0:01

You're listening to Math and Magic, a production

0:04

of I Heart Radio. With

0:09

everything I do, the product

0:12

is always the best it can be and

0:14

if it's not, I won't do it or put

0:17

my name on it. And no

0:19

matter where we are, whether Whai,

0:21

Bahamas Barbuddha, Portugal

0:23

or Nashville, we've strived to be the

0:26

best community in that

0:28

area.

0:31

Hi. I'm Bob Pittman, and welcome to Math

0:33

and Magic Stories from the Frontiers and Marketing.

0:36

On this episode, we have someone who practices

0:39

magic. He creates whole communities

0:41

and populates them with exactly the right people

0:43

for each location. He's also used

0:46

that magic to create one of the most successful

0:48

tequila's ever. He's Mike Melban,

0:50

the chairman, founder of Discovery Land

0:53

Company and co founder of Casa

0:55

Amigos Tequila. Mike was born

0:57

in Milwaukee, moved to Arizona in the

0:59

seventh aid, and set the world on fire

1:01

as a kid. Straight a student who

1:04

was active and successful in the top

1:06

extra curriculars. He went on to Stanford

1:09

and after college, started as a blackjack

1:11

dealer in Lake Tahoe and then began

1:14

a forty year career in real estate and

1:16

development. He has created over thirty

1:18

Discovery Land communities, and they have all

1:20

been creative breakthroughs and set

1:23

a new gold standard. His tequila,

1:25

which he launched the George Clooney and Randy Gerber,

1:28

was an instant success and

1:30

continues its meteoric growth. He's

1:33

made a few movie and TV cameos and

1:35

even has a dish named after him at the Weymous

1:37

Craig's in l A. But most

1:39

important, he's a good guy who everyone

1:42

loves and respects. Mike. Welcome, Thanks,

1:44

Bob. I appreciate that, Mike. We've

1:46

got lots to dig into today, but I want

1:48

to start with a warm up. You in sixty

1:50

seconds already. Do you prefer

1:53

golf or football? Playing golf and

1:55

watching football, comedy or drama?

1:57

Comedy on the rocks or

2:00

straight up on the rocks? Early

2:02

riser or night owl? Both introvert

2:05

or extrovert. A lot of people think

2:08

introvert, but mostly extrovert. Arizona

2:10

or California, California, Crypto

2:13

or dollars dollars Tequila

2:16

or Mescal tequila. Casa

2:18

Amigoes or Casa Dragon. I

2:21

love them both, but I have to say Casa Honey,

2:24

truffle or barbecue honey truffle

2:26

with real truffle text or call Okay,

2:29

it's gonna get a little harder here. Childhood hero,

2:32

my grandfather. Smartest person

2:34

you know, Bill Campbell. Favorite

2:36

Discovery Land Community, El Dorado.

2:39

First job courtesy clerk

2:42

at Lucky Stores. Secret

2:44

talent, it's a secret. That's

2:47

good enough. Favorite movie, pulp

2:49

fiction. If you could

2:51

have just one superpower, what

2:54

would it be? Teleporting?

2:57

Let's get started. You found the Discovery

2:59

Land Company in n and

3:01

your website defines the company as a US

3:04

based real estate developer and operator

3:07

of private residential communities

3:09

and resorts with a world renowned

3:11

portfolio of domestic and international properties.

3:15

Your communities include Baker's Bay and the Bahamas,

3:17

The Summit in Las Vegas, Iron Horse

3:19

and Yellowstone Club in Montana, Eldorado

3:22

and Las Cabos, Mexico, North

3:24

Shore Preserve in Hawaii, and obviously lots

3:26

of others. These are all characterized

3:29

by the A crowd residents

3:31

and those are creatives, business types,

3:33

tech, remarkable, blend

3:35

the people in a sort of remarkably

3:38

casual yet well designed surroundings.

3:41

And you have service that puts

3:43

most upscale hotels and resorts

3:46

to shame. How do you describe

3:48

that vision that brought you

3:51

here and how did you develop

3:53

that idea? The vision came

3:56

and I bought my first project

3:58

in Arizona, and I wasn't

4:01

a golfer. I never played golf,

4:03

and I was never a member of a country club. So

4:06

my first project I did was Astonsia

4:09

in Scottsdale, and the whole

4:11

project time, it just came about a

4:14

little more organically because

4:16

I did it on the way I wanted to

4:18

live, and at the time I was really young, maybe

4:21

thirty four thirty five years old. The

4:23

communities are very casual

4:26

because when I

4:28

started them, I didn't grow up with a golf

4:31

background in a country club background, so I

4:33

didn't understand the formalities

4:35

of it, like how to dress and how

4:38

to act, and so I would

4:40

bring my kids their thirty four and thirty

4:42

two now, but when they were five and seven,

4:45

I wanted them to learn how to golf, so they would

4:47

golf as an adult because I didn't know how to golf.

4:50

And I remember taking them to Astancia

4:53

and said, hey, you guys got to put on a colored

4:55

shirt, and they said, I don't want to put

4:57

on a colored shirt. And I said we'll put it on, and

5:00

they said no, and so my attitude

5:02

does well, I'm here to have fun

5:04

with them, not to fight with them. So

5:06

I said, okay, don't wear one. What do I care?

5:09

And so we went out in shorts and a T shirt.

5:11

So that's kind of how the casualness of

5:14

our places came about.

5:16

And then it turned to kind of be

5:19

disruptive to the to the golf

5:22

industry because I also would blast

5:24

rock and roll on the driving range, because

5:26

again i'd be on the drive range. I don't really like golf

5:29

that I like rock and roll, so

5:31

I'd listened to that. We have comfort

5:34

stations on the golf

5:37

course, which are little many

5:39

restaurants and bars. So when you go

5:42

into those, you get a margarita

5:44

and ice cream, pizza,

5:47

burgers, basically whatever you want.

5:49

And those started when my

5:51

kids were young. Again, they didn't want to

5:53

golf, and I was trying to make them golf and

5:55

learn how to golf. And so it

5:58

virtually started by me pretty a cooler

6:01

on a tea box of cokes

6:03

and candy bars, and my kids

6:05

would just run to the tea box,

6:08

drink a coke, eat a candy bar, try

6:11

to hit a ball and run down the fairway

6:14

to the next tea box to get another coke and candy

6:16

bar. Now trying not the best

6:18

paranting idea, but it

6:20

was a good golf idea. And

6:23

those coolers have turned into those

6:25

comfort stations, and so the

6:28

whole relaxed atmosphere

6:31

on the golf course I think has been

6:34

revolutionary for golf. And I think

6:36

it actually is important to help

6:38

grow the game of golf, because golf

6:40

courses can be intimidating

6:43

if you don't know the rules. So

6:45

I tried to take that out of it.

6:48

And then I think our

6:51

service level is

6:53

so much better than most places.

6:56

Everybody knows each other, the level

6:58

of service becomes more intimate,

7:01

so I think the members

7:03

and the community feel more vested in it.

7:06

People are very happy to be there,

7:08

appreciative to be there, and respectful

7:10

not only one another but the staff.

7:13

So when you first started this, did you get

7:15

pushed back from people though of going to that

7:17

limit or did everybody sort of embrace

7:19

it and get it? Intuitively? I

7:22

think everyone got it. But as

7:25

the company grew and we grew,

7:28

kind of the legend of the conversation grew,

7:31

and so every new project and

7:33

everyone who works for me and is

7:35

on the project. They want to make

7:37

the next one better, better and

7:39

better, and so fortunately I've been doing this along

7:42

that we keep improving on the

7:44

product. So it's almost become

7:47

competitive amongst the general

7:49

managers of different projects

7:52

to make sure they have the best food,

7:54

the best ideas, and they push

7:56

it to the best and so's it's rather competitive

7:59

and things get better for

8:01

the members. Let's talk about food

8:03

for a minute, because we're talking about comfort food,

8:05

and yet at every one of your

8:07

communities you've also got some

8:10

spectacular, high end food. How

8:12

do you think about food and what world it plays?

8:14

And then also talk a little bit about design, because

8:17

you also have a remarkably cohesive

8:19

design for communities where people

8:22

build their own homes. One of the reasons

8:24

why I've been so successful is that

8:27

the whole community is integrated

8:30

together with every aspect of it. We're

8:32

very active, obviously on the design side,

8:34

because one of our main

8:37

killers is to

8:39

embrace the local culture

8:41

and environment. Everything we do, we're

8:43

trying to be authentic to the

8:46

place we're at, and so sometimes it might

8:48

be my version of authenticity

8:51

for the place, like at Tokio in Hawaii,

8:53

I wanted romantic Hawaii.

8:55

So I remember the architects bringing

8:57

me all this stuff. Well, this is romantic and

9:00

it was all like temptation style

9:03

type of housing because that's what the

9:05

king lived in and you know, so that was their

9:07

interpretation of luxury and

9:10

romance. And I said, well, my romantic

9:12

vision of Hawaii is kinda

9:14

village, because kind of village was like huts

9:17

with that roots. It came out

9:20

beautifully authentic and where

9:22

one of one. There are a lot of let's say,

9:24

hotel companies where you can

9:26

build a hotel in Maui and it's basically

9:28

the same hotel they build in Cleveland, and that

9:30

seems just too easy. So we literally

9:33

customized every building,

9:36

every project, you know, for

9:38

the environment and culture that

9:40

it's in. On the food front, food

9:42

has become a huge part

9:45

of our communities. We have gardens

9:48

and farms and even zoos

9:51

at all our projects in order to get

9:53

fresh vegetables and organic

9:56

produce because like Bahamas,

9:58

you know, you buy your food Francisco or one

10:00

of the food purveyors and we we go, okay,

10:03

let's get organic lettuce.

10:05

Well, by the time it shows up at

10:07

Baker's Bay, it's soggy,

10:09

and bron So we had

10:12

to grow all our own food

10:15

in order to provide the quality

10:17

that we want and that the members

10:19

want. So all that stuff evolves

10:21

as we go. Today's foods a big

10:24

deal, organics a big deal. People

10:26

want to live a healthier lifestyle,

10:29

so it's really become a

10:31

focus for all discovery. You

10:34

don't sell land and build infrastructure,

10:37

You curate and build communities.

10:39

What is the key to building a community?

10:42

That's not an easy task? How do you make that happen?

10:45

I always tell my sales guys and all

10:48

our people, you gotta get the first buyer. So

10:50

it's really important to establish that

10:52

first person with our vision

10:55

of how we see the community

10:58

building out and becoming, and and as

11:00

people come in, it obviously

11:02

changes a little bit of personality because

11:05

in these communities they come from all

11:07

lots of life. And so when

11:09

you're at Yellowstone

11:12

or McKenna or Baker's Bay,

11:14

wherever you are, there's always interesting

11:16

conversations. It's always easy

11:19

to make and new friends. If you buy

11:21

in one of our communities, you make new

11:23

friends. So your communities basically

11:25

allow people to disconnect from the world.

11:28

How do you think about online offline

11:30

and the role of your community plays and people

11:32

disconnecting, and also how does

11:35

it relate to the electronic world.

11:37

I think you know since COVID and with COVID,

11:40

it gave people a comfort level being

11:43

out of the city that

11:46

they live. They want to be in a secure

11:49

community where they know their neighbors.

11:51

And you could really work from

11:53

anywhere now, and the technology is

11:55

amazing, Like Zoom has

11:58

been an amazing feature for

12:00

me because I'm in these great

12:02

resource communities all the time around the

12:04

world. But as long as you have that,

12:07

I could have real time conversations

12:09

and do productive business with people

12:12

all over the world. So I

12:14

think the change with COVID of not

12:16

necessarily being in an office but still

12:18

being able to be productive and communicating

12:21

has been beneficial to all

12:24

our places because once people started

12:26

moving around the COVID, almost every

12:28

available house we had in any

12:31

community sold. So

12:33

you make it sound so logical

12:36

and so simple, yet you

12:38

really do stand alone. Why haven't

12:40

others been able to replicate what you do? What are

12:42

they missing? It's just hard. It takes a

12:45

lot of money to do these deals. We have the

12:47

rolodecks and membership roster, so if we

12:49

start a deal, we could have twenty

12:52

two thirty people in it before

12:55

we even start, and

12:57

that really de risks a project.

13:00

So if you don't have the rolodex

13:02

and you don't have to know how in

13:04

the brand to have

13:07

people have confidence in you to buy

13:09

before there's anything there, it's impossible,

13:12

you know. I looked back at how I

13:14

started and like, Tokio

13:16

to Kio is my number one project

13:19

because it helped make me become

13:21

the person I am professionally,

13:24

and we have some of the toughest buyers

13:26

ever. And you know, these guys would

13:28

come and basically interviewed me, and

13:31

I explained the vision and they

13:33

go, okay, great, And I look back, I

13:35

go, okay great. I obviously believe

13:38

that I was going to do it and accomplish

13:40

it, but for them too, was

13:42

a pretty big leap of faith. And

13:44

now fortunately all those people

13:46

who did all these projects are

13:48

happy because they've all exceeded

13:50

everyone's expectations on what

13:52

they thought it was going to be, and prices

13:55

have gone up so much that everyone is obviously

13:58

so happy, not only for um,

14:00

the money side of it, but also

14:02

the social side of it. So it's

14:05

really helped people's lights

14:07

and people who have everything

14:10

kind of the only thing that can't really give to

14:12

themselves is the

14:14

community we provide. And

14:16

so I get a lot of thank you Mr

14:19

Melville's for helping me

14:21

and helping my family, bringing us together

14:23

and giving us a place where we're comfortable

14:25

and relax and can hang out. And

14:28

so you know, that's been a really fun

14:30

and rewarding part of the business moral

14:34

Math and Magic. Right after this quick break,

14:41

welcome back to Math and Magic. Let's

14:43

hear more from my conversation with Mike Meldman.

14:49

Let's go back in time. You were born in the late

14:51

fifties, grew up in the sixties and seventies

14:53

in Milwaukee and Arizona. Can

14:55

you paint the picture of your family those

14:58

places and that line what shaped

15:01

you? Growing up Milwaukee.

15:03

I had close friends who are still literally

15:06

my friends today.

15:08

I had a great family life,

15:11

and my dad was basically

15:13

there when I went to school, when I got back from

15:15

school, he coached me in Little

15:17

league and football, if we watched packer

15:20

games together. My mom was

15:22

always there. She was a housewife

15:24

and mother. And my sisters

15:27

are all about the year and a half from each

15:29

other, so we're all close and

15:31

all our cousins were all the same age

15:34

and every Sunday would go to Grandma and

15:36

Grandpa's house. We're very middle

15:38

class, happy, had a great

15:41

life and childhood. And I moved

15:43

to Arizona when I was in seventh

15:45

grade. And when my

15:47

dad said were moving, I didn't really think twice about

15:49

I go great warm weather as a huge sports

15:52

fan, so you know, sted becoming

15:54

a son's fan and a su fan. And

15:57

I had a lot of friends and had

15:59

a great time in Arizona. And

16:01

part of what inspired me to do

16:04

the different things in our projects,

16:06

like when my early projects was in Whitefish,

16:08

Montana called Iron Horse, and

16:10

so up in Whitefish

16:13

there's a lake, so you could water

16:15

ski and wakeboard and go whitewater

16:18

rafting, you know, fly fishing. My

16:20

kids, again, we're young, so I wanted

16:22

them to be able

16:25

to do all these things because as a kid, I

16:27

never did any of those cool things. So

16:29

they were searching and paddle

16:31

boarding and outward your canoeing and

16:33

free diving and scuba diving and snorkeling

16:36

and doing all this stuff. And so

16:38

it inspired me to do things

16:41

that I didn't do as a kid, and I wanted to provide

16:43

it for my kids, and then it

16:45

became a big part of

16:47

all these clubs, and so I think that's

16:50

another thing that we stand out.

16:52

You know, we really have activities

16:54

and activations for the families. You

16:57

were a straight a student, a jock, you worked

16:59

in a supermar market, you ran the school's

17:01

Key Club, and we're elected governor the

17:03

Key Club for a three state region. You

17:06

were selected to attend Boise State, which

17:08

back in those days was a really big deal, hugely

17:11

prestigious educational program of government

17:13

instruction for high school students, and

17:16

you were elected governor there too, and

17:18

then you even got invited to Boys Nation Washington,

17:20

d C. What does all this

17:23

tell us about you? Well, yeah,

17:26

Boys State, they're both very prestigious.

17:29

But once I got elected Key

17:31

Club governor is a pretty big deal because Key

17:33

Club is a service organization. There

17:36

was a good cause. We did a lot of cool

17:38

things, like they remember coaching special Olympics,

17:41

So you did cool stuff like that meant

17:43

a lot of people. So when I got to Boys

17:46

State, and Boys State is kind of

17:48

meant to be the best of the best. You create

17:50

these mock governments and

17:53

I was one party in

17:55

the other candidate who is running for governor.

17:57

Was my roommate and my best friend from my high

18:00

school. And usually you win by

18:02

four or five votes, but I

18:04

won by like eighty votes. But

18:07

the good news is he was able as losing

18:09

Canada for governor. He went

18:11

to Boys Nation with me. So

18:13

we had a blast. Is

18:16

the bi centennial year, and so

18:18

instead of a week in Washington, d C. It

18:21

was three weeks and did

18:23

a mock government. We turned all through d

18:25

C. Met our congressman, met the president

18:28

was President Ford at the time, met

18:30

senators. It was a pretty

18:32

cool experience the lasted three weeks. What

18:35

lessons did you learn from your childhood

18:37

that you still used today and anything

18:40

in this that you pass along to your

18:42

kids as these discovered truths.

18:44

I had a very loving family. My

18:47

dad and my grandfather are

18:49

probably the biggest inspiration

18:52

in my life, just how much time

18:54

they spent with us, how loving

18:56

they were. I grew up being

18:59

nice to keepo because I was taught that integrity

19:02

and character was always instilled

19:04

to me by my dad and my grandfather.

19:07

They're great examples because everyone

19:09

liked them. The kids that want to come hang

19:11

at our house because my parents were nice,

19:14

and you know, my dad was, like

19:16

I said, our litterally coach, and every

19:19

person on our team, you know, loved

19:21

and respected him because he was just

19:23

such a good guy and actually

19:26

coached us and like the kids who

19:28

weren't very good, he would prop them

19:30

up and make him feel good. And it taught

19:32

me to protect someone

19:34

who didn't have the strengths you

19:37

have. And so my kids,

19:39

you know, they grew up in a different

19:41

environment with different resources that

19:44

I grew up, and they are literally

19:46

the most unentitled, humble

19:49

people you know you'll ever meet. And

19:52

I give obviously credit to me

19:55

and their mother, but I really give

19:57

the credit to my dad and my grandfather because they

19:59

really and still this genuine

20:02

quality two people. And

20:05

maybe it's a Midwest thing, but it

20:07

worked. I think it's made me the

20:10

man I am today. After college,

20:12

you think about law school, but you don't go. Instead,

20:15

this recent Stanford grad becomes

20:17

a blackjack dealer. Then you get into

20:19

commercial real estate Fremont, California.

20:21

You realize maybe you found your calling

20:24

and you decide to go

20:27

be your own developer. And your

20:29

first project, I understand, was a three

20:31

acre site in Portola Valley, California.

20:34

And I've seen you quoted as talking about

20:36

what you learned from that first one. Can you

20:38

give us some of those stories? Yeah,

20:40

I want to tell how up black Jack? And

20:43

the reason I think the law school is because I bombed

20:45

the l SAX might have got my name right,

20:48

I don't think I got any other question

20:50

right. So I went with a couple of buddies

20:52

to Tahoe help black Jacket.

20:55

Harris got into real

20:57

estate as a broker, did really

20:59

well. Decided to start buying

21:01

land and entitling it on my own

21:04

because what I didn't like about being a broker you

21:06

didn't really have control over

21:08

anything. So I went out and

21:11

me and a buddy, but the

21:14

three under acres in Patrol Valley. I

21:17

didn't obviously have the money to buy it,

21:19

but I raised it through friends. It

21:22

was through undered acres, It was zoned for thirty

21:24

two homes, and so I go,

21:26

okay, this is easy. Was just submit a

21:28

you know, a map and sell

21:31

them and make a bunch of money and I'll be

21:33

rich. So what happened

21:36

is the land was

21:38

located in Patrol Valley, which is

21:40

a basically suburb of Palo

21:42

Alto right outside of

21:45

Stanford, and so every

21:48

environmental constraint. You could think

21:50

of this property had

21:52

Sandre's fault ran right

21:54

through it. They had kind of a big

21:57

hillside which had all these

21:59

land slides. There is a

22:02

wildlife quarter, there is biological

22:05

issues. And so I had

22:07

to learn how to develop through the

22:09

environment, which today is

22:12

the way to go. But back then it was hard,

22:14

it was difficult, It was it was

22:16

frustrating. It taught me how

22:19

to develop properly because most developers

22:21

by land mass, grade

22:23

and throw up as many houses as they can.

22:27

But this experience taught

22:29

me was that, okay, well you

22:31

build the roads along the natural contours

22:33

of the land. You keep as much vegetation

22:37

as you can. You don't clear cut,

22:39

you don't cut down trees. You put

22:41

houses, you know, on the

22:43

geologic solid part of it, where

22:46

landslides aren't gonna slide

22:48

down and hit, because they could actually map the

22:50

landslides and how far they're going to move in things

22:52

like that. So I learned how to develop

22:55

through the environment. And intellectually

22:58

it made sense to me too, because as

23:00

you develop, if you build the roads

23:03

on the contour and if you don't cut down

23:05

trees, you say so much money because in

23:07

residential development, all the money

23:10

is really spent in mass grading

23:13

and read vegging and buying landscaping.

23:15

So if you don't mass grade, you

23:18

don't grade anything, and you don't really

23:21

cut down trees except for what maybe in

23:23

the roadways, and you move them,

23:26

you save money. So it made in

23:28

leftial sense to me that this is the right way

23:30

to develop. Anyway, let's jump over

23:32

to one of your other huge successes, Casa

23:35

Amigos tequila. As a co founder

23:37

of Cassa Dragons, I do have a special

23:40

appreciation of what you, George and Randy

23:42

built. It was an instant success. You

23:44

had a meteoric growth still continues,

23:47

and certainly the billion dollar price tag proved

23:50

how successful it was or opened a lot of people's

23:52

eyes about tequila. Where did

23:54

the idea come from and what was the biggest

23:56

surprise in building that company.

23:59

So George, rand and I are all

24:01

obviously friends that have been friends for a long

24:03

time. We drank a lot of tequila.

24:06

We didn't necessarily like any

24:08

tequila the best, so we came up with

24:10

the idea to do our own. We

24:13

probably did eight hundred samples. I

24:15

think we got it to where we all thought

24:18

it was perfect. So initially

24:20

We did it just for ourselves. And I always

24:22

said, you know, between all my clubs

24:26

and between Randy's bars he had

24:28

bars at the time, which you obviously had the self

24:30

for the tequila and everything George

24:32

would drink, we could become a successful

24:35

company. And so we

24:38

went to Southern Mining

24:40

Spirits. They tested it and

24:42

they liked it, and so I

24:45

remember them telling us, well, do you guys

24:47

have a blanco? And I remember saying, no, we don't

24:49

have blanco. We drank reposado. May

24:52

know we should have a blanco. I know why,

24:55

and they, well, eighty five percent

24:57

of the tequila marguts blanco. I know, well,

24:59

let's still blanco. And so

25:02

we did a blanco. We launched

25:04

and they said, if

25:06

you could sell ten thousand cases your first

25:09

year, it will be a huge success.

25:11

And so George, Randy and I we

25:14

produced a ten thousand cases. We

25:16

went on a road show to Vegas,

25:18

Miami, and Dallas

25:20

and we sold about ten thousand cases

25:23

and it just literally took off from

25:25

there. We knew we had something

25:27

because we're serving it to all our friends.

25:30

Everyone loved it. So when we sold the company

25:32

to di Agio, we're doing

25:35

a hundred sixty seven thousand cases

25:38

a year. We are now doing

25:41

over three hundred thousand cases a

25:43

month and we just finished

25:45

our last Cisco year and

25:48

we're at two point seven million cases

25:51

and I think next year will be closer to four

25:53

money. So we still run

25:55

it. We're a Holy owned subsidiative Gaga,

25:59

and I think we're the third

26:01

largest spare brand in the world right

26:03

now. It is such an amazing

26:06

success story, and I think for you, especially,

26:09

having this sort of second entrepreneurial

26:11

success must tell you something about

26:13

yourself and certainly put you in a category

26:16

of very few. With Discovery

26:19

Land Company and Cossa Amigos, you

26:21

have proven your master with the high end

26:23

consumer. Auto company, software,

26:25

travel, telecommunications, retail all

26:27

want that customer, but few

26:30

have succeeded like you have. What

26:32

are they missing? I think it's

26:34

really the brand, right, the power of the

26:36

brand that I created because

26:38

people trust me. People made

26:41

money in almost every lot we ever

26:43

sold. We execute

26:45

were firstly integrated, so we design

26:48

everything, we operate everything,

26:50

we build everything, so we

26:52

actually really know what's

26:54

going on. And I

26:56

think with Cosmigos, the products

26:59

was just good. Right If the product

27:01

was bad, no matter who is behind

27:03

it, it wouldn't work. And so I think

27:06

with everything I do, the

27:08

product is always the best it

27:10

can be, and if it's not, I

27:13

won't do it or put my name on it.

27:15

And no matter where we are, whether we're why

27:18

Bahamas, bar Buddha, Portugal,

27:20

or Nashville, wherever we are, we

27:23

strive to be the best community

27:26

in that area. You have to have a

27:28

good product. If you could go back

27:30

in time and give your twenty one year

27:32

old self some advice, what would that advice

27:34

be. The only advice I'd probably give

27:36

myself is just be patient

27:39

because people always ask me like, hey,

27:41

did you know this is going to be so good? I'm like,

27:44

yeah, I mean somebody had to write.

27:46

There's always someone driving

27:48

and striving to make these places

27:51

great, and Discovery just happens to

27:53

be me because it was my brain child. And so

27:56

the nice thing is even forty

27:58

thirty years later, you know

28:00

I still have that same drive. I've

28:02

learned a lot, so I think every project

28:05

we get better, better and better, and

28:08

I still strive to create the best

28:10

product, to be the best at what we do.

28:12

And I've really never lost

28:14

that. But I

28:17

didn't know that, so

28:20

I always knew I would be successful,

28:22

but I just didn't know what scale,

28:25

or what magnitude or what

28:27

impact it would make two people. And

28:29

so in twenty one, you know, I probably

28:31

just tell myself be patient. We

28:34

end each episode of Math and Magic by

28:37

saluting the best of those folks

28:39

who have that special skill in business

28:41

for the analytics and for those who have

28:43

the special skill for the innovation,

28:45

creative, the promotional, the magic

28:47

of business. Who would you put

28:49

on the pedestal best in math

28:53

and the best in magic in

28:55

the business or marketing world. I'd

28:58

say math would

29:00

be Steve Jobs and magic

29:02

would be Phil Knight. Been fortunate

29:05

to meet them both, and I

29:07

think they both inspire many

29:10

people the whole country, in the world. Well,

29:13

Mike, you have inspired a lot of people. You build

29:15

communities that bring people together, and

29:17

in the process those communities have really

29:20

defined you. You've really had a unique life,

29:22

definitely one of a kind. Thanks for sharing

29:24

your insights and experiences today. I

29:27

appreciate, Bob, thanks for having me. Here

29:33

are a few things I've picked up in my conversation

29:35

with Mike. One changed the rules

29:37

at Discovery Land. Mike has prioritized

29:40

inclusivity with laid back luxury

29:42

and no fuss golf courses. The

29:44

ways he's broken tradition is

29:47

the reason his properties stand out. To

29:50

work with your environment. While developing

29:52

his first Discovery Land property, Mike

29:55

realized he needed to work with, not around,

29:57

the key features of the environment, which

29:59

should lie this lesson when making changes to

30:01

the landscape of our industries, it's

30:04

important to preserve what works. Three

30:07

offer more than products and Discovery

30:10

Land, Mike, it's not just providing four walls

30:12

and a roof. He's providing community.

30:15

That's something that can't be easily recreated

30:17

by competitors. I'm

30:21

Bob Pittman. Thanks for listening. That's

30:27

it for today's episode. Thanks so much for

30:30

listening to Math and Magic, a production of

30:32

I Heart Radio Show is hosted by

30:34

Bob Pittman. Special thanks to Susan

30:36

Ward for booking and wrangling our wonderful

30:38

talent, which is no small feel. Our

30:41

editors are Derek Clements and Emily Marinot,

30:45

our producer Morgan Levoy, our

30:47

executive producer Nicky Eator, and

30:50

of course Gayle Raoul, Eric Angel

30:53

Noel and everyone who helped bring this

30:55

show to your ears. Until

30:57

next time, One