Latest / The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison / From Seminary to Angel Studios: How Faith Shapes the Films You Watch | David Fischer

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From Seminary to Angel Studios: How Faith Shapes the Films You Watch | David Fischer · The LIVing Room with Liv Harrison

• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: So okay, but you were in the seminary for four.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: How old were you when you were in the seminary?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's a minor seminary.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: So does that mean you're a minor?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Is that how that works?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Which it doesn't.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a difference between minor seminaries and college seminaries.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: A college seminary is integrated into the college experience, and that's actually what I was in.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I really to all other students at the university, I was like in a different dorm.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But being in seminaries like being in a I I like to think of it as being a D1 athlete, right?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You have a group of people that you consistently are with every day.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: You live in a dorm, but you have, you know, football players have their workout and their practice.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We would have prayer in the morning, mass.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We'd have different small groups, um, but we interact and engage with the university just like anyone else.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's really cool.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: There's a university in Texas.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I live in Texas.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So uh University of Dallas, I feel like that might be the same because they have a seminary there and they'll have they'll be in.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tom Bushman.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh who's down at the University of Dallas?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Theology department.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Phenomenal.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, good.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's a guy.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's a guy.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's a guy.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Vatican document like Vatican II docs, he was the guy.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Off the record.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm getting it, yeah.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's on the record.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's great.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, because I I was wondering about that because my friends whose student like their kids were at UD, they would say there would be seminarians in the classes with them, and I didn't really know how that worked.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: That would be like a college sem.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, got it.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then minor SEMs are generally with the major SEM on a different campus.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's seminaries that are set up that way where all eight years is in the same geography.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: They might separate the dorm living situations, but it's it's kind of all the same, and you're not interacting the same way with another university.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, interesting.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: So, what did you always discern going in?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like, were you one of those kids that would be a priest and you were that kid?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Seven years old.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing, I was setting up for mass every week.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Loved it.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: My my little brother wanted to do the homilies.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't let him.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: He was always the altar boy.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: How old?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, he had to put the water on my hands.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I would take the you know, the towel and throw it on his face.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And no, uh, you know, he was two years younger.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: How many brothers do you have?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have three brothers.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Three brothers.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you fall in line with the brother?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm third.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oldest brother, um, businessman lives in South Bend, uh, and does a lot of work with Notre Dame students.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: My older brother, immediate old brother, is a priest.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and uh he watched you the whole time.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, that looks fun.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: He's yeah, Brian is an amazing priest, Father Brian Fisher, and uh younger brother Robert, yeah.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And did he become oh so no, not a priest.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, business.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you would play priest and and you thought you were called to the priesthood and you went to seminary.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: So when did you hear a different call?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: When did you hear something else that said this isn't where I'm awesome?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was incredible.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I went to a buddy of ours who had left the seminary, studied in Rome with him, and his girlfriend fiancé at the time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We were all studying in the Catholic Studies program at the University of St.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Out of St.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, Minnesota.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we're all in Rome together.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: A year later, or or soon after that, those two, good friend that left the seminary and this gal got married.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: We all go to their wedding, a bunch of seminarians.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's down in Sioux Falls, um, South Dakota.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm driving back with my friends, I'm sitting shotgun, turn onto campus on the road, and the guy who's driving is literally like, Hey, I know that girl.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this beautiful girl walking across the campus, and she's like crossing the street.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And all of us in that car were like, there is no way you know that girl.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: She is so far out of your zip code, prove it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he rolls down his window and he's like, Hey, Laura.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she comes over, and instead of going to my um friend who's driving, she comes over to my window, leans down, and I kid you not, I know this sounds like the movies.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I I literally like lost time in that moment.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I totally lost my breath.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like a little bit of that, like, I'm gonna like everything's going black, and then it comes back.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like literally.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I uh I was like, I've got to remember this person.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I couldn't remember her name.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you blacked out, so that's not your first.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it was like six months later, seven months later before I saw her again.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that night that that happened, I went to every seminarian has your spiritual director and your formation director.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember going to him and saying, you know, how is it that I can be in the seminary for four years, father?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually three, and I was going right into my last year.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And every seminarian, especially when you're in the young part, you're the first four years, you've given something up.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you think you're, you know, you think you've you're taking on this cross for Christ.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you are, right?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't want to take that away from young, zealous spirits, right, and hearts.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, life, the whole journey of life in your vocation is a constant facing the cross, sacrificing for others, laying it on the altar, right?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're young, you think I'm making the strongest choice.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be celibate.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna be the way that the Lord uses me.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was still in that kind of mind frame.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, How could I have that for three years?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think about a girlfriend back in high school as if that would have gone somewhere, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: I gave her up, right?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, really?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I sacrificed.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And in one instant, all I I'm captured with beauty beyond just like a woman.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm captured with beauty in my heart.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Something pierced my heart.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I literally was like, How do I deal with that?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who she is.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen her say, you know, whatever.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he just said, you have to listen to your heart because the Holy Spirit is there, and the Holy Spirit's gonna talk to you there.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So learn how to listen because you're gonna need to learn how to listen to that voice for the rest of your life.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you become a priest, David, or not, you're gonna need to know that voice and understand when it's the Lord's and when it's the world's.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was like, yeah, I need to figure this out.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So did you marry the girl that walked across the street?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I did.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So she was in your zone, she was in yours of coach.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: She figured out well, I think I had to like migrate to the tighter.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was more of a three-ring suburb.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was way out of Laura, it is absolutely amazing.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we we got married um a couple years after I first met her, and um it was just off to the races ever since.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like we've been married, what, 23 years now, coming up this coming month, August 1st.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it has been, you know, we just found out we've got our baby 10 on the way.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, so we have nine kids.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's here at this conference.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Is she?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And um that's fabulous.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: My mom's one of 10.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We the we just told the kids this last weekend, and they are the older kids were shocked, a little grossed out, and uh the younger kids just literally, my four-year-old just kept on telling everyone, including our golden doodle, I'm gonna be a big sister.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Stop.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: She was it was so precious.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're blessed.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you have a golden doodle, you have nine kids in the movie.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you got the girl that walked across the street.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And this is it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I have nothing left on this in this book.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, like, this is like these are blessings over blessings.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, congratulations.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: When are you when is she due?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: When are y'all due?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is that the right way to say it?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't even know anymore.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh February.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime in February.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the split on the kids?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have five girls and four boys.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, nice.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So this could be I have I my boys are athletic, they are respectful, and they are they destroy everything, right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: They destroy everything, they destroy their opponents in sports, but they destroy our house, our cars, everything.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: My girls have this way about them.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I can like Laura and I came here to Napa, yeah.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it literally is like, girls, we're gonna be gone until Thursday.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You good?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Dad, we're good.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, love you.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Gone.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we're getting pictures from them having Italian dinners around the dinner table, going to the water park in town.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're my varsity babysitters.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We love them.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: We just love them.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Where do where do you live?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you I live just outside of St.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paul, Minnesota?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you do?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's fast.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a big okay?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're in the film industry, you're with Angel Studios.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't put Minnesota with film.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm wrong.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's this hidden gym that I've never heard about.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's not.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So how did you get there from the girl across crossing the street to Minnesota?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: How did that happen?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, uh what's happened, Friedman, you know, whether you like what Friedman has written or not, wrote a book called The World is Flat.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it was it was really an important book for its time, really helping us understand just how quickly we can um take a business, how quickly information travels, how quickly communication can happen wherever you're located in the world, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that was coming out, and people were talking about it.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the central themes that I was able to kind of pull out of my own education in my early career was relationships matter deeply.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Relationships are some of the things that you have to invest in more than anything else.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you know how to build relationships and you understand the value of those relationships, they actually will bolster your business.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: They bolster your career moves, they're going to bolster the next deal that you get done.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But you got to understand relationship.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, the fundamental relationship that I had to consistently work at was my relationship with God and my relationship with my family.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And who supports that?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Who's supporting my relationship in my faith?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Am I surrounding myself with the people that do that?
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And who's supporting my relationship with my wife first and my kids second?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Minnesota was that for me.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: The in-laws are there, my family is there.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we had a beautiful, rich Catholic community in the Twin Cities, and I knew that if I could be supported by that, I would be of value to whoever I worked for or whatever shingle I wanted to hang.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I focused on it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I just said, I'm not going to compromise on this.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: And people that wanted to work with me over the years understood I stay here, but I'll travel.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I've got a great kind of, you know, Laura and I have a division of labor that works and I do a lot of travel.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I, and that was part of it with Angel Studios.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um Angel's on this like meteoric rise.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's extraordinary, right?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the ability to get work done when you're in the same studio and offices with people, it does exponentially drive up.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the work of filmmakers doesn't locate itself at a studio.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, the work of filmmakers is so comprehensive.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And my role is to work with all filmmakers inside of our ecosystem, help negotiate those contracts, get them acquired, and that demands a lot of travel to their investor base, to their production teams, to where the directors are located, helping with actors, engaging with their talent teams.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm all over the place.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, to be honest, I'm a proud Delta uh Sky Club member.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I walk around right, like I walk around with that reserve card, and I'm just like, there's this old national car commercial with one of those comedians in it, and he just shows how walking straight out to the car, right?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And getting in the car makes a difference and literally acting like you don't have to talk to anybody.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: You just walk straight out there, like people are saying hi, sir.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just like, I'm just gonna go straight to my car.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And don't look at me.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Delta Sky.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I I live by it.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I spend quite a bit of time.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have to stay away from the brownies, but I I spend quite a bit of time in the Delta Sky Club.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So where are you?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Are you going to to California the most?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's where I would assume that your travel is.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And is Texas one of the big ones now that you're, you know, because now in Texas we've got all these studios popping up.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the incentive, your governor really transformed everything there.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what McCone started to do in that space has transformed what Texas is doing.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: But him and Woody Harrelson.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I get to Provo the most, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Angel Studios is located in Provo.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I fly into Salt Lake all the time and make my trips to certainly LA and Burbank.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh wherever really our premieres are, and we've found a lot of premieres, we're having them in Nashville.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nashville has been an extraordinary community that welcomes Angel and welcomes the premieres that we're doing.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of fun.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: We do different types of premieres.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: We get like people dress up and we have like live animals and things at the like literally Young Washington, right?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Came out July 4th.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Our premiere for Young Washington happened at Belmont University.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Did it gorgeous university?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: They have a beautiful performing arts and they transformed it into a you know a theater with all the layers all the way up.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And um 600 people, I think, showed up.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Half of them were dressed up like 18th century, like straight up wearing white wigs.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Did you do that?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or they just did it.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, we that's part of we send out like a formal invitation, like all the guild members.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone can come.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the genius of the Harman Brothers, the genius of the angel promise, which is you become a member.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't call anyone a subscriber.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's not transactional.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: You become a member and you're part of a community, right?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: So when you come and you're an angel guild member, that's everybody, by the way.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: No matter what kind of membership you have, you are an angel guild member.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You get the chance to vote on the future of the films we do.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Those films don't hit my desk to work with unless I have angel approved all over it.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like our guild has approved those films.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: So they get to they get to jump in, vote.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: We ask them a couple questions, we take the analytics down, they get a score.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if it passes at a certain threshold, it hits my desk.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And my team, then we work on which ones do we want to license, which ones do we want to take theatrically, where did they score in the continuum?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we want angel members to feel like they're a part of a community that's making a difference, that they're on the other side of the camera, that they're actually helping make the movies, make the decisions for the movies.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when we do premieres, we want to reward them for that.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we're like, if you want to meet Woody Harrelson, right?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to meet um whoever is in our movies, come come to the red carpet.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: They will be there.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Get a chance to meet them, um, be a part of the QA and go up and ask a question if you'd like.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: We really want to create that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, what did we do at Young Washington?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We had horse-drawn carriages.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You'd park your car in a regular parking lot, and there would be there was a lot of horse dung all over the place.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you would be waiting for a carriage if you wanted, and you would get dropped off at the premiere, the red carpet.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's so cool.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is so really cool.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It was, it was, it was a blast.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we've done that for all of our premieres.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um I had no idea.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is really, really cool.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, how did the seminary prepare you for horse-drawn carriages and white wigs?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, right?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, you know, um, I think what the seminary was in my life was a time to understand or really believe in myself.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I think I didn't quite have the father figures in my life growing up, at least my dad.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Parents were divorced when I was young.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I was I was always searching for the right kind of father figures.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I found that in Catholic priests.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I was blessed to be around these extraordinary Catholic priests and youth ministers, actually, that that would reach out and engage.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very involved in my faith.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think what the seminary did was it started to solidify and take that um pride that was in me.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was really just a wall that I had to put up because of deep insecurity about, you know, where do I belong?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Who do I belong to?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are my skills and my talents the only thing that I'm judged for?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is that all that's good?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is what I can do good?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I don't do things great, how do I keep it away from people so they don't kind of see me as an imposter or see me as like whatever, right?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Prayer in the seminary is a big deal.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not a morning person, you feel like a fish out of water.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I bet it's just one of those things.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it is.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, study, grades, all of that.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be the seminarian that's selected to go to Rome, right?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's all these different things, and there's all the politics in seminary, right?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: For young guys, for older guys.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think what the seminary did was it I had these just incredible men that were priests that leaned into me, cared about me, got to know me, and really shared how to um make decisions as a man, right?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And those decisions aren't always for yourself, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those decisions are about actually laying down the right to choose my, you know, where I want to go, my path, and you lay it down.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you what, that is that is in and of itself the effort of any entrepreneurial startup.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you start to get into that mix, and if you start to drive into a space where you are insecure about yourself, the business and the world that's out there eats you up.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Press, decisions that have to be made on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, um, all the different things that come up, strategies, ideas, ways that you're just not, you know, you you you want to be able to provide more to people, but you're only one person.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: All of that, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of it comes down to um identify yourself, like figure out where do you identify yourself and where do you get your strength from?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: My strength comes from the Lord, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Who made heaven and earth?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's where I place my hope.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you can do that, it doesn't mean everything's gonna work.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: It just means you know who you are, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and then you just you're faithful to that.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you won't get lost in all the other that comes up with everything.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a specific father figure in your life that has influenced your fatherhood um more than anyone else?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, you know, in in a couple of different ways.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I watched um the founder of Net Ministries, Mark Bircham, and the founder of St.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's Outreach, Gordy Demoray, raise their kids.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was close to them, I knew them really well.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I watched kind of the fruit and the life that came from how they engaged their their children and the way that they were, you know, husband first, father second.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was critical um to learn.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw them do that.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I saw them as just wonderful role models in that space.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: There was also an attorney in town who um really took me under his wing as I was a young attorney, and he, his name is Ed Gross, and he and his wife, Ed and Leslie Gross, really mentored Laura and I as a young married couple, and they were they were extraordinary for us as well, and just teaching us.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that you have to learn in young married life.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and there's not a whole lot.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hate to say this so directly, but I've my wife and I have given ourselves to creating a ministry in this whole space.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there is virtually nothing out there that helps young married couples in parishes engage in the day-to-day of what it means to be married as a young couple.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's Bible studies, there's courses, there's you lots of stuff to import the expert advice in, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then have who?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Someone that is going to then present it, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I like I am like a nerd around this stuff, big time nerd.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've I have taught every one of Jeff Kavan's courses at my parish.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Really?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've taught every one of Bishop Barron's courses, everyone, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Catholicism series, the David series, the mass series.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've done all of them, the Bible timeline.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if if I were given something about young married life, it's really tough to teach it from a manual like that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of what you have to do is you have to like establish a presence within the church, that community, not bring the experts in for a mission or something.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, you have to be there.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be at mass every weekend, and you drop your kids off at preschool, and you drop your kids off at, you know, you go to the games, you go to the soccer games, or the whatever it is.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Laura and I have totally devoted a tremendous Amount of time to launching an entire marriage ministry at our parish.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we are we are all in on doing that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: We have like 200 couples that are a part of it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: 25 young, young married couples, kid, um, couples that have their oldest child is you know younger than 10 who are in it, 10 mentor couples that help with that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is thriving.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we did it after 15 years of laying track, letting people see who we were, engaging so that it's authentic.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's organic, it's not just strategic.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Does it have a name?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fidelity.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, that's it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we call it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then the the um Young Married's program, we call it Foundations.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, did you guys write it together?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we just write it and we give a talk.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: I usually use uh Everybody Loves Raymond as an opener.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I usually I love using those types of like we'll have a topic like, okay, the holidays are coming.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh in-laws.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's talk about how they interact with your family and you in a marriage and what you guys do to each other when mother-in-law, father-in-law engage with both of you and the values that you grew up with.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Laura and I literally just sit and we talk about the things that we've had problems with that we can laugh about now.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then I use Nate Bargazzi, I use Jim Gaffigan when it's right, I use Seinfeld or and we I open always with a something funny, a clip of some sort.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not it's not about the nail, if you've ever seen that.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's fabulous.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: We need more and more of those types of things.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: We do need more.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Did you see JC Penny did?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you saw this, it was kind of before reels and everything hit, and it was a um which JC Penney is not even around anymore.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: But for those I have a JC Penney story.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do you?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to hear that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: So back in the day we had stores, and you would go inside of them and there would be people.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: JC Penny was one of these stores.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they did a campaign where it was called, you'll have to look it up, but it was a um, it was called the dog house.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you see this husband being drugged by his wife, and she's like, get in.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it was this, it's like a 20-minute commercial that they did, and it went viral.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so this was before Instagram and all this kind of stuff.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was getting passed around everywhere, and it's hilarious because he walk, he walks in and there's someone over the thing, it kind of sounds like 1984, one of those, you know, dystopian novel kind of things, and they're like, You have eaten quiche all day today, and you love it.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: You love chai lattes.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this like thing is like brainwashing and they're folding clothes, it's hysterical.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so the reason he was put in the doghouse was because he bought his wife a thigh master.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Back in the day it was Suzanne Summers and uh and some kind of vacuum.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And JC Penney was trying to say, Don't be an idiot, come to JC Penney.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: We know what your wife wants, so you don't end up in the doghouse.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was brilliant, very, very important lesson.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you could use that important lesson to learn.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Don't buy the wife a thigh master or a uh a vacuum.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is your JCPenney story?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was a fresh off the road with net ministries.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a netter back in the day.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I was 18 years old when I did high school evangelization work, right?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Came into SJV, St.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: John Vanny Seminary, and sitting there in my dorm room, and I get a phone call.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy on the other line is like, Hi, this is Jeff Cavins.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I um is this David?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yes, this is David.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, David, I I just got off the phone with Mark Bircham, the executive director of um Net Ministries, and he recommended you for a show that I'm starting called Life on the Rock.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I said, Okay.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Would you be willing to fly out to Alabama?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm working at a place called EWTN, and we will fly you in and fly you home, and you'll you'll tape with Jeff and it's pre-recorded, and then we'll go live, you know.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yes, I would love to.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: And would you bring your guitar and would you play?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and I played back then and I said, Absolutely.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, okay, what do I do here?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna wear on TV?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to JCPenney's.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, I went to J.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's the first shirt I bought on my own.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was royal blue.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, like we're bowing back, you know, back when Royal Blue was like hot.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was amazing, right?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You get on, you're wearing a royal blue shirt.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: Told me it was an eyesod.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think it might have been an eyesod.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Members only jacket, all of it.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I bought my I bought my JC Penny shirt.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: I looked the I looked the part and I went on Jeff Gabins.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we I was texting Jeff today.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: We have had a relationship ever since then.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I came out, he was You were 18?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: 18, 19, right around.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So this was last summer.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a while ago, right?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: So was that we're yeah, 30 plus years ago.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Whet your appetite to get into film, into production?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was a child actor at a professional theater as a kid.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Mom was Broadway actress, so I I've always loved theater.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Stage theater primarily.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it was there from the beginning.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you were pretending to be a priest.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I loved, I mean, honestly, like being a priest, the thought of giving homilies was so exciting to me.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of getting eight minutes roughly to like, and I could talk to my pastor because it's longer than eight, but it eight minutes to to change people's hearts.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, you you think about the film industry or you think about stage, it really boils down to a five, six minute song that just like transforms your heart.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: A 30-second take, you know, that generally you're looking for those 30 seconds, it might be a two-minute scene, but your your film is cut up into 100, 200 scenes, right?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: And those are just 30 seconds here, 10 seconds there, and you have a moment to capture people's hearts, minds, imagination, and not break real, you know, get them into your reality of that you got equipment everywhere and this is all fake.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: You want to suspend reality.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are one of those moments for you?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do you have any in the top of your head?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um so many.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, um, I mean, truly like the ability to engage and take a moment.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I was a singer, right?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: I still am, but I don't sing a whole lot anymore.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think um when I connect with people, especially um when I'm singing, there is something about like knowing that you're guiding them in a particular place and that they're losing themselves, they're losing where they're at, and they're just engaged in the music.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's always been a total, you know, love of mine is is to sing, especially with my brothers.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: When I sing with my brothers, it's it's really magical.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love it because you're like the Osmonds.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can harmonize and do all that stuff.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it's been forever, right?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to be able to do it.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Life takes off.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Bring it back.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Life just takes off.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Bring it back.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, I'm now seeing your children as like the Von Trapp kids in there wearing curtains and they're all performing for everyone, and and y'all are just going around Austria together.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, no.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just don't break that dream for me.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: I want that to be real.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, are they talented, the kids?
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Quite, yeah.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: They love they love sports, they love acting.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's really fun watching them.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: And just we Laura and I are like professional uh fans.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love we are like my life.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: People are like, so who do you go hang out with?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I work my tail off with Angel.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: We help do fidelity, you know, for the parish, and we just love our kids and we just engage, we're at all their events, we do our thing.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I'll pop right from the airport to the event if I need to.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's um it's a blast.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: So to a young uh husband listening out there, what's one tip you could give him on how to put his wife first?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um truly, truly, truly.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you gotta lose yourself and then you'll gain yourself.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is the law of the gift, right?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: This goes right back to Barron, one of Bishop Barron's great talks on David and Hannah in the in the in the with Simeon and I believe it was um might be getting that wrong, but it's it was Hannah, right?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Who was like they they thought she was like drunk and she wasn't.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and she was Baron and she was just she was she was crying out to the Lord.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, you know, the more that you give, this is the idea behind this, the more that you give of yourself, the more you'll receive.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: But there's just something that's in us through, I think, right?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: We know original sin, that there is this like lie that if I take, I'll get more.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't do it intentionally, it's not like I gum in I come into my marriage and I just want to take.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't want to be that guy, right?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be the guy of her dreams.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: But in order to be the guy of her dreams, you gotta lose yourself.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're thinking about yourself, you'll never lose yourself, right?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you come home and it's a total mess, and you're thinking, I've worked my tail off all day, I've had a much more stressful day than you.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And let's say it's objectively true.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're not losing yourself in that moment, you're just like totally owning yourself.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: You hold on.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not about like, well, you've had a really hard day, it's probably been way harder than me, honey, and all that kind of rhetoric.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, we both are working, and some days are she's harder, and some days it's harder for me, and we should be there for each other in that.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: But if if I was coming home, which I did in my 20s and 30s, and I really just wanted someone to meet me with a martini, you know, and and have a perfectly clean house, and the kids are like, what can I get to you, father?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, this email.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, right?
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking more like Charles Dickens, right?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, but it's it's it's not the reality, and and that is it's it's just such a lie.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So when I when I started to not be um that guy, life became so much more peaceful.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to do more, I was able to take on more, and Laura was able to support me more, right?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids were, no one was walking on eggshells around me.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I created a little bit of that environment.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that would be my advice to a young man out there, especially if you're if you're really going for your career these days.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you want it, you want to get it right.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to your question on well, why Minnesota?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's where my community is, right?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's where my family is, that's where I am able to be at best.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can give more to Angel because I'm there.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm able to travel the way I travel and be at the things I need to be, because I've got my chorus set.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then you go to your home life and how you engage your family, your wife.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's like lose yourself.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do your best to lose yourself because you'll gain yourself back in spades.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much more that'll come your way.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the law of the gift.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's beautiful.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: So to end, my last question is how can our community pray for you?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone that's listening out there, what is something that you need prayer for right now?
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Angel Studios, I'll I'll speak about it from that side for now.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's there's a lot that people want Angel Studios to be for them.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: In in a lot of ways, because this industry is so fraught with studios that are not like Angel, we we just have a lot of expectations that come.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we can't fulfill all those expectations.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we can't be everything for everyone.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say if there's a prayer, it's this that the Lord Jesus rained down upon Angel's leadership and all the efforts that we have to try and create a real, true, beautiful, honest, integrity-filled, passionate, exciting path for filmmakers because they need it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Filmmakers that are, as I call it, punching and ducking in the film industry and trying their best in the independent side to bring works of art to the table.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: As Alejandro Monteverde said, you know, they are they are like paintings.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Every single frame should be paused and it's like a painting.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to, my colleagues want to provide that for independent filmmaking and be in a place where the investors recoup and the filmmakers are able to use the capital that they get, the monetization of of their film to make new films and new art, and that we can have this kind of virtuous cycle between patrons and and royalties and investors and artists and directors pulling that all together.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Angel has been blessed with a vision, it's being executed on.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're growing 2.8 plus million members now paying every single month.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it it's extraordinary how how much we've grown and to be able to deliver and keep our eyes set on Jesus Christ for all of it.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: If those prayers could come from your listeners, that would bless us deeply.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: You got it.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for being here.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful duty.