In Search Of Excellence - John Terzian: Bottle Service, Billionaires, and the Business of Cool | E157

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

John Terzian is the co-founder of The h.wood Group, one of the most influential hospitality companies in the world, known for creating iconic venues like The Nice Guy, Delilah, Bootsy Bellows, and Shore Bar. But before he built an empire in nightlife and dining, John’s path was anything but conventional. From working as a DJ assistant to getting banned from the Queen Mary for throwing an out-of-control college party, John’s journey is filled with unforgettable twists, relentless hustle, and big risks. A former USC walk-on quarterback and Pepperdine law school grad who never passed the bar, John chose to follow his passion for creating experiences over traditional career paths. In this episode, he opens up about growing up in L.A., being harassed by corrupt cops, dealing with failure, and how grit, creativity, and real relationships helped him build a global brand from the ground up.Timestamps:00:00 – Wild Nightlife Stories12:00 – Delilah, Club Economics, and Keeping a Venue Cool21:30 – OnlyFans, Gen Z, and the Decline of Club Culture32:15 – The Chicken in the Nightclub and the 1MDB Scandal45:00 – Brand Loyalty, Extreme Preparation, and Running the Long Game56:30 – Media, Magic Johnson, and the Future of H.WoodResources:The h.wood Group WebsiteThe h.wood Group InstagramJohn's InstagramThe h.wood Group Media InstagramWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Instagram | 1-on-1 Coaching | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn

Every night, is there crazy shit going on at your nightclub? We had someone who was so upset, refused to pay his bill because he wasn't allowed to order cocaine from us. Is the customer always right? I'd say 50% of the time, they're kind of wrong, but it's not worth it. Unless there's something like any sort of sexual harassment, any sort of drug related.

Outside of that, the customer is always right. Someone's going to spend $100,000 for a booth that holds 10 to 14 people for four hours worth of entertainment. They're very smart. A good time is priceless. You're listening to part two of my incredible interview with John Turzi and one of my closest friends, the founder of the Acewood Group, which owns legendary places like Bootsy Bella's, the nice guy Delilah's,

and they're building six more as we speak. One of the things that's made you successful and one of the great things about you, and we'll talk about more, is the loyalty that you have toward people who have done nice things for you. So tell us about John Sofio and the deal that you did, and then the relationship that you've developed over time.

Sofio is, yeah, he's our designer, builder, everything. And I met him, I think through Guy Starkman, to be honest, early on. He was really building homes. I didn't have a dollar to my name. And when I got Shorbar, I had to redo it and I had no money. And so I told him if he did this, because he went and looked at it for basically nothing, I'd use them for my empire that I was going to have. And most people think that's crazy, but he did it.

He was like, I'll take the shot. So I've stayed true to my word. He's built for 12 years. I mean, we've done, I think, 30 places now, or something, 25 places. He's done every single one. I've stayed true to my word on that regard. I'm very big on that.

You're not in the mafia, but you built a place that you call the Friends Mafia, your first restaurant. So tell us about the nice guy, where the name came from, and then the evolution of that concept from start to finish. So the concept came from as we got pretty big, we were getting going in the nightclub world where we were really known as like the nightclub guys, which is good and bad. So it's great, we're making money, we're successful-ish at a young age,

but we're really, two things, we're really pigeonholed as nightclub guys, and then also, we're mostly like normal guys, and like our friends and stuff aren't all going to nightclubs, like they actually want restaurant or a lounge or whatever. So we have this idea, especially as paparazzi got even more massive, with this idea of doing

a super private, like almost hybrid club and restaurant. Didn't know where we were gonna do it, but this idea of doing it. And everyone's like, oh, you know, it's crazy to do that, you know, you kind of one or the other. And the original plan was... I'm like, I eat like a five-year-old. So the original plan was only pizzas and a bar, right? And we ended up finding a space.

And where the name came from is two ways, is Adam was one of our partners at the time actually had a dream about having a place called Nice Guys or something like that. And so that always like stuck with me. And when we were building it, we had this one investor committed to it, whatever. And we were like midway through, like sticks in the ground and like not anywhere near close, but like had already, you know, we were more than pregnant on the space that we had. And he walks in one day and he basically is like, I just found out you guys aren't doing

a nightclub. We're like, I never said I was doing a nightclub. He's like, you're doing a restaurant? No way I'm investing in a restaurant. And I'm like, well, it's like a hybrid. He's like, that doesn't work. And so anyway, long story short, as he went off, he's like, I'm not doing it. I'm pulling out.

And he was like, also, you're way too nice of a guy to have this work. And so name the place, the nice guy. Based on this guy pulling out, we got completely screwed on that, ended up finding investors to build it, built out more of an actual restaurant, whole Italian thing, kind of based it on like our...my whole thing was like we're gonna have a place that's like our friends and their friends, almost like a Cheers, I call it a mafia where it's like, you know, it's everyone that like you're friends with and associated with because to this day,

but especially then, is the only way you could get in or reservation was from on our Rolodex. So you got to be through one of us. And so that's how the NISQA came about. It's an awesome venue. I've been there 50 times. I had a birthday party there once with all my buds and friends and family. It's amazing. What you've done there is incredible.

And the food has really improved dramatically. I mean, from where you were when you opened, it's fantastic. Let's talk about the nightclub market itself. I'm going to read some statistics here. Sure. So there's 21,000 nightclubs in the United States. The US bar nightclub market in 2023 in the US, $37.6 billion, globally, $468.2 billion. There's not a lot of data today on how much each nightclub does, but in 2015, Forbes printed Forbes released the numbers. Excess nightclub in Los Angeles, 103 to 105 million dollars. Hacasa in Las Vegas, 100 to 103 million dollars.

Marquee in Las Vegas, 80 to 85 million dollars. Tao in Las Vegas, 50 to 55 million dollars. And Live in Miami, 40 to 45 million dollars. Are some nightclubs really earning 100 million dollars a year? Yes. But that's Vegas. Las Vegas is an outlier overall. It's just a place where everything comes together. So yeah, they are doing that.

And it's a great market. And it's great for that. But hard-pressed to do that anywhere outside of Las Vegas, even Miami. It's really one in the whole world. I'm hard pressed to do that anywhere outside of Las Vegas, even Miami. It's really one in the whole world. Explain what the economics of a nightclub business really is. How does it work?

How do you make money? And then in Las Vegas in particular, and maybe in Miami, explain to people what a beach party is. The truth is the way you really make money is by...in the nightclub world are whatever handful of bottle buyers there are, like the table buyers are...the bar itself is the minimus and even the ticket, even if a place is in Vegas or whatever, we don't sell tickets in our places, but that's minor. It's the table buyers, the guys or girls that are spending 50, 100 grand on tables.

That's why it's big business. Okay. So there's a lot of people watching this, tens of thousands who have probably never been to a nightclub. It's a crazy concept. So the nightclub may have 50 booths maybe. There's a front row, they're more expensive, the middle, the back. Someone's going to spend $100,000 for a booth that holds 10 to 14 people for four hours

worth of entertainment. Who are these people? They're very smart. A good time is priceless. I'm clearly very for it. It's great. So... At the end of the day, it's just an experience at the very end of the day.

Whatever it is, while it might be a lot of money, everything is relative. So if you're into needing an experience that's fun and you want your own real estate, it's really a real estate game. You have your own table You have your own servers at the end of the day. Like that's that's really what it is. That's your night out the experience is Someone's performing typically Performer DJ a DJ so a lot of people also don't know how much these people are getting paid in a night I I learned about this. One of Madison's best friends was dating Calvin Harris

when we went to dinner one night, which is very, very cool, by the way. I'll tell you another story. So you know that I'm out on the scene, and I really don't know who's who on the scene. And Madison's friend, Eva Shaw, who you know, was dating Calvin Harris. And Madison tells her, I'm leaving the office. you know, was dating Kelvin Harris. And Madison tells me, I'm leaving the office,

there are two interns there, I'm walking out at six o'clock, the dinner's at seven o'clock, and we host, I gotta go home, change, and one of the interns said, oh, what are you up to tonight? I'm having dinner with one of Madison's friend, you know, he's a DJ. And he said, oh, do you know his name? And I said, yeah, Kelvin something,

and they went, Kelvin Harris? He said, yeah, and I said, who's that? I said, oh, God you know his name? And I said, yeah, Kelvin something. And they went, Kelvin Harris? He said, yeah. And I said, who's that? And I said, oh, god, he's the biggest ever. And I went back home and looked online. And Forbes said he makes $70 million per year. And I'm thinking, oh, god, this guy's going to be an arrogant asshole, another Hollywood person,

going to be all to himself and not ask me any questions. And I walked out of there with a man crush, the nicest guy in the world, polite, asking, incredible. But I learned, I said, without being weird about it, this public, I said, how do you make tens of millions of dollars per year? Forbes said you made $70 million per year. And said, well, he said, I get paid usually $500,000 to $1 million per night. Forbes said you made 70 million dollars per year. And he said, well, he said I get paid usually 500,000 to a million dollars per night. Yeah, to DJ. To DJ.

So it's not a band in a stadium where you're traveling with 18 trucks and setting up and have cost. He's bringing like a little USB stick. You got a turntable that's not even his that's there. But he's the top of the game. Right, but then you'll get, you know, the chain smokers now are a million dollars. Totally. What's an average DJ that people actually want to come see? Don't name names, but like someone who can pull

people in the door. How much they get paid? Yeah, like what's the minimum? I'd say a good DJ that can like whatever that pulls names is probably 20 grand, 25 grand. Can bring people in. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't have to be... Once upon a time, it was $500. But your average person is 25 grand, then your bigger DJs that are the Vegas, Miami ones,

are anywhere from 100 to 500 grand a spin, a set. LA doesn't do that. Miami doesn't really even do that level. It's really only in Vegas and overseas and private where you do that type of dollar amount. Nightclubs are only open two or three nights a week. And there's different nights. If this nightclub is cool, that nightclub is cool.

You generally don't compete for those nights. So who decides who gets what night and what nights are cool? You know, it's just... It's a matter... It's like any business. You're living and breathing it. So you got to just kind of know the landscape and who's...the promotions that are the right ones that know what to do and where people are gravitating to and what the competitor

is doing and what you should be... It's definitely just living and breathing. There's not a science or a crystal ball to it. It's no different from any other business. You got to live and breathe it. It's not easy. It's hard to know what it is, but if you're in it, you can kind of get a sense, you know? And what's the cost to open a typical nightclub?

It can vary. You know, the way we build top of the line. So you know, ours are, you know, five to 10 million, you know. So in Vegas, they're, you know, 100 million. Someone spent $100 million to open a nightclub? Yeah. Who did that? I think it's multiple actually, so I won't name names, but most of them spent a, you're

spending real money. Delilah is your restaurant, your signature restaurant, which the first one was in LA, second one is in Vegas, $28 million build out? Yep, a little less, but yeah, 25. Huge. Yeah. Can some random shmoe call and say, hey, I want a reservation to Laila and Vaze? In theory, you should be able to, but it's been...it's a hard reservation, thank God. So we hopefully can get to everyone,

but yeah, it's a long process of getting a booking. Glad we're friends. Nightclubs don't stay cool forever. So what's the average length of period of time a nightclub is open and how do you keep it cool? You know, it's a tough question because I used to always say three, four years max are nightclub shelves. So you're spending $5 to ten million dollars on a nightclub. It's open two or three days a week, and it has that short of a shelf life?

Yeah. I mean, we've had Poppy open for eight years now, so I shouldn't say... It's not... And Bootsies was open 11 or 12 years. Las Vegas, whole different... Places are open 20 years. Very different. Miami, a little bit the same way.

As far as keeping it cool or hot, if you will, you have to just, you have to be in the venue. You have to have the right team that's there. And you have to like, if the minute you're removed as an owner operator or the team is that's with you, you're going to lose that touch, or that how to keep evolving. Because the key is to keep evolving and keeping on edge. Because music changes monthly. DJs change monthly. I mean, it's a whole thing.

Are the investors in iCloud men who want to be cool and have sex with beautiful women? I love your questions. I would say that's probably a lot of people. That's not us. We have, unfortunately, to have...we have a normal investor backing. I would say, you know, look, I don't know if it's as direct as that, but I'm sure there's a lot of...I'm sure there's a lot of nightclub investors.

It's like, hey, this will be my social life, you know? So I'm sure that's a lot of nightclub investors. It's like, hey, this will be my social life. So I'm sure that's what it is. Anything more direct than that is pretty creepy and probably not the type of investor you want. Been to a nightclub a few times. I have like a quota, one or three times a year, depending on who is inviting me and where we are. And I always look to these people.

You make your money on the bottle service on the tables and for those people who don't know and for those people who do, when someone buys a table or a big bottle or something, the women come out, you know, there's five or six women, it's like a parade of women carrying Dom Perignon bottles with sparklers coming out. Like, who are these people paying, you know, $25,000, you know, $100,000 for a table? I'm like, these guys are losers, right? And then at my bachelor party, Haka-san, which you arranged,

all the girls came out with the other bottle and sparklers, Randy on them. Like, hey, man, that's pretty good. It's pretty fun, right? It's pretty fun. I know. One and done, but it was fun. Maybe not one and done, but it was really fun.

I'm telling you it's human nature to see something sparkly and fun, and you're like, I want that. Yeah. It's as old as time. It's as simple as that. And that's like what goes down, honestly. That's what happens in these places.

Do people pay you to put their brand of alcohol in your venues? You told me this story once and I'm not going to name names, but there's someone who's very successful. I'm an entrepreneur, very, very well-known guy, billionaire, who owned a... I'm not even going to say what kind of brand because I really don't want people to figure out, but they own some kind of a brand. And he was coming into your venues to pitch you to carry his alcohol brand. Okay. Are people paying for shelf space to get in?

No. I mean, you really can't do that. They do sponsor parties. So when we have events and stuff and we need a liquor sponsor or something and they're Putting those marketing dollars there. That is a very massive thing That's that's like a major aspect of it But no you you you don't you it'd be too it you can't do it that way on on being paid to because

It'd be too, you can't do it that way on being paid to because the big companies then would have a monopoly. So who's a typical customer coming in and spending 25 to $100,000 on a table? It's funny, I have this, it varies like every few years. It's like whoever is up, like right now the crypto people, you know, so they got the crypto up, you know? You know, a few years or whatever it was a few years ago, it was the mortgage people. It just...there's like a cycle of people always, like who knows, you know?

So there's that and then, you know, there's inheritance, there's corporate, there's...it just varies, you know? And look, you're talking about the extreme 25 grand. The average table is, you know, like 2 grand, 2,500, something just varies. And look, you're talking about the extreme 25 grand. The average table is like two grand, 2,500, something like that. So you get your nuts and bolts off of the average table. And then the hope is every night, but the hope is, I don't know, once a week or whatever, you get someone big spending 50 grand, 100 grand type of thing. That's the name of the game. Petra Ecclestone is the daughter of the F1 founder

who famously bought the old Spelling Mansion for $100 million. Ex-husband James Stunt would come in when I spent $150,000 on Crystal Champagne. Oh yeah. He declared bankruptcy two months later, two years later. Sorry about that. Oh, not really. Yeah, maybe you're sorry because he didn't come in again. Yeah, that's unfortunate.

Then you've had Middle Eastern clients come in as well. There was some rose vintage down Perignon bottles that were $40,000 each. There was one in particular, I'm not going to name names again, but who bought two bottles. Tony Lepenna, shout one in particular, I'm not gonna name names again, but who bought two bottles. Tony Lapenna, shout out to Tony, I love him. I think he had to go to drive to Las Vegas to go get these bottles.

They're very, very hard to get and then bring them back. You're catering to what's known as whales. How do you recruit them and how do you keep them happy? The end of the day, I always say, I'm not in the bar business or the food business, I'm in the people business. So our whole thing is catering to...we're all in hospitality.

So we do anything and everything for our clients, especially our whales, which are big spenders, that's legal. We don't do anything outside of that. But anything they can do to make their entertainment life like enjoyable and perfect, they want a certain type of cigarette, they want a certain type of ashtray, a certain type of liquor, water, where they stay, like whatever. We are doing every aspect of it in that regard. And I think that's what really separates a real, a good hospitality group. It's sort of like Vegas going after the gamblers.

You all know who they are. So but where do you...how do you compete with these people? They know you already and how do you develop relationships with new ones? You built it...you have a track record. You build it over time, you get referred, you know, a bunch of different ways. That's the only way to really, you know, do it is you gotta have, you gotta do good work and then have people say, hey, go with this person.

How has OnlyFans essentially ruined or badly hurt the nightclub business? It's hurt it bad. It's very interesting. It's made it so easy for male and female, but obviously a lot of females to just make a fortune doing, you know, whatever online, not even nudity anymore. And so why that's changed a lot is a lot of that demo and age or whatever, that would be waitresses, waiters, hostesses, hosts, bottle girls.

It's just completely changed the workforce in a lot of ways, just made a lot less options. But isn't the flip side as well? Because back in the day, a lot of guys, and again, I'm a guy and I have friends and a lot of my friends went to nightclubs, they go to nightclubs to meet beautiful women. And today, you can DM beautiful women and beautiful women don't have to be in the nightclubs, right? They're just...they're there. So they're the human element of meeting beautiful women, which is a motivation for a lot of

guys who do go to nightclubs, but is not there. And there's fewer of those women who are going to nightclubs now because they don't really have to. It's true. Let's talk about another thing that's really hurt the business. Today's generation drinks less alcohol. It does. So let me just read some numbers here.

In 2023, the boomer spent $25 billion on alcohol, Gen X, $23.1 billion, millennials, $23.4 billion, Gen Z, $3.1 billion. How much has the younger generation affected your business not drinking as much? You see the effects. They're not drinking as much. It's definitely not a rite of passage to start drinking. It's definitely not the cool thing to do is to drink. So you see a massive drop off in that regard.

But at the end of the day, I'm a big believer on there's always pendulum swings and things. It is what it is right now. That doesn't mean that there isn't the still need for entertainment and going out. I don't think that's ever going away. Going out to meet people, socializing. AI, in our life, in our living lifetime, that's not going to be replaced. So that's the good thing. But there is a big difference on the drinking.

You can see it. Is owning nightclubs a good career? Tough to say. You got to love it. I got to, you know, if I didn't own nightclubs, I wouldn't be here today with a full hospitality company. But that was my way of getting there. You know, so yes, it can be a great business. It can also be a terrible business.

You can lose everything on a nightclub. I think there's a general impression of most people about what it means to own one. Are nightclub owners rich? They can be. I mean, it just depends, honestly. It's like, if you're the winner, if you're the one that's doing it, you're going to do very well. And if you're not, if you're mid-tier, you're not very rich. You're actually, just like any other entrepreneur that's killing themselves, feeding the beast over and over.

You go to a nightclub or you go to one of your restaurants, there's a long line to get in. There's a doorman. Parker was your doorman for a long time, now he's the head of creative. We'll talk about what you've done for your employees on a long-term basis. Who's getting in?

You mean how do people get in? Yeah. You know, for the most part, it's through relationships. So it's all on who they know, what promoter or whatever, and that's literally the doorman. That's literally how it goes. But there are random people who get in line at a nightclub. They want to get in, and then someone like Parker's picking and choosing. You're four dudes.

You are never getting in. It depends. It doesn't go like that. It goes more if you know the landscape of who people are and if they're out and about and if they're right. It's more about that and more about... Because you gotta... It's like I said, it's just like any other business where you know who the players are, who the right people are that are like going out, that are at different venues, that are not causing issues, that are bringing good things to the table. So it's less

about if you're four dudes, like you said, it's like...because that can happen, you know, where the four guys do get in. Because if they're the right ones, if they're the people that are out and are the ones that we know, the ones that Parker knows or whoever the person is at the door is, it's a different story. Right. But four dudes who knows no one, who's coming to LA and there's four guys, six guys want to go to the nightclub, hey, I heard Bootsy's amazing.

You guys are not getting in, don't even bother to come not easy There's a lot of cash exchange at the door right I think so You know I mean we're not bucks to get in and give the doorman hundred bucks You know I I don't know how I mean hopefully that's not at ours like that You know, but it happens sometimes I've seen it happens a lot. You know, some change exchange here and there. Yeah, it happens a lot. It's part of the it's part of that business. I think one of the things that you've done is so important in business is be loyal to your employees. If you're great to them,

they'll be great to you. And one of the great things you've done is you've promoted people have been with you for a long time. Parker was a doorman for, I think, five or seven years. He's now head of creative. Seth Miller has been with you for 11 years. Shout out to Seth. You always take great care of me. I love you. Been with you 11 years, and he's started at one level.

Now he's at a whole other level. Yeah, he's in Miami at our Delilah, Miami operation. And so he's... I'm a big believer in people rising with us, you know, and I do think it really matters. We have so many people that have been with me since the beginning, you know, and the idea is that everyone kind of grows together and keeps growing. I mean, it's the best way if it can be done. A lot of crazy shit goes on at your nightclubs And you're constantly putting out fires. I mean I've been with you. We've been sitting at a club

We've been talking like oh shit, you know, I've got to go deal with this right now. Yep every night Is there crazy shit going on at your nightclub? Give us Two examples of something absolutely absurd that went on without naming any names? There's just always something. It's like, you know, there's someone in a fight in the bathroom, there's someone screaming at a waitress, there's... We had someone... I don't know if you can say it on here, but we had someone demand... It was so upset, refused to pay his bill because he wasn't allowed to order cocaine from us.

Didn't understand that. So it's like weird stuff where people are just absolutely out of their minds. Are people having sex in bathrooms? I think so. I don't know. It's funny. You know, you see people go in there. You know, there's a line and then there's a door and someone opens the door and someone

kind of goes in and then, you know, five minutes later they come out. So it's like, you know, weird things are going on in bathrooms. I hope not. I hope not at ours. You never know. You talk about how hard it is now to hire bottle servers. My wife, Madison, worked at Finale Nightclub in New York.

She had four jobs when I met her. And she'd bartend for one night a month or two nights a month, making $1,000, $2,000 cash in a night. She had four jobs when I met her and she'd bartend for one night a month or two night a month making a thousand $2,000 cash in a night. So the bottle servers bottle girls Make between one and two thousand dollars on a good night The clubs are open two or three nights and they're open from 11 to 2 in the morning in LA

Yeah in LA so you work nine hours, six to nine hours. And if you pencil that over the course of the year, you can make $100,000 a year working very little time. Yep. Do you recommend being bottle girls as a career choice for some women? Yeah. I think it's great.

It's like, at the end of the day, it's a sales job. So if you're good at that, you can do a great for yourself. You can do great for the place. So yeah, I do think it's great. How does someone become and apply to become a bottle girl? Do you have to be good looking and thin or have a good figure? And if so, how do you apply? Well, whatever new club is opening, they usually do a...you usually do a call, like a call

for new people working there. You do, you know, for the most part, you should, especially when it's like the bigger ones, you should have experience because it's not an easy job. There's a lot that goes into it actually. So you'd be hard pressed. I don't know if we would hire someone with no experience in the bot. Like they have to have some sort of experience or training in it. I had a waiter when I was in Vegas, we were there for the F1 race.

Actually I was there to interview Dana White for my show. We went to Javier's, and we had a very nice waitress, and I like talking to people. I like learning what they do and what are you up to, is this your full-time job? And she said she was at one of the beach clubs as a bottle service girl, and no longer work there.

I asked why, I said, well, I gained 15 pounds. I love that, that's fucking nuts. That's crazy. That's Vegas, I guess. That's not LA or California. I don't think that's legal in California. I mean, who's going to sue? In California, I mean in Vegas? I'm just saying. you know, but Vegas is gonna sue in California. I mean, I'm just saying like, you know, she she's

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. That's that's that's definitely not she lost the weight by the way because we're Instagram friends and I saw her posting again from the Beach Club. Yeah, I said, oh you got your job back said yeah lost a little weight Is that insane? I mean, it's similar to the cheerleader world. Cheerleaders have a thing. But that is definitely more, that's definitely a Vegas thing. That's not LA. Delilah, you opened

in 2016, you said you built it for your friends. Tell people what it is. I mean, good luck getting in, but tell people how cool it is. With the success of Nice getting in, but tell people how cool it is. With the success of Nice Guy, we were like, you know, we're actually onto something and we felt that there was this new like desire for people to have a place where they're like having a night out and dining at the same time.

And literally people thought that you couldn't do that in LA. That it was like insane. And so, you know, what's ironic is as old as time are supper clubs. And that's what they did back in 1920s. It was like dining, live music, drinking, kind of all the above. And that's the concept of Delilah came from that, bringing that back in a real way. And that's what we did. And, you. And it took a second to take off. I remember in the first week being on a Friday night, we had to close at like 8 p.m. and I was like literally in tears.

I was like, we're screwed. But we stuck to the model and it's definitely, you know, it's our big, you know, Delilah's our flagship brand. And then when we opened it in Las Vegas, we got global recognition for it, you know. And now we have it in Miami and we're opening it in Dallas. One of the dessert items is something called the slutty brownie and it's named after Kendall Jenner. What do I have to do to get a dish named after me?

Be a Jenner? Be a Jenner? Gotta get a dish named after me? Be a Jenner. Be a Jenner? Gotta get into a Dami? She is, you know, she created that. I really credit her and she's like the greatest friend and supporter. I really credit her with Delilah taking off because she did her birthday there early on and from then it really took off. So I'll always be appreciative.

But you know she had this love of this of this dessert and it was a slutty brownie and she actually literally created the dessert. Like literally. She came in your kitchen and started bringing it together? Yeah. Hey John, will you taste some? Hey. To our chefs, yeah. Okay, cheers chef. So that's where it stems from. You mentioned before that you do crazy things to make your customers happy. Tell us about Jolo's brother and how on earth you went out and got a live chicken with a top hat in the middle of the night.

Yeah, Zen Lo. Tell people who he is, first of all. A lot of people don't know. Well, he turned out to be the world's biggest fraud. So that's always fun. At the time, he was really famous for being literally the world's biggest spender. He was spending a million a night on bottles. I don't think everyone assumed he was just a fun-loving but legit businessman. He was always with the right business people and he'd come out and spend, I don't know,

literally a million, $2 million on bottles. And we had him in LA and Aspen, actually. And yeah, his brother asked me to facilitate for him, he wanted to gift someone at the next table a gift. And I was like, OK, I'll make anything happen. The live chicken with a top hat. And it was like, I don't know, 11 p.m. or something on like a Friday. And I'm like, I found a farm open and I don't know, I did it.

Like you sent, you're, you're asking someone to go back online, search chickens for sale, and you sent someone out to go pick one up. Like, did he bring it back at one in the morning? Yeah, it was like, I think it was like 11 or 12 or something like that. And yeah, I mean, Peter wouldn't be too happy, but, you know, make the guy happy. But yeah, and then years later, Jolo turned out to be this big 1MDB scandal. Yeah, and for those people who don't know, he's part of the Malaysian government, swindled $5 billion, and Goldman Sachs was involved in raising that capital for the sovereign wealth fund, and Goldman paid a several billion dollar fine.

And this guy also gifted Jennifer Lopez some kind of a $300,000 car, I think, of Rolls Royce and Leo DiCaprio. And the government came back and. Yeah. They didn't take the chicken, though. They didn't take the chicken? The chicken probably died that night, right? Or a couple of days later.

Sacrifice that chicken? Sacrifice. Not part of your chicken tenders. No, not part of the chicken tenders. Which is one of the signature dishes at Delilah and at your wedding. It is, yeah. Well, I throw a chicken tender festival, too. I'm a big chicken tender fan.

Not healthy. It's not healthy, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone that doesn't like a chicken tender. So I've bonded with the craziest people, the biggest from whatever people over a chicken tender We both have young kids All these chicken tenders at the birthday parties. I have a hundred percent take rate on the chicken tenders every party You do yeah, love them. That's love them another interesting Thing you did you were in France? I think they can film festival with the CEO of Haka San Who in the middle of night want to smoke some hookah at one in the morning and you don't speak French. Oh, yeah

So I just do that when you don't speak the language. I figured it out with that, but I had to convince a I had to convince a place to open a shop to get a hookah I mean, I I must have run 20 blocks. It was actually insane. And convinced them to open it and made it happen. My thing is just making stuff happen. It's the only way to be. So it's like, you know, and it's probably not fun for the people that work with me because I expect everyone to have that mindset or it's just like, just make it happen, you know? Was there a customer who asked you to return a tire at Nordstrom?

That's actually my thinking is that vibe, that whole Nordstrom's mantra where it's like, you know, anything, I don't know if they still do it, but anything that can be returned, they do. You have a saying that at the end of the day, we get it done. Critical for the customer service business. Yes. Is the customer always right? The customer's always right, even when they're wrong.

So give me an example of when they're wrong, but they're right. It's almost every night. At the very end of the day, it's not worth arguing with the customer. Even if they're right, it's not worth...even if they're wrong, it's not worth arguing with them. It's their night...it's a moment in time. So unless there's something like...you know, where I draw the line is any sort of sexual harassment and any sort of drug related, okay? Or harassment at all.

So outside of that, the customer is always right. So it's like, if you do one of those, you're in the wrong and you're gonna be out. But if you're arguing over, I don't know, you didn't order something and it's on the bill or you didn't get the table you requested or every night there's some version of that. And, you know, I'd say 50% of the time they're kind of wrong, but it's not worth it. And it's like, and I try to train the people around me or teach the people with me that it's just like at the very end of the day, just say, I'm really sorry, we'll make it happen. Like, it's fine.

Like, we'll do X, Y, and Z. It's okay. It's not worth the argument of being right or wrong. You'd rather...you get more by having them get back to their night and have an enjoyable evening or day. A lot of restaurants have customers who are VIP. Yes. You know, they get the better tables. A lot of restaurants have customers marked VIP. They get the better tables.

Do you have a code system for painting the ass customers? No, we don't have painting the ass. We have very detailed notes though on everyone's likes, dislikes, what they want, what they eat, what they... Table numbers? What they prefer, table number, yeah. I always ask for a table number, I put it in my phone, and then I'll ask for tables.

You mean the table that you like? Yeah, the table that I like when I'm at the restaurant. I mean, if I'm going there, you know, sometimes I'll call you up, John, I'm at Delilah's, can I go, and I'm just lucky to get a table. No. Even with our friendship, I'm lucky to get a table sometimes.

No, no, no. It's not a pain in the ass mark. It's a mark of this person has high tension over X, Y, and Z. Right. You know, over, you know, make sure to not, you know, pour the water in front of him or her. You know, it's like, it's not detailed. You have amazing relationships with celebrities

Justin Bieber Drake Post Malone tons and tons of people they come in your club. Sometimes I've been there People come in you Justin Bieber walks in he starts playing the piano How did you develop these relationships with all these famous people? The ones that I'm friends with are genuine relationships. They just happen to be celebrities. Yeah, but I mean, if Post Malone was hanging out at the two tables away at the nice guy,

and I love Post Malone, by the way, and I'm not gonna really go up to him and say, hey, post up. What's his real name again? Austin. Yeah, Austin. Hey, Austin, Randy. Hey, what's his real name again? Austin. Yeah, Austin. Hey, Austin, Randy, hey, let's go have a beer at the bar together. It's hard to become friends with a celebrity. Yeah, but you're not in the...

Like I've been in both music, entertainment, and hospitality business now for 20 years. So a lot of people I've been friends with since...I've been friends with Post since he started basically his career almost, you know, essentially. So we've just been friends this whole time. And it's very genuine. Like I don't...at the end of the day, I think the key with me is I'm not...I don't have an angle. I'm not expecting things of them or people. It's actually the opposite. I actually wanna have them angle. I'm not expecting things of them or people. It's actually the opposite. I actually wanna have them protected and feel that they have a place that they don't get exploited.

No one really goes up to them. I mean, if I'm... Post Malone was sitting next to me at the bar grabbing a beer, I'd definitely say hello, but I'm not going up to his table either. Well, in my places, they don't. They do in other places. Yeah. You'll get kicked out right away because the only way I can have anyone feel...

You wanna be able to have a night out and not be harassed, you know? Yeah. We were at Nobu one night. America's Got Talent is my favorite show. It's the American dream. I'll cry when I see these stories sometimes. Learning a lot today. You know, Nobu has security. If you go there a lot, you know who they are. And by the way,

good luck getting a reservation at Nobu. I mean, if you're really not on the list, you're not getting a table there. So they have these guys, you know, you've been there, and Simon Cowell walks in one night. And my daughters, who you also know well, said, Simon Cowell just walked in, and they know I love the show. And I do not go say hello. So he's passing by the table. I was already up out of my chair.

I said, hey Simon, I introduced myself, and you could see these two guys walking toward me. I said, I'm a huge fan of the show. I think so-and-so is going to win. And I just met this songwriter who had written songs for all these people like Cole Swindell and all these interesting people, Blake Shelton. And I said, oh, I've got this guy. Oh, you pitched him. I had nothing to gain from this whatsoever. But you pitched him?

No. I just said, by the way, if you call it a pitch, I pitch him. I'm trying to help him. I'm trying to help him. Yeah, you're trying to help him. And so I said, I think this guy is going to win. He did not win. But I said, you know, this guy... And what I did say is...

So we were at Gazer, and I'm sitting next to Joe Russo, one of the biggest directors all time, I think the second biggest, so we'll risk first and we're at dinner. And his friend is from Vegas, or from Nashville, I said, okay, whatever, he's written songs for these people. And I just had dinner with him like a week before. And so I'm home and so I said to Simon Cowell, I said, oh, by the way, I just met this guy

and he also is a fan of this singer and he had never met the singer before, he never listened to the show. But I said, oh, he's interested in writing songs for so-and-so because I wanted to get to know Simon Cowell. And so I, and Simon does not have a phone and his fiance was there and he said, oh, you know, take Randy's number and, you know, let's see if we can make the intro or not. But I took my shot at Simon. How did that go for you?

I'm glad I did it, you know? It's like, I love Simon Cowell. I want him on my show. I will get him on my show at some time. Great businessman, by the way, as well. But yeah, I wouldn't do it at your club unless he's sitting next to me. He would be escorted out. So I do want to talk about Post Malone a little bit more. You get a lot of really cool things.

And one of the cool things was you're in one of his songs and the song is called Couped Up. And I'm going to just read you the lyrics. Okay. All right. And I'm not going to sing them. You're not going to wrap it? I actually am not going to. I'll put a little bit of a beat there, but it's, yeah, I'm off the Bud Light, not the bourbon. I might chop the roof off the suburban skirt. Tried to be a nice guy, John Turzian, wow.

Till I started throwing your burk, till I started throwing up in your Birkin, ooh. Then I woke up in the morning, police showed up at my door with a warrant, fuck that shit. I remember flushing something down the toilet, flush flush. Guess he gotta let me off with a warning. You should, that could be your whole show, is doing reading versus of like raps and rock songs.

That was incredible. So. Especially when you did skrt. Skrt. So my question to you is, are you close enough? I mean, we're good friends. You've done some nice things for me. Are you close enough to Austin where you can ask him to put me in one of his future songs? I am, but I won't.

You don't want to help me? It's on my bucket list. one of his future songs. I am, but I won't. You don't want to help. It's on my bucket list. I'm sure it is. It's on my bucket list. I'm sure it is. I'll make a donation to his favorite charity. I'll donate to his favorite charity.

I will take that into consideration. Yeah, he's never heard that before, being paid to be in a song. A lot of people don't know this, but fiction writers, fiction writers, people will pay charity to be named as a character in fiction books. This is a very common thing. John Grisham, all the big authors.

I didn't know that. Do stuff like that, yeah. Wow. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a brilliant idea. They get paid. Like, let's say John Grisham is writing a new book, and John Grisham is some charity thing, and someone will pay. Oh, got it. You know, you could say John Grisham is writing a new book, and John Grisham is some charity thing, and someone will pay.

Oh, got it. You could pay John and Terzi and put me in the book. Cool. And the money goes to charity. I like that. Yeah, I think it's great. You should auction off. It's like the chicken tenders is named after a stadium,

as a stadium rights. But I think some of these other dishes. Mike Melman has a dish doesn't he? At uh, Craig's. Yeah, his dish at Craig's. Melman uh, honey chicken or something. Yeah, Mike's coming on the show. The best.

I decided to have him. Great, great man. Elements of success. How important is brand building, what you've done with H Wood as in your success? I think it's the number one. paramount. I think it's, I think brand building is the key to kind of anything that we do. One of the things that I know has made you successful, and you're gonna be a little bashful about this, is you're a great friend to your friends.

And everybody will say that about you. I mean, I meet people all the time, your name comes up on a regular basis. Oh, nice guy. Terz is the best. Terz, you know, you're one of these guys that no one says a negative word about ever. I appreciate that.

I mean, rarity. Appreciate that. Your friendships and your relationships, how important have those been to your success? I think they've been everything for me. I would not be sitting here doing any of this without the friends and family that I have along the way. They're like a full network of just... I don't know, it's weird. It's like you feel like you have this... I have

a full support team of like people that are so reliable. And so I go overboard for any friend of mine on purpose, where I want them to make sure that they have that same for me. I want to share my bachelor party for you, one of the highlights of my life. Madison and I both had it in Vegas. She said I crashed the bachelor party. Boys did something one night. The girls did something the next night.

We went to the Hockesson the next night. Calvin Harris is playing. We're in the DJ booth. I'd never been in a DJ booth. Loved it. One of the highlights of my life. I mean, it still has that sound. And I remember saying to one of my friends,

Josh, you know, we're, all the champagne came out, Randy, Randy, Randy. And you know, we're looking, we're drinking. We've had a lot to drink. And I said to Josh, you know, we're, we're, then all the champagne came out, Randy, Randy, Randy. And you know, we're looking, we're drinking, we've had a lot to drink. And I said to Josh, you know, he said to me, yeah, we got to do this again. And I looked at him like, dude, we're never coming back here again. Like tough. Although it did happen again, but that's another story for another lifetime. On the flip side, on the flip side of this, can you be an asshole

and run a successful nightclub? Yeah, I think there's plenty of assholes that run places, you know? I think you can be successful. I think it'd be hard to have some longevity. One of the things you're great at as well in terms of relationships, you text five people every morning, random people, hey, how you doing? Checking in, anything I can help with? Yeah.

Huge. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. I had, when I was a law clerk, I worked at this big firm in Detroit, most successful firm. I was there for the summer and they let you, the partners could take you out one-on-one for lunch.

You know, you would ask all the partners. And there's a guy named Dick Burstein who was the biggest rainmaker in the firm. And to the point where he wasn't really practicing well. I mean, he was, but, you know, he wasn't. Senior partner, he doesn't do the work. The junior people do the work, but he's not working all day. I said, you know, Dick, what's the secret? And he said to me, he said, I'll text three clients every single day.

How are you doing? Is there something I can help with? And he had, I mean, back then, eight, $10 million book of business. This was 30 years ago. I was massive, biggest frame maker in the entire firm. You know, it's, I had never heard that story, but it's a good one. It's that extra personal touch that I think most people overlook. And to me, I genuinely mean it and enjoy it.

You often don't tell people that you're coming to your clubs or your venues. And one of the things that you've said has made you successful as well was just listening and watching. Yeah. Talk to us about that. I kind of view myself as like an ultimate observer.

So I like to see what people are gravitating to or talking about or liking or disliking. It's sometimes hard to get to hear what people dislike, but I think it's really good. And so I try to be as stealth as possible a lot of the nights. Other nights I'm just there and I just like to like observe and watch. But it's a good way to know what's like working, not working, new places. It's a whole thing. One of the main ingredients that's made me successful is something called extreme preparation. I'm writing a book on extreme preparation.

That means when someone prepares for a podcast, one hour, I prepare an average 14 hours. How important has extreme preparation been to your success? And can you give some examples? I don't think I'm on your level of extreme preparation. Well, just give some examples of where you've really prepared, where you think more than anybody overboard that's contributed to a positive outcome. When I am up for something that we want for business-wise, so a new space in a hotel or a new investor group or whatever, I do an obscene amount of background, deep dive on who they are,

their family, what they like, dislike, kind of all that, and really try to like use that in a positive way, I mean, on what I'm gearing towards so that I go in there with like kind of a leg up. And I think that's been a major reason on why I've gotten some certain venues of ours or some deals. Most recent was an investor group. I prepped for, I don't know, a week or two on just every aspect of it. And when I went in that door, it's funny, when you go in the door, it's like, it's all that preparation. It comes a lot easier when you're in there. It does matter.

It makes a big difference. Work ethic is huge. SAE house at USC, rumor was you didn't even have sheets on your bed. It was just a pillow because you were out all the time. This crazy work ethic that you never sleep. Yeah, that's true actually. I did not have sheets on my bed for like two years. You'd come home late and you'd just kind of crash out? I'd just just crash, yeah.

Yeah, I sleep maybe four or five hours a night at most. It's like my, it's always been that way. It's like a gene or something, I don't know. Or I'm gonna hibernate for three years one day. You start your day typically at 7.30. 6.30. Start your day at 6.30. You're in the office all day,

come home for dinner, a few hours rest, and then you're out two or three venues a night, often coming back from two to 2.30 in the morning. It's brutal on the body. Yeah, it is. I mean, you know, what I'm doing more and more is I've been doing that for so long. What's more important now is a balance of my kids

and wife and family life and work. So I try to have two or three nights fully off. I'll leave the office at five, you know, type of thing. I take my kid to school every morning now. That type of stuff. As far as the like, you know, late night, early morning, you know, I just went I...the other day I was like super tired and I was like, I wonder what's so weird. And I literally had forgotten that I missed an entire day of sleep. I had come...I had flown back on something. I just completely skipped a day of like...

For the Super Bowl? Super Bowl, our event. Just completely skipped it. It's crazy. Let's talk about that business, event business. It's more profitable margin-wise than the restaurant business. How does that all work? What kind of profits do you make, and can anybody get in?

Well, each event is different. So we're fortunate enough to have a really good partner this year and last year too, but this year with DraftKings. They're amazing with us. And so the whole thing was just have a great event. So this was all invite. But yeah. Most invites are, do you get invites like the players do to the Super Bowl?

They got two tickets each where you can say, all right, I've got 10 buds who get in. You mean who we're inviting? Yeah, no. If it's a private party. Pretty much everyone's plus one. No, it's H-Wood and Draft. Yeah. Oh, you both get to invite people.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So I can come next year if I'm going to the Super Bowl and you guys are doing the party? You're good. Yeah. Okay. But in most years, we get a sponsor, we sell tables. It can be really amazing. Next year's in San Francisco, year after is in LA. So those are probably the big ones, where we sell tables and sponsors and the whole thing. People who don't know, give...these are massive parties.

Give people an example of what the budgets are for these and how many people are actually coming. I mean, it varies, you know. We did a Super Bowl party that I think was 10 million or something. $10 million budget. Yeah. The sponsors spent $10 million. What do they get out of it?

Well, what you get out of it is, besides press, is the whole idea is experiential. So they're entertaining their whatever corporate clients or whatever it might be. They might be launching a product. It just all varies in that regard. But on average, I'd say the events that we do that are like big offsite because we try to have a... We do Coachella, Monaco, Cannes Film Festival, Super Bowl, NBA All-Star this weekend we're doing in San Francisco.

I'd say on the most part, it's anywhere from 500 grand to a million, you know, type of budget. Then you have your own parties too. You throw this white party on July 4th. People can pay to go to that one in advance? No. No. We do sell a handful of tables, but everything else is all invite. I saw your VIP host, John Hines, made some funny post on Instagram right before the white party.

Stop DMing or texting me about the white party. The answer is no. Yeah, that became a big one. You started a film and TV business as well. Yep. You did a great documentary in 2022 called Call Me Magic. You have some movies and things in development with Kid Cudi and Post Malone. Tell us... Pardon me?

Kid Cudi. Kid Cudi. Tell us about what you're doing there. Well, you know, we started...I started HMedia about four or five years ago. And the idea was that...and I'm the type of person, I am to this day, that if I introduce two people or I do whatever, I don't expect anything. I want everyone to go on and do their thing. And it became... I was doing that so much with friends of mine that were talent, that were whatever.

I was putting so many deals together, they're like, you know, you should be...we actually want you in business with us. And so what I did was created Atriod Media with...you know, Brian and I created Atriod Media as like the non-hospitality arm. So we manage our kid, Zach Mia, in it, DJ. His career is blown up. Blown up, massive. But the idea was like music, TV, film, all the above. But what it's really morphed into besides managing Zach is the film and documentaries and TV because we love

it. I mean, it's a very similar skill set to what we do with building places being a producer side. So we have access to capital, we have great talent relations, I think we have good taste, and we kind of get stuff done. And so that's the true essence of a producer. And so we started with, they call me Magic, which was Magic Johnson's documentary. And we're in the middle of a few other documentaries now, Basquiat documentary. And then we have a handful of feature films that are on the slate that are going. So to me, it's amazing.

I really love that world. There's a ton of synergy with what we're doing. And we had our first indie film just got into South by Southwest. So it's going to go on March 12th there. What's it called? Idiotica. What's it about? It's about a young girl and her family. And she grows up, it's a comedy and grows up in the Russian district of West Hollywood. You know that little Russian pocket? She aspires to be a fashionista and it's a really fun little comedy.

It's cool. So Magic knows everyone in town, knows every studio he's had. How on earth did you get Magic to allow you to make a documentary on him when you never produced any TV or movie in your lifetime? That's a good one too. It's kind of like everything I've done in life.

I just stay true to things. The way I approach it with Magic, so Magic called me, or his team did, about opening sports bars. And I kind of, a long-winded way, I kind of was like, without... Let's put that to the side for a second. I have this idea because I'm launching this media. And this is before the documentary craze. This is before Jordan, everything.

It was right before. And I said, look, I'm an outsider. I'm an entrepreneur. And what I want to do is make your life story and I'll bring in the best of the best, finance it all, do it all. I didn't know how I was going to do that, by the way, but I did. And he liked what I had to say. He liked the fact that I was not in the film world. He liked the fact that I was like a little bit of an outsider and hungry to do a great

project and to pay for it, bringing all the right stuff. And so we did and he agreed to it. And I stayed true to my word. We got great people involved and it ended up being a massive thing. We sold it to Apple, a great project. So a lot of people don't know how that works either. So people think, oh, you're making a documentary and it's like a nonprofit thing, you know, it's just like you're making the movie. How do the economics of a documentary work? I mean, it's the same thing as anything. It all varies.

It's just how much you make for it, what you can sell it for, you know. So for the most part, documentaries are low. This was a massive one. Magic, thanks to Magic's name and who he is and the product that they made was great. It was a great sale. But for the most part, yeah, documentaries are a little bit more... What's nice about documentaries is they're faster to make. So that's pretty great. Yeah. Magic came to our charity event called the Imagine Ball for Imagine LA. We started this

thing going on 10 years ago now. I started an event called the Justice Ball. And yes, I mess up when we're getting up there. Welcome to the Imagine Ball, and it's the Justice Ball. That was a very funny moment, by the way, where you look at me. That was a wild moment. Yeah, you looked at me. I said, welcome to whatever, the Justice Ball. And you look at me.

I mean, that was actually crazy. Yeah, I know. Still have it on film, by the way. Oops. You're nervous up there, whatever. So we started this event. House of Blues was our first, I think, two events. I had started the Justice Ball for a nonprofit law firm. Bets had a legal service that ran for a long time,

raised millions of dollars. And then I wanted to do something new. And I said, you know what, John would be a great partner in this. Let's create this thing together. And I think we talked about various things. We wanted an organization that didn't have a big fundraiser that we would be kind of the main action.

Yeah, you know, rubber chicken dinner. And then we built this great thing together. I mean, you at the end of the day raised most of the money, probably 90% of the money, within your venue. You donated to the venue. You had Magic Hum, Serena, Kevin Hart this year. How important is philanthropy to our success? Well, you know, from a young age I was always big on giving back and doing good as much as possible. So I think it's really important, you know? I think people need to do more of it.

I currently do quite a bit for Children's Hospital. It's a big one for me. But yeah, I think to each their own on that. But for me, I think it's important. We're at the end of our show, and I always finish the end of my show with a game called fill in the blank to excellence. All right.

Ready to roll? Let's do it. All right. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is? Not get too down. My number one professional goal is? Own a hotel. By the way, we've talked about this now for years. So what's happening on that front?

I'm in the hunt. Tough to buy a hotel these days. Lots of economic issues. Everything's tough. But one day. One day. One day it'll come together. My number one personal goal is? Have my wife happy.

You have an amazing wife. Shout out to Lonnie. Shout out. The one thing that everybody should say to themselves when they wake up in the morning is? You woke up. The one thing that people should say to themselves when they go to bed at night is?

Some version of relax. Some version of turning your mind off. My biggest regret is... Probably not passing the bar. You can still do it. No, definitely not. That was hell, man. That was rough. My biggest fear is...

Failing. The most proudful moment of my career is... I think the opening of Delilah Vegas was the most proud moment of my professional career. The craziest thing that's happened in my career is? All of it. It's a crazy career that I'm very thankful for. The craziest thing that's happened in one of my clubs is? I got protested by PETA for having a llama in it.

Nice. The llama was happy though. Nice. Had a good night. The best advice I've ever received is? Play the long game. The worst advice I've ever received is... Play the long game. The worst advice I've ever received is... Take the money.

If you could name one trait that would make somebody successful, it would be... You can't ever buy back your reputation. If you could give your three kids one piece of advice, what would it be? Do what you love. Ten years from now, I'm going to be doing... A bigger version of what I'm doing. Twenty years from now, I'm going to be doing... A much bigger version of what I'm doing.

The most important thing that's contributed to my success is... All my support, friends and family support. The one thing I've dreamt about doing for a long time, but haven't is... I'm trying to think without being hotel. If you could be one person in the world, who would it be? Deadest Steve Jobs. Alive? I don't know.

I'm going to digress about my Steve Jobs story, I'm eating him once. Here we go. I was at Four Seasons, Hawaii, Kona. And there was a resort next door called Kona Village. And Steve and his family came over for dinner one day. And he was at a table far away from everyone else. And my ex-wife, my wife at the time said, Steve Jobs is sitting over there. You're going to go say hello?

I said no. Haven't been with his family. Said the old Randy would have. I was already out of my chair when she said that. So I go over, I'm walking over, it's a long walk, and it's Steve, his wife, two kids, and I'm standing right at the table. He didn't even look up.

Literally, I'm like, okay. So I said, excuse me, Mr. Jobs, I'm Randy Kaplan, co-founder of Akamai. They had invested $25 million in our C round and had tried to buy our company. They put in $25 million at a $250 million valuation. And so he said, you're a co-founder of Akamai? I said, yeah. He said, you must have made a lot of money. Weirdest thing. And so I said, yeah, we all did well. And then, and by the way, at the time, Apple was nowhere near what it was today.

There were rumors it was going out of business, right? They had a 1% market share of the PC market. So they must've made a billion dollars on this deal. I mean, it's a stretch to say we helped save the company, but it certainly didn't hurt. And so I'm standing there and I'm thinking, oh gosh, you it's a stretch to say we helped save the company, but it certainly didn't hurt. And so I'm standing there and I'm thinking, oh gosh, you know, I need to say something. So I said, I loved your Stanford graduation speech. And he said, thank you. I was dismissed. And I walked back to the table with my tail between his legs. But at the end

of the day, I was glad I did it. Yeah, you met Steve Jobs. I met Steve Jobs. You also never want to meet your heroes. What's that? You never want to meet your heroes. You never do? That's the rule of thumb. They're always going to disappoint. I do.

Clearly. From Steve to Simon. Steve to Simon. Simon Collins, not my hero, but I do think the word of them. Simon, I hope you come on my show. If you could meet one celebrity in the world that you already don't know, who you'd like to have dinner with, who would it be? Michael Jordan.

You haven't met Michael yet? No. I'm sure you could. You know everybody. I don't necessarily care about meeting people. But they have fascinating lives. For me, when I meet celebrities... But you like that. Yeah. I don't... It's not the celebrity. It's not for their sake that they're famous.

I like learning about people. My Uber drivers, I get the whole history of their life. They're actually pretty interesting. They have the greatest lives. I love it. Well, they don't have the greatest lives. They have the greatest stories. Stories, yeah, yeah.

Right? I want to know what the custodian in the building is doing, and I always talk to them and I want to know what the CEOs and the founders are doing. I find it fascinating. If you were President Trump, what's the next thing you would do tomorrow? Somehow, whether you fake it or not, somehow instill some sort of uniting people. The one question you wish I'd ask you but didn't is... I think you answered it.

I think you asked everything. Got to give a shout out to your partner, Brian Toll, and all the other amazing people that you've introduced me to. Appreciate all the relationships, the friendships. Appreciate you. It's been so fun and awesome to watch you guys grow because I met you. You were really at a transition period and just it's so awesome to see what you guys have done. So happy for your success. Thank you.

Congratulations on everything you've done. Thank you for being really an happy for your success. Thank you. Congratulations on everything you've done. Thank you for being really an amazing, amazing friend. Thank you. Appreciate you, Eddie.