Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Richard ‘RB’ Botto, Actor - Producer, Speaker, Author, and Founder & CEO of Stage 32.

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Welcome to another episode of The Radcast! In this episode on The Radcast, host Ryan Alford talks with Richard ‘RB’ Botto, Actor, Producer, Speaker, Author, and Founder & CEO of Stage 32.RB discusses how he came up with the idea for Stage 32 and the circumstances that led him to recognize that this is the type of business he wants to pursue. He shares the tough struggles he had since then, as well as his most unforgettable moments he treasures to this day. RB also talks about how Stage 32 differs from other similar platforms, and what it has to offer. Ryan and RB also dissect his inspiration for writing his book "Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Film and the Power of the Crowd," and gives advice for individuals who have read it, and much more...Learn more about Stage 32: stage32.com. Follow RB on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richardbotto and Instagram and Twitter: @rbwalksintoabar.If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Like, Share and Subscribe on our YouTube account https://bit.ly/3iHGk44 or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. 

And what I learned from my tech background is that when things catch on a broad level, there will only be so many companies that can compete in that space. You know, you realize that while all businesses are tribal and all businesses run on relationships, the entertainment business is the, I mean, legitimately the most tribal business in the world. So this teaches you how to build that audience, how to make sure you're not wasting time trying to just make everyone your audience. You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up?

Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. It's radical today, folks. We've been creeping down the entertainment path with celebrities and the other way, but we're kind of going down the tech and other highway, I would say, of the entertainment industry. Both the tech, even though this guest is both an actor and a writer and a speaker and all those things, he's also the founder of a badass platform called Stage32. Richard R. B. Votto, what's up, brother? What's up, Ryan? Great to be here, my friend. Thanks for having me.

Hey, man. I'm excited. I've been talking with your team. I got to learn a lot about you. And I was like, all right, I want to talk to this guy. I want to learn more about Stage 32. And, you know, I'm excited for our audience to hear more about, you know, your journey and really the nuts and bolts. Because, you know, look, the entertainment industry is, and I don't have to tell you, has gone through this evolution the last 10 years. has gone through this evolution the last 10 years. The streaming wars, if you call them, of Netflix and Disney and Peacock and everybody, I mean, there's so much content being developed. But it's different, you know, because of not only the volume,

but just the avenues with which they go, the democratization of the industry, which I know you've been a big part of, and I want to talk about that. It's fascinating to me. So I just was thrilled to have you on to kind of talk about that journey. It's a thrill to be here. Big fan of the show. Big fan of everything you do. I mean, I think, you know, it's been wild to see and impressive to see everything that you've grown. So yeah, it's fantastic to be here, my friend. Well, cool. I know you're in New York.

You're in my old stomping grounds there, right there, Tribeca, where I lived for a number of years. So I'm a little jealous because I miss some parts of Manhattan. Some parts I don't miss with what's happened with COVID. I'm going like, I don't think I would have been there, wanted to be there during that. But hopefully, if we ever get the hell out of this thing, I want to get back up there. But let's talk let's get down the positive road for everybody

listening let's talk rb story um let's start there let's kind of give them you know your professional journey uh and you know leading up to of course stage 32 sure yeah i you know i actually grew up here in new york York and started as an actor in theater. Always loved the arts, always was a writer, was involved in everything film early on, theater early on. And was also involved to pay the bills. I got involved with a few technology companies, particularly in the software space, the billing space, and helped a couple companies exit, so did pretty well there. And then an opportunity arose to start a magazine,

which interested me a lot because it was, you know, at the time, print was having this sort of resurgence, and the men's lifestyle category, to was lacking you know everybody was following the maxim mentality GQ and Esquire had kind of you know dumbed down a little bit you know GQ had gone from you know athletes Michael Jordan on the cover you know in a three thousand dollar suit standing in front of a Bentley to Lindsay Lohan in panties and standing in front of a barrel of cherries, you know, with the very subtle, very subtle messaging behind that. I call that the race to the bottom. Race to the fucking bottom, man.

I was like, you know what? There needs to be, you know, a men's lifestyle magazine that long form journalism, you know, men like I used to joke, you know, when you're done with your maximum years and not ready for your Esquire years, what's that magazine that fills the gap? So we started a magazine called Razor, which was a men's lifestyle magazine. It was national, competed right in that space, and we routinely outsold GQ and Esquire. It was amazing for a single-title publisher, but that was our problem. We were a single title publisher competing against the kind of Nass and the hearse of this world. And also at a time where especially after 9-11, even though this was years later, what started to happen was that the a lot of these a lot of these companies, a lot of these brands were taking their ad dollars away from print and putting it into digital. They weren't creating a new budget. And so we, it was a problem for us. But during

that time, even though we were routinely outselling everybody, our ad dollars were pretty good, but it started to level off and you could see the decline. And even though we tried to transfer to digital, digital side, nobody was really ready for that in fact you could see even today the paywall type situation is still a challenge for you know a lot of big media companies so but during that time the the blessing of that time was not only i mean credible experience and obviously meeting a ton of people but getting to know a lot of people in the industry and in in entertainment and um being able to segue back into you know a lot of people in the industry and in entertainment and being able to segue back into you know a writing and producing career because of it because I started meeting people in the business and now of course there's a new proving ground there to prove that I could do this

so the journey took me back into film started producing some films and one of the first ones I was involved with was Barry Levinson's son, Sam Levinson, who of course now does Euphoria and on HBO and has, you know, forged an amazing career. But his first film was a movie called Another Happy Day, and I got involved with that. And it was during that, you know, it was a typical independent film experience where you're in the middle of nowhere. We had some great stars, you know, we had Ellen Barkin, Thomas Hayden Church, Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, you know, a lot of good people. great stars you know we had ellen bark in thomas hayden church demi moore uh kate bosworth you know a lot of good a lot of good people and you know everybody's just staying at a hotel in the middle of nowhere and that's like doing the indie film guerrilla style nobody

above it but when it's over everybody kind of goes their separate ways and when the tax incentives dried up in michigan which is where we filmed it everybody was looking to me to come out to la to you know say how you know can you help me get a job? Can you help me? And you realize that while all businesses are tribal and all businesses run on relationships, the entertainment business is legitimately the most tribal business in the world. And that got me thinking about what was the embryonic idea of Stage 32. At the time, Facebook was blowing up. Twitter was just launching. They just had that big South by Southwest debut and was starting to get rolling. And what I learned from my tech

background is that when things catch on a broad level, there will only be so many companies that can compete in that space. And we've seen that borne out over the last 12, 15 years, where you have your Facebooks and you have your Twitters and you have your TikToks now. And every once in a while, one will pop up, Instagram and so on and so forth. But I figured that what would happen was these things would filter down to niche levels. And so what I wanted to have was the first platform for film, television and digital content creators and professionals worldwide dedicated to the business. And, you know, I just went about building it, to be perfectly honest with you. I did it backwards, not a way I would recommend anyone else or that you would read in a book. I just put my money where my mouth was, built the first iteration of it and then went to 100 of my people, 100 of my friends in the industry and said're gonna use it and you're gonna tell me what you like and you're gonna tell me what you don't like and I

said you can help me build a community we're gonna invite people and that sort of mantra has stayed there today or is still there today and we've gone from our original hundred members over 800,000 people worldwide and now also the biggest education platform for film, television and digital creatives and professionals and also a marketplace. Hey, it's a lot, brother. A lot to unpack there. And, you know, exciting.

I remember Razor. You said that, and I may have skipped over that or like breezed over that. I was like, I didn't know you were involved with that. But I remember that magazine. I like that magazine. I think I had a subscription. I started it. It was it was a great ride i mean it was so much fun uh you know it's it's it's you know it's it's i'm sure there's people that are listening to this because i know you have a lot of entrepreneurial minded people and like that you know it's it's interesting when you enter a space and you're successful

but the space doesn't support the success in a way like you know we had to we had to serve two masters right the readership and and the ad the business the ad dollars the readership at the end was the highest it ever was every issue was outselling the last and and but the the advertising you know was, again, Hearst could go out and sell seven titles at once and discount against my one. So that was the challenge there. Interesting. I want to explain for people because if you're not in the entertainment industry, I think it can be overwhelming and also some ignorance just because there's not, if you're not in it, you don't know how complicated it is to make these films, to make the TV shows, from production to writing to all of that.

I'd like to do a little 101. Talk to me, the layers of the 800,000. What are the main categories of people that are on the platform and what they're doing? Yeah, well, I mean, a bulk, it's everybody above the line and below the line. There's a home for you on the platform. We have everybody from managers and agents to craft services i mean you know you you name it you could be on the platform i would say the majority of our members fall into the acting screenwriting filmmaking producing arenas um

but you know we work with now close to 5 000 executives executives in the business. And that those are development executives, again, producers, people that can make the content, managers, agents, financiers. So it really has become sort of this marketplace between the content makers and the, I mean, the content creators and the content makers. And that's what we, when you talk about about democratizing this was always the idea was how do we level the playing field for all because you know if you're just starting out and you're a writer it's true i'm glad you said it that way that people don't realize how difficult it is there there are no overnight successes everybody believes that this is a very much very much a

brick by brick business and a marathon business and, like I said earlier, a relationship and tribal business. But the way that you can shorten your path is if you can get your material or your talents in front of those decision makers. And really, before this platform existed, the only way to do that was, you know, sometimes through a contest or sometimes through, but really it was through your champions. It was through people that, you know, if I come up to you and, you know, you're a manager and I say, man, my, you know, my writing's fantastic. That manager is getting in, you know, just inundated with material day after day. They're like, yeah, sure. You and everybody else, but one of their clients or one of their peers or somebody comes and says, they're like, yeah, sure, you and everybody else. But one of their clients or one of their peers or somebody comes and says, no, no, no, you got to read our piece of stuff.

It's really good. It goes to the top. That used to be the way, the only way it really worked. This platform allows you to literally be able to get in front of those executives that we work with. And it's a perfect two-way street because those executives in this era of an amazing amount of content being produced and the need for content and the need for speed, they want to get in front of material that nobody else has seen. Because in this business, you know, people go,

how come there's so many shitty movies that get made? And I'll tell you a couple of reasons why. One is because there's so much interference from people that the business people don't understand the creative and they don't and but they think they do that's one problem but the second problem is is that good material goes to the to the the biggest places first you know it goes to the studios and the netflix's and the streamers and everything and then when it gets passed on it filters down and filters down and filters down and then you know eventually if

you're a small production company you got to make something you know what i mean and filters down and filters down. And then, you know, eventually if you're a small production company, you got to make something, you know what I mean? And you go and you make it and it's, it's not, it's not at a higher level. This helps those companies as well get in front of material that they're getting a first look at. Yep. That makes a lot of sense. And it sounds a lot, a lot like the advertising industry. Like the business gets away in the way of the creative.

Oh, if I write a book about that. Every good ad we've ever written gets watered down by the business. But at the same time, hey, we get it. Everybody's got to get paid, and they think they're doing what's best. And I'm like, hey, if you get out of our way, we can actually do some good work but uh so if i'm a so if i'm a writer a screenwriter or a production company or something like that i come sign up on the platform uh i start engaging with content educational stuff some of your writing some of you of your team stuff. And then everyone's just kind of cross-pollinating, like sharing their book, their reel or whatever

it is, responding to posts that might be looking for stuff like that. Am I kind of breaking it down to how it works? Yeah, I would say this. The way we look at it internally is we say we have three divisions to Stage 32. The first division would be the social networking, natural relationship building part, which is sort of the same way you would sign up for Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever. You create your profile. In our case, you know, you said you upload your reels, your screenplays, all your work, your bio, and then you go about networking within the platform. We have all these types of forums that we call the lounge. We have a million different resources.

And this is the way that you can do this is all free. This is a way that you can just go about and control your own destiny. The more work you put in, the more you get out, right? The second division is our education division. And what was really important to me when we launched the platform, and it took a few years to get there, and we knew it would, was we wanted to build a library of education and have tiers, you know, webinars, classes, and labs. The labs having tiers where people could graduate up and, you know, and get being taught by people that are professionals in the industry working right now. So the whole idea is, okay, we're connecting them, we're training them, and that brings us to the third division, which is the marketplace, or what we call development services. And in that instance, we have executives that say, we want to be a part of what you're doing. We will offer these services, whether it's mentoring, whether it's, you know, looking at scripts and doing coverage and consulting calls, whether it's doing line budgets on projects, whether it's doing producing mentoring. This is how I would go about raising the money.

This is where this project fits in the marketplace. And then you, as the content maker, get to come in, choose the executives. in, choose the executives. So if you have a horror film, for example, we might have three development executives, five development executives or producers from some of the top horror production companies in the world. And you will get to put your material in front of them and talk to them about it. So it's a straight line to the people making the content. Let's transition a bit to the business of Stage 32. I think it's fascinating. I think what you just described is actually a true community. It's what you've built. You know, it's like, that's what it is.

Like people talk about it all the time, but that's actually what you've built when you are adding value at all layers. And, you know, like that's community. So I applaud you for that. But let's talk about, like, how does Stage 32 make money? Like, what is the, you know, you've built this amazing community. You're doing it the right way.

You're adding lots of value, giving, giving, giving. But at the end of the day, it is a business. So what is the kind of revenue channels for stage 32 well i first of all i appreciate you you saying that about the community it's not easy people say you know what was the most difficult part about building this thing and in a lot of ways you know building a community of 800 000 has not been easy but it has been all about we always look at everything about the value we're bringing and what we can bring to the community. And the fact that you can come on for free and you never have to pay for anything is some, and you still get this tremendous value

is, you know, something that we're very proud of. However, of course, as you say, we are a business and we do have to make money. So the three divisions that I broke out, division two, division three, education and development services or that marketplace, those are premium. So the webinars, the classes and the labs are all premium products. We do offer a lot of free education, but our webinars, classes and labs, you're paying for them. And those, like I said, are, you know, just world-class training. It's almost like going to film school at one one-thousandth of the price in a lot of ways. And then the development services, you get in front of those executives that we talked about.

If you want mentoring from somebody at, I'm throwing out a name, Warner Brothers and Netflix. And we're partners with all these companies. We're partners with Netflix. So if you want to get in front of them, this is going to be a premium. But you're getting back value, of course, you're getting back mentorship. You're getting back feedback. You're also obviously paying for the access, which is, you know, tremendous. And, you know, to be quite blunt, I mean, a lot of our executives who even teach for us are so, and this is the power of the community that we've built,

they're so blown away by what we've built. A lot of them don't want to get paid. A lot of them want it or they want us, we offer to donate their fee to charity and a lot of times they accept that because people in this business really do want to get back. But even more importantly, again, in this, what I've been calling

the great content gold rush of 2021, they need material. They need the access as badly as the content creators need the access. So that's where we make the money. The content creators, the people looking for the education, they pay for that education and they pay for those development services. That makes sense. And you guys just make a percentage or a fee on what those things are, right? Yeah, we handle everything. And, you know, we, yeah, that's our revenue stream right there. Yeah.

How have you grown? You know, I know in talking with your team and I see that this platform could, I mean, you know, 10x, 20x in the next few years with everything going on. I'm sure that's the vision. you know, 10 X, 20 X in the next few years with everything going on. I'm sure that's the vision. But how have you grown the 800,000? And I know it's been, you know, community building is not easy. And there's been marketing involved and there's been, you know, natural word of mouth, I'm sure. And I don't want to put words in your mouth, but like I'd love to know like some of the marketing that, that, that it took and or tactics and or community building.

What, what you had to do to get it to this point? Yeah, sure. It's funny. It was a lot of decisions that were made immediately early on. And one of them was that I was going to stand out in front of the company and be the face of the company because I was working as an actor,

writer, producer. So basically the messaging was going to be, look, I'm not just some business guy that had an idea and I'm coming into this industry and filling the need. Yeah, I'm filling a need, but I'm doing it just like you are. I am just like you. I have a joke that if you've been in this business for more than five,

you could tell somebody that's been in business for more than five minutes because of their cynicism and somebody that hasn't been in business for more than five minutes because of their optimism, right? So the first thing we knew we had to do is cut through the cynicism and somebody that hasn't been in business for more than five minutes because of their optimism, right? So the first thing we knew we had to do was cut through the cynicism. I mean, it's a tough business. It's a lot of no, it's a lot of rejection. So the welcome letter that you see today on Stage 32 is almost exactly the way,

almost exactly word for word, a couple little changes that was there on day one. And this was the idea that, look, we're all in this together. We're going to build this together, okay? There's going to be no trolling. There's going to be no hate speech. There's going to be no, you got to stand in front of your own name because in this business you do. You can't be Joe12345 like you could be on Twitter, okay?

And we're going to build this thing together. And if you like what we're doing, and at the time it was crowdsourcing, although I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't realize that was the word that we were going to be using. But the idea was if you like what we're doing, my ask to you is invite at least five fellow creatives or professionals. And people started inviting their whole film crews, their whole acting classes.

People just started inviting, you know, community and their communities in droves. And they were becoming champions of the platform. So to be quite honest, we went quite, quite honest. We went from that 100 to 800,000, mostly through crowdsourcing, mostly through word of mouth. Now, over the last couple of years, have we done some Facebook advertising,

stuff like that? Of course. We have partnerships with Netflix. We did a gigantic global how to pitch to Netflix, how to do a TV pitch deck for Netflix. That, of course, brought in a ton of people as well. But most of our community has been built through word of mouth and through crowdsourcing.

Yeah, which actually is a great lead into a book you wrote. Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers. RB, you are a natural. I got to tell you, you lead a guy, an interviewer straight into it, man. I love it. The Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers, The Power of the Crowd. I know you wrote that book. Let's talk about that.

I know it gained a lot of notoriety and popularity in the industry, but it's right down that avenue, right? Yeah. It's a book for everybody. I kind of hate that, you know, wrong word, hate, but I kind of wish that it would have been. It was published by Focal Press, which is there specific to film mostly. And I was asked to write it after giving a talk at the American Film Market in 2000, I think, 13.

And it took me about three years to agree to do it. But it really is talking about it really fits any business. It fits everything. It's more important today than when I wrote it in a lot of ways. And it really is all about how you identify, engage, and move a crowd on behalf of the brand of you and everybody listening. You do have a brand. And if you don't know what it is, you have to start thinking about it right now. And probably begins with what you're putting out there on social media, by the way.

But it's also for the brand of your products, or in this particular case, the brand of your products or in this particular case the brand of your film so it was you know it was a fun experience to you know to write the book and to show people that it's very very possible in this day and age in this business that you know it's it's a dinosaur business i like to say although that's changed dramatically over the last few years because you do have the disruptors. We always knew this convergence between entertainment and tech was going to happen. Yeah. We just thought it was going to happen a little bit earlier. The thing that has accelerated it tremendously has been COVID. You know what I mean?

Because, you know, with day and date and with Netflix committing to so much original content and putting out 42 films in the fourth quarter, which is insane. The bottom line is there's no way the middle can hold. There's no way that the standard ways of doing things can operate anymore. So what crowdsourcing for filmmakers teaches you is that you have more control than you realize you have, and can control the process but you can't control the process without champions and without an audience you know what i mean so this this teaches you how to build that audience how to make sure you're not wasting time trying to just make everyone your audience because that's not the way the world works you got to you know identify your audiences engage them in the proper way by bringing them value, like you said earlier, being selfless.

I have a rule of three, which is I give three times before I ever ask for anything. So you're building that trust and you're building that community. And then once you've built that trust, you get them to go. Then you go for your ask. Then you ask them to go move on your behalf. And, you know, we've seen this throughout history that this is how businesses are built. And especially in this day and age, we've seen how brands all across the world are asking their communities to move on their behalf and to grow and to help help them grow at peloton for example is a great example of this they've gone from you know hardware to software to really everything that they talk about is community this is our tribe this is our people so we're seeing it everywhere um but that's all the crowdsourcing is and and the book is done exceptionally well and and it's been one of

focal's best-selling books over the last 30 years so i mean i couldn't be more thrilled about it i i wish it would have i i wish mainstream audiences would read it because it fits it fits any any you know any pursuit any business well i mean there's so many principles you just described there i love the power you know the the rule of three uh hey i always say there's powers in three and that in a good and bad things seem to happen in threes but uh the uh but i but it's so true like you started talking about brand you know building your personal brand which i am near and dear in my heart for anyone out there listening and rb's doing this he has a great one you need to go check him out we'll link to all that and we'll talk about that at the end but

um you know whether you're a production company a person or whatever there's so much opportunity you know we talked about the democratization of content but you have these social media channels you have places like stage 32 where you could start building your brand the opportunities are so much more wider than they used to be there's certainly it's certainly crowded but there's just so many channels that you have to kind of start laying the foundation of relationships before you even have them. And it sounds like you've got a lot of great principles in the book that might be, you know, towards that end. It definitely, there's a ton in the book towards that end. And we preach it

all the time. I mean, a lot of what, um, you know, if you do look at my social media, like my brand is inspiration, aspiration, motivation. That's the way I look at it. You know, certainly I put up some things that are, you know, more personal. I don't want it to be so business, business, business. So there's some perspiration. Yeah, there's perspiration. There's always perspiration.

But the point of the matter is, is that you do, you're 100% right. You have more opportunities today, especially given the fact that you, you know, you're basically carrying around a connector all day long, right? opportunities in a given day to be able to give and to be selfless and to be empathetic in a manner that allows you to build your brand and build your audience right and to get you to really where you want to be and i'm not saying that in a manipulative sense like with being machiavellian like like let's make these connections and then oh my god i'm going to come back behind you and i'm going to like be like okay now yeah you got to give me what I'm asking for. No, it's not that. It's building relationships in a community that lasts over time so that you're able to accomplish your goals. But you're able to help other people on that path and on their journey as well, which, of course, is the priority, really. Or it should be the priority in audience building. So, yeah, I think people are hindered.

Look, and I understand there's probably people that are listening to this right now. There's a few things that we run into all the time. One, you may be introverted. I totally get that. Two, you may be a little paralyzed by being in isolation for the last year, year and a half and, you know, dealing with COVID. Clearly, we talk a lot about mental health on stage 32 very, very often. Artists in general create alone, and then they have to go out and collaborate. It's been much worse now. There are a lot of people that haven't been able to get off the couch or get off, you know, or get into the proper mindset to do it. All I would say to you is, is that this is a life's

work or a career's work, if that's the way you want to look at it, you don't have to win the war in a day, but, but if you could just take steps every day, you know what I mean? And if you could just put out good stuff, put out, put out good vibes, you know, like I always say to introverts, like here's three ways that you could step out today because a lot of people like I'm afraid that you know it's imposter syndrome I don't know what I'm doing I'm new how do I thank people for posting great content you know just thank them that's value share things if you read something this morning you know that that is intriguing or

something that you found really interesting just share share it, you know, and never be afraid to ask people questions. Never be afraid to say, why did you try that? Why did you say? People are going to respond to you. Maybe not everybody, but just dip your toe in. And before you know it, you'll be swimming. And really, it's so vital that you can that you do that today in this world. It's so vital that if you're looking to accomplish something that you're using utilizing those tools and that you're making a part of your action plan on a

daily basis it just has to be yeah and it's you can't hide behind the computer like when i say that like alone not on social like i'm not you don't have to like i don't know you don't have to be gary v but like it's like but there's somewhere in between you know like you have to kind of put it out there i mean like you're building relationships whether we like it love it or hate it with between covid and just the realities of technology you've got to use these platforms in a way that you've got to look show behind the curtain a little bit and you know if you're if you're not leveraging that you're leaving a lot on the table um and you know i do want to ask you though like you're an actor

and you're involved in some projects and things like that i mean some of your passions like like if if you had your druthers i mean do you like the nuts and bolts of stage 32 business building or i mean if it was up to you would you just be making movies and writing or all that? Or is it a combination? That's such a great question. I mean, I do more screenwriting and producing now than I do acting. I love the business end of it. I love, you know, putting projects together.

I mean, I certainly love Stage 32 and I love the business. I've always had an entrepreneurial mind. And I always say, if you're an artist, you're an entrepreneur, you just are. It doesn't matter if you come together to make that film. When you're done making that film, everybody goes their separate ways and you're back to creating again. You know, so artists or entrepreneurs, you're the CEO of you. I love both is the answer. You know what I mean?

I really, really do. And I love the fact that they they mesh you know i mean obviously my personal interest and my creative interest align perfectly with a platform that you know services that industry so i wish i had sometimes a little bit more time to be working on the creative because stage 32 is behemoth and takes up you know my 70 60 70 80 hours sometimes a week you know what i mean so it is a lot of you know it's a lot of work and you know and and the growth that we've had has been so tremendous that it's it's you know it's the demands on your time are massive but i still get to be around people that are creating

all the time get people around making projects all the time, you know, working with the upper echelon as far as the professional end all the time, you know, to be able to have a direct channel to, you know, the development heads of Netflix, you know, on the television and film side. But that's that's fantastic. But but it's also but it's much more in service to the community than it is to myself you know what i mean like my creator gets a little sacrifice in the mix sometimes that makes sense is uh what is your thoughts on all that like the netflix and the 42 films and you know the purists say the movie business is dying you know the movie theaters haven't been around and i i kind of get that perspective the you know when quantity goes up quality usually goes down yeah uh what is your perspective on all that it's it's a tough one i get asked this question a lot and it's a really really tough one because i see it from two

different perspectives i've always been a theater guy i like you know i've never been sort of the big blockbuster temple type fan so i'm the guy that's usually in the theaters when i do go to the theaters usually between like you know october and december for all the prestige films are you cons are you cons watching premieres but you know here's the thing to me do you want opportunity or does everything have to be excellence because i i think there is going to be a place for all of it right you're still going to have prestige films you're still can's not going to go away you know venice is not going away you're still going to have all these prestige films and in fact you may end up having more of them because the desire now to make lower budget films and to try to make more personal stories has all of a sudden become much greater it's not that netflix

is doing 42 films in the fourth quarter that are all 100 million and above they're doing smaller movies as well the problem is of, of course, you know, and the argument that I always hear back is that the quality has gone, either the quality has gone down a little bit. You hear that often, or you hear, how do you find them? Like, there's just so much content. Like, you know, yeah, I spent all these years putting this film together, but like, you know, the algorithm has pushed it to, you know, page 10. page 10 and i you know nobody can find the damn thing i get that argument too but would you rather

be in a position where you have the opportunity to get things made and it's a stepping stone to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing you actually have longevity or would you want to hold out and hope that you get a 3000stream release that doesn't really exist anymore unless you're like Thor, Thor 85. You know what I mean? The Avengers and Superman attack Batman on planet Wonder Woman. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's endless. I know. And, you know, I like a good Star Wars movie, but, you know.

Yeah, that I watch. That I watch. That I watch. But where's it all going man i mean what's what's uh i know you're headed to i think you said south africa you're on your yeah yeah and like but it's both short term and long term where where's rb headed well you know i mean as far as far as just kind of piggybacking on the answer, the business. Yeah. One of the reasons I'm going to South Africa is, you know, to meet with the South Africa Film Commission. What's what's happening with the business that I also think is interesting. And I think where the opportunity lies is that, you know, Netflix, for example, is looking to do foreign language productions that play to an American audience.

Right. So you're looking at Lapineine you're looking at sabara narcos things like that right how do you train those people how do you you know how do you cover the earth you know basically and fortunately for us they're kind of turning to us to help them do that so that's part of of where i think the industry going is going on part of where we're going you know on a personal level you you know, for me. Right now, it's all about creating an atmosphere, continuing to create an atmosphere where bolts up, where this marketplace can thrive, where these content creators, you know, can capitalize on this need for content. Netflix is not going to stop spending money, which means that all these other streaming platforms are going to start upping their spend as well, which means that more content is going to be created, more opportunities are going to be created.

We want to be that bridge, and we have been. So that's a big part of where we're going and where we're spending a lot of our time. We are certainly upping as well, you know, the education aspect of it, the demands for that, because, you know, it's affordable education. Again, why would you go to film school and put yourself in tremendous debt for years and years and years when you can learn, you know, the same skills from people that are doing it right now and then have access to those people? So that's a lot of where we're going. And then, you know, personally, I have a few films in the works and a television show that I'm out there that we have some interest in, which is really, really cool.

Something that I wrote. And, you know, you just keep pushing the proverbial rock up the fucking hill, man. You know what I mean? Brick by brick, brother. Brick by brick, man. And, you know, I hope if you're listening today, you know, or listening to this at any point, that's such a lesson. It's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned in life, man, in business is that it is a brick. But I hate you know, I hate all these cliches and everything like that. You know, you can't run before you can walk and everything like that.

But but really, if you kind of embrace that mentality alone, if that is your sort of home base, that all I really need to do today is win today. And I keep winning the day and I keep winning the day. And all of a sudden I look back and it's like, holy shit, look what I built. Like if you can embrace that as a foundation for everything you do, even what we talked about earlier about stepping out on social media or stepping out and building your brand, you really will, your whole entire psychology changes, your whole mentality, your whole perspective changes. And suddenly you look back and you've been doing this, you know, we're in our 10th year and it's amazing to me. And I remember sending out those hundred letters to, you know, a hundred emails to my friends saying, you're the first

hundred I'm inviting. And now to know that we're, you know, closing in on a million, you know, a hundred emails to my friends saying, you're the first hundred I'm inviting. And now to know that we're, you know, closing in on a million, uh, you know, and have all this, I mean, it was a brick by brick approach, man. And, you know, so don't give in, don't give up, but get, get up and do something. I love it, brother. Uh, where can everybody keep up with all things RB and all things Stage 32? Sure. So, I mean, look, if you're in, if you're in the business at all or want to be in the business, if you're anything, like I said, actor, writer, producer, filmmaker, have any interest, you know, like I said, if you, if you could be in the credits or if you're on the professional side, you have a place in Stage 32, just go to stage32.com and you can

create a profile as soon as you do you will see me on your wall that is an automated message but everything after that will be me i respond to everything it's not my team um so but if you're not and you know you're on the entrepreneurial side and want to follow what I do business-wise and everything like that. My Twitter and Instagram is RB, my initials. RB walks into a bar on Instagram and on Twitter. And, of course, I'm on LinkedIn and other places as well. I love it, brother, and I love the platform. I'm on it, and I'm looking forward to collaborating

and sharing some marketing knowledge with some of your great subscribers and followers and community. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yeah. I'm looking forward to doing some more stuff with you too, my friend, because I love what you're doing. Yeah, man.

I'm excited. I think this is the start of a great friendship partnership, and I can't be more appreciative of you coming on the show, sharing your journey, being transparent. And I love your energy, man. Thank you, brother. I didn't buy right back at you. I love what you're doing and I love what you're giving back to the

community. You bring value every day. And I mean, that's what it's all about. If you listen to this podcast regularly, I hope that's one of the lessons you take away is the value that Ryan brings to the community with every show and everything else he does. Appreciate it, brother. Hey guys, you know where to follow us. We're at theradcast.com. You can look for all of these highlights. We aggregate everything. Search for RB,

search for Stage 32. You'll find all the highlight clips from this episode. You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan Alford. I'm on Twitter. I'm on TikTok. Verified all the platforms. Go find me. Go find some motivation. You know where to find us. You know where to find RB. We'll see you next time on the platforms go find me go find some motivation you know where to find us you know where to find RB we'll see you next time on the Radcast