Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Building Creative Spaces ft. Vince Ricci | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

In this episode of Coffeez for Closers, we sit down with Vince Ricci, the founder and CEO of Hubble Studio. Starting in 2014, Vince transformed a single-stage setup into a premier creative hub in Los Angeles, hosting top-tier clients like Vogue and GQ. Beyond the studio, he has expanded into fashion with Hubble Clothing and ventured into the cannabis industry with Balanced Los Angeles. Vince shares his journey from humble beginnings in the Bronx to becoming a key player in LA's creative scene, discussing the challenges and successes along the way. Join us for an insightful conversation about entrepreneurship, creativity, and the drive to build something unique.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Some people dream of building a creative empire. Vince Ritchie actually did it. From working with the biggest brands in the world to redefining what a creative space can be, he built Hubble Studios into a powerhouse for photography, fashion, and content. But success didn't happen overnight. It took hustle, vision, and knowing exactly how to sell creativity as a business.

So, how do you go from an idea to a multi-million-dollar studio that brands and artists fight to work with. That's what we're breaking down today with the man himself, Vince Ritchie. Creative, hustler, badass. Welcome to coffees. Welcome, brother. That was some entry. I appreciate the patience and the retake. Vince, I'm blessed and honor to be sitting here with you in your beautiful studio, an incredible facility,

and you're just such an incredible guy. I'm, you know, really, really it's an absolute blessing to be sitting with you here right now. I like to start to show off with a general question I like to ask every founder that I get to sit with. And what is Vince Ritchie's morning routine? Oh, my morning routine. I wake up around 6.15 by 7.15, my wife's breaking my balls. And then, you know, it's the rest of the day after I don't know, I'm joking with you.

I wake up in the morning since we have a new child. We split our routine in the morning, but we wake the baby up together. So we go, I wake up about 6.15, start getting ready. at seven on the dot, we go in and we wake our daughter together so that, you know, she gets very secure with the both of us. We wake up with positive energy, we go in smiling, super happy, she's happy, and she's excited to start today. And then after that, I changed the baby dress her up, my wife gets time to change and get ready,

and then we take a walk to the coffee shop together. We talk about whatever's going on that day since my wife is the director of Hubble Studio, And we obviously work together. So we get to start the day. We're talking about what's plans for the rest of the day. Things we need to address, hot topics, anything like that. We sit down, we have a cup of coffee because the coffee shops within walking distance

on my house. I walk back, give my wife a kiss, and I got a kiss, and I had to work. Nice. I mean, that's a blessing to get the opportunity to work with your wife, and she's like not only your life partner, but pretty much your business partner. Yeah.

So that's, that dynamic is fluid. I mean, it seems like you guys rocking the same shoes. Yeah. You know, you guys are true best friends that have a relationship I really admire. Yeah. Well, I pick what we wear. Not a joke. My wife's beautiful.

So it's funny when I on a first date, I asked though, how, like how many sneakers you have? She was like, you mean tennis shoes? She's like, I don't really wear tennis shoes like that. And I said, oh, that'll change. And then you wear them in a certain fashion. I like that. Yeah. You know, shoes untied and, you know, that's pretty cool.

Thank you. You know what it is because we call it a decade of culture here because we're behind the scenes of everything that's happening. Like just yesterday we were shooting and represent. It's a brand. It's a super prominent brand from the UK that's in L.A. now. And they're doing a lot. And we're so blessed to see what happens before it's happening that I felt like my interpretation of culture and fashion and art and design was what I was seeing before the whole world was seeing it. Yeah.

I'm talking to people, going to talk to directors. producers, designers, creative directors, art directors, everybody, directors of photography, photographers, videographers, and understanding how to creative mind works. And then with understanding that, I was able to look into that lens and then a reflection of myself and say, well, what do I like? What do I want to take on? And not manipulating what I seen for myself, but creating my own style and running with that, which is very simple. So the thing that I actually like and not usually what I wear because I dress very simple. But knowing how to design for others, knowing how to curate for others, writing treatment

for different companies, because we really do see what the mood is getting set. You know, what trends are starting from typography, the color theory on set to everything. And I mean, it's been a lot of fun. Man, you're at the forefront of everything from fashion to art, to music, I mean, everything and that all the, you're like the hippest dad. Yeah. Oh, man. I can't.

I'm just, now I'm saying to myself, I'm my dad. I'm like, oh, my God. You're like, to be a dad of two. I know. Yeah. But, you know, maintain that level of relativity into their like 10s, 12, when they're 15, and be like, man, my dad's a cultural icon. Yeah.

I actually ran into Mike and Miri the other day. And I remember our first photo shoot here was when I first started. And now he's literally probably one of the most relevant designer brands out there. I think he just beat St. Laurent in global sales. And I seen him about last week having lunch. I said, damn, Mike. He told me how old this kid's work because we were talking about my daughter. And I was like, damn, you're looking great.

And he was like, you know, consistency because we follow each other at the gym. And I'm like, you know, this guy will always be relevant. He'll always know what's going on. He'll always stay ahead. He's just got it. You know, and we have this whole era of TikTok and all these other new trends and TikTok dances and whatnot. I know, like we talked about the 11-year-old to 20-year-old relevance, but then there's those real shapers, those real industry leaders

that do set the tone for what's going on. Do you remember the scene in Devil Wears Prada? Yeah. With Cyrillium Blue. Do you remember that scene? No, no. Remind me. She said, well, I'm not really into fashion. She said, but you are.

Because you don't know why you bought that second-hand sweater, but it was... Who was it? the designer. I don't know if somebody could tell me, but you guys don't remember either. But it was a Bortega Vanano, somebody that set the tone the season before, then went down and went down and went down and the line to that secondhand shop of why you're wearing that color. And these high-end people who do make decisions really do set the tone, and they're always going to be relevant. Yeah. You know, and fighting to stay there.

Exactly. Now, what age did you start in the creative space? I think I've always been inclined because I'm from the Bronx, New York. And, you know, just being from New York, I feel like you always led to have your own authentic style and being from, like, where hip-hop started, where breakdancing started, where all these other places started, were so big. You know, music was so, like, relevant. I remember being in the third grade and knowing what songs came out. Like, I heard songs on the radio that day, and I told my wife, I was in the fourth grade when this song came out.

I was in sixth grade when the song came out. Like, I remember specifically. And I don't know what it is with New Yorkers. Clinton Sparks was on the show last week, and he's just still relative. Yeah. You know Clinton Sparks? Yeah, of course. And did you know him from New York?

No, no, no. So how did you get started in the creative space? Honestly, just, I feel like having good style and being around a lot of creative people, people would always ask me, hey, would you want to come on and as a consultant for this company? You want to come on and just consult them from style perspective? and I originally came out. He had to help a company that was launching an apparel company.

Then being on set with a producer, a friend of mine, and giving my advice, which led to then being in the industry. And then you took creative style and then converted just the creative style into entrepreneurship, which is pretty much like impossible to do.

I mean, who's going to say I'm going to make money with my creativeness and then start like a fashion empire? I mean, I think always having a understanding fiduciary duty to a company, understanding the well-being of a company, and having to make good decisions, and led me to be a good entrepreneur because I was able to balance out whether this was a good enough risk, whether I was risking other people's money when I was listening this, and then saying, hey, but always staying true to myself and saying, do I think this is relevant?

Do I, would I buy this? You know, Tom Ford talks about it. He says, I'm my number one consumer. I'm cultured. I have disposable income. I understand what I like. And those are the people I target when I design for. Because once they buy, they're in.

And then they lead other people to them come by. And they pay attention to what they're buying. So it's got to be curated. So the entry point from entrepreneurship and fashion, like, when did that happen? Probably about 12 years ago. I was in L.A. And I started to realize there were so many successful people that were launching brands that were doing things

that weren't even showing up on time. They were like... They don't got that New York grind. It's almost unbelievable. I'm like, I don't even know how you survived this long, let alone you're successful. You know, and then they would take money from people and raise money and do this,

and they didn't really care what was going to happen. and I would be like, well, like, it almost made me sick to my stomach. I could be watching. I'm like, oh, my God. And then you meet people like Dan, who's so authentic, Dan Fleshman, who we were talking about. And really Dan set the tone for a lot of things I was doing. I remember my first meeting with him. He was like, I got like 10 minutes.

And then we started talking, and he's like, you know what, just joined me for dinner. And then he's like, a friend of mine's coming, and Steve Ayoki walked in. And then a couple other guys walked in who were pretty well known. And then it's actually funny, my buddy, who's just on a TV show at the Jersey Shore, my friend Ronnie, was coming to meet me. And I was like, that guy, I got a guy who's coming. It's a little famous. You know, I feel like have a little presence in the room, you know? Dan elevated everything I was doing.

He made me believe that it was possible. So anytime I was doing something, I'm like, oh, I'm going to introduce you this person. Oh, we're going to do this. Oh, let's do it to this. Through a friend of mine, Jeff, who was actually his barber at the time. So you met Dan Fleischman through a barber. Yeah, literally. That's awesome.

You didn't have to work that hard. No, thank God. And he's like, oh, I'm going to introduce this guy. Danny does a lot of stuff and blah, blah, then I knew who he was. And I was like, all right, cool. And that was literally Dan's been within text messages every day since then with me. What a blessing. And you met him through, the barrier to entry to meet him for you was like, well, that was a godsend.

Yeah. I mean, that guy ended up becoming pretty famous himself. The kid, Jeff. Yeah, ended up doing his own thing. He was a big influence. He's a huge influencer. He does really well. That's awesome. Yeah. So what do you think some of the things that really distinguish Hubble Studios from other

studios here in L.A.? Because are you the number one studio in L.A.? I think, I mean, I owe a lot to milk. The Milk Studios, we did a lot of work together in the beginning. They really let the forefront for the photo and film industry to create a culture. They created the culture in New York 30 years ago, like nowhere else. It made it sexy, it made it fun, it made like, showing up to somewhere

you evoked a feeling inside of you when you showed up because you knew all this famous stuff had happened here. You knew these people here. You knew these creative people came in. And it's like, you know, I would kind of imagine I'm walking into the Oval Office of all the things that happened there.

You know, not as serious as that, but, you know, on a different level. And I did a lot of work with Milk in the beginning and they really helped me out and then took my own ability to make people feel first class, make people feel seen. I talk about it like the Bellevue Hills Hotel. If anyone is ever fortunate enough to stay there,

it's the best place in the world to stay because they are so loving, caring, considerate. You can't just go to Beverly Hills Hotel and stroke a check and go? Yeah, I guess. Is that you invited? Yeah, no, I mean, fortunate enough where it's pretty expensive or whatever, you know what I mean?

Yeah, like anybody listening. Like, it's an experience because they're so attentive and the hospitality is number one. So I think that what we separate ourselves is that we make everybody feel seen. And when you feel seen, and you tend to be a little more vulnerable. Yeah.

And you're willing to open up. And when you're willing to open up, you're going to immerse a whole different creative side of yourself. You're willing to do things you're not going to want to do. Say you took an art class, and there's a bunch of people in the class and you realize, like, wow, I'm the worst drawer in here. I'm the worst painter in here.

It's cold. The music's too loud. No one's even paying attention to me. I wanted to draw something kind of crazy, but let me just stick to my stick figure sketch that I'm good at. You know what I mean? You're going to stick it to very limited stuff. And people feel like they're judging you or whatever.

Or you walk in another class where they're really there to guide you and they're loving and they're open and everyone's drinking wine. Everyone's hanging out. Then you're just going to draw whatever wild thing your imagination can come up with. That's essentially what we do here. We make you feel vulnerable to open on. And whatever crazy stuff that you want to do, we'll lay it, we'll set it up, we'll produce it, will help you do everything you can to bring this imagination that you have to life.

I love that you invoke vulnerability because that's truly how creation happens. And, you know, I'm in a space where there's not a lot of creation, right? Like, I'm one of the few big creators in our industry, the mortgage industry, a financial industry. and people look at me like I'm crazy because I'm in a financial sector. The hell are you doing creating? Yeah. But creating brings a whole new element to a dynamic, whatever it is,

whether it's boring or whether it's fashion, you've got to be a creator, but the financial space, like, there's not a lot of room for creators. But like, even for me, I'm asking just for my own, for my own development of creation, Like, how are you invoking creation? I think by making people feel seen. They got to feel seen.

They got to feel loved. And I don't want people to leave here would impact that they were like, oh, they're egotistical, or their elite, or they're, you know, when someone just gives you that look, they're like, oh, like, you're, like, wasting their time. We make everybody come in here, and you don't know what they went on that day in their life.

You don't know how bad their morning was or who they just lost in their life that they loved. And this could be the worst day of their life. But you walk in here, and when someone grew up, reach you with even a smile and they're willing to help you and they won't do this. They're going to leave and say, you know, I just love the way they make me feel. I love the way they make me feel seeing and I want to create and I want to, you know,

take this idea and cook it up and then toss it in the air and make it live on its own. And people start to focus on that, whether it was a video, a song overlay, a picture, just a design. And then that inspires other people. You know, and it's got to be immersed from a feeling inside. But that's got to be a human-to-human connection. And that's why I care so much about that. That's awesome. Now, there's a lot of people, young people,

that want to get into the creative space. And, you know, obviously they have forces against them. What advice would you give to a young person right now who wants to get into the creative space? As much as it sounds crazy, you've got to care what people think. You do. It's not that you have to win over everybody or you just need to be an influencer, but you got to care if. If nobody likes what you're making, if you're not here to entertain or please anybody, nobody's going to really give a damn of what you're doing. You know what I mean? And you're not really impacting anybody else other than yourself. So you do got to care. And I think there's a keep on a certain level of authenticity, making sure you're not copying every single thing that's on TikTok, you know, and doing what you say. you're going to do so many people fall into this this zone of like oh we have a tightly coupled company which is a manufacturing company or something like that or a loosely coupled company

which is a creative company tech company where we can kind of make our own decisions and do what we want we have our own autonomy in our position it's not so loosely coupled that that nothing is together you know what I mean and they start to believe that it's that it's so loose couple I don't need to show up on time I could work remotely from Arizona or Nebraska for a a job that's in New York City or whatever it is that I don't need to wake up on their schedule. You know, you still got to fall to some normality, some like some sort of schedule or some sort of thing where like you're dependable. Well, I could say, you know what? I can count on this person. They're very dependable. They do what they say they're going to do. They're accountable.

Even though it's creativity, you still have to be accountable. And that's where you're starting to see the people who are super creative, but they're dependable, really succeeding. and the people who are so autistic and out there and eccentric, they're kind of becoming not relevant because you could just go to AI and make something crazy and not need somebody who's kind of a pain to deal with. You know what I mean? That's what I would say.

I mean, piggybacking on AI. I have two questions to follow up. Do you think AI is impacting the creative space to improve it, take away jobs, enhance it? What's your opinion on how AI is impacting your space? I think that it's getting rid of a lot monotonous jobs. I think it's going to rid of a lot of jobs like that. People who just write copy of different writers and different things like that, I think that you're going

to take somebody who's highly ambitious who utilizes everything that's willing to keep being progressive and moving forward and paying attention to what's coming out and engineering in a forward perspective, and they're going to crush the world. They're going to do phenomenal because they're able to just put things together. I was in a meeting in New York with somebody pretty big, and the guy's a billionaire, and he said, all right, write a proposal for that, and write an offer letter. Call your lawyer, write an off a letter right now.

I text my lawyer here to answer. I'm like, oh, my God. I got to get this done right now while I'm in this office. Like, I cannot. I'm sitting out, I'm sweating. This is about a month ago. I texted my wife. I said, you need to go to AI right now to chat GBT,

and I need a legally binding awful letter right now for this, and within three minutes she had it back. It sounded amazing. amazing. I said, check your email. It's in there. Didn't impress the guy at all. Like that was just what was needed to be done. Yeah, that was what needed to be done. Do I think that he thought I used AI? I highly doubt this 69 year old guy thought I was using AI, but he got done. And for all the people out there, for other kids from the Bronx, or from here or from there, that have nothing, if you've got to chat GBT account, you've got everything. You don't have to pay a

lawyer. You don't got to pay these people. And you seem 500 bucks. right there. Oh, easily. $500 in about three hours of annoying conversations. Then my lawyer talks at a slow, slow pace. So you say it like three grand. Yeah, literally, probably. But for the people who use it, they're going to take over the world.

Yeah, it's going to be a, I mean, a whole new world to see what our kids are going to do. What AI is going to do in the next couple of years. It's going to set the path of like going from running a six minute mile to running a three minute mile. You know, the person who's going to be ahead that could use it is going to be so far ahead. They're going to be able to outperform so much more. Yeah. Now, I want to ask this prior, but what mindset you think one must have right now to win in this environment in the creative space? A killer.

Execution. If you're not executing, you're not doing anything. people went from buying two shirts a year to two shirts a week you know it is is completely different that's just apparel but the amount of content that needs to get put out is unbelievable you just need to keep executing keep executing keep executing keep executing keep thinking it and don't don't gloat over your wins and don't worry about your losses just keep making keep creating keep moving forward and that's it and that's that's the mindset you need to have but that's exciting part yeah like if you're not creating it's like I was just thinking about it I was listening to a podcast yesterday about

when I moved to Montana and I said oh my god I mean Montana is gonna be beautiful but there's nothing to create that for me I need to be in the middle of it you know no matter how well I do New York you've always been in the middle of it yeah I love it yeah I'm now you're in LA you're in the hub yeah literally creative hub well I mean I think New Bronx is actually might be in the same line league of creativity now yeah right because you also have a in the Bronx still? Yeah, I own some buildings in the Bronx, and I still stay in New York when I'm there. Where in the city? I live in 54th Street. I just moved out, and I'm going to move downtown. And how does New York compare in terms of, like, the creative space to L.A.?

I think that, well, L.A. is beautiful. The weather's beautiful. You know, they're both, you know, they're both going through their own growing pains right now, I would say. But I think that New York, you just, when you show up, you know there's no time for nonsense. At people there to work. Everybody in the world comes out because they want to succeed. It's like Hong Kong, New York, and London. I don't know why we don't have that grit here in L.A. It's too beautiful.

It's cut from a different cloth. Every New Yorker I know out hustles anybody here in L.A. I love hiring New Yorkers. Yeah. I think there's, you hold no punches. That's it. You tell it how it is. Now, how do you balance the strong creative vision of all the different celebrities that are coming in here with what Hubble Studios is distinctly known for?

You got all these celebrities coming here demanding this and that? I think because we're known, we're a blank canvas and you could splash paint, lights, this, that, everything you want all over it. And then we just wipe it all clean and do it all over again. And we're here to create whatever you want. It's like going to the art store and buying a canvas. You don't know what the next, who's the next Baskyat, or who's going to create the next greatest thing, you know. Yeah. But we're there to provide for you.

Who are some of the biggest names that you've worked with that you like the most? I think everybody's great. I mean, dude, it's harder not to like you, though. Yeah. You love everybody. Yeah. I mean, listen, when people come here, whether they're pissed off or whether they're, you know, they ignore something to staff, whatever it is, or they're great or their pleasure to work with. They're here to work, and I understand that.

So I take it with a grain of salt, and I say, listen, we're here to help these people create. And you don't know where they're going through. There's a lot of celebrities that come in, and they are so shy, or they don't have makeup on, and they make sure they don't want to be seen, and they're insecure deep down inside of it. But then when the camera turns on, they're a whole different person. These people are their own human.

You know, they still suffer from the human condition, and they still, you know, have their own things that aggravate them, their own triggers. So none of that ever pisses me off or bothers me. I don't take it personal. So I genuinely love doing what I do so much that good or bad, I think that everybody here is a creative and I respect them the same way. And I like them kind of the same way. Love that. Now, congratulations are in order for you. You got a baby coming on the way. And you already have one, so you're going to be a father of two. Now, one thing I've said this already repeatedly is I really admire your grit, your hustle.

You've been like, you know, you've built a big organization, a very successful entrepreneur, and you've been fortunate enough to be cut from a different cloth, which is, you know, you didn't start this way. Now, I'm also a father, come from poor roots like yourself. One thing that I always ask, and this is good parenting, you know, advice for those listening and even for myself as a father, is how are you, going to instill that same level of grit that you have right now into your children?

Yeah, I think about this every day. The accountability. If I say no, it means no. And without doing it, without yelling, and, you know, letting her fall and letting them get back up on their own. And when the minute we start walking, we ain't crawling, we're back on our feet.

You know, and it's like you do these things, and you almost expect them. It's not really going to happen. but I kept saying back on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, and she didn't crawl one day after the day she took her first step. It's almost unbelievable. And then I can continue that for the rest of her life and holding her to a higher level.

And she's Italian-American, and that means a lot. And where the last of a dying breed, and we've got to show up. And you're also a man of faith. Yep. You know, making sure how are you instilling that level of same faith? I mean, you've got St. Mary on you. Yeah.

You know, in this crazy world, especially LA, where, you know, the influences are next level, you know, to take away that, you know, that level of faith from your family. I mean, I grew up one way. Oh, I'm Roman Catholic. You know what I mean? And I feel like Italians take a lot of pride in that. Oh, Catholic were really true believers. My mother put it in myself when I was a little kid. God is in your heart.

Yeah, I mean. And people that don't possess religion, I'm not saying they're bad people at all, but you lose a certain level of integrity. Yeah. Like, you know, God's always watching. Well, I can't throw a straw wrapper on the ground. I know he's going to screw me later on today,

so let me pick it up. You know what I mean? Something's going to happen. I'm going to get a ticket or whatever. But when she starts to comprehend that, that God is always in your heart, then you've got to follow, you know? If you can't make it to the bathroom one time,

you've got to pray to God that you make it there, because you can't have that happen at work. You know what I mean? Every single thing. But even as silly as that, but you say praying, you ask God for his guidance and forgiveness. And it just, I mean, the reason why I'm still here, I'm 30 years old, I had a long life. Yeah. And I'm just scratching the surface of being successful.

And I thank God every day and I ask him for guidance. And I think instilling that into my children. And whoever had something to say, that's great. That could be for them, a day in us. And so you're raising your Catholic, all the sacraments? 100%. He was baptized. Awesome.

Awesome. I mean, you know, we're fortunate enough to have all those sacraments and I'm, you know, such a blessing. I feel like for people who don't have that, I almost don't understand. But I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it because I'm not really concerned what they're doing. I'm concerned what I'm doing. God has sent me signs to show me he's there.

You know, in my worst days, he was there. My best days, that God he protected me and got me there. And that's where my family will follow. Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest pillars, right? One of the biggest pillars. Now, do you have, because it's a blank canvas here, do you have any, like, restrictions or policies for, like, shoots, or it's just a total blank slate every single time?

We charge a smoking fee for $1,500. Oh, there is? Yeah, but I also own a cannabis company, and we gift some celebrities weed, but we tell them they're not allowed to smoke it yet. But if you give it to them, you charge him $15,000. Yeah, there you go. But if you smoke it, yeah, you got to give me $15,000.

So vents out easy then. Yeah. No, we haven't vented out, but I tell people all the time, that's probably the number one thing is because you don't want to leave something that intrudes on the next person that's coming in, ability to create. And when you smoke, it smells. Yeah. You know.

So, like, weed sessions in here, and then the, then the, Then the church comes in after. Yeah. Sets up for Sunday, Matt. Yeah, I got to charge $1,500 a person. Not even one time I smoke a fee. Every time I catch you, it's $500. But we get to waive, we wave that a lot.

But that's probably one of the number one things. I'm pretty open-minded to most things. But other than that, nothing too crazy has crossed my mind that's happy. People being disrespectful, we had to shut it down a little bit. Yeah. It was a beautiful facility. So have you had anyone get really crazy? These rappers get crazy or these celebrities?

Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. We were doing a YG video shoot one time, and I guess somebody was hooking up in the bathroom, broke the sink off the counter. And then it was probably about 1 o'clock in the morning, and they called Tina to come in there,

or Tina had to go and look, and they were surrounded by all these people, and they said, oh, we were just leaning on it. She goes, it's pretty well somebody's buttmark is still on it. Oh my gosh. But he's a great guy. He actually is super good guy.

YG. Yeah, super cool. And I love having them back. And this is something my team wanted me to ask, but what's the craziest idea you've pitched here? It could be PG. If it's too crazy, you don't have to say it. But what's the craziest idea you've been pitched here at Hubble Studios? Oh.

Oh, yeah. That was pretty nuts. I think I almost expected that answer. Yeah. For Jaroletto's birthday. party, album release party, they did a live porn and they also wanted a 120 ton tank inside here, parked inside and they were going to paint it. Like, dude, just like a live painter session, a real tank. And when it rolled up, I couldn't believe it was a real, like a huge army tank right

here. Literally, I was saying, actually these cracks are because of that tank. And I had just did the floor for 100,000. I was pissed off about that. They covered the build out? No. No. but and then they had right behind the tank was people behind the screen screwing the whole time and I was like wow I was impressed because they were going for hours and but they were putting a hand on the screen people would touch him was like I was like this is pretty interesting it was pretty there was a lot going on at like different directions you know wow yeah Jared Letto's crazy he's cool yeah that's a crazy idea a tank live for like yeah we were here that night and we They had a dunk tank.

And, yeah, they had Trump sitting on a thing and they were dunking them. All those are the real Trump. And I get up to do it, and I'm looking around. There's nobody doing it. I was like, I'll do it. I was with the guy, Jeff. And all of a sudden, somebody walks up.

They were, you're going to get it the first try? And I turn around and shout out of letter. I'm like, oh, crap. I want these guys don't watch me do this. And then his brother comes over, and I know his brother. And all of a sudden, a bunch of people come over. So the other kid goes, he misses.

Somebody else goes, he misses. I come up. I'm like, I'm like, I better. hit it. I nailed it the first time and he jumped to my back and I was like, oh man, this is a great moment. This is a great moment. Yeah. That's cool. You get, you get to see some pretty interesting, some pretty interesting stuff here. Now, looking forward because this industry continues to evolve, like, do you, what are you looking, what are you really envisioning for Hubble Studios in the next, let's say, five years?

I think consistently moving in the direction of our own production company. So we obviously have Hubble Agency, well we know obviously, but we developed Hubble Agency a few years ago because we were producing for so many people, then we had so many in-house brands. Okay. That we were either taking a part of or taking over, writing treatments for, doing production, everything top to bottom. And as a creative hub, I think production is going to go more direction, more people getting cut out that are just sold production companies that don't do a lot of other things are kind of going to like kind of go away and we're going to step in as a full service like you have an idea you have a budget we run the treatment we do to pre-production and we run it and then I go to people like Eric from Hawk and I think he's one of the greatest digital marketers out there right now I think he's one of the biggest and he understands he understands how to move forward and he's a great partner of ours so when you say you're going to be a full agency Are you saying you're going to find the talent, you're going to mold the talent,

you're going to outline the creative direction for the talent as well? Well, we're not going to find the talent. So many people come to us to us to us right here at your studio. Yeah, exactly. They come to us all the time and they want to do. Select the talent. Yeah. We shot a full campaign for Nike.

And we actually got hit up recently about a month ago and they said, you have an on-staff day of producer, which turned into us producing the whole thing. And that's more the direction. we're going to go in and actually coming in and bringing the treatment to life way more because we did it in the past a lot but it was more bespoke if you knew you knew and now it's we're going to market that a lot more can you explain what treatment means because when I'm thinking treatment I'm thinking like drug rehabilitation treatment oh treatment from everything you have an idea and then we put the whole treatment together with the storyboard looks like uh inspo images other images the whole thing down

the line yeah that's created direction that's created direction yeah That's creative talk treatment, you know? Yeah. For the listeners, they're thinking something else. Oh, yeah. I got to really, like, define treatment. No, it's not that. That wouldn't make us any money, literally.

Yeah, being able to bring your idea to life. Okay. If you wanted to shoot a whole different way to shoot this to show, and you want to elevate it, and you want it to hang them and then spotlight one feature on the person, how would we do that? Yeah.

You know, and then we put a whole treatment together what we think that looks like. When the show's big enough, you know, top three, four in the world, then I'll be coming back. Yeah, I think it'll be bigger than Joe Rogan. Hopefully. Yeah. We're ranked in the top 100 now, so. What is he?

He's number one. Oh, yeah. We're both Joe's, so we're both winners. Yeah. Now, any particular projects right now that you're excited about? I think we're working with a couple of outside cannabis companies and ours that were rebranding. and relaunching because federal legalization is kind of right there. It's going to happen.

We were talking about that, and you were saying federal legalization is coming in the next couple years, and you said it with a lot of conviction, like, why do you think that? I just think that that's a direction we're going to go in, and I think that we have, like, this height, and it's got to level out. I think the country is just going to kind of develop its own. They've got a lot of separate states that are doing it, so it's within the state. I think that it's going to become like a national market. And you're going to have certain states that are developing for the rest of it,

that are cultivating for the rest of the country. I think it's going to be Florida, Jersey, and California. And I think that, like everything else, the federal government's going to want their involvement. Yeah. I mean, that might solely, that one legalization might help, you know, eliminate a lot of the national debt. Yeah.

I mean, I think we're, I think we're, uh, some good things could happen in the next year or some bad. things happen in next year. I think we need to figure it out. I mean, so at the federal side, but you don't have any additional insight besides just the way the trend is going and business is going and that's where you're putting your eggs right now. Yeah. That's where I would focus on the direction of those companies. I'm putting my ideas behind that. I think it's exciting. I think how we're marketing it, how we're doing it, and I don't even, I don't use cannabis, but I think there's a lot of people that benefit from using it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a

Definitely a treatment for those who are using real drugs. Yeah. You know, like, I was watching so many documentaries about, what's that drug that kills all the people? Fentanyl. Fentanyl? Yep. I mean, they were putting fentanyl on these cancer patients, yet these cancer patients can use marijuana. Yep.

You know, can you imagine how crazy, dangerous fentanyl is, and they put it at the same level as weed? It's not even like a fair. One kills you and stops your heart. And they have cannabis is Schedule 1. Yeah. Which is crazy. And I think that it's got so out of hand, you know, since really 2017, we'll really start talking about it when Trump was talking about it. I think it's got so out of hand that people are just using fentanyl now.

It's not like things are getting laced with fentanyl. A cut with fendol. Like people are just using fentanyl. I think we're going to have a real problem with the war on drugs in the next couple of years, you know. And I'm sober. sober because I was sober, I'm sober because I've been sober my whole life, but I do believe in sobriety. I do believe in that way of living and I think that we're going to have a lot of problems moving forward. Why do you feel like that? Just because of what's going on with, you know,

the opioid crisis and then now we have the stronger, more concentrated version, which is fentanyl. And then it is, I think there's a new one now, I forget the name of it, but the fact that people are now not using cut stuff anymore, which was... was obviously using heroin, is just using fentanyl, it's like it's going to get stronger and stronger. It's like they say 80 times stronger than regular. Yeah, which is crazy. I was driving on LaBria recently and I seen some kids on the corner.

It had to be like 18 years old. I said, what are you guys doing? Just a thing, they were drugs. I'm like, wow, that was some response. I said, what are you doing? They said, Fenty. And I couldn't believe that now it's like, that's how common it is. And I think, like, I have a do.

daughter. Like this is, you know, 15 years. She's going to be kind of at that age gap. And I'm like, how am I going to keep her away, but also, too, what are we going to do as a country? We're the greatest country on earth. You know, and I truly believe that. And I think that we need to focus, really take accountability of what's coming over the border, what people are bringing in, and how do we focus on not letting this get worse? They don't need to come in from the border. They're doing it here. They're making it here. Literally. And these pharmaceutical companies, which I was with a doctor yesterday, a cancer doctor, having dinner, and he was saying these pharmaceutical companies are the biggest, they're stronger than any politician.

Yep. You know, they're running politics. So, and, you know, him being in oncology, which is basically their reason for making these crazy drugs, and they do work for cancer patients, a lot of these drugs, but how are they getting in the hands of kids? I don't know. And I think that, you know, obviously we know what's happened in two ways from the pharmaceutical companies that happen here, then also getting brought in. But somehow it's getting let out there, you know.

And there's so many other cures for cancer, just a different diet, just promoting a different lifestyle. You know, I had two parents have died of cancer. So I believe very much in that. That is one of our focuses. We talked about fasting. You could fast for five days once a year and it kills your chances to catch cancer about 97%. You know, and we don't promote those type of things because it's not, you know, financially beneficial to a lot of these big companies.

Why would we advertise that? Yeah, just feed them McDonald's, processed food, never talk about fasting or diet, let them all be obese. They're just killing themselves. It was like COVID, it's a respiratory illness. Shrampening your lungs, you have a much better chance to fight in it. So what do we do?

COVID happened, I started running every day. And I never caught it. And, you know, why was that not talked about? And that's what I don't understand as a country, how we have to focus. Like, we focus on being an entrepreneur. We focus on making money. We focus on followers.

We focus on cloud. How do we make more of an influence? But you don't focus on health and influencing in that way. And those are the things that I choose for my personal brand to then focus on. If you follow me on Instagram, you see I post working out every day. I work out seven days a week. What I eat, how I ingest, what I ingest. And then also pushing other people to be the best version of themselves.

You know, I'm not a trainer, but you better believe that if you spend enough time on me, you got fitter. Yeah, I train seven days a week too. Yeah. Every day. That's how I clear my mind. Literally. You know, and get ready to dominate the day.

Pre-imposed, morning and evening. Exactly. If we're not doing something productive, you and I, you know, there's, we're not productive. No, exactly. And I think, what is the most productive thing I could do right now? Running to the gym. I burn more calories running to the gym and then driving to the gym.

It's the same amount of the thing. time if not faster and then I run, work out, swim, run home and do the same thing every day. Yeah, that's awesome. Now, what do you think, what's the best piece of advice that you've ever received? The best piece of advice, I was eight years old, my father told me that nobody cares. And that's the best piece of advice I've received. And it basically meant that I had to do it myself told me that if I was walking down to dream on avenue my pants on fire that people wouldn't even stop to help me and I don't think he meant it in attention to hurt me I don't think he meant an intention to break me I think he meant attention to really make me

aware you know my mother was sick at the time he was going through his own stuff and just like that I went to I went from being a kid to an adult eight years old I was eight years old I remember what I was wearing I remember where he told me what I was wearing what were you wearing Where were you? This baggy brown jeans that my cousin gave me that I thought was super cool and they were like super oversized and a stupid Nike t-shirt

and I was with my friend Mikey Voccia and I was standing on the corner. Why do you think he told you that? I think he told me that because it was the right thing to tell me. It was what needed to get said because I needed to take care of myself. You're eight years old.

What eight year old takes care of himself? My mother was sick. She was terminally ill and he was actually facing, he was fighting a case that he was going to go to jail. So I was like, I guess he thought that that was the best thing to tell me.

And that was probably the best advice ever got. And you know what, it's true. It's not true in a sense that that nobody cares. People do care, I care. When people come in here, I really do care. But ultimately, you've got to take accountability

for yourself. That's why it ties back to what you want, teach your daughter. Yep. You got to take accountability for yourself. I have a few things. I'm an Italian-American from the Bronx, New York. I carry that with me everywhere I go.

And I represent that everywhere I go. And I am the last Richie. So I represent that everywhere I go. But it falls on me. Nobody's coming to save me. You know? You know, people try to, you know, people, you're in Los Angeles. At some point, you will get robbed.

You will get stuck up if you spend enough time here. Nobody's coming to save you. This is why I live in Newport Beach. Yeah. That's a lot better place to live. You don't know about that. Yeah. What's your favorite quote?

From what? Oh, Winston Churchill. Success is going from failure to failure at loss of enthusiasm. That's my favorite quote. I feel like that represents me to the core. And I got a couple last questions. The next one's a three-prong question. Okay, what's a personal goal that you have for yourself?

What's a family goal that you have for the family? And what's the goal that you have for Hubble Studios? Oof. To keep growing, Hubble, to keep growing bigger and bigger and every day and driving forward and continue to do a day after day. And I do it day to day for that. Family go, keep growing my family and raise the best kids around, have a son, you know, pass everything off under him

so you can take care of his mother. For me, success, and that's it. To be more and more successful. How do you define success? Making sure that I never go backwards. I'm from the Bronx, New York. I love it. I love that it raised me, but I will never go back.

I'm never going backwards. I'm going to continue to move forward. And for all the other people that come from where I'm from or feeling second class or feeling a certain way, that if they work hard enough and they continue to do it and they continue to strive to keep moving forward

find little competitions with people love to be doubted and keep moving forward and inspire people that you're not beholden of what you are born into you can go further and further and further and keep moving forward

and to have more and more impact you know I care Trina's Kids is our charity who's name that to my mother keep growing Trina's kids and that will go with success and that will go with having an impact and having more of an impact. We didn't have actually mentioned Trina's Kids. Do you want to mention Trina's Kids to talk about it

real quick? Yeah. What me and Dan first worked on was Trina's Kids Foundation. And we are a nonprofit. We do three to four annual events a year. The biggest one is our Christmas drive. And we do last year we did 10 cities and 10 days. I think it's one of the big is that the toy drive that Dan does? Yeah. That's with you? Yeah, it's called We're the largest toy drive. We named it also. The World Records. Yeah, Toy Drive. And then we also filled SoFi Stadium two years ago.

Filled the whole field with toys. That was great. Very stressful, but it was great. Keep growing, Trina's kids. Because I love hearing my mother's name get repeated all the time. You know. Amazing. Yeah, I love it.

And I don't do it just for that. I do it because people need to realize that, you know, change happens on a local level. And if you want to make change, there's so many entrepreneurship, so many people, 65% of the country right now is employed by entrepreneurs. You are located in some area that within a mile there's a underprivileged area near you.

Help where you are. Work where you are. You want to give money to Africa great. You want to give money to the year great. You want to do that great. You want to build a well in New Zealand or whatever hell they need it. That's fantastic.

But why don't you help cross the street from your house? You know, there's people in your knee boy that need help. There's kids in your area that need help. helped him. Jamie Diamond, CEO of Chase, says, you know, change is made

on a local level. And I truly believe that. So when we do these type of things, we bring all these entrepreneurs in, we influence them to go do it themselves. We influence them to give them the keys to like, all right, you can do this yourself.

You can get your staff. And when we do these events and our staff and the people around us and our clients, they come together, it's so much more rewarding to give back. Yeah. You know, and you do got to give back.

I was at an event about 10 years ago to Diddy Spoke at and it was only like 40 people there And I remember I felt like he was looking at me Not that Diddy's in the best light right now But he did sign something great He's Ron Berkel was a mentor of his And he was like just give a little more Give a little more

And he said no matter what I gave he would Just give a little more She gotta keep giving back And he said well when's it gonna end He said well it doesn't And he laughed and he said And every time I gave I got more back

And every time I gave a little more, I got more back, and that's the goal. You know, what do we do this for? You know, you can grow this podcast to be the biggest thing in the world, but if you're not affecting people in a positive way, what are you doing? You know? Our whole life is to give back. Yeah.

You know, the more we give, the more God gives. Yep. There's just no magic behind it. It's a simple formula. My spiritual mentor to me is like, as long as you do God's work, he always does your work. Yep. Keep doing it.

God's work, it just does yours work. And I've been fortunate enough to always just repeat that all the time in my mind, and it's just manifesting. One last question to close this out. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? I hope he's going to let me in, number one. I hope he just says you did the right thing.

That's it. God bless you. That's all I want. Thank you. I appreciate everything you're doing here. Keep dominating Hubble Studios, keep growing it, keep embarking more vision for this organization. And I hope Hubble Studios grows to be the biggest city in the world.

Thank you, man. Appreciate you. Thank you.