1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,240
Welcome to episode number four of the Dan Time podcast.

2
00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:11,320
I'm your host, Dan McCardell.

3
00:00:11,740 --> 00:00:14,960
And of course I am thrilled to have you as a listener.

4
00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:17,000
Thanks for checking out the show.

5
00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,120
I am taking you through the Daniverse.

6
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:22,980
Now we'll jump out from time to time.

7
00:00:22,980 --> 00:00:28,200
We will talk to some people with different names, but right now we're still in it.

8
00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,040
And this is an exciting episode, folks.

9
00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:36,240
If you came here to hear some storytelling, maybe came here to be inspired.

10
00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:40,920
Maybe you just want to listen to somebody who's walked the walk and made a huge

11
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:42,320
difference in his community.

12
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:44,800
As I like to say, you're in the right place.

13
00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:46,600
Danny Zimmern.

14
00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:51,080
He is the commercial team owner, broker associate, senior commercial advisor,

15
00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:57,680
and recruiting mentor for team Zimmern of Keller Williams commercial in Pensacola,

16
00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:58,240
Florida.

17
00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:03,320
Danny is also the owner broker of Skagans the third, Inc.

18
00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,880
Danny has been at the center of many important decisions and different

19
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:12,120
crossroads over the past at least 25 years in Pensacola.

20
00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:16,840
And if you take him out of the mix, the landscape truly looks different.

21
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,840
Just a quick run through Danny's achievements and organizations.

22
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:26,320
He is the president of Pensacola Mardi Gras and has been in that role since 2002.

23
00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:31,120
He has served on the board of directors of Temple Beth-El, the oldest Jewish

24
00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:32,760
community in Northwest Florida.

25
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:38,000
He's served as the past president of Pensacola Little Theater, which is the

26
00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,520
oldest continuously operated community theater in the country.

27
00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:46,960
Former member of the downtown improvement board traffic and parking committee.

28
00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:52,520
He's been a board member on the downtown YMCA, 15 straight years on the

29
00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:58,400
in-weekly power list of the 100 most influential people in Pensacola.

30
00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:03,920
Danny likes to talk about making great friends, making and keeping great

31
00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:04,840
relationships.

32
00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:07,360
And that's what it's all about.

33
00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,880
And if you're enjoying the show, please hit the download button or the

34
00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:14,960
subscribe button and you'll get the episodes as soon as they're released.

35
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:20,840
I'm on social media at Dan TimePod on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

36
00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,040
I'm Dan TimePod on Instagram, Dan Time Podcast on Facebook.

37
00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,880
I'd appreciate if you guys like or comment on those pages.

38
00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,600
It really helps out the show gets, gets more visibility for Dan Time.

39
00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:37,880
And you can reach me directly at DanTimePod at gmail.com.

40
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:42,640
You are going to thoroughly enjoy the stories that Danny has to share.

41
00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:44,560
It's not all business.

42
00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:47,440
It's not all economic growth.

43
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,080
You might have a love story in here somewhere.

44
00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,640
Now, one thing you'll notice early in the conversation, there's some white noise

45
00:02:54,640 --> 00:03:00,440
in the background and I try to edit that out completely, but what you hear is the

46
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:02,160
best result that I could achieve.

47
00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,360
So hopefully it's all right.

48
00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:06,240
We are a work in progress.

49
00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:11,400
It's still done as better than perfect here on Dan Time and you'll hear it get

50
00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,760
better as we move along, but thanks for listening.

51
00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:21,600
Let's get to my conversation now with the one, the only Danny Zimmern.

52
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:27,720
Right off the bat, I want to take you way, way back to when you were five years old.

53
00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:28,080
Wow.

54
00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:32,280
This may have been your first business venture on a hot August day.

55
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:34,120
I don't recall much from when I was five.

56
00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:36,920
Was I selling lemonade or something?

57
00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:38,840
This is from the Pensacola news journal.

58
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:40,880
You and a buddy, Harry Smith.

59
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:42,040
Across the street.

60
00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:43,200
Harry lived across the street.

61
00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:47,400
You guys set up an orange juice stand and the news journal quoted you saying,

62
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,480
Hey, get your cool orange juice here.

63
00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:50,160
Beat the heat.

64
00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,680
Just a few pennies for a tall, cool drink.

65
00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:53,480
Oh, I love it.

66
00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:55,320
I was an entrepreneur from early on.

67
00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:59,240
Now I don't even remember that, but we grew up on Whaley Avenue.

68
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,280
Harry was across the street from me and he was something else.

69
00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:06,320
He's been also been around forever and we run into each other every five or

70
00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:07,800
eight years, somehow or another.

71
00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:10,480
And he really was a little older than me, but we had a lot of fun.

72
00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:13,840
I don't remember the orange juice story, but it doesn't surprise me.

73
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,880
You know, I collected baseball cards.

74
00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,400
So the whole neighborhood, we traded and all that sort of stuff.

75
00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:22,360
And we got into where we would throw them and the person that threw them

76
00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,840
the farthest would keep the other card.

77
00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:29,440
Man, we had some fun doing that because it was crazy, but it was great.

78
00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,680
It was sort of like a showdown in the middle of the street, you know,

79
00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,440
to see who could, and you had to put up, you know, if you had a Hank Aaron,

80
00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:38,200
they better have a Mickey Mouse.

81
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,920
If you had a Hank Aaron, they better have a Mickey Mantle or whatever, you know?

82
00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:45,680
So, uh, learned early on about making deals.

83
00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:50,240
When you were at a young age, uh, like you said, making deals early on, did

84
00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:55,560
you know that you had the fire in the belly back then for getting folks together?

85
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:56,680
Was that already?

86
00:04:56,840 --> 00:04:58,520
I don't remember that Dan.

87
00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,240
I remember, uh, wanting to have a lot of fun.

88
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,760
And, uh, as I got older, meet the neighborhood girls and, uh, you know,

89
00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,280
there were, there were boat houses so we could go hang around and do

90
00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:11,720
crazy stuff as kids.

91
00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,000
We had a lot of fun in our neighborhood growing up, but I never remember the

92
00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:22,440
doing that, but I do have memories of growing up in beautiful Pensacola, Florida.

93
00:05:22,840 --> 00:05:24,480
My father was in business.

94
00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,320
He owned his own manufacturing company here.

95
00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,440
I'd go watch the old dude's work and do all that.

96
00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:32,240
And then, you know, I just loved all that.

97
00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:36,880
And then I remember, you know, running for student government seats and being

98
00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,760
in clubs and all sorts of things like that and getting into leadership roles.

99
00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:46,480
So yeah, I've kind of found my way to the front of the room a lot of times.

100
00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:50,120
And of course I've ended up in the principal's office a lot of times too.

101
00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:56,880
So, uh, but I, you know, uh, as you bring it up, I have been a part of trying to

102
00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:01,200
make things better and grow them and kind of be a leader.

103
00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:02,040
Yeah.

104
00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:07,880
Most of my life, uh, started my own business when I was in college, uh, uh, moved

105
00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,880
back to Pensacola and have enjoyed it ever since and worked all over the panhandle

106
00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:15,360
in different ways in the food and beverage business.

107
00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:20,400
And what I've really probably been most successful is, is making good friends.

108
00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:26,200
You know, I'm very interested in other people and learning from them, uh, and

109
00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:30,600
hanging out with folks who are sort of successful and who do have a chance to

110
00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:31,320
make a difference.

111
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:33,280
Well, you took the words out of my mouth.

112
00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:38,040
I was going to bring that up that not only have you been interested in going

113
00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:42,680
far and being at the center of a lot of important events, and this isn't true of

114
00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,720
everybody with those characteristics, but you really seem to get excited about

115
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:52,160
other people's success and you get excited about the community thriving and

116
00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:56,120
people wanting to move here and people wanting to stay here as opposed to

117
00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:57,840
leaving for jobs elsewhere.

118
00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:00,440
Well, I love Pensacola.

119
00:07:00,840 --> 00:07:03,120
Uh, it's a very, very unique place.

120
00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,520
I have a lot to say about that, but over the years, there have been some

121
00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:12,160
significant difference makers around town and I've been blessed to be able to

122
00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:16,640
hang out with some of those people and learn from them and maybe add a little

123
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:18,000
bit of gas to the engine.

124
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,240
You know, I have my own ways.

125
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:21,880
I like everybody to have fun.

126
00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,680
I don't believe a whole lot positive comes out of fight.

127
00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,440
Somebody might win a fight and sometimes you have to have them, but I like

128
00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:33,000
everybody to get together and have a little fun and come up with creative

129
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:34,760
ways to grow together.

130
00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:36,920
It has kind of served me well.

131
00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:41,240
Part of my problem is I can't really get away from leadership.

132
00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:43,320
That's both a kind of a double edged sword.

133
00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:48,200
Every, basically every organization I ever feel like I've been a part of, I

134
00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:52,080
end up being a leader, a president or a chairman of, or something like that.

135
00:07:52,080 --> 00:08:00,040
And I take those jobs and those volunteer positions seriously and I try to grow.

136
00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:05,480
It's how a Southern Jewish boy got involved in Mardi Gras, which is of

137
00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:07,880
course anything but a Jewish celebration.

138
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,600
But we've been doing that 25 years.

139
00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,680
We've grown Pensacola's Mardi Gras celebration from about a couple of

140
00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:21,040
thousand people and about 20 Mardi Gras crews to over a hundred Mardi Gras

141
00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:25,960
crews and last year's Mardi Gras attracted about 200,000 people to

142
00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:27,640
Pensacola in Northwest Florida.

143
00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:30,840
According to statistics, I didn't count everybody.

144
00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:32,800
It's been great for business.

145
00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:36,840
It's been great for the community and you know, it's a lot of fun, frankly.

146
00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:40,200
So it's kind of fun to put on a big party and have a hundred thousand

147
00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,720
people on a Saturday come, you know, and we've been able to do that.

148
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:49,200
And luckily I have people who don't mind getting into the fray with me, Dan,

149
00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,280
and that part is also sort of a lot of fun.

150
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,840
I try to make it great for everybody the best we can.

151
00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:57,000
So, so many different things.

152
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,400
I'm president of the Temple Beth-El of Pensacola, the oldest reformed

153
00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:04,560
Jewish congregation in the state of Florida.

154
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:12,280
I am full of awe at the history of our congregation and I kind of put off being,

155
00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:14,960
I was offered a leadership role from the board.

156
00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:16,560
I've been on the board about 15 years.

157
00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:20,080
It was offered a leadership role on the board and I declined it.

158
00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:26,160
I'm basically made up excuses not to do it, but eventually I kind of couldn't get out of it.

159
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:28,160
And I'm never going to try to go backwards.

160
00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:29,680
I'm always going to try to go forward.

161
00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:32,920
So I just, I don't think you can ever do things the same.

162
00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,000
I think you either are going to get better or worse.

163
00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,360
And so I always want to get better.

164
00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:42,360
So I'm now president of a congregation and of course, in a small Southern

165
00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:46,800
city, being president of a reformed Jewish congregation comes with some challenges.

166
00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:48,800
So we're working through that.

167
00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:49,840
We're going to make it better.

168
00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:51,720
We all that's going well.

169
00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,120
The downtown YMCA, I was put on their board.

170
00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,280
I was asked to be on their board a couple of times and turned it down and finally took that.

171
00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:01,680
And then I rose to be president of that board.

172
00:10:02,480 --> 00:10:07,920
And of course we went through a huge transition into a new YMCA downtown.

173
00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:12,680
And here it was a tremendous effort that I was happy to play a small part of, I guess.

174
00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:13,840
So I've enjoyed that.

175
00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:15,360
I went to the university of Florida.

176
00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:16,840
I'm a huge Gator fan.

177
00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:17,720
I'm a bull Gator.

178
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:20,160
Go to almost every home game.

179
00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:24,880
It's been a long time since I've missed one, but go to every home game and a lot of the way games.

180
00:10:24,880 --> 00:10:30,320
I love wearing my orange and blue on Saturdays and rooting for the Florida Gators.

181
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:32,840
We have a local booster club.

182
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:35,000
I was president of that, I think for 12 years.

183
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:38,280
It was one of those things where once you started doing it, nobody else wanted to do it.

184
00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:40,800
Because maybe it was a lot of fun when I was president.

185
00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,920
We grew that and we've had a lot of fun with that.

186
00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:51,240
I made some great friends over the years through going to the university, as well as being a part of the booster club later.

187
00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:58,640
So many different, one of my closest friends here in town is, he's an old dude.

188
00:10:58,640 --> 00:10:59,520
I'm 62.

189
00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:00,680
He's 85.

190
00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:05,400
He is a guy who taught me a tremendous amount about life, Jim Reeves.

191
00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:09,280
And Jim, and I'm super close with his family.

192
00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:18,200
I've learned a lot about Jim, but Jim came to me about 20 years ago and said, I want you to be on the Pensacola Little Theater board with me.

193
00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,560
And when I got on that board, it was a lot of fun.

194
00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:23,760
But Jim said, we can fix this.

195
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,880
It was kind of a mess.

196
00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:31,080
The mortgage payment every month at the Little Theater was $26,000 or so.

197
00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:38,320
And we figured out essentially that they worked for about 20 days of every month until they could pay the mortgage.

198
00:11:31,740 --> 00:11:34,160
Wednesday wine and cheese every Wednesday.

199
00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:59,820
And we sold stars that are in the like the waterfront, the

200
00:11:38,320 --> 00:11:43,920
There were only 10 days left to really develop any capital to put on productions and do things.

201
00:11:43,920 --> 00:11:49,840
So we went about paying off that mortgage and it took us about five or six years, but we did.

202
00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:51,840
We had a mortgage burning party.

203
00:11:59,820 --> 00:12:03,080
Walk of Fame in California.

204
00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:04,480
And so I did that.

205
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,320
I became president of that board of trustees.

206
00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:11,680
Our budget went from about $300,000 a year to about a million a year.

207
00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:19,680
The production value is it's the oldest continuously operating community theater in the country.

208
00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:22,520
Community theater means everybody's a volunteer.

209
00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:27,240
And it's kind of tough when everybody's volunteering and you're still broke.

210
00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:27,720
Right.

211
00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:28,120
Right.

212
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:36,520
So you ought to be able to put on good productions, have some great production value, sell tickets and have people pay to come.

213
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:41,680
Well, even now at the Pensacola Little Theater, the production value is tremendous.

214
00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:44,520
But even now, the tickets are very inexpensive.

215
00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:50,000
The budgets are basically made and we decide how much we need to bring in to cover the bills.

216
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:52,000
And that's how we make the ticket prices.

217
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,200
It's not about just raising prices to the shows all the time.

218
00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:55,960
We don't do it now.

219
00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:58,960
Of course, prices have to go up a dollar or two here or there.

220
00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:05,960
But you could sit in the front row at a Pensacola Little Theater production now for about $35 for a ticket.

221
00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:09,240
I mean, on Broadway, they're $400 for a ticket.

222
00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:10,880
So it's a whole different deal.

223
00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:16,400
But all those actors and actresses and seamstresses and all that, all those people get paid.

224
00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:18,560
They volunteer at the Pensacola Little Theater.

225
00:13:18,560 --> 00:13:23,720
But as a part of making our community better, we have to have outlets.

226
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:27,120
Mardi Gras is an example. The theater is an example.

227
00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,680
People want to enjoy their lives.

228
00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:32,080
Everybody has their passions.

229
00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:37,840
So with the arts, that's all arts, painting, acting, singing, dancing.

230
00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:43,960
With all arts, there's some people who like to act and there's some people who like to sew.

231
00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:49,880
And then there's some people who just like to take their spouse to a dinner and go to a show and relax.

232
00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:51,840
And you have to have an outlet for all that.

233
00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:58,480
You have to have a lot of options in your community for people to enjoy, for them to move here.

234
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:02,240
Danny, there's one quote that I pulled from the Pensacola News Journal.

235
00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:03,840
This is back in 2010.

236
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:07,120
But I think based on what you're saying, this really still applies today.

237
00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:15,640
You said, it's amazing the amount, the amount of and quality of creativity that exists in the arts in Pensacola.

238
00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:20,560
If you've never seen one of the great productions at Pensacola Little Theater, get yourself a ticket.

239
00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:21,840
You will be hooked.

240
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:23,200
Yeah, and it's the truth.

241
00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:28,720
The quality of the creative people in Pensacola is off the chart.

242
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:39,720
And sometimes it just takes building a facility or having an outlet for them to both enjoy their craft and perform for others, for others to see it.

243
00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:48,080
Pensacola, small little southern town, we have people who have become very, very successful in the arts world.

244
00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:54,320
Of course, it's like something's in the water with all the athletes that are stars that have come from Pensacola.

245
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:57,640
And I've been lucky to be a part of a lot of that.

246
00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:00,400
It really is a part of what makes us special.

247
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:15,840
One of the things about growing Pensacola, see, it used to be, Dan, where the paradigm used to be that you built a plant and the plant would open its door and advertise that it had a bunch of jobs and people would move to that town to work there.

248
00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:17,280
Well, that's all changed.

249
00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:22,720
Now people go where they want to live and the jobs go where the people are.

250
00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:29,040
The jobs in the big cities these days are there because the people are, not because it was the best place to open an office.

251
00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:39,320
I would assume that, for example, Amazon would not put an office in the middle of a downtown somewhere other than the people are there that they need to work.

252
00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,520
I'm very, very close with our current mayor, D.C.

253
00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:44,400
Reeves, and D.C.

254
00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,280
We started a brewery here, Perfect Plain.

255
00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:55,800
D.C. had a dream and I was able in my commercial real estate life, which is how we pay the bills around here, in my commercial real estate life, we were able to put that together.

256
00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:58,400
And then it turned into something much, much bigger.

257
00:15:58,400 --> 00:16:01,080
He liked to talk about Ph.D.

258
00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:12,840
Marine biologists and MBA graduates that were tented bar because they just wanted to live here and they wanted to earn a living and they were waiting for the right job to come along.

259
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,240
In the meantime, they were making a bunch of money bartending and having the time of their life.

260
00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:17,760
So they were thrilled to be here.

261
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:22,200
And their friends came from other places and Petsicle has exploded.

262
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:24,080
Commercial real estate is what we do, Dan.

263
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:25,920
And I'm an old dude.

264
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:27,480
I told you I'm 62.

265
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:33,560
America sort of went through a re-urbanization of its downtown, downtowns all over the place.

266
00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:38,480
Used to be you built roads out to a hundred acre track and you built a subdivision.

267
00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:52,320
The grocery store went out there, near there, and it is just not super efficient development when some smart people, way smarter than you and I, figured out that the infrastructure is in downtown.

268
00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:58,480
And if we could build up our downtowns all over the country, that would be where people would want to go and made it easy.

269
00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:08,520
So I just happened to kind of be in the right place and know a few of the right people to be a part of a lot of big growth in downtown Pensacola.

270
00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:17,000
And once you kind of understand that the utilities are there, the roads are there, you know, so much else, and then the density is there.

271
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:23,160
And you learn, for example, that a surface parking lot is the biggest waste of a piece of property.

272
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:32,440
So, you know, about 15 years ago, we did away with parking requirements in the downtown overlay, which allowed downtown to really explode.

273
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,080
That was one of the key pieces that helped downtown explode.

274
00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,840
Then you could have a zero lot line place.

275
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:45,760
And as long as there was public parking around, whether that be a parking deck or street parking, that business could work.

276
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:51,760
If code required one parking place for every 300 square feet, it would take a bigger piece of property.

277
00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:57,280
That's what's out by the malls, as an example, a piece of property with enough parking to handle that building.

278
00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:59,880
Well, downtown parking needs to handle all of downtown.

279
00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:03,640
So that's why there are community parking decks around.

280
00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:08,560
And parking has become another big topic of conversation, probably everywhere in America.

281
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:17,480
I studied that. I was head of the downtown Pensacola Parking Committee of the Downtown Improvement Board, another leadership position that makes nobody happy.

282
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:22,600
I like doing things that make people happy, but that one was one that just felt like it needed to be dealt with.

283
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:40,200
You know, in Pensacola, we have been lucky to have a couple of really cool cats who were forward thinkers and were successful enough in their day jobs to bring some development and ideas and capital into Pensacola.

284
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,800
And I've been lucky enough to have some of those people believe in me.

285
00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:48,240
So together, we've been able to work and put together some great projects.

286
00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,720
Of course, Quint Studer is probably most known for that.

287
00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:53,640
And Quint did a lot of travel.

288
00:18:53,640 --> 00:19:00,320
And so he saw the benefit of growing a downtown and built the first large apartment complex downtown.

289
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:01,600
He did very, very well with it.

290
00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:05,920
But that was the linchpin for for really growing our little town.

291
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:09,280
And so I think that recipe could be repeated, frankly, all over the country.

292
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:17,720
It's not super complicated, but you do have to sort of take a deep breath and step back and realize sometimes you have to make some changes and nobody's going to like it.

293
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:20,280
We have a parking problem in downtown today.

294
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,360
Downtown Pensacola, Florida is on fire.

295
00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:26,200
We have food and beverage locations.

296
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:27,520
We have retail locations.

297
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,760
We have offices and then we have residents downtown.

298
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,920
So it's hard to park and people get mad about it.

299
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:39,080
But you had plenty of parking when nothing was going on, you know, and you want things to be going on.

300
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:42,160
So it's just a matter of managing that properly.

301
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:47,440
We had the world's authority on parking come talk to a small group of us here.

302
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:53,760
Who knew there was a world's expert on parking technology wise used to be, you know, a parking meter.

303
00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,320
That was pretty simple, but they break and they don't work.

304
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:58,960
And it's just inefficient.

305
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,560
Carry quarters around like the exactly I mean, the whole bit.

306
00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:09,400
So now that parking is very sophisticated, there's apps and you put your location in.

307
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:15,240
It knows where you are now because of your cell phone and so many different things that make parking a little bit better.

308
00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,480
But you got to understand it before you can fix it.

309
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:25,880
We have a problem, I think, in America, but I know we have a problem here in our region, for example, of recycling.

310
00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:29,560
You know, I've kind of tried to be a part of some of that as well.

311
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:35,080
I've kind of been through the ringer with it, but it is expensive to recycle.

312
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:47,400
So it's good and it feels good not to bury cardboard and plastics in the ground because it takes them a long time to deteriorate in landfills.

313
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,520
And they fill up landfills. But it is expensive.

314
00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:52,360
So there's a trade off.

315
00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:59,520
And of course, the better the world gets at recycling, the less people will pay for cardboard to recycle cardboard, as an example.

316
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:08,920
So it's these spirals that you have to deal with and you have to be a little malleable in our lives to try to figure out solutions for different things.

317
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:17,760
So, you know, have you ever been presented with a project where someone wanted you to to head it, take it on and find a solution for the problem?

318
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:22,840
And you just ran into a wall and said, here, you guys find someone else.

319
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,000
I've done all I can.

320
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,760
The parking situation seems like you would just run into wall after wall.

321
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:34,960
Well, parking is a challenge because the solution is there's never a finale.

322
00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,560
Whenever you fix some piece of the problem, there's more problems.

323
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:47,000
I've been a part of a lot of projects, but in most of them, having a finish line is sort of important.

324
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,680
It's the intangible sort of projects that that don't necessarily have a finish line.

325
00:21:51,680 --> 00:22:00,920
It's like saying there's some crazy problems in our world today, like affordable housing, homelessness, that sort of thing.

326
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,160
They're not necessarily related, but they are somewhat related.

327
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:08,800
Those are hard for me to get my arms around because there's no real finish line.

328
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,520
Or the Fentanyl crisis.

329
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,240
Drug, drugs, even immigration.

330
00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,120
There's a lot of problems that we should try to fix.

331
00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:20,960
I try to focus down on positive stuff that we can.

332
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,320
I'm kind of a one step at a time.

333
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:27,080
I'm kind of a rising tide lifts all boats kind of guy.

334
00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:30,080
And I'm definitely a big tent guy.

335
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,280
Everybody's welcome.

336
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:38,360
You know, I like to I like to have a real diversity of people around.

337
00:22:38,360 --> 00:22:49,240
My political stuff is not necessarily the same as everybody's, but I do like to focus on projects or issues that have solutions.

338
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:54,080
Do you ever find yourself seated at a table with different leaders?

339
00:22:54,080 --> 00:23:00,920
And you know that this person across the table recognizes that you guys are on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

340
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:06,560
But they also know that, hey, I can work with Danny because I've always been able to work with Danny.

341
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:13,200
Well, civility and discernment is something that's really missing at a lot of those tables, Dan.

342
00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:15,800
And I try to do that.

343
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,560
I don't let anybody be ugly.

344
00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:24,920
I like to sort of think that you don't have to make everybody happy, but you can't make anybody mad.

345
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,520
I like to think that sometimes it's inevitable, I guess.

346
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:37,080
But I have been at some very complicated tables, as you put it metaphorically, been at some complicated tables.

347
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,760
And sometimes you cannot agree.

348
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,480
You've got to try to find the best solution.

349
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:51,320
Have you ever interjected with a couple of parties who are just hashing it out and said, hey, guys, we're not getting anywhere?

350
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:54,000
Have you ever had to be the mediator?

351
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,640
Oh, hundreds of times, hundreds of times.

352
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:01,680
You sort of can't help it, you know, if you're going to really be involved.

353
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:08,440
If if there's no problems, it's probably not a real issue, you know, and that that needs solutions.

354
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:17,760
But, you know, what you end up doing is sort of seeing that people have personal goals or agendas in the problem,

355
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:20,400
not necessarily doing what they call right.

356
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:24,680
But what it is is right according to them and their agenda.

357
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,280
So that's that is hard.

358
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:29,320
We we certainly.

359
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:33,080
Northwest Florida is probably a lot like the rest of the world.

360
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:38,600
We have politically sort of people come from two different places or generally.

361
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:42,040
But it's fairly civil around here.

362
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:52,400
Generally, there are always crazy things where I think Pensacola has always had a melting pot characteristic to it.

363
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,240
Yeah, we're I like to call us a big little city.

364
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,640
We are kind of a little city that has some big problems.

365
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,680
Sometimes we've had blown up abortion clinics.

366
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,800
We've had crime. We've had anti-Semitism.

367
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:09,960
We've had protests. We've had all sorts of things that big cities have.

368
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,920
But we know everybody in the crowd generally.

369
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:18,240
So we're complicated in that way, but it's a wonderful place.

370
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:24,000
I know much of the country is talking about Pensacola, Florida.

371
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,320
I do a little bit of travel, but not a ton.

372
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:41,160
But I know, for example, I don't really want to mention any names, but a couple of billionaire landlords from around the country have come here and marched into the mayor's office and said,

373
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:46,840
I don't know what it is. I have billions of dollars worth of real estate, but everybody's talking about Pensacola.

374
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:53,120
What can I do here? How can I invest here? What can I buy? What can I what can we do together? How can I help you?

375
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:58,920
And those are great, great problems to have. But Pensacola is kind of on the map.

376
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,680
Northwest Florida. Nobody knows this better than you, Dan.

377
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:05,320
We like to kind of call ourselves LA. That's lower Alabama.

378
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,040
You know, we're right up here below Alabama.

379
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:13,080
And so Pensacola is in a unique spot in the economic development.

380
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:18,000
We fight with Orlando and Tampa and Miami because they're our state.

381
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:25,280
But we also fight with Mobile and New Orleans and Biloxi, and they offer their own sets of incentives.

382
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:31,240
And we don't have anything to say about that. We have something to say about Florida incentives, but not about our neighbors.

383
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,680
So we have we fight both directions around here to do it.

384
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:43,040
And we try tourism. We have the world's most beautiful white beaches as a function of where we are in the Gulf of Mexico.

385
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:48,440
All the fine sand ended up on our beaches just by the flow of the tide.

386
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:55,440
And our beaches just spectacular here on this little north Gulf Coast,

387
00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:00,720
northern end in the panhandle of Florida and in South Alabama. Same sand.

388
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:05,640
And a lot of the natural beauty is for some of you listeners who have never visited the area,

389
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:15,800
a lot of the natural Florida beauty is captured on our beaches because we do have protected state park areas and the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

390
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:18,880
We do. They'll be there forever. None of that's going to get touched.

391
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:29,160
And, you know, today we feel sorry for our Florida neighbors who are going through a tropical storm, a hurricane when it hit in, I guess, in the Tampa area.

392
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,400
I'm still learning more about it. It's kind of happening as we speak.

393
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:40,440
But but today, but we've been through our own crises like that and we've had to learn and we've come out better, Dan, I think most every time.

394
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:49,040
Sometimes some of the bad gets wiped away. Hurricane Sally was an absolute blessing to me.

395
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:51,760
I'll tell you a story. You have time for a story? Oh, yeah.

396
00:27:51,760 --> 00:28:00,560
So I was married to Tanya and we we had a daughter in 1997 and we got divorced.

397
00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:06,440
Tanya had some demons in her life and it was just too hard.

398
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:15,080
And and so we got divorced when when our daughter, Hannah, was about four and we were apart.

399
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:24,800
Well, Tanya was able to get rid of those demons and found a way to manage some of the things in her life that could be a problem.

400
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,680
And she did. And now she's 14 years sober.

401
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:32,320
I always worried she would sober up and fall in love with somebody else.

402
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,560
And of course, she did. But I always loved her.

403
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:46,440
So she had been engaged. And at the beginning of the summer, I guess, of 20, she got unengaged and spent that summer working on herself.

404
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,440
I didn't really know that. I've always loved her and we've been close.

405
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:56,080
But that's what she did. And she, you know, walking on the beach and reading and praying and working a program.

406
00:28:56,080 --> 00:29:02,360
So she did all that. And here comes Hurricane Sally in September in September.

407
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:06,480
And our daughter, Hannah, was in law school in Baton Rouge.

408
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,960
She went to LSU and she called and said, Dad, Mom's got to evacuate the beach.

409
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:15,200
She doesn't really have anywhere to go because she's been spending time on herself.

410
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,960
Can she come stay in my room at the house? And I said, of course.

411
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,840
So here came Tanya and her little dogs to the house.

412
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:28,880
My ex-wife, Hannah's mother. And nothing nefarious happened, Dan.

413
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,000
But it's been years since you've been under one roof together, correct?

414
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,200
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, we stayed close, but that means talking every now and then.

415
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,840
Maybe an occasional dinner with our daughter or something like that.

416
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,000
But so here she comes. Hannah's in Baton Rouge.

417
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,920
She's just me and Tanya and the two dogs now and my dog and cat.

418
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:54,320
And so nothing nefarious happened, but four or five days of no power and very little cell signal.

419
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:59,960
And I had things to do, by the way, work, but no power and very little cell signal.

420
00:29:59,960 --> 00:30:03,680
We had to kind of communicate to make it all work.

421
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,080
And that sort of made us communicate.

422
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:11,600
And then after four or five days, the gas cans that were running the little generator ran out.

423
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:17,880
So we loaded up all the 10 gallon gas cans and had it took a long romantic drive to Buc-ee's

424
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,720
because Buc-ee's across the state line is the only place that had gas.

425
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,040
That trip was full of emotions.

426
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:27,280
People would cut in line and people would kind of flip you off.

427
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:33,440
And I mean, it was just happiness and sadness at, you know, times 10 in so many different ways.

428
00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:41,160
But we ended up getting a hot brisket sandwich and we ended up getting gas and we ended up laughing some and crying some.

429
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:47,400
And that did lead us going to Baton Rouge to see Hannah, that sort of thing.

430
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:57,160
And then on February 22nd of 22, that would be 2-22-22, I proposed for the second time.

431
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:01,120
And we were remarried in October of last year on our anniversary.

432
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:05,280
So we have our anniversary coming up is coming October.

433
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:10,000
And I'm not sure if it's the first anniversary or the 28th anniversary,

434
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:14,040
but it's one of those and we have the same anniversary date.

435
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,760
So that's something fun to sort of talk about.

436
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,480
But what a beautiful story.

437
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,040
But that was all that was all about Hurricane Sally.

438
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:21,640
God brought us together.

439
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:22,760
There's no doubt about it.

440
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:30,040
And so the journey has been hard and sometimes lonely, but it has all come together now.

441
00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:38,240
And so I'm just so happy and blessed to have Tanya back and to and to be a part of that.

442
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:46,560
I like to say our marriage, my marriage to Tanya works well because she was willing to accept a child I had from my first marriage.

443
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,360
Of course, it's her child, too.

444
00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:51,840
So, you know, it's a whole new chapter.

445
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,760
It is. And Tanya does residential real estate.

446
00:31:54,760 --> 00:32:00,320
We merged my commercial real estate business with her residential real estate business.

447
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:07,640
And we're the top Keller Williams team here in the Panhandle of Florida by several different metrics.

448
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:14,800
Danny, has Tanya the past 25 years or so she's closed nearly one billion dollars in sales?

449
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:17,600
Yeah, absolutely. She's an absolute celebrity.

450
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:26,160
She was Caldwell Bankers number one agent in the Panhandle and switched over to Keller Williams and convinced me to switch over to Keller Williams.

451
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:28,120
You know, we're having a blast.

452
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:33,760
She's a complete celebrity and she's a complete professional.

453
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:35,120
And she's just so good.

454
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:38,520
People are loyal to her and she does a great job.

455
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:42,640
And so it has been really a remarkable marriage.

456
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,800
And so our team now is doing whatever.

457
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:50,440
I mean, we did one hundred and twenty five million or so last year.

458
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:55,640
And we're probably going to do significantly more than that this year as a team.

459
00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:58,480
And so, you know, life is a lot of fun.

460
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,640
It's not all perfect. And so we're trying to figure out how to make it better.

461
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:08,640
But we we both love Northwest Florida and we both love family and all that.

462
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:13,440
We so, you know, the other kind of things were still growing together after all this time.

463
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:19,280
But it's great. And our daughter is so happy she's practicing law, doing family law, and she moved back to Pensacola.

464
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:26,560
She would not have moved back to Pensacola if all that effort we'd taken all those years did make this a better place.

465
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,200
And so now there's stuff for her to do here.

466
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:34,000
She's about to be twenty seven and we're just so life is good there.

467
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:39,760
And Danny, I remember from some of our earlier early conversations, I think we first met about five years ago.

468
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:44,040
And each time we talk, it seems like you mentioned Hannah, your daughter, Hannah.

469
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:49,720
And you told me stories about the early days when she was kindergarten or first, second grade.

470
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:53,480
And you've got all these things going on. You got all these balls in the air.

471
00:33:53,480 --> 00:34:03,960
And a lot of busy guys, a lot of busy dads and maybe families who are not together, they don't either can't see their kids a whole lot and don't have a lot of control over that.

472
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,880
Or they just stay too busy just to do things with their children.

473
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,280
And from what I understand, you carried Hannah around with you a lot.

474
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:17,640
She went various places with you and I did that must not have always been easy.

475
00:34:17,640 --> 00:34:25,960
But well, when when we got divorced, I got custody of Hannah and it became the biggest responsibility for me in the world.

476
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,080
And so I had to do some very deep thinking.

477
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:38,080
I'm blessed to have two older brothers, both are physicians, both of their wives are super strong and powerful and successful women.

478
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:40,840
And so I had a lot of help. You know, it takes a village.

479
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,640
I certainly have been proven that.

480
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:50,000
But I did take Hannah, I had to really prioritize my life in those years.

481
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:55,160
And how I figured it out, it may not be right and it may not be right for everybody.

482
00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:01,440
But how I had how I did was I sort of prioritized my life that there was work and there was Hannah.

483
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:07,200
And those were both my top priority. They just interchanged at different times of the day.

484
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:11,640
So when I dropped Hannah off at school, it became work was my number one priority.

485
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,920
But when I picked Hannah up, Hannah was my number one priority.

486
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:20,120
And then three, four and five were always never one and two.

487
00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:29,040
So number three for me was always I had to take care of me because if I wasn't around, I couldn't do one and two.

488
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:37,440
So I made time to go to the gym and I would take Hannah to the gym and she'd go in the kids zone and I'd go do what I did, which was basketball.

489
00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:38,400
You love playing basketball.

490
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:39,640
Yeah, which was basketball.

491
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:44,880
And there's a lot of stories about that, too. But I would bring her to the office sometimes.

492
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,880
You know, when school was out, you know, she would stay with me.

493
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:54,160
We would go to things and I took her to a lot of meetings, particularly when it was sympathetic people I was meeting with.

494
00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:59,200
I knew it would help me sell some real estate, you know, if I had to show Hannah who I had to buy shoes for, you know.

495
00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:04,200
So we had a lot of fun. She had a unique experience.

496
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:14,680
I do think having I've really grown to be a significant fan of having a pretty strong male in the family.

497
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:20,720
You know, I know it can't be the case for everybody, but I think it's important if at all possible.

498
00:36:20,720 --> 00:36:26,120
And I really encourage everybody I run into to be a part of their kids life.

499
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:30,520
Men run into women, of course, but men to be a part of their life.

500
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:36,440
And you're a leader. And I know your kids watch you and they see how you act.

501
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:41,200
And you can't do something and say, don't do that, you know, because they're going to do what you do.

502
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:45,720
I mean, that's just how it is when a child observes his or her father.

503
00:36:45,720 --> 00:36:54,040
And and that's everything from how he talks, how he speaks to other people, the clothes that he wears, how he walks,

504
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:58,360
when he gets mad, how he gets mad, how he laughs, all that stuff they see.

505
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:01,680
I think you agree. That's how they think that all men should be.

506
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:09,440
And so if their dad's not taking care of himself, that's also reflected in how they think that people how adults behave.

507
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:15,000
Well, I think it's good for us to realize I like to say we all work for somebody.

508
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:26,880
Everybody works for somebody. A lot of the time, I've worked for Hannah, you know, to to to make her life better and to show her maybe a little bit about life.

509
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,720
But I've worked for Hannah, but we all work for somebody.

510
00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:34,320
It's not just the guy that signs the check, you know, but we should all report to somebody.

511
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:38,600
I have a basketball story about that if you want to hear it. Absolutely.

512
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:43,560
So I played basketball at the YMCA as a older dude.

513
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:49,440
I was, you know, I ran my mouth a lot and had a lot of fun playing basketball.

514
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,800
You can get a lot out of out of you. Basketball is it's competition.

515
00:37:52,800 --> 00:38:01,040
But you really learn about other people and how they, you know, do they play defense or do they cheat or, you know, all those sort of things you learn about people.

516
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:09,200
So one of the guys at the YMCA, I played between three and five days a week for 20 years, maybe even more, actually, but forever.

517
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:17,840
And so one of the guys at the gym said, hey, there are these leagues in the city that are kind of open leagues in the spirit of you just play.

518
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:24,120
So it's not an age group. It's not a, you know, a certain level like an ABC player or anything like that.

519
00:38:24,120 --> 00:38:28,640
It's just open. So it means it's the best players in our community.

520
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:31,720
And he said, why don't we put a team in the league?

521
00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:35,800
So we figured out how much it would cost. And it was about five hundred dollars.

522
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,440
So we said we get 10 people. That's fifty dollars a piece.

523
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:45,640
So we asked basically the 10 best guys in the gym basically to play.

524
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,440
And candidly, about half of them didn't do it.

525
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,960
So we picked up some other guys that did do it.

526
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:56,520
And we lost that year in the city of Pensacola championship game.

527
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:00,760
We lost. We finished second in the league for the year, but we didn't win.

528
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:05,160
It was close to the game came right down to the end, but we didn't win.

529
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:14,280
And one of the guys that did play on our team was a guy who went to the University of Alabama, Birmingham, played basketball there on scholarship.

530
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:18,960
And he worked with what then was Gulf Power. Now it's Florida Power, but he was Gulf Power.

531
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:25,080
And he was in charge of generation for all of Northwest Florida generation of power.

532
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:29,000
So he had a big job on the top floor office corner suite.

533
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,280
And I said to him, his name was Mike.

534
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,560
I said, Mike, some of these guys couldn't afford it.

535
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:44,040
And I said, why don't we why don't you and I just split it and then we'll pick the people we want on our team?

536
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:49,040
And he said, OK, that was easy. It was about a five minute conversation.

537
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,960
So we did and we picked the guys that we wanted.

538
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:54,280
It said it doesn't cost anything to play.

539
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:59,560
And basically, they all played, especially in the first couple of years, they all played.

540
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:04,000
So there were two seasons, a spring and a fall season that spring season we had lost in the finals.

541
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,800
So we entered the fall season with basically the guys out of our gym that we wanted.

542
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,200
And we ran through the league.

543
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:15,800
We we won the first of our what I like to call city championships that year.

544
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:21,040
And we won five more straight spring, fall, spring, fall, five more straight.

545
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:26,440
And after every championship game, we would go out for chicken wings and beer.

546
00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,040
And and Mike and I would pay for that, too.

547
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,360
And the guys all loved it.

548
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:37,240
And we got to always talk in and maybe the beer helped everybody talk a little easier, whatever.

549
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:43,440
But we got to be friends because it wasn't really fights, but basketball games, you have to work like a team.

550
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:49,920
And so we learned to kind of depend on each other and we learned to work together to win.

551
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,720
I was kind of the coach all the all that time.

552
00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:57,600
I only went in when we were up 20 or down 20 and we were never down 20.

553
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,320
So I always went in when we were winning big basically.

554
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,960
And then everybody else was tired and they pass it to me all the time.

555
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:06,640
And so it was great for me. I loved it.

556
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:08,160
I felt like I was a star.

557
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:18,080
But all of those guys basically had been celebrities in high school, all everything basketball players in Pensacola as they went through,

558
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,720
celebrities in their school, best player in their school.

559
00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:29,480
And they were celebrities and they all got college scholarships and virtually all of them blew it.

560
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,080
They lost their scholarships, whatever.

561
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:39,600
And they came back home, no degree and really no training and really nowhere to go except back to basketball.

562
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:54,200
And I realized after about the third celebration dinner, it dawned on me that the common denominator of all those guys was that they basically didn't have a strong role model, a strong male role model.

563
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:58,640
And I said, well, you know, here we go again, right?

564
00:41:58,640 --> 00:41:59,640
Here's Danny.

565
00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,880
I said, I can help some of that.

566
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:10,960
I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be their father, but I'm happy to be try to help them live better.

567
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:16,400
So I started making those chicken wings and beer dinners once a month.

568
00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:22,480
And I brought in people to speak to them, to sit at the table and drink beer with them.

569
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:27,920
And I brought in like a urologist and I brought in a banker who taught them how to open bank accounts.

570
00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:31,600
And I brought in a car dealer and told them how to buy cars right.

571
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:35,920
Because they were going to these buy here, pay here lots that were super expensive.

572
00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:37,240
It was a waste.

573
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:39,720
And I brought in a therapist.

574
00:42:39,720 --> 00:42:49,520
I mean, you know, but I brought in all sorts of things to teach these guys and slowly maybe looking back on it wasn't so slow, but it felt slow.

575
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:52,960
I got about two of them on with the city.

576
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,240
I got, I think, three on with Gulf Power.

577
00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:58,960
I got two on with the local utility authority.

578
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:05,200
So these were good paying jobs with retirement, with health care, all those sort of things.

579
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:10,680
And was able to really, really help all those guys.

580
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:14,680
Eventually, they made it on their own.

581
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:19,800
And, you know, an old white guy was not the guy they wanted to hang out with on Friday night.

582
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,000
And but I get it.

583
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,240
And I love those guys. And they and you know what, Dan, they love me.

584
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:27,960
If I see them, they still come to my office.

585
00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:29,960
Oh, I know they do. And I know they love you.

586
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,760
Yeah. And they come to my office just to say hello and check in.

587
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:37,560
And but really what I think they're doing is telling me they're OK, which is better.

588
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:44,760
Right. Because they never had a male figure in their life to say, hey, Uncle Joe, I'm doing pretty good.

589
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:46,520
Hey, you'll never believe what I did.

590
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:48,400
They didn't have anybody to tell good news.

591
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:52,280
I guess it makes them feel good and it makes me feel good to do it, too.

592
00:43:52,280 --> 00:44:03,880
But what's really interesting in all those years of those guys, it was probably it was a great sort of run about five or six years of being around those guys a lot.

593
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:10,120
One time, one guy ever asked me to borrow money and he paid me back.

594
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:14,320
I've been asked to borrow money by a lot of people and a lot who have not paid me back.

595
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:22,840
But I'm OK. I mean, it is what it is. But to me, that's kind of a point that they would rather keep my respect.

596
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,360
Sure. And they'd rather find a way.

597
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:31,160
I mean, I instilled a little bit in them to work your way out of a problem, not borrow your way out of a problem.

598
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:40,320
Right. You know, you've illustrated something that I don't think it's talked about a whole lot where a young man, 18, 19 years old, blows a scholarship.

599
00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:45,120
And so just screwed up one time in a big way and he just thinks, well, that's it.

600
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:48,840
Oh, I'm just no good. And then and then just kind of trails off.

601
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,280
Well, or he's got the skill set that he's not using.

602
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:57,600
And he could be building a network, but he's not because he doesn't have anybody believing in him.

603
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:01,000
Well, what a difference. I thought it was all about just shooting hoops.

604
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:14,600
Well, when you're it's a little bit societal when you're in high school and you're the big man on campus, it's hard to go to the next step and not be the big man on campus,

605
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:18,080
to be being told what to do when you don't really want to do it.

606
00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:25,440
You know, when you're the all star on a high school team, you probably don't run the bleachers when everybody else does.

607
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,960
And you probably can be a little late to practice and that sort of thing.

608
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,920
But you're the star of that high school basketball team.

609
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:36,640
But when you get to the first step of college, you know, it's a little different.

610
00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:39,760
I had one guy on our team. So crazy story.

611
00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:42,880
He is the greatest guy deep down.

612
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:46,800
Now, he's I mean, everybody's got their own life and he's a little interesting.

613
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:54,160
But he grew up in Chicago and he was an all star basketball player in Chicago in high school.

614
00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:58,760
And at the Arch Enemy High School across town in Chicago now,

615
00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:01,640
this is not Pensacola in Chicago.

616
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:06,200
The Arch Enemy School across town was where Dwayne Wade played.

617
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:13,400
And so our guy here, BG, was on our team, I mean, on his team, and Dwayne Wade was on their team.

618
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:18,760
And they played each other and BG just showed Dwayne Wade up.

619
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:28,720
I mean, it was crazy. But towards the end of BG's senior year, he broke his ankle playing basketball.

620
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,400
And he quit. He quit school. He quit everything. He never graduated.

621
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:36,480
Dwayne Wade, of course, went on to Marquette and Pro Fame.

622
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:44,160
BG, you know, just was lost when he lost the thing he had and he never recovered, really.

623
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:50,280
Now, he did recover and he's a manager now or a big retail business.

624
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:52,560
He's doing very well.

625
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:59,520
But he was a part of this journey to help him realize how good he was at life.

626
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:08,320
And he was easily the best basketball player around, not in a great way, not in a one on one kind of way.

627
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:12,000
But what it takes to win as a team, he had it.

628
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:20,320
I'll never forget, Dan, he played that guy played against me in the gym for five years, maybe, and he killed me.

629
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:24,280
I never could score on him. Now, he was a great player and I wasn't.

630
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:28,280
But he didn't look like he was working very hard and he would block my shot all the time.

631
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:38,760
God, don't. And so we got on this team and I got to be the coach and I got to be the guy that was kind of watching out everybody.

632
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:45,840
And we go to the gym, this is after about a season and a half of playing the league.

633
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:48,960
And BG goes, Dan, I got to tell you. I said, what?

634
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,560
He said, you know that before you shoot, you spend the ball in your hand.

635
00:47:53,560 --> 00:47:55,480
And I said, no, what are you talking about?

636
00:47:55,480 --> 00:48:01,200
He goes, yeah, well, every time when you are going to shoot, you spend the ball in your hand and line the laces up.

637
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,480
I thought I'll be a son of a gun.

638
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:07,200
I never thought about that at all my life, but the whole time guarding me.

639
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:09,880
If I didn't spend that ball, he knew I wasn't going to shoot.

640
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:15,040
So the minute I spun, he got in my face and blocked my shot all the time.

641
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:19,600
He had such a mind for basketball. It is it is. He still does.

642
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:24,320
It's amazing. And I told him that I told him that and I got him to coach a little league team.

643
00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:28,040
I mean, a little league team of little people's team.

644
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:30,920
They were great. He made all those kids into something.

645
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,960
He's still got some of those fathers who talk about him.

646
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:36,160
I mean, you know, just the kind of stuff.

647
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:38,640
But basketball, you learn a lot about people.

648
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,880
We've had a lot of stories around here, Dan.

649
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:44,160
Danny, it's just listening to these stories I have at the top of my notes.

650
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:49,360
And I don't remember if I said this earlier in our conversation, wants others to thrive and succeed.

651
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,840
Now, that's before we sat down in this room.

652
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:54,240
And that's really been the hallmark of your career.

653
00:48:54,240 --> 00:48:59,440
From my perspective, everything you do is about community and about building others up.

654
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:02,480
There's a lot of talent here. There's a lot of talent on the sidelines.

655
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:05,360
I've just blown away. I like it. I like you play basketball.

656
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:08,640
The why I didn't know anything else about it. Yeah.

657
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:12,160
Well, I'm just picturing Danny running down the court.

658
00:49:12,160 --> 00:49:14,240
Oh, yeah. Pulling up for three. Oh, yeah.

659
00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:15,760
And that's exactly what I did.

660
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:19,120
And, you know, they went in pretty much more than they didn't.

661
00:49:19,680 --> 00:49:23,280
You know, I was a good shot because my theory of getting open

662
00:49:23,280 --> 00:49:26,160
is if you stand still long enough, the guy guarding you will leave.

663
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:32,080
You know, but, you know, I got it kept me in good shape and it kept me healthy to be a parent.

664
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:34,480
And it kept me healthy.

665
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:35,520
And it would clear your mind.

666
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:38,000
You can't be thinking about other things when you're playing basketball.

667
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:40,000
I do play golf. I play tennis.

668
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,960
But you think about other things doing those deals.

669
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:44,320
Tennis, not quite as much.

670
00:49:44,320 --> 00:49:47,280
But golf, you spend a lot of time between hitting.

671
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:51,760
You know, I really find my golf game has gotten pretty good as I've gotten older.

672
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:56,240
I kind of believe that if you think about other things when you play golf, you don't play as well.

673
00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:58,720
So you got to have a good mind.

674
00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:02,400
It doesn't feel like golf should be so much about your mind.

675
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:04,640
But I think it's the difference of the guys on tour.

676
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:09,120
The difference in when they win and not is where their head is, to be honest with you.

677
00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:11,840
I think their swings are so good, all of them.

678
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:15,600
You know, it just really matters how their attitude is that week, I think.

679
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:17,360
Not sure about that.

680
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:19,840
But, you know, I have some experience with that too.

681
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,720
With pro golf, I worked with Jerry Pate, who won the US amateur and US Open.

682
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:26,560
I ran the country club here.

683
00:50:26,560 --> 00:50:29,040
I was the general manager of the country club at Tiger Point.

684
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:32,720
I focused on the food and beverage stuff and we built a new clubhouse.

685
00:50:32,720 --> 00:50:37,360
And Jerry was playing and he but he was commentating for ABC.

686
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:41,680
And so I got to travel with him a little bit to pro golf tournaments,

687
00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:44,960
experience some of those guys and experience some time with Jerry.

688
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:45,600
So it was great.

689
00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:49,840
Danny, I wanted to talk a little bit about Pensacola Barthigraw.

690
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:54,880
I know you've been the president of the organization for over 20 years since 2002.

691
00:50:55,760 --> 00:51:01,280
Specifically, I kind of want to go back to the first decade of the 2000s here,

692
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:05,360
because we had a major hurricane, then we had the financial crisis.

693
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:07,440
So it wasn't all fun and games.

694
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:09,920
Yeah, I went broke in the financial crisis.

695
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:11,040
So it hit home.

696
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:15,040
How were some of those years where you're trying to plan a big event like that,

697
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:19,840
and it's 2005 or it's 2009 and it's a down economic year

698
00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:22,080
and your head's in another place, you know,

699
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:24,160
how did you get through some of those times?

700
00:51:24,160 --> 00:51:26,720
It was a challenge from the beginning.

701
00:51:26,720 --> 00:51:31,120
We started with, I like to say we started with very little and we still have most of it.

702
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:32,000
But we did.

703
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:33,200
We started with very little.

704
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:37,600
And again, that philosophy of you got to either get bigger or smaller,

705
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:38,880
you're never going to be the same.

706
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:42,080
So we always tried to get a little bit bigger every year somehow.

707
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:46,080
Never always knew what that meant, but we tried and I think we've been pretty successful.

708
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:50,880
Pensacola Barthigraw has been a real joy, a real labor of love.

709
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:51,680
It's fun.

710
00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:52,880
It brings people together.

711
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:54,560
Everybody's basically smiling.

712
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:57,280
You know, it comes with some drama.

713
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:02,080
When we started, there were about 15 or 18 Mardi Gras crews here in Pensacola.

714
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:06,240
15 or 18 today, we can identify over 100.

715
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:09,520
We, the parade, we used to close the streets.

716
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:11,360
There was nothing going on downtown.

717
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:12,720
It was easy to close the streets.

718
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:14,000
It brought her by downtown.

719
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:19,600
It felt like it was a way that the restaurants that were open downtown and the retailers

720
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,040
would have a big weekend.

721
00:52:21,040 --> 00:52:26,320
We felt like that gave them some money to have some runway to get to the summer here

722
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:27,440
in Northwest Florida.

723
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:28,480
That part was great.

724
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,200
Now downtown Socratic, they hate when you close the streets.

725
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:32,960
The restaurants are busy all the time.

726
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:35,120
So when you close the street, people can't get to them.

727
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:37,280
See, it's just the opposite effect.

728
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:43,440
But we take a lot of pride in how downtown has regrown based on Mardi Gras approved.

729
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:44,720
People would come, right?

730
00:52:44,720 --> 00:52:51,600
So, you know, the reason those crews have expanded is those 15 crews have a couple of

731
00:52:51,600 --> 00:52:56,080
people that run them and every crew has a couple of people that kind of run it.

732
00:52:56,080 --> 00:52:59,520
And they get crew members who go, I can do it better than you.

733
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:01,520
I can do it better than you and they spin off.

734
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:06,160
Or, you know, they get in some kind of argument and they spin off.

735
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:09,600
And so for us, a little bit of drama in those crews helps us grow them.

736
00:53:09,600 --> 00:53:11,760
That's how we have more crews, really.

737
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:14,560
Very few people come to town and say, I want to start a crew.

738
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:18,160
It really is somebody who was in another crew and wants to do it differently or better.

739
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:21,920
I love Mardi Gras because it's about the big tent.

740
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:23,120
Everybody's welcome.

741
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:26,720
You know, on July the 4th, everybody is red, white and blue.

742
00:53:26,720 --> 00:53:30,960
But in Mardi Gras, you have a crew that is into whatever it is you're into.

743
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:34,560
You're 30 to 50 or maybe sometimes we have a crew that has 400 people.

744
00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:38,720
But you're people that are in your crew who are into whatever it is.

745
00:53:38,720 --> 00:53:41,520
And you do it all under the umbrella of Mardi Gras.

746
00:53:41,520 --> 00:53:42,720
But you get to be yourself.

747
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:48,480
Dress up like whatever it is you do, your crew is, whether you're space people or Indians

748
00:53:48,480 --> 00:53:53,040
or whatever it is you are, you dress up like that and you hang out with those people and

749
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:57,680
you kind of they become your sort of fraternity or sorority for the whole year.

750
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,640
They start doing things for the community and nonprofits.

751
00:54:00,640 --> 00:54:02,720
So that builds for our world.

752
00:54:02,720 --> 00:54:08,080
And frankly, it's those type A organizer people that get involved in the Mardi Gras crews.

753
00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:12,400
And those are the people who really get things done in our community.

754
00:54:12,400 --> 00:54:15,600
So it has been great in a lot of ways.

755
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:20,560
We've added a kickoff on the 12th night of Christmas, which is always January the 6th.

756
00:54:20,560 --> 00:54:24,960
So now Mardi Gras became a season, more and more events, a few more parades.

757
00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:31,440
Now, last year, the economic impact in northwest Florida of Mardi Gras was around $100 million.

758
00:54:31,920 --> 00:54:35,440
We do all that with our budget, which our budget is about $250,000.

759
00:54:35,440 --> 00:54:39,360
So, you know, we do that through sponsorships and a little bit of entry fees.

760
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:42,160
But like I say, everybody is welcome.

761
00:54:42,160 --> 00:54:44,240
Now, that means you have to live by the rules.

762
00:54:44,240 --> 00:54:49,440
So if the rules include having insurance or not doing stupid stuff, whatever it is,

763
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,840
you got to live by the rules, but you're welcome if you can live by the rules.

764
00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:56,560
And we get challenged with that all the time, because remember, I told you, those crews split up.

765
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:58,640
And so they want to outdo each other.

766
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:01,360
And so they say, oh, you know how to not let them do whatever it is.

767
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:03,760
And I said, they can do it if they aren't lived by the rules.

768
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:06,560
So there's a lot of one-upsmanship.

769
00:55:07,040 --> 00:55:07,520
There is.

770
00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:10,800
Amy Newman has a big part of that, Dan.

771
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:15,440
Amy Newman, my assistant, has been with me for 25 years.

772
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:16,800
Yeah, I was going to mention Amy.

773
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:17,440
Yeah.

774
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:18,800
She's from Louisiana.

775
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:20,400
So she had a little Mardi Gras on her blood.

776
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:24,080
And we have been together.

777
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,800
She's just so special as a part of all that.

778
00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:28,560
We're all getting older.

779
00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:30,400
When we started, our kids were real young.

780
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:33,600
So the last float in the parade was our kids.

781
00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:36,080
And that was really the payoff for us.

782
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:38,480
Now, I can tell you how we got into it if you want to know.

783
00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:42,720
But the payoff really was that our kids could be in the last float.

784
00:55:42,720 --> 00:55:45,680
And if we had enough money, we could buy the beads for them to throw.

785
00:55:45,680 --> 00:55:50,160
So the kids just loved it, and that was really kind of why we did it.

786
00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:54,480
Then the kids got old and went off and did whatever.

787
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:58,000
And some of them have had more kids, and it's cyclical.

788
00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:01,280
But anyway, that's a part of Mardi Gras.

789
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,960
We pride ourselves on Pensacola being a family-friendly Mardi Gras.

790
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:09,120
The grand parade, which is the Saturday before Fat Tuesday,

791
00:56:09,680 --> 00:56:13,840
the grand parade on Saturday, last year had about 100,000 people.

792
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:17,520
We have a little line on every parade application that says,

793
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:19,120
how many people parade with you?

794
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:24,240
So it's not scientific in the spirit of people can write whatever number they want.

795
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:26,560
But we do add those numbers up.

796
00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:29,680
And last year, there were 6,500 people in the parade.

797
00:56:30,240 --> 00:56:32,400
So if that number is true.

798
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:34,400
So it's a big, big event.

799
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:37,360
It's the biggest day in downtown Pensacola.

800
00:56:37,920 --> 00:56:42,480
And it's what a lot of Pensacola has been built around.

801
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:45,040
We proved big events can happen.

802
00:56:45,040 --> 00:56:48,000
We proved our police department is good.

803
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:50,320
We proved people like to have fun.

804
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:53,280
And there's a lot of benefits to what Mardi Gras does.

805
00:56:53,280 --> 00:56:55,840
It's bigger than just one big day.

806
00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:57,360
It's been an interesting journey.

807
00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:00,720
We could do hours about it, but it wasn't long.

808
00:57:00,720 --> 00:57:04,320
Maybe after the fifth or seventh year, something like that,

809
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:10,800
we got a call from an advertising agency in New Orleans who said to us,

810
00:57:10,800 --> 00:57:13,440
we represent Zatarans.

811
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:17,200
And Zatarans hears you've got something cool going.

812
00:57:17,200 --> 00:57:19,360
We want to be a part of that as a sponsor.

813
00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:23,920
And that was the day we said we're on to something.

814
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:25,440
We didn't go after them.

815
00:57:25,440 --> 00:57:26,400
They came to us.

816
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:31,760
Now, ultimately, we couldn't do it because we were too small.

817
00:57:31,760 --> 00:57:37,360
We couldn't really provide them with what they needed in return for a sponsor.

818
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:42,880
It was different at the time what you have to do then today.

819
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:45,120
And we've learned all that.

820
00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:48,480
But we couldn't provide them with the exposure that they...

821
00:57:49,280 --> 00:57:52,080
We didn't know how to count exposure at the time.

822
00:57:53,600 --> 00:57:54,560
We didn't know how to do that.

823
00:57:55,200 --> 00:57:57,360
We were kind of a band of volunteers.

824
00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:03,360
And we just sort of put it all together and made something fun happen.

825
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:07,920
Now, we've gotten professional with advertising agencies and all that sort of stuff.

826
00:58:07,920 --> 00:58:13,920
So Publix is on board as our name sponsor in a big way,

827
00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:16,800
along with some other sponsors who have jumped on board.

828
00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:20,240
And they tell us it's the best thing they do all year long.

829
00:58:20,240 --> 00:58:23,680
And usually when they say that, it means it's fun for the whole family.

830
00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:26,960
Everybody from mom and dad, they're having a great time

831
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:28,320
and the kids are having a great time.

832
00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:32,880
Where there's some events where I could imagine the kids are not having a lot of fun

833
00:58:32,880 --> 00:58:35,520
because it's too crazy, too unregulated.

834
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:36,080
It is.

835
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:39,920
And there's barricades over the parade route.

836
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:41,840
The balls are inside buildings.

837
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,640
We try to keep everybody as safe as possible.

838
00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:50,000
But to see the kids at those parades with the beads and some candy,

839
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:52,240
parents may or may not like them having them.

840
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:52,960
But...

841
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:54,720
It's really exciting for them.

842
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:56,720
It's really a wonderful day.

843
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:59,760
And then it's hard to explain, Dan, the energy

844
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:02,720
that the people who are in the parade also have.

845
00:59:02,720 --> 00:59:06,320
It's just something about 100,000 people, maybe not always,

846
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:09,360
but 100,000 people or whatever it is, 50,000 people,

847
00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:12,800
yelling, throw me something and screaming at you and whatever.

848
00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:16,080
You're with your friends and you probably have an adult beverage, maybe.

849
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:18,320
But we still pride ourselves on family friendly.

850
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:21,440
We don't let people dress too provocatively.

851
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:24,240
And everybody loves those stories.

852
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:26,000
And so we fight that.

853
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:27,120
We fight that.

854
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:28,480
Even though you've been doing it this long,

855
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:31,920
every year do you still, I don't know, get goosebumps

856
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:34,320
or just the electricity in the air?

857
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:36,480
Is it still exciting for you?

858
00:59:36,480 --> 00:59:37,600
Oh, there's no doubt about it.

859
00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:39,600
There's no doubt about it.

860
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:41,600
The energy is just great.

861
00:59:41,600 --> 00:59:45,120
And Dan, I got to tell you that it's good to be me

862
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,520
and kind of be in the middle of all that

863
00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:52,560
and talking with media and talking with city leaders.

864
00:59:53,520 --> 00:59:57,520
On our blessing of the fleet, which is what we do with all the...

865
00:59:57,520 --> 01:00:00,400
Not all, but we limit it to about 30 floats.

866
01:00:00,400 --> 01:00:01,920
And we park them.

867
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:09,520
And then we have a father and city elected officials basically.

868
01:00:09,520 --> 01:00:13,360
And we do a royal processional and we bless all the crews.

869
01:00:13,920 --> 01:00:15,840
And the father says something like,

870
01:00:16,240 --> 01:00:18,480
may your hearts be warm and your beard be cold

871
01:00:18,480 --> 01:00:21,040
in the name of the heavenly father, something like that.

872
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:25,360
And he throws holy water on them, which I would like to say is wild turkey.

873
01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:27,600
But I'm kidding about that.

874
01:00:27,600 --> 01:00:30,640
And they're blessed.

875
01:00:30,640 --> 01:00:34,400
And we have had a safe Mardi Gras season,

876
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:39,600
and seasons we've been really, really blessed with that.

877
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:43,440
But the royal processional is the mayor and the police chief

878
01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:45,360
and the sheriff and the fire chief

879
01:00:45,360 --> 01:00:49,680
and every county commissioner and every city councilman just about.

880
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:52,880
And our state representatives and even a senator or two.

881
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:56,880
And we've even had some celebrities join us.

882
01:00:56,880 --> 01:00:59,360
Join us in that royal processional, sort of fun.

883
01:00:59,360 --> 01:01:02,640
Yeah, it really is great to be in the middle of that

884
01:01:02,640 --> 01:01:06,480
and bring joy like that to people here in Pensacola.

885
01:01:06,480 --> 01:01:08,800
And, you know, yeah, I got to tell you,

886
01:01:08,800 --> 01:01:13,040
selfishly people thank me all year long and that feels good too.

887
01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:14,240
Absolutely.

888
01:01:14,240 --> 01:01:18,400
We have a weekly print publication called In Weekly here.

889
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:20,560
It's a newspaper printed weekly.

890
01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:22,240
And it's been around forever.

891
01:01:22,240 --> 01:01:27,440
And 15 or 16 years ago, he started a list

892
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:31,360
of the 100 most influential people in Pensacola.

893
01:01:31,360 --> 01:01:34,000
And I've been on that list every year.

894
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:34,880
I was reading that.

895
01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:35,360
Yeah.

896
01:01:35,360 --> 01:01:37,440
And every year since.

897
01:01:37,440 --> 01:01:38,640
And I still am.

898
01:01:38,640 --> 01:01:39,440
Thank gosh.

899
01:01:39,440 --> 01:01:43,040
Now, no disrespect to the current mayor or prior mayors,

900
01:01:43,040 --> 01:01:46,800
but I've heard you referred to as the unofficial mayor of Pensacola.

901
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:47,520
I don't know about that.

902
01:01:47,520 --> 01:01:48,480
Do you accept that?

903
01:01:48,480 --> 01:01:49,840
I do not accept it.

904
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:52,560
That means I got to fix people's parking ticket.

905
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:53,840
I'm not doing that.

906
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:56,400
But I've been on that list forever.

907
01:01:56,400 --> 01:02:00,240
But they always put Pensacola Mardi Gras.

908
01:02:00,240 --> 01:02:04,240
And then some years they put real estate, right?

909
01:02:04,240 --> 01:02:06,080
But they always put Mardi Gras.

910
01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:08,800
So it has been good for me in that way too.

911
01:02:09,360 --> 01:02:13,680
Well, and Danny, for people listening that have never been to the Gulf Coast,

912
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:17,760
what's the website if they want to just check out PensacolaMardiGras.com?

913
01:02:17,760 --> 01:02:19,360
It is PensacolaMardiGras.com.

914
01:02:19,360 --> 01:02:22,480
All one word except for the dot and the comp.

915
01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:22,720
Yeah.

916
01:02:22,720 --> 01:02:23,520
So we're in August.

917
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:26,960
You got plenty of time if you want to plan a trip in the off season to Pensacola.

918
01:02:26,960 --> 01:02:28,000
Our beaches are beautiful.

919
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:30,800
The weather is you're kind of taking a shot,

920
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:34,000
but sometimes we have some beautiful weather that time of year.

921
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:35,040
Usually.

922
01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:35,280
Yeah.

923
01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:36,720
Almost always.

924
01:02:36,720 --> 01:02:37,840
Yeah, almost always.

925
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:39,600
We've had some fun experiences with that.

926
01:02:40,160 --> 01:02:40,960
You know, we had a...

927
01:02:40,960 --> 01:02:43,120
There have been some mornings where it's the Grand Parade,

928
01:02:43,120 --> 01:02:45,440
the morning and the weather is just horrible.

929
01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:45,840
Oh, yeah.

930
01:02:46,480 --> 01:02:47,760
I mean, it doesn't happen much.

931
01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:48,480
Thank gosh.

932
01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:50,720
But it has happened a couple of times.

933
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:56,800
We had one famous year where it was raining and storming

934
01:02:56,800 --> 01:02:58,960
and all the floats don't come out,

935
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:03,040
but nobody wants to miss that big day of the Grand Parade.

936
01:03:03,600 --> 01:03:08,800
So a lot of the floats came, most came in the local ABC affiliate,

937
01:03:08,800 --> 01:03:10,960
W-E-A-R-T-V, ABC3.

938
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:15,920
Their weather guy has the sophisticated equipment.

939
01:03:16,480 --> 01:03:18,080
He's, of course, a friend.

940
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:24,640
So he's at the station telling us and he said the parade rolls at two o'clock on that Saturday.

941
01:03:24,640 --> 01:03:28,800
And he said, OK, you're going to have from 1.45 till about 2.45.

942
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:29,360
And that's it.

943
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:29,840
He knew.

944
01:03:30,640 --> 01:03:33,680
So we had to get basically a four-hour parade into that hour.

945
01:03:34,320 --> 01:03:38,240
And the videos of that parade are hilarious because people are like running down the street

946
01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:39,440
to keep up with their float.

947
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:42,000
But we got it done and we got it in.

948
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:44,800
We called for a driver's meeting on a corner,

949
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:50,000
passed the word up and down the lineup of 220 or so entries.

950
01:03:50,000 --> 01:03:52,640
Danny, that one line, we got it done.

951
01:03:52,640 --> 01:03:53,200
And we did.

952
01:03:53,200 --> 01:03:55,440
How many times, how many situations can you apply,

953
01:03:55,440 --> 01:03:58,880
we got it done to difficult problems?

954
01:03:58,880 --> 01:04:04,640
I know on your bio page, you remind people that you basically one phone call away

955
01:04:04,640 --> 01:04:08,480
if they lean on you to solve a difficult situation.

956
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:09,520
I feel like that.

957
01:04:09,520 --> 01:04:12,000
I feel like if the solution is reasonable,

958
01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:14,960
I can get it figured out and accomplished.

959
01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:16,960
If it's unreasonable, nobody can.

960
01:04:16,960 --> 01:04:21,760
And of course, like I say, in the recession of eight, nine, and part of 10,

961
01:04:21,760 --> 01:04:25,040
the problems were not with anything I could fix.

962
01:04:25,040 --> 01:04:27,200
It was a national sort of problem.

963
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:31,440
And in a real estate development, I just went over a cliff.

964
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:34,480
And I could never, there was no rope.

965
01:04:35,120 --> 01:04:39,840
But most of the time, if there is a problem or if there is a challenge,

966
01:04:39,840 --> 01:04:44,240
I do feel like through both connections and creativity,

967
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:48,080
I can find a way to try to make it better somehow.

968
01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:52,080
And sometimes there's just medicine that either I have to take or somebody has to take.

969
01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:54,080
And I've lost plenty.

970
01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:57,200
But you know what, Dan, you learn more from your losses

971
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:00,480
than you do from your successes and try to do that.

972
01:05:01,200 --> 01:05:06,240
But I like to say, if you're not at the table, you might be on the menu.

973
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:09,680
So I try to be at the table as much as I can.

974
01:05:09,680 --> 01:05:12,080
Well, Danny, I usually do a lightning round.

975
01:05:12,080 --> 01:05:17,680
I may trim the questions because, wow, and we could do another episode easily.

976
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:20,480
I have some just fun questions I like to ask my guests,

977
01:05:20,480 --> 01:05:22,000
and they're all different every week.

978
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:22,320
OK.

979
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:24,720
But I know you're a big Florida Gator football fan.

980
01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:28,400
Do you have an all-time favorite Florida football player?

981
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:30,320
Well, interesting.

982
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:33,280
I think most Gators would talk about Tim Tebow.

983
01:05:33,280 --> 01:05:39,440
But for me, it was really Wilbur Marshall and Percy Harvin.

984
01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:40,720
They were in different times.

985
01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:46,800
Percy Harvin was amazing athlete and an amazing kid.

986
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:49,360
I got to meet him a few times.

987
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:51,040
Wilbur Marshall was just a brute.

988
01:05:51,040 --> 01:05:56,640
He changed so much at the University of Florida, beating USC that year.

989
01:05:56,640 --> 01:05:57,600
It was great.

990
01:05:57,600 --> 01:05:59,520
So those are the two that come to mind.

991
01:05:59,520 --> 01:06:02,560
And there were some great teams in the 80s that people forget about

992
01:06:02,560 --> 01:06:03,920
before Spurrier.

993
01:06:03,920 --> 01:06:06,400
They just ran into those sanctions and couldn't.

994
01:06:06,400 --> 01:06:08,960
I think they won the SEC.

995
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:11,040
Well, Swamp King's on Netflix now.

996
01:06:11,040 --> 01:06:13,520
I don't know if you've seen that, but it certainly is interesting

997
01:06:13,520 --> 01:06:15,360
to talk about the Urban Meyer years.

998
01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:16,480
Urban knew how to win.

999
01:06:16,480 --> 01:06:19,360
I'm not sure everything he did was so great, but he knew how to win.

1000
01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:23,200
If you could think back to a favorite championship game,

1001
01:06:23,200 --> 01:06:27,680
would it be a Florida football championship game or Florida basketball?

1002
01:06:27,680 --> 01:06:30,160
Interesting, because I went to both.

1003
01:06:30,160 --> 01:06:33,040
There were four or five years where we were in every national championship.

1004
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:38,880
For me, it was the Florida versus Ohio State game in Phoenix

1005
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:41,360
for the national championship of 2006.

1006
01:06:42,080 --> 01:06:45,200
It was just an amazing experience for me.

1007
01:06:45,200 --> 01:06:47,120
We landed in Phoenix.

1008
01:06:47,120 --> 01:06:52,640
In Phoenix, you have to take a bus to the rental car place, the airport there.

1009
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:57,600
We got on the bus and there were about six or eight Florida fans.

1010
01:06:57,600 --> 01:06:58,560
Everybody's in their stuff.

1011
01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:00,640
The rest were Ohio State fans.

1012
01:07:00,640 --> 01:07:03,280
Florida had sort of snuck into the game.

1013
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:05,040
They weren't really supposed to get in the game.

1014
01:07:05,040 --> 01:07:06,480
No, no, it's selection Sunday.

1015
01:07:06,480 --> 01:07:07,040
It happened.

1016
01:07:08,000 --> 01:07:14,400
Florida sneaks into the game and Ohio State was the number one team in the country

1017
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:17,200
the whole season long, killing everybody, playing great.

1018
01:07:18,080 --> 01:07:23,920
The people on that bus were talking about they had made their reservations

1019
01:07:23,920 --> 01:07:26,160
like in September of the last year.

1020
01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:29,680
So they were just talking about they knew they were going to be there and all that stuff.

1021
01:07:29,680 --> 01:07:36,160
And I'm sitting there, you know, feeling so sorry, but I felt like it was going to be great.

1022
01:07:36,160 --> 01:07:39,360
And then we went to the pep rally the night before the game.

1023
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:43,680
And Urban Meyer's on stage and he goes, you know what?

1024
01:07:43,680 --> 01:07:47,280
They asked me in the media if we had a good practice today.

1025
01:07:47,280 --> 01:07:49,280
And he said, I lied to him.

1026
01:07:49,280 --> 01:07:51,680
He said, I told him, yes, we had a good practice.

1027
01:07:51,680 --> 01:07:56,080
But he said to us at the pep rally, I mean, it was me and 15,000 fans.

1028
01:07:56,080 --> 01:07:59,680
And he said, we didn't have a good practice.

1029
01:07:59,680 --> 01:08:01,120
We had a great practice.

1030
01:08:01,760 --> 01:08:06,880
And then we went back to the hotel after the pep rally and at the deck

1031
01:08:06,880 --> 01:08:12,720
by the pool of the hotel in Phoenix, the whole team was out by the pool

1032
01:08:12,720 --> 01:08:19,760
in their gym shorts running through plays by themselves without coaches by the pool.

1033
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:24,320
And I said to Hannah, who was young then, they're far as going to win.

1034
01:08:24,320 --> 01:08:29,840
And the game, like the first play of the game, the Ohio State guy runs

1035
01:08:29,840 --> 01:08:34,640
a kickback for a touchdown and he was so excited celebrating he got hurt.

1036
01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:38,400
He was their best receiver celebrating this first touchdown.

1037
01:08:38,400 --> 01:08:41,360
And it was seven to nothing before you really got in your seat.

1038
01:08:41,360 --> 01:08:44,560
And it was like Ohio State was going to blow you blow them out.

1039
01:08:44,560 --> 01:08:47,360
And Florida won 41 to 14.

1040
01:08:47,360 --> 01:08:49,360
It was, I think I remember that game.

1041
01:08:49,360 --> 01:08:52,320
It was over and over just beating them and beating them and beating them.

1042
01:08:52,320 --> 01:08:54,640
And they all left, you know, and all that.

1043
01:08:54,640 --> 01:08:59,280
I mean, it was epic to see those Ohio State folks.

1044
01:08:59,280 --> 01:08:59,840
Yeah.

1045
01:08:59,840 --> 01:09:02,400
You know, so anyway, that that was the one that was the most fun.

1046
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:04,960
We went to Indianapolis for the basketball master championship.

1047
01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:08,800
We went to Miami where Florida played Oklahoma for a football master championship.

1048
01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:09,360
All those were great.

1049
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:14,000
In fact, we were in the box next door to Bill Clinton in that game.

1050
01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:15,520
And it was the craziest thing.

1051
01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:16,480
It's another story.

1052
01:09:16,480 --> 01:09:17,120
It's another.

1053
01:09:17,120 --> 01:09:19,120
Did you get to meet the former president?

1054
01:09:19,120 --> 01:09:20,960
I was from me to you from him.

1055
01:09:20,960 --> 01:09:22,720
But there was a piece of glass between him.

1056
01:09:22,720 --> 01:09:24,080
He was in the suite next door.

1057
01:09:24,080 --> 01:09:24,800
Piece of glass.

1058
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:27,520
And that was crazy.

1059
01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:28,800
I mean, it's a good story.

1060
01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:30,080
We got the tickets.

1061
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:34,560
I actually course traded some tickets with a ticket broker guy that I worked with all

1062
01:09:34,560 --> 01:09:37,120
year and could get you in the suite.

1063
01:09:37,120 --> 01:09:39,680
And he goes, last time in that suite, there was some movie star.

1064
01:09:39,680 --> 01:09:41,040
He said, so you never know what's going to happen.

1065
01:09:41,040 --> 01:09:42,320
So I said, OK, this will be great.

1066
01:09:42,320 --> 01:09:49,120
So we go up to the suite and standing in front of the suite door are two guys with M16s in

1067
01:09:49,120 --> 01:09:51,040
camouflage fatigues.

1068
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:55,200
And it's like you're thinking this is somebody I don't know.

1069
01:09:55,200 --> 01:09:55,680
Right.

1070
01:09:55,680 --> 01:09:56,400
Exactly.

1071
01:09:56,400 --> 01:09:58,080
I'm thinking, well, hey, this is whatever.

1072
01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:00,960
And they may be see your driver's license to make sure you're the guy.

1073
01:10:00,960 --> 01:10:03,200
I mean, it was not just an ordinary walk into a suite.

1074
01:10:03,760 --> 01:10:09,360
So we got in and the game there's warm ups and stuff.

1075
01:10:09,360 --> 01:10:11,440
And I said to Hannah, I'm going to go to the bathroom.

1076
01:10:11,840 --> 01:10:15,440
You go see when you're a single dad, you got to go into the bathrooms.

1077
01:10:15,440 --> 01:10:15,940
Complicate.

1078
01:10:16,960 --> 01:10:18,160
So after a certain day.

1079
01:10:18,160 --> 01:10:18,880
Yeah.

1080
01:10:18,880 --> 01:10:20,400
So I had to work that out.

1081
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:20,720
Right.

1082
01:10:20,720 --> 01:10:24,000
She's been in many men's bathrooms, even though it was 20 something years ago.

1083
01:10:24,000 --> 01:10:25,840
There's not that today.

1084
01:10:25,840 --> 01:10:28,800
It may not be anything special, but back then it was quite a challenge.

1085
01:10:29,520 --> 01:10:37,520
So but we went to the bathroom and we walked out of the suite and there's about 15 guys

1086
01:10:37,520 --> 01:10:40,560
with them 16 and military fatigues.

1087
01:10:41,120 --> 01:10:46,800
And I went to the bathroom and there's a guy in there with the M16 standing there.

1088
01:10:46,800 --> 01:10:48,480
You know, God, I wouldn't have wanted that.

1089
01:10:48,480 --> 01:10:54,880
But anyway, so we came back and the next thing you know, we're in the suite.

1090
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:59,760
And actually, you know, here comes President Clinton in the suite next door.

1091
01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:01,680
And it was a complete circus.

1092
01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:04,640
You've never I've never seen anything like it even still.

1093
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:06,160
And I've seen a lot of stuff.

1094
01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:07,600
It was a complete circus.

1095
01:11:07,600 --> 01:11:14,720
And of course, the camera focused on the president and I'm sitting in the seat next door to lose

1096
01:11:14,720 --> 01:11:18,880
a piece of glass, but I'm on the jumbotron next to Bill Clinton.

1097
01:11:18,880 --> 01:11:22,080
You know, so that all that was what an experience.

1098
01:11:22,640 --> 01:11:23,920
It was crazy.

1099
01:11:23,920 --> 01:11:27,120
This lady and her son, the son was missing.

1100
01:11:27,120 --> 01:11:28,400
Oh, he didn't have his leg.

1101
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:34,560
I don't know the dynamic, but they came down and kind of got right in our laps.

1102
01:11:34,560 --> 01:11:39,200
And she took her son's leg off to hold it up and show him she was trying to get, I guess,

1103
01:11:39,200 --> 01:11:41,360
the president to meet her son or something.

1104
01:11:41,360 --> 01:11:42,800
And I mean, it was just a circus.

1105
01:11:42,800 --> 01:11:45,280
The whole thing was a complete circus.

1106
01:11:45,280 --> 01:11:53,840
And we would watch that they would bring in food and somebody would taste it first before

1107
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:55,200
he would.

1108
01:11:55,200 --> 01:11:58,000
I mean, the whole thing was just crazy stuff.

1109
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:01,520
You're that close to the president of the United States like that.

1110
01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:04,720
Then, you know, like I say, it's a different time now.

1111
01:12:04,720 --> 01:12:07,200
But anyway, something you'll never forget.

1112
01:12:07,200 --> 01:12:09,360
Oh, and the women were throwing themselves at him.

1113
01:12:10,160 --> 01:12:10,880
It was crazy.

1114
01:12:10,880 --> 01:12:12,320
It was crazy.

1115
01:12:12,320 --> 01:12:14,800
You know, what year was this again?

1116
01:12:14,800 --> 01:12:15,520
Or around?

1117
01:12:15,520 --> 01:12:16,320
2006.

1118
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:20,400
I mean, this is an off year, not an election year, or I guess it's a midterm year.

1119
01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:23,920
But you know, Hillary wasn't anywhere near him.

1120
01:12:23,920 --> 01:12:26,480
But these women were like throwing themselves at him.

1121
01:12:26,480 --> 01:12:28,000
They weren't leaning against the glass.

1122
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:29,440
And I mean, it was crazy.

1123
01:12:30,080 --> 01:12:32,000
It was the biggest circus you've ever seen.

1124
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:32,880
All right.

1125
01:12:32,880 --> 01:12:34,640
Some really silly questions.

1126
01:12:34,640 --> 01:12:38,480
What would you rather grab a handful of and just shove them in your mouth?

1127
01:12:38,480 --> 01:12:42,000
A handful of Skittles or a handful of M&M's?

1128
01:12:42,000 --> 01:12:42,480
M&M's.

1129
01:12:43,040 --> 01:12:44,080
Even though I can't really do it.

1130
01:12:44,080 --> 01:12:45,120
I'm a type 2, do I bet.

1131
01:12:45,680 --> 01:12:46,560
Popcorn was a choice.

1132
01:12:46,560 --> 01:12:47,680
It would have been popcorn.

1133
01:12:47,680 --> 01:12:48,960
That leads me to another one.

1134
01:12:48,960 --> 01:12:53,440
Food that you love, that you just absolutely love, but you just can't eat it.

1135
01:12:53,440 --> 01:12:54,720
Or you can't eat a lot of it.

1136
01:12:54,720 --> 01:12:56,000
Or very often.

1137
01:12:56,000 --> 01:12:56,800
Probably oysters.

1138
01:12:57,680 --> 01:12:58,320
Love them.

1139
01:12:58,320 --> 01:12:59,440
And they're hard to get.

1140
01:12:59,440 --> 01:13:02,000
And you got to be careful now when you eat them.

1141
01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:03,760
And you know, so but oysters.

1142
01:13:03,760 --> 01:13:07,920
When I go to New Orleans, I eat oysters about three out of four meals or something.

1143
01:13:07,920 --> 01:13:12,480
So I think we covered it, but we may not have used to run one of the original oyster.

1144
01:13:13,120 --> 01:13:13,840
Oyster bars.

1145
01:13:13,840 --> 01:13:14,080
Yep.

1146
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:16,000
In Pensacola in the mid 80s.

1147
01:13:16,000 --> 01:13:16,720
Yep.

1148
01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:17,440
Early 80s.

1149
01:13:17,440 --> 01:13:20,800
And there was a there was an oyster bar at Seville Quarter that's not there anymore.

1150
01:13:20,800 --> 01:13:21,600
Is that right?

1151
01:13:21,600 --> 01:13:22,800
I think it is.

1152
01:13:22,800 --> 01:13:25,280
It's just not exactly an oyster bar, but it is there.

1153
01:13:25,280 --> 01:13:26,400
But I did run that too.

1154
01:13:26,400 --> 01:13:27,280
That's exactly right.

1155
01:13:27,920 --> 01:13:29,440
And we had a hot sauce collection.

1156
01:13:30,320 --> 01:13:31,440
We had a lot of fun.

1157
01:13:31,440 --> 01:13:33,920
Those walls could talk at Seville Quarter.

1158
01:13:33,920 --> 01:13:34,400
I tell you.

1159
01:13:34,960 --> 01:13:36,080
That's another destination.

1160
01:13:36,080 --> 01:13:39,920
Again, put Seville Quarter on your list of places to see if you come to Pensacola.

1161
01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:41,600
Fifty-five thousand square feet.

1162
01:13:41,600 --> 01:13:43,600
Seven bars under one roof.

1163
01:13:44,480 --> 01:13:48,000
You'll never have an experience like it, no matter if you come late night,

1164
01:13:48,000 --> 01:13:50,400
middle of the day, middle of the evening.

1165
01:13:50,400 --> 01:13:52,480
A lot of people know it as Rosie O'Grace.

1166
01:13:52,480 --> 01:13:54,480
You may not listen to much music or have a lot of time,

1167
01:13:54,480 --> 01:13:57,920
but do you have a favorite genre or an artist that you like?

1168
01:13:58,800 --> 01:14:00,560
I like kind of dance music.

1169
01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:04,160
So I like I don't like some of the bad rap.

1170
01:14:04,160 --> 01:14:07,600
If you turn on the radio right now with what the kids are listening to,

1171
01:14:08,240 --> 01:14:09,040
do you hate it?

1172
01:14:09,040 --> 01:14:09,920
Are you OK with it?

1173
01:14:09,920 --> 01:14:12,480
Or do you kind of really like it?

1174
01:14:12,480 --> 01:14:13,760
I do kind of like it.

1175
01:14:13,760 --> 01:14:18,960
I don't like the message that some of today's music puts out.

1176
01:14:18,960 --> 01:14:19,920
I don't really like that.

1177
01:14:19,920 --> 01:14:21,280
I don't think it's helping anybody.

1178
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:27,440
Last year at Gator Growl, which is the pep rally before Florida's homecoming game,

1179
01:14:27,440 --> 01:14:28,960
they had Flo Rida.

1180
01:14:29,840 --> 01:14:33,600
And that song, whatever it's called, Boots with the Fur,

1181
01:14:33,600 --> 01:14:36,160
you know, it's not the name of it, but that's the song.

1182
01:14:36,960 --> 01:14:39,120
That was the most fun.

1183
01:14:39,920 --> 01:14:42,720
And I was lucky enough to kind of be right up on the stage.

1184
01:14:42,720 --> 01:14:47,360
And then it was the I've never seen a crowd of people as into it.

1185
01:14:48,160 --> 01:14:50,080
I'm not a tremendous concert guy.

1186
01:14:50,080 --> 01:14:53,840
I've been to plenty, but never seen anything like that.

1187
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:54,640
That was exciting.

1188
01:14:55,360 --> 01:14:59,280
And when you're not in Pensacola and you're somewhere across the country,

1189
01:14:59,280 --> 01:15:02,480
is there a place that you like to visit every so often?

1190
01:15:02,480 --> 01:15:03,440
No surprise.

1191
01:15:03,440 --> 01:15:04,480
New Orleans.

1192
01:15:04,480 --> 01:15:05,360
I love it.

1193
01:15:05,360 --> 01:15:09,440
And, you know, kind of followed their Mardi Gras history

1194
01:15:09,440 --> 01:15:13,040
and their Mardi Gras traditions and some of the things in the city.

1195
01:15:13,040 --> 01:15:17,520
So I frankly could probably be a Mardi Gras tour guide in New Orleans.

1196
01:15:17,520 --> 01:15:20,560
Even though I never get to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras,

1197
01:15:20,560 --> 01:15:24,800
I go either before or after and get to see it

1198
01:15:24,800 --> 01:15:26,560
because I'm too busy doing Mardi Gras here.

1199
01:15:26,560 --> 01:15:29,520
Danny, this has just been a great conversation.

1200
01:15:29,520 --> 01:15:30,880
I appreciate you taking some time.

1201
01:15:30,880 --> 01:15:32,720
Taking a lot longer than we thought, didn't we?

1202
01:15:32,720 --> 01:15:35,440
We just got going and it didn't stop.

1203
01:15:35,440 --> 01:15:38,000
Let's hope people pay you by the minute to listen.

1204
01:15:38,000 --> 01:15:38,500
Right.

1205
01:15:39,360 --> 01:15:43,520
Well, everybody, please check out Pensacola Mardi Gras.

1206
01:15:43,520 --> 01:15:48,720
If you are looking to purchase real estate, commercial real estate, Danny is...

1207
01:15:48,720 --> 01:15:50,000
Yep, or residential.

1208
01:15:50,000 --> 01:15:51,120
Our team, we do it all.

1209
01:15:51,920 --> 01:15:56,480
He's part of Team Zimmern and that's Tonya Zimmern on the residential side.

1210
01:15:56,480 --> 01:15:59,040
Danny is head of the commercial side.

1211
01:15:59,040 --> 01:16:01,520
Guys, remember, when you're out there day to day,

1212
01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:03,600
keep your eyes open, keep your ears open.

1213
01:16:03,600 --> 01:16:07,600
You're probably around people that you can impact and you just don't know it.

1214
01:16:07,600 --> 01:16:12,000
So if you're playing sports, if you're in some activity group

1215
01:16:12,000 --> 01:16:14,480
and somebody looks like they need a hand,

1216
01:16:14,480 --> 01:16:17,600
they need someone to listen to them, they need someone to give them a push,

1217
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:20,080
and you can be that person, be that person.

1218
01:16:20,080 --> 01:16:21,920
All right, that's it for Dan time this week.

1219
01:16:21,920 --> 01:16:23,120
We'll see you next week.

1220
01:16:23,120 --> 01:16:23,760
Thank you, Dan.

1221
01:16:23,760 --> 01:16:31,760
Thank you, Danny.