240 - I Ask Scaramucci All My Burning Questions | Money, Aliens, Politics, and more.

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Making It with Jon Davids

Episode 240: I Ask Scaramucci All My Burning Questions | Money, Aliens, Politics, and more.
Date: January 13, 2026
Guest: Anthony Scaramucci (Founder of SkyBridge Capital, ex-White House Communications Director)

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Episode Overview

In this rapid-fire episode, Jon Davids sits down for a ten-minute blitz Q&A with Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci. With time tight, Jon covers as much ground as possible, discussing Scaramucci’s career highs and lows, business grit, personal beliefs (aliens included), political stories, and some practical wisdom. The tone is brisk but warm and candid, with Scaramucci displaying his trademark wit and openness.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Scaramucci’s Biggest Day: Wins & Losses

• Q: What’s the most money you ever made in a day?
  A (Scaramucci): “Made a million. But I've also lost a million. So yeah, it's great on the way up, it's really terrible on the way down.” (02:11)

Career Journey & Business Perspective

• Started at SkyBridge Capital:

  • After Harvard Law and a stint at Goldman Sachs, left to create SkyBridge.
  • “Don’t confuse brains with a bull market. Remember, timing is everything. If I had started SkyBridge in 2008 during the global financial crisis, it probably wouldn't exist.” (03:01)

• Competition:

  • “Money management, we have a ton of competitors, but... smart money managers only compete with themselves.” (03:16)

• Standing Out:

  • “With my looks and my charm.” (03:28)

Highs & Lows: Professional Lessons

• Rock Bottom:

  • “The global financial crisis. ...down about 40% at the bottom... felt like we were going to go out of business. So a lot of things had to break our way, which they did.” (03:35)

• Best Decision:

  • “Buying the Citibank alternative asset management business from Citibank during that crisis way back in 2010.” (03:51)

• Biggest Miss:

  • “I said no to Uber …they came in to see me at a $50 million valuation. I could have made several hundred million dollars in that. I didn't understand it, so I said no.” (04:37)

• Have You Been Fired?:

  • Twice—once from Goldman Sachs (rehired later), and the “high profile” White House public firing. (04:49)

• Trouble Paying Bills:

  • “No, thank God. But you know what? I'm a hustler. I've been working since I was 11… always lived below my means. ...If you can't afford the price of the ticket, don't go to the movies.” (05:08)

Beliefs & Mindset

• Something you believe today that seemed crazy 10 years ago?

  • “We’re not alone.” (05:37)
  • “I think there’s more than ample evidence that we've got… unidentified objects that are moving faster than our technology…” (05:40)

• Have you lost sleep over business?

  • “Yes.” (06:02)

• How do you keep going?

  • “General simple mindedness… You got to get up in the morning and believe you're going to make it… human mind… is sort of like a Swiss army knife…” (06:05)

Political & Personal Anecdotes

• On Barack Obama:

  • “I think he’s a likable guy... probably missed the mark politically in terms of where the country needed to go during his presidency… But I like Barack Obama. I think he did a generally good job as president.” (06:43)
  • Harvard Law School connection, funny story:
    • At a fundraiser, Scaramucci joked about pretending to know Obama for a donation.
    • Obama replied: “If you double the amount of the check, we’ll take it right back to Hawaii.”
    • “He has probably the best smile in American politics since Jack Kennedy.” (07:06)
    • “I've been to more Barack Obama Christmas parties at the White House than Donald Trump Christmas parties.” (08:15)

• Donald Trump:

  • No longer gets invited to Trump parties. (08:18)

Reputation & Self-Perception

• Biggest misunderstanding:
  • People stereotype him (“Jersey Shore cast member, Tony Soprano on the Potomac”).
  • “What other people think of you is none of your business. So just go and enjoy your life.” (08:21)

Wealth, Upbringing, & Mindset

• Born rich?

  • “Yes, I was born rich. I just wasn't born monetarily rich… blessed with a good family and a decent IQ.” (09:40)

• Advice to those who think they can’t make money without being born into it:

  • “Well, you’re probably right. …if you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. So stop that and change your mindset and start thinking you can do something. And then you will also be right.” (10:00)

Lightning Round: Personal Touches & Fun

• Luckiest event:

  • “Meeting my wife, my wife Deirdre has been a real source of inspiration and help to me.” (10:22)

• If you quit today, what’s next?

  • “Probably go to a baseball game… I want to go to 30 different ballparks and see a three game series in every park.” (10:35)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On mindset and adaptation:

  “The human mind is a wonderfully adaptive mechanism. It's sort of like a Swiss army knife. You’ll pull the right tools out at the right time, but you got to have that mindset.”
  —Anthony Scaramucci (06:05)

• On missing Uber:

  “I said no to Uber…could have made several hundred million dollars in that. I didn't understand it, so I said no to it.”
  —Anthony Scaramucci (04:37)

• About public perception:

  "…People want to two dimensionalize people… Sometimes they forget that I went to Harvard or…authored a few books… They can get it wrong about me all day. I honestly don’t care. …What other people think of you is none of your business. So just go and enjoy your life."
  —Anthony Scaramucci (08:21)

• On mindset and wealth:

  "If you think you can or you can't, you're right. So stop that and change your mindset and start thinking you can do something. And then you will also be right."
  —Anthony Scaramucci quoting Henry Ford (10:00)

• Obama fundraiser story:

  "Senator Obama…we didn’t really know each other in law school, but I got a big check here and I want to be able to drop your name and tell all my friends… Are you okay with that? And he didn’t miss a beat. He looked at me, said, ‘If you double the amount of the check, we’ll take it right back to Hawaii.’ And he had that big smile… He won me over.”
  —Anthony Scaramucci (07:06)

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |---------------|------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:11 | Biggest gain (and loss) in a day | | 02:18 | What does Scaramucci do? Introduction | | 03:01 | Starting SkyBridge and the importance of timing | | 03:35 | Professional rock bottom during financial crisis | | 03:51 | Best business decision | | 04:37 | Biggest money-losing mistake (passing on Uber investment) | | 04:49 | Getting fired, including the White House | | 05:08 | Lessons on living below your means | | 05:37 | Belief in extraterrestrial life | | 06:05 | Mindset and adapting in business | | 06:43 | Barack Obama anecdote and political reflections | | 08:21 | Stereotypes and what people get wrong about Scaramucci | | 09:40 | Reflection on being "born rich" | | 10:00 | Advice on mindset to wealth | | 10:22 | Luckiest thing: meeting his wife | | 10:35 | Dream of seeing baseball in every MLB park |

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Tone & Takeaways

Scaramucci comes across as affable, candid, and quick-witted—unafraid to celebrate wins, own mistakes, or take jabs at himself. His advice centers around resilience, mindset, and adaptability. The episode is engaging, peppered with humor and real talk, perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs, investors, or anyone looking for an authentic perspective on success, failure, and bouncing back.

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Recommended for:
Listeners interested in business, investing, political stories, and the irrepressible personality of Anthony Scaramucci. Even if you’ve never tuned in before, this episode delivers a dense package of advice and entertainment in under 11 minutes.

Transcript

[A]

What's up guys? JD Here. Happy New Year. Can I still say that on January 13th? Yeah, I think I'm. Think I'm in the limit. Really cool episode coming up for you today. It's a rapid fire conversation with Anthony Scaramucci. So I've had Scaramucci on the podcast a couple times before. It's actually the most viewed video on my YouTube channel. Our conversation from 2024 where Anthony hijacks the mic and spends the the whole time talking about Donald Trump, which was not the plan at all. But I have to admit, it was a very fun conversation. I enjoyed it a lot. A lot of you guys did too, and a lot of you hated it. And that's okay. So I talked to Scaramucci a few weeks ago and he was super pressed for time. He was about to hop on and do a hit on CNN. So I said, Anthony, just gimme 10 minutes. I'm gonna ask you a ton of questions and just keep your answers to like 10 or 15 seconds and we'll cover a lot of ground. And that's what we did. We talk money, aliens, failures. There's a crazy Barack Obama story in there. This dude's got range. And my favorite things to talk about are business, politics and media. So yeah, I love talking to the mooch. He's got it all. That conversation's coming up in a second. One more thing. My big goal for 2026, I'll say it now, it's YouTube. I want to help as many business builders as I can to win and succeed. And as I always say, business builders make the world go round. And YouTube is the place to be. My amazing team has done so well on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, podcasts, shout out to Team JD and YouTube is our next frontier. So please head over to JohnDavids.com YouTube, get to my channel and hit subscribe. I don't care if you ever come back to watch a video, even though you definitely should, but just go there and hit subscribe. That's all I ask. And now let's get to the show. You're listening to Making it with John Davids. What's the most money you ever made in a day? Made a million.

[B]

But I've also lost a million. So yeah, it's the. It's great on the way up, it's really terrible on the way down.

[A]

And what do you do?

[B]

So I'm the managing partner of a firm called Skybridge Capital, a multi billion dollar asset manager for the last 20 plus years.

[A]

This is Anthony Scaramucci. You might know him as the founder of SkyBridge Capital, or the host of the Rest Is Politics podcast, or the political guy or the bitcoin guy. The mooch does it all and he makes it look fun. Anthony joins me today to talk investing, blockchain, podcasting, business growth, and how he's learned to take these public beatings and just keep coming out on top. Here we go. And how did you get into that?

[B]

Right out of college, I went to law school at Harvard. Out of Harvard, I went to Goldman Sachs, and then I left after seven years to build a money management business.

[A]

And what was the first year of Skybridge like?

[B]

Well, the first year of skybridge was pretty good because we were in a bull market. Don't confuse brains with a bull market. Remember, timing is everything. If I had started SkyBridge in 2008 during the global financial crisis, it probably wouldn't exist.

[A]

Does skybridge have a lot of competitors today?

[B]

Yeah, money management. We have a ton of competitors, but, you know, I think the real smart money managers only compete with themselves.

[A]

So how do you stand out in a crowded market of Wall street geniuses?

[B]

With my looks and my charm.

[A]

That's a good answer. What was your professional rock bottom?

[B]

I would say the global financial crisis. I was really getting killed. We were down about 40% at the bottom, and I felt like we were going to go out of business. So a lot of things had to break our way, which they did, thankfully, to keep us in business.

[A]

What's the best decision you ever made professionally?

[B]

Buying the Citibank alternative asset management business from Citibank during that crisis way back in 2010.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by my Playbook social media selling machine, available right [e-mail] playbook. Let's be real. You don't want likes. You want sales. You want to know that customers are going to show up every day from the content you're already posting. This Playbook shows you how that's done, how to turn social posts into cash flow, and how to scale in a way that's simple, repeatable, and on brand. Grab it free right now at johndavids.com playbook. That's johndavids.combookbook. what mistake has cost you the most money?

[B]

I said no to Uber, and so they came in to see me at a $50 million valuation. I could have made several hundred million dollars in that. I didn't understand it, so I said no to it.

[A]

Have you ever been fired?

[B]

I've been fired twice. Once publicly. I Got fired from my first job at Goldman Sachs. Subsequently rehired into Goldman a few months later, but been fired twice. The high profile one is the one that everybody remembers. I got fired from the White House.

[A]

Have you ever regretted firing somebody?

[B]

No.

[A]

Have you ever had trouble paying the bills?

[B]

No, thank God. But you know what? I'm a hustler. I've been working since I was 11 years old. I had a paper route, no trouble paying the bills. But I always lived below my means. I think it's a very big lesson. I guess growing up in the middle class, my parents really imbued that in me. You know, we don't live among our means. You know, there's a great line the Italians always say to each other, if you can't afford the price of the ticket, don't go to the movies. So I like to live below my means.

[A]

What's something you believe today that seemed crazy 10 years ago?

[B]

We're not alone.

[A]

Oh, what do you mean by that?

[B]

I don't think we're alone. I think there's more than ample evidence that we've got, you know, we've got unidentified objects that are moving faster than our technology has the current capability of. And I think that would have been a ridiculous comment to make 10 years ago. I think it's less ridiculous today.

[A]

Have you ever lost sleep thinking about your business?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And what gives you the faith to keep going?

[B]

General simple mindedness. You know, I believe that you got to get up in the morning and you got to believe that you're going to make it. And so also, I think if you have that mindset, you're. The human mind is a wonderfully adaptive mechanism. It's sort of like a Swiss army knife.

[A]

You'll.

[B]

You'll pull the right tools out at the right time, but you got to have that mindset.

[A]

Hey, guys, real quick. If you're liking this video so far, let me know by leaving a like or a comment. You can also share it with a friend. And don't forget to smash that subscribe button. Plus, if you're building a business or hope to one day grab one of my free playbooks, just head over to JohnDavids.com playbook back to it. What's Barack Obama like?

[B]

You know, I think he's a likable guy. I think he probably missed the mark politically in terms of where the country needed to go during his presidency. And so I think he's been relegated as a result of the Trump decade. But I like Barack Obama. I think he did a Generally good job as president.

[A]

I know you have a story about Obama. I'll double the donation if you say you went to high school or something like that.

[B]

Well, I mean, I'll tell the story. You know, I went to. I went to law school with Barack Obama. I didn't really know him that well. One of my best friends was actually very close to Barack Obama. He was a couple of years behind me in law school. So I went to a June 2007 fundraiser. It was at the University Club in New York City. I was asked to bring a big check. We had a small reception for him before he went out to speak to the general crowd. And I said, senator. He was senator at the time, so I'll use Senator. I said, senator Obama. We didn't really know each other in law school, but I got a big check here and I want to be able to drop your name and tell all my friends that I knew you in law school. Are you okay with that? And he didn't miss a beat. He looked at me, said, you know, hey, if you double the amount of the check, we'll take it right back to Hawaii. And he had that big smile. I think one of his elements of political success is his smile. He has probably the best smile in American politics since Jack Kennedy. And, you know, he won me over. I ripped up the check. I wrote him a double the amount of the check. And I will say this. I've been to more Barack Obama Christmas parties at the White House than Donald Trump Christmas parties.

[A]

Do you still get invited to any Donald Trump parties?

[B]

No.

[A]

What do most people get wrong about you?

[B]

I think when you go into politics, there's a superficiality of attack. People want to two dimensionalize people. And, you know, I think I was called the Jersey Shore cast member Tony Soprano on the Potomac. You get all of this sort of stereotyping. And I think, I think sometimes people will stereotype people. They forget that I went to Harvard or I built some successful businesses or authored a few books. And it's podcasts like yours that helped me create more dimension to my personality and more intellectual depth to my personality. But, you know, the truth of the matter is they can get it wrong about me all day. I honestly don't care. I think that's the. I think that's the big lesson. What other people think of you is none of your business. So just go and enjoy your life.

[A]

Quick break. So I can tell you about Influicity. That's the little marketing agency I started in my apartment about 10 years ago. Well, fast forward it is not so little anymore. Influicity works with some of the biggest brands in the world, building customer communities that drive revenue. We do this through influencers, podcasts, paid media, social media, content, AI and so much more. You can learn [e-mail] and hey, while you're there, check out our case studies. We have a lot of them. That's influicity.com Were you born rich?

[B]

Yes, I was born rich. I just wasn't born monetarily rich. But I've been blessed with a good family and a decent iq. I was born rich not the way you think of rich, but the way I think of it.

[A]

So a lot of people watching feel like they can't make money because they weren't born into money. Or what do you say to those people? Well, you're probably right.

[B]

Okay, so that's your mindset. So change your mindset. You know, remember Henry Ford had the best line ever. If you think you can or you can't, you're right. So if you're sitting there saying you can't do something, guess what? You're right. So stop that and change your mindset and start thinking you can do something. And then you will also be right.

[A]

What's the luckiest thing that's ever happened to you?

[B]

Meeting my wife, my wife Deirdre has been a real source of inspiration and help to me. I think it was super valuable, super lucky.

[A]

If you quit your job today, what's the first thing you do tomorrow morning?

[B]

Probably go to a baseball game. If it's the summer, we're going to a baseball game. I want to go at some point to 90 baseball games in a summer. I want to go three. You know how they have these three game series? I want to go to 30 different ballparks and see a three game series in every park.

[A]

All done. If you like that, show me some love in the comments section, smash that subscribe button and stick around because you're gonna love this next video. This episode is brought to you by my Playbook website selling machine. Available right [e-mail] Playbook Most companies want websites that look nice. But a lot of nice looking websites don't sell. What you really want is a website that grabs attention, builds trust and turns visitors into buyers while you sleep. That's what this Playbook gives you. Based on 10 years of work we've done at Influicity, optimizing websites for 7, 8 and 9 figure brands. Download the Playbook now at johndavids.com playbook that's johndavids.com Playbook.