Stuart Deming of XPLR.NASH

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Come on. This is outside the round with Matt Barrel, a razor alley podcast. [00:00:22] Speaker B: So my man, Stuart Deming, my first time actually form. Did I say it right? [00:00:27] Speaker A: Stuart Deming. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Stuart Deming. My first time formally meeting you and you run. It's explored ash. Explore Nash, bro. An account that gets sent to me all the time that you can't be in the Nashville area, the middle Tennessee area, and scroll on instagram. It just pops up everywhere, bro. [00:00:48] Speaker A: It pops up everywhere. But I was talking to my chiropractor the other day. First off, I love the constitution there. Yeah, that's. That's cool. The. I was talking to my chiropractor the other day, and his mother's in Michigan, and she keeps seeing our videos and sending him back to her son who lives here and. But it's happening all over the country, man. Like, it's. We've been creating content in Nashville for six years, and I've been. I've been creating content 20 years individually. My business partner has been creating content for about 20 years as well. [00:01:22] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:22] Speaker A: So we've been at this for a while. Like, we created YouTube videos back in, like, 2007, 2008. Not together, separately. You won't find them. They're off of YouTube. But, like, I've been creating content for a long time, and I'm a storyteller, and my background is tourism and hospitality. And so I've been in that industry for nearly 17 years. I've given tours to 20,000 people or so of Nashville, so I know the city really, really well. My business partners film and broadcast, and so my able to blend our skill sets and just tell valuable stories to our audience. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Dude, that's amazing. I love all of that, especially, like, all this. Of all the cities to be in to showcase in the world right now. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Nashville is at the top. It is the best city in the world. One of them. It's like Dublin, Ireland, us, Florence, Italy. I've been to all these cities. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [00:02:16] Speaker A: The Nashville is a goldmine. And as you can see, there's a lot of people trying to create content here. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Yes. [00:02:24] Speaker A: The interesting thing is a lot of these people don't have the actual hospitality skillset to be able to tell stories well. And I think that's one thing that separates us from a lot of these creators in Nashville. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that because you do. You're able to showcase. I've found so many hidden spots through you guys. I've gotten to see different restaurants that I didn't know existed. Cause I like going to different places. I'm originally from New York. [00:02:49] Speaker A: I am, too. Oh, really? [00:02:50] Speaker B: Where in New York? [00:02:51] Speaker A: Near Binghamton. [00:02:52] Speaker B: Oh, so you're upstate. Okay, cool. [00:02:53] Speaker C: That's cool. [00:02:53] Speaker A: Are you from, like, New York City? [00:02:54] Speaker B: So I grew up in Rockland county. So Tappan Zee Bridge area, like, right. Right along the Jersey border. So I moved down here in 2018. How long have you been here in Nashville? [00:03:03] Speaker A: I've been here since 2013. [00:03:06] Speaker C: Okay. [00:03:06] Speaker A: I was one of the first Uber drivers in the city. Uber and Lyft drivers. [00:03:10] Speaker C: God bless you. [00:03:11] Speaker A: 250,000 miles in this city. So that's how I learned. Like, dude, I always challenge myself. Can I beat the gps? [00:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:20] Speaker A: And I beat it 90% of the time. [00:03:22] Speaker B: Let's go. That's our God. [00:03:23] Speaker C: Even. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Even if it's by a minute, I'm like. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna beat the gps because, like, I know the shortcuts, or I did. Now, everyone knows the shortcuts because of ways, but the 250,000 miles in the city learned a lot about this city. I learned the stories and hear about the struggles and all these things, and I'm like, okay, I've been creating content for a very long time, and I did this same type of content when I lived in Italy for almost a year. And this was for my sponsors. I was basically a missionary over there. You need to check your phone, man. [00:03:56] Speaker B: No, you're good. You're good. My car got swiped earlier, so I'm dealing with all of that. As I was pulling into the studio, tractor trailer door, like, the back door, like, slid out and it, like, cut the side of my car. Car. So I'm just dealing with all. [00:04:09] Speaker C: Dealing with. [00:04:10] Speaker B: Dealing with all that stuff today. [00:04:11] Speaker A: That's stressful, which is fun. But, yeah, I create the same type of content. Ultimately looking at these areas and saying, hey, this is. This is how in northern Italy, how Hannibal and how Nazi Germany destroyed this. This part of the country. And this is in northern Italy, for example. Like, they hate outsiders. They really do. And it's because they've. Over the last couple hundred years, they've been invaded multiple times. [00:04:39] Speaker B: They have reason. [00:04:40] Speaker A: They have reason to dislike outlet outsiders. But Nashville is such a place where the collaborative spirit lives, and it's a place that's. It's thriving right now. I just literally, I don't know when you're posting this, but the day of this recording, I just left the governor's address downtown. We're thriving. We have the lowest tax burden in the state or in the United States. We also have the lowest debt out of all 50 states. So Nashville and Tennessee is thriving, and this is a great place to build this brand, this idea that I've had for almost 15 years. [00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it really is. And you kind of got here. 2013 is when kind of, like, the boom of Nashville started around that era, and it's around those years. And for me, like, I was just getting out of high school in 2013. So for me, like, looking at. I got down here in 2018. So the boom was kind of underway. But the skyline, even in the coming up on six years that I've been. [00:05:38] Speaker A: Here, is very different. [00:05:39] Speaker B: It's totally changes that you have seen in over a decade now of being here and just as growing into a metropolis of and all the subsidiary communities of places like Williamson County, William County. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Wilson County, Sumner County, Robertson County, Montgomery county. [00:05:55] Speaker C: Yep. [00:05:56] Speaker B: All these counties around getting that as well. With subdivisions going up or, like, cool businesses going in and just the thriving of an area, it's got to be cool to witness. Now you get to document it and showcase it to the world. [00:06:09] Speaker A: And I've been documenting it for a long time. Yeah, six years. [00:06:12] Speaker C: What was. [00:06:12] Speaker B: What was the. What was the first project, first video that we. [00:06:16] Speaker A: We did? So we started our Instagram account. I think it was like January 11, 2017. [00:06:23] Speaker C: Okay. [00:06:24] Speaker A: But our first video came out May 31 of 2018, and it was called the brief history of Nashville. It's got, like, 10,000 views on YouTube. So that was our first video just talking about the five minute history of Nashville. And then one of my favorite projects that we have done on the YouTube side, it's best waterfalls within 2 hours of Nashville, 200,000 views or so on YouTube. What was interesting about that one is we were able to see how people took our content, mapped out their entire weekends based on these waterfalls, and then go experience them. I've been. Dude, I've been in the middle of Tennessee country, where it's like, you don't have service for an hour. You're. You're in 5 miles deep on a hike, where I've met people because they saw our YouTube video. It's incredible, which is insane. So that was one of the. The best YouTube videos I think we produced. August 1 of 2019, we came out with a podcast called the Nashville Daily podcast. From a branding standpoint, I wish I kept the branding separate. The YouTube channel and all these things. There's a lot that I've learned in doing this content. We released an episode of a podcast five days a week for four years. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Wow. [00:07:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:42] Speaker A: That is a 30, 30 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes for four years. [00:07:46] Speaker B: Holy cow. [00:07:48] Speaker A: We stopped this August because our Instagram account was our. Became our main focus now. So because we've been doing this for so long, our Instagram account last January was at 9300, 300, like, 35 followers. We said, hey, we've done this podcast daily. We've done these things daily. And we were a production company producing from massive, multi billion dollar companies. So we produced content from Lipscomb University. We've done stuff for Vanderbilt. We've done stuff for other healthcare companies. We were making all these clients millions of dollars on the videos we would produce. And I'm like, okay, I'm tired of making money for other people. I want to make money for myself, and I have a family to feed. I have a team, and they have families to feed. And so we dove really deep into building out our instagram. Since April 1 of 2023 to now, we've grown nearly 100,000 followers, and. But it's been six years in the making. To get here, we had to learn a lot. We had to understand operations. We had to do these things. Our growth rate right now, we're projected to hit, like 225,000 by the end of 24. The for a niche day market just surrounding Nashville, middle Tennessee. There's some really cool things that we're working on for international content. [00:09:13] Speaker B: I'm excited for that. [00:09:16] Speaker A: That is two, three years in the making. [00:09:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:19] Speaker A: You're not going to see a piece of international content for probably two years. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Because you want to make it right. [00:09:23] Speaker A: Because I want to make it right, and I want to have a library of content. I understand this now. I need to have 60 to 90 videos done before we ever release a piece. But when we come, it's. It's gonna slam. [00:09:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:36] Speaker A: You're the first person to hear this. That's a podcast. So speaking of that, if you want to come to Italy with me, tickets are gonna be coming available very soon. [00:09:45] Speaker B: Oh, so you're doing, like, so hospitality background. You know how to do trips and tours and do the logistics of that. [00:09:51] Speaker A: I don't. I don't have to do any of that. I'm partnering with a company called Colette. [00:09:55] Speaker B: Oh, congrats, dude. [00:09:57] Speaker A: I am their host for their tours. And we're going to Italy April 28 of 25. We're going for twelve days. So tickets are going to become available for that soon. It's expensive. [00:10:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:06] Speaker B: It's a trip to Italy. Of course it is. [00:10:08] Speaker A: Trip to Italy for twelve days with 24 other individuals, me being the host. [00:10:13] Speaker B: Wow. [00:10:14] Speaker A: It's gonna be fun. [00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Killer things planned, I'm sure, dude. [00:10:18] Speaker B: See, I've never left the country. [00:10:20] Speaker A: Okay? [00:10:20] Speaker C: I need. [00:10:21] Speaker B: I've been all over the United States. I spent time as a tour manager for a long time, so I've been stressful, man. I'll do with a. [00:10:27] Speaker A: With a. [00:10:27] Speaker B: With a country band, bro. I got stories. [00:10:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:10:32] Speaker B: I was out with a band called Muscadine Bloodline for a while, and then my biggest tour that I was, like, out with. I was out with Trey Lewis for a long time with Dick down in Dallas with that whole explosion. So we got to go to, like, all different parts of America. But I've been wanting to go international. [00:10:47] Speaker A: You can come. Come daily, dude. That would be. That would be really, really cool. [00:10:52] Speaker B: Especially being, like, a New York guy. And, like, I didn't grow. I grew up in the italian and in the jewish culture, but I'm not italian or jewish, which I think a lot of, like, the New York area. [00:11:01] Speaker A: I grew up in the italian irish culture, and I'm italian and irish. [00:11:05] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. [00:11:06] Speaker B: Which there's a lot of. And I think that's one of the cool parts about growing up in New York, whether it's in that, whether it's around the city or it's upstate, because you do have. It's, like, one of the original pots. [00:11:15] Speaker A: My main stomping grounds was Scranton, Pennsylvania. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Oh, my sister went to Scranton. St. Patrick's Day in Scranton. [00:11:20] Speaker A: It's freaking insane. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Unmatched. [00:11:22] Speaker A: It's insane. [00:11:24] Speaker B: I love those kids in Scranton. [00:11:26] Speaker A: They're interesting people. [00:11:28] Speaker B: And the townies of Scranton. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah. So your sister went to Scranton. You. I'm trying to think of some restaurants. Have you been to, like, old forged pizzas? Like, have you been to, man, that place, Victory pig. Have you heard of them? [00:11:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:11:44] Speaker A: There's a place down in Wilkes Barre that has these subs, man, and they're incredible. You have Wegmans there. [00:11:50] Speaker C: Yes. [00:11:50] Speaker A: And Wegmans is remarkable. All the grocery stores. [00:11:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:55] Speaker B: The fact that the whole country doesn't get to experience something like Wegmans is a crime. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a crime. [00:12:00] Speaker B: Kroger is not Wegmans. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Kroger. Yeah. I can't say anything about Kroger, so I literally just signed a deal with Kroger. Oh, really? [00:12:08] Speaker C: Congrats. [00:12:08] Speaker A: That's exciting. So we're doing a campaign with them, but the. I'm revealing too many things, but Scranton, man. The Irish, St. Patty's day. It's insane. Like, I worked at the Radisson Hotel. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:24] Speaker A: In downtown Scranton. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Good spot. [00:12:25] Speaker A: And the office was doing a going away party, and so the writer was hosting all of this. And so, like, I was able to, like, check in all of the people from the office, and it was a blast. But St. Patty's day there is. It's an experience. [00:12:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:43] Speaker A: So I've experienced. I've experienced St. Patties in. In Dublin, Ireland, and I've experienced St. Patty's in Scranton, Pennsylvania, not in Chicago. I haven't done the Chicago. [00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah, the green water thing is pretty wild. [00:12:55] Speaker A: But St. Patty's Day in Scranton, they're drunker than they are in Ireland. [00:13:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:02] Speaker B: Which. Which says a lot. Yeah, says a lot. I actually did a destination, St. Patrick's Day. It was in a spot that most people wouldn't go to. My girlfriend Erin and her friend Ella. And taking the trip last year, they go out to Park City, Utah. [00:13:17] Speaker A: Okay. And I went out there and we. [00:13:19] Speaker B: Snowmobiled for a little bit, but, like, it was my first time out in, like, the mountain country, like, in that part of the US. And it was cool, but it wasn't. There's something about being in, like, a town that has irish heritage, like Scranton, Pennsylvania. Like, for me, growing up Pearl River, New York, was pretty wild. They call it the village. Still a town or still a village of friendly people. And it's, like, 98% Irish Catholic, you know? So there's something special about being in those kind of towns, in that environment. What kind of. What holiday do you think we celebrate the best here in Nashville? [00:13:49] Speaker A: You think it would be the fourth, the 4 July? We do extraordinarily well. [00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's up there with other spots, for sure. [00:13:56] Speaker A: We. We will be the premium city for 4 July within the next two years. New York, on average, has about a million people visiting around that time. We're having about 304, 300 to 500,000 people visiting for 4 July. Personally, I don't want to go to New York at all. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I avoided. I avoid New York on the big. New York City on the big holidays. Like, I've never been to a New Year's Eve in New York City. I've never. [00:14:21] Speaker A: I've never done that. I've done Christmas in New York. And it was good, like, seeing all these little pop up vendors and stuff. This is like five or six years ago when it was a little bit safer than what it is now, where you don't have people just throwing liquid stuff on you in the subway. Yeah, but I've never done new year's I have been in New York for 4 July and it's cool, but like, it's not. [00:14:44] Speaker B: New York City in the summer's hot. [00:14:45] Speaker A: It's hot. It smells. There's urine everywhere and it smells like trash. And Nashville does. Nashville does 4 July really well. We also do New Year's extraordinarily well. Thankfully, both of those experiences, I make a lot of money doing those things with doing the tours and stuff that I've done here in Nashville. So, um, but we also do like these random off holidays, like national ice cream Day. Really, really well. Like that's coming up I think, soon. But like all these, like all these different, like different vendors in town are like, oh, like buy one ice cream, get one free and all this stuff. So we, we like to party in Nashville. [00:15:25] Speaker C: We do. [00:15:26] Speaker A: We're. I say this all the time and this is not something that I came up with, but we're a drinking city with a music problem. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Yes, I've, I've said that too. [00:15:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:34] Speaker A: And alcohol flows extraordinarily well in the city and I don't participate in that lot. [00:15:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:42] Speaker A: But the. We know how to celebrate and we know how to throw down a good party. [00:15:46] Speaker C: Yeah, we do. [00:15:47] Speaker B: What was the decision making in coming to Nashville from? [00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah, so I actually moved here. I was living in Scranton at the time. I lived with my grandma after college for a little bit just to, just to be there, help her out. And I moved down here to work for a church. And so I was over the young adult ministries of a church of 2500 people down in Franklin and I had a residency for them. So it was like a one year residency. And to make income I had to drive for Lyft or Uber. [00:16:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:14] Speaker A: And that's what I did in part time. And that ended up turning into a full time situation with Lyft and Uber because like the money at the beginning when the concept was just getting off the ground, it was good. I could work a weekend and walk away three or $4,000. That's what it used to be. And then I drove full time for four years. [00:16:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:33] Speaker A: And I started doing tours and all this stuff. And at the end of it, the end of my uber career. I just think it's funny how. But the. I worked a nine hour shift four days before Christmas. I made $35. It was awful. And that's how saturated this market got with ride sharing drivers and stuff. And I'm like, man, I need to go. I need to go build my own thing. I pitched this concept of explore Nash to a couple multi billion dollar companies. I pitched it to a couple vc guys. I said, man, is the content. Content is king. Like, AI is coming in and all these things, and I didn't know that at the time, but, like, it's like, content is so king. [00:17:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:24] Speaker A: And I pitch it to these companies, man, and these companies have deep pockets. And they said, you're stupid. Like, literally one guy said, that idea is stupid. And I said, okay, I'm gonna go build this thing. That was eight years ago when I said I was gonna start building this thing. We didn't come out for content until six years ago. So I've been at this for a while. [00:17:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:44] Speaker A: And we're getting into some really cool things. We're gonna start having a showcase residency for different artists. Explore Nash branded. We have another live event that I'm super excited for. Can't go into much details yet that's coming, probably starting in June or July. It's gonna be a monthly event, and people are going to love it. And then we have another thing that I really want to get into and recalling it. Explore Nash's dinner and debates. And it's healthy. It's healthy. Debates over breaking bread. And I know there's a lot of political divide here, but we want to be. We want to be a brand that's building culture and building community, and we want to do that extraordinarily well. [00:18:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:18:27] Speaker A: And so some of these live events, man, I'm so, so excited for. They're coming. Announcements will be on the platform soon. We have a lot. [00:18:36] Speaker B: I'm very excited about that, dude. Like, that idea of debate while breaking bread and not being a debate, but overall, just being a conversation and bringing people together that wouldn't otherwise be together. [00:18:50] Speaker A: And that's what I want. [00:18:51] Speaker B: Such a powerful concept. And I think your background in the worship world of bringing people together, it all kind of, like, it sounds like your journey, like, leads you right to this, right to this kind of point of wanting to unite people and the community aspect of the church and what you experienced in Binghamton and in Scranton and now doing that here in a thriving city in a thriving state, you. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Know, so my approach is this. So I am a Christian, and I do say that openly, and I'm not ashamed of that. [00:19:23] Speaker B: Oh, you shouldn't be. [00:19:24] Speaker A: And Jesus welcomes me to his table. I grew up in a dirt poor situation in a trailer park. I'm very grateful for where I came from, but I saw a lot of things. I saw a lot of domestic abuse. I saw a lot of. I've seen a lot of things. Most people have seen a lot of things, but I know where I've been positioned and situated in my life. Life. Why I should not be sitting at this table. [00:19:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:55] Speaker A: If I didn't. If I didn't start following Jesus when I did, around 16, I would either be in prison or I would be dead right now. That's just the path of these small towns in New York where you have nothing to do. I have a lot of friends in high school. I graduate, like, 120 people. I have. I've had, like, six or seven friends from high school that have overdosed and died on meth or fentanyl or. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah, same. Even in, like, suburban, outside the city. [00:20:27] Speaker A: And so, like, you're either. You're either panhandling drugs, you're doing something, because these small towns don't have benefits. Tennessee small towns are different, man. Tennessee small towns are. Some of these small towns are thriving. [00:20:41] Speaker C: Yes. [00:20:41] Speaker A: And it's. It's wonderful to see. But Jesus, he welcomes me to his table, and he gives me the seat of honor, even though he's the one who deserves the honor. And he says, hey, I see you. I've seen your struggle. I've seen your sin. Guess what? It's washed away. [00:20:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:59] Speaker A: And I love you where you are. But Jesus doesn't leave you there. He says, I want the best for you. And guess what? I am the best for you. [00:21:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:07] Speaker A: And he welcomes me here, man. And I just. I want to welcome people. Well, you. I want to love them. And I know that's a weird term. Like, oh, I'm loving on people, but, like, I want to love them where they are, but I also want to challenge them to be better. [00:21:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Bring out the best in people to. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Be a better human. [00:21:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:21:25] Speaker A: And so the entire company, the entire brand, like, we are probably one of the only creators that actually has an llc in the city. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker A: And we do. Like, I employ five to six people. [00:21:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:38] Speaker A: And so, like, I'm building. I'm building something, but it's not for me. Like, yes. I love what I do. I love going to these restaurants. I love doing these things. But I want to build community. I want to build culture, and the only way to do that is through a brand. [00:21:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:51] Speaker B: To make. Make it bigger than yourself. [00:21:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:21:54] Speaker B: That's something that we would raise rowdy as well. You know, like, an LLC where it's. It's bigger than myself and bigger than Nick, you know? Like, you want it to be something that the community recognizes and it be this big, encompassing kind of umbrella. [00:22:07] Speaker A: And it's the. I love. I love the opportunity when I get stopped because, I mean, just today, oh. [00:22:15] Speaker B: I'm sure it has been. [00:22:16] Speaker A: I've been stopped 31 times since 06:00 this morning. But I love it because I always get to ask, hey, how can I bring you value? That's something that most people don't ask because they don't care. [00:22:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:32] Speaker A: And I come from a place of compassion, and I'm not trying to be conceited in that, but, like, I know I spent five minutes talking to a guy who cleans up downtown Nashville. His name is Jonathan. Jonathan, if you're watching this brilliant conversation, I loved what we talked about. But he came up to me, he approached me, and I said, man, I'm gonna spend five minutes with you. I may not have the capacity on the back end to do things, but that's why I'm bringing in a director of hospitality. [00:23:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:04] Speaker A: Because I do have a wife. I do have a son. I can't give people everything. [00:23:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:09] Speaker A: But my team will connect you with the right people. And we are going to be a brand that connects and we're going to be a brand that is the authority in this space. I think we are. [00:23:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:21] Speaker B: Already I would agree with that. [00:23:23] Speaker A: But where I'm going is I want to be that. I want to be the authority of Nashville nationally and internationally. [00:23:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:30] Speaker A: So then when these folks from Australia and from Sydney and from Melbourne Arts, like, hey, I'm coming to Nashville, explore Nash is the authority. [00:23:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:39] Speaker A: I'm already looking at their content, and one of the best moments I've ever experienced as a content creator is I was working in a shop in downtown Nashville. It was called screen threads. And I had to do this little part time thing. Make ends meet. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah, we all have to do this. [00:23:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:23:55] Speaker A: This. I had the YouTube channel going for two years. This guy walked in from. I think he's from Sydney, Australia, and he said, Stewart. And he watched seven of our YouTube videos. [00:24:07] Speaker B: Wow. [00:24:08] Speaker A: And we inspired his entire trip. [00:24:11] Speaker C: Wow. [00:24:11] Speaker A: For Nashville. And I'm like, okay, so I guess we're doing things right. Another. And that was one of my favorite moments, doing this. And then another one is I was standing at Cletus and I was about to get a burger, just eat lunch and head out. Two guys from the UK, they're from London, they turned around and they said, you're exploring ash. Right. And I'm like, I have. And then I sat down and had lunch with him for 2 hours. [00:24:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker B: I love Cletus, by the way. [00:24:38] Speaker A: It's great. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Incredible spot. [00:24:39] Speaker A: It's great. [00:24:39] Speaker B: Great burger. [00:24:41] Speaker A: I wish the parking was better. Me too. Fix that. Me too. [00:24:44] Speaker B: That is, that's my thing with some, some of the. [00:24:47] Speaker A: But Cletus is open in Bellevue location. I don't know. The Nashville Post posted that. I've known about that for a little while. But they're opening a nice Bellevue location that has parking. [00:24:57] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:24:59] Speaker B: Have the parking. Parking situation. Nashville, of course, like every city does have like, kind of, kind of its issues. Like when I first moved to town, I did, I was a, I did security at Dirk Spentley's whiskey row for my first year in town before I started going out on the road. And that was like the, the homeless thing and the downtown and some of the struggles that you have. And you see it in New York, you see it in Chicago, you see it in pretty much every city. But what do you think the status is of, like, of that and like Nashville? Like cleaning. Cleaning that stuff kind of up as somebody who's in the know and involved a lot within the city, like showing the culture of it because it is a, it is a thing. [00:25:38] Speaker A: It's a thing. Right now there's about the estimates that the city have, are about 5000 homeless individuals. My opinion on this is different than a lot of people. [00:25:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:52] Speaker A: Because a lot of the homeless individuals I have interacted with, I understand they have a struggle. Yeah, they, most of them had a struggle and then did not succeed at relationships. But a lot of them I've interacted with. I interacted with a couple this morning near the music city center. They literally choose this lifestyle and that's on them. And so I think the city has done a good job of maintaining that. I think the, the nonprofits here, Nashville has some of the most nonprofits in the world. In Tennessee, there's over, it's over 11,000 nonprofits. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Wow. [00:26:27] Speaker A: I think there's even more than that. But the nonprofit sector has done really well. The city has done, has done well. There was a homeless camp right over here in Hermitage. [00:26:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Right next to the Rusty nail. We do events over there. [00:26:40] Speaker A: Rusty nail. Right near that Kroger. It, man, it was, at times it was, it was sketchy. [00:26:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it was. [00:26:47] Speaker C: Yes. [00:26:47] Speaker A: I, my wife and I were there and I'm like, okay, I'm about to have to throw down because if somebody's gonna harm my wife, I'm throwing down. [00:26:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:58] Speaker A: As simple as that. And I said, hey, go get in the car. I'll take care of this. But, like, there's just certain situations around town. You're just like, okay. And this is where. This is where I'm different on a lot of people. And I have had. I've had this conversation, like, nine times over the last three weeks. I had this yesterday, literally, with my barber. A lot of people blame mental illness, but we as a society, we don't talk about this, but a lot of these individuals are demon possessed. And, yes, demon possession will change your mental stability. And it's just. It's not talked about much. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Why do you think that is? [00:27:38] Speaker A: Because we don't believe in idol worship. Even though we do. We worship baseball players. We worship football. Like, we are deeply involved as a society in idol worship. And when that comes, the demons come to play. And so that's my mindset on it. Now the question that may be proposed to your audience is, okay, well, what's the solution? I don't have a solution. [00:28:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:10] Speaker A: I want to love people well and say, hey, I believe I see you. I'm also not going to enable you. I'm not going to give you cash to go buy those drugs. I'm not going to give you cash to buy that whiskey. I'll buy you a meal. I'll give you resources. But if you're not willing to actually put in the work because the Bible says you're going to reap what you sow, if you're not willing to put in the work to change, that's on you. [00:28:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:33] Speaker A: That's not on me. And so I can give you resources. It's the same thing. I could bring the horse to the water. [00:28:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:28:43] Speaker A: But I can't make a drink. [00:28:45] Speaker B: No, you can't. [00:28:46] Speaker A: And so that's. That's my mindset on homelessness. I do believe Nashville, downtown Nashville is doing really well. And you probably saw interesting things as a security guard. [00:28:56] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:28:57] Speaker A: And you probably saw bum fights and all. You saw a lot of. [00:29:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:01] Speaker A: Especially if you're there every Friday and Saturday night. [00:29:03] Speaker C: Yes. [00:29:04] Speaker A: Downtown Broadway is on a Friday, Saturday night. It's awful. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:09] Speaker A: I love it because it's great from an economic standpoint. [00:29:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker A: But, like, it's still terrible. Yeah. The, but the biggest thing is, is like, you can try helping these individuals if they don't want help. How much can you do? [00:29:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:25] Speaker A: How much can you give of yourself? [00:29:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is. [00:29:28] Speaker B: That is a very. That's honestly, I agree with you. And a lot of that. [00:29:32] Speaker C: Pretty much. [00:29:33] Speaker B: Pretty much all of that. Like, it is. It is very much. You have to. It takes two people. It takes that person willingness to do it. It's like me with my sobriety. Like, I got sober seven years ago, and congratulations. That was a thank you. And it was. [00:29:45] Speaker A: That's hard. And it was. [00:29:46] Speaker B: And it was me needing to hit a point. [00:29:48] Speaker A: Was it alcohol related or was. [00:29:50] Speaker B: It was alcohol. So I had to quit drinking. Luckily, I quit drinking before I moved down here and got into working in the country music space and would have been very difficult to down here. And. [00:30:01] Speaker A: Because it's so drinking friendly. [00:30:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. [00:30:04] Speaker B: And that. And honestly, like you said, it's great for the economy. It's like you said, a drinking town with a music problem. Like, it's. It's become. It's the identity, and it's what brings the tourism in with the bachelorette parties, the fact that the Opryland is booked out for conventions for a long, long ways. Like, we are destination. [00:30:21] Speaker C: Yep. [00:30:22] Speaker B: And there's. [00:30:22] Speaker A: And there's every. Every convention center in America, but, yeah. [00:30:25] Speaker B: Is it really? [00:30:26] Speaker A: Yeah, most. So, on the convention hospitality side, they actually had a meeting next week with some of the biggest event planners in the country that planned conferences. They're securing dates for 2029. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Because, logistically, if you're moving a thousand people, as a company, you need a space to accommodate. [00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:47] Speaker A: And you need. You need to be renting out these spaces. So what was fascinating about with COVID-19 companies that paid in 2017, 2018 for spaces during 2020 and 2021, some of them got their refunds. This is why you always get an insurance on your events. But, like, some of those people are now coming back and saying, like, hey, I was supposed to be here in 2021 with a thousand people. Can you accommodate me now in 2025? Because, like, we still want to be here. [00:31:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:20] Speaker A: It's just they until, from an occupancy standpoint, Nashville, the last, I believe the last two years, I don't know how much you know about this. Uh, we've been at 97% occupancy for hotels. [00:31:30] Speaker B: Holy cow. [00:31:30] Speaker A: And there's even, uh, there's even hotels that oversell. That happens all the time. Just like airlines, they oversell their rooms, and then they have to go send these people to other room, other hotels, and hopefully, they have a sister property that can take care of that. But, yeah, uh, there's just. We're still thriving in that sense. We're the third highest ranked conference city in the United States. Wow. It's like us, I think, Miami and then, or Las Vegas, Miami, us. I believe right now that's crazy. And so you just have to. What's interesting about that, but I don't know if you've ever been into event where you're planning for a thousand people a five day event or a three day event, man, you need hotels, you need, you need food, you need transportation, you. There's so much to accommodate for these individuals. And then you have these buyouts, like these bar buyouts and stuff. And like, you have all these really fascinating things. And I've been a part of all of that. [00:32:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:26] Speaker A: Where like, I'll be of some clients and they're like, I'm buying out Redneck Riviera for the full night, all four floors for 14 people. And they done it. And so, but that's, that's a fascinating topic when people have that much wealth to be able to do like these buyouts places. Yeah, yeah. [00:32:44] Speaker B: And you see it now when you have big events in town, too. And the fact that I think the new football stadium is going to bring in a ton of stuff, obviously, with it being enclosed. I remember working downtown during the NFL draft. [00:32:56] Speaker A: That was insane, man. That was insane time. 623,000 individuals came to this city. [00:33:00] Speaker C: Yes. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Trusted this city to provide them a good time. And that giraffe has been the case study for other drafts around the country, and they still have not lived up to the caliber of that draft. [00:33:12] Speaker B: No, they haven't. And that all the different, like big events that, that come in here, like the things that happen at Bridgestone, the big things that are music related, obviously, like CMA fest and things like that. [00:33:24] Speaker C: And it's. [00:33:24] Speaker B: It's cool to be a part of a city that is doing that because, like, growing up in New York, New York's kind of been New York for a really long time. It's cool to get to watch a city just boom. [00:33:34] Speaker A: And we. And we thrive. Yeah, we are. Aaron and I used to say on our podcast, we are event city. This is before the pandemic. And I think we're right there again. Live events are doing really, really well from an economic standpoint right now. I think our live events are gonna be very unique. [00:33:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited. [00:33:54] Speaker A: Super excited. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Those out, dude. [00:33:57] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a, there's some really cool things that we're gonna be doing and some other really cool things on top of the really cool things. Yeah, all cool. But that's where, that's where the mindset is in this city is how can you have live events ultimately to build community, not a lot of people are thinking about that, like how to build community. Yeah. And that's where my mindset is. I'm gonna build community and I want to be the authority. [00:34:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:23] Speaker A: And so I have both of those. [00:34:25] Speaker C: Yes. [00:34:26] Speaker A: And there's a lot of really cool things that we're working on, but I don't want to keep talking about myself because I can do that all day. [00:34:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Where are some, where's like your favorite like, section of town to kind of hang out in? You're not a lower Broadway guy on the weekend. You're not a Broadway boy. Not a Broadway man. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Dude, I go to Broadway all the time. [00:34:47] Speaker B: You're saying like a Friday Saturday night. [00:34:49] Speaker A: Absolutely not. I spend, when I go to Broadway, it's like 10:00 a.m. I get to go in, hang out for the bartenders and catch out some music. And I'm out by like 04:00 p.m.. [00:35:02] Speaker B: Yes. [00:35:04] Speaker A: I'm like, literally, I was in Broadway this morning as a recording of this podcast. And I talked to twelve people with the downtown partnership. I talked to two Tennessee highway patrol officers. I talked to a couple metro guys. And so like, I'm just doing my rounds, checking in and saying hi. And where's the spot you, where's like. [00:35:23] Speaker B: A section of town that you like. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Going to like, I love my house. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Well, you love your house. You love being with the wife and the little one. And you like like the gulch. Like the nations. Like east. Like there's all the, because I feel like you got a flavor of everything with all the different sections we have. [00:35:39] Speaker A: And I think we try covering them really well. [00:35:41] Speaker B: We have, you guys do cover, we. [00:35:43] Speaker A: Have some really cool things where we're going to cover these things more in general depth. And we've been working on this for five years and that's coming to market probably next six, six to eight months. [00:35:54] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:35:56] Speaker A: I love Donaldson Hermitage. I love Wedgwood, Houston, East Nashville. Parts of it has my heart. Like Inglewood. I really enjoy Inglewood. Madison is a interesting vibe right now. I think there's going to be a lot happening there. [00:36:12] Speaker B: I agree. [00:36:13] Speaker A: But I'm also excited for what's happening on Dickerson pike. Yeah, the nations. Like, I, like, I'll go throw down the nations all time. [00:36:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:21] Speaker A: But I'm everywhere every day. Like there is a day. This last week I was, let's see, I was in Dixon, Franklin, Hendersonville, Lebanon, downtown Lebanon, Mount Julia, Hendersonville. Where else? I go? Bellevue. Bellevue. I met, like I go everywhere and I I get to explore full time, and I get paid for it. [00:36:53] Speaker B: And to tell the stories, which you have in your instagram bio. You're a storyteller. Like, that is your. Your biggest thing. And, like, has there been a favorite story that you've gotten to tell about middle Tennessee? Like, one that there's. [00:37:06] Speaker A: There's. There's a lot. Man, I am. There's so many stories to tell. Like, you could talk about the revolutionary grants if they served in a revolutionary war, and how the government gave of North Carolina, gave these soldiers that served in the North Carolina army, how they gave these grants to come settle this area, because at one point, this was North Carolina territory. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Oh, really? I didn't know that. [00:37:32] Speaker A: And North Carolina owned all of this. And there was the state of Franklin that tried starting in east Tennessee in North Carolina, shut it down, but they didn't want to occupy this land. And there's a lot there. The civil war is extraordinarily fascinating in this area. [00:37:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it reminds me of the revolutionary war back home in the northeast because we had a lot of that. [00:37:54] Speaker A: Nashville was the first confederate city to fall to the Union federal army, and there's a lot of history there. And there's a story of the battle of Franklin and where there's two stories about Franklin. If you have not been to the Carter house and Carton house, you need to go by. At the Carter house, there was a guy named fountain branch Carter. He had three sons, or four sons. Most of them served for the confederate, and three of them were imprisoned. And one of them was with the army of Tennessee. And he grew up in this home in Franklin, and he served for the army of Tennessee for three years. Was a veteran combat guy for the Confederates. He was killed. He was shot nine times, 150 yards away from his house. His father, Frank branch Carter, picked up his son. They'll shot nine times. Talked to him for a little bit, and he died in his father's arms in the same room he was born in. [00:38:53] Speaker C: Whoa. [00:38:54] Speaker A: That's a story. [00:38:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:55] Speaker A: That's a movie. That's a movie. Yeah. They're not gonna make it because it's talking about the Confederate, but the Confederacy. But that's a story. But guess what? There's another story there, too. There's a lot of stories. 10,000 men and boys went missing or killed in action in that battle. There's stories of these confederate boys as young as 1213 years old, eating their hides of their boots to survive. [00:39:21] Speaker C: Whoa. [00:39:23] Speaker A: But there's also this story. The. The person over the federal army was a guy named John Schofield. John B. Schofield or John. John Scofield. Not be Scofield. And then over the confederacy was John B. Hood. Both of those boys were West Point graduates at one time. They were roommates that graduated in the same class at West Point, served for the different sides of the army of the conflict. That's a story. There's so many of those stories in middle Tennessee. [00:39:54] Speaker C: It's. [00:39:54] Speaker A: It's hard to tell all of them. Hopefully. My platform cam, we have some really cool historical things. [00:40:01] Speaker B: I'm very excited because I love history. That's really. That's really cool. [00:40:05] Speaker A: But, man, we. We, uh. There's. There's this story, and fortnightly. It's the largest inland concrete civil war fort built during the civil war in the United States. And it's in downtown Nashville. It's protected land. It can't go anywhere. And it's 4 miles from the downtown core, like, it's best. Skyline views. It's an amazing park. It's my favorite park in Nashville. That's metro owned. And the union. The federal army. Union army, however you call them, they at one point, used in slave labor. The people that were against this use this to build some of that fort. Yes, there was free. Free blacks as well. But, like, yeah, there's stories of struggles. There's stories of. There was a story in 1885, I think. 1886, down Church street, the old city prison used to be there, and they used to have public lynchings, and 15,000 people showed up to watch this thing on Church street in, like, 1880. 518, 86. Over in west Nashville, there was the. The most devastating train action accident in the United States. I think 118 people or 120 people died because two clean trains basically collided. The story of Dupont up in Hendersonville. Yeah, man, there's so many stories. [00:41:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:31] Speaker B: So, how do you balance, like, as far as the content goes of, like, the historical stuff like that? Because that. That can be its own channel within itself, and then showcasing the modern of what's here and then the stories that have happened over the last decade of now. [00:41:43] Speaker A: So, um, I'll show you off seeing, uh, our content plan. [00:41:47] Speaker C: Okay. [00:41:47] Speaker A: And strategy. Uh, I have 10,000 ideas. I have 10,000 videos I want to produce. [00:41:52] Speaker C: Wow. [00:41:53] Speaker A: My. My goal, and this is where I'm kind of, uh, mad in my mind, is I want to release 100 pieces of content a day. [00:42:02] Speaker B: Wow. [00:42:03] Speaker A: The only way I can do that, the only way you can build an empire is with an army. [00:42:07] Speaker C: Yeah, that's it. [00:42:09] Speaker A: Gary Vee. Can do that because he has an army behind him. [00:42:12] Speaker C: Yes. [00:42:13] Speaker A: I want to be Gary Vee in this niche market of Nashville, ultimately with the long term goal of bringing this internationally. [00:42:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:25] Speaker A: But Nashville's always going to be my baby in that sense. But, like, I want. And you can easily do that. 100 pieces of content is not that. [00:42:33] Speaker B: Out of reach when you're hustling, like. [00:42:35] Speaker A: You guys are 15 stories a day, a reel, a short, a tick tock, a website, post a notification on the app. All of these things you can do. [00:42:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:47] Speaker A: 100 piece of content a day is easy. Hopefully one day I can do it in my sleep. [00:42:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:54] Speaker A: We're in an age of automation, man. [00:42:56] Speaker B: Oh, dude. [00:42:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:57] Speaker B: The robots can do. [00:42:59] Speaker A: Oh, they made it. [00:43:00] Speaker C: Yes. [00:43:02] Speaker A: So the balance that you asked about, it's. It's hard because, like, this week, like, we've. We haven't released much food stuff. We've released a lot of stuff on adventure because it's that time of the year. [00:43:14] Speaker C: Yes. [00:43:15] Speaker A: So what we do is we look at a calendar and we say, okay, this is the upcoming year. This is. This is what needs to be focused on here. This is what's happening culturally as a society at this time. Like, we're not during election season. Guess what? I'm gonna release some killer restaurant videos. I'm going to release some adventure videos just to go. A lot of people. To ease their minds. [00:43:38] Speaker C: Yes. [00:43:38] Speaker B: People need that. [00:43:39] Speaker A: There's. It's so stressful around that time. [00:43:42] Speaker C: Yes. [00:43:42] Speaker A: And they do need that. And so, like, we look at that, like, how is this piece of content gonna bring our individual audience members value? Yeah, all of our content's different. We cover 15 categories under our brand. We cover transportation, we cover food, we cover adventure, we cover day trips. We do these things. We talk about infrastructure, we talk about development, we talk about history. There's a lot of things I'm passionate about, and that's how I explore. And so basically, our content strategy, and this may be insightful for some people, is it's. It's a lot of things like, hey, this is our upcoming 30 videos. Let's schedule them. Do food videos do really well on Thursdays? Typically, yesterday's video is not doing that well. It's only at 30,000 views. We've released food videos on Thursdays. By Saturday, they're at 300,000 views. Typically, Thursdays do really well back historically, Tuesdays do really well for history videos. But we can't pigeonhole ourselves with this certain strategy and say, okay, we need to come out with this I also think some of our videos do really well because of how relevant it is to what's happening in Nashville, how many shares it's getting. So, like, when we release our transportation video the next couple days on the proposed maps that Freddie's doing, it has potential to get a million views. Yeah, it really does. [00:45:16] Speaker B: It's such a hot topic. [00:45:17] Speaker A: And it has a lot of potential to say, hey, you're taking. Taxes may be going up. [00:45:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:22] Speaker A: And people are going to criticize the crap out of that in the comments because I want that conflict. [00:45:27] Speaker C: Yes. [00:45:27] Speaker A: In the comments because in the conflict is where you're growing. [00:45:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:32] Speaker A: I don't know if that's insightful. [00:45:33] Speaker B: No, it is. I think it's very insightful. Talk about transportation. You think we're ever going to have, like, the train systems ever going to really expand? Like, we're going to have. [00:45:41] Speaker A: So there's a lot of issues before this. I have talked about transit in the city for six years. Megan Berry's plan that came out 2017, I was fully against because I did not want to spend $10 billion. [00:45:55] Speaker C: Yeah, you can't. [00:45:56] Speaker A: And 60% of Nashville was against that as well. [00:45:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:59] Speaker A: Freddy's. I've looked at his plans very closely. I've been reading a lot. Sometimes it takes us a little bit to create content around these things, even though this has been out for, like, two weeks. Because I'm structuring, I'm storyboarding. I'm figuring out the value proposition to my audience. Yeah, we do. Like, I'll show you behind the scenes, like, how we write out these strips and all these things. [00:46:23] Speaker B: They're like, we're. [00:46:24] Speaker A: We're. We're a content machine already. And where we're going to go is going to be insane. But the transit conversation is very interesting because CSX owns all the train lines. There's one train line going into downtown Nashville that's owned by another company. They have exclusive rights on commercial freight. Because commercial freight makes companies money. [00:46:48] Speaker C: Yes. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Passenger does not. No, we have the Nashville Star, which is okay. It's not the best. Freddie's plan is proposing more rapid bus routes. My issue with this transportation proposal is its outdated technology. Japan just recently released their new bullet train. Like speed of their new bullet train. I think it goes a mile per 2 seconds. That's insane. [00:47:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:17] Speaker A: A mile per 2 seconds or something. It's. It's insane. It's like 750 miles. It's insane. Maybe it's a little. Maybe 6 seconds. It's fast. [00:47:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:27] Speaker A: We're proposing as a city. We need it. We desperately, we desperately need it. [00:47:33] Speaker C: For sure. [00:47:34] Speaker A: As a, as a region, we need it. We need a transportation to connect regionally. I need to be able to get out to Gallatin. Taking public transportation, I should be able to take public transportation down the Murfreesboro. I should be able to take public transportation out to Franklin Dixon is going to be a whole different conversation. Yes, but first off, the state and the city is going to have to buy a lot of right aways. That's expensive. That's, that's a hundred billion dollar thing. Easily. The buses are a good idea, but get rid of street parking in downtown Nashville. There shouldn't be street parking on West End. That should be a dedicated bus lane, which they're planning on doing. Same thing with Dickerson and Murfreesboro. But the biggest thing is we're proposing this outdated technology. Buses are good, they move people, but Dubai is using freaking drones and moving people. And we're not thinking at that level. We build this outdated technology, it's good for the immediate, but 15 years from now we're gonna be like, here we go again. Here's another proposal. And it's gonna take ten years to build all this all out. [00:48:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:45] Speaker A: So you might as well. And this is where I believe in the private side of things. The private side of things has an opportunity. There's a train line in Florida called bright line. Have you heard of this? [00:48:55] Speaker B: I've not. [00:48:56] Speaker A: Bright line is a passenger train that connects. I think it's Fort Lauderdale and Miami. And they're using these tracks. They're connecting. They're going to be putting bullet trains into Florida. [00:49:07] Speaker C: Whoa. [00:49:08] Speaker A: It's all private. We have the we in now there. So Amtrak used to be here in Tennessee. Oh, really? [00:49:17] Speaker B: I didn't know Amtrak was down here. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Amtrak is in Memphis. Amtrak used to be in Nashville until about 1880. 419 80, 519 84. Something around them. They backed away and now they're retalking about having Amtrak. Oh, we're going to connect Chattanooga and Atlanta. Okay. So I'm still gonna take a train to Atlanta. It's still going to take me three and a half hours by train when I could drive to Atlanta in 4 hours. [00:49:43] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:43] Speaker A: I'm gonna be sitting in traffic for a while, but I'm gonna be sitting in traffic for a long time in Chattanooga. I'm gonna be sitting in traffic a long, long time in Nashville in my own car. In my own car. I get to go where I want. [00:49:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:53] Speaker A: I'm not dedicated to these train lines. And so you. Oh, you're proposing these things like, oh, we're going to get Amtrak, okay, bring the bullet trains. And I lived in Europe for a long time and they have bullets. And I would pay the price to go from northern Italy to southern Italy in three or 4 hours instead of doing a 910 hours thing or longer. I would pay that extra. This. The state has proposed choice lanes, and now we're just getting into massive topics that cost billions upon billions of dollars. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:24] Speaker A: It's something that, like, we can't resolve over a ten minute podcast episode. And now you're getting into tax code and tax law and all this stuff. And the state right now is doing a survey on choice lanes. Your first choice lane is going to be from Murfreesboro to Nashville on I 24. And they're doing a survey and then they're like, okay, this is going to take us seven years to build or ten years to build. And I'm like, first off, you have a lot of right of ways to get between Murfreesboro and Nashville. That's a lot of right aways. They're using private contractors to build this thing, and then they're going to outsource it to private contractors for maintenance. That's good. But you're still ten years in the making before we even have choice lanes. [00:51:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:12] Speaker A: And so how, like, yes, there's solutions on the table, but we keep using these data technologies that ultimately are not going to benefit Nashvillians and Tennesseans long term. [00:51:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:24] Speaker B: And that's what you need is a long term solution because the way the city's. [00:51:28] Speaker A: And guess what? And guess what? There's solutions. Uber and Lyft. I understand people be like, well, I can't afford that. There is other solutions. It's. We have data technology. We're not. We need it. And if we don't do something now, 20 years from now, we're aft. Yeah, we're worse than Atlanta. [00:51:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Because Atlanta did not grow this fast. [00:51:54] Speaker B: No, no. City's really grown under what another case study would be to look at. [00:51:58] Speaker A: It's Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas is five years ahead of us. But it just came out last week. Austin built so many apartments, they're now giving away rent for free for, for like six months. [00:52:13] Speaker B: I don't know the exact, I know there's apartments here. Doing a few. Doing a few. [00:52:16] Speaker A: They're doing like two or three. But, like, so right now in the apartment world, there's 15,000 apartments available in Nashville. And we, the, the city government's like, oh, well, we need affordable housing. Well, first off, what does that even mean? [00:52:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Because there's inventory available now. It's these. Some of these landlords, and they need to. They're not going to lower their prices because they had so many freaking loans to take out to build these buildings. Now they're just sitting half empty. I've been in three apartment complexes in the last week. They've only been open for about a year. All three of these places are at 80% occupancy. They're doing well because they have a brand behind them. [00:52:55] Speaker C: Yes. [00:52:56] Speaker A: And now you, as an apartment complex, solidify something to get people into your door. [00:53:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:01] Speaker A: Have amenities to get people in your door. [00:53:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we could go. We could go and go and go. [00:53:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I could talk about a lot of things. [00:53:09] Speaker B: Just saying, if you ran for an office, I don't know if you've thought about that or talk. [00:53:14] Speaker A: You are the second podcast I've been on this week that said I've. They've asked if I'm running for mayor right now, whether it's. [00:53:20] Speaker B: Marriage is even like a thing underneath that. Just up because you got ideas. [00:53:24] Speaker C: Ideas. [00:53:24] Speaker B: And you're. You're smart as hell, dude. [00:53:27] Speaker C: Smart as heck. [00:53:27] Speaker A: Thanks. Seriously, I read a lot. [00:53:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:30] Speaker B: I can tell. [00:53:31] Speaker A: I understand the psyche really well right now. The Lord Jesus is not telling me to be running for politics. [00:53:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:40] Speaker A: In the last two weeks, it's come up 13 times. This is the second podcast in the last week I've been on that said I should run for. For politics right now. That's not the case. [00:53:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:51] Speaker A: That may change in the future. If that does change in the future, I will become mayor. And I can do that very easily. [00:53:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:59] Speaker A: And I can also probably become governor pretty easily. Personally, where I stand. I don't want that responsibility, man. [00:54:07] Speaker B: No, it is a lot. [00:54:09] Speaker A: It's stressful. It's divisive. I want to build strong community within our brands, and I want. I want people to feel seen and I want people to feel heard. [00:54:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:21] Speaker A: And I can't do that at a capacity of government. [00:54:24] Speaker B: No, I don't think government sits right now. [00:54:26] Speaker A: Can no do that. And they're not supposed to know because that's not gonna. Government. The government's job is protection of its people, which our government is failing. A federal government is failing. [00:54:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:37] Speaker A: State, Tennessee government's doing extraordinarily well. [00:54:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:41] Speaker A: Protection of its people and infrastructure. Government's not supposed to have its hand on education. No, that's not in the constitution. Government's not supposed to have all these bureaucrats either. And so I, as a private vendor, I can do a better job building culture and changing society. [00:55:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Through my brand. [00:55:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:03] Speaker A: Because I have a potential director of hospitality. I have a team that wants people to thrive. [00:55:10] Speaker B: You have your own cabinet? [00:55:12] Speaker A: I have my own. I have my team. Yeah. I have my team. And it's. I think I could just do more as a private entity and not get paid off by these lobbyists, which did. I've had lobbyists approach me this last year. [00:55:26] Speaker B: I'm sure. [00:55:27] Speaker A: And they're like, hey, I will put a bunch of money behind you. And I'm like, man, I'm good. I'll go build my own thing. [00:55:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:34] Speaker A: I believe in legacy building. [00:55:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:36] Speaker A: I want to build a legacy not just for myself, man. I want to build a legacy for this brand, for this idea. [00:55:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Because our motto statement is experienced Nashville differently. [00:55:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:46] Speaker A: And people, because of the content that they take in from us, they get to experience it differently every day. [00:55:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:54] Speaker A: A lot of creators in town are like, oh, let's go to this restaurant, showcase this. Oh, we're going to do day trips because explore Nash did it. Bring it on. [00:56:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:03] Speaker A: Because I got. I have a team of people. We're good at what we do, and we're going to build something that this city has never seen. [00:56:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:11] Speaker B: And so much of it is the relationships that you've. That you've built. And that's something we like with. With raise rowdy as well within the music community. [00:56:18] Speaker A: You know, like, the morning of recording of this day, I walked out of the music or the Omni Hotel with two or three politicians. They know who I am. I walked out with these politicians and we talked about life. Yeah. I get that opportunity every single day. [00:56:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Like, I. And I'm. And I know these politicians really well. [00:56:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:41] Speaker A: But I get to be around them, and hopefully that gets to influence policy change. I don't want to be in the game of creating policy. [00:56:49] Speaker B: No. [00:56:49] Speaker A: I just want to be in the game of. I want to build a legacy. I want to build a brand that also brings meaning to people. And it is relationships. [00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:02] Speaker A: Relationships are what make or break you. I love the opportunity of the relationships I get to be involved with. [00:57:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Both here in Nashville, abroad, like, all over the place. Like your story. How old are you? [00:57:15] Speaker A: 34. [00:57:15] Speaker B: You thought, yeah, dude, you've gotten to live international. You come from small town northeast and an upbringing that led you to work hard and gave you this work ethic and the family values and all of that. [00:57:28] Speaker C: Man. [00:57:28] Speaker B: And it's led you to where you are now. I've. I've got a question for about, like, a place to go. So I'm. I'm in a relationship. I have a great, amazing girlfriend, and she likes to eat out and the finer things in life. She frequents places like urban grub, the optimist, things like that. A date. A date night. A good date night. She lives up and cross plains, so she's a Robertson county girl. But where's a good place, do you think, to go for. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Have you. Have you been to the chef and. [00:57:55] Speaker B: I. I have not been to the chef, and I've heard. I think I've heard of it. [00:57:59] Speaker A: The chef and I is one of my favorite restaurants in town. That's where I always take my wife for a date. They do a really cool experience. I think it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, maybe Sunday nights, where the chef curates an entire menu. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:58:15] Speaker A: So you don't. You don't get to choose what you're eating. He. They make the menu. So, like, the last time I went, it was south african themed. And these are. This guy is the team there, chef Jake. [00:58:30] Speaker C: He. [00:58:31] Speaker A: Now he got a job with Disney, so he's the executive chef for Disney Cruise lines. [00:58:36] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Like, this is the type of caliber of people that they're bringing where he gets a job offer him from Disney. Like, that's a big, big deal. Yeah. There's three chefs in Disney that make decisions, and he's, like, one of those chefs. [00:58:50] Speaker B: He's out of Nash. [00:58:51] Speaker A: He was. He recently moved. They just hired a chef, chef Anthony, I believe is his name. But they do a chef tasting menu. They have a five course or a seven course meal. It's expensive. Like, you're looking at, like, I think the five course is dollar 85. The seven course is, like, 114. [00:59:10] Speaker C: Plus. [00:59:10] Speaker A: You can do a wine pairing for all seven courses. That's a dollar 40 add on. Like, it's. It's fantastic. The food is remarkable. But they do the chef, I think it's called the chef tasting experience, where they get to choose the meal and they will accommodate to allergies. That's the really nice thing. Like, I have a shellfish fish allergy. [00:59:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:31] Speaker A: So they're able to accommodate for me. But, dude, they made this bisque. It was. It was like, this lobster bis. I can have the lobster. It was, like, life changing, man. I was like, the south african bisque. And it was. I'm like, this is so freaking good. I love taking my wife there. It's a great date spot, but if you're wanting a free activity, man, Tennessee state parks are remarkable. You can go hike for free. We're one of the only states I have free state parks. [00:59:58] Speaker C: Wow. [00:59:59] Speaker A: And if you want, like, like, if you want, like, a good sandwich, just like on one of these date days, country view market on Charlotte, Tennessee. We did a video. [01:00:08] Speaker B: I've been wanting to go to Charlotte, Tennessee, because my girlfriend's daughter, her name is Charlotte. So she's been wanting to go in Tennessee because her name's Erin and her daughter's name is Charlotte. So she's been wanting to go to these. Go to these places. So we've been trying to plan, you know. [01:00:19] Speaker A: Do you know why Charlotte's called Charlotte. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Tennessee, I'm guessing has to do with North Carolina history. [01:00:24] Speaker A: No. No. So the wife of James Robinson was named Charlotte Robertson. She was one of the founding women of Nashville, and it's named after her. So Charlotte pike is named after her. Charlotte, Tennessee, is named after her. And she had. It was either two or three sons that were scalped by the different tribes here in town. [01:00:44] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:00:45] Speaker A: She was so angry. One day she went out. I think. I think this is what it is. She killed 18 men or 25 men. This is like 1780. She went out and killed men with muskets. She was a badass woman. [01:01:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:01:01] Speaker B: The kind of woman that you. That get stuff named after her. [01:01:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Like Charlotte, Tennessee? In Charlotte pike. [01:01:06] Speaker C: Yes. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So in Charlotte, Tennessee, it's right next to Dixon Montgomery State. Bell State park is out that way. Narrows. A Harpeth is out that way. There's this amish store called country View market. We have a video coming out next week. [01:01:20] Speaker C: Awesome. I'll be on looking. [01:01:21] Speaker A: And it's a made to order sandwich. $5.99. You get to customize your sandwich. They have four different options for bread. They have like 15 or 20 different options for me, 15 to 20 options for cheese. And then you can customize all of your condiments and, like, your pickles and lettuce and all that stuff. And it is one of the best sandwiches for $6. I love that you can get in Tennessee. But then every time I go. So they have this. They have this wall when you walk in, your. Your girlfriend's daughter is gonna love this. It's just candy. Oh, homemade candy. [01:01:55] Speaker C: Okay. [01:01:56] Speaker A: Like, I. My wife and I got us a big. It's like a little plastic container of, like, these turtle. Like the peanut turtle brother. It was. There's insane. And then I always get like the root beer candies. Get that and then also get. They do these homemade dips. So they have a pimento cheese dip, a buffalo cheese dip. They have this vegetable dip with these homemade crackers. They have a veggie garden cracker. [01:02:23] Speaker B: Wow. [01:02:25] Speaker A: When I. When I tell you, like, I'm, like, in heaven eating these things, like, it's a small experience of heaven. Their food is remarkable, and I love shouting them out. The first video we ever did for country view market, 600,000 views. [01:02:37] Speaker B: Wow. [01:02:39] Speaker A: This next video I'm hoping gets over a million. [01:02:41] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:02:42] Speaker B: That's incredible. [01:02:43] Speaker C: Dude. [01:02:43] Speaker B: Where's your, where's your go to pizza spot in town? [01:02:45] Speaker A: That's hard. [01:02:46] Speaker B: Cuz it's like, is it to me, to me, is it hard because there's a lot of good places or hard because of where you could be placed? [01:02:52] Speaker C: That's what I was. [01:02:53] Speaker B: Or is it hard because of where you come from? Being a northeast guy like myself, where we're spoiled in italian culture I grew up in. [01:03:01] Speaker A: So I grew up outside of Binghamton, the town I grew up in. I don't reveal that just so people don't be like, I can type that in and steal your data. Yeah. [01:03:09] Speaker C: Yes. [01:03:11] Speaker A: The small town I grew up in had 70 pizza restaurants for a population of, like, 15,000 people. Yeah, 770. Like, that's a massive number. We had more ice cream stands. So Nashville, Bobby's dairy dip. Shout them out. They're great. Ice cream stand. 55 or 56 years old. Maybe even older than that. Nashville at one point sucked with ice cream. [01:03:34] Speaker C: Really? Yeah. [01:03:35] Speaker A: It was terrible, man. Hattie Jane's. Hattie Jane's is killing it. Fry scream. Have you had fries? Cream? It's french fries and ice cream. They're opening one. They're opening one in Donaldson very soon. [01:03:45] Speaker C: Yes. [01:03:45] Speaker B: They're bringing one this side of town. [01:03:47] Speaker A: Let's go. Hattie James is in Donaldson. Bobby's is like the Og. Yeah. But, like, I had. My small town had more ice cream parlors than Nashville did at one point. Wow. Also, my small town had more sidewalks than Nashville does. Even though, like, the square mileage doesn't make sense. At 1.2019, Nashville had 19% of coverage of sidewalks in Nashville. [01:04:11] Speaker C: That's it. [01:04:11] Speaker A: That's it. That's terrible. [01:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Freddie has proposed 86 miles of new sidewalk. I am all for that because we should have sidewalks. You need them. 118 pedestrians or something were killed last year. Some of that was due to lack of sidewalks. [01:04:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:04:30] Speaker A: Some of that was due to the illegal jaywalking that happens in our city all the time. I have participated. [01:04:36] Speaker B: Guilty. [01:04:36] Speaker A: Yes, I have. I did it today and I was not stopped. [01:04:42] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:04:43] Speaker A: Because in New York City, you're stopped. If you jaywalk, man, you're getting like a $200 fine. But pizza is an interesting category. Have you heard of Tutagio? [01:04:54] Speaker B: I have not been there yet. [01:04:56] Speaker A: It's in her middle age. They're from Sicily. That's good. That video that we did for them had like 1.6 million views. Radically changed their business. And my favorite pizza place in Nashville before the closed was Joey's house of Pizza. [01:05:12] Speaker C: Yes, yes. [01:05:13] Speaker B: I'm with you on the Joey's train, dude. [01:05:15] Speaker A: They're from Brooklyn. They can. My favorite experience is I had a roommate at one point. He was from East Tennessee, so he was not really well spoken. Not because he's from East Tennessee. He just wasn't. He was a very introvert. And Joey, this is back in the heyday, this was like 2014. Joey's like, get the f. Out of my restaurant if you don't know what you want. Because, like, there was like 35 people behind him. [01:05:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:42] Speaker A: And my roommate's like, it was the best moments I've ever experienced in Nashville. And. But Joey's. I have some good news. We are the platform making the announcement. They're reopening. [01:05:56] Speaker C: Yes. [01:05:56] Speaker A: But it's gonna be a little bit of a drive. [01:05:59] Speaker C: Okay. [01:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get that off the. Off the camera. [01:06:02] Speaker A: No, are you saying now? Yeah, keep it, keep it. They know people. People know. Well, I don't know where. Murphysboro. [01:06:09] Speaker B: Okay. I mean, I would drive to Murphysboro. [01:06:11] Speaker A: For J. I would drive to Murfreesboro. [01:06:12] Speaker B: Similar hours too, because that was always the thing with them. [01:06:16] Speaker A: Gonna be a full service restaurant. [01:06:17] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [01:06:19] Speaker C: Let's go. Give me a. [01:06:20] Speaker B: Show me a Joey's chicken farming vodka. [01:06:24] Speaker A: The gladiator. Have you ever done that? [01:06:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:06:27] Speaker A: We're gonna do the gladiator challenge again. I had another roommate. He tried eating two pieces of gladiator and he just. He tapped out. I'm like, I wanna make that a challenge. Yeah, I'll make that thing. Because that pizza was insane. [01:06:38] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:38] Speaker B: I'd be down to do. [01:06:39] Speaker A: I don't know if I was supposed to reveal that, but. And Joey's. I'm excited. Stephanie, you're doing an incredible job. The Joey's, Manny's house of pizza man down in the arcade. Their brothers. Great slices of pizza. The only difference was the renegade. Oh, my gosh. Can't say the word, I reckon. Oh, my God. [01:06:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:59] Speaker A: There we are. [01:06:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:07:02] Speaker B: Do you like Dicey's? [01:07:03] Speaker A: Never had it. I've had good things. I have not had it. My go to pizza right now, honestly, man, is Domino's Domino's convenience of it? [01:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah, dude, I ate a lot of Domino's in college when I went to Ryder University in central New Jersey. And the dominoes there would be open, though, three or four every night. And it's like, I'm up late working on something. I have a late night shift on the radio station. Like, I'm gonna order some dominoes. I'm gonna get that stuff. [01:07:33] Speaker C: Cheesy bread. [01:07:33] Speaker B: I'm gonna put some bacon in that. [01:07:35] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:07:35] Speaker B: I'm gonna dip that stuff in the marinara. [01:07:37] Speaker A: So my. My best friend from back home, he. His family's been in pizza for a long time. A long time. [01:07:45] Speaker B: So you know the industry. [01:07:46] Speaker C: Yes. [01:07:46] Speaker A: I've cooked my share of pies. I'm trying to convince him to open a place here. We charge $2 a slice. He would become a multimillionaire off of this market for pizza because his quality is so freaking phenomenal. [01:08:03] Speaker B: I feel like the same can be said about diners. If we had a diner, like, a true diner. Like, a true, like, diner. Like, I want to open it up, and I want 16 pages in the. [01:08:11] Speaker A: Menu I want to greet. Yes. So, Athens. Have you been to Athens? [01:08:17] Speaker B: Athens, the restaurant Athens. [01:08:19] Speaker A: No. So they used to be over in Berry Hill. Now they're over in Bellevue. It's a greek family. Family. That's diner vibes. [01:08:26] Speaker B: Okay. [01:08:26] Speaker A: Expensive. It's more expensive. I missed the diner. So in college, I went to Clark Summit diner every single Friday. [01:08:34] Speaker B: Where'd you go to college? [01:08:35] Speaker A: Clark Summit University. [01:08:36] Speaker B: Clarkson. [01:08:36] Speaker C: Yep. Okay. Yep. [01:08:39] Speaker A: And I went to Clark summit diner every single Friday for two and a half years. By the time I left, I could walk in. They. We would walk in exactly at 09:00 food would be on the table, and they got to the point where I'll change it up every other week or every third week, I'll do a different thing, and it would be on the table. Tipped, like, 150%. [01:09:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Every single time. Because, like, I was taken care of. Yeah, something like that here. It would be hard to do because the cost is really high. [01:09:12] Speaker C: Yes. [01:09:13] Speaker A: But if we had, like, a good New York diner here, like, and have you ever been to any of the diners in Scranton? [01:09:19] Speaker B: I'm trying to remember. If I have, I couldn't. I couldn't tell you one off. [01:09:22] Speaker A: Okay. I can't remember the names of them right now. But the memories matter. It's like Denny's on crack. [01:09:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:09:32] Speaker A: But if we had those type of diners here, I think they would do. [01:09:34] Speaker B: Really well, especially with the late night culture. It's just you'd have to watch it with the amount of, the amount of chaos that happens, you would have to have it staffed properly. [01:09:45] Speaker A: Hermitage Cafe was able to pull it off for a long time. [01:09:48] Speaker B: Hermitage cafe was awesome. [01:09:50] Speaker A: They just opened the food truck. [01:09:52] Speaker C: Oh, they did? [01:09:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's like a breakfast themed food truck. They're primarily stationed near the greyhound station, downtown Nashville. [01:09:59] Speaker C: Okay. [01:10:00] Speaker A: I think they're serving some of the same stuff that, that restaurants becoming Mister J special. What's going to be a burger restaurant? Some really cool things coming there. But there is how daddy's dogs is in a nightlife. If my brother buddy brought pizza here. [01:10:19] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:10:20] Speaker A: And if I get to the point, I may just hire somebody to be my director of operations and do this myself. Take his recipes, charge $2 for $3 a slice because you're still making profit at that point. It would be what daddy's dogs has done for hot dogs, but in the pizza world. [01:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Which would be amazing. [01:10:42] Speaker B: And then where do you go to get a good bagel around here? [01:10:44] Speaker C: H and s bagel. Hs. [01:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Hector, he makes an incredible product. [01:10:52] Speaker B: The bacon, egg and cheese in there is very good. [01:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Creve hall is good. They're not my favorite. [01:10:59] Speaker B: Been out, been out to the Jersey folks in Mount Juliet. [01:11:02] Speaker A: They're okay. [01:11:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:03] Speaker B: It's not my favorite. [01:11:04] Speaker C: It's too thick. [01:11:05] Speaker A: It's too salty for me. [01:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:07] Speaker A: And they do too much spread. [01:11:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:09] Speaker A: Sometimes h and s is my go to. I typically go to H and s. I get ten, a dozen bagels every quarter. And then I freeze them because their product freezes really well. [01:11:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:22] Speaker A: And then I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds to get them soft and then I toast them. [01:11:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:27] Speaker B: That's what I do mine back home. [01:11:29] Speaker A: And that's, that's my go to bagel shop in Nashville. But when I go to New York, man, I just bring bagels home. [01:11:36] Speaker C: That's what I do. [01:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I got, I was spoiled in Rockland county. We had Rockland bakery. [01:11:42] Speaker A: I'll do that. Fed Rockland. [01:11:43] Speaker C: Yes. [01:11:43] Speaker A: Incredible. [01:11:44] Speaker B: I grew up going there once or twice a week with my grandmother and that was. And going in there and being able to put on the plastic glove and pick out, pick out the hero role and take the number at the deli, handing them that piece of bread and then them making you that chicken cutlet with the fresh muts. [01:12:01] Speaker A: But now you're sitting here, and that's a memory, man. [01:12:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:04] Speaker A: And that's. I want to create memories with our live events. I want. I want memorable moments, and that's where I'm really excited. I keep harping back on it, but, like, we will, because I will create memorable moments. [01:12:17] Speaker B: I'm excited to make memories over there. Going to these events. Like, you're getting me jacked up and excited. [01:12:22] Speaker A: I'm very on my cloud nine with these events, but, like, it's those moments that you remember with your grandma. Like, I have those same moments with my grandma. She's a pure blood italian woman, and just, we would go to these bakeries, we'll do these things, and, like, just incredible moments, but, like, that. And that's where my passion for showing off food comes, was. I want to be able to help create memorable moments at the places we promote. [01:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, that's what it's all about. [01:12:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:12:56] Speaker B: What was your. What was your cookie? Growing up at the bakery? I like the big black and white ones, and then I like the. [01:13:00] Speaker C: The Italian. Those. [01:13:01] Speaker B: Those rainbow cookies. [01:13:02] Speaker A: I love that. I love the rainbow cookies. So my small town had a restaurant called sopranos. This is before the tv show sopranos, and it's still open today. If they look it up, they can find where I live. [01:13:14] Speaker C: But that's. [01:13:15] Speaker A: That's on them. Um, they. They did this chocolate cookie. It was, like, this big. [01:13:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:22] Speaker A: But on the inside of it was, like, a layer of a hazelnut. It wasn't nutella, but it was like, this hazelnut chocolate spread. On top of it was this white powdered sugar mix with so much, like, vanilla flavor, man. Like, this cookie. I'll get them all the time, like, every single day. [01:13:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:41] Speaker A: I would literally go and spend, like, a dollar 50 to get a cookie. And this happened a lot. That's why I'm the size I am. I ate a lot of pizza. I ate a lot of cookies. [01:13:49] Speaker C: Good food. Yeah, yeah. [01:13:50] Speaker A: Uh, but that was always something I would always get. I can't remember the name of that cookie. Um, like, I'm going back up in a couple months, and I'm, like, literally just gonna buy, like, six dozen of those and just put them in the bag, maybe dry freeze them, or I'll eat them that entire time. Yeah, yeah. But that's one of my favorites. The. The pizza man at this. At this place, too. Was they. Did they do this garlic broccoli pizza? It's the best. [01:14:20] Speaker B: I love. I call those like, the garbage slices where it's just combinations that you wouldn't expect. I'm not talking just like buffalo chicken. I'm talking like. [01:14:27] Speaker A: Like, have you been to pinky ring pizza? It's a medicine. So they do the unique flavor. So they have a. I would say they're one of my favorites. Okay. They have a hot pickle pizza. And so it's like their take on Nashville. Hot chicken but with pickles. [01:14:41] Speaker B: The pizza pub places, they do. [01:14:45] Speaker A: But this place, sopranos, man. Like, they have this garlic. Every time my parents come down, I like, I'm like, hey, bring seven or eight garlic pizzas. Like, I'm gonna eat them all the time. But they do this garlic broccoli pizza and they've been doing this thing for like 25 years, dude. It's like I grew up. Like, I would skip high school or skip school and just go get pizza all the time. Even in, like, 9th grade. Like, I'm like, yeah, I'm going home for lunch. I don't want to be here at the cafeteria. I'm gonna go eat some garlic broccoli. [01:15:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:15:19] Speaker B: Good stuff. [01:15:20] Speaker A: And there's just not. There's not that good of pizza places here. Pinky rings, probably the closest to it. [01:15:27] Speaker B: Okay. I'll definitely have to check that out. [01:15:28] Speaker A: Joey's. When it opens, there may be pizza announcement coming in the next couple years. I may figure something out. [01:15:36] Speaker C: Cool. That would be. [01:15:36] Speaker B: That'd be awesome. [01:15:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:15:37] Speaker B: Because something I like to do when I'm on. When I'm on the road and you. [01:15:40] Speaker C: May have seen these. [01:15:41] Speaker B: We do our. Tried that in a small town segment. [01:15:43] Speaker A: Okay. [01:15:44] Speaker B: When I go to festivals or we do our, like, rowdy on the roads and we go out to different shows like, in small towns and I'll just go in and I'll just eat will just do it. Not to the level you guys are doing it. And we do it. We don't play into the song at all. But, like, we're just like, hey, I'm not for real. Let's just try that small town. It's like my New York Yankee ass going into these, like, small towns in, like, BFE, Alabama or Georgia or something like that. [01:16:06] Speaker A: You're all over the place. [01:16:07] Speaker B: So I like going to, like, these, like, barbecue joints. And, like, the south does do food very well. Like, when it comes to, like, the home cooking kind of stuff, the comfort foods. Oh, dude. My first thanksgiving down here when I saw Mac and cheese as a thanksgiving dinner, my mind was blown. [01:16:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it should be. [01:16:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:26] Speaker A: Because Mac and cheese is considered a vegetable down here. [01:16:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. Ranch isn't. Isn't a salad dressing or something you did. It's a way of life. [01:16:34] Speaker A: It's a culture. Yeah. Dude, did you see this? Came out in, like, July. Did you see me chugging all these different ranches at the different restaurants? [01:16:42] Speaker B: No, but I'm gonna have to look and watch it. [01:16:44] Speaker A: It didn't do that well. Had, like, maybe. It had maybe, like, 80,000 views. Like, it was okay. But the best ranch in town is either San Antonio Taco company or Mitchell's. ML Rose has a good ranch, too. [01:16:58] Speaker B: ML Rose. At all their locations, they're consistent. [01:17:01] Speaker A: Their ranch is great. But Mitchell's deli man, East Nashville. Yes, it's a thick ranch, but their ranch is good. [01:17:08] Speaker C: Yes. [01:17:09] Speaker B: It's got a lot of good flavor. I love a good. [01:17:11] Speaker A: Actually, you need to check out fab pizza, too. He's a food truck, or he does pop up vendors. His ranch is super unique. Like, more garlic base. [01:17:18] Speaker B: Oh, garlic ranch. [01:17:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:21] Speaker B: Mind blown. I like a good honey mustard, too, if you know of a good place to find that. I don't know if you're a big honey mustard. [01:17:26] Speaker A: I like honey mustard with tenders, but, like, I don't eat it enough. [01:17:29] Speaker B: I do it with, like, fries. I'll put a. I'll put a fries. [01:17:32] Speaker A: I do, I do. I do barbecue sauce with fries. And if the fries good, you shouldn't have any type of sauce. [01:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it should have enough seasoning. Should have the proper. [01:17:42] Speaker A: Speaking of fries, we just did a video called on Noco in east Nashville. They have these hurricane fries covered with this truffle aioli. [01:17:51] Speaker B: Oh, so it's like truffle fries on crack. [01:17:52] Speaker A: Oh, dude, out of this world. [01:17:54] Speaker C: Okay. [01:17:54] Speaker B: I'm gonna take my girlfriend there. [01:17:55] Speaker A: But she'll love no coo. She wants to spend some money. They have. They have a 48 ounce a tomahawk steak for. It's, like, $115. [01:18:05] Speaker C: Wow. [01:18:05] Speaker A: It's good. But we just got a comment on the goats truffle fries today, and I'm like, I've never had the truffle fries at the goat. [01:18:14] Speaker B: I've never thought to get the truffle fries there. [01:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I've never. I like their hot chicken biscuit. Like, I. Anytime I'm. What's interesting is the last three weeks, I've had coffee at the goat, like, nine times. I'm like, why do I keep going to the goat? This is a massive corporation. It's just the convenience of it. Yeah, it's consistent enough. I think it is. It's consistent from Germantown to Mount Juliet to, to downtown Nashville. It's consistent. So. Which is kind of crazy that they're in those markets with that same brand, but whatever. Yeah. Any other food questions at all? [01:18:46] Speaker B: Where would you say is the next big spot in town that's gonna be booming? Because I had heard, like, we're very involved in the bar scene with raised rowdy. Like, we do events at, at Live Oak, which obviously that whole section of town is about to be changing and undergo. [01:19:00] Speaker A: Is the rumor true that live Oak is moving to Second Avenue? [01:19:04] Speaker B: There's. There's been. Off the camera. But, but, yeah, I mean, they, they had. They had been moving to a space. I don't know if that is still 100% happening. But they did acquire the old bb kings, so we'll see what happens with that. But where's the next section in town that you think people are going to be like? Where's the next Gulch or Midtown? Where's the next scene that's going to be popping in town from what you think? [01:19:31] Speaker A: So I get this question asked a lot, and I actually bring commercial brokers around all the time. So we create content. We have the advertising on our platform. We do food and beverage consulting. [01:19:41] Speaker C: Okay. [01:19:43] Speaker A: I don't really talk about our services that often. [01:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:46] Speaker A: But we do food f and b consulting. Like, so we're opening some, we're helping open some bars in downtown, some really cool options, and we're doing, like, menu consulting and cocktail consulting and some really cool things there. I look at real estate all the time because I'm like, I wish I could afford that, but I might as well just consult the people that can so I can make some money. [01:20:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:15] Speaker A: What's about to happen on the east bank is going to be the biggest case study that's ever come out of a city. With the new Titan Stadium, with the hundred acres that metro Nashville owns, with the idea of affordable housing there. That place is going to be prime. It's the prime. It is the most talked about real estate in America right now. [01:20:37] Speaker C: Wow. [01:20:37] Speaker A: It's the east bank. Out of that, you have the east bank. So you have downtown, you have the east bank. Over here you have Dickerson. Investors have been eyeballing Dickerson for a long time. Tyler Cobble, he's a great investor in this city. He owns the wash. He owns a few of these different assets around town. He's been investing in Dickerson for the last six years. Dickerson's gonna be huge. Murfreesboro going to be even bigger. The reason for that is they've been reinvesting in the infrastructure on the roads. So thing you need to be mindful of, if you're, if you're looking at neighborhoods, if car dealerships start paving their parking lots, what's going to happen next is the fast food chains will renovate. What's going to happen from there is apartment complexes will come. It's happening on Murfreesboro right now. There's a opportunity zone across from that Burger King that's about to open near WKRN. Murphysboro is prime for a potential light rail from the airport to downtown. Murfreesboro is going to be huge. But there's parts of this county, man, we are thriving. [01:21:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:21:52] Speaker A: In the entire metro statistical area, we're thriving. So out in Lebanon, with these huge factories, like, there's. There's five or six big factory announcements coming very soon. [01:22:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:03] Speaker A: But up in Hendersonville, man, huge. And then what's happening in Gallatin? The city council in Gallatin just approved mixed use development in our town square. And down in downtown Gallatin. [01:22:12] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:13] Speaker A: It's huge. There's a 700. 700 acre development happening in Gallatin, but it's happening everywhere in middle Tennessee, so there's opportunity everywhere. You just have to find the right place. [01:22:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah. That's good to know, man. [01:22:25] Speaker B: You're just chock full. I can't wait for your one day for the book to come out. Like, you to write my. I could see this all happening, man. [01:22:32] Speaker A: Like, I've. I've been in multiple conversations this year with ghost writers. [01:22:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:38] Speaker A: Because my story is very fascinating, but I also. I want to write a book on Nashville. In Nashville history. Yeah, I don't have time. [01:22:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say that. [01:22:51] Speaker A: My next question. [01:22:51] Speaker B: When the heck do you say sleep? [01:22:53] Speaker A: I have a five month old, and congratulations. Thank you. I sleep sometimes, but I'm grateful that we did that four year grind of doing that podcast every single day. That was hard, but it gave us so much value proposition in the market with business owners that now we're here. Yeah, but I was sleeping less than. Than I do now. I was averaging maybe five, four and a half, 5 hours of sleep. And I, like, I have to be with my wife. Like, I have to. I have family things to take care of. [01:23:30] Speaker B: Your husband. You're a dad. [01:23:31] Speaker C: You're. [01:23:31] Speaker B: You're an involved member of your family back home. [01:23:34] Speaker A: And I'm very involved in the community. Like, I'm in these. I'm in these chamber meetings. Like, I'm doing these things. Like, I'm very heavily involved, like, with. In different leaderships. Like, I'm on the board of directors for my church. Like, there's a lot that I'm doing, but, yes, a book is coming. You're the first person to ask me in a media setting about it. Awesome. What I do for my side job is I'm a. I do private luxury tours of the city of Nashville through a company called bespoke experiences. [01:24:05] Speaker C: Okay. [01:24:06] Speaker A: And so, like, I have one tomorrow, I have one a couple weeks. We're doing. We're doing Louisville, we're doing Nashville, we're doing Memphis. And. And then I have another one with these british people coming to town, and I'm showing them Nashville for, like, three or four days. And that's what I do in my side job is that because of the. [01:24:22] Speaker B: Passion that you just have and how passion, how passionate you are about the city and how passionate you are of giving people those memories and experiences. [01:24:28] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:24:28] Speaker B: I was gonna say that sounds like. [01:24:30] Speaker A: A passion for you. I. I'm very prideful of the work I've done with bespoke experiences. It's been extraordinary moments, man. I've. My favorite moment. There's been two of my favorite moments in Nashville. One was both of them involve RCA studio B. If you have not been incredible, this is where Elvis Presley recorded 235 songs or so. A quarter of his library, or a fourth of his library was recorded in this studio. [01:24:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:24:59] Speaker A: One moment that was really near and dear to my heart is I had the opportunity to be the ambassador for this husband and wife couple celebrating a 40 or 50 year anniversary. [01:25:11] Speaker C: Wow. [01:25:12] Speaker A: So we're in RCA Studio B. It was the couple, me as their ambassador, like their, their tour guide, and, like, I was there just in case they need drinks. I was there in case they needed anything. Like, I'm just there, I'm available. And there was a band that came in and played, and there was a videographer and the engineers. Dude, it was spectacular. It was a private concert for 3 hours. It was. I'm like, what is happening? [01:25:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:38] Speaker A: But then my wife and I, we did a really cool thing where all of our family, my, she's born and raised here, so she's a truly unicorn. She went to college in Davis. [01:25:47] Speaker B: Horns up for the unicorns. [01:25:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:25:48] Speaker A: She was like, she went to college here in Davidson county. She went to high school here in Davidson county. She was born in Davidson county. She has not left the county. [01:25:54] Speaker B: Wow. [01:25:55] Speaker A: From a living standpoint. But we did a thing called wedding week, and so is her family and my family, all from New York and Pennsylvania and other parts. And we did a thing called wedding week. And I just, I planned out the most extraordinary things for my family. And we just explored Nashville for a full week with my family. But the. My favorite moment in all of Nashville was we were standing in RCA, studio B, and we did a buyout of RCA, studio B, and we all recorded an Elvis song together in the room. There's like 15 or 20 of us. So. [01:26:32] Speaker C: Cool. [01:26:32] Speaker A: And we recorded this Elvis song. My mentor was there, his family was there, my family was there, my wife, like, and we just, we recorded this Elvis song together and we have it on CD now. And, like, I can go back to that moment, I can go back to that memory, listen to that song and remember the entire day. And so I just, I love creating memorable experiences for people. [01:26:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:26:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome, man. That's so cool, dude. [01:26:57] Speaker C: I'm. [01:26:57] Speaker B: I'm so glad that I got to have you on this podcast. [01:27:00] Speaker A: Thanks, bro. Seriously, cuz I'm trying to do the rounds, man. [01:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah, dude. [01:27:03] Speaker B: And with out outside the round with this podcast, it's like we have a mixture where obviously are, like, very music based. You do all of our, all of our events here in town, we. Last month, we did 13 live music events in town. This month was eleven. Next month will be, like, hard. [01:27:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:18] Speaker B: And it's when we work with the folks at winners and losers, we work with the folks at Live Oak, do events out here at the rusty nail that are a lot of fun. Like, we bounce around, then go to, like, festivals and just try to be, like, how you are not at the city of Nashville and, like, showcases and giving people those experiences. We're trying to do that in, like, the songwriter community music scene and just be good members of the community without being songwriters ourselves or artists, like, having any of that. So it's really cool to have you on here because this is our first time. This is our first time actually meeting. [01:27:50] Speaker A: Like, sitting down for an hour and a half. [01:27:52] Speaker C: Yeah, dude. [01:27:52] Speaker B: The power. The power of the, of the, of the DM and just reaching out to folks. And without side the round, we're. We're getting ready to start doing two episodes a week that we're releasing, which I don't know how the heck you did five, five, four or five episodes a week recording and releasing daily. [01:28:10] Speaker A: Oh, dude, we automated everything. We pressed the button. [01:28:13] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. [01:28:13] Speaker B: Which we're starting to get it. We're starting to get more into that stuff. Like, it's. [01:28:17] Speaker C: It's. [01:28:17] Speaker B: It's a lot, but we're starting to have on folks that are in the Nashville community or athletes from different places or just different people in our network that are outside of music. And having you on as one of our first guests and that, man, it was an honor. Seriously, man. So if they're not following you already, which a lot of the folks watching, I'm sure, are where people go to find you. [01:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Explore Nash. Xplr Nash. You can show the sticker right there. Explore Nash. The name came from my love for exploration, and I wanted to highlight Nashville. So explore Nash. That's our name. You can also. You can dm us, but if you want more of, like, a one on one experience, I don't know if you ever heard of the application Manek. [01:28:59] Speaker B: I have not. [01:29:00] Speaker A: It's an application from Patrick Bhat David and his team, and they're huge youtubers. And basically, if you want to connect with me, you can manek me. You pay for my time. So I could ask questions. You can ask me questions through text. I can respond through text, audio or video that's a little bit more expensive. So there is that. My team tries. We get a lot of DM's, so we try to respond to. To almost everything. There's a lot of things we don't respond to because they're. I got a request the other day of eating food with a shirt off. My shirt off. And I'm like, dude, that's no, if you go through my comments, man, like, go through the comments and, like, there's this guy that's consistently do it with your shirt off. I'm like, dude, stop, you're weird. Yeah, I'm not eating food without my shirt off. [01:29:47] Speaker B: Thanks for the comment. First off, the algorithm. [01:29:49] Speaker A: Thank you for that boost. But, like, man, I've been a big guy my entire life and yes, I have experienced moments of self consciousness. I'm not doing that. I don't even swim with my shirt off. Like, come on, bro. So, yeah, explore Nash. We're on Instagram. Our website's terrible. That's getting. That's getting built out. We have an application coming out. Awesome. We are going to get into very big live events. [01:30:16] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:30:16] Speaker A: With a couple hundred people every time. So explore Nash. Check us out. I'm about to get a tattoo with explore Nash, too. So awesome. Be fun. [01:30:27] Speaker B: Awesome, dude. Very exciting stuff. Well, Stuart, man, appreciate you so much for coming on. You'll be sure to check out explore Nash. Hit up our man, our man Stewart. And be on the lookout for big events coming into town. Amazing, continual continuing the amazing content of all different facets of middle Tennessee. And get on that trip to Italy. That trip to Italy. [01:30:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:48] Speaker A: So we should be going. We should be going public with that. I don't know when your episode comes out. [01:30:53] Speaker B: This will be coming out like early April earlier. [01:30:55] Speaker A: Okay. The other episode I was just on is April 3. We should be making announcements. April, maybe, maybe insider. [01:31:04] Speaker B: You guys. [01:31:07] Speaker A: I'm out of town for like ten days in April and so like, I just need to get a lot of content made. But we should be making that announcement. There's only 24 seats. [01:31:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:31:17] Speaker A: Tickets are gonna sell out fast. We have some killer people going with us. [01:31:20] Speaker C: Like, yeah. [01:31:21] Speaker A: Head of marketing for a few different companies. Like, it's how I'm envisioning this trip to Italy. It's a time of deep connection. It's a time of networking. So if you, if you want to network with some high caliber people. [01:31:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:31:36] Speaker A: This is where you need to be. [01:31:37] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:31:38] Speaker B: Awesome. That's, that's incredible, dude. [01:31:40] Speaker C: Seriously. [01:31:40] Speaker A: Other trips coming in 2025 too. [01:31:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:31:43] Speaker A: Not, not just Italy. [01:31:44] Speaker B: Very excited about all that. You'll be sure to check out, explore Nash, hit up our man Stewart. And thank you guys, as always, for watching, listening. You guys want to find out more about us, visit raised rowdy.com. You can also look up, of course, outside the round. I'll be sure to subscribe rate. Follow the podcast, tell your mama and them. For my man Stewart, I'm Matt Barrel. This has been outside the round. [01:32:07] Speaker A: I never been the kind for stair one place for too long I ain't never been the best at sin I love you to a girl I love only. [01:32:20] Speaker B: Got a couple tricks on my sleeve. [01:32:23] Speaker A: They usually just make em leave so if you love me if you really know me you know I'm just a two trick pony but maybe the drink. [01:32:34] Speaker B: And the lack of money for show. [01:32:37] Speaker A: I'm just a two trick on it.