Posted on June 9th, 2020
Find below a complete transcript of this video.
What’s up fellow entrepreneurs? It’s John Fagerholm again, and today I’m going to bring you a very special treat.
Instead of talking about any of the crazy California laws that I usually speak about, I’m going to interview a successful entrepreneur and businessman.
I’m hoping this interview is interesting and useful, and if it is, I’ll do a few more interviews with some of the amazing entrepreneurs that I’ve met along my journey.
Today’s guest is Marc Kreiner. Marc is both a close friend of mine, and one of my mentors. Most of you will probably recognize his name from the Mixed Martial Arts world and his very successful clothing brand called TapouT.
Marc was the president and chairman of the board of this highly successful brand before it was sold for several hundreds of millions of dollars, several years ago.
After TapouT, Marc started a restaurant group and opened his flagship restaurant called The Morrison.
Last year, The Morrison was voted the seventh best restaurant in all of America by Yelp and has won several other accolades, such as Best Bread Pudding and Best Happy Hour, just to name a few of the awards that he’s won with his restaurant.
Marc has been a lifelong entrepreneur and each of his businesses have reached the top of their game. Marc first found success as a music producer in the 70s.
At one point, he was called King of Disco with over 200 gold and platinum records and even a Grammy. After his adventures in the music industry, Marc found success in the infomercial world before selling that business and joining TapouT.
Today he’s still operating his restaurant group and his award winning restaurant, The Morrison.
I hope you enjoyed this brief interview with Marc as much as I have enjoyed having Marc as a friend and a mentor. Anyway. Good to see you again, Marc. It’s been, shit like January, February, maybe?
Yeah. It’s been months. It’s good to see you too.
Yeah. And you’ve been quarantined for a while.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So, your quarantine, what was it, 14 days?
Actually, I was quarantined for 30 days.
Wow. That must’ve been rough, because I’m stir crazy here in my apartment. I have to get out once a day or I’ll go crazy.
Yeah, I was committed to my bedroom.
Oh, man. So what’d you do in that spare time? I know what as entrepreneurial as you are, you probably didn’t waste any time.
Well, my mind was just all over the place, just thinking, trying to create, how to turn a negative into a positive.
Yeah, yeah.
It was interesting, a lot of meditation.
And it’s a big week for you guys because The Morrison just opened back up, right?
Just opened up on Saturday yeah, a few days ago.
How’s the business going?
Well business, thank God, we’ve got some people that have been regulars and have come in here for years. We’re in our eighth year, so it’s nice, but we’re at about 20% of where we were.
That’s rough.
Brutal.
Yeah, because your rent doesn’t drop by 80%. Your other expenses don’t drop by 80%.
Nothing, still-
You’ve been around a while, so you’ve been through other weird disasters in the US.
Oh yeah.
I mean, I’ve been through a few. What do you think about all of this?
You know, I’m kind of mixed. I mean, obviously I’m very concerned that my self or loved ones or friends don’t get sick or potentially, but it seems to be way beyond where it needs to be right now.
Yeah, and that’s what I was thinking too, because initially we all thought this is not a big deal. It’s like the flu.
Right.
Right, and then it got serious, right. And I still remember clearly the day we shut down the office. I was like, “Wow, this is surreal.” Packing up boxes and telling lawyers, “Here’s how you do your work from now on.”
Sure.
Right? But as we’ve been going on and you start hearing more reports and you start looking at the numbers, you start going, “What’s going on here because, is the cure worse than the disease?” And I know you weren’t around in the great depression, but I have a lawyer mentor that was. He was a kid during the depression.
Wow.
And plus stuff I’ve read and seen on television, but he tells me how bad it was back then, just the starvation, the crime rates, just everything, right?
Yeah.
Though, I don’t understand putting us back into those sort of numbers. Now, I’m not trying to make it seem like that’s happening right now.
People are starving or whatever, but those same numbers is what caused all of that back then, right. So who knows what the effects will be here, but why take the risk, right?
Right.
Yeah. So what are you doing about your employees and …?
Well unfortunately, being fact that we can only do takeout right now, I’ve got about seven employees. I mean, I like to employ them all, but it’s limited.
We can’t have anybody in the restaurant. You’ve got to do everything by code of the health department. Anyone who comes in the building has to be shot with their temperature and gloves and mask. Actually I came into my office to take my mask off.
So, it’s kind of a surreal to be in the restaurant, and it’s weird because basically it’s take out. It’s pick up and take out and that’s it. So I’ve got the cooks, I got a bartender because now, because of all this, the ABC loosened up their ruling, as far as, now we can sell alcohol and beer and cocktails off the door.
Wait a minute. So, how does that work? Because you know, I’m a cocktail guy, right?
Right. So-
And I’ve been living off White Claws, so it’s time for something harder.
You can call and you can request anything you’d like in our bar, and we’d prepare it and pick it up and take it out of here.
And you just drink it as you walk down the street, or how does this work?
Well no, you can’t drink out. It’s got to be in your car, in the trunk until you get home, and second-
Oh, okay.
It’s like an open container.
Got it. And what do you serve a mixed drinking in, now that it’s. So if I ordered a …
Like a Margarita?
Vodka Water.
Yeah. So we’d give it to you, like a juice, the plastic juice things, the eight ounce juice things. We make it and we put it in there and chill it.
But if you get beer, we’d give you growlers, like 32 inch growlers, 32 ounce growlers. So it’s good.
Nice.
We don’t sell pints, just the growlers. So it’s very safety driven.
Yeah. I mean, there’s always going to be businesses that do well in every disaster, right. The ones that were just positioned in the right place.
Right.
So, you’ve got anything delivery related. I mean, Amazon is crushing it right now. Right. And then you’ve got these businesses that you always thought were stable, no matter what, right? Like parking lots. Parking lots were just … Doesn’t matter, and now parking lots are struggling.
But I was thinking, because I have so many restaurant owners that these restaurants like yours that have these big spaces and these big build-outs, I mean, this must just be tough because you’re paying these huge rents and then you don’t get use of that space and all the stuff that makes The Morrison special.
Right. You’re right, you’re a 100% correct. Now, what’s interesting is that according to the Health Department or what I heard yesterday was that they’re going to now allow us, and I know they’re doing this in Long Beach now, the mayor approved it, but because of the social distancing, they’re going to allow us to put tables in our parking lot.
Oh. So instead of parking, we can have outdoor seating.
Yes, and we can serve alcohol out there. So, that’s pretty exciting.
Yeah. You should have a huge reopening. I know how good you are at marketing .
Oh yeah, we are. It’s going to be [crosstalk 00:08:50].
Sell tickets.
… To The Morrison.
Yeah, because you missed one of your big …
St. Patty’s day.
Patty’s day. Yeah, I thought of you the day that I …
Cinco de Mayo.
Oh, Cinco de Mayo. That’s another big one for you, right? But Patty’s day is the biggest.
Yeah, that’s the biggest.
Ah man, that’s rough.
Two days before.
Two day before.
Yeah, yeah. Wow, that was rough. That was rough.
Yeah, it was tough.
Yeah. You know, speaking of businesses that probably are doing well is probably food trucks, right, because they don’t have to really do much different than what they were doing.
Yeah, food trucks and I’ll tell you who else is doing real good, all the drive-in restaurants, the drive-through.
Drive-through, yeah.
That maybe did so so, now they’re just packed because people are afraid to go in anywhere.
Yeah. Thank God, I’m not a fast food guy or …
Yeah. Well, I had my first Big Mac in about 10 years, a couple of weeks ago.
How was it? I can’t remember the last time I ate a Big Mac. How was it?
Oh then I had a Carl’s Jr, oh it’s terrible.
Yeah, but this whole thing is pushing us in a weird way, right?
Yeah.
So I have a huge expense for my office space, but I saw this coming about a week before I started getting nervous.
So we set everything up so that we could work remotely. It’s actually working out pretty well. So unfortunately, I have this big space for this longterm lease, but it kind of shows other people that these big spaces are probably a thing of the past, you know?
Yeah. I think so, right? I mean, especially with Zoom and everything else, especially with you guys, it should be … I think it’s going to really change the outcome of a lot of businesses.
Well, I’ve done since we’ve shut down, I’ve done four Zoom mediations.
Wow.
Yeah, and they basically just divide you up into two separate rooms, and then the mediator jumps back and forth from room to room.
Really?
And it was no different than if I was standing there.
Right.
So it was pretty cool. I don’t know how a trial would work though. I have a trial coming up July 7th, and they’re saying that they want to do it by phone. And I’m like, “How do I cross examine? How do I fill them the documents?” So I don’t know how this is going to end up, but I have a really good case, so I don’t want to risk my case on some new way of doing things. I want to be there in the flesh.
Right. [crosstalk 00:11:28] Are courts not open doing trials yet?
Well, the Superior Court and the Federal Courts are shut down for everything except an emergency. This particular one that I have on July 7th, is worker’s comp and that’s not usually my area, but there was a conflict of interest for one of my attorneys.
So I’m going to take the trial. And yeah, he used work for the other firm that we’re going against. So they asked for him to be removed, so I jumped in.
So not a big deal. I mean, worker’s comp trials are much easier than superior court trials, so not a problem doing it, but they want us to do it by phone, which is … And typically they’re done just like regular trials. You’re in a room and you cross examine and opening, closing.
Wow.
Yeah. So for my viewers that don’t know you Marc, let’s talk a little bit about the past, because I’ve already done this intro about your past.
I’m sure they’re curious. We met each other in the TapouT days and you were formerly president and chairman of TapouT, which was amazing, amazing company. I don’t know, maybe I’d rather you speak about it than I speak about it.
Well, I mean, it was another phenomenon. I mean, it was a great experience. MMA’s first new regulated sport in 150 years that got approved, but I was involved with the guys. I actually didn’t start the company, I was brought in.
The boys at that time were doing about 400,000 in 2006, just through the internet. And when I came in, in two years, we were doing 200 million in sales.
So, what was the difference between what they were doing and what you set them up with? Because I met them in front of Roscoe’s and they were just selling out of their trunk.
Right.
But that was probably a good five, six, seven years before-
I got involved.
Before you got involved. So I don’t know what they had done in between that and you.
Well, they did a great job in marketing. Really what they did, they gave me the tools to take it to the next level. It’s kind of like, in business, you really want to get people that compliment each other.
You want a team, a team effort, and so we complemented each other well. What they did, I didn’t do, and what I did, they didn’t do, but they gave me the ability with their marketing to take it, to do what I do in my level of marketing to take it to the next level.
Got it, got it. So it seems to me, just from the little I know that was going on back then is, they were really good at building a brand because they were everywhere.
Even people that weren’t in MMA, kind of knew them, but it seemed like they hadn’t figured out how to translate that into sales, right, into-
Correct, correct.
sort of have the …
Yes, and that’s what I do. That’s what I did. I put it all together, with them.
Yeah. So I want to show you a video real quick that I came across and I want to show you this video because I want to ask you about something in particular.
Let me see. How do we do this? Oh, I guess I can’t share the screen. I was going to try to share a screen because there’s a … Oh, actually here. I can do it. I’m still learning this too.
[inaudible 00:15:22]. Do you remember this video?
Oh yeah.
Okay. So here’s what I want to ask you about, as soon as it comes … Where is that gun right there?
Which gun?
You see that gun on the wall?
Oh yeah.
What is that?
Well, that was just a gun, that was an old fashioned gun that somebody gave me as a gift and I put it up on the wall.
Oh, I see. Okay, because you know, I’m a gun guy. So I was like, “What is that?” That’s the first thing that I noticed when I came across that video.
How about a guy who was 50 pounds heavier at that time too?
Oh, I didn’t even notice that.
Oh yeah.
Yeah. And after … I’m trying to figure out how to stop sharing. Oh, stop share, here we go. See, Zoom makes it so easy for you, that it [crosstalk 00:16:15] becomes complicated, yeah.
So, prior to TapouT then, you were doing a lot of … What was that thing called? The infomercial stuff, because that’s how you met the TapouT guys, right?
Right. I was doing an infomercial, and then before that I was doing music.
Yeah, the disco stuff.
Yes sir.
So I also didn’t know it, and I’ve known you for such a long time. I’m surprised I don’t know any of this stuff, but I didn’t realize you started out as a DJ.
Yeah. I started out as a DJ in Marina Del Rey, making $50 a night and all the drinks I could buy girls, free.
Wow. That actually seems like a pretty good pay. What year was that?
Wow. Prehistoric, I-
Because your first disco credit looks like 1977.
Yeah. I was actually 19 and I lied about my age to get a job saying I was 21, and I was sharing a bedroom with my kid sister, making $50 a night, feeling like a king.
Yeah. That’s not bad for 1970, whatever that was.
Yeah.
And then you got into … You’re one of the first guys to get in the disco, is what it was, right?
Yep, yeah. Promoting disco music, and what happened is the … Disco at that time, really the, I want to say the creators, but the leaders was the gay community initially, and they did a great job with discos.
Then the one that I worked at was the first really straight disco in Marina Del Rey. So we had all different types of people that came in, but there was a guy from the record come, all the record execs would come into this place. And one of them said to me, “You got a great ear. You should listen to this song.” And I can’t hear a tune.
He played me this song and it called, Dance Dance Dance by Chic, and I said, “Oh, it sounds great.” He said, “Well, how would you like to buy it and have the rights to the group?” I said, “Oh, sure. How much?” And he said, “Well, I think I can get the deal done for 6,000.” Well, I had 6 cents to my name, but I knew where my parents kept their $20 bills underneath the mattress.
So I said, “Oh yeah, no problem.” I said, “Well, look, I don’t really know how to make a record deal. Why don’t you be my partner?” And that was the beginning of Chic.
Wow. That’s amazing, that’s amazing. And you have over 200 platinum records, right?
I have over 200 gold platinum records and a Grammy. Yeah.
Wow. Wow. You know what’s interesting is now you’re this big restaurateur of one of the best restaurants in LA, voted right by … I know you guys have-
Voted number seven restaurant in the country by Yelp in the top 100.
That’s right. [crosstalk 00:18:59] So all these people that know you from that have no idea about the TapouT stuff.
All the people that know you from TapouT, probably have no idea about the disco stuff. So you’ve had this long string of big hits.
Yeah. For me, I believe when I conclude an industry or business I’ve been in, because when I’ve done it, I’ve gotten to the top of that industry, that’s it.
So I don’t really talk a lot about my past because I’m trying to stay in the present or go in the future. Unless somebody says something to me or they recognize me, because we had our own TV show on with TapouT and I’ve got one of those faces that people will know if I’m a criminal or a good guy, you know?
Well, [crosstalk 00:19:39] I remember the TV show, and I also remember the billboards. I remember you had billboards all over.
125 of them, with a Yellow Billboard, yeah.
Yeah. I remember those. [crosstalk 00:19:50] because you had the cigar, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. So, what do you think happens from here? Because all of your successes have been in California, but it’s starting to look like California is not the place that it used to be. It’s starting to look like … A lot of industries moving to Texas and Nevada, and a bunch of other places. Elon Musk is now threatening to leave. So what are your thoughts on …?
Well for now, I’m here.
Yeah.
I’m one of those guys that decides not to participate in all this craziness. So I’ve always been an underdog my life and always had came back on top.
So, being right now, it’s very tough, because when you’re doing 15, 20% of your numbers, when your overhead is as high as ours is, but for me, it’s like not quitting two minutes before the miracle.
Yeah, yeah.
And just take it one day at a time, and do the best I can do. And when I started thinking about tomorrow or next week or the next holiday, or what’s going to happen July 4th, are they going to open up? Are they going to open up for 25? It’s like, I just don’t want to participate in the insanity.
I think there’s so much insanity going on right now that I just got to try to stay focused.
Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you somewhat. I mean, for the most part, I agree with you, certainly the philosophy, but I’m also starting to think that … I was just reading this quote by Tony Robbins, where he was saying, he was always a California guy, and then he’d left when he realized that California didn’t want him anymore.
And it was just based on taxes and cost of living and all of these different things that make you say, “Hey, is this the best?”
Well, yeah. I mean, John, in the right scenario, I’m not anchored here anymore. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
I mean, if something came up, an opportunity whereas I’d never say I’ll never leave California, [BA BA BA 00:22:03] I just think this is such a brutal state to do business in, in all areas. The laws, being an employer, all that stuff, the taxes, but it’s pretty tough.
Yeah, but 300 days of sunshine.
Yeah, you got that right.
That’s what keeps me here.
Just don’t go lay on the beach.
Yeah. Isn’t that an odd …
I don’t get it.
Yeah. So, we’ve been going to the beach even before they reopened it.
Oh good.
Because at some point the police were just like, “We’re not going to enforce the stupid law,” or whatever the reason. They were there. They just didn’t say anything to us, but yeah. I don’t understand it either.
I mean, they’re letting criminals out of jail, but we can’t sit on the beach.
What bothers me is absurdity, right? That’s the thing where I go, “Hey, this doesn’t make any sense. Is it just about imposing your will or does this result in something?” So the one that bothered me was when the Sheriff Villanueva or whatever made that speech and within a 20 minute speech, he said, “Hey, a bunch of cops who are going to get sick.
So we’re probably not going to be able to police as well as we do. We’re letting out a bunch of criminals and we’re shutting down gun stores.”
And I thought, “Wow, that’s a really absurd speech, all in one to say all of these things.” And there’s been so much stuff, that’s come out like that. Like the, “Hey, we’ll open up the beach, but you can’t sunbathe.” What sense does that make?
Right. Yeah, it’s crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it’s crazy times. I never thought I’d be sentenced to my bedroom for 30 days.
Yeah, that must’ve been rough, because I’m sentenced to my very large apartment and only partially because I go out every day and I still get stir crazy.
But you know, I’m grateful I didn’t get sick and I’m grateful I didn’t get the virus and I’m grateful I’m okay, and that’s really what it is.
Yeah, yeah. So, when does the patio open or the parking lot open?
I don’t know. It changes every 14 minutes. I’ve got to check with the Health Department, I don’t know. And then I heard July 4th, they want it completely open restaurants.
So does that mean completely or does that mean 20? I don’t know. I don’t know.
Yeah, because I heard they’re going to keep everything closed till …
August.
Till August, so how would they do that on July 4th? That doesn’t make sense.
That’s what the word was yesterday. They want to get everything opened July 4th.
Yeah.
I don’t know.
Well, you know what I’m most bummed about and then I’ll get into a very good Marc Kreiner story. But the most bummed about is I finally bought season seats.
Oh no.
So I had the Lakers and I had the Clippers, and I had all Playoff Games. I had everything.
Oh no.
I was enjoying, giving them away, selling them, using them whenever I wanted to use them. You know, I live a block from Staples, so this is just perfect for me. And then it all shut down.
Oh Jesus.
And they still haven’t said what they’re going to do about that. They haven’t said, “Hey, we’re going to give you your money back.” So who knows?
They haven’t said it yet?
Nothing. They said, “We don’t know until the NBA says what they’re going to do,” because they may restart the season.”
Yeah, but not with people?
I know. So who knows what they’re going to do.
Yeah. I don’t know.
Which leads me into one of my favorite Marc Kreiner stories.
The Lakers.
The Lakers. You in the front row during the playoffs, popping a bottle of champagne and spilling it all over the floor. That’s awesome. What year was that?
Holy bananas. I don’t really … Lakers …
Because it was Lakers …
Philadelphia?
Maybe. You know, it’s interesting. I told you this story. I was in South Dakota, in a bar having a drink with a bunch of people that I was with and I look up and I’m like, “Oh, they’re playing an old Lakers game.” And then I’m just talking and drinking.
And then I look up and then I see you in the front row, spilling that bottle of champagne.
Dom Pérignon, it was a Magnum with Dom Pérignon, and glass is illegal in arenas, but because I was very close friends with Jerry Buss and stuff, they looked the other way.
And this was the game that looked like they were going to win the championship, and I had floor seats right across from Jack Nicholson. And every time the Lakers would score, I’d jump up and I’d hold the bottle because I didn’t want it to break on the floor and shake.
Well, after a period of time that champagne popped and it popped on national TV when the players were running. They had to call a timeout, a national time out.
And they were saying, “The Lakers are going to win.” Boom and all over the place, and it was pretty embarrassing but it was fun.
They didn’t kick you out?
No, they couldn’t. I was friends with the owner.
Good to know people in high places, right?
Well, I didn’t break the glass. They told me, “Don’t break the glass Marc.”
Yeah, yeah. Anyway, Marc that’s about a half hour, so I don’t want to take too much of your time.
I know you’re trying to get the restaurant up and running, but if there’s anything you want to say to these entrepreneurs in closing, feel free.
Well, I just think the most important thing from my experience is that you just you’ve got to have confidence with yourself and believe, really believe, and go after your passion and your dreams.
And again, as I shared with you earlier, to me, when I have a bias, I just don’t quit two minutes before the miracle, because it’s so easy to say, “Ah, screw it.” But I’m one of those guys that the word, no, doesn’t exist in my vocabulary and I’ll keep going until I can’t go anymore.
Yeah, and that’s why I love you. All right, so I’ll be seeing you tomorrow anyway.
All right. Sounds terrific. I’ll see you tomorrow.
All right. Bye bye.
Thanks John, bye bye.
