Inside the Business of Las Vegas Billboards | Danny Calderin

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Pocky and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And today we got just that, man. We're welcoming somebody I'm really excited to sit down with. You've probably seen some of his massive digital billboard truck lighting on the Las Vegas Strip. Welcome to the Circle, owner of Total Entertainment and Total Marketing. We got Mr. Danny Cadrine. Yes, sir. Let's try to say it directly. Right, yeah, yeah. With my Spanish twang, man. So, but man, good to see you, man. We got a chance to meet each other at one of the executive dinners that um Maria uh Romano did. So shout out to Maria and her team. Yep, absolutely. Um, but it's good to always meet, you know, successful people like yourself and just great energy, man. I remember the first time we met, man, it was just great energy, man. I think there was just synergy right off the bat.

And we're like, okay, okay. Let's get it. Yeah.

So talk to me,

From Puerto Rico To Las Vegas

man. So originally from Puerto Rico. Yes, sir. You spent some time in the East Coast, too, right? So some of my old neck of the woods, man, in Mass area. Yes, yes.

The good old, yeah, good old Massachusetts. I was born in Puerto Rico. Yep. I was born in Caguas in Puerto Rico. Uh, when I was six, I moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Spent pretty much ages six to eleven, slash like six through twelve there. Okay. And then moved out here. Well, kind of moved out here, moved out to Border City, was there for like a year and a half. Yeah, I was there for like a year and a half. Shout out Border City, man. A lot of amazing people there. And then yeah, came out here when I was like 12 and a half-ish, you know, maybe 13. And I just turned 30 seven months ago. So I've been here. I mean I've been here for 18, 19 years. Yeah.

Same as me, man. So I moved here 2007. So I've been 19 years also. This is like home for me. Nah, it's home.

It's home. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like it's just so much things, especially in your space, which we're going to get into the marketing side. Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like it's such a small city. And but what I love about it is like you could touch whoever you want to connect with within like three or four people. Absolutely. And that's what I love about it.

I say all the time. I say Vegas is the smallest big city in the world. We speak in the same language. I say it all the time, man. Because it's it literally it feels like so small of a city that you gotta do business the right way, no matter what. You know, because screw over people, you run bad business, word spreads, no matter what. 1000. You know, it's like living in a small town. Yeah.

Especially because you can get a lot of referrals, you know, good business when you when you do good business. Oh, absolutely. And um, but you're 100% right, man. People will talk about you, man, when they when they know you ain't doing it right, you know? Absolutely. Um but let's jump right in, man. So

Music Management To Billboard Trucks

I have always wanted, that's why I'm excited to sit down with you once I found out your background and kind of what you've been doing, is because you see it everywhere in Venice, right? Yes. All the billboards, the digital side, you know, the regular billboards that you see, but you never know who actually owns it or who's able to like sell it, which is which which is what your space is. But how'd you get into like the billboard and advertising business?

I'm glad you asked, actually. Okay. So as you said earlier, right? I'm the owner of Toto Entertainment. Yep. Toto Entertainment started off as a music management firm. So I was managing hip hop and RB RB artists here in Vegas. I was also an event coordinator through Toto Entertainment. You know, I was doing house parties, 1200 people, 1,500 people at my crib, you know. And then that translated into events at actual venues, right? So I was very deeply embedded in into the music scene here in Vegas. Uh, with that being said, I had a producer and an artist that we had put together a five, a five-song project called Vibes, because I do an event every single year on my birthday in December called Vibes in the Valley. Right. I love the name. It's great, great market. No, I it's my baby. It's my baby. We've done it for eight years now, right? So come vibe with uh Vibes in the Valley. Remember, we we had done a Vibes, and then a couple months later, COVID hit. So me and my boys were like, man, how do we keep this momentum going? So we put together a project, right? Called Vibes. And a buddy of mine, his dad actually owned the largest digital billboard truck in America, which I own now, right? Oh, wow. So he I rented out just out of love for the producer and the artists on the project, right? I was just like, I just think this would be something really cool to do. You know, I actually had no concept of what a billboard truck was at the time, right? My but my boy, you know, my boy was just like, hey, you should rent it out. You know, we never use it, we never get bookings, you know, they're kind of just half-assing that side of the business. And then I rented it out for you know a discounted price. The truck turned the corner in the parking lot that we were meeting up at, and I just had a light bulb light up over my head, and I was like, that's the coolest shit I ever seen in my life.

Especially Vegas.

We have bright lights exactly everywhere. Yeah, so so we rented it out. I, you know, promoted the project up and down the strip. My my my homie at the time was like, Well, if you like it so much, why don't you buy it off us? Like I just said, they were never like they were never busy, they just had other projects that they were focused on. It wasn't their priority. So I was like, Don't you, don't you play with me?

Don't play with me.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm very like when I want something, I obsess over it and I make it happen no matter what, you know. So with that being said, I spent the next two months doing market research, you know, studying the competition, writing down potential clients, how much gas is gonna cost, how much insurance, blah, blah, blah. You know, the whole, the whole research for the business up and down, right? My notes were were just ADHD nightmare. You know what I mean? And that's just how it is when I obsess over something. Yep. And two months later, I ended up buying the truck. Like I said, I was already so embedded into the music industry that I was super, super blessed, right? Most people, when they start up a business, it takes time for them to create proof of concepts that the concept is actually going to work, right? And when I purchased the truck, man, the first six to eight months I was booked every single day by different artists, you know.

Oh, because you were marketing almost like street teams. Yeah, well, digital billboard of marketing, whatever they were.

Well, well, just nobody had ever been like, Oh, you want to promote your music video up and down the Las Vegas strip? I got you. Just pay me 500 bucks. You know what I mean? So it just took off immediately, right? And it was really cool, but you know, eventually it was oversaturated because you it lost, you know, it loses his magic between between in within the music industry. Because, you know, once 88 other artists have done it, you know, the 89th and the 90th already, you know, they already know, yeah, exactly. You know, they've seen it, they've seen on this person's Instagram, they seen on that person's Instagram, stuff like that. So from there, I kind of just uh pivoted towards more reaching out to corporations, dispensaries, clubs, stuff like that. At the time, I was in the middle of opening up a gentleman's club. So I was just fine-tuning my fine-tuning my marketing. Got it, you know, just to to the core, right? And then that just every you know, God's alignment is really super powerful, right? So everything just happened one step at a time. You know, once I left the club because they were bad business and stuff, you know, my partners, my partners were like bad business. The very next day I gotta reach out for somebody to pretty much invest in the billboard, the the standalone digital billboard side of the business. And I was like, oh wait, I'm already doing this, I already have the brand, I already have the accolades, boom, boom, boom, and you know, it all just came together.

Yeah.

Who Owns Billboards And Why

So like who actually owns the billboards? Is it like the clear channels of the world, or how like how does that actually be?

No, so different companies own different billboards, like almost like real estate, right? Almost like real estate, but you're leasing it out, right? So you're leasing out the you're leasing out the land, the plot of land that the that the billboard sits on.

Okay.

From the landlord of the actual land, right? So let's say you see a billboard and it's on the corner of a Walmart plaza. Whoever owns that billboard is leasing out the rights to use that little, you know, space there. The space there from the property owner themselves.

So, like, perfect example. Um, one of my favorite digital screens is the one on Harman, right? Harmon and Las Vegas Bulls. Above the CVS? Yep. Yep, yep. Ridiculous because of the views of everything. Absolutely. Is that Planet Hollywood that owns?

I'm not sure about that one specifically. I do work with them. So I don't know, like I know the people that run the billboard, right? And I I've brokered their billboards before, right? But I don't know if they're leasing out from CVS, I'm assuming so, or from whoever owns that actual property. Right there, real estate there, yeah. Which might be Planet Hollywood because somebody's got to be paying rent, you know? Like I'm assuming CVS or Walgreens, whatever it is, sure, is paying rent to be there. Okay. So whoever they're paying rent to, pretty much. Okay.

So when you got this started, so so you have total marketing and total entertainment. Yes. Right. So total entertainment is more the music side, promotion, things along those lines. Events, stuff like that, yes. And then the marketing side is when you brought in the digital side, the billboards, things along those lines. Yes, yes. Got it. Okay. Yeah. So how long have you had the total marketing?

Total marketing since 2021.

Okay.

Yeah, I bought the truck February, I want to say February 26th of 2021. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing how many businesses during the pandemic started.

That's why I was that that was what I was getting at.

It was nearing the end, but not. I mean, you know, it just depends how you looked at it. To me, COVID was about three weeks, and then the rest, I was like, Very good point. Fuck the CDC. Very, very good point.

Everybody started doing everything.

That was a good year for me.

It it's amazing because Chris is not here because he actually under the weather, but my my business partner, when the pandemic hit, obviously we weren't in the studio, right? So we were doing everything on Zoom, and I hated it. Yeah, yeah. Like I hated doing the Zoom because I just love this energy of being in person, you know. It's a whole different yeah, you have to feel the other person's energy, absolutely. For sure. So, but you know what?

ROI Reality And Long-Term Branding

I was curious about is like so the billboards, right? Yes. There's so many out there, yes, but we do see a lot of them, right? Like you always hear that concept of like you got to see like a brand seven different times, might be a billboard or might be on social media or whatever the scenario is. But the point that I was getting at as far as having a billboard is how can clients like check the ROI or or or know what that ROI is on a billboard?

So I'm glad you asked that because like I said, I just came from a meeting with uh with a restaurant, right? And they were asking me about they're asking me about billboard pricing and stuff. Yep. And I'm all I always keep it a buck. I'm like, hey. I was you know it was gonna be my next question. Yeah, I always keep it a buck. I'm just like that's not where your the life of your business is right now. You know, billboards are for long or long-term branding play, right? But they're necessary long-term branding play. I like to think of them as the cherry on top, you know what I mean? Okay, because at the end of the day, they're not gonna convert you sales. What they're gonna do is be one of the, like you just brought up, be one of the five to seven touch points that you need in order to convert somebody into a sale, right?

Or know your brand.

Or to know your brand or to become emotionally attached to your brand, right? So, like at the end of the day, they aren't, and I'm never gonna like I'm never gonna lie to a client and say, oh, well, if you put these billboards, you're gonna get 10 times more sales. You're not, it's about long-term branding. Why do you think the the top five out-of-home advertising spenders in the whole country are Apple, McDonald's, Amazon? You have Morgan and Morgan, which they're like an exception. They're not I don't know how the fuck they do what they do. That's real, though. You know, and then you have one more, which I can't think off off the top of my head, but at the end of the day, it's like because they understand the importance of long-term branding. You know what I mean?

Now, when you say long-term branding, let's say it's let's I'll give it Vegas Circle. Yeah. So say Vegas Circle was to get a billboard. What would you recommend for us? Is it five years, two years, ten years? Like what what what's like the long-term branding?

So it just depends on the goals within your organization. Right. So if you want to stay top of mind when it comes to podcasting, you know, then you know, you want to be running them as long as you want to be staying top of mind at the end of the day. You know what I mean? But like example, I do a lot of blitz campaigns, right? Blitz campaigns are like when you go hard for one week during the yeah.

I think that's what the majority of what people see, right? Yes, okay, yes.

So like if you go hard for one week, let's say it's CES and you're you are Samsung, right? Samsung might hit me up during CES and say, Hey, we want 30 billboards all along the strip, we want five billboard trucks, we want 200 Ubers and Lyfts or rear window billboards, and we want 15 brand ambassadors with hologram advertising backpacks, right? They are looking to pack in a year's worth of subconscious brand recall into one week, you know, and those blitz campaigns get expensive, but they're also super expensive because what you're doing then is you are embedding your brand into not only an event but an experience, right? A lot of people come to CES and it's an experience for them. Yeah, so then when they can't go anywhere without seeing Samsung or without seeing your brand, then that whatever brand it is that does the blitz gets embedded into the into the subconscious part of their brain, which which stores the memory of their experience of being at CES. You know what I mean? So a lot of it is very deep psychological warfare. You know, it's very interesting.

Yeah, because see, I noticed a lot of that like with the CES when you said the blitz marketing, and I notice a lot with specific like like Jeezy or somebody, like somebody's doing a concert that's here, yeah, and you want to really, really get it out of where it's at, they'll have it freaking everywhere. You know what I mean? So when they do something like that, what bill are they paying? What what kind of check are they paying to do something like that? It really they're like on like almost every other billboard.

Yes, yes. So it really depends. You know, our I, you know, I can get a client that pays five grand, I could get a client that pays five hundred grand. You know what I mean? It really depends because I don't just do the outdoor advertising side of things, right? Total marketing is a full uh media buying agency. Sure. But our where our advantage is is we are one of the only media buying agencies that we know we do meta, we do Google, we do CTV, which is like commercials when you're watching Hulu, when you're watching Amazon, you know, Amazon Video. You know, we run we run ads on everything, right? Okay, we're a full scale, but but when it comes to like a client's their needs and their goals, it really just depends on their budget, right? I've done a 40 city campaign, you know what I mean? 40 city, yeah. Oh wow, okay, yeah, exactly. So but then I've done you know, people that just book one billboard truck for eight hours for 800 bucks or a thousand bucks or something like that, you know what I mean? So it really just depends on what they what their goals are, what their budget is. If you're looking to do something like a full city takeover, let's say for a week and you want to do it right, I want to say at least 75 to 100 grand. Wow, you know, if you want to do it right, and that's not including any of the mega billboards on the strip, because any of those mega billboards are gonna cost you anything from 30 to 80k a month. You know what I mean? So let's say we're just talking billboard trucks, billboards, Uber and Lyft rear window billboards, street teams, you know, that type of stuff, you're looking at like 75 to 100k.

I said it makes sense, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what it as far as advertising, right?

Blitz Campaigns And Real Budgets

Because you hear all the numbers of people coming to Vegas and things along those lines, right? So if you guys are coming up with a campaign, uh-huh, are you focused more on the strip and off the strip too? Or you're just trying to do the heavy hitters of you know, a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or like you mentioned, like a CES is in town or another conference is in town.

So I feel like that's all debating once again on the client's goals.

Okay.

Really their business plan and what they're doing. Their business plan. Yeah, if you're performing on the strip and you're performing at Allegiant, let's say, more likely than not, we're gonna be targeting the strip the entire time. Yep. You know what I mean? But too many eyes.

There's too many eyes there.

Yeah, it's too many eyes from all over, and that's the beauty of Vegas because I just told you 75 to 100 grand. Man, try doing that shit in LA. That shit will cost you 800 grand, 700 grand for a week of the same type of takeover, right? And the beauty about Vegas and why I love it so much, and I tell people all the time, it's like you can advertise to the whole world for pennies on the dollar compared to other major markets. You know what I mean? I love you say because we're international, because we're international at any given time, you're you're advertising to tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, of people from China, people from India, people from England, and then people from all over the US as well. So if you want to build your brand internationally, advertising in Vegas is the way to go. Yeah, you know what I mean? Compared to spreading your ad budget thin and trying to advertise in all these markets individually, and then you're gonna end up spending, you know, a hundred times more than you would have, right? So if your goal is to just simply embed yourself in people's subconscious, uh, you know, with within millions of 52 million people subconscious spread out throughout the whole world, Vegas is the number one spot to do it.

I agree. You know, I remember having this conversation. Shout out to to uh Philippe Ziadi on his autonomous, right? Okay, those AI hotels.

Yep, yep, yep.

And I remember one of the things he had mentioned to me is he was like, Man, you gotta look at Vegas globally. Because everybody in their mom was always looking at Vegas, whether you're in Dubai, whether you're in Miami, they're always looking at Vegas and seeing what we're doing.

Yes, absolutely.

We still are one of the coolest cities, period.

No, no matter, dude. My love for Vegas runs so deep. People don't even understand. I'm like, I'm like, y'all don't really get it, like the potential in this city, and we're just growing. We know we're about to get the A's, we're gonna get an NBA team. We saw what happened when the Knights came here. Same thing with the Raiders, and it's like that's just on the sports side of things, but people don't understand. Sports bring travelers from all over the world as well. Yeah, you know what I mean? You're gonna support your squad. You want to support your squad, yeah. And it it's low-key in a lot of ways, it's of a benefit to the away team a lot. I don't know if you've been to a Raiders game.

You've been to a Raiders game, it's been a Raiders and nights game.

Bro, you go to a goddamn fucking Chiefs Raiders game. Yeah, it's more red jerseys than Raiders jerseys. It kills me. But I but I get it because people are like, oh, I get to go to Vegas for three days and then end the weekend on a on a football game and then go home Monday morning or go home Sunday night. I'm in, you know.

1,000%. Yeah.

And then what I'm most excited is the A's. People don't understand. Baseball teams play 81 games in their hometown every single year. Yeah, that's insane. That's 81 times a year that we're gonna have additional travelers coming into Las Vegas from all over the country, maybe even all over the world. I mean, think about it. The Dodgers come play here, people from Japan are gonna be like, oh, let's go to autonomy. Yeah, they're gonna be like, oh, I'm I'm going to Vegas. Yeah. I haven't been to Vegas yet. Yeah. You know, all the people that live in, all the Japanese folks that live in live in LA. They're gonna be like, oh, I've been looking for an excuse. Yeah. You know what I mean?

We're gonna be the best. Yeah. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. I love this city.

Why Vegas Sells Brands Worldwide

I want to talk a little bit about AI, man. Like, please. Do you see different ways to market the AI and not market AI that's being helpful that that you know companies are doing specifically like you know, we have CS is coming here. You're seeing different ways that people are utilizing AI?

So utilizing AI, you're talking about AI companies marketing.

Because what I was first asking was just utilizing AI to market, but now that you've asked that, I'd like to hear both. Oh, absolutely.

Okay, so absolutely. So let's start with using AI to market. Absolutely. I have because I practice what I preach. I have my billboards live right now promoting telltale marketing around Vegas. Okay, you know what I mean? If we got some blank space, I'm like, oh, I'll throw this well, yep. Made it with AI. Yep. You know what I mean? Yeah. What used to take two, three days for a uh for a graphic design team to create took me three, four minutes, you know? And it I and it's all about how you use it, right? That's where people struggle, you know. They hate AI because it m fucks up and stuff like that, right? Well, here's the thing. At the end of the day, if you have a brand built, you have your brand guidelines and a PDF, you have your media kit in a PDF, you have your website done, you can submit all that into AI and then say, hey, I want an advertisement created. This is the tone that I want it to speak, these are the the emotions that I want it to emote, you know. So here, and it'll create it perfectly, lined up with your brand, you know. If not, and you're just typing in there, you know, you know, you're just blindly typing in, it's gonna be a pain in the ass.

That's just how we so you've got to utilize it the right way.

Yeah, you gotta use it, you know, you still gotta do the human work. You gotta you gotta build the brand. You gotta build the brand. And then, and then now, like for example, you know, I drive a Tesla, right? So I have Grok in my Tesla. So I have literally my my car knows everything about my business. So as I'm driving, I'm talking to it about pitches that I'm pitching to clients and stuff like that, right? And all it knows, you know, if I have to talk about like if I have like some custody or like or some court stuff, if I have any like law stuff or any personal stuff I got to talk to about AI. Well, I talk about it on my to the chat GPT in my phone, but my grok in my car, nothing but my business. You know what I mean? You're teaching different different ones, different ones, different like languages, damn near, right? My grok in my car literally is just absolutely just my business mentor.

You know, I'll be like, hey, I'm pitching canvas of what you are.

And but it's only the business. Got it. Right? And like I'll ask it, like, hey, I'm going into this meeting, you know, they want me to run CTV ads and they want me to run their meta ads. What's a good retainer? What's the industry standard for a retainer and what's the industry standard for uh for ad spend percentage, right? Boom, boom, boom. Okay, what if their revenue is this? Okay, if the rev if they're spending that much, you want to blah blah, you know, and I'm just I'm just going in. That's smart. Going in. So you got to train in order to use it for marketing correctly, you got to train it, just like anything else. Yeah. You know, you just have to train it, and then it's just it's priceless, man. It's absolutely priceless.

That's what I'm learning more, is like I feel like people are talking about AI is gonna put a lot of people out of jobs, but I think it's gonna enhance a lot of jobs. Of course, it's gonna put some people out of work, but I think it can make us smarter if we can utilize it like what you just did. Yes, absolutely. That's how to make you smarter, how to make you sharper, how to scale your business a little bit better. I think utilize it.

Well, and I think at the end of the day, it's like when some jobs get lost due to innovation, other jobs get created. Of course. Maybe not always at the same rate, but maybe that's also not a bad thing. Yep. You know, we don't know. We're gonna find out. It's right around the corner.

It's happening so fast.

Yeah, no, seriously.

Using AI To Build Ads Faster

What about just biggest mistakes businesses make in marketing, man? Like, is there something that just one nugget that you can give people that that they maybe you know are making a mistake on that you're just wasting money?

Yeah, actually, yeah. I don't think it's that they're wasting money. I think the biggest issue that I see with almost every company, especially modern companies, is they put all their eggs in one basket, right? I always say the best marketing campaign is a well-balanced marketing campaign, right? And I deal with this with restaurants a lot. They're getting three million views on on Instagram. So they're like, well, why would I pay for outdoor advertising? Why would I pay for why would I pay for meta ads? You know, I'm getting three, four million views, and these meta ads are gonna and it cost me zero dollars. These meta ads are gonna cost me three thousand dollars a month, and I can only guaranteed a million views. And I tell people all the time, and actually I wrote a book, I released it in December. Did you really just past December? Yeah, yeah, I'd release it on my 30th birthday. It's a big goal of mine. Okay, and it's called uh takeover, the art and science of taking over your market. I'll give you a copy. I like that I love that. Yeah, so the whole not the whole the books point of the book is to talk about the the psychological pivots that it creates in people's minds, in the masses' minds when you when you advertise with outdoor advertising, right? And one of the chapters in the book literally, I break down the fact that it's impact over impressions, and we live in a society where so many people give so much power to how many impressions they can get compared to the impact that their impressions have, right?

I'd rather anybody talks a lot about this, yeah.

No, exactly. No, no, yeah. Like I said, I'll give you a lot of people. Everything's impressions, everything's everything's yeah, dude, especially in the marketing world. Well, what's the CPM? What's it cost per a thousand impressions? And I'm like, well, it's gonna be more than if you just put a thousand dollars behind into the way.

You say impact over impressions, impact over impressions, yes, absolutely.

And I tell people all the time, you know, it's like I'd rather have a thousand views from people that genuinely resonated with my message and remembered what it is that I that I said, you know, and it and and it and it stayed in their in their mental, you know, I got embedded in their brains, than a million impressions of somebody that saw me on Instagram and then scrolled and then forgot, forgot what I was talking about, forgot anything. Yeah, you know what I mean. So I tell people that all the time. Like I said, I wrote about in the book because outdoor advertising is just that, and that's what made me fall in love with it. I'll tell you a really quick story. One of the first times I had an artist book, my billboard truck, there was there was a bachelorette party walking by, and it was two artists, and they were taking photos in front, you know, the two artists taking photos in front of their cover art in front of the billboard truck, right? The bachelorette party walked by and saw the artists, and they're like, Oh my god, is that you guys? Never heard of these guys in their lives, you know. They bear they, you know, they barely had followers, this and a third, right? Well, the bachelorette party still asked to take photos with those guys because they saw them on the billboard, right? Because it's organic, yes, it's organic, but that teaches you two things, right? That the impact that that impression had was more powerful than if those ladies would have just seen them as artists on Instagram, you know, on social media. It made it real and made it way more, way more personable, you know. And the other thing that it teaches you is that no matter what we as humans still crave experience, you know, and we're leaning towards that still. The more we get embedded into AI and technology, the more our our natural bodies crave experience, you know. So the ladies were on the bachelorette party, and then they they they they craved not crave, but like they enjoyed so much being in front of people that they didn't know if they were famous or not. But the chance that they might have been there, oh can we take can we take photos with you guys? Yep, yep. So it really breaks down, my book does a lot, breaks down how important outdoor advertising can be for the positioning of your brand and your company, right? Okay, so it's like you can have a water bottle company, and if I see, you know, like you personally could have it, right? And you can be posting on social media and stuff, but then if I see you on billboards driving around the city in my head, I'm thinking, oh, you're the real deal. You know what I mean? So you're creating that positioning. Okay, and positioning is uh one of the, if not the most important factors when it comes to closing sales.

That's what's up. Yep. It makes sense. Makes sense what you're saying. What's your favorite billboard location in Vegas? My trucks. But it's gotta be of a specific what's the what's the number one prime.

So so actually, so it's not one that's active right now, it's one that I'm actually in the process of making right now. We're taking, we're about to make, we're gonna take the largest one in all of America, right? Okay. My my buddy, one of my partners, just came up with this, right? Taking the largest billboard truck in all of America, and when it's not on the road, we are having it stationed on Sammy Davis, because that's that's where his shout out to Driven Driven Warehouse. So I park my trucks there, right? So when the truck's just stationary, we're gonna connect it to the building's power line and have it operating as a billboard 24-7. So people can always 43,000 vehicles drive by that warehouse every single day. It's like two million impressions a day. You know, so I'm really excited about that because that's that's gonna be my favorite. Because Sammy Davis, you know, you have Battlefield Vegas there, you have sapphires, you have it's right behind Circus Circus, so you have people going to Resorts World. You know, you have it's a packed ass street. 43,000 cars every day. You're talking about two million, three million impressions every single month, but they're more impactful impressions because instead of the billboard being up 40, 50 feet up in the sky, it's right there eye level with the vehicles. It's gonna be parked right out front, hitting both both both sides of traffic. Got it.

Okay.

So once we launch that, probably by the end of the month, that's gonna be my favorite location. Yeah, okay.

And that's probably I can I get it. I get it. How is impressions calculated? Like, so if you have 43,000 people you know driving by a specific area, like how does it get to that?

Like so I don't want to scare you with the answer. No, so the way those are calculated is every single phone has an IP address. So these billboards, billboard trucks, all these things, yes, they they have pretty much routers that collect the amount of IPs that passed the vehicle. You know what I mean? The mining is so real, yes, and man, I've been getting into it a lot more. Like the value of data is absolutely absurd, man. You know what I mean? So so yeah, that's how that's how we capture the information. In the world, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

No, yes.

No, I know you. So that's what it is. It's the IP addresses, it's the IP addresses from the phones, because I mean, there's more phones than people on this earth. You know what I mean? Pretty there's more people. This is a pretty crazy stat, but like I think this is what it was. I heard it the other day. There's more people with cell phones than there are people with clean drinking water in the world. You know, that's horrible. Because even in even in little villages up in the mountains in South uh South America or some shit, right? They do people still have iPhones.

That's you know what I mean? Like they think about it like that, yeah, like perspective, that's jerked up.

Yeah, so I mean you can pretty much count on damn near you can pretty much count that almost every person, obviously, there's exceptions to every single rule in the world, right? But every single person in the world has a phone. Damn near. You know what I mean? My 89-year-old grandpa got a phone. That's true. You know what I mean? That's true. Yeah, yeah. He has a smartphone nonetheless. He don't know how to work it. He calls me. He still got it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's unreal. He be calling me. Well, he'd be butt dialing me, I'd be like, Oh, what's up, Abuelo? And he'd be like, Oh, I didn't mean to call you. I'm like, oh, I bet. That's my that's my parents. That used to be my parents all the way.

That's how it would be all day, all day.

Meta Ads Versus TikTok And Targeting

Well, would do you still recommend, like, you hear the meta, right? I heard you talk about meta ads and things like that. Instagram ads, you know, Facebook ads, on those lines, um, even the TikTok and YouTube.

Yeah.

And I'm I'm a I'm assuming that you're gonna say all of them. Yeah. But do you still think it's positive for people to still put their money into those particular ads? Absolutely. Okay, definitely meta.

Definitely meta. Absolutely. The reach you get on meta is unprecedented. I I spend more money than than most people my age make in a month on meta-ads every month.

You know what I mean? Now you're just doing it for your own company. I'm doing it for your clients stuff.

Well, I'm talking about me personally for my own company. Smart. Right, but I run client stuff too. Of course. Right. And I have a lot of partners that run client, you know. I have I know companies that are running five hundred thousand dollars a month, million dollars a month on meta ads, you know. I think it depends on where your demographic sits, right? Me personally, I'm not because TikTok's mainly a younger demographic, and that's just me personally, I'm not gonna spend money on TikTok ads because I'm selling minimum five thousand dollar products, you know, about how I'm selling specific demographic that you're looking for. Yes, but if you're selling everyday trinkets, TikTok is the spot, TikTok shop, you can make a killing. If you're making your clothing shops, stuff like that, you can make a killing. But then when it comes to if you're doing like business to business or restaurants, I think we're we underestimate how much the older generation is on Facebook, you know, 60, 70 years old.

I'm gonna be honest with you. Both, unfortunately, both my parents passed with them. Yeah, but I appreciate that. They were on Facebook like my mother-in-law's on Facebook leverage in the 80s.

They just eat the propaganda live.

They love checking out everything, you get your news, and then everything is through this.

But it's so personalized, the algorithm is so personalized now, so it is dangerous, you know. But nonetheless, I'm glad you said that. It is very dangerous. Super, super dangerous, man.

Especially once you click on one thing that you like and it changes your whole yeah.

I mean, I'm not a I love I love political campaigns. I love being in the political marketing world. But my, you know, my camp, my my political party is green. You know, I'm not really on either side, you know. I think the two wings are the same beast. Yeah, but I have seen it firsthand, older, you know, older Christian Republicans be like, did you see that they're doing this? And I'm just like, no way you believe that, dude. No, no way you don't see that's an AI photo.

And they keep getting fed it.

Uh-huh. And they get it fed, they get fed, and it just eats them alive. But at the end of the day, you know, going back to like meta advertising, um, absolutely, especially if you do high ticket, right? So what made me go hard into meta is I would do individual smaller campaigns on Instagram for like big weekends, right? So let's say EDC is coming up, right? I would be like advertise on 30 billboards for five grand EDC weekend, and I would put $400, $500 behind that campaign for two weeks, right? Well, one client would pay me back that tenfold because they're paying five grand. Yeah. You know what I mean? So if you're a high ticket sale, if you're in high-ticket sales, it's almost worth it. I can spend three grand, five grand a month on Meta because if I close one person, it's worth it. And then that second person is profit. You know what I mean? So, and then that one person that I close, more likely than not, is gonna be a retainer client as well. You know what I mean?

Yeah, so it's all everything you're saying, it makes sense.

It depends on what you do, you know, and what your business is. But if I was selling, like I said, clothing, house supplies, stuff like that, bro. TikTok shop kids are eating right now, yeah, eating, and I want to get more into it,

How Danny Learned Marketing The Hard Way

you know.

But I've Did you go to school for marketing?

Like, was that your background?

How'd you learn it?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked. Yeah. So so at like age 18, 19, right? You were here, right? I was here. Yeah, yeah. Weed wasn't legal yet, so I was making a bunch of money on weed, right? Ignorant. And this is gonna be hilarious. Don't judge me. I was in a super toxic, like high school sweetheart relationship, right? From where 16 to like 21. Yep. By the time I'm like 18 and a half, 19, we just can't stand each other, right? So I would literally just stay up all night reading every single UNLV, CSN, and every business book imaginable. Really? Right. I know your son's in the corner. So he's paying attention. No, yeah, he's in the son. So I'm leaving some details together. You could you can keep it real with it, man. We keep it open. Yeah, no, so I literally would just be smoking weed all night, reading every single CSN textbook, every single UNLV business textbook, every single business book that exists. Because I was like, I'm really not trying to go to bed right now. You know, and that compounded over like years and years. And then when I was 21, I actually I launched a uh cannabis coconut oil company. Really? Okay, right when we became legal. I launched a cannabis coconut oil brand and I loved to cook and I I lived with all my homies, right? And uh, this is super behind the scenes shit that people don't know. It's funny. So I loved to cook and I had like a big ass house, right? We had like a we had like a seven-bedroom mansion, all my homies, right? So, and every single house or room was every single bedroom was like a master bedroom, you know. We were just renting it, you know, we didn't own it. Anyways, we were cooking for 15 people every single day. So I was cooking medicated meals for all the homies all the time, right? And with that, started making content every single day. One of the homies that lived with us was a videographer, right? So we were just making content, making content. So I was releasing like high-end commercials for my coconut oil, but like for or yeah, for social media though, you know, in 2015, you know, so 11 years ago. Yeah, 2015, 2016. Okay, yeah. So like I just started getting in, going in, you know, and everything I was reading because I dropped that brand, because I really, you know, I launched that brand, everything I read, I just was trying. It was I was just trial and error, you know, proof of concept. And I was young, and when you're young, you can just make mistakes. My margins on the cannabis coconut oil were so large that I'd be like, Oh, we'll just make this now. Yeah, it's worth the risk. Yeah, and at the same time, it was really more like for fun for me. Then things started picking up, and I was like, Oh, damn, okay. Started being a vendor at these like farmers markets and all this fun stuff. Selling the coconut oil, yeah. Yeah, selling the coconut oil, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like at a young age, I just started. It's funny, I just met with a 23-year-old today. His parents own, you know, seven restaurants here in Vegas, right? And I was like, Oh, you're 23, man, good for you. You know, he just he just graduated college. And I told him, I said, I said, graduating with your business degree is the first step. Because out of all the degrees, and salute to all the kids going to school for business, absolutely. But business is something that you have to take the L's, make the sacrifices, I agree, go through the trials and tribulations in order to learn everything firsthand. And I've literally just done that over the last 11, 12 years, you know what I mean? So it just came naturally, started good.

You learned you said proof of concept, which is everything.

Is everything. I started, I was managing hip hop artists and RB artists, and then that's when I realized, oh wait, branding is everything, and marketability is everything for an artist, right? But then I realized, oh wait, none of these artists know how to brand themselves or market themselves. So that's when I started going harder and harder into the psychology of marketing, and like I said, I've literally devoted my entire 20s towards just understanding people, you know, just understanding the human brain, understanding the consumer's brain and the creator's brain and how different they are, you know what I mean? And everything in between, you know.

It's good that you study people, that because that's another thing. I mean, communication rules and things, like I was telling my my son earlier, it's like you gotta understand what the the the art of conversation, understanding what pisses people off, what excites them, and all that. So it'll get you further in life than almost everything. 100%.

Career Versus Legacy As A Father

Um so for business and life advice, man, especially you being a father now, right? Because how how old is your daughter now? So she turns six months in um eight days. And it's your first your first daughter, okay. Changes everything. Yeah, it changes everything. What's the difference between building a successful career and building a meaningful life for you, especially because you're an entrepreneur, father, and I know a lot of people are looking up to you, you know, especially from all the things that you've accomplished. What would you say that that nugget is? The difference between the career and so I would say the difference between building a successful career or be building a meaningful life.

So so one, I think the difference between building a career and building a meaningful legacy, right, for your child and for the future. One, let's go back to marketing, is building a brand behind it. If not, everything's transactional. Yep. And you're just hopping from one trend to another. I don't care if you just made five million dollars today because you brokered a deal. Does your brand stand behind that deal or not? Right? Because if not, does it is it does it is it yeah, is it sustainable long term, right? For me, everything I'm building right now is for my daughter, right? Like I my goal is when she's 21, is just give her the keys to the castle, you know what I mean? And I'll be I'll be well, I'll be 51 or whatever, right? Yeah, so the goal is to literally give her the keys to the castle, and I don't think of that as like, oh, I'm gonna be teaching her everything. Like, no, I think in 15, 16 years I'm gonna sharpen her brain so in such a firm, strong manner that she's gonna be teaching me a lot of stuff too, because I'm gonna be the OG by then. And marketing is gonna be changing, and marketing is gonna be changing. So she's gonna be like, Dad, you should do this, dad, you should do that, you know. So, but but you know, to go back to like the root of it, difference between the career and a you know, and what how did you word it? So building a successful career or uh and building a meaningful life, and building a meaningful life. I think it's all about what fulfills your soul, you know, at the end of the day. I am a creator at heart, that's why I've always been an entrepreneur. I love to create a lot of things, a lot of endeavors that I want to do in my life. I know the margins in those businesses aren't even that good, right? I'll make a lot more money staying in marketing and advertising, I promise you. But I do want to open up a bar because I told myself eight years ago that I would. So in five, six, seven years, the goal is to do that, right? I believe a lot of it is seeing things through that you told yourself, right? So it's all about what fulfills your soul, what fulfills you know, who you are as a person. Good.

Yep.

So like a career can do that, but you have to identify yourself. You can't identify yourself with just your career. You know, you were human beings, we're so much more complex than that, you know. So it's like I consider myself a brother, a leader, a father, and uh innovator. Very, you know, like that's something that I take a lot of pride in, right? When I tell you I want to open up a bar, I'm not opening up just some bar. You know what I'm saying? I'm opening up the future of taverns in Las Vegas, you know, and I I have notes in my phone that like again are just uh ADHD freaking just blob.

Do it, but you don't do it right though, man. But you don't do it right.

Absolutely. Yeah, but no.

Who are you opening your bar up at? What is this specific side of town that you're looking at?

Uh definitely needs to be a higher end side of town. Definitely higher end side of town. I want it to be Vegas. I live in Henderson now, so I love Henderson. Okay. But my brand is rooted in Vegas. Okay. Right. So I would want it to be like a, you know, like a maybe a Summerlin or a Southwest, if the Southwest starts. People, you know, people, you know, people love the Southwest, and I like it too, but there's a lot of people in the industry that are in the Southwest. So if the more money that starts going towards the Southwest, and as it continues to grow, I think in like five years it'll be ready for the kind of vision that I have in my head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I salute to that, man.

We just, you know. That's good stuff. Yeah. As far as I ask everybody this restaurant, I know you work with a lot of the restaurants, but don't be politically correct, man. What's your favorite restaurant in Vegas that you go to? It doesn't have to be on the strip and be off the strip too.

Damn.

Depends how I'm feeling. Okay. Right. Okay. Best hibachi, vanilla rice. He's been on the he's been on the pot. Good, good. That's my guy. That's my guy. Really good dude. Yeah. Yeah, really good.

He's got two locations. I think one Charleston, and he's got a is that a location? Chopicana. Yeah. To take out.

I think that's on Chopicana. Something like that. Yeah, shout out to Vanilla Rice. Good dude. Shout out to Vanilla Rice for real. Dude, that Indian spot I had today, India. India Palace. India Palace? India Palace. India Palace. I've never really been somebody like, oh, I need to go get Indian food. Okay. You know, it's just never been something I grew up on. Okay.

Indian food, I love that shit. Yeah. I love Indian food. I I got I got leftovers in the car right now.

And I was like, I texted my sister. I said, I need I'm bringing you some.

That's what's up. Yeah. You know what I mean? So you said vanilla rice and then Indian.

India Palace. I'm a big sushi guy. I'm a big sushi guy. So I don't really know anybody at this establishment, but sushi Ichiban, downtown off Fremont. Okay. Sushi Ichiban. Sushi Bon. That's my shit. I'm a big sushi guy, man. I'm a I'm a sushi twice a week guy. I mean, I'm from the islands, man. So like I just love raw fish.

Okay. You gotta check out Kase. Shout out to my guy, James Trader. Have you ever heard of Kase? I don't think so. Check out Kase. Where is it? Where is it? It's uh what is that, Jones or Buffalo? What is it? Jones. Jones and like the 215. Okay, okay. By the UFC Apex kind of a little bit farther down, a little bit. More inward. More inland. Yep, but it's it's right next to like a wing stop in that area. The only reason why I bring it up is it's an omakase. When you hear omakase, you think really expensive. And he's figured out the riddle of being a little bit less either expensive for the modern day person that wants to experience it. I love that. I love that. Check out check out James, man. He's good dude, man. No, absolutely. Absolutely. What else? What else is next for you, man? Just finishing up the interview, man. What

Corporate Growth And Government Contracting

what else is on you mentioned the bar? What else is maybe for for for total entertainment and total marketing wise?

So I mean, I mean, total marketing itself, like I said, I mean, here's my goal, right? And I I haven't really told anybody this, but like I my goal is to build the best media buying and marketing team possible, the Avengers, and have them run media buying for what you call in the military like civilian companies, right? Okay. Just the you know, corporations, stuff like that. I'm really trying to get into the corporate side of things with media buying. Not trying, I'm succeeding. I got calls literally immediately. But they have a budget.

They've got a budget they got to spend every year.

And it's I and the thing is, is like I like getting creative, and I struggle with smaller clients because they only want what they want. And like I like we said about the career and the fulfilling life, right? This, yes, it makes money, but being creative, experimental marketing, that's the stuff that fulfills my soul, and that's the stuff that when I look back, I'm like, and then you get the results too, and it's just like, man, it's just such a good feeling to come up with an idea and then see that, see that idea come to fruition, you know, and all that stuff.

And see a business win, seeing somebody winning. Seeing somebody else.

It's really why I got started, man. It's like helping other people's visions come to light, right? With that being said, I want to get into the corporate world, create the Avengers so they can run all the corporate accounts because I am I want to get into the government, government contracting space of marketing and advertising. I think the again, they got a budget, they got to hit that budget. Pretty sure the all the agencies put together, if I'm not mistaken, spend like $480, $500 billion a year on marketing and advertising. Yeah. Just give me one percent. I'm I'm not mad at you, brother. Not for me, for my daughter. I ain't mad at you. So I've been taking all the necessary steps of putting proposals of shaking all the right hands, you know, all that stuff. That's not long-term play. Thing about the uh these agencies, once it's once it ain't, if it ain't broke, they won't fix it. So I know once I get in there, it's game over and I'm locked in and I the one thing that's priceless in this world is time, right? I can't believe I'm saying this on the phone or on on a mic, but a lot of these older, you know, 75-year-old congressmen and shit, they can have $10 billion. They still look at a 30-year-old man with ambition and they're jealous because they're like, Man, there's one thing I cannot get back, it's being 30 years off. You know what I mean? And I've I put a lot of value in that. So it's like I want to get to where I know I belong, and then and I know when I'm shake those right hands and I'm locked in, it's just like it's not even gonna be like I'm excited to be there. They're gonna be excited to have me there. You know what I mean? No, I get it. Yeah, yeah.

So that's a good thing is that you've you've taken the chances in your 20s, because that's the biggest thing, is I feel like I should have taken more chances. I'm 46 years old. I'm like, I should have taken way more chances. Yeah. So I'm glad that you're saying that because you gotta take the chances. You gotta take like you gotta come up with these creative ideas, you gotta spend the money because you don't know what's gonna work.

Well, because you don't have a kid yet to take care of, or you don't have this, and you just have less responsibilities. And like Gary V talks about it a lot, you know, Gary V, right? Of course, that he talks about it a lot. He's like, you could fuck up from age 18 to age 29, over and over, trying new things, trying new things. Oh, that didn't work. Okay, let's try this. Oh, that didn't work, let's try this, and then you hit 29, and then you figure out the one thing that worked. And the beautiful thing about it is as you're messing up, you're finding yourself, you're building your character, and that's something that I've really, you know, at 25, you think you're all that, you know, you think you got it figured out, and I did, I thought I did in my entire 20s. Oh, I've got I I just know I know that already. I can't wait to see who I am, you know, because I grow every single day, right? And I I strive to grow every single day. So when it comes to like you know, making your mistakes in your 20s, it's like it's not only because you don't have responsibilities and stuff, or as many as responsibilities, let's say, because you still have some, but like as many responsibilities, but you also those losses build your character. I promise you.

TK Kirkland talks about it all the time, comedian. TK Kirkland. TK Kirkland, okay. We've had him on the show a couple times. Okay, I'll check him out. Great guy. I'll check him out. But he always talks about you don't become a man until you're in your early 40s. Yes, absolutely. Just because of all those experiences. Yes, all the all the L's and especially the business side of it, too, man.

The business, the life. I mean, dude, I'm my whole life right now is studying custody law stuff because my baby girl, you know, I've been going through it for the last six months, and you know, and I have her right now, but it's like boom boom, it's just war, it's a battle zone, right? I get it. And but I think about it, I'm like, oh, God wouldn't make put me through this if he knew that this is part of my journey towards becoming who I'm supposed to become for my daughter. You know what I mean?

And wait till you can have that conversation with her 20 years from now.

Bro, I was I was she's she's not even six months old yet. I was literally looking at her, crying, praying to her yesterday. You know, just like I would do whatever it takes for you, baby.

You know what I mean? I start thinking about a lot of that stuff because, like I just told you, my oldest is turned 12 yesterday. Okay, okay. And it's a boy? Yes, we're two boys. Yes. My old my youngest is in here now, is uh is Casey, he's nine. Okay. My oldest just turned 12. Okay, okay. But it's amazing when you go back and you start looking at these other pictures. And like I was telling you, we interview them so we can just it's more for us, like you know, just to learn what their growth.

But I just can't be the same. You're gonna be playing at a Casey's wedding. You better be playing those interviews at Casey's wedding. Yeah, buddy. Yeah, buddy. So no, because that's so cool to see the development of that. That you're you're a great father for that, man. Thank you. No, shout out to my wife, it was her idea.

So I can't take credit for it. So but but I'm salute to what you're doing, man. Thank you very much. Honestly, man, I'm I'm happy we sat down because it gives different people a different perspective, man. Yes, yes. And you know, not even saying the race car, but you know, I got a lot of friends that are bodico, and I just love it. Like when we first met, you talk about being from Lawrence, my best friend from Puerto Rico.

Yep, yep, yeah.

And when you said that, I said I 1000% gotta have you come on the pile. Because I just want people to be able to see that there's so many cool people doing different stuff. You know what I mean? And you're a creative, like you said, and the creators are moving the nation, man.

Oh, absolutely.

Social Handles And Final Takeaways

Um what's the what's your social handles, man, that people people can reach out to?

So my Instagram is uh Calderin Danny, so C A L D E R I N, Danny D-A-N-N-Y. Yep. The Instagram for the Toto is Toto Marketing underscore. Super simple. You could just look up on Facebook, same thing. You know, just look up Danny Calderin. Yep. Toto Marketing, you know, you find us. We ain't going nowhere. Yeah. Like I said, my whole everything I've been through my entire life has led me to this moment, and it's so exciting because I'm nowhere near where I'm gonna be. You know what I mean? And like you said, I I'm very well aware that I'm like, I'm not, I'm not a tenth of the man that I'm gonna be when I'm 40. Yeah, but I'm excited to when I go through something now, it doesn't even phase me, but even if it does, I'm just like, ooh, how exciting. How exciting. Because this is all a part of this is all a part of that end game. You know what I mean? So it's like total market ain't going nowhere, man. I have a really, really innovative billboard that I'm hopefully can go talk to the bank and go talk to the CPA and make it all make sense next week. If so, within the next six months, I'm gonna be building something that is just gonna change. It's something that no one in the world has ever done before. Okay. And just if it makes money, cool. You know, and it's going to, but for me, it's just something that it's in my head, so I need to make it come to fruition. Yeah, because I just I'm obsessive like that, you know. Well, that's I'm I'm gonna speak it that it's gonna happen, man. Well, I'm gonna make it happen one way or another, no matter what. But like I said, if it makes it will make money, but if it didn't, I still would be like, I did that. Yeah, I did that, and I think that's a big part of life, you know, is really just like telling yourself and God, hey, I'm gonna do this, and then making it happen, being focused. You know, I say all the time focus is the new currency. The people that can stay focused on their goals and their ambitions can do anything with all this new technology. Yeah, it's tough.

With all this new technology, anything's possible, bro. I agree, you know. Well, man, check us out at theveguscircle.com, subscribe with us, man, and pay attention to what uh what he's doing, man, and reach out if y'all need his services. So appreciate it. Appreciate you, brother.

Yeah, thank you for having me. Thank you for having me, brother. For uh,