#269 - Donny Lodico

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Here we are episode #269 with
Donnie Ledico from Video W.

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Great company, great guy, long
history in our industry.

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He's been on the podcast before.
I think it was episode #172 you

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can check that out as well.
On this particular podcast, we

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spent way too much time talking
about racing like we always do.

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So if you love racing, you'll
enjoy this.

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If you don't love racing,
hopefully you'll still enjoy it.

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We spent a lot of time talking
about lighting as well, so

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please enjoy this podcast.
Geez of Gear episode #269 with

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Donnie Lodico from Video West.
Hello and thank you for coming

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today to Geysers of Gear episode
#269.

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Today's podcast is brought to
you by Main Light, a national

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dry hire rental provider
specializing in supplying the

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latest lighting and stage
equipment technology.

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Their extensive rental inventory
includes moving lights, trust

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solutions, control consoles, LE
DS and an array of weather

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resistant IP65 rated fixtures.
Perfect for outdoor venues.

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Whether for theater productions,
outdoor stadium events or TV

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film broadcast, Main Light is
the party you trust with the

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gear you want.
Committed to quality and

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reliability, they also provide a
robust selection of used sales

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for their clients.
Each item is meticulously

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maintained, owned by Main Light
and comes with a 60 day depot

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warranty providing you with
confidence in your purchase.

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They are strategically located
across the US with four

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locations including Teterboro,
New Jersey, Wilmington DE,

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Nashville, TN, and Las Vegas,
NV.

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They combine the vast resources
of a national company with the

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attentive, personalized service
of a local provider.

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Discover how Main Light can
equip your next event by

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visiting Main light.com today
and get a direct quote through

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their comprehensive online
ordering platform.

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Inspire your audience's
imagination with Elation's Pulse

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Strobe series.
Designed to bolster creativity

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and deliver breathtaking kinetic
intensity, the Pulse series

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empowers designers to create
dynamic lighting experiences

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that captivate any audience.
The Pulse series synthesizes

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mesmerizing lighting experiences
with power and precision,

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allowing designers to create
rhythmic, heart pounding

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lighting effects with effortless
control.

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Elation's Pulse series.
There you go.

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We thought we'd try something
new today with a video from one

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of our oldest, greatest, most
awesome sponsors, Elation.

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I hope you enjoyed it.
For those of you listening, it

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probably wasn't that exciting,
but for those of you watching,

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what a great video.
So hats off to Elation.

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Thank you for providing us with
that content.

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We enjoy the partnership and
we're we're happy to see you

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moving forward with some really
great marketing.

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And so it is interesting that
today's sponsor is Main Light

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owned by Mike Cannon, who was
also the founder of Four Wall.

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And by the time you hear this,
I'm guessing the Four Wall sale

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will have been announced.
I've got really good information

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and I don't want to leak it in
case the transaction hasn't

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happened yet, but I'm confident
I know what's going down, who

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it's going down with, etcetera.
And you know, when you've been

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around the business as long as I
have and some of you have,

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certainly you find out things
you hear through the back

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channels or you're involved in
the back channels or whatever.

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So you know, again, I've always
said it's good for the industry,

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it's good for everyone at 4
Wall.

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It's certainly going to be good
for Mike Cannon because he still

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owns a piece of that company and
you know, we got to move

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forward.
So while that company has been

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in flux and they are a huge part
of our industry, obviously 4

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Wall has become a a massive
entity and a big part of our

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industry.
We need them to to get this deal

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done and to be a healthy
company.

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So there you go.
And it is time to clean your

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warehouses.
So globally incoming gear is

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becoming quite plentiful.
We're getting a lot of lot of

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really amazing listings.
So you know, I know this sounds

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like an ad.
It's not.

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It is just that time of year,
summer is basically over and

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it's been an incredible,
massive, super busy rental

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season, especially festivals and
summer shows and all kinds of

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summer touring, etcetera.
But mostly in Europe, but also

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Asia, North America, we're just
seeing a massive influx of new

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listings.
So what I would say is if you

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are looking to sell some stuff,
move quickly.

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Get the stuff listed.
You don't want to list it later

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if you don't have to, You know,
don't sit on your thumbs.

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Get to work and get that stuff
listed.

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And remember, we've got this new
tool which is called Gear Sync,

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which allows you to do bulk
uploads, bulk management.

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You can list up to 400 items at
once using a spreadsheet, very

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simple.
Our team can help you get

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started on that if if you have
any trouble with it.

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But yeah, get moving.
And I don't have much on AI

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today.
I just sat through a webinar on

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AI which just completely blew my
mind.

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I, I in fact, haven't been able
to think about anything else

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today other than this.
I saw some tools that are

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available now that were just
shocking to me.

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You know, everything from
spreadsheet creating

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spreadsheets, using some AI
technology to just all kinds of

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stuff.
I mean, just incredible data

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management, just lots of really,
really cool stuff that's coming

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on board by now.
But one of the news things that

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I saw on AI is Gavin Newsom in
California is blocking deep

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fakes.
He's been in a fairly vocal,

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fairly, you know, out there
fight with Elon Musk.

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And he's blocking deep fakes
with this new bill, SB-981,

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which is aimed at reporting
basically anyone putting deep

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fakes on socials.
So if you are creating a video

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of someone doing something that
they didn't actually do, this

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bill is aimed at putting you in
jail.

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And also there's another second
bill which he's pushing, which

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is SB 942, which is meant to
require disclosure of any AI

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generated content.
So if you're putting out AI

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generated content to your
clients or on socials or

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whatever, you have to say that
this is generated by AI.

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That one I'm not so big on
because, you know, we use other

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tools.
So if I'm using Excel to come up

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with a solution, do I have to
say this was created using

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Excel?
If I'm using whatever it is,

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whether it's an art program or
an image, you know, some sort of

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if I'm using Photoshop, this
image was created using

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Photoshop.
Do I have to say that from now

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on.
So to me that's going a little

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bit too far.
The deep fake one I would tend

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to agree with, even though it's
typically used for humor and I

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find most of them very funny and
I like the content.

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Not everyone does and I
understand that some of it has

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has probably become quite
problematic, so I get it.

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So there you go.
And lastly, by the time you hear

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this, my, my good buddy Eric
Loader, who heads up sales at

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Adelation is going to be
visiting me here in the Canadian

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Rocky Mountains.
He's actually, I believe he's in

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Vancouver today playing golf
with a client or something, but

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he'll be here for the weekend
this week.

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Looking forward to it, both from
a business chat standpoint and

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also just hanging out with my
buddy in the mountains.

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So I'm very much looking forward
to that.

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So today's guest has been on the
podcast before.

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I believe he was on episode #172
I think it was about exactly 2

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years ago.
Donnie Ledico is a highly

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experienced professional with
over 30 years work experience in

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the field of lighting, video,
and event management.

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He's got a strong background in
corporate events, lighting

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design, and video production.
Currently, Donnie is the

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Director of Lighting and senior
account executive at Video W

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here in the United States.
An incredible moment last year

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when Video West and Light Switch
were honored to help deliver the

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Virgin Galactic event to the
public via a live stream.

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This might be old.
I think that might have been two

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or three years ago actually.
But maybe it was last year.

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I don't think so.
Donnie has toured with some of

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the biggest names in live event
entertainment including George

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Strait, Goo Goo Dolls, Rush,
Peter Gabriel and many more.

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Donnie leveraged this skill set
to become an industry leader in

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creating unique live experiences
with his particular talent of

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protecting the creative vision
while still making sure a

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project is on time and on budget
in his spare time.

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This is unusual, isn't it?
He has a passion for

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Motorsports, including building
his son's Kart racing team, LNL

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Racing.
Last on the podcast.

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As I said two years ago in on
episode #172.

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So please welcome Donnie Ladico
back to Geezers of Gear.

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Donnie Ladico.
Hello.

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How are?
You.

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I'm good.
How you been, Marcel?

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I've been really good, Really,
really good.

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I'm I'm still up in the
mountains in Canada, enjoying

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life.
It's starting to get a little

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bitter cold though.
It actually, yeah, the mountains

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are like right around me, above
me, beside me, whatever.

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And they're all getting snow on
them.

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And I'm going, God, that's
getting closer.

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It's getting closer to us.
So here in lovely Arizona we had

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a dip last week and we were
actually in the 90s.

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Oh geez.
All this week now we are hitting

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records from today all the way
through next Tuesday.

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They're they're forecasting
we're going to hit records like

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100 and 500 and 811 and I'm
like, it's supposed to be over.

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Yeah, it's supposed.
To be over, Summer's gone.

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We want to be cool now.
In Arizona, is it ever really

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over, though?
Yeah, I mean, you know, it gets

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cold here in the winter and by
cold, nothing like Buffalo where

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I grew up.
But you know, I, I will say, you

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know, we, we'll wake up to 39°
mornings sometimes frost on the

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pumpkin.
Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

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Well, I mean, that's been
virtually every morning here is

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30 something degrees and, you
know, we've been starting fires

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and stuff, but then in the
afternoon it's like 80 or 78 or

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something like that.
So, yeah, I love the weather

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here.
I really do.

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Like it's, it's absolutely
beautiful.

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I like it a lot.
But yeah, it's getting to the

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point where I'm going, OK,
Florida's starting to look good

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again, you know?
Yeah.

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Where do you go?
Where do you go that way?

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Do you do a couple of weeks?
A couple of weeks, Yeah,

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mid-october we're leaving to go
back to Florida and then yeah, I

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mean, we're full on snowbirds
now.

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We come here and that's awesome
and and go back in October.

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So works out great.
Nice.

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Get out of the cold.
It's pretty cool.

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It it well and you know, I love
the mountains like I really love

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I figured it out and and it only
took me 50 years or something to

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really figure it out, but you
know, I had it growing up and

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didn't really care and when I
got.

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To be like.
Right when I, when I around 40

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is when I was like, I really
miss the mountains, you know,

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and I bought a little condo and
then I really loved it and then

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bought a house, built a house
and I just really, really enjoy

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being up here, especially when
it's warm.

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00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,800
I'm not so big on it when it's
cold because I like to do a lot

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of walking and stuff, but I
don't really love being freezing

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so.
Yeah, there is.

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00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:15,240
You don't want to be.
Yeah, you don't.

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00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:17,680
You don't want to be walking
when it's terribly hot, and you

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00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:19,080
don't want to be walking when
it's terribly.

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00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,000
Cold.
Yeah, exactly, Exactly.

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00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,120
So we're going to have to get it
out of our system.

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00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:27,080
So we better have quickly the
racing talk before we get it

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much further.
So I see, I see your boys logo

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00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:32,320
on your hat.
If you put your hair down a

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00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:33,040
little.
There it is.

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00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:39,120
So LNL is is obviously.
It's Luca Nicholas Lodico.

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00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,520
OK, there you go.
And how's he doing?

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00:13:44,280 --> 00:13:48,160
He's doing pretty well.
We just finished our Junior one

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summer series, his last race in
the summer series.

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00:13:52,560 --> 00:13:56,000
He has to move to junior 2 now
because he's 13.

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00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,240
So he's hit the he's hit the
mark where he's forced to go.

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00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:04,080
Yeah, and it's good.
He had one full year of racing

227
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:06,200
as a junior one, so he learned a
lot.

228
00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:10,360
Yeah, we finished six out of a
class of 22, which I think is

229
00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:12,840
pretty respectful for his first
full year.

230
00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:15,680
Yeah, real good.
And now we're going to go get

231
00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:19,840
beat up in junior too because
he'll be racing 13 to 16 year.

232
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:21,320
Olds, I believe.
There you go.

233
00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:23,800
Yeah, that's that's where it
gets really, really fun, though

234
00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:28,720
the racing gets more aggressive
and I don't know Lucas

235
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:33,520
personality because I've never
met him, but it it changes the

236
00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:35,080
kid.
I'm telling you, I remember

237
00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,520
when, Jeremy, when that switch
flipped from, you know, let's

238
00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:42,520
just go out and race nicely with
everyone to get out of my way.

239
00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:43,880
You.
Know, Yeah, well, yeah.

240
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,160
And it's a little bit of me
because he's, he's kind of

241
00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:50,280
passive, you know, he's like one
of the reasons he didn't want to

242
00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:53,760
play football, he didn't want to
play soccer, you know, just

243
00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:56,320
wasn't, wasn't that kid wasn't
that aggressive?

244
00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,360
And then when he started
driving, I was like, Luca, you

245
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,560
got to get in there and you
could have to learn that.

246
00:15:02,960 --> 00:15:04,720
Yeah, it's your job.
Yeah.

247
00:15:04,760 --> 00:15:06,280
To move ahead, right.
Yeah.

248
00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:09,920
So that was the first, you know,
6-8 months because he raced for

249
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:16,280
about 8 months before we even
put him on in an actual race.

250
00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:18,640
Yeah, yeah, yeah, We were the
same.

251
00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:21,800
We were the same.
Actually, I was every bit as,

252
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:25,760
call it, naive as you were, you
know, when we started, it was

253
00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:28,440
just, hey, this is something fun
for him to do on the weekends.

254
00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:32,280
Go out and drive a few laps and
keep set of tires, will last set

255
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,480
of tires will last us a month.
It's not a very expensive sport.

256
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:36,880
It'll be good, you know?
Yeah.

257
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:41,040
And then and then it.
Yeah, then it changes.

258
00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:42,960
Yeah.
And eventually somebody

259
00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,600
somewhere talks you into doing a
race and then another one, and

260
00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:46,960
then a bigger one and then a
bigger one.

261
00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:49,960
And next thing you know, you're
racing in Europe, you know?

262
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:51,200
There you go.
Yeah.

263
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:57,200
But, you know, it is such like,
I'll tell you, you know, in

264
00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,520
racing, all the things that me
and my son have done, we really

265
00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:03,880
miss those days of karting,
especially the early days when

266
00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:08,400
everybody was friendly and
everybody, hey, you know, your

267
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:11,360
cart doesn't start, let me run
my starter over there and help

268
00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,240
you or whatever.
Yeah, I don't know where the

269
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:15,760
starter is.
And they're throwing it behind

270
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,600
the fence so that you know they
don't have to use their starter

271
00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:19,640
to help you.
Or whatever.

272
00:16:20,760 --> 00:16:22,520
It was a pretty interesting
weekend.

273
00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:28,240
Like I said, he ran his last
junior one race and the kid Luca

274
00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:32,800
has never held first position
for as long as he did.

275
00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:36,520
He held first position for the
whole first half of the race

276
00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,640
pretty much, you know, really
and and ended up dipping down.

277
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:42,600
You know, I think he ended up
finishing eighth on that race.

278
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,880
Yeah.
But the two of the dads came

279
00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:48,000
over and they were like, is Luca
here?

280
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,200
You know, they came over to our
pit.

281
00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:50,880
Is Luca here?
Yeah.

282
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,680
Let me go get Luca for you.
Go get Luca.

283
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:55,800
And, you know, they came out and
they just congratulated and,

284
00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:59,000
like, wow, dude.
Like you were, you were running

285
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:03,520
it, you know, So I, for me, that
camaraderie and then, you know,

286
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:06,800
the boys coming over and that
camaraderie was so great, you

287
00:17:06,839 --> 00:17:08,200
know, I.
Love it so much.

288
00:17:08,319 --> 00:17:10,440
I love it so much.
Well, and there's two things

289
00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:14,880
there like 1 is that, you know,
again, I went through all these

290
00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,760
same learning progressions as a
dad, but first they have to

291
00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,040
learn to drive fast by
themselves.

292
00:17:20,079 --> 00:17:22,359
Well, first they have to learn
to drive and they have to learn

293
00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:24,960
lines and all the fundamentals
and all that stuff.

294
00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:28,400
Where to break, where not to
break, how to enter a turn, how

295
00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,760
to exit a turn, all good.
And then and then they have to

296
00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:35,160
learn to to race up front.
And that's a totally different

297
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,360
experience racing up front, not
only first but even second or

298
00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:41,640
third or whatever, where you're
the target, you know, Cuz in the

299
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,560
8th or 7th or 6th, you're not so
much the target, right?

300
00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:46,800
You're just driving around.
With a bunch of other things

301
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:48,920
going, yeah.
Yeah, but when you're first,

302
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:51,320
second, third, people are
fighting target on your back.

303
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,200
You got a target on your front,
on your back, you got targets

304
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:55,720
all over.
Do I watch up there or do I

305
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,720
watch behind me?
And and so secondly, that

306
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,760
camaraderie thing.
So, you know, my kid grew up

307
00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:05,800
racing in South Florida and so
the same thing would happen.

308
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,440
And I remember a particular time
we were in Ocala and Jeremy was

309
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:14,720
probably 8 years old or
something, and we grew up racing

310
00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:18,960
with Sebastian Montoya, Juan
Pablo Montoya's son, along with

311
00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:21,000
a lot of other famous people and
stuff.

312
00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:25,160
But so Juan Pablo Montoya and
Sebastian come walking over to

313
00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:26,560
our tent.
We had just beaten them.

314
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:30,920
I think we finished second and
he finished fifth or something

315
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:33,800
because he made a mistake.
But they battled pretty hard for

316
00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:36,920
a while.
And he comes over and he goes,

317
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,960
hello, Mr. Fairbairn, Is Jeremy
here?

318
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:42,120
And I said yeah.
And he said, OK, did he have a

319
00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:44,840
GoPro in that, in that race?
And I said, yeah, he did.

320
00:18:45,040 --> 00:18:49,080
And he said, would you mind if
Sebastian and I watched his

321
00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:52,640
video with him?
And I said no, that would be

322
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:54,160
fine.
And I grabbed Jeremy.

323
00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,600
I grabbed a few chairs, put them
in front of a computer and they

324
00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:01,160
put the video on.
And Juan Pablo's telling him,

325
00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,920
you know, at that tree turn, if
you enter a little earlier,

326
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,040
you're going to come out a bit
faster.

327
00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,200
And what that's going to do is
that's going to carry all the

328
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,040
way through to turn 3:00 and
you're going to enter turn 3

329
00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:15,640
probably two or three mph faster
than if you had, you know, and

330
00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:16,720
he's going through this whole
thing.

331
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,120
I just got goosebumps telling
you the story.

332
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:23,560
So he walks away after probably
1/2 hour sitting there talking

333
00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,680
to the boys and, and telling his
son what he did wrong and stuff.

334
00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:29,440
He walks away and I go, Jeremy,
do you realize what just

335
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:32,360
happened?
And he goes, yeah, just watch

336
00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:35,160
some video and got some coaching
from Juan Pablo Montoya.

337
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,400
And I said, that's it.
And he goes, yeah, I'm going to

338
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,360
skateboard or something, right?
And he takes off.

339
00:19:40,800 --> 00:19:44,200
I'm like, holy shit, the guy's a
Formula One freaking champion,

340
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,520
you know?
And you just, you know, you just

341
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,480
got lessons from him and that
doesn't mean anything.

342
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,120
What the hell is going on here?
So.

343
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:55,800
They don't realize.
Yeah, they don't realize.

344
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,640
When they're there, you're
stacking up all of these like

345
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:04,280
lessons and moments and just
father, son, family things, you

346
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,080
know, like, yeah, it's an.
Experience.

347
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:08,960
I really enjoy the evertrade.
I really enjoy the time with the

348
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:10,120
track with him.
I really do.

349
00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:12,840
It's it's amazing.
I know when I leave work at, you

350
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:15,560
know, 4:00 or 5:00 every day and
we're going to the track on a

351
00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,240
Wednesday night or something,
it's like I can't wait.

352
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:20,600
I can't wait to get home and
grab the trailer.

353
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:22,680
Let's go, you know.
That's, that's awesome.

354
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,960
That is so awesome.
Well, and it gets even more fun

355
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,920
like if you're, if you've got
either A-Team or you're at a

356
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,320
track where they've, they store
your cart for you or whatever.

357
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,120
Because there's a lot of that
now, because then you don't have

358
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:37,240
to do as much work.
So you can go straight from your

359
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:39,000
office to the track to the.
Track.

360
00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,280
Yeah, like that's, that's what
we did when he was growing up.

361
00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,600
But that stuff is that stuff is
so awesome.

362
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,200
And then wait until you start
doing travel stuff, like when

363
00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:51,640
you start traveling to races.
So many of my memories come from

364
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:56,240
like the Holiday Inn in Ocala,
FL or the the Holiday Inn in

365
00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:58,960
Indianapolis or, you know,
whatever.

366
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,600
Like all these weird little
towns out in the middle of

367
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,520
nowhere where you're staying at
these hotels and getting to the

368
00:21:04,520 --> 00:21:06,880
track at 6:30 in the morning and
stuff like.

369
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:10,560
Yeah.
I have so many positive memories

370
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,200
of all of that stuff, like
people thought I was nuts

371
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,560
wasting my weekends away in
these weird places in the middle

372
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:19,080
of nowhere, but such a cool
experience.

373
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:21,840
With your yeah, we're hoping
we're hoping maybe next year

374
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:23,760
will be the the year he starts
traveling.

375
00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,560
Who knows, maybe this year,
maybe 2025, yeah.

376
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,480
We'll see what happens.
We'll see how his how junior two

377
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:31,480
goes.
He's got a lot of a lot of

378
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:32,920
learning to do with the new
cart.

379
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,920
Yeah.
Well, if and when you're ready,

380
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,640
let me know.
And you know we can, we can

381
00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,080
probably set you up with a team
in Florida and and for very

382
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:43,680
little cost.
Have you come in and do?

383
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:45,280
One come down in races in
Florida.

384
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:46,640
Oh that'd be great.
Yeah, we just.

385
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,960
Have fun with that fly in.
Fly in, grab the cart and go.

386
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:53,440
Go and and you know, of course,
Jeremy's there.

387
00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,000
He'll he'll, if, if he brings
you into his team that he does a

388
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,400
lot of work for great people
and, and you know, I'm sure

389
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:04,880
they'll do it for peanuts and
it'll be awesome.

390
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,000
It'll be a cool experience.
And pick one of the Florida

391
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,000
tracks.
You know, well, actually,

392
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,320
there's less and less Florida
tracks these days because they

393
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,680
closed Ocala and they closed.
There was one in West Palm Beach

394
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,960
that they closed just recently.
So it's basically homestead

395
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:21,240
Orlando are the two big ones
right now.

396
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:26,640
There's one in Tampa that's OK
and there's a few other ones.

397
00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:29,520
But anyways, anyways, it's all
fun.

398
00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:31,920
Well, let's talk about that,
shall we?

399
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:34,280
We'll give that a buzz.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll.

400
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:39,240
Chat later and so Eric Loader,
we're getting off of racing now.

401
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,560
So now you can start to listen
again, because Eric.

402
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:43,600
Sorry, sorry, Eric.
Talk about racing.

403
00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:49,200
So, you know, if people want to
hear your bio, they can go back

404
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:54,080
to the previous episode, I think
it was 172, and hear how you

405
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:56,880
started and everything.
But I was reminded, actually

406
00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,080
last week, I was talking with
Craig Caserta and I was reminded

407
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:02,640
that you worked at C Factor.
I forgot about that.

408
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:08,480
And it seems to be one of those
places that was just a really

409
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,960
great breeding ground for people
who got stuck their tentacles

410
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,640
out into other parts of the
industry.

411
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,960
Yeah, it was the definitely the
school, as I like to call it,

412
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,120
the school of, I don't want to
call it Hard Knocks, but it was

413
00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,960
Hard Knocks.
You know, you're, you're working

414
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,680
in New York City a lot.
You're working at the garden,

415
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,760
you're working at Radio City.
You know, whatever you're doing

416
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:34,160
out there, it's always high
profile, high stress.

417
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:41,240
And you, you, you, you learn
very quickly to, to work within

418
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,240
your means, if you will.
You know, it's like you have the

419
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:47,680
union and it teaches you how to
work with the union at a very

420
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:49,640
young age.
I mean I was, I think I was like

421
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,160
22 when I walked into C Factor.
Yeah, that's why, right.

422
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:57,560
Yeah, and, and had no idea.
I mean, had an idea, but I was

423
00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,560
like, oh, look what I stumbled
upon.

424
00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:03,440
This is great, you know.
You know, it's, it's the Sinatra

425
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,760
song, right?
Like, you know, you can make it

426
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,320
there.
You can make it anywhere, Yeah.

427
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:12,440
I, I, I reflect on my time at C
Factor often.

428
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,440
Yeah.
You know, I met a lot of great

429
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:19,520
people there, did a lot of great
shows while I was there.

430
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:22,400
And even when I went freelance,
I went back and worked with Bob.

431
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,040
Yeah, well, I mean, Bob was, was
an industry icon, you know, like

432
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,520
he, he was one of the godfathers
of this industry of rock'n'roll

433
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,880
lighting and, you know, but was
he?

434
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:38,240
I don't want to talk shit about
him since he's he's sadly gone,

435
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,440
but I was very good friends with
with Bob C.

436
00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:44,720
Yep.
On the good and the bad side,

437
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,600
you know, like I, I definitely
got the wrath of Bob often being

438
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,280
one of his suppliers.
And if something didn't go

439
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:55,440
exactly perfectly, it was like,
hey, you know, like he let me

440
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,000
hear it for sure.
I, it wasn't sugar coated in any

441
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:03,520
way, but like working there for
him, you know, do you remember

442
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:06,320
him as a really nice boss or a
really tough boss?

443
00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:09,920
A bit of both.
Yeah.

444
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:15,720
A bit of both, you know, he
could be very stern and, and

445
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:20,320
difficult at times, you know,
and then other times I, I

446
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:24,560
remember coming back after the
birth of my oldest, Christina.

447
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,240
He, I had been gone forever.
So I went home and he called me

448
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:33,840
right back.
He said I got a gig for you, so

449
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:36,320
I, I need you back on a train.
You know, I was living in

450
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,720
Buffalo at times, so I would
come home from the gig and I'd

451
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:40,600
usually train home or fly home
or whatever.

452
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:44,520
So I remember being home for 12
hours, and he's like, I need you

453
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,200
to come back.
And I'm like, she's the back.

454
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:49,040
Yeah.
Just got home.

455
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:53,240
But you're young and you're very
hungry.

456
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:55,400
Yeah.
And you want your career to go

457
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:56,720
well, So what do you do?
You go back.

458
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:02,560
Yeah, Right.
And I just remember we were

459
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,600
still drawing on vellum.
Oh really?

460
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,200
Jesus.
So we had drafting tables on the

461
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,200
3rd floor, you know, electric
erasers, you know, and we had

462
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,160
the stencils and blah, blah,
blah.

463
00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:16,800
Yeah.
And, and this particular job

464
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:21,160
that I was doing, I think I had
drawn it, I don't know, 8-9,

465
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,240
twelve times.
And he, I, I draw it.

466
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,800
I'd go get him.
He'd come look at it.

467
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:32,000
I don't like it.
Start over he or move this over

468
00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,640
there and move that over there.
Very particular in what he

469
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:38,720
wanted and how he wanted to do
it.

470
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,920
Somebody had a picture on
Facebook the other day of an

471
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:44,840
SOB.
Small orange box, right?

472
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:50,120
Yeah, I saw that.
You know, and and the SOB has

473
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:53,560
stood the test of time.
I mean forgot, sorry, shaking

474
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,040
the table.
Yeah, keep your arms off the

475
00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,440
table if you can, because that
thing's moving a lot and I'm

476
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:00,440
getting like, you know, what was
that movie?

477
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:01,920
Blair Witch?
I'm going.

478
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,280
Whoa, sorry, I'll.
Keep talking this off the table.

479
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:09,120
Yeah, there you go.
The SOB stood the test of time,

480
00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:10,520
right?
I mean, for God's sake, it I'll

481
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:15,360
let Bob.
But Bob was great.

482
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:23,240
He was, he always gave, if he
saw a promise in you, you know,

483
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,520
and he he knew that you were one
of the guys that are going to

484
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,000
stick around and, and do good
for his company and make some

485
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:30,640
couple bucks off you at the same
time.

486
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,400
Yeah.
Then then he would make sure

487
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:34,840
that he nurtured you.
And.

488
00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,040
Yeah, at least that's, that's my
experience.

489
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,160
Others may not have that
experience.

490
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,000
I don't know.
I, I don't really have a bad

491
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:42,560
word to say about the man.
Yeah.

492
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,480
You know, he gave me, I think
the reason I'm where I'm at

493
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,680
today, Vinny W there it is.
Sorry.

494
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:51,480
Hit the table again.
We'll get there, we'll get

495
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:55,160
there, we'll get there.
But the reason I'm where I'm at

496
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,200
today is partially because of
Bob and of course a lot of hard

497
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,160
work for me, but.
Well, in my own career, like I

498
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:06,840
learned most of what I learned
from the hardest boss I had.

499
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,400
Like you don't necessarily learn
the most.

500
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,440
Like you might learn some
character things and stuff like

501
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,640
that from some of the softer
bosses.

502
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:18,640
But you know, I think from the
toughest boss you've got is

503
00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:22,320
where you really learn how not
to do things and how to do a lot

504
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,440
of things.
And sometimes it takes you some

505
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,560
years, you know, like sometimes
while you're in it, while you're

506
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:30,160
in that cyclone of somebody
yelling at you and calling you

507
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,960
an idiot every day and stuff
like that, while you're in that,

508
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,720
you're going, this is the worst
thing ever.

509
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:38,000
But a few years later, you start
looking back and going, like,

510
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,440
that's what built my character.
Like, that's what turned me into

511
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:45,360
who I am and made me tough, you
know, was, was that type of a

512
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,600
upbringing in business?
Sure.

513
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,800
Yeah, so you speak the truth.
You know, one of the things I

514
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,880
used to love dining with Bob,
which a lot of people would,

515
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,080
would probably cringe at, but
you know, it was always funny,

516
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,920
you know, not even funny.
I don't know if that's the right

517
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,320
word, but I just always remember
him ordering the most massive

518
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:10,240
plate of food and a Diet Coke,
you know, and I'm like, Bob,

519
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,480
what are you trying to do here?
You know, like you've obviously

520
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,960
made some mistakes in your life
and the, the Diet Coke, you

521
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,880
think that's going to save you.
So, but I miss that guy.

522
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,680
I loved him.
I, I really, I enjoyed the hell

523
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:29,840
out of Bob C and I, he and I,
like, I had relationships with a

524
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:33,280
few people in our industry at a
very different level.

525
00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:36,920
And he was one of these guys
that once every couple weeks on

526
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,280
a Friday night with a glass of
wine, I'd sit and talk to him

527
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,320
for two hours.
And we would talk about how

528
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,160
Jerry Harris is screwing up the
industry or how, you know, this

529
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,880
is going wrong or this is going
right or, you know, like, I

530
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:57,240
remember when, when was it 911
or was it maybe the 2008 market

531
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,800
crash?
He lost like a lot of his

532
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,400
wealth.
And, you know, he was literally

533
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,680
pretty much in tears on the
phone with me telling me how,

534
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,240
you know, I was just ready to
check out.

535
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,000
And now I have to go back to
work and I'm going to have to

536
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,680
work until I die now.
And he literally did.

537
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,520
But you know, we had hoped it
was going to be a little longer

538
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:24,480
than it was, but.
Fast forward the pandemic and

539
00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,520
how many of us cashed in, how
much to live off, you know, to

540
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,480
continue living, right?
I know so many people.

541
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,360
I had planned to retire when I
was 65 as well.

542
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,400
But you know, I'm going to be 60
this year and I don't think 65

543
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:41,560
is going to quite happen.
Well, I just turned 60 and I've

544
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,720
been having the same thoughts.
Like, you know, if you would

545
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:48,960
have asked me when I was 40, I
thought retirement by 55, when I

546
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,360
turned 55, there's no way you
could have convinced me to

547
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,000
retire.
I was having way too much fun

548
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,760
still.
And I still am today, believe it

549
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:58,080
or not.
But now I'm working because I

550
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,040
have to work.
I'm not working because I want

551
00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:01,520
to work right at this very
moment.

552
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,400
I'm working literally because I
got to build it back because the

553
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:09,360
last, you know, between divorce
and, and you know, all the stuff

554
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:13,120
and all the bad things and you
know, there's a story I don't

555
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,680
really talk about too much, but
I sued one of the largest

556
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,800
companies in the world.
My first ever time suing someone

557
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:21,400
had to be the biggest company in
the world.

558
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:25,000
And I was right and they were
wrong and that was acknowledged.

559
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,840
But it cost me $1,000,000 and I
got nothing out of it.

560
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,560
I had to eventually sign a
document basically saying you

561
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,120
were wrong, I was right, but I'm
not going to come after you

562
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,800
again because otherwise it was
getting to a point where I could

563
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,040
have been bankrupted by them
because they were just using

564
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:46,400
such heavy artillery on me.
Yeah, you know, like I spent

565
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:50,880
$1,000,000 on, on legal fees
they spent, they spent an

566
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,800
estimated 13 or $14 million to
to crush me.

567
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:56,880
Right, it didn't blink an eye on
it.

568
00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:58,600
And didn't blink an eye.
It did.

569
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:04,920
And, you know, so, I mean, it's,
it's The thing is, I, I, I love

570
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,520
our industry.
I love where we're at right now

571
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,480
in a lot of ways.
I love where my business is at

572
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:12,440
right way it right now in a lot
of ways.

573
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,280
Certainly there are more
frustrating days than others,

574
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,280
but you know, I want to keep
working right now.

575
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:20,320
It's just, I don't want to be
working because I need the

576
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,160
money.
You know, I want to be working

577
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,160
because I love what I'm doing
and.

578
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:28,880
I like to say, you know, it's
it's still fun, you know, 42

579
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:30,960
years later, it's still, it's
still fun.

580
00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,720
You know, like you do.
I do I want to have to be

581
00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:39,000
working because I have to work?
No, but but at the end of the

582
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,480
day, the reality is, you know, I
have a kid that that has a very

583
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:48,160
expensive hobby and I have
another daughter that has a very

584
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,680
expensive dance career and then
going to be a grandfather.

585
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,520
That's that's new too.
Oh Jesus, I have AI have a

586
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:57,600
daughter that's got a granddad.
You know, they've got a daughter

587
00:32:57,600 --> 00:32:58,800
out of the way.
So it's like.

588
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:00,720
Oh wow.
Well.

589
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:02,040
Congratulations on that.
Yeah.

590
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:02,880
Thank you.
Thank you.

591
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:03,960
Spilled that right here.
Yeah.

592
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:05,680
Yeah.
That's Grandpa Don.

593
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:07,960
That's pretty exciting.
Yeah.

594
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:09,920
Grandpa Don.
Well, Don.

595
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,120
You know, I mean, I may be 1.
I don't know.

596
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:17,800
Like, I have no idea what my
entire history left out there.

597
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,080
You know, I was a traveling
musician for a while and and

598
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,200
probably did some bad things in
my life.

599
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,880
But yeah, knock on my wooden
head.

600
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:29,280
My my son has no intention of
having kids anytime soon, but

601
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,880
I'm sure he will at some point.
So I hope so anyways.

602
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:34,600
I hope so.
Not not enough.

603
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:39,080
Like this is one of the things
with people call it maybe under

604
00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:41,960
40 don't seem to want to have
kids anymore.

605
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:44,960
Yeah, I know.
It's a weird thing, you know,

606
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,480
and this isn't political, by the
way, no politics, but, but no,

607
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,280
it's just like, like my, my
girlfriend has two sons in that

608
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:58,000
range and they're both traveling
the world.

609
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,200
One of them's married, has no
intention whatsoever of, of

610
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:05,080
having babies and the other
one's single and just having a

611
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:08,159
great time.
And I don't think she's going to

612
00:34:08,159 --> 00:34:10,719
get any grandkids.
And she's got three sons, you

613
00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:14,280
know, And two of them are like,
one's married and one's

614
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:15,719
certainly old enough to be
married.

615
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,719
And it's just that mentality
now.

616
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:21,199
I don't know what it is.
Is it selfish?

617
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:22,679
So damn.
Expensive, right?

618
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:24,960
I mean, is that what it is?
Yeah, this is what I think.

619
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:29,560
It is so damn expensive and I'm
not going to talk about how

620
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,280
screwed up everything is in the
world, but that might have

621
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:33,520
something to do with it too, you
know?

622
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,159
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.

623
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,560
But guess what?
It only gets worse if we stop

624
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,600
populating.
You know, that's that's the

625
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:42,280
crazy thing.
Like I think a lot of people

626
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:43,920
think the world is
overpopulated.

627
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:47,199
But if you listen to guys like
Elon Musk, who who I tend to

628
00:34:47,199 --> 00:34:51,960
think is pretty smart, the world
is actually underpopulated and

629
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,760
that's going to cause us more
problems than than

630
00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:58,200
overpopulation.
So, but yeah, I don't know how

631
00:34:58,200 --> 00:34:59,760
we got into that so quickly.
I don't know.

632
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,240
We just railroaded right down
the track.

633
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,160
One, one minute we're talking
about Bob C, and the next minute

634
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,120
we're talking about the, you
know, shrinking population.

635
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:09,880
Shrinking population like that,
yeah.

636
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,560
You know, you mentioned the the
state of the industry earlier.

637
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,120
I I like you.
I think it's pretty strong.

638
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:21,120
Yeah.
You know, I think 2024 is a lot

639
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:24,160
of lot of companies, the
industry as a whole is hitting

640
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:28,880
its stride post COVID because I
think I'm a firm believer that

641
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:35,640
22 and 23 were so off the charts
crazy that there's the metric

642
00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:38,000
was just so skewed right.
I mean this.

643
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:39,720
Year.
Couldn't use it.

644
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,600
But this year, for the first
year since the pandemic, we

645
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,400
actually had our, you know, one
or two weeks of downtime in

646
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:50,320
August, you know, and everyone
was like vacation, yes,

647
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:52,960
everybody ran away.
But, you know, here we are,

648
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,120
September, and it's just walls
again.

649
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:56,960
Walls again.
Really nuts again.

650
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:58,160
Yeah.
Well, that's good.

651
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:02,640
I'll tell you what I hear a lot,
especially from some of the

652
00:36:02,640 --> 00:36:09,600
larger companies is that this
year was a lot more smaller

653
00:36:09,600 --> 00:36:12,440
shows.
And so you were working twice as

654
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,640
hard to make like a 10% increase
or a 7% increase on your

655
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,880
revenue.
So it wasn't like last year

656
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:22,160
where you were just like
gangbusters and doubling your

657
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,800
revenue or whatever.
Like this year was a, an

658
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:29,000
incremental increase and you had
to work twice as hard to get it

659
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:33,120
cuz they were smaller shows.
Like so for example, a, a major

660
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:36,600
account executive in our
industry said to me that the

661
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:42,360
last the last six months has
been the hardest he's ever

662
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:48,040
worked for no more money.
And the next 18 months is the

663
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:49,760
biggest pipeline he's ever had
in his career.

664
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,040
And I was like, that's
interesting, so.

665
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:56,960
I I don't see those metrics over
here.

666
00:36:57,240 --> 00:36:59,920
No, no, no.
Well, I think those change at.

667
00:36:59,920 --> 00:37:02,760
Scale, you know, like if you're
a $5,000,000 rental company,

668
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,840
you're gonna have one set of
data, and if you're 15, another

669
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,200
set.
And if you're 100 million or 200

670
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:10,640
or 500 million, you're gonna
have a completely different

671
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:12,400
outlook.
The overhead all grows.

672
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:18,000
That's true, right?
It does, but does it does the

673
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,960
like the overhead technically in
a company shouldn't grow at the

674
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:26,760
same pace as the income.
In other words, as you scale the

675
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,640
business, there should become an
there should become an economy

676
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:34,480
of scale that says for every
$1,000,000 in additional

677
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:39,520
revenue, we're only going up.
Yeah, we've, we've not flatlined

678
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:42,480
our expenses, but the expenses
don't go up at the same rate as

679
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:44,080
the revenue is what I'm trying
to say.

680
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:48,000
So if expenses go up by if
revenue goes up by 10%, expenses

681
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:50,320
should only go up by 5%, for
example.

682
00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:52,280
Yeah, I mean it.
Doesn't always.

683
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:56,440
It doesn't because, you know, I
find the busier we get, the more

684
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,240
staff we have to hire, whether
it's over hire, you know,

685
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:02,440
freelance labor or whatever it
might be, right?

686
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,600
So you know when you when you've
hit your, your end stop and

687
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,800
you're still cramming it through
the machine, right?

688
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:12,560
Yeah, we can still do more.
What?

689
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:16,640
Yeah.
Well, the other, the other I

690
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:21,200
guess anomaly or or you know,
tough part in our industry is

691
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,680
CapEx requirements.
You know, the capital

692
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:28,320
requirements are unlike any
other industry that I'm aware

693
00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:30,280
of.
I'm sure there are some like

694
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:34,400
maybe SpaceX being a rocket
company might have really,

695
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,440
really high CapEx costs or
whatever.

696
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,280
But our industry just seems to
be if you want to play, you

697
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,480
know, if you want to play in the
big pond, you have to have very

698
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:47,760
deep pockets to be able to buy
just enormous amounts of

699
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:49,760
equipment.
And the equipment ain't getting

700
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:53,240
any cheaper.
And some of that equipment, the

701
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:57,280
returns are getting a lot worse,
you know, and the one that I

702
00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,840
like to pick on a lot is, is LED
screens.

703
00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:03,280
You know, LED screens went from
being an incredible investment

704
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:06,360
5-6 years ago and I you would
have incredible insight on this.

705
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:12,240
But as I recall, like they used
to be, you know, $400.00 a tile

706
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:17,920
to rent and now they're 40, you
know, and so yeah, yeah, they

707
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,440
got cheaper.
I guess the initial cost drop

708
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:24,960
happened and then they kind of
got a little more expensive

709
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:27,120
because they just kept
tightening up the pixel pitch

710
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,240
and all that stuff, right,
Getting better.

711
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:35,840
But but yeah, that just seems,
it's like the example I like to

712
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:40,360
use a lot is, is you used to buy
an Intelibeam for, you know,

713
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:44,080
call it $2700.
I think they were 2750 for a

714
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:46,720
long time.
And so you'd buy an Intelibeam

715
00:39:46,720 --> 00:39:50,400
for 2750, you'd rent it out for
200 bucks a week and you kept

716
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:55,200
them for 10 years and kept
renting them out for 250 or 275

717
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:58,320
bucks a week.
And that was a very profitable

718
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:04,520
product.
Now you buy AABC light, yeah, an

719
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:08,480
ABC light for 10 grand.
You rent it out for 150 a week.

720
00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:14,600
And in, you know, 3648, sixty
weeks, it's no longer the, the

721
00:40:14,600 --> 00:40:17,440
soup du jour.
And, you know, now you got to

722
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,200
buy another $10,000 light
because that's the one that the

723
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,040
designers want this week, right.
And so now, by the way, I didn't

724
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:27,200
finish that in Tela Beam.
You would sell it used for two

725
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:30,680
grand after renting it for three
years or four years or

726
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:33,200
something, you'd sell it used
for two grand, buy another new

727
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,160
one.
The math was very good on that.

728
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:40,200
Now the $10,000 light.
You rent it for a year, you want

729
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:43,520
to buy the new version of it.
You sell it used for five grand.

730
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:46,600
You know the math just isn't so
good anymore.

731
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:47,120
It's.
Hard.

732
00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:51,440
Yeah, Yeah, we, we're, of
course, you know, we're, we're

733
00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:55,600
selling off a bunch of like old,
you know, Vipers, performances,

734
00:40:55,640 --> 00:40:57,760
air effects, Unicodes, just
trying to get rid of them.

735
00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,400
They have lamps in them.
We don't want them, right.

736
00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:06,600
But you know, I will say we got
a good six years out of them and

737
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:11,280
you know, they for the most part
paid for themselves and, you

738
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:16,080
know, maybe and and it's just
time to move on because they're

739
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,760
it cost me more to keep them on
the shelf.

740
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:21,720
That's the problem.
Warehouse space, you know,

741
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,480
that's the problem.
Warehouse space so.

742
00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:29,480
Yeah, we talk often about like
the Christie model was to keep

743
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,160
things until they absolutely
were gone, dead, you know, and

744
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:38,000
they kept, you know, Martin Pals
and and intellibeams longer than

745
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,160
anybody else on earth did.
And Huntley's answer to that was

746
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:42,600
always, well, we still rent
them.

747
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:46,560
You know, we still rent them and
we still get return on them.

748
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,360
But The thing is like at some
point it, it's just a

749
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,120
diminishing value.
Like it's like the amount of

750
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:56,520
money to just store these things
and to keep replacing the parts.

751
00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:00,280
And, you know, right, a
motherboard goes and it's 1500

752
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,080
bucks or something.
Like it just becomes silly at

753
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,960
some point.
So yeah, I mean, it's, it's a,

754
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,920
it's a brutal business.
It's a Hard Rock life.

755
00:42:10,320 --> 00:42:14,080
Yeah, it's a Hard Rock life.
The money, you know, just the

756
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:18,720
money and you know, the fact
that like I, I love companies

757
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:23,000
like yours because not that I
have anything against private

758
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:26,160
equity backed businesses or
anything like that, but the

759
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:30,280
private owned companies in our
industry and you know, on the

760
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:33,800
biggest scale, I guess that's
like upstaging and bandit.

761
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,320
And you know, there's less and
less of them all the time.

762
00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:40,960
But, you know, I love that
you're able to continue to

763
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,440
compete when these companies are
able to buy these products and

764
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:48,080
amortize them over so many years
and, you know, like, they just

765
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:52,040
get to do funny stuff with the
books that smaller privately

766
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:56,040
owned companies don't.
You know, I mean, we've always

767
00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:58,920
had a plan.
I mean, our our plan and our

768
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:01,360
process is good.
Yeah, You know what I mean?

769
00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:06,000
Yeah.
And it, it we, we generate some

770
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:07,400
good revenue.
Yeah.

771
00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:11,960
We don't have it, you know, 90%
of what we buy, we buy for cash.

772
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:13,800
Yeah, Yeah.
To be quite honest, you know,

773
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,640
it's like, don't want the big
bank note, don't want any of

774
00:43:16,640 --> 00:43:17,240
that.
Yeah.

775
00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:21,760
And and it, it helps us be more
competitive that way.

776
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:23,840
Yeah.
Well, that's a well managed

777
00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:25,840
company.
I mean, that's, that's like the

778
00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:30,840
the old Dave Miley model, the
old Terry Kane model, you know,

779
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:33,600
a lot of the, the Bob C model
most of the time.

780
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:34,680
Bob C model.
Yeah.

781
00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:37,680
And you know what?
It's so easy for me to go talk

782
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:39,520
to the owner.
Yeah.

783
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:41,760
Yeah, I mean.
That's true.

784
00:43:42,280 --> 00:43:44,080
That's great.
Yeah, You don't have to go to

785
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,480
Wall Street to talk to the owner
and make an appointment and

786
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:49,720
stuff.
But again, I'm not really

787
00:43:49,720 --> 00:43:54,280
bagging on the private or the
private equity held companies or

788
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:58,240
whatever, but it's it's
definitely made things a little

789
00:43:58,240 --> 00:44:00,120
bit harder.
I think it's made things harder

790
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:05,560
for everyone.
And you know where like I always

791
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:09,120
talk about, you know, the whole
4 wall deal, where they're at

792
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:11,320
right now.
And I think it's like I'm

793
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,600
hearing that a deal is imminent,
probably announced next week.

794
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:20,160
And I mentioned that on the
intro to this podcast, but I

795
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,720
think that that's been bad for
the industry as far as just them

796
00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:27,680
being on hold for so long.
Like, you know, fighting through

797
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:30,040
this process that they've been
going through where there's

798
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,560
buyers at the table and then
gone, and then buyers at the

799
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:35,040
table and then gone.
And like, they've been really

800
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,560
close to announcing deals
multiple times and then they

801
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:41,000
went away.
You know, that kind of stuff.

802
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,240
Like it hurts the suppliers, I
think it hurts the competitors,

803
00:44:44,240 --> 00:44:47,480
it hurts the employees.
It hurts, it's just bad.

804
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:50,720
Like, it, it, it's a funk that
that needs to go away.

805
00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:53,120
So it's.
It's difficult, you know, I

806
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:56,680
mean, the one thing I could say
being a smaller company is it's,

807
00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:03,680
I feel a lot easier to pay good
attention to detail, right?

808
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:05,160
Yeah.
What does the job need?

809
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:09,160
What does the client need?
You know what, how can we help

810
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:13,200
you?
You know, it's like I would say,

811
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:17,800
you know, 80% of my clients is
it's more of a partnership than

812
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,800
than a Joe blow off the street
coming to yeah, I I need some

813
00:45:22,800 --> 00:45:25,520
lights and I need some video and
I need some audio, right, You

814
00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:27,240
know.
Well, the fact that you do so

815
00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:30,640
much work with with, with John
Featherstone and, and light

816
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:34,440
switch says that, you know, it
says that that's who you are,

817
00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:40,000
because I know they, they as as
nice of people as they are, and

818
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:42,120
they're some of my favorite
people in the industry.

819
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:45,760
It's they're tough projects.
You know, those are projects

820
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,400
that are very particular.
They they have to be done

821
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:50,240
properly.
It has to be the right product.

822
00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:54,200
It has to be perfect, you know,
so the fact that you do so many

823
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,480
of them says a lot.
I think about the type of

824
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:00,120
business that you and and Video
West are able.

825
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,080
To, yeah.
I mean, yeah, we definitely try.

826
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:05,320
We work hard to keep everything
on the rails, you know?

827
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:08,920
And then, you know, we got
George Strait a couple years

828
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,280
ago.
I mean, that was a whole another

829
00:46:10,280 --> 00:46:13,600
thing, you know, Video W hadn't
done much touring before I got

830
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:14,560
here.
Yeah.

831
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:17,200
And.
That's a big one, like way to

832
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,080
start out, you know?
I know.

833
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:21,040
Just kick it, kick it right out
of the park, right?

834
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,560
And, and it's, it's a blast
because I'd honestly forgotten

835
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:29,200
how much I missed touring, you
know, and I'm not out there, you

836
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:31,840
know, I go, I go out there, you
know, I don't know, couple shows

837
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:36,480
a leg or something.
And it's just so great to see it

838
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:41,400
all up and, and the process of
getting it through the shop, you

839
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,560
know, and oh, hey, we got a new
look for this year's tour.

840
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,040
Now we got to figure out how to
put it together and what's the

841
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:51,760
engineering behind it, you know,
and, and to me, I was like, wow,

842
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:54,240
that was missing for so long in
my life and it's back now.

843
00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:56,600
So I kind of like that.
That's really cool.

844
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:59,680
Hopefully maybe some more
touring from Video W down the

845
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:01,360
road, you know?
Well, didn't.

846
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:04,640
Didn't that George Strait show
or tour break some?

847
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:08,000
Records for tickets.
That was our yeah, we did a one

848
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:12,040
off and in the middle of the
summer tour, OK, we went and we

849
00:47:12,040 --> 00:47:18,080
did a one off at College
Station, TX A&M and set set the

850
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:21,280
record.
I think it was 109,000 change or

851
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:22,760
something like that.
That's crazy.

852
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:27,480
And it was crazy because we
didn't use the tour rig.

853
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:32,280
We used parts of the tour rig.
Stacy and Skyler, they wanted to

854
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:34,560
redesign the whole thing.
It was in the round.

855
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:38,920
The tour was not in the round.
So we built this whole thing and

856
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:43,400
integrated some of the tour
with, you know, that that

857
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,840
stadium show.
But it was it was one for the

858
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:46,880
ages.
It was.

859
00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:50,000
That's really cool.
Very, very fun to be part of

860
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,720
that.
So it's still Stacy La Barbara

861
00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:56,080
is still.
The Stacy La Barbara Skyler, his

862
00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:58,560
son.
He runs a lot of it.

863
00:47:59,240 --> 00:48:01,800
Wow, that's so cool.
Yeah, I remember.

864
00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:04,880
Family affair out there.
Yeah, I, I remember Stacy from

865
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,280
years and years and years ago.
What, what was the shop that

866
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:11,840
husband and wife?
No, husband and wife before

867
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:18,360
that, from like the early 90s.
Oh my God, I'm looking at them

868
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:22,800
right now.
They were such nice people, man.

869
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:25,280
Somewhere somebody's yelling at
going.

870
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:29,840
It's so and so.
Yeah, well, I cuz I remember the

871
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:32,680
very first time I went in there,
I was really green working for

872
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:36,400
Martin and I went in and and
Stacy was so kind and, and, you

873
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:38,760
know, walked me through the shop
and showed me everything.

874
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,080
And what were the two people who
owned that company?

875
00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:44,920
Oh my God.
Husband and wife anyways.

876
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:46,840
Can't remember.
Can't remember the name of the

877
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:48,120
company.
Draw it a blank.

878
00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:53,200
Yeah, it's all good.
But so you and I have talked

879
00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:54,680
about this off the air and
you're gonna hate that I'm

880
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:56,480
bringing it up on on a podcast,
but.

881
00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:01,760
Go ahead.
The name video W Yep, so you

882
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:05,520
guys are so much more than video
and true.

883
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:08,800
And so that probably is hard,
right?

884
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:12,760
Like that probably makes it so
that some clients maybe don't

885
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:15,880
think of you as a lighting
company or don't think of you as

886
00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:17,600
a full.
Service company audio company

887
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:22,360
exactly yeah, yeah, so yeah.
And we're, it's funny, we're

888
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:25,680
going through some marketing
changes here to try and clear

889
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:27,360
some of the confusion up, I
guess.

890
00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:30,360
But you know, Jack Wake has
founded Video West.

891
00:49:30,720 --> 00:49:33,480
Yeah, 40 plus years ago, right?
Yeah.

892
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,880
And he is a video company.
Yeah.

893
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:40,520
And you know that that's the
brand.

894
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:43,120
Yeah.
And now it's a.

895
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,560
I'm not, I'm not dumping on the
brand or anything by any means,

896
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,920
but it's just like, you know, I
remember when when you started

897
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:54,600
at video West and I was like,
that's interesting that he's

898
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:59,280
going to a video company and but
it's not a video company, you

899
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,880
know, and, and it's actually.
In fact, full, full production

900
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:05,040
house.
Yeah, yeah, full production

901
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:06,640
house, rental house.
Yeah.

902
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:09,000
You know, we do all of it.
And then, you know, Jack brought

903
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:11,880
me over here 8 years ago.
He's like, I watched it help

904
00:50:11,880 --> 00:50:13,560
build a lighting division.
Yeah.

905
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:16,560
I was like, oh, that's fun.
Yeah, let me go do that.

906
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:19,520
Let's let's go buy some gear and
do some things.

907
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:21,800
And that's always.
Amazing when you get to be at

908
00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:23,560
the.
Front end, what it yeah, it says

909
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:26,160
what I always wanted to do
right, you know, is like be able

910
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:32,000
to get a bunch of people
together, build a product that's

911
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,680
awesome, refine the product, you
know, keep refining the product

912
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:37,480
because we're always screwing
around things out over here,

913
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:40,320
right Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

914
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:43,640
I mean similar to what what
Cosmo did with with the guys in

915
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:46,680
Saint Louis, you know, when he
got to go in there and hire all

916
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:51,200
the people and and order all the
gear, you know, like I and I

917
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,800
went in there shortly after they
they weren't even, they were in

918
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:57,240
their temporary shop and and all
of that stuff.

919
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,960
I went in there and every single
lighting fixture brand new, half

920
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,840
of them didn't even have plugs
on them yet.

921
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:07,920
Every Rd. case new, every cable
was new, every single product in

922
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:10,200
there was brand new.
It was like, whoa, I don't know

923
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:11,560
that I've ever seen something
like this, so.

924
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:14,680
And then, and then you got to
try and keep it nice and new and

925
00:51:14,680 --> 00:51:15,480
shiny.
Yeah.

926
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:18,400
All that, right.
And make all the processes to

927
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:22,400
keep all the stuff nice and
shiny and teched and QC and all

928
00:51:22,440 --> 00:51:22,720
that.
Yeah.

929
00:51:23,120 --> 00:51:25,920
So I, I, I geek on that quite a
bit.

930
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:27,920
You know, that's amazing
process, yeah.

931
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:30,240
But you know, that makes a
difference.

932
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,680
Like, you know, being in the
used gear business, we tend to

933
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:37,720
know whose equipment is in what
condition and based on the

934
00:51:37,720 --> 00:51:40,240
complaints that we get from
buyers on the other end, right?

935
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,000
And we've done very well with
your gear.

936
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:47,200
I mean, customers are very happy
with your gear all the time.

937
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:54,440
And so thank you.
But you know, like, especially

938
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:56,920
over the past couple of years
when people have just been

939
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:00,080
batshit nuts, it's it's been
hard to make sure that product

940
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,640
is properly teched going out the
door and cleaned and looks nice

941
00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:06,960
when it gets to the customer.
So it doesn't have 10 years of

942
00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:08,520
dust on it.
Yeah.

943
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,960
So today I'm, I'm sitting at our
our new prep facility that we

944
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:13,960
just that's why I got the white
walls.

945
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:18,120
We haven't we barely moved in
haven't been here that long, but

946
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:23,720
a brand new prep facility.
It's gorgeous 30,000 square feet

947
00:52:23,760 --> 00:52:27,560
of open wide open space.
It's got pre vis up front

948
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:32,320
kitchen, private offices which
wow, I probably should put.

949
00:52:32,680 --> 00:52:35,600
I probably should put some
artwork on the walls or.

950
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,560
Something that would be good.
Yeah, that'd be good.

951
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:41,360
Hang up some, hang up some
laminates or some show photos or

952
00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:43,040
something.
Yeah, get somebody to do

953
00:52:43,040 --> 00:52:44,960
something over.
Here and get somebody in there.

954
00:52:45,240 --> 00:52:50,640
But it's nice we we really want
to be under one warehouse, one

955
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:54,600
roof.
But you know, with the big boom

956
00:52:54,600 --> 00:52:59,280
that's happened in in Phoenix
warehouse spaces just through

957
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,040
the Yeah.
Trying to get like 75,000 square

958
00:53:02,040 --> 00:53:04,520
feet or 100,000 square feet is
not that easy.

959
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:08,880
And the one warehouse that we
own, that's what is it 45 or 50?

960
00:53:09,280 --> 00:53:13,080
That's all mezzanined out three,
you know, and Jack owns that

961
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:14,200
building.
Yeah.

962
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,320
So it's it's kind of like, well,
what are we going to do?

963
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:18,760
We going to build another one,
you know, so we're just kind of

964
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:22,520
for now, we put prep nice.
They it's a purpose built

965
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:23,560
building.
We didn't build it.

966
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:27,200
We got lucky.
This guy built a 60,000 square

967
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:30,520
foot building, put a wall up and
said and and rented it.

968
00:53:30,520 --> 00:53:32,600
And I was like, look at this
place.

969
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:35,280
It's just gorgeous.
You know, that's got 35 foot

970
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:36,960
ceilings in it.
Oh wow.

971
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,440
So you're not gonna, it's not
gonna be rehearsal space.

972
00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:43,360
It's just prep.
It can be we're we can we can do

973
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,440
some pre production here.
We can do whatever we want to do

974
00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:48,760
here.
That's why I like the space.

975
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:53,720
So it's got 8 docks.
Yeah, it's got three St. level.

976
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,200
Roll right into the place if you
want, you know.

977
00:53:56,720 --> 00:53:59,120
Nice.
So it's it's, it's that's a big

978
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:00,840
commitment.
It is.

979
00:54:00,880 --> 00:54:03,000
Yeah, it is.
That's cool.

980
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:05,280
So what else is new at Video
West?

981
00:54:05,280 --> 00:54:10,120
So like is it spending season,
are you getting rid of all that

982
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:13,520
extra CapEx money laying around
and buying a bunch of new gear

983
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:14,920
or?
Yeah, we're putting the wish

984
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:18,040
list together right for LDI
there.

985
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:23,000
You go, there you go.
So you know, so listening Donnie

986
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:24,960
and team are going to LDI with
pockets.

987
00:54:24,960 --> 00:54:26,920
Full.
Of cash might spend some money

988
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:29,480
stuff.
Yeah, So book dinners and

989
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:31,520
breakfasts now with Donnie,
right?

990
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,240
Yeah, no, that's cool, that's
fun.

991
00:54:34,240 --> 00:54:37,640
I mean, when you can go to LDI
ready to, to make purchases.

992
00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:39,920
Yeah.
The the thing about our industry

993
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:43,080
though, it's all changed like it
used to, you had to go to LDI

994
00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:45,520
cuz that's where all the new
stuff was released, right,

995
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:47,080
Right.
It ain't like that anymore.

996
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:49,840
Like it's, it's released
throughout the year and they

997
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:52,560
bring it around to your shop and
show it to you cuz everybody has

998
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,200
sales reps in the region and all
that kind of stuff.

999
00:54:56,440 --> 00:55:00,920
So it it's, it's not as much
timed around LDI anymore, Yeah.

1000
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:08,080
I honestly transparency, I like
to have lights come to the shop.

1001
00:55:08,200 --> 00:55:12,160
I'll go to LDI to see, look at
the fancy shiny stuff, but then

1002
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:15,360
to actually look at it.
Yeah, bring it to the shop.

1003
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:18,960
Let me put it, put it in here.
Let's play with it for a while,

1004
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:20,880
you know?
Well, no matter how big a

1005
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:26,080
company you are, it's hard to
get the time with the person at

1006
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:28,800
LDI for a long period of time
because you're standing there

1007
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:33,400
talking to them and suddenly,
you know some big designer or

1008
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:36,160
somebody is standing behind you
and they're like 01 second and

1009
00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:39,520
they go to that guy.
And like we said earlier, lights

1010
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:42,720
aren't $2000 anymore, they're
8010 thousand.

1011
00:55:42,720 --> 00:55:45,120
These are real.
I might want to take the lid off

1012
00:55:45,120 --> 00:55:47,600
the 8 or $10,000 car.
Yeah.

1013
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:49,560
Get under the hood, have a look
at it.

1014
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:52,920
Yeah.
What you know what are use it?

1015
00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:56,320
Have you seen any new stuff that
you're really liking right now

1016
00:55:56,320 --> 00:56:00,160
or have you guys recently bought
into any of the the new product

1017
00:56:00,160 --> 00:56:03,720
launches this year?
We bought some more.

1018
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:06,960
We bought the I Forte bought a
bunch of those.

1019
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:11,640
Nice.
We bought a bunch of the the

1020
00:56:11,640 --> 00:56:15,560
Martin XIPS.
Oh, OK, those quite a bit.

1021
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,600
Because the aura or the OR the
the aura, the Martin XIP aura.

1022
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:22,280
Is there a small form factor?
We need something to replace our

1023
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:24,480
old aging auras.
I mean, we still have, believe

1024
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:29,720
it or not, believe it or not, I
still have like 48 auras left

1025
00:56:29,720 --> 00:56:33,080
that are, you know, as they die,
we throw them, we recycle them.

1026
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:36,480
Yeah.
People still buy auras.

1027
00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:40,480
People still buy original auras.
Like we sold thousands of those

1028
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:44,400
for for Christy and for others.
People still buy them.

1029
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,040
They're still a decent fixture
for certain things like

1030
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:48,120
remember.
For the small, yeah.

1031
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:50,040
For the small ballrooms are
fine.

1032
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:52,520
Not everyone's at the level that
your clients are.

1033
00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:54,880
You know, there's these guys
down here too.

1034
00:56:54,880 --> 00:56:56,600
Right.
And we service all types.

1035
00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:58,960
I mean, you know, that we have
some of these, you know, small

1036
00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:01,640
ballroom shows that they're, you
know, 12 fixtures and they,

1037
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:05,600
yeah, they don't want a $250 or
$300.00 light, right?

1038
00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:07,800
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, have you seen

1039
00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:10,120
the Viper X IP yet?
I have.

1040
00:57:10,240 --> 00:57:13,880
Yeah, there's that's a crowded
area.

1041
00:57:14,600 --> 00:57:16,880
You know, that part of the
market is really crowded.

1042
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,080
There's so much really great
stuff.

1043
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:21,480
You know, Elation has come out
with some really cool stuff.

1044
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:23,680
Elation's coming out with some
nice stuff.

1045
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:26,240
Actually, right now, yeah.
I've got some of their stuff

1046
00:57:26,240 --> 00:57:28,040
that I'm looking at actually in
the shop now.

1047
00:57:28,080 --> 00:57:30,560
Yeah.
Have you seen the pulse?

1048
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:34,040
Did you get the pulse?
The pulse strobe.

1049
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:37,760
Is that the bar?
No, Yes I do.

1050
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:39,600
I have the pulse strobe at my
shop right now.

1051
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:44,040
So at the front end of this
podcast, because elation is

1052
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:47,320
sponsoring this podcast, there's
a a video on the pulse, a new

1053
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:49,400
video that they did with this
drummer and stuff.

1054
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:50,960
And it's it's really, really
good.

1055
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:54,680
It's a great looking fixture.
You know, I'm a I'm a big fan of

1056
00:57:54,680 --> 00:58:01,200
the the Ericsson Rivali and it's
Big Brother, which is called

1057
00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:03,320
God.
What is it called?

1058
00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:05,080
I can't.
Remember, they got some weird

1059
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:08,320
names over there, but they've
got some nice stuff too though.

1060
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:11,680
But you and I should know the
names because they're all race

1061
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:17,280
cars and race tracks and Velaci
Veloci, I don't know how you say

1062
00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:22,360
it, but Veloci, Veloci.
But that's that's coming out,

1063
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:26,200
you know.
So Elation Martin with their

1064
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:30,880
stuff, Airton with their stuff.
I mean, Clay Paki seems to be a

1065
00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,040
little lost right now, but
they've got some really nice

1066
00:58:33,040 --> 00:58:35,600
stuff coming out too.
Everyone.

1067
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,120
I mean, that's the, that's the
cool thing about this moment in

1068
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:42,240
our industry is everything's
nice, everything's good.

1069
00:58:43,600 --> 00:58:46,680
Everything's pretty good.
Everything's pretty good as far

1070
00:58:46,680 --> 00:58:50,280
as like, you know, new fixtures
and and technology I think is,

1071
00:58:50,320 --> 00:58:53,880
you know, seems to be like we're
going in the right direction, I

1072
00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:57,760
guess.
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

1073
00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:01,400
I mean, I guess the frustrating
part is, is still you're, you're

1074
00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:04,440
always going to have 100 of the
thing that this particular

1075
00:59:04,440 --> 00:59:07,080
designer doesn't want and you're
going to not have any of the

1076
00:59:07,080 --> 00:59:09,480
ones that this particular
designer does want.

1077
00:59:09,480 --> 00:59:12,440
And as much as I think our
industry has become somewhat

1078
00:59:12,440 --> 00:59:15,440
homogenized on the product side,
like everybody's got to wash a

1079
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:20,480
beam a spot of this so that a
shutter fixture, you know, and

1080
00:59:21,480 --> 00:59:24,920
but there's still like that one
thing that I gotta have that I

1081
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:27,160
need that fixture or whatever,
right.

1082
00:59:27,520 --> 00:59:29,880
So, you know, you guys are
always having to go out and

1083
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:32,840
spend money.
Yeah, yeah.

1084
00:59:32,840 --> 00:59:36,480
It's part of the, it's part of
the plan, I guess, part of the

1085
00:59:36,920 --> 00:59:39,760
part of the everyday plan.
Keep everybody happy.

1086
00:59:40,120 --> 00:59:42,200
Yeah.
You know, So what about what

1087
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:44,680
about from a video standpoint
like is, is there a lot of

1088
00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:47,680
really cool technology happening
on the video side right now or

1089
00:59:47,680 --> 00:59:50,720
is it where, where are we at in
that cycle?

1090
00:59:52,000 --> 00:59:54,600
You know, I tried I tried to
leave it back to the video

1091
00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:59,120
experts, but I know that we're,
you know, we're always, you

1092
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:04,120
know, new LED tiles.
I look at this, you know, 2.2

1093
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:06,280
mil or whatever it is, you know
that's we're.

1094
01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:09,200
Down to like .9, now we're down
to .9.

1095
01:00:09,200 --> 01:00:13,360
It's just gotten crazy.
You know, and, and I see that

1096
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:16,000
stuff mostly uninstalls, you
know, but like the, the

1097
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:24,160
corporate stuff and the
concerts, you know, 4K cameras,

1098
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:25,760
you know, all that, right?
Yeah.

1099
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:29,120
And then you got to buy the 4K
stuff to support it, right.

1100
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:31,240
And that shit's, I don't know
how they keep up.

1101
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:32,840
I don't know how, I don't know
how they keep up.

1102
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:36,640
Like I look at my guy Sean
Fitzgerald and Geisman who run

1103
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:40,680
video and I'm like, my stuff is
OK over here.

1104
01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:44,680
Like we got some lights, you
know, some cool technology.

1105
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:48,840
You guys have all this stuff
that they keep changing and and

1106
01:00:48,840 --> 01:00:50,880
redoing and how do you how do
you keep up?

1107
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,560
You know well.
I mean, just getting like 4K

1108
01:00:53,560 --> 01:00:57,840
switchers and 4K, you know, all
of this different stuff on the

1109
01:00:57,840 --> 01:01:01,000
video side is so expensive and
now people are already pushing

1110
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:04,360
for 8K and it's like, come on,
man, Jesus.

1111
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:07,520
Like it's just a it's a money
pit that you just have to keep

1112
01:01:07,520 --> 01:01:10,920
investing massive dollars into.
So the.

1113
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:14,800
Production industry as a whole
is a money pit, which is crazy

1114
01:01:14,800 --> 01:01:17,000
why venture capital wants to be
involved but.

1115
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:22,360
Well, I think any, I guess, I
think any industry that is

1116
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:28,360
really capital needy is going to
find their way to marrying

1117
01:01:28,680 --> 01:01:31,640
private equity because private
equity loves to engage capital

1118
01:01:31,640 --> 01:01:36,080
where it's needed.
And, you know, the, in our

1119
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:38,800
industry, like the way the
progression constantly goes is

1120
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:42,880
these guys buy like $20 million
companies and they want to get

1121
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:44,920
them up to 50.
And then they sell it to a

1122
01:01:44,920 --> 01:01:49,320
private equity group who's got
a, a sweet spot of 50 million to

1123
01:01:49,320 --> 01:01:51,560
$100 million.
And then they grow it to 100.

1124
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:53,720
And then they sell it to the
next guy, to the next guy to the

1125
01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:59,160
next guy until, you know, you're
you're you've got a PRG and VER

1126
01:01:59,160 --> 01:02:01,840
together, you know, that are,
you know, a billion dollar

1127
01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:06,680
enterprise or whatever.
But yeah, I mean, they exist for

1128
01:02:06,680 --> 01:02:08,680
a reason, I guess.
Sure.

1129
01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:11,920
And it just complicates things a
little bit at times.

1130
01:02:11,920 --> 01:02:16,200
Yeah.
So you mentioned touring, which

1131
01:02:16,200 --> 01:02:20,360
obviously you have a passion
towards, but what kind of

1132
01:02:20,360 --> 01:02:24,360
business does video W like?
What's your what's your sweet

1133
01:02:24,360 --> 01:02:26,200
spot as a company or or are
there?

1134
01:02:26,200 --> 01:02:30,160
Many as a company, you know,
corporate and trade show, Yeah,

1135
01:02:30,480 --> 01:02:33,000
yeah, corporate and trade show
is what the company was built

1136
01:02:33,000 --> 01:02:35,120
on.
And you know, quite honestly,

1137
01:02:35,120 --> 01:02:38,880
you know, and when you get off
the road and when you're like 45

1138
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,240
or whatever the hell, I was 40
when I got off the road.

1139
01:02:44,080 --> 01:02:45,840
Corporate and trade show were
the way to go.

1140
01:02:46,040 --> 01:02:48,280
Yeah, you get to stay home.
Yeah.

1141
01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:56,880
So, you know, I, I love it and
I've learned that over the over

1142
01:02:56,880 --> 01:02:59,840
the seasons.
I'm sorry, I've learned that

1143
01:02:59,840 --> 01:03:02,560
there's seasons like there's the
trade show season, if you will,

1144
01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:05,040
right.
You know, that in January

1145
01:03:05,040 --> 01:03:08,120
through, you know, March, April.
It's just insane in the trade

1146
01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:11,240
shows, you know?
Yeah, but the company was built

1147
01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:14,760
on on corporate.
Yeah, you know, yeah.

1148
01:03:14,760 --> 01:03:21,880
And so corporate touring,
touring, I would guess is a

1149
01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:23,960
really small percentage of what
you're doing right now.

1150
01:03:25,240 --> 01:03:28,520
Yeah, still.
Yeah, You know, it's maybe a

1151
01:03:28,520 --> 01:03:31,880
1/4.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1152
01:03:32,040 --> 01:03:35,080
Well, in trade shows again, I
mean, it's it's a whole new gear

1153
01:03:35,080 --> 01:03:37,360
requirement.
Like they need different stuff

1154
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:39,440
obviously than touring.
Touring you can get away with

1155
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:42,680
throwing a bunch of Vipers up
and and making people happy.

1156
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:45,840
Maybe in a corporate show they
need to be different.

1157
01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:48,880
Well, yeah, I mean, you know,
trade shows, I find there's a

1158
01:03:48,880 --> 01:03:52,000
lot of crossover.
There's, you know, the same

1159
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:55,920
shutter light that you use at at
a corporate business meeting to

1160
01:03:56,120 --> 01:03:59,280
to frame a screen or to cut a
stage in or something is the

1161
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:04,160
same light that you're going to
use at the trade show to get the

1162
01:04:04,160 --> 01:04:07,080
guys sign header or something.
You know, of course.

1163
01:04:07,080 --> 01:04:10,280
And, and you know, like we did
a, a show, a trade show last

1164
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:13,880
year that had this cool
anamorphic wall that was on a

1165
01:04:13,880 --> 01:04:16,880
corner and it looked like things
were coming out of the wall.

1166
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:19,560
This content was built.
So like some of the some of the

1167
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:25,400
trade shows, like the higher end
trade shows, some of the

1168
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:27,280
technology is.
Unbelievable.

1169
01:04:27,440 --> 01:04:32,280
Yeah, Yeah.
So I've heard mixed opinions, I

1170
01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:36,840
guess on whether corporate shows
are completely back or whether

1171
01:04:36,840 --> 01:04:41,280
like 25 is going to be the big
year of the return of massive

1172
01:04:41,280 --> 01:04:46,600
corporates.
I think they've been strong.

1173
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:49,200
Yeah.
I think there may have been a

1174
01:04:49,200 --> 01:04:52,600
little bit of AI don't want to
say it's a bubble, but maybe a

1175
01:04:52,600 --> 01:04:56,600
burp in, in early part of 24
when everybody was talking, you

1176
01:04:56,600 --> 01:04:59,240
know, late 23, early 24 or a
recession.

1177
01:04:59,560 --> 01:05:02,680
You know, you might have seen
some of the the larger companies

1178
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:06,520
pull back some of the range a
little bit over, you know,

1179
01:05:06,520 --> 01:05:10,520
instead of spending, you know,
half a million, we're only going

1180
01:05:10,520 --> 01:05:12,960
to spend 300 this year.
Yeah, keeps.

1181
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:18,200
What potentially the craziest
election cycle ever and correct

1182
01:05:18,200 --> 01:05:23,080
and monkey pox and all of these
other terrorism and all these

1183
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:27,840
threats World War three, you
know, so maybe all of that

1184
01:05:27,840 --> 01:05:31,600
combined just made everyone sort
of, like you said, a burp.

1185
01:05:32,680 --> 01:05:35,240
Yeah, I think, I think, you
know, I mean, 25 is looking

1186
01:05:35,240 --> 01:05:37,880
strong for us already.
I mean, there's already a lot of

1187
01:05:37,880 --> 01:05:40,800
stuff on the books in 25, which
is great.

1188
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:48,040
So, you know, it's like, again,
I don't think we're ever going

1189
01:05:48,040 --> 01:05:52,200
to see the growth that we did in
22 and 23 again like anything.

1190
01:05:52,200 --> 01:05:55,280
Like that that.
'D be hard to replicate, but you

1191
01:05:55,280 --> 01:06:01,480
know, I was talking to a guy
this morning and I said I said

1192
01:06:01,480 --> 01:06:04,440
my my goal is to grow the
company at a comfortable rate,

1193
01:06:05,280 --> 01:06:09,760
right, keep everybody employed
and just keep pushing on Yeah,

1194
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:15,080
you know, and and again, that's
the nice be nice thing about

1195
01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:19,400
being a mid sized company.
Yeah, yeah, you're, you're 100%

1196
01:06:19,400 --> 01:06:21,000
right.
I mean it, you know, you don't

1197
01:06:21,000 --> 01:06:25,520
have to have 17% year over year
growth or 36% euro.

1198
01:06:25,960 --> 01:06:28,480
You grow as you grow.
Like, you know, we're just going

1199
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:31,600
to try and keep growing and
being successful and keeping the

1200
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:35,560
company healthy and nice and
clean and, and the books clean

1201
01:06:35,560 --> 01:06:38,040
and everything else and and you
grow when you grow.

1202
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:41,440
Yeah.
You know, you get so Uber

1203
01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:45,080
focused on growth when you have
private equity or, or you're a

1204
01:06:45,080 --> 01:06:47,360
public company, even worse,
obviously, because then

1205
01:06:47,600 --> 01:06:51,480
shareholders expect, you know,
constant growth every quarterly

1206
01:06:51,480 --> 01:06:52,640
that you're putting out and
stuff.

1207
01:06:55,280 --> 01:06:59,360
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's,
it's a weird business right now.

1208
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:01,360
What about Speaking of weird
business?

1209
01:07:01,800 --> 01:07:05,920
Right before I got on this
podcast, I did this crazy AI

1210
01:07:05,920 --> 01:07:08,400
webinar.
And if you've listened to any

1211
01:07:08,440 --> 01:07:12,040
podcast I've done over the last
year, I'm fairly addicted to the

1212
01:07:12,040 --> 01:07:17,200
topic of AI and specifically AI
as it relates to our industry.

1213
01:07:17,600 --> 01:07:23,800
You know, because the easy sort
of statement to make is AI is

1214
01:07:23,800 --> 01:07:26,320
going to destroy our industry
and people are going to lose

1215
01:07:26,320 --> 01:07:29,480
their jobs and, you know,
consoles that program

1216
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:32,240
themselves, you won't need
lighting designers anymore or,

1217
01:07:32,280 --> 01:07:34,840
or, you know, video directors or
anything.

1218
01:07:35,800 --> 01:07:39,760
I don't believe that.
You know, I tend to think that

1219
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:43,080
AI is going to support people's
roles, not replace them.

1220
01:07:44,440 --> 01:07:48,280
Do you even think about it?
I try not to do ya.

1221
01:07:48,760 --> 01:07:52,600
I mean, I, I know that it's like
there, you know, I know it's

1222
01:07:52,600 --> 01:07:55,680
there and I see it, you know, I
see it on Facebook.

1223
01:07:55,680 --> 01:08:02,680
You see it everywhere, right?
But I don't, it's not like in

1224
01:08:02,680 --> 01:08:05,240
the forefront of my mind on a
daily basis, right?

1225
01:08:05,280 --> 01:08:09,640
It's like I, I just don't, I,
I'm not that interested in it.

1226
01:08:10,200 --> 01:08:14,680
There's, there's, there's,
there's some really like, I

1227
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:17,640
don't know how much time you
spend in spreadsheets, but there

1228
01:08:17,640 --> 01:08:22,080
are AI apps that are incredible
at looking at spreadsheets,

1229
01:08:22,120 --> 01:08:24,680
analyzing them very quickly and
telling you what you need to

1230
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:31,640
know and, or helping you or, you
know, helping you, supporting

1231
01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:34,040
you by building formulas in
those.

1232
01:08:34,240 --> 01:08:37,880
Like basically looking at this
three column spreadsheet and

1233
01:08:37,880 --> 01:08:41,520
going, what I really need to
know is this and this and this,

1234
01:08:41,840 --> 01:08:43,040
but I don't know how to build
that.

1235
01:08:43,040 --> 01:08:44,880
And that could take me 3 days to
build it.

1236
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:48,080
AI can do that in a few seconds.
For you a few seconds.

1237
01:08:48,279 --> 01:08:52,520
Yeah, and you just the, the
biggest thing, similar to

1238
01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:56,520
employees with AI, it's learning
how to communicate with it.

1239
01:08:57,040 --> 01:09:00,359
So employees, if you say it one
way, you might get a certain

1240
01:09:00,359 --> 01:09:02,160
result.
If you say it this way, you

1241
01:09:02,160 --> 01:09:04,160
might get a much better result.
Right.

1242
01:09:04,439 --> 01:09:07,600
And so learning how to
communicate with AI is where the

1243
01:09:07,600 --> 01:09:09,439
trick is.
But you know, again, I'm not

1244
01:09:09,439 --> 01:09:13,560
suggesting that every person in
our industry should be using AI,

1245
01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:15,439
controlled lighting consoles or
something.

1246
01:09:15,439 --> 01:09:18,760
But AI, when you're going
through massive lists of

1247
01:09:18,920 --> 01:09:21,760
inventory and you need something
to help you figure something

1248
01:09:21,760 --> 01:09:25,080
out, there are some incredible
tools.

1249
01:09:25,080 --> 01:09:28,160
Like even just on this webinar
this morning, I learned of two

1250
01:09:28,160 --> 01:09:31,279
or three new apps out there that
that I hadn't even heard of.

1251
01:09:31,520 --> 01:09:35,000
And I went and looked at them
and just went, you know, like,

1252
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:37,399
wow, you know it.
Might be able to help me a

1253
01:09:37,399 --> 01:09:39,439
little bit.
I certainly could, yeah.

1254
01:09:39,439 --> 01:09:41,600
And I'd be happy to actually.
That's what I should do.

1255
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:46,399
Is like an AI for dummies, AI
for Dummies webinar one day.

1256
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:49,720
Like me by the way, I'm calling
myself a dummy, so if.

1257
01:09:49,720 --> 01:09:51,600
I yeah, I mean.
Take a look at this.

1258
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:53,080
You can do this, right?
Yeah.

1259
01:09:53,840 --> 01:09:55,200
But here's another great
example.

1260
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:59,480
Like, you know, if like me, you
have to look at dashboards full

1261
01:09:59,480 --> 01:10:03,240
of data that say, here's how
your business is doing this week

1262
01:10:03,240 --> 01:10:05,920
or whatever, this month, this
year, and you're looking at

1263
01:10:05,920 --> 01:10:09,280
going, what am I looking at?
Like this is so much

1264
01:10:09,280 --> 01:10:10,920
information.
Holy shit.

1265
01:10:10,920 --> 01:10:13,360
What's it all mean?
Like what's an APCK?

1266
01:10:13,360 --> 01:10:16,880
What's that mean?
What's a GB RZ, you know, what's

1267
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:19,840
that mean?
And so you could be looking at

1268
01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:23,320
this dashboard just dumbfounded.
Take a screenshot of this

1269
01:10:23,320 --> 01:10:25,240
dashboard.
There's this app that I've just

1270
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:29,840
learned about and you you load
it in there and say explain

1271
01:10:29,840 --> 01:10:34,280
this, like explain this to me
like I'm a 14 year old and it

1272
01:10:34,280 --> 01:10:38,280
will, it'll tell you what every
single box means, what you

1273
01:10:38,280 --> 01:10:40,760
should be looking to do because
you've got a problem here.

1274
01:10:40,760 --> 01:10:42,400
This one over here looks really
good.

1275
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:46,280
Like it's basically having an
analyst review that data for you

1276
01:10:46,640 --> 01:10:48,720
and reading it back to you like
you're a child.

1277
01:10:49,160 --> 01:10:52,760
And you know, I'm not saying
most business owners are

1278
01:10:52,760 --> 01:10:55,800
children, but we can't know
everything about everything, so

1279
01:10:56,080 --> 01:10:57,720
I should.
Probably use this for my kids

1280
01:10:58,000 --> 01:11:02,080
track data sheet. 100 percent,
100%.

1281
01:11:02,640 --> 01:11:05,160
Right.
That'd be a great use for.

1282
01:11:05,160 --> 01:11:08,040
It what gear should we put on
the cart today with this air

1283
01:11:08,040 --> 01:11:09,120
quality?
Right.

1284
01:11:09,120 --> 01:11:11,960
Hell, yeah.
I mean, or jet, you know, what

1285
01:11:11,960 --> 01:11:14,320
jet do we need or what gear do
we need or whatever?

1286
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:16,520
Yeah.
I mean, those things were always

1287
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:19,720
a bit of a crapshoot because
we'd have engineers and

1288
01:11:19,720 --> 01:11:23,960
mechanics who'd been to that
track 100 times and even they

1289
01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:26,920
couldn't make the decision.
They're like, well, it's this

1290
01:11:26,920 --> 01:11:30,480
temperature, it's this, this,
we're starting in 7th.

1291
01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:33,640
So that plays a role in what
gear you're going to want

1292
01:11:33,640 --> 01:11:35,800
because you want to jump ahead
of some people quickly if you

1293
01:11:35,800 --> 01:11:37,800
need to.
I mean it's.

1294
01:11:37,800 --> 01:11:40,120
It's always a crapshoot.
Like, even if you have all the

1295
01:11:40,120 --> 01:11:42,960
data and you understand it
perfectly, it's still like,

1296
01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:44,800
what's the driver feel like
today?

1297
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:46,920
Yeah.
Like, are you gonna keep your

1298
01:11:46,920 --> 01:11:49,640
foot on the gas pedal or No,
Like, so.

1299
01:11:49,800 --> 01:11:51,680
Yeah, you.
Know yeah, but we're not we're

1300
01:11:51,680 --> 01:11:56,640
not using any AI automation at
all here yet that I'm aware of

1301
01:11:56,960 --> 01:11:59,880
you know again, maybe I'm sure
it's.

1302
01:12:00,360 --> 01:12:02,800
Maybe not even the big stuff,
like maybe little stuff like

1303
01:12:02,800 --> 01:12:04,720
helping on spreadsheets, you
know, Yeah.

1304
01:12:04,960 --> 01:12:08,600
Sure, or I could see it helping
on some spreadsheets writing

1305
01:12:08,600 --> 01:12:10,440
times.
I'm I have a scratch of my head

1306
01:12:10,440 --> 01:12:12,560
going, how the hell am I going
to figure this out?

1307
01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:14,840
Yeah, yeah.
Well, if you ever want to spend

1308
01:12:14,840 --> 01:12:17,400
15 minutes on a screen share,
I'm happy to show you a couple

1309
01:12:17,400 --> 01:12:18,680
things.
Sure, sure.

1310
01:12:19,560 --> 01:12:21,360
You know, again, I'm just a geek
for it.

1311
01:12:21,360 --> 01:12:23,280
Like I was saying to my
girlfriend this morning after I

1312
01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:26,480
got off this webinar, I was
like, I wish I was 20 years

1313
01:12:26,480 --> 01:12:27,960
younger.
And she goes, oh, don't we all?

1314
01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:31,440
And I go, no, just because I
want to be an expert in every

1315
01:12:31,440 --> 01:12:33,920
one of these things.
And I'm not going to have time,

1316
01:12:33,920 --> 01:12:36,240
like I'm just going to run out
of time to be an expert in all

1317
01:12:36,240 --> 01:12:37,880
these things.
But they're all so cool.

1318
01:12:37,880 --> 01:12:40,160
Like I'm so excited.
I'm like a child right now with

1319
01:12:40,160 --> 01:12:43,520
some of these apps because it's
just like, it makes me better at

1320
01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:46,280
my job, you know?
And, and I'll tell you Gear

1321
01:12:46,280 --> 01:12:51,080
Source in over 20 years has
collected a huge amount of data

1322
01:12:51,480 --> 01:12:54,520
on the used equipment market.
I have that data.

1323
01:12:54,520 --> 01:12:59,520
I have over 20 years of data on
every sound product, lighting

1324
01:12:59,520 --> 01:13:03,120
product, video product out
there, what its sales trends

1325
01:13:03,120 --> 01:13:05,800
have been over the past 22 years
or whatever.

1326
01:13:06,960 --> 01:13:10,360
Like I've just got a huge amount
of data that right I can now

1327
01:13:10,360 --> 01:13:14,920
shove into an AI app and have it
spit out some relevant

1328
01:13:14,920 --> 01:13:16,360
information.
Right.

1329
01:13:16,400 --> 01:13:18,160
It's cool.
This is my most profitable

1330
01:13:18,160 --> 01:13:19,520
resale product.
Right.

1331
01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:23,440
Yeah, exactly.
Well, or by the way, being the

1332
01:13:23,440 --> 01:13:27,520
capitalist that I am, I go to
Clay Paki and I say, you know,

1333
01:13:27,720 --> 01:13:31,600
here's where you are on the
scale of automated lighting

1334
01:13:31,600 --> 01:13:35,080
companies.
You know, you trend at a higher

1335
01:13:35,080 --> 01:13:40,440
price and you hold your price
26% longer than this company or

1336
01:13:40,440 --> 01:13:43,400
this company.
And you know where you can start

1337
01:13:43,720 --> 01:13:48,720
packaging that data and, and
repurposing it or using it for

1338
01:13:48,760 --> 01:13:51,640
your own gain or for someone
else's gain or whatever?

1339
01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:54,440
Yeah.
So yeah, that's that's it can be

1340
01:13:54,440 --> 01:13:55,520
very it can be.
Helpful.

1341
01:13:55,800 --> 01:13:57,880
Obviously, Yeah.
Yeah, well, the.

1342
01:13:57,920 --> 01:14:01,320
Other I think people are very
scared, afraid of of the whole

1343
01:14:01,440 --> 01:14:02,880
AI thing.
There's a lot of people who are

1344
01:14:02,880 --> 01:14:05,920
100, their take over, 100% are
going to take over.

1345
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:10,280
That's been the general sort of
viewpoint of our industry.

1346
01:14:10,520 --> 01:14:13,160
And you know, last year at LDII,
don't know you were there,

1347
01:14:13,160 --> 01:14:14,120
right?
I wasn't.

1348
01:14:14,280 --> 01:14:19,040
I first show at midday.
Yeah, well, there was a stand

1349
01:14:19,040 --> 01:14:23,120
that had some lighting control
software and they had a sign up

1350
01:14:23,120 --> 01:14:24,800
on their booth.
Something like, you know, you

1351
01:14:24,800 --> 01:14:27,320
don't need a designer anymore or
something, right?

1352
01:14:27,640 --> 01:14:30,800
Big mistake.
Cuz I think everyone lost their

1353
01:14:30,800 --> 01:14:32,320
minds.
Like, while it may have been

1354
01:14:32,320 --> 01:14:37,600
true in a particular small scale
application or whatever, it was

1355
01:14:37,640 --> 01:14:39,720
the wrong way to go about it,
you know?

1356
01:14:40,400 --> 01:14:43,040
People were on the floor with
pitchforks and torches.

1357
01:14:43,640 --> 01:14:46,480
Yeah, yeah, There were angry
people, like I think it was Rob

1358
01:14:46,480 --> 01:14:50,520
Koenig who told me he went into
their booth and just ripped on

1359
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:54,640
him for like 30 minutes and.
Yes, he should.

1360
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:56,040
Yeah, yeah.
I mean.

1361
01:14:56,040 --> 01:14:57,720
Yes, he should.
Again, it's the wrong way to go

1362
01:14:57,720 --> 01:14:59,960
about it.
Saying I'm coming for your job

1363
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:02,840
lighting people is the wrong way
to go about it.

1364
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:07,480
How about saying, Tired of
writing lines of JavaScript?

1365
01:15:07,960 --> 01:15:11,720
Let me help you, you know, or
things like that, like finding

1366
01:15:11,720 --> 01:15:15,560
the part of your job that Donnie
Ladico does not need to be doing

1367
01:15:16,200 --> 01:15:19,000
that.
Maybe you know how to do it, but

1368
01:15:19,000 --> 01:15:21,560
you shouldn't be spending your
time on that because your time

1369
01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:24,000
would be much better spent over
here doing this other thing that

1370
01:15:24,000 --> 01:15:27,520
only you can do.
And that's the purpose of AI.

1371
01:15:27,520 --> 01:15:31,520
That's what I use AI for, is, is
to keep me focused on the things

1372
01:15:31,520 --> 01:15:35,120
that I should be focused on, not
on the things that I I do

1373
01:15:35,120 --> 01:15:37,760
because nobody else in my
company knows how to do it or,

1374
01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:41,120
or, or I just geek out on it
because it's fun or whatever.

1375
01:15:41,720 --> 01:15:45,640
But so we talked forever about
your son, but we forgot about

1376
01:15:45,640 --> 01:15:48,880
your daughter, Taylor.
So what's she up to?

1377
01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:52,000
So your other daughter is the
one that's having the baby,

1378
01:15:52,240 --> 01:15:52,640
Taylor.
Yeah.

1379
01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:57,880
So I have, I have, we have 4.
I have Taylor and Luca, Yeah.

1380
01:15:58,200 --> 01:16:01,520
And then I have Olivia and
Christina from my previous

1381
01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:02,160
marriage.
Right.

1382
01:16:02,160 --> 01:16:05,480
OK, yeah, yes.
So, so you have Taylor, three

1383
01:16:05,480 --> 01:16:08,040
daughters and a son.
Yeah, three daughters and a son

1384
01:16:08,120 --> 01:16:10,880
again, never retiring.
So what's easier, daughters or

1385
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:13,760
sons?
I think sons.

1386
01:16:14,360 --> 01:16:16,680
Yeah, sons.
You just leave enough.

1387
01:16:17,040 --> 01:16:18,960
Sons are like cats.
You leave some food in the

1388
01:16:18,960 --> 01:16:20,720
fridge and you can leave for a
week.

1389
01:16:20,720 --> 01:16:23,520
And I hope they don't burn the
house down, but they'll survive

1390
01:16:23,520 --> 01:16:25,640
somehow.
I could grab my son by his ear

1391
01:16:25,640 --> 01:16:27,280
or his arm and say.
Come on, let's go.

1392
01:16:27,560 --> 01:16:29,120
Yeah, yeah.
But no.

1393
01:16:29,120 --> 01:16:33,440
So Taylor is she's starting
another year in competition

1394
01:16:33,440 --> 01:16:37,440
dance.
So that actually I think their

1395
01:16:37,440 --> 01:16:41,640
first, their first event is in
November somewhere Omaha or

1396
01:16:41,640 --> 01:16:43,600
someplace like that.
So what kind of dance?

1397
01:16:46,600 --> 01:16:49,400
Was she supposed she like jazz?
And whatever.

1398
01:16:49,720 --> 01:16:50,200
Right.
Yeah.

1399
01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:51,880
Nice.
And then of course, she's on the

1400
01:16:51,880 --> 01:16:54,240
pom team and that's a traveling
pom team.

1401
01:16:54,240 --> 01:16:58,040
They go to nationals.
So there's, you know, there's

1402
01:16:58,080 --> 01:17:01,320
all kinds of traveling going on
everywhere, all the time in my

1403
01:17:01,320 --> 01:17:01,960
house.
Right.

1404
01:17:02,640 --> 01:17:03,320
Yeah.
And that's.

1405
01:17:03,520 --> 01:17:07,480
Fun.
Olivia is my call.

1406
01:17:07,480 --> 01:17:09,560
Her with my middle daughter.
She's 22.

1407
01:17:10,400 --> 01:17:12,720
She's the one having the baby.
Yeah.

1408
01:17:13,120 --> 01:17:15,680
Very nice.
Excited about grass When when

1409
01:17:15,760 --> 01:17:20,960
she did December, no, January,
January 16th.

1410
01:17:22,320 --> 01:17:27,040
And then there's my oldest,
Christina, and and we're, you

1411
01:17:27,040 --> 01:17:30,200
know, she's what, 32 now?
I can't believe I have a 32 year

1412
01:17:30,200 --> 01:17:31,880
old daughter.
And that's wild, isn't it?

1413
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:36,280
That is wild, but it's it's
great, you know to watch kids

1414
01:17:36,280 --> 01:17:38,880
grow up.
The two oldest, unfortunately, I

1415
01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:43,440
was touring for much of their it
happens is their their, their

1416
01:17:43,440 --> 01:17:45,640
younger life.
But we're getting it back

1417
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:48,640
together now that, you know,
everybody's getting older,

1418
01:17:48,640 --> 01:17:50,840
getting family, Yeah, Family
time, right?

1419
01:17:51,200 --> 01:17:54,200
Do you still have time to do
your RV trips or has that one

1420
01:17:54,200 --> 01:17:57,440
gone by the way?
So the the RV goes to the track

1421
01:17:57,440 --> 01:18:01,320
a lot because it's very hot here
in the summer.

1422
01:18:01,440 --> 01:18:03,600
Yeah, and you need something
with some air conditioning.

1423
01:18:03,600 --> 01:18:08,240
So it's at the track a lot.
And of course we get up to San

1424
01:18:08,240 --> 01:18:11,360
Diego 3-4 times a year or we go
up into the mountains.

1425
01:18:11,360 --> 01:18:16,400
So I still, you know, it's a use
it or lose it situation like if

1426
01:18:16,400 --> 01:18:19,120
you're not using it, we're going
to sell it, right?

1427
01:18:19,120 --> 01:18:22,480
So I choose to use it.
That was me with boats, like the

1428
01:18:22,480 --> 01:18:24,760
last boat I had.
I had boats the entire time I

1429
01:18:24,760 --> 01:18:29,280
was in South Florida and until
about probably 12 years ago, 10

1430
01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:32,160
years ago, I don't know.
But I had realized that I was

1431
01:18:32,160 --> 01:18:36,120
paying $700.00 a month for, for
the last six months and hadn't

1432
01:18:36,120 --> 01:18:39,920
touched this boat, you know, for
700 a month for the, for the

1433
01:18:39,920 --> 01:18:43,240
Marina where it was being stored
for the parking spot, right.

1434
01:18:43,720 --> 01:18:45,840
And I was like, this is
ridiculous.

1435
01:18:45,840 --> 01:18:48,000
I'm an idiot.
And so I sold it.

1436
01:18:48,000 --> 01:18:51,600
And you know, I was so busy with
Jeremy, with his racing at that

1437
01:18:51,600 --> 01:18:54,240
point that it was just pointless
having it so.

1438
01:18:54,800 --> 01:18:57,600
I mean, the hope is is that when
the kids are out of the house in

1439
01:18:57,960 --> 01:19:02,480
about three to four years that
you know, my well, I shouldn't

1440
01:19:02,480 --> 01:19:05,240
say out of the house when the
kids are old enough to be on

1441
01:19:05,240 --> 01:19:08,840
their own when they're. 18 I was
thinking you're kicking Luke out

1442
01:19:08,840 --> 01:19:10,360
of the house pretty early.
There aren't.

1443
01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:14,560
You and the kids are old enough
to stay home and responsible.

1444
01:19:14,760 --> 01:19:17,840
You know, Mom and dad will
probably.

1445
01:19:17,840 --> 01:19:19,680
I'll probably work from the road
a lot more.

1446
01:19:19,680 --> 01:19:20,760
Yeah.
Good for you.

1447
01:19:20,800 --> 01:19:23,120
Who knows where Luca will be in
his race career?

1448
01:19:23,120 --> 01:19:27,080
Maybe we'll, I have no idea.
You know, that wouldn't be a bad

1449
01:19:27,080 --> 01:19:31,560
idea for me to work from the
road like to to have an RV and

1450
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:35,360
and because you can have
Starlink on on your RV now yes

1451
01:19:35,520 --> 01:19:38,120
and I can work from anywhere
literally like.

1452
01:19:38,200 --> 01:19:43,160
Even now, even now, Marcel, it's
like I'll go out maybe up to

1453
01:19:43,160 --> 01:19:47,200
flag or something on a Thursday
and you know, I've, I've got my

1454
01:19:47,200 --> 01:19:52,000
mobile hotspot with me.
So I'm sitting in the RV, maybe

1455
01:19:52,000 --> 01:19:54,640
boondocking, maybe at an Rd.
park somewhere.

1456
01:19:54,760 --> 01:19:57,400
That's awesome.
Gigging and then, you know, OK,

1457
01:19:57,400 --> 01:20:00,200
it's 5:00.
All right, let's go out and do

1458
01:20:00,200 --> 01:20:01,240
something, you know, I don't
know.

1459
01:20:01,600 --> 01:20:04,920
It's it gets, it gets me the
freedom that I want, basically.

1460
01:20:05,360 --> 01:20:09,680
Well, there's a lot to be said
for for what that different

1461
01:20:09,760 --> 01:20:13,120
scenery does for mental health,
you know, like, I mean, for me

1462
01:20:13,400 --> 01:20:17,080
being up here in Canada in the
summers, just being around

1463
01:20:17,080 --> 01:20:19,600
nature and walking in the
mountains every day.

1464
01:20:19,600 --> 01:20:24,440
And when you're living flat land
in Florida and I'm not on the

1465
01:20:24,440 --> 01:20:26,880
ocean, so I don't have this
incredible view or anything.

1466
01:20:26,880 --> 01:20:29,080
I see palm trees and stuff,
that's about it.

1467
01:20:29,480 --> 01:20:33,680
But you know, to be up here in
any window of my house that you

1468
01:20:33,680 --> 01:20:37,880
look out of, you see beautiful
mountains and trees and elk and

1469
01:20:38,360 --> 01:20:41,640
the occasional bear and whatever
it's, it's just a whole

1470
01:20:41,640 --> 01:20:43,520
different vibe.
It puts me in a different

1471
01:20:43,520 --> 01:20:44,840
spirit, you know?
Yeah.

1472
01:20:44,880 --> 01:20:45,800
So it's great.
Yeah.

1473
01:20:45,800 --> 01:20:49,320
And for me, I think it's the
freedom of being able to just

1474
01:20:49,320 --> 01:20:51,280
get in and go.
Yeah, right.

1475
01:20:51,600 --> 01:20:54,960
Yeah, It's like, all right, pack
it up, pack it up, but let's go

1476
01:20:54,960 --> 01:20:57,400
for the weekend.
Let's go to Utah for the weekend

1477
01:20:57,400 --> 01:20:59,560
or something, you know?
Yeah, I mean, obviously with us

1478
01:20:59,560 --> 01:21:02,920
racing as much as we did, so
many of my friends had them.

1479
01:21:03,520 --> 01:21:07,880
And I always thought I wanted
one, but I wanted to use one for

1480
01:21:07,880 --> 01:21:10,320
those weekends, but I didn't
want to deal with it.

1481
01:21:10,640 --> 01:21:14,440
And because of the business that
I'm in, it's not like I have a

1482
01:21:14,440 --> 01:21:18,320
warehouse and staff who I can
say, hey, do me a favor, go

1483
01:21:18,320 --> 01:21:20,600
ahead and take care of the RV.
I'll throw you a couple hundred

1484
01:21:20,600 --> 01:21:22,160
extra bucks this week or
whatever.

1485
01:21:23,640 --> 01:21:25,920
I don't I didn't have any of
those types of employees.

1486
01:21:25,920 --> 01:21:28,800
So I would have had to store it
at a facility and then have

1487
01:21:28,800 --> 01:21:31,720
somebody else who preps it and
then somebody else who cleans it

1488
01:21:31,720 --> 01:21:35,120
and somebody else who does this
or that it it just didn't make

1489
01:21:35,120 --> 01:21:35,920
any sense.
I mean my.

1490
01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:39,040
Wife Tara will tell you she's
like, every time we take it out,

1491
01:21:39,040 --> 01:21:40,880
something breaks.
Not true.

1492
01:21:41,120 --> 01:21:45,960
Yeah, not true.
But, you know, it's like, there

1493
01:21:45,960 --> 01:21:47,760
is, there's maintenance.
It's like having another house,

1494
01:21:47,760 --> 01:21:48,920
right?
There's maintenance on it, you

1495
01:21:48,920 --> 01:21:50,520
know, I mean, this weekend it
was like.

1496
01:21:51,240 --> 01:21:52,280
That's what boats were always
like.

1497
01:21:52,280 --> 01:21:54,080
Like I wouldn't use it for three
months.

1498
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:56,400
And then I'd have some friends
come in from out of town and

1499
01:21:56,400 --> 01:21:58,280
they're like, hey, we want to go
out boating somewhere.

1500
01:21:58,680 --> 01:22:02,560
We'd go get it taken down in the
Marina, put in the water,

1501
01:22:02,760 --> 01:22:04,920
prepped fuel in it, the whole
thing.

1502
01:22:05,160 --> 01:22:08,640
And you go to leave and one of
the engines is dead or, or the

1503
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:12,800
air conditioning doesn't work in
the cabin or something else.

1504
01:22:12,840 --> 01:22:13,920
You know, it was always
something.

1505
01:22:14,120 --> 01:22:15,280
It's always.
Something.

1506
01:22:16,080 --> 01:22:17,760
It's always something.
You just got to keep your head

1507
01:22:17,760 --> 01:22:21,520
up and you know, if you like it,
if you like it, then you learn

1508
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:23,480
to love it.
Yeah, You know what I would say?

1509
01:22:23,520 --> 01:22:26,320
Again, having it at the race
track is cool, but there's also

1510
01:22:26,320 --> 01:22:29,840
something for me about being
able to kind of pack up at the

1511
01:22:29,840 --> 01:22:32,640
end of a bad day and get the
hell away from the race track

1512
01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:35,920
and go to your hotel, have a
glass of wine or a beer and

1513
01:22:35,920 --> 01:22:37,960
chill.
And just get out of that

1514
01:22:37,960 --> 01:22:40,200
atmosphere for a bit.
You know, so that people aren't

1515
01:22:40,200 --> 01:22:42,280
knocking on your door going,
hey, you want to have a beer,

1516
01:22:42,280 --> 01:22:45,680
you know, or whatever right at
the track because it's a party

1517
01:22:45,680 --> 01:22:48,280
after the end of the day, which
is fun if you want.

1518
01:22:48,760 --> 01:22:53,880
But if if you crashed on lap one
and and finished 37th or

1519
01:22:53,880 --> 01:22:56,080
something.
It it can be a little brutal.

1520
01:22:56,280 --> 01:22:58,360
Not so fun.
Yeah, I just want to leave.

1521
01:22:58,640 --> 01:23:02,320
Yeah, not so fun, Not so fun.
Especially like you know, those

1522
01:23:02,320 --> 01:23:06,920
races where you qualify pole and
then there's like it depends on

1523
01:23:06,920 --> 01:23:09,440
the format.
So sometimes it's qualifying

1524
01:23:09,800 --> 01:23:14,080
pre, final, final.
And so if you qualify pole, you

1525
01:23:14,080 --> 01:23:16,560
start the pre final looking
pretty darn good.

1526
01:23:16,560 --> 01:23:20,200
I'm on pole, sure, And somebody
dive bombs you on lap one and

1527
01:23:20,200 --> 01:23:24,600
takes you out, and now you're
starting this, the final in

1528
01:23:24,600 --> 01:23:26,880
37th.
And yeah, exactly, by no fault

1529
01:23:26,880 --> 01:23:28,760
of your own, you didn't do
anything wrong.

1530
01:23:28,760 --> 01:23:30,480
Cart was fast, everything was
right.

1531
01:23:31,040 --> 01:23:36,200
Hate that shit.
Sorry, do your do your do your

1532
01:23:36,440 --> 01:23:39,480
daughters or did they?
I guess they're old enough where

1533
01:23:39,480 --> 01:23:42,480
it probably wasn't a problem.
But I always see kids that are

1534
01:23:42,480 --> 01:23:45,400
relatively close together where
like the boy is racing and the

1535
01:23:45,400 --> 01:23:49,080
girl isn't and she's just like a
an accessory at the track all

1536
01:23:49,080 --> 01:23:53,200
the time and stuff.
Is there any animosity, like

1537
01:23:53,200 --> 01:23:55,640
where people think you're
spending too much time or money

1538
01:23:55,640 --> 01:23:57,840
on Luca and not on them or
something?

1539
01:23:58,080 --> 01:24:00,640
No, no, I don't think so.
Cuz, you know, I mean, they,

1540
01:24:01,680 --> 01:24:02,960
everybody gets their lick,
right?

1541
01:24:03,000 --> 01:24:04,800
Everybody gets their thing
right.

1542
01:24:04,800 --> 01:24:09,240
So it's, you know, Taylor,
Taylor, she knows that what she

1543
01:24:09,240 --> 01:24:14,560
does isn't, you know, isn't that
inexpensive either.

1544
01:24:14,560 --> 01:24:16,560
You know, there's always a
flight, you know?

1545
01:24:17,080 --> 01:24:20,120
No matter what it is, yeah, no
matter what it is, if, if a kid

1546
01:24:20,120 --> 01:24:24,040
is doing, you know, whether it's
any cheerleading or dance or

1547
01:24:24,240 --> 01:24:26,240
racing or.
Even, you know, I got some

1548
01:24:26,240 --> 01:24:32,320
friends who play, who play, I
guess it's league soccer, right.

1549
01:24:32,320 --> 01:24:35,320
And they're our traveling team,
you know, and they're traveling

1550
01:24:35,320 --> 01:24:37,440
everywhere every weekend too.
So there's hotels.

1551
01:24:38,040 --> 01:24:41,640
Yeah.
It's not like when we were kids

1552
01:24:41,640 --> 01:24:46,080
and it was like, go to the
Little League field and and go

1553
01:24:46,080 --> 01:24:47,760
hit the baseball with little
Johnny.

1554
01:24:47,920 --> 01:24:49,960
Yeah.
You know, it's like the, you

1555
01:24:49,960 --> 01:24:52,160
know, and I'm sure there's
there's some of that, but like

1556
01:24:52,560 --> 01:24:58,040
when you get your kids into
competitive sports, it's just

1557
01:24:58,280 --> 01:25:01,120
it's a whole another animal.
And you have to fit that in with

1558
01:25:01,120 --> 01:25:04,360
your work schedule and your
family schedule and you're same

1559
01:25:04,360 --> 01:25:06,920
time.
Yeah, like I'm going to lose my

1560
01:25:06,920 --> 01:25:11,120
mind because I, you know.
Well, you know, again, sorry to

1561
01:25:11,120 --> 01:25:17,040
go back to racing, but money in
racing has has become sort of

1562
01:25:17,040 --> 01:25:20,160
the penultimate decider of who
goes on and who doesn't.

1563
01:25:20,640 --> 01:25:26,120
And it's depressing to me
because like our kids, mine sort

1564
01:25:26,120 --> 01:25:28,800
of at the tail end of it, yours
is at the front end of it.

1565
01:25:28,800 --> 01:25:31,160
But our kids have invested so
much time.

1566
01:25:31,160 --> 01:25:34,000
We've invested money at a
different scale.

1567
01:25:34,000 --> 01:25:37,720
You know, like, granted, we're
not billionaires, so we're not

1568
01:25:37,720 --> 01:25:40,120
investing the same way some of
these people are, but we're

1569
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:44,360
investing, you know, if you
compare it, we're probably

1570
01:25:44,360 --> 01:25:47,680
investing more than they are,
you know, on a per dollar sort

1571
01:25:47,680 --> 01:25:51,040
of scenario, per capita,
whatever you call it, but

1572
01:25:51,280 --> 01:25:55,000
they're billionaires.
So $100 to me is, is, you know,

1573
01:25:55,160 --> 01:25:59,360
pennies to them.
But we're investing all this

1574
01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:02,560
time and energy and, and you
know, sometimes it ends up going

1575
01:26:02,560 --> 01:26:04,640
absolutely nowhere more often
than not.

1576
01:26:05,120 --> 01:26:09,760
And so a flip side of that is
my, my girlfriend is British and

1577
01:26:09,760 --> 01:26:15,400
her, her brother is a he's got a
soccer Academy in England, a

1578
01:26:15,480 --> 01:26:18,400
very good one.
And a lot of his young players

1579
01:26:18,400 --> 01:26:20,960
end up going into junior
academies for a lot of the big

1580
01:26:20,960 --> 01:26:24,400
teams and stuff.
But his own son is 15 now and

1581
01:26:24,400 --> 01:26:29,320
was like the hottest prospect in
in England and just got signed

1582
01:26:29,320 --> 01:26:33,480
yesterday by Arsenal.
And so this kid from the time he

1583
01:26:33,480 --> 01:26:36,400
was like 11 years old, he was
signed by Nike where they were

1584
01:26:36,400 --> 01:26:41,000
giving him like 1000 lbs a month
in shoes and and jerseys and

1585
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:43,200
shirts and clothes and whatever
he wanted.

1586
01:26:44,160 --> 01:26:47,280
Teams are providing you training
for free.

1587
01:26:47,560 --> 01:26:51,720
Like you can take a kid from
beginning of soccer to being

1588
01:26:51,720 --> 01:26:56,200
signed by Arsenal and eventually
making £40 million a year or

1589
01:26:56,200 --> 01:26:59,120
whatever.
You can take them from here to

1590
01:26:59,120 --> 01:27:02,720
here with very little money.
Whereas in our industry like

1591
01:27:02,720 --> 01:27:06,200
that, I somebody did research a
few years ago and this is

1592
01:27:06,200 --> 01:27:10,680
depressing, but he said to get a
kid from karting to Formula One.

1593
01:27:11,080 --> 01:27:15,000
I think the number, this was
maybe 6-7 years ago.

1594
01:27:15,360 --> 01:27:19,240
The number at that time was
estimated to be around $100

1595
01:27:19,240 --> 01:27:25,840
million, $100 million to get a
kid from start to Formula One,

1596
01:27:26,120 --> 01:27:27,560
and that number has only gone
up.

1597
01:27:28,160 --> 01:27:31,840
I better go find a another few
side jobs and a sponsor or

1598
01:27:31,840 --> 01:27:34,360
three.
Yeah, exactly.

1599
01:27:34,600 --> 01:27:35,760
Exactly.
Yeah.

1600
01:27:36,440 --> 01:27:42,080
So anything else that we didn't
talk about that we needed to I.

1601
01:27:42,960 --> 01:27:46,760
Don't know.
I know you mentioned Craig

1602
01:27:46,760 --> 01:27:48,920
Caserta last week.
He did a podcast.

1603
01:27:48,920 --> 01:27:49,840
Yeah, he did.
Yeah.

1604
01:27:50,200 --> 01:27:51,200
Yeah.
You should listen to it.

1605
01:27:51,200 --> 01:27:53,760
It was.
Well, I mean we got way too far

1606
01:27:53,760 --> 01:27:55,400
into his kids like we just did
today.

1607
01:27:55,400 --> 01:27:56,240
Again.
Well, we all do.

1608
01:27:56,240 --> 01:27:58,160
We're old and that's what we
want to talk about.

1609
01:27:58,360 --> 01:28:01,320
I love talking about kids, I
love hearing what other people's

1610
01:28:01,320 --> 01:28:05,320
kids are doing.
And I love dads like you and me

1611
01:28:05,480 --> 01:28:11,840
who are not only willing and
able, but but passionate about

1612
01:28:12,680 --> 01:28:15,800
pushing our children in whatever
direction they want to go, you

1613
01:28:15,800 --> 01:28:17,680
know, and helping them,
assisting them go that

1614
01:28:17,680 --> 01:28:20,160
direction.
And you're, you're an extreme

1615
01:28:20,160 --> 01:28:22,360
like me.
I just had to earn enough money

1616
01:28:22,360 --> 01:28:24,960
to make sure I could keep paying
for it cuz I'm not a mechanical

1617
01:28:24,960 --> 01:28:28,280
guy.
So I nobody wanted me wrenching

1618
01:28:28,280 --> 01:28:29,880
on a go Kart.
Wrenching on a cart.

1619
01:28:29,960 --> 01:28:33,600
Nobody wanted me doing that.
So from day one we always had to

1620
01:28:33,600 --> 01:28:36,440
have our own mechanic.
We always wish, pretty much.

1621
01:28:37,520 --> 01:28:40,480
I'm enjoying the process of
learning how to wrench on it and

1622
01:28:40,680 --> 01:28:43,960
taking it all apart, replacing
the clutch and all that.

1623
01:28:43,960 --> 01:28:45,360
Here we are talking about racing
again.

1624
01:28:45,360 --> 01:28:49,600
Sorry, sorry, Eric Loader.
But yeah, I know.

1625
01:28:49,640 --> 01:28:55,360
I mean, it's it's it's you have
to have an outlet besides your

1626
01:28:55,360 --> 01:28:56,800
gig.
I agree.

1627
01:28:56,840 --> 01:29:01,520
And and I will tell you for
years as an adult, I did not

1628
01:29:01,520 --> 01:29:04,640
have an outlet.
And it wasn't until my son said

1629
01:29:04,640 --> 01:29:09,120
he wanted to start racing.
And I was like, scared out of my

1630
01:29:09,120 --> 01:29:11,560
pants because I had no idea.
I remember calling you up and

1631
01:29:11,560 --> 01:29:15,560
going, Marcel, he wants to race.
What am I going to do, you know?

1632
01:29:15,920 --> 01:29:19,120
And I said run away, tell him
no.

1633
01:29:19,760 --> 01:29:24,160
Yeah, so, so for me, you know,
it's it's I now have something

1634
01:29:24,160 --> 01:29:27,560
outside of a job that I love.
Yeah, right.

1635
01:29:27,840 --> 01:29:31,520
And I also have something with
my son that I love and you know,

1636
01:29:31,560 --> 01:29:33,480
it's awesome.
So it's great.

1637
01:29:33,600 --> 01:29:36,720
It's great.
And and it makes the family life

1638
01:29:36,720 --> 01:29:38,960
better.
You know, we can rag on him.

1639
01:29:39,280 --> 01:29:42,680
Yeah.
Luca gas pedal.

1640
01:29:42,840 --> 01:29:49,160
No, I mean Jeremy.
Got his ass kicked emotionally

1641
01:29:49,200 --> 01:29:53,520
every single weekend he raced
because you know, like he had

1642
01:29:53,520 --> 01:29:56,440
nicknames from like Jennifer.
One of his teams called him

1643
01:29:56,440 --> 01:29:59,320
Jennifer because he was too
scared to pass a particular

1644
01:29:59,320 --> 01:30:02,680
driver when he was younger.
And but, you know, seeing him

1645
01:30:02,680 --> 01:30:06,160
evolve not only as a driver, but
as a human through all of that.

1646
01:30:06,160 --> 01:30:09,840
Like, to me, I learned through
adversity and through getting

1647
01:30:09,840 --> 01:30:12,600
yelled at and put up my ass and
all that stuff.

1648
01:30:12,880 --> 01:30:16,200
Yeah, I'm not into the soft
training approach.

1649
01:30:16,440 --> 01:30:19,960
You know, like I, I think, I
think it's character building to

1650
01:30:19,960 --> 01:30:25,000
throw a kid to a bunch of crazy
adults and tell him to survive.

1651
01:30:25,080 --> 01:30:28,200
You got to figure this out, kid.
I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna hug

1652
01:30:28,200 --> 01:30:30,920
you every time.
Yet like whenever my son put his

1653
01:30:30,920 --> 01:30:34,080
visor down on his helmet after a
race, I knew he was crying

1654
01:30:34,080 --> 01:30:36,560
inside the helmet.
And I said, Jeremy, number one,

1655
01:30:36,760 --> 01:30:38,160
you got, you're gonna take your
helmet off.

1656
01:30:38,160 --> 01:30:39,560
So everyone's gonna see you
crying.

1657
01:30:40,120 --> 01:30:41,920
And I mean, I know this is
brutal.

1658
01:30:41,920 --> 01:30:47,360
This is probably emotional
warfare or something, but but #2

1659
01:30:47,480 --> 01:30:49,320
you don't cry over racing,
buddy.

1660
01:30:49,440 --> 01:30:52,200
You brush yourself off and you
get back in the cart next.

1661
01:30:52,200 --> 01:30:54,160
Try again.
Differently, Yeah, do it right.

1662
01:30:54,680 --> 01:30:57,120
And it's try again.
That adversity, I think has

1663
01:30:57,120 --> 01:30:59,120
helped him.
And we'll help Luca and we'll

1664
01:30:59,120 --> 01:31:02,120
help you, and it's great to go
through.

1665
01:31:02,960 --> 01:31:04,560
It is.
Yeah, it is.

1666
01:31:05,520 --> 01:31:07,400
Well, thanks for doing this
again.

1667
01:31:07,400 --> 01:31:11,480
I appreciate it so much and I
love video W.

1668
01:31:11,480 --> 01:31:14,600
You're a great company and
obviously your leadership there

1669
01:31:14,600 --> 01:31:16,720
has built a beautiful lighting
business.

1670
01:31:17,200 --> 01:31:22,520
And yeah, I look forward to
seeing you at LDI.

1671
01:31:24,000 --> 01:31:25,720
I'm doing something funny at LDI
this year.

1672
01:31:25,720 --> 01:31:29,400
We're doing something called
Dining with Dinosaurs where

1673
01:31:29,960 --> 01:31:34,120
it's, it's a luncheon thing and
it's, it's basically like a

1674
01:31:34,120 --> 01:31:37,720
round table luncheon where
people come in and have lunch.

1675
01:31:37,720 --> 01:31:42,480
And at every table, there's like
anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00, what

1676
01:31:42,480 --> 01:31:47,200
we're calling dinosaurs, which
will be like the Bob Sees of the

1677
01:31:47,200 --> 01:31:50,880
world, you know, like basically
people who were the godfathers

1678
01:31:50,880 --> 01:31:53,760
of our industry.
Do we have to register for this?

1679
01:31:53,760 --> 01:31:55,240
How do we get a seat at the
table?

1680
01:31:56,320 --> 01:32:01,160
On ldishow.com, you can register
for it Dining, Dining with

1681
01:32:01,160 --> 01:32:01,960
dinosaurs.
It's.

1682
01:32:01,960 --> 01:32:03,480
Dining with dinosaurs, and there
is going.

1683
01:32:03,560 --> 01:32:08,080
To be a limit to how many people
they let in and it's going

1684
01:32:08,080 --> 01:32:10,280
crazy.
Like I was talking to Ellen from

1685
01:32:10,320 --> 01:32:13,520
LDIA couple days ago and she
said it's already 40% booked.

1686
01:32:13,520 --> 01:32:16,680
And I said, how's that possible
when we've hardly even announced

1687
01:32:16,680 --> 01:32:18,880
it yet?
Like, you know, it's, it's

1688
01:32:18,880 --> 01:32:20,840
crazy.
But I mean, some of the people

1689
01:32:20,840 --> 01:32:22,920
that we're bringing in are going
to surprise people.

1690
01:32:22,920 --> 01:32:26,840
Like some of them have been have
been retired for 10 years.

1691
01:32:27,240 --> 01:32:32,400
You know, some of them literally
were the beginning of that

1692
01:32:32,840 --> 01:32:35,320
particular part of the market or
whatever.

1693
01:32:35,320 --> 01:32:37,320
So yeah, it's, it's going to be
fun.

1694
01:32:37,320 --> 01:32:38,480
I'm really looking forward to
it.

1695
01:32:39,240 --> 01:32:43,280
I got myself a note dining with
dinosaurs ldi perfectly making

1696
01:32:43,280 --> 01:32:44,960
that happen.
You're not old enough to call

1697
01:32:44,960 --> 01:32:47,320
you a dinosaur that.
I'm not a dinosaur, but I want

1698
01:32:47,360 --> 01:32:51,960
to go have some lunch with some.
So we've set the criteria for

1699
01:32:51,960 --> 01:32:54,160
geezers.
Actually Eric Loader set this

1700
01:32:54,160 --> 01:32:58,920
criteria at 50.
And so I've had a lot of people

1701
01:32:58,920 --> 01:33:00,480
on geezer gear that are below
50.

1702
01:33:01,000 --> 01:33:04,960
But for dining with dinosaurs,
we said 60 is is the bar.

1703
01:33:04,960 --> 01:33:08,880
You got to be over 60 and then
we'll officially be able to call

1704
01:33:08,880 --> 01:33:11,720
you a dinosaur.
And you know, we thought about

1705
01:33:11,720 --> 01:33:12,720
you.
Got to be in the industry.

1706
01:33:12,720 --> 01:33:15,320
At least 40 years or all of
these things, but as long as

1707
01:33:15,320 --> 01:33:17,800
you're over 60 and and we think
that you were part of the

1708
01:33:17,800 --> 01:33:20,320
foundation of the business,
we're good.

1709
01:33:21,200 --> 01:33:22,440
That's awesome.
It'll be fun.

1710
01:33:23,080 --> 01:33:24,360
Hi, buddy.
Well, I'll see you soon.

1711
01:33:24,360 --> 01:33:25,640
Alright, buddy.
Yeah, Yeah.

1712
01:33:25,640 --> 01:33:27,200
Peace.
Good luck, have a good one.

1713
01:33:56,680 --> 01:33:56,800
None.