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The Grind, hosted by business entrepreneur Eric James, is a talk show about local business professionals, entrepreneurs, politicians & people of interest, that chose to bet on themselves & embraced the daily hustle that we call the Grind.
#TheGrind, channels the stories behind successful individuals by exploring their ideology of what it takes to manifest a successful business in an ever changing economic, pollical and social media environment.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Eric James 0:14
Good morning and welcome to the grind. I'm your host extraordinaire. Mr. Eric James, what is the grind. Simply put, the grind is a half hour conversation that speaks to local business entrepreneurs and explores their take on where our local economy is heading, and asks them to tell us their own story of the sacrifices and work ethic that it takes to have a successful business. All right, it's another beautiful morning here in Las Vegas, Nevada. Welcome to hashtag the grind. Hashtag the grind. I got another three wonderful guests for you folks today. I hope you got your breakfast in. Got a little eggs and sausage and some bacon on the grill, or you're on your way to church, or if you did the early service, maybe you're on your way back because there's football games on, or just getting ready for the Super Bowl. So I have three wonderful guests for you today. I'm gonna go in order. My first guest is Brad Wolf. My second guest is Logan Summit, and my third is Ricky Barlow. So some of you guys may know Logan from his time on radio or TV and other content creation. Mr. Mr. Brad. He's a big time real estate broker out here. He is killing the game out here. And also the president of VA rep, which I am a new board member. They're putting me to work. Y'all like, I don't have enough stuff to do on my own calendar, so now I'm on VA rep as their new community outreach director. So if you're working with veterans, or you have veterans cause, or better, you are a veteran in need of services. Va, rep, maybe we can help you out or put you in touch with resources that will be able to provide help, shelter, guidance, home purchasing assistance, among other things. But I will let Brad talk about that and his brokerage as well as other things. And some of y'all know, mostly y'all know Mr. Ricky Barlow, well known in the community, and a politician by heart and nature. And he's going to tell you some of his story and journey that some of you folks might not know about. I'm going to start today with Brad because I got some interesting questions that I came up with. You know, I like to work on the personal side, as opposed to more just focusing on business, because I want to know who people are, what makes them tick and what makes them get their grind. So Mr. Brad Wolf, Team Wolf is what it's called, is what I'm hearing that y'all are knocking at the box. I'm gonna let you go whichever direction you want to go with the VA rep stuff, because I know that's important, but I know, I know I want to start with some of the things I found on your background, and I'm let you get into that. You're a black belt. Your father was a black belt, if I'm not mistaken, and you have two older brothers, so I got to figure out how you managed all that. Being a young man with a strong father figure, two brothers fought, you know, you had to probably scrap and fight for every piece of big chicken on the table. Tell me about some of that.
Brad Wolf 3:00
Growing up, I was actually the oldest. I got two younger brothers, and very blessed. All of us were in the military. My father was a fourth degree black belt in something called ishiru Jiu Jitsu, and he actually, like, trained in Japan. Wait, wait, say that again, is Shin ru Jiu Jitsu. It's more of like a Keto kind of, like that kind of style. But we grew up 345, years old, training, doing katas, very disciplined. My dad didn't drink. He didn't smoke. We woke up early. We started, you know, working early, like he was, just very disciplinarian.
Eric James 3:36
No wonder you joined the military. You already were living that lifestyle. The Marines and have nothing on you.
Brad Wolf 3:41
I was just gonna say, in the Marine Corps, we went through boot camp, and when people would get in trouble, they would burn you on the deck, right? They take you out and make you do push ups and jumping jacks and all that stuff. And I was so used to it. When other people would get in trouble, I would jump in and help them. I would jump in with them. You know, it was kind of, it was kind of like a game to me. Well, I didn't
Eric James 4:00
do any of that when I was in the military. If you had to do push ups, that was your push ups. I had enough of my own of running through the weeds in the desert. So now, you know, I told you, I already warned you about this one. So I know you as a more religious individual now, and we haven't known each other long, so you know, I'll preface it with that. But you have an interesting background, you know. And I asked everybody for a bio or a little personal information about them. So I have some talking points. When you were younger, you you fast that you had a temper, but you also said, I don't know if the two connected or not, but you were stabbed when you were 16 years old. Tell me about this, because I got to know what happened and and, and how you react to the situation, how that affected you,
Brad Wolf 4:42
all right? So going back, my dad didn't drink, didn't smoke, my mom gambled, smoke, drank. So we had, we had a lot of conflict growing up, right? Lots of fights, and I turned out to be really angry, angry as a very young man. And I had the discipline with martial arts. I wrestled for. In high school, boxed. That was, that was my background, very physical. And I think just that negativity, you know, living that way, it just, I think when you when you exude negativity, like that's what you get in response the stabbing, though I, I drove a loud car. It was a low rider truck, bright green and white with the big system in the back. And right after my 16th birthday, I was taking my girlfriend home from school, there was a van full of members of a Latino gang that followed me home. They started kind of calling out signs and all that stuff. And I mean, back then, I kind of like to, you know, I like to fight, like to get down and all that stuff, and walked up to the car, which is my biggest mistake, and basically said, I'm not from anywhere, but if you've got a problem, let's go. And the dude reached out of the car and stabbed me right in the chest. Wait, wait, wait,
Eric James 5:50
how many guys was this? Four guys in the car? Man, Brad, you're a good size guy, but four to one ratio, and you came out hot, like that.
Brad Wolf 5:57
I wasn't hot. I was kind of calm, but just kind of seeing what was going on, and it just it happened in a split second. And I remember back then, we didn't have a lot of money, and I had, like, an $80 polo shirt, and I just remember looking down at my shirt and seeing a hole in it, and being so mad that I had this hole in my shirt. And I was, I was in front of a house with some friends, and they went inside. The car took off. I started coughing up blood and all that stuff. I got my lung, my heart, and we called 911, and they put us on hold. A neighbor came over that saw everything go down, and she called the fire department. I got a lot of love for the fire department. They came in, and then they cut my shirt at that time, all the way up, and I remember freaking out about the shirt. Took me to UMC, and they did an x ray behind my back, found out that the knife punctured the petiole, cardio sack of the heart, and then rushed me into surgery, and I almost didn't make it, man. So I'm very I'm very blessed to be here. When I woke up. I had a lot of challenges. I had to learn how to I lost a lot of weight. I was in ICU for a long period of time, and I had to start over. But I had a new outlook on life, you know, I really did, and to this day, I contribute a lot of my success to this outlook, just just being very thankful to be here, you know.
Eric James 7:19
So give me just a taste of that, because I you out of all my guests today, for some reason, I have more questions about your life. Some of the things you got, you said, maybe some people call it a come to Jesus moment. You know, you get stabbed. Hey, you got a little bit of a temper, whatever. Because, again, all my interaction, you have a very calm demeanor. You're very he's going, I know you to be a very charitable person. I love. Why I don't one of the reasons why I joined board direct you outreach. You've used your office in December to give away presents, and we had, what, 5060, people wrapping presents to give out for in need, families and coordinating all those things. How does someone take your childhood? And I had a pretty tough childhood. I've stated on I'm pretty much an open book. You know, my father took a shotgun to his head when I was 23 and, you know, we had an abusive child, and I had a lot of anger in me for a long time, and I think I've learned to manage it or put it in check. How do you now as a father and a grandfather? I know, I'm not sure how many grandchildren, but I know you're a grandfather and you have sons, and how do you parent or take that given where you came from,
Brad Wolf 8:27
you use it. I think everything that life gives you is fuel, and it's how you use that fuel. You can use it for negativity, or you can use it for positivity, and it's literally, it's how you it's how you focus and use that fuel. And for me, it was a blessing that I'm still here. And I felt like I was here to do something for a purpose. And it just, it just helped me, you know, become a bigger, better person. And I think each day I strive to be better than the day before. And I, you know, we study principles, and I read the Bible, read scripture, I got my daily, you know, devotional, and every day, we try to apply those principles to to to help others.
Eric James 9:04
You know how this morning Brad gave me, he says, I need a little Jesus in my life. I don't know how he knows that about me. We don't know each other that well, but he's not the first person that has said it. He gave me a little, tiny Jesus figurine to put in my pocket as good luck or good karma, everything. How do you apply or balance your personal beliefs and stuff with your team at Team wolf pack. You call them because you're a broker in town. I've been to your office in Green Valley Ranch, and you seem to be successful. Your wife and you seem to work in tandem together. How do you bring your balance your personal beliefs with what your team and your business needs.
Brad Wolf 9:44
Everybody's entitled to their own belief. You know. We believe in God. We believe just in doing the right thing, and we don't force anything on anybody. Everyone's entitled to their own thing, you know. And I think collectively, the team all kind of work. We work. Together, and we work for the common good, like for us, because we are related in real estate the industry, and I think a lot of realtors and brokers out there kind of have a bad name, because people feel like they're going after the commission. And for our team, we have a banner on the wall, and it's just, you know, you do the right thing, the commissions you reward, and just always put your client first. And I think that's really what like, what makes this successful? You know, where can people get a hold of you? Email, Facebook. Am I allowed to
Brad Wolf 10:32
put my phone? I'm asking you, 702-308-0813,
Brad Wolf 10:36
or team Wolf, pack, Comm, wolf with an
Eric James 10:38
E, I always make people repeat it twice, case somebody didn't get a chance to write it down, 702-308-0813.
Brad Wolf 10:45
Or team Wolf pack.com.
Eric James 10:46
All right, Brad, I got more questions for you, but I'm gonna move on to my second guest. Make sure he gets the proper time he needs, because he's got that sultry voice now, Mr. Logan Summit, he's gonna try to take over my show, because he's a natural at this. He is. This is his field. So he's teaching me stuff as I go here, because I'm a novice at this. I'm trying to do the best I can to make it entertaining. So I'm going to let him take over a little bit. And he's born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, so you know, he's got a tough heart going with me. That cold weather out there will make you, make you a certain person, but the some Logan twin springs farm, elementary school, yeah, now, Ambler, Pennsylvania, yes, I looked it up. 7007 7000 people. Population, small town, small town. Guy now you, you've gotten travel the world, TV, radio, you do eSports, announcements. You're around celebrities, stars. How does a young kid from tiny town in Pennsylvania, or, I'm assuming you're from there or close by there, since you went to elementary school, how does that how does that happen? What motivated you?
Logan Summit 11:53
Well, first and foremost, I think since we're in Vegas, it's important to say that in all things, you have to go all in on yourself, and that's exactly what got me here today. Was not just I went to school for business. I have a degree in business management with minor in economics, and to tell my dad, who was a career coach, hey, I'm going to go do radio for $7 an hour. That was a huge move just then in my early 20s, and then moving out here to Vegas four years ago to continue my career and enrich it with eSports and all of the great things that I've been able to do on here with sports, boxing. MMA, all the stuff that I'm out here doing, you have to believe in yourself, self belief, because no one is going to come into your living room and offer you a contract. You have to go out there and earn it. And if you are not believing in yourself, then you're not going to be able to go out there and sell yourself. Because if you don't believe in yourself, no
Eric James 12:49
one else will. I think, I think that mean to me that encompasses what hashtag The grind is, because I've always said the odds of the numbers against you. I mean, Brad, you can state it. There's what, 15,000 real estate agents license in the state of Nevada for for somebody to get up in the morning said, I'm better than every one of you, and I'm going to be to the top, Ricky as a politician, the odds, the funding, the what it takes to be elected. It's a staggering but you, Logan, back to your point, you have to get up every morning and say, I can do this. And you're going to have to have to get a five minutes earlier. Brad, I know you get up at 530 morning to walk the dogs and other things, but you have to get up every morning and say, I got this. And that takes a certain level of self belief that a lot of people don't have a lot of people's own insecurities or their own I say everybody's crazy on some level. We're all dealing with hormones and enzymes and things that move us to eat or drink or whatever, procreate, we're all managing those things, but to fight through all that and get up tomorrow morning and say I'm better than those 50, 100 or 5000 people I'm competing against is a phenomenal trait, so I want to give you props and respect for that, because the numbers are against you. Now another question tell you had you, you've been in this game, whether it's professionally or amateur, for a long time. You had a campus TV show, a radio show back in college, uh, University of Hartford. If I'm a correct yes, tell me. I mean, was it just natural to you, or you just, how did that come about?
Logan Summit 14:17
All right? Well, here's the thing. I actually gave a talk here at the school communications about three weeks ago, and one of the one of the questions I asked everybody, are you utilizing the facilities that are available to you now? Are you doing a radio show? Are you doing a TV show? Are you doing an editorial in your school paper? What became very apparent to me early on was I want to be popular. And you know what? If I have the coolest TV show on campus, if I got the coolest radio show on campus, if I'm dogging people in my editorial on campus, everybody's paying attention to what I'm doing. I wanted to be part of the zeitgeist of my campus. I didn't just want to go through school and go, Hey, I'm just gonna show up to class and be there now. I wanted to be the dude that. You were like, Yo, that dude's got something going on. And it was very important to me. Also, I was friends with people in the radio industry, and they actually gave me a lot of of, hey, you can do this. A lot of great stuff,
Eric James 15:14
okay, but you played football, volleyball, lacrosse, wrestling in high school. I mean, sounds to me, you were already kind of popular. Where did I mean? Because to me, the TV show stuff sounds like I want to start a band or to get girls and stuff like that. So I mean, why radio? Why? Why TV? Why not just be the jock on campus?
Logan Summit 15:35
Well, first and foremost, if you can see me right now, I'm five seven, so basketball wasn't an option limited. Yeah, career was limited at that point. Look, I know, I knew I had the gift of gab. I knew how to communicate, and I also knew that I could hold an audience Okay, and I wanted to explore that further, and I didn't know when I started doing all of this, that it would actually transition into a career. But when I was growing up, my fondest memories are of radio shows and TV shows, of stuff that you wouldn't even think of when Bill Buckner, when the ball went through his legs in the World Series, I had a radio under my pillow because my parents told me to bed. That's what woke me up. Johnny most from the Celtics, have a check all that great stuff. I grew up with those memories, and it wasn't until I got into radio and TV and realized all of that led to this. I mean, I used to listen to Howard Stern at night before I went to bed.
Eric James 16:38
Well, okay, so do you think because you told me you've moved over 40 times in your life, and I'm assuming a lot of that was during your childhood. Do you think moving being around different social circles, ethnic groups, you know, different parts of the country, back then, before social media, had very more distinctive music styles or personality stuff? Do you think that's helped you, because now you can blend in almost any kind of I hear people with the military. Brad, maybe you can that people that move with the military, sometime they develop that, because you get this more holistic view of the nation where, now again, social media makes it easier, because you can connect with anybody on Facebook or Instagram and but back then, it changed things to be able to travel like that. And so I'm curious about that. And then you got to tell me before I head over to Ricky Mr. Barlow here, Greek god. You were the Greek god in college. You got to give me a quick on that.
Logan Summit 17:32
All right. Well, let's start with that. First, I was in a fraternity in college, and my senior year, I was Greek god, meaning I was the coolest kid in school, and I knew I was going to win when I showed up. And this girl I'd never looked at in or talked to or seen, she had just gotten into a sorority, and she goes, Oh, Summit's here. He's got this. And I was like, All right, I'm good. So that was Greek God. But moving is one of the most important and most traumatic things that you can do. First and foremost, it's great to be able to cut out the BS, because you learn who are the good people around you, and you learn the people that you want to have next to you. You don't have time for all that nonsense, because I might be here for two years, I might be here for a year, whatever it is. Man, I moved a lot, and it cuts all that on. It lets it allows you to see people for who they are, and allow you to make those connections quicker and easier. You have to agree on that, right? No.
Brad Wolf 18:27
100% I think a lot of it's just getting outside of your comfort zone, right? And like throwing yourself into something that's uncomfortable and growing, and that's how you grow.
Logan Summit 18:35
That is exactly how you grow. If you never put yourself out there, you will never be any better than you were the day before.
Eric James 18:42
So you do do eSports at the hyper X arena at the Excalibur. You're phenomenal. That's actually kind of where we met, because I was working for my production company, entertainment company, Black Rose. We were kind of meeting with some of the same people, and we met you there. Tell us briefly about your eSports, anything that you want to, you know, tell folks about and where they can find you at or reach out to you at, I'm sure your social media handles are off the
Logan Summit 19:08
hook, yeah. Well, first and foremost, the Logan summit show, that's how you can find me on all platforms. Being at the hyper X arena, this is one of the reasons that I moved to Vegas, and it's been, it's been absolutely amazing. Great production facility in there reminds me of being at ESPN, quite frankly. But what I wanted to do was transfer from traditional media into whatever this new broad landscape looks like, and that includes content creating, and eSports is a part of that streaming, YouTube, tick tock all this stuff. I don't try to do too many tick tock dances, but I'm just saying if you put yourself out there, you get something back. I saw that the landscape in media was changing, and I wanted to be first. We know we can all say this, if you're not first to market in whatever you do, you might be last.
Eric James 19:57
So he dropped it in there because he did. But he used to be a radio TV personality on ESPN back in the day, and now I got our last guest, because time goes by fast. We're almost, you know, to the back end of the show. Mr. Ricky Barlow. Oh, I could tell you a lot about this brother because we hung out once or twice. But I ain't gonna put all this dirt out here on public display. And him being a politician. Shoe. Some folks know some of his his troubling dirt. I'm going to talk about who he was as a young child, who he is now, the changes and things he's gone through in his life. First, I want to know your father. Tell me how you balance being a politician and a parent, I would think, and I know a few politicians. We had Lawrence weekly, ex commissioner and county assembly. Lawrence weekly, ex county commissioner on the show a few months back, and him and I would sit down sometime and talk about being a parent and how the public persona of what's going on with you gets infected into your children sometime, because they see you on TV. They see you traveling, they see with a lot of important people, and then they're home, or they maybe you miss a baseball game or football game, whatever they're into, and that balance had to been tremendously difficult for you.
Ricky Barlow 21:11
Eric, first and foremost, thank you for the opportunity, allowing me to be here on this Sunday morning, to take part in this great conversation with your guests, as well as to be a part of the grind, because the title of the show is very fitting to the life that I've lived all of my life, and to be the father of three children has been one of the greatest moments and continues to be in my life as It relates to my former career in politics and raising a family, I can tell you right now that my kids didn't look at me as the councilman. They looked at me as their dad. And so when I stepped in that door, you know, the title was left at the door of politician, right? And the title of dad basically came into the house.
Eric James 22:00
So your wife is the can you Hey, Mr. Big Shot, take out the trash, right?
Ricky Barlow 22:06
All of that, right? And so it was just one of those moments where I didn't allow the two to cross, because I knew, as a father, I needed to raise my children the way in which they needed to be raised, holistically, morally, spiritually, financially, mentally, emotionally, and so I needed to be readily available to them. And so I basically shut it off. You know, the light switch would come on when I was in front of the microphones and the cameras, but then the cameras will go off and the light switch will go off so that I can spend that quality time making sure that I dedicated homework, sitting talking to them about their day, and them asking me about my day, you know. So I tried never to allow the two to ever cross, but they but, you know, whenever there was an opportunity for them to be a part of what I had going on as a career, because that's how it provided for my family, they enjoyed that moment. You know, of us being able to celebrate those moments together.
Eric James 23:02
So how have you transitioned from the public life to a successful commercial real estate agent and developer? I mean, obviously you've probably made some good connections your time as a public figure, but now you're on the private sector side, almost the opposite to you know, maybe again, there's an advantage of having been on the other side. You understand some laws, licensings or other things, how things move throughout the political process, but now you've transitioned to a very successful developer and commercial real estate agent. How? How? How has that worked for you? How did that transition work?
Ricky Barlow 23:37
The transition, you know, I didn't quite understand what I was looking to do at the time when I was making that transition, but I knew that my energy was always based in the community, and so having an opportunity to sit back and Truthfully speaking, praying in my garage one day, and I just said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And it was just clear as day. He says, Do what you've been doing. I said, what is that? He says, Go and and lobby land use.
Eric James 24:02
Now you had that me, and you had that conversation, and I was going to bring it up because I didn't know, you know, if it was too personal of a moment, I I do try to dwell more on people's personal sides, because I want people to know who they are, not as what is projected on marketing or TV or the persona who they are as a person is like. Because to me, any 50% of any sales is the person the product is the product. I own a State Farm Agency, and there's 30 other State Farm agents. Why should somebody come to me over somebody else? You as a person now, you graduated from Pepperdine University, and you went to Harvard for executive leadership training. You're educated. You're a good looking master's from UNLV. See, he wanted to make sure I didn't forget nothing, right? And so you educated wise. You've served on so many boards, Children's Discovery Museum, I mean, on and on and on. The accolades are there. But at the end of the day, when you look in the mirror and you say you had that conversation, you told me I was sitting in. My garage and sitting on a chair, and I said, what's next? Or what do I got to do now? Because I got a family to take care of, and I need to, basically, in a sense, reinvent yourself, or what's the next step? And we're all getting older, and, you know, some of us have less days in front of us than they do behind us. You had that epiphany or that moment, tell me, can you tell me a little bit more about that moment.
Ricky Barlow 25:21
Yeah, like I was sharing. I mean, Truthfully speaking, I was just sitting there praying, and guy came to me just says, I'm sitting here talking to you. He was like, Do what you've been doing. He says, Go and lobby land use. And I said, Hmm, okay, and that's actually where it started. The very next day, I got up on Google and GoDaddy and started developing my website and started lobbying land use lobbyists, where I basically go out and rezone properties and business licensing, beer, wine, liquor, marijuana, special use permits through the cities in the county, counties, municipalities. And that actually is where it started. And I went through my rolodex and just started calling developers and landowners that I knew. And they said, Yeah, Ricky, we can use your assistance with helping us rezone this property, or helping us to identify the highest and best use for these parcels. And so for that, I started my company, LV access, and that was in October 1, 2018 and I've been fully operational and functioning now, having working with architects and engineers to develop land all across the country, not just here locally. And I just recently was approved to receive approval from the city council for to build 174 unit multi family apartment development.
Eric James 26:35
Okay, so, LV access, I'm assuming it means Las Vegas access. How can somebody get a hold of you.
Ricky Barlow 26:41
LV, access.com, or they may reach me via cell 70246131217024613121,
Eric James 26:51
LV, access.com, all right, so we got about, say, about a minute, minute, two minutes left in the show. I want to do one last trip around the table to my three guests. First of all, I want to thank them all for coming. For coming today. The show goes by so fast. So I'd love to have all three of you back on on future episodes, because I think every one of you could fill up a half an hour on the show. But Logan tell people again about your your your show, and how they can tune into that.
Logan Summit 27:17
Well, I'm going to be starting a bunch of new podcasts. I'm working with Bruce buffers, company, millions.co, I actually had the third most watched interview of all of last year on his platform. But what I'm really excited to talk to Brad about when we get off here is I just got a contract with the military, and I'm going to be the voice of the Blue Angels.
Eric James 27:39
All right, we got to get them in the VA rep and have them host some of our events and stuff. 100% would load it out there. Yeah, all right, Brad, one more time, where people can find you at the
Brad Wolf 27:50
Brad Wolf on Facebook or team wolf pack Comm, or my phone number 702-308-0813, or if you're interested in helping out with the veterans out here, va rep.org, V, A, R, E, P,
Eric James 28:01
dot, O, R, G, and the VA rep, again, I just was voted on to the board as the community outreach director. So you can also get a hold of me. At 70285824157028582415, if you have some veteran issues or things you want to come support, we have a gala next Friday at
Brad Wolf 28:20
six, Italian American club at what time, six o'clock, six
Eric James 28:23
to nine. And Mr. Barlow, one last word for you, sir. I want to thank you for coming on the show. I know that your story is phenomenal. Like everybody in life, you've had your ups and downs, but I see nothing but bright future for you and your family. And so thank you for coming one last time. Where can they get a hold of you?
Ricky Barlow 28:40
Ricky Barlow, at, LV, access.com. It's my email. Ricky R, I, C, K, I, B, A, R, L, O, W, at, L, V, access.com.
Eric James 28:49
702-461-3121, all right, everybody, enjoy the rest of your Sunday morning. Get that bacon and that sausage and watch if there's a game on today. Now it's a playoffs time. So hashtag the grind. Hashtag the grind. Hashtag the grind. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the grind again. My name is Eric James. We hope that today's show was two parts entertaining with a dash of education. Feel free to reach out to me at my office at 702-836-0953, and remember to always stay on your grind. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai