Bugattis and Billionaires with Nick Dossa Ep 38
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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 fun-filled episode of... Jasmine, Satellite Show, Bar 2, Jasmine. No, I'm just kidding. Welcome to The Power Move. I am your host. My name is John Gafford. With me to my left, as always...

You know what? We're going so fast. You know what? Colt, the Khmer Rouge sympathizer. The Khmer Rouge sympathizer. There you go. Whatever it was. Chris gets into it. I know. He loves it. I know. He loves it there. Chris Cotto, Esquire. Chris, how are you, sir? Literally a dream. And special guest in the studio today, my man from Vegas Auto Gallery, Nick Dosa is here. Nick, what's happening? How are you? How much, man? Glad to be here. How are you? So guys, today on the show, we're going to talk about a lot of things, but really,

Nick is here, and for those of you who are not in Vegas listening to us, you hear Vegas Auto Gallery and you're thinking, oh, is this like the buy here, pay here lot where they knock your head off and charge 18% interest and repossess your 82 Camry in about three weeks? That's not really the business Nick is in. Nick is in the I've got $2 million Bugattis hanging around in my showroom yesterday, and

I actually bought a car from Nick, and that's not the cool part of the story. The cool part of the story is by the time I bought the car and I was going to get my bag out of his office to come back, I come back and there's two Golden Knights sitting in my car.

Which I thought was pretty cool. They were about to resell it on you. Yeah, exactly. They're like, do you mind if we sit in your car? And I'm like, no, you go right ahead. Where'd you get this 98 Civic? This is the nicest Civic I've ever seen. Actually, it's amazing what you can do with a Fiero with the right body kit. It is just gorgeous, the car that we picked up yesterday. We're good. So today we're going to get, I mean, look, this is a dude that has built an incredibly successful business. I mean, just incredible successful business.

And we're gonna kinda go through like we do with all the entrepreneurs that come on the show, what makes them tick, what got them to where he is, and hear the story. And if you are someone that owns a business and you wanna talk about connecting in a way that's special with your high-end clientele, this dude's got it. 'Cause I mean, these guys, not only do the Knights, I mean, they weren't there to buy a car yesterday, were they? Were they there to buy a car?

They left the one. Yeah, they left the one. But they were there just to keep it real and creating an environment for those guys. But the connection he has with his business is what makes his business go. And this is a guy that, you know, I can't even imagine how much money is in your contacts on your phone. I can't even get my head around what that number must be. But before we do that, as we always do, we've got to talk about some current events stuff. And I've got to tell you.

Super Bowl this weekend came out. Was that was a good game. I want to talk about the game, though. This is what I talk about. I want to talk about tone deafness and advertising. That's what I want to talk about. You know, Nick, this may be one of your clients. You may want to you want to just deck off the show right here real quick. But my God, there was an ad and I'm not going to say who it was by name, but there was an ad. I'm sure you didn't see it where you are because it was local and it was an attorney and

And it was the most tone deaf thing I've ever seen. This was an ad for an attorney and it wasn't, there was no speaking in the inset ad. It was just like, let me like, like, let me put these super hot chicks in slow motion with giant eyelashes. And then I'm a lean against really expensive cars, which probably came from you. And then, and

Like, I left this ad watching it like, bro, who is this for? Like, it's not... It's not for anybody. It's not for high-end people. It's not for the broke people. You just...

The tone death, right, was crazy. I sent Chris the Twitter feed of people talking about this, and I've never seen. Yeah, they turned on him hard. Usually you'll have one or two people defend people, and not one person defended him. And everybody's like, I thought it was a spoof of making fun of it, and then they're going to turn around, and then the commercial ended. That was legit.

And so I think the moral of the story with this ad is a couple things. We're in a bad spot right now. No, no, no. I'd just like to go on record being that I believe that all members of the bar are honorable and dignified people. There you go. I think the point of it is twofold. Number one is before you make a piece of advertising, maybe you should invest in some sort of market study to see who your target market is and then what sort of thing would appeal to them. I think that's a good piece of advice.

The second piece of advice I'm going to say is, obviously, after seeing that ad is, there are people out there that will produce, that claim to be in marketing, claim to be in advertising, that will produce whatever piece of shit ad you direct them to pick and tell you it's wonderful. Because somebody told him that thing was amazing. I'm trying to tell Chris to let us write an ad for him. I could write you the best ad, Chris. Oh, my God.

I'm out on that. You already saw what our brain does. We were planning this already before. It was amazing. That's why I'm out on it. In Chris's defense, he walked in today and my assistant is with child now and the word is out. We've been keeping it quiet, but it's out. And so

you know, me being me. I feel, no, I feel obligated. I feel obligated to play in her bachelor or not bachelor party, but her, uh, her baby shower. That's what it is. No, but I feel the same thing. I feel obligated to play in that event. And, uh, and honestly, I think the best, the best idea we came up with was what Colt. I,

Well, I can't say what the best one was. Fascist Dictators was my vote. No, Fascist Dictators, she shot that down. And I think now... She has no personality. You're on pimps and hoes. We settled on pimps and hoes. I mean, think about it. You have the pimps up, hoes down baby reveal. I think that's a strong move. You have the iceberg slim salad. Yeah.

Iceberg Slim Wedge Salad. Yeah, you get it done. It's going to be a beautiful event. I just hope I get a grandmother to come. That's all I say. But the next thing I got to tell you is foresight in business. Because, guys, something happened to me this week, and I don't like it. I don't like it.

I lost 300 diesels this weekend. 300 grand down the tubes. And it was because I was dealing with an agent that was very short-sighted. Now, how do you do that? Well, very simply, let's just say that this agent who, and I called everybody and nobody knew who they were. And again, this is not bashing our industry because I hate it, but I'm just calling a spade a spade. And I'm using this as an example. I'm not doing it out of spite that I lost 300 because it'll come around. I'll figure it out. I'm going to find my clients another house. It's fine.

But this agent was representing somebody. And let's just say this was somebody that had to leave Vegas. They didn't have a choice. They were leaving Vegas. And they're somebody that's never coming back. Professionally or legally? Yeah, well, whatever. We're going to leave it at that. All right. It's somebody that's leaving Vegas and they're never coming back. Who lived here but no longer. They lived here and they're moving away and they're never coming back. This person will never come back to Vegas. Right. Right.

And this agent was representing the sale of their house. Now my clients, all right, are very influential people that happen to be a member of a certain country club here in town. And they're there all the time. They know everybody there. They talk to everybody there.

This agent had insinuated during the showing that we were at that she was a member also of said club, which explains how this person wound up with this listing. Obviously created a relationship with somebody through the club and that was it. And here's the deal. I don't mind, like if my clients got beat in the offer, I don't mind. I don't mind that at all. But when you string us out with a bunch of things that you tell me something and it doesn't seem to be accurate as we go along and we're working through that and you string my clients out, my clients are

furious with this agent. So now, yes, you've sold the house. Congratulations. But I don't think it's enough for them to retire on. And the reality of it is this person, this person who you, you know, maybe did, you thought you were doing right by them, which is fine. And keep in mind, you could have handled this with my clients much differently. And still they could have lost and it would have been fine. But you slow roll them and you lie. You know, you said some things that didn't really turn out to seem to be real accurate and

And now my clients are furious. So now you've got this client, you sold them for it, but they've moved away. They're gone. They're a one-shot. Your little honeypot where you're going to try to get business now is completely shot out because believe me, my clients are going to tell everybody. And it was so short-sighted. And the idea here, man, is if you're going to be in business and you're doing it in the long term, play chess, not checkers. You've got to look further than what's right in front of your face. You know this market right now, and my wife's a realtor.

She sent an agent an offer. That agent turned around and sent her a text back going, hey, I got this offer. And is your client able to come up on it? She's like, excuse me, you're literally just texting me. That was my offer. Oh, I'm sorry. Wrong number. You know, it's just absolutely careless and just tacky. Yeah, it's just one of those things where...

I don't know what's going on right now, man, but it seems like... It's like 2004. Yeah, it seems like... Remember how many people were doing that and making money, and all of a sudden now they're bartenders? Nothing against bartenders, but... It's cold. Let me ask you a question. Go ahead. Let's have a nap.

My mom's real estate for years. Love it. From Canada. So, you know, REMAX obviously. Sure. Very well. Uh, my mom was one of the first people that brought REMAX to Canada in the seventies. Okay. So she had mostly REMAX offices in Calgary, Alberta, top realtor in 1993, four, five, six, seven, number 11 internationally, number three, uh,

in Alberta and number one in Calgary. So she was a heavy hitter for an East Indian woman to do that. So my point of this is that as a young kid, I didn't grow up hanging out with my friends. I grew up in a show home. And I remember I was showing houses at the age of 12 years old, walking people to one house, another house.

The industry here in Vegas, I got to say, is no offense to any realtors. Oh, no. It's not like you'd be offended. Over there, they work. Like you get an offer, you're working it, you're answering your call at midnight, you're answering the call at 1 a.m. It doesn't matter because some deals will go till one o'clock in the morning. You know that. They'll go, right? Over here, it's like, oh, yeah, well, I'm on vacation. I'm at a wine tasting. I'll call you tomorrow. It's like,

I want to buy the house. You want to sell me the house? Tell me I don't want to buy the house and I'll go find something else. Why is that? I always said that. When I came to Vegas, I said the same thing because I came from Northern Utah. So I'm like, oh, Vegas is, you know, I'm thinking of pole dunk low Northern Utah. I'm like, wow, this is not the same as that market. It's not that. You got to understand. In Vegas, you've got 20,000 realtors in the MLS. All right. Of those 20,000, 10,000 of them have something in common, which is they did not sell a house last year.

So these are people that part with, give or take thousands of dollars a year, just to be able to carry a business card and say, I sell real estate, even though they do nothing. And I mean, that's a commitment to be able to carry a card just to part with two grand. I mean, why not just say, like, I'm a taxidermist? I'm pretty sure there's no board you have to join to be a taxidermist. I'm an import and export guy.

Yeah, exactly. Just make up something up. Interior design, whatever it is, just make something up to say that you have a job. And that's how it is. So now we're down to 10,000 that do 10,000 sell all the houses. Now of the 10,000, maybe I'm going to guess 6,000 of those sell one house a year. One. So we went from zero to one. So now I got 4,000 left. Of the 4,000, you've got about 2,000 that might sell two homes a year.

When it really comes down to it, you got about 500 people in town that sell everything.

That's true. It's pretty much it. If you don't get those 500. Yeah. If you don't get one of those guys, you're just, you're just whatever. You're getting a lot of realtor. And that, and that unfortunately is the math as to why people are fed up with realtors. That's why, because there's too many people that this is their third job, fifth job. Maybe I don't have a job. My, you know, I'm being supported by my spouse and I just want a card that says I do something. And I got a friend in my family who wants to do it. So it's worth it to carry those. That's worth it for that one house. You get every couple of years.

No, that's worth it. But you know what? Enough about us, man. That's my little current events and stuff. So, you know, I brought you in here. He's like, okay, this is great. I'm just throwing some comments in from the side. I'm not sure if you're from Calgary. You're from Calgary? Well, I'm from Regina. Oh, jeepers. Aren't you? Oh, jeepers. Aren't you?

Oh, here we go. All right. If you guys start talking about syrup, this is going to be over in like five minutes. I will shut this off. You mean in three hours? There's a lot to talk about. Go down the syrup trade. This is over. So let's get back to you, man. So, so Nick,

owns Vegas Auto Gallery, but you didn't just come out of the ether and own this thing. So tell me, I always like to hear the start, man. You was a kid walking through that. That's what I like to hear about because it's so funny because most of the conversations we have like this are almost identical. And I just like to prove that point and see if that's where you're at. So you kind of want to know the whole thing? Absolutely, man. Did you have a job with the Calgary Herald?

Did you deliver papers? No. You've never been to Regina? You're leading the witness. Objection, Your Honor. Leading the witness. You're leading the witness. You're going forward. Let the man talk. No, so...

Starting out in Calgary, I was going to school and playing hockey like everybody does over there. And I got pretty competitive with it. And from there, as I was playing hockey, I got injured at a very competitive level. I was almost, like I would say, you guys call it like junior, so we'll just call it junior year, right? So how old was this? In high school or after high school? No, like 19. Okay, so you're like 19. So I was playing hockey. I'm going to go back further than that. When you were a kid-

Like what was the first hustle you had as a kid to make money? What was it?

Believe it or not, like I said, I was showing houses for my mom. My dad passed away at the age of when I was 12. And so he was only 52 at the time. My mom was a single mom at the time growing up. So she raised me. And so I was working with her. Like I was always with my mom because that was my dad told me, hey, look after your mom. So that was my priority. So I worked with her. I helped her with whatever she needed. She was very successful realtor over there.

I was buying and selling cars while I was in school just for fun. Not because I had to. I was just for fun. We had auto traders back then. There's no internet. You're an auto trader. You look for a car and you find it and you go buy it and I'd clean it up and I'd put it back in the auto trader the next week. So you're flipping. How old is this when this starts? I was like 16. 16 flipping cars. What's the best business lesson you learned watching your mom do real estate? Be honest.

Just be honest. Be honest and hard work. Like just honestly, you have to just do the right thing by people. It's not about, you don't want to chop someone's head off.

I'd rather make money every time for a long road rather than just go for a huge score and smoke someone right off the bat and then they'll never come back to me and say, fuck that guy. I never want to come back. Or as a wise man once said, you can shear a sheep a thousand times and skid them only once. Or mutton once. You can have wool forever or mutton once. That's it, yeah. She taught me a lot, man. Everything I learned in business was from my mom. Nice. Straight up. So that's a lot of lessons. So you're competitive hockey. You're pretty good.

You think you could have gone to Olympics? Here we go. Like you said, he goes way out. Hang on a second. There's a couple of reoccurring themes that you probably need to know about. I guess we should get this out of the way now, right, Colt? You're down for this? Yes. Colt believes that he could compete at an Olympic level with how long? One year?

Oh, yeah. And now it's shortening because now I'm starting to watch some of the winter events and I could be the top guy on the double luge and do nothing. Yes. Get my triceps going really good. First, it was equestrian for the longest time. He's given that up now to the Winter Olympics here, but he believes with one year. Now, what's the max training here? Six months. Six months. So we'll go ahead and get this out of the way. That's another thing.

I can run fast enough to be in a bobsled. I can keep up. We might not win, but I could be number three on that team. So is there any planet do you believe Colt could compete at an Olympic level in any sport in six months knowing him for the now? Where are we at? 14 minutes we've been doing this. Is there any way that happens?

I can't say, but I'm positive. I'd like to say that I'm glad that he thinks he can. Yes, well, I will say there's only been one person to ever vote yes for him, and that's the guy that slaps dudes for money. He's the only guy that's ever supported this for you. He's a smart guy. Smart slap for cash. I like slapping him. I've talked to him all the time. I like slapping him. And that's the only guy that's ever supported this. Honestly, there are slaps for cash.

Bob's sled? Bob's sled? I could be number two in there. All right, we're bringing him back to Nick. But I'm just saying, he better be in a hockey guy. Yeah, you'll get a chance to talk about sandwiches or cookies or something here shortly. I got a text real quick. No, no, no, real quick. I get a text from someone in Colorado on the weekends like, Jesus, are you high? Pumpkin cookies? I'm like, oh, yeah. That was the right answer of that person. Yeah, that was a great answer. So, okay, back to you, Nick. I'm sorry. It's going to happen. No, no, it's all good. I'm glad you, yeah.

You have to have kind of ADD in here because it's just going to steer off all of us. Pumpkin cookies. No, no pumpkin cookies. So you're pretty good at hockey. All right, so here's one thing that I have found in my life when I have been exposed to guys that were really good at a sport and then maybe got injured and it didn't happen. I found that there is really...

it's more common than not for guys or gals in that situation to kind of actually become worthless is a good way to put it. I mean, what I mean by that is because they've had somebody telling them how special they are for so long because they're good at this one thing. And all of a sudden when that one thing goes away, they're completely lost. Yeah.

And it becomes my glory days are behind me and this is over. So where were you with – obviously you didn't do that. But where were you that – how did you get over that? What happened? Tell me about the energy, et cetera. It was depressing, actually. What you said is correct because you're playing at such a high level. Everything stops for you. You're going through –

physio to get back to better and you never really get there and then you go back out and you're like oh man like you can feel the difference you know it's never the same yeah and then you don't make it any further so it's actually a mentally very you have to have a really strong mind otherwise it'll crush you some guys fall off a lot of people played hockey with that didn't make it drug addicts yeah you know super fat don't give a shit about themselves yeah you know five kids running around

That's it. Like it's seriously, it messes you up and it's such a young age that it really kind of puts you on a road of destruction for the rest of your life. And it's hard to follow. I was lucky that I was mentally strong and I had good support. Well, that's able to get through that. And, you know, I had motivation to push, to get upon it. It's one of the things that I always preach to go, you know, people always ask me like if I could give a young entrepreneur advice in business and I'm always like,

Do not let what you do become your identity. Keep your identity you because what you do will probably change several times throughout your life. But if, you know, if you get too attached to one, if you, if what you do is who you are, you're going to be screwed. And I think that's that. So what was the injury? What'd you, what'd you hurt? My knee, your knee, blow the knee out, never recovered from it. Oh man. So I still have pain now. Like when I work out and you know,

do lifts, whatever. I feel it. When the weather changes, well, you feel it. Cracks and cracks and creaks as you get out of bed. No kidding. So you blow the knee out. You try to get it done, but you're just, at what point do you figure out this ain't going to happen? After physio so many times, getting back on the ice, I just didn't have the same speed and have the same agility. It was just like, you know, this is

And it's just, you're just, this is done. So what happened then? I was getting scouted at the time and I missed that. It was gone. So I would have to wait a whole nother year. It's like, I put my whole life on hold for another year and just wait and hope that I make it next year or do I just call it a race and spade to spade and say, you're done. Let's move on. What's the next thing? All right, so you're done. So I'm guessing you sit down with mom. Yeah. Mom's like, okay, so...

You're going to go to university now and go become a doctor. I'm like, okay. Okay. But I don't want to do that. All right. I was very interested in chiropractic. So I started going to school and started doing all the biology and chiropractic courses and got halfway through that. And I was like, you know what? I'm sitting in class, buying and selling cars because that's what I just enjoyed. Where'd you go to college? University of Calgary. Okay. Yeah. So I was sitting in class. I'm buying and selling cars. And

Making money. And so I go home one day and I'm like, mom, like I'm making more money than the guy that's teaching me right now. I'm not doing this anymore. She's like, no, I don't care. You have to, you know, you have to get a degree. I said, I want to open a dealership. She's like, no. I'm like, come on. What, how can I figure this out? How does this, how do you, how are we going to do this? She's like, how old are you here? Uh, I was 20,

I want to say I was 21. 21. 20, 21-ish, around there. All right, so you're 21. I want to open a dealership. I want to open a dealership. She's like, no. And you've gone to school and you've looked at, you know, and I had a similar situation where I went to class one day and I realized. This is not for me. Yeah, you know, maybe, maybe, because I owned a bar when I was 20. Okay. And I was like in school for hospitality and I'm like-

Maybe I don't need this. Maybe I'm good. So I feel you. I feel you there. It was 2021. You want to open a thing. Mom says, no, you're getting your degree. Yeah. So I said, okay, fine. Well, I'm going to switch my degree then from chiropractic and medical. I'm going to go into business. She's like, okay, cool. Get your business degree. When you're done your business decree, then I'll give you the money. You can open a dealership. Okay. Okay, cool. So I go through school, get my business degree. Everything's done.

And I go back to her and I'm like, "Okay, mom, I'm done. "I'm done with my schooling." And she's like, "Okay." I'm like, "I wanna open a dealership. "You said you were gonna help me out." She's like, "Are you serious?"

She looked at me like I was crazy. Yeah, I was just kidding about that. That wasn't real. So sure enough, I pressed her and she said, okay, let's go. So we went and found a location, a warehouse. In Calgary? In Calgary. Okay. Found a location. And I was like, you got to understand, for me to break the mold of following her footsteps in real estate, I could have, it was a slam dunk. If I wanted to go into real estate, it was done. Like she was a home builder, she was doing real estate, all this stuff. I could have walked right into that. I just didn't enjoy it at the time. Yeah. So we find a warehouse and I start with 50 grand.

I just get it, get it going with the warehouse. One car, 50 grand built it up. But you bought one. Okay. So you got 50 grand. So you got a choice. I can buy like 10 crap boxes or I can buy one nice car and try to go grand to set up the business and buy a car. Oh, that was everything. So she's like, here you go. Cause it was her friend that I leased the building from. So she probably thought, okay, let me get this kid out of it. Let's get this out of his system. So he can just watch this flop and then we'll go back to chiropractic school. We go. So,

She set me up, but she was very supportive. I got to say that. So I did it, and I paid her back. All right, so what was the first? See, here's the thing. You might not remember because you were already flipping cars. No, it was an RX-7. It was a what? RX-7. An RX-7. Yeah, I remember that. RX-7. Yeah. It was an Acura Integra after that. I still remember those first two. And you remember the first deal? Yeah, I remember the first deal. I was so excited. I was so jacked. So here's the thing because you weren't really –

You were just kind of throwing them on back into auto trader and just kind of turning them over. They come over and it's like, there's the car. So obviously working with your mom, you developed some decent closing skills and some sales skills with that. Very good. And so you just, so this is the first, was this the first time you really had to like make this work or you in the driveway hustling when you're 16? I was hustling, but like this was like, okay, it's real now. And when you're at that age and you're like 22 or 23 starting a dealership, you know, you're like,

Like, okay, what am I going to do? Like, this is all on me. Like, what if this fails? Like, you get a lot of pressure. What kind of licensing and all that stuff did you have to get? I had to get all the dealer licensing from over there. So you got all the dealer licensing with that? I got all the licensing, everything. I started applying for everything right away.

While I was going to school. So I knew when I was done. And so you are the sales manager, the salesman, the finance guy. You're everything. You're the whole nine yards. Let me have my guy run around back and get some gas. It was like a 4,000 square foot warehouse. Started with nothing. So you got the first one done. So now you get a couple cars going, right? Get a few going. So what point are you like, you know what? I need a little help around here. What point does that happen? I paid mom back and I was like, okay, cool. How long did it take you to pay it back? Six months.

Six months. Mom's flush. Yeah, mom's flush. I could have paid her back sooner, but I just held on to it. Just had a little bit of... Right, a little cushion. So where was mom with this? Was mom like, I'm happy I got my money back? Or is mom like, well, there goes chiropractor school? Where was she? Well, she was like, listen, you got your business degree, and if this is what you want to do, then it's got to be your passion, so then fine. I'll support you. She supported it all the way. I was lucky that way. All right, cool. So we start with RX-7, then we go to the Acura Integra, and then we're working our way up. So at what point do you start bringing other people in to help you?

I hired a porter, like, which was one guy. So remember his name was Mike and he came to help me out and he would basically sit

We had a showroom. It was like a square box. If you can imagine the square box, one desk on the left side, one desk on the right side. And I'm on one side. He's on the other side. And he would help me clean the cars, prep them, go pick them up. If I'm buying a car from the auction, he'd have to go with me. We take one car. There was no Uber back then. Go one car, pick it up, bring it back, bring another one back. It was work. But I had one helper and we killed it. And so, okay, so this is your first guy. Yeah. What'd you pay him to do that back in the day? What year is this? I don't remember. Where are we? This is, I think, 2008.

2006. So, 06. So, man, this ain't that long ago. This is 15 years ago. Okay. All right. So, we go from RX-7 to Bugatti in 15 years. Well, let's see how long it took to get there. So, we got our first guy in there. He's working. Where is he tonight? Do you know where he is? No idea. Where were you? I was, you know McLeod Trail? Crow Trail or McLeod Trail? No, McLeod Trail, Main Street. By the Tim Hortons.

You're just dying to talk about syrup. I see it. Cause it's interesting. Cause there's a lot of, uh, it's Crowchild McLeod. They have a lot of like major dealerships. There was a Porsche dealer and I was building right behind the Porsche dealer. Oh, I know exactly what it is. There you go. This portion is so brought to you by bacon, Canadian bacon. There you go.

So you got the box. So how long do we keep the box in? Do we move to somewhere better in Calgary? I kept that going because all I did was that building had a lot of square footage. So I just kept expanding. I took another spot beside me, another bay, and then the other bay. And then by the time I was done, I had the whole building.

Ah, see there. See, that's that's power move right there. If you're opening a business, the same thing we kind of do with here is it's better to be the restaurant with not enough tables than the restaurant with a bunch of tables hoping somebody is going to come sit in. So if you're going to start your business, you know, when you're looking for a location, I mean, Colt, I think our commercial expert would agree with this. It's a good idea to find something like this that you can scale out.

I like- That's the biggest overhead you're going to have. Yeah, it's a huge risk. I mean, your insurance is up because of it, everything. It's a big, big- And here's a fun bit of advice. If you don't know if you want a whole space, take the end cap and leave the interior space vacant.

because there's a much greater chance somebody's going to lease the end cap than lease the interior space. So grab the end cap first if you want to. And always, always put first right of refusal in your leases. Always get that in there. So you can grab the next spot. Yeah, but you don't have to necessarily get the whole restaurant with the playland. Dude, just get the restaurant. Just start. Whatever you get, just get it up. All right, cool. So we're growing into more bays. We're getting that. Grew into more bays. I'll fast forward it a bit for you. No, don't. We got an hour. We got plenty of time.

Because trust me, if you run out of stuff to talk about, we have to listen to this one. Yeah, I know you'll talk. Is he Magic Johnson? Oh, Jesus Christ.

So I grew from that space and was selling cars, got a pretty good name in town. I started dealing with more and more. And through my mom's contacts, I was able to get plugged into a couple of high net worth individuals. So I started playing in the high end cars. Like I went from this cheaper stuff right away to the higher end stuff. I always wanted to do high end cars. So what was a high end car to you then? Because I know that's changed now. A Mercedes E-Class, like a 300ZX twin turbo back then. That was a high end car. That was a high end car back then. Was that pretty quick?

Like, was that like you were up and going for a year and made that decision or? I made that decision probably after about eight months, eight, nine months. Because there's a lot of like saturation with the cheaper stuff. And there was only one guy in town that played in the big toys. So I had to go follow that because I always had a passion for it. I mean, I was buying cars from a young age. If my mom wanted a car, I'd go to the Benz dealer and I'd negotiate the deal at the age of,

14 years old and the guy would look at me like I was crazy. One salesman took me serious. I went, okay, I want this car, I want this car. Let's negotiate. I did all the negotiations. So I'll be back tomorrow. I went home, told my mom, she's like, okay, cool, let's go. My mom went and bought two brand new cars. And that was it. I negotiated the deal. Yeah, I mean, see, that in itself is a business lesson. I mean, if you listen to what he just said and you're going back to that and you're talking about going from selling the crap boxes, well, not crap boxes, the smaller cars into the Highline. Yeah.

If you want to create, there's more risk in it, man. There's a lot of chances. You've got to sling your balls out there a little bit. But if you want to have an easier path, get to where there's less competition. People ask, right now they're talking about us flipping the high-end stuff. Why are we flipping high-end houses instead of flipping $300,000 houses? Because there's a million people trying to buy $300,000 houses. There's only a couple people in town that can take down a $2 million house and turn it into a $4 million house. 100%.

and lucky enough that's why I do that. So yeah, if you're having trouble, if you're struggling, if you're trying to find a market segment, as soon as you're good at the lower market segment,

stretch that self out a little bit and you'd be surprised what's going to happen. You should probably cut your teeth on the smaller stuff first. Yeah, no, no, no. Cut your teeth to see if you're any good at it. For sure. For people that want to jump into a lug draw, I'm going to be a lug draw agent. No, you're not. What the hell are you talking about? You definitely got to be able to see the bottom of the pool before you jump in the water. You definitely want to know that and know to swim a little bit. But anyway, we're going to take a quick break real quick. We'll be right back with Nick Dosa. We're going to talk about how we go from Calgary RX-7s to Vegas Bugattis. We'll be back in just a second.

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. We'll share any links that we've 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. Thanks again for joining us. And again, as I always say at this portion of the deal, man, if you're watching us on YouTube, hit that like and subscribe button. If you're listening to us on a podcast, take a quick second out of your life and give us a review. Give us that five star. Every little bit helps. I mean, yes, we have 10,000 of you that are subscribers, but I wouldn't mind having 11,000. We're fighting an uphill battle with some of Colt's commentary. So anything you can do to help us out.

It's always appreciated. We gain five or lose 700. Yeah, I mean, we're losing as many as we get with Colts commentaries. There you go. But anyway, back in the studio with us today is my man Nick Dosa, the owner of Vegas Auto Gallery, seller of Bugattis to really rich and famous. So really interesting. If you didn't catch part one, go back and check it out. If you listen to us on podcast, you already heard it. So we'll just move on. But.

Where we're picking up the story is Nick basically has created his first dealership at age about 21 in Calgary. Very quickly, at eight months, moved from selling RX-7s into moving Highline. Back then, Highline would be considered like a Nissan 350ZX or whatever else. This is like 2006 we're talking. So here we are. Nick, welcome back. Thank you. So that's where we are.

Pick up the story, my man. Where are we at? Where are we going? So from selling cars over there and doing the high-end stuff, I moved forward and started doing more and more. I got tapped into some high-net-worth individuals, like I told you, from my mom. And I remember one of my biggest deals was when I really kind of tasted it. And I was like, okay, listen, I know I can play with the big boy stuff. Supercars at that point, there was no such thing, but it was just starting. Well, let me ask you a question. I'm going to ask you a question. So here you are. How old are you at this point? 22? 22?

No, no. 23-ish. 23-ish, right? 23, 24. But you're a kid. Yeah, I'm a kid. You're a kid. Because as my father used to say, I'm 25 is your dumbass birthday. That's when you're no longer a kid. If you do something stupid at that point, you're just a dumbass. But at 23, you're a kid, right? Yep. So did you find it challenging being a 23-year-old kid and you have these high net worth individuals coming to deal with you? Did you feel, was there a little, I mean, if you look back at your 23-year-old self, was there a little twinge of, are these dudes going to take me seriously? Yeah.

You know what? I, the, the sense of intimidation sometimes would come because it's such a powerful person, like, you know, of great wealth at that point. And you're like, Oh wow. Like, you know, well they take me serious, but I was lucky they did. And I think that because I was just like, I was saying honest and just upfront and say, listen, this is what we're doing. This is what it is. This is what I want to make. And they're like, I appreciate that. I love the way you do business.

That was it. All right, cool. So you got a couple of high net worth guys. Now they're buying cars. So what happens next? So when I first tasted it, there was a, I don't know if you remember back, but there was a Lamborghini LP 640 back in the day. Like it was a Versace edition, you know, doors up. There's a Murcielago, the newer version of the Murcielago, right? Okay. So I had a realtor and he was winning an award and he's like, I have to have one of these for the award ceremony. So I went and sourced that car. It was in Vancouver, uh,

So I flew to Vancouver. I did the deal. I flew to Vancouver. I picked the car up and I had to have it there by the next day. I literally drove that car all the way back from Vancouver to deliver it to him on time, watched it, delivered it and everything.

But I made a huge lick on that car. Just pounded syrup the whole way to stay awake. Yeah. Exactly. Timmy Ho, double, double. Yeah, get a double, double. Pretty much, yeah. You're good. And that's when I felt it. I was like, wow, I made such good money. So how much? The guy, okay. Back then? He's probably not hearing this. Yeah, how much? What was that cut? I made 100 grand. You made 100 grand? I made 100 grand. So that was the first big swap where you're like, okay. You want it? We got to pay to get it. He's like, cool, go get it. And this was it. He didn't care. But he's like, go get it. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, it's all right.

So that's a bunch of money for a little kid. At that age, okay, here we go. Okay, so let's talk about that too because the biggest problem in the real estate space, which is where we are, which is most realtors get on what's called the real estate roller coaster, which is like, yay, I got a big commission and then, oh God, now I'm broke because I don't work. And so you get 100 grand, that's a big clip for a 23, 24-year-old kid. For sure. How do you, was there a twinge of, well, maybe I'll take a vacation, maybe I'll go screw around or just pedal to the metal and work. I was like, the next one has to be bigger than us.

Let's go. Now we're just petting. I started buying more stuff, expanding more, and I put all the money back into the business and myself and just worked. I wasn't spending money buying gifts or buying clothes or whatever. How much were you paying yourself at that point? At that time, I was paying only, I had a car payment on one car that I had to keep solid because you weren't allowed to drive a dealer plate every night. Okay. So I had to buy one car, so I had a car payment of like $1,200. And that was it?

And that was it. That was it. And I'd pay that and I'd take a little bit of money to live like maybe two, three grand. 1200 Canadian. That's it. 1200 Canadian. Canadian dollars. Call it $200 American. Call it five grand a month. All right, five grand a month. Five grand a month. Are you living on your own or still? You're not with mom at this point. No. No. Okay. All right. You know, we're not. Dude. I got a wife and kid. No, but you sell. You got a wife and kid at this point?

I got a wife and kid right now. No, no, no. Now. Jesus. Now. No, no, no. No, I had no house. Okay. God, I'm like a wife and kid. You're living in a box with 1200. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just making this worse. All right. So bigger, better. You only take, you only paint yourself like five grand every month. Yeah. And the business is generating a lot of capital, but you're reinvesting all in inventory marketing. What was the percentage of what you need? Cause I wanted to be able to be super flush. If I want to go buy something, you have to have cash on hand. Yeah. You know, back then there wasn't floor plans like there is today. You know, you have to pay. Yeah. So,

For those that don't know what a floor plan is, that's a finance term. Let me ask you this. Sure. Let's get some tips and tricks, too. Because obviously, with you, you don't care because your business is not this. But I actually cut my teeth in the car business. That's where I learned how to sell. I was in a hospitality business forever. And then when I finally had bleeding ulcers at 28, owning and running restaurants and bars and nightclubs, and my doctor was like, you need a fucking life change.

I was like, all right. So I actually, a buddy of mine said, you can either sell Kirby vacuum cleaners or you can sell cars. Either way, you'll have a PhD in sales. And I was like, I ain't selling vacuum cleaners, so I wouldn't sell cars. I did it for three months and crushed it. I mean, I was like, when I left there after three months, the deal with the dealership, like, offered to pay my rent to get me to stay. Yeah, they're like, stay with us. Yeah, he's like, whatever you want to do, stay.

And, uh, God, I forgot. I was, I forgot. Oh, uh, here's the question. So back then, I don't know if it's still then, but what he's talking about with the interest rate is it hits at the end of the month or the first time that they calculate your existing inventory on the, on the showroom floor, which is where you pay your interest. So the best time to buy a car kids, if you're out there is the last day of the month.

You get a month free. Yeah, is that accurate or inaccurate? It's accurate. Not with what you do. Not with what I do, but pretty accurate back then, yes, it was. And there was a thing called the curtailment. So you'd have to pay, at the end of that 30 days, you have to pay a percentage of whatever you bought a car for 50 grand, for example. I'll use that number. And you got to pay 10%. So you'd have to pay like the five grand curtailment

to the curtailment. But part of that was interest. Part of it was towards the car. So your value of your car would go down to like 40. Let's say your interest was whatever percentage. Your value of your car would go down to 49. A thousand bucks was burnt for interest. So you now only owe 49. Right. But even today, if somebody's going down to your friendly neighborhood Ford dealer, well,

Would you say that the last day of the month is probably the best day to go? The best day to make a deal, for sure. Yeah, the best day. And also, here's another one, kids. Go at like six o'clock. Don't go in the morning. Because you know why? You know what the finance manager wants to do? He wants to go home. And the longer you sit, because there's a party. Most scarerships have a party last day of the month. And if you go at six o'clock and that finance manager is sitting there while you're grinding over nothing...

I mean, and get up and walk out like three times. I mean, I love buying lower-end cars because I think it's funny. It's becoming less fun because now it's like email, the internet price, they just drop their pants and that's it. And there's like, okay, Jesus, that was uneventful. The market's changed. Yeah, the market's definitely changed. It was much more fun. Anyway.

So now you got your cars moving. You got your, you're building the kitty so you can buy the big stuff. Yep. So I started going to auctions and then there was a local dealer there. Um, I still remember his name, Steve is good, but she had the Mercedes store, the Volkswagen store, uh,

Saab at the time. So a bunch of like franchise stores and he was the biggest. Did those guys look down their nose at you a little bit? I'll tell you the story. All right, cool. I like this. So I'd go to the auction and I used to call him like Steve with his henchmen. He'd walk into the auction with five guys from all his managers. They'd all be wearing black trench coats. I'm painting the picture for you. It's cold outside in Canada. Like dusters? They walk in. They're all holding clipboards and they walk into the lanes and one will each go to the lane and a few of them will stand beside the owner, Steve. Yeah.

And so I'd be in the lane bidding on a car. I remember there was a Range Rover. It was a 06 Range Rover Sport. That's when they first came out. And I was bidding on this car. And bidding, bidding. He's like bidding against me. He owns a Land Rover store. Like he wants that car. I'm like, keep going, keep going, keep going. I end up owning it. He walks over to me and he's like,

"Who the fuck are you?" - No, you're fine. - I'm like, "So and so." He's like, "Dosa." He's like, "I know that name." I'm like, "Yeah, my mom's Shren." He's like, "Come see me tomorrow. "I'm gonna have my assistant call you. "What's your phone number?" Takes my number. - You got summonsed. - I got summoned. - Okay, all right.

he's like, so I walked, I go to his office the next day. Actually, it was two days later. It was on a, it was on a Friday. I went to his office on a Monday. I remember. And so he's like, sit with me. So we start chatting. I walk in this big building. He's like, so let me ask you a question. Uh,

What are you doing? What do you mean? He's like, wait. You sold a property on the wrong territory. It didn't pay a tribute. I'm going to make you, I guess, an offer is coming right now. Don't make me call the five dusters in. So he's like. Undertakers. What are you doing? I'm like, buying cars. He's like, I'm the biggest game in town, and you're bidding against me. Yeah. Like, dude, that's balls. He's like, you got big balls, kid. I am? Yeah, well, I mean, if I have it, I can't sell off empty shelves.

He's like, okay. He's like, how much inventory you have? So I give him the number at the time. I remember he calls his assistant. He says, Sheila, come over here. So his assistant walks in the office. She's like, let's gather all these numbers and write him a check. Let's write him a check. Kid, you're going to come by for me. So what about my lease? He's like, well, I own the building you're in. Oh, God. So now all of a sudden it's gone from. I own the building you're in, so don't worry about your lease. Yeah.

Oh my God. And you probably remember him actually back in the day. He owns Hyatt Mercedes. Who was it? Steve. Steve. That's a big deal. Big deal. Yeah. There was, you know, super friendly guy. Yeah. They're all Canadian. There you go. And so, I mean, okay. Is there such thing as, can you get threatened by a Canadian guys? Like, Oh jeepers there. Uh,

We're going to have to like, you know what? If you don't snap in a line, we're going to have a pillow fight. I'm just telling you right now. I might tickle you. I don't want to point out the obvious, but Brett hit Manhart. Okay, the hit Manhart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. Prone to violence. Yeah, I'll give it to you. Okay. Man.

All right. So do you go work for him? Yeah. I started buying cars from him for him for all his stores. And I was helping manage his Mercedes. So I was like working there at the Mercedes. That's my, while you were keeping your dealership, you had to let it go. He took me out. So, and it was a decision I made at the time because the money was so good. I was like, he basically bought me out and I was like, I was flush. I was like, and I had no non-compete. So I was like, okay, cool. Let me do this for a bit. Make more connections, get better dialed in, learn the franchise side of things. Yeah.

Being a used car dealer is one thing, being a franchise dealer is a whole different ballgame. And that's what my passion was. Once I was in the car business, I wanna be a franchise store. I wanna have a franchise. - Okay, so let's look at the lesson from that, kids.

You want to fast track your career. You want to get something. You want to get knowledge. Get a mentor. I mean, don't go out and try to figure it out yourself, man. Banging your head against the wall. This is a dude that took a step backwards to take five steps forwards, which is again, this is why if you're thinking about getting a real estate, join a team, join a team, man. Leave the ego at the door. Get involved with somebody that's going to mentor you and make an investment in you every day. I love that. So you're working for this guy. Back to you. I had open checkbooks. I was buying cars for his Volkswagen store, his Mercedes store, his Saab store.

So I was basically doing all the buying for him. So I got really good connections all across the country at that point because we're buying from Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, like all these places. You don't just buy from one city. You got to spread your wings. Yeah.

Did you get to Windsor a lot? No, I didn't. I love Windsor. Windsor is a great place. But then I got a curveball. I got a crazy curveball. What was that? So my mom was coming back and forth from Vegas at the time. Then my brother moved here. What did your brother do here? My brother was out here, and he opened actually a wig store. He was supplying all the hair to all the shows, like basically all the shows out here. So he bought an existing business because he wanted to move out here.

so that was his way in what kind of visa did you guys get h1b e2 i think at the time e2 got it yeah colts on an hiv visa just so people know that there are ways to emigrate but they're difficult yeah very unique i would hijack it but i want to hear his biggest story no it's good it's fine i just but i thought that was a good story i thought it was a good time to bring

up where you asked if you could catch HIV twice. No, my point is, like, Magic's clear of HIV now, right? Like, he tests his... Yes, he is clear. Is he? Yeah, like, he's pretty much... His viral load is below the amount of detectable. But if you could get rid of it, could you get HIV twice? Probably. It's the same as coronavirus. So this was at the time, by the way, I knew a lot of Canadians that were driving to America, coming to the United States because cars were so cheap. The dollar at that point had...

Was it almost a parody or something? It was a parody, yeah. It was a parody. So in 2006. So cars in the United States were a fraction of the price they were in Canada. So did you ever have any of that where you were doing the international arbitrage? I was buying stuff back and forth from here all the time. But in the United States, right? Yeah, I would buy stuff from here and bring it to Canada.

Everybody was doing that because you could sell a car for 30% more. And be done. How long did you work for the guy? A few years. A few years. Yeah, a few years. So at what point do you decide to break away from him? So my mom was, like I was saying, she's coming back and forth from over here, and she got sick. She had a little bit of health issues. And every time she was in Vegas, she'd be at good health. She'd be able to walk nice. The weather over here. Yeah, no humidity, buddy. So not to dampen it, but she got diagnosed with diabetes.

congestive heart failure. So over here, the heat and the altitude really helps. - What's better for her? - So she's here, I get a phone call from my brother. He's like, "Hey listen, you need to come now. "Mom's not doing good." I'm like, "Shit." You know what I mean? I already have one parent. - Yeah, I know, yeah. - I literally told Steve, "Hey, I have to go." He's like, "Go ahead, go ahead." So I left the office, I drove home, grabbed my bag, came here. I grabbed a duffel bag. I was in such a rush to catch that flight. I was here for six months. - On a duffel bag. - On a duffel bag. I went to Nordstrom's, I had to buy everything all over again.

again so you get it for six months so you take care of your you're doing your mom's health issues for six months so i came here and i was looking around and i and i eventually brought one of the cars that i had from over there up here and i was driving that around and i was like dude like i'm looking at the prices here i'm like what's going on yeah and there was only one dealer i won't say who it is but there's one dealer in town i went there i'm like uh hey i want to trade this in i want to buy this you know and like oh yeah we'll give you like 25k i'm like 25k yeah that's

07 Bentley, you want to give me 25 grand? Oh, wow. I'm like, we're like 2000 and...

12 at the time. You got an 07 belly, don't you, Chris? No. No. What year is it? 08. Do you have an 08 belly? I knew you had one of them. Do the math, right? 2012 to 2007. It's not that old. No, it's not. We'll give you 25K. It's a Canadian car, blah, blah, blah. Actually, no, it's an ex-US car. But it's okay. Okay, you know this question's coming now. So what's wrong with Canadian cars? Nothing. People just, there's a stigmatism on it. It's a bargaining tool. Yeah, you gotta swap out the kilometers and miles sometimes. It depends. It's a bargaining tool. Got it. Yeah.

Got it. Okay. You need to have the daylight running on the trucks and stuff. No, it's just a flick of a button back then. You had to wire them. Yeah. So I'll fast forward it for you a little bit more. So I'm out here. I look at these numbers. I'm like, okay, cool. So I go look in LA and the guy's like, yeah, we'll give you like 60 K. Perfect. Done. So you're like, I'm like, okay, hang on a second. There's a gap in the market here. Some research. I was like, wait a minute. So I started buying flipping cars here.

So I had to go back to Canada. Okay. So what research, what research did you do? What were you looking at? I was looking on at this time, like online had kind of started, you know? So I'm looking online, looking at auto trader, looking at prices here versus LA and I'm like, okay, cool. So I'd go buy a car from another state and I'd bring it here and I'd ask like 20 grand more for it. And I was like, wait a minute. Yeah. I'm getting this. I'm getting it. And I was like, it wasn't like hard. It was easy.

So, again, you know, look, one of the biggest mistakes people make in business is they fall so in love with their own idea, they just charge headfirst into it. You actually do some research into what you're doing before you're a competitor. Just have that conversation with somebody. Before you're like, you know, we're going to open up a Vietnamese restaurant, a cat petting zoo. That's not a good idea. You know, you just got to make sure the ideas are solid. But to do the research, now you're flipping cars in Vegas, no brick and mortar, just flipping cars. What year is this?

This is 2013, 14-ish now. 13, 14. Kind of the end of 13 and 14. So started there and just started flipping and built it up, built it up. And I was like, okay, wait a minute. I need to open something. So I wanted to open a dealership. And I was doing some business with some people out here from prior, but in a different state. So I said, hey, I'm going to open something. They're like, hey, wait a minute. Let's do it together. So that dragged on six months because they were just dragging their feet together.

Said okay cool, but see my credit didn't get recognized in the US They don't care if you have a 800 credit score over there you have started at zero - and it's tough man like to build think about credit for a second to build a credit card to build any credit from scratch Thanks forever. How are you doing that? Yeah, you're getting well you're getting you're getting secured credit cards And you're getting a high interest car loan on something and you're paying it down to a dollar and hopefully instantly and and

making it go. But yeah, that's, yeah, that's a, I partnered with this other dealer that I was doing business with. I won't say who they are. Uh, and we opened a store together. So I put the capital up and they brought a line of credit because we want to buy cars. Right. So what was the split on that? 50, 50. Okay. So they brought the money. You, you brought the sweat. I brought, I brought, no, I brought the, the, we put our operating capital and they brought a line of credit. They brought the line of credit. Got it. Okay. So it was more than just sweat. It was more than sweat. It was more than sweat. It was like, all right.

You know, it should have been more, but it is what it is, right? You got to get your feet. We got to start somewhere. Yeah, start. New city, new state, new. Where was it? Where was the spot? Just off Polaris and Tropicana. Okay. Right. So kind of color story right now a little bit. Yeah. Small little warehouse. Did all the floors white. I take my pictures inside there and everything. You know, start with two cars, three cars, built it up quick to the point where in six months I was busting at the seams.

Like I didn't have room for stuff and I was flipping stuff back and forth fast. Like it was going crazy because you just didn't have room. Right. And so we had a three year lease on that space. Uh, and so what I did is I negotiated with the landlord, which is a big, you know, stations. I negotiated with their agent and there was a warehouse down the street. So we moved into that warehouse and they broke that lease and moved it over here. We'll just extend your lease over here. So now you have a total of three years and I did that.

So at the end of the lease, almost when the time was coming up, I was like, hey, listen, you know, and this is the mistake I'll say that I made is I was so busy focused on trying to build this business and get it going that I left the financials and everything to them, which was my mistake, which is I'll say it now. I don't care. Yeah. No, you got to have your nose in the books a little bit. And I didn't. Because if you're asking someone to run something without a P&L or anything like that,

It's like driving a ship blind. If you don't have a P&L at the end of every month, you don't know what you're doing. So you got to know where you can trim, where you can add. So were those P&Ls not exactly getting run properly? Well, I got one. It was a little bit different. A little different. So I started questioning it. And so I kind of said, okay, you know what? I'm going to exit. How long into it was that?

it kind of timed itself perfectly. Okay. So at three year mark, this is when you were getting out of the little place into the bigger place. We already moved to the bigger, we already moved to the bigger place, but the lease is ending. Okay. So broke that like,

And we're done. We're still cool. And by now, you're three years in. You've got a little bit of credit. You've got some. Of course, I built everything up. You know what I mean? And against all odds, like everything that could be done to try and stop me from opening on my own, they tried. But that's okay. I took the bullets. I took the bumps. And I kept going and going and going. And here we are now. So I started a dealership again from scratch. I had to literally break everything down that I had built and start from scratch again to rebuild it.

and we opened the Vegas Auto Gallery. So it's always been the same spot though, right? How many years now? So that one location, I extended the lease there. So once that was done with them, I went to the landlord and said, hey, listen, I'd like to take this lease on. Would

Would you sign me for three years? Are you in the same spot you were with the original spot? I have that one building where like now we do the photos. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the original. Oh, wow. That's the second spot. Three of them now, though, right? You have three buildings. Oh, wow. But now we have 55,000 square feet. No, but the point was that you were just at the end of your rope there and you were just like, hey, would you let me have it by myself? Yeah. And I mean, think about it. I had no line. I had operating capital. Yeah. Crazy. But that was it. And that was it. I had to go start all over.

So it was like ground level start over again. And you get that up and running again. Got that up and running. How long before it was profitable when you go again? How long? You wouldn't believe him, I told you. I'm going to guess you were profitable in 90 days. I was profitable my first month.

I love it. Well, there's another lesson, kids. Lead with revenue because, again, if you scale properly and you do things the way you're supposed to, man, you can be profitable the first month. One of the things that I'm very proud about about the businesses and all the JVs we built is we've never done an additional cash call on any of the JVs we have. Like, we do a JV at the front. We say, this is what it's going to cost to get it open. And then the thing is self-sufficient from there on out. That's it. Never again. And I think that is the key. Like,

again, man, in, in, in some things take time, some things do, but some people wait too long to pull the plug on a bad idea. They do. You got to stop the bleeding. If it's bad, you have to end it. People don't realize they just, they're putting good money behind bad. Oh my God. All the time. Throwing it down a hole. And they're just, I mean, I,

I'm sure just like me, you get pitched ideas all the time. People are like, I got this great business, man. You should come in as a partner. It's going to be awesome. How long do you need to open? A year. How much money do you make? None. But it's, bro, we're right there to turn the corner. You know what my first red flag is? I get pitched ideas all the time and people are like, oh, so this is my idea and this is what I'm going to pay myself. No, dude. Red flag, I'm out. No. Yeah. First of all,

I don't pay. Oh, you want a salary at all? Yeah, like me, myself? Yeah. Now I am. No, I'm not. No, like what do you mean? Well, no, no. My individual corporation, I take the taxman advised salary for what I do, so I pay my stuff. He takes a fair market salary for what he's doing. Fair market salary, advised tax for what it is. But when it comes to our businesses, like Simply Vegas or Clear Title, Streamline, I

I'm not on any type of a salary for any of those companies. Same. We just own them and that's how it is. You have to with your own, you have to because you have to pay your Medicare and you have to pay your own employment. You have to pay and your social security people. Whatever my accountant says, I just take. That's the number. That's my number. You're taking this and this is it. Yeah, that's what I paid. Which is fair, right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, thanks, counselor.

Anyway, so you built this up to, I mean, okay, so obviously you're doing highline cars, right? So the Bugattis are the most expensive thing you've bought, right? Yeah, for sure. That's it.

- No, I've sold McLaren P1s, Bugattis, Paganis, Carrera GTs, 918s, you name it. - What's it like the first time you pull the trigger on a $2 million car? What's that like? - You shake. - Yeah. - You shake. - If I don't sell this thing, I gotta sit on it. I mean, it's probably the same as when we buy a $2 million house, you're like, this thing's gotta be gone in like six, seven months. - See, back in the day, the mentality was everything's dropping, right? When you're buying a car, you're like, okay, cool, what is my exit so I'm not getting smoked on the way out?

Now it's different. Like for the last two years, people have been spoiled. They're like, Oh, I buy a car. I made 20 grand. Right. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, that's, I mean, honestly, you know, somebody asked me this, you know, what's with the car that I bought yesterday? I said, look, my money in the bank is getting squeezed like a mother trucker. I'm trying to put it into some sort of an asset that I think will actually grow. And I think that the rarity of that car, I'm hoping that happens. That car is super rare. Why don't you tell them what you got? Ah, that's all right. Yeah.

They'll see. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see my car. Because yesterday I'm trying to do a commercial for Nick. I got two Golden Knights sitting in my car. And I'm like, hey, hey, as we go along. It's pretty funny. What's the weirdest story you've ever had? There's got to be someone that did the same thing as the realtor, right? Like, I need a car tomorrow. It's got to be this type of deal. You get weird stuff still in Vegas? Or do you get lotto? Not lotto, but people hitting jackpots coming over? Oh, yeah. Jackpot bars. We've had people come in with like 600,000, 700,000.

They just won and said, I want to buy a car. In cash, I'm done. I'm ready to buy. And they bought like two cars in one go. See, I think that, see, okay, here's the thing though. With you though, man, and this is really, you know, that was obviously some great lessons along the way with getting you open and getting you to do that. But with you, what I find is really unique around your business is

You've created a culture on your business that you have these high net worth guys and it's almost like a club They come they literally just come hang out at your spot. Yeah, they just coming out So you know what talk about that and talk about what you've done to make that happen and make that a reality in your business Most dealerships are stuffy right? Like when you walk in you're like, hey, can I help you can help you people walking? Hey, if you need questions

feel free to ask. We'll leave the person alone. They'll walk around, they'll hang out. And so these guys will come and they'll go play golf. I have a full driving range in there. I have a ping pong table. They come and hang out. They'll have a drink and relax. And they just kind of want to hang out because there's music playing and it's just the atmosphere. Right. And they joke around with us. You create relationships. Like what we were saying, your relationships are your net worth. Yeah. Really. So they want to just hang out there or they go to the other location on Sahara. Like since then I've expanded to Sahara. I have another, I didn't know you had another one over there. So I have a location on Sahara, uh,

It was kind of a crazy story. So this building came up, and it was beside my only competitor in town. And the chance of that happening. Slamming none. I was like, okay, wait a minute. How big of a sign can I put up? That's the only question I need to know. At least how big can the sign be? Took the building, and now I'm full of that thing up, and I got five times the amount of inventory that they have. And you're right there. I'm next door. Yeah, they're not that large, right?

Well, I think just like yesterday, man, when I was sitting there and up comes Carlson and who else was there? Coghlan. Coghlan. When they come walking up.

You know, it was like, it wasn't like walking up to see the car salesman guy. It wasn't like walking up to see the dude that owns his business. It was like, what's up, dude? You know what I mean? It was a relationship. That's a hockey thing. Guys. Look at how respectful they were to you. Hey, man, how you doing? Yeah, just, what's up, boys? I did say boys, I think, because I think that's a hockey thing. I did that. Let's go for a wrap. Hey, boys. Yeah, I did come falling on my mouth a little bit.

But I think creating that culture within your company. And I think giving them like, Hey, even if you're not buying something, just come by and hang out. Come visit us. Because, because here's the thing, like those guys, where could they really go and not get bothered? That's exactly it. Right. And they, and they want to see who doesn't love cars. Like I have,

toys and toys and toys. They want to come and just look around and, Hey, what do you got new? What do you got? Like they want to come sit and stuff and other dealerships will kick them out. Like they've had bad experiences in town. Really? Yeah. If you could believe that. I mean like, yeah, this is Vegas car market was known as like the people would go to, that's why the, uh, Orange County dealerships is so good. LA is because everybody from Vegas is like, screw Vegas's dealerships. And they bounce. You had, uh,

Very true. You had four owners have every point possible to buy out. So you take the $2 million or 2 million people market in Vegas, you got four, three dealerships, two dealerships. You put that 2 million population in Utah, you got 15. So, you know, they could treat people.

bad in Vegas. That was the first thing I heard from people. It was a total monopoly. I would say like now, like what percentage of the nights do you say if you had to put a percentage on the team that you sell cars to? 100%. You sell all of them. Even Bill Foley, the owner of the team actually is a good friend and I sell cars to him directly. I go to his house, I have access to his place a couple

pick cars up, drop cars off. You don't sell cars to the Raiders. What about the Raiders? The Raiders, we sell cars to the Raiders. Okay, real quick. Can we talk about this? Disclaimer. In no way is Nick Dose responsible for the actions and behaviors of the Las Vegas Raiders. No, but I mean, can we explain to them that nobody can see these cars at the club? Do they know that? I mean, can we just, if you can just, just like, look, bro, go to the club, but nobody can see the car, so leave it at home. Just leave the car at home.

drive the red rock with your hot whip don't not yeah i get it i get one thing about vegas like there's nowhere to go you can't front the car it ain't miami no exactly you can't there's no reason to drive the car to the club stop driving the damn car to the club take an uber get a car uber it's more of a flex when you go in it is like who you're gonna impress the valet in front of mgm you don't care what they're messing it up anyways dude leave the car at home when you're doing that

Well, guys, man, Nick, man, it was such a pleasure to have you on and talk about all this stuff. It was great. And if you are looking for any type, and it's not just all necessarily super highline stuff. No, this location on Sahara has 50,000 and up and

and the other store has all the toys yeah well I and also service you service I have a full service department two of them one on Sarah one on and all Highline cars you can service anything I can service everything you can service anything McLaren Porsche Ferrari they were the first you're the only ones that can do McLarens yeah we're the only ones in town that can do McLaren that's awesome so look man if you're looking for a Highline car or you just want to come walk around although if you don't have any money don't waste anybody's time but no but check out Vegas Auto Gallery if they want to follow you online what's your Instagram how they find you

Nick.Dosa and the dealership's Instagram is Vegas Auto Gallery. Yeah, check, dude, if you want to look at some sick stuff, just follow the Instagram. It's there. The new Lotus coming out is sick. Oh, because you, and you are the Lotus dealer. We didn't even talk about that, but you're the Lotus dealer, so if you want to drive a Lotus, also call my man Nick and here's the thing, I will tell you this.

Don't say you can't find a car because that thing will be in your driveway Two weeks later experience. Yeah, that was it. That was it because yeah, I literally I There was a grimace. I think when I bought the Karma out at the end of my lease. He just made well, which is hilarious I stuck you with that thing yesterday, but it was a grimace at the end of the car release when I bought it and it was like There's only one car. I would want us, you know, the Mazda on mc20 and then literally two weeks later It's he's flexing on his damn Instagram. Now. It's in my driveway. I

There you go. So, yeah, lesson learned. Do not challenge him. He will track it down and find out. All right, brother. Well, good to see you, man. And again, man, Vegas Auto Gallery. Follow Nick Dosa if they want to find you. Colt, where do they find you? Colt underscore Amadin Instagram. And real quick, just because I feel bad. I feel bad. All right, you go up to the ice cream truck. Top three ice cream. Top three things in the ice cream truck. What do you got? I mean...

Pumpkin cheesecake. I know you guys hate this. No, no, no. Number two is just that Oreo cookies and cream. Number one, Baskin Robbins has a quarterback crunch only during football. Oh, it's amazing. But then you show up. It's not there. And they don't have 31 flavors anymore. It's like 24. A bunch of empty jugs. And where can they find you, Colt? Where can they find you? What? What?

Find me, I already said it. You already said it. And counselor, how can people find you? They're looking for you. Connellaw LV and I'll be right beside Colt at the food truck. That's it, right by the food truck. Well, guys, if you like what we do, hey, make sure you tell a friend. If you hated what we do, make sure you tell two because it doesn't matter if they're talking good. All that matters is... As long as they're talking about you. As long as they're talking about you. 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've 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.