00:00.269 –> 00:12.207
hey anthony so great to see you how are you today i am wonderful and still in a hotel i’m anthony welcome to no vacancy lives that’s my friend glenn you’re watching the number one show in hospitality

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Everybody, welcome to No Vacancy Live.

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I’m Glenn Hausman.

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That’s Anthony Melchiorri.

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And you guys are awesome for spending some time with us today.

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Anthony, every day is getting closer and closer to the holiday season.

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I could feel it.

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Well, I guess because Passover, not Passover, Hanukkah is almost already over at this point.

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But I have a Christmas spirit.

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I have a Christmas spirit.

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My Christmas lights are up.

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My tree is there.

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My Christmas is back.

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Let me ask you a question.

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This is a very important question.

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When you go into a hotel, how many times have you wrestled with a lamp and couldn’t figure out how to turn it on or turn it off?

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Dude, you are speaking my language.

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Here at No Vacancy, I’ve been out there for years preaching that all the lamp companies have to get together and figure this out.

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Is it underneath over here?

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Is it down on the floor on a cord?

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Do I have to hit a button with my foot?

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No.

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You got to make it standard because I could spend 20, 30 minutes trying to figure this out.

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Here’s a lamp on my desk that I have not figured out how to shut off.

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Yep.

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Tried like for 20 minutes.

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Yeah.

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Well, uh, right here.

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Hold on.

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Hold on.

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Maybe I got it.

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No, no.

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All right.

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Thanks for tuning in where we cover all the hardest issues.

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Unsuccessfully, apparently.

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Possible.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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Listen, I’m really excited about the holiday season, but I want to bring in our guest before I say the thing that I wanted to say.

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Today, we have ourselves, Mr. Mike Nixon, President and Chief Development Officer of ExpoTel Hospitality down in Louisiana.

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How are you, my friend?

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I’m good.

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How are y’all doing?

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It is so great to see you.

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All right.

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So we’re talking about the holiday season real quick just to get us involved.

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And I saw today we’re recording this on the 11th for a little bit later in the week.

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AAA is projecting more than 150 million travelers going 50 miles or more

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during the 10-day year-end holiday period.

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That’s 2.2% higher than last year and the second highest forecast since 2000 when they started tracking this.

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Mike, are you starting to feel that at properties managed by ExpoTel?

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Yes, we are.

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I think it’s just going to be a busy Christmas season.

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I think all the hotels are going to do well, especially the hotels that are in destination places.

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Yeah.

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Anthony, how are you seeing that?

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No, everybody I’m talking to is traveling.

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I’m not.

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Right.

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You feel it, man.

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And I still I can’t understand that everybody’s complaining about pricing.

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Everybody’s complaining about they don’t have as much money as they used to.

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But everybody’s going on great vacations and traveling and going to their family and, you know, and everybody’s still going.

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So, you know, they say, you know, there’s never been more credit card debt and people are taking money out of their 401ks at a faster clip than ever.

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So I guess they’ll pay for it later.

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Yeah.

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But Mike, as long as they’re paying to stay in your properties, right?

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Yeah, that’s right.

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That’s what’s really important.

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Maybe it’s got something to do with the experiential factor.

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Instead of buying presents, we’re going to buy a trip.

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Yeah.

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You know what?

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I completely agree with you.

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What was it last week we were talking about on the show?

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What do we want for the holidays?

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I’m like –

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satisfied guy i don’t need things right and fundamentally as a society over the last 15 years since the great recession we’ve moved much more towards experiential society than uh you know than having to have all those googles and baubles and stuff like that to show off to your friends and um that’s a great advantage for you particularly um in a great location um here at the uh the renaissance in uh baton rouge louisiana so it’s gotta be good for you guys

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Yeah, we’re loving it.

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It’s so good.

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And I think this is, you know, maybe a sign of things to come.

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You know, we’ve had enough misery in the hotel industry, not this year and last year, but before that.

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So it’s time we had some boom times as well.

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And it just seems like things are starting like we’re not thinking about COVID anymore.

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And it seems like people are just now we have we have we have a lot of other things that we’re thinking about keeping our keeping us busy.

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But I think also it’s not that people want to experience.

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I also think people are stressed and tired and like, screw it.

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I’m going to spend money on something.

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I just can’t take it anymore.

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I’m traveling.

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And I know people, everybody I know is going on two, three vacations.

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I haven’t been on one in six years, but I’ll eventually go on one.

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He was in Vegas last week.

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I know it was work.

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I will tell you, I did a shoot for Hotel Impossible in Baton Rouge, and I think I stayed at your hotel.

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Are you right near, there’s also a film studio or a film lot, or there’s this big production that my friend was doing inside one of the film lots that I don’t think is too far from your hotel.

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I think I know what you’re talking about.

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You’re right.

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Yeah.

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they also have a water collection uh down there as well which is pretty pretty cool so um you know mike we’re talking about how well things are going on the customer side of the business um here’s to how you’re thinking about um how your operations business is going what you’re thinking about because we speak to a lot of professionals that have your role at different companies they keep talking about getting squeezed on pricing pressure and all of these things

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that we all know about including that uh that l word labor that we try not to uh you know keep bringing up too much overall how are you assessing the opportunities and challenges as we’re on the precipice of a new year so from an operational perspective we we have the same challenges it’s a labor challenge but i i think that we’ve faced those labor challenges before i don’t think this is necessarily new it may be maybe a little bigger than it’s been in the past but

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we’re seeing the same kind of pressure.

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But I also think it makes us think, as hoteliers, how to overcome that.

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How do we be creative without making it an affront to guests?

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Because at the end of the day, it’s still hospitality.

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We’ve still got to have people serving people, right?

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Yep.

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And I think the issue for hospitality labor is, I can kind of like say, like trying to find the on-off switch on a lamp in a hotel room.

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It’s pretty hard to find the right person.

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That’s right.

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You know, it’s really going to be offset by technology, but I see a lot of hotels having technology, but they’re not using it.

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I can’t tell you the last time somebody texted me saying, hey, welcome to the hotel.

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And like, how do I text you saying I need towels?

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I don’t want to call if I don’t have to.

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Like right now, how do I turn on this damn lamp or turn off this damn lamp?

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I don’t want to call you and ask you.

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Because as I’m talking to you on my podcast, I can actually do that without anybody knowing, and I don’t have to get on the phone call.

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And so I think technology is one way to mitigate it, but no one’s really, well, very few people are using it the right way, in my opinion.

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And another thing that Glenn has probably heard me go on too much about is that, Mike, you just said something that I don’t hear a lot of people say.

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He was like, okay, yes, we have some issues.

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So what are creative solutions to solve those issues?

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Because those issues aren’t going away.

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And I mean labor.

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It’s like we start…

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feeling as mid-level managers or executors or vice presidents or wherever we are.

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It’s just, it’s so hard.

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Okay, I don’t want to hear it’s hard anymore.

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I don’t want to hear, I don’t want us to lower our standards because we have this perception that people have lowered theirs.

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And I don’t think people have lowered their standards, especially younger people, as much as we think.

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We’ve just given up because maybe they show up differently.

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Maybe they, I don’t know, look at their phone once when we were talking to them and we get pissed off.

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And if we engage them, I find young people,

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at least the people that I mentor are just as engaged if you give them engagement.

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That’s right.

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I think it’s all about the leadership.

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So, you know, I think we get, we get lazy is not the right word, but we get kind of accustomed to sitting in our offices as GMs and as AGMs and even as executive housekeepers, when there’s labor aplenty, revenue aplenty, then all of a sudden there’s a crunch on either one of those two items.

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And we forget that,

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how to go to a different department and help out.

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We forget how to get up and go to the desk and pitch in or answer the phone when it’s ringing.

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Yeah.

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So I think that’s that’s really it.

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And then, Anthony, on your other point on technology, you’re a professional traveler.

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So you want to you want to text and get where the light switch is.

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But the people that aren’t professionals, they want to talk to a warm body and that body better be hospitable or it’s going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

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Right.

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But you can tell in a text if somebody’s being hospitable.

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Anthony, thank you so much for your opportunity to fix your problem.

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Here you go.

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Do you need a follow up call?

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That feels warm to me.

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If I have somebody bring me the towels, if I’m required, here you go, have a nice day, anything else I can get for you.

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So technology and hospitality are not mutually exclusive, especially in today’s day and age.

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Back in the day when we say, oh, if you don’t service somebody’s room every single day, they’re going to shoot you in the head.

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Like, oh, service it right.

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And when I do need service, bring me towels with a smile.

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And I’m tired, and you’ll hear more about me on social media about the subject.

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I’m just tired of us lowering our standards to meet a perceived laziness on a perceived employee that, again, those employees that come through your door, you may have to add 20% or 30% more to your training or 20% or 30% more to –

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paying attention, but people want to be part of a team.

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That’s right.

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And they want to please you.

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You just have to lead them in the right direction.

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So if you’re not leading them, you get what you want.

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The people I know want to volunteer, but they don’t.

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If you say, hey, would you come to my soup kitchen on Saturday and volunteer for two hours?

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They probably will.

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Yeah.

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Then they’ll show up.

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You’ll find the soup kitchen.

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So with the employees, they will do the right thing, but they may not find how to do the right thing unless you tell them.

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And then tell them, hold them accountable.

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And somebody said, how do you do that?

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And I said, I’m insane with standards.

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Interpret that any way you want.

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If you’re a more relaxed manager than me, then be insane in a way that makes you happy.

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But I’m insane in the sense of I’m going to tell you about it if I don’t see you doing it.

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When I was a GM, I would say, don’t make me use my dad voice.

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I’ll pull this hotel over right now.

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I’ll do it right now.

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As Fiona Apple would say, one of her lyrics, my favorite, don’t pull my trigger and blame my gun.

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That’s right.

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That’s right.

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That’s great.

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I love the whole concept of if you lower your standards, then what you’re really doing is telling the people that are around you they don’t have to work as hard.

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They don’t have to do as much.

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And that’s really where you have that slippery slope.

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So, Mike, as president, how are you thinking about motivating the leaders within your properties to make sure that they’re constantly engaging the staff that you do have in order to go above and beyond?

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So it’s super simple.

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It’s always having that conversation.

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It’s always telling the story about me saying, don’t make me use my dad voice.

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It’s always looking for input from the successful leaders to find out what they’re doing that’s making their show better than the other guy’s show.

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And then it’s instilling a little bit of competition between all of them.

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Everybody wants to see the report for guest satisfaction scores, and they want to be at the top of the list.

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They don’t want to be number four every single week.

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Yeah, nobody wants to be number four.

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Yeah, it always fascinates me when you’re in that room and people are like, oh, all right, I’m number four again.

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I would not be able to show my face.

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No, that guy that guy needs to go be an accountant or a girl or whoever it is.

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Right.

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Yeah, for sure.

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So, you know, Mike, how are you thinking about utilizing then maybe some back of house technology and stuff in order to allow the people that you do have to excel in hospitality instead of having to, you know, push buttons and do stuff like that?

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Yeah.

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So a lot of things, you know, my latest fascination has been on these Roombas, the vacuum cleaners.

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It’s not back of house, it’s front of house, but it’s kind of low key.

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And I think, you know, that replaces, that could replace an entire housekeeper if you’re short staffed, put one in every hallway.

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It’s brilliant.

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I haven’t done it yet, but I think it’s brilliant.

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Yeah, we had on Micah Green, who’s running a company, Talos, that has these kinds of robots.

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They have Rosie the Robot.

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And it’s great.

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It’s doing the rooms.

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It’s doing the hallways.

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And most importantly for you folks out there, apparently vacuuming, you can get injured more frequently than any other job in the hotel, which is surprising.

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Right.

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So if you’re looking to save money,

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That’s a great way to do it because you’re going to keep your housekeepers healthier, hopefully, as well.

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So whenever that comes up, I like to make that point.

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Yeah, I love it.

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Yeah.

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So what are owners thinking about these days?

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What are their concerns right now?

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And how are you partnering with them for success?

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So that it’s it’s kind of a weird dynamic, right, because they want to see the bottom line.

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They want to they want to look at the budget and see that we’re making progress over last year.

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So kind of and they and they’re aware of these problems like labor, like the squeeze on employee to guest ratios.

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They get it.

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uh so i i’m not sure they’re as much of a help but they understand what’s happening and where we can uh work together to come up with solutions we do certainly we’ve got some pretty smart owners so i think that’s kind of kind of where where we’re at now uh yeah any owner today doesn’t understand those problems

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And I don’t think, back in the day, they shied away from them.

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I don’t think they shy away from them anymore because they may own five hotels, but they probably own other businesses and they probably have a home office and they’re seeing the same issues in their businesses that they’re actually

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Yeah, that’s right.

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And when you see when you see the P&Ls have similar increases in various departments, then it’s like a, you know, a light bulb going on rather than off in Anthony’s case there.

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And they say, oh, OK, I get it.

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It’s it’s the industry.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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So which is very helpful for you to make your arguments.

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But a lot of time there’s still got to be a, you know, a disconnect because they’re not in the day to day business.

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So how are you able to like share ideas and thoughts and, you know, really be the benefactor of the property and the owners mind?

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Oh, well, that just becomes a matter of communication.

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As long as we’re telegraphing that kind of stuff way far out and we’ve got data to back us up, if it’s a PKF study or the Star Report on top line revenues or occupancies, then I think ownership generally looks to us to be their experts in the hotel business, right?

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So as long as we’ve got

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the data to back up what we’re saying, it’s usually a non-event.

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There’s usually not a problem.

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The problem to me is on the, you know, maybe the purchase or, or maybe even the finance side of the business, because you’re, you know, you’re trying to underwrite something with industry standards that you’re used to over the course of 20, 30 years.

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And, you know, rooms cost are more or closer to 30% than they are 20%.

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Right.

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That’s interesting.

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Yeah.

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One of the things that managers have a tough time, if you come in through the operation, underwriting, whether it be underwriting the hotel, underwriting the five-year capital, underwriting everything.

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And they don’t understand the concept of underwriting.

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So explain that in layman’s terms.

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Well, it’s really just, you know, kind of projecting the revenues and expenses for a hotel four or five years out to come to a value of the hotel, if you will.

17:02.063 –> 17:10.750
So when I do P&L reviews with managers, I kind of drop, I start at the top and I drop straight to the bottom and say, this is what you got.

17:11.470 –> 17:13.292
And then I explain what a cap rate is.

17:13.312 –> 17:14.553
And I say, you apply a cap rate.

17:14.573 –> 17:15.634
This is the value of your hotel.

17:17.075 –> 17:18.676
And that’s good or it’s bad.

17:19.357 –> 17:19.797
And every,

17:20.219 –> 17:25.186
you know, every, you know, $10,000 is worth a million dollars or a hundred thousand dollars.

17:25.206 –> 17:25.546
Sorry.

17:26.908 –> 17:29.652
And so you gain, you gain a hundred thousand on the bottom line.

17:29.672 –> 17:30.833
That’s a million dollars in value.

17:30.873 –> 17:33.637
You lose a hundred thousand, you just lost a million dollars in value.

17:33.977 –> 17:36.561
And that really helps when they understand what you’re talking about.

17:36.940 –> 17:39.161
Yeah, and people understand that.

17:39.781 –> 17:47.463
In one of the shows I did, there was a hotel that operated, it was a water park, $50 million to build.

17:48.284 –> 17:50.724
And they couldn’t get the financing, but it was basically built.

17:50.744 –> 17:54.005
90% of it was done, and they couldn’t get the rest of the finance.

17:54.025 –> 17:54.946
The guy walked away from it.

17:55.266 –> 17:58.267
And somebody came in, and they got it for pennies on the dollar.

17:58.887 –> 18:00.507
And they were like, oh, this is going to be great.

18:00.608 –> 18:01.708
But they didn’t realize something.

18:02.188 –> 18:09.630
To take a hotel that is not open yet, to get it open that’s been sitting there for a year, cost you $20 million.

18:09.670 –> 18:10.171
That’s right.

18:10.551 –> 18:11.031
That’s right.

18:11.591 –> 18:15.572
So hotels aren’t only real estate investments.

18:16.153 –> 18:24.715
If a hotel isn’t a functioning business, it’s like buying a mom and pop ice cream store or candy store and there’s no candy in the candy store.

18:24.915 –> 18:25.015
Yeah.

18:25.035 –> 18:25.976
It’s like buying.

18:26.376 –> 18:29.677
If there’s no hotel guests in the hotel, what am I buying?

18:30.336 –> 18:31.497
Yeah, you’re exactly right.

18:31.537 –> 18:33.318
And I come across that all the time, Anthony.

18:33.659 –> 18:40.804
I come across banks that want to shut down hotels that they foreclosed on because they don’t want to operate them because there’s so much risk in operations.

18:42.546 –> 18:44.828
But you got to do better than not being open at all.

18:44.928 –> 18:46.289
Exactly.

18:46.369 –> 18:53.935
It’s so hard to convince people sometimes when they don’t understand what Anthony just said about it being a living, breathing business, not a piece of real estate.

18:54.375 –> 18:56.016
I usually use a container of milk.

18:56.056 –> 18:57.257
You buy a brand new container of milk.

18:57.277 –> 18:58.258
You don’t use it for a week.

18:58.718 –> 18:59.238
It’s useless.

18:59.379 –> 19:00.399
You pour it down the drain.

19:00.780 –> 19:01.200
That’s right.

19:01.500 –> 19:03.121
Now, are you going to show me that container of milk?

19:03.321 –> 19:05.303
If you don’t pour it down the drain, you’re going to show it to me.

19:05.343 –> 19:06.183
No, I’m not going to drink it.

19:07.184 –> 19:11.067
I drank very outdated almond milk, and that was not a good idea.

19:11.327 –> 19:12.548
That’s never a good idea.

19:14.397 –> 19:15.218
That’s hysterical.

19:15.598 –> 19:22.228
So, you know, Mike, you’re out there, you go to all the industry events and stuff like that, right?

19:22.388 –> 19:29.298
So what are you seeing as a general sentiment you think for 2024 against what you think you’re thinking for 2024?

19:31.012 –> 19:33.032
I think the industry is aligned with my thinking.

19:33.593 –> 19:35.393
I’m kind of optimistic about 2024.

19:37.073 –> 19:40.894
I think that we’ve seen kind of a little bit of settling down.

19:40.914 –> 19:45.775
2023, 2022 in my book was a great, great year.

19:46.035 –> 19:49.776
We have a lot of resort properties.

19:49.796 –> 19:55.877
2023 didn’t meet expectations in those resort properties, but it’s because people are going other places.

19:55.937 –> 19:58.058
They couldn’t wait to get to the beach after COVID.

19:58.078 –> 19:59.518
They stayed at the beach for two years.

19:59.578 –> 20:00.158
Now they’re like,

20:00.698 –> 20:09.632
oh wait we can go to europe that’s right we can go other places so i think did people go to europe this summer you think i didn’t notice

20:11.703 –> 20:35.831
yeah mike we spent a lot of time joking like everyone we knew was like in italy or greece like yeah my brother was in uh paris for a month he’s never been overseas he went to paris for a month portugal uh europe oh europe but but like everywhere everybody was away my neighbors every single neighbor was away the only schmuck that wasn’t away was me that’s too bad and me yeah

20:37.605 –> 20:39.026
Yeah, well, your hotels are so busy.

20:39.046 –> 20:41.267
You’ve got to stick around and do that.

20:41.327 –> 20:43.609
And then when they’re not busy, you’ve got to stick around and help.

20:43.629 –> 20:45.270
It’s just a double-edged sword.

20:45.330 –> 20:46.050
It never stops.

20:47.531 –> 20:48.772
Can I take that for a second, Glenn?

20:49.452 –> 20:51.053
Here was a time when things are good.

20:51.093 –> 20:51.954
We had how many years?

20:51.974 –> 20:52.354
12 years?

20:52.374 –> 20:52.634
15 years?

20:52.654 –> 20:52.754
Yeah.

20:53.993 –> 20:58.977
There was only one month of a decrease year over year or one month or one year.

20:58.997 –> 21:07.503
I think it was a one month decrease from the prior year over something like 136 months or something like that.

21:07.703 –> 21:13.067
So we got used to people making beds and checking people in because, you know, we’re important.

21:13.667 –> 21:17.189
So we don’t need to do that because we’re too busy buying new hotels.

21:17.290 –> 21:17.530
Great.

21:18.191 –> 21:27.237
But during COVID, the real leaders not only made the beds and checked people in, but realized their roots and realizing, I’m working with a company right now, Colin.

21:27.757 –> 21:31.159
And I tell you, there was a general manager that day was working the front desk from 3 to 11.

21:31.600 –> 21:33.601
And I go, he’s going to add some challenges.

21:33.661 –> 21:37.663
And I decided to make some calls and I decided to work the front desk.

21:38.284 –> 21:41.326
And people that really love this business

21:42.046 –> 21:51.928
really understand that they’re housekeepers and busboys that just wear maybe nicer suits and drive a little bit nicer car and have a fancy title.

21:52.208 –> 21:56.229
But at the end of the day, the most important person in our building is the housekeeper and the busboy.

21:56.689 –> 22:07.491
And when we forget that, and we forgot that before 2008, and when the crash came, I remember, I’ll never forget this, it was in my office, and I said to my assistant or assistant manager, I said,

22:08.502 –> 22:12.145
All the people that wanted their carnations are going to be retired.

22:12.866 –> 22:16.469
And all the people that answered the phones are going to be retired.

22:16.929 –> 22:22.193
The people that are still walking the streets looking at reader boards, they’re going to have a job.

22:22.554 –> 22:22.974
That’s right.

22:23.902 –> 22:24.302
That’s right.

22:24.862 –> 22:28.524
Or driving through the parking lots and looking at the sides of trucks, all that stuff.

22:28.944 –> 22:31.005
And that’s how I started too, right?

22:31.906 –> 22:34.367
General managers just got used to sitting in their offices.

22:34.887 –> 22:38.609
There was plenty of help, plenty of guests, plenty of everything.

22:39.329 –> 22:46.353
So it was hard on those GMs and those front office managers and those AGMs that

22:47.031 –> 22:50.514
couldn’t figure out how to get out of their office and to go work the desk.

22:50.574 –> 22:53.316
And we kind of put a policy and we’re like, no, no.

22:53.516 –> 22:58.519
If you’re a GM and you still got a job, you’re working the desk and you’re probably working five days a week.

22:58.900 –> 23:02.622
I remember during COVID, I think, Glenn, you were during the podcast.

23:02.823 –> 23:03.583
Yeah.

23:03.763 –> 23:09.888
A gentleman whose family, you know, he grew up in the family business and didn’t grow up in the family business when they were struggling.

23:10.546 –> 23:12.448
Grew up in the family business where everything was great.

23:12.848 –> 23:13.809
Right.

23:14.049 –> 23:18.172
27 years old, got his master’s degree, smart guy, can build a business.

23:18.553 –> 23:21.475
And I said, what are you doing to cut expenses?

23:21.635 –> 23:22.556
And he thought I meant him.

23:22.996 –> 23:28.420
And he said, well, I called American Express and see if I can get my platinum fee of $500 waived.

23:30.502 –> 23:56.340
and and i said to myself man that was a good experience for him i tried to do that myself and he said no but my point being is it’s the first time in his life that he had to realize what his parents went through yeah right so i think this is a good exercise yeah oh i do too i think it’s a great exercise i don’t mean to dominate this conversation but this this really gets me out of bed in the morning

23:57.902 –> 24:01.003
People that don’t get it, don’t get it.

24:01.303 –> 24:01.483
Right.

24:02.043 –> 24:02.883
That’s right.

24:02.963 –> 24:06.164
Like somebody finally agreed with me the other day, like you can’t motivate people.

24:06.544 –> 24:07.844
You can give them a great environment.

24:08.425 –> 24:14.626
You can motivate them to, because you’re giving us a great environment and you give them a carrot and you give them, hey, we can do this, we can do that.

24:14.986 –> 24:15.706
Wouldn’t that be great?

24:15.746 –> 24:19.147
And we give them all the tools, but you can’t make them want to do it.

24:19.667 –> 24:23.688
And we spend too much time trying to motivate people that don’t get it.

24:24.838 –> 24:27.180
Yeah, I tend to agree with you on that.

24:27.701 –> 24:38.090
I think that through leadership and through, you know, great conversation with your employees, if you love your employees, if they really, truly are part of your family, I think they’ll give you the world.

24:38.290 –> 24:40.012
I think they’ll do anything you ask them to do.

24:40.573 –> 24:41.153
I agree with you.

24:41.173 –> 24:42.114
I couldn’t agree with you more.

24:42.494 –> 24:43.175
Yeah.

24:43.215 –> 24:44.776
They love you and you love them.

24:45.137 –> 24:45.517
That’s right.

24:45.817 –> 24:48.360
You love them one way and they’re not loving you back.

24:49.611 –> 24:50.411
That’s what I’m talking about.

24:50.451 –> 24:54.812
I’m not talking about that person that looks you in the eye.

24:54.852 –> 24:57.493
The other day I checked in and this guy gave me no attention.

24:57.773 –> 25:01.514
But when I talked to him, I was like, oh, that kid’s a valuable employee.

25:02.254 –> 25:03.735
That kid can go places.

25:04.235 –> 25:06.436
But face value was nothing.

25:06.716 –> 25:08.596
But we spoke to him, peeled the onion back.

25:08.616 –> 25:10.297
I said, I’m willing to teach that kid.

25:10.697 –> 25:15.018
I’m talking about the kid you peel back the onion and you get an olive.

25:15.629 –> 25:16.671
That’s right.

25:16.771 –> 25:17.732
He’s still this.

25:18.333 –> 25:18.513
Right.

25:18.874 –> 25:19.134
Yeah.

25:20.176 –> 25:20.636
I’m with you.

25:22.439 –> 25:23.601
That could be a bumper sticker.

25:23.621 –> 25:24.983
Peel back the onion, get an olive.

25:25.343 –> 25:26.385
Yeah, I like that.

25:26.405 –> 25:28.007
It’s a little wordy for a bumper sticker.

25:28.047 –> 25:31.272
Maybe two, but across, you know, part one and part two.

25:31.292 –> 25:31.933
He continued.

25:32.213 –> 25:32.873
Yeah.

25:32.893 –> 25:47.717
So, uh, Mike, so how, how are the younger people who have come up now in an atmosphere where first it was easy and then the rug was pulled out from under them in their whole lives?

25:48.157 –> 25:54.819
How do you feel that that’s affecting them in the workplace and how are you adapting to make sure that they can be excellent?

25:55.339 –> 25:57.880
Well, well, they can’t be, they’re all terrible.

25:57.900 –> 25:58.460
Yeah.

26:01.573 –> 26:02.935
We’re just getting on with this one.

26:02.955 –> 26:04.456
We’re just waiting for Generation Alpha.

26:04.716 –> 26:07.960
All of those young people, that’s our fault, right?

26:08.040 –> 26:09.501
We raised them to be that way.

26:10.022 –> 26:11.984
We let them keep the phone in front of their face.

26:12.084 –> 26:13.986
We let them not do chores at the house.

26:14.046 –> 26:15.588
We gave them everything they asked for.

26:16.208 –> 26:17.530
And we did it at a good…

26:18.800 –> 26:22.303
feelings and good love and good reasons because we didn’t have all that stuff.

26:22.363 –> 26:22.843
That’s right.

26:23.083 –> 26:24.304
Now you guys get to have it.

26:24.924 –> 26:31.229
Well, it turns out we weren’t doing them any favors at all because then when they get out in the real world, they don’t understand how to adjust.

26:31.349 –> 26:32.190
So, right.

26:32.570 –> 26:42.517
So those, there’s still good kids and they’re all good kids, but they’re still, but you have to retrain the way their brains work and you have to show them that

26:43.010 –> 26:48.294
It’s only through extraordinary efforts that you get extraordinary compensation.

26:49.035 –> 26:59.383
And really in our business, all you really have to do is pay attention, make eye contact, smile, and have a conversation with somebody you may not want to have a conversation with.

26:59.643 –> 27:00.844
That’s called hospitality.

27:01.764 –> 27:03.545
And also taking the opportunity.

27:03.585 –> 27:09.467
If you’re a third-string quarterback and you get a chance to play on Sunday, Tom Brady, you take that opportunity.

27:10.127 –> 27:11.508
That’s when you make a hero.

27:11.748 –> 27:14.069
And people don’t – I don’t want to wait my turn.

27:14.629 –> 27:16.350
Or this is my favorite for my kids.

27:17.030 –> 27:18.350
No, it’s different today, Dad.

27:18.390 –> 27:19.231
You don’t understand.

27:19.651 –> 27:20.451
And my kids are great kids.

27:20.471 –> 27:21.712
They all work their butts off.

27:22.212 –> 27:25.933
But, like, no, maybe I don’t understand from where you’re sitting.

27:26.353 –> 27:27.374
But I remember 9-11.

27:28.590 –> 27:28.970
I remember 2008.

27:30.372 –> 27:35.756
I remember, you know, when I thought about selling my entire stock portfolio because everything was falling apart.

27:36.557 –> 27:42.522
I, you know, I remember like every generation and every decade we go through something.

27:42.943 –> 27:44.304
So you’re going through something.

27:44.384 –> 27:51.090
And I don’t think we as the adults in the room done the kids any favors by being able to buy a house today.

27:51.904 –> 27:59.713
But every generation has had their challenges and your challenges are unique to you, but challenges aren’t unique.

28:00.834 –> 28:01.255
That’s right.

28:01.975 –> 28:04.438
And they haven’t had, you know,

28:05.936 –> 28:11.822
Maybe except for COVID, because I think COVID affected the younger generation a lot more than it really affected us, right?

28:12.502 –> 28:16.807
But they haven’t had a 9-11 or a World War II or a Vietnam.

28:16.827 –> 28:22.492
They haven’t had a huge national affront to their personal beings.

28:23.153 –> 28:24.475
And we’ve all had one of those.

28:25.876 –> 28:27.598
So maybe COVID is theirs.

28:28.766 –> 28:29.086
I don’t know.

28:29.887 –> 28:31.968
It’ll be interesting to see, but you’re absolutely right.

28:32.008 –> 28:40.652
Because for us older people, I don’t think we, non-financially, I don’t think we lost as much because we already established in our lives.

28:40.752 –> 28:46.075
And it was kind of probably nice to hang out and do Friday Zoom calls with your friends and stuff like that, right?

28:46.095 –> 28:46.476
That’s right.

28:46.956 –> 28:49.197
If I was my kid’s age, it was devastating.

28:49.217 –> 28:50.378
That would be devastating.

28:50.398 –> 28:50.858
Yeah, but-

28:51.318 –> 29:01.993
uh anthony covid is theirs and covid is ours but and covid is probably maybe the worst of all because covid 9 11 changed things temporarily i think kobe changed things forever

29:02.970 –> 29:03.310
Agreed.

29:03.830 –> 29:04.410
Agreed.

29:04.430 –> 29:05.351
9-11 was like six months.

29:05.371 –> 29:09.132
To change things, Mike, you’re from Louisiana, so you don’t know what it was like up here in New York.

29:09.232 –> 29:12.693
But everyone in New York loved each other for six months.

29:12.873 –> 29:15.673
It was really, really nice.

29:15.954 –> 29:17.814
And you could just feel it in the city.

29:17.834 –> 29:21.035
And then after that, everyone went back to, hey, I’m walking over here.

29:21.215 –> 29:22.215
But it was nice.

29:23.756 –> 29:28.557
You didn’t get looked at sideways that you’re one political affiliation or another.

29:28.917 –> 29:29.097
Right?

29:29.117 –> 29:30.338
Yeah, it was.

29:30.618 –> 29:34.140
So but COVID really did something to everyone, which is good and bad.

29:34.160 –> 29:39.242
I remember this feeling that we’re all kind of

29:40.307 –> 29:42.488
kind of jockeying, right, for our positions in life.

29:43.348 –> 29:45.769
And all of a sudden, COVID said, oh, by the way, you’re all zero.

29:46.209 –> 29:48.250
If you’re a billionaire, you cannot leave your house.

29:48.270 –> 29:50.550
If you’re a billionaire, you cannot leave your house.

29:51.071 –> 29:53.651
You cannot try to be by that hotel.

29:53.731 –> 29:54.332
You can’t try.

29:54.632 –> 29:55.132
You’re done.

29:55.532 –> 29:56.833
Everybody sit down and shut up.

29:57.193 –> 30:03.875
And that was really interesting to me because it was the first time where we really stopped competing and it was freeing.

30:05.145 –> 30:05.765
For a second.

30:06.166 –> 30:13.711
So I think that I think because you didn’t have that history as a young person, all you know is your prom got canceled.

30:14.352 –> 30:17.174
You know, you wait for my kids, proms, graduate, all that.

30:17.574 –> 30:22.678
And so it’s probably a much harder for the recover than it is for us.

30:23.078 –> 30:24.399
Yeah, I agree with that 100 percent.

30:24.759 –> 30:31.004
I can’t imagine losing your prom, losing your graduation, losing your homecoming game, all of that stuff.

30:32.042 –> 30:33.523
Yeah, that’s it.

30:33.563 –> 30:33.783
Yeah.

30:33.963 –> 30:36.384
Well, fortunately, we’re way past that.

30:36.484 –> 30:38.785
That’s so far in the rearview mirror now.

30:38.905 –> 30:40.646
You know, it seems like it’s crazy.

30:40.666 –> 30:42.307
It seems like ancient history right now.

30:42.607 –> 30:44.788
And there’s all sorts of new opportunities out there.

30:44.868 –> 30:49.330
But when you’re out there, Mike, how are you finding deals these days?

30:49.390 –> 30:49.951
What’s it like?

30:50.011 –> 30:51.871
Everyone always says you got to get them off market.

30:51.971 –> 30:53.832
But, you know, deals with deals.

30:54.113 –> 30:55.193
Yeah, exactly.

30:55.213 –> 30:57.614
And if you do find deals, how do you get them closed these days?

30:58.054 –> 30:59.155
It’s super tough.

30:59.515 –> 31:01.436
We closed one deal yesterday.

31:01.736 –> 31:14.086
this year in March, barely got that one to the finish line, but there’s such a big disparity between, you know, seller’s expectations of value and buyer’s expectation of price.

31:14.787 –> 31:17.669
And then once you agree to that, you got to get it financed.

31:17.749 –> 31:21.632
So now you’ve got a third party that says, eh, we don’t think your value is there.

31:22.193 –> 31:22.733
Right.

31:22.934 –> 31:29.259
So, you know, and sellers are basing their value on their 4% mortgage rate that they still have.

31:29.932 –> 31:33.225
And buyers have to base their value on the 11% that’s available.

31:35.549 –> 31:42.054
One of the things I found to close a deal is when I’m talking to a bank is Glenn said it’ll be okay.

31:42.655 –> 31:43.175
Oh, yeah.

31:43.595 –> 31:44.596
I’m going to start using that.

31:45.016 –> 31:47.378
Yeah, Glenn said that we can make our numbers.

31:47.398 –> 31:48.199
Totally.

31:48.659 –> 31:50.080
Don’t worry about it.

31:50.100 –> 31:59.808
I’m old enough to remember our controller at a previous company that I worked for saying, I promise you I can get this hotel financed for 9% all day long.

32:00.248 –> 32:00.749
And we were like, 9%?

32:01.549 –> 32:02.670
That’s like a miracle.

32:02.830 –> 32:03.311
Go get it.

32:03.951 –> 32:06.233
Right.

32:06.293 –> 32:11.038
Anytime somebody says all day long in their last part of their sentence, don’t believe them.

32:11.398 –> 32:11.739
That’s right.

32:13.942 –> 32:16.704
Yeah, a valuable – you learn very valuable things over here.

32:16.724 –> 32:17.485
That’s right.

32:17.845 –> 32:18.526
That’s for sure.

32:19.687 –> 32:22.690
But Mike, this is a good time.

32:22.710 –> 32:25.712
This is another one of the talking points that I try to bring up as much as possible.

32:25.732 –> 32:26.313
Sure.

32:26.393 –> 32:27.674
Interest rates suck now.

32:27.874 –> 32:30.877
But historically speaking, they don’t.

32:31.337 –> 32:38.463
And we have to remind this generation of dealmakers that we had an unorthodox long period of time of basically free money.

32:39.344 –> 32:42.706
You got to block that out and get back to reality.

32:42.767 –> 32:47.150
How do you see in the scope of things where we are right now with interest rates, et cetera, et cetera?

32:47.410 –> 32:55.296
So again, I remember buying hotels or being involved with hotels that were being purchased at 11%, 12%, 13% rates.

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So this is not shocking to me.

32:57.697 –> 32:59.639
And I do think that we’re coming off of

33:00.462 –> 33:26.667
know just a great run of we got so lucky to get three percent rates so i i like to think those will never happen again so that when i get a six or seven or eight percent rate i’m super ecstatic i’m like yeah yeah i remember somebody said to me i said well there were 18.5 rates in the early 1980s they said that’s not true that never happened that could that’s not possible google search yeah

33:28.519 –> 33:33.544
My in-laws bought a house at 17% interest rate and they wouldn’t refinance it.

33:33.864 –> 33:36.867
And I’m like, you can get nine now.

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Why wouldn’t you refinance it?

33:39.417 –> 33:39.737
Wow.

33:40.218 –> 33:43.560
I remember my mother bought a house, a three family house for $200,000 at 19%.

33:43.600 –> 33:43.940
Yeah.

33:44.080 –> 33:47.923
And, or it’s 18.5%.

33:48.283 –> 33:49.184
Somehow she swung it.

33:49.624 –> 33:53.667
And then, and then the same house a couple of years ago is worth $2 million.

33:54.048 –> 33:55.348
She doesn’t own it.

33:55.709 –> 33:57.810
So they probably paid the same.

33:57.830 –> 33:57.970
Yeah.

34:05.565 –> 34:06.926
That’s really ridiculous.

34:07.226 –> 34:10.848
Mike, before we wrap up for today, any final thoughts or message you want to get out there?

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No, go, go out and be hospitable to people.

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Yeah, I love it.

34:17.132 –> 34:17.672
Yeah, man.

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I think that’s just, honestly, that’s just a great lesson in life.

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The more positive energy you put out there, the better the universe is going to treat you.

34:27.558 –> 34:29.179
Take the S out of assertiveness.

34:29.479 –> 34:29.980
That’s right.

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It’s the only way to be.

34:33.291 –> 34:34.071
That’s hysterical.

34:34.531 –> 34:35.852
All right, Mike, stick around.

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We’ll give you an official goodbye in a minute.

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But thank you so much for being here.

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That was a whole lot of fun.

34:42.193 –> 34:45.814
I want to thank everyone for being here this week with us.

34:45.894 –> 34:51.596
And another thing you could do is, of course, you could download our audio version of this podcast wherever you get your shows.

34:51.896 –> 34:57.197
If you’re listening to that right now, why not follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube?

34:57.277 –> 35:00.498
And, of course, all shows are housed at NoVacancyNews.com.

35:01.098 –> 35:02.122
Thank you so much for being here.

35:02.182 –> 35:05.454
Remember, guys, you’ve got one life, so blaze on and be kind to yourself.

35:05.534 –> 35:06.378
We’ll see you guys next week.