Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Most businesses don’t fail because of bad ideas.
They fail because they run out of capital.
Unbankable is a business podcast for entrepreneurs who don’t wait for permission - especially from banks.
I’m Alex Shvarts, Founder & CEO of FundKite. For over a decade, I’ve worked directly with thousands of small and mid-sized business owners across the United States, providing working capital when traditional banks said no.
On this podcast, I sit down with CEOs, founders, operators, and leaders in alternative finance, fintech, private capital, and business growth to talk about what actually builds durable companies.
No hype. No guru talk.
Just real conversations about:
• Scaling a small business
• Working capital strategy
• Alternative financing
• Risk management
• Hiring and firing decisions
• Cash flow discipline
• Profitable growth
• Leadership under pressure
• Building partnerships that last
If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, startup founder, operator, or executive looking to grow smarter - this show is for you.
We talk about what happens when banks say no.
We talk about execution.
We talk about capital.
And we talk about building something real.
Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share it with another entrepreneur who needs it.
When banks say no - there is FundKite.
Learn more about alternative business funding at 👉 https://fundkite.com
Build smarter.
Scale responsibly.
Stay unbankable.
– Alex Shvarts
Thank you for joining Unbankable. Welcome back. My name is Alex Schwarz, CEO and founder of Funkai. Unbankable is a podcast for entrepreneurs who won't take no for an answer. Um, again, thank you for joining us. My next guest didn't just open a bar or restaurant. He built an entire hospitality ecosystem in Miami. Emmy Guerrero is the co-founder of Breakwater Hospitality Group, the company behind Wararf Miami, Warf Fort Lauderdale, Rearda Cove, John Martins, Riverside, and many, many more. And right now he's in the middle of a $350 million development project that's bringing the wararf back bigger than ever. But what makes Emy's story unbankable isn't the size of the projects. It's how he got there. Through permits, [music] politics, legal battles, and a nightlife reputation he had to turn into a serious business portfolio. Emmy, welcome to Unbankable. Thanks for having me. Thank you. was whatever I just said is is all true, right? Uh for the most part. Yeah, for the most part. I'm not the developer of the project. Um but I am the hospitality partner and an investor in it and uh and playing a pivotal role in curating it. So I it's it's been a journey. So the hospitality and the investor. So you're trusting the developer partner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you got to trust and and the developer is my partner. um he's a real estate guy and um and we work incredibly well together and um and and uh I owe a lot of my success to an opportunity he gave me that was about uh nine years ago and I was just coming off a bankruptcy and he gave me an opportunity and what was supposed to be a temporary six-month popup has now turned into you pretty sizable portfolio of venues, events investments and um it's been a hell of a journey. And you know what? You just said something um and you kept it very real from the beginning that you came off of bankruptcy. Yeah. You're like, you're a serial. Well, you just called it bank. He just said I'm bankable. I was like, okay. Well, well, but that's true. I don't really talk about it much, but it's But that happens to a lot of entrepreneurs. You're a serial entrepreneur, right? Of course. I mean, you don't fall down. You just trip, man. And you just jump back up and you get, right? And that's important. Failure is only when you stop, right? If you just stay down, okay, you failed. But if you get back up, it's just it's part of the journey, man. And there are no losers. There's only quitters. It's a good one. Yeah. Guy kept telling me that in a casino. I wanted to strangle. I'm losing money. I'm losing money. You know, there's no losers. There's only quitters. Really? No, it wasn't that much money. Well, it's a true saying. It's a true saying. You are unbankable to the You were for sure for a long time. Um, so before the success, before the warf, before the 300, you know, $50 million developments that you're a part of, what was the thing that traditional thinking, traditional lenders or conventional wisdom didn't understand about you? At the end of the day, I was just trying to hustle and and make a living and make something of myself. And I chose to follow a business that I'm passionate about. And money wasn't necessarily the purpose of it. It was the, you know, I was in hospitality. I was I love producing events. I love nightclubs. I love seeing people happy. So to me, it was like throw a good party. Eventually the money's going to come. And as as the parties and events got bigger and the venues got bigger and the investments got bigger, I started seeing great success and you know, you just it just takes one really bad deal with a personal guarantee with weather that goes upside down or the tickets don't sell. It just takes one in that business catastrophic event to wipe you out. How much money did you wind up losing on that? on that I we lost as a group we lost over $3 million. Wow. You know, 900,000 of it um was mine between myself and personal guarantees that I signed on loans. And um and it it was incredibly humbling. And when you're hot, everybody wants to do business with you. Sure. And when you're not, no one wants to touch you, right? It's when you don't need it is when everybody Yeah. But it's like that with friends, everything in life. I mean, it's like that with credit cards, right? Like when you don't need a credit card to you and when you need it, it's like, uh, yeah. And that's what makes people unbankable. Yeah, it does. So, and because the bankable ones don't need it, that's how life is, right? Like, so um I was fortunate enough that um I don't know what I what it was, but I I I was I was presented with a pretty awesome opportunity, and we created the Warf together, my partner Alex and I. And um it was supposed to be a six-month popup. I I thought I was going to do at the most $5 million for the year in sales, right? And and maybe, you know, uh, you know, couple thousand people a week through the doors or something like that. Maybe a thousand. We ended up doing a million people through the doors in the first 13 months. We we that's when we hit a million people and it was it really changed the way hospitality was. How long ago? Tell her what? This was in uh 2017 when we opened it up. November 2017. So January of 2019 puts it at almost 13 and a half months. We had hit over a million people through our doors. And how did that feel, man? Oh man, it was it was I was rolling off I was just coming off a bankruptcy, right? So if you've never been through a bankruptcy, they um obviously you didn't pay somebody. You signed some guarantees or whatever. You can't you didn't you can't you you couldn't. And and in my scenario, it was it was an unfortunate situation. I um got into a business deal, signed personal guarantees. The business went upside down. U my partner that was going to cover it passed away unexpectedly. It was it was it was a tough a tough time. Perfect storm. But it was like it was the perfect storm. Whatever could have gone wrong went wrong. And um you know, I had to hit the reset button to start all over. It's shameful. It's embarrassing. um only now that it's been you know 10 years can I actually talk about it right um and this was the first big project coming out of it and you know I became you know a millionaire overnight right so that was you know it takes somebody said it only takes you 25 years to become an overnight success personal guarantee is bad thing sometimes you can't avoid it right but yeah in general I think that if you're in a deal where you have to provide a personal guarantee the deal itself doesn't is not attractive enough to to investors. That's my thought always. But depending on the individual. Yeah. Let me ask you this. I like that you said that sometimes it only takes you 25 years to become what was an overnight success. An overnight success. So you believe that real success takes time, right? Well, you know, um yeah. or or and what takes time is maybe for you to become the person that can um deserve andor uh put forth the effort andor the thing that it is that makes you successful. Well, you could say that warf was overnight, right? It only took 13 months, but it took you a lifetime to get to 13 months, right? So, I mean, most people aren't that lucky that the first thing that they touch turns to a gold mine right away. We know a lot of people here in Miami that have very successful brands that they talk about, but how they got there, the fail nobody talks about. Nobody wants to talk. No. And you learn more from your failures and you do about the wins, right? Like there's like Yeah. Like that time at bat, let's call it I hit a grand slam, right? If with the warf, right? But before that there were many failures. There were some great successes. Was there a moment when nobody believed in your vision anymore? Yeah. So, so when we were going to open the wararf, um, you know, I was my partner who was the landlord who owned the land. He said to me, "Hey man, I have this land. You want to, you know, rent it out or use it?" And I said, "Listen, give it to me for two years. I'll do a popup and when you're done entitling it for whatever you want to build on there, buildings, whatever it is, in two years, I'll make all the money I need to make and I'll be out and I'll be on my way." He's like, "All right." Like, "Cool. I'm going to go raise the money. I'll be right back." So I'm again I just come off the bankruptcy and I've talked to every single business partner and friend that I had worked with for the last you know 17 years and they all said no. They all were like yeah I don't know maybe uh kind of cool. So you went back to So I went back to developer I said hey man nobody wants to put up the money but let me show you what I wanted to do. So I walked in there, said, "Hey, I don't have an ego, but I just want to see this done." And I showed him everything. I showed him, you know, mood boards, sketches, you know, the typical plan, numbers, stuff like that. If you I tell him, "I have no ego. If you know anybody who wants to put up the money, I'll work with anybody. I think this should happen here." And um he's like, "Hey man, sorry it didn't work out. We shake hands. You know, we we had a lot of mutual friends in common. He wasn't upset at me. I I felt a little embarrassed cuz I didn't come through cuz you couldn't deliver, right? Yeah. And um didn't think anything of it. And a week later, he calls me on a Thursday night and he says, "Hey, what if I put up the money?" I'm like, "Let's go." So, we met up and it was instant success. Like it it it it within the first You know what I what I sense worked? You know what worked? Which a lot of people don't realize? You had no problem coming to the guy and saying, "Hey, man. I I couldn't raise the money. Didn't [ __ ] him. Didn't stall him. Didn't string him along. No. And you know, I'll work with anybody. Right. So, he probably saw that you'll be the right operator for this project, right? He believed no ego. And you Yeah. No ego. He took a big risk and and I'm eternally grateful. It changed um it changed the stars for me and my family uh for a while. Did you ever think about walking away from this whole Yeah. Right. Right. You know, I was already thinking, man, you know, I'm, you know, this is it. I got to find a new career. I got to I got to look at my Rolodex and see what I could do with this. And uh, you know, all I've ever done was was hospitality. Third time that the word rolodex came up today. A lot of guests don't even know what a rolodex is, but Okay. So, what uh what did that experience change about you? The bankruptcy, the rebuilding, the new success. What changed? It humbles you in a different way, right? Like it's weird. Um, when you don't have money, you care about what people think about you. You you care about having name brands. You care about different things because you think that those having those name brands are going to give you status. saddest whatever and people are going to and um the first thing I did um was I paid a tax bill for my bankruptcy that that I had just gotten like a small tax bill and I bought a ring and married my girl and uh bought myself a pickup truck because I don't give a [ __ ] what anybody thought about me. I just bought a pickup truck and I'm like this is cool man. I remember that's exactly what I did. Right. And my first million dollar check, my partner at the time, he he just held the money and he's like he waited about two or three months and then we did a distribution and he was like he was happy, right? Yeah. I was crying at the happiness. I'm like I could see the emotions emotions. And man, it it was like I I knew I was going to propose to my girl. Um she had been with me through thick and thin. Uh we have a beautiful family now. Good for you, man. Yeah. And then just and then started being smart about things, right? Not as a cowboy. Cuz the old me, if you would have given me that check three years before, you know, it would have been Ferraris and Design District and all that something, right? Like it would have been something. I mean, I was living Sometimes they say you really don't know what you have until you lose it, right? Yeah. And and sometimes you just want sanity. Yeah. Peace. I say peace. What's the biggest misconception, you know, about your success today? You know, a lot of people, you have this like this candid conversation you're having with me, right? You have this with a lot of people. You mentor people. I try to. People come to you and asking how, you know, how do you how do I get to where you are? And yeah, man. Just don't give up. It's not It's no secret sauce, man. Treat others like you want to be treated. No, no. You have a secret sauce. You have this charm about you. You keep it very real. You're very disarming to people. And um that's experience. That's experience of ups and downs. So a lot of younger people, they don't have this guarded. They're guarded and they're trying to impose a lot and they're trying to force it down your throat. And experienced people see that. And so what I say to people young or old and people watching this, the first thing is just be calm, be humble, be normal, and just be like like straight like honest. I I don't know because people can read through all of that nons experienced for sure. So integrity. Integrity. Yeah. You know, treating others the way you want to be treated. And listen, I think we've all had bad days, right? We've been where we've been maybe a little too short with somebody that was a a server or somebody that brought you something in the office. See, I've never been too short. I I was a bus boy. I was a waiter. Every time I come into a restaurant, I believe that the the the the waiter, the staff is just as important as the chef. Agreed. In fact, sometimes more important, okay? Because they're the ones delivering the food, serving you. Um I believe that they're all equally as important. They're human beings. First of all, they're human beings. Right? [snorts] Now, look, you could get a a ridiculous person. I I and here's a great example of very bad customer service. Well, I had to bring our car. I'm not going to say what dealer. I had to bring my car in for a recall because I had some recall and you know, I made an appointment at 7:00 a.m. cuz I wanted to get to work. I get in and the guy So I'm standing there and there's a a reception desk and probably know who it is but anyway reception desk and I'm like here I had a 7 a.m. you know and he says okay you know um you know please wait over there for a minute and you know we're going to get you. There's nobody there yet. I'm like look I'm really in a hurry. I don't want to wait. You told me 7:00. Why do I need to speak to anybody? Here's the keys. You know what you need to do? Do whatever else you know and that's it. This guy gets on me and he said, this guy goes, you need to go sit over there while we process your stuff. I'm like, what? I I don't need to sit anywhere. I don't want to sit. I said, who are you? Like, what are you doing in my face? I am the field operations manager. I said, dude, you need to be out in the field. You should never be next to customers. Are you out of your mind? How you just came at me like, sit down? Who the hell tells somebody sit down? I was losing it. And usually like I I'm going to send a 19page email to the owners of the business afterwards. But like and the other guy was like nice. I'm like I'm talking to like what are you doing in my face? What's wrong with you? Right. And this is a big big deal or like a big brand and stuff like that. I said wow what a crappy experience. Like what are you doing like [ __ ] your office? I mean like get away from me. [snorts] So um and the other guy was just like normal. I was just explain I just got to get this. I wasn't rude, you know, but um experiences mean a lot. And here's a senior guy like coming at me like he just had to I guess he he loves his title. I'm field operations manager. Yeah, he probably had a really bad Jorge, if you're listening to this, you really need to work on customer service. Anyway, um and so that's the thing. So I think anybody in in any uh chain of command or employees or staff are important. Um okay, people see the warf, the restaurants and the projects. What's the part nobody sees? Most of the work happens during the week. A lot of the work. And I want to say most, it's almost like two sides of it. There's there's um at least in hospitality, and let's let's let's shift to to because there's different forms of hospitality, right? There's there's hotels, there's restaurants, there's there's parties, clubs, events. But I would say is let's just say there's an event. There's the the the team that executes the day of, but there is a mountain of work that happens before you even open those doors, of course, and and that is what nobody sees. All the preparation, the back and forth, and the moving parts. So, that's the part that's harder for people to imagine, right? Yeah. You just don't get it. The countless phone calls. Like for example, we co-produced across the street New Year's Eve um at Bayfront Park. Um and it was spectacular, right? It was New Year's Eve here. 40,000 people, fireworks, fireworks, beautiful. Great performances. I could see it from the office. You know, we get front row seats. Yeah, it's great. Right. The logistics and and the teams. Okay. Yes. There's, you know, maybe 300 employees that day, 400 employees that day, but the amount of prep prep just to get it to that point and then in 48 hours to make it disappear like it was never there, right? So, so it that is that is a lot of the stuff that people just seen the main event, right? You just see the main event. So, what's easier than what people think? What's easier? We just talked about what's harder. You know what's easy? Yeah. Um, having fun with people. That's pretty easy, right? Like receiving them. The hosting part, it's fairly easy. I mean, if you've done it for a really long time, maybe there's times that you don't feel like being there because you have life going on, right? You have maybe a sick child or a sick family member or you have other struggles with life. Um, but you have to like whatever that is, the second you walk into those doors, you have to set that aside. And that for for us in the hospitality business is can be difficult. But if you're able to like kind of comp compartmentalize that and put that aside, let's talk about hiring and firing, you know, you could you could do it. Hiring and firing. Yeah. How do you do it? You quick to hire, quick to fire. Um it is uh the rule of thumb is slow to hire, quick to fire. Take your time on bringing in people. Um make sure they could fit in your culture. And if you're like, h it's best for both parties to go their separate way. Do you ever get attached to Yeah, of course you get attached. But um it sucks, right? But at if if they don't if they're not a good fit, chances are they're not happy either, right? And sometimes it's just great in having that conversation. And I think now specifically in hospitality ever since co it really changed the industry a lot of people that were in hospitality because that was affected the most I believe one of the things that was affected the most during co they they all went to different professions right they got into real estate they got into this that whatever whatever they got into [snorts] um so it's it's it's there's a lot of new people or new blood in hospitality and and it's challenge getting getting um good people M and people that that that have experience, right? The the flip side to that is that you have an opportunity to bring in people that maybe have a great attitude and then train them the way you want them to be trained. So there's there are sort of advantages uh to that as well, right? Yeah, man. It's tough. And then at least for me, I don't like to um steal other people's like key personnel. Let's talk about the shakedown. Have you ever had a key employee, a chef, or someone come to you and say, "Hey, listen. I just got offered $100,000 more down the street." Have fun. That's what I do that too, man. Dude, I wish you the best. Yeah. Well, because one, if they already pulled the stunt like that, right? Oh, yeah. And and what I have found is that if they're adding the value at the end of um whenever you do your you know um calculations reassessment or whatever yearly you know reviews you you you you give them you know what they're worth you know and hopefully or at least what they're worth to your company. Maybe they're worth more but you can't afford more. That's another because of um what's going on, right? So, um, and you know, life is expensive now. I mean, it's it just is what it is, right? I mean, it's everything costs more. It costs more to do business. It costs more for them to live. And honestly, if somebody has a great opportunity, I don't want to hold them back. Right. Right. Right. I just don't like when they approach you. If they say, "Look, can I get a raise?" It's one thing, but when people come up and say, "No, I just got offered more money somewhere else." The fact that you went out and looked without talking to me first already tells me I can't trust you. All right? people's, you know, I I have a relationship with my employees at least that I try to reward them and I don't wait for the annual review. I try to do it as as things are happening. Sometimes it could be finan monetary rewards. Sometimes, you know, it just could be real acknowledgement. We're a team, right? You know, the reason I'm sitting here and I'm I'm smiling a little because I'm thinking and I'm like, what happens when when you got to kick somebody out because they're rowdy? Like I'm I'm trying to vision you cuz you're you're a big guy, right? I don't have to do that. I'm very fortunate. You just you never have. I'm very fortunate. I'm not very active. Okay. At the There was a time, right? Yeah. There was a time, but you know, there's people that are tougher than me out there. Yeah. So, I'd rather let them do it. No. Um I'll be I'll be honest with you. We rarely have those incidents now. Yeah. I found in Miami I I go out I almost never see like people confrontational. I don't see like aggression, you know, people are calm, happy. Maybe. I mean, maybe just the police, right? I mean, when there's alcohol involved. Yeah. Somebody bumps into somebody or, you know, touches some girl's ass. Like, but the days of that you and I used to go out are much different than the way kids party today. Take it easy. I'm still a young guy. Okay. Me, too. I mean, I might have a little bit of less hair than than normal, but but listen, when when when people when when at least when I started going out in the '9s and early 2000s, you used to go out to listen to good music, meet other people, see fashion, connect, be social, meet a significant other, try to hook up for the night, you know, see your friends from other schools or clicks, whatever, whatever it was, right? Whatever it was, you you had to go out, step out of your house to do that. Today people go out. Today all that that I just mentioned you get from your own phone, right? That's true. You meet people, you get laid, you see how your friends are doing, you see fashion, you catch up on gossip, you want to listen to good music, whatever the case is. Yeah. You can just get it on your phone. You just swipe right, dude. That's true. So, you don't have to go out. So then why do people go out? What do you think? I think they go out for an experience and to take that picture and to to go to the experience like just to like to to to satisfy their FOMO. So people go out for for a different reason. So there's less interaction between strangers when you go out now, right? Yeah. A lot less. Unless cuz I because you're not trying to pick up or I mean maybe you are if you're old school. I'm going out. I mean I'm I'm I mean I I easily meet and talk to people. That doesn't mean I'm becoming friends with people. I'm just polite and nice and I can strike a conversation. But a lot of times I go out just because I I need to unwind or get away from my routine or I'm going out with people I actually enjoy. You know, I I choose who I spend time with. All right, let's get back to some important stuff for our audience, right? You raised capital, built partnerships, and developed major projects. What does money mean to you today compared to 20 years ago? It's a tool now. I mean, yes, I I Who doesn't like nice things? I'm not I'm not going to say that, right? But I And yes, I would love to have a nicer house. May maybe right like you know but it's it's I enjoy the piece I enjoy where I'm at. I think if if money is a tool now right and it's it's a tool that I would use to either create more build more and and do it with a purpose to provide more opportunity for my family and those around me. At a certain point it becomes numbers on a spreadsheet and it becomes it becomes a tool. Um, and it, yes, money helps amplify who you really are, I think. Right. And it could be good or bad. It could be good, it could be bad, right? Um, but now I if I had more money, I wouldn't necessarily buy more things. I would probably invest in more things, right? Or be a part of more growing things. People hit you up with ideas all the time, right? Yeah. Do people hit you up with money? say, "Ed, you know what? Listen, if you got a project here, I'm going to give you money." Now, they do. They do, right? Do you turn it down? We we self-fund a lot of the stuff that we do. Um, we I have a few partners that that we've done a few projects with, and they've been phenomenal. And, um, I actually learned this from my partner, Alex. You know, it's like it's the risky deals. You almost want to do that yourself. Y because you don't want to lose anybody else's money. and it'll ruin your reputation and it you know and that's the exact opposite of what I always at least was believed to to know and it's true um because at that point you live and die by the decision and and you don't have to take anybody along for that ride with you and it could be uncomfortable right I I really agree with you when you're younger you think oh let me take investors money and let me do this and let me do that let me get you know um when you're older and more experienced you learn that um I if you're credible [snorts] and and you really believe in what you do and your name and your reputation that you know you think a h 100 times about doing it and taking the money because you you feel personal about it and if it goes wrong yay man that's it you just blew everything about you. So, I agree with you. Sometimes if you have it, you know, taking the risky one and doing it yourself makes a lot more sense, right? Just easier. I mean, I felt it. I' I've been through it myself. If you're getting value from this conversation, do me a favor. Click the subscribe or unsubscribe or like or on like whether you're watching or listening. Every week, we sit down with entrepreneurs who built something real on their own terms. You don't want to miss what's coming next. Now, back to Emmy. When did you realize that you were building an empire instead of a business? Oh, I wouldn't call it an empire. Oh, come on. Don't be that humble. Oh, stop. You're You're a big You're you're a credible big name in Miami in the Miami scene. Very reputable. Um, that's an empire doesn't necessarily mean dollars. Empire is the brand, the reputation, the respect. Right. Right. I don't disagree with you. So, empire is just, you know, it's a big word. All right. We'll just call it an emp. So, when did you realize you were building an emp um we've been able to create sort of a movement, sort of a different way of of doing things. And I don't know, man. I think when the opportunities started coming in that that weren't there before, I realized we had something special. And I realized a lot of the goodwill throughout the years of just treating people right might actually pay off, right? Like and um and sometimes it never does, right? Like if you do something nice for somebody, you don't expect anything nice in return. You shouldn't. You you shouldn't. No, of course. If you're doing something nice, you want to dude, you know, I got to tell you something. You could be like a part-time uh therapist, man. like you're very calming. You're very you're very I mean you're calming and confident because you believe in yourself and what you've accomplished and you believe in yourself because of what you've accomplished because you've had failures and you've been through it all. So that's what makes you today. Um but yeah, man, I'm like I'm like sitting in front of like Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil right now. Very calming, very smooth, very No, no, not smooth but very soothing, right? And and very the confidence is is pretty amazing. So tell me what sacrifices came with growth. Oh, in most cases, at least for me, and what I've seen from my successful friends, you're working when other people are partying, no matter what industry you're in. Okay. You could be in finance and it might be Saturday and you're at the office while your friends are on the boat. Yeah. Um because you're running numbers and working on a model to see if it's worth investing in a specific thing. in hospitality. Your friends are partying on Saturday night and you're putting on uh you know, you're putting on your black clothes and ready to go to work and greet everybody and clean tables and do whatever it is that you got to do and you're lucky enough to have Mondays off and things aren't as busy, right? So, who's around on Monday? Great. You know, it's it's night time. You're up at night, you know, and and if you have kids, you got to be up in the morning to take care of them or you take care of them the second you get home or so the sacrifice is a normal personal life, right? Yeah, when you're running a night business, at the end of the day, people say, you know, they want to start their own business so they can dictate their own hours so they can do their own thing. And um no business owner works 40 hours a week. No, but you're doing more than 40 hours a week. Yeah, of course. It's just a lifestyle. Yeah, it's just a lifestyle and it's a it's a lifestyle and a choice. And I think I got it dialed in right now. For me personally, it's only taken forever to figure it out, but there was a time that I was working at night, six nights a week and in the office five days a week, and I was logging 90 to 100 some odd hours, 10 and some odd hours a week, non-stop. Um, you're out to 5 in the morning, you're in the office at 9:30, 10, and you're doing that. Who needs sleep? Sleep is so overrated, man. Um, okay. So, also you've you've done your own podcast, Industry Talks, right? So, most operators at your level don't do that. What's the actual business reason behind doing it? I think deal flow um brand build like what is it? It was it was a little bit of both. Um I think for me it was it was almost like um rising tides raise all ships. So, if I could help my friends that we have a pretty extensive network of the followers, fans, uh, people on social media and whatnot. And I figured if my followers andor friends could learn about somebody that has a great business, I'll bring them on, sort of endorse them and see how awesome, you know, show or talk about how awesome their business is and how I love it. And it's true that I I do, right? Doesn't it feel good helping people? Yes. And in return, by the way, without them in not intentionally, like their followers and wait, who's interviewing them? And it just becomes like I'm also promoting myself, but without promoting myself, it just kind of like it helps each other out. And I've um I've noticed friends that have gotten a nice bump on their business. Um and it just it it it's an opportunity for the hospitality community in South Florida is pretty small, right? Yeah. Um and and only a few key players and but but but in general there there might be like a few key big players but there's like a lot of independent small operators and everybody still knows each other. Sure. Especially like myself, I'm born and raised here and you've been going to a lot of these places for a long time. You just know the management, you know the ownership. And just to be able to sit like this the way we're talking might help the guy push something new that he's putting out. And in return, you'll have him come over to your spot and vice versa, you go to his. And it's just a way good way for people to catch up. And I I found that it did improve deal flow a little bit, right? Um I think I had one deal that came across my desk because of it that that that was like pretty interesting and we we took it. Um, but out outside of that, I mean, we've you say no more than a lot. At least in in my field, you say hopefully you're saying no more than you're saying yes to deals. Yeah. Um, because it's really risky, right? Um, hospitality is somewhere. It's No. No. Actually, um, hospitality is a big part of our portfolio. Big probably 30%, 35. Do you guys send out all those? Because I This is No, we don't send those ridiculous text messages or emails, dude. Oh my god. How freaking annoying is that? I know. And so it gives it gives people in your business a bad deal. So look, we're only inbound. So only if people um we get a lot of our deal flow from um like brokers around the country. Yeah. And uh or if they come and apply on our website like we don't do any it's I get it. I get like 30 text messages $70,000. Yeah. How do you know? Like and now I get it for personal. And by the way, when I get it and I have time, I and my number is like on every do not and my number is on the do not call my personal how they get it. I don't know, dude. I get so annoyed. Sometimes I'll call them and I'll start talking just to annoy them back cuz they're wasting my time, right? Um I Let's go back for a sec. Yeah. So, no, we don't do that. We're we're strictly inbound. So, if somebody lands on our website and calls us, that's when we do it. Um, do you think very serious operators and hospitality should have a a media presence like a podcast right now? Well, I I'll tell you what, for me specifically, I don't like making my venues or concepts about me specifically. I want to make it about the venue. They should be able to exist without me being there. Now, that being said, I go to every single venue that we have every single weekend at some point. It's a lot. So, I'm not there. You need a driver, man. I'm like, I'm I'm I got myself a Tesla that drives me now. I love it. It was that was actually more affordable than actually fridge in there or No, actually, you get the little fridge thing, the thing, but it it it actually it's very helpful. I'm on self-driving 90. You using beast mode or No, no, I I didn't get uh I didn't get the um the beast. I got the truck. But the beast mode here 85% beast mode, man. Still late. Mad Max is Mad Max. Yeah, it's called Mad Max. I'm sorry. I'm on hurry. Mad Max, you know it's Mad Max. Yeah, it's pretty wild, right? It speeds in my neighborhood and there's cops all over my neighborhood. So, And you can't say it wasn't me, it was Yeah, it wasn't me. It was the car driving. It was Elon. It was Elon. All right. Um, you've seen a lot. What's the biggest mistakes you know entrepreneurs make over and over? And I'm going to just bring it down to two things, three things. Is it ego? Lack of patience. You think a lot of entrepreneurs make mistakes because lack of patience? Because I believe that real wealth takes time. Building a real business takes time. It's not overnight. And people don't have patience today. Social media is not about patience today. You know, I think um
patience is a good one. I would say ego is number one, though. Ego is a problem. Ego is a problem for a lot of people. And you need to have a you need to have a little bit of ego. It's probably better said you need to have confidence. Um but ego could get in the way of depending on the business in and the position that you're in. And if you're coming off of one business and getting into another business and you think it's the same, like I don't know, like I remember years ago there's a guy that that was a successful attorney, then he opened up a a nightclub and and he, you know, he thought he could take the same approach that he had in his practice, in his law practice, and apply it to the nightlife industry. And it didn't it it didn't it didn't work as smooth. Maybe it did for him for the type of law that he was practicing. I forgot what law he was practicing and it was a long time ago. But I just I've seen people that have maybe exited off a great business and then gotten into another business and they're not in that. If you think about Michael, you think about Michael Jordan, this is a good one. Michael Jordan was phenomenal in basketball and then he took a year off and went into baseball, but he didn't come in with a attitude, right? you know, and and honestly, I think if he would have stuck there another five or seven years, he might have been a good ball baseball player. I mean, he's obviously a much better basketball player when he came back to basketball, he kicked butt, but but you know, people like if they switch one profession and get into the other, you're not going to be the championship person that you were in the business you were incredibly successful in. So I think ego has I've noticed there are two types of people that get into the hospitality restaurant specifically restaurants and I've really noticed this a lot. I'm not talking about a guy who is a chef that wants to own a restaurant. I'm talking about the guy who's not a chef. There are two people. There are one type that really wants to be in the restaurant business to make money and then the other type is the one that wants to invest so he can run around and say I own this restaurant. It's supposed to be it's very true here especially I mean big markets like Miami New York especially you know there's the big brands you know the $40 million places that open up you know they have 100 investors they invested whatever 100,000 each 200,000 and these guys are just happy they're never getting their money back by the way but you know but at least they can I think they buy it for the rights to walk around say oh I own a I'm not going to mention the brands you know they are but they walk around and say oh yeah I'm I'm an investor I own a piece of this place. Craziness. Craziness. People do invest in restaurants for ego. Yeah. Right. What's your relationship with risk? You know, most people spend their lives avoiding risk. You've made a career kind of embracing it cuz hospitality is very risky, right? What does risk mean to you today? I think it's different today. It's almost like at some points at some point in life and especially at the beginning, you have nothing to lose. I mean, you you do, right? Like you do reputation wise and whatnot, but as you accumulate and you maybe have a family and then you now have a house and you have responsibilities and you have a team of people and you have your also your your business and you have 500 employees, let's call it, right? you know, you you still have to take some risk, but it has to be extremely calculated so that you could keep the machine running, right? Um because it's not just about you anymore. It's not. And when you're a single guy, right, and you have to start all over and bankruptcy, you can couch surf until you get on your Right. Right. You have a wife and kids. You're not couch surfing. Yeah. You can't you can't couch surf. And you know, kids have needs and wives have needs and and you know, and family members have responsibility. Now things are are different. You still got to take some sort of risk because you got to grow. Yeah. You got to grow, right? So you got to you got to grow. I mean, there was like uh I was listening to something the other day. It was like Kevin. I mean, I don't want to say anything, but you you're paying more attention to Amy Winehouse over there than you are to me. Like you just keep turning towards Amy. I mean, is it Barry Gibb or the Beatles? What? You just keep like flipping over there. I mean, what is it? Sammy Davis. Sammy D. No, that's Chuck Barry. That's Chuck Barry. Oh, yeah. That's Chuck Barry. I'm I'm I'm messing with you. Snoop is pretty cool. Snoop is cool, right? Snoop's the man. That's Frank Sinatra over there. Ali and Elvis Presley. Yep. Yep. And that's signed by Ali. Yeah. They uh That's pretty cool, man. Yeah. I think I don't know which one of them. How long have you been collecting? Um a long time. I love uh music. I don't I don't listen to t I don't watch TV. Uh, Prince Ed. I I I listen to music. I love vinyl. I just love music, man. It's brings me sanity. Gives me a piece of mind. I listen in the morning, I get in here, like I'll play some vinyl. I'll record it, you know, make a video, put it online, and it just it it just u rejuvenates my drug, you know, just cleans me out. And late at night, I'll I'm still working late, but I'll just put some and I listen to everything classical. And you like listening to it on vinyl? I love it on vinyl. It's just a very different sound. There's a difference you hear the you know when you hear that that's priceless. So you you know you you mentioned something so it was about risk and um so I was I was about to say something. Kevin Olirri Yeah. Everybody knows who that is right. So, so he was saying something like that he keeps $5 million in a um in treasury bonds or somewhere thing that he just does not touch like that is your and he suggests every entrepreneur try to get to that number put it away forget you even have it so if you ever needed to borrow against it to put together a million bucks to do a deal or whatever that is and I think there was something to be said about that it's like okay here's my safe space cushion yeah you know it's safe it's not It's my safe space. It's it's it's going to make me 4% a year. Whatever. If I needed to do something, I could borrow against it right away. And like whatever. And then everything else you could be riskier with, right? And I'm like, okay, he's on to he's on to something, right? And and for some people that number might be different. And Kevin said he's only got 5 million. Full of [ __ ] No, that's what he says. Oh, we should have. Okay. Normal, right? 500, right? I don't know about 500, but I'd say 50. A good 50. Yeah, he's I love Kevin. He's great. He's He's a He's I hated him on Shark Tank. I thought it was Shark Tank. I really didn't like him. Towards the end, he got really nice. And now today, he's a completely different person. He's awesome. But I love how he goes on on TV and annihilates people. Yeah, he's just the Yeah, he's he's But he's But he's realist. He's very, you know, what I like about him specifically, he's blunt and and Yeah. And and he's like, I'm a fan of policy. I don't care if you're left or right. I'm a fan of policy and I'll work with anybody and and I think I've taken an approach like that um in business too where it's like I have no ego. I'll work with anybody. I just I want to see good [ __ ] happen. Yeah. What's how are we doing this? What's the rules of engagement? How much is a lot of money? I think everybody's got the ret I don't know. I'm talking to you right now. I'm not talking to everybody. How much is a lot of money to Emmy today? What would be a lot of money? Yeah. um nine figures and up. How much is n is that 100 million? 100 100 million and up is is like of of personal net worth. I think that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money, right? I think so, too. I mean, the truth is I think between 10 anything above 10 million your life doesn't change much probably as much as people think, right? Yeah. Um you probably get maybe a little more stressed out actually. Um, you know, the only thing that may change from that number up is you're going to fly private more often. That is like after 10 million. Yeah. But it's like it's meaningless and it is, you know, I've mentioned kids a lot because I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old and my wife and I if we have to travel, it's it's a task with, you know, last year when they were two and five, right? So, babies crying, running around the airplanes, you know, whatever. So, so but if you know if you're able to fly private, you know, it's it's sure, let them go nuts inside the airplane. Like, it's no big deal. Of course. Um, but your life doesn't really change from that that Can you get a bigger house? Yes. Can you get a nicer car? Unless you're an idiot and you start go wasting money on luxury items. Can you get Can you get nicer cars and nicer things? Yeah, you could. You could you could get more things, but it's not going to change your life. No. And and that, you know, that's just a waste of money. you can maybe help more people if that's the kind of person you are and then yes um and you know so 100 million plus that's that's it's a number it's a real number yeah it is people think today you know because you know they look at these you know they think oh billionaires trillionaires man people don't even realize that 10 million is a lot of money it's a lot of money and 100 million man that's a lot of money I've seen a lot of money I've seen amount of money. I mean, you're in the middle of probably the biggest project of your life right now. You're a part of it. Yeah, I have a we have a few of them. Yeah, they're pretty big right now. When people watch this 20 years from now, what lesson do you hope that they take away about building something meaningful, man? Don't give up. Stay true to yourself. You got to be comfortable in your own skin. If you could be comfortable in your own skin, then you've done the right thing. Don't do anything just for money. Granted, you have to put more food on the table. Sometimes you have to take a job that you don't want to take because you got to support your family and do that. And that is 120% respectable and there's a lot of integrity in that, right? Um, but in general, don't give up and do things that you feel good about and do it with people you feel good about doing it with. What I've learned from this conversation is that being unbankable isn't about being denied by a bank. It's about having the courage to build something that other people don't understand yet. Um, that's where the greatest opportunities live. I'm Alex Schwarz. This is Unbankable. Emmy, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story and um, I look forward to watching your continued success. Thanks, man. You, too. It was great to be here. Thank you so much.