Latest / Corie Sheppard Podcast / He Sold Everything to Survive—Then Built Fitt St | Adrian Chandler

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He Sold Everything to Survive—Then Built Fitt St | Adrian Chandler · Corie Sheppard Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_03: I feel like I was destined to lose money.
0:02
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
0:04
SPEAKER_03: You want to be a flight attendant.
0:05
SPEAKER_03: I wanted to be a flight attendant.
0:06
SPEAKER_03: As real thing.
0:06
SPEAKER_03: As a real thing.
0:07
SPEAKER_03: Coming right out of school, I mean, I worked in a footlocker, not shoe locker.
0:11
SPEAKER_03: There is um footlocker.
0:13
SPEAKER_03: You know, I will take a martin meat cottage.
0:16
SPEAKER_03: You know, I wouldn't under meat cottage.
0:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:18
SPEAKER_03: On St.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: Lucian Road.
0:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:20
SPEAKER_03: I would see Curry Core.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:21
SPEAKER_03: Do it very much.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: I was a security, I'm telling you.
0:24
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
0:24
SPEAKER_03: There was some sort of mix-up between Keisha Cole and Hill Management Team and the Oh gosh.
0:32
SPEAKER_03: The agent.
0:33
SPEAKER_03: Right.
0:33
SPEAKER_03: Right?
0:34
SPEAKER_03: So whatever arrangement or discussion, communication that they had going on, there, that is where the mix-up was.
0:40
SPEAKER_03: Right.
0:40
SPEAKER_03: We know what we paid for, the level of production now, right?
0:43
SPEAKER_03: And the amount of wood that is required.
0:45
SPEAKER_03: It takes a significant and a substantial amount of time.
0:48
SPEAKER_03: And people talk about COVID.
0:50
SPEAKER_03: Right?
0:51
SPEAKER_03: And you stay with and you save your save for a rainy day.
0:55
SPEAKER_03: They never teach you to save.
0:56
SPEAKER_03: They never teach it to see it for a rainy two years.
1:18
Corie: Hi, before we get started, we wanted to take a moment to ask you to support the channel for free by liking, sharing, and subscribing.
1:26
Corie: Those are the three things that we realize you're not doing as much as you all say you're enjoying the conversation.
1:31
Corie: So please, we appreciate your support.
1:33
Corie: Let's get into today's conversation.
1:34
Corie: Welcome to the Corey Shepard Podcast.
1:36
Corie: Thanks for everybody who's tuning in that's new.
1:38
Corie: Welcome back to everybody who is here for the first time.
1:40
Corie: My name is Corey Shepard.
1:42
Corie: I'm your host.
1:42
Corie: Today I have with me, well, friend of the show, friend of the family, founder of Fitz Street.
1:48
Corie: Fit Street might be the one people know most popular these days.
1:51
Corie: Co-founder, air committee, founder strictly FX.
1:54
Corie: It's got about 25 companies in it.
1:55
Corie: You have a sign outside a building, but you want to get into how much companies you really have.
1:59
Corie: But the great Adrian Chandler, brother.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: Not too bad, not too bad.
2:02
Corie: Thanks very much for coming out.
2:04
Corie: I know you're a man to do interviews and think too much.
2:06
Corie: Well, for you.
2:08
Corie: I'll keep it here as long as I can keep you.
2:10
Corie: Coincidentally, the last World Cup, right?
2:12
Corie: I was in, we went to Miami, just a boys' trip.
2:14
Corie: Yeah.
2:15
Corie: And we end up in a little place called Novecento, it's an Argentine restaurant.
2:18
Corie: Decent steakhouse.
2:20
Corie: And we watch the finals there.
2:21
Corie: So me really paying attention to the fact that it's an Argentine place, right?
2:25
Corie: Of course, we black people's expectations that we're back in France.
2:28
Corie: But it was a real nice environment and vibe.
2:30
Corie: Okay.
2:31
Corie: You build that same thing in Fitz Street this year?
2:33
Corie: Um I mean, yes.
2:36
SPEAKER_03: So I I try to bring my everything that I do, I'm very much involved.
2:42
SPEAKER_03: Alright.
2:43
SPEAKER_03: So my personality, me myself, I always find myself there before I wouldn't say walk away, but before I kind of remove myself a bit.
2:51
SPEAKER_03: So I spent a lot of time there.
2:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, got to know everybody, and we've definitely created a family-oriented environment.
2:57
SPEAKER_03: So a lot of the people that come there, I mean, we have we have this big WhatsApp group, All the Guys, you know, the block.
3:03
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, you know, I must mention Led, our supposed mayor.
3:08
SPEAKER_03: I mean, Lead and I went to school together.
3:10
SPEAKER_03: Led and I went to school together.
3:11
Corie: Only went to school together.
3:12
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:13
SPEAKER_03: He was a year below me, but um, you know, and lo and behold, you know, he's into entertainment.
3:17
SPEAKER_03: I myself am into entertainment and started coming to the band.
3:20
SPEAKER_03: We're closing on Monday and we open Tuesday to Sunday, and that is the Monday to Sunday.
3:25
SPEAKER_03: So that should tell you.
3:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I mean and all the other guys, you know.
3:29
Corie: A little bit about your sports days now, because six and seven used to mean a different thing when you're talking.
3:36
Corie: Six and seven means something else, no, right?
3:38
Corie: But six when you when you were doing the tournaments, which one was cricket?
3:42
Corie: Seven?
3:43
Corie: Seven.
3:43
Corie: Seven.
3:44
SPEAKER_03: You come up with them names, there are anything to do that mean now or no, so ironically enough, um, I tell my sisters, all my sisters work with me.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I tell them, I mean, I like things with a ring to it, right?
3:53
SPEAKER_03: So I mean, cricket has traditionally been six balls in and over, and I wanted to do something a little bit different, you know.
3:59
SPEAKER_03: So I I I want to call it super sevens.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Right?
4:02
SPEAKER_03: So instead of introducing a seventh ball, we introduced if you hit a six, it's now a seven.
4:07
SPEAKER_03: So whereas an employer would raise his hand for six, he just bend it like that.
4:10
SPEAKER_03: So it creates a seven.
4:12
SPEAKER_03: Right?
4:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we just put our little twist on things, and um, two years subsequent to that, you know, then I was like, okay, you know what?
4:19
SPEAKER_03: I want to do what I did for cricket for football, and we created soccer sixes.
4:23
SPEAKER_03: Right.
4:24
SPEAKER_03: You know, had I known that it was going to be about, you know, something different, I would have probably stayed away from it.
4:29
Corie: No, maybe you should bring it back.
4:31
Corie: Let them things mean.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: I could love to, but um, that needs a lot of support, a lot of financial support back in those days.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, I wouldn't, I wasn't as I definitely wasn't as busy as I am now.
4:41
SPEAKER_03: Right.
4:41
SPEAKER_03: Um, I wasn't doing as much as I was doing um back then as I am now.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, I would love to.
4:47
SPEAKER_03: I would really, really love to, but the financial support is is needed.
4:51
SPEAKER_03: It's key.
4:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
4:52
Corie: Bring back the sixes and sevens.
4:53
Corie: What have Oli do?
4:54
Corie: You hoppy voice, somebody needs to bring back community sports in this country so that six and seven could start meaning things that was what Oli had it meaning as well.
5:03
Corie: Yeah.
5:03
Corie: That um I remember coming one time, it was by just outside La Prada in the community center there.
5:10
Corie: Four roads, that's right.
5:11
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
5:11
Corie: That was that was all the cricket.
5:13
Corie: So with the cricket, yeah.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: So, what what built the idea for you to do that?
5:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I told you, I'm a sportsman.
5:18
SPEAKER_03: I I'm into sports.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: I went down there.
5:21
Corie: You could play like a sportsman on TV and think of your player.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: I think I can handle my own.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: All right, basketball, football, cricket.
5:27
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
5:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I mean, when down there participated, there was this win ball league going on, and uh, you know, a guy there, the personal Randy League, Gary.
5:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, we went down, my brother, myself, and a couple other friends.
5:40
SPEAKER_03: All right, and we call our team Spartans, but a lot of the guys on the team, you know, big in size.
5:44
SPEAKER_03: So any journalists say men sat a ball, say, boy, well let's come here and let's go hit our ball in the river.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: Right?
5:50
SPEAKER_03: Not knowing, you understand, what I knew windball cricket to be and what windball cricket was.
5:55
SPEAKER_03: It was something totally different.
5:57
SPEAKER_03: Things men doing with the ball.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: Out of the school, and I mean we were embarrassed.
6:03
SPEAKER_03: We were embarrassed, right?
6:05
SPEAKER_03: Um and started laughing at us.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: We couldn't hold back properly, right?
6:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I was I was keen on learning, right?
6:12
SPEAKER_03: Like with everything else.
6:13
SPEAKER_03: The same um where I operate in business.
6:16
SPEAKER_03: So I mean, I get into something, I make sure to, you know, that I learn about it, right?
6:20
SPEAKER_03: So I learned more about cricket.
6:21
SPEAKER_03: I got into it.
6:22
SPEAKER_03: Probably spent two years, and then I went to Gary and I was like, Gary, I want to help you, but I say, How you just run this thing, buddy?
6:28
SPEAKER_03: Right?
6:28
SPEAKER_03: He, you know, he was there every day, every day is cricket, Monday to Sunday, right?
6:33
SPEAKER_03: And I mean himself, a couple other um committee members, and I was like, I say, I want to help you.
6:38
SPEAKER_03: I initially helped him out with all the sponsorship, and I was like, Gary, I want to make this thing bigger.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: Right?
6:42
SPEAKER_03: He's like, What you thinking?
6:43
SPEAKER_03: I say, Gary, I think in IPL style, right?
6:47
SPEAKER_03: Like what nobody has seen before in Trinidad.
6:50
SPEAKER_03: Right?
6:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, he's like, You serious, boy?
6:52
SPEAKER_03: I was like, yeah.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: Um and he said, but IPL is saying no, AJ.
6:56
SPEAKER_03: And I say, yeah.
6:56
SPEAKER_03: I say, we brand any boundary ropes, we put in the bill, right?
7:00
SPEAKER_03: But windball cricket is not like hardball cricket, you know, the windball cricket.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: It is a sheet metal as the wicket here again.
7:08
SPEAKER_03: Pang! Yeah, yeah.
7:09
SPEAKER_03: It's embarrassing, yeah.
7:10
SPEAKER_03: It's very embarrassing.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: But we fabricated a wicket, we cut off the top, I bought the lighter bales, I introduced um third umpires, I put in cameras, I mean, so we really brought an IPL and CPL style of cricket for the first time ever.
7:24
SPEAKER_03: I mean, even up to this day, no one has been able to replicate it.
7:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I mean, I there's no arrogance, but I mean I pride myself in that.
7:31
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think the only way, or the only reason I was able to do that because I owned the equipment, right?
7:37
SPEAKER_03: The screens, the trussing, you know, one of those things.
7:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, at that time, too, I had a print tree, right?
7:41
SPEAKER_03: One, two, three prints, had just gotten into printing.
7:44
SPEAKER_03: So we were able to kind of absorb it and subsidize uh majority of the costs.
7:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, brought on all my staff, all my team, and yeah, we bring a container, rest on a container.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: You know, I reach out to Peter C as like, Peter, I want you to come and film this for me.
7:59
SPEAKER_03: You know, um, and yeah, so we just took it to the next level.
8:02
Corie: Yeah, I think I know we'll talk about that uh the businesses here in as well.
8:06
Corie: But I always remember seeing the community spirit the first time I came there because you got some of the well rail cricketers now to come out and and people who in the community in the combat and they might be seeing them for the first time.
8:16
Corie: First time seeing them apply, and remember Sunan Arain being there, it's like, all right, well, why do we give you a windball?
8:21
Corie: This is not right, you know.
8:22
Corie: That's not a man you should have in any amateur thing, but uh not meaning to cut you, um that is just a perception, eh?
8:30
SPEAKER_03: So he might be windball and hardball, two different things.
8:32
SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah.
8:33
SPEAKER_03: Well, and it so happens that he is very diverse, he's very good at it because what um someone who's playing hardball, I mean, not taking anything away from, let's say, Pollard, right?
8:44
SPEAKER_03: Hard hitter of the ball, but put him in windball cricket, yeah, right?
8:48
SPEAKER_03: And you put certain bowlers at him.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: What men, like I told you, what men do him with that ball?
8:52
SPEAKER_03: Some batsmen would not be able.
8:54
SPEAKER_03: There are very few hardball cricketers who would have been able to make that transition into windball.
9:00
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9:00
Corie: Swimming is one of them many things because swimming is a problem, right?
9:03
Corie: It looked like he could do whatever.
9:04
Corie: But I do remember the community spirit in the goal.
9:06
Corie: That was on your mind when you was doing that.
9:08
Corie: You from the I am from the Go Martin, born and bred.
9:10
Corie: I grew up in Diamondvale.
9:11
Corie: Some certain Diamondvale men tell me a man by the name of Quasey Hopkinson say Adrian talking.
9:16
Corie: He said you get an Adrian to talk.
9:18
Corie: Another man who don't talk much like you did doing Cambridge.
9:21
Corie: He said, Dwayne, say, I see I'm a partner, Adrian, then today go boy.
9:26
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
9:26
Corie: Right.
9:26
Corie: So you have it in mind to do this tournament for the community anytime?
9:30
Corie: Um, I honestly no.
9:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, but it just happened to be that way, right?
9:35
SPEAKER_03: And at the time, I think there was a big, there was a big thing going on with this whole Vindra night Paul thing with LaParetta and all of that, right?
9:42
SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, that community itself, it was, you know, a little crime-riddled, right?
9:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, people were parking up and batteries were being stolen from their cars.
9:51
SPEAKER_03: And I told Gary, I said, Gary, you know what?
9:53
SPEAKER_03: Lower yourself.
9:54
SPEAKER_03: I went and I spoke to, you know, um, I would call it one of the community leaders, right?
9:59
SPEAKER_03: And told him, I said, Well, here what?
10:01
SPEAKER_03: It is extremely difficult, almost impossible, for me to be able to set up for this and take down my equipment.
10:07
SPEAKER_03: So here's what I will do I pay the guys around.
10:10
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
10:11
SPEAKER_03: Leave all the equipment, they in charge, they have to guard it.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: And on a night, when cricket is going on, they are the security.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: So people parking up, just brought the um reflective vest, gave it to them.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, a nominal fee, nothing fancy, but at least it was something for them.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:26
SPEAKER_03: And from that point, everything changed.
10:28
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
10:29
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I guess I earned the respect of the community, you know, they saw, and it it taught me that, you know, they just want an opportunity, a chance, you know, to be seen and to be heard.
10:41
SPEAKER_03: And they got the opportunity and you know what they were there, you know, they got entertainment.
10:45
SPEAKER_03: It was people coming from Acton Court, coming and sitting down with bleachers.
10:49
SPEAKER_03: You know, we provided bleachers, people just sitting there and taking it.
10:52
SPEAKER_03: It was just entertainment every night.
10:53
SPEAKER_03: Right.
10:54
SPEAKER_03: Good, clean entertainment.
10:55
Corie: Yeah, and an important thing to happen too.
10:57
Corie: I feel like communities know because we grew up in a time where that was just a common thing in every area we grew up in, and it's starting to become less and less.
11:04
Corie: But I appreciate you saying that a part of it is just having it, the community involved.
11:07
Corie: You can't treat communities like we are the community, and these people are not, and they're bad behaved, so they must be.
11:13
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if that will ever work.
11:14
SPEAKER_03: You can't put them in exile.
11:15
SPEAKER_03: They want to be involved and you know they want to be a part of what you are doing.
11:18
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
11:18
Corie: You know, but little about trickly effects now, because you say you are trusting, you had everything to get it done.
11:22
Corie: That's one of the things that um a lot of the people who come here and talk about their lives and entertainment and stuff, they tell stories that you involved in in some way or another for SFX.
11:33
Corie: So you want to tell people what SFX is about?
11:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, SFX is basically a uh rental company from trussing, lighting, screen, staging, special effects, that sort of thing.
11:45
SPEAKER_03: Um, event rentals.
11:46
SPEAKER_03: Right.
11:47
SPEAKER_03: Right?
11:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, but you know, being involved in events and entertainment, um, people came to me and asked me to get involved in their events, you know, um, whether it'd be as a sponsor and so on.
11:58
SPEAKER_06: Right.
11:59
SPEAKER_03: Uh but I guess they found the SFX brand was marketable enough that they wanted it a part of, just like how you would see Air Committee or Scorch, you know, on a flyer.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
12:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
12:10
SPEAKER_03: Um, they wanted to put the SFX brand.
12:12
SPEAKER_03: So it seemed almost as though SFX was now producing events.
12:16
Corie: Yeah.
12:16
Corie: Well, the first time I came across it was um, and maybe just moving back to Trinidad and got getting to know Andrea as well.
12:22
Corie: I know you all were doing corporate events.
12:24
Corie: We we had we were looking for something and hired for a boot for some clients, and then they they say to call you all.
12:30
Corie: So it started off there.
12:30
Corie: What was your origin?
12:31
Corie: No, no, no, no.
12:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, it actually started off as okay, so in quick summary, um I was I was an instructor, a physical instructor, a fitness instructor in the gym, fitness center back in 98-99.
12:45
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
12:45
SPEAKER_03: Um and my uncle at the time had a company called Sky Z Limit himself and two other friends.
12:52
SPEAKER_03: And here I am in the gym, and um he's dating my aunt.
12:56
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I'm a party boy, I want to party and I want to go parties, and he introduced the sky dancers and fog and confetti and bubbles and so on to the Trinidad market.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: And I want to get into these parties, free stars.
13:09
SPEAKER_03: I say, Well, David, so I could I could come at you, I could roll at you.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: And I'm there, you know, people make jokes and say, No, well, you're holding that crate to walk in your DJ.
13:17
SPEAKER_03: I'm there holding a confetti machine, and I'm walking into the party, right?
13:20
SPEAKER_03: Because I want to get in free.
13:21
SPEAKER_03: Right.
13:21
SPEAKER_03: And myself and others, but everybody would leave him and I would remain and I would help him.
13:26
SPEAKER_03: And when the party was finished, I actually stood there and I would help him wrap up the chords.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: He would go and tell my aunt, you know, Adrian, responsible.
13:32
SPEAKER_03: You know, I feel I want to talk to Adrian about coming on board and helping me a little bit more.
13:37
SPEAKER_03: Um and he came to me and he asked me, he said, Adrian, um, how do how do you feel about going on tour with ecstatic?
13:43
SPEAKER_03: Right?
13:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, at that time I had never travelled to the US.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: This was 19 years of age.
13:48
SPEAKER_03: I'd never travelled to the US.
13:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, didn't have my visa.
13:51
SPEAKER_03: And well, lady, as you know, Marshall's mom, I think she was dealing with all of Marshall's affairs and ecstatic's affairs at the time.
13:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, he put things in place and I went on tour for three months.
14:01
SPEAKER_03: Seriously.
14:02
SPEAKER_03: I lived on Utica Avenue with like the ecstatic band.
14:06
SPEAKER_03: Um you know, and from Miami to Washington, you know, we I was out there, we were basically living, you know, out there.
14:13
Corie: So their company would do the setup, the stage setup for the band then?
14:16
SPEAKER_03: No, no, meaning they dealt with all the um visa requirements, all the visas.
14:20
Corie: No, I mean, it's the company you with you what you all do with them.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: At that time, um, I was just there working with him.
14:26
SPEAKER_03: That is how I got into special effects.
14:28
Corie: Right, gotcha.
14:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, fast forward uh a couple years, he and I started to butt head.
14:32
SPEAKER_03: So here my I will call it at this tender age.
14:35
SPEAKER_03: Right.
14:35
SPEAKER_03: Right?
14:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, knowing nothing about business.
14:38
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I don't have a degree.
14:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, I went to Digomart in secondary.
14:42
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
14:42
SPEAKER_03: But I was good for myself and not a dum-dum.
14:45
SPEAKER_03: Right?
14:45
SPEAKER_03: And running his business.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, his other two partners weren't very much involved in the business.
14:51
SPEAKER_03: They had their own thing going on, and I think they had an arrangement to separate.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, and he said, EJ, you know what?
14:57
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give you shares.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: Right.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: Right?
14:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, so got into it, registered a new business, and I was there and I was basically running everything, right?
15:05
SPEAKER_03: Um, on a daily basis.
15:06
SPEAKER_03: And he would go, you know, my aunt is a Friday, and you'll jump on a plane and go with my aunt.
15:10
SPEAKER_03: You know, and I was there and I was just doing everything.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: We started at butt heads.
15:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, I felt as though, you know, I needed a little bit more, right?
15:18
SPEAKER_03: Um fast forward again, right?
15:21
SPEAKER_03: I'd leave out a couple things, but fast forward again.
15:23
SPEAKER_03: Um we separated and I went out on my own.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: I started with cutting edge creations.
15:27
Corie: Oh, cutting edge was first.
15:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it was cutting edge creations.
15:30
SPEAKER_03: Alright, it was a sole trader business.
15:31
SPEAKER_03: I got into it.
15:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I had one or two friends in corporate TMT, and you know, they said they would assist me and say, John, you know, I mean, I would help you out and support you as much as I can.
15:41
Corie: So cutting edge was to do the same types of things too.
15:43
SPEAKER_03: Cutting edge was not a special effects.
15:45
SPEAKER_03: The special effects at that time was very seasonal.
15:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
15:47
SPEAKER_03: So it really happened at carnival time, Christmas, maybe a little bit in summer.
15:52
SPEAKER_03: Right?
15:53
SPEAKER_03: Um corporate, all these corporate setups that you see now, they weren't a thing back then, right?
15:58
SPEAKER_03: Right.
15:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, again, um cutting edge, you know, started to do more corporate stuff, corporate stuff, right?
16:07
SPEAKER_03: Um but there was this barber shop in St.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: James called Cutting Edge Barber Salon.
16:11
SPEAKER_03: And people used to say, Cutting edge, I see barber salon.
16:14
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, there's nothing synonymous with special effects and cutting edge.
16:19
SPEAKER_03: I said, so I need to change the name, right?
16:21
SPEAKER_03: And then I went and I registered Strictly FX, right?
16:24
SPEAKER_03: Um and I went back again and I was like, you know what, I need to separate this thing.
16:28
SPEAKER_03: So StrictlyFX would be the marketable brand as the you know, all the exciting stuff.
16:33
SPEAKER_03: But the corporate side of things, I kept the cutting edge to drop the creations and just put cutting edge limited.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: Got sure, right?
16:39
SPEAKER_03: Um and that's how I kind of separated the two.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: So cutting edge limited is really the corporate.
16:43
SPEAKER_03: Um but it's like sister companies, I mean they will share the equipment regardless.
16:47
SPEAKER_03: And StrictlyFX is really the brand that you know we'll put out there.
16:51
Corie: And even the corporate thing, because when we first started off, well, I know you know daddy as well.
16:56
Corie: We we had started off representing brands from abroad, right?
16:59
Corie: So we started with Sony Ericsson and Blackberry and up.
17:02
Corie: And it was real hard to find people who are doing what you're all doing now.
17:05
Corie: It wasn't any market, and the thing is we were dealing with people who were accustomed to Panama and Miami and thing, and it's like, well, where you mean it's nobody to set up our booth because we I remember doing a booth for Sony Ericsson in Jamaica.
17:17
Corie: It's one of the most embarrassing things I ever see.
17:18
Corie: Because me know nothing about this.
17:20
Corie: I try and think some helium balloons.
17:21
Corie: Me and know them things out after about two hours.
17:23
Corie: We had a sneeze hot sun, and it was just a mess.
17:26
Corie: And Jamaica was a very, very different market here.
17:28
Corie: Because when we somebody came up to us and it's like, because like they walk the trade shows, like over there at TIC, they have a big outdoor one.
17:35
Corie: Okay, and a guy came and he said, Listen, we could do all this for you know.
17:38
Corie: So I was when we hear that and we find somebody that's just gonna execute because those brands operate, and uh, let me say, I'll I'm not above what we accustomed to here.
17:46
Corie: So you can't send pictures of them for no amateur execution on them things.
17:50
Corie: But my question is really, how you know, because the the business world don't have anything like cutting edge at that time, I assuming.
17:56
Corie: How you realize that there's a gap?
17:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I'd be lying if I tell you, you know, what I knew it, right?
18:03
SPEAKER_03: I just I took things as they came.
18:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:05
SPEAKER_03: Right.
18:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, and more and more I saw where it was going, right?
18:09
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, I guess naturally, I just have that creative side, and it just came to me naturally.
18:15
SPEAKER_03: So I was I was able to transition.
18:18
SPEAKER_03: Um, the special effects supported what I was doing, right?
18:22
SPEAKER_03: Because it was still exciting and people wanted that kind of fanfare, you know, at the events and the parties.
18:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, I was doing a lot of work with promoters, but you know, promoters have this again this stigma they don't like to pay.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: All right.
18:34
SPEAKER_03: Um, so take some leaks there and I realize, you know what, corporate for me, you know, it I feel as the way to go.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: Right.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: So I kind of focused more on that, um, zoned in on that and decided to, you know, build on that.
18:46
Corie: So in your earliest days, how are you handling sales, boys?
18:48
Corie: Just relationships and things talking to you.
18:50
SPEAKER_03: Relationships, relationships.
18:51
SPEAKER_03: Um, as I went along, I mean, growing, growing, you know, like I said, I would keep it close to home.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: Um sisters, you know, just started getting everybody involved.
19:01
SPEAKER_03: Um, growing up in the veil, I'll be hiring friends.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: Right.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: All right, people who work in all around.
19:06
SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, from that point, that moment on, you'll be able to tell, you know, who who will stick with you, or you know, who's able to do a little bit more and who will continue being a labourer.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: Right.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: You know.
19:17
Corie: And the special effects thing, you're saying mostly seasonal.
19:21
Corie: Well, back then.
19:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, then there's now it's it's a part of everything, right?
19:25
Corie: I wonder how much is the credit for changing that?
19:28
Corie: Like I feel like if I can't take credit for that.
19:30
SPEAKER_03: What do you think changes?
19:31
SPEAKER_03: I can't, I can I definitely can't take credit for that.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, everybody would have had their part to play, right?
19:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, like I said, my uncle and his two partners, I think they were probably the ones that might have changed it.
19:43
SPEAKER_03: Um, right after him, um, Fire One got into the business.
19:47
SPEAKER_03: At one point in time, Fire One and myself were, you know, we were the two neck and neck and neck.
19:53
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, Andrea and I now are, you know, very friendly.
19:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I would tell people Shallon Lullaby.
20:01
SPEAKER_03: You know, you look at Shellon now and the powerhouse that he has created, right?
20:05
SPEAKER_03: And Shallon used to rent from me.
20:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
20:07
SPEAKER_03: Shellon Boxing Day.
20:08
Corie: I've done that for my phone, Sheldon.
20:11
Corie: Yeah.
20:11
SPEAKER_03: Right?
20:12
SPEAKER_03: And he will tell you, um, and Boxing Day, he used to have an event in Privé in South.
20:16
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
20:17
SPEAKER_03: And I say by Shallon having Christmas lunch with my family.
20:20
SPEAKER_03: I said, okay, what?
20:21
SPEAKER_03: A car come and set up, but you come and pick up the machine.
20:23
SPEAKER_03: And Shallon will come and meet me in Shagonas.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: Right.
20:25
SPEAKER_03: At that time when I moved from Degomartin, I went to Shagonas.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, and he would come and send or send somebody to pick up the machine.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: He himself would come and he watched me again.
20:33
SPEAKER_03: He said, But he say, John, I really like this thing, you know.
20:36
SPEAKER_03: I really like this thing.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: You know, and he, I guess, like myself, decided to take it further.
20:42
SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, you know, as they say, nothing lasts forever, you know, and he has come and he has definitely, you know, taken it to another level as well.
20:50
SPEAKER_03: Alright?
20:50
Corie: So if you're a business organization or brand looking to reach an engaged and growing audience, the Cory Shepherd Podcast offers opportunities to sponsor, partner, and advertise.
21:01
Corie: You can check out the email address in our YouTube description or via the link in our bio on Instagram.
21:07
Corie: We need the money.
21:09
Corie: Like uh Max and House, you remember that.
21:12
Corie: Yeah, look, when I see y'all and maybe a group of y'all, if if not you alone, it changed the way we party and the way we felt.
21:19
Corie: Like when I hear voice say, see, I trust in there.
21:21
Corie: I feel like he could have pulled your name in his song.
21:23
SPEAKER_03: Well, I still holding that in mind for him, eh?
21:26
SPEAKER_03: Right?
21:27
SPEAKER_03: I still holding that in mind for him.
21:29
SPEAKER_03: And I hope I hope he hears this, eh?
21:30
SPEAKER_03: I hope he hears this.
21:31
Corie: But it's not just that song because he comes and he says he's all rich like channel it, like he tried to get back, he tried to get back.
21:40
SPEAKER_03: But I think that that would have stemmed from, I don't know why.
21:43
SPEAKER_03: Don't ask me why.
21:44
SPEAKER_03: Quasey would call me Monica.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: I say, Quasey, how you reach with Monica?
21:48
SPEAKER_03: He said money is Quasi.
21:50
SPEAKER_03: I really hope it's fallen men.
21:54
Corie: I see a change over the years.
21:56
Corie: So, what's what's an event was we use in children as an example?
21:58
Corie: When I see experience stage.
22:00
Corie: Now compared to what we know as stages when we when you were trying to get in free stages was a different way of staying.
22:06
SPEAKER_03: I think the production level on the whole, not I think I know.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: And I think even from a patron perspective, right?
22:12
SPEAKER_03: The patron, the customer, the consumer, they want more.
22:16
SPEAKER_03: Right?
22:17
SPEAKER_03: With with social media looking on, and you know, you look at Coachella and Tomorrowland and these things, and people seeing these types of production, and then we want to emulate and we want to replicate.
22:28
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
22:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, I am well travelled, Sheldon is well travelled, Quasey is well travelled.
22:32
SPEAKER_03: You know, you look at all these people, and again, not bashing anybody, but you look back at what uh promoter was known to be the days of the Cliff Harris and the Roy Mirage.
22:42
SPEAKER_03: And I remember because I used to do working license in Fed when I used to set up back in the days to do Maury.
22:48
SPEAKER_03: And that Friday, right, Roy Mirage, the day of the event, they're setting up the event, you know, the stage, the tent going up, and then you're ready to day of.
22:58
SPEAKER_03: You can get in that so again, you know.
23:00
SPEAKER_03: But the level of production now we need 10 days and 14 days to set up the production.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: I mean, the stink and the RB branch.
23:08
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
23:08
SPEAKER_03: So the level of production now, right, and the amount of work that is required, it takes a significant and a substantial amount of time to be able to put that together.
23:17
Corie: I could I could see it.
23:18
Corie: I was I was real surprised.
23:19
Corie: The first time I hear you all at a venue the weekend before is shocking.
23:23
Corie: So you bring up stink and dirty and RB branch, but let's talk about Pink Nick, because that's one of those things that I see people um in the world now.
23:31
Corie: I guess when we were fighting with Rory Mirage and then we just knew what we had.
23:34
Corie: You couldn't see the rest of the world in the same way.
23:37
Corie: So you feel like now the patrons compare what we do here to the global events because you get us.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: They look on and they see.
23:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I think we definitely have to credit the likes of Dane and Derek Lewis and Sean Wilkett, and they, right?
23:52
SPEAKER_03: The the island people, right?
23:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, I think they were very instrumental.
23:56
SPEAKER_03: Um, and again, this is all Adrian Chandler's opinion, right?
23:59
SPEAKER_03: Um they were very instrumental in concept, event concepts, and changing the landscape for events, right?
24:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, they started to take it to a next level, right?
24:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, everybody else was there, you know what I mean, um, around the same time, right?
24:15
SPEAKER_03: And they were the ones that really kind of started to take it to a next level.
24:17
Corie: Yeah, but them uh they used to do caution too.
24:19
Corie: Yeah, yeah, and and all white.
24:21
Corie: I can't remember the glow.
24:22
Corie: Glow.
24:22
Corie: Well, glow was Ian Wilshire.
24:24
SPEAKER_03: Oh, and then what what what Derek and they used to do?
24:26
SPEAKER_03: Insomnia.
24:27
SPEAKER_03: Amnesia.
24:28
SPEAKER_03: They were part of insomnia.
24:29
SPEAKER_03: Ian Wilshire was also insomnia, but um island people and Ian Wilshire.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you started to see.
24:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, um, so people wanted, you know, you look at um Karen, right?
24:45
SPEAKER_03: Tim Tim.
24:45
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
24:46
SPEAKER_03: Right?
24:46
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, um how was it these party used to have, right?
24:50
SPEAKER_03: Married, single, honor.
24:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, remember.
24:52
SPEAKER_03: So everything changed, everything changed concept.
24:54
SPEAKER_03: So sometimes you go to the event and the event has absolutely nothing, right?
24:59
SPEAKER_03: But the marketing prior to the event is what would have sold you.
25:02
SPEAKER_03: Of course, you know, it was that sort of tactical marketing, right?
25:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, dipsomania, all these little things.
25:08
Corie: I suppose you're right.
25:09
Corie: Because before that, you just let us say fire, that's all.
25:11
Corie: You don't need a concept.
25:15
Corie: You know, I mean that no.
25:18
Corie: So for an event like Pincknick, how long that taking to settle?
25:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, before you even talk about the setting up, you have to talk about um putting things in place and not so much just the the production of the event, but prior to its months in advance.
25:34
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
25:35
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, hats off to all of the other event producers out there because I know they know what I'm talking about, right?
25:43
SPEAKER_03: Um, from band launches to bands, carnival bands.
25:47
SPEAKER_03: This is not a wake up today, and next month we're gonna do um carnival on the road.
25:53
SPEAKER_03: You're planning a year in advance, you're planning six months, nine months in advance, right?
25:57
SPEAKER_03: Um and you're putting things in place.
25:58
SPEAKER_03: So I remember the very first picnic, um, this was at Drew Mano.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: And it's before COVID.
26:05
SPEAKER_03: This is this is before COVID, this is 2019.
26:07
SPEAKER_03: Right.
26:08
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, it was a friend of mine that came to me, um, and she's like, Adri, I have something I want you to see.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: I said, What's that girl?
26:16
SPEAKER_03: She said, Um, you're gonna like it.
26:18
SPEAKER_03: And she showed me the picnic is an event that they had on Governor's Island in New York.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, but you know what I mean, not our style.
26:27
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we Caribbean people, we party differently, right?
26:30
SPEAKER_03: And she showed it to me and I was like, I said, I love this.
26:34
SPEAKER_03: I love this.
26:34
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I have to find a way to tweak this for this to work for us.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: And this was somewhere back in April.
26:39
SPEAKER_03: She's like, you should go.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: It's in July, right?
26:42
SPEAKER_03: And experience it, see what it's about.
26:44
SPEAKER_03: Right?
26:45
SPEAKER_03: I was never able to go, right?
26:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, but as I at that time, I was like, you know what?
26:49
SPEAKER_03: I need to do this.
26:50
Corie: So you see that the Trinidad market go come out in pink.
26:52
Corie: You feel like you're gonna get it done.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
26:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, again, just looking at concepts and concepts, and everybody was coming with something, everybody doing something, right?
27:00
SPEAKER_03: And you, you know, I mean, like anybody else, you want to be different.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: Right?
27:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was like, hey, what the heck?
27:06
SPEAKER_03: I want to do this.
27:07
SPEAKER_03: But the very first thing I did was I registered.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: Right.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: So I put a TT at the end, sorry, pink neck TT.
27:14
SPEAKER_03: Um and I went from there.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: I started the planning process, um, put things in place to say, okay, how are we gonna do this?
27:20
SPEAKER_03: I was like, you know what?
27:21
SPEAKER_03: I want to align this with breast cancer.
27:23
SPEAKER_03: I think I'll do this in October, right?
27:25
SPEAKER_03: And so said so, then aligned it with breast cancer.
27:28
SPEAKER_03: So um we lost money, or I should say I lost money.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: I lost a lot of money um that very that inaugural um time the first time, right?
27:40
SPEAKER_03: But we still gifted$25,000 to Trinity Cancer Society, right?
27:45
SPEAKER_03: Um, they partnered with us, you know, we worked with them, you know, people were able to, they brought the bus on site, able to get little checks on site, you know, and um it was really, really a nice event, a well-produced event.
27:57
SPEAKER_03: People just couldn't stop talking about it, and then boom, COVID.
28:01
Corie: Yeah, right.
28:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, so that kind of put a spook in the wheel.
28:04
SPEAKER_03: So 20, 21, 22, and then I was like, Hosh boy.
28:09
Corie: Yeah, you lost money, then covet shut it up.
28:11
Corie: Well, we can go back to it, boy.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: So my business partner, Shane, came to me and he's like, Hey, we do pink nick, boy.
28:21
SPEAKER_03: So Pink Nick is a air committee event.
28:22
SPEAKER_03: So Pinknick was uh Adrian Chandler, um, and like like other business people, you know, I went to my business partner and they weren't interested.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: You know, they were against it like boy, you sure thing, whatever.
28:36
SPEAKER_03: So, well, if all they don't want to do it, I win and do it.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: Alright, and I did it, so it was a strictly affects thing.
28:41
SPEAKER_03: So, like I said, I wouldn't put an Adrian Chandler even, you know, so I put SFX as the face of it.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, so it was a strictly effective thing.
28:49
SPEAKER_03: And then again, you come forward now to 2023, and Shane came to me and he's like, We're doing a pink tick.
28:56
SPEAKER_03: Alright.
28:56
SPEAKER_03: I said, But honestly, I want to move it, if not move it out of October, I want to bring it in the carnival because I feel like that is where we were getting numbers, right?
29:05
SPEAKER_03: That's where we're getting numbers.
29:06
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, it's funny you would say that.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: I was like, why?
29:09
SPEAKER_03: He said school doing something, right?
29:13
SPEAKER_03: He's creating something and he looking for an event on the Carnival Saturday.
29:16
SPEAKER_03: He's like, How you feel about the Carnival Saturday?
29:19
SPEAKER_03: I said, okay, but I said I soaker brain rush, and all right.
29:22
SPEAKER_03: I said I soaker brain rational.
29:23
SPEAKER_03: He said, What I said, but soaker brain rushes, 90%, not 95% foreigners.
29:29
SPEAKER_03: I said, I feel like we need something for the local market.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: Right?
29:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, we don't have to be priced as high, sure, but you know, I say, yeah, let's do it.
29:38
SPEAKER_03: Right?
29:39
SPEAKER_03: Um and Pink Tech.
29:42
SPEAKER_03: Pink tech was booted.
29:43
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we had about 1300, 1500 people, first year, Fatima Grounds.
29:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, but small as that, that's what small us, I didn't realize that.
29:51
SPEAKER_03: Very first yeah, and the very next year, it quadrupled.
29:56
SPEAKER_03: Right?
29:57
SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, it's it is what it is today.
30:01
Corie: Yeah, it's a staple now.
30:02
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
30:03
Corie: It's like a kind of a Saturday thing.
30:05
Corie: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
30:06
Corie: Right.
30:06
Corie: A couple of questions about that, right?
30:07
Corie: I don't understand events at all, right?
30:09
Corie: Every time I talk to Stacey about what you do, I get frightened immediately.
30:12
Corie: I find it very, very scary.
30:13
Corie: Because when you're talking about putting out an event for uh and you're doing 1,500 people, let's say, you have a target of the amount of people you're going for.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
30:21
SPEAKER_03: You would have to, I mean, we'd look back, and I mean, and then again, everybody has their 40, right?
30:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, I am I'm a logistical and operations person, and then just based on relationships, right?
30:33
SPEAKER_03: I tend to deal with the sponsorship side of things, right?
30:36
SPEAKER_03: The sponsors in in my little side corporate side.
30:39
SPEAKER_03: So in my in my little unit, right, in our unit, the air committee unit, Shane Nicholas, and myself, right?
30:44
SPEAKER_03: So Nicholas will deal with the numbers, right?
30:46
SPEAKER_03: He's very frugal, right?
30:47
SPEAKER_03: So he and I butt heads all the time.
30:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I like voice, I like to overdo, right?
30:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, so Mr.
30:56
SPEAKER_03: Overdo.
30:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right, and Shane is big on the marketing, and he has an eye for detail when it comes to the marketing and all of that, and the brand, you know, knowing how to position the brand, where to position it, you know.
31:06
SPEAKER_03: So we have a nice, a nice little thing going, right?
31:09
SPEAKER_03: Mind you, I mean Nicholas and I, we would we would go at it like cat and dog, yeah?
31:13
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:13
SPEAKER_03: And I mean that, like I would cuss him.
31:15
SPEAKER_03: He's like, no, but you you know, and I sorry, but in the end, it's a workable balance, right?
31:21
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
31:21
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:21
SPEAKER_03: And it's needed.
31:22
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, I guess you keep each other in check too.
31:25
SPEAKER_03: We will always do a budget.
31:28
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:28
SPEAKER_03: So we're not guessing.
31:29
SPEAKER_03: So he would be able to say, hey, all that fancy thing you want to do there, right?
31:35
SPEAKER_03: Adrian, we will lose money, you know, we will lose money.
31:37
SPEAKER_03: I say, okay, but we gotta start somewhere.
31:39
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's not coming out of my pocket, you know.
31:41
SPEAKER_03: Again, we'll be back and forth.
31:42
SPEAKER_03: Right?
31:43
SPEAKER_03: It happens all the time.
31:44
SPEAKER_03: Okay, right, and not just pink nick, it happens in stink and that tea, because as you know, stink and that tea, it's four entities, right?
31:50
SPEAKER_03: It happens in all the events, but that's how it is.
31:53
Corie: Yeah.
31:54
Corie: So when you when you set a target for that number, you have your budget in place, you have the number.
31:58
Corie: Let me say you set a target for 5,000.
31:59
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
32:00
Corie: What the hell is happening when only you see a thousand tickets selling?
32:02
Corie: Well, how early is realize that you have a skill, right?
32:05
Corie: You realize when you don't see me.
32:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
32:09
SPEAKER_03: I gotta stay inside, right?
32:11
SPEAKER_03: Um no, I mean you have an idea, right?
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you tell yourself, you know what?
32:21
SPEAKER_03: You get that feeling if that idea is going to work or not.
32:24
SPEAKER_03: Right?
32:25
SPEAKER_03: So let's just say you have an idea for, and I would use case in point, RB branch, right?
32:31
SPEAKER_03: Um we put that idea out there and we're like, okay, look, you know what?
32:34
SPEAKER_03: Let's cost this thing out.
32:36
SPEAKER_03: And let's just use a figure, right?
32:38
SPEAKER_03: Um five million to produce this event because you want to bring artists that are still somewhat you know relevant, right?
32:49
SPEAKER_03: They're not trending, right?
32:50
SPEAKER_03: All right, but they have some sort of relevance, people know them, right?
32:54
SPEAKER_03: You know, based on the marketing campaign, you look at it and you see some of the younger um committee members, the younger demographic, they didn't even know who Ja rule and Ashanti.
33:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but imagine.
33:03
SPEAKER_03: But you sing this song as like, oh, okay, okay, they could connect, right?
33:07
SPEAKER_03: But it's still not their thing, right?
33:08
SPEAKER_03: So then we need to find, according to Quasey, we need to bridge that gap.
33:12
SPEAKER_03: Right?
33:13
SPEAKER_03: So, well, okay, so what do we do?
33:15
SPEAKER_03: We had um Keisha Cole and Dexter Daps the first year.
33:19
SPEAKER_03: So, okay, well, we need a Jamaican artist, somebody to, you know what, the little steam, a little something.
33:24
SPEAKER_03: So valiant.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: It adds to that budget.
33:28
SPEAKER_03: Right, too.
33:28
SPEAKER_03: Right?
33:28
SPEAKER_03: So the budget just keeps going up.
33:30
Corie: Oh, so the five million in case of a valiant, okay with you.
33:32
SPEAKER_03: No, I mean it's it's in the five minutes, but just saying people come and they see say, way, boy, or they get through boy.
33:38
Corie: I just do that all the time.
33:39
SPEAKER_03: See 5,000 people.
33:40
Corie: 5,000 budget ticket price.
33:42
SPEAKER_03: I could work all that quick, you know, it's all the time, yeah.
33:44
SPEAKER_03: But not knowing, we really needed 7,000.
33:47
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
33:48
SPEAKER_03: And that every and just tell yourself, every thousand, you lose a million dollars.
33:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
33:53
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
33:54
SPEAKER_03: So people look at it and they see um that they really don't know.
33:59
Corie: Yeah, I'm one of them because there's no when you say, right, you just say, let me use our figure.
34:04
Corie: Yeah.
34:04
Corie: I wasn't expecting to have five million or nothing.
34:08
Corie: And again, that's where the response is.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: It's a lot, it's a lot.
34:10
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I know, I know um I'm somewhat chastised.
34:16
SPEAKER_03: Um, my son's mother tells me all the time, she's like, A John, you talk about numbers so loosely.
34:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, okay, and so what?
34:23
SPEAKER_03: Big deal.
34:24
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
34:25
SPEAKER_03: I was like, I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything.
34:27
SPEAKER_03: Right?
34:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, and there's no reason to lie because if I try to sugarcoat it or make up somebody on he talking nuns like he knows you're talking about, you know, so I'll tell you as it is.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's fair.
34:36
SPEAKER_03: Right.
34:37
SPEAKER_03: And I use any numbers, right?
34:38
SPEAKER_03: And I know that the ones who do in the events, they could relate.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, of course.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: Because they know I they know I ain't making up the numbers.
34:45
SPEAKER_03: Right?
34:45
Corie: Um, so well, it's important to me too, because I always trying to talk to the person who in your shoes and they go sec.
34:51
Corie: You know, they must understand that the thing's possible.
34:54
Corie: So, in terms of bringing people together, who would do an RB branch is is yourself?
34:58
SPEAKER_03: But the Scorch family, right?
35:00
SPEAKER_03: So Scorch, Air Committee, right?
35:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, and Ricky, Dragon Annan.
35:04
Corie: I always wondered why would promoters, because you've been doing this for a long time, you have the experience, and I always feel like if Air Committee wanted to do RB branch, they could do it by themselves.
35:12
Corie: Why do you partner up?
35:13
SPEAKER_03: Yes and no, but um, you just look on, look on or look back a couple years, right?
35:19
SPEAKER_03: And I would use DJ Khaled, right?
35:22
SPEAKER_03: And look at what he has been doing, right?
35:25
SPEAKER_03: Listen to what Marshall said.
35:26
SPEAKER_03: Collaboration is key, right?
35:29
SPEAKER_03: Um I'm gonna say something without saying the name, right?
35:34
SPEAKER_03: Then we did Stink and Duty the very first year, right?
35:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, and just to give you, I mean, I don't know if you intended to touch on it, but just to give you.
35:42
SPEAKER_03: Actually, I think you did when you spoke with um Quasey, right?
35:46
SPEAKER_03: And how Stinkanderty was booted, right?
35:49
SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's four entities, and people would look on and say, So it had to take four of y'all to be able to do this.
35:56
SPEAKER_03: And someone said, Well, okay, I will show you all how I could do it.
35:59
SPEAKER_03: And they went and they did an event, they got some numbers, and then after that, what happened?
36:04
Corie: Fade.
36:05
SPEAKER_03: Right?
36:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, but again, tried, tested, you know, tested, proven, right?
36:13
SPEAKER_03: And we continue.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: Right?
36:14
Corie: Um find out who's they're talking about, right?
36:16
Corie: No, no, no.
36:17
Corie: No, no, no.
36:17
Corie: When you talk, and you just put a name below.
36:22
SPEAKER_03: No, but the original stink and dirty was just dirty.
36:25
SPEAKER_03: Well, it was just dirty, right?
36:26
SPEAKER_03: So air committee on illusions, right?
36:28
SPEAKER_03: Um, we were doing dirty, and dirty was some moving party.
36:31
SPEAKER_03: But that is one of the best facts I've ever had.
36:33
SPEAKER_03: It was, I mean, the feedback was phenomenal, yeah.
36:36
Corie: Yeah, and I fed I I always compare, uh shouldn't do that, but you know, you compare any same Rem Rad licensing days, and I said, Boy, people now don't know Fed, but I remember going dirty.
36:44
Corie: And salute to Jules, no knock on him at all.
36:46
Corie: But I always remember that particular year, we went dirty first and a bird, it was on back and outro.
36:50
Corie: And I went to the back and all road, and feeling like I go and get a dirty experience again because we're the same venue, same moving party, but it wasn't the same.
36:57
SPEAKER_03: What is about dirty make that?
36:58
SPEAKER_03: I don't know, boy.
36:59
SPEAKER_03: Energy, energy is a big thing, eh?
37:02
SPEAKER_03: Energy is a big thing.
37:03
SPEAKER_03: Um, you look at some of the videos.
37:05
SPEAKER_03: We look at stink and that here and in Shagaramas, and there was one particular video.
37:10
SPEAKER_03: Now you're saying you're pause raising all look mind raising, and there was one particular after video that Titan created.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: Right, yes.
37:17
SPEAKER_03: And man, when I tell you, I mean, you you see somebody sent me a video yesterday in the stadium, right, with Argentina fans and jumping up.
37:24
SPEAKER_03: Right, yes.
37:24
SPEAKER_03: And that energy is I could only compare it to the energy instinctivity.
37:28
SPEAKER_03: And seeing all these people, this this movement, so to speak, and people just having fun, not caring about anything else in the world, incident-free as well.
37:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: You know, I I could live for that.
37:43
Corie: Yeah, like, and when you talk about those international festivals, that is the kind of thing we see going viral in Tomorrowland or Foreverland, whichever ones they have or Coachello.
37:51
Corie: And now we have our own version of that that's go viral pretty much every year.
37:55
Corie: So, what's Hoppy's role in this um coming together of RB branch?
38:00
Corie: Just to play golf with Ashanti and Jaro?
38:02
Corie: Um, money's you get through.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: Delocity.
38:14
SPEAKER_03: Delocity.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: Question delivery.
38:18
SPEAKER_03: I bring it toilet.
38:19
SPEAKER_03: What do you want to do again?
38:22
SPEAKER_03: Fair enough.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: I do my part.
38:27
Corie: So let's quit sing one voice in Richard.
38:29
Corie: So you're gonna answer all these questions.
38:30
Corie: No, what really happened with Keisha Cole.
38:31
Corie: What was the real story?
38:32
SPEAKER_03: No, no, that's that's on that's on the on the Keisha Cole side.
38:35
SPEAKER_03: That had absolutely nothing to do with us.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: Right.
38:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, but ultimately we we have to take the licks, right?
38:40
SPEAKER_03: We are the producers of the event, and people don't want to hear anything else.
38:43
SPEAKER_03: As far as they're concerned, I pay my money, I want answers.
38:47
SPEAKER_03: You tell me.
38:48
SPEAKER_03: So they will knock you, they will take you to the grave.
38:50
SPEAKER_03: Right?
38:51
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I don't know, there was some sort of mix-up between Keisha Cole um and Hill Management team and the oh gosh, the agent.
39:01
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
39:01
SPEAKER_03: So, whatever arrangement or discussion, communication that they had going on, there that is where the mix-up was, right?
39:08
SPEAKER_03: We know what we paid for.
39:09
SPEAKER_03: We had a contract that stated 45-minute performance.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: I think it was sold to the management team that this is just a pass-through.
39:17
SPEAKER_03: Appearance.
39:18
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
39:18
SPEAKER_03: So hence the reason people said she was dressed like she was going in massy, you know.
39:23
SPEAKER_03: Um, that had nothing to do with us.
39:25
SPEAKER_03: Right.
39:25
SPEAKER_03: So she herself apparently was surprised.
39:27
SPEAKER_03: I see.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: Right?
39:28
Corie: Um, you still do that any moment, boy, because at that point in time you see any artists coming off the stage.
39:33
Corie: You have how much people?
39:33
Corie: Thousands of people.
39:34
Corie: I like everybody else.
39:36
Corie: I was like, what going on?
39:38
SPEAKER_03: Especially when they're supposed to be high points of the night.
39:40
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: You know, and thanks, thanks to, I mean, Dexter, if you're hearing this, thank you for saving the show.
39:45
SPEAKER_03: All right, that's best adapts.
39:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he definitely saved that show.
39:49
Corie: Yeah, yeah.
39:49
Corie: You know, um, for sure.
39:51
Corie: And when you approach and how how how you do it differently now when you had to approach a shanti and jarry, just to make sure that you end up in a school.
39:58
SPEAKER_03: You know, ironically enough, we ended up using the same agent.
40:01
Corie: Oh, yeah.
40:04
SPEAKER_03: And before before we even reach to that, I remember Shane saying, Quase, how we reach back here.
40:12
SPEAKER_03: Right?
40:12
SPEAKER_03: Um, we don't learn about we don't learn, you know.
40:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I mean we were we were given the assurance that the T's were crossed and the I's were dotted, and this was not going to happen.
40:25
SPEAKER_03: And um at the time, I mean, I'm not sure if I should I should be saying this, but Voice was working on something with a shanty.
40:33
SPEAKER_03: I see, right?
40:34
SPEAKER_03: And um he said to us, he said, Why they're planning a proper show for all, yeah.
40:39
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:39
Corie: You know, yeah, so yeah, yeah.
40:41
Corie: It felt good.
40:42
Corie: Yeah, that one was different because even them landing here, it felt like if there was very much any culture eating doubles, they're doing things that they're around.
40:49
Corie: For sure, for sure, for sure.
40:50
SPEAKER_03: You know, they were they were, as you said, they would they were into it, you know.
40:54
SPEAKER_03: They weren't there wasn't that arrogance, they didn't stick up in their hotel room, you know.
40:59
SPEAKER_03: They they were open to the culture, they were open to everything from being in the radio stations, you know, trying to chow, you know, everything, everything about it.
41:07
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it was easy working with them.
41:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
41:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
41:10
Corie: Some of those just a couple more questions on them bigger events before we go back in the day.
41:15
Corie: This last year in particular, we see a drastic change in alcohol prices.
41:19
Corie: We're talking about planning things so far ahead out that Nicholas in mind now, because I mean when he set his budget and the prices change, you could adjust that or you just had to eat at how that was.
41:29
SPEAKER_03: No, you have no choice but to swallow it.
41:31
SPEAKER_03: Um, there were many persons who I'm pretty sure had no choice but to swallow it.
41:37
SPEAKER_03: But then there were a few of us well, who again based on relationships and or should say long-standing relationships, right?
41:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, the you know, hats off to the Brydon's team, right?
41:48
SPEAKER_03: Um Bryden said, here's what, as part of our sponsorship, we would try to, we may not be able to maintain um the prior price, right?
41:57
SPEAKER_03: But it would be maybe a 5% or 10% more.
41:59
SPEAKER_03: So you wouldn't pay as great a cost as what it is now.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Right.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Right?
42:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, so so we were able to enjoy um some sort of subsidized price, um, but that was just for this year, moving forward.
42:12
Corie: Yeah, I guess you had to adjust.
42:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so you would see that adjustment then in the ticket prices, and as you know, I mean, people look on, the consumer looks on and is like, why are these prices so high?
42:23
SPEAKER_03: You know, but I mean, you're not there when suppliers don't know our throats.
42:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're not willing to budge on prices, alcohol prices high, food.
42:32
SPEAKER_03: It's I mean, as a chain reaction.
42:34
Corie: Yeah, and I suppose as a patron myself, I don't really hear that you lose money the first year you do this thing either.
42:40
Corie: It's not for my consumer.
42:43
Corie: Over the first two years.
42:47
Corie: I don't understand it because I hear many people like you say that, you know.
42:50
Corie: In other words, if you believe in a concept, you're pushing it through, and it's not is it's it's for the lifetime of an event, not a one-off.
42:56
Corie: Yeah.
42:56
Corie: But is it your experience that young promoters treat it like a like people see promotion sometimes like throw a boat ride maker money?
43:02
SPEAKER_03: No, I won't say that.
43:03
SPEAKER_03: I I find honesty.
43:04
SPEAKER_03: I mean, boat rides are, I mean, for us at least, we we have our committees about 150 strong.
43:10
SPEAKER_03: Really?
43:10
SPEAKER_03: Right?
43:11
SPEAKER_03: The boat holding what 700 people?
43:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right?
43:13
SPEAKER_03: So when you say 150, and then each of them wants a guess.
43:16
SPEAKER_03: Of course, yeah.
43:17
SPEAKER_03: So before we even start, right?
43:20
SPEAKER_03: You're trying to tell Marvin, almost half the party on board free.
43:24
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
43:24
SPEAKER_03: Right?
43:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, and these things are expected.
43:27
SPEAKER_03: There's a certain level of entitlement, you know, by by your committee, you know, it's like, okay, well, uh, pushing for your marketing for you.
43:33
SPEAKER_03: Right, you know, so we have to set our budget based on that 300 or 400 persons, and then okay, you gotta get sponsorship sponsors, complimentaries, you know what I mean?
43:42
SPEAKER_03: And then I might uh I mean I might have a little bird that you want a little ticket.
43:48
Corie: I know and say friends are the family, but that's what I'm saying.
43:53
SPEAKER_03: But you have that, you have friends, you have people who look at you, you know, and they they want a ticket, so you still have to cater.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: So before you know it, I mean 300.
44:00
SPEAKER_03: 400 tickets is eaten up.
44:02
Corie: Yeah, and there's an all it could be an all-inclusive event as well.
44:04
SPEAKER_03: So I mean we just you just do it, you know, if it's just uh for relevance, just to keep just to keep things bubbling.
44:10
SPEAKER_03: Right?
44:10
SPEAKER_03: I mean now some people can do it and you know it would make sense for them.
44:14
SPEAKER_03: For us, I could only speak for myself, and for our team, you know, that particular style of event does not work for us.
44:20
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
44:21
Corie: Um but you started off there.
44:23
SPEAKER_03: One of your first events was about one of my very, very first events was our boat, right?
44:28
SPEAKER_03: Myself and a childhood friend Joel Simo Simmons, we did um a cruise called Um Brilliant Bull, Brilliant Minds.
44:34
SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
44:34
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
44:35
SPEAKER_03: Cruise.
44:36
SPEAKER_03: I feel like I was destined to lose money.
44:39
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
44:40
SPEAKER_03: Because I start off losing money on the boat, right?
44:42
SPEAKER_03: Then I do an event called Coombe in Pier 1.
44:45
SPEAKER_03: Um Steven had been had another party in November to remember the very same night, and then some it had a storm.
44:52
SPEAKER_03: A storm came or was supposed to come, you know, and I had to put off my event right to the very next week.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: So I started off rough, you know.
45:02
SPEAKER_03: It started off rough, it really started off rough.
45:04
SPEAKER_03: Don't make it stick with it.
45:06
SPEAKER_03: You're enjoying this.
45:07
SPEAKER_03: I guess I just have a natural love for it.
45:09
SPEAKER_03: Um and I think it shows in delivery, right?
45:13
SPEAKER_03: And what you put into the event.
45:15
SPEAKER_03: And again, you know what I mean, just that passion.
45:17
SPEAKER_03: So it's a lot of work, it's a lot of long hours.
45:20
Corie: So your earliest days, going back to the go, second is what you say with it, right?
45:23
Corie: You had ambitions like where you want it to be when you grow up, kind of thing.
45:26
Corie: I say somewhere you want to be a flight attendance.
45:28
Corie: I want to be a flight attendant.
45:29
SPEAKER_03: As real thing.
45:30
SPEAKER_03: But I told you, remember, if you go back, I had never traveled till I was 19.
45:35
SPEAKER_03: Right.
45:36
SPEAKER_03: Right.
45:36
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, one or two friends, you know, they're traveling or whatever.
45:40
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I probably went to Bago for the first time when I was 16.
45:44
SPEAKER_03: You know, back in the days when it was um Create Fett.
45:48
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
45:48
SPEAKER_03: Right?
45:48
SPEAKER_03: When it was key van and signal and they're doing it.
45:51
SPEAKER_03: Right.
45:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, that was the first time I went to Bago.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: Right, I'd never traveled.
45:56
SPEAKER_03: So for me, looking at my aunt, I found it was cool, you know, like you get into go on a plane, you travel.
46:01
SPEAKER_03: In those days, you go in, London was five days, Miami was three days.
46:06
SPEAKER_03: It didn't know two wrong like how it is now.
46:08
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
46:09
SPEAKER_03: They trying to carry you and they bring you back one time now, you know.
46:12
SPEAKER_03: So coming back with chocolate.
46:14
SPEAKER_03: And again, I I come from my era, and I'm sure you could attest to this, right?
46:19
SPEAKER_03: We didn't have Cadbury chocolates, and things like we had long time.
46:22
SPEAKER_03: You only used to see those things if you Christmas.
46:26
SPEAKER_03: You only used to see at Christmas time.
46:27
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
46:28
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
46:28
SPEAKER_03: Or in a barrel.
46:29
SPEAKER_03: Correct.
46:30
SPEAKER_03: You know, so so yeah, that that that was my dream.
46:33
SPEAKER_03: That was my dream job back then.
46:35
Corie: Just from seeing her trap.
46:36
Corie: Just from seeing her track.
46:37
Corie: So, what went on with that?
46:37
Corie: We'll go on your you ever apply, you went and tried.
46:40
Corie: Boy, did the Lord had a different plan for me?
46:42
Corie: So, from Israel School Lazio started getting into the or you started working with your uncle from the city.
46:46
SPEAKER_03: I started working with my uncle, yeah.
46:47
SPEAKER_03: So it's like coming right out of school.
46:49
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I worked in a footlocker, not shoelocker.
46:53
SPEAKER_03: There was um footlocker.
46:54
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I worked the go martin meat cottage, you know.
46:58
SPEAKER_03: Tego Martin and a meat cottage?
46:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, on St.
47:00
SPEAKER_03: Lucian Road.
47:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
47:01
SPEAKER_03: I worked Security Co.
47:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, doing security.
47:04
SPEAKER_03: I was a security, I'm telling you.
47:05
SPEAKER_03: I was a security.
47:06
SPEAKER_03: I remember, right?
47:07
SPEAKER_03: I'm working security.
47:08
SPEAKER_03: I go on the training, and and the trainer has me, has the entire room laughing.
47:14
SPEAKER_03: The kickest trainer I ever come across.
47:16
SPEAKER_03: And my first, the first place they put me to work was this some expert house in um in Marivala up on a hill, right?
47:25
SPEAKER_03: I think he was working Phoenix, some gas company, whatever.
47:28
SPEAKER_03: Man, and I go on a bed in the hill, and it's cold.
47:31
SPEAKER_03: It's cold, and I sit down downstairs in the garage, and I'm there core.
47:34
SPEAKER_03: I hugging up and asleep, asleep all night.
47:37
SPEAKER_03: Right, and I was like, eh, John, I said, this is not for you.
47:40
SPEAKER_03: This is not for you.
47:41
SPEAKER_03: I not cut out for this.
47:43
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
47:44
SPEAKER_03: Um, I went back and luckily enough, they put me the they posted me in Republic Bank Park Street.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: And I was there for a while.
47:51
SPEAKER_03: I I became a favorite.
47:53
SPEAKER_03: I got to know everybody in the bank.
47:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, some of the people I'm still very friendly with.
47:57
SPEAKER_03: Right.
47:58
SPEAKER_03: Right.
47:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, and then again from there, ended up in the gym.
48:03
SPEAKER_03: And well, as you know, that's where it takes off.
48:05
Corie: That's where it takes off.
48:06
Corie: So from the promotion, from the was the promotion a way of always wondered when I hear in your story.
48:11
Corie: Is it like you're doing this rental stuff?
48:14
Corie: Johnny Q was here talking about a lot of that.
48:16
Corie: A lot of people who do rentals and things in that space start throwing events.
48:19
Corie: That is when your events start to get bigger.
48:21
SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, I wouldn't say that, but remember, if you have, if you have all of this equipment, right?
48:27
SPEAKER_03: Um I mean, if I do an event, I rent in everything for myself.
48:32
SPEAKER_03: Because your excuse, your biggest overhead would be if you're doing an artist, let's say a concert, your biggest expense would be artists, and then your infrastructure.
48:42
SPEAKER_03: You understand?
48:42
SPEAKER_03: So if I own all the equipment, well, hey, I might as well.
48:47
Corie: You know, so um I think it it comes naturally.
48:51
Corie: And from the promotion side, I know you you have a section in tribe, or you have so we have, I like to call it a ban within the ban, right?
48:59
SPEAKER_03: So it's called Flay, right?
49:00
SPEAKER_03: So we used to be one of the marketing sections, so I mean the air committee brand, and you have many other brands, right, that um are called the marketing section.
49:08
SPEAKER_03: So we started off as a marketing section um and evolved into something greater.
49:13
SPEAKER_03: I mean, again, progression, right?
49:15
SPEAKER_03: Wanting more, wanting more.
49:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, went and sat down with Dean and the team and said, look, hey, we want more.
49:23
SPEAKER_03: Right?
49:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, just after a couple discussions, right, we're like, okay, well, flare, right?
49:30
SPEAKER_03: Okay, well, what you want more, but what you want to do.
49:34
SPEAKER_03: All right, and we we saw the need for, you know, we saw a little space, right?
49:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, people who want an elevated experience, but they don't really want to be in bliss, right?
49:43
SPEAKER_03: They still want that vibe of tribe.
49:45
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
49:46
SPEAKER_03: So we give them the ultra VIP road experience in tribe.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
49:50
SPEAKER_03: Um, this year, 2026, we probably had about 12-1300 people.
49:54
SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, 1500 people is a small band, right?
49:57
SPEAKER_03: So it's almost like a small band within the band.
50:00
Corie: Yeah, like I see many bands come like that, like tribe and them was in poison and them kind of things.
50:04
Corie: I wonder, pretending and them are listening, right?
50:06
Corie: I wonder if there's something you have ambition to do, like eventually do your own album.
50:10
Corie: It looked like a nightmare to me, the idea of putting out a carnival band.
50:13
SPEAKER_03: But it's it's a lot of work, it really isn't.
50:15
SPEAKER_03: I I don't even have to deal with the production side of things, right?
50:18
SPEAKER_03: Right?
50:19
SPEAKER_03: Or I should say we don't even have to deal with the production side of things.
50:21
Corie: I guess it's an archable marketing, you just sort of got your right.
50:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I mean now we deal with a lot more.
50:28
SPEAKER_03: So the production side of things is that is probably the only thing that we don't deal with, right?
50:33
SPEAKER_03: But we deal with everything else, you know.
50:35
Corie: So you're going and do it?
50:37
Corie: It's coming to do.
50:38
Corie: It's coming.
50:39
Corie: Yeah.
50:40
Corie: Ambitious and all of it was like I remember Schoon being here and talking about leaving.
50:46
Corie: I think he was here just after Carnival and talking about going back to the mass camp for meetings.
50:50
Corie: Is the same, is the same with you?
50:53
SPEAKER_03: It's a lot.
50:53
SPEAKER_03: I mean, and I I wish I could show you my phone and show him a list of all artists.
50:57
SPEAKER_03: As I leave it here, I'll go on again.
51:00
SPEAKER_03: So is the case for everybody, yeah?
51:02
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you have, you know, I mean, I I am naturally a super productive person.
51:06
SPEAKER_03: Anybody who who knows me will tell you, I if I sit around too long doing nothing, I get frustrated.
51:11
SPEAKER_03: I feel like something is wrong.
51:12
SPEAKER_03: Right?
51:13
SPEAKER_03: Um, it tends to get to me.
51:15
SPEAKER_03: So um, always doing something, right?
51:17
SPEAKER_03: Always, always doing something.
51:18
Corie: If you want to support the show and ensure that we gain the best guests here telling the best stories and we're getting a little bit of back and all out of all of them, you could support for free by liking, sharing, and subscribing on YouTube.
51:29
Corie: But you could also join our Patreon, it's just file us to ensure that we could continue to get stories that inspire, educate, empower, inform, and all the other in things that these people behind the scenes tell me to say.
51:40
Corie: So go and do it now, and then we could jump back into the episode.
51:44
Corie: Bang! It makes sense.
51:46
Corie: Answering some of my questions, you know, before we get to that, one of the things about entrepreneurship and business, right?
51:51
Corie: That I find a lot of people take for granted.
51:53
Corie: Like and I lecture entrepreneurship part-time, and I've always tell them they have some things you could teach, but they have some things you can't teach.
52:00
Corie: And the adversity in business is one of the things that you can't teach.
52:02
Corie: And I know that you, in terms of starting off your business and so on, you lost a brother.
52:07
Corie: And I know he has a family man too.
52:09
Corie: So you can talk about it.
52:12
Corie: I'll try.
52:13
SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, I don't get emotional.
52:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:18
SPEAKER_03: Um, I grew up, so when I was 12, my dad disappeared.
52:25
SPEAKER_03: Right?
52:26
SPEAKER_03: Um it was it was my mom and seven siblings, you know, three brothers, three sisters.
52:41
SPEAKER_03: I'm second.
52:42
SPEAKER_03: My older brother and my mom working on a government job, right?
52:47
SPEAKER_03: I remember one time I saw a pacely four thousand dollars.
52:51
SPEAKER_03: Right?
52:52
SPEAKER_03: And I mean that that was a different level of adversity, right?
52:58
SPEAKER_03: Um, but coming from that, I think that would have probably, you know, been my um trampoline, you know, that I had to make it, you know, and then better in myself.
53:12
SPEAKER_03: I was like, you know what, I have to take others with me.
53:15
SPEAKER_03: So I made sure that my sisters and everybody else, you know, kept everybody close.
53:21
SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I suppose as one of the older ones to you too.
53:24
SPEAKER_03: And then along that way, you know, in carnival was a carnival Wednesday, you know, losing my brother.
53:30
SPEAKER_03: Um and I remember Derek Lewis reached out to me because we had girl power.
53:36
SPEAKER_03: He said, John, I know you just lost your brother.
53:39
SPEAKER_03: And I don't mean to be insensitive, but I just need to know if you'd still be able to follow through because I was doing the special effects for girl power, the carnival Friday.
53:48
SPEAKER_03: I said, Derek, don't worry about it.
53:50
SPEAKER_03: You know, um I remember going up by Lara to Carnival week is the busiest time of the season.
53:56
SPEAKER_03: And you lost him on the job, yes.
53:58
SPEAKER_03: And lost him on the job.
53:59
SPEAKER_03: I remember I was working out of working from home, so my warehouse was home at the time, right in Diamondville on Pool Parkway, and we were doing some work for Be Mobile, all right, but we're doing a true Lunchdale.
54:11
SPEAKER_03: And I remember getting the call, alright, and they say, Adrian, come now.
54:16
SPEAKER_03: Alright, and driving and going on there and just seeing them lying there.
54:20
SPEAKER_03: Alright, Carnival Wednesday, and I didn't know how to function.
54:23
SPEAKER_03: Alright.
54:23
SPEAKER_03: Um I think I totally broke down when I was at St.
54:27
SPEAKER_03: Clair Hospital.
54:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, I just I just couldn't understand, you know.
54:33
SPEAKER_03: But um, like I say, you know, that's that's life.
54:42
Corie: Right?
54:43
Corie: Thanks.
54:43
Corie: Yeah, that's that's what I mean about the parts of it that you can't you can't teach, you had to do because the the reality is that that call from Derek is is so indicative of what I'm talking about.
54:53
Corie: Because the truth is that you alone know where you're feeling in that moment and what your family is going through.
55:00
Corie: And while you're going through that, the sun is rising the next day, and so and people calling for what they had to do.
55:06
SPEAKER_03: So I tell people that all the time, you know.
55:08
SPEAKER_03: I say, boy, no matter what you do, you understand?
55:11
SPEAKER_03: Montana not waiting on you, Bill's not waiting on you.
55:14
SPEAKER_03: People do understand.
55:15
SPEAKER_03: It's adversity, it's it's real, you understand?
55:18
SPEAKER_03: The trials, the tribulations, you know.
55:21
SPEAKER_03: And people talk about COVID, right?
55:23
SPEAKER_03: And they say, boy, when you're safe, you're safe for a rainy day.
55:28
SPEAKER_03: They never teach people safe, they never teach people safe for a rainy two years.
55:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you understand?
55:32
SPEAKER_03: It's the most amount of rain you ever encounter.
55:34
Corie: People say that a lot about promoters for some reason, and artists too, I think.
55:38
Corie: Where where the money went.
55:39
Corie: Like people saying that during COVID.
55:42
Corie: So where are they?
55:43
Corie: Do you all continue to work for this?
55:44
Corie: You execute the rest of the jobs, you had to pull out.
55:46
Corie: No, I had to I had to pull it off.
55:47
SPEAKER_03: Like I always say, if I tell my team, I tell my team all the time, right?
55:52
SPEAKER_03: Um they don't want to do it, you know they're gonna get somebody else to do it, right?
55:57
SPEAKER_03: You know, so don't feel like you could coax, right?
56:03
SPEAKER_03: Because they're not gonna wait on you.
56:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
56:05
SPEAKER_03: Right?
56:05
SPEAKER_03: They will find somebody else to do it.
56:07
SPEAKER_03: And once you give somebody else that opportunity, you now open the door for somebody else.
56:11
SPEAKER_03: Of course, that could be 10 years before you see that again.
56:13
SPEAKER_03: Right?
56:13
SPEAKER_03: So they now realize, hey, wait now.
56:14
SPEAKER_03: So Chandler's not the only man, have another option, right?
56:17
SPEAKER_03: And you lose out.
56:18
SPEAKER_03: Of course, okay.
56:19
SPEAKER_03: And I tell them, I tell them all the time, I say, if I lose out, you lose it now too.
56:22
Corie: Of course, of course.
56:24
Corie: Like my father had the best analogy for it.
56:25
Corie: He when he said it, it made the most sense.
56:27
Corie: And I tell students this all the time.
56:29
Corie: I say, Well, you had to fix the wheel while the car speed it.
56:33
Corie: It's you can't stop and change that wheel, and that's just reality of business.
56:36
Corie: So it's about our COVID time now, because I remember being home, the place locked down.
56:40
Corie: Yeah, our work is in merchandising, right?
56:42
Corie: So gratefully, we had um we had we hadn't gotten a major stoppage in any of the contracts that we had because the people had still had to go out to the groceries.
56:51
Corie: I know you all have our company that did merchandise work too, so it might be the same, right?
56:55
Corie: But it falls on the same cutting edge.
56:56
Corie: It's cutting edge, right?
56:58
Corie: So our staff was out there.
56:59
Corie: Thankfully, we didn't have to follow anybody or any of that kind of thing.
57:02
Corie: But for events, you had a complete stop when COVID came, right?
57:05
SPEAKER_03: We were at a complete stand still.
57:06
SPEAKER_03: Right.
57:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I sold a lot of personal items.
57:10
SPEAKER_03: I remember seeing it and I don't know what it was, right?
57:13
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know if tell me it for call it say it's foresight, call me a visionary, say what you want, you understand?
57:21
SPEAKER_03: I had a boat, I sold my boat as the first thing.
57:25
SPEAKER_03: I had a scissors lift, I sold the scissors left.
57:27
SPEAKER_03: I sold a number of vehicles, vans, I sold two of the vans, right?
57:31
SPEAKER_03: And I just started to liquidate.
57:32
SPEAKER_03: You just talk about to stay afloat, just to stay afloat, right?
57:35
SPEAKER_03: Um, I remember telling staff, um, take your vacation days, right?
57:40
SPEAKER_03: So they were paid for that.
57:41
SPEAKER_03: Right.
57:42
SPEAKER_03: Right?
57:42
SPEAKER_03: They come back out and say, look, here's what we would rally, and if it is I can't go anymore, I will tell you all as it is.
57:50
SPEAKER_03: I think I was able to go until June, July, and then I was like, something has to change.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: Right.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: Um prior to that, right, late 2019, late 2019.
58:04
SPEAKER_03: Um so where Fit Street Market and Fit Street buys right now, it used to be sportsman members.
58:12
SPEAKER_03: All right, right, um a casino.
58:15
SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, I was I was in the previous uh discussions with the the owner of that establishment.
58:25
SPEAKER_03: And I say, Adrian, I don't want to buy a casino from there.
58:30
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, I don't know the first thing about a casino.
58:32
SPEAKER_03: I can I can't.
58:34
SPEAKER_03: He's like, Soon, when I'm ready, I'll talk to you.
58:37
SPEAKER_03: And then he came back again and he's like, you know what?
58:39
SPEAKER_03: I'm ready.
58:41
SPEAKER_03: Right?
58:41
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's up to you if you want to keep it as a casino or do what you want with the place.
58:46
SPEAKER_03: I had other plans to the place.
58:48
SPEAKER_03: Right?
58:48
SPEAKER_03: Um so you all had the discussions even before COVID.
58:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, this was before.
58:52
SPEAKER_03: So that was supposed to be 47 sports bar.
58:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, okay.
58:57
SPEAKER_03: Right.
58:57
SPEAKER_03: Dwayne Bravo.
58:59
SPEAKER_03: Right, did a business plan, went, sat down with Dwayne, right?
59:02
SPEAKER_03: And team, and that was supposed to be 47 sports bar.
59:05
SPEAKER_03: Right.
59:05
SPEAKER_03: Alright, and then with COVID and everything happening, that shelved, you know, shelved, but we had to pay a deposit to Uncle Peter, right?
59:16
SPEAKER_03: For taking over the lease.
59:18
SPEAKER_03: And he kept coming at me, you know, Adrian, that's a story.
59:23
SPEAKER_03: You know what we're doing, you know, you made a commitment, you know what's his story.
59:27
SPEAKER_03: Um and I didn't know what to do.
59:30
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, here, look, look, peace.
59:34
SPEAKER_03: Right?
59:34
SPEAKER_03: I come again, look peace.
59:37
SPEAKER_03: Before I know it, and I checked myself, I was like, wait, I need to make a decision.
59:41
SPEAKER_03: It's either walking away from what I put out, or I need to see this through.
59:46
SPEAKER_03: Alright?
59:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I remember sitting at my neighbor, alright, uh Blair.
59:50
SPEAKER_03: And I say, Well boy, what boy say John?
59:54
SPEAKER_03: It will come to you.
59:55
SPEAKER_03: Just leave it.
59:56
SPEAKER_03: And I'm looking around, looking around, looking around, what to do, what to do.
59:58
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, what is essential?
1:00:00
SPEAKER_03: Alright, I looked at the space.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_03: Never opened a grocery in my life.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_03: Alright.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_03: And I look at my son's mom and I was like, a grocery.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_03: Just based on what's essential.
1:00:12
SPEAKER_03: When they can't close the room during COVID.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_03: And yeah.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_03: Made a call, so I had to make calls.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_03: I said, okay, I need to get equipment.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_03: Alright.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_03: Um, groceries.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_03: I thought, you know what?
1:00:24
SPEAKER_03: Maybe I could leverage and payback on some of the relationships that I have with the same corporate clients.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, you know what, granted, one is a brand and one is trade.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_03: But I was like, you know what?
1:00:36
SPEAKER_03: It's one family, they must be able to help out.
1:00:39
SPEAKER_03: And you know, started the conversations.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_03: If you knew what the grocery looked like 2020 versus what it looks like now, you know, it's and then the food thing, I think, is what kind of put us on the map, you know.
1:00:51
SPEAKER_03: You couldn't get food, so we started to sell doubles, roti.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:00:55
SPEAKER_03: So you had all the grab and go, the grab and go, all the meals were.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the height of COVID, the grab and go was I remember one time we had a line going all outside, going down Fitch Street.
1:01:04
Corie: Just for food.
1:01:05
Corie: When food comes in.
1:01:06
Corie: I remember, like, you know, I was home, I mean Shogunas them time.
1:01:10
Corie: And Stacey took, because when when COVID hits and things start to lock down, boy, you was on my mind.
1:01:14
Corie: I say, What the hell, Adrian?
1:01:16
Corie: And then go and do.
1:01:16
Corie: That's a frightening thing for me.
1:01:18
Corie: Because and if you're not in business yourself, you can't understand what nobody else is going through.
1:01:22
Corie: And then she tell me, All you open at grocery.
1:01:25
Corie: I say, well, boy, like the COVID get to Adrian.
1:01:27
Corie: Adrian going mad.
1:01:29
Corie: Because grocery is one of the most difficult.
1:01:30
Corie: Most people who in businesses talk about the grocery trade.
1:01:33
Corie: One and two percent margin on things is very, very difficult business.
1:01:36
Corie: So you just went in and figuring it out as you go along.
1:01:38
Corie: Just went in and figuring it out.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_03: You know?
1:01:40
Corie: At that initial time, you have in your mind that it will be alignment, them kind of thing, like where it is now.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_03: No.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_03: But like I said, it was always supposed to be that sports bar.
1:01:49
SPEAKER_03: Oh, right, okay.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_03: And then there's there was that space outside that just kept looking at me.
1:01:54
SPEAKER_03: And every time I walk down the ramp, you understand, I just tune in and I see this space, and I was like, you know what?
1:02:00
SPEAKER_03: I feel I could utilize this space then.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, and yeah, I mean, again, like I said, like I told you, it it comes, it's like second nature.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:02:09
SPEAKER_03: So I would usually do the layout for all our events, right?
1:02:13
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you know what?
1:02:14
SPEAKER_03: Let me muck it up, let me lay it out and see.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_03: Alright, and I had plenty other ideas, laid it out.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_03: And I mean, did I think it was going to be what it is today?
1:02:24
SPEAKER_03: No.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_03: But as with everything else, I took it, I ran with it, and as I went along, you know what I mean?
1:02:32
SPEAKER_03: I just dealt with it.
1:02:33
Corie: Yeah, it's not to be the most viral space in history.
1:02:35
Corie: I try to big word.
1:02:36
Corie: Every two weeks always go viral.
1:02:38
Corie: Everything I'm asking in karaoke.
1:02:41
Corie: It's card lime, it's Batman, it's Queen's team, it's like all in plan.
1:02:46
Corie: Every single time, nobody's more viral now from here.
1:02:50
Corie: I don't know that there's a bar or a restaurant.
1:02:53
Corie: Going on, what's the call?
1:02:54
Corie: Restaurant bar grocery that is so much in the social media space as it is now.
1:02:59
Corie: And it's something that I've seen just knowing y'all.
1:03:01
Corie: It you know, it feels a lot like like I came by y'all before let's have limes.
1:03:05
Corie: It's just how your family is.
1:03:07
Corie: It feels like that same kind of environment you all build in there.
1:03:10
Corie: Because after I see um celebrate the Argentina thing very disingenuously, I see listen up to play all of us and care that so up to today, you're very involved.
1:03:23
Corie: You're there still all the time.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_03: Very, very involved.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_03: Um I'm there all the time.
1:03:27
SPEAKER_03: Um, the only time you would really find me absent is during carnival time.
1:03:31
SPEAKER_03: Reverend on the outside.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_03: Obviously, you know, because of all what I have going on.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I'm always there, always there, passing through.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_03: Whether I lyman, you know, I mean, we would lyman.
1:03:41
SPEAKER_03: I mean, again, that that vibe will be there.
1:03:44
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we're cooking in the back, you know, stuff karaoke going on out front and mini back, so down playing cards, cooking, you know, we're always doing something, right?
1:03:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, always doing something, you know, playing Ludo, playing dummy nose.
1:03:57
Corie: There's always something.
1:03:58
Corie: That's good, man.
1:03:58
Corie: Congratulations on it because I was real worried.
1:04:00
Corie: You know, I was like, that is insane.
1:04:02
Corie: A grocery, especially in Woodbrook, there, because I I RPC Avenue is what it is, but in the daytime, I don't know if people remember before then, it wasn't like that.
1:04:11
SPEAKER_03: You know how many people come there to the bar and wait now?
1:04:14
SPEAKER_03: I didn't realize that a grocery yeah, people don't even know.
1:04:16
SPEAKER_03: Oh, they don't know.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no, no.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_03: People there are many people who still don't know there's a grocery inside.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_03: I'm being and I'm being very serious that people don't know there's a grocery inside.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_03: They come in and like I take them in the space, I was like, What?
1:04:27
SPEAKER_03: I didn't even realize you'd have all this in the back here, right?
1:04:30
SPEAKER_03: You know, because there's a shutter, yeah, the shutter comes down, you have a big piece of art over there.
1:04:34
SPEAKER_03: I suppose, I suppose.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_03: They tell themselves, you know, that's this is just the space.
1:04:39
Corie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:04:40
Corie: So well, listen, I know you don't want to be on cameras.
1:04:42
Corie: We keep it with line of the hook.
1:04:43
Corie: Just know where the future is.
1:04:44
Corie: What are you seeing as the as the future for for all the businesses that you have?
1:04:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, I will I will continue as best as possible to ensure that they are profitable.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, also the loss they're gonna stay above above above water.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, the future, from an air committee standpoint.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we will continue to try to push the envelope, put push the envelope, and um, you know, really just produce at a high standard.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_03: You know, I I am very passionate about it, and so too is my team, and we will continue to do our part with that.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_03: With the grocery, um, I mean, there's only so much I could do with the space, the space.
1:05:28
Corie: You can go in like six locations, like like uh streets.
1:05:33
SPEAKER_03: I might end up, I don't know, I might have to go on them trace of the streets.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't know if it'll be the same thing, right?
1:05:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, a lot of people say, but I ain't go up on your roof.
1:05:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, I say, but somehow I feel like it will change the dynamic, you know.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_03: So I will just let it run its course.
1:05:50
SPEAKER_03: I mean, but I'm always changing things there, yeah, always doing something different there.
1:05:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right?
1:05:55
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we introduced the all fours on a Thursday that was win or buy.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_03: So you come and you sit down and you realize that people come in and line.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_03: And we were just playing all fours, and we realized how many people wanted to play all fours, and we say, Well, okay, win or buy.
1:06:08
SPEAKER_03: So you're playing all fours.
1:06:09
SPEAKER_03: If you don't win, you buy what you win and peer drinking.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_03: You know, and we created that.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_03: Um, Wednesdays will be like the games night, Tuesdays is the karaoke.
1:06:17
SPEAKER_03: We have something else coming to kind of take that over.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, the Thursdays, again, you know, just kind of change it up a bit.
1:06:25
SPEAKER_03: And we introduced extreme all for us.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_03: So the Thursdays now is a big thing for extreme all for us, you know.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_03: What's extreme all was extreme all for us?
1:06:33
SPEAKER_03: So everything I'm doing, I would kind of conceptualize and I'd reach out to sponsors.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_03: Right.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:06:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, well, you know, and I would just say, look, you know what, I have this idea, right?
1:06:42
SPEAKER_03: Pass it by them, Adrian love it.
1:06:44
SPEAKER_03: We want in.
1:06:45
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:06:46
SPEAKER_03: And extreme all forces, we just add on to the rules.
1:06:49
SPEAKER_03: So all the kick points, instead of ace being one, ace is two.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_03: Instead of well, we no longer play six, right?
1:06:54
SPEAKER_03: So instead of deuce, instead of six, we play deuce.
1:06:57
SPEAKER_03: Instead of deuce being two, deuce is three.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_03: Instead of Jack being three, Jack is four.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_03: Okay, cool.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_03: Game instead of game being two points, game is three points.
1:07:03
SPEAKER_03: So it's like a faster version.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_03: Gotcha.
1:07:05
SPEAKER_03: Right?
1:07:06
SPEAKER_03: Um, but again, we went a little bit beyond.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_03: So every week you have a winner.
1:07:10
SPEAKER_03: You get your name to go on a trophy, you get this nice extreme medal, you win a you know, cash prize.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, it's fun, and then we have live entertainment in DJ playing.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_03: Tuesdays are naturally back in times by us, so the music is a real vibe.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_03: So people just having fun.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_03: Like I say, I'm I try to bring entertainment, you know.
1:07:27
SPEAKER_03: I mean, everywhere, you know, or everything that I know, I bring it in that space.
1:07:31
SPEAKER_03: So I bring that same entertainment in the bar space, you know, and just try to, you know.
1:07:36
Corie: Alright, alright, alright.
1:07:37
Corie: Well, it's it's it's one of them spaces, it's one of them spots, and congrats on it.
1:07:40
Corie: Well, listen, congrats on everything.
1:07:41
Corie: I was very worried, very scared.
1:07:43
Corie: Every time I hear what you're doing, I just get more and more frightened.
1:07:45
Corie: But uh, I like I like what you build and I like what you involve.
1:07:48
Corie: I just want to tell people be beware of the Chandler siblings when they're playing.