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Take what you can get your hands on. Prove

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0:16

much in my industry, but in any industry.

0:18

Prove that you can take that and you can monetize

0:21

and be successful with it.

0:22

That's what I did. I said I could take twenty thousand dollars

0:24

and turn to one hundred thousand.

0:26

Then I had two hundred thousand, which is a budget

0:28

of our next film, and we turn that into a million.

0:30

Now boom. So now I'm showing that

0:33

when I go and people invest in

0:35

me, I'm turning that back.

0:36

I'm giving it back.

0:37

That's another reason why we have to think

0:39

long term in terms.

0:41

Of how we're monetizing our product.

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personality Sam. Each

1:01

week we talk with guests who are making significant

1:03

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1:05

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1:08

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1:19

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1:21

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1:23

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It's Tanya time to stay locked in

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to new episodes. This episode

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is brought to you by our partner MasterCard, bridging

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the Wealth Gap together with Green Money. On

1:40

this episode, we sit down with acclaimed

1:42

film producer Will Packer as he talks

1:44

about how to make money in film. So

1:46

I want to get into a little bit of money talk here.

1:48

Okay, in this industry, how

1:51

do people make money? You know, from a producer

1:53

standpoint, who are the people who are making money?

1:56

And how do you make money? So when you're looking at your

1:58

next picture, yeah, what does that look like?

2:00

Yeah?

2:01

So the movie industry

2:03

and entertainment in general is all

2:05

kind of very similar in that you've

2:08

got major the traditional

2:11

system. I'll start there.

2:12

You've got major financiers.

2:14

They look like a Universal

2:16

Pictures or they look like a you

2:18

know, BMG or

2:20

a Warner Brothers Music or Disney

2:22

like they look like you know names that you've heard.

2:24

Before, right, and they

2:27

finance projects.

2:28

They finance content

2:30

creators to create content that typically.

2:33

They then own.

2:35

Right, they pay you to create it, they own

2:37

it, and depending on the success of that, they

2:39

will pay you based on a success. So you got

2:41

your compensation that you get upfront

2:44

for making it, and then you have what we call contingent

2:46

compensation that's your backing that

2:49

is depending on Okay, you're gonna pay me to make

2:51

an album or movie and then it's a big old hit, Well.

2:53

Then you'll get a percentage of the profits.

2:55

Typically the financier that is that's

2:58

financing the product, they own the project and

3:00

they are the ones that determine what the

3:02

distribution for that project is.

3:04

So that is generally

3:06

how it works.

3:07

There's a lot of nuances and wrinkles, and you

3:09

know a lot of you can be independent, you can own your

3:11

own stuff, you can raise your own money. It's hard

3:13

to get into that system where you're first when you're first starting

3:15

off. So for me, I had to

3:17

independently raise the funds. I

3:19

had to independently go out and create my ow projects

3:21

because HO wasn't going to give me anything, right, they

3:24

weren'ting to fund my projects before I was a known commodity.

3:27

But the thing about the entertainment

3:29

industry is the best way to get

3:32

the attention of the traditional system

3:35

is to make money and be successful

3:37

on your own.

3:39

Then they start coming. Okay, they start.

3:41

So this is the thing that I think a lot of young people,

3:44

as we've said, getting very daunted by. Right,

3:46

Well, okay, I have to make money, to

3:48

make money?

3:49

How do I do this?

3:49

And in this really interesting

3:52

industry? And I want to talk about fundraising because

3:54

I feel like, you know, for yourself, being a black

3:56

man walking into a very

3:58

legacy production call

4:01

it White, how were you able to successfully

4:04

fundraise and sell? Hey,

4:07

I would like to tell you why this movie

4:10

about several black women going on vacation

4:12

to New Orleans or straight out of Compton

4:14

will generate revenue because this idea

4:17

of this narrative, it's true of production,

4:19

it's true of startups technology, and

4:22

a lot of black people go, well, how am I going to

4:24

get the money to make money.

4:25

Yeah, it goes back to

4:27

that tenant that we talked

4:30

about of what are the resources you can get

4:32

your hands on to provide a

4:34

proof of concept?

4:35

And I needed that.

4:36

I needed before I could ever walk

4:38

into a room and say give me, you know, tens

4:41

of millions of dollars to produce a Girl's

4:44

Trip.

4:44

I needed to show that I could take a much

4:47

smaller.

4:47

Amount of money and be successful with that.

4:50

That's what was key for me.

4:52

So I went out initially and raised

4:54

money from African American invests. Yep, not

4:56

a lot, not nearly as much as I would need

4:58

to produce the level movies that I

5:00

produce now.

5:01

I couldn't do that then, but.

5:02

I could raise a little bit of money and produce

5:05

a little movie and then turn that little movie

5:07

into a success. These are the baby's

5:09

financially viable that

5:11

is translatable in any industry.

5:13

Right, take what you can get your hands on, prove

5:17

have a proof of concept. Is very

5:19

much in my industry, but in any industry.

5:22

Prove that you can take that and you can monetize

5:24

and be successful with it.

5:26

That's what I did.

5:26

I said I could take twenty thousand dollars and turn to one hundred

5:28

thousand. Then I had two hundred thousand,

5:31

which was the budget of our next film, and we turned that into

5:33

a million dollars. So now I'm

5:35

showing that when I go and

5:37

people invest in me, I'm turning

5:39

that back.

5:40

I'm giving it back. That's another reason.

5:42

Why we have to think long term in terms

5:44

of how we're monetizing our projects,

5:46

because you gotta think, Okay, let

5:49

me. We took everything that we had and

5:51

put that money on the screen so the project would

5:53

be successful.

5:53

Didn't put it in our pockets. We were thinking

5:56

long term.

5:57

I didn't want to say, okay, you're paying me one

5:59

hundred thousand dollars, make it move.

6:00

Wh I need fifty thousand dollars.

6:01

I work very hard and I'm going to do all the

6:03

jobs. No, I took nothing, put

6:06

it all on the screen. But then turn

6:08

that one hundred thousand dollars into more money,

6:11

right, and you.

6:11

Know what investors cannot argue with that. This

6:13

is where this is where I tell people, you know, greed,

6:15

Trump's race, greed, Trump's excellence.

6:18

Oprah says it the best right, the best way

6:20

to like outwork and win is through excellence.

6:23

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. The most powerful

6:25

color in business is green.

6:27

Yes, well, I think you've been really

6:29

clear about making the distinction about number one,

6:31

using all the assets that you have available

6:34

to you, Yes, you know, free resources. But then

6:36

there's also going to investors

6:38

and making them a promise that you were going to take

6:41

their money and make big returns.

6:43

Yes.

6:43

Yes, I think that's something very different that people

6:46

need to understand how that works in your industry.

6:48

That's the bottom line.

6:49

Sometimes we get caught up in not

6:52

the main thing. You got to make the

6:54

main thing, the main thing. Keep the main thing

6:56

to make. The main thing is

6:58

that return. That that's your track record,

7:01

that's your resume, more so than anything else, more

7:03

so than the pedigree or the degrees.

7:05

Or the network that you have when you walk in the room.

7:07

The main thing is how you have been able

7:09

to create return, create profits

7:12

for people that prioritize that.

7:14

Those are the investors. They prioritize what

7:17

is my return? Tanya, you may

7:19

be great. I like you, love the

7:21

way that you do your podcast, that you dressed,

7:23

and I like your.

7:24

Network and all that.

7:25

The big thing is that when I give

7:27

you a dollar, you give me back five.

7:29

I will invest in you forever.

7:31

And guess what if you give me back ten, I'm

7:33

coming back with more people.

7:34

Absolutely, because I'm gonna tell people this

7:37

is a good bet, this is a successful

7:39

person. We need to align ourselves with. That's

7:42

how the investors make money. Same thing as

7:44

true in my industry and in my career. I

7:46

have always been very

7:48

fortunate that I've never made a movie that

7:51

lost money.

7:51

Who say that again.

7:53

That is something that not a lot of people in Hollywood

7:56

can say because it is such a speculative industry.

7:58

But every project.

7:59

Now, the key to that is making sure

8:01

that when I'm making a project, I'm thinking about

8:03

what I'm putting into.

8:04

Right.

8:05

So we're throwing around numbers here. My first

8:07

project was twenty thousand, next for two hundred thousand.

8:09

Now my budgets are in the millions, but the budgets.

8:11

Are very strategic.

8:13

It's not just well, I want to, you know, get

8:16

fifty million dollars to make this movie because I think that's

8:18

what I deserve. It's what I

8:20

think about it with a very clear

8:23

and sober business head.

8:25

What do I need in order to justify

8:28

the audience that I.

8:29

Can get from that movie.

8:31

Because if I can make a movie

8:33

for fifty but it's only gonna make fifty.

8:35

I didn't win. That's not a reason trying to win.

8:37

But if I could make that same movie for thirty

8:40

and it makes fifty.

8:41

Now I've got a profit.

8:42

If I can make it for thirty and it makes one hundred, I'm

8:45

making even more than I would if I made that

8:47

movie for ninety.

8:48

So this is also super fascinating to me because

8:50

I think to win in this space, not only

8:53

do you have to have a creative eye be able

8:55

to identify talent, but the business

8:57

side of it. And I think this is a lot where a lot of people

9:00

will fail in the arts entertainment industry,

9:02

no question, because they don't have this three

9:04

sixty view of how to make

9:06

money, how every dollar will make money.

9:09

So was this you or did you start

9:11

to at some point realize you needed to hire people

9:13

on your team that could also

9:16

have that view and those abilities

9:18

for success.

9:19

Yeah, you touched on something really really key, especially

9:21

in the arts and entertainment industry. For

9:24

me, I always had an eye towards business because

9:26

that's what drove me to get into it. I had an

9:28

eye towards business, and all

9:30

the business principles that make

9:33

an industry work and in this case, entertainment,

9:36

and then I fell in love with storytelling.

9:38

That's what the superpower.

9:40

What I tell people is that if you really

9:42

are creatively driven, you want to be a director,

9:44

you want to be a writer, that's your passion, nothing

9:47

wrong with that, But then align yourself

9:50

with someone who has that

9:53

business acumen so that you

9:55

are not undercutting your

9:57

ability to tell a story, to write a script

10:00

because you don't understand or not

10:02

positioning.

10:03

Yourself in the best way from a business standpoint.

10:05

Have somebody on your team that

10:08

does have that skill set that that is the priority

10:10

for them. Partner with them so you can focus

10:12

on the own. But make no mistake, there

10:14

is no world where you're going to be

10:16

successful in business where you're not focused

10:19

on the.

10:20

Business principles that are necessary to

10:22

be successful.

10:23

Absolutely, absolutely, and I know you've

10:25

created a really Olympic

10:28

level team.

10:29

Yeah.

10:29

Looking back now, and we'll come back to money because

10:31

it's my favorite topic. But looking back

10:34

now, who were some of the key people through

10:36

this illustrious career that you

10:38

think could really helped elevate your brand,

10:40

your business and your success. Yeah.

10:42

No, question.

10:43

You're only as strong as your team, period. I

10:45

don't care who you are. I don't care you name the most

10:47

successful person in the world. They have an

10:49

incredible team around them. There are multiple

10:51

people. I go back to my days at FAM.

10:53

You and Rob Hardy, and he had the Dridsey. He

10:55

was kind of the creative guy, whereas I was

10:57

thinking about business and I was helping him to focus

10:59

on the art side of it because I

11:01

had my own business. And he was the one that said,

11:03

I want to be a director. I want to be the next

11:06

Spike Lee or Steven Spielberg,

11:08

right. That was his vision and so

11:11

I aligned with him. That was very helpful

11:13

and successful. The Hudland Brothers

11:15

they are, you know, a well

11:17

known famous African American movie

11:19

producers. They produce House.

11:21

Party in Boomerang.

11:22

Frankton and Reginald Hudland gave me

11:24

my first internship.

11:26

After I left FAM Youth.

11:27

That was the first time I was able to see how

11:29

a Hollywood movie was done firsthand,

11:32

because I had only done independent move up to that point.

11:34

I learned.

11:35

I was in there and I paid attention to what they

11:37

did. They were very instrumental. And then

11:39

when you think about after I got out

11:41

and I was doing my own projects

11:44

now, it was important for me to hire people

11:47

around me who understood the same

11:49

vision. Somebody very important in that process with Shayla

11:51

Cowen. Syla produced the Oscars

11:54

with me. A lot of people may know her name from that. She

11:56

is somebody that has been me a very long

11:58

time. The reason she's a great fit

12:00

for my companies because she has a strategic eye,

12:03

she thinks long term as well, and she's a very

12:05

very loyal supporter. In this industry,

12:07

you've got a lot of people. It's very cutthroat, right,

12:10

A lot of industries are. It's very aggressive,

12:12

very ambitious, and so what that means a lot of times

12:14

is that you have people that are just figuring out,

12:17

how can I do what I need to do for me? How

12:19

can I just do just enough in order to then

12:21

make my next move. There's not a lot of loyalty because

12:23

that's not typically rewarded in an entertainment

12:26

setting. But if you can find

12:28

people that are really good, really smart,

12:30

really strategic and loyal, now

12:32

you find somebody that you got a lining combination

12:34

that's an absolutely necessary and

12:37

winning combination for sure.

12:38

Tune in Fridays we conclude our conversation

12:41

with acclaimed film producer Will Packer.

12:43

Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we

12:45

helped you make your money move, please share it

12:47

with your community, subscribe and leave

12:50

us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts.

12:52

Follow us on social media at Greenwood

12:55

and visit us at Gogreenwood dot com

12:57

for more financial tips and

13:00

remember, money Movers. If this were easy, everyone

13:02

would do it. So take the lessons you've learned from

13:04

this episode and apply it to your life

13:07

until next time. Money

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