FNA 216: Chex Marks the Spot

Glenn: [00:00:31] Hey everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in to the one and only Friday night audit. The only show that’s got guts. Gutsy enough to drive east from Manhattan on a Friday in the summer. I can’t believe it’s happening. Nobody thought it was going to happen. I was over at Jake’s 58 earlier. Put a big bet on it. Wouldn’t happen. But we found Derek. We’ll get to Derek in one second. Craig Sullivan. How are you doing, buddy?

Craig: [00:01:00] Hey, I’m doing great. You know, it’s got a beautiful breeze coming off the ocean right now. The sun shining, the birds are chirping. Gavin Newsom still governor, and we got $7 gas. Yeah, nothing to complain about here.

Glenn: [00:01:13] It sounds like every freaking video that you send me every single morning. Listen, we gotta, we gotta.

Craig: [00:01:20] I haven’t done that for at least a week because you were on the road, and I’m letting you recover before I start the deluge again.

Glenn: [00:01:26] Yeah, I hear you. Well, I feel, I feel the deluge already upon me. All right, we got Derek over here. We got Neil down there. These are. These are.

Craig: [00:01:39] Derek.

Glenn: [00:01:39] Friends from checks ology. So Derek lives in Manhattan. So so I’m so excited to have you here. You live in Manhattan? What are you what are you doing coming all the way out here? First of all, why would you do this to yourself?

Derek: [00:01:55] We met. We talked at high tech. Yeah. And, you know, once we found out, we were right around the corner, just a breezy three hours away on a Friday. I said, I’m just going to come out there. I know when I heard Long Island, I thought like 30 minutes unless I committed.

Glenn: [00:02:09] Listen. Yeah. Traffic, dude. Traffic is something serious. You know how it’s serious. It’s so. It’s so serious. It’s like, you know, first you see, like you know, first you see some other cars kind of slowly go by you and you’re like, oh, God damn it, why am I in this lane? And then it’s like the horse and buggy on the side of the street starts going by you, and that gets annoying. And then by the time you see the the elderly woman with the walker going by you, you’re like, it’s LIE on a Friday. You are.

Derek: [00:02:38] So once you’re there, dude.

Glenn: [00:02:40] One time it took me four hours to drive from Brooklyn to my parents house, which was about 20 minutes further out than we are here, which for everybody knows, is like exit 62. I don’t know if that means anything to you, but it means a lot to some people.

Suzanne: [00:02:55] Are you complaining about how long a drive is?

Glenn: [00:02:58] Hey, I live here and I’m pissed about how long it took to drive here.

Suzanne: [00:03:01] I’m just. I’m just clarifying.

Craig: [00:03:04] Yeah, that that walk from the house to the palatial estate setting in the back you know, takes a little time. Susan.

Glenn: [00:03:12] All right, all right. Everybody. Everybody. Everybody.

Speaker 5: [00:03:17] Hold on.

Glenn: [00:03:23] You’re a bunch of filthy animals. I gotta tell you.

Suzanne: [00:03:26] You need that?

Glenn: [00:03:28] Yeah. Hey, everybody. Happy Friday. Thank you so much for spending a little time with us to kick off the weekend or whatever time zone you’re in right now. Earlier this week, I spoke to somebody in in Australia and they were like calling from tomorrow morning. And I was last night. It was it was pretty, it was pretty cool kind of experience to to, to have over there. Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:03:51] So that’s when I wasn’t working because I was on vacation.

Craig: [00:03:54] Yeah, we’re on vacation. So, Suzanne. What part of the country are you in today?

Suzanne: [00:04:00] I am in Georgia today. I am around Lake Chad, and it’s the border of North Carolina. So like it takes me 15 minutes, maybe 20 at best to get across to the state. So.

Craig: [00:04:12] Okay, so no gators. You just have to worry about snakes.

Suzanne: [00:04:17] I guess. Yeah. I, I haven’t really seen anything. We’ve actually no, the dog has been fine. We haven’t ventured and found anything crazy and we’ve been out at night because the hot tub is like right down at the end of the driveway. So.

Craig: [00:04:32] Nice.

Suzanne: [00:04:33] It’s nice. And cool. It’s a heck of a lot cooler than where I was last week in Vegas. And Neil Land and the heck of a lot cooler than what it is in Florida.

Speaker 6: [00:04:43] It’s hot.

Suzanne: [00:04:44] I’ll take 60.

Glenn: [00:04:46] Yeah, sorry about that. For those of you who are watching on the video feed. I’m using the old school gear setup. We haven’t seen this bad boy in a little while, and my volume was just a little too high.

Speaker 6: [00:04:58] Are you talking about Derek?

Glenn: [00:05:03] He brought the volume. I brought the high.

Speaker 6: [00:05:05] So

Craig: [00:05:10] Here we go.

Glenn: [00:05:12] Yeah. So I’m having trouble with my earpiece. I had the volume too high over here. I had crackling going on before. It’s like a it’s like a greatest hits of 2021 there. Derek.

Derek: [00:05:22] I feel like it’s when you throw remember the old CD Walkmans like, you know, you throw it in. You never know what you’re going to get. You know, the little scratch. Sometimes I know it feels good.

Glenn: [00:05:31] It it does. I then I thought I was like, cool and like, I could get away with shit. And I got one of those that had like that eight second, you know, buffer and stuff like that. I thought I was badass, but it would still buffer its way to like three songs later accidentally.

Derek: [00:05:44] Do you remember running and like the only thing you think about.

Glenn: [00:05:46] I don’t, I honestly, I don’t ever remember running.

Derek: [00:05:49] Okay, it’s a challenge with the Walkman. I’ll tell you that.

Craig: [00:05:53] Hey, Amy. Welcome back. Oh. Very cool. Hey.

Derek: [00:06:00] Nice squad.

Glenn: [00:06:02] I know, I know, I know. So Craig, how’s California?

Craig: [00:06:07] California’s great. I’ve got nothing to complain about right now. Yeah. Had had the Porsche out on the road earlier today. Nice drive down the coast. I got I, you know, I’m in a good mood.

Glenn: [00:06:18] I dude, I know what you mean. I took a I took my you go down to the to the to the McDonald’s to go pick up a happy meal for myself for, for lunch. So.

Speaker 6: [00:06:27] You know, it’s.

Craig: [00:06:28] Funny, I came out the front door of my house and there was a sky blue Subaru station wagon there and I immediately thought that you were in town.

Glenn: [00:06:39] I do. Breaking breaking news, though, that we have one payment left on on the the Subaru.

Speaker 6: [00:06:44] So I.

Craig: [00:06:45] Know.

Glenn: [00:06:46] I look forward to the, I look forward to the story in August when one of my kids totals it. And then I have pissed off.

Craig: [00:06:52] Hey, could be a commercial when you buy the next one. So.

Suzanne: [00:06:56] So, Glenn, I just want you to see what it took for me to to get here to be on today’s show.

Glenn: [00:07:01] Oh my goodness.

Suzanne: [00:07:03] And those are like a lot of hairpin turns.

Speaker 6: [00:07:05] Just wow. Wow.

Glenn: [00:07:08] That’s crazy. Neil, what’s the the worst road you’ve ever driven on?

Neil: [00:07:11] I actually was in Lancaster, California last week.

Craig: [00:07:16] I’m sorry.

Speaker 6: [00:07:17] Yeah.

Neil: [00:07:17] It’s I, I got lost we had no cell service.

Speaker 6: [00:07:21] Yeah.

Neil: [00:07:21] And we had to drive on this gravel road. I kid you not. I wish I took a picture. My phone was dead. Even more scary part of this conversation. And there was literally no light around me. 360 degrees.

Speaker 6: [00:07:35] Yeah.

Neil: [00:07:35] And we were going ten miles an hour for 15 miles. I thought it was like the start of a horror story. So that’s probably the worst road I’ve ever driven on. It was like, meant for off road bikes.

Glenn: [00:07:45] That’s funny. That’s what my. My cousin Leatherface lives over there.

Neil: [00:07:51] I was in an electric Mercedes driving on a dirt road. Not really. So it was interesting. Interesting.

Craig: [00:07:58] And now we’re going Mercedes.

Glenn: [00:08:00] So you’re you’re probably freaking out that this thing’s going to run out of power at any.

Neil: [00:08:04] I had, I had 64% left and it said I was going to be out by the time we got made it out of the dirt road. So it was terrifying.

Glenn: [00:08:11] Fortunately, there was a Tesla charging station.

Neil: [00:08:15] Yeah. Right there.

Glenn: [00:08:16] Yeah, ten yards ahead.

Craig: [00:08:18] What led you on to that gravel road?

Neil: [00:08:23] Great, great. No one has asked this question. I don’t know why, but I also manage a couple music artists on the side, and one of them was doing a music video in the desert of Lancaster, California.

Craig: [00:08:36] The desert of Las Vegas where you live.

Neil: [00:08:39] I would have been more comfortable. There’s only one road.

Craig: [00:08:41] Yeah.

Neil: [00:08:44] Yeah. No, it was it was bad. Never going back, I don’t think.

Glenn: [00:08:47] So Derek, you live on eighth Avenue, so that’s probably a contender.

Derek: [00:08:52] Yeah. It’s. Yeah. You think you’re you’re dealing with stuff on the gravel roads? I’m I’m I’m. You see what I’m dodging on a daily basis at 36.

Glenn: [00:09:00] So so when you’re, when you’re, you’re, you’re living on there. How long did it take for you to, to get your first. Hey, I’m walking over here and.

Derek: [00:09:07] First day. Nice. Yeah. Got a dodge. I’m telling you, it’s it’s a game. Yeah. It’s like the game everywhere you walk.

Glenn: [00:09:19] Yeah, I know it’s.

Derek: [00:09:22] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:09:23] Yeah.

Derek: [00:09:24] You start over. Yeah, it’s a good time.

Glenn: [00:09:27] That’s great. That’s great. Oh my God.

Derek: [00:09:30] You guys see the one wheels. The solo wheels. Yeah. Obviously I had to get one of those and and that changes the the game on the streets.

Glenn: [00:09:38] Yeah. How so.

Derek: [00:09:39] I there’s no rules. You know you do whatever you want And.

Craig: [00:09:42] You can run people over with that.

Glenn: [00:09:44] Yeah.

Derek: [00:09:45] More more like they just stick their hand out and before you know it, you’re on the ground and you’re like, what just happened? Just get back up and you go about your day.

Neil: [00:09:52] Great, great story about this. I got hired, I just hit my one year anniversary of technology. And I remember one last year we were doing our onboarding in New York. Derek said, hey, we’re gonna go see a client. I was like, all right, cool. We’re all gonna take the subway together or something. We go, Derek has this like little one wheel just hops on that thing and just zooms off and I’m like, Where’s Derek going? He goes, this is his mode of transportation. This guy. No helmet, no, no elbow pads. Nothing. Just zooms on by like, there’s got to be the worst idea ever.

Glenn: [00:10:21] So that explains the brain damage and why you’re coming up to start a company. Exactly right. So good segue or unicycle into into. Tell us a little bit about.

Craig: [00:10:34] The cycle.

Glenn: [00:10:35] And what you guys do.

Derek: [00:10:38] Cycle and no, I’m kidding. It started as a coat check.

Glenn: [00:10:41] Yeah. He had a unicycle business, but he, it crashed slinging unicycles.

Derek: [00:10:45] And I had this idea. Yeah. It started as a coach.

Glenn: [00:10:49] Get your unicycles over here.

Derek: [00:10:50] That’s how I.

Glenn: [00:10:51] Started.

Derek: [00:10:52] That’s how I. That’s crazy.

Craig: [00:10:54] Oh my God. Oh my God.

Derek: [00:10:56] It’s only a couple of those. Use that money. They just.

Suzanne: [00:10:58] Started.

Derek: [00:10:59] Drinking. It just blew up from there. It was it was a coach in college. I lost my coach. Yep. I had an idea, like, why don’t these bars and nightclubs in Indiana offer coaching? And everyone’s like, that’s a good idea. So I walked into the bar and asked them and they were like, that’s. We never thought about that. That’s a good idea. So I started a coaching business made a lot of money, cash, checking coats. But all these drunk kids lost the claim tickets, right? And of.

Glenn: [00:11:25] Course.

Derek: [00:11:25] And.

Glenn: [00:11:28] I.

Speaker 8: [00:11:28] Never did the business.

Glenn: [00:11:29] I knew I knew a lot of them back in the 90s, but we didn’t have technology back then.

Derek: [00:11:33] No. And it sucked without the tech because they come back and they’re drunk, they can’t talk. They’re like, I lost my coat. You’re like, what is it, a black Denali North face. That’s what everyone wore back then. And you’re just like, needle in the haystack. And night in and night out. I’m like, this is nuts. Like, how do people do this every day? Every weekend?

Glenn: [00:11:50] Well, I think that’s a great idea. What my solution was back in the day was be cold. That was.

Derek: [00:11:57] That was my.

Glenn: [00:11:57] Biggest competitor for you.

Derek: [00:11:59] You didn’t wear the coat. I’m like put up with like, fuck it.

Glenn: [00:12:02] I’m only going to be outside for like 20 minutes. I know it’s negative six, but I’m gonna do it. Yeah. But because then I.

Derek: [00:12:08] Didn’t.

Glenn: [00:12:08] Meet you guys.

Derek: [00:12:10] That.

Craig: [00:12:11] Got the accent going.

Derek: [00:12:12] I know the East coasters too.

Glenn: [00:12:15] When I’m cold. Did the New York comes out, you know, when I’m cold or crossing streets. Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:12:20] Now, Neil, how many winters did you spend in Ames?

Neil: [00:12:24] In Ames. Like I think 12, 12 winters names.

Suzanne: [00:12:31] Oh goodness gracious.

Neil: [00:12:32] Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:12:32] Yeah. It was awful. I would just full disclosure I would spend the summers for three weeks at a time. This is where I went and got my PhD. And then I graduated in December, I think it was December 16th in 2016. That was like crazy ice storm that y’all had where like, I was not prepared for the car doors to freeze. Couldn’t open the car doors. Yeah, that was fun.

Neil: [00:13:06] I know, I, I do, I did love my time. And by the way, I love the fact that we have a cyclone alumni in this. Finally, my whole, the whole company of technology is built on these Indiana Hoosiers that are just the most. They all. It’s all they talk about. It’s like, get a personality. Get a personality. So it’s great.

Glenn: [00:13:24] Craziest coincidence. I actually watched the freaking movie Hoosiers on an airplane last month. I’d never seen it. And I’m like, I gotta stop living this lie. Like, I’ve seen Hoosiers because people talk about it all the time, like, yeah, I know what you mean. So I actually watched. I actually watched it. Yeah, I do, I totally get it.

Speaker 9: [00:13:41] All right.

Suzanne: [00:13:42] Well, speaking of breaking news.

Speaker 9: [00:13:45] Oh.

Craig: [00:13:46] There we go. Hey, Arnie, congratulations on your online summit yesterday. You can find a video posted quick media YouTube channel moderated his investment panel, but you were talking about the movie Hoosiers. We’ve got Neil and Vegas, and Derek decided to leave the confines of New York City and brave his way out to Long Island to Glenn’s house.

Derek: [00:14:18] So uninvited.

Craig: [00:14:20] Just having a couple of.

Neil: [00:14:22] Uninvited. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:14:23] Randomly, randomly showed up. Just.

Derek: [00:14:25] I saw a pool in the background one day on the show, and I said, I’m just going to take over that.

Glenn: [00:14:30] Yeah, well.

Craig: [00:14:31] You know, Derek, you’ll know you’ve made it when you’ve made it over to his palatial waterfront compound in Newport Beach, California.

Derek: [00:14:40] Nice. Next week. Friday.

Glenn: [00:14:42] Yeah, that’s a good idea.

Derek: [00:14:44] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:14:44] I’ll be I’ll be in Florida next Friday. Oh, yeah. No show next Friday. I’m going to be I’m on vacation for a couple of days.

Speaker 9: [00:14:50] Oh. The location. Oh.

Glenn: [00:14:54] I think I think I’m going to take off most of the weekend. Wow. I know.

Speaker 9: [00:14:59] It’s close enough.

Suzanne: [00:15:00] And I’ll be back in time. Technically, I’ll still be on vacation, so I can just come crash because I think there’s lots of rooms.

Derek: [00:15:06] Neil and I could just do the show for you next week if you want.

Neil: [00:15:09] We’ll just go to your house and just do your pod.

Speaker 9: [00:15:11] There you go.

Derek: [00:15:12] I’ll just come by. Yeah, just keep this out, you know, just for sure.

Glenn: [00:15:16] Well, I, I will, I will keep you. I will keep you posted. Suzanne. We’ll talk off air about, about all of that because I, I have an idea. For real?

Speaker 9: [00:15:25] Oh, you’re in trouble.

Craig: [00:15:27] Now, Suzanne.

Speaker 9: [00:15:29] Oh, goodness. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:15:30] You won’t like it, but it’s definitely a. Well, I don’t I don’t like, I just don’t like ideas because that means you have to do stuff and, you know, move around and stuff like that. And I, I’ve just I’m a very sedentary personality. I don’t like to you just.

Craig: [00:15:48] You know, Glenn, in in all fairness, yeah, if you like the idea, you don’t do any pre-production or anything else. It’s like, let’s do it right now.

Speaker 9: [00:15:59] Yeah.

Craig: [00:16:00] That’s how this show happened.

Neil: [00:16:04] I’m glad those two are sitting there. They’re very much alike guys. I think we all have something to bond over with those two.

Speaker 9: [00:16:10] Yeah.

Derek: [00:16:10] Great idea. I mean, can’t not do it immediately.

Craig: [00:16:15] Tell us tell us about your company. You know, we’ve got, you know, checking coats and making money that way.

Speaker 9: [00:16:21] How we kind.

Glenn: [00:16:23] Of we kind of we were kind of lost in the middle of the story. Yeah. You were just getting to the point where you are your coat check. So that’s kind of a pretty cool thing. Although there was this one time in the 90s where I ate something I probably shouldn’t have, and I lost myself for a while. So it’s a good thing I didn’t have to go find a coat at that very moment. I think it was summer.

Speaker 9: [00:16:43] Oh my God.

Glenn: [00:16:45] I love that. But other than that how does that work exactly?

Derek: [00:16:48] Yeah, I just was like, there must be a better way than giving people that lose a ticket, a ticket and hoping they hold on to it. So I just looked up coat check system on Google. Nothing existed and had the idea like, why can’t they just be their claim? Why do they have to give it something? So that was the premise went on Shark Tank with the idea. People thought it was a good idea. Realized that there’s more coats in New York than in Indiana.

Glenn: [00:17:11] Yeah, I bet I believe the quote was Mark Cuban. You can stuff. It came that came from that.

Derek: [00:17:17] That was exactly what I said.

Speaker 9: [00:17:21] I remember that quote. Yeah.

Derek: [00:17:25] So yeah, just essentially decided that the best way to do it was you or your claim ticket, whether it’s your reservation at a hotel or your phone number. And we realize it’s more than just coats, it’s luggage, valet packages, every everything that’s checked, you know, shouldn’t you just connect it to you? And then when you want it back, you just ask for it back. You don’t have to like call down and do all this stuff. It’s just, just text and get your.

Glenn: [00:17:51] I love that, I love that.

Craig: [00:17:52] Great. Great idea.

Speaker 9: [00:17:54] Thank you.

Craig: [00:17:55] How many establishments are you guys in now?

Derek: [00:17:57] I think we just hit 1200 venues. Wow.

Speaker 9: [00:18:02] Now.

Craig: [00:18:03] Is that a combination of hotels, bars, restaurants and sporting and event spaces?

Speaker 9: [00:18:11] Yeah.

Derek: [00:18:12] The biggest volume ones are like the Mets and the Momas. From hotels, it’s. Yeah, the casino resorts and luxury hotels are really the properties that use us. But yeah, you Barclays center TD garden, the O2 in London to. Yeah.

Neil: [00:18:25] Allegiant. Allegiant.

Derek: [00:18:27] There you.

Speaker 9: [00:18:27] Go. There you go. Allegiant.

Craig: [00:18:29] Love it. That’s beautiful.

Glenn: [00:18:32] That’s awesome.

Derek: [00:18:33] That was Neil. That was Neil.

Glenn: [00:18:34] That’s why I just said nice job Neil. I could tell by the way he’s.

Neil: [00:18:39] Just my first close first.

Glenn: [00:18:40] That’s that’s amazing.

Craig: [00:18:42] Neil doesn’t know this. But Arnie who was just on the show, he’s actually Mark Davis. And we had that. And he dodged saying hi to Glenn and I when we were both at at the field at the same time. So.

Speaker 9: [00:18:57] Yeah. Wow.

Glenn: [00:18:59] And we were in two different locations and saw him independently in each location and both dodged him.

Speaker 9: [00:19:05] Wow.

Glenn: [00:19:06] Yeah, I don’t know, I think I think he knew the tough questions were coming. So that’s how I like to see it.

Speaker 9: [00:19:12] Yeah.

Craig: [00:19:13] And then he impersonated and was the prime minister of the, of England for a little while to.

Speaker 9: [00:19:20] Yeah.

Craig: [00:19:21] Boris. You know, the guy with the funny hair.

Neil: [00:19:24] Now, Jim.

Speaker 9: [00:19:26] Yeah. Just to.

Speaker 8: [00:19:28] Clarify, that’s Arnie.

Craig: [00:19:31] There we.

Speaker 9: [00:19:32] Go.

Suzanne: [00:19:32] So you have a visual.

Craig: [00:19:35] That’s why we have a producer. Thank you. Suzanne. Artie’s just falling out of his chair right now.

Suzanne: [00:19:44] Love you, Arnie.

Craig: [00:19:46] So how did you land Allegiant Field? What was that process like and what do you do there?

Neil: [00:19:52] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:19:53] So and how did you get the the stuff to blackmail?

Neil: [00:19:56] Yeah. I’ll tell you. That’s great. Actually, there is a blackmail story involved. There’s a TikTok trending video of one of our competitors being at Allegiant. And it was, it was like a shit show. It was like the Crawford Canelo fight and everyone rushed the bag, coat check area, the bag check area.

Glenn: [00:20:15] Oh, no.

Neil: [00:20:16] And the, the staff just quit and and the police took over.

Speaker 9: [00:20:22] Literally quit.

Neil: [00:20:23] I think they just, like, walked off. They just got. It’s just too much. It’s just everyone all at once.

Derek: [00:20:28] People backed up to it and they just.

Glenn: [00:20:31] Man didn’t know what to do. Oh my God.

Neil: [00:20:33] Vegas Police Department took over and they were just holding up Birkin bags and bags.

Speaker 9: [00:20:37] Oh my.

Glenn: [00:20:37] God.

Neil: [00:20:38] And I got a call from our friends and our partners at Pat G. Lv shout out to them. And yeah, we got, we got it in. So we do all their bag check our technology and Pat G parking and transport group Las Vegas.

Glenn: [00:20:52] So now that you, you explained the the cluster f how do you avoid that? I, how.

Speaker 9: [00:20:56] Does I.

Glenn: [00:20:58] So shame with your name and stuff like that. Help.

Speaker 9: [00:21:00] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:21:00] All that kind of stuff.

Craig: [00:21:01] So people, does that stadium hold? Is that like 7000 plus 100,000?

Neil: [00:21:07] It’s it’s one of our largest stadiums. I don’t know what the count is right off top, but yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a massive stadium. Yeah. A large part of what we did was they previously had lockers, right. So lockers just slow the process down. They had them in semi trucks, so it’s only one person can go in at a time. Okay. With with our system right. There’s line busting technology where the team at the front can go. And if there’s a big line, they can go with their phones and say, hey, who’s your code? And they can queue up the bags and get them ready to go. So by the time they get up to the front, we see their, we see their picture of their face and their bag. We know exactly where it’s located.

Speaker 9: [00:21:39] Nice, ma’am.

Neil: [00:21:41] So security, quickness, speed, you know, we, we solve it all. It’s great.

Craig: [00:21:46] So if I’m checking out of my resort in Vegas and I’ve got a couple, three bags, I had to drag all my equipment over as well to do some interviews. I can leave them with you guys, go screw around, come back and 3 or 4 hours and pick it up and head off to the airport.

Neil: [00:22:08] Basically it so like a lot of hotels have like a bell system, but they all like it. It’s a legacy. It’s archaic, it’s old. They don’t really do anything with it. So we’re like the hip new guys, right? We update our product, make it easier for our teams and the hotel teams to use. So the hotel team generally use our software so they associate your bag if you’re at the hotel with your reservation. So there’s no more. I’m not walking away with Craig’s bag just because I found a claim ticket, right? My bag is associated with my reservation and they verified that.

Speaker 9: [00:22:38] Oh, I think for.

Derek: [00:22:40] You, Craig, the idea is when you pull up your vehicle, right? They just they already know what’s the last name they search instead of having to ask to spell it right multiple times on a ticket, they just search, see, you see, it’s your birthday. See your status, give you personalized greeting. You need help with your bags too. And in the same transaction, they tag it again instead of writing another paper ticket. And then you get a text saying, welcome to the hotel text when you want your bags brought up to your room. And then we post it to like the Opera Cloud reservation. So the front desk knows that you have bags. And so they’re proactive about it instead of reactive. Do you have a ticket? And so when when it’s time for you to leave from your room, you just text, hey, can you have my luggage ready at my car? You don’t have to call down. Wait for them to answer. Ask you for the ticket number. Try to find the ticket number they put in a ticket. They. It’s just. It’s quick and. And for the teams now they see everything in real time. They don’t have to radio to each other, write things down. And that’s that was our goal is just to make it easy. Yeah. And, and just have actually like steps to the process and visibility to who did what and what the items were. And I think before it was just a lot of gray. And so things just get lost in the abyss and like, they know it’s somewhere either in the back room or by the front desk. And so most of the time is spent chasing, trying to figure out where it is as opposed to like just actually getting the stuff back to you.

Neil: [00:23:54] Yeah. Imagine, imagine Glen just in Vegas down ten K. You know.

Speaker 9: [00:23:58] I.

Glenn: [00:23:59] Can’t imagine me in Vegas.

Neil: [00:24:00] And then he forgets he has his bag checked in and when he checks in, they just tell him, Glen, you have a bag and Glen’s like, oh my God, great.

Speaker 9: [00:24:09] That’s good.

Neil: [00:24:09] There might be some money. I need to pay.

Speaker 9: [00:24:11] Off an extra ten K.

Glenn: [00:24:12] In there. Yeah.

Speaker 9: [00:24:14] I gotta feed.

Glenn: [00:24:15] Yeah. Who else is going to help pay bill now.

Craig: [00:24:20] If I’m staying at one of your hotels in Vegas and they have a sister property in New York or Los Angeles, are they advised that, hey, he’s checked out of here and he’s on his way to you guys now.

Speaker 9: [00:24:36] With.

Derek: [00:24:37] Certain bigger contracts that we’re working on that I can’t talk about. They have multi resort.

Glenn: [00:24:42] Yeah you can.

Speaker 9: [00:24:44] Breaking news.

Craig: [00:24:45] Suzanne can actually put up the banner that says breaking news.

Derek: [00:24:50] Let’s say we have a lot of these resorts that have. You’ll stay at one place and then go to the next one. And so for transfers. Yeah, they’re ahead. So they’ll actually grab the bags, bring it to the next property because they see your reservation is at that other property. So they’re very proactive with it. So you’re never waiting for the stuff to get to you. This actually happened.

Glenn: [00:25:10] Oh my God.

Derek: [00:25:13] That’s the whole goal.

Speaker 8: [00:25:14] My hands are here.

Suzanne: [00:25:15] I’m not touching anything. That wasn’t me.

Glenn: [00:25:20] Oh.

Speaker 9: [00:25:20] I love.

Craig: [00:25:21] That idea. And I.

Speaker 9: [00:25:21] Love that.

Glenn: [00:25:23] That’s what we’re hoping for.

Derek: [00:25:25] That that’s the vision is to be so proactive with it that you’re never waiting for them to react like it’s where it needs to be when your room’s ready. If there’s just total visibility to what happened. So you’re never people have that fear like, oh, here’s my luggage, here’s my car, don’t scratch it. Right? Trying to get rid of that feeling. It’s just making it feel good. And so people will use it more and just know that it’s going to be where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. And I don’t have to wait. You know, if I’m have a dinner coming up, I have to plan to have my bags brought up.

Glenn: [00:25:54] I don’t know yeah, except I, you know, I except for my duct tape. I love things that remove friction and stuff like that. Right? So I love, I really, really, legitimately love this idea. It’s just so cool. I wish, I wish we had that I remember I for this is not a joke. I ran a coat check. I ran a coat check during a casino night at Temple Beth David back in the 80s. And you know, we used to have that same problem. The tipping was good, though. It is back then, I will tell you. But, you know, the, the, the drunk parents would lose you know, the tickets and stuff like that. And, you know, we’d have to use the honor system and all that kind of.

Suzanne: [00:26:35] I was a valet car driver for a little bit.

Speaker 9: [00:26:37] No way.

Suzanne: [00:26:38] I was. Yeah. And of course I picked the spot like the hills were all like this.

Craig: [00:26:46] Glen and I are still trying to find a hotel that will let us be the bellman for a day.

Neil: [00:26:52] We’ll find you one. Yeah, if that’s what you want. We’ll get that done tomorrow.

Speaker 9: [00:26:56] We want you.

Craig: [00:26:56] Guys to stay in business. You might want.

Speaker 9: [00:26:58] To say.

Neil: [00:27:00] That. Might be. That might be the ploy, though. Have send you guys and then check out.

Speaker 9: [00:27:04] Our.

Neil: [00:27:04] System. You can do a before and after before and after.

Speaker 9: [00:27:07] Nice. Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:27:09] That’s your only strategy, Neil.

Glenn: [00:27:11] It’ll wind up probably be more like the dumbbell men than anything.

Craig: [00:27:17] No, no. Glen’s gonna look at the dollar bill they put in his hand. That’s all you’re giving me? Wait a minute. Give me that bag. I’m putting it back in the cab.

Speaker 9: [00:27:25] Yeah. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:27:27] Oh, seriously? To get I just saw at JFK it’s something like 19 bucks a bag to get help with a two bag minimum or something like that from the Skycap people.

Speaker 9: [00:27:39] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:27:41] It’s ridiculous. Yeah. It’s just Yeah, it’s it’s because the people who need that are probably not, you know, probably don’t need to spend that kind of cash on on that is my guess. I mean you know, the filthy rich’s over there. Do whatever you want, but I’m just thinking, I see a lot of older people in wheelchairs coming up that need extra help, so that’s all I’m saying.

Speaker 9: [00:28:01] Yeah.

Craig: [00:28:02] No. That’s ridiculous.

Derek: [00:28:04] You know, I tried Yeah, I tried opening a coat check at JFK terminal five. Post-security. So when you would get through security, you check your code, go to the Bahamas, come back, and it was there.

Glenn: [00:28:14] Oh, I love that idea.

Speaker 9: [00:28:15] I love.

Craig: [00:28:16] That idea.

Speaker 9: [00:28:17] Right. I thought it.

Derek: [00:28:18] Was a great idea.

Glenn: [00:28:19] I think you would think the airlines would like it too, because it takes up less overhead bin space.

Speaker 9: [00:28:23] We did.

Derek: [00:28:23] It. It’s going well. We were charging, making money. But then it was starting to go so well that they only gave us a certain amount of real estate to store the coats that once it filled up, I was like, oh, we need more room to store coats.

Speaker 9: [00:28:36] Yeah.

Derek: [00:28:36] And they the amount that they were trying to charge us. Yeah.

Speaker 9: [00:28:40] Oh.

Craig: [00:28:42] Yeah.

Speaker 9: [00:28:44] It’s crazy.

Glenn: [00:28:44] Damn. That’s a really interesting creative idea. I love.

Speaker 9: [00:28:48] That. I was proud of it.

Glenn: [00:28:49] Yeah, man, that’s really great because I will tell you what the system I use is tuck the jacket. I have a, I have to get a jacket that’s warm, that’s squishable. And I tuck it in the outside pocket of my suitcase.

Speaker 9: [00:29:05] You’re a professional? Yeah, like.

Glenn: [00:29:07] Figure that out. But I’m a.

Suzanne: [00:29:09] Duct tape on a suitcase.

Speaker 9: [00:29:10] Yeah. Hey.

Glenn: [00:29:11] Oh, that reminds me. I gotta take a bag in for a wheel wheel replacement.

Derek: [00:29:17] You don’t just drag.

Glenn: [00:29:18] I know I’m dragging it. It’s going. And I’m like, I don’t hear it anymore because it’s been going on for a while. But I’m reminded of it when every time somebody I walk by, they’re like.

Speaker 9: [00:29:31] Why am I here?

Glenn: [00:29:33] Yeah. So I got a, my, my goal is to be less of a jerk. So I got to get that fixed.

Craig: [00:29:39] I also think we need to get you a new t shirt that says I’m Squishable.

Suzanne: [00:29:46] That could be a new Redbubble story.

Speaker 9: [00:29:48] I will say.

Glenn: [00:29:49] I’ll give props to my wife. Helene I wore a couple of weeks ago on on the show, my new fish shirt, which is the guys from Fisher’s Muppets. So I wore that to the shirt that shirt to the show on Wednesday. And I’ve never gotten more shirt compliments.

Speaker 9: [00:30:04] Before. So that was really, you.

Glenn: [00:30:08] Know, she’s we’re all going together next Wednesday.

Speaker 9: [00:30:11] But I, I called her and I.

Glenn: [00:30:14] Texted her and I was very proud.

Speaker 9: [00:30:16] So I’m.

Derek: [00:30:17] Going to. He doesn’t know it yet.

Speaker 9: [00:30:18] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:30:20] It’s going to be Helene, me, Ben, Jake and Derek.

Speaker 9: [00:30:24] Okay. Well, the.

Craig: [00:30:25] Shirt be washed and will you be wearing it again?

Speaker 9: [00:30:29] I’ll be wearing it.

Glenn: [00:30:30] The shirt I’m going to wear straight through till the concert.

Speaker 9: [00:30:32] Oh, that way.

Glenn: [00:30:34] That way.

Derek: [00:30:34] I’m not. I’m not going to be.

Glenn: [00:30:35] I’m trying to get myself a little dancing room. So that way.

Speaker 9: [00:30:38] People, it.

Suzanne: [00:30:38] Might be a little wet. It’s going to smell like chlorine in a little while.

Speaker 9: [00:30:41] That’s a good point.

Suzanne: [00:30:44] Is it or is it salt that you use?

Glenn: [00:30:47] No. While I do like to salt myself from time to time, it is still a chlorine pool.

Suzanne: [00:30:52] Okay.

Speaker 9: [00:30:52] Well, yeah. Yeah. And I do, I.

Glenn: [00:30:55] Do aspire to switch it over to salt water at some point, but I do have more important things to deal with, such as heating bills and mortgage and stuff like that for now.

Craig: [00:31:04] How about you, Neil? You gotta have a pool in Vegas.

Neil: [00:31:08] No. So we’re we’re trying to do this whole rental property thing, and having a pool is just too much liability. Yeah, it’s too much. Yeah. So we’re avoiding the pools as much as my wife reminds me every day that we need to pool.

Speaker 9: [00:31:20] Like a.

Neil: [00:31:20] Kiddie pool.

Speaker 9: [00:31:21] Three footer.

Neil: [00:31:22] I got her an inflatable pool, and she said, are you. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 9: [00:31:25] So I.

Neil: [00:31:26] Quickly.

Speaker 9: [00:31:26] Deflated it.

Neil: [00:31:28] And I packed it back up.

Craig: [00:31:29] So I got one of those for my dog, and she just looked at me and said, no.

Suzanne: [00:31:37] Oh, John, John asked for the hot tub. We’re sitting out here and he’s like, so this could fit on the lanai. I could go swimming in this. He goes, it is a little hot though. I’m like, okay, we don’t have space for the pool in the yard.

Craig: [00:31:50] Well, they do have those swim jacuzzis.

Suzanne: [00:31:54] So yeah.

Speaker 9: [00:31:56] All right.

Derek: [00:31:57] So the basement pools Remember those like this. Swim against those little motor things. They sell those. You can just put them on anything.

Craig: [00:32:05] Yeah that’s right, that’s right.

Speaker 9: [00:32:07] Yeah.

Derek: [00:32:08] You should just count on that as well.

Craig: [00:32:09] And then you can get one for your, your your pool and we can see you exercising.

Neil: [00:32:13] It’s just a, it’s just a slippery slope. Once you start getting that, it’s.

Speaker 9: [00:32:17] Just let.

Suzanne: [00:32:19] It go.

Neil: [00:32:20] It wasn’t points to me spending 50 grand on a pool, probably more.

Speaker 9: [00:32:24] So yeah.

Glenn: [00:32:24] The pool is I, I always say, you know, we bought a house that happened to have a pool because I would never, ever, ever put in a pool. That’s.

Speaker 9: [00:32:32] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:32:32] Especially since what I’ve already had to pay just to, to, to have it, you know, and I did all sorts of other stuff just to keep it viable.

Speaker 9: [00:32:41] Oh yeah.

Craig: [00:32:42] Yeah. I feel the same way. And you know, Glen knows this. I will never mow a lawn. I will never clean a pool again. Okay.

Speaker 9: [00:32:48] Yeah.

Glenn: [00:32:49] For the record, he has no lawn and has no pool.

Craig: [00:32:53] I live at the beach.

Glenn: [00:32:54] Probably has not for decades. I, I need to excuse myself because I’m in the experience, a serious drought.

Craig: [00:33:01] But there’s a company from Australia called plunge. They make these prefabricated pools and they’re amazing. And they, you know, the they’re already pre plumbed. You you need to do the groundwork and all that. And you can have it set above ground or you can drop it into the ground. And they’re really an amazing product for about $20,000 versus that 50,000, you know, that Neal mentioned for.

Suzanne: [00:33:32] Yeah. But down in Florida, we’re talking like 80 to 100,000 for a pool now. So it’s nuts. It’s absolutely nuts.

Craig: [00:33:42] How much are you paying for flood insurance to. I mean, come on.

Suzanne: [00:33:47] No, it’s hurricane insurance.

Speaker 9: [00:33:48] Oh, hurricane.

Craig: [00:33:49] Excuse me. That’s right. I’m the one with flood insurance.

Speaker 9: [00:33:52] Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:33:52] I gotta, I think in this last one, I got a $500 savings. So my my home insurance is $9,700 now a year.

Speaker 9: [00:34:06] Oh, my God.

Suzanne: [00:34:07] That’s a bargain.

Craig: [00:34:09] There you go.

Speaker 9: [00:34:10] So.

Craig: [00:34:11] Neil and Derek, what’s next? What what are you adding to your repertoire for your company?

Glenn: [00:34:19] I guess you could do, like, phones and stuff like that for concerts. I see that stuff going on in Vegas.

Neil: [00:34:24] There you go. Tony’s got the idea. Tony’s got the.

Speaker 9: [00:34:27] Idea. Golf carts? Yeah.

Derek: [00:34:30] I mean, you were talking about you never want to own a lawn mower. And I was just telling. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:34:34] This is a this. You sure you want to share this one?

Speaker 9: [00:34:36] Yeah.

Derek: [00:34:37] Alright. One day, one day. So I, I think the issue with these services, they’re called Bailment services. When you check a code valet a car.

Speaker 9: [00:34:47] Right.

Derek: [00:34:47] It’s you’re trusting strangers with your stuff. And there’s this stigma of like, they’re going to lose it, they’re going to scratch it. And what that’s done, that stigma over the years.

Glenn: [00:34:56] I prefer to lose it and scratch it.

Derek: [00:34:57] See what I’m.

Speaker 9: [00:34:58] Saying? Yeah.

Derek: [00:34:58] There’s just a stigma. I mean, think think think all the movies, right? Someone steals the valet car and and there’s just this stigma. So people don’t use these services because they’re hesitant, I think. And it’s just like, oh, I’d rather just hold my stuff or not.

Glenn: [00:35:11] Maybe, maybe, maybe that’s how the guy in the next scene of the movie always has a great parking spot to pull up right in front of the building because someone just stole.

Craig: [00:35:20] I think it’s all because of your favorite film, Glenn Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Glenn: [00:35:28] Bueller. Yeah, Bueller.

Derek: [00:35:32] It’s it’s joked about so much. The stigma is so real that people are skeptical using these services. So vision is once people can start trusting each other, strangers with their stuff and they know it’s secure and they trust technology, then where these services are provided expand. So a good example is silent disco companies. They used to only do like 200 people parties where you party in the subways, right? And there’s no noise. So they could just throw parties anywhere. And with our system now, San Francisco companies are throwing 6000 parties on the Brooklyn Bridge or on the beaches because they can lend out so many and make sure they get back. So people are getting very creative where they’re starting to lend things out, check things because there’s a tool finally. And so the vision, the idea is one day, you know, wherever you go, if you want to drop your bag off and borrow something, whatever it is, an electric skateboard, because you’re wanting to go around Central Park and use that right now, there’s an ecosystem of sharing of things and lending things out where before it just wasn’t possible because of Stranger and Stranger. So I was joking with Glenn because there was a guy mowing the lawn here, and I thought he was going to be mowing the lawn during the show.

Derek: [00:36:40] And I’m like, at some point, like, imagine if there’s a shared shed in a neighborhood and you have a electric, a robotic lawn mower, just come and mow your lawn for you. Go back in the shed and there becomes an economy of that where people aren’t just buying like goods that are not that great and they’re buying goods that are reusable and shareable and, and less yard saling of things and actually getting high quality things and sharing them. So that’s my long term vision. And it starts in hotels actually, because hotels are the one place where you go without your things, right? You go and you don’t have anything. And so I found it to be the foundation of where you need things. You want a bike to borrow or skis or snowboards or whatever. It’s a place where people are borrowing things and using things and they’re giving their bags away, their cars. So it’s a great place to learn how to do this process really well, really efficiently. And then we’ll expand it from there.

Speaker 9: [00:37:31] Wow. Yeah.

Glenn: [00:37:33] Right. This is this is pretty cool.

Speaker 9: [00:37:34] Really, I love this.

Craig: [00:37:36] Yeah, you’re absolutely right, Glenn. This is a great, great company, great ideas.

Speaker 9: [00:37:40] Hey, I.

Glenn: [00:37:40] Apologize if we’re looking a little washed out. The sun is getting to a weird spot.

Speaker 9: [00:37:45] So.

Suzanne: [00:37:46] You might be getting in a spot where you might have to go jump in the pool.

Glenn: [00:37:50] Well, we’ll get there. We got we still got 20 minutes or.

Speaker 9: [00:37:54] So.

Suzanne: [00:37:54] But we still need to, like test your knowledge to see how much shit you actually know.

Speaker 9: [00:37:58] We do not know. We do not do.

Craig: [00:38:00] That right now. Suzanne. I think that’s very good.

Speaker 9: [00:38:03] No, nothing. Oh, I don’t mind.

Suzanne: [00:38:07] I was going to let you get out of that.

Glenn: [00:38:09] That has just escaped from the house. Breaking news.

Speaker 9: [00:38:12] Breaking news.

Glenn: [00:38:14] Watch you close the door behind you.

Speaker 9: [00:38:15] How do.

Derek: [00:38:16] I do the breaking.

Speaker 9: [00:38:16] News thing?

Glenn: [00:38:17] Yeah. So we gotta go. Banners. Wait. No media assets. Assets right there. Yeah. Breaking news. I got a cat that is escaped. I need to go close the door. So additional cats do not escape the premises. This is a very serious.

Craig: [00:38:32] Wait. We’ll wait for the questions to you.

Glenn: [00:38:35] Half of the cats.

Speaker 9: [00:38:36] Are just.

Suzanne: [00:38:36] Trying to escape.

Craig: [00:38:38] Yeah. Yeah. He’s just trying to escape.

Suzanne: [00:38:40] So Neil doesn’t want to answer these questions.

Craig: [00:38:43] Neil. How many hotels in Vegas are you working with right now?

Neil: [00:38:47] So I’m just putting my mark into Vegas. I’d say it’s just a handful right now. Like Derek was saying, we can’t mention too much right now, but we got some stuff in the works where we’ll take over the city.

Craig: [00:39:01] I think it’s a great idea. And I think, you know, New York, Las Vegas, you know, San Francisco, Chicago you know, those markets in particular. And I mean, if you were to relaunch, taking the coat, say, at SFO, because that’s really a beautiful airport, I think it’s the best looking airport and most functional one in the country for being an international. And they’re forward thinking. You go there, set that up. They’re coming out of Southern California. They don’t need that freaking, you know, trench coat that weighs £10 or they’re heading, you know, to, to Cabo San Lucas. They don’t need that heavy stuff that there. And I think you work with some of those hotels and, you know, some of the other.

Neil: [00:39:46] You know, the segment that like really just not surprised, but just kind of validated it for us was Derek and I, we were invited to the Forbes Travel Guide Summit in Monaco. Yeah, we were one of the first tech vendors there and ever invited to it. And it was very interesting to see the level of like just energy that they had towards our system because we’re helping a lot of these hotels with that 8 to 10 minute delivery time that they have to match for the Forbes standards. And I think that’s a really cool segment. Avenue we’re really looking forward to going into is that luxury market where we’re really supporting hotels with their standards.

Glenn: [00:40:18] It was interesting for resorts.

Derek: [00:40:21] And the luxury, the luxury market bought into it first, you know, so it was interesting to see how they saw.

Glenn: [00:40:28] So tell me a little bit about what they like about it, because from my naive point of view, I’m thinking they want to keep their hands on, hands on because it’s luxury.

Derek: [00:40:36] Yeah. And, and that’s the thing is when you come up to the property, the bellman don’t know who you are right now.

Glenn: [00:40:41] They do.

Derek: [00:40:43] They search your name and they see why you’re here. You’re you’re it’s a birthday, it’s a wedding, whatever. So they can personalize. And that’s what Forbes is trying to do is reach you by name, make it personalized. And they don’t spend so much time writing. They’re looking at you and talking to you. And the tagging is quick. And, and for them, it’s, it’s about meeting those standards, the eight minute, the ten minute, getting the stuff to your room, collecting it. And now they have control over it and are able to ensure they’re always hitting it. So I think it was built more for big resorts that store a lot of things, right. But they found the value in it first. So that was kind of a surprise. And so my question to you guys, let’s see your first trivia question.

Glenn: [00:41:20] Oh, she’s gotten about that.

Derek: [00:41:22] Large market tech adoption of the, of the cities you named Craig. You actually didn’t name the two first markets that blew up for us. Which markets do you think? Big urban markets are the first to adopt technology quickly in the United States?

Craig: [00:41:39] Well, I mean, we could say San Jose, but I really look at that as being a sub market of San Francisco. You know, we did a hotel up there and really when we were building it, it was about how much technology is too much. We’ve got Facebook up the street and we’re in Menlo Park. And so I’m going to say that and I’m going to say probably Dallas.

Derek: [00:42:04] Almost West Coast for sure. So SF down to the whole west Coast is quick to adopt tech, very independent. A lot of independents, big resorts Miami.

Glenn: [00:42:15] Oh, okay.

Craig: [00:42:17] Now I.

Glenn: [00:42:18] I thought you were going to I for sure I thought you were going to say Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Derek: [00:42:21] That was.

Glenn: [00:42:21] The third.

Derek: [00:42:22] How’d you.

Glenn: [00:42:23] Guess that?

Craig: [00:42:24] This always upsets Suzanne, but I looked at.

Glenn: [00:42:28] Games with horse faces.

Craig: [00:42:29] Yeah, I, I have a very bad impression of. Okay.

Glenn: [00:42:35] Now your bad impressions that ask him to do his De Niro.

Craig: [00:42:39] Yeah, yeah, that’s even worse. But you know, I mean, there’s. Gators. There’s bugs the size of my fist and everything’s swamp land. I know I’m not no I’m not. You know, it’s just I, I usually refer to it as a, as a male body part, but I won’t because this is a family show. But, you know, it’s I that’s surprising that Miami was one of them. Really.

Derek: [00:43:03] I think it’s because of the amount of independence that they can move quick. I think for us at least, it was the fact that they’re very fast to make decisions. And I was surprised.

Glenn: [00:43:14] I would not have thought that there would be that many chili people in Miami. Oh, luggage and valet. Oh my gosh.

Neil: [00:43:21] That’s, that’s really been the big focus of our show.

Glenn: [00:43:24] Yeah. No yeah.

Craig: [00:43:27] That’s good for you guys. I mean that’s great. I mean, I, I see this taking it a step farther. You could There we go. There we go. Gotta love a great producer. Gotta love it. Thank you. Chad.

Suzanne: [00:43:45] My pleasure.

Derek: [00:43:46] Oh.

Neil: [00:43:46] Thank you Suzanne. Thank you.

Derek: [00:43:48] I was gone, I thought it was great. I think you.

Craig: [00:43:50] Guys take this into.

Glenn: [00:43:53] Hold on, I gotta I gotta look at it. One more. No.

Derek: [00:43:57] What did you say?

Craig: [00:43:59] I love the red tie, and.

Glenn: [00:44:00] I think we. I think we found Derek’s Kryptonite. I think anytime we want to paralyze him.

Neil: [00:44:09] That’s what we should have done today as well. We should have done a watch party of the Shark Tank episode. That’s what we should.

Craig: [00:44:16] Hey, we can make that happen. I think you also take this to class A offices, where you’ve got a lot of people that are on the road all the time, and they may keep a go bag in their office and ready to go because they’re getting on a plane. The medical profession. I mean, you look at modern hospitals and mobs, medical office buildings built over the past. I’m going to say five, seven years minimum. They’ve taken a page out of hospitality. Some of them have got valets. They’ve got, you know, lobbies that don’t look like it’s something terrible like they did 20 years ago.

Derek: [00:45:02] Craig, I thought you were going to keep it secret. I kept giving away our trade secrets of our next markets. We’re entering G.

Glenn: [00:45:08] Yeah, I thought you signed that in.

Derek: [00:45:09] Yeah, I thought we signed that.

Craig: [00:45:12] Let’s see if Glenn knows stuff. Let’s put that graphic.

Glenn: [00:45:16] Before we do that. Neil, so I want to tell you, I have a I had a situation in Vegas that I think is an opportunity. I shouldn’t call it a situation because it has a negative connotation. I had to fly out of Vegas on Friday, and I was returning on Sunday and staying at a different hotel. Right? But since I didn’t need my bag for the weekend, right. Because I had my wife pack a different bag to meet me because I didn’t want, you know, I wanted to feel the freedom of having no luggage. Right?

Suzanne: [00:45:44] I just didn’t want to.

Glenn: [00:45:46] Be a backpack in the open road. And so I had to, I had to go back to the first hotel, fetch my bag, and then go over to the second hotel. I’m like, if you guys could be the kingpins and take that over. One thing you could do is offer. It’s like, oh, if you’re going to be in a different location, we could get it there for you to maybe just put it out there. I know that’s different. There’s a lot of money involved in moving shit, but just.

Neil: [00:46:10] That’s actually Red Sea Global started that with their whole thing that they’re doing in Saudi and they. Yeah, yeah. The Red sea project is what they, what they, what they’re doing is from the airport, they get your luggage from the airport and they check it into your hotel to you. It’s like all done where you just don’t see your luggage after you check.

Glenn: [00:46:26] Disney. Disney used to do that. Are you familiar with the magical express with what they used to do?

Neil: [00:46:31] I’m not no no no.

Glenn: [00:46:32] So the Magical express was really, really interesting. It was back when they had the strategy of trying to get you to stay within their environment. So during the 1990s, they did a lot of stuff to try to keep you within the the Disney bubble is that it became right. The magical express was really cool because they would mail you luggage tags and you put them on your bag at your home airport. And then you would get on the you would not go to the. They would get your luggage for you. You’d get on your bus to go and your bags would show up in your room. That was an awesome.

Derek: [00:47:08] What happened?

Glenn: [00:47:10] People with you know, degrees looked at paper and said we could save money here. So they cut it all out and it’s really, really sad. Instead, what they took away the magical express service and it was being run by mirrors because I don’t know, I don’t know if mirrors is mafia, but they seem to own everything in in Orlando. They are the most genius transportation people ever. I’ve never seen a city with one like like that. So it was run by mirrors anyway. But now mirrors runs it and they charge people. So they, they took off all of the Disney branding. Now it’s generic and you have to pay for it. And I’m not sure. I don’t think they deliver the luggage anymore. I think you got to bring your bags. They throw it under the bus and all of that kind of stuff, which is not magical at all.

Neil: [00:47:57] I’m starting to believe all these 90s references. You guys brought me in as like a, as like a age, like you wanted to keep the age a little bit lower. So you brought me in the young guy.

Derek: [00:48:06] Yeah, yeah, we were definitely.

Glenn: [00:48:07] We’re definitely trying to lower the average age of this.

Craig: [00:48:11] Yeah. Glen and I are old. We’re both art members.

Derek: [00:48:15] Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:48:16] All right, so speaking of old, let’s see how old you all really are. All right, hold on, Glen, you really do know stuff. There we go. All right. What is the largest country in Africa?

Derek: [00:48:31] I know, what is it? Go for it. It has to be the Congo.

Neil: [00:48:34] This is a cheat code, I think.

Craig: [00:48:37] No it’s not.

Derek: [00:48:38] Not the Congo, D.R..

Craig: [00:48:41] Try again.

Derek: [00:48:42] Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:48:43] Are you going with that answer? Glenn, are you putting something else out there?

Glenn: [00:48:46] You said no, I’m just. I’m trying to think there’s 63. 63 countries. I think in Africa it takes a little while to, to, to to figure this out. I don’t know.

Craig: [00:48:56] Glenn, we gave you a week. We told you last week it was all about Africa, except for the except for Toto music.

Derek: [00:49:02] Nigeria’s top five. But I don’t think it’s number one.

Glenn: [00:49:04] Yeah, I don’t know. I really don’t know. I was I was going to say Brazil, but since that’s in South America, I’m not going to say that.

Craig: [00:49:12] Derek. Algeria is number one.

Derek: [00:49:16] Wow.

Glenn: [00:49:16] All right. Good job bro. Yeah.

Craig: [00:49:19] Yeah.

Derek: [00:49:20] Really?

Suzanne: [00:49:21] Amy.

Glenn: [00:49:21] Hi, Amy.

Suzanne: [00:49:22] All right. Next question. What country produces the most raw cocoa?

Glenn: [00:49:28] Well, that’s definitely South America.

Derek: [00:49:31] It’s not.

Glenn: [00:49:32] What.

Derek: [00:49:32] It’s a continent.

Glenn: [00:49:34] No, I mean a country within South America. Sorry. I’m going to say I’m just guessing. I’m going to say Guatemala.

Craig: [00:49:46] No.

Suzanne: [00:49:50] That’s not going.

Craig: [00:49:51] To jump in here. You got any guesses? Give Glenn a hand.

Derek: [00:49:56] Raw cocoa.

Glenn: [00:49:57] India.

Craig: [00:49:59] No.

Derek: [00:50:04] I’ma say Colombia just for fun.

Glenn: [00:50:05] I’m gonna, I’m gonna. Yeah. I’m gonna. I’m gonna say Norway. North Africa is the country in North Africa.

Neil: [00:50:12] No way.

Glenn: [00:50:13] I don’t know. This is all about Africa.

Craig: [00:50:15] I give.

Glenn: [00:50:16] Up. Yeah.

Craig: [00:50:17] Africa.

Glenn: [00:50:18] I gave up.

Neil: [00:50:18] It is?

Craig: [00:50:19] Yeah. Everything today is about Africa.

Derek: [00:50:22] Okay. All right.

Neil: [00:50:23] I didn’t get the hint.

Craig: [00:50:24] Oh, sorry. It’s the Ivory Coast with 1.9 million tons. Wow. It’s the largest grower.

Neil: [00:50:32] Arian. You could have just texted me, man, instead of the chat. Send the message to me.

Craig: [00:50:36] I just got a second. Ecuador is third. So, Glenn, you were on the other continent? Yeah. We’ll give you half a star for that one.

Glenn: [00:50:46] Yeah, I don’t know.

Suzanne: [00:50:49] Okay. So what country produces the most finished chocolate? Where is it? Manufactured?

Derek: [00:50:56] Africa.

Glenn: [00:50:58] The most finished? I don’t even know. I guess not, not Finland, I guess.

Craig: [00:51:03] And it’s not in Africa either.

Suzanne: [00:51:05] Yeah, this isn’t Africa. Question, Glenn. Sorry.

Neil: [00:51:08] Belgium. Yeah.

Derek: [00:51:10] Belgium or Switzerland or France, probably. Yeah.

Neil: [00:51:12] I’ll go Belgium number two.

Craig: [00:51:14] Very good.

Derek: [00:51:15] Belgium number two.

Suzanne: [00:51:17] Yeah.

Craig: [00:51:18] Yeah.

Suzanne: [00:51:20] You’re probably.

Neil: [00:51:21] Switzerland.

Suzanne: [00:51:22] Get there?

Derek: [00:51:23] No. Switzerland and France.

Glenn: [00:51:26] Yeah, I don’t know.

Derek: [00:51:27] Luxembourg. Something crazy.

Craig: [00:51:30] You guys give up chocolate?

Glenn: [00:51:32] Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. I gave.

Derek: [00:51:34] Up Belgium. It shouldn’t be anybody.

Craig: [00:51:35] Okay, it’s Germany’s number one. Belgium number two. Italy is number three.

Derek: [00:51:40] I thought I was talking quality chocolate. I thought we’re talking, you know, chocolate people actually.

Craig: [00:51:44] Like the most complete chocolate.

Suzanne: [00:51:47] Finished.

Craig: [00:51:47] Chocolate finished.

Glenn: [00:51:49] I don’t even know what that means.

Derek: [00:51:50] So we’re what that means?

Craig: [00:51:52] It’s not raw.

Glenn: [00:51:54] Oh, I thought you meant. I thought it was eaten.

Suzanne: [00:51:57] Germany produces Ritter Sport and Milka, Belgium. You’re familiar with Godiva, Barry Callebaut, and Italy has Ferrero, Nutella and Kinder.

Glenn: [00:52:08] But like, stuff like Hershey’s and Nestle aren’t bigger. I mean, they’re not real chocolate, but.

Craig: [00:52:14] I guess.

Suzanne: [00:52:15] That’s Pennsylvania. We’re talking.

Craig: [00:52:19] Except our former producer only eats Kit Kats from Canada.

Suzanne: [00:52:24] I don’t eat Kit Kats. I actually did buy a Reese’s Cup today. Okay.

Glenn: [00:52:28] What do you mean you don’t need Kit Kats? What the hell is that about?

Suzanne: [00:52:33] John eats the Kit Kats. There’s no way I could even get Ahold of a Kit Kat. That kid, like they come in the grocery bin and it’s gone.

Glenn: [00:52:40] That’s literally the only explanation I could accept, because they are freaking yummy.

Derek: [00:52:44] What’s the first chocolate you would trade at Halloween? The one you’re like, oh, I’ll take anything.

Suzanne: [00:52:49] Oh, it has to be the thousand grand bars or the hundred grand bars.

Neil: [00:52:54] Yeah. For me. For me, it’s Almond Joys. I get those out of my face.

Derek: [00:52:58] It used to be for me, too. But now was it.

Glenn: [00:53:01] Was it mostly because of they had nuts? Or are you also annoyed with mounds?

Neil: [00:53:06] I just hate almonds. Almonds, whichever way you prefer to pronounce it. I hate them.

Craig: [00:53:12] So I know you’re not drinking nut juice from almonds, right?

Neil: [00:53:20] That’s where I draw the line. Where I draw the line.

Craig: [00:53:24] All right.

Suzanne: [00:53:25] Well, that’s what’s in the refrigerator. All right.

Glenn: [00:53:28] In the 70s, I would try to trade away my apples that had razor blades in them. That was my last. That was my least favorite.

Neil: [00:53:35] In the 70s.

Glenn: [00:53:36] Yeah.

Neil: [00:53:37] Oh.

Derek: [00:53:39] That’s when you can get away with murder. Yeah. Back then.

Glenn: [00:53:41] That’s a big rumor that you. You could never, you know, don’t take anything because they could have razor blades in it. It was like.

Suzanne: [00:53:47] It was the needles, the punctures. You had all sorts of stuff.

Neil: [00:53:50] All sorts. My God.

Derek: [00:53:52] Everything was.

Glenn: [00:53:53] As a hazard. You would die.

Suzanne: [00:53:55] I still go through and I check John’s candy before I can’t get out of it.

Craig: [00:54:00] Mom is good, mom.

Glenn: [00:54:01] That’s right. And I will tell you what I. We. It’s so funny how we carry stuff from childhood with us. I still, I still sit there like a good boy getting a haircut because I think I’m gonna get a lollipop if I’m like, if I just sit still.

Suzanne: [00:54:14] Oh.

Derek: [00:54:15] Okay.

Suzanne: [00:54:15] All right, let’s go back to Africa.

Derek: [00:54:17] It pisses me off.

Suzanne: [00:54:18] What country in Africa has the largest rainforest?

Derek: [00:54:23] Oh, that’s definitely not. I’m guessing it’s not.

Glenn: [00:54:28] That’s definitely not Northern Africa. So we know that. I got that going on. At least I know where the desert is.

Derek: [00:54:37] Yeah, I don’t.

Neil: [00:54:38] I don’t even have a guess.

Glenn: [00:54:39] Yeah.

Derek: [00:54:40] I’ll go.

Glenn: [00:54:41] I’ll go with Congo. What the hell? Because he said.

Derek: [00:54:42] It. No, it’s probably one next to it.

Glenn: [00:54:44] Yeah. We’ll go with Congo or Congo adjacent for a thousand.

Craig: [00:54:49] It is the Congo. The Congo. Very good.

Glenn: [00:54:53] I knew it, I knew it. Tanzania II.

Craig: [00:54:58] Okay.

Neil: [00:54:59] Derek has lived in Africa, so this is like a cheat code. He should get all these.

Derek: [00:55:03] It’s the thing. I’m getting them. Right.

Neil: [00:55:04] But he should.

Suzanne: [00:55:06] Yeah.

Craig: [00:55:07] If you look at the rainforest in in the in the Congo, it covers over In square kilometers, approximately 400,000mi² are globally ranked. It’s you know, it’s just just amazing. So, okay, we got one more. Glenn, than your torture time is over.

Suzanne: [00:55:29] Thank goodness. No. Then I get to what country in Africa has the largest rail network?

Glenn: [00:55:37] I don’t know, I really regret telling you. I was going to go to this Toto concert.

Craig: [00:55:44] Yeah, at least he knows what the what what what what is that?

Suzanne: [00:55:52] I had no clue that that’s what it was. I was just like something else.

Glenn: [00:55:56] Are we are we including standard gauge track or also some of the alternate gauges? I just want to alternate. I want to I just want to make sure I do all my math correctly because.

Suzanne: [00:56:09] Well, good. Because we want the number of kilometers with that.

Glenn: [00:56:12] You could be.

Derek: [00:56:13] Right. I mean, I don’t freaking know.

Glenn: [00:56:15] Maybe I don’t know. Maybe Cairo’s got a big subway and they’re counting that. I don’t, I don’t know.

Craig: [00:56:20] Egypt is number three.

Derek: [00:56:21] Yep.

Neil: [00:56:22] Where’s Libya following this list?

Craig: [00:56:24] It doesn’t.

Suzanne: [00:56:25] Not.

Derek: [00:56:26] Yeah.

Neil: [00:56:26] Then it’s gotta be Morocco.

Suzanne: [00:56:29] No.

Craig: [00:56:29] No.

Glenn: [00:56:33] Yeah. I don’t.

Derek: [00:56:33] Know. South Africa. That’s not too easy.

Craig: [00:56:36] Number one with a bullet. Sudan’s number two. Egypt’s number three. Mozambique’s number four, and Tunisia’s number five.

Derek: [00:56:47] That’s gotta go with my gut. I don’t know why. I just I know myself, yeah.

Craig: [00:56:51] Glenn you’re not getting any tips for the next show. You had a week to study.

Glenn: [00:56:57] Well, that’s why I, I.

Suzanne: [00:56:59] Maybe.

Derek: [00:57:01] I.

Glenn: [00:57:01] Think we need to.

Craig: [00:57:02] Music next time.

Glenn: [00:57:03] That’s why. That’s why we’re going to cancel next week’s show, because I’m going to be you know, at a resort.

Derek: [00:57:10] Neil, I copied the link so we could just.

Neil: [00:57:14] Run it again.

Craig: [00:57:15] Very good.

Derek: [00:57:15] All right.

Suzanne: [00:57:16] All right. So we got.

Glenn: [00:57:20] That’s loud. That was loud. But this is also going to be. As right as the plug at the time of the show where we have. Lose all pretense and just try to sell shit. So. Derek.

Derek: [00:57:41] I think you’re jumping in. What happened to the pool? Oh, we’ll get there first.

Glenn: [00:57:45] You gotta first. You gotta sell stuff. Tell us. You know, we we’ve we’ve been hearing about your brand. How do we learn a little bit more about you and fine you.

Derek: [00:57:51] Neil. This is your job.

Glenn: [00:57:52] Yeah.

Neil: [00:57:52] No. Okay. This is my job. Yeah. So find us on sexology.com. Reach out to me, Derek. On LinkedIn. We’re working with a ton of luxury hotels, resorts all around the country, all around the world. You know, just reach out to us if you want to improve your bell desk operation, Valley operations, you name it.

Glenn: [00:58:13] Yeah. You know, so you’re like increasing security, removing friction, and helping with guests. Customer service. Making people feel more special. Love it.

Derek: [00:58:22] Speed. Yeah. Paper. Paper is expensive. Those luggage tickets 18 to $0.30 each.

Glenn: [00:58:26] Seriously?

Derek: [00:58:27] Crazy.

Glenn: [00:58:27] Have you seen big numbers doing plus. With tariffs and stuff. You know.

Derek: [00:58:33] No. Sustainable.

Glenn: [00:58:34] Yeah.

Derek: [00:58:35] Paper makes no sense.

Glenn: [00:58:36] Yeah. That makes no sense.

Craig: [00:58:37] You guys are doing a great thing for our industry.

Glenn: [00:58:40] Plus, you don’t have to worry about reading numbers anymore. And that’s just.

Neil: [00:58:44] And I promise, guys, we’re not just sales guys. I’m a hotel guy first. I just I just joined the dark side in sales from.

Glenn: [00:58:53] What were you doing? What were you doing beforehand in ops? We’re.

Neil: [00:58:56] I worked for first hospitality, and then I worked for Hawkeye hotels for a number of years. Yeah. Yeah. So I was.

Derek: [00:59:02] Ops right here.

Glenn: [00:59:03] Yeah.

Neil: [00:59:04] I opened up a couple hotels, which are regional for Hawkeye for some time as well. And then I sold, I rolled out this, this product at my hotels with Derek. And then I, I just, I joined the dark side. That’s what I said.

Craig: [00:59:18] Nice. I love it. That’s a great story.

Neil: [00:59:20] You know, what’s funny is I always tell people I’m like, I, I tell Derek, I’m like, I joined the dark side from ops to sales and he’s like, why do you keep using that? Such a bad connotation? I’m like, if you’re in hotels, you know, you just know. I just know.

Craig: [00:59:32] Okay, Neal, you know this one too. Then 501 club.

Neil: [00:59:37] 501 club. I don’t know that one.

Craig: [00:59:40] That’s everybody leaving at the stroke of five and they’re out the door at 501.

Neil: [00:59:44] That’s the sales. That’s the sales mentality. That’s that’s but it’s more like it’s like 201 for me because you know, I’m in Pacific Pacific time. Derek. Derek. Yeah. What he doesn’t know that happens after two doesn’t doesn’t matter.

Craig: [01:00:00] It’s all a secret. Hey great show guys. Good having you on. Thank you.

Neil: [01:00:05] Thanks for having us, guys.

Glenn: [01:00:06] Thanks, Suzanne. You got anything going on?

Suzanne: [01:00:08] Well, I’m on vacation, but, you know, I’m always trying to do stuff, so we’ve got a really awesome AI lab program going on at FIU. It’s coming up in October and we’ve got our other AI program coming up in August. So reach out to me and I will hook you up with those discounts. That’s it. I’m going to go back into my hot tub now.

Glenn: [01:00:29] Great. Gregory.

Craig: [01:00:31] Hey did the investment panel for Arnie Garfinkel’s commercial real Estate in summit yesterday? It’s up on the Click Media YouTube channel. We’ve got three great lenders that are making loans and two service providers. So it’s really an informative piece. And it’s also up on LinkedIn. Doctor producer director Suzanne and I are getting ready for season 12 of click connect and Glenn, Susanne, and I will all be at the Southern Lodging Summit and we’re really excited about that. I’ll be moderating the AI panel. Suzanne’s on that. And I don’t know, maybe we’ll just throw Glenn in there to join us as well. You know, we’ve we, it’s a great conference. So looking forward to that. And all three of us will be at the lodging conference. And I’m moderating a panel there on adaptive reuse. So looking forward to it.

Glenn: [01:01:44] I’m looking forward to our special Friday night audit during the Southern Lodging Summit. I think that’s going to be on Tuesday. We got.

Craig: [01:01:50] A great restaurant.

Glenn: [01:01:51] Tuesday night. Wednesday night. I forgot.

Suzanne: [01:01:53] Tuesday night.

Glenn: [01:01:54] Tuesday night we’re going to be at coming at you live from the kooky Canuck right across the street from Peabody. That should be a hoot. Yeah. Over there. Yes.

Craig: [01:02:01] Somebody might become a duck master.

Glenn: [01:02:04] Oh, that would be freaking great. You could join the club. Me. And you could, like you know, we could, like, compare our canes and stuff like that. It’ll be a lot of. It’ll be a lot of fun. All right. So I want to thank the good folks Elizabeth Mullins and and chef Vinnie and the crew over at evermore. I’m looking forward to being with you guys next weekend in Orlando. And a couple of months after that, you’re going to see a great video. Hopefully it’ll be great. I’m going to be doing a big cooking, big family meal with Chef Vinnie. We’re going to be cooking for like 20 people. So that’s going to be a real hoot. I look forward to being Southern Lodging Summit, where I’ve got to figure out a keynote speech that will motivate people, but not freak people out about the current state of world affairs. Because, you know, I mean, I like to deal with being negative these days. You know, I’m the most negative. I’m the most positive person. That’s negative these days. It’s the weirdest. I’m like, I’m like, I’m happy all the time, but I’m convinced the world’s going to shit, I don’t know, so we’ll find out. What else am I doing? I think I’m going for a dip. Is what?

Suzanne: [01:03:07] Yes, please. Thank you.

Craig: [01:03:08] I think you are. It’s time for you to get in the pool.

Glenn: [01:03:11] Alrighty, folks.

Derek: [01:03:12] I’ll let you wrap up the show.

Glenn: [01:03:15] I gotta go, I gotta go hit the pool. So

Neil: [01:03:18] Derek, are you joining?

Derek: [01:03:19] See, I.

Neil: [01:03:19] Wanted to join.

Derek: [01:03:21] Yeah, right behind him. Yeah.

Suzanne: [01:03:26] Oh, he’s not going with the waffle House. You smell like chlorine. All right, there goes the cannonball. Oh.

Craig: [01:03:39] No.

Neil: [01:03:41] All right, I’ll throw the laptop in with him.

Derek: [01:03:43] Yeah, yeah.

Craig: [01:03:44] Yeah. The laptop.

Neil: [01:03:46] The laptop.

Suzanne: [01:03:47] All right. He’s going to continue swimming and cooling off. Bye, everybody.

Craig: [01:03:51] Everybody. Thank you. Don’t talk over the credits. Neil Glenn gets upset.