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COURTNEY L. BRANCH - From Cabbage to Cannes · Eating While Broke

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have very
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: special guests Enterprises forty under forty, TV producer, festival, co
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: founder in the Me Show Film Festival, which is the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: fastest growing, most prestigious multicultural festival in the country.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: So it's pretty impressive. Cording, Thank you, Thank you, It's.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: An honor to have you. I love having people have
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: different backgrounds come on the show. So this is gonna
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: be a very eye opening experience. To go from TV
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: producer to creating your own festival is a lot. Yes,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: it is a lot. But before we get into the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: tea on your life, please tell me what you're gonna
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: what you were eating while you were broke.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, So, my favorite favorite favorite dish to make is
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a fried red pepper cabbage ate it while broke, eat
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: it now made it for Thanksgiving for the family. It's
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: like a go to staple in my life at this point. Really,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I thought it was like cabbage soup, but I didn't
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: know what was going on. But there was no broth.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So this is going to be a learning lesson. I'm
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: hoping I can add it to my home dishes because
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: it's very affordable. I think this is like what like
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a three dollar dish dish stretch.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: It's so long, yes, and it's no meat, me, no me.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And I think I added an extra color of peppers,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: so you can ignore the extra.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: One that wasn't supposed to be get there. But go
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: ahead again the kitchen, Okay, let's do it. So essentially,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: what we have here is we have our head of cabbage,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: and so I'm just gonna chop up a little bit more.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Finally we have our peppers, and we have our onion,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: and then you know we're black. So I like to
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: season everything up.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what seasonings are you going with?
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Starting with my Tony Shatterers or however you say it,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: because no one ton Yeah, we just say Tony's exactly,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: started with my Tony's. That's like the must have garlic powder,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: onion powder, a little pep pepka, and then some red
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: pepper flakes to top it all off. So very simple meal,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: pretty easy.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: And then you're using olive oil, Yes, using olive oils.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna get that poured in here now before
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I start chopping.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And then I'm wondering with the olive oil. I would
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: assume when you say fry, it's gonna be like a
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: vegetable oil.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Why is it olive oil? It's more so fried just
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: because it's in an oil. I just cook with olive
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: oil because it's a little bit healthier. No real other Okay, yeah, significance, Okay,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: let me turn this.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: It makes you feel better. I barely use vegetable oil
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: until eating while broke.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Really, now I'm like, vegetable oil, that's the one you
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: use to fry. Yes, Like, if I'm frying hardcore, then
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: we'll definitely do the vegetable oil. But I try and
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: keep it minimal with just a little olive oil and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: call it a day.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Now, is this gonna be like a stir fried type
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: of fee?
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little kind of, but no, really, like once
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: it cooks down, it really is just kind of like
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a regular cabbage. And it's so funny because my parents
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: growing up, my dad always used to make like boiled cabbage.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't until I was working out here in
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: LA and I went to a creole restaurant in mid
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: city that served this red pepper cabbage, and I was like,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: this is not boiled cabbage like this cabbage and taught
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: myself how to make it and it was so good.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Well, we're about to see ac if you could tap them,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: turn me, turn me, tell that frog cabbage eating pepper
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: eating person please, yes, food, yes, So while that's getting
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: nice and hot, can you tell me what was going
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: on in this air or the air of I don't
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: know if you're gonna take me all the way back
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to boiled cabbage or just cab, but take me back.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Well, we'll start at We'll start at the fried cabbage era. Yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: what was going on at this point in time? I
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: was working for a pretty well known talk show at
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the time, and you know, I was getting paid all right,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you know, I wasn't making that much money, but I
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: was really looking forward to getting promoted at that show.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: At the time, I was an associate producer. I had
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: been working there for three years. Which show? Is it
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: for the Doctor Phil Show?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say that, Yeah, And this
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: is based in New York or it was here.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: We actually shot at a Paramount Studios, So I was
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: working on the studio lot, which was amazing, you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: dream come true type stuff. The first year because you know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: moved to La New Here. So that was the dream, right, Yeah,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I have been working there for three years, up for
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: a promotion, and it was myself and two other white
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: girls who were up for a promotion. I'm sorry, I
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: don't mean to laugh. Just I could just foresee the
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: when go ahead, Sure can, and essentially they got promoted.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't wow, and realized in that moment that Okay,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: just because you guys don't see my value doesn't mean
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: that I don't have value. And at that point that
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: was when I was like, hey, I have to walk away. Yes,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: so walked away from a very stable, solid, comfy job.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Because you said it started out lower.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: The pay was decent. I mean, it was okay for
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: where I was at, but after three years, it's you
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: gotta elevate, like it's time to go up. You walked
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: without no back of plan.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I walked without any kind of backup plan.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: But like, the only thing I knew was that that
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: wasn't gonna work for me. So was it like an
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: emotional walk off or was.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It like like, oh that's the move, I'm out and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you through stuff in a box. Or was it like
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I went home, talked to my girlfriends. It still ended
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: at that conclusion.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: No, it was I knew when I started having the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: conversations with them about a promotion that if I wasn't
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: promoted that year, I would have to leave because for me,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: not only was I there for three years, which I
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: don't believe in staying in any position longer than three
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: years without a title bomb I liked that, but I
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: also was doing the work of the role that I
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: wanted to be promoted to, and they knew that. So
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: for me, it's like you're having me do the work.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They even went as far as asking me to train
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the other person they promoted. I said, absolutely not. I'm
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: not gonna do that. Y'all are crazy, you know, as
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: crazy as that I feel, I had to.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I actually experienced that once. And you're training someone that's
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be above you. Does just the irony of it, like.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: How in the world does that make any sense? And
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to who?
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: So did you train these two girls that were working
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: with you?
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I did not, Okay, and that's when I walked away.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Did they ask you to Yeah, they asked me to train.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: So it was kind of like a thing where essentially
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: what am I saying essentially like we were going on
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: a hiatus, so like every season, like we'll take the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: summer off and then we'll come back in August and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the show starts back up again. So they were kind
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: of putting together all of who was going to be
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: in what position coming into the next season. And so
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: at that point before we went on hiatus, that was
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: when the conversations were happening about who was going to
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: be promoted, training all of that fun stuff, because we
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: knew at one point that one of the girls was
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: automatically going to be promoted, and that's the one that
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: they asked me to train. The other one kind of
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: came as a surprise. Why did they Why did we
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: know that the one was going to get promoted? She
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: had a little bit more time in the industry. Yeah,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: which I get that. I totally understand that, But you
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: still had the trainer. I mean, I didn't train her,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: But that's what I'm saying.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: That was the request, That was the requests, And yeah,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: they were saying when they say trainer, you mean trainer
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: on the workings of the Phil Show, or trainer.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: On on that position that I was that we were
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: both looking to move into. Got it. Yeah, because again,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I was already doing the role. Yeah, without the pay,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: without the title, you know, all that fun stuff.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: But you still were saying that it was you understood
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: why they promoted her.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Though I understood why they promoted her. I didn't understand
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: why they promoted the other girl. Got it? Who was
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: who started after me in a lower position than me,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: and somehow she got promoted before me. Yeah, so you
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: know you can you can do the math. You can
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: figure all that out on your own. So you walked away.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: I walked away. I booked a trip to Europe and said,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I'll wait and see what the email comes back with.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: If you guys send me an offer, amazing, If you don't, amazing.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you sent them an email like or
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: what basically an ultimatum type of email.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, not an ultimatum. But essentially I was
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: waiting to hear back if either of my contract was
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: going to be renewed at the same rate, or if
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: it was going to be renewed with a promotion. Yeah,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: and so essentially, when I did get the email that
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: you know they were not going to promote me, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: they still wanted me to come back in the same position,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: I said absolutely not. Good job, thank you, but no thanks. Now,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: how broke? Were just where the dishones in? Listen? Listen? Absolutely?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: So I told you I found that creole restaurant, loved it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Did you get you're in Europe? I shared it that
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: shir did. Yep. I was like, but you know what,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: It's fine. I'd rather be sad in Europe than said
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: at home.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, how long were you in Europe for? It wasn't
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: enough to ruin the vacation, was it?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: No? I wasn't letting that ruin anything. Job. I like
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: you at all. All right, I want to turn this
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: down a little bit because we're okay. So then you
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: come home. So I come home, Like I said, I
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: found that amazing creole restaurant. And at this point I'm jobless.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: So I was like, I need to figure out how
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to make this myself. You had you had savings, right,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I have some savings. I'm good hit
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: that money management.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Guys.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: She didn't just walk with two dollars exactly. And I knew,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: like again, just because they didn't see the value, I
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: knew that I was destined for greatness. I was going
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: to be able to get something else. Okay, So took
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: some time off started making my own red pepper cabbage
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: because I wasn't about to be paying a restaurant at
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the time. So like the last couple of times you
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: ate to use like, I think I gotta do this. Listen.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: It was one point I was like, you know what,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I think I can figure this out on my own.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I love this for you, thank you.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: So then you you're eating red cabbage cabbage at home.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Now what's the next play while you eating this fry
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: cabbage watching your savings dwindor.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yes. So at that point I had kind of made
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: up in my mind and said I have to be
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: promoted to this producer position by the end of the year.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: So I told myself I'd be willing to take one
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: more position as an associate producer if I knew that
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: it was going to get me to where I wanted
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: to be. And so I actually kind of pivoted a
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: little bit out of TV production and I went into casting.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: So I did one job as an associate producer for
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: a casting company that I was working with, and had
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: started just having the conversations with the boss like, hey, like,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: I love working for you, but if you want to
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: bring me back next year. I have to come back
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: as a producer. Okay, and literally I showed out. I
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: did my work like head down was fantastic. The next season,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: she promoted me to casting producer. Yeah, and that show
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: that I was a casting producer for was actually Love Island,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the first season of the US version here Okay, Yeah.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Now, do you think that the transparency up front of
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: like saying that helped you in that particular case versus
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: like just working and not saying anything.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that was one of the things that I
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: feel like I had kind of failed in on my
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: part with Doctor Phil was that I started having those
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: conversations too late, and I felt like I always thought
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: that if I just keep my head down and do
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: the work, the work will speak for me. Yeah, but
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: sometimes you gotta speak for yourself too.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I one hundred percent agree with that, because sometimes people
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: have so much going on they don't know even though
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it does seem like there was a little bit of
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: unfair play going on. Yeah, but that's just a good
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: thing to know for everybody at home.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you got to speak up for yourself because
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: no one's gonna They're not just gonna give you a promotion,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: they'll say, hey, great job, You're doing great work the end.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So then what happens after Love is Blind, Love Island Live,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Love Island Sorry?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: After that, Love Isolence, I know, so so many shows.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: After that, I got my producer title and then I
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: just kept it pushing from there. I did a little
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: bit more casting and with casting. So with TV production,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: you're working minimum twelve hour days. Yeah, minimum casting, it
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: is a solid nine to five. You have so much
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: free time, and I'm like, well, what do I do
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: with the rest of this time? And that's when my
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: co founder, Noel he is actually a filmmaker, and he
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: wanted to do this like short film screening where he
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: showed some of his films, and I was like, you
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: know what, I'll help you with that. I wanted to
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: get into more of like event planning anyway, so I
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: said I'll help with that, Like that's something I'd be
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: interested in. And fast forward. It now is an entire
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: huge film festival. How many years we are now at
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: year seven? Yes, geez, how was that first year? Oh? Man?
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I mean it was great. The turnout was amazing. We
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: out sold it twice, and I say that it's essentially
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: it sold out. When people left, more people came in.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: So it just like was amazing. And it got to
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: the point where that next the year after people kept
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: asking us, well, when's the next one? When's the next one?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I was like, all right, well, I guess then needs
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: to be a next one, Like clearly there's a demand here,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: and that turned into the Me Show Film Festival as
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: we know it. It was crazy the first year. We
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: obviously we had to self finance it, but it was
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: a one day, like small, small event. But how many people?
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: How many was it about two hundred and fifty people?
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: That's that's it. Yeah, it's small, but that's that's still
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: a big fee. Yeah.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I have a background and event planning, so I two
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: point fifty is especially if you can sell out and
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you said you rotated, Now, yeah, that's a big fee,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: especially because you have to market it and promote it
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and the venue and the costs and all that exactly.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: And that was a crash course. Now, did you end
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: up losing money on the first one or at least
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: breaking even?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: No, Yeah, we didn't lose any money. We actually because
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: this was not planning to be like a whole business,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: a whole festival. Whole company. We actually donated the proceeds
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: to a nonprofit. I love that, Yes, because we partner
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: with the nonprofit that focused on helping homeless youth, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: so we just donated the proceeds and then once it
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: kind of came back around the next year and people
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: were like, all right, let's let's get the snacks on
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: pop and we're like, all right, well, let's sell some tickets.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Let's like, if we're going to do it, let's do
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: it right. Yeah.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So when you engaged in the nonprofit, how
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: did that whole structure end up coming about?
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Sorry, honest in the business. Honestly, we had a friend
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: who worked at the nonprofit and it just was a
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: very simple easy thing to do. We wanted some of
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: their youth that they served to come out and just
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: be able to you know, mix and mingle with the filmmakers,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: watch the film, just kind of have a fun day out,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: fun experience. But that's something that we have done quite
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: a few years of the festival with different nonprofits, different organizations,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: just getting their youth activated, because it's important to know that,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you know, even though your circumstances might not be great
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: right now, like you can still achieve something, and it's
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: important to be able to see that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So are you still doing television production on the
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: side or over Listen, I do a little bit of
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: everything at this point. So essentially, let me see here
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: we did six Last year was our sixth year doing
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: the festival, and at this point I've kind of transitioned
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: away from running the day to day operations of the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: festival and have transitioned back into more of like the
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: TV film side of things. You're on the creative side
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: the business, yes, okay, yeah, yeah, so, and I mean
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: that's funny.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Started as the creative right, yes, and then you were
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: the business and now you guys swamped.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Yes okay, well no, not not that we swabbed. More so,
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I'm more focusing on TV and film development at this point. Yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're focused on TV and development in general or
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: in general in regards to me, show in general in general. Yeah,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: what are you doing on S side?
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you asked. So essentially, I've been in
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: a transition period. I realized quite a few years ago
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: actually that I really wanted to start presuming pursuing the
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: executive track, which is developing shows and films and giving
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: notes to the creatives and packaging the projects. So that's
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: something that really really spoke to me, okay for and
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: it's so crazy because I've penciled on that's muscle.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But love how I wasn't even surprised hearing you say,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: like you're already targeting executive You're very much this is
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: comfortable for one day, but I need to focus on
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: moving forward.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am not at.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: All surprised that you were saying the executive track. That's
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: very impressive, by thank you. I appreciate your personality is.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Like growth growth, Okay, stable growth. It said three years
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: right yep, so okay, yep exactly. But yeah, that was
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: something that like it just kept like pushing on me.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: You know, at some point it's like, all right, I
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: gotta do this, Like I can't stay right, Like it's
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: time to move forward. So that's kind of what I've
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: been focusing on now. And obviously worst time in the
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: industry to even try to get a job to try
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: and pivot to the thing, but you know, God is good.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So right now I'm actually working at the Latino Film
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Institute as their manager of Industry, and essentially I'm overseeing
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: their entire slate of productions through their fellowship programs, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: it is amazing. It's everything I could have asked for.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I'm watching cuts every day, I'm reading scripts every day,
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I'm giving notes. It's so much work, but I enjoy
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: it so much. Is it like a twelve hour day? No,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: it's not a twelve hour yeah? Yeah? No, thankfully?
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Do you still now get to still plan trips to like?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I like how you were, Like I traveled to Europe,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and I sure do.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I love I love traveling. I love going out of town.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: My mom, my, sister and I we went to Barcelona
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: last year. It was great. Wow, it was amazing. Guys
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: are family goals. I appreciate that. I just want to
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: see what it looks like. Okay, it's about ready, really, Yeah,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: it's a nice, easy quick meal. Did you put the
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: peppers in already? Is that paying assention? I only put
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: a couple of them in there, though I did. It
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: smells good? Good.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: What I want to backcheck because I kind of have
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: an idea of where you are at today. Can you
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: tell me a little bit of your your upbringing and
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: how TV ended up crossing past as like a priority
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: for you.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely so. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. My
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: dad is a pastor. My mom is a court reporter.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: She also preaches at times as well, but she's a
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: court reporter. I mean we had I had a great upbringing,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: like I yeah, upper middle class. Yeah, he was also
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: a professor. My dad is a hustler. He's from Harlem,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: like he listen, my work ethic comes from that man.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: But my mom is where I get my love of
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: TV and film from. I just remember it was always
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: a thing growing up. We will always just watch TV together,
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Like you know, back then it was appointment television. If
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: you missed it, you missed it. There wasn't anything else
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you can right. My mom watched a soap opera. Yeah
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: it was serious, right, so you didn't miss that that show,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Like you planned your schedule arounds like, oh, this new
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: season's coming on, like we're gonna be in front of
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: the TV. Damn, I got about the right. It's so nice.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: But I think it just helps like create a little
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: element of community, like you know, we're all watching the
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: same thing on our own schedules apart, right, exactly. My
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: mom's always loved just great movies. She's always loved the classics,
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: so she started watching those with me from a very
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: early age. And then as I got older, then we
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: started watching the R rated stuff, and like she took
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: pride and introducing me to like the great films. Yeah,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: so I'm still together. They are yep, shout outs to
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: marry folk made it. Yes, they sure did.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: But now you said your mom and your your sister
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: travel with you. Your dad wasn't a part of the.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: No, my dad's not getting on a flight that long.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he likes to travel, but he likes to
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: be on the beach and that's it. Okay, So what
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: he has like a five hour minimum pretty much? Oh
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: not even ten hours? You get him about five. Him
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: and my mom went to Paris one time for the anniversary.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: He was like, cool, did it done? He's probably like
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: if it ain't first class on a five or more flight,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I'm not Melissa, And he's like, I'm not doing it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So I'm not mad at him. I'm not mad at him.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: So okay, So you start falling in love with film
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: because of this bonding situation with your mom, and then
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: you decide you're going to go off to college. Well, so, actually,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: my story really kind of starts in high school. So
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: my senior year of high school, I was talking to
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: well before my senior ye of high school, like the
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: summer leading into it, talking to a friend, and she
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: was telling me about how she was taking a broadcasting
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: class at her school and I was like, man, that
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: sounds great. I wish my school offered that. And I
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: don't remember all of the pieces of how it happened,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: but long story short, I ended up switching high school
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: specifically to take a broadcasting class. You did the elevator,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Mom and Dad, that's been one he Honestly, I was like, hey, guys,
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: like it was going into my senior year. So my
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: last year of high school, I did. I did. I
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: was like, I feel like this is the class that
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I have to take, Like I want this. That was Yeah,
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: it wasn't hard. It wasn't too hard. Yeah, yeah at all.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: And it was like another school that was within our district,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: like it just it made sense. And it also was
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: a bigger school. So I was like, I feel like
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a good kind of like prep
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: into college. So I mean, they they went with it.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: We went to the orientation. Next thing, I know, I'm
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: in I'm in school and I am taking this broadcasting class.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I do my best, you know, forget my friends. So
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I took that class, started learning, like just someone like
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: the basics of I wouldn't even call it filmmaking because
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: at that point it was I would call it content creating,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I guess, but started learning those basics, fell in love
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: with it even more. And then yeah, I went to
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: college at Georgia State University and majored in broadcasts journalism,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: And I mean, it's it's been up ever since, like
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: it's been something that I if I didn't work in
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: the industry, I genuinely don't know what I would do.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: So what was your first job in because I know
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: you went to New York for a bit.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I did. I went to New York for a little bit.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: So my first first job was actually working at the CW.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: It was also my first internship and I was a
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: part of their promotions team. But we also got to
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: got to go to a lot of different events like
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: sports games. We got to do a lot of like
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: editing and reels and things like that for the company.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: So that was my first like real kind of taste
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: of things. But from there I really kind of started
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: getting my footing in the industry when I moved to
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: New York and I moved there for a talk show initially,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: but that was a very short contract, and then I
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: started working with CBS this morning. I also had done
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: a fellowship with them back in my like interning days.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Very quickly realized news was not my jam and I
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: needed a little bit more commotion. Yeah, now what's news?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Was it like a fast turnover that made it not
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: your thing? No, it was just a little monotonous for me,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Like it's just kind of like the same formula every day.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: And it didn't help that I was working overnights, Like
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: I came in at midnight. It's not a fun shift.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: And my and then like what time did you go home?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Like about ten ten in the morning.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I'm just like I don't know about this,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And can you talk to more of the internship because
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I feel like we're in a culture where everybody's fast
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: paced and then they hear like, you know, I think
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry, you definitely go through a nice
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: period of paying your dues. I have a feeling your
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: dudes was only three years, but can you talk more
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: about that?
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think, especially within the entertainment industry,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: internships are so important because this is one of the
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: few industries where experience is more important than education. Like,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: of course you should be educated. Of course, get your degree,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: especially for US black people, like that's important, but you
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: also have to get that hands on experience so that
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: when you do get a job, you're not starting from scratch,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: you're not starting from zero. You at least have a
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: little bit of an idea of what's going on and
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: how to do things. And for me, kind of same mentality.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: I did my two unpaid internships and after that I
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: was like, all right, now I need to pay an internship.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I'm not working for free no more. I knew. I
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: knew that was coming with you. Yep, He's like, let's
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: move up the ladder. I tried. I tried it fun
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: long enough. It is FEUs. Oh yes, do it. I
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: actually need to taste tests because I've put my little
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: seasons in here. But it smells good, so I'm gonna
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: believe it's all right. Okay, let me get that.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: You can't mess this up. It's gonna be the new
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: go to. Yes, I should have paid attention more, but.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: I'll sing you the recipe. It's real easy. You just
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: seasoned a bunch of vegetables. Yeah, exactly.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Honestly, you didn't use that many onions either.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I did that. I didn't want to overwhelm too much.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Smells good, good, smells really good. I can't wait to
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: try you.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: You eat this without anything else, usually out parrot with
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: some type of protein.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Like when you order at the restaurant, what do they
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: serve it with?
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Oh? Girl, they served it with fry track. So good.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: So that's how you do it. Okay, that's what they do.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yeah, mm hmmm.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: That is amazingly delicious. Oh thank you. Yeah, this is
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: this is one of my favorites. You only did the
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: reddin I did only do the red. I forgot to
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: put in the orange ones. I usually do red and green.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: This is outstandingly delicious, and you're right. With some strip
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: it would have been great. Huh. You had to follow
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: all the rules of eating want broken. Listen when you
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: broke it a you know you can't afford the shrimp sometimes.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Have you made this for your dad? I have? And
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: what did he say? I made it for my family
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: for Christmas? This past year. They all raved about it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: They loved it. I had to send my mind yep,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: like girls in it. Mm hmm.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: The seasoning on this, guys, remember garlic powder, onion powder,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: red pepper, paprika.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: And Tony's Tony's always. I did the shout out for
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: you guys, so you can make this at home. She
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: was just, you know, spinning it in the pot. Did
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: you You didn't even put the butter. I didn't even
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: put butter in there. Would the butter have made it
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: that much death better? Yeah? The butter just adds a
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: little extra. Yeah, this is delicious. Thank you. I'm so
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: glad you like it a whole. I'm mad.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Out of all the guests, you're the only one that
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: follows the serving rule.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Yep. And the one time, the whole the whole batch.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: We had the rest of this cabbage. So we can
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: work something out. We're gonna we're gonna do it right
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: when we walk.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I can see why you would get get out from
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Europe and be like, I can't be eating at this
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: restaurant every day that at some point did you ask
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: one of them like, what seasoning is it?
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: No? I just figured out figured it out myself. That's hilarious.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Can do that. Sometimes I feel to the restaurant and be like,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: do this do that with short rip. I'm gonna have
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: a good short rip. I promise you. It's a challenge
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: for me. I'm like, I, no, no, I can do
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: it better. I made some bomb. Oh my gosh, Yeah,
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: that's what I need. If I make a guy short rip,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: that's how you know. I'm I'm trying to.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Really show you what I could do right right, And
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I played it real well, oh it's a rep.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: So you're doing these internships and where does it end
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: up coming in from New York to Los Angeles.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was doing just like little gigs in
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: New York. Once I hit the news path, I was like, yeah,
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: this isn't for me. I got to figure something else out.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: That's when I kind of bounced back into more of
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: like the talk show will not bounced back well, yeah,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: my first show was in talk and then bounced back
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: to like the talk show genre, did some Court TV
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and the job that I was working at the Court show.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: It actually landed me back in Atlanta, which was cool
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: for a summer to be home with my family. And
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: these are all contracts? Mm hmm. Is that a little
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: bit freelance once you kind of well, back in the
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: day when I started, things are very different now. But
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: when I started, once you kind of started getting your
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: feet wet, the jobs kind of started coming.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: So I never was unemployed longer than I wanted to be,
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: really at any time until I left doctor Phil. So
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: for the most part, I was Okay. I would take
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: like a two week break off and then the phone
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: would ring and I'd have another job.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: How are you managing money on contract? So, knowing that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: that's how it is, did you make you have like
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: a rule on like how much you save and spend?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a good saver, so I was always kind
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: of doing that. But I also know how to live
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: within my means, so I was very intentional about that. Okay. Yeah,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So no splurgeon on a shop and spreaing on a
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: random one. No, not too much, not too much. I
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: could only splurge when I was able to slurge. Do
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: you think doing what you love helps in that area? Absolutely?
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: This is one of those industries you have to you
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: have to love what you're doing. Is when you start off,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: it doesn't pay that well. The hours are insane. Sometimes
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: the people you're working with are crazy, not just like
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: the people in your office, but also like the talent sometimes.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: So you have to absolutely love what you're doing out
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: of TV production, festival producing, and casting.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Which what are some of the things that you liked
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: about each particular position?
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a great question. TV producing. My favorite part
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: was the writing. There's a lot of writing involved. I
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: was definitely one of the best writers when it came
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: to being on the Doctor Phil Show. What do you
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: do when you say you wrote? So for example, like
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: if we book someone on the show, we have sometimes
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: up to an hour two hour long conversations with them
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: to get their story, and so you're writing almost verbade
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: them exactly what they're telling you about their story, and
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: then you have to kind of go in organize it,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: clean it all up, make sure it makes sense, make
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: sure it's an actual story that's un fun that can
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: then be sent to the host, which Doctor Phil, and
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: kind of go from there. So you're writing a ton
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: of information. Then we also have what we call our book,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: which basically just puts together all of the different elements
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: that he needs to do the show, which is obviously
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: like the story, the pre interview that we do in
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: addition to like, let's say they have some type of
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: like receipts or like proof of something. You want to
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: put all of that together, you want to transcribe it.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: So it's a lot of writing involved.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: So before he goes on, he kind of knows the beginning,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: in the middle, and the end before during.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The whole he knows everything, and it's just a matter
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: of us producing how the story's going to unfold. And
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: then do you guys also like prepare his questions or
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: less like. So we'll prepare the questions and then he'll
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: of course kind of do his own thing and ask
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: additional things like that and do his doctor phil thing. Okay,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: so you like the writing on that m hm. Okay.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: What about casting casting? Honestly, it's gonna sound terrible, but
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I liked how easy casting was. Casting was just a
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: piece of cake after coming out of television production. It
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: was only that first part of talking to people, getting
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: their story and then submitting it to the network.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, I wasn't too sure if you get to pick
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the person m hm. So for reality TV, I have
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: this theory that they always try to pick the crazies.
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Right that we can't make them too crazy because they
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: have to go through a psyche valve. They have to
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: be cleared by you guys, do do it? So you
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: picked the borderline the ones that would happen, like, I mean,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: you got to make people who have the personalities. You
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: gotta have the people who are gonna have a little spice,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: you know, Mike start the pot a little bit, you know,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: you gotta have all of those people. How far they
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: border is? You know, so you are kind of looking
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: for the crazies though right, I wouldn't say the craziest.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: I think it also depends on the show. It depends
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: on the network. For Love Island, it was very straight laced.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: It was very it wass you have to be hot
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: or something definitely definitely and young, like if you said
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: you were thirty, there's no automatic. No what if it
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: was like a really hot you know, any race but white.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Obviously it would have to be in order for.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: They couldn't even lie about it, huh, because you exactly exactly.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: I mean you could probably get a really really really
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: hot thirty year old doctor. That's probably it. Like it
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: has to hit all of these exactly, so it's not happening.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Basically, if you're over the age of thirty, it's stock plummets.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately for reality TV. Yeah, unfortunately, which is why I
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: love shows that now kind of like cater to like
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: an older audience, to like the one on own Ready
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: to Love. Everyone on that show is thirty forties, fifties.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Oh oh you know what I watched that show? Yeah,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: where the older people.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: But you started to realize, Man, when you get older,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: you stuck in your way. Yes for real, Yes that
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: they are that they are just be single and according
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: right exactly.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I would do that. I would totally do that. So okay,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: so casting that I could see what that's fun and
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: it's the shorter hours, right much shorter? Okay? Yeah.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: So now the hardest feet, which I think is very impressive,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: is the Me Show Festival. Okay, so what is the
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: pros and cons of that?
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: Man? I mean the best part for me was that
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: it allowed me to watch so much content and just new,
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: original stuff and just seeing how innovative and creative people are.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: That was my favorite part. I also loved just being
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: able to curate how the screenings were going to go
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: and making them kind of flow and being able to
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: kind of like almost like play with people's emotions based
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: on what project was airing at the time. So that
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: part I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the curation process of
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: that cons I think with being entrepreneurs like you have
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: to do everything, so that was definitely one of the
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: harder parts of running the festival. Yeah, I was gonna say,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: that's your first real entrepreneurship, which, by the way, for
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: your first time, that's impressive, thank you. I think event
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: management is definitely like a loose cannon. I have a
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: rule by the time the day of the event happens,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: we should have no jobs due and still arrive at
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: the crack of dog yeah early, because we already know
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: that a fire needs to be put out on site.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: And no matter how hard you prepare, always, no matter
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: how hard you prepare, and one little thing can just
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: trickle down to everything. I remember this past year we
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: had something where like the printer messed up, and because
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: the printer messed up, we didn't have what we needed
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: for the opening day, So then one of our leads
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: had to go run to the printer of the opening day,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: so we're down a person. I'm just and it just
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: it affects everything. It's such a domino effect. So it's like, yeah,
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: that that event production, you never know what's gonna happen.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: The only thing you know is that nothing's gonna go
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: all the way right.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Ye ever, yeah, nothing's gonna go all the way right.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: And then that pre execution has to be above beyond,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Like you can never be like everything's done, everything's done,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: We're gonna show up two hours in the morning. We're
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: gonna have our hair and make up done.
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: If everything's done, something's wrong. It's not gonna.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Happen right, You're gonna get the poster boards or something
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: is gonna have something wrong or whatever.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: But that's all interesting. Now, where do you see yourself
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: going from here? From here? Now, I feel like I
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: am kind of in the space of like passion meeting
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: purpose and I felt that a lot while working with
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: the festival as well, but now I feel like it's
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: it's a deeper space of that. So from here, like
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: I said, right now, I'm managing a slate of productions
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: with Latino Film Institute, and I think in a few
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: years my goal would be to be working at a
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: traditional studio or streamer and really being able to have
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: the power to green light projects, green light original projects,
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: green light projects from people of color, and make sure
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: that we're all represented in this industry. I love that.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: And when you say it, I believe it's going to say
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: thank you.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not joking at all. Believe it. Yeah, you believe
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: it too. Absolutely, You've proven to yourself time and time again.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: You hit the mark. Yeah right, yeah, and I mean listen,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: daughter of pastors. So with God, all things are possible. Like, yes,
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: I work very hard, but the Lord we like this,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: like he yeah, yeah, he works overtime for me. Do
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: you believe when you pray you have to pray a
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: certain way?
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: No?
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, so random. I was just curious. I did a
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: lot of I feel like I've manifested or spoken it
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: into existence, as we like to say in church, a
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: lot of my life right now. Like I said, when
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: I was trying to transition into what I'm doing now,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: one of the worst times in the industry, people weren't
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: hiring and I would reach out to people and say, hey, like,
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: I'm really trying to work in development, and they would
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: just say, oh, there's no jobs in that while I'm
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: working in it. Yeah, and I mean it took. It
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: took some time, but there was never a single point
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: where I thought it wasn't going to happen. I just
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: I knew that this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Something will come out, something will happen, and it did.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what advice would you give to someone out there
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: trying to get into the TV production side, or even
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: the film festival side, or trying to get their film
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: in the Me Show Festival. And by the way, we
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: got to spell it out for you guys, because I
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: don't want you googling it the way I'm saying it
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: mad at me because it's spelled a little fun Yeah, respectfully, Yes, yes,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: go ahead, we could spell.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: It out, so I'll spell it. And it's based off
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: of Oscar Michell, who was the first black filmmaker in
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: the US. So he produced over forty four feature length
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: projects from the nineteen twenty to the nineteen forties, which
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: is incredible today's standard, but like way back then, I
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: have no idea how he did it. But it's the
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: ME Show Films Festival and it's spelled m I C
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: H E A U X so a little French in there.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, now we know the history so we can
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: also google.
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: Yes. Great, great planning on that one. So was Mike.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, oh, advice, advice, Yan. Yeah, I'm not
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: gonna lie. I'm not the person's going to sugarcoat. It's
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: hard right now, it's very hard to break into the industry.
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: There are less show shooting, there are less jobs available,
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: but that doesn't mean it's not possible. I was at
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: a screening where Uzzo a Duba I want to say
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: it's her last name. She said something that really stuck
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: with me, and she said, just because it's hard doesn't
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: mean it's impossible. And I feel like that is the
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: advice that I have for people trying to break into
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the industry. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. It's always been
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: a hard industry and now it's even harder. But if
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: this is something that you feel your call to, then
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: get out there and make it happen. Because you can
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: open doors, it can happen. And then also, you gotta
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: love it. You gotta love it. It's too difficult not
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: to love it. And if you don't love it, you
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: won't succeed.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then how important are relationships? Would you say
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to this because I feel like relationships are everything.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: They are everything, one hundred percent. It's so funny. When
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: I was actually applying for jobs, I just felt like
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: I was applying into the void, and I was like,
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: I've never gotten a single job that I just clicked
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: apply for. It's always been someone calling my phone or
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: me calling someone's phone and saying, Hey, I'm looking for work.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: So I think having those relationships are so important. Hollywood
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: runs on relationships, Like if you don't know people, if
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: people don't know you, if they don't know the quality
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: of your work, it just makes it that much harder.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: And I think also just capitalizing on those relationships, like
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: you have to tell people what you're looking for. You
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: have to be specific and direct. There's so many times
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: people are like, hey, do you know of any jobs
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: hiring for what? Like, what are you looking for? What
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: do you want to do? So I always just try
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: to tell people just be specific about your ask, be
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: direct about your ass so that people know how to
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: help you, because if you don't own your mouth, they
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: won't know. Yeah.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: And then one other thing I noticed even speaking to you,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you could shed a lot of light
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: on this is Courtney L.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Branch.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Even in this conversation you're speaking of your personal brand.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: You're talking about I have to grow. I have to grow.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I have to grow. I'm pursuing what I'm into. But
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: I think that when you're developing relationships in the industry,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: people forget that personal brand touch. So if people go
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: if they get Courtney L. Branch is looking for this,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: or Courtney L. Branch is looking for that, or Courtney L.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Branch wants to move in this direction, Courtney has a
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: personal brand.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Can you speak to some of that. Absolutely. I mean,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: I think what my personal brand is is just how
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: I like to show up when it comes to working.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: I think people know that I have a strong work ethic.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: I think they also know that I'm kind, and I
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: think that goes a long way, especially when preserving relationships.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: And I think they know that I do quality work
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: and that I like to be excellent. So they know
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: that if COURTNEYL. Branch is hiring, then you know it's
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: it's a top tier it's a quality project. Or if
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Courtney's working on something she's looking for writers, then you
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: already know there's a certain standard just because of how
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I show up myself and I would never expect. I
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: would never expect people to show up any less than
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: how I would show up. Yeah, I agree. Well, you're
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: a beautiful person. It makes beautiful food.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna I'm gonna save your number my phone
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: because I know, probably less than a year two or three,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: m Max, you don't have the opportunity to green light things.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: You guys heard it here first, right, okay? And then
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: where can everybody keep up with Courtney L.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Branch? Yes, you can find me on Instagram and threads
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: at court produced it very simple and you can also
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: follow the Me Show Film Festival on all platforms at
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: me Show Film Fest and that's m I c h
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: E A u X Film Fest and submissions are open.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Passes are on sale. The festival is in October the
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: twenty third through the twenty sixth, So you know.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: When does the when does the film submissions close?
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Yes? So they are open through June for short form
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: and July for long form and was considered long form.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Long form is anything over fifty five minutes. Short form
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: is under twenty six minutes.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, you guys heard it here first. Okay, heard it
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: here first, Jared, you heard it here first.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, Jared does a lot of film productionsips. All right,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: thank you guys for tuning in. Peace out, Peace
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: For more, eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.