Bug McBride With The Blue Ghost Arcade And Ryne Murphy With Hawk’s Nest Gaming

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:23] Well, welcome to this very special broadcast of Cherokee Business RadioX Stone Payton here with you, it is our LFG Nexis series brought to you by LFG Nexis for gamers, by gamers, by gamers, for gamers. What’s the tagline?

Adam Gerstin: [00:00:38] It is for gamers, by gamers, but I guess it works the other way.

Stone Payton: [00:00:41] But because it is by gamers, I mean, you have been immersed in this world for some time. So we’re so delighted to have you on board as a sponsor and the co-host. I know why I do this because it beats the heck out of working. But what were you thinking, man? Why? Why did you want to put this series together?

Adam Gerstin: [00:01:00] You know, to me, I think gaming is an incredible and important part of just just being alive in society and stuff like that. I think that gaming tends to bring out the best in people, and sometimes it can, you know, be difficult. And, you know, just it’s it’s a great way to meet other people, to expand your thinking, to change, you know, potentially change how you think about things and adjust. And just, I think, you know, a lot more people should do gaming and kind of consider it as another way to kind of reach a higher level intellectually.

Stone Payton: [00:01:34] So what is the state of the Union for LFG Nexus? Because this is a relatively new birth for for you and the company. Where are we, man? What’s going on?

Adam Gerstin: [00:01:44] We’re actually making like quite an incredible headway. We’ve reached out to some new local influencers that we’re going to be working with. We’ve actually reached out to a long time older influencer in the magic gathering industry that’s going to be working with us. Just new places all across Atlanta and in the country that will be working with us for tournaments, all different types of gaming and just a lot of different types of fun. So, you know, we’ve got a lot of stuff coming up, coming out for 2022, and we’re excited.

Bug Mcbride: [00:02:16] Can you kind of give us a rundown on exactly what the Nexus is?

Adam Gerstin: [00:02:21] Sure. Well, so the Nexus is a social media platform built for gamers. What we do is we help gamers connect. We are web based and we also do have an app with the intention of helping people find other people to play games that they’re into. So it could be video games, it could be Dungeons and Dragons magic. The gathering could be, you know, cosplay, laughing, all different types of games, the whole spectrum. And so that’s kind of where we’re different from other companies that are only into just video games and e-sports. So we have different features that you’re not going to find anywhere else.

Stone Payton: [00:02:56] So I anticipated that you were going to tell me things were going well because you’ve got the branded sweatshirt. And our first guest has the brand new hoodie and I don’t know Reiner. Our next guest, we oh, look at that. He’s got a T-shirt. He’s got the T-shirt.

Ryne Murphy: [00:03:10] I haven’t gotten up to hoodie level yet, but we’re getting there.

Stone Payton: [00:03:13] All right, fantastic. Well, first up on today’s special edition, please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Blue Ghost, the owner, Mr. Bug McBride. How are you doing, man? Good yourself. I am doing well. We’re so thrilled to have you in the community. As many of our listeners know. We have this, this studio turkey Business RadioX studio right down our old mill. I live right on the edge of town. I know every bartender in town. And you know, my cigar bar is down there and I love walking down. We’re so thrilled to have you there. Mission purpose. Tell us a little bit about what you’re up to and what you’re trying to do for folks, man.

Bug Mcbride: [00:03:54] It’s bringing these old games to a new generation more or less. I mean, you can play games at home and stuff, but there are some of these experiences you just cannot find anywhere else except in arcade. I mean, like, you cannot reproduce the Tron, for example, or, you know, we’ve got to have a couple of hydro thunder racing boats, but you know, they have that force feedback and you’re actually sitting beside your buddy, you know, racing stuff. So, you know, it is, you know, trying to bring people together. You know, not only do we have arcade games, we’ve got pinball machines and, you know, we’ve got like over 80 board games. You know, there’s nothing funner than watching, you know, people, you know, having a couple of beers and playing the headbands game. You know, it’s a kid’s game. But you know, if you’re sitting there drinking and you got this card on top of your head and another person is

Speaker6: [00:04:41] Trying to guess what what you are.

Bug Mcbride: [00:04:44] It’s pretty fun to watch nonetheless, you know, also play so.

Adam Gerstin: [00:04:47] So for me, one of the games you guys have the Street Fighter two Championship Edition. Yeah, I grew up on that. In fact, one of my business partners, we met by playing that game in the arcade, like he went to the other high school than I did. And but we just were at the arcade, constantly playing each other, and it was games like that that really brought us together as friends.

Stone Payton: [00:05:05] So it’s one thing to be an avid gamer, but you actually built a whole business around it. What compelled you to do that?

Bug Mcbride: [00:05:12] So I actually grew up in this area. You know, I went to at all high school in everything, but then I’m actually moved up to Chicago and I lived up there for about 15 years. And when I lived up there, there was a place called the Galloping Ghost, actually, and it’s the largest arcade in the world. And I think they’ve got last time I counted like over 700 games. Wow. Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy. And there was also a local board game shop. I used to go to The Wandering Dragon. And, you know, when I moved back here, you know, there was really nothing like that, so you know, me and my wife would, you know, go have a couple of beers at the truck and tap and my kids would be like, What do you

Speaker6: [00:05:52] What are we supposed to do?

Bug Mcbride: [00:05:54] So, you know, and when we move back, you know, me and my wife both kept our jobs. We work remotely. And this was years before COVID hit. But I knew that it was only a matter of time before, you know, I just needed to do something more local. And I was like, If we’re going to do it, let’s do it. So I’m not getting any younger.

Stone Payton: [00:06:13] So what’s the setup? What’s the what’s it like? What’s what’s the space like? What can we expect?

Bug Mcbride: [00:06:18] So we’ve got about 4000 square feet. So why is he so? We’ve got a little over 40 arcade and pinball machines. We have lots of consoles as well. So your PS5, Xbox Series X tons of switches, then you get some more of your classic games like, you know, you’re in super slipperiness. Sega Saturn tend end of sixty four and you know, we’ve got several TVs throughout the place as well. So you actually can set the bar and play Mario or, you know, Sonic the Hedgehog or Rocket League or Smash Brothers, you know,

Stone Payton: [00:06:56] In these games. And I’m not a gamer, but these games are from way back, right? Right? Oh, yeah, oh yeah.

Ryne Murphy: [00:07:01] I was actually going to ask. I heard a rumor that you had House of the Dead.

Bug Mcbride: [00:07:04] I do. I have a house. I have House of the Dead.

Ryne Murphy: [00:07:06] Two dead. That is amazing.

Speaker6: [00:07:09] Ok.

Ryne Murphy: [00:07:09] I grew up on that game. I played with my dad every single week. We’d go to the arcade when I was like 12 or 13 and I was I was really good at that game.

Bug Mcbride: [00:07:19] I mean, that’s another thing, too. I mean, right? I mean, it’s almost like a good song. You know, when you hear that song, it brings that memory. You know, a lot of times when you see some of these old arcade games, it triggers a memory like I don’t want to. Talking about how he met his, his partner was through Street Fighter. You know, you don’t see these games that often out in the wild.

Stone Payton: [00:07:35] And so you’ve got all these people who are enjoying themselves. And did I hear you say you have a beer, so you can you can.

Bug Mcbride: [00:07:41] We have a we have a full bar. I also just as an FYI. So, you know, we don’t do quarters or anything. So it’s a $15 entry fee for everybody, OK? And then everything is free to play. So all the board games, all the pinball machines, all the arcade games, so no quarters or any of that stuff which is

Adam Gerstin: [00:07:58] Required and you could stay there all day.

Bug Mcbride: [00:08:00] Yep. So we give you a wristband, you can leave and come back as long as you still have that same wristband on, you can bring in outside food. Yeah. Adam had one of his buddies come in and you guys spent that one that one day I think, are you there for like 12 hours? It feels like.

Speaker6: [00:08:14] Yeah.

Adam Gerstin: [00:08:14] So that was actually my my business partner. Yeah, it was. He was leaving. He just moved to Florida. And so that was his going away party. And so he was the one that I would play Street Fighter with. So he made sure to play. But yeah, so he basically had a bit of a party there.

Bug Mcbride: [00:08:27] So that was a fun day.

Adam Gerstin: [00:08:29] It was

Stone Payton: [00:08:29] Absolutely. So what’s the demographic so far? Who is showing up

Bug Mcbride: [00:08:34] A little bit of everybody? So, you know, we have a tendency to, you know, we don’t open this one every day. But you know, you know, earlier in the day, you know, we’ll get the mom trying to find something to do with other kids, you know, so you know, and sometimes she’ll sit there and have a beer or, you know, drink wine while the kids go off and play right, right? Well, sometimes they’ll play, you know, you know, you’ll get a lot of these moms say, Well, I’m not going to play anything, and then you turn around and she’s got that Miss Pac-Man joystick going crazy. So, but you know, and then as the day progresses, you know, the younger people leave and then you get the older people, you know, your 20s, then your 30s, sometimes, you know, and older and older, you know, because. It takes, you know, as soon as they hear about it, you know, they’re like, Oh man, I’ve not seen one of these in forever. And I mean daily, you know, we get three or four people that were just, I just want to come and pick because, you know, they don’t want to play anything yet because they’re busy. But they saw the sign and they just want to see exactly what I have to offer.

Stone Payton: [00:09:30] I bet. So it sounds to me like it’d be a neat place to have like a corporate event or like or any group that a group event.

Bug Mcbride: [00:09:38] So I mean, we do private events. We also do birthday parties. So all that information can be found on our website. The blue gold star.

Stone Payton: [00:09:45] Nicely done. What do you do these things every

Speaker6: [00:09:49] Week or

Bug Mcbride: [00:09:52] So in you? You know, especially Saturday mornings, you know, that’s usually tons of kids birthday parties. You know, now that Christmas is approaching, you know, we are quite quite a few private events coming. I think we’re going to be closed Tuesday night, you know, because we’re doing a private event for some people. So our Pathfinder group is not very happy because we do play Pathfinder there every Tuesday night, so.

Stone Payton: [00:10:14] Very cool. So I’m trying to envision the conversation of having like a real job, which I haven’t had in some time. I’ve been doing this for a while, going home to my wife. And so, you know, I know we got this, you know, this real job thing going. But you know, let’s open up. Let’s let’s start a business. Well, tell us a little bit about that journey of actually launching a business man.

Bug Mcbride: [00:10:35] So it kind of started when my mother passed away several years ago. And, you know, it was one of those, you know, she was only four. Kind of hit me like all of a sudden just, you know, no warning whatsoever not to bring everyone down.

Stone Payton: [00:10:50] But no, it’s important. Sometimes things like that can really have you rethink the whole equation.

Bug Mcbride: [00:10:55] Yeah. So, you know, you know, when that happened, I was like, You know, I need to start living a little bit more, start stepping out of my comfort zone. So I actually took a class down here at Elm Street only, so I’ll never do it again.

Speaker6: [00:11:13] So, but yeah, I

Bug Mcbride: [00:11:14] Stepped outside of my comfort zone. You know what I was doing, and you know, I did. It was an extra on stand versus evil. So, you know, I was constantly, you know, what can I experience that, you know, I’ve not done before that I’ve always wanted to, but was too scared to do.

Adam Gerstin: [00:11:30] And it’s like a bucket list sort of thing,

Bug Mcbride: [00:11:32] Almost like a bucket list. You know, it was like, how can I step out of my comfort zone and just live a little bit more, you know, instead of doing the same corporate job day after day after day? So and then, you know? Again, we have talked about, you know, possibly opening up. It was actually originally it was going to be a pizza restaurant. I mean, this was years and years ago because that’s my background is pizza. You know, I’ve been in some form or other, you know, running a pizza restaurant or, you know, I did the point of sales for Domino’s and Pizza Hut, you know, in Chicago. So and point of sales for McDonald’s as well. But that’s not pizza.

Ryne Murphy: [00:12:05] So what were you going to call your pizza place?

Bug Mcbride: [00:12:08] Actually, kung fu pizza,

Speaker6: [00:12:12] I like it.

Bug Mcbride: [00:12:14] And so, but anyway, so once I moved back to here, originally we were just going to do a board game thing and somehow or another, you know, I bought my first arcade machine and it just kind of snowballed. It was like, Man, you know, so and you know, a lot of the I love working with my hands and a lot of these machines, you know, they don’t work or the cosmetics are just so bad in it. So and you know, it’s a fun journey just trying to bring these things back to life.

Stone Payton: [00:12:40] So. So has it been a pleasant surprise or is it falling right along the spreadsheet that you guys laid out because you’re getting tremendous response? Or at least it looks like that from. Well, we

Bug Mcbride: [00:12:51] Are getting, you know, very, very positive responses, you know? Five star reviews on Google. All that, so but, you know, I think with any business and you know, me and Ryan, we’re talking about this before the show actually started. We’re going to have those days where, you know, you’re slow and you’re like, Oh, my gosh, what did I get myself into?

Speaker6: [00:13:12] Oh yeah. So because I mean, opening up a business is

Bug Mcbride: [00:13:15] A huge step. I mean, it really is. So, but so far, so good. So, you know, I’ve got a fantastic staff. You know, we also do memberships. So, you know, instead of paying the $15, yeah, to get in, you know, you can pay a $60 and come in as much as you want for the month. So we have a lot of regulars who do that. So we’ve got some people who are in there five days a week.

Stone Payton: [00:13:39] Wow, that sounds like a great idea because this

Bug Mcbride: [00:13:41] Count, I mean, you can come in four times and you’ve paid for it.

Stone Payton: [00:13:46] So wow. And these are folks that would come in four plus times anyway. No, that’s a marvelous idea that gives you some predictable, some predictable revenue. What do you enjoy the most? Man, what do you like the best?

Bug Mcbride: [00:13:57] Actually, it’s playing games with people. So, you know, when I first opened, it was really hard for me to actually, you know, enjoy it. You know, after we opened, you know, I would tell my wife, I was like, I so wish I was on the other side of this, you know, because I built this out of stuff that I love to do, right? But considering I was running it at the time, it was hard for me to sit back and enjoy it.

Ryne Murphy: [00:14:18] So you got like all the toys, but like no time, no time to play with them.

Bug Mcbride: [00:14:22] Exactly. You know, you know, well, there is, you know, fixing something or, you know, because I mean, some of these machines, you know, have not been played this hard in 30 years. And, you know, so they’re taking a beating and like Miss Piggy Miss Pack, for example, like I said, you know, the ladies love to get on there and I’ve had to fix that joystick since I’ve opened. I’ve been open for six months and I fixed that joystick probably five or six times now already just because they I mean, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know, they’re rough with it.

Adam Gerstin: [00:14:49] So I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but that’s all the thing. When you go to other arcades and stuff like that, a lot of things are kind of broken and there’s a lot of maintenance. Obviously, that’s requires for us and it’s I’m sure it’s tough and time-consuming.

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:01] It’s very time consuming.

Ryne Murphy: [00:15:03] I’m sure they’re not exactly pumping out like Miss Pac-Man parts anymore, either. So like, I’m sure that’s a nightmare. I mean,

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:08] I mean, the House of the Dead is a prime example. So, you know, that had one of the guns go down on that. And, you know, I couldn’t find the part in the U.S. I had to order it from China. So, yeah, yeah. So, you know, instead of

Ryne Murphy: [00:15:20] It being, keep going, just keep it going

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:21] Instead of it being down for a couple of days, you know, it was down for, you know, a couple of weeks, which, you know, I hate doing that. But I mean, what choice do you have?

Ryne Murphy: [00:15:29] Nothing. There’s literally nothing you can do about it.

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:31] Yeah. So but you know, once we started getting into our groove and everything, you know, we started making the regulars and stuff, you know, yeah, I started having some of the regulars go, Hey, you know, you want to play a game with me? And I’m like, What?

Speaker6: [00:15:44] Yeah, I would love. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would love to do that.

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:47] So, you know, we’ve got a, you know, a great group of guys that you know, we’re constantly, you know, competing on the Avengers pinball machine. You know, we’ve got a

Stone Payton: [00:15:54] You’ve got a pinball machine.

Bug Mcbride: [00:15:56] We’ve got we’ve got six pinball machines.

Stone Payton: [00:15:59] Oh man. Color me there. Well, because that’s what I remember. For those of you who, you know, aren’t seeing this, you’re just listening to this at this point. You know, I’ve got a little well, I don’t know, Adam, you got some gray hair, too. I’m a little older than the rest of the crowd. But but I can remember fondly, as you described, you know, like when you listen to a song or go into the little arcade at the mall. And I mean, there were a couple of pinball machines that we just fell in and we just played for hours. Yeah.

Bug Mcbride: [00:16:27] Wow. So so then we’ve got some other regulars who are really big into the golden tee and classic.

Bug Mcbride: [00:16:35] I think

Bug Mcbride: [00:16:36] So. One of them actually hit. He actually hit to hold on one Shuggie. Wow. That’s like amazing. Yeah, I know. I mean, it took me years to hit my first, so I was hitting, you know, two or three cents, you know, way back when. So but kind of is a homage, you know, little joke. I actually printed up this picture and put it on the wall and put a hole in one club.

Speaker6: [00:16:58] Oh, absolutely. Yeah, you should do something.

Ryne Murphy: [00:16:59] It’s like you and one other guys.

Bug Mcbride: [00:17:01] Yeah. So so it was by a pitcher in his pitcher, and he’s got a group of friends that come in. And so one of the guys is Barry has tried to be tried and tried to hit a hole in one. And yeah, can I?

Ryne Murphy: [00:17:11] Is there a little ball like, hard to replace also, because I feel like that thing?

Bug Mcbride: [00:17:14] Oh, those things, they take a beating.

Ryne Murphy: [00:17:16] I had a feeling, yes, so I was not gentle with that game when I used to play.

Bug Mcbride: [00:17:20] Yeah, but poor Barry, he’s been trying to get a hole in one now for, you know, months. And then they brought in another one of his friends for the first time, and he hit a hole in one like, Well, then like, you know, three or four holes. All Barry Barry was not happy for Barry.

Ryne Murphy: [00:17:33] You can look like the trying really hard glove to get a homerun just as picture on a second tier.

Bug Mcbride: [00:17:39] Yeah, so so anytime Barry comes in now, he sees Barry and his other friend and me on the wall. This is holding one club.

Stone Payton: [00:17:46] So what was what has recruiting employees and helping like that been like? Or is that all you running the whole thing?

Bug Mcbride: [00:17:52] So, I mean, it’s mostly me. I mean, I do have a fantastic bar manager who. Runs the day to day bar staff. We’ve had no turnover. I mean, when I first,

Stone Payton: [00:18:03] That’s

Bug Mcbride: [00:18:04] What we try to do. Our employees are very well. We really do. You know, again, I come from a restaurant background. Yeah, I’ve been on the other end. Yeah. So. So, yeah, but Shelly, our bar manager, she’s fantastic. You know, when we first, you know, before we even opened, you know, we put out, you know, hey, we’re hiring, you know, bartenders. I think we got 10 applications for what we call arcade attendants. We’ve got over 200 applicants. Yeah, wow. Yeah. So that was a tough choice. Doing it all down. But I think we made the right decisions because like I said, you know, six months in, we’ve had no turnover. Everyone seems to be happy.

Ryne Murphy: [00:18:42] Wow, that is fantastic, actually. That is well, I mean, in sort of like the restaurant bar industry, that is especially nowadays that is very difficult. Like, that’s really impressive, says a lot about your your company.

Bug Mcbride: [00:18:54] Oh, thank you.

Stone Payton: [00:18:55] So how does the whole marketing thing work in your space or does it just you have to let it evolve?

Bug Mcbride: [00:19:01] Well, it’s a mixture of both. I mean, marketing is, you know, hard, especially now in the digital age. You know, you have to do your Facebook, your Instagram. Excuse me. So, you know, that’s a job in itself. I mean, it really is. I’ll bet. So, you know, not only do you have to, you know, post constantly, but you know, as soon as someone sends a message, you have to, you know, respond in a timely manner.

Stone Payton: [00:19:26] And then when does that stop right on the social media? Thank you. No thank you. Oh, you know, you’re the best.

Adam Gerstin: [00:19:32] Yeah, but it’s not just that you also want to be forward thinking for other holidays and events that are going to be coming up. So you could kind of try and capitalize on on that.

Bug Mcbride: [00:19:42] We do so when we threw a Halloween party this past year, which, you know, turned out fantastic. You know, everyone came in costume, you know, we had prizes. We had a ton of stuff that we gave away. You know, all of our, you know, beer and liquor distributors, you know, contributed stuff. Reformation, you know, gave us a ton of stuff to give away as well. So and we are going to be doing a New Year’s party as well this year. So it’s going to be BioShock themed, which have anyone. It’s a video

Ryne Murphy: [00:20:10] Game that,

Speaker6: [00:20:11] Yes,

Stone Payton: [00:20:14] I could have done both interviews he needs. He knows every one of these games

Speaker6: [00:20:19] Look had

Ryne Murphy: [00:20:19] A lot of like free time for a while. So it’s just games. Games are a huge part of my life as well, so I love it. Like, I just love it.

Bug Mcbride: [00:20:27] So, so, so BioShock, you know, it takes place during a New Year’s masquerade more or less, right? And so, you know, you know, it’s a video game or an arcade. So, you know, that’s the reason we’re doing the whole, you know, arcade. I’m trying to think of the tagline my wife actually came up with was a mask arcade or something like that, because that way you you’re wearing a mask and it’s wearing arcades instead of masquerade mask arcade. I was like, That’s pretty clever, Honey

Stone Payton: [00:20:51] Man, you guys are so creative.

Bug Mcbride: [00:20:54] That one was all my wife. I’ll give her credit where credit’s due.

Stone Payton: [00:20:57] But I mean, clearly, you’re very focused on the experience.

Bug Mcbride: [00:21:00] I am. So I mean, and I get that a lot. It was, you know, you know, I get that, you know, coming in, I was like, you know, the atmosphere, you know? You know, besides just the games and stuff like, you know, on the walls, I have my old skateboard decks, I have old LP covers, you know, each table has a different theme. You know, I got one table that has like magic, the gathering cards printed on it and another one table that has a collage of

Adam Gerstin: [00:21:28] Covers

Bug Mcbride: [00:21:29] And covers. I have one that has a Sears catalog, toys from the 80s suite. There’s so many that people that come in there and they go, Wow, I’ve not seen one of these. This is pre-internet. You know, this is how we used to do our Christmas shopping.

Stone Payton: [00:21:43] So, so a lot of our listeners are aspiring entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs, and so I’d like to leave them with a little bit of insight counsel. I have one specific question and then anything you might have to offer that group that is, you know, thinking about being in business or early in business would be, I’m sure, would be very well received. But my question is when things aren’t going so well, when things are, you know, a little stale, a little. Where do you go for inspiration? How do you get recharged? How do you how do you try to manage the, you know, you got your peaks and valleys? How do you manage the valleys, man?

Bug Mcbride: [00:22:21] It’s a couple of tiers. First and foremost, is my wife. My wife is just she’s my rock. I mean, there’s no way around it. You know, we’ve been together now for. Twenty two years.

Stone Payton: [00:22:32] Congratulations. Thank you.

Bug Mcbride: [00:22:35] So, you know, any time you know, I’m feeling down or, you know, worried about it, you know, she is a numbers person by heart that’s, you know. You know, she’s the one. Very nice to have that. Yeah. I would not be where I’m at without her because, I mean, you know, she knows her stuff. So, you know, and then it comes to, you know, our regulars, you know, I may be having a down day and stuff, but you know, the regulars will come in and you know, Hey, let’s play some games. I’m like, OK, you know that? Cheers me up. So, you know. You know, I even got a couple of regulars that we have a group text going now that, you know, we’re always sitting as funny memes or, you know, something like that. You know, there’s regulars that, you know, play Pathfinder with, you know, pretty much weekly now as well. So which everyone’s invited to that, by the way?

Stone Payton: [00:23:15] I guess it it began to come to light for me as I got to know Adam a little bit and what he’s building to give people an opportunity to kind of create community around all this. It really never occurred to me the the community aspect of the gaming, I guess, as a gaming community. But even even though I would call it the gaming community, it always seemed to me like like an individual, almost like an individual thing. But there’s a great deal of camaraderie and community.

Bug Mcbride: [00:23:42] And there is I mean, so not only do you have your, you know, arcade enthusiasts, you know, we’ll have people come in, they go, you know, Oh, I’ve got, you know, a miss Pac-Man in my basement, you know, or I’ve got to miss Pac-Man in my basement. That’s not working. Can you come fix it?

Speaker6: [00:23:54] Right? There you go.

Stone Payton: [00:23:56] And you’re like, No, but I’ll buy your part.

Speaker6: [00:24:00] So, yeah,

Bug Mcbride: [00:24:02] You know, then you have your board game enthusiasts and then you have, you know, your roleplaying enthusiast. So, you know, but you know, they make some angle, you know, usually if you do one, you’re probably going to be mixed in with, you know, one of the other ones, magic. The gathering is another one, you know, nine times out of ten. If you play Magic, the gathering, you’re into video games or all playing games

Adam Gerstin: [00:24:20] Right or both, which is kind of why we did this thing of the nexus.

Speaker6: [00:24:24] And that’s where,

Adam Gerstin: [00:24:25] You know, that’s why our symbol kind of is this kind of hub and spokes where there’s different people on different areas where, you know, and it just brings everybody together. That’s, you know, really what we want to do.

Stone Payton: [00:24:35] Interesting. Well, I am so looking forward to learning more about this, this whole area. And man, I can’t wait to get down to your shop with my Christmas crowd.

Bug Mcbride: [00:24:44] Well, we can’t. I mean, again, you know, we’re really wanting to be part of that community. So not only just the gaming community, but, you know, our local Woodstock community.

Stone Payton: [00:24:53] So I’m going to be that guy, right? We’re going to walk down. I got lots of family coming for Christmas. We’re going to walk down and I’m gonna say, Oh, I’m going to go over to Maxwells and I’m going to have a cigar. Y’all enjoy and then I’m going to walk over there and then you’re going to see me playing pinball for like hours. I’m going to be like that, that mom you were talking about, and then I’ll be hooked. Well, you know,

Bug Mcbride: [00:25:09] There is one dad that will come and drop off his boys at my place and then go next door to Maxwell’s. So I mean, because it’s a win win, you know?

Stone Payton: [00:25:17] Oh, absolutely. No, I love it. All right. Let’s leave our listeners with some points of contact, whatever you think is appropriate. We definitely want him to know where the place is. So an email website, whatever, whatever you feel like as appropriate, so they can, you know, just reach out, learn more. Yeah.

Bug Mcbride: [00:25:33] So we’re right on the edge of downtown Woodstock. We are part of the entertainment district, which I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with that. But the entertainment district still allows open carry so you can actually bring in alcohol as long as the nuclear club from another restaurant. Or you can leave my place in the club. So but we’re located at one sixty four town Lake Parkway. We’re right between the Scuba Place and the tattoo parlor, and our phone number is four oh four four eight zero zero seven two three. And our email is info at the Blue Ghost Arcade.

Stone Payton: [00:26:10] Well, welcome to the community, man. So thrilled to have you here and so, so delighted to have you on the show. And let’s don’t make this a one time thing to come in periodically and check in with us. Let us know about events and stuff that’s that’s going on.

Bug Mcbride: [00:26:22] Well, since you said events.

Speaker6: [00:26:24] Ok, there we go. Here we go.

Bug Mcbride: [00:26:26] So, yeah,

Stone Payton: [00:26:27] I’m a pro, Ryan. You see how I did that. I just walked it in there.

Bug Mcbride: [00:26:30] So yeah, every Monday we do have trivia which with lights up entertainment, you know, Josh comes in which, you know, if you live in the Woodstock area nine times out of ten, you probably do know Josh because he’s just such a great character. So but he does trivia for us every Monday, Tuesday as we do Pathfinder. We’re hoping starting in January to do magic. The gathering tournaments on Wednesday nights Thursday. We’re currently rotating between Smash Brothers tournaments and Mario Kart tournaments, which have been fantastic. We get good turnouts for that. So and then the rest of the week, you know, the weekend. So there’s not much we can do.

Ryne Murphy: [00:27:07] Can’t can’t wait to come in on Thursday and just clean up on Smash. I’m really looking forward to that.

Stone Payton: [00:27:12] Oh, my goodness.

Bug Mcbride: [00:27:12] Ok. You talk a big game, but you

Speaker6: [00:27:16] Oh, it’s going to be horrible.

Stone Payton: [00:27:18] No, there’s been a lot of fun bug. This bug McBride blue ghosts right there on the edge of town that address one more time.

Bug Mcbride: [00:27:24] One six four Town Lake Parkway.

Stone Payton: [00:27:26] All right. Hey, don’t go away, man, while we visit with our next guest and sounds good. We’ll keep chatting about this, this is a fun conversation. Adam, you’re really good at putting folks together. You should like start a business. Oh yeah, you’re doing that, aren’t you?

Adam Gerstin: [00:27:38] Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about.

Stone Payton: [00:27:40] You are really good, right? You see how that work. All right. Our next guest, you all have been very patient. Are you ready for the headliner? How do you like that? Not me. Well, with Hawk’s Nest Gaming, Mr. Ryan Murphy, how are you, man?

Ryne Murphy: [00:27:55] I mean, I’m good. Thank you so much for having us on here. And Adam, thank you for putting this all together and everything. We really appreciate it, honestly. So, yeah, we are with Hawk’s Nest Gaming. We’re a local trading card game shop in Woodstock. We’re relocated right there next to the right down Bells Ferry, where the goodwill is. There’s the Goodwill Dollar General. We are on the other side of that shopping center. So the address is a sixty seven point twenty one Bells Ferry Road, but we actually open back up in June also, and we’d actually been wanting to meet up with a bug in the Blue Ghost guys because honestly, we felt like our demographics for sure would cross paths. And it just so happened that this meeting happened and really happy it did, to say the least.

Stone Payton: [00:28:36] Like, so I got here at the studio late. My sponsor got here at the studio late. These two guys were just having their own party when we got here.

Ryne Murphy: [00:28:44] We’re like professional,

Stone Payton: [00:28:45] You know, so it’s just so, yeah. So tell us about the story. And I know that I realize there are probably a lot of folks in the community who know exactly you know what story is what it does. But there’s many of us that don’t. What are you providing for folks and

Ryne Murphy: [00:29:01] Helping, you know, what do you know what a Pokémon is? Yes, sir, I do. Ok. Awesome. Awesome. Okay, great. All right. That’s it. That’s it. Actually, all we do with Pokémon game over. All right. No. So we what we do is we do like trading card games. In other words, so we do like magic, the gathering, Yukio Digimon Pokémon. We’re getting into the Dungeons Dragons market, actually, because that is just popping off right now. I mean, as Bug or Adam could tell you, it is huge right now. So we’re getting into that. Basically, though, we host tournaments, we do events. We actually just did a Christmas party this past weekend. We had Santa came to see us and everything. It was awesome. It was great.

Stone Payton: [00:29:39] So how’d you get in the business, man? You’ve always been an avid gamer.

Ryne Murphy: [00:29:43] So I’ve been a video game for a long time card gamer collector since I was like 12 13. There was a whole shop. Actually, a lot of people might remember in Woodstock that was called batter up. A lot of us used to go there, hang out, and it was just I always remembered as a place I really enjoyed being because it was with a lot of good people and you just got a lot of people that seem to care about one another could play these games, have fun, hang out afterwards. It was great. And it’s always been something I’ve just loved. And me and my partner, Cameron, actually my partners, by the way, are named Cameron and Rachel. They obviously could not make it today, but they are also a huge part of what we do. But we just kind of decided like, Woodstock needs a place like this. There is no card shop in Woodstock. There hasn’t been for a few years, and it’s just something that we’ve wanted to do for a very long time. And so we just. Doug, our elbows in and got to it, if that’s even the phrase, I don’t know.

Stone Payton: [00:30:37] So so my understanding, my knowledge, my frame of reference for Pokemon. All these things, it’s very limited. So forgive me if some of these questions are a little bit pedestrian. No, you’re fine. But let’s say I’m in search of a certain one or two or three. Sure, but I come to you. And if you don’t have it, you know somebody that does maybe or you’re on the lookout for it, or

Ryne Murphy: [00:30:55] There’s a good chance that if you’re looking for some, there’s a chance I might be able to find it. And there’s also a chance that I do already have it. I do make it a point to try and find kind of like the high value stuff because I want to have stuff that people are looking for for lack of a better term. Right? Pokemon Market’s really good right now. It’s just it’s a lot of fun. You get a lot of new kids that are now playing the game. I think COVID for a while slowed it down as far as like players. Yeah. And now that we’re at a better place, people are getting together, playing. We get got a really big group that comes in on Wednesday now just to trade and poke them, like just poke them on that. That’s it.

Stone Payton: [00:31:30] So they trade with each other. They’re not always trading, buying with you.

Ryne Murphy: [00:31:34] They will. Absolutely, yeah, you know, because that’s that’s part of the community. You want that like, you want these people hanging out with each other, not just talking to me, you know, like, we want to grow that community. We want it to be bigger. Same with you, magic you. It’s so funny the amount of times you have two people that did not know each other that day, and then a week later, they’re texting one another to meet up at the shop to be able to play and stuff. So it’s just it feels really cool bringing people together like that.

Stone Payton: [00:31:59] One of it’s so important, right, to have to have a place instead of, you know, accidentally meeting someone at the Waffle House or. Exactly, exactly. That’s where I would meet somebody, because that’s where I spend my downtime.

Adam Gerstin: [00:32:10] That’s all fun. I spent many an hour playing magic at the Waffle

Stone Payton: [00:32:13] House, did you right? Oh, definitely, man. We’ve got to send him an invoice that’s just like a free plug there.

Ryne Murphy: [00:32:20] Yeah, we used to actually play at Starbucks a long time ago. That’s where I used to play a lot. And then I was like, But I need my own thing and we just did it. We made it happen, and it’s been a lot of fun so far.

Stone Payton: [00:32:30] Well, you’ve already mentioned your business partners and we will we’ll have them come in sometime and we’ll do like roundtables. Absolutely. This is fun stuff, but tell us a little bit about getting this thing off the ground. And then it sounds like maybe you had a little bit of a of a time when you didn’t do much, maybe because of it. But what was it like getting it off the ground?

Ryne Murphy: [00:32:47] So luckily, we kind of got in. We started the process back in about November, December of last year. Ok, but it took a while, you know, to get all the everything finalized, get into the building, that kind of thing. Once we were in there, we just got to work. We immediately started cleaning everything, painting everything. The building had never been rented out before, so we just within a month and a half, basically, we had the we had it basically ready to go at that point getting product and obviously was, you know, just start. But it was it was really nice getting started in about June because we really hit a good spot around there.

Stone Payton: [00:33:21] So was it a little bit of a chicken and an egg thing for your business if you’ve got to have the product, but you’ve got to have the stuff? So did you have to go out and buy a bunch of stuff?

Ryne Murphy: [00:33:30] That’s like a really good analogy. Yeah, a little bit, actually. Like, yeah, because in order for them to like to to get stuff, you have to have stuff know it’s it’s one of those like, yeah, but luckily we were able to find a good balance and find some good people to help us out with it. So everything’s kind of come to come to fruition, if you will.

Stone Payton: [00:33:47] And what is finding commercial real estate like to buy or lease? I’ve never done that. Often we don’t pay rent for spaces we’re in because we work out a deal. And but anyway, yeah, what’s that like?

Ryne Murphy: [00:33:58] I mean, a lot of it’s just, I think a lot of it just depends on the area and what the availability is a place is, you know, you’ve got to be able to get in touch with people on stuff. I’m sure Bug will tell you it’s picking the spot also that you feel like is the right

Bug Mcbride: [00:34:09] Spot, right? Yeah, I mean, we’re trying to be as close to downtown as possible, and it took us over three years to find also. And, you know, we actually had signed the lease in January 2020 and then COVID hit. Oh, so luckily, though, we actually had a clause in our lease to get out of it. So. So we didn’t have to sit there and pay for that that whole year or so, and we worked with the landlord the whole time. Sorry, I didn’t mean to.

Stone Payton: [00:34:34] That’s that’s back to you, bug. Yeah, no. But it was trying by.

Ryne Murphy: [00:34:39] It was it was really trying to find light, like you said, trying to find the right space that you knew was going to be good for what you were doing. And if we looked at a few places, but we definitely found the one that we felt like was was correct for us.

Stone Payton: [00:34:51] All right. So let’s talk about partnerships. Sure. I have a business partner and I’m very blessed that I do. Sounds like you’ve got a marvelous situation. What do you think are some of the things that that make a partnership work and maybe some things to try to avoid when you’re working with folks?

Ryne Murphy: [00:35:07] A big part of it is you got to you got to have trust in whoever you’re working with when it comes down and stuff like that. If it’s business, if it’s life, you’ve got to make sure that you got the right person and Cameron and Rachel or two of the best people. I know they’re two of my best friends and have been for many years. And if anything like doing this together, you know, there’s been some like, you know, it’s been hard.

Bug Mcbride: [00:35:26] Sometimes it’s kind of a give and take. I mean, it was like a marriage, almost.

Ryne Murphy: [00:35:30] It really is. Well, they’re actually married.

Bug Mcbride: [00:35:32] Oh. I mean, right.

Ryne Murphy: [00:35:35] But yeah, I don’t think they want to get married to another person.

Stone Payton: [00:35:39] But like but they have basically they’re pretty fresh, right? Absolutely.

Ryne Murphy: [00:35:44] But I love them to death and honestly having people like that and having us all work together the way we do has made that place so much better and just made it made me happy for lack of a better term.

Stone Payton: [00:35:54] I’ll bet. So did you guys go into it or did you evolve to a kind of very distinct roles

Ryne Murphy: [00:36:00] In the business? Like, we kind of knew what we were doing beforehand? You know, like I’m going to be I operate mostly all the day to day, for the most part. Cameron obviously helps me out a lot with that. But for the most part, I’m the one that always runs day to day. Rachel Anders, all she handles a lot of are like accounting and stuff like that because I’m bad at that. So like, you know, let Rachel’s got it under control. But again,

Stone Payton: [00:36:22] The numbers we were talking about this, we were in bug segment, right? I mean that you got to be on top of one hundred percent. It sounds like it’s not your superpower. Oh, it’s not mine either, but

Ryne Murphy: [00:36:31] I’m good at it. It’s just one of those. If I had to pick it as a strike, I would say it’s it’s not necessarily a weakness, either. It’s just one of those like Rachel, really good on its own shoulder. And like, she’s really good at it. Like, so

Stone Payton: [00:36:45] It’s actually a weakness for me. I look at the bank, and if there’s money in the bank, OK, guess everything’s OK and everything’s fine, right? And we’re good. Lights are still on in the studio, so

Ryne Murphy: [00:36:56] Now, but it really helps having us. Each kind of have our own skill sets as as for what what we do. So like, you know, I’m there all day. I, you know, I like to think I’m a people person for the most part. So like,

Stone Payton: [00:37:08] No, you clearly are. You check that box that much I could sign off on. Absolutely. For everyone.

Bug Mcbride: [00:37:14] No, it’s

Speaker6: [00:37:16] My evil plan.

Ryne Murphy: [00:37:17] It’s a it’s a lot of fun, though it really is. And like, like I said, working with them, working together the way we have for as long as we have now, it’s it’s really good. You know, there’s always going to be bumps in the road, but we’ve easily gotten through them and we’re still moving kind of deal.

Stone Payton: [00:37:32] So what’s the biggest challenge so far?

Ryne Murphy: [00:37:35] Honestly, it’s like Bugg was saying earlier making you have some days where you’re just like, Oh my God, what did I get myself into? It can be really scary sometimes, but honestly, it’s being able to get a good clientele that cares about you, that you care about building that community because you want, you know, you want new people. You also want people that want to be there and want to come back kind of deal. And I think we’ve done a really good job of doing that.

Stone Payton: [00:38:01] Well, you have this morning. Yeah, I got an old guy here who used to play pinball. You know, my thing is hunting and fishing. And now I’m thinking, Well, no, I need to go down there and play pinball, you know, or maybe just try to do this court.

Ryne Murphy: [00:38:12] We can teach you how to play magic, that’s for sure, but apparently plays a lot of magic Lee Kantor we can definitely teach you.

Stone Payton: [00:38:18] But again, what? I’m what is getting impressed upon me is just how important community is in this arena. And I guess it just took me a while to see it in that frame.

Ryne Murphy: [00:38:30] I really think Woodstock and Cherokee in general has always had a really good community, and that’s one reason I am happy I live here and have lived here for the last twenty seven years.

Stone Payton: [00:38:39] All right. Well, we ought to talk a little bit about that because that’s been my experience. I’ve been here since April. We moved here, living here since April. I have found the business community and the community leaders just to be so supportive and I don’t mean polite, you know, come over and have some sweet tea sometimes, you know, supportive. I mean, what can I do to help you with your business? Who do you need? You need some interviewers. You need some spark. I mean, such an embracing, supportive business community here.

Ryne Murphy: [00:39:07] We’ve had experience. Yeah, we’ve actually had we have a neighbor that’s at a shop, a couple of doors down from us. And when we were first building stuff and we actually put together like a closet, he gave us all the shelving that we have now. It was just little stuff like that, though, like little things that don’t seem like they’re big, right, that were that really like impress upon you and that it was it was a big deal, you know, like, it made me feel like, wow, like this guy wants to help us out. And it just was a little step that helped us a lot like, yeah,

Stone Payton: [00:39:37] So the marketing for you. And I asked Pug the same question earlier, but is it? Is it more like just viral and it just sort of builds on itself? Or do you go out and do billboards and like, buy it? How does it

Ryne Murphy: [00:39:48] Work for you? It’s a lot of Instagram, Facebook, social media, social media, big time platform. Oh, it’s it’s absolutely, probably the biggest one now, at least to me, that’s how it feels. We are going to be doing like some advertisements and stuff like that. But for now, social media has definitely been the way.

Stone Payton: [00:40:05] Yeah, I’ll bet.

Adam Gerstin: [00:40:07] And that’s what we’re trying to come in and create that social media platform specifically for gamers so that they could find people like Bowie and Ryan’s business is easier.

Bug Mcbride: [00:40:15] Yeah, I mean, there’s been other, you know, ways we’ve advertised as well. Like, you know, we sponsored the Southern Fried Gaming Expo app this past year, which I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but it’s a I am now.

Stone Payton: [00:40:26] No, I wasn’t.

Adam Gerstin: [00:40:28] So we were actually at the show as well. Yes.

Stone Payton: [00:40:30] But if it’s got southern and fried in it, I’m probably there, you know?

Bug Mcbride: [00:40:34] If you’re a gamer, it’s just a huge convention for, you know, gamers. You know, they have arcade machines, pinball machines, tons of board games. They had a fantastic museum this year. Only if you saw that or not.

Adam Gerstin: [00:40:47] Yeah, absolutely.

Bug Mcbride: [00:40:48] So they had like, you know, all the old consoles and computer games and things like that. And then, you know, with any convention, you know, they’ll have speakers and things like that. But yeah, so we sponsor that. So, you know, our logo and name were all over the place there as well. So it was a lot of fun like. Absolutely.

Adam Gerstin: [00:41:04] Yeah, I mean, you know, we were exhibitors and we got a bunch of people that were just walking through and got shown more about the platform, got a bunch of people to sign up. As you mentioned, there was a whole like giant room full of pinball games, video games. You know, I think there was a magic tournaments and stuff as well. I mean, so

Bug Mcbride: [00:41:22] They have roleplaying rooms as well. Mm hmm.

Adam Gerstin: [00:41:24] So some people selling some stuff. It was a really good experience.

Bug Mcbride: [00:41:28] Oh yeah. I think they actually have like live wrestling to do.

Speaker6: [00:41:32] Yes.

Adam Gerstin: [00:41:33] Yeah, it was one of them. I don’t watch wrestling in the wild, but they definitely had one of the brands and we were looking at possibly sponsoring something to do with that. Or actually, we were a little too late.

Ryne Murphy: [00:41:42] I think one of the wrestling guys like slam somebody through the magic, the gathering cable or anything.

Speaker6: [00:41:47] There you’re tap now.

Stone Payton: [00:41:49] Well, it might be fun.

Speaker6: [00:41:50] Sometimes it’s a good joke.

Ryne Murphy: [00:41:53] That’s a good joke. If you play magic, that’s a good one.

Stone Payton: [00:41:58] No, it might be fun to take the gaming series to some of these events like that. They’re local, you know, like take a remote, take a remote kid out there and do just some live and maybe set some interviews up. And then maybe also just get people out of the crowd and talk about why they love gaming and stuff.

Bug Mcbride: [00:42:11] Yeah. Well, from pre-COVID, you know, reformation down here in Woodstock, you know, they would have a monthly board game night. So I would go to all the time, you know, Brad NEX, one of the founders of every formation, is a huge board gamer. Oh, OK. So, you know, that was a lot of fun. So hopefully they’ll start that back up again.

Adam Gerstin: [00:42:29] So actually, that was one of the reasons that we actually started LG Nexus was because we saw that Reformation Brewery was doing these like impromptu things where you can play D and D as a one shot game for Arnault’s. Whatever amount of dollars and you got like two drinks and like some food.

Bug Mcbride: [00:42:45] Yeah, I think that thing was like twenty twenty five dollars. So, yeah, Josh really ran that.

Adam Gerstin: [00:42:49] Mm hmm. And so it wasn’t very expensive, and it was a great way to meet other people and you got some beer and some food and get played at the same time. And so that was kind of part of where we originally started, where we were looking to create a kid or D&D game for people and then kind of shifted into this whole social media.

Stone Payton: [00:43:05] So that was the genesis of the idea, or it kind of helps to

Adam Gerstin: [00:43:07] Help spark it. It was absolutely.

Bug Mcbride: [00:43:09] Oh, nice.

Stone Payton: [00:43:10] Yeah. So Ryan, what’s next for you? You guys got big plans. You just trying to get stable? What’s what’s where are you going to be putting your energy over there?

Ryne Murphy: [00:43:17] We’re just we’re just trying to get bigger for lack of a better. Are you really just, you know, like we want to do more events, more things, you know, we’re we’re just kind of getting a feel for some of the stuff trying to figure out what schedules work for people, what what’s going to be the most popular format. What what do people want to play for lack of a better term? And we want to just make sure that we are on the front end of that. Get out in front of it, if you will. Yeah, it’s a you know, it’s it’s a lot, you know, it’s a lot to you got to make sure you’re listening to people got to pay attention to what even if you don’t carry a thing. Pay attention to what other people are asking about. And if enough people ask about it, it makes sense to get in on it kind of deal. So we are going to be having more magic tournaments. We’re going to start doing Digimon here soon. Pokémon tournaments, everything. It’s going to be a blast tonight. Actually, we have our weekly Ukiyo tournament going on tonight at seven o’clock. So I think that’s going to be a lot of fun.

Stone Payton: [00:44:08] Yeah. All right. So where is this? Let’s make sure our listeners know how they can get to you.

Ryne Murphy: [00:44:12] So one more time it is sixty seven twenty one Bells Ferry Road. It is right on Bells Ferry, where the goodwill and the Dollar General are just in the shopping center opposite that really easy to get to, especially if you know the Woodstock area you know exactly where I’m talking about.

Stone Payton: [00:44:27] Yeah, neat. Well, thanks so much for coming and hanging out.

Ryne Murphy: [00:44:31] I’m really glad y’all had me. Thank you

Stone Payton: [00:44:32] Again. Yeah, sorry. It’s our pleasure. And I think we got to do this on a more consistent basis. And just and you know, you guys know the other folks in the community who are out there trying to serve in this way. You know, let’s get them together and give them a chance to talk about their business, but also just to talk about gaming in general. You know, maybe getting them together like this is a great way for them to share best practices. I don’t know. That’s fun. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So what can our listeners be doing? What can Business RadioX be doing? What can we? I’m going to ask all three of you this before we wrap. What can we be doing to help? Man, what’s the best way for us to support you guys going forward?

Ryne Murphy: [00:45:11] Honestly, it just help us get the word out like you are right now. We really appreciate just having kind of a platform to speak on. I know I don’t necessarily speak for them, but I think we we can all agree on that, that we just are appreciative of having another platform to get ourselves out there.

Stone Payton: [00:45:25] Absolutely. Is there some card that we should all be on the lookout for? Like any, just any

Ryne Murphy: [00:45:31] Charges are

Bug Mcbride: [00:45:32] Just like some of. His cards go for some math.

Stone Payton: [00:45:35] They really

Ryne Murphy: [00:45:35] Do. Anybody just just get it down. Yeah, like and everybody in home probably knows what I’m talking about, even if you don’t know Pokemon. You probably heard of Charles art at some point.

Stone Payton: [00:45:45] Go to your attic right now. See if Uncle Joe has a cardboard box.

Ryne Murphy: [00:45:50] It’s going to be in that box your mom was going to throw away. I promise.

Adam Gerstin: [00:45:53] Like quick story. About three months ago, my father said we were throwing some stuff away. We found a thing of some magic cards and like I played like early in magic. Yeah. And so I was like, Oh, this could be really good.

Ryne Murphy: [00:46:05] So I would absolutely could bring it by. Let know I got you. I got you.

Adam Gerstin: [00:46:10] I look through it. There wasn’t.

Stone Payton: [00:46:12] That’s what that’s your in the future. You could be like the porn star guy, right? And have like the reality series, you know, people bring in stuff. I got 100 of those. I don’t want that. And then you go get it appraised and stuff.

Ryne Murphy: [00:46:22] It does happen sometimes where I have

Stone Payton: [00:46:24] To like, find somebody

Ryne Murphy: [00:46:26] Else. I got to break people’s hearts sometimes. Oh no. It’s one of those like, they’ll be like, I have this really valuable thing. Here’s this card. And I’m like, It’s it’s like twelve dollars.

Bug Mcbride: [00:46:35] I know that feels because, you know, I’m constantly looking for these arcade machines and every arcade machine someone thinks is worth $4000, right? I’m sorry. You know, it’s not, you know, this is not the very sought after machine and you know, you might get, you know, three or four hundred. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some machines out there that will go for $4000, right? You know,

Speaker6: [00:46:55] But

Ryne Murphy: [00:46:56] It’s just it’ll it’ll happen. Sometimes you’ll people will think, you know, it’s like and sometimes you’re like, Oh, actually, this thing you have that you thought wasn’t valuable is actually very valuable. And you know, I let people know that. But sometimes you have to break their heart a little bit and it stinks. But it’s it’s part of,

Bug Mcbride: [00:47:12] You know, you have to be able to buy the product to make a profit yourself.

Stone Payton: [00:47:16] Correct. That’s what the porn star guy always tells. I don’t know if y’all know that show or not, but his pawn shop in Vegas

Adam Gerstin: [00:47:22] And I’ve watched most of the episodes

Stone Payton: [00:47:23] And he’ll he’ll he’ll like, call on his gun guy or his, you know, whatever it is, whatever sort of stuff. Yeah, but what can we be doing to help you, man?

Bug Mcbride: [00:47:32] Besides just getting the word out, come visit us. I mean, you’d be surprised, you know, as soon as you walk through that door, you know, it’s very nostalgic and you know you’re going to want to stay. It’s a time warp. It is. It really is.

Ryne Murphy: [00:47:44] Just if I’m there, don’t touch the house, the dead game because I’ll already be doing it.

Stone Payton: [00:47:48] Like, Do you go in there early and just tie off a ribbon? And I put that orange cone on the joystick when you

Ryne Murphy: [00:47:53] Guys open at noon right now,

Bug Mcbride: [00:47:55] Everyone. So but I mean, I mean, there are groups of people who have certain games, you know, there, if they walk in and see that someone has taken their name off the highest score, I mean, they’re just like, OK, I know what I’m doing today.

Stone Payton: [00:48:05] Oh my god. Oh, that’s so that happens. I get competitive. That’s fallen down and not, yeah, that’s hilarious.

Bug Mcbride: [00:48:12] So pole position is a popular one for that right now. Really? Yeah. Ok, which one pole position? I don’t know what that is. Oh wow. You must be really young.

Stone Payton: [00:48:22] I probably do when I see it.

Bug Mcbride: [00:48:24] Yeah, I guarantee you once you saw you be like, Oh yeah, I know it’s because I like driving. This is a racing game from, like, early 80s.

Ryne Murphy: [00:48:32] Gotcha. Gotcha is one of the like, sit down in the car, so you

Bug Mcbride: [00:48:34] Actually end up on this

Adam Gerstin: [00:48:35] One. This is really old.

Stone Payton: [00:48:37] It’s old school.

Ryne Murphy: [00:48:37] Yeah, yeah, it’s stand up and drive. It’s really dangerous.

Stone Payton: [00:48:42] I’ve used in in business, sometimes in the consulting world. The analogy I’m actually got this from just now occurred to me. I talk about having the bird’s eye view because on on some games you can switch the view of whether you’re sitting in the car or if you’re watching all the cars, including yours. And I think sometimes it’s important as people who run businesses to get out of the cockpit and get the bird’s eye view of what’s going on. And it just now occurred to me. That’s where that came from.

Adam Gerstin: [00:49:08] Absolutely. Yeah, just that first person versus third person perspective. Yeah, you just kind of take it a step back from your business to be like, OK, how’s it going? What am I doing? And kind of assess what’s going on?

Stone Payton: [00:49:17] Yeah. All right. What can we be doing to support you over there at LFG next?

Adam Gerstin: [00:49:21] This man again, you know, it’s really just about getting the word out, just letting people know that we’re around and you know, we’re trying to, you know, help people. We’re trying to help, you know, especially, you know, Bug and Ryan to people put their vents out there like a one stop shop place where they can, you know, see everything that’s going on locally so that, you know, they can, you know, set up their calendars in advance and make sure that they could attend these different types of events and get involved in the local community.

Bug Mcbride: [00:49:43] And it’s free to sign up for your platform. So I mean, go sign up.

Stone Payton: [00:49:47] That’s a good price. Yeah, I can swing that.

Bug Mcbride: [00:49:50] Yeah, I mean, it doesn’t hurt to try, right?

Adam Gerstin: [00:49:53] Try. There’s so many other features that we offer. I think you guys really like it. We’re really trying to build this for gamers. And if you guys have any suggestions, please let us know you can email us. And we’re really attentive. We do want to build this place for gamers.

Stone Payton: [00:50:07] All right, so let’s go back around one more time before we wrap and let’s leave contact info or where to go so people know how to get. We would start with you and Ryan, where’s your replacement?

Ryne Murphy: [00:50:15] Sure. Yeah. So once again, sixty seven twenty one Bells Ferry Road, Suite 104, right next to goodwill in the Dollar General. Like I said, if you’re in the Cherokee area, you know about it. Instagram you can follow us at a hawk’s Nest TCG. That’s Hawk’s Nest TCG. Or to tease back to back there, it’s not like hawks, nest egg stocks, nest egg and then also you can add us on Facebook at a Hawks Nest Gaming.

Stone Payton: [00:50:42] Fantastic bug.

Bug Mcbride: [00:50:44] We’re the Blue Goose starrcade at one sixty four Town Lake Parkway in downtown Woodstock. Our phone number is four four four eight zero zero seven two three. If you just type in the Blue Ghost Arcade, you’ll find us on Facebook and Instagram. I mean, it’s a. Pretty easy, pretty easy name.

Stone Payton: [00:51:05] Oh yeah, I know I love it, I think I love both of your names, the Hawks, Nest and the Blue Ghost. It’s great. And all right, LFG Next is where can we go? Find out more, man.

Adam Gerstin: [00:51:14] You can find us at WWE Next. You can also find us on the App Store and the Play Store. So, you know, if he has like mobile gaming a little bit better, that works as well. You can also email us at Info at LVG Nexus Dot Com

Stone Payton: [00:51:28] And Stones here to support We’re actually Business RadioX is actually a sponsor of LG Nexus, and we’re actually going to publish the episode, so I’m going to do that for you. I’m going to get in the attic, and I’m going to ask Max and Kat to get neurotic. They’re younger, and I’m definitely going to come have a beer. Okay, so I’m here for you guys.

Bug Mcbride: [00:51:46] We have a huge

Speaker6: [00:51:47] Selection, so.

Stone Payton: [00:51:48] All right. Well, until next time, this is Stone Payton for our sponsor today, LFC Nexus, our guest and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Cherokee Business RadioX.