Living The Red Life - Lessons From Filming A TV Show with Studio Co-owner w/Michelle Delamor

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Michelle Delamor, an accomplished actress and producer, shares her insights on what it takes to create a hit TV show. We dive into everything from the initial brainstorming to the real challenges that pop up during filming. Michelle emphasizes how business and television are closely linked, highlighting the importance of teamwork in bringing a shared vision to life.As the conversation unfolds, we explore the power of storytelling, especially regarding representation and how these elements resonate with viewers. Michelle discusses the impact of music, the growth of the characters, and the fun balancing act between humor and drama that makes the show stand out. CHAPTER TITLES1:36 - Behind the Scenes of Producing the Show 2:42 - Business and TV: A Natural Fit 3:40 - The Vision for the Series 4:30 - Challenges Faced During Production 5:50 - The Importance of Storytelling 6:14 - The Show's Impact and Legacy 7:45 - Overcoming Creative Differences 8:10 - The Role of Music in the Show 9:20 - Audience Reception and Feedback 10:30 - Collaboration with Guest Stars 13:15 - The Importance of Representation 22:40 - Final Thoughts and Reflections on the Series Connect with Michelle:IG - michelledelamorConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

With 60 Day Hustle, what we wanted to do was create this pressure cooker environment, but give 12 entrepreneurs the opportunity of a lifetime. I mean, we achieved that, you know, I think three or four of them that obviously made it towards the end. One of them had done more revenue in a month than they did the year before. One of them like 4x their revenue. Yeah, like one of the things that I really took away from this is just seeing how much they grew in such a short period of time and some of the things they accomplished as well if you were to really act every single day take action as if you were on a competition show for your business like yeah how that would transform your business

my name is rudy moore host of living the red life podcast and i'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. We've got a special episode today. You know I've been talking about it a lot. It's the new Amazon Prime show we've got going on. It's called 60 Day Hustle. I'm sure many of you have watched it. You're probably bored to death of me talking about it, but I'm not going to stop because it's so awesome. And today we've got Michelle on, CEO and co-founder of Sonic Gods, the studio that brought this

masterpiece to life. Michelle, welcome to the show. Thank you, Rudy. Thanks for having me. Good to see you again. Yes. So, I mean, we were probably sick of seeing each other at one period, you know, filming 13, 14 hours a day, but but no not really we've had a great

time um and you know we're about just over a month into the show being live it's uh been obviously a great success amazing feedback and uh it's just the beginning uh and today we're gonna go uh pull the curtain back go a bit behind the scenes on uh this show producing this show, the highs and the lows, the amazing experts, brands that came in to help support these entrepreneurs on that journey and what the people here listening today can learn about maybe, you know, what really goes into a show and also from all the brands and experts that contributed. So Michelle, maybe kick off, just talk a little about, you know, the creation of the show and how it all came about and stuff. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, as a studio, we really develop shows that are mainstream shows that are relevant in pop culture and have like a really, really big trend to them, but also has a great opportunity for incredible storyline with high stakes and all that good stuff, right?

For us, the idea is always to inspire people. And by the time they're done watching a show with 60 Day Hustle, particularly, it falls under the business category. And that's a very exciting category for us. One, because, you know, as an entrepreneur, we know how volatile business can be. So there's like these built in stakes within, you know, an actual within business that translate really well to television. So, you know, with 60 Day Hustle, what we wanted to do was create this pressure cooker environment, but give 12 entrepreneurs the opportunity of a lifetime, you know, to win, of course, cash for their company, but really an opportunity to be mentored by some industry giants. You know, people don't usually get access to that.

And so seeing what's possible within a 60 day period, I think, was pretty phenomenal, which you'll see on the show. And then, I mean, we achieved that, you know, I think three or four of them that obviously made it towards the end when we spoke to them. I think one of them had done more revenue in a month than they did the year before. One of them like 4x their revenue. Yeah. There was some great, you know, real life case studies. And, you know, there's no online. There's a lot of, you know, ways to fake revenue and stuff.

But there's no, I always say there's no faking, you know, when you see something live over time or you work with someone live, like, you know, you got to really see what effort went into that. And that was obviously the whole point of the show. And then they also, like you said, like I always say, I actually was on a podcast last weekend.

Someone asked me, really, what's your biggest secret to being successful uh or one thing you could tell yourself and i'm like move to america and i joked and laughed it's not because you know the america you know i would get to live on the beach it's because you get to meet more high level people and that's what this show brought in we went into the fabletics hq we had you know v, VPs and CEOs and C-suite of Pilot Pen and Chime. And, you know, the list goes on, right? All these top brands that were coming in and mentoring. So, and we had experts from Teachable.

So they had, you know, which obviously helped them on the e-book physical content side of building their brand. So they got really good on mentorship, you know, from the show. And I mean, that's why they got such great results. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think from, you know, both the resources and the tools that we kind of had plugged into the accelerator, right, with these brands to even just mentorship from some of these founders, having people like um you know peter fam was amazing you know the the incubator science he's the co-founder of science

incubator behind dollar shade club and liquid death and you think about these like culture brands being able to be in the room and learn from someone who uh has really blown up these billion dollar brands um you know fab FabFitFun, just amazing, amazing brands. And then, of course, bringing on these incredible partners, the brands that were a part of the show that were a part of, you know, the actual building of the accelerator, creating like an opportunity for success for this cast was just phenomenal. Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs listening to this, you know, in my industry, the typical way that you really get to rebel those are these people is

you have to, you know, join a 20 gram mastermind and stuff. And obviously we have one and lots of the big gurus slash experts do. Or you have to try and go to an event with 4,000 people and wait in line for two hours for a photo to ask them a 10 second question. So I think what was cool here too is it wasn't just like, you know, these people came in, filmed a two minute clip, which is how it looks in the actual editing of the show, but behind the scenes, they were there for a whole day, right? What getting to know the brands, having lunch with the brands. So they got way, you know, way more insight and value because of that. And I think that's what made it successful. So I would love to ask you, you know, when, you know, we were putting together the challenges and putting together all the experts and the brands. And if someone out there right now is looking for, you know, that mentorship and learning side, what are some of the kind of key variables that went into the casting side of that?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a couple of things. You know, this show in particular, 60 Days Straight is hardcore. It was like really, 60 Days Straight, it is hardcore. It was like really, really challenging, but it was also designed to have the contestants really have an opportunity to grow. It wasn't about gimmicks. It was very, you know, high pressure. And so one of the main things we're looking for is people who truly, number one, are passionate about what they're building, because I'll tell you right now, if you are just kind of

doing it because maybe you want to be on a TV show or whatever the case or or maybe because you think this is a cool idea, but you're not all in, like, I don't know how committed you would have been to the level of 60 days that we put them through. So for us, it was like you got to really, really build something that's awesome. Also, like having a viable product that really has the ability to scale you know that was really important and then of course it's important to have great personalities that would be awesome that you know an audience would want to follow that journey so there's different things that we look at uh when we're casting yeah and i think what about like a lot of people have asked me rudy did you pick the entrepreneurs

and i said no i kind of stayed out of it so i it was genuine and you know unbiased and like authentic in the show where i was like i really don't know these people yeah but um you know i and obviously i know behind the scenes there was hundreds of applications and stuff that boiled down to the 12. So what were you looking for when you were looking to, you know, what makes a great entrepreneur and someone that we thought would actually, you know, last and be a good fit for this show? Yeah, I think when you look at the show, you see a very wide range of personalities, a very wide range of like skills that they each have um and so you see everything from like someone as polished as like a uh josh butler to someone who is just raw and has so much incredible personality like sadidra for example um you know and so there's this wide range uh and and you know everyone is unique in the things that make them special in terms of their like it factor as an entrepreneur.

So there's not like a cookie cutter thing we're looking for. It's just like you're looking for that thing. Do they have that like fire, that fight to win, that grit? Do they have like a big personality that they can stand on stage and really represent their brand you know and and be compelling enough that people are going to want to root for them um so really looking at all of those factors and then of course you know at base level it's like do they have a product that actually like had that long you know longevity uh capability yeah i think the entrepreneur side of it is funny because you could see over time like this big mix of uh you know uh obviously personalities but also work ethic like and i saw for some that just showed up they nailed everything they will go go go and then i feel

you could tell some that were like their emotions got to them more uh and they you know they kind of had off weeks and off days and and that is entrepreneurship it's never easy but i think we did start to see like what would or quote unquote hustlers take away as the show went on or at least i did um and funny because a couple of the ones that i really thought were strong after the first day or week uh or challenge really they actually made it to the end. I'm not going to say who, but two predictions were right, which was pretty cool. There was a second though there that I was like, are they going to make it to the end? Because

some people were really strong in the beginning and then there was drop off and you're like, what is happening? There was all these curveballs happening.. And I think like you said, that is entrepreneurship. You have your ups and your downs. And some people, when they thought they had given everything and they couldn't give any more, maybe they were a bit more deflated and then they got their second win. And I think it's just a testament to when you push yourself. Like one of the things that I really took away from this is just seeing how much they grew in such a short period of time and some of the things they accomplished as well.

If you were to really act every single day, take action as if you were on a competition show for your business, like how that would transform your business. You know, I think that was like very, very exciting. Like literally even with the studio, obviously it's a business of course, in and of itself, it's, it's awesome. We have a lot of TV shows are producing. it's a business, of course, in and of itself. It's massive. We have a lot of TV shows we're producing. It's a business. You know, we have the team, all of that.

And we're now even being like, all right, we're on our own 60-day hustle. It's a 60-day sprint. Like, you know, it's so funny. It's like get into that mindset. Yeah. And talking about, you know, the business side, I do want to highlight, you know, a lot of the great businesses and experts that we brought in. We've obviously touched on them a little bit.

What were some of the biggest lessons like that you got or you saw them teach in the judgments from all? You know, we had Pilot Pen, we had Chime, Teachable, BetterHelp. You know, the guy, you know, obviously the guys behind Dollar Shave Club and Liquid Death, like powerhouses, we went into Fabletics. So even I, like I love listening to them too. And I always say learning from billionaires and billion dollar brands is, you know, something I've always studied. But do you have any takeaways you and then I'll share mine that you saw from from that all those judges and experts yeah i mean i think it was really really powerful for the entrepreneurs to get direct feedback from the judges who again you know are founders of massive brands or you know executive that billion dollar companies um so i

think that that was really really valuable i think you know from like peter fam for example they understand virality and like building culture brands in such a way that, you know, for him, it all came down to some very, very simple things. It was like he had very, very simple takeaways, you know, share with them, you know, everything from like how you utilize like the captions to making sure that you's you're really um you know doing enough volume and you know all sorts of things that are very fundamental but like you know you see these massive brands and you think oh my god they're just like doing something that i just you know like how would i even get there it's like actually no they're just committed to doing the thing well that was funny you know because it's like you've got this guy behind you know two billion dollar companies or almost billion dollar companies and uh yeah it was kind of funny i do remember vividly that moment where he like he just goes off at them about captions and the thumbnails and reels and i'm like and

it's great because it's everything i teach too but i'm like like you know i think there is this deception that you know the the ceos or people behind billion dollar'm like like you know i think there is this perception that you know the the ceos or people behind billion dollar brands are like you know these old school like suit and tie gray hair like corporate except i but no like and i mean look in fairness if you look at liquid death and dollar shape but i actually it's funny because i told him when I was with him, I'm like, a lot of your viral videos and ads I use in my lectures and in my presentations on stage is like examples of what makes world class virality and ads and how to make ads fun. So really, there was no one better to bring in for that challenge and moment than himself. And then I think, you know, maybe next like Teachable. So if you're listening you

know teachable is where i host a lot of my course content they're one of the biggest industry so like uh when you sell courses obviously my background selling courses i've made tens of millions of dollars selling courses been doing it for the last 10 plus years um and so it's really cool to bring them in because um a lot of physical product brand donors which a lot of these entrepreneurs were don't realize they can add in digital products with 100 margin so i was teaching them part of that like for order bumps upsells um where and you know we had teachable actually help them host that and collaborate and and create some of those i'm interested how many actually stuck

with it and are doing it now, but a lot of them could have done really well if they have. But what about Teachable? Did you see any cool stuff from them? Yeah, of course. I mean, Teachable, when you watch the show, you'll see Teachable is really kind of embedded into the through line of the show because everything, there's all these incredible takeaways that you get from the show. It's one of the things we're seeing so much as people are entertained by it but they're also like oh my god i'm learning so much and so you see these teachable moments throughout the show they also brought in chris doe who is a teachable creator he is an educator he is you know very known in his own right and a lot of people really credit, you know, a lot of their growth to

watching his content and his videos. And so there was a really, really incredible tie in with Teachable and the value that they brought to the table in terms of mentorship for the accelerator program and for the contestants, which was awesome. So you have like, again, these founders that were a part of it, then you have the brands like Teachable that are supporting the entire kind of program, so to speak. Another one, for example, is BetterHelp, right? BetterHelp is an online therapy platform. They're the largest online therapy platform. And so with them, we knew, one, we know that entrepreneurship can be volatile. And so it was like, all right, how can we support our entrepreneurs in this process? Also knowing that we have them in a pressure cooker environment.

So, you know, we had BetterHelp where you'll even see it throughout the show. They actually have therapy sessions. And that's a really interesting way to like get to know some of the struggles they're going through in this process as well. It's so human. Like we all go. Yeah, yeah yeah yeah i as kind of cool thing you're in there because i didn't really think about it because like i've always had a pretty good mindset and like that's one of my big advantages but i do you know we actually hired a mindset coach in my mastermind over time because we realized half the challenge our members had wasn't you know we'd give them all the tools trips ticks strategies but then they would just wouldn't do it um so it was kind of cool to see that element

brought into the show uh obviously better helps a massive company and famous for doing that but regardless the company i think highlighting the mindset side and again you know part of the goal of the show is to show the raw authentic side of entrepreneurship so you know showing that they were stressed showing that they had a lot going on showing they were juggling family and all of those things um i think it was really cool to um bring that in and show that side of it and hopefully highlight the um the the mindset side and highlight the, um, you know, really what it takes. And, and I do know, I won't say what, but I do know the big business shows, they have like psychologists and stuff as part of their shows too, because of out of stress that goes in to, um, running a business, but then

having like a hundred grand on the line, um, or whatever. And, and, uh and and so yeah and talking to the hundred grand you know chime was a big part of it from the financial side helping you know obviously time's kind of well known for the financial literacy part so what about chime yeah china's amazing because they're uh you know they're kind of like a newer take on banks right on the banking system um but i don't because they're very hip and hop and like you know i'm probably showing my age saying it that way i'm sure it's not what the cool kids call it these days you're hilarious but they're very with the times themselves like they have like just for context that you guys listen don't know who china is go look at their social media

because like they take boring money bank institutional stuff and their Instagram is massive it's viral it has over a million followers it's stonks like Bank of America and everything so I love bringing them in too because they're like again they're like the hip-hop bank in my eyes you know so I love it yeah I mean I think they've done a really incredible job with some of like the features and the things that they have and just like it's again it's like a totally new take on things that's really amazing and so when you look at the brand of the show and what they stand for which is really all about like progress and you know paying progress forward and all of those type of things

it was like this is literally a entire show about progress. So for us, it's, you know, any partnerships always have to feel so authentically aligned from a values perspective, from a storyline perspective, from what you can actually bring in terms of values to value to the contestants, to the audience. So Chime was phenomenal. And they did make that $100,000 possible, which was amazing for the winner. And I won't spoil another little thing they did at the end. But that was amazing. They were really, really awesome.

Pilot Pen was interesting. So Pilot Pen is so interesting. Obviously, you think of something like a pen, and it seems like, oh, it's just a pen, right? But I've gotten to know the Pilot Pen team. And it's so amazing to just see what kind of goes one behind a business like theirs. But then to what they actually stand for and, and even like the psychology and the power of actually writing a lot of us. I mean, you know, I was a songwriter for a long time. I understood, like, I would always write in journals. And then after a while, you start using your phone and your laptop and that stuff. Of course, we all do it.

But there's something really, really, really powerful about actually writing. And there's, like, neuroscience behind it. There's studies behind what it actually does for you. So it was really cool to bring that element into the show. We had a napkin pitch uh where they had to write down you know their business uh plan in a very pressure yeah some of my best ideas are just pen to paper like when i'm on flights late at night that you know by the pool so um and we you know we kind of got to show that too so um so with pilot specifically they were so intentional about

it being um a partnership with g2 so g2 is one of their friends it's like the um number one so it's funny because it's the one we give a lot of people at arab and you know what's so crazy this is so wild that like we've had so many creator events around this and all sorts of things and literally when people see the g2 they're like that's my favorite pen i'm like i've never seen a pen have a fandom like what is this so it's pretty cool so it's the gt and they're all about they they say it's like the pen of the overachiever so it just made sense right like anyone on this show is hands down and over we actually uh yeah they're coming on the

podcast soon because i want to talk to them how they've sold hundreds of millions of pens, I think it is. I got to get the exact match when I was talking to them about it. It's fascinating. And I always love to, you know, learn from businesses where they sell boring stuff, like selling, you know, it's easy to sell the Lamborghini Miami life sell on Instagram,

but like how Chime makes a bank fun how Liquid Death makes selling water in a can bottle fun you know so I love because that that's really tough stuff so um yeah as we're coming to the end just uh you know final question how the uh you know someone's not watched it how do they find the show and uh you know tune in yeah absolutely so definitely recommend you watch 60 day hustle it is awesome it's amazing binge it um it is on amazon prime currently in u.s uh but it will be going international very soon so you'll start seeing a rolling out if you're not in the u.s right now you'll start seeing it in your country very soon we'll also be announcing that um but it will be an international release so amazon prime um in the u.s currently excited for just to like continue hearing feedback we've been getting such great

like feedback on it people are loving it good all right guys check it out if you've not we've got plenty more coming on the podcast about the show show and then obviously plenty more on my socials i promise you you'll get a lot of value from it michelle thank you so much for your time today and guys as always keep living the red life take care