0:00 Okay, what's an example of like someone that's like walked into your place and was just like give me stuff. >> want to know? I'll even pull them up. >> Hell yeah, we want to know. >> it's these food bloggers, Zeke and Renee. Oh, you calling names out. Welcome back to another episode of Careful Boys. We have Drew Belcher with us today. >> Woo. So, you know, like we're all from LA. Every other goddamn person we meet. >> We are gay as well. We We meet so many influencers in LA all the time and I feel like Vegas influencers are very different. >> Oh, for sure. Yeah, you agree? >> There's a whole thing there? >> Yeah, yeah. Do you have any experiences? I I feel like I watched something where you were talking about um experiences with influencers and then you started going on to bad experiences and then you stopped. >> Yeah.
0:50 >> I don't know if you had something you wanted to say about it, but what is it like? What happens when working with an influencer goes wrong in Vegas? Uh I mean, so Vegas is a very small community. It's not like Los Angeles where you have like everything so spread out with Orange County, LA County and all that. Vegas is so small. It's like 20 square miles. >> Super tiny. >> And there's only like a handful of like bigger influencers in Vegas. Now, there's tons of like smaller content creators and micro stuff, but like big influencers, there's only a few. And for the most part, everyone is like a super tiny community. So, I don't ever really see anything bad with the bigger influencers. It's all of these smaller ones maybe that kind of give the bigger ones like a bad name. >> Oh, so like the good ones are like Vegas Starfish, obviously is really good. >> Jen is a ████ amazing. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm only speaking mainly from like the food aspect cuz I feel like that's all Vegas really >> You're talking about the ████ who come in and are like, "Yo, give me free food." >> The worst, dude. >> happen at your locations and people
1:40 demand it? >> Usually they'll make you famous. >> Yeah, yeah. Usually they'll send like a DM to the Instagram and I'm like, "Dude, Jesus Christ." Uh it's crazy. Uh but yeah, it's all it's usually the smaller or newer ones that kind of give the bigger ones a bad name. Like I have never once ever and I will never reach out to any restaurant and ask to be paid or to set up like a shoot. It's usually reaching out to us for that that kind of stuff. Yeah. >> and for the most part, they already know there's like a fee of some sort to be in call, but for me to go and post, it's free. Like I don't charge anything. If it's cool enough and post-worthy. Yeah. >> And then what determines post-worthy, right? Obviously me. It's my ████ page. Like if I want to go, I'll go. If not, ████ off. >> Yeah. You know, but again, restaurant owners also being a restaurant owner as well, you can't just think everyone's going to come and save you just cuz they're a content creator or have a big account. Like there's absolutely should be a marketing and advertising budget set
2:31 aside if you're an owner or operator that needs to be put forth for advertising and influencers now are massive advertising capsules. And it works if done correctly and hire the right influencers. >> Yeah. >> But the smaller ones that just hit up restaurants and immediately send their media kits through DM, I'm like, "Dude, that's the wrong way to do it." >> Immediately. >> If you Dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. The fact that anyone agrees, even if it's small amount like 500 bucks or 1,000 bucks to a small mom and pop restaurant, that's still a lot of money. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> "You You just want me to give you $1,000 because you have X amount of vanity metric followers on your Instagram." It's like that's like a lot of money for a small mom and pop. So, for them, I would only go with like bigger proven influencers that kind of have a track record of kind of blowing up restaurants and they're they know who they are. >> Um but yeah, it's usually the smaller ones uh that kind of give the bigger ones a bad name. Mm. What does it cost? Like let's say that I
3:21 have a restaurant out here. >> Here we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're getting into it. >> What's like if I wanted to call Jen, like Vegas Starfish maybe for a post? >> You can't afford her. >> There's people generally can never afford her. Smaller mom and pops. The thing is is Jen's such a nice person, she'll usually just go and do it for free. >> Wow. >> she knows it like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jen's the best, by the way. Vegas Starfish. Like people think like she's like some untouchable like unapproachable >> a regular regular ████ girl who now makes ████ more money than ████ almost all of them. >> I call her the lady who's looking who's always looking for in the hotel rooms. Dude, with the black light? Dude, I love that I Dude, I told her. I was like, "Jen, you need to like put some fake ████ Yeah. Have your husband still kind of fresh. Like floating on the carpet hair. You know, like oh, just like straight ████ sticky rope. >> Or just like flip the camera around and be like, "I GOT COVERED IN WHAT HAPPENED? LOOK AT THE BLUE LIGHTS
4:11 ALL OVER ME. HOLY ████ It's all over my I'm covered in Dude, it's Christ. Why is it getting on my Oh my god. What's going on at Circa? >> ████ good, dude. Goddamn Circus Circus again, dude. ████ dude. Uh Somewhere. That's ████ so funny. I'm going to tell her, dude. That's so ████ funny. Uh but no, Jen is like she has such a big heart uh and she has like she's the most powerful. Most powerful. >> Most powerful, dude. As far as like impact. I tell every client that we meet with cuz obviously I let them know, "Hey, if like you want to increase your sales and your visibility, like you're hiring our agency to control your content and your creative. That's like one thing. That's a service all in its own. If you want to like hire influencers to increase your sales, obviously good social media can definitely be a byproduct of increased sales, but like you you're to hire a social media creative agency and expect your sales to increase is blasphemy. That's La La Land in today's market. You need to put forth an advertising budget
5:01 to really move that needle and you'll see a result, but it costs money. Like no one's just going to do it for free. Like we're not all Keith Lee going to ████ save your business. Like that's just not reality. Uh but Jen does have a soft spot and you know, if she knows that that business is like super struggling or small mom and pop, it's just >> That's really kind. >> I've seen her do that a bunch of times. >> She does it all the ████ time. All It's more non-paid work than paid work, but her paid work is massive brand deals. >> Wow. Sometimes I'll see like a a brand new spot open and then within like the same Yeah, or same week, yeah, all like 10 creators make food content. Is that like the food Yeah, is it by design or is it just one person sees it, "Oh, I should go there, too." and it's like >> copying each other, you mean? No, it's by design. It's coordinated? Yeah, it's coordinated. Either by our agency, which we handle a lot of that, another agency in town that does it really well. Uh it's usually all coordinated, especially
5:51 if they're the bigger ones like me, Jen, Las Vegas Fill, >> Yeah. >> Lindsay Las Vegas Foodie. >> Oh, so amazing, dude. Amazing. >> that, dude. Uh yeah, it's by design and it works. Like it ████ works. Like shoving that repetitive content down your throat as a consumer seeing it five, six, seven times like, "Oh, I'll finally go." Yeah, I'll finally ████ go. >> To the random fish and chips place out in Henderson. >> With the Codfather? Yeah. Hey, you went all the way there? Dude, did you organize that? >> Glenn Glenn, the owner of Codfather. Amazing. He's from ████ England. Really, really good. >> Yeah, but did you organize that whole >> No, no, no, no, no. >> Cuz I was I was like, "Dude, I didn't even I fish and chips wasn't on my radar for a long Was it good? >> It's really good. Really good. Really good. If you like fish and chips, that's like the most authentic in town. Really? >> has like a little mushy pea side. Kind of sketch. I'm kind of into it though. Damn. >> Terrible pitch. Mushy pea. Yeah, mushy pea. Kind of sketch, but I'm That's your people, but it's just that that's it on
6:42 the menu. >> Don't say that's your culture. Fish and chips, bro. >> Which which fish? Yeah. Wow. >> They have cod, cod, haddock. Haddock is like the nicer one. Cod is like the little But it's bomb and you don't feel all heavy, you know, cuz it's fried. Feels good. What about Do you know Do you know uh Hello hello hello in Vegas, Paulie C? Or you know that You know what? I know >> Well, hello hello >> Oh, really? No, no, no, no. I don't know him personally. He exploded though in the recent years, for sure. I just think he leans a little more negative with the content, which obviously gets engagement. >> He hates Fun 100 more than anything. And he hates Vegas Starfish. Oh, yeah, he did. He He like He's posted hell of ████ about her. Like I I don't know the full story in depth. Jen would tell the story better and she has on a couple podcasts, but they had like a deal back in the day where I guess he retained her to promote his little casino app or something, but then ended up allegedly ████ her over or some ████
7:32 I don't know. But I'm team Jen all day, so one thing about me is I'm like wildly loyal to to friends. So, it's like if someone has an issue with someone I really, really ████ with, Heavy D, Jen, I don't even mess with them. You know. That's the North Vegas in you, huh? >> She's got infinitely more people that agree and think she's great. >> Oh, Jen's amazing. Anyone that says it just doesn't know Jen or know the real story. Jen is ████ amazing. Yeah, you can't really count a business fallout in there. >> No, no, no. And Jen is worth every penny. >> Okay, what's an example of like someone that's like walked into your place and was just like give me stuff. >> know? I'll even pull them up. >> I would love to know. Oh, yeah, we want to know. So, and you're going to see them and you're going to ████ laugh only cuz and dude, it sucks cuz Kevin and Damian and myself weren't there. Oh. Uh it's these food bloggers, Zeke and Renee. Oh, you calling names out. They're big on Oh, they're like a couple? They're big on Google. Is it
8:24 them? >> Google. >> Google? How do you get big on Google? >> them, is it? >> No. >> some other guy. Yo, we're like What What How do you get big on Google? >> Being big on Google's huge. I'm pretty sure we're big on Google. What platform? >> On Google. I'm pretty Oh, ████ Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Zeke and Renee. And they do food review? Is that their main thing? They don't even do reviews. They post I I think >> Do they do shakedowns instead? Yes. No way. Yeah, sick. That's they They do shakedowns. Oh, I found them. Let's go. Uh Zeke_Renee_RestaurantPromoters. They have 300 followers. Let's go. >> 300 K? 300. No, no, no. >> to make Oh. now, guys. >> What if they're rich Dubai followers? You didn't think about that, did you, huh? All 300
9:15 >> businessman. That might be true. Let me see that spelling again. >> 300 sheep. >> Man, they're like unfindable because that's how low in the SEO they are. Ooh. But if you just look at their photos, it's like, "Dude, no way people are >> Holy ████ that looks So, they came into With Love Always one night with a bag of food already from Maruku Ramen, which is next door to us. They came in By the way, this is like a Friday night. Line is out the ████ door down the ████ thing. It always That's them? >> Yeah, the staff is They look like old people. >> The staff is like stressed, obviously. And uh Okay. Yeah, they walk in with a bag and just go straight to the counter and ask to speak to like a manager or an owner. Obviously none of us are there and they said, "Oh, well, can you give us food and we'll leave you like a Google review and everything and we just asked like, you know, give us like one each of your burgers, fries and drinks and usually dude I'll For a Google review? I'll give free food to ████ anybody dude. But the fact that you came in here, cut the line and you already
10:06 have this massive bag of food it's like what are you doing? They cut too? That's rough. Yeah, yeah. But if you just look at them like I need to you need to go to a photo. >> British? I don't know what they are. I've never met them. >> It's privated now. >> Is it? Or at least on my end. Oh, it is. >> Maybe I got to be signed in. Anyway. >> Privated by the time this video goes It's privated. It's just like the weirdest photos. Like who would take a photo like that? And like post it as like a like a I don't know. All blurry? Are they like Are they So are they kind of mental? They're like maybe Croatian or something. Damn, that's like wildly. They might maybe not It's just damn she Croatia catching strays, bro. Strays catching strays. Damn, dude. My bad. They're they're definitely like European of some sort. Yeah. Uh damn, it's my bad Croatia. I'm sorry. >> just like thought they could start a racket basically. Yeah, and they DM like a ton of restaurants cuz again we control 50 something So you see them in all the the No, and I'm like so our account manager is sending to me like
10:56 hey, these people keep blowing up all of our clients and I'm like bro, don't respond. Yeah. But they have like thousands of Google reviews apparently that that carries weight I don't know. But they get free food I guess from a They just use a Google part of it. Not from ours, yeah. ████ out of the restaurants? You know what? That's like a better word. >> Yeah, I think that's a great Yeah, that's a better word. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Damn, dude. Hey, ████ that Drew guy. ████ it on Croatia. We can say that they're gypsies. I don't think you guys can say it though. Why can't we say Cuz we're not Europeans. Oh, got it. Okay, sorry. Uh but yeah, that's definitely the yeah, restaurant promoters and food bloggers. But it's like dude. Oh, and they even have less followers now. They had three They had 300, yeah. Times are tough. They were doing follow bots. That's what they That was uh that was like the weirdest interaction we've ever had. That is so weird. >> DMs from like again creators even like
11:48 out of state creators that come in and be like hey, I can provide this, this, this, this, this and they throw out a price. I'm just like dude. But the brazenness of physically walking up Oh, crazy. I would ████ never. >> the line for? Oh, that's another They're living in another world. >> for food. The food and then mad that we didn't get I don't care if you're the mayor, if you cut the line you're a ████ Dick, dude. Mad. And those lines are not the ones to cut. Those lines are long. People have waited for super long. They're hungry, dude. Yeah. So yeah, that's that's the one. That's it. >> so pathetic to ask for free food. It doesn't It doesn't it feel weird? Feel always feels weird. I feel weird when when somebody comes out and like hey man, I've been watching you for a long time. We just wanted to comp the dessert or whatever and I'm like dude, you're so nice. Holy ████ that's I don't deserve this. I'm so sorry. I know. So it happens to me a ton especially only in Vegas obviously. I'm not like huge in ████ like if I go to Texas. I mean they may recognize me but
12:38 it's it's mainly Vegas obviously. I can go any restaurant in Vegas for the most part someone whether someone that works there or the hostess or the manager like oh my god you're Drew from Unlocked. Yadadadada. But then they always want to send out the food and then I always feel obligated to pull out my phone and Oh, right. Instagram story. they don't really know maybe for the most part when I go shoot at restaurants like that's already planned beforehand. Like I'm going in the kitchen to shoot the dish up close sometimes. Like it's just it's already like a a a pre-coordinated facilitated thing. >> you feel if they're filming you eating and they're going to use that content on their platform? I mean if I'm in a public space technically it's allowed so it's like you can't really >> What if they dub it and They do a voice over. >> Better than my burger. I mean So using likeness I don't think would be allowed. Yeah. But they could use they could film
13:28 me in public yeah, for sure. In a public space. Uh and do you usually do everything on your phone or you have like another camera? Phone phone all phone phone. So it feels like more I guess relatable organic Yeah, and again I don't like do reviews like I don't ever give like a rating or anything and nothing's ever negative cuz like I know I know I know what's on the receiving end of like a negative review like it can directly impact your business especially if you have a big following. >> It could really hurt. It's like dude, I have almost like a million followers just in Vegas. Like a majority of those followers are like Vegas based. Like that's all auto. Wait. >> So you just highlight you liked about it and you just leave out any negative I don't really need to highlight what I like cuz I like ████ everything. I'm like so easy to to please. I just kind of show the experience and let them know what it is and make let them make a judgment off that. Like I'm not a food critic. I'm not ████ >> Yeah, I heard you're really good tipper though. Oh, I'm a massive tipper. The the workers in the city know how I do. That's a lot of pressure. Are you ever
14:18 at a restaurant somewhere and people like holy ████ it's ████ Robert Patrick from Cop Land? That's ████ good, dude. I love that. But is it only because Cop Land Robert Patrick, dude. >> I just started rocking the stache maybe I mean it's a healthy stache, dude. >> No, this is aggressive for sure. It's good. Uh I think I can pull it off for sure. For sure. But dude, that's good. That's good. Only cuz my wife loves ████ ████ this ████ Loves Morgan Wallen. Oh, really? And uh you know, Morgan was rocking the stache for a little bit and I was like bro, I'm way ████ better looking than Morgan ████ Wallen. ████ that guy. So I saw it I was like I got to grow a mustache too. Morgan Wallen? That's it. See dude, come on. Oh yeah, yeah. Vibes vibes for sure. Yeah. I would rather ████ you for sure. Oh, 100%. Like not even a question. Bro, and I'm shredded. Yeah. He's way
15:08 richer but Wow. All right, maybe I'll maybe I'll ████ him instead. Yeah. Is that a lot of pressure when you go to eat at a place that you you don't know what the food is like and they're watching you and they're waiting and they're Yeah, it's happened a couple times. Like they're just like looking or or they keep looking or whatever, you know? For for sure. Uh but again I'm so easy to please. Like I I eat at my same five to 10 restaurants on rotation. >> Eight ounce Korean barbecue? Shoot. Have you guys been? Not yet. I need to go. >> I saw you post it. Not yet. I heard I just found out about it through you like the other day. Yeah, I didn't know You guys have never been to eight ounce Korean steakhouse? No. And you guys like Korean barbecue? I love Korean barbecue, yeah. I love it. I love Korean barbecue. Okay, so it is the best Korean Again, it's not all you can eat. It's not cheap. It is the best though. As far as it's it's all prime grade beef, real Japanese certified wagyu, unreal
15:58 banchan, phenomenal. Do they have good sauces though? Cuz it's always up in the air Like sauce like like a dipping sauce? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like pretty basic. It's like it's like a vinegar soy base like a sea salt volcanic sea salt. >> This is where Korean barbecue often loses me is to me it's about the sauces and not the meats. Like the to me >> It should be the other way around though. I agree. I agree. That's where they lose me though. Cuz the meat is so good you just need salt. >> So this spot it's not Korean barbecue it's a Korean steakhouse. Oh, word. Okay. Uh there's only a couple meats that are marinated. Everything else is just prime ████ marbled beef. Really really good. We'll go. I'll take you guys there too. Dude, it's ████ good and we'll just get slammed on soju. Yeah, Yeah, it's really good. It's ████ really good. Uh but yeah, I'm a big hater of American barbecue too so I'm pretty fair. Wait, really? Yeah. Like Texas barbecue? It's just heavy, buddy. It's just so heavy. Well, I mean you're a heavy guy, bro. I'm a big boy. I'm a big boy but I like macaroni and cheese, brother. So where
16:48 do you like barbecue? Um no, I mostly like uh what the hell is it called? Like Mexican food. Yeah, Mexican So Mexican food is my favorite food. Mexican food is my favorite food, yeah. By far. Yeah. Tacos just tacos, bro. Tacos 1986 your favorite? Tacos 1986 good. Not my favorite but it's ████ delicious. What's your favorite tacos here? I love Taco y Taco. Taco y Taco? >> never been? Oh my god, boys. WE JUST GOT HERE. We just got here. We haven't lived here for 35 years. Still fire. Tacos el Gordo still fire. Where's Taco y Taco? >> Taco y Taco's on Eastern and 250. Don't tell me it's ████ Henderson or something. Yeah, it is. God damn. I want to stay on this side of town. I know, me too. I want to drive home in under 30 minutes. Yeah. Uh Chacho's Tacos is opening next door to Sizzling Noodle sorry on Flamingo and that's ████ phenomenal. Chacho's. Taco y Taco? Taco y Taco, yeah. That's the best one in Vegas. I've heard that.
17:38 Really? It's like them Why do they only have three and a half stars then? Taco y Taco? Cuz those that couple's been there. It's the best. Where do you go for the best barbecue, American barbecue? In Vegas? There's only two. Big B's BBQ or Wildfire. Oh, I need to try Wildfire. I like Big B's. >> I keep hearing Wildfire's good. Wildfire's really that good? No. I'm ████ bookmarking all these places, dude. Fig's phenomenal. Big B's BBQ phenomenal. But I like Texas style barbecue and those are like the two most Yeah, I like that. >> feel the need to sleep immediately afterward. That's the whole point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Yeah, it's heavy. It's heavy. What's the barbecue place? Wildfire and Big B's.
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