22 Feb 2024 · 62 min
Neel Dhingra talks bankroll sizing, session limits, and when to walk away from blackjack and baccarat. He covers moving to Vegas, scaling content creation, and why chasing losses kills you at the table.
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Boom. Just like that, the show starts. Neil. Just like that, the show starts.
This is awesome, man. Thanks for having me.
Thank you. We finally. I know I. I screwed up a few times. I'm bad at the follow up sometimes. Do you have that problem ever or. No, you have it together. I feel like you have it together.
Well, it looks that way, but like, I have probably 300 unread messages at any point. So, you know, I get it.
Yeah. It's like there's people, I've been like, B.J. baldwin. Shout out to B.J. baldwin. Been. I've been. We've talked about having him on the show. Do you know BJ at all?
Sounds familiar.
And it's. I've dropped the ball. He's dropped the ball. We both dropped the ball. Life happens.
Yeah. But we're here now.
We're here.
We're here.
I like it. So speaking of here, did you just move to Vegas?
Yeah. So I live in Reno, Tao, for pretty much all my life and then just moved here this year. And I gotta say, man, it is like the best thing I've ever done. Like, there's something going on every day. Days.
It's like a week at least.
But yeah, every day there's somebody here to do content with or an event to go to or a dinner to go to or someone to meet. And just the amount of people that come through. We just came off the Super Bowl.
Yeah.
Which is insane. But, yeah, like, the amount of people I've connected with in the last eight months has been more than I connected with, you know, in the last several years.
Yeah, for sure. And it's. It's a weird thing, you know, coming. I came from LA seven years ago and LA is like a rat race. I mean, LA is a mess for many, many reasons now.
Yeah.
But just the networking side of say, LA is a very snobby, a list sort of town. But when the LA people come here to Vegas, they're nicer. It's weird.
And they're all like, people are in a good mood.
Yeah.
They're here for fun.
Yeah.
You catch them on the right portion of the trip. Obviously you don't want to catch them on like Sunday, you know, scaries or.
Right.
One day. Sometimes it's bad, but for the most part, like, everyone's here in a good mood, ready to go. It's a great place to network. Yeah. And then just the growth that's happening from the people that live here is insane. So many people are moving here. So. I love Nevada. I've been in Nevada all my life. But like, Vegas is different. Reno's like a smaller town. Smaller town by Vegas is crazy.
I like Reno. I've spent a lot of time in Reno. I. In another life. I don't even know if you know this. I did stand up comedy for many years and I used to perform at John Esquaga's Nugget.
Oh, dang.
And I opened for Bertha and Angel, the two elephants. There was two elephants. I was the opening act for the elephants.
Wow.
Yes.
That goes way back.
That's my big claim to fame. There you go. Were you picking between Vegas and somewhere else? Like, did. Were you considering Miami at some point? That's kind of a hot spot.
Yeah. Looking at that. Or even San Diego, but then California, just the taxes, the crazy that's going on over there. So I wanted. We ended up just being like, look, we're gonna stay in Nevada. But here's the thing, bro. Like, if you have family, you know, wife, kids, you almost feel like you have five kids. No, no wife.
Oh, wife and kids. Okay, okay. Sorry.
But if you feel like you're stuck.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like, a lot of people feel you could move though, right? Like, oh, the kids aren't gonna like the new dude. They're fine. Like, they'll make new friends. We've all gone through this stuff and like, I get it. But like, for you, if somebody's like, man, I'm really unhappy where I'm at. I'm not getting the opportunities. It's kind of like you need to move. You know what I mean?
You're not stuck. You're stuck in your head.
Exactly. So I remember just thinking for a long time, nobody, you know, we're just kind of here till the kids get done with school. Why? That's just some idea my mom told me. Or like, somebody put this in your head that you can't move till your kids are raised. Yeah, no, you can move. And then the other part was during COVID everybody just started moving. So it kind of like made this. I don't know what they call it, like, the great Unlock. There's so many people who migrated during the next coming years After Covet, a lot of people didn't like what was going on their state, so they left their state. That kind of stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, it just kind of opened our eyes, like, hey, man. Yeah, we could make that happen. Started looking at houses down here, and my wife's from here, so she has. She already has family here. So I was like, cool, let's go. Great. We pull the trigger.
I first met you, I want to say, at the dinner with Dave Meltzer. That was like two years ago maybe.
Right.
And I followed you immediately. But I feel like this last, I don't know, two, three months, you're dominating my feed.
Yeah.
How did you do this? What's changed? What happened?
So about five years ago, I started making videos.
Yeah.
Like, putting myself on content because I'm in real estate and mortgage business. And it was just like I was tired of the same old ways of getting business. I wanted to build a brand online, so I started putting out videos. Even with dog shit content, I started to see, like, some results of like, hey, watched your video, Would like to do business with you. So I start like, that's a cool thing. Like, you. You get like glimmers of like, oh, this could actually work for me. Like, oh, this is kind of cool. So it just took a while. But we were talking before the show started today, like, you know, we first start making videos. It sucks.
Yeah.
And you're not. You're not good and you're not a good communicator. But over time, I got better. And then what happened was, I think it's like somebody said this as well, a compounding effect. Like, the biggest growth comes in the later stages of the growth curve.
Yeah.
You know, so it's just kind of like mulling. But I didn't quit. I just kept doing it. Yeah. And I just got through the shitty part.
Yeah.
And then started to get a little better. Started to get a little better. Started to launch new businesses and teach and do all these cool things. And then now I feel like I think I'm decent now.
Yeah.
You Know, versus before I sucked, you know, and it took that many years to get. Because I'm an introvert, I'm a nerd. And then now it's like, okay, I can actually do this. And people are actually watching the content. So it took me, you know, I'd love to tell people it's just like, yo, man, just start doing it and you'll be good. But it didn't. It wasn't like that for me. It took me a while.
Do you put pressure on yourself in terms of views and engagement? Like, you know, do you find yourself. Are you looking at it like, oh, that didn't do well? Like, are you. Are you deleting videos if they're not performing or is it just as you. It is what it is.
I've had a lot of content bomb.
Like, yeah, it just didn't perform well, which is okay. It's part of the game.
Yeah. Who cares? And I've also had videos that didn't do well. They don't look like they did well, but they connected me with people that I could do business with or the right people. So, like, you know, I've had videos that it just looks like they didn't do well.
Yeah.
But in the comments, is somebody I connected with or in the dm, something happened. Yeah. So, like, don't discount that. Like, it's not about always big numbers about reaching the right people. Second thing is, I don't delete them. I just leave them up. But I do look at, like, why did that video do well?
Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like, what was it that we said in the beginning? Because it's like a. To me, it's like a game, John. It's like a freaking. You're trying to hack attention. Like, dude, how do we get someone to stop? You know, they scroll. I don't know what the stat is now, but people can scroll a ridiculous amount of content and just a few. Like, if you ever watch somebody scrolling.
Especially like, the younger they are, the faster they scroll. Yeah.
And so they said, what is it? The common saying is like a human has a tension span of a goldfish. But it's not that. I don't think that's the only explanation. I think they're just really good at like, scanning. Right when they find the thing they want, they stop.
Yep.
So how do we get them to stop the scroll? You know, and it's what you said in the beginning, it's a good hook. So I like, like analyzing that from like a science. Like, yeah, how do we like, how do we get people to watch our videos?
The hottest space and this is just me giving it that definition right now is the gambling space, I think right now. You know, and maybe that's just because that's what I gravitate to. Also degenerate at heart.
Yes.
But you know, like Steve will do it stream and, and, and Vegas. Matt. And now you've, you've been, you jumped in that. Do you worry about. I really want to do a deep dive on the gambling thing because I think it's interesting because when we grew up, I think I'm ahead of you. But gambling was bad. You were degenerate. You were. You'd want to hide it. You certainly would never want to be publicly at showing people putting yourself out there, like, oh, I made a $2,000 bet or even a $500 bet and I lost. Like you wouldn't ever want that out. And now I think things have changed.
Yeah, it's so popular with number of states legalizing sports betting as you know, and just the number of people who like action.
Right.
Like they're just into the action. And so yeah, there's a dark side of course. Just like everything.
Yeah.
But there's so many people who are interested in it. And I kind of look at it like this, man. I was like I, I was a. I was into gambling before I started doing social media. Yeah. Like I started doing, you know, I used to play a lot and then always blackjack. Yeah, blackjack a little, but baccarat some craps, you know. And so I was, I was playing already. But then what I found was yeah, it was like back then it was definitely something you would never tell anybody.
Right.
And it's kind of like looked down upon. I feel like something changed in the last couple years where now it's masses are interested in it and they all want to get better and it's more just something fun. It's just another recreational thing. So I would say this with your content, like if you don't talk, if it's just the business stuff and people don't get to know you, like there's. It's hard to build your personal brand because then you're just like everybody else.
Right.
So if I'm into gambling personally, even though has nothing to do with my business and actually it's probably a bad. It's probably like contradictory to investing in some of the things I talk about.
Right.
But for just for fun once in a while it's cool. Like I like talking about it.
Right. Is it hard to do you get any heat in your DMs, like.
Yeah.
Over what you just said, like, how can you be preaching this? And then I see you at a blackjack table.
Yeah. And so I'll be like, look, man, you know where gambling is a problem, you're betting where you can't afford it. Yeah, I can afford it. Yeah. I spent a lot of time investing and doing the right things in business to be able to have fun. Right. So yeah, some people have fun doing dumb, you know, buying dumb. Maybe I, you know, like there's. Everybody's got their vice.
Yeah.
You know, and so, yeah, I just tell them, like I mostly time. I just ignore people who talk shit.
Yeah.
But if somebody has a genuine question, like, hey man, I thought you were about finances.
Right.
And now you're betting. I'll just be like, look man, this is kind of like something I do with recreation. Sure. And it's, it's, it's. I can definitely afford to play.
Do you know Vegas Matt? You know him? So he just put up a post I think yesterday that he broke it down really well. This exact thing he was saying how he last year net net lost 50,000. He's like, but that might sound like a lot of money to some people. It doesn't hurt him. And he's like, what is the difference If I spent $250,000 on like a, A country club.
Yeah.
On a golf.
Money people spent on golf.
Right.
I guarantee I spend less gambling net net at the end of the year. Right.
And he's like, I had a chance to win number one. Where golf, it's just 250 out or whatever the number, you know. But it was like if, if you're joining a huge country club and you're doing networking. He's like, the gambling satisfied all those boxes that the country club would have checked.
Yeah.
But only it was slots.
Yeah.
No big deal.
Like, I think my goal with gambling is not necessarily you're going to make money doing this. It's just to stay in the game.
Yeah.
I mean it's like, it's an infinite game. Yeah. You like the action, you like the. You like. It's just fun for you. Then your goal should be to not lose. Right. But it's not necessarily like at the end, if I look at all the numbers over years is definitely like you don't win, you know, like long term.
Right.
The numbers, they. Nobody can hide from that unless you're like seriously perfect and into advantage play. But for the most part, my Goal is just to stay even. Yeah. You win sometimes, you lose sometimes. But, like, it's fun.
Yeah. Yeah. Where do you like to play normally?
So I play near, like, at Red Rock is near our place, but, like, any of the places in Vegas.
Yeah.
You know, different places. Like, that's just the most convenient. And it's also where all these guys seem to be playing.
It's crazy. I've met so many people, and they embrace the cameras.
Yeah. That's something interesting. I was gonna ask you, actually, for streaming and watching people play, like, I was under the impression that you can't. You can't video anything in a casino.
Yeah.
And then I just feels like it's changing now.
Yeah. What's definitely changed at Red Rock? I would assume Dana had a. The biggest influence in that. Yeah. And I want to say I saw MGM last year, put out a letter or something saying that streaming was okay. They fought it for a long time, but now I think at MGM Properties, I could be wrong. I don't know if, you know, I haven't seen it.
Yeah. But I think it's like, if you. You can't record other people.
Right. And I think you have to set it up ahead of time with them or something. But, yeah, like, if you're at your table, you want to. You want to play and stream. Like, I know that Mickey, you know, he. He. He streams with no problem in the places that he's allowed to play in. Yeah. It's interesting. It's a cool thing. People love watching it. People love watching these slot streams, and there's tons of, like, slot gamer, you know, on live streams on TikTok and stuff. They're just sitting in a slot machine.
I mean, that's crazy. I don't. I'm not big into slots.
Me neither.
Tell you, like, table games. I think it's fun. There's a lot of ups and downs. And so, like, we can get into strategy and stuff. Yeah. And talk about it, but I think there's a lot of things people like about. It's fun, the action's cool. But then it's also like, David versus Goliath.
Yeah.
Like, can you. You know, it's. Everything's kind of set up for you to fail.
Right.
And there's so much psychology that. That these casinos put into taking your money.
Yeah.
And so can you do things that would actually put it back in your favor, like just little things? Yeah. And then you. When you win, it's like, dude, I beat the house. You know what I mean? That's a cool feeling.
What is a little thing you could do to put things back in your favor?
So with blackjack, you know, there's obviously like card counting, all that stuff, but I don't think the average person is going to benefit from that because you have to play perfectly for a while.
And it's not that much of an advantage.
It's just, it's right. It doesn't mean that you're even going to get the cards. So the biggest thing is money management.
Yep.
So it's like how much. I think the biggest problem people have when they go into a casino, whether they're here for the weekend or whether they're local, is they're playing too large of a bet compared to the bankroll.
Yep.
So you want to play $100 a hand in blackjack, you need like 10 times that, you know, on you and ready to go. Like, you can't just be coming in there with like 800 bucks and start betting it, you know. Right. Even 25 or 50 a hand, you need a bigger bankroll. So I think, yeah, first things first, like set your betting size, your unit compared to your bankroll.
Yeah.
Then the next thing is, is what's your goal for the session?
Yeah.
So like have a goal both on the top and the bottom. So it's like, okay, here's how much I want to. What I would think would be a good win for me based on my buy in. And then here's where I'm going to cut it off if it sucks.
Yeah.
And take a walk or cool off, you know, whatever. So if you have like your top and bottom, like your stop, I think that's where you can keep it within. Keep shit on the rails. Because then it quickly gets off if, you know, a lot of people get into that. So I think that would be the one thing. Money management. And then the next thing is, dude, have you ever noticed when you go play blackjack and the dealer's just on fire?
Yeah.
Like, you know, they're making like six card 21s and you get 20, they get 21. You have it. You have an 18 and they have an eight up. You're like, oh, we're gonna push.
It's an ace underneath.
When that is happening over and over and over. Get the off that table.
But sometimes it follows you from table to table.
It can. Yeah, but I think, like, But I agree with you.
Change something, you gotta.
And I've had this happen so many times where I see people sitting on one table and it's like now they have a freaking goal to get revenge on that dealer in that table.
That's me, bro. That's me. I know.
It could be like that all night.
Yep.
And so you have to realize this, like, yes, eventually the odds are going to come back to the normal. Yeah. But it could be bad for four hours and you don't have enough money to play for four hours. So it's like, okay, if it's really bad, change something. Play to play multiple spots. Yeah, play two, three hands or just switch to the next table. Give yourself that option.
I've seen Dana get so frustrated with the card flow that I've seen him stay on. I, I don't like when he does this. Yeah, I've seen him stay on 8.
Yeah, like 8, a 7 or just.
8, 8, 6 and a 2, 8. He'll stay rarely, but, like, just to shake up the cards, you know, because he'll be like, you know what? I, I know how this works. Like, I take the card, I get the 10 or the Ace. I have an 18 or 19, but it ended up making helping the dealer that I took that because then the next card was the five and the dealer had a 15 or whatever. You know what I mean? So it's like, I get the theory behind it is like, what do I have to lose at this point? Like, it's, I'm. I've lost 11 hands in a row. Yeah, let's change it up. But I couldn't stay on 8.
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Yeah, but I've done like that. But not.
And I've seen it work for him too.
15. You know when you're busting, it's like, dude, I'm not going to take the bus card.
I'm just.
Right. I'm just going to just roll the Dice. And see, sometimes it changes the whole flow.
Yeah.
And so, like this year, for example, what I'm telling everybody right now, this kind of system, which isn't really system, it's just like proper play. I've been following this more disciplined in the last two months. I'm up $250,000 this year. I'm not saying I'm going to be up250,000 at the end of the year. I'll probably lose it over the next. You know, I'm just being real, like, it's just probably gonna get. I'm probably gonna hit a wall or.
You're up 250 this year already and it's not. It' for this is.
I don't. I'm just on it, you know, And I've had some.
You're on a heater?
Yeah, I'm on a heater. But I've also had some times where I've had to cut it off. So here's the big. Here's the other thing that people make a mistake, and this is a huge mistake. People make that to be a good gambler, you have to be able to take a loss.
100 people don't know how to leave.
It's like, bro, so when you're losing, something happens to you. And somebody explained this to me. I don't know who it was. Some old sitting next to me who was drunk and he had lost all his money. He's like, dude, I'll tell you something. And he, he told me, like, when you are losing, it's the equivalent to you been dropped into like a freaking cold ocean or cold punch. Your blood rate, your heart pressure goes up, your. Your heartbeat goes up. All this kind of. Right. And you feel like it's a fight or flight. I need to do something now. Right. But you don't, like, bro, the casino is open. It literally never closes.
Yeah.
You could leave and come back tomorrow. You could go eat dinner and come back. So what I do is, I love that, you know, setting that number of like, dude, If I'm down 20k.
Yeah.
I'm gonna like take a walk, like. Or I'm gonna come back like later. And that has saved me so much.
Yeah.
Because most of the time the way gambling works is you take the stairs up and the elevator down.
100.
You take the stairs up and the elevator down. So how do you. If I could just cut my losses on the elevator down.
Yeah.
Then the chart, it's not straight line. No, by no means is 250k. Just straight line. I've had, like, losing sessions long, but if I cut them off, that's the key. And I think most people. Here's where they fuck up, is they come here for two days, and it's like, dude, I need my money tonight because I want to go home a winner. So it's like, man, maybe this trip is going to be, like, a small loss, so that next trip is going to be a winner. Like, you got to cut. You got to cut off.
Yeah. And, you know, there's different kinds of sessions, right? There's the ones where you sit down and you're just on fire out of the first shoe, and it's a smooth ride. There's the roller coaster up and down. I can't win two in a row or three in a row, but it's like I'm. I'm up and down, right? And then there's just. Dealer wipes the floor with you. Yeah.
And so here's the other mistake. And you've probably seen this, too. We're all guilty of this. You want to bet more when you're losing?
Yeah.
Why? Like, what the. What kind of logic is this?
Yeah.
Is the dumbest shit I've ever seen. You've lost seven in a row, and you're like, dude, there's no way I can lose eight in a row.
You can't.
You can lose an entire shoe.
I've seen at roulette.
Yeah.
I have seen the. You know how it keeps track? I've seen the entire side all black from top to bottom. And I've seen the entire side all red from top to bottom. Maybe a green in the middle somewhere. Like, it's crazy. You can absolutely lose every single hand in a shoe. I've watched it happen. I've watched Dana lose every single hand. Two shoes in a row. Yeah, it happens.
And so he was just on a stream yesterday or the day before with Steve.
Yeah.
And Steve was talking to me like, hey. And Dana's like, yo, I just came from Caesars. I wanted to make like, six figures or something. And I was up 150k, right. And then I didn't. I played one more hand, ended up triggering one of these, like, six in a row losses. Yeah. And he said he lost it all. Then he came back. So this is the other thing. When you do hit your target, can you leave? Right. And I mean, like, I guess if you're having fun with your buddies there, just go to the bar, Right. Or, like, take the excess and play shit, you know, Play small. Money. Right. But, like, lock up the win.
Right. It's okay to lock up the win and just play small money, whatever that definition is for you personally, and just grind it back up if it can't. If you can. And if not, you just. You're not going to get hurt too much.
Yeah. So let's just say I had a target of I want to win 5,000 bucks. Right. Okay. I'm like, cool, I'm up five GS or I'm up like 6,600 or something. Like, lock up the five grand.
Yep.
And you can deposit it at the cage or you can put in your. Whatever you got to do. And then the extra 1600 could be like your play. Right. For the rest of the night.
See what you can do.
Yeah. See what you can do with that. So I think locking the winds up, cutting the. When it's really bad is the big thing, and then not. Not chasing losses. So betting more when you're losing because that's what your body's going to tell you. It's going to be like, dude, you need this now.
That's what I feel. I. My strength is when I'm playing blackjack is I have no problem pressing like a lunatic when I'm winning.
Yeah. That's key.
Like, when it's their money, I'll put their money at risk. Even if it's going to knock me down to even sometimes, like, I'll. You probably will disagree with this because it's probably poor bankroll management. Really. Because it's a. I'm really, like, it's 50, 50 at that point. Right. But, like, if I'm up like five grand, I don't mind playing like a 3, 500 hand.
Yeah.
And try to take this into the stratosphere. Where that sucks is you get the 11 or you get the split. Now you're going to put that up. Now you're at risk of. If you lose, you're actually down on the session. You know what I mean? So it can wipe you out.
I like playing with house money, so I. I actually agree with what you're saying. If you're up money, you want to get super aggressive. Get aggressive with their money 100%. But one adjustment is like, if you want to go all in on a hand, you have to cover it just in case it's going to be a double.
You have to be prepared split and the double in a really bad situation.
So then you got. You got to be ready for that.
Right.
So that's. But that. That's like, yeah, you'll learn all the little tricks of, like, if you played enough hands, you know all the. That happens.
Right.
It's like all these little things and a lot of people say, oh, that's just like superstition or some of this. But a lot of it's just practical. Like, yeah, this is, this is what happens. It seems like when I am getting hosed, it's like this type of thing always happens to me. So pay attention to that. Right. Like, or if you ever had a deck or a shoe where you can't get multiple hands in a row and then all of a sudden you win one, the next hand's a double and it's a trap and you lose. You know what I mean? So you gotta like, watch out for this kind of.
Yeah.
Maybe double for less.
Yeah.
See if you get one right. I mean, or just like do something different.
Yeah, yeah. It's okay to double for less. That's.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. And what are your thoughts on. I feel like I get screwed so many times when I split aces. I know you gotta do it.
Yeah.
But man, sometimes I'm like a big. I feel like I get aces. Like if it's like a two thousand dollar hand, three thousand dollar hand, boom, I get the aces. And it's just like, I already know how this is gonna go down. I'm gonna get the four and the five.
Yeah. It's kind of funny, but you still, it, you still got to do it. And I think it's also like, you can adjust your play a little bit based on like, you always have to split. There's no, there's no choice. But I think what you can do is you'll notice that depending on what the dealer has, like your odds of that winning that hand, even if you don't get the tens, is. Goes quite a bit. So, like, I feel better when they've shown like a five or six.
Sure.
Okay. But when it's like you got two aces and they have an ace or you get two aces and they have a ten. Right, man. Yeah, I've lost a lot of those. Lost both of them.
It's so brutal.
Yeah, Same thing with eights. Like a lot of people say eights all the time. Well, over time it works out. But yeah, for the next three weeks, you could be fucked on every time you split eights and then you hate it forever. You know it's going to come together over time though.
Yeah. I have a lot of friends when they play, they get timid on the double down Stuff I'm like, you have to do it. Like that's where you make your money. You make your money on splits and doubles and blackjack. Like you, you've got to take those opportunities when they come.
Yeah. And then make sure, like you said earlier, get aggressive when you're winning.
Yeah.
I think a lot of people get scared when they're winning. Yeah.
And they feel like I've won three in a row, I'm due to lose. No, you're not.
No, maybe. Yeah.
But go for it. Respect the streak.
Love that. And so I love getting up to a big bet, then just letting it ride till you lose.
Me too.
Just let that shit go. And you'll be surprised. You might win two, three more than you thought were possible. Yeah. That's where all the profit for the session comes in, is those bigger bets. But you'd made those bigger bets with their money, not yours.
That's the key. Now I'm curious what your take is on this. I know I'm gonna lose you on this one.
Yeah.
Prop bets at blackjack, pair the square.
I never, I never play that.
You ready?
Yeah.
I think it's the best bet in the casino.
Really? Mathematically, you're wrong, bro.
I agree. Yeah, I get that.
But you get lucky.
You get lucky. And I also have a theory. I'm no math wizard, but I always tell. Do you know Jake Ellenberger? He's a former UFC fighter. I play with him a lot. You've probably seen him at Red Rock.
I've probably seen him, yeah.
He was my original co host on Action Junkies. If you've rolled back the clock, way back, five years ago, off of a shuffle.
Yeah.
All the. If it's double. Did you play double deck?
Normal decor. Okay.
Yeah. So double deck, it's 25 to 1 for a suited pair, 10 to 1 for a regular pair. But off a shuffle, off of a cut, everybody's in there. So your best chances, I always tell them, like, if you're not going to bet the pair every hand, just bet it for the first three hands off the cut.
Yeah.
Because everybody's in there and I'm telling you, it's. It's probably just a, you know, anecdotal, but it works sometimes. And they come in bunches. Yeah, I like the.
I've been the pair where you just, you just see a lot of pairs coming up.
Right.
So like, I think there's trends in gambling. Yeah. Like there's, you know, craps, same kind of thing.
Yeah.
A lot of times like this Pairs keep coming up or, you know, these prop bets keep coming up. Well, bet them.
Right. It's at a point. I actually refer to the game you call blackjack as pair, the square, and blackjack is the side bet. To me.
Oh, yeah, okay.
I'm a true action junkie, Neil.
That's next level.
Next level stuff.
Yes.
And then you'd never do the other prop bet.
You know, the fortune bets. I have fallen into that, some of that on, on Bakarat, they have a.
Bunch of the tie and panda and all that stuff.
Like.
Yeah, I don't really ever play Bakarat.
So the reason why I started playing Bakarat was I was losing at blackjack one day in high limit blackjack, and I was like, I need to do something else. Because every blackjack table, I'm cursed. Yeah. Like, I cannot win a freaking two hands in a row all night long. So I'm like, okay, take a break. What's baccarat about? Well, I end up getting smoked in baccarat too, that day. So it wasn't my day. But anyways, I learned how to play it and I noticed that the biggest money in the casino sometimes is on the Bakara table.
Yeah.
The highest limits, all this. And it's pretty much even. It's just a coin toss minus the commission for bank.
Right.
But yeah.
Did you look at the board and you're trying to look for patterns or.
I mean, it doesn't really. If they, if you look at. It's all like. But there are shoes where there's patterns. So the best. The most money I've ever won in baccarat is on a bachelor shoe. It's 50, 50 player banker. But you'll see one where one side is dominating. You'll see like, you know, and then the freaking weird or the. I was. I don't know, how do you say this nicely? But the dumb, like, will come up to that table and be like, oh, there's so many players. It's going to be bank. Now for the rest of the shoe. No, like, it's supposed to be 50, 50 over like a thousand decks. Right. This could be the shoe where it's going to dominate player the whole way.
Right.
So you would rather play the one that's winning.
Ride the streak.
Yeah, exactly. So I don't know why people always want the streak to correct. I've seen so much money lost on Bakra by people betting against a long streak. Right. And they're like, oh, it's got to change. And it goes like seven More.
Yeah.
And you lose all your money. Like, why? Why?
You know, what's the most you've ever won in a night? Playing blackjack.
So here's the thing. This is another huge thing. I've. I've had a table where I've sat down and won. I don't know, probably close to 200 grand on that one table. Just had a heater.
What's your average bet at a night like that?
But here's the thing. It's probably like 2, 000 is like my average bet on general, but on that particular shoe, I'm betting five, eight, close to 10. Wow. On, you know, because of double downs and all that stuff. And just had a really good shoe or multiple shoes.
Yeah.
Thing is, whenever that happens for me, it's always when I'm down. So I never won the 200 grand. Right. I'm paying off $150,000 in markers. Yeah. And leaving with 50, which is still. I'll take it.
Sure.
But I've had, like. It's a weird thing. So here's another problem I noticed, and.
That'S because you're betting like a lunatic.
Yeah. You're like.
To get back.
You want to get it back.
Right.
Right. So I've had those types of sessions. I wouldn't recommend that. It's dangerous.
Yeah.
But, like, what I think is, is. Is more important is I've noticed this happens all the time. You go to this table, you lose, let's say, 10 grand. You go to the next table. Your goal, by the way, was to win five grand. You're down like 10, you got another table later, you lose another 10. So now you're down 20, and you're just trying to win five. So you're like, man, this sucks. Then you go to a table and you catch a run of like 15 grand. But because you're not even, you don't take the win.
Yep.
So now you give back the 15 that you just won. Like the. The deck that you got to the table you got to. Does not know your history. Like, your history.
Yeah.
It's going to give you what it's going to give you, and then it's going to take it back from you. So I think about, like, mathematically, these are like standard deviations or like how far you're pulled away from where you're supposed to be when you're winning like that. You're pulled like a rubber band. It's going to pull you back eventually. Right. I don't know how long it's there. In my experience, you're just a couple hands away from a tragic. A tragic change.
Yeah.
And so. So many times I've made this mistake where I've been down a lot. I catch a run on a table, it's not enough to get me even, and then I end up staying on the table and giving it all back. So they're done.
That.
Yeah. What you got to do is you. You got to just cut your loss that day. So, like, dude, I got back, like, 70 of my loss. I'm gonna go ahead and book this win. I'm down less. So it's kind of. It's almost like, dude, I feel like a winner tonight because it could have been a lot worse. Like, that. That's your win for that night.
Yeah. And then will you cut it for the whole night, or will you, like, take a break and then maybe go.
I'll try to take a break, but most of the time, I'll just cut it for the whole night. So it makes it easier if you're a local in Vegas, because then you could just go back whenever you want. I think the people here for a trip feel time constrained. So then they're like, dude, I need to get this back before I leave.
Right.
And then that. That's where they get you.
I can't tell you how many times I've had a winning session.
Yeah.
And then for whatever reason, I go back 20 minutes later, 30 minutes later, and blow it all.
Yes.
Every time I cash out. And it's like, I will literally. Do you talk to yourself in the casino like, I do or no? Like, I will literally talk to myself. Like, what are you doing? Like, you know how this ends.
You know, it's crazy.
You know how it ends.
You see people leaving. Yeah. And they're always talking to themselves. If you just sit near an exit, just watch people walk by you.
Yeah.
Everyone's talking, motherfucker. Just cursing themselves. Just talking, because, yeah, they up something. It's so easy to mess all of this up.
Yeah.
So the only way you can, like, have fun with this, if you. If you're like, dude, I love the action of gambling. The only way you're gonna be able to survive is if you have some freaking rules, if you have some discipline. If you have no discipline, it's gonna end tragically. Like, most people. Yeah. And I remember, like. I remember hearing about people who are like, oh, I have gambling problems, and all that stuff. And if you do, like, dude, don't play.
Right.
100%. Like, don't fucking. Don't even mess with it. But I remember hearing about this long time ago when I was playing more money than I should have been.
Yeah.
Long time ago. Like a full degenerate, you know, doing all the mistakes. I'm telling you, I would just constantly make mistakes.
Yeah.
And I remember being, like, stuck for a lot of money and I had to borrow money. I don't think I've ever even told this to anybody. I had to borrow money from family to pay the shit off.
Yeah.
And I was like, dude, I think I have a gambling problem.
Yeah.
And so the dude in my family. Yeah. I probably do. Right. I was this all up. This is like a decade ago.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And a family member who's super rich says, dude, Neil, I'll give you the money. You have to pay me back. I'll give you the money to sell your debt. But you need to send an email to our entire family, every cousin, sister, brother, mother, everybody saying, you have a gambling problem and you're going to not play anymore.
Wow.
Bro. I typed that email up. I was like, you know, I almost didn't want to hit send.
Yeah.
But I. Dude, I got to pay my. I sent this. You know what I mean? But then what I realized was I didn't have a gambling problem. I had a money problem. I was paying. Playing with money you can't afford to lose.
Interesting.
So that's the biggest thing. Like, there's two type of problem. Gamblers. Ones that love the action.
Yeah.
And they get addicted to that action. Yeah. There's other people who have a game farm. They are coping. Like, it's like they're just depressed. So it's like drinking or drugs. Those people should not play. But if you're in this. Most people are in this action category. Right. So you, You. You playing at a level of action that you can't afford to play at. You need to change that level.
Yeah.
Or fix your money problem.
Yeah.
So what I did was I didn't play for like four years, bro.
Yeah.
I just fixed my money problem. It's like, dude, it got successful in business. Yeah. Now I can afford to play, and it's fine.
I did the same thing, man.
Really?
I did the same thing back in. From 2000 to 2001. So I'm 50. I'll be 54 in September. So from the time I turned 30 on September 8th of 2000.
Yeah.
To September 8th of 2001, I blew through a ton of money.
Yeah.
To the point where I got into the mob.
Oh. For money. Okay. I just was in markers.
Yeah. I mean, I had a guy put a gun to my head. I had all kinds of crazy happen. Had a high speed chase in la. Crazy. And it was what you just said, like I had a money problem and playing way out of my.
Above your head. Yeah.
Way above of where I should have been at. And part of that was because I did stand up comedy for 10 years. I didn't respect the money. I used to compare myself to like a stripper because, like I couldn't get off the pole. But my pole was this microphone. Right. And it's like if you make $2,500 in a night, forget a night, let's be real for 15 minutes of talking on stage, opening for either my dad or Tom Jones or Engelbert or, you know, Dion Warwick. All these people I used to open for in Vegas, Atlantic City, and name the casino anywhere across the country. You don't respect the money.
Yeah.
You know, especially when you grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth like I did with a famous dad. You know, it's like I, I didn't respect the hard work and the what it takes to make a dollar because everything came easy to me. And.
And it's also not real money when you're gambling. It's like funny money.
I always said, you know, one night I won. Actually, the anniversary of it was yesterday. February 18, 1993. I won $22,000 playing blackjack with Michael Jordan. I'm not friends with Michael Jordan. I happened to run into him in the casino, actually. We were playing roulette. We started off playing blackjack and then somehow I invite. I said, like, let's go play roulette. We went to roulette and I just lit it on fire. Like, just kept a hundred dollars, straight up on numbers and just kept hitting. And. And I say, like, when you. I walked away from the table with 22,000, but it's not 22,000, it's 22 little yellow chips. And it is different. It is different. What it does to your mind. To the point where I bet 7,000 of those little yellow chips, you know, seven of them. So if I have 22, it's a big deal. If I just have 15, it's. You're out of your mind at that point. And I was on a high from meeting Michael Jordan and gambling with him. And I put $7,000 on the LA Kings to win the Stanley Cup. This is 93. No, they went to the finals and they end up losing in the seven games. Here is Brutal.
Would it have paid if it won?
49 grand. It was seven to one. It was the final year of Gretzky's contract and he had promised to bring the cup to la. And I, I was, I was in. I drank the Kool Aid. I mean they had a great, great run, but you know, it's sports, it happens, you know. But, but to your point, yeah. Wrecked my life, man, from 02000 to 01, you know, lost everything. Lost a three bedroom condo on the water in Missouri. Lost, had cars get repoed. Like just awful, awful, awful to the point of suicidal.
Dang, bro.
Yeah. And it was, it was a gambling problem, but like you said, it was really a money problem. It was a business problem. It was not respecting business.
Yes.
Side of it. Gambling was like a byproduct of that. And then once I fixed all that, it's. And I learned, you know, I started a PR firm and then, you know, now I've been, I was in the mobile tech space for a little minute and then now obviously podcast for the last seven years. Like I know how hard it is. Make a dollar. I know when I pay people every month, like you start to respect. You respect it different. And so now I'll play, but I'm not even remotely close to going down.
Yeah. Get in trouble. Highway of the kind of like limits on what I would be willing to play and lose.
Yeah.
I'm usually playing with house money. Like I'm booking wins so that way I can use that as my bankroll next time. For example, a lot of times people will put money up so they like say you up like 20 grand.
Yeah.
You'll go to the cage, get 20 grand in cash. What the fucking you do with $20,000 cash? You might get robbed. Like right. I can't even fit that shit in my pocket.
Right.
It's like, Right. Just leave it on deposit.
Yeah.
Like. Or ask them to give you a check. Yeah, it's. You can't cash a check on Saturday night at 1 in the morning. Right. Just give me a check. Yeah. Now you've locked the win up. So like those types of things are like things I've put to make sure that I can play.
Yep.
So like if you don't follow those, then you're going to end up, no matter what level, even if you can't afford it, you'll lose more than you'd like to. It would start to bother you and then you'll start chasing it. So I think those are the things that people need to realize and Then, yeah, if you're playing above your thing.
Yeah.
Your limit, that's where you end up a problem. And then I think, like, here's the thing. When you're on a heater, I don't know what this is equivalent to. On like a scale of 1 to 10 with the dopamine in your brain and all this shit.
Yeah.
It's got to be a fucking 9 or 10.
Maybe a 12.
It might be a 12, bro. It might be a 12, right?
Yeah.
You can't replicate that anywhere else in your life.
No.
So what happens is, for action junkies, people are chasing that 12. Where else are you going to get 12?
Yeah.
So you got to be okay with like, dude, let's go to like, seven or eights are pretty dope.
Yeah.
On a scale of one to ten. That's cool.
Yeah.
And so what's happening is, like, what I found was I loved the action, so I was like, I'm getting these actions the. When I would be on a run, and you can't get that anywhere else in life. So the two options are, hey, dude, go back to living Life at a 3 or 4 for the most of it and just be comfortable with that.
Yep.
That's kind of sucks, right? Find something else where you get the seven, eights and nines.
Yeah.
For me, that's business. Right. For you, probably same thing. You got your dopamine rush from business.
Yep.
So the. The point, the long. What I'm getting to here is if you're doing something destructive, you can also. You're getting something from that, from some kind of dopamine, you can turn that around and turn into something that is now positive for you. Yeah. Like business.
Yeah. I always have a lot of friends. I have had a lot of friends. When they see a lot of my, like, super wealthy friends gambling, like pro athletes I'm friends with or someone like a Dana, you know, like, man, if I had his money, I would never gamble. And it's like, I get why you say that, but think about. Let's just use Dana. And I've never asked Dana this question, but I'm pretty sure this would kind of be probably be his answer, you know, like, well, why do you do it? You're a billionaire, Right. At least on paper. Right. You're liquid. We know at least 400 million plus from the first sale of the UFC, right. So it's like, where in his day is the barrier? Right. He's a savage in business. He. He runs the arguably. Arguably the coolest sports company in the world. Right. With the ufc. Like, where is the. Where is your obstacles in the day? Where are you. Where are you facing adversity, really? Nowhere. He's a savage. He's the king of the jungle. Gambling is the only thing that can put him in harm's way.
Yeah.
Is what I think.
Yeah.
Right. So it's like, where else is he gonna get that? Like, where. I gotta overcome something. I gotta be. I'm down. It's almost, you know, he quits if he plays. You know, let's say Red Rock, his limits are 30,000. He could play two hands at 30 grand. So if he wins both those hands. 30. 30,000. 30,000. He wins the first hand. He quits.
Yeah.
He literally quits. But if he doesn't and he ends up down 500,000, whatever. Because he goes on just a horrible run. He's. He's now in the fight. And, like, I feel like, to speaking to your point of, like, now he's at that 9 or 10 or 12 on the dopamine scale. They're like, okay, here we go.
Right? Fun, right? It's a struggle, right?
It's a struggle that I got to overcome.
Yeah. David versus Goliath. It's a fight. And so people get their kicks from this. This is the action part. So if you're in that category, you just gotta change the numbers, drop a couple zeros. You can still get your kicks. Like, you know what I mean? Like, like you said, you still play for fun now, and you still have fun with it, but you're playing at a different level, you know? And it's like, that's what people need to adjust. And then if you're like, dude, I only can play at a certain level to get kicks. I'm not. Like, for me, I'm not gonna go play $5 a hand. Right. It would just be. It would be painful for me. Right. Because if I do win, I'm like, oh, I could be winning a lot.
You feel like you just lost.
Yeah.
1995.
Exactly. Yeah. So I'd be like, right. I'm going to not play. Yeah. Until I have the money to play what I want to play.
Do you have any OCD issues at all at the table? So, like, I sometimes need. Let's say I'm betting, like, I'm more of a 100 to 500. I mean, believe me, I've. When I'm on fire, I've gone up to. I played a $10,000 hand before, but as a rule, I'm pretty much 100 to 500, let's say. Right. If I quit, I kind of need to see what the. What would have happened if I played one more hand. Yeah. And like just do. I used to do it at the normal fee and then you end up down the rabbit hole. But now like I'll just do like a. Let me just play a 25. I just curious.
Yeah. I just want to see what would have happened.
Do you do that or no?
Yeah. And bachart, you can do that. You just ask for a free hand.
Really?
Yeah.
Wait, I didn't know this.
So on Bakara it's called freehand. If you don't want, if you don't like the board or you don't like the way the shoe is going.
Yeah.
You don't have to play, but they'll.
Show you the result.
You can just say freehand.
Freehand as many times you want.
Most casinos and in high limit. Yes. Use many times. Some casinos, they'll give you 10 free hands or 5 free hands for the whole shoe.
That's amazing.
So what I'll do if you're losing, it's good to be like, hey, just.
Let'S just see what transfer where we at. Yeah.
Thing is, a lot of times like it starts to mess with you. So that's why they like that. Yeah. They like you to do this because then you'll chase.
You missed out.
Yes. So it creates fomo. Yeah. So I think like any time the casino is offering you anything, it's probably not to your benefit. Yeah. So that's why they let you do that. But on blackjack you can't do that. But I do that for sure. I'll be like if I'm normally been a thousand. Yeah. I'll be like, okay, I'm going to bet 500 bucks or 100 bucks just to see what would happen.
Okay. Let me ask you this because I've been really conflicted this lately and I feel like you'll, you'll shed light on this. I've got a lot of friends that are very well off.
Yeah.
And I'm, you know, to be honest, I want to open 10 of these studios all across the country. Right. More even. But let's just say 10 in all the big cities. Right. Miami, Dallas, New York, Chicago, Nashville, etc. Montreal, Toronto. Right. Okay. I've approached some of them. Hey, invest a million bucks and we're going to go open 10 studios and it'll come back as a no. And then I'll watch them either bet that on super bowl weekend on Sports and lose it. Or I'll watch them over the course of a month, lose it at blackjack, or in some cases, some of them can lose it in one or two nights at the blackjack table. Why won't they give me that? Like, because I. I sit there and I'm like, you could have just invested it with me.
Like, yeah.
What is the. What's the psyche behind that? Is it the same thing as, like, if Jory, our engineer today, if he came to me right now after this show and said, hey, that was a great episode. Hey, I want to start a T shirt company. I just need a thousand bucks. Would you give me a thousand bucks? I would tell him, no disrespect, Jory. I would say no, But I'll probably play in three $500 poker tournaments over the next week. Yeah, it's the same, just a different scale.
Yeah. So I think. Here's the difference. Tell me one is, it's fun. Like, you're having fun. That's recreational money. Right. The other thing is you can get 100% return in one night.
Right.
You could get a thousand percent return in one night. So the. There's, you know, the ceiling is not there. Yeah. It's more exciting.
Yeah.
You know, like, the fear of the unknown, the battle, like all that kind of thing. Yeah. It's just a totally different realm. So I would say this. The people. The money people play in casino is not real. It's like you said, it's chips, Right. So if I'm like, if I have $40,000 in chips on the table, like, dude, this is crazy. Can you imagine $40,000 of cash just sitting there?
Right.
That's what people make in a year for sure. You're just like, it's sitting on a table, but it's not. It doesn't feel like that when you're playing because these are just your units of play.
Right.
So, like, I might take out a $20,000 marker to win $5,000. So my goal is to win five grand. But the 20K is not. Like, I'm just viewing that as, like my buy in does. I would like, if I had to shell out the hundred dollars like that, I probably wouldn't even do it. You know, it would make. It would make zero sense.
Right.
So it's an alternative universe.
Yeah.
It's not equivalent to, like, investing and all these things. And then some people like making investments in businesses based on making a bunch of them, and then one of them, they hit it out of the park. Right. It's a 20x, it's a 200x. Some crazy shit. This is what, like venture capital?
Yep.
And then other people like parking their money and things that are like less risky but more so. For me, the way I invest is like this. I take my risks in business. That's where I gamble. Like I'll do a campaign or I'll buy ads or I'll put on an event or I'll do some, you know, work there and I get my kind of kicks there. But then when I, when I'm making money in gambling now or not in business now, I don't, I want to take the risk off. So I've got my money and now I'm like, okay, what am I going to put this money into? I think of things like real estate, like things that are just like, dude, get rich for sure. Like park it, don't have to worry about it.
Right.
But other people have different strategies. They want to put it on bets that can go up. So it could be they're like whatever you're pitching them doesn't fit what they're looking for business wise.
Right.
They might be, they want more risk and your thing doesn't give enough upside. Right. Or they might view your thing as too risky.
Yep.
It's one of those two. Right. I don't know. You could ask people. Like, I would just straight up ask people.
Yeah.
Like, bro, so just to help me for future I'm raising capital, you know, just to help me for future, why don't you want to invest?
Right?
I mean, you probably won't. And some of them don't even tell you. No, they just say bullshit you and just string you along like, yeah, people have candor is a very difficult thing.
Yeah. Nobody says, I love what I always say. You're in the business of getting yes, no, or go fuck yourself. And I don't care which one it is. I just want one of those answers as fast as possible.
Yeah, just give me an answer. So I move on.
My day, the string along is the worst.
It's the worst. But I think people are just don't want to be rude or whatever, but I think here's the thing, we could ask people, like, look, man, it's a no, I understand, but why? Because it would help me feature. And they'll tell you, well, you know what, for my type of investment, I'm looking for this or this. Then you can adjust based on that.
Yeah, that.
I mean, that's what I would do because everyone's different. That's the thing, you know, their goals are different.
Okay, before we get some. Some time, let's talk about your car, man. Because I have car envy on that SUV of yours. Yeah, man, that sick Lambo.
Yeah.
When you. Was that your first like big. Yeah, like that.
I was like, had nice SUVs. I like, like, you know, G Wagon or, you know, whatever. The X5 or stuff like that.
Yeah.
Over time. But I always wanted to get an exotic.
Yeah.
Suv. Yeah. I was kind of like a goal. And so in 2020, I was thinking I had a Model X Tesla, which is super nice. Yeah. SUV dope. The tech is amazing. My wife has that car now and I love it. But I was like, man, I want to get a. A Lambo suv. It just looks badass. Yeah. Uruses are just.
And it's ballistic.
Yeah, that's the man.
Yeah.
So I was like, man, I want to get this car. But what will people say? Do they think you're trying to be like too big time? Hey, can you afford it? Like, somebody asked me the other day, like, yo, dude, what's the payment? I'm like, I don't know, bro. Here's the title. Like, I don't have a payment. I don't. I don't think you should like buy something just because, you know, just to get the. The social proof or the street. Yeah.
And by the way, the wrong. Don't forget what you're gonna say. The wrong. That's the wrong question is what's the payment? The right question is, how much is the oil change, bro? Those are the questions you need to.
Ask if you ever want to know if you. This is the problem with exotic vehicles. Everything is a complete rip off. The oil change is over $3,000. I filmed it. We made a piece of content.
Yeah.
I went there, dude, just to get tires.
Yeah.
It's ridiculous. Breaks $1,000 per tire. Every time you get a frickin nail. You have to change all four tires. Yeah, it's ridiculous. I'm telling you. The amount of spent in service would have been the equivalent to another nice vehicle.
Right.
Just in service. Right. Okay, so this is even under warranty. Yeah. It doesn't matter.
Right.
And they feel like they can rip you off because it's the only place to get the service.
Yeah.
And they think you're rich.
Right?
Most people are rich. Right. So it's like a pass. If you ever need to meet a vendor, don't pull up in a Lambo.
Right.
Like you're just getting ripped off. You know what I Mean, so.
Yeah.
So I was like, dude, I want to get this car. What are people going to say? And it was actually my wife. She's like, neil, you work really hard. You can afford it. Really, we're fine. If you want to get it, just get it. Because then you'll. You'll like it.
Okay. Wife of the year award.
Yeah, bro. So that was like. I was like. She gave me the green light. I was like, okay, I'm buying it. But then it turned out, and I did not plan this. I'm not trying to say I'm super smart. It turned out that it went up in value. Right. So I bought that chip for 200 something thousand dollars. In 2020, it went up to like 300 grand. I don't know where it's at now, but to get paid to actually drive a Lambo, that's freaking crazy.
Crazy.
But I think it was just because after Covid, they became short supplied.
Yeah.
And then the prices just kept going up.
Yeah.
But I'll tell you this. Regardless of that, if it appreciated depreciate. It doesn't matter the amount of money. It's made me that.
Which was my next question. I'm glad you went into this. Yeah.
It makes you money because right or wrong, people judge you.
Yeah.
You know what I mean? Like, that's why I say when you do content or when you show up places like put your best foot forward.
Yeah.
Because people are going to judge you. So if you pull up in a Lambo anywhere, people think you're very successful. Now, I could be lying. And I just rented it, Right. It doesn't matter. But I, you know, I can afford it. I bought it. It's cool.
They want to with you.
They want to with you. They want to talk to you. So many conversations start because you're in a Lambo, right. People pull up next to you and just start talking to you. So I remember there was a. Just give me a quick example. There was a guy I was trying to do business with that was at the same. Goes to the same health club and country club that we were at in Reno. I've been trying to reach this dude for like years. He never gives me the time of day. I pull up in the car to the valet there. He just walks over and starts talking to me. I'm like, bro, I've been trying to get a hold of you for like five years. And he's like, yo, Neil, what's up, bro? Like, hey, you know, we should grab coffee sometimes. I'm like, okay. Let's go. And we start doing business. So, like, the amount of money I've made from it.
Yeah.
It's paid for itself.
Yeah.
Multiple times.
Yeah.
So it's like just, you know, for the right person in the right business, if you really leverage it. I put it in videos. I mean, that thing's like a business tool for me.
Yeah. And I think the way you do it is good because you're not. It's not like an in your face flex the way you.
I'm just in it.
Like, you're just in it and we see it, we know that what it is and it's. It works. It's a.
It's a. Yeah, I think, like, it looks kind of. What is it? You're not g. Like, it's just.
Yeah.
We're not like five years ago that would have impressed people. Now it's a little bit like cringy. So I. I've never been that dude to flex on people.
Right.
But yeah, we live in a nice house. Yeah. I drive a nice car.
Yeah.
It's just the way it is. And then people can tell you're just being yourself. Some people turned off. Whatever.
So were you. Were you in Reno when you got it? Yeah, originally. Wow.
So in Reno, nobody.
Reno. Yeah. Here I see the bald eagle sighting.
Yeah. In Vegas, I see one every day.
Right.
You see nice car. Like, there'll be a freaking culling in just rolling past us, you know, it's like nothing. But in Reno was like, man, this is the only Urus.
Did you go to the grand opening of Durango? Were you at that?
No, we live near there.
But yeah, there was like three Bugattis at Valley.
There's so much money in this town, it's incredible.
Yeah.
I mean, the. Every other person remember just going to like the lifetime fitness in Summerland.
Yeah.
You know, like, if I pulled up to the gym in a Urus, you're the only, like, you're getting attention. Right. You still get attention here, but like here there'll be a, like not a Bugatti, but there'll be Ferraris.
Sure.
There'll be other Lambos, There'll be Aston Martin here. I mean, it's just crazy.
The new Aston Martin, the new. The Vantage. Oh, my God, it looks good.
So these are like kind of toys people like. Usually it's older rich dudes who have them.
Right.
But I would say, dude, if you can afford it and you're self employed, you're entrepreneur, it's one of the best investments I've Made.
Yeah. I've been blown away just from going to the Power Slap events. Did you go to Power Slap? Have you been yet? Have you, have you been to a fight yet?
No. I got to go with you.
Okay. Yeah, we need to get you to a fight. Do you watch? Are you a fan at all? Okay. Okay. The amount of, you know, Dana has all these influencers come to Power Slap and that's kind of how he hacked the media on Power Slap and it obviously has worked really, really well. Blown away by how many of these young kids are, you know, 21 to, let's say 25, rocking multiple Ferraris, multiple Lambos.
I think they, they're leasing them. And sometimes it ends badly. Yeah, like, whatever, you know.
Right.
They're living, you know, what are your thoughts?
Like, so you have how many kids? Two.
Two.
How old are they?
14 and 11.
So do you want them to go to college? Is college still something you think kids need to do or skip it?
I think there's good things that come from it. Social skills, just like going to a good school is, you know, the regular college experience is not good anymore. Right. But like, if you go to good school, there's certain things that are still. I think you. There's upside there. But honestly, where I've gotten, I didn't learn in college that I've applied really, other than some basic functions like writing and stuff. But most everything I learned was on like YouTube, university, going to events, learning from people who are ahead of me. So like real life, the school, hard knocks, like, that's where I learned my. In business. And so, yeah, I would love, you know, I don't think school, you can't really learn business, certain things in college. But like, there's still some value there.
Yeah.
And it's like, dude, what do you do with your kids?
Right.
I mean, like they finished high school. What's next? Yeah, it seems like the next step is to go. It's almost like just the social part of college is the next.
There is a lot of value, I think, networking. Yeah. And I think a lot of kids need a. I'm kind of. I. I try to talk most of my friends out of sending their kids to college, unless I think they need like another round. Like, there's some kids that come out of high school, they need to just start over. They need a do over.
Yeah.
Socially, like, like high school, they wouldn't, you know, maybe they got bullied or they weren't. They weren't in sport. Like, they might need a. Just a fresh Start of networking with people.
Yeah.
And I think college satisfies that.
Join some clubs, get some social skills.
Right.
You know, learn how to talk, get some confidence.
Yeah, right. Get a fresh start. But the ones that are sharp, unless you want to be a doctor or something where like you have to go, I always tell them like just, just jump into life man. Just, just start, Take that same money and open a business. Take that same money and fail at a business.
Even the ROI would be way higher.
Way higher.
You know the crazy thing is, is the government will give you a hundred thousand dollars to go to college and get a liberal arts degree, but you can't borrow five grand to start a business.
It's so crazy.
Like what the. Yeah, like this is the. But that's how the risk is. Like they view entrepreneurship and business is very risky and college is safe. Right. But like if you get an English degree and you spent that much money and you go into debt, like I don't even know now how long it takes to get the money back. Like right. Do you even learn anything? Right. Do you have any skills? I mean we've hired people in business that have four year degrees and they're dumb as rocks. Yeah. You know, it doesn't, it's almost like are you smart? Do you have skills? It doesn't matter whether you went to college. So I'm seeing people nowadays. Companies are in. Elon Musk says this all the time. He doesn't even look like what college you go to sometimes. Right. They're looking at, do you have the skills needed to do the job?
Yeah.
So there's a lot of shifting of education into like skills based.
Yeah.
Like Google will offer tech certifications and just this one thing.
Yeah.
If you are in tech and you want to do that one thing, go do that. Don't go to four year school.
Yeah. What are the next five years look like for you?
So I always have this thing of like, I haven't looked at like a big picture really. I look at like what's in front of me. So our business, we're trying to grow. If somebody's like, hey, where do you want your business to be in 10 years? I probably should have that on some vision board somewhere. But I don't, I'm like, here's what we want to do now. Here's.
And that's real estate wise.
Yeah. So we have real estate, but then also I have an education company where we help people learn. Digital marketing.
Yeah.
And we put on events and we do all these things. It's mostly people in my industry that come to those things.
Yeah.
But that business has been growing like crazy, like, and so that business I'm looking at, how do we just keep serving our customers? Like, so what's our next event? What's our next workshop? How do we just do a really good job? And that's been my best. Marketing is just, like, taking care of the customer. Yeah.
I'm actually shocked that now this is, I think, our fourth year here at the studio.
Yeah.
I would have thought there was going to be triple the amount of real estate agents. I. I'm shocked.
Yeah.
That we don't like.
So we teach people in our industry how to do content. Yeah. Very few people do it. Yeah. So I started going, like, literally speaking to a group of 200 real estate agents. And I tell them in the beginning, I'm like, hey, man, just straight facts. I. Most you guys aren't gonna do anything, so don't even worry. Like, oh, Neil's gonna give us the. The game, and then it's not going to work because everyone's going to do it. Nobody does. So I noticed this. Like, it's something new. It's. It's. Maybe you have to get over yourself.
Yeah.
Content's, like, a lot more difficult than other things. Yeah. And so very few people do it, but the people who do it get good at it and stay with it. It transforms their business.
Yeah.
Like, you build a powerful personal brand today, it's like, dude, game over. Like, that's your moat. Yeah. I mean, that people want to work with you.
There's no barrier to entry other than you being your own barrier. Yeah.
Right.
It's like just you versus you. You get some equipment. You don't even have to come to a studio like this. You can just do it all at home and from your kitchen, from your countertop.
And we're just talking with you guys here of, like, if you don't want to start a podcast, that's fine. Just come in here with another business person. Yeah. With a business partner, like a realtor or lender or two realtors. Just talking shop, talk about the market, talk about deals, talk about what's going on. Chop those clips up.
Yep.
And then, bro, you're into the content. So if you don't want to look at the camera, just have a conversation.
Yeah.
And so that's one of the things we hacks, we teach in content, is like, you just have conversation and capture that.
Yeah. Neil, this was fun, man.
Yeah, man.
I had a good time chopping it up with you. This is fun. We definitely got to do it again, 100%. And we'll get to some fights.
Yeah. And power slap.
And a power slap for sure. I think the next one's. Actually, I can't go to the next one. Oh. So I want to invite you back already. Even though this is on April 12th, I. Every year I do a 24 hour live podcast. This will be the first, fourth, or fifth year that we do it. So come back April 12th. There is a power slap April 12th. Maybe I'll. You know what?
I'll.
Let me see if I can just get you hooked up. I'll be stuck in this room, but let me try to get you hooked up.
Yeah.
And Jory's going to hook us up right now by ending the show because he pushes some buttons and does whatever he does. I don't know what he does back there. And Doug, here we have the Limu.
Emu in its natural habitat, helping people cost their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us. Cut the camera. They see us.
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