Three Key Contributors to Success: MGM Exec Secrets to Win Big

In today's episode, you're going to meet Chris Baldazan. You're going to hear his amazing story of going from stumbling into a hospitality class in Las Cruces, New Mexico, at New Mexico State University to being the executive Vice president of Entertainment and sports for MGM globally. You're going to love how he did that and he's going to share with you the path and the things that he learned in in his journey. You're going to love this episode.

Welcome to beyond you'd why podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys, and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to yinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now let's meet today's guest.

This week we're going to be talking about the why of challenge, to challenge the status quo and think differently. So if this is your why, then you don't believe in following the rules or drawing inside the lines. You want things to be fun and exciting and different. You rebel against the classic way of doing things. You typically have eccentric friends and eclectic tastes because, after all, we why would you want to be normal? You love to be different, think different, and you aren't afraid to challenge virtually anyone or anything that is too conventional or typical for your taste. Pushing the envelope comes naturally to you. So today I have a fascinating guest. I met him, gosh, a couple months ago in a golf tournament and turns out we're from the same hometown. But I'm going to just read his bio to you so you can see what all he's done. His name is Chris Baldazan. He is the Executive Vice President of Entertainment for MGM Resorts International. So as an executive vice president of entertainment for MGM Resorts International, Chris Baldazan oversees programming, ticketing and operations for one of the world's leading hospitality and entertainment companies. Baldesan leads the portfolio's entertainment and sports initiative for more than 35 venues and and is instrumental in developing many of Las Vegas's high profile entertainment projects. He attracts the biggest names and events in music and sports to MGM Resorts properties including the Grammys, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, UFC and Championship boxing among others. After being selected to participate in the Walt Disney World College program in the summer of 1989, he transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and where he received his BS in Hotel Administration. While attending unlv, Baldazan worked full time as an Event coordinator at the Thomas and Mac Center. Upon graduation, he accepted the position of Event Manager for MGM Grand Garden arena and has been in the entertainment industry ever since. After two years as Event Manager at MGM Grand, Baldazan moved to Lexington, Kentucky where he served as an assistant trainer for thoroughbred racehorses. Upon returning to Las Vegas three years later, he served in several management positions with the Prima Donna Company and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. From January 2000 through December 2004, Baltazan held the position of Assistant Vice President of MGM Mirage Entertainment and Sports. He was then promoted to Vice President of Booking and subsequently joined Manley Bay and Casino as Vice President of Entertainment. Baltazan currently serves on the MGM Resorts AEG Joint Arena Joint Venture Board. He also serves on the Las Vegas Events Board and the organ and the organization representing the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority as well as on the board of the Las Vegas Business Academy. Balazan formerly served on the board of the International Entertainment Buyers association and the Country Music Association. Chris, welcome to the podcast.

Oh, thank you, Gary. Sorry for the, for the long introduction. When I, when I, when I listen to it out loud, it's. You're right, it's a little long, so I apologize.

Well, you know, I was going to shorten it like I, I mentioned, but then I thought a lot of your story is in there that we really want to touch on because you've done some amazing things, especially coming from Albuquerque. So let's go back for a minute. You know, where were you from? What were you like in high school? Because you and I went to.

Rival high schools, but I was. You're younger than I am, so we didn't know each other in high school. So what were you like in high school?

You know, so I, I moved to Album Creek when I was five. My dad was a baseball coach at ucsb, so I was actually born in Santa Barbara, but both my parents were native New Mexicans. My dad went to you. Both my parents went to UNM and graduated. My dad was a baseball player coach. UCSB ended up being an assistant coach at UNM. Brought me back to Albuquerque when I was 5 years old. So basically from kindergarten through high school, I was in Albuquerque. I'm a Valley boy, grew up in the North Valley. You know, I went to Douglas MacArthur Elementary School, Taft Middle School, and around that point, around the eighth grade. I wouldn't say I was a bad kid. I did okay in school, but I was kind of heading down a different path that, that my mom was not too keen on and decided she was going to take me to. And I didn't even know what St. Pius was, to be honest. My mom took me one Saturday morning, me and my friend Ken and dropped us off and said, you need to go. Give me $5. You need to go take this exam in this, in this school. And we are this close to walking across the street and going to the movie instead. But we took the exam we both got in. And, you know, I was the last graduating class from the old Saint Pius up on. What is it? Indian School. And, and you.

L.A. right?

Yeah. So, you know, I, I really enjoyed Saint Pius. I enjoyed, I enjoyed my time in high school. For me, it was a really, a time when I kind of.

I don't want to say developed my personality because obviously that that's already developed, but it really kind of, it opened my eyes to the opportunities that I thought that maybe I didn't really realize before I went to Saint Pius. And part of that was just the people I met. Saint Pius at the time, we only had. My graduating class was only 210 students, but it was a pretty diverse and sort of eclectic group of students and teachers that really, you know, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I was some kind of great straight A student, because I wasn't. I, I, I kind of, I did really well. Things I enjoyed and I got by with everything else on things that I just, you know, didn't, didn't really necessarily enjoy. But, but, but the experience was something that, that I'll never forget. When I graduated from Saint Pius, I really didn't know what I wanted to do other than move away from home because I wanted to be Mr. Independent. So my first two years, I went to New Mexico State University down in Las Cruces, which was another great experience for me. You know, it was my first time being out on my own. I lived in the dorms the first semester and lived in an apartment the next semester. I worked at Pizza Hut watching washing dishes. I refereed soccer out at White Sands Missile Range and again, just met a lot of people. And when I Went down there. I decided, well, I'm going to be. I loved maps at the time, so I was going to be a geographer. So I took a couple courses in geography and, and they put me in some high level courses and they pretty much weeded me right out of that. So I realized that wasn't for me.

Again.

A fortunate thing that happened in my life at the time. New Mexico State had started a hospitality program and there was a. There was a, at the time, a young lady at the time, not much older than me, to be honest. Her name is Priscilla Bloomquist. She had trans. She had moved from Michigan State University to open the hospitality program at Mexico State in Las Cruces. I started looking into that. She talked me into taking some courses. I kind of fell in love with the whole industry, not even really knowing that it was an industry.

And again, fortunately, that, that summer the Walt Disney World college program was coming to interview for the first time in the history of Walt Disney World, not Disneyland. They were coming west of the Mississippi to interview for summer internships. And I was fortunate enough. I went in the interviews. I was selected. I think they only select 100 kids every summer at the time. Anyway, this is, again, this is dating myself, but this is back in 19, the summer of 1989. I was selected to go. I packed my stuff in a car and drove across the country by myself. I'll be honest, my parents were not that supportive. They were kind of like, when you're going to go work at it, you know, in their mind, I'm just going to go hang out at Disneyland and you know, what am I going to learn at Disneyland? But it was a pretty extensive program. You know, first of all, you live with. With the first. This was the first year that we had what they call international students, students living with domestic students. So I had a roommate that was from Holland. We shared a room. There was five, six of us in a three bedroom apartment. I had a roommate that was a conservative Catholic kid from Southern Illinois University, partnered with a gay kid from Germany. His name is Axel. Perfect. I had a kid from China, and this is the summer of Tiananmen Square, mind you, with a kid who was from the Citadel Military School in the United States. So again, it was an eclectic crowd that we had. We all had to get along. We figured out our likes and dislikes, but we all got along. We all worked in different areas of the, of the Disney World, whether it's the theme park, food and beverage, um, and it was a pretty intense program because they actually give you.

Real life situational issues or challenges that they're having at the park and they put you in groups with people that you've never met before. And you have to collaborate with these folks and come up with viable solutions. And you in turn have to make presentations to real life Disney executives. So that experience of collaboration with people you hadn't met before.

With presenting to executives. You know, again, I'm from Albuquerque, coming out of New Mexico State University. When I got to Disney World, some people didn't even know New Mexico was a state. So again, I felt very fortunate. It was an eye opening experience for me to go to Disney World. When I finished there, I came back to New Mexico State. And again, I, I always, I use this word, fortunate or good luck, however you want to look at it. My dad had taken a job at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, here in Las Vegas. I came, I went out and helped him move. Again, didn't really know much about UNLV at the time. Started snooping around UNLV and realized, hey, this is one of the premier hospitality and hotel schools in the country. So I ended up transferring out here after my sophomore year and finished up getting my degree in hotel administration in 1993. And I have not looked back and have not left since other than a couple spatterings here and there. Like you mentioned, going to Kentucky, man.

So not a typical path for a kid from the north valley of Albuquerque. Yeah. And when you were, you know, real quickly back to high school, would you say you were a typical kid? Were you more of a different kind of kid? What were you, what kind of a kid would you say you were like?

I think I was typical, but, but I think the one thing that I did have for me, I wasn't. I, I was athletic, but I wasn't a jock. I was.

You know, I wasn't a nerd, but I was smart enough to hang out the nerds. I wasn't a stoner or a rocker like we used to call them back then, but I had friends in that group as well. I really kind of had an eclectic group of friends that we all kind of got along and I, you know, I take pride in that. And I've tried to raise my children to look at the world like that. And instead of, you know, sticking people in buckets, you kind of have to keep your eyes open and take people for what they are. And I've been fortunate my whole life. I've just kind of had a gift of that. And I was never pigeonholed in one Certain category. And I think that was very helpful in my life.

Yeah. I mean, you don't think inside the lines, right? You think outside the lines where you're like, hey, what box? Who said I got to be in a box?

Exactly.

I can go create whatever the heck I want.

Yeah, that's the way I looked at it, you know, and, you know, with my, with, with the friends that I associated with and you know, I think they all brought different.

Everybody brings a different positive or even negative aspect to the, to the conversation and you kind of have to sift through that with everybody and, you know, understand where they're coming from. You know, sometimes people don't listen and you just kind of, you, you're, you hear word that you're not listening to what they're saying. And.

That I think is a really important way to, to navigate. And I think that's when, when you start looking at the characteristics that, that I've, that I've displayed on the, on the challenge. I think that started early for me.

Yeah. So how did that feel for you when it came up with the why of challenge and you started reading about it?

Well, it was, it was, it was really cool because I, you know, I started going through the questions and, and as I had mentioned to you prior, I've taken every sort of self assessment that you can think of and I think they're all fascinating, but I had never taken this one. And when I started reading the characteristics of, you know, I guess I came out as a challenge. And the fact that there's only 9.6% of the population, again, that, that, that makes me feel proud because then I'm not the average typical sort of normal person, but when you started reading about the characteristics.

And I know it's easy to just say, you know, don't follow rules, that, that's not what I'm, what I'm here to, to talk about. It's, it's pushing the envelope. I follow rules when they need to be followed, but I also know that rules are there for, they're, I look at more as a guideline as opposed.

To for other people.

Yeah, you know, it's, it's, it's, you know, because if you, if you're, if you're never going to push yourself, the organization that you work for, the people that work with you, the people that I work for, the people that work for me, then, you know, you're going to get left of the dust, in my opinion. I've always been a big believer of, of, you know, pushing the envelope so that we can, you know, I'm not always going to be right. And I'll be the first to admit that some of. But some of the best experiences that I had have been when I've made mistakes. And you don't make mistakes unless you try new things. And that's so I. So I took a lot of pride when I started reading through the characteristics and challenges. It really. A lot of it was spot on. You know, even when you start talking about the, you know, personal relationships and business relationships and parental relationships, I have five children, and I can see a lot of that popping out. So. And with my friends as well. Yeah.

The one that introduced you to me is a little bit outside the box. He's not your typical, typical guy. He's just different.

One of the reasons we get along so well, because he's not. Yeah. Not your. You know, and I have plenty of friends that are, quote, unquote, the typical guys. But, you know, even like, you know, the gentleman we're talking about, Jay and John, you know, I. It says I have eclectic friends, and. And it couldn't be more spot. I have a lot of eclectic friends, and part of that is the nature of my business. A lot of the people that I. That I work with and then have friendships with are very eclectic. And, you know, some people wouldn't even understand how they live their lives. And. And if you. If you're not accepting of people and willing to listen and to understand what. What makes them tick, then you. You don't really deserve to be in their lives. Okay.

Graduated from unlv. You are now. Take us through what happened next for you.

Okay. Yeah. So I was fortunate that the. The gentleman that I worked for at unlv, Thomas and Mac, which is like the pit where the Rebels play.

I guess, if you're not. If you're not from New Mexico, the pits where the Lobos play in Albuquerque. So.

Yep.

Anyway, so he went as the vice president of the Grand Garden arena at MGM grand, which.

At the time was. It was a unique concept. It was the first state of the art arena, part as part of an integrated resort casino.

So I got the job offer to go to the Grand Garden as an event manager or to stay at Thomas Mac center as an event coordinator. The event manager job paid $500 more, so I took it. Plus, the real reason it was, it was a great opportunity for me to experience something new, to open a new venue, something that hadn't been done and hopefully keep growing my career path. As it turns out, it was, you know, probably the best move I ever made. The first year we were open, we hosted 52 championship boxing matches. Literally, if we weren't doing a major fight in the arena, we were doing Wednesday night fights for television and one of our ballrooms. So it was just again, a great experience. And the one thing that I started realizing when I was working as an event manager was all the people that I was meeting, the relationships that I was forming, and to this day, 30 years later, that is probably the single most important thing that has become.

You know what I look back and realize? The most important thing in my life is the relationships that I have in this business. And without those relationships, you know, you're just another, another person, person on the other side of the phone and being able to have those relationships with people that when I started as a, as an, as a manager, you know, maybe they started on an agent's desk at the same time. And, and now those same folks that I was working with 30, 30 years ago are, are now running the agencies or have their own management companies representing artists. Some of the artists that I met 30 years ago, 30 years ago are still, are still doing it. So it's been a, it's been a great journey. But, but I'll get back to that. So I, I, I do the event manager thing at MGM for about two, two and a half years and literally working 140 hours a week, which, you know, when you're 22, 23, is not that bad. I was single, no wife, no kids. I kind of lived here and it was cool because, you know, again we were, I was just churning and burning. But after about two, two and a half years, I really started to get kind of burnt out and questioning, you know, hey, what, what am I doing? And before I started at the Grand Garden, I took about a three month stint down in Del Mar, California where I worked for a trainer who trained thoroughbred racehorses. And if you don't know anything about thoroughbred training and the races, it's a, it's a different lifestyle. It's a completely different culture. It's a different lifestyle, different people. But again, I feel fortunate because I was, I got to do that for three months down in Del Mar. Again. Met a bunch of great people. One of the people that I met was a guy named Alex Hassinger. He called me one day and said, hey, I'm moving to Kentucky. You know, you, you expressed interest about training. Do you, you want to come out there with me and learn the ropes? And at the time I was Burned out on my job and I was single, I didn't have anything better to do. I said, you know what? I'm going to try it. I didn't want to. I felt like if I didn't try it, I would regret it. So packed up my truck, literally everything I owned was in the back of a truck and drove to Lexington, Kentucky and worked for this gentleman, Alex Hassinger, seven days a week for about three months learning how to take care of horses. And some of these horses were, you know.

Their value was well over a million dollars. And to have that responsibility to understand, you know, what it meant to the clients that own these horses, to have those relationships when these clients came in to see their horses, explain to them how their horse was doing, if it was good or bad or different. Again, just part of the learning process. And while it was an amazing time for me, I also realized that I probably didn't need to go to college to do what, what I was doing there. I felt like I kind of either it was a point where I needed to stay there and really become a trainer, get some clients and do do it on my own, or go back to what I was doing. And I kept getting some calls from people in Vegas to come back to, to do the entertainment stuff. So I ended up coming back to Las Vegas. And he mentioned in my, my bio. I then went to a place called the Prim Nevada, which is at the time was on the state. It still is, it's on the, on the California Nevada border. If you're taking Interstate 15 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. And before the, the population of the Native American casinos started in California, it was the place where people from California would come. And it was the first stop for them to gamble legally. And it was a huge, huge attraction. And they had just opened a 5,000 seat arena and we had a little 700 seat showroom. And it was the first time for me there was really two of us working out there running entertainment. And it was the first time I started to get into booking artists and really cutting deals, if you will. And the, the art of negotiating was something that I started to begin to learn and really cherished and thrived in and again goes back to relationships. So I did that for about two, two and a half years and had another opportunity to open a new venue in Las Vegas, which at the time was the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Again, a world, it is a different culture. I knew nothing about it, but I looked at it as an opportunity to learn. So I went to the speedway For a year I booked some Entertainment Forum, but I also had my first foray in sales. I had to sell sweets and I hated it. Not my cup of tea, but again, it was a great experience and I met a lot of people. And then I was asked to go back to primary after that year. And then I was running this, I was running for the first time. I was, I was the director of entertainment. So I got to, to call my own shots, work directly reported directly to the owner of the property. And it was a great experience. And then fortunately, again for me, I was in the right place at the right time.

MGM and primarily built what is now known as New York, New York in like 1995 or 6, I want to say, or 97. And they had a deal where they built the property together, but one of them could buy the other one out. MGM bought Prim out and I was asked to come work for MG Resorts. At the time it was mgm.

Just mgm. So we had the MGM New York, New York, and Prim again got to work with great people and learn more about booking.

A couple years later, MGM buys Mirage Resorts, creates the company MGM Mirage. So then we had Bellagio, Mirage and Monte Carlo, along with three previous properties I mentioned. And a couple, couple years later, MGM Mirage buys the Mandalay Group, which is Luxor, Excalibur, Circus Circus in Mandalay, Mandalay Bay, and then changed the company name to MGM Resorts International. And here I am today as executive vice president of entertainment for, for the company. It's, it's been a great journey I've had. You know, again, I'm, I'm kind of paraphrasing and I don't want to drag it on, but, you know, all the properties that I've gotten to be a part of, the different venues that we've opened, even just the last five or six years, have been, have been absolutely amazing.

So what exactly do you do then? So if you say, yeah, I'm executive vice president, what do you do? What does that mean?

It means I, I oversee an amazing, talented group of people that really what it is I'm charged with, or my team is charged with programming, which is the, the most important thing. If you don't have anything, you know, if you don't have any content, then it doesn't matter if you have a ticketing department or an operations department or marketing department, because there's nothing to, to do. So first and foremost, we're responsible for programming or creating content for our venues. We have over 35 venues globally. Obviously the concentration of Our venues are in Las Vegas. We have three arenas, very proud of the Grand Garden which I mentioned earlier. Michelob Ultra arena which is at Mandalay Bay and the T Mobile arena which we opened six years ago and just had our first Stanley cup hoisted there with the Golden Knights winning the Stanley cup this past summer.

We have Dolby Live which is a 5,000 seat theater at Park. MGM which is home to some of the preeminent residencies in the country. Bruno Lady Gaga. We just wrapped up a Mariner 5 run. We have Usher who's been an absolute home run for us the last couple years and he just announced his last dates for this year as well. And then we have of a multitude of theaters, showrooms and.

Smaller venues. We have four Cirque shows, Cirque du Soleil. We have, you know, everybody from Carrot Top to Fantasy to Blue Man Group and we have another, you know, again, probably six or seven venues regionally from you know, national harbor in dc, Northfield park in Cleveland, Ohio, Borgata in Atlantic City, MGM Springfield in Massachusetts and Beau Rivage down in Bloxy, Mississippi and MGM Grand Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. I'm probably missing a couple, but we also, we also have an international property. We have MGM Macau and MGM Cotai in Macau, China. I've been fortunate to go to travel overseas several times to those properties and again, it just helps broaden your, broaden my, my horizons on, on life and how I look at things. So ultimately, yeah, my, my team is responsible for programming, operating, ticketing, marketing and collaborating. You know, the thing about our, our about entertainment and sports for MGM Resorts, it's, it's, it's one of the pillars of our company. You know, often people think of MGM and you think of entertainment, you know, the great boxing matches we've had and you know, the concerts and HBO specials that we've done. But the, but the evolution the last five or six years with, with more professional sports and with paps of passing a few years ago, so legalized gaming and college athletics. We have so many college tournaments now and with Formula One coming and with the addition of Allegiance Stadium and the Las Vegas Raiders and the super bowl coming this year. So it's to be part of the process and the growth of Las Vegas has been really, I've been blessed. You know, we did the first festivals when we started doing festivals. We did Rock and Rio on the Strip and you know, now there's Life is Beautiful and there's several festivals that take over the city and, and really have changed the landscape of what we do. So it's been, it's been great to see how important, you know, entertainment when I first came to this town was a cool amenity. You know, you're, you got your hotel room and you know, you'd go to dinner and you get some tickets to the show and, and that was kind of it. And you know, when I was here, when originally, you know, probably 60, 65% of our revenues for this company came from gaming, whereas now it's, it's, it's actually flipped. We're probably 60, 65% of our revenues are now from non gaming activities like entertainment, food and beverage convention, hotel rooms, you know, gaming. Still a huge pillar and still important part of our business. But obviously it's, we've diversified and we continue to. And that's the great thing about Las Vegas is, is always changing. Yeah.

I remember years ago it was cheap to go there, cheap to eat there, and everybody gambled. And then it switched more towards like a family thing. Right. It was like, didn't MGM kind of have a theme park?

We had, we had the, the wizard of Oz and the theme park and we quickly realized that that was not necessarily the way to go.

And then, and now it's gotten to be very expensive.

Right.

It's not an inexpensive place to go visit.

No, I mean, I think you can still find great values here compared to any other city. And a lot of things that are still sort of easy accessible and value oriented, but you can have, there's also some of the finest restaurants and hotel rooms and spas and amenities in the world. And so if you really have, we kind of COVID all bases.

And I think that's part of what makes Las Vegas successful is there's, there's, there's something for everybody at every level, depending on what you're really looking to do. And it's, well, it's not a family destination per se. There are plenty of families that still come to Vegas and we have great pools and, and there are still a lot of things to do for kids.

But yes, it's, you know, it's still a, I think it's an adult playground for sure.

Yeah. What are the biggest changes you've seen on, over the years as far as within the entertainment world that you see at Vegas?

I think it's, it's the evolution of the different types of venues. You know, the great thing, as I mentioned earlier, is, you know, entertainment is, it's the, it's, it's the epitome of artistic and creative process. And Las Vegas is a blank slate. So, you know, you see different art. You know, the, the best example is when Guy Liberte and, and Cirque du Soleil started the first Cirque show. And I remember when it was at the Mirage, it was in a tent and everybody's kind of going, what is this? This is, this is a little out there. And it was. But once you sort of got past the, the traditional boundaries of this has to be in the theater or a showroom or a, you know, it's got to be Frank Sinatra. You know, this was the new evolution of entertainment. And Steve Wynn had the vision to build a permanent venue inside the Mirage and open the first Cirque show. And you know, at one time there was eight Cirque shows in Las Vegas. And for the most part, you know, the majority of them were successful. Maybe not as successful as sort of like O at Bellagio, which is now in its 25th year and still crushing it. But my point is he pushed the envelope and changed the dynamic of what we considered, you know, the traditional entertainment. And then you get, you know, that, that opens the doors for more creative process and.

Different types of production shows that we hadn't seen in the past. And then eventually to, you know, the Celine Dion model where we had a residency and Translated to the DJs in the nightclubs, which again was something that hadn't been done. And, and then the, you know, the addition of full scale arena like T Mobile where we have a professional hockey team playing. I never would have thought there'd be a professional franchise in Las Vegas. You know, we had the UNLV running Rebels and, and that was kind of it. And to see the evolution of, and the impact that sports has had on the city, you know, with the Las Vegas Aces, the WNBA team, the hockey team, the Raiders, and you know, now potentially the Oakland A or the, you know, the A's coming here for a new stadium in the next few years and eventually we'll probably have an NBA team. So it's just really diversified, you know, the entertainment landscape to be, you know, we've all, we were always considered the entertainment capital of the world and I really think now we can be truly called the entertainment and sports capital.

That's a, that's amazing. And you know, for those of you that are listening that are familiar with why and yos. So Chris's why like we talked about, is to challenge the status quo and think differently. How he does that is how is to make sense of the complex and challenging, solve problems, figure things out what he ultimately brings is a way to contribute, add value, have an impact in the lives of others. And so, man, you just have the perfect Yoshi for what you do. Thinking bigger, thinking outside the box, pushing the limits, solving the problems, and creating things that'll have an impact for people. It just seems like a perfect fit for you.

Wow, this is perfect. But I think one of the things that's key to that is, is the journey along the way. You know, there's some things in here that talks about how sometimes you're not, you know, until people get to know you and accept that what you're. Where you're trying to go, it can be frustrating. But the other thing that support is.

I have always tried to surround myself with people that are.

I don't use the old cliche, smarter than me, but at least people that I know can contribute. I have an amazing team, and without that foundation of a great team that you want to help grow.

That group lets me sort of try to be the visionary and push the envelope and come up with these creative ideas. And then we as a team figure out how do we execute them, how do we deliver on it, how do we make them better, how do we. How do we really, you know, you know, the goal is always how do we. How do we change people's lives? How do we have people look at things differently and having that team in place. And the other thing about entertainment, you know, we're one spoke of a bit of a big wheel. So it's imperative that my team and I are collaborative in nature because, you know, if from a guest perspective, if they have a bad experience when they walk in to the parking garage or to the front desk, that's where their journey starts. And then by the time they come to us to go see a show, they're already in a foul mood because they had a terrible service at dinner or, you know, they couldn't. They couldn't valet park, or they were. They got here late because of traffic. All of that plays into it. So we have to collaborate with every department to make sure that our events come out, come off without a hitch. You know, starting with hotel, making sure the reservations are in there from an artist perspective, and the food and beverage and security. And even before that, when we're doing contracts in our legal department, in our public relations department, in our marketing department, we rely on so many individuals to make it all come together. So it seems seamless. And you, you know, it's easy to take that for granted. But the collaboration and having those Relationships and being able to talk to people is, Is. Is huge.

If I were to ask you, I think I already know the answer to this, but if I were to ask you.

The secret to your success in going from where you started to where you are today, what would you say that would. Would be the secret.

Or the things.

A couple things that I, That I look at, look back at because I am, you know, I'm afforded the opportunity now that I'm getting older to look back and the things that I think are really important that I would tell, that I tell my kids is, is to find a mentor, somebody that can help you along the way. I think, you know, I've had. I've been very fortunate. I've had three or four in my life, including my father and including people that I've worked with or for that absolutely have given me guidance and advice and, and sometimes not always what you want to hear. You want a truth teller. You want people that. To be truth tellers to you. Not just, you know, yeah, you're doing great, but cheer, cheer hot. You're rah rah. You want people that you can have serious conversations with about your thought process and what you're trying to achieve and how you're getting there and, and have those checks and balances. And that's what a good mentor, in my opinion, does. And the other thing I think that's really important is, is to listen. You know, some people, you know, walk in a room and, and sort of as a defense mechanism, they. They have to start talking to everybody. They have to make themselves feel like they're the smartest person in the room. They, you know, walk to. To this, this aura of, of confidence to. To.

To. I always felt that it was okay to not be the most confident person in the room. Doesn't mean you can't be confident. But it's okay to listen before you start opening your mouth and understanding.

What people are. Read the rope, understand what you're doing. There are a lot of smart people out there. And I always found when I sat in a meeting, maybe the first time or two with people especially that I didn't know and listen to them. You get so much knowledge from these people, and then you can apply it and, and, and keep learning. So those are two things that I think were very important in what I call my success, if you want to call it success, you know, in, in. Not only in, in business, but in, in life in general. You know, it's okay to listen.

You know what I thought you were going to say, is relationships.

Well, I think I kind of made that, that clear, but I think that's a byproduct of listening and, and the, you know, the mentors and understanding that, you know, I'm in the people business. Entertainment is all about people. And ultimately, you know, my success is based on the relationships that I have. And that goes from the people that I work with in this company. I mean, I report to the CEO of a company. There's. There's nobody hired our company. And I, I'm fortunate enough to report to this individual who I worked for for the past 12, 15 years because I, you know, he was my, one of my mentors. I think, you know, he trusts me and I represent him well. And, you know, but again, like I mentioned, all the people that I've worked with over the years from different agencies when they were, when they were, you know, when we were both 25 years old coming up the. In the business, and now they're running these agencies. Absolutely. The, the relationships are huge. But I really think that's a byproduct of sort of all the other things. That's. If you're, if you're, if you're not a good person, the relationships aren't there.

Yep. You've said a lot of times the word fortunate.

You can't just be that lucky. I mean, you can't just be the only one that was that lucky. I mean, so many. I think what you hit on is really critical is that, you know, you listen to people, you spend time with people, you make them feel comfortable, and so they enjoy being with you. Right.

Well, I always say, I mean, you're right. Fortunate is a very great adjective to describe how my career and life have been. My wife always tells me, she goes, you have. What's the saying? Like, I can't remember what she says. Oh, charm life. You live a charm life. And she's right. But, but I, you know, someone once told me is, is good luck is when opportunity meets hard work. And the other thing that I've never been afraid of is working hard, you know, and when you work hard, people notice that and not just being there, but actually putting your nose to the grindstone and producing results that maybe some people don't see, but eventually it's, it's going to come out. So I think that, you know, I've lived by that as a Creole for me too, you know, is that is opportunity is good luck is when opportunity meets hard work. So, yes, I've been very fortunate, had a lot of good luck. But I think part of that is because you, to your point, you create that. And, you know.

I've been fortunate with great mentors who lead me to great opportunities. I work hard, establish relationships, and, and I listen to people and collaborate. And I think that's sort of in a nutshell. You can take that formula in any walk of life, business, personal, professional, parental, and it pretty much is applicable.

Love it. Last question for you. Do you still enjoy going to all the events that you represent or that come to mgm? Do you go to them or do you just. Hey, I've been to those a million times. Not interested in any.

No. You know, I absolutely love entertainment. I love live entertainment. I can't make it to all of them, obviously, I pick and choose, but there, you know, there's not many nights on the weekend that you're not going to find me at a show. I, I love watching people, you know, I love saying, okay, we created this, this show, this venue, this platform for people to come in and be mesmerized, entertained for 90 minutes of their life. Like I said, we're not. We're not curing cancer, we're not sending people to the moon, but we make people's lives, you know, for that short window of time, so much more pleasant. And they kind of forget the problems of the, the crazy world we live in or whatever personal problems they have going on and, and just get to enjoy it. And that's what, that's why. That's why I do it. I. That's why, like that golf tournament that we met at, to me, that's just. That's just the epitome of a great time. It's. It's getting, you know, we get to. We get to escape for four hours and not worry about anything. And that's, you know, that's. That's Las Vegas in a microcosm, if you look at it. So that's. I think that's part of the reason I've thrived here is because it's. It's not black and white and somebody like me that has these characteristics of challenges. I thrive in an environment like this because there's so many different opportunities to kind of create new paths.

Awesome. Chris, thank you so much for being here. You know, often at the end of these, we'll have ways for people to get in touch with you, but I don't think you're. That's kind of. You don't need anyone to get in touch with you. You got enough people getting in touch with you. So thank you so much for being here. I'm glad we got to meet. I'm glad I got to hear your story because it's. It's awesome to see how many people in positions like you have actually have connections back here to. To Albuquerque and to New Mexico. It's pretty fascinating.

I take a lot of pride in being from growing up in New Mexico and Albuquerque. And you're right. There's so many, you know, with the six degrees of separation, it's. It's amazing. And I. I get to go back next month to a wedding up in Chama, which I'm looking forward to. But I really appreciate you having me on, Gary. It's been. It's been really cool. You're. You're. You're an awesome dude, man. I wish I would have met you sooner other than you went to the Academy, but. Yeah, exactly. But no, I mean, if you do have people that want to get a hold of me, you know, just to chat or whatever, absolutely. You know, I can. I can send you my information or I can say it on this. Whatever you think is easiest, but as long as you're not trying to sell me something to talk to people.

Awesome. Yeah. Well, we'll put it in the. In the show notes, so. Thanks, Chris. I appreciate you being here. Look forward to staying in touch.

Thank you, Gary. Talk to you soon.

I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember, the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez, and I'll see you on the next episode.