MI297: The Wedding Venue Blueprint w/ Alex Nelson

24:59But like, we were like hoping in the back of our minds, like we hope we can like spend this money because we're going to need it probably. But like, they didn't want to know that. So it was messy for sure. It was definitely super stressful. We had went from one builder and then they, their like main guy had like left and they were like trying to farm it out to a different GC. So they are like bringing in a GC to manage. So they're both taking GC cuts, two of them. So then we left them, we went to another builder. And then the main guy we were working with there, he left and started his own company.

25:28And then we became good friends with him. He partnered with a local guy that had a big insurance company. And he ultimately ended up helping us fund it through construction. And then we bought it back from them after. So we locked in a conventional loan that way. But so insane. We always only planned on doing the SBA route. None of this would have happened if we didn't spend the money, do everything and go down this crazy path. But we ended up looking, we locked it in at 3.25, I think, versus the SBA was going to be 5.5 at that point. But that's a floating rate, right? So that would be 10, 11 % now, which is insane.

26:02So yeah. So I want to make sure I understand. It was like the construction guy teamed up with this insurance character in town who had the money to fund you. almost like a bridge loan, the construction took place. And then you found a bank and got a conventional loan? Yeah, he essentially went and got a loan. Yeah, he just got a conventional loan basically based off his personal financial statement. They didn't care what was going on in this building because he's a well-known name around here and a big insurance company. And then he's known to invest in young entrepreneurs and all this stuff. So he basically just wanted to help us out.

26:37And then we set up a lease to purchase kind of agreement there after the fact to kind of get us through like the construction and like the early year. Got it. So a lot going on. I mean, you've got married. I think you had a kid. You've got two remote jobs that you're doing. Your wife is a teacher. You're managing this project. Talk to me about that. Just like how you like, and look at in retrospect, how did you manage all that? Yeah. Insane, stressful. Yeah. A lot of sleepless nights, to be honest. But yeah, I think COVID hit. My wife was teaching. We started this process. Once we knew it was locked in and it was going decently well, we're taking deposits and she ended up leaving teaching and then everything got delayed and then she got pregnant.

27:20So we had our first kid in the meantime of all this going on and that and then we finally got it built. And then now we just had our second kid. So yeah, I was doing two remote jobs at the time and managing this and then I dropped one of them and kept the other one for a while. And the goal was like always to like not have to take a ton of money out of the business. I mean, like to live off that, like we wanted to build up a nice cash position and not really touch these deposits until later. So honestly, I just left my other W2 and now focusing on going down like the consulting route and partnering with other venues and trying to create this like hold code eventually of venues underneath us and creating a model there.

27:57So I've always seemed to have like multiple things going on and I don't really see it changing anytime soon. I kind of want to go down this route of having multiple businesses and partnering with operators and doing all that. We'll definitely get into the holding company. I want to dive further into that later on here. But I just wanted to kind of just stick with when you guys were really hands on with the design and day to day. Were you there checking things out as the construction was going on? Like how hands on were you during the process? Or did you just leave it up to the GC to say like, I trust you.

28:26Good luck. Yeah, no, definitely super hands on. We had like a good idea and path of like what we wanted to do design wise. And like we had some time since things kept getting delayed. But ultimately, things did end up changing like during the build. But yeah, we live probably 15 minutes from the venue. So we were there daily looking at things, changing things and so many changes and change orders and an unbelievable amount of stuff I learned during construction in that development process. Our GC was great. He definitely had an eye for design as well, which was super helpful. And then he could kind of help us with that.

28:57And then we focused on like the wedding end of it and like the flow and how things were going to work and all of this. And I would say during the time, we thought we built this like perfect venue. Like we thought through like every single aspect and every little thing. We thought we'd give ourselves probably like an A plus on the build. Now that we've been open for a year, I'd say maybe more like a B plus. There's things just like after the wedding, like after you like see weddings happening and like things going on. It's like, oh man, like it seems so obvious now, right? But like, and you just don't know until like actual events and people, you're getting 300 people in there on a Friday.

29:26and then getting them out and getting another 300 people in there for the Saturday and maybe another 300 for the Sunday. So a lot of slips and processes and systems in place now. But yeah, we were very hands-on and try to think through everything. And now kind of hitting on like, we're focused on like helping others do the same thing and kind of realizing those things that we didn't realize early on. So when you did the design, I wanted to hear about some of the things that you, you've got some cool aspects to it. I looked at the photos that you've got on Twitter. It's really cool. Can you talk to us about just some of the features of it you think make it stand out?

29:59Yeah, definitely. So if you're looking at our building from the road, we have the main structure in the middle, which is the grand hole. And then we have two big wings. And those wings house, the getting ready suites, right? So one side is geared towards the guys. It's the groom suite. The other side is the girls. So we knew we wanted the suites on opposite ends of the building. When we got married, the place didn't even have a groom suite. I got ready at that buddy's house that lived close by. And then we showed up to the venue. And of course, the girls are late getting ready. So we had to sit in the parking lot and wait for the girls because my wife and I were doing our first look.

30:30So it's like we knew we wanted a groom suite. And then we knew we didn't want them anywhere near each other. We've been to other venues where the suites are back to back. And that makes no sense because you're trying not to see each other kind of thing. So they're opposite ends of the building, which made the building have this cool winged look from the street. So we felt like that was something that we'd never seen before. and no other venue had done that. Most of them are just like big rectangle boxes, basically. So that was cool. And then off the back end of the building and off the back of the Grand Hall, we have like big sliders.

30:59They're like bifold doors that open all the way up. So the whole back half of the building opens way up and then that goes like straight to the covered patio area. Another thing was when we got married, it was mid-summer, it was July, and everyone was sweating bullets, right? So we knew we wanted the ceremony spot to be covered. So we have like a big, like almost 3 ,000 square foot covered patio off the back And then off to like the side of the building, we have like a cool like courtyard area where you can have like a cocktail hour spot where we have fire pits and we put like bags and like a big connect four.

31:27And then we have like a putting green and like a waterfall feature. And then the guys, the groom suite is like right off this like area as well. So like the guys can get ready in the morning. They're hanging out in the groom suite and then go out, hang out by the fire pits. You know, use the putting green and all that while the girls are still on the opposite side of the building and can't see them or anything. And we made a cool like outdoor area for the bridal suite side too. Yeah. I think I saw a poker table too in the groom's room. Yeah. Yeah. That's always a big hit. I think we've got the poker table.

31:55We've got like a shuffleboard in there now, a TV, you know, a bar cart, like whiskey decanter and fridge and everything. So yeah, we really tried to focus in on the suite and appeal to the couple, right? That's like who's booking it. The parents might be paying for it, but it's ultimately the couple. So yeah, we tried to add some cool elements. So when a couple comes to you, they're doing the ceremony, the dinner, like a dance afterwards, all right there, correct? Right. Yeah, I would say like 95 % of our couples are doing everything on site or on location. So ceremony, usually into some sort of like cocktail hour, maybe they live in a party bus, maybe they don't.

32:31And then into like the actual reception, dinner, all that. You know, it used to be everyone get married at church and then you just need like a space for reception. But I think that's why the industry is like changing is like everyone wants these in all in one place, right? Like you don't want guests having to travel like 15, 20 minutes from the hotel to the church and then back in between. It's just like wasting a lot of time. And the day already goes fast enough that like everything being in one place is just better and more efficient. Let's get into like the food and alcohol part of it. Food and beverage.

32:59Are you guys handling that too? Or do you guys farm that out? Talk to me about how you handle that process. Yeah. So we don't do the food. We never wanted to do the food. We had no experience there. So we have like what you call like a prep kitchen. So no ovens, no microwaves. So the caterers will cook the food off-site, bring it to our place, prep and serve kind of thing. Couples are free to bring in whatever caterer they want. And then we do all the alcohol. So alcohol has to be bought through us. We have a liquor license and all the insurance behind that. So we allow them to buy it through us.

33:27And we have different packages and they can customize it from there. But I would say for anyone that's thinking about building a venue, and I've talked about the industry as a whole, I'd say when the standalone venues first started popping up, they were mostly just doing the rental. like maybe like BYOB, bringing in your own alcohol. And as things have changed and construction prices have gone up, interest rates are high. I would highly, highly recommend like at least bringing the alcohol in-house just because like that's another like 40, potentially 50 % of your revenue. Like go on my Twitter, look at my share of our numbers and all of our revenue numbers.

33:59Like you can see the big impact alcohol has. And I think that's the way things are going to trend. Like, yes, people like bringing in their own alcohol and that BYOB option, but I think they're going to get phased out just from a cost perspective. it's a big building they're expensive a lot of expenses more than people think so yeah would highly recommend so what is a liquor license cost in iowa not bad i think ours is like 900 bucks for the year so we did ask that question a lot like was it hard to get is it like expensive you know and it's like the answer is like no it was pretty easy like since we're like in the right zoning we obviously built new so we followed all the codes and everything as far as that you know and you have to have like the right sinks and follow like the health code structure and stuff but they help guide you through that process so it was pretty straightforward applying for that and getting approved and that's definitely something you can scope out ahead of time like and go to the county who's going to approve you like hey like we want to do this like can we get a liquor license like they should tell you like you have to do x y and z so yeah definitely something people are like scared of and nervous of but it's really not that big of a deal a lot of times i know different states like california and stuff they only have like certain number of liquor license and you have to like buy the existing liquor license from someone and then they like getting bidding wars and they're like 250k or something crazy like that so yeah that's a different ballgame i would say but i would assume there's some way to navigate it hopefully yeah 900 bucks sounds pretty reasonable and i mean honestly like alcohol sales it seems like a no-brainer to do to make it be part of it i mean i know there's probably management stuff and you know there's headaches from it yeah there's work behind it and whatnot.

35:33But in an ultimately, I think the couple of lakes, you know, maybe it costs them a little bit more, but like there's a service behind it, right? Like they don't have to bring in these tons and tons of cases of beer, wine and stuff like that. They just get to show up and it's there and, you know, we serve it for them and they can buy whatever they want or different kinds of things. So. So it's, you said it's what 40 or 50 % of revenue in a night, the alcohol sales? Yeah. Our rental prices right now for like 2023, like a Saturday is like 6 ,500 bucks. Friday is like 5 ,500. And then we'll see the bar do anywhere from three to, I think we did one that was like eight grand last week.

36:08So yeah, they can definitely surpass like the rental fee. And then obviously we have to buy the alcohol and there's a cost there and associated with that, but you're looking at 65 to 70 % margin on those. So it's crazy. Yeah. That's huge margins. So talk to me about the bar. I thought the bar was pretty cool layout. Was that part of your design or who came up with that? Yeah, it was the grand hall is obviously for sitting people and everything and you kind of have to keep it pretty neutral so it can fit anyone's colors and stuff. But the only like real things that like stick out are like the chandeliers.

36:38So we kind of went out a lot on those we have like eight huge six foot diameter chandeliers and then the bar was like the staple or like the focal point kind of thing. So yeah, we designed that on the side of the slide that got pushed off until pretty much last you know, it was like something you could frame out and build at a later time. And like I said, our construction timeline got squeezed down. So it got pushed like it was always there in the plans, you know, at the plumbing stubbed out and stuff. But it probably didn't get built out until like the last three weeks, four weeks kind of thing.

37:06Like I kind of have to showing up soon. So you better frame this on, get a build and then, yeah, figure out how to design it well. And we did like a pretty cool like arched mirror kind of thing. But yeah, that was a last minute sign too and got a custom made. So it turned out great. It's cool. I want to say it's 18 foot long, you know, waterfall edge kind of thing. So you're running it Friday, Saturday. Are you doing Sunday events too? We do. They're not like super duper popular. This weekend's like a holiday weekend. So Sunday is booked out, you know, Labor Day, Memorial Day. Those Sundays usually go.

37:39And then like popular months for us are like June and September. So we'll see some more Sundays then. Usually a bit more like chill crowd and maybe smaller wedding kind of thing. So I want to say we have like seven or eight this year. Hopefully maybe we'll get some more next year. We also have like a church that rents out our space on Sundays. They came and approached us and asked and they're willing to work around our weddings. They were renting out a different space. They've never really had a home base. So now they feel like this is their home and we don't have anyone work those events. We have a good relationship with them now.

38:08So they just have key. They come in, set up, tear down, do everything themselves. So they're not paying a huge rental fee every week, but it adds up to$20 ,000 over the year, I think. So definitely nice to fill in the gaps there just because obviously otherwise Sundays would be sitting empty. So let's, I wanted to get into the management of it. How are you and your wife handling that? How hands-on are you guys, are you behind the bar? You know, are you, talk to me about just how you guys are managing the project. Yeah, we were super hands-on at the beginning. It's like, we always figured like, how can we hire and train people?

38:38Like when we haven't even done it ourselves. So we opened in October. So it was kind of nice that we opened in October. We had like every Friday, Saturday booked in October and every Friday, Saturday booked in November up until like Thanksgiving. And then we had like a New Year's Eve wedding. So we had like 15 weddings or so and we're like all right like we're gonna be super hands-on we'll figure out everything during this time frame and then like come next year we can kind of start outsourcing and hiring out things and i think we had we had two other employees otherwise my wife and i pretty much worked every wedding we'd work friday saturday back-to-back days like 16 17 hour days that first stretch and it was a lot it was tiring but we learned a lot and that allowed us kind of build out some systems and hire and knew what we want to hire for and who we want to hire and one of our first employees that we hired and she ended up she actually just reached out to us she ended up being turning into like our venue manager now and now we have like 10 part-time girls on rotation that work weddings and then we actually outsource our bartenders to another company that does all the bartending for us like we do all the alcohol ordering and kind of teed up for them and they just show up on the day of and do bartending but yeah pretty hands-off now so that's kind of allowed me some time to you know kind of focus on the bigger picture and kind of see what's next and start getting into that.

39:48Let's take a quick break and hear from today's sponsors.

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43:12All right, back to the show. Let's get into that. I want to get into what's next. I know you're doing some advising of other people that are interested in wedding venues. We'll get into Twitter and the outreach that or people that are reaching out to you. Talk to me a little bit about like the advising aspect of what you're doing and maybe some projects that you're involved in right now. Right. You know, I thought long and hard about this and what I wanted like our next steps to be. And, you know, we get asked all the time, like, are you going to build another one? Are you going to do this or that?

43:41And for a short while, we wanted to build like a hotel next door to our venue and maybe put it like a second event space in there and like have like a restaurant out space from us. And we kind of went down that path, but then like interest rates skyrocketed, right? And we're like, do we really want to go take on, you know, five,$7 million worth of debt there too. So we kind of got spooked and kind of put it on hold. And really, we're trying to focus on getting the venue operating efficiently and what we want to do next. And we learned it's a lot to manage these venues. It is a real business. A lot of people think like, oh, you're so lucky you throw up this building and get a charge six, seven grand for it and make all this alcohol sales.

44:12But like, you know, we have a lot of people working for us now, a lot of processes, things going on. So our plan was never really to go build like 10 of these and manage it ourselves. we always wanted to find like operators to partner with we feel like we are obviously pretty hands-on we live nearby like finding someone like us that wants to be hands-on at first and you know you can build out a team build out a manager and stuff but like you live near the area you're gonna like know your market and area better than like we probably ever could figure out or learn or do so it's kind of been like our strategy and the way we're doing that is like i got on twitter and within like five months i blew up i've probably had i'd have to go back and look but i'm talking like 150 200 people reach out to me saying, you know, Hey, I've thought about building a venue.

44:52And not everyone's serious, of course, but I've had tons of serious people, you know, so I've kind of created this model of like, Hey, we'll charge you like an upfront fee, like consulting wise, we'll, we'll talk through like everything from A to Z, we'll talk about your business plan, you know, we'll work on projections, look at your location, look at your building plans, think through like the flow of the building, all this stuff to get you up until construction or like through construction is kind of what that fee will get you. And then if you want like more help on the back end. We'll partner with you and maybe come up with an equity split or a rev share agreement.

45:21And we'll continue to help you on the operations. We'll put systems and processes in place for you and teach you what we learned about and maybe take on some back office tests for you as far as lead generation and things like that. And we're slowly building out a team that can support that on that end. We have probably close to 10 projects going right now. They're all pre-development for the most part. One, we're trying to help someone acquire a venue. Most of them are going to be new builds. So a lot of moving pieces already. So try to build out the team and help. And we probably have proposals out to another 15, 20 people that I hope another half those sign on.

45:55It's a big commitment and a big thing, but lots of things going. So when you say build out the team for that part of it, what do you mean by that? What kind of people are you hiring? What do you need help with? Yeah, definitely. I just can't do it all myself now anymore already, which is crazy. So building out, ideally, we'll have someone helping jump on these sales calls with me, essentially, and locking these venues down and getting to book with us on the consulting side. And then we need someone more on the back end, on the ops side, that's going to help them with lead flow, help them with marketing, help them with all this and their processes and systems.

46:30And so honestly, a small team at the top of hopefully this hold Co that has like equity into some of these, you know, and we're also looking at adding an additional partner that'll bring some capital. So like we were potentially going to like co-invest with some of these venues. So if we co-invest have equity, and then we're also going to be partnered with them to help them on the backend and get this like revenue share agreement going. So then we'll have like reoccurring revenue from these venues also hold equity. And then we'll have like more like the active income of just like the consulting and the fees on that front end of it.

47:00So kind of like a three added monster kind of there of income coming in. And then we also, we're looking to actively acquire other venues or unique properties. It's just tough right now. It's hard to get anything to pencil. And honestly, a lot of these venue owners are just pretty unrealistic, right? They're usually mom and pop kind of people like they built it from scratch. You know, they're very connected to these properties and it's hard because they're valuing it. Like, you know, they're thinking like the real estate's worth X and then they're thinking like the business is worth X, but it's like the whole thing's only really worth like what it makes.

47:30Like you can't value both of them, you know? So they're putting like three, 5 million bucks on these things and they don't even have like an NOI of like three, 400K, you know? So it's like, how are you going to go take a$4 million loan and pay two, 300K a year right now for it? So you've got a ton going on. What's your average day look like? You don't have a full-time gig anymore, I take it. Right. No, don't have that anymore. So drop the kid off at daycare, come home. The wife has a newborn she's home with. So work from home, ideally, you know, but sometimes running back and forth to the venue, doing small things, dropping things off, hopping on a lot of calls, and then trying to do market research and help people with their business plans and numbers right now on the consulting side.

48:12So yeah, crazy. I'd be lying to say if I wasn't running around with my head cut off, but it's kind of what we've proven to be good at is just figuring it out as we go kind of thing. And I'd imagine like this model that we have in our head might end up changing a little bit, but it's a general direction that we're trying to do. And luckily, there is not a ton of people in the space. It's pretty niche. And I think we can kind of get ahead of the curve. And there's not like a ton of these like big key firms buying up a ton of venues and doing all this, right? It's mostly like people starting them themselves.

48:40So I think I just listened to the podcast where Nick Huber came on and he said for his advisor, someone starting out early, focus on businesses that are even more niche. And they're real estate, but heavy on the operations. And I feel like this is exactly that. So yeah. Yeah, that's a good point he made. And yeah, it seems like you guys have found a great niche and running with it. I wanted to hear a little bit. I saw you tweet a little bit about this golf course that you're looking to maybe acquire as a project. Talk to me about that, how it's going, what intrigued you about looking into it further and just any other investments that you're trying to make.

49:17Sure. Yeah, and kind of just like zooming out, we built ours, it's just the venue. But I would say a lot of the projects that we're working on now, they want to add short-term rentals, they want to add glamping, they want to add other things that are going to drive in more income too. And I think that's great. You're almost building these mini resort type properties, right? I mean, they're super cool and unique and I think that'll continue to drive people in. So then you kind of look back, it's like, all right, what else can kind of be in that like niche. And then it's like golf courses, you know, they have like their own revenue, but like, they also have event spaces, they could make like super pretty backdrops.

49:47So like they should and could be doing a ton of weddings, you know, wineries, they can be, I think they're more pivoting to doing most their income is coming from like weddings and events, because it's just hard to make money on the wine. So looking at those kinds of things, and I had always kind of want to have been fascinated with these like unique properties. So yeah, we came across a golf course in our area, and that's for sale. so we can have some of our existing team manage it, bring on some buddies in the area that love golf. And of course, they want to own the golf course. So we're going down that rabbit hole.

50:14It's a long process. So we're going back and forth a lot. And the numbers don't entirely pencil out. So we're doing a seller financing deal. So they just countered back to us recently. And I've been sharing all the numbers and will continue to on Twitter. But so we need to get back to them and we'll see how it works. But the idea is that COVID hit and they basically stopped doing events. They were doing a little bit and they'll just stop. So we're hoping to come in, revamp the event space a little bit and think through the wedding packages that they have and hopefully bring some additional income.

50:44Maybe it's smaller weddings. Maybe it's just other events. But it's in our area of expertise. And then hopefully, the golf's hot right now. And that's maybe the biggest hesitancy is, is it going to stay hot kind of thing? So yeah, but we're going to keep all the staff and the maintenance guys and those guys on board if we do acquire it on the golf side and then really just focus on Like, even if we can add just like 100 or 200K of revenue on the event side, like it's going to make a huge difference. Yeah. The place where my wife and I got married, it's a golf club and like an event, you know, wedding event space.

51:17And I think it's the wedding event space that like really kills it. Like I said, they're booked out for, you know, the next year at least, more so if not. And then the golf club, you know, I think does well, but it's, you know, I don't know if it's as good as the wedding venue. But I think two of them together do pretty well. yeah i think traditionally golf courses didn't do very well until like maybe covet hit in the last few years and you can really see on this golf course too like the number is really ramped up so that that's maybe like the scary thing is is it gonna dip again but yeah i think there's a big a big need a big hole a lot of these golf courses are doing events and you know they have the land they have the property they're beautiful spending tons of money on landscaping and things like that so i think it's a no-brainer there there's a big need there right and is that in iowa the golf course?

52:01Yeah, that is 20, 25 minutes away from us. So I wouldn't be far. So that's kind of what's appealing. You know, if it was super far away, I don't know if I'd swing for the fences on a golf course quite yet. I would say like, I like these unique properties and these like mini resort type properties almost, but it's close to home. So it makes it a little easier. I just did an episode with a guy named Ben Wolf and he, I think his Twitter handle is unique stays or unique stays guy or something. But I've got to be careful about, I kind of fall pray to shiny object syndrome, like talking to him, I was like, he's got these super high end tree houses and, you know, really awesome, unique stays that he's got.

52:37And I talked to you, I've got, you know, I'm like, Oh, wedding events. Do you ever like being on Twitter? Do you ever fall pray to any of that? Like just looking at other asset classes or anything? Oh yeah. A hundred percent. You know, Twitter is amazing and I love it, but it's yeah, definitely shiny object syndrome. And, you know, it's like, maybe you should be in something more consider self-storage guys or like the industrial guys or you know these contractor garages you know there's all these different classes i think you just got to pick one and go for it and really learn as much as you can about it i think they all have positives and negatives and ups and downs and you know some are more just straight real estate plays and some are more like actual operation heavy businesses so i think we're operating under the this is like mostly a business with real estate on the back end and then eventually you know if we make a ton of money make a ton of cash We'll go put it in some safer assets and asset classes and not take out a ton of debt on that side or something.

53:30But yeah, kind of risk it early on and kind of go for it. That's great. That's great. You're up to some good stuff. I wanted to hear about any, maybe like nightmare stories, anything that has happened at any of the weddings that you've come into that was just like, oh my God, I can't believe that happened. Anything that you can talk about? I'm trying to think. I mean, yeah, you get a lot of people in there. they're drinking they're getting drunk you know people passing out in the yard and you got people throwing up in the toilets and clogging them and yeah they can get pretty grody and pretty nasty you know we created this like beautiful space that we felt like was like our home or like our second home and then like just watching like the first few weddings just kind of beat it up honestly like the walls are getting beat up drywall it's like all brick or steel or something on the walls probably but i don't know no like super duper crazy stories yeah but obviously you're getting in there and that most of them are there to party.

54:23So it's tough sometimes. Yeah. I wanted to hear a little more about Twitter and go into that. You've only been on there five, six months. Talk to me about just your Twitter strategy, how you think about it. It sounds like it's been a huge boon for you, just in terms of people reaching out, leading to new clients. Talk to me a little bit about your experience on Twitter. Yeah, definitely. So I was going down this path of how can I help others? There's got to be other people just like my wife and I that are thinking the same thing. They just got married. They want to build a venue, that kind of thing.

54:52So I was like, I made a website and I was going to try to start and run some of my Google ads and things like that. And then I'd started getting a Twitter and I had been on there forever, but it was mostly just like sports and news and things like that. And I hadn't been using it that much. And for whatever reason, I got more back on it again. And I just kept getting sucked into like the real estate Twitter and small business Twitter. And I came across Nick's Ready Startups and really liked that model and what these guys were saying and getting into and like real deals were being done and people were like actually connecting.

55:20You know, then I saw like strip mall guy and then I saw a car wash guy and a couple of these guy accounts. And I was like, I bet there's not a wedding venue, you guys. So I kind of looked that up and I was like, I kind of like that. It's like anonymous and like, I don't have to like show my face. I can, I love like the people sharing like real numbers, like Nick, I feel like is, is leading that charge. And it's like something different in growing up and looking at all these businesses and like you walk into a space and I'm just like, I wonder what this place does like revenue wise and what do they make?

55:46It's like everyone holds it so close to their chest and it's just not something they share. And rightfully so, I feel like. But when you're trying to learn and figure out what you want to do and where you want to go, it's like how are you ever supposed to know? I've always been curious, how much cash do these businesses actually have? How do they operate? Those kinds of things. So I like that I could get on there, I could share it and maybe be anonymous for a while. And to be fair, I didn't know there were so many guy accounts. I definitely caught some flack from being another guy. I kind of knew it was a little late on the train, but people know exactly what I'm on there for and what I'm doing by my name.

56:18So it's worked out well. And I instantly got people reaching out. And even just after 100, 200 followers, it was crazy. And I was telling my wife, hey, I got 240 followers now. I thought it was so cool. And that was two weeks in. And now I think I have almost 6 ,000. And it's like, you don't have to have 20, 50, 100 ,000 followers to really make an impact. Like I said, I'm getting probably two to five to 10 people sometimes, depending on how big a treat goes, like reaching out, talking about like wanting to build on their property or build this thing and need help with it. So yeah, Twitter has been wild and I didn't really have a strategy.

56:52I'm trying to create more of a strategy now, but before it was just like, Hey, I'm going to hop on. I'm going to share our numbers. I'm going to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly kind of thing. So yeah, that's kind of it. And you know, without go maybe slowing down a little bit or changing a little bit, I had to pivot a little bit. And you know, I think the newsletters are great. I don't have one. Maybe We all create one just to kind of keep that funnel going now that we are like actively looking for people to work with. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like there's a lot of newsletters out there. I know like Nick views his newsletter as a way to really find like the handful of people, whether he's, you know, who are going to do business with him.

57:25You know, that's really what the newsletter is all about. He's got an interesting philosophy about how he uses Twitter that's really worth studying. He's obviously figured it out. Yeah, definitely has a down pat. I think he kind of starts at the top, kind of baits people, which I find hilarious. And, you know, and then he kind of works down to like, you know, use click bitty stuff to like actual real stuff. And then even farther down to like targeting specific people that are actually going to do business with them. So I think that's a great model. I almost maybe went the other way. I started like super niche and I got like real people like reaching out.

57:54And now I'm just kind of going backwards and like, how can I kind of do a couple of click bitty ones to get some more followers? And it's not about I don't care about the followers. But like, unfortunately, it's just the more followers you have, the bigger reach you have, the more people that are going to find me. So you got to play the game. So I don't really care. If you're trying to build on there, you're definitely looking for followers. It's just part of it. Yeah. Although not to push back, but one of Nick's partner, Mitchell Baldridge, he does the RE Costs company with him. He mentioned, and this is actually a great article.

58:22I'll put links in it. It's called A Thousand True Fans. And it's written by Kevin Kelly, a guy named Kevin Kelly, who wrote, you really just need a thousand fans who just love what you're up to on today's age to really make a nice living. With a thousand people following you, that are into what you're up to, like you can do really, really well. So, but obviously 300 ,000 is better than, you know, I think Nick's got like 300 or something, but. Yeah, exactly. But no, I do agree with that statement and it's proven to be true, you know, like I can charge like five to 15K for these consulting because they're like serious and they're zoned in on this like actual niche that I'm talking about.

58:56And, you know, they get to see kind of in my headspace a little bit and that's all you really need. So yeah, it's insane and it's great. And I don't really want to be on any other platform. I maybe at some point I'm going to be pushed to, but I really don't. So I really hope the Twitter trend is here to stay. Yeah, no, it's an incredible platform. It adds tremendous value. I mean, guys like Nick, just sharing their playbook and you, you know, sharing your playbook. Was that a hard decision to make? Just, I mean, you are very open about your numbers every week, basically like what you're doing.

59:25Yeah. It made it easier. I did go like anonymous at first, cause that's what like all the guy accounts were going to do. But a couple of probably a month or or so ago, I switched it to just my normal stuff and having my picture and stuff on there and my location and whatnot. So that kind of like got me in and got me out of like the bubble. I got, I built that confidence at least. It's like, Hey, people actually really like this. So like, I don't think I need to be nervous about it. And you know, I think that was like one of the reasons I got on, right. It was like, actually just like shell like real numbers and, and hopefully like teach someone something or they can learn from my mistakes or along that line.

59:56So. Yeah. Well, Alex, this has been a lot of fun. Is there anything else you wanted to touch on today that we didn't cover? I don't think so. I think we went down our crazy story of getting started and, you know, a little bit where we're going, but yeah, I'll keep sharing on Twitter for the good or the bad, maybe, I don't know, but we'll see where it goes. Yeah, no, I've definitely enjoyed reading your stuff and learning about it. So just, you know, for people that do want to learn more about you, tell us again where to find you on Twitter or any other places that you want them to know about? Yep.

1:00:26Yep. So Twitter is the Wedding Venue Guy on Twitter. That's like my main handle. That's where I'm sharing all my stuff. If you want to look at our venue, it's themidnightgem.com. And then we spun up like our other company, which is Midnight Venues. And that's where we're kind of doing the consulting and then partnering and hopefully buying and investing in more venues as well. Cool. This has been fun, Alex. I really appreciate your time. Yeah. Thank you so much, Patrick. This is great. Okay, folks, that's all I had for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed the show and I'll see you back here real soon.

1:00:57Thank you for listening to TIP. Make sure to subscribe to We Study Billionaires by the Investors Podcast Network. Every Wednesday, we teach you about Bitcoin and every Saturday, we study billionaires and the financial markets. To access our show notes, transcripts or courses, go to theinvestorspodcast.com. This show is for entertainment purposes only. Before making any decision, consult a professional. This show is copyrighted by the Investors Podcast Network. Written permission must be granted before syndication or rebroadcasting.