Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interview of the Week: Hollywood Super Producer Will Packer talks about the importance of HBCUs and earning more than $1 billion at the box office

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Interview of the Week: Hollywood Super Producer Will Packer talks about the importance of HBCUs and earning more than $1 billion at the box office · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions in ocasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.
0:17
Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
0:20
Speaker 1: decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's what
0:23
Speaker 1: he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from
0:25
Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here we come.
0:30
Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversation. I am your host, ra
0:32
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. It's just like I said every week, it's
0:35
Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories and start
0:38
Speaker 1: writing your own. If you have a gift, I always
0:40
Speaker 1: tell you to leave with your gift and don't let
0:42
Speaker 1: your age, friends, family, or co workers stop you from
0:45
Speaker 1: planning or living your dream. My interviews are doing money
0:48
Speaker 1: making conversations or with CEO, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and what I
0:52
Speaker 1: like to call industry decision makers. My next kiss is
0:55
Speaker 1: a celebrity. He's truly an interesting decision maker. His name
0:59
Speaker 1: is Will Packer. Will Packers an HPCU graduate of Family
1:03
Speaker 1: and holds a Bachelor of Science degree and electrical engineering.
1:06
Speaker 1: His company, Will Packer Production has produced films that have
1:09
Speaker 1: earned more than one billion dollars at the box office,
1:12
Speaker 1: and ten of those films have opened at number one,
1:14
Speaker 1: including Girls, Trip, Night School. Uh goodness, man, my movies.
1:19
Speaker 1: You think like a bad thing, like a bad to ride,
1:22
Speaker 1: a long ride long whoa obsessed breaking in stuff to y'all.
1:26
Speaker 1: Come on now he's on the children talking about HBCUTH
1:30
Speaker 1: changing your career, narrative, self promotion, and the many projects
1:33
Speaker 1: he is currently producing and have on his production schedule.
1:36
Speaker 1: Please working to money making conversation my man, Will Packer, Hey,
1:41
Speaker 1: what's happening? My friends? Well, I thank you man. You
1:45
Speaker 1: know our journey man has been an interesting one and
1:48
Speaker 1: uh you know for as your career and just seen
1:50
Speaker 1: you open up. But one thing I've always noticed about you,
1:53
Speaker 1: will you can kind of change the narrative as a producer.
1:56
Speaker 1: You've always been out front promoting what you do a
1:59
Speaker 1: long some of your projects, and it's really changing narrative
2:03
Speaker 1: because now everybody does it properly and I don't see
2:05
Speaker 1: nothing wrong because you really understood social media. From a
2:08
Speaker 1: producing standpoint as an individual, early on, what drove that
2:13
Speaker 1: you know, it's interest was Shane, You hit it on
2:15
Speaker 1: the head. Uh. Film and television has always been a
2:19
Speaker 1: director's meetium, and there's nothing wrong with that at all,
2:23
Speaker 1: but those typically were the only names that you knew,
2:26
Speaker 1: the stars, of course, and then the directors. Well, when
2:30
Speaker 1: I came in as a producer, I knew how important
2:33
Speaker 1: it was to connect with an ardience. And I'll be
2:35
Speaker 1: honest with you to Sean, that really started with my
2:38
Speaker 1: journey at FAMU because I made my first film project,
2:42
Speaker 1: which was Chocolate City, while I was still an undergraduate
2:47
Speaker 1: at FAMU, I was a junior. We shot Chocolate City,
2:50
Speaker 1: this a little bit movie. We didn't know, you know,
2:52
Speaker 1: what it was gonna do. We didn't really know what
2:55
Speaker 1: we were doing, to be honest with you, but we
2:56
Speaker 1: had a lot of dry a lot of passion, a
2:58
Speaker 1: lot of hustle, and in order for that film to
3:01
Speaker 1: be successful, I had to go out to my audience,
3:04
Speaker 1: my core audience, which at that time was my family
3:08
Speaker 1: peers that those are the only people that cared about
3:10
Speaker 1: that movie at that time. We tried to send into
3:13
Speaker 1: Hollywood and they sent it back and try to Big
3:16
Speaker 1: Friday and Sears, and they sent it back to try
3:19
Speaker 1: to send it the big actors. They didn't even have
3:20
Speaker 1: the courtesy to send it back to John. They but
3:24
Speaker 1: that's part of the journey. That's what it takes. And
3:27
Speaker 1: I realized I needed to go out and explained to
3:31
Speaker 1: that audience why they should care about this film. And
3:33
Speaker 1: that really started something that I still do to this day,
3:37
Speaker 1: which is going out and trying to touch people with
3:40
Speaker 1: every project that I had, trying to connect with people.
3:43
Speaker 1: Back in the days after Chocolate City, which was that
3:46
Speaker 1: first movie we shot at Fami You, we made a
3:49
Speaker 1: movie called Ta. And with Ta, we literally drove all
3:52
Speaker 1: around the country. We drove city to city to city.
3:56
Speaker 1: We rented a Ford Excursion, which which was a bad plan,
3:59
Speaker 1: I realized, not Sean, because it takes so much gas.
4:02
Speaker 1: It was a big gas We don't have any money,
4:04
Speaker 1: so we spent almost all our promotion money trying to
4:07
Speaker 1: fill up that big old truck. But that's what it took.
4:10
Speaker 1: And we went to each city and we would tell
4:12
Speaker 1: people we literally hand out flying We go to the mall,
4:15
Speaker 1: we go to the church, and we go to the club,
4:16
Speaker 1: wherever people were, and we'd say, please go see our movies,
4:19
Speaker 1: Please go see our movie. Well, a version of that
4:22
Speaker 1: is what we do and I still do to this day.
4:25
Speaker 1: Now we've got social media. You talk about this on
4:28
Speaker 1: your show with Sean. You've got to use the tools
4:30
Speaker 1: that you have access to. You've got to use the
4:32
Speaker 1: resources that are available to you. And so with the
4:36
Speaker 1: advent of the social media and the digital landscape expanding
4:40
Speaker 1: the way that it has, I knew that I didn't
4:42
Speaker 1: needed to use that aspect of my promotion, my grassroots
4:48
Speaker 1: hustle to connect with people, and so that's exactly what
4:50
Speaker 1: we did with some of those big movies that you named.
4:53
Speaker 1: But it really started right there on the campus and family,
4:55
Speaker 1: going and knocking on doors and trying to get people
4:58
Speaker 1: to care about the movie, getting them to understand it
5:01
Speaker 1: wasn't just something that was gonna be released, you know,
5:04
Speaker 1: on their campus and maybe they go, maybe they don't.
5:06
Speaker 1: I was going around telling people you have to go
5:09
Speaker 1: see this movie, and a version of that is what
5:11
Speaker 1: I still do to this day, do it very well now.
5:13
Speaker 1: But your electrical engineer, that was your degree plan. Okay, now, okay,
5:18
Speaker 1: it's really interesting because I always tell people, like, you know,
5:21
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a stand up. I got my
5:22
Speaker 1: degree in mathematics, my mind and sociology. Just because I
5:25
Speaker 1: wanted to go in that direction didn't mean I needed
5:27
Speaker 1: to change my degree plan. And I think it's really impressive,
5:31
Speaker 1: and I know you get the reaction. I get what
5:33
Speaker 1: I tell people by degrees in mathematics. When you tell
5:36
Speaker 1: people your electrical engineer, they always go huh. And then
5:40
Speaker 1: but they said, but they said in a good way
5:42
Speaker 1: because they're stunned because they know how difficult it is
5:44
Speaker 1: to achieve, because you was an undergraduate as well, and
5:47
Speaker 1: they degree plan. So let's talk about that now. You know,
5:51
Speaker 1: I left my job, I left, I graduated math, I
5:54
Speaker 1: went to work for IBM, so everything was normal, and
5:57
Speaker 1: then I went and pursue my career as a stand up.
5:59
Speaker 1: Coming you left college with your electrical engineer honors graduate
6:04
Speaker 1: and pursued a Hollywood career. What do people think that
6:09
Speaker 1: I was crazy? The same thing they thought about you.
6:12
Speaker 1: You know that when you left a good stable, corporate
6:15
Speaker 1: gig to chase your dream and your passion, They said,
6:18
Speaker 1: what are you doing? You know Hollywood? You know, we
6:20
Speaker 1: didn't know where Hollywood was We didn't have a lot
6:22
Speaker 1: of uh, Hollywood connections. We didn't have you know, big
6:25
Speaker 1: money and resources and all that. So people thought it
6:28
Speaker 1: was fanciful. They thought that I was just chasing a
6:31
Speaker 1: dream that was unlikely to ever be realized. But one
6:35
Speaker 1: thing about about dreamers, and you notice Rashane, is that
6:38
Speaker 1: your dream is your dream. Nobody else has it. Don't
6:40
Speaker 1: give anybody else power over your dream. Nobody owns it
6:43
Speaker 1: but you. And until you say that the dream is over,
6:45
Speaker 1: until you say that the dream is dead, until you
6:47
Speaker 1: say that the dream is deferred, it's not because as
6:49
Speaker 1: long as you still believe in it, it's still got
6:52
Speaker 1: a possibility of happening. And so um, I yes, graduated
6:56
Speaker 1: magnicum laude with a degree in electrical engineering. And I
6:59
Speaker 1: got into electric engineering because I was strong in math
7:02
Speaker 1: and science when I was coming up in high school
7:04
Speaker 1: and got a scholarship to attend fam you in engineering.
7:08
Speaker 1: So that's kind of helped to shape that path because
7:11
Speaker 1: I wanted to go. At the time that I first
7:13
Speaker 1: went into college, I didn't know that I was gonna
7:15
Speaker 1: be a filmmaker. I thought I was just going to
7:17
Speaker 1: be an entrepreneur. That was. I knew that was my passion,
7:19
Speaker 1: and I wanted to go to an Ivy League school,
7:22
Speaker 1: but they weren't offering me a single dime and you
7:26
Speaker 1: was offering me a big old scholarship to be in
7:29
Speaker 1: their engineering program. So my parents said, guess where you're going.
7:33
Speaker 1: I said, I guess it won't be the IVY. They said,
7:35
Speaker 1: you damn right, and so they sent me the FAMI You.
7:38
Speaker 1: The decision was made for me, and it was the
7:41
Speaker 1: best decision ever. And I took that a ran with
7:43
Speaker 1: it much like you did. Right, I had that solid foundation.
7:46
Speaker 1: A lot of people, um, I think, underestimate the value
7:49
Speaker 1: of having that solid degree that you had that I have,
7:53
Speaker 1: Like you know, if if nothing else, I did have
7:55
Speaker 1: that to fall back on, and it forced me to
7:57
Speaker 1: work hard. You work hard to get a degree in math.
7:59
Speaker 1: I work hard to get a degree electrical engineering, especially
8:02
Speaker 1: graduating mad nicomb laude. But that work also helped to
8:06
Speaker 1: hone and shape my work ethic and the way that
8:09
Speaker 1: I approached projects even today. So I always tell people,
8:12
Speaker 1: even if you're not in a field, in a position
8:15
Speaker 1: that ultimately you want to be in for the rest
8:17
Speaker 1: of your life, it's still you. Your name is still
8:19
Speaker 1: all the people are watching you that you don't even
8:21
Speaker 1: know always give a hundred ten percent. Well that's key,
8:24
Speaker 1: that's key, and that I guess that transitions to people
8:27
Speaker 1: don't know you, but they still believe in your brain.
8:29
Speaker 1: That that kind of like our relationship. I was Steve Harvey. Now,
8:33
Speaker 1: I was on Steve Harvard Morning Show and this movie
8:37
Speaker 1: Stump the Yard came out and I and Steve Harvy
8:40
Speaker 1: and I we we would act well, I formade allow
8:43
Speaker 1: us to talk to all the black people in America
8:45
Speaker 1: wherefrom we felt, you know, we're talking to all the
8:46
Speaker 1: black people with number one more than shore in the country.
8:49
Speaker 1: And I told Steve as to Steve, let's make this movie.
8:52
Speaker 1: Let's really put some effort. Nobody made a media by,
8:55
Speaker 1: Nobody made a media by. But I said, we gotta
8:57
Speaker 1: start supporting because Steve as the ability and he had
9:01
Speaker 1: such a loyal and passionate fan base. I said, let's
9:04
Speaker 1: drive this movie. Let's let's push this movie and make
9:07
Speaker 1: it number one. And I didn't even know you just
9:09
Speaker 1: felt that black projects at that time, especially your movie.
9:13
Speaker 1: And it was about fraternity these it was about hbcuth School.
9:16
Speaker 1: It was hit, it hit all of the uh, the
9:19
Speaker 1: points that I wanted to support, and it became number one,
9:22
Speaker 1: and unknowingly that was a really a strong lynch point
9:26
Speaker 1: pen to launching your brand. Correct. Well, listen, it's it's
9:32
Speaker 1: what you saw was potential in a young black filmmaker
9:37
Speaker 1: that you didn't know. You saw a project that had
9:39
Speaker 1: the right themes and the right elements that needed to
9:43
Speaker 1: be out there, right, and you supported. You use your
9:47
Speaker 1: platform that you were associated with at that time to
9:50
Speaker 1: help elevate it. That's what we can all do every day,
9:54
Speaker 1: the projects that you see a lot of people sit
9:57
Speaker 1: back and talk about stuff, right, you know all we
9:59
Speaker 1: should There should be more movies like this, more content
10:01
Speaker 1: like this, more more politicians like this. But you have
10:04
Speaker 1: the power. Are you putting your brand your money? And
10:07
Speaker 1: I don't mean you have to be Rushy McDonald or
10:09
Speaker 1: even wild Pata, right, you can just be somebody at home.
10:12
Speaker 1: You're voting with your dollars, you're voting with your clicks,
10:14
Speaker 1: you're voting with you at the balance box, literally voting.
10:18
Speaker 1: But people don't utilize their power enough. So you use
10:21
Speaker 1: your platform, which helped to elevate what we were trying
10:24
Speaker 1: to do. And if it weren't for people like yourself
10:27
Speaker 1: and others that came in and said, we're gonna go
10:29
Speaker 1: and support this movie. Right, this is the type. So
10:32
Speaker 1: these are the types of stories that we want to
10:34
Speaker 1: see on the big screen. There's no way we would
10:36
Speaker 1: have been number one movie in the country for two
10:38
Speaker 1: weeks in a row. As a matter of fact, that
10:40
Speaker 1: was because people came out and supported that movie. And
10:43
Speaker 1: so I try to make sure that people realize you
10:45
Speaker 1: still have that power today. You don't have to be
10:48
Speaker 1: some big celebrity figure. You got a network. Whoever you are.
10:52
Speaker 1: You've got people that you talk to. I don't care
10:53
Speaker 1: if it's that the Nelson Line, barbershop, online, Twitter, whatever
10:56
Speaker 1: it is. You're talking to people. You're connecting with people.
10:59
Speaker 1: How are you using during network? How are you using
11:02
Speaker 1: your own personal plant? Well, you know that you have
11:05
Speaker 1: a highlight ability, and that's really important. I remember that
11:08
Speaker 1: when Steve Harvey book blew up. Act like a lady,
11:11
Speaker 1: think like a man, and uh I remember Oprah came
11:14
Speaker 1: to us about a book opportunity or uh screen Jims
11:17
Speaker 1: came to the opportunity. We all said no. And then
11:20
Speaker 1: this black dude who I had never met, my knife name.
11:23
Speaker 1: Will Packer called me say hey, man, let's talk. Let's talk,
11:28
Speaker 1: and flew down to Dallas, would be a Steve and
11:33
Speaker 1: drove around and convinced us, man that that's a skill.
11:36
Speaker 1: Will you know that's that's a skill, because I say, no, easy,
11:40
Speaker 1: real easy. And but you have learned to be able
11:43
Speaker 1: to disseminate the positive and why this will work, and
11:46
Speaker 1: even because you know we will now gonun till everybody
11:49
Speaker 1: Steve and I've envisioned this to be a white cast,
11:52
Speaker 1: and you said no, Racheane, I got this guy named
11:55
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart, and I really didn't know Kevin Hart like
11:58
Speaker 1: you knew Kevin Hart. You know you you for sard
12:00
Speaker 1: this guy, he's the next, next one. He's the next,
12:02
Speaker 1: I said, I said, Steve, He's gonna Steve, Steve being Steve.
12:06
Speaker 1: Harp I said he wants Kevin Hard to start it.
12:09
Speaker 1: I said he Steves, Okay, Kevin Hard? Huh? I said, yeah,
12:14
Speaker 1: he said he's the one, and so we trusted you
12:16
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. How do you see talent
12:19
Speaker 1: like that? And because that's what's happening to all your movies,
12:22
Speaker 1: all your problem. You're not number one by accident you
12:25
Speaker 1: have a skill to be able to see talent and
12:27
Speaker 1: cast it along with great storylines. Talk to us about that. Well.
12:31
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. I appreciate you saying the average tie,
12:34
Speaker 1: but I also want to give give some love back
12:35
Speaker 1: to you because if you don't take that call, right,
12:38
Speaker 1: you had a lot of people that were calling you,
12:40
Speaker 1: trying to get into your universe, trying to get on
12:42
Speaker 1: there with you and Steve and being you guys world.
12:44
Speaker 1: But you took the call and you gave me an opportunity,
12:47
Speaker 1: and I really do appreciate that. Brother. I want to
12:49
Speaker 1: I want to say that, you know, in front of everybody,
12:51
Speaker 1: because if you don't have that opportunity, if I don't
12:54
Speaker 1: have somebody like you that that takes that call, uh,
12:57
Speaker 1: it makes it so much harder for me to get
12:59
Speaker 1: to that next level. And that's basically what I'm doing.
13:02
Speaker 1: When it comes to talent like like Kevin hard or
13:05
Speaker 1: or or address Elba Tippety hates. Some people I'm very
13:08
Speaker 1: proud to have have worked with on some of their
13:10
Speaker 1: early projects that kind of launched them into into superstardom.
13:15
Speaker 1: They've got the talent, right, It's not that that you know, um,
13:19
Speaker 1: I've had anything to do with Kevin's talent, even amazing
13:23
Speaker 1: comedian and actor saying with Tiffany saying with interest in
13:25
Speaker 1: their own rights and other people that I've worked with,
13:28
Speaker 1: But I did have a platform, right, I had the
13:31
Speaker 1: movie that at that time was a foundation for them
13:35
Speaker 1: to be a launching path for their careers. I'm very
13:37
Speaker 1: proud of them. But I gotta be able to take
13:39
Speaker 1: the call right like you took the call. And I
13:42
Speaker 1: also do have to be able to ascertain who I
13:45
Speaker 1: think has got talent that is I'm gonna call it
13:49
Speaker 1: big screen worthy for the purposes of this conversation, Right, everybody,
13:53
Speaker 1: there's some great talent out there that work really well
13:56
Speaker 1: on say Instagram or or on TikTok, and everybody is
14:00
Speaker 1: not set up to be the star of a big
14:03
Speaker 1: television show or a big movie. You do have to
14:06
Speaker 1: and this is something that I've phoned over the years.
14:08
Speaker 1: You do have to be able to ascertain whether or
14:11
Speaker 1: not talent has something that is transferable, because all talent
14:14
Speaker 1: is not. But Kevin, for instance, would think like a man,
14:18
Speaker 1: he definitely had a transferable skill set. And you aren't
14:20
Speaker 1: the only one that was saying, you know, who's Kevin
14:22
Speaker 1: Hart was the big deal. All the Hollywood was saying,
14:27
Speaker 1: trust me, like there was you know, there were not
14:29
Speaker 1: a lot of people knocking down Kevin Thor because he
14:32
Speaker 1: had some products that had come out before that that
14:33
Speaker 1: had failed, right, they were not successful. So people felt like,
14:37
Speaker 1: we know Kevin Hart, and we know what the ceiling
14:40
Speaker 1: of his talent is and it's not very high. Whereas
14:43
Speaker 1: I felt like that's not true. He was having a
14:46
Speaker 1: moment at that time. People were really connecting with him,
14:50
Speaker 1: and I felt like if he just had the right platform,
14:52
Speaker 1: he could take it to the next level. So that
14:55
Speaker 1: mirror is the story that you told about how you
14:57
Speaker 1: know when you and Steve allowed me to come down
14:59
Speaker 1: to Dallas and pity the movie, It's the same thing.
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Speaker 1: c l A. They would immediately throw you in the
17:25
Speaker 1: because that's what you're supposed to be coming from, according
17:26
Speaker 1: to the industry, according to perception. But you're an HBCU
17:30
Speaker 1: grad tell us, Wow, the difference that made in your
17:34
Speaker 1: life and how you caring at that mantra, Let everybody
17:37
Speaker 1: know the quality of education and opportunity that is being
17:40
Speaker 1: presented to African Americans or people of color are those
17:43
Speaker 1: schools and they're changing the landscape of America. Education at
17:48
Speaker 1: the highest levels. And that's the thing that UM sometimes people,
17:53
Speaker 1: even black people, uh don't realize and give hbc USE
17:57
Speaker 1: enough credit for it is education at the highest level.
18:00
Speaker 1: More importantly though, because you can get a great education
18:03
Speaker 1: at a lot of different places. What you don't get
18:06
Speaker 1: is the sense of community that creates a Kamala Harris,
18:10
Speaker 1: that creates a Will Packer, that creates an Oprah Winfrey,
18:13
Speaker 1: that creates a Spike Lee, that creates so many folks
18:16
Speaker 1: that have come out of these h b c U
18:17
Speaker 1: s and going on to greatness. There's a sense of community.
18:21
Speaker 1: There's a feeling of you are good enough, you are
18:24
Speaker 1: important enough, and a a pressure that is in the
18:28
Speaker 1: best way to push you to get to the next level. See,
18:31
Speaker 1: I was somebody that had taken advantage of the fact
18:33
Speaker 1: that I was very often the only black kid in
18:36
Speaker 1: the honors classes and the ap classes. UM at my
18:39
Speaker 1: high school because I I grew up in St. Pete, Florida,
18:42
Speaker 1: and my high school was only temper cent black, and
18:45
Speaker 1: so often times I was the only kid in the
18:47
Speaker 1: honors class. I got a lot of attention, right, And
18:49
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of the white kids and white
18:51
Speaker 1: teachers and administrators, frankly who underestimated me. And I was
18:54
Speaker 1: savvy enough and strategic enough to take advantage of that
18:57
Speaker 1: when when I went to fail, they weren't impressed the
19:00
Speaker 1: like we all came from honest class, right, we all
19:03
Speaker 1: know how to talk to talk like you know how
19:04
Speaker 1: to talk, Will Pack, We're not impressed by you. You
19:06
Speaker 1: gotta do more, You gotta do something else to make
19:09
Speaker 1: yourself stand out. And it really honed the skills that
19:12
Speaker 1: I use today being pitching a movie or selling a project,
19:16
Speaker 1: or like you talked about the likability factor, trying to
19:18
Speaker 1: get people to support what it is that I'm doing.
19:20
Speaker 1: I learned all of that at family. So I'm a
19:23
Speaker 1: big proponent of family and and HBCUs in general. And
19:27
Speaker 1: the thing I think people don't realize is that they're
19:29
Speaker 1: not monolithic, and they are truly a pipeline. So many
19:33
Speaker 1: of our professionals, I don't care if you're talking about
19:36
Speaker 1: entertainment industry, Um, the stock market, doctors, teachers, pharmacists, so
19:42
Speaker 1: many of them come from HBC s. The pipeline is unquestionable,
19:47
Speaker 1: unquestioned and unmatched. Right, it really is? It really is? Now.
19:51
Speaker 1: You know you've revery lately on TV become a relationship man.
19:54
Speaker 1: You know you've been our match maker key now you
19:56
Speaker 1: know Peter ring on it and got my board and
19:58
Speaker 1: nephew Tommy hosted Ready to Love on Own. Now, how
20:02
Speaker 1: you how you become? How you get it to the
20:04
Speaker 1: relationship game? I know, Thinking Like a Man, But that
20:07
Speaker 1: was just a movie there. But now you've become a
20:08
Speaker 1: relationship king, the black relationship king on TV. Talk to
20:13
Speaker 1: us about that? Will I like how that sound? But
20:16
Speaker 1: I take that. I'll wear that. I wear that crowd. Uh,
20:19
Speaker 1: you know, I think it was an opportunity, man, opportunity
20:22
Speaker 1: that honestly really did start with Things Like a Man.
20:24
Speaker 1: Thing Like a Man was the first relationship movie that
20:27
Speaker 1: I did that really was big and Uh it started
20:31
Speaker 1: with the conversation frankly with Oprah. I have a relationship
20:35
Speaker 1: with Own and with Discovery, who is the parent company
20:39
Speaker 1: that that owns owned along with Oprah and I sat Uh.
20:43
Speaker 1: I went to to Oprah's house, promising man and talk
20:46
Speaker 1: to her about what I thought was missing. That's what
20:48
Speaker 1: she asked me, where are the opportunities on my network?
20:52
Speaker 1: What is missing? And I said, one of the first
20:54
Speaker 1: things I said, I pitched a couple shows, but one
20:56
Speaker 1: of the first ones was I said, you know, where
20:58
Speaker 1: are the grown freaking American dating show? I said, It's
21:03
Speaker 1: one thing if you've got people that are dating in
21:05
Speaker 1: their twenties, but you don't really know what you want
21:07
Speaker 1: when in your twenties, you know, you're just figuring out,
21:09
Speaker 1: you're learning, and you know, all of us have been
21:12
Speaker 1: through relationships in our twenties and if it lasted, god
21:14
Speaker 1: bless you, right, but a lot of us we don't
21:17
Speaker 1: figure it out until again into our thirties and forties.
21:19
Speaker 1: And so I said, let's do something that it's for
21:21
Speaker 1: your audience, which owns audience is grown funds, right, it
21:25
Speaker 1: is primarily you know, forty plus African Americans, I said,
21:29
Speaker 1: day dating. They're trying to figure it out that coming
21:31
Speaker 1: out of a relationship, that coming out marriages, some of
21:34
Speaker 1: them got kids. What does that look like? And so, yeah,
21:37
Speaker 1: I got your guy in Nephew Tommy and Um, we
21:40
Speaker 1: actually have the number one show on Friday nights and
21:42
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of it's called Rady Love Man, and
21:45
Speaker 1: it's it's doing big things for us. When the beauty
21:47
Speaker 1: of it is that I remember just transitioning um to
21:50
Speaker 1: another great black film director and produces, Tyler Perry. And
21:54
Speaker 1: Tyler Perry was talking about you know, he had called
21:57
Speaker 1: people when he cast him a lot of time and
21:59
Speaker 1: when they kicked as to this project, he'll call him
22:02
Speaker 1: and and and you know a lot of them don't
22:04
Speaker 1: think it's a prank phone call. Not really. I was
22:06
Speaker 1: talking to interview and Nefew talking me. He said, when
22:08
Speaker 1: you called him about Ready to Love, he thought he
22:10
Speaker 1: was being prank because he's the king up ranks. So
22:13
Speaker 1: so where does it get now when you make the
22:15
Speaker 1: phone call? Where Because I know you make the call
22:17
Speaker 1: and tell people, and it's a blessing to tell people
22:20
Speaker 1: they've been cast in different projects. When you started noticing
22:23
Speaker 1: the turn, because at first you're just doing your job
22:25
Speaker 1: and just happy. But you're Will Packer, you are a brand.
22:28
Speaker 1: You are in some ways, let's be honest, a career
22:30
Speaker 1: maker because you can put people in leaving roads, your boxer,
22:34
Speaker 1: box office, a star. So that phone call that you make,
22:38
Speaker 1: now it's a little bit different. Now the talent, isn't
22:40
Speaker 1: it different? You're right, and I appreciated saying every shot
22:43
Speaker 1: it is. Uh. It feels good to be in a
22:45
Speaker 1: position to get people opportunities because you're talking about folks
22:50
Speaker 1: that have worked very, very hard to get in the
22:53
Speaker 1: position that they're in to be noticed by someone like
22:56
Speaker 1: Will Packer, who has a platform, who has a show,
22:59
Speaker 1: who has a movie, right, and so you've worked hard
23:02
Speaker 1: to get yourself in that position. When you do get
23:04
Speaker 1: that call, it's amazing. It's nothing like it. It's a
23:07
Speaker 1: true validation not only of the work you put in,
23:10
Speaker 1: but of your talent, because I can't hire everybody that
23:13
Speaker 1: works hard. A lot of people work hard, but you
23:16
Speaker 1: gotta work hard. You gotta have the talent. You gotta
23:20
Speaker 1: have them both and be focused and be persistent, because
23:23
Speaker 1: you can be talented and working hard and still not
23:25
Speaker 1: get a call from a Will Packer, Tyler Perry, anybody.
23:28
Speaker 1: It's very possible, right, But if you are focused and persistent,
23:32
Speaker 1: you keep working, and if you've got that talent, you
23:34
Speaker 1: just keep getting better and better and better. I think
23:37
Speaker 1: I am a big believer that the opportunity will present
23:40
Speaker 1: itself and then it's on you to take advantage when
23:42
Speaker 1: you have that moment. Don't let that moment pass you by.
23:44
Speaker 1: And see that sometimes too, Rashan, I see people that, um,
23:48
Speaker 1: they're not ready when the opportunity presents itself, right, maybe
23:51
Speaker 1: not mature enough, maybe not focused enough. Um. And that's
23:55
Speaker 1: unfortunate because you don't know how many of those shots
23:57
Speaker 1: you're gonna get. When you get that shot, you take it,
23:59
Speaker 1: you take it, you go for you run with it,
24:00
Speaker 1: and never let it go. That's what somebody like a
24:02
Speaker 1: Kevin Hard or Tivity hass. You know, I really appreciate that.
24:06
Speaker 1: But also the reason I love talking to you because
24:09
Speaker 1: you know, we we can laugh at each other and
24:11
Speaker 1: tease each other. Tell you somethingbody will see. Well well,
24:14
Speaker 1: well you know he threw He threw out the conversation
24:16
Speaker 1: during this interview like it was no big deal. Well,
24:18
Speaker 1: you know, Oprah asked me, what do you think what's
24:21
Speaker 1: missing on my network? Oprah asked me, Now you know, well,
24:25
Speaker 1: where do you get to the point in your life
24:27
Speaker 1: that Oprah asked anybody asked you, and you're like where
24:32
Speaker 1: I think, Oprah, you know, can you give me a
24:34
Speaker 1: glass of wine? And you that was a little bit
24:42
Speaker 1: of a name that has a big name. That's a
24:45
Speaker 1: period there black woman, Okay, who is defined blackness for
24:50
Speaker 1: us all the last twenty years of our life. But
24:53
Speaker 1: you're sitting right there now. Will, when we see so
24:56
Speaker 1: many elegant African Americans in the in tame at business
25:01
Speaker 1: that are getting deals, that are getting that being being
25:05
Speaker 1: recognized for the black culture is now being viable and
25:08
Speaker 1: it's not on the streaming networks but the film and
25:12
Speaker 1: network television that has to make you feel good, will
25:15
Speaker 1: question now because in fact makes me feel good to
25:17
Speaker 1: be a part of it. Right, Um, I am now
25:20
Speaker 1: looking at another generation coming up behind me. This everything
25:25
Speaker 1: runs in cycles, and the film industry is no different.
25:28
Speaker 1: And so when I was coming up, I was able
25:29
Speaker 1: to look at people like Spike Lee, like the Huddling Brothers,
25:32
Speaker 1: like the Huge Brothers. These were filmmakers that John Singleton
25:35
Speaker 1: god Bess is Soul. These were people that were making
25:38
Speaker 1: movies when I was trying to get in Robert Town's
25:40
Speaker 1: and I would look at them and say, bad, I'm
25:42
Speaker 1: just trying to do what they're doing. Right. I got
25:44
Speaker 1: my shot, and I've been very blessed and very fortunate
25:47
Speaker 1: to have a lot of success within that industry. Now
25:49
Speaker 1: when I look at this new prop of filmmakers that's
25:52
Speaker 1: coming up, I see this cycle, I see this new wave,
25:54
Speaker 1: and it's so man, it is so um. It's really
25:58
Speaker 1: validating the Sean. I'll be honest with you because it
26:00
Speaker 1: feels like, Okay, the work that I put in, laid
26:03
Speaker 1: the pack, laid the foundation, and and put in the
26:06
Speaker 1: groundwork so that this next generation can come in and
26:10
Speaker 1: I hope surpass everything you know that I've ever done.
26:12
Speaker 1: I got ten number ones. I hope someday that somebody
26:15
Speaker 1: with twenty number ones at the box office. Box office
26:17
Speaker 1: a little bit different now, you know the way that
26:19
Speaker 1: they do. You know, everything is on streaming, so we'll
26:21
Speaker 1: see that that record might stand for a while. But
26:24
Speaker 1: the point is that there are a lot a lot
26:26
Speaker 1: of new African American filmmakers that have a chance to
26:29
Speaker 1: tell their stories. And I'm hopeful that my success because
26:33
Speaker 1: this industry is all my success. Right, somebody has a
26:35
Speaker 1: big movie, makes a bunch of money, Hollywood wants the
26:38
Speaker 1: next who else can do what they do. You know,
26:40
Speaker 1: give us the next you know Ryan Kubin right, give
26:43
Speaker 1: us the next Shaka King, you know Judice in the
26:45
Speaker 1: Black mass side, Give us the next whoever it is. Well,
26:48
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that Will Packer made some of the folks
26:51
Speaker 1: in the industry say, we need another World pack We
26:54
Speaker 1: need to work with some more black producers, because they
26:56
Speaker 1: can be successful the way that Will Packer was and that, honestly,
27:00
Speaker 1: that's legacy, and that's really what you're doing for. Honestly,
27:03
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, that's what I'm most
27:04
Speaker 1: proud of my life. Well, I've always been most proud
27:07
Speaker 1: of the fact that you understood value because you understood
27:11
Speaker 1: Rashaan number one. I remember when we were after we
27:14
Speaker 1: did think like a man. We were talking on the
27:15
Speaker 1: phone and you go, here, Rashan, uh put a little
27:18
Speaker 1: extra juice on this one, you know, because y'all hype
27:20
Speaker 1: it up. It's a little bit more because I want
27:21
Speaker 1: to be number one. You knew as far as your brand,
27:24
Speaker 1: by hanging on to that mantro or releasing number ones,
27:28
Speaker 1: it would pay off down the line. And it's like
27:30
Speaker 1: I said, ten, that is nothing that Well, let me
27:33
Speaker 1: tell yourself. Never been done before. Okay, white or black,
27:37
Speaker 1: never been done before, and so but you always have
27:40
Speaker 1: a vision about that. Now that leads to these upcoming
27:43
Speaker 1: projects that you have coming out ed Universal and then
27:46
Speaker 1: you're also developed a Doug Williams bio pick. Talk about
27:48
Speaker 1: the upcoming projects and the podcast that you have rolling
27:51
Speaker 1: out again, the will Pack of brand. You know what,
27:54
Speaker 1: First of all, I got an amazing team around me, Rashan,
27:56
Speaker 1: and I want everybody listening to this to know that, like,
27:58
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you're only as strong
28:00
Speaker 1: as your team. Right, it's it's my name is at
28:02
Speaker 1: the top of the of the company letterhead and all
28:05
Speaker 1: of that. But at the end of the day, I
28:06
Speaker 1: got good people around me. And so as you're looking
28:09
Speaker 1: to build yourself up and and do what we've talked
28:12
Speaker 1: about in this interview, make sure you've got to write
28:14
Speaker 1: people around you. Uh. And we're busy, man, we are busy.
28:18
Speaker 1: We we announced an a podcast deal with My Heart.
28:22
Speaker 1: As you know, um one of the the major, the
28:25
Speaker 1: biggest in terms of podcasting, but one of the major
28:27
Speaker 1: audio services that are out there. So we're doing podcast
28:31
Speaker 1: We've got one dropping this summer. It's a narrative podcast.
28:34
Speaker 1: So it literally is us getting a chance to develop
28:37
Speaker 1: stuff which may turn out to be a movie or
28:39
Speaker 1: a television show later, but it's starting off in the
28:41
Speaker 1: podcast format. Um, I'm going to shoot with in yourselvil,
28:45
Speaker 1: who we talked about, uh this summer. I've got a
28:48
Speaker 1: movie called Beast that I'm excited about it in yourselvid,
28:51
Speaker 1: he's he's uh he's trapped in the jungle with a
28:54
Speaker 1: man eating lighting, a man eating lion chasing him and
28:57
Speaker 1: his family. Now, so that's excuse me, fun escapeists fair. Um,
29:02
Speaker 1: so that's good. And then we've got um a television
29:05
Speaker 1: show called Bigger, which is airing on BT Plus right now.
29:09
Speaker 1: Uh So, if you don't have BT Plus, check it out,
29:11
Speaker 1: go stream at. Tyler Perry has uh all his content
29:14
Speaker 1: on BT Plus. This show is called Bigger, is fun,
29:17
Speaker 1: sexy comedy has grown now it's definitely grown a little
29:20
Speaker 1: bit edgy. Uh you you were myra shot It's it's good. Uh.
29:25
Speaker 1: Then of course you talked about Rady Love on Friday Nights.
29:28
Speaker 1: I got another relationship show called put a Ring on
29:30
Speaker 1: It about couples that have been dating for a very
29:32
Speaker 1: long time but have never gotten married and they do
29:35
Speaker 1: the social experiment where they see what would happen if
29:38
Speaker 1: you allow your significant other to date someone else for
29:42
Speaker 1: thirty days? What happens and at the end of those
29:46
Speaker 1: dirty days does it make your relationship stronger? Does it
29:50
Speaker 1: tear it apart? So that one was called put a
29:52
Speaker 1: ring on it? And that was a yeah man, that
29:55
Speaker 1: that was. That was over his face when I pitched
29:56
Speaker 1: her that one too, exactly. Just you say, you're trying
29:59
Speaker 1: to get people in trouble. So we're busy, busy, got
30:03
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff happening, and you've got Now you've
30:06
Speaker 1: got Doun Williams. God tell us about Doun Williams to
30:08
Speaker 1: day Williams Man, absolutely listen. We talked about hbc U,
30:12
Speaker 1: we talked about overcoming adversity. He is the epitome, the
30:15
Speaker 1: tru personification of that. Doug Williams first black quarterback ever
30:21
Speaker 1: to win a Super Bowl, Super Bowl m v P UM,
30:24
Speaker 1: a personal hero of mine. We're actually doing his story, Rashan,
30:27
Speaker 1: thank you for bringing that up. We're doing his story
30:30
Speaker 1: as a big screen biopic, um, and he deserves the
30:35
Speaker 1: big screen telling. He is the precursor to Russell with
30:39
Speaker 1: Wilson and Patrick Mahomes and Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson
30:42
Speaker 1: and Colin Kaepernick. He was the first one to go
30:45
Speaker 1: out and succeed at the highest levels through all the adversity,
30:49
Speaker 1: because you know how it is. He had a lot
30:51
Speaker 1: of folks that were rooting against him and said, you
30:53
Speaker 1: can't do it as a black quarterback. You're not smart enough,
30:55
Speaker 1: you don't have what it takes, you don't have the leadership.
30:57
Speaker 1: But he did, and he went out and on and
31:00
Speaker 1: so we're gonna tell his store and give him the
31:01
Speaker 1: big screen treatment. I'm very excited about that. Well, well, well,
31:05
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time to come on Money
31:07
Speaker 1: Making Conversations man, your special brother, and I appreciate you,
31:11
Speaker 1: and you know coming to me, I'm always going to
31:13
Speaker 1: promote what you gotta say, even when I know you
31:15
Speaker 1: and I don't know connecte. I appreciate you, my friend.
31:20
Speaker 1: All love brother. Thank you, And if you want to
31:23
Speaker 1: see any of the interviews are here in the interviews
31:25
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations, please go to money Making Conversation
31:28
Speaker 1: dot com on my YouTube channel. I'm with Sean McDonald.
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