In Search Of Excellence - Mike Meldman: From Co-Founding Casamigos to Becoming Co-Owner of the Las Vegas Raiders | E164 - Part 2

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

In this powerful episode, Mike Meldman — real estate mogul, co-founder of Casamigos Tequila, and founder of Discovery Land Company — shares the remarkable story behind his journey from instinct-driven entrepreneur to one of the most influential figures in luxury real estate and lifestyle branding. Mike dives deep into how Casamigos, a tequila brand originally created with George Clooney “just for fun,” skyrocketed from a personal project to a billion-dollar business — despite having no plans for mass distribution. From there, he walks us through the origin and explosive growth of Discovery Land Company, a visionary take on private communities built around service, family, and meaningful experiences — not just golf. One of his standout projects, Kukio in Hawaii, started with an underwhelming plot of lava rock but became one of the most successful resort communities in the U.S., selling $50 million worth of real estate in just 90 days. Mike reveals how a courthouse bidding war with Mitsubishi, unconventional thinking, and meticulous attention to member experience helped make Kukio what it is today. But his ambition didn’t stop there. Mike also discusses his 7.5% ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, the importance of choosing the right people to surround yourself with, and how he's used strategic investments in companies like Vuori (valued today at $7 billion) to expand his brand’s reach far beyond real estate. He speaks candidly about the challenges he's faced — including the emotional toll of two failed marriages — and reflects on what truly matters: family, discipline, integrity, and giving back. Through the Discovery Land Company Foundation, Mike supports children’s charities and community development around each of his projects, making sure that luxury living doesn't come at the cost of social impact. This episode is more than a conversation — it’s a blueprint for anyone who wants to build something iconic from scratch, stay grounded while chasing massive success, and leave behind a legacy that matters. Timestamps: 00:00 – Casamigos and Discovery Land Company 00:58 – Investment in Las Vegas Raiders 03:00 – Kukio Project in Hawaii 06:44 – Challenges and Successes at Kukio 09:58 – Gaza Ranch and Personal Reflections 12:30 – Preparation and Team Building 21:07 – Acquisition of Yellowstone Club 27:58 – Investments and Strategic Partnerships 35:42 – Philanthropy and Community Impact 40:12 – Personal Reflections and Future GoalsCoaching and Staying Connected:1-on-1 Coaching | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | LinkedIn

George Clooney decided to sell Casamicos at $1 billion. So we kind of came up with what we thought was the perfect recipe. We were drinking different tequilas. We didn't really love anything. We decided to make our own. But just for ourselves, right? They said if you do 20,000 cases your first year, it would be a huge success. We sold the 20,000 cases the first two days. When I started Discovery, I did it to make golf fun. The irony of all this is I never golfed

when I started Discovery, and I was never a member of a country club in my life. And a lot of people who develop golf courses are very traditional to the rules of golf, but I wasn't. Feel like I built one of the great luxury brands in the world. I had no roadmap, I had no mentor, I had no preparation. You know, I just had to wing it and figure things out.

And now that I've done so much of it, it's a lot. You recently purchased 7.5% of the Las Vegas Raiders at rumored to be a $6 billion valuation. That means you wrote a check for $450 million. I'm happy to be part of the Raiders. It got us vested very quickly and excited. Together we feel like we had a great draft, we have a great front office,

we have a great coaching staff, and we're completely excited, invested in it. We've had such incredible success. When you look back and you think about it, I think it's fair to say if you're a billionaire today, you have homes all over the world, you hang out with celebrities, you have a G650 Gulfstream jet, you're a billionaire today, you have homes all over the world, you hang out with celebrities, you have a G650 Gulfstream jet,

you're a single good-looking guy. How great is it to be Mike Meltman? Well, I'm pretty happy. The most proud about it is I really created myself. Started with no money, and the whole reason I did it was to spend time with my kids. You're listening to part two of my incredible interview with Mike Meldman, the founder of Discovery Land Company,

a great investor, co-founder of Casa Amigos Tequila, and a new owner of the Las Vegas Raiders football team. If you haven't yet checked out part one, be sure to check that one out first. Now without further ado, here's part two of my awesome interview with Mike. So let's talk about some of the things that make us successful. I think one of the most important things we have to sell ourselves as a founder, if you can't sell you what you're doing, your company, you're not going to be successful.

Talk to us about your experience at KUKIO and how difficult it was selling basically lava, flatland that you're going to have to dig up and then who you had to convince to say, all right, you guys gotta do this. Yeah, Kukio, I always say, is probably the number one project we ever did, because it really made the brand. If you look at Kukio, so Kukio was an ugly piece of lava. It had a row of calvi trees, which are non-native,

that have thorns that drop onto the beach. Tell people where it's located. So Kukio is on the big island of Hawaii, and it's right next to Hualai, which is the Four Seasons. And Hualai, up until maybe recently, it still may, was always the highest ADR and occupied four seasons in the world. So in my opinion, that made it the best resort in the world. We bought the land next door.

It was zoned for two mega resorts, probably 6,000 hotel rooms. We ended up putting on the Kukio property, the first piece we ended up buying more, 180 units. No one thought we were going to be able to buy it because Huallai kind of controlled the water. And we figured out that we were going to go low density anyway, that we could build the gulf with this new grass that came out called passpalm, and that we could grow the grass with brackish water.

So we just, you know, could dig a well and use basically ocean water. No one thought there'd be a buyer for it. And so we bought it at the courthouse steps in Honolulu. And it was kind of a funny day because the only other buyer who really showed up was Huawei and they were owned by Mitsubishi or one of the Japanese conglomerates. We didn't know this at the time, but they only got budget approval for $20 million because they controlled the water, they controlled everything and they didn't think anyone could pay more.

We had a budget of a lot more than that. And so the bidding started, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, and then we're like, oh, this didn't get expensive. And the Gua Lai guys go 20. And then our attorney who was bidding for us goes 25. And everyone looks at him and at me goes so 20.5 you know because you're going up in half a million dollar increments and the

the gentlemen from hoa lai threw their hands up because they did they literally didn't have permission to go higher and the judge goes going, going, gone and we bought it. One of the great parts of that is we ended up selling our first resale for 20.5 million. We came up with the price because we wanted the resale lot to be what we paid for the whole property. Kukio, we started, again, this is one of the projects where we had 100 million allocated for it. We spent 20.5 on the acquisition.

We started doing the planning, soft costs, and we ended up pre-selling $50 million worth of real estate in the first 90 days, so we never had to put in any more money. And so it's one of these great successes. But it looked like the moon. If you go on the big island, it's just lava. And I'd go out there and I said, OK, get rid of all these trees. And I'd come back like two weeks later.

And they kind of, at the time, like weeks later and they kind of at the time like islands of trees were kind of the cool thing and environmental thing and I said no get rid of every tree because they like I said they weren't native and the Cowboys brought them for you know for shade and get thorns in your feet so finally they got rid of them all and we created, if you go there now, I don't know how many palm trees there are, but like I said, there's zero trees on it except for the kiawi. And if you go now, it looks like a Hawaiian tropical movie set.

It's literally one of the prettiest places, luscious landscape you'll ever see. I had to convince everyone what the vision was. And you're going against Huawei, which was stiff competition. They were selling lots for $3 million. We were selling lots for $10 million. And it shows you just the value of our concept, which is basically giving them all the resort amenities that a Huawei would have, but on a private basis without any transient guests. So it's basically having Huawei just for 400 families, right, and who have access to basically everything.

Our level of service is so much better. It might not really be better, but everyone knows each other, so it's just so much more intimate. And to me, that makes it a higher level of service. Or you go to a Four Seasons, they go, oh, Mr. Melman, nice to see you. I don't know the person.

They just see I've stayed there, how many first seasons and this and that. But you go to Kikiyo and you walk in and they go, hey Mike, how's Hunter? How's Will? What's going on? They really know you and know what you want and they could anticipate things that you want to do, which is a huge, huge value. At the time, you know, I had probably six or seven deals under my belt, but again, not the brand that it is today. So I had to go and really meet with people, go to their offices, explain it. It was a really hard project to do because cutting in this lava, I mean, just to build a golf course took three years and

so I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be but I never wavered on you know the vision or the concept and everybody you know believed me and bought into it you know looking back now 20 25 years I'm like that's pretty good that they believe me I don't know if I would you know if I would have but they must have believed me just because of The conviction I had and I never ever Had a doubt that it wouldn't be as good as it is It's probably better than what you know, I explained it to people. Yeah, and the great thing is how to people. And the great thing is how KUKEO and all these communities become such a big part of people's lives. And a lot of these people have everything, right? And the one

thing they don't have is time. Probably the one regret a lot of these people have is not spending enough time with their families. And so these projects all give them the time with their family that's such high quality and that their family members are so appreciative that they were, you know, are able to be a member there. Not, you know, not just Kikiyo everywhere. I mean, you see it at Gaza. Yeah. I mean, we'll come back to the success thing in a minute, but I bought a place up in Coeur

de Laine at Gaza Ranch. We went up there on a fluke. I said, I'm never going to have a second home in my life. You know, thankfully I've done well financially and we can stay where we want and we like nice places. And then we get to this place, like, holy shit, this place is amazing. I had three kids at the time, 10, 10 and 8. And it was like Disneyland for the kids, the adults.

Joe Vedder was working with you at the time, took us out on the boat. We just had the best time. And I remember back then, the club wasn't doing that great, right? People from Spokane had bought a bunch of loss. It was a commuter club. Coeur d'Alene was not as popular as it was today.

I mean, I remember driving around the lake and it seemed like every fifth house was for sale and we couldn't figure out what's wrong with this place. And we saw this amazing house that nobody wanted. It was lot 147, I don't know if you remember it. It's a modern, but no one wanted it. They all wanted the log cabinage house. And Joe's showing me, I'm interested in it.

We found this amazing house, spectacular. And I said, this is a nice to have for me, not a need to have. So I made a decent offer on the house, took it, it was, you know, take it or leave it. I paid $25,000 more than the take it or leave it. And then we had small issue with one of the neighbors and I called you up and

you said, we couldn't resolve it until the following May. We're going to close on January 3rd that year. And you said, trust me, it'll be the best thing you've done for your family. And you're right. It really is. I mean, it's the best. The best. Galsberg may be one of the great family spots, summer spots, anywhere. Here I am. I want to thank you on camera. You are a million times right. And I'm very grateful.

I mean, it really is the best thing that we've done. And the vision there, too, is to have my kids stay there when they were of age. Charlie's here right now. He's going out with a bunch of buds, you know, next week, this week. And it's so fun to see my kids. And I have a friend, and I won't mention his name on camera, real estate guy who bought a place in Bakers Bay, San Francisco to Bakers Bay. It's a long haul. You know, a lot of your guys have private jets. And I said to him, hey, Steve, man, like, why not buy a closer club and he said well

Basically, I know I get two weeks a year with my kids because they all love Baker's Bay and they're all going down there No matter what if if they're working and I mean these places are the greatest places on earth If you have the money is very expensive There's nothing like it in the world. So I appreciate you. Thank you, I appreciate that too. Going back to what makes people successful, the hallmark of my career has been my preparation. That's my brand, Extreme Preparation.

How important has preparation been in your career and your success? And I'm not talking about preparing for a meeting or going on a road trip. I'm talking about preparing a week for a meeting or a speech or something important in your life. Like I said earlier, preparation usually kills me. I mean, I'm much better spontaneous and, you know,

reactionary. When I started the company, like I said, I had no road map, I had no mentor, I had no, you know, no preparation. You know, I just had to wing it and figure things out. And now that I've done so much of it, it's even though we're opening seven new clubs this year, so it's a lot, but it's almost so much easier because I'm not struggling to figure anything out anymore. And I just explain what needs to be done and you

know I have 40,000 employees and they just get it done and these you know a lot of these people have grown up in discovery meaning like Peter Whalen who runs all our operations he started as a valet at Mirabelle you know when he's 18 years old so you know he's never really had another job, worked for another company. So he's got the discovery DNA in him. There are a lot of people like him, you know, that's been with us for 20, 30 years. And so having that type of support really, you know, really helps and makes my job now a lot easier than it used to be. For me, you can't build a successful company without a

team. You know, it's not possible. So let's talk about JJ for a minute. JJ has been with you for 22 years now. Started as a junior sales guy at the Madison Club making 75k a year. He was washing cars and I think someone told him, you got to go out and write a paragraph on all 194 lots at the Madison Club. And, you know, they're not all the same, but, you know, a lot of them are pretty much the same because they're right next door to each other. And here he is 22 years later. He's a EVP.

He's a partner in the company now. He owns nine homes and he grew up in a 900 square foot track house. Yeah, JJ's was a, I always say, a great science experiment that worked because he was a member at the Hideaway. So he was in the ecosystem as a member. This other member at Hideaway called me who owned the magazine company and JJ was selling magazines.

And I guess he wasn't that good at it because Bob called me and said, hey, can you take JJ? He goes, I think he's much better suited for you than he is for me, which was 100% true because JJ, not a magazine salesman, I don't even know if you know he's ever read a magazine but as a salesman for us you can't have anyone better because he's a great golfer he's got the great gift to gab and stories he's a great clutch golfer so you know if they're gambling I mean he's always the guy who sinks the 60-foot putt and so he's kind of you know created this whole myth about you know about himself because he actually

Created it and lived lived up to it. And so JJ besides being one of my best friends is also one of the you know proudest parts of discovery and you know, he's now a man of real stature he's got three kids he's a great dad great husband and can be proud of him. Because you've built the company would it be as successful today without JJ? Yeah I mean. Sorry JJ, Mike loves you but JJ is the best. I mean, look, it's not any one person. It's everybody. And look, JJ literally just had a sales conference for 120 salespeople. So I mean, he's a major, major part of the company.

But I don't think you give any one individual the credit. It really is, it takes a village, right? And this one really does take a village. As a venture capitalist, one of the questions that I'll always ask people coming into the office is, if there's a time when you're no longer the right CEO, are you willing to give it up for someone who is better suited than you to run or grow your company? It could be they are more skilled, they can take it to another level, or it could be, hey, I don't wanna be the day to day running the company to now.

Tell us about White and how he's doing and what his vision is. He came from much bigger company. Yeah, so Brett has not only saved my life, but I think it's reinvigorated me where I feel like right now or when he came aboard two or three years ago that the company was just starting because You know it was a little bit of a mom mom pop

You know a bunch of you know friends, you know growing it and doing it And so Brett comes in and has kind of institutionalized it. He does a lot of the work that I don't have to do anymore. He deals with financials, HR, a lot of stuff. He was the CEO for 15 years of CBRE. He was the CEO of Cushman Wakefield, which is kind of ironic since that's kind of where I started my career.

And he's actually still chairman of Cushman because they wouldn't let him leave completely because he's that valuable to them and he's obviously that valuable to me and to us. So he's really institutionalized us where I think we're just a better company because of him. A lot of people said, I wonder how long it's going to take you to get sick of him. And I got sick of him. It's literally the greatest thing that's happened to me in a long time. So I gave, I was welcoming and, gave up a lot of that because now I could focus on more of the visionary stuff.

And I think where I'm the most helpful in project is, you know, the first few years of it, when we're building it, when we're pre-selling it, the more I'm around, the more confidence it gives people at the project and also people in the market knowing that I'm there and I care about. Like I go to Gaza only because my kids love it so much. I don't really need to be there anymore. We're basically sold out. It's a functioning club but I still go primarily because my family loves it so much. But I try to go and spend my time at the places that are beginning,

because that's where I think my experience helps the most. I hope you're enjoying this video so far. But before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly a hundred including Google lift and Seagate and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than 15 billion dollars. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life I want to

give back. I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others. I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions, and if you're a good fit, my team will reach out so we can build a game plan together.

All right, now let's get back to the video. The opportunities we have in life sometimes that are our biggest ones are taking advantage of someone else doing something stupid or their business goes bad. In 1991, there's a guy named Tim Blixeth in Montana buys 140,000 acres of timberland. He was in the timberland business.

Then he swaps it out for a private ski mountain called Yellowstone Club where he started selling. It's a private ski mountain. We can talk about it in one second exactly what's there. But he made some bad loans, got divorced. By the way, this guy was on a Forbes 400 at one point, $1.6 billion net worth. And it all went by the wayside here. And then why don't you take over the story from there and tell everyone from what I've heard through the Grave Rine, it could be your most successful club.

I hope you're enjoying this video so far. But before we jump back in, I want to know if you've ever thought about what you need to do to reach a nice level of success in your life. Over the last 25 years, I've been an advisor to more than 50 companies. I've invested nearly 100, including Google lift and Seagate, and I also co-founded a company that today is worth more than $15 billion. I've been incredibly blessed in my journey and at this stage in my life, I want to give back.

I want to share the lessons I've learned so you can reach incredible success way faster than I did. In my own journey, I've learned that having the right mentor is a massive advantage to achieving our goals. I'm hugely passionate about mentoring others and I'm looking for a few hungry entrepreneurs who are excited to take action on their journey to incredible future success. So if that's you, I've got an opportunity. In the description of this video, there's a link where you can apply to work with me. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions, and if you're a good fit, my team

will reach out so we can build a game plan together. All right, now let's get back to the video. Yeah, so Yellowstone's obviously an amazing place. It's the only private ski resort in the world. It's Tim Blixoth had an amazing vision, and he did all that with land swaps, which is even more difficult. Literally to create Yellowstone, he had to have an act of Congress. So I mean, just the perseverance, the vision was amazing. Now, he also though wasn't an operator, wasn't a developer.

He joined Iron Horse, which is my place to kind of learn the business. He always asked me to run it. I never wanted to run it. I always wanted to own it. I always knew at some point we would own it. He would make you give him a financial statement before he even toured you to make sure who you were and if you can afford it. And so I was up there a lot in the early stages with him and with friends from Whitefish who were members up there. And I was always thinking, as he would be asking

for financial statements and doing silly things, no one's asking him, like, what happens if he gets divorced? Because, you know, I was, you know, probably had 10 deals under my belt, and project sponsorship is always the biggest question, the first question. Who are you? What have you done? Where's your money?

You know, questions like that. And if you were looking at a project that wasn't ours, I would tell you those are the questions to ask because they are. But no one asks those questions to Tim. He was, I guess, a good offense, a good defense. Hey, let me see how rich you are before I even show you around. And people did it, which I was kind of shocked. And then he made a couple fundamental mistakes. He developed all the hard stuff first, like the homes, what we call andesite, are 25-minute drive to the base.

And so he put in all these roads that were hard to do and sold all these houses that were far away. And he created skiing and ski out by, you know, having these little runs he could go to, get on a chair to get home. It worked from that perspective, but he overlevered it with debt. He took, I think, a $465 million loan. And instead of keeping some of it for interest reserve, basically took it, bought a bunch of other assets that didn't work, got the bars, basically gave his wife Yellowstone, which wasn't really

giving her Yellowstone, it was giving her $465 million worth of debt, went bankrupt, crossed Harbor and us, bought it. And we did this in 08, and so it was a little scary because there were probably 300 sales at the time and probably 200 of them were on the market. So we burned through all those. We built, we put a real master plan together on the project, which didn't really have one. And the stuff that we had left, which were about 600, 700 units that we actually ended up developing, to me were all the low-hanging fruit because it was everything at the base.

It was this place called American Spirit where I live, which is skiing and ski out. And so the bulk of what was left was all kind of high-density stuff with skiing and ski out. And I think a lot of decisions for people when they're buying a ski property is a skiing and ski out. And I think a lot of decisions for people when they're buying a ski property is a ski in and ski out. And so that we had so much of that made it easy. The private powder, as we call it, is remarkable

because there's truly no lift lines and you could ski and sit there and talk to the group you're skiing with and no one even sees by you for 20 minutes. So the more you ski the better skier you are actually the more you like it because people think a private ski mountain it's like a ski hill. Well it's not. This is a mountain range and we have these this ridge that has these runs that are like hill skiski. And you have a chairlift that you can actually take to it. So it's, I mean, it's a remarkable place.

There's between Yellowstone, Big Sky, and Moonlight Basin, probably the biggest skiable area in the United States. We went up there for a look back in maybe nine years ago, 10 years ago. JJ was up there. Really cool thing for me is I like photography. I'd just gotten a GoPro and I put on the helmet. Couldn't get the thing to work and this guy says,

oh, you know, let me help you. And I look, it's Nick Woodman, who's the founder of GoPro, who was helping me turn on my GoPro. I thought that was a very, very cool thing. But JJ's- He's very helpful too. Oh, he was very helpful. I mean, I screwed it was a very very cool thing, but it's very helpful to oh, he was very helpful I mean I screwed it up at some point because I you know, you can't see it

I'm not gonna take it off while I'm skiing Jay. Just said hey, you know, we're building this condo unit I think it was eight units next to Clubhouse. I said, well, what are the prices and I think they were 3800 square feet for maybe $5.95 million. Like, well, that seems like a lot. I mean, you're going to be close to the clubhouse. There's people. You're going to have neighbors and noise and all that. We got caught up last summer at Gaza,

and he said, yeah, that unit sold for $30 million. $30 million. From $6 to $30. We missed out on that one. A big part of your club is food, but when you go back to Phoenix, you eat at Richardson's and you eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So what's the dichotomy on that one?

Well, I like peanut butter and jelly. I, you know, always have. It's a great snack when you're golfing, right? Cause it gives you energy and kind of picks you up. So yeah, I like ice cream too. So I like a lot of crap, crappy food that I kind of grew up on, but I also like great food.

And Richardson's is one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. And J.G. and I play every year in the Phoenix Open. I think we've won it three or four times and came in second like five or six times. My mom's not with us anymore, but my dad is. And so one day we go to Richardson's and the next day we go to Pizza Bianca, which is considered one of the great, maybe the best pizza in the world, you know, from the Food Network. Pizza Bianco kind of created the wood-burning pizza.

So it's always fun to go to those two places because they're two of my favorite restaurants and they're both literally in the neighborhood I grew up in. You're also a great investor. I mean, you have the power of your people behind you. You have celebrities at your clubs. And again, I mentioned them and I'm not going to disclose anything private that's not out there, but you got people wearing, you know, your Cosmigos t-shirts. It didn't hurt that Bieber or the Kardashians, you know, were wearing all this stuff. So consumer brands

love you. They know you can move the needle. You invested in Veory, I think, at a 25 or 30 million dollar valuation. They just took a slug of capital, closed December 21st of last year, I think 465 million dollars, had a little over a 5 billion dollar valuation. Now it's valued at 7 billion. Roughly, you put in a million dollars and it's worth 23 million dollars today. You know, the rough math doesn't exactly work out that way, but how are you finding these deals that are so incredible? Well, Viore, my partner at Troubadour, was the original investor.

And so he came to me to buy out one of the founders. And so him and the original founder, Joe, who started the company, bought it back and they gave me a sliver of it. The one thing, like I said, our projects are good distribution networks for the right product. And so we have member guests and member members and we have all these events where we give gifts away. I started including Viori in all our gift packages, so it got in the hands of the members and their guests who are all, like I said, real influencers, not Instagram influencers.

And so we can get things in people's right hand, and again, like Cosm cost amigos it's a great product and so people loved it and kept buying it and so I like investing investments where I could actually feel like I could contribute to the success or be a strategic investor. I've you know there's a lot of investments I've done just as a courtesy or favor to friends that, you know, lost millions of dollars. So, you know, it goes both ways but most of the ones where I could actually feel like I can help have all done pretty well. Sports teams are amazing. You know, I did a video clip on the annual return

of sports teams versus how the market performs. The S&P 500 measured over a 20 year period of time. And depending on the league, football was I think 2% north of over a 20 year period, the, how the market did, the S&P 500. So it was above this. It was above. Now there's lots of other reasons to own a football team

or a hockey team or a baseball team or whatever it was. You recently purchased 7.5% of the Las Vegas Raiders at rumored to be a $6 billion valuation. That means you wrote a check for $450 million. And I've heard through the grapevine that this is the thing you've been more excited about in a very, very long time. Yeah, so I'm happy to be part of the Raiders.

Mark Davis, who's the owner, the governor, the main owner, has been a great friend of mine for a long time. I'm a barry guy so you know the Niners and Reigners have always been you know my favorite you know my favorites. I live in Las Vegas so you know being part of the community I think is is really good. It just so happened this the year I came in we fired everyone so we. So we worked together. There's a group of us with Mark who are active owners. And so we're all part of the hiring process for the coaches, the GM, and everyone. So it got us vested very quickly and excited because you know, we're like

Talking well, we're gonna be excited to go to game You know, they're not that good and then all sudden, you know from what we've done together We feel like we had a great draft. We have a great front office We have a great coaching staff and we're completely Excited and you know invested in it. So it happened pretty quick, right? Went from, okay, investment to now something we wear on our sleeve and excited about. And I looked at it really as a diversification because I'm so long in real estate and I have three boys. A lot of my stuff's in trust so my children had to get approved

as owners and so they'll obviously leave it to them and they're gonna I think have a great fun with it like I am. And so I just thought it was a great generational investment and Big believer, you know big football fan. They were both my older boys were great football players. So it's just Fun, right? I mean you can't really think of anything more fun to do, you know with your kids and friend and friends You've had such incredible success when you look back and you think about it I think it's fair to say if you're a billionaire today, you have homes all over the world, you hang out with celebrities, you have a G650 Gulfstream jet, you're a single good-looking guy, how great is it to be Mike Melman?

Well, I'm pretty happy. I mean, I'm pretty happy. I think I do. I think I have a great life and what I'm the most proud about is I really created it myself with no, you know, started with no money and I feel like I've built one of the great luxury brands in the world. The whole reason I did it was to spend time with my kids and so I have a business that makes me spend time with my kids and the whole thing like started like at Iron Horse Montana that I told you was one of the great places you know my kids were living in San Francisco,

and so I wanted them to become mountain men. And so by the time they were 10, they could tie their own flies, they were whitewater rafting, they were wakeboarding. We were like flying into the wilderness and floating out, fly fishing and camping for three days in the Bob Marshall. And I did it to be with my kids.

And then I realized by doing that, everyone else wanted to be with their kids. And so it became one of the great pillars of discovery. We call it outdoor pursuits, as you know, from, you know, from Gaza and how popular and how influential it is. And so I always knew the golf would sell the guys. I go, how do you sell the women and the kids? And that was how. And I didn't realize how big a part of people's life

it would become. Because, you know, you go on vacation. Let's say you're Randy and Cindy. Well, you've got to really plan for vacation. Because if you're Randy and Cindy, you have to really plan for vacation because if you're ranting Cindy You have to have a great room and a great hotel and it's Stressful because you really have to plan because everyone's competing for the same rooms, you know over Christmas over Easter over Thanksgiving and so to take away all the planning and the stress of that I think is

huge because they just go to their house at El Dorado or Madison or you know wherever they are and you don't have to plan anything everything just goes Orchestrated for you, you know I have a great life and I think I've enhanced a lot of you know a lot of people's life and it all truly came from the inspiration of just wanting to be with my kids, to teach them things, whatever environment or culture the projects are in,

and enjoy the experience by having someone else teach them than me, because that way I could share the experience with them instead of stress over it. Philanthropy is huge for you as well. We're getting towards the end of the show, but can you take just a couple of minutes talking about your foundation

and the things you're most passionate about? Yeah, so the Discovery Lamb Foundation was created to help children's charities around the communities we're in. And so, Coeur d'Alene probably is one of our biggest benefactors, children's charities around the communities we're in. And so, Coeur d'Alene probably is one of our biggest benefactors, because what I wanted to originally do was start a foster facility, raise the kids, and then give them jobs and educate them.

Because I always say, you know, you could change the world one kid at a time. You build a real estate company brick by brick, tequila company shot by shot. And so I really believe changing the world one kid at a time is meaningful. And so by doing the foster care, you can actually see these kids grow and develop. It's been going on for a long time. We've seen a lot of kids pull themselves up. My kid's mother runs a foundation, so I thought that was a great way to have my ex-wife involved in Discovering.

She does a great job running it. My oldest son, Hunter, basically is on the board, so the three of us invest and check everything out. It's a great way to give back, especially to the communities. And even though we raise a lot of money, it doesn't take that much money to make a real difference. My grandmother, who passed away two years ago almost now, she lived until she was 104, raised in foster care.

She bounced around and she lived in seven or eight homes and back in the day, different today, but the families, it still works this way today, but it was a very different treatment back then. They get paid a certain amount of money per month and per year to have a foster kid in their home. She slept in closets, in a kitchen pantry, she was the help.

My inspiration, my hero. And I started a scholarship at the University of Michigan for a foster care student. This woman, Cherish Thomas, was living in her car in East Lansing, Michigan, gave her a free ride to Michigan and it was just one of the best things I've ever done. She's become a member of our family. She's a homeowner, public speaker, social worker,

got her master's in social work as well. But giving back. I think that's amazing. Nothing better. I mean, it's really, I agree with that. It's really nice to see the impact you can make on an individual who needs it. Yeah, I love that.

I always end my show with a part of it called fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play? Sure. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is always be nice to people and treat people fairly. And by the way, I wanted to touch upon this in the show and I'm glad you brought this up.

You are one of the nicest guys ever. You're one of these guys that you never hear someone saying a negative thing about you and you're always yes. You know, when I wanna go play at a golf course, I'll text you and again, like I don't like, I'm asking people for things. I think I've asked you a couple of times

and it's always one line, sure. You know, I think that's one of the reasons why you've done so well. I think you are a very nice guy. I think Be Nice is one of the things that people don't think about being successful. We know a lot of assholes that run companies. But I think from a consumer and a customer of yours,

I think that's something that people know about you. Everybody says it about you. I appreciate that. Thank you. My number one personal goal is? Raise my kids and have them be humble and unentitled, which they are. The one thing everybody should say to themselves

when they go to bed at night is? We'll take it both ways. What's the first thing they should say when they wake up in the morning? And what's the last thing they should say when they go to bed at night? I never really ever thought about that. See, I'm pretty good about not saying, you know, going to bed, and I'm pretty good about clearing my mind.

When I go to bed, I'm just thinking about going to bed. And when I wake up, I'm thinking, what a great day I'm going to have that day. My biggest regret is? Probably, I don't really have that many words. I'd say probably two failed marriages. My biggest failure is my two two marriages the proudest moment of my career is It's probably just seen people enjoy, you know the property so much the craziest thing that's happened in my career is? Probably the bankruptcy sale at Kukil.

It was a pretty crazy couple days, not knowing what was going to happen, who was going to show up, how much we would have to pay. The funniest thing that's happened in my career is? Probably the speech in Lana, where they told me not talk about money or Augusta and I opened it up saying we're gonna build Augusta because it just takes money. It's probably one of the silliest things I've ever done. The best

advice I've ever received is? Probably stick to your knitting. One of my best friends is a venture capitalist said that and that keeps you, or at least it keeps me, even though I do do a lot, that keeps me focused. The worst advice I've ever received is, well, it's an easy one. When I first looked at Astancia, I was flying home from Scottsdale with Rob Schumacher,

who is a very close friend of mine. He's probably purchased in almost every project I ever did. I was explaining to him what I was going to do, buy Pinnacle Peak, build a private golf course that costs about $20 million. And he's looked at me and goes, for $20 million, you can buy Arizona right now from the RTC. Don't ever do it. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and I remind Rob of that every time I see him at different properties And remind his kids of that that his father almost stopped discovery from being traded

The most important quality in making somebody successful is I think discipline drive character Integrity the one quality that's most likely to lead to failure is? Lack of discipline. It's hard. You've got to focus, be committed, stick to your concept. 20 years from now I'm going to be doing? Hopefully, what I'm doing right now.

If you could be one person in the world, who would it be? I don't know. My dad. Steve Jobs. what I'm doing right now. If you could be one person in the world, who would it be? My dad, Steve Jobs. Other than Steve Jobs. Let me tell you a funny Steve Jobs story because we've talked about the Four Seasons. So I've been in that Four Seasons lots of times. In fact, the first time I was here was in 1996. I did look at those Four Seasons condos.

They were three and a half million dollars. And then I saw all your dozers and earth moving equipment next door at Kakeo. And I actually heard they were $10 million. I'm like, you know, it's insane. But we're sitting there in the main restaurant at the Four Seasons, you've been there. And then Coina Village was next door,

no phones, no AC, no nothing. And Steve Jobs is sitting at the Four Seasons at the far end of the restaurant with his family. He's there with his wife and his two kids, and ex-wife says to me, there's Steve Jobs. And I said, you're gonna go talk to him. I'm like, nah, said the old Randy would've. Apple had invested in our tech company

as a serious investor, $25 million, a $250 million valuation, when we thought we didn't need any more money. So I was up when I was walking over there, I go up to the table, doesn't even look at me, just standing there feeling, oh gosh, this is not good. So I say, excuse me, Mr. Jobs. I asked him, I was the founder of this company. He said, he looks up like this.

He said, you are a founder? He said, yeah. He said, you must have made a lot of money. It was the weirdest thing. And, cause you don't say that. It's like a, it's not socially appropriate thing. And I said, yeah, we did well. And the company had done well too.

Apple's market share at the time was less than 1%. All the business magazines said, you know, they were going bankrupt and they just did the Microsoft Windows settlement as well. So they got 240 million for that. And they made hundreds of millions Microsoft Windows settlement as well. So they got 240 million for that and they made hundreds of millions from our company as well. And I said, yeah, I loved your speech,

Stanford graduation speech, which is famous. I'm sure you've heard the speech before. And he looked at me and said, thank you. Looked down, the conversation was over and I kind of just went back to my table. I feel very weird about it but I did get to meet him once. It was highly awkward and now I have kind of a cool story about it. Yeah they're all a little bit on the spectrum

guys like that. So he, I met Steve, so he would always walk over from Kona Village. He loved Kona Village. His wife owns it now or funded the remodel of Kona village after the tsunami, which is crazy that we have a tsunami that took out Kona village, part of Hualai and Kukio. But he would walk down the beach and he just, we have a beach bar basically, which is off the beach and he was just sitting there like staring. And I obviously knew who he was. So I went up to him, I go, can I help you? You want me to show you around, see anything? And he said no, but I'd love a glass of water.

So we went to the bar, got him a glass of water. We talked about this guy named Bill Campbell, who was, if Steve would say he had a mentor, it'd be Bill Campbell. I don't know if you would say he had a mentor. If you ask Eric Schmidt, Sergey, and Larry who your mentor was, they'd say Bill Campbell. If you ask Bezos, he'd say Bill Campbell. And so Bill Campbell was a very close friend of mine because his brother, who went to the Air Force Academy, won the national championship in lacrosse four years in a row, and was Roger Staubach's Heisman winning year wide receiver. Great guy, right? And he was my original JJ.

So I was very close with Bill because of his brother Jim. And that was one thing that actually made Steve smile, that I was close with Bill Campbell. What's the one question you wish I asked you today but didn't? You ask a lot of questions. I don't know if we dug into the family aspect of these projects as much, I'd say. So even though we talked about, I think, family a lot, but it really is, I think, the crux of discovery. I tell people this.

I'm not just saying this because it's the best thing I've done for my family. And here's a guy that I said I'm never going to own a second home. And we got there. you, it's the best thing I've done for my family. And here's a guy that I said, I'm never gonna own a second home. And we got there and it really is the best thing. The day we pack up is the day we look forward to coming back. That's good to hear, I appreciate that. And my kids, it's like summer camp. They grew up with all their friends each summer

and now they're all adults. And I have two young kids as well, eight and five. And they got their friends each summer and now they're all adults and you know I have two young kids as well eight and five and you know they got their friends from summer camp and they FaceTime with each other now it's just the coolest greatest thing ever. Yeah I made my 11 year old who's 10 at the time go to a real summer camp you know just to see what it's like to you know be on their you know those type of rules. Ooh, he's still mad at me. I could have been a Gazer.

Do you have any questions you want to ask me before we finish? No, I just appreciate the questions and I appreciate you. How much you love Gazer means a lot. Oh, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Randy. Really appreciate you. Well, I see in your shirt, which I didn't really see extreme Preparation I got calls from a lot of a lot of people who were getting calls from me

so I know you were Preparing and you know, you had a lot of good questions, you know that a lot of people wouldn't know or don't know And so I know you actually did extreme preparation. Perfect. Which is good, because it makes the talk more comfortable and easy. There are so many benefits to extreme preparation, but one is you start the meeting off

on a completely different level. When you show someone you've done the work and the care and you care about them and you care about the meeting. I don't want to just be another podcaster asking the same questions as everybody else. Yeah. you