September 2, 2025 • 55 mins
A Club Member since 2004, real estate investor, entrepreneur, and vintner, Antonio Castellucci embodies the American dream. Born in Italy and raised in Buenos Aires, he moved to the United States in his early twenties — carrying with him a strong work ethic, an eye for opportunity, and a deep sense of family heritage. He built a successful career in residential development in the Bay Area, forging his own path as an entrepreneur.
But a getaway property in Napa Valley soon sparked something more. What began as a retreat evolved into Castellucci Napa Valley, a boutique winery shaped by generations of family passion and purpose. In this heartfelt conversation, Antonio shares how real estate, family, and the pursuit of lasting impact have defined his path — and what it means to build something that endures for the next generation and beyond.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Never taken off for an answer. In other words, always
go for the deal. If they say not today, they
will say yes tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to a Life well Lived, where we pull back
the curtain on the extraordinary lives of our remarkable members.
I'm James Henderson, CEO of Exclusive Resorts. For me, travel
has never been about the destination. It's always been about
the company you keep. Over the years, I've crossed paths
with some of the world's most fascinating, well traveled individuals,
(00:44):
each bound by a singular pursuit to live not just well,
but exceptionally. Their stories aren't just worth telling, they're worth
learning from, because in the end, it's not about where
we go, but how we choose to live. Joining me
(01:10):
on today's episode is my good friend Antonio Castellucci, a
real estate investor, entrepreneur, and vintner whose journey embodies the
American dream. A long time It's Resorts member, Antonio has
built a remarkable career in real estate and more recently
made his mark in Napa Valley's wine scene. He joined
the club in two thousand and four, and I've had
(01:31):
the privilege of getting to know his story. A testament
ambition resilience and an eye for opportunity. Antonio, welcome. So
I'm sitting here today in the home of Antonio and
Riader Castellucci in their fantastic new home that they built
in Napa Valley, just near Yonville. Antonio and Reader have
been members for nineteen years Buscus Resorts, and Antonio has
(01:54):
an incredible story. He came to us back in the
early seventies with two hundred dollars in his pocket and
today owns over five hundred units and one hundred different developments,
which is incredible story and really is the American dream.
So I'll get onto that a little bit when we
go into that. But so my first question to you is,
so you were born in Calabria in Italy, and then
(02:15):
you immigrated to Buenos Aires when you were very young.
Both of these countries have strong cultures that are very
family orientated. How do you think that impacted your outlook
and your values? First of all, James, what a pleasure
to have you here today. Is a pleasure to know
you and your lovely wife since we met the last
(02:37):
three years I think three years, And thank you for
being here and ann Or first of all, to be
chosen to tell the story, because there are a lot
of stories out there. In mine is just you know,
like you mentioned, it's like the American dream kind of
a thing, and that's what I want to focus today,
(02:59):
to give.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The young generation that American dream that still is here.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So when you were living in Buens Aires, your your
mother passed away, I think, and your uncle invited to
America and you arrived here two hundred dollars. So what
happened after that?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, So I was eight years old in nineteen fifty
seven when my family and I immigrated to Buenos Aires.
And the reason we went there is because we had
family on my mother's side that was there. And so
I lived there for thirteen years. And one of the
(03:43):
stories that I think is important to tell, especially the
young to the young generations today. So I was at
the age of nine, so I was in Argentina. I
went to school a day and started working the other
(04:04):
half to help the family because we were in a
new country, right, And so I lived there for thirteen years,
and it was a great run in Buenos Aires, especially
because I got into some music and it was so fun.
I took voice lessons, I guitar lessons and playing in
(04:29):
a group in Buenos Aires in nightclubs. So I was
that was the other dream kind of that was also
an American dream, really, and I had such a great time.
And my uncle was here in America, and he asked me,
would you like to come and visit me here? And
(04:51):
I said, sure, love to so, and I remember, so
nineteen seventy one, my father gave me two hundred others
and came to America and it came with a tourist
visa for three months. So when I came here, came
to San Jose first, and we suddenly, you know, I
(05:17):
don't know what, but immediately I saw how the opportunities
they were here were presented here, opportunities that we never
had in our old countries in Italy or Argentina. And
so I started liking it here. And so when the
(05:39):
three months was almost expiring, so my uncle hired a lawyer, said,
see if Antonio can stay, how he can stay legally.
And so the first thing that happened was we went
to visit schools just to see if there was an
opportunity to get a student visa, and that didn't work.
(06:04):
Then he tried to work visa that didn't work. So finally,
this wonderful lawyer said to me, you know, the only
way if you want to stay in America, my suggestion
is go to San Francisco and get lost.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Really, if you're.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Lost then you know. But I was afraid that if
my visa expired, I don't know what's going to happen
to me. Yeah, every time the doorbell rang as I
was hiding it back, hide in the closet. So it
was so pretty super interesting. Really wow, the pressure. Yes.
(06:49):
And so what happened after that is that with my uncle,
we went to visit relatives in San Francisco and we
went one day, we went to this home and there
was this nice lady and he said to me, you know,
you have to meet this girl from your hometown. And
(07:11):
somehow she made the connection, and I remember we I
went to North Beach and we met at the Saint
Peter's and Paul's church, and I met the family, Riata
and the family, and then we went to her flat
(07:31):
in North Beach and we spent an afternoon together and
somehow we you know, somehow we connected and and so
it's an incredible story because my mother in law that
we lost her also a long time ago. She fell
in love with me before that Riada did, and so
(07:55):
it's incredible that two weeks later, with their blessing, with
her parents blessing, we took the greyhound bus. I get
emotional when I tell the story, of course, and took
the grayhound bus and went to Reno and we got married.
(08:18):
So on the way to the chapel, as a reader,
don't we need a ring? How can we get married.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
With a ring?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So we stopped at a jewelry store on the way there,
and we bought these two rings like this, Yes, these
rings that we paid ten dollars each.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So so we got married. Yeah, take the bus back
to San Francisco again. So I was going to stay
in their flat in North Beach. But when we got there,
my father in law said, Antonio, congratulations, here is your room,
(08:59):
and that's reader's room at the other end of the house.
Because in our culture, and back in those days in particular,
if you if you don't marry in church, you can't
be too good. It makes no sense. And so so
the first the arenal wedding was September sixteenth, and the
(09:23):
actual church wedding was December fifth, so we live. We
were married, separated in all time, in the same house.
It's a pretty incredible, amazing, amazing story really. And and
you know what then when you were young, I was
twenty two years old, you know, I said, what do
you mean, I'm married. I'm gonna stay with my wife.
(09:45):
But but I had so much respect for family that
I'm happy to say that I didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So it's an incredible gift to see a diamond in
the rough. What do you think that your mother in
law saw in you at that time? What was the
Sparks said.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, you know, we were from the same I didn't
even mention that yet. We were born in the same town.
And so Rita and I went to first and second
grade together.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
She came all the way around.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The world, all around the world, and we met the
love of life that we met there. But and to
make it more interesting, yet, my mother's mother in law
maiden name was Castelluccio. So it's like Rita and I
were like distance cousins. Yeah, pretty amazing. And and I
think she fell in love with me because you know,
(10:36):
she knew my family because she was also in this
little town called Sansosti. In the southern part. And so
I think that because they saw the family and they
they met me, they knew my uncle, and I think
that kind of a package. And and you know, they
(10:56):
were in America for about three four years by then,
and they didn't know that, you know, all day ins and
out of American young men, young people, and here comes
this Italian guy, you know, and maybe I was good
looking too, Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Those days were and you're saying and you're saying and
all that, and I think that what did it?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And it's it's incredible that, you know, then family and
relatives and friends were saying, Antonio just got married to
stay in America, because see, if you married a resident,
then automatically you could stay. And so that was the thing,
(11:41):
is he just got married for the papers, you know.
And you know, we celebrate this year. We are going
to celebrate fifty two years of marriage.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So incredible, very amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So your first job that you got, you were a
stock boy in an English clothing store, I think, and
they twas all right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, it was yeah, two an hour and I didn't
even speak English. So I was in the in the
shipping and receiving downstairs. And I remember, but one thing
I have to say about the American people, how wonderful
they are.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And how.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
How they give you so many chances because you know,
they know that you're trying hard. And I remember one
instance where you know, they call my manager was from
the store manager was from New York, and they have
that difficult accent. I don't speak English, so that even
with that accent, much more difficult. And I remember one
(12:43):
day is that bring like fifty pairs of pants upstairs
and to the to the selling floor. And the problem
is I didn't know how to I'm sorry, I didn't understand.
Can you repeat? So instead of pants, I would bring
the fifty shirts. But the but the funny thing is
(13:03):
that you know, somehow they you know, they they saw
that I was trying, and I didn't get fired or anything.
They always they all were so helpful, really amazing and
uh and you know then I was going to English
classes in the evening at the International Institute in San
Francisco and Vanice Avenue, so I was working during the
(13:26):
day and learning English at night.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Did you have any idea at that time? Do you
think if you if you think yourself back to them,
did you have the vision of where you would ultimately
end up in a place like this, which is incredible
and having built such an incredible you know, business, and
and having such quite the journey, did you could you
envision that at that time as a stop boy in
(13:53):
uh in that story in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Not at that time, but in the way I owd
to read the position that we are in today. And
part of the reason is because what could I do
in America? How can I advance? Before I started working
(14:17):
at the store, at the clothing store, and everybody was saying,
you know, he can go work in a restaurant in
North Beach. And so if that would happen, not only that,
I would not have learned English faster because there you
are involved with Italians with Spanish and you barely learn
(14:39):
the language really, And so how could I advance in
that in that type of business. Perhaps by today I
may have one or two or three restaurants, I don't know,
but never to the extent of what we have accomplished.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And so you took your property calls, you learned English,
you passed the first time, and then you went and
you bought your first property.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes, so after I received that the real estate license,
that it was a challenge because this you know, there's
always one man in your life that can make a difference.
So when I was in the store, working at the
clothing store, so a different manager asked me one day,
(15:28):
would you like to come to Anthony Schools of Real Estate?
And I didn't know what real estate meant. So I
go home. I find that buying and selling houses as
it just sounds interesting. So I said to him, love
to come, Let's go. So I go to that freak
(15:50):
one class. We went together, and I didn't understand the
word that we're talking about, because I mean I was
here in the country very short to your time and
with the real estate terminology. Imy, how do you understand that?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
But what I understood was that I liked the idea
of the be involved in buying selling homes. And then
I said, you know, even if I don't understand what
it means, but if I can memorize all the questions
and the correct answer only, maybe there's a chance I
(16:27):
can pass the test. And so my date came. After
like five or six months, I got to the test
and I passed the first time. I couldn't believe it,
or I said, I I heard this real estate likens.
So after I had that license. So in the neighborhood
(16:48):
where I lived at that time, in the Richmond District,
there was a real estate office around the corner, and
so I went there and I said, you know, do
you need anybody here. You know, I love to work
in real estate in the evenings because I had a
full time job during the day, and said yes. They
hired me right away, and so I was working full
(17:11):
time during the day and then in the evening I
would go and I remember calling for listings, you know,
the typical thing you tried to get listings, you know,
holding open houses, And that's the way I started the
real estate business.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So you then found your first property that you told
me mana.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Well the interesting thing. So I found the first property,
and as I mentioned, with the reader's money, so we
bought this pair of flats. And I remember there were
two beautiful flats in the Sunset district and each flood
was rented for two hundred and fifty dollars a month.
(17:55):
But I had no experience with tenants. There was one
article at tenant that was driving me crazy, you know,
read and I were going there in the once a
week in the in the evening, clean up the wholeways,
clean up the front property and all that. And this
lady was driving me crazy that I said, you know what,
(18:16):
I don't want to know and I don't want to
deal with it anymore. Let's sell the property. So we
sold the property. Now the most incredible thing. And I thought,
know who guided me? It must be the somebody upstairs
that guided me at that time, because after an experience
(18:36):
that you hated, you know, dealing with tenants, why would
you get involved in another property?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So what I did I turned around and I bought
a four unit building.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Pretty amazing and so and I bought a four unit building.
We and we started managing it. We kept it for
a while and then this you'll appreciate it very much.
Were calling for listings in the evening and I was
getting a list in here and there, you know, and
(19:12):
a property that kind of that I liked, and it
didn't sell for like three months. I would go to
the seller and I said, would you sell it to
me for this much? And they did so. I bought
like three or four properties where I had the listing,
but I couldn't sell it, so I bought it at
(19:35):
a lower price and with like only like ten percent down,
which would be like four to five thousand dollars in
those days. And so I started accumulated properties even back then,
because when we were talking about buying a house in
those days, we were talking about like thirty five forty
(19:56):
five thousand dollars pero flats fifty sixty thousand. So uh,
and that's the way we started, really, that's the way
we started in business.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And how did you So when you're looking for these properties,
what were you looking for? What was the what was
the specific thing that that would stand out to you
when you're buying properties?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Well, in real estate, money in real estate is made
when you buy the real estate, not when you sell,
so which means that you have to buy value, location,
and potential. That's the way you buy.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So telling what about those things, value, location, and potential,
and how do you assess those three things? Well?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Location, her biggest house, how many square feet? What are
the comparables in their neighborhood? How much can you rent
it for if you fix it up? How much is
it worth if you renovated then you resell it? So
all those components take it goes into effect, and then
you know, in a way, I always looked at the
(21:03):
long term investment because one of the very beginning, when
I only owe like two houses, a pair of flats
in another house, I said, you know what if I
can buy seven or eight houses during my lifetime, right
(21:23):
after thirty years, the properties are paid for and I
can we can live off the rent. That was the
original intent of real estate investments, and it made sense
absolutely because at that time we were in the twenties.
So I said, gee, in the fifties, I can I
can have all this income and that's it. You know,
(21:43):
I can retire.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Here.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I am turning seventy five soon, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Still working like a dog. It's always interesting. You always
have the number of fan stending stories about properties that
you acquired on the journey. Tell me something.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Stories, Well, there are several of them. One related to
I worked in for closure sales and probate sales, and
one in particular for closure sale. I bought a property
in Sanoncelmo. And when you're buying foreclosure, you pay cash
(22:23):
at the steps of city hall, and I forgot to
call for insurance and somehow the owner got upset about
the sale and just burned the house down. And so
I got a call and said, sorry, mister Castelluccio house
which just went not beflamed. But I guess when I
(22:46):
bought it, I bought it a reasonable price that I
was able to resell basically the lot.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
For what I paid for the house.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So in the fact I didn't lose any money, but
I didn't make any money.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But useful properties were you bought them at a great
price and then got loans and the loans written higher.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
One? In particular, I bought a property, a eight un
building in San Francisco, and we are talking about early eighties,
and I paid ninety two thousand dollars for it, and
it was such a great deal that I turned around
like three months later and the bank financed it and
(23:29):
gave me two hundred and seventy five thous So I
did have the eight unit, all the extra cash and everything,
and it's stially amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So in the last ten years or so, you shifted
your attention to Napa and started buying properties in Napa Valley.
What was the attraction to Naper for you? What did
you see in this area where we are now.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well, the way we started. I bought my first property
in the Carneros area, which was still in Napa, and
we bought this house in nineteen eighty nine. So we've
been in the valley ever since. So nineteen eighty nine
(24:15):
and remodeled the house. And then so we remodeled the house,
we started using it. Then I met a wine maker
that was making wine out of his garage down the street,
and so he says to me, you know, you have
two acres here, so why don't you plant grapes and
(24:39):
I'll buy the fruit from meal. So all of a sudden,
all of a sudden, I was a wine business. But
it was not a business because actually it was more
for like family and friends. It was not a business
all the time. But what we did was we planted
two acres of barnecka and three quarters of pino noir
and chardonae. And so so three years later our first
(25:02):
vintage was nineteen ninety two pino noir. And so what
the deal that we made that he will take the
grapes and he would make for me two barrels of
pino noir every year and one barrel of chardonay. So
all of a sudden, I had like eighty cases of
(25:24):
wine a year for us and for friends. So you know,
it was such a great thing. You know, it was
such a.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Was that the start of the cast Lucci label for wine.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
No, it didn't start then because it was not my
label at that time. It only said Castellucci. But you know,
it was not really a business at that time. But
the caste Lucci label was born. Then if I can
go back to that property, So we started using that
(25:55):
property then. I remember we even bought a color like
Eldorado convertible. It was so fantastic, and we kept the
tiering Napa. So the kids were young, and so we
were traveling all over in Napa Valley back in the
early eighties and the late eighties. It was really fantastic.
And so then when the kids started going to school
(26:18):
to primarily like high school, and they said that we
don't there's nothing for us to do it now, but
we don't want to go there anymore. So we rented
the house for a while, and so then when they
they started being in the late twenties, then he said, Dad,
we want to go back to Napa Valley because they
(26:40):
started liking the wine, and they liked the you know,
the country and everything else, and so and we bought
The second property was in San Alena. We bought a
beautiful house and three acres. We put vineyards in. So
we had a great time. Really, that's the way we started. Now,
(27:02):
a couple of years after we bought that property, I
came up with this idea. I said, you know, I
don't think it's a good idea to diversify. We have
some properties in Marine County, a number of them in
San Francisco and South South Bay. But we were coming
(27:23):
here and I noticed that, and we were talking about
ten years ago where compared to San Francisco values or
other Marine and other values, I felt that it was
undervalue this valley, beautiful valley. And I said, how can
you buy a house and three acres for like a
(27:45):
million two? You know, that sounds pretty good to me.
And so I started buying properties here and I did
a number of ten thirty one exchanges that I sold
some property in San Francis Is Go and traded for
properties here. And in the last ten years it's amazing
(28:06):
that we accumulated over thirty properties here and some incredible property,
incredible some beautiful properties really, some wonderful estates, some commercial buildings,
some vacant land for developments, so all kinds of all
kinds of good things.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Really, and you started and this is this is one
of this building where now you are now here. This
is one of the first times you built from scratch.
Yes it is.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, I built new in San Francisco on one other
time a long time ago, but this is the first
one in a long.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And this is incredible. Tell us about this home. It's
it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, it's pretty amazing because you know, we finished this
property in two years and we had done five acres
here and and you know we have over nine thousand
square feedal living space in three different structures, four car garage,
and an incredible outdoor. Man it is. And so you know,
(29:03):
found a good architect he's from southern California, and found
an amazing contractor that I love to keep on doing
business with. And so we started this journey and amazing
I was involved living in Marine, I was coming here
and amazing, and you know, we are so proud of
(29:26):
what we have a compress because you know, it's like
that's the first house I was built here. And it's
pretty amazing place. And not only that that we are
so lucky that we have other properties that now I'm
so excited about building more homes like this, you know,
because there is a demand for new homes, new houses,
(29:50):
and they're an amazing location Oakvale and sant Alina and
Young Vale and stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's an amazing, amazing property. So family clearly pays an
important role in your business and everyone is really considered
part of the of the of the family. How does
this sense of family contribute to your success do you think?
And Maria is involved as Angela Marco, how does you
how do you sort of think of that in terms
(30:19):
of contributing your success as a family.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Well, first of all, I mean behind a successful man,
there has to be an amazing wife. That's number one.
And with her support, it was incredible we were able
to you know, as a family. And and and that's
a great question, James, because when we lived in San
Rafell for the number of years and I was working
(30:43):
during the day, the beauty is about real estate and
the reason that I liked it very much was because
I was every night, I was at home for dinner
prior to the kids going to bed, So that was important.
And then another major decision that I made, and it's
been for many years, like I'm talking about maybe forty
(31:07):
years ago, I made a decision I'm not going to
work on weekends, so I only worked Monday through through Friday.
That said, and because I was involved more in not
necessarily in homes, I kind of graduated into mixed use
buildings and apartment buildings and normally they don't have like
(31:29):
open houses in those properties. So in a way, it
made it easy to take that time off, and it
really worked out very well because then you know, you're
with the family, and that's the key I think, you know,
and if I'm I ad as well. So when the
kids were young, and they were in high school already,
(31:53):
so I asked the question at the dinner table and
I said, guys, you know, this is what I do.
I tried to in a way pushing them to get
into the business, but without pushing them, just technically kind
of thing. So and I said, I explained that this
(32:14):
what I this is what I do for a living.
If you have any interest to come into the business,
we can get bigger. But if you don't, then I
want to get smaller. And you know what, then they
decided to come into the business. And my youngest daughter, Angela,
for instance, when she went and started college, then she
(32:40):
went to work for an interior designer firm. And I said, Angela,
go work there for for a year for free, so
that you can learn what they do about interior designer,
because this is what we do. We remodel apartments, homes
and stuff like that. And so that what she did.
She worked for free for a year. She learned so
(33:02):
much and then finished college and stepped into the business.
And now you know, she manages all our real estate
in San Francisco, and she does all the buying of
the materials and when we do a renovation, and she's
doing an amazing Jebruary.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And Maria is running properties in that righting.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Maria runs moved up about about eight years ago now
and she runs sold the real estate here now in
Napa Vardi, but also overseas San Francisco, because it's sizable
what we own over there.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And so you told me once when when the kids
were young, used to have these little phrases that you
put on the on the mirror in the in the bathroom.
And I'd love to hear you talk a bit about
those and tell me what they they said inspiration quotes
or something.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
That I brought it down just to make sure that
I remember. And so there were four phrases. So what
I did, I said, you know what, what can I
How can I inspire these kids to be good kids
and to be business oriented and stuff? And so I
printed and I pasted at their bathroom mirror that they
(34:14):
would see it every morning when they got up. And
he said number one always whatever you do, give one
hundred and ten percent. You know, it's so important that
people notice that you put in an effort to be successful.
Another number two was nothing is a problem. So in
(34:37):
otherwise there is no problem that cannot be solved. So
and in fact, you know, they use that so much
that when we when we are together and I mentioned
something about the business, that that's not a problem. It's
kind of finding. Always smile because I think that when
(34:58):
you look you're smiling, that when you a smile and
you feel better and the person that it was with
you feels better as well. And the final thing was
never taken off for an answer, you know, there was
always go for the deal. If if they say no
today they will say yes tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
These are great, great sayings. I mean, I think we
have a lot of families ex results and I think
a lot a lot of those things really resonate. And
clearly they've done well. I mean that they're all evolded
very well and it's fun to seem involvement in the
in the business. So going back a little bit too,
to the wine business. So you have the Castlergi wine
brand too, and I think Marco and Marie are involved
(35:42):
in in running that. And so the wine making a
tradition goes way back in your family, back to your
grandfather Luigi that my father actually are you fine?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yes, yes, yes, and I and you know, part of
the part of the reason that we ended up in
Upper Valley because back in those days, you know, we
were looking for a second home and when the kids
were little, and the question was where do we want
to go? We want to go to you know that
time late tack was always popular. And then I readA
(36:13):
says that's not going to work these kids. How are
these kids are going to be in the car for
four hours? Yeah, but then I remember that my father
was making wine. In Italy, most everybody was making.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
A little wine, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
But what I recalled mostly that you know during harvest,
is where you he would pick me up and put
me in this half barrel and stump those grades. Yeah,
you know today here they do it for it's a novelty,
you know, yes, and so but I remember that, and
I said, gee, wasn't we looking in Naples? And you know?
(36:49):
And and we ended up here and somehow we found
the first property, and that's the way it started.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
How did we then ended up making wine as a business.
And the reason it happens is by accident because I
bought these properties that many of them have vineyards, and
so I said, gee, we have the vineyards already, why
don't we make some wine. And we found this amazing
wine maker and we started making wine again as a business.
(37:22):
In Our first vintage was twenty twelve and we've been
making wine ever since. And it's successful. It's wonderful. It's
great wine. You tried it, great wine, some wonderful Cabonet
from Spring Mountain, Cavernade from Ratherford, Merlovs from San Alina,
(37:44):
and it's been great. I mean, probably you don't make
any money in the wine business, but the money is
made in the real estate, but the wine business also.
It's like heating up a valley brings.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
People together, exact.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
That's what's beautiful about, you know, being able to participate
in this business.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
So let me talk about arts and music. These are
both important parts of your life. You've been playing guitar
and singing for an early age. And I think you
said I used to sing in the events and in
clubs and things in Buenos Aires, is there right?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
That's correct, yes, And you know I did that, and
then when I came to America, I got to I
had to be serious and instead of working and forget
about the music. But then about twelve years ago, you know,
I was invited to join the board of festival in
Apa Valley. Right, some friends you know, connected us with
(38:43):
this organization, which is it was young at that time,
and I decided to join this this board because of
what we do is something very special, that spectacular for Napavalle.
It's one of the it turned out to be.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Now we have an amazing board of over twenty twenty
members and all wine, wine makers and winery owners, I
mean amazing people and and and how wonderful is this
country about the fact that they had so much generosity
here and and primarily what we do with that is
(39:27):
we support, We do fundraising to a certain extent, but
we also do amazing dinners and music that very enjoyable.
It is one of the best festival in the United States.
But the main goal is that we we help economically
to public schools, private schools, art and music education and
(39:52):
there were We are really generous and give and quite
a bit of money away every year.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, it's it's incredible cause obviously to spend the last
couple of years of excess results and we've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
You are very welcome. It's it's a great cause. We
love being in part of it. Arts clearly follows in
the family. Maria recently published a book which she must
be very proud of. We have it. We have it
done here somewhere, so so tell you a little about that.
You must be proud of Vian in Paris. It's cool
she just published it. It's was released I think a
couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Isn't it only about a month ago? Yes?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
And this was a lifelong dream of hers, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Well, I'll tell you that the interesting part of it
that we only read. And I, my wife and I
we only found out that Maria was writing this book
about a month before publication. She kept that secret. She
never told me that she was writing a book. All
(40:52):
of a sudden, she creates this amazing book that is
so well received, beautiful, and it's so beautiful and and
you on now she has so much support, but you
have to keep on writing. And so she claims that
she wants to do one book for each child. So
she has four kids, so she's got three more books coming.
(41:14):
And in fact, she told me now that she's working
on her next and it's I think it's going to
be Sophia in Rome.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
So they're going to take a trip to Rome and
together and create another amazing book that that's beautiful reader.
It's super proud read. And I we are super proud
because I have no idea that she was so touchmented.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Be usifly done it really is, and that the words
and the illustrations are.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Really really beautiful illustrations and the content. I mean, it's
pretty nice to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So travel clearly has been something that's been important to
you is throughout your life. Tell me a little bit
about that. How have you sort of managed to maintain
work life balance?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Well, there were Exclusive Results coming to play, right. I
was working very hard, especially the first fifteen years, twenty years,
and in about nineteen years ago I found out about
(42:23):
Exclusive Results and I said, Exclusive Results? Now, how did
we join Exclusive Results? It was also very interesting. The
payment at that time was quite quite substantial. It was
two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars nineteen years. Nineteen
(42:44):
years is a lot of money, and so and how
did we join? I didn't have two hundred and seventy
nine thousand spare to just buy Exclusive Results.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
So but.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Read that inherited part out of the building from her
parents that had passed away, and we used those funds.
We said, you know what, why don't we honor them
instead of just buying another building, Why don't we do
something special that they will be proud of us. And
(43:19):
that's why Exclusive Results came into place. So and then
I was working so hard at that time, and then
we said, you know what if I joined Exclusive resorts?
And I was brave for sixty days. Back in those days,
and at that time was use it or lose it,
So you have to travel. It was you lose to days,
(43:40):
and so we joined and we traveled sixty days a
year for a number of years. Because that forced me
to take vacations and kind of balance your life better
instead of instead of just working the night. Because when
you're in real estate, really your work day and night. Yeah,
(44:01):
of course you know you work because you wake up
at night. I said, why the night by stupid I
didn't buy that building.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, we're excited about the next one, one of the
one of the two. We'll get on that one in
a moment. So one of the things that for me
in the when you've known each other in Africa three
years and I I'm always always admire your zestful life,
your your optimism, your enthusiasm. You're very positive in your outlook.
(44:31):
You seem to have a glass is how full and
you're incredibly optimistic. Where does that come from? I have the.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Feeling that the way it came for from is by
just coming to America. Yeah, because we don't have those
opportunities in our countries. So when I came here and
I and I saw the chance of how can you
buy a building and after thirty years is paid for
(45:02):
and then you can live off the rent. That doesn't
happen in any other country. And so basically then you know,
like working day and night, you see all these properties
come up for sale and I said, cheep, it will
not be great. That's such a good deal. And so
it kind of forces you when you are in the business.
(45:24):
It forces you how do you advance? How do you
do better? And that's what happened to me that you know,
it's like it's like once you get into this motion,
it's like you can't stop. Yeah, my wife has been
telling me for the last ten years, says, what the
hell are you doing buying another building? That's her line,
(45:48):
that was her line. And since she said that, I
bought over thirty properties in Napavada.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's incredible. So we've talked about a lot of successes
that you've had an incredible success in real estate purchases.
But obviously along the way there's a few things that
don't go right and you learn things from that. So
can you share some of the learning things where things
but perhaps Kevin quite the way you'd expected.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Several things that went wrong along the way. And when
you are in the real estate business, the main thing
that can go wrong is when the economy is not
And I recall like nineteen eighty one when I was
buying a property and the only financing that I could
(46:35):
get nine was twenty percent fixed for thirty years. I
signed a note for twenty percent with American savings Bagueto's days.
And so that is totally a struggle because you have
all these big payments not in off income. And in
(46:56):
a way, it's like it's happening today to number of
people that if they are over financed, suddenly you know,
a year and a half ago they were paying two
three percent interest and now they have to pay six
seven eight percent, and that cash flow can kill a
(47:17):
lot of people. And so and we went through several
recessions of the last many years, and you know there
is a recession every twenty years. Primarily that what goes
wrong in the business. None necessarily that you bought a
property and you lost your shirt. Very seldom about that,
(47:38):
because when I bought over the years, always tried to
buy value. And then when you are at a certain level,
even though you know the economy is bad and the
prices went down in value. But if you are not
overly leveraged, and you are you don't have to sell,
(47:59):
so you weigh it out and then times will take
care of.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
You kind of thing. Yeah, good advice, And obviously in
downtimes there are opportunities as well, which is pretty where
we are today.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Well, cash is king, and that's the challenge that to
get to be to be successful in a way if
you can be if you can identify times like we're
even like we are living today, they could be some
(48:33):
good deals in some markets, not like in Napa Valley.
Somehow the prices they did not go down, but if
you look at praises like the major cities including San Francisco,
those apartment buildings yes went down, so you can really
with cash, you can really pick up some really good deals.
(48:56):
And so those are the opportunities that you know that
you could have now at the stage in my life
and also with the advice of the children, you know,
it's like we are not interested to buy any more
apartment buildings because I kind of like what I happen
(49:18):
to be doing here in Napa Valley the last ten years,
and I'd rather invest here more and build more because
it's a different market and it could be very rewarding,
super rewarding because you know in Napa Valley, for instance,
(49:38):
any new buildings anywhere. So what happens is, in a
matter of two years, you take a property land value,
and if you are in a good location like Napa Valley,
you take this land two years ago, and two years
later you create Say you paid two million dollars for
(50:02):
that land, and you build a new house. All of
a sudden, there's new houses worth ten twelve million dollars,
And it's an incredible rewarding thing if you can control
the cost and know what to do when you're in
the business.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah, and it sounds like you have some incredible new opportunities.
You said that you didn't sleep last night because of
excitement about a couple of new things that are coming
up that you're working. Can you share some of these
things or is it too early too?
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I woke up at three thirty and I couldn't sleep anymore.
But because we had a meeting yesterday with the city
of San Lena that we owned some properties there, and
suddenly they are the city's approaching me now to build
housing and to build a hotel. And so it's super
exciting because these are projects that I never envisioned in
(50:54):
my life to do anything like this. I was just
buying a house for thirty thousand dollars. All of a sudden,
here we dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars in
properties that we can develop.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
It's so exciting, incredible when you when you consider way
you started and you came from, when you write, absolutely
incredible American.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
But what I'm doing also is the fact of getting
the kids involved what I do here, because you know,
I just started the action and then they take over.
I want to have fun. I don't want to be
busy every day, but.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
It sounds like you are busy every day. What I get? So,
what advice would you give now? I mean looking back
over your career, and what advice would you give to
young people starting out today? What would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (51:41):
First of all, I mean work hard. I mean America
is a great country, land of opportunity, without doubt, But
at the same time, nobody gives you anything for nothing.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
You've gotta go get it.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So if you work hard, you dedicate, and and you've
gotta be smart too, I mean, you gotta the opportunity
that they don't come to you, you gotta go get so.
But working hard, think what you do. And you know,
the American dream is still alive. It's here. And we
(52:19):
notice why we have so many people come wanted to
come to America. They are crushed in America. Everybody wants
to come in because of the opportunities that we have.
And it doesn't have to be opportunities like like you know,
fortunate that I had, but for some people, opportunities just
to come here and have a good job and a
great family and have a good life. Absolutely, that's you know,
(52:42):
how do you define success? Success is not that you
have a hundred properties you all success If you have
a beautiful family, you have a nice house, and you
and you enjoy balance your life every day, that's success
with less responsibilities. See at my position is great, but
(53:05):
at the same time, many times you cannot sleep at
night because you have too much going on.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
In a good way. I think also though, with the
excitement you have of things. So do you have a
philosophy or mindfulness practice or a faith or something like
that that you that guides you in your life.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Well, obviously be a Catholic. I think that's important. And
family is first, and you know we believe in God,
so then he's the one that's been guiding me basically
all along. Yeah, So that's basically what it is. The philosophy.
(53:46):
You know again, work hard, works smart. That's the key
you're never gonna make You're not gonna do excellent by
just working hard alone. That's not gonna do it. But
you got to work smart.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:01):
And I think, as I said, I think the American
dream is still alive and it's still here. The opportunities
are right there.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
Well, I think you are the embodiment of the American dream.
Your story is inspirational, it is incredible. I feel honored
to call you my friend. It's really a pleasure getting
to know you. And I want to thank you so
much for spending time with us with the podcast with
Switch Resorts. Thank you, Antonio Castilichi.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
James, thank you so much. It's a pleasure annoying you.
It's a pleasure to be your friend and looking forward
to many many more times together and just have fun
to get likewise, thank you so much, you.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
So much, Thank you. Stories like this are a window
into what makes the exclusive resorts community unlike any other,
filled with members who live with intention and travel without compromise.
With more than four hundred private residences and curated experiences
(55:03):
around the world. The club continues to redefine the art
of living well. Learn more at exclusivesorts dot com.
Never taken off for an answer. In other words, always
go for the deal. If they say not today, they
will say yes tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Welcome to a Life well Lived, where we pull back
the curtain on the extraordinary lives of our remarkable members.
I'm James Henderson, CEO of Exclusive Resorts. For me, travel
has never been about the destination. It's always been about
the company you keep. Over the years, I've crossed paths
with some of the world's most fascinating, well traveled individuals,
(00:44):
each bound by a singular pursuit to live not just well,
but exceptionally. Their stories aren't just worth telling, they're worth
learning from, because in the end, it's not about where
we go, but how we choose to live. Joining me
(01:10):
on today's episode is my good friend Antonio Castellucci, a
real estate investor, entrepreneur, and vintner whose journey embodies the
American dream. A long time It's Resorts member, Antonio has
built a remarkable career in real estate and more recently
made his mark in Napa Valley's wine scene. He joined
the club in two thousand and four, and I've had
(01:31):
the privilege of getting to know his story. A testament
ambition resilience and an eye for opportunity. Antonio, welcome. So
I'm sitting here today in the home of Antonio and
Riader Castellucci in their fantastic new home that they built
in Napa Valley, just near Yonville. Antonio and Reader have
been members for nineteen years Buscus Resorts, and Antonio has
(01:54):
an incredible story. He came to us back in the
early seventies with two hundred dollars in his pocket and
today owns over five hundred units and one hundred different developments,
which is incredible story and really is the American dream.
So I'll get onto that a little bit when we
go into that. But so my first question to you is,
so you were born in Calabria in Italy, and then
(02:15):
you immigrated to Buenos Aires when you were very young.
Both of these countries have strong cultures that are very
family orientated. How do you think that impacted your outlook
and your values? First of all, James, what a pleasure
to have you here today. Is a pleasure to know
you and your lovely wife since we met the last
(02:37):
three years I think three years, And thank you for
being here and ann Or first of all, to be
chosen to tell the story, because there are a lot
of stories out there. In mine is just you know,
like you mentioned, it's like the American dream kind of
a thing, and that's what I want to focus today,
(02:59):
to give.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The young generation that American dream that still is here.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
So when you were living in Buens Aires, your your
mother passed away, I think, and your uncle invited to
America and you arrived here two hundred dollars. So what
happened after that?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, So I was eight years old in nineteen fifty
seven when my family and I immigrated to Buenos Aires.
And the reason we went there is because we had
family on my mother's side that was there. And so
I lived there for thirteen years. And one of the
(03:43):
stories that I think is important to tell, especially the
young to the young generations today. So I was at
the age of nine, so I was in Argentina. I
went to school a day and started working the other
(04:04):
half to help the family because we were in a
new country, right, And so I lived there for thirteen years,
and it was a great run in Buenos Aires, especially
because I got into some music and it was so fun.
I took voice lessons, I guitar lessons and playing in
(04:29):
a group in Buenos Aires in nightclubs. So I was
that was the other dream kind of that was also
an American dream, really, and I had such a great time.
And my uncle was here in America, and he asked me,
would you like to come and visit me here? And
(04:51):
I said, sure, love to so, and I remember, so
nineteen seventy one, my father gave me two hundred others
and came to America and it came with a tourist
visa for three months. So when I came here, came
to San Jose first, and we suddenly, you know, I
(05:17):
don't know what, but immediately I saw how the opportunities
they were here were presented here, opportunities that we never
had in our old countries in Italy or Argentina. And
so I started liking it here. And so when the
(05:39):
three months was almost expiring, so my uncle hired a lawyer, said,
see if Antonio can stay, how he can stay legally.
And so the first thing that happened was we went
to visit schools just to see if there was an
opportunity to get a student visa, and that didn't work.
(06:04):
Then he tried to work visa that didn't work. So finally,
this wonderful lawyer said to me, you know, the only
way if you want to stay in America, my suggestion
is go to San Francisco and get lost.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Really, if you're.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Lost then you know. But I was afraid that if
my visa expired, I don't know what's going to happen
to me. Yeah, every time the doorbell rang as I
was hiding it back, hide in the closet. So it
was so pretty super interesting. Really wow, the pressure. Yes.
(06:49):
And so what happened after that is that with my uncle,
we went to visit relatives in San Francisco and we
went one day, we went to this home and there
was this nice lady and he said to me, you know,
you have to meet this girl from your hometown. And
(07:11):
somehow she made the connection, and I remember we I
went to North Beach and we met at the Saint
Peter's and Paul's church, and I met the family, Riata
and the family, and then we went to her flat
(07:31):
in North Beach and we spent an afternoon together and
somehow we you know, somehow we connected and and so
it's an incredible story because my mother in law that
we lost her also a long time ago. She fell
in love with me before that Riada did, and so
(07:55):
it's incredible that two weeks later, with their blessing, with
her parents blessing, we took the greyhound bus. I get
emotional when I tell the story, of course, and took
the grayhound bus and went to Reno and we got married.
(08:18):
So on the way to the chapel, as a reader,
don't we need a ring? How can we get married.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
With a ring?
Speaker 1 (08:25):
So we stopped at a jewelry store on the way there,
and we bought these two rings like this, Yes, these
rings that we paid ten dollars each.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So so we got married. Yeah, take the bus back
to San Francisco again. So I was going to stay
in their flat in North Beach. But when we got there,
my father in law said, Antonio, congratulations, here is your room,
(08:59):
and that's reader's room at the other end of the house.
Because in our culture, and back in those days in particular,
if you if you don't marry in church, you can't
be too good. It makes no sense. And so so
the first the arenal wedding was September sixteenth, and the
(09:23):
actual church wedding was December fifth, so we live. We
were married, separated in all time, in the same house.
It's a pretty incredible, amazing, amazing story really. And and
you know what then when you were young, I was
twenty two years old, you know, I said, what do
you mean, I'm married. I'm gonna stay with my wife.
(09:45):
But but I had so much respect for family that
I'm happy to say that I didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So it's an incredible gift to see a diamond in
the rough. What do you think that your mother in
law saw in you at that time? What was the
Sparks said.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, you know, we were from the same I didn't
even mention that yet. We were born in the same town.
And so Rita and I went to first and second
grade together.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
She came all the way around.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
The world, all around the world, and we met the
love of life that we met there. But and to
make it more interesting, yet, my mother's mother in law
maiden name was Castelluccio. So it's like Rita and I
were like distance cousins. Yeah, pretty amazing. And and I
think she fell in love with me because you know,
(10:36):
she knew my family because she was also in this
little town called Sansosti. In the southern part. And so
I think that because they saw the family and they
they met me, they knew my uncle, and I think
that kind of a package. And and you know, they
(10:56):
were in America for about three four years by then,
and they didn't know that, you know, all day ins and
out of American young men, young people, and here comes
this Italian guy, you know, and maybe I was good
looking too, Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Those days were and you're saying and you're saying and
all that, and I think that what did it?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And it's it's incredible that, you know, then family and
relatives and friends were saying, Antonio just got married to
stay in America, because see, if you married a resident,
then automatically you could stay. And so that was the thing,
(11:41):
is he just got married for the papers, you know.
And you know, we celebrate this year. We are going
to celebrate fifty two years of marriage.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Congratulations.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So incredible, very amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So your first job that you got, you were a
stock boy in an English clothing store, I think, and
they twas all right.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, it was yeah, two an hour and I didn't
even speak English. So I was in the in the
shipping and receiving downstairs. And I remember, but one thing
I have to say about the American people, how wonderful
they are.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And how.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
How they give you so many chances because you know,
they know that you're trying hard. And I remember one
instance where you know, they call my manager was from
the store manager was from New York, and they have
that difficult accent. I don't speak English, so that even
with that accent, much more difficult. And I remember one
(12:43):
day is that bring like fifty pairs of pants upstairs
and to the to the selling floor. And the problem
is I didn't know how to I'm sorry, I didn't understand.
Can you repeat? So instead of pants, I would bring
the fifty shirts. But the but the funny thing is
(13:03):
that you know, somehow they you know, they they saw
that I was trying, and I didn't get fired or anything.
They always they all were so helpful, really amazing and
uh and you know then I was going to English
classes in the evening at the International Institute in San
Francisco and Vanice Avenue, so I was working during the
(13:26):
day and learning English at night.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Did you have any idea at that time? Do you
think if you if you think yourself back to them,
did you have the vision of where you would ultimately
end up in a place like this, which is incredible
and having built such an incredible you know, business, and
and having such quite the journey, did you could you
envision that at that time as a stop boy in
(13:53):
uh in that story in San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Not at that time, but in the way I owd
to read the position that we are in today. And
part of the reason is because what could I do
in America? How can I advance? Before I started working
(14:17):
at the store, at the clothing store, and everybody was saying,
you know, he can go work in a restaurant in
North Beach. And so if that would happen, not only that,
I would not have learned English faster because there you
are involved with Italians with Spanish and you barely learn
(14:39):
the language really, And so how could I advance in
that in that type of business. Perhaps by today I
may have one or two or three restaurants, I don't know,
but never to the extent of what we have accomplished.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And so you took your property calls, you learned English,
you passed the first time, and then you went and
you bought your first property.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes, so after I received that the real estate license,
that it was a challenge because this you know, there's
always one man in your life that can make a difference.
So when I was in the store, working at the
clothing store, so a different manager asked me one day,
(15:28):
would you like to come to Anthony Schools of Real Estate?
And I didn't know what real estate meant. So I
go home. I find that buying and selling houses as
it just sounds interesting. So I said to him, love
to come, Let's go. So I go to that freak
(15:50):
one class. We went together, and I didn't understand the
word that we're talking about, because I mean I was
here in the country very short to your time and
with the real estate terminology. Imy, how do you understand that?
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
But what I understood was that I liked the idea
of the be involved in buying selling homes. And then
I said, you know, even if I don't understand what
it means, but if I can memorize all the questions
and the correct answer only, maybe there's a chance I
(16:27):
can pass the test. And so my date came. After
like five or six months, I got to the test
and I passed the first time. I couldn't believe it,
or I said, I I heard this real estate likens.
So after I had that license. So in the neighborhood
(16:48):
where I lived at that time, in the Richmond District,
there was a real estate office around the corner, and
so I went there and I said, you know, do
you need anybody here. You know, I love to work
in real estate in the evenings because I had a
full time job during the day, and said yes. They
hired me right away, and so I was working full
(17:11):
time during the day and then in the evening I
would go and I remember calling for listings, you know,
the typical thing you tried to get listings, you know,
holding open houses, And that's the way I started the
real estate business.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
So you then found your first property that you told
me mana.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Well the interesting thing. So I found the first property,
and as I mentioned, with the reader's money, so we
bought this pair of flats. And I remember there were
two beautiful flats in the Sunset district and each flood
was rented for two hundred and fifty dollars a month.
(17:55):
But I had no experience with tenants. There was one
article at tenant that was driving me crazy, you know,
read and I were going there in the once a
week in the in the evening, clean up the wholeways,
clean up the front property and all that. And this
lady was driving me crazy that I said, you know what,
(18:16):
I don't want to know and I don't want to
deal with it anymore. Let's sell the property. So we
sold the property. Now the most incredible thing. And I thought,
know who guided me? It must be the somebody upstairs
that guided me at that time, because after an experience
(18:36):
that you hated, you know, dealing with tenants, why would
you get involved in another property?
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So what I did I turned around and I bought
a four unit building.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
I mean, I.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Pretty amazing and so and I bought a four unit building.
We and we started managing it. We kept it for
a while and then this you'll appreciate it very much.
Were calling for listings in the evening and I was
getting a list in here and there, you know, and
(19:12):
a property that kind of that I liked, and it
didn't sell for like three months. I would go to
the seller and I said, would you sell it to
me for this much? And they did so. I bought
like three or four properties where I had the listing,
but I couldn't sell it, so I bought it at
(19:35):
a lower price and with like only like ten percent down,
which would be like four to five thousand dollars in
those days. And so I started accumulated properties even back then,
because when we were talking about buying a house in
those days, we were talking about like thirty five forty
(19:56):
five thousand dollars pero flats fifty sixty thousand. So uh,
and that's the way we started, really, that's the way
we started in business.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
And how did you So when you're looking for these properties,
what were you looking for? What was the what was
the specific thing that that would stand out to you
when you're buying properties?
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Well, in real estate, money in real estate is made
when you buy the real estate, not when you sell,
so which means that you have to buy value, location,
and potential. That's the way you buy.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So telling what about those things, value, location, and potential,
and how do you assess those three things? Well?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Location, her biggest house, how many square feet? What are
the comparables in their neighborhood? How much can you rent
it for if you fix it up? How much is
it worth if you renovated then you resell it? So
all those components take it goes into effect, and then
you know, in a way, I always looked at the
(21:03):
long term investment because one of the very beginning, when
I only owe like two houses, a pair of flats
in another house, I said, you know what if I
can buy seven or eight houses during my lifetime, right
(21:23):
after thirty years, the properties are paid for and I
can we can live off the rent. That was the
original intent of real estate investments, and it made sense
absolutely because at that time we were in the twenties.
So I said, gee, in the fifties, I can I
can have all this income and that's it. You know,
(21:43):
I can retire.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Here.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I am turning seventy five soon, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Still working like a dog. It's always interesting. You always
have the number of fan stending stories about properties that
you acquired on the journey. Tell me something.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Stories, Well, there are several of them. One related to
I worked in for closure sales and probate sales, and
one in particular for closure sale. I bought a property
in Sanoncelmo. And when you're buying foreclosure, you pay cash
(22:23):
at the steps of city hall, and I forgot to
call for insurance and somehow the owner got upset about
the sale and just burned the house down. And so
I got a call and said, sorry, mister Castelluccio house
which just went not beflamed. But I guess when I
(22:46):
bought it, I bought it a reasonable price that I
was able to resell basically the lot.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
For what I paid for the house.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So in the fact I didn't lose any money, but
I didn't make any money.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
But useful properties were you bought them at a great
price and then got loans and the loans written higher.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
One? In particular, I bought a property, a eight un
building in San Francisco, and we are talking about early eighties,
and I paid ninety two thousand dollars for it, and
it was such a great deal that I turned around
like three months later and the bank financed it and
(23:29):
gave me two hundred and seventy five thous So I
did have the eight unit, all the extra cash and everything,
and it's stially amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
So in the last ten years or so, you shifted
your attention to Napa and started buying properties in Napa Valley.
What was the attraction to Naper for you? What did
you see in this area where we are now.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well, the way we started. I bought my first property
in the Carneros area, which was still in Napa, and
we bought this house in nineteen eighty nine. So we've
been in the valley ever since. So nineteen eighty nine
(24:15):
and remodeled the house. And then so we remodeled the house,
we started using it. Then I met a wine maker
that was making wine out of his garage down the street,
and so he says to me, you know, you have
two acres here, so why don't you plant grapes and
(24:39):
I'll buy the fruit from meal. So all of a sudden,
all of a sudden, I was a wine business. But
it was not a business because actually it was more
for like family and friends. It was not a business
all the time. But what we did was we planted
two acres of barnecka and three quarters of pino noir
and chardonae. And so so three years later our first
(25:02):
vintage was nineteen ninety two pino noir. And so what
the deal that we made that he will take the
grapes and he would make for me two barrels of
pino noir every year and one barrel of chardonay. So
all of a sudden, I had like eighty cases of
(25:24):
wine a year for us and for friends. So you know,
it was such a great thing. You know, it was
such a.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Was that the start of the cast Lucci label for wine.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
No, it didn't start then because it was not my
label at that time. It only said Castellucci. But you know,
it was not really a business at that time. But
the caste Lucci label was born. Then if I can
go back to that property, So we started using that
(25:55):
property then. I remember we even bought a color like
Eldorado convertible. It was so fantastic, and we kept the
tiering Napa. So the kids were young, and so we
were traveling all over in Napa Valley back in the
early eighties and the late eighties. It was really fantastic.
And so then when the kids started going to school
(26:18):
to primarily like high school, and they said that we
don't there's nothing for us to do it now, but
we don't want to go there anymore. So we rented
the house for a while, and so then when they
they started being in the late twenties, then he said, Dad,
we want to go back to Napa Valley because they
(26:40):
started liking the wine, and they liked the you know,
the country and everything else, and so and we bought
The second property was in San Alena. We bought a
beautiful house and three acres. We put vineyards in. So
we had a great time. Really, that's the way we started. Now,
(27:02):
a couple of years after we bought that property, I
came up with this idea. I said, you know, I
don't think it's a good idea to diversify. We have
some properties in Marine County, a number of them in
San Francisco and South South Bay. But we were coming
(27:23):
here and I noticed that, and we were talking about
ten years ago where compared to San Francisco values or
other Marine and other values, I felt that it was
undervalue this valley, beautiful valley. And I said, how can
you buy a house and three acres for like a
(27:45):
million two? You know, that sounds pretty good to me.
And so I started buying properties here and I did
a number of ten thirty one exchanges that I sold
some property in San Francis Is Go and traded for
properties here. And in the last ten years it's amazing
(28:06):
that we accumulated over thirty properties here and some incredible property,
incredible some beautiful properties really, some wonderful estates, some commercial buildings,
some vacant land for developments, so all kinds of all
kinds of good things.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Really, and you started and this is this is one
of this building where now you are now here. This
is one of the first times you built from scratch.
Yes it is.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, I built new in San Francisco on one other
time a long time ago, but this is the first
one in a long.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
And this is incredible. Tell us about this home. It's
it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Well, it's pretty amazing because you know, we finished this
property in two years and we had done five acres
here and and you know we have over nine thousand
square feedal living space in three different structures, four car garage,
and an incredible outdoor. Man it is. And so you know,
(29:03):
found a good architect he's from southern California, and found
an amazing contractor that I love to keep on doing
business with. And so we started this journey and amazing
I was involved living in Marine, I was coming here
and amazing, and you know, we are so proud of
(29:26):
what we have a compress because you know, it's like
that's the first house I was built here. And it's
pretty amazing place. And not only that that we are
so lucky that we have other properties that now I'm
so excited about building more homes like this, you know,
because there is a demand for new homes, new houses,
(29:50):
and they're an amazing location Oakvale and sant Alina and
Young Vale and stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's an amazing, amazing property. So family clearly pays an
important role in your business and everyone is really considered
part of the of the of the family. How does
this sense of family contribute to your success do you think?
And Maria is involved as Angela Marco, how does you
how do you sort of think of that in terms
(30:19):
of contributing your success as a family.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Well, first of all, I mean behind a successful man,
there has to be an amazing wife. That's number one.
And with her support, it was incredible we were able
to you know, as a family. And and and that's
a great question, James, because when we lived in San
Rafell for the number of years and I was working
(30:43):
during the day, the beauty is about real estate and
the reason that I liked it very much was because
I was every night, I was at home for dinner
prior to the kids going to bed, So that was important.
And then another major decision that I made, and it's
been for many years, like I'm talking about maybe forty
(31:07):
years ago, I made a decision I'm not going to
work on weekends, so I only worked Monday through through Friday.
That said, and because I was involved more in not
necessarily in homes, I kind of graduated into mixed use
buildings and apartment buildings and normally they don't have like
(31:29):
open houses in those properties. So in a way, it
made it easy to take that time off, and it
really worked out very well because then you know, you're
with the family, and that's the key I think, you know,
and if I'm I ad as well. So when the
kids were young, and they were in high school already,
(31:53):
so I asked the question at the dinner table and
I said, guys, you know, this is what I do.
I tried to in a way pushing them to get
into the business, but without pushing them, just technically kind
of thing. So and I said, I explained that this
(32:14):
what I this is what I do for a living.
If you have any interest to come into the business,
we can get bigger. But if you don't, then I
want to get smaller. And you know what, then they
decided to come into the business. And my youngest daughter, Angela,
for instance, when she went and started college, then she
(32:40):
went to work for an interior designer firm. And I said, Angela,
go work there for for a year for free, so
that you can learn what they do about interior designer,
because this is what we do. We remodel apartments, homes
and stuff like that. And so that what she did.
She worked for free for a year. She learned so
(33:02):
much and then finished college and stepped into the business.
And now you know, she manages all our real estate
in San Francisco, and she does all the buying of
the materials and when we do a renovation, and she's
doing an amazing Jebruary.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
And Maria is running properties in that righting.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Maria runs moved up about about eight years ago now
and she runs sold the real estate here now in
Napa Vardi, but also overseas San Francisco, because it's sizable
what we own over there.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
And so you told me once when when the kids
were young, used to have these little phrases that you
put on the on the mirror in the in the bathroom.
And I'd love to hear you talk a bit about
those and tell me what they they said inspiration quotes
or something.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
That I brought it down just to make sure that
I remember. And so there were four phrases. So what
I did, I said, you know what, what can I
How can I inspire these kids to be good kids
and to be business oriented and stuff? And so I
printed and I pasted at their bathroom mirror that they
(34:14):
would see it every morning when they got up. And
he said number one always whatever you do, give one
hundred and ten percent. You know, it's so important that
people notice that you put in an effort to be successful.
Another number two was nothing is a problem. So in
(34:37):
otherwise there is no problem that cannot be solved. So
and in fact, you know, they use that so much
that when we when we are together and I mentioned
something about the business, that that's not a problem. It's
kind of finding. Always smile because I think that when
(34:58):
you look you're smiling, that when you a smile and
you feel better and the person that it was with
you feels better as well. And the final thing was
never taken off for an answer, you know, there was
always go for the deal. If if they say no
today they will say yes tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
These are great, great sayings. I mean, I think we
have a lot of families ex results and I think
a lot a lot of those things really resonate. And
clearly they've done well. I mean that they're all evolded
very well and it's fun to seem involvement in the
in the business. So going back a little bit too,
to the wine business. So you have the Castlergi wine
brand too, and I think Marco and Marie are involved
(35:42):
in in running that. And so the wine making a
tradition goes way back in your family, back to your
grandfather Luigi that my father actually are you fine?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yes, yes, yes, and I and you know, part of
the part of the reason that we ended up in
Upper Valley because back in those days, you know, we
were looking for a second home and when the kids
were little, and the question was where do we want
to go? We want to go to you know that
time late tack was always popular. And then I readA
(36:13):
says that's not going to work these kids. How are
these kids are going to be in the car for
four hours? Yeah, but then I remember that my father
was making wine. In Italy, most everybody was making.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
A little wine, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
But what I recalled mostly that you know during harvest,
is where you he would pick me up and put
me in this half barrel and stump those grades. Yeah,
you know today here they do it for it's a novelty,
you know, yes, and so but I remember that, and
I said, gee, wasn't we looking in Naples? And you know?
(36:49):
And and we ended up here and somehow we found
the first property, and that's the way it started.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
How did we then ended up making wine as a business.
And the reason it happens is by accident because I
bought these properties that many of them have vineyards, and
so I said, gee, we have the vineyards already, why
don't we make some wine. And we found this amazing
wine maker and we started making wine again as a business.
(37:22):
In Our first vintage was twenty twelve and we've been
making wine ever since. And it's successful. It's wonderful. It's
great wine. You tried it, great wine, some wonderful Cabonet
from Spring Mountain, Cavernade from Ratherford, Merlovs from San Alina,
(37:44):
and it's been great. I mean, probably you don't make
any money in the wine business, but the money is
made in the real estate, but the wine business also.
It's like heating up a valley brings.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
People together, exact.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
That's what's beautiful about, you know, being able to participate
in this business.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
So let me talk about arts and music. These are
both important parts of your life. You've been playing guitar
and singing for an early age. And I think you
said I used to sing in the events and in
clubs and things in Buenos Aires, is there right?
Speaker 1 (38:20):
That's correct, yes, And you know I did that, and
then when I came to America, I got to I
had to be serious and instead of working and forget
about the music. But then about twelve years ago, you know,
I was invited to join the board of festival in
Apa Valley. Right, some friends you know, connected us with
(38:43):
this organization, which is it was young at that time,
and I decided to join this this board because of
what we do is something very special, that spectacular for Napavalle.
It's one of the it turned out to be.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Now we have an amazing board of over twenty twenty
members and all wine, wine makers and winery owners, I
mean amazing people and and and how wonderful is this
country about the fact that they had so much generosity
here and and primarily what we do with that is
(39:27):
we support, We do fundraising to a certain extent, but
we also do amazing dinners and music that very enjoyable.
It is one of the best festival in the United States.
But the main goal is that we we help economically
to public schools, private schools, art and music education and
(39:52):
there were We are really generous and give and quite
a bit of money away every year.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, it's it's incredible cause obviously to spend the last
couple of years of excess results and we've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
You are very welcome. It's it's a great cause. We
love being in part of it. Arts clearly follows in
the family. Maria recently published a book which she must
be very proud of. We have it. We have it
done here somewhere, so so tell you a little about that.
You must be proud of Vian in Paris. It's cool
she just published it. It's was released I think a
couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Isn't it only about a month ago? Yes?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
And this was a lifelong dream of hers, wasn't it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Well, I'll tell you that the interesting part of it
that we only read. And I, my wife and I
we only found out that Maria was writing this book
about a month before publication. She kept that secret. She
never told me that she was writing a book. All
(40:52):
of a sudden, she creates this amazing book that is
so well received, beautiful, and it's so beautiful and and
you on now she has so much support, but you
have to keep on writing. And so she claims that
she wants to do one book for each child. So
she has four kids, so she's got three more books coming.
(41:14):
And in fact, she told me now that she's working
on her next and it's I think it's going to
be Sophia in Rome.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Fantastic.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
So they're going to take a trip to Rome and
together and create another amazing book that that's beautiful reader.
It's super proud read. And I we are super proud
because I have no idea that she was so touchmented.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Be usifly done it really is, and that the words
and the illustrations are.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Really really beautiful illustrations and the content. I mean, it's
pretty nice to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So travel clearly has been something that's been important to
you is throughout your life. Tell me a little bit
about that. How have you sort of managed to maintain
work life balance?
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Well, there were Exclusive Results coming to play, right. I
was working very hard, especially the first fifteen years, twenty years,
and in about nineteen years ago I found out about
(42:23):
Exclusive Results and I said, Exclusive Results? Now, how did
we join Exclusive Results? It was also very interesting. The
payment at that time was quite quite substantial. It was
two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars nineteen years. Nineteen
(42:44):
years is a lot of money, and so and how
did we join? I didn't have two hundred and seventy
nine thousand spare to just buy Exclusive Results.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
So but.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Read that inherited part out of the building from her
parents that had passed away, and we used those funds.
We said, you know what, why don't we honor them
instead of just buying another building, Why don't we do
something special that they will be proud of us. And
(43:19):
that's why Exclusive Results came into place. So and then
I was working so hard at that time, and then
we said, you know what if I joined Exclusive resorts?
And I was brave for sixty days. Back in those days,
and at that time was use it or lose it,
So you have to travel. It was you lose to days,
(43:40):
and so we joined and we traveled sixty days a
year for a number of years. Because that forced me
to take vacations and kind of balance your life better
instead of instead of just working the night. Because when
you're in real estate, really your work day and night. Yeah,
(44:01):
of course you know you work because you wake up
at night. I said, why the night by stupid I
didn't buy that building.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, we're excited about the next one, one of the
one of the two. We'll get on that one in
a moment. So one of the things that for me
in the when you've known each other in Africa three
years and I I'm always always admire your zestful life,
your your optimism, your enthusiasm. You're very positive in your outlook.
(44:31):
You seem to have a glass is how full and
you're incredibly optimistic. Where does that come from? I have the.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Feeling that the way it came for from is by
just coming to America. Yeah, because we don't have those
opportunities in our countries. So when I came here and
I and I saw the chance of how can you
buy a building and after thirty years is paid for
(45:02):
and then you can live off the rent. That doesn't
happen in any other country. And so basically then you know,
like working day and night, you see all these properties
come up for sale and I said, cheep, it will
not be great. That's such a good deal. And so
it kind of forces you when you are in the business.
(45:24):
It forces you how do you advance? How do you
do better? And that's what happened to me that you know,
it's like it's like once you get into this motion,
it's like you can't stop. Yeah, my wife has been
telling me for the last ten years, says, what the
hell are you doing buying another building? That's her line,
(45:48):
that was her line. And since she said that, I
bought over thirty properties in Napavada.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
That's incredible. So we've talked about a lot of successes
that you've had an incredible success in real estate purchases.
But obviously along the way there's a few things that
don't go right and you learn things from that. So
can you share some of the learning things where things
but perhaps Kevin quite the way you'd expected.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Several things that went wrong along the way. And when
you are in the real estate business, the main thing
that can go wrong is when the economy is not
And I recall like nineteen eighty one when I was
buying a property and the only financing that I could
(46:35):
get nine was twenty percent fixed for thirty years. I
signed a note for twenty percent with American savings Bagueto's days.
And so that is totally a struggle because you have
all these big payments not in off income. And in
(46:56):
a way, it's like it's happening today to number of
people that if they are over financed, suddenly you know,
a year and a half ago they were paying two
three percent interest and now they have to pay six
seven eight percent, and that cash flow can kill a
(47:17):
lot of people. And so and we went through several
recessions of the last many years, and you know there
is a recession every twenty years. Primarily that what goes
wrong in the business. None necessarily that you bought a
property and you lost your shirt. Very seldom about that,
(47:38):
because when I bought over the years, always tried to
buy value. And then when you are at a certain level,
even though you know the economy is bad and the
prices went down in value. But if you are not
overly leveraged, and you are you don't have to sell,
(47:59):
so you weigh it out and then times will take
care of.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
You kind of thing. Yeah, good advice, And obviously in
downtimes there are opportunities as well, which is pretty where
we are today.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Well, cash is king, and that's the challenge that to
get to be to be successful in a way if
you can be if you can identify times like we're
even like we are living today, they could be some
(48:33):
good deals in some markets, not like in Napa Valley.
Somehow the prices they did not go down, but if
you look at praises like the major cities including San Francisco,
those apartment buildings yes went down, so you can really
with cash, you can really pick up some really good deals.
(48:56):
And so those are the opportunities that you know that
you could have now at the stage in my life
and also with the advice of the children, you know,
it's like we are not interested to buy any more
apartment buildings because I kind of like what I happen
(49:18):
to be doing here in Napa Valley the last ten years,
and I'd rather invest here more and build more because
it's a different market and it could be very rewarding,
super rewarding because you know in Napa Valley, for instance,
(49:38):
any new buildings anywhere. So what happens is, in a
matter of two years, you take a property land value,
and if you are in a good location like Napa Valley,
you take this land two years ago, and two years
later you create Say you paid two million dollars for
(50:02):
that land, and you build a new house. All of
a sudden, there's new houses worth ten twelve million dollars,
And it's an incredible rewarding thing if you can control
the cost and know what to do when you're in
the business.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah, and it sounds like you have some incredible new opportunities.
You said that you didn't sleep last night because of
excitement about a couple of new things that are coming
up that you're working. Can you share some of these
things or is it too early too?
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I woke up at three thirty and I couldn't sleep anymore.
But because we had a meeting yesterday with the city
of San Lena that we owned some properties there, and
suddenly they are the city's approaching me now to build
housing and to build a hotel. And so it's super
exciting because these are projects that I never envisioned in
(50:54):
my life to do anything like this. I was just
buying a house for thirty thousand dollars. All of a sudden,
here we dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars in
properties that we can develop.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
It's so exciting, incredible when you when you consider way
you started and you came from, when you write, absolutely
incredible American.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
But what I'm doing also is the fact of getting
the kids involved what I do here, because you know,
I just started the action and then they take over.
I want to have fun. I don't want to be
busy every day, but.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
It sounds like you are busy every day. What I get? So,
what advice would you give now? I mean looking back
over your career, and what advice would you give to
young people starting out today? What would you tell them?
Speaker 1 (51:41):
First of all, I mean work hard. I mean America
is a great country, land of opportunity, without doubt, But
at the same time, nobody gives you anything for nothing.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
You've gotta go get it.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So if you work hard, you dedicate, and and you've
gotta be smart too, I mean, you gotta the opportunity
that they don't come to you, you gotta go get so.
But working hard, think what you do. And you know,
the American dream is still alive. It's here. And we
(52:19):
notice why we have so many people come wanted to
come to America. They are crushed in America. Everybody wants
to come in because of the opportunities that we have.
And it doesn't have to be opportunities like like you know,
fortunate that I had, but for some people, opportunities just
to come here and have a good job and a
great family and have a good life. Absolutely, that's you know,
(52:42):
how do you define success? Success is not that you
have a hundred properties you all success If you have
a beautiful family, you have a nice house, and you
and you enjoy balance your life every day, that's success
with less responsibilities. See at my position is great, but
(53:05):
at the same time, many times you cannot sleep at
night because you have too much going on.
Speaker 2 (53:12):
In a good way. I think also though, with the
excitement you have of things. So do you have a
philosophy or mindfulness practice or a faith or something like
that that you that guides you in your life.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
Well, obviously be a Catholic. I think that's important. And
family is first, and you know we believe in God,
so then he's the one that's been guiding me basically
all along. Yeah, So that's basically what it is. The philosophy.
(53:46):
You know again, work hard, works smart. That's the key
you're never gonna make You're not gonna do excellent by
just working hard alone. That's not gonna do it. But
you got to work smart.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:01):
And I think, as I said, I think the American
dream is still alive and it's still here. The opportunities
are right there.
Speaker 2 (54:11):
Well, I think you are the embodiment of the American dream.
Your story is inspirational, it is incredible. I feel honored
to call you my friend. It's really a pleasure getting
to know you. And I want to thank you so
much for spending time with us with the podcast with
Switch Resorts. Thank you, Antonio Castilichi.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
James, thank you so much. It's a pleasure annoying you.
It's a pleasure to be your friend and looking forward
to many many more times together and just have fun
to get likewise, thank you so much, you.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
So much, Thank you. Stories like this are a window
into what makes the exclusive resorts community unlike any other,
filled with members who live with intention and travel without compromise.
With more than four hundred private residences and curated experiences
(55:03):
around the world. The club continues to redefine the art
of living well. Learn more at exclusivesorts dot com.
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