Chris Collins Unleashed: Episode 5 - The Business Of Membership Clubs and Continuity

Welcome to Chris Collins Unleashed. All you have to do is listen.

Welcome, everybody, to Chris Collins Unleashed, where it's all about business performance, helping your business perform at a higher level with my sidekick, co host, partner in crime, G Man.

Good morning.

Do you prefer G Man?

I prefer G Man. I think.

I've had both. I've had both nicknames.

But G Man is in the middle of a midlife crisis, everybody, so be careful. He's skateboarding like he's a teenager and walking around with his shirt unbuttoned. We were gonna get him a gold chain and a pinky ring.

Oh, man.

We were talking about going to Vegas today for the upcoming fight.

Mayweather.

Oh, yeah, right. Oh, yeah.

We were talking about going to Vegas to watch it. You would have been. You'd be included in that. So we get you a big pinky ring.

Yes, I would like that.

And then you can walk around with your chest hair out in a big gold chain. You're so sexy.

Oh, your poor wife. My poor wife.

Today we're going to talk about the business of membership clubs and continuity, which is something every business can use.

Yep.

And what prompted this is one of our trusted employees around here, Jair, had a birthday and you wanted to take him somewhere and you have this membership.

It's kind of. This is not the example of how we're going to teach you how to make money having a membership club. Because they do it wrong.

Yeah.

And we probably can't name the business, but just to give a 10,000 foot view of this is they have a secret room at a bar here downtown where if you buy a bottle of really expensive bourbon or whiskey.

Just whiskey in general. Yeah. Whiskey, Japanese whiskey.

Access to the secret room. It's always empty, but always overbooked. And you're limited to a party of three or four.

Party of four. Yeah.

And it's always funny because the very first time I went there with G Man, they wouldn't let us in. Even though there was nobody in there, they wouldn't let us in. And then this time I went as a good sport and they wouldn't let us in because there were five of us. Yeah.

So. And the place is empty. It's absolutely empty.

Yeah. That was. That was interesting, though. The first time was my birthday. Remember we went for my birthday and you were gonna get me. My wife had the whole thing set up and you were gonna get me. I was gonna. Bottle. Yeah.

Buy you a bottle. And they wouldn't take my money.

They wouldn't sell us a bottle. No. And so the funny thing is, I don't know if you noticed this, and I'm not sure I'm right, but is that girl that helped us when we went for Jair's birthday the same girl?

Yeah. So the fornicator. What's funny is, so they have this door inside the bar. So it's like a whiskey bar. And then inside the whiskey bar, there's another door. And you knock on that door, and that's the secret room. And we. It was your birthday, and we thought we had a reservation. We go. We knock on the door, and this girl comes out, and I swear she looks like she just had sex.

Yeah. Like.

And she's all disheveled, and she's like.

Can I help you?

Pulled her hair back into a place.

Secret room is 20 by 20.

It's a tiny room. It's small. Yeah.

So there's nobody in that room. It's.

And they have hundreds of bottles. They must have hundreds of members. It's crazy.

And so she comes out and she says, oh, well, I'm busy right now, but give me a little while.

We.

We sat in the other part for over an hour, and we left.

Yeah, Right.

She never came out and got us.

And we asked the bartender, too. Remember? We're like, bro, can we. Like.

I wanted to buy you the bottle just so it was done Right. Even if they don't let us in their stupid secret room.

Right. Meanwhile, there's nobody in there.

So this time we go, there's this douchebag with a bandana on. That's the guy running the place, and everything they want, they have to run by him. Right? So it's like he. They have five people, and he's like, o. Only for.

Right. Yeah.

And then you were like, but we're gonna. You wanted to buy Jay your bottle.

Yeah.

So then he would have been a member, and we could have had eight people in this empty room.

Exactly.

But they weren't buying that.

Oh. So I told him. I said, hey, look, I want to buy. I want to buy a bottle and a membership for my friend over here. And if we do that, then we can. He can have as many people as he wants it.

Every. At every point of contact with somebody there. It was a fight.

Yeah. It was weird. And they're like, well, it's not four people per bottle, sir. You know, it's four people per membership. And I go, yes, we want to give him a membership.

And they're like, it doesn't work that way. And you're like, no, it Does.

Look, here's exactly how it works.

Give him a bottle, and then he's a member. And then we're good. And they're like, no, we don't want your money.

It's funny.

We don't want your money.

Yeah.

And how much are those stupid bottles?

Like $500.

It's a joke. So we're going to talk about membership.

I'm on my third bottle.

Bro.

I hope you don't take clients, though. That's not the customer service we want people to see.

No, no.

Well, we're gonna open our own cigar bar downtown Los Angeles and show them how to do it.

That was the other thing. They don't want you to buy those cigars. They don't have that set up. Last time I went there, we tried to get a cigar, and they didn't have any. So they give you the menu of the cigars, and you're like, well, I'll take one of these. Well, we don't have that one. I'll take one of these. We don't have that one. Well, what do you got? They got, like, a Swisher. Sweet. And I was like, nah, thanks.

You went to smoke a cigar after I left?

No, this was. I was there with Katya one night. It was just Kot and I. She took me down there.

It's funny, too, because the guy's like, well, what's wrong with you? Or whatever. And then I think you said, well, he drinks tequila. Can you get him some tequila in the.

In.

The bartender was like, oh, yeah, we have some mezcal. And then they go and ask the douchebag with the bandana, and he's like, you want. You want mezcal? And he's sitting right next to us.

It's like.

They pretend like it's this big transaction. I could have just turned to the douchebag with the bandana that thinks he's Brett Michaels. Said, hey, bro, like, I know they got tequila on the other side of that door. Like, how. How would that work? And he's like, oh, no, you can't have that in here. And I'm like, we just went through all that for that? Why can't you teach your bartender to tell me no?

Right? Yeah.

He's like, we have mescal.

Yeah. Why can't you just wander out, get a little ice, pour a little, you know, charge us 20 bucks?

Every time I go there, I want to leave the second I get there. Why is that?

It's because it's not friendly, and it's not open. It's like, it's funny.

I hung out with the owner of that place.

Yeah.

And he's a pretty nice guy.

I can't imagine that they want it that way. That's for sure. Because they offer a very high end. Like they bring you hot towels and it's like, it's supposed to be a high end experience, but it's far from that, that's for sure. I mean, I like hanging out there. I like going there. And I will say that there was a waitress, I went there with Jair one night, and we were hanging out down there and they had a waitress. And she was phenomenal. Like, she was unbelievable. But it was just the two of us, so it wasn't any negotiat. But she kept bringing us tastings and, and, you know, making sure we had ice and water and all that. She did a great job. And it. I felt, you know, it felt much different with that level of attention than it did when we're there and they're like, there's nobody else there, but we don't want you here either is how we felt the other night.

The bartenders on the other side in the non membership area are nice.

Yeah, they're super nice. Yeah.

Yeah, I'd much rather be out there. I felt that when we were there. I'm like, I don't need Brett Michaels here. Like, I don't need this douchebag. And he's sitting there reading a book. Like, there. There's nobody else in there. There's all these empty tables and he's sitting there reading a book, just saying no to stuff.

Yeah, it's weird.

Like, we could have had a party going. We could have opened some bottles of tequila, some cigars. We could have fun. And he's like, nope. Yeah, we would have dropped a nice. A nice penny there.

Yeah. And that's the thing. And I think it's designed for that. Like, it's supposed to design to make you feel comfortable and relaxed and that you spend money there. Because even though you're buying a bottle, I can tell you right now, people buy a bottle and they don't come back. And so, you know, they want you to buy more stuff. You don't. They don't make any money. If you buy one bottle for a few hundred bucks and you never come back, they need to make money because you come back over and over again. You're buying tastings, you know, you're. You're buying more bottles.

What's the cheapest bottle of whiskey in that room like 250, I think the cheapest. And what's the most expensive?

Oh, they go up. I think they had one that was like six grand or something like that. They have that one that you have here.

So more members at the Havana Room in Beverly Hills.

Yep.

Which is a real membership club, which is hard to get into and exclusive. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know who else. Bunch of people are members. That right.

That's a membership club.

Yeah.

They never say no to anything.

No.

We walk in there with eight people, they're like, hi, Mr. Collins. How are you? Like, the only time I've ever been turned away there is on a Saturday night in flip flops and shorts. They're like, sir, after five, Mr. Collins, you got to put on shoes and pants.

Just on Saturdays. That's it. That's the early rule. And I'm cool with that. I was like, yeah, no, I get it. I was just thinking about smoking a cigar, but I'm cool because, you know, the place is packed on a. On a Saturday.

Yeah.

Any other time, they don't care.

I'm always waiting for the shoe to drop on that. Like, I'm always wait because we showed up last time. We had so many people, we showed up unannounced. I'm always waiting for them to say, you know, we just can't do it. But every single time, like, you get.

This feeling of like, you're a member and like, we're here to take care of you. They. Their service is great. The drinks are great, the food, and they just cater to you.

Yeah, Come on in.

It's a real membership.

Yep. Yeah. You know what?

They're doing this. This guy downtown. I could take him there and he could see what it's really like. Yeah, he's in an amazing location, but he doesn't get it.

Yeah, right.

He doesn't get it. Yeah, the Havana Room gets it. They do a great job. Now, I've never been to the Havana Room in Moscow, but I'm sure, yeah.

They have one of those in Vegas, too.

No, no, it's just New York. Beverly Hills in Moscow. Which is weird, right?

New York. We got to try New York.

Should we go to Moscow, bro?

No. Oh.

We see. If we're gonna take a vacation, there's.

A lot of guys with their shirts open and a big gold chain.

Something many of you don't know about. Chris Collins, he doesn't take many vacations. If we're going to take a vacation, we're not going to Moscow. Let's just put it on the table. Let's go to Cuba. Let's go to Fiji, not Moscow.

Okay. How is your midlife crisis going in your attempt to kill yourself on a skateboard? So, G Man, in case you're just tuning in or learning about us, GMAN has this state of the art electric skateboard that's like a Tesla, but a skateboard.

Yep.

And it goes 27 miles an hour, but at about 22 miles an hour it starts to. Yeah, it's a little speed shake or what do you call that?

Speed wobble.

Speed wobble.

A little sketchy.

So you're 22, you're riding around with this remote controlled trigger.

Yep.

What's funny is G Man always says the problem is when you go to stop.

That's the only. That's the scary part.

Which is the most important part. So are you. What about a helmet?

I. I'm still shopping for a helmet.

But can we, can we get the beautiful Ms. Katya, G Man's wife, on, on the phone here?

So she's informed me that if I don't get a helmet, she's not gonna allow me to ride it anymore. So. Because I've fallen twice.

Do you feel like a 12 year old boy? Like you're gonna be put on restriction?

I feel like a 12 year old boy a lot when I go home at night.

Does Katya have to like, she has to reprimand Blake, get him to clean his room and then she has to talk to you about getting a helmet?

Absolutely. She does. Yeah.

Hello?

Oh, hey. There she is.

Is this the beautiful Ms. Katya?

Hello? Hello?

You can't hear me?

I mean, I can, but there's no guarantee I'm not going to be going. What? What?

Huh?

What? First of all, let's establish in the social calendar of the. Ms. Katya, what are you doing right now?

What am I doing right now?

Yeah.

Are you in a boxing class or.

Are you trying to buy shirts for my son?

Oh, Man Baby one.

Man baby one. Yeah.

Okay, so I have an idea for you about.

He's man baby two.

But yes. Man baby one right here.

Man baby one is sitting next to you. I'm sure.

This is so sad. I feel so bad for you, Ms. Katya.

So the whole helmet thing, the fashionista here, your husband is looking for the helmet that doesn't exist. That makes him look 10 years younger and taller.

But you just.

We can go down to Target, right, a block from here and get him a helmet, can't we?

We can, yes. But he, you know, he's a fashionista. And it's. It's fashion over function, right? Fashion over safety.

How many stores did we go to, baby, looking for helmets? 5.

Lots. And his big thing is he can't make his head look too big. He has a tiny head. And so he was actually trying on kid helmets and didn't know it because they made his head look better. He looks better.

Baby. What are you doing to me?

Okay, I had another idea, though. What if. What if there's no action for him until he gets a helmet?

Oh, man.

What if he's on real, like, adult restriction?

Yeah, adult restriction. Yeah. Maybe. I don't know what. I don't really know what's going to help. Put him in. To put him in knee pads and elbow pads, too.

He should be.

He should be.

Exactly.

But just guessing, because you. You know him better than I do. Just guessing. Like, if you said no act showing until you have a helmet. Would he have a helmet on his way home today? Or would it. Would he be stubborn?

He would make a better effort. Yes, he would. It has to be a force. I just. I wouldn't even have to restrict him. I would just have to go with him and make it a priority.

It's more fun my way.

I can. You know what, though? I can hide his cord to charge his ski cord. And then he can't even ride it until he gets a helmet. Right.

That's wrong.

Well, I still like my idea better.

No action. This is what you need to say, Ms. Katya.

That's not fair.

Oh, you'll be fine. What's a. What's a day? Come on, you've been married how long?

How long have you been married? 23 years.

And so, to save his life, wouldn't you be willing to sacrifice the fun of a day of no action for him to get a helmet?

Yes, I would.

Take a day. Or would you be stubborn, G Man.

I'd be a little stubborn, I think.

Okay, Katya, come on. We gotta see what he does. He's going through a midlife crisis. I want to see what he does.

Trust me, this is no midlife crisis. This is his life. He's. He's a boy in a man's body.

Oh, baby, you're selling me right down the river.

You know what this episode is. Is about, is the business of membership clubs. And we were just talking about that terrible whiskey club with the Brett Michaels guy with the bandana.

Oh, God, yeah, that wouldn't let me.

Have tequila, but made the bartender go Around. He's sitting right next to us. He could have just said no.

Yeah. That every time you've been there, you've had a horrible experience.

I know, it's funny. No, we were talking about the Havana Room and how fun that is, but, you know, you walk in there with a bunch of people and they're like, yeah, all right. People are here. Business.

Yeah, you there. You were there with us last time. So what did you. If you had to compare the two. Katya to the Havana Room, to the Whiskey Bar. But that I will not name Whiskey A Go Go. Yeah. What. What. What's your feeling on both?

Honestly, I'm gonna say I wasn't really impressed with the Havana Room.

Wow.

As far as. I don't know. We've been at the Whiskey Bar, just you and I are just another couple that enjoy whiskey. And I've had a better time because they've been happier there. But it's still. I don't know, it. It seems like they need a little help. But Havana Room could use a little help, too, I think.

What? In what area?

I think both of them, especially being in Beverly Hills and where it's at, it could use. It could use a little bit better customer service.

Well, they let you in the door. At least.

They make you. They make you feel a little bit more comfortable at the Havana Room than they do at the other place.

Yeah. You don't have to negotiate your way in past the Gestapo.

Yeah, there's. It's not awkwardness.

Okay, I need you. Before we go, I need you to say that there's no action until he shows up here with a helmet.

Okay? Baby, there's no action until you get a helmet.

No cheating. Ms. Katya.

What am I gonna change? Is that what you said?

Well, yeah. It wasn't a good sign when you're like, well, what about me?

Come on, you gotta think bigger.

See how it's shopping. He's got five helmets on the bed.

Good. Yeah.

When he gets home, evidently.

Five children's helmets.

No.

Can you get him one with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

A teenage. He would probably enjoy that.

Makes his head look. Do you want your head to look.

Bigger until it's Leonardo? Yeah. Yeah. I want my head look smaller. I don't want it to look bigger.

You're so funny. Anything that I've never thought, it's. That you had a big head.

No, it's just. You have a big head, I have a small head. And so when you put a helmet on, it's a weird.

Want it to look humongous with this big bowl on his head is what.

He says it looks like. It's too much contrast.

We need to be adults here.

He wants it to still stay looking cute and small.

No action. I never shown Jackson until he comes in here with a helmet. That's it. She's laying down the lodgy man.

All right. All right.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms. Katia.

Done deal. Thanks, baby.

That's hilarious.

My poor wife. Oh, my goodness.

Okay, so the. The business lesson here that I'd like to talk about and challenge everybody with that has a business. And please write in, text us, tweet us, whatever it is. How do they.

How do they tweet us at Bulldog Collins? Tweet us.

Tweet us at Bulldog Collins. If you have a business and you want to figure out a way to add continuity to it, because we're really good at this. But just about every business can figure out a way to add continuity.

Right.

So that's. Whiskey Bar is trying to do that. But you could do. If you wanted to be in that club, you could make the customer service better, and you could make it every quarter. You have to buy a bottle.

Sure.

To get access to the room.

Right.

And maybe let people have five people in there. I don't know. Whatever. You could also make people buy cigars.

Yeah.

So I have a friend who owns a cigar club, and every quarter, his members have to buy a box.

Yeah.

In their locker. And so you can do that if you.

I mean, that's the thing. If they had a lot, they have space, too. If they had a locker there for cigars, we would. I'd have cigars there. Because there's nothing goes better with whiskey than cigars.

Right. I owned a flower shop, and we had a ton of clients on continuity where every week they got fresh flowers.

Yep.

And so when somebody would order flowers, you would give them a little brochure and you'd say, hey, don't you want this every week?

Right.

It cheers people up. There's psychological benefits to flesh fresh flowers. I don't know. But you can do it that way if you. I mean, I don't know. Massage. I mean, pre sells. Right. Massages. So you can pre sell. If you're a trainer, you can pre sell training sessions and make them buy so much order to be in your program. So just about anything. But continuity is usually the. The best way to grow your business in and increase your sales month to month.

They did that at the chiropractor's office, too. They do the packages where you'll buy 10 of them at one time. And so they, you know, they know you're gonna come in at least that many times and it keeps you going. And at that point you're building up enough loyalty. Now they, they got you going on, you know, in perpetuity. Really?

Yeah. So I don't, I can't think of a business that you can't add continuity to it. It's just doing it.

Right.

And most of the time the business owners usually feel weird about it. They're like, oh, you know, you can't do that. But people want that. Like we were talking about the Equinox one. I wish they did our meal plans and our protein and all that. I wish that was just handled right. I gotta, I gotta go Amazon and I gotta hit buy and it takes like 15 seconds. They could save me 15 seconds.

It's not so much work. It's not the 15 seconds, it's the thought that you have to put thought into it.

You know, then Amazon upsells me something else and then I got a pre workout and they could have done, done all that.

Yep. Yeah. No, exactly.

I mean all these businesses are sitting around complaining about Amazon, but they're not doing it. Yeah, like they could be selling that to their clients too.

Yeah.

If you have a loyal, if you have a loyal following or a database of clients that have bought from you before. Think about all the stuff that Amazon's selling them and what could you sell them? Right.

I mean, think about the Amazon model where they just said, hey, you know, pay us 20 bucks a month and you get free two day shipping on a lot of stuff. Not everything, but a lot of things. Like so prime failed. Like that seems like a failed idea, but it, you know how many people are on it. Yeah. It's crazy. So that's the thing, I think you're right that I think we have a, you know, personally, we feel as business owners a negative opinion towards that. But it's what people want, obviously it's what they want.

And also a lot of times when you buy like I love these Xevious sodas and I buy them on Amazon, it asks you, it's says you save 10% if you automatically get them every month.

Right? Yeah, I subscribe to like bottled water deodorant. It just comes shipping. Yep.

It saves you the trip. So yeah, take a lesson from Amazon because they're making a lot of stuff into continuity, right? Yeah.

And you can go back to and look at your business and determine what it is that you offer and what pieces you can offer a subscription to. You know, so like we were talking about. Equinox is a great example. It already is kind of a subscription business because you're buying a gym membership. But they could do the same thing with supplements. And we were talking to my friends across the hall and they do, they're. They own a medical company and they do speech therapy, but they're also, you know, supplements that help with that. You know, why couldn't they add continuity onto that? I mean, there's always something that you could attach to your business that you could start charging a monthly fee for that people want, need, and would improve their life.

You know, didn't we come up with. So G man's neighbors were here and didn't we come up with like three ways they could make money?

Yeah, yeah.

Additional ways they could make money. We're good at that.

Yeah.

The.

Yeah, they went back like they were like, yeah, we need.

Their heads were spinning. Yeah, yeah. So there's a way that you can add continuity to your business, no matter what it is. The last thing I was going to say is even if you're. If you're in the business of making apps or software, Tinder has over a million people paying 20 bucks a month or 20 something bucks a month. A million. And nobody thought that they could do that.

Right.

And somebody came in and said, yeah, and now they're doing it. It's crazy. They're just printing money.

Yeah, that's it.

And so if, if you have clients in the, you know, your most valuable asset is your database of clients or your loyal following. Figure out what can you sell them on a monthly basis, quarterly basis. That's force, continuity or something like that.

Yep.

But it works.

Yeah. And if you don't have any ideas, reach out to us. We'll try to help you with some.

And then pray for. For G Man, because he's not getting any action for at least.

My chiropractors.

I don't feel like Katya is honest about this.

We'll see. We'll see what happens when I get home.

My chiropractor does not want to see me get off the skateboard, by the way. They got a lot of monthly recurring revenue coming from me.

Don't you ride your skateboard to your chiropractor?

Yeah.

They're like down PCH or something, but.

Yeah, but every time I crash, I go, I go, see that again.

Oh, man.

She's like, you're still riding it.

That's funny. Well, thank you, everybody, for listening to Unleash. We hope you have a great week. And if there's anything we can help you with your business performance, reach out to us on Twitter. Chris Bulldog.

Bulldog Collins.

At Bulldog Collins.

Tweet us at Bulldog Collins. Leave something. Leave a comment. Post a review. Subscribe to us on itunes. If you see us on YouTube, drop a comment there. We will help you. We will find you. We will answer your question.

Send us Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle helmets.

Carrier pigeons, and carrier pigeon 1010 Wilshire. We're here.

Thanks, everybody.

Have a great week. Bye, Ram.