IAM2002 – Real Estate Investor and Serial Entrepreneur Juggles Multiple Interests & Ventures

In the world of entrepreneurship, there are those who tread the traditional path of starting a business, and then there are those who take a more unconventional route. One such individual is Lisa Song Sutton, an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and published author.

With a background in law, Lisa's journey into entrepreneurship is one of resilience and ability to seize opportunities. In this episode, we will dive into Lisa's inspiring story, her ventures, and the keys to her success.

Lisa's background in law might seem unrelated to her entrepreneurial ventures, but it played a significant role in shaping her mindset. Working in a law firm during the post-recession era allowed Lisa to witness successful business owners and learn from them. She discovered the importance of business litigation and bankruptcy as strategic tools. Lisa's unconventional path paved the way for her to model and learn about marketing and brand representation. Her leap of faith to move to Las Vegas and start Sin City Cupcakes was the beginning of an exciting entrepreneurial journey.

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Transcription:

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Lisa Song Sutton 00:00

So I always tell people too if you're thinking about any sort of product or service that caters to tourists in any way, think about launching it in Las Vegas, because this is your perfect test market, right? People are already coming here. It's not like we started Sin City Cupcakes.

In the middle of some Midwest town, right? We don't have to convince you to come to Vegas because you're already coming. All we have to do is get our product in front of you.

Intro 00:23

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:49

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gretch from the I am CEO podcast. And I had very special guest on the show today at Lisa Song Sutton, and she is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a published author. And Lisa is involved in numerous ventures and numerous brands and numerous businesses.

And specifically, she's known for Sin City Cupcakes. She's also involved in Ship Las Vegas. And finally, she was Miss Nevada 2014. So this is going to be a little bit of a different type of podcast, because this is going to be an excerpt from a longer interview. That's going to publish later on our CEO chat podcast.

But anyways. Lisa provided a tremendous amount of content, tremendous amount of information. So enjoy this excerpt from our CEO chat podcast. And now it's going live on our I am CEO podcast with Lisa Song Sutton.

Lisa Song Sutton 01:38

Hi. Yes, I am.

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Gresham Harkless 01:39

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I truly appreciate you taking some time out of your schedule to speak with us.

Tell us a little bit about you and your CEO story and your background. The first thing that I wanted to do was just ask you, could you introduce yourself to us? Tell us a little bit about you, your background. And what led you to start all the different ventures that you have?

Lisa Song Sutton 01:56

Absolutely. So I have a bit of an unconventional background. I started out in the legal world and I pursued degrees in political science and in law. And so I didn't go, I guess a more traditional route of either just jumping right into business after high school. Or, studying entrepreneurship and business and marketing and all that stuff.

I got a chance to really learn on the job. I modeled all during college and grad school. And so that was really the best hands on way for me to learn about marketing and how to build a brand and represent a brand. And then fast forward, I moved to Las Vegas after graduation. I started working in a law firm and really enjoyed my job.

I worked with really great, fantastic, smart people On a whim, one of my girlfriends and I, Danielle, who's my co-founder with Sin City Cupcakes, she and I were chatting on the phone end of 2011. Hey, what have you been up to? And she told me she'd been making these alcohol cupcakes. And I was like, that is such a good idea.

If I can find a way to bake roll this, would you be willing to move from Florida to Las Vegas? And she was like, I don't know. And then she moved and she took a leap of faith and moved. And we started the company in 2012, and it's just been a blessing ever since.

Gresham Harkless 03:09

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. You can't see me, but I'm licking my chops right now, thinking about the alcohol-infused cupcakes, but that sounds amazing.

So did you find that it was easy or difficult to kind of transition from being an attorney to, having and starting these ventures?

Lisa Song Sutton 03:22

I was really lucky to work in a great firm that did business litigation, commercial real estate, wills and trusts and business bankruptcy. And during that time here in Nevada from 2010 through 2013, which is when I was with the firm, that was a time that those industries, those areas of law were booming.

Specifically business litigation and business bankruptcy because it was, ending up the recession is the back end of the recession. So it was a great place for me to basically build a do not do list. Because. You had so many really smart clients walking through the door.

And, when do you go to a law firm it's because something's wrong, right? There's an issue that has to be fixed or addressed. And I discovered we have these really smart, capable people walking through the door. And I was just like, how did they get here? And, that's also when I realized business bankruptcy is a tool.

It's a business tactic that's utilized as well. Just going through that experience being on the other side of the table of learning from them was one of the best things I could have done for business.

Gresham Harkless 04:22

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And, it's funny, I don't feel like a lot of people talk a lot about that, but even though, you don't want to say that sometimes, but a lot of times you learn by seeing sometimes some of the mistakes that people make, so you can avoid them and try to figure out exactly.

What got them there. So you can reverse engineer yourself so that, I don't want to take those exact same steps. So I don't end up in the same place. Exactly. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I guess, could you tell us a little bit more about, sin city cupcakes and any other ventures that you might have going on?

Lisa Song Sutton 04:49

Sure. Certainly, with the cupcakes, like I said, we started in 2012 and it's just been such a blessing to see it grow and have people enjoy our product. We get a chance to be part of people's special occasions and events. So whether it's birthday parties, bachelorette parties special events, weddings, anything in between, we get a chance to be part of that.

We just enjoy that so much. And then after we started Sin City Cupcakes, I just got bit by the bug and realized there's just so much business opportunity here in Nevada, here in Las Vegas. This is such a great place for business. We have no state income tax, no corporate tax. The state statutes are really strong and protective of business owners.

And so it was just a no brainer for me to go ahead and realize that I could partner up with other strong individuals and strong operational partners. And start more companies.

Gresham Harkless 05:33

Awesome. And did you find, so it wasn't something where you were like, okay, I want to start, 10 different companies.

It was, you started out when you saw one opportunity and then it just you leverage that and then you blossom out to other different ventures.

Lisa Song Sutton 05:46

Yes. So with the real estate, even for example that was just simply. Realizing that we would have some law clients that would have real estate needs.

And we were just referring that business out. And then I realized, why do I have to refer it out? Maybe there's a way that I could take this on myself, but also partner up with people who are full-time realtors, full-time in the industry. And then we could build a business from there. So that's how that got started.

Gresham Harkless 06:12

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. You seem like you've done a really great job at that of being able to identify partnerships or people that you can both have a win win situation and you can both win and build upon each other's probably strengths and weaknesses so that you guys can both reach success.

Lisa Song Sutton 06:27

Yes, exactly. And that's really key. You want to surround yourself with people who have more experience in whatever respective business that you're going into and also just have more knowledge than you.

Gresham Harkless 06:36

That makes perfect sense. So I know you have, different things that you work on, but could you, maybe take us through I guess an average way that you help out your clients from maybe beginning to end, and it could be, the Sin City cupcakes, or it might be the ship Las Vegas that I know you're just launching as well.

Lisa Song Sutton 06:52

Yes. We're so excited about Ship Las Vegas. It's a mailbox rental pack and ship store based here in Las Vegas. You can find us at ShipLasVegas. com and yeah, we literally just soft-opened that this week. So it's just, it's been a whirlwind, but it's been so much fun.

Gresham Harkless 07:06

Congratulations.

Lisa Song Sutton 07:07

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 07:09

So, I guess what have been some of the year, your biggest successes and some of your big wins as well, too, that you're most proud of?

Lisa Song Sutton 07:15

I think just the fact that, like I said, even with Sin City Cupcakes, luckily the feedback that we hear is that we've become a little bit of a household name. And people associate us with their good time that they have in Vegas. So when they're traveling to Vegas, they're coming for some sort of occasion, right?

It's someone's birthday party, bachelor party, special event, wedding even a spur of the moment trip. That's a reason that people are coming to Vegas. And we're just so lucky that we get to be part of their special occasion. So for example, even this week, we're catering for the Derek Jeter golf tournament up at shadow Creek, which is Steven's private golf course.

They've been a client of ours for years. And prior to that, when it was Michael Jordan's tournament, that's how we got started with them. And so it's just wonderful that people associate our brand with. enjoying themselves and having a great time with friends and family.

Gresham Harkless 07:58

Yeah. Yeah. And then it seems like the perfect state in place to do that too, to launch something like that, where a lot of people go there, like you mentioned, where they're celebrating something or they're going there to have a good time and you're just building upon that.

Lisa Song Sutton 08:09

Yes, exactly right. They're already coming, right? So I always tell people too if you're thinking about any sort of product or service that caters to tourists in any way, think about launching it in Las Vegas, because this is your perfect test market, right? People are already coming here. It's not like we started Sin City Cupcakes.

In the middle of some Midwest town, right? We don't have to convince you to come to Vegas because you're already coming. All we have to do is get our product in front of you.

Gresham Harkless 08:35

It's funny. A lot of, entrepreneurs and business owners don't think about things like that, but I'm on the other side.

I'm in the Washington, D. C. area, but it's funny because you get a lot of certain tourists that come here. For a very specific reason, which is usually a sightsee, see all the museums and things like that.

But when you're building a business and you're building it around that aspect of you know exactly why in the psychology of the people that are coming to where you're going, it can, be a leg up as far as you being successful.

Lisa Song Sutton 09:00

Absolutely. And I think it's important to really identify different ways that you can help share knowledge and experience that you've encountered and that you've had. To help others too.

Gresham Harkless 09:12

That makes perfect sense now. I know you mentioned, obviously, you've been very big on being able to identify people that have been, really great partners and people that you want to collaborate with what have been, and who are some of the good partners that you're looking for and what have been some of the maybe characteristics or things that you look for to say, Hey, that person would be a good partner.

How do you got to go through that? That thought process?

Lisa Song Sutton 09:34

Yes. I generally, 1 of the 1st things I look for, obviously, is the amount of knowledge and experience they have in whatever given industry that it is based. Certainly it has to be more than me. And then I also look at industry and kind of city reputation as well.

Is this someone who's respected within the community? Is this someone who is highly sought after to work together and collaborate with in the community? And then, certainly the most important thing, of course, is whether this is someone that you personally want to work with, right?

Is this someone who you deem subjectively, obviously, as a good person, someone who, puts family 1st, and it's going to be a hard worker and is willing to bring that work ethic to the table and we'll be able to handle the types of stress that come in with owning and running a business because. Anything can happen.

Gresham Harkless 10:21

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, especially without stressful, running a business can be a kind of understand, how that person reacts to that certain stress. Cause some people might not be able to take, or they may not take it well where others were able to blossom and build upon that stress and thrive during the stressful situations.

Lisa Song Sutton 10:36

Yes, exactly. It's just taking stock of, like how do they handle stress? Are they someone who Freezes and, the kind of like spirals down into like this, like negative energy oh, everything's going wrong. And then there's no action plan to fix it. For me, when I encountered difficult situations, of course, does it make me nervous?

Does it give me anxiety? Like, all those things, it's all yes. But for me, I found that. When I encounter a difficult situation, the first thing that my brain does is like reverse engineer it, right? And you start looking at, okay, like, how did this happen and what can I do to fix it?

Gresham Harkless 11:08

And that makes sense. And do you find I find that's definitely one of those, CEO or entrepreneurial type of traits where I guess, generally speaking, most, CEOs and entrepreneurs, because you deal with maybe so much stress that you're able to say that, okay I don't have time to really wallow in self-pity.

Or, cry over spilled milk, so to speak, I have to figure out how to solve this problem.

Lisa Song Sutton 11:29

Correct.

Gresham Harkless 11:29

Exactly right. Now, another thing that we ask is like a CEO kind of golden nugget, so to speak. And I know that you've anybody that might be following you on social media might see that you're always providing kind of tips and information on how to be like a better entrepreneur and business owner.

So I guess, could you give us maybe, three or four, maybe things that you have seen that you feel like are your kind of keys to be successful?

Lisa Song Sutton 11:51

Oh, wow. One of the main things that I see among other successful entrepreneurs is that they have this really wonderful, innate sense of confidence and they wholeheartedly 100 percent believe in whatever it is that they're working on.

It's wonderful to see, because through that self-love and self. Exploration comes self-growth. And really, that's the only way that we're going to be able to grow in our businesses to is by advancing and growing ourselves as individuals. So having that sense of self-confidence, and just really believing that you have the capabilities to not only get the job done, but you also have the capabilities to seek out the information that you're going to need.

Not all of us know 100 percent of everything. And you don't know what you don't know, right? So we all possess the ability to seek out information and learn about what it is that we don't know. And so I think having that confidence and knowing that about yourself is the most important thing you can have.

Gresham Harkless 12:45

Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. It makes sense, especially because if you're like a voracious, curious person, so to speak a voracious reader and a curious person, you're always going to be looking for more and more information. But in order to have the confidence in that.

You also know what lane that you stay in, what your strengths are, and maybe how to, like you've mentioned, and you've been able to do very, very well is understand, like, how other people can compliment what it is that you're doing, not necessarily threatened, but build so that you guys can reach a goal.

Lisa Song Sutton 13:13

Exactly right. And without that, I think it's really hard because that's part of why people don't take on this new venture or start a business or whatever it is, because there's always an excuse, right? There's always, it's not enough. It's not a good time. I don't have enough money.

I don't have the right people. Most importantly, I always just hear it's not the right timing. It's not the right timing, but it's never going to be perfect time.

Gresham Harkless 13:33

And it's never, yeah, it's never a good time to really start a business, but It's funny when I looked at a lot of the I was doing some research.

Like I graduated during the economic crisis which was interesting, but I read a lot, financially. And I saw that it was funny enough. A lot of the most successful Fortune 500 companies were actually started during that economic crisis.

So it's funny that, a lot of people say it's not the right time, but often some of the most successful businesses or people actually started during what are quote-unquote bad times.

So what I wanted to ask for you very specifically, what do you think that being a CEO means to you? How would you define that?

Lisa Song Sutton 14:06

For me, being a CEO means that you're a leader and that you are helping lead and guide a team of people because it can't be done with just me. I'm definitely not a one-woman show.

I have amazing partners. I have amazing operational staff. That works hand in hand with me, and I absolutely would not be where I am today without all those other individuals. Collectively, we make a team. So if someone has a role that includes, cleaning up, you have to be willing to do that if it's necessary.

And just lead, lead by example.

Gresham Harkless 14:39

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I truly appreciate you again for taking time out of your schedule, Lisa, and giving us so many great words of wisdom. What I wanted to do was just ask you if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then on the second part is if people want to get ahold of you, what's the best way for them to do that?

Lisa Song Sutton 14:56

Absolutely. First, thank you so much for having me. I very much appreciate it. And yeah, I just want to encourage everyone to. Just give it a try. Just do it. And you'll be shocked at the outcome because that's the very, very first step in anything is action.

And you can find me on my website at lisasongsutton.com and also on all the social channels Facebook, Instagram, Twitter at Lisa Song Sutton.

Gresham Harkless 15:21

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you again, Lisa, and we'll make sure to have all those links in the show notes just in case anybody wants to click through and follow you or see all the great things that you're doing.

But again, appreciate you appreciate all the great things you're doing.

Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

Outro 15:36

Thank you for listening to the I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I Am CEO is not just a phrase it's a community.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at blue16media.com. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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