WEBVTT - Ariel Emanuel 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:05.920 Aria Emmanuel is today one of the most important figures 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:09.119 in the entertainment industry. In the mid nineties, he started 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.959 Endeavor and built it into being a leading talent agency firm, representing, 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.480 among others, Martin Scorsese. Today he's built Endeavor into being 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.360 one of the leading entertainment and sports conglomerates in the world. 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:21.800 I sat down with ar in his offices in New 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.000 York to discuss the entertainment industry and as firms future 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.360 in it. So, you were a talent agent for much 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.680 of your professional career, but now you're running a multi national, 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:35.720 multi billion dollars sports entertainment conglomerates. So what's it like 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:40.360 running a multinational sports company that's public as opposed to 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.000 being a talent agent. For me, it really feels natural 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.080 right now. Is definitely different because it's bigger. It's everything 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.920 I've ever dreamed of. I still do a lot of 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:57.440 work with clients on the talent side, whether it be writer, director, actors, etcetera. UM, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.600 But then there's the portion of my life where you're 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:04.000 dealing with investors. You're dealing with how to grow the 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.640 business where you want to go. A great training ground 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.800 has been the town agency business, because you have to 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.520 build a business for your clients. You have to make 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.600 sure that they're happy. And now I'm doing all that 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.959 plus doing stuff for the company, but also making sure 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.800 that the shareholders are happy. To deal with quarterly earnings now, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.399 and that's a bit of a pain. Sometimes people would say, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.280 I don't really find it a pain. I don't know why, 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.200 and I guess. Uh. John Donahoe from Nike said to 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.240 me one time, Well, when the earnings are good, it's 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.240 an easy process. And they've been good for five quarters now. 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.320 Um so right now, I feel good about the process. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.160 So we'll see. Maybe I don't. I'm feeling good where 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.279 we sit and where the future looks, but I haven't 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.120 experienced the downside of that conversation. Talk about the future 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.600 of the entertainment business, Um, where do you think it's going. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.760 You think there's going to be movie theaters forever where 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.440 everything will be streamed at some point. And as somebody 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.320 represents talent, what are you telling talent about where they 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.840 should be putting their efforts. When we started the agency march, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.120 you know what everybody said, there's gonna be no more 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.280 dramas and no more television, So Here's what I would 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:22.760 say to you is distribution is going to change and 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.799 going to expand there's gonna be new technology to come 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.720 into our business. When the movie doesn't happen in DVDs, 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.760 I mean, it just keeps on expanding. And now you 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.600 have digital, you have influencers, et cetera. The theatrical business 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.400 is as important as it ever been. Is there going 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.520 to be a nine point three billion dollar business. Maybe 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.320 it'd be an a billion dollar business. I'm not sure, 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.920 but it's not going away. And anybody that says to you, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.320 and I won't name names, that says the movie business 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.560 over our fools, the movie business not over, the television 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.760 business on over We have new verticals which are content 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:06.040 on gambling, social content. It's it is just an expanding world. 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:11.680 And so I think UM, as everybody is now on 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.480 the demand side of the business, fighting over distribution and content, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.120 I've made a decision, and we've made a decision as 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.240 a company to be on the supply side. And there's 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:27.880 very few suppliers and in the end, the brands we 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.240 own UM, whether it be the UFC bull Riding now, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.760 Barrett Jackson and all the other Freeze or the clients 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:37.440 we represent that are we're helping them become brands and 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.600 companies are going to be more valuable in the future 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.200 than less valuable because as distribution expands and you have 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:48.880 the supply side of that equation, and there's very few suppliers. 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:55.720 UM economics improved. So during covid UM the production of 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.880 TV shows and movies kind of went down to and 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.480 almost nothing. So what did a firm like yours do 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:03.760 Because you didn't have a lot of representation, you could 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.440 do well in the first three or four months like 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:13.280 most firms, cut costs, cut people, uh, put people you know, 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.040 on hiatus. It was a horrible time because I'd never 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:18.720 gone through this, and I don't think anybody has gone 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.440 through this. But the funny thing is, you know, by 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.240 the end UM we had started working through it. On 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.599 the representation side and the events side. We did about 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:34.919 seven d our economics. Even during covid we figured it 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.640 out by the end. On the on PBR at the 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:44.279 time in ufc uh PBR was actually the first sport 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.840 back UM and the head of it, Sean kind of 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.200 figured that out how to do it with testing, et cetera. 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.520 And then Dana was very quickly right behind that, and 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.400 Dana calls me up. He said, get me an island. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.160 I said, what he said, get me an island. I'm 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.000 gonna put on fights. And he was like, we're going. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.200 Nobody's getting no, he's getting laid off. He's he's he's 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:12.000 an incredible executive. And I said, okay, you know, I 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.840 didn't know what to do. And then as you know, 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.200 you know, because i've seen you in in Abu Dhabi, Um, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.760 how doone called me? And he said, because it was 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:27.480 rumors about this, And he says, why don't you come here. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.919 We'll give you an island and we'll figure out economics. 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.320 And I called up Dana and I said, here's the situation, 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.000 here's the economics. He goes, we're going and we set 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.920 up in Abu Dhabi. I mean it's famous now, I 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.640 mean it kind of I think, really catapult the the 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.480 sport in this horrible time, we set up Fight Island 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:55.080 and the that whole engine that Dana runs and and 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.680 Dana's force of nature. You know, we put we put 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.160 the sport up on its feet and we we flew 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.000 everybody out, tested him, and we put the fights on. 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.840 It was crazy. Now you are one of three very 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:13.960 famous brothers. You're holding for infamous or infamous. Your oldest brother, 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.919 Zeke Emmanuel, is a very well known bioethicist and medical 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.159 doctor and on TV a lot for his views on healthcare. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.080 Ram Emmanuel is now Ambassador Japan, previously was chief of 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.840 staff to President Obama and also mayor of Chicago. Uh. 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:30.680 And you are the youngest of the three brothers. Is 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.480 that right? Or is? My father used to say, God 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:39.440 rest this whole the picture. That's Yiddish for small. So Uh, 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.479 what is it that your parents did that produced these 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.960 three very talented children who are in different areas of life, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.680 but all have done quite well well. First of all, 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.480 I would say, Uh, when we were growing up, one 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:58.159 of the things I try to do with my kids 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.599 and I have four children, is they let us figure 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.640 stuff out. They didn't program us every hour or what 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.839 we were doing. You had to fend for yourself. You 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.640 had to figure things out. And the other thing that 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:14.280 my parents did is education was crucial um. And if 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:19.480 you didn't perform ah, then there was punishment um, meaning 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.560 you'd be grounded you you know, And there was competition 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.720 of who got the better grades between the kids and 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:28.720 so with those two things, and you know, my father 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.480 was a workaholic. He was a pediatrician, uh, and you 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.679 kind of went around with him when he went on rounds. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:37.880 And on my mother's side, you know, she was a 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.400 woman that went against the grain in the suburbs of Chicago, 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.400 was very prominent in civil rights, which for that period 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.600 of time was you know, nobody could believe that in 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.760 Chicago and the suburbs. So you saw two people that 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.520 were willing to go out and be themselves. Let us 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.520 be ourselves, um, and then get gave us some pretty 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:04.160 good guardrails. Have You've achieved what you've achieved despite two 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.960 problems that some people would say might make it difficult. 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.560 One is, when you were growing up, your dyslexic and 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.360 I guess you still have some dyslexia, and you had 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.240 attention deficit disorder, which um, some people have as well. 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.600 Maybe some people say definitely have not gotten over that. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.080 So okay, those are things that may sometimes go together, 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.559 dyslexia and attention deficits order. How did you overcome those? 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.840 And they still challenges for you. When I was growing up, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.120 I had, you know, my mother, and she made sure 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.040 that I was going to graduate high school. I was 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:38.439 going to go to college and I was going to 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:42.000 learn how to read. And the good thing about it 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.800 is UM. I think it's a superpower. Now. Back then 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.559 I hated it. I mean I remember crying every day 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.120 when I had to go to the reading teacher for 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.200 three hours and sit in there like front window. And 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.839 it was horrible with my A d h D and UM. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.160 But now, because of the diversity of my business, the 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.000 A d H D and enables me to kind of 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.840 move around and focus a lot on specific businesses and 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.000 and the dyslexia for whatever reason, and I think money 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.200 people have different points of view on dyslexia. It does 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.839 enable me to kind of think in a different way. 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.319 One of the things that happens when you're dyslexic also 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.080 you utilize a lot of people around you to help 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:28.440 you learn. And in business that has translated to making 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.720 sure that you trust a lot of people. I'm not 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.360 afraid to risk because I was made, you know, kind 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.080 of I went through a lot of tough times reading 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.320 UM and embarrassment, so nothing now kind of shakes me up. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.720 And and then when you're running a company, if you 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:47.840 empower a lot of people to help you get to 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.840 the end goal, which is what you have to do. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:54.280 When you're dyslexic, you're more successful. And so I mean 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.040 those are now attributes and powerful things in my life. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.120 Before they were very difficult. How did you have when 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:02.040 I go to my Callister College, a very good school, 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.160 but not as well known as some other schools, you know. 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.400 I applied to Amhurst, which my brother Zeke went to. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:12.880 I didn't get in. I got deferred from Bowden. Callister 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:17.160 accepted me. But later, if you graduated, you became a 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.520 professional racquetball player. For a while. I played racquetball for 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.440 about a year and a half. Yeah, is that an 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.679 easy way to make money? No? I was going to 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.199 go to business school, try to get to the Northwestern 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.080 and I realized, you know, I don't really want to 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.600 do that. And I turned to my father, who would 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:35.520 go on to school in in Europe, and he said, 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.599 he gave this is what's so great about my my 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.920 my father when when he was alive, he said, here's 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.640 a credit card, here's some cash, no plan. Two days later, 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.520 I was in Paris. He called me up about eight 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.880 months later to a year later, I don't actually remember, 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.480 and he said it's time to come home, and I 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.520 came home, packed up my car in Minnesota, moved to 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:02.400 New York, and a friend of mine at the time, 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.640 I was working in the mail room of William Morris, 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.240 and he explained to me what William Morris was, because 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.120 I didn't know there was agents or what that Pantillias 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:12.840 being a major talent agent, so that the one we 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.240 also bought. Kind of funny. And then I went to 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.560 work in New York and got a job working for 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.640 this gentleman and older, kind of well established agent by 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.040 the name of Robbie Lance. And finally he turned to me, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.440 and he was such a wonderful man, Robbie Lance, and 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:32.360 he said to me, Um, you know I'm a four 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.400 I'm not going to promote anybody. You should go to 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.000 Los Angeles. You'll make a lot of money and you'll 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.200 be an agent there because I'm not going to promote anybody. 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.040 And so he got me an interview at C A A. 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.160 And Ray Kurtzman said to me, which he can't say now, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.200 he goes, you're too old to go into the mail room. 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.920 So I did what I normally do. I peppered him 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:55.400 with calls. I mean I think I called him like 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.520 three times a day every day for two weeks. And 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.400 he turned to me at the time, and he was 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:04.120 another great man, and he said on a Thursday, and 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:05.720 he said, if you can be out here on Monday, 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.480 you have a job in the mail room. I got 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.840 out there. I bought a La Car, used car for 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.520 thousands five or something, and I was in the mail 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.719 room and everybody was younger, and I was off to 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.959 the races. Well, explain this to me very often. I've 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.240 read that people work in the mail room. I think 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.959 David Geffen started the mail room, Barry Diller started the 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.440 mail room. What actually happens in a mail room at 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.319 one of these talent agency firms that enables you to 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:38.760 rise up. You would make copies of scripts, and um, 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.959 you drive the scripts around two clients or two studio heads, 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.200 and you know, you deliver paperwork everywhere. You'd get lunches, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.280 and then you'd become an assistant, and then you'd become 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.840 an agent if you were good enough, and that process 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.600 of you know, learning the town and et cetera to 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.120 be an each and you have to have clients, I 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.840 assume yes. So to get clients, do you have to 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:05.920 go to lunches and dinners or how do you get clients? 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.160 We don't have any clients. Well, um, I was at eight. 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:11.520 I was promoted in a television department because I had 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.360 worked for the head of business affairs and then one 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.000 of the lead agents there, and also this gentleman named 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.640 Bill Haber, and I was in the office as their 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:25.719 assistant every day for seven days, you know, Monday through Sunday, um, 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.040 doing whatever it took. And they were great teachers, you know, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.040 both Bruce Ynicker and Bill Haber. They promoted me. And 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.000 then you would go out to the studios and go 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.560 to sets where people were shooting and writers were writing, 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.040 and I was a writer's television agent, and you would 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.079 read stuff that came over the transform and you would 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:51.079 try to sign him and um, I've even though I'm dyslexic, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.079 I read a lot, went to watch a lot of 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.240 TV shows, saw what I liked, and signed a lot 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.200 of clients that were quote unquote talented, and I think 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.920 they are talented and they're still talented. And built my business. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:07.959 How long before you say, you know what, I should 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:13.160 have my own company. Um, So I had been what 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.120 by the time I had started endeavor. I think I 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.280 had been an agent for about four and alfter five 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.120 years um and I was looking at the world. I 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.160 read this book by George Gilder called Life After Television, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:34.000 and it talked about infinite distribution and that distribution in 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.280 our business was going to expand with cloud computing, etcetera. 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:41.080 And I brought him in to speak that I see 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.440 him and nobody really understood. And I talked to him 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.800 after reading the book, and uh, I said, you know 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.880 it's going to go from four networks to six. I'm 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.080 in the television business. The way you make money at 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.680 the time and television you put TV packages on the air. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.800 I've got a great client list. Why would I put 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:02.560 a package on the air where you can make a 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.320 lot of money for your clients and for yourself and 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.200 give it to them for what I thought was a 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.840 okay salary. Again, my father almost had a heart attack 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:13.480 because they were offering me a lot of money to stay. 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:18.200 My contract was up, and I can you know with 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.600 three other gentlemen, we said, you know, I said I 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:27.200 could with my with my clients. If we do this, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:29.880 we can make a lot of money because I know 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:31.640 what I can put on the air because I've been 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.080 doing it now for long. Where'd you get the name Endeavor? 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.600 So the four of us were sitting around trying to 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:42.800 think of a name, Rocks, rivers, whatever, and one of 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.720 the partners, UH said, well, we should think about NASA. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.400 They have great names. So the first name we thought 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.800 of was the Discovery and then we realized it crashed, 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.600 so that was out. And then he just says, what 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:01.720 about Endeavor, which was and we all realized that was 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.360 a great kind of image of what we wanted to 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:09.840 create for clients. And so did you start Endeavor? Actually 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:15.720 on my birthday? March went very well from the beginning 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.400 because you had clients, but you bought William Morris correct 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.120 or you emerged with them quote unquote merge, but they 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:23.720 were twice as big as you and you became the CEO. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.760 How did that happen? About four years before that, we 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.000 went to see another kind of mentor a person who 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.280 has completely been unbelievable in helping my life, Professor Ditton, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:40.240 who became the chairman of Harvard Business School, and we 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.800 asked him to kind of let's go over and I've 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.800 never been to Busines School like game theory of what 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.560 we should do to grow and kind of consolidated business 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.440 with the thesis that distribution is going to change the environment. 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.560 And we laid out over two days on a white 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.440 board that we should go after William Morris and try 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:00.320 and merge by whatever. So you emerge accompt any. You 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.440 become the socio and then you started. I was Patrick White, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.359 my partner who start partner, and I became the CEOs. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.960 Now you are starting to buy companies. So you bought 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:15.439 i MG, which is a entertainment there's a sports representation business, right, 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.720 it's a sports production events company, all right. You bought that, 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:21.320 and then later you bought you That's where you and 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.840 I met, right, that's right, and you and then bought UFC. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:30.359 Later well, we then bought um PBR. We brought Drove 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.879 A five prior to that. We then bought the UFC 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.760 and bought some other stuff. You bought UFC, and you 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:38.800 did it with the help of silver Lake, a well 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.720 known private equity firm, and um the CEO there help 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.880 you get this done. Yeah, I mean, what what happened 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:49.840 was I was lining up people to go by i MG. 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:53.760 You and I had that conversation and he came in. 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.600 He said, listen, let me invest in William Morris's endeavor 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:02.040 and then let's go after img UM and kind of 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.000 create this global platform and go from there. I said 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:06.920 to him, private equity is not going to be able 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.399 to do that. He said, well, give me three weeks 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:11.080 to show me your numbers and I'll come back and 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:12.480 if I can make a deal, I can make a deal. 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.679 And he and I known each other actually through Mark Andreas, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.480 and he came up. We made a great deal, great 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.800 for him, great for us. Uh. We then got I 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.040 MG and then we realized that that was everything we 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:31.960 had done was incredible, global, unbelievable kind of building blocks. 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.600 And we realized that was in the representation business, the 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.199 service business, and that we if we put something that 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.680 we owned on top of it, that we could get 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.720 the full leverage of the platform and own something. And 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:47.960 I had represented the UFC for a number of years 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.680 New Dana, New Frank and Lorenzo, and then they were 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.920 going to sell it. And then we we had proven 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.639 also to Egan that we could buy a business and 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.600 own it and operated with Professor Simble writing and then 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.800 we we we we were it was us against some 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:10.639 Chinese investors at the time we secured the rights, and 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.000 here we are. For many people. You're a role model 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:16.199 and many people would like to have your lifestyle and 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.680 your life. What would you like to have as your 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.280 legacy fifty years from now? What do you want people 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:25.080 to say about Ari Emmanuel? I think legacy is um 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:31.080 is such a fallacy. You study presidents. Presidents have a legacy. 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.400 I think maybe sports stars have a legacy. Some actors 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:43.640 have a legacy. Very rarely do business people. Maybe inventors 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.200 that are business people. Steve Jobs will probably have one, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:51.159 Elon Musk will have one, Einstein will have one. But 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:56.360 business people, I'm not this This notion of a legacy 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.439 and I did I have gotten in trouble about this 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.960 is a complete eat an utter, wanting to live forever 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.119 fallacy that exists in business minds. I suppose somebody is 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.359 watching and says, I want to be ariaman you when 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.480 I grow up. What should somebody do to get into 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.160 the talent agency business or the business you're in, which 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:18.399 is representing people building companies in the sports and entertainment world. Well, 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.640 it's hopefully what I've taught my kids. You gotta be 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:27.400 intellectually curious. You've gotta be um. You gotta show up. 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:30.440 And you know this like I know this. I got 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.640 on a lot of planes. You just, even though that 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:36.800 voice in your head is saying, oh God, I'm so tired, 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.640 I don't want to do this. You gotta show up. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:44.240 You've gotta be um, charmingly, relentless. You have to build 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:49.680 emotional endurance because there's no straight line of success. It's 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:51.280 kind of all over place, and you have to just 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.800 be able to work through those things. Um. And then 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.480 I think one of the things that I do every 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:03.240 week is I try to create serendipity. So ariy Emmanuel 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.240 is a well known person in the entertainment world, but 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.439 there was another figure named ari Gold, Yeah, who was 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.360 a fictional character that many people thought was named after you. 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.159 Did you like that? Did you not like that? And 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.240 what is it like when you're more famous than your clients. Well, 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.399 here's what I would say. At the time of the 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.040 show and market Wahlberg is a client of mine, and 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:26.919 I helped put that show together. I didn't like it 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.800 at the beginning because it depicted me. There was some 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:31.920 things that were for sure not true, and then there 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:34.440 were some things that I hated seeing that were true, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:40.440 I'm not that same person anymore. But later on, especially 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.280 after COVID, a lot of people kept on seeing it. 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.040 It's it's for sure opened a lot of doors and 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:49.560 it And at the time at the end, my brother 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:51.960 was in the White House, the show was on the air. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.840 I mean, I got a lot of you know, people 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.800 would pick up my phone. Call anybody today that won't 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.040 return your phone calls. I there's nobody in the world. 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:02.439 I get a lot of people on the phone when 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:05.240 I need to. So the entertainment world today, you're pretty 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.119 much at the top of the totem pole. You know everybody. 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.399 You have one of the best companies under you. You're 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.240 the CEO of it. How many more years would you 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.920 like to do this? Well, here's what I'd say to you, is, um, 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:23.520 if I'm not happy, if I'm not still intellectually stimulated, 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.520 if I'm not feeling like I get up every morning 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.520 and I get up right and early every morning, I 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.000 want to do what I do every day and and 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.080 kind of do it and I'm bored of it, I 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.879 will not be doing it. But today you're pretty happy, 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:41.119 and you're not bored. Today, I'm really happy I built 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:42.880 everything that I want to build it. There's more things 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:45.639 I want to do, and there's more dreams I have. 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:50.439 And you're famous for being a fitness expert or this 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.960 is the Men's Health version of this interview. Yes, I 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:57.399 can learn. I can learn something. So when did you 0:22:57.520 --> 0:22:59.879