What happens when two successful business leaders decide to channel their skills toward helping America's military veterans? Frank Fertitta IV and Landon Gyulay reveal the powerful story behind founding Easy Day Foundation, an organization determined to make every day easier for those who've served our country.
The name "Easy Day" comes from a Navy SEAL expression, but carries a deeper meaning. As Frank explains, "The easy days should be ahead for these guys, not behind them." This sentiment drives their mission to support veterans transitioning back to civilian life—a journey that's anything but easy for many who've served.
Both founders share deeply personal connections to military service through their WWII veteran grandfathers. Frank recounts how his grandfather bombed Berlin on his 21st birthday, while Landon reflects on growing up "as far away from enemy front lines as possible" thanks to others' sacrifice. These stories, combined with alarming statistics—17 veteran suicides daily and over 35,000 homeless veterans—compelled them to act.
Rather than duplicating existing services, Easy Day Foundation focuses on what these business minds do best: creating high-impact events that raise both awareness and substantial funds. Their partnership with the American Music Awards for a Memorial Day broadcast represents this strategy in action. Every dollar donated during the telecast will flow directly to their carefully selected partner organizations, creating a comprehensive support network for veterans.
"There are days when it's a huge pain to run a 501(c)(3)," Frank admits, "but then you meet someone like Lisa Hallett—a Gold Star widow raising three children after losing her husband on a humanitarian mission—and you remember exactly why we're doing this."
Want to make a difference in veterans' lives? Join the movement by watching the American Music Awards on May 26th, visiting easydayorg to donate, or following @EasyDayFoundation to learn how you can help ensure those who served have easier days ahead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase to
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we've gottwo powerhouses that are
combining purpose and businessthrough a mission-driven
organization that's making areal impact with our military
veterans.
Let's welcome to the Circle.
(00:20):
Co-founders of Easy DayFoundation.
We've got Mr Frank Fertitta IVand Mr Landon Goulet Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
So good to have you guys in here, man, thank you for
having us you guys have beennonstop man.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You guys are like on your probably ninth or tenth
interview man making rounds inVegas.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Made more sense to try and get it out of the way.
That's good.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, yeah.
How did you guys connect, howdid this all form?
Or how did you guys meet to?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
form.
Landon and I met.
We both went to USC at thebusiness school.
What year did we graduate?
17, 2017.
We met in 2014.
We've just been buddies eversince.
So it's been 11 years now.
And about a year and a half ago, landon and I decided to start
this foundation for veterans,founded it on Veterans Day of
(01:06):
2023.
And ever since then, we've justbeen plugging away trying to
make this happen.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What kind of prompted that idea to really, you know,
make this the cause right?
Obviously, we know it's a veryimportant cause.
It's something that a lot ofpeople impacts a lot of people,
but you know, obviously, whatmade you decide that this is
where you wanted to put thatattention I think you know,
frankie and I have likedifferent reasons.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Um, I think you know, for me, um, you know, growing
up, grew up in southerncalifornia, grew up in orange
county, you know, as far awayfrom enemy front lines as I
possibly could be, right, Ithink you know we've been super
fortunate to grow up, um, youknow, with no major conflicts,
(01:50):
right, in the same way that yousaw, in Vietnam or world war two
, um, and for me, I, you know,had family that you know was in
the military.
My grandpa served in world wartwo, flew 20 missions, you know,
joined when he was 19, you know.
So, through his like veryformative years, um, you know,
served Um, and I think, like you, look back at that generation,
(02:13):
the greatest generation, right,it's what they call it Um, it's
certainly true in terms of whatthose people did.
And you know, just like my, youknow, the thing that resonated
for me is I kind of always grewup feeling like I had some
degree of a civic duty to dosomething, and so I think that
(02:33):
was, like, you know, the bigkind of jumping off point for me
.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I don't know, frankie , for you, yeah, I think you
should talk about your grandpa's21st birthday.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, grandpa's 21st birthday.
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean I, I told him thisstory actually, you know, when
my grandpa turned 21, on his21st birthday.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He bombed berlin, oh wow, oh, that's a very different
21 year old that I had.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, exactly like I, huge sacrifice yeah, I learned
all this as a kid reading hisjournals from World War II.
He would write every single day.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
They would send them.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And like he had gotten married right before he
got deployed.
So when he was 19 years old, hegot married and so he was
sending back these journals tohis wife.
My grandma oh, wow, my grandma,um, and so, you know, 21st
birthday got on a B-17 co-pilot,flew over from you know, the UK
(03:38):
, across the channel, intoGermany, you know, and flew back
like a nine hour flight day, um, but these stories were like
real as a kid and I, like, Iremember vividly reading this
and thinking you know, what wasI doing at 21?
Cause I certainly was notflying in an airplane, you know,
doing the things that he wasdoing, right, like.
My biggest concern on my 21stbirthday was, like, you know,
are we going to go and have funout tonight, you know?
(04:01):
So it's like just a totallydifferent scale, um, but I think
for me it like it garnered somedegree of civic duty to do
something, and so you know, Ithink we both kind of have that
um.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
You obviously have your own reason too, but my
grandpa was a fighter pilot also, but, um, when I was growing up
, I was, I was very fortunate tobe, uh, surrounded by a lot of
guys that served in the sealteams and some other special
forces units, and they told me alot of different stories that
you just wouldn't believe and,uh, so, you know, started doing
(04:38):
some research on just you know,the like what happens to our
veterans when they come home,and a lot of them struggle.
I'm like you know guys who gothrough the things that they've
told me about, and girls.
They just don't deserve to haveto come home and struggle and
have discomfort, not find a home, not find a new job or a new
sense of purpose.
They're doing the mostimportant job in the entire
(05:00):
world, defending America'sfreedom and, um, you know,
anyone who does that deserves alifetime of comfort when they
come home.
In my opinion, and like Landonsaid, to just like have this
like burning desire, like senseof obligation to try to repay a
debt that you know you never canrepay.
But you know I'm willing to,we're willing to spend our whole
(05:20):
lives at least trying our bestto do that.
So, you know when, when youhave a big group of men and
women who put their lives on theline so we can live in the best
country to ever, you know graceplanet earth.
Uh, I think we just owe it tothem to to at least give a
little bit of our time andenergy to them when they come
(05:40):
home.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So that's powerful, to have that personal connection
to those stories like the.
You know, meeting that fellowtoo.
It's like you know, I feel likeyou know we America's built on
a lot of those people doingthose things and we got the
experiences, like you said, tobe 21 years old and go out and
party because your grandfatherdid things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's extremely fortunate that we have that
experience.
We kind of bonded over that andthen start doing research and
we find out these crazy factsLike there are four times more
veteran suicides than there aredeaths and war operations
amongst our military servicemembers and like things like
that are just insane.
17 veterans commit suicideevery day.
(06:18):
That comes out to over 6,000 ayear.
That's just like stats likethat you just can't ignore 6,000
a year, that's just like stats,like that, you just can't
ignore.
We started talking about thisstuff and we were having drinks
in Newport Beach and we came tothe end of the conversation like
why don't we just do somethingabout it?
And Monday morning we went homeand figured out how to start a
(06:41):
501c3, and we just hit theground running.
We had no idea what we weredoing, but uh, yeah, figured it
out.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So yeah, 18 months later, here we are, so it's
amazing, man, you I'm likegetting emotional.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I think too, because my dad was military and my uncle
actually passed away recently,called phillips, was a vietnam
veteran and he gave his life toin dallas, texas, with going to
speak with a lot of theseveterans in the whole nine.
So you're 1,000% right, man,they come back.
My uncle he slept in a chairever since he came back.
Wow, he didn't even sleep in abed because of that whole.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So it's wild what you deal with.
So I'm so happy you guys aredoing this.
Yeah, they really need it.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, they really need it, yeah, yeah there's a
huge number of veterans who comehome and they don't want to ask
for help and they'll wait yearsand years to either get help or
, unfortunately, Well, they'reprideful.
Yeah, and it's just it'sinternal torture, I think, for a
lot of them to go from, youknow, doing the most important
job in the world to not reallybeing so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So you know, that's where we try to come in not
really being so sure.
So, uh, you know that's where wetry to come in, but it's kind
of interesting.
You think, like you know us,most of my experiences with war
have all been on when I've seenthe movies right, which gives
you paints a very differentpicture in a lot of it, like,
how important is it to yourpoint You're saying, these stats
and education of some of theseexperiences and the impact that
(08:02):
it has, I mean, people aren'svery big um, and I think a lot
of you know what we're doing,especially with the event that
we're doing.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know, I think we're coming up on it may 26,
yeah less than two weeks out now.
Um, you know, the idea when westarted the foundation was you
know there's obviously a lot ofamazing veteran service
organizations that do amazingwork.
We, you know, we don't want totake away from what they're
doing, but what we thought wecould do extremely well was, you
(08:34):
know, put on amazing liveevents and partner with amazing
live events to bring awarenessto these statistics that Frankie
spoke about, and also to raisemoney for these amazing
organizations.
And so we actually like today,we don't do you know the
specific services frequently wehave great partners that do most
(08:57):
of that work.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, Well, when we were setting this up, you kind
of have to.
When you're a very youngorganization, you don't want to
do everything at once.
Right, you got to decide whatare we going to be good?
at, and maybe one day we'll tryto do multiple different things.
But what do we think we can bereally good at?
And we've figured raising moneywas something we could be good
at.
And live events, I think, arejust an underutilized platform
(09:19):
for things like this, forcharitable endeavors, and I
think awareness is just asimportant as as raising money,
and I think there's no betterway to get people to bond over
something and have, like, stokea sense of patriotism and
inspire people to do somethingand then get them all in the
same room or same venue and, andyou know, bond over music and
(09:42):
whatever else we might, we mightplan in the future to.
You know, people feed off ofother people's energy, so we
figured it was the perfectplatform to.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And talk about that, right?
So this is going to be theAmerican Music Awards that's
coming up.
I think J-Lo is going to behosting the event.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, she is.
It's in Fountain Blue, right?
Yeah, Fountain Blue May 26th,and we're going to be live on
CBS and Paramount Plus.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
How did you guys get plugged with them?
Because they're big players.
Man, you guys came with thesame team.
You said you didn't want to getinvolved.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
We had a handful of people out of the gates who were
like are you sure you want totry?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
and go this big your first year.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And we never really wavered, we were just like yeah,
we do absolutely.
Let's just go for it and swingout the fences and see if we can
pull it off.
And now we're two weeks away, soum but yeah, I mean, yeah, our
our initial idea was just to tryto have a huge event that we
can inspire people and raisemoney.
(10:35):
And and it happened, just sohappened that Jay Penske uh, who
I know, who, um, who owns theAMAs, he owns Penske Media, so a
bunch of different you know,the New Year's Eve, new Year's
Rockin' Eve and different eventslike that Billboard Magazine he
came by my office.
He said you know, I really wantto have this vision for
(10:56):
Memorial Day.
We want to move the AMAs toVegas.
And we just happened to have avery similar vision.
It was very serendipitous andwe said you know, let's just run
at this together and you guysdo what you do best and we'll do
what we're going to do.
And, um, and it's been a greatpartnership so far and we're
hoping that this first year is amassive success so that we can
keep doing it.
And then, uh, landon and I willtry and partner with other
(11:19):
great events around the countryand hopefully mainly in Vegas.
Entertainment capital of theworld is a great place to start.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, I was going to touch on that, like how
important is a place like Vegas?
Right, we all know there's alot of money in Vegas, but a lot
of it comes from externalsources or, you know, not
necessarily all.
There's a lot of homegrownmoney, but are you really
targeting the people that are inVegas to kind of, you know,
attend these events and besponsorships, or are you trying
to attract people from outsidein different cities?
We're attracting whoever wantsto come.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I mean whoever's down for the cause.
You want them there.
Whoever's not very familiarwith the cause, we'd love for
them to come and get educatedand learn too.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It's obviously a great city to do it, because
it's built on shows in manycases, and so we think if we can
add one another really amazingshow, it's going to be awesome
and you make an impact.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, that's the biggest thing I suppose having
this many tourists in vegas isgreat because you get eyeballs
from other, uh, other cities andthey go back and tell their
friends and hopefully we'll havea bit of a ripple effect.
And yeah, and that's my spreadthe word vegas like it's more of
um.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You're, like you said , you're attracting those the
the tourist dynamic as well,whereas most of the time, I
would assume, when you're tryingto get raise money from like a
place like los angeles or newyork, it's a lot more intimate
and homegrown, where you don'tget as much visibility in some
of those causes it's a bunch offriends and family and
co-workers and business peoplethat are all connecting with
each other yeah, and I thinkalso too, like the American
(12:47):
music awards is, you know, along standing tradition.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I think this is the 51st, 51.
Yeah.
And so yeah like aligning withthat and also, you know, kind of
rebooting it with a purpose,like you said, where it's, like
you know, no offense to thecelebrities instead of just them
getting awards.
There's something else thatwe're all doing there, I think
is, you know, an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, we'll have a couple veterans
tell their stories that nightand I think that they'll you
know they'll really shine duringthe broadcast too.
I think their stories areobviously super inspiring and
we're looking forward to havingpeople hear them.
That's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Talk a little bit about, like the Navy SEAL motto,
right.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Isn't that how you?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
guys came up with your name and things like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So it kind of came from from a few of my friends.
You know, anytime they like anytasks that they take on,
whether it's super difficult orsuper easy, they just say, yeah,
easy day, I'll get it done.
So that name kind of resonatedand I was like thinking to
myself well, the easy daysshould be ahead for these guys,
not behind them.
So that's why we went with easyday, because our mission is to
(13:57):
make every day ahead from now oneasy for the veterans and they
should not have their easy, easydays, uh, all behind them.
That's powerful, yeah, yeahthat's a good brand.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a good brand, that's very good it's all from
him, it's from the seals, yeah,but it's good because you're
tying everything together.
So, yeah, and yeah, I mean, aswe know, I mean things happen so
fast man, so many crazy thingshappen, so so how can people
help, other than the fundraisingand things like that?
So for our listeners and thingslike that you know that are
(14:28):
listening right now is how howcan they help?
Like what, what can they dothat's helpful?
Is there places that they cango to?
There's?
You know what I mean?
Like how?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, so we have.
They can go to easydayorg anddonate.
They can follow us on social.
It's just at Easy DayFoundation.
And then you know, since we'refocusing on raising money, our
partner organizations focus onthose operational services and
you know you can get in touchwith any of them and you know
they'd be happy to have someboots on the ground help If you
(14:57):
don't have money.
They always are happy to havevolunteers and we can run
through.
You know who our partners areand we have a couple local ones.
We have Folded Flag, which isBill Foley's foundation.
We have the UNLV Military andVeterans Services, the Bob
Woodruff Foundation, fisherHouse, who builds homes for
(15:18):
families visiting vets in thehospital.
There's a bunch of them.
So forgive me if I miss you.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You've got a lot of good people here, yeah boot
campaign.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Who have I forgotten so far?
Team Rubicon, we have Iraq andAfghanistan Veteran Association
and the Congressional Medal ofHonor Society.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
That's some heavy hitters, man, y'all guys are
playing no games.
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
We have a great group of like partners and it's, I
think, for us the idea is thatit's kind of you know, if you
give to a single VSO, they'rekind of taking on one issue
Right of you know, if you giveto a single vso, they're kind of
taking on one issue right.
If you give to fisher house,they do amazing work rebuilding
homes, right.
Our view is if you give to us,by the way, the night of the
telecast, a hundred percent ofthe donations go through.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
you know I was going which is we're not keeping any
of the donations that comeduring the broadcast yeah, a
hundred percent of that isgetting getting distributed out
straight to the services.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So you basically, with every dollar donated,
you're covering all the basesand you know that it's going to
them.
That's not often the case.
You hear about some of theseorganizations where it's super
inefficient, like 50 cents ofthe dollar makes it, or it goes
out the back door.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It right, and so we handpicked all of these to try,
and you know, pick organizationsthat together create a holistic
approach to the reintegrationprocess after after service.
So you know, it wasn't justlike let's go pick these ones
here and there and, and you know, throw darts at the dartboard.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It was very well thought out you mentioned, so
you were talking about some ofthe statistics, right, like I
was looking up.
Is it true that it's 33,000homeless right now.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I think it's a little more as of 2023, when we
started this it was over 35,000.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yeah, it is decreasing.
It's too, much it's a massiveissue, um, and you know one of
the things you know public toprivate, I think you know
there's there's increasinglymore support for the VA, um, but
there's just not enough thatcan be done, and so that's also
the big part of why we did thisis because we think there needs
(17:35):
to be more private work that'sdone to support what's happening
on the public side.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, it's kind of the same thing.
You talk about building aprivate, you know, obviously I
think both understand businessand a lot of different
capacities, but moving tononprofit is a very different
experience.
No-transcript that you've seenin the difference.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a good question.
I think you know, for us kindof, at least you know.
I think actually for both of us, starting a 501c3 was something
like you said that we haven'tdone.
We have great privatebusinesses.
Things obviously workdifferently right On the private
(18:23):
side.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You're oftentimes trying to build a pretty strong
balance sheet where you havereally you can't have that same
J curve where you spend a bunchof money at first to get
customers and acquire customersand stuff you have to be a lot
more careful.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
You have to be a lot more careful.
It's a way different process.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It's also the dollars that we bring in we want to put
back out the door, and so everysingle year, we're thinking
about that upcoming budget andthinking about okay, how much do
we need to get in the door tofund everything we want to do?
We don't want to actually holdon to money left over.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah, you're actually not allowed to.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I can't remember what the time period is, but as a
501c3, you're required todistribute any money like
whatever money you have you haveto either spend it on programs
or as you guys know, as aprivate business owner, you're
not running your bank to zeroevery year.
Yeah, never.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's like a counterintuitive.
Yeah, it's a counterintuitive.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's completely opposite.
Yeah, it's completely opposite.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So it's a bit of an adjustment, I think
strategically, but I think thepositive piece of it is, you
know, because you're a 501c3,people like just want to help
out, right, and like the amountof people that have volunteered
their time and have helped us onour team too.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Oh that's great Alex over here does this out of the
kindness of his heart.
That's great, yeah, but we hada lot, of, a lot of great people
that we've encountered alongthe way and people are super
willing to help.
It's been yeah, it's beenpretty, pretty awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I mean it's crazy Like you guys talk about how you
guys know each other 11 years,yeah, 11 years.
We don't know each other.
12, 13.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
How did you guys become friends?
We worked together.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
We worked together outside of this and then set up.
My wife was talking crap to usand saying, like we were
supposed to start, that we'vebeen.
We've been going seven yearsnow.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, yeah, big, consistent.
And then, uh, we were supposedto start.
It was two years before that.
Yeah, we kept 2016 wasting time.
Yeah, yeah, unlike you guys,yeah, you guys actually made
(20:27):
decisions we kept I had to getinto a fight with my wife, but
they're telling me like let'sjust do this, let's do it but
going back to's a reason why.
So you know, Vegas Circle wasall about, you know, building
business, building culture andreally showcasing everybody.
But we felt like the strip gotall the shine and there's so
many cool people that are reallymaking an impact off the strip.
(20:48):
Right, and that was our wholefocus is show the business
owners, show the people that areimpacting the culture that
really make an impact.
Yeah, show the business owners,show the people that are
impacting the culture thatreally make an impact.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, there's a lot more culture in this city than
people think.
It's 1000%.
We love being able to highlight.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
You know people like yourself right.
We know you guys are inseparate businesses, which we'll
transition to, but it's reallycool that you guys are doing
something that's meaningful too.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You know what I mean.
That veteran situation is nojoke man.
It's funny you say that becausewhen we first met and he said
he was from Las Vegas, like myidea of Las Vegas is like oh, so
you like are on the strip everyday, Like is that?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, when you like go into college and you try to
explain to everyone what it'slike and you try to say you had
a normal childhood, and then youtell them about it, they're
like yeah, that's not, it'sactually a small town.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I've been here 17 years.
I'm originally from Chicago andwhen I came here, I'm like this
is like a small town.
Then you go to the strip andthat's why I think we everybody
loves it is.
Then you go to the city whenyou want to, yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's it.
That's what you really start tolearn is behind the scenes is
everybody that's their time.
Yeah, 1000% so, but what?
(21:56):
What's like the most meaningfulthing?
I know it's been a short time,but what's the most meaningful
thing?
That's.
That's really touched yourheart on doing this.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
For I mean, I think for me the you know, we we
hosted kind of our first eventjust about a year ago.
Okay, um, when we launched umwas an amazing event, relatively
small, I think we had about ahundred people, maybe that's a
good time 150 people, which theyraised over almost a million
(22:25):
and a half dollars.
That's great, um, but that's not.
What was the most touchingmoment was not the money raised?
There was, we had a lady namedLisa Hallett who came to the
event.
She's supported by one of ourpartners, folded Flag, and what
(22:46):
Folded Flag does is it supportsGold Star families.
And so you know, for folks thatare listening that don't know
Gold Star family is you knowsomeone that may have lost
someone within their family, inaction or through service, and
so you know Lisa's story.
She actually got up and gave aspeech to everyone in that
(23:06):
building and you know her storyis.
You know a very sad one, right?
You know her husband.
You know they had three very,very young kids.
You know very sad one, right?
You know her husband.
You know they had three very,very young kids.
you know two, I think she wasstill pregnant with her yeah,
under the age of two and one onthe way and you know she got.
You know the, the knock on thedoor that nobody ever wants to
(23:31):
get um.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Her husband was on a humanitarian mission too.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, yeah and like I think, when you hear those
stories it puts everything intoperspective in a way that you
know it doesn't matter how muchmoney we raise or like anything
else, like it just makes youwant to support these people,
these people's lives yeah, thesepeople's lives, people's lives
and so what?
Full the flag does an amazingthing where they help support
(23:58):
these families right, and so shewas speaking about her
daughters that are now in school.
Folded Flag has helped, paidfor their education.
Has done some really amazingthings.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, she has two sons and a daughter and they've
given them scholarships to helpput them through school because,
I mean, as you can imagine, youknow, being a single mom after
that with three kids isextremely difficult yeah I was
going to say the same thing.
I just remember very clearlythat night, sitting in the front
row.
(24:28):
Landon and I both spoke thatnight, but when she was speaking
I turned around.
You know half the people in theroom are crying and um, and
it's not even about feeling badas much as it is being proud of
someone like her for justpushing on like what a tough
lady.
Um, and it's just so inspiringto see that.
It just makes people.
It sucks to tell sad storiesbut, um, you know, it inspires
(24:53):
people to to be just as toughand try to help out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And that was a pretty touching moment you feel like
it's different, like now thatyou've got to experience some of
these things from your firststart, cause I feel like to me
at the beginning, when you'retalking about, it's very
different because you read thestatistics, but when you start
hearing the stories and talkingto the people, you think it
shifts your motivation and makesyou more passionate about it
and really trying to get back,there's a lot of days where it's
a huge pain in the ass to run a501c3 and then you have days
(25:19):
like that and you remember whyyou're here, you know, and
you're like this is why we dowhat we do, and and it you know
that is gives you a lifetime offuel to keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You just remember moments like that and it's all
worth it, yeah the sacrifice wemake is not even close.
Think about my oh, there's apain in the ass.
My God, I'm just being such awuss, right now let's keep going
.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
That's so funny.
I was literally just talkingabout boys, about that yesterday
.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I'm like what?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
are we complaining about again?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
And you just talk about the lady that's dealing
with that or dealing with themental issues or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
And it touches us all because you have a story.
I have a story, like all of ushave these stories.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, um, and so it's .
It's like.
You know it's.
It's not unique to singlepeople, no, so it's.
It's a country issue.
That's right.
It's a we all have beenimpacted one way or another.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
That's right, yeah and the other one of the other
big tenantsets.
I think to us, doing this islike we're trying to demystify
and eliminate.
You know, being a veteransupporter from veterans and
supporting our troops or, likeyou know, doing anything like
(26:38):
that has become partisan and itreally should not be.
It should just be a matter ofsupporting an.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
American who's next to you or a human that's next to
you.
We started this around a timewhen we were coming off of all
time lows of militaryrecruitment and just felt like
we want to make I think liveevents is a great way to make
get younger generation in a roomand get them to, you know, have
like a greater sense ofpatriotism that I think you know
(27:07):
I probably get from my parentswhen they grew up.
You know they were our age inthe you know, eighties, nineties
, and we just kind of want tosee that again and make sure
that everybody is proud to beAmerican and proud to be here
and knows that they're lucky tobe here.
Yeah, those are great points.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Cool, fantastic.
Yeah, I love what you guys aredoing, man.
I'm trying to just listen andtake it in and not cut you guys
off, man.
It's really impactful man.
Thank you, powerful.
Yeah, I just want to talk alittle bit just personally, just
what you guys are doing also inthe city with your personal
jobs and things like that.
But I'll start with you, frank.
So currently you're a senior VPof Red Rock.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Resorts right.
Yes, SVP of operations, but Ihave my hands in a little bit of
everything over there.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
What is your day-to-day?
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Because when you take on another task man, it gets
crazy.
I can't believe he does it all.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I work in the corporate office but I help run
ops at all the differentproperties, work with all the
GMs at each property and I do alot of development stuff too,
working on our future projects.
I worked on Durango a goodamount.
I was just coming home fromgraduate school when we were in
the ground with Durango.
Shout out to Durango.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I know, I'm just saying as you're sitting
with'all did a hell of a job.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to be honest Durangois excellent.
Yeah, it's been great so far.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
People have responded really well to it.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Everyone likes that we put windows in over there.
Tall, tall Cooperman with thetattoos yeah, amazing guy.
Yeah, he's great.
So I'll make it laugh realquick for a second.
But we did y'all's commercialour family with our kids.
The Durango commercial yeah,the Durango commercial.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Oh wow, yeah, I picked that song.
I love that song.
I was like this is the perfectone.
We were part of that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
We got to give a shout out to our kids because
they'll be like what they see.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
All my friends were stop man.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But no, you guys did a hell of a job, agreed.
What is the expansion like withthis?
So you guys are expandingDurango now, right, and then you
got Henderson that's coming upsoon.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Well, right now the expansion is an extra garage
parking garage and a newhigh-limit slot room and a
little additional casino space,and we had to put a garage in
first to have more parking forwhen we expand more.
Okay, but we can't expand if wedon't have room for people to
park on the site.
So that was the first move.
Yeah, it's a lot of movingpieces, but that was just to get
(29:23):
us to the next stage and thenhopefully we'll be announcing
what our next property is in thenext 12 months or so.
We'll try to get you to slip up, not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
We'll try to get you to slip up.
Not going to happen, say whatit is.
You smooth man, you smooth, soI'll skip to you too.
Landon, so your day-to-day, soyou're in the capital raising
business, right?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, so I work in venture capital and so our focus
is investing in late stagetechnology companies, so they're
all venture backed.
We manage a credit fund andalso an equity fund, Okay, and
so you know our business isreally, you know, on the equity
side is, you know, identifyinggenerational founders right that
(30:09):
we meet, that you know we thinkare building really incredible
businesses and you know we wantto invest in those businesses
and partner with them for,hopefully, decades to come.
Our outlook is longer duration.
I think it's also why we getalong quite so well is because
our thinking is long-durationthinking.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Find good people that you want to partner with for a
very long time.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yeah, also, we're building edf to be, you know,
here for decades to come um youknow we're it's edf is actually
not about frank or I um, we'renot speaking at the event, like
we don't.
We don't want to be the face ofit.
It's about the veterans and thework and building something
(30:54):
that will stand the test of time, and so it's similar to what we
do with our businesses.
We often you know, troy, ourfirm we don't really do press
every investment that we make.
We don't really publiclyannounce.
If you go to our website, it'sliterally just a landing page.
Oh, that's what I was lookingat yeah, you can't do this.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I was trying to do as much as I can.
Landon made it up.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's purposely toredistribute, that's right.
It's actually because you know,like our view is.
You know, it's not about ourfirm, it's about the founders
that we back and the businessesthat they build and the products
that they offer.
And I think think that's whatshould really matter.
(31:38):
And for our LPs, that give usthe capital we have fiduciary to
them to generate returns, andwhat we found is when we can
support our founders mosteffectively and have them own
the spotlight, the actual alphathat we can generate and the
returns we can drive are are thebest.
Yeah, um, and so you know,that's been an amazing time.
(32:00):
We've built this firm now over adecade, um, and have backed
really amazing businesses yeahsomething goes, yeah, and you
got the right mindset too, man,because it's different having
that mindset to be able to makeyou go crazy yeah, some people
in the space are like trying todo quick flips or like trying to
, you know, ride momentum, and Ithink, like our view is more so
(32:23):
, you know, partnering for longduration.
So do you pick?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
the founder.
That's what you're looking atand say can I buy into this
founder?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I think it's a mix of the founder, the business, the
opportunity.
I think if you look back at ourbody of work, a lot of times
we're making bets on you knowpeople and businesses that you
know.
If you had asked us when webacked them years ago, would it
look like this today?
We wouldn't necessarily havesaid in our underwriting case
(32:52):
that it would, but because webelieve so much in that founder
and kind of the core productvision, it played out that way.
That's awesome.
So yeah, it's.
It's been really amazing andfun to build.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
So you're the skills that really balance each other
out.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It's almost like we guys are talking about how much
you're good at.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
We haven't gotten into any arguments since we
started this.
By the way, you haven't no, no,we get along pretty well, but
it's it's totally different.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Like hospitality to investing is a very different
thing, but it's also is it verymuch a person's business.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah Right, so it plays well, you know what's so
funny?
I always say when you get intobusiness with folks, we're like
the completely opposite, really.
Yeah, but they say it's goodbecause they can see your blind
spots.
You don't want to get inbusiness with the same person
right, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I think that that's true.
You got to kind of complimenteach other, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
And not argue Same.
Thing.
We know, I think we were in anargument like not once I just
argued with my wife.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
She can handle it.
Yeah, she tells, I think that'swhat they do.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They pick up on because they think exactly alike
.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
How did?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
you guys meet.
What's the story?
We were working together andwhat that was, but we probably
had too many drinks or something, man, but we were.
We were up late, I think,probably like 4 35 o'clock in
the morning, just debating, justdebating yeah and um, and then
(34:22):
we came me originally from Ithink it's a vibe, because we're
both from the midwest, like I'mfrom chicago, he's from Detroit
, and then we've lived a lot ofdifferent places.
So we just vibed man and so,long story short, kind of fast
forward to 2025, when weoriginally started.
It kind of went left.
We brought in two otherpartners that went left and had
(34:42):
the same vision of what we wereall about.
And the biggest thing for us wasand I think it started with
that night was we wanted to justrepresent something we want our
kids to listen to.
This interview and theinterviews we were doing in the
beginning was not that I mean wewere doing pimps and doing all
types of stuff like trying toget the wow factor, which a lot
of people do, but the longevitythe marathon right.
(35:05):
So we really wanted to look atthis as a business, as a media
company, and how do we do that?
And it started with a lot ofthese nights.
But it was funny because he waslike he was saying he thought I
was like a pastor, like a superreligious guy, and we got into
like a whole bunch of differentdebates just about life and
business and family and all ofthat, and we were like, hey,
let's start forming a companytogether.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Why Vegas?
How'd you guys end up here?
So I ended up here because ofthis young lady.
Like seven years ago when youmet, were you both living here.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You were still.
We were both here, her and me.
I've been here 17.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, we've been together.
I moved to LA first 2001 fromBoston and then I moved here in
07.
I remember when did you?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
move here 2011.
2011, yeah, and we met 2012,right.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, so yeah, and then I moved here from my wife,
so we've been together.
21 years.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, I moved here because they said Vegas was the
land of second chances.
I was in Detroit a very badeconomic recession and I was
like, oh, I can't make nothingof myself here.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It's just as bad here , I think.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Especially because 07 and then 08 hit and it was kind
of scary.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah, it was rough here for a while.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
And when I moved to Boston that was 9-11.
So I'm like, oh my God, I'mgoing to move states.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
It was the worst time , yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
But to answer your question, I think what it was is
we met and you know, you justvibe with people, yeah, right,
and that's really what it is,and I think we each other, we've
never had arguments or moneyissues or anything like that, so
it's been great yeah, yeah,that's awesome, yeah, but uh, I
want to talk a little bit aboutjust because I know you know
your sister a little bit, aboutyour family a little bit.
How do you deal with and I'mjust curious I think it's
(36:38):
helpful for the listenerseverybody's plugging in, want
something, right?
How do you differentiate thereal from the fake, especially
in a city like las vegas,because I know people always
want patitas and want you guysto do different things.
I'm just curious how do you sayno?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I'm not very good at saying no, to be honest.
Okay, you learn it.
Yeah, I mean, after a long timeyou just kind of know what's
what and why people are askingfor things they're asking for.
But look, I mean I keep intouch with a lot of really great
people and you know I don'treally have a lot of people who
(37:18):
try and use and abuse my familyand my life.
So I'm very fortunate for that.
We surround ourselves withgreat people and you know we're
very pleased with that.
So I don't have to think ofways to say no very often.
That's solid.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I just want to step back a little bit about funding.
Yeah, so is it.
Is it?
Quid Is it?
Q?
U I?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
D, yeah, so.
So quid is like within ourcredit platform that we have Um,
and this was kind of a businessthat we started, I think, about
nine years ago, andconceptually the idea was, you
know, there's a lot ofshareholders in private
technology companies that holdpositions that are highly
(37:59):
illiquid, right, if you're youknow an investor or a
shareholder, or you know anyparticular person that owns
stock in one of these privatecompanies, you can't it's not
traded publicly, so you can'tsell the shares, right and so
the vision there was could wecreate a platform that could
provide financing securedagainst those shares, almost
(38:21):
like how margin works in thepublic markets but in the
private markets?
So we yeah, we built that outwith.
Our first investor was Oak TreeCapital, which is an amazing
firm headquartered in LA.
We've now scaled the platformpretty significantly and brought
in some really amazing partnerstoo, and so that's like one of
(38:42):
you know, one of the amazingkind of sub platforms that we
have within our firm.
But that's all about justcreating liquidity for people
that have, you know, workedextremely hard, have within our
firm.
But that's all about justcreating liquidity for people
that have, you know, workedextremely hard, have built
amazing positions, but theyhaven't been able to monetize it
yet.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Okay, they pay you back once they IPO.
Right, that's right yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
So, like you know, we had many clients at Airbnb,
many clients at you know,flexport, stripe.
These companies when they stayprivate and then when they reach
public markets, then you pay ahell of a business.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, I gotta give you very smart like that.
Yeah, it's a hell of a business.
Yeah, how long have you guysbeen in business here?
Speaker 4 (39:20):
we've been in business with that product for
about nine years oh, okay, yeah,so it's been around for a while
um, and now it's.
You know it stretches all theway, you know from not only
working with shareholders in thecompany but you know LPs and
funds, you know investors inkind of the preferred equity
stack.
So we kind of service, kind ofthe whole stack.
(39:42):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, it's very interesting.
Yeah, I talked to you guys.
We have a whole podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
We're having a good time.
We can stick around.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
No, because I don't want to just make it so much,
just a veteran, but I wanted toshine a light on what you guys
do on a day-to-day because youguys are making huge impacts.
Yeah, the right people to makea big impact in this foundation.
Yeah, 100%.
So how much time?
Speaker 3 (40:04):
do.
Yeah, you know I mean I stillhandle my day-to-day at Station
at Red Rock the same way I didbefore.
So it's an everyday thing andthis we just squeeze it in where
we can.
And you know it's gotten moretime-consuming the closer we get
to May 26.
(40:25):
But you know there's always alittle extra time in the day.
If we got to schedule a latecall or whatever, we'll do it
and make it happen.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I mean, if there ever was anything to work nights and
weekends on, it's probablysomething that has a purpose,
right?
So like.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I think it is fun honestly just working together
with your best friend.
It's not like we, we don'tdread it at all.
It has its moments where it'sdifficult, but it's not boring
ever, you know.
Yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I applaud you guys, man.
Transition a little bit is justabout nuggets and business.
What's one real piece ofbusiness advice that you could
give a new founder or justfriends in general or people
that want to collab like youguys?
Right, Because that's a problema lot of times is people collab
and they partner and thenthings go left.
What would you tell the peoplethat are listening that before
they're starting off, how theyshould establish that
(41:14):
relationship?
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Yeah, I think the most important piece of advice
is just doing the work every day.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
There's no reason to get mad at your partner if
they're pulling their wayequally.
Yeah, there's no reason to getmad at your partner if they're
pulling their way equally.
And I know that doesn't happenall the time, obviously, but I
guess you know, pick someonewith the same work ethic that
you have and knowing thatthey're going to show up, and if
there's a day when you can'tshow up, I know Landon's going
to be able to make the decisionsfor me and vice versa, you know
.
So I don't worry too much.
(41:46):
If there's a day that I can'tmake a meeting, cause I know he
can, he can handle it.
So makes a makes for a prettygood team.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
Yeah, I think oftentimes you're not going to
be the smartest person, but ifyou do wake up and you put in
the work every single day I meanprobably you guys have been
doing this podcast seven yearsand we're here, we haven't taken
a break in seven years yeah,yeah, put our content, yeah,
since seven years straight, justlike head down.
And of course, there's days youwake up and you're like, oh man
(42:18):
, I am frustrated that this hasgone this way.
But like if you just, yeah, putyour you know hat back on, put
your head down and keep doingthe work, like eventually you
wake up 18 months later andyou're you've built something or
started to build something I'mloving you say say that I was
talking to Big Boy about this atConfidence Con.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
I got a chance to spend some time with him and
that's exactly what he wassaying.
He was saying you guys havebeen doing this for this long,
but you've got to continue tokeep doing your reps, yeah, and
then it goes down differentrabbit holes and you've got to
readjust and bring it back.
Look, we can't do all these 50things we got to like do well
yeah.
And so it's good.
(42:53):
It's good to have people haveyour back.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
It's funny you mentioned not being the smartest
person.
Another piece of advice my dadalways told me he said if you're
the smartest person in the room, you're in trouble.
You want to surround yourselfwith smarter people?
Yeah, yeah, you want tosurround yourself with smarter
people.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yeah, 100%, yeah, good stuff, man.
We always ask guests about thisand I'm very curious about you
guys what's your favoriterestaurant in Vegas?
And you can't say at your.
I'm going to put that inbecause I like all your
restaurants.
I got a good one.
I got a good one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
I was going to say it's a three-way tie between
Nico's, hank's and T-Bone's.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Okay, I love T-Bone and I like all of those.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
My favorite restaurant in town is this sushi
place called Kame K-A-M-E.
It's kind of over by the wind.
It's underneath, it's anomakase sushi place.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
He keeps talking about the omakase.
That's the one Phil did.
That's so good.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
I love Phil.
I'm big on omakase sushi.
That place is unbelievableAwesome.
I lived in New York too.
I put it up against any placein New York, that's a strong
statement.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
You're talking about New York.
I love New York.
Okay, awesome, that is a bigstatement.
How?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
about yourself.
For me, I guess I can go withintheir ecosystem.
Okay, I would say mine is thenoodle bar in Red Rock.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Noodle bar?
Okay, in Red Rock.
Okay, which is a noodle bar?
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yeah, it's a very small little kind of.
I would consider it almost likea hole in the wall.
It's not very big, okay.
But it's it's a classic.
I love it.
It's a very simple menu, butvery good, awesome, good stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
What's your guys' favorite?
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, what do you guys like?
I'm a big foodie man.
I freaking love it, but I like,I love Kali Bash.
It's a great restaurant, it'slike.
It's like I haven't been thereyet.
Check it out.
Man Ole's the owner there.
It's African food, but it's waydifferent than what you would
think.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Where is it at?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Rainbow and like Charleston in that area.
Okay too.
Yeah, they have the great drinkmenu.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Locals love those places.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Yeah, it's great I was telling them yesterday.
The places I really want to goand try and this shows that I
need to spend more time here isGolden Steer we had Amanda on.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
No way they're about to open up in New York, oh
really.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
It's like the only restaurant ever to go the
opposite.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
That's a testament.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
That means it must be really really good.
It's very hard to get into astaple.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Excellent.
And then the other classic Iwant to go to is Pietras.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Oh, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
Pieros, pieros, pieros, I'm sorry, I don't know
how many people have mentionedPieros here Do people call that.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
they call it out all the time yeah really just did
recently.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
We love this great, great restaurant, italian food
excellent.
Yeah, yeah, I haven't gonethere since I, since I was born,
pretty much, yeah, yeah, usedto go there after all the UFC
fights another life, man,because I love.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
I need some best food .
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah, you need it for sure anytime, but another place
I'll tell you guys real quickbefore we transition is is it
the sixes?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
four sixes.
Yeah, that was really good too.
That might be the beststeakhouse really yeah, it's
very good, very, very good.
I know I got everyone'sentitled to their opinion.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
We were just like two weeks ago.
So I love nico's too, but buthonestly um that, that one
caught me off guard.
This is a pop-up and it's onlyhere for a period.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
So oh, yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that too.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
It was really great, I was impressed trying to get
reservations in a month for thegroup, so we'll be going.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Let's go.
It happened, man, in June, soanything else we forgot to leave
you out on, man.
I could talk with you guys forhours, man.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
I would just say if anyone listening wants to go,
the AMA is buy tickets or tunein on CBS.
Memorial Day, may 26th, awesomeyeah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
We'll support you guys, man.
We have to bring you guys back,man, and just keep us updated
on what you guys are doing.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
We support you.
Thank you very much.
This is what people need tohear about.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Appreciate that.
Appreciate y'all's time, man.
Thank you very much.
What's your handles?
Speaker 1 (46:34):
that people can check out.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
At Easy Day Foundation on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Yeah, awesome, I think it's the same across the
board.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah Easy Day Foundation.
Support them and check us outat TheVegasCirclecom.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
So appreciate you guys, thank you very much.
Thank you, that was really cool.
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase to
people in our city who make ithappen.
On today's podcast, we've gottwo powerhouses that are
combining purpose and businessthrough a mission-driven
organization that's making areal impact with our military
veterans.
Let's welcome to the Circle.
(00:20):
Co-founders of Easy DayFoundation.
We've got Mr Frank Fertitta IVand Mr Landon Goulet Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
So good to have you guys in here, man, thank you for
having us you guys have beennonstop man.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
You guys are like on your probably ninth or tenth
interview man making rounds inVegas.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Made more sense to try and get it out of the way.
That's good.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, yeah.
How did you guys connect, howdid this all form?
Or how did you guys meet to?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
form.
Landon and I met.
We both went to USC at thebusiness school.
What year did we graduate?
17, 2017.
We met in 2014.
We've just been buddies eversince.
So it's been 11 years now.
And about a year and a half ago, landon and I decided to start
this foundation for veterans,founded it on Veterans Day of
(01:06):
2023.
And ever since then, we've justbeen plugging away trying to
make this happen.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
What kind of prompted that idea to really, you know,
make this the cause right?
Obviously, we know it's a veryimportant cause.
It's something that a lot ofpeople impacts a lot of people,
but you know, obviously, whatmade you decide that this is
where you wanted to put thatattention I think you know,
frankie and I have likedifferent reasons.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
Um, I think you know, for me, um, you know, growing
up, grew up in southerncalifornia, grew up in orange
county, you know, as far awayfrom enemy front lines as I
possibly could be, right, Ithink you know we've been super
fortunate to grow up, um, youknow, with no major conflicts,
(01:50):
right, in the same way that yousaw, in Vietnam or world war two
, um, and for me, I, you know,had family that you know was in
the military.
My grandpa served in world wartwo, flew 20 missions, you know,
joined when he was 19, you know.
So, through his like veryformative years, um, you know,
served Um, and I think, like you, look back at that generation,
(02:13):
the greatest generation, right,it's what they call it Um, it's
certainly true in terms of whatthose people did.
And you know, just like my, youknow, the thing that resonated
for me is I kind of always grewup feeling like I had some
degree of a civic duty to dosomething, and so I think that
(02:33):
was, like, you know, the bigkind of jumping off point for me
.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I don't know, frankie , for you, yeah, I think you
should talk about your grandpa's21st birthday.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, grandpa's 21st birthday.
Yeah, yeah.
So I mean I, I told him thisstory actually, you know, when
my grandpa turned 21, on his21st birthday.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He bombed berlin, oh wow, oh, that's a very different
21 year old that I had.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, exactly like I, huge sacrifice yeah, I learned
all this as a kid reading hisjournals from World War II.
He would write every single day.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
They would send them.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
And like he had gotten married right before he
got deployed.
So when he was 19 years old, hegot married and so he was
sending back these journals tohis wife.
My grandma oh, wow, my grandma,um, and so, you know, 21st
birthday got on a B-17 co-pilot,flew over from you know, the UK
(03:38):
, across the channel, intoGermany, you know, and flew back
like a nine hour flight day, um, but these stories were like
real as a kid and I, like, Iremember vividly reading this
and thinking you know, what wasI doing at 21?
Cause I certainly was notflying in an airplane, you know,
doing the things that he wasdoing, right, like.
My biggest concern on my 21stbirthday was, like, you know,
are we going to go and have funout tonight, you know?
(04:01):
So it's like just a totallydifferent scale, um, but I think
for me it like it garnered somedegree of civic duty to do
something, and so you know, Ithink we both kind of have that
um.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
You obviously have your own reason too, but my
grandpa was a fighter pilot also, but, um, when I was growing up
, I was, I was very fortunate tobe, uh, surrounded by a lot of
guys that served in the sealteams and some other special
forces units, and they told me alot of different stories that
you just wouldn't believe and,uh, so, you know, started doing
(04:38):
some research on just you know,the like what happens to our
veterans when they come home,and a lot of them struggle.
I'm like you know guys who gothrough the things that they've
told me about, and girls.
They just don't deserve to haveto come home and struggle and
have discomfort, not find a home, not find a new job or a new
sense of purpose.
They're doing the mostimportant job in the entire
(05:00):
world, defending America'sfreedom and, um, you know,
anyone who does that deserves alifetime of comfort when they
come home.
In my opinion, and like Landonsaid, to just like have this
like burning desire, like senseof obligation to try to repay a
debt that you know you never canrepay.
But you know I'm willing to,we're willing to spend our whole
(05:20):
lives at least trying our bestto do that.
So, you know when, when youhave a big group of men and
women who put their lives on theline so we can live in the best
country to ever, you know graceplanet earth.
Uh, I think we just owe it tothem to to at least give a
little bit of our time andenergy to them when they come
(05:40):
home.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So that's powerful, to have that personal connection
to those stories like the.
You know, meeting that fellowtoo.
It's like you know, I feel likeyou know we America's built on
a lot of those people doingthose things and we got the
experiences, like you said, tobe 21 years old and go out and
party because your grandfatherdid things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's extremely fortunate that we have that
experience.
We kind of bonded over that andthen start doing research and
we find out these crazy factsLike there are four times more
veteran suicides than there aredeaths and war operations
amongst our military servicemembers and like things like
that are just insane.
17 veterans commit suicideevery day.
(06:18):
That comes out to over 6,000 ayear.
That's just like stats likethat you just can't ignore 6,000
a year, that's just like stats,like that, you just can't
ignore.
We started talking about thisstuff and we were having drinks
in Newport Beach and we came tothe end of the conversation like
why don't we just do somethingabout it?
And Monday morning we went homeand figured out how to start a
(06:41):
501c3, and we just hit theground running.
We had no idea what we weredoing, but uh, yeah, figured it
out.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So yeah, 18 months later, here we are, so it's
amazing, man, you I'm likegetting emotional.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
I think too, because my dad was military and my uncle
actually passed away recently,called phillips, was a vietnam
veteran and he gave his life toin dallas, texas, with going to
speak with a lot of theseveterans in the whole nine.
So you're 1,000% right, man,they come back.
My uncle he slept in a chairever since he came back.
Wow, he didn't even sleep in abed because of that whole.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So it's wild what you deal with.
So I'm so happy you guys aredoing this.
Yeah, they really need it.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, they really need it, yeah, yeah there's a
huge number of veterans who comehome and they don't want to ask
for help and they'll wait yearsand years to either get help or
, unfortunately, Well, they'reprideful.
Yeah, and it's just it'sinternal torture, I think, for a
lot of them to go from, youknow, doing the most important
job in the world to not reallybeing so sure.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
So you know, that's where we try to come in not
really being so sure.
So, uh, you know that's where wetry to come in, but it's kind
of interesting.
You think, like you know us,most of my experiences with war
have all been on when I've seenthe movies right, which gives
you paints a very differentpicture in a lot of it, like,
how important is it to yourpoint You're saying, these stats
and education of some of theseexperiences and the impact that
(08:02):
it has, I mean, people aren'svery big um, and I think a lot
of you know what we're doing,especially with the event that
we're doing.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know, I think we're coming up on it may 26,
yeah less than two weeks out now.
Um, you know, the idea when westarted the foundation was you
know there's obviously a lot ofamazing veteran service
organizations that do amazingwork.
We, you know, we don't want totake away from what they're
doing, but what we thought wecould do extremely well was, you
(08:34):
know, put on amazing liveevents and partner with amazing
live events to bring awarenessto these statistics that Frankie
spoke about, and also to raisemoney for these amazing
organizations.
And so we actually like today,we don't do you know the
specific services frequently wehave great partners that do most
(08:57):
of that work.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yeah, Well, when we were setting this up, you kind
of have to.
When you're a very youngorganization, you don't want to
do everything at once.
Right, you got to decide whatare we going to be good?
at, and maybe one day we'll tryto do multiple different things.
But what do we think we can bereally good at?
And we've figured raising moneywas something we could be good
at.
And live events, I think, arejust an underutilized platform
(09:19):
for things like this, forcharitable endeavors, and I
think awareness is just asimportant as as raising money,
and I think there's no betterway to get people to bond over
something and have, like, stokea sense of patriotism and
inspire people to do somethingand then get them all in the
same room or same venue and, andyou know, bond over music and
(09:42):
whatever else we might, we mightplan in the future to.
You know, people feed off ofother people's energy, so we
figured it was the perfectplatform to.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And talk about that, right?
So this is going to be theAmerican Music Awards that's
coming up.
I think J-Lo is going to behosting the event.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah, she is.
It's in Fountain Blue, right?
Yeah, Fountain Blue May 26th,and we're going to be live on
CBS and Paramount Plus.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
How did you guys get plugged with them?
Because they're big players.
Man, you guys came with thesame team.
You said you didn't want to getinvolved.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
We had a handful of people out of the gates who were
like are you sure you want totry?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
and go this big your first year.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And we never really wavered, we were just like yeah,
we do absolutely.
Let's just go for it and swingout the fences and see if we can
pull it off.
And now we're two weeks away, soum but yeah, I mean, yeah, our
our initial idea was just to tryto have a huge event that we
can inspire people and raisemoney.
(10:35):
And and it happened, just sohappened that Jay Penske uh, who
I know, who, um, who owns theAMAs, he owns Penske Media, so a
bunch of different you know,the New Year's Eve, new Year's
Rockin' Eve and different eventslike that Billboard Magazine he
came by my office.
He said you know, I really wantto have this vision for
(10:56):
Memorial Day.
We want to move the AMAs toVegas.
And we just happened to have avery similar vision.
It was very serendipitous andwe said you know, let's just run
at this together and you guysdo what you do best and we'll do
what we're going to do.
And, um, and it's been a greatpartnership so far and we're
hoping that this first year is amassive success so that we can
keep doing it.
And then, uh, landon and I willtry and partner with other
(11:19):
great events around the countryand hopefully mainly in Vegas.
Entertainment capital of theworld is a great place to start.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, I was going to touch on that, like how
important is a place like Vegas?
Right, we all know there's alot of money in Vegas, but a lot
of it comes from externalsources or, you know, not
necessarily all.
There's a lot of homegrownmoney, but are you really
targeting the people that are inVegas to kind of, you know,
attend these events and besponsorships, or are you trying
to attract people from outsidein different cities?
We're attracting whoever wantsto come.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I mean whoever's down for the cause.
You want them there.
Whoever's not very familiarwith the cause, we'd love for
them to come and get educatedand learn too.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It's obviously a great city to do it, because
it's built on shows in manycases, and so we think if we can
add one another really amazingshow, it's going to be awesome
and you make an impact.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah, that's the biggest thing I suppose having
this many tourists in vegas isgreat because you get eyeballs
from other, uh, other cities andthey go back and tell their
friends and hopefully we'll havea bit of a ripple effect.
And yeah, and that's my spreadthe word vegas like it's more of
um.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
You're, like you said , you're attracting those the
the tourist dynamic as well,whereas most of the time, I
would assume, when you're tryingto get raise money from like a
place like los angeles or newyork, it's a lot more intimate
and homegrown, where you don'tget as much visibility in some
of those causes it's a bunch offriends and family and
co-workers and business peoplethat are all connecting with
each other yeah, and I thinkalso too, like the American
(12:47):
music awards is, you know, along standing tradition.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I think this is the 51st, 51.
Yeah.
And so yeah like aligning withthat and also, you know, kind of
rebooting it with a purpose,like you said, where it's, like
you know, no offense to thecelebrities instead of just them
getting awards.
There's something else thatwe're all doing there, I think
is, you know, an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Yeah, well, I mean, we'll have a couple veterans
tell their stories that nightand I think that they'll you
know they'll really shine duringthe broadcast too.
I think their stories areobviously super inspiring and
we're looking forward to havingpeople hear them.
That's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Talk a little bit about, like the Navy SEAL motto,
right.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Isn't that how you?
Speaker 1 (13:32):
guys came up with your name and things like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
So it kind of came from from a few of my friends.
You know, anytime they like anytasks that they take on,
whether it's super difficult orsuper easy, they just say, yeah,
easy day, I'll get it done.
So that name kind of resonatedand I was like thinking to
myself well, the easy daysshould be ahead for these guys,
not behind them.
So that's why we went with easyday, because our mission is to
(13:57):
make every day ahead from now oneasy for the veterans and they
should not have their easy, easydays, uh, all behind them.
That's powerful, yeah, yeahthat's a good brand.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a good brand, that's very good it's all from
him, it's from the seals, yeah,but it's good because you're
tying everything together.
So, yeah, and yeah, I mean, aswe know, I mean things happen so
fast man, so many crazy thingshappen, so so how can people
help, other than the fundraisingand things like that?
So for our listeners and thingslike that you know that are
(14:28):
listening right now is how howcan they help?
Like what, what can they dothat's helpful?
Is there places that they cango to?
There's?
You know what I mean?
Like how?
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Yeah, so we have.
They can go to easydayorg anddonate.
They can follow us on social.
It's just at Easy DayFoundation.
And then you know, since we'refocusing on raising money, our
partner organizations focus onthose operational services and
you know you can get in touchwith any of them and you know
they'd be happy to have someboots on the ground help If you
(14:57):
don't have money.
They always are happy to havevolunteers and we can run
through.
You know who our partners areand we have a couple local ones.
We have Folded Flag, which isBill Foley's foundation.
We have the UNLV Military andVeterans Services, the Bob
Woodruff Foundation, fisherHouse, who builds homes for
(15:18):
families visiting vets in thehospital.
There's a bunch of them.
So forgive me if I miss you.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
You've got a lot of good people here, yeah boot
campaign.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Who have I forgotten so far?
Team Rubicon, we have Iraq andAfghanistan Veteran Association
and the Congressional Medal ofHonor Society.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
That's some heavy hitters, man, y'all guys are
playing no games.
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
We have a great group of like partners and it's, I
think, for us the idea is thatit's kind of you know, if you
give to a single VSO, they'rekind of taking on one issue
Right of you know, if you giveto a single vso, they're kind of
taking on one issue right.
If you give to fisher house,they do amazing work rebuilding
homes, right.
Our view is if you give to us,by the way, the night of the
telecast, a hundred percent ofthe donations go through.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
you know I was going which is we're not keeping any
of the donations that comeduring the broadcast yeah, a
hundred percent of that isgetting getting distributed out
straight to the services.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
So you basically, with every dollar donated,
you're covering all the basesand you know that it's going to
them.
That's not often the case.
You hear about some of theseorganizations where it's super
inefficient, like 50 cents ofthe dollar makes it, or it goes
out the back door.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It right, and so we handpicked all of these to try,
and you know, pick organizationsthat together create a holistic
approach to the reintegrationprocess after after service.
So you know, it wasn't justlike let's go pick these ones
here and there and, and you know, throw darts at the dartboard.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
It was very well thought out you mentioned, so
you were talking about some ofthe statistics, right, like I
was looking up.
Is it true that it's 33,000homeless right now.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I think it's a little more as of 2023, when we
started this it was over 35,000.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Yeah, it is decreasing.
It's too, much it's a massiveissue, um, and you know one of
the things you know public toprivate, I think you know
there's there's increasinglymore support for the VA, um, but
there's just not enough thatcan be done, and so that's also
the big part of why we did thisis because we think there needs
(17:35):
to be more private work that'sdone to support what's happening
on the public side.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, it's kind of the same thing.
You talk about building aprivate, you know, obviously I
think both understand businessand a lot of different
capacities, but moving tononprofit is a very different
experience.
No-transcript that you've seenin the difference.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a good question.
I think you know, for us kindof, at least you know.
I think actually for both of us, starting a 501c3 was something
like you said that we haven'tdone.
We have great privatebusinesses.
Things obviously workdifferently right On the private
(18:23):
side.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You're oftentimes trying to build a pretty strong
balance sheet where you havereally you can't have that same
J curve where you spend a bunchof money at first to get
customers and acquire customersand stuff you have to be a lot
more careful.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
You have to be a lot more careful.
It's a way different process.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
It's also the dollars that we bring in we want to put
back out the door, and so everysingle year, we're thinking
about that upcoming budget andthinking about okay, how much do
we need to get in the door tofund everything we want to do?
We don't want to actually holdon to money left over.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Yeah, you're actually not allowed to.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
I can't remember what the time period is, but as a
501c3, you're required todistribute any money like
whatever money you have you haveto either spend it on programs
or as you guys know, as aprivate business owner, you're
not running your bank to zeroevery year.
Yeah, never.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
It's like a counterintuitive.
Yeah, it's a counterintuitive.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
It's completely opposite.
Yeah, it's completely opposite.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So it's a bit of an adjustment, I think
strategically, but I think thepositive piece of it is, you
know, because you're a 501c3,people like just want to help
out, right, and like the amountof people that have volunteered
their time and have helped us onour team too.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Oh that's great Alex over here does this out of the
kindness of his heart.
That's great, yeah, but we hada lot, of, a lot of great people
that we've encountered alongthe way and people are super
willing to help.
It's been yeah, it's beenpretty, pretty awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I mean it's crazy Like you guys talk about how you
guys know each other 11 years,yeah, 11 years.
We don't know each other.
12, 13.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
How did you guys become friends?
We worked together.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
We worked together outside of this and then set up.
My wife was talking crap to usand saying, like we were
supposed to start, that we'vebeen.
We've been going seven yearsnow.
That's pretty good.
Yeah, yeah, big, consistent.
And then, uh, we were supposedto start.
It was two years before that.
Yeah, we kept 2016 wasting time.
Yeah, yeah, unlike you guys,yeah, you guys actually made
(20:27):
decisions we kept I had to getinto a fight with my wife, but
they're telling me like let'sjust do this, let's do it but
going back to's a reason why.
So you know, Vegas Circle wasall about, you know, building
business, building culture andreally showcasing everybody.
But we felt like the strip gotall the shine and there's so
many cool people that are reallymaking an impact off the strip.
(20:48):
Right, and that was our wholefocus is show the business
owners, show the people that areimpacting the culture that
really make an impact.
Yeah, show the business owners,show the people that are
impacting the culture thatreally make an impact.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, there's a lot more culture in this city than
people think.
It's 1000%.
We love being able to highlight.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
You know people like yourself right.
We know you guys are inseparate businesses, which we'll
transition to, but it's reallycool that you guys are doing
something that's meaningful too.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
You know what I mean.
That veteran situation is nojoke man.
It's funny you say that becausewhen we first met and he said
he was from Las Vegas, like myidea of Las Vegas is like oh, so
you like are on the strip everyday, Like is that?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, when you like go into college and you try to
explain to everyone what it'slike and you try to say you had
a normal childhood, and then youtell them about it, they're
like yeah, that's not, it'sactually a small town.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I've been here 17 years.
I'm originally from Chicago andwhen I came here, I'm like this
is like a small town.
Then you go to the strip andthat's why I think we everybody
loves it is.
Then you go to the city whenyou want to, yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's it's, it's, it's it.
That's what you really start tolearn is behind the scenes is
everybody that's their time.
Yeah, 1000% so, but what?
(21:56):
What's like the most meaningfulthing?
I know it's been a short time,but what's the most meaningful
thing?
That's.
That's really touched yourheart on doing this.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
For I mean, I think for me the you know, we we
hosted kind of our first eventjust about a year ago.
Okay, um, when we launched umwas an amazing event, relatively
small, I think we had about ahundred people, maybe that's a
good time 150 people, which theyraised over almost a million
(22:25):
and a half dollars.
That's great, um, but that's not.
What was the most touchingmoment was not the money raised?
There was, we had a lady namedLisa Hallett who came to the
event.
She's supported by one of ourpartners, folded Flag, and what
(22:46):
Folded Flag does is it supportsGold Star families.
And so you know, for folks thatare listening that don't know
Gold Star family is you knowsomeone that may have lost
someone within their family, inaction or through service, and
so you know Lisa's story.
She actually got up and gave aspeech to everyone in that
(23:06):
building and you know her storyis.
You know a very sad one, right?
You know her husband.
You know they had three very,very young kids.
You know very sad one, right?
You know her husband.
You know they had three very,very young kids.
you know two, I think she wasstill pregnant with her yeah,
under the age of two and one onthe way and you know she got.
You know the, the knock on thedoor that nobody ever wants to
(23:31):
get um.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Her husband was on a humanitarian mission too.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, yeah and like I think, when you hear those
stories it puts everything intoperspective in a way that you
know it doesn't matter how muchmoney we raise or like anything
else, like it just makes youwant to support these people,
these people's lives yeah, thesepeople's lives, people's lives
and so what?
Full the flag does an amazingthing where they help support
(23:58):
these families right, and so shewas speaking about her
daughters that are now in school.
Folded Flag has helped, paidfor their education.
Has done some really amazingthings.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, she has two sons and a daughter and they've
given them scholarships to helpput them through school because,
I mean, as you can imagine, youknow, being a single mom after
that with three kids isextremely difficult yeah I was
going to say the same thing.
I just remember very clearlythat night, sitting in the front
row.
(24:28):
Landon and I both spoke thatnight, but when she was speaking
I turned around.
You know half the people in theroom are crying and um, and
it's not even about feeling badas much as it is being proud of
someone like her for justpushing on like what a tough
lady.
Um, and it's just so inspiringto see that.
It just makes people.
It sucks to tell sad storiesbut, um, you know, it inspires
(24:53):
people to to be just as toughand try to help out.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And that was a pretty touching moment you feel like
it's different, like now thatyou've got to experience some of
these things from your firststart, cause I feel like to me
at the beginning, when you'retalking about, it's very
different because you read thestatistics, but when you start
hearing the stories and talkingto the people, you think it
shifts your motivation and makesyou more passionate about it
and really trying to get back,there's a lot of days where it's
a huge pain in the ass to run a501c3 and then you have days
(25:19):
like that and you remember whyyou're here, you know, and
you're like this is why we dowhat we do, and and it you know
that is gives you a lifetime offuel to keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You just remember moments like that and it's all
worth it, yeah the sacrifice wemake is not even close.
Think about my oh, there's apain in the ass.
My God, I'm just being such awuss, right now let's keep going
.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
That's so funny.
I was literally just talkingabout boys, about that yesterday
.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I'm like what?
Speaker 4 (25:46):
are we complaining about again?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
And you just talk about the lady that's dealing
with that or dealing with themental issues or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
And it touches us all because you have a story.
I have a story, like all of ushave these stories.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah, um, and so it's .
It's like.
You know it's.
It's not unique to singlepeople, no, so it's.
It's a country issue.
That's right.
It's a we all have beenimpacted one way or another.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
That's right, yeah and the other one of the other
big tenantsets.
I think to us, doing this islike we're trying to demystify
and eliminate.
You know, being a veteransupporter from veterans and
supporting our troops or, likeyou know, doing anything like
(26:38):
that has become partisan and itreally should not be.
It should just be a matter ofsupporting an.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
American who's next to you or a human that's next to
you.
We started this around a timewhen we were coming off of all
time lows of militaryrecruitment and just felt like
we want to make I think liveevents is a great way to make
get younger generation in a roomand get them to, you know, have
like a greater sense ofpatriotism that I think you know
(27:07):
I probably get from my parentswhen they grew up.
You know they were our age inthe you know, eighties, nineties
, and we just kind of want tosee that again and make sure
that everybody is proud to beAmerican and proud to be here
and knows that they're lucky tobe here.
Yeah, those are great points.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Cool, fantastic.
Yeah, I love what you guys aredoing, man.
I'm trying to just listen andtake it in and not cut you guys
off, man.
It's really impactful man.
Thank you, powerful.
Yeah, I just want to talk alittle bit just personally, just
what you guys are doing also inthe city with your personal
jobs and things like that.
But I'll start with you, frank.
So currently you're a senior VPof Red Rock.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Resorts right.
Yes, SVP of operations, but Ihave my hands in a little bit of
everything over there.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
What is your day-to-day?
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Because when you take on another task man, it gets
crazy.
I can't believe he does it all.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
I work in the corporate office but I help run
ops at all the differentproperties, work with all the
GMs at each property and I do alot of development stuff too,
working on our future projects.
I worked on Durango a goodamount.
I was just coming home fromgraduate school when we were in
the ground with Durango.
Shout out to Durango.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I know, I'm just saying as you're sitting
with'all did a hell of a job.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to be honest Durangois excellent.
Yeah, it's been great so far.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
People have responded really well to it.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Everyone likes that we put windows in over there.
Tall, tall Cooperman with thetattoos yeah, amazing guy.
Yeah, he's great.
So I'll make it laugh realquick for a second.
But we did y'all's commercialour family with our kids.
The Durango commercial yeah,the Durango commercial.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Oh wow, yeah, I picked that song.
I love that song.
I was like this is the perfectone.
We were part of that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
We got to give a shout out to our kids because
they'll be like what they see.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
All my friends were stop man.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
But no, you guys did a hell of a job, agreed.
What is the expansion like withthis?
So you guys are expandingDurango now, right, and then you
got Henderson that's coming upsoon.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Well, right now the expansion is an extra garage
parking garage and a newhigh-limit slot room and a
little additional casino space,and we had to put a garage in
first to have more parking forwhen we expand more.
Okay, but we can't expand if wedon't have room for people to
park on the site.
So that was the first move.
Yeah, it's a lot of movingpieces, but that was just to get
(29:23):
us to the next stage and thenhopefully we'll be announcing
what our next property is in thenext 12 months or so.
We'll try to get you to slip up, not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
We'll try to get you to slip up.
Not going to happen, say whatit is.
You smooth man, you smooth, soI'll skip to you too.
Landon, so your day-to-day, soyou're in the capital raising
business, right?
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, so I work in venture capital and so our focus
is investing in late stagetechnology companies, so they're
all venture backed.
We manage a credit fund andalso an equity fund, Okay, and
so you know our business isreally, you know, on the equity
side is, you know, identifyinggenerational founders right that
(30:09):
we meet, that you know we thinkare building really incredible
businesses and you know we wantto invest in those businesses
and partner with them for,hopefully, decades to come.
Our outlook is longer duration.
I think it's also why we getalong quite so well is because
our thinking is long-durationthinking.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Find good people that you want to partner with for a
very long time.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yeah, also, we're building edf to be, you know,
here for decades to come um youknow we're it's edf is actually
not about frank or I um, we'renot speaking at the event, like
we don't.
We don't want to be the face ofit.
It's about the veterans and thework and building something
(30:54):
that will stand the test of time, and so it's similar to what we
do with our businesses.
We often you know, troy, ourfirm we don't really do press
every investment that we make.
We don't really publiclyannounce.
If you go to our website, it'sliterally just a landing page.
Oh, that's what I was lookingat yeah, you can't do this.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, I was trying to do as much as I can.
Landon made it up.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Yeah, yeah.
So that's purposely toredistribute, that's right.
It's actually because you know,like our view is.
You know, it's not about ourfirm, it's about the founders
that we back and the businessesthat they build and the products
that they offer.
And I think think that's whatshould really matter.
(31:38):
And for our LPs, that give usthe capital we have fiduciary to
them to generate returns, andwhat we found is when we can
support our founders mosteffectively and have them own
the spotlight, the actual alphathat we can generate and the
returns we can drive are are thebest.
Yeah, um, and so you know,that's been an amazing time.
(32:00):
We've built this firm now over adecade, um, and have backed
really amazing businesses yeahsomething goes, yeah, and you
got the right mindset too, man,because it's different having
that mindset to be able to makeyou go crazy yeah, some people
in the space are like trying todo quick flips or like trying to
, you know, ride momentum, and Ithink, like our view is more so
(32:23):
, you know, partnering for longduration.
So do you pick?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
the founder.
That's what you're looking atand say can I buy into this
founder?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
I think it's a mix of the founder, the business, the
opportunity.
I think if you look back at ourbody of work, a lot of times
we're making bets on you knowpeople and businesses that you
know.
If you had asked us when webacked them years ago, would it
look like this today?
We wouldn't necessarily havesaid in our underwriting case
(32:52):
that it would, but because webelieve so much in that founder
and kind of the core productvision, it played out that way.
That's awesome.
So yeah, it's.
It's been really amazing andfun to build.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
So you're the skills that really balance each other
out.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
It's almost like we guys are talking about how much
you're good at.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
We haven't gotten into any arguments since we
started this.
By the way, you haven't no, no,we get along pretty well, but
it's it's totally different.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Like hospitality to investing is a very different
thing, but it's also is it verymuch a person's business.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah Right, so it plays well, you know what's so
funny?
I always say when you get intobusiness with folks, we're like
the completely opposite, really.
Yeah, but they say it's goodbecause they can see your blind
spots.
You don't want to get inbusiness with the same person
right, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
I think that that's true.
You got to kind of complimenteach other, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
And not argue Same.
Thing.
We know, I think we were in anargument like not once I just
argued with my wife.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
She can handle it.
Yeah, she tells, I think that'swhat they do.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They pick up on because they think exactly alike
.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
How did?
Speaker 1 (33:59):
you guys meet.
What's the story?
We were working together andwhat that was, but we probably
had too many drinks or something, man, but we were.
We were up late, I think,probably like 4 35 o'clock in
the morning, just debating, justdebating yeah and um, and then
(34:22):
we came me originally from Ithink it's a vibe, because we're
both from the midwest, like I'mfrom chicago, he's from Detroit
, and then we've lived a lot ofdifferent places.
So we just vibed man and so,long story short, kind of fast
forward to 2025, when weoriginally started.
It kind of went left.
We brought in two otherpartners that went left and had
(34:42):
the same vision of what we wereall about.
And the biggest thing for us wasand I think it started with
that night was we wanted to justrepresent something we want our
kids to listen to.
This interview and theinterviews we were doing in the
beginning was not that I mean wewere doing pimps and doing all
types of stuff like trying toget the wow factor, which a lot
of people do, but the longevitythe marathon right.
(35:05):
So we really wanted to look atthis as a business, as a media
company, and how do we do that?
And it started with a lot ofthese nights.
But it was funny because he waslike he was saying he thought I
was like a pastor, like a superreligious guy, and we got into
like a whole bunch of differentdebates just about life and
business and family and all ofthat, and we were like, hey,
let's start forming a companytogether.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Why Vegas?
How'd you guys end up here?
So I ended up here because ofthis young lady.
Like seven years ago when youmet, were you both living here.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You were still.
We were both here, her and me.
I've been here 17.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, we've been together.
I moved to LA first 2001 fromBoston and then I moved here in
07.
I remember when did you?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
move here 2011.
2011, yeah, and we met 2012,right.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, so yeah, and then I moved here from my wife,
so we've been together.
21 years.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, I moved here because they said Vegas was the
land of second chances.
I was in Detroit a very badeconomic recession and I was
like, oh, I can't make nothingof myself here.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
It's just as bad here , I think.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Especially because 07 and then 08 hit and it was kind
of scary.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Yeah, it was rough here for a while.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
And when I moved to Boston that was 9-11.
So I'm like, oh my God, I'mgoing to move states.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
It was the worst time , yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
But to answer your question, I think what it was is
we met and you know, you justvibe with people, yeah, right,
and that's really what it is,and I think we each other, we've
never had arguments or moneyissues or anything like that, so
it's been great yeah, yeah,that's awesome, yeah, but uh, I
want to talk a little bit aboutjust because I know you know
your sister a little bit, aboutyour family a little bit.
How do you deal with and I'mjust curious I think it's
(36:38):
helpful for the listenerseverybody's plugging in, want
something, right?
How do you differentiate thereal from the fake, especially
in a city like las vegas,because I know people always
want patitas and want you guysto do different things.
I'm just curious how do you sayno?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
I'm not very good at saying no, to be honest.
Okay, you learn it.
Yeah, I mean, after a long timeyou just kind of know what's
what and why people are askingfor things they're asking for.
But look, I mean I keep intouch with a lot of really great
people and you know I don'treally have a lot of people who
(37:18):
try and use and abuse my familyand my life.
So I'm very fortunate for that.
We surround ourselves withgreat people and you know we're
very pleased with that.
So I don't have to think ofways to say no very often.
That's solid.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
I just want to step back a little bit about funding.
Yeah, so is it.
Is it?
Quid Is it?
Q?
U I?
Speaker 4 (37:36):
D, yeah, so.
So quid is like within ourcredit platform that we have Um,
and this was kind of a businessthat we started, I think, about
nine years ago, andconceptually the idea was, you
know, there's a lot ofshareholders in private
technology companies that holdpositions that are highly
(37:59):
illiquid, right, if you're youknow an investor or a
shareholder, or you know anyparticular person that owns
stock in one of these privatecompanies, you can't it's not
traded publicly, so you can'tsell the shares, right and so
the vision there was could wecreate a platform that could
provide financing securedagainst those shares, almost
(38:21):
like how margin works in thepublic markets but in the
private markets?
So we yeah, we built that outwith.
Our first investor was Oak TreeCapital, which is an amazing
firm headquartered in LA.
We've now scaled the platformpretty significantly and brought
in some really amazing partnerstoo, and so that's like one of
(38:42):
you know, one of the amazingkind of sub platforms that we
have within our firm.
But that's all about justcreating liquidity for people
that have, you know, workedextremely hard, have within our
firm.
But that's all about justcreating liquidity for people
that have, you know, workedextremely hard, have built
amazing positions, but theyhaven't been able to monetize it
yet.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Okay, they pay you back once they IPO.
Right, that's right yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
So, like you know, we had many clients at Airbnb,
many clients at you know,flexport, stripe.
These companies when they stayprivate and then when they reach
public markets, then you pay ahell of a business.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, I gotta give you very smart like that.
Yeah, it's a hell of a business.
Yeah, how long have you guysbeen in business here?
Speaker 4 (39:20):
we've been in business with that product for
about nine years oh, okay, yeah,so it's been around for a while
um, and now it's.
You know it stretches all theway, you know from not only
working with shareholders in thecompany but you know LPs and
funds, you know investors inkind of the preferred equity
stack.
So we kind of service, kind ofthe whole stack.
(39:42):
That's exciting.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Yeah, it's very interesting.
Yeah, I talked to you guys.
We have a whole podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
We're having a good time.
We can stick around.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
No, because I don't want to just make it so much,
just a veteran, but I wanted toshine a light on what you guys
do on a day-to-day because youguys are making huge impacts.
Yeah, the right people to makea big impact in this foundation.
Yeah, 100%.
So how much time?
Speaker 3 (40:04):
do.
Yeah, you know I mean I stillhandle my day-to-day at Station
at Red Rock the same way I didbefore.
So it's an everyday thing andthis we just squeeze it in where
we can.
And you know it's gotten moretime-consuming the closer we get
to May 26.
(40:25):
But you know there's always alittle extra time in the day.
If we got to schedule a latecall or whatever, we'll do it
and make it happen.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I mean, if there ever was anything to work nights and
weekends on, it's probablysomething that has a purpose,
right?
So like.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I think it is fun honestly just working together
with your best friend.
It's not like we, we don'tdread it at all.
It has its moments where it'sdifficult, but it's not boring
ever, you know.
Yeah, that's awesome, man.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
I applaud you guys, man.
Transition a little bit is justabout nuggets and business.
What's one real piece ofbusiness advice that you could
give a new founder or justfriends in general or people
that want to collab like youguys?
Right, Because that's a problema lot of times is people collab
and they partner and thenthings go left.
What would you tell the peoplethat are listening that before
they're starting off, how theyshould establish that
(41:14):
relationship?
Speaker 4 (41:15):
Yeah, I think the most important piece of advice
is just doing the work every day.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
There's no reason to get mad at your partner if
they're pulling their wayequally.
Yeah, there's no reason to getmad at your partner if they're
pulling their way equally.
And I know that doesn't happenall the time, obviously, but I
guess you know, pick someonewith the same work ethic that
you have and knowing thatthey're going to show up, and if
there's a day when you can'tshow up, I know Landon's going
to be able to make the decisionsfor me and vice versa, you know
.
So I don't worry too much.
(41:46):
If there's a day that I can'tmake a meeting, cause I know he
can, he can handle it.
So makes a makes for a prettygood team.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
Yeah, I think oftentimes you're not going to
be the smartest person, but ifyou do wake up and you put in
the work every single day I meanprobably you guys have been
doing this podcast seven yearsand we're here, we haven't taken
a break in seven years yeah,yeah, put our content, yeah,
since seven years straight, justlike head down.
And of course, there's days youwake up and you're like, oh man
(42:18):
, I am frustrated that this hasgone this way.
But like if you just, yeah, putyour you know hat back on, put
your head down and keep doingthe work, like eventually you
wake up 18 months later andyou're you've built something or
started to build something I'mloving you say say that I was
talking to Big Boy about this atConfidence Con.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
I got a chance to spend some time with him and
that's exactly what he wassaying.
He was saying you guys havebeen doing this for this long,
but you've got to continue tokeep doing your reps, yeah, and
then it goes down differentrabbit holes and you've got to
readjust and bring it back.
Look, we can't do all these 50things we got to like do well
yeah.
And so it's good.
(42:53):
It's good to have people haveyour back.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
It's funny you mentioned not being the smartest
person.
Another piece of advice my dadalways told me he said if you're
the smartest person in the room, you're in trouble.
You want to surround yourselfwith smarter people?
Yeah, yeah, you want tosurround yourself with smarter
people.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yeah, 100%, yeah, good stuff, man.
We always ask guests about thisand I'm very curious about you
guys what's your favoriterestaurant in Vegas?
And you can't say at your.
I'm going to put that inbecause I like all your
restaurants.
I got a good one.
I got a good one.
Speaker 3 (43:22):
I was going to say it's a three-way tie between
Nico's, hank's and T-Bone's.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Okay, I love T-Bone and I like all of those.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
My favorite restaurant in town is this sushi
place called Kame K-A-M-E.
It's kind of over by the wind.
It's underneath, it's anomakase sushi place.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
He keeps talking about the omakase.
That's the one Phil did.
That's so good.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
I love Phil.
I'm big on omakase sushi.
That place is unbelievableAwesome.
I lived in New York too.
I put it up against any placein New York, that's a strong
statement.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
You're talking about New York.
I love New York.
Okay, awesome, that is a bigstatement.
How?
Speaker 4 (43:56):
about yourself.
For me, I guess I can go withintheir ecosystem.
Okay, I would say mine is thenoodle bar in Red Rock.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Noodle bar?
Okay, in Red Rock.
Okay, which is a noodle bar?
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yeah, it's a very small little kind of.
I would consider it almost likea hole in the wall.
It's not very big, okay.
But it's it's a classic.
I love it.
It's a very simple menu, butvery good, awesome, good stuff.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
What's your guys' favorite?
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Yeah, what do you guys like?
I'm a big foodie man.
I freaking love it, but I like,I love Kali Bash.
It's a great restaurant, it'slike.
It's like I haven't been thereyet.
Check it out.
Man Ole's the owner there.
It's African food, but it's waydifferent than what you would
think.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Where is it at?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Rainbow and like Charleston in that area.
Okay too.
Yeah, they have the great drinkmenu.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Locals love those places.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Yeah, it's great I was telling them yesterday.
The places I really want to goand try and this shows that I
need to spend more time here isGolden Steer we had Amanda on.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
No way they're about to open up in New York, oh
really.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
It's like the only restaurant ever to go the
opposite.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
That's a testament.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
That means it must be really really good.
It's very hard to get into astaple.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Excellent.
And then the other classic Iwant to go to is Pietras.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Oh, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 3 (45:19):
Pieros, pieros, pieros, I'm sorry, I don't know
how many people have mentionedPieros here Do people call that.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
they call it out all the time yeah really just did
recently.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
We love this great, great restaurant, italian food
excellent.
Yeah, yeah, I haven't gonethere since I, since I was born,
pretty much, yeah, yeah, usedto go there after all the UFC
fights another life, man,because I love.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
I need some best food .
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah, you need it for sure anytime, but another place
I'll tell you guys real quickbefore we transition is is it
the sixes?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
four sixes.
Yeah, that was really good too.
That might be the beststeakhouse really yeah, it's
very good, very, very good.
I know I got everyone'sentitled to their opinion.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
We were just like two weeks ago.
So I love nico's too, but buthonestly um that, that one
caught me off guard.
This is a pop-up and it's onlyhere for a period.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
So oh, yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed that too.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
It was really great, I was impressed trying to get
reservations in a month for thegroup, so we'll be going.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Let's go.
It happened, man, in June, soanything else we forgot to leave
you out on, man.
I could talk with you guys forhours, man.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
I would just say if anyone listening wants to go,
the AMA is buy tickets or tunein on CBS.
Memorial Day, may 26th, awesomeyeah.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
We'll support you guys, man.
We have to bring you guys back,man, and just keep us updated
on what you guys are doing.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
We support you.
Thank you very much.
This is what people need tohear about.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Appreciate that.
Appreciate y'all's time, man.
Thank you very much.
What's your handles?
Speaker 1 (46:34):
that people can check out.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
At Easy Day Foundation on Instagram.
Speaker 4 (46:38):
Yeah, awesome, I think it's the same across the
board.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah Easy Day Foundation.
Support them and check us outat TheVegasCirclecom.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
So appreciate you guys, thank you very much.
Thank you, that was really cool.
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