Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: All right, so here we are Bloomberg invest Downtown Manhattan.
Speaker 2: You're back in the heart of the city. Man Melody Hobson.
Speaker 2: She has quickly become one of the most influential people
Speaker 2: across the sports world.
Speaker 3: She's got a new fund.
Speaker 4: There's no surprise to me that she now has entered
Speaker 4: the world of sports, and she's building a world class team.
Speaker 2: So Denver Broncos and the Denver NWSL team. She's in
Speaker 2: League One volleyball Chicago White Sox. She's all in on
Speaker 2: sports like we are. Let's go talk to Melody Hobson.
Speaker 3: Let's do it cool.
Speaker 2: All right, thanks everyone. I should point out I think
Speaker 2: we're getting people post cocktails.
Speaker 3: So let's let it rip. Okay, it's good time.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome everyone to this very special edition of The
Speaker 2: Deal with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, featuring the incomparable
Speaker 2: Melody Hodson. First of all, I should say you race
Speaker 2: down town because you do so much for the Bloomberg Empire.
Speaker 2: You're part of the Bloomberg philanthropy sports. So thank you
Speaker 2: for your service and we're happy to have you here
Speaker 2: in this platform as well.
Speaker 5: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: One of the really fun things about prepping for this,
Speaker 2: and this happens with a lot of our shows, is
Speaker 2: one of us. Usually this guy knows the guests previously.
Speaker 5: Yes, we know each other.
Speaker 3: Tell us this story.
Speaker 4: Well, it was really interesting. Hi, Melody and High it
Speaker 4: was I don't know, maybe fifteen years ago. I was
Speaker 4: still playing with the Yankees and we're playing the White
Speaker 4: Sox and mutual friend introduced Melody and I and I
Speaker 4: emailed her and I said, may I come see you
Speaker 4: for an hour? Have an hour right before the game,
Speaker 4: and I especially maybe be out of town or busy.
Speaker 4: She's running a big firm, and she said, of course,
Speaker 4: how's you know one o'clock on Friday. And I show
Speaker 4: up to the meeting and as her and John Rogers
Speaker 4: her partner, and I was just fascinated by this partnership.
Speaker 4: And one of the key takeaways for me and I
Speaker 4: still think about it today, is a your chemistry, your
Speaker 4: mutual respect, your competitive advantage that you both have as
Speaker 4: far as complimentary set of skills. What is it about
Speaker 4: that relationship? And thank you for taking that meeting because
Speaker 4: it really impacted me. What was it about this partnership
Speaker 4: has worked so well for you and John.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's first of all start off there. Alex Rodriguez
Speaker 1: calls you at a war and says, can I come
Speaker 1: and see you?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 1: Right, everyone excited in the office, of course, and he
Speaker 1: does show up and he's like, you know, the Adonis
Speaker 1: there walks in is like, oh, nice to.
Speaker 3: Meet you, Melanie. We don't need any live with this.
Speaker 5: They were excited.
Speaker 1: I was excited, but we ended up having this phenomenal
Speaker 1: conversation about investing and the stock market and a whole
Speaker 1: host of things, and of course he was very, very impressive.
Speaker 5: So I'll stop there.
Speaker 1: John Rogers started our firm, Aerial Investments, and we are
Speaker 1: one of the oldest minority own firms in the country.
Speaker 1: And he's one of the longest running stock pickers in
Speaker 1: our category, which is small cap value. And he started
Speaker 1: the firm, but it became mine along the way. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have to tell you it's a unique thing in
Speaker 1: terms of how much I loved it and how much
Speaker 1: I loved working with him, and how much I wanted
Speaker 1: to be there.
Speaker 5: I've only had one job in my.
Speaker 1: Entire life, which is at Ariel, and I've worked there
Speaker 1: since I graduated from Princeton. And supposedly you have eleven
Speaker 1: jobs in your lifetime, I've only had one. And I'm
Speaker 1: the only person in my graduating class of eleven hundred
Speaker 1: people who's had the same work phone number since I
Speaker 1: graduated from college.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: So obviously I like it there. I'm very loyal.
Speaker 1: But what I would say is that John and I
Speaker 1: I knew very early on that he was extremely special,
Speaker 1: that I had found a person who was going to
Speaker 1: bring out the best in me without changing who I was,
Speaker 1: and who was a sharer. He played team sports and
Speaker 1: he shares. And so we are co leaders of a
Speaker 1: real which is very rare. I don't understand why there
Speaker 1: aren't more co CEOs, but we are co leaders, and
Speaker 1: I think it works because we are complimentary and our
Speaker 1: skills were very different. We have different parts of the
Speaker 1: firm that we run. We are deferential to each other,
Speaker 1: and yet at the same time we hold our ground
Speaker 1: and last but not least, And it's a rare thing
Speaker 1: to say in business.
Speaker 5: We love each other. We really do.
Speaker 1: He's like my brother. Jamie Diamond calls me his work wife.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hmm, brother, But we do share you know
Speaker 1: our lives are sort of back and forth. If he
Speaker 1: asked me for something, it's a done deal, and if
Speaker 1: I ask him for something. And even in our worst moments,
Speaker 1: John said something to me once when we had a
Speaker 1: tough conversation and kind of a fight. He was like, Melody,
Speaker 1: remember one thing. I know you want the best for Ariel,
Speaker 1: and you know I want the best for Ariel. If
Speaker 1: we always remember that, we can solve whatever differences we have.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 5: Love that.
Speaker 2: I always want the best for the deal too.
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned something really interesting which gives us a
Speaker 2: nice segue into a lot of what we want to
Speaker 2: talk about, which is the team sport. Now, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure anybody predicted that not only would you go into sports,
Speaker 2: you would pretty quickly become one of the most influential investors,
Speaker 2: like straight out of the gate in professional sports.
Speaker 3: How did that happen?
Speaker 5: A long and winding roads.
Speaker 3: Okay, what I we're here for. We're here for the journey.
Speaker 1: We've had investments in sports over the years. We've owned
Speaker 1: Medicine Square Garden as it evolved into various versions of itself.
Speaker 1: But that investment goes back to twenty eleven We bought
Speaker 1: that stock during the basketball lockout when there was right
Speaker 1: before Lynn Sanity, remember Jeremy Lynn. When they were doing
Speaker 1: this retrofit of the garden. It was way over budget
Speaker 1: and people were very skeptical of the name. And we're
Speaker 1: value investors. John went and visited the garden and he said,
Speaker 1: you can't rebuild this anywhere in New York. This is
Speaker 1: a great investment and it ended up being a wonderful
Speaker 1: investment for us. We own Manchester United, the European soccer team,
Speaker 1: so we've been in the publicly traded sports area that
Speaker 1: we think of.
Speaker 5: A media a media business interesting.
Speaker 1: And then personally I crept into sports so secretly, and
Speaker 1: Alex knew this. I bought into the Chicago White Sox
Speaker 1: years ago, but I swore all the owners to secrecy.
Speaker 5: I said, you can never talk about it.
Speaker 1: I told the commissioner because I didn't want anyone to
Speaker 1: confuse it with Aeriel. And then John Rogers had been
Speaker 1: a longtime owner of the Chicago Sky from two thousand
Speaker 1: and five when they came to Chicago. And then for me,
Speaker 1: the news around me in sports was when I bought
Speaker 1: into the Broncos.
Speaker 5: Why they're great businesses.
Speaker 1: You realize the uniqueness of these assets and the value
Speaker 1: that is being created in these businesses, and the fandom
Speaker 1: and the sponsorships and the media rights. All of it
Speaker 1: very quickly became clear to me.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: And I then realized and had someone say to me
Speaker 1: about a year you're in fifteen months ago women's sports.
Speaker 1: And I'd been doing a little bit in women's sports
Speaker 1: as well, quietly WNBA investment and then also League One
Speaker 1: volleyball and that on my own, just dabbling. And when
Speaker 1: they said women's sports, I started to study women's sports
Speaker 1: like an eleven year old studies baseball statistics, and I
Speaker 1: got dangerous and seeing up arrows, up arrows, up arrows
Speaker 1: on what was happening in attendance, in sponsorships, in media rights,
Speaker 1: in girls playing starting at young ages. Everything was pointing
Speaker 1: in the direction. Eight point four million kids in high
Speaker 1: school play sports, forty one percent of them are girls now,
Speaker 1: which most people don't realize.
Speaker 5: How that gap is narrowed.
Speaker 1: Affordability of women's sports very expensive to go to some
Speaker 1: of the games that are out there, especially in the
Speaker 1: big cities. The women's attendance and the women's games often
Speaker 1: are more affordable for families, and it's unbelievable and an
Speaker 1: unbelievable experience because the women are so talented. And then,
Speaker 1: of course you saw this inflection point. You saw the
Speaker 1: NCAA Finals last year with Caitlin Clark five million more
Speaker 1: viewers for the women's finals than the men.
Speaker 5: And then we've seen it in so many other areas.
Speaker 1: Think about the Olympics and the big names, no disrespect,
Speaker 1: lots of amazing athletes, but some of the women were
Speaker 1: the biggest names.
Speaker 5: And I just said, we're going to drill.
Speaker 1: Down on this and ultimately saw a real opportunity and
Speaker 1: I said, go big or go home.
Speaker 5: Always let's do a big fund in this area.
Speaker 4: I do have a follow up on that melody because
Speaker 4: I've been studying you and John Rodgers for years and
Speaker 4: you have your turtle, which means you guys are patient
Speaker 4: and you're selective and when you see a big pitch,
Speaker 4: you go for the fences. But you've made a lot
Speaker 4: of money in your firm over the years and being
Speaker 4: a contrarian, and I believe you've taken that from Warren
Speaker 4: Buffett right in sports right now, you're not necessarily being
Speaker 4: a contrarian, how do you apply that philosophy into sports
Speaker 4: because there's so much capital flowing through it.
Speaker 5: I love this question so much.
Speaker 1: So, first of all, I talked about our early beginnings.
Speaker 1: We're investing in undervalued, small and medium sized companies that
Speaker 1: showed a strong potential for growth. That is women's sports.
Speaker 1: I call it the small caps of sports. The most
Speaker 1: valuable women's sports team today is worth two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars and that's Angel City.
Speaker 5: That was bought by Bob Eiger and Willow Bay.
Speaker 1: The most valuable men's sports team is the Dallas Cowboys
Speaker 1: that's worth eleven billion dollars. There is a dramatic difference
Speaker 1: between two hundred and fifty million dollars and eleven billion,
Speaker 1: which is why I'm calling them the small caps small
Speaker 1: caps because smaller companies tend to grow faster, and we
Speaker 1: say the big guys it's going to be harder to
Speaker 1: grow the way they've grown in the past. But the
Speaker 1: women have a big trajectory of growth in front of them.
Speaker 5: So this is where value meets growth.
Speaker 2: And so the first big deal that you do, I believe,
Speaker 2: is expansion in the NWSL. The Denver team, a market
Speaker 2: obviously you're familiar with, walk us through that deal. I mean,
Speaker 2: we've interviewed several NWSL owners, including in Chestin over the
Speaker 2: at BFC. We both know will Obey very well and
Speaker 2: her investment thesis and Bob's on Angel City. What was
Speaker 2: the case here because those expansion fees, while yes, on
Speaker 2: a dollar per dollar basis low, those expansion fees have
Speaker 2: grown very fast. I mean, we've seen it over the years.
Speaker 2: So walk us through that case.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: So this came to us in a very unusual way.
Speaker 1: So after the Broncos deal, a lot of people have
Speaker 1: just come to me on sports just personally thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you would look at this. Lots of teams, lots
Speaker 1: of opportunities. So I'm giving a speech in Florida at
Speaker 1: a conference. Two people come up to me. At the
Speaker 1: end of the speech. We have not announced what we're
Speaker 1: doing in sports, and we just have this skunkworks group
Speaker 1: working on this sid side of aerial.
Speaker 5: We hadn't even told our firm.
Speaker 1: So there were only two or three of us working
Speaker 1: at maybe three working on this.
Speaker 5: So two people came up to me.
Speaker 1: One said, I'm trying to do a WNBA expansion team
Speaker 1: and the other said I'm working on an NWSL soccer team.
Speaker 5: It was just fortuitous because I.
Speaker 1: Knew what we were working on, right. I followed up
Speaker 1: with both of them and Denver. We started to do
Speaker 1: the research.
Speaker 5: On Denver.
Speaker 1: We looked at, first of all, the market, and we
Speaker 1: looked at the demographics of the market, which seemed to
Speaker 1: be very, very favorable to women, think outdoor. We also
Speaker 1: looked at the socioeconomic you know, the average income in
Speaker 1: the city that was favorable to season ticket sales. We
Speaker 1: learned of the locations of a potential stadium. We did
Speaker 1: a lot of work on why do we need a stadium,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't we And then we saw the stadium made sense.
Speaker 1: We got excited about stadium rights. So I always knew
Speaker 1: stadium rights made the ownership more valuable because of the
Speaker 1: other events and the like, and so there was a
Speaker 1: lot there that was just adding up. And then we
Speaker 1: said we need to come and big and they were
Speaker 1: willing to move the cap table around for us, and
Speaker 1: ultimately I will say we saw the lead investor, Rob Cohen,
Speaker 1: and thought, this is a good guy. He's been able
Speaker 1: to demonstrate success in the building of his own business.
Speaker 1: And we just when we did the work on the opportunity.
Speaker 1: We said, the math looks good, and I always say
Speaker 1: math has no opinion. You follow the math. Now, just
Speaker 1: to give you a sense of why we think we're right,
Speaker 1: in three days of publicly announcing, we sold five two
Speaker 1: hundred season tickets. Now since then that number has gone
Speaker 1: up a lot more, and I have to tell you
Speaker 1: that was way past our best case scenarios in even
Speaker 1: our own modeling. We also are launching a team with
Speaker 1: sponsorships in hand. There are a number of things that
Speaker 1: we're doing that just are were unprecedented. Why were we
Speaker 1: okay with the expansion fee which has gone up. We're turtles.
Speaker 1: We're thinking long term. As I've gone out to people,
Speaker 1: I said, my strong belief is you want to own
Speaker 1: these teams in a decade or two, they will be
Speaker 1: very valuable businesses. The other reason that we were comfortable
Speaker 1: we were the sixteenth team to expand, I call it
Speaker 1: sweet sixteen. We looked at the expansion fee and realized
Speaker 1: the owners of the teams share the future expansion fees,
Speaker 1: so that puts a floor on even your valuation. If
Speaker 1: you think out how those teams will expand over time,
Speaker 1: then you get the upside from the media rights and
Speaker 1: things like that. And even though the media rights they
Speaker 1: will be renegotiated soon, they don't get locked into the
Speaker 1: same kind of ten year contracts that other sports do
Speaker 1: because many of the women's leagues have been able to
Speaker 1: negotiate deals where they can reopen negotiations with viewership milestones.
Speaker 2: So you're in soccer when it comes to this fund
Speaker 2: Where else are you looking? Is this slee team stakes?
Speaker 2: Is that the ecosystem? Like, what's the what what sort
Speaker 2: of the window of the three buckets?
Speaker 1: We start off with major League Sports, so owning teams.
Speaker 1: Then we've you know, obviously accomplished that first with Denver,
Speaker 1: and we're looking in other areas. We'd like to also
Speaker 1: be in Europe, by the way, not just in America.
Speaker 1: The next bucket we have is we call it emerging
Speaker 1: leagues and junior sports.
Speaker 2: Okay, the junior sports.
Speaker 1: Is a powerful business because of the you know, the
Speaker 1: number of young people and the family's commitments to sports
Speaker 1: is huge, huge. And then the last areas we see
Speaker 1: is related or ancillary businesses that benefit or grow through
Speaker 1: the growth of women's sports.
Speaker 4: Aerial is one of the top tier firms in the
Speaker 4: country around the world. Right, and John and you are
Speaker 4: both world class investors. But if I'm an institution and
Speaker 4: I'm coming to Area and saying, Okay, what do you
Speaker 4: guys know about sports? One? I know you're building a
Speaker 4: world class team, but how do you source deals? And
Speaker 4: are you confident that you can get enough deals for
Speaker 4: area and for your investors?
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I have to tell you what
Speaker 1: we're saying right now, is Jason Wright, who's running this
Speaker 1: for us, who's a super strang, huge superstar. Everyone's asking me,
Speaker 1: how did you get Jason? Jason, if he were here,
Speaker 1: he would tell you the fish are jumping in the boat.
Speaker 1: Sourcing deals is not our problem. One of the reasons
Speaker 1: that I think we have a distinct advantage is that
Speaker 1: the leagues want gender and racial diversity and ownership.
Speaker 5: Notwithstanding the mood of.
Speaker 1: Some of the conversation that is going on in our country,
Speaker 1: if you're starting women's teams and leagues, it would be
Speaker 1: great to have some women and people of color involved,
Speaker 1: And I think they see that that's a priority.
Speaker 5: It's really important.
Speaker 1: And then to be able to go in with the
Speaker 1: resources and at scale, I think is very very helpful.
Speaker 1: And I think they see a couple of things with us,
Speaker 1: which is different if you're starting a team from scratch
Speaker 1: like Denver Jason Ran the Commanders has that experience. We
Speaker 1: bring operating expertise to the conversation where you don't have
Speaker 1: to learn trial by error. So everything from recruiting the leadership,
Speaker 1: it's this recruiter and it's this person at this firm.
Speaker 1: That's the way the conversation goes, as opposed to there
Speaker 1: are five firms in front of us, what should we do?
Speaker 5: Or you're building a stadium and you've Jason has had
Speaker 5: that experience.
Speaker 1: So this operational excellence is highly valued and that I
Speaker 1: think is that is being sought after. I also think
Speaker 1: our brand and reputation is helping people to come to
Speaker 1: us where they say they have access to lots of people,
Speaker 1: relationships that might mean sponsorships, that might be a whole
Speaker 1: host of things that we can lean into and help
Speaker 1: in the growth because it will be in our best interest.
Speaker 2: And so let's talk about Jason Wright for a second.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a name, just to give the
Speaker 2: audience who doesn't know who he is, a little bit
Speaker 2: of backstory played in the NFL seven years worked at McKenzie.
Speaker 5: Partner youngest partner at mackenzie.
Speaker 3: Exactly, then goes to run the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 1: No slouch, first black president of an NFL team in
Speaker 1: one hundred and five years, right, And.
Speaker 4: If you can run the Commanders in that era, are
Speaker 4: you doing something.
Speaker 2: You can There's there's nothing that can surprissfully?
Speaker 3: Yeah, very successfully.
Speaker 2: So what are the conversations? How do you get to him?
Speaker 2: How does he get to you? Like, how does that
Speaker 2: come together?
Speaker 1: Okay, He's on a panel at a conference that I'm
Speaker 1: hosting and we have presidents and CEOs of teams Set Marshall,
Speaker 1: Kevin Warren.
Speaker 2: Dallas, Maverick, Chicago Bears like these are.
Speaker 1: So and Jason is there and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I am listening to him and I am I've been
Speaker 1: working on this project. It's September, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I got to get to him. So I go up
Speaker 1: to him at just an event like this, and I said,
Speaker 1: I need to spend time with you. And he's looking
Speaker 1: me like I have three heads and I'm very aggressive
Speaker 1: at it.
Speaker 3: And by the next.
Speaker 1: Week we are meeting in New York and I said,
Speaker 1: I have this idea and I know you are very
Speaker 1: much in demand, and I had heard he was leaving
Speaker 1: that was public, and I said, I think we're going
Speaker 1: to do something that is literally a game changer, and
Speaker 1: I think you would be great working with us. And
Speaker 1: so we spent a little bit of time going back
Speaker 1: and forth, not a lot.
Speaker 5: Actually, you'd be shocked.
Speaker 1: And within a few weeks he hadn't totally committed, but
Speaker 1: I kept tossing him things.
Speaker 5: I'm like, what do you think about this? What do
Speaker 5: you think about this?
Speaker 2: So he just was working.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how Josh here feel, but occasionally I'm like,
Speaker 1: look at this, what do you think? And within just
Speaker 1: a very short amount of time, he signed on. And
Speaker 1: I told him, I said, I can't tell you how
Speaker 1: committed I am to this, and I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how hard I'm going to work. You're going to You're
Speaker 1: going to look through and find the best opportunities, and
Speaker 1: I will find the money. That is the deal that
Speaker 1: we have. So I'm our chief cheerleader and fundraiser. I
Speaker 1: like that, and he's our quarterback.
Speaker 4: So mentally, one of the things that our audience has
Speaker 4: probably not been able to see a pitch. I recently
Speaker 4: had a drink with Rob Walton, your partner, and he's
Speaker 4: thrilled to have you. Obviously you make a great partnership
Speaker 4: by the Denver Broncos. I'm sorry, Denver Broncers. My question
Speaker 4: is what was it about the pitch when you heard
Speaker 4: it that you said, I must Was it the p
Speaker 4: and L was forecast? Yes, the Broncos? Was it the forecast?
Speaker 5: Was the growing math on again?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Tell us a little bit about what got you excited.
Speaker 1: The initial call came through and it said, would you
Speaker 1: ever consider investing in the Broncos?
Speaker 5: Honest answer, I said no. I said no.
Speaker 1: I was like, why no, I'm not going to do that,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm so busy and no. And then my
Speaker 1: friend Kasey Wasserman and Jeffrey Katzenberg cornered me at a
Speaker 1: breakfast and sat down at a table because both were
Speaker 1: very close to Greg Penner, who I knew very well.
Speaker 1: We run a board together, and they said, Melody, you're
Speaker 1: actually you are the person to do this. And so
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sitting there and I'm being very open
Speaker 1: and I'm like, maybe I don't see something, and it wasn't.
Speaker 1: The no wasn't out of but this is a bad idea,
Speaker 1: the no was out of capacity and a whole host
Speaker 1: of things. And Casey got me and he's like, Melody,
Speaker 1: you know how you feel about financial literacy. What if
Speaker 1: you have like this model for a team on financial literacy.
Speaker 1: And he's like, it's been your mission And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's good.
Speaker 5: So that became the hook. I was like, wow, that
Speaker 5: would be so great.
Speaker 3: And wait, explain that how the idea.
Speaker 1: That the athletes could be helped and that there could
Speaker 1: be a conversation about a financial literacy in a different way.
Speaker 5: That was something that was really really appealing to me.
Speaker 1: And then we started to do the work on the
Speaker 1: opportunity and the financial aspects of it, and I saw
Speaker 1: how compelling it was. Now at the time, the Waltons
Speaker 1: made it clear, sorry, Penner Walton's we're buying the team.
Speaker 5: I mean they were like, we're buying the team, and
Speaker 5: it was like, no.
Speaker 3: Matter what, and they kind of cleared the debt right.
Speaker 5: Like the team.
Speaker 1: So you know, you're sitting, you know, writing sidecar with
Speaker 1: someone who's like, we're buying the team.
Speaker 5: And you're like, okay, we're buying.
Speaker 1: And first of all, I knew Greg and I knew
Speaker 1: how talented he was, and I knew Carrie.
Speaker 5: I'd gotten a no Carrie.
Speaker 1: I met Rob first over Zoom and this is such
Speaker 1: a great story. So Rob and I in the phone,
Speaker 1: and you know, they have to like me and I
Speaker 1: have to like them because this is real money and
Speaker 1: we're in business together and and hopefully it'll be a
Speaker 1: multi generational asset. I'm on the phone with Rob and
Speaker 1: I said, you know, Rob, he explaining to me how
Speaker 1: much he loves cars, and I was like, my husband
Speaker 1: loves cars, and you know, he loves cars more than anything.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know he has this Rob's talking
Speaker 1: about his car collection and I said, oh, my husband's
Speaker 1: favorite car is this bird cage Maserati.
Speaker 5: And he was like, I have two of them.
Speaker 3: Quick flex.
Speaker 6: So George I go to.
Speaker 1: I say, George, Rob Walton has two bird Cage Maseratis
Speaker 1: and George is like, well they throw one in with
Speaker 1: the investment.
Speaker 2: That would be that would be a never before seen
Speaker 2: you know, little sweetener for a deal.
Speaker 1: We had so much in common, and that also I
Speaker 1: felt like I was working with people of high integrity,
Speaker 1: which was really important to me. You don't spend your
Speaker 1: whole life building your reputation and your brand to go
Speaker 1: down the drain because of an affiliation. And that affiliation,
Speaker 1: I was like, these are best in class business people, philanthropists.
Speaker 1: They are low key, you know, extremely low key, and
Speaker 1: as a result of that, it fit. And I said
Speaker 1: to them, and I wasn't joking. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't need Super Bowl tickets.
Speaker 5: This isn't why we're doing this. We're doing this.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to be an investor and I'm
Speaker 1: excited to do this. And we have our ownership meetings
Speaker 1: with Lewis who I brought in.
Speaker 3: With us, Lewis Hamilton.
Speaker 5: Yes, Lewis is like a little brother.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, you should consider bringing Lewis,
Speaker 1: and you know, considering the number of followers that he
Speaker 1: has and he loves sports and.
Speaker 5: He's global sporting legends.
Speaker 1: And then Condy Rice obviously is a legend in a
Speaker 1: different way as the first black woman Secretary of State,
Speaker 1: a football nuts, her.
Speaker 5: Father was a coach.
Speaker 1: You know, there was so much there that you glued
Speaker 1: us all together. And it's been just it succeeded my
Speaker 1: expectations and financially it's been a great investment.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned Lewis because, first of all, and
Speaker 2: I hope I have this right. I read something a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago about how you were one of
Speaker 2: the first calls that he made or he took after
Speaker 2: that fateful race and Abu Dhabi. You and I say this,
Speaker 2: You know, sitting alongside this guy, you have had access
Speaker 2: and relationships with some of the most interesting and influential
Speaker 2: athletes in the world.
Speaker 3: What have you learned from them?
Speaker 5: So, first of all, it wasn't a call. We were
Speaker 5: in Abu Dha.
Speaker 3: Oh you were there.
Speaker 1: So this was a debate George and I had back
Speaker 1: and forth. Lewis and I are very very close, and
Speaker 1: I met him in his rookie season and we really
Speaker 1: He calls me sis, and I call him sir little brother,
Speaker 1: and so literally even in our emails, sir little brother,
Speaker 1: he calls me, says, we.
Speaker 5: Debated going to Abu Dabi. It's the last race. It's
Speaker 5: they're tied, remember.
Speaker 2: Exactly, Lewis and Max Vers, they're tied.
Speaker 1: It's you know, this is the potential eighth championship never
Speaker 1: been done before. The seventh was Lewis's tide with Michael
Speaker 1: Schumacher and George's like, I'm.
Speaker 5: Like, should we go or should we not go?
Speaker 1: He's like, there's nothing worse than your family showing up
Speaker 1: when you have to work.
Speaker 5: No, we should not go. I hate that idea.
Speaker 1: And I was like, maybe we should go, And so
Speaker 1: we came up with a decision that we would go,
Speaker 1: but not.
Speaker 5: Tell him that we were there.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: And so the reason that I wanted to go is,
Speaker 1: I said, it's not if he wins, it's if he loses.
Speaker 1: I said, we're only going that we're going in case
Speaker 1: he loses, but we're not telling him we were there.
Speaker 1: So the team put us in a special spot. He
Speaker 1: never knew we were there the whole weekend, and it
Speaker 1: was only when he lost that we thought he had won.
Speaker 5: Remember it's the last half of the last lap.
Speaker 1: We're like, you know, and he loses, and we go
Speaker 1: to his room, you know, and he's devastated as you
Speaker 1: would be, and doesn't quite understand what has happened. It
Speaker 1: was a very important moment because that was when he
Speaker 1: went and shook Max's hand. And George had this famous
Speaker 1: quote that I've told people where he said heroes are
Speaker 1: bigger than champions. He's like Lewis went to hero status
Speaker 1: in that moment, because that is hard for anyone to
Speaker 1: do with that level of disappointment. And what I've learned
Speaker 1: from Lewis, who I tell him all the time, I'm
Speaker 1: so fortunate that I have these good guys in my life,
Speaker 1: like John Rogers and Louis George. When I tell Louis,
Speaker 1: I say, you are my mind's friend. When I am
Speaker 1: really struggling, I conjure up Lewis. And what I say
Speaker 1: about Louis, he never ever ever gives up ever, and
Speaker 1: he has taught me things where he hits me right
Speaker 1: between the eye with his lesson, one of which he
Speaker 1: came and spent some time with us. We were in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean and he said, you know, Melody, let's go
Speaker 1: jet Skang. And I said I can't. I can't go
Speaker 1: jet Skang. And he looks at me and he said,
Speaker 1: I've been here for three days and you've said can't
Speaker 1: four times.
Speaker 5: He said, you choose not to. Wow, And He's like,
Speaker 5: can't is not a word you use. You choose not to.
Speaker 5: He said, your.
Speaker 1: Language is very important, Melody, and you have a young child.
Speaker 1: You choose not to. So I looked at him, and
Speaker 1: I said, well, I choose not to you. But it
Speaker 1: was a moment. And then the second thing he taught me,
Speaker 1: he said, I only talked. He only speaks positively to
Speaker 1: himself in his head, and that was something that's a
Speaker 1: hard thing to do. He's like, melody, only speaks positive
Speaker 1: to yourself and your head. Never give up, you don't use, can't,
Speaker 1: and you only speak positively. So in the worst of moments,
Speaker 1: he believes anything as possible. And you've never seen the
Speaker 1: discipline ever. I mean, this discipline is insane. And that
Speaker 1: discipline is where it's like four in the morning and
Speaker 1: I'm getting up to run and I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do it, I want to stop.
Speaker 5: I'm like Lewis would get up.
Speaker 4: We give us an example of his discipline.
Speaker 1: Lewis's discipline I mean from every morsel of food that
Speaker 1: goes into his mouth. But not in a way that
Speaker 1: like it's about him. It's just something I have noticed.
Speaker 1: I know it from being with him, how specific he
Speaker 1: is about everything, certainly his workouts, his intensity around things
Speaker 1: that he do. Like play a game with him, you
Speaker 1: know he's going to kill you. But the discipline of
Speaker 1: just there is no settling and there are no excuses ever.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like if he lands at a really
Speaker 1: late hour, you are shocked that he is running at
Speaker 1: five am and he's you know, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: how many how long did you go?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: I went nine miles And you're like, you know, you've
Speaker 1: had three hours of sleep or whatever it is. And
Speaker 1: so he's, you know, just he's so he has to
Speaker 1: because he has to be in such good.
Speaker 5: Form to win.
Speaker 1: So in starting with Ferrari this season, he's like, sis,
Speaker 1: I want to be in the best shape of my life.
Speaker 1: So he's been running all these mountains in Colorado, I
Speaker 1: mean hard, hard, and he's just you know, he's committed
Speaker 1: to being his best self.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's interesting too.
Speaker 2: Just sticking with Lewis and that sport for a second,
Speaker 2: it must be such an interesting window for you, not
Speaker 2: just into him as an athlete, but into watching that
Speaker 2: sporting business just explode as a me America. In America,
Speaker 2: it obviously was a global sport. It is really like
Speaker 2: leveled up because of what in America. Change everything in
Speaker 2: America when you look at something like that, what needs
Speaker 2: to happen in women's sports, Well, I.
Speaker 5: Think that's part of it, the media piece.
Speaker 1: But what Drive to Survive did, which was so brilliant,
Speaker 1: It personalized all the athletes, and once people got to
Speaker 1: know them, they loved them. I mean they already loved
Speaker 1: baseball players, and but the America especially didn't know those athletes,
Speaker 1: and they went deep on the personalities and the experience
Speaker 1: and for a sport that is far away, middle of
Speaker 1: the night, all of those things they bonded the audience.
Speaker 1: And I think that is coming for women's sports in
Speaker 1: a big way.
Speaker 5: Besides the fact.
Speaker 1: That the women are excellent in social media and so
Speaker 1: they can curry that kind of influence and use that
Speaker 1: to the benefit of the sport in a very different way.
Speaker 5: It's coming and you can just see it.
Speaker 3: I mean you've seen that with the Link.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Links are an incredible brand, in part
Speaker 2: because the players are so engaged and they're really good
Speaker 2: to I mean, you know they were in the final
Speaker 2: there really are.
Speaker 4: I mean we've won four titles, we almost won a fifth.
Speaker 4: We lost to the Liberty here in New York. But
Speaker 4: everything Melody is saying is exactly right. They're more engaged
Speaker 4: in social media. We have a huge following.
Speaker 1: And you can see the interest in the athletes, the
Speaker 1: waiting at the locker room, right, you know, the outfits,
Speaker 1: the whole thing. The personalities have come through, and I
Speaker 1: think that they were always there, but they've broken through
Speaker 1: with the media interest in a different way in the
Speaker 1: last few years, and that votes very, very well for
Speaker 1: all of the sports.
Speaker 4: I do have a question if you don't mind how
Speaker 4: transition to place you sit on the show. You sit
Speaker 4: on many boards, you know, JP, Morgan, Star, others. I
Speaker 4: love the story how you always sit next to Howard Schultz,
Speaker 4: who's one of my favorites, and you thought that made
Speaker 4: you a better investor. But what makes you or what
Speaker 4: makes anybody in the room a good director?
Speaker 5: They ask questions.
Speaker 1: I feel very strongly about that great directors and I
Speaker 1: worked really hard on this. I always say I want
Speaker 1: to go to every board meeting with two original questions,
Speaker 1: not rhetorical original, and the questions lead to hopefully breakthrough ideas.
Speaker 1: In a boardroom, making statements puts people on the defensive,
Speaker 1: especially if they feel somehow you're you know, finger wagging
Speaker 1: or suggesting you know better. You're dropping in maybe four
Speaker 1: or five times a year, and the people there are
Speaker 1: there every single day, so there's nothing worse than they
Speaker 1: know it all. And I remember sach an Adella who
Speaker 1: said on the Starbucks board saying he wanted to be
Speaker 1: a learned at all. So the learn it all asks
Speaker 1: a question. You don't presume that you know better and
Speaker 1: then asking the question. Oftentimes, first of all, it's not
Speaker 1: the first question that matters.
Speaker 5: It's the follow up.
Speaker 1: I always say it's the secondary, intertiary questions that come
Speaker 1: from that first question. I think it leads to breakthroughs
Speaker 1: in boardrooms. And I've worked with the boardrooms i've been in.
Speaker 1: The people are extremely collegial, and the teams that are
Speaker 1: the management teams certainly want to win.
Speaker 4: So I have a secondary question, you have a tertiary.
Speaker 4: The secondary question is and I love this because I
Speaker 4: was never the best student, but I always tried really hard,
Speaker 4: and I always thought about how do you hack the system?
Speaker 4: While you do your homework, you stay in the front row.
Speaker 4: I mean, when you don't have it, you have to
Speaker 4: kind of figure it out. My question to you is
Speaker 4: why was it so important to sit next to Howard?
Speaker 4: And what lessons did you learn from that?
Speaker 1: Yes, I've told this story that I've been on the
Speaker 1: board for twenty years.
Speaker 3: And what are twenty years for?
Speaker 2: That?
Speaker 1: I know, right, it's unbelievable, the stock performance, everything, even
Speaker 1: with the bumps along the way, tremendous lesson, great lessons
Speaker 1: in both vision and humility. Really amazing, amazing, amazing experience
Speaker 1: where I learned so much. But one of the things
Speaker 1: I did from the very first board meeting is I
Speaker 1: sat to Howard's right in a boardroom.
Speaker 5: Where everyone changes seats all the time. I made it like,
Speaker 5: you know at home, you have your chair.
Speaker 1: Sure, well that was my chair, even though the board members,
Speaker 1: the other board members sat in different seats. So there's
Speaker 1: a funny story. Mary Dylan joined our board. She was
Speaker 1: running Alta at the time now she runs Footlocker. Great
Speaker 1: great person. Her first board.
Speaker 5: Meeting, I walk into the boardroom, She's in my chair.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, oh.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, and I know Mary from Chicago, Like,
Speaker 1: she's in my chair. And so I literally took a chair.
Speaker 1: I put it next to Howard and I said, everyone
Speaker 1: moved down. Now. Everyone said like why Because one of
Speaker 1: the things about sitting next to him that I wanted
Speaker 1: to absorb was what did he react to in a
Speaker 1: board meeting, and so if someone spoke and said something,
Speaker 1: I would note like why is he writing now? Like
Speaker 1: what was said that he thought was important? Or how
Speaker 1: was he sort of running the meeting? And I literally
Speaker 1: felt the closer I could sit to him, the more
Speaker 1: I could learn. And it sounds a little creepy, but
Speaker 1: I don't. I really For twenty years I sat in
Speaker 1: the same seat. Everyone else sat in a different seat. Now,
Speaker 1: Howard never knew that until I was giving a speech
Speaker 1: introducing him and I said out loud, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I've sat next to him in this board meeting every
Speaker 1: single quarter.
Speaker 5: And he suddenly looked at me and he was.
Speaker 1: Like, I said, I wanted to be next to the power,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be next to the vision, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to learn from it in every conceivable way.
Speaker 5: That I could.
Speaker 4: Wow, that is awesome.
Speaker 2: You know you said something a little while ago about
Speaker 2: Jason Wright, and you know that sort of he had
Speaker 2: a lot of opportunities, I would imagine, and the Broncos
Speaker 2: story that he told is an interesting example of this too.
Speaker 3: A lot comes your way.
Speaker 2: You've been incredibly successful as an investor, as a director,
Speaker 2: as an executive.
Speaker 3: When do you say no a lot.
Speaker 1: I've had to get better at that, Okay, Warren Buffett,
Speaker 1: we idolize. I know you are very close to him,
Speaker 1: and we're Warren Buffett disciples at Ariel and I remember
Speaker 1: once reading a story where he talked about what real
Speaker 1: wealth is and he said, real wealth is a blank calendar.
Speaker 3: Whoa.
Speaker 1: And then my husband, I think some people know I
Speaker 1: married Yoda's dad. My husband, Yoda's dad, George does not
Speaker 1: take meetings, and any meeting that he wants, it's on
Speaker 1: his terms. He doesn't and he's like, you fly around
Speaker 1: the world, You're doing all this stuff. Why do you
Speaker 1: do that? It's so foreign to him. And he was
Speaker 1: the one who taught me, like, the most valuable thing
Speaker 1: you have is time.
Speaker 5: That is the most valuable thing.
Speaker 1: And he has a thing on his desk that says
Speaker 1: an ounce of gold.
Speaker 5: Won't buy a minute of time. You know it, just it.
Speaker 1: You know, time is the most valuable thing. I think
Speaker 1: people I've come to believe people overvalue money and undervalue time.
Speaker 1: And so as a result of that, while there are
Speaker 1: tremendous opportunities that have come to me. And remember I
Speaker 1: grew up with nothing, nothing, youngest of six evicted, phone
Speaker 1: could disconnected, lights turned off. I mean, everything you can
Speaker 1: imagine happened to me as a child, and that probably
Speaker 1: led to the hunger and drive that I have in
Speaker 1: a major, major way. So I wouldn't be me if
Speaker 1: the bad things hadn't happened. But one of the things
Speaker 1: about that is I don't take any of these opportunities
Speaker 1: for granted. I have never been one of these people
Speaker 1: with swagger. I really I am. I have sat in
Speaker 1: a Starbucks board meeting for twenty years and still felt
Speaker 1: such gratitude to be there. Not that I didn't belong there,
Speaker 1: that's a different thing, but such appreciation for the opportunity
Speaker 1: that I was given. And I think when it goes
Speaker 1: to saying no, then I know how much I lean
Speaker 1: into things. And because I am an all or nothing
Speaker 1: kind of person, as I said earlier, go big or
Speaker 1: go home, I can't say yes to everything because I
Speaker 1: can't do it that way. You know in the spinal
Speaker 1: tap they have that line the dial goes to eleven.
Speaker 1: I kind of live at eleven, and so if you
Speaker 1: live at eleven, you could burn yourself out really badly
Speaker 1: and really fast if you don't control so I had
Speaker 1: to learn no. And I love this quote. If you
Speaker 1: can't decide, the answer is no. Anything I keep pondering,
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's no. If I can't make it should
Speaker 1: be an instant decision or I know in my heart
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be doing it.
Speaker 4: So, Melie, you mentioned Warren Buffett, I've been such an
Speaker 4: enormous beneficiary of great mentorship and friends. My father wasn't around.
Speaker 4: He left us when I was ten, left my siblings.
Speaker 4: Similar story too. As I resonate with your story as
Speaker 4: being evicted and food stamps and all of that, and
Speaker 4: I think it's helped me with my grit and my
Speaker 4: determination threw my ups and downs. You mentioned in an
Speaker 4: interview that I saw a while ago about one of
Speaker 4: your mentors, Bill Bradley, the NBA Hall of Famer, and
Speaker 4: he mentioned to you as tough advice. I thought it
Speaker 4: was real advice is you don't want to be a
Speaker 4: ball hog. Can you explain to our audience what that
Speaker 4: means and why he said that?
Speaker 1: Yes, so Bill is very important to me. He's really
Speaker 1: become a surrogate father. He walked me down the aisle
Speaker 1: when I got married. There's that's a whole another story.
Speaker 1: I met him when I was seventeen years old and
Speaker 1: trying to decide between going to Princeton and Harvard, and
Speaker 1: because of Bill, I went to Princeton. Wow, and how
Speaker 1: he took an interest in me. And John Rogers went
Speaker 1: to Princeton as well, of course, And I've graduated from
Speaker 1: college and I would go and visit Bill at his office.
Speaker 1: And I'm in his office one day and he says,
Speaker 1: you know, Melody, if you're not careful, you're going to
Speaker 1: be a ballhog. And it's just like he just says
Speaker 1: this to me straight. And I remember sitting there and
Speaker 1: I'm maybe twenty three years old, and I'm saying to
Speaker 1: myself in my head, don't cry, because I wanted to cry.
Speaker 1: And I was like, if you cry, he's never going
Speaker 1: to say anything about like this to you again. Don't cry.
Speaker 1: So I'm telling myself not to cry. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be very curious. I'm having a conversation in my head
Speaker 1: saying he loves you, do not be offended.
Speaker 5: What is he trying to tell you?
Speaker 1: And he says, you know, you could suck the oxygen
Speaker 1: out of a room if you're not careful, And I
Speaker 1: was like okay, He's like, and so we want to,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to think about how you can
Speaker 1: you be a you know, whole and thoughtful person. I said, well,
Speaker 1: how do I do that? He says, I don't know,
Speaker 1: So he just throws it back at me. And so
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there thinking, what is he seeing me? Why
Speaker 1: is he saying this? You know that corner of thing.
Speaker 1: I know he loves me, what is he thinking? So
Speaker 1: I get to the street, falling.
Speaker 5: On the street crying. Don't cry yet, No, I don't
Speaker 5: cry in front of him.
Speaker 1: I've cried in front of him plenty of times, but
Speaker 1: not in that one. Go down to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the street, I'm crying, and I'm like, okay, what is
Speaker 1: he telling me?
Speaker 5: And what could I do to not be what he's
Speaker 5: saying I could be?
Speaker 1: And so I decided at that moment that I would always,
Speaker 1: in every encounter take an interest in the other person first,
Speaker 1: to take all of the energy off of myself. So
Speaker 1: if you have spent any time with me, and you have,
Speaker 1: I will ask you so many questions about your two.
Speaker 5: Girls, or about your life.
Speaker 1: Or anything like that, so I can invest in the
Speaker 1: other in person and they don't feel that I am
Speaker 1: sucking up the oxygen in the room. People appreciate you
Speaker 1: taking an interest in them. So it is it is authentic.
Speaker 1: It is not some tactic and is not a manipulation.
Speaker 1: For me, I learned so much from I mean, it
Speaker 1: could be the person who picks me up in the lobby,
Speaker 1: going to someone's office.
Speaker 5: How long have you worked here? Where do you live?
Speaker 5: Out of school?
Speaker 1: Where did you go? I mean lots of things like that.
Speaker 1: People really do like you taking an interest in them,
Speaker 1: and you learn stuff. And so that pushing me in
Speaker 1: that moment really changed how I show up for people,
Speaker 1: and it led to my whole belief about asking questions
Speaker 1: instead of making statements.
Speaker 2: All right, so we're going to end up by asking
Speaker 2: you some questions rapid fire, so we'll bounce it back
Speaker 2: and forth.
Speaker 3: What's one word to describe your deal making.
Speaker 5: Stuff long term?
Speaker 3: What's more important? Your gut or data?
Speaker 5: Gut?
Speaker 3: Who's your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 5: Jason?
Speaker 4: Jason? Who?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: We have?
Speaker 5: He said deal?
Speaker 3: I mean maybe i'd made deal.
Speaker 5: The besting is John on tops of public Companies?
Speaker 3: Okay, melody.
Speaker 4: Question number four, What is the best piece of advice
Speaker 4: you've ever received? On deal making or business.
Speaker 1: Don't ever make an important decision based upon money.
Speaker 2: What's the worst advice you've ever been given?
Speaker 5: Make yourself seen or heard.
Speaker 4: There's a good one. You're ready for this one. What's
Speaker 4: your hype song before a big meeting or negotiation?
Speaker 5: I will survive.
Speaker 2: What's the most important trait you look for in a
Speaker 2: board member?
Speaker 5: Ethics, smarts and.
Speaker 1: Team player? Timplayer They can get along with the other
Speaker 1: people in the room.
Speaker 4: You can only watch one sport for the rest of
Speaker 4: your life. Which one is it?
Speaker 5: F one?
Speaker 2: Whoa Okay, that's the first time we've gotten that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: What team do you want to see win a championship
Speaker 2: more than any mine? Whichever one that may be. Because
Speaker 2: now you've got a few.
Speaker 5: This has been incre Thank you for having me a.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 6: The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
Speaker 6: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.
Speaker 6: This show was produced by Anna Mazarakis, Lizzie Phillip, and
Speaker 6: Stacey Wong. Original music and engineering by Blake Maples. David E.
Speaker 6: Ravella is our managing editor. Our executive producers are Jason Kelly,
Speaker 6: Brendan Francis Newnham, Jordan Opplinger, Trey Shallowhorn, Andrew Barden, Kelly Leferrier,
Speaker 6: and Ashley Hoenig. Sage Bauman is our head of Podcasts.
Speaker 6: Special thanks to Rachel Carnivali, Elena Los Angeles, Nick Silva,
Speaker 6: Adrian Descano, Stephen Craig, Mark Dawson, Jennifer Yelverton, Micah Rondo,
Speaker 6: Stephen Fossberg, Patrick Karn's, Billy Church and Blackhouse. Rubob Shakir
Speaker 6: is our creative director. Art direction is from Jacqueline Kessler.
Speaker 6: Joshua Devaux is our director of photography. Camera Operation by
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