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 for Variety Today. My guests are three top
Speaker 1: entertainment bankers from City National Bank who have spent the
Speaker 1: past three weeks dealing with a blizzard of loan applications
Speaker 1: for the federal government's paycheck protection program. Martha Henderson is
Speaker 1: Executive VP and Manager of Entertainment Banking. Lorie Badgett is
Speaker 1: Senior VP and team leader, specializing in Nashville and the
Speaker 1: music industry. Stephanie Dalton is Senior VP and team leader
Speaker 1: specializing in Broadway. The three breakdown the details of the
Speaker 1: Small Business Administration's payroll relief program for businesses with five
Speaker 1: hundred or fewer employees. We spoke last week just as
Speaker 1: the initial three hundred forty nine billion allocated to the
Speaker 1: program ran out, but now it's poised for a new
Speaker 1: influx of funding as early as this week. The industry
Speaker 1: veterans also discussed the scope of the need out there
Speaker 1: and how they are advising clients through an unprecedented crisis.
Speaker 1: Martha Henderson, Lorie Badgett and Stephanie Dalton of City National Bank,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking time out on what
Speaker 1: is an insanely busy time for the three of you
Speaker 1: to give Variety listeners a sense of the scope of
Speaker 1: the Paycheck Protection Program, which is an unprecedented federal loan
Speaker 1: program that kicked in a couple of days ago, and
Speaker 1: as I understand it, you three have pretty much not
Speaker 1: slept since. Let's start with you, Martha. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: what the significance of this federal program means and what
Speaker 1: kind of need you have seen from your clients in
Speaker 1: the entertainment arena. Uh, it's certainly this is unprecedented, and
Speaker 1: I've been working with the entertainment in industry as a
Speaker 1: banker for more than forty years and this is the
Speaker 1: first time we've ever come across anything like this. So
Speaker 1: it's completely new for the clients and it's completely new
Speaker 1: for us, and it is um We are trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that the companies that we deal with within
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry survive and and get through what is
Speaker 1: an unprecedented time. So the government came up with this
Speaker 1: p p P program and we are doing We did
Speaker 1: do everything we possibly could to get this program to
Speaker 1: as many people in the industry as possible, and truly
Speaker 1: the bank did that throughout the rest of the bank,
Speaker 1: to anybody that's in our community. We were trying to
Speaker 1: do an outreach, and I think the bank as a
Speaker 1: whole and the entertainment department we stopped everything that we're doing.
Speaker 1: All two d and fifty colleagues that we have were
Speaker 1: almost to the person, focused on getting as many applications
Speaker 1: as we possibly could could get. And that's because we
Speaker 1: knew there was a time frame that the money was
Speaker 1: going to run out, and so we wanted to get
Speaker 1: as many through as we possibly could so that these
Speaker 1: companies can pay their colleagues and get them back to
Speaker 1: work and we will all be back up working as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible. So that's our hope, and that's what
Speaker 1: we were focused on and what we were doing. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: The to Martha's point, I was just gonna add, it
Speaker 1: was really sort of a true team effort just across
Speaker 1: the bank to kind of move mountains to get this
Speaker 1: done for clients. It was our operation. Folks are bankers,
Speaker 1: um credit folks, the leadership team, everybody just really came
Speaker 1: together and in sort of the CNB Way. Um of
Speaker 1: just um getting out there quickly for our clients, helping
Speaker 1: them through the process, answering questions, helping them figure out
Speaker 1: how to fill the forms. Um. You know, these were
Speaker 1: a lot of people that really wanted the money and
Speaker 1: and it was very important to them. So we just
Speaker 1: really pulled together as an entire division. Um like nothing
Speaker 1: we've ever seen before. Again, to Martha's point, it's it's unprecedented,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of it was just an amazing effort. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think we saw so many you know, we
Speaker 1: received so many emails from from clients just recognizing how
Speaker 1: important it was and how much they appreciated everything we did.
Speaker 1: That was really it really felt made us feel very
Speaker 1: rewarded for everything that we helped them accomplish. And Stephanie,
Speaker 1: you work in the Broadways, in the in the area
Speaker 1: of Broadway in banking, what specifically did you find what
Speaker 1: was the specific need in the Broadway community. Well, it
Speaker 1: was you know, um, it was really sort of the
Speaker 1: similar need that that companies needed across the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1: I mean, everything just completely came to to a close,
Speaker 1: and you know, the opening of Broadway is still unfortunately
Speaker 1: uncertain at this point. So a lot of the production
Speaker 1: companies and general management offices needed assistance to kind of
Speaker 1: stay aflow and take care of their employees and keep
Speaker 1: their employees um going. So it was it was very
Speaker 1: much similar in terms of the rest of the industry.
Speaker 1: M HM and Lorie, you are coming to us from
Speaker 1: Nashville to how is Music City dealing with this? Wow,
Speaker 1: music City has been really hit hard. Um, as you're
Speaker 1: well aware, over the past five to ten years, Nashville
Speaker 1: itself as a community has been booming like nothing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. I'm a Nashville native, and I've never seen
Speaker 1: this much growth and and so much happening in the town,
Speaker 1: both obviously on the entertainment side, but also just tourism
Speaker 1: and people coming here. Um to have Broadway and all
Speaker 1: of our honky tonks shut down, I mean, that's such
Speaker 1: a vibrant place. Um. You know, our Country Music Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame is closed down. UM, never mind, just on
Speaker 1: the music side, every tour has been canceled and postponed
Speaker 1: to the fall, and we just hope and pray that
Speaker 1: we can congregate again in the fall. You know, it's again,
Speaker 1: it's just this uncertainty that everybody feels no matter what
Speaker 1: you know, the government says, if we're open or not open,
Speaker 1: you know, what do we feel as a community, Where
Speaker 1: do we feel safe? And how do we make um
Speaker 1: these places? And touring has has been the lifeblood of
Speaker 1: the music business since the beginning, but especially with streaming
Speaker 1: and and you know, record sales going away, the touring
Speaker 1: has always been the mainstay, and now that's in jeopardy.
Speaker 1: So um. I think it's been really interesting and fun
Speaker 1: as a fan to see how musicians and and artists
Speaker 1: are doing these at home concerts and things. But you've
Speaker 1: got to know they're not making money. So if you're
Speaker 1: a fan of any artist out there that's doing these
Speaker 1: things and and giving you your sanity during this time
Speaker 1: that we're all locked at home, you know, by their merchandise,
Speaker 1: by their records, you know, support these artists because this
Speaker 1: is this is their livelihood, and this is what they
Speaker 1: do and they're giving you free entertainment. So there is
Speaker 1: so much pain out there. Martha, Can you talk us through,
Speaker 1: as you did the other day to help me greatly
Speaker 1: with the story. Can you just talk us through the
Speaker 1: bare bones of what the paycheck protection program offers and
Speaker 1: who it's for UM. It's for companies that have colleagues
Speaker 1: of less than five hundred five or less. That probably
Speaker 1: should say. And what it's trying to do is keep
Speaker 1: America working and these companies up and running and these
Speaker 1: small businesses. And so people are able to apply to
Speaker 1: be reimbursed from the federal government after a period of
Speaker 1: time for the colleagues that they keep working. So if
Speaker 1: they have ten colleagues or a hundred colleagues, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter. They can apply to have their payroll covered
Speaker 1: for that period of time. So that's one dollar amount.
Speaker 1: And then there's some additional kinds of addition of UM
Speaker 1: refunds that they will make. They really get into it's
Speaker 1: very specific. But in addition to that, you also can
Speaker 1: apply for rent and UM utilities. Now that yet rent
Speaker 1: and utilities are not granted or refunded to you at
Speaker 1: at at the end of the time, but if you
Speaker 1: are able then to keep up with your payments, it
Speaker 1: does allow you to pay. You can use up to
Speaker 1: of the dollar amount that you ask for for rent
Speaker 1: and UM utilities, and then they'll turn that out over
Speaker 1: a period of time at a very low interest rate.
Speaker 1: So most of the people that we're seeing are applying
Speaker 1: just for the UM, the payroll portion of it, so
Speaker 1: that they can keep all of their colleagues. And that's
Speaker 1: one of the rules. You have to keep all of
Speaker 1: your colleagues working for an eight week period of time.
Speaker 1: And that's what you're applying for, is UM eight weeks
Speaker 1: worth of payroll, and that it will be at some
Speaker 1: point in the future that you'll be reimbursed or you
Speaker 1: just won't have to pay that portion back. It will
Speaker 1: be it will be re burst and pay off the
Speaker 1: loan so that you don't have to pay off the loan.
Speaker 1: The loan is at one percent interest rate, so it's
Speaker 1: a very very favorable interest rate. And UM it really
Speaker 1: is making a huge difference for these companies there. They
Speaker 1: really want this, They really want their colleagues to get
Speaker 1: back to work and be able to have that staff
Speaker 1: so that hopefully in the next six to ninety days
Speaker 1: America's back a lot of these companies are back out
Speaker 1: working again. And what UM for any of you, Like,
Speaker 1: how are people even sort of determining the amount that
Speaker 1: they might want to apply for given that it's so
Speaker 1: hard to see the end of when you know, when
Speaker 1: this crunch and this lockdown and the shuttering of all
Speaker 1: of these venues and productions may come back. How do
Speaker 1: you plan for something like that. Well, for the loan
Speaker 1: program there it's very specific. They're going to give you.
Speaker 1: They're going to pay for two months worth of payroll,
Speaker 1: and so that's what you're able to apply for. As
Speaker 1: I said, there's a little bit of you know, adding
Speaker 1: and subtracting. You you can't have colleagues paying colleagues over
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. Those get subtracted to subtract everything
Speaker 1: over the hundred thousand dollar levels. So it does get
Speaker 1: very specific about how you calculate this, and we can
Speaker 1: help the client walk through some of that. Those are
Speaker 1: some of the conversations that we have with them, and
Speaker 1: so do their c pas and business managers and people
Speaker 1: like that help them very much and putting this all together.
Speaker 1: But that is what this is covering. At this point.
Speaker 1: We suspect that the government's going to do have Plan B.
Speaker 1: There'll be another plan that will be coming out, you know,
Speaker 1: over over time. We don't know when that's going to be,
Speaker 1: what it's going to look like, or who's going to
Speaker 1: qualify for, but there's other programs I know that the government.
Speaker 1: M Uh, Stephanie or Lorie, can you give a sense
Speaker 1: of the amount the dollar amounts that some of your
Speaker 1: clients have been applying for, just trying to get a
Speaker 1: sense of the range of need. Well, it's really it's been,
Speaker 1: it's been all over again. It depends on sort of
Speaker 1: payill size of the company and that that determines what
Speaker 1: they qualify for. So it could be as small as
Speaker 1: you know, ten thousand dollars, even five thousand dollars, and
Speaker 1: then we've had larger requests. I think the maximum might
Speaker 1: be ten millions, not not, is that right? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the maximum loan is ten million, but I would say,
Speaker 1: you know, our average size was was far less than that,
Speaker 1: so we had you know, we may have a few
Speaker 1: of that would apply that high, but really the average
Speaker 1: size was probably a couple hundred thousand, I would guess, Martha, right,
Speaker 1: it might be in the three food allar range, but
Speaker 1: around Yeah, So it's that's that's pretty much, you know.
Speaker 1: So you think about that, that's that's eight weeks worth
Speaker 1: the paywall for many companies, and so you know you're
Speaker 1: covering probably fifty colleagues and at that point, LORI anything
Speaker 1: anything that you're UM seeing. In terms of scope of
Speaker 1: the need, it's like Stephanie said, it's all over the place.
Speaker 1: And based on the entity, I will say that we've
Speaker 1: had a lot of UM, blood, sweat and tears helping
Speaker 1: our nonprofits. That's been a real focus for the whole
Speaker 1: bank UM. And of course nonprofits can meet anywhere from
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars to twenty thousand to UM. You know,
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand. Nashville probably has a lower UM level
Speaker 1: as far as average loan size. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you think about every touring artist has a corporation and
Speaker 1: they have employees to take care of of these tours
Speaker 1: that have been planned for a year in advance UM
Speaker 1: and production costs and everything else. UM, and now it's
Speaker 1: just stopped. You know. UM, this is just such a
Speaker 1: a net that is so needed in this space. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking it could go down to as you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of the costs, it could be. It could
Speaker 1: be as granular as you have an artist that has
Speaker 1: had a hundred thousand t shirts printed up that says tour,
Speaker 1: and it might at that tour may not even happen
Speaker 1: until too or you know, till I mean, I'm a
Speaker 1: thing that that for all of you, your clients are
Speaker 1: are having to think about different you know, just different
Speaker 1: scenarios and what what again, what the need might be.
Speaker 1: Help me understand though, from what you're saying, it sounds
Speaker 1: like there are some kind of criteria as to the
Speaker 1: amount that a company can apply for. Is it so
Speaker 1: it's based on like existing payrolls? Is that? How? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You are. Yeah, there's a specific sort of calculator that
Speaker 1: they use based you know, looking on sort of the
Speaker 1: historical payroll that they were carrying, and there's a calculation
Speaker 1: off of those figures. So you can you can't just
Speaker 1: have said, you know, oh, I this is a business
Speaker 1: like you have to have obviously you have to have
Speaker 1: a track record and you know, yes, you had you
Speaker 1: had to be in business I think before a date
Speaker 1: and it's like February twenty or something that this you
Speaker 1: had to be in business and had to have had
Speaker 1: payroll by that. So, um, yes, there's some as I said,
Speaker 1: there's some specific kinds of qualifiers that go along with
Speaker 1: all of this, and that is what these the two
Speaker 1: officers that are on this call This is what they
Speaker 1: did all day long, was trying to help walk people through, Yes,
Speaker 1: you'll qualify for this, but you don't qualify for that,
Speaker 1: and you need to take out this and be sure
Speaker 1: that you don't do that, and and walk them through.
Speaker 1: And then there's you know, they ask for documentation and
Speaker 1: people are helping them with obtaining that documentation to apply
Speaker 1: because the s B A it is it's an SBA
Speaker 1: loan to them, and they want to see all the
Speaker 1: right things because they want to make sure they're actually
Speaker 1: giving the money to someone who's in business and is
Speaker 1: using it prepareroll and to you know, their company to
Speaker 1: thrive and survive, um, not just um someone that came
Speaker 1: in off the street that we don't know and can't
Speaker 1: prove who it is, and that they're getting the money.
Speaker 1: So that's exactly what we're trying. That's we're kind of
Speaker 1: the frontline for the for the s B. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: really I was going to say the difficult part of
Speaker 1: all of this was it was a brand new program, right,
Speaker 1: so it was eight three pages that we had to
Speaker 1: study ourselves and figure it out with the client and
Speaker 1: go that sounds right, but you know, let's check this
Speaker 1: and that and get pieces of paper and ask the questions.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind, we're doing all of this. Most
Speaker 1: everyone's working remotely right now, serybody's at home trying to
Speaker 1: You can't walk to the office next door and say, hey,
Speaker 1: is this how you're doing it? Is this what you're seeing?
Speaker 1: Is this? I mean it was totally everybody kind of
Speaker 1: jumping in. Like Stephanie said, it was just a herculean
Speaker 1: effort of everybody coming together on the credit side, on
Speaker 1: the deposit side, on the loans. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: like every part of the bank has been involved with this.
Speaker 1: Did you find that this is especially smaller companies sometimes aren't,
Speaker 1: but they're certainly not as rigorous with record keeping and accounting.
Speaker 1: Was this something that people had to scramble to put
Speaker 1: their hands on or was it that the documents and
Speaker 1: information needed was something that you know, any professionally run
Speaker 1: company would have on hand. You know, it's all over
Speaker 1: the board a little bit. Because if there are a
Speaker 1: small company that didn't necessarily have a CFO or a
Speaker 1: you know, a cp A that was helping them, they
Speaker 1: might they might need more help. But most of our
Speaker 1: clients do have a business manager or a c p
Speaker 1: a someone that is sort of helping helping them through that.
Speaker 1: So fortunately we could kind of intermediary with their advisors
Speaker 1: as well and make sure that they got completed correctly,
Speaker 1: which you know, the advisors were a big part of this.
Speaker 1: They really did help. Um it made the process much
Speaker 1: more simple for their client. Would you say that there
Speaker 1: was awareness among your clients that this that this particular
Speaker 1: pot of money. I mean, we all read the headlines
Speaker 1: about the two trillion dollar stimulus bill, but you know,
Speaker 1: the very breaking down the components of it and the
Speaker 1: hey you could apply for this. Was that kind of
Speaker 1: your job to educate your clients or did you find
Speaker 1: people calling you and they knew about it and they said,
Speaker 1: help help me do this. I'm gonna let the two
Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, I mean they they you know, everything
Speaker 1: literally just came to an halked so you know, the
Speaker 1: I mean, the brakes went on right away. So I
Speaker 1: think everybody all of a sudden was thinking, well, jeez,
Speaker 1: where can I go to to have some belief or
Speaker 1: some help. And they knew about the program, and I
Speaker 1: guess the question was was city national participating right? Because
Speaker 1: not every not every bank participated in this SBA program.
Speaker 1: So once they first ball was are you participating in this?
Speaker 1: And then the answer was yes. And then that's when
Speaker 1: we really joined at the hip with these clients not
Speaker 1: in those trenches, and just kind of worked this throw
Speaker 1: and figured out how to get the applications builed out
Speaker 1: and submitted, because it was very much of a first
Speaker 1: come first sort of kind of basis in terms of
Speaker 1: getting those applications in as quickly as we could process
Speaker 1: them as quickly as we could before um, you know,
Speaker 1: we knew that eventually the fund would run out, so um,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of hard work and a great
Speaker 1: effort across the line to really just move it, move
Speaker 1: it along quickly as quickly as possible. M hm, that's true.
Speaker 1: I agreed it was. It was a floodgate of people,
Speaker 1: you know, it was. It was literally around the clock work, um,
Speaker 1: trying to get everything done for everybody that needed it.
Speaker 1: But loris that you represent in music, a lot of
Speaker 1: artists are their own you know, uh, cottage industries, unto themselves,
Speaker 1: and that there even even there, there was awareness that
Speaker 1: this program that they could that they could be a
Speaker 1: part of it. Absolutely, and some of it was um,
Speaker 1: like Martha had mentioned through the business management community that
Speaker 1: was a large driving force. UM and you know, otherwise
Speaker 1: it was word of mouth. And and honestly, even with
Speaker 1: the New York and the l A and the Nashville Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's really a small industry when you boil
Speaker 1: it down, no matter geographically where people are located. UM,
Speaker 1: word gets around fast, um on something like this, And
Speaker 1: and we were just glad we were able to get
Speaker 1: everything pushed through. And and just to follow up on
Speaker 1: Lorie's point in terms of being a small industry, I mean,
Speaker 1: we've always had this hometown feel as a bank, uh,
Speaker 1: in terms of how we take care of our clients
Speaker 1: and the level of service we bring them. And I
Speaker 1: think that the way this was managed for them was
Speaker 1: just sort of an extension of that philosophy that we've
Speaker 1: always had because we've always taken um a great amount
Speaker 1: of pride in giving back to the communities that we're in.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, during such an unprecedented, unprecedented time,
Speaker 1: it's extremely you know, it was extremely important that we
Speaker 1: found a way to give back now. Yeah, And and
Speaker 1: to that point, you know, with the two million dollars
Speaker 1: the bank gave to the different communities for the country
Speaker 1: music community. We actually contributed to uh, the Academy of
Speaker 1: Country Music has a Lifting Lives charitable arm um for
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen and we've given out over a million dollars
Speaker 1: to hundreds of people within five days, UM in the
Speaker 1: music community, who are musicians, who are songwriters, who are
Speaker 1: people who may or may not make rent, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And and that was a perfect example of the country
Speaker 1: music community pulling together very quickly and getting this money
Speaker 1: literally in the hands of people back quickly. UM. So
Speaker 1: it's really a proud moment for us. We've seen in
Speaker 1: you know, amid all of this, we've seen incredible acts
Speaker 1: of generosity and kind of let me ask you, what
Speaker 1: would be for a bank, what's the what's the bank
Speaker 1: calculation in terms of do I want to participate or
Speaker 1: not in this? It would seem like at this time
Speaker 1: it would be it would be hard for a bank too,
Speaker 1: it has commercial client to to not participate in something
Speaker 1: like this. Well, you know, UM, we've all kind of
Speaker 1: talked a lot about the sheer volume of this and
Speaker 1: and really truly we did shut we did shut down
Speaker 1: to the department and did this for three weeks. UM.
Speaker 1: So it means that you have the ability and can
Speaker 1: do it and take it on and so many you know,
Speaker 1: I'm saying many, but some institutions just said, hey, I
Speaker 1: don't have the ability to service the client and get
Speaker 1: this done reasonably. UM, And so I'm not going to participate.
Speaker 1: That's just my guess. I think that's that's really it. UM.
Speaker 1: And we all came together in a very short period
Speaker 1: of time. I think we are very very fortunate in
Speaker 1: this division, and that we have all work together more
Speaker 1: than ten years, and many of us more way more
Speaker 1: than that, UM. And so we have a shorthand with
Speaker 1: each other. I can say something and the two women
Speaker 1: on this call, well, oh yeah, I'll call these three
Speaker 1: people and get that taken care of. Because we kind
Speaker 1: of know what to do and how to manage things.
Speaker 1: But we've been doing it for such a long period
Speaker 1: of time. We walk, we kind of walking and say, well,
Speaker 1: we say the same things, we do the same things.
Speaker 1: It's probably the hardest part for us is that we're
Speaker 1: going to have so many to now document our normal
Speaker 1: level of service will not we can't. We just it's
Speaker 1: going to take longer time to get some of these
Speaker 1: pieces of paper back out now to the client. So
Speaker 1: that's probably the hardest thing that the three of us
Speaker 1: would tell you, you know right now is Okay, we're
Speaker 1: not going to get to turn documents in twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: We just can't. Now, it's going to take three days
Speaker 1: or whatever the time frame is to get all of
Speaker 1: these documents typed up out two people and then back again.
Speaker 1: M hm. Now we're talking on April seventeen, and two
Speaker 1: days ago, Treasury Secretary Steve Manuchin basically said announced that
Speaker 1: this particular fund is out of money. From what you're saying,
Speaker 1: you you all clearly knew that it was going to
Speaker 1: be a race, a race to get that money. It
Speaker 1: sounds like that a lot of what you were telling
Speaker 1: your clients like we don't have time to we don't
Speaker 1: have time to waste. You you you knew from your
Speaker 1: I'm guessing from your experience with Treasury programs and such
Speaker 1: that you knew that people that it was going to
Speaker 1: be a first come, first served type of situation. We
Speaker 1: knew there was a dollar amount that they had and
Speaker 1: that if we wanted to get the community out, we
Speaker 1: needed to do it very We need to mobilize fast
Speaker 1: and get it done, and that's exactly what we focused on. UM.
Speaker 1: Right now where there's reports that you know that that
Speaker 1: Congresses is obviously looking at stimulus part two, right, UM,
Speaker 1: do you I realize it's a hard, hard question, but
Speaker 1: just from working with it now you know for solidly
Speaker 1: for three almost three weeks. Do you have a sense
Speaker 1: so the initial grant for this program was three dred
Speaker 1: and fifty billion, do you have a sense of what
Speaker 1: the what the need out there could be like? Could
Speaker 1: they could they need their need for another billion? Does
Speaker 1: it need to be more than three another three billion?
Speaker 1: What do you think? Um? You know there's a very
Speaker 1: different program that's out there for the larger companies. Not
Speaker 1: the largest companies for sure, but there's the next trench
Speaker 1: of companies, which you know, there's a lot of colleagues
Speaker 1: that work in those companies and that's really what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do is keep people working, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: But I couldn't even come from close to guessing. I
Speaker 1: can tell you that the next one may not be
Speaker 1: exactly the same people that will qualify who you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what they're going to be doing,
Speaker 1: but clearly there is a larger need than what has
Speaker 1: been filled with the first time. There is no question
Speaker 1: whether it's another tranche the same size that probably could
Speaker 1: be eaten up pretty quickly without thinking. Um, but you
Speaker 1: know what the number is, I don't know and whether
Speaker 1: that's the right answer. You know, certainly there's states, um,
Speaker 1: states that are doing different things and cities that are
Speaker 1: doing different things, and so you have to look at
Speaker 1: all the various opportunities that are going to be coming
Speaker 1: out there, and people are trying to come up with answers,
Speaker 1: and I applaud that because this is clearly going to
Speaker 1: be an unprecedented time and how do we face this
Speaker 1: and how do we get through it? Do you do
Speaker 1: the three of you? Do you have clients that would
Speaker 1: have liked to but just didn't get there in time
Speaker 1: to in the PPP? Yeah, yeah. We we literally received
Speaker 1: packages the day that it got cut off, and we
Speaker 1: couldn't you couldn't have processed all of the ones that
Speaker 1: we had, so and there were other clients that said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get it in you guys know that's
Speaker 1: right now. Absolutely. I wouldn't say there was a high
Speaker 1: volume of those. I think we we we really, we
Speaker 1: really got a lot through for our clients, but there
Speaker 1: there were some that just started trying to enter it
Speaker 1: in and it was it was done, The fund was
Speaker 1: was was out. Yeah. And in terms of like did
Speaker 1: the Treasury Department like send you an email or like
Speaker 1: how did did they let you know or did you
Speaker 1: learn from Steve Manuchin when he announced it to the world.
Speaker 1: I think you want to go him. We knew we
Speaker 1: could tell by what the dollar amounts were each day,
Speaker 1: so you kind of knew that it was going down, right, guys,
Speaker 1: you were looking at them and yeah. And then so
Speaker 1: I had kind of predicted Wednesday. I was worried that
Speaker 1: it was going to be Wednesday, and it made it
Speaker 1: till Thursday. So I think we got another twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: I was that's great. Yeah. Are you um, I mean,
Speaker 1: I would imagine again, in this crazy unprecedented time, are
Speaker 1: you at the point of even being able to advise
Speaker 1: clients a little more long term on like, you know,
Speaker 1: in addition to the whatever federal programs may come, like
Speaker 1: you know, planning how to you know, how to plan
Speaker 1: for reopening, how to plan for maybe reopening on a
Speaker 1: smaller scale kind of thing. Are you even at that
Speaker 1: point of conversations with clients. Yet I'm like, yeah, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think those are a lot of conversations that the
Speaker 1: individual industries you know, are having. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know, Broadway has lots of different meetings, lots of
Speaker 1: different task forces figuring out, you know, how do we
Speaker 1: open up, uh and keep the safety of you know,
Speaker 1: it's not just the audience. It's the actors and actresses
Speaker 1: and you know who are on the stage. It's the
Speaker 1: musicians and the orchestra pit. A lot of people, um,
Speaker 1: you know involved with those lights going on on Broadway.
Speaker 1: And so I'm sure everybody's studying a lot of different
Speaker 1: scenarios figuring out when is really the right time and
Speaker 1: really um looking to you know, uh, government and testing
Speaker 1: and all sorts of things. It's it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: going to be an interesting process to see how they
Speaker 1: kind of arrive at when it's when, when it's ready,
Speaker 1: you know, when when when they can open and what
Speaker 1: that will look like. And I would imagine just again
Speaker 1: from a financial you know, from an individual company type
Speaker 1: of financial perspective, there's got to be an expectation that
Speaker 1: there will be additional costs. You know, if a Broadway
Speaker 1: theater has to you know, take temperature swipes as people
Speaker 1: walk in the door. You know, somebody's got to pay
Speaker 1: for that service, and that I mean, I'm just thinking
Speaker 1: the more you think about it, that the costs and
Speaker 1: the the ramifications of opening even at an individual company
Speaker 1: by company, not you know, sector wide obviously a lot
Speaker 1: of planning and things, but just for individual companies, the
Speaker 1: level of unknowns must be so must be very difficult
Speaker 1: right now for people trying to plan to run a business.
Speaker 1: That's right. And I think different age brackets have a
Speaker 1: different thought process about when they'll go get in in
Speaker 1: a large group. Like I might think that it's harder
Speaker 1: to get into a large group, but um Lori's uh daughters,
Speaker 1: Stephanie's son would definitely feel like, well I could do that.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're they're just you know, the younger
Speaker 1: you are, the less you're going to be as subject
Speaker 1: to fear factors. I think, mm hmm, Laura, you were
Speaker 1: going to say, I was just gonna say, I think
Speaker 1: the fun part is working with creative people. I mean,
Speaker 1: the ideas are just unbelievable in how to manage this.
Speaker 1: Because I mentioned the A. C. M. S earlier. We
Speaker 1: were supposed to have a live award show April five
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, right, and so you know that got
Speaker 1: postponed into September six, and will we be allowed to
Speaker 1: gather by then, you know, we hope so. Um. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, within a four or five day window
Speaker 1: are producers pulled together and a wonderful at home show
Speaker 1: that still aired on CBS, and you know, I don't
Speaker 1: Country music just just really gave people an insight to
Speaker 1: the different artists living rooms and their children and they're
Speaker 1: playing and it was just it was a really special
Speaker 1: moment that that this community needed really badly, and the
Speaker 1: fans could not have loved it anymore. So I think
Speaker 1: the creativity comes out and you start figuring out, Okay,
Speaker 1: well we can't do what we've always done, so how
Speaker 1: are we going to do it? And how are we
Speaker 1: gonna make money doing it? Right? That's the that's the
Speaker 1: difficult part is figuring out the financial side of things.
Speaker 1: Because our creatives are so you know, their their ideas
Speaker 1: are endless, but it's like, how do we monetize it?
Speaker 1: And how do we keep food on the table? That's right?
Speaker 1: And you know, my family was, you know, keeping keeping
Speaker 1: track of commenting on every single person that was on
Speaker 1: on that show and oh did you see this? Did
Speaker 1: you see that? So there is this opportunity to maybe
Speaker 1: do things differently without everybody getting in a stadium all
Speaker 1: at the same time. So we don't all I mean,
Speaker 1: we're all talking about this. We don't know what the
Speaker 1: answer ultimately will be. I just think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of hope when you see a show like that where
Speaker 1: there is a way of monetizing that if if smart
Speaker 1: minds get together and figure out Yeah, and it's big business.
Speaker 1: I mean when you think about an artist and you
Speaker 1: think about their management companies and their agents, the booking agents,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean like the amount of people that
Speaker 1: it takes to get one too or up and running.
Speaker 1: It's it's hundreds of people, um that actively work on that.
Speaker 1: And then it's like nope, never mind, you go okay.
Speaker 1: So it's just been heartbreaking. Is there anything else, anything existing,
Speaker 1: any other existing federal programs or state programs that you
Speaker 1: know of that could be helpful for small business is
Speaker 1: at this time ongoing? You know, not maybe not something
Speaker 1: as specific as the p p P program, but any
Speaker 1: any you know, business development or or sources of funding
Speaker 1: that you're aware of that might that you think might
Speaker 1: be important first for small businesses in the entertainment space.
Speaker 1: I know that there was another spam program. I think
Speaker 1: it was the relief program that was available to clients,
Speaker 1: which was completely separate from the one that UM we
Speaker 1: participated in. And I think it was a program where
Speaker 1: you just went directly to the s b A and
Speaker 1: you didn't need a bank as an intermediary. So I
Speaker 1: know that was another option through the s b A.
Speaker 1: UM and you couldn't get this loan if you've done
Speaker 1: the other right, right, Yeah, gotcha, And otherwise it goes
Speaker 1: back to our nonprofits. And you know, Music Health Alliance
Speaker 1: is a total health care based organization that helps anyone
Speaker 1: in any genre. Music Cares again has has done an
Speaker 1: amazing of taking good care of anybody in the music
Speaker 1: industry that falls on hard times, during a pandemic or otherwise. UM,
Speaker 1: and then you've got UM. You know, all these different
Speaker 1: organizations have a charitable arm and they're always looking for
Speaker 1: the right people to help. So these are perfect instances.
Speaker 1: And thankfully where we sit, we know who needs the
Speaker 1: help and can legitimately stand up for and go to
Speaker 1: these organizations and say, you've got to help this person
Speaker 1: because there's there's nobody else who can. Even if we
Speaker 1: can't as a bank, you know, for our guidelines and regulations,
Speaker 1: we at least have places that we can go. Do
Speaker 1: you have a sense in terms of um the companies again,
Speaker 1: the smaller you know, five and fewer employees, how many
Speaker 1: of them were basically in a strong position until this
Speaker 1: incredible black swan you know, came into the came into
Speaker 1: the picture. I mean, do you feel like they, for
Speaker 1: the most part, this was a healthy industry. This is
Speaker 1: a temporary shock that they will get over. Do you
Speaker 1: think we're going to see a lot of business failures
Speaker 1: coming out of it, you know, businesses that just won't
Speaker 1: restart or just won't be able to get their legs
Speaker 1: once once the you know, the social distancing guidelines are
Speaker 1: a little east. I like to think optimistically that again,
Speaker 1: touring was the backbone of entertainment and now that's been challenged.
Speaker 1: So I think we're going to find new ways to
Speaker 1: make money on in music. And I think all of
Speaker 1: us again who have been home for so long, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, music is one of those things that helps
Speaker 1: you through, whether it's you know, going for a run
Speaker 1: and having your music with you or or whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be. But I like to think that we'll
Speaker 1: find a way. And like I said, for Nashville community,
Speaker 1: Nashville was so strong before and had never experienced a
Speaker 1: boom like we've had the past five or ten years.
Speaker 1: And now it's at a standstill. So Nashville will rise again.
Speaker 1: We had floods ten years ago, we had tornadoes, deadly
Speaker 1: tornadoes early March that flattened commune of these and music
Speaker 1: venues and you know, and and then this on top
Speaker 1: of it. Um, But somehow, you know, these communities just
Speaker 1: pull together and we figured it out and we take
Speaker 1: care of each other, right. And I would say it's
Speaker 1: similar similar to Broadway. I mean, they had a few
Speaker 1: really strong years heading into this, so um, you know,
Speaker 1: January and February typically slow months, and then it closed
Speaker 1: in March. But hopefully, um, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: strong shows out there, have big advance ticket sales that
Speaker 1: will help, you know, sustain them. I think the real
Speaker 1: question is what will happen to those shows that that
Speaker 1: were either in previews or in rehearsals, and you know,
Speaker 1: That's where there's a bit more of a question mark
Speaker 1: in terms of, um, will those shows have the financial
Speaker 1: ability to sort of sustain the shutdown and then open
Speaker 1: when it's time to eventually open. But um, it's sure
Speaker 1: will be great to walk into a Broadway theater again,
Speaker 1: and you know, I mean, the demand is going to
Speaker 1: be there. The demand will be there. It's just a
Speaker 1: question of getting everyone feeling safe to go, I think. Martha, Lori, Stephanie,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time and for your insights.
Speaker 1: I know this has been a busy time for you.
Speaker 1: We greatly appreciate it. Thank you, Cynthia, thank you, Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, Cynthia h thanks for listening. Be sure to
Speaker 1: tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.