He Turned $100 Into $10K of Bookings in One Day (No Employees) Transcript, AI Summary & Key Points

00:00 Spend $100 on Facebook ads and got [music] $10,000  in bookings. Yes. That's amazing. It's an infinite money glitch. Yeah. Our highest month has been  22 5. Wow. And then on average we're right at like 16. [music] Do you have employees? No, just  my wife and I. Really? You still have a job? Yeah. No way. I have three churches right now that are  every Sunday.

00:16 Holy cow. That covers your rent. Exactly. They had goat hanging from the ceiling  and they were taking torches [music] and cooking pieces of the goat really wanted to start  this business on a budget [music], what's the least it would take? You could do it for  under 3,000. So, my guest today rented out an empty church in a [music] strip mall parking  lot, spent a little money cleaning it up not as much as you might think and today, just a year  later, makes $16,000 [music] a month part-time, no employees, doing this

00:48 on the weekend,  renting it out to birthday [music] parties, anniversaries, etc. Here's what I didn't expect.  He spent $100 on Facebook ads that got him $10,000 worth [music] of bookings in one day. He has  three customers that pay him every single month that cover all of his rent and they never  even throw a party. And then he has a QR code on the wall that turns every party into four more  parties.

01:07 It's a viral referral marketing loop. Oh, and one night he came back to check in on a  party and found a goat hanging from the ceiling. If you have a wife that loves to host, she's  going to love this. Will people learn enough in this episode to know everything they need to  know to start a profitable event venue? I hope so. I think they will. Okay.

01:28 I mean, it's not that  difficult. It's It's finding the space that works for you. It's not a lot of money involved once  you find the space. And then it's finding the customers. What first gave you the idea to start  a venue? So my wife and I would do lots of events. And for our kids, we have six and four-year-old.  Okay. And so we would do big birthday parties and they do a fall party each year, which has grown  really big where have some kind of large activity where it's decorating pumpkins or decorating  hay,

01:57 something large and hayrides and that kind of stuff. And you would rent out other venues? We  would actually we have good size house and yard, so we would do all that in our in our in our  yard. And then for our second child, I said, you know what, we should do somewhere else.  So, I started looking for venues to have a baby shower. Mhm. And my wife was with me and I went  to a bunch and just was not satisfied.

02:18 We ended up using one, and during that conversation  and towards the tail end of COVID, we said, "You know what? We should do this." Cuz we  also heard about people saying they couldn't book restaurants and other stuff, but you could  book venues that were had laxer laws, I guess, at that point if you just brought your family  to a venue. So, we said, we should look into that.

02:43 And so, we spent about 3 years just kind  of playing with the idea and looking for venues, looking for a place that would work for us. And we  were really close to signing leases on like four venues until we found the one we're at now. Okay.  We thought we could do and then after hosting her baby shower At that venue? at that venue and the  price I paid just for the venue I paid like 2,200 bucks and and I still had to come in and decorate  with friends.

03:09 That was For like an afternoon? Yeah, it was it was a Sunday from like 11:00 to  6:00 p.m. and I mean probably weren't even there to 6:00. And so, it was a brunch. So, I hired  a chef. So, on top of the 2,200 spent another two to 3,000 dollars on everything else and I  was like, wow, we could have done a better job, we thought. And then no slight to them, but it  wasn't wasn't a huge venue.

03:30 What type of venue? Um it was in a strip mall and it was probably about  1,200 square feet. Just like Just like a narrow Like a retail Like a retail, yeah, like a retail  space. Mhm. And it was pretty narrow and I think we hosted 60 people. Uh-huh. And then we said, you  know what, we could do this. For the price I paid, I was like, we could definitely do this.

03:52 I mean,  I used to rent 1,200 sq ft retail spaces for my iPhone repair store and you're looking at  like two to four grand a month. Yeah. So, you're thinking, well, they just made their whole  payment in one afternoon. Exactly. Mhm. Exactly, from just our booking. Yeah. And so, we started  looking around and the one thing that did say, make one of the things that made me say we can do  this.

04:14 Then we just intentionally started shopping venues, taking a tour, Mhm. sitting with them and  I would go into all these places and they would say, all right, what date do we want? And they  I say, you know, I want October 10th. They say, come on back to the office and they dust off their  desk and they have the large Old school. file calendars and she's like going through, say,  okay, yep, I got you on the 12th.

04:35 We have that available. I'm going to write I'm going to take  my yellow highlighter Yeah. and when you book it, I'll come back with my red highlighter. Most  low-tech Yeah. ever. And so, I said to my wife, I've been a technical PM for a while and I'm got  an interest in technology anyway. I was like, this could be so much easier than than they make  it and and why is no one doing it this way?

04:55 Yeah. And so, that really got the gears turning  and then we found a place Okay. essentially. What types of places did you start shopping for?  Retail, stand-alone. What I tell people net now, if anybody's interested, don't fall in love with  the property. You can have the most beautiful property that has horrible parking. Parking. So,  it's all about parking.

05:17 Yeah, it's a lot about parking cuz um there's some spaces that were in  downtown Atlanta that were beautiful and we were wondering why the rent was so cheap, but it's  because that it may be 2,000-3,000 sq ft, good size, but can't park there. Yeah. So, that and  speaking to landlords, a lot of landlords did not want event venues Maybe because of the parking or  just the liability of bunch of people.

05:39 people. I was surprised. It was so many spaces that we liked  that they came back saying, "Well, sorry, you want to do" cuz they'd ask for your business plan  or what you're going to do and they would say, "Sorry, we, we we, nice to meet you, but we  can't, we can't do event space in here." Wow. So, you know, we continued to shop and we eventually  found one it was in a retail plaza, but it was a church.

06:07 Oh, interesting. And Stand-alone? No, not  stand-alone. in a retail Yeah. Okay. And it was a church and How many square feet? Uh 3,000. Okay.  And they were moving? Yeah, so what happened is they they were building a convenience store across  the street. Mhm. The owner had to choose. Yeah, owner had to choose. Yeah. And and he chose to  chose the convenience store.

06:27 So, we just happened to be peeking in the window. Someone from church  was inside working, came out and said, "Hey, would you like to take a look around?" And she  literally gave us a tour. We told her what we were doing. She's like, "Oh, I'mma put in a word  for you to the owner." She's like, "Unfortunately, we have to go, but we have found a new venue.

06:44 So, so we're good." Huh. [snorts] And that ended up being 3,000. 3,000. And it's perfect cuz it's  basically already an event venue. Yeah. not. It's different types of events. Different types of  events. So, it still took a lot of work. They had carpet inside, things that weren't you know,  suitable for weekly events. What city was this in? Uh Stone Mountain, Georgia.

07:06 know where that  where the big Stone Mountain Yeah, yeah, yeah, right next to go there every summer. Okay, yeah.  And the venue that we went into or the the plaza was pretty much empty when we took it. Oh, that's  which is usually not a good sign. No. Lots of parking, 170 spots, I believe. Wow. There's going  to be less parking once there are more tenants.

07:29 Yes. So, we had to submit a business plan and  give a full detail to the owners of the building and they said, "Wow, this is really good." And  so, we signed a lease, but lo and behold to us, they started targeting other event places or event  venues cuz they thought that was a good thing to bring into their Wait, but you had already signed  the lease?

07:48 We had signed the lease. Nothing was in our lease that said you could not have another  event venue. Was that a regret? Yes. So, at one point in time, at the end of 2024, there was  five venues. What? Yeah. So, they same shopping In the same shopping center. So, they had moved  in four others besides us. And none of them had non-competes in their lease?

08:10 No. That's crazy that  not one of them was like, "Hey." Yeah. And so, it was weird. We would see people moving in, "Hey,  what do you What are you guys doing?" And we had one occasion where they were like, "We don't want  to tell you." And we realized because they were thought they were in competition with us. But,  there's no one there now. It's just us.

08:24 So, we've outlasted all of them. What month in 2024 did you  launch? So, we signed our lease like August. Okay, so 2 years ago. Yeah. And then when were you  open? November of 2025. Wow, it took that long? Took that long. So, that's what rent that whole  time? We had about 6 months free rent. Okay. So, we negotiated pretty good deal. We went into  it thinking that we could do the reconstruction a little bit faster than we did.

08:53 Always. And  that's our That's our biggest regret and being cheap Well, not even cheap, just what we could  afford. I did most of it myself. Yeah. So, nights and weekends I still was working a regular 9-5.  So, nights and weekends I'd be in there changing ceilings. We put up a new entry wall. We changed  the bathrooms. Do you have skills in this or Have I can follow I can follow Yeah, I can follow good  directions.

09:12 So, YouTube University. And let me be clear. So, like you've been open less than a  year, Yes. we'll get to your numbers in a minute, but the only thing you were working on is we like  doing events. Seems like they make a lot of money. Seems like they're old school and we can be we can  have better technology. That's kind of what you're working with.

09:32 You still don't kind of know. You're  You're kind of hoping praying if we build this, they will come. Is that right? That is. And and  we started putting very little marketing, but a little bit of marketing out there just to see  Mhm. and test. Hey, if you're liking this episode, we spent a lot of time on it. Please just hit  subscribe and it would mean the world.

09:45 We our official grand opening was um November of 2025,  but we did some events. We maybe did 10 events that prior year and we learned from each of those  and some of those weren't even profitable. Like we gave somebody a full wedding and reception for  $3,500. Yeah. And I still see them posting the pictures saying the most amazing Wow. wedding ever  and we and so we learned from that.

10:09 That helped us gear our pricing structure to what it is now.  How did you have 10 events before you were done? Because it just it wasn't perfect, but it was  suitable. Yeah. Like once we had new tile floors in, once the bathrooms were done, once the walls  were painted, we may we didn't have an entry wall, but it was good enough. Yeah. And and we  would shop we would shop it to people saying, we didn't shop it enough, but we shopped it a  little bit.

10:36 We said, "Hey, we're come take a tour. We're not 100%, but this is what you get isn't  100%either yet. this is why you're getting such a great price. So we did we did about 10 of those  events and we were probably we could have probably did 50 of those events, but we were scared to take  them and both of us are slight perfectionists and eventually once we got to November, like,"Look, we  we have [laughter] to do we can't we're losing Rip the band-aid off.

11:04 Yeah, we're losing so much  money because we're paying rent in this empty building essentially. What was your rent? 3,000.  3,000 a month. Okay. Which is not bad. I mean, 10 bucks a foot. 10 bucks a foot. Yeah, yeah. Now,  where did you find these 10 customers? Instagram. Essentially posting organically? posting  organically and and they came to us.

11:19 No paid marketing or paid media. on a new Instagram page  for the venue or your page or your wife's page? New for the for the venue. Okay. Yeah. Do you  guys have experience with Instagram, like organic content? Uh Just my own, but I started converting  people over to the new page as well. Okay, so you started brand new Instagram page and you're just  doing like vertical videos, like here's our venue or we're doing like building public, like watch me  build this event venue.

11:46 A little bit of both. So, what I learned from my studio 10 years ago that we  were the best kept secret and no one knew about us because I didn't want to share it until I thought  it was right perfect. And it's that's out of like insecurity and fear, right? Which is not a good  place to make decisions from. No, it's horrible. And even though we did a better job, we didn't do  the best job, but it was a lot of and I started realizing videos of us pulling up carpet or my  kids in there with paint brushes outperformed all

12:18 the other; still, outperformed other stuff that  we do today where we pay people to do stuff. So, yeah. So, we realized that, you know, we're  building this is like we started with us the key signing. And it was also none of our friends  knew, I don't think any of our parents knew. We had been kind of working on this in secret  so everybody found out the same time.

12:35 They're like, "What are you guys acquired a a space?" So,  then but they knew us as always throwing parties, but they're like, "Oh, that's great." So, those  organic things is what helped. So, we had people and then we didn't have we didn't have pricing.  I think when the first person reached out to us, they're like, "Hey, so how much is it?" Yeah,  okay, yeah.

12:52 Yeah, exactly. I'm surprised you reached out so soon. Yeah. So, you know, we should  have doubled down on that yeah and we should have said, "Look, we'll rent you the unfinished venue."  Yeah, and that would have paid for in hindsight, that would have paid for and we could have moved  faster. Yeah, but you know. Is it safe to say that you posting about the venue in this neighborhood  kind of grew the market?

13:15 Like there were people that were going to have events anyway, but they  were probably going to do it at a friend's house or something and when they They your post, it  kind of pushed them over the edge. And you know what? Maybe we should just get a place. Is that  accurate? Like I I think so. the market by posting Yeah, cuz one thing even with paid promotion,  I've said, "Look, we should be superstars in our neighborhood.

13:39 There's 7,000 single-family  homes within 3 mi of our venue." Mhm. So, like all of our paid needs to go Everybody, they need  to My goal is when I'm pumping gas, people say, "Hey, Justin, do you do you own the do you own the  hall?" And that's what we really target in because a lot of people still come to us like, "Hey, I  never knew you were here." We get that every day.

14:00 So, now those other venues are gone. All of them?  Uh all those other venues are gone. You plus four or you plus five? Us plus four, so there was  five of them. the first 3 months? Yep. But you know it wasn't it for whatever reason, that  didn't bother me. Like I still said we're going to run our own race. And also, I would talk  to those venues. They would be like, "Yeah, I don't do Facebook."

14:20 Like that's not going to  It's word of mouth. They Justin Was it mostly like existing venue businesses moving there or  was it people like you starting from scratch? People like me starting from scratch. That's crazy  there would be that much that many people starting Yeah. It took 6 months just to get our fire code  inspection. And so, um and get our occupancy.

14:34 And it was some miscommunication. We were told we  didn't need a entertainment license because we weren't serving food and people were actually  renting from us. Mhm. They really did require entertainment license. So, I took good notes.  I wasn't trying to get anybody in trouble. I was able to direct them to who told me didn't  and that person actually admitted to, "Oh, you know, I was that was my second day on the job.

14:59 I didn't know we didn't need this." But that one not needing that sent us back 4 months. Jeez. Cuz  then the clock restarts 12 grand on everything. Yeah. So, it was very expensive. But I started  going down there and said, "Hey, can I speak to the commissioner?" Start bringing muffins.  And I just to the point where like one of the commissioners like, "Hey, let me just drive over  over with you now and see if I can get somebody."

15:22 Because I was like, I'll just I was like, you guys  are costing me thousands of dollars a month. So, I I need to You need to know my name. Yeah,  yeah. And eventually that got it through. And I have a good relationship with them now. How  did all of those competitors survive? Like, do they have to break their lease or Sure, they  broke their lease to leave.

15:35 But, they also A lot of them I I know for a fact didn't weren't doing  the right paperwork stuff, which to me was always vital. I don't think they were good operators.  They were all stuck on word of mouth. And so, the owner had a thing. He's like, "It's great you  guys can all work together cuz if somebody's busy, they send business the other way." And I was like,  "It doesn't It doesn't work that way."

15:55 Don't even talk to me. Yeah. So, but I would go into them.  And then eventually they started coming to us. And I'm like, "Wow, your place is looks nothing  like ours." And the other ones, they just painted the walls. They did nothing. Cement floor,  paint the walls. You know, we're big on tech, so we have screens on the outside of the building,  screens inside.

16:13 We have a 10 by 16 LED wall in the main hall. So, they would come to us and realize  we weren't running the same race Yeah. either. So, you said from the time you signed the lease to  the time you opened, you could have had up to 50 customers, events, if you wanted. That's all  from just organic That was all from organic. have anything like going viral or was it just the  right people viewing your content?

16:37 it was the right people, you know, and engagement. We tried  to engage, you know, engagement, the right people. Um the right engagement, and people just didn't  just didn't know we existed. And then, once we hit November and did So, look, we're not done.  We still wanted a wall and some other things, but we said we're we got to go. So, we did a  full-scale Then we ramped up the paid social.

17:03 Mhm. And then we were we were doing tours 6 days  a week. Wow, from paid ads on Instagram? ads, yeah. Facebook and Instagram? Yeah, Facebook and  Instagram. What were your ads like? What did they look like? At first, they were just stagnant  pictures of a post cuz we were running specials like we have a gold package that comes with a lot  of decor. That package is now I think we sell it for 2,800 which is still a great deal.

17:24 For one  day? For yeah, 6-hour block. Okay. We were doing that for 1,000 bucks. Okay. And I think I booked  like 10 of them in a day. Whoa. Cuz it was such a great price. Is it still profitable for you? Still  profitable. Still we need the cash so it it works. So 10 grand in a day in bookings. Obviously it's  going to take 5 to 10 days for all of those to be used but how much in ad spend would it cost to get  10 like that?

17:47 That was less than $100 in ad spend. Yeah, so $100 in Facebook ads and got $10,000 in  bookings. Yes. That's wild. Yeah. Were you like geo-fencing the ads to only show to people in  that area? We and what we found we did wrong is we were actually all of Atlanta. We were doing 22  miles out of us to catch Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Marietta. We were trying to catch them.

18:14 cuz you're  like Atlanta's right there. Why not? But since you've learned Now we've learned just focus on  our zip, our meet five five to seven miles. Five to seven? That's the sweet spot. Yeah, that's the  sweet spot. Okay. Do you live in Stone Mountain? I do. So you're like a a local. You Yeah, I live  about my my I'm 4 minutes away from the venue.

18:35 Okay. Okay. How much did it cost you to build it  out? It was in the $20,000 range. That's it? Yeah, 20 to 30. like almost 30,000. I'm shocked. I  thought you were going to say 100 at least. No, like 30. 3,000 square feet. Tell me what all you  did. So you painted it? Painted it, new floors. Ripped out the old floor, put in Floors are  the most expensive thing.

18:53 Tile? Yeah, it LVT. Okay. Like luxury vinyl tile. Okay. Okay. Yeah,  redid the bathrooms, tile in all the bathrooms, LED screen, cameras, security system, created  a prep kitchen. We can't cook on premise but we have commercial warmers that you could  slide your Okay. trays in, commercial warmers, added sinks to that prep area, and like stainless  steel countertops, that kind of thing.

19:16 If you were able to cook on premise, do you think you'd  make more money? Or is it not that much? know, but my the difference in insurance you play  when Fire hazard. Fire, yeah, cuz it's you're like a restaurant at that point. Mhm. I don't  think for the difference I'd pay in insurance, I don't think it would value Juice isn't worth  the squeeze. Yeah.

19:36 Yeah. But we do get asked that a lot, but we tell people if you know, most  caterers just bring their hot trays anyway, Right. have the commercial um warmers. Stick them  in, keeps them to the temperature warmer that you need it, and then we I built a big chafing cart  buffet that lights from below. Oh, cool. People drop their trays in there. And those are also I  built the DJ booth, I built the chafing table, I built the bar.

20:03 Those videos were great, you know,  come with me as I go to Home Depot and build build a build a Those were great organic videos, all of  those I don't want to say viral, but all those did very well Yeah. on building stuff for the space.  If you were to list out like the top five types of events you have, what would be number one through  five? One would be birthday parties.

20:20 What age? We do a lot of that 50 through 70. Really? Yeah.  Okay. And I think that's just because of our area, too. Seems to be we get older clientele, and I'm  happy to have that. Sure. They have money. Yeah, they have money, and I don't know if I really  want to do too many 21-year-old birthday parties, either. Um just for the liabi-yeah, just for the  liability and stuff.

20:44 So, but yeah, we do a lot of like that 50 to 70 seems to be the sweet spot.  And they're doing like 50-year birthday parties, 60-year 50, 55. Okay. And with some of our now  mail our direct mail marketing, we're able to pull birthdays, cuz it has a driver's license  information we pull it. So, I target Every door direct mail? Uh-huh, yeah. Okay. And I and so  now I target 3 months out to that milestone birthday.

21:13 So, if you're turning 55 in January, I'm  going to start hitting you now so I can touch you three times before your birthday. Do you have any  numbers on what the return on investment is on the direct mail on that strategy? On that strategy,  not yet. I I just started doing it. But it works. But it I've we've been getting people to come in,  so I know it works.

21:28 50 cents per postcard? Yeah, yeah, it's like 50 50 cents. who you're sending it  to. Exactly. And it's just the thing is you have to touch them though three times. People send  one and they check a box and they're like, "Why didn't I get results? It doesn't work." It doesn't  work, yeah. You got to send one. And so I think now what we're going to do too is we're starting  to design our own birthday cards to the hall and we're going to now we're going to send those for  the 3-month out people.

21:53 Yeah. Say, "We're just catching you early. Happy birthday." Yeah. Hope to  see you at the hall. And so we have the NPO like, "Hey, I got this. I live in a neighborhood right  behind you. Didn't know you were here. And I pass by this every day. I didn't know what the hall  meant when I saw the sign." So, Yeah. that's been a great strategy. So, what is a birthday worth  to you?

22:12 Get Get me a breakdown of like an average birthday revenue and profit and then a like a  birthday with upsells revenue and profit. So, our average intake is about 1,800 per party. 6  hours? 6 hours. Not 6? We're juggling between 6 and 8. But I like 6 because when people say 6 is  not enough time for me to come in and decorate, I say, "Well, great. That's why you need to  step up to one of our packages where we can do the decor."

22:36 Mhm. What about a 6-hour party  with upsells? What What does that run? So, our basic package is our blank canvas, which is  just 1,000. Okay. And so that's just tables and chairs. In addition to the 1,800? No, I'm saying  our average our average party is 1,800. Okay. But our base price is 1,000. Okay. That's as cheap as  it can be. That's as cheap as it can be.

22:54 Okay. And so uh what we find is upsells will be the screens.  So, that's the biggest up sale with you get just a blank canvas package. Most people come in and  they want the screens on cuz usually we're running something or running a slideshow and saying this  is what your party could look like. Mhm. They want linen, table cloths, napkins, chargers,  table scapes for the actual table, balloons, that kind of thing.

23:23 We try to move people towards  the package. So, if you do a $2,800 package or $4,000 package, you're going to get all that.  You just have to show up with your food. Yeah. And we've really even been working with some of  our caterers that are on our preferred vendors list to see how could we have food packages  even. Mhm. Cuz what we find the biggest thing people don't want to think about it.

23:42 They want to  show up and party. Yeah. And and we want them to. We we want to We're selling convenience. Yeah,  yeah. That That's We're not selling the space, we're selling convenience. And so, Do you find you  get customers from people that come to events? You know what I'm saying? We do and I market to them.  It's like in the like it's like a it's like a a built-in viral marketing.

24:02 So, one thing we haven't  discussed part of one of my favorite tools in the venue is we use a thing called instant spotlight  from a small company called it's start that started working with us 2 years ago. And right  now we're the only company or venue in Georgia with this, but on our LED wall, we have a thing  that we call instant spotlight with the hall.

24:18 So, on the outside when you walk into our building,  there's 40-in screens on each pillar when you walk in. There's a QR code on those. There's ones on  the tables, one in there and we tell your guests, "Look, your party starts outside." Mhm. They  scan the QR code. So, throughout the night, every time they say, "Happy birthday on Sarah."  or they do a video or they take a selfie, those pictures show up all throughout the building.

24:45 Mhm.  And people go crazy over that. People love being able to take a selfie and it show up and then  the party and then the party Yes. So, it's So, they have to, you know, of course, their phone  number, Mhm. email, and so that all goes into my funnel system. And then also, if you did 40  pitched if you took 40 pictures throughout the night, I'm assuming you had a good time.

25:07 Mhm.  And so that helps me market to those people. Quick word about today's sponsor, Beehiiv.  They just launched something called Community, and it does something that I've never seen on any  other platform. Every newsletter and podcast you publish gets added to your feed automatically,  sitting right in front of the people who already love your stuff.

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26:05 So, hey, did you have a good good time? We would love that when So, we send  everybody the gallery at the end of the night. So, if they took 200 pictures, everybody that took  a picture is going to get all 200. And said, "Hey, it looks like you had a great time and on  Sarah's birthday, if you did, we'd love for you to give the hall five stars." They get five stars,  shows up on Google.

26:23 If they give less than four, I actually it comes back to me email and I can  address it. But, the biggest part is that's the largest funnel I have now. So, if your party  has 120 people and 60 of them take photos, that's now information I can use Yeah. as my lead.  Do you have Do you have any math on how of those 60 people, how many will book their own event?

26:45 So, right now, my latest numbers is about 8%of those people have have booked stuff. I think  we can get it higher. 120 people at an event, half of them upload pictures, 8%of those will end  up booking an event? That's what we've had. So, 8%would that that's It's like an infinite money  glitch. four people, yeah, from each thing. So, that's that's been great.

27:06 And I think we can  even get that number higher with with the um That's amazing. It's just It's just It's an  infinite money glitch. Yeah. We've We've loved it. And it's a value add. It is a upcharge to  get that. Let's So, you're charging them to get marketed to. Yeah. [laughter] Those up to But if  you get one of our packages, we throw it in. Sure.

27:26 But if you just get the blank, we upcharge you  for the screens. Okay. And And also the birthday girl or birthday person, we say, "Hey, what's  your Cash App?" And they or Zelle or Venmo, whatever. They give it to us. So, as they upload  pictures and you put in your information to upload picture, when you hit submit, your picture is  also a tab that says, "Hey, you want to tip the birthday girl?"

27:44 Yeah. So, if they tip the birthday  girl $10, then across the screen it says, "Aunt Jessica just tipped Sarah $20." Oh, wow. it gets  everybody else to say Everybody else say, "Oh, well, if Sarah tipped 20, That is brilliant. I got  to do 30." And And of course the guest of honor loves that feature. Yeah. But even if you weren't  going to take a picture, it still gets you to log into the system to try to tip the the birthday  person.

28:06 How expensive does a 6-hour event get if you sell them everything you've got? For just the  party would be 4,000. Okay. That's everything we got. And there would be some possible upcharges,  but at that point, we've given you everything. You're just showing up with food. And what's your  profit on like a $4,000 event versus a $1,000 event? So, on a 1,000, it's essentially whatever  my marketing went into to maybe get that person.

28:36 It would vary, but essentially that's almost all  profit because they're going to tell me where they want the tables and I'm there, you know. Do you  set up the tables yourself? I do. If they say, "We want four on each side. we want a dance floor  in the middle, then I'll I'll do that. How do they get in? You just have like a key code? No, I'm  there.

28:50 I'm there. So, we're still working on that, but I'm there for every event. I like being  there to touch in the beginning and then come back at the end um cuz we have a checklist to  say, "Look, can't do this, can't burn candles, can't do this. I need you to sign this."Then  I need to come back and ensure that they No holes in the drywall. No holes in drywall, no TVs  ripped off the screen, you know, Yeah.

29:07 all the weird things that could happen. We say no burning  of of anything open. We had an event. I left. I came back hour into the event to make sure it was  going good. This was in early days. It was either a lamb or a goat hanging from the ceiling. Like  and they were taking torches and cooking pieces of the goat. It's like a cultural thing? Yeah, it  was a cultural thing and I was like,"What are you guys doing?

29:37 You can't For A's no open flame." and  gutted? Like it was like ready to prepare to Yeah, it was ready to prepare to eat. It was skinned and  gutted. They had all of our all the guts in just a regular one of our rolling trash cans with no  bag in it. Oh, no. And they knocked over the trash can on their way out the door. On purpose? No, on  accident.

29:53 But I had blood in my tile on the front out So, that was That's the worst experience. So,  they apologize? Like Not really. They're like,"Oh, we didn't know we could do this."And so, I didn't  know I could hang a goat from your ceiling and knock its guts everywhere and try to roast it.  Yeah. And so, yeah. So, there's a couple deposits we've had to keep, which is massive.

30:16 People have  spilled like lemonade, stuff like that, which is the worst and then your floor is super sticky.  So, we've had to keep deposits, but like the goat stuff. And we realized and now it's cultural cuz  we do The area we live in has a strong Ethiopian, Somalian, Eritrean, just East African population.  Mhm. So, now I've had to say,"Look, I I this is a thing."

30:40 Yeah. Um cuz I've talked to other  event venues and they've told me the same exact thing and we were comparing pictures and they're  like,"Oh yeah, I had a guy hang a cow."And so I have to say,"Look, you can't do this." Sorry, I'm  not trying and you know, I try to do it with baby gloves cuz you know, not going to be respectful.  Got to be respectful and I don't want them to just assume that I think every Ethiopian family's going  to hang a cow.

30:58 Right. But we've had to add it to our contract. So That's a no-win situation for  you. If you say it, you could offend them. If you don't say it, you might have a dead goat. So  well now I say it in the contract and so please read over your contract. And if you haven't read  over that and I see it, then I can come do it. Yeah. How much is the deposit?

31:18 350. For everyone?  For everyone. So like with the goat incident, you kept the deposit there. Yeah. And did they  understand it? They did. You probably don't want to keep deposit cuz it leaves a bad taste.  Yeah, I I don't. I I don't at all. I try to Yes, I made 350 bucks. I try to do everything to not  Yeah. Because then I'm losing probably losing a customer.

31:38 And we've found with our our especially  we have a large Mexican population south of us. We have a large East African population, but I found  my East African populations like from one bridal shower we've done, we've booked like 10 events  from that same community. I have some marketing that solely is Somalian marketing. Interesting.  I have some marketing that's solely Ethiopian.

32:02 ads? Yeah. Yeah, and even through flyers and  things that we we hand out. Instagram does a lot better with our younger crowds. People selling  celebrating a 25th, Mhm. 30th, and weddings. Weddings do great on Instagram. Okay. So your  percentage profit is about the same on a $4,000 versus a $1,000 event. Cuz your cost is like the  overhead. You got your power bill, your internet, your utilities, $3,000 a month rent.

32:25 You've  already paid for all the chairs Yeah. tables up front. So you need to acquire the customer.  Let's say it costs $100. Yeah. What are your costs in a in a $4,000 and a $1,000 the 4,000, we offer  step and repeat. So, you know, the large banners, you ever see like a a premiere of a movie and the  stars celebrity are standing in front of like a large vinyl sign that has advertisement stuff.

32:45 So, we do step and repeats cuz sometimes they want their name or birthday girl, those things.  So, that that costs money. They also get standees, like standing cutouts. They want like 6-ft  cardboard cutouts of themself. Those are big up sales, balloons. So, your percentage profit  is higher on the $1,000 event. Yes. Cuz they're just using table and chairs that you bought  years ago.

33:05 Yes. So, 4,000, how much profit you make on a $4,000 event? About 3,200. Wow,  better than I would have thought. Yeah. Okay, so 70%. Yeah. And then 90-ish%on a $1,000 event?  About 90-ish, yeah. And then ranges from 90 to 70, anywhere between 1 and 4,000? Yeah. Okay. And  we also, now we're targeting weddings. Okay. So, our wedding package is 7,000.

33:28 Wow. done two  of those. Okay. And we still feel like we're a great price for for for weddings. 6 hours? Yeah.  Now, weddings all complete day cuz it's so much legwork goes into it, you can't get today. Are you  trying to do two events a day? Like is that a full day? That's my goal. We don't do a lot of that.  We try to. Okay. Now, when we have the weddings, that was of course our whole day.

33:49 And now  we acquired the space next door to us. Oh, you rented it? Last month, yes. How many square  feet is that? That's only 1,100 1,300. So, you're 4,300 now, square feet? Yes. Wow. How  many can you comfortably fit in 4,300? So, with tables and chairs, we only use one at a  time. So, with tables and chairs in our 43 or 30 or 3,000 square feet, yeah, we try to keep  it to 120.

34:14 Okay. We can sometimes do 150, but if you want 150, that means you can't get a dance  floor. Okay. It just depends on your event. So, people that have a large like a repast, like  a memorial service, they're not dancing there, so you can do a lot more tables, seats. But, if  it's at graduation or birthday party, try to keep the 120-ish because we can leave the middle open  for your dance floor and still have adequate room.

34:38 And we don't want to put 10 people at a table cuz  one thing I track is when there's more people at a table, our reviews are not as good and people  have a good of a time Interesting. cuz they feel like they're squished squished. Yeah. So, when  you do eight at a table, that seems to be the sweet spot. Okay. So, I try to try to stay there.  So, we're we're talking like 25 sq ft per person, give or take?

34:57 Yeah, something like that. Yeah.  Okay. Okay. And so, then in the new space, if you're doing tables and chairs, we try to keep  it to 60. Mhm. But, when we've done weddings, the beauty of now is doing that is we could do 100 120  like theater style just in the chairs and still aisle the bride. But, now with the new weddings,  we haven't started marketing that yet.

35:15 So, I'm interested to see. I think that's going to really  be a great uptick going into this year. With the 1,300 sq ft next door, is the hope to just do  bigger events or two at once? Two at once. That's the event. Double your capacity? Yes, cuz right  now I am I'm booked through January on Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays in the big space. Okay.  So, I hate that I'm always turning away.

35:36 I can't do anything. prices or something. So, we're  like, we got to move them to to the new Now, the new space, unfortunately, is not as  small, so it's more intimate parties, but it looks different. It's completely marble. It's  marble walls, marble floors, big chandeliers. So, is it hard to fill Monday through Thursday? I'm  trying. So, we've been doing a lot of trying to get corporate events, trying to get those and  giving them a really reduced rate.

36:01 We've had some parties cuz our blank canvas special Monday  through Thursday is 450. Mhm. And that's enticed a lot of people to come in and say,"You know what?  Maybe I should just have a Thursday night party instead."Especially if it's leading into a holiday  or holiday weekend or something. Yeah. A lot of I've been giving away networking events to like  the Chamber of Commerce and people like that.

36:19 Say, "Hey, come have your network event. I'll even  throw in I'll even throw in a case of wine or something. Yeah. Two and and giving them that  space to just to say this is what you can do on a Thursday. Yeah. So, we're trying to grow that.  Okay. All right, I asked you earlier your top five events. Birthday's number one, what's two through  four? Oh, birthday's number one, two baby showers, three repasses and like a memorial like after a  funeral where everybody goes.

36:46 It's like a wake. But wake's normally before the funeral. Okay.  Repasses normally after. I don't think I've ever heard of a repass in my life. yeah, maybe  that's a south southern thing. But yeah, yeah, so the repasses Okay. four would be anniversaries.  Mhm. Five's kind of a weird one. The most calls I get from my marketing out of any other party which  someone you want to guess is church space.

37:09 Okay. So, church events. Huh. Can we host a revival or  something like that? to do it like every week or just have three church I have three churches right  now that are every Sunday. Holy cow. So, that that's I get more calls phone calls on churches  than I get on any other thing. Wow. And that's also made me led that maybe there's a business  in it.

37:34 Maybe there's a business into just having a open space. Only churches. Make it look like a  church? Make it yeah. Kind of generic. Nah. What hours do they meet on Sunday and how much do you  charge? So, I have a church that is from 8:30 to 12. Okay. I normally do three hours but I've  given them a little bit extra time. So, 8:30 to 12 then I have 12:30 to 3:30.

37:56 Okay. So, I have  two essentially nine to 12s then I have one 12 to three or 12:30 to three. I'm trying to fill it  another one to get four. So, you have two meeting at the same time? Yeah, in the two different  spaces. And what do you charge all three of them? So, we have two church prices. One is 1,000 and  one is 1,500. And I think all three of those are currently on the 1,000 a month.

38:17 They meet every  Sunday. is Okay. Yeah, every is That covers your rent. Exactly. So the goal is to get more churches  and we've offered them upgraded package where I'll bring in PTZ cameras, pan tilt zilch cameras.  I'll train somebody. Show them how to one one live stream? Live stream cuz More donations for them?  Yes, I show them like cuz I've been showing them, "Look, if you guys want to grow."

38:39 Cuz we had  one church in here that grew big enough to go get their own space. Yeah. So now we've moved in  the other three. And so I advertise both packages, your regular and then there's like $1,800 a month  package where I'll train somebody how to to how to live stream. Yeah. And one click YouTube, one  click Facebook. Cuz right now some of them do live stream with someone holding a phone.

39:00 And I show  them the difference of, "Look, you could do this this." And it's maybe just not in their budget at  the moment, but I said, "Look, when you're ready to go in, I'm I'll move cameras in here. I'll help  you guys do it because But yeah, I get more calls on churches and I turn away more churches cuz  that, you know, you only got Yeah. You only got four slots.

39:18 So Yeah. I'm surprised they they all  need that much time. Yeah, I'm surprised, too. I don't Well, I see a lot of them do like they'll  bring food and they'll have lunch afterwards together. So they'll do stuff like that. The  largest congregation right now only has I think 40 people. The other ones are 15 to 20 and they're  growing Yeah. each week.

39:35 That's why I try to sell them on live stream because live streaming will  help you grow and marketing. They need They need help with marketing, but that's a whole different  business. I only got so many hours, but the wheels are turning there cuz I think literally you have a  building that was a church or looks like a church. Um because the churches also pay sometimes a  couple like $150 to come in on a Wednesday and either they want to meet with some members or  have a Bible study.

40:01 Mhm. And they really would like Thursday Wednesdays could be great. Yeah, I  try to sell them on Wednesday. Sometimes they want Thursday or Friday and I have events I can't  do that. But that's why I think maybe there's something to this other business. Yeah. It's just  a church building. Church space. Interesting. you have six churches that rotate, but they also have  access to the week to meet up because the pastors of both have said"I really just need an office  for Monday."And sometimes I'll be like, "Look, I'm

40:32 already working in here today. If you you want  to come in for 2 hours, that's fine." Yeah. But I really can't make a habit of that. So, that's  why that's all their business. I need more time, but I think there's something to that, too. Oh,  yeah. Because uh that that's literally I get more calls on that than any other That's a good  one. And my ads on church space well outperform everything else.

40:51 Really? Yeah, the organic ads  on church spaces. Just posting organically on Instagram? Yeah. About church space being open,  that outperforms everything else. Man. Man, it makes me want to go rent a church and then rent  it out again. Yeah. Like there's a lot of churches for rent. Yeah. Or for sale. Okay, so church  is number five. Any other kind of random events that you have that would be like six through 10?

41:11 Fashion shows. Wow. We started doing those. We did a fashion show. Okay. That was great. I know I'm  friends with a really popular designer in Atlanta and I asked her, I was like,"Hey, I really want to  do fashion shows. I want I'm not going to charge you." You post about it on Instagram, get more.  did did I built out runways. And so, since that I I'm I've done like three other fashion shows.

41:33 Wow.  That was in May. Okay. We've done three since then and I get that and I think I have one in November,  too. So, Wow. those have been good. And then it's a up it's a up I think I did two packages. I did  a $2,000 package with just a runway and you do everything yourself and then I did a 3,000 I'll  bring the lighting and everything else. And so, it's been a mixture of those two.

41:53 I mean, it's all  about surface area. Like the more types of events you do, the more you open up your market. Yeah.  And it's a finite amount of space and time. So, the more eyeballs you have on your space, the more  you can charge. Yeah. Do you have employees? No, just my wife and I. Really [clears throat]? You  still have a job? Yeah. No way. Yeah.

42:08 All right. So, you've been open less than a year. Let's talk  numbers. Since November when you opened, what have your monthly revenue and profit numbers been? So,  my lowest month since November, which I think it was November, we did 11. Your first month ever  was your worst month. You did 11,000 revenue? Yes, 11,000 revenue. profit? Not so much on that month  cuz we put it all back into the building.

42:30 Sure. And then our highest month has been 22.5. Wow.  And then on average, I think I did the average a little while ago, we were right at like 16, like  15.9 is like And profit? Uh no, or in revenue. Oh, that's been Oh, jeez. Okay. Revenue. And what's  your average profit on a a $16,000 month? Would be about 8,000. Wow. Yeah. So, 50%net profit  margins.

42:53 Yeah. But if you have a $25,000 month, like your margins just go up. Yeah. Cuz your your  costs are fixed. Costs are fixed. which would be a variable cost. Your overhead is fixed. Your  utilities are basically fixed, right? Yeah. So, the only thing that's gone up is our rent. So,  now we're at 4,500 rent. Woo. We're about to if we acquire that new space, that will take us  to 5,500 a month in rent.

43:16 But the upside is now that we're marketing the other side literally  just opened 3 weeks ago. Yeah. So, now we're marketing that. Like all those dates I turned  away from the rest of this year, if I can even get 30%of those into the new space. Yeah. First  we were going to charge less cuz it's a little bit smaller. But we found it with this nice as  it is and then the same amount of work has to go into the decorating Yeah.

43:42 those things. So, we're  going to keep the actually keep the price point the same. Okay. But if I could fill those dates in  there and have double capacity, I think we should easily be at twice as We should easily Yeah,  we should be at 30, 35,000 revenue. Hey, if you have an interesting business that made a lot of  money in a short period of time, go to tkoyes.com, fill out the form, and we'll have you right here  in this chair.

44:01 What is your insurance cost? Like 2,400, 2,500 a year. It's not horrible. Nothing.  Nothing. Yeah. So I mean you pay your monthly rent in like one or two events. Yeah. I The goal is I  want to pay it with churches. That's That's what I'm trying to do is pay it. Yeah. Cuz they pay  on the first And they're low maintenance I would imagine. Yeah, they're pretty and No.

44:22 So are you  you're working 40 hours a week at your job? Yeah. And you're doing this in the evenings and a lot  of work on the weekends. Yeah. You enjoy it? Oh, I enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. being around people. I  mean you were a DJ so Yeah, I like the people. I like I like the business stuff on it. Do you  have any bearing on how much competition you have compared to any given event rental business  anywhere?

44:41 Like is it extra competitive in Stone Mountain or That You know, I don't know outside  of our area. It's right now there are three other on our street on Rockbridge Road. There are three  others. Wow. But they're different. The The one that There's one that's extremely nice. Beautiful  place. The woman that runs it, she's been in the wedding industry for 40 years and she's great.

45:05 And  her inside of her place, I can't touch it. It It's just immaculate. Yeah. But unfortunately, she's  had two or three occasions where she's double booked somebody. Mhm. And so she's called me  like,"Hey, I double booked this person and their party is tomorrow. Can I Yeah. give them there?  I'll I'll do it." That's great. Last week she had one. They came over.

45:28 The people were frantic.  Our weddings I couldn't help them because I'm booked up now. Yeah. So but I think unfortunately  for her, she's Her weddings are beautiful. Some of the best in the state. But her stuff is on a  notebook. She's writing That's how she's double booking cuz she's Yeah. writing down dates.  to highlight. Yeah, exactly. So I think that's our advantage.

45:50 And even the other ones The one is  further down. The woman's been in the business 20 years. Yeah. They're great at what they do. Mhm.  But they're doing no paid social. Mhm. One doesn't even have a website. One has a One has a Facebook  page that has stuff that was posted Last post was 6 years ago. Crazy. So, when I was going into the  business, I made a detailed list of everybody.

46:07 Do they have Facebook? Do they have websites? I  then I went took a tour and saw all the things we could do better. Yeah. And we're killing  them just on the fact that our social's there, our presence there. Yeah. We're trying not to  make those mistakes. And it's also it's a lot of work to write down Nothing we've had several  tours because people said,"Hey, I booked a tour with them.

46:35 No one showed up. I called them. They  said, 'Oh, I'm at the dentist. I can be there 2 hours.'"And so, they come to us because, you know,  it's all through either [clears throat] they book it or we book it. It's all through Go Highlevel.  Your close rate on tours is probably stupid. Yeah. Yeah, you got to get them By the time they get  there, I mean, you probably close 70 80%of those.

46:54 I think we close about 70%. The Yeah, yeah, about  70. We have I don't know what the issue is. We only only about 60 about 50%of the tours show.  That number is going down. It was much higher. That's surprising. That's surprising. Yeah. One  big unlock for me is probably stupid simple to you is just the fact that most of these event rental  places are just renting the space.

47:14 Like cuz I'm thinking like,"Oh, it's half a million dollars  to get started here. You got to own a building, buy a building."Like most you and most of your  competitors are just renting a space. Just renting the space. Sometimes stand-alone, usually in a  retail center. Yeah. Crazy. And it's not Now, I think our space looks beautiful inside, but it's  not It wasn't like a $100,000.

47:33 Yeah. What did you spend on like tables and chairs? Like you spent  30-ish grand on the build-out. Yeah. What about all the stuff that you have? Maybe five. Facebook  Marketplace, Craigslist, that's your best friend. Five grand. So, when I find, you know, the  regular Lifetime round tables or what Yeah. 120 120 dollars in Sam's or something, I try to  get them on Facebook Marketplace for 30 bucks.

47:55 So, a lot of those. plastic ones? Yep. Yep. And then  you have the 6-ft ones, too? Yep. We have those. So, yeah. So, just the tables. The chairs are  the most expensive. Chairs like that? I don't have any like that. I have the clear Chiavari  chairs. Oh. They're acrylic. Okay. really nice. They're clear. They're a little bit delicate. I've  probably had 20 broken this last year.

48:16 Okay. But, they're like $75 a chair. Okay. So, that they're  expensive. So, you could easily spend 10 grand just on chairs. But, you've spent like five  total on all of your tables and chairs? Yep. And the most expensive thing was the initial 100  chairs I bought was like $3,000. Okay. And then what about TVs and all that? We have 65-in  nine of them are all attached on a grid.

48:38 So, it makes the one the one screen. That's cool.  So, if someone really wanted to start this business on a budget, what's the least it would  take? I think you could do it for under 3,000. I think you could I think you could What about  like first month's rent and deposit? Okay. So, maybe 6,000. I would say find a rent. We wanted  6 months. We got 4 months free rent.

48:59 Okay. But, that free rent saved our lives cuz we were able to  put all we were going to be paying into rent into into the space. And we looked at many properties.  Some of them said no, absolutely no free rent. And I knew we needed to build this out. I knew um we  couldn't do it. I I have a another friend in the business that started around the same time.

49:21 He took a SBA loan for like 50 grand and was open 7 days after he did his lease. And he had a  build-out, too. Like he he's doing great. Where's he at? Um he is in Virginia. Okay. And his prices  are more than mine because there's no competition for him. When did your friend in Virginia open  compared to you? They opened like a month or two before us.

49:44 Okay. Grand opening. And how's it going  for them? It's been amazing. Their price point is like double our price point. Wow. And they're  just as busy as us. They're booking into 2028 at this point. So, you charge a thousand bucks  for bare-bones. What are they charging for that? It's like a little over 3,000 for bare-bones. Holy  crap. And then their prices go way up from there.

50:05 They have They have seven, eight thousand  dollar events. And that's in Chesapeake, Virginia? Yeah. Are they doing like more weddings,  more birthdays? How do their How does their event mix? I don't know. I see lots of birthdays. I I  They I saw a big wedding there last week, but I believe a majority of it is like birthdays. Okay.  Baby showers. I think it's the full mix.

50:20 Okay. That's crazy. There's so much demand. But yeah,  but and they've had people drive two hours just to do an event there. Wow. Like me, I've realized  in our marketing, I'm not even trying to market to Atlanta really because there's so many there.  Yeah. And we do get people that come in, you know, for maybe we've sold them on a wedding package.  Yeah.

50:42 Um that are coming from somewhere else, but you know, the competition is so close locally.  I'm just trying to get that competition. Yeah. So, you you might be in a more competitive area. I I  think we are. Yeah. I think we are. It sounds like it. Four in the same place, two down the street in  Stone Mountain, Georgia of all places. I think I'm thinking of DFW and I'm like, when was the last  time I drove by an event venue?

51:02 Certainly they're not in strip Really? Oh, cuz I drive by them every  day. All over metro Atlanta, yeah. that I never think about. My wife would be good at this cuz she  loves hosting. That's my wife, too. We make a good team, but my wife wants absolutely nothing to do  with the tech stuff. Yeah. Or the other stuff. She just wants to meet with the people and come up  with great ideas.

51:24 She loves that's the best part of her day is, sitting down and saying,"Look,  you told me."Like, she has them fill out a questionnaire and says, "Look, you told me your  favorite colors are yellow and this and that and you want this and you're having a baby."And then  she shows them and then she'll text me say,"Hey, can you create something for the screens cuz  they're there?"

51:42 Yeah. So, then we'll you know, we try to When we're bringing people in for  tours, we kind of know what they're doing. So I'm already selling them. I'm already having If I can  especially if I can find a picture of them online, I already got pictures of them on the screens  and the other stuff. So it's an easy sell when they walk in the building. But my wife loves  that part of saying,"Well, I can" and showing the proof like,"Look, I can make this room look  completely different.

52:02 It's just open canvas. I can make it look however you want to look or however  your vision is."Anything else that people should know before starting this business? Something  that people need to know. Yeah. Like don't fall in love with the building. Fall in love with the  with the inside can do for you. You got You got to have parking. Okay, so what you can do inside,  parking, what else?

52:20 Parking, your county bylaws, can you have Can you have a You can You chat you  Yeah, can you have event spaces? Some counties don't allow them. Or some counties say you can  have them but you have to get a liquor license. And most people don't know how ex-very expensive  a liquor license can be or how difficult it can be. So knowing those things cuz I'd hate to see  anybody like sign a lease and then cuz landlord don't care.

52:47 But you sign a lease and then go into  the property and realize you can't build it out or do what you want. What do you think about using  like a a buying or renting a big nice home as an event space? I think there's something to that.  We've We've talked about that. Especially as a big yard. The one thing we can do that people see us  online and see the pictures inside and like,"Hey, how does the courtyard How's the outside look?"

53:07 And I'm like,"Sorry, no parking lot." It's a parking lot. Yeah, I don't got one. But I think  the house and especially zoned for commercial and a big yard, I think that's great for weddings. And  then you can have onsite You can have Airbnb. You have so many things. If I were to do it again  or when I do it again, I think we'll lean more towards something like that.

53:27 But I think a house  is great. And also I think I see people doing like going to a local VFW and saying,"Hey, can I  either use your basement or use your hall for Can I prepay pay two weekends?" And then you try to  sell those weekends to somebody else and test the concept. lease. Yeah, without a long-term lease.  And then but you got the thing is like ours, everybody that walks in our door says, "I did not  think it was going to look like this when I walked in."And if you do that with a VFW or wherever  you that's

53:54 what you have to sell on. Yeah. People can't they have to be transformed Yeah, yeah. when  they walk in. And their pictures their pictures have to look great on Instagram. Every every place  needs to be photographed of cool in your building. Yeah. Lounge or bathrooms. We spent a lot of money  in the bathrooms and we see so many pictures on Instagram in our bathroom.

54:14 Yeah. Because just we  have great lighting and those things. So that's, you know, selling point. I saw this stat on  Twitter recently that talked about how much time we're spending at home compared to like in  the '80s and'90s and it is like shocking. So it was like from like 2008 to 2020 it was like slowly  climbing up. It was like 12%of our time at home, 13%, 15%and then 2020 went to 60%obviously.

54:38 Yeah.  But then since then it's been like dropping but very slowly so like 57%54. We're still like way  way way higher than we were years ago. We're not going out anymore. But it's reversing. Right?  So I truly believe like the more AI takes hold the more that trend keeps reversing like events  like this are going to be way more popular in 5-10 years even than they are today.

55:05 Oh, yeah.  I I think so. We need human connection. Yeah. Yeah. And we market to people want to do parties  and I think we're at a great price point for our location. When I market to apartment complexes,  that's where we do great because you maybe can't host even 20 people in your apartment but you  still want to have a birthday party. And I know for Atlanta being a pre-previous DJ being a DJ  before, the nightlife scene is not is nowhere in this country is what it used to be.

55:34 Yeah. I  think our age group had the got the peak the peak of that. But it's it's dwindling. But if you can  create that feel on your own in a safe environment cuz I don't think we mentioned before we have  secure we do have security and armed security and we work with the local police department.  People feel safe inside. But I think if you can recreate that cuz we have so many 80s and  90s and 2000s parties and people are trying to make it look like a club they went to in in 2005.

56:01 People love that. So I really think that's on the rise cuz you don't have to go to a night club or  lounge to recreate that nostalgia feeling from a 90s party or to early 2000s party. Where can  people find you? So they can find us at the Hall ATL on all things social the hallatl.com. My wife  and I get a lot of questions about this. So we kind of devised a little free ebook that you can  download straight from our Instagram and that's the the Hall ATL.

56:32 Okay. And yeah, we're there and  and we take questions every day. I just want to help people. So anybody that wants to do this. I  just connected your last name Hall. Yeah, worked out for yeah. Okay. Yeah, worked out for that  was intentional. Very. [laughter] Okay. Justin, this has been amazing. Man, it's been awesome.  Thank you. If you like this content, please share with a friend. Hit a like or a comment below  and we'll see you next time on the Corner Office.