Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Club Marketing Innovator ft. Zack Bates | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 50

Episode Date: November 1, 2024

In our 50th episode of Coffeez for Closers, we talk with Zack Bates, founder and CEO of Private Club Marketing. Starting as a pool boy at a private club, Zack worked his way up through the industry, learning the ropes and spotting gaps in how private clubs connect with members. Now, his firm advises top-tier private clubs, helping them grow and retain membership through creative and strategic marketing. Zack shares his story, from humble beginnings to becoming an industry leader, along with his thoughts on self-branding, the freelance economy, and trends in digital marketing for private clubs.For More Check Out our Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgPwyhl8CkXiM0cBtuY8A_6JS60FueLz3&si=0_2dnoPkYV6jcSGw Check Us Out on all Platforms!Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coffeez-for-closers-with-joe-shalaby/id1726674707Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2KkQWRqHSHcCK3TVfsRKUK?si=hjTnUOjFS5eTDxBjgf4RwQ&preview=noneAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/Coffeez-Closers-Joe-Shalaby/dp/B0CRYLQRW6 Coffeez and Closers Socials & WebsiteWebsite: https://coffeezforclosers.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coffeezforclosers/TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnU0T3RrLXdPbC1BR2NLc2lWcExqWklQaHlQUXxBQ3Jtc0tudi1GV2Zod3hRYzRhTkhONFBuMlptblNGSlJ1QzhpV0tzbHh5YThNR0R3Y2RnNnU5NV9ER3E5ZUhxMjdUUWp1UWo4MVl6Q2szeXo1cFh1OHNkYkxDR1F0MXZtMTZ6QnZoakdzSnJpVl9PcWZBOU9zZw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40coffeezforclosers&v=uXvk6LY9lS8Facebook: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2pLZ2pMaUxmSTh4dy1qazMtdlBjX2pVN1AxQXxBQ3Jtc0tua2RUTUNsRmJob0RKWlVqeDhNaUN4US1rdlRvUG9Fdm5SNk1jU1pQNzNLQnVmUmtGMGtMYUViZ2pLMXJkOVJUci1kMk9DN2poTThVV2NFd0tISWdDMzNwOEZ2c3pVb09lbEhjemJHblRsS1RKdHZqbw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpeople%2FCoffeez-for-Closers-with-Joe-Shalaby%2F61556355642488%2F&v=uXvk6LY9lS8 Joe Shalaby SocialsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephshalaby/TikTok: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3p6VlRzR1BWMkJQM1ZIaUdVZHhYVTYyak43QXxBQ3Jtc0tuUXVBOE1oZUJYTmZIZnNENUgxQkhjamk4RXJHb09MWU9OczJhLWpnX0JwN2pENzRhaV9NajJROW5nek1tQ1VvVE40ZFJuUUI2cnI0ajNKLXE4d1VMUUpkTGFHR0tGY0o5NUhnWnZnaXJoZXdEM0piaw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40josephshalaby&v=uXvk6LY9lS8Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephshalaby E Mortgage Capital Socials & WebsiteInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/emortgagecapital/Website: https://www.emortgagecapital.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/Emortgagecap #1 Mortgage Company on Social on 🌎#1 Non Delegated Lender in the Country🌟#1 Broker in CANMLS #1416824"Mortgages Are What We Do Not Who We Are"™https://finance.yahoo.com/news/learn-why-e-mortgage-capital-192000740.htmlAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What's up everybody and welcome to another episode of Coffees for Closers where we dive deep into the stories of industry leaders who have redefined success. Today's guest is a true innovator in hospitality and marketing known for creating exclusive experiences for high-profile private clubs. With over 20 years in the field, he's advised legendary clubs like the Monterey Peninsula Country Club and Glenn Eagles private club preserving members and boosting member engagement. He's also the founder of a luxury real estate platform that connects golf enthusiasts to premium golf properties around the world. Please welcome Zach Bates.

Thanks for having me. Thanks, Zach. Thanks for coming today. I know it was a long drive, you know, quite a long drive across the street from you guys. Yeah. It was a nice surprise, though. Yeah, it's awesome. I can't believe someone of your caliber. I haven't met yet, and you're right in my neighborhood. We hide out in the clubs. That's what it is. That's what it is. Yeah, exactly. It's a rough life. Yeah, someone has to do it. Somebody has to do it. What a niche. We were talking that. You got such a niche business. Such a niche business. I think you're like

the only person I've ever met that basically helps elevate the private club community. It's kind of a new business to begin with anyway. Well, private clubs are around for hundreds of years. But not like a promotional back end. Correct. Correct. To scale a private club. Yeah. Members generally don't want to know that there's someone

pushing membership at their club. They want it to be referrals and introductions from within their own circles. So to start this company, we're still are behind the scenes after 16 years of being in business. Yeah, well, I mean, it's really like you're bringing in such an exclusive community

to these clubs. So what drew you, number one, into hospitality, and number two, into this, like, how did you even come up with the private club promotion idea? I was looking for a summer job in college as a lifeguard up in Los Angeles, and I just did not want to go back home

up to Northern California. and applied for a summer job at a country club to be a lifeguard and met a gentleman in the parking lot after like giving him my resume. And he's like, I'll tell you about yourself. What do you do? What do you want to do? And I was, I think I was 18 years old, 19 years old. And he's like, well, I'm the regional vice president of at that time the largest club management company in the world. 250 clubs all over the globe.

He ran the entire West Coast. And he said, you're not going to work here. You're to work across town over in Tarzan. in Los Angeles. So I took this job for the summer and just loved it. I crushed it, loved it. I mean, hang up by the pool, put together kids programs, meet amazing people, I helped them start the wine club. And I was like, wait, I can do this, I can do this. It's really multiple businesses under one roof. It's not just golf. It's membership. It's accounting. It's food and beverage. It's, you know, tennis and wellness. And so to have a business that targets all of these things I

already have an interest in was a great kind of win-win yeah exactly yeah but it's it's so niche that the private club community is so niche you know what one thing is to be a club community but you're you're helping like Newport beach country club and these country club communities elevate their businesses which are pretty high-risk businesses to start to begin with it come with a lot of vision but they also come with a massive cost to start and uh you're the the count you're becoming like the whisper to these private club communities, which are starting to be more abundant now. I'm starting to see a lot of them pop up. They're blowing up, especially the new social club scene.

Like the Sohoast really kind of started this new category of social clubs. Before it was city clubs, golf clubs, yacht clubs, really. Yeah. This new category that's just targeting a younger demographic. The social club scene is blowing up. Yeah, even here in Newport Beach. Yeah, there's two. We now in Newport?

Yeah, well, I was just at the... Besides the cigar ones? The cigar ones, yes, but you also have the Elwood Club at the Pendry Hotel. You have where the center club used to be next to Sigersham Center. Yeah. The park lane or park club just opened up in that center. And they just keep adding on. But very cool interiors, younger membership demographic, great cocktails and food is really what their targets after.

Yeah. There's people probably listening right now who don't even know what a private club is. So they're like, what are they talking about? What's a private club? You want to explain to them what a private club is? Just so people are aware and they understand this whole new genre. Absolutely. So we started as a private club marketing as the company,

and we started as an advisory and marketing firm for private clubs, which are basically golf courses that you pay a fee to join up front, and then the only people that get to play are people who pay an annual or a monthly fee to gain access. They don't pay for golf. They just pay a monthly bill, call it $1,000 a month to play. Basically unlimited golf, you book your tea time, and you come out whenever you would like. It's kind of like the show, Cheers.

Everyone knows your name when you walk in. So there's some perks to that, right? So if you come off the golf course and they know that you like a McAllen, it can be ready for you. Or they know you like a medello is what you want when you get off the golf course. It's nice to have those perks. They know what brands you like to wear, so they'll kind of cater things to you. Like, hey, this new look just came in or these new brands just came in, I think you might like.

So it's a bit different than your public golf course. And then you get into yacht clubs, which are the same thing, but just for people who like to boat. and you've got tennis clubs the same thing. And the social clubs are basically your favorite steakhouse or restaurant where you have to be a member to walk in the door. You can't come without you. So there's some perks to come along with that as well. It's like trying to make a dinner reservation at Salani's steakhouse down in Laguda.

And they're all booked up. But they don't know who you are. They don't know what your preferences are. And so you really have the opportunity with the private club to kind of have that elevated experience. Yeah, and they're becoming more and more elevated when I was touring Dan Fleischman's Gravitas private club. I mean, he's adding comedy club in there. He's adding nightclub experience in there.

He's adding, you know, health experiences. And I mean, every type of experience is within that one club. You know, like they know everything you like to drink, like you said, the wines. And they have their own little private, this club even has private rooms for his private guests. so they can have like their own sub-party. Yeah, I mean, private meeting rooms are huge. Private meeting rooms, yeah. I think COVID probably was the caveat behind this big boom of the new social club,

like the Soho House boom. So-house's been around for, you know, 20-plus years. But I think all these newer clubs that are popping up, working from home or remote work has really driven people to look for places where they can hang out all the time. Hang out, work with like-minded people because it's a lot of co-working in these spaces as well. whereas before COVID, or maybe, I mean, I'm going to age myself, you know, 10 years ago, laptops were not allowed, your phone wasn't allowed in these clubs.

Denham wasn't allowed in the clubs 15 years ago at a lot of these clubs. Oh, wow. So it's come a long way. And I like, I love to see the progression of these clubs, just like we were on the phone earlier, like these biohacking clubs they're going to start opening. They're going to be totally changing the experience because now they're going to be sober clubs for the people who don't want to go and drink and have a wine or alcohol consumption is way down on especially a younger demographic yeah but um preventative wellness is such a huge yeah

marker right now i mean look the biggest market i'm seeing ever yep yeah there's so much that's going into this preventative wellness this whole biohacking is the rage and why not we can live longer and and feel better at the end yeah so it's like i'm gonna live longer i'm gonna look better i'm gonna feel absolutely and i don't have to get wasted yeah i need to do whatever you're doing because we're talking about this when i walked in it's like how old did you just had your birthday right yeah i just my birthday. It's like, I love to see that because there's these experiences now that are being, that are coming out that are really focused on wellness and health, like these biohacking centers. And unfortunately, those in Newport and Malibu and Santa Monica, those are only people

that are going to get these experiences. Right. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, they should pop up in other cities, you know, probably soon. I think you look at, I mean, there's, in New York, there's a company called The Well or a private club called The Well. And they've partnered up with O'Barrish resorts on a couple of like destination wellness retreats, like down in Costa Rica. So it's not that it's not that you have to live in a high concentration city to gain access to these benefits. There are resorts that are picking this up as well. I mean, even Amman is doing things at their properties. There's a huge wellness focus in hotel groups like that as well.

Oh, so people don't have to come to Newport or Manhattan or L.A. to experience this. Yeah. That's good. They're incorporating it into these, you know, these luxury hotel brands. I think it's nice if you're going to go to, you know, Tuscany and they've got something like that where you're like, I'm going to go drink wine and eat great food. But you're like, oh, there's a whole wellness component to this experience as well. We do sound bass, Enrique and the cold plunge.

Exactly. Exactly. I just want to eat and drink when I'm in Italy. Yeah. They've got the, those things. Throw that in you. And it's all okay. It all balances, you know.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you've totally atone for, for that sin with the with the with the cold flangeover yeah we you know i didn't even start with my opening question but i like to start every show with an opening question and even though we're a quarter way through the show it's a what's your morning routine you know you have uh obviously great health and uh living a good life here in newport and everybody here in newport beach has some sort of great routine i really don't i live like a normal person i have a morning of mayhem with children at home so

So we get up there. I have a seven and nine-year-old daughters. Okay. And I have a four-year-old stepson. Okay. And so my fiance and I wake up every morning to just mayhem in the house. But it's getting three kids out the door to get them to school or camp, whatever they're doing for the day. But it's two cups of coffee and corraling, you know, hurting cats around our house to get them off to school in time. But I love coming to the office.

Like it's like my, that is part of my routine. have to get to the office every morning. And during COVID, I built out our studio or our offices as basically a private club. So we've got the fireplace and the full bar and the, in the coffee bar and the living room and the putting green. And so it really is like a, it's like a man cave, really. But that's your studio? Yeah. You have to come over. It's across the street. It's awesome. That's the studio at the office. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's how you guys built your office here. Yep. Exactly. Okay. It was an empty warehouse. And I was like, this is like, This needs.

Converted it. We converted it. Yeah. It was a gym before I moved in. How many square feet is that? It's 1,500 square feet. It's not huge. But it's pretty decent size.

Yeah, yeah. Or just a big cave. It's a big man cave, basically, yeah. And you've converted that, you made that your company office. That's cool. Yeah. So with brands come in and what a great way to activate or do a meeting. It's less formal.

And so you sit in a Chesterfield couch and we get to a whiskey or a glass of wine and just hang out. I mean, brought the club to myself. Yeah, exactly. And it kind of sets a precedence for the club owners. This is kind of like what I do. We're a serious business. Yeah, this isn't a part-time deal. We only focus on private club for the most part.

What's the biggest private club you worked with? You're allowed to disclose. The biggest one is coming up. We just signed a deal for a brand new. It's a half a billion dollar development on the East Coast. It's ground up construction. It's residence. It's spa.

it's a private club it's apartments and hotel I mean it's it's a major endeavor so we're excited to get that started but we can't release anything on that yet oh wow and we were talking about that there's another thing that's starting called the virtual club yeah we've been working for a year on a a club without walls and there's how does that how can that even be a thing or an experience so 20 years of me being in the in the club business you know we refer members to these clubs all over the country, all over the globe. And so we were approached by a group that has a large, I mean, hundreds of thousands of social club members from, these are members of Soho House,

the Zero Bonds, the Casa Tripriani, to the Brightly here in Los Angeles. And these members don't have access to golf. They reciprocate with each other in some instances. So a social club will reciprocate with another social club with a request or permission. But none of those clubs have access to golf. And so we're approached to basically set up a golf network for them. And so our database or our network is about 100,000 members of golf clubs. And so we're basically sharing access to these social clubs and country clubs where you would normally have to pay 25 or 50 or $100,000 to join these clubs.

We'll give you kind of a preview into what it is to come play golf and have access to that as a guest of our network. So, and that's an additional like up charge for your network. So but what if like let's say I become part of that network and I want to go to the new. Newport Beach Country Club like 10 times in a row. That's not possible. Each club will have their own limitations. Their own limitations. And it's based on availability.

So if Newport Beach Country Club, which is not part of the network, but let's say a club like that, said, you know, we're slow on Tuesdays between 11 and 12. Someone come in to make a lunch reservation with us. We'd love that business. So you're kind of like a hotels.com for country clubs? Yeah. Or a hotels tonight. Like, hey, I want something today to, you know, host a client for a year.

That's actually a good concept, but the problem is there's just not an abundance of those. It's not like I could like look up private club. Oh, this club's available this evening. You can actually. The request goes directly to the club for them to say, we'd love to host you for lunch or unfortunately we can't accommodate you. So there's a full app on the back end of our platform where they communicate directly with each club.

So that sounds like an exciting venture that you're starting. Yeah, we have 50 of the best golf resorts in the world. that are already a part of this. Our first call was to Pebble Beach resorts, and they got the concept immediately and jumped on board with us. And so you don't get free golf at Pebble Beach, but you get added amenities and benefits

that you don't get with any other partner. So I can get part of this membership and I can go to Pebble Beach and play golf? You have to stay on property to play golf there, which is just a standard rule of theirs, but your experience is elevated ahead of anyone else. So be a preferred tea time, be it extra amenities,

your room, being an upgrade to a better room, a better view, an introduction to the director of golf, a quick instruction before you head out. There's some really cool things we set up some of these properties. So Rosewood's on board, Obergh, Amman, Pevel's involved, Pelican Hill here, Newport Beach is involved. So we've got some really exciting partners. That's great. And there's a lot of opportunity with that. So that's exciting to hear. So it's a virtual club. You'll have access to the entire club network? There's two tiers, and the tier we're going to start with is a much more attainable tier. It's $2,500 a year.

There's no monthly dues, and basically just get you access to be able to book these tea times and reservations with these clubs. So there's a huge market of golfers that can't afford or don't see the value in paying $25,000 or $50,000 to join one club to play golf at the same golf course every day or twice a week. I want to go play golf wherever I'm traveling, wherever I'm going to go. If I can't play a private club, it's not worth it to go play for six hours on the golf course. So this kind of bridges the gap, opens the door to people that are like, I don't see the justification of spending $100,000 to play the same golf course every day.

Yeah, yeah. That does bridge the gap. Yeah. And it opens it up so you have so many different experiences. I love it. Now, we've talked a lot about the hospitality industry. industry and its changes in the private club community and what's kind of on the hop on the horizon. What else do you think is on the horizon? We got these biohack centers,

we got this private club idea that you're basically introducing to the whole market. We're trying. I think it's going to be successful. What else? I think that you've got two different demographics we're targeted or I guess having to meet the needs of. And, uh, There's no middle class people that could be involved in anything. No, I'm saying you've got a newer demographic of people who haven't been exposed to clubs before who are like, oh, I would say before COVID, everyone was saying the millennials are killing golf. Millennials are the ones that came and saved golf. Golf is now one of the most popular sports in the world with the most participants of almost any sport that exists.

So now how do you pivot from being this very traditional buttoned up industry where, you know, it's suit and tie for dinner? to loosening it up where you're like, no, you don't need to wear a jacket anymore, which has been an evolution of unfolding. But it's really forced the hand of a lot of clubs saying, we've got to loosen the guidelines in terms of what our expectations are of our members, not to lower the expectation of who we invite into the club, but that we've got to kind of loosen up a little bit.

We've got to do different types of wellness things. It's not going to be water aerobics anymore. It's going to be Pilates and reformers and things like that to cater to a younger demographic. So you see a lot more opening up to younger demographic. Absolutely. Which makes it more affordable for the rest of us. Absolutely.

Yeah. And interesting, right? If you go to a club or if you go to a restaurant and there's no one there, you're not going to go back or you're going to finish that drink and you're going to move on. Or if you go there and no one in the room is of your age demographic, you went out for Thursday night cocktails and everyone's older and sitting down as a foretop, you're not going to meet anyone. So I think these newer clubs, especially social clubs,

are identifying we've got to do fun things for younger members to want to come and use the club not just once a month but once a week or twice a week. That's awesome. And then how is the private club industry accommodating a more budget-friendly youth? You know, like basically can't afford these crazy memberships. How are you bridging the gap for your 20-somethings? A lot of the clubs that are, especially the higher end, have either legacy memberships for the kids of existing members to join at a lower price and it tiers up as they get closer to

say 50 or 40. And some just have a junior membership program that are, you know, if you're between 20 and 25 or 20 and 30, there's tiered pricing and so you kind of pay up as you move along. So if you're... That's awesome. 23 or just out of college, what a great way to get into the club. Yeah, they have tiered pricing. They're accommodating, you know.

Absolutely. Gen Zers, the Gen Xers. Yep. And then you and I hit it in our 40s and you're like, oh, now I'm in the regular... We get no, no, we get no discount. Now, discounts. Yeah. I just still use my child for discounts, those.

Nice. Now, how are you preserve, how would you say you're preserving, like, or balancing preserving, like, the iconic legacy style club and then still introducing the modernization? Because that's a huge balancing act. Absolutely. And that's actually one of our, our, like, founding goals is to, is just. to preserve tradition at these clubs. And so if they have an annual men's member guests,

for example, a men's golf where you bring guests in, it's how do you elevate that experience so that it's still the tradition. The trophy's been around for 50 years with that club. You want your name on that plaque. But when you do the stagnant or each of the dinners that follow those or the breakfast in the morning or during the day, you have kind of newer amenities.

Let's bring the bar cart out where it's not just the cart girl driving around during the day, but let's actually have a physical bar out on the fifth hole. and you see something different on the seventh hole where there's, you know, Chesterfield couches with a cigar lounge, you're going to sit down for a few minutes, let your cigar catch up with your buddies and then tee off and go on to the next hole. And I think that's what keeps people to keep coming back. And you can keep driving the price up as members continue to utilize the club more often.

Nice. Now, how often are these private clubs, like increasing prices? Like, we're seeing, like, I'm seeing huge jumps in price with demand. Yeah. It's starting to slow down and I mean, COVID crushed our business. We consulted on growing memberships, but everyone got into golf. So clubs were like, we don't need the help growing membership. So we started really going back to our roots, which is on retention because it's going

to hit. You're going to get the spike and then it's going to fall down and you're going to get less people joining because the price went too high, too fast, and you're going to run out of people in the market. So I think that clubs just need to focus on their price points and, and, and, you're going to run out of people come back to reality and lose my train of thought where we're going with that question. No. No, no, it's all good.

Right now, we're seeing, you know, huge shifts in this whole space. So it's just such a fascinating space for me to even, like, talk about and, you know, get introduced to and expose the community to because, again, people didn't even know that this sort of thing, number one existed. Number two, was accessible. to, you know, laymen and that there's scalable fees even for younger folks to join. I'll tell you, when I was, I got into this in, I was 18 or 19 years old, when I was 23 or 25, I started the company. And I didn't know that there was a level this high.

I thought clubs were like, you know, $10,000, $25,000 to join. And I got recruited to work on a club, those $300,000. And I was just like, who pays these fees? People will pay. I mean, being here in Orange County, people will pay. or that sort of experience. And they were some of the nicest people I've ever met that I still, you know, 10, 15 years later and still am in contact with, you know, I worked for them. And I'll run into them at a restaurant and they're like, how's everything that's been 10 years?

So I just, my business was growing on those people referring me to their second, third, fourth clubs. So that's another thing. These members pay 300 grand to join one club, but it's one of two, three, four that they're members of that pay the same price. So they have homes in Aspen or in Napa or in Pebble Beach here, Chicago, Dallas. You know, they have three, four, five homes. Now, let me ask you, because we talked about this briefly in the beginning, but like how do you really balance that exclusivity of a club and you still have with the inclusiveness in like the club marketing?

You know, because to market kind of takes away that exclusivity. So how do you really balance that? We never say memberships are for sale. So it's always an education. So how do we educate you about the history of whatever club it might be? Let's say it's a historic club in Los Angeles. Sharing content in local magazines or getting a news clip or a social media clip because then you're going to market to a younger demographic.

So you never sell. We never say members. It's only about educate and then inquire to learn more. Would you like to learn more? Click here. So I say our database is quite large, hundreds of thousands of high net worth individuals that have an interest in golf, tennis, wine, cigars, whiskeys, wellness. If they click through, we then have a lead list. So we have an interest list.

We call them suspects instead of prospects, right? Until they've actually done an inquiry to the club, they're a suspect. So now they're in a kind of a subgroup of ours. So if we know they're in Los Angeles, they make half million dollars a year or quarter million dollars a year. We qualify them based on income and their age. and proximity to the club. Well, that's someone that maybe we need to do step two, which is invite them to the club, not from the club, but from an existing member.

So someone who's on the membership committee or someone who's on the food and wine committee or even someone like myself that would just like to host, hey, I'm going to invite 12 guys out to play golf. And we just kind of move them through the process of you get an education touch point. You get to actually physically touch the club and then an extension of the invitation. So the club will then extend the invite or all extend the invite or the invite or the member. who hosted will extend that invite to apply for membership. Fascinating strategy. Pretty layered.

It is. Yeah. And what other industry do you get invited? I mean, Ferrari does that, right? Ferrari, I'm got to buy it. I would love that experience, by the way. Like, please invite me. I would love that exact experience you just mentioned.

What a touch point, right? You're going to pay, even if it's $25,000. No, I know. I would be sold. Actually, don't invite me because I don't even play golf. Groucho Mark said, I'd never be a member of a club that would invite me. But the experience of the whole invitation process sounds awesome. Now, we talked about this and I'll just kind of dive into some of your personal life here

just because that's the way the show goes. So you got two kids and a step kid. You're incredibly resilient. Grew up probably not in Newport Beach. Definitely didn't grow up probably with the... I was born here in Newport Beach, actually, and I grew up. near Lake Tahoe and moved back in 2007. You were born in Newport Beach?

I was, yeah. Hogue Hospital. Hogue Hospital? And you went to Newport Harbor? No, I left when I was five. I grew up near Lake Tahoe. Oh, okay. Okay. And why did you come back to Newport?

I lived in Los Angeles and lived in Hollywood and did all those things after college for a couple years. And then my wife at the time, we found a house when you could get houses for basically free. I remember those days when you had a pulse, they gave you a mortgage. Yeah. And so we bought a house at, I think we were 23 and moved down here. I think we'd fix and flip something in South County.

And the market crashed, I think the day after we signed our docks. I mean, we thought we got to steal on this house and the market just tanked. Yep. But we loved Orange County. So what's the point of leaving someplace? Yeah. You got dealt to a bad hand or you picked up the last, you know, straw on that one. And, you know, you've got a roof over your head.

He picks up the house and try to get it sold. And so we stayed in that house, I think, for five years. Nice. Yeah. What city in? In Santa Margarita, Rancho Santa Margarita. R. Sam, okay, cool. Yeah, I mean, this is the best place.

Now you're here in Newport. You're in Turtle Ridge and Newport. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's just the best place there is. We love it. We love it down here. I mean, and I think Newport Beach is such a great city also because, especially where we live, you jump on the toll road.

You're at the airport in like 12 minutes. Yeah. I think at the gate in probably 15. Yeah. So it's fantastic to be in this town. You're leaving possibly. the country in 20 minutes. You could.

Yeah, I've done it. Yeah. Yeah. Off to Italy. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah, a great place to live. Now, how are you, because you're at, you were telling me today, up at 2.30 in the

morning, at the office at 4 in the morning. So you're a grinder, you know, how are you instilling that same level of grit into your children that you have now? What are you doing now to just instill that level of hard work, fortitude, overcoming tribulation and adversity? me. They come to the office with me sometimes. I mean, I said we built this out as kind of a man cave, but we have a full kitchen and bar at our office. So my kids will come and do homework with me while I'm working. So I have to pick them up early, say at three o'clock, or they're not at,

you know, at caregivers after school. They'll come with me and we'll hang out and they'll see me working, be on the phone and kind of learn those, you know, dad's on the phone. You've got to be quiet. Or they're on the phone with me because we're pretty close with our clients. Yeah. So it's, you know, you've got kids. So it's one of those, oh yeah, the girls are here with me and it's yeah it's so nice to work with clients that are like it's a family we're all working towards the same goal of being better and having an elevated brand yeah elevated business because we want to just keep moving forward so to you know we're all human beings at the end of the day so I think to have that human element of our business and it be a luxury brand or a luxury business that targets

that demo to be like we're still human at the end of the day and having boundaries like my kids are having dinner I'll call you in 20 minutes and it's all texting with our with our clients it's a pretty cool experience yeah That's one thing I've really found, you know, it humanizes you to have your kids around. I mean, it does. One, like, I called someone yesterday. And I called them. My kids were screaming literally as I called.

I'm like, sorry, like in the middle of screaming. I'm throwing a tantrum. I was my baby. And like throwing a tantrum. My kids are like, no worries, man. It's all good. We've all been through it. If you have kids, you get it.

Yeah. It's like literally screaming at the top of their lungs. Like, oh my God, this has happened right now. Sorry about that. Absolutely. Also, my kids get to see some of the projects that I've worked on. So when we did Newport Beach Countryside, we'd work with the ownership there, they got to see the construction as it was going up and then got to drive the golf course with me.

They got to swim in the pool. They got to go to the Mother's Day brunches or dinners at the club. So it's nice for them to kind of see, like, this is what I do. Yeah. Dad puts this thing together. Yeah. All these hoity-toity folks here, you know, dad knows them all. Debt. Most of them, yes. Yes.

I think it's just fun for them to see, like, how do you work for a company like this, which they don't get to meet anyone else? A lot of parents or attorneys or accountants or, you know, a general white-collar job, and this is a white-collar job that's just so niche and different. Attorneys at Newport Beach Country Club? No, no, no, no. They're all like CEOs. They're all CEOs. That's true. You also have, you know, partners in law firms.

They're all there. Yeah, yeah, partners in law firms or owners of the hospital. That's true. They're there as well. Yeah. They're on the board. They're not just regular doctors or lawyers there. Absolutely.

But to rub elbows, I mean, I didn't grow up, I didn't grow up with money. No. I earned up that way. My family, you know, moved up. And, uh... You didn't grow up with money. That was my segue into the question was, like, not growing up with money and then having your kids grow up with money.

Yeah. And how are you balancing that? Because I grew up dirt poor. My kids are growing up in Newport Beach where their friends are like, Like, their dads are Super Bowl champions, literally. And several of the kids that they, or whatever, champion, or God knows what they are. It's a high concentration of that, for sure. Everybody is something.

Like, so you're just so numb to it in Newport Beach. It's like, oh, you're, whatever, you own F1. Oh, that's cool. You know, it's surprising there's a lot of multi-generational wealth in this town, but there's also a lot. New wealth. A lot of new wealth. I've met a lot of multi-generational wealth.

And those are people, I don't, we get to me, They're there, but there's so much new wealth that I don't see too much generational wealth. Yeah. Just because the concentration of new wealth. Because everyone knows, like, if you have a lot of money, where are you going to move? You're going to move to Beverly Hills. You're going to move to Newport Beach. Yeah.

I think if you're in Beverly Hills, you end up in Newport Beach. Yeah. Then you're like, why the hell was I in Beverly Hills? Because I didn't know of Newport Beach. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, even like the folks who were coming from Malibu, they're like, I, you're A lot of folks coming from Malibu is great, but you, like Newport Beach is like, I think, a Malbu on steroids. Oh, it's so much bigger. Yeah, there's just so much to do. Yeah.

There's so much to do. It's just, it's not maybe as from the cliff side, not maybe as beautiful as Malbu. But it's, uh, it's up there. And Malibu, you're on an island. You are. Also beautiful. Absolutely. You want the Malbu vibe and this is what I talk to other people in Malbu about.

It's like Laguna Beach. I mean, South Laguna is amazing. Dana Point. Yeah, it's very similar. to Malibu. Yep, absolutely. I think also on the kid side of like how to you instill with them is we still try to live life normal.

Yeah. Not in this opulent. Yeah. I mean, live in a nice house, but you don't need to have every, you know, you've got to earn it. You want you want something, you know, you have chores you can help out around the house with and responsibilities that we want you to take advantage of. So you can go buy that on your own. And they love that opportunity.

Like, hey, I want those pair of shoes. We'll go earn it. Yeah. Things to do. Now is the timing, you're seven or nine-year-old, and I'm instill in stone that and all my kids, it's like I make them do content with me. I make them grind as much as I possibly can. I try not to let them think that everything's accessible.

I do have to, I do like to spoil them, but I try to make them hustle. Yeah. It's just like I was hustling. Like, I can't even remember. My first actual income, like, business I started was around 14. But then I was mowing lawns. I, you know, working as soon as at the time, I was allowed to work at 14 years old. And then I started my first business at like 14.

So I was already trying to make money at like 9 or 10. I want my kids kind of embracing the entrepreneurial mindset very young. Yeah, yeah. I think one of my first was we'd hustle around the neighborhood growing up and just wash people's cars. It was like 10 bucks a car. Yeah. And we were like, we want to go to the water park or go to the movies or whatever it was at that time. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, I got 40 bucks and go to the movies tonight. go wash people's cars around the neighborhood. Yep. Bang on the doors. Ask for $10. Yep. They'll pay you. They will.

All you see is ask. It's funny how that works. Especially in Newport. They all really love it when the kids come and try to make money off. Like if my kid went and knocked on 10 doors and asked to watch their car every neighbor, would be like, yes. You know what my kids did last year? We're in October, so it's timely.

They took their Halloween candy and started hawking it on. They put out a little table on the sidewalk and started hawk at it to all the people walking their dogs. because one of these communities where everyone walks their dogs. And they're just like, hey, I came back with like 20 bucks. They're reselling their candy. Oh, yeah. They're like, they don't eat it.

Like, they like to get it all. And they eat like three pieces. Everybody is giving out huge candy bars and no one's eating them. They're just reselling them, huh? No, just slinging candy bars. Gary V. Style. Yeah. One of those.

Right on. So a couple last questions I have for you. It's, what goals do you have for your business? What goal do you have for yourself and what goal do you have for your family? For the business, we would just like it to provide, you know, the lifestyle that we have or that we want. We like to travel. We like to do things with our family. And being in the golf business and leisure hospitality allows us to do things as a family together.

But then also with my wife and I or my fiance, we can travel and do things that are unique. When I go to Napa, I've got great relationships. When I go to Italy, I've got great relationships. So to tap into the hospitality space for access is a great way to leverage those relationships for fun because they're friends. And you're scaling that. Those relationships are scaling at a global level now. Yeah, yeah. Where is the nicest place, by the way, nicest private club you've ever seen?

The nicest is probably the Santa Lucia Preserve, which is up in Carmel in California. Yeah, yeah. It's 20,000 acres of private land, only 300 home sites on the whole property. And it has a Tomfazio golf course at the Preserve Golf Club. And then they have a separate club, which is like a social club, which is the ranch. And, I mean, it's rumored that F. Scots Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby there. They've just got a great brand story. And it's 20 minutes from the gatehouse over the hill into you see nothing but old oak trees and hillsides.

And you've got a little ocean peekaboo views down in the Pacific Ocean. But it's probably one of the most unique escapes of Irvinto. Wow. If I just had to ask that, I just came to mind right now. Yeah. Your next question was on your personal goal and a family goal. Family goal is I just want to see everyone be healthy and successful. How do we do?

How can we spend more time with each other and less stressed out about trying to grow our businesses and my fiance is an interior designer and she's just crushing it? She took over her mom's business that she had for 30 years. And I think she has 14 homes in her first year that she's kind of ground up construction on doing all the design for Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Newport Beach, and she's just crushing it. And then with our, with our, uh, with myself personally is to be able to, you know, retire in the next 15 years, but not retired to not do anything. Just keep doing this as kind of cashed out and keep. It's kind of like you're like almost there now. You

don't have to grind as hard as you do. Right. Right. Actually, we do. But, but, uh, I think just keep doing this. How do you drink wine, smoke cigars, play golf? You get interesting people. You got the coolest job there is. It sounds like you are retired. True. Sometimes. Sometimes it feels like that.

Otherwise, you wouldn't voluntarily show up at 4 a.m. It's true. You know, you wouldn't want, you try to. But I love it. You love it. Yeah. You got a cool job. You meet the coolest people on earth.

You know, you get to travel and you get to have fun. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the business really really has another side to it, we work with luxury brands because they want to get in front of this demographic. So the access to things just gets more interesting. So to go to F1 or go to the Masters or go to the Concord Delegance, it's interesting to have relationships to the...

Been all those? Oh, yeah. I've never been in any of them. What? We need to get you set up. Yeah. I'm still low class, so... It's part of the perks of our Bel-Reeve membership with the Virtual Country Club.

So you have access to all these events as well. The Virtual Country Club sounds amazing, by the way, because it opens you to just the world of experiences. It does. So we not only access to the private clubs, but also we track what's called the billionaire's calendar. So it's the food and wines. It's the art basles.

Because that's kind of where everyone travels anyways. And so to have access to tickets and those experiences, and here's where you're going to stay, here's where you're going to have dinner. You're going to go to this paddock. You're going to meet these people. It's a great way to go, even if you went with your spouse or with a buddy

to meet, you know, 20 other, 200 other people that have similar interest to you. very nice yeah and then uh okay cool all right last question okay um when you're in front of the pearly gates what do you think god's going to tell you i try to do good for anyone that needs help be it it's their business and they need an introduction or or um someone needs a lesson in terms of my kids have gone through things where friends have been disrespected and i we go up and, you know, have, we had a, my daughter had a friend that was asked not to attend a birthday party. So I pulled my daughter out of that birthday party and we took her for coffee. And it was a

that was a learning experience for everyone, right, of how do you do the right thing? Because you don't need a lot of friends. You need a close circle around you. And so to get to the pearly gates and say, you did as many of the right things as you could along the way is, is to me the ultimate, you know, you leave an imprint on as many people as you can. So he did this for me and wanted nothing in return. It's awesome. It's awesome. Well, God bless you.

God bless the family. I hope you hit everyone your goals. Zach, you've been a pleasure to have on the show. Coffee's for closers. Zach Bates, the original guy who's promoting these private gloves and elevating these experiences worldwide. Thanks so much. Thanks, Zach.