May 30, 2023 • 53 mins
My guy Jon Taffer took the time to sit with me and share some amazing behind-the-scenes insights into what makes the best restaurants or bar experiences (trust me, you’ll be thinking through his strategies anytime you step into an establishment now) and how he established himself in the hospitality industry.
The moment he honed in on was one that too many of us can relate to - being told we’ll never be able to do what we say we want to accomplish. But the way he responded both in his words and his actions is so powerful and something everyone needs to take into account next time they hit a wall.
Jon also got candid about how prominent dishonesty is in his line of work and how he handles stealing and disingenuous employees. It’s not all negative in hospitality, though - Jon actually has the only patent related to music in restaurants, and the science behind how he curates every single restaurant and bar experience for his patrons is such an interesting reveal into how strategic the things we often overlook in a restaurant actually are.
Tune in to an all new episode of That Moment with Daymond John wherever you listen to your podcasts to learn the mindset you need to adopt when someone rejects your dreams, the ways to deal with dishonesty, and becoming an established leader in your field.
Host: Daymond John
Producers: Beau Dozier & Shanelle Collins; Ted Kingsbery, Chauncey Bell, & Taryn Loftus
For more info on how to take your life and business to the next level, check out DaymondJohn.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
All right, John, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And I want everybody to know that, you know, John
is such one of those real guys that we just
called last and like, hey, we have some open time,
and I'm sure John is just sitting around and twiddling
his thumbs as you have time. And John said, matter
of fact, I was sitting around. Now I'm just choking,
but John came on last minute.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank you, John. I appreciate you being on that moment.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
My pleasure, but anything for you. We've always been supportive
of each other over.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The years we have we have and listen, you're eight
season in right, a season on Bar Rescue.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I am about to start shooting the ninth in August.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
All right, ninth and August, you know, advocate for or
small businesses, entrepreneurs. I like the way that you're an
advocate for though, because I think that you know. Now,
I got a children's book out, John, and my thing
with now is what I realized is there are children
that act like children. They are adults at act like adults,
(01:16):
and they are adults at act like children. And I
after I decided that these beautiful little kids who you
never know what challenge they're going through, and you know
they're not tainted by the world and there's sponges. I
need to start giving some of these adults that act
like children.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
A little more. John Tapper, Kevin O'Leary, Gary.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Ve kind of like, I'm rooting for you, but grow up, yeah,
and come to the reality of what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You know, it's funny. I was sitting with my daughter
years ago, and I had a box of cereal on
the table and I was teaching her about money. So
I took one hundred They were cheerios. They took a
hundred cheerios and said, okay, I gotta good the government
thirty of these. So I pushed those aside. I got
to pay the rent. They pushed those aside. I gotta pay.
You want a new baseball glove, I got to get
you there, and we had no cheerios left. At at
eight years old, she started to understand that, and I
(02:07):
called it the cheerio bottle, but it really taught her
the premise of it. I've always wanted to write a
children's book about a lemonade stand how to run a
lemonade stand profitably, And I always thought something like that
could be a lot of fun, just to teach the
values of dollars and quality and service and the things
you and I live by.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love that, the quality and service, so because that's
what you're an expert for, getting right down to the core.
But why don't we talk about I don't know, why
don't we go into that moment? When was your first
either lemonade stand or the lemonade stand that you felt
that was funky and it needed some adjusting, Because you know,
I think that's a good way to start. You know,
lemonade stands when when John and I started was as
(02:46):
big as the corner lemonade stands today is as big
as how many people can you know?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Your your your smartphone can hit? All right?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So why don't we start off with that? John, when
was the when did you did you? I don't even
want to assume, but did your first lemonade stand or
first business a first venture work out?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
No, my first venture I had a partner who I
shouldn't have signed with. I trusted them on paperwork and
I got ripped off for the only six hundred thousand
dollars I had in my name. So my first one
was not good. And you know, I learned a lesson
at that time about integrity and trustworthiness and who to
get in bed with, so to speak. And of course
I never had that again, but I attained success. And
you know when you asked me this question, dam and
(03:28):
I thought it was a an incredible concept to talk
about this moment that changes all of our lives. And
I thought about several that I had in life. For example,
when I was younger and I owned my first nightclub,
and it was a big nightclub with technology and dance floors,
and I stood in there by myself at four in
the morning, and the fact that I could.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Own where was his club? And where was his club?
And how old were you?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was in Chicago, and I was about I guess
twenty eight maybe something like that. But to look over
my domain, if you will, and you know what I had,
That was a pretty good moment for me. But when
I thought about, you know what moment was the most
powerful that I wanted to give to you. Here's the story.
I'm at Caesar's palace many years ago, about thirteen fourteen
(04:10):
years ago, and I'm giving a speech and at the
end of the speech, can I use frank language or
should I filter this to clean up Okay, I'm giving
a speech, and at the end of the speech, somebody
comes up to me and says, John, you should be
on television. So I go home and I write something
up called on the Rocks three pages and damnutes, half
Mission Impossible and half kitchen nightmare. So I'm going to
(04:32):
be dropped in a restaurant with files, and I'm going
to have the file of my mixologist and my chef,
just like the beginning of Mission. I put it together,
and years earlier, I had been a consultant to Paramont
for Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and some of their hospitality stuff.
So I hadn't made a decent living at that point, damon.
But I wasn't wealthy by all means yet. So because
(04:52):
of my contacts at Paramount, I could set up a
meeting to pitch my idea to them. Set ahead of
TV and a bunch of Paramount people in the room.
And I walked and I sit down and I tell
them my idea, and they look at me and say, John,
you will never fucking be on television. You're too old,
you're not good looking enough. It'll never happen. So I
walk out of the meeting. I get in my car.
(05:14):
They gave me a drive ice say that to you
in exactly that way, precisely work.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know, Wait, who what company was this again?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
This was in Paramount on a Paramount lot. And it's
funny because what network am I on today? Paramots? It's funny, David,
what happened though?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like because you know, I got to tell you something
about Hollywood. What I my experience with Hollywood is nobody
tells you no to your face. They tell you it's
not the time of this. Why because you know what.
They don't want to be the person that told John
Tapper no years later, and I don't remember if I
have respect for the person who told you, or I
(05:54):
feel sorry for the person who told you, but go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So so I had not been in TV, so they
I had given me this meeting, and my question to
m gentlemen, I want to share an idea with you
to see if it's even worse my time. And that's
when they said to me, you'll never be your two
old knucker sry drive in through the Paramount gates on
a way out da. I mean, as you can imagine,
I'm bummed, right, and I think to myself, you know
what I'm gonna make my own sizzle reel. So in
(06:19):
the television business, you sell shows based on these three
to four minute sizzle reels. Right. So I go to
a friend's bar in Homosa Beach. It's empty on a
Saturday afternoon, it's full on Sunday for football. I film
it empty, do my stick my stuff, film it full,
create a four minute sizzle reel, edit it myself, send
it to four production companies and get four out of
(06:39):
four offers because I was angry that they had looked
at me and said, no, you'll never be on television.
It almost energized me, you know what I mean. It
gave me the fight to go after this and I
got four out of four offers.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Buddy, But who gave but let me in congratulations on that?
First of all, that is showing how you know your
ability to Bob and Wee. But why First of all,
you know if they don't see you on TV? And
who cares what other people think? But what gave you
the the guts or the vision or the confidence to
(07:17):
feel like you should be on TV?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Because maybe you could have went in there and said, well,
I'm John Tapper, I'm establishing the business and I got
some really sexy young people that I want to produce
a show because I'm connected.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
What what made you? Because you were never on TV before?
That right?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Never? Nor had I ever been in the television business before.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Well why did you feel you can do that? And
let me ask them?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Were you married at the time or I was okay,
are you still we're still married at the same person
years and when? What does she say to you when
you said you were going to go do this and
pitch this?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
She was actually pretty supportive. She's she's I'm proud to say,
probably my biggest fan, damon. So her support meant a
lot to me at the time. But that no, I
think gave me a greater level of energy than a
yes would have given me. And the person who did
that to me, you're going to get a kick out
of this. Years ago, there was a company that sold
black roses and they sold them in coffin shaped boxes
(08:15):
to send to people. So I bought a box of
twelve black roses in a coffin box that I shipped
it to him.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
When this show is nice, nice and now we know
who we are today. But let me let me I
want to go back to when you were that night
club owner. Yeah, it was first night club. You're twenty
eight years old. You're in Chicago, correct, yep, you just
opened the doors. How much did you put into that club?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
About a half a million dollars? Blood half blood?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Ye have partners?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I did it?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What do you mean, bo you borrowed? You borrowed it?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh no, No, I borrowed about one hundred of it.
But it was money, you know, It's all I had.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's all you had?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Did you have partners?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Had one partner?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Was that the one who who took you for six hundred?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Nope? That was the next The second one was a
good one. The first one to me for six hundred,
and I had no recourse because I didn't have to
write paperwork. I went add it as a total rookie
on a handshake, name and something I would never do again.
And of course you would never advise.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, so you're at the second one. This is now
you're on your own.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You you but you have a level of confidence because
of your first whatever maybe you first experienced in the
first club.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Correct. Yeah, And and you know, I must say, even
when I was young, I had always had a good
level of confidence. You know, I think I was good
when I was young at presenting myself with a little BS,
And I think as I got older and older, the
BS got less and less and I actually became what
I said. But I think in the younger years I
had the confidence to pitch myself into situations that some
(09:42):
would say I wasn't qualified for, but I pulled them
off in the end.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But unlike you being you, being you, wanted to be
somebody who you know brings your message to the masses
on television and helps probably empower so many more people
because when you know family, a couple partners are going
through some shit and they look at you and you
just you just basically pulverize somebody for doing the wrong thing,
even though you told them where they use value. These
(10:08):
people now can say, you see, look, I'm not the
only one who thinks like that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, But.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You know, when you were trying to get on TV,
it wasn't proven. But now if you've gotten you know,
from my Shark Tank experience of sniffing through, if somebody
sold six hundred thousand for me, that means there was
six hundred thousand to be stolen, right, now you're at
version number two, you're on your own. You borrowed a hundred,
but you probably have some data and numbers of what
you've done before that makes people say, I will give
(10:36):
you a hundred of mine. How are you feeling at
that moment? Where you do you remember where you married,
where you do you have kids? Were you nervous? Where
you just was anybody special in your life? What happened
and what was the pressure of opening that second Were
you naive like, oh my god, I got this second one,
no problem, or where you like, holy crap, I'm actually
(10:56):
on my own. I don't have somebody as experienced or
better or more experienced than me. What were you going
through at that moment of your life?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well, it wasn't the holy crap thing. I wasn't freaking
out in that kind of a way. I was pretty
But you know, I for years had been a hospitality professional.
So I had been a bar manager, I had been
a hotel general manager. I had been a resort food
and beverage director. So I had run multimillion dollar food
and beverage businesses. And I knew I was good at
it because I had been promoted and I'd received raises
(11:24):
and I've gotten a few awards and stuff, so when
I opened it, I had the confidence in my ability
to run it. But you know, it's a new location,
as you know, dam and the greatest idea can fail
in the wrong place or with the wrong people around you.
So of course you always have those fears. But I'm
not the type to have doubted myself. Now. I didn't
have my daughter till I was thirty five years old,
(11:45):
so I was still single. And when I was in
a hospitality business before I opened my own company, which
is nineteen eighty six, I was VP of a hotel
company and they had moved me eleven times in five
years to bigger and bigger and bigger hotels because I
was really good at driving revenue and I knew that,
so I had a bit of a history in it.
(12:05):
And then when I started my own company in nineteen
eighty six, my first client was the hotel company that
I had worked for, So I thought I had a
bit of a cushion when I started my own business
that way.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right, And so you so you were still single, right, yep?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
I was.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You know, Mark Cuban will say often and even I'll
say that very similar thing. You know, when he was
building his you know, working on his stuff. You know,
a girlfriend said to him, you worked too hard. It's
either it's either me or the business. And he said,
I'm sorry. What was your name again? Where where were
you with relationships at that time my life?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I was selfishly absorbed in my own professional career
at that stage in my life, and I had girlfriends
that had come and gone, but I would relocate and
if she didn't want to come with me, she didn't
come with me. But I still took that opportunity, and
I got married late, and I put my career first.
And I realized back then, being in a hospitality business dayment,
(13:07):
that I couldn't always create my own opportunities in the
cities that I lived in. I had to be willing
to go to that bigger, better market to get that bigger,
better property. So yeah, I think that at a young age,
you should be selfish about your career and stay focused.
And I think paying the does with that kind of
focus is what sets you up to take care of
that family a little later on.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It is it is so one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I you know, I tell people, I tell people, I
tell people even my daughter as much as I love them.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I'm a girl.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Dad.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I say, you know, up until twenty or somebody's daughter,
and then you're going to be somebody's wife and mother
and grandmother. And I said, ten years do you And
I don't care what you is Bill Wells in Africa,
party like a rock star, go look at art, save
sea turtles.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
That's great, but know who you are. See I did that.
I didn't have that advice for my but I did that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But you did it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But there's a lot of temptation at twenty eight years old,
you know, there's a lot of distraction to live in
the world of a night life and own a club.
Did you have those because first of all, you are
you know, you're you're going to sleep at six o'clock
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Probably you are.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
There is a lot of liquor, there's a lot of
various other barrier rock and roll, sex, drugs and rock
and roll. Were you living that life where you nose down?
You know, where was that? Where were you at that time?
Because I got to tell you at thirty years old,
when I had a couple of million dollars in the bank,
I was really, really focused, but yeah, you know, I
made some mistakes too. I was like, wait a minute.
(14:39):
First of all, I made some mistakes on my diet.
I was like, I can eat all everything. I'll have
it all right. Uh. And you know a type personalities
like you, myself and many listening. We don't know how
to do it halfway. Were there any temptations and or
did you take advantage of those temptations?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah? There were was particularly when I ran a troubadour
and Hollywood, which I think you know is a very
famous nightclub. Oh yeah, and in those days you ran.
I ran a tubaterur back in the late seventies early.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Ages with all the with all the famous famous rock
bands come.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Oh yeah, Now when I ran a tribun of beds
like Fear and Black Flag and adam Ant and all
those punk points. Gosh, there's a lot of temptation around
you in those days. As you can imagine, dam and
women are like crazy white powder all over the darn past.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I'm not talking about Johnson and Johnson, but you know.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I think you and I have something in common. I
would look at that room of all these people that
were high and drunk and partying, and I would say
to myself, somebody here needs to be sober. Somebody here
needs to take responsibility. God forbid should something happen to someone.
And as the bar owner and the operator, I always
looked at that responsibility in that way. So I was
(15:51):
never the drunk guy in a room. I always tended
to be the sober guy. Now, if you and I
went out on a night off, that's a different deal, buddy,
I could have a good time with you. I did
not succumb. I must tell you I avoided my employees
from a relationship standpoint. I really didn't drink and I
didn't fall into the drug thing on a job. So
I think I was fortunate that I had the discipline
(16:11):
to do that. And that was an interesting era back
then then because that was pre aids, pre gangs, pre violence.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You're talking you must be talking about eighty two or
something like.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
That, seventy nine to eighty two, exactly, right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Seventy nine to eighty two, you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know, disco was starting to slow down, right, hip
hop starting to come up.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Punk bands like.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Blondie and all these other bands are now starting to
hit the country. My Sharona, it was my Sharona. It
was a very very special special time. There was a
lot of hairspray lot.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That was a fun time. I remember girls in those
days were cell a fane pads. You could see through them,
the valley girls in the alley. Those were fun times.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Those were fun times.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Women's lib had already really taken and effect, and women
felt that, you know, we can do what the men do.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And they were very very just, you know, overt with
a lot of things and it you know, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
But society wasn't defensive like it is today. David.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It wasn't so you would manage to have that discipline.
But I got to ask you another question, because I
don't like I don't like going into restaurant businesses for
various things. I think technology now is saved some of
my concerns, But when I worked at certain restaurants, the
staff would steal everything. If it wasn't nailed down, they
were going to steal it. Now in my business and
(17:33):
a lot of people should understand, there is going to
be what we call leakage, whatever you want to call leakage, right,
somebody stealing with the terms whatever. Okay, Besides this, person
who you know clearly took advantage of a handshake agreement.
But when was the first time you caught somebody that
you trust or you believed you trust, stealing from you.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
In your business.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, there were two biggies. One was somebody who I
was putting in business. I was investing in them. I
had put it not that much, about one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars into their business, and they completely rip
me off and it broke my heart. It was a
very very personal one.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Why did they rip you off? Did they have a problem?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Because a lot of time when people rip you off,
it could be habitual clept though. They could be con
men and women. They could fall into a divorce or drugs,
or they can.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Say John got it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Fuck that.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Fuck John, He's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You know what, I don't care all that I helped you,
because a lot of time, when you help people so much,
they either either are like, man, really, I thank you,
or they can't. It's overwhelming to them where they want
to say fuck you.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I think that got it any great? Damn? I think
that what I did is I was putting him in
a position of ownership, and I'm mature, and I think
he resented the fact that I was putting him in
this position of responsibility, and he said, just what you said?
Fuck him, He's already got his money, I don't want
to do this, and he just sort of abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What do you do? How did you respond to that?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I know it hurt, but you know that could have
made you a cold person from that point on and
never given anybody else a chance. What did you Because
you're still still in a business that it's very volatile
when it comes to.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, but you know, today a lot of systems and
a lot of automated systems and such do it. For example,
my Taffers tavern has sixty percent of the labor costs
of a regular restaurant. In the kitchen, everything is packaged
and counted and numbered. You know, the controls can be
in place to do it. Now. I'll tell you a
funny story. When I was running the Troubadour, I had
an assistant manager I liked, and he looked like HI,
like sort of dizzy, if you will, And he came
(19:43):
out of the walking refrigerator. So I walked into the
walking refrigerator. You gotta laugh and on the floor into
walking refrigerator with two cases of ready whip.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Crick cream whipped cream whip hits.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
And twenty four cans in each case, and not one
of them had any guests.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
One of them worked.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
He was blowing his brains out.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
How do you like?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I don't understand because you have a you know, going
to the fact that you have discipline there, but you're
dealing with bartenders and various other people. I mean, you
got a heavy turnover normally. What would you say to
people now when they catch people stealing? In that sense, when.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I'm of the belief that if honesty is sacrificed, there's
no basis of any relationship ever with someone who lies
or steals. That ends everything.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
To me.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
There's no second chance, no form of discussion. If an
employee lies to me about doesn't have to be financially related,
those things, you know, are deal changers for me. I
believe that any relationship, professional or otherwise has to be
based in trust. So I really try to be honest
with the people around me. If things are good, I
say it. If they're not good, I say it. You know,
(20:52):
I know my producer's sitting here with me. I know
he would shake his head that he always knows where
he stands, and so theft is unbelievable to me. And
in bar rescue, I see it hugely, dam And I
go to these bars and these employees tell me an interview,
Oh no, the owner is like a father to me.
I love him, oh boys. And then I get into
the business and they're robbing the guy blind. And they
(21:15):
do love him, they do care about him, but they're
still robbing him blind. And what gets me, Damon, is
they're not stealing from bosses they hate. They're stealing from
bosses they love. They're not stealing from bosses they hate,
(21:46):
They're stealing from bosses they love. That's mind boggling to me.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But this is what I mean, you know, like I
know that. The funny thing about that moment is we
go down these rabbit holes and I want to know,
you know, we see the resentment side.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And this is a great point you're bringing up.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Like we already talked about someone you stole from me,
he said, f John, you know he got it. Why
are people robbing from people they love? Why do you
do you listen? You're not God, you don't have a
crystal ball and see the future. But I'm curious, what
have you seen a defining thing that shows that people
why people steal from those they love? You.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
I think that there is a loosening of society, if
you will, damon. I think we see it in a
lot of different ways today. I think the behavior envelope
of children is a little bigger than it used to be.
I think you and I had a narrow envelope that
we had to profit when we were younger than a
child does today. You know. I think that that people
today have a global view, or they think they have
(22:41):
a global view at a much younger age. I think
today this is a world of forgivenness. Look at my
grandson's four years old. He went to Little League this week,
and it's not little league at all. It's a t ball.
If he doesn't hit it, they applaud him. If he
hits it, day applaud him. If he catches the ball,
they applaud him. If he doesn't catches the ball, they
don't caught them. There's no latitude to win and lose.
(23:04):
So how does my little grandson, you know, get to
get the feeling of victory and loss that you and
I had when we were young that became so I
think this desire to not challenge people directly and and
to just say that's okay, little Johnny. That's okay, little Johnny.
Sometimes it's not okay, little Johnny. Do you agree?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I one hundred percent agree. And I'm just trying to
think about the moment. You know, I found a lot
of people that are stole from so and from me,
and I found I think that we I think we're
getting into something as I discover this is that you
have to confront people no matter who they are and
how they and how they are, no matter because you're
in a business, you're all about the numbers. You know,
when somebody told me one day, somebody said, you know, dammy,
(23:45):
you're losing about a half a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
People are steal from they said, But they're not even
trying to steal from you. You know what it was
the small things is what they were doing. Like we
had clothing, so they were just you know, were's something
home sample because they're cold, But everybody wore a sample
home for the cold. We unlocked the you know the
box where all the stuff goes in for the printers
and all the paper and stuff like, well, you know, hey,
(24:09):
my kid's doing a report. I'm going to take home
a stack of paper right before uber was out. You know, Hey,
we get a car service, and I got to go
to dinner. So they get the car service at five,
they keep the car service all the way till two
o'clock in the morning, the car service just sitting there
while they're at dinner.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And that car just cost a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Right there is intentional theft, and then there's the kind
of like, oh, that's my guy, but you know, I'm
you know, a couple of dollars. I'm not going to
charge you with this drink, that drink, this drink, that drink,
this drink, that drink, and before you know it, it
mounts up. So how do you differentiate those that are
intentional and those that are doing things by mistake, because
(24:47):
even though they're doing it by mistake, they're not considering it.
What do you do in that sense?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Well, you know, it's interesting that you say that. I
always say they find a way to justify it to themselves. Yeah,
oh I've been on the road for four days. I
deserve of this, or ah, well, you know, I really
came through for Dame, and I got him that, you know,
blah blah blah, you know, b h. So they find
some way to justify it. You know, I'm the bartender.
If it wasn't for me, Tafford wouldn't have made a
dime tonight. So I think that's a lot of it,
(25:13):
because they don't think of themselves as thieves. And that's
where it gets scary. If they don't think of themselves
as a thief, because they're justifying it to themselves, then
they're logically not going to have any guilt, and you're
going to do it again. So it's the one who
knows that he's stealing when he does it. You know,
in the bar business. I'll tell you a funny story.
In the bar business. What the way they steal more
(25:34):
than any other way, Daman is they ring up no sale.
So let's say I sell you twenty dollars worth of drinks.
I go up to I say twenty dollars. I go
to the register, I ring up no sale. You don't
see that from your seat. I put the twenty in
the drawer. The drawer now owes me twenty. I take
two pennies, ten dollars each in representation. Move them over
(25:55):
to a little pile. Now I go, the drawer owes
me twenty. I do that four more time. Now the
drawer owes me one hundred dollars. Right, Oh, I'm out
of singles, So I count out five twenties from my
tip cup, go up to the drawer, pull two hundred
dollars out and drop it in the tip cup. And
now I'm even again.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So now you think like a thief? How do you think?
Why would you think like a thief?
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So when they do this stuff, you can see the
piles of pennies and matches behind the bar, because they
and I'll take it. I'll mess that up. I'll move
their stuff around when I'm back there. So now they
lose freaking count. Now when I close them out at
the end of the night, they're over under one hundred
dollars and fifty dollars and I got them, buddy. But
(26:39):
but uh uh, you know, it's the employee who knows
he's stealing is one thing, but the employee who justifies
it to himself is even scarier, because that's the one
who tells the employee next time, you should do it too.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I love, I love, love love how you just broke
down because you know, a lot of people don't think
that the bosses know the game. I live in Miami,
you know, And and I don't carry cash. And the IRIS,
I'm the IRIS, the most watched person in the world.
I'm an African American giving away money on TV.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
All right. I pay more.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I pay enough taxes for you, me and everybody else,
not my share. I pay everybody's share on purpose. I
pull up in Miami.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It always happens.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Hey, you want to park it in front if it's one
of my really nice cars. And I don't know how
many of the really nice ones. I don't want to
get a short parking in front?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
All right?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
One hundred dollars cash. No, I don't pay cash. I
pay credit card. No no, no, no, no, puppy, we don't.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We don't take credit cards. All right, guys, let me
let me break this to you. I'm an African American
driving a Rolls Royce. I'm the biggest thief around here.
I know how to hustle my brothers. Now, it is
not about being a thief, because I'm not. It's just
I've been around so much. I guy, stop lying to me,
you have a square somewhere over here, stop lying to me.
(27:59):
Then all of a sudden, oh, Papa, look, we found
it is working. Now why do employees not know that
we know the hustle?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, it's remarkable, But I think the trick to it
I have found in my business is they need to
know that I know, because that's where the fear comes,
and that's where the regulatory impact comes. If they know
I know, like I move those pennies, I say something
to them, I catch them in an act, et cetera.
When they know I know, that's when it tends to
(28:28):
stop the problem.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
You find that they quit, though, because when you find
habitual thieves or liars or people who fluff.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
This is definitely not a negative interview because this is
us talking because a lot of business owners are listening
to us and will listen to us and be more
empowered to say more money, to employ more people.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
But when you find that people, you.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Just cut their work or their revenue, because you know,
when people start to make more, they count on it more.
And ifotentially, if they are somebody who is a thief,
they probably have a lot of other bad habits. So
do you find that when you now box them into
a corner for any reason, whether it's taking credit of
another person's work that's stealing too, do you find that
they quit?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
It depends upon if they believe they're stealing or not.
If they believe they're stealing, then this lost income to them.
If they're one of those people who justify it to themselves,
I can get them to stay with the absence of it.
That's a really key question, though, because if they leave
in that case, then don't you want them to leave anyway?
They're thiefs?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I do.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
But what if I got a story for you. I
get a story for you. I take a job as
a bartender in nineteen seventy eight at Barney's Beanery on
Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. I'm sure a famous place.
I'm sure you go. My first night there, the bartender
I think he's dead so I can say his name,
Kenny Bourrenstein comes up to me, says, we steal here.
You have to take at least one hundred a night.
(29:53):
This is a nineteen seventy eight one hundred dollars was
a decent amount of money back.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah, yeh yeah, that's four hundred dollars now.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
So I said, how do you do it? So he
showed me how to do it, and he said, listen
to me. If I steal and you don't, the registers
are out of whack. You must steal one hundred to night.
Everybody steals one hundred to night. That was my first
night working in that operation. So it's a cancer. And
when you catch somebody who does it, even if you
sense they might be doing it, you have to kill
(30:19):
the cancer. And I use something called the landmark fire.
I don't know if you've ever heard that term before. Now,
be a landmark fire would be taking the biggest defender,
whether it's be the lowest performing employee, the most thieving employee,
the employee with the worst attitude, and fire them and
it's a landmark fire, and it wakes up everybody else
around them. And you know, firing somebody for theft or
(30:41):
suspect the theft can go a long way with the
people around them.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I agree, setting an example period can go a long way.
And I wanted to ask one last question about that area,
and I want to move on to something else because
I love all these moments, because that was a very
special moment that you learn that there's a lot of cohoots, coheresion,
and cutting a cancer stops it right, because it can
bring a company down as well as it can bring
(31:07):
it up. If somebody is coming in with the I
want to solve this, We're going to do this shit together, right,
that is infectious and you need more of those people.
What about in a relationship where you kind of box
the person in, whether they have been doing you wrong
or not on the same page as you do you
(31:27):
think that that initially, whether it's a partnership or whatever
the case is, romantic relationship, do they do they check
out too? Once you catch them in all these things
and say no more of this, and you you you
kind of box them into a corner.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, once I box him, and I've sort of made
my choice that I want them to go at that point.
So I'm the kind of person who once I get
to that position a state of mind, if you will,
I don't give people a second chance when it comes
to honesty and things like that. So I'm pretty direct
in that way. All right, Well, now let's go. I
think that's a perfect said A State of Mind eight episode,
(32:03):
eight seasons excuse me.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I watch you. You are in a lot of Middle America.
You're in a lot of cities. Now, every city is beautiful,
every city is great. If you live there, you have
your community, you have a comfortability, you have your home,
your church, whatever the case is. But you are in
a lot of cities and you do not live there.
(32:24):
You have a state of mind to do this. It
is not easy. How what was the moment, because I'm
sure after the show became a success of what it is,
did you say to yourself? Do I want to go
into these cities all the time?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Now?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You know, I be careful what you ask for. You
had to face sometimes and maybe you love it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
No, No, do you.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Like going into all these different cities and dealing with
all those elements being on the road and going in
and having these stressful arguments and bars and various other
things where half the people hate you, and even the
ones that you want to help change they hate you
a little bit too. For the honest truth, how do
you feel about that? And why do you continue to
do this where we all benefit?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
But why I've never been asked this question in that way.
I got a great answer for you at the end
of every episode, you see, I get a huge What
people don't know is we're wearing microphones on our chests.
So when I get that hug, the audience cannot hear
what is said to me during that hug. But the
things that owner says to me, Damon, are unbelievable. John,
(33:27):
you saved my marriage. You saved my fricking life. John,
I'm talking to my son again. Thank you. I feel
a weight wifting off my shoulders. John, you save my life.
The things they whisper into my ear, Damon, are so powerful,
so moving, so inspirational to me that that next week
I fight even harder, I scream even more, I push
(33:50):
even more, and I find surprisingly, the ones that fight
with me the most are the ones that give me
the tightest hug. Is that interesting because I think people
in their lives have never been able to crack through
to them before a lot of them are a little
thick headed, if you will, a little opinionated, and their
wives weren't able to crack through, Their partners weren't able
(34:11):
to crack through, their kids weren't able to crack through.
Suddenly I cracked through, and they're really appreciative of it.
In the end, as ugly as it got in the end,
they're really appreciative. But I wonder if you had the
same revelation when you went on television. You see, I
never thought that this depth of failure even existed. I
(34:31):
never realized people could be in not bad a position.
Fifty years old, living in your parents' basement. You blew
four hundred thousand dollars of their retirement. They have no
retirement left. You're losing in a thirty thousand a month.
You got enough money for two more weeks. I never
so when I started this, I had no comprehension damon
(34:52):
that you know that level of failure existed. And I
look at your face on shark tak. Some of these
pitches are shocking to you as well. I could see,
but it was always shocking to me that depth of failure.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
If you will, but you know, you get to see
you go deep into the fire.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
You know, my understanding of these depth of failures happen
over a year, two years, fives because you know, I
got this great pitch.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You know, we do the deal. What are the cases?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
And I'm not deep in the You get the roll
up your sleeve and you get to see how that
action is being and how that business being ran right
there in real time, and you can easily go in
there and go, okay, okay, it's all nice what you said.
Let me see what's going on here, and you get
to to condense that time as you go in there
(35:38):
yelling or screaming, and of course you go in there
often with love. You going there with love first, you
kind of go in there and break down and listen,
full environment always right, yep? How do you turn that
off at home? Because my first marriage, I was very young.
I wasn't very young. I was as you were, twenty
twenty nine, and I noticed that as we couples, young
(36:00):
couples are even older couples. And now we get together
and you had you you were smart enough to have
a child at thirty five. I noticed that. You know,
we got my wife and I. We got together because
we loved each other. But now we have children. I'm
coming home, I'm running a multi million dollar business, and
all we're talking about is what kid is sick? What
kid has to go here? And we the house became
the business. And I started to talk to my wife.
(36:21):
I couldn't never cut it off. I started to talk
to my wife like an employee. It didn't work out
well for me. I slept on the couch a lot,
and then I ended up getting divorced. How how were
you able to turn that off when you go home?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
It's funny, my first wife worked in my first wife
you know where I'm going already. No, it worked in
my business with me, and same kind of thing. She
became a business partner, and business frustrations got in the
middle of us. All we talked about was working business.
It never we were the opposite. We never talked about children.
All we talked about was working business now.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But when we marry it was still it was still
a business, all right, get her there at three or four?
Speaker 3 (36:58):
How much.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Did that destroy the business as well, I mean destroy
the marriage.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I think it did. I think it did. You know
I've been married to Nicole for twenty five years. Now,
you've met Nicole and she is out of the business
and she carries a card she's our special projects manager,
so she can come in and do stuff and do
fun things that she likes to contribute. But the business
never gets between us anymore. And that's really really important
(37:24):
because the frustrations of business, damn it. Guys like you
and I live with these frustrations. Yeah. The challenge for
us is not to bring them home somehow, not to
bring them home. And I work really hard at that.
I'm not as good as it is i'd like to be,
but I think I'm better at it today than I
was ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We are, we grow, you know, and I would love
for because it was that moment. I gotta tell you
that moment with my wife, Heather, who I've been with
now eighteen years. So she was young, she was twenty
two to twenty three, but she had this brilliant aspect
of understanding men like us or me, because I was
mainly one of the first men she was ever with
around twenty six twenty seven, and she started to see
(38:01):
how my office operated in my life was many women
would say, well.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
How is it working out?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
She says, She said, when he comes home, I don't
talk to him for the first hour or half an hour.
If he wants to talk to me, he talks to me.
I'm not going to hit him with problems as soon
as he wakes in the door, walks in the door,
because I see when he wakes up he has one
hundred emails and one hundred texts and emails and Texas
is never anything good for you. It's always somebody else's
goddamn problem. When he come home, I want to leave
(38:28):
that up to him. And then it was that moment
when I heard her giving another person advice. She never
even told me that she did that. It was that
moment I said, well, how can I repay her for
what she's doing for me? And I think that it's
that sensibility of understanding the other person's position and give
(38:50):
me a tip. Do you have any tips how you
guys make it work?
Speaker 3 (38:55):
You know, I can't believe you said that. And as
you was saying that, I was thinking about myself. And
call with me handles everything in our personal lives, manages
the household. If I'm traveling, my bags are packed for me.
When I come home, they run packed for me. My insurance,
my cars, my vehicles. She'll call the hotels, make sure
the room I have is everything that I needed to be.
And she is focused on me all the time. And
(39:18):
I realized that she is as much of a reason
for my own success as I am. If it wasn't friend,
She's my muse in a way. If she wasn't behind
me to the level that I am or your wife
is to you, I'm not sure you and I could
stand in the ways that we do have the freedom
of mind if you will to attack the things that
we attack and accomplish every day.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
So these past five years had gotten I would literally
be dead if I didn't have that, because the same
way she does that to you, she'd probably make sure
you go on to the doctors. I wouldn't have known
I had thyroid cancer unless she said, get your ass
to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Bingo. Same exact thing with me. So you and I
recognize the power that they have to our success, and
I think we treat them accordingly. So I look at
my wife as is not a partner that I don't need.
I look at her as the partner that I do need.
You know, we all have partners that contribute, and we
all have partners that don't contribute, don't you know we
(40:26):
all have partners that contribute, and we all have partners
that don't contribute. The ones that contribute, we treat very
differently than the ones that don't contribute. These are contributing
our partners, our biggest contributing partners. So I've gotten really
good these past few years of really appreciating that and
by the way, saying to her very often, I appreciate you,
and I appreciate these things that you do. And that
(40:48):
goes a long way in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I do. I do as well. But I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Let me see who did I I realize how to
say that I appreciate. Oh it was how it's sterned
one day was talking to he was talking to who's
the guy who need to be loved by somebody else?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
The panties were thrown on the stage or who's that guy?
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Big singer Tom Jones, Tom Jones, how is stern his
first wife? Was talking about first wife and second wife.
Actually this guy, this guy in the radio who who
names Big Lou and he he goes he's a divorce
(41:32):
attorney and he likes to say, I'm Big Lou, and
Big Lou's just like you, except for I'm not on
wife number three, I'm on wife number two.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
But you know how Howard was talking Tom Joe.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
He said, Tom, women throw their undergarments on the stage
at you.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
You have a wife. Your wife is happy with you,
and you're happy with her.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I mean, any woman could be intimidated, any man could
be intimidated by other people going to that level of
adornment for your your significant other. He says, how do
you deal with that? And Tom Jones said, Howard, what
do you say to your He said, what do you
say to your wife when you leave in the morning?
(42:15):
How I said, goodbye, you old raggedy ass. Something something
that slamers his doll. Right, that's the problem, Tom, that's
the problem, Howard, he said, I say to my wife
every time before I leave in the morning, I'm gonna
miss you. And let me tell you something. You've been
on my mind all morning, and you will be on online.
I can't wait till I come home.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I think that if you just take a second
right to tell somebody that thing that you know, we
take so much for granted. Now, think about how much
we say that to our little kids, our daughters, your grandchildren.
You know, I love you, You know you did the most
amazing thing today, or you know what, It's better than
I say you did the most of the thing. Amazing
thing is better say you work so hard at what
(42:57):
you did, and I'm very proud of you. We need
take that time when I significantother. All right, let me
get the one to talk the way.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
I think the same is true with employees. It is partners,
a little personal recognition. You know, how are you Howard?
How's your wife doing? How the kids doing? Good to
see you today? You know. I found that that there
was the book The One Minute Manager years ago. Yes,
very powerful book to me, and it taught us attack
what people do, don't attack them. Yes, So if you
were working for me, I'd say, damon, I love you
(43:24):
working for me, buddy, I'm really proud that you work
for my organization, But could you do something for me?
So I build you up and challenge what you did?
And you know, I think that's an important uh. I
know we're talking about wives and I wouldn't, you know,
approach you quite that way. But recognition like that is
critical for the people that work for us as well.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I would about to say, do I have my One Minute
Manager around?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
And I read every single year because I keep I
have to get better and better with communication all the time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
And what do I have here?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I have the Magic Ladder to Success by Napoleon Hill.
I like that that one, But.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
To also have you read Myth Revisited. No Michael Gerber, so,
E Myth revisit Folkus.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Michael Gerber was the founder of the it was a
movie company, right, Michael Gerber, no.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Different, He's a writer. E my Th revisits. He talks
about the premise of working in the business and working
on the business. Yeah, and that everybody is either a
manager and administrator or a creative any just fascinating book.
I think you'd enjoy it revisiting.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
I absolutely will, and I gotta do the audio. Come dyslexic,
So you know when I worked in when I worked
in restaurants or a lobster, we all know there's a
loop table music all the time before you know it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
At first I hated it.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Second, you know, before I know when I left the
company or left places I was.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Those were songs on the top of my my playlist
when you were coming up.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Were there any specific songs that meant success to you
or you know that you played or that or even
till today. You know, some people have My Way by
Frank Sinatra, I have Rising to the Top by Kenny
Burke or Bill Conte, Going the Distance, Rocky song d
the Rocky One Gets Me did you have any songs
(45:05):
that were all in that thing.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
But I actually have the only patent ever issued by
the federal government for the management of music to achieve
a desired ambiance and a hospitality property. I am a
music freaking nutcase. The music in my restaurants are curated
by beats per minute, keys, vocalists, and instrumentation combinations into
(45:29):
beats per minuted, energy curves and content curves. And I
can control how quick you chew through my music program.
How can you do I can maniculate how quick your
table turns through my music program.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
So how can you do that?
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Because the tables are not all being sad at the
same time unless you have an eight o'clock.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
But it's still a forty five minute turn or a
fifty minute turn. So music programs tend to go in
a forty five minute cycle.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Forty five And why this forty five minutes any not
the same.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Song every forty five minutes? Say it? Beats per minute curve,
the same structural elements repeat themselves.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Understood.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
So I'm moving you through a bit of an energy
curve if you will, damon, And you know your body
reacts to those energy curves. The speed that you walk,
the speed, that issue all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
So are you saying that if I come in your
restaurant and I'm feeling really sexy because you got shot
a playing is eight o'clock, you know the wine is flowing,
but now all of a sudden, you know you want
to get the doors closed, and you turn them.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I mean the dessert to.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Loop, don't stop, get it, get like, how do you
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (46:34):
That's what I'm doing. Then I'm playing with lighting levels
because the dimmer the lights, the closer you get to
the person you're talking to. The brighter the lights, the
farther you get. So when you look at music content,
music volume level, lighting levels, then the real science becomes
the interactivity of eye contact. For example, in a bar
at zero level, everybody's in barstools at high seating. At
(46:56):
an elevated level, everybody's at low seating. So when you
walk through the room, everybody's eyes are within ten inches
of each other. At a low seat, at an elevated
area high seat of a zero area. So I keep
everybody's eye height the same. It maximizes interaction and connect
to the time. I'm gonna get this whole lot. So
(47:18):
now I put the right music program, the right writing levels,
the right dynamics of those elements, and now I'm controlling
your experience.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
So I'm walking in the sparstals up here because I'm like.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
I see you, homie, Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
You see me. And then Arcol sitting and you standing
is almost the same eye height, isn't it. Now you
turn your head to the elevated area and the people
sitting are also at the same eye height.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Oh that's I got it now.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
So well there's another theory, right, and you tell me,
and I'm sure you can dig into this. So when
we were in clubs and we were really going crazy, we.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Noticed a club was like somebody broke it down like
a jungle.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
They said, the guys are gonna all stand, you know,
at the table, and you know, boom boom, boom boom.
But the guy or girl with the most money or
the most attractiveness start to become like the hawk and
the lion, and they get higher on the chair and
on the because they're the apex predator, and the predator
(48:20):
is allowing the sheep or gazelles to see them because
they will pick them off accordingly.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Is that it's marketing. Marketing. What you're doing market if.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
You have this platform where maybe the table is a little.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Bit more absolute, is a little brighter at that particular.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
The lighter is brighter at that table.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
But here's the funny stuff. Let's say back in your
bar days, David, Let's say you and irat bar were
hanging out togethers a couple of really beautiful girls up
on an elevated area. So you want to I want
to walk by those girls. I do. We get a
little eye contact, right, So we go up the steps
to the elevated area. We walk up to the girls.
There's a dead end. We can't get off now, we
got to turn around and walk back the other way.
(49:05):
We feel like idiots. Girls know exactly what we were doing.
What if there was a staircase on the other side
so I could flow through rather than look like an
idiot and hit a dead end, You're more likely to
have eye contact with those girls now because I've got
a flow pattern around it. So the science of connectivity
and interactivity in the bars really deep. It's almost a
(49:26):
podcasting to itself.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
No, it's no, that is not a that is your book.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Your book is structure in any setting for ultimate interaction
or positioning. That is the book that is an architectural.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
What Bible.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
And then we do something called the butt funnel. The
butt funnel is a thirty inch opening to get onto
the dance floor. It's drink rails on either side. So
when you approach the butt funnel, you're gonna either rub
face to face with somebody you know, up your choice.
But so again, all of these are tricks of interactivity.
You can drink at home, buddy, you can watch TV
(50:08):
at home, you can listen to music at home. The
one thing I can give you that nobody else can
is interaction. That's what the business really is today.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
We need nothing else to say.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
You need a damon John Barr a restaurant, you will.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
There's nothing else that This is really this, This is
like all my life.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
And you know I am a very very very very
proud dad.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
My daughter just graduated, Parson, I saw some graduation with
a master's in architectural design, and I am going to
have her.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Talk to you.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Please do I'm gonna put my uh my lazy boy
on a recline, on a on a on a pedestal
in my home with a lot of lights around it.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
So when my wife, but you know, my wife is
gonna look up and go look at that jerk up there.
He's really high up in the air.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
But you know, John, I could talk to you forever,
and you know I can't. I can't wait to see this.
This the new episode, the new series of Our Stool.
I know you said that.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
I asked you.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
I always beg you. What can I promote of yours?
But I know it's only in two city, but let's
talk about it. Tell me what what you got coming out?
Where can people find you? Follow you? Just tell me it,
lay it on the line.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
I need. I know you didn't want to promote anything,
but what do you have? Talk to me?
Speaker 3 (51:26):
Ah bye, buddy, thank you. You know my Taffers taverns
are doing great. We have one in Washington, d C. Downtown,
went and Outpharetta, Georgia, and when in what a town
in Boston. We're opening in Alabama soon and in Las
Vegas soon, so those are going really well. That's my
restaurant franchise.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
So Tafa tavern is opening all those cities.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
And if people do not know about it, whether you're
a customer or somebody who has product andro want to
see how to be in business with mister Tafford. Did
you hear what he just said? It's rolling out and
it's not gonna stop.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Go ahead, yep. Next one is my Brown Butter Bourbon.
I'm really proud of this one, buddy. This is Brown
Butter Bourbon. And I'm gonna send you a bottle, okay,
that I've been working on for two and a half years.
We just introduced it in Boston and Vegas. It goes
national soon and it's doing great. Man. I'm blown away
by how successful.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
You shouldn't be because you know, you've been doing this
all your life and you don't put your name on
anything so Brown Butter Bourbon. And I'm sure it'll get
bigger and better distribution. You accomplished that, and you have books.
Don't bullshit yourself, raise the.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
Bar and the power of conflict. All right, man?
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Well I I really I'm not bullshiting you, man, because
I don't think I could add any value in a
book when you talk about the environment. Because we're very
visual and now in this world of everything's instagram TikTok,
I mean your structures and thinking about these structures you
roll them off your lips so naturally but easily. But
(52:51):
I think that this whole thing about when you are
someplace because you know, people don't need to go to
venue so they can do stuff like you said, drink
it home. I think that's the next book, man. I
would love to hear that. But you know what you're
you're you're a very successful businessman. You don't need my
you don't need my opinion, but I appreciate I love your.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Opinion, buddy. I got great respect for your good friend, Damon.
I love you my brother.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
Well, thank you brother so much, and thank you for
sharing this moment and sharing with everybody that moment that
you've had in your life.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
And I appreciate your brother.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Thank Here Sea.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
For more podcasts from.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
The Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't
forget to subscribe to and rate the show. And of
course you can at all connect with me on any of
my social media platforms at the Shark.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Damon spelt like Raymond, but what a d
All right, John, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And I want everybody to know that, you know, John
is such one of those real guys that we just
called last and like, hey, we have some open time,
and I'm sure John is just sitting around and twiddling
his thumbs as you have time. And John said, matter
of fact, I was sitting around. Now I'm just choking,
but John came on last minute.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Thank you, John. I appreciate you being on that moment.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
My pleasure, but anything for you. We've always been supportive
of each other over.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
The years we have we have and listen, you're eight
season in right, a season on Bar Rescue.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I am about to start shooting the ninth in August.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
All right, ninth and August, you know, advocate for or
small businesses, entrepreneurs. I like the way that you're an
advocate for though, because I think that you know. Now,
I got a children's book out, John, and my thing
with now is what I realized is there are children
that act like children. They are adults at act like adults,
(01:16):
and they are adults at act like children. And I
after I decided that these beautiful little kids who you
never know what challenge they're going through, and you know
they're not tainted by the world and there's sponges. I
need to start giving some of these adults that act
like children.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
A little more. John Tapper, Kevin O'Leary, Gary.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Ve kind of like, I'm rooting for you, but grow up, yeah,
and come to the reality of what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You know, it's funny. I was sitting with my daughter
years ago, and I had a box of cereal on
the table and I was teaching her about money. So
I took one hundred They were cheerios. They took a
hundred cheerios and said, okay, I gotta good the government
thirty of these. So I pushed those aside. I got
to pay the rent. They pushed those aside. I gotta pay.
You want a new baseball glove, I got to get
you there, and we had no cheerios left. At at
eight years old, she started to understand that, and I
(02:07):
called it the cheerio bottle, but it really taught her
the premise of it. I've always wanted to write a
children's book about a lemonade stand how to run a
lemonade stand profitably, And I always thought something like that
could be a lot of fun, just to teach the
values of dollars and quality and service and the things
you and I live by.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love that, the quality and service, so because that's
what you're an expert for, getting right down to the core.
But why don't we talk about I don't know, why
don't we go into that moment? When was your first
either lemonade stand or the lemonade stand that you felt
that was funky and it needed some adjusting, Because you know,
I think that's a good way to start. You know,
lemonade stands when when John and I started was as
(02:46):
big as the corner lemonade stands today is as big
as how many people can you know?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Your your your smartphone can hit? All right?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So why don't we start off with that? John, when
was the when did you did you? I don't even
want to assume, but did your first lemonade stand or
first business a first venture work out?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:06):
No, my first venture I had a partner who I
shouldn't have signed with. I trusted them on paperwork and
I got ripped off for the only six hundred thousand
dollars I had in my name. So my first one
was not good. And you know, I learned a lesson
at that time about integrity and trustworthiness and who to
get in bed with, so to speak. And of course
I never had that again, but I attained success. And
you know when you asked me this question, dam and
(03:28):
I thought it was a an incredible concept to talk
about this moment that changes all of our lives. And
I thought about several that I had in life. For example,
when I was younger and I owned my first nightclub,
and it was a big nightclub with technology and dance floors,
and I stood in there by myself at four in
the morning, and the fact that I could.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Own where was his club? And where was his club?
And how old were you?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
It was in Chicago, and I was about I guess
twenty eight maybe something like that. But to look over
my domain, if you will, and you know what I had,
That was a pretty good moment for me. But when
I thought about, you know what moment was the most
powerful that I wanted to give to you. Here's the story.
I'm at Caesar's palace many years ago, about thirteen fourteen
(04:10):
years ago, and I'm giving a speech and at the
end of the speech, can I use frank language or
should I filter this to clean up Okay, I'm giving
a speech, and at the end of the speech, somebody
comes up to me and says, John, you should be
on television. So I go home and I write something
up called on the Rocks three pages and damnutes, half
Mission Impossible and half kitchen nightmare. So I'm going to
(04:32):
be dropped in a restaurant with files, and I'm going
to have the file of my mixologist and my chef,
just like the beginning of Mission. I put it together,
and years earlier, I had been a consultant to Paramont
for Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and some of their hospitality stuff.
So I hadn't made a decent living at that point, damon.
But I wasn't wealthy by all means yet. So because
(04:52):
of my contacts at Paramount, I could set up a
meeting to pitch my idea to them. Set ahead of
TV and a bunch of Paramount people in the room.
And I walked and I sit down and I tell
them my idea, and they look at me and say, John,
you will never fucking be on television. You're too old,
you're not good looking enough. It'll never happen. So I
walk out of the meeting. I get in my car.
(05:14):
They gave me a drive ice say that to you
in exactly that way, precisely work.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
You know, Wait, who what company was this again?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
This was in Paramount on a Paramount lot. And it's
funny because what network am I on today? Paramots? It's funny, David,
what happened though?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Like because you know, I got to tell you something
about Hollywood. What I my experience with Hollywood is nobody
tells you no to your face. They tell you it's
not the time of this. Why because you know what.
They don't want to be the person that told John
Tapper no years later, and I don't remember if I
have respect for the person who told you, or I
(05:54):
feel sorry for the person who told you, but go ahead.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
So so I had not been in TV, so they
I had given me this meeting, and my question to
m gentlemen, I want to share an idea with you
to see if it's even worse my time. And that's
when they said to me, you'll never be your two
old knucker sry drive in through the Paramount gates on
a way out da. I mean, as you can imagine,
I'm bummed, right, and I think to myself, you know
what I'm gonna make my own sizzle reel. So in
(06:19):
the television business, you sell shows based on these three
to four minute sizzle reels. Right. So I go to
a friend's bar in Homosa Beach. It's empty on a
Saturday afternoon, it's full on Sunday for football. I film
it empty, do my stick my stuff, film it full,
create a four minute sizzle reel, edit it myself, send
it to four production companies and get four out of
(06:39):
four offers because I was angry that they had looked
at me and said, no, you'll never be on television.
It almost energized me, you know what I mean. It
gave me the fight to go after this and I
got four out of four offers.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Buddy, But who gave but let me in congratulations on that?
First of all, that is showing how you know your
ability to Bob and Wee. But why First of all,
you know if they don't see you on TV? And
who cares what other people think? But what gave you
the the guts or the vision or the confidence to
(07:17):
feel like you should be on TV?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Because maybe you could have went in there and said, well,
I'm John Tapper, I'm establishing the business and I got
some really sexy young people that I want to produce
a show because I'm connected.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
What what made you? Because you were never on TV before?
That right?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Never? Nor had I ever been in the television business before.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Well why did you feel you can do that? And
let me ask them?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Were you married at the time or I was okay,
are you still we're still married at the same person
years and when? What does she say to you when
you said you were going to go do this and
pitch this?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
She was actually pretty supportive. She's she's I'm proud to say,
probably my biggest fan, damon. So her support meant a
lot to me at the time. But that no, I
think gave me a greater level of energy than a
yes would have given me. And the person who did
that to me, you're going to get a kick out
of this. Years ago, there was a company that sold
black roses and they sold them in coffin shaped boxes
(08:15):
to send to people. So I bought a box of
twelve black roses in a coffin box that I shipped
it to him.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
When this show is nice, nice and now we know
who we are today. But let me let me I
want to go back to when you were that night
club owner. Yeah, it was first night club. You're twenty
eight years old. You're in Chicago, correct, yep, you just
opened the doors. How much did you put into that club?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
About a half a million dollars? Blood half blood?
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Ye have partners?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I did it?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
What do you mean, bo you borrowed? You borrowed it?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Oh no, No, I borrowed about one hundred of it.
But it was money, you know, It's all I had.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's all you had?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Did you have partners?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Had one partner?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Was that the one who who took you for six hundred?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Nope? That was the next The second one was a
good one. The first one to me for six hundred,
and I had no recourse because I didn't have to
write paperwork. I went add it as a total rookie
on a handshake, name and something I would never do again.
And of course you would never advise.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, so you're at the second one. This is now
you're on your own.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You you but you have a level of confidence because
of your first whatever maybe you first experienced in the
first club.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Correct. Yeah, And and you know, I must say, even
when I was young, I had always had a good
level of confidence. You know, I think I was good
when I was young at presenting myself with a little BS,
And I think as I got older and older, the
BS got less and less and I actually became what
I said. But I think in the younger years I
had the confidence to pitch myself into situations that some
(09:42):
would say I wasn't qualified for, but I pulled them
off in the end.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
But unlike you being you, being you, wanted to be
somebody who you know brings your message to the masses
on television and helps probably empower so many more people
because when you know family, a couple partners are going
through some shit and they look at you and you
just you just basically pulverize somebody for doing the wrong thing,
even though you told them where they use value. These
(10:08):
people now can say, you see, look, I'm not the
only one who thinks like that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Right, But.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You know, when you were trying to get on TV,
it wasn't proven. But now if you've gotten you know,
from my Shark Tank experience of sniffing through, if somebody
sold six hundred thousand for me, that means there was
six hundred thousand to be stolen, right, now you're at
version number two, you're on your own. You borrowed a hundred,
but you probably have some data and numbers of what
you've done before that makes people say, I will give
(10:36):
you a hundred of mine. How are you feeling at
that moment? Where you do you remember where you married,
where you do you have kids? Were you nervous? Where
you just was anybody special in your life? What happened
and what was the pressure of opening that second Were
you naive like, oh my god, I got this second one,
no problem, or where you like, holy crap, I'm actually
(10:56):
on my own. I don't have somebody as experienced or
better or more experienced than me. What were you going
through at that moment of your life?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well, it wasn't the holy crap thing. I wasn't freaking
out in that kind of a way. I was pretty
But you know, I for years had been a hospitality professional.
So I had been a bar manager, I had been
a hotel general manager. I had been a resort food
and beverage director. So I had run multimillion dollar food
and beverage businesses. And I knew I was good at
it because I had been promoted and I'd received raises
(11:24):
and I've gotten a few awards and stuff, so when
I opened it, I had the confidence in my ability
to run it. But you know, it's a new location,
as you know, dam and the greatest idea can fail
in the wrong place or with the wrong people around you.
So of course you always have those fears. But I'm
not the type to have doubted myself. Now. I didn't
have my daughter till I was thirty five years old,
(11:45):
so I was still single. And when I was in
a hospitality business before I opened my own company, which
is nineteen eighty six, I was VP of a hotel
company and they had moved me eleven times in five
years to bigger and bigger and bigger hotels because I
was really good at driving revenue and I knew that,
so I had a bit of a history in it.
(12:05):
And then when I started my own company in nineteen
eighty six, my first client was the hotel company that
I had worked for, So I thought I had a
bit of a cushion when I started my own business
that way.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Right, And so you so you were still single, right, yep?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
I was.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You know, Mark Cuban will say often and even I'll
say that very similar thing. You know, when he was
building his you know, working on his stuff. You know,
a girlfriend said to him, you worked too hard. It's
either it's either me or the business. And he said,
I'm sorry. What was your name again? Where where were
you with relationships at that time my life?
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, I was selfishly absorbed in my own professional career
at that stage in my life, and I had girlfriends
that had come and gone, but I would relocate and
if she didn't want to come with me, she didn't
come with me. But I still took that opportunity, and
I got married late, and I put my career first.
And I realized back then, being in a hospitality business dayment,
(13:07):
that I couldn't always create my own opportunities in the
cities that I lived in. I had to be willing
to go to that bigger, better market to get that bigger,
better property. So yeah, I think that at a young age,
you should be selfish about your career and stay focused.
And I think paying the does with that kind of
focus is what sets you up to take care of
that family a little later on.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
It is it is so one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I you know, I tell people, I tell people, I
tell people even my daughter as much as I love them.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
I'm a girl.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Dad.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I say, you know, up until twenty or somebody's daughter,
and then you're going to be somebody's wife and mother
and grandmother. And I said, ten years do you And
I don't care what you is Bill Wells in Africa,
party like a rock star, go look at art, save
sea turtles.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
I don't care.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
That's great, but know who you are. See I did that.
I didn't have that advice for my but I did that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But you did it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But there's a lot of temptation at twenty eight years old,
you know, there's a lot of distraction to live in
the world of a night life and own a club.
Did you have those because first of all, you are
you know, you're you're going to sleep at six o'clock
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Probably you are.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
There is a lot of liquor, there's a lot of
various other barrier rock and roll, sex, drugs and rock
and roll. Were you living that life where you nose down?
You know, where was that? Where were you at that time?
Because I got to tell you at thirty years old,
when I had a couple of million dollars in the bank,
I was really, really focused, but yeah, you know, I
made some mistakes too. I was like, wait a minute.
(14:39):
First of all, I made some mistakes on my diet.
I was like, I can eat all everything. I'll have
it all right. Uh. And you know a type personalities
like you, myself and many listening. We don't know how
to do it halfway. Were there any temptations and or
did you take advantage of those temptations?
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Yeah? There were was particularly when I ran a troubadour
and Hollywood, which I think you know is a very
famous nightclub. Oh yeah, and in those days you ran.
I ran a tubaterur back in the late seventies early.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Ages with all the with all the famous famous rock
bands come.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Oh yeah, Now when I ran a tribun of beds
like Fear and Black Flag and adam Ant and all
those punk points. Gosh, there's a lot of temptation around
you in those days. As you can imagine, dam and
women are like crazy white powder all over the darn past.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, I'm not talking about Johnson and Johnson, but you know.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
I think you and I have something in common. I
would look at that room of all these people that
were high and drunk and partying, and I would say
to myself, somebody here needs to be sober. Somebody here
needs to take responsibility. God forbid should something happen to someone.
And as the bar owner and the operator, I always
looked at that responsibility in that way. So I was
(15:51):
never the drunk guy in a room. I always tended
to be the sober guy. Now, if you and I
went out on a night off, that's a different deal, buddy,
I could have a good time with you. I did
not succumb. I must tell you I avoided my employees
from a relationship standpoint. I really didn't drink and I
didn't fall into the drug thing on a job. So
I think I was fortunate that I had the discipline
(16:11):
to do that. And that was an interesting era back
then then because that was pre aids, pre gangs, pre violence.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You're talking you must be talking about eighty two or
something like.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
That, seventy nine to eighty two, exactly, right.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Seventy nine to eighty two, you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know, disco was starting to slow down, right, hip
hop starting to come up.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Punk bands like.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Blondie and all these other bands are now starting to
hit the country. My Sharona, it was my Sharona. It
was a very very special special time. There was a
lot of hairspray lot.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That was a fun time. I remember girls in those
days were cell a fane pads. You could see through them,
the valley girls in the alley. Those were fun times.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Those were fun times.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Women's lib had already really taken and effect, and women
felt that, you know, we can do what the men do.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
And they were very very just, you know, overt with
a lot of things and it you know, it's fine.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
But society wasn't defensive like it is today. David.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It wasn't.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It wasn't so you would manage to have that discipline.
But I got to ask you another question, because I
don't like I don't like going into restaurant businesses for
various things. I think technology now is saved some of
my concerns, But when I worked at certain restaurants, the
staff would steal everything. If it wasn't nailed down, they
were going to steal it. Now in my business and
(17:33):
a lot of people should understand, there is going to
be what we call leakage, whatever you want to call leakage, right,
somebody stealing with the terms whatever. Okay, Besides this, person
who you know clearly took advantage of a handshake agreement.
But when was the first time you caught somebody that
you trust or you believed you trust, stealing from you.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
In your business.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, there were two biggies. One was somebody who I
was putting in business. I was investing in them. I
had put it not that much, about one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars into their business, and they completely rip
me off and it broke my heart. It was a
very very personal one.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Why did they rip you off? Did they have a problem?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Because a lot of time when people rip you off,
it could be habitual clept though. They could be con
men and women. They could fall into a divorce or drugs,
or they can.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Say John got it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Fuck that.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Fuck John, He's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You know what, I don't care all that I helped you,
because a lot of time, when you help people so much,
they either either are like, man, really, I thank you,
or they can't. It's overwhelming to them where they want
to say fuck you.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I think that got it any great? Damn? I think
that what I did is I was putting him in
a position of ownership, and I'm mature, and I think
he resented the fact that I was putting him in
this position of responsibility, and he said, just what you said?
Fuck him, He's already got his money, I don't want
to do this, and he just sort of abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
What do you do? How did you respond to that?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Did you?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I know it hurt, but you know that could have
made you a cold person from that point on and
never given anybody else a chance. What did you Because
you're still still in a business that it's very volatile
when it comes to.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, but you know, today a lot of systems and
a lot of automated systems and such do it. For example,
my Taffers tavern has sixty percent of the labor costs
of a regular restaurant. In the kitchen, everything is packaged
and counted and numbered. You know, the controls can be
in place to do it. Now. I'll tell you a
funny story. When I was running the Troubadour, I had
an assistant manager I liked, and he looked like HI,
like sort of dizzy, if you will, And he came
(19:43):
out of the walking refrigerator. So I walked into the
walking refrigerator. You gotta laugh and on the floor into
walking refrigerator with two cases of ready whip.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Crick cream whipped cream whip hits.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
And twenty four cans in each case, and not one
of them had any guests.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
One of them worked.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
He was blowing his brains out.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
How do you like?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I don't understand because you have a you know, going
to the fact that you have discipline there, but you're
dealing with bartenders and various other people. I mean, you
got a heavy turnover normally. What would you say to
people now when they catch people stealing? In that sense, when.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I'm of the belief that if honesty is sacrificed, there's
no basis of any relationship ever with someone who lies
or steals. That ends everything.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
To me.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
There's no second chance, no form of discussion. If an
employee lies to me about doesn't have to be financially related,
those things, you know, are deal changers for me. I
believe that any relationship, professional or otherwise has to be
based in trust. So I really try to be honest
with the people around me. If things are good, I
say it. If they're not good, I say it. You know,
(20:52):
I know my producer's sitting here with me. I know
he would shake his head that he always knows where
he stands, and so theft is unbelievable to me. And
in bar rescue, I see it hugely, dam And I
go to these bars and these employees tell me an interview,
Oh no, the owner is like a father to me.
I love him, oh boys. And then I get into
the business and they're robbing the guy blind. And they
(21:15):
do love him, they do care about him, but they're
still robbing him blind. And what gets me, Damon, is
they're not stealing from bosses they hate. They're stealing from
bosses they love. They're not stealing from bosses they hate,
(21:46):
They're stealing from bosses they love. That's mind boggling to me.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
But this is what I mean, you know, like I
know that. The funny thing about that moment is we
go down these rabbit holes and I want to know,
you know, we see the resentment side.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
And this is a great point you're bringing up.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Like we already talked about someone you stole from me,
he said, f John, you know he got it. Why
are people robbing from people they love? Why do you
do you listen? You're not God, you don't have a
crystal ball and see the future. But I'm curious, what
have you seen a defining thing that shows that people
why people steal from those they love? You.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
I think that there is a loosening of society, if
you will, damon. I think we see it in a
lot of different ways today. I think the behavior envelope
of children is a little bigger than it used to be.
I think you and I had a narrow envelope that
we had to profit when we were younger than a
child does today. You know. I think that that people
today have a global view, or they think they have
(22:41):
a global view at a much younger age. I think
today this is a world of forgivenness. Look at my
grandson's four years old. He went to Little League this week,
and it's not little league at all. It's a t ball.
If he doesn't hit it, they applaud him. If he
hits it, day applaud him. If he catches the ball,
they applaud him. If he doesn't catches the ball, they
don't caught them. There's no latitude to win and lose.
(23:04):
So how does my little grandson, you know, get to
get the feeling of victory and loss that you and
I had when we were young that became so I
think this desire to not challenge people directly and and
to just say that's okay, little Johnny. That's okay, little Johnny.
Sometimes it's not okay, little Johnny. Do you agree?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
I one hundred percent agree. And I'm just trying to
think about the moment. You know, I found a lot
of people that are stole from so and from me,
and I found I think that we I think we're
getting into something as I discover this is that you
have to confront people no matter who they are and
how they and how they are, no matter because you're
in a business, you're all about the numbers. You know,
when somebody told me one day, somebody said, you know, dammy,
(23:45):
you're losing about a half a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
People are steal from they said, But they're not even
trying to steal from you. You know what it was
the small things is what they were doing. Like we
had clothing, so they were just you know, were's something
home sample because they're cold, But everybody wore a sample
home for the cold. We unlocked the you know the
box where all the stuff goes in for the printers
and all the paper and stuff like, well, you know, hey,
(24:09):
my kid's doing a report. I'm going to take home
a stack of paper right before uber was out. You know, Hey,
we get a car service, and I got to go
to dinner. So they get the car service at five,
they keep the car service all the way till two
o'clock in the morning, the car service just sitting there
while they're at dinner.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And that car just cost a thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Right there is intentional theft, and then there's the kind
of like, oh, that's my guy, but you know, I'm
you know, a couple of dollars. I'm not going to
charge you with this drink, that drink, this drink, that drink,
this drink, that drink, and before you know it, it
mounts up. So how do you differentiate those that are
intentional and those that are doing things by mistake, because
(24:47):
even though they're doing it by mistake, they're not considering it.
What do you do in that sense?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Well, you know, it's interesting that you say that. I
always say they find a way to justify it to themselves. Yeah,
oh I've been on the road for four days. I
deserve of this, or ah, well, you know, I really
came through for Dame, and I got him that, you know,
blah blah blah, you know, b h. So they find
some way to justify it. You know, I'm the bartender.
If it wasn't for me, Tafford wouldn't have made a
dime tonight. So I think that's a lot of it,
(25:13):
because they don't think of themselves as thieves. And that's
where it gets scary. If they don't think of themselves
as a thief, because they're justifying it to themselves, then
they're logically not going to have any guilt, and you're
going to do it again. So it's the one who
knows that he's stealing when he does it. You know,
in the bar business. I'll tell you a funny story.
In the bar business. What the way they steal more
(25:34):
than any other way, Daman is they ring up no sale.
So let's say I sell you twenty dollars worth of drinks.
I go up to I say twenty dollars. I go
to the register, I ring up no sale. You don't
see that from your seat. I put the twenty in
the drawer. The drawer now owes me twenty. I take
two pennies, ten dollars each in representation. Move them over
(25:55):
to a little pile. Now I go, the drawer owes
me twenty. I do that four more time. Now the
drawer owes me one hundred dollars. Right, Oh, I'm out
of singles, So I count out five twenties from my
tip cup, go up to the drawer, pull two hundred
dollars out and drop it in the tip cup. And
now I'm even again.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
So now you think like a thief? How do you think?
Why would you think like a thief?
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So when they do this stuff, you can see the
piles of pennies and matches behind the bar, because they
and I'll take it. I'll mess that up. I'll move
their stuff around when I'm back there. So now they
lose freaking count. Now when I close them out at
the end of the night, they're over under one hundred
dollars and fifty dollars and I got them, buddy. But
(26:39):
but uh uh, you know, it's the employee who knows
he's stealing is one thing, but the employee who justifies
it to himself is even scarier, because that's the one
who tells the employee next time, you should do it too.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I love, I love, love love how you just broke
down because you know, a lot of people don't think
that the bosses know the game. I live in Miami,
you know, And and I don't carry cash. And the IRIS,
I'm the IRIS, the most watched person in the world.
I'm an African American giving away money on TV.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
All right. I pay more.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I pay enough taxes for you, me and everybody else,
not my share. I pay everybody's share on purpose. I
pull up in Miami.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
It always happens.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Hey, you want to park it in front if it's one
of my really nice cars. And I don't know how
many of the really nice ones. I don't want to
get a short parking in front?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
All right?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
One hundred dollars cash. No, I don't pay cash. I
pay credit card. No no, no, no, no, puppy, we don't.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
We don't.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We don't take credit cards. All right, guys, let me
let me break this to you. I'm an African American
driving a Rolls Royce. I'm the biggest thief around here.
I know how to hustle my brothers. Now, it is
not about being a thief, because I'm not. It's just
I've been around so much. I guy, stop lying to me,
you have a square somewhere over here, stop lying to me.
(27:59):
Then all of a sudden, oh, Papa, look, we found
it is working. Now why do employees not know that
we know the hustle?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, it's remarkable, But I think the trick to it
I have found in my business is they need to
know that I know, because that's where the fear comes,
and that's where the regulatory impact comes. If they know
I know, like I move those pennies, I say something
to them, I catch them in an act, et cetera.
When they know I know, that's when it tends to
(28:28):
stop the problem.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
You find that they quit, though, because when you find
habitual thieves or liars or people who fluff.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
This is definitely not a negative interview because this is
us talking because a lot of business owners are listening
to us and will listen to us and be more
empowered to say more money, to employ more people.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
But when you find that people, you.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Just cut their work or their revenue, because you know,
when people start to make more, they count on it more.
And ifotentially, if they are somebody who is a thief,
they probably have a lot of other bad habits. So
do you find that when you now box them into
a corner for any reason, whether it's taking credit of
another person's work that's stealing too, do you find that
they quit?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
It depends upon if they believe they're stealing or not.
If they believe they're stealing, then this lost income to them.
If they're one of those people who justify it to themselves,
I can get them to stay with the absence of it.
That's a really key question, though, because if they leave
in that case, then don't you want them to leave anyway?
They're thiefs?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I do.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
But what if I got a story for you. I
get a story for you. I take a job as
a bartender in nineteen seventy eight at Barney's Beanery on
Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. I'm sure a famous place.
I'm sure you go. My first night there, the bartender
I think he's dead so I can say his name,
Kenny Bourrenstein comes up to me, says, we steal here.
You have to take at least one hundred a night.
(29:53):
This is a nineteen seventy eight one hundred dollars was
a decent amount of money back.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Yeah, yeh yeah, that's four hundred dollars now.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
So I said, how do you do it? So he
showed me how to do it, and he said, listen
to me. If I steal and you don't, the registers
are out of whack. You must steal one hundred to night.
Everybody steals one hundred to night. That was my first
night working in that operation. So it's a cancer. And
when you catch somebody who does it, even if you
sense they might be doing it, you have to kill
(30:19):
the cancer. And I use something called the landmark fire.
I don't know if you've ever heard that term before. Now,
be a landmark fire would be taking the biggest defender,
whether it's be the lowest performing employee, the most thieving employee,
the employee with the worst attitude, and fire them and
it's a landmark fire, and it wakes up everybody else
around them. And you know, firing somebody for theft or
(30:41):
suspect the theft can go a long way with the
people around them.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I agree, setting an example period can go a long way.
And I wanted to ask one last question about that area,
and I want to move on to something else because
I love all these moments, because that was a very
special moment that you learn that there's a lot of cohoots, coheresion,
and cutting a cancer stops it right, because it can
bring a company down as well as it can bring
(31:07):
it up. If somebody is coming in with the I
want to solve this, We're going to do this shit together, right,
that is infectious and you need more of those people.
What about in a relationship where you kind of box
the person in, whether they have been doing you wrong
or not on the same page as you do you
(31:27):
think that that initially, whether it's a partnership or whatever
the case is, romantic relationship, do they do they check
out too? Once you catch them in all these things
and say no more of this, and you you you
kind of box them into a corner.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
Yeah, once I box him, and I've sort of made
my choice that I want them to go at that point.
So I'm the kind of person who once I get
to that position a state of mind, if you will,
I don't give people a second chance when it comes
to honesty and things like that. So I'm pretty direct
in that way. All right, Well, now let's go. I
think that's a perfect said A State of Mind eight episode,
(32:03):
eight seasons excuse me.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
I watch you. You are in a lot of Middle America.
You're in a lot of cities. Now, every city is beautiful,
every city is great. If you live there, you have
your community, you have a comfortability, you have your home,
your church, whatever the case is. But you are in
a lot of cities and you do not live there.
(32:24):
You have a state of mind to do this. It
is not easy. How what was the moment, because I'm
sure after the show became a success of what it is,
did you say to yourself? Do I want to go
into these cities all the time?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Now?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
You know, I be careful what you ask for. You
had to face sometimes and maybe you love it.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
No, No, do you.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Like going into all these different cities and dealing with
all those elements being on the road and going in
and having these stressful arguments and bars and various other
things where half the people hate you, and even the
ones that you want to help change they hate you
a little bit too. For the honest truth, how do
you feel about that? And why do you continue to
do this where we all benefit?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
But why I've never been asked this question in that way.
I got a great answer for you at the end
of every episode, you see, I get a huge What
people don't know is we're wearing microphones on our chests.
So when I get that hug, the audience cannot hear
what is said to me during that hug. But the
things that owner says to me, Damon, are unbelievable. John,
(33:27):
you saved my marriage. You saved my fricking life. John,
I'm talking to my son again. Thank you. I feel
a weight wifting off my shoulders. John, you save my life.
The things they whisper into my ear, Damon, are so powerful,
so moving, so inspirational to me that that next week
I fight even harder, I scream even more, I push
(33:50):
even more, and I find surprisingly, the ones that fight
with me the most are the ones that give me
the tightest hug. Is that interesting because I think people
in their lives have never been able to crack through
to them before a lot of them are a little
thick headed, if you will, a little opinionated, and their
wives weren't able to crack through, Their partners weren't able
(34:11):
to crack through, their kids weren't able to crack through.
Suddenly I cracked through, and they're really appreciative of it.
In the end, as ugly as it got in the end,
they're really appreciative. But I wonder if you had the
same revelation when you went on television. You see, I
never thought that this depth of failure even existed. I
(34:31):
never realized people could be in not bad a position.
Fifty years old, living in your parents' basement. You blew
four hundred thousand dollars of their retirement. They have no
retirement left. You're losing in a thirty thousand a month.
You got enough money for two more weeks. I never
so when I started this, I had no comprehension damon
(34:52):
that you know that level of failure existed. And I
look at your face on shark tak. Some of these
pitches are shocking to you as well. I could see,
but it was always shocking to me that depth of failure.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
If you will, but you know, you get to see
you go deep into the fire.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
You know, my understanding of these depth of failures happen
over a year, two years, fives because you know, I
got this great pitch.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You know, we do the deal. What are the cases?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
And I'm not deep in the You get the roll
up your sleeve and you get to see how that
action is being and how that business being ran right
there in real time, and you can easily go in
there and go, okay, okay, it's all nice what you said.
Let me see what's going on here, and you get
to to condense that time as you go in there
(35:38):
yelling or screaming, and of course you go in there
often with love. You going there with love first, you
kind of go in there and break down and listen,
full environment always right, yep? How do you turn that
off at home? Because my first marriage, I was very young.
I wasn't very young. I was as you were, twenty
twenty nine, and I noticed that as we couples, young
(36:00):
couples are even older couples. And now we get together
and you had you you were smart enough to have
a child at thirty five. I noticed that. You know,
we got my wife and I. We got together because
we loved each other. But now we have children. I'm
coming home, I'm running a multi million dollar business, and
all we're talking about is what kid is sick? What
kid has to go here? And we the house became
the business. And I started to talk to my wife.
(36:21):
I couldn't never cut it off. I started to talk
to my wife like an employee. It didn't work out
well for me. I slept on the couch a lot,
and then I ended up getting divorced. How how were
you able to turn that off when you go home?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
It's funny, my first wife worked in my first wife
you know where I'm going already. No, it worked in
my business with me, and same kind of thing. She
became a business partner, and business frustrations got in the
middle of us. All we talked about was working business.
It never we were the opposite. We never talked about children.
All we talked about was working business now.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
But when we marry it was still it was still
a business, all right, get her there at three or four?
Speaker 3 (36:58):
How much.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Did that destroy the business as well, I mean destroy
the marriage.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
I think it did. I think it did. You know
I've been married to Nicole for twenty five years. Now,
you've met Nicole and she is out of the business
and she carries a card she's our special projects manager,
so she can come in and do stuff and do
fun things that she likes to contribute. But the business
never gets between us anymore. And that's really really important
(37:24):
because the frustrations of business, damn it. Guys like you
and I live with these frustrations. Yeah. The challenge for
us is not to bring them home somehow, not to
bring them home. And I work really hard at that.
I'm not as good as it is i'd like to be,
but I think I'm better at it today than I
was ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We are, we grow, you know, and I would love
for because it was that moment. I gotta tell you
that moment with my wife, Heather, who I've been with
now eighteen years. So she was young, she was twenty
two to twenty three, but she had this brilliant aspect
of understanding men like us or me, because I was
mainly one of the first men she was ever with
around twenty six twenty seven, and she started to see
(38:01):
how my office operated in my life was many women
would say, well.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
How is it working out?
Speaker 3 (38:06):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
She says, She said, when he comes home, I don't
talk to him for the first hour or half an hour.
If he wants to talk to me, he talks to me.
I'm not going to hit him with problems as soon
as he wakes in the door, walks in the door,
because I see when he wakes up he has one
hundred emails and one hundred texts and emails and Texas
is never anything good for you. It's always somebody else's
goddamn problem. When he come home, I want to leave
(38:28):
that up to him. And then it was that moment
when I heard her giving another person advice. She never
even told me that she did that. It was that
moment I said, well, how can I repay her for
what she's doing for me? And I think that it's
that sensibility of understanding the other person's position and give
(38:50):
me a tip. Do you have any tips how you
guys make it work?
Speaker 3 (38:55):
You know, I can't believe you said that. And as
you was saying that, I was thinking about myself. And
call with me handles everything in our personal lives, manages
the household. If I'm traveling, my bags are packed for me.
When I come home, they run packed for me. My insurance,
my cars, my vehicles. She'll call the hotels, make sure
the room I have is everything that I needed to be.
And she is focused on me all the time. And
(39:18):
I realized that she is as much of a reason
for my own success as I am. If it wasn't friend,
She's my muse in a way. If she wasn't behind
me to the level that I am or your wife
is to you, I'm not sure you and I could
stand in the ways that we do have the freedom
of mind if you will to attack the things that
we attack and accomplish every day.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
So these past five years had gotten I would literally
be dead if I didn't have that, because the same
way she does that to you, she'd probably make sure
you go on to the doctors. I wouldn't have known
I had thyroid cancer unless she said, get your ass
to the doctor.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Bingo. Same exact thing with me. So you and I
recognize the power that they have to our success, and
I think we treat them accordingly. So I look at
my wife as is not a partner that I don't need.
I look at her as the partner that I do need.
You know, we all have partners that contribute, and we
all have partners that don't contribute, don't you know we
(40:26):
all have partners that contribute, and we all have partners
that don't contribute. The ones that contribute, we treat very
differently than the ones that don't contribute. These are contributing
our partners, our biggest contributing partners. So I've gotten really
good these past few years of really appreciating that and
by the way, saying to her very often, I appreciate you,
and I appreciate these things that you do. And that
(40:48):
goes a long way in and of itself.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
I do. I do as well. But I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Let me see who did I I realize how to
say that I appreciate. Oh it was how it's sterned
one day was talking to he was talking to who's
the guy who need to be loved by somebody else?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
The panties were thrown on the stage or who's that guy?
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Big singer Tom Jones, Tom Jones, how is stern his
first wife? Was talking about first wife and second wife.
Actually this guy, this guy in the radio who who
names Big Lou and he he goes he's a divorce
(41:32):
attorney and he likes to say, I'm Big Lou, and
Big Lou's just like you, except for I'm not on
wife number three, I'm on wife number two.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
But you know how Howard was talking Tom Joe.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
He said, Tom, women throw their undergarments on the stage
at you.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
You have a wife. Your wife is happy with you,
and you're happy with her.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
I mean, any woman could be intimidated, any man could
be intimidated by other people going to that level of
adornment for your your significant other. He says, how do
you deal with that? And Tom Jones said, Howard, what
do you say to your He said, what do you
say to your wife when you leave in the morning?
(42:15):
How I said, goodbye, you old raggedy ass. Something something
that slamers his doll. Right, that's the problem, Tom, that's
the problem, Howard, he said, I say to my wife
every time before I leave in the morning, I'm gonna
miss you. And let me tell you something. You've been
on my mind all morning, and you will be on online.
I can't wait till I come home.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And I think that if you just take a second
right to tell somebody that thing that you know, we
take so much for granted. Now, think about how much
we say that to our little kids, our daughters, your grandchildren.
You know, I love you, You know you did the most
amazing thing today, or you know what, It's better than
I say you did the most of the thing. Amazing
thing is better say you work so hard at what
(42:57):
you did, and I'm very proud of you. We need
take that time when I significantother. All right, let me
get the one to talk the way.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
I think the same is true with employees. It is partners,
a little personal recognition. You know, how are you Howard?
How's your wife doing? How the kids doing? Good to
see you today? You know. I found that that there
was the book The One Minute Manager years ago. Yes,
very powerful book to me, and it taught us attack
what people do, don't attack them. Yes, So if you
were working for me, I'd say, damon, I love you
(43:24):
working for me, buddy, I'm really proud that you work
for my organization, But could you do something for me?
So I build you up and challenge what you did?
And you know, I think that's an important uh. I
know we're talking about wives and I wouldn't, you know,
approach you quite that way. But recognition like that is
critical for the people that work for us as well.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
I would about to say, do I have my One Minute
Manager around?
Speaker 2 (43:43):
And I read every single year because I keep I
have to get better and better with communication all the time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
And what do I have here?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
I have the Magic Ladder to Success by Napoleon Hill.
I like that that one, But.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
To also have you read Myth Revisited. No Michael Gerber, so,
E Myth revisit Folkus.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Michael Gerber was the founder of the it was a
movie company, right, Michael Gerber, no.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Different, He's a writer. E my Th revisits. He talks
about the premise of working in the business and working
on the business. Yeah, and that everybody is either a
manager and administrator or a creative any just fascinating book.
I think you'd enjoy it revisiting.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
I absolutely will, and I gotta do the audio. Come dyslexic,
So you know when I worked in when I worked
in restaurants or a lobster, we all know there's a
loop table music all the time before you know it.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
At first I hated it.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Second, you know, before I know when I left the
company or left places I was.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Those were songs on the top of my my playlist
when you were coming up.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Were there any specific songs that meant success to you
or you know that you played or that or even
till today. You know, some people have My Way by
Frank Sinatra, I have Rising to the Top by Kenny
Burke or Bill Conte, Going the Distance, Rocky song d
the Rocky One Gets Me did you have any songs
(45:05):
that were all in that thing.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
But I actually have the only patent ever issued by
the federal government for the management of music to achieve
a desired ambiance and a hospitality property. I am a
music freaking nutcase. The music in my restaurants are curated
by beats per minute, keys, vocalists, and instrumentation combinations into
(45:29):
beats per minuted, energy curves and content curves. And I
can control how quick you chew through my music program.
How can you do I can maniculate how quick your
table turns through my music program.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
So how can you do that?
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Because the tables are not all being sad at the
same time unless you have an eight o'clock.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
But it's still a forty five minute turn or a
fifty minute turn. So music programs tend to go in
a forty five minute cycle.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Forty five And why this forty five minutes any not
the same.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Song every forty five minutes? Say it? Beats per minute curve,
the same structural elements repeat themselves.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Understood.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
So I'm moving you through a bit of an energy
curve if you will, damon, And you know your body
reacts to those energy curves. The speed that you walk,
the speed, that issue all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
So are you saying that if I come in your
restaurant and I'm feeling really sexy because you got shot
a playing is eight o'clock, you know the wine is flowing,
but now all of a sudden, you know you want
to get the doors closed, and you turn them.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I mean the dessert to.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Loop, don't stop, get it, get like, how do you
what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (46:34):
That's what I'm doing. Then I'm playing with lighting levels
because the dimmer the lights, the closer you get to
the person you're talking to. The brighter the lights, the
farther you get. So when you look at music content,
music volume level, lighting levels, then the real science becomes
the interactivity of eye contact. For example, in a bar
at zero level, everybody's in barstools at high seating. At
(46:56):
an elevated level, everybody's at low seating. So when you
walk through the room, everybody's eyes are within ten inches
of each other. At a low seat, at an elevated
area high seat of a zero area. So I keep
everybody's eye height the same. It maximizes interaction and connect
to the time. I'm gonna get this whole lot. So
(47:18):
now I put the right music program, the right writing levels,
the right dynamics of those elements, and now I'm controlling
your experience.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
So I'm walking in the sparstals up here because I'm like.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
I see you, homie, Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
You see me. And then Arcol sitting and you standing
is almost the same eye height, isn't it. Now you
turn your head to the elevated area and the people
sitting are also at the same eye height.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Oh that's I got it now.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
So well there's another theory, right, and you tell me,
and I'm sure you can dig into this. So when
we were in clubs and we were really going crazy, we.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Noticed a club was like somebody broke it down like
a jungle.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
They said, the guys are gonna all stand, you know,
at the table, and you know, boom boom, boom boom.
But the guy or girl with the most money or
the most attractiveness start to become like the hawk and
the lion, and they get higher on the chair and
on the because they're the apex predator, and the predator
(48:20):
is allowing the sheep or gazelles to see them because
they will pick them off accordingly.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Is that it's marketing. Marketing. What you're doing market if.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
You have this platform where maybe the table is a little.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Bit more absolute, is a little brighter at that particular.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
The lighter is brighter at that table.
Speaker 3 (48:44):
But here's the funny stuff. Let's say back in your
bar days, David, Let's say you and irat bar were
hanging out togethers a couple of really beautiful girls up
on an elevated area. So you want to I want
to walk by those girls. I do. We get a
little eye contact, right, So we go up the steps
to the elevated area. We walk up to the girls.
There's a dead end. We can't get off now, we
got to turn around and walk back the other way.
(49:05):
We feel like idiots. Girls know exactly what we were doing.
What if there was a staircase on the other side
so I could flow through rather than look like an
idiot and hit a dead end, You're more likely to
have eye contact with those girls now because I've got
a flow pattern around it. So the science of connectivity
and interactivity in the bars really deep. It's almost a
(49:26):
podcasting to itself.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
No, it's no, that is not a that is your book.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Your book is structure in any setting for ultimate interaction
or positioning. That is the book that is an architectural.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
What Bible.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
And then we do something called the butt funnel. The
butt funnel is a thirty inch opening to get onto
the dance floor. It's drink rails on either side. So
when you approach the butt funnel, you're gonna either rub
face to face with somebody you know, up your choice.
But so again, all of these are tricks of interactivity.
You can drink at home, buddy, you can watch TV
(50:08):
at home, you can listen to music at home. The
one thing I can give you that nobody else can
is interaction. That's what the business really is today.
Speaker 1 (50:19):
We need nothing else to say.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
You need a damon John Barr a restaurant, you will.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
There's nothing else that This is really this, This is
like all my life.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
And you know I am a very very very very
proud dad.
Speaker 2 (50:31):
My daughter just graduated, Parson, I saw some graduation with
a master's in architectural design, and I am going to
have her.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Talk to you.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Please do I'm gonna put my uh my lazy boy
on a recline, on a on a on a pedestal
in my home with a lot of lights around it.
Speaker 1 (50:53):
So when my wife, but you know, my wife is
gonna look up and go look at that jerk up there.
He's really high up in the air.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
But you know, John, I could talk to you forever,
and you know I can't. I can't wait to see this.
This the new episode, the new series of Our Stool.
I know you said that.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
I asked you.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
I always beg you. What can I promote of yours?
But I know it's only in two city, but let's
talk about it. Tell me what what you got coming out?
Where can people find you? Follow you? Just tell me it,
lay it on the line.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
I need. I know you didn't want to promote anything,
but what do you have? Talk to me?
Speaker 3 (51:26):
Ah bye, buddy, thank you. You know my Taffers taverns
are doing great. We have one in Washington, d C. Downtown,
went and Outpharetta, Georgia, and when in what a town
in Boston. We're opening in Alabama soon and in Las
Vegas soon, so those are going really well. That's my
restaurant franchise.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
So Tafa tavern is opening all those cities.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
And if people do not know about it, whether you're
a customer or somebody who has product andro want to
see how to be in business with mister Tafford. Did
you hear what he just said? It's rolling out and
it's not gonna stop.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
Go ahead, yep. Next one is my Brown Butter Bourbon.
I'm really proud of this one, buddy. This is Brown
Butter Bourbon. And I'm gonna send you a bottle, okay,
that I've been working on for two and a half years.
We just introduced it in Boston and Vegas. It goes
national soon and it's doing great. Man. I'm blown away
by how successful.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
You shouldn't be because you know, you've been doing this
all your life and you don't put your name on
anything so Brown Butter Bourbon. And I'm sure it'll get
bigger and better distribution. You accomplished that, and you have books.
Don't bullshit yourself, raise the.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
Bar and the power of conflict. All right, man?
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Well I I really I'm not bullshiting you, man, because
I don't think I could add any value in a
book when you talk about the environment. Because we're very
visual and now in this world of everything's instagram TikTok,
I mean your structures and thinking about these structures you
roll them off your lips so naturally but easily. But
(52:51):
I think that this whole thing about when you are
someplace because you know, people don't need to go to
venue so they can do stuff like you said, drink
it home. I think that's the next book, man. I
would love to hear that. But you know what you're
you're you're a very successful businessman. You don't need my
you don't need my opinion, but I appreciate I love your.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Opinion, buddy. I got great respect for your good friend, Damon.
I love you my brother.
Speaker 2 (53:10):
Well, thank you brother so much, and thank you for
sharing this moment and sharing with everybody that moment that
you've had in your life.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
And I appreciate your brother.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
Thank Here Sea.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
That Moment with Damon John is a production of the
Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
For more podcasts from.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
The Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show and don't
forget to subscribe to and rate the show. And of
course you can at all connect with me on any of
my social media platforms at the Shark.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Damon spelt like Raymond, but what a d
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