Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast that
Speaker 1: hears from some of the most interesting minds in the
Speaker 1: media world on Varieties co editor in chief Andrew Wallenstein.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is best known as one of basketball's brightest stars,
Speaker 1: but off the court, he's looking to win a new game,
Speaker 1: the entertainment business. Curry recently signed a deal with Sony
Speaker 1: Pictures Entertainment to produce TV shows, movies, and much more so,
Speaker 1: how does an athlete draw up a playbook to take
Speaker 1: on Team Hollywood. Curry has turned to my next guest,
Speaker 1: to Ron Smith, to figure that out. Smith is one
Speaker 1: of many people I spoke to, including Curry, for the
Speaker 1: Variety cover story we published today about the NBA star,
Speaker 1: so I thought it'd be nice to go a little
Speaker 1: deeper in podcast form with Curry's right hand man in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Ron. Thank you for having me. Now, I
Speaker 1: gotta ask this because people are gonna be curious. How
Speaker 1: involved is Steph Curry in all this? You this is
Speaker 1: your job, so I get that you're gonna be all in,
Speaker 1: but how involved can he be in season or off season?
Speaker 1: Setingly incredibly involves um obviously has his number one priority, right,
Speaker 1: and that's being Steph and Curry and winning NBA championships
Speaker 1: and being the most amazing basketball player he can be.
Speaker 1: And that platform that you know, basketball has given him
Speaker 1: to impact the world is is important to him. I
Speaker 1: think Stephen believes his gift is God given and with
Speaker 1: you know, with that comes with a great responsibility and
Speaker 1: responsibility to take seriously. So when it comes to media,
Speaker 1: I think when you think about the purpose behind it,
Speaker 1: and you think about why Stephen I wanted to get
Speaker 1: into this space and his vision something that's incredibly important
Speaker 1: to him and something he's very involved with. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll give you this quick story. You know, we got
Speaker 1: our first script as we started to go down this
Speaker 1: journey and uh, Eric read the script. I read the
Speaker 1: script and Eric Eric is Eric is my partner, he's
Speaker 1: the chief creative officer at Unanimous Media. And we read
Speaker 1: the script and we sent it over to Stephen. The
Speaker 1: very next day. Steff was like, I love this project.
Speaker 1: I read the script. This is why I touched me.
Speaker 1: This is why this is why I think this is
Speaker 1: a Unanimous project, and this is why I think the
Speaker 1: script represents me right. And I was blown away one
Speaker 1: because I didn't even read the script in one day
Speaker 1: two because it was during the NBA season. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure he read it after practice one day, after
Speaker 1: shoot around in the hotel or or whatever the case
Speaker 1: might be. But he read the script extremely quick. And
Speaker 1: then when you think about his critical thought process against
Speaker 1: the script, it was impressive. It was really impressive. And
Speaker 1: I was it was that that was this was months
Speaker 1: before before Sony and and uh, that's when I know, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're we're in a we're in good shape, and Stephen's
Speaker 1: invested and he's into this thing. You're saying that based
Speaker 1: on the notes that he gave he he he has.
Speaker 1: It sounds kind of like in an eight sense of
Speaker 1: what he is good creative You think about something resonating
Speaker 1: with Stephen and who he is, and when you think
Speaker 1: about his audience and the people he wants to impact,
Speaker 1: he's going to have the best gauge on whether a
Speaker 1: project represents who he is and whether it has the
Speaker 1: right fill to impact people the way he wants to
Speaker 1: impact people. How big are his ambitions? Your ambitions, because
Speaker 1: this could be something like a vanity project. Maybe you
Speaker 1: do a project or two a year, and stuff puts
Speaker 1: his stamp on it, or you are you guys looking
Speaker 1: to do as you look at what Kevin Durant is doing,
Speaker 1: when you look at Lebron is doing, They're building out
Speaker 1: these full slates of content that bear their name. Give
Speaker 1: us a sense of what the ambition is here. The
Speaker 1: ambition is great, uh, and we want to do really
Speaker 1: well in this space and have longevity. I think I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan of what Kevin is doing with with
Speaker 1: Rich Kleiman. I'm a huge fan of what Lebron is
Speaker 1: doing with Maverick. Those are those are all friends of mine,
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited for what they have going on.
Speaker 1: I think Stephen represents a bit of a different athlete,
Speaker 1: and because he's different, the way we'll approach media will
Speaker 1: be different. Hate to kind of hone in once again
Speaker 1: on on the faith piece, but that's such a such
Speaker 1: a different element for an athlete when you're talking about
Speaker 1: film and television, right, Uh, then the the family piece, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I just think we're gonna go about it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go about this in a way that feels right and
Speaker 1: it's authentic for who Stephen is. And I think Sony understands.
Speaker 1: Sony really understands who Steffen is and and they're gonna
Speaker 1: be great partners and helping us kind of execute against
Speaker 1: that vision. What about the decision to make a deal
Speaker 1: with Sony? Walk us through the process and how you
Speaker 1: got to needing to partner with the studio in the
Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, studio is important. Studio is incredibly important. Uh.
Speaker 1: Stephan is all about doing things the right way, and
Speaker 1: not only the right way, but he's all about having
Speaker 1: the right partners, right. I think Stephan is someone that
Speaker 1: tries to put good people around him and um he uh,
Speaker 1: he entrusts those people. Uh. And when you think about
Speaker 1: a studio and you think about the expertise, and I
Speaker 1: think about the executives we met with, especially at Sony,
Speaker 1: and uh, you think about their knowledge, you think about
Speaker 1: their experience, you think about how long they've been in
Speaker 1: this industry, and I think most most importantly, think about
Speaker 1: the fact that they really understood what we were trying
Speaker 1: to do. Uh. Sony became absolutely pertinent because they shown
Speaker 1: themselves as as great partners, and I think coming into
Speaker 1: the space, great partners were Um, it was imperative for us, right.
Speaker 1: I think additionally, Um, you know, once again we mentioned
Speaker 1: the faith piece, but faith being such an important silo
Speaker 1: to what we're doing. Um, Sony has the affirm label, right,
Speaker 1: what do they do? Yeah, So you have a myriad
Speaker 1: of of labels at at Sony. You have Columbia Pictures,
Speaker 1: you have Try Start your scream gyms, and you have
Speaker 1: a firm, a firm really specializes in kind of your
Speaker 1: faith faith content, inspirational content, and well really from a
Speaker 1: film perspective, it's it's one of their film labels and
Speaker 1: it uh they they you think about all your favorite
Speaker 1: faith based films. For the most part, a firm probably
Speaker 1: made it right and and that made them even more
Speaker 1: of an attractive partner because uh, because of that element.
Speaker 1: So again to put it in context, faith is just
Speaker 1: on piece of the larger STEPH puzzle when it comes
Speaker 1: to entertainment. But focusing there for a second, is faith
Speaker 1: every bit a challenge as it is an opportunity? Meaning, yes,
Speaker 1: there's a marketplace for that kind of content, and Sony's
Speaker 1: a firm label has proved that. But do there also
Speaker 1: become issues raised by someone being a person of faith
Speaker 1: is a celebrity? Does it become an impediment for some? Uh?
Speaker 1: Just trying to get a sense of how you're navigating
Speaker 1: that it could, right, it could. I think faith, uh, religion,
Speaker 1: the word Jesus. I think it strikes every person in
Speaker 1: in a different form of fashion, right. And I think
Speaker 1: that's something we're all aware of. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: Stephen is who he is. He doesn't shy away from
Speaker 1: who he is. And I think that's what makes Stephen
Speaker 1: is so amazing. He's so comfortable in his own skin.
Speaker 1: And and when you think about our three content silos,
Speaker 1: they are very representative of who Stephen is. Uh. And
Speaker 1: faith is a big part of that. Uh. And while
Speaker 1: it's not going to represent everything we do, is not
Speaker 1: something we're gonna shy away from. And and uh, you're
Speaker 1: you're never ever ever gonna please everybody, right. So I
Speaker 1: think that's something we're aware of. Um. But to be clear,
Speaker 1: you're not what little or how much you do in
Speaker 1: terms of faith based content isn't all going to be
Speaker 1: Some of it might be something that does mention Jesus
Speaker 1: or be something very strictly for faith based market, and
Speaker 1: then there'll be other stuff like you mentioned the movie
Speaker 1: The blind Side, that are sort of you know, religion
Speaker 1: light that's absolutely correct, Okay, I get the plan. I'm
Speaker 1: also curious when you talk about in this announcement things
Speaker 1: like consumer products VR, I mean, is there a real
Speaker 1: the applications that are Currey related in these kind of Oh,
Speaker 1: absolutely absolutely, I think, especially in the VR space, and
Speaker 1: that's some things. Those those types of projects you know,
Speaker 1: well you will definitely, um, they're definitely forthcoming and we'll
Speaker 1: definitely uh chat about. But they're absolutely very relevant and
Speaker 1: authentic applications, especially when you're talking about the VR space
Speaker 1: consumer products as well. Uh. I think what one of
Speaker 1: the things that's so amazing about Sony is they have
Speaker 1: such a robust ecosystem and great teams that work against
Speaker 1: each of those business units, and we definitely plan to
Speaker 1: tap into each of those. And I see the appeal
Speaker 1: of Sony, but also Sony is in the context of
Speaker 1: a broader marketplace of much bigger tech companies that could
Speaker 1: be interested in stuff services, much bigger entertainment companies. Why
Speaker 1: wasn't scale more of a factor in choosing a studio
Speaker 1: partner because you didn't go with scale? Ultimately, yeah, fit
Speaker 1: filing partnership. I would say it's the easiest way to
Speaker 1: answer that question. Um, I met with the executive team
Speaker 1: Eric Maye with the executive team Stephen did as well.
Speaker 1: And that feeling that you have UM executives with the
Speaker 1: expertise and experience that they have, that are really invested
Speaker 1: in what you're doing so important that I think maybe uh,
Speaker 1: not having that same feel at another studio, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I think Sony Sony really shine through in that that department, right.
Speaker 1: I think other studios offered some really you know, I
Speaker 1: think I would say great fits as well. But but
Speaker 1: when you think about Sony and you think about the
Speaker 1: executive team, and you think about UM them really understanding
Speaker 1: what we were trying to do, it was a it
Speaker 1: was a foregone conclusion. How was the process of meeting
Speaker 1: all these different kinds of companies? Uh, you know, were
Speaker 1: you coming into with a very clear idea of what
Speaker 1: you wanted or did you kind of learn some things
Speaker 1: as you went along? No? I think uh definitely had
Speaker 1: a had a clear vision of what we were trying
Speaker 1: to do and where we were trying to go with
Speaker 1: this thing. And I think with that, you know, as
Speaker 1: we went along on that journey, Yeah, we were definitely
Speaker 1: able to hone in kind of further and further on
Speaker 1: kind of what that vision looked like when as you
Speaker 1: learn more, as you meet with more executives, as you
Speaker 1: start to understand, you know, the nuances of the studio system.
Speaker 1: But all in all, we definitely went in with a
Speaker 1: clear vision of what we were trying to do and
Speaker 1: what we needed from a partner. Yes, I grew up
Speaker 1: with Cheel Hills. UM initially went to u U c
Speaker 1: l A. UM ended up leaving U c l A
Speaker 1: and transfer to Howard University and Washington d C. Uh.
Speaker 1: They went to grad school at Georgetown from my first
Speaker 1: master's degree, and then I went to Columbia University of
Speaker 1: New York for my second master's degree. That led me
Speaker 1: to Nike. Spent about seven years of Nike doing brand
Speaker 1: management and brand strategy and uh, what does that mean? Absolutely? Um,
Speaker 1: that means essentially that you are UM the kind of
Speaker 1: central steward over the integrated marketing mix. So that's across
Speaker 1: UM advertising, digital marketing, comms, et cetera. And you kind
Speaker 1: of bring that marketing mixed together to execute kind of
Speaker 1: a holistic brand strategy around a product or service. Uh. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I spent seven years of Nike UM and uh, final
Speaker 1: the Nike I got just a unique opportunity UM about
Speaker 1: you know, I was kind of got win that UH,
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama was you know, bringing in some private
Speaker 1: sector town to look at government strategy differently. And luckily
Speaker 1: I was one of the phone calls that was made about,
Speaker 1: UM gaging my interest in a job at the White House. UM.
Speaker 1: I think I had about six or seven interviews when
Speaker 1: I finally went to the White House to interview, and
Speaker 1: I ended up, after about six months of background checks,
Speaker 1: which is a pretty exhaustive process, ended up working out
Speaker 1: at the White House as a Deputy Director of Digital Strategy. UH.
Speaker 1: And again absolutely I knew that was coming. So in
Speaker 1: the Office of Digital Strategy at the White House, UM,
Speaker 1: since an executive office of the president. But you're you're
Speaker 1: essentially UH talking about you know, all your all content,
Speaker 1: all digital media, all social channels at White House dot
Speaker 1: gov excuse me, at White House at potis UM as
Speaker 1: well as White House dot gov UM, and you know,
Speaker 1: anything from UH policy announcements, rollouts, et cetera. I think
Speaker 1: the the mantra of our office was to meet the
Speaker 1: people where they are. UH. President Obama didn't want to
Speaker 1: just speak to his Bay, but he also wanted to
Speaker 1: ensure we were leveraging our digital platforms to communicate and
Speaker 1: message to uh, the entirety of the the US. He
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure he was reaching everybody, and largely
Speaker 1: our office to Digital Strategy was responsible for executing against
Speaker 1: that that mission and that vision. So how does a
Speaker 1: X shoe guy X DC guy end up in Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's Yeah, for sure. So I think following the White House,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to do something different. I think that
Speaker 1: was the that was my as a goal of mine
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, naturally you would think you would
Speaker 1: just end up going back to working within the like
Speaker 1: the corporate infrastructure. And I had got wind from uh
Speaker 1: someone I used to work at Nike with which was
Speaker 1: a close friend of Stephan's name is Bryant Um and
Speaker 1: Briant kind of let me know about some of the
Speaker 1: things stuff and was trying to do across the is.
Speaker 1: You know, it's kind of off court business and brand
Speaker 1: strategy and that there was probably a good fit and
Speaker 1: opportunity there, and that's when the business conversation started with Stephen.
Speaker 1: So you come in to sort of help manage brand.
Speaker 1: Step The question is is when you came in. Was
Speaker 1: media part of that mix? Yeah? I mean media was
Speaker 1: something that you know, you you as a as a
Speaker 1: good steward, has to be thinking about. Right. But um,
Speaker 1: but from from day one we started talking about who
Speaker 1: Stephen is and what he wants to stand for. And um,
Speaker 1: when we started thinking about when Stephan really started to articulate,
Speaker 1: you know, his mission and what he wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and that's where you get to the yeah, I really
Speaker 1: want to inspire as many people as possible. That was
Speaker 1: it was It was clear that that narrative really Uh,
Speaker 1: it always always came through and you hear it enough
Speaker 1: and you're like, okay, how do you how do you
Speaker 1: execute against that vision that he has? Right? And media
Speaker 1: became the clear answer. You know, when you think about
Speaker 1: touching and reaching as many people as possible, Um, there's
Speaker 1: no better and more effective way to do that thing
Speaker 1: through media. What does he want to touch and reach about? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean when you think about inspiration, you think about inspiring. Um.
Speaker 1: Often that can come in a myriad of different forms. Right.
Speaker 1: That can come in the form of laughter, that can
Speaker 1: come in the form of sometimes it might mean mean tears, right, Um,
Speaker 1: And I think it through kind of different avenues, if
Speaker 1: you will, right, And I think you know media, you
Speaker 1: know that can be filmed, television, digital content, etcetera. So, um,
Speaker 1: it just became it just became the clear vehicle by
Speaker 1: which we were gonna execute against that vision. Got it?
Speaker 1: But was he thinking and were you thinking specifically in
Speaker 1: terms once you decided to do the media thing, what
Speaker 1: kinds of TV shows, movies aligned with what you saw
Speaker 1: as brand staff? Yeah? Uh one stuff and hates the
Speaker 1: brand staph Moniker thing. I just think he is who
Speaker 1: he is, right, He is who he is, and he
Speaker 1: is a super authentic person, right, And I think that's
Speaker 1: really shown through in my time really working with him,
Speaker 1: and you know that person people experience and see on
Speaker 1: TV is exactly who he is as a man. He's
Speaker 1: a family man, he loves his children. Uh, he's kind hearted,
Speaker 1: he's just I mean, I sound like a step commercial,
Speaker 1: but that's just that, just is who he is. Start
Speaker 1: thinking about blind side or start thinking about pursuit of happiness, right, Um?
Speaker 1: And I think other like projects you're talking about the
Speaker 1: kinds of movies that I think sort of have a
Speaker 1: faith element. It's but sort of light, it's not too
Speaker 1: heavy handed. It's not espousing any particular religious religion period.
Speaker 1: I should say yeah. I think when it comes to
Speaker 1: the faith piece, right, I think that's always interesting when
Speaker 1: it comes to Stephan and what we're doing with unanimous media, right.
Speaker 1: I think faith is one silo of the type of
Speaker 1: content we want to touch, one of three. Really, family
Speaker 1: slash kids is one major silo and that can you know,
Speaker 1: I think if you think this is us, right, faith
Speaker 1: is another major silo. Uh. And then the sports themes
Speaker 1: is kind of tertiary, but it's it's it's also another silo, right.
Speaker 1: I think there are times when two of those silos
Speaker 1: or three of those silos might come together in the
Speaker 1: form of one project, and there's times that those silos
Speaker 1: will stand alone and in some of the projects we're
Speaker 1: working on. But uh, but faith is is one silo,
Speaker 1: a major and important one, but it's but it's one silo.
Speaker 1: You're basically saying you're going after these three areas in
Speaker 1: terms of doing TV, movies, other things. What I'm curious
Speaker 1: about is in terms of what Steph could do on
Speaker 1: social media, and the guy had such a massive reach,
Speaker 1: does that become a critical piece in in helping the content,
Speaker 1: come out and get the biggest audience man social media,
Speaker 1: I think is following understands who he is, and I
Speaker 1: think he impacts his following. I think it's also kind
Speaker 1: of a different day and age, right, And everybody talks
Speaker 1: about this, and you hear this narrative quite often. But
Speaker 1: I think when you when you consider Stephen and consider
Speaker 1: the modern day athlete and their ability to really connect
Speaker 1: one to one with their audience in an authentic way,
Speaker 1: it's going to become extremely pertinent when you talk about
Speaker 1: some of these projects and and how we're delivering them
Speaker 1: to his audience. I think the other thing is, because
Speaker 1: of social media, your audience also has um how do
Speaker 1: I put this? They just sift through content. Uh, you
Speaker 1: know in a very effective minute. Right, You watch a
Speaker 1: you know, said, random person on Instagram, and they know
Speaker 1: whether they like what they're seeing or don't like what
Speaker 1: they're seeing, uh, extremely quickly. You know, with a double
Speaker 1: tap and a swipe up, you're you're you're off to
Speaker 1: the races in your social feed. And Uh, for that reason,
Speaker 1: I think when you think about our silos and staying
Speaker 1: in authentic to our silos and authentic to who Stephen
Speaker 1: is our audience is gonna be able to sift through
Speaker 1: that very quickly. So I think it's important that we
Speaker 1: remain um authentic and and um set on what we're doing.
Speaker 1: I made a comparison earlier to other basketball players with
Speaker 1: What'stap's doing. I mean, am I limiting him in that sense?
Speaker 1: Am I limiting all these players? Is what we're seeing
Speaker 1: now in terms of this trend in the NBA and
Speaker 1: perhaps in other leagues, kind of a short sided way
Speaker 1: of looking at it. I don't personally, I don't look
Speaker 1: at it as a trend. Stephen has a platform, and
Speaker 1: Stephane getting into media is really expanding that platform. It's
Speaker 1: another method, an effective method of reaching the masses, reaching
Speaker 1: abroad audience, and delivering stories and messages to that audience
Speaker 1: in the form of media, in the form of films
Speaker 1: and the form of television and the form of digital content.
Speaker 1: I understand why people could reference it as a trend,
Speaker 1: but all in all, this is another Yeah, another mechanism
Speaker 1: was just you know, leveraging and using his platform too
Speaker 1: to execute against his purpose. You describe the sports pillar
Speaker 1: of what he's doing earlier tertiary, which almost surprises me
Speaker 1: because I would think it's staff. He's an athlete. It's
Speaker 1: the easiest, quickest way for the audience to understand content
Speaker 1: of a sports nature coming from him. Sports is important.
Speaker 1: I think it's who he is, It's what he's known for.
Speaker 1: And we will find some very interesting sports stories to tell,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be important. But uh, family, slash,
Speaker 1: kids and faith, I would say, is our is our focus,
Speaker 1: especially right now. We'll tell some sports stories, for sure,
Speaker 1: but we want to do them in a way that's uh,
Speaker 1: that feels feels elevated, feels different, and feels purposeful. In
Speaker 1: terms of that word purpose, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: I understand, I mean I understand that in the you
Speaker 1: know the phrase that Rick Warren popular way back. Uh
Speaker 1: do you mean it strictly in that term or is
Speaker 1: it purpose in a more general way? I somewhere between,
Speaker 1: but more and in the broader sense, right, I think
Speaker 1: Stephan knows what he stands for. And with that being said,
Speaker 1: we're going to take that which is I can't say that,
Speaker 1: can't say enough right, inspiring as many people as possible.
Speaker 1: That's really the kind of the purpose driven statement, and
Speaker 1: that should permeate everything we do. Also in terms of permeating.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, do you feel that the content that's going
Speaker 1: to come from this is just going to be a
Speaker 1: manifestation of whose staff is, or that the content will
Speaker 1: come in some degree to redefine people's understanding of whose
Speaker 1: staff is. It might be a bit of the ladder,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't say the former is untrue either. Steps
Speaker 1: audience probably has a varied view of who Stephen is,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on maybe where you live, depending on
Speaker 1: your age, depending on a myriad of factors. And for
Speaker 1: some some of this content might might illustrate aside, you
Speaker 1: might not be as familiar with um, and for others
Speaker 1: it might be right on pointment, exactly what you expect.
Speaker 1: Got it? Well, darn Thanks for coming in and talking
Speaker 1: with me. Very much appreciative. This has been another episode
Speaker 1: of Strictly Business. Tune in next week for another helping
Speaker 1: of scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and please
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to the podcast to hear future episodes.
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