%20(1).jpg)
RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Talking local sports, business and real estate.
RUNNIN' VEGAS - The John McNamara Podcast
Damien Bauman's Journey: From College Football to Entrepreneurial Success and Nebraska Football
hey guys, john McNamara hosts in Vegas. We're talking local sports, business, real estate. If you guys like what you see, like, subscribe, follow us on running vegas podcast on instagram. And today we got a special guest, damian bauman. Coo, woo, fortune cookie in the house. What's up, man? Thanks man, I appreciate you on. I'm super excited to have you on. I'm glad you're excited. I hope you're excited.
Speaker 2:No, I'm definitely excited.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Glad to get the invite to come on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a big fan of yours because I'm like a super football nerd and you played at Nebraska back in the day and I grew up watching Nebraska just kicking everybody's butt.
Speaker 2:So, besides Nebraska, tell us about you your background, where you're from, what's like your story. It's kind of funny because you brought up Nebraska first to begin with. Yeah, it almost feels like like that was a different life, you know. Yeah, it's so far removed. You start to think about like how long ago it was that you actually played. You're like, wow, did I actually even do that?
Speaker 2:But originally grew up in Boston, my family moved to Florida when I was in eighth grade so you know, I was the guy with the wicked cool accent down there and then everybody has a southern accent and it's like I had to figure out how to be a chameleon real quick in Florida. And then after high school I was a decent high school athlete, ended up going playing college football. I actually went to Central Florida first, so I played the same time, or I came in the same class as Dante Culpepper. I kind of remember the the first time I met him and didn't realize that he was going to be a multiple year NFL star. We're throwing the ball and we're about the same size.
Speaker 2:So I was like a 240 pound kid playing tight end. He's a 240 pound quarterback. And I remember warming up with him like what position do you play? He's like I'm a quarterback. I'm like, no, you're not. So it kind of funny. You know, years later he was kind of known as being that bigger quarterback and as long as I played it almost felt like as I put on weight, he put on weight too as he got up to that 280-pound size. That's kind of where I was, but that's where I kind of started my collegiate career and then Great program.
Speaker 1:It's come a long way. How do you feel about the move to Big 12? Are you like a Nebraska guy, ucf guy, both guys so like I'm probably a Nebraska guy. Okay.
Speaker 2:The challenge with being a former athlete. It's really hard to be a fan of anything other than your alma mater, and especially if you played for a long time. Because what happens when you watch film? You always feel like you're breaking down film. Because part of practice is you go in there and for an hour you're always watching yourself and watching what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong and, um, like, if I go to the raiders game, I I have Raiders season tickets. I still go there. The best is when it's preseason, because my wife goes there and I go there and normally we'll have somebody sitting between us. We got four tickets so the kids will come and she's texting me numbers and what she's doing is she's texting me the guys who she thinks is going to get cut next. Because I taught her to watch football the same way I watch football. Oh, that's cool, so she can watch. She's probably a better offensive or defensive line coach than some of the coaches coaching in college or high school right now. Because I taught her how to watch the game with the technical eye of what guys are doing right or wrong. Because the whole time I watch football I normally watch what people are doing wrong, not watching for big plays but so I ended up transferring up to Nebraska.
Speaker 2:Um, I had some academic issues when I was at UCF. I was doing the whole stay out till 6am before Snoop Dogg said it was cool. Um, and, and how I made it up. There is kind of an interesting story. Um, basically we're back in Nebraska from my mother-in-law's or she wasn't my mother all the time, it was my girlfriend's mother at the time, but soon to be my mother-in-law's birthday and her birthday's on July 4th and at the time we're thinking about you know where. What am I going to do? Because I went to another school, got a two-year degree, decided I want to go back to school and play football, and I reached out to UCF. They said we'd love to have you come back and then they called me back a couple of days later and said maybe you should take a year off and I had two years of eligibility left. So we're thinking about different places and my mother-in-law she's like well, nebraska has a great running program. You're a bigger, tight end. I was about 280 pounds at the time. They're like why don't you go down there and talk to the people at the university? They just came off a national championship in 97, and I was thinking that, yeah, I was thinking like Florida, florida State, miami. I was thinking Florida and I just happened to be in Nebraska.
Speaker 2:So I actually drove into Lincoln for my wife's hometown, the town of thousand people called Pender, and I walk in the office and in July, that's the the month that all the coaches take time off. So the only person that was in there was a receptionist and at the time it was coach Frank Solich. Tom Osborne just retired, so I go in there, frank comes out of his office. You know how can I help you, mike, I want to play in Nebraska. I think I'd be a good fit. He's like, well, tell me why you'd be a good fit. And I kind of told him this, this story of me being a good athlete and I could run this fast and jump this high and do all these things. And he's like, well, ucf probably won't release any film, so why don't you do this? Go back home, put some film together. Just, you know, go run some routes. We want to see you run some routes. Go run the 40. You say you can jump. Maybe jump up against a basketball hoop.
Speaker 1:What's your 40 time or?
Speaker 2:back then.
Speaker 1:I ran a four, six.
Speaker 2:I was 180 pounds 36 in vertical, four, six, so, um, so impressive. So I go back and I put this film together and and the when I played basketball in high school, a sophomore that when I was a senior was Tracy McGrady, so he had just finished up his rookie year playing for the Raptors. And we're in the gym and I'm there with my girlfriend, who had become my wife, and I'm there with my high school coach and they're filming me doing a bunch of different stuff. Well, it was an open gym, tracy's shooting on the other side. I've got a basketball. I'm like well, let me show him I can jump. So I stand under the rim, no, drop, step, jump, bump and dunk the ball, and I do it with two hands. And I'm like, well, I haven't got this on film before and this was before like cell phone videos. So I run at the rim and I do a windmill, and that video is actually on YouTube. If you want to just Google my name on YouTube, you'll probably find it. I'm finding this, but I sent it off and I'm like there's no way Nebraska is going to bring me in.
Speaker 2:So me and Kim, we go back to Orlando and I get a call after we send the tape in and it was Dave Gillespie. He was a running back coach. He was running recruiting for Nebraska at the time and he says hey, this is David Gillespie, we'd love to have you come to camp. So literally like that, we kind of packed up our life and we moved from the Orlando area up to Lincoln and, and it was kind of crazy, I talked to my high school coach after the fact and when, when he called what he told me the conversation went was they're like the fact? And when, when he called what he told me, the conversation went was they're like I don't know where this kid's been hiding, but if he's 280 pounds and he can dunk a basketball like that, we gotta have him so it was that silly windmill that I put in the video that actually got me the look.
Speaker 2:So we, so I, go to lincoln, and when I get to lincoln I'm 16th on the depth chart, right, yeah they've got me as as a grown man, in there with the freshman locker room, yeah, and I go in there and it was funny.
Speaker 2:I go and I get my physical and even the doctor. He's like you're not a freshman, are you? I'm like no, I'm definitely not a freshman, I'm 20 years old. Coming in and I show up the first day completely like I almost felt completely out of my element. We go and we're walking through at the offensive line, we're kind of walking through plays, and then we go out and we go through all of our individual drills. And then what happens?
Speaker 2:After you go through individuals in practice they normally bring groups together and they have them do one on ones. We're in full pads, we're doing one-on-ones, we have the defensive line and some some of the dns there. So my chance to get up to do to do one-on-ones. They put me against somebody else who's lower on the depth chart and I drive the guy back 5, 10 yards and pancake him Nice. So then they put somebody else against me Again a better player. I do the same thing and then they stop.
Speaker 2:They called over Coach Ron Brown, who was a wide receiver coach who also coached tight ends at the time, and they said you've got to come see this. And guys told me after the fact that, like ron never came to watch, watch individuals, or like one-on-ones for the d-line and the tight ends, except for that one day wow, he comes over. They put a guy in front of me. Turned out to be kyle van and bosh, you had a long nfl career, all right, yep, put him in front of me. The guy drove kyle.
Speaker 2:I don't know personally, but Great dude, yeah, absolute beast. But I drove him off the ball. I didn't pancake him, but I drove him off the ball. So then Coach Brown takes me to the side and he grabs another guy, travis, who was a grad assistant at the time, and he says hey, here's what I want you to do. Get want you to stay by his hip and teach him the offense. So I went from 14th in the depth chart to third in the depth chart with about 15, 20 minutes of practice, and that that in for me. You know, coming from from Florida, like you grew up in Florida, people talk about college football. It's, it's an argument about Florida, florida, state, miami, like everybody kind of has their team.
Speaker 2:When I went to Nebraska it was a different world. Like everybody in Nebraska was a Nebraska football fan at that point in time. You know your closest, your closest professional teams, you know, three and a half hours away down in Kansas city. So Nebraska football was kind of everything. So I went from a you know a bigger city where there's plenty of stuff to do and definitely UCF wasn't't, wasn't the big thing to do in town, yeah, um, to where everybody knew who you were in lincoln yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:How was lincoln? And that stadium is huge, it's like a hundred thousand people right, they still it doesn't sit.
Speaker 2:I think it's somewhere in the 80s, like high 80s, okay, okay, but they still have, when you look at it, they still have the record for most consecutive sellouts, wow. So, like when I was there, I want to say it was somewhere between like 250 and 300. And I think they either pushed past 400 or they're somewhere near 400. I try to make it back for at least one game a year, or try to make it to a West Coast game at least once a year and try to reconnect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're looking better now. It's crazy the fall off because growing up because unless you're like I, grew up watching football. So Nebraska is like to give you guys context if you're not like a football fan, like they were Alabama back in the day, you know in the nineties anyways. So and then it just like fell off like completely for like 15, 20 years and now it looks like Matt Rule is doing a better job with the program and everything.
Speaker 2:He's bringing him back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did a great job at Baylor.
Speaker 2:He's done a great job at Baylor, except for the NFL, yeah except for Carolina.
Speaker 1:It's a different animal, though.
Speaker 2:The thing with the program and kind of what happened when I left. My senior year would have been 99. Yeah, um, and we finished third in the nation. We probably should have played for the national championship. The playoff didn't exist. Um, I think it was Florida state and Virginia tech that played at the time. So when, when I look back, like every year, I have a big 12 championship ring from 1999. We beat Texas. Um, I'm going to throw that out there real quick.
Speaker 2:But the thing with that 99,. So I took my son back my son's 21 now, but when he was like seven, I took him back to a football camp in Nebraska and they built a brand-new indoor facility at the time, which isn't new anymore because it's quite a while ago but they had a banner, a white banner, that went the full length of the field and two-thirds of the banner was filled with championships, so national championships or conference championships, and then it stopped at 99. And while I was there, I actually got to catch up with Coach Ron Brown and I remember saying to him like, like man, I feel like I broke the program yeah, we left in 99 and we hadn't really done anything since.
Speaker 2:And the next year, the year after I left, they played in the national championship against Miami. Yeah, and then after that, with the new athletic director that came in, they brought, they kept the coaching carousel happen and for some reason or another for the Frank Solich didn't work as a head coach there. He went on to have a great coaching career at Ohio and we really haven't been able to find the right mix, sense. And to me like, if you, if you take, whether you want to call me fan or alumni or whatever it just felt like every coach that they replaced the prior coach with, they were really trying to find the thing that fixed the prior coach's deficiency, but what ended up happening is they found a completely different problem that they tried to fix with the next coach that they brought in.
Speaker 2:And now we're at rule and I think even even in the community with nebraska you talk to a lot of people there's still there's a lot of optimism and, yeah, we went, we went back this year, um, we're actually back for the 94 30 year reunion. I know a lot of those guys. We had a great time, oh cool, and it's probably the first time we've been back to a game where we actually heard a lot of optimism in the stands. Good, so, even though stands are filled. You know we went through some bad years and you have some people pretty unhappy with how things were going, but now you're starting to hear optimism again. So the the thing that I think transitioned for Nebraska not only the coaching changes but really the strength staff. So in the late nineties you talk about like what Husker power was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to ask you about this, okay.
Speaker 2:Glad you bring this up. They were. They were at the forefront of like strength and conditioning and nutrition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think everybody else caught up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I think once everybody caught up, I don't think that they were capable of pushing past it.
Speaker 1:And then you take that and you mix in a few other things and, before you know it, you guys are just known for power football, like you would watch, and you know you and I were talking about football. I'm kind of the same way. I like the x's and the o's and watch what you do right and what you do wrong. I'm always like the first thing I'm watching when a game starts there's an offensive line, move the defensive line or defensive line, move the offensive line, because that dictates the game. Like in the 89 percent of the time I can kind of predict who's going to win that. Just from that Nebraska back in the day, the teams that you were a part of, I mean, just push that, you guys could just do whatever. So I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 1:And then switching the big 10 was interesting. Obviously it works out because big 10 there's so much more money, yeah, but I'm sure it changes rivalries. There's a lot of shifts with that whole culture. But I think they brought outside, like you know, one way, when I was outside looking in, just seemed like they brought the because because Matt Rule, he just brings a totally different. You know now they're passing the ball a lot, it's a totally different. You haven't seen that from Nebraska in the past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know recruiting probably had a piece to do with it. I think Matt Rule's done a much better job in recruiting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know one of the things that happened when Callahan came in because he was a guy who came in after, after coach solich um. I actually later became friends with one of the coaches in omaha that really put a lot of kids from high school, one of the high school coaches that put a lot of kids into lincoln um, and he told me he said you know, when tom was the coach, he used to just walk in the back door by the locker room and go in. He'd sit down the coach's office like all right, who do we need to bring in? And said Callahan's been there for a couple years. I haven't even talked to the guy yet.
Speaker 2:So there was a, for some reason, when people come in from outside the state, there's a lot of really good athletes that actually live and play high school football in Nebraska, but it's not a populous state. Everybody seems to think that the best players have to come from California or Texas or Florida. At least at that point in time they did. I mean, things have changed with huddle and access to film now, but back then there was just this feeling that you had to play in one of those three States to be a top tier athlete, where that's certainly not the case. And I and I remember the conversation I had.
Speaker 2:Um, he said he's like listen, I got a tight end going to Iowa state. Now I got a linebacker going to Kansas state. I got a tight end going to Iowa State. Now I got a linebacker going to Kansas State. I got a quarterback going here. He named every other school in the Big 12. He's like and I don't have a single player going Nebraska, so recruiting, you know, in that college world and I get a watch change with NIL right now. But that's, that's the make or break.
Speaker 1:I agree, then, yeah, do you watch, you know me football at all.
Speaker 2:I do, I can't. I catch a couple of games. I actually went to the bowl game and and kind of got a kick out of watching. Was it nava come back with usc and actually get to play? Oh yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:That was cool, right, I, I didn't get to go to that game. I got invited but I couldn't make it. But yeah, one thing about univ it's not the same thing nebraska. You know they're very different programs.
Speaker 1:But one thing I liked about Barry Odom he's like, hey, we're going to protect the local prospects here because nobody recruited Las Vegas and it seemed like such a waste because they have like 15 Division I players, 15 to 25 Division I players. They have Bishop Gorman down the road, which is the best high school football program in the nation, and the coaches don't even bother Las Vegas, they go to California, they go to Texas. So there is something about protecting your house a little bit and getting talent. And then the thing is, as you know too, recruiting is like you might be a four-star or two-star, but they're just stars. So if you have them in your backyard, you get to see those kids. You're like, oh, this kid's legit, you get to see them every day, day. There's something about film and seeing somebody in person yeah I don't know for you, but I I could.
Speaker 1:It's like a totally different process when I'm watching an athlete.
Speaker 2:So and I just think, from recruiting, regardless what state. If you're the state school in state, you got to make sure you clean up everything in your backyard, yes, and if you don't do that, I don't. I don't know how teams find success. I mean, you're competing nationally. It's not like the world has changed a lot since the 90s when it comes to recruiting. You had a lot of guys who tried to stay close to home, and especially now, I just think it's hilarious that you'll have a quarterback that could potentially play for four or five different schools before he finds a way to the NFL.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know it's crazy right now with the transfer rules, and now they're saying maybe there won't be eligibility anymore and it's getting to a whole different thing.
Speaker 2:It was something I had to deal with. So when things didn't work out at Central Florida, I purposefully took 11 credit hours just to and obviously my clock started ticking, it didn't really matter, but just to preserve eligibility if possible. And and actually when I got to Nebraska, I remember I talked to the, the academic guy, and I started out in college. I was a computer and electrical engineering major, um, and then when I got to Nebraska they said, okay, well, you can't be an engineer. Well, at least you can't be an engineer and play football. You're more than welcome to be one or the other, but you don't transfer enough credit hours in.
Speaker 2:So they're like you got three different options sociology, psychology or economics. So I picked the thing that fit best at the time, which, from an analytical perspective, was economics, and it was a good fit and it kind of set me up career-wise. But they came back to me at the end of it they're like oh, by the way, we didn't realize you weren't taking 12 credit hours. You actually should have been classified a little bit differently. You could have been an engineer if you want. I'm like yeah, oh, my god.
Speaker 1:So so, yeah, good segue here. Because you were in the lending business for a long time, you've probably seen it all. How was that? Uh, because how long you've been in vegas, for I've been been a baby for 17 years, 17 years.
Speaker 2:I think we stopped it in Nebraska before I ran off in a tangent but yeah, I've been here for 17 years and and I actually came out here. I own a mortgage company and and I started a mortgage company to get out of working for a bank because I was playing arena football and we play arena football, so so no.
Speaker 1:I grew up in Albany, new York, and I was the I Albany Firebirds went to the championship game football and we play arena football, so so no, it's all part of the story. In albany, new york and I watched the albany firebirds went to the championship game of that. That's sorry, that's just like that's old school yeah and listen.
Speaker 2:In college I remember going to see the ira barnstrom was playing when kurt warner man I love it.
Speaker 2:So I started playing. When I finished up with football I tried to get an extra year eligibility. That didn't pan out. My NFL dream kind of fizzled. Um I, I signed a. I was yeah, I signed a contract in Toronto. They cut me before I ever got in Um I signed a contract actually with when the XFL first came out. I remember going to a combine and getting offered a contract um with the XFL and got cut before I showed up to the Vegas team for practice. Um.
Speaker 2:I looked at the arena league the first time and I was training for about 16 months and I probably didn't have it in me. And I showed up to a cattle call tryout and it just didn't work out. So I figured you know what, I'll go get a job. It's time to get a job, raise a family, build a household. And the guy when I bought my first house, the guy I moved in next to played for an indoor football team called the Omaha Beef, for an indoor football team called the Omaha beef, and he was an offensive lineman. He's like hey, man, if you got in, you won't you come out. I'm like, nah, man, I'm done. Yeah. So then I go and I get a gym membership. Down the road from my house the guy plays running back for the Omaha beef. Hey, man, if you got in, come on in and get, let's get it going. I'm like man, I'm done. So I actually I called up the coach. I kind of got the edge. I called up the coach. He's like, well, come on down. And at the time I'm 285 pounds and I still had some athletic ability in me. But I went out there thinking, well, this really wasn't a tight end position in that world. Yeah, so I'm like, well, I'll play wide receiver, what? So I gotta see that you do so. Go to YouTube. I actually have a video I'm playing D-line at the time. Okay, but my thing, after I scored a touchdown or after I got a sack, I do a backflip. So there's actually a backflip video out there after a sack.
Speaker 2:But the first year I go out there and I play wide receiver and it was funny because it was me and I was one of the motion guys. Yeah, and we had another wide receiver who played tight end. His name was Chad Mustard. He ended up going on to play in the NFL for a little while, but he was 6'8" and he was another 280-pound tight end. So we had these two huge wide receivers and we just played the game a little bit different than everybody else in that league. But playing in Omaha, that was fun. By the end of that year, with injuries, I started eight different positions. I think I finished up playing center because we kept losing people on the offensive line. So I played o-line, d-line running back.
Speaker 2:At one point in time I was a wide receiver and the next year I went to play in Omaha. They brought a new coach and the coach said hey, I love you, you're a great asset to the team. The problem is I don't have room in my offense for a 280-pound wide receiver. You either got to lose like 40, 50 pounds and get faster or if you put on like 15 pounds, you'd probably be one hell of a defensive lineman. And I thought like I could just walk into the gym and eat a pizza and put on 15 pounds. So that's the route I went and the rest of my career playing indoors. That's actually where I thrived.
Speaker 2:So I ended up playing in New York.
Speaker 2:I played in Sioux City, I played in Austin and I played in Kansas City.
Speaker 2:You were in New York City, so it was the Dragons, it was out in Long Island.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think I remember, okay, yeah, so I played in Kansas City and I also finished my career up in New Orleans and the funny thing about New Orleans. So when I let's, let's go to Kansas City's, because that's kind of how I got to Vegas when I was in Kansas City they brought a guy in to work out and and he's an absolute beast, still a really good friend to this day he's the reason why I came to Las Vegas. I remember I walk in the locker room and this six foot six dude giant afro standing there just yoked up next to my locker and he's already ready and we're like we're just getting there to get ready for practice. I'm like, hey, man, what's up? He, he has a great workout. They offered to sign him. He was from Vegas, his name's Tyshawn Whitson. It's my boy T and the first trip that we had, first away trip we have, was in Colorado and our rooms were joined. So we're sitting there talking and I find out that this guy is like my brother from another mother man.
Speaker 2:I love this man to death and I used to tell him like, yeah, after every season I go out to Vegas, my wife and I will leave the kids with the in-laws and we'll just blow off steam for four days and try and hit the reset button Like I'll take six weeks, try to get some semblance of abs, we'll go to the pool, we'll just have a good time. And he's like hey, man, if you come out, come see me. So, things, things finished up. And this is, oh, seven. So I own a mortgage company.
Speaker 2:At the time I can sense the market's changing. And then, um, I go out and I see T and at the time he's working at pure nightclub, which is now the space that omni is in in caesar's. Yeah, and um, we go in there and we see him. My wife and I are in his vip section, the music's loud, the place is packed, and he's like hey, my man, uh, why don't you go and grab my ass? I'm like what? He's like? Nah, man, grab my right butt cheek. I'm like what are you talking about? He's like bro, just do it. So I go, grab his right butt cheek and it's pocket's stuffed with something. I go what the hell is that? He's like that's $100 bills, bro. He's like we're opening up a new nightclub. If you want to come out here and train, if you want someone warm to train, why don't you come out here and we'll train together? So that's how I came out to Vegas. Lax opened up at the Luxor, which is now the eSports lounge that they have over there.
Speaker 1:Yep, I went to LA. When I moved here, I partied there. Yep, you probably kicked me out a couple of times.
Speaker 2:I may have taken you out the back door but worked in the nightclub industry. I said you know, if I'm going to go out here, you know I'm going to give myself five years. We'll go ahead and try and make a certain amount of money. I'll still play football and then I'll figure out whatever's next. I'll probably go back to banking or lending and I overshot that by one month.
Speaker 2:Five years and one month later I actually met somebody who ran mortgage for Nevada for Wells Fargo. I was coaching his kid in football. I mean it was chance, like a lot of the opportunities I've got, a lot of it ties back to football in like some odd way. Like I met my wife through my high school quarterback because he was from her small town in nebraska like I, I owe, I owe a lot of things to this sport.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's like a meathead sport, like there's a lot of great things and connections that have come from it. But, um, so worked in the nightclub industry, kind of pivoted, and then went back into mortgage lending, worked for Wells Fargo for a little bit and then the same individual that brought me into Wells Fargo he said hey, we're building a construction product and department at Nevada State Bank. You're the only person I trust in town to take this and run with it. So I went over to Nevada State Bank, put a little over 10 years in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I saw that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've been doing it for a while and I'd like to think maybe other people would say this, not me, but I'd like to think that I was kind of known as like if you're going to go get a custom home construction loan in Las Vegas, you would call Damien. Like there was really two places in town that you would call. You would call US Bank, you'd call Nevada State Bank. And if you call Nevada State Bank, and if you call Nevada State Bank, you talk to Damien. And when I left, I was running the sales and production side of of construction for all of Zion's Bank Corp, so everything Texas and West. And the reason why I left is as I had a friend that actually shot me a text message. He's like hey, man, what's gonna take to get you to join the team? And I was like what team are you talking about? And I'm like are we talking about like a drunken volleyball team? Like what are we like? What team are you talking about? And I'm like are we talking about like a drunken volleyball team? Like what are we doing? And he's like you know? And they threw out the name of his company and I said, okay, let's talk when I get back in town, cause I was out of town and he and he came to me and this is this is a very dear friend of mine, justin Wu. He came to me and he's like when I first met him it was about a decade ago and he had just moved out to Vegas. He has had a very successful career in advertising and PR with his company out there and he said I've got this creative mind and it never stops, and for 10 years I've heard all these great ideas that he has. He's like I don't have a way to activate those ideas. So I want to put together another marketing company out here. We have kind of our niche out there in California. I want to put together another marketing company out here. We have kind of our niche out there in California. I want to do something completely different.
Speaker 2:So we put this company together called boo fortune cookie and and since then we've been growing, we've taken on it, we, what we're doing. We're probably less marketing company, probably more venture studio. Okay, for the most part, what happens is I'll get a text message that says what do you think about this? And then a week later it turns into a business. Oh, wow, so one of the more interesting ones that's come up lately, because we have a handful of for-profit entities, we have a handful of nonprofits, we have an entity called Fortune Events, so we're basically a higher-end catering company.
Speaker 2:The first event that we did basically it turned out turned out to hey, do you want to go grab dinner with chef Gary? And then a week later we're starting a company. 87 days later, we're the food behind Gordon's garage and the paddock for f1 for Vegas Grand Prix, and then we also took care of the food for dinner in the grid, which is a 300 person gathering for a lot of important people Vegas and outside of Las Vegas, before f1 even races on the starting line of the grid, which is a 300-person gathering for a lot of important people Vegas and outside of Las Vegas before F1 even races on the starting line of the grid Wow. So we built this company in 90 days to perform and now we're looking to get the name out and try and build that even bigger within the marketplace, because we think there's some opportunity there.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, man, yeah, I was excited to have you on. You're like super successful. And one thing I get out of these pods I've been doing this for about a year now. 95% of them tend to be former athletes and taking the principles and, just like you, you like you paid homage to football. What did for you. It's done a lot for me. So, just excited for all your success and the companies that you're building and I got to get a part two with you in the future because I want to dive deeper into those companies and what you're doing and I want to thank you for being on. This guy's awesome, damien, in the house. Thank you. If you guys want to talk football, this guy's your man. Guys, this is Run in Vegas. John McNamara, take care of yourselves today.