Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / Peppermint Hippo Las Vegas: Derick Opela on Strip Club Culture, Nightlife & Hospitality | 319

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Peppermint Hippo Las Vegas: Derick Opela on Strip Club Culture, Nightlife & Hospitality | 319 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: Brandon, I know you're excited for today's episode.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm very excited for today's episode.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's an understatement of the year.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: How do you feel about that, Brandon?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I've been looking forward to the Peppermint Hippo.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I always see the pictures.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what happens if you ride on the Peppermint Hippo?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Well, for anyone that knows either myself or Brandon, you know that our favorite go-to spot after work is always the Peppermint Hippo.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: One of the best gentleman clubs here in town in Las Vegas.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: And correct me if I'm wrong, it's the only one on the strip, is that right?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: The Las Vegas strip, yeah.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: In the Las Vegas Strip.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, sir.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, today uh Brandon and I were both very excited because we have someone who's gonna give us all the little behind-the-scenes secrets of the Peppermint Hippo, the director of services, Derek Opelah.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: Glad to have you here, man.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now, for anybody at home who doesn't think I'm gonna rock my favorite hat on this episode, I'll get it out of here.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Come on now.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Come on now.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: How'd you get that?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, I thought exactly how I got it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: Usually I will I'll make up some fake story about it, but the truth is uh do you know who Heather Collins is?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: She's uh she's raised in Vegas.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: I just I just worked with her.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: I love her.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: She's awesome.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: She's fantastic.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: You guys sent her a uh promo box a year or two ago.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: And she's she's one of my best friends.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Is that her on the wall right now?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's there.
• 1:30
  unknown: Heather?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because I just I just yeah.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's Heather.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: She's she's everywhere.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I happened to be there when she got the promo box, and she I think you got a shirt and you got a hat and all this stuff.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, oh, I love that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: I love that hat.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I I stole the hat.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it it's my hat.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's nope.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's uh that's our third anniversary hat.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because we we just had our fourth anniversary uh on the 11th, yeah, like two two weeks ago or whatever.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it was uh we did something similar where we sent some promo boxes out, and I was like, that's that's amazing, man.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I I probably made that box.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: You probably did.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: What's the difference between the third anniversary and the fourth anniversary?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: The stars.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have three stars on that one.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: Brandon, switch switch to my let me see.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: I got oh yeah, I got three stars.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we we on the on the newer ones too, we kind of changed up the logo just a little.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: We still use that logo.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but we also changed up the logo where it's like now it's like a hippo head.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And my uh my director of operations, Cisco, he he uh actually I think uh it was his daughter that designed it.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: And he told me that, and I was like, Your daughter designed it?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Yeah, he's like, check it out.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Oh my god, that's cool, man.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, so we use that, we use both of them in you know, depending on what we're doing, but now it's kind of like the hippo head thing, which you'll probably see on our new kind of marketing stuff that we're now.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: So well, before you go, I'm gonna have you sign my third anniversary hat.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, of course.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I have to get my signature, I'll get my silver pin out.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the amount of the amount of uh good attention that I've gotten from this hat over the past year and a half has been fantastic.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: From either former dancers, current dancers, or just pe or just regular guests that go in there.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: That they give me a fist bump.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, nice hat, bro.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, our um man, I I love that.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's kind of cool, you know, because we all came from different clubs and we all we all did, we all saw stuff that we we didn't like and we didn't enjoy, and we're like, you know what, we're creating something new that's gonna, we're gonna do it the right way, right?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we want to be the staff that that the girls like to be around.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Not just the dancers, but like the normal staff, like bartenders and the cocktail waitresses and the and the supervisors, and like we we had a uh a very I don't know, like headstrong mission where it's like we don't want to be these jaded, because man, I'm telling you, in this industry, there's so many jaded people.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: Have you worked in another uh gentlemen's club?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean I've been I've been in the nightclub um gentlemen's club scene my whole life.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've been doing it, I've been doing the nightclub gentlemen's club since I was 17.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Not not a gentleman's club, obviously, since I was 17.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, you know, I started strangely enough, I started uh at an 18 and over club in Reno, Nevada.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I was 17.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh the owner, it was it was called Pacific Beach Club in Reno, Nevada.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: This is oh, I don't know, third to 23 years ago.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Getting old, man.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, anyway, I I went there and I auditioned as a bartender, and he's like, Oh, how old are you?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, 17.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, What?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, You can't be back back there.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, I don't know.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Oh yeah, you're going to the door.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, okay, so I got hired as the door guy, right?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm 17 telling these 18-year-olds, hey, you can't come in, bro.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: You're not old enough.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it was uh that was an interesting journey.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then once I I got to like 19 or something, and then I he transferred me to his other club, which was a it would probably be a club that'd be interesting to you.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: It was an all 80s dance club.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was called Vino's, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: Sign me up.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: It was probably 300 feet from our other club.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it was all 80s all the time.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we grew up, it was it was awesome, dude.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Our pack our club was packed.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: We were the spot for a good two years, two, three years.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then other clubs started coming up, and there was another one that kind of stole some of our thunder, and and that was around the time that I was like, I kind of want to do something else.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: A nice lady, I don't remember her name, Tanya.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Tanya from Spearmint Rhino reached out to me.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And um they were opening a Spearmint Rhino in San Jose.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh, cool, because when I was younger, when I lived here the first time, I remember when Rhino first opened.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I was like 14 or 15 years old when it opened, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: It opened like the library, and there was another one too.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the rhino opened, and I remember when I was young, I was like, I'm gonna go work for the rhino because I'm like a teenager.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm gonna go look at titties.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: So um That's also the American dream.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right, traveling the country and looking at titties.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, come on.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: What else do you want?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: What else do you mean?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm living the dreamy.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I um she calls me and she's like, hey, are you interested in coming to work for Rhino?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, no.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: So what movie is that from?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yes.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't it Will Farrell and uh uh uh Will Farrell and uh Is it uh Night Night at the Rocky?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Night at the Rocky, that's what it is, yes.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Chris Catan.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, Chris Catan, that's what it was.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: One of my favorite movies.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I love that movie, didn't it?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um so that's literally like your your nightlife movie.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, dude.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going like this all the time, brother.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: Every time.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's my theme.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: When I came in, you didn't see you didn't hear the music come on when I came in?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's my theme song, bro.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned uh that 80s club that you you worked with.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: Venos.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: Venos.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: And you you said like, you know, it had like a good two-year window of like being one of the hottest clubs, but but but then like almost like it seems like with it's a very common issue with a lot of clubs.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's the the hot, trendy ones are hot this year, maybe next year, but then after that, it's what's next.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: How does how does Hippo how is Hippo able to at least sustain and maintain at least for four years?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I think it's because we our our our management staff, I think, is on the younger side.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um like you know, I'm I just turned 40.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, not just turn 40.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I f I turned 40 on Halloween.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, look at you.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, thank you.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um we, you know, it's a little bit on the younger side.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we are more adept, I think, at technology, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're not afraid to try new things with marketing.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: We know we're not stuck in the old frame of mind.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of these clubs are stuck stuck in the old frame of mind where they don't want to try new things because they don't want to deviate from their box.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: We deviate all the time, dude.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: We deviate all the time.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we get uh until our IG, our IG was recently well, all the clubs IGs were taken.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: I saw that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: All of them rhinos, everybody was uh Meta just nuked all the that's wild.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't just the Vegas ones, they nuked a bunch of Rick's clubs, and they they nuked a bunch of you really weren't posting anything that was against guidelines, it was just scandalous.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: PG 13 at most, yeah, and a lot of this stuff, it wasn't even that high, man.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because we understand how it worked, right?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: We're like, oh, we're not gonna get kicked off.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you're kicked off.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Wait, what?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's that sucks.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so you know, we're we're trying to fight that and see what happens with it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, yeah, meta came and nuked everything.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, the way that we did things is we understood, hey, you can't, this isn't the 1990s.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: You can't be like, hey, here's a bunch of boobs in your face, right?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work like that anymore.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to go around that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: What are people looking for?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: One, look at what's going on in the economy right now.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: The economy isn't, it's very shaky right now.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: No one really knows what's going on with it.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: We have the Iran war that's going on.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you have uh a bunch of other stuff in the world, the world isn't getting uh more kumbaya and and fairy tales, right?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting worse, it's getting like kind of crazy.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: So you have to adapt to those adversities and you have to be able to overcome that.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, like you have to sit down and genuinely ask yourself, yeah, obviously we're a strip club and obviously we have girls, but what else are people looking for, right?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: They're looking for value for their money, right?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: And and right now there's this trendy thing going around on social media where it's like, oh, Vegas charged$50 for a cheeseburger and$40 for parking.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: And as a local, I can relate to that, man.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do I have money now?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a little bit of money now, but when I was younger, I didn't.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: I know what it's like to be poor.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: I know what it's like to have to penny pinch and and plan every single dollar out, right?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: And Vegas got overzealous, and they're like, Oh, we're making so much money post-COVID.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good, it's so good.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it was so good because of what was happening, dude.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: People got a bunch of free money, they got they were sitting on their ass for a year and a half, they weren't doing anything.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they they're like, hey, everything's open now, let's go to Vegas and spend it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so Vegas, and this is the this is the wildest part to me, man.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm I I find I consider myself pretty business savvy, but you guys didn't factor in that there was gonna be like a an uh uh a trajectory where it goes like this and then it kind of crashes.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like you guys didn't think about this and like kind of plan for it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Instead, you guys are like, no, we're just gonna jack everything through the roof and just take people for all they have.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: So you have this thing going on online for social media that's that's dragging Vegas, like, oh, Vegas sucks because of X, Y, and Z.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: And now it's just now starting to gain traction, like with the circa and the local deals and where they're trying to do the inclusive inclusive packages.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, guys, you're late to the we were telling you this last year.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_02: You guys were you're you're way late to the party.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: We could have done something about this last year.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, greed being greed, what it is, that's that they they're late to the game.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: So now they're they're luckily they're starting to all change course and stuff.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, appealing to what people need in this economy is important.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: You have to read the room.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on in the economy?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on in the stock market?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: What's going on with people?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh are they finding value in what you're doing?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: How are we drawing them to our club?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: What are we providing them?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it can't just be titties, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're in the we're in the um atmosphere of OnlyFans.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: We're in the age of the internet, we're in the age of this.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: They can get that anywhere, right?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: What they can't get is they can't get that personal contact, that feeling of, hey, George, good to see you again, man.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love having you here.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, let me show you your table.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: I got you all set up, I got your table set up for you.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: I hey, listen, I got I got the lovely um Jen right here.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: She wants to spend some time with you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Jen, why don't you go sit with him?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm gonna go over here, you guys have a good time, I'm gonna get some drinks for you.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Having that personal experience is important because that's the one thing that AI and the internet can't replace is that personal contact.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something I think everybody craves, whether they whether they admit it or not, it's it's it's the ability to go out and and have conversations with real people and and relate to real people and have a good time.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I want to go drink and I want some titties in my face.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: OnlyFans can't give you that.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: You can sit in your living room and drink some Jack Daniels or look at them online, but it's not the same thing, you know.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I I genuinely feel like uh the pricing for one, uh you know, we're we're we're overhauling actually our entire pricing, which is great.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because we again we we sat down and we had we had this exact conversation and we're like, what do people need right now?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well they don't we don't need to break their wallet.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, let's reevaluate all their pricing, let's bring it down, right?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Let's make sure we're sticking to our half-off for the locals because our locals are what pays the bills, man.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: We want our locals in there.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: We want we want to be the spot where if you're a local and you're bored, come hang out and see some titties, bro.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come come have a a 50% off Jack and Coke or Captain and Coke or what you know, whatever, margarita, whatever it is you drink, and you can get that experience and it's not gonna break your bank.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: You don't, you're not gonna leave broke.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna leave and you're like, oh, I had a good time, I'll come, I'm gonna come back next week, right?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then maybe next week I get you some rounds because you're a regular, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: You kind of hang out in the OG.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Have you been there?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've never been there.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we have this cool room.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: So hippo used to be called the O it used to be called OG's Olympic Gardens.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was shut down for I don't know.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: Not to be confused with olive cartons.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, well, I mean, well, you're also family with us.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: How's your never-ending pasta menu, by the way?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's um what's uh it's tacos, but it's good.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's good.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: We got uh Sako the Taco Man.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Love that.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: Sacco the Taco Man.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Socko the Taco Man.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's great.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: So we have this uh we have this really upscale uh lounge and it's called the OG room, and it kind of pays homage to OGs, right?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: But it's it's you go in there, it has its own bar, it's it's a separate atmosphere from the rest of the club.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have the banging music.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's it has music in there, it's just a little more subtle and it has uh it's more just more the upscale vibe, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: If you're like a gentleman, you do the little pinky thing.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's right, that's right.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going to have my go have a drink, right?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of the probably the spot you go to because that's where you want to be able to not yell, ah, I'm John from West Cons.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Nice to meet you.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's a little more subtle there.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: So um, yeah, so we have that, and uh it's just kind of a different, we provide different atmospheres for it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's my I apologize.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: That's all right.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: You're a busy man doing busy things.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: What time do I have you, Till?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Whenever you want me.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, good.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, good.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: I uh my other things online, but it's I'm waiting for them to text me back, which they haven't.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: So whatever.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: I I'll tell you what I like.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: I like that you brought up the all the things that are you're really trying to to make sure that people can experience.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: You obviously the the deals and the the the packages, the the hookups.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Online packages.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: We have killer online packages, killer online packages.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_03: I also like that you you thought you thought of the art of conversation, which is dying.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, yeah.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: And like as people get older, that's you're you're talking through text or you're talking through DMs or you're you're watching people.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, it really is.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: 100% it does.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: And the next generation and the following generation after that, they're the art of conversation is gonna be dead.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it sucks, it does, right?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because it really does give you a unique experience and makes you feel like, you know what, I feel welcome here.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like I you you remembered me, or you you at least remembered I was in before.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Right, uh you're able to family.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: You when you're here, you're family.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's you know exactly how I like my unlimited breadsticks.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, yeah, that's right.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um But it the art of conversation is dying, and it's it's such it's so unfortunate.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm glad that you guys are focusing on that experience.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: The human aspect, the human, the human experience, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's what it's all about.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like I tell people this all the time, especially when it comes to business.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: People don't follow machines, they don't follow this, they follow people, right?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: So if you can relate to someone or you can have a conversation, we're like, hey man, that was a really good conversation.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: I really enjoyed that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: We had a good time, right?
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna remember that.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: They're not gonna remember the the the vodka soda that they had, they can get that anywhere.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: They can't get that personal experience anywhere else, though, right?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that only comes from the individual.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, and and that's that's true, I think, in all aspects, right?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's business or politics or you know, just your home life in general.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: That that human experience is what makes things irreplaceable.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you can't, there are only certain places that you know when you walk in, oh, they're gonna club me, man.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna club me, they're gonna take me forever, they're gonna take me to the washers, they're gonna take me for everything I have.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're just gonna send me home and be like, all right, cool, whatever, we don't like you.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's not me.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's not that's not us at Hippo.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we actually genuinely care.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to break your bank, I don't want to like steal your kids' college funds.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I have no desire to do any of that stuff.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure you have a good time, and I want to make I want to make friends with you, right?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because like contacts are everything in this industry.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And in in Vegas, like who you know is important in the sense of if you want to go out and have a good time, right?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I could go to any one of these casinos because I I have contacts from Caesars and this place and this place.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: And if I have friends come to town, hey dude, we're coming to town, uh, we're coming to your restaurant, is it can you fit me in?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're booked up, but let me find out.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool, I got you in, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: So having those um connections in this town in this city is really important, but uh replacing that human experience, you can't you can't replace that.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: You have to get that from a genuine place, a genuine person that actually cares, or at least at a minimum, can act like they care.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Because I have been around some of those people where they're like they act like they care and they get around.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Do you see Do you see people come in and you see them going down like the the spiral of probably spending more than they they should be spending?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: Or yeah, we get involved in stuff like that too.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we had a walk me through an experience with like so.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: We had a gentleman that came in there and he um he started off, he was completely sober, 100% sober.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he came in and he dropped like uh I think it was like 8,000, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: He got he got a couple girls and he got a big bottle and he got our we have a karaoke room.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: And he went in there, and that's how I sell the karaoke room.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, hey, you can get a microphone and titties in your face, right?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: And everyone's like, ah and they can't, none of them can ever sing, but it's it's a good selling point.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, sure.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: So he came in and the guy had money, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: He absolutely obviously had money, and whenever you're at the strip club, this is a very normal thing.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: The banks usually, because it's a very large transaction, so the bank's like, no, you can't spend it, and so he's got to call him or whatever.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh unlock his card.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: And he unlocked his card and he did it.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he wanted to he wanted to re-up, right?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: But he came out and he was, you could tell the guy was yeah, wrong.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: I knew he had money because I saw his bank account.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Look, I got money.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: The guy had over he had like four or five million dollars in his account or whatever.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jeez.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Yeah, I want to spend it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, all right, cool.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: So he spent it a little bit, but anyway, he came out and you could tell the guy was he was pretty intoxicated.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: He was having a good time with the girls and everything like that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he one of the girls comes out and the girl's like, Oh, we're gonna re-up.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Okay, so let me, I'm gonna go talk to him first, right?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're just gonna call him Mr.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Smith, right?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: For privacy's sake.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: We'll call him Mr.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Smith and all right.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm gonna talk to Mr.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Smith, darling.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um I need you to no hang out over there for a minute because I want to talk to Mr.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Smith, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm talking to him, and you could tell the guy was like, Yeah.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I'll tell you what, Mr.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Smith, listen, I enjoyed having you here tonight.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: I love having you here.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: You had a great time.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to, I don't want to take any more money from you.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Let me get you a ride home uh back to your hotel.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to come back tomorrow, I'll happily I'll set a room up for you, I'll get the girls ready, I'll get the champagne ready, I'll get everything ready for you.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm not comfortable taking money from you right now because there's a difference between guys who are in the right state of mind, and they're they you can tell that you verify with them, hey, you're are you sure you want to spend 8,000?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man, let's go.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, all right, cool.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: So, but you can tell when you when you're taking advantage of someone like me, I have morals, man.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: I have morals, I have a moral compass.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: I am not about that.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna club a guy over the head because I can.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Could I have taken his card and ran his card and been like, yeah, he wanted another 10,000?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Would he have noticed?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Probably not.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Noted seeing after talking to the guy, and he did come back the next day, by the way.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Good.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, after talking to the guy, no one probably probably he probably wouldn't have noticed, but I would have noticed.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I like my my staff would have noticed, and that's you know, when I it's important to me that my staff perceive certain things, right?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want my staff ever perceiving me to be someone that's going to take advantage of a customer because they're gonna now do the same thing, right?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I try and make sure that I instill those morals and and lead by example when it comes to that stuff.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times you'll have you'll have the IPEs come out and you're like, oh, we want to re-up.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: And our policy, no, we we talk to the customer.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: I understand what you're saying.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: You want to re-up because you want money.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't I want to make sure the customer's in the right state of mind.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure he's okay with this transaction.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because at the end of the day, one, I have to live with that, right?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not cool with that, man.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: If I if I went to a strip club and they did that to me, I would feel got, right?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to feel got.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you probably wouldn't be back there.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I wouldn't be back there, right?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: But the guy came back the next day, he came up to me and specifically thanked me.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, hey, I really appreciate that.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: I thank you, thank you for sending me home.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was really messed up last night.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate that.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: And he's he's turned into a good regular of ours, man.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I yeah, that stuff like that's really important to me.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's very important to make sure that the customer isn't taken advantage of.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why, like, when I do VIP rooms sometimes, right?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'll run the room and I explain everything.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, this is this charge, this is this charge, X, Y, and Z.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: I go very slow, very meticulous.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: They understand.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to, okay, sign here and hope they don't see what it is.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been to clubs like that where they do that because they're just all they care about is filling their bank account.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: The money comes.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: The money will always come if you do the right thing.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: If you look out for the customer and you do the right thing, they'll always come back because they remember that.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's that human experience.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't have that human experience, then you're, I mean, your your business is going to fail no matter what it is.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: It could be a restaurant, it could be a clothing store, it could be anything.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't have that human experience to make people think about you, when they when they think of that place, are they thinking about you and the experience they had?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Or are they thinking about, man, they really fucked me?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: They really gave it to me.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, that's not how we roll.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm very happy that we we do it the way that we do it because all of our all of our managers, like I said, we're all sober.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: We all are in the right state of mind.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: We all make sure that the customer is taken care of.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Every once in a while, we get you know the upset customer and we c try and do what we can for them, but you're that you're in the you're in the service industry.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna have that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have it.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have it.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, uh double checking with the customer is number one, especially with rooms.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: So do you have a lot of couples that come in?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, it's been exploding recently.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what and it's cool.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't not no bad way, trips for them.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: If you're a couple and you want to come to peppermint hippo, make sure it's peppermint hippo.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: You are more than welcome to.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: We our our and even the even the dancers and the entertainers have been coming up to me and they're like, man, we're getting a lot of couples.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think it's just the day and age raid, to be honest with you, right?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: Where you know, I think it's a lot more accepted, it's a lot more accepted public.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: And to me, money's green, dude.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't care who you are.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, I guess in some instances blue, but um, yeah, it's it's we have we have a couples package, which is really cool.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's a bottle of champagne.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we're we are exploding with couples recently, and I've noticed, uh, especially in the last like three months, um yeah, it's really been it's really been some.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if the other clubs are experiencing it.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: I would assume they are.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: Probably.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, ours, our couples, I would say this last Friday.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I go in, I go in to work at um 10 o'clock usually.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: And when I got to the floor on Friday, I had I already had like five or six couples on the floor.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was uh something very um it's very interesting.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's the way the way that the industry is going right now and the way it's appealing to everyone um is very interesting.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think obviously we have the advantage that we're in Vegas, so you know Vegas is a spot that a lot of couples come and they all want to go out and they all want to have fun.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's Sin City.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: Are you uh is the the um gentlemen's club industry is it very competitive?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like really?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, yeah.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say we're probably in the most competitive market in the world.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Aside, I think Miami's probably pretty competitive.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I know Portland has the most strip clubs per capita in Portland, which is wild.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: I just recently thought crazy, yeah.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm like, Portland really, yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: I would have never thought that.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, it's raining all the time.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: What the hell?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_03: But you stay indoors.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta do something indoors.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: They have a they have a yeah, they have a shitload of strip clubs, but Vegas, because um, we're a destination, right?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Portland's not really a destination.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Portland's Portland.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: Vegas, everybody comes here, so we're all kind of vying for the same business and vying for the same thing.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I think we're a little different because we play the game a little different.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: We get a lot of influencers involved, um, we do a lot of self-advertising.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: But our self-advertising works.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm now we're starting to get the girls involved in doing reels and doing all this kind of organic because social media is where it's at, right?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Social media is now, you know, it's not when we were growing up, it was like newspapers and TV and stuff.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: No one no one cares about any of that stuff anymore, man.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's all about social media and podcasts and and uh you know, Heather.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Heather.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: So how do you how do you pick and choose which influencers that you would target with that you want to match your brand with?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, my my biggest thing it comes down, I I evaluate a couple different things, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: I look at their their target audience.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: For one thing, I want to target more than anything locals.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why I work with local influencers because that's that's who I I want the tourists to come in.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: We do target tourists and we do want them to come to to come into our club.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I I I s try and stick to my bread and butter, which is locals and getting them through the door.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um but as far as picking the influencer, you know, again, it comes to their audience, but there's a couple influencers in town I won't work with because I have friends that have worked with them before.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they're they're sizable influencers here in town.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I I I won't work with them because they're e they're very ego-driven.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: They expect free free stuff all the time, which don't get me wrong, like if you're cool, like come in get a bottle with your friends, I'll comp it, no problem.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's not the thing.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: But when you have an attitude about it and you expect this and you're you're demeaning to the staff, I don't tolerate that.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if you're my friend, I don't care if you're a regular, I don't care if you're local, you're not gonna demean my staff, man.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: That is one of my number one pet peeves.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Do not mistreat my staff.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so and just because we're in the service industry or we're in the strip club industry, you're not better than, right?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: And and and because you've made a name for yourself being a social media influencer, that doesn't mean that you can be an asshole, man.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I I try and make sure that whoever I deal with, they're very personable, they're very down-to-earth, they're very relatable.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they they have a a head on their shoulders.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like obviously, influencers do it for a couple reasons, right?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: They do it because they like it, for one, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: But two, you know, it probably becomes a profitable um thing for them.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Ventures venture, right?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: A business.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: And they you have to treat it as such, right?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: And as long as there's that cordial understanding that this is a business and you're doing right by the influencer and you're doing right by the customer.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I I want to work with them.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure that person has morals, that they're not just promoting something just to promote it, right?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: If if if your sole motivation is just money, cool.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'll do like one of the really big high up ones just for the publicity of it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I like to stick to people that I think are genuine people because I I again that re that comes back to that human thing that we were talking about, the human experience, right?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because all those relationships that you create in the world.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm sure you've run into this, right?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: The world perceives you when you're doing a podcast or you're doing um uh influencer type thing, the world perceives you in that persona or in that light, right?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe sometimes that's who you are, but a lot of times that's not who you are.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like maybe you're a private, more private person outside of that because you do all your fun stuff in this place, and then outside of work, you're a more private person.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you conduct yourself in the real world, right?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: Do people know you as being an asshole, or do they know you as being, hey, that's she's actually pretty cool, or he's pretty cool, or whatever the case is, you know?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I I do look and I I feel people out.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if I have a social media influencer, I'll send a name out to like 10 people.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, have you worked with this person before?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's your feedback on them?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Are they cool?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Are they an asshole?
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do they have an ego?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Are they this?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Are they that?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: And like there's a couple of them here in town where every time I sent their name out, don't work with them, don't work with them, don't work with them.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, I'm not gonna work with them then.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Good to go.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's those are the kind of people that if you have a misunderstanding, they'll go and start bad mouthing your business.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, listen, man, what are you doing, bro?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: This is this is a business you're going around and you're using your miss, you're you're using your platform for malicious intent.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I so I don't I don't put myself in those situations or my I don't want to put my company in that situation.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of Heather's friends are influencers, and so I and I've I've met them because you know I've I've been around them.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: Just because they're successful on social media doesn't mean they're smart, stabby business people.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: And they're oh yeah, we know that for a time.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them, most of them are great people.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: There are a lot of influencers that know what they're doing.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_03: I respect the hell out of them.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_03: But then there's definitely a batch that's like you're yes, you're successful on you have X amount of followers on social media, but you're just I I wouldn't trust you with my business.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: You get a little too big for your britches.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a little big for your britches, I'll tell you what.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tell you what.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: That's good to know, though.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's good to know.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's reputation too.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: It is Vegas.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: And reputation's important, man.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that, you know, when I go out, how you how the world perceives you is how they treat you.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, right.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Everything I think from how you dress to how you act, it's important and how you treat people.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: To me, how you treat people, I think, is the most important because I don't care how much money you have.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_02: I have money too.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: So what?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have a right to treat people like trash, man.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: You don't.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't have a right to demean people for no reason because you're internet famous.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: Congrats.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: You want a cookie, bro?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: Means nothing.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Get out of here.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care how famous you think you are.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: You've obviously had uh I'm assuming a handful of big names coming through your your doors at uh at Hippo.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: How do you handle the situations like that where discretion is is is so crucial?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have we have had some very prominent names come through hippo.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ones that everyone would probably instantly recognize.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we you know, we kind of have like a secret entrance.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we still do all the normal security protocols like pat downs and ID checks and all that stuff to make sure no one that isn't supposed to get in there gets in there.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_02: But we have, you know, we have like a secret entrance.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: We we have shut the OG OG room down.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we have an individual that's come in a very, very, very famous individual um who's come in a lot because he likes hippo.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, we bring him in through the back.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: I go and I put the lock on the OG room, and I'm like, all right, you, you, you, you, and you come to the come to the OG room.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: I take him off the side.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, this is who this person is.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: Put your phones away.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: There's no photography, there's no anything.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want you guys talking about this, there's no social media.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's important.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, privacy is important, especially in our industry, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because some of these people they may have a wife or they may have um or whatever.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing ever happens, nothing to that extent ever happens, or they may, they may have a business venture, or they may be running for Congress, or they may be, you know, whatever, man.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever the case is, because I've worked with all kinds of people over the years.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, those people want to come in and they want to spend money, but if they can't trust that you're gonna maintain their privacy, why are they gonna spend their money with you?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: And we're in a very taboo industry.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think it's getting a lot better.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um I agree.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Especially, you know, from the from the probably the 90s or early 2000s, I think it's way night and day completely different.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but you know, privacy for those guys, it's really important, man, because they uh they just want to come in and have fun like everyone else.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're when you when you're in that public spotlight like that all the time, some people have this expectation that you're just not allowed to go do that stuff, which I don't personally even understand that because it's like we're human, why can't we go have fun?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Why can't we go do these things, right?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so no privacy, privacy to me is is it's incredibly important, especially even even our even if it's not a celebrity, right?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like take our um take our entertainers, for example, right?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: I take we we all take photography and videography in the club very seriously, too.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to take a picture, right, or do a video in the club, you're you're more than welcome to of yourself.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you can't do it of the other girls, man.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: You can't like I I can't tell you how many people I've gone up to.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta delete that video.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because they'll come in and they'll just start recording the girls, and I'm like, dude, what are you doing?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's rude.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: What do you like?
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: No, these girls are trying to perform and do their thing and make money, and you're just saying, oh, I'm gonna know, bro.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we'll tell them to delete uh their photos, or if we know that there's a bunch of girls in the photos, we'll we'll tell them to delete the photos or the video or something, or you know, take selfies.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to take selfies, take selfies.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, we're at hippo, whatever.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Totally fine, totally fine, but leave the girls out of it, man.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: They deserve privacy just as much as celebrities or anyone else deserves it.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're sure they're humans, they have kids, they have families.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of these girls, I've worked with a lot of these girls and they're very smart.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of them are just trying to put themselves through school, they're trying to be doctors or nurses or whatever the case is, and they don't want it to adversely uh affect them later in life, right?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I I treat I I treat everyone the same when it comes to that.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, celebrities, I do that thing, but we make sure we take care of the girls too, right?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_03: So you just had your four-year anniversary.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: What did you do for it?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: What what uh what events?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh it was crazy.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: So we we worked with um one one two two eight catering, which is like kind of like a derivative.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's a well it is a derivative of Wolfgang Puck.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we had Wolfgang Puck in there.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um they they prepared the food, which was uh really, really so good.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: God, it was good.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I worked with a bunch of local influencers.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: I worked with uh Heather, Miss Heather.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: I worked with Brandon from Vegas, who him and him and his wife Chanel, stand-up people.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: This is the fourth episode, Brandon.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: This is the fourth episode that Brandon from Vegas in a row.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: We've had Chef James Trees on.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: He mentioned Brandon from Vegas, we've had Cornish Pasty on.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: They mentioned Brandon from Vegas.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um and there was somebody else we had, but yeah, it's just a cool dude.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: He's everywhere, man.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: He's just a nice guy, man.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like you talk to him, and he's just a cool dude.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: Him and his wife, Chanel, like they're just cool.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just enjoy working with them because like when I get influencers in, right?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, I tell, I always tell them, do your thing.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna interfere with your creative process, man.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'll give you the the core points of hey, this is what I want to hit, but I'm not gonna like storyboard your whole thing, man.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: That destroys all because it it comes down to being genuine, right?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: When you have an audience like your audience, right?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Your audience knows how you are.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: They tune into this because they know your show and how you are.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's what they want.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: So when I go in and I'm like, hey, Brandon, I want you to talk in this voice.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: I want you to talk in this voice, and I want you to be like this, they're gonna be like, oh, that's obviously blah, blah, blah.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna know that's fake, man.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to be fake.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to be fake.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: I want, I want Brandon or or or Heather, I want them to be genuine.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be who they are, right?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's what drew their audience to in the first place.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that's what I've noticed with other businesses.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: I've watched some of these other other businesses and how they interact with some of these influencers, and you could tell it's very storyboarded or it's just them doing their thing.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you can always tell that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: And people crave authenticity, man.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: They crave it, right?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I and it to me it's so crazy that people actually think they can get away with not being authentic because your audience is gonna pick up on it right away.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: The audience isn't stupid, yeah, right.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have a couple low IQ people mixed in there, sure, whatever.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: But in general, people can tell, like you have that human factor, like, oh, that sounds very scripted.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's so weird.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: You can tell the difference between a Heather or a Brandon between the the the lesser.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's really kind of like storyboarded or something.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: So and I I think that's if in general, you look at um what's going on in the United States right now, for example, right?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, politics is something that I'm very interested in, I want to get into, but I'm not gonna get too deep into it.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: But when you look at these politicians, whether it's right or left, whatever, you can tell who's very storyboarded, right?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: You have these guys that are making these gestures and mmm mmm mmm, right?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, bro, you took way too many talking classes, man.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can talk, if you can, if you can appeal to your audience and you can appeal to the voters, or you can appeal to people in general, just being a normal human being, they're gonna be way more gravitate, they're gonna gravitate towards you naturally, right?
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: But instead, they have these really weird, strict talking points and very robotic type movements.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what are you doing, man?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: Authenticity, man.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's the way to go.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it's how you how you get an audience.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hundred percent how you get an audience.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: So what's uh what's what's what's in the next four years for hippo then?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're expanding like crazy, man.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, we're expanding.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we have our sister club, right?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're Los Toxicas is ours too.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: So we're in a partnership with them.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we have Toxicas and Hippo, they're like brother-sister companies, right?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um we just opened uh a club in Pompano Beach.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: We just opened a club in New Orleans.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're opening several clubs in Texas.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think those are Los Toxicas clubs, I believe.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um is there a difference between Los Toxicas and Hippo?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's it is um what's the vibe?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_03: Is the vibe different?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, you know what the the you know what a BBL is?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_03: Brandon, do you know what a BBL is?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Of course.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, just make it sure.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Big booty latinas.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: We love BBLs here on the Hey Big Head Show.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Big booty latinas are where it's at.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: If you couldn't tell.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, well, that's good to know then.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, Las Talks is exactly what it sounds like.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a um Spanish theme, Hispanics themed club.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: I I enjoy it a lot.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a fun club, it's a very, very different vibe from hippo, but in a good way, right?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_02: We have hippo, which is kind of I would say hippo's it's different in the way that we do things, but if you want to think of it this way, you can think of it.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like more mainstream, and then you know, you got Las Toxicas, whereas like if you want a little bit of the flavor profile, sure, right?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: You you have Las Toxicas, and that's a great club too, man.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: They have great.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, we and so hippo is expanding like crazy, and uh, you know, we're gonna be uh hippo's hopefully gonna be going public.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um be a publicly traded company, I I hope.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh they're working on that, and it's expanding like crazy, man.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like our club, our brand is just it's it's crazy.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy because when we open, so if you go to our club, if you go to hippo, there's a big booth in the corner of of the hippo, and it has 07.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: It has these big light-up letters called the 07, right?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that stands for it was a seventh club, right?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: The very first club that we opened, I believe, was at Nina, Wisconsin.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was Alan Chang, it was the the CEO, the owner of the club.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: He owned, he he opened it in uh Nina, Wisconsin, and it just kind of expanded from there and it went to um Toledo, Ohio, and a couple other places.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: And anyway, his seventh club, we got on the Las Vegas trip.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, man, you move quick, bro.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like quick.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and uh yeah, so we got that, and now now we have I don't even know how many clubs in the pipe.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: We got a club um uh in the Big Apple we're looking at.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: We got a club, another I think there's another club in Florida we're looking at.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe there's two.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_03: Hippo's taking over the country.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: Bro, it's it's world gonna be worldwide.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited for this.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like we we our club, our brand and our club is doing so well just because we take such a different approach to the hospitality aspect.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're I it goes back to what we're saying.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're not trying to club you, man.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just want you to come have a good time.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: Get some titties, have a good time, have some drinks, go home, come back tomorrow.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Love that right.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what it is, bro.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you tomorrow.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be there.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be there.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this is awesome.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_03: Derek, thank you so much for coming in, man.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm really excited to see the growth of hippo.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I love you know, before before today.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we did our research on hippo and you know the the origins and all that, but to actually hear it from you and to hear your side of it and just hear your journey from how you got to where you were to where you are today was awesome.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's crazy.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: This is crazy.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a crazy guy.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: When you would when you eventually write your autobiography, please.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna trust me, I'm gonna incorporate this into as you should.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: We had a podcast and then we talked about everything.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: I want a full chapter on it.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be the very the second podcast I went on, it was my memoir.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be good.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: I love it.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Derek, this is awesome.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for coming in, man.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: This is great.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Brandon, I'm gonna hit you with some outro music.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: You ready for this?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_03: All right, let's do it.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: We'll catch new episodes each week on heybighead.com.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know about you, Brandon, but I'm ready to go to Hippo.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, team excursion.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: Team excursion, I'm ready for some tacos tacos.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, come get a come get a bottle, man.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, bottle on me.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: Come get uh some tacos and a bottle, bring some friends.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_03: Tacos, bottles, friends, and some good conversation.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and some titties, and the girls, and the girls, of course, and some titties.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_03: We'll see you next week.