Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcasts featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today's episode
Speaker 1: offers a rare opportunity to bring microphones into the marble
Speaker 1: covered halls of CIA. My Variety colleague Katsey Stephan and
Speaker 1: I talked to not one, not two, but six senior
Speaker 1: CIA agents about the state of the industry and the
Speaker 1: state of their agency. These half dozen ten percenters, to
Speaker 1: use Variety slanguage for talent agents, represent disciplines across the agency.
Speaker 1: They are stars in their fields, and they all happen
Speaker 1: to be women. The idea for this conversation started months
Speaker 1: ago with my interest in looking at how the purchase
Speaker 1: of ICM Partners has changed CIA. That's seven hundre earned
Speaker 1: fifty million dollar deal was completed three years ago. Next month.
Speaker 1: It's CIA's largest ever acquisition. In twenty twenty three, CIA
Speaker 1: itself saw majority ownership change hands from private equity giant
Speaker 1: TPG to French business mogul Francois Henri Finnelt and his
Speaker 1: Artemis Holding Company. In the last few years, CIA has
Speaker 1: taken steps to show that it is nurturing a next
Speaker 1: generation of agency leaders. It has assembled internal boards and
Speaker 1: leadership structures designed to expand the scope of its decision makers.
Speaker 1: This comes as CIA has faced some outside criticism and
Speaker 1: some notable defections amid the perception that there's a ceiling
Speaker 1: for high achievers at the agency. Like other large agencies
Speaker 1: and studios, CIA has also historically had a big gender
Speaker 1: gap at the top that is changing and that is
Speaker 1: illustrated by the composition of our roundtable. We recorded this
Speaker 1: on April fifteenth, sitting across from one another on couches
Speaker 1: in a COZYCIA meeting room. Our panelists are familiar names
Speaker 1: to industry insiders. I'll let them quickly introduce themselves.
Speaker 2: Tiffany Ward, Jennifer.
Speaker 3: Joel, Litha Joseph Mattelis.
Speaker 4: Maha Dakiel, Urlita Fowler, Lara Sackett.
Speaker 1: Tiffany Ward is CIA Managing Director and scripted television agent.
Speaker 1: Jennifer Joel is a literary agent and co head of
Speaker 1: CIA Books. Lisa Joseph Mettelis is a member of the
Speaker 1: CIA Board and head of Athlete Brand Strategy and Entertainment
Speaker 1: at CIA. Sports. Maha Dakiel is CIA Managing director and
Speaker 1: motion picture agent, Ourlita Fowler is a digital media agent
Speaker 1: and head of Digital Media Lifestyle Talent, and Lara Sackett
Speaker 1: is co head of the Production Department. Women have a
Speaker 1: lot to say about agenty, the entertainment economy, the rise
Speaker 1: of social media creators, and the privilege of working with artists.
Speaker 1: Our free wheeling conversation is coming up after this break
Speaker 1: and we're back. Here comes our lively conversation with six
Speaker 1: top CIA agents.
Speaker 5: Tiffany Ward, Jennifer.
Speaker 3: Joel, Lisa Joseph Mattulis.
Speaker 4: Maha Dakiel, Urlita Fowler, Lara Sackett.
Speaker 2: Thank you all so much for joining me and my
Speaker 2: coworker Katsi Stepan, who covers the talent agency business for us.
Speaker 2: We are really appreciative. This is a rare opportunity to
Speaker 2: speak with six senior leaders. We all know the beats
Speaker 2: that the business has really gone through in the last
Speaker 2: couple of years. The pandemic that strikes been a lot
Speaker 2: of change, a lot of contraction, a lot of consolidation
Speaker 2: in the business. See itself had quite a transformative event
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago in purchasing ICM, and so
Speaker 2: it's a great opportunity for us to talk about where
Speaker 2: the agency is, where you see the marketplace going.
Speaker 4: What is great about this place in particular is it
Speaker 4: was never perfect. Nothing ever is. But what it always
Speaker 4: was from the day I got here and continues to
Speaker 4: be is it's fertile ground for change, and the people
Speaker 4: here can be the drivers of the change.
Speaker 6: You don't hit walls here, you know, and when we
Speaker 6: do come together. And that's what was so great about
Speaker 6: that first early board that spawned this newer board, that
Speaker 6: there was a recognition at a certain point that three
Speaker 6: or four people could not run this company alone. An
Speaker 6: operations committee, as you guys have noticed, has been put
Speaker 6: in place in the last several years. When I came here,
Speaker 6: you know, expenses were run by one guy. You would go,
Speaker 6: it is super nice to him, And that's not how
Speaker 6: it's run anymore.
Speaker 7: I came to CIA as part of the ICM acquisition,
Speaker 7: and so that was in the middle of the pandemic.
Speaker 7: So my initial introduction to the motion picture meeting was
Speaker 7: on zoom. So it was just all of these little
Speaker 7: squares of everybody's face. And it wasn't just when you
Speaker 7: were talking about having a voice. Everybody had a voice,
Speaker 7: you know, I was seeing a screen of everybody's sort
Speaker 7: of equal part in the process, as opposed to sort
Speaker 7: of sitting in a room where somebody's at the front
Speaker 7: there speaking, everybody else is listening. And then so that
Speaker 7: was my introduction to the way that that meeting was
Speaker 7: run and the way that people communicated with one another.
Speaker 7: And then when Zoom came to an end and we
Speaker 7: were in person, to then see the translation of that
Speaker 7: Zoom meeting to an in person experience where it's very
Speaker 7: much the same. You know, we're sitting around a table
Speaker 7: and as many people as can fit in a room,
Speaker 7: but it's never just one person speaking.
Speaker 8: I think we really benefited from the integration with ICM
Speaker 8: because I think that even though as has been referenced
Speaker 8: many times, we have a great value system of taking
Speaker 8: care of each other, we have a great value system
Speaker 8: of working in teams which usually include people from different experiences,
Speaker 8: which makes the work better and I think a better
Speaker 8: experience for the clients. We are as well as said,
Speaker 8: we're perfect, and we're curious about always evolving and getting better,
Speaker 8: and sometimes the best way to do that is to
Speaker 8: be confronted with a different way of working.
Speaker 1: Here, Katsay steers the conversation to talking about social media
Speaker 1: and the opportunities it creates for artists and how that
Speaker 1: impacts agenting.
Speaker 9: Well, I'm so curious how the current state of the
Speaker 9: creator economy and how that's factoring into your everyday at TAA,
Speaker 9: and also how you view in the scope of the
Speaker 9: entire entertainment industry, the creator economy.
Speaker 10: The digital industry as a whole is something that it
Speaker 10: has been an industry that's been evolving, like literally, it
Speaker 10: feels like every two years sort of the rules change.
Speaker 10: But I've found that it's always been incredibly exciting. I
Speaker 10: think the world between creators who have their digital ecosystem,
Speaker 10: their online community, and the world of traditional Hollywood has
Speaker 10: been coming closer and closer together. Our point of view
Speaker 10: has always been like, we're signing and working with the
Speaker 10: best creators, artists, taste makers, and our position has always
Speaker 10: been to like connect them to the broader agency. So
Speaker 10: for CIA works a bit different than other places because
Speaker 10: as a client of the agency, you have a team,
Speaker 10: and you have a team from different disciplines, and so
Speaker 10: when I think about someone like Eliza Koshi who and
Speaker 10: we signed her. We signed her off of Vine because
Speaker 10: we saw how incredibly talented, funny sharp she was, right
Speaker 10: and she's doing the short form content, and then we
Speaker 10: really helped her expand and grow within the entertainment industry.
Speaker 10: So she just wrapped a film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I
Speaker 10: think her agent team now has like fourteen people on
Speaker 10: it across the agency, and she's doing everything from films, television, endorsements,
Speaker 10: all while also monetizing her platform. Right now, what we're
Speaker 10: seeing is that a lot of incredible IP is being
Speaker 10: generated from the YouTube community. So when you think about
Speaker 10: late night television right now, if you want to launch
Speaker 10: a film, a TV show, an album, you're going to
Speaker 10: go on Chicken Shop Date, right Amelia de Moldenburg as
Speaker 10: a client of ours, or you're going to go on
Speaker 10: to Hot Ones, right. And so that's been incredible. We've
Speaker 10: also been seeing clients who've been focused on actually creating studios.
Speaker 10: So we represent someone by the name of Darman and
Speaker 10: he creates scripted content on his YouTube.
Speaker 11: I'm a big d okay, So.
Speaker 10: Dar you know, he has his own studio now, right,
Speaker 10: and we've been helping him to expand his businesses both
Speaker 10: like online right but also in other areas, and so
Speaker 10: I've really been excited for what's happening right now.
Speaker 2: Social media has been a game changer for athletes in
Speaker 2: terms of building businesses, building brands. Can you talk about
Speaker 2: how much or how little you have integrated social media
Speaker 2: and what they can do in that channel where they
Speaker 2: can talk directly to fans.
Speaker 3: It's been an interesting ride because athletes are now viewed
Speaker 3: as content creators as well. I think when social first
Speaker 3: came out, no one knew what it was or where
Speaker 3: it could lead. But what it did was create non
Speaker 3: traditional media platforms and really put the narrative in athletes hands,
Speaker 3: where before you would have to get that through traditional
Speaker 3: media outlet and so or understanding a player's mindset after
Speaker 3: a game, after a big loss or after a big win,
Speaker 3: or what are they like you always what happens next?
Speaker 3: Well you see what happens next in real time because
Speaker 3: they're posting about it. And so I think there was
Speaker 3: a little bit of fear at the beginning when it
Speaker 3: came to social media because it's like, okay, it's like
Speaker 3: kind of like the wild, wild West, And I think
Speaker 3: there were like important lessons to be learned about what
Speaker 3: should be shared and how should be shared, some hard
Speaker 3: lessons for athletes.
Speaker 2: And maybe not every waking thought, not everything.
Speaker 3: We don't need to know everything that you're thinking. So
Speaker 3: there was some hard lessons to be learned, and I
Speaker 3: think as an agency, you know, we had to. It
Speaker 3: wasn't a question or thought of being involved, because part
Speaker 3: of us is protecting the athlete and educating them in
Speaker 3: the process. And so I think over the last few
Speaker 3: years you've seen a big shift in that where athletes
Speaker 3: are starting to understand that they have a direct connection
Speaker 3: to their fans. How can they tell their stories best,
Speaker 3: how they can capture the headlines. Athletes aren't going to
Speaker 3: traditional outlets anymore. They're breaking the news on their own.
Speaker 3: We don't need a press release.
Speaker 2: I can just show this, you know.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of like it's been really really disruptive,
Speaker 3: and even through that, athletes now want to be the
Speaker 3: content creators they want. You know, we signed Jesser, who
Speaker 3: is a huge YouTube so I don't even want to
Speaker 3: like put him in that box of just like a YouTuber,
Speaker 3: but like he's built an incredible platform around his love
Speaker 3: of the game and his love of basketball, and to
Speaker 3: see our star athletes wanting to go hang out with
Speaker 3: Jesser it's like you all are. He wants to be you,
Speaker 3: you want to be him. So how do we like
Speaker 3: pair the two up and make it a win win?
Speaker 3: So it's been really interesting and I think for us,
Speaker 3: we're going to see a lot more. I think athletes
Speaker 3: have realized and recognized their power and recognized that they
Speaker 3: have incredible stories to tell. So whether it's on social
Speaker 3: or whether it's through building their own production companies and
Speaker 3: media empires, it's no longer just an athlete and what
Speaker 3: they do on the court. But I think in every
Speaker 3: scenario here, whether they're writing a New York Times bestseller
Speaker 3: or being part of being part of a production team
Speaker 3: or eping a film, they're touching so many different lanes
Speaker 3: and so many verticals. So they are a true multi
Speaker 3: hyphen it of talent in all areas and they I
Speaker 3: think they've awakened to their power and they own that now.
Speaker 11: And also I think to the social point, you know,
Speaker 11: we've heard some you know, some artists today have said, Oh,
Speaker 11: when I'm auditioning for something, they ask me how many
Speaker 11: followers I have on social media. I'm curious for those
Speaker 11: of you who are you know more on the TV
Speaker 11: and film side, how much is that something that you're
Speaker 11: paying attention to when you're going into a deal making
Speaker 11: process a client's social following who isn't necessarily in the
Speaker 11: creator economy.
Speaker 10: Early on, it was a little more prevalent because studios
Speaker 10: thinking about casting creators almost as it's done as a
Speaker 10: and have it be a part of their marketing plan.
Speaker 10: But in recent years that's not the biggest factor anymore,
Speaker 10: right I also because a big part of what we're
Speaker 10: seeing is that if you are on a hitshel if
Speaker 10: you're on a hit show on Netflix, you can literally
Speaker 10: go from having two thousand followers to two million.
Speaker 5: All of our clients are ultimately trying to reach, whether
Speaker 5: you call them fans or audiences or readers, they're trying
Speaker 5: to make a connection with people who will consume what
Speaker 5: they're creating. Social media is definitely one measure that the
Speaker 5: buyers of their intellectual property or services use to try
Speaker 5: and figure out how much audience or viewers or readers
Speaker 5: or listeners they're already bringing to the table. And we
Speaker 5: think of it more generally as platform and the platform
Speaker 5: can be your socials, it can be your extent readers
Speaker 5: or your extent listeners, but a measure of your ability
Speaker 5: to connect with the people who you are ultimately trying
Speaker 5: to reach as you create and new art, I think
Speaker 5: is certainly one factor that all of our buyers and
Speaker 5: all of our businesses have to be responsible in considering.
Speaker 5: But I hope that because we are all in creative
Speaker 5: businesses to our latest point, ultimately sort of the talent
Speaker 5: and the power of the product is the most important
Speaker 5: and factor for them to consider. And certainly history is
Speaker 5: a guide to a creator and their ability to connect
Speaker 5: with with the larger audience. But I think most of
Speaker 5: us are in this business because we know that there's
Speaker 5: something that is more than measurable or something that is immeasurable,
Speaker 5: which is the feeling that we all get when we
Speaker 5: watch performance that moves us, or you read something that
Speaker 5: changes the way you know you understand the way the
Speaker 5: world works, or that you watch a game and you
Speaker 5: realize that your heart is fluttering and you have no
Speaker 5: stake in the outcome of that particular conversation, but you're moved.
Speaker 12: I couldn't agree with Jen Moore and the only thing
Speaker 12: I'll add is that for those of us who are
Speaker 12: working in storytelling, and I think there's stories in some ways,
Speaker 12: and what all of us do. We came out here
Speaker 12: because we were captured somehow by the magic of a
Speaker 12: really resonant human story, right. And data is something that
Speaker 12: we pride ourselves on having sort of best in class
Speaker 12: service around, whether it be social or ratings, you know,
Speaker 12: the whole the whole spectrum. And that's important. It's valuable
Speaker 12: for us, it's valuable and deal making. It's valuable in
Speaker 12: terms of giving our clients some kind of transparent feedback
Speaker 12: about performance. But the other part of it is that
Speaker 12: there's no algorithm on earth that would have told you
Speaker 12: to make adolescens right. It's just magical resonance storytelling. The
Speaker 12: more that we can keep, you know, to what to
Speaker 12: what Jenna is talking about, which is the common denominator
Speaker 12: of just a really resonant, specific, magical point of view
Speaker 12: from an artist or artist that comes together in a
Speaker 12: serendipitous confluence of events that we all benefit from because
Speaker 12: it's human like, that's that's why we're here, you know.
Speaker 12: So you have to balance both of those things, I
Speaker 12: think to do our job with a level of optimism
Speaker 12: and hope and excitement.
Speaker 2: How does that spirit of being innovative and creative put
Speaker 2: pressure on you as agents? When your clients are being
Speaker 2: more entrepreneurial than ever before, how does that translate to
Speaker 2: your work?
Speaker 4: I don't really consider it pressure. It's not this pressure
Speaker 4: of trying to stay ahead of the clients. It's this
Speaker 4: joy and real acceptance of also hopefully being thought leaders ourselves,
Speaker 4: pushing the boundaries, challenging systems, looking for different ways of
Speaker 4: doing things, leaning on one another in the different divisions.
Speaker 4: What are you learning, what are you finding? What patterns
Speaker 4: are you seeing? And really helping to business build and
Speaker 4: maybe even empire build. Not every single artist wants to
Speaker 4: empire build. Sometimes they just want to tell a story,
Speaker 4: and we're certainly equipped to do that, but we are overqualified.
Speaker 4: Now our job description has expanded so much to being
Speaker 4: entrepreneurs ourselves, in house producers and cultural advocates that it's
Speaker 4: actually exciting time to be in the agency business because
Speaker 4: you see how we're expanding and morphing and understanding that
Speaker 4: we have to be all things to all people. Because
Speaker 4: artists are so expansive in their thinking, there's an impression
Speaker 4: that we represent only stars. We represent people who are
Speaker 4: going to be stars, and yes, sometimes we represent people
Speaker 4: who are already stars. But the fun and the discovery
Speaker 4: of noting somebody's potential and then being a driver of it,
Speaker 4: there's really no joy like that. It's maybe akin to parenting,
Speaker 4: but just to see somebody grow and go through phases
Speaker 4: and the deep history of knowing somebody and being with
Speaker 4: somebody for a very long time and being able to
Speaker 4: advise them through the highs and lows because obviously nobody
Speaker 4: stays on top every single second, and being there when
Speaker 4: they fall, and being the one that has you know,
Speaker 4: those of us in this room and all our colleagues
Speaker 4: outside this room. Having to have the plan, the optimism
Speaker 4: and the creativity to be able to navigate next steps is.
Speaker 1: Exciting.
Speaker 4: It's not a pressure, not saying the job it's not
Speaker 4: high pressure, but that part of the job is really
Speaker 4: actually quite fun.
Speaker 11: Some of you have collaborated between production, motion picture and
Speaker 11: television that there have been some recent projects that you
Speaker 11: guys have really had to come together on. So can
Speaker 11: you tell me a little more about how your teams
Speaker 11: work together, Just to.
Speaker 12: Draft off of what Maha just said, One of the
Speaker 12: things that allows us to feel that joy and to
Speaker 12: sort of foster that entrepreneurialism is that we lean on
Speaker 12: each other all the time. So just an example, when
Speaker 12: Laura came in, you know, along with Ryan, Tracy and
Speaker 12: many folks in a division that we hadn't had right production. Production, Yes, production,
Speaker 12: that was something that you know, for those of us
Speaker 12: who work in content, we maha and I hadn't benefited
Speaker 12: from that for I don't know the first ten to
Speaker 12: fifteen years of our time here, and it's been a
Speaker 12: game changer. Anytime that there's a new show that is
Speaker 12: on the precipice of production, we are able to collaborate
Speaker 12: with a best in class group of advocates to say
Speaker 12: not just well, who's writing this and who will be
Speaker 12: the stars, but also who's making this right, and who's
Speaker 12: great at making it domestically internationally, and who's collaborated before.
Speaker 12: It's an incredible advantage, amazing.
Speaker 7: Well, I feel the same, and I think when you
Speaker 7: see people in physical production, I hear this best in
Speaker 7: class a lot, and I think you see a lot
Speaker 7: of repeat collaborations because they work well. So people are
Speaker 7: working together again and again and they're growing their careers.
Speaker 7: They see where people have different avenues of creativity and strength,
Speaker 7: they pull in other people that they want to keep
Speaker 7: working with again and again. And I think so we
Speaker 7: have a lot of these artists that have been building
Speaker 7: their careers forever building relationships, but then to have the
Speaker 7: strength of the best in class relationships that go on
Speaker 7: here to sort of see when these productions are just
Speaker 7: an idea, So to know when somebody is talking about
Speaker 7: a great book that's about to you know, it may
Speaker 7: not even be a book yet, you know, it's somebody's
Speaker 7: thought idea. It's an article, it's a book, it's a screenplay.
Speaker 7: It's a filmmaker who really wants to collaborate with a
Speaker 7: particular actor. It's two actors that want to make a comedy.
Speaker 7: Just hearing that the kernels of ideas before they're i
Speaker 7: mean long before they become physical production is I think
Speaker 7: both inspiring. When you're talking about you know, how are
Speaker 7: we motivated on a daily basis? It does require a
Speaker 7: sort of entrepreneurial spirit because now we're seeing all these
Speaker 7: different avenues. We're not waiting for a go job, like
Speaker 7: here's a go opportunity. It's sort of like all of
Speaker 7: these things that are possible, and I think building relationships
Speaker 7: earlier on being aware of, you know, particular interests and collaborations,
Speaker 7: it's been game changing for us.
Speaker 1: Here, Katsy presses Jennifer Joel about the ever expanding world
Speaker 1: of sourcing literary content for adaptation in other mediums.
Speaker 13: Jen adaptation game is so so broad, and I'm so
Speaker 13: curious how you even begin to identify what the right
Speaker 13: projects are that make themselves right for these adaptations, whether
Speaker 13: it's something whether you're sourcing from a book, a stage show.
Speaker 13: Obviously very wide that you're casting. So how do you
Speaker 13: sort through all the content that's out there.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure that we're doing a sorting job as
Speaker 5: much as we are kind of building the library. And
Speaker 5: I think one of the great privileges of the combination
Speaker 5: of these agencies is the fact that the library is passive.
Speaker 5: We've got decades worth of phenomenal content, whether their books
Speaker 5: or their plays, or their podcasts or their kind of
Speaker 5: new online content. The fact that we have created so
Speaker 5: much excellent content is like a cant It's like a
Speaker 5: candy shore for people to go play. In Great Thing,
Speaker 5: in particular about a long gest dating project which a
Speaker 5: book is often but all of these things can be
Speaker 5: is that somebody has already put years of thought and
Speaker 5: effort into imagining one version of a story or a
Speaker 5: world or a series. And to Lara's point, in a way,
Speaker 5: it gives sort of a new creator who wants to reimagine,
Speaker 5: you know, it's looking for a world to reimagine or
Speaker 5: play around, and they're starting kind of way down the
Speaker 5: playing field because somebody else has already done that work.
Speaker 5: One of the great pleasures of the adaptations game and
Speaker 5: an agency like this is that that process can go
Speaker 5: both ways. So you are, in fact can go in
Speaker 5: every way. You have an author who might imagine that
Speaker 5: a piece of content that they've made would be phenomenally
Speaker 5: reimagined in the hands of a certain director or a
Speaker 5: certain actor, a certain writer, and we have the ability
Speaker 5: to make those introductions. The reason that we've had so
Speaker 5: much success is that is that we have had the
Speaker 5: ability to let the people who make things find new
Speaker 5: ways to kind of work together and work off of
Speaker 5: each other.
Speaker 2: The core film and television business has been through very
Speaker 2: you know, the headlines have been cuts and layoffs, and
Speaker 2: I do feel like the page turned in January and
Speaker 2: after California's horror Show, I do feel like the page
Speaker 2: did turn. But I would love your candid thoughts on
Speaker 2: whether you're you know you and your clients are feeling
Speaker 2: some contraction in the business or is the sense of
Speaker 2: contraction do you think overstated?
Speaker 3: I think it comes in waves, and so I think
Speaker 3: during I mean, at least for sports right now, it's
Speaker 3: been great. I mean, our clients are probably making the
Speaker 3: most amount of money that they've ever made. It's been
Speaker 3: quite insane. Contracts that are going up, media rights that
Speaker 3: are going up. But it does come in waves, and
Speaker 3: I think for us as agents, as executives, as an agency,
Speaker 3: is really about staying consistent with our clients. And Maha
Speaker 3: mentioned something earlier. It is just like being there for
Speaker 3: them in the highs and the lows of it, making
Speaker 3: them feel confident, making them feel that they're supported through
Speaker 3: the process, and really kind of like holding their hand
Speaker 3: through it. And I think there's no better feeling than
Speaker 3: knowing that, Okay, I might hit a low or something's
Speaker 3: not you know, hitting right, as we've all experienced in
Speaker 3: the last few years, but knowing that you're part of
Speaker 3: a greater system. Agency representation that's not going to drop
Speaker 3: you because you know we're taking hits across the board,
Speaker 3: but is really going to be there to support because
Speaker 3: life is all about ways. What comes up will go
Speaker 3: down and vice versa, and so for us, it's also
Speaker 3: an opportunity to figure out how to be more creative.
Speaker 4: The Hollywood community is a very resilient community because all
Speaker 4: the insanely thinkable things that we have faced should maybe
Speaker 4: signal that we should just all go home and give up.
Speaker 4: And I don't know anybody who wants to go home
Speaker 4: and give up. There's something about storytellers, the optimism of
Speaker 4: having to create to idate. There's something so beautiful about
Speaker 4: that desire to reach other human beings and tell them
Speaker 4: that you see them, you feel them, or you want
Speaker 4: to show them something new, or you want them to
Speaker 4: escape something that they are feeling.
Speaker 2: Our Lada. With general economic instability, are you seeing any
Speaker 2: contraction among brands? Is there a hesitancy right now?
Speaker 10: There is a little contraction with brands we have seen
Speaker 10: because of the terroriffts. Some brands have pulled back some
Speaker 10: of their campaigns or paused it. But on the other hand,
Speaker 10: we have others that just.
Speaker 2: Got offers today.
Speaker 10: I think disruption creates opportunity, and so being in digital,
Speaker 10: we've always been sort of on this leading edge of
Speaker 10: what's next. We're always thinking about how do we help
Speaker 10: our clients monetize and expand. And you know, we just
Speaker 10: closed a deal for one of our just legendary Balk
Speaker 10: Show hosts who has an incredible library that's now going
Speaker 10: to become a fast channel. And so it's things like
Speaker 10: that that I think, you know, a couple of years ago,
Speaker 10: we wouldn't have thought about for our clients, and we're
Speaker 10: thinking about that now, and so I see it. I'm
Speaker 10: an optimist.
Speaker 7: What I found so encouraging is it's not sort of
Speaker 7: an either or proposition. I feel like when we were kids,
Speaker 7: there were three television networks, and you know, it wasn't
Speaker 7: really like are you going to watch this channel or that,
Speaker 7: or are you going to watch TV or go to
Speaker 7: the movies on the weekend or I love the way
Speaker 7: that this whole entertainment business has evolved and that yeah,
Speaker 7: it might be a digital proposition, it might be something
Speaker 7: in a movie theater, it might be a musician films
Speaker 7: a concert, and then you go to the movies to
Speaker 7: watch it just so many different avenues, and I think,
Speaker 7: again going back to just being in this building, so
Speaker 7: many different inspired experts who have these deep relationships. When
Speaker 7: you talk about taking care of your clients and really
Speaker 7: being forward thinking on their behalf, knowing what their strengths are,
Speaker 7: what their interests are, what their talents are, and then
Speaker 7: looking around at all the different avenues that they can pursue,
Speaker 7: and them coming to us with the different avenues that
Speaker 7: they're thinking about. I just like the fact that nothing
Speaker 7: seems contracting to me. It just feels like different opportunities.
Speaker 7: It's going to change. We hope that it will evolve,
Speaker 7: but it doesn't feel like it's an either or. It
Speaker 7: just feels like more opportunities.
Speaker 12: So I will take ideas from all of you. So
Speaker 12: kind of went last. I think what Maha said about
Speaker 12: kindness is first and foremost. You know, it's our value system,
Speaker 12: but I think the more we're kind to each other
Speaker 12: internally and externally, it really matters. Right now, the last
Speaker 12: five years have been really hard for everybody, no matter
Speaker 12: what business you're in, and I think the kindness and
Speaker 12: the reciprocy of spirit allows people to feel safe and
Speaker 12: then they can do their best work. I think the
Speaker 12: curiosity of doing new things, like our leader was talking about,
Speaker 12: you know that we may not all be as well
Speaker 12: burst or immersed in as she might be, or whatever
Speaker 12: the area is. Being curious about what's possible, even in
Speaker 12: dark times is actually the genesis of doing great things
Speaker 12: and then believing. I think you said that it's all
Speaker 12: worth it right, like it was, Like I think William
Speaker 12: James correct me said that believe that your life is
Speaker 12: worth living, and that belief will create the fact. And
Speaker 12: I like to think that believe that entertainment isn't vital
Speaker 12: to all of our lives, and our collectible belief will
Speaker 12: create that fact and will survive whatever obstacles, whatever head
Speaker 12: ones we're facing, will tell magical stories. I am not
Speaker 12: a Pollyanna, but I'm a believer. I think we're all
Speaker 12: optimist in this room, and I think we're probably all
Speaker 12: optimists in the building.
Speaker 5: I'll speak of somebody who works in what is probably
Speaker 5: the oldest business in entertainment, publishing. Rumors of publishing's demise
Speaker 5: have persisted since the invention of the newspaper, when people
Speaker 5: wondered why you would ever read a book again when
Speaker 5: the information you know was going to be outdated, and
Speaker 5: that there was this new form of consuming information that
Speaker 5: would be by definition more current. But of course books
Speaker 5: are still here. All of the businesses that we that
Speaker 5: we work in have survived these sort of eras of change.
Speaker 5: When the world is challenged as it is today, I
Speaker 5: think there is an even greater imperative for people who
Speaker 5: can explain it, who can contextualize what we're living through,
Speaker 5: who can provide hope and distraction. It is an incredible
Speaker 5: privilege to spend your professional life thinking about how to
Speaker 5: do those things. And I think we are all optimists.
Speaker 5: I think we have to be optimists. I think this
Speaker 5: place sort of exists to help make the ground as
Speaker 5: fertile as possible for people who embrace the privilege of
Speaker 5: living a creative life.
Speaker 2: Anything else that anybody wants to say. I feel like
Speaker 2: we've covered a lot of ground.
Speaker 6: I wish listeners could see Lisa's nails.
Speaker 11: I have been staring at that.
Speaker 6: You can't see them. Thanks, I know, the company of women,
Speaker 6: thank you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for putting up with us here.
Speaker 1: We want to end this episode on an uplifting note.
Speaker 1: Here's a lightning round of clips of our guests talking
Speaker 1: about their mentors and formative career experiences. Katsy and I
Speaker 1: want to give our deep thanks to Ourlita, Jennifer, Laura,
Speaker 1: Lisa Maha and Tiffany for the privilege of their time
Speaker 1: and their thoughts.
Speaker 4: When I got here, I saw Best Swafford, queen of
Speaker 4: the director's agents. Shortly after I got here. He'll whee
Speaker 4: Lee came with this Irish accent. She had started in
Speaker 4: a phone booth in Ireland, one of the best origin
Speaker 4: stories ever, and had the coolest haircut and would just
Speaker 4: tell everybody off all the time in the best, coolest,
Speaker 4: sexiest way.
Speaker 7: I really had the opportunity to kind of learn by
Speaker 7: osmosis and again just having people who are very willing
Speaker 7: to mentor who I could ask questions. They would let
Speaker 7: me be a part of things I would do, like
Speaker 7: is it Monday? Yet.
Speaker 5: It took me about five minutes of learning the business
Speaker 5: and looking around at the landscape to realize that the
Speaker 5: two best agents in the publishing business were Biggie Urban
Speaker 5: and Ester Newburgh, and that the way that I would
Speaker 5: be able to become what I hoped would be the
Speaker 5: best version of somebody in this industry was to go
Speaker 5: and learn from them.
Speaker 10: There have been so many incredible people that have helped
Speaker 10: mentor and shape me, people like Christy Habigger and Terry Hanks,
Speaker 10: but then also Kevin Yvank.
Speaker 3: Part of the reason why I even moved here was
Speaker 3: Michelle Kid, who has always been also a mentor to me.
Speaker 3: Anytime I had any issues, that would call Michelle, and
Speaker 3: Michelle was the one who really encouraged me and say, Lisa,
Speaker 3: this is the time. We need more women in our building.
Speaker 3: We need more women leaders in our building.
Speaker 12: I always felt that my capacity here was my limitation,
Speaker 12: which is to say that I always felt, with women
Speaker 12: like Resa Gertner and Sonya Rosenfeld and Hilda Quilli and
Speaker 12: Beus Wolferd who came before me, that I was really
Speaker 12: being judged on my ability to be an advocate with
Speaker 12: integrity and creativity who fought hard for her clients. And
Speaker 12: in turn, I feel like I've been given the space
Speaker 12: to try to do that for other women.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
Speaker 1: at the podcast platform of your choice. We love to
Speaker 1: hear from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and
Speaker 1: sign up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter and
Speaker 1: don't forget to tune in next week for another episode
Speaker 1: of Strictly Business.