Speaker 1: You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. With everything I do, the product is always
Speaker 1: the best it can be and if it's not, I
Speaker 1: won't do it or put my name on it. And
Speaker 1: no matter where we are, whether Whai, Bahamas Barbuddha, Portugal
Speaker 1: or Nashville, we've strived to be the best community in
Speaker 1: that area. Hi. I'm Bob Pittman, and welcome to Math
Speaker 1: and Magic Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing. On this episode,
Speaker 1: we have someone who practices magic. He creates whole communities
Speaker 1: and populates them with exactly the right people for each location.
Speaker 1: He's also used that magic to create one of the
Speaker 1: most successful tequila's ever. He's Mike Melban, the chairman, founder
Speaker 1: of Discovery Land Company and co founder of Casa Amigos Tequila.
Speaker 1: Mike was born in Milwaukee, moved to Arizona in the
Speaker 1: seventh aid, and set the world on fire as a kid.
Speaker 1: Straight a student who was active and successful in the
Speaker 1: top extra curriculars. He went on to Stanford and after college,
Speaker 1: started as a blackjack dealer in Lake Tahoe and then
Speaker 1: began a forty year career in real estate and development.
Speaker 1: He has created over thirty Discovery Land communities, and they
Speaker 1: have all been creative breakthroughs and set a new gold standard.
Speaker 1: His tequila, which he launched the George Clooney and Randy Gerber,
Speaker 1: was an instant success and continues its meteoric growth. He's
Speaker 1: made a few movie and TV cameos and even has
Speaker 1: a dish named after him at the Weymous Craig's in
Speaker 1: l A. But most important, he's a good guy who
Speaker 1: everyone loves and respects. Mike. Welcome, Thanks, Bob. I appreciate that, Mike.
Speaker 1: We've got lots to dig into today, but I want
Speaker 1: to start with a warm up. You in sixty seconds already.
Speaker 1: Do you prefer golf or football? Playing golf and watching football,
Speaker 1: comedy or drama? Comedy on the rocks or straight up
Speaker 1: on the rocks? Early riser or night owl? Both introvert
Speaker 1: or extrovert. A lot of people think introvert, but mostly extrovert.
Speaker 1: Arizona or California, California, Crypto or dollars dollars Tequila or
Speaker 1: Mescal tequila. Casa Amigoes or Casa Dragon. I love them both,
Speaker 1: but I have to say Casa Honey, truffle or barbecue
Speaker 1: honey truffle with real truffle text or call Okay, it's
Speaker 1: gonna get a little harder here. Childhood hero, my grandfather.
Speaker 1: Smartest person you know, Bill Campbell. Favorite Discovery Land Community,
Speaker 1: El Dorado. First job courtesy clerk at Lucky Stores. Secret talent,
Speaker 1: it's a secret. That's good enough. Favorite movie, pulp fiction.
Speaker 1: If you could have just one superpower, what would it be? Teleporting?
Speaker 1: Let's get started. You found the Discovery Land Company in
Speaker 1: n and your website defines the company as a US
Speaker 1: based real estate developer and operator of private residential communities
Speaker 1: and resorts with a world renowned portfolio of domestic and
Speaker 1: international properties. Your communities include Baker's Bay and the Bahamas,
Speaker 1: The Summit in Las Vegas, Iron Horse and Yellowstone Club
Speaker 1: in Montana, Eldorado and Las Cabos, Mexico, North Shore Preserve
Speaker 1: in Hawaii, and obviously lots of others. These are all
Speaker 1: characterized by the A crowd residents and those are creatives,
Speaker 1: business types, tech, remarkable, blend the people in a sort
Speaker 1: of remarkably casual yet well designed surroundings. And you have
Speaker 1: service that puts most upscale hotels and resorts to shame.
Speaker 1: How do you describe that vision that brought you here
Speaker 1: and how did you develop that idea? The vision came
Speaker 1: and I bought my first project in Arizona, and I
Speaker 1: wasn't a golfer. I never played golf, and I was
Speaker 1: never a member of a country club. So my first
Speaker 1: project I did was Astonsia in Scottsdale, and the whole
Speaker 1: project time, it just came about a little more organically
Speaker 1: because I did it on the way I wanted to live,
Speaker 1: and at the time I was really young, maybe thirty
Speaker 1: four thirty five years old. The communities are very casual
Speaker 1: because when I started them, I didn't grow up with
Speaker 1: a golf background in a country club background, so I
Speaker 1: didn't understand the formalities of it, like how to dress
Speaker 1: and how to act, and so I would bring my
Speaker 1: kids their thirty four and thirty two now, but when
Speaker 1: they were five and seven, I wanted them to learn
Speaker 1: how to golf, so they would golf as an adult
Speaker 1: because I didn't know how to golf. And I remember
Speaker 1: taking them to Astancia and said, hey, you guys got
Speaker 1: to put on a colored shirt, and they said, I
Speaker 1: don't want to put on a colored shirt. And I
Speaker 1: said we'll put it on, and they said no, and
Speaker 1: so my attitude does well, I'm here to have fun
Speaker 1: with them, not to fight with them. So I said, okay,
Speaker 1: don't wear one. What do I care? And so we
Speaker 1: went out in shorts and a T shirt. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of how the casualness of our places came about.
Speaker 1: And then it turned to kind of be disruptive to
Speaker 1: the to the golf industry because I also would blast
Speaker 1: rock and roll on the driving range, because again i'd
Speaker 1: be on the drive range. I don't really like golf
Speaker 1: that I like rock and roll, so I'd listened to that.
Speaker 1: We have comfort stations on the golf course, which are
Speaker 1: little many restaurants and bars. So when you go into those,
Speaker 1: you get a margarita and ice cream, pizza, burgers, basically
Speaker 1: whatever you want. And those started when my kids were young. Again,
Speaker 1: they didn't want to golf, and I was trying to
Speaker 1: make them golf and learn how to golf. And so
Speaker 1: it virtually started by me pretty a cooler on a
Speaker 1: tea box of cokes and candy bars, and my kids
Speaker 1: would just run to the tea box, drink a coke,
Speaker 1: eat a candy bar, try to hit a ball and
Speaker 1: run down the fairway to the next tea box to
Speaker 1: get another coke and candy bar. Now trying not the
Speaker 1: best paranting idea, but it was a good golf idea.
Speaker 1: And those coolers have turned into those comfort stations, and
Speaker 1: so the whole relaxed atmosphere on the golf course I
Speaker 1: think has been revolutionary for golf. And I think it
Speaker 1: actually is important to help grow the game of golf,
Speaker 1: because golf courses can be intimidating if you don't know
Speaker 1: the rules. So I tried to take that out of it.
Speaker 1: And then I think our service level is so much
Speaker 1: better than most places. Everybody knows each other, the level
Speaker 1: of service becomes more intimate, so I think the members
Speaker 1: and the community feel more vested in it. People are
Speaker 1: very happy to be there, appreciative to be there, and
Speaker 1: respectful not only one another but the staff. So when
Speaker 1: you first started this, did you get pushed back from
Speaker 1: people though of going to that limit or did everybody
Speaker 1: sort of embrace it and get it? Intuitively? I think
Speaker 1: everyone got it. But as the company grew and we grew,
Speaker 1: kind of the legend of the conversation grew, and so
Speaker 1: every new project and everyone who works for me and
Speaker 1: is on the project. They want to make the next
Speaker 1: one better, better and better, and so fortunately I've been
Speaker 1: doing this along that we keep improving on the product.
Speaker 1: So it's almost become competitive amongst the general managers of
Speaker 1: different projects to make sure they have the best food,
Speaker 1: the best ideas, and they push it to the best
Speaker 1: and so's it's rather competitive and things get better for
Speaker 1: the members. Let's talk about food for a minute, because
Speaker 1: we're talking about comfort food, and yet at every one
Speaker 1: of your communities you've also got some spectacular, high end food.
Speaker 1: How do you think about food and what world it plays?
Speaker 1: And then also talk a little bit about design, because
Speaker 1: you also have a remarkably cohesive design for communities where
Speaker 1: people build their own homes. One of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I've been so successful is that the whole community is
Speaker 1: integrated together with every aspect of it. We're very active,
Speaker 1: obviously on the design side, because one of our main
Speaker 1: killers is to embrace the local culture and environment. Everything
Speaker 1: we do, we're trying to be authentic to the place
Speaker 1: we're at, and so sometimes it might be my version
Speaker 1: of authenticity for the place, like at Tokio in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: I wanted romantic Hawaii. So I remember the architects bringing
Speaker 1: me all this stuff. Well, this is romantic and it
Speaker 1: was all like temptation style type of housing because that's
Speaker 1: what the king lived in and you know, so that
Speaker 1: was their interpretation of luxury and romance. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: my romantic vision of Hawaii is kinda village, because kind
Speaker 1: of village was like huts with that roots. It came
Speaker 1: out beautifully authentic and where one of one. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of let's say, hotel companies where you can
Speaker 1: build a hotel in Maui and it's basically the same
Speaker 1: hotel they build in Cleveland, and that seems just too easy.
Speaker 1: So we literally customized every building, every project, you know,
Speaker 1: for the environment and culture that it's in. On the
Speaker 1: food front, food has become a huge part of our communities.
Speaker 1: We have gardens and farms and even zoos at all
Speaker 1: our projects in order to get fresh vegetables and organic
Speaker 1: produce because like Bahamas, you know, you buy your food
Speaker 1: Francisco or one of the food purveyors and we we go, okay,
Speaker 1: let's get organic lettuce. Well, by the time it shows
Speaker 1: up at Baker's Bay, it's soggy, and bron So we
Speaker 1: had to grow all our own food in order to
Speaker 1: provide the quality that we want and that the members want.
Speaker 1: So all that stuff evolves as we go. Today's foods
Speaker 1: a big deal, organics a big deal. People want to
Speaker 1: live a healthier lifestyle, so it's really become a focus
Speaker 1: for all discovery. You don't sell land and build infrastructure,
Speaker 1: You curate and build communities. What is the key to
Speaker 1: building a community? That's not an easy task? How do
Speaker 1: you make that happen? I always tell my sales guys
Speaker 1: and all our people, you gotta get the first buyer.
Speaker 1: So it's really important to establish that first person with
Speaker 1: our vision of how we see the community building out
Speaker 1: and becoming, and and as people come in, it obviously
Speaker 1: changes a little bit of personality because in these communities
Speaker 1: they come from all lots of life. And so when
Speaker 1: you're at Yellowstone or McKenna or Baker's Bay, wherever you are,
Speaker 1: there's always interesting conversations. It's always easy to make and
Speaker 1: new friends. If you buy in one of our communities,
Speaker 1: you make new friends. So your communities basically allow people
Speaker 1: to disconnect from the world. How do you think about
Speaker 1: online offline and the role of your community plays and
Speaker 1: people disconnecting, and also how does it relate to the
Speaker 1: electronic world. I think you know since COVID and with COVID,
Speaker 1: it gave people a comfort level being out of the
Speaker 1: city that they live. They want to be in a
Speaker 1: secure community where they know their neighbors. And you could
Speaker 1: really work from anywhere now, and the technology is amazing,
Speaker 1: Like Zoom has been an amazing feature for me because
Speaker 1: I'm in these great resource communities all the time around
Speaker 1: the world. But as long as you have that, I
Speaker 1: could have real time conversations and do productive business with
Speaker 1: people all over the world. So I think the change
Speaker 1: with COVID of not necessarily being in an office but
Speaker 1: still being able to be productive and communicating has been
Speaker 1: beneficial to all our places because once people started moving
Speaker 1: around the COVID, almost every available house we had in
Speaker 1: any community sold. So you make it sound so logical
Speaker 1: and so simple, yet you really do stand alone. Why
Speaker 1: haven't others been able to replicate what you do? What
Speaker 1: are they missing? It's just hard. It takes a lot
Speaker 1: of money to do these deals. We have the rolodecks
Speaker 1: and membership roster, so if we start a deal, we
Speaker 1: could have twenty two thirty people in it before we
Speaker 1: even start, and that really de risks a project. So
Speaker 1: if you don't have the rolodex and you don't have
Speaker 1: to know how in the brand to have people have
Speaker 1: confidence in you to buy before there's anything there, it's impossible,
Speaker 1: you know. I looked back at how I started and like,
Speaker 1: Tokio to Kio is my number one project because it
Speaker 1: helped make me become the person I am professionally, and
Speaker 1: we have some of the toughest buyers ever. And you know,
Speaker 1: these guys would come and basically interviewed me, and I
Speaker 1: explained the vision and they go, okay, great, And I
Speaker 1: look back, I go, okay great. I obviously believe that
Speaker 1: I was going to do it and accomplish it, but
Speaker 1: for them too, was a pretty big leap of faith.
Speaker 1: And now fortunately all those people who did all these
Speaker 1: projects are happy because they've all exceeded everyone's expectations on
Speaker 1: what they thought it was going to be, and prices
Speaker 1: have gone up so much that everyone is obviously so happy,
Speaker 1: not only for um, the money side of it, but
Speaker 1: also the social side of it. So it's really helped
Speaker 1: people's lights and people who have everything kind of the
Speaker 1: only thing that can't really give to themselves is the
Speaker 1: community we provide. And so I get a lot of
Speaker 1: thank you Mr Melville's for helping me and helping my family,
Speaker 1: bringing us together and giving us a place where we're
Speaker 1: comfortable and relax and can hang out. And so you know,
Speaker 1: that's been a really fun and rewarding part of the
Speaker 1: business moral Math and Magic. Right after this quick break,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Math and Magic. Let's hear more from
Speaker 1: my conversation with Mike Meldman. Let's go back in time.
Speaker 1: You were born in the late fifties, grew up in
Speaker 1: the sixties and seventies in Milwaukee and Arizona. Can you
Speaker 1: paint the picture of your family those places and that
Speaker 1: line what shaped you? Growing up Milwaukee. I had close
Speaker 1: friends who are still literally my friends today. I had
Speaker 1: a great family life, and my dad was basically there
Speaker 1: when I went to school, when I got back from school,
Speaker 1: he coached me in Little league and football, if we
Speaker 1: watched packer games together. My mom was always there. She
Speaker 1: was a housewife and mother. And my sisters are all
Speaker 1: about the year and a half from each other, so
Speaker 1: we're all close and all our cousins were all the
Speaker 1: same age and every Sunday would go to Grandma and
Speaker 1: Grandpa's house. We're very middle class, happy, had a great
Speaker 1: life and childhood. And I moved to Arizona when I
Speaker 1: was in seventh grade. And when my dad said were moving,
Speaker 1: I didn't really think twice about I go great warm
Speaker 1: weather as a huge sports fan, so you know, sted
Speaker 1: becoming a son's fan and a su fan. And I
Speaker 1: had a lot of friends and had a great time
Speaker 1: in Arizona. And part of what inspired me to do
Speaker 1: the different things in our projects, like when my early
Speaker 1: projects was in Whitefish, Montana called Iron Horse, and so
Speaker 1: up in Whitefish there's a lake, so you could water
Speaker 1: ski and wakeboard and go whitewater rafting, you know, fly fishing.
Speaker 1: My kids, again, we're young, so I wanted them to
Speaker 1: be able to do all these things because as a kid,
Speaker 1: I never did any of those cool things. So they
Speaker 1: were searching and paddle boarding and outward your canoeing and
Speaker 1: free diving and scuba diving and snorkeling and doing all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And so it inspired me to do things
Speaker 1: that I didn't do as a kid, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to provide it for my kids, and then it became
Speaker 1: a big part of all these clubs, and so I
Speaker 1: think that's another thing that we stand out. You know,
Speaker 1: we really have activities and activations for the families. You
Speaker 1: were a straight a student, a jock, you worked in
Speaker 1: a supermar market, you ran the school's Key Club, and
Speaker 1: we're elected governor the Key Club for a three state region.
Speaker 1: You were selected to attend Boise State, which back in
Speaker 1: those days was a really big deal, hugely prestigious educational
Speaker 1: program of government instruction for high school students, and you
Speaker 1: were elected governor there too, and then you even got
Speaker 1: invited to Boys Nation Washington, d C. What does all
Speaker 1: this tell us about you? Well, yeah, Boys State, they're
Speaker 1: both very prestigious. But once I got elected Key Club
Speaker 1: governor is a pretty big deal because Key Club is
Speaker 1: a service organization. There was a good cause. We did
Speaker 1: a lot of cool things, like they remember coaching special Olympics,
Speaker 1: So you did cool stuff like that meant a lot
Speaker 1: of people. So when I got to Boys State, and
Speaker 1: Boys State is kind of meant to be the best
Speaker 1: of the best. You create these mock governments and I
Speaker 1: was one party in the other candidate who is running
Speaker 1: for governor. Was my roommate and my best friend from
Speaker 1: my high school. And usually you win by four or
Speaker 1: five votes, but I won by like eighty votes. But
Speaker 1: the good news is he was able as losing Canada
Speaker 1: for governor. He went to Boys Nation with me. So
Speaker 1: we had a blast. Is the bi centennial year, and
Speaker 1: so instead of a week in Washington, d C. It
Speaker 1: was three weeks and did a mock government. We turned
Speaker 1: all through d C. Met our congressman, met the president
Speaker 1: was President Ford at the time, met senators. It was
Speaker 1: a pretty cool experience the lasted three weeks. What lessons
Speaker 1: did you learn from your childhood that you still used
Speaker 1: today and anything in this that you pass along to
Speaker 1: your kids as these discovered truths. I had a very
Speaker 1: loving family. My dad and my grandfather are probably the
Speaker 1: biggest inspiration in my life, just how much time they
Speaker 1: spent with us, how loving they were. I grew up
Speaker 1: being nice to keepo because I was taught that integrity
Speaker 1: and character was always instilled to me by my dad
Speaker 1: and my grandfather. They're great examples because everyone liked them.
Speaker 1: The kids that want to come hang at our house
Speaker 1: because my parents were nice, and you know, my dad was,
Speaker 1: like I said, our litterally coach, and every person on
Speaker 1: our team, you know, loved and respected him because he
Speaker 1: was just such a good guy and actually coached us
Speaker 1: and like the kids who weren't very good, he would
Speaker 1: prop them up and make him feel good. And it
Speaker 1: taught me to protect someone who didn't have the strengths
Speaker 1: you have. And so my kids, you know, they grew
Speaker 1: up in a different environment with different resources that I
Speaker 1: grew up, and they are literally the most unentitled, humble
Speaker 1: people you know you'll ever meet. And I give obviously
Speaker 1: credit to me and their mother, but I really give
Speaker 1: the credit to my dad and my grandfather because they
Speaker 1: really and still this genuine quality two people. And maybe
Speaker 1: it's a Midwest thing, but it worked. I think it's
Speaker 1: made me the man I am today. After college, you
Speaker 1: think about law school, but you don't go. Instead, this
Speaker 1: recent Stanford grad becomes a blackjack dealer. Then you get
Speaker 1: into commercial real estate Fremont, California. You realize maybe you
Speaker 1: found your calling and you decide to go be your
Speaker 1: own developer. And your first project, I understand, was a
Speaker 1: three acre site in Portola Valley, California. And I've seen
Speaker 1: you quoted as talking about what you learned from that
Speaker 1: first one. Can you give us some of those stories? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to tell how up black Jack? And the
Speaker 1: reason I think the law school is because I bombed
Speaker 1: the l SAX might have got my name right, I
Speaker 1: don't think I got any other question right. So I
Speaker 1: went with a couple of buddies to Tahoe help black Jacket.
Speaker 1: Harris got into real estate as a broker, did really well.
Speaker 1: Decided to start buying land and entitling it on my
Speaker 1: own because what I didn't like about being a broker
Speaker 1: you didn't really have control over anything. So I went
Speaker 1: out and me and a buddy, but the three under
Speaker 1: acres in Patrol Valley. I didn't obviously have the money
Speaker 1: to buy it, but I raised it through friends. It
Speaker 1: was through undered acres, It was zoned for thirty two homes,
Speaker 1: and so I go, okay, this is easy. Was just
Speaker 1: submit a you know, a map and sell them and
Speaker 1: make a bunch of money and I'll be rich. So
Speaker 1: what happened is the land was located in Patrol Valley,
Speaker 1: which is a basically suburb of Palo Alto right outside
Speaker 1: of Stanford, and so every environmental constraint. You could think
Speaker 1: of this property had Sandre's fault ran right through it.
Speaker 1: They had kind of a big hillside which had all
Speaker 1: these land slides. There is a wildlife quarter, there is
Speaker 1: biological issues. And so I had to learn how to
Speaker 1: develop through the environment, which today is the way to go.
Speaker 1: But back then it was hard, it was difficult, It
Speaker 1: was it was frustrating. It taught me how to develop
Speaker 1: properly because most developers by land mass, grade and throw
Speaker 1: up as many houses as they can. But this experience
Speaker 1: taught me was that, okay, well you build the roads
Speaker 1: along the natural contours of the land. You keep as
Speaker 1: much vegetation as you can. You don't clear cut, you
Speaker 1: don't cut down trees. You put houses, you know, on
Speaker 1: the geologic solid part of it, where landslides aren't gonna
Speaker 1: slide down and hit, because they could actually map the
Speaker 1: landslides and how far they're going to move in things
Speaker 1: like that. So I learned how to develop through the environment.
Speaker 1: And intellectually it made sense to me too, because as
Speaker 1: you develop, if you build the roads on the contour
Speaker 1: and if you don't cut down trees, you say so
Speaker 1: much money because in residential development, all the money is
Speaker 1: really spent in mass grading and read vegging and buying landscaping.
Speaker 1: So if you don't mass grade, you don't grade anything,
Speaker 1: and you don't really cut down trees except for what
Speaker 1: maybe in the roadways, and you move them, you save money.
Speaker 1: So it made in leftial sense to me that this
Speaker 1: is the right way to develop. Anyway, let's jump over
Speaker 1: to one of your other huge successes, Casa Amigos tequila.
Speaker 1: As a co founder of Cassa Dragons, I do have
Speaker 1: a special appreciation of what you, George and Randy built.
Speaker 1: It was an instant success. You had a meteoric growth
Speaker 1: still continues, and certainly the billion dollar price tag proved
Speaker 1: how successful it was or opened a lot of people's
Speaker 1: eyes about tequila. Where did the idea come from and
Speaker 1: what was the biggest surprise in building that company. So George,
Speaker 1: rand and I are all obviously friends that have been
Speaker 1: friends for a long time. We drank a lot of tequila.
Speaker 1: We didn't necessarily like any tequila the best, so we
Speaker 1: came up with the idea to do our own. We
Speaker 1: probably did eight hundred samples. I think we got it
Speaker 1: to where we all thought it was perfect. So initially
Speaker 1: We did it just for ourselves. And I always said,
Speaker 1: you know, between all my clubs and between Randy's bars
Speaker 1: he had bars at the time, which you obviously had
Speaker 1: the self for the tequila and everything George would drink,
Speaker 1: we could become a successful company. And so we went
Speaker 1: to Southern Mining Spirits. They tested it and they liked it,
Speaker 1: and so I remember them telling us, well, do you
Speaker 1: guys have a blanco? And I remember saying, no, we
Speaker 1: don't have blanco. We drank reposado. May know we should
Speaker 1: have a blanco. I know why, and they, well, eighty
Speaker 1: five percent of the tequila marguts blanco. I know, well,
Speaker 1: let's still blanco. And so we did a blanco. We
Speaker 1: launched and they said, if you could sell ten thousand
Speaker 1: cases your first year, it will be a huge success.
Speaker 1: And so George, Randy and I we produced a ten
Speaker 1: thousand cases. We went on a road show to Vegas, Miami,
Speaker 1: and Dallas and we sold about ten thousand cases and
Speaker 1: it just literally took off from there. We knew we
Speaker 1: had something because we're serving it to all our friends.
Speaker 1: Everyone loved it. So when we sold the company to
Speaker 1: di Agio, we're doing a hundred sixty seven thousand cases
Speaker 1: a year. We are now doing over three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: cases a month and we just finished our last Cisco
Speaker 1: year and we're at two point seven million cases and
Speaker 1: I think next year will be closer to four money.
Speaker 1: So we still run it. We're a Holy owned subsidiative Gaga,
Speaker 1: and I think we're the third largest spare brand in
Speaker 1: the world right now. It is such an amazing success story,
Speaker 1: and I think for you, especially, having this sort of
Speaker 1: second entrepreneurial success must tell you something about yourself and
Speaker 1: certainly put you in a category of very few. With
Speaker 1: Discovery Land Company and Cossa Amigos, you have proven your
Speaker 1: master with the high end consumer. Auto company, software, travel, telecommunications,
Speaker 1: retail all want that customer, but few have succeeded like
Speaker 1: you have. What are they missing? I think it's really
Speaker 1: the brand, right, the power of the brand that I
Speaker 1: created because people trust me. People made money in almost
Speaker 1: every lot we ever sold. We execute were firstly integrated,
Speaker 1: so we design everything, we operate everything, we build everything,
Speaker 1: so we actually really know what's going on. And I
Speaker 1: think with Cosmigos, the products was just good. Right If
Speaker 1: the product was bad, no matter who is behind it,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't work. And so I think with everything I do,
Speaker 1: the product is always the best it can be, and
Speaker 1: if it's not, I won't do it or put my
Speaker 1: name on it. And no matter where we are, whether
Speaker 1: we're why Bahamas, bar Buddha, Portugal, or Nashville, wherever we are,
Speaker 1: we strive to be the best community in that area.
Speaker 1: You have to have a good product. If you could
Speaker 1: go back in time and give your twenty one year
Speaker 1: old self some advice, what would that advice be. The
Speaker 1: only advice I'd probably give myself is just be patient
Speaker 1: because people always ask me like, hey, did you know
Speaker 1: this is going to be so good? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean somebody had to write. There's always someone driving
Speaker 1: and striving to make these places great, and Discovery just
Speaker 1: happens to be me because it was my brain child.
Speaker 1: And so the nice thing is even forty thirty years later,
Speaker 1: you know I still have that same drive. I've learned
Speaker 1: a lot, so I think every project we get better,
Speaker 1: better and better, and I still strive to create the
Speaker 1: best product, to be the best at what we do.
Speaker 1: And I've really never lost that. But I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: so I always knew I would be successful, but I
Speaker 1: just didn't know what scale, or what magnitude or what
Speaker 1: impact it would make two people. And so in twenty one,
Speaker 1: you know, I probably just tell myself be patient. We
Speaker 1: end each episode of Math and Magic by saluting the
Speaker 1: best of those folks who have that special skill in
Speaker 1: business for the analytics and for those who have the
Speaker 1: special skill for the innovation, creative, the promotional, the magic
Speaker 1: of business. Who would you put on the pedestal best
Speaker 1: in math and the best in magic in the business
Speaker 1: or marketing world. I'd say math would be Steve Jobs
Speaker 1: and magic would be Phil Knight. Been fortunate to meet
Speaker 1: them both, and I think they both inspire many people
Speaker 1: the whole country, in the world. Well, Mike, you have
Speaker 1: inspired a lot of people. You build communities that bring
Speaker 1: people together, and in the process those communities have really
Speaker 1: defined you. You've really had a unique life, definitely one
Speaker 1: of a kind. Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences today.
Speaker 1: I appreciate, Bob, thanks for having me. Here are a
Speaker 1: few things I've picked up in my conversation with Mike.
Speaker 1: One changed the rules at Discovery Land. Mike has prioritized
Speaker 1: inclusivity with laid back luxury and no fuss golf courses.
Speaker 1: The ways he's broken tradition is the reason his properties
Speaker 1: stand out. To work with your environment. While developing his
Speaker 1: first Discovery Land property, Mike realized he needed to work with,
Speaker 1: not around, the key features of the environment, which should
Speaker 1: lie this lesson when making changes to the landscape of
Speaker 1: our industries, it's important to preserve what works. Three offer
Speaker 1: more than products and Discovery Land, Mike, it's not just
Speaker 1: providing four walls and a roof. He's providing community. That's
Speaker 1: something that can't be easily recreated by competitors. I'm Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. That's it for today's episode. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening to Math and Magic, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio Show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Susan Ward for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent,
Speaker 1: which is no small feel. Our editors are Derek Clements
Speaker 1: and Emily Marinot, our producer Morgan Levoy, our executive producer
Speaker 1: Nicky Eator, and of course Gayle Raoul, Eric Angel Noel
Speaker 1: and everyone who helped bring this show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Until next time, One