In Episode 1, Alexis and Chris discuss Alexis' hotel baby, the Albert Hotel in Fredericksburg, TX, deciding to become Insta official with a new relationship, creating a consulting business, and Chris' trip to NYC.
Transcript
This is my first rodeo.
Okay, let's do business, TM.
Welcome to Doing Business TM, the podcast about doing business. Brought to you by us. Let's take a minute before we get started just to introduce our sponsors.
We don't have it. Track your beat. We have track your beat.
We have no sponsors yet, but this is the space where if you are interested in sponsoring Doing Business TM, we will take your money. We will take your sponsorship. So hit us up.
And we will, you know, it'll be mutually beneficial. We'll guarantee that.
We can guarantee mutual benefit. That's correct. That's one thing that we can guarantee.
So before we introduce ourselves to our new audience, you hit me up. You said we're going to do a podcast.
Isn't that how this started?
I think it was more like we were at a bar at 1 a.m. Is that how it started?
Okay.
Well, we were at a bar at 1 a.m. and we were doing business. We were getting business done, and we were like the world needs to know how good we are at DoingBusinessTM.
That's right. Okay.
And we want to help the world with our skills at doing business.
We need to help the world. We need to help the world. So as we get into this...
In reality, in all actual seriousness, you and I have had a lot of conversations and a lot of conversations with our colleagues and friends at various conferences about the indie space and the hospitality world and the challenges that we face every day and how difficult it is and how we really use our platform and our people and all of these industry experts to help each other. We don't have the backing of these flags. We don't have a lot of resources, but we have a lot of really, really smart, talented people.
And so I think that's the actual business we're going to do for about 15 minutes of this podcast every time.
That's right. That's right. So that's okay.
Well, that's good. I didn't know what we were going to, what this podcast was about. So, okay.
That's really great.
That's why doing business is a perfect name.
That's right. Because that's what we do. So hi, introduce yourself to the people, to all of our new friends who are listening to us for the first time.
Who the fuck are you?
My name is Alexis Lanman. I live in Austin, Texas. I'm the former chief marketing officer to New Waterloo, which is an independent hospitality development and management company.
I was there for about 15 years. I helped to foster its growth from one restaurant into 20 unique independent hotels and restaurants. I recently left to kind of explore some new adventures.
And much to my chagrin, I was not planning on doing this, but had gotten a few requests to help people with their projects. And so I'm now starting my own thing. So I'm actually pretty excited about it now that it's moving.
It was not my intention, but I think it's where I'm being pulled. And we can talk a little bit about what that looks like further on.
Oh, we will. And you were named after the Billy Bob Thornton show, Landman. Is that true?
You know, it is, actually, but it's completely correct.
You changed your name because of that show.
For the Billy Bob Thornton show, yeah. I'm really committed to being a Texan.
You love Texas. That's great. That's really wonderful.
I appreciate the commitment to the state of Texas.
I mean, it's a good show.
It's a good show.
Alexis from Texas. I have to. It's my brand.
That is your brand. Okay. Cool.
I'm Chris. I'm Chris Miller, Head of Digital at Tractorbeam in Dallas. This is a real Dallas versus Austin podcast, which is great.
This is my 11th year at Tractorbeam. I started in January 11 years ago, which is wild. Before that-
Did you get a major award since it's your 11th anniversary?
Not even a fucking, hey man, I'm glad you've been here for so long.
You should demand it.
I know. Not even a hug, nothing. I don't even think anyone knows, to be honest.
I keep bringing it up. I keep saying, guys, I've been here 11 years and not even like, cool, nothing.
They're like, oh, you're still here.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
They're like an opening in office space. I keep showing up. And yeah, so before that, I was VP at a company called Standing Dog, which was a hospitality agency.
I think I was there for God knows how long. And then before that, I was head of BizDev and Client Services at an agency in San Francisco for a number of years. And this, let me tell you a quick, fun story, a wild-ass story about how small the world is.
My world is getting teeny tiny, teeny tiny. I've got two teeny tiny stories. One is we just got a lead that came in, and a lead out of Austin.
So I'm getting ready for this call, and then the people, whatever, get added. And I'm looking at the last names. I'm like, wait, they're out of Austin?
And Jessica, who's our communications director, she's like, yeah. I'm like, what's that name again? She tells me the name.
I'm like, call that. So I go to the internets. I'm like, this is fucking wild.
The owner of this company is the brother of the guy who owned my company in San Francisco that I've worked for for a number of years, who is also on the call. So that was a giant reunion.
Basically, you won the business, you know, based on that.
Yeah, they just signed. Of course they signed. I'm like, you have to sign.
You taught me everything I know.
Totally.
Yeah. So really, really small world. And in the other small world, which I still, I can't quite wrap my head around was, so I was in New York last week, and I'm having lunch with our friend, Jessica, and look over to our right, and who the fuck is sitting down, but-
Jason and Doug.
Louie. No fucking Louie. Fucking Louie is sitting down right next to us.
How many restaurants? Well, there's six restaurants in New York City, and fucking Louie is sitting down right next to us. I'm like, this is-
You know, what's even funnier is I'm on a group text with Melissa and Doug and Alex and Jason.
Oh, this is awkward.
How come I'm on that group text? Well, they were-
Awkward. Nope.
Because I don't know.
No, good. I don't want to be.
No, you don't. And Doug and Jason were in New York, and then Melissa was like, Chris Miller is also there because Louie just texted me. And I was like, good God.
Yeah.
I'll see.
I know. We're a tiny group of people who will all be together in what? Two weeks.
Two weeks.
Yeah.
And Nashville, did you decide if you're coming out?
I am. That's great.
Then we'll talk about that. Yeah. But first, I would like to talk about your newest project that has just launched and dive in a little bit.
We're going to try to keep this, by the way, maybe to a Type 45. What are we thinking? Type 45.
Love it. Love it. Good luck to us.
I know. If we're in tangent.
You'll edit it to a Type 45. Yeah.
I'm really good at that. Yeah. I'm trying to also, I've got to figure out our intros and outros, you know, cause we need that.
Yeah.
Yeah. I agree.
I may go full.
I think it's gotta be like, let's do business TM.
Yeah. I may go full like, I may go full Carrie Underwood and like, acapella singing it. We'll see.
I do like that.
That's good.
I'm here for it.
Okay.
Cool. We should beta test it and have people vote.
Yeah. We should do that.
Yeah.
I like that idea. Yeah. Get ready for it.
Okay. So tell us and talk to us, all of your adoring fans. I want to talk a little bit about the Hotel Albert, the Albert Hotel.
What are we rolling with? What is the-
Albert Hotel. Albert Hotel.
Albert Hotel. Was that a ground-up build that's in Fredericksburg, Texas?
For the most part.
For the most part.
So it's this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we got back in 2018, 2019. That's how long, that's how long it was in development. We'll talk a little bit about that and the challenges there.
Yeah. And again, it's just one of those prime examples of how complicated it is to self-develop in any space. And all of the headwinds that you can be met with in the face of COVID, construction costs, bad GT.
There was a whole pandemic that happened. People, yeah.
Being in a tweener market, hard to get labor in Fredericksburg, Texas. So for people who don't know, Fredericksburg, Texas is about an hour and a half outside of Austin. It's in Texas Hill Country.
It's gorgeous, little historic town. And the Hill Country of Texas is second in wine tourism to Napa. So even though Texas wine is known to not be the highest caliber, it's actually getting a lot better.
And really, all the bachelorettes go there.
Beautiful. All so many. So we should get Brooks Bubble Bus to sponsor this.
They don't need it. But yeah, all the bachelorettes. And, but you know, it's a beautiful spot.
It's great for families. It's great for couples. It's fun to party there.
You know, you can really find whatever you want. So we had this opportunity. There was this three acres of land on the historic Main Street.
It's called the Golden Blocks of Fredericksburg. And there's four historic properties on it. Some of the oldest in Fredericksburg that belonged to one of the original founders of Fredericksburg, the Keidel, the Keidel family.
And they wanted some assistance figuring out how to utilize that property and that land. And so we came in and really put together this development plan for a hotel. And then kind of, you know, in the process, that bought a lot of them out so that we could be the developer of the property.
That isn't probably the right wording, but go with it.
Nobody cares.
Or edit it out.
I'm going to edit it. I'm going to put my voice in. Put the right words in.
And worked with these amazing partners. We worked with Clayton and Cordy on the architecture, Gorilla Suit, on the creative and branding, and really put together this exceptional property and product where we have a new build behind the historic façades that you can't even see from Main Street, even though it's a three-story structure. And a 110-room hotel with a spa, with this gorgeous pool that's intended to look like a swimming hole in Texas, a restaurant by Michael Fauterge, the four-time James Beard-nominated chef.
We have a saloon, we have a pharmacy, and it's really like a very, very, very cool hill country resort, but right in town. There is nothing like it and there can never be anything else like it. There is no other land in that location that could be developed that way.
And there are no hotels in Fredericksburg. So people are coming in. There's definitely going to be some new developments soon around Hill Country and surrounding Fredericksburg.
But to be in town on Main Street is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And so we didn't take that for granted. We made it the most beautiful, special right for the place, property you could ever imagine.
I can't wait for you to see it because, you know, I cried going to the opening. Five years in the making. It's really the project that I cut my teeth on as well.
So a lot of the conceptual ideation was my IP, along with great, amazing collaborators. But, you know, seeing that through all the way to this amazing opening just is something I'm incredibly proud of. And it's really, really special.
It's really special. So I'm excited for people to experience it. And we got to get you out there sooner rather than later.
It looks gorgeous. Yeah. All right.
And how did the residents of Fredericksburg, how did they take to it?
You know, we are incredibly conscious of that with every project we do. It's pointless for us to do something. Like our whole ideology is if you build it for locals, you build it for everyone.
Yeah.
And so you have to start it there. So we took great care to make sure we brought them into the process, that we appealed to them. And we had a co-developer on the project, Matthew Pitkin, who lives in Fredericksburg, and was such a huge, important resource for us in ingratiating ourselves to the town.
And then really just being there to communicate with everybody. I think most of the time those things get, it's scary. It's scary to not understand what's happening in your town, and you want to protect it, you want to protect the specialness of it.
And I think when you have someone that can communicate often and well with the locals, and that eliminates a lot of that fear and brings them into the process. So, and we were really, you know, we want them a part of it. We want them to want to be there.
So, really wanted to take great care with that process.
Okay.
Well, yeah, I'm sure some people, I'm sure some people hate it.
I mean, some people are dicks, you know, that's just the way it goes.
Yeah.
When is the best time to go to Fredericksburg? When should we go?
Honestly, you can go to Fredericksburg anytime.
Anytime.
I've probably been, anytime. I've been in every season. There's something great about going in the winter because it's not as busy.
For this property, the pool is so great. You wanna go for the pool? The pool is something really special.
Yeah, so got lots of long, hot months here.
Yeah.
You know, really anytime starting at the end of March until October.
All right.
But yeah, the pool is really special, and that's something that I wouldn't want to miss out on.
How's that spa?
The spa is gorgeous. I haven't experienced it myself, but I can't say that the design is beautiful.
Okay. All right. All right.
How'd the kids like it?
There's no other full service spa in.
No way.
In Fredericksburg. Yeah.
Seriously?
Yeah.
I know.
I'm telling you. We got this opportunity to do things in an up-and-coming market that doesn't have things people need was just unparalleled. I mean, it's so rare.
That's wild. Bachelorettes are running around without a spa? Like, I don't understand.
I think there's people that will come to your Airbnb.
I bet.
You know, those extra special treatments.
I'm sure. Yeah.
Those are for the bachelor parties.
Right. With Justice Police officers. I know how that goes.
I hope so. I mean, be a little creative.
Yeah, please. All right.
Maybe dressed as cowboys. I'd like to see some cowboys in Fredericksburg. You know.
That makes sense. That makes sense. Okay.
What's Justin Spencer doing over here?
Justin Spencer is in Cleveland now because they are opening our Cleveland project, Fidelity Hotel, which I'd love to talk about Cleveland on our next episode because I think it's one of the greatest places in America. I'm not kidding. I love it.
I really love Cleveland. I love, and like you get this too, but the places that have that sense of possibility. Like in Austin, every rock is turned over.
I can't think of. Yeah. And when you go to these places that need something, that have a ton of energy, that people are moving to because the cost of living, in Austin, in LA, in San Francisco, et cetera, is maybe not in LA right now, but it's just not viable.
And so it's just this, there's so much potential and there's so much fun to be had. So they are there right now. It opens on Monday, Fidelity Hotel, and also a really, really special project and gonna be very beautiful and completely niche in that market as well, so.
Yeah, so you're taking, you've got two big projects that have opened and now you're saying, I'm out, I'm starting my own, I'm starting my own thing. So you messaged me and said, yeah, I'm doing it, which we talked about. 2025, you know, started 2024, now I'm moving into 2025 is the year of the woman taking it on.
Every woman I seem to know right now is saying, fuck, I'm working for anybody else, I'm doing it on my own. I'm here for it. I love it.
So are you saying it's going to be an over saturated and competitive market?
No, because they're all doing different things. No, it's going to be like Voltron, where all the forces are going to come together and create a superwoman to take over the world. And I'm here for it.
So I think it's wonderful. I'm very happy to hear it. So what are we thinking?
Yeah, this kind of goes hand in hand with a big role that I played for both Fidelity in Cleveland and Albert in Fredericksburg, and then also the 37 different projects that didn't pass go.
Yeah.
And I think about this a lot for these smaller independents is that, you know, you kiss a lot of frogs in business development, and in development in general. And it can be a real strain on resources when you're trying to figure out if a project is going to be financially viable, and then also, you know, something that's cool, that's going to have a program that would fit that market and that audience. And a lot of these indies like New Waterloo, it's, you know, you have a hundred completely unique, totally different brands, products in different markets with different audiences.
And so your due diligence and feasibility and market analysis and, you know, them creating something that's cool and right and compelling and fun. And that's a bunch of buzzwords, but there's no point in doing this if you're not doing it with a point of view. And it has to be special and it has to be good, and it also has to be financially viable.
And making all of those things happen is a complicated process that, you know, you're usually not having a multi-person team on. You're pulling people from your executive team, from your director level positions to go, you know, run these processes and taking them out of their day-to-day. And it's really complicated and it's fun.
People love to do it. But, you know, you lose, you're also still managing and trying to operate successful businesses everywhere else. And so I think that there's a niche here to almost, you know, complex or fractional business development where it's not necessarily going and finding your potential business partners, but it's once they want you to run that process where you're not really in tech services yet, but you've got to kind of prove out this concept, this program, and put it next to a pro forma and make sure it all works, make sure that that market is compelling and interesting and has legs.
You know, that's a lengthy and complex process that I did 50 times with Barton as our CEO. And it's where I really see a niche, because not having to put that strain on your internal team and having somebody who's passionate and wants to go do that work for you can really be a win-win. And so kind of starting there with just kind of naturally have had a few people reach out to me to do that exact thing for them.
And I started thinking about it, and I started thinking about how much that would take me away from my team and how much that created a strain on the organization and how that could really be something beneficial for a lot of these similar size businesses. So that initial concept, brand ideation, a little bit of brand development, positioning, market analysis, F&B ideas and concepts, and then really matching all of those up to numbers. And then recommending the best digital and creative team out of Dallas, Tractorbeam.
I know one.
But that's the other thing is I do have a deep list of the best. And I just can make that easy, especially for a lot of these first time developers, or people that have passion projects, and being able to provide them kind of a suite of services to make their lives easier, and then ensure a successful business on the other side. It's not just about having a good idea.
It's about how does this good idea gonna fit into your day-to-day operations and make you money?
Right. Make those fuckers rich.
Right. I'd love to. I really would.
Yeah. So you've got projects lined up?
I do. Inks not dry. So we'll talk about that later once there's a little more.
But some two really cool things that I'm excited to work on.
Hell yeah. That's really exciting.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah. And in the meantime, you're a Facebook official? You have a boyfriend?
I'm Facebook official. I am. I have a boyfriend.
It feels silly as a 42-year-old woman and mother of two to use the word boyfriend, that I'm like, I feel like I'm 16. But I do feel like I'm 16.
I'm fascinated by this. I'm very fascinated.
Yeah, it's fun, right?
Well, you know, yeah, I mean, because I'm the opposite. I am, I am MySpace official. That's how long that I've been in, and in my relationship.
So I'm always very interested in the dating world because it's so different.
Well, you know, Chris, I'm exceptional at dating. It's my favorite sport and I love it. I mean, I did very well, you know, since my divorce.
And, you know, it was really fun. And I wasn't sure I ever needed or wanted to be in a relationship again. I felt like I really found my stride.
When did you decide, okay, I'm putting them on Instagram? What type of, what went into this decision?
I knew how I felt about this guy. Okay, one hour, one hour, the hours, hours, yeah. Okay.
And vice versa.
How long did it take until you, how long did it take until you finally hit send on that, on that post?
I want to lie. I want to lie.
No, I want to bring it.
I mean, it was probably a month.
Okay.
Probably a month.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. How long is it? How long is it?
As my dog's hair goes over. How long has this relationship been a thing?
Two and a half months.
Two and a half months. Damn.
Like I said, in my, if you were to think about this mathematically.
Okay.
Am I going to break down the hours? Well, no, more just, I've been doing such a great job of dating for two and a half years, that I'm aware of what's different.
Yeah.
You know?
Right.
Like I've ran the gamut on experiences.
Yeah.
And this one is special.
Okay.
And it's super fun. He's fun. He's a good time.
You'll love him.
All right. Sounds great.
But you know, making it Instagram or Facebook official, yeah, solves a lot of problems. It solves a lot of problems too.
Gets it out of the way. You don't have to hide.
And it communicates to, you know, people that...
All the others.
Yes.
Right.
It's an effective strategy.
That's a message.
Yeah. But I'm also proud. I'm proud that he's my boyfriend.
I think he's wonderful. And I'm, you know, want to show him off. And it also, you know, gets out the noise.
Absolutely. So has he reciprocated the Insta official?
He has reposted.
Oh, he reposted? That's big.
Uh-huh.
Okay. I'm going to keep going, because that's what I do. I love it.
Is it a dating site? Is it an app? Do you meet at a grocery store?
How do these things happen these days?
We met on Hinge.
Okay.
And I was actually about to take a break, you know? It's like, okay, we're going into the holidays. I'm a little burnt out.
Yeah. But he was really funny.
Yeah, I guess that would have been the holidays.
Yeah, it was right before Thanksgiving.
Right.
Yeah. And so, but he was really funny. And so it's like, well, I'll go out.
I have this one date scheduled. I'll go out with this guy. Hold on.
So funny just through the message, funny through the messages.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Which I have a whole strategy. We could have a whole podcast about my strategy on how to, you know, pick and choose. Yeah.
I'm very fascinated.
It's really fun. It's like online shopping. It's great for a dopamine hit.
You know, it's fun to just, to me, it was like a social experiment. And this is where I'll sound a little lame. But, you know, I was, I thought I was collecting information about the male species, but really I was collecting information about myself.
Oh, God, yeah. Of course. That, yeah, that's.
Okay, you know, and that's what really arm you with knowing what you might want or not want. But my long-term goal wasn't to get back into a relationship. And I still, I feel that way.
I mean, I think there's, I'd like to, I'd like to spend a lot more time with Joey. And I think it is a very long-term, if not, if not the longest term.
Yeah. Did you get him a gift? Did you get him a Christmas gift?
Holiday? Did you get him a gift for?
No, I don't do gifts. I mean, not like one that you buy.
All right, that's correct. It's a family show. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, Joey, he's divorced. He has two girls.
Oh, wow. Look at that. Brady Bunch situation.
I know.
Yeah.
He's director of marketing at UT, director of marketing and comms at UT. I sent him your ID.
Tell him I sent it.
I did. I sent him your website. I was like, you got to work with my dudes.
Yeah.
And yeah, he's a good time, Charlie. He likes to have fun, and he's good.
Yeah. What was the first date?
It's a good match. We went to Murray's Tavern. Did I send you there?
No.
It's on the East side. It's the same guys that own Nickel City. I did send you to Nickel City.
Yeah. Really cool dive bar.
Okay.
And then they have this like tavern. And so we went there and it was fun.
Yeah.
And I want to elaborate on the rest of the day.
I don't need it. Family show. We all have imaginations.
All of us. Yeah. Hold hands.
It's actually really cool. It's really cool. I don't think that I've had this experience much in my life, but it's cool to date somebody that is in a similar industry as you.
And like, should I dance off each other? Run things by them? You know, collaborate, share that energy.
Because I think so often, so often that's not a point where couples meet.
Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, especially after having experience and then coming together with all of the experience and talking about it at a different level as opposed to building the experience alongside each other.
It's like, I know my shit and you know your shit. Yeah. That's a completely...
Yeah. That's coming at it at a different place.
Exactly.
You're almost giving him a job interview at that point. I guess. Did you go through his resume?
Just to show me the resume?
A lot of... That's what Hinge is.
Right. I guess. Right.
Uh-huh.
Oh my God.
Honestly.
Yeah. I love that.
Hinge should... We should do a commercial for Hinge.
Yeah. I guess. We're looking for sponsors, so...
I've already dropped it too many times. Like, they haven't paid for that.
We're giving them the free. And it works. We're saying it works.
We're in a two-month hiatus.
Yeah. It does.
Okay.
Totally.
You're welcome, Hinge. So if you're out there, single people, we're a fan of Hinge.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And if you, but if you, honestly, I could start a whole business helping guys curate their profiles. And women, honestly. I can help everybody curate their profiles.
You know, if I see one more person that's like, I love coffee. And it's like, great. Who doesn't?
Or one more golf swing. You know?
Oh, yeah. That sounds bad.
You can have more of a competitive edge here.
Yeah.
That sounds bad. You can have more of a value proposition.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds awful.
You could just be hitched. You should just be hitched, I guess. You could be...
I would love that.
That would be... Yeah, you could do that.
You could start a dating consulting agency.
Yeah.
Okay.
Doing... We're going to have to workshop that one.
It.
Doing something business. Doing it. In all caps.
All caps.
That's a great idea. Doing it. Done.
By that domain right now.
I'll buy that domain right now. Probably is taken. Dating profile optimization.
There we go. Who says no? Who says no?
Yeah, I'm really fascinated by this. What would you say through your process, two and a half years on the job of dating? Right?
Give or take? What did you learn about yourself?
Yeah, you weren't expecting some fucking hard-hitting question like that, were you?
I mean, I know the answer, but it's so lame that I'm embarrassed to say it. Oh, no. But I learned to love myself, Chris.
And honestly, I had a lot of fun. I learned to not be attached to an outcome. And I really, I just enjoyed it.
It was fun. I learned a lot about other people. And the people that I dated for periods of time, all kind of served a really important purpose in my life, either to get me through a difficult moment, to teach me something about myself.
I learned that I couldn't have a casual, still meaningful relationship. I learned that, you know, there were a lot of people who also were just great friends. And then, like, and stayed friends.
And you kind of have all these different experiences. And overwhelmingly, I went out with men who were supportive, kind, fun, salt of the earth people. And it, like, kind of, you know, that, that re-instills some faith in humanity and in the male species, for sure.
Huh, well, not so bad. What? I'm just as surprised.
No, don't worry.
I mean, I had a tricky run there for a minute, so.
I'm just as surprised as you are. What's the worst date you went on?
The worst dates I went on were the guys that just were so self-obsessed, that it was just boring. I mean, that's the last thing I want from this, is to be bored. Entertain me in a million different ways.
Be a weirdo. I don't care, but don't just be self-obsessed, and then self-obsessed and with an entitlement. And it was just, that was so unappealing.
And yeah, I'd rather be anything but bored.
Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Okay.
Yeah.
They at least gave me, you know, something to talk shit about them.
I mean, that's the best part. Yeah. That's the best.
Okay.
Well, cool. You're going to bring them up to Nashville with you?
Probably not.
Probably not.
Probably not. But if you come here or go to Fredericksburg, we'll all hang out. Or we'll come to a troll about in Dallas.
I know. Yeah. I've got to get to Austin.
At least this quarter, I think I've got to get down there. But in the meantime, in Nashville, which will be in two weeks, we are throwing an official party finally. I think we're finally, the last day party, we're making that an official thing, the real drunk party that we always have.
But usually, it's an unofficial, we just pied piper everyone somewhere. We're actually getting a place, getting a karaoke place probably. Jessica is-
Which one? We need to talk, we need to talk.
Jessica's finding a couple of places, and trying to narrow that stuff down, getting us transportation there. We'll have a few hours of an open bar, it'll be a lovely time. So we'll solidify that as a thing.
This is the best idea. This is the best idea you've ever had.
Yeah.
Or I ever had, I think.
Probably. Yeah. So the Tractor Beam Party, the ILC party will be the official closing ceremony party will be a thing.
Will be a thing. Okay.
I want to know, I want to know though, what were you in New York for?
Who did you feed? Oh, yeah.
What did you learn? What did you do? Tell me everything.
What was the best place you ate at?
Oh, great questions. All great questions.
Where did you stay?
I stayed at the Nomo Soho, which is one of the places in the rotation. And I always liked that place. They have a great bar, a great lobby bar.
And I really liked that place because it could either be $200 a night or $1,000 a night, just depending on the weather outside. Plus, it's kind of tucked in everywhere that I generally want to be. I would say probably the best time.
The reason why I was up there was just to go see some friends, to go hang out with just a few of our peoples that we know.
So there was no digital marketing conference or anything?
No.
I was so confused about why. So for listeners, two of our friends in the Lodging Congress also have digital agencies. One lives in Hawaii, I think the other one is in Chicago, and they were both in New York at the same time.
We're all there. Yeah, we all kind of gathered. Yeah, it's really weird.
We have no explanation.
We're just pulled there.
We have no explanation. Our friend Jessica, she took me to the fried chicken place where we ran into, the Korean fried chicken place where we ran into Louie, whose name escapes me. I don't usually partake in fried foods, but I ate the shit out of that place.
Oh my God. And I went to this restaurant, Claude, which was unbelievable, highly recommend. And my favorite food was probably the free hot dogs at Rudy's Bar in Hell's Kitchen, which is my favorite bar.
You know, what time were you eating there? 2:30 a.m. I mean, when you say free hot dogs, I'm just like, I get excited. I'm like anywhere, free hot dogs at 2:30 a.m. I trust it, and I'm eating it, and I love it.
Listen, I could spend a whole podcast talking about Rudy's. You know, the first time, so I lived in New York for a short spell of my life, and was looking for jobs right after college, and I walked into Rudy's to try to work there, and they were like, no, I don't think you're going to work here. And I was like, oh, what the, okay.
But you can show a drink here. I was like, great, okay. Rudy's has Rudy's Blonde.
It's $5 and three hot dogs. And the guy told me, the guy told me, he says, you're a handsome guy. I'm like, thanks.
Because if you end up taking home a girl from Rudy's, make sure you wear two condoms, okay? Oh, I like this place. I like this place.
Oh, perfect. I've been going ever since.
If you ever take home a girl from Rudy's.
Two condoms. So, I love that place. My favorite.
It's my favorite place. So, I did go see, I went to go see a show. Of course, because I'm a theater kid, so obviously I went to go see a show.
A thespian.
Most people, I mean, if you're in the hospitality industry, you probably do know this, but people who aren't probably don't know that almost everyone in the hospitality industry is a recovering thespian.
That's right. Yeah, it's just move up from waiting tables and acting. Just, yeah.
When it doesn't work out for you, you find a career in hospitality.
Yeah. That's correct. So yeah, I saw Romeo and Juliet with Rachel Ziegler, which was like a high school play, really.
But she was in, in K-Con and they were both amazing. And so that was well worth it. Definitely, you know, went on some nine-degree runs, of course, because why would I?
Your favorite thing to do. My favorite thing to do. Hung out with our friend, had the best time with our friend, Alan Magrino.
And you know, my favorite discovery, which, you know, she is someone who every time I'm with her, just...
Oh yeah, I love her. She's so great.
She just impresses me in ways every time. She's learning how to be a DJ.
Say what she does.
Allyn Magrino is President of Magrino PR, one of the best PR agencies in the world. You know, we started working with her on Casa de Campo. We've been working together on Casa for a long time.
She's working on one of our clients, the whiskey brand, Lasso Motel. She got them to be the top whiskey in the US. You would assume it was the whiskey that got them to be it, but I don't think so.
I think she got them to be the top whiskey. You know, that still works. So anyway, she's learning how to be a fucking DJ and puts these like mixes together now, which I've been running to.
I'm like, she's the literal best. Anyways, so yeah, spend time, you know, hang out with her. Yeah, it was the-
She needs to DJ a portion of the Tractorbeam Afterparty.
I know, that's exactly-
That would be awesome.
We can send records and get it going. So yeah, it was, you know, I love New York when it's brutally cold, but probably the best time, you know, I ended up one night going to the bitter end, which was open mic night, and I was by myself. And so like, you know, I'll jump on, I'll jump on the mic.
Why not? And so, yeah, same, my favorite karaoke song, Why Don't We Do It In The Road By The Beatles, which is-
Yeah, I have seen your karaoke performances.
Yeah, yeah, it's all-
And you know, can you call it karaoke when it's just one person, and one girl trying to steal it from one, or two people trying to take it from each other?
You know, my Brenda, my girl Brenda.
Becky, Becky.
Becky, Becky, Becky the Townie.
Becky the Townie. You need one of those at every party.
Every single party. Okay.
Yeah, we should actually hire her. We should find her.
Bring it in. Yeah.
Okay, so Chris.
Good trip.
I want to talk about what we're going to talk about.
Okay.
Because I do, I think we have, I think we have a lot to offer. And outside of just being witty and attractive. Agreed.
And one thing Jessica and I had a great conversation about Jessica in your office was, you know, do we have people send in there doing business questions around the hospitality industry? And, you know, also have some guest speakers come on. But I think, you know, I think we do want to be collectively solving some problems around how to do business in this space.
So maybe we socialize that with however we want to put this out on, you know, what do you want to hear next? What would be compelling? What's your, what's the biggest problem you're facing right now?
And then, you know, I really believe in our ability to solve it. Or to, or to, you know, really make every, make everyone believe we're solving it.
At least they can think so.
Right. Exactly.
We'll put a poll.
And then I think we have, we have some really interesting topics that we've thrown out, that we want to explore, that I think, I think are also really fun and carry the conversation. But, you know, I'd be interested to know out of our adoring fans, which are 10.
Yeah, 10 so far. 10 that we don't know we're doing a podcast.
We can count on, so we can count on what they, what they want to hear about.
Yeah. The best part was yesterday. I'm like, okay, so we're doing a podcast tomorrow.
I'll make a webcast.
I mean, that's the way you operate. And I love it. Like you're like, hey, can you come be a speaker in Dallas tomorrow?
I'm like, yeah, you're like, you want to do a podcast tomorrow at 11? I'm like, yes, definitely. That's, that's the beauty in our dynamic.
I was telling Nicola last night, I was like, I'm doing a podcast tomorrow. She goes, you're, I'm sorry? I was like, yeah, I made a website yesterday during one of our meetings.
Exactly. Well, it's time. We can't just have this concept floating out in space forever.
So no, I can't.
We're going to do, we're going to do some serious business. We're going to do serious business and some serious business.
Okay. Yeah. I'm going to send it out to the masses.
I'm going to get some editing. I'm going to edit some shit. I'm going to get some intros, some outros.
We podcast.
As the kids say, as the kids say, LFG.
They do. It's lit.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, I do. I do. Okay.
Proud of you. I'll see y'all.
