Hey, it's Jeff Zito. Thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber podcast streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please hit that subscribe button. Would also love a five-star rating. Please leave a review. You can check out past guests and episodes online at CelebrityJobber.com. Who are these celebrities? What did they do before fame? That's the big question that we try to get answered. We just try to find out what trajectory they were on prior to fame. Maybe their fame ended up just being by accident. Or it could be something that they've worked towards their entire career. And maybe they were on a certain path and had a few turns and twists that led them to where they are now. My guest today, John Taffer, who's the host of Bar Rescue on the Paramount Network, now in its 10th season. I had John on as a guest back about a year ago. It was episode number 129. If you wanted to go back and check it out, we talked about John Taffer's early life growing up, about his family business, which was in the marketing world. We talked about his idea for Bar Rescue and the pitch that he made in front of all these TV people. And we talked about what his first job was, which was a delivery driver for a liquor store back when he was 16 years old growing up in New York. Okay, so on this episode of Celebrity Jobber, I thought it would be interesting to dig a little deeper into John's early life and the jobs that he had. Because there are many things that John Taffer has accomplished more so than the show Bar Rescue and opening up his own bars and restaurants. This guy has done many, many things. He's lived a very interesting life. And I bet you also didn't know John Taffer is one of the people responsible for the NFL Sunday ticket, where now people can just purchase all the football games in the NFL and watch on their home TV each and every Sunday. Really interesting stuff we didn't cover in the first episode, and we're going to cover it now. He's the host of Bar Rescue, John Taffer, my guest this week on Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five-star rating, and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you pod. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Hey, John. Hi, Jeff. Can you hear me all right? I can. How are you doing? Oh, great. I'm doing great. So last time we talked, we talked all about your life before you got into, you know, Bar Rescue. I remember. That was a good talk. I remember. Fascinating. Fascinating stuff. So I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into some of that. I wanted to talk about this was the ninth. When we talked, it was the ninth season of Bar Rescue. We're talking 10th season today. You were telling me that you're from a family of entrepreneurs and they were in the marketing world. How did growing up in those surroundings with your family being marketers kind of influence you in kind of doing what you're doing now? I think I think it does. I think it matters. My grandfather actually gets credit for inventing direct mail. Really? I use that all the time. Yeah, when he was young in Brooklyn, his parents were legally blind. And he only made it to school to 14. And his father had a newspaper stand. It's a classic story. And he used to, he brought a printing press, got a printing press, and he printed flyers. And he'd stick them in his father's newspapers on the corner. Wow. And then he started stuffing them in mailboxes. And then before he knows it, he had a little storefront. And they were doing all this marketing and such in Brooklyn, New York. And then a big ad agency bought his company. Wow. And then he became vice president the law agency. So I've always been around entrepreneurs. My family's also had products. My grandfather invented a wedding doll called Betsy Wetsy. My mother's name was Yeti. So it was looked like my mother. And so I've had a rich group of entrepreneurs around me that have inspired me, you know, to do well, have also taught me at a young age that you can do well. And so much of teaching your children isn't that you should do well. They need to understand that they can do well if they try that it does work you will be successful it's worth it my family showed me it was worth it to try so i did celebrity jobber the celebrity jobber podcast with jeff zeta tell me a little bit about why you studied political science you went to the university of denver you graduated high school you were a political science major what was in your mind at that time what did john Taffer want to become at that time Well you know I grew up a little older than you of course buddy So when I grew up we had some of the race riots and all those kind of things. It was ugly periods of America. Not that we don't have some ugly periods now. Unfortunately, it still goes on. But I was very political. I really wanted to change the world. I wanted to make a world a better place. But my minor was cultural anthropology, which really connected with me even more than politics. I'm glad I didn't go into politics. But but cultural anthropology taught me the study of primates and primate societies. And I've realized how you are first, you know, you go to your prime instincts and then things change. So, you know, what is your prime instinct? If I drop you in a situation, are you defensive? Are you aggressive? Are you intuitive? Do you have pride? Do you have shame? What are all these primal instincts within you and how do they react? Because when I try to change your behavior, I try to do it in a primal sense. You know, John, you're a deep thinker. I like, I like that. You were telling me about your very first job and you said you were 16 years old. You were a delivery driver for a liquor store. That's right. You were, you were telling me all about this job, but one thing slipped past me. And, uh, I got to ask you were also a drummer. You played drums professionally. You, you pay, you were, you were a paid drummer. Tell me a little bit about that point in your life. Yeah, when I was young, I took drum lessons for nine years. Very, very serious drummer. And I played professionally. As a matter of fact, when I went to California, I was playing drums at the Troubadour, which I became manager of later. So the music is what got me into the nightclub business, which got me to where I am today. I was actually sitting with Doug Weston, who owned the Troubadour, a famous, famous guy in his house. We were doing a booking calendar. And he looks at me and goes, here, you run it. And he threw the keys at me. And the next day I was running a nightclub and I just fell in love with it. And you know, it's interesting in a music world. There's two things about music. There's playing it, making it. And then there's displaying it, exhibitioning it. I became an expert of playing music to audiences. I own the only patent ever issued by the federal government for music management in a hospitality property. It's a system of managing beats per minute and structure and instrumentation styles of music to create flows on the dance floor to create a left turn. Everybody walks off. Another group walks on. The cash registers get hit. Another shift. People walk off. People walk on. The cash registers get hit. If the DJ doesn't know that stuff, the cash register doesn't get its hit. So so so I am an expert at displaying music, playing it. I know the difference of 10 songs in 10 different orders and which order is going to work best. You know, it's crazy, John. People think that stuff's just an accident. You're telling me that you've got an idea of, you know, beats per minute. And when people are going to get on the dance floor, when a new group's going to that, I thought it's just this guy's up there playing whatever. It's not. I can turn tables faster by adjusting beats per minute. My music program, I can change demographics massively. if I play three female vocalists in a row in a dance club, all the gang members disappear. They hate female vocalists. There's a lot of sciences to displaying of music. So what's happened is I've become more of an expert displaying and exhibiting music than I did when I was actually playing it. Wow. You're a big research guy. Tell me, tell me a little bit about how, how you were credited with creating the NFL Sunday ticket, because that was another thing I had no idea that you were involved in. And this is something that I've been subscribing to now for years. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Celebrity Jobber. How you were credited with creating the NFL Sunday ticket because that was another thing I had no idea that you were involved in. And this is something that I've been subscribing to now for years. Yeah, back in the mid-90s, a company called ComSat, which owned all the pay-per-view movie channels and they managed all the satellites in the sky, hired my company to do a feasibility study for what was called out-of-market sports programming. So in essence, I could sell the Dallas Cowboy signal to somebody in New York. They'd get the local coach show and they'd get that game. So they hired my company to do a feasibility study for it. So we did. And we assessed the industry and we determined it was a real market for this. And we got paid a lot of money for doing this feasibility study. And then ComSat comes to us a second time and says, wow, we really like this. Tell us what the product would look like. Well, while we're developing a second phase of the work, while we're developing that, compression was invented. And compression means I could receive multiple satellite signals on one transponder. Before that, you remember sports bars had a quarter of an acre behind them with like six analog dishes to get all those signals. Now I only needed one. So that was the opportunity to give you seven games at the same time. Then we created the product, gave them that document. So now they had the feasibility and they had the product and pricing from us. They came to us a third time and said, who will buy it, John? So we created a list of the marketing universe of all the companies that they would buy the subscription. We gave it to ComSat. ComSat took it to the NFL to buy the license to do this. The NFL said, wow, this is great. Let's do it ourselves. They put me on a board of NFL enterprises and it turned into Sunday ticket You got a little you got a little piece of that every year Cause it was your idea No I don get a don get a piece of it but i was paid very very well when i okay man i tell you what john you know when i think about all the things that you done and have accomplished you know being on having a tv show to me just see i mean it doesn't fit you told me they they talked to you in the beginning and they said it's not going to work you're too old it's not the right demo And here we are talking about the 10th season of Bar Rescue. And you got like, it's on Paramount Network, by the way, Sunday, February 22nd, the premiere of season 10 of Bar Rescue. Double episode, too. Double episode. Two in a row. Two in a row that night. I see Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC is going to be on this season. I got a story for you about Chris Kirkpatrick from NSYNC many years ago before he was married to his new beautiful wife. we we spent a night together in a bar in Fort Myers downtown shooting pool and let me tell you there was a bartender at Fat Cat's Drink Shack was what it was called and me and him both we really liked that she was a really nice girl let's just say that he's a very good guy great guy yep tell me a little bit about bar season 10 of bar rescue and and you know don't give it away But we all know you go in there, you get pissed at some at some bar owners that really are being dumb, drinking on the job, just not managing it properly. Tell me a little bit about this season, 10th season and what we can expect. You know, it's interesting. I'm going to give you. Here's an episode. You're 55 years old. You've already lost your house. You're living in your parents' basement. You've blown their retirement all gone. And now their house is about to be repossessed. How do you let that happen? And now I'm dropped in to save this guy's bar. Wow. I can't just save his bar. I got to save his parents' house. Wow. So that's the depth of failure that we're dealing with. Let me give you another one. In debt, $300,000. You're drunk. You're sitting in your bar all night drinking. Your wife is home. You've already lost a car. You're about to lose your house. You have two kids. Your wife hasn't been able to buy them clothes or anything in six months because you're so broke. And you're sitting there on a bar stool drinking. John, is the problem here 90% of the time alcoholism with these bar owners? Is it the Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito? The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. John, is the problem here 90% of the time alcoholism with these bar owners? Is it? No, I would say alcoholism is about 20, 25%. Oh, wow. A lot of it is what I'm going to call social distortion. they think by hanging out and socializing with people they're going to make money but the bar business is about marketing and promotions and it's a challenging business jeff you got to work it every day to get bodies in that building and make it work and they just typically don't do that you know they lack pride etc so my job is to come in and shake them up because every failing bar has a failing owner if i don't fix them i don't fix anything and and can you think is i mean i guess you can't tell me but there's got to be some some success story that i mean you can't tell us because we this is why we got to watch bar rescue i mean john's just telling you about an example of forget the bar his family's house and his parents house is on the line because the guy can't what happens to these people john they just get just get in so deep they just keep rolling the dice It seems like very relatable. People know how that goes. Overwhelmed. The bills are over. Think about this. The first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning, Jeff, are the bills and the pressure. The last thing they think about when they go to sleep at night is the same thing. So they're in a bad psychological place. And I got to break these patterns. And I do it in that primal way that we're talking about. You know, I go at these instinctual ways. It's the best way I can change their behavior. And it seems like it's tough love, too. You go in there really. No question. You go in there really heavy. You, you know, shame these people quite a bit. And then there's a turnaround. Sometimes they don't turn around. A lot of the times they buy in, right? Most of the time they do. Most of the time they do. And then do you just know when you're at a situation and you just know it's, it's hopeless? And you just, you know, it's interesting when I do, when I'm successful, Jeff, their posture changes. They're walking different. They're faced with confidence. They're excited. They're not ashamed anymore. When the transformation happens, I can feel it. I can see it. It's amazing. When I leave that bar, I can tell you if they're going to make it or not just on the way the owner is acting. And so that's why I focus so much on them and changing their behavior. Building the bar is easy, Jeff. I can build bars all day long. You know, they're the challenge. The guy that was running a bar and tried to make it a strip club. Remember that guy? Yes. He didn't make it, did he? No, of course not. No, he didn't make it. I knew that was not going to last, no. Because he wanted a strip club. He wanted his customers. Customers didn't. Man, I got to tell you, what's next, John? I mean, look, you're an entrepreneur. You've done all these things. We talked about, you know, you were a professional drummer. Your first job was delivering liquor. You managed the Troubadour, a legendary club. You've probably seen many famous bands perform there. You invented the Sunday ticket came up with the concept of Bar Rescue I know you own your own bars and restaurants but what next You got anything else in the hopper Well we just launched Taffer Brown Butter Bourbon in Georgia our third state We're very excited about that. It's doing really, really well. If you haven't tried it, you should. And we just opened our third Taffer's Tavern in downtown Atlanta, our Midtown Atlanta store, just this week. So those two things just happened this week. So we're very, very busy, and it's an exciting time. and the years on bar rescue i can't believe it 15 years so 10 seasons 15 years yeah the one three episodes the the restaurant you just opened in orlando was it last year we just opened out about about five months ago we opened five months ago it's doing great i i can't wait to try it uh february 22nd a double episode season 10 but going on for the last 15 years this guy you got you got a you're you're an intimidating guy john but uh there's something about you once you get to know you you know that you're it's all about the love uh but right in the beginning man i wouldn't mess with you that's for sure uh paramount network it's uh february 22nd 10th season of bar rescue john taffer final word what were you gonna say sorry there i'm just gonna say jeff i do a lot of interviews buddy you're terrific i love that you do your research you take it to a different level than everybody else does. So you do a great job. I enjoy talking with you. Let's do it again soon. Means a lot. Thanks, John. Take care. You too, buddy. You know, there's something really relatable about this show. You don't have to necessarily own a bar to get into why this show is successful. You know, John goes into a struggling bar and you get to see why the bar isn't profitable. Like he said, it's overwhelming. The bills, you're waking up in the morning. These guys get into it really deep and mortgaging their home and their parents' home. And then sometimes there's alcoholism, which you can definitely think would be a common denominator in the bar business, but not as much as I thought. John said about 20, 25% is alcoholism. you see why some of these bars slash businesses are failing. Frankly, just mismanagement. John Taffer comes in, fixes the problem, and whether they take his advice or not generally determines whether or not the bar will be quote-unquote rescued or it goes out of business and becomes something else. John was a professional drummer. He took lessons for years starting when he was just a kid and was drumming professionally at the world-famous Troubadour in Los Angeles. And him playing music at that bar led him to ultimately managing the Troubadour, getting him into the nightclub business. And then, obviously, what I thought was amazing was that John Taffer is one of the individuals responsible for the NFL Sunday ticket. Talked about how he and his company did all of this research, talked about the technologies changing where compression would give you the ability to watch all these games at once instead of having a half an acre in the back of your bar with all these different satellite dishes to catch each signal for each game. The NFL thought it was such a great idea. They ended up putting John Taffer on their board and executed the NFL Sunday ticket themselves. So really interesting story. And think about it. You know, when John went to college, a political science major with an anthropology minor, he says back in those days, you know, the world was in a crazy place and he wanted to change the world. So it seems like John Taffer could have easily went into the direction of politics or become some sort of political activist. Really interesting story. Really good guy. The 10th season of Bar Rescue on the Paramount Network, Sunday nights at 10 p.m. And, of course, streams on Paramount+. And like I said earlier, the original episode with John Taffer on the Celebrity Jobber podcast, episode number 129. If you wanted to go back in time and check out that episode, you can do so by going to celebrityjobber.com. You can check out all of our past guests and episodes. And we're streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, wherever you listen to podcasts. We're on all of them. So please hit that subscribe button and would love a five-star rating. Please leave a review. You can also follow on Instagram, celebrity underscore jobber underscore podcast, or you can go to the YouTube channel, which is YouTube dot com slash the at sign celebrity jobber. Who were these people before fame? John Taffer wasn't trying to be a celebrity. He was in the food and beverage business. He ran bars and nightclubs. And ultimately, that led him to be a very, very successful guy. One thing that I've learned, John Taffer was told he was too old to do the Bar Rescue show. Not the case. But then again, John Taffer was a pretty successful guy even before Bar Rescue. But anyway, it's never too late. So thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber podcast. And until next week, I'll see you then. I'm Jeff Zito.
