[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_138":-5,"_139":-5,"_140":141,"_142":143,"_144":145},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/3130/develop-a-differentiator-no-one-else-has","id",3130,"title","Develop a differentiator no one else has","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.280\nI really like it when we go to areas and we're the one of one right like you go\n\n2\n00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:05.440\nto\n\n3\n00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.840\nLas Vegas and we did the summit well, there's a hundred golf courses\n\n4\n00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:14.900\nAt the summit and everyone said your pricing won't work. This whole thing won't\n\n5\n00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:15.040\nwork\n\n6\n00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:17.760\nand I knew it would\n\n7\n00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.120\nbecause\n\n8\n00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:23.440\nI had a lot of friends in Las Vegas who lived in these beautiful houses\n\n9\n00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:27.440\nand had beautiful views of a golf course or the strip\n\n10\n00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:30.960\nBut nobody was part of their community\n\n11\n00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.680\nSo we built a community\n\n12\n00:00:33.680 --> 00:00:36.320\nThat had everything\n\n13\n00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:41.200\nTo draw those type of people and they all moved into it. So now you really have\n\n14\n00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:48.710\nA community where everyone else used to live just in their house on a lot and\n\n15\n00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:51.040\nnot being not being part of the community\n\n16\n00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:54.800\nI like doing that and you go to like Dubai\n\n17\n00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:00.080\nWe're opening our course in November. Well, Dubai's got\n\n18\n00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:05.680\n11 maybe 8 to 11 million people circling through there a lot of people\n\n19\n00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:10.960\nLive there they have 10 golf courses and they're not good golf courses\n\n20\n00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:13.760\nand\n\n21\n00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:19.440\nYou know once we open and they understand what a private, you know real private\n\n22\n00:01:19.440 --> 00:01:20.960\ngolf courses\n\n23\n00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:23.600\nThey're going to go crazy because\n\n24\n00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:27.360\nYou know there's shotguns around you can't even get on it\n\n25\n00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:31.350\nYou know get on a course and even if it's a private course, they still let the\n\n26\n00:01:31.350 --> 00:01:34.080\npublic on so it's just private by\n\n27\n00:01:34.080 --> 00:01:37.040\nWord but not by\n\n28\n00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.200\ndefinition by any means so\n\n29\n00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:43.120\nIt's kind of I like going to places where we're one of one\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",2788339,"end_time",2891589,"keywords","Product, market fit, differentiation, marketing, golf course, Dubai, Las Vegas, community","slug","develop-a-differentiator-no-one-else-has","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","9n4jeimXQlDYxh2Iwq02PZCf02B1slI02c7jVGHniNljKw","mux_asset_id","vd01divoWbx9L01mPhigReQdjqAojdBYtas4gaQ63OwmM","leader_id",255,"episode_id",407,"updated_at","2025-11-27T16:40:57.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/3130/develop-a-differentiator-no-one-else-has","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_106":107,"_25":108,"_109":110,"_61":111,"_58":111,"_112":113,"_68":114,"_39":115,"_116":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_117":118,"_90":119,"_44":120,"_121":122,"_123":124,"_46":-5,"_125":126,"_127":128,"_94":129,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":-5,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_76":77,"_78":79,"_80":81,"_82":83,"_84":-5,"_85":-5,"_86":87,"_88":89,"_90":-5,"_46":-5,"_91":92,"_93":-5,"_94":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Be one of one in your category","be-one-of-one-in-your-category","Listen to this leadership podcast with Michael Meldman, Founder and Chairman of Discovery Land Company, and learn how to make your brand stand out.","summary","

How do you make your brand stand out?

Ask Michael Meldman. He’s the founder of Discovery Land Company, a global portfolio of high-end private golf communities known for doing things differently. By tossing out the traditional country club rulebook and building around comfort and community, he’s created a truly distinctive brand.

He’s also a co-founder of Casamigos Tequila, the billion-dollar brand he built with George Clooney.

In this episode, he shares how he builds brands that deliver exactly what the market wants and needs. If you want to create something unique or stand out in your category, don’t miss this one.

You’ll also learn:

What most leaders get wrong about brand experience
The key to attracting great talent
How to sell your product’s emotional benefits (not just its features)

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.920\n- Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode\n\n2\n00:00:02.920 --> 00:00:03.920\nof How Leaders Lead.\n\n3\n00:00:03.920 --> 00:00:06.400\nToday, we've got a fun one.\n\n4\n00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:08.240\nWe've got Michael Melman on the show.\n\n5\n00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:11.760\nHe is the founder and chairman of Discovery Land Company,\n\n6\n00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:14.440\nthe co-founder of Casa Migos Tequila,\n\n7\n00:00:14.440 --> 00:00:17.000\nand part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders,\n\n8\n00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:18.520\nthree things I love very much,\n\n9\n00:00:18.520 --> 00:00:20.960\ngolf, Tequila, and football.\n\n10\n00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:23.800\nIn this episode, he and David are gonna dive into\n\n11\n00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:25.160\nsome of the things that have made him\n\n12\n00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:27.680\nsuch a successful brand builder.\n\n13\n00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:29.000\nAnd at the end of the episode,\n\n14\n00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.880\nDavid and I are gonna break down some of those key learnings\n\n15\n00:00:31.880 --> 00:00:33.560\nso that you walk away from this episode\n\n16\n00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:34.720\nwith something really tangible,\n\n17\n00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:36.640\nthat you can apply to your leadership,\n\n18\n00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:38.280\nto your life, and to your work.\n\n19\n00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:40.320\nYou're also gonna really love Michael's stories\n\n20\n00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.080\nabout creating a tequila brand with George Clooney.\n\n21\n00:00:43.080 --> 00:00:43.920\nIt's a lot of fun.\n\n22\n00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:45.680\nI think you're gonna love this episode.\n\n23\n00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:47.200\nHere we go.\n\n24\n00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:50.560\n- What's your favorite George Clooney Casa Migos story?\n\n25\n00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.160\n- I probably can't tell it.\n\n26\n00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:54.420\n(laughing)\n\n27\n00:00:59.680 --> 00:01:00.840\n- So Mike, here you are.\n\n28\n00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:04.280\nYou're the founder and chairman of Discovery Land Company,\n\n29\n00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.360\nthe co-founder of Casa Migos Tequila,\n\n30\n00:01:07.360 --> 00:01:10.400\nand part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.\n\n31\n00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:13.040\nAnd yet, what I'm curious to know\n\n32\n00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.040\nis the story behind why you just overhauled\n\n33\n00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:17.440\nyour entire closet.\n\n34\n00:01:17.440 --> 00:01:18.960\n(laughing)\n\n35\n00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:22.880\n- Well, I overall my entire closet\n\n36\n00:01:22.880 --> 00:01:27.880\nto change my wardrobe from Casa Migos,\n\n37\n00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:30.360\nto the Raiders.\n\n38\n00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:33.040\nAs you can see, I'm a branding guy,\n\n39\n00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.520\nso I'm always wearing a project shirt\n\n40\n00:01:36.520 --> 00:01:40.640\nwith either the Raiders or Casa Migos.\n\n41\n00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:44.000\nWe just finally finalized our,\n\n42\n00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:46.880\nwe had to earn out and buy out on Casa Migos\n\n43\n00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:49.480\nso that part of my life is over.\n\n44\n00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:52.960\nWe're gonna start a vodka, organic vodka company,\n\n45\n00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:55.360\nand a non-alcoholic beer,\n\n46\n00:01:55.360 --> 00:01:58.880\nso we're gonna start leaning toward wellness.\n\n47\n00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:02.160\nAnd alcohol and non-alcohol.\n\n48\n00:02:02.160 --> 00:02:06.400\nAnd so it's kind of funny because my wardrobe,\n\n49\n00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:10.120\nmy Casa Migos wardrobe, had a lot of pink in it.\n\n50\n00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:14.600\nAnd when I started The Hills\n\n51\n00:02:14.600 --> 00:02:19.240\nand read it and bought the dune deck and the Hamptons,\n\n52\n00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:21.960\nI kind of wore a pink as a joke\n\n53\n00:02:21.960 --> 00:02:25.640\nbecause everyone on the East Coast is so preppy,\n\n54\n00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:28.680\nand I'm a West Coast guy, I'm a jeans,\n\n55\n00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.840\nt-shirt, flip-flop type of guy.\n\n56\n00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:35.200\nSo I'd wear a pink kind of as a joke\n\n57\n00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:40.080\nto the East Coast and preppy's.\n\n58\n00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:43.960\nAnd it stuck with me for 10 years\n\n59\n00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:46.720\nand my whole wardrobe was pink.\n\n60\n00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:50.520\nAnd now it's black and silver and white.\n\n61\n00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:54.760\nSo, I don't know if it's an upgrade or not, but--\n\n62\n00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:56.880\nI don't know, you know, pink to black, man.\n\n63\n00:02:56.880 --> 00:03:00.080\nYou can kick some even more ass, you know?\n\n64\n00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:01.840\nI know, I still like pink,\n\n65\n00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:04.680\nbut I gotta go with the silver and black.\n\n66\n00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:06.840\nWell, speaking of the silver and black and the Raiders,\n\n67\n00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:10.120\nyou know, what drew you into the NFL?\n\n68\n00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.360\nI've always been a football fan.\n\n69\n00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.560\nI played football as a kid.\n\n70\n00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:19.960\nMy older boys, you know, played football.\n\n71\n00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.720\nProbably the highlight of my life\n\n72\n00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:27.400\nwas their high school football and lacrosse experience.\n\n73\n00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:31.040\nAnd now I have a 12-year-old who's a very good football player.\n\n74\n00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:34.080\nSo, you know, we've always been into sports.\n\n75\n00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.080\nWe've always been into Bay Area sports\n\n76\n00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:40.240\n'cause my older boys were born in the Bay Area.\n\n77\n00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:42.040\nAnd so we're always, you know,\n\n78\n00:03:42.040 --> 00:03:45.440\nbasically niner and Raider fans and Warrior fans\n\n79\n00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:46.720\nand Giants fans.\n\n80\n00:03:46.720 --> 00:03:51.360\nAnd so Mark Davis has been a friend of mine for a long time\n\n81\n00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.320\nand the opportunity came up and some me\n\n82\n00:03:55.320 --> 00:04:00.040\nand one of my partners decided to jump in.\n\n83\n00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:03.560\nAnd as you know, Tom Brady's was already part\n\n84\n00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:07.360\nof the ownership team and Tom and I are very close\n\n85\n00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:09.240\nand go back, you know, for a long time.\n\n86\n00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:13.880\nSo we thought we could have ownership team together\n\n87\n00:04:13.880 --> 00:04:18.880\nwith Mark Davis that could really help build the business,\n\n88\n00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:22.960\ngrow the revenues, and, you know,\n\n89\n00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:24.200\nour goal is to make the Raiders\n\n90\n00:04:24.200 --> 00:04:27.760\nthe number one franchise value in the world.\n\n91\n00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:30.000\n- Well, you've certainly got an iconic franchise\n\n92\n00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:31.840\nand it'll be great to watch what you do\n\n93\n00:04:31.840 --> 00:04:33.360\nto bring them back and get them back\n\n94\n00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:36.680\nto where they rightfully deserve.\n\n95\n00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:37.840\nAlthough I'm, I have to admit,\n\n96\n00:04:37.840 --> 00:04:39.280\nI'm a big Kansas City Chiefs fan,\n\n97\n00:04:39.280 --> 00:04:41.120\nso I'm not rooting for you totally.\n\n98\n00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:41.960\n(laughs)\n\n99\n00:04:41.960 --> 00:04:42.920\n- Look, and I like all the teams,\n\n100\n00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:45.960\nall the teams that obviously have to reach for the Raiders,\n\n101\n00:04:45.960 --> 00:04:48.480\nbut I'm a fan and that's probably\n\n102\n00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:50.760\nthe biggest reason why I did it.\n\n103\n00:04:50.760 --> 00:04:53.600\nAnd it was also great diversification\n\n104\n00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:57.400\nfor me and my family since we're very long on real estate.\n\n105\n00:04:57.400 --> 00:04:59.600\n- Well, speaking of real estate,\n\n106\n00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.320\nyou have built what I think is the greatest real estate brand\n\n107\n00:05:03.320 --> 00:05:05.400\nin the world with discovery.\n\n108\n00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:08.640\nAnd tell us all that discovery is today.\n\n109\n00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:11.960\n- So the way I describe discovery is\n\n110\n00:05:11.960 --> 00:05:15.280\nit's a private resort community.\n\n111\n00:05:16.440 --> 00:05:20.320\nMost people look at it like as just a golf community,\n\n112\n00:05:20.320 --> 00:05:23.000\nbut it's really a lifestyle community.\n\n113\n00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:28.000\nAnd the irony of the whole concept of discovery is\n\n114\n00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.480\nwhen I started the company,\n\n115\n00:05:32.480 --> 00:05:34.360\nI never golfed a day in my life\n\n116\n00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:38.000\nand I was never a member of a country club.\n\n117\n00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:38.840\n- Wow.\n\n118\n00:05:38.840 --> 00:05:43.080\n- Yeah, and so when you go play one of my courses,\n\n119\n00:05:43.080 --> 00:05:46.440\nthere's a lot more on the golf course than golf.\n\n120\n00:05:46.440 --> 00:05:49.560\nI blast rock and roll on the driving range.\n\n121\n00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:53.920\nWe have comfort stations so you could get food and treats.\n\n122\n00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:58.000\nAnd I try to make it feel like you're a kid,\n\n123\n00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.720\nyou're a kid again and you could get whatever you want\n\n124\n00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:05.520\nand make you feel nostalgic about things you had as a kid\n\n125\n00:06:05.520 --> 00:06:09.600\nby the type of candy we have and things like that.\n\n126\n00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:14.320\nI just wanted to make golf fun for me.\n\n127\n00:06:14.320 --> 00:06:15.800\nSo I wanted things on the course\n\n128\n00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:19.040\nthat at least would make me happy because at the time,\n\n129\n00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:20.960\ngolf wasn't making me happy.\n\n130\n00:06:20.960 --> 00:06:24.080\nYou're allowed to play in a T-shirt, playing shorts,\n\n131\n00:06:24.080 --> 00:06:27.880\nno shirt, whatever you feel comfortable.\n\n132\n00:06:27.880 --> 00:06:29.800\nI wasn't looking at being a disruptor.\n\n133\n00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:33.760\nThat was not my intent or even a thought.\n\n134\n00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:37.960\nBut I built my whole company around being with my family\n\n135\n00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:41.400\nand my kids at the time,\n\n136\n00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:45.640\nHunter and Will were probably five and seven.\n\n137\n00:06:45.640 --> 00:06:50.000\nAnd my first course I did was a Stancia in Scottsdale,\n\n138\n00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.120\nwhich I still think is one of the great classic golf courses.\n\n139\n00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:57.320\nAnd I would try to get them to play golf\n\n140\n00:06:57.320 --> 00:06:59.680\nand they would like, okay.\n\n141\n00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.400\nAnd I'd sit there and try to put them in a collared shirt.\n\n142\n00:07:03.400 --> 00:07:06.040\nAnd they wouldn't want to wear a collared shirt.\n\n143\n00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:09.200\nSo we'd literally be sitting there in the pro shop,\n\n144\n00:07:09.200 --> 00:07:10.760\nput on a collared shirt.\n\n145\n00:07:10.760 --> 00:07:12.800\nI don't want to and we're fighting.\n\n146\n00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.560\nAnd I'm like, well, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.\n\n147\n00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:20.720\nWe're here to have fun and to be together.\n\n148\n00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:25.720\nAnd since I didn't grow up golfing, I was like, fine.\n\n149\n00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.160\nDon't wear a collared shirt, let's go.\n\n150\n00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:33.160\nAnd we went shorts and a T-shirt and played.\n\n151\n00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:35.880\nAnd they didn't really play at that age.\n\n152\n00:07:35.880 --> 00:07:40.120\nThey just wanted to throw golf balls off T boxes,\n\n153\n00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:44.120\nwhich happened to be in this case at a Stancia,\n\n154\n00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:47.720\nlike in these beautiful rock outcroppings.\n\n155\n00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:52.720\nAnd so for them, the golf course was just a fun place for them.\n\n156\n00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:56.200\nAnd the whole comfort station situation came out of that\n\n157\n00:07:56.200 --> 00:07:59.360\nbecause I wanted to keep them on the golf course\n\n158\n00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:02.680\nlonger than throwing golf balls off one hole.\n\n159\n00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:07.680\nAnd so I put those red and white igloo coolers on each T box.\n\n160\n00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:13.680\nSo they'd go to a T box, throw the golf balls,\n\n161\n00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:17.880\nrun to the next T box, grab a Coke and a candy bar\n\n162\n00:08:17.880 --> 00:08:19.720\nand probably do that for three or four holes\n\n163\n00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:23.800\nand then they had a sugar rush and we're done.\n\n164\n00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:28.720\nBut the point was I wanted to make golf fun for them.\n\n165\n00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:31.760\nAnd that's where kind of the casualness,\n\n166\n00:08:31.760 --> 00:08:33.840\nand I don't want to say lack of rules\n\n167\n00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:35.440\nbecause everyone says there's no rules\n\n168\n00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.440\nat Discovery Club, there are.\n\n169\n00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:39.920\nAnd it's basically respect.\n\n170\n00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:42.440\n- Yeah, and having been blessed enough\n\n171\n00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:44.120\nto be able to enjoy that experience,\n\n172\n00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:46.160\nyou tell it exactly the way how it is.\n\n173\n00:08:46.160 --> 00:08:49.320\nYou go out there, I was at Troubadour recently,\n\n174\n00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:51.400\noutside of Nashville, listen to the country music,\n\n175\n00:08:51.400 --> 00:08:54.280\nwhich I love, you have the comfort stations,\n\n176\n00:08:54.280 --> 00:08:56.600\nyou can play a five-some or a six-some,\n\n177\n00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.760\nyou keep moving, you respect everybody that's there,\n\n178\n00:08:59.760 --> 00:09:03.720\nbut it's a hell of an experience and a different experience\n\n179\n00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:05.680\nand one that makes golf truly fun.\n\n180\n00:09:05.680 --> 00:09:07.240\nSo you delivered in space.\n\n181\n00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:10.240\nHow does the business model work, Mike?\n\n182\n00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.880\n- You know, what the golfers want is they want to go out\n\n183\n00:09:13.880 --> 00:09:15.040\nwhenever they want to go out,\n\n184\n00:09:15.040 --> 00:09:17.840\nthey don't want to have to worry about key times.\n\n185\n00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:22.440\nAnd so we try to keep our projects low density\n\n186\n00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:25.120\nand the membership count low,\n\n187\n00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:29.320\nso you always have access to the course.\n\n188\n00:09:29.320 --> 00:09:34.320\nAnd so the golf is always subsidized by us for until sellout.\n\n189\n00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:39.680\nAnd then once it's sold out, we run it to break even.\n\n190\n00:09:39.680 --> 00:09:44.280\nSo we don't use the golf course to make money.\n\n191\n00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:47.160\nWe use it to sell the real estate\n\n192\n00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:49.800\nand that's where the money is in our business.\n\n193\n00:09:50.760 --> 00:09:55.760\nAnd so the golf course has really helped sell the real estate\n\n194\n00:09:55.760 --> 00:09:59.640\nfor much higher premium pricing\n\n195\n00:09:59.640 --> 00:10:01.880\nand much faster absorption.\n\n196\n00:10:01.880 --> 00:10:04.880\n- So when you think about discovery,\n\n197\n00:10:04.880 --> 00:10:08.920\nI think of it, you describe yourself as a brand builder\n\n198\n00:10:08.920 --> 00:10:12.000\nand you are and discovery is a tremendous brand.\n\n199\n00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.920\nAnd what do you think, or if you could kind of summarize\n\n200\n00:10:15.920 --> 00:10:19.920\nthe principles that you've used in discovery\n\n201\n00:10:19.920 --> 00:10:24.840\nfor other people that are wanting to build a brand,\n\n202\n00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:27.200\nwhat do you think is key?\n\n203\n00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:30.720\n- Ooh, there are a lot of things, especially for discovery,\n\n204\n00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:34.860\nbut I'd say that the key is consistency.\n\n205\n00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:39.440\nYou know, we always strive, you know,\n\n206\n00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:42.120\nto be the best of the best wherever we are.\n\n207\n00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:46.040\nSo consistency is important,\n\n208\n00:10:46.040 --> 00:10:49.880\nbut also learning from every project\n\n209\n00:10:49.880 --> 00:10:53.160\nand making the next project better is important.\n\n210\n00:10:53.160 --> 00:10:57.440\nSo we're always striving for excellence.\n\n211\n00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:00.640\nWe're always, I think we're always getting better.\n\n212\n00:11:00.640 --> 00:11:04.200\nAnd one of the most rewarding things is\n\n213\n00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:08.800\nthat we have a whole group of individuals\n\n214\n00:11:08.800 --> 00:11:12.000\nwho started working for me right out of high school\n\n215\n00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.600\nor right out of college\n\n216\n00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.320\nand have never worked for anyone else.\n\n217\n00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:18.200\nSo their DNA is discovery.\n\n218\n00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.520\nAnd so everyone just thrives to make it better and better.\n\n219\n00:11:22.520 --> 00:11:23.840\nAnd it's really fun to see\n\n220\n00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:26.880\n'cause they're really just perpetuating my, you know,\n\n221\n00:11:26.880 --> 00:11:30.800\nmy vision and they're really good at it.\n\n222\n00:11:30.800 --> 00:11:33.640\n- You know, I had the great time of playing\n\n223\n00:11:33.640 --> 00:11:37.000\nwith Cy Anthony and JJ Datham\n\n224\n00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.720\nand recently in a golf term, both of these guys work for you.\n\n225\n00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:42.120\nAnd I knew I had this podcast coming up and I said,\n\n226\n00:11:42.120 --> 00:11:44.120\nwhat do you think it is that, you know,\n\n227\n00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:47.120\nreally distinguishes Mike as a leader?\n\n228\n00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:51.200\nAnd he says, listen, this guy looks at somebody,\n\n229\n00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:56.120\nsees somebody and says, this is somebody we need to hire.\n\n230\n00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:58.240\nThey talked about your eye for talent.\n\n231\n00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:00.080\nWhat do you, when you look at talent,\n\n232\n00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:03.480\nwhat do you look for as that intangible or the it factor?\n\n233\n00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:05.320\nBecause that's what they said you had.\n\n234\n00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:07.760\nYou'd say, hey look, I don't know what this guy's doing right now,\n\n235\n00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:09.800\nbut he needs to work for us someday.\n\n236\n00:12:09.800 --> 00:12:13.280\nAnd sooner or later you end up landing that person.\n\n237\n00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:17.480\n- Yeah, well, we wanna be kind of the employer of choice\n\n238\n00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:19.200\nfor, you know, for anybody.\n\n239\n00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:25.400\nAnd we get good people to begin with and I see good people\n\n240\n00:12:25.400 --> 00:12:30.680\nbecause we have really, really good growth opportunities.\n\n241\n00:12:30.680 --> 00:12:35.680\nLike we've had like valets, parking cars turned into\n\n242\n00:12:35.680 --> 00:12:38.440\noperational leaders.\n\n243\n00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.960\nAnd we've had outdoor pursuit people who, you know,\n\n244\n00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:44.880\nwe're phishing guides turned into general managers\n\n245\n00:12:44.880 --> 00:12:49.440\nand of clubs or developers of, you know, one of our projects.\n\n246\n00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.400\nSo there's a lot of growth.\n\n247\n00:12:52.400 --> 00:12:55.440\nYou know, I don't say it's necessarily iron talent,\n\n248\n00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:57.840\nbut I think it's really nurturing\n\n249\n00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:00.680\nand how, you know, creating talent.\n\n250\n00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:05.680\nBecause what we do is so special and different\n\n251\n00:13:05.680 --> 00:13:08.680\nthan what anyone else does, you know,\n\n252\n00:13:08.680 --> 00:13:11.760\nyou can't learn this at the four seasons, you know,\n\n253\n00:13:11.760 --> 00:13:16.000\ntraining schedule or meetings or training manual.\n\n254\n00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.800\nAnd so it takes a lot of my time and a lot of personal energy\n\n255\n00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:22.360\nto invest in these people.\n\n256\n00:13:22.360 --> 00:13:26.000\nAnd JJ's probably one of the greatest examples of all time.\n\n257\n00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:30.920\nI mean, JJ is a big golfer, fun on the golf course,\n\n258\n00:13:30.920 --> 00:13:31.880\njust like Si.\n\n259\n00:13:31.880 --> 00:13:34.240\nI mean, they're kind of, you know, similar.\n\n260\n00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:37.800\nAnd they've really, you know, Si's been with me 10 years.\n\n261\n00:13:37.800 --> 00:13:39.640\nJJ's been with me 20 years.\n\n262\n00:13:39.640 --> 00:13:42.080\nAnd they've grown into, you know,\n\n263\n00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:45.520\npeople who have real stature and can, you know,\n\n264\n00:13:45.520 --> 00:13:50.520\ncan really articulate what discoveries about.\n\n265\n00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:53.200\nAnd JJ's JJ, right?\n\n266\n00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:58.040\nI mean, JJ just has a stature and personality all to himself,\n\n267\n00:13:58.040 --> 00:13:59.520\nwhich, you know, people love.\n\n268\n00:13:59.520 --> 00:14:03.240\nAnd so, you know, I think I just help nurture\n\n269\n00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:05.200\nand energize people.\n\n270\n00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:06.040\n- That's great.\n\n271\n00:14:06.040 --> 00:14:08.240\nAnd we're going to talk more about discovery in a bit,\n\n272\n00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:09.960\nbut I'm curious, you know,\n\n273\n00:14:09.960 --> 00:14:12.000\nwhat's the story from your childhood, Mike,\n\n274\n00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.160\nthat shaped the kind of leader you are today?\n\n275\n00:14:15.160 --> 00:14:18.680\n- I grew up in Milwaukee, it's a very, you know,\n\n276\n00:14:18.680 --> 00:14:22.280\nhappy middle-class lifestyle.\n\n277\n00:14:22.280 --> 00:14:26.200\nTwo sisters, you know, uncles and aunts and cousins.\n\n278\n00:14:26.200 --> 00:14:28.040\nWe'd all go to, you know,\n\n279\n00:14:28.040 --> 00:14:31.040\ngrandma's and grandpa's house every Sunday for dinner.\n\n280\n00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:35.400\nSo it was, you know, a very kind of nice,\n\n281\n00:14:35.400 --> 00:14:40.400\ntraditional, you know, happy lifestyle.\n\n282\n00:14:40.400 --> 00:14:45.640\nAnd my dad and my grandfather taught me, you know,\n\n283\n00:14:47.520 --> 00:14:50.800\nintegrity, character, to follow the rules\n\n284\n00:14:50.800 --> 00:14:53.080\nand just be the best person you can.\n\n285\n00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.920\nAnd probably the most meaningful story\n\n286\n00:14:55.920 --> 00:14:58.440\nfor my childhood that I remember\n\n287\n00:14:58.440 --> 00:15:01.040\nis that my dad was our little league coach.\n\n288\n00:15:01.040 --> 00:15:04.960\nAnd we're playing back then it was neighborhoods, right?\n\n289\n00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:07.080\nWe were playing our neighborhood team\n\n290\n00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:09.600\nand it happened to be the championship game\n\n291\n00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.600\nfor our softball was even before little league.\n\n292\n00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:19.120\nWhen there's this kid, I remember who probably wasn't\n\n293\n00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:22.240\nthe best athlete or baseball player on the team.\n\n294\n00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:25.720\nIt was something like bases loaded, we were down by one.\n\n295\n00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:30.720\nAnd my dad realized that Randy didn't get to play.\n\n296\n00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:36.200\nSo he substituted Randy in for whoever was, you know,\n\n297\n00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:41.040\nbatting, who was probably, or clean up hitter or something.\n\n298\n00:15:41.040 --> 00:15:44.280\n'Cause my dad said, we gotta play by the rules.\n\n299\n00:15:44.280 --> 00:15:46.160\nEveryone's gotta play, Randy hasn't played.\n\n300\n00:15:46.160 --> 00:15:48.920\nSo he put them in, he struck out.\n\n301\n00:15:48.920 --> 00:15:51.600\nWe lost, you know, we lost the championship.\n\n302\n00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.600\nThe other team was obviously celebrating.\n\n303\n00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:57.920\nMy dad, you know, came to us and said, look,\n\n304\n00:15:57.920 --> 00:16:00.840\nwe could hold our heads high, we did the right thing.\n\n305\n00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:03.080\nWe played, you know, we played by the rules.\n\n306\n00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.320\nThey didn't, they didn't play all their kids, but we did.\n\n307\n00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:09.600\nSo you kids are really the winners.\n\n308\n00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:13.640\nAnd so, yeah, and that just stuck with me.\n\n309\n00:16:13.640 --> 00:16:16.080\nI was always a good athlete and always, you know,\n\n310\n00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.920\nin my peer group, the best athlete.\n\n311\n00:16:18.920 --> 00:16:22.160\nAnd, you know, someone like Mr. Sean basketball,\n\n312\n00:16:22.160 --> 00:16:24.680\nI would like scream at him and yell at him.\n\n313\n00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:26.840\nAnd I had a, I probably did that when I started playing\n\n314\n00:16:26.840 --> 00:16:29.600\npickleball recently too.\n\n315\n00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.240\nBut that just kind of changed my perspective\n\n316\n00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:35.200\non everything, right?\n\n317\n00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:38.560\nJust always do the right thing, be a good sport.\n\n318\n00:16:38.560 --> 00:16:41.160\nBoth my father and my grandfather were just, you know,\n\n319\n00:16:41.160 --> 00:16:45.640\ntwo of the most well-grounded people I've, you know,\n\n320\n00:16:45.640 --> 00:16:46.720\nI've ever met.\n\n321\n00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:48.160\n- You know, and as I understand it,\n\n322\n00:16:48.160 --> 00:16:51.320\nafter finishing college at Stanford,\n\n323\n00:16:51.320 --> 00:16:55.760\nyou went to be a Blackjack dealer in Tahoe.\n\n324\n00:16:55.760 --> 00:16:58.160\nWhat did that experience teach you?\n\n325\n00:16:58.160 --> 00:17:00.960\n- Yeah, well, it taught me how to count to 21.\n\n326\n00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:05.960\nSo that was not a problem if you went to Stanford.\n\n327\n00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.640\n- Yeah, it wasn't really that big of a problem.\n\n328\n00:17:08.640 --> 00:17:11.960\nBut I went to a Blackjack with three buddies of mine\n\n329\n00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.680\nbecause I was supposed to go law school\n\n330\n00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.440\nand I bombed the LSATs.\n\n331\n00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:20.000\nAnd so I didn't go law school.\n\n332\n00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.840\nAnd so my buddies who were going to Tahoe said,\n\n333\n00:17:22.840 --> 00:17:24.560\n\"Let's go.\"\n\n334\n00:17:24.560 --> 00:17:28.440\nAnd I went and, you know, we rented a cabin\n\n335\n00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:31.080\nlike in Camp Richardson outside of South Lake\n\n336\n00:17:31.080 --> 00:17:36.080\nand we dealt at Harris and our shift was like midnight to eight.\n\n337\n00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:39.280\nSo I met a guy at the Blackjack table\n\n338\n00:17:39.280 --> 00:17:42.360\nwho asked me if I wanted to make as much money as I wanted\n\n339\n00:17:42.360 --> 00:17:44.600\nand work as little as I wanted.\n\n340\n00:17:44.600 --> 00:17:47.320\nAnd I'm like, \"Yeah, who wouldn't?\"\n\n341\n00:17:47.320 --> 00:17:51.640\nSo he was starting a commercial real estate company\n\n342\n00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:53.600\nin San Jose, California.\n\n343\n00:17:53.600 --> 00:17:58.200\nI went and did that and I had literally no training.\n\n344\n00:17:58.200 --> 00:18:02.360\nHe stuck me out in Fremont, said put up signs\n\n345\n00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:04.680\nand meet the farmers, it was all farmland.\n\n346\n00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:08.000\nSo I spent the first year literally just putting up signs,\n\n347\n00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:11.640\nmeeting the farmers and I did a bunch of deals.\n\n348\n00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:13.800\nSo I had a knack for making deals.\n\n349\n00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:16.520\nSo that was kind of the beginning of it.\n\n350\n00:18:16.520 --> 00:18:18.720\n- And when you say knack for making deals,\n\n351\n00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.760\nwhat does that mean?\n\n352\n00:18:19.760 --> 00:18:24.800\nI mean, well, my first year I did about 60 deals\n\n353\n00:18:24.800 --> 00:18:27.840\nand I made a decent amount of money,\n\n354\n00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:30.560\nprobably, you know, from my age\n\n355\n00:18:30.560 --> 00:18:32.160\nand, you know, first year out of college\n\n356\n00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:36.080\nwhere I'm more than anyone, you know, any engineer,\n\n357\n00:18:36.080 --> 00:18:39.760\nyou know, anyone who had a real job\n\n358\n00:18:39.760 --> 00:18:44.760\nand I would lease like a commercially zoned house\n\n359\n00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:49.000\nfrom some family and like grass valley,\n\n360\n00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.200\nwhich is kind of a retirement community\n\n361\n00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:55.160\nin Northern California to a termite company.\n\n362\n00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:58.800\nAnd I'd negotiate the lease and the termite,\n\n363\n00:18:58.800 --> 00:18:59.640\nI'll never forget this,\n\n364\n00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:03.600\na termite company owner said, what's the stop them?\n\n365\n00:19:03.600 --> 00:19:05.240\nAnd I said, hold on.\n\n366\n00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:07.800\nAnd we didn't have cell phones or anything back then.\n\n367\n00:19:07.800 --> 00:19:11.840\nSo I'd have to go find the phone, call my manager,\n\n368\n00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:13.360\nask him what a stop it was.\n\n369\n00:19:13.360 --> 00:19:17.000\nHe would tell me, I'd explain it to the termite guy.\n\n370\n00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.000\nHe would say, okay, and sign the lease.\n\n371\n00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.080\nI'd take the sign lease back to my office\n\n372\n00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:24.080\nand I still didn't know what a stop it was.\n\n373\n00:19:24.080 --> 00:19:24.920\n(laughing)\n\n374\n00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.880\n- I was gonna have to ask you to explain it to me.\n\n375\n00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:30.200\n- Yeah, I still don't know what it is.\n\n376\n00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:35.600\nBut I was just able to, I guess communicate,\n\n377\n00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:38.920\nmake people feel, you know, comfortable\n\n378\n00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:42.680\nand that, you know, I was, you know, honest and truthful.\n\n379\n00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:44.920\n- Hello friends, I hope you're loving this conversation\n\n380\n00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:46.200\nwith David and Michael Melman.\n\n381\n00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:48.040\nBe sure you stay tuned to the debrief.\n\n382\n00:19:48.040 --> 00:19:50.920\nDavid and I are gonna give you some practical takeaways\n\n383\n00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:52.880\nbased on the conversation that he's having with Mike.\n\n384\n00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:54.840\nSo stay tuned to the very end of the episode\n\n385\n00:19:54.840 --> 00:19:56.640\nand don't miss the debrief.\n\n386\n00:19:57.560 --> 00:19:59.600\n- What was your first discovery property\n\n387\n00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:03.280\nand what was the biggest lesson you carried forward\n\n388\n00:20:03.280 --> 00:20:05.880\nfrom that experience?\n\n389\n00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:09.960\n- Well, the first discovery property was Estonia.\n\n390\n00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:14.240\nAnd that's a golf course community in Arizona.\n\n391\n00:20:14.240 --> 00:20:19.240\nAnd so before I got into Estonia,\n\n392\n00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:25.760\nI spent probably maybe 18 years processing a property\n\n393\n00:20:27.560 --> 00:20:29.680\nin Portola Valley, California,\n\n394\n00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:32.480\nwhich is right outside of Stanford\n\n395\n00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:34.080\nand right where I lived.\n\n396\n00:20:34.080 --> 00:20:36.040\nSo it was great, right?\n\n397\n00:20:36.040 --> 00:20:39.120\nI was doing this big project in my backyard.\n\n398\n00:20:39.120 --> 00:20:42.160\nAnd what I didn't know is the property,\n\n399\n00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:44.640\nwe bought it from a side of prints.\n\n400\n00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.160\nThe property had every environmental constraint\n\n401\n00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:49.560\nyou could ever imagine.\n\n402\n00:20:49.560 --> 00:20:52.280\nThe San Andreas fault ran through it.\n\n403\n00:20:52.280 --> 00:20:54.440\nIt had a big hillside\n\n404\n00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:58.200\nthat had a lot of mudslides map.\n\n405\n00:20:58.200 --> 00:21:03.200\nIt had Fauna and Flora going through it that was sacred.\n\n406\n00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.160\nAnd so all the people were fighting me\n\n407\n00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:09.560\n'cause everyone fights developers.\n\n408\n00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:12.400\nAnd so the people fighting me were educated\n\n409\n00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.840\n'cause the people fighting me on the biology professors\n\n410\n00:21:16.840 --> 00:21:18.040\nat Stanford.\n\n411\n00:21:18.040 --> 00:21:20.040\nAnd even my friends wouldn't support me\n\n412\n00:21:20.040 --> 00:21:21.520\n'cause they're like, no.\n\n413\n00:21:21.520 --> 00:21:23.520\nThey're like, you're ruining the environment.\n\n414\n00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:24.600\nThey go, we're not.\n\n415\n00:21:24.600 --> 00:21:27.720\nAnd so it literally taught me how\n\n416\n00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:30.080\nto develop through the environment, right?\n\n417\n00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:35.240\nAnd so, putting the roads along the contours\n\n418\n00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:37.360\nof the topography, what makes sense?\n\n419\n00:21:37.360 --> 00:21:40.240\n'Cause you're not grading.\n\n420\n00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:44.960\nYou're just placing them down where they naturally belong.\n\n421\n00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:46.880\nYou're not mass grading the site\n\n422\n00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:50.160\nand then spending all this money on landscaping.\n\n423\n00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:53.720\nAnd so taught me to keep the vegetation,\n\n424\n00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:58.560\nto keep the site as natural as you can\n\n425\n00:21:58.560 --> 00:22:03.560\nand just incorporate the buildings into the nature.\n\n426\n00:22:03.560 --> 00:22:09.160\nAnd so that's kind of what I did.\n\n427\n00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:13.240\nAnd so I basically got a PhD in planning,\n\n428\n00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:17.520\nenvironmental planning by spending 18 years doing that.\n\n429\n00:22:17.520 --> 00:22:20.560\nAnd so when I went to Arizona to do a Stancia,\n\n430\n00:22:20.560 --> 00:22:26.400\nit was there's a landmark called Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale.\n\n431\n00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:29.680\nAnd it's one of the famous, it's one of the two mountains\n\n432\n00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:31.640\nthere and there's a Pinnacle Peak restaurant\n\n433\n00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:34.560\nand they do shootouts and robberies\n\n434\n00:22:34.560 --> 00:22:38.840\nand cowboy western stuff there.\n\n435\n00:22:38.840 --> 00:22:43.840\nIt was zoned for 900 units or a resort like the Phoenician.\n\n436\n00:22:45.320 --> 00:22:49.080\nThe Phoenician was on Camelback Mountain, it just opened.\n\n437\n00:22:49.080 --> 00:22:52.080\nIt was beautiful and everyone loved it.\n\n438\n00:22:52.080 --> 00:22:55.400\nHowever, the owner and developer of the resort\n\n439\n00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:58.560\ngot arrested and went to jail.\n\n440\n00:22:58.560 --> 00:23:01.560\nIt was part of the SNL crisis back then.\n\n441\n00:23:01.560 --> 00:23:05.360\nSo when they told me I could put a Phoenician\n\n442\n00:23:05.360 --> 00:23:10.360\non the property and use true North as the golf course,\n\n443\n00:23:14.280 --> 00:23:17.360\nI didn't quite think it was a good idea\n\n444\n00:23:17.360 --> 00:23:19.960\nbecause I go the last guy who did it ended up in jail.\n\n445\n00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:24.480\nSo I don't want to really pursue that route.\n\n446\n00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:29.480\nSo it had a density credit of taking the 2000 hotel rooms\n\n447\n00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:33.400\nthat would have completely desecrated the site.\n\n448\n00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.280\nIt had a density transferred to 900 residential units\n\n449\n00:23:37.280 --> 00:23:40.200\nand 900 residential units would have ruined the site.\n\n450\n00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:43.520\nAnd this was probably one of the most beautiful sites\n\n451\n00:23:43.520 --> 00:23:44.640\nin Arizona.\n\n452\n00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:47.760\nIt had pinnacle peak, it had rock out croppings,\n\n453\n00:23:47.760 --> 00:23:51.480\nit had beautiful trees and vegetation.\n\n454\n00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:54.840\nSo what we did is I got Tom Fazio\n\n455\n00:23:54.840 --> 00:23:57.160\nand this is how I met Fazio.\n\n456\n00:23:57.160 --> 00:23:59.280\nAnd the reason I called Tom,\n\n457\n00:23:59.280 --> 00:24:01.120\nand you gotta remember I didn't golf at this time\n\n458\n00:24:01.120 --> 00:24:04.920\nthough anything about golf or country clubs,\n\n459\n00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:09.120\nis 'cause all the most expensive golf clubs in the West\n\n460\n00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:10.920\nwere Tom Fazio courses.\n\n461\n00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:13.960\nThere's the Vintage Club, which is kind of the granddaddy\n\n462\n00:24:13.960 --> 00:24:17.520\nof a mall, there is the quarry and there's Maroon Creek.\n\n463\n00:24:17.520 --> 00:24:21.840\nAnd so they were the most expensive memberships\n\n464\n00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:23.120\non the West Coast.\n\n465\n00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:26.680\nI said, well, sounds like Tom Fazio is our guy\n\n466\n00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:29.840\ncalled Tom, hired him.\n\n467\n00:24:29.840 --> 00:24:33.640\nAnd we built the course, right?\n\n468\n00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:37.760\nI don't think, I think we moved less than 300,000 cubic yards\n\n469\n00:24:37.760 --> 00:24:41.000\nof dirt, which a lot of it was all on one hole,\n\n470\n00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:43.360\njust building a hole up with rocks.\n\n471\n00:24:43.360 --> 00:24:48.040\nSo it's a pretty natural, natural site and it's beautiful.\n\n472\n00:24:48.040 --> 00:24:50.760\nBut I wouldn't have known how to do that\n\n473\n00:24:50.760 --> 00:24:53.720\nwithout the Bertol Valley experience.\n\n474\n00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:58.720\nAnd what we did is we'd box up the trees and move them,\n\n475\n00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:03.600\nput in the golf and then we'd revege,\n\n476\n00:25:03.600 --> 00:25:05.960\ntake those trees and replant them.\n\n477\n00:25:05.960 --> 00:25:09.320\nAnd so when we opened the golf course,\n\n478\n00:25:09.320 --> 00:25:11.960\nit looked like it's been there for 1,000 years.\n\n479\n00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:13.640\nAnd you could barely see the roads\n\n480\n00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:16.760\n'cause they were landscaped and going against the contours.\n\n481\n00:25:16.760 --> 00:25:21.760\nSo the 18 years of hell in Bertol Valley\n\n482\n00:25:21.760 --> 00:25:27.840\nended up being something that really I leaned on and taught me.\n\n483\n00:25:27.840 --> 00:25:30.680\nAnd I was able to go to these places\n\n484\n00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:33.800\nand work with these environmentalists\n\n485\n00:25:33.800 --> 00:25:36.560\nbecause I was always reducing density\n\n486\n00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:38.320\ninstead of looking for more.\n\n487\n00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:41.920\nAnd the project ended up instead of with 900 units,\n\n488\n00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:44.720\nwith 253 units, so.\n\n489\n00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:47.240\n- And you have this perception of being the developer\n\n490\n00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:50.360\nthat not you yourself, but the industry,\n\n491\n00:25:50.360 --> 00:25:53.600\nyou come in, rape the land, take advantage of things, whatever,\n\n492\n00:25:53.600 --> 00:25:56.440\nbut you do exactly the opposite of that.\n\n493\n00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:59.520\nAnd I know when you went into Baker's Bay\n\n494\n00:25:59.520 --> 00:26:02.680\nand the Bahamas, it was very controversial.\n\n495\n00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:06.680\nIn fact, you've faced a lot of resistances first\n\n496\n00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:08.680\nand people literally had t-shirts.\n\n497\n00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:11.080\nI'm told it said F, Mike Milman.\n\n498\n00:26:11.080 --> 00:26:15.560\nHow did you go about winning the community over?\n\n499\n00:26:15.560 --> 00:26:19.680\n- Well, see, whenever there's people against us,\n\n500\n00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:23.760\nit always seems like it's a big community\n\n501\n00:26:23.760 --> 00:26:27.440\nthat's fighting us, but it never really is.\n\n502\n00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:32.080\nIt's literally, in this case, it might have been five people\n\n503\n00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:37.840\nand they're just, not that they screamed aloud us,\n\n504\n00:26:37.840 --> 00:26:40.920\nbut that's who people wanted to listen to.\n\n505\n00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:45.520\nSo here we are, we just had the 20th Anniversary of Baker's Bay.\n\n506\n00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:49.200\nThe reefs didn't die, they're healthy as can be.\n\n507\n00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:52.200\nAnd we suffered a hurricane\n\n508\n00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:55.720\nabout five or seven years ago called Dorian.\n\n509\n00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:58.440\nAnd Dorian destroyed Baker's Bay\n\n510\n00:26:58.440 --> 00:27:00.400\nand it destroyed the rest of the island,\n\n511\n00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:02.800\nit destroyed the neighboring islands.\n\n512\n00:27:02.800 --> 00:27:06.640\nAnd the neighboring islands are where our employees lived,\n\n513\n00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:09.240\nalso on our island.\n\n514\n00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.520\nAnd so everything got destroyed.\n\n515\n00:27:11.520 --> 00:27:13.400\nI mean, it was horrific.\n\n516\n00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:15.040\nI mean, when I heard about the news,\n\n517\n00:27:15.040 --> 00:27:17.200\nit literally knocked me to the ground.\n\n518\n00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:20.920\nI mean, I just went down to my knees\n\n519\n00:27:20.920 --> 00:27:23.480\nand sat on the ground and took a few breaths.\n\n520\n00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:25.480\nI mean, it really knocked,\n\n521\n00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:28.840\nit was like being punched in the stomach.\n\n522\n00:27:28.840 --> 00:27:33.320\nAnd so I knew that I had to be the leader\n\n523\n00:27:33.320 --> 00:27:38.040\nand I knew I had to put on a brave face.\n\n524\n00:27:38.040 --> 00:27:42.680\nAnd so what I did is I started communicating\n\n525\n00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:45.160\nwith the membership every day.\n\n526\n00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:49.040\nI would send out an email to everyone daily\n\n527\n00:27:49.040 --> 00:27:52.920\nfor probably 60 days until everything calmed down a bit,\n\n528\n00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:55.240\njust telling them what's going on on the island,\n\n529\n00:27:55.240 --> 00:27:58.120\nwho we had there, what we're doing.\n\n530\n00:27:58.120 --> 00:28:03.120\nAnd we actually rebuilt it.\n\n531\n00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:06.960\nAnd it was a big fight with the Bohemian government\n\n532\n00:28:06.960 --> 00:28:11.920\nbecause this hurricane didn't hit anywhere but us.\n\n533\n00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:14.800\nAnd so when I went to Nassau to meet\n\n534\n00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:17.440\nwith the prime minister and the cabinet,\n\n535\n00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:20.080\nthey didn't, I mean, the prime minister was actually great\n\n536\n00:28:20.080 --> 00:28:22.560\nand really helpful, but he wanted me there\n\n537\n00:28:22.560 --> 00:28:24.920\nto show you the lack of support.\n\n538\n00:28:24.920 --> 00:28:27.800\nHe was getting, you know, from the rest of the cabinet\n\n539\n00:28:27.800 --> 00:28:29.160\nbecause they're all from Nassau.\n\n540\n00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:31.840\nIt didn't even rain in Nassau.\n\n541\n00:28:31.840 --> 00:28:36.960\nAnd so I had to convince them that we had to build,\n\n542\n00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:41.160\nyou know, 20 years of construction in two months.\n\n543\n00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.000\nAnd then they finally let us, you know,\n\n544\n00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.640\nthey relieved us from that.\n\n545\n00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:50.880\nThey let us bring in foreign labor.\n\n546\n00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:54.600\nWe brought up a whole bunch of our crew from Mexico\n\n547\n00:28:54.600 --> 00:28:55.440\nto rebuild it.\n\n548\n00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:58.040\nWe brought in ships for them to live on.\n\n549\n00:28:58.040 --> 00:29:00.800\nAnd we actually rebuilt it in two years,\n\n550\n00:29:00.800 --> 00:29:05.320\nwhich was phenomenal and great.\n\n551\n00:29:05.320 --> 00:29:09.760\nAnd for a lot of the members to employees in\n\n552\n00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:14.760\nand even to this day, our foundation is building houses\n\n553\n00:29:14.760 --> 00:29:19.920\nin Marsh Harbor for, you know,\n\n554\n00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:21.640\nwho lost their homes in the hurricane.\n\n555\n00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:23.760\n- Oh, that is so great.\n\n556\n00:29:23.760 --> 00:29:27.040\nYou know, El Dorado is another one of your discovery properties.\n\n557\n00:29:27.040 --> 00:29:30.040\nAnd I think that's where Casamigos was.\n\n558\n00:29:30.040 --> 00:29:31.440\nTequila was born.\n\n559\n00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:34.680\nWhat's the story of you, George Clooney and Randy Gerber\n\n560\n00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:36.520\nwho's Cindy Crawford's husband?\n\n561\n00:29:36.520 --> 00:29:38.040\nHow did you guys come up with that idea?\n\n562\n00:29:38.040 --> 00:29:39.720\nHow did that happen?\n\n563\n00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:43.680\n- So we'd live together at my house.\n\n564\n00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:46.200\nThey were about three, four lots down\n\n565\n00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:50.200\nand they built a big compound with two houses.\n\n566\n00:29:50.200 --> 00:29:54.840\nOkay, and they called the house Casamigos.\n\n567\n00:29:54.840 --> 00:29:58.200\nSo we were a lot younger in those days\n\n568\n00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:00.440\nand we were drinking a lot more.\n\n569\n00:30:00.440 --> 00:30:05.200\nAnd we were drinking like Clazizul.\n\n570\n00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:06.040\nWe liked that.\n\n571\n00:30:06.040 --> 00:30:07.040\nWe thought it was a little sweet.\n\n572\n00:30:07.040 --> 00:30:09.360\nAnd we were drinking 1942.\n\n573\n00:30:09.360 --> 00:30:11.000\nWe thought it was a little bitter and we go,\n\n574\n00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:13.200\nI think we can come up with something better.\n\n575\n00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:16.080\nAnd so we came up with this tequila.\n\n576\n00:30:16.080 --> 00:30:20.040\nThat was, if you do a side-by-side analysis,\n\n577\n00:30:20.040 --> 00:30:23.720\nwe always went because like 42 is a great tequila,\n\n578\n00:30:23.720 --> 00:30:25.200\nbut it's bitter.\n\n579\n00:30:25.200 --> 00:30:26.840\nBut you don't know how bitter it is\n\n580\n00:30:26.840 --> 00:30:30.400\nunless you taste it compared to Casamigos.\n\n581\n00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.920\nAnd Clazizul is a great tequila 'cause we're drinking both,\n\n582\n00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:35.280\nbut it's a little sweet.\n\n583\n00:30:35.280 --> 00:30:39.320\nAnd if you drink it next to Casamigos, it's real sweet.\n\n584\n00:30:39.320 --> 00:30:43.240\nSo we kind of tried to find something right in between\n\n585\n00:30:43.240 --> 00:30:45.000\nand we didn't really do it to sell it.\n\n586\n00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:46.160\nWe did it for ourselves.\n\n587\n00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:50.600\nWe figured we'd sell a lot of discovery properties.\n\n588\n00:30:50.600 --> 00:30:53.560\nWe'd sell a lot at Randy's bars.\n\n589\n00:30:53.560 --> 00:30:55.800\nAnd we felt George would just drink a lot.\n\n590\n00:30:55.800 --> 00:30:59.520\nSo we would be good.\n\n591\n00:30:59.520 --> 00:31:03.040\nAnd so everybody just liked it so much.\n\n592\n00:31:03.040 --> 00:31:06.400\nWe went to Southern Wine Inspirance and we said,\n\n593\n00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:09.560\n\"Can we take this for us?\"\n\n594\n00:31:09.560 --> 00:31:11.200\nAnd they tried the repo and they go,\n\n595\n00:31:11.200 --> 00:31:13.240\n\"Yeah, we'd love it. It's great.\n\n596\n00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:16.000\nWe want it, but you need a block up.\"\n\n597\n00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:18.680\nAnd I remember saying, \"Well, we drink the repo.\n\n598\n00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:20.480\nWe don't drink a Blanco.\"\n\n599\n00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:25.440\nAnd Larry Rubo from Southern Wine Spirits\n\n600\n00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:29.320\ngoes, \"Well, 85% of the markets, Blanco.\"\n\n601\n00:31:29.320 --> 00:31:31.400\nI go, \"Well, we'll do a Blanco then.\"\n\n602\n00:31:31.400 --> 00:31:33.120\n(laughing)\n\n603\n00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:37.080\nAnd we'd launched and we said to him at the launch,\n\n604\n00:31:37.080 --> 00:31:40.720\nwe go, \"So how many, what would be a good year?\"\n\n605\n00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:44.480\nAnd they go, \"If you could do 24,000 cases your first year,\n\n606\n00:31:44.480 --> 00:31:47.120\nyou'll be a huge success.\"\n\n607\n00:31:47.120 --> 00:31:49.840\nSo we made 24,000 cases.\n\n608\n00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:54.040\nGeorge Randy and I each were third to third to third partners.\n\n609\n00:31:54.040 --> 00:31:58.480\nIt cost us a million eight, which is $600,000 each,\n\n610\n00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:03.480\nand sold out that first, actually the first two days.\n\n611\n00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:07.040\nAnd we never had to put another dime in it\n\n612\n00:32:07.040 --> 00:32:11.220\nand we sold it for a billion dollars in four years.\n\n613\n00:32:12.320 --> 00:32:15.560\n- That's a nice story. (laughing)\n\n614\n00:32:15.560 --> 00:32:18.400\nLooking back, what was the single best strategic decision\n\n615\n00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:20.440\nyou made that unlocked that kind of value?\n\n616\n00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:21.280\nI mean, that's...\n\n617\n00:32:21.280 --> 00:32:24.400\n- Well, first of all, the three of us have different,\n\n618\n00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:26.480\nhad completely different talents.\n\n619\n00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:31.480\nSo it was three good friends hanging out together,\n\n620\n00:32:31.480 --> 00:32:34.520\nwhich as you get older, you don't see your friends as much.\n\n621\n00:32:34.520 --> 00:32:36.120\nSo that was fun.\n\n622\n00:32:36.120 --> 00:32:40.000\nBut the real reason cost me those did well\n\n623\n00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:42.680\nwas 'cause it was good tequila.\n\n624\n00:32:42.680 --> 00:32:44.920\nSo if it wasn't good tequila,\n\n625\n00:32:44.920 --> 00:32:47.600\nit wouldn't matter who is behind it.\n\n626\n00:32:47.600 --> 00:32:52.160\nAnd so the story, the kind of the organic story behind it,\n\n627\n00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:56.240\nhow three friends went and did it was a good story.\n\n628\n00:32:56.240 --> 00:33:00.320\nAnd it followed up with being a good tequila.\n\n629\n00:33:00.320 --> 00:33:03.800\nAnd so we knew we had a winner before we launched\n\n630\n00:33:03.800 --> 00:33:06.800\nbecause we sampled it with so many people\n\n631\n00:33:06.800 --> 00:33:11.120\nand had parties, which became famous,\n\n632\n00:33:11.120 --> 00:33:12.840\nbig Halloween parties at my house\n\n633\n00:33:12.840 --> 00:33:14.440\nand served it and everyone loved it.\n\n634\n00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:18.040\nSo you could tell a pretty good sample audience\n\n635\n00:33:18.040 --> 00:33:23.040\nand there's no doubt it wouldn't work in our minds.\n\n636\n00:33:23.040 --> 00:33:24.880\n(laughing)\n\n637\n00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:26.840\n- I have to ask you, I guess.\n\n638\n00:33:26.840 --> 00:33:30.340\nWhat's your favorite George Clooney, Gossamiga story?\n\n639\n00:33:30.340 --> 00:33:35.240\n- I probably can't tell it.\n\n640\n00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:37.480\n(laughing)\n\n641\n00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:40.200\n- All right.\n\n642\n00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:44.800\nWould you hang with all these CEOs, celebrities, athletes?\n\n643\n00:33:44.800 --> 00:33:46.920\nAnd people can be guarded.\n\n644\n00:33:46.920 --> 00:33:49.360\nI mean, there's no question about that,\n\n645\n00:33:49.360 --> 00:33:52.120\nespecially when you're of that ilk.\n\n646\n00:33:52.120 --> 00:33:54.960\nHow do you break through the wall\n\n647\n00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.960\nand earn trust with people who are naturally guarded\n\n648\n00:33:59.960 --> 00:34:04.600\nand your communities are filled with those people?\n\n649\n00:34:04.600 --> 00:34:07.080\n- Yeah, well, like with George, we're friends.\n\n650\n00:34:07.080 --> 00:34:10.800\nAnd so like in Costa Amigos, like Randy and I didn't\n\n651\n00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:13.480\never think it was a celebrity tequila.\n\n652\n00:34:13.480 --> 00:34:17.080\nWe thought it was art tequila, me, George, and Randy's\n\n653\n00:34:17.080 --> 00:34:20.440\nwho were just friends doing something.\n\n654\n00:34:20.440 --> 00:34:22.400\nThat fortune in George is a big celebrity.\n\n655\n00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:25.400\nSo him wearing his attitude was,\n\n656\n00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:27.120\nwell, if the paparazzi's gonna follow me,\n\n657\n00:34:27.120 --> 00:34:28.920\nI'm gonna wear a Costa Amigos t-shirt\n\n658\n00:34:28.920 --> 00:34:31.120\nand they're gonna photograph me in that,\n\n659\n00:34:31.120 --> 00:34:34.080\nwhich was obviously a big help.\n\n660\n00:34:34.080 --> 00:34:36.360\nAt Discovery, I think I'm lucky\n\n661\n00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:40.400\nbecause I get people mostly on their good days,\n\n662\n00:34:40.400 --> 00:34:44.160\n'cause if they're not happy at their discovery property,\n\n663\n00:34:44.160 --> 00:34:46.240\nthey probably wouldn't have bought it discovery\n\n664\n00:34:46.240 --> 00:34:49.880\n'cause they're probably not the type of person\n\n665\n00:34:49.880 --> 00:34:54.880\nwho could relax and have fun.\n\n666\n00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.760\nAnd I think one great thing about Discovery is people\n\n667\n00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:04.760\nwho are a type of personalities who work really hard,\n\n668\n00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:08.380\nwho build their businesses, who are,\n\n669\n00:35:08.380 --> 00:35:12.280\nthey usually have one regret.\n\n670\n00:35:12.280 --> 00:35:15.600\nAnd that one regret is they haven't spent enough time\n\n671\n00:35:15.600 --> 00:35:16.840\nwith their family.\n\n672\n00:35:16.840 --> 00:35:20.800\nAnd so Discovery gives them that time with their family\n\n673\n00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:25.240\nbecause no matter who you are and where your kids are located,\n\n674\n00:35:25.240 --> 00:35:29.360\nlet's say you have a house at El Dorado,\n\n675\n00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:32.360\nit's almost certain that everyone in your family\n\n676\n00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:34.640\nis gonna show up for Christmas at El Dorado.\n\n677\n00:35:34.640 --> 00:35:39.360\nSo it's a good gathering point and it's a good way\n\n678\n00:35:39.360 --> 00:35:44.360\nfor people who spend time working away from their family\n\n679\n00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:46.440\nto be with their family.\n\n680\n00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:50.160\n- For you personally, and you look at your own leadership\n\n681\n00:35:50.160 --> 00:35:53.560\nand you're at the top of your game,\n\n682\n00:35:53.560 --> 00:35:57.160\neverything just keeps moving in the right direction,\n\n683\n00:35:57.160 --> 00:36:00.240\nwhat are some of the things that you may be doing\n\n684\n00:36:00.240 --> 00:36:01.720\nto level up your own leadership?\n\n685\n00:36:01.720 --> 00:36:05.280\nHow are you trying to sharpen your own acts right now?\n\n686\n00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:07.880\n- Like I said, I learned from every project\n\n687\n00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:12.440\n'cause we're not just the developer, we're the brand,\n\n688\n00:36:12.440 --> 00:36:17.440\nwe design 'em, we operate 'em, we do every aspect of it.\n\n689\n00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:23.000\nSo I'm always learning, I've never ever\n\n690\n00:36:23.520 --> 00:36:26.760\nlike gotten complacent on anything\n\n691\n00:36:26.760 --> 00:36:32.720\nwe're always pushing ourselves to be better.\n\n692\n00:36:32.720 --> 00:36:38.920\nAnd so I think that is infectious\n\n693\n00:36:38.920 --> 00:36:43.920\nand it, other people see it\n\n694\n00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:48.520\nand I'm truly lead by example.\n\n695\n00:36:48.520 --> 00:36:51.360\nI never really consider myself and thought about myself\n\n696\n00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:54.040\nas a great leader, I just think of myself,\n\n697\n00:36:54.040 --> 00:36:58.640\nsomeone doing what I love, continuing to do what I love\n\n698\n00:36:58.640 --> 00:37:02.240\nand have a good people with me\n\n699\n00:37:02.240 --> 00:37:04.440\nsteering the ship in the right direction.\n\n700\n00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:08.080\nAnd we go to these new communities or countries\n\n701\n00:37:08.080 --> 00:37:13.080\nor regions of the world and so it keeps my interests, right?\n\n702\n00:37:13.080 --> 00:37:16.960\nWhen you go to Dubai and meet new people\n\n703\n00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:20.040\nor you go to Tuscany or Portugal\n\n704\n00:37:20.040 --> 00:37:22.480\nand there's great people around the world.\n\n705\n00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:26.720\nAnd so it keeps me truly motivated\n\n706\n00:37:26.720 --> 00:37:30.480\njust to keep going and getting better and better.\n\n707\n00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:34.520\n- You've grown so much, you have so many properties now,\n\n708\n00:37:34.520 --> 00:37:38.000\nhow has your leadership had to evolve as you've scaled?\n\n709\n00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.360\nOr do you think you're basically the same guy\n\n710\n00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:42.760\ndoing it just on a bigger level?\n\n711\n00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:46.240\n- I'm pretty much the same guy doing it on a different level.\n\n712\n00:37:46.240 --> 00:37:50.520\nI think I've evolved a lot over the last 30 years,\n\n713\n00:37:50.520 --> 00:37:52.320\nwhich I'm proud of,\n\n714\n00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:55.720\nbut I've also brought in a great executive team.\n\n715\n00:37:55.720 --> 00:37:59.480\nIt's funny 'cause when I started out in a real estate,\n\n716\n00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:01.960\nI was at that startup company\n\n717\n00:38:01.960 --> 00:38:04.880\nand then I ended up going to Cushman and Wakefield\n\n718\n00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:09.440\nand Cushman Wakefield was the gold standard back then\n\n719\n00:38:09.440 --> 00:38:11.080\nand it still is today.\n\n720\n00:38:11.080 --> 00:38:15.640\nSo Brett, who's Brett White, who is the R CEO\n\n721\n00:38:15.640 --> 00:38:18.480\nwho came from CBR in Cushman Wakefield,\n\n722\n00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:22.480\nyou know, has made my life so much easier and better.\n\n723\n00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:26.720\nAnd a lot of, I don't consider myself a control freak\n\n724\n00:38:26.720 --> 00:38:29.880\nand I don't really think I am,\n\n725\n00:38:29.880 --> 00:38:33.760\nbut I am in a lot of detail.\n\n726\n00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:36.800\nAnd I mean, Brett's taken so much off my plate.\n\n727\n00:38:36.800 --> 00:38:39.960\nI remember one of my financial partners going,\n\n728\n00:38:39.960 --> 00:38:42.000\nokay, what's the over under on Brett?\n\n729\n00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:44.880\nYou know, 60 days before you get rid of him\n\n730\n00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:46.640\n'cause you can't not stand him,\n\n731\n00:38:46.640 --> 00:38:49.160\nbut just can't stand the fact that, you know,\n\n732\n00:38:49.160 --> 00:38:53.480\nyou're giving up so much control to one person.\n\n733\n00:38:53.480 --> 00:38:56.560\nAnd I go, the best thing ever happened to me.\n\n734\n00:38:56.560 --> 00:38:59.000\nYou know, there's no over under here.\n\n735\n00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:01.200\nIt's just over and, you know,\n\n736\n00:39:01.200 --> 00:39:03.280\nkeep Brett as long as we can.\n\n737\n00:39:03.280 --> 00:39:04.080\n- Yeah, that's great.\n\n738\n00:39:04.080 --> 00:39:07.040\nYou know, you and I both share something to come.\n\n739\n00:39:07.040 --> 00:39:09.800\nWe both love golf and I understand\n\n740\n00:39:09.800 --> 00:39:11.120\nyou didn't really start playing golf\n\n741\n00:39:11.120 --> 00:39:14.160\nuntil you were in your 50s.\n\n742\n00:39:14.160 --> 00:39:16.520\nYou know, what does that journey show\n\n743\n00:39:16.520 --> 00:39:18.400\nabout the way you take on challenges?\n\n744\n00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:21.160\nBecause there's no game this for challenging the golf.\n\n745\n00:39:21.160 --> 00:39:24.560\n- Yeah, and there's the people who've been around me\n\n746\n00:39:24.560 --> 00:39:27.000\nsince I started, like at the beginning,\n\n747\n00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:31.280\nthey never ever thought I'd make it to where I am today.\n\n748\n00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:35.560\nI mean, I was the worst golfer ever.\n\n749\n00:39:35.560 --> 00:39:38.480\nAnd, you know, and I'm an athletic guy and I'm strong\n\n750\n00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:41.000\nand I just tried to muscle it,\n\n751\n00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:44.000\nwhich isn't obviously the way to go.\n\n752\n00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:47.040\nAnd I also had so many different teachers\n\n753\n00:39:47.040 --> 00:39:48.880\nbecause anywhere I'd go,\n\n754\n00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:52.000\nwhether you're an assistant pro, pro, director of golf,\n\n755\n00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:54.120\nthey wanted to be the guy to give me the one tip\n\n756\n00:39:54.120 --> 00:39:56.120\nthat made me a good golfer.\n\n757\n00:39:56.120 --> 00:39:59.800\nAnd I always said, I'm too cerebral and muscle bone\n\n758\n00:39:59.800 --> 00:40:03.880\nfor the game because I actually listen to people\n\n759\n00:40:03.880 --> 00:40:06.960\nand understand things most of the time.\n\n760\n00:40:06.960 --> 00:40:09.400\nAnd so everyone give me different thoughts.\n\n761\n00:40:09.400 --> 00:40:11.480\nSo I'd have so many thoughts going through my head\n\n762\n00:40:11.480 --> 00:40:13.980\nall the time that I couldn't do anything.\n\n763\n00:40:13.980 --> 00:40:18.120\nAnd then I finally started working with Hank Haney\n\n764\n00:40:18.120 --> 00:40:21.780\nback in the, you know, when he did the Charles Barkley thing.\n\n765\n00:40:21.780 --> 00:40:23.680\nAnd everyone would come up to him,\n\n766\n00:40:23.680 --> 00:40:25.360\nwho's the worst golfer you ever taught?\n\n767\n00:40:25.360 --> 00:40:28.040\nAnd everyone's expecting him to say Charles Barkley.\n\n768\n00:40:28.040 --> 00:40:33.000\nAnd he'd go, Mike Melbourne, for sure, not even close.\n\n769\n00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:35.720\nAnd then, you know, Hank helped me.\n\n770\n00:40:35.720 --> 00:40:38.600\nAnd then as you know, I went to Matt Killen\n\n771\n00:40:38.600 --> 00:40:42.120\nwho's not only a great teacher, a great coach,\n\n772\n00:40:42.120 --> 00:40:45.240\na great person, a great friend to both of us.\n\n773\n00:40:45.240 --> 00:40:51.380\nAnd he taught me not just how to like hit a golf ball,\n\n774\n00:40:51.380 --> 00:40:54.900\nbut he taught me how to play golf,\n\n775\n00:40:54.900 --> 00:40:57.100\nwhich is a lot different.\n\n776\n00:40:57.100 --> 00:41:02.180\nAnd next week I'm heading to Scotland for the Dunhill Cup.\n\n777\n00:41:02.180 --> 00:41:05.740\nAnd I'll play with like, you know,\n\n778\n00:41:05.740 --> 00:41:08.660\nscratch golfers are plus two and I'm a, you know,\n\n779\n00:41:08.660 --> 00:41:10.580\nfairly solid nine.\n\n780\n00:41:10.580 --> 00:41:15.580\nAnd so he'll, you know, the guy will be 180 yards away.\n\n781\n00:41:15.580 --> 00:41:21.260\nHe'll take, you know, the scratch golfer will take a six iron,\n\n782\n00:41:21.260 --> 00:41:25.780\nwhich is his 180 yard shot, hit it in the air,\n\n783\n00:41:25.780 --> 00:41:27.620\nblows three holes away, right?\n\n784\n00:41:27.620 --> 00:41:32.460\n'Cause of the Scottish wind, the Scottish winds and weather.\n\n785\n00:41:32.460 --> 00:41:37.100\nAnd I take a finesse five, you know, five wrestling club\n\n786\n00:41:37.100 --> 00:41:40.300\nright down the middle to the middle of the green, you know,\n\n787\n00:41:40.300 --> 00:41:43.740\nlow, straight and there.\n\n788\n00:41:43.740 --> 00:41:48.740\nAnd so he taught me, and I'm sure he did this to you,\n\n789\n00:41:48.740 --> 00:41:50.460\nnot just how to hit a golf ball,\n\n790\n00:41:50.460 --> 00:41:53.860\nbut how to actually strategically play the game.\n\n791\n00:41:53.860 --> 00:41:55.580\n- It sounds like you're doing it better than me.\n\n792\n00:41:55.580 --> 00:41:57.940\nI need to, I need it a little bit more than that.\n\n793\n00:41:57.940 --> 00:42:00.340\n- I probably hog killing too much.\n\n794\n00:42:00.340 --> 00:42:04.660\n- Well, basically what you're saying with golf\n\n795\n00:42:04.660 --> 00:42:06.860\nis you use the same learning mentality you've had\n\n796\n00:42:06.860 --> 00:42:08.900\nas you've grown your business.\n\n797\n00:42:08.900 --> 00:42:11.980\n- Yeah, it's, you gotta be disciplined,\n\n798\n00:42:11.980 --> 00:42:15.260\nand you gotta be patient, and you gotta be persistent.\n\n799\n00:42:15.260 --> 00:42:18.860\nBut there, if you found people in the early days\n\n800\n00:42:18.860 --> 00:42:21.380\nwhen I started, no one thought I'd,\n\n801\n00:42:21.380 --> 00:42:23.780\nno one thought I'd continue with the game.\n\n802\n00:42:23.780 --> 00:42:27.820\nAnd they asked me, how did you keep playing?\n\n803\n00:42:27.820 --> 00:42:32.660\nAnd I go, well, I see all these big old fat people\n\n804\n00:42:32.660 --> 00:42:34.500\nhitting the ball good, well, I can't lie.\n\n805\n00:42:37.860 --> 00:42:39.060\n- Mike, this has been so much fun,\n\n806\n00:42:39.060 --> 00:42:39.980\nand I wanna have some more\n\n807\n00:42:39.980 --> 00:42:41.420\nwith my lightning round of questions.\n\n808\n00:42:41.420 --> 00:42:42.860\nSo you ready for this?\n\n809\n00:42:42.860 --> 00:42:43.700\n- Sure.\n\n810\n00:42:43.700 --> 00:42:45.820\n- What three words best describe you?\n\n811\n00:42:45.820 --> 00:42:47.300\n- Intuitive.\n\n812\n00:42:47.300 --> 00:42:49.700\n- We talked about patience and persistence.\n\n813\n00:42:49.700 --> 00:42:53.300\nWe talked about this too, loyal, being loyal.\n\n814\n00:42:53.300 --> 00:42:55.220\n- If you could be one person for a day\n\n815\n00:42:55.220 --> 00:42:56.980\nbesides yourself, who would it be?\n\n816\n00:42:56.980 --> 00:42:58.420\n- Thomas Jefferson.\n\n817\n00:42:58.420 --> 00:43:00.100\n- Who would play you in a movie?\n\n818\n00:43:00.100 --> 00:43:01.340\n- George Clooney.\n\n819\n00:43:01.340 --> 00:43:03.420\n(laughing)\n\n820\n00:43:03.420 --> 00:43:04.540\n- Or Adam Sandler.\n\n821\n00:43:04.540 --> 00:43:05.980\n- Or Adam Sandler.\n\n822\n00:43:05.980 --> 00:43:08.060\nGood combo. (laughing)\n\n823\n00:43:08.060 --> 00:43:09.740\nYou're routing a three day trips\n\n824\n00:43:09.740 --> 00:43:12.980\nwith friends across multiple discovery properties.\n\n825\n00:43:12.980 --> 00:43:16.100\nWhere are you going and what essential activities\n\n826\n00:43:16.100 --> 00:43:17.900\nare on the itinerary?\n\n827\n00:43:17.900 --> 00:43:20.620\n- I'd probably go skiing at Yellowstone,\n\n828\n00:43:20.620 --> 00:43:24.060\ngolfing at El Dorado,\n\n829\n00:43:24.060 --> 00:43:27.940\nand I'd be going surfing,\n\n830\n00:43:27.940 --> 00:43:30.340\ngolfing, Fidel,\n\n831\n00:43:30.340 --> 00:43:32.220\nand hanging out at Costa Terra,\n\n832\n00:43:32.220 --> 00:43:34.020\nwhich is in Portugal.\n\n833\n00:43:34.020 --> 00:43:35.580\n- I've heard that place is amazing.\n\n834\n00:43:35.580 --> 00:43:37.540\n- Well, they're all amazing.\n\n835\n00:43:37.540 --> 00:43:41.060\nYou know, what's something about owning an NFL team\n\n836\n00:43:41.060 --> 00:43:42.780\nthat caught you by surprise?\n\n837\n00:43:42.780 --> 00:43:44.700\nSomething that you didn't expect?\n\n838\n00:43:44.700 --> 00:43:46.100\n- So I love football.\n\n839\n00:43:46.100 --> 00:43:48.660\nI love going to games with my kids.\n\n840\n00:43:48.660 --> 00:43:50.380\nNow as an owner,\n\n841\n00:43:50.380 --> 00:43:52.740\nand being, we're an active,\n\n842\n00:43:52.740 --> 00:43:54.780\nI'm part of the active ownership group,\n\n843\n00:43:54.780 --> 00:43:57.300\nit's taking the fun out of the game,\n\n844\n00:43:57.300 --> 00:43:58.740\nand it's so stressful.\n\n845\n00:43:58.740 --> 00:44:01.000\n(laughing)\n\n846\n00:44:04.660 --> 00:44:07.220\n- What's the one thing you do just for you?\n\n847\n00:44:07.220 --> 00:44:09.420\n- Most relaxing time I have is,\n\n848\n00:44:09.420 --> 00:44:11.380\nwell, nowadays I go to all the games,\n\n849\n00:44:11.380 --> 00:44:12.220\nbut you know, laying on--\n\n850\n00:44:12.220 --> 00:44:13.420\n- It's no longer relaxing.\n\n851\n00:44:13.420 --> 00:44:15.860\n- Yeah, but when I'm home watching football\n\n852\n00:44:15.860 --> 00:44:18.220\nand not being at a Raider game,\n\n853\n00:44:18.220 --> 00:44:21.620\nyou know, I have five TVs in my main room,\n\n854\n00:44:21.620 --> 00:44:24.900\nlaying on the couch with my sons\n\n855\n00:44:24.900 --> 00:44:27.100\nand just watching football.\n\n856\n00:44:27.100 --> 00:44:28.060\n- Besides your family,\n\n857\n00:44:28.060 --> 00:44:29.980\nwhat's your most prized possession?\n\n858\n00:44:29.980 --> 00:44:32.220\n- Probably just the brand of discovery\n\n859\n00:44:32.220 --> 00:44:34.860\nand what it means and what it means to people.\n\n860\n00:44:34.860 --> 00:44:37.100\nAnd not just the members,\n\n861\n00:44:37.100 --> 00:44:38.460\nbut also the employees,\n\n862\n00:44:38.460 --> 00:44:42.700\n'cause we've changed a lot of employees' lives,\n\n863\n00:44:42.700 --> 00:44:47.700\nand our members treat employees like their family\n\n864\n00:44:47.700 --> 00:44:51.300\nand the employees feel like their family.\n\n865\n00:44:51.300 --> 00:44:56.300\nSo I think that's something I'm as proud of as anything.\n\n866\n00:44:56.300 --> 00:44:59.260\n- If I turned on the radio in your car,\n\n867\n00:44:59.260 --> 00:45:00.100\nwhat would I hear?\n\n868\n00:45:00.100 --> 00:45:02.060\n- Grateful dead, classic rock.\n\n869\n00:45:02.060 --> 00:45:04.780\n- That's why you look better in the black than the pink.\n\n870\n00:45:04.780 --> 00:45:06.020\n- Exactly.\n\n871\n00:45:06.020 --> 00:45:08.140\n- I can't believe I am a pink sweater on today.\n\n872\n00:45:08.140 --> 00:45:09.700\nIt's totally unintentional.\n\n873\n00:45:09.700 --> 00:45:12.940\nI shouldn't, this is almost black, but it's close.\n\n874\n00:45:12.940 --> 00:45:14.100\n- You're out of the light, you're out of the light here.\n\n875\n00:45:14.100 --> 00:45:15.420\nI just have a few more questions.\n\n876\n00:45:15.420 --> 00:45:16.260\nI'll let you go.\n\n877\n00:45:16.260 --> 00:45:17.940\n- Mike, as you look ahead,\n\n878\n00:45:17.940 --> 00:45:20.980\nyou know, what do you see as your unfinished business?\n\n879\n00:45:20.980 --> 00:45:23.900\n- Well, we're going to different regions of the world.\n\n880\n00:45:23.900 --> 00:45:26.300\nSo we're in Europe now, which I love.\n\n881\n00:45:26.300 --> 00:45:28.380\nLike we talked a little bit about Portugal.\n\n882\n00:45:28.380 --> 00:45:29.780\nIt's one of my favorite places,\n\n883\n00:45:29.780 --> 00:45:32.300\nthe country's great, it's safe.\n\n884\n00:45:32.300 --> 00:45:35.180\nPeople are educated, the work ethic's great.\n\n885\n00:45:35.180 --> 00:45:38.460\nI mean, it's an amazing country.\n\n886\n00:45:38.460 --> 00:45:40.860\nAnd we're on the beach.\n\n887\n00:45:40.860 --> 00:45:42.660\nWe have different, you know,\n\n888\n00:45:42.660 --> 00:45:45.220\nbeginning intermediate, advanced waves.\n\n889\n00:45:45.220 --> 00:45:46.540\nI mean, they're just,\n\n890\n00:45:46.540 --> 00:45:48.420\nthe weather's perfect in the summer.\n\n891\n00:45:48.420 --> 00:45:51.740\nYou know, most places Europe is hot.\n\n892\n00:45:51.740 --> 00:45:55.020\nAnd our golf course feels like it's air conditioned\n\n893\n00:45:55.020 --> 00:45:57.980\n'cause you have the Atlantic breeze coming through\n\n894\n00:45:57.980 --> 00:46:01.500\nall the time, the fish is great, the food is,\n\n895\n00:46:01.500 --> 00:46:02.580\nI mean, it's just great.\n\n896\n00:46:02.580 --> 00:46:03.420\nI love it.\n\n897\n00:46:03.420 --> 00:46:06.340\nAnd I probably spend six weeks there in a row,\n\n898\n00:46:06.340 --> 00:46:10.620\nwhich I don't spend anywhere else six weeks in a row.\n\n899\n00:46:10.620 --> 00:46:12.060\nAnd so it's fun.\n\n900\n00:46:12.060 --> 00:46:14.700\nSo conquering Europe.\n\n901\n00:46:14.700 --> 00:46:19.340\nAnd now we're in Scotland and we're in Tuscany.\n\n902\n00:46:19.340 --> 00:46:22.380\nAnd we're soon to hopefully be in Spain.\n\n903\n00:46:22.380 --> 00:46:26.980\nAnd then we're starting going big in the Middle East.\n\n904\n00:46:26.980 --> 00:46:31.020\nAnd so I really like it when we go to areas\n\n905\n00:46:31.020 --> 00:46:33.180\nand we're the one of one, right?\n\n906\n00:46:33.180 --> 00:46:36.620\nLike you go to Las Vegas and we did the summit.\n\n907\n00:46:36.620 --> 00:46:39.860\nWell, there's 100 golf courses at the summit.\n\n908\n00:46:39.860 --> 00:46:42.380\nAnd everyone said, your pricing won't work.\n\n909\n00:46:42.380 --> 00:46:44.340\nThis whole thing won't work.\n\n910\n00:46:44.340 --> 00:46:48.900\nAnd I knew it would because I had a lot of friends\n\n911\n00:46:48.900 --> 00:46:52.420\nin Las Vegas who lived in these beautiful houses\n\n912\n00:46:52.420 --> 00:46:56.660\nand had beautiful views of a golf course or the strip.\n\n913\n00:46:56.660 --> 00:46:59.980\nBut nobody was part of their community.\n\n914\n00:46:59.980 --> 00:47:05.180\nSo we built a community that had everything\n\n915\n00:47:05.180 --> 00:47:08.220\nto draw those type of people and they all moved into it.\n\n916\n00:47:08.220 --> 00:47:12.460\nSo now you really have a community\n\n917\n00:47:12.460 --> 00:47:15.420\nwhere everyone else used to live just in their house\n\n918\n00:47:15.420 --> 00:47:20.220\non a lot and not being part of the community.\n\n919\n00:47:20.220 --> 00:47:23.940\nI like doing that and you go to Dubai.\n\n920\n00:47:23.940 --> 00:47:27.060\nWe're opening our course in November.\n\n921\n00:47:27.060 --> 00:47:31.940\nWell, Dubai's got maybe eight to 11 million people\n\n922\n00:47:31.940 --> 00:47:33.380\ncircling through there.\n\n923\n00:47:33.380 --> 00:47:35.740\nA lot of people live there.\n\n924\n00:47:35.740 --> 00:47:37.500\nThey have 10 golf courses.\n\n925\n00:47:37.500 --> 00:47:40.140\nAnd they're not good golf courses.\n\n926\n00:47:40.140 --> 00:47:45.380\nAnd once we open and they understand\n\n927\n00:47:45.380 --> 00:47:50.100\nwhat a private, real private golf course is,\n\n928\n00:47:50.100 --> 00:47:51.460\nthey're going to go crazy.\n\n929\n00:47:51.460 --> 00:47:54.420\nBecause there's shotguns in rounds.\n\n930\n00:47:54.420 --> 00:47:56.980\nYou can't even get on a course.\n\n931\n00:47:56.980 --> 00:47:59.060\nAnd even if it's a private course,\n\n932\n00:47:59.060 --> 00:48:00.380\nthey still let the public on.\n\n933\n00:48:00.380 --> 00:48:06.300\nSo it's just private by word, but not by definition,\n\n934\n00:48:06.300 --> 00:48:06.980\nby any means.\n\n935\n00:48:06.980 --> 00:48:12.100\nSo I like going to places where one of one,\n\n936\n00:48:12.100 --> 00:48:17.380\nintroducing the concept to like in Dubai,\n\n937\n00:48:17.380 --> 00:48:20.820\nI think we're being every Middle Eastern country.\n\n938\n00:48:20.820 --> 00:48:23.420\nAnd I think Discovery Dunes, which\n\n939\n00:48:23.420 --> 00:48:25.660\nis the name of the project in Dubai,\n\n940\n00:48:25.660 --> 00:48:30.260\nis going to change luxury real estate in Dubai, which\n\n941\n00:48:30.260 --> 00:48:34.940\nis the luxury real estate capital, just like the summit,\n\n942\n00:48:34.940 --> 00:48:37.260\nchange hospitality in Vegas.\n\n943\n00:48:37.260 --> 00:48:40.180\nAnd Vegas is the hospitality capital of the world.\n\n944\n00:48:40.180 --> 00:48:44.140\nSo we set our sights high and we do it.\n\n945\n00:48:44.140 --> 00:48:47.620\nAnd that keeps me going.\n\n946\n00:48:47.620 --> 00:48:48.740\nLast question.\n\n947\n00:48:48.740 --> 00:48:51.060\nWhat's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone\n\n948\n00:48:51.060 --> 00:48:52.980\nwho wants to be a better leader?\n\n949\n00:48:52.980 --> 00:48:55.940\nI always say patience is probably my main word.\n\n950\n00:48:55.940 --> 00:48:57.140\nI tell my kids that.\n\n951\n00:48:57.140 --> 00:48:59.060\nI tell younger kids because everyone\n\n952\n00:48:59.060 --> 00:49:02.460\nwants instant success.\n\n953\n00:49:02.460 --> 00:49:06.700\nAnd it doesn't work that way as you know.\n\n954\n00:49:06.700 --> 00:49:10.140\nIt takes hard work.\n\n955\n00:49:10.140 --> 00:49:14.300\nAn entrepreneur takes vision and dedication to the vision.\n\n956\n00:49:14.300 --> 00:49:17.180\nYou can't be afraid to fail.\n\n957\n00:49:17.180 --> 00:49:22.220\nYou've got to just really stick to your goals and your objectives.\n\n958\n00:49:22.220 --> 00:49:26.900\nAnd people seem to want too much instant gratification.\n\n959\n00:49:26.900 --> 00:49:29.660\nI want to become an AI billionaire.\n\n960\n00:49:29.660 --> 00:49:31.820\nWell, you've got to go do something\n\n961\n00:49:31.820 --> 00:49:33.540\nto become an AI billionaire.\n\n962\n00:49:33.540 --> 00:49:35.140\nJust doesn't happen.\n\n963\n00:49:35.140 --> 00:49:38.100\nAnd so I tell my kids that a lot.\n\n964\n00:49:38.100 --> 00:49:42.980\nI tell my young guys in the office, you've got to be patient.\n\n965\n00:49:42.980 --> 00:49:48.300\nYou're not who you think you are right now.\n\n966\n00:49:48.300 --> 00:49:50.300\nBut you're going to be that person.\n\n967\n00:49:50.300 --> 00:49:57.620\nSo just keep your head down, work hard, have fun, and execute.\n\n968\n00:49:57.620 --> 00:50:01.620\nWell, Mike, I have to tell you, I really enjoyed this conversation.\n\n969\n00:50:01.620 --> 00:50:05.300\nI know how just how much you have going on.\n\n970\n00:50:05.300 --> 00:50:07.260\nYou just talked about you're going all the time.\n\n971\n00:50:07.260 --> 00:50:10.780\nAnd the fact that you carve out this time with me really means a lot.\n\n972\n00:50:10.780 --> 00:50:11.900\nAnd I appreciate it.\n\n973\n00:50:11.900 --> 00:50:13.820\nI was really looking forward to this podcast\n\n974\n00:50:13.820 --> 00:50:15.580\nbecause I wanted to get to know you better.\n\n975\n00:50:15.580 --> 00:50:19.820\nAnd it's so, so clear to me why you've been so successful\n\n976\n00:50:19.820 --> 00:50:21.620\nand why you will conquer the world.\n\n977\n00:50:21.620 --> 00:50:22.300\nWell, thanks.\n\n978\n00:50:22.300 --> 00:50:23.580\nYou're a good man.\n\n979\n00:50:23.580 --> 00:50:25.100\nI was excited to do this as well.\n\n980\n00:50:25.100 --> 00:50:34.340\nOK, David, you've played some of the Discovery Land courses.\n\n981\n00:50:34.340 --> 00:50:37.620\nI mean, what do you think about the brand experience\n\n982\n00:50:37.620 --> 00:50:39.620\nbeyond just the golf on these golf courses?\n\n983\n00:50:39.620 --> 00:50:41.940\nI mean, does it really like what Michael says in the interview,\n\n984\n00:50:41.940 --> 00:50:43.900\nthe comfort stations with all the snacks?\n\n985\n00:50:43.900 --> 00:50:45.540\nYou wear whatever you want.\n\n986\n00:50:45.540 --> 00:50:46.980\nIt's about more than golf.\n\n987\n00:50:46.980 --> 00:50:48.260\nLike, what's it like?\n\n988\n00:50:48.260 --> 00:50:50.140\nI think Michael actually understated it.\n\n989\n00:50:50.140 --> 00:50:52.540\nI mean, the Discovery properties are incredible.\n\n990\n00:50:52.540 --> 00:50:53.700\nI was at Troubadour.\n\n991\n00:50:53.700 --> 00:50:57.060\nI played golf there with my good buddy, Jimmy Kurzstorper\n\n992\n00:50:57.060 --> 00:51:00.340\nand Matt Killen, who's the golf instructor for Michael.\n\n993\n00:51:00.340 --> 00:51:02.820\nAnd, you know, it's just so much fun.\n\n994\n00:51:02.820 --> 00:51:05.060\nI mean, you know, people are laid back.\n\n995\n00:51:05.060 --> 00:51:05.900\nYou've got the music.\n\n996\n00:51:05.900 --> 00:51:07.700\nThere can be eight people playing.\n\n997\n00:51:07.700 --> 00:51:10.020\nBut if you've got two, they'll let you through.\n\n998\n00:51:10.020 --> 00:51:11.420\nAnd everybody talks.\n\n999\n00:51:11.420 --> 00:51:14.060\nAnd, you know, the camaraderie there is great.\n\n1000\n00:51:14.060 --> 00:51:16.180\nThe comfort stations are fantastic.\n\n1001\n00:51:16.180 --> 00:51:18.460\nYou can go in there and get ice cream.\n\n1002\n00:51:18.460 --> 00:51:20.340\nYou know, you can get some tequila.\n\n1003\n00:51:20.340 --> 00:51:22.180\nYou know, it's your choice.\n\n1004\n00:51:22.180 --> 00:51:23.460\nI mean, it's great.\n\n1005\n00:51:23.460 --> 00:51:25.060\nBut it's so, so different.\n\n1006\n00:51:25.060 --> 00:51:28.180\nAnd, you know, I played with Justin Thomas.\n\n1007\n00:51:28.180 --> 00:51:30.500\nAnd, you know, Justin's out there.\n\n1008\n00:51:30.500 --> 00:51:33.780\nAnd it's his shorts and, you know, in T-shirt.\n\n1009\n00:51:33.780 --> 00:51:36.460\nAnd we're listening to, you know, Eric Church.\n\n1010\n00:51:36.460 --> 00:51:39.220\nI mean, you know, it just doesn't get any better than this.\n\n1011\n00:51:39.220 --> 00:51:40.620\nI mean, it's just a lot of fun.\n\n1012\n00:51:40.620 --> 00:51:43.820\nNow, you know, it's not the traditional golf,\n\n1013\n00:51:43.820 --> 00:51:46.740\nbut boy, I think it's what everybody loves about golf.\n\n1014\n00:51:46.740 --> 00:51:47.700\nIt's friendship.\n\n1015\n00:51:47.700 --> 00:51:48.540\nIt's fun.\n\n1016\n00:51:48.540 --> 00:51:51.820\nIt's, it's just, it's really cool.\n\n1017\n00:51:51.820 --> 00:51:54.820\n- I love the story that he told about how, you know,\n\n1018\n00:51:54.820 --> 00:51:56.700\nwhen he made the decision to not have\n\n1019\n00:51:56.700 --> 00:51:59.100\na traditional golf dress code on his golf course,\n\n1020\n00:51:59.100 --> 00:52:01.500\nis because when he tried to get his kids to go play golf,\n\n1021\n00:52:01.500 --> 00:52:03.220\nthey didn't want to wear collared shirts.\n\n1022\n00:52:03.220 --> 00:52:05.580\nAnd he says, isn't the point of this to have fun\n\n1023\n00:52:05.580 --> 00:52:06.460\nand be with each other?\n\n1024\n00:52:06.460 --> 00:52:08.020\nLike, if you don't want to wear collared shirts,\n\n1025\n00:52:08.020 --> 00:52:08.860\nscrew it.\n\n1026\n00:52:08.860 --> 00:52:09.700\nYou don't have to.\n\n1027\n00:52:09.700 --> 00:52:12.700\n- You know, isn't that what entrepreneurs do?\n\n1028\n00:52:12.700 --> 00:52:14.540\nYou know, they just watch consumer behavior.\n\n1029\n00:52:14.540 --> 00:52:16.300\nThey see what people go through.\n\n1030\n00:52:16.300 --> 00:52:18.540\nAnd they're empathetic to it.\n\n1031\n00:52:18.540 --> 00:52:20.020\nAnd they say, why?\n\n1032\n00:52:20.020 --> 00:52:21.660\nYou know, we can do better.\n\n1033\n00:52:21.660 --> 00:52:24.700\nAnd I think that's what Michael has done\n\n1034\n00:52:24.700 --> 00:52:26.500\nwith his discovery properties.\n\n1035\n00:52:26.500 --> 00:52:30.380\nIt's, you know, everyone is unique in the community.\n\n1036\n00:52:30.380 --> 00:52:31.860\nThere's nothing like it.\n\n1037\n00:52:31.860 --> 00:52:33.980\nHe's doing it all around the world.\n\n1038\n00:52:33.980 --> 00:52:36.260\nAnd he's doing it successfully all around the world\n\n1039\n00:52:36.260 --> 00:52:38.540\nbecause people like to be a part of something\n\n1040\n00:52:38.540 --> 00:52:40.220\nthat's unlike anything else.\n\n1041\n00:52:40.220 --> 00:52:43.460\nAnd just really breaks the code for what you'd expect\n\n1042\n00:52:43.460 --> 00:52:46.100\nin terms of where you can live and where you can hang.\n\n1043\n00:52:46.100 --> 00:52:47.380\nAnd that's what he's doing.\n\n1044\n00:52:47.380 --> 00:52:48.220\n- I love it.\n\n1045\n00:52:48.220 --> 00:52:51.140\nWell, I can't wait to go to the Discovery Lands property\n\n1046\n00:52:51.140 --> 00:52:52.620\nthe one he was talking about in Portugal\n\n1047\n00:52:52.620 --> 00:52:53.940\n'cause it sounds amazing.\n\n1048\n00:52:53.940 --> 00:52:56.780\nAnd I'd love an excuse to go play golf in Portugal.\n\n1049\n00:52:56.780 --> 00:52:58.980\nSo that's on my list for 2026.\n\n1050\n00:52:58.980 --> 00:53:00.540\n- Well, you do live in Nashville.\n\n1051\n00:53:00.540 --> 00:53:02.700\nSo maybe you could go to Troubadour and play there.\n\n1052\n00:53:02.700 --> 00:53:04.180\n- I'm trying to go abroad.\n\n1053\n00:53:04.180 --> 00:53:05.100\n- I'm trying to go abroad.\n\n1054\n00:53:05.100 --> 00:53:05.940\n- Okay, okay.\n\n1055\n00:53:05.940 --> 00:53:10.060\nYou're going in Kula Callahan fast and you're going big.\n\n1056\n00:53:10.060 --> 00:53:10.900\nI love it.\n\n1057\n00:53:10.900 --> 00:53:11.740\n- That is exactly right.\n\n1058\n00:53:11.740 --> 00:53:12.580\nThat is exactly right.\n\n1059\n00:53:12.580 --> 00:53:14.780\nDavid, you said something a couple minutes ago\n\n1060\n00:53:14.780 --> 00:53:17.020\nthat struck me and it's really one of the themes\n\n1061\n00:53:17.020 --> 00:53:19.380\nthat Michael talks about in this episode.\n\n1062\n00:53:19.380 --> 00:53:21.260\nYou know, a big piece of his strategy\n\n1063\n00:53:21.260 --> 00:53:24.500\nis to be one of one in their category.\n\n1064\n00:53:24.500 --> 00:53:27.340\nAnd, you know, that sounds great for someone like Michael\n\n1065\n00:53:27.340 --> 00:53:28.620\nand he's done that really well.\n\n1066\n00:53:28.620 --> 00:53:30.220\nBut if there's someone listening\n\n1067\n00:53:30.220 --> 00:53:32.700\nwho's really trying to figure out and define\n\n1068\n00:53:32.700 --> 00:53:35.980\nwhat their lane is, where should they start?\n\n1069\n00:53:35.980 --> 00:53:39.060\n- Well, figure out what your lane is.\n\n1070\n00:53:39.060 --> 00:53:41.420\nFigure out where you really want to be.\n\n1071\n00:53:41.420 --> 00:53:43.540\nAnd then getting that lane\n\n1072\n00:53:43.540 --> 00:53:46.660\nand then do everything you can to differentiate yourself\n\n1073\n00:53:46.660 --> 00:53:48.220\nso that no one is like you.\n\n1074\n00:53:48.220 --> 00:53:52.540\nYou know, but you're not just different for different sake.\n\n1075\n00:53:52.540 --> 00:53:54.700\nYou're different for good reason.\n\n1076\n00:53:54.700 --> 00:53:56.820\nYou're different because you understand the customer\n\n1077\n00:53:56.820 --> 00:53:58.300\nbetter than anybody else.\n\n1078\n00:53:58.300 --> 00:54:00.620\nAnd you tailor what you have to offer\n\n1079\n00:54:00.620 --> 00:54:01.860\nin such a unique way.\n\n1080\n00:54:01.860 --> 00:54:06.500\nPeople go, man, this is so different, so right on.\n\n1081\n00:54:06.500 --> 00:54:08.500\nI just want to be a part of it.\n\n1082\n00:54:08.500 --> 00:54:10.820\nI want to be part of who I am.\n\n1083\n00:54:10.820 --> 00:54:15.340\nAnd so their brand becomes that brand.\n\n1084\n00:54:15.340 --> 00:54:18.020\nAnd I think that's really, really his secret.\n\n1085\n00:54:18.020 --> 00:54:22.100\nI mean, you know, people who are discovery property,\n\n1086\n00:54:22.100 --> 00:54:26.260\nhomeowners, all you have to do is talk to them.\n\n1087\n00:54:26.260 --> 00:54:29.060\nThey are, you know, they are raving fans.\n\n1088\n00:54:29.060 --> 00:54:30.380\n- Yeah, they're obsessed.\n\n1089\n00:54:30.380 --> 00:54:31.460\nThey love it.\n\n1090\n00:54:31.460 --> 00:54:35.620\nIs there any risk, David, to choosing your lane\n\n1091\n00:54:35.620 --> 00:54:38.500\nand deciding what your one of one is?\n\n1092\n00:54:38.500 --> 00:54:40.380\nAnd is there risk to determining that?\n\n1093\n00:54:40.380 --> 00:54:41.540\nLike what if it goes wrong?\n\n1094\n00:54:41.540 --> 00:54:42.940\nWhat do you do?\n\n1095\n00:54:42.940 --> 00:54:46.100\n- Well, I think things can go wrong.\n\n1096\n00:54:46.100 --> 00:54:48.740\nBut the biggest thing you need to do\n\n1097\n00:54:48.740 --> 00:54:52.300\nis to follow your instincts, follow your guts\n\n1098\n00:54:52.300 --> 00:54:55.100\nand, you know, find out if you're, you're right.\n\n1099\n00:54:55.100 --> 00:54:57.300\nDon't worry about going wrong.\n\n1100\n00:54:57.300 --> 00:55:00.100\nYou know, if you go wrong, you can always suggest.\n\n1101\n00:55:00.100 --> 00:55:03.780\nBut, you know, try to make it right and see what happens.\n\n1102\n00:55:03.780 --> 00:55:07.380\nAnd then like anything else, you're going to get learning\n\n1103\n00:55:07.380 --> 00:55:09.780\nand you'll figure out how to modify it and shift\n\n1104\n00:55:09.780 --> 00:55:12.580\nand pivot and all those kinds of buzzwords.\n\n1105\n00:55:12.580 --> 00:55:13.700\nYou know, you do that.\n\n1106\n00:55:13.700 --> 00:55:16.220\nBut the biggest thing you can do though,\n\n1107\n00:55:16.220 --> 00:55:20.020\nis to really find out where you really want to be,\n\n1108\n00:55:20.020 --> 00:55:22.020\ndifferentiate yourself as best you can\n\n1109\n00:55:22.020 --> 00:55:23.780\nand see if it works.\n\n1110\n00:55:23.780 --> 00:55:25.980\n- Do you have a story from your time at Yum David\n\n1111\n00:55:25.980 --> 00:55:28.500\nwhere you feel like you really nailed it\n\n1112\n00:55:28.500 --> 00:55:31.300\nand the becoming one of one?\n\n1113\n00:55:31.300 --> 00:55:34.060\n- Well, I think Taco Bell is one of one.\n\n1114\n00:55:34.060 --> 00:55:36.660\nYou know, Taco Bell is, you know,\n\n1115\n00:55:36.660 --> 00:55:39.900\nthe only national quick service restaurant\n\n1116\n00:55:39.900 --> 00:55:42.260\nthat offers Taco Bell food.\n\n1117\n00:55:42.260 --> 00:55:44.180\nI mean, Taco Bell is a Mexican food.\n\n1118\n00:55:44.180 --> 00:55:45.700\nTaco Bell is Taco Bell.\n\n1119\n00:55:45.700 --> 00:55:46.860\nThat's what's really beautiful.\n\n1120\n00:55:46.860 --> 00:55:50.660\nAnd everybody thinks, you know, it's like, you know,\n\n1121\n00:55:50.660 --> 00:55:52.660\nKleenex owned the category, right?\n\n1122\n00:55:52.660 --> 00:55:53.820\nKleenex was Kleenex.\n\n1123\n00:55:53.820 --> 00:55:55.620\nI mean, there was nobody but Kleenex.\n\n1124\n00:55:55.620 --> 00:55:56.740\nI mean, that's basically it.\n\n1125\n00:55:56.740 --> 00:55:58.940\nAnybody else has just kind of ripped them off.\n\n1126\n00:55:58.940 --> 00:56:01.380\nYou know, Taco Bell is the category.\n\n1127\n00:56:01.380 --> 00:56:03.220\nAnd there's no such thing as Taco Bell.\n\n1128\n00:56:03.220 --> 00:56:06.900\nAnd we were one of one and we offered, you know,\n\n1129\n00:56:06.900 --> 00:56:09.820\ngreat products at great price and great value\n\n1130\n00:56:09.820 --> 00:56:11.540\nthat you couldn't get anywhere else.\n\n1131\n00:56:11.540 --> 00:56:15.700\nAnd we positioned the brand as hip, cool and irreverent.\n\n1132\n00:56:15.700 --> 00:56:18.660\nAnd it's had leading same store sales growth\n\n1133\n00:56:18.660 --> 00:56:20.780\nfor years and years in the category.\n\n1134\n00:56:20.780 --> 00:56:22.340\n- Building brands is something that Michael has\n\n1135\n00:56:22.340 --> 00:56:23.860\ncertainly very gifted at.\n\n1136\n00:56:23.860 --> 00:56:25.820\nI mean, he talks in the episode about how he\n\n1137\n00:56:25.820 --> 00:56:28.220\nand a couple of friends, including George Clooney,\n\n1138\n00:56:28.220 --> 00:56:30.460\ncreated Casa Migos, the Tequila brand.\n\n1139\n00:56:30.460 --> 00:56:32.420\nAnd, you know, with a couple of buddies,\n\n1140\n00:56:32.420 --> 00:56:36.300\nthey had a goal of selling 24,000 cases in the first year.\n\n1141\n00:56:36.300 --> 00:56:37.620\nAnd then they blew that out of the water\n\n1142\n00:56:37.620 --> 00:56:40.020\nand ended up selling the brand for a billion dollars.\n\n1143\n00:56:40.020 --> 00:56:42.500\nSo this guy knows how to build a brand\n\n1144\n00:56:42.500 --> 00:56:44.020\nand create momentum around it.\n\n1145\n00:56:44.020 --> 00:56:46.660\nAnd one of the things that he knows is so important\n\n1146\n00:56:46.660 --> 00:56:50.020\nis consistency as part of brand building.\n\n1147\n00:56:50.020 --> 00:56:53.540\nAnd you and I both know that's probably easier said than done.\n\n1148\n00:56:53.540 --> 00:56:56.620\nAnd your experience, David, where can leaders\n\n1149\n00:56:56.620 --> 00:56:59.060\nor marketers or brand builders go wrong\n\n1150\n00:56:59.060 --> 00:57:02.020\nwhen it comes to keeping their brand consistent?\n\n1151\n00:57:02.020 --> 00:57:04.100\n- Well, I think, you know, getting back\n\n1152\n00:57:04.100 --> 00:57:06.260\nto what Michael has done so well, first of all,\n\n1153\n00:57:06.260 --> 00:57:08.740\nyou have to define who you are.\n\n1154\n00:57:08.740 --> 00:57:11.420\nMake it clear to everybody about who you are\n\n1155\n00:57:11.420 --> 00:57:13.540\nand this is what you stand for.\n\n1156\n00:57:13.540 --> 00:57:16.300\nAnd then stay true to it.\n\n1157\n00:57:16.300 --> 00:57:20.820\nAnything that gets outside of that, you just don't do.\n\n1158\n00:57:20.820 --> 00:57:22.020\nBut that takes real rigor.\n\n1159\n00:57:22.020 --> 00:57:23.260\nThat takes real discipline.\n\n1160\n00:57:23.260 --> 00:57:26.100\nAnd that takes real clarity about what you really stand for.\n\n1161\n00:57:26.100 --> 00:57:28.940\nBut I guarantee you, people who work at Discovery Properties\n\n1162\n00:57:28.940 --> 00:57:30.580\nknow what they stand for.\n\n1163\n00:57:30.580 --> 00:57:33.700\nAnd they know what isn't them.\n\n1164\n00:57:33.700 --> 00:57:38.420\nYou know, there's one exercise, you know,\n\n1165\n00:57:38.420 --> 00:57:41.380\nthat always worked very well for us\n\n1166\n00:57:41.380 --> 00:57:44.580\nwhen we were like really trying to define our brands.\n\n1167\n00:57:44.580 --> 00:57:48.700\nWe'd write down what we are and what we are not.\n\n1168\n00:57:48.700 --> 00:57:52.740\nAnd, you know, I think that's really, really helpful.\n\n1169\n00:57:52.740 --> 00:57:54.340\n- It sounds so simple.\n\n1170\n00:57:54.340 --> 00:57:56.900\nAnd yet you can kind of tell when people don't do it\n\n1171\n00:57:56.900 --> 00:57:58.500\nbecause it's like a junk drawer.\n\n1172\n00:57:58.500 --> 00:58:00.100\nThey're trying to be everything to everybody.\n\n1173\n00:58:00.100 --> 00:58:02.580\nAnd those are the brands that really don't take off.\n\n1174\n00:58:02.580 --> 00:58:06.940\n- Well, you know, I think brands are like people.\n\n1175\n00:58:06.940 --> 00:58:09.020\nYou know, I think as a person,\n\n1176\n00:58:09.020 --> 00:58:12.220\nyou need to be thinking of yourself as a brand.\n\n1177\n00:58:12.220 --> 00:58:14.460\nYou know, what do you really stand for?\n\n1178\n00:58:14.460 --> 00:58:17.220\nHow can you be consistent with what you stand for?\n\n1179\n00:58:17.220 --> 00:58:19.980\nHow many people do you really admire and respect it\n\n1180\n00:58:19.980 --> 00:58:23.780\nor all over the map and don't really stand for something?\n\n1181\n00:58:23.780 --> 00:58:25.620\nYou know, not many.\n\n1182\n00:58:25.620 --> 00:58:27.820\nSo, you know, I think it really behooves everybody\n\n1183\n00:58:27.820 --> 00:58:29.660\nto not only think about brand building\n\n1184\n00:58:29.660 --> 00:58:34.820\nfor their products and companies that they might work for,\n\n1185\n00:58:34.820 --> 00:58:36.940\nbut also for themselves.\n\n1186\n00:58:36.940 --> 00:58:39.940\nYou know, what brand do you want to be?\n\n1187\n00:58:39.940 --> 00:58:41.940\nYou know, how do you want to have people see you\n\n1188\n00:58:41.940 --> 00:58:44.500\nand then how do you really drive that home and everything\n\n1189\n00:58:44.500 --> 00:58:45.780\nthat you do?\n\n1190\n00:58:45.780 --> 00:58:48.260\n- The theme of consistency, David brings up another kind\n\n1191\n00:58:48.260 --> 00:58:50.780\nof key point that I heard a lot in the episode\n\n1192\n00:58:50.780 --> 00:58:52.700\nthat Mike talked about and that's loyalty.\n\n1193\n00:58:52.700 --> 00:58:55.700\nHe says that loyalty is his best quality.\n\n1194\n00:58:55.700 --> 00:58:59.420\nHe also says that loyalty is sometimes his worst quality.\n\n1195\n00:58:59.420 --> 00:59:03.060\nSo I'm curious what your take on loyalty and leadership is,\n\n1196\n00:59:03.060 --> 00:59:06.300\nespecially when and if it could be holding you back\n\n1197\n00:59:06.300 --> 00:59:07.500\nin some way.\n\n1198\n00:59:07.500 --> 00:59:10.060\n- I'd much rather be Aaron decided being loyal\n\n1199\n00:59:10.060 --> 00:59:12.100\nto my people.\n\n1200\n00:59:12.100 --> 00:59:16.100\nAnd, you know, there may be a point where that loyalty\n\n1201\n00:59:16.100 --> 00:59:21.100\nis not paid off, but I think 99.9% of the time,\n\n1202\n00:59:21.100 --> 00:59:24.980\nyou're rewarded for loyalty.\n\n1203\n00:59:24.980 --> 00:59:27.940\nAnd sometimes maybe you take a little bit longer\n\n1204\n00:59:27.940 --> 00:59:30.820\nto give people a second chance\n\n1205\n00:59:30.820 --> 00:59:34.060\nthat maybe you could have moved a little bit quicker,\n\n1206\n00:59:34.060 --> 00:59:36.900\nbut hey, that's a mistake that, you know,\n\n1207\n00:59:36.900 --> 00:59:41.660\nI could live with versus being disloyal, you know,\n\n1208\n00:59:41.660 --> 00:59:43.540\nit's almost like recognition.\n\n1209\n00:59:43.540 --> 00:59:45.780\nI mean, you know, people would say to me,\n\n1210\n00:59:45.780 --> 00:59:49.980\nDavid, you know, as you know, I loved recognizing people\n\n1211\n00:59:49.980 --> 00:59:54.300\nand people say, can you recognize people too much?\n\n1212\n00:59:54.300 --> 00:59:56.500\nOr have you recognized the wrong,\n\n1213\n00:59:56.500 --> 00:59:58.580\nhave you ever recognized the wrong people\n\n1214\n00:59:58.580 --> 00:59:59.540\nat the wrong time?\n\n1215\n00:59:59.540 --> 01:00:03.620\nAnd I'm sure the answer is yes, but I don't care.\n\n1216\n01:00:03.620 --> 01:00:06.460\nI'd much rather err on the side of recognizing people\n\n1217\n01:00:06.460 --> 01:00:09.540\nand making a mistake now and then not doing it.\n\n1218\n01:00:09.540 --> 01:00:13.900\nAnd I'm sure I've made mistakes in that realm,\n\n1219\n01:00:13.900 --> 01:00:15.780\nbut you know, recognition overall\n\n1220\n01:00:15.780 --> 01:00:18.860\nis something that I believe is extremely powerful.\n\n1221\n01:00:18.860 --> 01:00:20.700\nSo if I got an err on one side or another,\n\n1222\n01:00:20.700 --> 01:00:23.140\nI'd rather do more of it than less.\n\n1223\n01:00:23.140 --> 01:00:26.300\nAnd so I'd much rather be loyal than disloyal.\n\n1224\n01:00:26.300 --> 01:00:28.420\nI'd much rather, you know, err on the side\n\n1225\n01:00:28.420 --> 01:00:30.940\nof being too loyal than not loyal.\n\n1226\n01:00:30.940 --> 01:00:33.180\n- Well, and I think of another concept you talk about\n\n1227\n01:00:33.180 --> 01:00:35.100\na lot, David, which is the importance\n\n1228\n01:00:35.100 --> 01:00:37.380\nof having truth tellers and being a truth teller.\n\n1229\n01:00:37.380 --> 01:00:40.340\nSo, you know, and I think another part of that,\n\n1230\n01:00:40.340 --> 01:00:44.540\nbeing too loyal is if you are too loyal\n\n1231\n01:00:44.540 --> 01:00:46.780\nand it ends up putting you in a bad spot,\n\n1232\n01:00:46.780 --> 01:00:49.780\nhaving the humility to admit that you were wrong\n\n1233\n01:00:49.780 --> 01:00:51.740\nabout something and that you made a mistake.\n\n1234\n01:00:51.740 --> 01:00:54.260\n- You know, I know a lot of people that work at Discovery\n\n1235\n01:00:54.260 --> 01:00:56.300\nand they sing Michael's praises\n\n1236\n01:00:56.300 --> 01:00:59.780\nbecause he believes in them.\n\n1237\n01:00:59.780 --> 01:01:04.060\nHe sees in them many times what they don't see in themselves\n\n1238\n01:01:04.060 --> 01:01:08.740\nwell before they realize they have those capabilities.\n\n1239\n01:01:08.740 --> 01:01:11.940\nAnd I think that's because he rounds up on talent.\n\n1240\n01:01:11.940 --> 01:01:13.660\nYou know, I had someone that works for him say\n\n1241\n01:01:13.660 --> 01:01:16.020\nthat he was so good at identifying people\n\n1242\n01:01:16.020 --> 01:01:16.940\nthat he just might see.\n\n1243\n01:01:16.940 --> 01:01:18.860\nHe might see somebody in a supermarket.\n\n1244\n01:01:18.860 --> 01:01:20.700\nHe'd look at that kid and he'd say,\n\n1245\n01:01:20.700 --> 01:01:24.020\nthat person needs to work at Discovery property someday.\n\n1246\n01:01:24.020 --> 01:01:25.820\nKeep an eye on it, okay?\n\n1247\n01:01:25.820 --> 01:01:29.780\nAnd you know what, that guy might show up at Discovery.\n\n1248\n01:01:29.780 --> 01:01:34.780\nAnd you know, but he has an eye for talent and I think,\n\n1249\n01:01:34.780 --> 01:01:37.140\nyou know, when you're in the hospitality business,\n\n1250\n01:01:37.140 --> 01:01:39.220\nif you don't have talent, you don't have anything.\n\n1251\n01:01:39.220 --> 01:01:40.780\n- That is so true.\n\n1252\n01:01:40.780 --> 01:01:42.780\n- That's true for almost any business.\n\n1253\n01:01:42.780 --> 01:01:44.300\nI'd say true for any business.\n\n1254\n01:01:44.300 --> 01:01:46.100\n- Well, you can tell that Mike's a guy\n\n1255\n01:01:46.100 --> 01:01:48.420\nwho is deeply loyal to his people\n\n1256\n01:01:48.420 --> 01:01:51.300\nand because of that, they're able to grow\n\n1257\n01:01:51.300 --> 01:01:53.260\nand have properties all over the world\n\n1258\n01:01:53.260 --> 01:01:56.300\nand just continue to provide that one-of-one experience\n\n1259\n01:01:56.300 --> 01:01:59.780\nfor people almost in every part of the globe.\n\n1260\n01:01:59.780 --> 01:02:02.620\nSo I can't wait to go to Portugal.\n\n1261\n01:02:02.620 --> 01:02:05.940\n- I can't either, I'm looking forward to myself.\n\n1262\n01:02:05.940 --> 01:02:07.260\n- Are you trying to go to Portugal too?\n\n1263\n01:02:07.260 --> 01:02:08.100\nWhere are you trying to go?\n\n1264\n01:02:08.100 --> 01:02:09.820\nWhat Discovery land property?\n\n1265\n01:02:09.820 --> 01:02:10.820\n- I wanna check it out.\n\n1266\n01:02:10.820 --> 01:02:13.900\nI've had some friends go there and they tell me it's amazing.\n\n1267\n01:02:13.900 --> 01:02:15.340\nSo yeah, I'd like to do it.\n\n1268\n01:02:15.340 --> 01:02:17.020\n- I'm sure it is, I'm sure it is.\n\n1269\n01:02:17.020 --> 01:02:20.420\nWell, David, another fantastic episode of How Leaders Lead.\n\n1270\n01:02:20.420 --> 01:02:22.180\nThank you all so much for joining\n\n1271\n01:02:22.180 --> 01:02:24.140\nand we will see you again next week.\n","is_pinned",false,"pinned_at","is_featured","featured_at","mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL4280262475.mp3","dx_media_id",2589,"video_media_id","thumbnail_image_media_id","published_date","2025-11-27","itunes_episode_id",267,"youtube_id","LiYDrgo-7W0","2025-11-27T16:02:16.000000Z","dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/5GffTGcc1OWfKF1y5iYh3car1gMhlUSfkruO4m4W.mp3","dx_filename","5GffTGcc1OWfKF1y5iYh3car1gMhlUSfkruO4m4W.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","euIYDXJgG102Yv01aJuHWlrmt013SRdZOjo3xhnpM5iqY4","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/2589.json","video_url","video_mux_playback_id","duration",3745480,"thumbnail_url","https://img.youtube.com/vi/LiYDrgo-7W0/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_image_url","dx_media",{"_13":66,"_95":79,"_96":77,"_97":-5,"_31":81,"_33":98,"_99":-5,"_100":83,"_86":87,"_101":-5},"video_media","thumbnail_image_media","filename","url","status","muvwtHB1EhsX3CHVHKf4gE36xy01qIrEIrwyz1LJu5wo","mux_upload_id","waveform_url","preview_media_id","first_name","Michael","last_name","Meldman","job_title","Discovery 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