Vegas Circle

How Steve Phillips Landed Mr. Fries Man Inside the Raiders Stadium!

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What does it take to turn a late-night hustle into a stadium-ready brand? We sit down with Steve Phillips, owner of Mr. Fries Man Las Vegas, to pull back the curtain on a journey powered by street marketing, credit smarts, and unapologetic belief. From LA catering to a Flamingo storefront to a coveted concession at Allegiant Stadium, Steve shows how grit and quality can beat perfect timing—and how one pitcher of Kool-Aid can win a room full of decision-makers.

We get honest about the real math of stadium deals: why section placement is pure real estate, how event mix affects margin, and the inventory traps that can push a small operator into the red if crowds get shuffled to lower levels. Steve walks through his game-day prep, the 7:30 a.m. starts, and the variable staffing that keeps service tight when doors open. Then we tackle delivery. Fries don’t travel well, so he enforces a three-mile radius to protect quality and reviews. Not all money is good money; sometimes the best marketing is saying no to orders that hurt the brand.

The conversation widens to life insurance and family security. Steve lays out practical guidance on term coverage for young parents, when an IUL makes sense, and why he refuses to sell policies that clients can’t sustain. We also explore Vegas nightlife from the inside—late headline sets, free-entry shifts, and how clubs lean on bar revenue. Through it all, Steve’s theme is consistent: believe to a “delusional” degree, set clear boundaries when hiring friends, and stack small operational edges until they become momentum.

We close with what’s next: a sports bar concept that pairs fries, wings, and screens; and a nonprofit plan that connects at-risk teens to paid kitchen work and trade certifications in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical. It’s business with a backbone—profitable, community-forward, and built to last. If this story moves you, follow, share with a friend who needs a push, and leave a review to help more builders find the show.

SPEAKER_04:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And on today's podcast, we welcome in a special guest, man. This is my brother, man. He got a say last day, Phillips, man. So you know these good people who is an entrepreneur and franchise owner of uh Mr. Fry's Man, Las Vegas. There's a lot of other things, too, man, that we're gonna get into with life insurance and also in the club industry doing some consulting. Spoke to the circle, Mr. Steve Phillips. Thanks, welcome, welcome. We had a blast on the phone the first time I talked to you, man. And then just got a great energy, man, that you've been doing, man. And it's it's amazing how like Chris and I talk about all the time, man. Like as we continue to keep getting older, people are having different business plays, right? So you were in the club industry for a long time and then bumped in and got into the franchise industry and then also the food industry was one of the toughest industries, man. So how did you let's jump right in, man? How did how did you get into the food industry or what made you what made you make that jump?

SPEAKER_01:

So I had food experience in LA back before I even ever moved to Vegas. I moved to Vegas in 2013. Okay. And I used to work with my boy uh Chef E. Double. He's uh head chef for the Trailblazers right now. Portland Trailblazers. Oh, that's what's up. Okay. Yeah, so we used to do like a lot of catering events and stuff like that. We used to run the kitchen at Cafe Entourage. They used to be behind the W. Okay. I did nightlife out there too, but then when I just got tired of LA and just I needed to get away, I jumped into it here. Yep. And it's like I didn't have the time, and I'm a full time, I was a full-time dad. I had my daughter out here, then my son moved out here. Like they spent their whole life here through like high school. My son back in high school in LA, but when the nightlife industry crashed because of the pandemic, it was like, all right, my boy had been trying to tell me to franchise his uh Mr. Fries, man. I always supported when I went to LA, so I was like, it was a no-brainer. Yep. I was like, it's who don't like fries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And it's dangerous too, man. Fries is one of my favorite, my favorite things, man. It's dangerous. Fry fries is one of the one of the worst things, man. I always laugh about like the the common the comedians talk about Uber drivers, man, stealing your fries. Nothing like nobody else's fries are the best, man. We gotta keep them locked up. Yeah. Gotta I ain't mad. I am not mad, but jump right into it.

SPEAKER_00:

So really, you know, well, maybe so you obviously want to get into food and then but how do it's a big jump to go from being a part of like the entertainment industry, right, to jumping into a franchise business model. Did you have any like experience navigating or operating businesses from that standpoint? No, I didn't. So how is that kind of learning curve?

SPEAKER_01:

This learning curve is crazy. It's like paying a college tuition for real. Like, because all the expenses you're gonna experience and like they're those mistakes are costly. Like extremely cost-wise. Yeah, so you are really paying like tuition, whether you think about it like that or not. So it's like I'm going through like my college experience. I didn't I went to like film school, like I got I got a degree in sound engineering, but I never used it like that. Okay. It doesn't help a franchise that much, you know. It's good, that's completely different from the film. It's completely different. It was hard to get in, LA. So I was like, man, that that wasn't working.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But and what made you decide to go within like the franchise? I obviously had a connection in that space. Have you always wanted to kind of go an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_01:

I've always wanted to be like my own boss. Like I've always wanted to, like, at first I wanted to get into real estate, but like not selling, like I was like really just accumulating, like playing Monopoly, so to speak. But I thought that I was like, all right, well, I don't have the capital, but I probably did. I just wasn't around the right people that could have redirected me into like, all right, well, use this to get the credit and and buy the house like this. I'm like, all right, I ain't got enough. But I got enough people around me that are interested in becoming their own bosses too, that believed in it. So we just threw our money together and we grabbed one. But I thought it was gonna be the vehicle that paid for the real estate. A whole different story. Whole different story. And now that I'm starting to learn about how credit works. We're not taught that, like where I was growing up at. We wasn't taught, it was we was taught cash as king, and that's so not the uh the real thing in the free world and the free world enterprise, you know? Yeah, especially with business too. Like one thing all credit.

SPEAKER_04:

You want to do everything credit. Speaking of one of the partners here talked about that, Andrew Cartwright is putting everything on business credit. Yeah, it's unit's unreal. But so you actually have two Mr. Fries locations. You opened up, so let's first start with the Allegiance Stadium, right? Because that is a massive I don't know how do you even get into Allegiance Stadium to be able to get a lease like that? Because that's that's extremely hard to do.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of it was god luck and hard work. Just I kept putting myself out there. Like so I used to grab about 10,000 flowers like every other month, but I'm the person that's out there, like when you close the restaurant at midnight, I'm the one hitting all the casino cars. I'm going to apartment complexes, putting flowers on every car because not everybody has social media, and I feel like that old school way of promoting street marketing people at street teams and stuff like that, it doesn't exist, but it was so impactful. You gotta figure all those people were popping with no social media. Imagine if Tupac had an Instagram. Yeah, like he goes crazy. Like that work ethic was crazy. I looked up to that type of work ethic.

SPEAKER_04:

You think if Michael Jordan had to be honest compared to like what Christian Ronaldo's doing, it's unreal. Yeah. But that's how you did it. So you literally went to the city.

SPEAKER_01:

I went to the bank to go deposit some money because I had to run payroll. And one of my employees called me, like, yo, see, somebody from Allegiant Stadium just called, like talking about a partnership. I'm like, it's probably somebody to play on the phone or they want to get me to do like the little ads and the pamphlets. Like, that's a waste of money. Like in my opinion. I'm like, just take a message. I was like, so I called back, nobody answered. I left a message. I was like, yeah, somebody's playing on the phone. Then they actually called me back and said Allegiant Stadium on the phone. I was like, oh shit. Yeah. And then they was like, how do you feel about being in partner like with the Raiders? And I'm I said, like, the pamphlets? They was like, nah, as a concession stand.

SPEAKER_03:

I said, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, how do I do it? They was like, well, they said, a couple of our staff have been in your restaurant and they like your food, but we used to have to come in for a tasting. But I didn't know that they were trying to fill in five spots that the stadium was operating at themselves last year. Oh. Like just generic stuff. So they were running random stuff down the track. They bring in five local businesses, which is dope for like a few years. Yeah, 1,000%. Yeah. We had to do like a tasting, but they didn't tell us it was 14 other restaurants there. They were hustling everywhere. I don't blame them. I mean, they did biggest, they the biggest of the best. So yeah. And then they said, yeah, so we need 60 plates, like five, like these are plates that we see at the stadium. We want 12 of each. So it was like, all right, so we had to crank it out like an hour. Then we put it on a cart. They push you downstairs to this uh like meeting room, and they that's when I it was like surprise. So it's all these other restaurants down there, everybody got food light up. Um like little, I'm a man, it's like I got a TV show. Yeah, so but that's uh that's kind of real though. It is, but like why I thought I wasn't gonna get it was because all these other people have like sandwich type things, it's not fries, it's something that you need like really crisp, like to enjoy it, you know? And they had us go up one by one and talk about ourselves, talk about the plates, talk about like how we got it. Same type of stuff like we're doing right here. Everybody's presentation was like five minutes. I was like the sixth person to go. But they ain't even let you watch it or anything. As soon as you got up and talked, it's all right. Well, it was a pleasure coming in. Like I walked you out. And I didn't hear anything for like eight days. And then they called him back, they said, yo, we like the food.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that's pretty awesome. And you so do you make when you do something like that, do you make it by yourself or you have like a team? No, but I'm saying when you do, when you do kind of that interview process, you have to do it by by yourself. Nah, you do it like that. I'm gonna say 60, 60 plates, yeah. I was gonna say, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. For precision, time management, and all that. Cause like we we making this amount of food, and we want it fresh, it was like, we gotta do it like that. At the second meeting they had, they was like, we're gonna taste it fresh out of the uh location where we're probably gonna put you guys at. So when we waiting around, one of the head chef guys from the first hospitality group that was bringing us in, he came, he said, Look, Steve, he said, we all got culinary background, so we could taste the flavor, so we knew what we were getting. It was like, we could, it's fries, fresh, it's gonna taste way different. He said, Make you make sure you stretch that. But he's like, Did you bring the Kool-Aid? Because I brought Kool-Aid to the first taste. Wow. You know, they said we provide all the drinks. I was like, I'm bringing the Kool-Aid anyway. I'm gonna try to do it. Staple. Your staple. Somebody else did have their own like Hawaiian drink or something. So I was like, man, I'm glad I'm home running. Yep. When he was like, he's like, people like the food, they love the Kool-Aid. That's funny. That's it. It looked, it is what it is. It's your specialty. Yeah, so instead of like having food lined up, we had like one of each lined up and let the people come and order it like as they would at the stadium. But I had the Kool-Aid lined up on the counter. That's hilarious. And then like one of the people like from the Raiders team now, because we're cooking for them, not the hospitality group anymore. Just some of like the head people from there. It was like an older lady. She had she was like, What's that right there? I was like, Oh, that's some childhood in the cup. She killed me all the sugar.

SPEAKER_02:

That's diabetes in the cup, yeah. You got some Kool-Aid. She was like, No, I was like, Here.

SPEAKER_01:

And then she tried it, and then she was like, Oh my God. And then she said, My husband makes this for our grandkids, tastes nothing like this. That's what's up. Yeah, got on it. That's what's up, man.

SPEAKER_00:

That's kind of an interesting experience, right? So that's one part, it's just getting accepted, right? Then there's the other part of it, which is the business part. Now you're working navigating lease terms and you're navigating rental payments and trying to, you know, get a team to go to the second location with a certain time frame. And it's a kind of a variable employment, too, right? It's not like it's full time, 100%. Yeah, it's not. So how do you navigate some of those challenges?

SPEAKER_01:

So, with that, I take like my main people that know the system, and I have a lot of friends. Like, I do have a like a lot of support out here. Like people I've met along the way, like I got family that comes out here for games. Like, they like going to Raider games, they just want to be there. So it's like they'll come help out and lend the hand. So I've been really like kind of blessed with that. And then some people like just need like extra work because everybody's kind of like in that place right now. Yeah, economy's wild. That's wild. I was like, I could go here with Steve on a Saturday and make 150, like 175 and four or five hours. Like, it's not gonna hurt anybody. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What about like your lease? Are they in a lease term? Like, is it a long term or how is it? Two years. Two years? Also two years, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's basically like a revenue share. At least that's what I'm on. You know, like I'm not sure like how many other people, like a lot of people like are paying like for better locations, which I think I want I want to do that as I grow. Like if something becomes available on those lower rings, because I'm on like the top level, I'm in the 300s and uh session 324. So we're not open for every event. Got it, that makes sense. Because where we're at, we're behind. Like, if they have concerts, unless they have a 360 stage, we're backstage. So we're not open, so we miss the Beyonce. Like people think I'm rich. Like I was like, because that's real estate. That's some serious real estate. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I miss Chris Brown. I wasn't, we did the fight now. The fight was amazing. Canelo and oh, yeah. But other than that, we're only there for the Raider games, not the UNLV games. They don't sell enough tickets. Oh I didn't know you don't realize that. We don't only think about that at all. Yeah, we're the only black-owned restaurant in Allegiance Stadium. I didn't know that. And we weren't there for the battle of the bands because we so far up in the nosebleeds. Really? And they didn't sell it. But HBCU that they just had? We didn't we went on there. I'd have loved to just be up there. I think people would have migrated to me, but nah.

SPEAKER_04:

That's wow. Okay. So it's set, well, yeah. I mean, that answer means a lot because it's just like the fashion show mall. You have different areas that you want real estate on that you pay a prime, you know, prime for it.

SPEAKER_00:

So you always forget that they don't like they call they push everybody and funnel them down when they're not selling enough tickets. Yeah, it's like a resident.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Because like Which one is Gold Cup? I'm the soccer. Oh, the soccer campaign. Mexico's playing. Ice was doing rips. That game was so dead. How do you know like we're gonna go or not go? Like, do they give you like uh no, like ticket sales were up enough for us to be there, but because all that stuff was going on, a lot of people didn't show up for their tickets. And then they had so many empty spots downstairs in like the lower bowl that they had their um people that worked the aisles going to give people tickets to go down just to fill it in for TV products. Yeah, of course, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So now you I'm assuming you buy the inventory for the event, you're starting to do all this stuff. Now they're like, well, hey, by the way, you gotta go.

SPEAKER_01:

That's one of those uh learning curve experiences like you go you could go in the red like that fast.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's a that's a killer.

SPEAKER_04:

Because you're dealing with so like the biggest difference is obviously quantity, right? So your flamingo location obviously doesn't do as much as the the the uh Legion Stadium, right? Right. So it's all prepping. You gotta be playing ahead for Sunday. So like for example, we're on a Tuesday now, you gotta play.

SPEAKER_01:

Like Tuesday night, Wednesday. Got it. Like we store it, we get everything in there by Saturday, and then Sunday we rock and roll. So you already set up on Saturday to be open, ready for Sunday.

SPEAKER_04:

That's how we do to get the same.

SPEAKER_01:

I get there super early. Like if the game's out 1.25 on there like 7 30 in the morning. On a Sunday night. Got it. Okay. And then my file starts trickling in about 9 30 because the door is open at 11. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, that's no joke. Yeah, that's crazy. That's no joke, man. You know, I I ask, you know, one thing is like it's coming way and way more popular now is the food delivery services. Food delivery is like super prevalent right now. A lot of people make most businesses are even operating in ghost kitchens, you know, doing these type of things. But simply to your point, sometimes you have a product that lends itself better to some of those experiences. Right. Fries seem to be a little more challenging through delivery. Like, how do you navigate like that?

SPEAKER_01:

I put a three-mile radius around us. Oh, you can do that. Okay, I don't know you can do that. You could control your radius. Oh, that's interesting. I'm not anybody waiting in terms of order this. I'm gonna get the worst review ever. Yeah, that's smart. I don't know you can do that. You get there, you got soggy frogs, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You're not having it. Yeah, so that makes sense. So you can prep it and isolate the way you want to do it. Yeah, yeah. But they say all money ain't good money. No. That's straight up true.

SPEAKER_00:

So I feel like that would be a huge business killer, right? Because to your point, like if I'm if I'm in throwing 30 minutes away and I get this m mush up food, I don't want I'm gonna be mad. Regardless, uh knowing I ordered fries through DoorDash, but still. But how can you advertise that? Like on there that you guys we have like certain small delivery ratings.

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of people, like, if they look us up, they'll end up calling, like, I can't find a delivery service, and then we'll ask kind of like where they're at.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, we'll tell them over the phone. Like, they can order, you can order online to come pick it up. Got it. And then we're kind of like for like the online, we prep them, and then when the person actually walks in, we'll like really get it toget together. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It's almost like you should advertise that because I think for me, I'd be reluctant to order like you know, fries on a door desk because I'm not, I'm assuming to your point, it may be faraway location or something closer. But now if I know that you're only living a three-mile radius, I'd be way more likely to order from you.

SPEAKER_01:

Good marketing, like yeah. I'm trying to get better with like the whole content creation. Like, I'm just not like like a type that really just about to set my camera up, like record myself all day. And it's like I can I'll show myself working, like, all right, I'm here, y'all can pull up, but as far as like just talking and stuff like that, I'm more comfortable in these type of situations as opposed to just having full-on conversations non-stop with a phone screen. That's hard to do, man.

SPEAKER_04:

Nah, I can't, man. You know what's so funny, man? I laugh to this day, man. I don't even like doing uh what do you call it? Selfies. I feel like you see straight eyebrows and nose. I can't I can't do it. But but about the franchise, or I'm sorry, let me step back for one second. Your other location is on is by UNLV, right? Off of Flamingo. So when did you get that started for 2021?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. I got the I signed my paperwork in 2020.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

And it took us 10 minutes to open just because we we opened during the pandemic. Oh. Nobody was working. Yeah, okay. Like it wasn't easy. That made it super hard.

SPEAKER_04:

What I meant by super easy to get one because they were losing out. They wanted to get those businesses.

SPEAKER_01:

But I'm sorry, what were you gonna say? Like, it took so long because like so I was dealing with because I'm so close to the strip, those people that look over like fire and electrical and everything like that, they all, those are my people too. So if the sphere is getting made and they changing stuff every day, you not you can't compete with that. They got way more money, they'll get to you and they get to you. Yeah, for sure. It's like something's wrong, you'll blueprint them, they come to you. You might not see them for two months.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh wow. That makes a lot of sense for things move faster than others. I'm not gonna say no names. If we go some names, they move very, very fast that it is because the money's coming up. Yeah, that's what it is. It's Vegas. Yep, for sure. Franchising, I mean, obviously it looks glamorous, but what's one challenge that's really tested you early on as far as just the franchise businesses in general?

SPEAKER_01:

The isolation it takes, I think. Okay. You miss like a lot of time, like, even though you're doing it for other people, like I'm doing it for my kids, I'm doing it for my family, I'm doing it for the community, I'm doing it for everybody. But it's like I have to be so I'm all over the place in my own world that I miss a lot of stuff. That tunnel vision we were talking about. Yeah. My intentions are to be here for everybody, because I good, I gave my kids their first job ever in life. I've given a lot of my family members like sons and daughters, like my homies, like sons. I've given my friends jobs. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm doing it for everybody, but it's like sometimes I feel like if you don't really get like these experiences, like these sit-downs and stuff like me. Like, I Steve don't really care. Like, nah, y'all all I care about for real. Yeah, yeah. Ain't doing this for me. Yeah, that's real. Like, that's I think that's like the hardest thing to like to deal with. People looking like, oh man. Yeah, Steve. Like, but it's like, nah, this for y'all.

SPEAKER_00:

But how hard is it to like navigate, you know, a different dynamic of having to employ your friends and your kids and some of those things that you have to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes it's cool. Sometimes like you tell you can tell and they're getting over on you or trying to get over. Now it will make you kind of like harsher on people. Like, because it's like, man. Don't play with me. Yeah, I don't just I know how to separate the two. Like, we could get into it right now at work, like manager to employee. And after this, I'm gonna ask you where you want to go tonight. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Like, it's just I can switch it's just business. It's just business. Yeah, I never said that boundary is important. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then when the people like don't like respect you, you just gotta respectfully let them go. Like, and you do lose some people like that. But if I feel like if I was in like the right, I didn't really lose somebody like that who was like worth being around me anyway. If they respect you, they would have filled up.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, for sure. What about employee theft, man? They say the food business man, people be that turnaround goes out the back door. It sounds like one of the number one things that can kill people and put them in the rear.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's what's so and that's what's so hard having to have people there to train new people all the time. Because sometimes, like especially like right now, with all the F1 traffic and cloak road closures and stuff, only one person needs to be in there. But if I have to have somebody that's there on a Sunday by themselves, because we're like the main people are at the stadium, I have to have somebody training them. And like, let's say somebody only staying two weeks, it's like, oh man, now I gotta pay another two weeks of somebody else getting trained. Like, so that could be the food industry is not as glamorous as people say. The problem is right now, I think a lot of social media, everybody thinks everybody is rich. Everybody wants to be rich, nobody wants to work, like no, and it's like, what are you really qualified for? You know what I mean? And then it's like you go into a fat, you're working fast. What I tell like the adults that come to work for me, like, look, this is a fast food job. Yeah, it might be cool on Instagram or whatever, however, you found out about me, but this is you work at McDonald's or anywhere else, this is just a cooler McDonald's. Like, yeah, you're not gonna get rich. And people coming here expecting, like, oh man, I got me a job, I'm about to go buy these Gucci loafers tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, too. It don't work like that. Not at all.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't even buy stuff like that. Not at all. I know. I was working with somebody one time, they got a quarter raise. They went and bought a new car. Oh, we got a quarter raise, but you'd equate to nothing. Oh, you made 300 extra dollars a year. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_04:

You got a plan, man, especially with. Everything now. I feel like everything happens like in an hour. You never know what can change. So what's your go-to on the menu, man? What would you say? So we come into your restaurant. What would you recommend?

SPEAKER_01:

I like the Buffalo lemon pepper wings and the barbecue bacon ranch chicken.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

If I was to build my own, I'm doing steak, chicken, honey, garlic, and jalapeno ranch with parmesan cheese. I'm gonna add some bacon. Okay. Give me a Kool-Aid for sure. I'm gonna be sleepy. I'll be sleeping like that. And if I got like a sweet taste, like we got like some killer like strawberry shortcake or like little cups and the funnel cake fries. Okay. That sounds dang.

SPEAKER_04:

You said you hit me with the dessert. Yeah, you hit me with the dessert. But how do you promote and advertise Mr. Fries? Is it more social media? Is it more than that?

SPEAKER_01:

Like paying for ads, being outside, like in the streets, and then um that's kind of like it. Uh we run like specials like through like Uber Eats, stuff like that, because that like makes you pop up more like when people first open it.

SPEAKER_04:

Analytics, yeah, yeah. Is the plan to continue to keep building the franchises in Las Vegas? Because I know multiple are in California now, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I want I want to put one more like so in the like the blue diamond area. Okay, as pioneer. Yeah. I feel like that'll be like the best, but I want to change the vibe up of it. I want to go more sports bar.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Like a beat-ups. Okay. Like a bar in the center, TVs around, booths, drinks and fries go hand in hand. Yeah. Yeah. And how do you like how so consider it as a franchise? How much flexibility do you have? Well, with that, I kind of have like because some there's been a Mr. Fries that was in Arizona that opened up uh by the school that didn't do well because every time the school let out, it was nobody there. But they opened up with a sports bar and they was they were doing really well with it. Okay. So the the model's been tried, but I think it was just in the wrong location. Like I feel like you need to have that around, like more an adult setting. Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

But you come to why don't you come to Southwest, man? Come up a little bit to summer events. I can be over there to do that. I'm with that too.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I'm just hoping like I could just keep because I'm trying to build my credit up to where I could go get some funding or if somebody wants to jump in out there. Yeah, man, I'm willing to talk about it. Yeah, I got, I have, I have the plan, I have the model. I've been had the vision of it, and I feel like that model could start being, start setting the tones. Like, yeah, you have your ones that don't have alcohol, but man, I feel like we could be a cool sports bar. Yeah. And like my best friend see it too. Like he started Mr. Fry. So it's like we talk about, we talk every day. Like sometimes we talk about nothing, sometimes it's all business, it's all ideas.

SPEAKER_04:

So that's awesome. We gotta jump a little bit to life insurance, man, especially with all the crazy stuff going on right now. Why is life insurance so important, man, for people just in general?

SPEAKER_01:

Life insurance has always been important to me. I started losing friends early, like, and I saw how it ripped through families. How like where's on like, oh, I pay for this part of the funeral? You didn't do nothing. And like I've seen all that happens. If you have something in place, you kind of eliminate that. And for the ones that have kids, like how far is that kid getting on those$10,000 go fund means that's barely banned, like burying you, like burials cost a lot of money. Like that, it's not it's not cheap to die. And I feel like that's the hardest thing. Yeah, yeah. I feel like not a lot of people like look at it like that. Cause if if you especially like the ones as parents, like if you hear you got somebody come behind you, it's your responsibility to leave behind something. For sure.

SPEAKER_04:

What do you recommend for for people just on the life insurance just in general?

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe they're it's it all depends on like what what the person has going on, what's their goals. I don't try to like it's not what I feel is good for you. It's like what you present me, what are you trying to protect? Like, all right, you uh just got married and you got two kids, it's about five years old, seven years old, all right. You might need a couple hundred thousand just alone per kid. Just because like you gotta figure to you got kids, upkeep like sports and all that kind of stuff every single year. It's extremely expensive, yeah. Yeah, maybe you just want to pay for college. Like you expect everybody else to pick that up. So it's like you might you gotta look at it like that. You can't say, Oh, I got like I got$25,000. Like, that's cool for somebody that just wants has no attachments to anything. Yeah, but it goes quick. Yeah, and then like so people like that want to use like the uh policies that you could pull from. That's a whole nother ball game, too. Yeah, it's like a lot of people want that, but can you afford that? And I'm not gonna sell you something that's gonna lapse on you because you can't keep up with those payments. Those those policies aren't cheap. There, if you have it, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, like those index universal life plans, IULs, that's like the short term for it. It's basically putting your money into an index and letting it run and letting it run. They're consistent on the index, yeah. It never drops you. Like people, like a lot of people can use that even like if you don't want a 401k. Because you could lose money in a 401k. You can't lose money in an index plan because it gives you that floor.

SPEAKER_04:

That's true. Yep. That's very true. That's good. That's good, good advice, man. And then you made a transition, right? So more on the consultant side, right? Because you you had a work were working for Dre's before, right? And then you transitioned to be able to be involved in everybody now, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like I'm a an independent host. Okay, got it. Okay. So I have a lot So that means you can work any of them. I have the independent like contracts to basically sell tables at all the clubs. Okay. So I have all their like websites and like my own link. If like somebody wants to go to Haggassan, all right, you want a dance floor table, you want something just light in the back, or you want to go to Omnia, you want to go crazy? It's like I could put it in and you get there, you'll be set. Like a lot of times, uh depending on like the people, like if I got a really good connection, I ain't seen them in a couple years, like because they frequent Vegas like that. I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna I'm gonna walk you through, I'm gonna make sure everything goes right, and you're not sitting out there and you spending all this money, but you're looking crazy because all these hoes got favoritism and stuff too.

SPEAKER_04:

100%. Yeah, that's interesting. Do you feel like the Vegas is going a little bit backwards with the club industry and things like that?

SPEAKER_01:

Or you still feel like it's I'm I'm not in the clubs like that, so I could always hear the the like everything is going backwards out here. Like the whole nightlife, like the whole scene is not like it's not what it used to be. Yeah. I think people aren't really coming to Vegas like that, and it's like a begging. Like when you get to like begging people to come in and you offering them the world to come in, that tells you a lot. That tells you a lot. Back in the day, like I'm 40, so when I was coming to Vegas in like 06, 07, you wasn't getting in like everywhere free.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no. Now they're getting free bottle or things like that. Not at all.

SPEAKER_01:

Like not being like dude. Like unless you like unless you had to have a girl with you at least, like they're letting in groups of dudes for free.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow. Yeah. So where so they gotta be losing, so they have to be losing a lot of money when you have like a big artist coming to perform and things like that. Like, how are they making their money?

SPEAKER_01:

I feel the alcohol, and that's why they go on so late. That makes sense. Like people get there early, tell them, all right, you gotta be in before 11 30 to be free. But this person don't come on until 3 15 in the morning. You're gonna keep drinking and try to stay up in the party and not and not look lame because you don't have a drink in your hand. That is true. That's that's very true.

SPEAKER_04:

And that looked like that.

SPEAKER_00:

I got like that a couple of times. Yeah. We were laughing about it. We all have been there, so I know.

SPEAKER_04:

No, that's true. Yeah, that's very true. Just for business and just life advice, man. What what's one lesson that uh every entrepreneur uh should know before opening their business? That's that's what that's helped you?

SPEAKER_01:

Just believing yourself more than anything. Like, you kind of gotta be like delusional. Like a lot of people say it, but it's like super true. Because I've faced probably everything that you can imagine like throughout this journey, and through it all, I was like, all right, as long as I can stay on the crab table, I got a chance of winning.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I like how you said delusional, man.

SPEAKER_04:

One of our friends Zach King, I don't know if you know Zach King, real good dude who runs Residency and a bunch of other businesses. He's always talking about like literally, you gotta be delusional and a little crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Because people will tell you all day long, like they'll scoff at, especially like the people close, like, yeah, right, that's that's a crazy idea. All right. Yeah, it's only crazy till it works.

SPEAKER_04:

100% right. Love that. I always ask everybody, I'm a big foodie man about uh Vegas restaurants, man. I'm curious, what's your favorite restaurant in in Vegas? Where do you where do you eat at, man? Whether it's on the strip or off the strip that you recommend.

SPEAKER_01:

Favorite restaurant.

SPEAKER_04:

That's a tough one, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So I eat a lot of places. Yeah. If I want to really like go out and get it like a nice steak, I love the Eiffel Tower restaurant. Okay, okay. I've been to Eiffel Tower in a minute. That was like one of the first ones I used to go to. Like when I worked at Bank Night Club. Oh, yeah. Okay. So it was right across the street. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, man, I did cool this week. Let me treat myself. Like give me a nice little window seat, watch the water show. It's peaceful. Yeah. That is nice. Nobody, it's like it's not super oversaturated like the estate, like the stuff in the middle of the strip. Sure. Yeah. That's a nice spot. I've been we went there one time. My wife and I went years ago.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it's beautiful. It's got beautiful. Great views, yeah. Yeah, amazing views. What else is next for you? What else you want to leave us out on that we forgot, maybe forgot to ask you.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I want to uh get into like a nonprofit next year. That's awesome. Yeah. That's what originally this the goal this year was before that phone call happened. For allegiance. Yeah. I was taking like the little classes to get a 501c. I want to get involved because I'm already involved with a um nonprofit out here called Yap. Okay. So it's right. It's a youth advocacy program. It's right on Tropicana, like off of Spencer a little bit. Um it's for at-risk team youth, males and females. Some like like either parents left them or they just fresh out of like juvenile hall, like little stuff like that. They they take them in and they just show them different parts of the city. They take them to nights games, they hook them up with jobs like us, but like the state kind of the state takes care of their wages and stuff. But we're trying to get it to where we could use it for like people's like community service, like in a in a way. Like the ones that want to show that show interest in culinary anything, like, look, come get a taste of it right here.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm saying, like, and I it's like it's cool like to mentor them kids because you see like where like they're coming from and just where they mentor is at. And I tell all of them, I'm like, man, keep living. Like, you know what I'm saying? A lot of stuff that you think is important right now, it is not.

SPEAKER_04:

And you can give them a lot of advice, man. I mean, honestly, from doing everything that you've done to opening up. And then, I mean, I know it's not big time, but it is big time, man. For us to see Allegiant stadium, that's huge, man. And for them to see that, that that's the peak of the state.

SPEAKER_01:

I took one with me. I took them both. I had two kids working for me, and it was like, one was 17, one was 15. Never been in a professional stadium before. That's what I'm saying. They was taking videos of the elevator. Uh-huh. Like, because it was opening up like the back of the state. Because of the allegiance. Yeah, because of Allegium. You know how the kids be. So that felt good to me. Yeah. And it's like, because you ask them what they want to do, everybody want to be a rapper. I'm like, bro, learn how to be a plumber or something. Yeah. Learn that trade. And like that's the thing. That's what I want the uh the nonprofit setup to be. Like, all right, we'll give you like this paid gig, but also want to hook up with a like an electrician that's certified to give out certifications, a plumber, and like an HVAC person, just because like coming from the restaurant business, those are things that break the most. And if you don't know how to fix it, you could get hit over the head. Because I had a my compressor go out on my uh walk-in freezer. As people come in, they quoted me 3800. I was like, ain't no way, right? So I end up, I I I remember that I knew somebody that works for uh UNLV's maintenance crew because they always come in and get chili cheese and Kool-Aid every Friday. So I hit him, I'm like, yo, like you got an HVAC person? He sent over this older guy. He came, he's like, oh, I mean I could do this for like$680. Oh save you. So I talked to another. I said, Do you see how I said, how much money have you made off them rap songs? You know what's interesting you say that?

SPEAKER_04:

Because one of the one of the richest guys in the world, Nvidia. I can't think of his name right now. He just talked about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Just video blew it out the roof today.

SPEAKER_04:

It's uh I I love Nvidia. He was trying to tell me to sell the video. But anyway, we will talk about that offline. But what I was gonna say is he was talking about the next millionaires out there of folks that are getting in the trades, like you mentioned, you know, plumbers and things like that running the trade. Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

Like all those people like you on a line of Amazon? You know, easy art to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04:

They just laid on 30,000 people, I think, yesterday or today.

SPEAKER_01:

The gold is like 600,000 by the end of this, like by the end of the year. That's crazy. Wow, man.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, we're gonna keep uh saluting you, man. Keep doing that. That that's good that you're gonna get back, man, because that can really help the next generation, man. And it's tough, it's tough out there. Man, what's your social handles people can check you out at?

SPEAKER_01:

My main page is underscore king, period, Steve, underscore, and the Mr. Fry's page is Mr. Fry's Man L V. Okay. Check him out, man, and support what he's doing, man.

SPEAKER_04:

We appreciate you, man. Thanks for hanging out with us at the and make sure you subscribe with us at the bakercircle.com, man. But appreciate you, man. That's good stuff. Yeah.