"Real Estate & Real Impact": Lisa Meszler’s Mission - I Will Not Lose Podcast - #0059

Transcript

[00:00:00.050] And then at 10 o'clock when it ends and we'll have a couple of live auctions as well.
[00:00:05.350] I actually have a autographed Taylor Swift guitar coming for a live auction with a letter of authenticity.
[00:00:12.370] No way. Yeah. That's wild.
[00:00:14.590] Yeah. I tried to get her to come present it, but I was told no.
[00:00:18.890] Let's see if she just shows up.
[00:00:20.270] Sometimes you got to take what you can get.
[00:00:22.630] Yeah. We'll see if she shows up. Right. Maybe next year.
[00:00:26.210] But super cool that I have that, you know, for people to bid on.
[00:00:28.750] morning good evening good night good afternoon don't give me copyright flag though no no no you
[00:00:44.240] can cut this out i sounded like a zombie just yeah in order to grow you gotta have like some
[00:00:55.160] kind of goals good morning good evening good night good afternoon whatever time you're listening in
[00:01:04.660] wherever you're listening from shout out to my spotify listenership apple and google podcasts
[00:01:10.160] and youtube if you're watching in thanks for giving me a reason to get dressed you could
[00:01:14.620] have been anywhere in the world, but you're here. Be present and recognize that it's now,
[00:01:19.520] right now. Whether your right now is working, flying, running, driving, be thankful we're
[00:01:24.900] alive, baby. Failure can be frightening. However, as Winston Churchill reminds us,
[00:01:30.180] success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
[00:01:34.820] This is I Will Not Lose Podcast, where we set out to prove everything is learned from failure,
[00:01:38.960] and we must persevere and recognize it as one step closer to success.
[00:01:42.760] i'm your host tony ortiz let's jump right in okay that was so funny because i different you know
[00:01:49.600] kate hughes yeah so she interviewed me on monday on her show and i've known her for probably 12 15
[00:01:56.320] years and i guess leading up to my part of the show she kept talking about me she's called me
[00:02:01.620] mesler so i got there and i told her and she's like all right so i've been saying her name wrong
[00:02:06.600] all day i've only known her for 15 years yeah i was lying for the most of the time so it's the
[00:02:14.160] way you read it but it's fine it happens people still ask me how to spell ortiz how to say ortiz
[00:02:20.020] i'm like i think that's like smith i mean i don't know i run into a ton of people kate said the same
[00:02:24.660] thing people don't know how to say her last name they call her like hugus and all different weird
[00:02:29.600] names i'm like you should roll with that yeah for real just pronounce it or just say it's pronounced
[00:02:35.040] like that, when somebody pronounces it Hughes, correct them just to break it up. But that's
[00:02:41.140] awesome. We're going to get started here. Thank you for tuning in again to I Will Not Lose podcast.
[00:02:46.160] I'm here with Lisa Miesler. We're going to be talking about just catching up. Don't Lisa,
[00:02:51.440] for a long time, we've been on and off each other's radar and seeing you do big things grow.
[00:02:57.140] The past couple of years have definitely been a ride. So we like to talk about success,
[00:03:03.100] learned from failure and kind of what does success mean to you, where we're at, the journey
[00:03:08.700] that brought us here, and then this big event that you have coming up, which I'd love to
[00:03:13.540] get to.
[00:03:14.300] We can dedicate quite some time to that.
[00:03:17.120] Great.
[00:03:17.400] So tell the people who you are.
[00:03:19.180] I'm Lisa Meisler.
[00:03:20.340] I'm a commercial real estate agent in the Lehigh Valley.
[00:03:23.100] Moved here in 99, started working in real estate, I felt like, I'm going to say 12 years
[00:03:28.700] ago, 14 years ago, somewhere around there.
[00:03:31.920] um shortly after starting I went into the commercial sector and that's that's kind of
[00:03:37.840] where I've sat with that while raising my kids I've raised my kids as a single mom since they're
[00:03:43.650] five years old I have 20 year old twins boy girl oh wow what an age yeah it's interesting
[00:03:52.350] it's like uh from 15 to 16 they're finding themselves and becoming their own person so
[00:03:59.270] they're like not quite adults yet. Like, I mean, even if you think how, uh, I wasn't totally mature
[00:04:06.670] at that age, you know, there was a lot of learning. I'm still not totally mature at this age,
[00:04:10.970] you know, any of us, I hope not. Cause once you do it, what's, what's worth living, right?
[00:04:17.590] Yeah. That's amazing. So you raised them as a single mom since they were five. Yes.
[00:04:24.290] what sort of things are they into um so they took my music talent and ran with that so they're
[00:04:33.040] they're both very talented in music they just got their associate's degrees at Northampton
[00:04:37.980] Community College my son is moving on to either Drexel or Lehigh he hasn't made a decision yet
[00:04:44.180] uh for his bachelor's oh wow yeah Layla's uh touring Temple right now she's doing a college
[00:04:52.220] tour. So I'm like, Oh my gosh, they're on college tours. That's great. It goes so fast. These last
[00:04:57.260] two years, I can't believe they got their associates already. It flew by. I can't imagine
[00:05:02.080] more Southern high school. Oh yeah. Flew by and imagine when we get there. So how has the journey
[00:05:07.200] been with commercial real estate? 14 years is a long run. That's about probably about when I met
[00:05:12.560] you. I'm trying to put a finger on it, but it was probably around 12 to 14 years ago. What is it?
[00:05:20.410] 2014. So 11, 12, because I had just gotten started with design endeavors. Yeah, that's right. I'd
[00:05:28.330] only been doing it a few years at the time. I started that around 2011, like doing it really
[00:05:35.470] commercially. So probably shortly after that, but how has the, I mean, is it always just like
[00:05:42.150] a 45 degree angle up? Do you just double every year or? No, it's kind of like this.
[00:05:46.970] like last year i was like this and this year's like this yeah it it's
[00:05:53.850] since covet it's been really wild ride 2020 was my best year this is going to be my second best
[00:06:00.860] year possibly my best year um but then like right after that it got a little wonky it's just hard
[00:06:08.240] it's hard really hard now you know your interest rates are up your prices are up it's the first
[00:06:12.300] time in history that's ever happened usually your prices will come down as your interest rates go up
[00:06:16.480] So it's, it's a very strange market and it makes it difficult.
[00:06:19.880] People still are not really selling as much.
[00:06:23.720] There's the market's been thin for years.
[00:06:26.780] So I'm more of a buyer agent makes it complicated because there's not a lot out there for my
[00:06:31.040] buyers and what is out there again, since there's not a lot of product, the prices are
[00:06:36.980] so escalated, they just don't make sense.
[00:06:39.140] So it's, it's really hard to get a deal done.
[00:06:41.200] I kind of walked more into doing land deals, working with developers.
[00:06:46.680] Do you have deals that were kind of on the back burner that you were working on for a while that
[00:06:52.240] are slowing down because of the interest rates? Like, do you have old business that's kind of
[00:06:56.620] slowing because of that? Like I always worked with investors. It's really hard to find a good
[00:07:01.440] investment property. So every once in a blue moon, you find something, get it sold. But it's been,
[00:07:06.600] it's been a while since I've been able to find something that really makes sense. My investors
[00:07:11.660] are you know they're not new investors they're very established they know what they want they
[00:07:18.280] know what they're doing they're not going to buy when it they'd rather hold their money like it
[00:07:22.160] yeah they would rather put it somewhere else they're not gonna unless you're young like when
[00:07:27.880] i have a couple new investors and they're younger so it kind of it'll it makes more sense for them
[00:07:33.920] to pay a little bit more for a good property you know you look at something like i don't know say
[00:07:38.680] it's like at the triangle in Emmaus or down on the square in Easton, you know, in a really good
[00:07:44.660] location, the price is going to be much higher than you would like it to be. But if it's in a
[00:07:50.560] really good location, you can, you can work with that because you're young and you're going to
[00:07:56.240] hold it. You're going to hold it for 15, 20 years. It still makes sense. If you're my age or older,
[00:08:03.340] it doesn't really make as much sense to buy something that you have to hold for 20 years,
[00:08:06.920] you know, or 15 years, whatever that number looks like. Yeah. So you can be a little more
[00:08:11.140] aggressive if you're younger and you're still going to make money, you can still build a
[00:08:15.440] portfolio. So that's kind of how I counsel my clients. So my clients that I've had like the
[00:08:22.740] past 10, 15 years, a lot of them are just holding still until some things change.
[00:08:30.600] Yeah. Because you, I mean, there's things outside of your control, but you have to react to them.
[00:08:35.360] that's interesting so i did have a question i saw something posted and i didn't fact check it or
[00:08:42.080] anything but they were saying there was going to be four thousand dollar apartments at the
[00:08:46.140] waterfront is that is that realistic i mean is that where things are going i don't know i don't
[00:08:52.920] get it i mean you have the commodore down in easton uh i don't think they're fully leased
[00:08:57.700] they're they're at i think they're around 3 000 i i'm not positive how much they are charging for
[00:09:06.720] the void down there you can look at their website but i they're they're not cheap and they're they're
[00:09:12.460] smaller apartments they're they're more like they're they're very small the floor plans are
[00:09:17.680] small it feels more like city feel okay and i i sit with and i don't understand it because if i
[00:09:25.180] had that kind of money as a kid, I would go buy a house. Right, right, right. That's why I'm trying
[00:09:29.910] to understand the target. Cause from what I hear, they're going to be filled if they sell the
[00:09:35.030] waterfront at that. But even like, uh, like Strata downtown, I mean, it's just the, the offering that
[00:09:42.550] you get from the city versus living there. The only thing I could think is like, if it was a
[00:09:47.270] second property that you didn't have, you know, if you traveled to Allentown a lot and you spent a
[00:09:53.490] lot on hotel fees, I guess. I don't know. Uh, but I was just curious to know, like, what is it just
[00:09:59.910] a supply and demand thing? If they're going to fill them, they'll keep jacking the price up or.
[00:10:05.440] Probably. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's not a lack for people that want to be tenants,
[00:10:10.920] which again, I don't understand. I I'm teaching my kids to stay at home for as long as they can
[00:10:15.480] and save their money and go purchase something. Right. It makes no sense to go spend two, three,
[00:10:21.680] $4,000 a month on a rental plus utilities. They'll never be able to save money. They'll
[00:10:28.570] never purchase. They'll never own anything because you can't pay that kind of rent unless you're
[00:10:33.430] making hundreds of thousands of dollars, which most people in the Valley are not doing, not
[00:10:37.930] getting out of college. How are these kids ever going to afford to buy something? It doesn't make
[00:10:44.610] sense to me. Right. I mean, it was even that way. I'm trying to think, cause I'm 37 now. Um,
[00:10:54.480] but it didn't make sense. There was, I think it was around 2008. So maybe that was a great
[00:11:01.800] buying opportunity. Maybe we missed that at that time, but it just didn't ever seem like there was
[00:11:08.900] when you read back about, you know, the eighties, nineties, when, you know, you can get a five,
[00:11:17.160] $600 mortgage or whatever it was to the cost of living. Now, everything just seems like
[00:11:25.920] you can check your, it's easy to slowly inflate, but if you go and you can check your Amazon orders
[00:11:32.580] or your grocery orders, if you were using Instacart and you can literally see what you
[00:11:36.760] paid for stuff. And it's like, wow, you know, do I eat different? Do I change? You know?
[00:11:43.690] Thank God I'm fortunate to the point where I don't have to really, you know, I can enjoy my coffee.
[00:11:49.830] There's some people that would say, take the four or $5 that you would drink from the coffee
[00:11:54.330] and invest it. And, you know, I can't argue you would have something more than, but at what point
[00:12:00.670] do you cut away from life? You know, there's a lot of luxuries or things that I don't do in order to
[00:12:06.610] be able to make everything keep moving and still invest in equipment and still have fun and still
[00:12:12.010] put money away you know um what did you just cut everything out you just say i'm not you know i'm
[00:12:19.510] gonna make my own coffee that's even expensive that's what makes it so hard to even purchase a
[00:12:24.190] house right now you know you can make a hundred thousand dollars a year but you still can't afford
[00:12:29.910] much because the taxes you have to take into account your property taxes and everything else
[00:12:34.630] on top of that so you're still not able to afford like an average priced home which is probably at
[00:12:40.840] this point four hundred fifty thousand dollars somewhere around there who can afford that if
[00:12:46.350] they're just out of college and if they're a two household income and you're a young couple you're
[00:12:51.330] going to want to have kids i would never advise my clients to put both of their incomes on there
[00:12:57.430] you don't know what's going to happen when she gets pregnant what if she can't work what if the
[00:13:01.770] baby's sick and you can't, and you have to be home. Like that's what happened. My babies came
[00:13:06.290] prematurely. I was on bedrest my entire pregnancy. I couldn't work. I had to quit my job. I was on
[00:13:12.240] bedrest my entire pregnancy. They were born 10 weeks early. So I had to be home with them for
[00:13:17.870] the first few years because they were, they couldn't be out there. They would have gotten
[00:13:22.740] sick. Um, you, you can't forecast that. So if you have a young couple and they're both putting
[00:13:30.090] their incomes on that mortgage they're going to lose their house if something like that happens
[00:13:34.870] you don't want to do that so to find a house that's under 300 000 it's like a flip property
[00:13:43.400] these days no flips used to be like 50 60 80 right right now it's like 100 000 now it's like 350 and
[00:13:50.080] you're walking oh this place needs help yeah and you're uh man at 350 couldn't imagine but um
[00:13:58.760] it'll be, it'll be on the radar soon. So when you, what kind of, I'm curious about when you
[00:14:05.240] have people looking to invest with you and they're looking for you to essentially make them a
[00:14:10.880] decision that's going to affect their money. Like what kind of relationship do they get referred to
[00:14:16.560] you? How do they find you? Yeah. I mean, a lot of people get referred to me. I do have, I'm at that
[00:14:22.160] point where I'm getting a lot of referrals or like with the larger commercial properties,
[00:14:27.900] uh my last two clients last two or three clients i asked who i had to thank for the referral because
[00:14:33.400] i just got calls out of the blue they said no they just google search commercial agent and then
[00:14:37.600] loop net comes up and when they go on to loop now i'm one of the top seven commercial agents that
[00:14:41.880] they're seeing that's awesome they call and it's all about who calls back that's awesome
[00:14:47.500] but you had to have it set up where you can get business through google it's like i never did
[00:14:53.900] anything i don't know how to do anything i would love to have somebody do that for me i'm sure i'd
[00:14:57.620] get more calls. I, I don't know if my name's just out there. I've been in the business a long time.
[00:15:03.180] I've done a lot of deals. No, we can talk. And that part definitely helps. Um, but when people
[00:15:10.460] put testimonials and they put them together, we'll talk off mic too, because that's something that I
[00:15:14.720] do. Um, I have at least in the past year, year and a half, if you search graphic designer near me,
[00:15:22.640] graphic design Allentown. I'm like a one or two or two or three. And I get a lot of, I wouldn't
[00:15:29.540] say a lot. People think when you're the first on Google that it's just all raining referrals. Like
[00:15:36.000] it's still people's intent. There's only so many people that have that intent. So there's people,
[00:15:41.640] I'm sure that Googled and didn't click. You could see a lot of people that search it, but just to be
[00:15:46.600] able to be there. Google's doing a better job of knowing who's who in the area. So I probably
[00:15:52.880] couldn't have ranked the way I did had I not been in business so long. And there's so many times
[00:15:58.120] where Tony Ortiz is tied with doing something with someone. So Google can see that. And the
[00:16:05.540] name of my company is Tony Ortiz, the designer. So that was intentional to be able to rank there.
[00:16:11.900] But it's insane. Anything you do nowadays, you need an entire team. You know, I sounds that way. I ran into you at Reggae Fest. That was a beautiful event. It was a great weekend. And running the live, there were so many things I didn't think of the way the sun was facing.
[00:16:33.640] you know we set up and had everything in the shade and we're ready to go and it's like oh
[00:16:37.960] that's right the sun moves so now you know I think by the time you had came we had had the
[00:16:43.260] sheet up and we were just holding on for dear life uh so you you learn and it's like man you
[00:16:49.200] know shout out to uh Johnny Melendez shout out to Eric Rodriguez that co-hosted with us for that
[00:16:55.220] event uh everything went well they helped with setup and breakdown and stuff but as far as um
[00:17:00.800] running everything three people's not enough that's that's one thing if I could take any
[00:17:09.660] success learn from failure out of that it would be like okay we would definitely need help you
[00:17:15.740] know I would need my son on deck um and that's one of the fun parts is did you meet my son was
[00:17:21.420] he there when you think so no he was gone when you that's right because when all the ruckus
[00:17:27.020] happened, I was thinking, where is he? And I was so glad he wasn't anywhere near that. But
[00:17:31.860] I didn't even tell you. I got no footage. There was something really, I mean, think about it.
[00:17:38.380] We're talking to a reverend about not spreading negative energy. We're talking about raising up
[00:17:44.280] from animalistic vibrations. Everything breaks out. I have footage of her praying, but the
[00:17:52.620] videos like scrambled the one camera died the live feed cut out you're kidding me no when we
[00:17:59.220] were sitting here going through the footage i said oh the twitch stream was up for an hour let's check
[00:18:04.740] that and if we lost that footage then something demonic was really at work because there was like
[00:18:11.160] and i thought about it and everything else was so peaceful and calm that was their third reggae
[00:18:19.060] Fest there. You know, that's the second largest free reggae festival in the nation. I didn't know
[00:18:24.360] that. That's cool. We had one of the co-organizers, Michael Forsetto. Shout out to Mike Forsetto and
[00:18:29.340] ArtsQuest. But we had him on the show and he was talking about how they're planning on. I think
[00:18:35.540] there's one in Atlanta. I'm not sure. I'm not going to fact check it right now, but
[00:18:40.760] you don't want that kind of publicity. That was my point. Long story short, if that would have
[00:18:47.250] streamed live, you know, I intentionally didn't switch the camera to it. Just you have a split
[00:18:54.070] second to think. And I'm just like, I'm so glad I didn't. Not that I would have put footage out.
[00:18:59.610] It would have been interesting to see. But after I saw the Twitch stream fail, I said it just wasn't
[00:19:06.550] meant like that energy wasn't meant to be shared. It's dead. That was it. And I just that moment,
[00:19:14.510] though was crazy and the matter of who we were interviewing and i gotta be real with you that
[00:19:18.830] was so cathartic to watch what happened i i went home and told my kids i said okay this is the
[00:19:24.130] craziest thing and i know you're not going to believe me but this is how it went down
[00:19:27.530] i struggle i struggle with religion i struggle with god i think a lot of people struggle with
[00:19:34.130] all that stuff at some point in their life i've had a lot of difficult thing have difficult things
[00:19:39.150] happen so i i've always struggled with it um i have i'm faithful i have my faith i don't do the
[00:19:46.910] church thing god's everywhere i don't need to walk into a building right i don't need to talk to
[00:19:52.260] another human about the bad things that i do you know like i don't believe in that stuff um when
[00:19:59.040] that happened and she stood up and started praying on them and literally i mean it was so odd you and
[00:20:06.230] i talked about it they kind of started moving away from us and then they dispersed they just
[00:20:09.910] like a whole wave it just yeah and they walked away you know it was and thank god because you
[00:20:16.630] know like the one guy i told you i i was watching it very closely and i saw his hand going into his
[00:20:21.930] shorts and i was about ready to hit dirt i i thought he had a gun he brought it he pulled
[00:20:26.990] out a blade i think it looked like a box cutter they the um what is going on here like that's
[00:20:32.450] crazy blade i talked to it was a switchblade i talked to it wasn't involved with the um i found
[00:20:38.430] out a little bit more about it we're not gonna talk too much about it because it was a peaceful
[00:20:43.110] event but the thing is the point is it wasn't related with reggae fest it wasn't related with
[00:20:48.170] the dominoes tournament they happened to be at it but it wasn't like the initial thought was
[00:20:55.650] everybody was drinking too much and you know and i'm like no that's not what happened it was people
[00:21:00.650] that had things going on outside of it and they ran into each other or whatever the case was
[00:21:06.110] whatever i don't it wasn't a random act that's what i that's from what i understand and then i
[00:21:11.580] just said okay well nobody was hurt thank god uh badly at least that bystanders and stuff you know
[00:21:18.080] so it was just but yeah we talked about the prayer and the thing is i'll go i haven't gone through
[00:21:23.980] all the footage but i will get you your part with um talking about the the uh fundraiser that we're
[00:21:31.660] going to get into so that we can use that for promotion. But just from when I went looking for
[00:21:37.040] at that exact moment, everything failed. And the one of them, you can hear her praying and you can
[00:21:41.560] hear people yelling and the mics there. The only camera that didn't go was the one facing away that
[00:21:47.140] was faced on us. So you can see our reaction. You can see Eric get up. You can see me get up
[00:21:51.580] and console his daughter. It's all there, but you, all this stuff doesn't fail at once. Like
[00:21:59.740] Like I could see if one thing, you know, I could see if one thing.
[00:22:02.700] Yeah.
[00:22:02.980] So that was a story.
[00:22:04.520] We were just sitting in here, me and Eric, and we're talking about how surreal it was.
[00:22:07.960] I'd shout out to Drew Breezy from, uh, you know, Drew from SoundOff Entertainment.
[00:22:12.860] I could have sworn you guys, I'll have to introduce you right now.
[00:22:17.120] He was on 69 News performing the song they were going to do for Reggae Fest in promotion
[00:22:22.520] for Reggae Fest the Friday before it, but, um, he was going to come on the show.
[00:22:27.000] They didn't get a chance.
[00:22:28.200] He texts me.
[00:22:28.900] they were, it was just a crazy day and we're following up afterwards. And he's like, I don't
[00:22:33.880] remember it. I was there from 8 AM until 10 30, 11 PM in the sun, the whole day between breakup,
[00:22:41.540] potting and break. Now we were talking for 10 plus hours. And I don't remember, like it was,
[00:22:48.340] it was all a flash that it wasn't like I was sitting there like, Oh, what time is it? I don't,
[00:22:52.440] I think I checked the time at all throughout the whole day. So it was just, um, it was a
[00:22:58.600] experience. I met a bunch of people. I followed up with them as well, too. There was business
[00:23:04.360] cards left at my mic. So even when I was walking away, I don't know if people were shy when we
[00:23:09.100] were talking, but people were leaving. Uh, do you remember when I showed you that, uh, it said the
[00:23:14.660] fear is real? Yeah. Yeah. I was like, what is this? I Googled it and it was an artist's Instagram.
[00:23:21.120] She's like a painter.
[00:23:22.260] Oh, neat.
[00:23:22.700] I would shout her out if I had the thing.
[00:23:24.620] So I just, I DM'd her.
[00:23:26.420] I said, hey, sorry, I didn't get a chance to meet you.
[00:23:28.320] But, you know, the point of, at least for me, it was networking as well as promoting the piece, promoting the love.
[00:23:38.000] And it wouldn't have been on brand to go viral for something so negative.
[00:23:44.740] Yeah, I agree.
[00:23:45.640] Especially when you don't know how it's going to go.
[00:23:47.520] imagine let's just hypothetically say a gun did come out at an event and now you have a shooting
[00:23:54.460] or essentially a mass shooting and that's streamed there's a reason why we don't see the footage come
[00:23:59.060] out from we know what happens but nah man my like heart's beating i'm just so glad that it didn't go
[00:24:05.820] that way but yeah i mean i was i was really concerned there for a minute when i was like
[00:24:10.940] watching him and just keeping my eye on that hand to see what was going on yeah i missed that so
[00:24:17.060] you were good there i kept uh i was focused on the kid uh for one part and where my son was
[00:24:24.840] and just scanning the guys because i didn't know if that was my son or what but he uh back to
[00:24:32.240] before we got sidetracked with that i was gonna ask if you met my son he was on the podcast he's
[00:24:37.120] about 14 years old he sang in radio city music hall with the school choir he's uh opened up for
[00:24:43.400] the Rockettes. So he's really into singing. He's going to be going to school for that over at
[00:24:50.540] Charter Arts School in Bethlehem. And he was on the podcast singing and my co-host sings. So he
[00:24:58.440] said, you got to be able to sing on the spot. So he sings, we had the speakers going, there's people
[00:25:02.480] walking by and Jaden was like, okay, on the spot, he's going to go. And he sang. He was also with
[00:25:13.320] me when shout out to rondo a gentleman came up and he's potting with us and when he found out
[00:25:19.500] jayden was my son he said oh you're like bron and uh bronnie he said you're like lebron and bronnie
[00:25:24.800] so my son's like you got to get that clip that was so cool dad like he's he hasn't um got into
[00:25:32.120] really like he recorded his first song but he's been watching me do it for years in his whole
[00:25:40.040] life and I'm like you know I can teach you this stuff like you can learn what these buttons do
[00:25:44.940] he's like no no I know what they I know I know I see it on TikTok I'm like all right all right
[00:25:49.640] that's funny I did meet him at the end when we were cleaning up before I
[00:25:53.720] scooted out I do remember meeting him oh super cool so you have a lot going on it's a good year
[00:26:01.060] you're on an up year you have a event that you've been planning let's go into what I'll let you talk
[00:26:09.360] about the event but why are you doing this in addition to having all the commercial deals that
[00:26:15.800] you have going on and as busy as that keeps you and all the networking that you have to do with
[00:26:20.800] that why take on this endeavor so i'll go way back to when i was in college my brothers and
[00:26:30.790] my best friend had a spinal stroke i became a quadriplegic he was 21 years old when it happened
[00:26:38.390] i was 19 and we my mom just kind of ran with fundraising for him none of us have ever done
[00:26:47.030] it before but we just picked up because we had to he needed you know they needed an addition on
[00:26:52.670] their house they needed a special van they needed special wheelchair yeah insurance doesn't cover
[00:26:58.250] all of it so we just started fundraising and um like literally hosted a concert at our high school
[00:27:06.970] we brought some musicians up from Philadelphia. One of my friends, one of my best friends from
[00:27:11.630] high school was, was part of that gang is a musician. And so he brought up some guys from
[00:27:17.170] Philly and we had a big concert and we did a few other things. And so that was kind of like my
[00:27:21.410] first taste of helping, volunteering, doing something good. Then, uh, gosh, my kids were
[00:27:31.050] four i believe when their uncle had gotten sick with cancer and literally is like that he called
[00:27:41.760] me and the very next day i opened up a non-profit and started fundraising because i didn't know what
[00:27:47.480] to do with that like that's how i was dealing with it all you know it was terminal he was not
[00:27:52.760] going to make it through and i i just i knew they were going to need help so i did a pancake
[00:27:58.620] breakfast at applebee's and we raised like 2500 in two hours you know and all the kids the kids
[00:28:05.000] were little so they were going around selling raffle tickets um you know with their sad little
[00:28:10.910] eyes please help my uncle it was i mean they just it was to watch these kids there were probably
[00:28:15.310] out of all of our kids there was like 10 of them or something like that like going around you know
[00:28:21.650] getting people to pay them um we made decent money in that morning and then i i ran a large
[00:28:28.190] event for him down at the america on wheels museum i brought in an executive chef uh i had
[00:28:34.310] like i had weyerbacher and coca-cola donate drinks i had a huge i had like four tables of
[00:28:41.570] southern auction items from anything from like famous artists to like i went to all the local
[00:28:46.870] sports teams they sent me autographed stuff i don't remember what all i had there and i honestly
[00:28:51.930] at that point in time i didn't know anybody in the valley i hardly knew anybody because i was
[00:28:55.950] a stay-at-home mom i never i hadn't worked really done a lot of work here yet i did some work prior
[00:29:01.950] to getting pregnant i worked for the hawk radio station um and i did some sales prior to that but
[00:29:08.780] i wasn't who i am now i didn't really have the network i have now uh that was a pretty big event
[00:29:14.520] i had a band come up from philly everything was donated i had zero overhead every penny that came
[00:29:20.460] in that door, went straight to my friends. I forget, I think I made like $8,500 that night,
[00:29:27.880] which this is back in, you know, gosh, we're talking 15 years ago. It helped a lot. You know,
[00:29:35.020] it helped them with their mortgage. It helped with, um, there was these special supplements
[00:29:39.020] that he was buying that was helping him through his chemo, keeping them healthy. And they were
[00:29:42.460] very expensive. So it's just kind of how I started a role when something bad happened.
[00:29:47.870] cause I didn't know what else to do. So that's a beautiful way to pour your energy into
[00:29:53.590] creating something. Cause not only do you create the awareness, you know, you create,
[00:29:58.690] um, you create awareness for the cause you create energy, like a lot of positivity,
[00:30:07.730] even those kids seeing that, like, sure. They were putting on their sad face for their uncle,
[00:30:13.390] you know, that's super cute, but they were also seeing like people really can come together.
[00:30:18.030] if you if all you see is people fighting if all you see is negativity people screwing each other
[00:30:24.790] over you think that that's the entire world you know it's great to be able to see the you know
[00:30:32.750] that that's great well and something good came out of it he was well enough to attend it was hard for
[00:30:38.290] him i don't think he was there the whole night but he was able to come with his family you know
[00:30:44.160] they came in from New York and they were,
[00:30:45.860] they were down from Stroudsburg and they came down and they were able to
[00:30:49.320] enjoy it.
[00:30:49.780] They were able to enjoy the band.
[00:30:51.000] He got to thank everybody in person.
[00:30:53.400] It,
[00:30:53.900] it was just,
[00:30:54.760] it was so important for him and it was such a wonderful thing for him.
[00:30:59.220] And that over anything else was great.
[00:31:02.540] We had a great night out.
[00:31:03.560] It was a party.
[00:31:04.160] We had a band.
[00:31:05.040] It was great.
[00:31:06.140] Um,
[00:31:07.670] so outdoors.
[00:31:09.190] No,
[00:31:09.630] it was inside the museum that we had access to the whole museum.
[00:31:12.550] Oh,
[00:31:12.790] wow.
[00:31:13.190] It was very cool.
[00:31:14.580] That's very cool. So fast forward. I met Kate.
[00:31:22.160] We were trying to think of this the other day when she interviewed me about 12, 15 years ago.
[00:31:27.640] And she just started asking me questions. We're out drinking martinis at an event and she's asking me, do you sing? You look like you sing.
[00:31:36.540] So I met her through her best friend. She was with her best friend and I know her best friend for a long, long time.
[00:31:40.720] so i said i mean i do i used to sing with the baltimore symphony chorus back in the 90s when
[00:31:45.540] i lived down there she's like cool i need you to sing i'm doing this production i really need some
[00:31:51.080] music can you do that for me i said sure um she's like okay cool okay cool we'll talk about that
[00:31:56.040] and then a few minutes later she goes do you act you look like you act you look like you act i'm
[00:32:01.700] like i've been on stage i've been known to um not thinking like my form of acting was always in
[00:32:08.700] school in musicals so i'm singing i'm comfortable singing theater yeah uh-huh so she said great
[00:32:16.080] because i need somebody else to act so this production it's the vagina monologues i said
[00:32:20.580] oh my god awesome that's one of my favorite plays i saw it on broadway would love to great it's in
[00:32:26.000] two weeks i went okay so the next morning when i woke up and i was completely sober
[00:32:31.980] what did I just say? I'm cool with the music. The monologue's not so much that is not in my
[00:32:39.600] comfort zone whatsoever. Like so far outside my comfort zone. And I almost called her and said,
[00:32:45.480] look, I'll do the music. I'm not doing a monologue, but my friends and my family were,
[00:32:48.900] they were pushing me. They're like, just do it. This will be really good for you. Get out there,
[00:32:51.760] have fun, push yourself. I begrudgingly did a monologue. I'm terrified, but I was terrified
[00:32:59.540] and um i loved it the next year i think i did two monologues i opened it i closed it with music and
[00:33:05.960] i did two monologues you told me about one of them i remember you promoting that you were going to do
[00:33:10.720] it so that would have been 12 gosh time she's a long time ago is this is this what happens time
[00:33:16.640] just crunches on top of itself yeah wow so she was doing those to raise money for turning point
[00:33:23.240] oh okay i never heard of turning point i said what is this and she told me and i said wow i
[00:33:28.680] this is great i didn't know this existed and my kids and i were going through a rough time at the
[00:33:33.840] moment and um i'm like this is such a great thing so i was really i stuck with it you know i was
[00:33:39.180] with her for a few years then uh my friend who was playing guitar for me during the shows said
[00:33:46.620] to me one day he goes why don't we do our own event we can just have a happy hour i'll bring
[00:33:50.500] the band in you can sing with the band and we'll just raise money that way so my best friend owned
[00:33:56.400] a restaurant on the south side so called him i said i'm using your restaurant this is what i'm
[00:34:01.280] going to do i'm doing a happy hour um we'll have we're going to have a small silent auction bringing
[00:34:06.060] the band in i'll get 10 of everything you make and that's how i made my i don't we didn't charge
[00:34:12.620] for people to come in i just took 10 of everything the restaurant made and then a very small silent
[00:34:17.380] auction we didn't have many items at all and in two hours i raised over two thousand dollars
[00:34:22.200] i had no clue what i was doing it just we had so many people there i don't even know people
[00:34:27.650] could hear the music we were pushing people like people coming in the front door we're going okay
[00:34:32.210] so there's a patio out back because we're way over a limit with people you know i think we
[00:34:36.550] had 200 people come through it was only supposed to hold like 90 so we were literally they were
[00:34:41.530] in one door and out the next because we couldn't fit everybody in the building and we just and at
[00:34:45.550] this point i knew people so everybody was coming and then the word got out and i was
[00:34:50.690] meeting people that I didn't know before. I had people reaching out to me, asking me about
[00:34:54.980] turning point and, uh, you know, telling me about their relationships and things that have gone
[00:34:59.480] wrong. And it was really eyeopening for me. So I had a ball with that and I was always constantly
[00:35:07.060] thinking, what, what's the next thing? What can I do next? Right. And I always had a dream to do
[00:35:11.680] a big event. So I had a dream to do a celebrity golf tournament. So I did that in August. Um,
[00:35:17.940] I had some friends, you know, I had a friend come in and say that he would help me with that. I'm
[00:35:21.280] like that's great and we had a really great event it was very successful and uh this year i just
[00:35:29.130] decided i'm like you know it was a lot of work it's two days it's a two-day event it's a lot of
[00:35:33.990] wow yeah there's the gala the first night with the auctions and everything and entertainment
[00:35:39.340] and then the golf the next day and it's just it's exhausting and you know i've got a full-time job
[00:35:44.460] too so thankfully things are usually slow in the summer so i had a friend sit with me we're just
[00:35:51.260] talking about it at the bar one night and he said, um, I just don't know if I have the energy to do
[00:35:57.760] that this year. He said, hear me out. What about a casino night? And I said, you know, I actually
[00:36:03.780] attended one of those years ago. There's so much fun. So I said, tell me more. And they do them
[00:36:09.540] for, uh, they used to do them years ago for, for their company. So I started doing some research
[00:36:17.800] and shot the idea out to my team i said hey guys i think i want to do this one night there's very
[00:36:25.270] little overhead the golf there's a lot of overhead you're bringing a lot of money you're donating
[00:36:30.190] back about a third but this is going to like be opposite you know there's very little overhead and
[00:36:35.950] the majority of the money that comes in is going straight to turning point which is really nice
[00:36:39.910] and uh that's what we're running with the the company that i the very first company when i
[00:36:45.980] just googled looking for one just to send it to my team go this is what i'm talking about i called
[00:36:52.500] some other companies and then i circled back to that company and interestingly enough for people
[00:36:57.060] that don't know turning point is our local center for domestic abuse um they provide a bunch of
[00:37:01.820] services and we can get into that a little bit later so when i called this woman who manages
[00:37:08.930] this company and started telling her what i do she got all excited she was in a car driving with
[00:37:13.850] three of our girls going out to an event she said oh my god this is great i love this i'm a domestic
[00:37:19.350] abuse survivor because as a matter of fact i think everybody my car is so all the ladies are
[00:37:24.230] and i started she's like where'd you come up with the name strength and love i said well it's
[00:37:28.290] tattooed on my arm i earned that and i said you know my friend bought me strength one year then
[00:37:33.230] a year later he bought me love and it's you know attached so she goes wait did you just say you
[00:37:39.580] have strength and love tattooed on your body i said yeah she said we all have strength and love
[00:37:43.760] tattooed on our bodies like in their own depiction and so they're all we're all taking pictures and
[00:37:49.040] we're texting each other now that mind you this is the first time on the phone with her just met
[00:37:53.220] so we're like wow that's crazy and then as we were talking a little more she says hey you know
[00:37:57.820] like we're in long island i have to i have to charge you a little bit more because of the travel
[00:38:01.700] um you know we're gonna need a hotel room so i get if you find a company that's closer
[00:38:06.860] and you and you use them but i still want to help you like call me i can still help you through
[00:38:11.700] things we can talk and um she says one thing you want to keep in mind that if you have a specific
[00:38:17.000] color scheme that you use for like whatever you do all these companies have their own color schemes
[00:38:24.310] too and they probably won't change that some are blue some are green i said nope that's that's a
[00:38:29.330] hard line in the sand for me i said mine's black and red and then like either silver white whatever
[00:38:33.770] that derivative is and she says okay you gotta stop i said what she said well that's our colors
[00:38:38.770] i'm like sold like how could i not like that was divine intervention yeah they had to be the people
[00:38:46.890] that come out so pretty sure what we were kind of tossing around the idea and she's she's pretty
[00:38:52.030] sold on the idea it was her idea to come up with she said i all eight people that are coming out
[00:38:56.230] with her they're all domestic abuse survivors and she said her whole team just loves this whole
[00:39:02.870] thing so much she said everybody wants to come and i cannot bring everybody there's like 20 people
[00:39:09.330] she said i can really only bring eight i still bring them they can pay you know they can grab
[00:39:12.610] a ticket they can come in and still enjoy the event so she actually asked if she could how
[00:39:17.240] she could help more so she actually joined my team she's one of my volunteers she's bringing
[00:39:22.360] prizes to the table she's bringing auction pieces to the tables you know there's a couple celebrities
[00:39:27.600] she's trying to get to come she just jumped in completely and i think i haven't met her in
[00:39:34.180] person yet but we're on the every time i call her on the phone for two hours you know so we're
[00:39:38.360] definitely going to be good friends and it's going to be a long relationship we want to continue this
[00:39:42.160] through and just create this team that we just make it bigger and it's very exciting i'm super
[00:39:51.260] excited this year all my celebrities like every single last one of them is volunteering their time
[00:39:55.140] um they're very excited uh i have an auction i have a guy coming in to do a silent auction
[00:40:02.560] who will be bringing sports memorabilia and some movie memorabilia where i will go out to anybody
[00:40:10.260] that's attending like say so you come i'll be like hey tony who's your who's your favorite
[00:40:14.960] athlete you know do you have a team you have a movie that you just like watch 25 000 times
[00:40:20.080] who are your favorite people and i will most likely be able to get something there at the
[00:40:25.080] event that you can bid on. You don't necessarily have to buy it, but you can bid on it. It'll be
[00:40:28.900] there. You know, you might have a friend or, you know, somebody might have a son or a daughter or
[00:40:34.160] a husband that, you know, it's their favorite thing for Christmas. It's this event's the end
[00:40:39.260] of September. So Christmas will be coming up. People could ask me to bring things that they
[00:40:44.500] can bid on for Christmas. So that's, that's super cool. I'm really excited about that.
[00:40:50.140] Is that, uh, is that what you're most excited about? I know there's levels to this.
[00:40:54.820] We also have like, we have two musical groups coming in and I'm super excited about that.
[00:40:59.860] Uh, I had gone to the Aardvark's reunion concert.
[00:41:03.540] Okay.
[00:41:03.920] When the heck was that?
[00:41:04.620] Was that like October or something?
[00:41:06.620] October?
[00:41:07.020] Last year?
[00:41:07.320] Yeah.
[00:41:07.960] Okay.
[00:41:08.660] So we had, wasn't it, maybe it was this year.
[00:41:11.200] I don't know.
[00:41:11.840] Time.
[00:41:12.560] Whenever it was, it was over the winter sometime.
[00:41:15.410] And when my friends and I first walked into Steel Stacks, you know, they have a music,
[00:41:19.310] they usually have music playing down there with the bars and stuff.
[00:41:21.770] so I heard this amazing voice it's around the people and my friends are trying to get drinks
[00:41:30.420] and are trying to talk to me I'm like no no don't bother me I'm like I'm listening I need her she
[00:41:35.370] has to be at my event that's exactly what I'm looking for went up grabbed a card emailed her
[00:41:40.520] told her what I do immediately she was emailing back like a day or two later she said I'm in
[00:41:45.500] she thought i'm i'm in so that was exciting very exciting for me and she helped me find uh the band
[00:41:54.820] that will be coming in as well uh i actually almost had the philadelphia funk authority
[00:42:00.220] unfortunately they had a gig that night but they wanted to come so i'll see what next year looks
[00:42:04.720] like and the artworks wanted to play but one of their i think it was their drummer that wasn't
[00:42:09.140] available on that date um so i have like people that are just jumping in and saying we really
[00:42:14.800] want to be part of this it's such a great cause we're very excited and we really want to be there
[00:42:18.640] for you so that part's exciting for me i don't have to go out and like beg people to come in
[00:42:23.440] i don't have to pay people to come i don't touch any of the money i am not a foundation nor do i
[00:42:28.900] want to be everything goes through turning point so you go to my web page and when you click on
[00:42:34.540] contribute now it gets populated over to their website and they have a q give website up that
[00:42:41.920] takes the money and everything goes through them i don't touch a penny never touches you i want
[00:42:46.060] nothing to do with it that's always i think that's the way to go i mean it's it's not that
[00:42:54.260] there are plenty of organizations that do well and they have their finances set up and that works
[00:43:02.970] well for them with accounting and putting everything together but it's more like let's
[00:43:07.470] just donate the money straight to them you know rather than build this whole thing and put it
[00:43:11.830] together. Plus it helps with the, like, especially my listeners or people watching in, whether they're
[00:43:18.810] local or not, they'll be able to go to the website and check it out. And if they go to the website
[00:43:25.480] and they see, and it's just like, okay, enter your credit card information. It's like, wait,
[00:43:29.580] well, I don't know where this is going. You know, it just dilutes the whole thing.
[00:43:34.320] So I think that's, uh, that's definitely important. That's awesome that you're set up that way.
[00:43:39.340] yeah i much prefer it yeah i'm with that so put together this event you have a history of
[00:43:49.640] philanthropy fundraising and it just makes you you mentioned that's when you first got a taste of it
[00:43:54.800] so go on that for a little bit like the feeling that you get is that part of what continues to
[00:44:01.200] propel you to raise money to put all the effort into the events i mean you anybody listening is
[00:44:09.970] going to see how well networked you are just by listening to how many times you fell back on your
[00:44:14.350] network to get something done or move it forward and people definitely want to be a part of that
[00:44:20.590] they're like you're going to put in the energy the strength to do it with or without them so
[00:44:28.490] why wouldn't eight people help and why wouldn't 20 people over here come and put the put things
[00:44:34.050] together on this. And then the more of that attraction you have, the easier it is to get the
[00:44:39.910] higher level, higher level influencers involved on stuff like that, because now this thing is
[00:44:45.310] just massive, you know? Well, that's what I'm hoping. Yeah. Um, of course there's a feel good
[00:44:52.050] thing behind it for me. The money's great. And I just love, look, one of my events that I did,
[00:44:57.490] the one that I did at my friend's restaurant, I didn't even tell turning point I was doing it.
[00:45:00.690] I don't think, I don't remember. I just, it's nice to just go down and hand them a check.
[00:45:06.590] Here's two grand. They're like, where'd that come from? Oh, I did a thing. The money's great. I
[00:45:14.330] would love, I have visions of handing them like a 50, a $50,000 check or a hundred thousand dollar
[00:45:20.430] check one day. Like that could do so many things for them. That'd be great. For me, the biggest
[00:45:27.880] part of this is awareness no not for several things one a lot of people don't know turning
[00:45:36.510] point exists a lot of people need them so you know people women men children this isn't just
[00:45:43.890] about women and children it's about anybody that's in an abusive relationship or an abusive situation
[00:45:48.910] you know they don't know how to get out they don't know what to do they don't have the monies to do
[00:45:53.410] so they don't have the wherewithal they don't have the counseling whatever it is they need
[00:45:58.070] shelter you know whatever it is that they need they need to know everybody needs to know this
[00:46:03.510] organization exists it's very important so the awareness is huge i also with this event i wanted
[00:46:10.030] to get more people involved this is the reasons i decided to do the casino night not just because
[00:46:15.250] it's easier and it takes a lot off my back it's not as stressful so i will be able to enjoy it
[00:46:20.770] more however i wanted to get more women involved golf is very male driven and this is a sensitive
[00:46:28.360] subject and it's interesting because i actually had some comments about i was a man hater because
[00:46:34.760] i'm raising funds for a turning point i'm like no i'm kind of an abuser hater um and i i have
[00:46:42.860] friends and family male that have been abused i've never said it's only women and children ever
[00:46:48.200] um so it's anybody it can happen to anybody i want to get more women and young adults involved
[00:46:56.640] So I'm doing this 18 and older.
[00:46:59.080] And that's my hope that I just get more people involved that will come and spread the word.
[00:47:05.100] That's how it should be for this type of event.
[00:47:08.250] You can't worry about the people that old.
[00:47:10.670] And they say like, if you, especially when you put something out there, when it's out
[00:47:15.330] to a bunch of eyes, you can only like, you're lucky if you get half, there's going to be
[00:47:21.000] some people that just don't care at all, but there's going to be some people that it has
[00:47:24.600] to irk them.
[00:47:25.520] You know what I mean?
[00:47:26.360] it's something bothers them about it they have to there's probably a reason they're saying that
[00:47:31.680] right so you got to really take a look at who that person is and what they're doing with their
[00:47:34.660] life you can't you got too much energy over here with the people that are like wow this is something
[00:47:39.500] that i can listen to something that i can do when we had um heidi on the people reached out to me
[00:47:47.340] and just said you know that was amazing that was something that we had no how can i connect with
[00:47:52.880] this. That's what I love about doing the podcast. There's been multiple people. I get texts after
[00:47:58.300] the fact, it may be a few weeks, it may be a month or two, but somebody will say, Hey, we're
[00:48:03.200] working on putting together a curriculum for a school based on the connection, because I saw them
[00:48:09.120] on your podcast. And I asked you to reach out to them once we were finally able to connect. Now
[00:48:14.300] this is happening. And so it's like, uh, you just do, I mean, whether or not people are spiritual,
[00:48:21.860] there's no doubt that putting good energy is contagious. You create a wave of creating
[00:48:27.860] something positive and people want to attach onto that because there's just, it's way too easy to
[00:48:34.260] get the negative stuff. It's so easy. In fact, if you want to go viral, you're better off being
[00:48:39.760] negative than trying to do a podcast about success and, oh, it's, it's just the, the facts, you know,
[00:48:47.660] but and you know i'm not we could post all kinds of weird things around the event about abuse
[00:48:56.120] i don't do that i don't want to bring people down i don't want them to be standing around
[00:49:00.460] crying reading things i'm celebrating you know beauty and strength and love i'm not i'm not
[00:49:07.560] belittling anybody i just i it's a celebration of of getting people out of unhealthy relationships
[00:49:16.080] and and getting them back out into society and in a healthy manner so they can like strive and do
[00:49:22.800] what they're supposed to be doing with life and not be in that negative space so this isn't gonna
[00:49:27.280] be a big party you know we're we're gonna have a lot of fun at this event great food woodstone's
[00:49:33.020] amazing anybody that came last year all they were all they talked about was the food and their
[00:49:38.590] service they're just wonderful to work with absolutely wonderful did you yeah beautiful
[00:49:44.310] venue it did yep yep 2016 yep they are they are amazing that with the two event the two-day event
[00:49:52.660] i was asking tony if they were all vampires because i every time look we are up until like
[00:49:59.140] 3 30 in the morning sunday night we're back up at eight o'clock in the morning dragging our feet
[00:50:03.940] and i don't know when they sleep i'm sure they're taking shifts and they're sleeping
[00:50:09.340] somewhere but everybody was on point all the time always there there's always somebody they
[00:50:13.040] look all chipper and new and just fresh and just come out of the shower and i'm like what is going
[00:50:16.820] on here it's crazy to me they're they're i don't think i would ever take it anywhere else they've
[00:50:23.540] been wonderful to work with that's amazing to hear so tell tell us exactly about this event
[00:50:30.410] it's happening at woodstone let's get some dates i'd love to hear about it it's at woodstone country
[00:50:35.890] club which is in danielsville for those of you who don't know where that is it's beautiful beautiful
[00:50:40.870] country club uh it's on september 26th it starts at five o'clock uh from five to six is our
[00:50:48.170] registration our meet and greet with our celebrities we have music playing it's cocktail hour just time
[00:50:53.810] to chill and network whatever it is that you want to do there uh then just prior to six o'clock we
[00:51:00.420] will make some announcements then we'll sing the anthem and the games will start and then that's
[00:51:05.140] when you go off to your tables and start gambling for prizes you don't gamble for money that would
[00:51:08.900] be illegal you don't have a we don't have a license but there's great prizes coming in that
[00:51:13.980] people will be gambling for and um so your admission ticket you get depending on how you
[00:51:21.500] come there's different ways to get admission you'll get a certain amount of chips to start
[00:51:26.760] with and then you can when you're on the floor you can buy more chips if you want to keep gambling
[00:51:29.880] if you really want to have that 65 inch flat screen tv that i got yeah you might want to
[00:51:34.780] gamble a little more see so you can win that so what you do is at the end of the time whenever
[00:51:38.460] you're finished gambling you cash in your chips for tickets and there'll be a bag in front of
[00:51:44.480] each prize so you drop however many tickets you want in the bag that you want to that you want to
[00:51:48.720] win um that's super cool then there'll be the silent auctions there's always going to be
[00:51:53.480] something to do the celebrities will be out on the floors playing with people taking selfies
[00:51:57.640] doing autographs and we provide a booklet with all of our sponsors in it and all of the
[00:52:02.720] celebrities headshots and bios which is where you can you know bring a sharpie with you because
[00:52:07.830] you're going to want a Sharpie so that you can have your autographs in there. And then at 10
[00:52:12.730] o'clock when it ends and we'll have a couple of live auctions as well. I actually have a autograph
[00:52:18.210] Taylor Swift guitar coming for a live auction with a letter of authenticity. No way. Yeah.
[00:52:24.550] That's wild. Yeah. I tried to get her to come present it, but I was told no.
[00:52:29.690] Let's see if she just shows up. Sometimes you got to take what you can get.
[00:52:32.330] yeah we'll see if she shows up right maybe next year um but super cool that i have that you know
[00:52:38.550] for people to bid on um so near the end of the night probably i you know really no don't know
[00:52:44.880] the exact timeline but like throughout the night i think i'm gonna have two or three live auctions
[00:52:48.740] and then around like 9 9 30 we'll start slowing down have people cashing in their stuff to start
[00:52:53.940] bidding on their prizes get the silent auction prizes out to everybody and then once everything's
[00:53:00.520] done at 10 o'clock there's a celebrity hospitality suite which is you have to pay to get into that
[00:53:08.450] so that's where all the celebrities go downstairs to the golf simulation room and we just chill with
[00:53:13.470] complimentary drinks you can pay a hundred dollars to come hang out there last year like i said last
[00:53:18.470] year it started around 10 10 30 we were there till 3 30 in the morning you know we can stay till 5 in
[00:53:23.230] the morning if we want you know people you know don't want to sleep um but it's a lot of fun i'm
[00:53:28.330] going to have famous cigars there too uh they're going to be selling cigars so if it's nice that
[00:53:34.750] you know we have the the deck outside you can go outside and then a lot of them a lot of people
[00:53:38.350] that are coming to the hospitality suite will want cigars to come down and chill yeah there's
[00:53:42.170] a patio right outside there that we sit out on so yeah i mean it's just gonna be really it's
[00:53:47.950] gonna be a really fun event i'm super excited my celebrities are excited there's a i have like
[00:53:54.190] nine or ten right now then there's a few that we're waiting on because it's still
[00:53:58.550] it's too far away right now right i have a couple actors that want to come they just have to make
[00:54:04.020] sure they're not filming they don't know exactly where they'll be yeah obviously if they have
[00:54:08.530] something going on they have to do it wouldn't that be wouldn't that be amazing though if somebody
[00:54:13.630] turned down a check to come and be at your event we don't want a little knock on wood yeah i'm just
[00:54:20.500] saying, um, that's understandable with anything, but nine celebrities confirmed that are coming
[00:54:26.680] with a event that laid out. Well, I mean, at the time of recording, that's what, two months from
[00:54:31.820] now. So it's not terrible, but I could just feel all your hard work. You know, I can't wait to see
[00:54:39.460] the event and see how everything goes together because anybody wanting to be involved with it
[00:54:45.420] just has to have a good heart you know what i mean like you know that's what i want yeah i don't want
[00:54:50.720] anybody in there that doesn't it's got to be a feel-good thing everybody's got to be on board
[00:54:57.040] you have to be there for the right reasons and then is anybody from turning point there or is
[00:55:04.930] this another you just go down and hand them a check no they'll be there they they'll be present
[00:55:09.610] when we that they'll make one of their announcements they'll you know give their
[00:55:13.970] spiel who they are what they do how to contact them all that stuff um yeah i always ask for
[00:55:20.020] them to come because i want somebody to speak and they should be present they're getting a check
[00:55:23.920] you know they have to be there be present be on board um you know we're using their square to
[00:55:31.360] take all the payments because again even there even that night i'm not taking i want nothing
[00:55:35.040] to do with it okay i just i was asking because i wasn't sure if it was like hey you know i saw
[00:55:40.240] this podcast out when i lose and we hear you're doing a charity event for us turning point
[00:55:45.340] they're on board that's excellent well you can give their uh their website your website where
[00:55:53.900] people can buy tickets you know um and then i'll probably plan on having this out in about a week
[00:55:59.640] or two maybe less okay so where can people get tickets for the event yep so my website is
[00:56:05.700] strengthandlove.org so it's strength the letter n the word love.org when you go there um click
[00:56:14.780] on sponsorships there's a it's a big web page it has stuff from last year's event you can look
[00:56:20.200] through the gallery and kind of see what we did last year and then there's some information on
[00:56:24.560] this year's event as well and then you go to sponsorships it lists all the sponsorships i'm
[00:56:28.400] still looking for sponsors so companies yeah if somebody wants to sponsor and they get their like
[00:56:34.380] they get an ad in our booklet they get depending on the level of the sponsorships some of them
[00:56:39.220] will be we're getting um ten thousand dollars worth of cumulus radio ads the month leading up
[00:56:45.780] so if i have a specific sponsor come in before that they'll be mentioned on the radio excellent
[00:56:51.540] yeah we have we already have our sponsor for billboard so we're going to have a billboard
[00:56:55.600] billboards all over the valley leading up to the event we have a tv commercial we're at lehigh
[00:57:00.100] valley international airport on their big screen uh at the luggage area there you go yeah i'm all
[00:57:06.660] over the place um so when you can be a sponsor we're still we'll take sponsorships probably up
[00:57:12.340] until about three or four months three or four weeks before the event we can probably take
[00:57:16.440] sponsors we just have to make sure that we have enough time to get you in the booklet and then
[00:57:21.800] um what about just dry like dry donations could they you can't it doesn't really make sense
[00:57:28.880] point.com no no no everything goes through my site okay so if you don't want to sponsor you
[00:57:33.720] just want to throw money at it on that same page when you click on the contribute now and you go
[00:57:39.960] to their q give site and then it says buy tickets that's just how it's set up to click on buy
[00:57:45.180] tickets you'll see all the sponsorships at the very bottom you can just add in a number if you
[00:57:50.120] want to so i have had people do that because we had some different like for the tv commercial it
[00:57:57.170] wasn't a sponsorship that i had out there we went to someone specifically and said do you want to do
[00:58:00.470] this so that's where you that's where you give that money you can just put in whatever dollar
[00:58:05.190] amount you want and at the bottom of the sponsorship page there's a block that shows the three different
[00:58:10.350] ways you can come as an attendee so you can come for 150 300 or 500 you get different amounts
[00:58:17.290] different amounts of chips and two of them come with vip entrance the vip is a section of the
[00:58:23.290] room that will be roped off there'll be two tables in there where the bids will be higher
[00:58:27.070] um it's just a different feel yeah yeah i'm at it that's beautiful i can't wait it's gonna be fun
[00:58:36.730] you gotta come what is the date again september 26 september 26 then doors open at 5 p.m and
[00:58:44.630] cocktails at six well no five to six is your cocktail hour got it there's cocktails all night
[00:58:50.390] bro yeah but you'll you'll get a couple um you get some drink tickets that you can use like
[00:58:56.730] whenever but that first hour is really just to get in there get registered get everything situated
[00:59:02.510] start meeting you know we'll bring the celebrities in and for you to meet them and you can have
[00:59:08.050] drinks with them this is going to be a wild night yeah excellent you want to take a look in your
[00:59:15.210] notes see if there's anything you wanted to drop real quick and then we'll start to land the plane
[00:59:19.270] we've been going about an hour yeah so i'll drop a few names if that's okay that i'm gonna have
[00:59:24.210] there my top celebrity at this point in time is victor caliccio he's an actor uh best known for
[00:59:30.270] his role on goodfellas he was also in the sopranos which is one of my favorite all-time shows uh he's
[00:59:35.920] talking to a couple of his best friends who are also actors and we're hoping that they are not
[00:59:39.460] filming and that they will be showing up yeah one of my best friends eric murdoch he's former nba
[00:59:45.300] he'll be there andre williams he's became a good friend of mine he is also um he's former nfl
[00:59:52.620] doug clemens he's former phillies al cole is a former heavyweight and uh cruiserweight boxing
[01:00:00.360] champ ton of athletes wow yeah wayne johnson he's a movie producer tv and movie producer
[01:00:06.260] chris fried is uh he's a local celebrity he's a comedian he's been seen on saturday night live
[01:00:12.540] and conan o'brien along with a few other shows uh my first friend in the whole world my friend
[01:00:18.620] brian balfazar he's a tv personality he's a host and executive producer when he's been in front of
[01:00:25.960] the camera many times on uh different shows like he's been on the today show msnbc nbc um nbc daily
[01:00:35.240] news uh he's been on the wendy williams show a million and a half times i i like would turn on
[01:00:42.340] the tv randomly and i'm like that sounds like brian uh and then ian and i'm probably gonna say
[01:00:48.720] his last name wrong i'd hate to even say it rickaboney it's r-i-c-c-a-b-o-n-i i feel bad
[01:00:57.370] i don't know how to say his name he's a friend of um chris's and uh he's going to be coming he's a
[01:01:02.270] long-standing host of ring of honor wrestling he appears for aew on tnt and tbs and he's an
[01:01:09.850] english voice for new japan pro wrestling on axs tv so international those are my celebrities
[01:01:17.690] at this moment in time and a few that i'm waiting on you know to see if i there's a few household
[01:01:24.030] names that i'm hoping they'll be able to come in again if they're not filming they'll be there
[01:01:27.330] that's excellent that's excellent wow crazy networking awesome gifts i autographed taylor
[01:01:36.170] Swift guitar, a guitar autographed by Taylor Swift. So that's going to make someone extremely
[01:01:41.630] happy. Yeah. Oh man, this is going to be good. Very cool. Anything else you want to say?
[01:01:49.880] No, I think that's good. All right. Thanks for tuning into another episode of I Will Not Lose.
[01:01:55.140] We had Lisa Miesler on, philanthropist and commercial realtor. Thanks, Tony.
[01:02:00.920] You're welcome. Talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to another episode of I Will Not Lose
[01:02:07.940] Podcast. To support the show, visit IWillNotLosePodcast.com. You can subscribe to your
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