Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, weekly podcast featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of entertainment. I'm Cynthia Littleton,
Speaker 1: business editor of Variety Today. My guest in New York
Speaker 1: is Steve Moscow, the newly appointed CEO of Village road
Speaker 1: Show and the former head of Sony Pictures Television. Village
Speaker 1: road Show has its roots in film financing and has
Speaker 1: had a long relationship with Warner Brothers. Moscow is on
Speaker 1: a mission to build out the company so that it
Speaker 1: can produce its own movies and TV shows for the
Speaker 1: first time. Here, Steve speaks candidly about making the shift
Speaker 1: from studio boss to launching a lean and scrappy start
Speaker 1: up operation. He also shares some intriguing examples of what
Speaker 1: he learned about the media market place last year before
Speaker 1: he joined Village road Show, when he teamed with producer
Speaker 1: Jeff Robinov to raise money for Robinov's studio aid venture.
Speaker 1: Steve Moscow, CEO of Village road Show Entertainment Group, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for stopping by to talk to us today,
Speaker 1: Sintia Littleton. Good to see you. How long have we
Speaker 1: known each other? It is going back to I want
Speaker 1: to say years right. I think Bill Clinton was definitely
Speaker 1: in office. I think it was a nappy We got
Speaker 1: to know each other. We both had many different bosses
Speaker 1: over the years, but here we are correct. It's good
Speaker 1: to see you. Yeah, it's good to see you, and
Speaker 1: it's a very very exciting move for you. He had
Speaker 1: a long run at one of the major studios, leading
Speaker 1: Sony Pictures Television at a at a very prosperous time,
Speaker 1: difficult time in the business. Now, it was always good
Speaker 1: to me. Always it was hard, but it was always good.
Speaker 1: If you can't have fun in this business and and
Speaker 1: sort of enjoy, and you know, every time you walk
Speaker 1: on a studio a lot, if you don't have a
Speaker 1: little bit of a like a how lucky are we
Speaker 1: to be in this business, then you're probably in the
Speaker 1: wrong business. And you've always had that spirit. I feel
Speaker 1: felt blessed every day got up in the morning and
Speaker 1: gone to work up well in October, starting in October,
Speaker 1: getting up in the morning and going to work has
Speaker 1: been your new gig as CEO of Village Road Show Entertainment.
Speaker 1: Tell us how, tell us how you became recruited to
Speaker 1: a company that has its roots in Australia and is
Speaker 1: largely known for film production. Sure, it's actually an interesting story.
Speaker 1: So there was a period of time when I left Sony.
Speaker 1: I was looking a lot of different things. When I
Speaker 1: was trying to initially looked at buying Tribune and something's
Speaker 1: changed in the political landscape, or the CAF for broadcast
Speaker 1: stations went up and just made that a little bit
Speaker 1: more difficult, and some other things came along. But I
Speaker 1: was for a while I was out raising money with
Speaker 1: Jeff Robinov, who was a terrific executive and was at
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, and you know, I was talking to him
Speaker 1: about joining Studio eight. And we were out raising money,
Speaker 1: uh and making the rounds in New York and had
Speaker 1: met with the folks who owned Villa Droo with the
Speaker 1: people from Vine and um this is a funny story now,
Speaker 1: by the way, and just just a level set. This
Speaker 1: is Vine Alternative Investments and this is one of two
Speaker 1: private equity companies that in acquired a majority ownership in
Speaker 1: Villa trod Show Vinds the majority owner gotch Okay. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we were going around and seeing KKR and I like
Speaker 1: all the big one, big private equity firms and we're
Speaker 1: having great meetings, and you know, I mean you typically
Speaker 1: you always get even if they're not interested, the meeting
Speaker 1: goes great. And I've been through enough meetings in my
Speaker 1: life to know what the good ones and bad ones are.
Speaker 1: But the meeting we actually have a Vine was horrible
Speaker 1: and for a lot of different reasons I won't get into,
Speaker 1: but it was no one's fault, but they really didn't
Speaker 1: invest in startups similar what we were doing. And anyway,
Speaker 1: long story short to meeting did not go well. I've
Speaker 1: been to a lot of that meetings. Like I said,
Speaker 1: for me, it's just just let's get in and out
Speaker 1: of here pretty quickly. But I said the gentleman of Vine,
Speaker 1: I said, it might be a good idea of you
Speaker 1: and I have breakfast because I don't like the end
Speaker 1: meetings on a bad note. Right, So we have breakfast
Speaker 1: at Shutters in Los Angeles and had a great breakfast
Speaker 1: and couldn't have gone better. And signing the check and
Speaker 1: he says to me, go, so what are you doing
Speaker 1: this weekend? I said, well, I'm actually giving the commencement
Speaker 1: in my alma monitor in a couple of weeks. So
Speaker 1: at University of Delaware, so I'm finalizing the speech and
Speaker 1: he said, you're kidding me, Like I went to Delaware
Speaker 1: so on What that led to was this great another
Speaker 1: hour conversation about a lot of things we shared in
Speaker 1: common with the University of Delaware, what have you? And
Speaker 1: I said, look, if we're considering some things at Village
Speaker 1: road Show and if you're interested, I'd love to talk
Speaker 1: to you. For a lot of different reasons, it didn't
Speaker 1: work out with Studio Aid, so I called the folks
Speaker 1: at at vying about Village Road Show and and here
Speaker 1: we are, so it would say it was the right decision.
Speaker 1: And it's been amazing. It's only been a few months,
Speaker 1: but we're hanging on this great track and I just
Speaker 1: think it's you know, it's been a it's a great
Speaker 1: time to be in entertainment business. And I know that
Speaker 1: seems contrary to a lot of things you're here these
Speaker 1: days because there's all these big shifts which we will
Speaker 1: look back in his a few years ago, Wow, like
Speaker 1: that was historical moment. We have Disney and Fox getting together,
Speaker 1: some of the things going on with A T and
Speaker 1: T and Warners, and there's just a lot of seismatic shifts. Uh,
Speaker 1: but within that for someone like ourselves, it's great opportunity.
Speaker 1: You can almost feel the winds of change literally literally
Speaker 1: blowing your hair. Let me ask you before I want
Speaker 1: to talk about strategy at Villa road Show, but what
Speaker 1: did you learn from that process of you were you were?
Speaker 1: You were working with Jeff robin offro has a film
Speaker 1: production venture that's based at Sony called Studio eight, And
Speaker 1: what did you learn in that process of making the
Speaker 1: round the money rounds of trying to raise money? What
Speaker 1: did you learn about what what the market is interested in,
Speaker 1: where investors focus is. Because I would imagine that would
Speaker 1: have been a very instructive process for somebody who was
Speaker 1: about to take right the job that you have now. Well,
Speaker 1: a couple of things. One is, I think and rightly so.
Speaker 1: Jeff and I were banking on the fact that we
Speaker 1: had great reputations in our respective fields, and I think
Speaker 1: people also respect the fact we were two very different
Speaker 1: personalities that match together very well. Um. But now that
Speaker 1: I'm involved with Village Roacho, I do see that one
Speaker 1: of the things that's very important is having access to
Speaker 1: I P Because like I said, I think it's Studio eight.
Speaker 1: It would have been a trickier road for us, um
Speaker 1: for the television piece at least um not having i
Speaker 1: P to start with. And we can talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about Village, but you know, there's access to i
Speaker 1: P at Village Road Show, which is absolutely giving us
Speaker 1: a jump start in building our businesses, both on the
Speaker 1: film and TV side. So what you learned is if
Speaker 1: you're going to go out and raise money for any
Speaker 1: kind of studio or production business, it's extremely helpful to
Speaker 1: own or have access to IP. You kind of have
Speaker 1: to bring something other than I worked for twenty five
Speaker 1: years and Sony I worked so many years. Warners not
Speaker 1: by the way, not that that's not important, believe me.
Speaker 1: I mean because I don't. I think we got through
Speaker 1: the door and we actually we're able to raise the money.
Speaker 1: It was so it wasn't you know, it was impossible,
Speaker 1: But in terms of building the business only going forward basis,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty Uh, it helps have I PICK. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you like your chances at Villa. I love our chances,
Speaker 1: very excited. So the company was has been historically known
Speaker 1: for films. Did you know why there was a was
Speaker 1: there a sense of films as our mission? And we
Speaker 1: don't we we just don't know how to do TV
Speaker 1: or was it was it even a more conscious decision,
Speaker 1: We're just not going to be in that market until obviously,
Speaker 1: in this day and age, you can't be a content
Speaker 1: producer without being in some kind of TV or digital content. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the good news of the Drow show is an
Speaker 1: amazing brand and what I've learned in might travel so
Speaker 1: far is that it has great I mean you mentioned
Speaker 1: Villa Droo. People have a great feeling towards it, certainly
Speaker 1: in the industry at consumers too because people I've mentioned
Speaker 1: that nothing to do with the business, Remember Villa Droho.
Speaker 1: I saw that there production you know, their logo before
Speaker 1: the matrix, and I saw it before I analyzed this,
Speaker 1: and I saw, you know, for Mad Max. So all
Speaker 1: the movies that they invested in, um no, I think
Speaker 1: it was the strategy of the prior ownership the Australian
Speaker 1: company that their job was to finance films for Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers and by the way, did a very successful job
Speaker 1: over decades building this library with Warner Brothers of some
Speaker 1: pretty amazing films which we obviously go on or have financed.
Speaker 1: So that's what they did and that's what they were
Speaker 1: good at and I'm very grateful that they built that.
Speaker 1: So I think when Vine came in, UM, I think
Speaker 1: they looked at the business and said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna grow the company, we need to get
Speaker 1: into production. So um that's where I come in, and
Speaker 1: I think they recognized that a while ago. Unfortunately, UM,
Speaker 1: we hit it off and I was the right person
Speaker 1: to be to run the company. So essentially, we're gonna
Speaker 1: here's what the company's gonna look like going forward. It's
Speaker 1: and it's four major tempoles. One is we're going to
Speaker 1: continue to do film financing and we're currently doing the
Speaker 1: same thing with one of brothers. We've done it for
Speaker 1: decades and and uh, that's gonna be an important part
Speaker 1: of our business. We're also, i'd say tempole two is
Speaker 1: we're going to develop our own movies two to four
Speaker 1: year um, primarily for streaming services, but not not. If
Speaker 1: we find a film we like that we like to
Speaker 1: release theatrically, will consider that as well. But two to
Speaker 1: four films per year, uh probably be what we'll do there.
Speaker 1: We're gonna build a television business, not unlike what I
Speaker 1: did at Sony. Just say a smaller version of it,
Speaker 1: but will be in comedy and drama all platforms. Early days,
Speaker 1: we'll be looking mostly at streaming services um to deliver
Speaker 1: the content. It's much more predictable from a financial standpoint. UM,
Speaker 1: So we'll do that, and then we're gonna be in
Speaker 1: the production services business. Uh. So we will be producing
Speaker 1: our own content, but we'll also be worked for hire
Speaker 1: for others who need to help, uh to produce their
Speaker 1: own shows. But what I found there's are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that have great ideas sell them to cable
Speaker 1: networks or streaming platforms, but don't know how to produce them.
Speaker 1: So we will offer that service up to those who
Speaker 1: need it. So you're really in the process right now.
Speaker 1: You're you're beefing up and building all this infrastr You're
Speaker 1: based in Los Angeles, right, so we have our offices
Speaker 1: are in Century City. We also have an office on
Speaker 1: the ward of those a lot. What's really interesting is
Speaker 1: and I feel very grateful that this happened. Although at
Speaker 1: the time, UM, it was hard and you were you
Speaker 1: were actually remember this, uh, when Howard Stranger put me
Speaker 1: in charge of Sony's television business. Yeah, it was Look,
Speaker 1: it was really hard, and I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't believe we could actually build it at that
Speaker 1: time from where we were and it wasn't doing very
Speaker 1: well at all. And you remember that there was a
Speaker 1: network division and the one that iran which was cable
Speaker 1: and syndication. And over the years we built a pretty
Speaker 1: good company and we did a brick by brick and
Speaker 1: very smart about how we you know, jumped into it
Speaker 1: at the time. We got the basic cable first and
Speaker 1: then worked our way in the broadcast network and we're
Speaker 1: all genres what have you? That experience of building a
Speaker 1: company rebuilding for that, but it was it was it
Speaker 1: was rebuilding, but it was also building however you want
Speaker 1: to phrase it. But that experience was very, very valuable
Speaker 1: to what I'm doing today because the good part of
Speaker 1: it is, you know, back then when I when I
Speaker 1: took over Sony's business, we laid off about a third
Speaker 1: of the workforce, which was very painful and not not
Speaker 1: a good situation. But in order to build a business
Speaker 1: coming forward to had be done, I think we did
Speaker 1: the right way as good as you can do it.
Speaker 1: Um this we're kind of starting from ground zero. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've never had been the production business. So it's a
Speaker 1: much more productive. Um it's a happier way of doing,
Speaker 1: a nicer way because we're building it. We weren't. We
Speaker 1: didn't have to clean up anything, and um, it's it's
Speaker 1: very exciting. And there was a good core group of
Speaker 1: people there, um and finance and legal and Bruce Berman
Speaker 1: has been there for a while, came from Waters has
Speaker 1: overseeing the future division. Right, so we have a great
Speaker 1: core group. Now we're hiring out our team and so yeah,
Speaker 1: but that experience back then was was very helpful, just
Speaker 1: in terms of like how you position a new company
Speaker 1: like this, how you approach the market. You don't want
Speaker 1: to overpromise, but at the same time you want to
Speaker 1: communicate to people what exactly what you're doing, UM, what
Speaker 1: your focus is. So I'm glad and I and I
Speaker 1: and there's a part of me it thinks like all
Speaker 1: the things I've done in my career, both working on
Speaker 1: the broadcast side and studio, had actually prepared me for
Speaker 1: this moment, which is, like I said, we think a
Speaker 1: great opportunity. Um it sounds like for all of this,
Speaker 1: you've gotten a real commitment for some serious resources Vine
Speaker 1: to put into the because obviously you can't hire people.
Speaker 1: We have enough. Yeah, we're just fine. I want to
Speaker 1: build a lean, mean company. I don't the mistakes some
Speaker 1: people make when they do these types of startups, as
Speaker 1: they just get a little too far ahead of themselves
Speaker 1: in terms of hiring too many people. You know. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a what we're gonna do, which I
Speaker 1: think is fascinating, which I wish it was. It would
Speaker 1: be difficult to do with Sony just because of the
Speaker 1: way it was structured. But um, we're gonna build. I
Speaker 1: would call the studio the future in terms of how
Speaker 1: we view development. So you know, as I mentioned Bruce
Speaker 1: overseas the feature team, UM, Jillian Applebaum who works for him,
Speaker 1: her lanes primarily for features. UM. But if she as
Speaker 1: she developing a project, if it turns out it goes
Speaker 1: from being a movie to a television I would say,
Speaker 1: a long form television series, still she'll stick with it.
Speaker 1: On the same token, one of our our VP of
Speaker 1: development on TV, Adam Dunlap, if he's developing a TV
Speaker 1: show and wait a minute, turns into a movie, he'll
Speaker 1: stick with as well. So what we're trying to do
Speaker 1: is create a development situation where people kind of have
Speaker 1: their lane, but they can also crossover depending upon where
Speaker 1: the development goes. Because in the end, what you want
Speaker 1: to be able to do is tell a story the
Speaker 1: right way, delivered on the right plat form in order
Speaker 1: to make the most money and haven't be seen by
Speaker 1: as many people as possible. So we're kind of taking
Speaker 1: an approach which I think some of the platforms actually
Speaker 1: take in terms of crossing over. But I will tell
Speaker 1: you in terms as we recruit people talk about the company,
Speaker 1: that's more than one of the more exciting parts of it,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, not being a siloed, old school
Speaker 1: development type studio. You don't have a lot of trip
Speaker 1: wars because you're you're just bringing in the people. It's
Speaker 1: funny because Shannon Perry, who's doing unscripted for Uce, actually
Speaker 1: has a relationship with a company has a lot of
Speaker 1: ideas for scripted both TV and film, and so she's
Speaker 1: working closely with our with Jillian and Adam and you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's working collaboratively, and it's it's a nice it's nice
Speaker 1: to watch as I think from the type of company
Speaker 1: we are, it's the most effective way to do things.
Speaker 1: But and again just to reinforce like this, this is
Speaker 1: a new level of activity for the company that has
Speaker 1: been completely Yes in the finance side were so when
Speaker 1: I came in. Uh, it was funny because when we
Speaker 1: made the change, I wanted to meet with the team
Speaker 1: in person and uh, you know, having come from a company,
Speaker 1: when you you make those transitional announcements, it's lots of people,
Speaker 1: we said in the conference and I think it was
Speaker 1: nine people and you know there we have some people
Speaker 1: in Australia. Is still there were in finance. UM, we're
Speaker 1: building out the rest of our team. So it's I
Speaker 1: love at this point in my life. It's like I said,
Speaker 1: I've never felt more energized or more interested in the business.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we here in the bigger companies you tend
Speaker 1: to have you know, it's it's there's a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of moving pieces and in this it's just it's
Speaker 1: just it's a startup in some respects. It's a startup
Speaker 1: with I P with the real business behind it. UM.
Speaker 1: So the startup portion of it's really on the original production.
Speaker 1: So it's used to come into it. It's nice to
Speaker 1: come in when you think of a startup that you
Speaker 1: think like Okay, you have nobody. We we had a
Speaker 1: core team of people there that we're running the business.
Speaker 1: Now we're kind of bolting on this original production feature
Speaker 1: and TV. But in terms of the i P, is
Speaker 1: that what is the source of that is that older
Speaker 1: films or no. So, um, we'll see how it works
Speaker 1: out with some of the water product that's that's in
Speaker 1: the library. But mine actually owns several libraries, one of
Speaker 1: which is the Rights Your Library, so we have the
Speaker 1: ability to make agreements with them to access that i P.
Speaker 1: So things like Star Search and Nash Bridges and Lifestyles
Speaker 1: which and famous there's a lot of really you know,
Speaker 1: the Great Santini. There's some really interesting i P in there,
Speaker 1: which you know, we're getting a lot of interest in
Speaker 1: and uh so that part's exciting and what we don't
Speaker 1: want to become is a company that's just folks Is
Speaker 1: on Remax. But at the same time, UM, we think
Speaker 1: we can take some of this branded i P and
Speaker 1: use it as the way to kind of get a
Speaker 1: get ball rolling and get get out the door with
Speaker 1: some ideas and uh we'll go from there. But we're
Speaker 1: going to develop original i P as well. But there's
Speaker 1: some really great stuff in these libraries. We're gonna exploit
Speaker 1: knowing you and your sales prowess. If Lifestyles are the
Speaker 1: Rich and Famous isn't back on the air by next year,
Speaker 1: I'll be disappointed. I'm hoping it is. We We've got
Speaker 1: a lot of really good Uh you'll hear a couple
Speaker 1: of things coming up in near future with some of
Speaker 1: the I p but it's it's exciting. Do you think
Speaker 1: does Vine have an appetite for for additional acquisitions. I'd
Speaker 1: say it this way, Um, I think that there's plenty
Speaker 1: of opportunity with all the things going on in the
Speaker 1: world in terms of these companies coming together. You know,
Speaker 1: there could be some things that naturally fall out that
Speaker 1: our core to these new merged companies. So I would
Speaker 1: say it this way that you know, it's something I'm
Speaker 1: curious about and interested to keep my eye on building
Speaker 1: the company outside of what you currently see. So as
Speaker 1: much as we want to, you know, create original content
Speaker 1: both in future and TV side, Um, I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be important to we look different ways to grow
Speaker 1: the company. Yeah, um interesting. Obviously streaming is important. I
Speaker 1: mean it's that they're huge buyers of programming. But I've
Speaker 1: had a lot of producers talk to me about one
Speaker 1: of the one of the sort of game changing things
Speaker 1: about streaming is the way that shows or finance and
Speaker 1: the way they're paid for. And typically content is paid
Speaker 1: for on a cost plus model, which basically means paying
Speaker 1: the license fee plus whatever you negotiate, you know, ten
Speaker 1: twenties on a high end, thirty percent margin, and that
Speaker 1: money comes much sooner to the producer than under the
Speaker 1: old syndication model. Does that fundamentally does that shift in
Speaker 1: this market? Does that fundamentally make it easier, less um
Speaker 1: less costly than a for a producer to to for
Speaker 1: a production company Villa Drow show to enter the market
Speaker 1: as opposed to having to in the old model, having
Speaker 1: to be able to deficit finance you know, four or
Speaker 1: five seasons of a show if you're lucky to before
Speaker 1: you get to that profitability. I think a couple of things.
Speaker 1: One is, uh, it's I think this new model is
Speaker 1: allowing us to get into the business because there's been
Speaker 1: several people, big names, who have tried to get into
Speaker 1: television business and didn't really understand how it worked. So
Speaker 1: they thought, wow, I've got making twenty pilots and we
Speaker 1: got five picked up and it's fantastic. Well, the math
Speaker 1: on that's not great. You've lost a lot of money
Speaker 1: on the fifteen that didn't get picked up. And if
Speaker 1: I that did get picked up, you're not You weren't
Speaker 1: going to make any money until four or five years
Speaker 1: down the road, and then that's over a period of time.
Speaker 1: So it's easier now in some ways if you're our
Speaker 1: type of company to come into a business where there's
Speaker 1: predictable returns on your investment. Now some people would are you,
Speaker 1: I know, but you missed a huge upside. The flip
Speaker 1: side of that is if you look at the failure
Speaker 1: rate on some of these network shows in terms of
Speaker 1: going from the success ray I should say, from script
Speaker 1: to syndication hit. You know, it's like it's like kids
Speaker 1: who go to college to play basketball but think you're
Speaker 1: gonna go the NBA. Of course, you know, there are
Speaker 1: people go the NBA, but there are a lot of
Speaker 1: kids who are sitting at home not playing in the NBA.
Speaker 1: So look, it's a predictable business. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: predictable earnings attached to these streaming deals. Uh, for a
Speaker 1: big studio that's doing those kinds of deals. It's not great.
Speaker 1: That's what you're living off because you've built this huge infrastructure,
Speaker 1: global infrastructure, lots of people, lots of expensive real estate
Speaker 1: where the big where you're the ideas, I gotta get
Speaker 1: these network shows that I can then sell internationally. That
Speaker 1: justifies this big overhead. And for us, we don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: it can predictable a Netflix deal or an Amazon deal
Speaker 1: or an Apple deal where it's you know, we go
Speaker 1: to Sirius say we have a series picked up. It's predictable, upside,
Speaker 1: we cash flow of the production, we get paid at
Speaker 1: the end. That's that's you know, that's the business friend,
Speaker 1: and it's great for us. Will we do network programs absolutely?
Speaker 1: Will we be a more measured approach to it? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I think sometimes and look, part of our thing is
Speaker 1: and this was the thing we were when I was
Speaker 1: at Sony. I mean, we're Switzerland. We will be. We
Speaker 1: want to be in business with everybody, right, which includes
Speaker 1: cable networks and syndication and where it makes sense, right.
Speaker 1: So I think as you know, you you talk about
Speaker 1: you know, what we're doing as a company, there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunity to the fringe on the fringes
Speaker 1: in the business outside just the streaming services, or I
Speaker 1: think we can make smart business arrangements and haven't makes
Speaker 1: sense for our company be involved in. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: are you finding I mean right now there's no shortage
Speaker 1: of there's no shortage of buyers, but there's also no
Speaker 1: shortage of producers and production companies. Are you finding a
Speaker 1: welcome reception when you I mean, are you at the
Speaker 1: point of going out to pitch people ideas at this point?
Speaker 1: Were There have been a couple of things that come
Speaker 1: out of our library that we kind of initiated early
Speaker 1: on that we've had great response to. But there's a
Speaker 1: couple more hires I need to make before we get
Speaker 1: like full on. Um, So we're like I said, I
Speaker 1: you know, you know me well enough to know there's
Speaker 1: a part of me which I want to run out
Speaker 1: the door like on fire day one going look at
Speaker 1: you know, we're in business. But like I said, I learned,
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of valuable lessons back in the
Speaker 1: day when you know, we started up at Sony, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of re engineering the company that you don't want
Speaker 1: to get too far ahead of yourself I mean, I
Speaker 1: I plan on this being a long term, you know venture,
Speaker 1: So kind of the steps we make early days have
Speaker 1: to be the right ones. I don't want them to
Speaker 1: be missteps. So we get a couple of the right
Speaker 1: people in place, But there were a couple of obvious things,
Speaker 1: um that we had an opportunity to take out, and
Speaker 1: we're working on. But but yeah, so the response, Look,
Speaker 1: there's spons has been great and there's one. Not to
Speaker 1: sound like the get off your lawn, get off my
Speaker 1: law guy, but the one valuable lessons I passed on
Speaker 1: to my kids and I pass on any the younger
Speaker 1: people I bump into through I mean, on the board
Speaker 1: of l m U and speak to a lot of
Speaker 1: colleges and high schools. You know, it does matter. Um,
Speaker 1: your reputation is important, and how you handle yourself through
Speaker 1: your career is important, and how you treat people is important.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I learned during my I took
Speaker 1: time off in between my time with Sony and al
Speaker 1: Villa Drow show, is you know, all those things you
Speaker 1: think maybe that matters to you but didn't matter other
Speaker 1: people's people, they do matter. So not only have I
Speaker 1: been overwhelmed by the rest Fonst. Village road Show and
Speaker 1: the good feelings forwards them. It's been I'm grateful for
Speaker 1: some of the nice things people said to me about
Speaker 1: coming back into the business and re entering it with
Speaker 1: this company. And uh so the people stuff has always
Speaker 1: mattered to me. And uh you know, when you're in
Speaker 1: a big company, there's a lot of political forces and
Speaker 1: it's tough doing business and you gotta make difficult decisions,
Speaker 1: but you can do it in a way where you
Speaker 1: maintain your dignity and friendships and morals and ethics. And
Speaker 1: I think you know, I did my best along the
Speaker 1: way to keep all those things in check. So the
Speaker 1: Steve Moscow brand is strong. Well, it gives me faith
Speaker 1: in humans when that stuff matters. So what would you
Speaker 1: say has been the hardest or the most surprising thing
Speaker 1: that you have found as you are starting to build
Speaker 1: out these other areas. I'll be honest with you. I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed every minute of it. I Mean I knew coming
Speaker 1: in that it would be different than working for a
Speaker 1: big studio. So things like um, like when you thinks
Speaker 1: that would have been done by people that work for you,
Speaker 1: I'm doing them now, right, You are so and I
Speaker 1: not really, but you know, but they're like things like, um,
Speaker 1: you just have to work a little harder to prove
Speaker 1: the people how you know, how much you want to
Speaker 1: be in business with them. So things like like there
Speaker 1: were meetings in the past where I was said, oh,
Speaker 1: if you want to do that, come to my office.
Speaker 1: Now it's like I'm going to them. So I think
Speaker 1: so if there's and my making this up because you know,
Speaker 1: but like Jimmy Miller is a friend of mine, Mosaic
Speaker 1: and we're working on some things together. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of times people will come to the studio for
Speaker 1: those kinds of being I've been very aggressive and saying no,
Speaker 1: I will, I'll come to your office. I'll make it
Speaker 1: easy for you. So I don't know, I've just enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I've enjoyed every minute. And I really just this is
Speaker 1: exactly what I wanted to do with this part of
Speaker 1: my career. So even like hiring people, um, taking meetings,
Speaker 1: like I knew what it was going to be different
Speaker 1: and I was ready for it. So, um, I I
Speaker 1: don't know that anything has been hard. The one I
Speaker 1: will say this, and it's not hard, it's just different.
Speaker 1: This is really a right brain left brain job. So
Speaker 1: when I came into the company, it was kind of
Speaker 1: funny that, Um, the first month UM we had, I
Speaker 1: was evacuated my house in Westley Village for the fires,
Speaker 1: so I was out of that for a week. Um,
Speaker 1: then the holiday. I mean, there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: going on. We had to prepare a five year plan.
Speaker 1: We had a board meeting, so then Christmas comes and
Speaker 1: then we had and then I go on the road
Speaker 1: to meet with some of the limited partners and I
Speaker 1: was in Tallahassee and Toronto and New York. Then I
Speaker 1: came back and I had like a creative meeting from
Speaker 1: the shows were developing. So the really interesting, fascinating part
Speaker 1: of this job now is using like I'm using all
Speaker 1: the tools in my toolbox. I sit in front of
Speaker 1: bankers and talk about what are what we're doing to
Speaker 1: build a company. Then the next day I'm talking to
Speaker 1: managers and agents and talent saying this is why you
Speaker 1: ought to be in business with us. That's why I
Speaker 1: love about it. And if I need it, if I
Speaker 1: need anything, I'm getting it myself. And it's fun. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I I think a lot of people who
Speaker 1: are in my position now I've struggled with this notion
Speaker 1: of like, well, my parking space used to be right
Speaker 1: there and my name was on it, and I had
Speaker 1: a fruit basket and everybody came to see me and
Speaker 1: bump up all that stuff. None of that matters to me,
Speaker 1: you know. I'm just, like I said, I'm enjoying building
Speaker 1: the company, working with the people at Vine who are terrific, uh,
Speaker 1: like building our plan and we're gonna build a company
Speaker 1: out I at the expectations of what it could be.
Speaker 1: You know, we haven't gone out running our mouth off
Speaker 1: about how great gonna be. We'll let our work kind
Speaker 1: of show for it. And like I said, I'm actually
Speaker 1: just grateful I handled myself that I did coming through
Speaker 1: because people actually want to be in business with us,
Speaker 1: If it makes sense. It's so great that you had
Speaker 1: that bad meeting with the Vine Alternative Alternative Investments. It's bizarre,
Speaker 1: actually because but it was meant to be. And actually, uh,
Speaker 1: after I left Sony, like I said, I was very
Speaker 1: lucky form the standpoint at the time to really make
Speaker 1: the right decision. But um, I always had this weird
Speaker 1: feeling that something like that was gonna happen, because like
Speaker 1: I said, I, you know, I was the Sinclair situation
Speaker 1: was one where podcast and you know, my first job
Speaker 1: in television, I was hired by David Smith's father. So
Speaker 1: that goes back forty years from Baltimore. UM, A couple
Speaker 1: of things popped up, but it's funny how things happened.
Speaker 1: This was the one the one thing I would I
Speaker 1: will tell you though, because you're saying that that you
Speaker 1: know what was the difficult part of it of joining
Speaker 1: Village road show Horst part. The one thing I did,
Speaker 1: which I would give advice to anybody whose sizes making
Speaker 1: any kind of career change is try to find things
Speaker 1: you can do in your day that are consistent with
Speaker 1: what you did when you were working. So in other words,
Speaker 1: like I get up really early and wanting to go
Speaker 1: work out before you had when you were I like,
Speaker 1: my mornings were pretty set, Like I wake up a
Speaker 1: certain time really early, and I lived for what ways
Speaker 1: out of town, so I drive in, workout and got
Speaker 1: to work. I kept that exact schedule in the morning, UM,
Speaker 1: every day after I left. So when I went, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I went back to the village, I went back
Speaker 1: to work, Like my mornings start off exactly the same
Speaker 1: way they had forever. So it wasn't that I thought
Speaker 1: that would be a big change, but it wasn't. The
Speaker 1: transition was great and and I enjoyed every second. And
Speaker 1: I was in between Sony and Village. That's great. Well
Speaker 1: you kept your discipline. Yes, now I understand in addition
Speaker 1: to launching, you know, building out this company, launching these
Speaker 1: this whole new division of the company, you've also taken
Speaker 1: to podcasting yourself. I have to tell me about your podcast.
Speaker 1: It's called unsung Ly. So, um along, I wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure I kept my mind sharp, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: amongst other things. But there was a guy I worked
Speaker 1: with at Sony when I first came Sonny and Bill Benson,
Speaker 1: and he was my assistant. He was paying his way
Speaker 1: through school and we remained friends over the years. Look
Speaker 1: him up. He has a company. He has a thing
Speaker 1: called a mental gym, and he's a very very smart
Speaker 1: and great guy. Anyway, what I had set out to
Speaker 1: was write a book on leadership when I left Sony,
Speaker 1: and what I realized along the way was that we
Speaker 1: need a couple more hooks, uh and build too. And
Speaker 1: Bill was co writing it with me. So anyway, um,
Speaker 1: we decided we would do a podcast as a way
Speaker 1: to kind of get these more stories and leadership whatever.
Speaker 1: And what we realized is that there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people in the entertainment business or in lots of
Speaker 1: businesses who are leaders, but their leaders with publicists and
Speaker 1: are great self promoters. And by the way, good for them.
Speaker 1: We're not knocking what they do. But what we also
Speaker 1: came to realize was that there are people in life
Speaker 1: that are great leaders but you hear nothing about. And
Speaker 1: it could be a teacher in some small town that
Speaker 1: does something special or you know, I live in Thousand
Speaker 1: Oaks area, and when they had the mass shooting, um,
Speaker 1: people just step up. And they're not looking for to
Speaker 1: be noted, to be honored, to be you know, any
Speaker 1: of those things. They just didn't because it was the
Speaker 1: right thing. So we want to down the road of
Speaker 1: finding people who did amazing things or amazing leaders that
Speaker 1: you've never heard of. And uh, we did ten episodes
Speaker 1: and uh then I went back to work and now
Speaker 1: we're trying to figure out the scheduling. But Steve Moscow,
Speaker 1: your energy and enthusiasm for this new gig is palpable.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to you, Good luck, and come back and visit
Speaker 1: us and tell us how think how great things are
Speaker 1: going for Village Road Show in a in a year
Speaker 1: or so. And Synthea, thank you, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1: And uh like I said, you've always been the shining
Speaker 1: star in your industry for me and uh so, anyway,
Speaker 1: it's just great to reconnect and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks Steve, thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in
Speaker 1: next week for another episode of Strictly Business