Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Bugattis and Billionaires with Nick Dossa Ep 38

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

The Power Move Episode 38Learn and burn Entrepreneurship from serial entrepreneur John Gafford and his band of mayhem makers. From stripper poles to the oval office, business lessons are everywhere. This Week:We interview Nick Dossa of https://www.vegasautogallery.com. Nick grew his business from selling a beat up RX7 to the most expensive super luxury cars to the elite. Learn what it took to get there. With Nick Dossa, Chris Connell and Colt Amidan

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 two jasmine no I'm just kidding. Welcome to 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 Kymer Rouge sympathizer. The Kymer Rouge sympathizer. I don't know. There you go. Whatever it was. Chris gets into it. I know.

He loves it. I know. He loves it there. Chris Connell, 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 Nick is here, and Nick is, for those of you who are not in Vegas listening to us, you hear like Vegas Auto Gallery, and you're, oh, it's just like the buy here, pay here lot. They knock your head off and charge 18% interest and repossess your 82 Camry in about three weeks. And 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, 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? Yeah. 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, you know, look, this is a dude that has built an incredibly successful business.

I mean, just incredible successful business. And we're going to kind of go through like we do with all the entrepreneurs that come on the show, what makes him tick, what got him to where he is and hear the story. And, you know, if you are someone that owns a business and you want to have about, talk about connecting in a way that's special with your high-end clientele, this dude's got it. Because, 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 didn't hang out, but they left the one. Yeah, they left the one.

Right. 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. It was a good game.

I want to talk about the game, though. This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about talk about the game though. This is what I want to talk about. I want to talk about tone deafness in advertising. That's what I want to talk about. 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 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 gonna lean against really expensive cars which probably came from you and then like like i like i i left this ad watching it like 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 just the tone death right was crazy i i sent chris the twitter feed of people

talking about this and i've never seen yeah they, they turned on hard. Usually you'll have one or two people defend people and not one person defended them. And like everybody's like, I thought it was a spoof of, you know, 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, no. Look. 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 would say is say is obviously after seeing that ad is there are people out there that will produce it that they claim to be in marketing they claim to be in advertising they 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 like tell chris to let us write an ad for him i could write you the best ad oh my god it'd be amazing you ad ever. Oh, my God. It'd be amazing. I'm out on that. Chris, 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 obligated to play in her bachelor, not bachelor party, but her baby shower. That's what it is. It's going to be. Whatever it is. 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 well i can't say what the best one was fascist dictator no no fascist dictator she shot back down. And I think now- She has no personality. I know. You're on pimps and hoes. We settled on pimps and hoes. 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. So iceberg slim wedge salad. Yeah, you get it done. Right to self. It's going to be a beautiful event. I just hope I get a grandmother to come. That's you get it done. Right to self. It's going to be a beautiful event. I just hope I can get a grandmother to come.

That's all I say. But anyway. Wow. But the next thing I got to tell you is foresight in business. Because guys, something happened to me this weekend. I don't like it. I don't like it. I lost 300 Jizzles 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 yeah well whatever just we're gonna 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 here and they're moving away and they're never coming back. This person will never come back to Vegas, 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 now my clients are furious. So now you got this client, you sold them for it,

but they've moved away. They're gone. Yeah. They're not, they're a one-shot. Your little honeypot where you're going to try to get business now is completely shot out. Cause 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 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 sends an agent an offer. That agent turns around and sends 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 just absolutely careless and and just tacky yeah it's it's just it's one of those things where i don't know what's going on right now man but it seems like it's like, it's one of those things where, I don't know what's going on right now, man, but it seems like. It's like 2004. It seems, yeah.

Remember how many people were doing that and making money and all of a sudden now they're bartenders? And nothing against bartenders, but. 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. My mom was one of the first people that brought remax to canada in the 70s okay so she had most 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 she was a heavy hitter for an east indian woman uh you know to to do that but 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. 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 1 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. If 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? 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 Podunklo, northern Utah. I'm like, wow, this is not the same thing because I came from Northern Utah. So I'm like, Oh, Vegas is, you know, I'm thinking I'm pulled on glow 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, you know, thousands of dollars a year. Sure. Just to be able to carry a business card and say, I sell real estate, even though they do nothing. Right. 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 think pretty sure there's no board you have to join to be a taxidermist. I'm an import and export.

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. I knew a couple. So now we're down to 10,000 that do 10,000 sell all the houses. Sure. 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 you've 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. So if you don't get those 500, you get one of those. Yeah, if you don't get one of those guys, you're just whatever. You're getting a lot of realtors. 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. I'm being supported by my spouse, and I just want to card this as I do something. And I've got a friend in my family who wants to do it, so it's worth it to carry those. Yes, that's worth it. For that one house you get every couple years. No, that's worth it.

But you know what? Enough about us, man. That's worth it. For that one house you get every couple years. No, that's worth it. But you know what? Enough about us, man. That's my little current events and stuff. So I brought you in here. He's like, OK, this is great. I'm just throwing some comments in from the side. He's a fellow. I moved here from Calgary.

You're from Calgary? Well, I'm from Regina. Oh, Jeepers. Aren't you? Oh, Jeepers. Aren't they all from Regina? Oh, here we go. Then hey there.

All from Regina. We're going to start talking about syrup. This is going to be over in like five minutes. I will shut this off. You mean in three hours, John? There's a lot to talk about. Go down the syrup train. This is over.

So let's, again, back to you, man. 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 so you kind of want to know the whole thing of absolutely man did you have a job with the calgary herald did you deliver papers okay no would you stop you've ever been to regina

you're leading the way to die objection your honor leading the witness 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 juniors, so we'll just call it juniors here, 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, what was the first hustle you had as a kid to make money what was it believe it or not i was like i said i was showing houses for my mom my dad passed away at the age of when i was 12 and so uh 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 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 a 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. 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 mutton once you can have wool forever a month that's it yeah she taught me a lot man everything i learned in business was my mom nice straight up so that's it was a lot, man. Everything I learned in business was from my mom. Nice. So that's a lot of lessons. So you're competitive hockey. You're pretty good.

You think you could have gone to Olympics? Oh, my God. In our hockey? Here we go. Here we go. Like you said, he goes way out. Yeah. Well, hang on a second.

There's a couple of reoccurring themes that you probably need to know about. And I guess we should get this out of the way now, right, Colt? You're down for this. I mean, I guess. 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 he's getting my get my triceps going really good first it was equestrian

for the longest time he's giving that up now to the Winter Olympics here, but he believes now it's, 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. All right. 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 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.

You can. You can. 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 has ever supported this for you. He's a smart guy.

Smart slap for cash. I like slapping. I've talked to him all the time. I like slapping. And that's the only guy that's ever supported this. Honestly, there are. Bob Sled? Bob 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 got 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 the correct answer. So, okay, back to you, Nick. I'm sorry. It's going to happen. 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. Pumpkin cookies. No, no pumpkin cookies. So you're pretty good at hockey. 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. 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 you know five kids running around that's't make it drug addicts yeah you know super fat don't give a shit about themselves 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 i was able to get through that and you know I had motivation to push. It's one of the things that I always preach to people. People always ask me 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 get too attached to one thing, 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 did you hurt? My knee. Your knee. Blow the knee out. Blow the knee out. Never recovered from it.

I still have pain now. Like when I work out and do lifts, whatever, I feel it. When the weather changes, oh, you feel it. Oh, yeah. 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 gonna happen after physio so many times getting back on the ice i just didn't have the same speed didn't have the same agility it was

just like you know this is not gonna work and it's just you're just this is done so what happened then i was like i missed 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 the race in spain space 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 i was like okay so you're gonna go to university now and uh go become a doctor okay okay well i don't want to do that all right i was there very interested in chiropractic, so I started going to school

and started doing all the biology and chiropractic courses and got halfway through that. I was like, you know what? I'm sitting in class, buying and selling cars because that's what I just enjoy. Where did 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 do you do this she's like how old are you here? 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. You know, maybe I'm good. So I feel you. I feel you there. But it's 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. Good. 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, I get my business degree, everything's done. And I go back back to her I'm like okay mom I'm done I'm done with my uh my schooling and she's like okay I'm like I want to open a dealership you said you're gonna help me out she's like are you serious yeah I was just kidding about that that wasn't real

so sure enough I said I pressed her and she said okay let's go so we went and found a location a warehouse in Calgary in Calgary 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 going with the warehouse. One car, 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 gotta go grand to set up the business and

buy a car oh that was everything so she's like here you go because 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 right so he can just finish this. Let's watch this flop and then we'll go. Back to chiropractic school we go. So she set me up and I mean, but she was very supportive. I got to say that. So I did it and I paid her back. All right. So what was it? What was the first, it's like, you see, here's the thing you might not remember cause you were already flipping cars, but what was it? It was a what? RX7. An RX7. Yeah. I remember that. RX7. 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, because 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. Very good. And so, was this the first time you develop some decent closing skills and some sales skills with that. Very good. Very good. And so you just, so this is the, was this the first time you really had to like make this work or you in the driveway hustle 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, okay,

what am I, 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.

I was a retailer. Let me have my guy run around back and get some gas. It was like a 4,000 square foot warehouse. It started with nothing. Let me have my guy run around back and get some gas. It was like a 4,000 square foot warehouse. It started with nothing. So you got the first one done. So now you get a couple of cars going, right? I 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 little cushion so where was where was mom with this was mom like i'm happy i got money money back or is mom like well there goes chiropractor school is that where was she 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 all right i was lucky that way all right cool so we start with so we're rx7 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, which was one guy. I still 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.

He would help me clean the cars, prep them 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 it was work but i had one helper and we killed it where and so okay so this is your first guy yeah would you pay him to do that back in the day what year is this this? I don't remember. Where are we? This is, I think, 2006. So, 06. So, man, this ain't that long ago. No.

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 today?

Do you know where he is? No idea. No idea. Where were you last year? I was, you know Mc he is no idea uh it was you know mcleod trail crow charlotte or mcleod trail the main street by the tim hortons you're just dying to talk about syrup i see it no no no because it's interesting because there's a lot of uh it's crow child mcleod they have a lot of like major dealerships there was a porsche dealer and ichild McLeod. They have a lot of major dealerships. There was a Porsche dealer, and I was a building right behind the Porsche dealer. Oh, I know exactly what it is.

There you go. This Porsche is still 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, that's power move right there. If you're opening a business. Now, the same thing we kind of do here is it's better to be the restaurant with not enough tables than the restaurant with a bunch of tables hoping somebody's 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.

That's the biggest overhead you're going to have. Yeah, it's a huge way. 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 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 to do we got 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 i know

you'll talk you see magic johnson oh jesus um so he 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 in to a couple high net worth individuals I started playing in the high-end cars like I Went from this cheaper stuff right away to the higher and stuff. I always want to do high-end cars So what was so what was a high-end car to you then because I know that's changed That's a class like a 300ZX twin turbo back then. You know, that was a high-end car.

That was a hot 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? 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, OK, 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, OK, cool. Let's go. My mom went and bought two brand new cars. And that 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. If you want to create, there's more risk in it, man. There's a lot of chance. 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? 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. And lucky enough, that's why we 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 stuff 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. No, for sure. For people that want to jump into luxury. I'm going to be a luxury 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 of 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 is always appreciated. I mean, five or lose 700. Yeah, I mean, we're losing as many as we get with Colt's commentary, so 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 are we 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. 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 i moved forward and uh i started doing more and more i got tapped into like some high net worth individuals like i told you from my mom and i remember my 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 like which supercars at that point there wasn't no such thing but it was just starting you know well let me ask you well let me ask you a question i'm gonna ask you a question so here you are how old are you at this point 22 no no uh 23 23 but you're a kid i'm good you're a kid because as as my father used to say you're you know i'm 25 is

your dumb ass birthday that's when you're no longer a kid you're if you do something stupid at that point you're just a dumb ass but at 23 you're a kid right so did you find it challenging being a 23 year old kid and you have-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? You know what? The sense of intimidation sometimes would come

because it's such a powerful person of great wealth at that point, and you're like, oh, wow, will 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 up front 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 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 uh lp640 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 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 vancouver to deliver it to him on time watched it delivered it and everything but i made a huge lick on that car yeah just pounded syrup the whole way to stay awake yeah exactly timmy ho doublees yeah pretty good and that's what i felt and i was like wow i made such a good so how much the guy okay he's probably not hearing this yeah how much what was

that what was that i made 100 grand made 100 grand 100 grand so that was the first big swap where you're like man i was like you want it this we got to pay to get it he's like cool go get it and this was it he didn't care but he he's like go get it yeah go ahead yeah it's go ahead. It's all right. So that's a bunch of money for a little kid. At that age, I was like, 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 rollercoaster, which is like, yay, I get 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, you know, was there a tw twinge of well, maybe I'll take a vacation Maybe I'll go screw around or you just just pedal the metal more like the next one has to be bigger than 100 Let's go now. We're just I started buying more stuff

Expanding more and I put all the money back into business and myself and just work I wasn't spending money buying gifts or buying clothes whatever I was how much were you how much were you paying yourself at that point how much 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 1200 bucks 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 can,200 Canadian. I'm Canadian dollars. Call it Canadian dollars.

Call it five grand a month. All right, five grand a month. Five grand a month. Are you living on your own or you're not with mom at this point? No. No, okay. You know what I'm talking about?

Dude, I... I got a wife and kid. No, but you sell... You got a wife and kid at this point? Yeah, I got a wife and kid right... No, no, no. Now. No, Jesus.

Now. No, now. No, I had no house. Okay, got it. Like you got a wife and kid and you're living in a mom's with 1,200... No, I'm just kidding.

No, I'm just making this worse. All right, so bigger and better, you're only paying mob's with a 12505. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just making this worse All right, so bigger better. You only take you only paying yourself like five grand every in a month Yeah, and the business is generating a lot of capital, but you're reinvesting all in inventory marketing What was the percentage of which any because 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 Yeah, you have to pay. Yeah pay yeah something so for those for those that don't know what a floor plan is that's a fine that's a finance term yep which is not no let me ask you this sure let's because i'm you know here's a here's let's get some tips and tricks

too because obviously with you you don't care because your business is not this but i always because 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 i bleeding I 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 PhD in sales. And I was like, I ain't selling vacuum cleaners. So I went and sold cars. I did it for three months and crushed it. I mean, I was like, when I left there after three months, the dealer went to the dealership like, I want Alfred 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, God, I forgot what I was talking about. Oh, here's a 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 first of the month they calculate your existing inventory 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, $50,000, for example. I'll use that number. And you've got to pay a percentage of whatever you bought a car for 50 grand for example You know use that number you're gonna pay 10% so you'd have to pay like the five grand 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 like 40 Let's say your interest was whatever percentage your value of your car go down to 49 a thousand bucks was burnt for interest So you now only Oh 49 right but even today if somebody is going down to your friendly neighborhood Ford dealer,

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. Yeah, he wants to go home. And the longer you sit, because there's a party. Most scarlet ships have a party last day of the month. And if you go at six o'clock and that finance manager sitting there while you're grinding over nothing i mean and get up and walk out like three times i mean i i i love buying lower end cars because i just i think it's funny it's it's becoming less fun because now it's like emailed internet price they just drop their pants and that's it and

there's like okay jesus that 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 yeah so i started going to auctions and then there was a local dealer there um i still remember his name steve iscovich he had the mercedes store the volkswagen store uh sob at the time so a bunch of like franchise stores and he was the big those did those guys did those guys look down their nose at you a little bit i'll tell you the story this is 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 like dusters they walk in they're all holding clipboards and you know they walk into the lanes and one will each go to the lane 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's a range over it it was a 06 range over sport that's when they first came out and uh i was bidding on this car and he's 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.

He's like, who the fuck are you? Sorry. No, you're fine. 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 Sharin.

He's like, come see me tomorrow. I'm going to have my assistant call you. What's your phone number? Takes my number. You got summonsed. I got summoned. Okay. All right.

So he's like, so I go to his office the next day. Actually, it was two days later. It was on a Friday, and 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. What are you doing?

I'm like, 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.

He's like, 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 that's balls he's like you got big balls kid all right yeah well i mean if i have it i can't sell off empty shelves right 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's sheila come over here so his assistant walks in the office's like, let's gather all these numbers and Write him a check. Let's write him a check kid. You're gonna come by for me. So what about my lease?

He's like well, I own the building you're in So now it's and it's gone from Building you're in so don't worry about you I'm like, I mean you probably remember him actually back in the day. He owns Hyatt Mercedes. Who is it Steve? Steve is good a big deal. Yeah bigvage big deal yeah there was you know super friendly guy he was exactly the right guy yeah they're all Canadian there you go

is there such thing as can you get threatened by a Canadian guy like oh jeepers they're we're gonna have to like if you don't snap in the line we're gonna 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 that hit man okay okay the hit man yeah okay prone to violence all right so do you go work for him yeah i started buying cars from him for him for him for all his stores and i was helping manage his uh mercedes so i was like working there

at the mercedes that's why 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 yeah 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 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 wanted to be a franchise store.

I want to 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 into 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. Yeah, 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. Did you get to Windsor a lot? Windsor's a great place. But then I got a curve ball. I got a crazy curve ball. What was that? So my mom was coming back and forth from Vegas at the time. Then my brother moved here. What'd 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 difficult five different programs they're still super different they're very different i would hijack it but i want to hear his biggest story no it's good it's fine but i thought that was good sorry i thought it was a good time to bring up where you asked if you could catch hiv twice magic's clear of hiv now right like he tests his yes he is clear yeah like he's like viral load is below the threshold detectable but if you could get rid of it could you get hiv twice probably it's the same as coronavirus so this 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 was 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? I was buying stuff back and forth from here all the time.

But in the United States. Yeah, I would buy stuff from here and bring it to Canada. Everybody was doing that because you could sell a car for 30%. And be done. 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's in vegas like she'd be at good health like she'd be able to walk nice and the weather over here yeah no humidity buddy so not to dampen it but she had like you know got diagnosed with 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 like mom's not doing good Yeah shit, you know, I mean like and I already have one parent. Yeah

Yeah, I literally told see pay I have to go like, you know, 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 I don't know if I'm a duffel bag. I went to Nordstrom's. I just buy everything all over again So you take care of your money you're again. So I was there for six months. So you're doing your mom's health issues for six months. So I came here, and I was looking around, 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, 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 was one dealer in town. I went there, and I'm like, hey, I want to trade this in. I 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 07 bentley you want to give me 25 grand oh wow i'm like we're like 2012 at the

time you got an 07 belly no you chris no no wait where is it oh wait do you have an 08 belly i 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. There's a stigmatism on it. You got to swap out the kilometers and miles sometimes. It's a bargaining tool. Got it. Got it. Okay. You need to have out the kilometers and miles sometimes. It's a bargaining tool. Got it. 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 60K. I'm like, perfect. Done. So you're like- I'm like, okay, hang on a second second there's a little gap in the market here yeah some research I was like wait a minute so I started buying and 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 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 yeah before just have that conversation before you're like you know we're gonna open up a you know a vietnamese restaurant uh cat petting zoo that's uh that's not a good idea you know you just you just got to make sure the ideas are solid but to do the research now you're you're flipping cars

in vegas no brick and mortar just flipping cars and just what year is this um this is 2013 14 ish now 13 14 okay kind of the end of 13 and 14 right um 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 you know i'm gonna open something like hey wait a minute let's do it together so that dragged on six months because they were just dragging their feet. I said, okay, cool.

But see, my credit didn't get recognized in the US. They don't care if you have an 800 credit score over there. You have zero. I started at zero too. Yeah, and it's tough, man. Think about credit for a second. To build a credit card, to build any credit from scratch right now,

how are you doing that? Yeah, well, you're getting secured credit cards. Your bank at a $500. And you getting a high-interest car loan on something, and you're paying it down to a dollar, and hopefully instantly, and making it go. But yeah, that's a challenge. So I partnered with this other dealer that I was doing business with.

I won't say who they are. And we opened a store together. So I put the capital up, and they brought a line of credit because we wind up buying cars, right? So what was the split on that? 50-50. OK. So they brought the money up and they brought a line of credit because we want to buy cars, right? Thank you. What was the split on that? 50-50. Okay. So they brought the money.

You brought the sweat. I brought the money. No, no. We put our operating capital. Okay. And they brought a line of credit. They brought the credit. They brought the line of credit.

Got it. Okay. It was more than just sweat. It was more than sweat. It was more than sweat. It was like, all right. It should have been more, but it is what it is, right? You got to get your feet.

We got to start somewhere. You got to start. New city, new state, new. Where was the spot? Where was it?is and tropicana okay right so kind of color story you're in a little bit yeah small little warehouse um did all the floors white and i take my pictures inside there and everything was 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. 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. Oh, nice. 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 dude you got to

have your nose in the books a little bit if you don't because if you're asking someone to run something without a pnl or anything like that it's like driving a ship blind yeah if you don't have a pnl at the end of every month you don't know what you're doing you know so you got to know where you can trim where you can add so were those were those P&Ls not exactly getting run properly? Well, I got one. It was a little bit different. And I was like, okay. A little different.

So I started questioning it. And so I kind of said, okay, you know what? I'm going to exit. Yeah. 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? No, no. We already moved to the bigger place, but the lease was ending. Okay, got it. So broke that relationship. We're done.

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 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 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 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. Yes, that was the original. Oh, wow. That's the second spot.

That's 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. I'm 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, and 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. That's what people don't realize. They're putting good money behind bad. Oh, my God. All the time. Throwing it down a hole. Exactly.

I mean, 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, bro, we're right there to turn the corner. You know 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 are you on a salary at all yeah like me myself yeah now i am no not. No, like what do you mean? Well, no, no. My individual corporation, I take a nominal, I take the tax man 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 for what it is. But when it comes to our businesses, like Simple Vegas or Clear Title, Streamline, 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 you know your medicare and you have to pay your own you have to pay into your social security whatever my accountants i just take that's the number that's my number you're taking this and this is it yeah yeah that's that's what i paid which is fair right yeah that's it yeah thanks councilman anyway so so you built this up too i mean okay so obviously you're doing highline cars yeah right

most 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 pagani's uh career gts 918s you name it what's it like the first time you pull the trigger on a two million dollar 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 if but when we buy a two-month-old house you're like this thing's got to be gone in like six seven months back in the day the mentality was everything's dropping right you're buying a car you're you're like okay cool what is my exit so i'm not getting smoked yeah on the way out now it's different like for the last two years people people have been spoiled.

They're like, oh, I buy a car. I made 20 grand. Right, right. You know what I mean? Well, I mean, honestly, somebody asked me this. 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 the rarity of that car, I'm hoping that happens. That car is super rare. Why don't you tell them what you got? Nah, it's all right. They'll see. Follow me on Instagram instagram you want to see my car because yeah it was like 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 as we go along it's pretty funny what's the weirdest story you've ever had with someone like there's gotta be someone that did the same thing as the realtor right like i need a car tomorrow it's gotta be this type of deal you You get weird stuff still in Vegas. Like,

or do you get lotto or people not lotto, but people hitting jackpots coming up? Oh yeah. We've had people come in with like six, 700,000. They just won and said, I want to buy a car in cash. I'm done.

I'm done. I'm ready to buy like, and they bought like two cars in one. But I 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 though man and this is really you know that was a 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 come hang 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 the hangout and so these guys will come and they'll go play golf I have a full driving range in there of 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, 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 building. Oh, I didn't know you had another one over there. Yeah, so I have a location on Sahara. It was kind of a crazy story. So this building came up, and it was beside my only competitor in town. Okay. And the chance of that happening-

Slamming none. Right? 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 is how big of a sign be. Took the building, and now I fill that thing up, and I got five times the amount of inventory that they have.

And you're right there. Next door. Yeah, they're not that large, no well i think just like yesterday man when i was sitting when i was sitting there and up comes carlson and uh who else was there uh cogglin when they come walking up you know it was like 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 his business. It was like, what's up, dude? You know what I mean? It was a relationship.

That's a hockey thing. Forging these guys. Yeah, I can see you right away. 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. That works. Let's go for a wrap. Hey, boys. Hey, boys. Yeah, I did come falling in love 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 here's the thing, like those guys, where could they really go and not get bothered? That's exactly it, right? 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. Hey, what do you got new? What do you got? They want to come sit and stuff and other dealerships will kick them out. They've to come and just look around. Hey, what do you got new? What do you got? They want to come sit and stuff. And other dealerships will kick them out.

They've had bad experiences in town. Really? Yeah, if you could believe that. I mean, like, yeah. Vegas car market was known as, like, the people would go to. That's why the Orange County dealerships are so good, L.A., is because everybody from Vegas is like, screw Vegas' dealerships. And they bounce. You had.

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 they could treat people bad in Vegas. That was the first thing I heard from people. It was a total monopoly. I would say now, 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? All of the cars. 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.

I pick cars up, drop cars off. You don't sell cars to the Raiders. What about the Raiders? The Raiders, we sell cars to them. All right. OK, real quick. Can we talk about this? Disclaimer.

Can we have some sort of... 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? If you can just... Just like, look, bro, go to the club, but club But nobody see the car so leave it a home leave the car

Drive the Red Rock with your hot whip don't know I get one thing about Vegas like there's nowhere to go. You can't front the car. It ain't Miami No, exactly. There's no reason to drive the car to the club. Stop driving the damn car Take an uber get a car uber. It's more of a flex when you go in You know like who you can impress the valet in front of mgm you don't care what they're messing it up anyways yeah you don't care i mean yeah it's like dude leave the car at home when you're when you're doing that well guys man nick man it was such a pleasure to have you on and talk about all the stuff it was great and and if you are looking for any time and dude and it's not just all necessarily super highlight stuff no well i got This location on Sahara has 50,000 and up, and the other store has all the toys.

Yeah. And also service. You service this stuff, too. I have a full service department, two of them. One on Sahara, one on... And all Highline cars. You can service anything. I can service everything.

You can service everything. McLaren, Porsche, Ferrari. They were the first. You're the only ones that can do McLarens in town. Yeah, we're the only ones in town that can do McLaren. That's awesome. So, look, man, if you're looking for a Highlineline car or you just want to come walk around although if you don't need money don't waste anybody's time but no you know but check out vegas auto guy if they want to

follow you online what's your instagram how they find you uh 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 anyway the new lotus coming out of sick chop fall because you and you are the lotus dealer in town we didn't even talk about that but you're the lotus dealers 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 unless in two weeks later experience that was my yeah that was it no that was it because yeah i literally i i there was a grimace i think when i bought the karma out at the end of my lease you just made well which is hilarious i stuck you with that

thing yesterday but it was a grimace at the end of the lease. Well, which is hilarious. I stuck you with that thing yesterday. But there was a grimace at the end of the Karma lease when I bought it. And it was like, well, there's only one car I would want. It was the Mazda MC20. And then literally two weeks later, he's flexing on his damn Instagram. And now it's in my driveway. 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.

Okay, stop. No, no, no Number two 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 they don't Then you show up It's not there And they don't have 31 flavors anymore It's like 24 Bunch of empty jugs

Yeah, a bunch of empty jugs And where can they find you, Colt? Where can they find you? What? Find me. I already said it. Find me at the ice cream truck. You already said it.

And counselor, how can people find you? They're looking for you. Connell Law 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.