- I found this podcast a few days ago,
by Brain Koppelman, who's the co-creator and producer
of the Showtime show Billions
and in today's video, I want to run through
a few of my favorite episodes.
And some of the take aways I've gotten there.
The way that he approaches interviews with these
celebrities, he talks to a lot of writers
and a lot of Food Network chefs,
and because he's built such a rapport with his guests
in the past, he's able to get them to open up
and talk in a way that I hadn't seen publicly
from a lot of these figures.
For instance, Guy Ferri, there's an hour and a half
podcast where he talks about his
40 restaurants he's running.
How he started Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
How he approaches business.
And it's phenomenal to see the man behind the meme.
I just know him from his blonde, spiky hair.
I didn't know he was a master businessman.
But that was just the intro, let's jump into it.
Number one is Christina Tosi.
Christina is the CEO of Milk Bar,
which is a restaurant out in New York.
They've got them in L.A. and around
the world now, as well.
Where they sell extremely sweet ice cream.
And they were actually known for inventing
the corn flake ice cream flavor.
I usually go there for the birthday cake shakes.
But she said in this podcast, "Most people will let
you work somewhere for free."
"If you ask, and you show up."
Christina's entire career was shaped by her showing
up at some of the top restaurants in New York
and offering to work for free for months.
And she was self-supported.
She didn't have parents funding her throughout the journey.
And she talks about just showing up
and being bullied in these kitchens
by people who have been there longer.
And taking the bullying and becoming comrades
because she needed to learn.
And I think that's so interesting.
When you offer to work for free somewhere,
as long as you present that offer in the right way,
there's no reason the other person will say no to it.
We got on of our first projects at Garblick, doing that.
Working for free to do this animation for Pauly Shore.
And we did the same thing at the first agency
I was working at.
I did their marketing for free for four to five months
while I was still a full time sales guy.
Number two is Erick Hayser.
He's the writer of Arrival
and a bunch of other screenplays like that.
Here's the quote from the podcast.
"I've written 61 screenplays and a fraction of them"
"have made it to the screen."
Later on in the podcast, he says that it's six.
Six out of 61.
And most people can see that and say,
why write a screenplay at all?
If only six of my 61 screenplays
are going to make it to the screen,
why am I even doing this?
But an entrepreneur's going to look at that and say,
that's a ten percent conversion rate.
One out of ten.
As long as they're good screenplays,
they're going to get bought.
They're going to get paid for.
Ten percent conversion rate is about the same as you're
going to see selling any agency project.
Might as well go for something you love.
If you think about the movie business being one of the
most competitive fields in the world.
Which I've heard a few times.
Ten percent conversion rate isn't that bad.
The new business failure rate, in general,
they say 90% of new businesses fail.
Starting an entrepreneurial venture and having it succeed
and selling a screenplay have the
exact same conversion rate.
It makes me wonder about the other dreams that we all put
off in pursuit of money.
Maybe you want to write a musical.
Maybe you want to write pop songs or paint pictures.
You actually have a very high chance of selling that stuff.
Or at least, an equal chance of selling that stuff
and living your dream, as starting an agency
or starting any other sort of company.
And the last one from the Brain Koppleman podcast is
an interview with Alton Brown,
who ran Good Eats on the Food Network and has a bunch
of other shows on the Food Network as well.
And his quote was, "The truth is, in most of my life,"
"I am a reactor."
"There are only five times in life that I've rolled"
"big dice to do something."
And Alton was talking about when he moved cities,
so that he could set himself up at an agency
that he knew would create an REM music video.
Which launched his entire directing career.
Which set him up to get the Food Network show later on.
And it's a big point he makes.
A lot of these top performers are in maintenance mode,
most of the time.
Just heads down working.
But it's those four or five decisions in life
that separate them.
For me it was probably moving to New York after college.
And a few years later, pushing my boss to let me
do marketing for the company.
That's only two decisions that put me on this trajectory.
Where can you take a big risk
and try to get yourself to the next level?
Koppleman's podcast is called The Moment.
And you check that out on iTunes.
You can also probably just Google
The Moment Brian Koppleman.
If you found this video valuable,
I would love if you would pass this
along to a friend or two.
We're trying to hit a hundred thousand subs,
so every share counts.
Also, if you're into sales and you want
to see the exact questions we ask on our
initial sales goals, I've got that Discovery
call script down in the comments below.
You can sign up for that.
It's totally free, thanks.