Guy Fieri: Begging my agents to let me build a cigar brand

my agents come over and they said hey congratulations you this is it everybody's standing there I said what do you want to do next and I said can I have the cigar coming in so you were talking about everything that you guys manage um explain if you don't mind all the different verticals of your business so anything that I that I like I want to go do and like I want to I love blacksmithing I've never really blacksmithed but I love making stuff with my hands and I love knives I love equipment I love tools so I always wanted to do it my uncle was a blacksmith guy is kind of like an uncle I always wanted to do it so I built a lexith shop and made my own knives we still do I don't do it as much I that's one thing I've got a problem with I haven't figured out time yet if I can get I want to change it to 385 days a year 27 hours a day nine days a week if we could do that boy I could really fly I could really get some stuff done I haven't figured that part out yet um like leap year that's like my favorite year you know get the extra day um so no so you know big into foods of course anything has to do with food so barbecue sauce we started with that years ago now we have a whole line of sauces finally the famous donkey sauce got put in a bottle we have this great partnership with Lighthouse I have great Partnerships Partnerships to me are one of the greatest things because you don't have to be the greatest yourself at doing it there's no reason to reinvent the wheel you just go find who the best is you go find the best and then you partner up with them and what made you decide that at some point early on you wanted to go down kind of the licensing model well there's difference between licensing licensing is uh you want to put my name on it go ahead that's what I think of Licensing me I'm a partner I believe in it's the same thing with my restaurants I get my money right off the top but that restaurant has to do good has to do great right for that relationship to be a true relationship like I have to put in my skin My Blood Sweat and Tears to make it work so I am worried about the bottom I'm worried about the bottom line I'm worried about the labor I'm worried about the food cost I'm worried about all these things call it licensing or whatever you call you would not have uh as many Partnerships globally as you have if they weren't working out well right there's a difference between stamping Your Name some on something and really going to I mean I'm down to what does the label say I'm down to every graphic I'm down to what's the packaging I'm down to what's the average I mean I'm I'm every single every single thing that I'm associated with has my name on it has to be treated as if I own it doesn't mean that it all has to that the buck stops with me it does actually but it's not like everybody marches to my order I'm willing like this team with Lighthouse for instance or the team with two Roads Brewing you have some really amazing Partnerships you go find the best people and the best the people that are the best of what they do and you bring what you're great at and hopefully the collaboration comes together and you make awesome products and so we have that with I mean just such a wide variety of of Partners but I really just sought out it's like cigars for instance I love I'm a cigar guy always have been a cigar guy um my grandfather smoked cigars when I was a kid and I just loved the smell so when I first started you know getting in TV and so forth my agents ask they ask like what is your dreams kind of like I said wish I would we' do that with kids in school like what do you dream of what do you want to be so I said to my agents early on I want to have my own cigars no no no it's not a good idea I said why smoke smoking I said yeah but it's not like smoking cigarettes cigar is a different thing you don't have yeah I said I I don't sub I don't subscribe time goes on time goes on every year we had the same Summit meeting cigars not so I would get my star in Hollywood that's the tattoo right there the 19th May 22nd and I I got the notice of the star was right when my dad was diagnosed with cancer so I was just praying my dad was going to be there little did we know he was going to live so long but I'm petrified my dad's not going to be there he was it was the greatest day they said where do you want to have your lunch and after you your star I said luncheon I said I want stink I don't want any luncheon I said I want a rager I want a thousand fans and a keger and I want mle crew to play and like that's so funny I said no that's what I want get back to me and said that's not how it goes I said I'll pay for it myself I want a rager I'm getting a star I'm a cook okay I used to drive up down Hollywood Boulevard going to the restaurants that I managed there's no way I was ever going to have one I didn't people say is this a dream come true I said I couldn't even have dreamed this so I said I want to party so anyhow it turns out Food Network throws me the coolest cross Mulan Rouge I mean there's jugglers and people on trap pezes and red velvet couches and just I mean it is next level and Foreigner comes to do an acoustic set Kelly Hansen's Kelly's there he kind of made that all work so I'm standing there I got Jules in one arm my nephew hunter in the other arm forer's playing standing in the rain just starts to drizzle and I mean I'm having this out of- Body Experience I'm tripping so it stops raining B and my agents come over and they said hey congratulations you this is it everybody's standing there I said what do you want to do next and I said can I have the cigar everybody's like Jesus yeah whatever all right enough already so I went and sought out I spent the next couple years researching who I wanted to do business with and I found this guy Eric Espinosa who's an amazing he's like a cigar Obi-Wan Kenobi and uh we started this so no it's I go after things that I have passion for I love tequila partnered with my good friend and Mentor Sammy Hagar love wine partnered with a great guy name guy Davis who's our wine maker um just anything that I have an interest in I usually try to seek out and accomplish