Speaker 1: M h. Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties podcasts featuring conversations
Speaker 1: with industry leaders about the business of entertainment. I'm Cynthia Littleton,
Speaker 1: business editor for Variety Today. My guest in New York
Speaker 1: is Jeff Baldez. Jeff has worked in the entertainment industry
Speaker 1: for thirty years. He's a comedian turned producer turned TV
Speaker 1: entrepreneur Remember See TV. Jeff launts that channel as a
Speaker 1: true cable independent back in two thousand four. Jeff has
Speaker 1: been frustrated for years at the slow pace of inclusion
Speaker 1: for Latin X talent at all levels. After studying the issue,
Speaker 1: Jeff and three partners decided to tackle it head on
Speaker 1: as the mission of the newly launched New Cadence Production venture.
Speaker 1: In this interview, Jeff talks about what he sees as
Speaker 1: Hollywood supply chain problem and why corporate America needs to
Speaker 1: take some radical steps to ensure its own future. Jeff Baldez,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming to talk with us.
Speaker 1: My pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. I
Speaker 1: know that you have recently been on an interesting tour
Speaker 1: of talking with very prominent industry leaders and entertainment about
Speaker 1: the persistent lack of meaningful participation of Latinos in the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry at all levels, in front of the camera,
Speaker 1: behind the camera, in the executive suites, in in decision
Speaker 1: making processes. It's that you look at the numbers and
Speaker 1: it is just it's hard to believe that as a
Speaker 1: society we haven't we haven't advanced, and that we haven't
Speaker 1: open doors. Clearly, two people, particularly people of Latino backgrounds,
Speaker 1: tell me about the information that you and some partners
Speaker 1: have gathered, and tell me about some of the things
Speaker 1: that you are bringing to corporate leaders in entertainment industry
Speaker 1: leaders and you're sitting down and talking to them about
Speaker 1: look at the numbers, look at the purchasing power of
Speaker 1: this of the Latino community in the United States. To
Speaker 1: talk us through some of the things that you're talking about,
Speaker 1: and tell us about some of the responses that you're hearing. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we we've had some really terrific meetings. I
Speaker 1: would tell you that in the past, I don't think
Speaker 1: that there was the receptivity to hearing things from uh,
Speaker 1: you know about this market, and that's changed, I think
Speaker 1: drastically recently. So we really and what we're doing is
Speaker 1: not a political You should do this because this is
Speaker 1: the right thing. We're having our conversations about economics, and
Speaker 1: when you look at the economics of this market, you
Speaker 1: just can't continue to ignore it. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: massive market. We've been saying that for twenty years. Twenty years,
Speaker 1: you and I have had this conversation more than a
Speaker 1: hundred times. Right, but but but now and now you're
Speaker 1: literally you're talking about the the U. S. Latino not
Speaker 1: US Latino. First thing is people go Latino equals Spanish language,
Speaker 1: and it does not. The U. S. Latino audience is
Speaker 1: thirty four compared to forty three. We knew that before,
Speaker 1: but US born is eighteen. So for the health of
Speaker 1: any company, you really have to be thinking about this
Speaker 1: young cohort. When I say cohort, also, I don't limit
Speaker 1: it to just the sixty million Latinos in the country.
Speaker 1: Is you know my family there were nine kids, seven
Speaker 1: married non Latinos. But the non Latinos in our family
Speaker 1: are all culturally Latino. So you don't have to be
Speaker 1: have you know, have a last name to be a
Speaker 1: cultural Latino. Right, So I'm gonna make you a cultural
Speaker 1: Latino today's uh Cynthia. So we'll give you the name
Speaker 1: a sou. But but again it's explaining what we call
Speaker 1: the new Maine stream because when you look at in
Speaker 1: in a lot of major d M a s thirty
Speaker 1: three of the under thirty four audience in the top
Speaker 1: ten d M as is Latino. That's a real number.
Speaker 1: And it's the seventh largest global economy two point one
Speaker 1: three trillion in g d P. There's some new studies
Speaker 1: coming out they're just really mind blowing as to the
Speaker 1: size of it. And there is a obviously a a
Speaker 1: complete lack of content um in particular in comedy. You know,
Speaker 1: we we look at the comedy opportunity as as the
Speaker 1: jumping off point uh Nielsen will you know Nielsen research
Speaker 1: tells us that you know, Latinos love comedy. Well, they're
Speaker 1: not seeing or hearing their cadence. Thus the name of
Speaker 1: the company we started, new Cadence. We're trying to bring
Speaker 1: a new cadence to the entertainment business. And what um,
Speaker 1: what the the information that you've gathered about purchasing power
Speaker 1: about you You've really broken it down into specifics of
Speaker 1: specific markets for everything for phones to insurance, policies to
Speaker 1: you know, and when you sit with people and they
Speaker 1: certainly recognize the power of this market, but what what
Speaker 1: what answers do you hear when we all ask the questions,
Speaker 1: why are there so few Latinos coming in the door
Speaker 1: as creative talent, as executive recruits, are intern recruits that
Speaker 1: you know, that's to start that, to get that foot
Speaker 1: on the ladder, Like what what is the block at
Speaker 1: that point? Well, there's a couple. Number one. I always
Speaker 1: use the expression you can't change tires on the freeway, right.
Speaker 1: So you've got companies trying to just keep their business
Speaker 1: uh running in a time of great disruption, and you
Speaker 1: have companies that you know, because they're doing that, they
Speaker 1: just they can't just stop and change course. Right. Uh
Speaker 1: that's that's a real big problem right there. And then uh,
Speaker 1: they're unable to hire the talent they need to go
Speaker 1: out and get it done. Because also it's a business
Speaker 1: of friends and people, you know, right, I live on
Speaker 1: the West Side and Beverly Hills, and I you know,
Speaker 1: my kids went to private school, so my circle of friends,
Speaker 1: there is a level of trust there. But a lot
Speaker 1: of times I always joke that you know, people in
Speaker 1: the development industry in Los Angeles have never been east
Speaker 1: of Highland, right, so, you know, and and I and again,
Speaker 1: well intended people, but if you just don't get it,
Speaker 1: you don't get it. So you need to have the
Speaker 1: right people in place. Have you looked at all in
Speaker 1: as part of this process. Have you looked at um
Speaker 1: efforts that have been done in the past to open doors,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, mentoring programs or in the creative community,
Speaker 1: you know, workshops, you know, training programs to try to
Speaker 1: to try to bring people. Is there anything that is
Speaker 1: there anything that can work on the level of a
Speaker 1: of a of a proactive approach companies? Um? You know what,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of companies do things like that. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, in the name of diversity. And we
Speaker 1: talked before the interview about kind of diversity is kind
Speaker 1: of a weird thing these days, as you talk about
Speaker 1: it in a more holistic way, it's become a catch
Speaker 1: all term that has become a morpheus now and and
Speaker 1: and so you know, the the the intern programs and
Speaker 1: you know, the you know that type of stuff. UM,
Speaker 1: they yield some results, but the reality in this marketplace
Speaker 1: are actually really talented people ready to work, that are
Speaker 1: capable of doing shows and getting things done. Uh. This
Speaker 1: true story. A couple of years ago, I was at
Speaker 1: a um AN event and there was a young lady
Speaker 1: that I knew there was used to be a showrunner
Speaker 1: on the show I did for Nickelodeon called Brother Scarcia.
Speaker 1: She was running the room the last year there, and
Speaker 1: prior to that she had run another room. And she
Speaker 1: was there at the young writer's table of this company,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what are you doing here? Because it's
Speaker 1: the only way I can get in. I had to
Speaker 1: literally sell myself off as a young writer. I was like,
Speaker 1: that's absurd. You shouldn't have to do that. So that's
Speaker 1: you know, in that they are good. There also needs
Speaker 1: to be an understanding of you know, there is talent
Speaker 1: ready to deploy right because speed to market is critical.
Speaker 1: I think Netflix has done an amazing job of speed
Speaker 1: to market and and and getting you know, content out
Speaker 1: there as opposed to what they call development hell that
Speaker 1: you know is a term in Hollywood, right, So it's manufacturing.
Speaker 1: This is really simple manufacturing. And then the other problem,
Speaker 1: this is something actually I I we did some very
Speaker 1: deep research about the major studios in Hollywood because we
Speaker 1: were like, why is there a block in the supply chain?
Speaker 1: Because we and I think I mentioned this to you before,
Speaker 1: is so what we did is we built this index
Speaker 1: and it's a really cool index. We went through every
Speaker 1: writer and director at every studio and we did their name,
Speaker 1: their age, their ethnicity, uh, their agency, their agents, how
Speaker 1: many clients the agent had, how many of those clients
Speaker 1: were a US Latino not foreign, right, because you know,
Speaker 1: an Argentinian is very different than somebody was born in Colorado.
Speaker 1: As I was, Uh, they're just their cultural experience. Uh
Speaker 1: there their first film ever, uh, their last film, uh,
Speaker 1: their most recent film in their box office. So we
Speaker 1: built this index. We we found some very interesting things
Speaker 1: that validates some other stuff that's out there and went
Speaker 1: a little deeper. Is you know, uh the average ages,
Speaker 1: it's you know, like eighty five percent of the studios,
Speaker 1: about eighty five percent are male, of some cases ninety
Speaker 1: you're talking about filmmakers, filmmakers and TV TV shows and
Speaker 1: then you get into um of of those it's you know,
Speaker 1: there's seven tenths of one percent or Latino US Latino.
Speaker 1: Because what happens they'll say, like Alfonso Cuadro and Guillermo
Speaker 1: del Toro. And I understand that people think that, but
Speaker 1: they're they're Mexican Mexicans. Like my wife's from Mexico City,
Speaker 1: she's a Mexican Mexican. I'm a Mexican American. There's a difference,
Speaker 1: but people just think, you know, Mexican, like kind of
Speaker 1: what Trump said the other day of all of the
Speaker 1: Mexican countries of Guatemala and hondurasm like, wow, really, so
Speaker 1: even our president doesn't understand our countries. I know you're shocked.
Speaker 1: So um So, when we looked at that the supply
Speaker 1: chain in the very beginning, you have, um the all
Speaker 1: the studios use three agencies sell them their writers and directors.
Speaker 1: So in those studios there's seven tenths of one per
Speaker 1: cent of the writers and directors that are US US Latino,
Speaker 1: and amazingly, up at the top where the programming is,
Speaker 1: it's about the same seven tenths. So when people say, well,
Speaker 1: we haven't done very well, we could do better, I
Speaker 1: very politely say, well, actually you can't. It's mathematically impossible
Speaker 1: for you to do better because you would have to
Speaker 1: change the whole not only you have to change all
Speaker 1: four tires on the car. So what we're proposing is
Speaker 1: going outside of the trade sational structure, and we have
Speaker 1: to in order to make this happen the traditional world
Speaker 1: of of writers developed scripts. You know, writers start to
Speaker 1: get get some traction, they get an agent, they kind
Speaker 1: of get into the system, the pipeline of developed of
Speaker 1: you know, because we all know everything starts with the scripts. Um,
Speaker 1: and how would you how do you? How do you
Speaker 1: when you say go outside, do you mean more aggressive
Speaker 1: efforts to look for talent in untapped places to make
Speaker 1: people aware, even people aware at a young age that
Speaker 1: writing and producing and being an executive that these are
Speaker 1: that these are even open to them. There there's, like
Speaker 1: I said, there's talent ready to go. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember when we when we did the Brothers Garcia
Speaker 1: series for Nickelodeon, there were no real comedy writers out there.
Speaker 1: This is fifteen years ago, and I met folks. I
Speaker 1: read them and I said, you know you're you're you're capable.
Speaker 1: I can read your script, tell your I can tell
Speaker 1: you're competent, and say with directors, we gave break Us
Speaker 1: to a dozen new writers and a dozen new directors
Speaker 1: on one show and so it's not about getting him
Speaker 1: in an intern programming spot, finding smart people and giving
Speaker 1: him the opportunity because everybody, I assume somebody probably met
Speaker 1: you one day I said, you know what, she's really
Speaker 1: smart and talented and I'm gonna give her her shot. Right.
Speaker 1: That just happens, and we need to do more that
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that you know people. We we want,
Speaker 1: you know, to identify new talent and get him in
Speaker 1: the agencies so the agencies can diversify their they're they're
Speaker 1: offering and uh and also existing talent. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of really really terrific talent um And what is the
Speaker 1: we know, when you sit and talk do you do?
Speaker 1: Are you pressing people for a commitment for any kind
Speaker 1: of response? Are you trying trying to Is this a
Speaker 1: consciousness raising effort? Well, no, no, this is a this
Speaker 1: is a business effort. Um. I'm very fortunate that one
Speaker 1: of my partners is a guy named Soul through Hell
Speaker 1: and Soul is the he ran Us West was the
Speaker 1: chairman and CEO, and he ran um Telstra in Australia
Speaker 1: and it's really innovative stuff down there, and he ran
Speaker 1: Orange in Europe. So having a guy like that. As
Speaker 1: a partner, he's you know, I'm the creative guy, but
Speaker 1: he's always about, you know, the bottom line business. He's
Speaker 1: the closer. So uh um that that that is um
Speaker 1: job one. And everything we go to is educate and
Speaker 1: then you know, cut deals because that's what has to happen, right,
Speaker 1: we have to really um and and and what I
Speaker 1: love about him, he's about like, We're not going to
Speaker 1: take two months to negotiate this. I want you know,
Speaker 1: this done in very short order. And and literally we've
Speaker 1: gone literally in the past two months from just talking
Speaker 1: about this too. I can't get into a lot of detail,
Speaker 1: but some terrific results that I think we're that we're
Speaker 1: going to yield soon. Is there is there a deficit
Speaker 1: of awareness of the opportunities in the entertainment industry in
Speaker 1: what you would call the Latino community, which I know
Speaker 1: is not a monolithic by any means of monolith. That's
Speaker 1: the problem. People go, We're gonna make something for Latinos,
Speaker 1: Like what does that mean? Which Latinos? What age? What where?
Speaker 1: What are the market segments you're talking about. It's a
Speaker 1: business proposition, but are there areas? Are there you know,
Speaker 1: areas of Greater Los Angeles outside of the West and
Speaker 1: other areas of Houston. Are there areas, are their programs
Speaker 1: that could be done in schools? Is there things to
Speaker 1: just even again, even to spark the fire of interest
Speaker 1: in a budding comedian or director or you know, future ceo.
Speaker 1: You know, I think the most powerful thing to do
Speaker 1: is when years ago, when I first came to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: I I you know, I was a guy from Colra.
Speaker 1: I've never even been on a sound stage, and I
Speaker 1: did this show called Comedy Compodes and it was Carlos
Speaker 1: mincs first show ever. He was the host of it,
Speaker 1: and I was just, you know, this complete nobody from
Speaker 1: el had. I mean, I was freak now that I
Speaker 1: got to do the show. We've had like ten thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for the budget, and imagine a ten thousand dollar
Speaker 1: budget show, and I barely was able to fill eight
Speaker 1: eight eight shows with comedians. And we were on Katie
Speaker 1: l A and we're up against at the time, David Letterman,
Speaker 1: Jay Leno, Chevy Chase in our Sineo Hall and we
Speaker 1: beat them most every Friday night. Of course we did,
Speaker 1: and we would do it again in l A. Because
Speaker 1: people connected to it. And what happened to answer your
Speaker 1: question is people saw themselves and they said, hey, if
Speaker 1: Carlo Spincia it can do it. This kid named Fluffy
Speaker 1: glessie Us used to watch that show and Gabriel glessia
Speaker 1: I said, wow, if that guy can do it, I
Speaker 1: can do it. And then somebody saw flu So when
Speaker 1: you see yourself, you go, well, hell, let's not you know,
Speaker 1: an impossible dream, because, believe me, a lot of young
Speaker 1: Latino's dream about doing it, but when they see it
Speaker 1: as opposed to, hey, let's go to a school or
Speaker 1: let's have an outreach program. Just you've got to have
Speaker 1: the product on the screen. And that'll, believe me more
Speaker 1: than open the doors. You can't be what you can't see.
Speaker 1: That's a I'm gonna steal that from you. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I would say, it's harder to be what you can't
Speaker 1: It's infinitely harder. Well, let's just hears. You're also involved
Speaker 1: in an adventure that is is tapping into what seems
Speaker 1: to be a really growing field right now of the
Speaker 1: world of live experiences, which is kind of you know,
Speaker 1: it seems like it. It says a lot about our
Speaker 1: wired and crazy screen connected world. That we're now seeking
Speaker 1: seeking opportunities to have live experiences as opposed to living
Speaker 1: in the world. But um, but you are putting your
Speaker 1: producer and your comedian's brain onto a onto developing a project,
Speaker 1: a big real estate development project outside of Tucson. Tell
Speaker 1: us about how that happens. About A friend of mine
Speaker 1: called me and he said, uh, I bought a mall.
Speaker 1: It's like, honey, we bought them all and he got
Speaker 1: this amazing deal on it. And it was it's a
Speaker 1: mall in Tuson and um and and he said, you know, what,
Speaker 1: do you think what let's do something really cool with it.
Speaker 1: And I was like great, And so we got in
Speaker 1: the sandbox and we just started playing. And basically it's
Speaker 1: a two fifty thousand square it's a six d square
Speaker 1: foot mall, but the footprint we're doing is about a
Speaker 1: quarter million square feet. And it's going to have Instead
Speaker 1: of a traditional mall which has about se retail food,
Speaker 1: our retail is going to be wallless, so you don't
Speaker 1: really know when you're going from one into the next.
Speaker 1: The food is aligned with the retail, so when you're
Speaker 1: buying something that you can relate to as a consumer,
Speaker 1: you can also enjoy food that might want to cater
Speaker 1: to you, so kind of we kind of do that online,
Speaker 1: but now we're doing that with with expert real experiential.
Speaker 1: There's activities because uh, I remember when I met with
Speaker 1: a friend of mine our kids grew up together, and
Speaker 1: I said, you know, living in l A when my
Speaker 1: kids were younger, because I and you went through this too.
Speaker 1: Is you know, if I wanted they want to paintball,
Speaker 1: they'd have to go all the way to south in
Speaker 1: the town, like a ninety minute drive. And they wanted
Speaker 1: rock wall, they'd have to go to Santa Monica. They
Speaker 1: wanted laser tag, they have to go to Fan Eyes.
Speaker 1: So this is all that under one roof. That's the
Speaker 1: activity side. And then there's the entertainment side, which includes
Speaker 1: a fifteen screen theater and that's actually already currently there.
Speaker 1: Just went through a big remodel and um, and then
Speaker 1: we're doing these really cool uh they're sweets. They're the
Speaker 1: easiest way to describe it as like the ultimate man cave,
Speaker 1: you know, And I don't want to say that because
Speaker 1: it's inclusive of male females, not exclusive two men obviously,
Speaker 1: and because I was raised by five sisters and they'd
Speaker 1: kill me for doing something like that. And um and
Speaker 1: literally you can go in there. It's got the most
Speaker 1: outrageous you know, its sound and and TV and set
Speaker 1: up and and comfortable chairs and you can order food
Speaker 1: from your phone and uh uh and drinks from your phone.
Speaker 1: So you know, my wife doesn't like when I have
Speaker 1: friends over to watch the games on Sunday, So I'll
Speaker 1: just rent one of these right when we ultimately roll
Speaker 1: them out, and I can go and watch the game
Speaker 1: with my friends instead of a sports bar where you
Speaker 1: can't hear the game. And and when they're not being
Speaker 1: used for sports, gamers can use them. Uh they can
Speaker 1: also uh karaoke and then also for corporate events. And
Speaker 1: then we've also got this we're kind of recreating the
Speaker 1: comedy clubs. I used to own a comedy club back
Speaker 1: back in the day, you know, and you know it
Speaker 1: was like, you know, Rosanne used to work there when
Speaker 1: she was just be a housewife from Denver and uh
Speaker 1: Sinbad and Ellen degenerous. You know, everybody did the circuit
Speaker 1: and came through Colora Springs. What was the name of
Speaker 1: your club, It was called jeff El doz Is Comedy
Speaker 1: corner and so funny. Sinbad was on Allen recently and
Speaker 1: he said, where do we meet? I don't remember. She
Speaker 1: asked him that because you don't remembers the jeff el
Speaker 1: Dez comedy corner. So he was a nice plug. But
Speaker 1: Zella lives on and um, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: the the new environment we're creating. It's going to be
Speaker 1: a comedy room, but when it's not being used for
Speaker 1: because you know, the comedy shows only last three hours
Speaker 1: a night for was on the weekend, and then the
Speaker 1: rooms just empty the rest of the time. So we're
Speaker 1: turning the room into a gaming arena and on the
Speaker 1: sports arena, so it'll be e sports all the other time,
Speaker 1: corporate events and comedy. So everything is constantly fluid and
Speaker 1: constantly working in this uh new project that we're doing.
Speaker 1: And it's really been a lot of fun because it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's like I told my partner, I said,
Speaker 1: you're not in the real estate business anymore. You're in
Speaker 1: the entertainment business. And how is it for you to
Speaker 1: look at instead of you know, instead of working on
Speaker 1: a script, to look at blueprints and use your you know,
Speaker 1: use your creative muscles to think about how you could
Speaker 1: make how you could make these these individual spaces really
Speaker 1: cool entertainment experience. You know what, it's not much different.
Speaker 1: It's right, you're you're literally you're developing something. You know,
Speaker 1: you when you go build, you know, when you write
Speaker 1: a script, you write the treatment, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you you know, I always tell people, if you don't
Speaker 1: have the treatment, that's the blueprint, right, and then you
Speaker 1: get into the real the real site plans and the
Speaker 1: details of it, and and and that's the actual script part.
Speaker 1: And then there's the marketing of it. It's very similar.
Speaker 1: I told him, my my bud Don boorn I said,
Speaker 1: it's like producing a TV show. It's really not much
Speaker 1: different about it's real estate. It's just you know, it's
Speaker 1: different because it's real estate. But it's not much different
Speaker 1: at all. Really. So there there are skills that you
Speaker 1: can say that do translate, that you learn in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: that you that do translate outside industries. That absolutely that's
Speaker 1: good news for people. Yeah, um, I know, you know
Speaker 1: when we first met, you were just at the outset
Speaker 1: of of a really impressive run of you launched. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the few that you can count on two
Speaker 1: hands the number of truly independent from scratch cable channels
Speaker 1: that have been launched in the last you know, going
Speaker 1: on let's call it fifteen sixteen years, and one of
Speaker 1: them was CTV, which is now the Fuse channel. UM,
Speaker 1: tell us what that experience, you know, going soup to
Speaker 1: that's from the idea, to raising the money to to
Speaker 1: cajoling cable operators to carry it. What did what did
Speaker 1: that process you know, going on fifteen plus years ago? Now,
Speaker 1: what did that process teach you about the industry, about
Speaker 1: the television industry, about my finance? Um? Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: I when we first came to New York to raise
Speaker 1: the money for it, you know, because I was very
Speaker 1: passionate about getting it done because it's like and here
Speaker 1: I'm having the same conversation, we need more content for
Speaker 1: our community. You know, all these years later and we start.
Speaker 1: We used to jokingly point to all the buildings where
Speaker 1: we had been rejected. And then it got to a
Speaker 1: point where we had pointed the buildings we hadn't been rejected,
Speaker 1: because we literally we made the rounds and went to everybody.
Speaker 1: And this is at the financing stage, financing stage, finance,
Speaker 1: and I was telling somebody yesterday. The story when because
Speaker 1: what had happened is you would have the distributors because
Speaker 1: they were you know, they were the gatekeepers. And they
Speaker 1: then you had the finance saying well, we can't give
Speaker 1: you distribution until we know you have the financing. We
Speaker 1: love the idea, but you need the financing. The finance
Speaker 1: guys going well, we can't give you, you you know, find
Speaker 1: money until we know where you have distribution. So we're
Speaker 1: in a meeting one day and and um, somebody said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we would love to love the idea. We'll
Speaker 1: we'll give you distribution. Do you have the you know
Speaker 1: whatever seventy eight million dollars at the time to launch us.
Speaker 1: And I looked at him and said, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: just flat outlied. Yeah. And my partner jerked next to me.
Speaker 1: He walks out and sorry, n you just told him
Speaker 1: we had seventy million dollars. I'm like yeah, And he
Speaker 1: believed he didn't he and he said, what are we
Speaker 1: gonna do? I said, well, now we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: the finance people and say we have a commitment for distribution,
Speaker 1: will you finance this? And and that's exactly what we did.
Speaker 1: And we use that little white lie to UH to
Speaker 1: get money because then we had distribution. Now it's it
Speaker 1: sounds easy in the retelling, but I'm guessing it took
Speaker 1: a lot to a lot of spine it was to
Speaker 1: pull off and to make sure everybody got to the
Speaker 1: same point. Yeah, when when push came to show you
Speaker 1: had that seventy million dollars in your pocket. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you the dumbest thing I will tell you I ever
Speaker 1: did in the in the process was I had a
Speaker 1: meeting with UH with Bob Iger at one time, and
Speaker 1: and um, and Bob loved the idea of it, and
Speaker 1: he's like, how about I just write a check for
Speaker 1: the whole thing? And and and this is I will
Speaker 1: always remember what kind of idiot I was. I said, Um.
Speaker 1: I looked at it, and I said, no, thank you,
Speaker 1: I just want part of it. And he says, why
Speaker 1: would you not take a full check? I said, because, well,
Speaker 1: if you write a big check like that, that makes
Speaker 1: you an expert in what I'm an expert in. And
Speaker 1: I don't need any more experts around the table right now.
Speaker 1: I got this. And he looked at me, says, mar
Speaker 1: rather cocky, aren't you, I said, no, I just know
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, and and and if I you know,
Speaker 1: if you guys own it, then we'll just be you know,
Speaker 1: beholden to you and we want to build value for you.
Speaker 1: So you have to trust that we know what we're doing.
Speaker 1: And uh, there's a whole another long story around that
Speaker 1: whole thing, but um, you know, it was it was
Speaker 1: that was the dumbest move I've ever made. And just think,
Speaker 1: you know, what what might what might have been? Well well,
Speaker 1: and and by the way, on the advert that was
Speaker 1: just on the finance and the advertising. Once we launched,
Speaker 1: we had to go out and you know, we'd go
Speaker 1: to the we'd go to the general market ad agencies
Speaker 1: and they say, hey, this is great, we love the programming,
Speaker 1: love love the real but your last name is Valdez.
Speaker 1: You should go to the Hispanic agencies. Then we go
Speaker 1: to the Hispanic agencies and they say, well, wait a second,
Speaker 1: this is programming in English, we only do Spanish language.
Speaker 1: Should go to the general market agencies. So there so
Speaker 1: we ended up just going directly to the brands because
Speaker 1: that was the only way we could sell it in
Speaker 1: Do you think that in your experience, do you think
Speaker 1: that that the advertising and financing is there Are they
Speaker 1: a little more enlightened or is there more openness. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of money out there right now, I can
Speaker 1: tell you that, um private equity. Yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: more money than there's places to put it. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I think people are gonna start burying it in coffee
Speaker 1: cans in their backyard because there's just a lot out there. Um.
Speaker 1: I think they're yes, they're open to it. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think there was like the the when the Disney
Speaker 1: um tell visa thing didn't work, Uh that that I
Speaker 1: don't think that helped the market. Um you know, because
Speaker 1: everydything if they can't do it, you know, and something
Speaker 1: I think I think that was harmful to the market. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. In my perspective at that time was look, um,
Speaker 1: you guys, you've hired Televisa who has never produced two
Speaker 1: seconds of content in English. They're a Spanish language programmer,
Speaker 1: and it's in Miami. And you know, the joke about
Speaker 1: Miami is I love Miami because it's so conveniently located
Speaker 1: the United States. Right Well, Miami is a Spanish Spanish
Speaker 1: non market. So I think when you look at it
Speaker 1: from the architecture of it, there were some missteps, because
Speaker 1: people make all the time, um and um, you know,
Speaker 1: as in in CTV we had I thought we did
Speaker 1: a lot of great things. And one of the things
Speaker 1: I will tell you that I didn't do well as
Speaker 1: I didn't learn the difference between a venture capitalist and
Speaker 1: a vulture capitalist, and there is a big difference. So
Speaker 1: that's that's for the book I'm going to write that.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you'll help me someday. Yeah. I suffice it to
Speaker 1: say here that you did part ways a few years
Speaker 1: in with with CTV after being immensely successful. I somehow
Speaker 1: managed to part ways, as you say, a story for
Speaker 1: another time, story for another time. Well, you certainly have
Speaker 1: no shortage of irons in the fire and interesting things
Speaker 1: happening now. Thank you so much for coming in and
Speaker 1: and talking to us about about issues that are not
Speaker 1: easy to talk about. And it's especially great to have
Speaker 1: somebody coming at it from with a real business perspective,
Speaker 1: not a you should or this is the moral thing
Speaker 1: to do, but this is this is the business thing
Speaker 1: to do. This is the bottom line that you need
Speaker 1: to because that is the thing, as we all know,
Speaker 1: as much as everybody wants to do good you gotta
Speaker 1: move market. And if if I can say one real
Speaker 1: thing about that too, is when you look at you know,
Speaker 1: part of our pitch right now we tell people is look,
Speaker 1: there's a strain on the supply on on writers and
Speaker 1: directors because there's so so many people buying content now
Speaker 1: and it's the same people over and over, and they're
Speaker 1: going making content for an audience sexually shrinking, you know,
Speaker 1: because every I think it's every minute to Latinos turn
Speaker 1: eighteen and to non Hispanics turn retire, for non Hispanics
Speaker 1: turn retirement age every minute. So you're making content for
Speaker 1: a shrinking audience. Whereas we're saying, we have a wealth
Speaker 1: of writers and directors that's growing, and an audience and
Speaker 1: an audience that's growing. So you do that properly, you
Speaker 1: experience top line growth. And again, as you know, to
Speaker 1: get top line growth, you have to have bodies. People
Speaker 1: have to go in and as to the g d
Speaker 1: P and all all the different economic factors have to happen,
Speaker 1: and you can't grow without people for top line growth,
Speaker 1: and we're growing. You look at a lot of big companies,
Speaker 1: I want to say, like in in in the banking industry, Uh,
Speaker 1: their growth is like seventy based from the US Latino market.
Speaker 1: Uh in Walmart. It's like, I mean, some of the
Speaker 1: big big industries out there, all their growth right now,
Speaker 1: not not their revenue, their growth is all coming from Hispanic.
Speaker 1: When do you think that we will see the first
Speaker 1: the first fruits of new cadence? Do you think shows movies?
Speaker 1: Are you focused on television right now? Yes? Um, before
Speaker 1: the end of this year. Great, All right, well we
Speaker 1: will definitely stay tuned for that. Jeff, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming in to talk about important issues. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in
Speaker 1: next week for another episode of Strictly Business.