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In Search Of Excellence
Mike Meldman: From Co-Founding Casamigos to Becoming Co-Owner of the Las Vegas Raiders | E164 - Part 2
00:51:30
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- [00:00]
Mike Meldman
George Clooney decided to sell Casamigos at $1 billion. So we kind of came up with what we thought was the perfect recipe. We were drinking different tequilas. We didn't really love anything. We decided to make our own, but just for ourselves, right? They said if you do 20,000 cases your first year, it'll be a huge success. We sold the 20,000 cases the first two days. When I started Discovery, I did it to make golf fun. The irony of all this is I never golfed when I started Discovery, and I was never a member of a country club in my life. And a lot of people who develop golf courses are very traditional to the rules of golf, but I wasn't. I feel like I built one of the great luxury brands in the world. I had no roadmap, I had no mentor, I had no preparation. You know, I just had to wing it and figure things out. And now that I've done so much of it, it's a lot.
- [01:08]
Randy
You recently purchased 7 1/2% of the Las Vegas Raiders at rumored to be a $6 billion valuation. That means you wrote a check for $450 million.
- [01:19]
Mike Meldman
I'm happy to be part of the Raiders. It got us vested very quickly and excited together. We feel like we had a great draft, we have a great front office, we have a great coaching staff, and we're completely excited, you know, invested in it.
- [01:36]
Randy
You've had such incredible success. When you look back and you think about it, I think it's fair to say if you're a billionaire today, you have homes all over the world, you hang out with celebrities, you have a G650 Gulfstream jet, you're a single good looking guy. How great is it to be Mike Meltman?
- [01:53]
Mike Meldman
Well, I'm pretty happy. The most proud about it is I really created myself, started with no money, and the whole reason I did it was to spend time with my kids.
- [02:21]
Randy
You're listening to part, part two of my incredible interview with Mike Meldman, the founder of Discovery Land Company, a great investor, co founder of Casamigos Tequila, and a new owner of the Las Vegas Raiders football team. If you haven't yet checked out part one, be sure to check that one out first. Now, without further ado, here's part two of my awesome interview with Mike. So let's talk about some of the things that make us successful. I think one of the most important things we have to sell ourselves as a founder. If you can't sell you what you're doing your company, you're not going to be successful. Talk to us about your experience at Kakio and how difficult it was selling basically lava, flat land that you're going to have to dig up and then who you had to convince to say, all right, you guys got to do this.
- [03:05]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, Kukio, I always say, is probably the number one project we ever did because it really made the brand. If you look at Kukiyo. So Kukiyo was an ugly piece of lava. It had a row of kalbi trees which are non native, that have thorns that drop onto the beach, tell people where it's located. So Kukiyo is on the big island of Hawaii and it's right next to Hualai, which is the Four Seasons. And the Hualai, up until maybe recently, it's still May, was always the highest adr and occupied Four seasons in the world. So my opinion, that made it the best resort in the world. We bought the land next door. It was zoned for two mega resorts, probably 6,000 hotel rooms. We ended up putting on the Kukuyo property the first space. We ended up buying more 180 units. No one thought we were going to be able to buy it because Hualai kind of controlled the water. And we figured out that we were going to go low density anyway, that we could build the gulf with this new grass that came out called paspalum and that we could grow the grass with brackish water so we just could dig a well and use basically ocean water. No one thought there'd be a buyer for it. And so we bought it at the courthouse steps in Honolulu. And it was kind of a funny day because the only other buyer who really showed up was Hualai. And they were owned by Mitsubishi or one of the Japanese conglomerates. We didn't know this at the time, but they only got budget approval for $20 million because they controlled the water, they controlled everything. And they didn't think anyone could pay more. We had a budget of a lot more than that. And so the bidding started. Eight and a half, nine. Nine and a half. Ten, ten and a half. And I'm like, oh, this is going to get expensive. And the WALLEYE Guys go, 20. And then our attorney who was bidding for us goes 25. And everyone looks at me goes, no, 20.5 because you're going up in half a million dollar increments. And the gentleman from Hualai threw their hands up because they literally didn't have permission to go higher. And the judge goes, going, going, gone. And we bought it. One of the great parts of that is, we ended up selling our first resale for 20.5 million. We came up with the price because we wanted the resale lot to be what we paid for the whole property. Kukio, you know, we started again. This is one of the projects where we had 100 million allocated for it. We spent 20.5 on the acquisition. We started doing the planning, soft costs, and we ended up pre selling $50 million worth of real estate in the first 90 days. So we never had to put in any more money. And so it's one of these great successes. But it was a real. It looked like the moon. You know, if you go on the big island, it's just lava. And I go out there and I said, okay, get rid of all these trees. And I'd come back like two weeks later. And they kind of, at the time, like islands of trees were kind of the cool thing, environmental thing. And I said, no, get rid of every tree. Because like I said, they weren't native. The cowboys brought them for, you know, for shade and get thorns in your feet. So finally they got rid of them all and we created. If you go there now, I don't know how many palm trees there are, but like I said, there's zero trees on it except for the kiawe. And if you go now, it looks like a Hawaiian tropical movie set. It's literally one of the prettiest places, luscious landscape you'll ever see. I had to convince everyone what the vision was. And you're going against Huawley, which was stiff competition. They were selling lots for 3 million, we were selling lots for 10 million. And it shows you kind of just the value of our concept, which is basically giving them all the resort amenities that a Hawaii would have, but on a private basis without any transient guests. So it's basically having Hawaii just for 400 families who have access to basically everything. Our level of service is so much better. It might not really be better, but everyone knows each other. So it's just so much more intimate. And to me, that makes it a higher level service. Where you go to Four Seasons, they go, Mr. Melman, nice to see you. I don't know the person. They just see I've stayed there and how many Four seasons and this and that. But you go to Kukuyo and you walk in, they go, hey, Mike, how's Hunter, How's Will? What's going on? They really know you and know what you want. And they could anticipate things that you want to do, which is a huge, huge value. At the time, you know, I had probably six or seven deals under my belt, but not again, not the brand that it is today. So I had to go and really meet with people, go to their offices, explain it. It was a really hard project to do because, you know, cutting in this lava, I mean, just to build a golf course took three years. And so I didn't realize how hard it was going to be. But I never wavered on, you know, the vision or the concept. And everybody, you know, believed me and bought into it. You know, looking back now 20, 25 years, I'm like, that's pretty good that they believed me. I don't know if I would, you know, if I would have, but they must have believed me just because of the conviction I had. And I never, ever had a doubt that it wouldn't be as good as it is. That's probably better than what I explained it to people. And the great thing is how Kukio and all these communities become such a big part of people's lives. And a lot of these people have everything right, and the one thing they don't have is time. Probably the one regret a lot of these people have is not spending enough time with their families. And so these projects all give them the time with their family that's such high quality and that their family members are so appreciative that they were, you know, are able to be a member there. Not, you know, not just Kukio everywhere. I mean, you see it at Gazer.
- [10:22]
Randy
Yeah. I mean, we'll come back to the success thing in a minute, but I bought a place up in Coeur d' Alene at GI Gaza Ranch. We went up there on a fluke. I said, I'm never going to have a second home in my life. You know, thankfully, I've done well financially, and we can stay where we want, and we like nice places. And then we get to this place like, holy, this place is amazing. I had three kids at the time. 10, 10 and eight. And it was like Disneyland for the kids, the adults. Joe Vetter was working with you at the time, took us out on the boat. We just had the best time. And I remember back then, the club wasn't doing that great. Right. People from Spokane had bought a bunch of lots. It was a commuter club. Coeur d' Alene was not as popular it was today. I mean, I remember driving around the lake, and it seemed like every fifth house was for sale. And we couldn't figure out, you know, what's wrong with this place. And we saw this amazing house that nobody wanted. It was lot 147. I don't know if you remember it. It's a modern. But no one, no one wanted. They all wanted the log cabin ish house and you know, Joe's showman. I'm interested. And we found this amazing, spectacular. And I said, this is a nice to have for me, not a need to have. So I made a decent offer on the house, took it. It was, you know, take it or leave it. I paid $25,000 more than the take it or leave it. And then we had small issue with one of the neighbors. And I called you up and he said we couldn't resolve it until the following May. We're going to close on January 3rd that year. And he said, trust me, it'll be the best thing you've done for your family. And. And you're right, it really is. I mean, it's the best.
- [12:01]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, Gosser's the best Gazer may be one of the great family spots, you know, summer spots anywhere.
- [12:07]
Randy
Here I am. I want to thank you on camera. You are a million times right. And I'm very grateful. I mean, it really is the best thing that we've done and you know, the vision there too, is to have my kids stay there when they were of age. Charlie's here right now. He's going up with a bunch of buds, you know, next week, this week. And. And it's so fun to see my kids. And I have a friend, and I won't mention his name on camera. Real estate guy who bought a place in Bakers Bay, San Francisco, to Baker's Bay. It's a long haul. A lot of your guys have private jets. I said, hey, Steve, man, why not buy a closer club? And he said, well, basically, I know I get two weeks a year with my kids because they all love Baker's Bay and they're all going down there no matter what if they're working. And I mean, these places are the greatest places on earth if you have the money. And it is very expensive, there's nothing like it in the world. So I appreciate you.
- [13:05]
Mike Meldman
Well, thank you. I appreciate that too.
- [13:07]
Randy
Going back to what makes people successful, the hallmark of my career has been my preparation. That's my brand. Extreme preparation. How important has preparation been in your career and your success? And I'm not talking about preparing for a meeting or going on a roadshow. I'm talking about preparing a week for a meeting or a speech or something important in your life.
- [13:29]
Mike Meldman
Like I said earlier Preparation usually kills me. I mean, I'm much better spontaneous and reactionary. When I started the company, like I said, I had no roadmap. I had no mentor. I had no preparation. I just had to wing it and figure things out. And now that I've done so much of it, even though we're opening seven new clubs this year, so it's a lot. Almost so much easier because I'm not struggling to figure anything out anymore, and I just explain what needs to be done, and I have 40,000 employees, and they just get it done. A lot of these people have grown up in Discovery, meaning like Peter Whalen, who runs all our operations. He started as a valet at mirabel, and he's 18 years old, so he's never really had another job, worked for another company. So he's got the discovery DNA in him. There are a lot of people like him that's been with us for 20, 30 years. And so having that type of support really helps and makes my job now a lot easier than it used to be for me.
- [14:44]
Randy
You can't build a successful company without a team. It's not possible. So let's talk about JJ for a minute. JJ Dune been with you for 22 years now. Started as a junior sales guy at the Madison club, making 75k a year. He was washing cars, and I think someone told him, you got to go out and write a paragraph on all 194 lots at the Madison Club. And, you know, they're not all the same, but, you know, a lot of them are pretty much the same because they're right next door to each other. And Here he is 22 years later. He's a EVP. He's a partner in the company now, and he owns nine homes, and he grew up in 900 square foot track house.
- [15:23]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, JJ's was a. I always say, a great science experiment that, you know, that worked because the Howie, he was a member at the Hideaway, so he was in the ecosystem as a member. He. This other member at Hideaway called me who owned the magazine company, and JJ was selling magazines, and I guess he wasn't that good at. He wasn't that good at it because Bob called me and said, hey, can you take jj? You know, he goes, I think he's much better suited for you than he is for me. Which was 100% true, because, you know, JJ, not a magazine salesman. I don't even know if, you know, he's ever read a magazine. But as a salesman for us, you can't have Anyone better? Because he's a great golfer. He's got the great gift to gab and stories. He's a great clutch golfer. So, you know, if they're gambling, I mean, he's always the guy who sinks the 60 foot putt. And so he's kind of, you know, created this whole myth about, you know, about himself because he actually created it and lived up to it. And so jj, besides being one of my best friends, is also one of the, you know, proudest parts of discovery. And you know, he's now a man of real stature. He's got three kids, he's a great dad, great husband, and couldn't be prouder of him.
- [16:52]
Randy
Because you've built the company. Would it be as successful today without jj?
- [16:56]
Mike Meldman
Yeah.
- [16:57]
Randy
I mean, sorry jj, Mike loves you, but JJ is the best.
- [17:03]
Mike Meldman
I mean, look, it's not any one person, it's, it's everybody. And look at JJ literally just had a sales conference for 120 salespeople. So I mean, he's a major, major part of the company. But you know, I don't think you give any one individual the credit. It really is. It takes a village, right? And this one really does take a village.
- [17:30]
Randy
As a venture capitalist, one of the questions that I'll always ask people coming into the office is if there's a time when, when you're no longer the right CEO, are you willing to give it up for someone who is better suited than you to run or grow your company? It could be they are more skilled, they can take it to another level. Or it could be, hey, I don't want to be the day to day running the company. To now tell us about Dwight and how he's doing and what his vision is. He came from much bigger company.
- [17:57]
Mike Meldman
Yeah. So Brett has not only saved my life, but I think it's reinvigorated me where I feel like right now or when he came aboard two or three years ago, that the company was just starting because it was a little bit of a mom, pop, bunch of friends growing it and doing it. And so Brett comes in and has kind of institutionalized it. He does a lot of the work that I don't have to do anymore. He deals with financials, HR, a lot of stuff. He was the CEO for 15 years of CBRE. He was the CEO of Cushman Wakefield, which is kind of ironic since that's kind of where I started my career. And he's actually still chairman of Cushman because they wouldn't let him leave completely because he's that valuable to them and he's obviously that valuable to me and to us. So he's really institutionalized us where, you know, I think we're just a better, a better company because of him. A lot of people said, well, I wonder, you know, how long it's going to take you to get sick of him. And I got sick of him. It's literally the greatest thing that's happened to me in a long time. So, so I gave, you know, I was welcoming and easily gave up a lot of that because now I could focus on more of the visionary stuff. And I think where I'm the most helpful in projects is the first few years of it, when we're building it, when we're pre selling it. The more I'm around, the more confidence it gives people at the project and also people in the market knowing that I'm there and I care about it. Like, I go to Gaza only because my kids love it so much. I don't really need to be there anymore. We're basically sold out. It's a functioning, functioning club. But I still, I go primarily because my family loves it so much. But I try to go and spend my time at the places that are beginning because that's where I think my experience helps the most.
- [20:16]
C
I hope you're enjoying this video so far, but before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach the next level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google, lift and Seagate. And I also co founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey. I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others and I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video.
- [21:09]
Randy
The opportunities we have in life, sometimes that are our biggest ones are taking advantage of someone else doing something stupid or their business goes bad. In 1991, there's a guy named Tim Blixeth in Montana, buys 140,000 acres of timberland. He was in the timberland business. Then he swaps it out for a private ski mountain called Yellowstone Club, where he started selling. It's a private ski mountain. We can talk about it in one second. Exactly what's there? But he made some bad loans, got divorced, and by the way, this guy was on the Forbes 400 at one point, $1.6 billion net worth, and it all went by the wayside here. And then why don't you take over the story from there and tell everyone, from what I've heard through the grapevine, it could be your most successful club.
- [22:00]
C
Hope you're enjoying this video so far. But before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach the next level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google, lift and Seagate. And I also co founded a company that today has worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life, I want to give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did in my own journey. I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions, and if you're.
- [22:48]
Randy
A good fit, my team will reach.
- [22:49]
C
Out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video.
- [22:56]
Mike Meldman
Yeah. So Yellowstone's obviously an amazing place. It's only private ski resort in the world. It's. Tim Blixeth had an amazing vision, and he did all that with land swaps, which is even more difficult. Literally, to create Yellowstone, he had to have it act a congress. So, I mean, just the perseverance. The vision was amazing. Now, he also, though, wasn't an operator, wasn't A developer. He joined Iron Horse, which is my place, to kind of learn the business. He always asked me to run it. I never wanted to run it. I always wanted to own it. I always knew at some point we would own it. He would make you give him a financial statement before he even toured you to make sure who you were and if you can afford it. And so I was up there a lot in the early stages with him and with friends from Whitefish, you know, who are members up there. And I was always thinking as he would be asking for financial statements and doing silly things. No one's asking him like what happens if he gets divorced? Because, you know, I was, you know, probably had 10 deals under my belt. And project sponsorship is always the biggest question. The first question, who are you? What have you done? Where's your money? Questions like that. And if you were looking at a project that wasn't ours, I would tell you those are the questions to ask because they are. But no one asked those questions to Tim. He was, I guess a good offense, he was a good defense. Hey, let me see how rich you are before I even show you around. And people did it, which I was kind of shock. And then he made a couple fundamental mistakes. He developed all the hard stuff. First, like the homes, what we call andesite are 25 minute drive to the, to the base. And so he put in all these roads that were hard to do and sold all these houses that were far away. And he created ski in and ski out by, you know, having these little runs you could go to get on a chair to get home. It worked from that perspective. But he over leveraged it with debt. He took I think a $465 million loan and instead of keeping some of it for interest reserve, basically took it, bought a bunch of other assets that didn't work, got divorced, basically gave his wife Yellowstone, which wasn't really giving her Yellowstone, it was giving her $465 million worth of debt. Went bankrupt, Cross harbor and us bought it and you know, we did this in 08. And so we were. It was a little scary. It was a little scary, you know, because There were probably 300 sales at the time and probably 200 of them were on the market. So we burned through all those we built. We put a real master plan together on the project which didn't really have one. And the stuff that we had left, which were about 6, 700 units that we actually ended up developing, to me were all the low hanging fruit because it was everything at the base. It was this place called American Spirit where I live, which is ski in and ski out. And so the bulk of what was left was all kind of high density stuff with ski in and ski out. And I think a lot of decisions for people when they're buying a ski property is a ski in and ski out. And so that we had so much of that made it easy. The private powder, as we call it, is remarkable because there's truly no lift lines. And you could ski and sit there, talk to the group you're skiing with, and no one even sees by you for 20 minutes. So the more you ski, the better skier you are. Actually, the more you like it. Because people think a private ski mountain is like a ski hill. Well, it's not. This is a mountain range and we have this ridge that has these runs that are like hill ski. And you have a chairlift that you can actually take to it. So it's. I mean, it's a remarkable place. There's between Yellowstone, Big sky and Moonlight Basin, probably the biggest skiable area in the United States.
- [27:37]
Randy
We went up there for a look back in maybe nine years ago, ten years ago, JJ was up there. Really cool thing for me is I like photography. I just got in a GoPro and I put on the helmet, couldn't get the thing to work. And this guy says, oh, you know, let me help you. And I look, it's Nick Woodman.
- [27:56]
Mike Meldman
Yeah.
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Randy
Who's the founder of GoPro, who was helping me turn on my GoPro. Yeah, I thought that was a very, very cool thing.
- [28:03]
Mike Meldman
But I'm sure he just very helpful, too.
- [28:05]
Randy
Oh, he was very helpful. I mean, I screwed it up at some point because you can't see it. And I'm not going to take off while I'm skiing. JJ said, hey, you know, we're building this condo unit, I think it was eight units next to Clubhouse. I said, well, what are the prices? And I think they were 3,800 square feet for maybe $5.95 million. Like, well, that seems like a lot. I mean, you're going to be, you know, close to the clubhouse. There's people. You're going to have neighbors and noise and all that. And we got caught up last summer at Gaza. And he said, yeah, that unit sold for $30 million. $30 million from 6 to 30. We missed out on that one. A big part of your club is food, but when you go back to Phoenix, you eat at Richardson's and you eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So what's the dichotomy on that one.
- [28:54]
Mike Meldman
Well, I like peanut butter and jelly. Always have. It's a great snack when you're golfing, right. Because it gives you energy and kind of picks you up. So, like, ice cream, too. So I like a lot of, you know, crap. Crappy, you know, crappy food that I kind of grew up on, but I also like great food. And Richardson's is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. And JJ and I play every year in the Phoenix Open. I think we won it three or four times and came in second, like five or six times. My mom's not with us anymore, but my dad is. And so one day we go to Richardson's, and the next day we go to Pizza Bianca, which is considered one of the great, maybe the best pizza in the world from the Food Network. Pizza Bianco kindly created the Wood Birding Pizza. So it's always fun to go to those two places because they're two of my favorite restaurants and they're both literally in the neighborhood I grew up in.
- [29:59]
Randy
You're also a great investor. I mean, you have the power of your people behind you. You have celebrities at your clubs. And again, I've mention them, and I'm not going to disclose anything private that's not out there. But you got people wearing your Costa Migos T shirts. It didn't hurt that Bieber or the Kardashians were wearing all this stuff. So consumer brands love you. They know you can move the needle. You invested in Viori, I think at a 25 or $30 million valuation. They just took a slug of capital. Closed December 21st of last year, I think $465 million at a little over a $5 billion valuation. Now it's valued at 7 billion, roughly. You put in a million dollars, and it's worth $23 million today. The rough math doesn't exactly work out that way. But how are you finding these deals that are so incredible?
- [30:50]
Mike Meldman
Well, on Viori, my partner at Troubadour was the original investor, and so he came to me to buy out one of the. The founders. And so he, him and the original founder, Joe, who started the company, bought it back, and they gave me a sliver of it. You know, the one thing, like I said, our projects are good distribution networks for the right. The right product. And so, you know, we have member guests and member members, and we have all these events where we give gifts away. I started including Viori in all our gift packages. So it got in the hands of the members and their guests, who are all like I said real influencers, not Instagram influencers. We can get things in people's right hand. And again, like Casamigos, it's a great product and so people loved it and kept buying it. And so I like investing investments where I could actually feel like I could contribute to the success or be a strategic investor. There's a lot of investments I've done just as a courtesy or favor to friends that lost millions of dollars. So it goes both ways. But most of the ones where I could actually feel like I can help have all done pretty well.
- [32:23]
Randy
Sports teams are amazing. I did a video clip on the annual return of sports teams versus how the market performs. The S&P 500 measured over a 20 year period of time and depending on the league, football was I think 2% north of over a 20 year period. The how the market did the S&P 500.
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Mike Meldman
So it was above the S and.
- [32:44]
Randy
P. It was above. Now there's lots of other reasons to own a football team or a hockey team or a baseball team or whatever it was. You recently purchased 7.5% of the Las Vegas Raiders at rumored to be a $6 billion valuation. That means you wrote a check for $450 million. And I've heard through the grapevine that this is the thing you've been more excited about in a very, very long time.
- [33:07]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, so I'm happy to be part of the Raiders. Mark Davis, who's the owner, the governor, the main owner, has been a great friend of mine for a long time. I'm a Bear guy. So the Niners and Raiders have always been my favorites. I live in Las Vegas, so being part of the community I think is really good. It just so happened the year I came in, we fired, we fired everyone. So we worked together. There's a group of us with Mark who are active owners. And so we were all part of the hiring process for the coaches, the GM and everyone. So it got us vested very quickly and excited because we're like talking well, we're going to be excited to go to game. They're not that good. And then all of a sudden from what we've done together, we feel like we had a great draft, we have a great front office, we have a great coaching staff and and were completely excited, invested in it. So it happened pretty quick. Right. Went from okay investment to now something we wear on our sleeve and excited about. And I looked at it really as a diversification because I'm so long in real estate and I have three boys, a lot of My stuff's in trust, so my children had to get approved as owners. And so they'll be, I'll obviously leave it to them. And they're going to, I think, have a great fun with it like I am. And so I just thought it was a great generational investment and big believer, big football fan. They were. Both my older boys were great football players. So it's just fun, right? I mean, you can't really think of anything more fun to do, you know, with your kids and friends.
- [35:21]
Randy
You've had such incredible success. When you look back and you think about it, I think it's fair to say if you're a billionaire today, you have homes all over the world, you hang out with celebrities, you have a G650 Gulfstream jet, you're a single good looking guy. How great is it to be Mike Meltman?
- [35:40]
Mike Meldman
Well, I'm pretty happy. I think I do. I think I have a great life. And what I'm the most proud about is I really created it myself with no, you know, started with no money. And I feel like I built one of the great luxury brands in the world. The whole reason I did it was to spend time with my kids. And so I have a business that makes me spend time with my kids. And the whole thing started like at Iron Horse, Montana, that, I told you was one of the great places my kids were living in San Francisco. And so I wanted them to become mountain men. And so by the time they were 10, they could tie their own flies. They were whitewater rafting, they were wakeboarding. We were like flying into the wilderness and floating out, fly fishing and camping for three days in the Bob Marshall. I did it to be with my kids. And then I realized by doing that everyone else wanted to be with their kids. And so it became one of the great pillars of discovery. We call it outdoor pursuits, as you know from, you know from Gazer and how popular and how influential it is. And so I always knew the golf would sell the guys and go, how do you sell the women and the kids? And that was how. And I didn't realize how big a part of people's life it would become because, you know, you go on vacation, let's say you're Randy and Cindy. Well, you got to really plan for a vacation because if you're Randy and Cindy, you have to have a great room and a great hotel. And it's stressful because you really have to plan because everyone's competing for the same rooms, you know, over Christmas, over Easter, over Thanksgiving, and So to take away all the planning and the stress of that, I think is huge, because they just go to their house at El Dorado or Madison or, you know, wherever they are, and you don't have to plan anything. Everything just gets orchestrated for you. You know, I have a great life, and I think I've enhanced a lot of, you know, a lot of people's life. And it all truly came from the inspiration of just wanting to be with my kids, to teach them things, you know, whatever environment or culture the projects are in and enjoy the experience by having someone else teach them than me, because that way I could share the experience with them instead of stress over it.
- [38:25]
Randy
Philanthropy is huge for you as well. We're getting towards the end of the show, but can you take just a couple minutes talking about your foundation and the things you're most passionate about?
- [38:34]
Mike Meldman
Yeah. So Discovering Lamb foundation was created to help children's charities around the communities we're in. And so Coeur d' Alene probably is one of our biggest benefactors, because what I wanted to originally do was start a foster facility, raise the kids, and then give them jobs and educate them, because I always say you could change the world one kid at a time. You build a real estate company brick by brick, tequila company, shot by shot. And so I really believe changing the world one kid at a time is meaningful. And so by doing the foster care, you can actually see these kids grow and develop. It's been going on for a long time. We've seen a lot of kids pull themselves up. My kid's mother runs a foundation, so I thought that was a great way to have my ex wife involved in discovering. She does a great job running it. My oldest son, Hunter, basically on the board. So the three of us invest and, you know, check everything out, and it's a great way to give back, especially to the communities. And even though we raised a lot of money, it doesn't take that much money to make a real difference.
- [39:57]
Randy
My grandmother, who passed away two years ago almost now. She lived till she was 104, raised in Foster care. She bounced around. I think she lived in seven or eight homes. And back in the day, different today, but the families. It still works this way today, but it's a very different treatment back then. They get paid a certain amount of money per month and per year to have a foster kid in their home. She slept in closets in a kitchen pantry. You know, she was the help, my inspiration, my hero. And I started a scholarship at the University of Michigan for a foster Care student. This woman, Cherish Thomas, was living in her car in East Lansing, Michigan. Gave her a free ride to Michigan, and it was just one of the best things I've ever done. She's become a member of our family. She's a homeowner, public speaker, social worker. Got her master's in social work as well. But giving back, I think that's the best.
- [40:54]
Mike Meldman
Amazing.
- [40:54]
Randy
Yeah. Nothing better.
- [40:56]
Mike Meldman
I mean, it really. I agree with that. It's really nice to see the impact you can make on an individual who needs it.
- [41:05]
Randy
Yeah. I love that I always end my show with part of it called fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play?
- [41:12]
Mike Meldman
Sure.
- [41:12]
Randy
The biggest lesson I've learned in my.
- [41:14]
Mike Meldman
Life is always be nice to people and treat people fairly.
- [41:19]
Randy
And by the way, I wanted to touch upon this in the show, and I'm glad you brought this up. You are one of the nicest guys ever. You're one of these guys that you never hear someone saying a negative thing about you, and you're always, yes. You know, when I want to go play at a golf course, I'll text you. And again, like, I don't like asking people for things. I think I've asked you a couple of times, and it's always one line. Sure. You know, I think that's. That's one of the reasons why you've done so well. I think you are a very nice guy. I think be nice is one of the things that people don't think about being successful. We know a lot of assholes who run companies, but I think from a consumer and a customer of yours, I think that's something that people know about you. Everybody says that about you.
- [42:02]
Mike Meldman
I appreciate that. Thank you.
- [42:03]
Randy
My number one personal goal is.
- [42:07]
Mike Meldman
Raise my kids and have them be humble and unentitled, which they are.
- [42:11]
Randy
The one thing everybody should say to themselves when they go to bed at night is, well, take it both ways. What's the first thing they should say when they wake up in the morning? And what's the last thing they should say when they go to bed at night?
- [42:23]
Mike Meldman
I haven't really ever thought about that. So I'm pretty good about not saying, you know, going to bed. And I'm pretty good about clearing my mind when I go to bed. I'm just thinking about going to bed, and when I wake up, I'm thinking what a great day I'm going to have that day.
- [42:41]
Randy
My biggest regret is probably I don't.
- [42:45]
Mike Meldman
Really have that many regrets. I'd say probably two failed marriages My biggest failure is my two marriages.
- [42:55]
Randy
The proudest moment of my career is.
- [42:58]
Mike Meldman
Is probably just seeing people enjoy, you know, the property so much.
- [43:03]
Randy
The craziest thing that's happened in my.
- [43:05]
Mike Meldman
Career is probably the. The bankruptcy sale at Coquillo. It was a pretty crazy couple days not knowing what was going to happen, who's going to show up, how much we had would have to pay.
- [43:18]
Randy
The funniest thing that's happened in my.
- [43:20]
Mike Meldman
Career is probably the speech in Atlanta where they told me not to talk about money or Augusta. And I opened it up saying, we're gonna build Augusta because it just takes money. It's probably one of the silliest things I've ever done.
- [43:35]
Randy
The best advice I have ever received.
- [43:37]
Mike Meldman
Is probably stick to your knitting. One of my best friends is a venture capitalist, said that. And that keeps you. Or at least it keeps me. Even though I do do a lot that keeps me focused.
- [43:50]
Randy
The worst advice I've ever received is.
- [43:52]
Mike Meldman
Well, it's the easy one. When I first looked at Estancia, I was flying home from Scottsdale with Rob Schumacher, who is a very close friend of mine who's probably purchased in almost every project I ever did. I was explaining to him what I was going to do. Buy Pinnacle Peak, build a private golf course. I think it costs about $20 million. And he's looked at me, goes for $20 million. You could buy Arizona right now in the RTC. From the RTC. Don't ever do it. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And I remind Rob of that every time I see him at different properties and remind his kids of that. That his father almost stopped discovery from being created.
- [44:35]
Randy
The most important quality in making somebody.
- [44:38]
Mike Meldman
Successful is, I think, discipline, drive, character, integrity.
- [44:45]
Randy
The one quality that's most likely to lead to failure is lack of discipline.
- [44:50]
Mike Meldman
Taste hard. You gotta, you know, you've gotta focus, be committed, stick to your, you know, stick to your concept.
- [44:57]
Randy
20 years from now, I'm going to.
- [44:59]
Mike Meldman
Be doing hopefully what I'm doing right now.
- [45:02]
Randy
If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be?
- [45:05]
Mike Meldman
I don't know. My dad, Steve Jobs.
- [45:09]
Randy
Other than Steve Jobs. Let me tell you a funny Steve Jobs story because we talked about the Four Seasons. So I've been in that four season lots of times. In fact, the first time I was there was in 1996. I did look at those Four Seasons condos. They were three and a half million dollars. And then I saw all your dozers and earth moving equipment next door at Kikuyu. And I actually heard they were $10 million. Like, you know, that's insane. But we're sitting there in the main restaurant, the Four Seasons. You've been there. And then Kona Village was next door. No phones, no ac, no nothing. And Steve Jobs is sitting at the Four Seasons at the far end of the restaurant with his family. He's there with his wife and his two kids. And ex wife says to me, there's Steve Jobs. And I said, you didn't go talk to him? Like, nah. Said the old Randy would have. Apple had invested in our tech company as a series C investor. $25 million at a $250 million valuation when we thought we didn't need any more money. So I was up when, you know, I was walking over there, I go up to the table, doesn't even look at me. Just standing there feeling, oh, gosh, this is not good. So I said, Excuse me, Mr. Jobs. And I told him I was the founder of his company. He said, he looks up like this. He said, you are a founder? He said, yeah. He said, you must have made a lot of money. It was the weirdest thing because you don't say that. It's like it's not socially appropriate thing. And I said, yeah, we did well. And the company had done well too. Apple's market share at the time was less than 1%. All the business magazines said they were going bankrupt, and they just did the Microsoft Windows settlement as well. So they got 240 million for that and they made hundreds of millions from our company as well. And I said, yeah, I loved your speech. Stanford's graduation speech, which is famous. I'm sure you've heard the speech before. He looked at me and said, thank you. Looked down, the conversation was over. And I kind of just went back to my table. I feel very weird about it, but I did get to meet him once. It was highly awkward. And now I have kind of a cool story about it.
- [47:12]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, they're all a little bit on the spectrum, guys like that. So he. I met Steve so he would always walk over from Kona Village. He loved Kona Village. His wife owns it now, or funded, you know, funded the remodel of Kona Village after the tsunami, which is crazy that we have a tsunami that took out Kona Village, part of Hualai and Kukiyo. But he would walk down the beach and he just. We have a beach bar, basically, which is off the beach. And he was just sitting there, like, staring. And I obviously knew who he was. So I went up to him, I go, you know, can I help you? You want me to show you around? See anything? And he said, no, but I'd love a glass of water. So we went to the bar, got him a glass of water. We talked about this guy named Bill Campbell who was. If Steve would say he had a mentor, it'd be Bill Campbell. I don't know if you would say he had a mentor. If you asked Barrick Schmidt, Sergey and Larry who your mentor was, they'd say Bill Campbell. If you asked Bezos, he'd say Bill Campbell. And so Bill Campbell was a very close friend of mine. His brother who went to the Air Force Academy, won the national championship in lacrosse four years in a row and was Roger Staubach's Heisman whitting year wide receiver. Great guy, right? And he was my original jj. So I was very close with Bill because of his brother Jim. And that was one thing that actually made Steve, made him smile, that I was close with Bill Campbell.
- [48:52]
Randy
What's the one question you wish I asked you today?
- [48:55]
Mike Meldman
But didn't you ask a lot of questions? I don't know if we dug into the family aspect of these projects as much. I'd say even though we talk about, I think family a lot, but it really is, I think, the crux of discovery.
- [49:19]
Randy
I tell people this, I'm not just saying this because it's the best thing I've done for my family. And here's a guy that I said, I'm never gonna own a second home. And we got there and it really is the best thing. The day we pack up is the day we look forward to coming back.
- [49:33]
Mike Meldman
That's good to hear. I appreciate it.
- [49:34]
Randy
And my kids, it's like summer camp. They grew up with all their friends each summer and now they're all adults. And I have two young kids as well, 8 and 5. And they got their friends from summer camp and they facetime with one another now. It's just the coolest, greatest thing ever.
- [49:54]
Mike Meldman
Yeah, I made my 11 year old, who was 10 at the time, go to a real summer camp just to see what it's like to be on their those type of roles. Oh, he's still mad at me. I could have been a gazer.
- [50:11]
Randy
Do you have any questions you want to ask me before we finish?
- [50:13]
Mike Meldman
No, I just appreciate the questions. And I appreciate you how much you love Gazer. It means a lot.
- [50:20]
Randy
Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
- [50:22]
Mike Meldman
Thanks Randy.
- [50:23]
C
Really appreciate it.
- [50:24]
Mike Meldman
Well, I see in your shirt, which I didn't really see extreme preparation. I got calls from a lot of lot of people who were getting calls from you. So I know you were preparing. And, you know, you had a lot of good questions, you know, that a lot of people wouldn't know or don't know. And so I know you actually did extreme preparation.
- [50:49]
Randy
Perfect.
- [50:49]
Mike Meldman
Which is good because it makes the talk, you know, more comfortable and easy.
- [50:55]
Randy
There are so many benefits to extreme preparation, but one is you start the meeting off on a completely different level. When you show someone you've done the work and the care, and you care about them and you care about the meeting. I don't want to just be another podcaster asking the same questions as everybody else.
- [51:10]
Mike Meldman
Yeah.