260: Lisa Song Sutton — Seven-Figure Company with No Investors

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Today we're sharing some entrepreneurial stories about somebody who's done multiple different companies and kind of their experience with that should be a great experience. Share conversation. Hearing somebody else's story, think about what lessons you can apply to your own. Hi everyone, I'm Bill Gallagher, host of the show Scaling Coach. We do three shows like this a week. A deep conversation with a guru or an entrepreneur about their experience. A personal leadership story every Sunday and then some tips every Tuesday. That's our show. At scalingcoach.com, you'll find all the back catalog of hundreds of episodes. @scalingcoach.com I'm joined now by Lisa Song Sutton. That's like a whole mouthful.

Sorry for the extra work.

No problem, no problem. Welcome to the show. Lisa's in Vegas today.

Yes, yes. Fabulous Las Vegas.

Fabulous Vegas. My first radio show in Las Vegas years ago. I worked first on the radio by accident and then and the station doesn't not same format or any of that anymore, but and then into nightclubs and so on. My mom's family is from Las Vegas. I lived there for a number of years. So I have. Are you originally from Vegas or somewhere else?

No, I moved here after law school. So I moved here in 2010. But it's certainly home. I love it here.

Yeah. It's become your home like so many.

Yes.

Right. So how do you go from being an entrepreneur to being a. From being going to law school to being an entrepreneur the other way around? Easy for you.

Well, yeah. So I started my career in in law, business litigation and business bankruptcy. And I started my first company in 2012 while I was still working full time at the firm. And you know, working in business litigation and business bankruptcy was a great precursor to business. Right. I learned kind of like all the.

Do not do's here's how not to get sued. How not to have.

Exactly. Exactly. How not to run your business into the ground. So it was just an incredible learning experience. Experience. I worked with really great people as well. And so it was, it was a perfect precursor to getting into business. I started my first company in 2012 while I was still working at the firm. And that was just a fun side hustle. It was Sin City Cupcakes. We were making boozy cupcakes in Las Vegas. Alcohol infused cupcakes. And it was just this really fun side hustle that I had no intention of ever like growing and scaling to the point where I would leave my law firm job. I didn't hate my job. I wasn't like in love with it, but I didn't hate it. Right. It was fine. But I used basically the money I made from my 9 to 5 and use that to fund my side hustle. And then the side hustle ended up growing, you know, a lot larger than any of us had anticipated. And that's when I realized, oh my gosh, I can have my own company as long as I team up with an operations partner and we have great processes and great staff and all the things. And then I just kept replicating that.

You know, I think first of all, one of the things that I love about this right away is a catchy name, Sin City Cupcakes. I'm already curious and interested. And then on top of that, you have something novelty. It's not just another cupcake company, it's boozy cupcakes. Right In Vegas. In Vegas, we've got boozy cupcakes. We've got a cheeky name. I could see selling that to party planners and lots of people in Vegas. There's a steady stream of people coming to Vegas to cut loose a little bit, Right? Yes. Launch parties at the Cosmopolitan, etc.

Every bachelorette party, every birthday party, every convention, every wedding. I mean, name it. Right? Obviously, you know, outside of COVID year, right. Outside of 2020, that the majority of our clientele are tourists.

Yeah, yeah. Again and again and again. So you grew that company and you started to add teams and that kind of thing. Talk about the. What you learned in process and people and that kind of thing a little bit in, in building that business.

Yeah. You know, so I realized, especially with that type of company, I mean, this is a tourist driven company. Right. So I always tell entrepreneurs, if you have a product or service that can cater to a tourist market, why not try it out in a place like Las Vegas? Right. You almost, it's almost unfair. You get to like double dip, right? You get tourists and locals and I mean, you're talking, you know, 44 million visitors a year. Like, it's just. Why not. Yeah, exactly. Why not try to get your product or service in front of them if it caters to a tourist market. And so the city does the marketing for us, right? You're already coming to Vegas for your friend's birthday party, for your friend's bachelor party. You know, name all the times that you've ever come to Vegas. Even if it was work related, there's still an element there where you're like, we're going to have great dinners, we're going to cut loose, we're going to do this. Like we have a product that goes hand in hand with your celebration.

So I started coming to Vegas as a little boy, right. As a very, very young boy. For me in those days it was the site of Foxy's Firehouse Casino and the Sahara Hotel. As you got off and went towards my grandparents house, right. That was my mindset. It's very different than today and that whole thing. And I remember going up and down with my grandfather up and down the Strip. He was, he was with the FBI there and he was sheriff and things like that and others have been in town and in different law roles. But we would drive up and down, he said, see all those pretty lights? Those aren't paid for with the winner's money.

Exactly, exactly. This is not a town built on winners, that's for sure.

So it made me very conscious of that. And then in fairly close distance to their old house in the Vegas Country Club was, or near the, what used to be the Hilton was the Circus Circus Hotel. So as a young kid, early teens, teens, that kind of thing, that was a great place to go to.

It.

It wasn't like so seedy or that kind of thing. It's, it's a little rundown and forgotten.

Today, but a little. Yeah, it's a little dated now, but I mean, Vegas has tried really hard not necessarily to be family friendly, but certainly, you know, if you, if you don't like to gamble or if you don't like to go out or even if you don't like to drink, we have amazing food, we have recreation. I mean, that's really what they've tried to build it up to as well.

This is really good. So the city has the nickname Sin City. There have been ad campaigns and yet it is comprehensive. So you're going to have a Whole range of things. You're going to have moments where it's like this or like that and you're tying into all of that free thing to sell that product and. And grow that business, right?

Yeah, it's a really fun business. Who's in a bad mood when they're buying boozy cupcakes? Nobody. Right? So it's a really, really fun business. And we've been in operation about nine years.

That's really great. And, and then I'm sure, impacted this year, right? The, the drop in tourists and events, like, massive. But even continuing this year, right?

Well, thank God. I mean, the Strip, knock on wood. I actually just did an insta story, you know, walking down the Strip two nights ago, and I was like, the Strip is back, you know, than. But yeah, of course, 2020 was, you know, really scary, right? I mean, mid March, when our illustrious governor shut down the Strip. He closed the Strip. He closed the Strip. And it was just like, okay, like, what are we going to do? We saw like 80% of our business cancel or postpone mid March of 2020 for the year, for the rest of the year, right? You're talking conventions, golf tournaments, like, you know, weddings, right? All everything that was planned for the year, right?

Right.

Everything canceled or postponed. And we're just like, what's going to happen? And so luckily, you know, we are an aged company. If this was, you know, our first, second, third year in business, totally different story, right? But we just, you know, kind of tightened up the belt and we're just like, we don't know what's going to happen, but let's just ride the wave and pivot. So in my business portfolio, I also own some shipping stores in town called Ship Las Vegas. And so we installed mini fridges in each of those locations and then turned on, like, doordash and grubhub. We, you know, we're a little bit fat and happy in the sense that we didn't focus on a local market. We just catered to tourists, right? And so with the Strip being closed for the, you know, 70 days or whatever it was, we pivoted and started focusing on doordash and grubhub to service the local market. We use the mini fridges that were in my shipping stores as pickup locations and just kind of squeaked by on that until, you know, tourists were welcomed back.

That's a really cool thing. So adaptation and embracing the reality, right, is the key to how most of us survive.

Right? Cut.

And you got to do what you can. So you then Put those things. Did you put them anywhere else or just in your own stores? Did you find other places to create fridges and sell and distribute that way?

Yeah, just. Just within my shipping stores. I have a couple around town. So we were able to at least, like, geographically also be kind of spread out. We're in the southwest or in the northeast. And then, of course, you could still pick up from our bakery, which is just off the strip, so it's more central.

So we were able to do that ordering that way. Do you get much. Do. Do people order? Because you're not offering, like, a whole bunch of things. You're just offering that line, right? Not you're not selling.

Exactly. Yeah. So with DoorDash and GrubHub, I mean, certainly, like, we saw the spike, you know, into the summer, and then it's carried through since people got a lot more comfortable with ordering food online, ordering food through apps, you know, accommodating delivery instead of, like, going to a place to pick it out or pick it up. As people got more comfortable with that, that's when we saw an increase.

Yeah, interesting. Now you have other businesses, real estate and shipping stores. When did you do that? And why? Because that's very different than the kind of creative. The cupcake thing is much more creative, innovative kind of business. Those are much more formulaic about execution and people and talk about that.

So with the real estate. So I ran a team previously with Sotheby's with a previous real estate partner. I was with Sotheby's for about five and a half years, and then when I realized there was no path for growth weight with the local brokerage, I loved the brand. I loved corporate, but there was no pathway for. For me with the local leadership. And so I was like, I need to do something else. I want to bring a team somewhere else. And so I spoke to a real estate mentor of mine out of New York, and he was like. He's like, why don't you go to Christie's? Because Christie's is really the only, like, comparable, you know, luxury real estate brand other than Sotheby's. And I said, well, there's no Christie's in Las Vegas. This is like, three years ago. And he was like, what? He was like, you better find out why there's no Christie's. And so I called Christie's and they routed me to Beverly Hills, which was our, at the time, our closest office to Las Vegas. And they gave me a very Christie's answer. They were like, we only enter tier one markets And I was like, oh, okay. I was like, well, your money goes a long way here, you know. And so I'm like, well, let me tell you why. Vegas, you know, may not be tier one to you yet, but it's on the way. At that point in time, the Golden Knights, our NHL team, had just gotten started. The Raiders were still a rumor, which obviously we have them now. We have Las Vegas Raiders. But, you know, there was just a lot of expansion and growth that was teed up for Vegas. And so I flew to New York and then I flew to London and I pitched them. And I said, you got to be in Vegas. You get in on the ground now. You know, it's early for you guys, I guess, because we're not tier one yet or whatever you think, but get in now. This will be an amazing place for opportunity and growth and expansion. And of course, you need me. And so that's what I did. And so I brought the Christie's. It took me two years to get the Christie's here and up and running. And it's been incredible. So last year, 2020 was our first kind of full year, like, with our feet under us, like, operating and smashed it out of the park. Like, our agents are just incredible. So I'm no longer a selling agent. Like I said at Sotheby's, like, I ran a team and I was like, running around, like, helping with sales very actively. Now I'm in a role as a brokerage owner where my role is basically like to mentor our agents and like, help with biz dev. Right. Help bring in clients, but then they get doled out to our agents. And it's incredible. It's been an incredible experience.

So you have. You started the Sin City Cupcakes. That's still going to. Right. And. But you're not operating that day to day. You did and built the other team, but you're not doing that in both cases. I hear starting something kicking off, but pulling yourself out of the leadership. And I think that's something a lot of people really struggle with on a day to day.

Yeah. Scale up and scale out. Right? Like, scale up and scale out.

How did you do that? How did you even know that you need to do that?

Well, it's just you have to ask yourself, what do you want to do every day? If you want to go work in your business every single day, that's fantastic. And like, I did that. I. I don't get me wrong, I grinded. I baked for four years. Probably, like, probably four years straight. I baked and ran deliveries and, you know, did catering events. I did it, don't get me wrong. Like I grind it in it, you know. Right. But I want to have a business that's something where I can scale up and scale out. Like I've realized, right. Like the unsexy businesses are like, what are the steady, you know, recurring revenue. And I was like, okay, like she's.

There, right, with you could.

Which, I mean. Well, it takes, it takes. I mean, it takes good staff. Right? It really does. It takes good stuff. That you trust. Yeah, that you trust that, you know, won't steal from you, that kind of thing. And so there might be a little bit of trial and error in the beginning, but once you get that good staff and you get them dialed in, like I will say this, at one of our locations in the northeast of finalist Air Force base, our staff there are military spouses. And let me tell you, I think military spouses are like entrepreneur's secret weapon. These ladies are phenomenal. Most of them actually already have, you know, most of them have a college degree. They're like, you know, super smart, dedicated, hard working, you know, they're not going to call and sick on you. I mean, they're just, they're so reliable and steady and yet they only want to work part time because they've got a family and, you know, home and all kinds of stuff to take care of. Right. They only want to work part time and they already have health insurance. Who is this magic employee? You know what I mean? They're amazing. I love military spouses. I come from military family myself, but still, like, I love military spouses for that reason too.

Well, I think, you know, if you get somebody who doesn't have other issues, it can be really good. Even ex military can be great employees at different levels if they have the other skill set and interest. Because one of the things that they likely got, not always, but likely got, is a little sense of rigor and discipline, embracing the routine and things like that, that not everyone, not obviously somebody who fails in the military. Right, right. I served in the air Force and I was out at Nellis, actually. Oh, no way. And when I left, they said I was unsuitable for military life. I was not invited to continue.

Oh, no, my gosh.

I was way too. I, I didn't get kicked out exactly. I.

But I.

But that, like that routine, that surrender, that kind of thing. Yeah, like I got the basics of it, but, you know, the, the whole authority thing, I'm way too like, creative and individualistic to do it. So I was always trying to push the boundaries with whatever appearance or that kind of thing. This is in the 80s. It was a very different time. Anyway, I think, though, what you say is really good there. You've got to figure out how to get the people right, how to get them focused on things. So now you have that, and what's next? Where are you going? Why are you doing shows like this? Why are you sharing your story? What's important to you now?

There have been a lot of wonderful mentors and people in my life who have taken time out of their day and, you know, essentially volunteered their time. Right. To help me and kind of help me along my journey. And so, you know, anytime that I can help, provide actionable knowledge and any tips or experiences that I've had and hopefully help others. I mean, I think American entrepreneurship is the future. Like, how lucky are we to live in a country where you can literally have an idea for a business and then, like, execute it and create one tomorrow? Right. I mean, I have friends who are entrepreneurs literally around the world. And in particular, I have a girlfriend of mine who lives in the uae. Her family's from Abu Dhabi, but she lives in Dubai right now. But she was telling me, I mean, for her to open a business in Abu Dhabi, she has to have her father or her brother sign off on the business because she's not married yet. God forbid she doesn't have a husband. So her father or her brother has to sign off on, like, the paperwork saying that she has permission to start a business. And I was just like, how lucky are we to live in a country that, like, you can just do.

Is true? It's not true everywhere in the world, but it is. We are one of the countries where it's pretty easy to start something and get going. So you've gotten good at attracting and retaining people and keeping them good. How have you found the people, um, and what's your thought or wisdom around finding people to take over running your business?

You have to look for the skillset. I'm less concerned about, like, experience in that particular industry per se, but I want someone who is very skilled within the skill sets that I need. So, for example, real estate is customer service at the end of the day, yes, there's some contract negotiations, and you have to know all that, too. But. But at the end of the day, it's customer service and, like, client management. Right. The most successful agents know how to deal with the most difficult personalities. They know how to, like, get the deal done. You know, when people are upset or if people are contentious. Right? So for example, you know, one of our girls at the real estate brokerage, her background is in hospitality and like bottle service. She was a bottle service girl for like nine years on the strip and like high end bottle service where it's, you know, Wet Republic and these places where it's very competitive, like you have to audition, you know, they don't take seniority into account so like you have to re audition every year. A place like White Republic, for example, they're known for being very strict around like their cocktail servers. They don't tolerate you drinking or like, obviously drugs, but they don't tolerate you drinking like on the job, you know, and like partying with your staff or clients, like that's not allowed. They're very strict about that. So these girls, I mean, think about if you're out there, you've been here in the summertime, can you imagine being out there sweating your hustling, you know, seven hours a day all summer, right. For, for four months straight, you're working.

And dealing with drunk people who don't really want to kind of conform all the rules and who are being inappropriate with you non stop. Sure.

Yeah. You're dealing with all of that and you're doing it with a smile on your face for the most part. Right. And yeah, and, and you, I think there's so many like skills within that, right. Like you have a high tolerance, you're gonna get it done, you know. And so just as an example, like I said, one of the, the girls who works with real estate brokerage, her background is hospitality and bottle service. And guess what? She's an amazing agent. And it's because she empathizes right away. She's very responsive, she's quick and, and she's, she's resourceful, right? So she gets to know from, you know, a listing agent or whatever, she gets a no on the other side of the table. She doesn't just take that as the first response. She's resourceful and she pushes and she asks for help. And you know, so I think that that skill set of just having excellent customer service and having that experience of having to push through, you know, just like, like these VIP hosts as well. Think about it. These VIP hosts have had to deal with, hey, I want an elephant in my suite tomorrow at 11:00pm I mean, just, they get the most ridiculous requests from these high rollers and so I need a giraffe in the room. You know what I mean? Like, they get the most ridiculous requests and, and you are forced to be resourceful and it's the same thing in high end real estate.

Interesting. Yeah. And then what about managing the cash through acquisitions, self support, that kind of thing. What are your, what's your lessons learned.

There in managing cash flow or profitability.

Or buying the business, getting them profitable, keeping yourself supported from startup all the way through? Yeah.

Yeah. So I've never taken in like, you know, traditional investors or VCs or anything like that. Everything I've done has been self funded and then bootstrapped. Certainly what I've learned just from the very first instance from law firm and then building Sin City Cupcakes was that I think, you know, if you can keep your 9 to 5 for as long as you can to keep some sort of steady income coming in. Because building a business is expensive and it always costs more than you think. And money is like jet fuel to a company. If you don't have any money, don't start a business. In my opinion, you know, you've got to have some sort of stream of income to help fund the business until it funds itself. So, you know, I, I like doing it that way. So I took profits from my law firm career and kept funneling that into Sin City Cupcakes. And then I took profits from, you know, company one, funneled it into company two, profits from company two, funneled it into company three. So that's been, that's been my mo. Instead of taking profits from company one and, you know, buying a Lambo. Right. Like I just built another business instead. So.

Yes. When do you get the Lambo?

Well, so I had one, I had a hurricane. I had a hurricane. And so yeah, I've also learned with that you have to have two cars if you're going to have a two seater. You cannot, obviously that's not your daily driver. It's impossible. So you have to have two vehicles. At least you're in Vegas.

That's so funny. I actually don't have a car today. My wife, I got a car for my wife. I stopped driving a few years ago because I traveled non stop and I was just in Ubers and airplanes all the time.

Perfect.

And we used to have five cars here and I got rid of them all. Or no, we had five vehicles. We had four plus a motorcycle and got rid of all of them. And now I haven't had any. And so, and especially with last year that I'm home, I, I keep telling my car like this or I'm going to get a car like that. She's like no, you're not going to get a car. I need a car. The hell you going to go? You're not going anywhere. You don't need a car.

You're not going anywhere, Bill.

Yeah, there'll be no. She's like, you need to go. Actually, I did. A few months ago, I was going to take my daughter on a drive up and down the coast. She's young and lives in la and they think I want to do something with her.

Yeah.

So I just rented a really cool Porsche convertible for the day, and then we tore up and down the coast and it was awesome. But that's in reality. But I look at cars all the time. I'm like, oh, I want that car. And I have a friend with a car business. Have we had him on? If we haven't, we'll soon have him on. He's got an exotic car rental club and that kind of thing.

And.

And like, I think it's like my airplanes and sailboats and things like that. I love just to rent them and use them a few times a year. I don't actually want to have them all the time.

That's perfect.

Dropping cash in my driveway. Right? Yes. Okay, good. Well, let me tell folks a little bit about where to get more info. If you want to check out Lisa's business and background and hear more about her story, you go to Lisa Song Sutton. Reminder to our listeners that if our show helped you, then you could help us by liking subscribing, giving us a review, that kind of thing. That does world of difference for us. You can get our show lots of different places, itunes, podcast, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, SoundCloud, like wherever. We've got all over the place. And we have that whole back catalog with all the offers from our authors and guests, that kind of thing@scalingcoach.com so you'll find hundreds of episodes there. If you want to give us feedback about this or any other episode, send us an idea or whatever to infocalingcoach.com I want to give special thanks to Verne Harnisch, author and creator of the Scaling Up Framework and the original Rockefeller Habits. Our show is produced by Lucy Summers and our audio is edited by Albert Burge at Podfly Productions. The show notes get written up by Ian Codena and then proofread by Tim McGowan. I remind everyone, go to Lisa Song Sutton. Lisa, thanks for joining us on the show today.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks everyone for listening and we'll talk to you again next time.

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