Speaker 1: Welcome to Made by Women, a new podcast by the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio. At a
Speaker 1: moment when businesses face some of the biggest challenges in
Speaker 1: recent history, we bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and
Speaker 1: shared learnings to help you successfully navigate in today's environment.
Speaker 1: Every Thursday, Made by Women will showcase the experiences of
Speaker 1: legendary women, entrepreneurs, fierce up and comers, and everyday women
Speaker 1: who found success their own way. Consider this your real
Speaker 1: world n b A designed for the new Now. I'm
Speaker 1: Kim Azzarelli and thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Most career paths aren't a straight and narrow line, and
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. Da Brow. Martin Chase graduated from
Speaker 1: Harvard Law School in the early eighties and practiced law
Speaker 1: for the better part of the decade. Her love for
Speaker 1: films and an interesting career opportunity led her to the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry, where she would become the icon who brought
Speaker 1: us fan favorite films like The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood
Speaker 1: of the Traveling Pants, and The Cheetah Girls. Most recently,
Speaker 1: her company, Martin Chase Productions produced Harriet, the critically acclaimed
Speaker 1: film based on the life of the underground railroad freedom
Speaker 1: fighter Harriet Tubman. Debra is the first black woman to
Speaker 1: produce a film that grossed over a hundred million dollars,
Speaker 1: and to date her films have grossed over half a
Speaker 1: billion dollars at the box office. In this episode of
Speaker 1: Made by Women, Seneca Women's Sharon Boone interviews her longtime
Speaker 1: friend Deborah Martin Chase. Here how Debora got her start,
Speaker 1: the ways she updated her business approach to stay current
Speaker 1: through changing times, and how she worked her way to
Speaker 1: the top of an industry notoriously tough on women, especially
Speaker 1: black women. Enjoy their conversation, Debora, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining me today. I'm Made by Women. Happy to
Speaker 1: be here, Sharon, So Deborah for our listeners. How did
Speaker 1: a Harvard Law school graduate end up working in motion
Speaker 1: pictures and television? I have always loved film and television.
Speaker 1: My dad was the biggest film and television buff that
Speaker 1: I ever knew, and so I grew up in a
Speaker 1: household where we talked about movies at the dinner table.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was that kid that sat in
Speaker 1: the movie theater all Saturday afternoon and watched up over
Speaker 1: and over again. And you know, I also realized how
Speaker 1: important the images that I saw on screen were to
Speaker 1: my p O V on the world. And then the
Speaker 1: themes even though you're you know, you are realizing and
Speaker 1: at the time, you know, had the messages and the
Speaker 1: themes had a huge impact on my development as a person.
Speaker 1: So it was always the dream. I didn't know anybody
Speaker 1: in the entertainment business. I had no idea how to
Speaker 1: get into it. So I went to law school and
Speaker 1: I practiced for a few years and constantly talked about
Speaker 1: getting into the entertainment business. And finally just reached that
Speaker 1: point in my life where you know, I was a
Speaker 1: really good lawyer, but I didn't love it. And I
Speaker 1: was like, if not, if I don't try to get
Speaker 1: into the entertainment business now, then when would I ever
Speaker 1: do it? So I jumped off the cliff. So dere
Speaker 1: we then, what was your first job in the in
Speaker 1: the industry? You did you follow in love with it
Speaker 1: right away or did it take you some time to
Speaker 1: to find your place? You know, Listen, Like I said,
Speaker 1: it was like a dream come true. So I actually,
Speaker 1: while I was still practicing law, I spent a year
Speaker 1: learning about the business and I knew that I wanted
Speaker 1: to come up with the ideas for movies and television,
Speaker 1: and that was either a producer or you know, kind
Speaker 1: of inside the the system, it was a studio executive
Speaker 1: for two years. Columbia Pictures had an executive development program
Speaker 1: that was started by the then chairman, Victor Kaufman that
Speaker 1: was designed to bring people into the industry from different disciplines.
Speaker 1: But you know, I came in as an experienced lawyer,
Speaker 1: So I ended up spending the first year in the
Speaker 1: legal department because they had like an experience lawyer who
Speaker 1: was willing to work her butt off and they didn't
Speaker 1: have to pay me. And then my my and my
Speaker 1: big break was I sat next to the new chairman,
Speaker 1: Frank Price, at a program luncheon and we hit it off,
Speaker 1: and about two months later he brought me up to
Speaker 1: be his executive assistant and that I went with him
Speaker 1: to all of his meetings. I read scripts for him.
Speaker 1: We would sit in the evening in his office and
Speaker 1: I got to ask any questions that I wanted to
Speaker 1: about the decisions he had made throughout the day. He
Speaker 1: really just wanted me to learn um and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I was pinching myself. It was like I worked super hard.
Speaker 1: I made no money in Retrospect. I look at it
Speaker 1: as my graduate school, but I was your training in
Speaker 1: the thick of it. Yes, exactly, exactly from the hands
Speaker 1: of you know, Frank in Retrospect was one of the
Speaker 1: last of the old fashioned studio bosses, so learning right
Speaker 1: from him. So that's amazing. So that was that internship
Speaker 1: gave you a foot in the door, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: hopefully that happens for people today to to get that
Speaker 1: foot in the doors. It's hard. It's really hard. It's
Speaker 1: really it's gotten harder because just the business has become
Speaker 1: more corporate. There's a group of us that are really
Speaker 1: trying to make a difference. So so look that experience.
Speaker 1: Why did you decide to start your own production and company?
Speaker 1: What was the sport that really drove you to do that?
Speaker 1: You know, it just became inevitable thing. It wasn't so
Speaker 1: much that I planned it. After working with Frank for
Speaker 1: six months, I was a studio executive at Columbia Pictures,
Speaker 1: and then I went to run Denzel Washington's production company
Speaker 1: for four years, and then I partnered with Whitney Houston
Speaker 1: and we started a company at Disney and that was
Speaker 1: for five years. And when that company kind of came apart,
Speaker 1: you know, I started and it was I had Princess
Speaker 1: Diaries was in the can, but it had not come
Speaker 1: out yet, and in my gut, I felt that the
Speaker 1: movie was going to be something special. But I started
Speaker 1: going on interviews and and basically, you know, I was
Speaker 1: interviewing with prominent white male producers who had companies to like,
Speaker 1: come in and you know, probably be their number two person,
Speaker 1: and I just said, I don't, this is not what
Speaker 1: I want to do. Yes, So being number two didn't
Speaker 1: That wasn't a good concept for you. It's not the
Speaker 1: number two so much. It's that I didn't want to
Speaker 1: work to realize their visions, you know, the movies that
Speaker 1: they wanted to make. I had realized, or I had
Speaker 1: come into my own creative voice and vision, and I
Speaker 1: realized that if I was gonna, you know, do anything,
Speaker 1: it was time for me to to explore that. And plus,
Speaker 1: there weren't any black women making movies. So I just
Speaker 1: kind of fell into it. And what really happened is
Speaker 1: I just decided again I kind of banked on Princess
Speaker 1: Diaries being something, and so I was, you know, out
Speaker 1: of work for a few months, and I just said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna wait until the movie comes out,
Speaker 1: because if it is a success, it put it would
Speaker 1: put me in that next league up. Thankfully it was,
Speaker 1: and I ended up, like the second week it was out,
Speaker 1: the head of the student at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: Jacobson at Disney called me and gave me my own deal,
Speaker 1: which we didn't realize at the time, but maybe the
Speaker 1: first black woman producer to have a deal at a
Speaker 1: major studio, which is Bathless. Now, were there any tough
Speaker 1: moments sort of along that path, you know, that made
Speaker 1: you sweat or wonder whether it was gonna happen at all,
Speaker 1: or you're just confident that it was just gonna all
Speaker 1: work out. Strictly doing that that the period a few
Speaker 1: months before the movie came out, and when you know,
Speaker 1: our company ceased to be I remember, I would sit
Speaker 1: out on my patio here in Los Angeles at night,
Speaker 1: would not in my stomach and I would just say
Speaker 1: to myself, Okay, I just don't believe that I have
Speaker 1: come this far to fail. I mean, really, it was
Speaker 1: an act of faith at that point. Not to just
Speaker 1: take a job, but to to to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: bet on myself that something would happen with the movie
Speaker 1: and for me. Where do you think that strength came from?
Speaker 1: What made Juice so strong when you face those those
Speaker 1: obstacles at the time, You know, it boils down to faith,
Speaker 1: faith in yourself and just kind of you know, faith
Speaker 1: in the universe. Like I said, I just kept saying,
Speaker 1: I can't believe that the universe would bring me this far.
Speaker 1: And I know I knew that I had put in
Speaker 1: the time and the energy and the hard work and
Speaker 1: the passion. You know that I just didn't think that
Speaker 1: all of that would be for not that I would
Speaker 1: be rewarded for for everything, but you know it was
Speaker 1: I bet on myself, which is I encourage people to
Speaker 1: do because at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 1: you have to. Yeah, that's great advice for particularly for
Speaker 1: the women entrepreneurs who are listening to us today, and
Speaker 1: it's clearly paid off. You know, among your work, you've
Speaker 1: produced some some of the most beloved franchises. You know,
Speaker 1: we mentioned the Princess stories. You know, the Sister had
Speaker 1: the t on Pants, one of my favorites. The Cheetah girls.
Speaker 1: How did you land such big films? I mean, did
Speaker 1: you think that you could ever be so successful? When
Speaker 1: I was in really starting things up, I didn't allow
Speaker 1: myself to really focus on the inequities in the marketplace.
Speaker 1: You know, the fact that as a black woman, you know,
Speaker 1: basically I started out having to prove to the industry
Speaker 1: that somebody who looked like me was capable of producing
Speaker 1: mainstream movies, where my white male counterparts we're just like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm here, like, you know, how am I gonna How
Speaker 1: am I gonna make a lot of money? But I
Speaker 1: just kept my eyes were on the prize, and I
Speaker 1: think it did help that this was a second career
Speaker 1: for me. So I had the knowledge that, you know,
Speaker 1: look if push came the shop and I failed fabulously,
Speaker 1: you know, and and was flat on my face, that
Speaker 1: I could always you know, hang a shingle out as
Speaker 1: a lawyer and you know, put a roof over my head.
Speaker 1: But you know we were going to let you do that.
Speaker 1: So listen, how many times did I sleep on your
Speaker 1: u in that that bedroom? I know, I know, I know,
Speaker 1: But when I looked around the industry, you know, at
Speaker 1: that time, Basically, if you were a black producer, you
Speaker 1: were only making black product, whereas every you know, white producers, male, female,
Speaker 1: Hispanic producers were making black product as well. So I
Speaker 1: went to the agencies. At the time, I was with
Speaker 1: the William Morris agency, but I went to all of
Speaker 1: them and I said, look, you need to send me
Speaker 1: the stuff that you send the white producers. Don't just
Speaker 1: send me the stuff that you think I should be doing.
Speaker 1: Let me make that decision. I had produced Rogerson, Hammer, Stunts, Darrella,
Speaker 1: and the unpublished manuscript for The Princess Diaries came to
Speaker 1: William Morris. It had been turned down by I don't
Speaker 1: know fifteen publishers, but the agent called me. He said, well,
Speaker 1: you just did Cinderella. I thought that this might be
Speaker 1: up your alley. And I read the book that night
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, I get this, and you know,
Speaker 1: sold it to Disney. And then that, you know, success
Speaker 1: helps you get more success in the sense that you know,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I was on the map as
Speaker 1: an established producer. Actually, the sister of the Traveling Parents
Speaker 1: was one of the few things like Kevin McCormick, who
Speaker 1: was a senior executive at Warner Brothers actually called me
Speaker 1: after Princess Diaries and the book had been out and
Speaker 1: was a success, and he said, you know, again, I
Speaker 1: thought this might be something you'd be interested in. Read it,
Speaker 1: immediately loved it. You know, knew it had a huge
Speaker 1: fan base, and you know, made those movies. We know
Speaker 1: that those great ideas always need funding to really become
Speaker 1: a reality. And you know, personally, I've always been appalled
Speaker 1: by the lack of access to capital for women own businesses,
Speaker 1: with such a small percentage lists and five percent of
Speaker 1: funds for your capital going to women o businesses, and
Speaker 1: a small percentage of bank loans. You know, yet you know,
Speaker 1: women control like a large percentage of purchasing power. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that the film industry is not immune from this either.
Speaker 1: So how did you tackle sort of this mismatch with
Speaker 1: a great idea? But do you have problems getting funding?
Speaker 1: You know, of the stuff I've done has been financed
Speaker 1: by the major movie studios or television slash cable networks.
Speaker 1: I just I've been you know, I'm saying based in
Speaker 1: Disney for fifteen years. You know, I've just been in
Speaker 1: that pool. But that being said, there's a long stretch
Speaker 1: in there. Know, it probably ended maybe five years ago,
Speaker 1: where the studios and the network nobody was interested in
Speaker 1: stories about people of color, nobody were interested in stories
Speaker 1: about women. And while I have done other things, that
Speaker 1: is clearly my bread and butter, my my passion is
Speaker 1: you know, telling those stories and shattering stereotypes and and
Speaker 1: projecting you know, complex interesting images for both groups. And
Speaker 1: I found myself kind of throwing stuff up against the wall,
Speaker 1: you know, because the people weren't interested in what I
Speaker 1: was really interested in. I couldn't get the stuff I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Finance and the other stuff just wasn't
Speaker 1: meaning anything to me. It was a little tough period,
Speaker 1: but the journey was a good journey. You know, Listen,
Speaker 1: I've learned. Someday, I said, I'm going to write a
Speaker 1: book about what I've learned about life from from Hollywood,
Speaker 1: because you know, I've learned about faith. I've learned, know,
Speaker 1: We've been reinforced that you've got to you know, believe
Speaker 1: in yourself, as I said earlier, and it's also particularly
Speaker 1: It's always been true, but particularly in these times where
Speaker 1: the world and culture and politics is changing so rapidly,
Speaker 1: you have to stay nimble and you have to stay open.
Speaker 1: But you know, for a producer in Hollywood to have
Speaker 1: a home for fifteen years at a major studio, and
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful, but I realized that I had gotten stale.
Speaker 1: That I you know, I was doing business in the
Speaker 1: same way that I've been doing it for fifteen years
Speaker 1: at the same company, in the same way, and everything
Speaker 1: had changed. I had changed the business and changed, the
Speaker 1: world had changed, the company has changed. You know, I
Speaker 1: think your tendency when you've had some success, it's just
Speaker 1: to drill down on how you've been doing things, because
Speaker 1: you figure you just it's just another wall, when in fact,
Speaker 1: this was a sea change, and so thankful I took
Speaker 1: a step back. I diminished my overhead for for nine
Speaker 1: months and just kind of opened myself back up to
Speaker 1: new ideas and new ways of thinking about product and
Speaker 1: the business. And it really it was like the perfect
Speaker 1: thing because it just positioned me to reboot, relaunch myself
Speaker 1: and my business. So, you know, given today's conditions and
Speaker 1: you're you're describing that you you made a pivot at
Speaker 1: that time, and looking at the the world today, a
Speaker 1: lot of companies have had to pivot their business models
Speaker 1: and their operations due to the pandemic um has has
Speaker 1: your business been reshaped? Have you had to pivot again
Speaker 1: during this time? No, thank you. I am so grateful.
Speaker 1: I that pivot put me in position to being really
Speaker 1: good through this pandemic. And I said this at the outset,
Speaker 1: it's you know, there there were businesses that had old
Speaker 1: business models at the start of this that we're just
Speaker 1: hanging on. And so the pressure from the shutdown and
Speaker 1: and everything you know that we're going through took them
Speaker 1: out right. Because what I've learned is you have to change.
Speaker 1: You have to stay abreast of what's going on and
Speaker 1: stay you know, relevant. It's like you have to keep
Speaker 1: your business model current because you never know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And I think unfortunately, we've seen a lot of businesses
Speaker 1: that that may not come back and sort of you know,
Speaker 1: in that vein for for that entrepreneur who missed it
Speaker 1: the first go around and needs to pivot to survive
Speaker 1: going forward. Is there one piece of advice that was
Speaker 1: critical to your success that you could tell our listeners
Speaker 1: about to day. I know you mentioned being nimble and
Speaker 1: being current, Nimble, current and open, and as I said,
Speaker 1: I think open is really important in the sense that
Speaker 1: it's human nature to keep doing things, particularly again if
Speaker 1: you if you've had some success, to continue to do
Speaker 1: things in the same way, because there's a comfort level
Speaker 1: that obviously sets in. But you have to be willing
Speaker 1: to look at things from other points of view and
Speaker 1: other perspectives and question your assumptions periodically so that because
Speaker 1: things are changing so rapidly, the technology is changing so rapidly,
Speaker 1: our culture is changing so rapidly. I was listening last night.
Speaker 1: Obviously the state of Mississippi just got rid of the
Speaker 1: Confederate flag, you know, as part of its flag, and
Speaker 1: they were saying that in a poll a year ago,
Speaker 1: over fifty of Mississippians did not want to change the flag.
Speaker 1: Here we are a year later, and over fifty wanted
Speaker 1: to change the flag. So so what, you know, it's
Speaker 1: been a year. You gotta stay on top. Things are
Speaker 1: changing all the time, and that's going to impact your
Speaker 1: business and how people respond to you. I think about
Speaker 1: the power of the movie you've done, and you know,
Speaker 1: starting not to think about Harriet in this moment in time,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was sort of thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: you know, your story is always reshaped. Sort of the
Speaker 1: images and some of the misperceptions that you know, many
Speaker 1: of us are sort of grappling with. Right now, what
Speaker 1: would Harriet do today? The thing about Harriet's life that
Speaker 1: is so inspirational is putting it mildy, but also I
Speaker 1: think so relevant for right now is that she was
Speaker 1: born a slave and destined to be a slave her
Speaker 1: entire life. But she said no, and she decided that
Speaker 1: she was going to change the course of her life,
Speaker 1: her family's life, many other black people's lives, and in
Speaker 1: doing all that helped changed the course of our nation.
Speaker 1: Look at what has come out of the protests. You
Speaker 1: know that people said enough, we're not taking this anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, we all have the ability, we have a voice,
Speaker 1: and whether we use it individually in you know, in
Speaker 1: our homes or in our churches, our schools, or whether
Speaker 1: we're using it in the streets to peacefully peacefully protests,
Speaker 1: and we got to use it at the ballot box.
Speaker 1: But I think you know, carry it stands for standing
Speaker 1: up for your right, standing up for what you believe in,
Speaker 1: standing up for you know, your freedoms. They mentioned at
Speaker 1: the very beginning of our interview that you know, we've
Speaker 1: known each other for many, many, many years, and and
Speaker 1: how many amazing friends we have in common. Can you
Speaker 1: tell me how it's important? Have you know those networks
Speaker 1: spent to you? And what and what advice would you
Speaker 1: give like the young person as to how do you
Speaker 1: how would someone build a network? My female friendships like you,
Speaker 1: my dear female friends, have been invaluable to me. I
Speaker 1: went to Mount Holio and Wellesley me. I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: a women's college graduate. I believe in the power of
Speaker 1: women and and friendships and our collective power. Particularly you know,
Speaker 1: when I came to Hollywood and I was alone in
Speaker 1: many ways, you know, the path, the road not traveled
Speaker 1: I was taking, and particularly at that time because there
Speaker 1: were so few opportunities for black people and for women
Speaker 1: in general, there was that kind of cutthroat mentality. So
Speaker 1: you're all, you know, I was having to look over
Speaker 1: your show there, and so I just having this amazing
Speaker 1: network of friends in like you and New York and
Speaker 1: d C Chicago really kept me, you know, just connected
Speaker 1: and grounded. And we you know, Sharon, we would go
Speaker 1: out to dinner with you know, a little group of us.
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, we go to dinner and we
Speaker 1: talked about what we were each going through in our
Speaker 1: own realms and we would recognize the you know the
Speaker 1: similarities of the challenges and just you know, show each
Speaker 1: other up emotionally and nothing else much less you know,
Speaker 1: with information and you know, helping each other practically where
Speaker 1: we could, But the emotional support was key. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been keeping having you in my life and you've been
Speaker 1: a huge supporter and you know, I love you, Jearlie
Speaker 1: in any event, but it just reminded me. I was
Speaker 1: on a call with young Black women partners at the
Speaker 1: majority firms and young Black women general accounts so in
Speaker 1: and some of them talked about, particularly now, the sort
Speaker 1: of the isolation still being the only one and grappling
Speaker 1: with how you even have conversations, you know, and this
Speaker 1: with the civil unrest, and I encourage them to reach
Speaker 1: out to each other and to make sure we continue
Speaker 1: to use our network to support each other. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just so important to be able to pick up
Speaker 1: the phone and ask that girlfriend, like, you know, this
Speaker 1: happened to me? Am I crazy? Or did this happen
Speaker 1: to you too? Absolutely, they're common things that we go
Speaker 1: through and so just being able to first of all,
Speaker 1: be able to talk about it and not hold it inside,
Speaker 1: you know, just starts the process of resolving it or
Speaker 1: figuring out how you're going to handle it. But then
Speaker 1: also just to be able to share experiences is critical.
Speaker 1: It is critical. So in that vein that was so
Speaker 1: with the young I'm not entrepreneurs listening to us right now,
Speaker 1: who is thinking about, you know, writing her own script
Speaker 1: and her own future and looking for those tools and
Speaker 1: resources that they made need to achieve their dreams. Now,
Speaker 1: what would be that one big piece of advice that
Speaker 1: you would give that person? I think for one of
Speaker 1: it is figure out what you really want to do,
Speaker 1: you know, what really means something to you, Because whatever
Speaker 1: you choose to do, you're gonna have to work really
Speaker 1: hard at it. You know, we all know, we all
Speaker 1: listen to our mothers and our our our grandparents, and
Speaker 1: we know that it's still if you're black, you know,
Speaker 1: and as women, you gotta work twice as hard in
Speaker 1: order to get you know, half half. That's just that's
Speaker 1: still the reality. So if you're going to put that
Speaker 1: kind of time, effort, dedication, passion, commitment into something, make
Speaker 1: sure it's something that is meaningful to you, that you
Speaker 1: really care about and that you really think that you
Speaker 1: can make a contribution through. I guess it's like the
Speaker 1: other side of that is, don't be afraid to go
Speaker 1: for what you want, right, I mean, you know their
Speaker 1: boxes and and it's really it's it's kind of easy
Speaker 1: to go into a box, but create the life that
Speaker 1: you want to live. For that person who is afraid
Speaker 1: and who's afraid to try because they they're afraid they
Speaker 1: may fail, what do you say to that person? I mean,
Speaker 1: I can only tell you from my own experience. When I,
Speaker 1: you know, jumped off the cliff for entertainment, I said,
Speaker 1: I just I didn't want to wake up, you know
Speaker 1: now at this age and just be filled with what
Speaker 1: a cold and shoulda if only if nothing ventured, nothing game.
Speaker 1: If you don't try, you'll never know what do you
Speaker 1: have to lose? You don't just jump out there willie nilly,
Speaker 1: but make taking calculated risks is part of success. From
Speaker 1: some of my failures, I've learned an enormous amount. So
Speaker 1: that's part of the journey. It's up and down. You know,
Speaker 1: not everything is success, but those those failures and what
Speaker 1: you learn from them and learning just how to pick
Speaker 1: yourself back up and keep going because that makes you
Speaker 1: less afraid going forward. It's all part of success. That's great.
Speaker 1: So what's next, brah So when when the pandemic hit,
Speaker 1: I was on the eve of shooting two network TV
Speaker 1: pilots and the you know, very small silver lining in
Speaker 1: this whole pandemic is that one of the pilots for
Speaker 1: CBS got a straight two series order. And that's a
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about it. It's a congratulations, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. You know, we we again realized after the fact,
Speaker 1: I'm probably the first or second non writing, non directing,
Speaker 1: executive producer and network black female in network television. So
Speaker 1: it's a reboot of the nineteen eighties television series The
Speaker 1: Equalizer starring queenland Tifa, who's a dear friend. And this
Speaker 1: is so we're so excited about it. Chris Noth from
Speaker 1: Mr Big from Sex in the City is also in it.
Speaker 1: Lorraine Tussa, but it's you know, if there were ever
Speaker 1: a time for a show about a strong black woman
Speaker 1: who helps those people whom the system has let down
Speaker 1: to find justice and find hope, you know, it could
Speaker 1: be a better time than that. That's huge. It's huge.
Speaker 1: It's a big deal. My other pilot was for NBC.
Speaker 1: It's a black succession set in Harlem that I'm doing. Um,
Speaker 1: Malcolm Lee, you know who directed Girls Trip and Best
Speaker 1: Man Movies. He's my uh producing partner. He and he'll
Speaker 1: direct the pilot and this fabulous black woman writer Carla
Speaker 1: Waddles wrote the script. So we're excited about that too.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, so I'm excited about what's on
Speaker 1: the horizon when we get out of COVID life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is that is so fantastic. De you know, congratulations.
Speaker 1: I really want to thank you so much for sharing
Speaker 1: your story and for joining the show. You know how
Speaker 1: much this means to me personally, and it's just so
Speaker 1: so grateful to to have you in my life, and
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today for Made by Women.
Speaker 1: I want to thank Sharon for leading such a great
Speaker 1: conversation and Deborah Martin Chase for sharing her incredible story
Speaker 1: with us. What an inspiration to women in the entertainment
Speaker 1: industry and to women everywhere. So a few takeaways from
Speaker 1: this conversation really had an impact on me. First, we're
Speaker 1: not bound to one career path, and Deborah is proof
Speaker 1: of this. As a law school graduate from a prestigious university,
Speaker 1: she could have easily stayed on one path for her
Speaker 1: entire career, but Debora refocused on her love for film
Speaker 1: and had a strong sense of purpose and wanted to
Speaker 1: pursue a career she was passionate about. Deborah was open
Speaker 1: to all the amazing opportunities that then came her way. Second,
Speaker 1: a secret to deborah success has been her ability to
Speaker 1: keep her business model current in the ever changing work world.
Speaker 1: As Deborah shares quote, you have to change, you have
Speaker 1: to stay abreast of what's going on, and you have
Speaker 1: to stay relevant. Lastly, a strong network of trusted friends
Speaker 1: is key for any successful business. As Debora and share
Speaker 1: and share years of talking to each other through career challenges,
Speaker 1: shared experiences and lessons learned has provided each of them
Speaker 1: with the emotional support and trusted perspective they needed to succeed.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us, See you next week.
Speaker 1: Made by Women is brought to you by the Seneca
Speaker 1: Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support from
Speaker 1: founding partner PNG