Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, weekly podcasts featuring conversations with
Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
Speaker 1: guest is Latasha Gillespie. Gillespie has head of Global Diversity,
Speaker 1: Equity and Inclusion for Amazon's Prime Video, Amazon Studios, and
Speaker 1: IMDb units. Gillespie is a major player in setting d
Speaker 1: E and I policy for one of the world's largest corporations.
Speaker 1: This time last year, she led the launch of its
Speaker 1: inclusion policy playbook, with content production guidelines that go right
Speaker 1: to the heart of the creative work done at Prime
Speaker 1: Video and Amazon Studios. It was a significant statement about
Speaker 1: d E and I expectations. One year in, Gillespie says
Speaker 1: there is measurable progress in hiring, especially in low profile
Speaker 1: areas like transportation and support services. The policy playbook is
Speaker 1: open to all to view online. That's important, Gillespie says,
Speaker 1: to ensure access to the playbooks large and growing database
Speaker 1: of BIPOC owned businesses, vendors, and creative talent above and
Speaker 1: below the line. Gillespie has had a few frank conversations
Speaker 1: with producers as the company formalized. It's the E and
Speaker 1: I procedures around content for a company that prides itself
Speaker 1: on being customer obsessed. As Gillespie explains, it's crucial that
Speaker 1: the people behind Amazon shows have the right lived experience
Speaker 1: to tell the stories that they do. Overall, she's been
Speaker 1: impressed at how many people she's encountered are committed to
Speaker 1: meaningful progress. Gillespie also shares her impressions about the entertainment
Speaker 1: business in general from the vantage point of a very
Speaker 1: different business. The Chicago native joined Amazon's corporate ranks in
Speaker 1: after a long career with machinery and equipment manufacturer at
Speaker 1: a Pillar. That's all coming up after this break, and
Speaker 1: we're back with Amazon's Latasha Gillespie. Latasha Gillespie, head of
Speaker 1: Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Prime Video, Amazon Studios,
Speaker 1: and IMDb, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Cynthia for having me. It's a pleasure to
Speaker 1: be here. I'm glad that we have the chance to
Speaker 1: talk today because right about now we're at the end
Speaker 1: of May. Here, it has been just one year since
Speaker 1: Amazon unveiled it's very expansive what it calls its inclusive,
Speaker 1: what it calls its Inclusion Policy Playbook, and it was
Speaker 1: a very thoughtful, very comprehensive series of guidelines and objectives
Speaker 1: to guide what every company and entertainment, what every content
Speaker 1: company on the planet has been dealing with is making
Speaker 1: sure that content looks like the audience it serves. And
Speaker 1: that can't be done without bringing in way opening up
Speaker 1: more pipelines, bringing in way more diversity of perspectives, backgrounds
Speaker 1: at all levels of the industry and as a lot
Speaker 1: of people, a lot of companies were grappling with this
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years. Amazon really put some
Speaker 1: things down in black and white on paper. It's the
Speaker 1: and we you know, we have covered that. We covered
Speaker 1: that extensively. At the time it's been one year. Tell
Speaker 1: us what some of the biggest takeaways from this process
Speaker 1: have been in the short time that it's that it's
Speaker 1: that you've really been formalizing it. You know, I appreciate
Speaker 1: the question, because we have had some really interesting learnings
Speaker 1: in this first year. Um, you know, we expected, of
Speaker 1: course that we would see some uptick um, but we
Speaker 1: knew we weren't going to solve all the problems in
Speaker 1: one year. I think we've been pleasantly surprised with what
Speaker 1: you can do with intentionality and and just by really
Speaker 1: being focused in giving people resources. I think is it
Speaker 1: s exceeded our expectation for year one. The second thing
Speaker 1: I think that we've learned, which was also a pleasant surprise, is, UM,
Speaker 1: you know how much diversity we have below the line,
Speaker 1: particularly people with disabilities, UH, the lgbt Q community. I
Speaker 1: don't know that that community below the line community if
Speaker 1: if that's been captured UM in a way that really
Speaker 1: gives uh insight into the breath and depth of diversity
Speaker 1: that's happening below the line. And and I'm so pleased
Speaker 1: to see how many people from those communities are actually
Speaker 1: working on our sets every day, and like it's it's
Speaker 1: so encouraging, UM and I'm so excited about that. But
Speaker 1: it's also making it smarter because we're thinking through things differently,
Speaker 1: specifically around accessibility. Right, how do you make sure that
Speaker 1: everyone has the necessary avery tools to be productive in
Speaker 1: their role every day? And there's so many disabilities that
Speaker 1: are unseen that you shouldn't assume someone doesn't have it.
Speaker 1: And if you think about the impact COVID has had
Speaker 1: and people with long haul COVID like, I think we're
Speaker 1: going to see an increase in that over the next
Speaker 1: couple of years, and how we think through accessibility and
Speaker 1: productivity tools for people with hidden disabilities. We see the
Speaker 1: stats every year when the guilds and industry institutions put
Speaker 1: out their diversity numbers, and it's still staggering, and we
Speaker 1: know that a lot of it is a pipeline, the
Speaker 1: pipeline to opportunity. The talent is there, but the pipeline.
Speaker 1: What have you done things? Have you taken steps to
Speaker 1: open those pipelines to bring more people into the mix,
Speaker 1: to even be considered for those below the line roles,
Speaker 1: the the very junior rung roles, the executive roles, all
Speaker 1: all of the support systems. Have you taken steps to
Speaker 1: bring just to open that pipeline. Absolutely, And I think
Speaker 1: the one thing when I hear the word pipeline, I
Speaker 1: think people automatically think, um, you know, training programs and
Speaker 1: apprenticeships which are super important and relevant and we all
Speaker 1: should be engaged in doing those. But then there's also,
Speaker 1: you know, the shorter ramp pipeline. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of talented and trained people in the world today that
Speaker 1: just don't have access and exposure to our industry. UM.
Speaker 1: You think about simple things like you know someone to
Speaker 1: lead transportation on is said to be the head of transportation.
Speaker 1: How often are we going into local communities and looking
Speaker 1: for our entrepreneurs have chauffeur companies right or car service
Speaker 1: companies and and helping them understand how to get into
Speaker 1: our business. So I think there's when we talk about
Speaker 1: pipelines for us, it's about long term for sure, like
Speaker 1: Howard Entertainment, which is my pipeline program and its third year,
Speaker 1: where we are training HBCU students to be studio executives
Speaker 1: UM so that they understand the power of you know,
Speaker 1: the green light power from a creative development standpoint, from
Speaker 1: a marketing standpoint, a pr standpoint, finance standpoint, a legal standpoint,
Speaker 1: like helping them understand how you green light projects, how
Speaker 1: you separate them through development to execution UM and making
Speaker 1: sure that you do it in in an authentic way. Right.
Speaker 1: But then there's shorter pipelines that were also working with
Speaker 1: with around identifying talented writers who we think have an
Speaker 1: amazing voice and they don't need to go through a
Speaker 1: diversity program, they just need to be high right. We
Speaker 1: are seeing. I'm seeing in in in a lot of
Speaker 1: industry sectors, a lot of programs that a lot have
Speaker 1: been identified that filmmakers, for example, that you can sometimes
Speaker 1: get a lot of heat on that first film. You
Speaker 1: do everything, you max your credit cards, you make that
Speaker 1: first film, you get a festival splash, and you you
Speaker 1: get that first wrong. But then your second film is
Speaker 1: just you just the phone doesn't ring, and you know
Speaker 1: every door is a no and you can't you know,
Speaker 1: every story is different, but when you look at the
Speaker 1: sweep of things, there's a consistency as to who gets
Speaker 1: that second chance, that that that that boost from the
Speaker 1: first movie gets you the second movie, and who and
Speaker 1: who is still struggling to get attention even after a
Speaker 1: buzzy first movie. And so I've seen, I've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of things that are that are meant for that,
Speaker 1: you know, professional or even mid career professional. Have you
Speaker 1: how do you do that kind of stuff, especially when
Speaker 1: you mentioned vendors, that's another huge opportunity, vendors for everything
Speaker 1: from you know, this industry needs literally everything from elephants, elephants,
Speaker 1: you know, trained elephants, to lumber to water bottles. How
Speaker 1: do you do that? Kind of stuff with intention and
Speaker 1: make sure that your vendors are represent diversity. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's the purpose of the playbooks. So the policy you know,
Speaker 1: really articulates. You know, here's what we based on the
Speaker 1: you know that's available to us in terms of market
Speaker 1: availability and you know, roles on television and film sets
Speaker 1: um either above the line or below the line. Here's
Speaker 1: what we think good looks like right here here the
Speaker 1: ways in which we think we should be intentional about
Speaker 1: not causing harm through harmful stereotypes and tropes and right,
Speaker 1: So we talk about that in the policy, what good
Speaker 1: looks like. But the playbook is meant to be a living,
Speaker 1: breathing resource, so that as you're trying to accomplish the
Speaker 1: very um specific aspects of the policy, you have a
Speaker 1: resource in the playbook that helps walk you through how
Speaker 1: do I do that intentionally? How do I do that
Speaker 1: without creating harm? You know what vendors and partners are
Speaker 1: out there that I can tap into if I don't
Speaker 1: know how to do this particular thing. Yes, I agree,
Speaker 1: I should be hitting this number or I should be
Speaker 1: doing this thing on my on my show or my film,
Speaker 1: but I don't know where to get started. So the
Speaker 1: playbook is meant to codify some of those resources, um
Speaker 1: and help people with that. And it's one of the reasons,
Speaker 1: you know, people were surprised that we put it up
Speaker 1: on the website, you know, with no restrictions. So we
Speaker 1: put it out there. You don't have to put your
Speaker 1: email address into downloaded or anything like that. And the
Speaker 1: reason why we did that was because we understand that
Speaker 1: we one, we don't have all the answers right too.
Speaker 1: You know, we're not saying, you know that we're the
Speaker 1: we don't ever get it wrong and we're the best
Speaker 1: at it. Like, no, we made it public because it's
Speaker 1: a it's a mechanism to hold ourselves accountable. And then three,
Speaker 1: we're asking not only our creative partners, but our industry,
Speaker 1: you know, like hold hands and do this with us.
Speaker 1: And oh yes, by the way, if you find a
Speaker 1: better way of doing you know, any aspect of this
Speaker 1: policy or playbook, will you please share it back with
Speaker 1: us so that we can continually update it, you know,
Speaker 1: and we all can benefit from the learning. And so
Speaker 1: you know, that's one way in which we're trying to
Speaker 1: to do this and just by making it open, you know,
Speaker 1: and not just open but hopefully a little bit open
Speaker 1: source open source. And just to be clear, the playbook
Speaker 1: is is a true database with like individual company listings.
Speaker 1: This company provides this service. This is a black owned company,
Speaker 1: this is a woman owned company. This is a and
Speaker 1: that is available Scott free, no email at, no emails
Speaker 1: or anything at at. Can you give the u r
Speaker 1: L where that is available? Absolutely, Both the policy and
Speaker 1: the playbook can be found at d e I. So
Speaker 1: it's Diversity Equity Inclusion d e I dot Amazon Studios
Speaker 1: dot com. Great, And that is and hasn't grown. I
Speaker 1: would imagine that that database probably has grown significantly in
Speaker 1: the years since you've put it up. It has and
Speaker 1: and what's really exciting too is UM we launched this
Speaker 1: as a u S policy for wholly owned UM productions
Speaker 1: that we were doing, but our co pros are now
Speaker 1: you know, taking advantage of it and and following it
Speaker 1: as well and trying to hit you know, the goals
Speaker 1: and the policy, which super excited about. Our international locations.
Speaker 1: UM have started adapting and adapting it locally. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a big push for us next year to
Speaker 1: to localize the policy and playbook in different regions around
Speaker 1: the world. Um, and they you know, shared that like, hey,
Speaker 1: I took what you did and then this is what
Speaker 1: I learned, and so then I created this other thing
Speaker 1: to make it even more robust. Here added to the
Speaker 1: to the playbook if you want. And I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is amazing. And so we're not just
Speaker 1: learning from our industry pears, we're learning from from all
Speaker 1: of our colleagues around the world. Do you have any
Speaker 1: anecdotal sense from some of these individual companies that now
Speaker 1: have been listed on on this document, in this data base,
Speaker 1: if you heard any stories of of you know, what
Speaker 1: it's been like to have people have the phone ringing.
Speaker 1: Now you know, there was there's a Latino woman who
Speaker 1: owns a transportation company, and um, you know, she had
Speaker 1: expressed to our production team that typically she had only
Speaker 1: been called to be a driver. But she was so
Speaker 1: happy to say that She's like, you guys continue hiring
Speaker 1: me to be head of transportation. Which is great because
Speaker 1: she owns her own business, she has her own fleet apart,
Speaker 1: she has her own drivers. Right. And so now that
Speaker 1: we have said, you know, we want at least at
Speaker 1: least of our department heads to be women of color,
Speaker 1: like she's getting those calls now, which is so great
Speaker 1: because it's not Yeah, she can drive, but but she
Speaker 1: also provides jobs and opportunities for other people in her community.
Speaker 1: It's a ripple effect. Let me ask you, is it
Speaker 1: hasn't been hard at all? You know, production producers, showrunners
Speaker 1: can be It's a very intense job. There's you know,
Speaker 1: it's a very specialized job. Have you had any resistance
Speaker 1: or any hurdles on the purely creative side in the
Speaker 1: hiring of writers, directors, producers, cinematographers that those that kind
Speaker 1: of in the kind of that purely creative field. Our
Speaker 1: creative partners have been, you know, great allies and co
Speaker 1: conspirators in this work. So that's that's that's a great thing.
Speaker 1: I haven't run into anyone who who says, I don't
Speaker 1: think this is right, we shouldn't be doing this, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want any parts of it. However, the devil
Speaker 1: is in the nuance and the details, right, So I
Speaker 1: have run into creators who had good intentions right of
Speaker 1: telling a story a certain way without fully understanding the
Speaker 1: harm that they could have potentially been doing. Without understanding
Speaker 1: the harm that they could potentially be causing based on
Speaker 1: the way they wrote the story or the particular character.
Speaker 1: And so you know, a creation is someone's baby, right,
Speaker 1: so you never call someone's baby ugly. You do have
Speaker 1: to help them understand that. Listen, I understand your intention
Speaker 1: because we all measure ourselves by our attend but others
Speaker 1: measure us by our impact. And so if you're gonna
Speaker 1: tell this story, and you're gonna tell this particular character art,
Speaker 1: we have to make sure we get it right. So
Speaker 1: if you're gonna tell a trans story, then you should
Speaker 1: either have that lived experience or somebody in your writer's
Speaker 1: room needs to have it. If you're gonna tell a
Speaker 1: specific story centering a woman of color, then there needs
Speaker 1: to be women of color in your producing team and
Speaker 1: then your writing team. Right. You need to make sure
Speaker 1: that story is coming across authentically in a way that
Speaker 1: centers the story you're trying to tell the character, uh,
Speaker 1: and not from a point of view that doesn't have
Speaker 1: that authenticity, And so you could be doing more harm
Speaker 1: than good that way. So I appreciate the attention of
Speaker 1: wanting to center those communities, but you have to do
Speaker 1: it right so that they come out as fully nuanced
Speaker 1: characters and not caricatures, right, and so giving people that
Speaker 1: hard feedback sometimes hasn't been easy. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: because no one wants to No one starts off with
Speaker 1: bad intentions and no and no one wants to do
Speaker 1: harm or thinks that they're doing harm. Uh. And they
Speaker 1: definitely don't want to be a scene as someone who
Speaker 1: um is not inclusive, right, And so there's this fear
Speaker 1: that because they didn't get it right, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: perceived that way. And and and my team is here
Speaker 1: to support you. We don't want you to be seen
Speaker 1: that way either, which is why we're here to help you. Latasha,
Speaker 1: I can tell you you definitely know how to talk
Speaker 1: to writers, because you're absolutely right. Everybody every the words
Speaker 1: that every writer wants to hear. The first words out
Speaker 1: of anybody's mouth after reading a script is great script.
Speaker 1: So I think, I think you've got it, but I
Speaker 1: can but I can absolutely see where that is. You know,
Speaker 1: that's where the you said, the nuances and the details,
Speaker 1: and that is where the hard work. And I'm just thinking,
Speaker 1: like it is so significant that accompany the size and
Speaker 1: scale of Amazon is investing in this at that granular
Speaker 1: level of transportation heads. It's really it's significant. Are there
Speaker 1: any in the in the things that you do? Obviously
Speaker 1: the voice that that you can speak with corporately is immense,
Speaker 1: but is there any aspects of Amazon And it's incredible
Speaker 1: you know, data gathering and analyzing capability that helps you
Speaker 1: in this work. Sure, um. And I'll say this, um,
Speaker 1: the success of our ability to get this granular um
Speaker 1: comes from one Jennifer Saki has been intentional in word
Speaker 1: and action from day one the president of Amazon Studios. Yeah. Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: and she she has been amazing in terms of not
Speaker 1: just what she says, but what she does, and that
Speaker 1: has been a pleasure to work for her. So I
Speaker 1: think leadership matters. And then the second thing is my colleagues.
Speaker 1: I work with a group of people who are who
Speaker 1: we report up to Jennifer, who are just stop full
Speaker 1: incredible leaders. People like Tim Claussen, who is the head
Speaker 1: of worldwide production and an extremely busy the man, especially
Speaker 1: when you're trying to do productions around the world during COVID,
Speaker 1: who is one of who has been one of my
Speaker 1: professors from the beginning in my Howard Entertainment program, Like
Speaker 1: he teaches Howard students every semester on the fundamentals of production,
Speaker 1: like like, this is incredible, right, So it's not surprising
Speaker 1: that we can get down to that level of detail
Speaker 1: when you have those kind of leaders and the data
Speaker 1: piece is so critical, and I love that. Um there's
Speaker 1: two things about Amazon that make my job better or
Speaker 1: or somewhat easier is that one, we we absolutely are
Speaker 1: data driven company. And then to um, we are customer obsessed. Right.
Speaker 1: So for me, in in creating this inclusion policy and
Speaker 1: playbook and and the work that my team does in general,
Speaker 1: we started from the perspective of how are we equitably
Speaker 1: obsessing over customers? Right? So it's not about you know,
Speaker 1: whether or not you know we think one particular show
Speaker 1: is good or bad, but it's asking ourselves, are we
Speaker 1: equitably obsessing over all customers in a way where they
Speaker 1: see their lived experience portrayed in an authentic way and
Speaker 1: or they get a window into someone else's um lived
Speaker 1: experience right through our through our content. And so that
Speaker 1: customer obsession helps us frame it around um it. The
Speaker 1: customer obsession helps us frame it in a language that
Speaker 1: we have all bought into because customer obsession is our
Speaker 1: number one leadership principle. So everyone understands that there's there's
Speaker 1: no debate. It's not a more moral issue. It's not
Speaker 1: a right or wrong thing issue. It's a well, if
Speaker 1: you come to work for Amazon, you've signed up to
Speaker 1: be customer obsessed, and so that helps. And then the
Speaker 1: second problem with the data then is we use the
Speaker 1: data to help us understand are we being customer obsessed?
Speaker 1: Like you look at the numbers, like is it showing up?
Speaker 1: Are we putting out enough content that's appealing to historically
Speaker 1: marginalized communities? Who are we empowering to tell those stories
Speaker 1: of historically marginalized communities, because I think that's also very important,
Speaker 1: um right? And then who are we getting to work
Speaker 1: on those stories, whether it's above the line or below
Speaker 1: the line, to make those stories come to life? And
Speaker 1: so the data, you know, we men, men live, women live,
Speaker 1: data doesn't and are you able to see you know,
Speaker 1: if you if you make gains in an area of
Speaker 1: you know, representation or a different kind of storytelling, can
Speaker 1: you see does the data follow the content? Can you
Speaker 1: see an audience come to a show that that represents
Speaker 1: people that maybe weren't as circulating on the Amazon on
Speaker 1: the Prime platform as they were before. Yeah, we do
Speaker 1: have data that tells us when people come to the
Speaker 1: service for a show. We also have data that tells
Speaker 1: us like if people finish the show right and so
Speaker 1: you know, and and those kind of things are super
Speaker 1: and helpful because what we're finding is when the content
Speaker 1: is very good and specific and authentic, it resonates far
Speaker 1: beyond that community. Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a very good
Speaker 1: example of that very Jewish show that a whole lot
Speaker 1: of people love and bene who are not Jewish, so right,
Speaker 1: but everybody can kind of see their own family in
Speaker 1: her story or see their struggle to break out and
Speaker 1: follow their dreams in her story. And I think the
Speaker 1: more that we lean into that authenticity, the more you
Speaker 1: see it resonate with global audiences. And I do mean
Speaker 1: global because I think some of our best shows are
Speaker 1: shows that that weren't even created in the US. Right,
Speaker 1: we have some great shows coming out of India like
Speaker 1: Made in Heaven and Padda Loock that are doing extremely well.
Speaker 1: September Mornings, which is a black trans woman's story, but
Speaker 1: it's actually not about her being a black trans woman.
Speaker 1: It's about she finds out she has a kid who's
Speaker 1: ten years old that she never knew existed, that she
Speaker 1: fathered before her transition, right, and so like, it's just
Speaker 1: a compelling story that people, you know, get hooked on
Speaker 1: and bite watch. And so I think it's it's those
Speaker 1: kind of things that actually, you know, make you so
Speaker 1: excited about how how that content is resonating with people
Speaker 1: around the world. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back
Speaker 1: with more insights from Amazon's D E and I playbook
Speaker 1: after this break, and we're back with more from Amazon
Speaker 1: executive Latasha Gillespie. Where do you think the sort of
Speaker 1: biggest opportunities and biggest need to advance the industry's larger
Speaker 1: d E and I goals? Where do you think where
Speaker 1: are the biggest sort of roadblocks for advancement and greater diversity?
Speaker 1: Do you think is is it in production? Is it
Speaker 1: in the executive side? Do you have a Do you
Speaker 1: have a sense after you know, spending a lot of
Speaker 1: the last four or five years really digging into to
Speaker 1: this for Amazon, Yeah, I do. I think, Um, I
Speaker 1: probably think the two things that stick out to me
Speaker 1: most are definitely executives, which is one reason why the
Speaker 1: Howard Entertainment Program was so important to us because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of talent, you know, that has come out
Speaker 1: of Howard University, specifically, whether it's Chadwick Boseman, you know,
Speaker 1: Felicioper Shod, Debbie Allen's roj p Henson did he like,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of talent that's come out of
Speaker 1: that university. Um, but there's not always people in the
Speaker 1: room when you come to pitch. There's not always people
Speaker 1: in the room who who have your lived experience or
Speaker 1: a different lived experience to help understand whether a particular
Speaker 1: story is going to be you know, a culture mover
Speaker 1: and Jinski always talks about, you know, being on the
Speaker 1: forefront of culture and how do you how do you
Speaker 1: spot and since that story that's gonna be noisy and
Speaker 1: breakthrough culture and just become a part of the site guys, right,
Speaker 1: And so we haven't had enough people in the room
Speaker 1: who could who could link credibility to that authenticity. So
Speaker 1: that's why it was really important for us to make
Speaker 1: sure that we had a pipeline for folks coming into
Speaker 1: the executive seats. So that was one uh and then
Speaker 1: the second thing, in my opinion, it's looking at the
Speaker 1: number of people, um who have overall deals. I think
Speaker 1: when when you look at people who have those big
Speaker 1: overall deals, there's still um I think it's still excused
Speaker 1: towards the usual suspects, right, the folks with the most
Speaker 1: experience and the most the most success. It's definitely it's
Speaker 1: a it's a market based thing. But but but there
Speaker 1: there's there's a there's an imbalance in that market there
Speaker 1: right now that remains and the danger in that is
Speaker 1: by default, then unless those people, and there's some who
Speaker 1: are really great at it, unless those people are actively
Speaker 1: making space and making room at the table for others
Speaker 1: who don't have that opportunity. Uh, if that's not happening.
Speaker 1: And when that's not happening, we are limiting whose story
Speaker 1: we are centering. So when we only give those opportunities
Speaker 1: to the usual suspects, then we are running the risk
Speaker 1: of limiting you know, the story and the perspective and
Speaker 1: the characters we are centering in the content we put out,
Speaker 1: or we run the risk of getting it wrong because
Speaker 1: we're allowing someone else to to tell a story that's
Speaker 1: not theirs. You joined Amazon in from a very different
Speaker 1: business segment. Had been a senior executive at Caterpillar in
Speaker 1: hr tell Us, coming from a business of heavy equipment
Speaker 1: to a business of software entertainment. What what were some
Speaker 1: of the what were some of the funny transitions for you?
Speaker 1: What surprised you about working with Hollywood? How long it
Speaker 1: takes to get a show made. I had no idea,
Speaker 1: Like you thought the actors made it all up. I
Speaker 1: mean like was like, you know, you could have show
Speaker 1: in development for you know, three years between the time
Speaker 1: you buy it and the time it comes out. I
Speaker 1: had no idea took that long to get things made
Speaker 1: and so um, and then the number of things that
Speaker 1: get made that never actually make it to air. I
Speaker 1: have to tell you it used to be a lot worse.
Speaker 1: The R and D level used to be, it used
Speaker 1: the ratio of things made not to get it used
Speaker 1: to be a lot worse. But it is. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: That could be daunting for people because it's because people
Speaker 1: put their soul, heart and heart and soul into things
Speaker 1: and and they just don't go. Yeah, it's so funny too,
Speaker 1: because you know, the one great thing about my career
Speaker 1: is that it's been anything but linear. Um. I have
Speaker 1: a finance background, you know, then got into HR with Caterpillar.
Speaker 1: It was a six single black belt, UM, you know,
Speaker 1: it was chief diversity Officer for Caterpillary. Came into Amazon
Speaker 1: Corporate first actually in two thousand seventeen. UH, for seventeen
Speaker 1: and eighteen. I spent those two years UM leading d
Speaker 1: e I for Amazac Corporate. UM that you know from
Speaker 1: an HR perspective, and UM worked closely with Jeff Besos
Speaker 1: and his directs to create an overall strategy for for
Speaker 1: Amazon Corporate and how we were going to scale our
Speaker 1: d I efforts and UH in a way that accrued
Speaker 1: to something that moved the needle across the enterprise, which
Speaker 1: was just daunting but exciting. UM. And then coming down
Speaker 1: at Amazon Studios, you know. So it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: basically uh, the story of my life, which has been, UH,
Speaker 1: someone has asked me to do something that I don't
Speaker 1: know how to do, and I'm like sure, So I
Speaker 1: you know, I'm very honest about what I'm good at
Speaker 1: and what I'm not, what I know and what I don't,
Speaker 1: and then you know, and then lean into the yes
Speaker 1: because I'm always giving advice to other people. If you're
Speaker 1: not living life on the edge, then you're taking up
Speaker 1: too much space. So I like that spirit. Yeah, that's awesome. UM,
Speaker 1: let me take and take a step back out even
Speaker 1: from that and tell us, tell us what was your
Speaker 1: path going into the business world. Where did you grow up?
Speaker 1: I grew up in Chicago area, so I'm a Midwest girl,
Speaker 1: grew up outside Chicago. Um, you know, I went to
Speaker 1: school in Illinois and then you know, and I remember,
Speaker 1: like I was first generation college. So my dad was like,
Speaker 1: you know, go to school and get a degree that
Speaker 1: you know you can get actually get a job, because
Speaker 1: I probably would not have chosen finance, but I had
Speaker 1: one of those fathers. So and uh and I and
Speaker 1: I did a test finance partly because I felt like
Speaker 1: he gave me a science and the discipline, if you will, um,
Speaker 1: in all of the business. I think I started off
Speaker 1: as a management major and I was like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is too general. I need I need a I need
Speaker 1: a I needed a science. And so then I moved
Speaker 1: to finance, which was great. And you know, I think
Speaker 1: about that. I was I was reflecting on that this
Speaker 1: week about how everything in life is preparation for the
Speaker 1: next and I had no idea that the days and
Speaker 1: finance would help me be this comfortable with numbers and
Speaker 1: understanding how they drive television and film consumption. Wouldn't be
Speaker 1: better training for the TV of today for sure, right exactly?
Speaker 1: And then or how all of my HR days UM
Speaker 1: would come back to play, whether it was starting the
Speaker 1: first diversity recruiting function for Caterpillar or living in Singapore
Speaker 1: where I've led HR for Africa, Middle East, Russia and
Speaker 1: Asia Pacific. So like just you know that natural curiosity
Speaker 1: I have around learning, around being around UM and just
Speaker 1: uh just immersing myself into other cultures, right, and how
Speaker 1: that has you know benefited me in this role as
Speaker 1: I go around the world and work with our local
Speaker 1: originals teams UM, you know, to help you know, roll
Speaker 1: out what we feel is, you know, our inclusion policy
Speaker 1: and standards in those parts of the world, and how
Speaker 1: we help UM the writers that we're doing business with
Speaker 1: in territories where we're starting with understand the importance of
Speaker 1: diversity whatever that looks like on a local level, UM
Speaker 1: incorporating that into their writer's room. So like all of
Speaker 1: these things have just like come to us. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: then go to Variety to sign up for the Strictly
Speaker 1: Business newsletter, and definitely don't forget to tune in next
Speaker 1: week for another episode of Strictly Business