Flip and Dani met in Nassau when their bands converged after a hurricane diverted their cruise ships. They played trumpet on Carnival Ecstasy and Carnival Destiny before shifting to art auctioneering around 2000, a career that collapsed with the 2008 market crash.
Questions this video answers
May 11, 1996 (speaker expressed some uncertainty).
Carnival Ecstasy and Carnival Destiny (also mentioned: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Crystal, Holland America).
Mid-2000 ("in the middle of 2000, we actually put down our trumpets").
2008 (market downturn affected auctions).
freedomcapitalinvestments.com
Hey, everybody. Flip and Danny here, founders of the Freedom Real Estate Group family of companies, and welcome to another episode of our.
Podcast, which is called Freedom through Passive Income.
That's right. And actually, this is not another episode. This is.
Well, it is another episode, but it's the other half of our previous episode. Because it took so long for us to get through the story, we decided to split it in two. Somebody was a chatty cat, so tune in and enjoy.
So I did that gig, you know, that year. And by the way, she was in it for three years. Then the year that she stopped being in, it was the year that I was there.
Yeah.
And so then about four or five months later, another friend of mine called me and says, hey, I need a Lee Trouble play on a cruise ship. And there's like, a Monday afternoon. I said, oh, cool. When do you need them? He's like, Friday. I'm like, ooh. Okay. So I was in Jacksonville. So I just loaded up the car, drove down to Miami, got on a cruise ship. So there I am on a Saturday, walking on a cruise. It was. The date was actually. Was actually May 11th was 19. 19. 96. Was it 96 or 97? I think 96. Anyway. And there's a reason why I'm saying this. I got on and it was. It was. I think it was a Saturday anyway. But somebody else got off, AKA Me. Yeah. That same day. And so I got on the cruise ship. And the reason why I know the date actually is because a tornado went down Biscayne Boulevard right behind the cruise ship. And I've got a picture of the cruise ship with a tornado. I'll find it. And so that way AJ can put it on this. This episode, because it's really cool.
Yeah. And the imagery, though, of that, too. Right. I think I was getting off like a deck above you. Getting on. Right. So I think of that all the time. Anyways, go ahead.
And that was all on the Carnival Ecstasy, which unfortunately. Wah Wah. Just got decommissioned. Yeah, decommissioned, yeah. Yeah. It's no longer a cruise ship. It's in a scrapyard now. But anyway, so I got on the cruise ship, and the very first night, literally the very first night, the trumpet player next to me says, oh, you went to North Florida. You played at Disney. Oh, so you know Danielle. And I'm like, who the heck is this Danielle? Right. And so what happens. Sorry, the story is going very long, is it was like another year and a half later that there was a hurricane came into the Caribbean. And when that happens, all the cruise Ships go where the hurricane's not. And so there was about seven or eight cruise ships in the port of Nassau. And if you've ever been to the port of Nassau, it handles maybe three or four good, but there was eight and it was. It was just shared. There was people everywhere and. But the cruise ship I was on had to do a cocktail set, a dance band set, you know, the old 40s and 50s Dance band music for the captain. And so we got our tuxedos on and we're sitting there and 5 o' clock in the afternoon, the curtain goes up and we're playing, you know, Glenn Miller or whatever. And the trumpet player next week was, hey, remember that Danielle's telling you about? I said, yeah, that's her in the front row. I was like, no way. This is awesome. Right? And so. So we play the whole hour long whatever, and the curtain goes down. And so I quick threw my horns away and. And, well, I didn't throw my horns away. I put them away. And I open up the curtain and she's gone, the whole band, because she had come over with her ban to our ship to listen to us play. They were gone. They didn't hang out, they didn't stay to hang out or whatever. I was like. So I quick ran and got my cruise ship id, ran downstairs, got off the ship. Now, mind you, it's 6pm In Nassau, sunny, about 120 degrees with 100% humidity. And I'm running down the pier in my full tuxedo yelling, danielle. Danielle. Danielle. Right, so now this has been two or three years that I've been following her and I know all about her. I've heard all the stories and she has no idea who I am. And so she turns around and she's like, who the heck is this guy? Choice words, too. And so that is literally how we met. And so then both your band and our band went out that night and we hung out all night and got into, I'm sure, loads of trouble.
I'm sure.
And then it was just a few months after that that I got moved over to the carnival Destiny. And then some reason you got moved over to the Carnival Destiny. I'm not sure how happened.
Well, you have to know that he was the band director. The musical director.
Yeah.
So as a musical director, he's in charge of, you know, the main band, also all of the acts around the.
Show, all the musicians.
Yeah. So he's over a lot, Quite, quite a lot of people. And he needed a second Trump player and he got to choose who that second trump player was.
So I don't know how that happened.
What's Danielle doing?
Yeah, it was so, so bizarre. Yeah. But that was all on the carnival Destiny. And he was like, oh, my gosh, you can't even make this up. And I'm like, we're not making this up. That's literally how it happened. And so this was colleges and cruise ships. And so I want to lead into the last thing that we were doing on cruise ships before we got off, which is going to lead into the next episode, the next part of our docudrama. Like the docudrama. But anyway, so we were playing and we played for a couple more years and it was halfway through the year two, 2000, and there's art auctions on board the cruise ship. And we were starting to work with the art auctioneer helping them out and whatever. And he said, you'd make a good auctioneer. And then Danielle found out how much art auctioneers make. And then she said, you're gonna be an art auctioneer.
I literally flew open the cabin door and said, you're gonna be an art auctioneer.
Yeah. She interrupted me playing PlayStation. It was so rude.
It was that money motivation coming out. Right. That we talked about when we were younger. So we got to the point where we're both. We've met, we're playing trumpets. That's not like a high dollar career. I was actually studying while we were on cruise ships to figure out what I wanted to do.
Yeah, you're studying computer MCE or.
I wanted to make money and I didn't know how to do it. And so. Yeah, but when I saw that, I was like, you can be an art auctioneer.
No, there was no can. It was, you are going to be. But you pointed out something out about without the passion, what's the purpose? You playing trumpet for me always came easy. I mean, I practiced, but I didn't practice like everyone else. And it was very easy. And I was blessed with this natural talent, but it was always easy. And it was getting to that point where I didn't have the passion anymore. And so we actually, in the middle of 2000, we actually put down our trumpets for professional reasons. We put them down. And you've never touched yours again. I still play. Not professionally, but anyway, so we changed positions to art auctioneers and we became art auctioneers. We got to go on a lot of other different cruise ships. Norwegian Royal Caribbean Celebrity Crystal, you know, so we had a real good time. Holland America. And so we got to Go on a lot of other cruise ships. We got to travel a lot more of the world with that. And then that led to us moving on land, doing these art auctions and traveling twice a week, twice a month, you know, every month to different cities all across the United States doing these art auctions, which led to 2000, 2008, which when 2008, it not only affect the real estate market, it affected all of the markets. And being someone that was selling decorative pieces of artwork like this behind me, that costs a lot of money. That really didn't entice people at that point. People were like, I'm losing my house. I'm not going to buy something for a house I don't even have anymore. And so that was when we both made the shift immediately. And that pretty much ends our college and cruise ship story.
That's right. It does. I love it. Yeah. So that was a longer episode than that. The other ones probably will be. But that really was like the. It's the story that everybody wants to hear.
Right.
Like everything I think in our life has happened like happens for a reason. There's a reason why you and I say that so much. Because there's nothing of this we could control.
Right.
Or we could. We never. And with our life is perfect. It's exactly how it was meant to be. And we are in like, I don't know what should be our superpowers. Right. And for how far we've come. And you know, us getting together on the destiny was like, it's one of those crazy stories. Right. People are like, you gotta be kidding me. Like, no. And our just lives have done that and it's just been kind of crazy.
Yeah. I remember at our wedding in 2004, my brother said if they can work together and live together in a. In a 6 foot by 10 foot cabin for 8 years, then they got this down.
Yes, for sure.
Well, we hope you enjoyed this episode. We know this was a super long one. Oh, geez.
I know.
Anyway, make sure you're heading on over to our website, freedomcapitalinvestments.com to join the investor club. We got a lot of things going on before the end of the year, so again, make sure you check that out. But we like to end all of our episodes with Invest Smart, Live happy. Bye, everybody. Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions and information on the show are not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit and loss.
