Diriyah Gate Development Authority CEO on Saudi Arabia’s Diriyah Project & Vision 2030

Glenn: Hey Anthony, so great to see you and so great to see everyone out there joining us today on No Vacancy. How you doing, buddy?

 

anthony: I have one of my favorite people in the whole world on today, and I’m as excited as a kid in the candy store.

 

Glenn: Well, I appreciate that, but I’m here with you every day. I don’t know what you’re you’re talking about.

 

anthony: Oh, yeah, I forgot. So before we bring this gentleman on, I will just tell you we met when he was president of Forbes, and two people or a couple people said, you have to meet Jerry, and Jerry has to meet you. We saw each other across the room. We went to each other. We hugged each other. We didn’t even say hello to each other. And I said, I heard you’re from my neighbourhood, which is Brooklyn. And they said, yeah. I said, okay, so I pulled him to the side and said, you’re not the real deal unless you know Uncle Tony. And he knew exactly who Uncle Tony was. So you were my brother from a different mother. Maybe it’s your mother who knows? Alright, well.

 

Glenn: We’re going to find out. These are the questions you have turned in to hear the answers to. But I will tell you, our guest today might just be no hyperbole. I swear, the most connected person on the entire planet. So let’s bring on Mr. Jerry in Zorrillo.

 

anthony: Hi, guys.

 

Glenn: Draya.

 

anthony: There’s a little shadow here in Draya in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Especially off my bald spot. But I’m super happy to see you both.

 

Glenn: Listen, I love it. I think it adds to the Inzerillo mystique personally.

 

anthony: Yeah. That’s true. So, Jerry, listen, you’re a legend. You don’t need any introduction. But you’re doing something that in, what, six, seven years ago, you went out to the kingdom and you set out on one of the projects. A generation of ten generations. And, you know, whether it be a boxing event where I see right in the middle of the ring or whether it be on the back of a golf cart with, with Your Royal Highness and the president of United States. Jerry is in the middle of everything, and you really are. And I’m sure you’re going to say there’s a big team behind you, which there is, but you’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. So tell everybody what you’re doing and what’s going on and where the status of everything. Well, I’m really stupid to say hello to everybody, especially from the this historic.

 

Jerry: Time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So obviously your great memory. But seven years ago, His Majesty the King, or as we refer to, the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman and our great Prime Minister, our crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had a vision to take the birthplace of the kingdom, which is 300 years old and the ancestral home of their family, Al Saud. Right. And to open it up with the kingdom’s tourism, to allow people to come to a kingdom that you couldn’t go to prior to September of 19. Except if he came to a religious pilgrimage for the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. So one of the big things is we want we want now the kingdom to return to its moderate societal profile that it had pre 1979 opened up for tourism and let people come and see a very beautiful, diversified country, of which one major aspect is culture. Culture and heritage. So I loved it Because it reeked in authenticity. Because today there is 300 years old. So for every not a history lesson which could be boring or for everybody to know for the last 95 years, come September 23rd this week, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now, what that means is the Kingdom of the House of Al Saud, the family of Al Saud, Saudi Arabia.

 

Jerry: Now before it was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The last 95 years, for 200 years it was called Arabia, right? Then the last 195 was called Saudi Arabia, but before it was called Arabia. Think of a ray of sunshine or someone like Ray Charles. It was called daddy. So daddy is one of the eight Unesco World Heritage Sites. A city that 300 years ago was built out of mud Adobe. In one of the most famous oasis in the world, which is in Arabia called Wadi a WDI. So in the Wadi Hanifa, 30,000 people 300 years ago lived in a city made out of mud. Now the the sounds became very, very popular and they consolidated all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, and they became the custodians of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Ottomans didn’t like this because Islam was being officiated out of Constantinople, which is now Istanbul, and they sent a giant army to destroy today, which they did. Right. That was called the first Saudi state. Well, this king, who’s a historian. King Salman said, I want people to see where our family sword originated and where Arabia originated. So I want people to come from all over the world, not just to see the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, but to visit today and Alula and historic Jeddah.

 

Jerry: These are culture, heritage cities. Now there are. And I’ll go off history in two seconds. There are six countries that are all tribally historically interrelated. But politically, nowadays, from politics and trading, they’re known as the G. The Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Emirates. Right. That’s called the GCC, right? Now, they were all once together, right? And now? Now what we want to do is we want people to come from all over the region to come now. So what we decided to do the king and the Crown prince was to configure a master plan that would allow all the amenities for people to live, work, play, educate, visit. So we came up with a master plan that is 14,000,000m². In order to do what we’re doing now, it will cost 64 billion USD. Now, most of your most of your audience? Absolutely no. To just the position between Beverly Hills sitting in the metroplex of Los Angeles. Different form based code, different municipality. But everybody knows Beverly Hills sits in the metroplex now. Dedhia in the middle of Riyadh. Diriyah sits in the middle of Riyadh. So if you fly into King Salman Airport, the big airport, you’re 25 minutes away from today, right? Yeah.

 

Jerry: Now, this is trivia, but it is a tiny bit interesting. People shouldn’t know this because it’s it’s not earth shattering, but Beverly Hills, technically is 14 point 7,000,000m² of development. Beverly Hills as this that area is 14 point 2,000,000ft². So today is the size of Beverly Hills, but it’s designed to be a fully walkable cultural heritage city, very pedestrian friendly, very eco friendly that can take 100,000 people. Now in order to put the amenities in. We’re building 42 new hotels. We’ve signed all these contracts. We’re building a thousand shops. We already have restaurants open the Unesco site by the end of this year, since we redid it and reopened it with His Majesty the King, the custodian of the two mosques, in 2019, we will have already welcomed 4 million people to at today. It’s also the symbol. So the way the Greeks have the Acropolis and the Romans have the Colosseum, the symbol of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are the silhouettes of the palaces at today. So we’re seven years in. We have 50,000 workers every day on the job in central Rio. The staff are now 3200. A lot of people wonder 82% salary, but 39% of the staff are Saudi. Women are women.

 

anthony: Oh, wonderful.

 

Jerry: Yeah, because a lot of people say, are women allowed to work?

 

Glenn: Well, you just said at the beginning of the conversation you’re trying to have more moderate policies, which I’m going to infer will help build your tourism business over there, a critical linchpin to help diversify the economy besides oil and other products right now.

 

Jerry: Now, interestingly, from diversifying the economy, just to show you how that works, we were fortunate because we have the two holy mosques. So if you’re one of 2 billion Muslims, your life’s fulfillment, if you have the financial means and the health to do pilgrimage, you would want to do that. Now I’m Catholic, right? If you don’t, if you make the Vatican or don’t make the Vatican at some time during your life, it’s not quite the same thing, you know? But for every Muslim that can make a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina now. So pre Covid pre vision 2030 Saudi had 3% of GDP G-20 country from tourism.

 

Glenn: Now let me just jump in. Vision 2030 is the overarching plan to move the the entire country forward, correct?

 

Jerry: My Crown Prince manifesto to have a thriving society, an ambitious nation, but to return it moderately the way the Kingdom was pre 1979. Now, if we execute everything which we’re well on our way of doing, we would we would have 10% of GDP by 2030. Now the good news is a lot of the Giga projects are still coming out of the ground, right? We’re already we’ve already broken 5% of GDP from tourism. Wow. Last year we had we topped 100 million visits. Not visitors, but visits. Right. So we’re very happy. And the other thing, before we jump in for other questions, the Egyptians are very celebrated for the Red sea, Sharm el-Sheikh, stuff like that. To celebrate, everybody knows Egypt, Red sea, Egypt, pyramids, you know antiquities. But Egypt controls 21% of the Red sea. But most people don’t know that Saudi Arabia controls the entire eastern seaboard of the Red sea, which is 45% of the Red sea. So my colleague John Pagano, who’s the CEO of Red Sea Global, he can’t beat the stunning resorts that we’ve already opened in Red sea. So the Red sea has many microclimates. It looks in certain areas like Seychelles, it looks like Maldives, it looks like Bahamas in certain ways. And then we’ve opened up the most spectacular resorts that we operate in, what’s called from reserve Six Senses. Oberoi four seasons. Aman all coming.

 

Glenn: So, Jerry, this is where I get a little bit confused. You talked about. But now I feel like we’re talking about Neom as well, because that’s another massive project that’s along the Red sea. Right. So how does it for for me who read it in with each other?

 

Jerry: Yeah. Was very interesting because here’s what I, here’s here’s what I I’ll give you another data point about the GCC. If you take the five countries other than Saudi Arabia most are tiny. Yeah. So the five countries would fit into the state of California right. But Saudi is five times the size of the state of California. So so people say, well you’ve got Neom in the north, you got Jeddah two, two giga projects in Jeddah, you got Ghadir, which is in Riyadh, which is has the largest six flags of Texas and the largest waterparks. It will have the formula E, the Formula one spectacular pop culture, a bigger Disney than Disney.

 

Glenn: Yeah. I’m really looking forward to seeing that, particularly indoors.

 

Jerry: Today is 300 years of culture. Heritage. Neom is the lab to Neom is the future. Neom is what is quality of life in 2040 2050.

 

Glenn: Right, I love it. So what we’re really talking about here is driving tourism through honoring both the historical elements of the country and then giving people an opportunity to vacation and experience things in a very fundamentally different, forward looking kind of way.

 

Jerry: Oh, absolutely.

 

Glenn: I love that, Anthony.

 

anthony: Yeah. Which I know is critically important to you, that it’s looking forward and it’s moderate. And you’re saying over 35% of your workforce right now are women. And so what do you want the world. Because right now it’s still a mystery. And although we’re seeing a lot come out and we’re seeing whether it be live or we’re seeing all these events that are coming out and the marketing is insane. What’s the one thing you want people to know?

 

Jerry: Yeah, it’s it’s actually simpler than you think. All are welcomed. All are welcomed. Come see for yourself. The kingdom is open now. You’ve got abundant culture. Heritage. Where did Arabia start? Right. Yeah. Sand and sea. You have adventure. Come see for yourself. Because you’ll be surprised on a few things. Number one is how gracious and welcoming Saudis are. Naturally. Right. But the people didn’t know it because you couldn’t come and see. That’s right. And and then he had some geopolitical things that greatly hurt the kingdom’s image. The attacks of September 11th. Different things like that. Well, if you don’t open up your kingdom to tourism, which the custodian of the mosque and the crown prince wanted to, you’re allowing people to make assumptions without knowing, right? Journalists are not allowed. People are not allowed. Now the people are coming. And now it’s different during social media because it takes five minutes to do Instagram and beautiful pictures, right? So come look for yourself. Make your own mind up when you come to the kingdom which you are now it because of Saudi’s effort now in 2027, will host the Asian Football Games in Riyadh in 2029, will host a full Asian Winter games because most people don’t know that it snows in Saudi Arabia in the north, right?

 

Glenn: I have no idea about that either.

 

Jerry: Right. And when people see those winter games, they’re going to say, I had no idea. Right. I want to go now. In 2030, we will host the largest expo ever done. 2034 will host the World Cup. Done. It’s just a matter of time before the kingdom. The kingdom is ready now, but it’s just a matter of time before the kingdom puts in an Olympic bid. So our crown prince, you know, he’s very young. He’s been crown prince ten years. He’s been Prime minister five years. He’s only 40 years old. So his leadership will be for decades to come. But he’s that quality of life guy. I want people to come. I want people to be happy. I want all Saudis to come home. There’s a lot of opportunity now, especially for women. So that’s why the that’s why the kingdom very is positive. So come to a very interesting country, be warmly welcomed and make up your own mind.

 

Glenn: Love it.

 

anthony: What you said is when you’ve been clear since the beginning about the openness, and that you want people to make up their own mind, and me and Glenn are going to come as soon as you invite us. We will be there because I want to see for myself. But I want to kind of you are uniquely qualified to do something like this. And it is very there’s maybe one person on earth that could have really done what you’re doing in the way you’re doing it. You’ve had this storied career, and I know you don’t like talking about yourself, but I’m going to. I have to get it out there because you and I are both about bringing people up. We’re about bringing younger people up, bringing older people up, just letting people understand how important that they are. So what is the one thing that two things. One, professionally, what surprised you about being there? And then personally, what surprised you about being there?

 

Jerry: Yeah, it’s a it’s a wonderful question and a very thoughtful question. Because, you know, sentimentally, you know young people, when older people say to them, God, the moments they go by very quick, they roll their eyes. Normally it’s human nature and say, oh, here’s this old cat telling me something, right? But May 2nd, 19th May second, 2027 is not that far away.

 

Glenn: No.

 

Jerry: But May 2nd, 2027 is my 60th anniversary in hospitality, having started at the Gotham Hotel in Manhattan, now the Peninsula, on May 2nd, 1967. So, you know, we as as George Bush says, this is not our first rodeo. So personally, the thing that’s most impressive after a long career when you’re in your 70s is how passionate and well-intended and well-meaning and hard working this society is, because you have to remember that almost 70% of our society is under 35 years old. Wow. And when you when you have a young, dynamic leader that’s moderate and works an 80 hour week, I mean, keeping up with him is not easy, right? Because he’s so focused on the future that.

 

Speaker4: I might be all these great young people you might But.

 

Glenn: Yeah, right.

 

Jerry: Being around all these young people is, is nuclear fuel for me now, professionally. I’ve never had the resources that I’ve had in an entire career.

 

Glenn: I can’t imagine the resources.

 

Jerry: Yeah, well, and it’s not just construction resources. I’ll give you I’ll give you an illustrative point. During Covid, His Royal Highness insisted through the kingdom, not just the Giga projects, that no one would be laid off. All right. It’s a city of 38 million people. It’s not America, 300 million thereabout. But we laid no one off. Okay, that’s great, because we kept our talent. But here’s the thing about His Royal Highness. I have the largest training budget, training and education budget I’ve ever had. If I had up all my companies four seasons. Schrager one and only Atlantis. I never had the money to develop my people the way I do now. Wow. During Covid you know what it’s Covid. We’re going to we’re going to suspend everything. For two years, the crown prince never took a penny out of training or development.

 

Glenn: Wow.

 

Jerry: Never. So while people were at home, they were taking online courses. They were doing their master’s degrees. You can’t believe how productive the society was during the two years of Covid, because he never cut back on the investment of his own people. That says a lot.

 

anthony: And that’s amazing that you said that, because the one thing that you and I both know, especially today, training goes first. You see the personnel training goes first. And what I’m seeing and I’m doing a lot of consulting throughout the country, is some companies do a little bit of training and some companies do no training. And even the brands, they’re doing a lot of training online. I just asked, I was doing a leadership class the other day and I asked some young people. I said, tell me about your training for this one brand. And almost 100% of it was online. And it was really Unfortunate that that’s the first thing to go. And if you really want to develop something that is a leader, you have to commit to your people first before you commit to your bottom line, before you commit to your guest. I always say, and I think you feel the same way. I don’t have guests, I have employees. Right. I have have people. We work together and then my team has to guess. But if I don’t take care of them, I can’t take care of anyone. So that’s why you’re uniquely qualified for this? Because you get it more than anybody I’ve ever met in my life. But. So I’m going to go back a little bit. I was reading something a while ago. When you decide to do this, which surprised all of us. And, you know, I cried when you told me I think we’re at the Four Seasons of New York. And I literally cried and that you were leaving and But what did you what did your mom, your mother in her nursing home in 94 years old. What did she say to her friends?

 

Jerry: Well, now 98, but my mom said when I. When I came to tell her, when she talked to all the people in the nursing home. You know that boy, every time he got something right, every single time he was ready to enjoy his work. He has to get up and do something else. And he’s going to Saudi Arabia. I don’t know where in China Saudi Arabia is, but I’m sure he’ll tell me, she said.

 

Speaker4: That Saudi Arabia.

 

Jerry: Is not in China, is there is a Gaddafi box of 100 chocolates. Knock yourself out.

 

anthony: But you also you, you, your beautiful wife and your and your daughter, your beautiful daughter. What has it been like for them to see you and to be there and to experience that?

 

Jerry: Well, you know, it was very hard because my my wonderful daughter Elena, when when I took the assignment, you know, we’re a little family. We’re just three and very close. And it’s a big decision because Helena was in school. She was only 11. She was only 11 years old. Prudence had tolerated and put up with me. It’s almost 30 years now, but we have such a good life. You know, we have friends. We have family. Why have you got. Why are you going to go to Saudi Arabia on something that you don’t know? You don’t know if it’s going to work. You don’t know if they’re going to like you. You’re going to like them. Look, I believe in this crown prince. I believe in him deeply. And I kind of pulled the Tom Brady Giselle on her and said, can I have one more chance? Can I have one more chance to really do something that can impact the next generation of tourism leaders?

 

Glenn: Well, hopefully it works out better for you than it did pronounce.

 

Jerry: Right? I couldn’t announce it, but one of my one of my goals, which I couldn’t announce, was when I get to the kingdom, I’m going to make sure that those young Saudis are fired up. But I have a daughter, and I’m going to make sure that Saudi women have a real opportunity. Are they really shined now? My daughter now is 19. She’s at Harvard. She she knows the region expertly. She’s studying Arabic. My wife loves it here. Helena loves it here. They know the region. It has been so good for us as a family and really good for Helena because she knows the region. I mean, Helena has been, you know, so it’s it’s been it was hard for her when she was 11 and 12. You know, Papa’s not here every day and stuff like that. But they came to love it and they were very generous, very understanding of what my mission was and is. And you know, I loved them. And God bless them, they backed me.

 

anthony: Well, thank you for being so authentic and transparent. And I’ve heard that your daughter went to Harvard in the Harvard. So congratulations. And I know she’s a lovely young lady. She’s going to do great things. And as as a father of three daughters, it’s really important to me to make sure that everyone has the same opportunity. And I know that that’s what drives you. And I just wanted to say that clearly a couple of times for people to understand I don’t know your wife, so I’m not going to pretend I do, but I know one of your big reasons is to really, like you said, to make it a more moderate place and to really make sure women have opportunities not just to young men. And so for that you know, I just admire you, you know, every time I talk to you, I admire you more and more and more.

 

Jerry: Well, I appreciate it. And and you see the thing that has exceeded any of my expectations. Yeah. These young Saudis, men and women are terrific people. They they’re fired up. They got a great leader, you know? I mean, the king is like everybody’s father. He’s Luft, but the crown prince is nuclear powered.

 

Jerry: And he works hard and he understands process and governance and creativity I mean, he approves every bloody one of our renderings. That’s right. Yeah. But not only have the young women stepped up, and not only are they coming home in droves now, right? Not just the Saudi young men, but you should see how they’re delivering. Now, one of my problems that I’m worried about, I’m. I’m balancing it, is that a weekend in Saudi Arabia is celebrated on a Friday Saturday as compared to like, America’s Saturday Sunday. Now, Saudi Arabia is still a very, very, very family centric country. It doesn’t matter if you’re a hipster or, you know, on the cover of GQ, you’re at the dinner table with your grandmother and your grandfather and your mother and your father, like we used to have in America in the 1950s, 1960s. That I would suggest to you, is a beautiful thing. So here your faith in Islam and being a muslim and proud of Mecca and Medina, your faith, your community, your family are very enriched. Now, my problem is all these people are here working on a Friday or Saturday. A lot of times I gotta walk around the business, get out of here, get home, because I’m worried a little bit about the work family balance. In a, in a, in a in a in a country that’s very fired up. So I’m a little concerned about that. We, we do a lot from a human resource point of view to moderate that because I wouldn’t want to see that dissipate.

 

anthony: That’s that that that again that’s who you are and that’s your heart. So I have another question for you. It’s Sunday. You’re back in Brooklyn. You know, being a Brooklyn Italian like myself, we grew up literally blocks from each other. What time was dinner on a Sunday?

 

Jerry: Yeah. My father, you know, my father had a commute because he had a. He was one of those guys that for 50 years had to take a train in the bus from Bensonhurst to Jackson Heights, Queens, to work at Triboro Coach Bus Company. So you know, when they broke, when they blew the whistle, you know dinner was always 6 p.m. and.

 

anthony: Sunday

 

Jerry: Yeah. Now, Sunday, it depends upon how mother felt. It was either it was either 3 p.m. or depending how. It depends how my mother felt, because my mother had a lot of health issues when we were children. So if she wasn’t feeling well, it was. And we were five rascals. So. Yeah, you know, just to tie everybody up and get them tied to the table, to get to let them sit down for a half an hour. It depends. But normally Sundays. 3 to 6 p.m..

 

anthony: Yeah, yeah. We used to eat 2:00 every 1 or 2:00 on Sunday and we had three. What he believes is we had three, three boys. My dad died when I was two and my mom made and she didn’t make the little meatball. She made the big meatballs, 36 meatballs on a Sunday, and we ate 36 meatballs.

 

Speaker4: That’s old school. That’s old school. Yeah.

 

Jerry: I hope she put the breadcrumbs in the meatballs.

 

Glenn: Yeah.

 

anthony: Do you like in what you’re doing now? You’re all consumed. But when you look at globally and more specifically America, what is your biggest concern about younger people coming up in business and coming up? Because they have in Saudi Arabia. You have something to look forward to. You have this goal that here we were, here we are again, we’re more moderate and now we’re going to be something even special again. What is and again, keeping the history and all the sites in mind is the number one priority. But so so they really have something to look forward to. What are you concerned about here in America for the young people coming not only to our business, but in business in general.

 

Jerry: Yeah. What concerns me deeply is that America’s greatness was never in its 1%. If you look at the entire history of America, it’s 1% was always great. And it’s greater now. America still wins more awards and Nobel and medicine and physics than anybody. But our middle class is what made America great. And what I’m concerned about for the young people is that they may not have an inherent belief that their life would be better than their parents. Yeah. And the parents may not think my children will have a better life if I worked, if I sacrificed, especially in immigrant mentality, people that came to America. If I work, my kids can get educated and have a good quality of life and raise their family in safety and opportunity. So one of the things that concerns me is American Can. Optimism. American positivity. Fortunately, the Kingdom has that right now. American America unified. You know, you get a you get a president at John Kennedy. We’re going to put a man in those days a man men are we’re going to put someone on the moon. The whole country was behind that.

 

Jerry: Now America is very fractionalized, very polarized. And a lot of young people will say, how do I fit into today’s America now, sociologically, I also have a worry as it relates to tourism because we had a job. So if we had to work a weekend or a holiday, if we had to serve people during Thanksgiving or Christmas, we did it. But I but what Covid taught us is that we had a giant vacuum where people left the industry and did not come back in. Right. So a lot of jobs post Covid, you know, there’s been anybody it’s a good thing that a lot of women because now tourism has a higher number of women Then in the in in day to day. Not just management but day to day and immigrants and immigrants, you know, who are making a good life for themselves in America. Now, if you severely cut back your immigration policy and you have young Americans that don’t want to be the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, that’s going to be a problem for us. Right. Yeah.

 

Glenn: Well, it’s already it already is. As housekeepers are mysteriously vanishing from hotels around the country.

 

Jerry: Right now, you guys remember you you you’re old enough even though you’re very young. Look, are you still. There was a sociological thing in the industry you do not have on the on the swing shift, 4 to 12 female people delivering room service. Why? Because you don’t want them to be harassed when they knocked on the door. Hi, sweetie. How you doing?

 

Glenn: Right.

 

Jerry: So you only had males. You never had male attendants, male housekeepers to come and clean up the room. Men. Men are Men are not housekeepers. It’s all women. Right now you look globally. That’s right. You’ve got both men and women, right? Because nobody would tolerate bad behavior. And in the, in the Gulf and and throughout almost all of Asia now, almost all housekeepers are equally mailed to, you know, so the roles are changing as the market, you know, the labor market changes. So in America the other thing that we have to be very careful which which I don’t know if you are aware of, but I am is that we were always historically low in retaining our graduates five years out of college because bad wages compared to tech and insurance and banking. But now post Covid, we have a higher drop off of retaining of our college graduates right now. The good thing is that the women stepped up, right? Younger people stepped up. People who are citizens, you know, immigrants that were citizens, because the speed in which you could go from a worker to a manager within tourism is one of the best in one of the least prejudicial prejudicial industries. So velocity of promotion is great in the industry, and that will help us attract back as our numbers remember this global GDP from tourism. Pre-covid, one out of ten jobs, we were moving up. We were 10.3% of GDP. Well, we got creamed during the during Covid, but by the end of 2026 will be 11% of global GDP and one out of every five jobs, new jobs in the world will be service oriented. There’s a lot of opportunity, but our big challenge is going to be human resource challenge. You know.

 

anthony: What’s interesting? A couple of things you said there. You know one, when you start in this industry. And we started from the bottom and you don’t see the top clearly, you go into financing, banking, whatever, you’re in the mail room, you see the top pretty quick because they’re on the elevator with you and you’re serving them, you’re helping them. But here in our industry, it seems such a far distance to the top. And I always say, you know people say you can’t make any money in, in the hotel business. I said, I can’t walk into a convention and not hit a millionaire in the head. I said, you can make a lot of money in the hotel industry, but you have to really, really want to do it. Now to your point, it is much clearer to the top. I was just talking to a young man I mentor. I said, I wish I was you because you’re a supervisor right now. You may be CEO of a management company by August. You can really, really move up. And also another thing that you said was very interesting is that the middle class, there’s never been more transfer of wealth in the middle class in the history of our country, because when you in 1950, you can buy a house for, you know, for a celery stick and a bottle of water, and now you’re selling that house for $1 million and transferring that wealth to the middle class, to your to your children or grandchildren.

 

anthony: But do you want to do you know how to handle it? Do you know do you know how to take care of that? Do you know how to make sure you honor the hard work of your ancestors? And I’m seeing it through through with my friends and and their children. So it’s there is for the middle class, an opportunity for their families and for their children and their grandchildren. But do they understand what it takes to build it and to continue to build it and to and to take care of it? That’s what I’m I’m afraid of because everybody wants instant gratification. And our social media platforms have done nothing but put that gasoline on the fire.

 

Jerry: I know it’s a big problem, you know.

 

Glenn: All right, so, Jared, before we wrap up a little a little bit lighter of a question, when you first went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you started eating their cuisine. What’s your number one favorite local type of food.

 

anthony: Great question.

 

Jerry: Well, you know when I was 18, because I was a busboy lifting trays all day, I was £159 when I was 18.

 

Glenn: That’s what I weighed when I was 18. I haven’t seen that in a long.

 

Jerry: Now, when I came to the Kingdom seven years ago, I was £159. But the Saudi food is so good. I went from 159 to 180. I crossed them every day because the Saudis are very hospitable. They’re pumping food into you all day long. Coffee, dates and sweets, everything. Now I’m on my way back to the 159. And if they pump all that into me, I get lost. I tell them.

 

anthony: Well, I worked at the same catering hall on Ocean Parkway. Correct?

 

Jerry: Right. Correct. And so the Saudi cuisine is just grilling and all of the the tapas. I mean it when you come in and your food is fabulous. Fabulous. So what I have to do and and the other thing that makes life complicated here, the Saudis are so generous. Every six minutes, they’re walking in my office. You gotta try this. You gotta eat this. Get out of here. You know I’ll be £900 if you. If I stay around you.

 

anthony: Well, with the where I was at that catering hall that you were at, I was £92. The tray was heavier than I was.

 

Jerry: Yeah. Me too.

 

Glenn: Oh goodness gracious.

 

anthony: Listen, we we we are blessed that you’re on our show. We’re blessed that you’re doing this. We’ll be.

 

Jerry: Back.

 

anthony: You know, I love writing. You know, I’ll tell you something. You haven’t missed a beat. Your enthusiasm is at an all time high. Your acuity, your your your your ability to remember everything is at an all time high. And you inspire me. And every once in a while, I need. I just need a little time of Jerry. Because I need to be re-inspired by stuff sometimes, so.

 

Jerry: Well, I’m sitting across from a very handsome, very dedicated member of my team who happens to be royal family. Happens to be His Highness. And when he walks in, I have to say hi, Your Highness. So I’m like him. But he said to me, you go do that thing. You better be sharp. I’m watching you. And he’s sitting right across from me. So you better say, okay. You know, I don’t want him going back to the King. Say, Jerry. Jerry was flat today. No.

 

Glenn: Well, you’re definitely never flat, Jerry. And you’re really awesome. And I hope we could get out to to see you.

 

Jerry: Yeah. You’re going to come out, but we’ll. I’ll have you sign this arrangement for you.

 

Glenn: That’ll be. That’ll be amazing. We’ll do from there. Well, maybe not.

 

anthony: To.

 

Jerry: Everybody keep the faith. Only ones that come to visit us. Great to.

 

anthony: Be with.

 

Jerry: You. We’ll see you soon.

 

anthony: Thank you for the time. It’s an honor.

 

Glenn: Thank you. Please. Like. Guys, please hang out. I want to thank you guys for for watching today. Listen, we talked a lot about Saudi Arabia. So you’re going to want to check out the video I did with friend of the show Chris Green president of Humanitarian Hotels Now. And they just did the Liv golf tournament there a few weeks before we were recording this show. So go check out that particular interview.

 

anthony: And I know it’s been a long, a long show, but I just want to say that that is what America and what we basically export. We export enthusiasm. We export clarity. You hear how clear he is and his intentions. And if he’s your friend, he’s so authentic. Everything he said, even having the the His Highness. Right, right in front of him was part of the royal family. He didn’t shy away from that. Like, he was nervous. Like, oh my God, he’s watching me. He was clear about that. He translated that to us. That to us. Like, it’s just I just wish, like I wish everybody that is our fans watches this show because this is a show. This is this is a master’s degree. And not only hospitality and vision, but communication. Yep. Just look at it from a communication. The way he communicated is literally a masterclass.

 

Glenn: Yeah for sure. And also, the one thing that I took away from this is I love the idea of bringing people to the country to break down the barriers between people. So we could all realize that at the end of the day, we’re all kind of the.

 

anthony: It’s good to have him do it, because I don’t know if anybody else could have done it because there’s so much, even within our friend group, people saying, is he sure about this? Are we sure about this? What’s going on? This is a little this a little outside the box. He’s been outside the box his whole life. I know he’s just for people that don’t know him. And he’s not in the green room, is he?

 

Glenn: Oh, he dropped out. Yeah.

 

anthony: His best man at his wedding was Michael Jackson. Okay. Oprah Winfrey’s his best friend. Yeah, I was having lunch one day, and I said, hey, I’m in town. I’d love to see you. I know you’re in town. And he goes, oh, I’m having lunch already. I’m sorry. I’ll see you tomorrow. So I see him the next day and we’re talking like, who are you having lunch with? Because my friend was his birthday. Well, I saw an Instagram. It was You know, what did I tell you, Desmond?

 

Glenn: All right.

 

anthony: Mandela is the godfather to his daughter.

 

Glenn: Yeah, right. Like, what did it? What an incredible. What an incredible life. Just happy we had him on the show and help to educate and empower you guys about what’s going on in the hospitality business. Make sure you want to read, listen to this show and all of our others, download our audio feed or follow us wherever you get your socials. Remember, everybody, you’ve got one life. So blaze on.

 

anthony: Be kind. Michelle.

 

Glenn: We’ll see you all next time. Goodbye.