Charles "Chuck" Loescher

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Good morning guys. How y'all doing today? It's a pleasure to be here with y'all.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Great beautiful day in Coventon. Great to be alive still. And uh hey, life's great and everything's going fine. You ain't lying.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

You ain't lying about that. You wake up and you're breathing. You're breathing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Life's great at 62, and uh, you know, it's it's a rough haul, but I tell you what, if I look back, you know, everything God's put me through, the the good and the bad and the ugly, it's all meant to be. It's all it's great to be alive, still.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

Yeah, you ain't lying. All right. Um, well, yeah, thanks for coming. You and I met uh shoot, about two years ago now at your place on St. Charles Avenue.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

I have 2025 St. Charles, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Uh called Chucks on the Avenue. Chucks on the Avenue. Um and um we met there and just kind of lightly stayed in touch. And then I started following you on Instagram and you make me laugh. And uh and so um, yeah, I was telling that, I was like, you know who would be a good guest? I think was get Chuck on. Because the little bit I do know about you, you've had lots of uh twists and turns in your life.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

And uh sure have, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

And you're here and you're smiling and having a good time. Having a good time, and and now, you know, becoming Instagram famous.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah, but I don't know about Instagram famous, but uh one like at a time. It's been uh it's been a good a fun ride, and uh, you know, later on in life to Bell kind of start enjoying your life and having fun and not worrying about what people say about you anymore and stuff, and saying, hey, and looking back and saying, hey, let's have a good time now. Let's have a good time with business, and that's what I enjoy. I don't I don't really have any uh extracurricular activities. I don't fish, I don't hunt, uh, I don't play golf. You know, my extracurricular activities, like waking up every morning and uh doing business, you know, looking for the next deal and uh trying to score the next deal or help people, like to educate people on you know my past and how I got there and make sure uh they don't make the same mistakes I made on the way up, especially my son.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

Maybe that's uh maybe that's why there was a connection between the two of us because the run-in joke in my home is you really need a hobby. Right. And I was like, you know, I'm 51, and I was like, I I don't know. I'm trying, you know, got a boat, do those things. And it's not that I don't enjoy going on a golf course on occasion, but it's always a purpose for me. Right. It's typically tied to business. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

I'm gonna do something. Even when I used to go to Disney World, my kids were young. They they were having fun at uh you know in Disney World while I was looking around trying to figure out how Disney World was getting everybody's pockets, all the parents' pockets, making all this money. Right. And uh that that's what intrigued me about Disney World more than the rods and the expeditions, you know. But even in New York, when I go to New York, I'm looking at these high-rise buildings and looking at how these developers did this way back when, you know, in the early 1900s to now. It's like that's I'm more intrigued about that than than actually having a good time. Yeah, you know, uh, so that's that's how I it's kind of how I still live, you know, still enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Are you originally from New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Originally born in uh Araby, Louisiana, right outside of the ninth ward in New Orleans. Um I went to uh St. Louis and then uh at fifth grade I went to Holy Cross All-Boy School in fifth grade, uh, which was in the ninth ward, which was a very popular Catholic school. Um and I guess that's where my upbringing came uh as far as business goes. Uh I was always a short guy. I was it wasn't too fast either, but uh at that time football was my passion. Even though when I was five years old, I used to carry a briefcase thinking I was a businessman at five years old, and later on a show came out. Uh I can't remember his name, but he'd be carrying a briefcase as a young man, wouldn't it be? That's how I was when I was five years old. Grabbed my father's briefcase, put a bunch of pencils in there, the papers, and played like I was a businessman. But at Holy Cross, you know, my passion was was football at the time, uh, even though I'm not as interested in football now as I used to be. Uh I used to play at the parks, but I was always the short guy, always the small guy, and not always the fastest guy. And uh in eighth grade, I tried to go out for the varsity football team at Holy Cross, and I was probably 120 pounds, and everybody else was 6'5 and 300 pounds, and uh, you know, I was probably 120 pounds, about five foot two at the time. You know, luckily I'm 5'6 now, but so uh uh this coach was there and uh I went in eighth grade. He goes, son, you're too short, you're too small, you know, you can't play. And you know, I went home kind of crying, you know. You know, this is really what I want to do. I want to play high school football for Holy Cross because my dad used to take me to 1969, used to take me to the Holy Cross Games, and you'd hear the fight song and stuff, and I was like, man, I want to play football for this team. So he said, You can't be too small. So I went home and, you know, kind of sucked it up, started working out with the weights, and uh started getting very, very you know strong for my age and stuff. So the next year that coach got fired from Holy Cross, and now the coach came in. So I went and talked to his coach, Coach Randall, and I said, Coach, I said, Look, I know I'm small, I know I'm not that fast, but that's all I want to do is play football for Holy Cross. And I didn't know what he meant at the time, but he said, he said, son, I don't cut nobody. They cut themselves. So I didn't realize at the time I didn't realize that meant. But by the time we got to uh two-a-day practices, I kind of knew what he meant. He'd beat the hell out of us, make us run, jump in stickers all day long, and try to get you to quit to see how tough you were. And I wouldn't quit. I just wouldn't quit, I wouldn't give up. A lot of people would quit. We'd start off 80 people and wound up with like 50 people on the football team, because 30 of them would just quit because they didn't want to bet enough. And I wanted to bet enough. So I wanted making a team, I wanted starting at 145 pounds with people six foot, 300 pounds over me going against them. And uh I wasn't the greatest, but I did good. I did good for being so small. So later on in life, uh when I started getting to business and that, and uh, I'll go back a little bit before but I'll tell you, but I started to think when I was failing in some businesses, I had some restaurants and peanut and candy sewers in my early 20s when I was actually a policeman too, and they didn't do so well, and I kept going back to what did I do right in life? You know, what did I do right to succeed in life? And it always went back, well, I didn't give up in football. I wanted to become the strongest guy on the team at 145 pounds, betuing 400 pounds, and I was only 5'6 and I got to start. And but I went to church every Sunday too. Went to church every Sunday and always gave money to the pool box every Sunday and always prayed to God that I could start. And even during lunchtime, I'd go to the chapel at Holy Cross where everybody else was eating and playing. I'd go to chapel and I prayed to God that I that I could play and I wouldn't get cut and I could start. And then that that got me to the point where I realized with faith with God and work work hard work ethics because I I used to work out more than anybody. I'd work out twice a day and uh I'd run every day and I succeeded, got to my goal. So when I was failing in life and failing in business, I went back to what did I ever do right? So I started working hard 24 hours a day, whatever business I wanted to be in, and started generating, still going to church and praying to be successful. It took a while because it's on God's time, not your time. You know, you've got to realize that. So uh one of the first businesses, successful businesses I went into was when I was uh about 31 years old. I went into the ATM business.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Well, wait, one second. You mentioned you were a police officer, too.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah, I was a police officer too.

SPEAKER_04 7:57

How did that start?

SPEAKER_02 7:58

I started when I was 20 years old. Oh, good to then. Okay. My mom and dad was disabled. My dad was disabled. My mom was a housewife, and uh I was about, I guess, 18, kind of flunked out of college, wasn't one of the smartest kids around, didn't flunk out, but kind of dropped out. And uh my uncle happened to be, uh became the chief of police down at St. Bernard. So I really didn't want to be a policeman, but then I started thinking about it, you know, so maybe I do want to be a policeman. So I went there for an interview one day down in St. Bernard, and uh it took me out of one room and put me in another room with this guy with long blonde hair with dark, dark glasses in the dark room with the lights really dim where I couldn't see who he was. And he started talking to me and then uh asked me all kinds of questions about drugs and stuff like that. And I said, Well I never did drugs, I was always an athlete. They started asking me about you know stealing. So I said, Well I never stole nothing in my life. My parents taught me better. And uh next thing I know, he says, Well, look, he says, Don't call, don't call me, I'm gonna call you. He says, We're gonna uh we're gonna put you undercover in high schools because you look like you're 16 years old, even though you're only 20 and a half. So I started off undercover at St. Bernard High School. Stop going to school every day, had to go to school, study, and I was glad I had to study because it got me smarter because I didn't really learn much in all the pictures.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

You kind of had to blend in with the students.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Correct, correct, Anna. Correct that. If I got to, you know, blend in, I got to learn while I was there at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Did you enjoy that though? Uh I mean, because it kind of has to be fun because you're not really under pressure.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

You're like, man, you're living a second life. That's the problem. Yeah. You're living a second life, nobody could know. Your parents didn't uh you know, wondering why I'm leaving the house in the morning with books in my hand and where I'm going where I'm going in my car and that, and had a girlfriend at the time, wanting to know where I was at all the time. I couldn't tell.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

This is interesting. So you're 20, almost 21. Correct. You're enrolled in high school for work. Correct. And then with the the goal obviously being what they referred to as a car, correct?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

It wasn't really to hurt the kids, but was to try to get the drugs out of the school system, drugs out the school system to teach the kids that were in it. You know, this this is not the route to go. So, you know, I felt like I was saving lives. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

You know what, you know what's interesting though? I don't know if this has ever happened at your high school, but I know when I was in high school, there was always rumors of undercover cops being at our school. And you're like, Well, who could it be?

SPEAKER_02 10:22

I was an accident, actually, an undercover cop that everybody was talking, you know, nobody suspected though. And uh and it was weird because it was only probably 10 miles away from where I grew up at, you know. But these kids were a lot younger than me and probably didn't know me, even though I had you know a name down there. Um so but I'd go to school every day, take tests, just like all the other kids.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

And then you would do the social stuff too.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah, I'd but buy drugs off of them in school in middle classrooms and stuff. We actually uh I think we bought drugs off of a teacher one time and stuff. And uh this I don't know why I'm surprised. I mean like so uh it was a big it was a big ordeal. And actually they made a movie at one of the schools that we wanted to cover in later on was uh 21 Jump Street, is actually made at Shaw Month, even though I was in St. Panard Parish. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that either. So I was made in St. Panard Parish. So uh but it was an interesting part of my life, and uh, you know, I did other undercover work in Mississippi and stuff like that. And uh could tell you a quick story if we got a funny store if you want to see it. Let's do it. Uh you know, they'd give me uh money to drink alcohol with and give me money to uh to buy drugs with. And um they sent my boss, who was the blonde guy with the dark uh Coke bottle glasses, to supposed to come watch me because you're always supposed to have somebody in a parking lot back then because you really didn't have cell phones and we had beepers, but you know, uh what year was this? Uh 1984. Okay. 84 and 85 right now. Okay. So so he said so he'd come watch me in Mississippi down in Bay St. Louis, and I'd go to different bars and buy drugs off of bands and stuff like that, and the people socializing in the bars, and we're not supposed to know each other, you know, because obviously uh, you know, just in case somebody knew he was a cop, because he was a cop a long time before me. So uh, but by the end of the night we'd be drinking and want to socialize again. And uh so he goes, let's go to this biker bar. I said, a biker bar? I said, man, I got shorthand, look like a nerd. I was always built, you know. Muskie would, you know, I didn't look like the biker type or nothing. Right. Because man, let's go to this biker bar, see if we can buy drugs off these people. I said, You sure? I said, all right. And when you're undercover, you can't carry a gun, you can't carry a badge, you got a fake driver's license, fake license plate on your car. Right. So on. So we go to this biker bar, and uh I go to the bar, and he's behind me, and he's he's 6'3, him, I'm 5'5, and he looks like a biker, though. He's got long hand, he's a policeman. So I go go to uh two mil lights, and when I did it, my boss is looking over here at this woman and this guy, two bikers with leather jackets on, knobs, and everything. You know everybody's got guns on in the barns except me, and he had a gun, I didn't. So he's looking, and this guy looks at my boss, he says, What you looking at? And my boss looks him straight in the eye. He goes, I'm looking at how ugly your old lady is.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

And I'm like, Oh crap, I don't have a gun. Everybody needs their guns, and we're gonna die. And the guy, the guy turns around on my boss, he hits him on the back, says, I like you. Let me buy you a drink. You tell the truth. The guy wants to buy us rounds of drinks, and then we want to buy drugs off everybody at the bar and bust at the ball. That's a true story, too. A true story. But uh yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

I thought you were gonna say that he knew the guy. That's where I thought you were going.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

No, but that's a true story. And then uh, you know, later on, um, I left St. Panard and I wound up becoming a New Wallace policeman and uh walked walked Bourbon Street for a long time. And I when I was walking Burberry Street, that's how I kind of got business sense also, because I would talk to different people, business owners there, and find out how they got business, what they did, and I would observe, you know, more than police work, I wouldn't, I'd observe what everybody would do, and uh everybody came up to me and ask me every night where ATM machine was at. At the time in the French quarter, there's only two ATM machines ATM machines back in 1993, 94. And one was uh on roll in um BMV, which was uh which was our Chase Bank at the time, whoever bought our Chase, and then the Whitney Bank. Whitney Bank had one in close to Jackson Square. There's only two ATM machines. Uh so meanwhile, I'm driving a police car one day, and uh I see a friend of mine who's a policeman hosing a sidewalk on Raw in St. Philip. So I pulled a police car over. I said, Uh, what you doing hosing a sidewalk down? I said, Oh, my mom owns this building. I said, it was a corner building, and I always would be looking when I was driving police cars for property and things to buy. So I said, Let me go look inside the building. It was a little bitty, a little bitty retail at the bottom and apartments at the top. I went there, I looked at it, I said, Tell your mom I'll take it. He goes, What do you mean I'll take it? I said, I'll take it. I'm gonna open a grocery store here. He goes, You crazy? I said, No, I'm gonna open a grocery store. So I'd open a grocery store there, and uh two days later, I'm driving my police car and I see a guy unloading an ATM machine. So I stopped and talked to the guy. I say, hey, oh I need an ATM machine at my place. He says, uh, well, he said, I tell you what, he says, uh, you could buy one from me and load it. He says, but I, you know, I can't afford to put any more out right now. I'm cash strong. I said, okay, I'll buy it. At that time, ATMs were like 10,000 apiece.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

And you know, but I put like four to six thousand in this ATM machine in my grocery store. Well, the ATM machine was doing better than the grocery store. I was making more money at that time off the ATM. So my second oldest brother called me one day and uh he had eat vascular necrosis where both his hip bones died. And uh he worked for Chevron, and Chevron wouldn't let him back on a plant. So they declared him disabled. So he had two two uh implants, uh hip hip replacements, and uh just gone about 40 years ago, I guess. And he had two young kids. He's like, and I was still a policeman. He goes, uh Chuck, I don't know what to do. I you know, I got two young kids, and you know, I can't go back to work for Chevron. What I'm gonna do? I said, well, don't worry about it. I said, I got a business. We're gonna go into the ATM business. ATM business. So I said, Yeah, come see. So showed him the ATM machine hard work, and he happened to be an electronic engineer him, so he knew how to work on the machines. Oh, that's a big hell. And uh so I pick him up in a wheelchair sometimes in the police car and go around introducing all these business people to put to put the ATMs in this their stores. So we started out with that, and at that time I just got my broker's license also. And I was a policeman in the ATM business. Got my broker's license working for Ladder and Bloom. Ladder and Bloom was downtown. So uh I I don't have to go into the how I got into more got big into brokering real estate and buying real estate. But so me and my brother have started growing an ATM business, and while I was growing it, I was selling hotels downtown uh at the time. And I'll tell you the story about that in a second. And uh when I as I'd sell hotels, I'd ask the people I sold a hotel to, could I put ATMs in there? So we grew from one ATM to 600 ATM machines over a 30-year period. Wow. We were doing 400,000 transactions a month at one time.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Now, was that were all the ATM machines predominantly located in New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Well, we we started out in New Orleans, the French quarter, because I had all the connections in the quarter, all the hotels. Then we started branching out to Baton Rouge, Hammond, Slidell, Covington, Mississippi. So it stayed in Louisiana. Yeah, so we were all over at the time. And uh that's pretty cool. You know, we we expanded out uh over tier, it was over a period of time. What overnight? I mean, we we started out in a uh a car by ourselves, police car by ourselves, me dropping them off, going to the locations, and then as we grew, you know, of course, you know, when I'm getting office and employing people over time and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Let's take a little moment here to deep dive that. Because one of the things that we've been talking about with uh with guests are you know, we see things on TV or we hear a story like you just told. And it it's like we we don't really appreciate, and I think the general public doesn't appreciate they just see Chuck on his Instagram laughing, cutting up with his glass of Pinot, and they're like, Look at that guy. He's just got the world you know and they don't really get to see you know what what it took to get to these places, and so I think this ATM thing is a good example.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I'm glad you asked that question, because I'm gonna tell you you know having a hard time in school me, I probably wanted to last in class at 189. Having uh started a couple of businesses, failing businesses, getting into the ATM business and doing well in the ATM business, then Katrina hits lost over over half of your ATM machines, lost money people stealing uh out of the ATM machines, National Guard stuff. I caught the National Guard stealing money out of my ATMs. I caught you know criminals stealing money, you know. So so my wife was in the dental office at the time. She lost her dental practice, lost all this cash we had, uh, the cash that I could get back. I had to go home and put it in a dryer. It smelled so bad after Katrina, it tried, you know. Then we built back up, me and my brother. We he he wanted to stay in Texas. I said, no, you gotta come back. We're gonna build this ATM business back up. He says, What you mean? I said, you know, I got a plan. Let's let's come back now. So he came back. And that time, that's the time is when he first started coming out with cell phone like for the ATMs. It was like modems that could call out where you didn't need you didn't need an actual phone jack. So it came out at the right time, so because nobody could get them but us. So we started going out in convenience stores that were just open getting open to get people gas. Nobody had cash at the time. We started putting ATMs out with the the phone modems. So we grew from there. So we're doing good. We we did great. Three years after that, I'm not gonna say who, but this guy, Gamble Hog, my brother employed, steals over $500,000 from us. So you know, luckily we had a uh a great cash flow, uh, and we didn't give up. You know, we luckily we'd be able to make all that money back plus plus still make money. Yeah, you know, but it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy, and the only smart thing I could say that I really did too was that I was in real estate and you know I was living off uh cash flow to ATMs, but anytime I'd hit a uh a real estate deal, broker in a real estate deal, I'd invest my money into more real estate for myself, getting a cash flow off the real estate because I knew one day the ATM company would probably go away because of technology, people using less cash, or so so on. So we did sell out for about four million a couple years ago, uh the ATM business, but you know, I always sank my cash, extra cash, into real estate. So I probably own about 50 pieces of commercial real estate property now that you know have a lot of equity in and cash flows for me now. Uh so it was a long haul. Like you said, a lot of people look at me and like they make stories up about you know, he did this or he did that, you know, to get where he was at, which is all garbage because I didn't inherit a penny from my parents. You know, my dad was disabled, you know, they were old school. My dad was a hard worker, but didn't Disable such and inherit anything.

SPEAKER_04 22:02

Uh so you know and it takes, you know, I use the term incremental steps. We had someone in the other day who has a business called Swegs Small Wins Equals Great Success. Right, correct. And to me, that matches the incremental steps. And and as part of that growth pattern, there's lots of um setbacks, there's lots of challenges that come. And um, you know, learning how to fight through them.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

Like you said, focus, I think what you opened up with was awesome. When you were like, well, when I would be in a down period, I'd think about well, what have I done well in life? What if what are my strengths? What are my prior successes that I can lean on? Because I think the brain naturally, when you get down, wants to focus on, you know, how am I getting out of this hole? Right. How am I gonna, you know, I'm a I'm a loser or whatever. But ultimately the brain shifted the other way.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Failure, failure is success. I like to tell people out there.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Failure is success.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

But failure is success because you learn from your failures. Right. Even when you fail in school, you get that test back and you read over the test and you learn what you put answers you put wrong, right? Or how to do it correctly. So you got to look at that in life and business. When you're failing something, you learn what you did wrong and don't keep repeating it. Do something differently. You know, you can repeat the same business, but don't repeat the mistake you made. You know, don't repeat that mistake, you know, keep going forward, move forward. And you get knocked down in life, and that's what sports are really about in football too, is you get knocked down. You gotta equal to business. You get knocked down, you gotta get up, keep running, get up for the next play, keep going. And that's sports to teach kids about life. Sometimes times get hard. Life gets hard. But you gotta get up, keep going. And you gotta keep the faith and you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Well, I like how you also said you went back to your basics, right? Correct. You went back to your work ethic, to your faith, to working hard, not giving up. You know, so that little that little drop of knowledge is so important, right? Because oftentimes we don't go back to the simple things, like like keep the simple, like correct what worked, that's correct. What didn't work.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

Well, because the world wants to overcomplicate.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Overcomplicate, yes, everything.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

You know, and a lot of times uh I have very smart friends, okay. Very lot more smaller than me. However, they overthink. Like uh, you know, I'll joke around with a lot because I'll invite them into an investment with me, and uh they'll they'll overanalyze it. I don't think that's you know, dah dah, dah. So I'll do a deal and I'll flip it and make a couple hundred thousand and then I'll call them up, kind of rubbing their face a little bit, just kidding around because they're friends of mine. No, no, no, and he'll like, well, you know, then let's start. Well, why don't you tell me about that? So I did tell you about it.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Well, that's very nice of you because you're you're kind of going back to them and teaching them, hey, this is you should have learned from the thing.

SPEAKER_04 25:03

Yes, because you're your friend, you want to put a bit but but ultimately you're doing it, it sounds to me like because you're trying to share what you know. Right, correct. And sometimes with the people closest to you, because there's barriers based on those relationships, right? That you got to crack through those. And sometimes that might be the way. Like, hey, you passed up on this. Right. Um, I could just see this conversation amongst my friends with lots of cursing and nicknames flying. You know, you passed up on this, and look what I was able to do. And I'm telling this, because next time it comes, I think you need to join the party. Right. And and ultimately you could join the party next time and it may not be successful. Right. But it doesn't mean the model does it.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Right, no, right. No. Right. I mean, I mean that you're not, you know, you're not all I don't want anybody to ever go in business with Chuck Lotion and said they lot lost money there, you know, and that, you know, and that's my problem because I got a big heart. It's like, you know, you know, before I let that happen, I'm gonna figure out a way to compensate somebody. But uh, you know, it's you know, I had a deal one time, uh, it was Popeyes, it was a closed down Popeyes on uh BMville and Broad, uh, north broad. And uh I put it under contract. You know, I had a payday loan company that was supposed to lease it from me. And uh they they decided they couldn't couldn't lease it because uh because of so many ordinances in in the parish about where payday loan companies could be, couldn't be too close to another one, and so on and so on. So uh I kept it under contract, and uh the payday loan companies say you're keeping that under contract? I said, Yes, sir. I said it's a good corner. I said I know this corner, and I invited one of my friends into the deal. He's like, No, man, I I I don't know. I don't I I know it's not a good deal for me. So, okay. So I put a sign up there for lease while I still had it under contract, and uh this guy kept calling me and he's like, uh, you know, I'll lease it from you, so we made a deal lease. But before I even go to closing, he calls me and says, Man, I'd like to buy the building from you. I said, I really don't want to sell it. And I think I had it under contract for like $320,000, something like that. And uh so he calls me every other day. He says, Look, uh, how much got under the contract? I said $320. He says, man, I'll give you $340 for the contract. I said, no, it ain't enough money for me to do that. So he calls me the next day, he says, man, I'll give you $380,000. I said, still not enough. I said, I really like this building. So I said, I'm gonna do something with it. I said, you want to release it, I'll lease it to you. So okay, we'll stick with the lease. So then he calls me, says, I'll give you $400. I said, I said, I'll tell you what, you give me $420, we're gonna make $100,000, and I don't have to close on it, and you close on it, I'll do the deal. So he said, deal. So sure enough, we didn't even sign the deal yellow. I went to the closing table, we went, I went in one room, he gave me a $100,000 cashier's check. I signed the contract over to him, he went in the next room and closed the deal.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

So of course I took a picture and sent it to my friend. Of course you did. Just to mess with him. You know, so so he's like, man, man, he said, my wife wouldn't let me do it. I said, whatever. Yeah, so that's good. But I but he's my friend, so you know, he's happy for me, I'm happy for him. But you know, not every deal is like that, you know. But I mean, you know, it's it's things in you know, life that you gotta learn that people don't know, they think they know, but they don't know. And uh, you know, I don't know everything. I'm still learning deals. Every real estate deal is different. You know, and I've been many, many, many different businesses too. I was in the medical waste business, I was uh I have an insurance license, I was in the insurance business, you know, I own the insurance company, I own the medical waste company, I own a jukebox company. You know, there's not too many things uh I haven't did yet. Now, right now, my big biggest adventure is of course my two liquor stores on St. Charles Avenue that I love. But I also own the whites of Tony Chashley's Cajun Crispy Cry Fried Chicken that I have in Destin. And uh we enjoy that. We enjoy doing it the Instagram things with that. It's very fun. You know, I had uh some ladies on my yacht with my wife laughing at them, dancing, uh saying Chuck's fried chicken to a song, and you know, got like 100,000 views. Right. You know, just people laughing. So I was having fun in life. Look, I want to teach people what I did, not to make the mistakes. Um my son's doing well, um learning at first, and I didn't think he's gonna take my uh my avenue, but he is. You know, my oldest daughter went to the University of Alabama. She's kind of taking over my real estate companies. Um, my second daughter is getting ready to graduate from dental school to be a dentist to take over her mother's company. My mother, my wife owns two dental practices in Slide L and we're gonna build one in Covington uh for my daughter.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

Hurry up, please. Because I went to the dentist, I missed my sixth month, which is all new now. It used to be, you know, you went to the dentist once a year. Yeah, you know, every now and then I'd miss and I've got great teeth, thank God. And um, so then they get me on the program. You know, if you just come every six months, right? All right, that makes sense because when you leave and they put you on. Okay, well, I missed my six-month appointment just about a month ago. So I sent a text in to get the date, and the lady's like, Well, um, the next appointment is November. That's correct. This is a brand new dental practice opened up in what I call North Covington. Right. Um, and so they are booking in January for November. That's correct. Uh I left my last dent just to I was for 15 years because I called to get an appointment there, and it was like 10 months out, and I'm like, what the hell? So I moved only to get the exact same problem. So please help me.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

I'm not gonna brag on my wife, but my wife, you know, a lot of people tell me she's one of the best at us around. She's got Libidy fingers, and they say you can't even feel her in there, you know. When she gives anesthesia and that, they don't feel it, and they love her. You know, she loves what she's doing. Uh she's been doing it for 30 years now, too. She's a little younger than me, but she's been doing it for 30 years, and uh, she's she's very successful also, so I'm proud of her. And uh hopefully my daughter's successful in it. And my son is um, we moved over here uh from Slidell about just nine years ago because my son wanted to go to St. Paul's. And he started out with football, but he uh he wound up being a world champion powerlifter. Um he's the only kid in the state of Louisiana to ever bench press 555 pounds. He still holds the state state record. That's awesome. And we we had a fly to Turkey and he he won a world championship over there in the USA team. So, but he uh you know he's very dedicated, very religious. Um and I'm proud of him because the things I preached to him when he was young about dedication and how I got there through high school, you know, going back to high school and dedicating myself to the weights and stuff in order to play football. You know, he kind of took that same route and he's uh very dedicated to business right now. He goes to Southeastern, but uh he helps me with my liquor sewers and uh he's gonna help me with the food truck we got out there, and he so he's just a he's just a great kid, you know, and I'm proud of all three of my kids and proud of my wife. I'm more proud of them than anything. Nice good family. But uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

Well let's go back to wouldn't when you had the the peanut machine.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Peanut peanut stoop. Peanut and candy stoop.

SPEAKER_04 32:21

Peanut and candy stoop.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

That was one of the first businesses I had. Well, I had one business before that.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Where was this?

SPEAKER_02 32:26

That was a Bell Promenade Mall.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Bell Promenade, okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Bell Promenade Mall, probably 1986. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

So what was the what's the biggest takeaway from from that experience?

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Biggest takeaway from that was a retail facing. Yeah, it was a retail, it was a retail-based business, and it was actually a good learning lesson because it was a franchise. It's called Peanut Peanut Check. And everything was, you know, in order, how to keep your books, how to keep your registers timing, how to how everything had to be cooked perfectly, the nuts had to be fried, uh, the chocolate nuts.

SPEAKER_04 33:02

So you all were doing the prep as well and the cooking. Prep as well. Oh wow. So it's almost like the fudge factories that you see where they're making the fudge.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

And my mom and dad uh came on a kind of retirement and disability when I was a. I used to pay them $3.25 an hour to drive all the way from Saudell to the Belle Promenade, which is all the way in the West Bank, and they would go there and fry the nuts for me and and cook, and uh we'd get uh big Christmas orders from doctors and that, you know, cans and stuff like that. And uh we did well for a while, but then Bell Promenade kind of kind of lost, you know, went under. But during that time, I uh I took over uh a restaurant there at the same time. It was called Spats, and we called it Moonlighting because they had a show that was on at night called Moonlighting, and we named it Moonlighting, and we were successful with the restaurant for a while with uh because we used to have long-hour and iced tea night, two-dollar long-on iced teas and big cups and moonlightings, and you know, we did well there for a while, but then uh started not doing too good. And um, and I went uh, you know, I was on a police department, so I kind of sold out to my partner on that, and uh peanut shot kind of went away too. We sold that.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

Um so what was the biggest takeaway from that experience?

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Biggest takeaway from that experience, hard work, hard work, dedication, you gotta be on top of it with retail, you know. Not everybody be trusted, you know. You can't, you know, you gotta you gotta watch theft, you know, from inside and outside. Uh but it that was the beginning of learning business, learning about knowing that you gotta pay payroll taxes, yeah, sales taxes, you know, and you're part of a franchise too, so that helped learn a little bit about business. You know, learn a little bit about business because uh, you know, they don't teach that in college and they don't teach that in high schools, you know, the things that you need to know. And uh later on in life, when you know, I built a hotel. I uh also own a historical building downtown that we we uh have a license for a hotel also. And I learned a lot from my accounting, my accountant, uh Ken Ken Abney, he's a CPA. We went to high school together, and we got together later on on in life. He started teaching me about tax credits and uh new market tax credits and stuff. And he taught me a lot. I learned from another gentleman, uh Marcus Chiste, an attorney. So every time I'd go to closings with real estate I was brokering or I was buying, I'd learn from these guys. And they had a guy who's retired now, Dean Haynes, a banker that I was tied up in with in younger life that helped me get lines of credit for my ATMs and started me out with getting business loans to buy uh more and more real estate. So I'd learn from guys from experience. And now when I'm 62, I'd like to try to pass that experience on to younger guys uh that want to know how to build how to build wealth. Because wealth is really built more in real estate, believe it or not. You know, you have to have a cash flow, but if you you want to be a wealthy person, you know, real estate, you keep constantly buying real estate, of course you gotta make sure it's the right property and the cash flows, but that's how you build wealth in in the United States, more than stock market. Yeah.

unknown 36:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Real estate.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Easier said than done on picking the right properties and all.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

What's that? Easier said than done. Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of advantages, especially when you get in a high tax bracket to buying multiple commercial properties. I try to buy at least one or two properties a year. You know, uh, you know, just uh there's a law called cost segregation where you can depreciate your properties faster o over a period of year in one year, you know. So you know, it gives you tax advantages. And I have this argument with, you know, some of my friends went on, and I'm not gonna say who, but it's like he's like the the wealthy should be taxed. I say this you shouldn't be getting tax breaks, that's what he said. I said the wealthy should get tax breaks, and he says, Well why? I say, because if the wealthy stop investing money, right, the economy stops. And he is arguing with, and I'll tell y'all this if you build one house, you got his his he kind of debates me on it, but he's got his own side, and that's fine, and I got my own side. If you build one house, you're creating over a thousand jobs. And he goes, that's not true. I said, You are creating a thousand jobs. I said, I'll tell you how. First you got the real estate broker, then you got the real estate attorney that's got to close the deal. You got the guy that's got to make the concrete, the guy that's got to make the plumbing supplies, you got the guy that delivers the concrete, you got the guy that spreads the concrete, you got the guy who forms for the concrete, you got the carpenter, you got the guy who cuts the trees, you got the guy that sells the salesman for the lumber, you got the guy that delivers the lumber, you got the people that make the nails, you got the people where you buy the nails from, it goes on and on and on, air conditioned, so on and so on. So if you don't have wealthy people with, especially with buildings, office buildings, storage centers, if you don't have people investing, the economy would stop. So you have to give the wealthy tax breaks. You have to give them a reason. If not, they would just pay taxes. They'd say, hell, you don't pay taxes and not invest their money in the economy. So as long as they put their money in the economy, it keeps the economy rolling. And you you nobody likes IRS, not even me. You know, you know, the big problem with the IRS is they they audit the wrong people, they audit the people that pay taxes instead of the people that are not paying taxes. But the IRS was was geared for that reason, they keep the economy rolling. They keep it where you constantly invest the money. Just like right now, you know, if you're in business, you you go buy a truck, 6,000 pounds, you get 100% write-off. So that gives you an incentive to go buy that truck, they give you some type of write-off. Or a computer, you get 100% write-off, or this equipment you have right here, you you know, this is your business, you get 100% write-off. It gives you a a reason to go into business, or a reason to start a second business besides your job to try to get write-offs. But when you do that, you're creating a job. Who who makes this camera? Who makes that computer? You know, who makes that light right there? You know?

SPEAKER_00 38:59

So you need to podcast editors. What's that podcast editors? I mean Right.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

So, you know, but yeah, so it's it's like we're creating jobs. You gotta, you know, wealthy people create jobs, so you don't want to penalize for people for being a success. Because it wasn't that easy, like like you talked to me. My life was tough. You know, I yeah, I'm at the top now, but I can still get knocked down. I'm knocked down every day. You know, you know, it's you you don't know what's coming at you next. You don't know if another hurricane Katrina is coming. You don't know well what's gonna happen in this world. The economy crashes, people stop spending money. You know, you don't know what's gonna happen. It's not all uh battle roses, you just need to keep going and and and be positive no matter what happens. But you know, you you can't penalize the people that do what America wants you to do, be successful. Because you penalize them, then the whole economy stops. The whole world stops. Because America is one of the richest nations again.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Very true.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

All right. Well, on the real estate piece, let's say you have um let's say somebody doesn't have any real estate from an investment standpoint. They may have a house or a town home they're living in and they're they're thinking about jumping into that game, so to speak. What's your advice on where do they how do they start? And what are the just like if you could just give us like a couple of the things that they want to pay attention to? Because earlier you said, look, it's gotta be a gotta be the right property. And I think that can be defined a hundred different ways.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

But like for someone who's a beginner, um, that's well, it's not as complicated as people think. Okay. And I guess because I do have a simple mind and not as educated as a lot of people, it's a little easier because it's actually simple, simple business math when you do when you invest in a real estate. You know, you you know you get your amortization schedule out. Say a lot of people want to start with doubles of single family homes, which I understand, because it's hard to jump into commercial real estate because it's a lot bigger, a lot bigger investment. You know, some of the deals I do, you need you need a half a million down payment. You know, and you know, realistically, not everyone in the world could start that way. Right. But I didn't either. Okay. So what I always tell people, this is my brain set, okay, and it's as simple as can be. Say I'm gonna buy a double. Say the double is let's just say $100,000 for instance. Okay. Okay, and you gotta put 20% down. Now, there's you know, there's other th ways to do it right now, but I'm gonna use this example for right now. So a double, you gotta put, say you put 20% down, you're doing it's an investment property, okay? If I'm gonna take $20,000 out of my bank, that's making, it's only making 2% right now, so you're making less than $40 a month on your money, okay? So when I put that $20,000 into a double, a duplex or whatever, I want to I want to make sure first I want to analyze how much that $80,000 is gonna cost me. All right, so I want to make sure I'm gonna be able to cover that $80,000, my taxes and in my insurance, and some maintenance. But I also want to make sure I'm gonna make a minimum of 20% return on that on that $20,000. So I'll be making $200 a month instead of $40 a month. All right? And I do that with commercial deals all the time. If I put a lot of my deals, I'll put $100,000 out. But if I put $100,000 down, I want to make sure after I pay my note taxes and attribute that I'd make minimum a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars a month, which gives me ten to fifteen percent return. Because if I take a risk and put it out the bank, I need to make sure I'm making a good return on my money to take that risk. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

So so when I I've had lots of I've been studying real estate for a long time, I only jumped in about six years ago. Um like you talk to different people who do different things and everybody's got different models. Um what do you say to the people who would say, well, if it's covering a note, why do I need why do I need the return on the cash? So if I buy it, if I buy a town home, especially with insurance the way it's been lately. So if I if I buy it and it's covering the note, Chuck, and I got a little extra to cover it.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

The way I look at it, okay, is I gotta make a return on my investment first, about 20,000.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

When they pay me rent, I make a return. It's like a savings account from me because every time they pay me rent and I pay my note, I'm building equity. The other thing, over a period of time, real estate increases in value. So you shouldn't be making money three ways when you invest in real estate. One, a rate of return on a cash you put down, two on an equity building for the people who are renting from here. Four, I mean, I'm sorry, three. is by increase in value over a period of time because everything increases over a period of time. You know, it's like shirt on your back, you might pay $40, but years from now, you know, a few years you might pay $60, you know.

SPEAKER_04 44:14

And if it's vintage, it might pay $100.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 44:17

Got a few holes, they pay more.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

Right. So everything it's going to increase in value. So you're making it three ways. So you know you always when I buy property, I buy commercial property for a different reason. One, it's because usually my tenant pays the insurance, my tenant pays the taxes called triple net, and he pays the rent. So all I'm responding, and if the build the the toilet's clock, that's his problem. The air conditioner breaks, that's his problem. It's called a net net. I'm net net and net rent. So when he pays me that $5,000 a month and I pay the bank $3,000 a month, I got a $2,000 return on my $100,000 I put down and I'm building equity every month. Majority of my buildings are worth way more than what I paid for them 10 years ago or five years ago and so on. You know I have a building right now in Nettery that uh it's a sushi restaurant that I paid $500,000 for I put uh $200,000 in renovation in appraised for so I had $700,000 appraised for million seven right now. So and that's in a 10-year period. So a million extra million dollars in equity plus I paid it down to where I only owe $200,000 on the right, you know? So but that's that's the basics of real estate works. I mean there's other deals that you'd invest in and stuff like that in for different reasons. You know like if you wanted to buy a Walgreens you know it pays a 6% return. Okay? So it's moving a bank but you might have sold a piece of property for $5 million and instead of paying your taxes right now you want to defer your taxes. So you'd buy that piece of property would you know you had five million of cash you buy for 5 million then you get a 6% return you know about 3000 a month or whatever you want to say returning you money. So that would be another reason you know or you know you building a piece like I'm building a dental practice for my daughter and buying that so she could produce dental was really not a real estate uh play it's really a business play. Right. You know but it's still worth money. Real estate's still going up in value as she holds it. Um so there's different all kind of different plays in real estate you know uh that that you do um I said that do you see do you find that in the New Orleans market, and I think this is happening across the Gulf South I know it's happening in Florida do you find that the the cost of insurance is starting to deflate that return that you're too your ability to get the money back or down pay absolutely absolutely you know it's deflating it and also hurts you if you're a net net net lease like me it's hurting your tenant you know from paying you know big rents because now they can't pay the rents any them high rents because now they got to worry about paying your insurance and taxes. You know and and I think the tax taxes are out of Oahu in the city of New Orleans are ridiculous. And insurance also in the North Shore, you know taxes are a little bit too high also but insurance is seems like it might be coming down a little bit down here. You know so but yeah that qualifies buyers when you're building houses and things like that or tenants whether they can afford you know paying a commercial note and then paying the taxes insurance. So yes it hurts the value. But uh you know I think we stabilize right now I see the values in New Orleans are coming down a little bit. Covington's pretty stable um Florida condo values are coming down a tiny bit because of the new rules that they passed about condominium uh construction and that um in escrow accounts so but it's all going to stabilize I think we we're getting ready to get into a great economy in another year or so um I think we're still not there yet but I think within a year or two you know as long as the politics stay where it's at I think that we're gonna be in a great great economy with people with money in their pocket again. Well you can see it now with gas coming down you know it's like if you own a convenience store even a liquor store you know a guy goes and fills his car up and it's $4 a gallon they don't come in and buy a cup of coffee or beer or anything because you know they got worried about bringing their kids to school getting to work and that but when gas is that right now you go to Sam's you get it some days $218 a gallon three $230 a gallon. Well that affects the economy because now that guy's got a little money to come in and buy himself a six pack of beer or go buy a biscuit in the morning at the convenience store or so on. So it all related plus you know transportation makes when gas is down like it is transportation costs come down which makes food costs come down because it's a little cheaper to transport you know the cattle and whatever they're gonna transport to the grocery stores and so it's all related to the economy. You know when interests are coming down a little bit well now people can qualify for homes more which like I said one home produces a lot of a lot of jobs. So as long as interest rates are coming down and gas prices are down it's a little bit cheaper to build a home and it's a little bit more affordable you know uh when they go to qualify to get a home. You know so it's you know everything takes a play.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

But I really feel that we're in a we're in we're in a good state of mind right now good place in the economy.

SPEAKER_04 49:30

Do you um so when COVID hit because I know you you do a lot of commercial property work. Um when covet hit and the couple years after that obviously with the work from home and then the economy being crazy.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Unbelievable I made I made more money doing COVID than than my ATMs were rolling like I never seen rolling before.

SPEAKER_04 49:50

But I mean in a commercial real estate case do you feel like it's bouncing back now?

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Well commercial real estate yeah that's the only thing it might have hurt me on but residential real estate went crazy. And we're you know we're broker uh White Locher uh realties we're brokers and my daughter was working for me at the time graduated she still has corporated from the University of Alabama at the right time so the housing industry was going crazy people were outbidding each other to get homes there. Yeah I remember nobody was working it's like what was going on you know people living off of government money but they didn't have jobs and they were bidding on homes they're getting qualified and buying homes left and right and a commercial like uh I have a building on Barone Street that I have non-condos that uh I was leasing off Airbnb to a major company you know they came to me and I had to take a cut on my rent you know I had to take a you know like we'll pay you something but you know you know we can't pay at all or give us a two months uh diversion from paying you because you know COVID's here we you know we we have nobody traveling you know and also with the restaurant downstairs I had to give the guy a break with the restaurant downstairs uh but the government did a good job as far as supplement and some incomes there and stuff and loaning people money to to get through it which I think that's what caused the economy to kind of boom during that time with houses and I because the government was supplementing money and you notice too during a BP spill that everybody had money.

SPEAKER_04 51:13

You know because BP But there's always a rebound effect. Well the BP spill is a little different but you know there's a rebound effect from you know on the one hand pushing money out in a crisis is is needed. And then you gotta you have to be able to expect that there will be a rebound. I think we're coming out of the rebound yeah coming out of rebound now any other issue like that um I I do agree that the the macro economics that things are are moving in the right direction it just takes a while to trickle down.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

That's correct. But I think we come I think you know I'm happy where we're at now and I think we're gonna get even better in the next year or two. And then hopefully it stays like that for next 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 51:52

That way I'll be 72 and then I'll slow down you know so I wanna uh I want to transition a little bit um so during uh you've also had a major health yes scare. Yes sir um and it led to a very interesting business idea or executing a business idea that was presented to you. And I think I think it's kind of a um I wanna wanna say it's a good story because of the health part, but um if you could share a little bit about Sure.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Uh yeah I uh first I took over a liquor store 7133 St. Charles Avenue um and I didn't ever think I'd be in a liquor store business or a retail business again. But I took over one at Broadway St. Charles by Tulane University of Loyola um loaned somebody money and didn't pay me so made a deal for me to take the store. I took the store and um short short while later he owned another store I 21 I 2025 St. Charles and uh the lenders came to me asked me if I I would take over that store and I said at the time I guess I was 60 years old, 50 and I said, man at this age I don't want another store. So we're doing good at this store and another one. So they kept coming back to me and I said okay I guess I'll do it. So I took over a store and soon after I took over I noticed it was a tourist store. And it was tourist it wasn't like the other store was a college store college and law school store in Ottoman Park. So this call this store was more a tour store next next to the punch trade hotel and uh and with the rooftop bar next door and that Mr. John's is right there and stuff. And a lot of foot traffic not a lot of parking lot of foot traffic and uh so uh a gentleman went to high school with there was a practical joker that I'm surprised he had thrown around a Hoy Cross riding a host to school and just doing dumb things all the time but he was uh did get a degree in marketing and he was uh a newscaster at one time so I said we need to figure out something here how uh how we can get tourists in here more tourists in here so we think and we think and then um I talked to a guy named Warren Ruther who owns the the bus company the ducks the duck buses oh yeah and I was trying to give him the announce you know as the buck the duck buses would pass hey Chuck Chuck's on the avenue liquor store you know stop in here he goes well he told me in the phone he says Chuck I really don't want to push liquor because I don't want to you know go on there just to get liquor and getting back on my buses and stuff says you got to come up with another unique idea why should we say what why go to Chuck's on the avenue? So I started talking to Vince about it. So Vince started doing some research and then uh a few days later I go to store Vince says man I got a great idea so we said Vince and I'm rolling my eyes the whole time because I know he's he's cuckoo you know so I said this what's the idea he said well I've been doing research there's many donut shops all over the United States that got wedding chapels in them. I said really I never heard of that because yeah let me show you he said donut shops wedding chapel so why don't we be the first liquor store to put wedding chapel in it I said man than you crazy I ain't doing that's nuts so I left the store and uh a few weeks later I started getting a bad I was in the store had a bad bad headache my head was killing me took two toler went back to the register my head was killing me even more so I drove home all the way across the lake 30 miles and by the time I got home my head was really hurt really really bad and my wife just got home from our dental office and I said I said Lisa I said I just want to tell you I love you but I'm getting ready to die of a brain aneurysm she says what I said to die of brain aneurysm she goes we gotta go to the hospital I said let me use the restroom first so I went used the restroom she goes no you gotta go now so I have to use the restroom she threw me in her car and rushed me to the hospital got to the hospital and they said you have a real bad brain bleed right now and we can't heal them here at St. Tammany So they drove me across the causeway to the other auctioner got to that auctioner and uh got there and they said well we think you stabilized me to put you in intensive care for two days. So intensive care with a brain bleed my head killed me uh and they would sedate me every day. So but they let me go thinking I was going to be okay. So a day later I went back to the store that night and had to get a driver because my wife wouldn't let me drive myself and I was in a meeting with some politicians and I and uh in my tasting room and I collapsed on the table with my headache and uh they rushed me out of there and the driver got me across the lake back to my wife. My wife hurried up threw me back in the car rushed me to St. Anthony Hospital where I just so happened luckily that night the brain surgeon happened to be there. So he came in there and he said look you really believe in Brad we're gonna uh your whole brain's pushed to the right side of your head we need to drill two holes in it and uh I didn't know how much how many friends I had at the time but I had a 30 people showed up the hospital when they were rolling me in and of course I was sedated you know but I see all my friends before right before the door and I was sitting there joking around with them about jokes you know tell them one of them look you know I want you to when I die you know I want you to you know to get up and stand up and tell tell everybody how bad of a guy I was and another guy was an Italian guy and said look uh make sure you tell the doctor you didn't give an offer you can't refuse before he cuts my head open to make sure I survive you know so I went to the surgery room came out and uh woke up out of the blue at two in the morning and um I was dreaming the whole time I was in surgery I guess all before I woke up about brides walking up the aisle of my St. Charles Avenue Chuck City Avenue and I said man this is weird so my wife was sitting next to me and I said Lisa I said call Vince I want to see him tomorrow she says what you want to see him for I said I just need to see him please get him here so Vince comes to the hospital to see me and he walks in and I said Vince and I got two tubes coming out my head draining blood out and ho and on y'all I said Vince look like Frankenstein probably and uh I said Vince uh I do he says what you mean I do I said you know how they say in weddings I do I said I do I'm gonna let you do that wedding chapel he says really man I want to do this man thank you so much thank you so much I was probably half out of my mind with two holes in my head and sedated probably on half the drugs or whatever but you know I was dreaming about weddings you know so he went back to the store and I was laid up for about 30 to 60 days and uh I get back to the store and he had champagne people donated uh uh wooden cases and that with champagne bottles going up the side the chapel stained glass he went out and bought pews stained glass in the you know the whole nine yards and it came out beautiful and I was like man that's a beautiful chapel uh shortly after we started advertising it we had a couple agree that they wanted to get married there um and somehow it got out of social media and uh next thing we know TV stations are showing up and uh New York Times finds out about New York get uh New York Post finds out about it uh got the New York Post calling me got uh radio stations calling me all over the world uh people in France was calling me uh wanting me to see if I could do a France wedding with somebody who speaks French and I was like well trying to find somebody to cajun because we all cajun down here you know I said I'd try to find but so this wedding went worldwide and then uh all over local news national news and then uh we watched and set my one night and he's making fun of the wedding chapel which is great you know it's like great good you know bad news is good news you know good publicity you know yeah so it went worldwide so we're known as uh only liquor store in the world with uh famous liquor store in the world with a wedding chapel in it and we we have them weddings at least once or twice a month right now we got a couple weddings coming up this month we got a wedding right before Mardi Gras and everything's going well and it's do you allow them to drink before the wedding they can drink before the wedding and uh we got a license for tasting so we were able to let them taste some champagnes and taste some wands after the wedding uh so and it's really fun we do uh we get off from second lines and I'll leave the second line with an umbrella and usually if the bride don't have a father I'll walk the walk abroad down the aisle and uh I can actually marry them or renew their vowels. And but a lot of people rather than old ugly Chuck they want Elvis Presley that's at the Saint game uh dress up Elvis do we'll have an Elvis wedding and we got this little uh old lady who's really really good a voodoo voodoo priestess she's really good we've had Sid done some voodoo wednes uh Elvis weds and we got uh Dr. Sox who's a famous cancer doctor in Covington that uh is ordained that can do actual pirate weddings and he believes he's a pirate in his head even though he's a famous doctor and he's a good friend of mine. We went to Turkey together and great guy to be around great guy to party with but uh he could do the weddings too and he's all into it. So you know we look forward to great wedding packages. Yeah we've got great wedding packages and uh we're talking about getting uh a little uh a sprinter van now because we have a lot of bat bachelorette parties that come there in the tasting room and do tastings and stuff from all over the United States. Instead of going to Nashville they come to Chucks on the Avenue there you go 2120 St. Charles and they they love uh they love doing tastings in there and have we had a bachelorette party this weekend and went there I think we should do a podcast then do a podcast there we can do a podcast there have do some wands and uh we actually have some wine here for y'all to try with some pepperoni we're gonna do the pepperoni challenge with y'all wanna wine with ice in it. Explain the background of the pepperoni challenge for us as we know unfortunately I had a brain surgery and that's probably where it came from but uh you know me and my wife uh a lot of times we don't we usually go to Keith Young's every Friday night which we love but Saturday night we usually take it easy and uh we'll get a uh we'll make our own cheese tray with pepperoni I'll put pepperoni ham and uh maybe some salami and cheese and of course my wife's a health nut so she used she won't eat the pepperoni with me and she won't eat the salami with me but she'll eat the cheese and stuff like that and she'll drink she'll drink a sweet wine but I you know I like Pinot Wa wines from Oregon or New Zealand is my favorite and uh Mew's Mistake out of Arizona. So I'll open up a bottle of wine but my for me and open up a different type of bottle for her and I'll sit in front of the TV set eat my pepperoni and drink wine and I notice that when I drink and chew it really well that it form just like eating steak it forms greases in your cheeks. And when you put the wine in your mouth if you really swish it around you get a f this fine feeling of the the fats and the greases coming out of your cheeks rolling out into your throat into your palate. So it's a different type of feeling that people don't realize red wine cleanses your palate. You know and I started doing that noticing then a while back not yellow popcorn but white popcorn I eat white popcorn with red wine. White popcorn tastes delicious with red wine and so I started doing that. And so uh a guy who does not podcast but does like uh Instagram commercials came to me one day and he said man he said I just want you to be natural what do you do I said well honestly I said I eat pepperoni drink wine red wine red wine with ice I got a I got a crushed ice machine at my house he goes man let's let's do an Instagram what you're doing at so he had a big microphone like you have in front of you not realizing that it picked up me chewing like unclassy chewing you know smacking you know which usually I chew with my mouth closed but I was smacking you know not realizing what I'm doing back in you know for I'm a school or whatever and people hear that smacking and then he see me put ice or wand so I started and this is before I had brain surgery too matter of fact so it was a week before I had brain surgery I did that so when I wake woke up from brain surgery not only in the thing with Vince my phone was on my chest I was getting trashed all over the world I had over uh four million views people trashing me you gotta be you're disgusting how you chew a pepperoni keep your mouth closed who puts wine in ice who drinks red wine with ice you that's crazy you're nuts you're gonna die of heart disease you're gonna die of this and you can see your face you look like a pepperoni you got uh your red face you got high blood pressure and I'm like you know what you're right I do have high blood pressure I have very high that's why I had the brain bleeding in my head with the blood pressure and they and I'm instantly they say I hope you die some people I'm like you know and I'm I'm just waking up on a surgery and I'm like you don't realize I almost just died almost just died so it's crazy but you know what bad publicity is great publicity you know it may made me famous with the pepperoni and the wine uh me with me having fun mostly that was just about having fun and I'm still having fun I have people flying all over the United States right now call me and want to pay me a hundred dollars a pop to drink wine and eat pepperoni roading with me and experience it. Some chefs, uh people that own restaurants come in and uh it's been fun. It's been fun I'm meeting people from all over the world. I love it. I love meeting people doing Mardi Gras especially I'm meeting people with a absolute came out with a uh with the uh with a vodka spice spice vodka with uh uh Tabasco sauce in it and uh they made a post of me hoe in the bottle and actually did these clothes on similarly these clothes on I had blue pants on with a bottle. And we put it in front of the store doing Mardi Gras. And all these people all over the world coming in and they'd look out because I'd sit in front of the store for security and just watching my inventory and watching everything. They'd look at me and they'd look at the poster and they said, That's you, that's you. I said, Yes, man. You Chuck? I said, Yeah, I'm Chuck. Man, can I take my picture with you? I said, Sure, take your picture with you. So take pictures, they're posted all over the world. I'll take a picture of my poster, me and the poster and them, and we're just having fun doing water. And then I'd bring some people in the tasting room and do some pepperoni and wand with them and just have fun. So I'm just having fun in my life now. I mean, I'm still, you know, doing deals, not as many as I used to, but you know, still do deals and try to teach other people how to do deals and I have a lot of relatives that work for me or uh and some other people that that are in investments that I I try to guide to invest in real estate correctly.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:55

So when I reached out to you about doing this, um very quickly, the text string led to should we do the pepperoni and wine?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

Pepperoni and wine.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:03

Absolutely. You said I'm bringing a wine and a pepperoni.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

All right, so let's see. Show us uh what did you bring?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:11

Uh uh I brought some some inscription. This is peanut wine I really like, and one of the reasons I like it, because it is an organ wine. Like I said, I like organs and uh Arizona's real good wine, too, believe it or not. Okay. But this inscription is a very good wine. Very good wine to eat with steak. It's made from king estates, okay? But it's very good wine with meats or uh steak, pepperoni, salami, you know. So just a good wine, it's inexpensive. We have it at my store, you know. Uh so I like this. A mewesba steak wine that we have from Arizona is a really good wine. Same because we're good steaks and pepperoni and stuff, and inexpensive wine. And the Mewsba steak, we're the only ones in the state of Louisiana that can carry it right now. Okay, we're the only ones that can carry it at one. We're the only ones that ship it through or distribute it to us. But yeah, I do this because I do this at home, my wife, uh, at night on weekends only. I try I really don't drink during a week. I always had a habit uh working out during a week and trying to do something successful during a week in order to enjoy the weekend. You know, I don't believe in enjoying something when nothing happened. So I always enjoy having a successful week before enjoying myself. You know, and that's kind of my mindset. You know, it's like uh have to close a deal or have something big happen to actually sit down and party or whatever you want to call it, drink one and just celebrate a big dinner, you know. Uh even though we go to Keith Young's every Friday night. You know, he won't bring my pepperoni in. He brought me big lobster tails in. He's got great lobster tails there, but he won't bring my pepperoni. I didn't get on George. George is a great operator, but he won't bring my pepperoni for some reason, and I'm gonna keep keep on until he brings it in.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

Well, we'll act like it's Saturday afternoon. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:00

Saturday afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:01

And you just closed a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:03

But you're not as good looking as my wife. What am I gonna do? Maybe Hanna is, but you're not. But anyway.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:10

All right, well, we're gonna let you prep this up. Let's see.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:12

Of course, we're gonna get Chuck's on the Avenue glasses and see if Hannah's gonna want a cup. I'm gonna uh you have ice in here? Yes, sir. Oh, yeah, great, too. All right. I'm not good at uh not good at stuffing ice into cups with clazy as crushed ice cup. It's good. You weren't really prepared for uh then I don't give a usual here. See if I could do this without spilling on the table, it's got it on the table, that's all right. I do it all the time. Yep. Yep. Well, I guess we're gonna have a a wop table with water on it, moisture soon. So what I usually do, guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:01

You want to drain that water in it?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

Yeah, so you can drain them.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

I'm excited about this.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:09

This is the first interactive uh component of the podcast with how I think.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:14

I like it. This is dropping knowledge too.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:17

This is called enjoying life, guys. Okay. We're gonna take our red pinois inscription. We're gonna open it up. I'm gonna pour it over some ice.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:33

I mean, I want to say that I don't typically drink at you know 11 a.m. but on occasion if I've had a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:39

Look, I usually don't drink on uh what's today, Tuesday. It's not my day to drink, but I'm gonna uh I'm gonna try to uh drink with y'all just a little bit. Just have to explain to my wife why I smell like water when I went.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:56

See, that's the difference. I'm not as good looking, but I won't ask you that question.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

Take a slide. Chuck's on the avenue, and I'm gonna share y'all some wine with ice before I trip over something.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:39

Yes, the lady, Hannah. So guys, I love doing this on weekends. I do it all the time, and I love y'all to get involved in the pepperoni challenge. It's fun to do, get your par your friends to do. Take videos, post them on my Instagram, tag me, and I'd be glad to post it for you in Chuck Sony Avenue 2025 St. Charles Avenue. We have fun doing this. We can do other things too with y'all. Eat pop. I love white popcorn with red wine with ice too. And also, I've been mixing vanilla ice with, I mean, vanilla ice cream with my wine, which is really unique, tastes good. But this is my most famous thing. I want y'all to put this up in the air, salute Chucks on the Avenue. I want you to put it in your mouth and do not swallow until I tell you, okay? Chew it up really good, get it in your cheeks and palate. Really good. Get that grease in your cheeks and palate. Swallow when you're ready. So I want you to salute me, salute chucks on the alternate. I want you to take a sip and don't swallow. I want you to swish it around your cheeks. Now swallow? Can you feel the grease come on your cheeks and through down your down your palate?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

I feel the spice.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

Feel it? Feels good, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

It does.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:07

Great way to enjoy a Saturday night. Lava, or come to Chuck's in the Avenue and the come and I tasting them. I'd be glad to do it with y'all or bring your fans, bring bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, or whatever your birthday parties is come drink with Chuck and eat some pepperoni and just don't get your arteries clogged like me.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it again.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

Me too.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:30

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:36

I like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

So I invite y'all to, you know, parties at your house to uh buy your wine from Chuck's and come home and do pepperoni parties with your neighbors. You know what's funny about Oh, we can come do some tastings at your house for you. You know, rant some wine.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:53

So the way I started drinking red wine, I started to try white wines and a little bit more palatable for me. I was probably 20 years old or so. And I had a cousin who was six years older than I was, so he was at that point, you know, cracking into the more adult things in life, including red wine. And the first couple of times I tried it, I just did not like it. And um and he was like, you know, put some ice in it and um see what you think. And so for about a year I drank red wine with ice in it. And that was kind of my transition period that I think prepping my palate for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:31

I'll tell you how it started though with me. My grandfather was born in 1901. And he'd come over every Sunday and bring a gallon uh gallon jug of uh uh vino.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:46

Vino.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:46

But he had to have it with ice, he'd pack it with ice, and he'd drink it with ice. And that's how I I thought red wine had to be drank with ice. So I started drinking red wine with ice and I loved it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:57

Yeah, it's much more common for people to put the ice in white wine. Uh in high school, my buddies parents had a pool and they had like a outdoor cabana, and they always had white wine. It was in the gallon jugs. Is it Almadine, Almondine? Something like that. And so, and they always have Mardi Gras cups out there, and they always had ice. So, you know, when we were like 15 every now and then, instead of stealing a beer or two, she would say, Yeah, maybe we should drink some wine. So we would put ice in a Mardi Gras cup, right? You know, because especially as a 15, 16 year old drinking wine, just it I just don't think your palate for most people is ready for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

Right, they did they did not like it with ice, but uh well, it's a funny story, is like you know, I have uh uh dehydration kidney issues, you know, a little bit. And uh one of the great health providers over here, I want to go and see her uh uh Liz Alvareto. And um, you know, she's like, Well, you know, you need to hydrate more, you need to hydrate more. And then she said, But you know what's a good thing is that you are drinking ice in your wine, which helps you hydrate your kidneys, so it's not not uh you know, dehydrating yourself just by drinking wine, you're kind of hydrating at the same time. So she said, if you're gonna drink, she said, I'm not saying not drink, but if you're gonna drink, drink ice with it that way, you hydrate.

unknown 1:16:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:15

Yeah, she just told me that recently, too, and she's a great health provider over here.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:19

Well, think of it. I mean, they you drink sangria on ice. Well, that's it. No one, no one has a problem with it right now. But you put ice in a glass of Pinot Noir, and it's ice wine world, all of a sudden, is gonna react like you know because when people see me drinking it, they think I'm bringing sangria.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:33

Right.

unknown 1:16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:34

So don't drink the schedule with the same content. And I can't say Pinot War correctly.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:37

Right. A lot less sugar in this.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:39

I get made fun all over the world because I can't say Pinot War correctly. So whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:43

You did it right, Pinot Noir. Pinot War, I guess. Look, when you grew up in New Orleans, and you know, you grew up in Araby. Yeah. You know, the accents get a little chop every now and then.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:53

And New Orleans slang and shaman slang at the same time. That's right. So people think I'm from New York.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:57

Exactly. Yeah. And uh I I call it I I always tell everyone I have a very butchered up accent. It's um lots of my friends were in the country when I first met them, all thought that I was from the East Coast, the Bronx.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:12

I like that though.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:13

So how long y'all been doing podcasts?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:16

We uh Well, we're coming up on a year, believe it or not, because we started around last March, April, but we didn't really start recording until like October. Probably October.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

We had some technical difficulties. In fact, I could have used some of this during some of those challenges.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:31

I got a guy, uh we're not still recording. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:35

That's okay though.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:36

Yeah, you have to cut it out. But I got a guy who was doing this and uh he's got the technology, and he might sell it to y'all to where it makes you look like you're in a wine cellar and stuff when you're doing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:49

Or like you make it look like any background you want and stuff. And it came out really good. He's a he's a Vietnam vet, but he uh you wound up not doing it anymore, but he's still got the equipment, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:02

Yeah, it's it's it's hard. It's you know, I think we went in with a certain idea like, oh, this will be fun. And it has been, but to find the right equipment and then the technological side to implement it, and then it's almost like every single step we've had like these little obstacles that I mean, we've overcome them, but the editing part of it, we originally were like, oh, we'll do some research, find some software online that we can do this ourselves, and it it's a lot. Yeah, the editing part's been the biggest challenge.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:34

But you know, the the the reason why we're doing this goes back to some of the things you said where you were like, you know, I'm 64 and live this life that learned a lot over the course of my life and a lot of different things, and just want to share and give it back. And um, you know, for both of us, we've known each other a long time. And um, and so we've both been very blessed with people in our lives that have have really coached or mentored us, um, been there to support us. We've both supported each other. Um and we also feel like there's just there's not a lot there, there's it's um, I don't want to say it, there's fewer people out there who have those experiences. The masses, unfortunately, don't have people to connect with. Um, and so our thought was that if we could get together and work on a project together and bring on interesting people to just talk about what they do and how they do it, and maybe those nuggets of these conversations for those who will listen, uh, can help people make a decision about starting a business, selling a business, getting into real estate, um, and changing a career path. And you've changed career paths like 67 times. Uh, and still smiling, still having fun. And um you know, so so hopefully maybe encourage people or to that's what I'm doing, is encourage people, help people not to make the same mistakes I make, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:04

You know, that's what life's all about, paying it forward. You know, God does something for you, you've got to pay it forward to somebody else. Yeah. You know, it's not about uh you know, believe God does things in your life to see what you're gonna do with it, you know. And if you're not gonna help others and he makes you successful, well, that's not why he put you here.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:22

And now those for those watching um who aren't from this area, God is the same person as God.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:30

Uh well we we wrap up uh with the same question for every guest, and um, so we're gonna uh Anna takes the lead on asking the question. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:41

Yeah. So if you could have dinner with anyone, past, present, doesn't matter, who would it be and why?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:49

Probably uh Sylvester Stallone, and I'll tell you why. Uh my father brought me to the movies when it first came out. I was 13 years old. And he uh What made it? Rocky Willie. When first Rocky came out. And the good thing about that was I think I was able to capture what the movie was about. It really wasn't about a fighting story, it was about overcoming the odds. Overcoming the odds. And I think that that sunk in my head for football reasons too. When I started lifting weights and running every day, eating raw eggs, throwing up, trying to be like him, trying to get to where I wanted my goal wanted to be. Working out harder than everybody else, bench pressing 400 pounds at 16 years old. And that was a big thing. And I worked at a meat market at one time. I used to go in, go into the the cooler, actually punched the cows, like to work out and had blood all over my sh my hands and everything. So I'd like to be with him to tell him his inspiration in my life. Uh, it started kind of started there, you know, not only with God, but started with him, just seeing how the movie was, you know, overcome the odds. And I know he really did overcome the odds too. You know, he tried to sell that that story and nobody wanted to buy it. And uh he wanted to sell his dog and he wanted to buy his dog back after he he he sold a story to them, and uh because he wanted to be the actor in it if they did it, nobody wanted to let him do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:19

So uh he's another guy who has some challenges with accent.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:23

Oh, we'll come th the challenge and act, you know. Not that I want to be an actor, but that just the the real challenges he had in life. And then the other one would be Arnold Smart, probably, because the background he came from. You know, he you know, he came from a poor country and that, and no, he wanted to get to the US and took a path that he knew he had to work hard every day, every day to be uh, you know, the world famous bodybuilder so he can get to the United States and do what he did. And you know, they all came from nothing.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:53

I thought his show on whatever platform it's on was was excellent about his life and the three chapters of the um so it's like you know, uh I'd like to sit down with him and thank him because I think some of the inspiration came from that. Where would you take Sylvester Stallone to dinner?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

My favorite place is Maestro's in Arizona, the Ocean Club in Ara Arizona. I I love that place, you know. I love the steaks and lobsters there and stuff. Or maybe I take him to Keith I'm gonna take him to Keith Young's logo because I love Keith Young stuff, you know. So but uh yeah, I'd probably go there with him to sit down with him and just have a conversation with him, not because he's an actor, just because he's a a realistic person and came from nothing like I did.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:38

The biggest question is would you ask him to do the pepperoni challenge?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:40

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:41

I feel like he would care. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:44

Absolutely. I always that that'd be that'd be a muscle I wouldn't go to dinner with.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

Uh well, thank you so much. We know you're busy, got a lot going on, um, and you know this is a startup, so we appreciate you guys. Thank you. Sharing your knowledge with not only us but whoever listens.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:03

Did you tell us your Instagram page? Is it Chuck's on the Avenue?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:06

Well, I use uh my personal Instagram's got more posts than that, which is Charles Locher L-O-E-S-C-H-E-R. Okay, great on Instagram, and that's where most of my posts and funny stuff's at. Okay. I gotta I'm not technology savvy, but I gotta transfer some of that to Chuck's on the Avenue.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:22

Got it. I'm gonna go follow both of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:25

Well, thank you. And uh I told you good health and uh love your perspective on life. It's all thank you, fam.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:30

Appreciate it. Cheers, cheers to y'all. Thank y'all to y'all success.