Open Book with Anthony Scaramucci - Stephen Cloobeck: California’s Next Governor?

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

In this episode, Anthony chats with Stephen Cloobeck, a successful entrepreneur and author of 'Facing Hard Truths.' Stephen shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings to becoming a prominent businessman and his vision for California as he runs for governor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's everything. That's from authors and historians to figures in entertainment, political activists, and of course, Wall Street. Before we dive in, make sure to follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to leave a review. Good or bad. I want to hear from you. I want to hear whether you're enjoying it or where we can improve. And I can take the hits.

So let me know. If you don't like something, say it straight. Now, let's get into it. Welcome to Open Book. I am your host, Anthony Scaramucci. I am joined by, I don't know, it's going to be the future governor of California. He's an activist, a philanthropist, a businessman, incredibly successful businessman, Stephen Clobeck. But he's also a bestselling author.

The book is phenomenal. It's called Facing Hard Truths, How Americans Can Get Real Pulled Together and Turn Our Country Around. And by the way, I don't know, I wish I had written this book, Stephen. It's so good and it's so relevant to what's going on right now. So I want to congratulate you on the book, congratulate you on your candidacy. But I'm talking to a busboy who became an entrepreneur who is now running for office. What a phenomenal American dream and American success story.

So let's start there. Tell us a little bit about your background. Hey, everyone, it's Anthony Scaramucci here with some stray talk. Let me tell you, we've got 85% of our viewers who haven't hit the subscribe button yet. What's up with that? It hurts. Listen, I've been in my career by going all in. Right now, only 15% of our viewers are part of our subscribed family.

So please take action. This helps us book more amazing guests. Hit subscribe, join our community, and let's turn these numbers upside down. Now back to the show. Well, you know, it is, it's, it's, it is. an aspirational story. You know, I grew up born in Chicago. Matter of fact, with Ari Emanuel and I went to pre-K

together in Chicago, we both ended up moving to L.A. And kindergarten through first year of college, mommy and daddy wanted a doctor and a lawyer. I was going to be the doctor. Studied science, have a degree in neurobiosecology, and I thought I was going to be a heart surgeon until the last year of Brandeis University. And I said, I can't do this anymore.

16 more years. So I came back to Los Angeles and went to Cal State Northridge, learned accounting 101 and 102, and started leveraging on my relationships. And fortunately, I met Mike Milken when I was 13. I also met Harry Reid when I was 15. Harry was my father's attorney. I met Mike at Stephen S. Weiss Temple. And I went to go work in the real estate development business, learning shopping center development management learned the tricks of the trade and was promised a bonus second year it wasn't paid it so i left started my own company at 24 built my first shopping center in burbank california victory in magnolia did the same thing the company i was working for was doing borrowed the money and fortunately during the s andl days they were able to give you money based on credit of the

assets you had and i was able to borrow 400 000 dollars more than the entire landed building cost. And proceeded to do that throughout Southern California. Second and third shopping centers were in Bakersfield, California. And then Hanford, California, Hemmett, Buena Park, Mission Viejo, and moved down to Orange County. I was living in Newport Beach. I had offices in Newport Beach and Mission Viejo.

And then I hit the wall on one. Lake Forest, late 80s. lost all my tenants, my contractor went broke, my subs went broke and I had to build it myself. I ended up giving it back to the S&O, but didn't go bankrupt. And the good news is I learned how to build, and my father needed more inventory to continue his company's timeshare company. So we went from the Jockey Club in Las Vegas and found a piece of property and I built polo towers at 29.

I lived within budget. My father showed up at the groundbreaking and the grand opening, and I was able to do it very successfully. And my father decided to sell his company to Starwood Capital, very sternly, or friend. And I lasted a year and a half of that company as a co-CEO because the fellow I was working with didn't understand the business. So we ended up doing a baseball buy-sell. That's when you don't have a contractual right either side. to buy each other out and we just had to work it out. And I remember sitting with Madison Gross and Barry and Rick Clemmon at the time.

And I ended up buying the company from my father's company that he sold and was able to create the legacy of what I then eventually built. Had real good success, but then I was hit with a bankruptcy of my father. And he ran on tough times. I never told anyone about that until he passed. He went bankrupt and it was about $20 million and I bought that bankruptcy. So I started really with negative $20 million. And it was wildly successful at Polo Towers in Las Vegas and that it did a deal with Marriott

next door. And I realized at that time after meeting 80 people at Marriott and building that project, Marriott's Grand Chateau, entrepreneurs and big corporate, business do not it cannot exist so they end up buying me out sat on the sidelines for a year and saw a great opportunity by some of my great uh hedge fund buddies course error brian gonic shows me a deck of a company he's got invested in he says clubey i can't figure this out can you look at this and i said brian how much do you got in this deal at a sizable position and i said this is all you got. He goes, well, I get you K and a Q and I'm like, what's that? I didn't know

I didn't know what a K and K was. I was a private guy. And so I got a couple of the K and a Q. And they still couldn't decipher what the company was about. And I said, Brian's got any more information? And he showed me a road show document. And I looked at it and I said, oh my God. And kept my mouth shut and start buying stock in the company. And then I said, maybe I could buy this company. And at that time, there were activists in the business and Magnitar and Dan Loeb over at Third Point and Dune Capital, our friend Steve Mnuchin. I cold called them. And I said, hey, guys, you guys are not happy with this company. What if I buy it? And they go, you and what? Well, me and an attorney and I'll get and I'll get a finance guy. And I found a finance guy. And I underwrote the transaction. And I said,

wow, there's a lot of diamonds in the rough, if you will, in this company. So I ended up tendering for the company, but not even knowing how to do that. I had to call my dear friend Jim Murray at MGM. He said, Jim, what do I do? He says, do you have a banker? I'm like, what do you mean? Well, let me give me some names of bankers. And I had a few to choose from. And I ended up choosing James Stewart at UBS. And I ended up tendering for the company. And everyone that was in that credit did phenomenally well. I think Dan Loeb told me that I bought the company at 16 bucks, share and his basis was like three and a half bucks. Not a bad trait, Dan. But they were on the verge of bankruptcy again. This was a broken company for 20 years. And everyone bet against me buying it.

It had M1, M2 issues. Its financial statements were revoked by the SEC. It had money laundering issues, Patriot Act issues, team issues, and more importantly, customer issues. So I had to fix the unthinkable. and we were able to do that, get the deal financed, April of 2007, July 2007, what happened? The market's closed. Then we were hit with November of 2008. Everything was closed. And I had Soros as my partner at the time,

and that was the day that George Soros went on air and started saying we're betting against the consumer. I called my dear friend Len Potter. And I said, Len, you guys can't be my partner anymore. Your big boss is betting against the customer. That's what we do. So what if I make you this deal? Give me 90 days to buy you out at par and I had a big preff on me.

And I'd give you 6%. So you get your money back plus 6%. That's not bad. You're betting against the consumer, so you think we're worthless. And you know what? Good news is I had a relationship with Mike Milken and Guggenheim. Took Soros out and then bought every other mid-market company at about one and a half, two times EBDA before Synergy Savings. Created the greatest, largest hotel timeshare company in the world.

With hotels in over 35 countries, 16 languages, six currencies, six currencies. and we handled the balance sheet income statement and fixed that broken company, the unfixable, and at the same time solved the consumer issues by doing polling into the customer and to determine what the customer wanted and all we did was live to my dad's original thesis, give the customer more than they bargained for, just give them a little bit more than they bargained for. and I delivered the meaning of yes. I was able to put my business card at every front desk with my live email,

live cell. Nobody had ever attempted that. And a card underneath each bed that says, yes, we clean here too. And created a culture of warmth and compassion. One in which we delivered the meaning of yes, both internally with our team and externally to each and every guest.

and we lived in integrity. We lived in collaboration. We delivered in great guest service, equal or greater value. Now, these principles I tell you are the ethos of how I live. And what I didn't tell you is during this period of time, prior to Sinterra, I had an architect by the name of Joel Bergman in Las Vegas. And he said to me, hey, you ever met this guy, Donald Trump? Nah, Steve Wins talked to me about him, and Milken casually mentioned him, but

Milken later in life told me, Stephen, you know what the difference between Donald Trump and you is? I'm like, no, Mike, tell me. Since you gave me my business degree, Mike, that's where I went to business school. He said, well, I've been. I've financed you and I never financed him. There you go. So I'm sitting in Trump Tower years and years ago across from him, Rona. I think her name was Rona.

Waiting to go in the office a couple of times. And every time I- He ended up alienating Rona too as he does with everybody. Yeah. So I remember leaving and coming back to Vegas after the second meeting. And Joel Bergman said, we're going to do the deal with him, the Trump Tower in Vegas? But fractional timesure part.

I said, Joel, I can't. Got a bad feeling. This guy doesn't pay his contractors. I pay my guys within 24 or 48 hours. I got integrity. I don't think this guy does because he was trained by Roy Cohn. I had watched that James Wood documentary on Max way back when. I know how this guy was trained.

Lie, deny, lie, deny. This is this gentleman's ethos. And I values and he doesn't. I'm a gentleman. I serve. He likes to be served. It is just the antithesis. And as life went on as I created diamond resorts,

I thought back on this when I was doing undercover boss. And I'd done it the second time. And I said, you know, these shows, The Apprentice and Undercover Boss are similar. Act one, two, three, four, and a reveal. And both shows at the end, people cry. But at the end of my show, they're happy. And I don't say anything other than when I'm displeased.

I just say, you know, go see HR. I don't do this. You're fired. This drama. This bullshit. This hullabaloo. I'm built to serve. And I always have.

And it goes back to originally when I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to serve. Take care of people. I like service. I'm a bus boy at heart. I like cooking and serving. Okay. When I sell my business, I want to serve.

Want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com.

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And so I need a five-minute pitch on Stephen Klobeck for governor. I think the book you write is incredibly insightful. I want every one of my viewers and listeners to go out and buy your book because I think your book, you called it the center. It's sort of like, to me, it's the radical center because you're, you're, you're, you're, you're providing common sense solutions. I get done with your book. I'm like, this isn't really about left or right.

This is about right or wrong. There's great clarity in your book. So give me in the minutes that we have remaining. What's it? I'm sorry? But go ahead, Anthony. So it is, it is,

it's the, it's the hard center with bravado because there, the center has always been here. We've been listening to the loud, noisy, hard right and hard left. and no one. As I decided to do this, I interviewed every single candidate

as I moved back to California. Yeah, I actually left a 0% tax date to come pay tax. It was my dream. This is where I grew up. And I came back here and I interviewed every single candidate. I built my dream home and I said,

after I interviewed every candidate, this is the best we got. Maybe I should look at this. And I called Frank Launce and I said, what do you think? You're crazy, Klubeck, but you've been good crazy. So go ahead and specialize study

the income statement and balance sheet and I started to meet over 300 people and I saw there were solutions no different than fixing a broken company and I ran tourism in the United States. I created brand USA. I ran basically Nevada and I've done local politics. Have I run an election? Yeah. When I had to tender for Santera, I ran an election. I didn't need 50 plus 1%. I needed over 90%. So I do the difficult. I changed the name of an airport. So I did a survey. of those in California, Anthony. And I wanted to listen to them no different than finding out how to solve the problems

of the customer and hotel business. What were the issues of California? It's not open for business. It's not affordable, livable, or workable. There was no respect, no responsibility, no results of leadership. The Democrats had failed to execute. They're not accountable for dollars.

And they don't enforce the law. Well, I believe in the law. We don't steal is $950.50 in zero, Eighth Commandment. Okay. It's not Elon Musk's style. It's more of a Clinton-esque style. Reinventing government. But the way I see it's performance and results,

the California Department of Performance and Results, also known as CPR, which the state needs. Yeah, do I talk in buzzwords? Because these come from the people. Every single person in California is a customer. and they need to receive equal, a greater value, and that is it. And there has got to be bravado and somebody to protect this fourth largest country of the world? Yeah, it's a fourth largest economy.

And it's one of the great innovators of global history, frankly. And you had a great success for most people that get to California that have your ambition, have great success. It's the bedrock of the American dream. we went through your book and I took five words out of your book and I'm going to say the word Stephen and then I want you to manifest in your mind a sentence about the word go okay ready okay the first word is truth integrity is everything yeah yeah don't bust the trust and you bust the trust with me you're done it was so brilliant I would say integrity equal That was a big lesson in your book for me. Okay, I want to say the word America.

Aspiration. Okay. Opportunity. How about Americans? Americans as you write about them. Customers. Okay. California. The dream. What about the word clobeck? Clubeck. It was actually a cloboque. K-L-O-B-O-B-O-K. It's a gentleman. that came over in the 1900s with very few pennies, my grandfather from Russia. And if he would not believe what his grandson has done, and that's the American tree. I just think, listen, I don't know. I think you're going to be the governor, okay? And I want to be helpful to you.

I think that this book, everybody should go out and read it. The title of the book is Facing Hard Truth, How American Can Get Real, Pull Together, and turn our country around. And I will say something about you that I see California in you. I see what California represents to our society. And a lot of our trends start in California. And so when I talk about aspiration, I see you not only going on to fix California, but being a good template, if you will, a good litmus test for the rest of the country. So I'm rooting for you, Mr. Clobeck. I want to see you be the governor. And I'm proud to know you.

And I want people to go out and buy your book. And I appreciate you coming on our show today. I admire you and everything, the hard work you've done. And we've watched each other grow in business. And bravo to you and for your righteousness and for your unwavering commitment to be you and stand up for what is right. Well, sweet of you. And we both share one thing after reading your book. I was like, man, this guy really loves the country.

but there's something else about you, Stephen. You really love people. It comes out. You reek of a person that really wants to lift other people up, lower the ladder for other people and help them get up the ladder. And so I have one thing that. It was a lot from your book, by the way, sir. I don't take that.

I got a lot of respect. I knew you and had a lot of respect and admiration for you, but your book took it to a deeper dimension for me. Two things. one, I'm a guy who sits in the back of the theater, will take all the incoming bullets and watch my team get their trophy. Two, if I'm successful as governor of California, which I know I will be,

my greatest goal is not to fixing the balance sheet and income statement, is to create true great leaders that will far surpass my time to make sure California is always the forefront and the bully pulpit of the United States. Amen. We're going to leave it there. So thank you so much for joining. I am Anthony Scaramucci, and that was Open Book.

Thank you so much for listening. If you like what you hear, tell your friends, and make sure you hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. While you're there, please leave us a rating or review. If you want to connect with me or chat more about the discussions, It's at Scaramucci on X or Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. I'll see you back here next week.