Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Key to the City: Crafting a VIP Experience with Tim Gordanier
Tue, 4 Feb 2025
Tim Gordanier, the mastermind behind the Las Vegas Key to the City, joins us to share his journey of crafting a standout VIP recognition program. This isn't just any token; it's a solid copper key embedded with a chip that unlocks exclusive experiences for locals. You'll hear how this innovative approach creates a social club atmosphere, encouraging connections and memorable moments. Tim’s story of starting from scratch is a creative blueprint for anyone looking to redefine their business ventures. Take a nostalgic trip through the entrepreneurial origins of a determined self-starter from Owen Sound, Ontario. Remember selling hockey cards as a kid? That early hustle paved the way for a marketing role at Disney, where he triumphed over 20,000 other hopefuls. Through humor-filled anecdotes, we highlight the power of resilience and the importance of dreaming big—lessons that are crucial in nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Explore the strategies for expanding unique business models, including the value of physical interactions over digital solutions. From quality control in production to strategic collaborations, we cover the nuances of ensuring high service standards and the benefits of joint ventures. Dive into the world of cross-market partnerships and learn how patience and high renewal rates can lead to long-term success. This episode is your call to action—take the leap and turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality! CHAPTERS (00:00) - Building a VIP Recognition Program (11:55) - Entrepreneurial Origins and Disney Misadventures (20:54) - Tech Entrepreneur's Journey to Success (27:08) - Expanding VIP Recognition Program Operations (37:11) - JV Partnership Expansion Strategy Discussion (41:21) - Business Expansion Strategy Discussion (48:14) - Networking and Motivation Boost 💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below! ☑️ If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space. ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company. ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages. ************* ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media: Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford Facebook ▶️ / gafford2 🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283 ************* #escapingthedrift #timgordanier #viprecognitionprogram #lasvegas #keytothecity #copperkey #exclusiveexperiences #socialclub #entrepreneurialorigins #disney #marketing #resilience #dreamingbig #businessventures #uniquebusinessmodels #physicalinteractions #digitalsolutions #qualitycontrol #jointventures #crossmarketpartnerships #networking #motivationboost #brandexpansion #strategiccollaborations #hospitalityindustry #brandbuilding #rapidgrowth #refining #scalingup #mobileapp #influentialpeople #mailinglist #fivestarreview
Chapter 1: What is a VIP recognition program?
Did you just spill water all over yourself? All right, now you almost got to watch this. Dude, we go Joe Rogan style. I don't cut this thing up. We just go straight as it is. So yeah, he just spilled his bottle of water in his lap, which is, you know, hey man, it's a first. Oh my God. It's a first. Three years doing this, that's a first. I feel good now. You should. You should.
Because now the next person who does it won't feel so bad. You've trailblazed that for the next person, which is good. It could have been worse. It could have been a beer. And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be.
I'm John Gafford, and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now.
welcome back to the program everybody like it says in the opening the podcast it gets you from where you're at to where you want to be and today in studio ladies and gents i got something kind of cool this is something that hit my desk yesterday and in the you know look people give me stuff all the time like i get stuff sent to me in the mail i get stuff dropped off i get all kinds of stuff and it's lovely when that happens like i'm always very flattered when people bring me stuff
And then, you know, sometimes people bring me stuff and I start having a conversation with them and I realize, dude, this is a pretty cool business. And I really like what this person has built. I like what they did and I like, you know, what they've done. And I really think it was great.
And yesterday a guy walked into my office and handed me, presented me with something called the Las Vegas key to the city. And I was like, what is this? And I'm going to let him explain what it is because I thought it was cool. This is not an infomercial today because this is really just from talking to him for a little bit. It's a story about bootstrapping up a really cool business from scratch.
And we're going to kind of go through how he did that. And I think it's a business that like, look, don't go rip him off. But I'm just saying this should get your wheels turning for something you could bootstrap up, which is very cool. And I hate to do this because it's French and I've already butchered it. In my mind, I've already butchered it. I've already screwed up.
So, guys, we're just going to say welcome. He's going to say his last name. I'm going to say his first name. Welcome to the studio. This is Tim. Gordagne. Gordagne. Gordagne. Not bad. Gordania. Gordania. Yeah, just as I was talking, I'm like, man, I've never heard of this name. Tim, welcome, buddy. How are you doing, Steve? Thank you, by the way.
So yeah, again, dude, thank you so much for giving me this. And before we get too far into the building of the business, I want people to understand what this is because I thought it was cool. So what is the key to the city of which, if you're watching this on YouTube, I am holding on the screen and you can see. Super fresh. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did Tim Gordanier start his entrepreneurial journey?
And everything about it, everything from weight down to the look, we were very, very specific and careful about. So even the curated partners. So we go and source the best of the city built for locals, by the way. And the idea was to, again, bring locals out to the places that we found out were the best in the city. And we keep finding and sourcing.
And each place recognizes you for just having the key and treat you like a VIP. And the idea was everyone was being recognized.
Yeah. I mean, this thing, like people, it's not like a card. I mean, this is, if you're watching this, this is like a, I mean, it's a metal ticket. heavy brass key that's all embossed and engraved. It's got a chip in it so they can scan it. And it's like a heavy thing. I mean, it's like a legit thing. Pure copper, actually. Yeah, it's pure copper. Pure copper.
Dude, well, so if things don't work out with this, and I turn to a meth head, I can start recycling this first. There you go. But yeah, but essentially the idea here is it's a subscription-based deal. So people join this social club. And when you walk in, it's not like not like discounts. It's like they just give you stuff. That's right. Which is pretty.
wild and i went through the whole website last night and i was just looking at the zip and it's i mean it's a good restaurant it's around town if you know vegas places like jing and berries and eight over in a carver stick i mean places where people go you know sat fire where i i don't know but some people go go maybe go who goes there who goes there i definitely go there who knows but yeah it's places where people actually go it's not just like the junkiest of the junk it's good stuff
And they just kind of, when you walk in, what do they do? What do you do? When I roll up with this key, is it like, because you said, you mentioned something that was kind of cool when you said it. You said just like John Wick. It is.
It is. I like that. It's like sliding the gold coin across, but it's obviously a gold key. You slide it to the bartender and the bartender knows exactly what to do. So if you go to Legacy Club, for instance, you slide this to the bartender, you're with a date or you're on your own, whatever, or you're with a friend, colleague, whatever. You slide it across and they instantly recognize you.
They come up with two classy drinks and they present it on the house. Every time you go, you can go every day. It doesn't matter. It's a, it's just a recognition thing.
Yeah. Just because it's a good, it's good business for these places because they have people that, you know, this is not cheap to be a member of this. It's not. I mean, what's the cost to be a member here? $700 a year. 700 bucks a year. So, I mean, dude, it's not chump change.
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Chapter 3: What makes the Key to the City unique?
There's a little bit of a barrier entry to it. But priced where we didn't want to, we wanted locals to go and we wanted locals to feel right. But we didn't want to also overcharge where I thought, you know, you don't have to overcharge. It's cool. Make it approachable. Make it cool.
But classy. It's like a lot of people that aren't in business or marketing don't understand the concept of barrier to entry where... if it's just for everybody, then it's for nobody. You know what I mean?
So you're kind of trying, you gotta, it's kind of cost a little something because if then it has no value, but the idea that you can just roll up in places with this and get free stuff and people are like, why would they do that? It's because they're assuming that somebody that has, you know, willing to throw 700 bucks down just to have this cool key in their car or in their pocket as they go out.
that's somebody that's gonna spend more money than just walking in and getting free drinks. There's not gonna be like, let's go bar hopping with my key and just pound all these free beverages, right? It's like, okay, cool. Number one, you're people that spend money out. So you're gonna make a decision to go out. And you're looking for that type of thing.
And not your coupon hunters, because coupon hunters, they don't pay $700 to get in. They just want the free. And we never discount our key. So that was important is that the key has to hold its value too, just like we make our restaurants. And restaurants hate discounting. Discounting should never be done anyway.
Well, you know what's really interesting that I thought is just such a strange shift in American culture, which is Neil Patel put something on his page the other day that I thought was really interesting. What it said was it was a bar chart. It's talking about all the Google searches for everything, service, products, everything. Over the American culture over the last 15 years.
And when the internet first came out, like whatever it was, and heavy search was there, 2007, 2008 started, the word free was like the number one searched thing on the internet. And then in the word value was best. Oh, really? Best was like way down here. And then they showed this chart of the two lines converging in 2017. In 2017, best became more searched than free.
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Chapter 4: How does the membership model work?
So people started looking for things of higher value and not necessarily the less cost. And those lines continue to diverge now.
And it makes sense because back in 2007, I think coupons were kind of cool.
that was right in the throes of the financial crisis i can kind of see that people were looking for a little free everything back then but i think and i personally like the back then i was like i was younger but i was like a two for one burger i'm like sign me up yeah but you know when you get older and more refined and i think the society changed too i think people want value they're sorry better and it's it's important yeah and better doesn't come with a discount
2024.
So we released those last year. We launched in February 1st, actually, last year. And we sold out in September, which was crazy. I also gave a lot of keys to the right, you know, obviously. Yeah, sure. Local, local. You're one. You're one. Celebrities. We got some cool celebrities with it, actually. Even Kristi Noem, I actually just presented a key to her.
She's the new secretary of the Homeland Security. It's crazy. That's very cool. Yeah, that was actually really cool. She's very good looking, by the way. Oh, wow. Yeah. You might've noticed. Shocking. Good looking women. Shocking. And very, very, very amazingly put together. I mean, I listened to her speak at a conference and just, just an amazing woman. She's a story. Yeah. All right.
And you bootstrapped this whole business. Bootstrapped. And then we released 1000 more pieces here. So I totally went off track. That happens. So 2024 keys. And then we added an extra thousand because we're a subscription model based.
So each year we want to obviously add a little bit more because we keep about 92% and usually in our other cities, which is Toronto, Montreal, which we'll talk about. Yeah. But yeah, so we have released 1000 new keys this year. So once those are gone, they're gone. Yeah.
So for those of you at home that are quick with the old calculator here, if you can be quick with what you got, I think you can do the math of 2000 times 700, even handful of comps that you take out of there. I think you can probably do the math pretty quick. My man, Tim's doing pretty good for himself. That's terrible. All right. And essentially all he's doing is bringing people together.
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Chapter 5: What are the benefits of the Key to the City?
You don't have to deal with, Oh shit, my bartender called out today. And so the bartender is me. You don't have to deal with, Oh, the price of eggs just shot to the roof. So now my cost of goods is terrible. That's right. Right. You essentially have become a partner with the best places in town with zero overhead and nothing but profit that is reliable and countable because of subscription based.
And it took building obviously the brand and the polish and the cool factor. Oh, yeah. Believe me. I ain't saying it's easy. And the events. And we do keyholder socials, which are cool. So we actually do host those on our own. So we'll bring keyholders out together and meet other keyholders. But you're right.
We're sort of, I always say this, we're kind of the Uber of hospitality because we just kind of enable people. We create a program and then we send them out. And then the restaurants, obviously, you know, it's a marketing tool really for them. They're bringing in the business from us with our keyholders. And they do the fulfillment, which is great. You're right.
Yeah, and the thing that I thought was interesting as I went through the site last night is it's not like dead nights. It's not like if you come in on a Tuesday night when they're hurting for business. I don't care if it's prime time Saturday night.
Chapter 6: How did Tim market the Key to the City?
It was important. That was one thing that was funny in Toronto. We used to get businesses when I was younger, and we've been around 10 years there. I wanted to make sure everyone was going to be honored always because it's confusing otherwise, and the brand really for my brand isn't good, and then me marketing your restaurant isn't good because I can't rely on you being cool.
So one of the things that happened back then was, you know, they'd say, well, we don't want to do it on Friday, Saturday. I'm like, no. So the one rule I would always say was you have to honor it at any time. And to be honest, I mean, giving someone a welcome gift when they come in to dine with you and spend their hard-earned money, they get it. You know what I love about Vegas? They get it.
They didn't have to say anything. They just knew. They're like, anytime. It's cool. That's good.
Well, let's, okay, so let's go back now. So let's walk through, because this is just you. You don't have any partners, right? No, just me.
Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously I have a team.
You have a team, but no, but, but this, you are, you are CEO, everything. This is founder. You are it. How old are you now? I just turned 47. You just turned 47. Okay, good, man. You're looking good for 47. I would assume you were way younger too. I'll take it. I'll take it. That's good stuff. So what's the background like? Where did you, where did you grow up?
I always like to go to the nature versus nurture for heavy entrepreneurs and talk about you.
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Chapter 7: What challenges did Tim face while building his business?
What was your early life like? So I'm from a small town up in Owen Sound, Ontario. So it's about two and a half hours north of Toronto. And that's where I've been living, Toronto. I've been in Toronto for 20 years. But yeah, it's been crazy. So we started, I started a small city. I knew I didn't belong.
I knew I wasn't going to be that guy on the line in the factory, which, hey, some people love it. Some people...
Is that a big manufacturing town where you're from? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Did your dad work on the line? My dad was actually an engineer for Hydro, which was crazy. Okay, cool. Yeah, that was kind of cool. My mom did like, you know, advertising sales for a local newspaper. So mom was a salesman? Mom was a salesman. But you know what's funny? My dad was the entrepreneur who gave it up for his kids. Really? Sort of his, you could tell his passion.
So he used to take me to sell. He nurtured it. I mean, I sold hockey cards when I was 10. We went to shows and we had tables and he booked it and he saved the money for college for me. And I didn't know that, but he just, he was kind of, he wanted to do it. He opened up to me about it. That was the hustle. Yeah.
That was the hustle.
He took the safe route. Cause of course you do that when you're having a family. Some people will take the safer and it's okay. Yeah. Yeah.
yeah so he would take you you so that was the first hustle was selling hockey cards yeah so he put a lot of weight on my shoulders like you better be successful in business because i want to be in business oh my god fair so so so did you were you a guy that got good grades did you spill water on yourself all right now you almost got to watch this i don't cut this thing up we just go we go straight as it is so yeah he just spilled his bottle of water in his lap but
You know what I mean? It's a first. Oh my God. It's a first. Three years doing this, that's a first. I feel good now. You should. You should. Because now the next person does it, it won't feel so bad. You've trailblazed that for the next person, which is good. It could have been worse. It could have been a beer. Yeah, it could have been. It could have been. Or a coffee.
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