From Making Music to Restaurant Ownership: Ike Marr’s Story of Success | RMT256

Hey this is Loral. And welcome back to Loral's Real Money Talks the podcast about money, how to make it, how to keep it, how to invest it, how to use a team. I interview a lot of great entrepreneurs on this show, specifically to give you some insights on what it takes to be in a very, you know, variety of industries and categories. So we look at the pros, the cons, the, I'm say, the the good, the bad, the interesting of being an entrepreneur. So with me today is Ike Marr he is an extraordinary musician, producer. I saw him traveling around Lake Tahoe. He and it's called the Ike and Martin show, phenomenal. I actually sought him out. Would get notifications. Hey, they're in North like they're here. So was like a private stalker. And then heard that he had bought a very cool restaurant called the pink house, which is local here in Genoa, Nevada, one of the oldest historical buildings and the oldest bar. So you have to come visit someday, but I wanted to interview you. I just being an entrepreneur. You're in music and restaurants, too. In my opinion, of the hardest industries that you could actually say, I want to raise my hand. I'm gonna go do that. You know, people say, How did you become? You were to go to school for that? And I said, you just follow other entrepreneurs and become it one day. There's not like a school to teach you how to be an author, trainer and the stuff I do so I feel like you're in that little category of, I wouldn't call them high risk, but they're not easy categories being in music and restaurants. So welcome. Thank

you. Thanks for having me. I You said, How did I choose? I didn't choose any of that. I didn't you know that wasn't a tool, that wasn't a choice that was it was by necessity and or by happy accident or unhappy accident, depending on what day you ask me. But my mother was a classical musician. I started playing viola at a really young age, and that was kind of my first first skill, I guess. And then I didn't do well in college. I really hated the environment, and my father and his his family were educators, and so that didn't set well with them. So I ended up in culinary school. I went I started cooking as a kid because they were most flexible with my music schedule. All the guys in the kitchen were always, you know, a bunch of pirates and musicians and and I really enjoyed being in that that environment, plus it was creative, and I always got to eat, which was good. So then I ended up in culinary school in Scottsdale, from from South Mississippi to Scottsdale, specifically for culinary school. Worked for the fine house Marriott Corporation, as a cook, I worked for a great restaurant Tempe called House of tricks with Bob and Robin trick, and then ended up in Telluride and was being mentored by a chef named Jake linmeyer, who's still one of my best friends. He's a Cornell guy and has opened up many restaurants, and he opened up buddy V's in Vegas. He has a place called a couple places in Denver. He and his wife on the Red Lion at the base of Vail, and so they they've got some pretty good spots. But Jake was a big mentor to me after Telluride, I'm ended up in San Diego. This whole time was, was fly either fly fishing, cooking or playing music. And that was the kind of the three things that have guided my whole life. It's fly fishing, music and and, and food and and ended up, ended up here. We had our son and my partner and I had our son and in 2007 in San Diego, and we moved here in 2008 and been here ever since. And I guess, how did I get in the restaurant stuff? I in a back in the restaurant thing in 2017 or 18, a really good buddy of mine said, Hey, there's a breakfast cafe that is coming in for sale in Carnelian Bay in North Shore Tahoe, what do you think? What do you say you want to buy it? And so I said, Sure, sounds, sounds fun. Let's do it. And that's, that's literally how much thought we put into that. And it's called the old post office Cafe north in North Shore Lake Tahoe, Cornell Bay. It seemed to do pretty well. We gutted it during covid. We said we were not going to buy it unless we could buy the staff with it this. So the staff that came with it were the same guys that were cooking there for over 20 years. They're still same guys. We met with them and said, We want to buy this restaurant, but only if you're coming with it. We want to give everybody more money and give everybody a stable thing. And we were buying this basically for you guys, so we can be a part of it. And then this the pink house in Genoa came up, which I live a mile away. And I talked to Stephanie, my partner, and said, Hey, what do you think? And she said, I want it. I want it. I want it. And I said, it's a bad idea. Okay, let's do it. I. And that's what happened and and I and we look at the pink house basically as accumulation of everything that I've ever done. I mean, minus fly fishing. We haven't been able to incorporate fly fishing into the pink house yet, but we're working on it. So meaning here it's events, it's food, it's wine, it's music, it's art, it's all the things I could. It's even carpentry, painting, all the creative demons I can get them all out here. And that's kind of how it work. It's phenomenal.

Talk a little bit about, you know, in the pink house. I mean, it's a historical building I know you had when we first, you know, sat down, talked, you were sharing, just the complexity. For those that are listening. And this is a worldwide podcast, but you know, any of you buying a building, especially a historical one, what were some of the trials and tribulations? And let's just say, I mean, this is all post covid, when all this was going on too,

right, right? It was towards the at the end of covid. Well, for one, I've got a theory, again, you're talking about entrepreneurship and, and, and that is that we, as you grow older, you look back in the rear view mirror and say, Wait, I think I missed something from that guy. You know, I think I missed, I missed something that I was supposed to be taught by a certain person. And so what I started doing is going back in the rear view mirror and and going that person, that Man, That Woman, was an inspiration. And I missed, I missed that. So I started going back and trying to reconnect with those people. And one of the, one of what, one of the things that they told, one of them told me, was you got to control your own destiny. You never get into the restaurant business as a rental. You have to buy the dirt. And that was what we did. So at the very least, what you what you do is, if the restaurant just is a miserable failure, you have the equity or the investment of the land. And so that's what we did. We bought the restaurant here. This, this one as well as the the one in Lake Tahoe. And yes, the building was built in 1855 this is the oldest, one of the oldest homes in the state of Nevada. In the oldest town in the state of Nevada, which is Genoa, was found in 1851 by Mormons that were sent over from Salt Lake by Brigham Young for Mormon expansionism. They were recalled in 1859 for the Mormon Indian wars. And this house fell into Ill repair and it moved locations. The I know that in this room I'm sitting in currently, the declaration of secession of Nevada from the Utah territory took place here in this building. The Candy Dance, which is the longest running craft fair west of the Mississippi, happens here in Genoa every year, and it was created in this house. The first one was held on the porch of this house. So the house itself has a tremendous significance to state of Nevada for historic, you know, historic value.

And so in the light of construction, right? I do a lot of construction. I watch you, you know, as this thing is built in taking a life of its own. What were some of the, just for those that are out and do buy, some clients that actually buy historical buildings in their state, what were some of the challenges, especially the construction and the permitting, the restrictions? I mean, you amaze me. I can you always get it done. Those of you who are listening, if you ever had there, Genoa, you've gotta come actually. Yeah, I didn't think about wearing the pink shirt just for pink house, but it's kind of fun.

Very effective Laurel. I love it.

I don't believe in coincidence. So it was just like, Oh, I sure, pink today. It's like, oh, well, yeah, so, but seriously, I just, I love going there. I think it's, it's really established a fun community. And like I was telling you before the our broadcast, a community that I don't even know is in our community, you've drawn out such a different crowd because the music, which we'll talk about next, but talk about the construction side. Good is, I'm in some projects too, and they just did the delays and the historical components got to be rough,

right? And we've gone through this actually, with both, both of the restaurants that the old post office is a, is a a historic building, but I would tell you that that meaning the old post office in in Lake Tahoe, here at the pink house, we purchased this. It was already the it was had already been restored by the previous owner, and they did a fantastic job. They, I want to say they spent 1.1 million on the remodel, which, by the way, you know, it goes through the National Historic or the National Register of Historic Places. And through that program, I think it's a Department of the Interior, I believe, program and and through that, they got a massive tax break because of that which, which which by proving that all the historical events that happened at this house. But what it does, what it does is a as a business owner, a restaurant tour is, unfortunately, it's now ready for the next 150 years it, which is great, but you can't do anything to it now, since that's already been designated as a historic. Register. So you can't move interior walls. You can't attach anything to the exterior of the home itself. So you kind of gotta go with what you got. We it would be great for us to have another bathroom. We can't do that, you know, but it's because you can't it kind of limits you on that stuff. Now, likewise, the the other restaurant, the old post office, is in a historic building, but it is not designated historic building, which means we can still mess with that. So that's an important, an important difference, you know, with those two things, it's like, hey, yes, this building is historic, but, but we don't want to register that way, because then we'll never be able to alter it there. There are many challenges, if you ask the staff here, the challenges of working in a old, historic, beautiful, historic home, well, there's stairways everywhere. There's staircases, you know, and it's hard, you know, anytime you have a historic thing, you've gotta, you've gotta work around the house. We kind of look at it as we're nobody really can own the pink house. It's more of a we're just the caretakers for the next people who take it over, and because it's, it's, it's such, such an important, it's such an important piece of property for the for the state of Nevada.

What would you say to those who are thinking about doing the restaurant business? There's a lot of, as you know, you know, food food trucks coming up that's becoming more and more popular. What would you say to anybody in the food space wanting to start a business, given the, and I don't want to get into a political environment, but the wage, the inflation, what it costs, even by the cost of goods, sure. Yeah, insights to that.

Well, you mentioned the food trucks. I mean the food trucks that that, I think that is probably a product of necessity, you know. And the reason why is because what you just said is wages, wages and costs and the slimming margins, the margins of food are nuts. I think 10 to 15% was probably a pretty good target for restaurant tours. 20 years ago, 15 years ago, you're, you're well under 10% right now. You're 10 to six, six to 10% margins. And when you look at your credit card fees or 3% so quite honestly, I mean, we, we have not made anything here, you know, and it's we're, we still look at it as and we're two years in, and October would be two years down for a year. So you have to, I think you have to expect that that is going to be it two years for a runway for restaurants profitability, I think is a maybe conservative now, but again, control your destiny by the dirt. At least you're going to have the appreciation of the land in theory, you know, in theory. But yeah, it's, it is a challenge. We've, we've seen profits completely evaporate, not only that, but the the availability of products. I mean, 10 years ago, you would buy products or restaurant, and you get locked you build a menu out of what is available to you, the freshest, best ingredients you could get, and then you can, you could count on those ingredients. Moving forward, you can't even count on that anymore, meaning that I want this on the menu, I'm going to build a menu with this, and then two months later up, sorry, we can't, we can't get that, that ingredient anymore. And like, Well, okay, well, every time I print menus, it's $2,300, you know. So you know, it's, it's it's all always something like that, with supply chain or availability and changing cost labor, raising minimum wages, we pay far over minimum wage. But there again, we have the luxury, because I'm in the another company, I don't have to take a paycheck from the restaurant. If I had to live off this, we would not be living off this.

Yeah, so before we move back over to music, talk a little bit right before the show. You have a little firefighting going on right now because you had a very successful weekend. But just share with like, what does it take to be an entrepreneur? Because, you know, I think I'm one of the truth tellers who say it's not difficult, it's different, and it's going to take the actual W word called work. You're going to have to roll up your sleeves. You're going to have to want it. And when the staff doesn't show up, because, you know, covid made this most I think it said such a detriment to our work ethic. If there ever was one five staff, I don't know anybody where we've had a full time out for five years out, be like, please come help us and work for us. What would you say to the entrepreneurs who, in the light of all these, you know, variables, I still say, go, go. What would you say to them from a reality standpoint, was a take.

I think GO, GO is a good way to say. I also, I also really believe in, in if you think, if, if, if you wake up every day and you're and you've, you've built your own business, or you're starting to build your own business. If you wake up every day and you go, man, I got to go to work, or that kind of that goes into your mind, then you're the wrong gig. You're, you know, you're not, you're not going to work. This is just what you do. This is just kind of part of life, who you are. You know, I've never had, I've never been a go to a go get up and go nine to five and go to a job, person and, and, and if you, if you try to approach it that way, I feel, and I'm sure there's a lot of guys that would disagree with me, saying that, no, you've got to build that space and but I don't want space, you know, I don't, I'm just that, that type of person. I don't want this space. I get up in the morning and I immediately thinking about it, I'm talking about it, and I'm sure it's maniacal to Steph and the kids, but it's, it's just the way, it's just what it is. So I No, I feel like there's, again, it's the same with music. It's not, it's not a choice. I'm not choosing to do this. This is just what I do. It's not a choice for me. I feel like it's just kind of thing that make, if that makes any sense. So if you're that person, if you're if you're, if you're the certified dabbler that loves to swing hammers into the that doesn't like a set schedule, that that thrives in utter chaos, then maybe this is something you should think about. Yeah,

I always say becoming an entrepreneur is a lifestyle, you know, I'm that's the same thing. You know, when are you know, when are you going to quit? You really don't need the money anymore. When you couldn't, I said, What else would I do? Like, I get up thinking about strategies. I get up thinking about marketing. I get up thinking about who I want to interview on podcast. Like, this is what I do. You know, do I need to have anything else? And I don't think a lot of people realize when they're moving from a nine to five to an entrepreneur, that this becomes your lifestyle, your family's involved, your I mean, it's, it's all of

you. Very true, very true. I had one of the most important conversations I ever had was with a professor, and he said, he we're having eating pie. And he says, he says, well, let's, let's talk about, you know, your your work history and things that motivate you. And he was, he taught a leadership course and and he said, Have you ever, he took out a napkin and a pen, and he said, Have you ever, have you ever had a work for someone that you that really, really inspired you, that somebody that you just really were, it was an inspiration to you? And I said, No. And he wrote that down on the napkin. And he goes, Okay, have you ever, have you ever worked in a job that every that when you went there, that you felt that you really liked the systems that were in play there, or that you could or that, or that you think that you could do it always do it better? And I said, Yes. And No, I've never worked in a place that I thought the systems were really good. He goes, Okay, so he wrote that down. And he says, Have you ever worked for a manager that you really just got along with and that you really liked? And I said, No, I haven't. And then he goes, Okay, I see what's going on here. I see the problem. And I said, What? And he goes, it's you. Have you ever thought maybe you're the asshole. Have you? Have you ever thought that you're the problem? He goes, you've got to stop working for people. You're making everyone around you absolutely miserable. And that was a very, very important thing for me. And granted, I was, you know, 35 when I learned this thing. But it was a very valuable conversation. And maybe it's me. That's the asshole. You know, maybe I'm the one that's,

I mean, I don't know you that that close, but that's not what I see. And the people who work for you, and I'm there at the pink house, love you, and they love Stephanie, and they love what you guys have built. So I don't think that, but I do like where you're going is no matter. Yeah, yeah, totally. But, and to all of you that are thinking about being an entrepreneur, you've got to know yourself so well, and you also have to be, I think, always a learner, that you're going to get more inputs along your journey. I don't care how old you are, you're going to get inputs on your journey of where, which direction to go. So I want to turn our direction to music. I have a lot of music artists that are clients, and they're working to, you know, I was, I've always thought about introducing to you Maura country, from my brother, you know, my son. I'm sorry, I remember playing in Georgia, Southern Cole Swindell came out of there. Luke Bryan came out of there. So there's a whole bunch of men who follow those men, going, Oh, my God, if I could just be a Luke or a coal and, you know, we've just stayed in touch. Somebody make it in the music industry? What advice would you give them? Obviously, you have an agency representing over 30 artists, like you said before, out of necessity,

right? You know that what we started doing, Martin and I, for one, I think longevity is key. If you love it, you love it, if you just, kind of just stay at it, you become, you become, I don't know, more of a it's hard, it's hard to explain. You get you're just going to get better. If you love it, you're going to get better at it. And with Martin and I, what we started was years ago, is a record. Request line. And we a mobile request line. So we would take a card that had our website on it, and I put a QR code on it, and I we started doing this, 2009 2010 It was after the meltdown, the, you know, the 2008 kind of meltdown, and and all it was is a little table card. We put, I can mark, and we put our website, and then I went on to the website and I and I put every song we knew, and I put it on there. And while you were there at a show, we would put the cards out on the tables, and then it would say, go here with your with on your mobile phone, make a request, and we'll get it on stage and we'll play it for you. And the reason we do that is because every show that we saw was people were staring at their phones, like, how do we get a hold of these people? So anyway, clearly it was it, and it was an email. So when they would touch the when they touch it on their phone, because it was also very close to the advent of of the iPhone, you know, and of the you know, people being able to do this very quickly in real time. And so they would touch the song, we would get it on stage, on our phone and and then play the song. Well, it was a hot linked email, so it wasn't any, it wasn't an based thing. Was simply an email. So that meant that every show, we would mess with people, and I would get a request, oh, there's Laurel. She wants to hear, you know, a Neil Young song. Well, then I have, now I have your name and I have your email, and so I would say, Laurel, hey, great request. You know, you did a we love that song. Or we would mess with people and go, Oh, that song sucks, you know? And, and what it would do is it immediately would pull that person into the in the audience, into the show, as a member of the actual show itself. And we found that's actually what everybody really wanted. They people didn't want to be passive listeners. They wanted to be a part of the show. So within a year or two, we've got 5000 names on our mailing list. Another couple years up to now, we've got, we're close to 40,000 names on our healing on our emailing list, and these, when you look at our newsletters, this runs a almost a 60% open rate. We're running a 44% click through rate on on our on our newsletter. And then it and then it occurred to me, as we would go to these clubs, when people would say, I would look at their I would say, I want this amount of money to play this club, and they would say, Well, no one knows you in this area, you're not going to bring anybody in because, no, you're, you're, you know, you don't know. So therefore we're going to pay you XYZ. We're going to pay you this much. So I would say, well, we don't play for that much. We need more money. Here's what we'll do. I'll look up on the door. So you got the 200 200 on your fire code. You're breaking fire code, 200 people. How about this? If I break your fire code tonight, you give me what I want. If I don't, you don't pay me a dime. And they said they they always took it. So then I knew that within 20 miles of that radius, with a 60% open rate and a 44% click through, if I send that to 1000 people within a 50 of 20 mile radius, I'm going to break that bar in half there. If I simply get 5% of those people to come out to the show, and they're going to bring somebody with them, then I'm going to break the bar. They're going to have a hard time. They they're they're going to need to staff up. And it happened every time we did it. Then we then I was able to take I would was able to quantify the results by saying I would go to the manager or the or the chef and say, Hey, I see you've got calamari on your menu. I could look and go calamari selling for two bucks a pound. Let's run a calamari special that's only available to the people that opened my email from Ike and Martin. That way they could put it in their POS system and track the promotion. Well, then what happens is that they would show their phone to the server. It would have info at I could Martin buy it. They could then put that in the computer, and now the person that showed it to them gained social relevance within their group. Look, I'm the guy that's got the cool calamari special. Well, now, now you've created a proselytizer, you know, you've created someone that you gotta come see this guys, because they want everybody to see their social relevance at the table, which really created something and and so, well, all of a sudden now you've got restaurants and bars that are clamoring, clamoring for your business, because you're, you're, you're, breaking it, you know, you're, you're bringing 200 people in a room that fits 150 and they love it. And that's exactly what we did, and how we were able to build that business, to to be able to, you know, we're doing 200 shows a year, you know, 220 shows a year, pre covid, and they were all things like, you know, exactly under that, under that model,

that's great. And then the agency came out of necessity, because they they didn't, if you weren't available, or they wanted somebody with a different genre or different era, then you have a whole stable. Well,

we knew that they were after us. You know when they would come in, that they were after us. So that meant that we had to find acts. Us that were similar to us, or at least of that caliber quality, because we also knew if they were after us, they were, they already knew that they were, they were already qualified, a qualified client that wasn't out there trying to lowball a band, you know, these were and so I didn't want to give that revenue away to, you know, to to just didn't want to evaporate. I knew there was a way to capture

that's great. So Ike, if they want to follow you, and if they ever show up in Genoa Nevada to come to the pink house, or just your music with Ike and Martin, how do they get a hold of you? How do they follow you? Give them some details.

Well, we're the pink house in Genoa, Nevada. It's the pinkhousegenoa.com the entertainment company is called fourcountconcepts.com and then we are Ikeandmartin.com as far as music. And we've we through even before the pink house, one of the most fun little projects we had was we called it acoustic gourmet. And that's, you should check that out. It's called acoustic gourmet.com and that's Martin and I going into a private residence, cooking five or six courses in the residence and then playing an acoustic show. And that was actually the pink house is simply an extension of acoustic gourmet, you know. So we play here. I do all the food and do the menuing and the chefing, and it's, it's kind of part of the whole thing. Oh, that's

awesome. I didn't know that one. I have to keep that one in mind. So I appreciate you being on. I know you have a lot you have to do today and run around. So thank you for your time and good luck on all your ventures. Right?

Thanks, Loral. See, it's pink house. Yeah,

I'll see you at the Pink House, probably later today. You never know. I'll be here and the rest of you that are out there listening to the Loral's Real Money Talks, it is time to go to ask loral.com A, S, K, L, O, R, L, ask a question, make a request, and if you say, Well, I don't know what questions asked, download the book, grab the book, it's always in the show notes, and come up with 10 or 20 questions to validate your thinking about money and your sequence, and we'll be back next Friday, as we are on our podcast. See you, then talk soon. You.