0:01 Hey, welcome to the hybrid those podcast. I'm your host Daniel Martinez. Today we have a special guest, Mr. Alex nextant. Nelson man, I said CMS the name Alex Nelson, he is known as the wedding venue guy on Twitter. If you have not if you're not operating Twitter, Twitter's a very cool space to operate. And there's a lot of cool people on there that do a lot of cool things. And wedding venue guys slash Alex is one of those. So here, let me pull them in now. Alex, how're you doing today? 0:32 Well, man, thanks. Thanks for having me on. 0:35 So Alex, is your second podcast, so we're gonna get used to doing these? So if he fumbles, don't don't give him such a hard time. He's gonna do alright today. He's gonna do right 0:45 now we'll say hopefully. So 0:49 can you tell us where you were the country you're from? 0:51 Yep. Yep. So I am born and raised in Iowa, actually. So. So when I when now I went to the University of Iowa. I graduated from there and my wife and I both did. And then that's where we built our venue is here like in Iowa, like Cedar Rapids, Iowa City area. Okay. Okay. 1:07 And one thing I love about this is that this is like your first like, endeavor and entrepreneurship was the wedding venue. 1:14 Yeah, yep. My brother had started a few companies. And I worked for both those companies slightly, the last one being for the last four years. So I've kind of been in like startup worlds a little bit, you know, seeing them raise some capital. And I always knew I'd go down that path eventually. Also, I just didn't know exactly what and I knew I kind of loved real estate as well. So then this ended up being a kind of a good mix of both of like a big real estate play, but it's also like an operating company too. So yeah. 1:44 Alright, so I'm gonna take this point. I want to highlight a video here, because it's such a cool video. We're gonna play right here. So watch this sometimes. All right, and we're back. Okay. Well, I love that video. When not when you shared that on Twitter. I was like, man, it's such such a cool experience. And I love I love watching, like, I found you. I believe in on Twitter, by the way, 2:43 earlier in the year, so like, April, maybe I think I'd hopped on. So yeah, that's been a pretty good growth since then. So it's been fun. But 2:51 only like in maybe July or August, I found you somewhere else. I feel like it was definitely it was It wasn't too long ago. But it was just, it was really cool. One thing I love about what you do on Twitter is that you're very transparent. And you've grown a lot on Twitter, it's opened up new opportunities. So let's talk about this venue, and then talk about like future opportunities of your workout. But one things I love about this is that you design that whole thing from scratch. And that sounds daunting on its own dancing, self funding you like you did a lot of like real estate things all in one project. And then now you operate that real estate business essentially. So let's talk about like your design, where it came from all that basic stuff, all that cool stuff, because I think it's such a great opportunity that you did, and I've never been like that. So it's just cool to hearing about that. Yeah, 3:41 yeah. No, thanks. And I appreciate you sharing the video. Yeah, it was definitely a lot and daunting. You know, we're, we're young, I think we started the thinking the idea when we're 25. So we're pretty gung ho and, and ready to take on any challenges then. So but looking back on it, yeah, it was definitely a big, big project to start with and kind of crazy. Yeah, no, hard like real estate experience, necessarily. We did we bought like our first house. And we try to do like a little like mini flip. Mostly a cosmetic stuff. Honestly, we didn't end up making very much money from it or anything. But it was a good learning experience. And we always knew we want to go down that path. And then we built our next house. So then we kind of like design things within the house, and we really liked that side of it. So that's why we decided we would take it up a notch and do the venue. And we definitely knew there was like a need in the area for another venue. And the biggest thing was like we didn't want to just be another venue. A lot of them in our area like just barns or pole barn buildings, you know, kind of thing. So we knew one of the like the high design and just do something completely different that we haven't seen before. So that's that was always kind of the idea and the vision. So then obviously, we got to take it up a notch on the design on front and yeah, the whole thing, it kind of sounds cheesy, but honestly, like we were talking about the design and the Floor Plan and the layout, we just didn't want to be like another like square box, basically, like some venues are. So we were looking at like every Instagram page for venues or Facebook or wherever, across the nation and trying to like pull from different things that we liked from each venue. I think we just talked about it so much that I went to bed like thinking about it. And I literally, like had a dream about how I wanted the venue to be laid out. And that's kind of how we came up with like, you can't totally telling the that video, but we have like two big wings. So like one side has like the bridal suite at the very end. And the other side has like the groom suite. So they almost get like their whole wing. And then like the middle of the building is like the big grand hall and stuff. So that was kind of like the grand vision. So it looks cool from like the road and has like these wings. And then it's just yeah, not necessarily shaped like any other building or venue. So yeah, we kind of took that and then ran with it from there. 6:06 Did you visit like any other venues in the area? Or any go to the one Instagram ones? Did you go? Like, do you like scouting? to kind of get Yeah, 6:13 so honestly, I mean, we did of course, but we didn't have like need to because we got we had just gotten married in our area, like it's been four years ago, four years ago now. So when we started doing it was probably like a year out from when we got married. So we'd literally just toured all the venues in our area. All of our or like the age where like all of our friends and our family and cousins and things like we're getting married to so we've been tons of weddings around the area. And we'd seen most of them, you know, within a two mile radius from us, too. So yeah, that was like, we already like had done some market research just by attending and being like the clientele first. 6:54 One thing I think it's funny, because like you did your market research before you even started it. 6:59 Yeah, incidentally, right? Not not on purpose. But it worked out nice, because then we just knew like the venues like the back of our hand pretty much that around the area. So 7:09 the wedding business is a very, very big business. And people that can't afford to are always looking for the best opportunity and best place to have it. And there's such a big, like, windfall that comes from a wedding just because there's the venue, there's catering, there's the DJ, there's their service people that actually serve as the bartender. There's all these different, like, economic things that that take part in that one transaction over a weekend. 7:40 Yeah, yeah, it's crazy, a lot of money, you know, big industry, big market. And that's what I think draws a lot of people to like the venue space, or that's why I've kind of got a good following on Twitter now is just the big numbers, right? It's attractive, but with that being said, is it's high stress, too, right. So like the family spending a ton of money, the brides, you know, they're pinning it on this one day, and like so much pressure, like leading up to this one day, that it is high stress, like on our end to like operating and for our team and our staff. So, you know, there's positives and negatives there. But yeah, when you look at the industry as a whole, obviously a lots of dollars going there. And I would say it's pretty solid, though, you know, the economy might go down and things like this, but like people are booking their weddings out a year two years in advance and locking in these dates putting down deposits, you know, so they're likely going to see that through and it's not going to fall apart and you know, always goes back to the factor of like, it's like a once in a lifetime opportunity kind of thing you know, only happens once so you know, parents or whoever's paying for it, or the couples kind of go all out. So we like it from that perspective, like looking long term. I think it's just too big of a tradition to really change gears or focus too much down the road. 8:58 So one thing I really want to hone in on you kind of you kind of mentioned it but not really overlooked it but I know on Twitter you said that you raise Are you locked in like weekends for like a whole year in advance and use those deposits to actually build your venue? Which I thought that was ingenious. You got pretty good. You did some was a call 9:18 pre like we did some pre bookings pre booking. So yeah, and to clear that up too. So like it was never necessarily our intention so we we had like found the land got that under contract we had went and got like financing like approved and lined up ready to go and all these things like ready to roll in like had all of our plans you know, put out a bunch of money before we started taking like any bookings. So like we were very serious like it was gonna happen like our biggest fear was like the whole thing, you know, kind of falling apart. So we waited until we felt good about that. But we also knew that we were building you know, this like $3 million building and we can sit empty for like a year because weddings do book a year two years out. in advance. So if we, if we waited until we were like done with construction, we'd likely you know, it would have been empty for 612 months, 18 months or however long, which we just can't afford to do with the carrying costs and everything. So, yeah, we started doing pre bookings. And I think, by the time it was all said and done, we booked about 100 weddings. Before we like we were officially done with construction. And then just with COVID, and all the crazy things that happened, there was a point in time where our construction timeline got delayed, so we had to push things out a little bit. And then like, during that time, like our costs went, like way up. Just like all the subs costs, everything are way up because everything was going crazy. And but luckily, like we had already taken in so many deposits, and instead of like us personally having to come up with like a ton more cash on hand to kind of close, like we already had cash sitting in the bank from these deposits. So we were able to use some of those to kind of make up the difference. So yeah, 11:01 yeah, one of the one of the big things is like running out of cash when you're building, we're doing a project like that, because that's, that's a huge problem. 11:06 Yeah, can happen fast? Yeah, yeah. So that was kind of the best part of it. And just as a business as a whole, as a whole, you know, we're getting these deposits in advance. So we always have cash kind of coming in way in advance. So you know, it's kind of almost like a negative cash cycle business where you're getting, you know, cash before these events actually happen, which is nice, you know, so you're not, you know, on a cash delay or cash crunch, necessarily. 11:35 100%. Now, you like you said, you only designed your house? Like, have you done any, like entitlements before? Was that like your first time doing entitlements? Like you went through? Like all the phases of like getting? Did you have a mentor at all? Like, How'd you figure all this stuff out? Just kind of talking with the county and figuring it out? 11:53 Yeah, no, we hadn't done any of that. I mean, looking back, I wish I had that experience, or done that before kind of diving into this. But yeah, huge learning experience. And no, we just didn't know mentor necessarily, we just kind of took a head on. And we made good friends that go with our builder or GC, he was super helpful. And on the design front, and just navigating all the hurdles that we came to. But yeah, it was mostly just on my wife, and I had to figure it out and get involved with county. And, of course, you know, the county that we're in is known to be kind of tough, and, you know, tons of codes. And they also didn't like the developer, where were the who were buying the land from. So it was this whole big battle. But we got it done and definitely learned a lot. You know, now when I'm looking at these other projects, it's like, almost easy compared to what we had to go through. So 12:46 well, not now you got like, you get to experience notch on your belt, you know, right? Now not and this is where like, a lot of people that don't do ground up development or ground up entitlements like that you got to deal with like, engineering, engineering, like you could draw it up on the back of a napkin, but some somebodies that actually had the measurements and did the estimates and the cost of what actually comes out to Yeah. 13:09 But those are all things that we had, like no idea about, you know, it's like, oh, you know, come up with a building plan, get a builder get the land, okay? That's like all your big costs, build their construction costs, yes. But then, you know, it's you forget about all the gotta get a civil engineer to do your site plan, then you gotta get an architect that actually have are stamped arctech plans are stamped engineered plans in the buildings and MEPs and all these things, you know, and that's why maybe it was a good thing that we didn't know all that going into it because slowly started paying for things up front and like floating the cash before we even knew if it was real or not, you know, but then you get up to these like getting the stamp plans is 5060 grand plus the site plan 1520 grand so it's like, by the time was all said and done just to get like the plans ready to like Submit for Approval, we had spent like 100 grand? Yeah, and maybe, maybe going in hindsight looking into it. Maybe that would have been more daunting, but we can just figure it out as we went. So 14:08 the definition of gambling on yourself. 14:12 We always knew like, it just came down to like if we knew if we could just figure out how to get it built. Like it was going to be a slam dunk because like we knew there was a need in the area. We knew we could come up with a cool design. Like we were like the clients basically like it was our HR like friends getting married, like same kind of things. Like we felt like we really knew what they wanted. So we just had to figure out how to do it with no experience. So yeah, it was fun. It was a challenge and we thankfully got it done. So 14:40 yes, there's nobody thinks about like, like the the fire marshal and sprinkler systems and you now have a limit of how many people you can have in there. You have Max occupancy, and then parking. Yeah, parking, ability bathrooms, like you got a lot of different things that come into That so many different 15:01 things. And that's like, I get like all the time to like people reaching out to me now like, they like know someone that's like built like a pole barn or like a shop or something like, Oh, I could do this for like, five 500,007 or 50,000 It's like, Sure, maybe like the core like structure, but you know, like our parking lot was like, at spots that's like 300 grand in concrete. Like it had to be concrete through the county, you know, like, yeah, sprinkler system. 100 grand there, then if you had that, like a pump room, like all this other stuff that, you know, it really adds up that people have no idea about. Yeah. 15:38 Well, this is why I mentioned that here. Because like, I really, I really want to highlight like, this was not an easy task. 15:46 No, yeah. Yeah. We just threw up this building. And now we're gonna charge you know, 678 grand a night. That's, that's all fine and dandy and great now, but Yeah, way, way more that goes into it than than most people realize. And that's not a knock on people. Like you didn't know either. Yeah. But yeah, developments hard. So 16:05 developments hard. So like, what was like the, like, what was the what was the venue worth after you built it? And what is it worth now? After? Yeah, it's raising revenue. What's that? Now that you actually producing revenue? You actually have a verifiable? What's worth now? 16:24 Yeah. I don't want to get like a hard answer, I guess. Yeah. When we built it, you know, and then you get an appraisal and like, they're just like doing an appraisal. They tried to do it off like comps in our area. It's like, what are you going to comp? There's not many new build wedding venues in our area. So like, that didn't make sense. Really, you know, you kind of need to like, it's like a commercial building. Right should be based off like noi, or some sort of cap rate. So we haven't had like an official appraisal done like that. I think we've been open officially a year now. Oh, a little. We're Yeah, it feels like we've been open forever at this point. Because I think we started taking deposits like back in July of 2021. So then we officially like, are building back October 2022. So yeah, no, it's so feel like I've been in business for a long time. But yeah, as far as like what it's worth, I would say, you know, I think we the building itself was like two seven ish. And then we had like another 180. And like FF and E. So close to three mil. We should do close to like 350k, like noi. So whatever kind of cap rate you want to put on that? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I would say we're doing pretty well. It's pretty solid. Right? So 17:38 Well, I hope. I hope you get the appraisal soon. Hopefully you're refinancing get some good debt. Yeah, yeah. It'll help you balance sheet a lot longer. And if you ever and this is where now it comes in now, like you can refinance. Now you have equity, essentially, in three fifths of the NOI is not something knockout, like that's a lot of money. And especially with Capri potential, that's a lot of money. You're in there. But now you can leverage that to go to the next one. So let's talk about future projects. I think this is one of the cool things is that you went through all the hard, hard stuff 2020 wanted to get like two years or a year and a half to kind of make this come to fruition. Now you actually have a viable product. Yes, you have a building staff, you have all these things lined up now. And now opportunities just coming your way like hey, let's do another one. 18:25 Yeah, yeah. And it's honestly pretty crazy and a little overwhelming. I hopped on Twitter. And I can't tell me tell you how many DMS I've gotten just hundreds and hundreds of people that either want to be LPS or they have land that they like, want me to, like build the venue on or they just they'll finance it, but they want me to come manage it, you know, all these different opportunities. The biggest one that we're working on now is like, we found that it's out and outside of Charlotte, North Carolina is like a husband and wife, team, they want the land got all the plans done, got all their approvals done with the county, like basically it came down to like breaking ground. But that whole planning process took them like two years, kind of like us, they went back and forth with the county. I think he lost his job, like in the middle of it or something, I got a new job. And then since like lending got tough, they basically went back to the bank and then they want more money down. And these guys didn't have any more cash left. And they basically just taking a step back and we're going to scrap it or kind of trying to sell it as is. So So me and a buddy, my business partner that I've actually met through Twitter, I was gonna consulting on his project that he's doing out in California on his property. We're looking to scoop this one up, and then we're probably gonna raise capital for it and kind of build it out. It'd be a venue with like 10 cabins from there and it's kind of going to be our model going forward is like the venue like a short term rental, little village I guess you could say well make it MCI design modern cabins, maybe like Live Oak Lake Uh, vibes, I know everyone brings that one up, but kind of like that, but like anchored by this like wedding venue. So the venue will bring, you know, two 300 people a night. So, you know, three to 600 people a weekend there, that we should easily be able to rent out the cabins and hopefully be able to turn those and rent those out during the week as well. So 20:19 one thing, one thing that I love that idea because when it comes down to it, you have a commercial property. So it's all about noi, so you got to increase revenue. So I think I asked you, I think I asked you on Twitter, maybe a month ago or two months ago, was asking you like how often your team works. And then you're also like, they were like you do Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I believe. And correct me if I'm wrong. And then what I asked you was like you had you do like consultations and stuff during the week because you operate essentially all weekend. Like we're on a Thursday here like this is this is like your this is like your your weekend right here. You know? Yeah. mid week is your weekend. Yeah, yeah. For every sacrifice your weekends. 21:05 Yeah, thankfully, we build out a team and we don't like actually, we're not working today. There is like a rehearsal going on there today. And during the weekends, we don't work at weddings anymore. Unless like something really fell through and we had to or something. But yeah, I think that's another thing that people necessarily don't realize. And the people that are reaching out to me like, Oh, what are you gonna do during like the week, how come you don't have all these weekday rentals. The way we like we operate is we'll do Friday, Saturdays pretty much every weekend that we can do in the busy season. Friday, weddings get Thursday before for free. So they come in Thursday, set up, do the rehearsal. And then Sunday, we'll either have a wedding or we have a church that rents on our space. So not Thursday through Sunday is full. So that leaves Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And then you know, to get all these weddings, we'll do like a 70 Weddings this year to get 70 weddings, you got to do you know 100 And something tours, so that those all have to happen Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then everyone that books has like two planning meetings with us. So that's 140 meetings throughout the year. And those have to happen on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So like the weekdays really do get full, we'll do some weekday events, usually on Wednesdays or something. But yeah, it makes for kind of a crazy week. And the venue, there's always someone there basically, it's always full. 22:21 That's a good, that's a good problem. It's a very good problem. So one thing I like about the cabin ideas, because family usually comes in for weddings. So a they can actually go to the venue and they're actually there. They're physically there. I think that's a great idea. And then it's all about increasing the profitability. So if you can rent those out for three, four days that they're going to be in town for I mean, you're in the money, essentially, for those those cabins too. So I think it's a great idea. Yeah, you actually by locking in together, you will actually be actually laughing the financing for the building cost and all that stuff. So you get a lot of leverage on the front end, too. 22:58 Yeah, yeah, it just makes a lot more sense. When you're looking at the numbers to it. Yeah. And like you said, they're coming in for multiple days, usually. So like, honestly, like Thursday through Sunday should be just like the one the wedding party or close family that's going to be running those out. But then we can still rent it out during the week. And even bigger than that, like there's always going to be like some sort of like seasonality with weddings. Like I'm in iOS, winter is going to suck. So it's like May through like Thanksgiving weekend, we'll book like every Friday, Saturday. But then when you talk about like December, January, February, those are like pretty hit or miss March, April are a little better, but not great. So basically, there's an off season there. But if we can do these cabins in areas that are a little bit nicer, weather wise, like we can still have some sort of like revenue driver or something that's bringing things in during the offseason. So yeah, it just really adds to the top end to the top line and bottom line of the property as a whole. 23:55 Have you started doing like corporate events or anything like that? 23:57 Yeah, yeah, so we built in a pretty good area that pulls from like two different medium sized markets. So location wise, we're pretty well off. So we're starting to get a lot of, you know, like team meetings, luncheon, corporate events, holiday parties, those kinds of things. Weddings booked out super far in advance. So those were good to like book out like during construction and in years in advance, but like those kinds of events come up more, you know, a couple months in advance like two three months versus like they feel they fill the gaps. They're really starting to fill the gaps now that we're we've been open for a while now that we've had them back or had them sometime in 20.3. Most of them are coming back in 2024. So hopefully it's kind of just like a little bit of a snowball effect of just adding to those repeatedly not as big a numbers you know, you're not, you know, getting five to six grand for these kinds of rentals, but you know, 1002 1000 bucks at plus all you know, hopefully do like open bar or something that can Add some more revenue to 25:02 one thing, there's something about the bar the bar, I think the bar was, I didn't realize how much the bar brings in at these events. It's so such insane. Can you talk about the the numbers the bar brings in? Like, what's your margin on that? Just because, like I knew it was one of those things, like I knew it was those revenue sources, but I didn't really understand like, how much people drink at these at these events. It's crazy. 25:23 Yeah, yeah, weddings are one big party. Right? Especially here in Iowa, I guess, maybe we got some heavy drinkers. But yeah, it's a big aspect or a big, like, key part of the wedding, you know, a lot of couples, you know, they're, they're, they're buying a lot of alcohol, they don't want their guests to run out kind of thing. So, yeah, I think I would have to go and look at the numbers, but roughly like four to five grand on average, in revenue, per event. So you know, and when we're charging, you know, six to eight grand, it's, it's coming close to like being close to like the rental income, someone's more, sometimes less. And then the margins on those are like 65 to 70%. Then the way we do it, we kind of like, let them like pre purchase X amount. So they can like pre purchase like kegs or cases of wine. So like 12 bottles on a case and, and then they could like pre purchase like signature drinks ahead of time. And we do it that way. And then we know exactly what they want, then we can order exactly what they want. So we have like little to like no waste there. And then we do keep like some alcohol on hand, there was still like a full bar, like people can still walk up buy what they want, if the couple is not offering it for free, but it gives some flexibility there. Yeah, 26:47 that's cool. Liquor license. 26:50 Yeah, I get this question a lot, too. Thankfully, it wasn't super challenging in my area. It was especially because we're going like new build to was just like, pretty much like follow the codes, you know, everything that they want to see in the building. And then we just applied. I think ours was like all of $900 for the year. So yeah, super cheap. You have to get like liquor license liability insurance, which still wasn't that expensive. So well worth it. But I know, like some other states, I think like California, for example, they only have like X amount of liquor license. So like people have to buy like existing licenses off of like other people. So if you like want to start like a new restaurant, you have to like buy an existing license that's like floating out there. And they can pretty much just charge insane amounts like 2050 100k, or something I've heard so yeah, don't quote me on that. I know exactly. But I just know it's way, way way different in some states. That's so crazy. 27:47 It's just such a unique I love place. I love having like different, like real estate niches on here. Because it's like, everything's like so nuanced. Like, Yeah, completely different things. Like you went through a lot of that growing pains on the on the building side. But I think now you get that you have that little notch in your belt, and you're going on building other opportunities, and you're just creating, creating, like your own special niche, or you're trying to like build a brand around wedding venue wedding venues, or you have like, we've been using five different states. And 28:20 yeah, yeah, that wasn't necessarily always the vision, but I think that's where we're gonna go towards is the devalue kind of is in the brand. You know, in the valleys and like developing these two, like we'd looked at buying some existing ones and looking at numbers and like, they just never fit our design style or like what we want to necessarily like what we want to hold long term. And sellers are super unrealistic. They're like, putting a value like on the real estate, but then also trying to do some sort of like multiple and then a why it's just like, it doesn't make sense. And, you know, like, with rates right now, like the NOI is never going to cover the debt services on like 99% of the venue's we're looking at that were for sale. Anyway, so that's kind of just pushing us back towards development, doing it the way we want to do it, do it right high quality. And then with that we might as well have like a brand that people know. And that also like creates value there itself. So that's yeah, kind of what we're going to be rolling out in the next few venues that we do. So 29:24 how many potential venue projects are you working on right now? 29:27 Yeah, so the North Carolina one is hopefully going to start in early 2024. And then we ideally we'll have another one breaking ground and rolling in 2024. Also, those will kind of be like our flagship ones, still, flagship ones, key key ones that were big, big venues, multiple cabins kind of thing fitting that model. I'm also working on some consulting projects. I think I have like another six or seven they're going. So TBD how long and I How are we partnered on those deals? Kind of leaving it up in the air? So could be more. And then I think there's a few other few key other like partnerships, that I'm in the works of talking with a couple people that could be rolling out venues pretty quickly as well. So hard to say exactly. But things are on. 30:23 No, it's amazing. It's amazing. It's been, I don't know, it's been crazy seeing your journey because like, I love I love the transparency side of it. I think a lot of people from Twitter do and I think you kind of dug into that side. So it's really cool. Seeing the same the number side of things like, it's nothing I would never jump into. It's just like, it's just curious. As was cool. 30:42 Yeah, that's it. I think, you know, my whole life, I think and for most people that are interested in real estate, or entrepreneurship, or business as a whole, you know, like, you drive past these, like big businesses or whatever, like these fortresses that I look at, I'm just like, I wonder what the numbers are on those things. Like I just want to know, so that just like add a curiosity, like, I don't necessarily want to get in that business. I just want to know. So that was kind of like my thinking. When I got on Twitter. I had seen a few people can like sharing things, but I wanted to be like completely Lublin, full transparency like, I don't care. I have nothing to hide. And I think people appreciate it, especially, you know, younger entrepreneurs that are starting or like want to get started like to see like, not just top line numbers, but see all expenses, like everything. highs and lows kind of thing is important. So yeah, that's what I'm really trying to do on there. 31:32 Was there a time that was like, You struggled? Personally, it was it might have been like in the development part or even with like, dealing with customers? I don't know. Was there a time where you're like, Man, this is difficult. Time? Yesterday, you know, yeah. 31:50 Yeah, it's definitely not all sunshine and rainbows. It's hard. It's really challenging. I think, when we started building, or started the process of building, we were like, 25, no kids, you know. And then as the project went along, we had our first child, he has to now and then we just welcomed our second child that's three months old. And we've only been open like a year. So like, in that time, you know, we had two kids, but also like that with a building, we dealt with, like delays on the building, which was not fun and pretty terrible. We actually had a push back, some weddings that people booked with us, which was honestly like probably one of the lowest parts of my life. And my wife, as well as just like constant stress and constant like stomach aches and feeling terrible. It was never our intention. So yeah, we hit a hard low then. But we were too far end even even to get out even if we wanted to. So we kind of had to see it through glad we did it all worked out. Yeah, but it's definitely was not easy in the build. And then you know, in what happens a lot and a lot of people I'm talking to and these projects, it's like you're so focused on the bill, the financing, just getting it off the ground, which you have to be right, like you shouldn't be the design, that's all to it. But then eventually, you do have to switch over to like operating, you have to switch hats a little bit from being like developer to operator, which is like a whole new challenge. And we definitely got hit in the face pretty hard at the beginning and first few weddings just dealing with families and couples and, you know, the stress and high maintenance people that that that weddings can bring in some we've since put systems and processes in place to hopefully, you know, get rid of some of those stress indicators, stress levels during events, but it's still never going to be perfect and a constant challenge. 33:40 That's good, man. I'm, like I said, I think I think those those struggles that you went through, it helps you become a better operator. And to see you now it's, it's good man. I think I think everybody, a lot of entrepreneurs or listeners, like I don't want to struggle I like it hurts. It's painful. Like it's part of the process. 34:05 Yeah. Part of the growing process we grew and had to learn quickly and on our feet. But yeah, that's all entrepreneurship is right. It's just learning as you go kind of and pivoting and adapting and hopefully evolving and not making the same mistakes. We've definitely made our fair share and probably will continue to make mistakes but as long as we can, you know push forward and and learn from those. It should all be okay. 34:34 Hopefully all made mistakes. It's okay, it happens. Well, what is a quote that is yours or somebody else's that you resonate with? 34:43 Oh, that's a good question. I'm not a big quote guy to be honest. So I don't know if I can, quote one off the top my head. But I think honestly, like what we just talked about is the biggest thing I've learned like in entrepreneurship and listening to all these podcasts and learning from Twitter and be The Bullseye like everyone does make mistakes, no one's perfect. And if you think you're gonna be, you're wrong, it's just not gonna go probably as smoothly as smoothly as you want. But you know, just you have to keep learning and keep pushing forward. And, and that's how you truly become a good operator and a good business person. 35:20 How big is your staff? Right now? How about how many team members do you have right now 35:23 we have my wife and I and then two full time, ladies, and then another probably 10 or so that are like on rotation part time. Those are like all like, actually, our employees, we outsource, like some bartenders, so there's probably like another 10 on rotation there. And then we like outsource our cleaning and, you know, like lawn care, snow removal maintenance and stuff. 35:49 I think it's good to, like bring in third party contractors, because a it keeps your staff a little bit that holds that he had to hold them accountable to actually produce the results. And it's no longer on you to force forcefully, like, let me hire us for a long guy to cut the grass every Tuesday to make sure like, we look good. 36:05 Yeah, and that was always the thing that in tears, like, keep the staff like as small as possible, like early on, just like stay lean, you know, like, figure out what we're doing first before we go hire all these roles. And, and try to figure all that out. And that was our strategy. Like we, we, we were new to this right. So we had to be the operators like we can just go hire people to work these weddings like we had to work them ourselves before we could expect to like train and hire other people to work the wedding. So last fall, we worked 14 Weddings like all in a row back to back we did like Friday Saturday's like 15 to 18 hour days, which is super challenging and tough. But like we learned so much. And then that a lot of stuff go into winter and like actually have plans and processes and things to like hire people and like train people on and then like put a manager in place. But so that probably be one of my biggest pieces of advice to of people looking to get into the space is like, again, it's not just a real estate play. Like there's a real operating business. And it's not just going to be as simple as like plucking someone from events spaces or hotels or something and making them the manager and hoping it's going to run like super smoothly. I think you have to have like a real operator in there. 37:22 Yeah, this is not passive income. It's not know anything, I don't know. This is definitely not passive income. It's just it's just as such cool to see you see it grow. And I wish you the best. As far as your future, and I'll keep watching Man, I keep watching. I think I think it's really cool to everybody. If you're not watching the wedding venue guy on Twitter, go check him out. He's pretty cool. Where can people find you online besides Twitter? Because I just mentioned it. I have midnight venues.com Is there anything else you want to direct people and give you to channel by chance? 37:56 I don't have a YouTube minute venues is like my consulting website. The minute gem.com is our as our main venue in Iowa. And then just Twitter. So not on LinkedIn. Not on YouTube. None of those channels yet. We'll see. 38:10 You'll follow him on Twitter this way before I'm on Twitter. 38:15 Twitter's Great. Yeah, it's been crazy and borderline like life changing already. So 38:22 I think when I when I talk to a lot of people like that, I think a lot of people that try and like monetize it, but it's life changing on the back end in different ways. Like Twitter's like the unexpected. There's like unexpected benefits that you don't even understand. On Twitter. So 38:39 Exactly, yeah, yeah. I don't care about monetizing it. Like from like courses or you know, easy money, things like that. It's it's more just like connecting with people and the relationships you build on there. Which I feel like until you do it like you don't believe it. So yeah, it's insane. 38:55 It's very, very insane. All right. Well, thanks for coming on. Alex, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing some wedding venue knowledge because I have not heard anybody talking about this. And I remember when I went through my wedding and I was just like going through all this and like it's a really cool venue is really cool business, but didn't know nothing about it still means the only thing I know about us from us about falling you online is that I'm learning new things and I think enjoyment of it like, I'll never do it, but it's just cool. Seeing it from your eyes, you know? 39:25 Yeah, thanks, man. Yeah, thankfully, like it is pretty niche. And there's not a ton of people in the space. So hopefully hoping to kind of hit on that hit on that quickly. While we're we are the only people in the space for the most part. But yeah, thanks, man. Appreciate having me on. And hopefully, people can learn something from this. 39:42 You get first mover advantage by taking it seriously. So you gotta realize all the benefits first. Yeah, 39:49 that's the goal. We'll see. 39:51 Everyone here go like share subscribe, you know to do go share with a friend. We'll see on the next episode. Thanks for tuning in, guys. Thanks, Alex. Thanks, man.