December 9, 2024 • 43 mins
Discover the remarkable journey of Travis Chambers, a visionary who has transformed his expertise in viral marketing into groundbreaking real estate ventures. Travis, the founder of Chamber Media, takes us through his creative transition from crafting unforgettable social media ads to boldly entering the world of unique short-term rentals in Southern Utah. Learn how he leveraged insights from Airbnb's OMG category to create Outpost X, a Star Wars-themed escape that promises guests an otherworldly experience. Travis's story is a testament to the art of spotting trends and turning them into high-reward opportunities.
In this episode we also dive into the intricate history of Boise's infamous "Boise Hole," a site riddled with failed development attempts. From its origins as the Overland Hotel to its transformation into the Zions Bank Tower, this location serves as a fascinating case study in urban development challenges and victories. Through humorous anecdotes and historical insights, we explore how each iteration of this project reflected broader themes in city growth and planning. Plus, we share a captivating untold story about the last tenant of the iconic site.
Finally, we delve into the complex world of real estate development, sharing Travis's hard-earned lessons in planning, zoning, and strategic navigation. With engaging narratives from both Travis and other notable figures like Chris Riley, who revitalizes old motels in Reno, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge on managing high-risk projects and the importance of adaptability. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned developer, the tales of overcoming early business challenges and the power of persistence will inspire and inform your own journey to success.
Travis Chambers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travis_chambers/?hl=en
Outpost X Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outpost.x/?hl=en
Follow Ahlquist on Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ahlquist/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ahlquistdev/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ahlquistdev
X (Twitter): https://x.com/ahlquistdev
Meta (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/ahlquistdev/
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ahlquistdev?si=ejOXPKRqQjtsdVFE
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have Travis
Chambers, founder of ChambersMedia, outpost X, which we'll
talk a lot about, and Go LevelUp In 2018,.
Travis was featured in theForbes 30 Under 30.
He founded Chamber Media in2014, a company that makes
scalable social videos.
He is also an entrepreneurserial entrepreneur, and his
(00:24):
latest creation is Outpost Xthat we'll talk a lot about.
Fascinating guy.
Can't wait to have him on today.
Travis Chambers.
Travis, I was just telling youI feel like I've been stalking
(00:46):
you.
Thanks for coming on today.
Okay, stalking.
I was checking out all theMaddie Rabe sent over all the
social media sites.
I'm like what doesn't this guydo?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're going to have to pull something.
We got a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Let's see when do we start.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Like the Star Wars experience or yeah, that's
always a good like.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
some crazy person, I guess so, uh, we did a kind of
we'll do a formal intro beforeyou come on.
But, um, man, you got somegreat stuff going on and and and
talk to me about, because let'sstart there and then we'll back
up into how you got there.
But, um, but you're, uh, whatdo you call your experience?
(01:29):
It's outpost x, outpost x inutah, southern utah, and you can
basically go stay in this place.
It feels like you're on adifferent planet.
Star wars theme, I mean.
Tell me how, who, who has thisidea and how does this come up?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So my last company was a video production company
for social media ads.
Okay, we made tens of thousandsof commercials over seven years
.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
It was like a I looked up, a lot of them are
hilarious.
Oh, thank you.
Very good Was that?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
all your creativity and your mind and uh, for the
most part, yeah, for the mostpart.
That's cool.
A lot of nineties comedy.
Yeah, because you know peoplethat have money are usually in
their forties, fifties, sixties.
That's who we sold most of ourstuff to, so but, uh, anyways,
so that was.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Chambers Media yes.
And that was the first companyyou started and you've sold that
since right yeah, three yearsago.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, yeah.
So it's always been a dream ofmine to build right, but I don't
have the normal skills that abuilder, a developer, is
supposed to have, because I'm aright-brained creative person
Okay, you usually don't want aright-brained creative person
building developments or doingyour performance, no.
(02:51):
So it was something I alwayswanted to do, but I, you know, I
focused on this.
This ad agency creative model,really focused on my strengths,
sold it one day, had the capital, but really the idea was we'd
build these six figure film setsfor these shoots and I often
thought how much of a shame itwas to throw these away.
And then we traveled a lot as afamily as well, and so I
thought, okay, I'm exiting thisthing, I've done this, climbed
(03:17):
this mountain.
What mountain do we climb next?
And Outpost X is kind of whatit all just culminated into.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It all just culminated in two why the
location?
And then talk about like youjust jumped some spaces right.
There's a lot of people thatexit companies what's next?
But you built a set for peopleto go stay in in Utah.
I got to hear the backstory.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, so I actually did this study.
So there's a category ofAirbnbs called the OMG category
and Airbnb, the last four orfive years, has been facing some
regulatory pushback in certaincounties and cities and so
they've tried to kind of pushinto unique stays because that's
(04:02):
not really competing withhotels, it's a different type of
thing, and so they have thisOMG category and they even did
this competition where they'regiving people $100,000 to go
build these OMG unique stays.
So what I did is I thought,well, if this multi-billion
dollar short-term rental companyis putting so much time and
(04:25):
effort in Super Bowl commercialsinto this asset, maybe that's a
good place to go.
So I pulled in all of the datafrom all those listings and had
a virtual assistant map outabout 30 different parameters of
these things.
It was the same thing I didwith Chamber Media, with ads,
(04:46):
and that's why it grew.
So I did the similar study.
So we looked at things likeproximity to an airport, square
footage, floor-to-ceiling glass,how strange and unique is it,
what type of person is stayingthere, and there were some
interesting results.
I found that small footprintrural couples getaways was the
(05:09):
highest ROI asset in thisshort-term rental market.
And then I also found out thatthe uniqueness and the
strangeness of it was a 10 outof 10 indicator of success as
well.
Probably because of thevirality and because it's a one
of a kind thing, you can'tcompare it so.
So Outpost X is just pullingthe levers on all of the
(05:32):
findings of that study.
And, um, I was limited onbudget so we bought a hundred.
We bought 240 acres for ahundred thousand dollars An hour
and a half from Zion.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Can you pull this up?
It's an hour and a half fromZion To the west.
Yes, west of Zion, yes, okay,so before you hit, what exit do
you take to get to it?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I don't remember the number, but it's the Cedar City
exit.
Okay, so you take the CedarCity exit, so it's 45 minutes
west of Cedar City and an hournorth of St George.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, great.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So you buy this acreage, we buy this acreage,
and then we start figuring itout.
We got one engineer who doesn'twant to build on a dry lake bed
Go figure.
Then we have a second engineerwho doesn't want to build on a
dry lake bed go figure.
Then we have a second engineerwho doesn't want to build on a
lake.
Then a year goes by, finallyyou find this guy crazy enough,
who builds highways, uh, anduses uh foam uh to build.
(06:35):
So the caves are actuallyfloating on foam with this thing
called zero net loading.
So a foot below soil there's noload because it's garbage soil.
I mean it's, you know it's alake bed.
So, anyways, I feel like we tookthe very most ambitious idea
you could possibly do and thendid everything twice with a
(06:55):
bunch of idiots.
You know, first time builder,first time developer, and but
you know we're a million dollarsover budget.
But I figure that's the cost ofeducation, sure, but it was
really.
I mean, this was 20, this is 21, 2022, so we're in the
construction boom and you know,the exit from chamber media was
(07:19):
way higher than it normallywould have been because
valuations were so high, but atthe same token, everything was
expensive.
I mean we couldn't get anybuilders out there, so we ended
up just getting a bunch ofhandyman guys like Craigslist
type guys out there, buildingeverything twice, doing
everything the wrong way, andyep, that's where we're at.
(07:42):
And now it's.
It's sold out, continually soldout at about 430 a night.
Did 75000 in revenue last monthoff of seven units.
Still trying to get our costsdown out there in the middle of
nowhere.
Propane costs were off grid andeverything.
But it has been the adventureof a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Wow, so you're.
I was just going to ask youjust like utility wise, you are
off grit.
You're like propane generators.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So we're I think we're about 70% solar, 30%
generators 70% solar.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So there's your power , there's your, and then septics
.
You had to put a whole watertreatment septic system in Yep.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Water tanks, pumps.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, well, fascinating.
And then put a whole watertreatment septic system in yep
water tanks, pumps well, well,fascinating.
And then you've designed it.
I mean look at that there,that's incredible.
So different, different housingoptions once you get out there,
and then you book it rightthrough airbnb, right yeah, you
know, we're actually not.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
We tried airbnb, but we've had so much virality from
influencers it's all been directbookings, wow.
So we don't have to pay thefees and stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So can you talk about who the famous people stayed
out there, or is that likeconfidential?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know, I don't think we've had any like
celebrity A-lister people outthere.
We've had a lot of influencersout there.
Okay, they're influencer,famous, right.
Yeah, one guy in particular,peter Owens, went out there.
He's an influencer.
He got 19 million views on hisvideo.
So, pretty wild fed 30 millionviews.
(09:18):
In the last two months.
About 30 influencers have goneout there, um, and I think it's
just this new.
I think it's a new kind of.
There's just a new era maybe ofthis tourism market.
There's this modern travelerand they like discovering
unusual places and when you know, we think of these big
developments.
They're usually built for babyboomers because they have the
(09:41):
money.
So you have the golf course andyou have, so there's.
It's just interesting.
I think there's this kind ofemerging asset class.
That's kind of these.
It's a unique stays asset classand just a month ago, um, a guy
who owns a few of thesedevelopments 30, 40 unit
developments put on a uniquestays summit.
So we got to meet all the otherbuilders in this space that are
(10:04):
doing this kind of.
What are some of those?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
ideas, just because it's not an industry I even knew
existed.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, there's one called the bolt family tree
house there.
They're over on the East coastand I think they're over 40, 50
units.
Now there's one called um.
Is it the Sunflower and ZionNick Entz's project?
They've got all sorts of thingslike Like ends of the home
(10:30):
builder Entz's family.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Nick Entz, yeah, Entz .
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I think he comes from a pretty big builder
family down there.
Yeah, yeah, Yep, so they've gotthat project.
They've got covered wagons andall sorts of different things.
Another friend of mine,actually from Boise, Bart
Griffin, owns the DominicanTreehouse Village, which he's
been doing for eight, nine yearsnow.
A bunch of treehouses downthere.
(10:53):
There's tons of these projects.
There's one guy in particularwho's pretty well known right
now in this niche.
His name's Isaac French.
He built a seven-un unit placein Texas called Live Oak Lake.
He built it for 2.8 million andhe sold it for seven something
million two years later and theyvalued the property at 5
(11:16):
million and then they've valuedhis email list and his social
media at 2 million.
So that's kind of like one ofthe bigger cause.
Not a lot of these people haveexited yet.
They're mostly friends andfamily, money one, one location
things.
So it'll be interesting to seewhere this little, you know,
this little niche of of realestate assets goes.
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Um, so what's what's next for for this business line
for you?
Are you building more onto itto create more units?
Are you looking at your nextunique development opportunity?
I'm just fascinated by this.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, you know, it's a lot more like a startup than a
real estate play.
Yeah, in a lot of ways it's anoperating company, right?
Yeah, there's so many newthings to figure out.
So we did just get expansionpermits for Outpost, okay, which
was great.
So we're going to add five, sixmore units there.
They're allowing us five moreunits without any big
improvements like public watersystem or widening the road.
(12:13):
And, uh, then we've got aproject in Puerto Rico that's
underway it's about halfway doneand that's a.
That's a jungle movie kind ofinfluenced down there.
And then I think the thirdproject is going to be a Viking
village.
So I've got like 50 conceptsthat I've written down and you
know, whenever I meet people, Ikind of test the ideas, and a
couple of weeks ago I justposted on Instagram.
(12:35):
I said, hey, I'm thinking aboutdoing this Viking village and I
showed some video of a Vikingmovie set that they're filming
on in Russia.
I got 2 million views and Ithought, okay, that's pretty
good validation.
And, selfishly, I'd really liketo do it somewhere on Boise.
It'd be really nice to be closeto the project, but then again,
I don't know if Boise is thebest tourism market for
(12:56):
something like that.
It would take a lot ofmarketing to get people to come
to Boise versus maybe Coloradoor Salt Lake or something like
that.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Where are you from?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I grew up in Vancouver, Washington.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Okay, Vancouver Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Wife's from Boise.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Okay, that's the connection.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You know, if you know any Featherstones?
Yeah, vaughn Featherstone.
Yeah, that's my wife's grandpa.
Okay, great, so we're pluggedinto the Boise big family.
The Boise, big family, boise.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Featherstone family Yep, that's all.
That's a great family to beplugged into.
It is.
It is I'm lucky, all right.
And kids, three kids.
How old are they?
I've got 11, nine and four Arethey?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
do they share your entrepreneurial spirit?
Yeah, they do.
Yep, the 11 year old is already.
She's.
She's running all these uh,running all these things at
school, making bets with kids,things that she knows that she
can do.
Like, hey, I bet, if I canclimb these monkey bars, I'll
bet you five bucks.
She's already running thisthing.
Yeah, she's like that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
How often do you spend time at Outpost X?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I'm there about probably every five or six weeks
for like two or three days.
Do your family go down andcheck it out and hang out.
Yeah yeah, it's been fungetting all the nephews and
nieces there.
It's been a blast.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Wow and wow, so you have someone run it for you.
How big is your staff?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We've got a property manager, we've got two cleaners
and we've got a maintenance guy,and they all live there.
The maintenance guy lives thereand the others don't.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They drive in from, say, georgia, cedar City.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, it's been a wild ride figuring this thing
out, I'll tell you, but it'sbeen fun, though, like it's been
hard but it's also been so muchfun at the same time.
But I don't know, do you haveany development projects that
you've you look back on thinkingyou know, oh, that one was
really special, or Well, I thinkyou know we're, uh, I think our
(15:00):
development's probably a littledifferent.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
We, you know, we uh, we have a theory of great land
and great places that are endusers and that's what drives
everything.
So probably pretty pro formadriven on.
Okay, can we do this based onwhat we already know?
We have signed up?
We risk mitigate pretty deeply.
So, especially now, we'vealways had kind of the same
(15:23):
formula of okay, here's the proforma, here's the land cost,
here's our building cost, here'sthe return on cost, here's your
ROI.
And so I probably would have aharder time doing some creative
stuff, to be honest with you,because we're just so numbers
driven.
But our stuff's all been prettytraditional.
(15:43):
8th and Main was probably thecraziest thing we did with the
Boise Hole.
You probably don't evenremember that back, it's before
your time.
But downtown it was a faileddevelopment for years and we
were able to come in and buildthat and that was hard.
It was during the GreatRecession, but a great
experience.
I'm very, very proud of thatproject.
It's interesting Just recentlywe had some folks come in from
(16:06):
Reno.
We're doing some work indowntown Reno and they love
downtown Boise and just gettingnostalgic and talking about what
was there and how it all went,and the whole story behind the
hole was fun to reminisce about.
That.
That's probably the that's theclosest thing I've come.
That's no Outpost X bud Like.
That's pretty, pretty meanpotato as far as development
(16:27):
goes.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It's scalable, though Right Right, it's a.
It's a really good, solid,scalable business Outpost.
So far as a good business isscalable.
Business Outpost so far is agood business.
Is it scalable?
I don't know, we'll find out.
So that development was calledthe Hole, you said.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, it's downtown Boise, it's the Zions Bank Tower
, but it was so.
It sat there for years.
It was a.
I'll tell you the story ifyou've never heard the story.
So when Boise became a city,the old Oregon Trail would come
through here and the firstcommercial building in the area
was the Overland Hotel at thecorner of 8th and Main and it
(17:07):
was the gathering place for theentire territory because it was
the only hotel and people comingout to prospect mining or
trappers or everything else thatwas going on then would stop in
Boise, and that was you know,that was the place was this
Overland Hotel.
It was the place to stay foryears.
(17:28):
And then the Eidenhaw Hotel,which is still downtown.
It's downtown Boise, beautifulold building.
It was built and the owners ofthe Overland Hotel were jealous
because the Eidenhah Hotel wasbigger and better.
So they thought, oh, we'regoing to tear down the hotel and
we're going to build a biggerhotel.
So they did.
(17:48):
They tore it down and it's aninteresting story because they
tried to get financing for thenew hotel and couldn't.
So it sat vacant for a whileand then they built the Eastman
Building and the Eastmanbuilding was a really cool old
seven story building.
It had lions heads around theoutside and it was a
professional building where ifyou talk to kind of some of the
old, old, old timers here, theyremember their grandparents
(18:10):
working there, had professionaloffices lawyers and doctors and
whatever offices lawyers anddoctors and whatever.
And uh, back when um capitalcity city development
corporation was trying to putthe mall in downtown Boise, they
were on kind of a race with themall at its current location
and so they were buying upbuildings and tearing them down.
(18:30):
And are you pulling up any ofthis?
Pull up a?
Pull up a picture.
This is like a.
This is a good pull up apicture of the Eastman building
in downtown Boise.
So they, um, they were kickingpeople out of downtown Boise,
evicting them, and they weregoing to tear all the buildings
down and put a whole.
There's the Eastman building.
So it was right on the cornerof 8th and main.
(18:50):
There's the lions at the top ofit.
I mean it's a famous, famousbuilding and then there's the
fire picture.
Look at the fire picture.
This is an interesting story.
It's funny how worlds collide.
So we do the 8th and MainBuilding in the place of where
the Eastman burned down.
And then one time I'm talkingto one of my buddies and he's
like oh, the night it burneddown.
(19:15):
It was two of my young men atmy church that burned it down,
and so they were in there doingsomething and caught the
curtains on fire and burned itto the ground.
So then there was a.
You know, right at 8th and Mainthere's a.
So what year was that, maddie?
If you look it up, I can'tremember.
It was like 19, early 80s, Ithink.
Well then it was several felled.
Developers tried to put up abuilding there.
(19:37):
It was several different things.
To put up a building there.
It was several different thingsand it had its own Twitter
account.
It was the Boise Hole and itwould tweet at people.
We still don't know who ran theTwitter account.
And it was just a Feld.
It had old boards around it andwhen we bought it to put our
building there, it was known asthe Boise Hole, famously.
So we went in and startedtalking to people and said, hey,
(19:58):
we're going to put a newbuilding on the Boise hole, and
everyone laughed at us and said,ah, you can't do it, it's never
going to work.
So, uh, yeah, that's the.
That's the story.
It was cursed One other.
One other layer of the storywhich I've never told on this
podcast is the last tenant inthe building that they kicked
out owned a Chinese restaurantthere.
His last name was Fu and legendhas it that when he was kicked
(20:21):
out he spit on the ground andcursed it and said nothing will
ever be built here and left.
So when we bought it and it wastime to do the groundbreaking,
I thought we got to find hisfamily or a descendant of his
family to come lift the curse,find his family or a descendant
of his family to come lift thecurse.
So we tried, we tried foreverto find anyone from his family
(20:42):
and could not find anyone.
So, you know, it was time forthe groundbreaking and we held
the groundbreaking in the holeand, um, I thought, you know
what it would be good to end thecurse.
So I I thought, well, what,what wouldn't be hokey or what
would be appropriate.
So I called Boise State, theirNative American Studies
Department, and I said do youhave anyone from your Native
American Studies Department thatcould come and bless the curse
(21:06):
and remove the curse?
And they said oh, yeah,absolutely.
So they hooked me up with aNative American Indian who was
one of the chiefs of the localtribe, and he said, yeah, I'll
come do it.
It's very serious, we're goingto have to have all the cameras
off and it's a serious blessingthat we give on it.
And then I said well, can we doa donation or something on
(21:27):
behalf of us for you coming inyour time?
And he's like, no, but we needto do a tobacco exchange.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Which is tough.
That's a tough one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I, which is tough, that's a tough one.
Yeah, I'm like, okay, what kindof tobacco?
And he tells me so I had a guyin my office go down to the
local smoke shop and ask forthat tobacco.
And I go take it to him and hejust laughs at me.
He's like that's not the righttobacco.
So we had to get the righttobacco.
We did an exchange but then hecame to the groundbreaking and
we turned off all the cameras.
It was awesome.
He burnt, sage, went around,did the whole thing and I didn't
(22:00):
know how people would reactbecause I thought maybe you know
, when you come to agroundbreaking you don't expect
you know some someone to toremove a curse.
But it was very reverent duringthe whole thing and then it was
over and anyway it was verywell received by everyone in the
community and building wasbuilt.
I guess the curse was lifted.
It's still there, 8th and Main,downtown Boise.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That is a cool story.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Pretty good story.
Huh yeah, historic story,historic story.
It's cool.
Two others If you ever go down.
So it's where Ruth's Chris is,downtown, on that second floor
of the building.
Moon's Cafe is there now.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Oh it was just there Saturday so.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I did two things.
We found so this building hadall these lion heads around it
and when we started going downand digging through the weeds
and rebar, in the bottom of thehole there was one of those old
lion's heads.
So I took it home and wecleaned it up and it's in the
lobby of 8th and Main now youcan see it sitting by the
fireplace.
(22:54):
And then I took a bunch of theold rebar and I went uh, there's
a, there's a lady.
She's shutting her business now, but she was an artist down on
uh in garden city.
Her name was the, her businessname was the woman of steel, and
she took, I remember, all ofthe old rebar and made that
piece of art that's rightoutside of moon's cafe, wow, and
on the wall you can see thewhole historic thing.
Anyway, I'm I'm like a historynerd.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love that stuff.
I am too, yeah, obsessed withsmall, weird towns.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Like paying tribute to the past and trying to make
sure that you say, hey, let'sremember what used to be here,
but it's fun, I'm getting so oldnow.
No one, even like you, didn'teven know who the hole was.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Might have helped if I was from
here.
I think I remember my wifetalking about that.
She might know.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
She's probably too young.
How old?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
are you 36.
?
Yeah, before then.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, a long time ago.
Anyway, tell me about yourother business ventures, because
I know you've got a few.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, it yeah.
It's just building these uniquestays right now.
Yeah, pretty much it.
It's full focus.
Social media is a big part ofwhat you do.
Yes, it is.
Yes, I think the marketing sideis why Outpost is working.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, talk about that .
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, you know, it has to be its own destination
because it's not next toanything.
It has to be its owndestination because it's not
next to anything and, to behonest, partially it was because
I built the whole thing withcash.
I ended up with a small loan atthe end because we went over
(24:32):
budget, but I was building itwith cash.
So I got something like $2.6million $2.7 million of my cash
in there from selling the othercompany.
So we had to do it, lean we.
You could really easily spend2.6 million on land in zion.
So did you have to put a roadin?
We did we.
We built a mile long road.
Yeah, it was.
It was supposed to be.
(24:52):
The county tried to make usimprove five miles of road, so I
had to fight that.
But basically, outpost X is anexperiment of can we make
something its own destination inthe middle of nowhere, and so
(25:16):
you know I've done.
We've managed about $300 millionin ad spend in my career and
drove over a billion dollars inrevenue for e-commerce companies
, and so I made tens ofthousands of commercials social
media commercials and so I tookall of that, took that Airbnb
study and just put the viralityinto the DNA of the project and
I got my start by doing viralvideo stuff.
(25:38):
Like me and my wife had thisfunny video we did and we were
on Good Morning America Tosh.0in college that got us into the
top creative agency in LA.
One day, turkish Airlines comesin and they say we want to make
the most viral ad of all time.
And here's Kobe Bryant, lionelMessi and I'm like, okay, let's
go.
And it's still, to this day,most viral out of all time, so
(25:58):
you did an ad with Kobe andMessi.
I designed the media, so can wesee it?
Uh, I don't know.
I think I think they took itdown, um, because the usage we
might be able to find a copy ofit, the Kobe's licensing, has
ended on it.
It's not this one.
If you look up the selfieshootout, you'll find it.
(26:21):
This is kind of what launchedmy career.
This is what laid thegroundwork for Chamber Media.
Yeah, this is it.
What year is this?
This is about 2014,.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I think so did you get to work with him.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, nope, I wasn't involved in the film shoot.
I was just the mediadistribution, okay and so, and I
did build the concept for this,okay, so I was tasked with.
What concept is going to work,look?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
how young Messi looks in that video Right.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, so yeah, it was the biggest influencer
activation of all time.
We had 650 influencers postabout the commercial.
We reached out to 2,000publications in dozens of
languages.
We did all sorts of pressseating stuff.
We did all the all thewitchcraft you could do back in
(27:26):
those viral video days and andthen in about I started my
agency doing viral videoinfluencer stuff and then
virality started to slow downbecause the algorithms wanted
brands to spend money on ads.
So then we kind of pivoted intodirect response and that was
the last like four years, andthat's where things really Talk
about that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
For those who don't, I mean-.
Yeah, direct response is Stillnew to a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Direct response is the type of marketing where you
want to put a dollar in, get $3out $4.
You're trying to get an ROIbased, and so a lot of
traditional marketing is verybranding based, and so they'll
measure it based off ofimpressions or reach, or brand
lift.
They'll do brand lift studies.
But Facebook and social mediakind of made things.
(28:07):
It made it so you could runvideo ads and have a lot more
tracking with it than you couldtelevision tracking with it than
you could television.
And so I kind of saw thatcoming in 2009, 2010, back when
digital spending was only 3% ofnationwide spending.
Twitter had just come out and Ithought, you know, I think this
(28:27):
is going to be big.
I wanted to go into TV, but Iknew that that was going to be a
really hard ladder to climb,and so I thought, you know,
maybe if I focus on the socialmedia thing, maybe this will be
a new wave and I can kind of.
And so it was true, Like youknow, 2014, I do this campaign.
I think I'm like 25.
And 20th Century Fox calls andthey hire me to be the social
(28:50):
media director.
So I'm working on Planet of theApes and X-Men and all these
movies and then I got firedbecause I wasn't very good.
I couldn't figure out how tonavigate Hollywood.
It was crazy.
My first daughter was born.
It was just chaos.
And so I started Chamber Mediaand then it just doubled every
(29:11):
year for seven years and then Ikind of just felt like Groundhog
Day so I listed it with abroker to sell and we got some
offers and we got $17 millionvaluation on it and we exited so
I sold on 20% of it, put 3million back in and then this
has been the new venture.
So really full circle here isis it's like a decade of making
(29:34):
viral videos and thinking howcan I incorporate that into a
hospitality experience?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Sure, so.
So it's in the DNA.
You're planning this to be ableto then market it through your
knowledge, and that's how you'regetting people to come and
you're going around everythingelse.
Is that like the layman's wayof saying?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
that Pretty much.
Yeah, we're 90% occupancy now,and so so now phase two is now I
have to um, I'm now enteringyour world, which is fundraising
and and figuring out how toreally be a developer, and
that's that it's.
It's pretty.
I'm pretty overwhelmed by it,pretty intimidated by it because
that's not my skill set and so,but you know, you probably got
(30:16):
a bunch of old guys like mesaying show me a pro forma yeah,
yeah, I do, we've got one.
We, we've been, we've got allthat stuff built.
Now an old guy or a pro forma,you hired an old guy.
I've been calling all sorts ofold guys saying I actually the
last two months I've spent amajority of my time just calling
people.
Guys call old guys saying, hey,how do I do this?
What do I do here?
What do I do here?
I've gotten a majority of mytime just calling people, old
(30:37):
guys, saying hey, how do I dothis?
What do I do here?
What do I do here?
I've gotten a lot of greatadvice on how to do it, but you
know, until you do it, you justdon't know what you're doing.
So I've got I've got a littlebit of the experience now on the
developing and building sideand especially the planning and
zoning side.
Yeah, I didn't realize that's80% of the battle.
(30:58):
Right, it's planning and zoning.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, navigating that early and often and trying to
make sure you're not making amistake.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I'm realizing that is .
It's a big deal.
That's probably the mostvaluable skill set that
developers have.
Yeah, because there's a lot ofpeople who can build, but how
many people can really figureout planning and zoning?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, and politically navigating and creating a
project that you can sell andit's a sales job right to get it
through, and so you can get thedevelopment agreement the way
it needs to be to make it work.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, it's a very important thing.
So I'm figuring that all out.
I'm just a sponge now becauseI'm getting all the financial
docs ready, the P&L, you know,the balance sheet, cash
statement, all that stuff readyand then getting all the legal
structure set up.
And it's from what I've heardI've interviewed tons of people
about this the number onerecommendation I get is to raise
(31:57):
, project by project right now,about 20 unit projects, small
enough where they're easy tokeep full.
You know, lower risk.
Um, cause it's really unique.
You don't want to go build ahundred unit, one of these
things.
That's a bad idea, you know you.
You want to go build it.
If you're gonna do a hundredunits, you want to build a
Hampton Inn or something that'sin a major area.
But so that's what I'm doingnow is I'm getting that
(32:20):
structure together and I thinkthe recommendation has been
accredited investors only around$100,000 size checks where it's
worthwhile, but it's not like ahuge part of somebody's
portfolio where there's a ton ofpressure there because it's
high risk.
This is a very high risk assetclass, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So you know, I was just thinking about young guys
that do stuff that you justdon't think about when you're an
old guy.
There's a guy in Reno who'sbecome a good friend, who he
worked for Tesla for years andhe's buying old motels and
rehabbing them in the coolestway.
But he's kind of got this.
You know, it's a 15 to 20 roombut when they're done like super
(33:07):
high end, he's putting saunasin them and it's just you go
there and you're like I wannastay here, but he's keeping some
of the old signage, keepingsome of the old nostalgic kind
of charm of these old motels,and he's done two of them.
Now what's his name?
Chris Gosh.
Let me look up his name.
(33:28):
I'm going to have Matthew pullup the—give me two seconds
because I'm going to pull thisup Look up motel remodel in Reno
, but I'm going to pull him uphere.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, I'm leaning towards the acquiring existing
property.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Chris Riley.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Chris Riley.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Chris Riley, and if you look up Chris Riley Motel in
Reno I'll bet it comes right upBelfour Property Restaurant.
He's done a couple of them, sowe may need to.
Let me just send one text here.
Anyway, I just toured it withhim.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And I'm like this is incredible.
And he's like, yeah, you gotthese assets that are sitting
here.
They got some charm to them.
And when you said that size,that's kind of his whole thesis
on it it's manageable, the leaseup, the risk.
But then the other side of itis just the revenue.
He's occupied, he's full,because you look at it you're
like, yeah, why wouldn't youstay somewhere?
(34:30):
Like this.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Just the uniqueness of it.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah, I'm going to pull this up for you because I
think you're going to find itpretty cool, cool yeah, I think
the insight there that I'marriving to is on the future
projects I really prefer to.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I really prefer to to acquire existing projects that
already have all theentitlements and planning zoning
.
Doing it from scratch wasreally hard and it just takes
forever.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, building from ground up and so, yeah, I mean
that's that, that is the, thatis the.
The hard part of this right isinfrastructure and, just yeah,
all those cost per square footthat then you have to add into
your project to make it work,did you find it?
I'm getting, I'm getting itright now.
Uh, there it is oh cool.
(35:14):
Oh, so he fully leaned into theGo back, matty, it's the go down
.
One more picture down.
One more over where the redmotel sign is right there.
That's not it either.
I'm going to get it, I justtext him.
Well, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You love Boise.
I love Boise, man.
It's not the most ideal placefor what I do for a living or
what I have done.
I built the last company,started in LA, moved it to
American Fork, utah, so that'swhere it was.
That's where it still is, butI've actually had a hard time
(36:01):
finding people in Boise for thisstuff to work with In Utah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
I just feel like I'm so hyper connected down there
and there's I feel like there'sso many entrepreneurs and
creatives don't you think theUtah, that whole mark, that
whole, that whole American Fork,utah County, kind of it, is
ripe with people, ideas andeveryone's so talented.
Do you know, travis Hawks uphere, travis Hawks, up here,
travis Hawks, I don't think I do, I'll get you in touch with
Travis.
He's like all over this kind ofstuff and new businesses and
(36:25):
venture capital and he'sbrilliant.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, I've been looking for a long time for that
partner that I need because mylast company I had this intern.
I ended up giving him equityand we were just.
You know, I haven't found thatguy yet.
I've been trying Because I gota.
That developing side is I knowit's going to get me if I don't
have the right person.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Reno, so it's bestbetmotorlodgecom.
Bestbetmotorlodgecom.
Wait until you see this isgoing to blow your mind.
This thing is so cool, so cool,so best.
Yeah, click on that thing andthen see if there's like a
gallery.
It is so cool.
(37:11):
So those are his rooms, that'shis lobby.
And then he built in this saunaclub that you don't have to
stay at the hotel if you want tobe, and he put in like cold
shower and sauna in the thing.
It is just, and it's this oldmotel.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
So much charm, so cool.
And him and his wife run up.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
People are just craving this uniqueness.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I think I have this there it is 21 rooms, are 21
rooms and they're all.
You go in them and they just,they're clean, they're amazing,
you're like I want to stay herenext time I come to reno that's
so cool.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, I think.
I think, um, my theory is thatin in the us, um, you know,
finance people make most of thedecisions on what gets built and
, generally speaking, financepeople aren't super creative, so
a lot of what gets built endsup making sense in a finance
perspective, but sometimes itjust it lacks this, you know,
and they'll hire a designer andthe designer's good.
(38:06):
But I think a lot of timesthings get a little watered down
, you know, and so we just got alot of buildings.
In general, I feel like in theUnited States that are just
pretty standard two by four-fourconstruction.
But when you leave America it'smore vibrant.
Like you go to Mexico or Europe, it's just more vibrant.
Europe's a little different.
(38:26):
I think a lot of that stuff wasbuilt with slave labor.
I'm not sure there's some.
I look at the stonework and I'mlike there's something
questionable about this buildingthat we can't do anymore until
it's.
You can do it with robots orsomething, but but, yeah, I
(38:47):
think people are craving this.
I think too, you know, um, Ithink your, uh, your kind of
market for hospitality is, uh,it's just a new generation.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Look up his other one , it's the Jesse Renocom J E S S
E the Jesse Renocom.
But it these are the two that Itoured with him that he's done
over there, but it's just, it'sjust.
It's awesome.
When you can take what I likeabout it, is he, he, you know,
it's this, it's this glimpseback at history and and what's
(39:11):
cool and I think that whole vibeof, of, of reusing and I don't
know it's, it's, it's a, it's ayoung guy's game, but it's like,
how do we take the past, reusethis stuff, make it cool again?
And, um boy, he's done it.
He's done it in a real way overthere.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
That was so cool.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Well, hey, this has been fantastic.
Um, any advice you'd?
Oh, one more question, cause Ithink this is just the world you
live in.
Um, I and Matthew and I talkabout this all the time, but I
think the world we live in isgetting more used to.
I mean, if you're not, you'rebehind right To the new way of
advertising, the new way ofreaching people, the new way of
all this stuff.
Any advice you'd give forentrepreneurs out there that are
(39:48):
starting a new business or havean existing business, a legacy
business, and are thinking ofokay, how do I, you know, where
do I take this to the next level, understanding the future of
marketing, the future of how weinteract with people?
Any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, you know, my dad growing up used to say if
you build it, they will come.
If you don't suck at marketing,he loved to fill the dreams.
I think too often entrepreneursthink that the product is going
to make the thing work, but inmy experience, working with
hundreds of brands and products,it's usually the marketing that
(40:25):
makes it work, and obviouslythe product has to be good.
Just have to experiment withall of the different channels,
whether it's social media, adsor influencers or email, or you
got to test everything, andthat's hard when you don't have
(40:47):
a ton of capital, a ton of cash.
But I'll tell you, once youfind the one scalable channel,
everything changes With ChamberMedia one day.
You know we're an ad agency,but why don't we run ads?
You know no one was doing thatat the time and it scaled, like
you know, 3 million to 6 millionto 14 million three years
(41:07):
because of that, and so I thinkit's just these companies that
are coming up.
It's always one channel thatscales and you just have to find
it?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
How do you navigate?
I really like what you said,because sometimes you don't know
going into it right.
In fact, it's what you don'tknow that's probably going to
make you successful.
It's having patience while youfigure that out right, because I
think a lot of people, I thinka couple of businesses I've
started where we ended up withthe value that we brought was
not where we started.
In fact.
It was a lot of hard work andkind of you called it testing
(41:36):
channels.
But it was like what is ourniche?
How is it going to work?
How are we going to reachpeople?
And then all of a sudden you'relike, oh, that's the thing that
makes money.
And then all of a sudden youscale it.
But those early days sometimesare tough.
Any advice for getting throughthose?
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, you just have to get, you have to pay for the
education, do the experiments.
Tony Robbins always says wentto his thing.
He says people always say, well, we've tried everything.
It's like, well, you haven'ttried everything, there's a
thousand things to try, and soyou got to experiment until you
(42:13):
figure it out.
And you got to have the capitalto do that.
So that's why I tell people who,like me, I didn't have capital,
I didn't know any wealthypeople and I didn't have any
good ideas, so I started aservice company.
So people that are in thatsituation, like I was, I
recommend start a servicebusiness, sell your time first
(42:33):
and then, once you sell yourtime, then you could sell other
people's time, then you canbuild up the capital to
experiment and everything goesservices, tech, assets.
So we scaled the services side,got some capital, then we did a
little bit of tech and then weexited.
So now I'm trying to do theasset game, which is obviously
(42:54):
much harder.
It takes forever, but I'mdedicated to getting to that
next level because I already didthe service thing.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yeah, so great advice , great advice.
Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Thank you, yeah, it's been fun getting to know you.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Thank you Okay.
Thanks, buddy, thanks everybody.
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have Travis
Chambers, founder of ChambersMedia, outpost X, which we'll
talk a lot about, and Go LevelUp In 2018,.
Travis was featured in theForbes 30 Under 30.
He founded Chamber Media in2014, a company that makes
scalable social videos.
He is also an entrepreneurserial entrepreneur, and his
(00:24):
latest creation is Outpost Xthat we'll talk a lot about.
Fascinating guy.
Can't wait to have him on today.
Travis Chambers.
Travis, I was just telling youI feel like I've been stalking
(00:46):
you.
Thanks for coming on today.
Okay, stalking.
I was checking out all theMaddie Rabe sent over all the
social media sites.
I'm like what doesn't this guydo?
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're going to have to pull something.
We got a lot of stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Let's see when do we start.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Let's see.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Like the Star Wars experience or yeah, that's
always a good like.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Who does that?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
some crazy person, I guess so, uh, we did a kind of
we'll do a formal intro beforeyou come on.
But, um, man, you got somegreat stuff going on and and and
talk to me about, because let'sstart there and then we'll back
up into how you got there.
But, um, but you're, uh, whatdo you call your experience?
(01:29):
It's outpost x, outpost x inutah, southern utah, and you can
basically go stay in this place.
It feels like you're on adifferent planet.
Star wars theme, I mean.
Tell me how, who, who has thisidea and how does this come up?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So my last company was a video production company
for social media ads.
Okay, we made tens of thousandsof commercials over seven years
.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
It was like a I looked up, a lot of them are
hilarious.
Oh, thank you.
Very good Was that?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
all your creativity and your mind and uh, for the
most part, yeah, for the mostpart.
That's cool.
A lot of nineties comedy.
Yeah, because you know peoplethat have money are usually in
their forties, fifties, sixties.
That's who we sold most of ourstuff to, so but, uh, anyways,
so that was.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Chambers Media yes.
And that was the first companyyou started and you've sold that
since right yeah, three yearsago.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Okay, yeah.
So it's always been a dream ofmine to build right, but I don't
have the normal skills that abuilder, a developer, is
supposed to have, because I'm aright-brained creative person
Okay, you usually don't want aright-brained creative person
building developments or doingyour performance, no.
(02:51):
So it was something I alwayswanted to do, but I, you know, I
focused on this.
This ad agency creative model,really focused on my strengths,
sold it one day, had the capital, but really the idea was we'd
build these six figure film setsfor these shoots and I often
thought how much of a shame itwas to throw these away.
And then we traveled a lot as afamily as well, and so I
thought, okay, I'm exiting thisthing, I've done this, climbed
(03:17):
this mountain.
What mountain do we climb next?
And Outpost X is kind of whatit all just culminated into.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It all just culminated in two why the
location?
And then talk about like youjust jumped some spaces right.
There's a lot of people thatexit companies what's next?
But you built a set for peopleto go stay in in Utah.
I got to hear the backstory.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, so I actually did this study.
So there's a category ofAirbnbs called the OMG category
and Airbnb, the last four orfive years, has been facing some
regulatory pushback in certaincounties and cities and so
they've tried to kind of pushinto unique stays because that's
(04:02):
not really competing withhotels, it's a different type of
thing, and so they have thisOMG category and they even did
this competition where they'regiving people $100,000 to go
build these OMG unique stays.
So what I did is I thought,well, if this multi-billion
dollar short-term rental companyis putting so much time and
(04:25):
effort in Super Bowl commercialsinto this asset, maybe that's a
good place to go.
So I pulled in all of the datafrom all those listings and had
a virtual assistant map outabout 30 different parameters of
these things.
It was the same thing I didwith Chamber Media, with ads,
(04:46):
and that's why it grew.
So I did the similar study.
So we looked at things likeproximity to an airport, square
footage, floor-to-ceiling glass,how strange and unique is it,
what type of person is stayingthere, and there were some
interesting results.
I found that small footprintrural couples getaways was the
(05:09):
highest ROI asset in thisshort-term rental market.
And then I also found out thatthe uniqueness and the
strangeness of it was a 10 outof 10 indicator of success as
well.
Probably because of thevirality and because it's a one
of a kind thing, you can'tcompare it so.
So Outpost X is just pullingthe levers on all of the
(05:32):
findings of that study.
And, um, I was limited onbudget so we bought a hundred.
We bought 240 acres for ahundred thousand dollars An hour
and a half from Zion.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Can you pull this up?
It's an hour and a half fromZion To the west.
Yes, west of Zion, yes, okay,so before you hit, what exit do
you take to get to it?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I don't remember the number, but it's the Cedar City
exit.
Okay, so you take the CedarCity exit, so it's 45 minutes
west of Cedar City and an hournorth of St George.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, great.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
So you buy this acreage, we buy this acreage,
and then we start figuring itout.
We got one engineer who doesn'twant to build on a dry lake bed
Go figure.
Then we have a second engineerwho doesn't want to build on a
dry lake bed go figure.
Then we have a second engineerwho doesn't want to build on a
lake.
Then a year goes by, finallyyou find this guy crazy enough,
who builds highways, uh, anduses uh foam uh to build.
(06:35):
So the caves are actuallyfloating on foam with this thing
called zero net loading.
So a foot below soil there's noload because it's garbage soil.
I mean it's, you know it's alake bed.
So, anyways, I feel like we tookthe very most ambitious idea
you could possibly do and thendid everything twice with a
(06:55):
bunch of idiots.
You know, first time builder,first time developer, and but
you know we're a million dollarsover budget.
But I figure that's the cost ofeducation, sure, but it was
really.
I mean, this was 20, this is 21, 2022, so we're in the
construction boom and you know,the exit from chamber media was
(07:19):
way higher than it normallywould have been because
valuations were so high, but atthe same token, everything was
expensive.
I mean we couldn't get anybuilders out there, so we ended
up just getting a bunch ofhandyman guys like Craigslist
type guys out there, buildingeverything twice, doing
everything the wrong way, andyep, that's where we're at.
(07:42):
And now it's.
It's sold out, continually soldout at about 430 a night.
Did 75000 in revenue last monthoff of seven units.
Still trying to get our costsdown out there in the middle of
nowhere.
Propane costs were off grid andeverything.
But it has been the adventureof a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Wow, so you're.
I was just going to ask youjust like utility wise, you are
off grit.
You're like propane generators.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So we're I think we're about 70% solar, 30%
generators 70% solar.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So there's your power , there's your, and then septics
.
You had to put a whole watertreatment septic system in Yep.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Water tanks, pumps.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, well, fascinating.
And then put a whole watertreatment septic system in yep
water tanks, pumps well, well,fascinating.
And then you've designed it.
I mean look at that there,that's incredible.
So different, different housingoptions once you get out there,
and then you book it rightthrough airbnb, right yeah, you
know, we're actually not.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
We tried airbnb, but we've had so much virality from
influencers it's all been directbookings, wow.
So we don't have to pay thefees and stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
So can you talk about who the famous people stayed
out there, or is that likeconfidential?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
You know, I don't think we've had any like
celebrity A-lister people outthere.
We've had a lot of influencersout there.
Okay, they're influencer,famous, right.
Yeah, one guy in particular,peter Owens, went out there.
He's an influencer.
He got 19 million views on hisvideo.
So, pretty wild fed 30 millionviews.
(09:18):
In the last two months.
About 30 influencers have goneout there, um, and I think it's
just this new.
I think it's a new kind of.
There's just a new era maybe ofthis tourism market.
There's this modern travelerand they like discovering
unusual places and when you know, we think of these big
developments.
They're usually built for babyboomers because they have the
(09:41):
money.
So you have the golf course andyou have, so there's.
It's just interesting.
I think there's this kind ofemerging asset class.
That's kind of these.
It's a unique stays asset classand just a month ago, um, a guy
who owns a few of thesedevelopments 30, 40 unit
developments put on a uniquestays summit.
So we got to meet all the otherbuilders in this space that are
(10:04):
doing this kind of.
What are some of those?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
ideas, just because it's not an industry I even knew
existed.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, there's one called the bolt family tree
house there.
They're over on the East coastand I think they're over 40, 50
units.
Now there's one called um.
Is it the Sunflower and ZionNick Entz's project?
They've got all sorts of thingslike Like ends of the home
(10:30):
builder Entz's family.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Nick Entz, yeah, Entz .
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, I think he comes from a pretty big builder
family down there.
Yeah, yeah, Yep, so they've gotthat project.
They've got covered wagons andall sorts of different things.
Another friend of mine,actually from Boise, Bart
Griffin, owns the DominicanTreehouse Village, which he's
been doing for eight, nine yearsnow.
A bunch of treehouses downthere.
(10:53):
There's tons of these projects.
There's one guy in particularwho's pretty well known right
now in this niche.
His name's Isaac French.
He built a seven-un unit placein Texas called Live Oak Lake.
He built it for 2.8 million andhe sold it for seven something
million two years later and theyvalued the property at 5
(11:16):
million and then they've valuedhis email list and his social
media at 2 million.
So that's kind of like one ofthe bigger cause.
Not a lot of these people haveexited yet.
They're mostly friends andfamily, money one, one location
things.
So it'll be interesting to seewhere this little, you know,
this little niche of of realestate assets goes.
It's incredible.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Um, so what's what's next for for this business line
for you?
Are you building more onto itto create more units?
Are you looking at your nextunique development opportunity?
I'm just fascinated by this.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, you know, it's a lot more like a startup than a
real estate play.
Yeah, in a lot of ways it's anoperating company, right?
Yeah, there's so many newthings to figure out.
So we did just get expansionpermits for Outpost, okay, which
was great.
So we're going to add five, sixmore units there.
They're allowing us five moreunits without any big
improvements like public watersystem or widening the road.
(12:13):
And, uh, then we've got aproject in Puerto Rico that's
underway it's about halfway doneand that's a.
That's a jungle movie kind ofinfluenced down there.
And then I think the thirdproject is going to be a Viking
village.
So I've got like 50 conceptsthat I've written down and you
know, whenever I meet people, Ikind of test the ideas, and a
couple of weeks ago I justposted on Instagram.
(12:35):
I said, hey, I'm thinking aboutdoing this Viking village and I
showed some video of a Vikingmovie set that they're filming
on in Russia.
I got 2 million views and Ithought, okay, that's pretty
good validation.
And, selfishly, I'd really liketo do it somewhere on Boise.
It'd be really nice to be closeto the project, but then again,
I don't know if Boise is thebest tourism market for
(12:56):
something like that.
It would take a lot ofmarketing to get people to come
to Boise versus maybe Coloradoor Salt Lake or something like
that.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Where are you from?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I grew up in Vancouver, Washington.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Okay, Vancouver Washington.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Wife's from Boise.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Okay, that's the connection.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You know, if you know any Featherstones?
Yeah, vaughn Featherstone.
Yeah, that's my wife's grandpa.
Okay, great, so we're pluggedinto the Boise big family.
The Boise, big family, boise.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Featherstone family Yep, that's all.
That's a great family to beplugged into.
It is.
It is I'm lucky, all right.
And kids, three kids.
How old are they?
I've got 11, nine and four Arethey?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
do they share your entrepreneurial spirit?
Yeah, they do.
Yep, the 11 year old is already.
She's.
She's running all these uh,running all these things at
school, making bets with kids,things that she knows that she
can do.
Like, hey, I bet, if I canclimb these monkey bars, I'll
bet you five bucks.
She's already running thisthing.
Yeah, she's like that.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
How often do you spend time at Outpost X?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I'm there about probably every five or six weeks
for like two or three days.
Do your family go down andcheck it out and hang out.
Yeah yeah, it's been fungetting all the nephews and
nieces there.
It's been a blast.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Wow and wow, so you have someone run it for you.
How big is your staff?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We've got a property manager, we've got two cleaners
and we've got a maintenance guy,and they all live there.
The maintenance guy lives thereand the others don't.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
They drive in from, say, georgia, cedar City.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Yeah, it's been a wild ride figuring this thing
out, I'll tell you, but it'sbeen fun, though, like it's been
hard but it's also been so muchfun at the same time.
But I don't know, do you haveany development projects that
you've you look back on thinkingyou know, oh, that one was
really special, or Well, I thinkyou know we're, uh, I think our
(15:00):
development's probably a littledifferent.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
We, you know, we uh, we have a theory of great land
and great places that are endusers and that's what drives
everything.
So probably pretty pro formadriven on.
Okay, can we do this based onwhat we already know?
We have signed up?
We risk mitigate pretty deeply.
So, especially now, we'vealways had kind of the same
(15:23):
formula of okay, here's the proforma, here's the land cost,
here's our building cost, here'sthe return on cost, here's your
ROI.
And so I probably would have aharder time doing some creative
stuff, to be honest with you,because we're just so numbers
driven.
But our stuff's all been prettytraditional.
(15:43):
8th and Main was probably thecraziest thing we did with the
Boise Hole.
You probably don't evenremember that back, it's before
your time.
But downtown it was a faileddevelopment for years and we
were able to come in and buildthat and that was hard.
It was during the GreatRecession, but a great
experience.
I'm very, very proud of thatproject.
It's interesting Just recentlywe had some folks come in from
(16:06):
Reno.
We're doing some work indowntown Reno and they love
downtown Boise and just gettingnostalgic and talking about what
was there and how it all went,and the whole story behind the
hole was fun to reminisce about.
That.
That's probably the that's theclosest thing I've come.
That's no Outpost X bud Like.
That's pretty, pretty meanpotato as far as development
(16:27):
goes.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
It's scalable, though Right Right, it's a.
It's a really good, solid,scalable business Outpost.
So far as a good business isscalable.
Business Outpost so far is agood business.
Is it scalable?
I don't know, we'll find out.
So that development was calledthe Hole, you said.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, it's downtown Boise, it's the Zions Bank Tower
, but it was so.
It sat there for years.
It was a.
I'll tell you the story ifyou've never heard the story.
So when Boise became a city,the old Oregon Trail would come
through here and the firstcommercial building in the area
was the Overland Hotel at thecorner of 8th and Main and it
(17:07):
was the gathering place for theentire territory because it was
the only hotel and people comingout to prospect mining or
trappers or everything else thatwas going on then would stop in
Boise, and that was you know,that was the place was this
Overland Hotel.
It was the place to stay foryears.
(17:28):
And then the Eidenhaw Hotel,which is still downtown.
It's downtown Boise, beautifulold building.
It was built and the owners ofthe Overland Hotel were jealous
because the Eidenhah Hotel wasbigger and better.
So they thought, oh, we'regoing to tear down the hotel and
we're going to build a biggerhotel.
So they did.
(17:48):
They tore it down and it's aninteresting story because they
tried to get financing for thenew hotel and couldn't.
So it sat vacant for a whileand then they built the Eastman
Building and the Eastmanbuilding was a really cool old
seven story building.
It had lions heads around theoutside and it was a
professional building where ifyou talk to kind of some of the
old, old, old timers here, theyremember their grandparents
(18:10):
working there, had professionaloffices lawyers and doctors and
whatever offices lawyers anddoctors and whatever.
And uh, back when um capitalcity city development
corporation was trying to putthe mall in downtown Boise, they
were on kind of a race with themall at its current location
and so they were buying upbuildings and tearing them down.
(18:30):
And are you pulling up any ofthis?
Pull up a?
Pull up a picture.
This is like a.
This is a good pull up apicture of the Eastman building
in downtown Boise.
So they, um, they were kickingpeople out of downtown Boise,
evicting them, and they weregoing to tear all the buildings
down and put a whole.
There's the Eastman building.
So it was right on the cornerof 8th and main.
(18:50):
There's the lions at the top ofit.
I mean it's a famous, famousbuilding and then there's the
fire picture.
Look at the fire picture.
This is an interesting story.
It's funny how worlds collide.
So we do the 8th and MainBuilding in the place of where
the Eastman burned down.
And then one time I'm talkingto one of my buddies and he's
like oh, the night it burneddown.
(19:15):
It was two of my young men atmy church that burned it down,
and so they were in there doingsomething and caught the
curtains on fire and burned itto the ground.
So then there was a.
You know, right at 8th and Mainthere's a.
So what year was that, maddie?
If you look it up, I can'tremember.
It was like 19, early 80s, Ithink.
Well then it was several felled.
Developers tried to put up abuilding there.
(19:37):
It was several different things.
To put up a building there.
It was several different thingsand it had its own Twitter
account.
It was the Boise Hole and itwould tweet at people.
We still don't know who ran theTwitter account.
And it was just a Feld.
It had old boards around it andwhen we bought it to put our
building there, it was known asthe Boise Hole, famously.
So we went in and startedtalking to people and said, hey,
(19:58):
we're going to put a newbuilding on the Boise hole, and
everyone laughed at us and said,ah, you can't do it, it's never
going to work.
So, uh, yeah, that's the.
That's the story.
It was cursed One other.
One other layer of the storywhich I've never told on this
podcast is the last tenant inthe building that they kicked
out owned a Chinese restaurantthere.
His last name was Fu and legendhas it that when he was kicked
(20:21):
out he spit on the ground andcursed it and said nothing will
ever be built here and left.
So when we bought it and it wastime to do the groundbreaking,
I thought we got to find hisfamily or a descendant of his
family to come lift the curse,find his family or a descendant
of his family to come lift thecurse.
So we tried, we tried foreverto find anyone from his family
(20:42):
and could not find anyone.
So, you know, it was time forthe groundbreaking and we held
the groundbreaking in the holeand, um, I thought, you know
what it would be good to end thecurse.
So I I thought, well, what,what wouldn't be hokey or what
would be appropriate.
So I called Boise State, theirNative American Studies
Department, and I said do youhave anyone from your Native
American Studies Department thatcould come and bless the curse
(21:06):
and remove the curse?
And they said oh, yeah,absolutely.
So they hooked me up with aNative American Indian who was
one of the chiefs of the localtribe, and he said, yeah, I'll
come do it.
It's very serious, we're goingto have to have all the cameras
off and it's a serious blessingthat we give on it.
And then I said well, can we doa donation or something on
(21:27):
behalf of us for you coming inyour time?
And he's like, no, but we needto do a tobacco exchange.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Which is tough.
That's a tough one, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I, which is tough, that's a tough one.
Yeah, I'm like, okay, what kindof tobacco?
And he tells me so I had a guyin my office go down to the
local smoke shop and ask forthat tobacco.
And I go take it to him and hejust laughs at me.
He's like that's not the righttobacco.
So we had to get the righttobacco.
We did an exchange but then hecame to the groundbreaking and
we turned off all the cameras.
It was awesome.
He burnt, sage, went around,did the whole thing and I didn't
(22:00):
know how people would reactbecause I thought maybe you know
, when you come to agroundbreaking you don't expect
you know some someone to toremove a curse.
But it was very reverent duringthe whole thing and then it was
over and anyway it was verywell received by everyone in the
community and building wasbuilt.
I guess the curse was lifted.
It's still there, 8th and Main,downtown Boise.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
That is a cool story.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Pretty good story.
Huh yeah, historic story,historic story.
It's cool.
Two others If you ever go down.
So it's where Ruth's Chris is,downtown, on that second floor
of the building.
Moon's Cafe is there now.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Oh it was just there Saturday so.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I did two things.
We found so this building hadall these lion heads around it
and when we started going downand digging through the weeds
and rebar, in the bottom of thehole there was one of those old
lion's heads.
So I took it home and wecleaned it up and it's in the
lobby of 8th and Main now youcan see it sitting by the
fireplace.
(22:54):
And then I took a bunch of theold rebar and I went uh, there's
a, there's a lady.
She's shutting her business now, but she was an artist down on
uh in garden city.
Her name was the, her businessname was the woman of steel, and
she took, I remember, all ofthe old rebar and made that
piece of art that's rightoutside of moon's cafe, wow, and
on the wall you can see thewhole historic thing.
Anyway, I'm I'm like a historynerd.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I love that stuff.
I am too, yeah, obsessed withsmall, weird towns.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Like paying tribute to the past and trying to make
sure that you say, hey, let'sremember what used to be here,
but it's fun, I'm getting so oldnow.
No one, even like you, didn'teven know who the hole was.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah Might have helped if I was from
here.
I think I remember my wifetalking about that.
She might know.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
She's probably too young.
How old?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
are you 36.
?
Yeah, before then.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, a long time ago.
Anyway, tell me about yourother business ventures, because
I know you've got a few.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, it yeah.
It's just building these uniquestays right now.
Yeah, pretty much it.
It's full focus.
Social media is a big part ofwhat you do.
Yes, it is.
Yes, I think the marketing sideis why Outpost is working.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, talk about that .
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, you know, it has to be its own destination
because it's not next toanything.
It has to be its owndestination because it's not
next to anything and, to behonest, partially it was because
I built the whole thing withcash.
I ended up with a small loan atthe end because we went over
(24:32):
budget, but I was building itwith cash.
So I got something like $2.6million $2.7 million of my cash
in there from selling the othercompany.
So we had to do it, lean we.
You could really easily spend2.6 million on land in zion.
So did you have to put a roadin?
We did we.
We built a mile long road.
Yeah, it was.
It was supposed to be.
(24:52):
The county tried to make usimprove five miles of road, so I
had to fight that.
But basically, outpost X is anexperiment of can we make
something its own destination inthe middle of nowhere, and so
(25:16):
you know I've done.
We've managed about $300 millionin ad spend in my career and
drove over a billion dollars inrevenue for e-commerce companies
, and so I made tens ofthousands of commercials social
media commercials and so I tookall of that, took that Airbnb
study and just put the viralityinto the DNA of the project and
I got my start by doing viralvideo stuff.
(25:38):
Like me and my wife had thisfunny video we did and we were
on Good Morning America Tosh.0in college that got us into the
top creative agency in LA.
One day, turkish Airlines comesin and they say we want to make
the most viral ad of all time.
And here's Kobe Bryant, lionelMessi and I'm like, okay, let's
go.
And it's still, to this day,most viral out of all time, so
(25:58):
you did an ad with Kobe andMessi.
I designed the media, so can wesee it?
Uh, I don't know.
I think I think they took itdown, um, because the usage we
might be able to find a copy ofit, the Kobe's licensing, has
ended on it.
It's not this one.
If you look up the selfieshootout, you'll find it.
(26:21):
This is kind of what launchedmy career.
This is what laid thegroundwork for Chamber Media.
Yeah, this is it.
What year is this?
This is about 2014,.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
I think so did you get to work with him.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
No, nope, I wasn't involved in the film shoot.
I was just the mediadistribution, okay and so, and I
did build the concept for this,okay, so I was tasked with.
What concept is going to work,look?
Speaker 1 (26:55):
how young Messi looks in that video Right.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, so yeah, it was the biggest influencer
activation of all time.
We had 650 influencers postabout the commercial.
We reached out to 2,000publications in dozens of
languages.
We did all sorts of pressseating stuff.
We did all the all thewitchcraft you could do back in
(27:26):
those viral video days and andthen in about I started my
agency doing viral videoinfluencer stuff and then
virality started to slow downbecause the algorithms wanted
brands to spend money on ads.
So then we kind of pivoted intodirect response and that was
the last like four years, andthat's where things really Talk
about that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
For those who don't, I mean-.
Yeah, direct response is Stillnew to a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Direct response is the type of marketing where you
want to put a dollar in, get $3out $4.
You're trying to get an ROIbased, and so a lot of
traditional marketing is verybranding based, and so they'll
measure it based off ofimpressions or reach, or brand
lift.
They'll do brand lift studies.
But Facebook and social mediakind of made things.
(28:07):
It made it so you could runvideo ads and have a lot more
tracking with it than you couldtelevision tracking with it than
you could television.
And so I kind of saw thatcoming in 2009, 2010, back when
digital spending was only 3% ofnationwide spending.
Twitter had just come out and Ithought, you know, I think this
(28:27):
is going to be big.
I wanted to go into TV, but Iknew that that was going to be a
really hard ladder to climb,and so I thought, you know,
maybe if I focus on the socialmedia thing, maybe this will be
a new wave and I can kind of.
And so it was true, Like youknow, 2014, I do this campaign.
I think I'm like 25.
And 20th Century Fox calls andthey hire me to be the social
(28:50):
media director.
So I'm working on Planet of theApes and X-Men and all these
movies and then I got firedbecause I wasn't very good.
I couldn't figure out how tonavigate Hollywood.
It was crazy.
My first daughter was born.
It was just chaos.
And so I started Chamber Mediaand then it just doubled every
(29:11):
year for seven years and then Ikind of just felt like Groundhog
Day so I listed it with abroker to sell and we got some
offers and we got $17 millionvaluation on it and we exited so
I sold on 20% of it, put 3million back in and then this
has been the new venture.
So really full circle here isis it's like a decade of making
(29:34):
viral videos and thinking howcan I incorporate that into a
hospitality experience?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Sure, so.
So it's in the DNA.
You're planning this to be ableto then market it through your
knowledge, and that's how you'regetting people to come and
you're going around everythingelse.
Is that like the layman's wayof saying?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
that Pretty much.
Yeah, we're 90% occupancy now,and so so now phase two is now I
have to um, I'm now enteringyour world, which is fundraising
and and figuring out how toreally be a developer, and
that's that it's.
It's pretty.
I'm pretty overwhelmed by it,pretty intimidated by it because
that's not my skill set and so,but you know, you probably got
(30:16):
a bunch of old guys like mesaying show me a pro forma yeah,
yeah, I do, we've got one.
We, we've been, we've got allthat stuff built.
Now an old guy or a pro forma,you hired an old guy.
I've been calling all sorts ofold guys saying I actually the
last two months I've spent amajority of my time just calling
people.
Guys call old guys saying, hey,how do I do this?
What do I do here?
What do I do here?
I've gotten a majority of mytime just calling people, old
(30:37):
guys, saying hey, how do I dothis?
What do I do here?
What do I do here?
I've gotten a lot of greatadvice on how to do it, but you
know, until you do it, you justdon't know what you're doing.
So I've got I've got a littlebit of the experience now on the
developing and building sideand especially the planning and
zoning side.
Yeah, I didn't realize that's80% of the battle.
(30:58):
Right, it's planning and zoning.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, navigating that early and often and trying to
make sure you're not making amistake.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I'm realizing that is .
It's a big deal.
That's probably the mostvaluable skill set that
developers have.
Yeah, because there's a lot ofpeople who can build, but how
many people can really figureout planning and zoning?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Yeah, and politically navigating and creating a
project that you can sell andit's a sales job right to get it
through, and so you can get thedevelopment agreement the way
it needs to be to make it work.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah, it's a very important thing.
So I'm figuring that all out.
I'm just a sponge now becauseI'm getting all the financial
docs ready, the P&L, you know,the balance sheet, cash
statement, all that stuff readyand then getting all the legal
structure set up.
And it's from what I've heardI've interviewed tons of people
about this the number onerecommendation I get is to raise
(31:57):
, project by project right now,about 20 unit projects, small
enough where they're easy tokeep full.
You know, lower risk.
Um, cause it's really unique.
You don't want to go build ahundred unit, one of these
things.
That's a bad idea, you know you.
You want to go build it.
If you're gonna do a hundredunits, you want to build a
Hampton Inn or something that'sin a major area.
But so that's what I'm doingnow is I'm getting that
(32:20):
structure together and I thinkthe recommendation has been
accredited investors only around$100,000 size checks where it's
worthwhile, but it's not like ahuge part of somebody's
portfolio where there's a ton ofpressure there because it's
high risk.
This is a very high risk assetclass, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
So you know, I was just thinking about young guys
that do stuff that you justdon't think about when you're an
old guy.
There's a guy in Reno who'sbecome a good friend, who he
worked for Tesla for years andhe's buying old motels and
rehabbing them in the coolestway.
But he's kind of got this.
You know, it's a 15 to 20 roombut when they're done like super
(33:07):
high end, he's putting saunasin them and it's just you go
there and you're like I wannastay here, but he's keeping some
of the old signage, keepingsome of the old nostalgic kind
of charm of these old motels,and he's done two of them.
Now what's his name?
Chris Gosh.
Let me look up his name.
(33:28):
I'm going to have Matthew pullup the—give me two seconds
because I'm going to pull thisup Look up motel remodel in Reno
, but I'm going to pull him uphere.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, I'm leaning towards the acquiring existing
property.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Chris Riley.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Chris Riley.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Chris Riley, and if you look up Chris Riley Motel in
Reno I'll bet it comes right upBelfour Property Restaurant.
He's done a couple of them, sowe may need to.
Let me just send one text here.
Anyway, I just toured it withhim.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And I'm like this is incredible.
And he's like, yeah, you gotthese assets that are sitting
here.
They got some charm to them.
And when you said that size,that's kind of his whole thesis
on it it's manageable, the leaseup, the risk.
But then the other side of itis just the revenue.
He's occupied, he's full,because you look at it you're
like, yeah, why wouldn't youstay somewhere?
(34:30):
Like this.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Just the uniqueness of it.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Yeah, I'm going to pull this up for you because I
think you're going to find itpretty cool, cool yeah, I think
the insight there that I'marriving to is on the future
projects I really prefer to.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I really prefer to to acquire existing projects that
already have all theentitlements and planning zoning
.
Doing it from scratch wasreally hard and it just takes
forever.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Yeah, building from ground up and so, yeah, I mean
that's that, that is the, thatis the.
The hard part of this right isinfrastructure and, just yeah,
all those cost per square footthat then you have to add into
your project to make it work,did you find it?
I'm getting, I'm getting itright now.
Uh, there it is oh cool.
(35:14):
Oh, so he fully leaned into theGo back, matty, it's the go down
.
One more picture down.
One more over where the redmotel sign is right there.
That's not it either.
I'm going to get it, I justtext him.
Well, this is awesome.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
You love Boise.
I love Boise, man.
It's not the most ideal placefor what I do for a living or
what I have done.
I built the last company,started in LA, moved it to
American Fork, utah, so that'swhere it was.
That's where it still is, butI've actually had a hard time
(36:01):
finding people in Boise for thisstuff to work with In Utah.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
I just feel like I'm so hyper connected down there
and there's I feel like there'sso many entrepreneurs and
creatives don't you think theUtah, that whole mark, that
whole, that whole American Fork,utah County, kind of it, is
ripe with people, ideas andeveryone's so talented.
Do you know, travis Hawks uphere, travis Hawks, up here,
travis Hawks, I don't think I do, I'll get you in touch with
Travis.
He's like all over this kind ofstuff and new businesses and
(36:25):
venture capital and he'sbrilliant.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, I've been looking for a long time for that
partner that I need because mylast company I had this intern.
I ended up giving him equityand we were just.
You know, I haven't found thatguy yet.
I've been trying Because I gota.
That developing side is I knowit's going to get me if I don't
have the right person.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Reno, so it's bestbetmotorlodgecom.
Bestbetmotorlodgecom.
Wait until you see this isgoing to blow your mind.
This thing is so cool, so cool,so best.
Yeah, click on that thing andthen see if there's like a
gallery.
It is so cool.
(37:11):
So those are his rooms, that'shis lobby.
And then he built in this saunaclub that you don't have to
stay at the hotel if you want tobe, and he put in like cold
shower and sauna in the thing.
It is just, and it's this oldmotel.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
So much charm, so cool.
And him and his wife run up.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
People are just craving this uniqueness.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I think I have this there it is 21 rooms, are 21
rooms and they're all.
You go in them and they just,they're clean, they're amazing,
you're like I want to stay herenext time I come to reno that's
so cool.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, I think.
I think, um, my theory is thatin in the us, um, you know,
finance people make most of thedecisions on what gets built and
, generally speaking, financepeople aren't super creative, so
a lot of what gets built endsup making sense in a finance
perspective, but sometimes itjust it lacks this, you know,
and they'll hire a designer andthe designer's good.
(38:06):
But I think a lot of timesthings get a little watered down
, you know, and so we just got alot of buildings.
In general, I feel like in theUnited States that are just
pretty standard two by four-fourconstruction.
But when you leave America it'smore vibrant.
Like you go to Mexico or Europe, it's just more vibrant.
Europe's a little different.
(38:26):
I think a lot of that stuff wasbuilt with slave labor.
I'm not sure there's some.
I look at the stonework and I'mlike there's something
questionable about this buildingthat we can't do anymore until
it's.
You can do it with robots orsomething, but but, yeah, I
(38:47):
think people are craving this.
I think too, you know, um, Ithink your, uh, your kind of
market for hospitality is, uh,it's just a new generation.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Look up his other one , it's the Jesse Renocom J E S S
E the Jesse Renocom.
But it these are the two that Itoured with him that he's done
over there, but it's just, it'sjust.
It's awesome.
When you can take what I likeabout it, is he, he, you know,
it's this, it's this glimpseback at history and and what's
(39:11):
cool and I think that whole vibeof, of, of reusing and I don't
know it's, it's, it's a, it's ayoung guy's game, but it's like,
how do we take the past, reusethis stuff, make it cool again?
And, um boy, he's done it.
He's done it in a real way overthere.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
That was so cool.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Well, hey, this has been fantastic.
Um, any advice you'd?
Oh, one more question, cause Ithink this is just the world you
live in.
Um, I and Matthew and I talkabout this all the time, but I
think the world we live in isgetting more used to.
I mean, if you're not, you'rebehind right To the new way of
advertising, the new way ofreaching people, the new way of
all this stuff.
Any advice you'd give forentrepreneurs out there that are
(39:48):
starting a new business or havean existing business, a legacy
business, and are thinking ofokay, how do I, you know, where
do I take this to the next level, understanding the future of
marketing, the future of how weinteract with people?
Any thoughts?
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, you know, my dad growing up used to say if
you build it, they will come.
If you don't suck at marketing,he loved to fill the dreams.
I think too often entrepreneursthink that the product is going
to make the thing work, but inmy experience, working with
hundreds of brands and products,it's usually the marketing that
(40:25):
makes it work, and obviouslythe product has to be good.
Just have to experiment withall of the different channels,
whether it's social media, adsor influencers or email, or you
got to test everything, andthat's hard when you don't have
(40:47):
a ton of capital, a ton of cash.
But I'll tell you, once youfind the one scalable channel,
everything changes With ChamberMedia one day.
You know we're an ad agency,but why don't we run ads?
You know no one was doing thatat the time and it scaled, like
you know, 3 million to 6 millionto 14 million three years
(41:07):
because of that, and so I thinkit's just these companies that
are coming up.
It's always one channel thatscales and you just have to find
it?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
How do you navigate?
I really like what you said,because sometimes you don't know
going into it right.
In fact, it's what you don'tknow that's probably going to
make you successful.
It's having patience while youfigure that out right, because I
think a lot of people, I thinka couple of businesses I've
started where we ended up withthe value that we brought was
not where we started.
In fact.
It was a lot of hard work andkind of you called it testing
(41:36):
channels.
But it was like what is ourniche?
How is it going to work?
How are we going to reachpeople?
And then all of a sudden you'relike, oh, that's the thing that
makes money.
And then all of a sudden youscale it.
But those early days sometimesare tough.
Any advice for getting throughthose?
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, you just have to get, you have to pay for the
education, do the experiments.
Tony Robbins always says wentto his thing.
He says people always say, well, we've tried everything.
It's like, well, you haven'ttried everything, there's a
thousand things to try, and soyou got to experiment until you
(42:13):
figure it out.
And you got to have the capitalto do that.
So that's why I tell people who,like me, I didn't have capital,
I didn't know any wealthypeople and I didn't have any
good ideas, so I started aservice company.
So people that are in thatsituation, like I was, I
recommend start a servicebusiness, sell your time first
(42:33):
and then, once you sell yourtime, then you could sell other
people's time, then you canbuild up the capital to
experiment and everything goesservices, tech, assets.
So we scaled the services side,got some capital, then we did a
little bit of tech and then weexited.
So now I'm trying to do theasset game, which is obviously
(42:54):
much harder.
It takes forever, but I'mdedicated to getting to that
next level because I already didthe service thing.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yeah, so great advice , great advice.
Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Thank you, yeah, it's been fun getting to know you.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Thank you Okay.
Thanks, buddy, thanks everybody.
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