The Founder's Brew - Vol. 1

This Week's Topics: Hollywood as High School, A Winner in Marketing, and pages from the Commonplace Book

Hollywood as High School

One of the first questions I usually get from clients during our introductory meetings, aside from whom have you met, is how does one navigate Hollywood? A loaded question to be sure but not as complicated as you might think. The simplest solution is to view Hollywood as high school. Now I’m sure I’ll get a ton of pushback claiming that every industry is like high school but in this case, Hollywood is a different beast from other industries. Allow me to explain.

Everyone’s high school experience breaks down into very distinct buckets: you either loved it or you hated it. You were either part of the “cool” kids or the “not so cool” kids. Most people spend their lives trying to either recapture their high school glory days or run away from them. What I’ve found in my years in Hollywood is that most people aren’t trying to run away from their high school but want to relive it AND become the popular kids because more often than not, their high school experience was miserable. For instance, at my first job, I was surprised how little most executives knew about Hollywood history and even movies before the 90s blockbuster explosion. One would think you would have at least a working knowledge of movies to, you know, make movies. What I soon discovered is that most people who come to Hollywood do just want to run around with Brad Pitt and George Clooney rather than make movies. In their minds, it’s the best way to go back home and brag to the high school QB sitting at the bar. Of course, I overgeneralize but you get the main point: Most, but certainly not all, people come to Hollywood to fill a gap that high school left in their lives socially or emotionally.

The question I’m sure you’re all asking is how does this help me navigate the Hollywood maze. Like it or not, these are the gatekeepers to getting your project made and, understanding those to whom you are either pitching or meeting is one key to success. As my co-host, Tim Thompson, often says: know who your audience is before you even walk in the room. In other words, knowing that Hollywood is similar to high school will enable you to walk into the room understanding all that that person on the other side may have gone through. It is emotional intelligence par excellence. Maybe you can relate to your rough high school days or maybe you want to atone for some of your high school sins. Either way, it allows for an easier connection versus seeing the person on the other end of the table as the enemy, one of the big roadblocks to a truly creative partnership.

Hits or Misses

In this section, I’ll highlight something happening in Hollywood that is working or not (despite what the trades might say.) This week’s hit is Universal Marketing. They have been crushing it with their Halloween Kills campaign. You can often tell when the marketing team is having fun with a campaign and it seems pretty obvious to me that they’re enjoying this. That, and I’ve seen a nice variety of spots which also showcases that they feel they have the goods. This is NOT traditional “terd-polishing” marketing. Kudos Uni marketing. You hooked me. I’ll be watching on October 15th (albeit on Peacock.) Check out the trailer below…Soooo good. Gotta love how they open with a full scene…GENIUS. No hyper cutting needed.

Pages from the Commonplace Book

This is one of my favorite parts of this newsletter and where the “history” part of the newsletter will come into play. A commonplace book was a notebook that folks as far back as ancient Rome would write quotes, formulas, etc. to reference them down the road. Founders, such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, kept many commonplace books. Probably the most famous commonplace book is Marcus Aurelius’ Mediations, a book I highly recommend. I started keeping my commonplace book shortly after I moved to LA a mere 20 years ago (and subsequently left 5 years ago, but that is a story for a future newsletter.) I often find that these quotes can apply just as much to business as to life so I hope that you find it just as helpful as I have over the years. 

This week’s quote comes to us courtesy of Seneca, a Stoic philosopher. If any of you are not familiar with Stoicism, I highly recommend Ryan Holiday’s two books: Lives of the Stoics and The Daily Stoic (both co-written with Stephen Hanselman.) Both books will give you a good overview of Stoic philosophy and its philosophers. Now, on to this week’s quote:

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay”

So simple and yet so brilliant. I can’t tell how many times merely stepping away from the computer after receiving an email that sent me through the roof saved me additional grief. Sometimes, I would even type out a response (without the TO field, of course, to avoid the accidental send) just to get my thoughts on paper. Either way, not reacting at that moment and stepping away can save more trouble down the road. If the leadership of Hollywood would take this advice, one wonders how different the industry might be. A question certainly to ponder given the current state of things.

This Week’s Hollywood Breaks Guest:

Robin Geisen once again returns to the podcast. Be sure to tune in!

See you next week!