Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Dante Simpson, Co-Founder of ESPAT, reacts to working with Keanu Reeves & Ridley Scott

Transcript

Dante Simpson, Co-Founder of ESPAT, reacts to working with Keanu Reeves & Ridley Scott · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
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0:34
Speaker 1: everybody travels a different path to success. Please understand that
0:38
Speaker 1: because your brand is different and their brand is different.
0:40
Speaker 1: Where they live is different, what they eat is different,
0:42
Speaker 1: what they make is different. So the challenge you face
0:45
Speaker 1: in life are going to be different. So you need
0:47
Speaker 1: to stop reading other people's success stories in order to
0:49
Speaker 1: write your own. Now you can be motivated by their success.
0:52
Speaker 1: I want you to. I want you to read their
0:54
Speaker 1: stories because they can offer you direction to help you
0:56
Speaker 1: reach your goals. But it is your planning and your
0:58
Speaker 1: committed effort that's gonna get you there. My next guest
1:01
Speaker 1: is Dante Simpson. He's the co founder and CEO of
1:04
Speaker 1: Eats bat TV, a premium e sports gaming contest agency,
1:08
Speaker 1: content agency and studio seamlessly integrating the audience into cultural conversations.
1:13
Speaker 1: East bad TV is a collaboration made up the world's
1:15
Speaker 1: most recognizable production studios led by Ridley Scott Creative Group
1:19
Speaker 1: and p r G. He he also oversees the rapid
1:22
Speaker 1: growth and the expansion of the organization as well as
1:25
Speaker 1: provide consult concentration to the company's global perspective. His work
1:29
Speaker 1: expands global gaming interests, branding entities, high profile influences. That's
1:33
Speaker 1: me both on content, technical production and campaign matters. Please
1:37
Speaker 1: work for the money making conversation, Mr. He's bad TV himself,
1:41
Speaker 1: Dote Simpson, Hey, Dante, thank you so much for having me.
1:45
Speaker 1: While that sounded like a lot, maybe something a little
1:47
Speaker 1: special there, something you do when you get to Ridley
1:52
Speaker 1: Scott you kind of slow down right there. You know
1:54
Speaker 1: you gotta slow down. We get the Ridley Scott. I'm
1:56
Speaker 1: just gonna let you know that. Now, slow it down
1:58
Speaker 1: on Ridley Scott because people need to know your relationships
2:01
Speaker 1: from a production standpoint and also from a creative creative
2:04
Speaker 1: standpoint before we get to release. Scott, tell everybody what
2:07
Speaker 1: East East Bat is. Sure, um East Bat is combined
2:12
Speaker 1: with two different businesses. We have a licensed side of business.
2:15
Speaker 1: I want you to think of Getty Images. We license
2:18
Speaker 1: out photos. So if you watch somebody, if you watch
2:21
Speaker 1: Lebron do an amazing dunk, for example for the Lakers,
2:24
Speaker 1: and somebody captures that photo and you see it in
2:26
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated or on ESPN, that's something that for example
2:30
Speaker 1: Getty or Associated Press, mister, you do that exact same
2:34
Speaker 1: thing in the video game industry. So we are the
2:37
Speaker 1: only of our type that concentrates on licensed content. On
2:41
Speaker 1: the license side of business, I have the pleasure of
2:44
Speaker 1: heading up TV. Um So TV does more than just
2:48
Speaker 1: that transactional business. We are actually the home of the
2:51
Speaker 1: creatives um So premium content. I'll give you an example
2:56
Speaker 1: of what that means and I'll just kind of toss
2:57
Speaker 1: out something for you really quick. Uh. We we recently
3:01
Speaker 1: did the free Fighter advertisement um internationally with Cristiano Ronaldo.
3:06
Speaker 1: Uh you know, we did the Cyberpunk ad campaign with
3:09
Speaker 1: Kianu reeves some of these things that we consider to
3:13
Speaker 1: be premium as sets. Um, we are that space, so
3:16
Speaker 1: not only commercial but content as well, uh, as well
3:20
Speaker 1: as social. So we were partnered with the largest social platform,
3:23
Speaker 1: which is Movers and Shagers. So we tap into multiple verticals,
3:27
Speaker 1: um for the casual gamer as well as for the
3:30
Speaker 1: hardcore gamer, and that is e spat TV and the
3:33
Speaker 1: production work. Now, now are you talking about the Kiano
3:35
Speaker 1: Reads commercial that I'm seeing regular running regular on TV
3:38
Speaker 1: right now? That would be it. Absolutely, that's for Cyberpunk
3:42
Speaker 1: seventies seven. Uh. So we we received the call, uh
3:46
Speaker 1: they wanted to tap into our creatives for that campaign,
3:49
Speaker 1: and we were so happy to step in and assist
3:51
Speaker 1: with that. So, yes, every time that commercial comes on,
3:55
Speaker 1: it catches my attention. Every time every time it comes on.
3:59
Speaker 1: That's what I knew where it is. Every time it
4:01
Speaker 1: comes on, it captures my attention. It's a great commercial.
4:04
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Thank you. And we always say,
4:06
Speaker 1: and I mean this, this can apply to any culture
4:09
Speaker 1: that you're attached to. The key to successful content. The
4:12
Speaker 1: key to successful commercials is actually tapping into folks who
4:16
Speaker 1: not only research the industries but actually live in them.
4:20
Speaker 1: Um and and that's that's who we are. We we are,
4:22
Speaker 1: we're deemers. We we played the game and we tell
4:25
Speaker 1: the story of So I'm glad to hear that. Thank
4:27
Speaker 1: you so much. Well, you know, it's really interesting Dante
4:30
Speaker 1: when you don't want to stay on Kiana read because
4:32
Speaker 1: he's almost like had a career, especially with Matrix, you know,
4:35
Speaker 1: where he's almost played like he's been a video game.
4:38
Speaker 1: You know, he's almost been a person that there's always
4:41
Speaker 1: his career has been transitioning and building time, not a
4:44
Speaker 1: series he has now where he's a he's an assassin
4:47
Speaker 1: that's kind of like bending time and bending reality. And
4:50
Speaker 1: also he's constantly fighting like a video game, you know.
4:53
Speaker 1: So that's why that's what I'm saying is that he
4:55
Speaker 1: was a perfect charge because his brand I think I
4:58
Speaker 1: have to say it's video game late it from a
5:00
Speaker 1: standpoint of his career because if you watch any of
5:03
Speaker 1: his actions always action packed. And so every time that
5:06
Speaker 1: commercial comes on, I go, I'm thinking it's you know,
5:09
Speaker 1: I'm listening, and it holds me through the entire cycle
5:12
Speaker 1: of the commercial. And even though I know after that,
5:15
Speaker 1: I really, oh that's that commercial, it's still entertaining enough
5:18
Speaker 1: to capture me to the end. So congratulations on that man,
5:22
Speaker 1: Thank thank you so much. And he's really built. I mean,
5:24
Speaker 1: we remember him when he started with Speed Sandra Bullock
5:27
Speaker 1: and then you know you kind of follow his career
5:29
Speaker 1: through the Matrix and you know just the cult following
5:32
Speaker 1: that that had with John Wicks and all of the
5:35
Speaker 1: episode series of of that, and you know that that
5:39
Speaker 1: was a cult film as well. Like you said, his
5:41
Speaker 1: career has really transitioned to being the voice of you know,
5:46
Speaker 1: the culture, subculture from that perspective, and like you said,
5:48
Speaker 1: it's it's an ongoing video game. And absolutely, you know
5:52
Speaker 1: all three John Wicks, I've seen all three of them.
5:54
Speaker 1: I don't know how at his age, especially in the
5:58
Speaker 1: third one he's fighting that much because he's actually doing
6:01
Speaker 1: all of the fight scenes, okay, and so, and plus
6:05
Speaker 1: he just came out. He was also in that last
6:07
Speaker 1: year he was offering that uh in the Touch Story movie,
6:11
Speaker 1: we had a really really engaging character. So you're getting
6:14
Speaker 1: a guy that you know, well, you know, we we
6:17
Speaker 1: we create these relationships. But I don't think of anybody,
6:20
Speaker 1: you know, it's a lot of great people out there.
6:22
Speaker 1: Kevin Hart's out there. You know, you have a Rock
6:24
Speaker 1: Johnson's out there, but he is perfect for what you're
6:27
Speaker 1: doing because he isn't an action figure in that world
6:31
Speaker 1: of incredible interaction engagement. He is actually to me, he's
6:36
Speaker 1: one of these guys where you can actually take his
6:38
Speaker 1: movie series and make it into a video game. He's
6:41
Speaker 1: that guy for the guy. So so each fat TV
6:44
Speaker 1: is hit a home run with him. Now let's go
6:45
Speaker 1: over to another guy that captured my attention in the intro,
6:49
Speaker 1: Ridley Scout. Talk to us about that. Absolutely, Um, Ridley
6:54
Speaker 1: is amazing. Um. A lot of folks may know historically
6:59
Speaker 1: who Lee is, starting in nineteen seventies seven with his
7:03
Speaker 1: film aliens Um and going straight through films that we
7:06
Speaker 1: love like American Gangster with Denzel Washington and you know,
7:09
Speaker 1: the Martian and and and different things. You know, even
7:11
Speaker 1: going back now to the eighties with Alma and Louise
7:14
Speaker 1: and things that he's done. You know, folks can really
7:18
Speaker 1: have a passion to And one of the things that
7:20
Speaker 1: caught my attention is we were building this collective. Was
7:23
Speaker 1: not only the work that he's done that's on the
7:26
Speaker 1: silver screen. That's that really, in my opinion, has him
7:29
Speaker 1: on the Mount Rushmore of directors in Hotwood. But it's
7:33
Speaker 1: actually the stuff that we don't know, and I'm gonna
7:35
Speaker 1: you know, ask your audience. You know, if you guys
7:38
Speaker 1: are at a computer, you're put up on your phone,
7:40
Speaker 1: please go to Ridley Scott dot com and familiarize with
7:42
Speaker 1: yourself with some of the stuff that he's done. As
7:45
Speaker 1: I spoke to speak to folks from my culture, you know,
7:48
Speaker 1: people of of color like myself, I say, listen, did
7:51
Speaker 1: you know that he was behind Beyonce and you know
7:55
Speaker 1: a lot of the work with black Is King. Did
7:57
Speaker 1: you know that he's worked with Berner Boyd. Did you
7:59
Speaker 1: know that he's worked with Childish Gambino? And people are like, oh,
8:02
Speaker 1: absolutely not. I never would imagine. And then they go
8:04
Speaker 1: and they start to see, you know, the work that
8:06
Speaker 1: he's done, you know, supporting abad burn A and different
8:10
Speaker 1: people who come from a culture that is like mine,
8:13
Speaker 1: that you would not necessarily associate Ridley with. So one
8:17
Speaker 1: of the things that I know that we just came
8:18
Speaker 1: you know from talking about Keanu Reeves, I would apply
8:21
Speaker 1: that to Ridley as well. And that's somebody who may
8:24
Speaker 1: have started their their career in a specific place but
8:27
Speaker 1: it's so multi talented that they are transitional in other
8:31
Speaker 1: spaces that quite frankly, many people aren't aware of UM.
8:35
Speaker 1: And that's something that really caught my attention with him
8:40
Speaker 1: and I I always tell you know, their team. To me,
8:44
Speaker 1: they're the convergence of content, fandom and creativity and and
8:48
Speaker 1: they do all of the above. And when you take
8:50
Speaker 1: a look at what they've done in the live performance
8:52
Speaker 1: space with Taylor Swift, and I could go on and
8:55
Speaker 1: on naming a listers that they've worked with UM that
8:58
Speaker 1: we would never really associate or imagine really Scott from
9:02
Speaker 1: the UK that's done me is you know, Blockbuster Films
9:05
Speaker 1: has actually been a part of it's been supporting our
9:07
Speaker 1: culture for quite some time. So he was just such
9:10
Speaker 1: a natural fit UM as somebody that understood the world
9:14
Speaker 1: with officers around the world UM and truly speaking to
9:18
Speaker 1: different cultures as a parallel so nicely with gaming UM
9:21
Speaker 1: and obviously gaming being one of the one of what
9:24
Speaker 1: I considered the three universal languages. So well, you know,
9:27
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, his his career, you know,
9:29
Speaker 1: Gladador who was just one of those It was one
9:32
Speaker 1: of those movies that I'm telling you I can if
9:33
Speaker 1: Gladiol comes on, I'm watching the end. I don't care.
9:36
Speaker 1: I WoT turn it down where I'm at, I'm gonna
9:38
Speaker 1: watch the end of glad is that type of work
9:41
Speaker 1: and Aliens to which I consider that that that that
9:44
Speaker 1: them as far as sci Fi moves for female leads
9:48
Speaker 1: taking the dominant role, Aliens too incredible. So he's always
9:52
Speaker 1: had a history of putting women out front and allowing
9:55
Speaker 1: them to lead and be a dominant figure. You know,
9:58
Speaker 1: so many projects he's done with Denzel Washington. You know,
10:02
Speaker 1: A Man on Fire another movie, So I gotta watch
10:05
Speaker 1: dand of that movie and so so with with that
10:09
Speaker 1: type of work. Are you or were you I'm not
10:11
Speaker 1: gonna use this won't be honest. Were you intimidated by
10:13
Speaker 1: the process of being in business with somebody like that?
10:16
Speaker 1: How did you take you from Uh? I got it,
10:18
Speaker 1: but then you said that and go wow, okay, I
10:21
Speaker 1: gotta step my game up. I gotta make sure all
10:22
Speaker 1: my tease across my eyes? How did you take that
10:26
Speaker 1: whole positioning with your brand? I'll tell you the beauty
10:29
Speaker 1: of it. And this is what I say to folks
10:33
Speaker 1: all the time. Look to become very strong or a
10:37
Speaker 1: leader or an expert in your space, and if you
10:41
Speaker 1: align properly with the right space so may normally intimidate,
10:46
Speaker 1: others actually become very supportive, almost as a fan or
10:52
Speaker 1: support of what you do and deep you as an
10:55
Speaker 1: expert in spaces that they may not. And although you
10:59
Speaker 1: may be ching them to be a part of what
11:01
Speaker 1: you're doing, subconsciously they're actually pitching you to select them
11:06
Speaker 1: to be a part of what you're doing. So there
11:08
Speaker 1: was an interesting dance that went on in the relationship
11:12
Speaker 1: where it was undoubtedly he has a brand to um.
11:17
Speaker 1: You know that that is to be respected, but from
11:19
Speaker 1: his perspective is to be protected. Um. But at the
11:23
Speaker 1: same time he understands the future of where content is going.
11:27
Speaker 1: I say the folks all the time, we may have
11:29
Speaker 1: grown up on Blockbuster, but our kids won't or our
11:32
Speaker 1: grandkids won't. You know, we may have grown up on
11:34
Speaker 1: you know, uh drive in theaters, but you know that
11:37
Speaker 1: went away, um in in in a substantial way, although
11:40
Speaker 1: there are some left and it still went away in
11:42
Speaker 1: a substantial way. Being able to understand the future and
11:46
Speaker 1: aligned with the future was something that he was savvy
11:49
Speaker 1: enough to identify and recognize, and it actually did not
11:53
Speaker 1: make it such a dawning conversation. Uh. They really were
11:56
Speaker 1: more so impressed with our knowledge of the space and
11:59
Speaker 1: our ability to identify and stay ahead of the curve.
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Speaker 1: T E R dot Ai. Okay, you know the beauty
14:01
Speaker 1: of having brands come to you name recognition brand. You
14:05
Speaker 1: know we're talking household names in the industry and also
14:08
Speaker 1: talent like Travis Scott, you know out of Houston, Texas,
14:12
Speaker 1: explained the relationship with Fortnite and how that plays a
14:15
Speaker 1: major role in your brand each bad TV. Yeah. Absolutely. Um,
14:22
Speaker 1: I always feel like we're living through a pandemic. We're
14:24
Speaker 1: living through a time that hopefully, UM as a society,
14:27
Speaker 1: we won't have to live through again. But they always
14:30
Speaker 1: say during these challenging times, opportunities are born, and those
14:35
Speaker 1: who find success actually are able to pivot and align
14:38
Speaker 1: with those opportunities. So one of the brands that I
14:42
Speaker 1: say we're actually you know we We've always heard, you know,
14:45
Speaker 1: stay ready so you don't have to get ready. One
14:47
Speaker 1: of the brands that that I say, you know, during
14:49
Speaker 1: this time just so happened to be ready and it
14:52
Speaker 1: was so great how they aligned was Uber. If you
14:55
Speaker 1: were in California, if you were in New York or
14:57
Speaker 1: any any other major cities around the country during the
15:00
Speaker 1: height of the pandemic, you may have noticed that there
15:01
Speaker 1: were no cars on the road. Um. You know, so
15:04
Speaker 1: Uber is a business. I'm sure it took a tremendous hit,
15:07
Speaker 1: but simultaneously you had Uber Eats and and Uber Eads
15:12
Speaker 1: was actually keeping a lot of restaurants in the restaurant industry.
15:15
Speaker 1: In business, they had a subset business that was actually
15:18
Speaker 1: able to skyrocket during a pivotal time when their core
15:22
Speaker 1: business may not have been able to. Now with that
15:25
Speaker 1: being spaid, you asked me about Travis. We haven't seen
15:28
Speaker 1: tours in um. You know, we'll see what holds for us.
15:34
Speaker 1: But you know, Travis was smart enough to identify, Hey,
15:40
Speaker 1: you know, there is an opportunity for me to perform
15:42
Speaker 1: to my audience and their home their captive as a
15:46
Speaker 1: captive audience. Let's identify a way to perform to that audience.
15:51
Speaker 1: Fortnite was the great way. There was another group that's
15:54
Speaker 1: done this tremendously, and we'll give a shout out the
15:56
Speaker 1: Swiss Beats and in Timberland, they've done it an amazing
16:00
Speaker 1: lee with Versus, especially the selection of talent that they've
16:03
Speaker 1: had in utilizing iTunes and and and and Instagram. We
16:06
Speaker 1: were able to do this with Fortnite. We were able
16:09
Speaker 1: to work that production, We were able to actually be
16:12
Speaker 1: a part of the creation of that content that those
16:16
Speaker 1: who tuned in were able to see. So, you know
16:19
Speaker 1: a lot of parents heard about it because their their
16:20
Speaker 1: kids were addicted to that, you know, to that ten
16:23
Speaker 1: minutes of content that was created. But we were able
16:26
Speaker 1: to optimize UM, and we call it an MTM. We
16:29
Speaker 1: were able to optimize a moment that matters and translate
16:32
Speaker 1: that and transition it into another mt M, which is
16:34
Speaker 1: metrics that matter. Twenty seven million people tuned into that.
16:38
Speaker 1: The news came out a couple of weeks ago. At
16:40
Speaker 1: the time of this recording. UM that Travis made twenty
16:43
Speaker 1: million dollars you know, off of that performance and the
16:48
Speaker 1: purchases within that performance. So it created a blueprint for
16:52
Speaker 1: folks to identify to to to appreciate the need um
16:57
Speaker 1: and the opportunity within the gaming community. And since then
16:59
Speaker 1: we've seen little not Isaacs do the same thing with Roadblocks.
17:02
Speaker 1: Um he got thirty three million views. Uh so we're
17:05
Speaker 1: starting to see a transition. When Live Nation is is
17:09
Speaker 1: not doing tours, when a g is not doing tours,
17:11
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden, we've got a new player
17:13
Speaker 1: in the game, and that's the gaming community itself and
17:16
Speaker 1: their platforms because of the audiences that they hold. This
17:19
Speaker 1: is a platform that started with boxing, you know, to
17:22
Speaker 1: pay per view, the old school pay per view and
17:23
Speaker 1: then UFC elevated the game. Now we're getting into the
17:28
Speaker 1: entertainers from a from a musical standpoint, understanding how they
17:31
Speaker 1: can do this. And we're not talking about driving the
17:34
Speaker 1: theater numbers. You know that was really popular. We're talking
17:37
Speaker 1: about twenty seven and thirty three million. How does one
17:41
Speaker 1: make their money on that? They make it through the subscriptions.
17:43
Speaker 1: Do they may make it for a purview rate? How
17:46
Speaker 1: was he able to make his money? The money took
17:49
Speaker 1: place in the purchases. So a lot of folks don't
17:52
Speaker 1: understand that within the game, you can purchase what's called skins.
17:56
Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example of a skin purchase.
17:58
Speaker 1: He was selling cat this jack merch in a virtual space.
18:03
Speaker 1: So if you had a gun and you wanted your
18:05
Speaker 1: gun to be brown, they're not even taking this home.
18:10
Speaker 1: They're not even taking it home. They're not even taking
18:13
Speaker 1: it home. So so you're buying a shirt within the
18:17
Speaker 1: virtual space, and it's living on your avatar within the
18:21
Speaker 1: virtual space. Absolutely, And that was the beauty of the
18:27
Speaker 1: relationship and of the relationships between artists and the gaming industry,
18:33
Speaker 1: because now there's an opportunity that steps outside of the
18:36
Speaker 1: three sixty relationship with the labels. And you know, that's
18:40
Speaker 1: a whole different conversation that will say for another day
18:42
Speaker 1: of how the labels are monetizing off of folks more
18:46
Speaker 1: than their monetizing off of themselves. Well, now you've got
18:49
Speaker 1: an opportunity to monetize off of yourself and that's what
18:52
Speaker 1: this proved. So you you know, again we we do
18:56
Speaker 1: the math a right, we do the math around here. Um,
19:00
Speaker 1: if if Travis would have would have sold out of
19:03
Speaker 1: stadium at forty thou people, and if he would have
19:05
Speaker 1: done a tour of a hundred stops at forty people,
19:09
Speaker 1: he would have only been in front of four million
19:11
Speaker 1: people million in four days. And he's very tired, by
19:15
Speaker 1: the way, he's very tired. And there's like and there's
19:19
Speaker 1: a lodging and he never left, you know, he never
19:23
Speaker 1: left the convenience of homes. So you know, when you're
19:26
Speaker 1: able to look at it from that perspective and what
19:29
Speaker 1: that means to the artist and kind of the bandwidth
19:31
Speaker 1: that it opens for them to do other things. And
19:33
Speaker 1: we've seen what that led to. I mean, who took
19:36
Speaker 1: advantage of that rashan We ended up seeing that McDonald's
19:39
Speaker 1: took advantage of that during this time. And next thing
19:42
Speaker 1: you knew he had a you know, he had a
19:44
Speaker 1: product on the NU on the McDonald's menu that opened
19:48
Speaker 1: up because he was hot during this time. He was
19:50
Speaker 1: relevant during this time, and why not capitalized during this time. Wow.
19:55
Speaker 1: So with that being said, we were talking about the
19:57
Speaker 1: urban perspective, cultural perspective. You know, you know uh NAS
20:02
Speaker 1: and uh NAS X and UH and UH Travis Scott
20:06
Speaker 1: their cultural phenomenons. You know, they carry a short mark.
20:10
Speaker 1: Now you have a based in Atlanta, Jard called Community
20:13
Speaker 1: X and E Sports League that's uh geared towards HBCUs
20:18
Speaker 1: and also people of color. How did that relationship come about?
20:22
Speaker 1: I want and and and and I don't know the
20:24
Speaker 1: details of that entire relationship, and I'd like to talk
20:27
Speaker 1: about the top mind of that relationship. First, I want
20:30
Speaker 1: to send my greatest support out to CRISP and I.
20:33
Speaker 1: I always like to any time I'm having a conversation
20:36
Speaker 1: about gaming and the sports mentioned some names along the way,
20:39
Speaker 1: So as we continue to talk, I'll mention some names
20:41
Speaker 1: because I think it's really important for the people of
20:44
Speaker 1: color that have stepped into this space where there's there's
20:47
Speaker 1: only very few, um, you know, just to kind of
20:49
Speaker 1: acknowledge them as as I have an opportunity to talk
20:52
Speaker 1: about what we're doing. But I think that it's it's
20:56
Speaker 1: beautiful what community X is doing, UM with the HBC
21:00
Speaker 1: use and most importantly UM that they were able to
21:03
Speaker 1: tag in a brand like Twitch to support what they're doing, UH,
21:08
Speaker 1: creating tournament opportunities, creating scholarship opportunities for students, creating financial
21:14
Speaker 1: beneficial opportunities for students, and also not just stopping there,
21:19
Speaker 1: but working with HBC used to build out their e
21:23
Speaker 1: sports program. So I often say, you know, and I
21:27
Speaker 1: use Little Cross as an example. One of the greatest
21:29
Speaker 1: college with lacrosse players is Jim Brown. And people don't
21:32
Speaker 1: know that. He obviously went on and became one of
21:34
Speaker 1: the greatest running backs in NFL history, but he was
21:36
Speaker 1: one of the greatest lacrosse players at University of Syracuse.
21:39
Speaker 1: And oddly enough, you know, we don't have a lot
21:42
Speaker 1: of folks who play lacrosse, and a lot of that
21:45
Speaker 1: is because of just the economics of playing it. That
21:49
Speaker 1: goes along with hockey and that goes along with other sports.
21:51
Speaker 1: Just the economics. There is an economic factor around gaming
21:56
Speaker 1: you've got to have high speed modems or else you're
21:58
Speaker 1: gonna be slow and delayed in the game. You've got
22:00
Speaker 1: to have the equipment and so on and so forth.
22:03
Speaker 1: There are, you know, obstacles that exist. And to know
22:06
Speaker 1: that Twitch is willing to step in support our you know,
22:10
Speaker 1: you know, you know, kids of the future are young
22:12
Speaker 1: men and women of the future is just a beautiful thing.
22:15
Speaker 1: And that's truly a commitment that I appreciate. So I
22:17
Speaker 1: always give a shout out to community X and what
22:19
Speaker 1: they're doing UM and what they're building. This is a
22:21
Speaker 1: long term This isn't a one year deal, So this
22:23
Speaker 1: is a long term relationship that they formed here, and
22:26
Speaker 1: I definitely applaud what they're doing. Well, your background is music, fashion, sports,
22:30
Speaker 1: How does that are shape itself into what you're doing
22:33
Speaker 1: with TV? Absolutely, I think that I've I've I've tapped into,
22:39
Speaker 1: um those elements of and I always I always use
22:43
Speaker 1: the word culture right UM and and I think I've
22:46
Speaker 1: I've learned from each one of them the identification of people,
22:50
Speaker 1: process and performance UM and I think that those things
22:53
Speaker 1: are what's tapped in. I mean, I was a part
22:56
Speaker 1: of the Tom Ford era of Gucci that's a legendary era. UM.
23:00
Speaker 1: I was a part of, you know, the moment that
23:03
Speaker 1: Sony b MG overtook Universal as the number one UM
23:07
Speaker 1: music house in business like, those were legendary moments. And
23:10
Speaker 1: as a business development guy and and and and and
23:12
Speaker 1: a leader with both organizations, it was great to be
23:15
Speaker 1: a part of building something UM. And that is the
23:19
Speaker 1: part of this moment that's so intriguing is that we're
23:23
Speaker 1: building things that don't exist. And I always say to folks,
23:27
Speaker 1: look for the white space of opportunities, something that doesn't
23:32
Speaker 1: exist or something that you believe that you can do better. Uh,
23:35
Speaker 1: but don't only identify it, and don't only make a plan,
23:39
Speaker 1: but truly make those goals and outperform your own goals.
23:42
Speaker 1: And if you're able to do that, then there is
23:44
Speaker 1: an endless opportunity for you in those spaces. And this
23:47
Speaker 1: was just a natural progression for me from music from fashion.
23:53
Speaker 1: You might start to see and not start to see
23:55
Speaker 1: this has already happened. Gucci has tied in with gaming,
23:59
Speaker 1: Louis batton On is tied in with gaming, but Lyncianaga
24:02
Speaker 1: has tied in with gaming. You're seeing fashion come in
24:06
Speaker 1: from a merchandise perspective, and they're tapping in. You're seeing
24:09
Speaker 1: music coming in and they're tapping in. So these opportunities
24:13
Speaker 1: are less and I just feel like my background, the
24:15
Speaker 1: convergence of everything that I've done um is actually taking
24:19
Speaker 1: place right now in the gaming space. Well we're right now.
24:23
Speaker 1: It's incredible and uh you articulate the whole subject matter strongly.
24:27
Speaker 1: Uh so what what so with that being said, the
24:31
Speaker 1: future of what you're trying to do with the goals,
24:33
Speaker 1: you know, because of the fact that my mind is flying,
24:36
Speaker 1: you know when you when we throw out those numbers
24:38
Speaker 1: and we're about to come out of COVID and one
24:41
Speaker 1: there's a's all parts. What's the new model? What is
24:44
Speaker 1: the new model? You know? Who knows Taylor Swift might
24:46
Speaker 1: be knocking on your door because of the fact that
24:49
Speaker 1: this seems so natural to what what these artists who
24:53
Speaker 1: have who understand their brands. These are brand centric people
24:56
Speaker 1: and that's what that that's what you're talking about. People
24:58
Speaker 1: who have are following the under Dan never and I'll
25:00
Speaker 1: engage with the opportunities to be like that. Do you
25:04
Speaker 1: seek out the talent or the talent seeks you out?
25:09
Speaker 1: I think it's a combination of both. So I think
25:11
Speaker 1: that we do have our eye on certain folks, but
25:15
Speaker 1: the future of what we're doing right now, and I
25:17
Speaker 1: always like to use basketball is the example. Think of
25:22
Speaker 1: the different eras of the NBA. So think of the
25:27
Speaker 1: colorful basketball era is what I call it. That's the
25:30
Speaker 1: Dr j era. So think of the Dr Jay era,
25:34
Speaker 1: and then there was the rivalry era. I like to
25:37
Speaker 1: say that that's magic first bird um, and then you
25:41
Speaker 1: throw in the pistons in there as well, and then
25:43
Speaker 1: you have what's the current era, and that's the Michael
25:46
Speaker 1: Jordan's era. The reason that I call it the Michael
25:49
Speaker 1: Jordan era is because he was the first to become
25:54
Speaker 1: his own ecosystem, his own conglomerate. He was his own brand,
25:59
Speaker 1: and that brand transcended North America and became a global brand.
26:05
Speaker 1: That's where we are today with these sports. Part of
26:08
Speaker 1: that is how do you not how do you continue
26:12
Speaker 1: to engage the hardcore gamer but also engaged with the
26:17
Speaker 1: casual gamer um And that's what our role is going
26:22
Speaker 1: to be in the community. So think of if you
26:26
Speaker 1: are an HBO fan and you watch hard knocks um
26:29
Speaker 1: with you know, the New York Giants or with the
26:31
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons on HBO and how they storytelling. You see
26:35
Speaker 1: what Brian Gumble does on HBO with Real Sport. So
26:38
Speaker 1: you watch Inside the NFL on Showtime. These are shows
26:42
Speaker 1: that actually are just shoulder programming that tell this story
26:46
Speaker 1: to create a higher engagement. Um, Floyd Mayweather did it
26:50
Speaker 1: great with series. I love those cities outstanding those I
26:57
Speaker 1: love those, man, Yeah, I've really missed. Those are really compelling. Man,
27:01
Speaker 1: those are really good storytelling. Yes, absolutely, And that's that's
27:05
Speaker 1: the future of this. How do you get the casual
27:08
Speaker 1: fan to become a fan of a specific team, a
27:11
Speaker 1: specific organization, a title, or a gamer. And that's what
27:14
Speaker 1: we're doing here is we're actually, you know, telling the
27:17
Speaker 1: story for the casual while also telling the untold stories
27:21
Speaker 1: for the hardcore gamer. And that's the future of what
27:24
Speaker 1: we're going to be bringing here. Dante, keep me on
27:26
Speaker 1: your your roller, nex man, really, brother, you cutting edge
27:29
Speaker 1: of some amazing information, um, beautiful stuff that uh that
27:35
Speaker 1: you know you're a head turner and understand that that's
27:37
Speaker 1: a positive thing to say about somebody who walks in
27:40
Speaker 1: the room and goes, okay, that's a head turner because
27:43
Speaker 1: they want to talk to you, they want to communicate,
27:45
Speaker 1: they want to get inside a visionary. That's who you are,
27:47
Speaker 1: your visionary. Like you said, you know, I always tell
27:50
Speaker 1: people wouldn't luck being at the right place at the
27:53
Speaker 1: right time when those the Guccia thing happened for Tom four,
27:56
Speaker 1: that sony me and my thing happened. Now this has happened.
28:00
Speaker 1: I think that's what you do, sir, That's what you do.
28:03
Speaker 1: You a game changer, don't change. Okay, Well, thank you,
28:07
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I appreciate you. If you want
28:09
Speaker 1: to hear more interviews on Money Making Conversation, please code
28:12
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversation dot com. Ra Sean mcdung I'll
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