Eric Trump | Speaking At Clay Clark’s Business Workshop On: Time Management, Employee Management, Promoting from Within, Future Vision, Being Donald Trump’s Son, Daily Prayers, Quality Control, Followup, Etc

Audio Transcription

Transcribed with Cockatoo

(Speaker 2)
Now, how many of you know who the 47th president of these United States is? How many of you are aware that the man who runs the Trump organization happens to be a man by the name of Eric Trump? How many of you know that? Now think about the profundity of this idea. Eric is 41 years old, but eight years ago, could you imagine being a 33-year-old man

(Speaker 2)
and your dad says, hey, by the way, I’m going to run for president, so you’re going to have to run an organization with 4,000 employees, billions of dollars of assets. Could you imagine handing over your business to a 33-year-old son? Could you imagine that? It’s like, okay, step one, dad, go save the free world. Son, go run the business. And through the Reawaken America tour, I really gravitated

(Speaker 2)
towards Eric Trump because we keep a very similar schedule and we have a very similar philosophy which involves to-do lists, calendars, relentless follow-up, and he’s really become a friend. I could not be more excited to introduce our next speaker. So, Sean, hit the intro music. Everybody stand to your feet. All right, Sean, crank it up. And now, ladies and gentlemen, family and friends,

(Speaker 2)
without any further ado, we have got the husband of Laura Trump, an incredible father, a great American, my brother from another mother, and the son of the 47th president of these United States. I think he’s here. If he’s not, it’ll get very awkward Ladies and gentlemen, please stand to your feet and greet the man with a plan

(Speaker 2)
Fresh from the State of the Union Eric Trump is at the house toss a rousala. There he is! He’s here! Yes! Eric, I’ll give you the hot mic. Here you go.

(Speaker 12)
Look at you. So guys, I was here, when was I last here?

(Speaker 8)
Two months ago?

(Speaker 2)
Three months ago?

(Speaker 1)
None of this was built.

(Speaker 12)
This is incredible.

(Speaker 5)
The amount of work you did in here is wild.

(Speaker 12)
And by the way, in typical Clay fashion, he sold every square inch of this building.

(Speaker 1)
This is a. The amount of work you did in here is wild. And by the way, in typical Clay fashion, he sold every square inch of this place. Right?

(Speaker 7)
He’s a hell of a businessman.

(Speaker 1)
I’m very impressed, Clay. Well, we’re going to do kind of a Q&A, so you guys can grab a seat if you want here. We’ll do a little Q&A. And what I told Eric, I said, have you come talk about business. And so we’re going to try to do today, the ground rules are, although we all may have geopolitical concerns, we’re going to focus on just business.

(Speaker 1)
And I’m going to try to tap into your brain. We’re going to try to tap into your brain. During a 90-minute, we’ll do two 45-minute sessions, and then we’ll let you get back to saving the free world while running the company. So question number one. What time do you typically wake up or a typical day as you’re running the Trump organization?

(Speaker 1)
About five every morning. Typically, I’m up at five in the gym, somewhere around six. Work out for about an hour. Grab as much protein as I can, eat it and go over the office. So that’s generally my morning. So then how does your day look?

(Speaker 1)
A typical day now? You’re 41 years old. You’re running the organization. You got kids. You got an incredible wife, you got, what does it look like now? Yeah. You know, I think days morph over the years, right? It’s, I think schedules change and I think that’s positive and maybe a negative in certain ways. I, I’m, I’m a person who actually believes in great consistency.

(Speaker 1)
Um, I try, but I was on a campaign trail for six months. So now for the first time, it’s kind of nice to come home and take your kids to school once in a while, pick them up once in a while, right? I mean, that’s important. You got to get a little bit of family time in there. And before kids, I was in probably the office a lot earlier than I ever was. And now you try and give back to them a little bit,

(Speaker 1)
especially when, for the first five and seven years and I think you’d want as a parent. And I think that’s something that every parent probably grapples with. It’s, how can you be successful here? How can you be successful here? How can you give them time? And how can you give your company time? And in my case, thousands of employees that we have all over the world.

(Speaker 1)
And I always lived in almost a state of guilt, which was, if I was with my kids, I was away from our team. If I was with my team, I was away from the kids, right? And that’s probably something that everybody in here balances in some way, shape or form. But I do, I try and make the time to take the kids to school hold my son’s hand on the way there. And it might be 10 minutes to take him,

(Speaker 1)
15 minutes to take him, but I think that means a lot. And so if I get to the office at 830 is typically why because I’m, you know, typically try to spend a couple minutes with them, but you know, family’s super important. And, you know, oftentimes that jives with, with small business and just business in general, it really does. It’s, there’s only so many hours in a day. Um, it’s impossible to be everywhere and everything to every person.

(Speaker 2)
Um, as probably the things that the people in here struggle with with most. Now, your dad, my understanding is I don’t want to butcher the story, but I believe your dad still messes with you by calling you sometimes like at five a.m. or pre five a.m. just to see if you’re awake. Is this walk us through?

(Speaker 2)
What is that like? Having Donald J. Trump as your as your father?

(Speaker 1)
Well, it got really bad, right? For a while, because there was like a cold war in our family. And he would do that. He’d call me at like 4.50 in the morning. Honey, are you awake? Well, yeah, I’m awake. I’m freaking speaking to you, right? Yeah, I’m awake. And then that same night, it’d be like 11.30 and you call up, hey, are you awake? And I’m like, yeah, I’m awake. And so a couple of weeks later, he’s dead asleep and I pick up and I mean, you know, when you pick up a phone and you’re not quite awake. Yeah, I’m awake. He’s like, you’re not awake. You’re not awake.

(Speaker 1)
I’m like, you’re right. You caught me sleeping. I’m sorry. It’s 1145 at night, you know, and I wake up at five. So now he’s, he’s remarkable. There are days where you just don’t get enough sleep and you drag and you’re not nearly as motivated and you’re not nearly as productive. We all have those days, but he’s always been a guy who could just run a thousand miles

(Speaker 1)
an hour on no sleep. I’ll never forget the last night of the campaign coming back. Our last stop was in Michigan. Literally, we landed at five o’clock in the morning and there was no sleeping the entire time. the morning, right? And there was no sleeping the entire time, right? It was Guns N’ Roses was on the TV, right? Like music video, November Rain, I’ll never forget it. So you’ve got Stephanie Seymour and Slash and you’ve got this whole thing. The music’s blasting, you’re

(Speaker 1)
coming back. No one slept for like 72 hours and he’s just going strong. And it’s amazing. Certain people have that kind of genetic. This guy has those, those genes. This guy never fricking stops. I mean, he never stops. But, but you know, a lot of that, I think comes out of love and passion for whatever you’re doing. I think if you ultimately like what you’re doing you’re going to be fired up and you’re going to run hard.

(Speaker 1)
And if you can’t stand what you’re doing you’re probably going to be unmotivated And that’s probably a good lesson as to, you know, pick the things you love doing in life and run at them.

(Speaker 2)
Now, a couple of things that I really, and this isn’t like an infomercial for Eric Trump, this is just real. This is real conversations, my wife and I. How did you meet someone for the first time and you as a couple talk about it afterwards? You go, you know, what was that? We’re having dinner with you and General Flynn, first time, just for a second, I need to take this call. And you got out, you made a call, and you didn’t make a big deal about it. And then you came back, and I didn’t ask you who you were calling.

(Speaker 2)
And you’re like, hey, I’m sorry I had to get up there. I just wanted to check in with the wife and kids. Then General Flynn was like, what were you just doing? I pray with my kids and we, we, we, can you walk us through your routine? Because I was moved by, you didn’t mention why you were getting up. General Flynn was asking what was happening there. Could you walk us through that daily routine?

(Speaker 1)
So most of my life I’ve been on the road 200 days a year, right? I actually feel like the last six weeks kind of coming off campaign. I’ve actually been the most sedentary I’ve ever been, which is kind of nice. You’re trying to like get back to the normal. But typically my average year is, you know, 200, 210 days on a plane. And if you multiply that, I mean, today I’m doing four flights, you know?

(Speaker 1)
So you multiply that across a year on a busy year. And so many of my projects for our company, all over the world, I’m heading to all over Europe next week and back to the Middle East in a couple weeks. And so we’re all over the place. But I grew up, I’m getting to the answer to your question. This is the weave, right?

(Speaker 11)
The weave.

(Speaker 8)
The weave.

(Speaker 1)
But what ends up happening is you’re away from home a decent amount. You end up using FaceTime as a way to connect with your kids, right? It’s awfully nice when the last thing that you can see before they go to bed is your face. They can call you in the morning. And it’s a great kind of connector. For as much as I hate certain technologies,

(Speaker 1)
because I think they perverse and pervert the world, FaceTime is actually, if somebody is busy, Facebook Time is a great way to actually see your children in a way that you’re present with them, in a way that they probably understand in this age while during a time when you otherwise wouldn’t be present. Go back 20 years ago when you had to call 1-800-COLLECT.

(Speaker 1)
This would not have worked, and that’s actually a benefit. But we came up with a thing. We started saying prayers every single night with our kids. We’d always say the Pledge of Allegiance first, and then we did three little prayers, two of which I said as a kid. Now I lay me down to sleep.

(Speaker 1)
I pray the Lord my soul to keep right. So we do that one. Uh, there my daughter loves. There are four corners. She calls it the four corners prayer, but there are four corners on my bed, four inches overhead. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. God bless this bed that I lay on. So my daughter loves that. And then they do the Lord’s prayer. And honestly, it’s been like an that you’ve done for somebody today? And what’s one nice thing that somebody’s done for you today?

(Speaker 1)
I ask my son, and I ask my daughter that. And it’s really interesting to see their kind of answers develop over time. But it’s been an amazing transformation for them. I mean, first of all, if you just look at the Lord’s Prayer, it’s not through when you’re two years old. So I think, you know, from a kind of vocabulary standpoint, I think was kind of amazing for both kids. Second of all, we have never had a problem

(Speaker 1)
with our kids sleeping. It’s like, you know, we do the Pledge of Allegiance, we do the prayers and like that is their instinctive light switch that it’s, you know, it’s game over. They’re down, they’re going to bed. There’s no more fun and games. And so in a certain way, there’s almost this like, you know, psychological discipline that’s been created at night. And we always do this, you know, typically 845 every night. And you’re right.

(Speaker 1)
You’re with me that one night and, you know, Laura called up or I’ll call her and, you know, let’s do prayers quickly. Sometimes it’s an abbreviated version, but it’s one of the greatest things that I found with my kids and with Laura and in terms of trying to keep us together in a world that sometimes is not always easy to be together.

(Speaker 2)
There’s a print piece I put up over there by my desk and it says, I have not approved this message, but I might after I’ve looked at it, Eric Trump, because that to me is sort of what you would say. You’re a very high standards guy. You have very high standards, but you’re also a very compassionate guy. I just want to tell you my little Eric story. I met you at one of the golf courses near where you live. You’re a valet gentleman. He parks the car, and he was anticipating us being there. He said, Hey, Mr. Trump’s looking forward to meeting you.

(Speaker 2)
I’m thinking, that’s lady. She says, Hey, Mr. Trump looks forward to meeting you. And then what impressed me is that you came in to grab your seat and you knew her name and you knew the valet guy’s name. And I’m going, you have 6,000 employees. How long can this game continue? So throughout the meal, everyone, you’re like, you know, Hey Carl, Hey Sarah, Hey, whatever you knew everyone’s name. And I’m thinking that’s wild, But you’re also the guy who’s fastidious about the bushes being cut immaculately, the light bulbs being perfect, everything. How do you balance that follow-up

(Speaker 2)
where you’re following up with the employees over some tedious, high-expectation things, but yet you still have that rapport? To me, that is awesome.

(Speaker 1)
Well, it’s kind of why we never want to be a Marriott. I never want to be a Hilton. I never want to be one of these big companies because you simply can’t have control of, not even control, but you can’t have those interpersonal relationships. If you look at our company, the average tenure, if you haven’t been in our company for 20 years, you’re literally a newbie. Once you come into our organisation, you just never leave. I think that’s a beautiful thing. But it’s unlike so many of the Fortune 500s. And everybody says that they’ve got great corporate cultures. They all write these pamphlets about it.

(Speaker 1)
We don’t have any pamphlets about corporate culture. We just truly love the people that work in the company, and they love us. I mean, we went through the hell of politics for a 10-year period, and I don’t think I lost a single person, right?

(Speaker 1)
I mean, they were in there fighting every day. the political apparatus where every single day somebody is coming out with a tell-all book. We didn’t have any of those in our company. It was a beautiful thing. It’s because we know everybody. They were born in the company. They typically work their way up. We hardly ever promote from outside. I know that’s so contradictory to so many businesses, but we’ll give somebody the opportunity who’s three tiers down that ladder over the person who’s the greatest general manager from the Ritz-Carlton because the young person will sit there and they will fight and they will work and they’re appreciative of the opportunity and they

(Speaker 1)
want to grow. If all of a sudden you’ve got this organization where every single time a new job opportunity comes up, somebody from the outside who’s never worked for the company, who’s never spilled that blood, shit, and tears, who have never put in the hours, who have never tried to go the extra yard, if every single time they’re usurped for a person from the outside that doesn’t have that camaraderie, you grow a lot of disgruntled people, and they end up leaving because they realize that their time frame is short or they’ll never get to ultimately where they want. So it actually creates greater turnover. So many of the people in the company, you ask,

(Speaker 1)
how do you know them all? I know them all because they’ve all been with the company for 10, 15, 20 years. They’ve all grown from so oftentimes a maitre d’ or a hostess in a restaurant to food and beverage manager to clubhouse manager, to assistant general manager, to general manager. I mean, we have drivers in the company, people that used to literally drive us to school,

(Speaker 1)
drive my father around New York, who are in charge of some of the biggest buildings in the world. And I’ll give you an example. Trump Las Vegas, there’s a guy named Brian Bergerow. He literally, when I was six years old, he used to take me to school. He’d drive my father around and we started building this project and we needed somebody to bring architects out to Las Vegas.

(Speaker 1)
Guess what? This guy always had his hand up. You know what? I’ll take them out there. Brian, are you sure? Yeah, sure.

(Speaker 1)
I’ll go. I know where the site is. I’ll tour them around the site. No problem. I’ll take the people who are going to finance the construction of this project. I’ll take them out there. He always had his hand up. And, hey, you need to go find contractors to build this thing? Oh, I’ll go line up all the best contractors. No problem. I’ll show them the site. I’ve already been in touch with the architects and how to put all the pieces together. They just always had

(Speaker 1)
their hand up. And so, long story short, we built that building. Brian Boudreaux, started as a driver, no college education. On paper, anybody, any Fortune 500 company would have overlooked him. He had street smarts, he had drive, he just never, ever stopped. People loved him. Finished the building ahead of schedule, ahead of budget. I’ll never forget, it was the one time though, and it’s one of the reasons I use that analogy about bringing in the person from Ritz-Carlton, but it’s the one time that we brought in a general manager from the outside world. The person lasted about three months

(Speaker 1)
and it just wasn’t working. They just weren’t, you know, the pocket square and it just, it wasn’t working. They weren’t fast enough. They weren’t responsive enough. Brian put his hand back up. He goes, listen, I know nothing about running a hotel. I’ve never done it. But I guarantee you I’ll figure it out. Let me handle this.

(Speaker 1)
I’ll take care of it. And sure enough, Brian became general manager. And here we are 15 years later, and he’s still managing the hotel. And it’s one of the most successful projects in Vegas. So if there’s ever, and. Always ask, always have your hand up. And so long as you’re willing to work, forget about the resumes on paper.

(Speaker 1)
I can’t tell you how many great resumes we see on paper, where the people ultimately absolutely let you down. It’s easier to make something look great on black and white. That’s very different than character and grit and work ethic. And street smart’s probably more than anything. It’s a big part of our company.

(Speaker 2)
Now, again, this is not an Eric Trump infomercial.

(Speaker 8)
It’s just real.

(Speaker 2)
You know how I am. I’m sort of irreverent. I just say what’s on my cranium here. But as I was researching you and how quickly you’ve expanded the Trump organization since you took over at the age of what, 33-ish? And I was thinking to myself, like, you know, Eric, you’re 40 years old. That’s about the time your dad wrote The Art of the Deal.

(Speaker 2)
And I remember reading The Art of the Deal, and I remember reading the book going, he wrote this when he’s 41 years old. And so as you’re working on your book and the whole thing, I am just so excited for But one of them that stands out, one of your stories was you and your dad are driving in the car and your dad’s like, that is a hell of a wall. That’s a great wall, Eric, or something. He’s like, can we, we got to pull over and go look

(Speaker 2)
at this wall. And can you tell everybody this story? Because I’m reading this, this manuscript for this upcoming book and I’m going, Eric and his dad are excited about the guy who builds the wall. I too am excited about the guy who builds the wall. Tell us about the guy who built the wall. So this is such a great story.

(Speaker 1)
So I was nine or ten years old. We’re driving Westchester, New York, and there was this guy. They’re kind of a lone stone mason. This guy’s name is Frank Sanzo on the side of the road, and I’ll never forget. He looks at me. He goes, That’s the most incredible stone wall I’ve ever seen. And this is like the hard granite. This is kind of like East Coast, hard granite stone, tough stuff to work with. It doesn’t break very easily, but it’s beautiful. And he pulls over and he starts talking to the guy and they start talking about,

(Speaker 1)
obviously, the wall where he came from. He came from Italy, came over as a really young boy, came over with nothing in his pocket, and it just became a great stonemason effectively. And they start talking about whether or not you want dry pack walls or you want wet pack walls, whether or not you want wet mortar or dry mortar, how he cuts the stones, what is that. They speak for 45 minutes and he goes at the end of this, he goes, you got to come work for me. I want to give you all my business, but you got to come work for us.” So I started working at 11. I started working under Frank Sanzo on job sites.

(Speaker 1)
This guy was truly, truly incredible. This guy ended up building the vast amount of properties that we have. A big part of his soul is in all those properties. He really became family to us. He became a second father to me. I grew up on construction sites with him. Those are the opportunities. This is a guy who literally pulls over to see the lone stone mason.

(Speaker 1)
What’s really amazing is, I’m not sure Frank at the time really understood his true talent. Not only did he come work for an organization that pushed that talent, but I actually think my father built up his personality. Frank, you’re the best. This guy is the greatest stone mason I’ve ever seen. You would hear that over and over and over and actually made him believe in himself because he went from building residential stone walls, nice kind of home stone walls to building

(Speaker 1)
some of the greatest patios, some of the greatest really icons in the hotel world and so many other things. I’m not sure if he didn’t have that kind of encouragement, if somebody wasn’t sitting there being almost a cheerleader for him, if he would have ever actually developed the true skill that he ended up with 20 years later. And this guy was amazing.

(Speaker 1)
I mean, I remember we had a pool at Trump Doral, and he’s been to Doral, but it had this massive waterfall. It was a little gaudy. We bought the hotel. We had to put a lot of money into it. And no one was willing to take down this waterfall. It was a solid piece of concrete that cantilevered over the pool. And you’re trying, like how do you get that out of there without small cuts, a crane to take out a piece? And every bid was coming back. It was either astronomical or they’re coming back saying it’s not possible. Like you’re just gonna destroy everything around the pool. And I’ll never forget, Frank goes, I’ll take care of it.

(Speaker 1)
And I literally left and he had a backhoe, like what, like a big excavator with a stone hammer on it. And he is hitting this pool and I’m sitting there and he’s smoking two Marlboro Reds. My lungs are still polluted from this crap. I mean, literally like my lungs still ache from Frank Sanzo’s Marlboro, he’s got this pot of coffee, this track coat, it’s on tracks,

(Speaker 1)
but it’s literally off of one track. The thing’s bouncing all around. We’re sitting there saying, first of all, the pool deck is done. It’s not going to be salvageable. Second of all, there’s no way the pools go hold water because he’s going to drop about 50 tons of concrete right into the bottom of the pool. All the piping is going to be busted, right? And there’s a good chance that Frank Sanzo is going to be dead by the time. We come back a couple hours later and sure enough, you know, the biggest piece of concrete,

(Speaker 1)
cantilevered over this thing you’ve ever seen, it’s in the bottom of the pool, don’t get me wrong. The pool is half the story, but he got a job done that no one else was willing to do. And that was just, you know, um, but, uh, so many people in the company are grown that way.

(Speaker 10)
Wow.

(Speaker 2)
You know, you, you, you see the talent. He always had the ability to see talent in people and then actually take that talent and almost make them better. Um, by kind of reassuring them and building up their own confidence. And I always thought that was an amazing trade. Now, one thing that I’ve noticed about, and just there’s principles that we’re distilling here, but one is you don’t read resumes. There’s somebody out here, people always ask me,

(Speaker 2)
Clay, how can you read resumes and know who’s the best fit? I get looking up, Sean pulled up on the screen, Inc. Magazine now says that 85% of job candidates admit to just making up what’s on their resume. So I would just say, free yourself from the jackassery, interview people, and then just see what they can do and promote from within. Just free yourself from the jackassery, stop reading resumes.

(Speaker 2)
The second thing I noticed is that you’re very kind to people, but you have a high expectation. You’re kind, but you have a high expectation. That’s a principle I’ve witnessed. The third thing I’ve noticed is you follow up constantly. As an example, for Laura’s birthday, I think she was turning 25 again, and you had lowered your standards and you invited me. And so I’m here and I’m kind of going, I don’t know anybody here.

(Speaker 2)
I know Eric, that’ll be my wingman. I’ll find him, we’ll be fine here. My wife and I are there and it was a great event. Wonderful people were there, unbelievable first-class accommodations. Everything was great. But then the next morning, five, probably 10 a.m.,

(Speaker 2)
I get a text, boom, it’s you texting saying, how was it? And I’m going, I didn’t text myself, did I? Because I normally text people at four in the morning, five, I’m like, self, did I text myself to ask myself how the party was? No, it’s Eric Trump.

(Speaker 2)
And so I call you and I’m going, Hey, brother. And you’re going, Was it good? Did you have a good time? Did your wife meet some people with your accommodations? Okay. Was it? Do you guys have fun? I’m going that level of follow up is awesome. It’s just this obsession with making. Could you talk about that mindset that you and your dad both have? Because it is so prevalent just to follow up the follow up of making sure that even a guest at a birthday party has a great time.

(Speaker 1)
Where’s your wife by the way?

(Speaker 2)
She is. Was my wife is she hiding somewhere? James call my wife. She’s probably here hiding.

(Speaker 1)
How he landed her is like beyond me right? I still. Isn’t Vanessa the absolute greatest? She’s the absolute greatest. You know honestly I actually think follow up is almost one of the hardest things for me.

(Speaker 1)
I get bombarded. Every single person here does. This is not a problem unique to me, but every single one of us gets thousands of text messages. We get thousands of emails, half of it spam, half of it junk, three quarters of the time if you’re in business, it’s somebody asking you for a favor, which they probably wouldn’t pay back to you if, right? I mean, you deal with this every single day.

(Speaker 1)
And I think given how many different medians there are of social media now, then you’ve got people asking you for things on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, right? And then you have Signal and you have WhatsApp and you have all the different chats.

(Speaker 1)
And then you’ve got Facebook Messenger. And it’s almost become so dilutive to time that I actually, I think one of the hardest things in modern day life is actually trying to keep up and be responsive. All because you no longer back in the day, OK, you could call somebody. And that was the expectation. You’d call. But now there’s 50 different forms of getting in touch with people. Like, are you on WhatsApp

(Speaker 1)
or are you not? Are you communicating as a high school friend through Facebook or not? Do I have to go check nine of these things every single day? Oh, well, people are living an incredibly busy life, of which they can hardly keep up with to begin with. But I think for people that really matter,

(Speaker 1)
I think at the end of the day, it comes down to not that everybody doesn’t matter, but you’ve got to prioritize what’s important to you. I’m actually a very big list person. I start every day with a very big list. And half the days, I think you end up getting frustrated because the list grows longer than the things that you’re actually able to accomplish. But what I always do is I always take an arrow and I always put objects at the top of the list that actually matter to me.

(Speaker 1)
So the first things you get to are the things that ultimately either influence your life or what you want to accomplish or the things that are ultimately important to your company, right? Those rise to the top, you know, and the stuff that slides down, well, guess what? It’s just less relevant, less important, and that’s okay as long as you’re taking care

(Speaker 1)
of the things that, again, are really kind of accretive to your lifestyle, accretive to your company, accretive to your family, accretive to whatever you’re trying to accomplish. So I really do think that, I mean, listen, you’ve got a nominal amount of time in a day. You’ve got 24 hours. You could sit there and you could check every single meeting to every single of the thousand text messages you have.

(Speaker 1)
And guess what? You’re not going to see your kids. You’re not going to see your wife. You’re probably going to get divorced because of it. in terms of being responsive to and finding that balance. And it’s tricky because no one wants to insult people. No one wants to not be that person for every single,

(Speaker 1)
but at the same time, you have responsibilities in your own life. And I try and get to the people who I love the most the first.

(Speaker 2)
Is Dr. Zellner here? Dr. Zellner, are you here? Dr. Z, is he here? Dr. Z? One of the things is he’s here somewhere. He’s lurking. Dr. Z has been a big mentor in my life. And one of the things he told me, he said, Clay, don’t overestimate people’s curiosity. Don’t take 30 minutes to explain what could be explained in three minutes. And that’s one thing I’ve tried to do is respect your time as we’ve gotten to know each other.

(Speaker 2)
And I think you have this balance that you have figured out where you’ve probably watched your father, you’ve seen. Your dad, you’re not building Legos with your dad, but you’re actually building buildings with your dad at a young age. Like your dad, you know, you weren’t probably, you know, your dad wasn’t at your basketball games, but yet you’re playing video games with Michael Jackson while your dad’s talking about building a building. And could you maybe just talk

(Speaker 1)
about the Trump experience of just being raised? Like, what was that like having him as your dad? Jesus, how much time you have. Yeah, I mean, listen, I wasn’t, you know, I say this kind of tongue in cheek, but not really. I mean, I wasn’t you know, it was it was less the the wiffle ball in the backyard. But, you know, I was flying with Michael Jackson to and don’t go there. People out there that you sick, you sick, twisted human beings, but he’d be performing at the casinos and you’d be flying down with

(Speaker 1)
Mike Tyson, with Don King, with Michael Jackson, with all these very cool people. So in a certain way, you’d be walking through a casino and it might be all business, but you were a very, very small, young part of this kind of entourage. And so for me, there was less wiffle Ball, but there was much more of that. You go to a 70-story building that’s coming out of the ground in New York City, there’s guys walking on I-beams 20 floors above your head, concrete’s being poured, rebar’s being

(Speaker 1)
put down, and you’re walking through these job sites as a little kid just looking out, no windows, no anything, just looking out over the skyline of New York. I wouldn’t trade any of those memories for the other. I understand how important the other is. I try and play pig with my kids. Does everybody know what pig is?

(Speaker 1)
I try and do that every night with my kids, with my son before he goes to bed. It’s a little basketball game. and he doesn’t, you get a letter and whoever spells pig first. You know, that stuff, don’t get me wrong, is super important, but it was very unconventional for me. I mean, so many of the unique kind of experiences I had in my life were in just situations that couldn’t be duplicated.

(Speaker 1)
And, you know, I put almost more emphasis in my life on those situations than some of the conventional, right? Knowing that this was a guy that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He wasn’t, he wasn’t screwing off. He wasn’t taking vacations. This is a guy who was literally never taken a vacation in his life.

(Speaker 1)
He was working really hard. And those, those times you had together actually made it almost. More special. Um, you know, then, then kind of the ordinary.

(Speaker 2)
Now, this is a question I have for you. I want to share a little story. You know, one thing this just in for those of you who aren’t aware, I represent the far right regions of Christianity. Okay. So I’m like a very literal Bible guy. You joined the Reawaken tour and you were open to, we had Dr. Rasha Batara on the stage who was Muslim, you had Dr. Zalinko who’s Jewish,

(Speaker 2)
your brother-in-law is obviously Jewish. You now have an international company all over the world, all different faiths, all different backgrounds. What is your approach to dealing with all the different faiths, all the different backgrounds? Because I am like this unapologetic Christian guy, but I see you get along with people that have

(Speaker 2)
different faiths and different backgrounds, and your organization is all over the world. What is your approach to just in the workplace, dealing with different faiths, different world views? How do you approach that?

(Speaker 1)
That’s very simple. I like good people. For me, it’s clearly I’m a Christian. I just told you about the prayers I say every night. But I can’t tell you how many great Jewish people we have in our organization, great Muslims

(Speaker 1)
we have in our organization, great Christians, great atheists, a lot of it. But I just care about good people. I like people with heart and soul. I like people who truly care. And you can flush that out in a person very, very quickly. To me, it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever. In life, I believe in happiness in society.

(Speaker 1)
At the end of the day, it’s kind of my guiding force. And that’s the political view of mine, but that’s also just probably a moral view and maybe a religious view. If people are happy in society, you’ve got a great society. And at the end of the day, I think we should tailor our actions toward happiness.

(Speaker 1)
And how do you have happiness? Well, you have a great job. You have a great work environment. You get great government, you get great education, you’re safe. All those things determine happiness in society. I think that’s actually what wins the day for me. If you’re a good person, if you’re happy, if you can work hard, none of the other things matter to me.

(Speaker 1)
Why should I care how you go home and pray if it’s meaningful to you? I literally don’t think about that question. I’m not sure if I’ve ever thought about that question. And again, and this is coming from a guy who’s clearly a good Christian. And so I just, I like good people.

(Speaker 1)
I like very good people.

(Speaker 2)
Now, when I was on the, this is true story. We were in Oregon together and they’ve been in Oregon. We, you were there in Oregon, and we rented a venue and the venue canceled because it was too political or something. Then another venue canceled, so we had to rent a parking lot and then put a tent. It was like a $600,000 semi-permanent structure

(Speaker 2)
we had to erect outside. Vanessa couldn’t come to this. Well, there’s Vanessa. She couldn’t come. I found myself basically alone in Oregon with our team, but my wife wasn’t there and she’s kind of my security blanket. So I’m going, I don’t know what’s happening. Then Antifa showed up. They shut down the local Target in protest.

(Speaker 2)
They gave kids the day off at college in protest. They shut down the phone stores. And I just remember thinking, this is a, they closed all the shopping centers. I’m going, you backstage and you’re like, you know, so I flew commercial, I flew in and again, the people around me are going, he flies commercial? I mean, what’s it like to be the son of the man who’s trying to save the free world, knowing

(Speaker 2)
that maybe 45% of the people on the plane don’t agree with you or whatever that is? Because you’re just so used to being in that. It is very, you were a very calming, steadying voice to a lot of the speakers behind the stage, telling them, guys, this will be fine. Don’t worry about Antifa. We’ll be fine.

(Speaker 1)
But what’s it like just living through that every day? Well, by the way, go back a little bit. Clay calls me about three days before. He goes, yeah, we’re going to be there. I’m going to be there, Clay. Now, Secret Service, by the way, we love the men and women of the Secret Service, they’re the greatest. They would not have been thrilled about this event. Literally, Antifa was trying to march. This was in Portland, right? Let’s put this in perspective. This was in Portland

(Speaker 1)
in the height of the madness. I go, Clay, I told you I was going to be there. I’m going to be there. And so anyway, they started leaving little spike strips, remember, in the parking lot, a couple of punctured tires, a couple of other things. But I finished up the speech. It was unbelievable. I mean, when you go to a very blue district that gets no attention paid to them, you wouldn’t believe the love that comes out.

(Speaker 1)
I know that sounds… They had never seen a Republican come through Portland before and literally the masses showed up. This tent was like Overflowing it was such an amazing event. Anyway, people loved it. People had the greatest time I like an hour to kill before the flight so we go to this little restaurant I never forget was like this like German like bratwurst places It was funny and he has this great security guy that would always you know Take me to and from the airport. Yeah Jay and you Jay was at Special Forces. And Jay’s sitting there looking.

(Speaker 1)
He goes, yeah, these people are surrounding this little German sausage place. And he goes, we better get the hell out of here. I go, Jay, we’re going to finish our bratwurst or whatever the hell we were eating that night. And he goes, no, no, no.

(Speaker 1)
We really need to get out of here. I won’t say it because somebody’s filming us, but I don’t care how bloody and torn our shirts get, but we are not leaving this damn place. I’m not succumbing to the freaking Antifa people in Portland. By the way, I think a little bit of that to me was, if you say you’re going to do something, do it. In life, if you say you’re going to do something, do it. in life. If you say you’re going to do something, do it.

(Speaker 1)
And I think three quarters of the speaker is bailed from that event because of it was happening and it wasn’t it wasn’t perfect. But hey, we had a great you and I had a great time.

(Speaker 2)
Now, the other I mean, there’s been a few emotional moments that we had there. And I’ll bring my wife up here. you and your dad was giving this little talk in Butler. I’m on the phone with you and we’re talking and I’m driving to Grand Lake and I’m on the phone with you and then you go, what the? And then the phone dropped and I could tell the phone was still on and I’m going, I have no idea what’s going on and out of respect. I just hung up my wife sends me a text and said Someone just shot Eric’s dad and I remember I just pulled over James you were in the car with me

(Speaker 2)
So I pulled over in my van and I just couldn’t stop weeping because I was I mean, I felt like I was there with you I’m on the phone next thing, you know, I Hear you go. What the and you put the phone down and then I hang up. My wife texts me says, you know, President Trump’s been shot and Eric’s dad’s been shot. And I’m just like, I don’t know what to do with these emotions. So I pulled over and I just told James, I like to cry alone. That’s my move. Like a

(Speaker 2)
cat dies alone in the woods. I like to. So I pulled over and I was just like, Dear Jesus, please be with President Trump. And I didn’t know he was alive. I didn’t know about the victory, the painting right there of that moment. I didn’t know about that. All I knew is that you’re my friend.

(Speaker 2)
And I was just going, please be with my friend. I probably should have been praying for your dad more, but I was praying for you because I knew you. Could you talk about that moment and what that was like watching that? Because I was just praying with you. Everything was in me. And I’ll let Nesk ask you a follow-up question there.

(Speaker 5)
Yeah, I remember.

(Speaker 1)
I was actually in New York. I had my kids in my lap. We were watching it. work on email and I was talking to this guy and I grew up in doing a lot of competitive shooting. That was always my thing, right? A lot of long range rifle, a lot of competitive shotgun and a lot of other things. I understand the sound of gunfire, right?

(Speaker 1)
It’s kind of something I know very well. And so it came as a, you know, I, let me actually rephrase this. I’m not sure if it came as a shock because about three weeks before I was on Fox News. And I said, they’ve tried everything they can to try and destroy a man’s life. I’ve sat in a courthouse with him every single day for, I don’t know, seven weeks, but really going in and out of courtrooms every single day as they tried to wage illegal lawfare stuff on him. And I actually said to Sean Hannity that night, I go, I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to And Kim, who’s kind of, where’s Kim? She’s the greatest over here. She’ll remember the incoming that she got in the company. Eric says that they’re going to try and kill him.

(Speaker 1)
And I go, honestly, it’d be the least shocking thing. I mean, they had tried everything else to take him out of the race. They’d gone after him. They had smeared him. They had lied.

(Speaker 1)
They’d made up the Russia hoax. They had taken him off of the ballot in Maine, Colorado. They had done everything they could. They tried to subpoena us into oblivion. They tried to literally bankrupt our company. And I said that that day. I go, it would be the least surprising thing if they tried to whack him. And that’s exactly what ended up happening.

(Speaker 1)
And it’s deeply personal. A lot of people on that stage are people that are very, very close to me. Aside from my father, you see a guy that has blood running down his face. Coming out of the competitive kind of rifle world, 120 yard shot, that’s a chip shot. I mean, a lot of people in this room will do that with a pistol, right?

(Speaker 1)
And so you’re sitting there saying, how lucky did he actually get? We lost Corey that day. In fact, his wife and his two daughters were sitting next to me at the State of the Union two nights ago. We’ve gotten to know them very well.

(Speaker 1)
At the same time, it was a moment that I do believe that God was there. You know the flag, right? And I’m not really a sappy person. I’m kind of like over the sap in life, but the flag folded up looking like a perfect angel about three minutes before right above his head. That doesn’t just normally happen, this big, big, massive flag the size of this room that

(Speaker 1)
was hung between two fire trucks and their ladders. There’s a lot of interesting little signs that day, but no, there’s no question he was kept on this earth for the purpose that he’s in right now. I think there’s a lot of people in here who would agree. But crazy. You know, it’s really amazing talking about always being there. I think I was the first person that spoke to him.

(Speaker 1)
I spoke to him literally in the hospital, like seven minutes later, they got him there very quickly. But the last thing he said to me after cracking, actually, surprisingly, a couple of mild jokes, right? Because he was just trying to do anything that he could to defray how uncomfortable this whole situation was.

(Speaker 1)
But he goes, nothing changes. We’re going to Milwaukee exactly when we said we were going. We’re not changing the time whatsoever. Listen, you’re in the hospital. You just got shot. And you’re really talking about going to the convention the day before the convention even started.

(Speaker 1)
Remember, conventions are like four days long, and it builds up to the final day. And exactly 48 hours after that incident, exactly 48 hours, on the very first day of the convention, at about 5, 536 o’clock at night, I was the guy from the state of Florida who was the delegate who ended up making him the Republican nominee for president of the United States. And so when you look at the pendulum of life, it’s like, you’ve got these highs, you’ve

(Speaker 1)
got these lows, and it’s amazing sometimes how fast they come, right? Oftentimes you think the highs and lows are spread out over years and honestly I think that was a great example that they’re oftentimes not. You had the worst low followed by almost the greatest high if you can think about it because it’s like they didn’t get him and now we’re gonna get you guys. We’re gonna win. We’re gonna get you guys. Now one thing I

(Speaker 2)
want to let my wife ask you. By the way, you asked where’s my wife. There she is.

(Speaker 1)
That’s my wife. Did you hear what I said before? I said the fact that he landed you is beyond shocking to me.

(Speaker 3)
He’s wonderful. He’s wonderful.

(Speaker 2)
He’s great. Now, I will say this. As far as adults that I pray for, I pray for you. I pray for all my driving to my car. I just try to pray and you know that God, Ephesians chapter one, verse 16 through 18, but that God was to pray without ceasing, that God would give you wisdom, revelation, knowledge and understanding.

(Speaker 2)
And I really obsessively pray for you and I pray for my wife and I probably should express my feelings more, explain that I’m like really obsessed that Jesus works a big work in your life because you are your father’s cupbearer. I mean, you run the organization. And I know my wife shares that same. We pray for you all the time. And so as much, you know, before my wife begins asking you

(Speaker 2)
passive aggressive attacking questions, we pray for you.

(Speaker 9)
I’m just kidding. But here you go.

(Speaker 3)
No, I don’t even know what I’m asking. I just want to say that we appreciate you guys. You guys, you know, when I look at earlier today, I know Clay randomly called me up. I wasn’t expecting it. And I just want to say that, you know, Clay and I could have never imagined to be in a position where we’re even speaking to, you know, you, the president’s son. And somehow as small business coaches in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we were thrust into this position. And I’m very, very, very thankful for it.

(Speaker 3)
And I know that God has his hand on you, on Laura, on Vanessa, on Don Jr., on Ivanka, on Jared, on Melania, and on your dad. And it’s to fulfill the plans and purposes that God has. And that’s—I was just listening to Clay say that he prays for you, but you don’t understand what a miracle that is,

(Speaker 3)
because this is the same guy who, when our son was born blind, banned me from praying because he thought I was crazy. And he said, any God who allowed an innocent baby to be born blind, either A, isn’t all powerful because he couldn’t stop it, or B, isn’t good

(Speaker 3)
because he could’ve stopped it and didn’t, and he goes, and any God like that I will not pray to, and he goes, and you don’t need to pray to him either, you need to go enroll him in the school for the blind. My kid, there was a waiting list. So, all I’m saying is that God, I know for a fact, is working through your family, and when there is a moment, whatever that is,

(Speaker 3)
that your dad, you, anyone in there is called to do something, you all will know and will not be able to miss it.

(Speaker 1)
So. Amen.

(Speaker 5)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

(Speaker 1)
You know what, I have to say one thing though, Vanessa, you totally minimize yourself right so you called yourself just small business coaches Let me put this in perspective These guys spent I don’t know how many years at least three years of your life four years four years of your life Putting on 25 reawaken about 25 events. Yep. I think I spoke at like 19 of them right I mean I

(Speaker 1)
Met these guys they were a couple into it, and I started speaking at them, and I religiously went to, I think I only had to miss one because I was hosting like,

(Speaker 2)
And you subbed out your brother, you said, can I sub out my brother in exchange? I said, we’ll accept the trade.

(Speaker 1)
Which wasn’t nearly as much fun, all right? Don’s like the second child. The impact that these two guys had on the political landscape in this country, I cannot tell you how meaningful it was. And by the way, I also can’t tell you how uncomfortable it was. They went after Clay like he was a dog. They went after the family.

(Speaker 1)
They went after the organization. They went after Reawaken. They went after the speakers as if it was a group. And these were the most beautiful events that you’ve ever seen. I mean, 25 events, thousands and thousands and thousands of people at each one of them. These guys are miraculous.

(Speaker 1)
They put their life into it. He never took a plane to any one of them. He drove from here to Portland. If Clay ever asked me to drive from Oklahoma to Portland, I was like, you know, Clay, I’m going to miss one of your events that much. I can promise you. I tried to sell. I told I called Laura. I said, Laura, you haven’t really lived until you’ve driven from Oklahoma to Portland in a white van. It’s

(Speaker 1)
got one hundred and fifty thousand original miles on He got one great thing out of it. He got an unbelievable friendship out of me and he got an unbelievable respect out of so much of the country who loves him. But these were the most well-attended events, but they sucked the blood and life out. They went after these guys and he never, ever stopped because he really believed. And honestly, it cost him much more than he made from it. This wasn’t a money-making venture. I mean, Clay really believed he wanted to see this country saved. And he just was relentless in this pursuit. And Vanessa was the same way. I mean, relentless in this pursuit. And I think it’s a great lesson. Whatever you believe in, go after. And go after unabashedly.

(Speaker 1)
Go after with all the energy that you possibly have in your body. Don’t let people deter you. Don’t listen to the word no. It’s almost the thing that you can credit Elon Musk with the most. You know how many people made fun of his little idea of flying rockets to Mars? Every single one, you’re never going to do that. It’s too expensive. You can’t do it. They’re never going to let you do it. They’re never going to give you the permits. And he just didn’t care to hear the word no. He only believed in what was ultimately his dream and he sprinted toward it. And there’s no question that this is exactly what he did with reawaken and it made a difference. It made a massive difference. There were so many followings that you had that were so left

(Speaker 1)
behind, so left behind. People that literally didn’t have a voice anymore who wanted to have a voice and Clay gave those people that outlet. Vanessa, please never call yourself little small business owners from Tulsa, Oklahoma. You guys were pivotal in hopefully what will turn out to be one of the greatest victories in American history.

(Speaker 5)
I appreciate that.

(Speaker 2)
Eric, now I want to say- I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.

(Speaker 8)
No, you’re good.

(Speaker 7)
You’re good.

(Speaker 2)
It’s a weird thing because I just remember when I watched General Flynn the stuff He’s going through. I’m just like praying for you guys relentlessly to Vanessa’s point I really didn’t believe in the power of prayer until our son was healed at all and so you know It’s wild to meet you guys in the flesh, and then to meet you I think you’re just you’re the real deal, and I love that about you. I want to get into the energy thing, the energy thing. The Trump family, you have a certain energy. Your dad is famous for pointing out the lack of energy

(Speaker 2)
that certain people had during debates. And I actually interviewed Dr. Carson on our show. And so we’re off air, and I can share this. Enough time has passed. But I said, Dr. Carson, I want you to know, sir, I actually voted for you, but then Trump beat you. So I ended up voting for Trump for president. But you were my guy.

(Speaker 2)
And then Trump beat you. And he’s like, yeah, yeah. I told him the other day, I’m really good. This is when Trump was in the White House. Ben Carson says Dr. Carson says, and I’m actually I told him the other day, I’m so glad I didn’t win.

(Speaker 2)
And I said, you are. There’s a certain energy. I want to talk about the energy that you try to bring to the workplace, and that is felt within your whole team. Kim over here. Kim is a superstar. Kim, I know about my position. I can’t see.

(Speaker 2)
There you are. That’s Kim. She’s great. Everyone on your team, they bring this energy, and you don’t seem to put up with people with low energy.

(Speaker 1)
Talk about the energy, what that means, energy is everything, guys. By the way, maybe the two greatest defeats of all time was using that little energy line, right? I mean, the first one was Jeb Bush. Do you remember that? I do.

(Speaker 6)
Oh, look, Jeb has some energy tonight.

(Speaker 1)
It’s really great.

(Speaker 6)
Look, the guy showed up.

(Speaker 1)
Jeb, you move any further to the right, you’re going to fall off the stage. I was sitting there friends with his son. And it was hard to sit next to a guy that you’re friends with as this happens on the stage. The second one was obviously Joe Biden, with the least energy of all. But listen, guys, energy is, you know, first of all, energy is contagious, right?

(Speaker 1)
I mean, I think people are attracted to people with good energy. I can’t tell you, there was a flight attendant on Delta coming up here today. you’ve ever seen. I literally said that to her. I go, you’re amazing. You just have like, people are attracted, I think, to good energy, to positive energy. And then second of all, I think energy is excitement. They’re parallels to one another. And I think if you’re excited about something, you’re more convincing about whatever that is.

(Speaker 1)
If you’re excited to fight the war, if you’re excited to you know, to talk about something. If you’re passionate about something, if you’re excited, it makes you more excited about whatever topic that is. Right? You can take, you can take a person that has a different hobby from you, a hobby that you will never enjoy. Take somebody who’s really excited about basket weaving.

(Speaker 1)
They put enough energy into it. At least you can, you draw a little bit out of that, right? Out of their, their soul. It’s like, you know, this is cool. The person is really into this. They’re inspired by something. And I think all of us can appreciate that. So listen, energy is critical. It’s critical to small business.

(Speaker 1)
It’s critical to what you do. It’s critical to all your customers. And by the way, I really do feel, I don’t think energy can be faked. Like I don’t think you can just go around faking the fact that you’re into something when you’re truly not. There have been plenty of politicians who have tried to do that and they’ve all failed.

(Speaker 1)
There have been plenty of business leaders who have tried to do that. You know, and guess what? They start missing days and they start doing this and they start doing that and they don’t commit themselves the same way. You’ve got to have energy for some Q&A session from specific people here as well. So sales, your family doesn’t

(Speaker 1)
apologize for selling something. And we have your website pulled up there, the Trump website there. And you guys have, I mean, properties all over the world you’re developing. And under your

(Speaker 1)
leadership, I think the organization may have doubled in size. Maybe I’m getting those numbers wrong. There’s almost 6,000 employees. You guys are hard-charged and you’re putting up a new tower in Jeddah. You guys are moving and you don’t apologize for sales. First, you can just share with us a little bit. How large is the Trump Organization? Then what’s your mindset to unapologetically selling the vision of the new tower or the new project? Just tell us about the organization. Part of it is believing. If you’re doing something,

(Speaker 1)
we always want to do the best. It’s part of our brand. It’s either going to be the best or we just choose not to do it, because there’s no point. It’s otherwise dilutionary toward who we are and what we do. But we have an amazing company. I came in in early 2006,

(Speaker 1)
and we were largely residential buildings. That was our bread and butter. We had a couple of hotels, but largely residential. I saw the greatest two years. 2006, 2007 as developer was amazing. Then 2008, everybody remembers what happened. Countrywide folded, Bank of America stopped doing end loans, so did Chase, so did everybody else.

(Speaker 1)
You saw the greatest two years of prosperity in the real estate world, followed by arguably probably the two worst we’ve ever seen, and certainly two of the worst we’ve ever seen in our country’s history. You couldn’t get end loan financing. I mean, good luck if you had a house in Phoenix, or if you had a house in Las Vegas, or if you had a house here. There was just no market for it. And so it was actually great at the beginning of my career to see how good something could be quickly followed by how bad something could be.

(Speaker 1)
And we really doubled down at that time. We went out, we had done very, very well. We were under levered at that time. And all of a sudden, people started coming to us because we’re really good at what we did. They started coming to us in the golf world saying, Hey, we’ve got this incredible piece

(Speaker 1)
of land. We don’t know how to manage it. Our golf club, it’s an equity club, but all the board members are fighting. We don’t know what the hell we’re doing. Will you come in and take it over?” All of a sudden, we started just golf course after golf course, hotel after hotel, buying property after property at $0.05 on the dollar. We took this portfolio and we literally doubled it in a couple of years and then tripled it and quadrupled it. And we’ve never really stopped. And the company’s got bigger and bigger. It’s gotten more diversified. It went from really residential high-rise

(Speaker 1)
to hotel to resort, golf course, golf course resort, meaning with hotel components, wineries, some of the biggest commercial buildings in New York, California and other places. So big office buildings, a lot of residential projects, a lot of retail. And it’s just been fun. We’ve been adding and adding and adding. And more recently, we’ve really gone into the crypto space in a very big way because there’s no question that that’s kind of the new frontier. I’m glad my man over here likes, but there’s no

(Speaker 1)
question that’s become the new frontier. And I’m probably spending 30% of my time in that space. And we’ve got 23 projects around the world that are under development right now. It’s going to be a busy year, a bunch in the Middle East, a bunch of Vietnam, a couple in India, all hotels, golf courses, residential towers. And so we’ve been kicking butt, and it’s been a lot of fun. We’re trying to keep our heads above water,

(Speaker 1)
but it’s been amazing. And we have got a great organization, and everybody’s embraced it. And yeah, we’re doing great.

(Speaker 2)
Now, Eric, with about the 25 minutes we have left with you, what I’m going to do is I’m going to bring up a few people that I have certified as being not crazy. I hope they don’t let me down and they’re going to be able to ask you a question. The way it’s going to work, if you don’t want to answer the question, you can punt and then Randy. Randy runs a company called PMH. It’s a home outdoor living. He builds pergolas, pavilions. This is Randy Antric. It is very successful company. He’s grown, I think, eight times since we first met.

(Speaker 2)
He’s rocking and rolling. PMHOKC.com. What question? I’m going to pass the mic to you. Just make sure you eat the mic. What question would you have for Eric Trump, sir?

(Speaker 4)
Wow. On the spot, really. What’s your style of managing people? How do you handle a tough situation with employees?

(Speaker 1)
Well, I think it depends. It may be the toughest question. What we try and do is we try not to micromanage. If you have somebody who is immensely competent, that’s the person you want in your organization, and let them do their job, and let them do it well. Not to say that you can’t look over budgets,

(Speaker 1)
not to say that you shouldn’t be present and we’re incredibly present. You should set very high expectations, but get very good people and try not to micromanage very good people. Very good people don’t want to be micromanaged And that ultimately gives you a lot of bandwidth. And it’s been probably the biggest key to me, especially as we got into the political

(Speaker 1)
stuff and I was trying to run a massive company while trying to campaign every single day and you’re just running out of hours. If you had to make every single decision on a property level, you couldn’t do it. There’s a certain point where you have to let go. And it’s hard. Every single one of us is a control freak. Every single one of us in our minds can do something better

(Speaker 1)
than the others. You want to be the person that makes that decision. But at the end of the day, you hold somebody down who’s otherwise incredibly competent. You know, you’re making them worse. You’re making yourself worse.

(Speaker 1)
You’re making it impossible, you know, to grow. You’re making it impossible, you know, to grow. So, so much of that equation, you find a great person

Transcribed with Cockatoo