Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the first ever episode of Strictly Business,
Speaker 1: a new podcast from the most authoritative brand in media
Speaker 1: and entertainment news, Variety. I'm the co editor in chief
Speaker 1: at Variety, Andrew Wallenstein, and in just a minute you're
Speaker 1: gonna hear me interview the very special guests of this
Speaker 1: podcast premiere, Kevin Hart's, recorded on stage March twenty one,
Speaker 1: the Variety's annual event, massive, the Entertainment Marketing Summit. But first,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to tell you a little bit about
Speaker 1: what you can expect from Strictly Business. The title says
Speaker 1: it all, really, this podcast is squarely focused on the
Speaker 1: biz part of show biz. Variety journalists, including myself and
Speaker 1: our managing editor of Television, Cynthia Littleton, we'll sit down
Speaker 1: with top decision makers from TV, film, digital and other
Speaker 1: areas of the media world for interviews. They give insights
Speaker 1: into how they conduct their businesses and how they see
Speaker 1: the trends shaping the industry at heart. Now you might
Speaker 1: be asking yourself, sounds great, Wallenstein, but why on earth
Speaker 1: does a comedian like Kevin Hart belong on a podcast
Speaker 1: like this? He's just talent. But that's where you're wrong.
Speaker 1: In addition to being a box office sensation, he's quietly
Speaker 1: built at a growing range of businesses in Hollywood, and
Speaker 1: as you're about to hear, Heart aspires to be a
Speaker 1: bona fide mediamocal. So thanks for checking out this first
Speaker 1: episode of Strictly Business, and make sure you subscribe to
Speaker 1: this podcast after you're done listening to Kevin Hart. Thanks
Speaker 1: for coming over. Kevin really appreciate it. No problem, out
Speaker 1: of busy schedule, no problem. I like how you just
Speaker 1: hop right into it. Hello, everybody, very very intimate room.
Speaker 1: I like it. Good. Good. Now, Look, we all know
Speaker 1: you Kevin Hart, the movie star, JUMANGI, the Riot Along
Speaker 1: movies and all that, the big deal, the big well
Speaker 1: you've got. You've got some big deals going on. On
Speaker 1: the side, we want to explore the side of you
Speaker 1: as a businessman. You are doing so much in so
Speaker 1: many places, from touring books, the laugh Out Loud Network,
Speaker 1: Heartbeat Production Company. Serious, Yes, am I forgetting anything? And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, you know, I getting a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: Um No. The brand of Kevin Hart, uh you know,
Speaker 1: has become a larger one. You know, so from the
Speaker 1: laugh Out Loud Network to having a laugh out Loud
Speaker 1: channel serious like you said. Um, also you know the
Speaker 1: Heartbeat Productions and the growth of my company now um
Speaker 1: having Heartbeat Digital. Also underneath the Heartbeat Productions Umbrella New
Speaker 1: Generations Promotion, which is a marketing company that I started. Um,
Speaker 1: you know my touring which acts as a separate entity
Speaker 1: because I own that as well. It's just I've I've
Speaker 1: just put myself in a position to try to control
Speaker 1: as much as I possibly can. And I want the
Speaker 1: business side of Kevin Hart to catch up to the
Speaker 1: actor and the comedian. And I think these are all
Speaker 1: things that are putting me in position to do that.
Speaker 1: And when they do, they all service one another. You know.
Speaker 1: The goal is to have a complete circle that just
Speaker 1: continues to go around and round health services each other.
Speaker 1: Was this your vision and was it division from the
Speaker 1: beginning or was it once you got to a certain
Speaker 1: level of fame you said, Okay, I gotta capitalize on
Speaker 1: those Um. You know you I don't think it was
Speaker 1: an immediate vision of mine. I think it's something that
Speaker 1: I discovered. You know, when you when you're working, you
Speaker 1: realize that your work for hire. You know, you're you're contracted,
Speaker 1: uh entertainer. You know you work when they need you
Speaker 1: to work, or if something comes along and they feel
Speaker 1: like you're the right person for it, then you're hired. Uh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear a bunch of nose. Ultimately that gets
Speaker 1: you to the one yes. But these things weren't consider
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, I want to put myself
Speaker 1: in a position where I can have consistency, and the
Speaker 1: only way to do that is to control. So the start,
Speaker 1: the starting, the starting conversation behind the production company is
Speaker 1: one that I had with my team, my manager, and
Speaker 1: I told him, I said, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: be a partner. I don't I don't want to just
Speaker 1: keep being the guide that they're hiring. I would love
Speaker 1: to put myself in a position to be a partner
Speaker 1: with these movie studios. How do I position myself as
Speaker 1: a partner? How do I how do I have that
Speaker 1: type of value? How can I bring that value? And
Speaker 1: the conversation of development and creating um was one that
Speaker 1: we had and I said, you know what, then I
Speaker 1: can in a similar team that acts as my creative team,
Speaker 1: and we do things unneath the heartbeat umbrella, and we
Speaker 1: take these products and we sell them, but we sell
Speaker 1: them in a way to where studios understand the partnership
Speaker 1: behind whatever it is that I'm doing. Ultimately, as that grows,
Speaker 1: production company grows and you know, you're doing movies with
Speaker 1: it with Kevin hard in him. But I have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to just use my star now to be the
Speaker 1: driving force behind the movies that I'm selling, which is
Speaker 1: making my company that much stronger. Now when we're talking
Speaker 1: and driving force, I want, I want to get real
Speaker 1: because I've talked to talent like yourself that have talked
Speaker 1: about businesses, but from what I understand that they're not
Speaker 1: really that involved. They've got guys who do that. What
Speaker 1: I hear you are truly involved, hands hands on. So
Speaker 1: what do you find the time because you're doing a lot,
Speaker 1: You're on social media a lot. That's the whole other
Speaker 1: thing we gotta get to. Oh I don't I definitely
Speaker 1: don't have a time. I don't have time to take
Speaker 1: a ship I uh. Um. You know what I've learned
Speaker 1: is that you you prioritize, you know, and this and this.
Speaker 1: Uh in this business, you make time for what's important. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a guy that has these
Speaker 1: things and not know what's going on. I don't want
Speaker 1: people to run my my destiny. I don't want you
Speaker 1: to come in and do all the world and then
Speaker 1: tell me that this is X, Y and Z and
Speaker 1: I I go and I wave and it looks like
Speaker 1: I'm the guy when I'm really not the guy. Um.
Speaker 1: I love knowing. I love being informed, I love being aware.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you know I have these
Speaker 1: conversations with CEOs and presidents and I'm respected and looked
Speaker 1: at the same way because I know what. I'm truly
Speaker 1: doing the work. So when it comes to actually having
Speaker 1: my hands in it, they're in it. You know. I'm
Speaker 1: not just reading the scripts. I'm developing. I'm finding the writers.
Speaker 1: I'm in the meeting with the writers to get the
Speaker 1: script to where we wanted. I'm talking to the studio
Speaker 1: about promising X, Y and Z, justifying what I need.
Speaker 1: This is a budget versus this, telling them why we're
Speaker 1: choosing side A versus Side B. I'm having those conversations
Speaker 1: because the bigger the bigger that I get, the bigger
Speaker 1: these conversations gets, and the bigger that the conversations get,
Speaker 1: the easier it is for me to get things done
Speaker 1: because the trust that goes along with the business and
Speaker 1: the brand of who I am becomes an immediate trust,
Speaker 1: you know. And I think within the relationships that I
Speaker 1: have in partnerships, within the studios that I've worked with,
Speaker 1: from Universal, from Sony to Warner Brothers, they now have
Speaker 1: a trust that Kevin he does the work. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's going to do the work. He's he's such
Speaker 1: a perfectionist that he's not going to bring anything back
Speaker 1: half asked. So let's invest in him. Let's invest in
Speaker 1: his company. So it sounds like you're kind of in
Speaker 1: the middle of this journey in terms of the empire
Speaker 1: that you're building. I mean, where does it go next
Speaker 1: to there? Or what mountains are you looking to conquer?
Speaker 1: Areas of content you haven't even gone to yet. Man, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'm I'm The goal of being a
Speaker 1: mogul is a real one, you know. I want to
Speaker 1: be a mogul. I want to be a billionaire. I
Speaker 1: want to get to a point where you look back
Speaker 1: and you go, damn, this is a little dirty kid
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia that had no idea, uh you know, where
Speaker 1: his life was going to go. And once I got
Speaker 1: an inklet of what I could do, I made a
Speaker 1: decision to give it a hundred percent, and you get
Speaker 1: one life, you know, out there, one life. You can
Speaker 1: make it mean something. You can be content with wherever
Speaker 1: you are, or you can be the person that says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna maximize my time when it's earth and when
Speaker 1: it's all said and done, I want a story. I
Speaker 1: want people to tell an amazing story. I want to
Speaker 1: be able to look back and go, holy sh it,
Speaker 1: look at what I created. Look at the people that
Speaker 1: are now really really affected by this creation. You know,
Speaker 1: I I gotta I gotta forty people on staff right now.
Speaker 1: You know when I look up and I'm responsible for
Speaker 1: people's lives and livelihoods, And that's a That's a big
Speaker 1: thing to me, the fact that I know that I'm
Speaker 1: in position to do that and that these people believe
Speaker 1: in this vision. These people are giving me a hundred
Speaker 1: percent because they say we're gonna follow you, keV to
Speaker 1: the wilds all off, because the passion behind your drive
Speaker 1: and dream is real. To me, that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: in the world. So you know, when I when I
Speaker 1: have these meetings with my team, with my staff, I'm
Speaker 1: not just selling you on today's work. I'm selling you
Speaker 1: on the future of what we can be. Heartbeat Productions
Speaker 1: will be a big partner. Heartbeat Productions will do big
Speaker 1: studio work. Heartbeat Productions will be tomorrow's future company when
Speaker 1: it comes to development and and producing for for any
Speaker 1: type of films from comedy to to you know your dramas.
Speaker 1: I want to do it all. I can't sit back
Speaker 1: and watch other people be successful and give me a
Speaker 1: blueprint and not do it. I just can't. I have
Speaker 1: too many relationships where they let me know how they
Speaker 1: got there, from Oprah to Tyler to jay Z too, Ellen.
Speaker 1: I have too many people in front of me that
Speaker 1: are doing too many amazing things that say this is
Speaker 1: how I did it. For me not to do it.
Speaker 1: I got tons of times. By the time I'm forty five,
Speaker 1: you guys are gonna be telling a completely different story.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be holy shit. You remember at the Variety thing,
Speaker 1: he said he was gonna do it, and I'll be
Speaker 1: damned if he didn't do it. He did it. H
Speaker 1: sounds great. So let's see, We've talked about various pieces
Speaker 1: of the puzzle. I want to get into it, and
Speaker 1: starting with not to say it's the most important piece.
Speaker 1: But social media does seem to be almost like the
Speaker 1: hub that a lot of these different spokes that we're
Speaker 1: talking about is connected to. That's where your brand is
Speaker 1: in front of people every single day. You seem to
Speaker 1: have really embraced that in a way that I think
Speaker 1: most mainstream celebrities kind of came late to. Uh. Look,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a gift in the curse behind it,
Speaker 1: you know, and and that's expected. The gift behind social
Speaker 1: media that I've realized a long time ago is it's access.
Speaker 1: You know, today's star in today's celebrity. Um, you're you're big,
Speaker 1: and you become bigger when your fans feel like they
Speaker 1: see behind the closed door. You know, there was a
Speaker 1: there was a time where there was such a mysterious
Speaker 1: mystique about you know, your stars. You only saw him
Speaker 1: when it was time to see him. You saw him
Speaker 1: on a billboard, and you saw him when they did
Speaker 1: a talk show to promote whatever they had. Outside of that,
Speaker 1: you didn't see him. That's when the pictures that were
Speaker 1: taken by these magazines, that's why they were so they
Speaker 1: were celebrated at the highest level. Oh my god, we
Speaker 1: just saw camera Cameron Diaz at the coffee shop and
Speaker 1: she's got a coffee and she's looking at you, and
Speaker 1: everybody's like, oh my god, look at her doing regular
Speaker 1: people's stuff. Look at this. Uh you know it was
Speaker 1: those pictures were so that's what made that business so big.
Speaker 1: It was who can capture a regular moment of a celebrity?
Speaker 1: And I think and in our society, we've got to
Speaker 1: these are people. Social media has allowed these stars to
Speaker 1: show that there are people. Hence, when you do that,
Speaker 1: you're following growths because the authenticity behind the person that
Speaker 1: we're supporting, it's real. Yo, he's brushing his teeth on Snapchat.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Did you see the video of Kevin
Speaker 1: with his kids and they're doing regular stuff. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: look at Kevin playing with his dog. Do you see it.
Speaker 1: It's it's showing that you're real. And that's why I
Speaker 1: embrace it. I don't ever want there to be a disconnect.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, these people have invested in me.
Speaker 1: You've invested in my life. I've grown because you've grown
Speaker 1: with me. So I do owe my fans are service
Speaker 1: I I do. I want you to see I want
Speaker 1: you to see the normalcy behind who I am. I
Speaker 1: want you to see that I'm a grounded, real guy.
Speaker 1: I love hard, I am about my family, and you know,
Speaker 1: good and bad with problems. You put it out there.
Speaker 1: You let people go through the problems with you, because
Speaker 1: when you relate to it, you understand that we're all
Speaker 1: human and it's one We all handle problems ultimately different,
Speaker 1: but the same, good, bad, negative, positive. You're human. Social
Speaker 1: media allows you to show that I like that I
Speaker 1: can talk to my fans getting the media reaction. I
Speaker 1: don't just want to take. It shouldn't be a take relationship.
Speaker 1: It should be a give and take. So those moments
Speaker 1: where I take ten minutes to do a video just
Speaker 1: saying I'm so excited about X, Y and Z, I
Speaker 1: just want to tell you guys to go out put
Speaker 1: passion behind what you're doing. Have a level of excitement
Speaker 1: about the way you approach your days. There's people that
Speaker 1: watch that and go, fuck, yeah, I was I was
Speaker 1: dragging the day. I didn't feel like doing this, but
Speaker 1: I just saw Kevin do this little thing from the car.
Speaker 1: He right There's you would be surprised at the effect
Speaker 1: that this has on the generation. It really does. Man,
Speaker 1: some people need to push some people need that motivation.
Speaker 1: Social media allow me to give it to you, real,
Speaker 1: raw and in your face every single day. And you
Speaker 1: know those numbers don't lie. I'm I'm at like a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty million people attention to media. Yes, it's me,
Speaker 1: it's me on there, me every day. Me. It's a
Speaker 1: job every day. I wake up, good morning, I'm up
Speaker 1: every day. I stayed true to it. You know, There's
Speaker 1: been days where I didn't post and I would go
Speaker 1: check my timeline and people think I'm dead? What the fun? Where?
Speaker 1: Where's Kevin? Has anything? Like I've honestly checked and people
Speaker 1: have like a certain did anybody is Kevin? Okay? He
Speaker 1: hasn't posted anything like you feel. People feel a void.
Speaker 1: So I make sure that I'm that I'm on it.
Speaker 1: I'm very adamant about doing it. And that's just a
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle. In terms of what you're doing
Speaker 1: in terms of digital content, talk about the Laugh Out
Speaker 1: Loud Network, which you know we talked earlier about Heartbeat.
Speaker 1: You could just be producing TV and film and making
Speaker 1: some good money off that. What is it about going
Speaker 1: to digital where monetization could be a little more difficult? Well, it. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult. First and foremost. I mean, look, this
Speaker 1: is a world where a lot of people have attempted
Speaker 1: to find success and a lot of people have failed. Um,
Speaker 1: which is which makes it even more intriguing for me.
Speaker 1: You know, how can I do it correctly? I got
Speaker 1: to see people crash and burn? What mistakes that they make?
Speaker 1: What did they do? What didn't they do? Um? I
Speaker 1: wanted to follow a blueprint that was more artists friendly,
Speaker 1: I said. Right now, when it comes to laughter, there's
Speaker 1: no one destination that people have to go that's just
Speaker 1: for comedy, like multicultural all types of comedy. There's not
Speaker 1: one hub, I said. I want to create a multi
Speaker 1: cultural platform where we celebrate comedy. We celebrate uh, you know,
Speaker 1: from from comedians to content creators to your future writers,
Speaker 1: your future directors. This is a place where we can
Speaker 1: go and give opportunities to those people that don't get
Speaker 1: them right now to go and shoot for the stars.
Speaker 1: Is it's hard, you know, it's very far. A few
Speaker 1: and in between people are gonna walk into HBO and
Speaker 1: get deals at HBO. You know, there's there's a limited
Speaker 1: access to get there. But when you look at the
Speaker 1: Internet and you look at what drives the Internet, it's content.
Speaker 1: So you have these people that are making content on
Speaker 1: a day to day basis with their phone with a
Speaker 1: little five D camera and they cut these videos up
Speaker 1: themselves and they put it up, but it lives and
Speaker 1: it goes. I said, what if I go get those people?
Speaker 1: What if we're artists friendly? What if those people can
Speaker 1: come here and we service them correctly, give them pieces
Speaker 1: of ownership within the content, but they can grow. What
Speaker 1: if laugh Allowed becomes a space where we grow with
Speaker 1: the artists, almost like title. You know what jay Z
Speaker 1: did his title. It was pretty amazing because he said,
Speaker 1: everybody's taken from the artists. I want to give I
Speaker 1: want to give something to the artist. Instantly, that made
Speaker 1: artists say I want to go over there man, because
Speaker 1: they're not trying to do what everyone else is doing.
Speaker 1: People try to wrap all this talent up and they
Speaker 1: try to own you. I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1: What if I'm giving a different opportunity and I make it.
Speaker 1: I make it much more comfortable for these future comedians
Speaker 1: of tomorrow to come here. But you know what, some
Speaker 1: people look at what jay Z went through with title,
Speaker 1: and it's not exactly a smooth road for him. Were
Speaker 1: so when you look at doing digital content, were you
Speaker 1: at all intimidated about like, how do we get this right?
Speaker 1: Jay z is at his sered roll. But no, you're
Speaker 1: gonna nothing's gonna be perfect. I mean, that's what separates
Speaker 1: the greats from them that great. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: going to be easy. You're gonna get some some cobble
Speaker 1: stone that you gotta go over. It's how you maneuver
Speaker 1: and how you handle it. You know, you take your
Speaker 1: punches in the stomach and you learn how to defend
Speaker 1: after that. Within this, I notice is a crowded space.
Speaker 1: I know it is the one thing that I have
Speaker 1: within my digital platform is Kevin hard Kevin Harker is
Speaker 1: stand in front of it, and I can say I
Speaker 1: stand behind it. I can say I'm involved. I'm putting
Speaker 1: a personal stamp on this business. I'm putting a personal
Speaker 1: stamp on deliver bring some of the best comedy that
Speaker 1: I feel that you can find on the internet. Why
Speaker 1: can't I say that? Because right now I sit as
Speaker 1: the number one comedy star in the world. So I
Speaker 1: think that I have a little bit of I think
Speaker 1: I have a background where people are gonna go I
Speaker 1: believe him. I think people are gonna say, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: follow him, I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna watch it.
Speaker 1: But the way that this works is you have to
Speaker 1: get a partner that believes you. You need somebody to
Speaker 1: see a vision as clear as you do. John Felt
Speaker 1: Harmer at lions Gate saw the vision. He said, do
Speaker 1: you want to do this? I said, I want to
Speaker 1: run it. Sitt fifty with me. Let me be a
Speaker 1: real CEO. Let me approve the budgets, let me do this.
Speaker 1: If anything goes against crazy, we meet and we discuss
Speaker 1: it as businessmen. Let me show that I'm more than
Speaker 1: capable of putting a team together, structuring what I feel
Speaker 1: a digital network should be and should look like, delivering
Speaker 1: funny daily and not only delivering funny, talking about it, engaging,
Speaker 1: being authentic behind it. And after I get to a
Speaker 1: certain point where we're happy, and right now we are.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have over eight hundred thousand active users
Speaker 1: on our platform. When we do flip the switch and
Speaker 1: go subscription, you'll see that those users will be happy
Speaker 1: because we'll go premium with our content. I'm following a band.
Speaker 1: I'm following a brand that's been proven. You know what
Speaker 1: is considered premium, what premium works, what doesn't work, what's
Speaker 1: quality over quantity? What can I do that can be
Speaker 1: a clear example for what we can deliver. Having those meetings,
Speaker 1: having those conversations, getting the understanding I got it now,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it. Once I do it, and I do
Speaker 1: it at a high level, you'll see that people will
Speaker 1: continue to come aboard. And when they do, you'll look
Speaker 1: up and go, holy sh it. We started off is
Speaker 1: just a small idea. It's now a big brand, a
Speaker 1: big business. Kevin Hart sits at the head of it. Well,
Speaker 1: not only you sit at the head of it. The
Speaker 1: thing I was amazed by when I looked at laugh
Speaker 1: At Network is you're on a lot of these shows.
Speaker 1: You are really putting yourself in it. Is there a
Speaker 1: risk there though, where people come to associate with you
Speaker 1: and then when they see people who are not you,
Speaker 1: you've let them down. Well you have to you have
Speaker 1: to learn balance. You know, right now, you don't see
Speaker 1: me on TV. I'm not on the TV show. I
Speaker 1: don't have a TV show. I haven't had one for
Speaker 1: years outside of Hub's Hollywood when that was on I
Speaker 1: haven't done TV, but what you're able to do on
Speaker 1: the Internet is is do different content, but be real
Speaker 1: within the content. You know, I keep I keep pushing authenticity.
Speaker 1: A talk show with Kevin Hart is an amazing talk show.
Speaker 1: Coldest Balls. I mean, we didn't describe what Coldest Balls is.
Speaker 1: Just nobody thought I was talking about my balls. Good y'alls. Sorry, Uh,
Speaker 1: Coldest Balls is a talk show that was created for me,
Speaker 1: Um and whoever it is that's my guests to do
Speaker 1: an interview while sitting in a cold tub. Um, the
Speaker 1: whole interview with us in the cold tub, and I
Speaker 1: get to I get to ask questions that nobody else
Speaker 1: would ask. Its center around me and athletes and the show.
Speaker 1: We did it, and we just wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: Where we did six, We do six, and we got
Speaker 1: some people that we know will want to watch. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the response Um overall. I mean
Speaker 1: they probably had like two hundred million views between the six.
Speaker 1: We beat television, you know, within our viewership and within
Speaker 1: the numbers. And what I got to see was there's
Speaker 1: a want to see me and these other entertainers. There's
Speaker 1: a want to see Kevin have a conversation. So this
Speaker 1: is going to act as premium content for us because
Speaker 1: we've done a test. So now let's go out and
Speaker 1: will roll out the red carpet. Let's throw a real
Speaker 1: budget behind it. We do twelve. Now on those twelve
Speaker 1: the guests get bigger, but the guests not just get bigger,
Speaker 1: the conversation gets better. And then I now have a
Speaker 1: real form of a talk show that's only available on
Speaker 1: my platform. So the things that people want to see,
Speaker 1: I have held out from doing it so I can
Speaker 1: make it available where I ultimately want you to go.
Speaker 1: So when you say Kevin doing all these things is
Speaker 1: at a risk, not really, because you can't see me
Speaker 1: anywhere else. The movie business is separate from what this is.
Speaker 1: Kevin having fun and putting on makeup and prosthetics, being
Speaker 1: an old man driving a lift car for a day.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get bored of that. You're not gonna that.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go that's too much. It's funny, filler content.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go look at Kevin stupid as in the
Speaker 1: car talking to these people. It's things that I can
Speaker 1: do to drive traffic. And once I get you there,
Speaker 1: you now see that there's so much stuff and you
Speaker 1: fall in love with the world of laugh Out Lot
Speaker 1: that we created. But I have to be the reason
Speaker 1: you come. After you came and you saw, now I
Speaker 1: feel like I've conquered. I need to keep you there.
Speaker 1: Getting you there is one thing keeping you there is
Speaker 1: another Kevin harton my content. Just get you there. The
Speaker 1: things that you'll see outside of it, that's what's going
Speaker 1: to keep you there. So I don't I don't think
Speaker 1: it's that much of a risk for me. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I make sure that it's not overdone. I'll make sure
Speaker 1: it's done correctly, and the pieces that I do decide
Speaker 1: to do it all quality. It's interesting here you talk
Speaker 1: about you know where you want to be versus where
Speaker 1: you don't. He just kind of staying off TV. I
Speaker 1: just saw you on Instagram this morning with serious xm
Speaker 1: CEO Scott Greenstein recusally taking satellite radio series. Why they're um,
Speaker 1: why not? You know? It's something else that exists, Uh,
Speaker 1: something else that I can have my hand in. You know,
Speaker 1: how do I how do I service each engine? You know?
Speaker 1: How how can I put the pieces to this puzzle
Speaker 1: together and make that circle go round and round. Is
Speaker 1: there any delution risk where you're spreading yourself in so
Speaker 1: many different directions, you exhaust yourself, you exhaust the content.
Speaker 1: Any risk there? Now? Do it all? I don't understand
Speaker 1: why people work hard to get comfortable. Do it all?
Speaker 1: Why not? Man? Listen? Howard Stern makes eight to ninety
Speaker 1: million dollars a year on the radio. Ninety million dollars
Speaker 1: a year. Howard Stern is in net radio booth for
Speaker 1: an hour and a half out the day. Hour and
Speaker 1: a half Howard Stern comes in the booth, does his interview,
Speaker 1: puts his code on, grabs a coffee, gets in the elevator,
Speaker 1: says goodbye. Five days a week, ninety million dollars on
Speaker 1: the radio. Do you people do not understand these numbers.
Speaker 1: I can't look at that and go I want some
Speaker 1: of that. I can't. I can't say I have a talent.
Speaker 1: I have a voice. I also am able to open
Speaker 1: up so many different doors because of how maneuver some
Speaker 1: some entertainers do it, some don't. I just I will
Speaker 1: be a fool to not go and have a serious
Speaker 1: channel within the conversation that I can have, because they
Speaker 1: have to be different conversations with me at the level
Speaker 1: I am. So my conversation with Scott is I don't
Speaker 1: want to show, I want to channel. I want ownership
Speaker 1: within the channel. If you give me that, you get
Speaker 1: a hundred percent of me bringing you more people, so
Speaker 1: you ultimately get more subscribe bibers. Within that level of ownership,
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring the advertisers. I'm gonna bring other
Speaker 1: people here that give you a different bang. Because now
Speaker 1: you have a Kevin Hart. You have a Kevin Hart
Speaker 1: ran channel where Kevin Hart actually has a show. So
Speaker 1: having that that makes you look better because now you've
Speaker 1: got big stars coming too serious. It makes you look
Speaker 1: like you're doing things like you switching it up. More
Speaker 1: other stars may come because of me coming here. You
Speaker 1: having that knowledge and understanding. Give me what I want,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna give you what you want to return,
Speaker 1: which is success. Now think about it. If my radio
Speaker 1: show does grow and does get big, how do I
Speaker 1: promote my tour? I do it to social media. I
Speaker 1: can do it on my show. I don't have a
Speaker 1: budget that I go out and and spend on X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z. I am new generation promotion, I am
Speaker 1: my marketing. Holy shit, I got a movie coming out. Uh,
Speaker 1: I can now have a studio go through new generation
Speaker 1: promotion to buy time on laugh Out Lives. Serious chance.
Speaker 1: You know, you can run your promo, you can run commercials.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, Kevin is just taking things and passing it
Speaker 1: to himself professionally. It's it's it's a it's a thing
Speaker 1: that you have. When you get it, you get it.
Speaker 1: For example, I went out and I bought stages. Okay,
Speaker 1: I know that. Within laugh Aloud, I said, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing this content. I said, we go out. We
Speaker 1: always renting from these different studios, you know, Milk Studios,
Speaker 1: Hollywood Studios, whatever. But the budget within renting this space
Speaker 1: becomes a large number when you look up, if you
Speaker 1: go and look at your year, how much of you
Speaker 1: spending running X, Y and Z. That's a lot, Kevin,
Speaker 1: So why not why not look for stages? So this
Speaker 1: way we built whatever the sets are, we own them.
Speaker 1: They're interchangeable, and we can just keep keep things in
Speaker 1: this environment. Can we find them? We can go look
Speaker 1: found two stages. Let's remodel the stages and I don't
Speaker 1: know stages. I have a budget here on laugh out Loud.
Speaker 1: Laugh Out Lout can do that and pay for it.
Speaker 1: But then I'll take the money back from the work
Speaker 1: that we're doing and get it back to laugh all
Speaker 1: loud they recoup. But now all of that talent that
Speaker 1: I'm finding go to my stages, Guys, I got stages
Speaker 1: and everything set up for you to go. I don't
Speaker 1: have the service other people to do what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I'm servicing myself. So in return, this stage is now
Speaker 1: a real, real, real, real positive, positive positive investment because
Speaker 1: guess what. As laugh Out allow grows, the stage continues
Speaker 1: to grow. Now everybody finds out about the stage, guess
Speaker 1: what people want to go and shoot. If you're in
Speaker 1: the valley now, Kevin Hart has a stage right there, guys,
Speaker 1: let's see if we can access to use Kevin stage.
Speaker 1: Now people end up paying for my stage because you're
Speaker 1: gonna rent it from me. How do you rent it?
Speaker 1: You got shipped to do, you got photo shoots, you
Speaker 1: got other stuff. You got it all here unless you
Speaker 1: guys gonna go drive all the way to Hollywood if
Speaker 1: you don't want to go right here in the valley, man,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, unless you use Kevin sage. Even lying
Speaker 1: gate now knowing that I have a stage lions Gate
Speaker 1: now would do business at the stage. Hey, guys, we
Speaker 1: can do this and we can do that. It's now
Speaker 1: another business, it's now something else once again, that's feeding
Speaker 1: the other engines. Everything has to hand it's it has
Speaker 1: to hand something to something. That's the circle that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. When I look at Tyler Perry and I
Speaker 1: have these conversations with Tyler Perry, I'm blown away by
Speaker 1: what this man's vision is. Tyler Perry took land and
Speaker 1: built the stage on the land, and Atlanta is the biggest,
Speaker 1: the biggest attraction to doing any movies. They gotta go
Speaker 1: to Tyler Perry. If you're a studio, how do you
Speaker 1: as the as the head of the studio. You can
Speaker 1: only laugh at the fact that you're now shooting on
Speaker 1: Tyler perry stages. Mcdea, he got stayed. You gotta go
Speaker 1: shoot on his stages. That that blows me. I'm like
Speaker 1: the fact that they did Black Panther on Tyler Perry
Speaker 1: stay age. You had to rent that ship from Tyler.
Speaker 1: I can only laugh at that level of success. How
Speaker 1: do I do that? Tyler? Tell me what you did? How?
Speaker 1: I want to know how? Why? Why not? How did
Speaker 1: you do it. As soon as he told me, I'm
Speaker 1: going to go do it. I would be a fool
Speaker 1: not to. How do I make real opportunities? How do
Speaker 1: I put myself in a position to give this younger
Speaker 1: generation which I didn't have. I got here. Took me
Speaker 1: eighteen years, but I got here. I can make it
Speaker 1: easier for those that aren't going to have the same opportunities,
Speaker 1: which which leads to one last question. I hear you
Speaker 1: talking about Tyler Perry, Howard Stern. Do is there anyone
Speaker 1: mobile out there who gave you a piece of advice
Speaker 1: that is just sort of your true north, the thing
Speaker 1: that guides you as you build this empire. The biggest
Speaker 1: piece of advice came from, uh, not a mogul, but
Speaker 1: my mother. My mother's advice was, you can be great
Speaker 1: or you cannot be great. Sounds so simple, but so
Speaker 1: much under that you can be great or you cannot
Speaker 1: be great? Do you do things to do it half ass?
Speaker 1: Do you do it to go a hundred percent? This
Speaker 1: came when I was swimming and I was going to
Speaker 1: practice every day, and I half asked, everything is swimming?
Speaker 1: Everything I was. I was fine with being last. Then
Speaker 1: want to do it? And then I got to the
Speaker 1: swim meets and all these other kids were amazing kids,
Speaker 1: getting awards left and right. I'm the kid with no award.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there with a goddamn participant ribbon and and
Speaker 1: my mom we're in the car because we didn't have
Speaker 1: a car, so we had a car pool, and she
Speaker 1: she says to me, you like your ribbon, and I
Speaker 1: was like yeah, and I I look over at Doug,
Speaker 1: and Doug had trophies. Doug has so many goddamn trophies
Speaker 1: and he was my friends. So we tried to make
Speaker 1: me feel better. He's like the ribbon is nice, like
Speaker 1: he's just trying to be and my mom just was like,
Speaker 1: next year, maybe you get another ribbon, and that's when
Speaker 1: they clipped. I was like, I want trophies. I want
Speaker 1: to fucking trophies, man. So that mindset from that day
Speaker 1: on was the one that I had. It's I don't
Speaker 1: do things to not get the trophy. I want the trophy,
Speaker 1: the trophy and entertainment. It's success, its ownership, it's a brand.
Speaker 1: These other actors and entertainers are fine and comfortable with
Speaker 1: being worked for hire. I'm not comfortable with that. I'm
Speaker 1: not comfortable with doing movies when they feel like it's
Speaker 1: a good idea for me to do. I'm not comfortable
Speaker 1: knowing that these things are being created and developed by
Speaker 1: people that are hungry, that know that if I do,
Speaker 1: if I do twenty scripts, I'm gonna sell for you.
Speaker 1: Got writers that think like that. I'm gonna right ten,
Speaker 1: hopefully I sell one. But they're hungry. How do I
Speaker 1: find all those hungry people and put them underneath my umbrella?
Speaker 1: I just hired John Chang. I think John is Are
Speaker 1: you here? John? Are you here? John shot? So if
Speaker 1: he is, he probably okay, he's over the back. I
Speaker 1: just hired John Chang to come over and uh be
Speaker 1: my head of development for film and TV right now
Speaker 1: Heartbeat Productions. And I had a conversation with John and
Speaker 1: I said, Dude, I know you can go anywhere you want.
Speaker 1: I know that people know what you're capable of, they
Speaker 1: know the work that you had put in. I want
Speaker 1: you to come and start over, and here's why, because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be with you. I'm gonna be by your side,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna help you get the things that you
Speaker 1: want to get done. But you will be solely responsible
Speaker 1: for coming believing in the vision and taking Heartbeat Production
Speaker 1: from step one to step whatever. You would be responsible
Speaker 1: for standing by my side, and I will not let
Speaker 1: you down. I will invest in you to simply invest
Speaker 1: in my dream and vision. He said, I'm in. I
Speaker 1: do the work. I don't need nothing else. What you
Speaker 1: just told me sold me. I'm sold on your vision.
Speaker 1: Me and John have been in this office every goddamn
Speaker 1: day vetting out our plan to take over Hollywood. And
Speaker 1: it sounds so crazy. It sounds so crazy. But if
Speaker 1: you don't have that, if you don't have the mentality
Speaker 1: of takeover, do everything, you're not gonna do nothing. I
Speaker 1: align myself with somebody that had the same vision that
Speaker 1: grasps my dream, and I'm telling you people, mark my words.
Speaker 1: Within this year, you're going to see so much activity
Speaker 1: from Heartbeat Productions. Within two years, Heartbeat Productions will live
Speaker 1: with or without Kevin Hart. Heartbeat Productions will be producing
Speaker 1: movies that are being done all over Hollywood, with or
Speaker 1: without me, because I got a team of people that
Speaker 1: understand that that's our goal. Our goal is to not
Speaker 1: lean on the back of the star to create opportunities
Speaker 1: for the other stars. We're gonna be a hub that
Speaker 1: people want to come and that they want to deal
Speaker 1: with because of who stands in front of it. Now,
Speaker 1: mark my words, laugh Aloud will be a major force
Speaker 1: within this digital space. It's been two years, eight hundred
Speaker 1: thousand users actively on my app. You give me five years.
Speaker 1: You watch were laugh out Loud is. You watch the
Speaker 1: conversation behind this digital platform. You watch how the multicultural
Speaker 1: aspect becomes a real one. You watch how I find
Speaker 1: a discover comedians globally Indonesia, Asia, Australia, and I bring
Speaker 1: them on this platform and be celebrated. You watch the
Speaker 1: reaction that that has. You watch the growth that we
Speaker 1: have festivals, laugh Allow comedy festivals. Simply creating opportunities and
Speaker 1: using my stardom to make other stars. I don't want
Speaker 1: to do it by myself. I want to see other
Speaker 1: people make it too. That's what I'm about. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna lose when people see your heart and understand the
Speaker 1: real drive behind your business for people. I'm a people person.
Speaker 1: Some make people win. That's why Kevin Hardys thank you. Kevin,
Speaker 1: appreciate you coming out today. We're really impressive what you've
Speaker 1: done so far can't wait to see what's next. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Well that's all for this week's edition of Strictly Business.
Speaker 1: Tune in next week when I sit down with Marvel's
Speaker 1: Mindy Hamilton's senior VP of Global Partnerships, as she talks
Speaker 1: about the marketing muscle behind huge films like Black Panther
Speaker 1: and the upcoming Avengers Infinity War