Este Haim, Marketing the Oscars, A24's Newest Movie , CEO of Beehiiv & working with Meg Stalter

It is Wednesday, August 5th. Pleasure to have your AV Live episode where I think 18. We're doing it live here. Appreciate you joining in. We have a big news week, but before we tackle that, we're going to go over a couple of guests that are on the show today. As always, booked by Central Talent Booking. Talk about range. We got a Heim sister. We got Kaylen Russo, whose song just was synced and in the heated rivalry finale. We got Jennifer Davidson, who is the CMO behind the Academy, also known as the Oscars. We got two writers from A24's new film and Tyler Denk, who's the CEO, Beehive, where we write our newsletter. But before we get into the interviews, we got a crazy week in Hollywood. I feel like every week is a crazy week in Hollywood, but we're going to hit you with the top news stories of the week. From the top, Netflix. They just set their longest theatrical run of 47-day window for their Spanish language drama. Its longest window exclusive yet. What is that signaling? Well, engagements down. I think we're going to see your return to theaters or at least a start to theaters for a lot of these Netflix films for a longer segment. October 16th is when that hits the big screens. Not as big as the Odyssey screens, but pretty big screens compared to the little guys in your living room. Next up, Warner Bros. I feel like we cover this every day. Maybe every week here, every day in our letter, Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. Discovery, their antitrust trial has been set for March 20th, 2027. It'll run a total of 12 days, starts on March 2nd. Why does that matter? Well, the time is a huge deal for Paramount. Starting on October 4th, it will owe Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a $7 million per day taking fee until the deal closes. We're doing some Zach Alphanakis meme math over here. Paramount could owe around 1.2 billion by the time the case is resolved. I think the Ellicin's got that in the bank. We'll see how that turns out. But that's not the only fight in Hollywood. We got maybe the biggest fight in all of the entertainment industry right now. Jake Paul, who's he's taken on next? Are you a manual? Wait, hold up. So, Jake Paul and the key sabedarian, they are emerging most valuable promotions with the PFL. They are creating a privately held combat sports company with nearly 400 fighters. Who are they taking on? Well, the UFC. Who owns the UFC? TKO. Who owns that? Yep. You do the math there. Jake Paul's taken on the world apparently. Newsflash. I'm going to go on a limb and say he's not going to win that one, just like his other fights. But let's go back to the box office. People are saying Hollywood's dead. The box office is dead. Everyone's dead in the industry. Let's check some stats and do some math again. The domestic box office is up 15% compared to this point last year. It's driven this month, especially by Spider-Man brand new day, which took home the biggest Tuesday ever at the domestic box office with 42 million. 1.1 billion total already. It's on a run. The Odyssey, obviously, you've seen every meme covering that. I think we're back. I think we are back. I think we're long back. Next up, we have the Billboard top charts. Country music, also like the box office on a massive tear. For the first time in history, the top five songs are all country, depending on how you define some of these here. But Ella Langley's 16th week at number one with Choosing Texas, which I actually have never heard. I would play it, but our rights would take us down off YouTube. It's not tied for historic fourth place. Who's at the first three? Let's do it. 22 weeks. All I want for Christmas is you, Mariah Carey. I think you know that one by now. And tied for second and 19 weeks, we got two. A bar song. That one's probably stuck in her head with Shabuzie. We also have Old Town Road. Little Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. That one too. You've probably had stuck in her head for years. Talking about from the box office to the music industry, we're going to hit some earnings here. First up, Sony. Sony's revenue hit 3.53 billion, which is up 21 percent, fueled by a 36 percent surge in merch, vinyl, and in life. What about Warner music? They're also hit a quarterly revenue of 1.9 billion. It's up 10 percent. Fueled by, you guessed, it's streaming growth, which we just covered in live nation. Live nation. Live. Back. Never left. They shared their earnings report for Q2 and revenues up 9 percent to 7.7 billion, 7.6 billion, probably from ticketing fees. But they are hitting records across the entire music industry. Cool to see. Those companies continue to rise as well as independence. I was just at Lollapalooza. I was a 33 year old limping because I have a bad back tripping in that mud. Live is here, and it's cool to see some of those stories, but the biggest story from the AVA side is we launched a new series called Unsung Hero. Unsung Hero, in the past, you've seen it on our show. We've talked to people like Terry Cruz, Chris Lake, and a bunch of others. Instead of just highlighting the talent on the screen, we're highlighting the people behind the screen. So we sat down with some of the women in Lollapalooza. We sat down with Suki Waterhouse and her assistant and a bunch of others up at Lollapalooza. But potentially the most unhinged interview that I've ever done was with a little group that you may recognize from this clip. Roll it. We got one questionnaire on your guys team. A lot of people behind the scenes. Who would you say is the Unsung Hero, though? Lollapalooza! That was potentially the most unhinged off the cuff moment of my entire life. We loved it. We also dropped a couple more videos on our feed. Suki Waterhouse was one and we will be at Outside Lands. There's a poster over here somewhere this weekend sitting down with some of the biggest stars as well as the people behind the scenes. Shout out to Diplo and that whole team at Major Laser. But first up, you may know her from wearing the Nicole Kidman shirt at game 4 of the NBA Finals. You may know her from her IG handle, Jizzy McGuire. But she's also scoring the new Universal Pictures film. One night only, it's SD Himes. She's a legend. We're going to bring her live onto the show. Before we bring you live, can you flip the phone? Before we review, we're going to do a big reveal here. Oh, perfect. Bring your live. Oh yeah, that's perfect. We're going to bring you live in one second. We're just fixing the visuals here. All done. Yes, it's perfect. We're going to bring you live. And we are. Yep, we got her here. We had to do something on the cuff. There she is. How are you? What up, everyone? How are we doing? How are we feeling? I was going to ask you about the talking heads, but you just stole it with that shirt. Can you give a little, why are you wearing that shirt? I mean, because I'm obsessed with Tina Wayne Maths. She's my girl. I heard from our, I read that it's one of your inspirations for for starting this whole music journey of yours. How true is that? Well, well, we're playing bass for sure. I mean, I love the talking heads, but I specifically love Tina Wayne Maths because she's a legend. And I also love Tom Tom Club. I mean, everything she's done. Who else do you love? I feel like you got to have some other music inspirations in your life. Oh, I love prints. I love, um, television. I love, um, Shaka Khan. Okay. I love. What about Lizzie McGuire? How did that, how did that IG name come about? What, I mean, I have, didn't it come about? I mean, I'm obsessed with Hillary Duff. I love her very, very much. I was a big Lizzie McGuire fan when the show came out. And then, and then my, I have a friend named Grover who started calling me Jizzie McGuire. And so it stuck in the rest of history. What was the backup? You couldn't get that one. What was the backup IG handle? Backup IG, probably like STD. Nice. That was taken. That was taken. That one's taken. So we could talk IG handles all day, but can we play a little game to kick it off? We could loosen this up with maybe a Himes sibling rankings rapid fire. What do you think? Let's go. All right. Cool. So we're going to start. You're going to say which sister falls into each category. How do you feel? Great. Cool. First up, most likely to be late to sound check. Danielle. All right. Done. Who got in the most trouble growing up? Me. The most unhinged. A lot. The most intimidating in a label meeting. Danielle. The most likely to leak something in the family group chat. I see. I'm done. Most likely to Irish exit from a party. That's all three of us. I love that. Well, that was it. You gazed. I would give you a plus, but you know, best. Oh my god. Those were like softball questions. Well, we're going to get into the hardball questions. How about this? Let's let's kick off, um, you know, a little bit more about what you're doing now. But going back in time, what do you think the most unhinged thing you've ever done to get a job? Most unhinged thing I've ever done to get a job to get a job? To get a job, to get a role. I've read a little bit about White Lotus, but I mean, that was pretty. I mean, I grifted my way onto that set. I was a full grifter. I, yeah, I mean, that was pretty. Well, I had a bit of a leg up. I knew the producer of White Lotus. I still know him. I love him, Dave Bernad. I love him. He honestly should have been the best man. And like my best man at my wedding, I love it. I didn't have groomsmen. We didn't have groomsmen or like bridesmaids at my wedding. But I would have loved to have had Dave as like my best man. I love him so much. And he cared so deeply about me at that. I was, there was at a moment where I was going to a really crazy breakup and he was like, we're not doing this anymore. You're not, you're not gonna sit at home and fucking ball your eyes out every day over this breakup. You're coming to Italy. And so that's what I did. I like paid for my flight. I paid for my flight, I rented a car, drove to the set and was just supposed to be there like as a homie. And then I ended up helping some of the singers on set like pro bono, just like sitting with them and like kind of giving them tips and 'cause they knew that I was a professional musician and then that got my wheels turning 'cause I wanted to stay. I like, this is that. - Oh, I mean you're in Italy, obviously. - This situation, like this is a great situation. So I came to Dave and I was like, could I? I don't know, do you want to pay me to do this? 'Cause like, bad be sick. - That, I mean, yeah, I mean, you're also in Italy. I love that. - I was in Italy. I mean, it was like the sickest job I've ever had. And so that turned into then helping them kind of with like song selection and, you know, arrangement and just like, you know, things that they didn't necessarily have on set. - Yeah, yeah. And before, before real quick, can you turn your camera up just a tiny bit? I think it's catching a lot. - I really can't, let me see. - Or just turn, there you go. That's money right there. That's perfect. Y'all you in frame. We got in frame. It's perfect. - I got any bass in the case. - Yeah, none, none. This is good. - Wait, maybe I can just. - No, this is perfect. You're good. You're perfect. - No, but I don't like it. - Well, now that is prime. - I think that's better. - That's better. We're doing this live on set. But can you, you started to mention about, you know, scoring and the creative process behind it. Can you define what goes into that and how that's different from typically what you're doing on an artist standpoint, say making albums and for yourself? - Yeah, I mean, I think the, I mean, the glaring difference is that most, I mean, most scores don't have lyrics, which is great for me. I don't have to worry, like, not worrying about lyrics is. - It's best guess. - It's best guess. And, you know, I think the big question that people kind of always ask me is, like, what's the difference between, actually, was like the, like, the difference between scoring and music supervision. And the difference is scoring is like, you're creating original music. And music supervision is like, you are picking needle drops. You're like a DJ. - Yeah. - Like, you're picking the songs that are already in existence that are going to uplift the scene on screen. And I do both. I enjoy both. I probably have, like, the most pride for my scoring because I'm creating something original. But I also love, like, music supervision and I love, and I also love DJing. My DJ name is STD. - And you, I think I saw you on the ones and twos at the One Night Only party. Was it last night or the night before? I think there was some petting of a dog king princess. I heard a cabassa. What went down at the One Night Only party? - First of all, I love king princess. I love Michaela very, very much. She's so fucking funny and so much fun. So we did, we did a cover of "Love is in the Air" for "One Night Only" for the movie. And the petting of the dog was me petting her dog in the studio. She was a very cute dog. Yeah, we did it in like a day. We went into the studio. I played a bunch of drums and I played bass and I sang backup vocals. Michaela did guitar. Christopher Streacy did a lot of the synths, a lot of the keyboarding. And like auxiliary stuff. And yeah, it was great. You mean me reenacting what it had? - They saw it on the red carpet doing something with, I think it was rolling down, but. - Babe, that's how you play a cabassa. - I've never played one, but I trust you. Because you're the artist here. I'm just the guy in the cab. - I can teach you. I can teach you. - We'll have to do that. We'll do a cabassa lesson next time. But are you more nervous acting? I mean, it doesn't seem like you've ever been nervous in your entire life. Acting or playing in front of the biggest crowd ever. - Probably acting. - What was your first roller? - Like in my life or like professionally. - I would go professionally. - So first roll professionally was, I was on an episode of the TV show Clean House, which was a reality show that aired on the e-network in the early arts with a smash. That was the first screen time. And I remember having, actually, I was on, when I was like a kid, when I was like three or four, I was on this thing called Baby Songs. Do you remember these videos? - I don't. - It was like a VHS, it was like a series of, it was kind of like kids pop, but they used the actual songs and had kids just like dancing to like, to songs on the screen and kids like to watch other kids dance. - As kids do. - So I was one of those kids. Was like kind of like being on Barney or something, but like, I was only on like one episode. - Love, that's probably your biggest IMDB credit right in your eyes, it's gotta be. Besides, one night I'm kidding. But one night only, what's been in the law? - So like, I was also in Likerspizza, the Paul Thomas Anderson movie, so my sister started. So I played a law in his sister in Likerspizza, it was part of my cheating life and life imitating art, I guess. And then, and then I was in a movie called Shell with Kate Hudson and Elizabeth Moss directed by my friend Max Mangela. I never can say his last name right. I think it's Mangela. - Sounds good, I like that. I miss pronounced everything. It's kind of a running bit on the show. So that to me, yeah, that sounds right. - His resonates with you. - Everyone, I mean, everyone mispronounces my last name. So I think maybe that's just, I'm allowed to. - Are you saying that I did or are we? - No, no, no, in general, people call me like SD Hame, which is not my last name, it's Hime. - Hime, good, Hime, that's an easy one. What is the craziest story from on set that you've never told that we're gonna tell right now? - Crazy story on set? - Ooh. - I don't think, this, I don't think it's like a crazy story. I've just known to, I've been known to be a, like I park myself at crafty. Like at the service table, I love snacks. I'm like obsessed with snacks, and I tend to just, like if there's donuts on set, even as a type one diabetic, and it's like bad for me, I will take like units upon units upon units of insulin. So that I can have the free snacks. - What, who makes the best donut? And what is on your, what is on your dream craft? - As far as rider. - Oh, oh my god. Okay, sour punch straws. - Okay. - I love Dunkin' Donuts. I also just love like a local LA donut shop. Like California donuts is great. Love when there's California donuts on set. I love in Entomans too. - Love. - Like in Entomans donut or like in Entomans, like coffee cake. Love a potato chip. There's a potato chip. There's snack-ish potato chips. - Yes. - Snack-ish. I also love the sweet, sweet something. They're like, they're gummies that are only like three grams of sugar. Sweet treats, sweet something. - Sweet treats? - Yeah. I also love like a, like a, like a, like a hummus and. - And sweet treats. Dip the sweet treats in the hummus. - In the hummus. - You know who gets you most of those I'm assuming is someone, maybe you're assistant? I'm hearing a rumor that she may be joining the call. What do you think? - I mean, if you've been reading my diary, you know, all I want is for my assistant to join this call. - This is your diary right here. - Great. - We may have, we may, we may have her be joining in a bit. We're gonna go reach out to her and see if we can get her to join. But on a more serious note, you've been in this industry for a while and there's a lot of young artists listening over, you know, in on this stream and then we write about, what advice would you have for them? For them, thinking about early in your career, things you cared about a lot that don't matter now. Things I cared about a lot that don't matter now. I cared, I definitely cared a lot about what people thought about me. I do not give a fuck anymore. I think maybe that also came with like turning 40. I was really hurt my feelings when I would see, the mean things that people would like say about my face, like especially early on in my career when people would see me perform and they would make fun of my face. Like, back then I cared, I don't care now. I do not care. Like, it's not gonna change. So like, sorry. - That's the theme of the show is careless. I think it's inspiring people are so caught up with social media and the mean comments, I forget I'm sometimes not, you know. - Everything is like, people are gonna hate you. And also what Madonna said, Madonna would say, like the more people that hate you, like the more popular you are. And clearly because people know who you are, the haters are gonna hate, like whatever. Like, I don't know. - I love it. - I, yeah, and I think it's also just important. Oh wow. - Hey. - We're gonna, we're gonna try to get her. - I know that girl. We're gonna, we're having the viewing thing here, but we, we have your assistant live here, Bella. We're gonna work in the viewing aspect ratio here, but Bella, how are you? - I'm good. How are you, Warner? - Estee, do you want to, do you want to try to turn your phone back? We're gonna do something to live. - Pleasure. - Here we go, look at that. Oh my God. You fixed it, it's unbelievable. - Right. - You guys look perfect. So, Bella, let's hear an intro. I'm Bella, born and raised in LA, we're, we're rare, but we exist, and I've been working for Estee, Daniel and Alana since April of last year, and it's been that time in my life. - How did you, how did, let's play rapid fire game, just to kick it off, icebreaker, that here's the rules, right? You're gonna have to guess for each other, and then you can confirm or deny whether you're correct. How does that sound? - Great. - Yeah, Bella, we're starting with you for Estee. The first is the go to lunch order. - Sweet green. - Yep. - And then, now flip it, you gotta guess, Bella's. - Sweet green. - I love sweet green, and I mean, I love sweet greens so much, but I would probably do like, I wanna say I love a burger. - Who makes the best burger? - We're like a nice ball of pasta. The best burger. - I love a smash burger. Something about that. The flavors just pop out. I mean, I love like, window or like, for the win, for good smash burgers. - You're talking to L.A. Staples, right? - Yeah, sorry, that's very L.A. - Now, like, give me an out, love it, and out. - I love it, and an out, and an out is, honestly, the best after a show, after getting off a plane. That's, that's the right thing. - Yeah, like sweet green burger, same thing, right? - Yeah, they're super similar. You have to, I would do either or. - Yeah, yeah. It's like almost the same. What about your least favorite food, each other's? - I mean, I know mine. What are you not like? - I don't know what you never tell me the things that you, it's like, when do you, - All right, we got five seconds, four. We got an answer. - I don't know, I see like, things that don't mess up her blood sugar. - We can just talk about liking donuts. I don't know how that tree that is, but, okay, I see. - No, I love donuts, but they do mess up my blood sugar. There's some things that you love in life that aren't good for you. How many, like, I don't know. - True, okay, let's go to the next question. What animal would each other be? - Ooh. - Bella would be like, Bella's like a, like a gazelle. - Mm-hmm. - Like a, like, frallicking across the meadow. - I want to say that, I want to say that SD is like a cheetah because her personality is so quick. And like, she is always like cracking a joke and she's just like, go, go, go all the time. But like, I also want to like go basic and say a dog because you're like, you're very loyal. And I feel like you always make people like, feel like they're the center of attention. And like, like a sweet little puppy. - I love that. Okay, you guys got a pluses. We'll give it to you. I want to hear from Ashley. What made you want to hire Bella? 'Cause a lot of assistants out there who would dream to be sitting on the screen right now in her role. What made her good assistant? - The thing I love about Bella is she, first of all, she's one of the most thoughtful people I know. I'm gonna cry. - I'll cry too, so. - She's one of the most thoughtful, carrying people I know. And she also anticipates my needs. Like, even before I even think about it. Like, for instance, we went to the one night only premiere and Bella knows how much I love. Like a sour candy. And without even, and there was like a sour candy station that I didn't even know about, like at the party. And when I got home and I opened my bag, Bella had given me a bag of sour candy. She'd like done it while I was DJing. - Yeah, she was working hard. She needed a sweet treat. - We just talked, sweet treats are the way to anyone's hard. - Yeah, hard. But yeah, what was your friend and I? - She's really tenacious. She's also just like so much fun to be around. She doesn't sweat the small stuff. Like we laugh and we have a good time, but also like when it's time to work. Like if we're on tour, you know, she's delegating. She's like taking care of the best. It's like literally like having like almost like a surrogate mom. - I love that so much. I think you're gonna end up with 500 people outside your door with sweet treats being like, "Bam, I'd be your next assistant." But Bella, for you, what do you think, you know, when you were working towards this job, what do you think set you apart and what were you really focused on in order to land it? - Um, I mean, I started working like right when their album rollout was starting and right when they were about to go back on tour for the first time in years. So I was just really focused on making sure that they could focus on that. And just like really be focused on the creative, focused on the music. And I was like, "I'll take care of everything else." Like I want you guys to be able to do this as stress-free as possible. And like I got you and just do the music, go on stage and like have fun. And that was kind of what I was most focused on, I think. And yeah, I don't know, just I wanted them to be able to have fun. - I love that. And what had been some of those memorable times that you guys have had working together? - I mean, so many. We went all over last year. Japan was really fun. - We had a great time. - We had great food. - Really good food. - I think just like the UK was really fun. - I loved the UK. I left me in the bus. Like, they on the bus together was really fun. It's just like a big sleepover every single day. And like, - I was just like, the work day ends at night. So our debriefs were all at like 1 a.m. and like when you're a little bit delirious, and tired, and it was just fun. - I love it. And so two days, two days is a big day. Well, I guess it starts screening tomorrow. But one night only, where are you both going to be for the big, I know you had the big party, but what's the plan for the release? - I'm going with my husband and a bunch of friends on Friday to see it in theater, in New York. - Hey, Bella, I'm soon. - I will be at AMC Burbank 16. - Let's, I'll be there with you. That just rolled out, but he's getting up by the way. - Really it is. - No, I'm kidding, it probably is up for this. But I want to thank you both for joining. You're both our awesome sports for doing this. Bella can grad, Sassy, thanks for sharing the wisdom and some fun stories. And we'll see you in the theaters. - Of course, the best. - The fucking best. - You guys are the best. I get a journal here by the way, I'm going to sell it. - Thank you. - All right, I'll see you. - Bye. - Bye. That was fun. That was slightly unhinged, and we love it. We do have a couple more interviews, but real quick, we're going to cut to a pre-record of a now recurring character on the show. Kira Jo, she's going to be talking about leading ladies. Ross, take it away. - Hi, my name is Kira Jo. I'm an AVA student ambassador. And today I'm going to tell you about this week's leading ladies in the business and entertainment. First, Ariana Grande is taking a break from public appearances once her eternal son, Chintour, ends on September 1st, and are upset at ongoing public scrutiny as the major reason. She's withdrawn from the West End revival of "Sontime Sunday" in the park with George, and her up-wing film, "Falker and Law" is still set for a Thanksgiving release, so it's unclear how her hide is will affect all of that promotion. But this whole situation is such a prominent example of how the public's criticism can affect a celebrity way more than we think. Next, Maggie Gyllenhaal's Marilyn Monroe and Sparrow Short Film will premiere at Venice Film Festival. The film starts to code a Johnson and Ellen Burston and was approved by the Marilyn Monroe State and commissioned by Genesis, which really just shows how much they trust Maggie Gyllenhaal with portraying this icon's life, and that's super exciting. Lastly, Untold Studios, which is the VFX firm behind the boys, hired Audra on a Cohen as head of film and episodic. The CEO said that the hire was a major statement of ambition, and Cohen noted that Untold has built something really rare by combining the spirit of a global studio with the creative intimacy of an independent. - See you next week, ABA. - We got Keir Jo. Thanks so much for that. We're carrying weekly segment. We also have SJ who is gonna be joining us in studio shortly. And if you have ideas and things you wanna join to show and talk about, hit us up. DM us, Assistance First Agents on Instagram. Next up, Kaelin Rousseau. She's a Grammy-nominated artist and songwriter. What caught fire recently was a certain song called bad things, which played at the end. credits of, I don't know, a little show called Heated Rivalry. She's also starred in Justin Bieber's music videos. She's worked with an icon that we love, Meg Stalter. She's going to join the call. Uh, Kaelin Russo, joining AVA Live. Live, how are you? How's it going? Are you talking to me? Yeah, yeah. Can you hear us? Oh, yes, I can hear you. I thought it was on mute because that's usually what happens. I bring people on. I put myself on mute and then we, uh, we mess it up, but it's great to, great to meet you. Oh, so good to meet you too. Thank you so much for bringing me on. And thank you for my little intro. That was really cool. Hopefully I did it justice. But, uh, talking about things that have caught fire recently. A little thing called Heated Rivalry. Bad things. I read the story about how it happened in your own words. One, introduce yourself and also talk about, uh, the progression of that song, uh, and the, and credits of Heated Rivalry. Yeah, I mean, it's, that's a really incredible story to be honest. But hello, my name is Caitlin Russo. I'm a singer, songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Um, my song Bad Things Closed Out Season 1 of Heated Rivalry. And it let me do two North American tours right out of it. Um, I had like the most amazing Heated Rivalry fans come through. The story behind it is really, um, really wild. You know, um, about a year ago in October, I was working a retail job. And I got an email, um, for a sink approval for a Canadian TV show about gay hockey players. And I was so stressed about just surviving that when the email came through, I was just like, yeah, of course. Like, a sink to sink. It's a Canadian TV show. Like, I've never heard of it. Like, it's fine. Um, and then I'm like, okay, I got to get back to work. This is like on my 15 minute break. I'm just trying to make ends meet, you know. Um, and so I, was really like struggling at that point in my life. But there was a change in the wind. I also had a song going viral on TikTok at the same time, like while I'm at my retail job. And so I was like, whoa, okay, there's lots of things happening. Um, and then the show aired. I really didn't think twice of it. Um, my life was like shifting and, and changing so much at the time. Like, I saw it so many times on streaming platforms. And I was like, that looks good. I should watch that. And then, um, I eventually obviously watched it in December. But I still was like, I did not put two and two together until the final episode aired. And my phone blew up. And also I was really depressed on Christmas. And the last episode came out on Christmas. And I instantaneously felt a, um, just a huge sign of hope, huge like uplift. I really loved the way Jacob talked about my music. I can call it horny and like all of these things. And yeah, it completely changed the trajectory of this year for me. And um, it was, it was just honestly such a blessing. Like my life was really, I was just really going through it. And it really brought me so much hope. And it was so affirming. And so out of nowhere. So that's kind of the story. And the song is really old. The song is eight years old. So I was going to ask about that too. It's like when you're getting actually before we go on. So during the, the process of the season unfolding, when did you realize that the show was a massive hit and that you were preparing or was it not until I think it came out the 26th of December? When did you realize this is going to be a massive moment for your life? The 20, the 26th of December. It's crazy. I know. But honestly, like it made it more special. If like that sounds like really, um, like annoying and kind of like pretentious to say because like, obviously there are so many people that are so dedicated to the show. And I, I really honestly was just so caught up in my own situations that I was just, um, caught off guard. And it was, it was like a Christmas miracle to me. And you've been in some more unexpected rooms recently with Meg Stalter starting the career with Justin Bieber. Would have been some of the more unexpected moments that have happened in your career that have changed the way of your outlook and your trajectory. I mean, honestly, like, I just feel like such a lucky girl. Like, I'm really so lucky. Um, I think triple it going viral. Like, that's how Meg found me because I wrote this song about triple it. And that, um, was a funny situation too because it was a, like, a silly rap song, which like as you, if you've like looked into my catalog, like bad things is like very rock and roll, very rolling stones inspired. And then triple it was like, it's own thing. Like I didn't really listen to any news or I listened, I listened to a lot of rap music, but like I did not anticipate that song going crazy. And then the song picks up like massively on TikTok. And then Meg creates a video to it. And then Meg gets obsessed with the song. And then she emails my songwriter. And so now my songwriter that I wrote the song with is executive producing her album. And then I actually, I just went to New York. I just got back two days ago and saw like, Oh, Mary and Meg like still just loves the song so much. And she texts me and she's just like, I can't release this album without you on the remix. So we've worked together and she's seriously the funniest person. And she's so supportive and she loves my music. And that was so unexpected in such a blessing. And, um, and she's just so fun. We the first interview I ever did in my entire life was on the red carpet for Meg Stalter. Well, and I was unbelievably nervous and she was the best. She was like, I'm also nervous. I'm like, well, this is going to go well. But what is one thing that's been surprising about working with her? I think how sweet she is. You know, we have this like, we have a bit and I shouldn't air this out. But like, we want to create a bit where we're like constantly fighting and like we're ops and we're oppositions in like the music industry and it's like this really, um, like snooty, like, uh, just like, bitchiness between us. And I still we're still going to do it. But, um, I think the, the most surprising thing about her is that she is so sweet. She's like the sweetest person I've ever met. Like, we went out to dinner the other night and she was like, do you just like wake up and listen to your own music and just know that you're amazing. And I was like, no, but you say it. I'm going to do that. Thank you. Well, you've summoned in the chat and a Madison said shout out bad things and pink sand, style icon as well, hashtag fan girl. So you got a bunch of fans in the chat live. But what is, so you've been in now the modeling industry. You've been in Hollywood, you've been in the music industry. What is something that you have learned throughout your career in the progression of it that you really, uh, would want to pass on to young people in those roles now? Hmm, I think that, um, insecurity is natural. And I think that, you know, just being uncomfortable is natural in these places because it is so intense and it's so easy to judge yourself. And I think that just like kind of removing the alienation of that is really important and knowing that like you are special and reminding yourself that you are special is really important to do whilst navigating any type of entertainment industry. And, um, I think that's just important, like worldwide too. Yeah, and you're navigating the current state of the music industry. And we talked about creating songs that were, I think you said 8 years old for, for SYNC. What do you think the biggest challenge at an artist's face, faces in the music industry in 2026 is? Um, well, I think the music industry is so ridiculous. Like just bottom line is ridiculous. I really don't know any other industry that works like it, you know, for like royalties to collect money on your music that you work so hard on, you basically have to like find it like a treasure hunt. You have to assemble teams to get people to help you to get paid and it's like, you know, artists are really sensitive and artists like really care about their craft. And so the business side of it has been made to be so, um, has been made to be so, um, like meticulous. You have to have so many teammates to help you navigate, um, in my experience. Um, and I think it's super asked backwards to be honest. I think that streaming should be more supportive. I think that everyone should be getting paid more. There's no reason why artists and songwriters aren't getting paid more money. You know, granted, granted, it is art and like, if you do make it to a certain level, you can play big festivals, you can get paid out like that, you get endorsements like there, there are two sides of it, but starting out and like having that blind faith, you can get taken advantage of really quickly. And I think that, um, the music industry is not built for the week and it's extremely hard to navigate. But we prevail and we rise and we ride. Um, we prevail, but that's what question was. No, it was, it was how you, how you're navigating the industry and only we have about a minute or two left. But, um, you know, for you looking back in your career too, we have a segment called Unsung Heroes. There's someone behind the scenes in your career who you'd like to give a shout out to and that's been there for you. - Hmm. I have a couple. Can I do more than one? - You got, yeah, this is your choice. - My unsung, my unsung heroes. Well, I wanna say, the first person that comes to mind is my friend Agnes and then my friend Jesse. We've read a lot of music together and then my dad is an unsung hero, even though he's a singer. But he really supports me and he's constantly reminding me how special I am. And I just think like, it's so hard to navigate this world as an individual, like you constantly, you do need people to remind you that you are special. I think that's like just the sentiment that I'm really needing to hear. So it's on me to pass along. - I love it. We'll end with that. Thank you. We'll give you a little claps. - Thank you. - Thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. I know we, it was very last minute, but this was inspiring. It's cool. I'd love to see you doing Meg, your career. It continues to skyrocket and we appreciate you joining us. - Oh, no, my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. - All right. We'll see you next time. - All right, peace. - From a two musicians to someone running the scenes behind one of the biggest award shows in the world. Her name is Jennifer Davidson. She's the chief marketing, chief communications and content officer at the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences. That's a mouthful, but better known as the Academy. Also known as the Oscars. We have her joining us today to talk about the Oscars and all things. Jennifer, welcome to the show. - Warner Bailey. - That is my name. - I'm sure, my pleasure. - That's my long form government name that I'm only, that only gets used and I done something wrong. So hopefully, I didn't mess up that intro. - We call it your biblical name. - It's amazing. - Warner's good, but people confuse that with Warner Bros and they're going through some stuff right now. So I'll take the call name. - You are not that yet. - Not yet, that is true. But I don't have, I have one bro's name's not Warner, but I gave you a bit of an intro in the title, but can you talk to us about your current role and the types of things that you're doing day to day? - Yeah, it's, I think I have the best job. So I just want to preface this by saying I'm very lucky. So I oversee all of marketing and this is for the Academy and the Academy Museum and all the programs and things we do. So I oversee marketing, communications. So PR, crisis, et cetera. Our content division, which is Academy Studios, which you'll be seeing more things from us in that capacity on YouTube and different digital efforts that we're doing. I also recently started handling awards production, which is what it sounds like. And for those of you who aren't aware, we do more things in the Oscars. We have the Student Academy Awards. We have the Governor's Awards. We do the nominees luncheon, et cetera, et cetera. And then I also oversee special events for the Academy and talent relations. So plenty going on. - Plenty, but let's talk about the marketing role in reaching new audiences or younger eyeballs. Obviously you mentioned content creation and content creators. How are you looking at the businesses you have and are running from a marketing side and trying to reach that new audience? What is your main focus right now? - That's a great question. I see everything I do as marketing. It's all outward facing. I think everybody should look at it that way that any content you're doing for your, the dreaded C word is telling your story, which is why I think I'm overseeing it now. Marketing, the Oscars are incredibly important and they're incredibly special. And it recognizes the very best of the film industry. We always say it's an elite achievement but we are not elitists. And we want to see people come to Hollywood and by Hollywood I mean wherever production is to make these things. For us, the marketing of the show is not just about our faithful followers who have been with us. It's amazing who you meet, who tells you their story of having seen the shows and they were little and they are very, very grown adults. But it's also what is the next generation? So I need to care for, we all need to care for the people, the legends I say who have followed us from the beginning, but we need to be growing who those followers are. So my teenage daughters need to care. Their friends need to care. The six year old one day is gonna be 16 years old and they need to want to go to the movies and understand why this is so important and so cool. And something to aspire to. And that's also part of what we do. It's aspirational. How do I, how do I, you know, this is what I wake up at three in the morning thinking about how do we get people excited and understanding what this takes. And you see this now, people are coming, they're at the theater y'all. So people are saying, you know, film is dead is not reading the right book. So it's an exciting time and it's great to be a part of that conversation. - Yeah, we covered the film, the theater, 15%. Spider-Man just hit the best month, yeah, ever. Best to be so. - And for. - We're excited and bullish about it. What makes you, what is something else that's making you really optimistic about the state of the movie industry right now? - Oh my gosh, hold on. Let me check out my book that I keep. I mean, it's, there's so much. There's so much because I, from my vantage point, there is a renewed energy out there. There's an excitement. If you build it, they will come. They're coming because they're seeing things that people are taking time to make. There's, there is like an old school energy about film geared towards the future. And at the academy, that's what we talk about over time. You need to hold on your history. The film industry needs to always remember where it started 'cause it was not that long ago. But how do we carry that and continue to create and ideate for a new audience? But teach them what came before, right? Like during COVID, it drove a lot of people to watch a lot of movies. It drove a lot of young people to watch movies at their home. And now they're coming at, they're coming out. They're coming to our museum. Half of the people that come to our museum are under 40. And they wanna see these older movies, the '60s, the '40s, the '70s. And we do so many screening. They want, they can't get enough of that. And it's wild to see how that has surged while also being totally interested in what's being made today. There's just a whole new energy. And I love being a part of that because the academy is about that. We celebrate cinema. And we want, and it's okay too. And we should. It's a positive thing. So it's a pretty cool seat to sit in. - And with that young audience, you mentioned you had young daughters as well, as I'm assuming young people that work at the company, where are you generating a lot of these ideas? And what have been some of the biggest bets that you're making right now? We have a lot of young people. And I have to tell you something, I get to ask this all the time, what's something you should know about the academy that people don't understand or they underestimate? It is filled with 700 employees between the museum, the archive, the library, our administrative offices, the executive office. I have never in my many years working. I have never seen a group of people who are like in it for the love of the game. Like they, the biggest cinephiles, the biggest, I mean, it's all, it's just what they talk about. It's the culture, the supporters, they're opening weekend. They go see things five times and it's every level of person in every kind of job. So, I'd like to think we watch that and we see where's their energy? Don't think on a Monday or Tuesday in the office. I'm not like, what'd you see? What'd you go to? Why didn't you go? What interests you? What doesn't interest you? So they bring in what I call the vibe out there and tell you what caught them and what didn't. So, you know, when you're talking about the Oscars, I, and let me be clear, I'm not making that show. We have amazing producers, Raj Kapoor and Katie Mulan that are in a crew and Rob Payne. A crew, hey, I'm a sure director. Like a crew of a thousand people making this thing happen. So let me be super clear on that. But it is about listening to what's in conversation, what has interest, what's making people pause, and so it makes every year different and really exciting. And some people have a problem with what we do and then it usually ends up working out okay. So it comes from all kinds of places for sure. - And one of the things that young people are also, you talk about a vibe, our trying to navigate is buzzwords AI, but also abundance of content. I think there's challenges with also working in the industry. If we're going to be realistic about it too, there's a lot of optimism about a lot of challenges. How do you see those challenges, you know, sorting out, especially as it relates to AI and a lack of production in L.A. From just a macro lens from a standpoint. - Well, here's the usual issue when there's a problem. And I'm not, I'm just saying this. [BLANK_AUDIO] that word is used a lot. Half of the energy around it is from a lack of information. So if you hear me around the office, somebody will say, you know, what is the, what is, and by the way, AI is a very real conversation. So let me be clear. I also say AI needs better PR. There needs to be, if you are, if you are introducing something, you need to, I'm also a communications executive, my whole life is spent messaging and landing that plane. Whatever it is, you need to socialize, you need to educate, you need to inform, you need to show examples, you need to be, you can't talk about it enough. And I think, you know, that needs to happen on a really successful level. So it can be addressed appropriately and in the right time, in the right way. And I don't think we're there yet, but we need to be. We do. And I think as an industry, we all, we all play a role in it, but looking forward now, not in the terms of AI and I want to talk with the Oscars specifically. There's a big move happening. I'm going to YouTube, I believe, 2029, five year deal. There's also a move in terms of the venue too. What does the future of the Oscars look like and why were those two decisions made? The future, listen, I say this to anybody who listened. I 100% believe that our best days are ahead of us. We have an incredible history. So that's saying a lot and I really, I really believe it. I think YouTube, and let me preface all of this by saying you can ask for no greater partner right now than Disney. And we have a shorthand. We know each other and by each other, I mean the organizations, there's a mutual respect. They're wonderful partners. And I think as we were moving forward to the future, we are a global organization and a global audience, which we have now, but on a but but but YouTube will afford a global audience. You know, weren't like 27 billion monthly active users. I can't, I can't. Yeah. So that has to be our future. We are a global organization. We have to speak globally. We have to present globally. When we produce the show, it's totally with global optics. And because everybody matters, we want everybody watching. We want you to be a part of this conversation. So that was it. We also have a need for just more space. You know, the great news is the show is really popular and people want to be there. And we want them there, but we're we're a little limited. And Dolby has been an incredible partner. We've had, I mean, not quite. We've had some incredible partners in the process, but we can only go so far. And so hats off to AEG who are fantastic and working together with them to prepare what that experience will be like when they're there because the truth is we do do it differently than everybody else. I know everybody wants to say they're all the same. They're not all the same. And so it'll I think it's going to be really exciting. It is. And we're, I don't know if I'm so announced, but our award show is going to be the Chinese theater this year. So we'll be next door neighbors. Maybe we'll come on over there and visit you. But let's send this interview with some optimism here. A lot of people would love to be in your shoes one day. I think you started your career. NBC entertainment. Friend Seinfeld. Fresh Prince of Bella is a Philly guy that hits home. What piece of advice would you have to young people trying to break into the TV and movie industry right now if they want to separate themselves and rise up to leadership role? I, it's a great question. I get asked that a lot. I would say for anybody wanting to go into any industry, I will give advice that my late father gave me and my brother, which was, and I lived by this today, show up on time, do the job that you signed up for, and they'll think you're a genius. And that's true because there's a lot of people showing up doing half the effort. So do that. I think you also need to always make sure that the person you're working for, your immediate manager is in the loop. They shouldn't have to come to you and chase for information. If they want to delete the email with the update, that's fine. It's there like, yeah, yeah, okay, great. My CEO is conversational in all of my area. Okay, he might not be in the total weeds because he trusts me to handle that. And he's great. Shout out to the crew. But it is imperative that you equip your immediate manager to speak about what you're handling. Okay. And then my last point would be I think you need to be honest. I think we're lacking that in a lot of places. And I think people are afraid to be honest because they're afraid to, you know, what if it's not, if you wrap it, I would say wrap it and bubble wrap because not everybody can handle it. But you can always be honest. And then they come to depend on you because you'll be the one person in the room doing it. I love it. Take note, who's ever watching those incredible piece of advice. Last question though, what's that poster behind you? I think I'm seeing it. Is that a natural one? Robert Redford. May he rest? Is that your favorite movie ever? Is that just an iconic poster you love? Or both? Kind of kind of both. I have a lot of favorite movies, but that movie was where I sat and went holy cow. Like it just visually, absolutely beautiful. Who's going to win the Oscar for Best Picture I'm Kidding? But I would never answer that. I know you could. And I don't know. Exactly. Paulie Markets got a bet on it, but we won't go there. But I appreciate you joining so much. Thank you for the advice, the inspiration, and we're excited to tune in live this year and many of that. Awesome. Great to meet you. Thank you for having me. You as well. I appreciate you. Take care. Hopefully as we in the lead up to the awards. So we have going from on the awards circuit to two writers from a 24. We have to Todd and Lou, who are joining us now, who are writers behind a 24's new Anthony Bourdain flick Tony. We're excited to have them joining us to talk about the origin story of that in a movie that also comes out in two days. Let's bring him off. There they are. How are we? Hey, good man. How are you? It is a pleasure to meet you both. Thanks for joining the show. Can we do a quick intro for both of you? And then we'll get into Tony and all things. Yeah, I'm Lou Howe. I'm one of the writers of Tony and executive producer. Yes, I'm Todd Bartels, also one of the writers and an executive producer. How did you first meet each other? We went to high school together. So we've known each other for a really long time. We went to high school and college together. But we didn't start writing together until about five or six years ago. We were on sort of separate creative paths. Todd working with other partners and I was sort of a lone wolf indie writer director. And he had this idea to write a Dolly Parton origin story that I thought was an awesome idea. So I asked if we could try writing together. And so we did it as an experiment and had a lot of fun. And there's people like the script. So we became a team and biopic guys. And then Bourdain was the next subject. When you're looking for collaborators, obviously you've known each other for many years. A lot of lone wolves out there are writing in silos. What do you think makes a good collaborator when you're looking for a writer? I'd say friendship. And sort of building it on a foundation of trust. And just enjoying the other person. I mean, Lune, I have known each other since we're 15 years old. And we were just buddies. For the longest time, going to barbecue and k town for lunch and giving each other notes on our various scripts, which people weren't particularly interested in reading at the time. And just supporting each other for a long time. And then yeah, you know, and it's hard. It's a delicate balance. It's a couple of things at once. But I feel like Lu and I are pretty close to being on the same page creatively a lot of the time. And we have slightly different sort of interests or talents, I'd say. But basically, we brainstorm in a room. And then we go off and write sequences of the script apart. And then we trade them and rewrite each other until there's one voice. And I think your voice has to be pretty close to the other person's voice already in order for that to work. When you're looking at collaborating, though, is there a delegation of things that you are both excel at that you work well on or is it pretty similar in terms of skill sets? I think it's pretty similar when we're really writing. I mean, you know, I think we need to be together to break the story often or at least be on the phone talking things through. And then we are, you know, doing the same job but separately and then trading the script back and forth. So I think there are elements that we have come to realize one of us is stronger than the other. But really, we kind of check each other at every step of the way. So, you know, we're helping each other through each process. It's not like fully separate tasks ever. Yeah, and the newest film collaboration, Tony, let's talk about the origin story of it. I want to hear it. How did it come to be? Well, we wrote this Dolly Parts script, which Lou just referred to, and Tim and Trevor White, if we're biopic writers, they're biopic producers. They produced King Richard and the Post. They were working on Dolly with us, their old friends of ours, from the Film Festival Circuit. And we were looking around for the next biopic subject, and we're both fans of Anthony Bourdain first and foremost, and we're foodies and travelers. So we both centered in on this as a guy that we're deeply fascinated by, and wanted to answer the question of how did he become so beloved and how did he become this guru, especially when in kitchen confidential, he writes that he treated the world like his ash tray. So how did this lovable person come from someone who was self-admittedly insufferable? So we first had to think of a window onto his life where as biopic guys, we're sort of allergic to cradle to grave Wikipedia article narratives. We always like to find a slice that serves as the microcosm for the larger story. And with Tony, we thought there were kind of three options. One was the last chapter of his life when he was mega famous running around being a globe trotting connector of people, parts unknown, everything that people know him to be. And then there's the '80s and '90s when he's a journeyman chef and doing a lot of drugs and other things in New York. And then there's this time, this sort of magical unknown secret summer when in problem sound when he's working in a clam shack, doing dishes and somehow stumbles into his life's calling. And we thought that is an amazingly unexpected tunnel into an extraordinary person's life. And so that we chose that window, but we had never been to Provincetown, so we went to P-town. And during that era, or even through the parts and unknown res and you mentioned a couple different chapters of his life, were there lessons that you've taken from him and applied to your own lives? Oh, absolutely. I think that was a big question driving the choice of the P-town years is, you know, he was a role model for how to live as an adult in a lot of ways, you know, he's this sort of beacon of curiosity and empathy and so open and so, you know, sort of brutally authentic, brutally honest about who he was. And then you read his own, you know, perception of himself as a little punk, you know, the poster right here says he was in a bad need of an ass kicking when he was that age. So really, that's the question that drove us to write the script in the first place was how did this little kid grow up to be this sort of almost, you know, spiritual like guru figure that we've looked to, you know, for so long and so many people, you know, have that relationship with him. So, yeah, that was, that was what we were trying to figure out. And through that process of research, not going down the whole Wikipedia page, but what do you think some of the most surprising facts that you found out were things that you found out about him that you didn't know prior? I didn't realize that he really wanted to be a writer, first and foremost, his entire life. He, he was a writer in search of a subject when he was a kid. He was also a cartoonist, a great artist as well. He was really searching for something to do with his life, a path. I think that's what we're all kind of doing, especially when we're 19, but often sort of well into our 20s. You know, he found, he, he, he was a writer who then found his, his, his work in the kitchen to be the family that he was really looking for. He thought of himself as a, as a misfit and then became this great anthropologist and observer of the adrenaline fueled pirate ship insanity of the kitchen. He was a, he was a writer as well in the 80s and 90s, wrote several crime thrillers. He was writing in the morning and at night after coming back and going to, to serve us at these various kitchens and when he started writing, that sort of unsuccessfully. And then when he wrote about kitchens, this thing that when you go back and read these couple of chapters about the Provincetown Era and Kitchen Coventry, which is absolutely worth doing, is the, the way he describes it is just, he's one of our favorite writers. It's just the electricity in which he writes is unbelievable. And so then when he wrote about the kitchen and he wrote that New Yorker piece, don't eat before reading this, that became kitchen confidential, that's when he sort of everything clicked and he was 43 when that happened. And from lessons, you know, his life to, let's look at the current landscape of the roles that you're both sitting in, probably very different from when it started. What do you think the biggest challenges are for writers or anyone really working in a movie TV industry right now and what makes you most optimistic? Hmm. I mean, I think it's always such a tough business and I think this feels like the toughest moment that I've seen in trying to do this for a long time. I think the biggest, you know, piece of advice I would give or the most important thing is just to keep going. I think it can be very easy to get discouraged or to, you know, get sidetracked and I think trying to stay true to your own interests and continue down on the path that you believe in is the most important thing you can do. Yeah, I would say, I would say, and this is a cliche, but write what you know. I mean, the thing that will become the most electric off the page in the beginning, especially when you're trying to find your, your footing as a, as a writer, both talent and sort of craftwise, it becomes readily apparent if someone is deeply passionate about the thing that they're writing about and Lew and I spent time working in kitchens when we were young guys. I worked in a French restaurant in Connecticut, a fancy Michelin star, plays peeling potatoes and Lew worked in a, in a, in a fish store in Antarctica, or fortune lobster pots, yeah. Doing this kind of stuff and I think that watching and being passionate about those people having such respect for people who dedicate their lives to the really difficult work of, of putting food on a table, whether it's a fancy French place or talking about fried scrawd and fried clams, like, that stayed with us and and I, I think hopefully it, that comes across in the film that we are lovers of this culture and, and, and we just wanted to write a love letter to it and to Anthony Bourdain. Yeah, and last question, very similar to that, but if you're a young writer right now, seems that rise of AI and things that you can, there's an abundance of writing out there. How do you think young writers can separate themselves and have their work seen by the people that they need it seen by? I mean, I think what Todd said is exactly right, that you need to write something that only you can write and that sort of sounds easier than it is, often it's, it's hard to, to realize what, what is unique about your own perspective, but I think that should be the goal, that you, it's very easy to sort of chase other people's success or to see what's working and go right, you know, a horror movie because of backgrounds and obsession or, you know, just to, to be thinking about the external, instead of, of looking in and trying to find what, what is unique about your voice, I would say that's the most important thing to try and figure out. Amazing, and where are you guys going to be watching the release day? I got a bunch of tickets to, at the grove, bringing my kids and a bunch of friends and it was hard to get tickets, which was very exciting. I love it, Todd, we're going to be, I think I'll be in the Pacific Northwest, I'm splitting my time between LA and Washington State, so I think I'll probably watch it down here. I love it. Well, congrats to you both. Thanks for sharing the wisdom and I can't wait to see it in theaters. That's where it belongs and looking forward to having you back next time in your next film, but we'll, we'll look forward to this one. Thanks so much. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate you both. Go see it in theaters this Friday, we have two, two movies now from the show being in theaters this Friday, but from, we talked about some writers in Hollywood, we're going to talk about one of the guys that's powering a lot of the writers behind the screens, including myself, many of you know that I read a newsletter called The Mailroom. I launched it on B-Hive, it, it separated the side gig from a main gig and it really changed my life. And Tyler on who's at Morning Brew is on the CEO of B-Hive to talk about his own journey. What B-Hive is and then we have a little competition to announce, let's bring him up, Tyler, there is. There we go. I need a cooler background like you have. Well, yeah. You can come put some memes up. I think I got one of you. I'm shocked that you were in sleeves. I saw the announced video. There was a sleeveless shirt in the mix, but congrats on that sleeve today, sleeves today. That's good. We can't handle it without, but give a little introduction on yourself. Yeah. Sure. So, great to meet everyone. My name is Tyler. Co-founder, CEO of B-Hive started the company four and a half years ago, previous to this. I was there. the second employee at Morning Brew. So have somehow become a big newsletter guy through and through. - Before that though, you had written in your own newsletter, big desk energy, about a time in your life that you, I think had 47, 49 cents in your bank account in your failed college startup. So let's go back to that time in your life, really quickly in a minute or two and talk about the challenges you faced earlier in your career. - Yeah, for sure. I feel like I just entered a therapy hour here, but happy to live. - Are you open? - Yeah, I started a company in college called Venture Storm, which we connected student entrepreneurs with college software programmers and whatnot and thought that we were on pace to build this massive billion dollar business. So I never took an internship in college. I paid for a college with student loan. So graduated with $120,000 of student debt. Never took an internship in lieu of pursuing the startup which ended up folding and we didn't scale it. So I had no experience in my resume. I had no internship experience and then I moved back to my parents' house, $120,000 in debt, not didn't make a dollar for the four years housing college. And that's what led to having 49 cents in my bank account. - What did you learn about yourself in that time that fueled you to then go off and have the career you have now? - So even though that company failed, I think it was the most transformative experience that I've ever had in my life. It forced us to teach ourselves how to code. So just a brand new skill that opened the door to doing freelance projects which opened the door to when Austin Reef did call me who's the co-founder of Morning Brew to build something for him. I could say yes, which opened the door to joining them as the second employee. So I've heard about it in my most recent newsletter. I think the reason why I or what I attribute most of my success to is just constantly being in situations where I put where I'm way over my head. I was in over my head building the startup. I was in over my head as the second employee at Morning Brew. I was 22 years old in New York and led the entire tech and product division at Morning Brew as a self-taught software developer. And even when I'm doing right now, right? Like we're gonna do $50 million in revenue this year. It's been a wild ride. I feel very confident and like in control of things, but there's 130 people around the world that work for us. So just another example. - Yeah, and for what did you learn at Morning Brew though that led you to want to bet on yourself and start be high? - Yeah, I mean, I didn't even go step before that. And I had a job offer at Deloitte to be a technology consultant. And I had the job offer at Morning Brew to join these three guys that were in like a closet size office in New York that was sending a newsletter to 100,000 people. And one of my friends gave me the best piece of advice I've ever received, which was you could be one of 40,000 people doing that exact same role in Deloitte or you could be the only person in the world building Morning Brew. And that was like the first real test of like, should I bet on myself and do I believe in myself that I can do that? Did that? And then I think what to Alex and Austin's credit who are the two co-founders at Morning Brew, they gave me a lot of green space to build what I thought would be best. And that allowed me to build a content management system. I built this ad management platform. I built the referral program at Morning Brew. And there were like no rules. Like I didn't really, I had a boss, but I didn't really have a boss. He kind of let me run wild. I was able to make assumptions and bets on myself and build things and see it through. And it worked more often than it didn't. And that played a small part of making Morning Brew the success story that it was. And then obviously that insight is what helped me launch BI from seeing what we had built internally on Morning Brew is actually extremely valuable to thousands and hundreds of thousands of other content creators like yourself who have a newsletter on the platform. - Yeah, we do. And I think people, before we could talk to our newsletter, a little competition we're gonna announce, I think people glorify being an entrepreneur. I launched AVA nine years ago, but went full and on a year and a half ago and faced more challenges in that time than ever before in my life. The wins are bigger, the losses are bigger. What are some of the biggest things that you've had to overcome while running your own company? - Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of downsides of entrepreneurship, right? And most people see entrepreneurship as like revenue milestones, IPO acquisition. The everything in between that is just solving, like I now just joke on a day-to-day basis. My job's really just solving one problem after the next, whether it's a people problem, whether it's a tech problem, whether it's a resource in problem. Like every day is just the highs and lows of like gathering a few wins, which is we get a new big user or we launch this feature to a ton of losses of someone important leaves the company, something broke. Our most important vendor is not working. And so, yeah, and especially when we're totally remote. So I think it's different when you have the camaraderie about a team in person in an office. We are an entirely remote company that was born out of COVID. And so I'm in my room, 16 to 18 hours a day, working by myself and experiencing all of the highs and all of the lows of which there's typically more lows than highs on any given day, just 'cause my job is to get all the problems and solve them. So yeah, it's hard. I think early on, I think the thing that I learned that I've matured a bunch as like an entrepreneur and founder is I would always go to bed Monday night with my to-do list of things I wanted to do on Tuesday. And I was so excited to wake up Tuesday and run through this list of 10 things. But then shit happens and there's always fires and you'll realize by six o'clock on Tuesday you didn't touch a single one of those 10 things and that used to frustrate me beyond belief because I love to get things done. But I've just learned that that's kind of like the name of the game and that's just what it is to be a founder and a CEO. And so I've had to carve out other time which has typically been weekends to really get those things done. Yeah, I feel like weekends don't exist. You're doing the type of work you're doing on us. But a lot of those fires you're chronicle so well in your newsletter and LinkedIn, you're not to glaze you up here but you're very good at building in public. And I think one of the reasons why I wanted you to come on the show was to talk about building not only a newsletter for a direct communication with your audience but also building in public and how that's affected your own career. I started doing it and you know, led to this. Why do you think it's so important to build in public in this era? Yeah, there's probably a few different ways to think about that. There is, I could only create content about newsletters and I think there's probably 50,000 people who would really love that content. But if I create content around what it means to be a founder, how we hire the different strategies that we deploy as like a remote company, how we're building new growth funnels, what's working with AI and what's not, then this whole building in public persona attracts so much wider audience like a larger tam of anyone who's interested in entrepreneurship or startups has some sort of interest in following my content whether or not they have a newsletter or not today. But it's really just, I love the concept of like expanding your luck surface area. Like that person who has no newsletter and has no interest in my product but likes to hear about my hiring strategies might be at a dinner party one night when the person next to them talks about a newsletter and they can recommend me. And I would only ever got that look because I've been creating content that was valuable to this other group of people who may not even be our target customer. So building public's helped a lot for that. Also like especially with AI and you can see the proliferation of all of this like vibe coded tools and everything else that like it's so easy to code things today and build things where having a personality behind a brand I think is like a huge differentiator. And so the more that people can know that they're buying from me and someone that they trust and resonate and understand my values and how much I care about the business, I think that has greater second and third order effects that you can't really measure but like I get a ton of replies to my email from a massive like loyal fan signed up to be high of like years ago would never leave like your huge inspiration. We've had a lot of our largest enterprise users like time is one of our biggest users. That only happened because their CTO coincidentally one day signed up to a newsletter called Big Guest Energy Reddit for six months aligned with like the values and what I was talking about in our product velocity and then convinced the entire time organization to move all of their emails over to us. And so like there's stuff like that where it's like hard to put an exact ROI on but building in public has helped us scale a lot. - Yeah and then for the next generation before we announce the competition that's we're excited about if you could be in their shoes right now what is a couple pieces of advice for starting to write a newsletter and the types of maybe topics that you would be covering how broad you're going. - Yeah I think a lot of my number one advice always is just get started whether it's writing or building something a lot of people think themselves into a pretzel of like trying to build out like the perfect long strategy and the perfect like go to market and perfect like never exists. And something that I think we've championed a lot of BI is like we'll ship something that's 90% done which some people get annoyed about but we get early feedback and real feedback from users so much quicker and then we can iterate and get to a better final state more quickly and so I'm a huge fan of like not letting perfection get in the way of progress. So that's one on just like getting started and then like topics I actually think people also overthink in terms of like ROI, TAM et cetera. I think really the most important thing is it has to be something that you care about and that you're passionate about. Otherwise it's going to feel like homework to create this newsletter create content on like a day to day basis. For me I wake up at five, six thinking about the business. I am in meetings and doing things and building things all day which inspire me and then I can take all of those experiences and turn that into something I can write about and I actually enjoy writing about it. And I think the biggest thing about the internet is the internet is so big and no matter what your interest is or what the niche is there's probably so many other people who are interested in that exact type of topic. So I think just getting started is something you're passionate about and the rest will kind of figure itself out. Weed on the 824 riders at Tony who just said the exact same thing pretty much, it's gonna make a great clip side by side. But we're all talk, let's be all walk. Be high of an AVA, we are partnering to find the next great riders for the entertainment industry. We're giving away two top prizes. 1,000 bucks for the winner, 500 bucks for the runner up. And we're gonna launch a competition, starting top at next week to find the best new riders covering the entertainment industry. And they're also gonna get, I don't know if Tyler knows this, but they're gonna get a free call with Tyler. Also free called me and we're gonna try to help give the tools for the next generation to continue covering our industry in a positive way, hopefully, but definitely in a creative way. So we're pumped to do it. Tyler, you've been supporter of us for the longest time and I really do wanna thank you. The way that I started my career was on B-Hive through a newsletter, I was always nervous. I was anonymous behind the account, VVA for five years before that. I decided to put my name against that newsletter and it changed my life. So I appreciate you and you've changed a lot of people's lives and you become a good friend. So I thanks for joining the show and excited for this competition. - Hell yeah. - We're bullish on the industry and as L.A. guys, we gotta support each other. So we'll see you next time. Thanks for wearing sleeves and not intimidated rest of us and I appreciate you. - Yep, thanks for having me, please. - We'll see you. We got another big news story that is dropping here. It's the assistance of the month. Before we do that, two big things. Maddie Poris, close friend, moved from WMe to the team, a big move that we covered. It's at the bottom of the screen along with a couple of other industry moves. But we also have a breaking news announcement from Verve that sent us over this video. Ross, roll the tape. - Good morning, Verve. - Yeah. (crowd cheering) - Good morning, Verve. - It's really exciting. I actually call it space song. I think it wouldn't hurt. (crowd cheering) - I've got Taylor Killifer online three. I've got Cooper Yeager online four and I've got Sheree's disease online five. What do you wanna do? - Congrats, all three of you are now agents. Go back to work. - Sheree's, congratulations. It's so well-deserved and you taught me everything I know. I appreciate it. Congratulations, Cooper. I'm coming up with the bake off. Watching a Playoff Dodger game out of bar to being an agent. I'm proud of you. Congratulations, best of luck. - Taylor, I am so excited for you. I'm so proud of you. You've worked incredibly hard for this promotion and this team is really lucky to have you on it. - So you're an agent now. You deserve it. Great fucking job, you look like a maniac. - Congratulations, Sheree's. You worked so hard to become an agent. So well-deserved. And now you can finally put those assassin skills to work. - Congratulations, Cooper. With your personality, you're qualified to do one of two of this. I believe that you can be the son of one of the coaches and you're one of the kids, so choose. - Congrats, Sheree's. We're so proud of you. Excited to see what you do as an agent. - Congrats. We're so excited for you. - Sheree's, congrats on your promotion. I'm so proud of you. You're going to have such amazing careers in agent. Just remember to keep me around when you're running this place. - Congratulations. This is so deserved. My one note to you is what I always say. Don't fuck this up. - Cooper, congratulations on your promotion. Being an agent at Verve. Now the job, don't screw it up. (cheering) - Two seven five, break up. - Huge shout out. Thank you to the Verve family for sending that over. But the news you've all been waiting for, the July assistance of the month, presented by AVA, let's bring it live. We got the July assistance of the month from the top, Juan from UTA, Jared from the team. Aliyah from CAA, Sean from HIFIN HQ, Carlos from gigantic pictures, Casey from UTA, Jack from Soho House, and Chloe from SoftShot. Give it up, assistance of the month. Imagine some confetti flying down. We want to thank you all for your hard work. Those were submitted by your peers, maybe even your boss. We'll drop a link below to submit for the August assistance of the month. This month, the assistance of the month winners are receiving an exclusive seated AVA's table at the CAA's 22nd annual Young Hollywood Party on September 3rd in LA. It's one of Hollywood's most iconic events for rising entertainment professionals. The evening supports communities in LA. Schools and celebrates the next generation of the industry, I ve aged out of that thing, so I would say see you there, maybe I will. I wanna thank you all for joining. Next week, we're also gonna be releasing some new merch that's been sitting behind me this whole time. We got merch live in the show and some giveaways, same time, same place on AVA Live next week. We'll see you then.