From Oil Fields to Apparel Deals: Brandon Mills on Freedom, Failure, and Going All In

"I've discovered that if I put myself out there, good things happen."

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, we sit down with Brandon Mills, a veteran entrepreneur and the owner of Total Promotion Company—a Las Vegas-based business that helps brands leave their mark (literally) through merchandise, apparel, and promotional products. But branding is only the beginning of Brandon’s story.

From working the oil fields of Texas to planting roots in the Vegas small business scene, Brandon’s journey is all about choosing freedom over burnout, relationships over transactions, and impact over income.

"Freedom is what I value more. I view money as a tool, a byproduct of helping people."

We talk about how Brandon navigated the pandemic by pivoting into essential services, how he built a thriving business through non-pitchy networking, and why showing up consistently (without always leading with what you do) creates real opportunity.

"Most conversations I'll have at networking events, I don't lead with what I do. I want them to ask me."

This isn’t a conversation about sales—it’s a conversation about showing up for your city, supporting others in business, and building a reputation that opens doors long after the handshake.

"Vegas is very much a connections town."

If you’re trying to grow your brand, your network, or your influence in Las Vegas without being transactional about it—this episode’s your playbook.

Key Takeaways:

• Organic networking creates lasting business—and lasting friendships.
• Freedom and purpose are more fulfilling than chasing revenue.
• Pivoting during uncertainty is a muscle every entrepreneur needs.
• Vegas thrives on genuine relationships, not cold pitches.
• Your brand should spark conversations without you even saying a word.

Resources:

• Total Promotion Company Website
• Social: @TotalPromotionCo on all platforms

"When you're building organic relationships... now you have a circle of friends." — Brandon Mills

Listen to the full episode to learn how real business gets done in Las Vegas—relationship-first and community-backed.

Thanks for tuning in to The Pursue Vegas Podcast!

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform!

📍 Website: www.pursue.vegas

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• Instagram: @pursuevegas
• YouTube: Pursue Vegas Podcast
• Or slide into @daveburlin's DM.

Transcript

0:00:02 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of Pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

0:00:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

0:00:13 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility is to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are. Welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawny Nguyen.

0:00:25 - (Dave Burlin): And we have a very special guest today. It is a fellow veteran entrepreneur. He has probably one of the most incredible beards happening in Las Vegas right now. But among other things, we have Brandon Mills. Brandon, welcome to the show.

0:00:41 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, thank you.

0:00:42 - (Dave Burlin): What are you excited about, my friend?

0:00:44 - (Brandon Mills): Oh, man, I'm excited about so many things. I mean, right now I'm excited about the growth that my company is experiencing. We've reached a level that I didn't know we'd be able to reach by this point, and. And it's just still going.

0:01:00 - (Dave Burlin): Love it. Tell us about the company.

0:01:02 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. So Total Promotion Company. It's a shop here in town in Las Vegas that produces physical branding on merchandise, promotional products, apparel. Anything that needs a logo or artwork, we're able to facilitate and make happen. We take people's ideas and concepts and turn it into a reality for them and for anything that they're wanting to do.

0:01:31 - (Dave Burlin): I love it. I know that I've repped many of your apparels across multiple different brands because you've done stuff for. I think you've done some stuff for Bunker Labs. You've done some stuff for Sacred Soldier. Sacred Soldier. Shout out to friend of the show, Josh Halloo. I'm not on ayahuasca right now, but. Yeah, so tell us when we met, we met through Bunker Labs.

0:01:57 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:01:58 - (Dave Burlin): So we. We carry the same thing for veteran stuff. But if I understand it right, you're from here, right?

0:02:03 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. Yes and no. I moved here the middle of my seventh grade year. Kind of moved all over the country for a while. But this is where my family decided to put down roots and we moved out to Boulder City, and that's where. That's where I started going to school, graduated. I couldn't wait to leave. When I was here, you know, when I was a kid, I wanted to get out. And so when I graduated, I went to University of Nevada, Reno, unr.

0:02:31 - (Brandon Mills): And that was. That was about as far away as I could get at the time. And from there I studied criminal justice. Not that I did anything with it, but it was really fun getting that degree. It was very fascinating to me, all the different modes of thought when it comes to that.

0:02:51 - (Dave Burlin): Nice.

0:02:52 - (Tawni Nguyen): I want to circle back to like, in the merch game. Right. You know, for a long period of time, like advertising and marketing. And they said like, oh, merch is dead because of the whole sustainability factor and the eco factor. And now I think that it's so important to have brands like, represented. Well, why do you think it's so important for that aspect of merch to make its comeback in terms of like, the marketing and brand representation?

0:03:16 - (Brandon Mills): When it comes to like, marketing and branding, you want to try to develop your name behind that, that image, that design, so that when it is seen in public, you know, it's a, it's a reminder of, of your, of your company, of your organization, you know, you're able to express, you know, through others. I mean, you have walking billboards, you know, all over the place. And, and it's also a topic of conversation too. So, you know, if you're, if you're representing a brand, if you're a particular piece of apparel, you know, it sparks conversation as well.

0:03:57 - (Brandon Mills): So people will see it on your shirt and say, oh, tell me about that. What is, you know, what are you wearing right here? What is that? Or, you know, but then it could also just be, you know, something really fun and just, it's all about, you know, self expression and getting people to do that on your behalf.

0:04:15 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So for that, I'm sure you've seen a lot of creative stuff. What's one of the more clever ones where you felt like the shirt or the brand or what it said got people to really at least take action or engage?

0:04:33 - (Brandon Mills): There's a lot of different, unique ways that people can represent their brands. I mean, right now with generative AI, all sorts of different type, types of design is able to, to come into the forefront. You know, going from concept to finished product really, really fast. Some creative branding, I would say something that's got a unique design. But it, it, there's all sorts of different ways, I suppose that, you know, it all comes down to the, you know, the person that's, that's wanting to put forth that image and that represent their brand in a particular way, whether that be through comedy or seriousness or elegance.

0:05:21 - (Brandon Mills): Some people, they want to have embroidered polos or shirts and they want to represent that elegance, whereas others, they want to use humor. And you could have a combination of both. We, we, we do, we do a lot of that on, on our own as well. So, you know, we'll have, we'll have some nice embroidered stuff and then Like I have, I have a shirt that, that is a, a cartoon avatar of myself that says my AI avatar is DTF at Total Promotion Company.

0:05:57 - (Brandon Mills): DTF being direct to film. But yeah, so, yeah, so, you know.

0:06:04 - (Dave Burlin): Play on words there.

0:06:05 - (Brandon Mills): But that sparks conversation as well, you know, and it's, you know, I've got a, you know, it's, it's, there's so many different ways that people can go about it. And, and we offer, you know, some design consultation as well. And we can do design depending on what, what the needs of the client are. Yeah, we can, we can help them out with that as well now.

0:06:27 - (Dave Burlin): And how competitive is that here in Vegas? I mean, I feel like there's a, there's gotta be a lot of competition because there's some people that just work with the conferences. There's some people, like, where do you find yourself fitting into the niches? But also what is the market like here?

0:06:44 - (Brandon Mills): Sure. I find the industry that I am in to be very, very collaborative. I feel is almost like we don't have competition. There's so much work, there's so much different kinds of niche markets out there. And so, you know, somebody that has a similar business to mine might be servicing schools and another might be servicing the construction industry. We're kind of a catch all. We try to service whoever we can.

0:07:18 - (Brandon Mills): Another thing is that there's so many different methods and production processes. And so for instance, we have some production processes that really not too many people have when it comes to producing digital print for fabrics. And what that allowed us to do is sell that portion to what would be our competitors. And now they are our clients. And so I like to call them co petitors. Yeah, that's a good one.

0:07:49 - (Dave Burlin): Clever. She put that on a T shirt.

0:07:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): I know a guy that's better than a frenemy in this town.

0:07:54 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, better than having frenemies. No, that's great.

0:07:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, I love that aspect because I grew up, I still am like emo kid for life. So I grew up in the back of like punk rock shows, you know, getting in mosh pits, buying T shirts everywhere I go, even with the rave scene and EDM scenes and, and it just never left me. So. I always love merch. But you know, you mentioned conferences and, and I feel like it's just so bombarded. But like, I'm not going to lie. Like, I love good pen. Like I'm always like going to hoard every single pen because you never know what you're going to get out of. You know, like when you're going to need it.

0:08:23 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:08:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): But I think it's funny when I brought up the whole Rock Band because, you know, you brought up the beard and it's like, it kind of looks like you'd be in a fucking like. Like the best player on Rock Band ever if we rec. Because we were talking about you being in Texas and how you couldn't leave here and like, oil drilling and all this stuff in a green room, you know. So it's just like. Like while we're sitting here, you know, we want to wonder, like, why did you come back to Vegas? Like, what makes it the place for you to want to come back after wanting to leave it for so long?

0:08:51 - (Brandon Mills): Sure, yeah. I mean, it's kind of. It's kind of a long story, but. But. But I'll. I'll kind of sum it up. I got out of the army in Texas at Fort Hood, and I ended up staying in Texas for about six more years. Somebody that I served with in Korea helped me to get on at a company that was out of Victoria, Texas. And I started working and I excelled. I was really good at what I did and I enjoyed it too. I really enjoyed the work.

0:09:20 - (Brandon Mills): But when it came down to it, I was selling my time, I was selling my hours. I tried to maximize how much I sold my hours for, and then I sold as many as I could and I made a lot of money. It was. It was great. I mean, I had a hobby ranch in Texas. We had horses and cattle and big garden and it was a lot of property.

0:09:41 - (Dave Burlin): Four wheelers and stuff?

0:09:42 - (Brandon Mills): No four wheelers. I did have an awesome Jeep, though. Yeah, so. So that's Texas. That's right. From the outside, it looks like, you know, I was doing. Doing really well, but it was. It was killing me just. Cause, you know, I was just working all the time. It was taking me away from my kids. It was taking me away from my family. And what ended up happening was some politics in the oil industry. They sold my company, sold off our department to another company and our equipment and us.

0:10:16 - (Brandon Mills): And they didn't want us, which was fine because, you know, I didn't really. I was working seven hours from home. I was working two weeks on, one week off. So I ended up. Ended up getting laid off, which they had to pay out the rest of my year when. So that was great. So that was a whole nother chunk of money that was coming my way. And I found another job that was closer to home. And it was three weeks on, one week off. And I Was like, this is. And they're like, oh, you're getting paid the same.

0:10:45 - (Brandon Mills): Like, this isn't the same. It's the same money at the end of the day. But I got to work 33% more in order to get that. And it was just. It was really in the culture of that company. It was just not. Not what I liked. You know, it was just. Everything about it was just felt. Felt wrong. And. And I had a. Was going through some trouble with. With my. My wife of the time. And I was just. In a split moment, I just thought, you know what?

0:11:12 - (Brandon Mills): I. I have to change this. And so I up and came out to Vegas. You know, I had work the next day, and I just didn't go. I grabbed my kids, we drove out here. And then for the next few months, I was like, okay, what am I gonna do? I don't want to go back to doing what I was doing. Wanted to change it up completely. So I was looking for opportunity. I had some money in the bank, and I thought, all right, let me see what's. What's available.

0:11:44 - (Brandon Mills): I came across the company that I have now. It was an older gentleman and his wife, and they had some old equipment, a book of business, and they were. They were producing merchandise for, you know, for various clients. I thought, okay, you know, I think I could probably take this. They were running everything on QuickBooks Desktop with old equipment, thought, well, let me take this business and bring it up to the 21st century.

0:12:05 - (Brandon Mills): You know, we'll use. Put in. Put in some. Some new equipment, some systems and processes, and see what we can do and see if we can. Can grow this thing. Well, less than three months later, COVID lockdowns happened. And. And it made for a very challenging time because every. All the orders stopped, and it was just like, okay, well, now we've got no incoming revenue. The book of business that I had pretty much bought was.

0:12:33 - (Brandon Mills): Was lucky if I had a small percentage of that of them stick around or even stay in business. During that time, I still had my Jeep, so. And during lockdowns, there was no events going on. You know, the. The event space was dead. So I'd go out and I'd go play with. With the Jeep groups, and there was business owners within those Jeep groups. And I discovered the power of networking through playing, which was great, you know, so I thought, well, there's not much to do. We'll go. Go play.

0:13:05 - (Brandon Mills): And. And then was able to continue on with business. There are winners and losers of every economy, and the winners of the COVID lockdown economy was those essential businesses. So it was plumbers, it was electricians, it was, you know, a lot of these companies that were, that were doing fantastic. We started targeting them and started producing for those types of companies during that time, and we were able to make it through.

0:13:34 - (Dave Burlin): I love that.

0:13:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): That is an essential business.

0:13:37 - (Dave Burlin): It is, it is. Yeah. So you mentioned networking. You said you found it within that Jeep group. What's changed about how you look at networking since then?

0:13:48 - (Brandon Mills): I've discovered that if I put myself out there, good things happen. I. I come across more opportunities, more people are exposed to who I am, and I've gained a whole lot of friendships along the way. And those friendships, I've been able to cultivate them into very trusting, very, very, very beneficial relationships, both personal and business. And there's a saying that, you know, you're more likely to make friends of your clients than clients of your friends.

0:14:24 - (Brandon Mills): And I have, I feel like I have so many friends right now. And it's all, it's all surrounding the, the networking that I've. That I've done throughout, you know, the last few years. I never knew what networking was. I didn't, I had no idea. And during lockdowns, I could not isolate and I could not stay in. I knew it was all a bunch of bullshit anyway. So I found some groups, we founded some groups as well, of, of different, different business owners that wanted to, to further their business and continue, you know, economically.

0:14:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think the most important thing I got out of that is that when you brought up play, like, play is so important. But most people in business, especially networking and especially around here, they think of networking and they execute in such a transactional way to where they think they just show up to as many events as possible, take pictures with that, as many people as possible, post it all over their social media, like, give away as many cards as possible. But I'm like, okay, what's your intention behind it?

0:15:23 - (Tawni Nguyen): Did you actually talk to one person or did you just hand out 50 cards?

0:15:27 - (Brandon Mills): Right.

0:15:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, so the concept of play and being able to integrate that part of your life with the Jeep and like your love of like outdoors and the ranch life and actually making friends around that and ideal ideology around, like building your lifestyle and then making friends around what you like and then doing business together is so much more holistic, is so much more, more impactful. And that's why we're huge on networking, not because of how many social clout or likes or followers that you're able to amass from any of these events.

0:15:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think that's just a byproduct of who you are as a person. But if you're not a playful person and if I don't know you as a person, it's honest, right? It's just transactional. I'm like, who's that guy we talk to? But if we have at least one moment in human connection together, like how we become friends, like a joke or something, something super inappropriate or something like that, and you're like, oh, I remember that. And you start laughing to yourself. You're like, oh, that, that dude was cool. Like, I'm gonna give him a call and see what's up. And that's how some of my most authentic, genuine friendship and business relationship has come out of, is because of play, right? Like, I'll roast somebody or I'll make a joke. You know what I mean? When are you from fucking New York? And like, we're doing business together, you know? And if it wasn't for that play moment.

0:16:40 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:16:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): We would never talk to each other. We're all like, oh, hi, nice to meet you. Like, here's my call. Call me. I'm like, why should I call you?

0:16:47 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, most, most conversations I'll have at networking events, I, I don't lead with, you know what I do? I don't, I don't force a business card. I want them to ask me.

0:16:57 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:16:58 - (Brandon Mills): I want them to have interest. Because if they have interest, then, then it's going to be more meaningful. I, I, I don't give out business cards unless I'm asked for it. There's some people at business events that, you know, will just, they, they lead with, you know, the business card, and they're like, here you go.

0:17:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Shove it in your hand.

0:17:15 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, I've got, and I've got, you know, my pocket system. You know, you're either a wallet, business card person, which means I'm definitely going to get ahold of you. You got a back pocket, which is. Okay, I'm going to go through that when I get back to the office. And then I've got one that's just going straight to the trash.

0:17:30 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, wow.

0:17:31 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:17:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): So good.

0:17:32 - (Dave Burlin): That is good.

0:17:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Mine is kind of, well, it's pretty bad. It depends on the day. The thing about girl clothing is that you can't pay enough for a fucking pocket. So it just depends on what day and what coat I wear and what pants, because most of them don't come with pants 80% of the time. So I'm stuck in one Pocket. And that's for my phone. And I just shove the cars behind them. And then I forget about it. I just take my phone, I hang the coat up. So until I wear that coat again or something, I stick my hand and get stabbed by a bunch of cars. I'm like, who the fuck are these people?

0:17:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): And they become the little thing I pick my teeth with.

0:18:01 - (Brandon Mills): You know, my significant other has a pocket in my pants. It's the back right pocket, and it's her pocket, and she can fit anything in there she wants. And.

0:18:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:18:10 - (Brandon Mills): And so she doesn't have pockets. Yeah.

0:18:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm gonna come home and demand that immediately.

0:18:17 - (Brandon Mills): You gotta pick a pocket. Yeah, but it can't mess.

0:18:20 - (Dave Burlin): Always.

0:18:20 - (Brandon Mills): You can't mess with his pocket system. It's gotta be an available pocket.

0:18:23 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:18:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, I just want to be toxic. Be like, I thought they were all mine.

0:18:27 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, right.

0:18:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): And he's like, well, that's why you have a purse. And he puts stuff in my purse. Oh, yeah. What the hell's going on, dude?

0:18:32 - (Brandon Mills): Well, yeah, if something doesn't fit in my pocket, then it goes straight to the person. It's a mutual thing.

0:18:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. That's a really good system.

0:18:39 - (Dave Burlin): Well, you brought up the networking part of it, and you know me, I get fascinated on that, and I've said it a million times, and I wish it would fit on a shirt because that's my whole thing when it comes to networking is. Networking is not about getting the next business card. It's not about getting the next invoice. Right, Right. Networking is about unlocking infinite opportunities in every person that you meet.

0:19:01 - (Dave Burlin): You Pandemic changed the game for a lot of people. Some people, it was a very rewarding experience. Some people, it was more challenging than not. But there's a big part of the population that is not passing around the same business card that they were before Pandemic. Roles change. Like, I've ran into it every time where it's like, you'll meet one of those sales guys at one of the events, and they'll stab you with the business card, and they're like, hey, this is what I'm selling right now, and here's who I am, blah, blah, blah. And then, like, a year later, they're not even with that company anymore.

0:19:31 - (Brandon Mills): Right.

0:19:32 - (Dave Burlin): And, like, I don't even want to talk to that dude anymore yet. There's people that I've never bought from or they've never bought from me, but we've always been cordial. We've always become friends. And not only that we like. It opens up my whole network of people that might need to buy from you.

0:19:47 - (Brandon Mills): Well, and then also the person you're talking to, they might not ever have a need for what you have, and you might not ever have a need for what they have. But guess what? They have a whole network of their own people. And if they believe in you and they trust in you, anytime that need arises from one of their friends, they're gonna send them your way. And now all of a sudden, you have a great referral partner that's a friend, it's great.

0:20:12 - (Dave Burlin): And if you try to close somebody or if you try to put them in your pipeline, they'll close you off. And then this has happened to me 100 times at least I'll have a great conversation with somebody. I'm normally talking about books because that's what I love talking about. We'll nerd out on it forever and then we'll walk away. Like sometimes five days from now, sometimes five months from now, sometimes five years from now, I'll get a connection from that person.

0:20:35 - (Dave Burlin): They'll say, dave, I remember the conversation we had in 2018, and I remember you saying something about the work you do with veterans I want to introduce you to. And it's like this miracle connection that opens up all the doors, changes all kinds of lives for people. And that's only because I didn't try to stab them with a business card. We make the joke, the reason why we're in this studio right now. I met Trevin six years ago.

0:21:04 - (Dave Burlin): Six years ago. And he often says that out of all the networking events that he's ever been to, I'm one of the only people that he remembers because it was just something weird about the way that I didn't try to pitch him. And at the time I worked for a very large sales and leadership firm. I could have easily tried to get him into my pipeline and get him to have a one on one consultation with me and tried to sell him on some, some like sales coaching, but I never did.

0:21:32 - (Dave Burlin): And then here we are now, you know, I think, I think five years later, we're.

0:21:36 - (Brandon Mills): When you're building organic relationships and when you're, when you're building, you know, organic, I guess, complete networks, you know, is what it is, is, you know, and now you have a circle of friends. It's, it's. I always say Vegas is so small because everywhere I go, yeah, I, you know, I'm gonna run into one or two people that I know. It doesn't matter where I go, it's crazy. It's crazy.

0:22:02 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:22:03 - (Brandon Mills): And, and that. And there's so many overlapping circles to be like, hey, you know what? I know somebody over here that needs something from this circle over here.

0:22:10 - (Dave Burlin): Yep.

0:22:10 - (Brandon Mills): And before you know it, now the circles are merged and now everybody knows everybody. And it's, it's, it's wild how that happens.

0:22:17 - (Dave Burlin): They said that we have 2 million people, and I know all 50.

0:22:21 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:22:23 - (Dave Burlin): But you're right. And the way you found it in the Jeep group, we have a veteran community that's very, very close. We all work together. There's a whole startup community. Some other friends of the show, Taylor and Tyler, they'll be on. They found their niche very much in the car community as they've continued to build in the car community, that they realize that, like, all of the clients that they would ever need are in that community, whether it be hosting events or social media or any of that stuff. And it's just like, you can kind of go into any of those.

0:22:57 - (Dave Burlin): And then the most unique thing about us being here in Vegas is like the whole world comes to us and through us at some point as well.

0:23:03 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:23:03 - (Dave Burlin): So it gives us that opportunity to unlock entire communities and circles in other cities as well.

0:23:11 - (Brandon Mills): The really cool thing too, is, is that you can pick your niche. You can do the things you want to do.

0:23:17 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:17 - (Brandon Mills): You can do the things you love to do.

0:23:18 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:19 - (Brandon Mills): And from that you grow networks, you grow opportunities and the things. So, so going back to saying, playing, you know, pick what it is, you know. Are you an avid fisherman? You know?

0:23:33 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:33 - (Brandon Mills): You want to talk to the Fishers? Yeah.

0:23:35 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:36 - (Brandon Mills): You know, you know, off roading community was just one that, that I enjoy doing. And unfortunately, during. During lockdowns, I ended up having to sell my Jeep to, you know, to get the equity out of it in order to keep the business going.

0:23:51 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:23:51 - (Brandon Mills): But since then, I've gotten a truck now, you know, but. But I mean, there's so many things I find myself so busy, but it's also busy by choice, you know, it's. And I get to do the things that I like to do that I love to do.

0:24:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:24:05 - (Brandon Mills): With the people that I like, with the people that I love. It's, it's, it's. I, I'm in such a great position now because of that. And, and they say, you know, your network is your net worth. And, you know, there's so many, so many wonderful, amazing people, you know, here in Vegas.

0:24:24 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:24:24 - (Brandon Mills): It's just, you know, it's, it's fantastic.

0:24:26 - (Dave Burlin): And most people don't expect that.

0:24:28 - (Brandon Mills): I know.

0:24:28 - (Dave Burlin): I think everyone has this weird impression that everyone lives in hotels. I mean, I live in the Cosmo, but that's different. I'm just kidding. But no, I feel like everyone has a perception of what Vegas is from what they see from the outside. But there's real people here, real people that came that are from here. I've met all nine, I think. But there's also people that have come from other places. It's always funny because you mentioned you're in Texas for a while. I'm from Oklahoma.

0:25:02 - (Dave Burlin): And it's just something about Midwest hospitality. Like, I've offered this to people many times. Like, I'll pick people up at the airport, and they're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, I do that too.

0:25:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): I drop them off too.

0:25:14 - (Brandon Mills): They're like, what?

0:25:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): I was like, you don't have to pay me. Like, it's okay. Like, I offered. I know what I'm offering, you know.

0:25:20 - (Dave Burlin): But it's one of those things where it's just nice to have a familiar face. Even if it's somebody that you've met through other circles, you've met them online or something like that. Like, when they come here and they find out that you're a real person, it just kind of changes what people might perceive about Vegas. And that's been. Our mission is like, show the world who we really are.

0:25:41 - (Brandon Mills): Well, I mean, Vegas, there's. Every city has got some kind of industry, but there's an entire ecosystem surrounding that industry that has nothing to do with what that industry is. And so I don't do any kind of gambling.

0:25:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): No hookers and blow for you.

0:25:58 - (Brandon Mills): No hookers and blow. Not since that last time with Dave.

0:26:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): I wasn't in a. Invited.

0:26:04 - (Brandon Mills): Oh, yeah.

0:26:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): But her.

0:26:08 - (Brandon Mills): No, it's. It's. There's the ecosystems surrounding all of the different types of industry. And. And there's also a lot of new industry that's beginning to grow here as well. Nevada being, you know, a much more hospitable place for businesses, you know, as opposed to, you know, some of some, you know, maybe our neighboring state, California, which. Which we've had a huge growth of. Of an influx of people from.

0:26:39 - (Brandon Mills): From California. Yeah, yeah. Like you're one of them.

0:26:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, escape, right?

0:26:45 - (Dave Burlin): 800 people move here today.

0:26:48 - (Brandon Mills): As long as they don't vote the same way they did to turn Nevada into another California.

0:26:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): I did not escape communist fucking country my childhood just to live in a communist state or got the hell out of there.

0:27:02 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. During. During the lockdowns, I ran for state senate as a libertarian and the Republican that I was running against. Turns out he's actually a pretty good guy, Jeff Stone. But at the time, the only thing I knew about him was that he was a California politician coming to Nevada and running for politics and thought, oh, hell, no, no, no, we can't. We can't be doing this here. We cannot be turning Nevada into California, which it seems to be.

0:27:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, no, never. No. Something I want to acknowledge since when you first started the show with what you're excited about with your business, it's like the way that it's growing.

0:27:37 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:27:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I see so much of that in how you're expressing it. It's because now I see the true freedom in business ownership here, because your freedom comes from not only just getting clients, just to get clients, but choosing and the ability to just not work with people you don't like for money. And I think that's the next level that unlocks opportunities around here. Yeah. First level of freedom might be the financial. And your business is doing well. It's cash flowing, but you've experienced a lot of cash and you hate your life. And there are a lot of other business owners just like that.

0:28:06 - (Brandon Mills): I shifted my values before I valued the money, thinking that that was the key to freedom, and it wasn't. You know, I didn't. The more money I made, I did not receive more freedom. In fact, the trajectory that I was on in the oil industry, my next move in for my career, had I stayed, was going to pull me away for three months at a time with a few days off in between. And I thought, man, this is. And it was going to make me a ton of money. It was going to make me a lot of money.

0:28:36 - (Brandon Mills): But. But the freedom aspect, like, I realized that freedom is what I value more. More than money. I view money as a tool. It's a byproduct of. Of. Of helping people, you know, and. And if you do it. If you do it right, you know, you can. You can accumulate more and help more people and, and use it to. To grow and expand. You know, I mean, we've got 10 employees now. You know, we started like, it's. So we're helping our employees, we're helping our clients. We're, you know, we're helping everybody. It's. It's.

0:29:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:29:10 - (Brandon Mills): And. And all we're doing, you know, we're. We're making. We're making shirts for people that want them. That's.

0:29:15 - (Tawni Nguyen): It yeah, like, we're just not dead. I'll stand behind all my band T shirts. I wear them one day for fun. But I think that's what I love because we're all about breaking bread with people who are not just like, I don't think we need to be like minded because difference in opinions is actually very respectful as long as you are mature enough to have the conversation on why you disagree with one another.

0:29:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): So we don't need to sit around and be in an echo chamber of like, yeah, I totally agree. And then we're all gonna set on fire because one person thinks it's a good idea and like three other dumbasses like, yeah, we should totally do that. And I'm like, no, we should not fucking do that. What the fuck are you thinking? But I think the concept of that is, you know, coming back to networking and building businesses around here. There's a lot of people that treat people like, oh, I need to onboard like 30 leads this month. And I'm like, how about you reframe that perspective? And they're like, tony, how can I grow my business? I'm like, how about you don't say you need to onboard 30 leads. How about you focus on how can I serve 10 people? And out of that, three people, like the 10% of that, really offer them value in what you're offering and really just like honing in on your execution instead of just like kind of flown and getting the numbers, the quantities in, focus on the quality.

0:30:21 - (Brandon Mills): You know, in the last three months, we, we just now started to implement some digital marketing. Whereas prior to that it's been all word of mouth. It's that that has grown. My business is word of mouth. People that are happy with our product, happy with our prices, and, and share it to others, you know, and the great thing about my product is even though it might have somebody's brand on it, somebody else's brand, we're the ones that produced it. And they say, well, where did you get that?

0:30:50 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, and they say, oh, you got to go see, you got to go see Brandon over a total promotion company. And so, you know, my product is out invisible for everybody to see, which is fantastic.

0:31:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, I love that concept because we, we come from the world of consulting. It's always, you know, becomes a little transactional. But I think what I grasp from both of us and why we're sitting here at the table, it's like from the streets. We call it like, oh, I can't help you, but I know a guy that's how I live my life. Because most people just want something out of every person they meet because they're trying to make that sale. And I'm like, no.

0:31:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): I was like, I can't help you, but I know a guy and I call someone else. But that's the power of networking, is who can you actually call? They'll actually pick up your phone because you're a legit person. Not like, oh, what is this little scammy want to sell me now in Vegas?

0:31:35 - (Brandon Mills): I mean, you know, if you look at the, you know, the founding of Vegas and like, historically, it's always been connections. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's always been like, hey, you know, I know a guy.

0:31:46 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:31:48 - (Brandon Mills): So it's, you know, and I, I can't speak to that in any other city. You know, I mean, I've had. Had businesses in other places. But, but when it comes to business, to business type type relationships, I mean, Vegas is very much a connections town.

0:32:09 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. No, yeah. You're not wrong. And again, sometimes those connections go beyond just the walls of Vegas. I mean, it could be anywhere you go. Like if you said that you were going to Austin and you put that out to your network, like, hey, I'm going to Austin. Who should I meet? There's gonna be 10 people that say, oh, my gosh, you should meet this person while you're downtown.

0:32:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): I own this restaurant. My friend owns this restaurant. You should check out his. You know what I mean?

0:32:35 - (Brandon Mills): And automatically you're in. You're plugged into everywhere, basically based on the network that we have here.

0:32:42 - (Dave Burlin): So speaking of that, a few Vegas specific things. What are the favorite spots for you? What do you like when it comes to food or experience or anything like that? Something that you get really excited about.

0:32:57 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. Oh, man. I love new experiences. I love trying out new places all the time. And I feel like we're, we're so fortunate to be in Vegas because it is a culinary capital of the world. You can have, you know, and, and I'm, I consider myself to be a world traveler. I mean, I've traveled 42 countries in my life. Yeah. Yeah. So. And, and I've always, my favorite places have always been, you know, the places that have the best food.

0:33:25 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:33:26 - (Brandon Mills): And you can find all that food here.

0:33:28 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:33:29 - (Brandon Mills): You know.

0:33:29 - (Dave Burlin): You know, I looked at Uber Eats the other day and I just looked at it and I was like, we're so.

0:33:34 - (Brandon Mills): It's amazing.

0:33:35 - (Dave Burlin): We're so spoiled here. Like, you can get 800 different cuisines on, like. And you can't get that anywhere else. Yeah, but it's like. Yeah, there's literally every. Every place in Chinatown is like on Uber Eats.

0:33:48 - (Brandon Mills): I mean, you go to some. Some other cities around the world and. And, you know, try to find Mexican food. Yeah, you know, we can get any.

0:33:57 - (Dave Burlin): Of those, like, 24 hours a day.

0:33:58 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. If you're in Asia, it's. It's difficult.

0:34:00 - (Dave Burlin): Where's the one spot that people gotta try if they haven't already?

0:34:03 - (Brandon Mills): Oh, man. I went to Humo Barbecue recently. Being in Texas, I felt like. I mean, I love barbecue and I kind of got burned out on it, I think just from having it so often when I was in Texas. But now I'm kind of circling back and finding some.

0:34:25 - (Dave Burlin): It's hard to find out here.

0:34:26 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, it's. But there's some really good spots.

0:34:28 - (Dave Burlin): There are. There are, but it is hard to find.

0:34:30 - (Brandon Mills): Like.

0:34:31 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I was in Kansas City for a while and, like, man, people start fights over barbecue in Kansas City. Same in Oklahoma. And then also Texas. Like, there's some great spots in Texas, but yeah, I've. I've had a hard time finding that, so. Thanks.

0:34:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Wife.

0:34:45 - (Dave Burlin): Really?

0:34:46 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, they're burnt ends. Oh, my goodness. I think Tino's. His name is his wife.

0:34:49 - (Brandon Mills): Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then Jesse Ray's over on Boulder Highway. That's another good barbecue place.

0:34:55 - (Dave Burlin): There was one over in the valley over in Spring Valley, but I think it burnt down.

0:34:59 - (Brandon Mills): There's a John Moles Roadkill Cafe.

0:35:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Okay, that sounds killer. Yeah, Anything with roadkill got me.

0:35:05 - (Dave Burlin): Right.

0:35:06 - (Brandon Mills): They also have a meat processing, so if you're a hunter.

0:35:09 - (Dave Burlin): Okay.

0:35:09 - (Brandon Mills): You can take your. Your kill there and they'll. They'll up and butcher it for you and package it up.

0:35:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): I would like to find the butcher in this town that's not butcher. Butcher block, you know.

0:35:18 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, Yeah.

0:35:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): I want to get like, a quarter cow this year. Goals. Like, who wants to split a cow with me? I'm gonna put that out in the universe.

0:35:26 - (Brandon Mills): That's something very common that we do in Texas too.

0:35:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): You want to split a cow together?

0:35:30 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah, I would love to.

0:35:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, my God.

0:35:34 - (Dave Burlin): That'S great. I'll just take a couple of KC strips. We'll give Dave all the bad guys, right? All the bad guys.

0:35:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): I don't want all the ground beef. Here you go, Dave. Have fun with your burgers for the rest of the year.

0:35:47 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:35:49 - (Dave Burlin): Awesome. So for anyone that may be listening to this, if. If you could give one piece of advice to somebody who's looking at coming to Las Vegas. What advice would you give them?

0:36:02 - (Brandon Mills): Don't screw over the locals. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't screw over the locals.

0:36:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): Don't make the blacklist.

0:36:09 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. So I mean like everything, like we were saying is, everything is, is connections here.

0:36:14 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:36:15 - (Brandon Mills): And if you burn a bridge, you might be burning the bridge with the wrong person and you might not be able to do business or anything.

0:36:22 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:36:23 - (Brandon Mills): In, in Vegas.

0:36:24 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:36:24 - (Brandon Mills): You know, it's, you know, be, be your genuine self. Don't, don't screw anyone over and, and, and help people. You know, it's. Yeah. As soon as you screw somebody over. I've seen it happen to people where, you know, they try to scam someone.

0:36:39 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:36:39 - (Brandon Mills): And they don't last.

0:36:41 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:36:42 - (Brandon Mills): Last they get run out. They get run out of town or they have to go back to selling their time.

0:36:47 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. No, you're not wrong. Yeah. That's definitely, that's definitely some great advice. And then as far as finding you, where can people go to check out the website? Where can people go to learn more about you?

0:36:59 - (Brandon Mills): Sure. Total Promotion Company.com. this promotion singular. A lot of people want to do Total Promotions company for some reason. So I also bought that web domain and forwarded it. Yeah. Forwarded it tototal Promotion Company.com. and then we're over. We're over by the airport, over by Sunset and Eastern. It's 2450 Chandler Ave, Suite 20 in Las Vegas. You can contact us at salesotalpromotioncompany.com

0:37:31 - (Brandon Mills): the Social Medias is at Total Promotion Co. Nice. There wasn't. They wouldn't let me finish spelling.

0:37:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): Too many characters too long, sir.

0:37:44 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:37:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Too many characters.

0:37:46 - (Brandon Mills): It has got a lot to type but once you're, once you type it in, technology is good enough to where it remembers.

0:37:51 - (Dave Burlin): I love it. And then. Yeah. Any closing thoughts or final words?

0:37:56 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to tell my story, tell who I am, what my business is and what we do and, and I'm, I'm super excited to, to just be a part of, of the Vegas culture and everything here. It's, it's, it's fantastic. You know, I, when I, when I first came back from Texas, you know, moving back here after being gone for almost 20 years, I thought, oh, I don't really know anybody now but that, that it happens quick. Yeah, it happens quick.

0:38:29 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:38:30 - (Brandon Mills): You get plugged into the right, into the right, right places and before you know it you're, you're in, you're in the mix.

0:38:37 - (Dave Burlin): You, that you're not wrong.

0:38:38 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:38:39 - (Dave Burlin): Awesome, man.

0:38:40 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. Thank you, guys.

0:38:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what we're gonna do after this? I think we should record, like, some Christmas mixtape or something and then split a cow.

0:38:50 - (Dave Burlin): Split a cow.

0:38:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): I just split that on the bad couches.

0:38:53 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:38:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Well, thank you guys for tuning in with us. You know how to reach Dave and I mostly on Instagram. If you want to get in touch with Brandon, do so I think on Instagram as well. Stalk him all over the Internet or the address he gave you verbally.

0:39:06 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah.

0:39:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): Can't miss him with his beard, you know?

0:39:08 - (Brandon Mills): Yeah. Well, it's a physical, distinctive feature that I had no intention on, like, growing a beard this big, but. But it's worked out, so there you go. Yeah.

0:39:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Thank you for tuning in to Pursue Vegas. See you next time we are out.

0:39:24 - (Brandon Mills): All right.

0:39:27 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of Pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

0:39:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

0:39:37 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility is to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are.