Cold Open + Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:00

The brand that we're building is for everyone. It's for St. Louis. It's a safe place to come and talk about cars. We want it to be affordable. We'll always run promos. Uh we're gonna try to get as big as we can, uh as quick as we can, uh intelligently.

Meet Sean Hamlin + Background in St. Louis

SPEAKER_01 0:18

If you wanna hear about St. Louis, tune into the Bucket list show weekly. Hear what Marissa and Luke say. It drops every Wednesday, got a dope new guest every single week. Buckle up for the ride. Who's it gonna be? Who's on the show today? They rap St. Louis. What's a two in the loo on a late night? I maybe what to do on a date night. Yeah. Bucket list as you cover, then all what's going on. What's going on? They'll give you eight. 18 different things to do on 19 if you need one more to choose. Yeah. The city, city, city is the place we call home. A place we call home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

St. Louis. Welcome back to another episode of the STL Bucket List Show, highlighting the people, places, and events that make St. Louis special. Uh we'll have one of those people here in the studio today. I met Sean recently at the race house. You invited us out. We got to bring the crew out. We had, you know, four or five people from the team to experience the race house. And um, you guys are also a small business owner here in Maplewood as well with the VHS group. So, Sean, I want to welcome you to the STL Bucket of the Show, man. Thanks for coming in.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Thanks, thanks. So happy to be here, man. It's uh it's an honor for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yeah, no, absolutely. And uh, you know, I know we're missing Doug, but I know he's tuning in right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

So Yeah, yeah. Our uh I like to say my better half, Doug Lumpkin, uh, my business partner in both the racehouse and the VHS group. Uh unfortunately couldn't be here. Uh just too many projects, great problem to have. But uh he says hello, St. Louis.

Growing Up in South City + Early Entrepreneurship

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yeah, absolutely, man. So, Sean, tell me kind of about your story to St. Louis. I mean, tell tell us kind of where you're from, you know, growing up and I, you know, when when you kind of started to become a business owner in St. Louis, too.

First Business Ventures + Entrepreneurial Drive

Building VHS Group + Partnership with Doug Lumpkin

SPEAKER_04 1:50

Yeah. Um, so born and raised in St. Louis, uh, I was a South St. Louis kid uh over by Crondolet Park, uh, causing trouble. Uh sorry to anybody that lived over there in the uh early 90s, uh, but uh had a blast growing up, lived in the central west end as well. Um, went to the uh Cathedral Basilica uh for grade school, uh, went through all the private school systems here in St. Louis and then uh ended up out in uh Pacific, Missouri, where I met Doug Lumpkin. Um, and uh we became friends when we were uh in high school uh and uh tried out for the football team together. Um and uh ever since then we've been best friends and uh we always joke that uh we've always known that something like this was gonna happen, uh, that we were gonna own businesses together. Um my first business was selling lemonade on the side of uh Minnesota Avenue in uh over by Highway 55. Highly don't recommend that anymore. Um, but uh I've always had the itch to be an entrepreneur. Um I do actually still have a day job uh as well, uh, and love and adore it. Huge shout out to Worldwide Technology. Um Doug manages our empire on a daily basis. I get to catch up uh in the evenings and on the weekends and uh more um uh the special stuff. But uh just love what I do. I I love interacting with the community. Uh St. Louis is very special to me. It's the biggest small city, I think, in the United States. And um it's uh it's something that I say with pride that we were born here in St. Louis and we plan on taking both of these uh companies outside of St. Louis at some point in time. So Raishouse seems to be going a little bit faster, unintended. Uh, but uh yeah, we're having a blast.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

First Community Credit Union is the official banking partner of STL Bucketless. They've been serving St. Louis families for 90 plus years with 40 plus local branches and over 400,000 members from personal credit loans to mortgages to kids and teen accounts. They also have a partnership with the STL Blues. You see Louie here if you're watching on YouTube. Uh, we're proud to use First Community. I use it for my own family and my own business. Um, we're excited for them to be the official banking partner of STL Bucket List. Yeah, so tell me about the VHS group. So obviously, you know, tech and stuff like that, but you guys are doing a bunch of different things now. So the VHS group really is St. Louis's source for virtual home services. Yeah, and that's where you get the VHS. And Julia in the studio, I don't even do you know what a VHS is? Yeah. Oh man, so a lot of the younger people don't know what VHS are, but it's kind of a cool play to like, you know, what I used to watch movies. I remember watching the Sandlot on VHS and opening it up and reading it and then putting it in the ancient times.

Expanding Into Smart Homes + Simulators

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Yeah, uh, there were uh, as my kids say, uh pre pre 2000s. Um uh yeah, the VCRs uh are are a dead technology, it's not coming back unless you still have one. And um, we knew that uh as we started to stand the business up, uh the acronym kind of spoke spoke to Doug and I, and we were like, oh, that'd be fun to tie into our age group because we're um in our 40s, well, you know, 30s to 40s, uh, age group uh seems to be moving into that home ownership uh category. So we knew that it would resonate well and it has the logo we get joked with a lot. Like, I I bought you guys just because of the logo. Uh and that's been a lot of fun. Um, but uh the VHS group, uh, yeah, just what you said, we're we're definitely not meant to be uh like a geek squad. Uh we're we don't want your computers and laptops. And if you got a problem with an app on your phone, that's not us. Please call your local relative or uh keep going through your local channels. But if you want uh cool stuff done to your house, you want your TVs to drop out of your ceiling, or you want better Wi-Fi, you want a home theater, really cool thing that took off for us was uh golf simulators, uh sports simulators. Um, and that uh that was huge. We're doing golf simulators all over uh the United States right now. Um, and and that's been very exciting. Uh so to see that growth, which actually uh see that growth was awesome, but to see that then lead to the golden conversation, we finally were asked, yeah, could you build us a racing simulator? Um, and that's uh really what uh took off. And that was a few years ago, and that led to the race house.

Birth of Race Haus Concept

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yeah. So the race house, because I remember seeing you guys down at Cars and Caffeine, and uh, you know, you you brought it out there. So that tell me about that. So you you created this, you know, and people who are listening to the podcast probably saw the video. The videos reached over 100,000 people on Instagram. Almost 200,000. Oh, it's at 200,000 now. Wow. Um, so the video is you're you were they have a location in Webster, you know, me and four guys from the team, we went in there. We each had a car, we all logged into the same portal, we were racing each other, you know, full manual cars. A couple of them were yeah, and then you have the full experience um in the one room where you actually feel like you're shaking and you're sliding and and stuff like that. But what made you guys build the first one? Was that a client project or was that just a fun, like you guys were like, oh, let's just like put one because you knew how to do it. You had the technology, but like what made you build the first one?

Inside the Race Haus Experience

SPEAKER_04 6:53

Um, it was uh we we built the first one for uh commercial or uh for a residential client uh of the VHS group. He had asked us to do it, and it was actually a racing and flight simulator, really cool. Um, but uh it it really led to us meeting the first form team. Um, we were challenged with hey, can you guys bring a racing simulator to uh one of our events? Um, with that, it led to a partnership with Podium One and all of these racing simulator manufacturers and really crazy companies, awesome. Uh but uh at that point we knew we were onto something, and that's when Doug and I went back. We built our mobile uh event simulator. Uh it's a slimmed down version of what you're talking about uh over in our Webster Groves location. Um, those are fully immersive, triple screens, top-of-the-line gear. Um, very cool. Whether you're a beginner or you are there to test, you know, the top of the line, you want to track your car and get better and actually perform, or we've had Formula 4 racers in there. We've had some uh uh pretty significant names in the racing community come through, YouTube personalities, it's been a lot of fun. So uh you nailed it though, uh a whole room of simulators, all different types, drifting simulators, and you can do manual shifting on one of them, and uh it's got the clutch and everything, or the full motion. You know, it's just a crazy experience. We're really happy uh to bring it to St. Louis and give them a place. If you love cars, uh you want somewhere to come and hang out and uh be around like-minded people, safe environment, compete, uh, or you're just looking for the next fun thing to do with your friends and family, or when your you know, relatives come in from Maryland or wherever they're from and they're looking for something to do. You got somewhere to go now.

Unexpected Growth + Viral Momentum

SPEAKER_02 8:44

For over 150 years, SSM Health has been providing hope, healing, and opportunities to the St. Louis community. With over 40,000 employees across four states, they're not only delivering exceptional care, they're one of the region's largest employers, shaping the future of healthcare. We're proud to present SSM Health as the official healthcare partner of the STL bucket list show. If you've dreamed of a career where you're truly making a difference every day, SSM Health can help you take that to the next step. Learn more at their website in the link in the show notes. Yeah, no, and and we hit we felt that energy. I I was driving the the manual car um on the PCH, driving a Ferrari, like you had the full manual six speed transmission. I mean, it was That's my favorite. It was it was fun because if we weren't racing, we were just we were in free mode or whatever it's called over play. And then uh, you know, of course, we did the you know, some of the races on the on the tracks, and then um, but I guess my question is is with the race house, did you ever think that it would be this big so quick? I mean, you guys are picking up all the steam on social media. I see every weekend there's cars parked out. I mean, I'm sure Webster's like got what's going on here. You guys have the most expensive cars all in all of St. Louis just parked out front of your guys' shop every single day. And it's like, did you expect that kind of buzz when you guys opened?

Car Community + First Form Events

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Or um you hope for it, I think. Uh you you do financial projections and um you you start to build your team. And um probably once or twice a week, Doug, myself, and Ben, uh Ben Schneider of Cars and Coffee St. Louis, huge shout out to him. Just he he is just incredible in St. Louis and for the car community and for our team uh as our leader. But um no, no, we we didn't think it would take off the way that it has. Do we wish it would be bigger? Of course. Um, we'd be crazy, uh, Lucas to to say differently. But uh the way that St. Louis has embraced us, um, the strangest thing is I don't actually like doing these things. I I told you this when we booked this. Yeah um I'm definitely a more behind-the-scenes just business paperwork strategy person. Um it's getting hard to like walk through places and people not be like, oh, race house, because I wear my race house stuff. And um, it's it's fun. Uh and it's very exciting for all of us. Uh and the team's embracing it, our families are embracing it. Uh, and we're so humble and thankful to St. Louis for um embracing us. The car community is very strong in St. Louis. Um, there are of course there's a few troublemakers and we all know that, but um just unbelievable pride in St. Louis, pride in in what we do in the um give back and uh uh partnerships that we have between all of the team uh teams, racing teams, local racetracks. It's just unbelievable. So to be a part of that at all is humbling. Um, but no, we didn't think it was gonna be this crazy first Ferraris and Ford GT40s and Lamborghinis every weekend. I mean, little kid in me, every weekend just dies every time one of these cars pulls up. But uh we're having a blast.

Balancing Multiple Businesses + Life as an Entrepreneur

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah, you've created space and you've created a community of people that you know are surrounded by car culture. So like during the winter when they're not out, they're at your spot. And then now in the summer, when you guys have these big events again, you might be out in the field with them, whether it's at World Wide Tech Raceway or it's at first form or um so I guess you know, we're talking about a lot of the wins right now, but what are some of the ups and downs that come with owning a business like this? Because you mentioned that you have a partner, you have a a day job, you have kids, you have a life, you have a wife, you have all these different things that make it hard to scale businesses. So, you know, is there any advice to other entrepreneurs? Because you know, you're building multiple things at once while also being a dad and you know, doing all that stuff. I mean, there's only so much time in a day.

SPEAKER_03 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Um, so you have to kind of let some things go sometimes or let let go of control sometimes.

Lessons on Team Building + Technology Investment

Advice for Entrepreneurs + Scaling Challenges

SPEAKER_04 12:29

Yeah, it's an interesting thing that you brought that up because it's come to a head for me in the last 90 days. And the best advice I can I can give for anybody is probably don't try to build one thing while you're building another thing, finish uh and get it stable. Um, highly don't recommend that. Um, I was blessed that Doug is so strong at what he does, and we had eight years. Um, the VHS group has been in St. Louis for eight years and doing very well. Uh Doug actually celebrates five years um uh leading worldwide technology this week uh to run the VHS group full time. Um so I will say don't do that. Uh but if you find yourself in in a scenario where you're building multiple things and and you've got a lot of irons in the fire, I think you have to set real us realistic expectations with everyone around you, um, your loved ones especially, that you're going to be consumed. And it's not personal, uh, it is the rigor and grit and discipline that is required to be successful. Otherwise, you can look up statistics. What is it, three out of five businesses don't make it? Or uh of course I just said look up the statistics because I don't care. Um you have to want it. Um, and I actually just uh had a conversation on the way over here with somebody. It's that year two at midnight when no one's there and you're exhausted and your team's counting on you for payroll that you have to dig deep and just keep going. No one's there to do it for you, you know. Um, second thing I would say to everybody is but find the right team. You cannot do everything by yourself. Um, and as an entrepreneur, you know, of course, when you get started, it is all you, but as quickly as you can, invest uh in the right team and technology. Um both my companies are are rooted in technology. Uh, I've loved it my entire life. Uh my day job consists of it. Um, worldwide blesses me every day with seeing just the craziest stuff. I get to experience crazy things, work with the the biggest brands in the world. Um but uh technology investment uh is what will separate you as an entrepreneur as soon as you embrace it, understand it, and continue to invest in it. It's not a one and done type thing. Um that's what we continuously uh look at. We spent two hours as an entire VHS group and Racehouse team last night uh talking about automation and AI and how can we continue to enhance the internal uh lounge experience and how do we enhance the VHS group uh quote to quote to invoice type type experience. Customer journey and stuff. Yeah, what does that look like? How do we develop apps? How do we leverage cloud? Um, those are the things that I would challenge entrepreneurs and these young uh guys and gals that are going through college right now, look at the industry. Don't take status quo, push on all of us older people and and let's make a new world, man. That's a worldwide uh tagline and I love it. I live and breathe it. There is no reason to stay the way that it is. And I'm in two very cool industries that just continuously three industries, really counting worldwide, yeah, that every day I wake up to something new. So it's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

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Hospitality, Community + Customer Experience Philosophy

SPEAKER_02 16:17

And they all kind of connect in a way. I you mentioned that like your work at Worldwide, you know, helps, you know, innovate your work at VHS Group and then also your work at the race house. Um, you couldn't know, because the race house wouldn't really be possible without VHS Group because that company is building it, that company is funding it, that company is doing everything. And it's kind of a unique journey with us too, is like STL bucket list is you know funded the acquisition of sauce magazine, but they're close, they're similar properties, they're media, and it's like, oh, it was easy because we could absorb that. And you know, one of these can take care of that one until we get that one to grow. And it's like that's our baby right now. But then when that grows, then it's like, okay, now what do we do? We expand.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

Yeah, it's like a vertical specialization, sauce magazine focused on restaurants, right? Ours now, our technology focus on simulations, you know. And uh the next space will be we are looking at new spaces, the next space will have other simulators in it, uh, flight simulators, and we're, you know, golf simulators or multi-sport stuff. But yeah, I will say we are not an arcade. Yeah, uh, there's a lot of really cool places. You visited them. I love your videos. We we plan our weekends around what you guys put out every weekend. Um, and uh that's not what we want to be. We are a racing lounge, motorsport enthusiast place for people to come, experience cars, uh, compete. Um, you know, we we always joke like you can come in as family and friends, but you know, we can't guarantee what happens when you leave. You know, you guys might be mad, but um it's a high-end experience.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

It's a high-end, but also approachable as far as you know, it's not out of touch for most people.

Expansion Plans + Future Race Haus Locations

SPEAKER_04 17:49

Yeah, we were very sensitive to that, and you gave us some great feedback too. You know, St. Louis, we I grew up here, South St. Louis. Uh, did not um grow up uh fluently, we'll we'll say that. Um, but worked hard to get where I'm at. We think our price points right in line with St. Louis, the other experiences. I I've had two kids. I know what birthday parties cost, I know what it costs for 25 people to go to uh all these other places. So we we've we think we've aligned. Uh, we're always open to feedback. St. Louis is not short on opinions, they will let you know. Um, and we've gotten quite a few. So um we'll we'll continue continue to adjust and run promos and try to.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

So you mentioned the new spot. So I know that the there's nothing you know that you can't share too much yet, but this newer spot is going to be bigger, better. It's gonna house different experiences. Um, so do you have plans? Can you mention, can you talk a little bit about what those goals are there and then like what are those other growth goals for Race House? Because I feel like the Race House um has potential not only in St. Louis but but across the nation.

Vision for Racing Leagues + National Growth

SPEAKER_04 18:50

Yeah, yeah. Um boy, that is such a fun question. Uh, how much time do we have? Um, so as far as expanding Racehouse, yes, we are looking at new locations. We have an investment team um and a great group of sponsors that want to be involved in that. Um, so no information yet, but we are looking uh in the St. Louis uh 270 corridor, uh up and down, uh north and south, uh east and west. But um as far as new opportunities that we're looking at, uh just the collaboration with cars and coffee, first form, a lot of car shows coming up. A lot of that will continue to get us out into um uh the St. Louis car community and just the community. We're gonna do a lot of volunteer work as a team as a team that's incredibly important to us over the summer. Um, as far as some other things we're working on, if you are a bar owner or an entertainment uh venue and you are looking for something to inject into your business, we do have a model that allows us to revenue share with these uh places. So investments and you know, hey, let's build a sim together that matches their environment, colors, and you know, we can make it look really cool, uh, and then put it into like a kiosk mode and let their clientele use these things and we manage that. That's one way. Um, we're also working on leagues from home so people can uh still be part of Race House and uh race on our servers with the people that are race house in our leagues but use their at-home equipment. Um so we're working on that. That's uh those are some innovative ideas we're working on. Um and then as far as um um other little things that uh we've got going on, leagues and um other things uh are launching. I think just this last week, Ben and the team, if I recall right, uh launched our second season. Uh we're doing a a trial league and we've got some apps in development. So all that'll be coming out very soon. They're probably gonna kill me for saying all that. Yeah. Um, but the team's really excited. We're we're pushing hard. Can't be a technology company and just put it out on the market for St. Louis and just sit status quo. Every week we're trying to make that place better, whether investing in new technology, new equipment, speeding up the processes, um, automating things and trying to have fun with it. But we're gonna keep pushing for you and St. Louis to make it as fun as freaking possible.

St. Louis Car Culture + Community Impact

SPEAKER_02 21:10

The STL bucket list show is proudly sponsored by Suede Dispensary with 11 Missouri area locations. Suede does so much for the St. Louis community. We've been working with this team for a couple of years back since Medical was here, and we're excited to support their new product launches, events, and community initiatives. We couldn't be happier to work with this premier cannabis brand, and we're excited for them to sponsor the show. Enjoy the rest of the podcast. Yeah, you guys are killing it. I mean, even with the social media, you're getting the community involved, you're selling sponsorships with other local businesses and and really, you know, showcasing that, you know, the the space. I mean, how big is the space right now, currently?

SPEAKER_04 21:45

Uh right at 1100 square feet and huge shout out to Digital Strike, to uh Chris Westmeyer over there, just put together this beautiful campus. He's a huge part of our success with VHS group and um uh uh the race house. Just beautiful building. Though. But yeah, it's 1100 square feet. We're in his uh two-story building there on Big Ben.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Yeah, their campus is crazy over there. I love the gas station that they have. So cool. That would be a cool like future race house location, like a gas station type five.

SPEAKER_04 22:10

When he retires, I I call Dibbs.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

But you know what the the impact you're having in just 1,100 square feet though is crazy because when you think about 1,100 square feet and like the groups that you get in there, and you know, groups of 30 or groups of 25 that you get in there and the energy that you get into that space. Now imagine that at a 10,000 square foot warehouse or a you know, whatever the next step is of what you guys are building. Cause I know this was just a case study. This was the first trial. It's like, let's start small and like you're quickly seeing, like, okay, like this has potential.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Um, and you're quickly seeing the city of Webster when you have 50 cars out, you know, yeah, you know, doing some car shows.

Dream of a Sim Racing Championship

SPEAKER_04 22:45

And yeah, uh, we want to be respectful of Webster Groves. They've been so gracious uh in allowing us to launch this business there. So we're very mindful uh of you know, no reving and no burnouts. And it's actually in our um instructions we give to people. We want to be very respectful. However, we want to grow into, like you said, the energy. Uh, when you say it, man, it just uh lights me up inside thinking uh of having 50 to 100 people in there competing. Um that's uh that's it is truly addicting. It's a a dopamine overload every night when we go home with 20 people there. So I can't even imagine. Uh you had asked uh a minute ago too uh things that we're working on. I truly believe this could happen. Um there's no real sim racing championship of the world. There's iRacing championships and there are various other, you know, but there's no like I don't know what I can or can't say, like worldwide uh or world um what is it WWE type you know championship or MLB type thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yeah, even golf simulators have like some virtual things now, yeah. Golfing does.

SPEAKER_04 23:55

St. Louis prime. Uh we have all of the infrastructure here. We have um we have tons of hotels, we have all the convention centers. Uh so my my hope and dream in working with the partnerships that we have with Podium One and Advanced Sim Racing and all the uh uh first form and A B, you guys, everybody, is to bring together maybe the US's first sim racing championship. Bring people in town, yeah. Bring bring people in town, uh, get Sims built, ship Sims here from from top providers all over the world, and and let's see, you know. So that's a vision I have. Uh we'll see if it comes to fruition. But you're the first to hear me say that out loud anywhere in the public. Uh the teams heard it, uh, and I am actively working on it on social media, but uh that's a dream. We'll see.

Favorite St. Louis Spots + Personal Connection to the City

SPEAKER_02 24:42

And they do it in the video game world. I mean, we were promoting uh we have a um a client that's in Vegas and they have like this huge video game Call of Duty tournament where all there's 150 computers, it's the same thing. I mean, just a bunch of kids just locked in. Yeah, you know. Yeah, um, but yeah, that would be that I mean St. Louis needs more events that they're known for like that. You know, things that once a year, you know, 10,000 people come to town, they stay in hotels, they stimulate the community, they eat at local restaurants, you know, and then they have something that they post all over social media. You know, that's what I thought was cool about the first warm event is like those those it's not just a St. Louis event, like one of those guys brought one of those cars in from like Utah. I mean, people are coming in from all over the country just to sit their cars there at that event.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

We spent the weekend with Revved Up Wishes and Make a Wish, uh, as well as the Hamilton collection. He brought like$10 million worth of cars. Uh, just unbelievable uh experience. So, yeah, seeing that type of stuff, people flying that in, it just inspires us that it that it's cape, it's St. Louis is capable. People want to be here, just gotta have the person bringing it together. And and that's what uh I hope our team, Doug and I and and Ben and our team can do. So we'll see. It's uh aspirational. Um, we'll definitely have to get a lot of uh St. Louis leadership involved to pull something like that off. But we're on the hunt.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to talk about St. Louis a little bit more. So the STL bucket list, you know, your favorite things to do in St. Louis. You grew up in South City, you grew up in St. Louis. What are some of those spots that you think of as like those St. Louis spots? I'm putting you on the spot here, but there's a lot. I mean, food spots, parks, events, things to do. Um, I mean, let we can start maybe with with the kids. Like when your kids are growing up, like what are some of those iconic spots you used to go to with the kids? And then maybe some date-night restaurant spots that you love to go to.

The Meaning of Home + Staying Rooted in STL

SPEAKER_04 26:28

So uh I'm gonna work my way backwards. You you said me first, but then you wanted me to go back to being kids and all that. But I'll I'll say near and dear to my heart, Lone Elk Park. Yeah, I I adore it. Uh, personal reasons. Um, I think it's just a hidden gem. Where can you go and see uh elk and bison and raccoon and it's quiet, and uh you don't realize you're right next to 44. I love that. But uh of course, now the aquarium, uh everything going down on downtown that that is revitalizing downtown, the um Union Station, um, but the zoo, botanical garden, uh, both the uh um the actual botanical gardens and out in Grey Summit. Uh we love going out there and walking, getting some fresh air. Um, but uh all of the the usual suspects, the loop, um we love going and getting pho over there. All the Greek restaurants around St. Louis, huge shout out to them. They see me probably twice a week, I feel like. Um definitely love the Italian restaurants, the Hill. Um I love Dogtown. Uh I am old enough that uh I remember Westport uh going through its cycles. Um I've always had a blast out in Westport. Uh I I spent a lot of time down in Florescent. Shout out to BJ's Pizza uh uh up there. Um and uh Dipper and the crew out in Florescent, but um Hage's and and yeah, I I I love them all. St. Louis just you can't go wrong.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Um and a lot of these people are still going and and uh you know there's so much history in St. Louis and families, and now it's the second, third generation of of people that you when you were a kid that you would visit in the 90s and now it's their son that runs the restaurant and Torres.

Closing Thoughts + Future of Race Haus

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Yeah, you go in and you saw them sitting at the table, you know, coloring, and now they run the place. You know, it's just the it's the coolest thing. Um I I don't know that I'll stay in St. Louis forever, but I'll always have a home here and it'll always be home. You know, I I think that uh as my kids have uh they're both at University of Arkansas, Wu Pig. Um they um it it I I do think I'll I'll travel a little bit more, but St. Louis, the Arch. Uh, I'm one of those guys when you do when you're I don't do much road trip anymore, but when you come across that bridge and you see Arch, you're like, oh God, I'm home. Matter what, 20 minutes, I'm home, you know, wherever you're at. But uh just the best feeling, man. St. Louis is home.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

This episode is sponsored by Upshot Coffee, three St. Louis area locations in Cottleville, Break Shop in St. Charles, and their new Hi-Fi location in Clayton. I personally use Upshot Coffee every day at my espresso machine at home, and I try to visit one of the shops at least once a week. They source the beans responsibly from local farms all across the world and they take care of their staff and they take care of the community. Let's get back to the show. Yeah, it's a good feeling. Like driving back from Florida, you know, you always come back through the arch. And then it's like, you know, getting back home, they're like, all right, now we can officially, you know, yeah, and and settle in. But yeah, no, that's awesome. You have a pretty good bucket list. So I guess, you know, to wrap up here, if um if you could have one race car driver at the race house, have you thought about that? Like one guy or girl driver. I mean, I'm sure there's a ton of people you love to come to the race house, but if you could have one person sit in one of those chairs, it do you have one in mind or or do you have like a dream guest? I I kind of think of that as like the podcast, like you know, who would be my dream guest on the podcast?

SPEAKER_04 29:51

Oh man, my team will kill me if I get this wrong. I don't, um I I I don't. There, they're just there's you know, uh, we could go into like, are they alive? Not alive. There's just so many uh unbelievable. I think a lot of people would expect me to say like Max for stopping or something, but he's kind of standoffish. Uh gosh, I hope he doesn't see us. I I love him. Uh he's the best in the world. But um I don't know if I'll see it. Yeah, I hope he sees it kind of, but uh you know, I I think really more from me, more than the race car drivers. Um, we we saw people this weekend that are very prominent, you know, the 300,000, 500,000 followers sit down and try our mobile rig, which is not nearly as sophisticated or dialed in as what you experienced at the race house in Webster Groves. Uh, and he stood up. This guy is loved by the car community internationally, and he said, That's the best simulator I've ever sat down on and touched. That blew our mind. We didn't even do anything to this one.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

So you're like, come to the shop.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

You're like, I just want the world to know how talented the team Doug and I have built is. The brand that we're building is for everyone. It's for St. Louis, it's a safe place to come and talk about cars. You don't have to come in and pay to sit there and talk about cars. Uh, we want it to be affordable. We'll always run promos. Uh, we're gonna try to get as big as we can, uh as quick as we can, uh, intelligently. Um, we get a lot of requests to put a spot here, put a spot here, put a spot here. But um, we're gonna do our best to deliver a great experience consistently through the VHS group uh for people's homes and businesses, uh, and then um create those experiences uh at the race house as well.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

So yeah, it's cool to get to serve people. So like I have a B2B business. Um I think of V VHS is obviously B2C, but like you're working in people's homes, so it's different than hosting somebody into like your space. Yep. You know, so now that we have Sauce Magazine, we have Food Truck Friday this Friday, and and we have people come to this event and they're like, oh, I love the magazine. Like it's to see the community and person come to place, it's different than just doing a business transaction to sell a golf simulator. I mean, those are still great and love it, but it's like it's a different experience when you have 20 random people in your business on a Friday night and you have no idea who they're gonna be. They just show up.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

Yeah, and you know and to see their faces light up or um please don't do this, St. Louis. But like people bring Doug and I random gifts and we're like, please don't do that, you know. And um, it it's just the well, you brought us a gift today. Yeah, I yeah, yeah, I can't help myself. Uh maybe it's a St. Louis thing. Um, maybe maybe we'll make that the new St. Louis thing. Uh, no more high school conversations. Bring a gift. Bring a gift. Um, but no, it's uh it's incredible. We love the smiles, the people who stand up sweaty, uh excited. We'll see them book again right in front of us. We're just having a blast over in Webster Groves. We love St. Louis, we love you guys. Thank you for your support. Um, you guys have been instrumental in our very quick growth and getting off the ground. Yep. Um, we will always be huge fans. And my personal life, I truly do rely on you guys to, you know, what are we doing this weekend? Like, let me let me see what we're doing this weekend. Yeah, the weekend of every Friday morning.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

Every Friday morning.

SPEAKER_04 33:06

Every Friday morning. So you guys keep killing it too. Proud of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Thank you, man. Thank you for coming on the pod today and and uh super excited uh to keep telling the story. And I know we have another video coming up. Um, we're gonna do another follow back because of so many people commented and they're like, hey, like, can you show us more of the space? Like we were we kind of just showed them the experience, but now we need to show them the whole space and hopefully host another little team party there or something and get the guys out and get the girls out there and and race the cars and and really just you know highlight what you guys are building and and what you guys are doing in St. Louis. But no, I appreciate you coming on the pod today. Thank you, brother.

SPEAKER_04 33:37

Really appreciate you all.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Yep, we'll see you guys next week. Thank you. St. Louis, thanks for listening. Everything we do here is about telling the story of this city, and that doesn't stop with this show. On the Bucketless Podcast Network, we're diving even deeper into the people, places, and moments that make this city what it is. Meet Me in Music with Neil Salsit captures the sound of the city, past and present, ending each episode with a live performance. For my Foodie Lovers, the sauce with Lauren Healy brings you inside the restaurants that define our culture every Tuesday. Gateway to Growth with Jamal Cornelius highlights the stories behind the people that make St. Louis work. And every Thursday, Bryce breaks down your weekend with This Week in St. Louis. More stories, more voices. Explore the full bucketless podcast network wherever you listen.