0:00 And we got a really special guest with us here today. Vegas Phil, y'all. >> What's up? [cheering] Thanks for having me. >> You know, you just put me on game, by the way, to Is it M 32? >> Oh, M 32. >> Oh my god. I got to We'll get into that later. But yo, uh, it's a pleasure. It's a pleasure to have you here with us at the Careful Boys. Right, Bart? Show a face of satisfaction. >> What's M 32, dude? What the [laughter] hell? >> Yeah, I got to know. >> No, you don't. >> I don't know. >> Don't go and tell them what mod 32 is. Go ahead and tell. >> All right. If I were to give a Michelin star to any Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas, it would be M32. >> Really? >> Hands down. >> It's that good. >> Yeah. The Pacing Duck is the best pacing duck in Las Vegas. >> The process that they do. The dining room's gorgeous. It feels like if Great Gatsby had a house in Hong Kong. >> I love it. >> It's just my favorite. I I joke I joke and say it's my favorite overpriced
0:50 Chinese restaurant >> in Vegas and it's phenomenal. >> Is it overpriced? >> Every single time. >> I mean, yeah, everything's overpriced. Is this because they're like is it is it just cuz you're not used to paying for that price for Chinese food? >> I took my parents and my relatives there maybe two years ago. They still talk about the dinner now cuz it was the most expensive Chinese. >> But it's good though. >> It's ████ great. >> You went No, he put me on game tour. So that's why I'm like that's on my list. But now if it's the most expensive Chinese dinner ever, >> I think I think we should [laughter] just go all together. >> Let's go together. >> Better with a group and >> we could try a bunch of stuff. >> It's fantastic. You ever been to Beastro? Huh? Cuz it's like overpriced too in Temple City. But it's ████ bomb though. Have you been be strong in Temple City? >> I have. >> I have. I know what you're talking about though. It's like a white building next to ████ >> The teapotss by the teapot. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Cuz the minute like Chinese people come out with good service, you're like,
1:41 "What the ████ [laughter] >> It's imperial. It becomes imperial." >> You're checking on me. You filled up my water. >> Yeah. They came out with the iPad and then you're like, >> uh, they come out with the iPad at highly loud. They just throw it on the table. Hey, you know iPad? Hey, you know iPad, [laughter] >> my friend. My friend. >> But they Mu has my favorite shaolong bao in Vegas. They do a hot and sour soup shaolong bao. >> Wa. That's next level. >> And if you eat it grandpa style, don't do any of the sauce. Just pop in your mouth hot and have it explode. That's the way you do it, >> dude. Let's go, dude. >> And it is ████ so good. >> That's love it. Lobster map tofu. A bunch of other things. >> ████ Lobster maboto. >> Excuse me. What are these words together? [laughter] >> That's amazing.
2:31 >> That's crazy. Yeah. Highly I highly recommend [laughter] it. >> But hey, we're we're excited to have you here join us today, man. They Phil, you are a legend and probably a savior of a lot of restaurants out here. >> Absolutely. >> Um like you just we just found out that you first were doing a concierge service and that's kind of how like this developed for you. But like tell us a little bit about your story, man. Like how did you get to become the food dude that does all this and probably has the best social content job in the world. I think I think food review probably takes the cake for like greatest version of social influencing possible career. Everything else is like a byproduct of coolness. >> Unless you review hookers or something. >> Jeez reviews. That's not a bad idea. [laughter] >> They already have websites for that by the way. >> They do. >> Phil, tell us about yourself. [laughter] Come on, dude. This guy This guy know >> I don't know what I don't know what you're talking about.
3:21 >> He said that so I was like we [laughter] >> escort reviews. All right, go ahead. >> But thanks for the kind words. I can't believe I'm sitting with you guys here. It's really an honor to be here. But long story short, my story with Vegas was uh I I moved here to play poker initially. I was uh doing pretty well online um when I was living in New York and Japan. And then I decided to take my bankroll here. Uh fortunately unfortunately it didn't work out but during that time >> were you planning like trying to do like uh like the WPT and WSO plate all those things. >> I did more like >> I was an online gr grinder. I I was sit I was a sit and go specialist. That was my thing. So multi-tabling eight to 20 games or whatever it was at the same time. >> That was my thing. But um then I got had to get a real job and it was a swing
4:11 shift job where all I wanted to do was find restaurants for dinner past midnight and that's when I started discovered Yelp, started writing reviews. I became Yelp famous in Vegas maybe in 2010 2011. People started recognizing me from Yelp stuff which was crazy. And then once uh the initial wave of Instagram foodies started blowing up stuff like Unlocked um Happy to 702 and a bunch of them, that kind of piqued my interest in uh moving to IG. So I took that seriously starting around 2017 >> and then kind of never looked back. I was able to quit my job in 2019 and go do this full-time. And uh that's kind of how the food stuff happened. I didn't realize I was a foodie until I left New York, moved to Japan, and realized, even though Japan has a lot of great food, I was missing a lot of things. I was dreaming about Mexican food. I was
5:01 dreaming about a lot of things I couldn't have in Japan. And Chinese food sucks in Japan. I didn't know if anyone I never even tried. >> They've adjusted They adjust the taste of Japanese the Japanese palette and it's >> sucks. >> Yeah. Um, yeah. I started blowing up some places maybe in 2018, 2019. uh started running social media for a bunch of restaurants and that's kind of where I am today. It's been it's been a trip. Um it was never a plan to do this full-time. I just kind of stumbled upon it. But I think for any content creator, if you're just putting out good work, you know, all this stuff, being able to talk to you, uh making money doing this, I mean, it's just a byproduct of putting out quality posts. >> You know, Anthony, he's the reason why you had a six-month wait at Golden Steer. >> Really? Yep. You were up next and he kept pushing you back. [laughter]
5:53 >> Back of the line. Back of the line. [laughter] >> Yeah, he's our social the social media guy. Oh >> yeah, I run their social media for over six years now. >> No, Golden Steers bomb. But they what they did tell me specifically is that you could just roll up at like 9:00 to the bar and oftent times just go in and sit and eat. >> Yeah, walkins is a great way to go. Uh, if you show up there at 400 p.m., there's usually a line 30 minutes before they open. >> Holy ████ >> For just walk-ins. It's unbelievable. Sometimes I'll roll up there, it'll be like 50 deep of people hoping to >> Yeah. On their anniversaries, still standing outside hoping for a seat at the bar. It's crazy. >> Wearing their nice clothes. Wow. >> Yeah. But I think Yeah. 8:00 p.m. Definitely 9:00 p.m. you could usually get a seat. >> That's when he goes to sleep, though. So, >> and I have a kid, so I can be having my kid like eat dinner at like 11:00 or
6:43 whatever. That's crazy. [laughter] >> For the golden steer, he will. Yeah. >> What are your What are your other personal hobbies that you don't really show on your social media like you like doing? >> It's really weird. If you make your hobby your job, then your life just kind of takes a weird turn because then you got to find another hobby. Um lately I've been playing a lot of pickle ball. That's about it. No way. >> That takes a lot of my time now. And I play like three or four, five times a week. >> Damn, that's a lot. >> Pickle ball is like drugs. Um, if if you can't find friends to play pickle ball with, you just find other people. And I have a lot of people on my phone now that where their last name is just pickle ball. I don't even know. I don't even know their >> You just like cold walk up to people to ask to play a game. >> Uh, so these days because my schedule is kind of super flexible. I just play open play. So people just sign up and I just
7:33 play a bunch of randos. Do you do you play at like those uh those actual like courts or like cuz you know a lot of these parks they have pickle ball court >> or like chicken pickle. >> What's chicken pickle? >> Isn't that that indoor place? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. There's a place in Henderson. Yeah. So I it's hard for me to get four people to play when I want to play. So open play is the perfect thing. It's all just single people that don't have anyone else to play with. So it's a kind of like a set thing. >> And you go to a park to do open play or you have to go to one indoor >> normally do indoor ones. Yeah. So VIP the courts LV near here and Mr. Pickle Ball on Rainbow. >> Oh, cool. >> Damn. I still haven't played a single game of pickle ball. >> Me neither. >> I mean, if you ever played tennis or ping pong, it's >> I played both tennis and ping. >> Oh, then you'd be good. >> I want to play pickle ball, but it's also like >> I think you'd be good. Your legs are long. >> I'll beat your ████ ass though. >> You're good at lateral move. >> I will ████ smoke the dude. I All I
8:23 need is one person to ████ talk. I will ████ destroy you in your ████ lineage. >> I can hit with both hands. >> That could be some good concert. [laughter] >> What the heck? Put them on the same team. It's even better. >> So you said you were a concierge for like a major a major resort. >> So it was actually a time share resort. >> Oh, time share. >> Right. So >> whole hard mode. >> It was a front >> right. Let me So you you act like a concierge to help them with stuff. But your my main goal is to book them on a time share presentation >> where I get paid to book them and I get a percentage of the sale. >> Oh. So if they want to go see Yeah. If they go want to go see Mustair. Yeah. You could pay, >> you know, 200 bucks or I'll just give you the tickets for free if you do this twohour presentation. >> No way. That's crazy. >> I see. Are there lots of things like
9:13 that out here? >> Oh yeah. >> Oh jeez, man. [laughter] >> Yeah. Uh way back when, I mean, every hotel, every mall would have a concierge or customer service person that actually was a time share front and they paid thousands of dollars a year. Like some companies like Marriott would pay Venetian like $4 million a year just to have desks in the Grand Canal shop. >> Dude, like 20 years ago when I was doing sales in Sam's Clubs, we would stand there and and sell these certificates for like Polo Towers. >> Yeah. >> Or or Tahiti Village. >> Yep. I worked at Tahiti Village. >> Wow. We basically are >> co-workers. [laughter] Shake my hand. >> The light says shake shake B's [laughter] hand. Okay. >> No. But yeah, I used to stand stand there and then we would sell these very good deals, but like if you stay at
10:04 Tahiti Village, you're not on the strip. You're you're down a bit, you know? You're you're not walking anywhere. >> Yeah. Things are things get embellished. >> Yeah. But then we're like, you know, Yeah. You're like you're on the strip. You're on the street. It's on Las Vegas Boulevard. Basically, >> ultimate variety shows just like Cirtole. I swear to God. >> Yeah. You got really good at that job, huh? >> I did. I It taught me a lot of lessons because you're constantly trying to turn, you know, something out of nothing >> every single day, all day long. So now, I mean, fortunately, I'm in a position where I don't really have to seek work. But if they're halfway interested in what I'm doing, I mean, it's an easy close now because of all that experience >> doing cold sales. >> That's hard work. >> That's super hard. Yeah. >> And to read people super quick right on the spot. >> Oh, yeah. What they're about or what they they might they might need. >> Try to make a quick connection as soon
10:54 as possible to have them trust you. >> It was very I mean it was quite the experience and I'm sure for you too, right? >> Yeah. But that's also what like I hated about it. Like I was I was also good at it, but it got to a point where like I think there was like a visualization of a dollar sign on a person's forehead. And if they didn't give me that like if like if I didn't have that right away, we're wasting time, aren't we? You know what I'm saying? It's like if you're not hitting these sales points, if I can't get that connection, you're already going to deny we're all we're wasting each other's time. And so you would just your interactions would be so money focused that you wouldn't even be able to leave work at work. Sometimes you would go home and then the way that you would slightly kind of interact with people would be like, "What am I getting from this moment?" >> It's like work PTSD >> a little bit. That's just how I I felt like everything was transactional after after just getting so good at and training other people in the sales too, you know, and you're talking about this
11:44 is sevenstep sales solutions. This is what you do about and then next thing you know, you're just applying it to your like family conversations. >> You're selling your mom, >> you know, and you're like >> closing your mom on Tahiti village. >> Your in-laws must have loved you. >> Yeah. Well, yeah, of course. But that's how you gain consent so easily. [laughter] >> Always be closing. >> Keep it simple, stupid. [laughter] >> But yeah, I mean, you get you get good you get good at reading people. You get good at talking about different things with different random people. You get really confident that you can hold a conversation with any type of person. That's actually one of the craziest parts. Just be like, you could sit next to a random person on a, you know, stranger on a plane. I know I can get into any conversation with this person now. That's a great skill to have. >> That's a That's a unique unique thing to just know that you could feel walking around. >> Sex with anyone [laughter] >> whenever I want. >> That's really good.
12:34 >> And if you're even halfway remotely interested, I got that consent now. >> And a time [laughter] share. >> You have sex with them and you get time share. So, does that mean are you able to spot like because you've done that job? Are you able to spot right away when someone is that job when you're like just going around and you're talking to like >> Oh, like realize realize realize. >> Yeah. [laughter] Exactly. Like you know someone's trying to sell you on something that like >> Oh yeah, >> you can detect it right away. Huh? >> All the things that they would do, all the points, all the little lines that they always say. I'm like, "Wait a minute. What the ████ [laughter] going on?" I could tell I've met some foodie influencers. I'm like, "You've worked in time share before. I swear to God, just the way you're talking to [laughter] >> how you're saying it, I'm like, oh my god, this is insane. >> It's a terrible script. >> It's like a bunch of masters of consent just hanging out. [laughter]
13:24 Like are we all trying to ████ each other? What the [laughter] hell? Cuz I'm closing. You closing me or I'm closing you. I'm closing you. Did I just get closed? You ████ wish you closed on me. You think you closed on me? >> Swear I was getting What? >> It is weird though. Some of the best sales people are the ones that can easily be sold. >> Oh, >> cuz they respect the game. Huh. >> You're like, "Oh, that was a good close. They'll buy it.
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