Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Network with Intention Ep 4.

Episode Date: August 26, 2021

This Week:The importance of giftingThe magic of handwritten notes"The talk" with your kidsIs America finally over being repressed?My favorite strip club storyMarketing through viral trendsMy best networking tipColt's top 40 under 40The walk away close

From the art of the deal to keeping it real. Live from the Simply Vegas studios, it's The Power Move with Jon Gafford. What's up everybody? Thanks for joining us for another epic episode of The Power Move. Here with me as always is going to be my main man, the man that says nothing wrong ever, Colt Dommadon. What's up, Colt? Cocktail hour. And flying over in the shotgun seat over to the far left, the ever-present Chris Connell. Chris Connell, how are you, everybody?

Good, man, good. Oh, there it is, the power move. I'm going to have to put it on the board, but honestly, if I did that, it's just like one more thing that I've got to kind of keep up with as we go along and as we do this, which I already got enough to keep up with as we do this. But, my man, so what do you give for the guy that's got everything? What gift do you give the guy that has everything?

And I'm going to talk about a cool gift that I got today, and I want to talk about the coolest gift you've gotten somebody. So one of my mentors, one of my good friends, Steveve sims uh he's called the real life wizard of oz this is a cat that we've talked about in the past it can literally make anything happen and has for people he's amazing what he did cool guy and so his birthday came up and i was like you know man i want to get and you know man steve's done a lot for me he's hooked me up i've gotten speaking gigs i've gotten different things because of steve and and and I want to say thank you to him. So, you know,

you start looking at a lot of stuff. He's a motorcycle guy. So I started going down that path where what I wanted to find was I wanted to find like some Raleigh free memorabilia. I don't know if you know Raleigh free is there's a very famous picture of him breaking the world speed record on the land, on the Bonneville salt flats and a bathing suit from the fifties. I'm like,

dude, if I could get that sign, that'd be epic. So we do those motorcycles. That'd be great. No, there's one light collection of Raleigh free photographs. It's $20,000.

I mean, there's, there's so expensive. So I'm thinking I got to tie to tie it in. Cause there's, it's always gotta be a tie in. It's like a coordination of gifts and everything else. And I'm like,

what am I going to do? So I came up with it. Flamethrower. Flamethrower. Who doesn't want to flame? You literally, there's not a, if you're a man in America and you don't want a flamethrower for a gift. Something's wrong with you.

Something's wrong with you. So at first, so here's the progression of this gift. Now, Steve doesn't have this yet because it just showed up in my house. I'm getting ready to ship it to him now. And the reason he doesn't have it is I want to put a card in it and I'll talk about that in a second. But, so the progression was, okay, the first thing is I'll go down the boring company. I went down that route, right? Yeah. Yeah. People are like two Jizzles for this bad boy. And I'm

like, this is a nice gift, but you know, he ain't my kid. We ain't sleeping together. So it's like, I ain't going to grand or, and I'm not going down that route. So then I go on eBay and, you know, and you know, eBay this close to getting chili. You're this close to being Chili's. And I'm going to talk about eBay real quick. So it is going dark. Yeah. Being Chili's is a dark place to be.

So I go down and I am looking at eBay and I find one and it's like replica of boring flamethrower, 500 bucks or whatever it was. I'm like, I'm in. Cool. Pay it. Done. Like instantly buy it, pay it. Good. A week goes by, you know, and the problem with eBay is, you know, now apparently they just no longer employ any human beings whatsoever. None. It's all computerized and

it's all this. So I'm like, this guy does, I'm sending emails. Hey man, where's the tracking? What's going on? After a week, this guy who I tracked down as a student at Clemson university, cause I'm pretty slick this way, I tracked him down. I got everything. I got his real email address. I got the whole nine yards. You can't hide behind your eBay suit number for me. You just can't do it.

About a week later, he sends me a thing. Hey, man, before I send this, it's homemade. Do you still want it? I'm like, bro, are you kidding? No, I don't want your homemade flamethrower, sir, for $500. It's one of those Bensonite. It's going to be a can of camping fuel and one of those long grill lighters. No, no, no.

Just what I wanted to send my friend, an atom bomb. That's exactly what I want to send to his house. No, so I'm like, no, I don't want this anymore. I'm done. The kid goes totally dark on me, right? It goes dark. So I started going down the black hole of eBay, trying to help me. And it comes up with, um, I'm like, you know, I'm just checking every box I can. You can't talk to a human. There's no phone number. Every phone number you call says we don't use this phone number anymore. Finally get them that they get back. They say, great. Congratulations. eBay has

sided with you on the dispute. We're siding with you. All you have to do is return the item back to the seller and we'll give you your money back. I'm like, how can I return something I never got? So I eventually had to go now to PayPal, charge it back, it was a whole thing. But in the meantime, I did find a store in Florida called the Super Villain Store where they had a pretty legit flamethrower

that I picked up for $550. Now, the only problem I have with this gift before I send it to them is... It wasn't bedazzled. No. Okay, let me ask you a question. What say you, sir? I have a flamethrower

sitting in front of my house in a box right now. Do you know how much control it's going to take to not go home and play with it? I don't know. Why don't you have two flamethrowers sitting in your house right now. Do you know how much control it's going to take to not go home and play with it? I don't know. You don't have two flamethrowers sitting in your house right now. Like you and Steve aren't close enough friends, you want to be like flamethrower buddies? No, I think that would be too flaming for me.

I don't know how you order one flamethrower. It's terrible, don't say that. You order zero or two flamethrowers, John. No, but I ordered the one flamethrower but it's done. And I'm going to send it to him in a box with a note that just says, what do you get for somebody that has helped so many others, including myself, catch fire? And I just thought that was such a cool, nice way to give it to him.

So, you know, what's the coolest gift you've ever given somebody? Given or gotten? I thought it was gotten. Both, either way. Gotten was my wife for Christmas like five years ago. What was that both either way gotten was my wife um for christmas like five years ago i gave you your wife you paused for a bit i was waiting like 13 goats 13 goats in my uh my dowry steve thanks for giving me my wife yeah no so it was um i had been looking like john has been over my house seen my weird

collection of stuff it's like ripley's blue yeah i pride myself on trying to find really crazy stuff i have vamp i just have everything but what i didn't have was like a 17th 18th 19th century antique vampire hunting kit and i wanted one very very badly because i thought it was a thing i thought they used to sell these. And so I was going down the black hole of trying to find one, and they had some, and they were like $5,000. I'm like, man, I don't need anything that authentic, just kind of a cool. I just want the story because I think it's a neat story that the hubris and the fear of vampires in 19th century Romania or whatever was enough

that people were buying kits with garlic and all this stuff. So I kept telling my wife I wanted one. I wanted one. And I didn't think much of it until Christmas Day comes. She presents me with this box that she hand-built, handmade this whole thing. It had like old-school decorative things on the side, and you pop it open.

It's got a hook, and it's like a crab hammer that's painted like a steak hammer and hand-fashioned steaks. She made this, right? Well, yeah. I lost the Dremel out of the deal because she kept using bits on it and just mangled the shit out of it. But it was so worth it.

So it's one of my favorite things ever, and it was a gift because it was a labor of love, but she's like leather strapped in the vials for garlic and holy water. She's like, what you want doesn't really exist. What I want doesn't. I'm still going to make it. Then I find out this wasn't actually a thing, which was almost kind of cooler in a way that I actually have one now.

Right. Of this thing that there is no authentic version of it. So some hucksters started making some mountebanks. Oh, man. The Scrabble word for the day called mountebanks people haven't realized those guys are mountebanks the mountebanks that they would they like started making fake ones and selling them as antique vampire hunting kits so they don't actually exist there wasn't this craze of people so people are spending 30 grand sure whatever i don't even know how much they are this craze of people. So people are spending $30,000 on something.

Sure, whatever. I don't even know how much they are. I could forget. So have we just officially verified vampires do not exist? Have we just officially verified that? I've met a few time vampires. I met a few energy vampires in my day. So, yes, she made it for me.

So it's just one of those neat things now. Giving gifts, I try to be thoughtful. I try to figure it out. But I'm not sure what I've done other than, you know, obviously engagement ring. Engagement ring. That's kind of like I don't – I would like to be better at it because there's a lot of people in my life that I am very thankful for. And I don't maybe express it as much as I think all of us should. So you doing that makes me think, yeah, maybe I should kind of think about –

No, dude. Think about it more. I'm telling you. There's a buddy of my mastermind owns a company called Giftology and he is, they are experts at giving gifts for high level corporate people. And that's what they do. Not for birthdays, whatever, but just randomly give people gifts and they will do research on these people and select gifts that are very appropriate for it. It's not a cheap service. And John is probably the best guy in the world at it. But watching him, listening to him, I started thinking, maybe I need to do this with more intent than,

hey, here's a Chili's gift card. Because, you know, ain't nobody getting a Chili's gift card tomorrow. Dead to me, Chili's. Wendy's is on the chopping block. Yeah, Wendy's is close. Chili's, you're dead to me. eBay. I pray this podcast takes off for no other reason than somebody at corporate

Chili's can be like, we got to know something about this podcast. Every single week. They just, they boss us every week. Sponsorship. Let's take a sponsorship. Brought to you by you blow. Yeah. I mean, yo Applebee's.

I'm just saying looking real good for a sponsorship. You want to take the edge? Oh man. But it's funny because i think a lot of us represent a lot of clients that have everything right um my go-to was for a lot of these guys they would like cigars but they didn't really know much about them and you got them a nice cuban cigar that because it was a lot harder 10 years ago than it is now that that always was something because it's like when well, where'd you get it?

So, Colt, you're admitting you broke the law. The opinions of Corcomedon and the inability to adhere to global embargoes. Why do you think we have you, Chris, here? He's kidding, everybody. Cuban seed planted in Nicaragua. It's okay. It's a guy out of the neighbor's house throwing them. But I think stuff like that.

You know, and I think people just go to, well, what's expensive, right? And people buy people expensive bottles of whatever, cognac or whatever. I was at a buddy's house that we were maybe drinking a little much and we're playing some drinking games and he just kept pulling out Louis Tres,

Louis Tres, and drinking games with Louis Tres. And you're like, dude. Tres, Louis Tres, and drinking games with Louis Tres. And you're like, dude. Bottles of Louis Tres? Yeah, like these are $5,000 bottles that you're playing drinking games with. He goes, this is what everybody gives me, right? Like this is, they're not thoughtful. It's not a thoughtful gift.

Even though it's five grand, it's not thoughtful. I'll take it all day long. Well, in my house, I have stacks of really expensive liquor at my house. I couldn't tell you any of it was from. I have no idea. It's not memorable. You know what he always gets? You know what John loves, everybody?

John loves a nice bottle of scotch. No. No scotch. Okay, if you're listening to this. Cole gets it. Everybody loves it. Yeah, exactly. Everybody loves to buy me scotch.

If you want to know where the scotch goes, literally right if you hand it to me. Cold soft drink. Right there. I don't drink scotch. I'm a bourbon guy that's why i drank the bourbon i was at a i was a i was an attorney at a firm here in town i'm not going to mention names uh because they don't need my advertising for them but um this gentleman worked there and he got linked up it was kind of a multi-level marketing thing but he had this great uh card service so one day i didn't even think about it i get something in the mail and he goes, hey, I saw something on Facebook, blah, blah, blah. And this card had a bunch of pictures printed out about it. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, where it's actually,

they take pictures off your Facebook and make it a green card. Really personalized message. And I still have it. It's one of the, I don't have, I still have that one though. But I got that and it creeped me out a little bit. I loved it. I don't know about you, but yeah, I felt really authentic. It felt like you took took well well there's and that's a new thing if you're looking at a great piece of marketing that i'm actually looking at for using for my sphere um not really my sphere but like my neighborhood like i don't sell per se a lot of real estate anymore but just the seeing another for sale sign or seeing another house listed in my neighborhood drives me bananas right just. Just because it's just like the prideful of it.

Yeah, lose house. And my team can handle it. Exactly. Oh, I'm sorry. So, you know, we've always sent out, and now everybody sends it out, which is like, here's the neighborhood and our update. And ours are great because we have our own digital printer. So it's this four-page deal with all, it's beautifully done. But everybody's doing it now.

So I found this company called Authentic.co. I'll just give it to you for free. Again, no endorsement. But Authentic.co. And they have these, they have handwriting machines, which I've looked into before. They're very expensive and they break a lot apparently. But for like, I think it's a thousand bucks a month for a six month commitment. They will send 400 handwritten notes on stationary branded to you that you can design however you want. It goes out every month. And when I say handwritten, it's not that crappy just font that looks like it.

It's actual machines that hold a pen and then actually write the notes so that you can tell they're handwritten. And they send them out. You just type in the message, whatever you want to say. But I figured if I could just send everybody in my neighborhood a handwritten note every month, at the very least, people will be like, oh, that's the guy that sends the notes. You know who I get handwritten messages from? Religious people.

Jehovah's Witnesses. Yeah, Jehovah jehovah's witnesses they send me handwritten it's always in spanish see i think they just look at me and go you know i mean honestly i just we're not gonna bother i mean you think that would be me too i would think so i would think so yeah but i'm gonna tell you you know what the best you know gift i've ever given and i just gave it actually and if you're married, listen up. Cause I'm telling you, this is, this is, this is good. This is a great gift to give your wife. And it's actually a gift for you. Hmm. Everybody's listening now, right? So what is it? Earplugs? The thoughts and opinions of Chris Connells. No, no him. No, no. No. What it is is this. So for our anniversary this year, my wife was like, what do you want?

And I said, I want a boudoir book. That's what I want. George Costanza. I want one of those books with you. I want a book of you in racy photos. And I could tell at first she was, you know, my wife is, for those of you who have never seen her, my wife is beautiful. She's 50 years old. And I think the age in her mind, she was like, I'm too old for this, blah, blah, blah.

And I could tell there was some apprehension in her doing it, but she wanted to make me happy. So she did it anyway. Right? Now, this is why people are like, okay, how is that a gift for her? And I'll tell you how my wife called me today because she saw the first proofs come back from the photo shoot right and she was like oh my god these photographs are unbelievable she lucky motherfucker no no no she looked because i mean obviously a great photographer that does this all full time right

made her i mean she's already, but the photographs were done beautifully. It's easy to be a beautiful person and take a bad photograph, but it's easy to be an ugly person and take a great photograph. And a good photographer can do whatever. And this lady especially was really great at it. I could instantaneously hear her confidence and hear how proud of herself she was because of this. So it was a gift for me, but it was really a great, and I didn't even intend it that way. I was just being like, I kind of want a book with hot pictures of my wife and whatever. That's what I want.

But what I got out of it was so much greater because I could just feel the confidence just oozing through the phone about these photographs. She loved it. She thought it was great. That's awesome. It's a great idea. It's a good gift. I would do that with the phone about these photographs. She loved it. She thought it was great. That's awesome. That's a great idea. It's a good gift. I would do that with the George Costanzas.

Oh, when he's laying on the couch? Yeah. No, I mean, it really was just an amazingly great gift. You know, it's funny because they're sexy pictures, and we were talking about this earlier, which was when your kids get to be that certain age and you got to have the talk. Oh my God. Oh my God. You know, I'm just curious because this is different because, because you know, I have my son, I have my, and I have my daughter and I also have my wife. Not

that I, not that I had to have the sex talk with her. She had already kind of figured it out. Even though I like to have this fantasy that, you know it's my fantasy don't mess with but i know you you talked to your daughter about i did i recently had i mean recently i've recently had the talk with my daughter here's the unintended consequence of it that was amazing okay she now comes to me about everything everything and i mean no punches held back none so i always had this opinion and i you know like we talked about liberal arts education whatever i took a class in university i had a class to fill between physics biology and whatever and i took a cupcake class called human sexuality human sexual behavior and it was phenomenal because the shit i don't know

about it to this day the shit i didn't know about it then could fill up a fucking Olympic swimming pool. But what it did kind of make me understand is how puritanical even my views on sex and sexuality were. We are in a culture. So our culture is very, very repressed. People don't realize how repressive we are as a culture. Now, think about what happened when Janet Jackson's nipple fell out. This country ground to a fucking halt. You know what?

I'm still in counseling over this. I am. Over a nipple, right? People in France are like... Didn't she have a pasty on? No, that was Justin Timberlake. Yeah, Justin Timberlake had the pasty. He was pasty.

Oh, no, there was a pasty on a nipple. You only got that with the OnlyFans. No, he ripped off a pasty and her nipple popped out and it was pierced. Yeah, I remember. People lost their goddamn minds, right? Yeah. So I always like, I'm like, you know what the greatest disservice you can do to your kids is?

Is pass along generational trauma about how we deal with things. Number one, kids that get pregnant are parents that don't, who, kids don't understand how sex even works. Yeah. How this works. What is actually happening here? A man meets a woman and they like hang out together. And all of a sudden they have babies. Like you go,

no, no, no, no, no. So I can see you with a, with a straight up whiteboard. Yeah.

No, no, no. So I did. So I basically did. And we said something like, I'm like, shut the age.

She asked me some question. It was tangential. And I'm just go, okay. You know what? What was that last word? It was, it wasn't, it was a tertiary thing, question it was tangential and i'm just go okay you know what was that last word it was it wasn't it was a tertiary thing but it was it was just it's not it's not just you i appreciate that because i sit here and it's just it was just sort of one of those things where i'm like there's something deeper to this question and then i just basically out with it

i'm like is your mom ever talked to you about sex? She's like, no, you know, like, no, absolutely not. I said, here's the thing. I'm not going to be this dad that thinks I own your sexuality. You are a human being. Human beings, right? Are sexual in nature. So I don't own your sexuality. I'm not going to sit on a porch with a shotgun and my daughter needs whatever. I want you to make your own sexual decisions in life. But just here's promised me one thing. Just don't date a fucking loser. Whatever you do, right? Don't feel guilty about stuff. I don't care what happens.

Just no loser. Make decisions today that your future self will thank you for, and that includes being safe and all this stuff. And here's how it works. She's like, well, what's this? I'm like, this is this. And when I mean this is this, I mean like a male has testicles, and inside his testicles he

has sperm sperm are the genetic information that you know go through a vas deferens out your urethra into a woman it inserts his penis into a vagina that you got a step by step but she she's 12 13 i'll give you a private later but she didn't understand how a uterus worked oh no she's like a 12 year old girl at this time she just turned 13 but she was like maybe 12 turning 13 and nobody had ever had the sense and myself included to let her know how her own body worked she's on she has her period okay but okay now here's my question here's my question did you did you call did you think first you just like i'm just gonna handle this because i'm aer? Or did you think to call the mom and be like, yo.

No, no. No, because I feel like she listens to me as a sense of authority. And it's not the same thing because her mom would never have that conversation. Her mom would cupcake it. So I didn't want her mom to cupcake it. I want to be like, here is information. What you do with that is now up to you to think about. But here is real information.

I think you're an intelligent kid. I think you're not too young to handle how your own body works. She didn't understand why she was having a period. She just knew she had one. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. This is what's happening. Your ovaries release an egg that gets, you know, whatever. That's what's happening.

Why is information or science taboo? Like, why on earth would that? Nobody texts, how does your heart work? It pumps blood through your vessels. We're talking about some real basic stuff here that I think you should probably know by seven. And my goal is. I'm sorry, by how old? I mean seven.

You start taking your first health classes. She was seven? No, I'm saying you should. No, but how old was she when you were having these conversations? She was turning, like, a few months ago. Okay. And I'm like, but you're, I mean, like I said, I'm not trying to spill her tea, but, you know,

you have your period, and you don't know why. I mean, that's kind of a weird thing. We've kind of failed you a little bit. So here's both barrels. This is what it's like. Here it comes. Here's what an STD is. Here's what condoms do.

Here is what it all does. And it's all headed up. And she just kind of sat there and then i let her kind of say i just dropped the information bomb and i mean heavy a week later i go so you know talked about it do you have any questions she's like i don't know uh it just kind of seemed more gross than anything to me i'm like yeah okay that's fine you don't have to understand it because you're you know you know then a week after that, she's like, you know, I actually do have a question. Okay.

How does this work? How, you know, how does this? How does this? I'm like, this is how. Here you go. I have a pact with her now. You have a question I will answer. Don't ever think for a second that anything is off topic.

You want to talk about marijuana. You want to talk about whatever. I will tell you the facts about it. I'm not going to bullshit you. Well, see, when I last had the talk, I was speaking as much as I could in generalities and trying to lay things out. And I knew there would be questions. And I said, look, just come to me with the questions as well.

And Colt started texting me like fucking every five minutes, like, well, how does this work? How does that work? He genuinely didn't mean come to him with the questions. I thought he meant it. No, I'm like, i'll tell you how this goes but you know you kind of got to fend for your grown man colt you got two kids you got to fend for yourself and uh giovanni we're at the strip club sunday yeah you're exactly did you happen to catch that by the way that was great i actually really enjoyed that if you don't follow if you don't follow colt on ig

colt post now okay in vegas there's a place called Sapphire, which is a gentleman's club. It's the world's biggest gentleman. Don't play down. I don't know how many gentlemen hang out in there, but attached to this world's largest gentleman or gentleman's club is a Mexican restaurant. It's actually a really good Mexican restaurant. It's really good.

And Colt posted a picture of his son out front who is just turned three. Just turned three. Just turned three in front of the World's Largest Gentleman's Club with the sign going to the back. And then the next scene was him passed out at a booth. And the best part about that was for half a second, I forgot about the Mexican restaurant. And I'm like, I thought you had like a commercial meeting

or something to set fire. You're like, it'll be fine. Sunday morning. Do you know how many people like i thought you had like a commercial meeting or something sat by you're like i'll be fine just sunday morning sunday do you know how many people in parking lot were looking at me weird walking with my three-year-old to strip club but it's funny i got so many they're like buddy if you're gonna turn them on don't show them the day shift team i so many people actually thought i took them no like i know i i'm being dead serious people are like don't you have to be 21 like and i'm like he's got a teddy bear in his hand he did he's got a vegas steel guys giovanni reminds

me that abraham lincoln quote about the internet yeah yeah yeah so what you're talking about in generalities you're just like hey buddy wear a condom i mean like how does that work no no no that was really a joke for colt but no but like do you find it weird when you have to repress culture? I'm not going to, I'm not going to lie. Me growing up in that repressed culture. When we had this talk, it was like a Saturday. We had been out during the day. We had to go to some party and, uh, we came home and I had, I had had a couple drinks. And the kids were like, let's get in the hot tub. And I'm like, all right, cool.

So we fired up. It's at night. And I wound up just sitting there with Hayden, and I was like, you know what? Just feels like the right time to have this chat. You're going to start feeling some things. He's here. I'm here. You're going to start feeling some things. I'm a little lubricated.

I'm good. Let's have the chat. It just kind of went with what do you know, and then how do you feed into what you know, and let's correct what's wrong wrong and let's go from there. How to not get somebody pregnant. Let's start with that one. Yes. And I don't think people realize kids 12, 13 can get pregnant.

You can't. You've got to have this. You've got to have this conversation young, which most people don't. But as a society, especially Americans, sex is so taboo. Brutal. Like just a nipple, right? Like just a boob is you can go to the hotel pool and see a guy with a C-cup walking around.

Big, fat titties, just giant. But all of a sudden a girl walked out. And it's so funny because to me it's like whatever, especially in Vegas. We see some wild stuff in Vegas. Yeah. You know, we see naked people walking around. The trucks going by. Yeah. Yeah. But that, we see naked people walking around. Get on the trucks going by.

Yeah. Yeah. But that's still tame for a lot of other places in the world. No, it is. Oh, absolutely. It's wild in America. This is why we have Las Vegas. This is why we exist.

We were in Amsterdam many, many moons ago. And we're there for my buddy's 40th birthday party. And, you know, my buddy is there. He's gay. He has his husband. And there was a bunch of other of his friends. And my buddy is there. He's gay. He has his husband. And there was a bunch of other of his friends. And we were all there. It came from all over the globe.

They were living in London at the time. And we'd gone to Amsterdam for his birthday party. And nobody had ever been to the red light district. So we're like, let's all go. So we go on a big mob. And here's my wife and Andrew, arm in arm, hammered. Right? Going window to window, like critiquing the women in the window. It's like, oh my God.

Like if I had cellulite that I would never put that on to fly and come up. I'm like, they can hear you. It's not the zoo. This is not the zoo. Doesn't come to life when you say some magic words. It's just brutal. But, yeah, no, it is a very weird, strange culture. And like I said, that's the reason why Las Vegas exists. Now, have you seen Zumanity? I have seen Zumanity. So I thought Zumanity was an utter piece of dog shit.

I thought it was the worst circ ever. Second, then, is Mysteric. Mysteric is kind of like the older one. You know, it's standard. It's just kind of like the older one. It's standard. It's just kind of like the jump off. But Zumanity was a piece of shit, and here's why. It was everything wrong about American repression put into a show meant to be titillating. Yeah, let's run around with dildos.

Oh, look at us. We have dildos. We're crazy. Oh, it's a gay guy, and he kissed a guy. Oh, no. It's just sort of like, I guess if you're in the middle, want to be uh you know geographically insensitive to people's sort of cultures but you know if you're in arkansas and you're a couple and you come to vegas and holy shit look at how open sexually these people are they're swinging fake dildo i found it so inauthentic and so just

uh it was pedestrian it was pedestrian pandering and people come oh my god what a romp what a great show and i just think to myself think of the scale where you think that is something that is risque right it's just my grandma want to go to that with me that would be fun with you yeah she's like can we go see this? I heard it's fun. My girlfriend, like, she did. I'm like, no, Grandma, let's go to a car or something. You're like, yeah, no, no. Let's go to a car. She's like, fuck you, Colt.

I'm going to. Ten years later. Yeah, you little bitch. Yeah, Colt, you little bitch. My grandma. I can totally see your grandmother calling you a little bitch. I can totally see that. My family, they like to party.

I like your grandma. Yeah, no, but you know what I'm saying? Like, we live in a very repressed culture. This is why you go to France and these kids, holy shit, there's naked beaches or there's nipples. And they're just, they couldn't imagine you being hung up on this. We must look like hutterites to them. Oh, and I think it's, I don't know, you see it, like you said,

from Arkansas to the Midwest. Like when you go to Wynn, I go to Wynn a lot and have drinks, and they have a topless pool. You know, just like you said, from Arkansas to the Midwest. Like when you go to Wynn, I go to Wynn a lot and have drinks, and they have a topless pool. You know, just the guy's gawking at a girl. He's just looking around the corner. Okay. All right, but let's talk about that, though. All right, let's talk about that.

The topless, this is in America. If you go to the topless pool at the Wynn, or not the Wynn, but you go to the topless pool at Bear, like Bear Pool at Mirage or Moray Beach Club here, if you're topless at that and here you're thirsty you're just trying to get attention the wind it's not it's not because it's your culture you're accustomed to it whatever i get you're thirsty for it i agree but the wind's not the wind the wind is those europeans yeah that are used to that the The wind is different. I totally agree with that, with Bear and all the other ones that are out there, but

I find it hilarious. I mean, I don't know. I just don't comprehend. A boob's a boob to me, right? Like, I don't know, man. I never understood that. See, I'm going to disagree with that because a boob is not a boob. Somebody's never been to Day Shift Strip

Club in Biloxi, Mississippi. And my friend i will argue because i gotta tell you it's so funny everybody when you talk about strip clubs all right if i'm going to a strip club if i'm going to a strip club if i'm going to go to a strip club and i've always been this way always for whatever reason i've never been i'm not going i'm not going to flirt with girls or even look at the back like i want experience like when i go on a, I'll get in a cab with friends and say, take me to the seediest worst strip club in this city. The glitter gold sugar town. Yes.

In every great, and I've had so many great stories from those bars that are just absolute nightmares to go to that I love. Some of my good friends and I have this running joke because we were driving in, in Quebec. I don't know if you know that is is, but we were at San Salvador. It's in the Canada, right?

In the Canada. In the Canada. San Salvador. For whatever reason, we were driving from San Salvador to Montreal. See, Hooters University paying off again. No, you're basically bilingual. That means something different than you think, Colton. So we're driving.

Ask your grandmother. She'll tell you all about it. At a strip club on the side of a road, on a highway between Saint-Sauveur and Montreal. I love it. And we get there, and it's obviously a biker bar, a Hells Angels bar, because it's a big presence, Hells Angels in Quebec.

And there was like one girl working. It was, bonjour, mon nom est Stéphanie de Bézoil dans Sextile. So it became a joke, like who can can get Stephanie to stop talking to them? It was literally the only bar on the way to. And it's just like, holy shit, you're talking about, you know, there was 12 teeth in there somewhere. I don't remember what order. It was brutal.

And it was still one of the best. And it's not just like demeaning. I'm sure she had tragedy in her life or whatever. But it was that five of us still to this day. It's the story about how bad it was that was fun oh my god well when we come back we're gonna take a quick break when we come back i will tell you the best trip club story i have it's it's awesome all right guys stay with us we'll be right back hey it's john gafford if you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com

where we'll share any links that we have, things we talked about on the show, as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout. KHJ Los Angeles.

Portions of the day's programming are reproduced by means of electrical transcriptions or tape recordings. And we're back. Welcome back to The Power Move. I'm John Gafford. With me, as always, is Chris Connell and Colt Armadon. Before the break, we were talking about strip clubs because, you know, I have this whole array of topics that we need to talk about, right? Like, I have all these things that we need to discuss,

and what do we wind up talking about? Strip clubs. So anyway, the best story I got about strip clubs is this. We're in New Orleans many, many, many, many moons ago. And your phones are ringing. Many, many moons ago we're in New Orleans

and we're there with a bunch of guys. It was during Mardi Gras and this is a long time ago. And we're walking around and one of the guys we're with was named DK and DK had more money than sense.

He owned a couple Harley Davidson dealerships across the Southeast and he just had no sense. So anyway, we're walking down Bourbon Street in the middle of the day, and we walk by the Hustler Club. And DK says to the guy out front of the Hustler, he goes, hey, how much for VIP, which is the second floor of the Hustler Club, and they have a balcony?

The guy goes, well, it'll be like $20 a piece to get up there, blah, blah, blah, two drink minimum, this and that. And there's five of us in this group. And DK goes, no, man, how much for the whole floor? Like I want the whole floor. And the guy goes, huh? He goes, well, we can't really do that. And Mardi Gras, he goes, pulls out about, you know, about a thousand bucks, whatever, shoves it in the guy's shirt pocket and says, take that to your boss. Tell him I want the whole floor. Tell him to tell me how much more it's going to take. So the guy comes back out, they cut some

sort of a deal. They kick everybody out that's up there. And then it's me and my five friends upstairs at the Hustler Club. And of course now, even, you know, during March, even Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street day shift girls are okay. It's not your standard day shift employees. They're okay. And, uh, but they've heard there's some guys with money up there. So of course we have every girl up there and it's there. Now they have a balcony out front that you go through these windows and you're out front over Bourbon street and they're giving us beads to throw to the crowd below. There's a pretty big crowd. Cause like I said, it's during Mardi Gras.

All of a sudden I look around and I've got me, I've got, you know, my other buddies and I'm missing a buddy. I'm like, where the hell is Dallas? Like, where did Dallas go? And I'm like, where did he go? I peeked my head back in. There are four strippers seated around the stage. A buddy Dallas, who is not a looker in any shape or form,

has his shirt off and is crawling like a cat down the stage while they're throwing his own money back at him. Now, keep in mind, keep in mind, at no point did he say, hey, guys, watch this. Hey guys, come check this out. He was in his own little world, saw his own little opportunity to live out his little thing. And he was doing it. He was absolutely there. Who's a fancy girl? Dallas is a fancy girl. It's just, it's stuff like that. That's why I love, if I'm going to go, like I don't want to go to the world's largest

gentleman's club. I want to go to the one under the overpass in Dallas. That's where I want to go. I believe that term's called Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude. Yeah,

because it is going to happen. It is going to happen. But, you know, let's talk about something else that I think is kind of cool and something kind of interesting. I don't know if you guys saw this.

This was bizarre. There was a TikToker that got like 25 million views on this. So he walked up and said he had a homeless guy that was drawing a schematic to a time machine on the side of a building. You haven't seen it. It's crazy. Now it's this dude that's literally, and it's like over the windows, it's like super long and it's a very detailed schematic of this time machine. The guy got 25 million views. Now the reason I want to talk about it, if you haven't seen the video, watch it. It's cool.

But this guy then, kind of then it becomes like this mystery. Oh, I'm going to try to look. I'm going to try to find this thing. I'm going to try to find this. I'm going to try to find that. And what I thought about it was, was, A, it probably was all bullshit. This is like Good Will Hunting, but. With a time machine.

Time machine. And it ends with a portal. And I'm thinking, you you know the only thing i'm going to say about it is it was really good social media because it was something it was kind of like i thought when i when i'm watching this and not because it was a it had some kind of science sci-fi feel to it it's because it reminded me of blair witch when you saw that like you'd never seen anybody do anything like that before. I think this was the first really high quality storytelling I've ever seen in little clips on social media.

Oh, interesting. And I thought, I thought it was so interesting and so well done and I'm sure it's going to wind up being, and this is why you should use Tide Pods is what's going to wind up. Yeah, no,

it's some, some, some gorilla marketing gurus got some got some kid from marketing school. I got an idea. What we can do is we can tug on the heartstrings of people and, you know, that'll get whatever so we can sell more dishwasher detergent. So, I mean, you know, what got me thinking was

what are the best marketing things you've ever seen? Because obviously it's going to wind up being a marketing ploy whenever it was there. It's like, what are some things you've seen that are just unbelievable marketing tools? Well, you know what's funny is that that does remind me of all this stuff. I saw a flash mob video the other day.

And I was thinking, oh, you remember when that was a thing? Yeah. And then all these marketing videos. And then I was like, yeah, what else was like that? I was thinking the ALS, the ice bucket challenge. Yeah. It's just whatever happens, things hit. And then all of a sudden, people try to dig their claws into it, right?

So something that could be really cool and organic and authentic is going to get usurped into some, you know, sort of secondhand faux guerrilla marketing campaign for some guy who's trying to impress his boss. What's like, who makes up the TikTok trends? Like, who does it? God, I sound like I'm 100 years old right now, but is there like one guy in his house, like,

and then I could do this, and then I'll do this, and then do some of this rain-looking thing. Like, bop, bop, do the hand job. And then he puts it out, and, like, three people watch it. He's like, damn it, and he starts again. Back to the lab. I mean, is that how this works? I don't get it.

So one of the ones I saw was the Buss It Challenge. Remember that? I actually looked that up. I'm like, what happened? Buss It? Buss It. I can't believe you don't know. It where you kind of like look all average and then the this drop comes in and you're all like super done oh yeah okay sure so some somebody asked me

something and i get curious i'm just a curious human being so i'm like i wonder how this started i had the same thoughts as you i'm like who thought this was a thing and what was the first instance of who did that first are they copying somebody is it a thing that I don't get? Is it an inside joke? Does TikTok put it out? No, individuals will put a post. They'll have some IG post or whatever. TikTok picks up a lot of like IG trends or whatever. So it just gets absorbed into all the platforms.

And then Facebook's old ass tries to come around the corner. Be like, I'm cool too, kids. Hey, we can do that. I can do cameras and stories. Remember us? Hey. So like this one was just oh this girl was going i think it'd be cool if someone did a glow up on this drop like a girl empowerment thing

i went okay that was the end of a rainbow that was kind of anticlimactic but i found out where it came from so hang on a second colt but he says on the drop it means like on the downbeat of a song when it comes yeah i am the youngest one in this room i am probably the oldest person when it comes to social media because i'm just saying they're like i absolutely hate when i see these 40 year old real estate people dancing around well that's why you don't go to day shift i respect i respect the day shift person better than the uh tiktok there's such a cynical part of me that wants to hate that guy that's fucking dancing and trying to do a viral trend but half this shit makes me smile like it does it does i'm so entertained by people that are actually

just trying to have fun i can be so crusty it's a choice it's it's baffling some of the skill like some of the photoshop skill sets these people have on After Effects, it's like, dude, this is like you're actually really good at this stuff. The internet amazes me as far as how funny people are. How undefeated it is, yeah. Yeah, how undefeated it is. Like the Photoshops, I mean, just our stupid little group. We're pretty good little Photoshoppers, and we have some fun on it.

But that, oh, I can go down a hole on those stupid memes and stuff are hilarious. But the TikTok dancing and the shit like that, I'm like, dude, you're 40 years old. Well, think of that dancing weatherman. What was his name? Nick something. He looks like a buddy of mine. Oh, yeah, yeah. That guy, that Midwest white guy?

Yeah, the dancing weatherman, right? He did these couple viral clips. He's not made enough. He quit his job doing that. Oh, yeah, he's done. And he's, whatever. I'm like, good for you, bro. Good for you.

You are a really good dancer. Yeah, I celebrate it. I respect that, but. Makes me want to dance. I don't know. It's just kind of. I like seeing people that are doing stuff and good at it. I like watching real talent.

You know, I'll get on those reels, and it'll be sports. Dude, it's crazy. And I just, I could sit there for hours. Yeah, it's a black hole. It's a black hole. Well, it's all designed by people that are designed to trap you and keep your attention for as long as they can. Did you watch that documentary?

Yeah, I did see that. That's not good. That was not good. I got to tell you, I had to actually hire somebody. Like, obviously, I've stepped it up a lot on social media. We fired a firm that's helping us with what we're doing, but the content creation and posting was something that was still, I mean, obviously, sitting at work now is content creation,

and the editing is all outsourced, but the actual posting of it was something I was still handling, and I've now outsourced that. And the reason I outsourced it was not because it was taking too much time, but I was just sucked into my phone all day. Cause you post this and you research and you look at it and you're like, Oh, what's that? Oh, what's this? What's that? But what's this? And it was just, it was, it was brutal. And I was like, I got to get out of this. Otherwise it's going to be a problem. I was at that, you know, it just, I had to get out of it.

I couldn't do it. Have you read those stats about how much content is created per like hour compared to it's like x amount of megabytes of gigabytes terabytes of information were produced in the first hundred years of our existence with computer versus like last hour yeah it's like in an hour we create more content than we created in the first hundred years yeah it's a straight hockey see an analogy he understands because the canadian Yeah. Like in an hour, we create more content than we created in the first 100 years. Yeah. It's a straight hockey stick. See, an analogy he understands. The Canadian, the hockey stick up. The hockey stick.

The hockey stick. So the volume of content, we're not supposed to have this much access to information or others. So, you know, this is why I banned my kid from having an iPad and a phone for a while because I could just see it becoming a real problem. And I don't blame her because it's very enticing and it's designed and programmed to be a certain way. I don't know about you guys, but I find times when I literally am flipping through my phone and I feel myself doing it compulsively. Totally. And I'm like, man, I need a dopamine like break. Yeah. Yeah. That's when my phone dies and I plug it in and'm like, man, I need a dopamine like, like break. Yeah. Yeah. That's when my phone dies and I plug it in and I realized, man, I just burned through a battery on

a phone. Then I look at my screen time and I can't tell a lot of it because some of it's work, some of it's this, some of it's that, but most of it, there's a lot of fat. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff and it's just compulsive and the days fly by and you're just kind of so that's why i have to go do things yeah i mean now you know it's a point when we go we go to dinner i hand my wife all the phones i go in the bag and we don't even look at everyone smart we can't it's really good we can't do that um i gotta tell you guys about something i did something so incredibly stupid this weekend if even for me i really want to hear even for me this is epic this is epically stupid for me.

And in here is a great networking tip, too. So I'll give you a great networking tip as we go along within this. I get invited to go down to my buddy Cody Spieber. My buddy

Kobe Bryant. Cody Sperber. Cody Sperber is having his birthday party down at the Wynn. I know, Kobe, Kobe Bryant. No. Yeah. Cody Sperber. Good Lord. Cody Sperber's having his birthday party down at the Wynn. I know, just that one suburban, I'm done. Cody Sperber's birthday party is at the Wynn, and we're headed down there to hang out. I got invited to go down there.

And there was a bunch of people there that I did know, a bunch of people I wasn't going to know. So it's like, all right, there's a networking opportunity. We need to go down and do that. So whenever you're thrust into a situation like that, where you've met some of these people, but not for a long time, and then there's people that you don't know, that's a very dangerous room to wait into. It's a very dangerous room to kind of walk into because here's what happens. So you have to walk this fine line when people talk to you of, I have met you before and

I remember you, or I'm just meeting you for the first time. And it's a razor thin line. This is a Hollywood problem. Yes, it is. It is a, it is a razor thin problem because when you go, so, so I'm going, and this is my, this is my networking tip and why you always want to have a wingman, particularly your wife or spouse. When you go networking, this is epic. This is what we do. This is what we do. So it's not, it's not just a, it's not just a, oh, this is my wife Gidget. And then I reach for the drink because I don't have to know their name because I'm drinking. And then they introduce themselves. That's not what we do. That's, that's, that's, that's kindergarten. That's first level. All right. Still works. What we do is everybody we meet,

she literally will text me their names and something about them so as i introduce her they continue talking to me she grabs her phone and she's texting me their name with something about them so later i can review the notes of what it was what a wingman dude it's the best i'm real gidget that yeah my wife just goes gets hammered no no no that's the best yeah it's the best move ever and why you can remember people. So anyway, I'm thrust in the situation where I'm playing the do I know you, do I remember you, just nice to meet you. And you're saying good to see you. Good to see you.

Always good to see you. Always good to see you. That's one of those things where you say, hey, good to see you. Oh, hey, good to see you. Always good. Like you may be seeing him on social media or you met him. It's good. Always good to see you.

It was great. So anyway, it's fast and furious. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. We only had like an hour there because we're going to go to the Raiders game. It was fast and furious. Bang, bang, bang. And I'm meeting people as fast as I can. And at one point, keep in mind, we're at the pool. So everybody's got sunglasses, hats on, whatever, blah, blah. This guy comes up behind me and he says, hey, man, I saw you from over there. I want to come say. And I'm like, hey, man, how are you? Great to see you. Same thing. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Hang on one second. I'm going to finish

talking to this guy, David, who I was talking about AP watches. And I said, let me hang on a minute. So I turned around and I got back engrossed in this conversation with this guy, David, and I forgot that I was standing there. And then the guy eventually left. Right. And my wife says he left. I finished my conversation and my wife's like that guy left i'm like oh god okay i feel terrible but i kept going bang bang bang meet these people get through it well anyway as i'm leaving uh encore beach club unrelated to that part of story but as i'm leaving encore beach club i'm looking and one of my guys that works for me on my team was there and i was like oh my god dude we were just there like i was just like i text him on his dm i was just there

and he goes yeah okay, okay, cool. And he didn't really respond. We get back and later that night after the Raiders game, my wife goes, I felt so bad for that guy with the beard that you just ignored. And I said, wait a second, what? What are you talking about? She goes, when you were talking to the guy with the watches, a guy walked up that knew you, that said I saw you from across the place,

walked up to talk to you and talk to you. And I said, it instantaneously hit me. And I was like, oh my God. And I pulled up this picture. I said, was it this? Tell me it wasn't this guy. And she goes, it totally was. And the problem was I was going so, Hey, I'm a jerk. There's no question. But I was going so fast and furious about it that it was out of context for him to be standing there in a swimsuit yeah with sunglasses and a hat on and not in a suit and that's what threw me yeah i don't think that one that's not oh god when somebody when somebody you that works for you walks up to you at a social event and you don't remember them how many people work for you how many contexts do you have no no no okay that's where. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta understand there's degrees of working with

me. There's, there's degrees. This guy's like one degree. He's like, but were you in a nine feet away? Yes. But he's like nine feet away from me every day. And it's a guy that works directly with me. And, and it just, I was like, and I talked to him and I was just like, what must you have thought when I was like, oh, I was just there. He was like, well, I thought you were down at one of the cabanas. So, yeah, major football. See, that's one of those things. You can't be expected to always.

Like you said, so when you talk to them after, I assume he was totally fine. Oh, yeah, he's fine. He's fine. But, I mean, that's kind of one of those things. If I'm talking to you and someone comes up, hey, I saw you over there. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I'm you over there. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm doing something here. A little busy.

I'm not like standing there and you come up and I. No, but I send the text like, oh my God, I was just there. Yeah, but it means you knew. We should have gotten together. But it means you're obviously like, you have positive feelings about him if you text him after. Yeah. So it's not like you knew it was him. Oh, that's a good way to spin it. It's like, see, I wouldn't have, if I didn't like you, I wouldn about him if you text him after yeah so it's not like you knew it was him that's a good way to spin it it's like see i was i wouldn't be if i didn't like you i

wouldn't even if i didn't like you i wouldn't give him a shit yeah i can't pick you out of a lineup of two people apparently your sunglasses on your your shorts your hat i didn't know it was you i thought it was some random person i never met and social media social media has made that where you don't there's such a fine line. Do I know these people? Do I really know them or do I not know them? Right? Like I was at the – I was having drinks at the country club, and some girl was like, Colt, Colt, Colt.

And I'm like, okay. And I'm like sitting there, and I'm like, who the hell was that? She's like, give the right to remain silent. But no, she sat there, and after she came up, it was like, kid's gorgeous, everything. I'm like, I don't know who this is and then like maybe maybe a minute and a half into it she goes i'm so embarrassed i don't know you actually i just know you through social media but that's you know and so that's reality you know

well i think but that's the i think i think that's the power of social media if you do it right because if you do it right like when people come to talk to us to join the company they're like oh my god i feel like I already know you. Because I'm not faking it. This is who I am, good, bad, and ugly. When you see my social media stuff, it's not showtime for me when I put that on. That's just who I am.

Totally agree. But like I said, I'm also one of those people that empathize that other people have lives. We were at, after the Raiders game, my wife and I walked to a place to get something to eat real quick down the street. Did that exist? Yeah, no, it's called the Tailgater real quick down the street. Did that exist? Yeah.

No, it's called the Tailgater Bar. I've never been there. It's right on Russell, right down from the stadium. And we live just up the street. Yeah. So, you know, P.T.'s was closed because it was after 10 for some reason. P.T.'s, you better watch out for this Chili's. Chili's.

You're getting on the list. Not done with you Chili's. You thought you were going to get away from a segment. I saw a guy in the bar that I knew and I'm like, do I know him from social media only, or have I actually met him? I feel like I met him, but I don't know. So I walked by him. So I just walked by.

He was talking to a girl. I'm like, hey, good to see you. I just walked by and just kind of got the nod or the wink. I don't know if he knows me now. Looking back on it, I kind of went through that same thing. Because this is a guy I know. I have positive feelings about him. Yeah.

I didn't walk to the other side of the street when he was coming. But I'm so Canadian that everybody's a friend until they're your enemy. Right. You know what I mean? I think social media does that. I was just at an event, and I do not go to these types of events. Neither does John. And I was approached by a lot of people.

You know what? I'm going to talk about that event. I am going to talk about that event a little bit because here's the deal. I felt terrible about that because here's the truth of it. I always talk about I don't go to a lot of realtor events because no realtors are ever going to do business with us, buy houses from us. I don't understand why people would love to do that. But this weekend, three of our people got awards for top 40 under 40.

Out of the 19,700 realtors or whatever it was, three of our people got awards for top 40 under 40, the top four out of the 19,700 realtors or whatever it was, three of our people were recognized. And that's amazing. And I didn't know, like, I, I, it's not like I knew it was, I just wanted to know. It's not like I knew that was happening and blew it off. I had no clue. Like I said, I think I text you and I was like, bro, I totally would have gone to support you. And I know you would have, but I think we have that same mentality. I think John and I, and I think Chris, you, I totally would have gone to support you. And I know you would have. I totally would. But I think we have that same mentality. I think John and I and I think Chris, you're probably the same, right? Like, if we're going to go out, we're going out with friends.

Do you want to go hang out with a bunch of attorneys? Is that your dream? I do it because here's the weird thing. I don't mind meeting strangers. Like, Caitlin hates it. I'll be sitting at the bar. I'll talk to this person. Because I genuinely am curious to see.

Now, a room full of realtors that are trying to get my business or think that they're networking. No, no, no, no, no, no. But is there such a thing as networking with a bunch of attorneys? Maybe because you guys refer cases possibly. There is. We refer each other stuff. And here's the thing.

If I don't know the area of law and you're cool with me, I'll send you business. Yeah. So that doesn't really happen with realtors. Realtors don't send other realtors business. Now, I'll send realtors business because there's stuff that I'm conflicted or Caitlin's conflicted out of or you or whatever, right? I need someone in a probate case who's neutral that they'll agree to or whatever, right? I think, you know, one of them works for you.

So, yeah, at the end of the day, I'm good to know people because a lot of times the shoe doesn't always fit for the same people, right? Yeah, I agree with that. My greatest, oh, right? Yeah. I agree with that. My greatest. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, no. I was going to say I totally agree with that. But you are that. Chris is that person that you do.

I mean, you love going and meeting people. You are somebody that loves to absorb as much information, as much meeting people as everything. I don't know if there's anybody I've met that absorbs like you do. I'm the opposite. To me, I'm either hanging out with my really close friends or there needs to be a chance of making money off of you. And that applies for me. No, no, no. I will say this, though.

If you open your network, you open, you know, the more hands you shake, the more money you make, as my buddy Brad Lee always says. But I'll say this, man. You did something in the networking event that I took you to that night that proved my point. When I go out to eat with, especially if it's just me and Gidget, I try to eat at the bar as much as I can. Because you just never know who you're going to wind up sitting next to.

You never know who you're going to meet. Never know. If you sit at a table across from your wife, I get it if it's an anniversary or if it's a special event, you want to really focus in on each other, that's great too. But me and my wife talk to each other all day, every day. You know what I mean? So if we're just going out, especially if we're just like, oh, let's just eat at this steakhouse. Let's just grab a bite.

Let's do something. And it's not like an event. Try to sit at the bar. Because when you sit at the bar, you never know who you're going to meet. I mean, just sitting at the bar. Sitting at the bar. We went to Virgin the other night. We went to the steakhouse.

And we sat at the bar because John O'Donnell is a friend of ours. And he was waiting on us. And sitting there, met the ceo and president of the smith center and i met the head of henderson planning commission so for my business pretty good guy i know over here and just in general pretty good guy i know over here both of them super lovely people and we had a great time and we never would have been exposed to them or met them had we not sat at the bar you didn't call their office cold call them and go no you met them authentically i just i bumped into i bumped into the bar yeah organic and authentic meetings with people at random places are the

best are the best because if i meet someone at a bar and they're cool and you talk about your kids talk about things that oh what do you do um this oh shit i'd probably talk to you one day about something else right but now there's that actual connection that's very important to me the guy from the smith center and the best line ever he goes we're talking about baseball because some people from st louis came in and i said st louis from with the cardinals talking about this and that and this guy goes oh yeah i actually played a season for the st louis cardinals i'm like why i'm thinking that's such an outlandish thing to say that like nobody

would make that up especially a middle-aged man that is successful as the CEO and president of the Smith Center and Myron goes just like this

he goes yeah I played a season for the St. Louis Cardinals yeah I played there and I'm like wow what did you play he goes Oregon

I was like that's funny dude best story ever and it was true he's like yeah I played he was not meh meh meh that was him he did that for his first season I thought that was dude, best story ever. And it was true. He's like, yeah, I played. He was the meh, meh, meh.

That was him. He did that for us per season. I thought that was such a great story. I think it's cool, especially in Vegas. I played for them. That's funny. He did play for them. Which he does, right?

But I think Vegas is great that way. I think you can meet some very, very unique individuals here that, you know, I was sitting there having a scar one day day and some old guy kept wanting to talk. Finally, I started talking with him. And that guy used to, he wanted to create this business and no one would invest in him. So we started flying coke for the Colombian cartel. I'm like, what the?

I'm like, this is such a bullshit story. Probably not a great career move. No. Trade school. No. Guys worth $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 million. I call somebody and I go. not a great career move. Trade school. A guy's worth $500,000, $600,000, $700,000. I call somebody and I go... Wait, is he worth that much from

flying coke for the cartel? No, no. This is not a good endorsement for kids. So the guy came up he's got books on it so I'm not afraid to say his name. I don't know his name but... The views of Colt Amidon do not reflect... I'm not afraid to say his name because I don't know his name.

I don't know. But, no, he created like the first workout machine. Guy's worth a ton. He's written books about it. And, yeah, I mean, just the uniqueness. If I'm in the middle of Idaho or Utah, I'm not meeting a guy like that. And that's why I love Vegas because you do meet genuine. You never know.

But the problem is how many people are so collapsed in on their own little circle that they have that they don't put themselves out to meet anybody new? I think that's why my wife begrudgingly likes hanging out with me sometimes because, for example, we went to Spain. We ran with the Bulls back a couple years ago. And I go to a bar in Madrid. We're not talking about in Spain. Start talking to these guys.

Oh, start making some bullshit up. Try my hacky Spanish, talk in English, whatever. They're so cool. They're like, hey, why don't you guys come with us to this next bar? Sure. We go and meet some of their friends. And then we're drinking. And then the next bar.

And then next, go to one of the coolest bars ever. At this point, these are like my best friends all of a sudden. You know, these Spanish people. I don't know shit about them. At 3 in the morning, that bar closes down. He goes, let's go back to my bar. I'm going to reopen it. Reopens his bar. It's 4 or 5 in the morning.

We're partying. You're like Bert Kirshner. You're the machine. Yeah, we're like the machine at this point. Caitlin is having the best night of her life. She is just thrilled. Because the guys we're with love her. And they're like these cool guys.

And so this guy opens up the kitchen, starts making tapas for Caitlin, like literally food for just us over here. All these other people partying. It was the best night ever. And then the guy goes, hey, you guys are going to Morocco tomorrow. Here's the guy. Let me call my buddy, whose parents own some facilities in Morocco. They own three mega resorts in Morocco.

We go there. This guy hooks us up, gets us camel rides on the property. We go hang out. It made the trip so much more, first off, less scary for Caitlin who hasn't traveled to Africa. Yeah. And also just enjoyable hanging out with some cool guy and meeting him. And he teaches us how to manage the souks of Morocco.

Everything in here is $20. If they want to charge you a dollar more, they're full of shit. But having that insider scoop, right? And that's all from just going, hanging out at a bar, sitting there, and chatting with one bartender at this tiny little club, this tiny little place in Madrid. Dude, I love the straw market. I don't care what country around the globe.

Take me to the straw market. Take me to that. It's essentially the flea market at different country around the globe. Take me to the straw market. Take me to that. It's essentially the flea market at different parts of the world. From the time my kids were like five years old, we would go to cruises and we'd be at Jamaica. And there's the dude there making the carved knife with your name in it, the weird knife that's there. And I'm straight telling my son, I'm like, look, you go over there and say what you want for it. No matter what he says, just say all I have is $5. All I have is $5.

I mean, teach him. That's the best place to teach business to kids on the planet is, and if you're like, well, I'm not going to Jamaica, just go to the flea market. It's the same thing. Teach your kids how to buy things at the flea market. I do. And it's the best thing you can do.

It's such a great thing. I tell them all the time, go negotiate. Don't you dare. Yeah, here's $7, but you better come back with $2 and whatever you're supposed to buy. I got a friend one time. We did that in Canal Street in New York City. My buddy had never been to New York, and he's just the nicest Canadian guy.

All I want is a fake Gucci belt. Even better. Even better. Guy goes over. He sees this Batman belt for $15. Batman, just a silly, cheap belt. He wants his Batman symbol. So he goes, and he's like, oh, I want it. I'm like, offer him $10. He'll take it.. So he goes and he's like,

oh, I want it. He goes, I'm like, offer him 10. They'll take it. Just don't be a stooge. Don't be a goof and take, you know, take their price. You can get it for 10.

So he's like, I'll give you 10. He's like, guys, no, no, won't take it for 10. Won't take it for 10. Guy would go eat. Literally, I swear to God, this is the only person on earth this could happen to.

We go eat lunch. He goes, you know what? I just really want that belt. I just really want the belt. I said, just go get the belt then, stupid. Like, go get the belt. He's pining over about the Batman belt? Pining over the Batman belt.

He really wants it. He goes back and comes back. I go, who pines over the Batman belt? Colt would pine over the Batman belt. No, no, no, no. We were in our early 20s. I think you probably would. He goes, I say, so what did you get him down to?

He goes, well, he said now it's 20. Because now you want it.. $20 for it? Because now you want it. Now you want it. He's got you. Now he's got him. Oh, man. To this day, I just go like, oh, God.

Talk about the worst negotiation of all time. The walk away slash take away close only works if you're really willing to walk away. It doesn't work other than that. Coming back. If they don't chase you down the street no that's you 15 i'll pay you 17 i'll take 20 no that's the greatest response to take away because like that's too much you leave how much was it oh 17 that was yesterday's price now it's 20 no it's 20 and he came went back and bought it he'll go well i'm just like it's not about five5. It's about your dignity as a man. Negotiating.

Again, invest in skills. Learn to negotiate. These are basic life skills. People think I need to be able to negotiate to settle a court case or buy a house. Dude, you use it every day. Batman Belt. Had he read Chris Foss' book? Maybe.

Maybe. He would have gotten it for $11. Maybe he gets it for $11. I get it for $11. You got it for $20. he gets it for 11. Yeah, I get it for 11. You got it for 20. It's really hard to say which way that goes. But at this point, I don't know. So, guys, again, I hope you liked what we do.

If you do, make sure you subscribe to it wherever it may be. And, yeah, if you like it, tell somebody. If you don't like it, tell three people because it doesn't matter if they're talking. It's when they're good or bad. It's when they stop talking that it matters. You're welcome, Chase. It's like Cat Williams says. That's it. If you ain't got nobody to hate on, you can hate on me.

I'm doing life wrong. That's it. See you next time, guys. 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.