was nothing. All the other bars were closed because we had a, you know, we had a restaurant license while we were open and then Super Bowl Sunday. So they all come in. There's a fight in the VIP involves Ray Lewis and some people. We actually closed down the club because it was like, dude, we're done. It's it's three 30. We've made all our money. Call it a night.

Clear everybody out of the club. We're literally giving a toast to everybody. Congratulations, blah, blah, blah. Great night, blah, blah, blah. We would hire off-duty cops to work for us. And Purvis, who was the cop, walks in and he goes, got another murder down the street.

And it was like two blocks down the street. And the guy that called 911 didn't know where he was. So he's like, the 911 call is. I just left Cobalt. I'm at the Cobalt. I'm at Cobalt. I'm at Cobalt. So that's the 911 they got to put everywhere. It nuked the club. And first of all, the first thing that happened was. So you never even made it to the Super Bowl parties. No, we did. No, we didn't. This was Super Bowl Sunday this happened. Oh, okay. This was Super Bowl Sunday that happened. Oh, okay. So it was the end. I mean, I walked in, you know, I used to, Bank of America used to wait for us on Mondays to fill out their ATMs. They'd call us and say, we need your money. Yeah, we need your cash. Yeah, yeah. So cash. So cash.

So, but, but no, so the first thing, so the first thing that happened was there was something called the bucket coalition, which was like all the old, you know, well-to-do folks in that part of the world ran the bucket coalition. And, and I don't remember the guy's name, but the head of it came and visited with us. And I was sitting in the meeting and it was me, Tom cook, the owner, and I'm sitting there and he goes, we think you should change your Sunday night format. And Tom goes to what? And he goes, we think you should do country Western.

Tom was like, uh, pretty sure that'll kill the night. And the next question was exactly how much food do you sell? Oh, and everybody tables just like, here it comes. So it was country Western. Yeah. So no, so no, it wasn't country Western. It was just like,

can we all agree that if we agree to close on sundays you'll give us a nightclub license and they were like we'll do that and so we had to close it was the end of it but that that ended the whole thing so i ended up losing my job the same way but anyway similar story same thing parallel so far i you know obviously we're going to see where this is going we're going to take a real quick break come back from here we're going to get to vegas now which these stories are going to be a little bit more uh i don't know are we naming names now we're not yeah no no no names we'll be back we'll be back in just a minute

Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com where we'll share any links that we have things we talked about on the show, as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.

Back from the break. Back from the break for part two, man. This has been, for me, you know, I love stories about the hustle and hopefully you're picking up some nuggets here as we go along. You're like memory lane. Yeah, dude, it is. I don't know if it's a memory lane or a flashback. I don't know what's worse. I think what's best to take from this is you can be right in high

high-end life and it can knock you on your ass overnight. Both of you have been. I don't think people realize that. These people in real estate and businesses, they don't say for rainy days, it can literally turn overnight. Well, that's again, one of the points I make when I speak, and I made it at the event the other night, was don't become too attached. Don't let what you do become your identity. Because

if for some unforeseen reason, like a tractor trailer runs over some kids or an NFL star, you know, his friend stabs somebody, whatever it is, you know, you know, whatever happened there, it can all be gone that quick, man. So you've got to maintain your sense of self because that's really what's going to get you through that time. And I'm guessing that's back, you know, back to you, man. So, so your club gets shut down. That was the moneymaker at 20, you're 26 now, 26, 26, the moneymakers running that shut down.

And now we're back to here. So what happens now? So I tried staying in Seattle in the nightlife scene, which wasn't really fruitful. And my cousin at the time was working at the Paramount Studios gym in L.A. And he's like, listen, he's like, I'll try to help you get into the industry out here. And then I had some acquaintances of friends that were from my hometown that lived here in Vegas. This girl worked at the Rhino.

And she's like, listen, she's like, you get down here and I'll introduce you to the people that I know. And real quick, for those of you don't know, the Rhino is a experiment. Rhino, Rhino. You know what? Gentlemen, if you don't, if you don't know, just Google it. We'll go with that. Nice point. So I ended up basically selling all my belongings and assets and leaving my friend's family and dogs and drove 19 straight hours with a car full of clothes. And I ended up on Green Valley Parkway for the first month I was here.

And my first, the day I got here, I had a job interview at Mandalay Bay Pool to bartend. And the guy's like, you have no union card, you have no experience, but you have a great resume. He's like, I'd love to hire you. Welcome to Vegas. And he's like, can you pass a drug test? I'm like, fuck yeah, I've been clean for six weeks. No problem.

Six weeks And So go take the drug test and ladies like you're bald. I'm like, yeah, she's like, all right We'll lift up your pant leg. I'm like and she shaved my leg hair to which did they don't really do anymore. I

But your leg hair doesn't grow out like it's lengthy. Like it's there. Like that's 19 years worth of fucking love right there. Like I'll go to jail on this leg hair. So anyway, I didn't get that job. Yeah, that leg hair knows who killed Kennedy. And so I ended up getting a server job at Cheesecake Factory here in Henderson and promoting a tangerine nightclub at Treasure Island at night. Okay. Tangerine. Dude, tangerine. We were just talking about that. We were just talking about that.

and then uh was that a win that was it no treasure island was that a ti yeah oh my god that's a great place yeah okay you're pretty much almost homeless at that point coming to me i mean i was living on a girl's couch yeah and then she kicked me out i was in a budget suite for a week and a half and and almost

And then I randomly had a friend that hit me up and was like, he's like, yo, if you ever come down to Vegas, I'm down here. I'm like, I'm down here. And he's like, what do you mean? He's like, I just moved down here. I was like, me too. And so we ended up getting a house together. And we got a house together. And I was working two jobs for the first year. Second year, I became a cabana attendant at rehab. Everybody loves rehab in 07. Still promoting at night. And then quit both of those and became a bar manager at Dick's Last Resort, which fits my personality amazingly. Yeah.

Dick's Last Resort, for those of you, again, that don't know if you haven't done that, it's basically a place where your server is going to bring you your tea but tell you to go fuck yourself is pretty much what happens there. It's actually like four amazing months of being a bar manager. But if you're not familiar with peer management, they didn't do everything by the book. And so for me to be a bar manager, they had me sign a document saying that I would work 60 hours but that I'd only get paid for 40. That way I could still be in the tip pool.

Well, so then after like three months of it... The old pure management tip pool. So the bartenders are like, well, wait a second. So the bartenders went to the union and were like, all right, well, is he a bartender? Because if he is, he has to be seniority. Yeah. Seniority. And if he's a bar manager, he's not in our tips. So which is it? And they're like...

Yeah, you got us. So I basically got laid off, lost my job and was just like, fuck. And again, that same like this November 2007. And I literally was like, I might move home. And Stevie, David Avicii, the CEO up here at the time was like, go, go talk to Alex and become a host. And so...

I became a host at pure nightclub. And once I became a host, it was like from that point on, the light went on. You're like, okay, wait a second. This is way easier. I mean, well, not easier, but once you're an operator, being a host is easy because you're just managing yourself and like, yes, being an operator, you're thinking about an entire venue. So once it became a host, it was, I mean, it's still a grind, but, um, it was easy for me. So I became a host and then a VIP manager at LAX. And I came up with a VIP manager at the palms for two years. Um,

became a director of VIP services at Nikki Beach when it opened, which didn't work out very long. And then after Nikki Beach failed. I forgot about Nikki Beach. That was Tropicana. Tropicana, yeah. And then after that debacle of a project, Alex, the guy that had, so basically Alex Cotto, he was at Pure and then he went to work for Angel Management Group. And so when Nikki Beach didn't work out, he's like listening. He's like, before you make another job decision, I'd love to talk to you.

So this is the end of 2011 and he go to his office and he's right here on Horizon Ridge and he's got this blue Plexiglas box and he opens it up and it's the renderings and the design of what was going to be Hawk Sun. So Hawk Sun didn't open until March of 2018.

13. Yeah. You know, I was hired 18 months in advance. That's such a dope move though. You know, I'm still that move. See, it's great on these days when I actually learned something for myself. What a great move. Not as such a soft recruit to you. Like, bro, I'm not trying to recruit you today. Come see me. Yeah. Come see me. Look, if you think about making a change, have a conversation with me. The next time you're thinking about making a move. Yeah. That's soft and dope. I mean, he, that guy, people don't know, listen to this. Cause we have people listen throughout the country. These are,

Big nightclub people. These are the top of the top guys. Very well-known people that are reaching out to you. Yeah. And I know if you're listening from a smaller place or even a mid-sized city, the nightclub business to you, I mean, like I said, the numbers I threw out earlier, that's like. That's still respectable for any club. Yeah, but I'm thinking that some of those, these clubs are millions. How much did it take to build out Hakkasan? $100 million. $100 million to build out. $100 million just to build it out.

Plus like a $30 million marketing and talent budget. You know what? Okay. Riddle me this because I have a dream. And this is what I would do if I went to a nightclub in Vegas. You ready? This is what I would do. And tell me if you think I could pull this off. And you're welcome to use it if you can. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Here's my idea. Here's my idea. You ready? I go to a guy and let's call him Sam. Okay. All right. And I say, Sam, here's the deal.

I'm going to put your face on every billboard in this town and we're going to call you DJ quickspin or whatever the fuck you want. Right. I'm going to put you on every billboard and you're going to spend here for a hundred dollars a night.

I don't care what you, what you charge everybody else, but you're going to charge, you're going to, you're, you're contracted to me for a hundred bucks a night. I think I could materialize an international DJ in Vegas doing it that way. It'd be a hell of a lot cheaper than paying these guys. Some of them make a million bucks a night. Well, well, yes, some of them before they sunk an entire business, but yeah. So yeah, that was, and then, and then I pulled that off.

No. You still have to have some talent. It's a dream. Calvin Harris, the year that he started and he was making big money, he also had more number one hits on his album than anybody before Michael Jackson. That's a good point. And he actually broke Michael Jackson's record. He had more number one hits on that album than anyone's ever had on an album. Here's a question. One more question real quick before I'm sidetracking with random nonsense. Do you think there has been a gig that Marshmello has performed when it wasn't the main guy?

- What do you mean? - Like he sent a buddy and said, "Here's the hat, go throw it on your head." - Yeah, like, "I don't feel like going." - Plug the flash drive in, here's the hat, jump around. - That's one thing about Deadman, where he takes his hat off and on throughout the snow. - Yeah, so you know it's him. - Yeah, you know it's him. - Right. - I don't know, that's a good question. - Sorry, we'll leave that one to one, two. - What may be the theories that I know, right? - It is. - Oh, we have a whole episode about that.

Let me ask you, if you don't know Vegas Nightlife, it's a bunch of good-looking people and a lot of egos. Best-looking people. How do you stand out? How do you stand out as the VIP guy to take care of? Real quick, what do you do?

- Like people are like, what does a VIP host really do? - All right, so you said I was a VIP host. I'm not a VIP host. - No, you're just a host. You're beyond that. - Are you a real estate agent? - No. - No, exactly, right? - It's different. I'm magical. - I'm now a corporate director of the company. So I oversee a sales team just like any other organization, right? You know, our sales,

in some of the clubs, you know, or 70, $80 million a year in sales. So if you have multiple venues, you're at, you know, 400, $500 million a year in total revenue throughout your portfolio of venues. So just like anything else, you're creating a sales culture in a boiler room of guys that, that are willing to pick up the phone calls or go up and talk to random people or approach people that don't know anybody. And it's, you

you know, literally whether it's cold calling or, you know, obviously everything is report based now. Um, but online lead generation and cold calling and just marketing yourself throughout both social media through the city. You know, I go out to London every year. So when I'm out in London, I'll go out and party, you know, in, in,

meet everybody that's in my industry out there. And if they ever have any people come to Vegas, because no one else does that. You know, there's, there's, I don't have a great network in let's say Florida, right. But there's some guys here that own everybody in Tampa or everybody in Miami. Right. And that's, that's their network. That's their niche. You know, each, each host has their kind of their own niche in addition to whatever the, the hotels feed them or their lead generation feeds them. But yeah.

Do you, do you, do you recruit the guys from the other organizations that you know have good networks? Is that, is that a, is there? So when we opened to, when we opened Haka San, we had such a headstart because like I said, I was hired in 2011 and we didn't open for about 16 months. So in the 16 months that progressed leading up to the opening, um,

Yeah, we recruited a guy named Jasmine Madar who's a stud from Detroit and was like the guy in Detroit. So he came out. We hired a guy from SB in LA named Drew Gates who now runs third base in LA, which is the dope little sports bar right there across from the gym. And so, yeah, we handpicked. So you go into markets and pull them here because you're like, you have the crowd here, we're going to pull you here. For that project, because Hawksdown was such – it was, you know –

XS is obviously an amazing club. Marquis is an amazing club. Hawkson was kind of like this dynamic, you know, five-story Michelin star restaurant nightclub. And the DJ roster that when we had open was, you know,

who's who everybody hardwell calvin harris dead mouse tiesto stevie oki um everybody yeah and they put such so much so much marketing and branding when you reach out to somebody who lives in detroit you're like yo yeah cool you run cobalt atlanta do you want to come run the newest hottest 100 million dollar nightclub in vegas yeah they're like yes i'm in yeah

Easy sell from Detroit to Vegas. Well, I mean, yeah, LA everywhere, right? The cost of living out here is cheap. The traffic's non-existent. The people you meet, I think the network building, if this is what you're into is network building, there's no better city than Vegas. Everywhere in the world is transient to Vegas because of conventions or because of gambling or because of events, et cetera. And so you can go to Miami, you can go to New York, and yeah, there's melting pots, but Vegas has everyone from everyone in the world comes here. What is your key to networking? Because you're really good at networking.

You're really good. You can go anywhere with you and you network the shit out of it. I would just say, I mean, listen, I think you talk to so many people. So like you start off as a promoter, you start off as a host, whatever. You're not worried about rejection anymore. I don't care about getting a no from a guy or getting a no from a girl. If I walk up and be like, hey, girls, what do you know? Go fuck myself. Okay, next. At that point, it's a game of numbers. When you think about like that, like there's tons of books throughout the sales world of like,

the more rejections you get, you know, you're getting closer and closer to a yes, right? And so, you know, you just find people that you get on with. And I'm very sarcastic and very dry and very witty in a sense. And so that's why I have a lot of rapport with British people because...

they have a lot of banter and they don't get offended. Everybody in America is like, oh, he's insulting me. Sorry. You can't talk to me that way, sir. That's great. So again, everybody's got their own. I don't think people realize you handle football star, soccer, America. You handle everyone. CEOs, everybody.

And that's why I love, like, want to have Adam in here because this seems like such a, oh, you just sit there and people walk in and you get paid. And it is a business itself. It is just like you're running a corporation at that point. And I don't think people realize that. And that's what's great about this show is it shows other places, whether it's real estate or,

Whether you're a stripper selling your body, it doesn't matter. You're a salesperson. I think also, though, not in the level that you do, but the guys that come in, the base level hosts that work on the team. I think in Vegas, especially... You have some hosts that work here, right? What's that? You have some hosts that work here. Yeah, I've got guys that work for me on my team that are hosts. Yeah, several of them. I love hiring ex-Nightclub hosts that want to transition out of the business because they'll talk to anybody. They don't give a shit. That's their job to walk around. And they understand the grind. And they understand that it's a numbers game. They get it. But I think...

One of the advantages is you're selling something. I mean well depending on where you work But if you work at Hakkasan, you're selling a key to cool. Yeah, I mean But just but even that just the fact that they got your card, you know I mean just the fact that you got a guy there everybody wants to have a guy there like are you going to Hakkasan? I got a guy there. Yeah, or call my guy everybody It's like it's like a status symbol to have a guy where they use them or not. Well, it's just like

Go near your local watering hole. I mean, at the end of the day, you go to the same place because, you know, when you're 19 years old, you know you can go there. Everybody knows your name. It's like cheers, right? If you have that same rapport with somebody in a nightclub, that's what you want. You want to be comfortable. You want to go to a place that you're like, I'm not going to get hassled at the front door. I know I'm going to get in for free. I get to actually enjoy the people I'm there with because I have rapport with them. Like, that's what everybody wants, right? So whether it's at a nightclub or whether it's at your local bar and grill or your local PT's, I mean, that's just kind of like what all of us want dynamically in regards to the social environment.

So if I come to Vegas and I want to have a job, I want to get a job in the nightclubs and I want to be a host, what can I expect to make? What does my day look like?

What does that look like? I mean, obviously you're way beyond this, but if I, if I call you or I get lucky enough to get in room with you and on a job, what's it look like? I mean, is it really a job or you're working for yourself? I mean, it is a job. I mean, like I said, it's kind of like bullet room, right? Like, so databasing followup, right? So you have a sale, you follow up with the guests. How was everything? Hope you had a good time. Feel free to reach out in the future. If you have any friends, you know, like, you know, a lot of, a lot of real estate agents put, you know, my, my, the biggest thing you could ever give me as a referral, right? It's the same thing in nightlife, right? So, um,

there's that follow up database thinking outside the box. How do I approach? So let's say for instance, for me, I've always kind of thought like, all right, well, how do I approach Toronto? I've only been once in my life. I don't know a lot of people. So I'll reach out to concierge in Toronto or travel agencies in Toronto and be like, Hey, do you have a point of contact for nightlife pool parties, restaurants, et cetera, the extracurriculars of Vegas? Because yeah, you can book your hotel rooms online.

But the guy that's booking you want to have a little more rapport. Like what restaurants would you recommend? What's good to go to on Monday? Oh, you don't know? Cool. Now you do because now you have somebody else like that, right? So thinking outside the box, all the hosts are assigned to a hotel, right? So if I said to you, you know, John, you're assigned to, I'll use my hotel as an example, you're assigned to Bellagio. All right, well, how many employees work at the Bellagio? Thousands. Five, 6,000, right? And you know two. Yeah. So every single week when I tell you to go to the hotel is to meet

two more people or five more people, whether it's a bartender, a pit boss, a cocktail waitress, a server, a hostess, whoever, a retail person that's at Louis Vuitton, because not only are they working with a hotel and they're meeting people that are walking to the hotel that want to go out, they're also locals. And

And we have a lot of industry nights. And so if you as a local want to celebrate your birthday, or if you want to do your corporate party with us, they're going to go where they know somebody. And if they don't know somebody, they're not going to call you. Right. So a lot of that is, is for the hosts to have understanding. If there's 2.2 million people in the Valley, how many locals do you know? Because if you don't know locals,

You can know 300 people to send you business to Florida. When those people don't come, then you know everybody, right? Good for once or twice a year, max. Precisely. And so getting outside, taking your blinders off and realizing the big picture. If I say I've been assigned to Bellagio and I have 200 people in my database, I'm at...

What percentage is that? Like not even scratch the surface. It's three, 4% or whatever. So, um, you know, there's, there's a tremendous amount of locals that don't have, that don't come to the strip because they, they still have a disconnect. And so we tell the guys like, if you want to go out and have dinner and fucking Summerlin, um,

Then ask the bartender, yo, who takes care of you at Hawkinson? Who takes care of you at Omni? Who takes care of you in our venues? Nobody? You don't have somebody? Well, if you ever want to have your birthday, if you ever want to have people in town, please. And it's just that over and over and over again. That same speech. So what's the cut? What do they make? So let's say I bring somebody in. What's the split? So are they on a salary, first of all? So, yeah. So everybody's on a salary. Salaries range anywhere between, depending on the venue and town, depending on what company they work for, salaries range anywhere between $30,000 and $100,000.

Most companies have compensation packages of 3% to 5% in sales.

So if you book a million dollars a year and you have 5% sales, you know, you make 50 grand of your salaries, 50 grand, you're at a hundred plus tips. So now you make a little bit more money. And then plus the perks of, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've had guys in town. I'm like, Hey, you know, we've got a 10 top at SDK. You want to come join us? So how many times do I go out for free and eat like a King without paying a dollar? Right. So if you think about how much money you're not spending by going out and riding coattails or being, being in the company of your, your client, then, um,

There's a lot of money in that way too. Plus, I go to London. I don't pay anything. They're like, no, no, you're in my city. I'm like, when you're coming to my city, I'm not paying. Right, right. But that's fine. You pay in your city and my city. It's fine. It's fine. What is, what would you say an average table costs at a nightclub? And what's the craziest amount you've seen spent at a table? So opening year of Hakkasan, we had a guy come in from Dubai and his bill was 600 and let's say $640,000. Sure.

And when he got to the gratuity, he wrote over 360,000. So his bill was a cool million. Jesus. Or one night of nightclub. They pulled, did the girls pull that or that? They pulled, they all walked in there. There's say there's 50 girls and there's $36,000 in tips or 360 from that one table. Now you got all the other tables in that club. I'm like, yeah, they all walked with down, whatever they walked with.

I'd say the average table, you know, anywhere between a thousand and five thousands kind of standard, obviously. And I got to tell you, and that right there is what I've always said is wrong with education in the state of Nevada. People are always like, Oh, but the school is so terrible there. It's like, look,

This is what happens. Yeah. You know, Mary graduated. Her dream is to be a third grade teacher. And she goes to college and she gets a degree in Kansas. Or she's hot. Hang on. And then she moves to Vegas and gets a job because, you know, hey, the Clark County School Board is always hiring and they pay very well because our education is so crappy. And she gets here and she works one, you know, one year, one year in third grade. And then she meets Kimberly. Yeah.

And Kimberly holds a sparkler and a bottle of champagne and walks it to a table and Kimberly makes five times what she makes. And the next thing you know, if she's attractive, she's gone. Yeah. That's the end of it. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, you also see them all become, I mean, it's,

I think at the end of the day, for any of us, I tell this to all the guys that I have working for me. I was like, if your goal isn't to be, I don't want to be in nightlife when I'm 50 or 60, right? But hopefully I meet guys within the years of my experience, whether it's a hedge fund guy or entrepreneur, or if I ever dove into real estate, I have an amazing job.

wealth of network in front of me in regards to someone that grew me into that industry. So, you know, the goal is to find somebody that actually wants to take you towards your passion outside of this so that, you know, you're set to success in the future instead of being like, oh, this is my lot job. Yeah, here I am. You're a fucking promoter. I'm like, no, I mean, yeah, whatever, but.

Right, right. But now you're at that point in your life. You started switching over. You just opened a restaurant. It's a badass, good restaurant, Fries and Pies off of Harmon in Paradise. It's amazing. The location's good. I got to ask a question because I didn't know what it was, right? I knew the pies was pizza. Yeah.

But I love poutine. Yeah. I mean, dude, I love that shit. And I was like, man, I'm going to have to come back. I mean, it's terrible for you, but I fucking love it. Yeah. So, yeah, 2017, I went to, again, I was in London. And I came back and I went back to my office. I had an office in that little center. And the power was out. And we were piggybacking our power from the restaurant next door because the landlord had us set up whatever name. It was his restaurant.

And so I called Landlord. I was like, hey, the power's out. And he's like, yeah, we decided to shut down. Before it was us, it was called Papaya King. Like some grazed papaya. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like alcoholic slushies and hot dogs. It was terrible. And...

And so yeah, so instead of me investing $180,000 or $200,000 in crypto in 2018, I bought a restaurant. Idiot. So stupid. Idiot. So stupid. So yeah, so when we'd approached him about putting a concept in there and my business partner, Josh, who's a great chef, who's created menus for multiple concepts out here,

he had a concept and we approached the landlord and he's like, no, I don't, I don't think that concept will work in our center. I got a bunch of vanilla brands. I got subway. I've got Dunkin' Donuts. I got checkers, burgers. I got, you know, et cetera. And I was like, what about pizza? He's like, I'm a Jew from New York. Of course I'd like to see pizza. I was like, all right. So I called Josh. I was like, listen, we need to create a pizza concept. And, uh,

And if you're not familiar with Vancouver, when you go out in Vancouver at the end of the night, it's literally like when you leave, what's to eat? It's like pizza poutine, pizza poutine. That's what it all is. That's all it is down in Granville and all Hastings and whatever. And so while we're making this pizza menu, I was like, how come nobody has poutine? He's like, yeah, let's just do the toppings on both. And so now we have...

Fries and pies. Wait, so you have a poutine pizza? Yep. Every recipe we have. Oh, my God. You can either have a pizza or you can have a poutine. It comes as poutine or pizza. So what's some of your... Like buffalo chicken, you can throw it on the fries, you can put it on pizza. Poutine. Yeah, poutine. The gravy and cheese coats. But over the years, they've added...

you know, lobster and pulled pork and steak, et cetera, et cetera. And people will change the recipes. And poutine is really roughly translated in French as a messy fry. So it's messy fries. Yes, we have the traditional cheese curds and gravy, but then we also have Philly cheesesteak and cheeseburger and buffalo chicken, barbecue chicken.

Is this where you're going to hate on poutine, Colt? No, I like it. We finally found something to hate. And do you know what? Adam's going to. Adam's going to. Yeah. I'm over there, my kid. What is your favorite food? We never discuss this. Pizza, tacos, pasta. All right. What's your favorite pizza in the world? Where's it from?

We have fries and pies. It was cheating this, but outside of Vegas, we'll make it outside of Vegas. No, no, no. I will say it. And I'm not just saying this, like even my wife's like, oh shit, Adam's place was really good. And my wife, we all know is hard to please. No, um, I, you know what? It just depends. Uh,

some of it's not even that good. Like there's place Tony's up in Utah. It's not even that good, but it's good. But I like it. But Adam's going, Adam's going to agree with this. What do you like? Top five. Yeah. Top. Do you think I could make an Olympic? Oh, you think I could make an Olympic sport? God, no. Adam, see my athletic ability. Zero chance. If I wore glasses. Yeah. Writing the fours, right? And he's not, God,

You laid one on the rim for me and I almost went to dunk it, but it's too politically incorrect. Let's not do that right now. I'm not going to dump it. But Adam Seymour, I'm a little athletic. I got to change to my joke. The Laugh Olympics, maybe.

No, Adam's place is really good. I will go there. My question was, would you eat your favorite pizza with Tom Hanks? No. He hates Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is the worst actor ever. He's got a personal vendetta against Tom Hanks. Anything after 1990? Turn on Hooch?

Didn't like it? No. I don't like Tom Hanks at all. I think he's kind of fake, but I like... Total tangent. I know. Sorry going off on you. He hijacks the show pretty much every time. And I didn't want to hijack because I know nothing about the nightclub industry, but I just know that people think it's a lot easier, and I've seen Adam grow, and I've seen Doug's stuff. You can attest. There's nights where it's truly enjoyable, and you get home, and you're like, man, what a fucking night, and then there's other nights where you're just like...

you truly have to take a second and just be like, fuck. What a night. What a night. And everything. Terminals go down. There's a fight that breaks out. Issues with the guests. What's the biggest issue you constantly see? People try and do drugs in the club? I would just say people's lack of intelligence in regards to what it takes to come to a nightclub and then their...

Like their address code. Can I ask a question? I'm 40. I don't need my fucking ID. Fuck you. It's like, yeah. I got a question. If you've never been to a nightclub in Vegas, there's the corral pin system. Yeah, yeah. They move you from one corral to another. Yeah, yeah.

What is the fucking purpose of the crowd system? Well, so for instance. Because my philosophy was always this. Look, we were always busy enough in their club that we always had a big line. Yeah, yeah. Right? But I was never that guy that purposely held the line to make the club look better. Because we had some optics to the club that you could see in certain places and you could tell how busy it was. So because of the last, when was the November 1 shooting, October 1 shooting, 2018? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

We never used to want every single person. Yeah. And now you're doing that. And now every single person. So if I grab, say there's 300 people out front and this 10 people have, have a table, I can't want them and ID them out front in front of people. So I bring them in one, them ID them and then get them going and then grab the next group and one, them and ID them and get them going. So I kind of have to stage you. Yeah, that actually makes sense. There's also, that makes sense before, before the last five years, the, the wave of technology within the cannabis world is,

There used to not be a million different vape pens. You couldn't get wax and little things that get by security. Now everybody and their mom's got fucking edibles or vape pens or weed pens. And that's hurting the profitability of the clubs, isn't it? Because I know that really- It's just part of a risk. You don't know what people are on, right? You don't know what kind of dynamics are in their body, whether it's drugs or Adderall or fucking meth or weed. And so you have to try to protect your liquor license and the integrity of your venue. So this guy, you don't need them coming in if they're not going to drink. Because I heard that's one of the things that really clobbered the palms.

When they opened that day club. That was right about when all the dispensaries opened and then everybody was showing up on edibles. And they were like, we're not selling any fucking boots. Are you talking about the new Poms? The new Poms. The new one. I heard that was...

you can't have a venue that holds 3,000 people open for three days and three nights a week when you have 700 rooms. Yeah. You don't have a built-in demographic. Yep. Right. So that's another story. Another story. Well, dude, it was, uh, it was fascinating if I'm somebody in a, you know, I like to think that somebody out there listening to this has some money. Uh, but if

too and they want to come spend it with you how do they find you on Instagram or Twitter S-A-D-I-E Adam Sadie on Instagram or Twitter would probably be the easiest way Adam Sadie on that if they want to find you Colt how do they find you besides you know my OnlyFans it's going pretty good I got two people still are you still eating Oreos in the sun that's it

both guys and it's just both me i forgot my password created another one so yeah follow them both now colt underscore amiton on instagram's the best oh there you go well you know how to find me guys we appreciate the uh subscription if you're listening to us on apple make sure you give us a like and uh and yeah remember man if you like what we do uh you know tell a friend and if you hate it tell two because it doesn't matter if they're talking good or bad colt what is it as long as they talk about you that's right see you next time

Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com where we'll share any links that we have things we talked about on the show, as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.