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Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
Follow along for more!
Small Lake City
S1, E97: Kingbee Vans/ Ranger Soundcar - Scott Haslam
Scott Haslam stands at the intersection of entrepreneurial success and community-building creativity as the mastermind behind both King Bee Vans and Ranger Sound Car. From his junkyard office in Salt Lake City, he's crafting a legacy that transcends traditional business boundaries.
Starting with a simple question – "how can this scale?" – Scott transformed a small vehicle upfitting operation into a nationwide commercial vehicle empire. King Bee Vans began with just 80 vehicles in 2021 and has explosively grown to 6,000 vehicles today, with projections to reach 10,000 by year-end. What makes this growth remarkable isn't just the numbers but the vision driving it: identifying underserved market needs and applying technological innovation to an industry resistant to change.
But what truly sets Scott apart is his creative outlet – Ranger Sound Car. After experiencing a transformative music festival in Idaho, he purchased a 50,000-pound military Hemet truck, outfitted it with a premium sound system, and created a mobile DJ booth capable of turning any location into an unforgettable music experience. From junkyards to desert landscapes, Ranger Sound Car brings world-class electronic music to unexpected places, creating communal experiences that transcend ordinary entertainment.
The magic of these events lies in their authenticity. Artists who perform on the truck consistently describe it as unlike any venue they've played – intimate, raw, and deeply connected to the audience. For attendees, the experience provides an escape from everyday life in an environment where creativity and self-expression flourish. As Scott puts it, his goal is to help people "exit their default world for a few hours."
Through both his business ventures and creative projects, Scott embodies a philosophy captured in his mantra: "We're all in this together." His story reminds us that entrepreneurial success and community-building aren't mutually exclusive – they can beautifully complement each other when driven by genuine passion and a desire to create meaningful experiences for others.
Follow Ranger Sound Car on Instagram to catch upcoming events, including their September 13th showcase featuring an exciting up-and-coming artist. Whether you're a music lover, an entrepreneur, or simply someone who appreciates authentic community experiences, Scott Haslam's ventures offer something truly special in Salt Lake City's cultural landscape.
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What is up everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsen, and this week's guest is the closest thing Salt Lake has to a modern day Gatsby. His name is Scott Haslam, and not only has he built a super successful business around van rentals, van outfitting called King B Vans and a couple of other companies associated with that, but he is also the creator of Ranger Sound Car. Now, in case you aren't familiar, ranger Sound Car is a Hemet military vehicle that he has outfit with a sound system, a DJ booth, to essentially bring a DJ booth wherever it's needed, whether that be a festival or in the back of his junkyard, the middle of the desert, top of a mountain. It's always an option.
Speaker 1:Now he's been throwing these amazing parties, bringing people together and truly bringing a community around it, and also bringing in some amazing music talent and exposing them to the great city of Salt Lake and exposing Salt Lake to these great people. So we talk about him founding his business, what led to him wanting to start the sound car, but you don't have to hear it from me, he tells the story very well, so let's jump into it Because, like it was fun the first time I ever met you? Yeah, because I was at Edison house catching up with a friend. I don't know if you remember Benton Sturt.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's like hey, man, I don't know if you know about this, but you got to talk to this that's right.
Speaker 2:It was benton that introduced us.
Speaker 1:Love that guy so good like I've known him. I mean we worked in finance together in seattle and, uh, friends, it's like one of those like friends of friends. His wife and him were friends with what my now dentist and childhood best friend and we saw like cold play in seattle together and then you know you guys spooning each other up on the decks.
Speaker 1:Oh so you saw the videos and we I moved back, he moves back. So we're like talking because he's, I mean, trying to build more of his business portfolio here for um, mergers and acquisitions and we're talking about the pockets. He's like you got to talk to scott haslam, I was like tell me more. He's like just literally, just pulls out his phone, goes to the rangeranger Instagram, is like this is why, and I'm like hold on, like cause anytime I show anybody the sound card, they're like wait, it's like this, like double take of like, let me like digest this for a second, it's kind of a wacky thing, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, benton's dope, we we met. I think he reached out to me cause you know is I think his investment bank hit me up and and immediately I liked him. I mean, I just thought he was a cool guy. He kind of picked things up quick, super sharp, and every time like I've I've gone and like done anything with him, I just get like shit face. Like we went golfing, I just got absolutely like blasted up at the salt lake country club, yep and, and I think he just loves it because I'm a goofball. But uh, no, he's, he's a good dude. I like benton, yeah, he's, he's. Um, you know, we kind of met when he, when I was really kind of deep still am deep and just raising capital, which I never thought I would. You know, do I never thought I'd be a guy that just sits and calls and tries to bring in, you know, money for a business?
Speaker 1:So they don't tell you about raising like creating a successful, fast growing business.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you got to keep feeding the beast.
Speaker 2:I had a buddy who was a part of Divvy and he gave me like some good advice because I'd been building businesses, kind of you know, operational businesses since 2012, kind of put myself through college cleaning windows, always kind of entrepreneurial spirited. But you know, with King B it was this kind of like national, very capital intensive rental business business that really kind of just turned into you know a tiger that I got by the tail. You know it's just tough to keep up with the growth. And then, but at the same time, I'm out like oh, we're going to go buy this company, we're going to add it to our company, and it's like I don't know. It's like there's two people inside of me One that is like incredibly motivated and driven, wants to do all these things. I come in and I get things started and then there's this other side of me that has to see the rest of it through and is just worn out. You know, yeah, um, but but yeah. So you know it's been, it's been an interesting ride.
Speaker 2:And one thing that my buddy told me as he, you know he had worked for Divi and some other bigger tech companies like in a high growth business, the CEO and the CFO just spend their day raising money, which I was always like an operator, problem solver and and kind of like being in the weeds and I've had to pull myself out of the weeds and it's been kind of tough to to realize like no, I just have to be like looking at the you know, the one, two, three year picture of the business and focusing on building momentum for that but then also having the people in place where you can trust them to get that done, and not feel like, because you have, like I mean, let's say, the 10 000 foot view of being like, okay, we need capital, where are we going to be three to five years from now?
Speaker 1:who do we want to purchase? How does that fit in strategically with the business? But then also having people that you can trust around the day-to-day operations, get things done, work with customers, so you don't have to come back down to the ten thousand feet, figure something out or try to go find another right person. Um, it's a lot of trust yeah, it's, it's critical.
Speaker 2:I mean you, you know, you feel like you can do everything and then one day you can't.
Speaker 2:My first real you know, me and my twin brother were partners and we kind of were the same personality, like both, like you know, visionary, like entrepreneurial-spirited, wanted to, you know, take on the world and as I kind of like described, we're like we're both kites, and that was a tough dynamic, you know.
Speaker 2:It would get us in a lot of trouble and it was, you know, my first real partner that became real. An anchor for me was my CFO Having somebody that could say, hey, I know you want to do this, but you'll run out of money, you know, or I know you want to do this, but you know this deal is actually not going to end up making sense. It's too risky, it's too risky. And so you know, and one thing that I was always adamant about is if I'm going to bring on a person that I need as kind of an anchor and I need as a critical part of my business, I always ask them to put money in. So, yeah, I want you to win when I win, but I want you to lose when I lose, because we need to be in it at that level together, for us to be successful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if they don't have any skin in the game, then oh well, yeah, I'm gonna go find another job and you're gonna go drink your sorrows away because you had a lot more to lose than I did.
Speaker 2:I totally agree with that. Yeah, and I think it's not. It's not about the amount of money or or anything, it's about the amount to them. Yeah, you know it's meaningful to them that they don't want to lose it. And so the next, you know, we brought on a COO and you had mentioned like having a guy that can kind of really like execute and run the day to day. We brought in a guy that was helping us through a transaction in buying another business out of bankruptcy, and he'd gone through a similar thing and and so he was originally kind of consulting and just clearly like one of the sharpest dudes I've ever met. Like finance background, which you kind of need in this, you know, rental business, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of capital involved, but really like incredible at getting a team all rowing in the same direction and when, you know, you know, for some background. You know King B we started in 2021, you know, bought 80 vans, kind of like.
Speaker 2:I had an idea, hey, if we customize some vans, you know, and put them into the rental market, I think we could be successful. Nobody was doing that, nobody was providing, you know, more than just a bare cargo van. And I thought, hey, if we maximize utility, we can, we can provide some value. And so I went and raised, you know, put $10 million of private capital together, bought some vans and you know capital together, bought some bands, and you know that's where my cfo came from. Actually was that original credit uh group that provided that facility. But uh, you know, after you know what are we in four, year four, and now we're at six thousand vehicles, looking to close the year at ten thousand. That's crazy, right, like I never expected it to get here. Um, but as you kind of just move along and and grow into these, these, you know, at this pace you really do need just guys that can come in and and really do something that you can't.
Speaker 1:It has to be better than you at it, you know yeah, no, I totally agree, and I want to come back to kind of like the inception of King B and everything at a point. But I remember the first time I met you in person, I come in and like go to see the reception, like oh, I'm like, I'm like here to see Scott and she's like she's, you know you're coming like yeah, no-transcript. It was the day of Halloween, it was the day of your company Halloween party and so everyone's kind of like starting to drink and like kind of coming in. Everyone's asking about like and it cut your hair and he looks at me. He's like wait, you're the podcast guy. I'm like yeah. He's like you know Taylor Brody? I'm like yeah, and he's like and all of a sudden you're like wait a minute, hold on, who are? Like?
Speaker 1:It was kind since that, I guess slightly before then, was when ranger did the um tailgate at the? U with um, stk and a couple other people, which was really cool to see, and that was like my first interaction with the sound car. Yeah, and then just to see and like also participate in all these different sound cars coming forward. But then also from my perspective on that day was fun because I mean I talked to a lot of people. It's like cool, your business, like business successful, kind of gets bucketed into a lot of things. But it was so fun to come out here and see, kind of like, how many people this is, how big of an operation this is, see the yard and really kind of like start to contextualize it for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but before we jump into that and then how that led to like I mean the sound car itself and kind of what we're you are hoping to accomplish with both king b and the sound car, I mean you're someone born and raised in the area. I mean set the stage for what eventually became. I guess you mentioned starting your first business in 2012,. But what set the stage for that? I mean your twin brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, you know, born and raised in Davis County, so, you know, went to Viewmont and you know, me, my twin, my little brother, even my older brother, we're all kind of, uh, I think, fairly riddled with ADHD, you know. So just a constant need for stimulation. Um, and so in high school, you know, we were always the guys that were up to something, you know, pulling a couch through a parking lot or just doing some adventure, you know. And then, as I kind of got older, you know, I ended up going on a Mormon mission to Denmark, which was a really cool experience. I'm no longer, you know, part of the faith, but it was a really cool experience to live in another country, get to really like intimately, know the people there and see just a completely different culture than than you know. Us culture, yeah, and you know, everybody knows denmark is like, oh, the happiest country in the world and you kind of get to understand why that is. But, um, anyways, really really cool place.
Speaker 2:Came back, uh, you know, went to college, did a political science degree for some reason, like I knew I was going to be a business person, like I was going to, like you know, went to college, did a political science degree for some reason. Like I knew I was going to be a business person, like I was going to, like you know, be an entrepreneur. I knew I just wanted to do my own thing and kind of be in control of my my own destiny. But I was at the time just quite interested with politics and so I was like I'll just get a four year degree, to have a four year degree, cause I think you know education is valuable and in I think you know continuing to educate is valuable.
Speaker 2:In doing that, me and my twin brother, dave, were, you know, like just trying to find ways to make money to pay for college and stuff. And the first thing we did was we bought like some aerators. I'll tell you, for any young person that listens to this, it really is like the quickest, best way to make money in the spring. You go buy a couple aerators, you just go knock people's doors, your lawn, yeah, area your lawn, you know, for whatever 30, 40, 50 bucks people usually pay for it. You can go, you know, do 20 or 30 a day because it's pretty quick, a lot faster than mowing a lawn downside, is it always? You're always breaking sprinklers and stuff.
Speaker 2:So I look back, I'm like man, I probably pissed people off because I, you know you ever fix them. Yeah, they just find out when the water gets turned on. But, um, I did that, did a window cleaning business and then and then from there we started working for, uh, my, my dad had a company in in like telematics for for, uh, large truck fleets, kind of a small technology company and we kind of work, went to work for him and helped him and and we were super fortunate that you know he's that this was based in Salt Lake, by the way, and we're fortunate enough that he kind of let us moonlight and go try to do our own thing. So the first thing we really got into was we were tinkering with natural gas conversions. So, if you guys remember, there's kind of it was back in 2011, 2012,.
Speaker 2:you know, gas prices were like four bucks a gallon. You know natural gas prices like a dollar a gallon, and so there are all these kits that were you know people were bringing in from Europe and China that you can convert the vehicle to run on natural gas, and we thought that's really interesting, so we started doing it. We did it for a couple of our own vehicles, and we went out and started selling it, really with no business experience outside of knocking doors and cleaning windows and stuff, and really eventually just started getting into some good fleets saying, hey look, you guys are paying all this money for gas. We can convert your vehicles to natural gas. What's crazy about natural gas, though, is it doesn't. It doesn't, uh, liquefy when you compress it like like propane, and so the cylinders have to withstand about 3600 psi okay, which is insane.
Speaker 1:I mean, your car tire is like 40 psi. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So I mean this is a bomb and uh, let's just drop this.
Speaker 1:Listen, I'm a college student. Let me strap this to your car.
Speaker 2:It'll be fine, we're a couple kids, we're gonna throw this bomb in the back of your car and it'll, you know, cheaper gas. So about a bean, but no, and that's it. We, we're getting good traction with it. But you know, as you imagine converting a vehicle to run on natural gas, like it's going to come with its problems, like the vehicle's designed not for natural gas, designed for gasoline. So you got to reprogram, put in a whole new ecm and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:We just kind of figured it out, um, and just went out, started selling it and doing it and uh, but at the same time the issue was like man, you wouldn't, it wasn't great margin, you know people weren't willing to pay a whole lot for it. And so you make maybe you know you charge five grand you'd make, you know, $1,500 to $2,000 in margin. But then you're dealing with a lot of like going out and retuning and all sorts of stuff. And we're like man, this is a lot of work, tuning and all sorts of stuff. And we're like man, this is a lot of work.
Speaker 2:And and that's kind of where I think I first got like kind of addicted to this idea of like how to, of scale. Yeah, when you, when you, look at a business. You know most people. They look at a business as a path to have freedom, which you know it's probably the worst way if you want to be a business owner. It's not freedom, it's chains for sure. Or they look at it as a way to make a lot of money. You know, and and and you know I think there's a lot of ways to be an entrepreneur. What was interesting to me is not necessarily what the business was, but how quickly something could scale, like what is it and how could it? How could, how could you get it from here to here quickly? What are the barriers of scale and um, and so you know, looking at this natural gas conversion business, we're like man, we're going to be like how are we supposed to turn this into a big business when it's like so hard to just put these things in?
Speaker 1:and probably labor intensive, would mean you had to hire a bunch of people, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so one of the businesses that we converted a bunch of their vehicles for they're like well you guys are already, you know we're buying new vans.
Speaker 2:You're already in there. Why don't you throw some shelves in them for us? We're like, okay, and I think that's a critical part of not just being like of us, but of being an entrepreneur in general. It's just kind of you have to be a yes man for a good chunk of your career. You just have to say yes to a lot of stuff. Yeah, um. And so we said, yeah, like, we'll try it, let's see if it works. You know, we got online, we bought some shelves retail. You know, end up calling the manufacturer saying, you know, we actually install these and we'll buy. Um, you know, we'll buy them directly from them. And they said, yeah, we need to set somebody up there and it just started there.
Speaker 2:So the first year 2012, I think we did $250,000 in revenue right, which I think, at the end of the day, we probably each made you know $20,000 or something. And you know we're kind of moonlighting for my dad, and so we're like, oh, this is, but this was scalable. We saw that Utah needed like a new player in the market that's providing commercial vehicles with flatbeds and service bodies and shelves. And I'm not it sounds like I'm a car person Like I'm really not Like I'm a tinker, but I'm more just a. You know, I like to solve business problems and see if I can. You know, just you know grow and scale a business.
Speaker 1:Because I mean, I think that's a big part of it that people I mean people want to start like a sexy business. They want to do something that they can brag about to people. But in reality, a successful business is something that solves a problem, takes care of a need of a market, and it can be sometimes the most unsexy thing in the world, but people are willing to pay a lot of money for it 100%.
Speaker 2:I mean the sexy businesses, all the SaaS businesses and stuff. I mean there's a tidal wave of money being lost there and because it is, it's a fad. And now what you're seeing and you always look at what the private equity is doing and the private equity got heavy into sass and some other things and kind of lost their ass and now they're all getting into roll-ups of hvac companies. Yeah, like they're saying, oh, that turns out all these like you know, essential service businesses that are just, you know, a part of the. You know the, the, the, you know supply chain and, um, you know, is, these are interesting, yeah, and so and that's what we found too is like the industry that we're in and commercial vehicles.
Speaker 2:I mean there's tens of billions of dollars in transactions in this space from the, you know you got an OEM. There's, you know, millions of vehicles produced a year by the OEM. And then there's second stage manufacturers, which is what our first business was based on. Upfitting, you know, is the. You know the service bodies, the flatbeds, the shelving, the racks, the, you know sidesteps or whatever that you need to maximize the, the utility of the vehicle for the, for the customer and you have a signage business, you have a, you know there's financing, you know fleet leasing and and, uh, you know, rental and you have, you know. Then you have the wholesale or marketing side.
Speaker 2:There's just so much within that and you'd be shocked at how few of people actually, really, like, are in control of that entire, that entire supply chain. Yeah, um, and so it's a very niche, very it's very niche, but a lot of transactions. So that's what was always interesting to me tons of scalability without a ton of competition, um, and and not a lot of, uh, disruption either. Like you got, like businesses doing 50 million a year on paper invoices still, you know, like it's crazy. But, yeah, basin, I mean, we scaled that business quite quickly. I mean, you're we, we usually, so at what point? Actually, I'm curious at what point?
Speaker 1:was it like, hey, dad, we're not doing this anymore. We have this idea. We're going to go do our own thing and need a solution to retrofit these vans, these trucks, these work vehicles to there? Was there more in between then? No, there's more in between then.
Speaker 2:So Basin first year you know 2012 at the time was like Wasatch Clean Energy and then Wasatch Fleet Service. Then we rebranded again to Basin, updating 2012, $250,000 in revenue and I did that up until 2022. I was part of basin now I'm actually part of again, but that's a long story. But, um, you know, it was me and dave that owned it 50 50. We built that business from in 2012 from 250 in revenue to, like I think, 28 million in revenue so we doubled revenue like every year for like 10 straight years.
Speaker 2:Um, and then that's when I moved into I decided, hey, um, you know we're we're hitting a wall, which is that this is a regional business like we. The business is essentially we're buying product, we're installing the product and then we have a margin primarily in the product. And then the business is essentially we're buying product, we're installing the product, and then we have a margin primarily in the product, and then the labor is just kind of a you know a part of the deal, but most of our money comes from the margin, from selling the service beds and stuff. Yeah and um, and we hit kind of a wall of how much that could grow. Uh, simply because you know it's a regional business, you know you can't.
Speaker 2:There's all this national fleet business, but you typically don't win that because we're here in utah, which is a little bit isolated from, yeah, you know, the big market. So that's when I was like there's got to be, like what is a way that we can grow this business even more and give us access to those, those bigger national fleets? Um, and that's where the king b idea came up, like, hey, if I build these vans, I go to these bigger blue chip customers and you know, and provide a flexible rental option where we're putting some shelves in them, you know it's more valuable one than what their other, um, these other, these other rental companies are doing for them. I think that's a scalable thing. Um, it gives, gives really base the opportunity to do, you know, more upfitting. So it really started from that point and then it just went crazy.
Speaker 1:Because, like you said, you originally buy these 80 vans. You're like all right, I have a hypothesis. I think this is what people need and want. This is like next step for the business. And then, like you said, I mean, it's up to 6,000 now and going strong, and I know that there's been, I mean, other services and acquisitions and things that you've done to grow that as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's gotten. I mean you know I had mentioned this earlier, but really you got to just be kind of a yes man and really be willing to iterate A lot of I think a lot of entrepreneurs. They get stuck in their very specific vision and idea and what they don't understand is that they're going to learn a lot along the way that is going to reshape what their original idea was. My original idea was if I buy vans, I can, you know I get a rent and I, you know I upfit them and you know, customize them, I can rent those. I can rent them for more money and it's a better service than what these guys are otherwise getting. And now it's turned into a technology disruption play that I think is going to genuinely like turn the entire rental industry upside down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that was something that happened this year, was releasing, like because it's a peer-to-peer app like rental, peer-to-peer app yeah yep, it was one that we actually bought.
Speaker 2:There was a company called fluid truck and you know they raised a ton of money, denver based. They raised like 90 million in series a and uh, and I hired 70 engineers and just got to work building this app and the idea was I think the original idea was you can you know the. The original founder was like, oh, he was in new york, he needed like a bow tie. He's like I wish I could just go online and like rent a bow tie for somebody. And it started this. Renting everyday things was the idea, yeah, and it ultimately morphed into a van rental company and I think Jenny generally is because like there's just such a demand in the rental space specifically for cargo vans, because the last mile delivery, yeah, and but you know, the. They had raised a ton of money, they had built a really cool product, they had 1.4 500 employees. They they onboarded 10,000 vehicles onto the platform in this peer-to-peer model, which is, you know, they don't.
Speaker 2:Actually, you know Fluid didn't buy the vans the. You know they bring in high net worth investors and family offices to buy pools of vans and put them on the platform and then they'd go and put them out in the world and in the app. What makes it interesting is it's kind of like a contactless way to rent a vehicle. So you pull up the app, you see the vehicle on a map, you go and reserve it, you know, and you can go do a pre-inspection and it's all like this can be sitting in a Walmart parking lot and you don't have to deal with somebody at a desk with no lot text. I think it's like the vans are just kind of out in the wild.
Speaker 1:You can go grab one almost like kind of like a zip car, but we're advanced yeah, yeah, and I I know a lot of these.
Speaker 2:You know we've seen a few of these types of businesses before. People thought we can do it with scooters. We can do it with cars and then they turn turns out no, that's a. That's not true. They'll get stolen, they'll end up in mexico we had one van that like ended up like we repoed and it was like literally full of dildos and I don't know why. But they're on their way to a wnba game probably somebody was taking them to launch them onto the, onto the floors at a wnba game for sure it's going to be a full assault.
Speaker 2:Um, we've had you, we've had ones that ended up in Mexico. This is more, I guess, in the fluid era, but the concept still makes sense, right, which is when you go to an airport rental. If you knew you could go to that air. When you get to an airport, you don't have to go pre reserve and you don't have to go through a line. You don't go.
Speaker 2:If you could go, pull up an app and you can see everybody's rental vehicles in that app and you can choose what specific vehicle you want. Like when you go reserve one, they're saying oh, it's a sedan. You know sometimes, like we don't have that, we have a minivan. You have to be, like, ok with that.
Speaker 2:What's interesting about this is we put our own kind of our own telematics in the vehicle that connect to the canvas they control the lock unlock features, everything, but it. That connect to the CAN bus they control the lock, unlock features, everything, but it ties to our app. And so when you go and rent it, you would unlock the vehicle through your phone, which I know you can do that with some vehicles now, but this is a universal thing that we've kind of developed and then it demobilizes or mobilizes the vehicle. It's demobilized until it's reserved, so people can't get in and steal it because we leave the keys in it right. And if you could have that kind of experience, it's so much simpler. I think that turns it upside down. Yeah, and it turns it upside down for the rental companies. They want this because these guys are really. Rental is an asset management business. It's like it's try to buy the vehicle for as little as possible, generate as much cash flow for a couple years.
Speaker 2:You know, that's why you always see they're typically new, right one to two years and then try to sell wholesale the vehicle for as close to what you bought it for as possible and everything in the middle kind of covers your operating expenditures and some profit, um, and that's like the game for them and it's just scale. So you know, the enterprise has, you know, a million vehicles or whatever you know like that's. It's just scale of playing that arbitrage, um, and that's really, I think they're most all they're mostly interested in and that's why nothing's really changed in the customer experience yeah right is that they're not as much as operating businesses, they are just a an asset management business.
Speaker 2:So what's interesting about what we're talking about here is we're trying to actually disrupt that and say you know, it was always a huge barrier of entry to get into rental because it just requires so much money and because of that barrier, nothing changes, because nobody's coming in to compete, nobody's putting up the kind of you know, the billions of dollars it takes to get into it. Yeah, um, for the, for the margins that you get. So so this is what I think will be interesting and we're kind of really focused on the cargo van space and in the um, in the last mile, you know, really trying to help scale the last mile. Uh, revolution, you know, so we can get into the weeds in that. Yeah, no, I got some questions. No, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, running through some stuff and talk to you because I know that when again, so you grow this business and are buying these vans and vehicles, but that I mean, which also led you to buy just like kind of things that you came across and just like funny vehicles from I think there's like the banana van, there's like a snowmobile or not snowmobile like uh uh, what do we call it?
Speaker 2:we call it the bing bong. Yeah, it's a one of those kei trucks, but it has, uh, somebody had kind of fashioned some snow tracks on it. Yeah, is that what they call kei truck? Those little tiny trucks? Yes, um, and I, we, we do this trip up to atlanta, idaho, every year, which is like the top of a mountain. It takes eight hours to get there from Boise. It's like 60 miles, you know, but it's like crazy Rode up, and it's an old mansion that's owned by the Coors family was owned by the Coors family, so the old Coors can is the mountains up in Atlanta, Idaho.
Speaker 2:It's the most beautiful place and we always have crazy vehicles that we love to take up there, know that have tracks on it or whatever. And I'm like I want to buy a little ki truck that has tracks on it. So I went and bought, we spent 30 grand on it and my cfo was like this thing's gonna break the moment it gets on the snow. I'm like, no, dude, you're wrong. You're wrong. And the moment it got on the snow I was like and doesn't work anymore.
Speaker 1:We ended up towing it the whole way, like I won't tell you. You were right, but it needs to be fixed. But talk to me how you came across the sound card itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a good friend of mine was doing this festival and I had met him through another gentleman.
Speaker 2:So this friend of mine, he was like the Diplo's tour manager for like six years and so he'd been in the music industry for a long time and he started doing this little music festival up in, uh kind of by Sun Valley in Idaho at this little um, you know, this little kind of I think it's like a kid's camp, ironically, but you know it's this really cool spot on the river, on the Lost River.
Speaker 2:So if you know where Mackie Idaho is, and uh, he was doing this festival and somebody told me about him like this sounds really cool and you know he needed some help with some stuff and so I got connected to him and I was helping him a little bit festival but he was like booking cool artists, he was getting a really really good sound up there and he was doing this little just two-day festival where like 300 people would show up with these really good artists where you're just floating on a river and he he would set up. It's down in this kind of this little gulch and look it up, it's called lost river disco, um, and and it's in this little kind right on the river, like all these, all these beautiful trees around. He sets up, builds a really cool stage, um, right up in the trees and it's kind of right on that, right looking along the river, sets up lights all over, so it's almost like a mini, like what's that one for something for us?
Speaker 2:electric for electric for us um, but it was like we went to it. I'm like it was like the most magical thing. It was like the coolest festival I'd ever been to. By a mile, um, and 300 people. It was just like the best vibe, super intimate, but also like incredible artists, the best sound I'd ever heard in my life. Like by a mile, the, you know the production, everything was just like perfect. You know they'd come and do like pizza. It was like it was just the coolest vibe.
Speaker 2:And it's because his family that's up in Sun Valley, they're all just this way, they're just these really like vibrant, incredible people that that love building community. And so, you know, I got talking to him. I'm like, dude, this is so cool. What if we built, like we took a big old fucking army truck, because you know, like you've got this space that you do this? That's kind of hard to do because you know they have a board and stuff. So it's hard for him to reserve this space. I'm like, but we could hypothetically do this anywhere and we could do it, like you know, like on a whim, hey, let's go do a, let's go throw a rave real quick.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah and and let's get it. Let's go get a truck where we can just pull up into the woods anywhere in utah, idaho, send out a text message and people show up and we just rave all night and he's like, yeah, sounds fun, let's do it. So first thing I did, I just started looking for the biggest army truck I could possibly buy. What is the biggest truck that is actually available for civilian purchase? And I found the Hemet, which you see, it's a big 8 by 8. Yeah, the Army uses it typically for hauling heavy equipment and things in and out of rough areas. It's full, eight wheel drive. I mean this thing we've taken it down to Moab and it weighs like 50,000 pounds but it's incredibly nimble for a tank of a machine. And we started designing.
Speaker 2:I just bought, went and bought the truck. I think I bought it for 50 grand from, you know, dave Sparks, the, you know the heavy D, the YouTube guy, and you know, bought it for 50 grand as a K. We need to. Was like, okay, we need to have. Like, what do we need to have on this thing? Like number one has to have a Void Sound System. Like the best, he would bring this Void Sound System to LRD Lukewood and it was just like life-changing the sound and, you know, standing by the speakers when you know you're a little bit goofed up, as was just like holy shit, like this is unreal and and so I took some things away from that experience.
Speaker 2:One was, um, it needed to just have like, fairly unlimited access to the people. Show up, like I want people to be able to climb all over this thing, you know, as much as possible, even though that it's a hundred and thirty thousand dollar sound system. You know, like I want people to be able to stand by the speakers. I want people to, like really feel like this is theirs and they just get to, like you know just whatever climb all over it. You know, truly experience it, and I think that's created like a really cool vibe at our events, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's been fun to see the traction of it because I mean it's been like a second or third stage at so many different festivals from you know all the. I mean Get Freaky's and Energy, dos, energy's and everything like that, but then also getting invited to do these events, but then also, like you said, like you can drive it down to anywhere and it's ready to go. And it's fun too to see how durable it is because, like I mean, yeah, like I've, I've climbed all over it. It's fun to see people get up on top and see how excited that is. And and it's just, I mean I'd like that because I was curious before I asked you because I didn't know for sure if it like what was the chicken, what was the egg of? Whether you saw the hemet, and you're like I have an idea, or if there's an experience, you're like I, I need something to create this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, like again, like, the sky's the limit, and so it's been fun to see how that's changed.
Speaker 1:And it's been more fun, I would say, to see how much you enjoy it, like because there was one time recently where because usually if there's any sort of sound card thing, I'm like all right, where's Scott? Like I want to say, I like to see. But then also I loved seeing your energy at it, and it was one of the ones more recently in the back of here where I was trying to find you. Then I look and I see you. You're just in the back standing by yourself like arms folded, with a big smile on your face, and I had this. It was almost like this great Gatsby moment of here's this guy who literally owns all the land. We're standing in the building behind them, the vehicle itself, everything else around it, but you're just so content standing there watching everybody have a good time and being able to put this on, but also enjoying it yourself. But nobody else realized oh, the guy who's doing this is right here. It's almost like this great Gatsby, minus the throwing it to make a specific girl come, but that's a whole other tangent. So it was fun just to kind of see. Only is this you have this business that you created for, let's call it, financial reasons, but then also, I've been scratching that itch but giving kind of let's call it giving back in a way that's so unique but also aligns to things that you like to do in the community, that you want to bring together yeah, I think that's the big thing that you, you know, I I mean what I love about growing this business has genuinely just been seeing potential in people, giving them opportunity and building a community around that, and I think that's why we've got such a good culture here, like no turnover, like great people is just, you know, I don't look at it as this like, hey, we just need to cut and make more money and do this.
Speaker 2:It's really my focus has always been build a strong community and you'll have a good time. You know, like I don't do business to, I mean, making money is, I think, a benefit that just allows me to do more. But really the vast, like most amount of the joy is just like in A, the creative process of solving a problem and getting everybody rallied around that and excited about it and getting your customers and, you know, your investors and your employees, everybody excited about an idea that you had that you kind of just came up with. Ranger was more, I think, like this I was always a musician, I, you know, like I said, I'm not like a big car guy, I just happen to have businesses that are in automotive space because I saw an opportunity in the in, in into and to be able to disrupt. But, like I was always, really I've always been a music person. I was always in bands. You know, at one point I was in a band where we like started touring and I just realized, hey, I can't support a family and tour, yeah, um, and so we got into, and then I started getting into, like you know, house, music and stuff, and and so ranger became like a creative outlet for me to share my passion for music, um, but also creating spaces, uh, for people to have a good time, yeah, um, and and I do try to do the same thing in my day-to-day business. Ranger, to me, isn't really a business. I mean, it has to make money just to sustain itself, because I can't afford to just feed that thing and so it makes enough that all the ticket money that we generate and we always do BYOB, because it's like I don't want to try to find ways to make more money off of people and sell alcohol. I't want to try to find ways to make more money off of people and sell alcohol. I just want to provide a really cool space. Bring your own booze, bring whatever, and just have a good time. We sell the tickets because we've got to cover the artists, and then I like to make enough money to where I can.
Speaker 2:Every show, I want to add a new experience to it. You know, like giant camo netting or the flamethrower, we had the button where people can go, just like. We put the button up there so people just push the button. They can hit the button and see the flames go off. And Burning Man's got kind of a very similar ethos to this ultimate freedom. But yeah, I think it's to to this. You know ultimate, you know freedom, and and. But yeah, I mean that's every show we try to add something new, whether it's a production element, whether it's a space to hang out, you know, and lay around the homies or, you know, do whatever.
Speaker 2:We've ended up doing a bunch of stuff here in the junkyard because, you know, the original idea was, hey, we can go up in the mountains, we could do this anywhere, and it just turns out that that, uh, that's harder than it sounds. Yeah, it's hard to find a place. You can just pull up and blast a giant sound system and have lasers and lights and everything shooting off of it and not have the cops show up like relatively quickly. So true, um, somehow we pull it off. Here. I've had I have cops show up almost every time and I usually just say, hey, you know, we're having a good time here. Just know, I've gotten a ticket a few times and they kind of get it.
Speaker 2:But no, I mean, that's, I think that's been the fun of the Ranger, for sure. And, and what I've always wanted to do with it is like we'll continue to build a production, maybe we'll add more army vehicles, we'll turn it into like a forward operating base. We'll make it bigger, more fun, more exciting, whatever, but at the same time, try to keep it like as intimate as it usually is. Yeah, try to do more spaces, you know better, you know bigger artists, whatever, um, but but I think, like what's most interesting to me is really building. Now we built a community of people that like to participate or go to the event.
Speaker 2:Now we want to kind of build a community that wants to contribute, and so really, what we're trying to implement now is a mentality of contribute and you get to be a part of this. You get to bring your friends, have them be a part of it. Free entry, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we put together some dog tags, you know some different ranks. We kind of want to like lean into the army kind of theme and get people to you know, try to build their own little community around it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I like that. So That'll be kind of the next phase. And you know I mean the goal is to just, at the end of the day, like create a cool brand and experience for people to, you know, on the weekend, exit their default world for a few hours, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's kind of like we were talking about while I was setting up is you reach this point where, like you just can't do more. You get tired, like mentally, like mentally physically, I mean emotionally at times where you're like I just can't give any more than I'm currently giving, and I mean with someone who's I mean running a very like a successful, growing business. That's, I mean, will always continue to just eat up time and effort and mental space and then try to do sound car it's been fun to see how you're like, because, like one thing you could do is be like all right, you know what this is. This isn't worth it anymore. I just don't have time. Like, thank you so much, maybe I'll do something for friends, maybe I'll sell that, whatever that might be, but instead you're like no, no, I actually kind of want to double down on this.
Speaker 1:So it's when you hired, I mean, sarah to help out with a lot of the promotion, getting artists there, and just really, instead of saying, oh, I want to do something else, being like no, no, no, I do want to do this, I just need more help. And then I like what you're talking about the community of people wanting to contribute and not necessarily saying like well, if you hire me or you give me this kickback, whatever, but really people bringing their community to meet these other communities and it kind of creates this flywheel of again like people do want to get away from the humdrum of life from their monday to friday and have unique experiences, like like again, at any time, I will say, whether it's sunday, whatever day of the week. How's the weekend? What did you do? Like I went to this ranger sound car thing like wait, what's ranger sound car? I was like pause, pull up my phone, like this is what it is. And they're like I kind of have to do this double take and then like it's a wild thing and like.
Speaker 1:Those are the experiences people want. They don't want to just be like well, I went to this restaurant.
Speaker 2:I've been to 20 times the same people I've done, which don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:there's that. But it's also nice to have these unique experiences, especially in the age of social media, where people do want to do fun, unique things, share with the world and then have those friends see that and be like wait, wait, wait, when's the next one I want in? This is so fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's hard. It's been a ton of iterations of I already brought up a few times a ton of iterations to get here and kind of just trying to figure out your identity. When it's something that building a business in automotive, people want to come to work, they want to make money, but when it's music, they want to just be a part, like people are. You'd be surprised at how many people every show hit me up and just volunteer their time to come help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I started this thing, like it was tough because like I would come, I would set everything up like I did all the work, you know, like physically, and I'd fly in a gentleman named cameron who was also running sound at this lost river disco, fly him in every show to run sound and he would do a ton of work and help out. But it was kind of just like the two of us like doing all this work, um, and, and I was just like every time I throw a show I'd be like I can't do this again. You know, like the worst part would be like the Sunday when I've been up drinking until seven in the morning and I got to clean it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hurry and get it out of the junkyard before it rains, or something you know, and I'm like, oh, I can't do this. And then usually a few weeks go by and then I get that itch again.
Speaker 1:I'm like, what if I did, you know, send Cameron a link to us send him his flight.
Speaker 2:He's like all right text out to I'd have my marketing girl. I'd be like hey, we're in, you know, yeah, and you said the last one was the last me like.
Speaker 1:No, no, this one will be like oh, she was getting burnt out.
Speaker 2:We're all getting burnt out. What's been nice is, yeah, like now it's gotten to this place where Sarah comes in, she's bringing a ton of new life. Cameron I I actually moved cameron here like I smart called him one day. I was like dude, pack up three suitcases, I bought you a flight, you're moving here, I'll give you a job in my band business and then you need to help me run it. He's like okay, really. He's like yeah, really. So I was like literally like two days later he's on a flight. Um, and it was fine. I'd like give him an Airbnb to stay in for a month so he could go find a place to live and stuff. It was just true YOLO, but I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:He was just like all right, yeah, sure Sounds fun, come here.
Speaker 2:But now it's got new life. For sure you get Sarah who can really. She lives in this world and she's dedicated, motivated to build a cool brand and experience, and so you know she's leaning in heavily into the events that we do and to how you know how we put them together. What was always hard is I'd always want everyone to be better than the last one, and we would start planning it like a week and a half before, like we would announce it, like I would be, like I want to do another show in two weeks and like you know it's like that's we would. So we're trying to figure out how to make this thing cool, how to you know who are the artists, whatever, um, and, and now it's like we're building out like an actual timeline yeah, like here's a calendar next year, yeah, and this day we're gonna do this and then that gives us time to like book the artists that we really want to book.
Speaker 2:You know, um and get which. We've had some great artists on the truck, don't get me wrong. And, by the way, when they every artist that's ever played on the truck has like just said that that was the funnest thing. I never thought coming through salt lake I was gonna have that experience. They'd be like I'm used to. You know, I go to la, I sit in a green room, go out and a DJ, whatever. Go to Miami and it's the same thing. They're like man, this was not in the cards for me or on my bingo card.
Speaker 2:I did not expect to come into Salt Lake and have this experience. Ezekiel, who is married to another larger DJ at Gorgon City I'm familiar with him. She comes through. We make sure and set up our lounge for them and make all of our homies, make it truly like a party for them to come and I say, play what you want to play. This is your show. I don't need you to play this song or that song. Play what you love to play. Yeah, and the vibe's always just immaculate because you see, the artist is really expressing themselves the way that they want to. All the people are getting to just express themselves the way that they want to, not a phone in sight you know, yeah, someone's present.
Speaker 2:And all the artists are like I mean, with Azeka she's like I'll bring my husband back, we'll play for free. You know, like we loved it so much. That was, you know, the coolest thing. And every artist we've had, like we had the last two artists, uh, were from amsterdam, um, and and both of them came through. They're like what the fuck like?
Speaker 2:you, I didn't even know utah was a thing, was a state, you know. I'd heard of salt lake, I've heard of the mormons, you know, and and then to come through and have this experience was mind-blowing because I mean, I imagine if I'm a DJ, I'm traveling the world to an extent performing.
Speaker 1:I mean, so many clubs are playing, there's really not going to be too much difference. It's probably gonna be the same table you're setting up at. Look out, there's still a sea of people rinse and repeat. But then all of a sudden you're like wait, I'm on a what doing a what for who?
Speaker 2:all right, I'm it, it's, it's different, it's not, it's not. And it's because it's not a business. Yeah, it's a. It's a creative outlet. Yes, um, and I've just been really just continue to remind myself this is not a business creative outlet. Now, we'll, we'll let people, we'll let you know, we'll rent the truck out to festivals to, you know, get freaky. And this one that's coming up salt lake music festival, and you know we'll do that, and and we, that's fun. And this one that's coming up Salt Lake Music Festival, and we'll do that, and that's fun for us. But we don't brand that arranger event, right, that's just, you can rent the truck, we will provide a great experience and that helps financially support the events, which, to me, the funnest part is just like, really like, at the end of the night, like if you, if we always have brad scoop, do the, do the video.
Speaker 1:And yeah, because I met, because I'd always seen his pictures, but it wasn't until the last one. I because I saw that one of the events he was there because he posted pictures and then like that time I was like I've seen his picture so many times, I need to find him. And I saw him, was like brad photo guy. He's like yeah, he's like wait podcast. I'm like nice to meet you, but yeah, he crushes it every time.
Speaker 2:He always shows up to somewhere and and you see everybody in his videos and his photos, like they're smiling, they're happy, they're dancing, they're having the best time, like he's not just like he's not just like getting the right shot, like that is the how this. I mean, you've been there. Everybody is vibing at these things and that's got to. It's just got to stay that way, you know. Yeah, so we'll find new places to do it. We've got, you know, like we've got my junkyard, but we've found some other cool secret places that we're excited to to. You know, try out and see how long we can last before the cops shut us down.
Speaker 1:You know, hey, I'm here for it and and it's been fun to see because, like one thing I love about salt lake in the community in general is everything's very collaborative, and this isn't just for I mean music and late night, but I mean across. I mean the tech scene, across food and beverage, across. I mean everything. Everybody tends to be a little more collaborative here and it's been fun to see, as I've gotten to know. I mean the electronic music scene, I mean late night scene, rave scene, however you want to call it, like everyone's like oh, let's clap and do something. Whether you're black void, whether you're ranger soundcloud, whether you're mutiny, everyone's super supportive of each other around here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's this cutthroat thing, and so I'm excited to see where it goes, it's, it's fun and, and you know, my mentality is like I started and created this thing and now it's now it's everybody's like I love the contribution from the community is to what to do next and how they can get involved. You know, getting Sarah involved, like it's no longer my thing, it's, you know it's, it's all of our things. You know the people who come and show up every time. You know the people who we have. You know we'll bring in crane trucks and we'll have the girls doing the, the you know the silks and stuff like they feel like this is theirs, like everybody feels like this is theirs, which is what I that's kind of what I wanted me to grow into is like, hey, this is just all, all, all get the truck somewhere and you guys yeah, you know, figure out how you want it to be you know, yeah, yeah, it's no longer just you showing up, setting it up, it's everyone's coming together.
Speaker 1:Yep, how hard is it to drive?
Speaker 2:It's honestly super easy.
Speaker 1:Okay, every time I see it I'm like how hard was it to get this here?
Speaker 2:Like you don't need a CDL for this thing, you can. I registered it as an RV. It weighs 50,000 pounds and it doesn't turn on a dime. Both the front wheels you know, it's all four front wheels turn but its turning radius is really pretty atrocious. But it's honestly pretty easy. It's like automatic, you know push and drive.
Speaker 2:It does have air brakes, so you got to understand you got to push the air brake being off, that's it, you just go, he's. I mean I, I got sick of driving it to and from events. I just didn't have time anymore and told cameron like you know, he's never driven anything bigger than a honda civic I was like you have to drive this now he had to drive it like on the freeway from like get freaky.
Speaker 2:He's like it's like I don't merge, merge. I'm like I promise people will get out of your way yes, you are a military tank, just be slow and predictable yes slow, predictable.
Speaker 1:It's cool to see someone building a very successful business because, like one thing I always think about a lot is so arnold schwarzenegger has always been someone I've looked up to in my life and he has this speech that he gave to Stanford For like 10, 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:It's like the five rules, six rules of success, but one of them is give back and like in my ignorance, whenever I thought of giving back is like, okay, once I have money, I will give money back. But then there's like a realization I mean the podcast has made me realize it more, but I mean there's part of it before then where Giving back doesn't necessarily mean cutting a check or giving money. Like if someone reaches out to me, I'm like, oh cool, I'll sit with you and help you think through this. You want career advice, life advice? Cool, I'm willing to come, sit with you and do that. And so, in the same way, it's been fun to see how your way of giving back is to go buy a $50,000, 50,000 pound vehicle, outfit it with the best sound system, fly in great DJs and create a place where people can come and have a great time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely a way that works for my personality to give back.
Speaker 1:Which is the right way to give back. Yeah for sure. Like you don't want to be I mean not saying you're not this person or I'm this person but you don't have to be the person that shows up in a tux to a gala once a month where they're just asking you to rinse your pockets out every time. But the best way to do, it is the best way that you would want to do, and I think this is perfect for you in that no, I agree, I, I'd mentioned, you know, I went on a mission.
Speaker 2:I mentioned I'd left, uh, the church and and when I did that, um, you know, like I think every adult should go through this kind of dialectic and experience in their life. It's called, uh, it was Rene Descartes, you know, you remember, like the I think. Therefore, I am.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like a very famous, like philosophical quote, but it's based on this kind of experience that Rene Descartes put himself through, where he said well, I need to completely like. Everything that I am today is a product of my upbringing and it was a product of what I was told. And so I'm gonna just completely start from nothing and reframe my whole reality and determine who am I and what do I actually believe. What makes sense to me, you know, and that's where I think, therefore I am comes. Well, I've gone a conscious being, so I'm something, so I'm not. So it started there right, like literally from nothing to, and and I think everybody needs to go through that cycle in in their 20s or 30s or whatever, like some point, needs to really say how much of me is what I was told and how much of me is me, yeah, and when I went through that, I didn't, I couldn't determine what do I believe, cause I was obviously a very, you know, I believed in Mormon God.
Speaker 1:You had, you had yourself anchored, anchored to something, and but what I, what?
Speaker 2:what I did really latch onto is right around that time, you know, bernie Sanders was running and he said uh, somebody asked him what he believes and he said I believe we're all in this together. And I just decided you know what? Like I don't need to believe in anything more than that. You know, and I think that's what's cool about the Rangers, it's a community driven thing. Where I believe it, you know, specifically, we're all in this together, Like let's all have fun together, let's all you know enjoy this life together. And that's so. I determine. Those are the kind of spaces that I want to create, whether it's in a business or whether it's in events and whatever the future holds from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, couldn't agree more. I mean I'm someone who I also went through my faith crisis, left the church and that left. I mean it's. It's interesting when you have this thing you hold on to that's like, ok, here's what this life looks like, here's the next life looks like. And then all of a sudden, that gets washed away. It's like, well, what is it now? Yeah, and when you take away the ego, take away everything from what you personally believe your ID to be, like identity to be, and start from scratch personally believe your identity to be and start from scratch, and also just take away all these external motivators of being like well, what do people think of me, what are people going to think of this? And really just bring introspective of like, what do I want? Who am I? What brings me joy, what brings me value? Yeah, and start building from there. I mean that's when magical things start to happen. A hundred percent, yeah.
Speaker 2:Learning to live in the present, you know, learning to, to escape the ego. I mean all kinds of super valuable things that all, I think, all most all successful people have to go through at some point you know and you know, success comes in a lot of forms.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:But yeah, totally agree. But yeah, I mean I think you know that's it's definitely the range has been a cool, exciting, fun project to contribute to. You know the's definitely the rangers been a cool, exciting, fun project to contribute to. You know the the scene here and I hope more people get to come and experience it, enjoy it. It is just a wild, wacky thing, right, like uh people. I love people who have never been show up and they're like what, what the hell?
Speaker 2:is this, you know like we're in a junkyard in west valley and there's a giant army truck and there's one of the show. Remember, did you come? We're in a junkyard in west valley and there's a giant army truck and there's one of the show. Remember, did you come to the show? It was like we had seven cranes like up in the air yes I mean, it's like what? And there's this kind of was like well, we have these cranes. You know, I might as well.
Speaker 2:Use them might as well, make this like so. I remember even just driving in and just seeing cranes like everywhere and it's like why? Why? It's like, well, we have them. So it's like let's just hang some stuff with a bunch of cranes and let's have girls, you know, do their silks and stuff and just make it that kind of cool, cool experience. And we'll keep adding, like one thing I've always got is like the next idea that I'm like okay, I gotta, I gotta try this you know like it's important to me that every show it's like there's just something a little bit different and unexpected.
Speaker 2:There's actually one thing that I want to do. I shouldn't even tell you, but there's a little box on the back of the truck this big, and it's always closed. You know, it's just a built-in little box, right Kind of where you climb up onto the truck, and I've always wanted to build and have the miniature artist come in and build an entire mini rave inside that box, and I would never tell anybody. I could have lights and everything. I would never tell anybody. But one day somebody's going to open that thing up and be like what the fuck?
Speaker 1:You know they're all just tripping on mushrooms or whatever. Some of the signs are like don't open, and then someone's like, well, I'm going to open it. They're like, uh, what, what's going?
Speaker 2:on. Can you imagine just being like blasted on mushrooms and opening up a box and there's a tiny rave going?
Speaker 1:on inside of there, amazing. Well, yeah, if anybody has an experience with Soundcar, go follow. Keep an eye out for it. It's definitely an experience everybody should have, at least once. I agree to that. But, scott, I want to end with the two questions I always ask everybody at the end of each episode. Number one if you could have someone on the Small Lake City podcast and hear more about what they're up to, who would you want to hear from?
Speaker 2:And this is obviously someone local. Yeah, just someone local.
Speaker 1:Someone that you'd want to hear their story, hear how they got to do whatever they're doing.
Speaker 2:You know who I actually really like, who I think would be a good. Uh, I never thought that I would. I would join a networking group like what's like a you know kind of like you have to be like a ceo or cfo, like a certain size company and stuff. I did it because I'm like, oh, I need to meet people that you know that have money. It was my, it was my thought I need to meet people have money because I need to raise money. And I joined this one called Trust and the owner of Trust is like it ended up being really a cool experience. Like these are all like I thought, oh, I'm just going to go try to raise money through, raise money through this thing. It turns out like we just do these trips and we do these other things and it's more so. You're just kind of like you're with people that are going through similar things that you are yes give you good kind of advice and because it's hard to find people like.
Speaker 1:The more niche of thing you're going through, the harder is to find people to like, talk about it and understand. Yeah, and so to have someone who's like, oh, like, I know what it's like to be the ceo of a company of this size and like what you're like, oh, shit, yeah you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and jeff, jeff rust and I can connect you um one of the just the most genuine human beings I've ever met. He's always want I mean sure you pay for this, you know to be a part of this, but he really makes you feel like you're a part of something too. He's like a great community builder in that space and he's got and he's very particular about who joins. You know the group and it doesn't just about like you know you can pay the pay, the dues. It's really like you've got to fit, you got to be the kind of person that that he's looking for. That's kind of like you know has that lack of ego almost, and everybody I've met that's part of the group has been like super, super successful, intelligent, some of the most successful people in Utah history and super intelligent, very humble. But Jeff Rust, I think you should set up a sit down with Jeff Rust Just because he is like he is just one of the most interesting, solid dudes I've ever met.
Speaker 1:Deal. Yeah, sounds like a fantastic person to talk to. Yeah, I hope you set it up Cool. And then, lastly, if people want to find out more info about King B, vans, ranger Sound Car, all the things you're doing what's the best place to find information for those? King B, you know all the things you're doing. What's the best place to find information for those?
Speaker 2:King B. You know, king B, you should go to kingb-fanscom. You know, if you're a contractor or you're a last mile driver and you need to rent a van, you know we can support you. Ranger, go follow us on Instagram. I highly recommend coming to. If you're at all into electronic music, specifically house music, but also you're just into having a good time in general, I highly recommend just coming to one and experiencing it. Um, go check us out on instagram. We we typically announce on instagram. We'll also send out like text messages through lay low and stuff, but uh, but yeah, I mean, just follow the instagram and that's where you're going to see us. Uh, you know posting about our events and I think we got one. We've got a few coming up. Um, I think the the salt lake city music fest is on the 22nd and that's not technically a ranger event, but you will be able to see a car production, um, and then the next event after that is nine, uh, september 13th.
Speaker 2:Uh, this one I'm really excited about. We booked and I don't even, I don't even know if we're technically supposed to announce it Um, actually I can't, I probably can't say the artist, but I booked a really, really cool artist for this one Big up and coming artist, uh, and that's what we love. We love getting an artist that comes and plays a ranger, you know, still kind of small but is making waves. And then next thing, you know they're blown up, like omri and and you know, lpg ob and like we've had some pretty, pretty big artists, yeah, play the car in front of 100 people or 200 people or 400 people, you know, um, kind of in their early stage, so, so, so we got one that I think is really gonna, is really making waves, gonna, is gonna have kind of a breakout, you know, next year. An incredible producer. So come on, uh, the 13th of september to that deal yeah, that will be there for sure cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, scott, it's been great. It's been fun to hear the story and everything that you've built. But, yeah, excited for what's to come and excited to have a front row seat for it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me man appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
