Habits and Hustle - Episode 500: From Broke to Billionaire: Stephen Cloobeck’s $3.3B Mindset

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Stephen Cloobeck didn’t climb the ladder. He built his own. In this episode, we talk about what it really takes to grow a billion-dollar company without a business degree: and why integrity, discipl...ine, and grit beat credentials every time. We get into his biggest pivots, how mentorship shaped his success, and why EQ always outperforms IQ in business and life. Stephen also opens up about giving away over $63 million, calling out “wokeness as weakness,” and what real leadership looks like when you’re under pressure. Stephen Cloobeck is the founder and former CEO of Diamond Resorts, which sold for $3.3 billion enterprise value. He’s been on Undercover Boss more than anyone, donated millions, and still believes character is the ultimate ROI. What We Discuss:  02:03 - Stephen's $63 million in philanthropic giving 04:02 - Undercover Boss episodes and giving away the most money  09:30 - Learning business from Mike Milken instead of business school  12:45 - Harvard Business School case study on his industry disruption  15:20 - Treating employees like family as competitive advantage  Thank you to our sponsors: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off  Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off  Manna Vitality: Visit mannavitality.com and use code JENNIFER20 for 20% off your order  Prolon: Get 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit https://prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Amp fits is the perfect balance of tech and training, designed for people who do it all and still want to feel strong doing it. Check it out at joinamp.com/jen    Find more from Jen:  Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen   Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Stephen Cloobeck:  Instagram: @stephenjcloobeck  Website: https://stephenjcloobeck.com/ 

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it. Okay, you guys, we have a very special guest We have a very special guest here today. We have Stephen Klubeck. That's how you pronounce your last name. If you guys are somebody who is interested in a business, scaling a business, starting a business, disrupting a business. Disrupting a business. There's probably, you know, not many people better at it than Stephen. He sold his business for $3.3 billion. Enterprise value. Enterprise value. Thank you. Net 2.2 billion. Net 2.2 billion. That's true. He is exceptionally philanthropic, which is what I like about you. Given away close to $63 million. You what? Giving away close to $63 million.
Starting point is 00:01:33 $63? Okay. Are you on a particular amount that you're trying to get to? No, just very philanthropic. Always happened. Very philanthropic. That's basically why he's even on the show because a friend of mine, Shani, asked me to meet with you because you're so philanthropic, you're so great,
Starting point is 00:01:49 you're so wonderful, and then I looked into you. And then, guess what happened? This is how the world works. Tell me. Okay. So she tells me about Stephen. and then I'm like doom scrolling on Instagram. How many mutual friends?
Starting point is 00:02:00 And a lot of mutual friends. But you know what came up? Your little clip from the School of Hard Knocks. That was, in the street, that just happened. When did that happen? About nine months ago. Okay, well, those two. This young man came up to me.
Starting point is 00:02:18 Well, then he came back and wanted to meet with me, and I wanted to help him grow his business. Well, he's being pretty good, too. Because he's got a nice little platform. Yeah, he does. for young entrepreneurs, and I love young entrepreneurs doing well. Yeah. And that's how I learned. I learned from great mentors.
Starting point is 00:02:32 I never went to business school. I heard. But I actually got a degree signed by Mike Milken because he taught me. I was fortunate enough to meet him when I was 13. This was before junk bonds or after junk bonds? During that time, I didn't know. I was studying to be a doctor. I was going to be a surgeon.
Starting point is 00:02:48 Really? I worked at Cedars Sinai four years. Like a nice Jewish boy. I was going to be the doctor. My brother was going to be the lawyer. Really? I'm sure your mother was thrilled. They were thrilled, but I didn't become the doctor.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Well, I think you did it okay for yourself. But I'm still involved in medical technology and research, and I still involved. Okay, wait, let's start from the beginning, because people are probably very confused. Okay, so you... Extremely confused. Because first of all, I'm just going to give a couple more facts about you. So you were on undercover boss for many episodes. Which no one's ever done, yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:19 And yet, and you gave the most money away, even on that show. True. Right? Totally unscripted. Completely unscripted? Unscripted. Okay, so there's that. You're also running for governor of California?
Starting point is 00:03:31 Unintended. Unintended, which... Because I interviewed every candidate, not one I would trust with my family's life safety. Okay, tell me about this. I interviewed every single candidate. I mean, I ran tourism in the United States. I don't know if you know that. No, I don't.
Starting point is 00:03:45 I worked for President Barack Obama. I created Brand USA in 2009, 10, and it's still around today with the same standard operating procedures and its returns are outsized for the United States. I ran the state of Nevada. I passed laws in many states. Changed a law in Delaware, business law, which is almost impossible on derivatives, operated in 35 countries. So I've had a vast wealth of experience. When I came back to California, because I grew up in the valley. It's so funny you did that. Did you grow up wealthy or not really? No. I went to Harvard School for Boys, now Harvard Westlake. Well, that's a private school. But I went to public schools too, when I wrote.
Starting point is 00:04:26 Okay. And I grew up in Encino, Woodland Hills, kindergarten, but we moved from Chicago when I was very little. And I, California, boy, through and through. And I left California. It's a story career where I was going to be studying to be a surgeon, a doctor, worked at Cedars, have a degree in hard science, and decided not to go to the school anymore. I went to Brandeis University, have a degree in neurobiosecology. Yeah. By the way, those are not, like, these are great schools.
Starting point is 00:04:54 These are like Ivy League schools. I barely got through. I didn't know I was dyslexic. Well, yeah, I saw that. I negotiated my grades. How did you negotiate your grades? Sounds familiar. Yeah, so I should have realized I should have gone into business.
Starting point is 00:05:06 Well, how did you negotiate? Like, how did you get in in the first place? Relationship with the professors. How did you meet the professor? Because at Brandeis, we were very small classes. So, of course, you knew all your professors. But how did you get into Brandeis? Because you have to have good.
Starting point is 00:05:19 transferred from USC. I was there one year. Okay. And I did well enough to get in and a relationship helped me. A relationship helped me. And I managed to get through Brandeis. If you look at my transcript today, it's published my first book checking in on hospitality. It's a concomitant group of C's, maybe a couple of B's, one A in human memory. I remember that. Wow. Yeah. No pun intended. Yeah. I have no idea how I got through school. in memorizing. Seriously, memorizing everything. And I found out only I was dyslexic when my adult son was diagnosed, because nobody understood that when we were going to school. Right. It was a different time back then.
Starting point is 00:06:01 So it just powered through everything. Powered through everything. But it was able to, being dyslexic, you're able to think out of the box because you don't think ABC, D, E, F, G, linearly, you just can handle multi-dimensional chess, 10 games of chess, seven levels out all the time. and that's how I think. So did you, okay, so did you just, like, read backwards at the time? It's not reading backwards, it's just not reading, not comprehending. So it's not retaining the information. No, but I could memorize pages.
Starting point is 00:06:31 Yeah, me too. That was how I got through school, too, is memorizing. You're probably dyslexic. You don't even know it. I just think I'm bad ADHD. Like, I can't concentrate. So what is it? It's a combination of, but this makes you unique, and it gives you a gift.
Starting point is 00:06:45 Yeah. And everyone needs to embrace these gifts that they have. Yeah, I don't use it as a crushing. I think it's silly. No one has a crutch. There's no crutches. There are because we're living in a time when that's because we helicopter our kids. We helicopter our kids.
Starting point is 00:06:56 We coddle our kids. We're not able to let them just be bored. We're not all that. We're not, we basically do too much for them. And they're growing up to be less resilient and have zero coping mechanisms. Where did you grow up? Canada. Okay.
Starting point is 00:07:10 Yeah. So Toronto? Yeah. Well, Winnipeg first and then Toronto. But I hated school. But I like. How'd you have been in California? job opportunity.
Starting point is 00:07:20 That's great. Record label. My whole situation is a whole other, you know, how I ended up here is completely insane. But I pivot and my whole, that's the power of the pivot. I just pivot, pivot, pivot. So do I. Yeah. Oh, I know.
Starting point is 00:07:33 That's why, listen, when I was like doing some research on you because I knew you were coming on, I was like, well, this guy and I sound so, like, so many things about you remind me of me, but you just have way more bees in front of your money than I do. You have way more money than I do. But besides that. I just happened to take a lot of risk. Listen, risk doesn't always work out, right? It doesn't because I've been beaten up so many times in my career.
Starting point is 00:07:59 And when the chips were down, I just kept fighting, fighting, fighting. Well, I want to hear about it. So, like, I want some tactical, actionable things that the listeners can glean from this podcast, right? So let's start from the beginning of your career. How did you, you were in the hospitality world, right? I started in the shopping center business out of college. So I went, came back to something. California. I went to Cal State, Northridge, to learn accounting 101 and 101. 102. That's summer
Starting point is 00:08:23 of 83. And then took business law at night at UCLA and just listened, and then worked for a shopping center developer for a few years. And they promised me a bonus, which they didn't pay me, so I started my own company at 24. And what was it? What does it begin as? I built shopping center, small little shopping centers. Like, for example, my first shopping center was, not an example, what it was at Victory in Magnolia and Burbank, the northeast corner. I bought a Chevron station, knocked it down, and built a chief auto parts in four stores. So wait, so you started off in like real estate development, basically. Shopping center development. Yeah. Leasing, managing, building, operating. And then from that point, built shopping centers throughout Southern California,
Starting point is 00:09:05 Hanford down to Temecula. And I had one really bad shopping center during the late 80s where my subcontractors went broke. My general contractor went broke. my tenants went broke as I was building it, and I almost went broke. And I ended up having to build that myself and weather the storm of getting through that project, which then allowed me to build my first hotel at 29. So that's how, so then you ricocheted into that from like the shopping malls to the one hotel. Right. I built a large shopping plaza in Las Vegas called Polo Plaza and behind that Polo Towers. And it was a 60,000 square foot shopping center. And it was very successful at the time.
Starting point is 00:09:44 Who lent you money at the beginning? We had credit, credit companies. So you did all the, you did? But before that was savings and loans. And at that time, there was so much money available. It was a different time again. But you had to sign personally. So I had the risk of going bankrupt on every project.
Starting point is 00:09:59 Wow. And I almost did on one, that one in Lake Forest, California, but I had very successful project in Mission VAO just down the street. But in Lake Forest, I almost went broke, but it taught me how to build because I had to actually build it myself because all my subcontractors went broken. Well, okay, so I guess my first question is, how does some, I think a big thing is people don't know, they think because they don't have the means, the connections, all the things like that. What is the first step to starting that? What's the name of your show? Habits and hustle?
Starting point is 00:10:32 Hustle. You're preaching to the choir, but I still have to ask the question because I've never had you on the show. What would be the number one hustle? What do you think the number one skill is? Get up early, stay late, go to work with the running. and when they tell you can't do it, believe in yourself that you can. What is the one skill or the one quality that is essential for an entrepreneur to be successful? Integrity. Integrity, okay. Integrity is it, don't bust the trust with yourself or with others.
Starting point is 00:11:02 Don't be around those that don't tell you the truth and smoke out the bad people around you. Those that, somebody who doesn't tell you the truth, you don't want to be around. But you have to also be truthfully yourself during good or bad times. And don't reach your press clippings. Just keep your head down. So you've had this, so you went from that one hotel to how many did you end up having?
Starting point is 00:11:24 Ended up having 432 and 35 countries. They're called Diamond. They were called Diamond Resorts. Originally the company was called Santerra. It was a failed company. And I bought this failed company. It was a public company and I took it private. So I had to hold a vote.
Starting point is 00:11:37 I had to hold an election. Wow. And I just didn't need to get 50% of the stockholders to agree. had to get over 90% because they had a poison pill on the documents. Now, mind you, when I was doing this, I didn't know anything about public companies. I was a private entrepreneur. Right. And I was now delving into the world of public company, SEC, Wall Street business. And I didn't go to school for any of this. But I had good friends like Mike Milken and my friends who ran other large public companies and I just listened. And they were there to mentor. Mentors are very important. You think so? Huge. You cannot succeed
Starting point is 00:12:11 without mentors, and that's why I pay it forward now. How many people do you mentor right now? Oh, dozens of young adults. Really? What kind of mentor are, how involved are you as a mentor? They call me when they have issues, problems. I teach them cash flows. Always know your numbers.
Starting point is 00:12:26 Always know your numbers. Always know your deal. You have to know your deal backwards and forwards, better than any of your lenders or your partners. And one of my greatest successes, every single bank's always been paid back. I never negotiated with the bank. Really?
Starting point is 00:12:40 Never. They were always paid back because even during difficult times, I'd have to borrow more money from them to get through a difficult time because I always told the truth immediately to the point where they said, stop calling. What is, um, you so integrity is very, very important. I didn't need to. Keep on talking. I'm just going to open my questions for you. So go ahead. Everything's integrity is just a key, key component part of success because you are your brand. Right. And it takes decades to build a brand and people forget. that they are a brand themselves. And you have to be true to your brand. You can't pander. You can't compromise. You can't just do things because everyone else says that's the way it was done or this is the way you must do it.
Starting point is 00:13:22 If you think differently, if you have a different opinion or objective, but you have to have non-petrolic language when you communicate with others and collaborate and explain your position, not demand your position, not in a dictatorial way, explain it where people embrace, you gain their trust, you trust the people you're working with. That's integrity, communication is important. Collaboration's important. And by doing so, you create an unbreakable team. You know, they say one stick is breakable, two sticks somewhat, three sticks tied together,
Starting point is 00:13:53 which is a team, unbreakable. It's actually biblical. Ecclesiastes, 412. I think I saw you say that. Pretty good for a Jewish boy. Not bad at all. I'm all about finding sustainable ways to optimize. performance, the kind of work that actually moves the needle on how you feel and function.
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Starting point is 00:15:42 That's prolonlife.com slash Jennifer Cohen and use code Jennifer Cohen. You're big on the meaning, like the word yes, like the meaning of yes. That's what I found lacking in the hospitality space and I was able to disrupt that. Okay. And I marked that. meaning of yes. Because, look, it's value for a product I was taught young by my father who's in sales and marketing, always deliver equal or greater value to your customer. We're all customers. We're all customers. Even in politics and policy, we're not voters.
Starting point is 00:16:19 We're customers. We should get equal or greater value to our tax dollars. And if we're not, we're voting for the wrong people. What did your dad do for a living? He was Glenn Gary Gunn Ross. You ever watched that movie? Yeah, she did a salesman. Is that the guy? Alex Baldwin, he was that guy. He was ABC, coffees for closers. That's my father. Really? Dynamic, great sales guy allegedly went to.
Starting point is 00:16:41 He did go to finance school at University of Illinois, but he did not understand a balance sheet or an income student. We used to get in arguments all the time. I said, I thought you went to finance school. He was a cash guy. He didn't understand. Generally accepted accounting principles, and he just dealt in cash. Did your mom work?
Starting point is 00:16:58 No, no. Did your, how, do you have any brothers or sisters? I do, but we got into a, a massive argument years ago, they busted my trust. So it was over money. Of course, it's always over money. Sure, they didn't want to work, you know. So wait, so you have a brother or a sister or both? Both, both. Both. Older, younger? What's that? Older? Younger or both younger? So you don't talk to them? No, no, they decided to sue my wife and myself and my children were years and years decades ago. For money? For money. It's ridiculous. So I wrote him a check and said goodbye.
Starting point is 00:17:33 Why did you write them a check? Because I would rather not have the conflict. It just make difficult situations go away. Even though that's your money? I took his interest in the company. Oh, were you guys partners? They were partners, so I took his interest. So I just bought him out.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Oh, gotcha. Bad mistake on his part. Wow. And what year did he leave the company? Oh, it was decades, probably two decades ago. Oh. Five years ago, a long time ago. Because when did you actually sell this company?
Starting point is 00:17:59 2016. So you went from, like, so you went from, like, So you were obviously, like, what's the difference between being a millionaire than to being a billionaire? You get to give more money away? Besides giving more money away. How did your lifestyle change? My lifestyle's never changed. I mean, I built my dream house.
Starting point is 00:18:19 I mean, you can't live in a house that I designed and built unless you have the wherewithal to do it. Right. It's like a mini hotel. But I built it for events and to do charities and pull up politics and policy. and I did it for my dream. Right. I always wanted to live in Beverly Hills. So I wanted to live over the hill.
Starting point is 00:18:37 Where were you living before 2016? Before 2016, I was living in Las Vegas. And I had a home in Cabo. I had a beach house in Laguna Beach. Oh, okay. I had many homes. So then you built this house in Beverly Hills once you made the money, the real money. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:54 Yeah. The real money. Besides that, because I see you have a security guard. Did you get the security? I have had security when I was running Diamond Resorts. I mean, when you run a multinational company and you're dealing with five million guests a year, you end up with security issues, and now running for governor being a Jewish man in today's environment, you can only imagine.
Starting point is 00:19:15 I wanted to ask you about that. Oh, it's serious. Tell me. Give me some information about that. I have three death threats already. Really? Yeah, anti-Semitic death threats. I'm surprised.
Starting point is 00:19:25 And people in politics and policy, you know, I'm so in the middle. hard center. I'm a Reagan Democrat. Balance sheet and income statement, we don't steal. Yeah. You know, I'm unapologetically authentic with warmth and compassion. And I just live to my brand. And I'm not going to pander or I'm not compromised. So I just have done a lot of due diligence and I tell the truth. And some people don't want to hear the truth. And today, with the Vitrolic politics and policy we have today, you only hear from the hard right and the hard left. So they both want to demolish me. Well, it's interesting. because... But 68% of us want the heart center. We just don't have a voice.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Well, what I was going to say is that that's like, I kind of feel that what used to be considered like the Democrats is not the same thing anymore. I'm still the same. Right, but the people who were Democrat, the party has changed a lot over the last. Yeah, the wokeness is weak. The wokeness has... It's weakness. They have no breastballs. They have no breastballs. And they forgot about the customer. Well, have you not know, I mean, listen, have you not noticed what's happened in Los Angeles in the last five years. First of all, last person to leave should shut off the lights. Most of my friends have already left L.A. As I was moving back home, all my friends were leaving
Starting point is 00:20:39 or have left. Left. And their children can't afford to live here. There's a lot of problems. Because it's not affordable, livable, workable. We're closed for business. These are facts. We've elected, unfortunately, leaders that don't understand our life safety. We just saw that with the fires. Yeah. The fact that she's still even amazed. First of all, how about the accountability? How about the wildfire money, governor, and Mayor Bess, where's the money? I'm at when you tell me. Where's the money? Why, it's probably given to charities, upon charities, on charities, and it's all filtered
Starting point is 00:21:10 off through G&A with side deals, which should be investigated. Okay. I mean... This happened, do you remember, like, a few years ago? Sure you do. Everyone hated Gavin Newsom. Back then, everyone hated him. And then he got re-elected.
Starting point is 00:21:25 It was shocking to everybody else. Like, everybody was shocked when he got. Because, look, you cannot blame anybody other than we. Okay. We did it. Well, not we, but somebody did it. No, no, we because we didn't fight hard enough on the other side. So don't, you cannot throw stones.
Starting point is 00:21:44 You've got to fight harder. If you want serious change, you've got to show up with your voice in your pocketbook. Let me ask you a question. Okay, let's just start with California. I said I didn't really want to speak about politics and now I'm going to go right into the politics because I am actually furious. about what's happened, the demise of California that I've seen so far, right? Like, I moved here when I was 24 years old.
Starting point is 00:22:05 I have literally... Five years ago? Exactly, six, but... Very close. You're very charming. So, I've seen the demise over the, especially over the last seven, six, seven years already. The fact that you're saying is absolutely correct. It's completely unaffordable. You cannot, unless you have millions of dollars, you cannot live here.
Starting point is 00:22:27 It is unbelievable. True. The homelessness is unbelievable, like in beautiful areas. Like, I'm living in a nice area, and there's literally homeless people on my street. This is a big problem. And they are building homeless shelters, like on very expensive streets. And it's dangerous. If you have little kids, I've had my car broken into, on my own driveway, three times already.
Starting point is 00:22:53 This is a problem. Unacceptable. It is unacceptable. So what's doing about? also the business. I mean, like, and the taxes are like through the, what do you pay for? So what value are you getting? So it's, it's, no value. That's why everyone I know has moved to Florida or they've moved to Texas. And by the way, those places are not great to live. I've been, I've operated all over the world. My friends who lived, who live in Florida now are loving it. Yeah, go through a hot
Starting point is 00:23:20 summer. It's not so, I mean, I just got back from there. It's unbearable. It's unbearable. It's unbearable. Well, so they're paying a price. So. So in California, When I grew up here in the late 60s, 70s, 70s, 80s, 90s, it was the land of aspiration. I'm a product of that. Totally. I'm a product of California the way it was. That's why I'm still a conservative Democrat because conservative Democrats actually ruled the state
Starting point is 00:23:44 or even the Republicans that were around. They were conservative in the center. People were in the center and just understood this was California with California values, which we have. But we've elected leaders that cannot execute, proven. are not accountable, obviously. Where's the homeless money? Where's the wildfire?
Starting point is 00:24:02 Where is it? I'm asking you, where did it go? In the city and the state? Good. I'd like to propose, which I've done in the past, a bounty. Tell me where it is. I'll give 10% away. Wouldn't you give 10% away of our money to collect 90%?
Starting point is 00:24:16 Yeah. Go find our money. It's our money. And these leaders, I can tell you this. They actually think of the reason that I even got involved in doing this because I don't need to do this. This is just brain damaging. but it's for the good of the future of my children, your children, our children.
Starting point is 00:24:31 And somebody's got to call bullshit on this. Okay, what can you do different? What would you do differently? Because every politician or people say, oh, I'm going to do this, this, and that. How about this? Execute, be accountable, show results, enforce the law, have respect for all the customers of California. How can you make it more affordable?
Starting point is 00:24:52 Get rid of a lot of these insane regulations with regard to human resource law and law that are just stifling people from doing business here, getting rid of the... No movies are even being made here anymore. I've got a solution for that, too. Affordability, I would relax or declare an emergency for what's called Sequa Wildlife Species Act and the Coastal Commission until there are better laws so we can survive and thrive. Okay. But we've got to get the individuals in Sacramento know, taught, coached, counseled with regard to these unintended consequences. They debate actually, and this happened over the last few months. They were debating a shopping center bill two and
Starting point is 00:25:34 half hours and they debated energy policy 10 minutes. Really? So do you think, well, number one, do you think, what about Caruso? People like him. Yeah, but, you know, look, he's also a business guy. Yeah, but a Democrat is only going to get elected in the state right now, the way the map looks like, the pathway to success. And, you know, Rick is a very talented guy, but he's a very talented guy, but he's, He's only built things. He's not fixed, broken. Okay. And Rick is not a Democrat.
Starting point is 00:26:00 He changed to become a Democrat, but he gave so much money to pro-life candidates. I mean, come on. Who are you? All of a sudden, you had an epiphany that you now believe in abortion. And he's Italian Catholic. What do you talk to God? I mean, seriously. So you have to be authentic to who you are.
Starting point is 00:26:19 And once you're given to pro-life candidates in your career, you believe. You believe in a woman's no longer right to choose. All of a sudden, do you change your mind? What happened? Come on. That's not being true to oneself. So you think he's become wishy-washy to kind of get the vote. I think he wants to win a beauty contest too, Prom king.
Starting point is 00:26:39 Yeah. It's not a prompt king job. No. It's a serious job where you have to roll up your sleeves and serve. You know, Rick, you know, good guy, but he's a Palm Beach guy. He's a Republican. All the folks around him are Republican. you are who you hang with.
Starting point is 00:26:55 I just call it as I see it. But if he's a Republican, would the taxes be lower? Because the taxes here are insane. Me as a Democrat can deliver not only a less restrictive environment, but deliver performance and results. The California Department of Performance and Results, CPR, which we need. Well, because people here... CPR, you get it?
Starting point is 00:27:15 I know what CPR is, but I'm saying is... Yeah, well, California Department of Performance and Results, you can lower taxes. Over the last 10 years, we've increased... the state budget for employees, 45,000 people, which is $6.3 billion. What did you think of Kamala Harris
Starting point is 00:27:32 and the full presidential situation? Oh, it's really simple. She had no IQ, new EQ. Insular. Echo Chamber. Echo Chamber. Didn't understand eggs, bread, milk, cheese, gas, nor immigration policy,
Starting point is 00:27:46 which I do. It was so obvious. When I saw my young boys, they're in their 20s, and them and there were, friends going over to Trump. I said, I know this guy. I've set across the table from this guy. This guy has got no integrity. He's got no values. He doesn't pay his contractors. He's a guy who only wants to be served. He does not serve. And this is who you think is better? Well, yeah, it's
Starting point is 00:28:10 better than her because she's never shot in the front of a check. Neither did waltz. Well, the problem is... I mean, they're both pathetic candidates. And by the way, on all sides, they're pathetic. They are pathetic. And this is what we've succumbed to. And in California, too, there is not one candidate. I go back to this. Why I'm doing this. I shouldn't be doing this. What about,
Starting point is 00:28:27 did you give money to Joe Biden before he, you know. No. Left. No. I say left in a nice way. Before he stepped down, I should say. You did not give money to him? Figuratively or mentally?
Starting point is 00:28:40 I was a joke. Yeah. I've known him for a long, long time. He wasn't the man. He should not have done it. They should have taken, they should have been taken out. Well, look, well, as I said, my. Adopted father was Harry Reid.
Starting point is 00:28:52 I've been trained by Harry Reid and Bill Clinton, my other mentors. Pretty boozy mentors, yeah. That's a bougie one. That's a nice name drop. Well, I've got Steve and Elaine Wynn in hotels. I've got Mike Milken since I was 13 and Harry Reid since I was 15, and then Bill Clinton added on. So I come to this discussion with some experience. Bill Clinton was a good president, actually.
Starting point is 00:29:12 He balanced the budget and showed performance and results. He did. He had reinventing government, if you remember, 400,000 jobs were removed from the federal system, and we operated in a budget that was balanced. It was the last time it was balanced. Okay, so I just call it as I see it because it's upsetting to me for my kids' future. And if I don't participate and call 911 right now for all of your listeners to pay attention to, okay, you better wake up. And you go look at every single candidate that's running for governor right now and say, who would you trust with the life safety of your kids and your family?
Starting point is 00:29:49 who would you trust with the checkbook your tax dollars of the state? But what about this whole woke business? I mean, California. Enough. Enough. No, enough. It's weak. No, brass balls.
Starting point is 00:29:59 Woke doesn't pay the bills. No. Well, I think that's been kind of the demise of what's happened in California. And with all due respect, yeah, we want the climate better for our kids. We do. But at what price? But it's not just about climate. It's started maybe with climate.
Starting point is 00:30:14 Climate is like a fraction of the pie of what Woke is about now. But that's my point. The whole conversation is not about what it should be. It should be about aspiration, security and safety, aspiration, affordability, livability, workability. Okay, I'm going to change, I'm going to change into business again because I said I wasn't even going to talk about. It's all related. I can go on and on about this stuff. Thank you.

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