Mark Hemstreet

Time to Deep Dive into our next guest, Mark Hemstreet! join Justin and Bart as they sit down with Mark and discuss his early days in the Antelope Valley, including his venture with The AV Inn. Grab your favorite cigar, and your drink of choice, and dive into the life of Mark Hemstreet!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Welcome to the Deep Diving in the Speakeasy podcast with your hosts Justin Reno and Bart Avery.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Hey, um, it's good to be back. Uh Justin, we have a uh a really amazing uh guest in the speakeasies that we do that we do in the top secret speakeasy. Have you been you've been here before, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Yes, I have. I've been here a few times. Yeah, okay. And kind of comfy, you know? Very comfy. Temperature's nice, the ambiance is great.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

Were you were you verbally accosted here just a moment ago? Just to God, just aggressively yelled at me?

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Less than a minute ago, we're doing mic checks and he yells at me.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

I just wanted to verify. God, well, I thought he was I thought he was secretly spying on my secret questions I have for later on. We have Mr. Mark Hempstreet with us and his wife, beautiful wife, beautiful, amazing wife, uh Nancy Hempstreet, who's been uh so nice to come and just kind of keep an eye on us to make sure we don't uh you can applaud at any moment, whenever you want.

SPEAKER_05 1:33

You can applaud.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

So before we get going. Before we get going, we have to ask you two questions. And and the first one, of course, uh you've heard the podcast before is cigar or no cigar? No cigar. That's fine. We go with it. There's no problems with that. There's no problem with that. There's no rules in here. Um, there's rules, but there's no rules in here. Yeah, and not everybody wants a cigar, and it's kind of nice because then we don't have to have the noisy ventilation system on, and we can hear everybody's voice a little bit clearer. The second question is what type of adult beverage, if any, would you care for?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

I would really enjoy a glass of red wine.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Okay, thing in particular?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Maybe a Zinfandel?

SPEAKER_02 2:14

A Zen? Yeah, we got that. Buzz. So I don't know if you met Buzz before. He's our bartender here, and uh he is pretty good. We call him double lefty because he has two left hands. And if you haven't noticed that before, it's kind of interesting. Don't shake his hand, he doesn't dig that too much. But can you work on that? Okay, he's got a Zen coming for you, so uh appreciate that. And I'm doing a little uh Hendrix on the rocks. And what do you got over there, uh Justin? I have a Jack and Coke. A jack and coke.

SPEAKER_05 2:41

Yeah, I have a I have a little a little J and C. A little J and C.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

So why don't you uh start off the uh questionings uh as far as uh I I would say just tell us about what you're doing now.

SPEAKER_05 2:56

Yeah, honestly, that's probably the greatest way to start this, honestly, and then we'll and then we will work on what we want to know.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Perfect. Um currently I am the executive director for Destination Lancaster here in in the beautiful high desert. Uh Destination Lancaster is a destination marketing organization. Um we are organized under the city, but I'm we are not a city NED. We're our own 501c6, and we're operated by what's called a T-BID, which is a tourist business improvement district. So the local hotels in Lancaster voted to tax their guests 3.5%, which is then collected by the city, which is separate from transient occupancy tax, but they're similar. And then that uh 3.5% gets funneled to destination Lancaster, and I use it to market our valley and specifically Lancaster for uh tourism, bringing guests up here to the high desert.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

And I would say that you're doing a very good job. I I I read some of the statistics about um occupancy rates going up since you've been involved with this, and um and I've known you now for quite a while, maybe 10 plus years or so. Yeah, probably about 10 years. Yeah. And you know, you you you do a lot, and we're gonna get into that too. But uh yeah, we just like to start off with kind of what you're doing now, and then people want to know how does a guy like Mark Hemp Street get to where he is? So this is the part where we kind of go back, back, back, back, back. Not not to the diaper stage, a little bit beyond. Yeah, we don't care too much about that part. Okay, we don't care too much about this.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, we don't want to hear about those stories.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

My first question, and then I'll I'll let Justin fire away where were you born and raised?

SPEAKER_01 4:53

San Fernando Valley. So born and raised, uh born in Northridge, but lived in uh Woodland Hills uh all through high school. Um after high school, I started working in the hotel industry with my uh my parents owned a property up in Thousand Oaks. So got my my foot a little wet in the hospitality industry uh at 18, 19 years old. And then uh after that I moved down to uh Orange County and worked for the Stolvals organization who owned about a dozen best western uh motels in the area and uh just took off from there. Just kept hospitality in my my back pocket the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Definitely, absolutely, ever since I'd known you. Yeah, that's that's your forte.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

Yeah, I uh I have 19 years under my belt in hospitality. Nice. And he's only 22 years old. Yeah, if you can if you can believe it. Um don't let the beard don't let the beard throw things off. Um yeah, it's uh uh hospitality is a wild industry to me. Um a lot of work and a lot of annoyances and stresses, uh, not particularly just with the hotels themselves, but with the people that like to stay there.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Absolutely. It's it's the the the the fun thing about hotels is there's a different challenge every day. Um your guests have all sorts of challenges, um, groups that come in have all sorts of challenges. It's just it's it's uh which which makes it exciting too. But I mean, the flip side that that on the negative side, if you want to get into hotel management, you gotta know that one hotels operate 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. If you're at the GM and something happens at three o'clock in the morning, you're answering the phone and you're gonna get up and handle whatever it is. So there's a lot of of of a lot of hours involved and a lot of hard work involved, but there's a lot of rewards involved too. I mean, I mean if you're doing I mean, you know, we own the Annalovalian for for eight plus years and we did a lot of catering there, and a lot of weddings there, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, uh quincinettas, and seeing the rewards, seeing the reward is seeing the faces of people when they have a really great experience at your hotel.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Yeah. How old were you when you actually uh started working at a hotel?

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, I think I was seven, I think we're I was eighteen.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Eighteen, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah. So had the glorious job of of Yeah, you get out of high school and you gotta find a job to work, and dad says, Well, you know, we're gonna repave the parking lot, and uh first thing we need to do is get all the weeds from all the cracks. So that's what you're gonna be doing for the summertime.

unknown 7:48

Yay.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Yeah, well. By hand or like a weed whacker?

SPEAKER_01 7:53

No, we by hand. Okay. By hand. Just before before weed whackers.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Or or before uh Roundup.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

You just spray them and they they're dead the next day. Yeah, it was it was quite the advantage.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

And you were 18, down on your hands and knees pulling weeds out of cracks in a oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Moved up to painting and then uh uh maintenance division and and learned. I mean, I the the the positive out of it was one, I learned landscaping, I learned how to do sprinkler irrigation systems, painting, I know how to paint really well. Electrical, I'm a fairly decent electrician. Um plumbing, I I can do I can do a lot of plumbing work. So roof, I mean some drywall repair. I mean, there's a lot of things that happen in a hotel that you have to fix. Whether a guest puts a hole in the wall or you have a leak in the ceiling, and the ceiling comes down at two o'clock in the morning and and uh someone has to fix it, you know. So yeah, it's it's an interesting, it's an interesting career path. But from there went to front desk and then worked front desk night audit um at that property and was the best western in Thousand Oaks. Um and then the Stovols pulled me from there down to Anaheim to work next to Disneyland, which was a whole different ballgame. So, you know, the Thousand Oaks, it was all uh corporate clientele that we had there, and then you go down to Anaheim and it's all leisure clientele.

SPEAKER_05 9:18

And which hotel was that in the Anaheim?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

They owned about 10, 12 hotels at the time. I worked at four of them.

SPEAKER_05 9:25

Uh so and and I thought you were just bouncing from one to the other, you weren't like just stationary at one.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

No, I was pretty much stationary at one, and then I then they transfer me to another one for a while. Oh, okay, I gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I ended up at the my last properties were the Cosmic Age and the Galaxy motels. So about 250 rooms total for the two hotels. So good sized properties. Okay. Um, and and you know, they were actually they were on Harbor Boulevard right next to the main gate of the park, um, which is now um California. California Adventure. California Adventure. So that parking lot, that whole area there is where the hotels used to sit. Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Did you did you have the uh opportunity to sp go to Disneyland quite often since you were right there, or you were always working?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

No, I had plenty of opportunity to go to the park. I mean, I mean I I working there, you meet a lot of well, we had a lot of connections with like Knottsbury Farm or Disney, so we could always get free entrance in there. Um the one of the owners, Jack Stovall, um, was a member of Club 33.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So, you know, if I wanted to go to Club 33 and bring a date, there was a nice way I can get in there. Very, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

So you've been in Club 33. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Do you know what Club 33 is, Justin? No, I know Studio 54. I don't know Club 33. It's it's it's right next to the Pirates of the Caribbean, and and it's pretty okay. I don't I you just see 33 on the door, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

On the outside, you don't used to used to be the only place you could buy alcohol in the entire park.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

It was a it was a basically a four or five-star restaurant inside the park, and it was primarily it was Walt's inner circle of people that started up, and you had to be a member of it. It was costly membership.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

And and I mean dinners weren't free, you had to pay for your food and beverages.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I mean, you talk about a speakeasy, and they there's no advertising of this club. It just I just remember somebody told me, like, that's a really amazing club, but you can't go in there. Trust me, impossible. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Except for Mark, Mark got in there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know. Yeah, special.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah, you know, at that age I thought I was pretty damn special. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Something that pops in my head because when I when I was in my 18s, 19s, 20s, I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do in my life. And go, uh, you know, I'd I'd find something and I'm gonna do that, mom and dad. And they're like, I thought you wanted to do this. So did you ever like go off track and say at one point, like, I'm done with this hospitality? Like you said, it's stressful because it's 24-7, 2 o'clock in the morning. You know, you pulled weeds all day, and now dad's telling you, like, hey, uh the plumbing's busted up in room 42 C, and you gotta go up there and fix it. So, did you ever try anything else or think about anything else?

SPEAKER_01 12:23

I thought about other things. You know, before I got into hospitality, um, I tried professional photography. I really thought I wanted to be a professional photographer and kind of go down that road and took a number of classes from middle school through high school. Um, one of my greatest um influencers and mentors was was uh teacher that was in photo that just inspired me to just to to do more and and and look for the details. So he he actually worked under Ansel Adams.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Oh my gosh. And that's amazing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

And so he brought a lot of that to the classroom and a lot of the of the take your time, focus on the details. You know, and I mean Ansel Adams was known for sitting, you know, on a spot for hours to get one picture, you know, and and just that perfect sunlight, the perfect whatever it was that comes through, but looking for the details, you know, making sure everything is perfect before you pull that shutter. Um so I so I thought I would do that. Um I did a number of weddings, um and then I just yeah, this is a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Which is still a little bit of the hospitality industry if you're doing weddings, you know, because now you're doing very comparable.

SPEAKER_05 13:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Interesting, yeah. But kind of got back out of that, back into the hotel. Kind of I was doing both at the same time because weddings were a lot of times at you know, evening times and on weekends. So I could do both.

SPEAKER_05 13:53

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

So at uh uh in 1990, I believe, your your parents bought the ABN?

SPEAKER_01 13:59

It was a group of investors, yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah. So I was one of the I was one of the we had three general partners. It was myself, Joe Lebeau, and and my dad, Bob Hemp Street.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Okay. And what is the AVN now? It's still on Sierra Highway, but it's something else.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Well, it used to be I mean, yeah, it it it we people know it more recently was University of Antelope Valley. Yeah, that's what I thought. That used to be the A V N that's right. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, they took the pool out and they converted, they took like you know the block of four rooms that made them a classroom for their EMT classes and their other classes that they were teaching there.

SPEAKER_05 14:33

I actually didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Yeah, and then they then then um the Johnsons, Marco and Sandra Johnson sold it um to a different group, and then they just let it go out and it it failed and closed. Um and now it just recently got purchased and then not quite sure what they're gonna reuse it for. So I heard, but I'm not sure what exactly it was.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

But I'm sure you got some memories of things that occurred back in uh 1990. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Absolutely. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 15:04

Give me give me one of the give me one of the bads. I want to hear one of the bads. I always like to hear I always like to hear people's negative stuff. I'm looking at Nancy over here as if she's giving them the thumbs up or the thumbs down. I was I always like to hear the negatives though.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

So when we initially bought it, it it was pretty run down. It needed needed a substantial facelift, right? And we put in a good two to three million dollars into the facelift on the property. Um 1990, you know, we're we're we're moving into computers, they're they're out there, it's you know, time to you know get them involved, they're in hotels. Uh Annavalion was not computerized in any form. Um their phone system was horrible, people got disconnected all the time. Um so I mean, one of the so, anyways, um one of the first things we did was put a food new phone system in there, right? So being the adventurous guy that I am and Mr. Fixit, um I go up in the in the rafters in the attic, and we start looking to see what what we need to change out and swap out wires and where the blocks are and all that kind of stuff. And and it seems that there's this was the fourth phone system that had been installed at that property. And the previous three systems, no one took a wire out from the previous ones. So we had three complete wiring systems throughout the ad, of which none of them worked. So we ended up pulling out all the wiring and then starting over again. And as we're doing that, we found out that some of the electrical wiring wasn't really to code. Um you would touch a green wire, which normally means you know you touch your neutral ground, right? Your grounding wire, right? Um no, it's hot. Touch a green wire and I got 110 volts going through my arm, going, ow, hey, that's not right. And then other parts would be a junction box. You touch the junction box, it's hot. So yeah, I mean, you know, getting shocked up there every 10 minutes, whatever, when you turn around and bump something, or you bump it with your elbow or rub rub it with your shoulder. I mean, yeah, so a lot of fun doing things like that.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Um my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

A lot of fun, you know, plumbing, and the plumbing was old. You know, the the property originally was uh built in about 1955, 56. Um, the two-story building on the back side was built in I think '68, and then the three-story building was built around 75. So some of that plumbing was was was really old. And I know we were tearing up some of the sidewalks to redo the sidewalks, and I remember one of the contractors he goes, Hey, I found a pipe over here, and it's like, okay, and he takes his screwdriver and he starts chipping at it. Old rusty pipes, you don't see if you can put a hole in them because you can. And then you get 100 psi of water shooting straight up in the air at you. So see, it was just one nightmare after another doing the renovation.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

It just was really when when you were going through like the face of because I know a lot of a lot of construction people like to leave their calling card. Maybe they'll paint their initials of their name or something underneath, and then lay that on the carpeting. Did you ever find anything like that of like somebody that left like something silly?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Like nothing, nothing big. I mean, we did find some things that were just kind of interesting. Um, I know in the kitchen area we had to put some, we had to redo some of the drainage. Um, and I call up my good old plumber, he comes out, he saw cuts some concrete, goes to knock it out, and and there's more concrete, and he goes to knock it out, and he's more concrete. Yeah, four-inch concrete is normally pretty standard out there, right? He's down eight inches, nine inches, he's still hitting concrete. Concrete hasn't hit the pipe yet. But we found out that that when they built it, they had a big hole there. So they just filled it up with concrete. It was probably two and a half, three feet thick of concrete in that area.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

So is it possible that that is where Jimmy Hoffa is?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

He could be in in underneath the pool. I'm just the old pool.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

You know, they think he's buried under concrete.

SPEAKER_05 19:29

They just kept going through it and it was just like a hideaway full of cash just stashed away. That would have been cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Yeah, I I think when we and and when when we renovated, we renovated the pool area, we added a spa to it. Um and the pool area actually was originally was uh nine and a half feet deep or ten feet deep. Um they had a nice springboard there, which of course, you know, by the time the 90s came through, you know, insurance won't let you have a you know diving board on a on a public pool. Um so we had to fill the that bottom of that pool in. I think we had probably six complete cement trucks just pour concrete into the bottom of the of the uh pool there to fill it up to get to a of I think it was five feet at the time we filled it up to.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

So this is great. Loving this. Perfect. Oh yeah. Um we're gonna take a little break, but what we're gonna do is in the next segment, we're gonna get we're gonna kind of finish up you know your transition through your life, through your early years to uh getting up to, of course, how we started this thing, and then so we'll we'll take a break and then uh I think Buzz, I need Buzz, get give me a little bit of a glass of wine too. Probably gonna be refill time. All right, so anyway, we'll be right back, folks.

SPEAKER_05 20:43

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SPEAKER_02 21:51

I think a little bit because we were in the 1990s, uh, the Antelope Valley Inn, which is was that the first time you're you your family came up to the Antelope Valley?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, it was just me and me and my me and my brand new bride. Okay. And then we got married in uh eighty nine and I said, Hey, look at this awesome opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Let's go up here and buy a hotel and run it. Oh, I thought your I thought your family was involved.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah, no, no, we I was one of the partners. Okay. I was an investor too. Your mom your mom and dad or your Yeah my well yeah my mom and dad but my dad.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Okay. Yeah because when I heard two million dollars I'm thinking this kid probably don't have two million dollars to no no well it's also called bank financing too well of course if it's still you got to put down you know at least a couple thousand bucks or something loan. Just a little bit. So I know let's let's let's circ let's go to the Las Vegas thing because I think did we skip over the Las Vegas part of your life and where you met your wife?

SPEAKER_01 22:55

We've skipped that completely.

SPEAKER_05 22:57

Let's go back to last let's let's talk about you know sometimes Vegas one of my favorite places in the whole world sometimes we don't know what we're doing and when we deep dive we like to skip ahead and then go back. We like the Tarantino things a lot.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

I like that I like that so Vegas so like I said before I was working in Anaheim working for the stallwalls and and enjoying it quite immensely and worked my way up to assistant general manager for two hotels um wanted to move on to general manager and wanted to move on maybe corporately or go into a bigger franchise hotel brand or something that nature and um my boss at the time um great guy Ken Baxter he said well really what you need to do is get your degree in hospitality I said okay all right I I you know I had gone to Pierce College for a year and a half and didn't do so well there so um dropped out of that and he said but really if you want to if you you know if you want to work for the big boys they're all going to require a degree so think about that. So um I applied and got into I I looked at a number of different universities out there from call um Cal Poly Pomona up to I don't know where you went that's where my beautiful wife went too for a year one year she went there and then she transferred to UNLV. Smart girl right smart smart cookie um blessing for you a blessing for me absolutely but anyway so I I I I looked at uh Cornell another great school looked at Michigan another great school um but landed on on UNLV and partly because it it had the same style of management the same style of being hands-on that I really thought fit my my personality Cornell is very theoretical um I I was more boots on the ground style so you don't even was a good fit um so I I transferred to all right enrolled over there and and uh went to uh University of Las Vegas not University of Nevada Las Vegas. It's interesting school right I mean you're in the heart of Las Vegas and you know you gotta think academics are are you know that's what you're there for right you're not there to gamble you're not there for the party you're there to to go to school right um although you know maybe a a little side trip here and there maybe happens you know and I I can relate one great one I I think it was probably my my second week at at UNLV and it was uh I don't know like a Wednesday or something like that and um I I'd met a guy that you know at one of my classes and he says hey we're all going over to this uh nightclub tonight um there's gonna be a lot of people from the hotel school there it'd be really great for you to go there and network and meet a lot of the other students blah blah blah and I said great idea right so I go to this this uh nightclub lounge whatever and and uh we're having a couple drinks and he's introducing to me he's introducing me to other students and and then he left and then those students introduced me to some other students and then they kind of left and then they introduced me to some other students and and you get the picture and the last one that I I talked to said hey I I gotta go I have a class and I looked at him I said you have a class he's like yeah it's eight o'clock you mean in the morning as he's telling you this it's eight o'clock in the morning it's eight o'clock in the morning and you're thinking it's like 11 o'clock at night or something that maybe like 130 or something like that. I had no clue. All right it was eight o'clock in the morning and 830 class alcohol involved a fair amount yes and I had an 830 class so I go stumbling into my 830 class going with no sleep with no sleep and still pretty feeling pretty pretty good about the whole life in general and dude do you want to come to like Vegas with me and just kind of hang out because I feel like you know how to do it all nighter the right way.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

So we this pops into my head mark so when you said you were kind of questionable at Pierce College was that a kind of the same thing you'd come into class with no sleep or what the heck well anyway you you've been you've been successful.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Apparently it all worked out those slides not suitable for radio I don't think in my whole life I've ever thought it was maybe one o'clock in the morning it's 8 30 in the morning and then you gotta pass or something.

SPEAKER_05 27:38

I'm very aware of what time it is not an eight o'clock in the morning type situation.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

That's wild to me forget there's no windows in there's no clocks there's no clocks there's no windows they do that on purpose I know that now yeah they want they want you to be there gambling and you know pissing away your money all night watches there's watches you have watches people have watches anyway my watch doesn't light up back then they don't they didn't light up my God it was dark in there I was having fun I was meeting people yeah I don't I don't shut up ever you know that I mean all I'm saying is when you get a text from me I'm like hey we're going to Vegas I expect a guest I expect a yes so ultimately you got your bachelor of science degree right I know the difference between a BA and a BS I have a BS I got a B S Bachelor of Science takes a little a little bit more effort you know like you have to show up to class on time and and have some sleep and stuff like that pretty much gotta be prompt. So okay I'm at so this is very interesting this is an interesting coincidence because I met my lovely wife Sandra at Cal Poly Pomona in college and let's let's hear your story about Nancy Oh are we getting the thumbs up on this I mean I mean did you meet in class did you meet not not in a casino and she's dancing or something or did you like walk in front of her you drop your pencil and you had to pick it up I'll tell you a quick story on that in a minute.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Oh god this is the stuff I love no so anyways going going in the the hotel college right we had our own building up there and uh I happened to be walking up class and it was this really cute very shapely looking young lady that was in front of me and her snug little Calvin Klein jeans and her little three inch pumps whatever and I thought wow that that's that's that's a nice thing to follow right's man he knows how to just make a good gene for women. So we go and and and I I kind of walk in behind her and and she walks I'm the same class she's in. So you know what maybe I just might sit next to this young lady. So I did and uh a couple classes later I asked if she wanted to go out and have a drink after class. It was a five o'clock class right so so um you get out at 6 30 you want to have class um so I said hey you want to go out and get a get a drink well no I didn't say drink I said you want to go out and get a coffee and then her response is I don't drink coffee well I'm gonna say beverage go get a beverage am I being shot down or she just doesn't drink coffee. Bonus she's gonna want to have a drink an alcoholic beverage with me and so she came back and said I I'll drink tea can I have a tea oh tea sure so we went over to uh Carlos Murphy's at the time and across the street and uh got a beverage there coffee and a tea and and that started the whole thing and just moved on from there.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

And then Nancy you were also going to UNLV in in the hospitality business yeah because you were taking the same class that makes sense yeah that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 31:03

And you graduated roughly the same time or she graduated a semester before I did because she was smarter or she was older did you know when he sat next to you that he was that he was gonna try did you know he was definitely flirting though you so you knew immediately when he sat down or like this this dude's not gonna like leave me alone ever. Not immediately it took me a couple classes but he was persistent.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

I don't know if you can hear her back there but she's she's chiming in it's really helping the conversation for us over here so it's it's helping for me but you know you know people aren't gonna hear this and it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

It's I I I wanted to know that.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

So my so my fun my fun little snippet there about UNLV and and we're in the city and and the kind of the dropping the pencil thought process there. The meat cue so we we were we were there was a couple of my buddies there was two of my buddies myself and Nancy we were we were going out one evening and um I mean you know it's in city there's a lot of different type of clubs in in Nevada and Vegas whatever and the the four of us are in in my buddy's car and and uh guys in the front seat or she was in the back seat or something like that and we're driving down and and we're going by one of the one of the larger strip clubs on in Vegas right and so we're you know we're all kind of looking all the boys are kind of looking at the strip club for a second just yeah and I turn around and I said oh sorry yeah everyone everyone we thought buzz was spilling another glass of wine on us here okay sorry buzz go back go back okay sorry so anyways we're we're driving down the road and we passed this we're we're driving up past this large strip joint and I just turned around and with a straight face I said hey Nance do you need to pick up your schedule for next week my buddies all over the strip into the relationship right there.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

She saw the humor in that and yes she did and she said with a straight face no I picked it up yesterday and they just heard like oh my god she worked with the strip club you know some years ago it's kind of kind of a baller move though yeah it was kind of a baller move wait wait this is a joke you did not work at a strip club right but no she didn't okay just checking but we all played along all right but we all played along and they and I I don't think we told them probably to the next day or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

We just let them sit on it and they were just like hey can we go there later? When does she work?

SPEAKER_02 33:45

No okay that's clever well that's this is our nugget so far in the interview I'm telling you right now I okay there's more to come I'm sure to change that thing that we do later to the to the to the six things we people wouldn't know about.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Yeah we're that's the last that was the honorable mention one that was pulled out of nowhere that was incredible that's a good one man that's a good one that's such a baller move man you you must have felt like a like a champion like after that you must have owned it like you were just suit and tying it like yeah that's right I just oh my god I would have felt like a champion so you got you guys were uh together as kind of dating boyfriend girlfriend or whatever for what the last couple years of your with your college experience or what year year and a half year and a half well five we dated five years total yeah but I mean up in Las Vegas the Vegas area yeah yeah a year and a half I think okay so then you both got your degree she got hers before you because she she was coming to class on time with eight hours of sleep maybe no that's another story no oh no no no no I don't want to get Nancy in trouble here we're not no no no okay so anyway you guys so uh roughly what what time what what time period was that when you graduated college there with your BS in like the years well yeah like the mid eighties mid eighties okay then okay so that's where you guys met and then so when you came down to the Antelope Valley to Well so after after she graduated she moved down she moved down to Anaheim and worked for Disney okay and then after I graduated I got recruited by Hyatt Corporation and luckily um they had a pro they had a position for me um in Long Beach at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

So then we were we were still dating but I mean it was kind of long distance long distance was tough we didn't see a lot of each other put it that way and then we we and we just got reconnected and just brought it back up again once I started working down there.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Cool yeah and then three something odd years after that we finally got engaged okay so are we done no what does that mean 35 we have five minutes to go oh we have five minutes to go yeah okay now I'm not good at math Justin oh okay so you gotta go like one plus one is two run a little budget plus two is say it with me Bart two plus two is four good job I'm good anyway so okay no that's good kind of the reverse 99 bottles of beer on the wall okay no we're good so I'm just looking at my notes here so you you at some point um okay you became a commercial real estate broker too yep that's another big damn deal because an actual broker not just a not not just a real tour you're a broker huge difference between a realtor real realtor so I mean a lot of different rules involved so commercial real estate is very different than residential real estate but but the broker is as another level up yeah so after I sold after we sold the the Ann Lally Inn then I was a little you know how to find a new career whatever and and thinking what could I do and and I got my real estate license thinking I would probably go into residential real estate um and then thought about a little bit more and thought wow with with residential residential it's different right I mean I mean people buy it on emotion they walk into the house and they and they they picture themselves living there.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

So if there's if there's I don't know purple polka dotted carpet and you know lime green walls they're they're not gonna picture themselves in there and they'll say I couldn't live here.

SPEAKER_05 37:54

Honestly that sounds pretty cool I would live there. I'm just saying that that sounds pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

So a lot of people but they they they don't they don't see what it could be they see it as what it is in front of them. Yeah. Okay. You go from there Yeah thank you you go from there to commercial real estate where a developer or a business owner walks in and he sees purple carpet and he goes okay we can tear out the carpet and we can put uh this in there the walls okay we can redo the walls with this we can reupholster all the seats we can do A B C we can change the curb appeal on the property make it a viable business right um and I thought okay so so kind of the business right I mean they they're they're in a business mind not an emotional mind they're they're looking at return on investment not how am I gonna feel happy when I'm sitting in the breakfast room having coffee right so that's kind of where it kind of really switched me over to commercial real estate and then I thought well why not be in the hotel segment and just niche myself into hotels since I already know the the industry. Yeah you're I already know um you know when I was with Ann Lavalian so Allen Valian was a best western so it was that was the franchise flag that we have for best western and best western is it's a little different organization. It's a nonprofit most people don't know that it's it's technically owned by the members right and and with being a membership organization is what it really is the membership has the ability to vote on different requirements or amenities or whatever they want to do for bylaws or that kind of stuff the members actually get to vote on these things. So and and and with this different type of an environment different type of of culture um they had what they called best western governors so a governor was kind of a liaison between the property level the the owner manager of the property and the corporate best western international right um and for the last couple of years that I that we had the hotel I was what they I was one of these best western governors. So my district or my area that I covered went from Victorville across the desert up to us. It went down into the San Fernando Valley um and went up to Thousand Oaks um Ventura Camarillo Oxnard Camarillo Ventura all the way up to Santa Barbara so pretty good sized district and included all the best westerns that were in there so again not only I knew the business but I also knew an awful lot of best western owners so I thought this might be a really good thing to jump into um and I I started doing that and then I also started getting into um consulting so I I had and and and consulting was really interesting. I um a lot of our hotels these days are are are foreign owned and with some of these other foreign owned hotels they carry a different culture right their culture is very different than our culture is um the way they do business is a little bit different than the way we do business. And there was a property that had called me and asked if I could help them out and I said sure and and come to find out that their general manager was stealing from them.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

I mean he was buying you know he bought new rims for his car um you know two thousand dollars something and and so I I went to the owner I'm like yeah I'm looking at your statements this guy's flat out stealing from you I know what are we doing about it and she goes well I gave him a really dirty look this morning okay and she goes and I didn't say good morning and I'm like well that took care of it didn't it and so what should I do you fire him and oh I I can't I we oh no no no no we gotta figure a different way and I'm like I'll fire him and she's like okay so I started doing consulting because there's definitely a niche for that yeah and that and that's another that's another transition you made in your life to go from you know helping people buy properties to consulting and helping people turn their businesses around in a positive way. Right right we need to take it one yep our our our our last break here and we're gonna come back and just FYI for another glass of wine maybe uh yeah buzz buzz yep he's working on it right now so we're gonna come back and we're gonna then we're gonna make the jump back kind of into where you are now with the jump also into the AB Chamber of Commerce and then we're gonna have some fun questions for you after that. So cool. Yep bring them on bring them on Buzz MWS Finished Carpentry serving Southern California since 2005 started in commercial tenant improvements for brands like Baja Fresh, Panda Express and Starbucks now proudly focused in the Antelope Valley on residential finished work. From baseboards and casings to crown molding custom mantles cabinets and shelving they do it all family and veteran owned fully licensed bonded and insured for Superior Finished Carpentry call MWS at 661 9047925. And we are back and we're in the final segment here with Mr. Mark Henry. So we let's just transition from the the last conversation about You um working for um the A B Chamber of Commerce from 2014 to 2022. Or well, no, actually, I think we that's that's kind of where we're we're going as this. Yeah, that's where we're that's where we're that's where we're heading right now. Yeah, so so talk about talk a little bit about that, how you got that gig. Oh no, I'm sorry, I apologize. How I got the gig? I I apologize because Buzz spilled some more wine and coming in. No, actually we were talking about the um uh end of your hospitality um thing where you were um consulting. Right. Right. Yeah, then you transitioned into A V Chamber of Commerce.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

Right? 2015? 2014.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

For a few years I worked for Boy Scouts of America. Oh, yeah. So I was another interesting thing so uh a good friend of mine um called me one day, um Bud Reims. Many people know him. He passed away, yeah. Passed away a number of years ago. Bud called me up, and and uh Bud had always been he he was a huge scouter his entire life. I mean he was a he was a Boy Scout true and true to the day he died. Great man. Anyways, he called me up and said, Mark, he goes, We need you in Scouts. And and my son was in Boy Scouts, had been in Boy Scouts for a number of years, and was going through the ranks and heading towards his his Eagle rank, and and he goes, and I said, Well, what's going on? And and uh and it and it was kind of after me, you know, we hit the recession um at 2008 after that. Your son's name is Kevin, right? Kevin, yes, easy.

SPEAKER_05 45:35

You have a son named Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

What? Doesn't everybody it's a great name. Um so, anyways, um he called me up and and offered basically offered me the job. Cool um, and uh and we're talking and and he's we have to go through the you know the council and whatever, but but definitely think he'd make a great executive director for us, district exec exec. And I said, Okay, well, you know, I I mean I like the program, I I like the concept. I I think I think scouting is is a great youth development program. It really, you know, it gets our kids on the right track. Um, the whole merit badge system is great as far as exposing them to a lot of different industries, a lot of different careers. So I jumped at it and uh jumped on board for the scouts. Um, we did a number of really strong fundraisers for them. We we increased membership, which at a time was was was declining. We were one of the few districts that actually had an increase in membership. But then again, we're also out there, we had a good team and we're out there knocking on doors and trying to get people involved. So great time with scouts, very rewarding. Um, not a lot of pay, but the rewards are are in what you're doing for the community, right? Which is which is really great. And then while I was at Scouts, I got a call from one of the board of directors, actually the the current president who is Josh Mann, and uh we all know Josh with waste management, and Josh um called up me up and said, Um Have you ever thought about working at the chamber? I said, Nope. Nope. Nope. I I never even crossed my mind. I was pre you know, you know, I mean, I think I joined the chamber in 1990, I think as a director 90 or 91. I was the president, I think in 94. Um, sat on the board for six, seven years while, you know, uh on the on the chamber board of directors back in the 90s. And so coming back in, you know, in the in the mid-2000s, 20, you know, 2013, 204, 2014, um, do you want to work there? And I'm like, my God, not that dumb. Um well, okay, maybe. And so I I met with the executive board and and they offered me a job and and I said, okay, and and they kind of they they they kind of we talked about salary and and you know different you know aspects of the job. And and I said, let me take a look at your you know, your P ⁇ L and let me see your bank statements and that kind of stuff. And I said, Well, reviewing this, I think this is what you can afford to pay me. This is I don't think this is what I'm worth. I think I'm worth a lot more, but I don't think this is what you can afford. And they're like, you're on. So they hired me um at at the time. Um we were the chamber was living paycheck to paycheck, you might say. We were base, we were we were just covering payroll costs and a few extra, you know, our rent. Um and uh so I you know, I you know got my shovel out and started digging and and started repairing things and building things. And uh one of the things I'm most proud about is I got to merge the Palmdale and the Lancaster Chambers together, um, which was a pretty big milestone in our in our valley where we have a thing called the Cactus Curtain. And I effectively said no. Yeah. As far as business is concerned, we're one community.

SPEAKER_05 49:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

You know, you know, they may have the mall, but we may have this. They may have one thing, we may have something else. We have fairgrounds or whatever it is, but we're one community. People live in Palmdale, they work in Lancaster. They live in Lancaster, they work in Palmdale.

SPEAKER_05 49:29

On a map, we're two separate cities, but yeah, we're one, we're we are legitimately one massive community, like one massive community, like exactly.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

And for the business community, we need to we need to act like one.

SPEAKER_05 49:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

Right? I mean, there's there's things that we share. I mean, legislatively, just for an example, if if there's a bill that that makes removing a Joshua tree, even loc even relocating a Joshua tree 100% illegal, that takes a lot of our land out of inventory to build anything on. So, yeah, that affects all of us, not just one city or the other. So we need to work together on these ideas. And we need to bring businesses up to the Antelope Valley and share our vision for the valley, and that's kind of what I was I was really into. Um, so merging the two chambers, you know, we didn't have to, I mean, we're both we're both 501c6 organizations, we're both private memberships, we didn't take money from either one of the cities, so we weren't beholden to the cities on on any level. I still went and asked both city councils really for for their blessings, not their approval, but their blessings. And both of them 100% said thank you for taking the lead in doing this. Something that should have been a long time ago is is giving ourselves one strong voice. Um so yeah, so we merged the two chambers. We did it at probably the worst time ever. We did it during COVID, which you try doing anything during COVID and it was difficult. You know, um, it's funny, you we talk about I talk a lot of business owners and they a lot of them closed down during COVID or you know, everybody went, laid everybody off. Um we still were selling uh, you know, still people were still out there and people were still working. Um my staff, I kept my staff employed 100%. We never skipped a day. But we also were helping with PPE, we were helping with all those grants that were out there and all those loans that were.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

It took a while for that to roll out, but once it did, it helped us business before.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

So many small businesses didn't know how to fill out the forms. Yeah. So I mean we all took classes in it so we could help those people. We were actually a distribution point for the state for um personal protection. So we were getting pallets of mass and sanitizer, and we were a free place that businesses could pick up this stuff. So we worked the whole time of COVID, so we did that, and we merged the two chambers together. So pretty pretty win-win for that time. Um, and then when I left, so I went with a with a bank balance, I think of the chamber had maybe uh maybe twelve or fifteen thousand dollars in the bank to I don't know, two fifty thousand, three hundred thousand dollars in the bank when I left. Wow so I left them in a pretty good pretty good position.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

Good for you, man. Yeah, and you were you were um honest with uh you know looking at the PNL and saying like, look, uh I'd like more money, but that's gonna wipe you guys out. You know, that's that's integrity, honor. And I've known him for a long time. Good guy, just nothing but a good guy. And oh everybody in this valley, with the exception of one person maybe that's Buzz, because he's pissed off because he wouldn't shake his hand. Loves you.

SPEAKER_05 52:51

Left hand You know, you don't Mark, you don't owe me anything. Um But I am not but I am gonna ask a favor. Um if you could just put in a word with whoever you need to put in a word with, again, you don't owe me this. Um can you get uh a uh the stand out here? Just in some maker fashion. You know the stand? It's a burger place, it's a burger place. It's incredible. The nearest one is in uh NorCal.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

And it's it's are they a sponsor of our podcast now?

SPEAKER_05 53:24

No, but I really, really want a stand here. A stand, a stand. Yeah, it's called the stand. Okay, I I will look it up, I will talk to you and then email me later just saying I'm not gonna do this.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

Or or we'll look into it. Simple looking into it would be great. Wow. I work I work very close with Economic Development for City Lancaster. Okay, all right. Um, I also sit on the board of directors for AV Edge, which is pretty much an economic development group that is looking to bring new businesses up here. So I will pass the word on to both of them to see.

SPEAKER_05 54:02

So that's I did that. All right.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

So now it is so now at at at some point um uh 2022-ish, you got hired to in your current position.

SPEAKER_01 54:16

Yeah, so when I started on desk, when I started with the chamber, so if you go back to destination Lancaster, when they when they incorporated, when they started off, right? So the board of directors were made up of nine people. We have two representatives from the city, one's a city councilman, one's a city employee. We have two representatives from the A. V. Fairgrounds. We have the executive director, and we have an em and we have a uh board of director from the from the fair board. We also have four representatives from the hotel industry, so four general managers from the hotel industry. And then we also have a representative from the chamber of commerce. So when I joined the chamber as the executive director, then I was the one that was put on the board for destination Lancaster as the director for the chamber. So I had already had you know seven, eight years sitting as a board of director. And when our our previous director um moved and retired, the executive committee just turned to me and said, We have a job for you. You want to take it? And I said, Sure, I would love to. And this was this was also again coming out of COVID. And the previous executive director told me this is the easiest job you will ever have. You work maybe 10 to 20 hours a week. That's it. And I'm thinking, you know, I'm looking forward to retirement at some point in the next, you know, some odd years, and be kind of nice to take a step down and just ease into retirement. Um I I soon found out that yeah, you could put in 15, 20 hours a week, or you could jump into a lot of things and be full-time, which I kind of sort of did, didn't I, dear? Yeah, I did. Looking at my wife, going, yeah, yeah, so much. But but truthfully, you know, the chamber was was what they call the 3Ms of the chamber world, which is money, membership, and manpower. You need money, so you need constantly asking for people to sponsor you and to do, you know, to sponsor the flea market or sponsor a parade or whatever. You need membership. That drives a lot, right? Obviously, membership. And then you need manpower, because you need volunteers to run everything you're doing, all your different committees and all that kind of stuff. So you're constantly, every single day, you're looking for the 3Ms. Destination Linecaster, you're not.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

Exactly. Because you, you know, you you got some serious back in there. I do. The end of our show is getting is growing close.

unknown 56:59

Close.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

It is it is it is it is. So I what I'm gonna do is right there.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Yeah, we always ask uh our guests for um five interesting, interesting Did you love that? We're we're gonna run long. We're gonna run long. Yeah, that's fine. We're getting a lot of things. Mark's got a lot to say, it's no big deal. But rah Mar, we always ask our uh our guests to to to email us or send us um five interesting facets of their life that nobody would even think about. And uh so I'm gonna go through those and then we're gonna go to our last rapid fire uh rapid fire question. It's yes and no, no at all. Anyway, so your first job, you said you work for peanuts. Yes. Was that working for your parents?

SPEAKER_06 57:42

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

So literally peanuts?

SPEAKER_01 57:45

You're pulling weeds and you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This this is when I was like, this is elementary school. But you're saying peanuts, right? This is peanuts. Peanuts. As as as in the case. I got worried at the second time that you said it peanuts. I told you.

unknown 58:01

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

No, nuts. You got wor you got you got paid not a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

So so my dad started off in, he was uh he was an absolute entrepreneur his whole life. He started off in in the in the mid-50s, he got out of World War II, um, and he decided, you know, big thing was, you know, back, you know, we didn't have Target, we didn't have Walmart, we didn't have the big box stores like we have now. We had what was called dime stores. So the small variety shores general store. If you go back to the Wild West, I got a little five and dimes, yeah. Five and dimes. So my dad owned a couple Hem Streets, five and ten. Five and dimes, right? And so when I was when, you know, and and being an owner of the store, my dad worked horrendous hours, right? He me worked, I mean 12 hours, days, you know, six days a week. So he would go in at nine o'clock in the morning or eight in the morning to open up. He would come home at six, have dinner with the family, get back in the car. And this is when I would go back to work with him, when he'd go back at, you know, 6:30, 7 o'clock, and then we would close the store and be home by 9. But at the end of the day, one of the jobs that had to be done is to sweep the floors. So I had a dust mop, and I would go up and down every single aisle and mop the entire store. And at the end of the night, my dad would reward me with a bag of planters peanuts.

SPEAKER_02 59:26

Oh, you weren't kidding when you said you got for peanuts.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

For peanuts.

SPEAKER_03 59:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

And I always just thought it was a great story because it's true. Yes, it is. It is got paid peanuts, you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

All right. So we we we we're gonna we're gonna accelerate through this next one. You said growing up, growing up, you spent a lot of time in the YMCA. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 59:48

Yeah, YMCA. So, yeah, spent a lot of years in the YMCA, still hang, still have a couple really close friends. Uh my group was called the Swifts. We hung out from grade school all the way through high school, did Youth in Government, which is still a program today. Yeah, and the really funny thing is that when I went to Youth and Government, we heard Governor Brown speak. Oh Governor Brown seniors.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Oh, senior, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

Back in the seven before Jerry. Before Jerry. Yeah, before Jerry. Um but yeah, so yeah, yeah, just really cool. Just kind of, you know, most people don't know. People now associate more youth partners like with scouting than they do the YMC. YMC doesn't have that program anymore, which was really a loss.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:28

So number uh the the the last three are gonna go really fast. So number uh number three is you met your future bride, Nancy, over here at Unova Hue and L V Go Rebels. We already covered that. Yep. You came to Annela Valley in 89, you purchased the Annela Valley, and we covered that. Um in the I love this last one because this is my this is my thing about how much I love and respect you. You are committed to the local community. You've been a Rotarian for 36 years, and the Rotary does so much charity stuff. It's unbelievable. Lancaster West Rotary. Lancaster West Rotary. Youth development, business support, homeless uh folks, uh workforce development. Yeah, that's that's you, that's Mark, that's Mark's Tim Street.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:16

Community, I mean, I mean, I mean, my dad was was really strong in the community also. So I mean he taught me a lot of that of of just giving back to your community. What can you do for your community? You know, how can you leave this a better place than when you arrived? Right, right. Um, I mean, in scouts, it's always you know, leave it cleaner than when you got there, but same type messaging, do something in your community. So, I mean, I mean, so when I first got up here, I I started getting involved, whether it's was, you know, Allen Valley Board of Trade, which is now AV Edge, um Rotary, Lancaster West Rotary, big part of my life for you know 36 years. I love that club. Um, you know, I was involved with Boy Scouts with my son. I was an assistant scout master. Um, I do three merit badges. I still do, I'm still involved with Boy Scouts with Troop 599 out of Courts Hill.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:09

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Um, I am what they call the uh corporate or corporate organization, no charter organization rep. So I still still work with scouts. Um just now wrote a grant for one of the kids doing a Ziegel project at the VFW in in Palmdale. So um also uh with the chamber, um I I I ran the Yay program, which is the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. Fantastic program giving kids the ability to start their own business. Um and I still am in contact with a number of the kids that still I see them every so often, they all really close-knit groups. So Yay is a great program. Um I'm also involved in Interact, which is a high school rotary club at Lancaster High School. Um great program there. Um we talked about AV Edge, but I've bought um so for AV Edge, I'm the legislative chair for Joint Legislative Committee, which is the committee that oversees legislation for both the chamber, all the chambers and the Board of Trade or and AV Edge and Board of Relatures, um, which is really great. Um talked about the about the chamber. Um I also teach classes for new economics for women, um, getting women to to start their own careers, their own businesses. Um, and then also street company. She's trying to, you know, my wife is trying to give me pointers there, but you know, it's you know if I can I have headphones on, I can't hear a thing here. So text me, sweetheart.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:47

So I I think I think Mark, I think Mark just did his wrap-up, which is jump, but we're gonna just do this real quick. Which is fine. Last call. I mean, that's fine. Go for last call. No, you you nailed it, man. That was a good no, that was the that was the good segue. That was a good segue coming off the uh Rotarian thing and then all the stuff you've done. So the the last it's cool. The last part of this podcast is called Last Call. And it's 10 questions, rapid fire, and it's it's it's basically two or three answers. Go you go for it. Do you want me to kick it off?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:15

All right, uh what's your go-to cocktail?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Oh, gin and tonic.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:19

Gin and tonic. Absolutely. Lime or no lime?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

Lime.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

What's your favorite sport? What's your favorite sport to watch on the tele?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

Wow, tough one. Um I'd probably say swimming.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

Swimming.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

Boys are like Olympics, yeah, Olympics.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

Like Olympic swimming. I swam competitively in high school. It's a sport, dammit. It's a sport. It's a manly sport, too. You might shave your legs, but still it's a manly sport. Yeah. I like it.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:54

Uh if you could have a drink with any historical figure, alive or dead, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:07

My dad.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:08

That's cool. That's cool. Well, he's historical to me.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:13

His history, that counts. Hey, he has a legacy. That's a good answer.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:17

I like that. Uh who's your uh favorite musical artist?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

Tough one. Uh well Dave Matthews.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:31

Dave Matthews.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:31

Dave Matthews band. Yeah. Nothing wrong with Dave Matthews. Uh what's your favorite place to travel for a weekend getaway? Besides Las Vegas. Mark, I can't wait. Just any beach city?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:52

Yeah. The ocean. Okay. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:54

Or lake. Yeah, that's fine. Water. Water. Or the mountains. Is it my turn?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:00

That's you, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

Oh if you were to host a if you were to host a speakeasy like we're in right now. Super secret. What would be the secret password to get in?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Um password to get into the speakeasy.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

We've had some interesting answers to this, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:30

We can skip the let's skip that.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:34

If you could instantly master any skill, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

Welding.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:42

Wow. That's a good one, yeah. Welding. Alright, was something on your bucket list that you're determined to cross off?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:59

You go back 30 years ago, I could give you a whole list of things that I could cross off, but you know, parachuting is not going to be one of those now. Um more international travel.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:12

Okay, that's yeah, that's a good one. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:14

Uh what's the best concert you've ever been to?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:18

Pat Benatar.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:19

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:19

Ooh, that's a good one. Yeah, she knew she knew how to put it on, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:24

Uh Universal Amphitheater. Oh. When they used to have an outdoor amphitheater. Oh, when it was outdoor.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

It sucks that they they just demoed that whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:32

I know. They also I also saw Bruce Springsteen there at there, and he went, I think it was a three-hour concert. Oh my god. Incredible. Yeah, it was good. But she rocked it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:40

Oh, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:41

Pat Benatar, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:42

She's a badass. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:44

This is another tough one for you, but uh the last question, and then we're we're pretty much done.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

Then you can I can do my one shout out. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

Exactly. Uh what's the best piece of advice you've ever received in your life?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

No more wine for the wife. No, that's not that's not the one. That's the best advice I've ever given. No, no, no. No, no, no. No. As as in like like words to live with.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:17

Yeah, just any type of advice you've ever received over your life.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:20

Your dad maybe told you something.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

No one of my great mentors, a chef mentor, um, Hungarian trained chef. Um, his motto was do it nice or do it twice.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:32

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

Great words to live by. Do it nice or do it twice.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:36

I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:37

All right, Mark, this is your time. Cool. Uh this is the this is the end of the show here, uh, where we like to just it's up to you, whatever you want to talk about. Uh, you've got a couple minutes if you need anything to plug, anything you're doing. Uh you just want to tell us what you're gonna do tomorrow, what you had for breakfast, we don't care. This is your this is your opportunity to uh kind of let us know what's going on in your world. Go ahead, man.

unknown 1:09:07

Your cinema.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:08

Oh. So when is this air? Oh. When is this air?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

Um maybe in a couple years.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:17

Okay. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:18

It'd be uh realistically, it'll probably be a couple weeks in the middle. No, I see what you're saying. But no, I would just say um just just talk about just talk about anything. So two things.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

So I I know because when when I I used to do a uh podcast for the chamber, it was called Chamber Talk, uh with host Mark Hemp Street. Um, anyways, I I used to always try to do things that that did not have a a time parameter on them that weren't weren't weren't because it because once you do the podcast, you have to you know edit it and then you upload it and then you promote it and finally it goes out, right? So I try not to do anything too time sensitive, but something that is kind of time sensitive is coming up on on May 30th. Okay. Um we're doing the first annual SoCal Student Cinema Awards. This is a film festival for high school students to enter short films to be to be judged in 12 different categories. Um this year I think we have either seven or eight local high schools that are participating in this uh event. It's gonna be held at LPAC. So these kids get to see their film screened at LPAC on a big screen in a real audience, you know, um, which is really cool. That's gonna be going from 11 o'clock till four o'clock in the afternoon, and then at six, we're gonna do the awards and presentations. We have some great awards for these kids. Um, we have some panel discussions, and we have some industry leaders out there. Um, your son is one of the judges. Um as Brian went uh got his degree in in cinematography and filming from um Cal State uh Cal Poly Pomona. No, Riverside. Oh, Riverside, Riverside, I'm sorry, Cal State Riverside. Cal State Riverside, yeah. So um, yeah, it's not really exciting that we're gonna do that. Um, and that's uh May 30th, if if we get the podcast up quick enough. Otherwise, next year probably about the same time. Yeah, and the other thing I want to plug is that one of the other organizations that I sit on the board is called Street Company. Um people may know it as Castor's Coffee. Yeah. And Street Company is just a really cool organization. They and what what they do is is they bring people that are unhoused, they bring it into the into the company, they teach them job skills. We stay everybody goes through a job um development program, it's about a 12-week program. Um, and they also work in the in the roasting company, and we roast coffee for sale. So you can go to Castor's Coffee or Street Company, you can buy coffee, you know, from them, retail from them. We don't have a storefront per se, um, but you can order it online. Um, and what our next big project we're we're doing right now is we are gonna have a hydroponic greenhouse located just off Lancaster Boulevard. Um, I think the building is somewhere around 7,500 square feet. It'll have these towers, these hydroponic towers. And we're gonna have our homeless people that are, I mean, they're you know, be given showers and that kind of stuff. So they're clean, they're they're presentable, they have uniforms, um but they're there and they have a job. And it and it gives them that that self-worth, right? That they're going to work and they're being productive, and we're getting them housing, and we're getting them back on their feet. And to me, that's one of the most important things is not just giving a handout, it's giving them the skills and the hand up to be successful in life. That's incredible. And we're doing just a kick-ass job at that. Um, we are raising money for that because it's we're we're still need about a hundred thousand short for to get the whole thing done. Um, so we're gonna be doing some fundraisers for it. So keep your ears and eyes out for that because it's it's just such a it's such a cool thing. I and I and not only do I sit on the board, but I also do uh mock interviews with these people. So I'll sit down, I'll review their resumes, I'll look at the resumes, tell them what needs to be tweaked, what you can say, what you can say, and then just run through a just a general interview with them. And you know, and there's you know, some of these people have been, you know, incarcerated and there's a big hole in their employment history for two years or three years. And how do you address that? How do you reward that, how do you word that it doesn't just sound like you've been in jail for three years? Right. And how, you know, if if if you know what you know, what were the problems at your last job? Well, I got in too many fights. Okay, let's not quite word it that way. You know, and if we do have to say that we, you know, you know, I always ask people, you know, what's your three strong points? What three weak points of you know in the workplace? Well, you know, my weak points, so I get in fights. Okay, okay. You know, I might have some anger issues, but the but but to add in there that you're going to anger management classes, that you're doing something about it. Yeah, you're bettering yourself, you're working on it so you don't have these problems in the future. And that's what it and that's what this program's all about is getting them back on their feet and getting them jobs. So street company, Castro's coffee, it's great. Um looking for support. Hell yeah. I like it.

unknown 1:14:21

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:21

Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:22

That was incredible, man. All right, man. Uh well, Bart, that's gonna do it uh for this uh this episode of uh Do we have more wine?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:31

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:33

Yeah, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

You're still on the clock, right? Yeah, okay. We're good.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:38

Well, he doesn't go home. You keep him here under duress. Uh all right, folks. Uh that was uh that was Mark uh Hemstreet. Uh thank you so much for coming on to the show. We appreciate you sitting down. And and yes, applause is very, very accepted here.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

Thank you, Justin. Thank you, appreciate both of you gentlemen.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:56

Uh, folks, keep an eye out on uh on the Instagrams, on the Twitters, on the Facebooks. Uh we'll always be letting you know when the next episode drops. Uh get out there and follow us deep diving in the speakeasy uh with Justin and Bart. We'll catch you on the next.