Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S8E17 - Best Product In A Leading Role: Celebrity CEOs

Episode Date: April 25, 2019

This week, we look at celebrities with their own brands. From a small town general store owned by a comedian to a cosmetics empire started by an 18-year-old to a winery that was funded by the Godfather movies - a few of them are even billion-dollar enterprises. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. We'll see you next time. new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 8, 2019.

You're so king in it. You're lovin' it in style. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Leslie Hope was born in England in 1903. When his teachers would take roll call, they'd call out, Hope, Leslie. His classmates shortened that to Hopeless.

So, many years later, Leslie changed his name to Bob. Bob Hope held many jobs before he became a world-famous entertainer. When his family emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, he sold newspapers, he was a, Ohio, he sold newspapers, he was a delivery boy, he sold shoes, he was a taffy puller,

and he was a lineman for the Cleveland Electric Company. Bob Hope even boxed for a while under the name Packy East. In 1922, he convinced a girl to dance with him on the vaudeville circuit, and thus began Bob Hope's career in the entertainment business. He made his first major motion picture in 1938

and sang this song in that film. Thanks for the memory Of sentimental verse Nothing in my purse And chuckles when the preacher said For better or for worse That song would become his signature for the rest of his career. Bob would go on to star in many radio and television shows and dozens of movies. He entertained troops overseas in every war from World War II to the Gulf War. He hosted the Academy Awards an astonishing 19 times.

His opening line? Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as it's known in my house, Passover. While he never won an actual Oscar, he does hold the Guinness World Record as the most honored entertainer in history with over 1,500 awards. he does hold the Guinness World Record as the most honored entertainer in history, with over 1,500 awards. Bob Hope often played a hilarious coward in his movies, but as a businessman, he was nothing of the kind.

He began buying real estate early in his career. Forbes magazine once tried to figure out Hope's extensive land holdings. It reported he owned 5,000 acres near Phoenix, Arizona, 16,000 acres in the San Fernando Valley of California, along with 8,000 acres in Palm Springs and more than 7,500 acres in Malibu. Forbes said he owned enough property to create a principality 50 times the size of Monaco. At one point, Time magazine estimated Hope's net worth to be around $500 million. Bob Hope lived to be 103 years old.

Over his long career, he owned an interest in Texas oil wells, the Cleveland Indians baseball team, a racetrack, soft drink companies, frozen orange juice, a metal fabricating company,

a dairy ranch, wholesale meat packing, RCA records, and radio and television stations. Bob Hope wasn't just in business. He was big business. Bob Hope wasn't the only celebrity business person.

While there are many celebrities who lend their names to products, there is a small group of celebrities who own companies and do serious business. They create companies based on their passions. Today, we'll talk about a small, quaint general store owned by a comedian, a cannabis product aimed at menstrual pain, a cosmetics empire started by an 18-year-old, and a winery that was funded by the Godfather movies.

A few of them are even billion-dollar enterprises. They are highly unusual Hollywood success stories. You're under the influence. There's no denying we live in a celebrity culture these days. A reality TV star is the president of the United States. And it seems celebrities are in every second commercial and print ad endorsing all kinds of products.

Then there are the celebrities who actually own companies. They pour their own money into those businesses. They don't just endorse the products, they create them. Sometimes those products

are perfectly suited to the celebrities and, they create them. Sometimes those products are perfectly suited to the celebrities, and sometimes they are surprising. For example, there is a general store in Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts. You can buy small items there like penny candy, coffee, muffins, and knickknacks. It's a gathering place for the small community. When people visit the Marshfield Hills General Store, they often ask if the owner is around. They ask that because the owner is actor Steve Carell. Carell, who starred in The Office and movies like Little Miss Sunshine, is a Massachusetts native.

He summers in the quaint seaside town and his family would often pop by the store when there. Carell and his wife bought the General Store in 2009. They purchased it for a reason. The Marshfield Hills General Store was a local landmark. It was established in 1969 and came up for sale 10 years ago. Carell has a love of history. The beautiful building is nearly 170 years old, and he was afraid it wouldn't be preserved.

He wanted to save the store and keep it as a place where locals can gather, where kids could have an ice cream cone, and parents could sit out on the front porch. It reminded him of a general store he used to bike over to as a kid, but that store is now gone. As a matter of fact, there aren't many of the old stores left from that era. His sister-in-law now runs the shop, and Carell says he mans the cash when time permits.

Above all, it was an emotional investment. There is a sign that hangs over the front door. It says, Marshfield Hills General Store. Established in 1969, then again in 2009. Only 15 people in the world have achieved the elite status known as EGOT. They're the few people who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards throughout their careers. To sum up, they're very busy people. One of those busy people is Whoopi Goldberg.

But while it may seem like Goldberg has mastered every professional area an actor possibly could, she's now venturing into a new business, cannabis. Together with cannabis businesswoman Maya Elizabeth, Goldberg has come out with a line of cannabis products called Whoopi and Maya Elizabeth, Goldberg has come out with a line of cannabis products called Whoopie and Maya. The goal? To relieve menstrual pain and discomfort.

The products include edibles, bath soaks, topical rubs for localized pain, and a tincture for serious discomfort. For years, Goldberg used medical marijuana to help with her

glaucoma-related headaches. When one day it occurred to her that if cannabis could help with certain aches and pains, it could likely help with others. Having suffered from severe menstrual cramps all her life, as did most of the women in her family, Goldberg began looking around to see if anyone was already making cannabis products designed specifically to treat PMS. When she approached industry experts,

she was told that the products would never take off because they were, quote, too niche. To which Goldberg laughed and said, hey, this niche is half the population on the earth. The goal of Whoopi and Maya isn't to get women high, but instead to manage or even prevent period pain with ingredients like magnesium and CBD. The products are sold in California and Colorado,

but Goldberg is hoping to expand up to Canada as well. By the way, Whoopi wasn't the first to think of this. It's been said that even Queen Victoria used cannabis to ease her menstrual cramps as far back as the 1800s. Hmm. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. If you've ever watched television or flipped through a magazine, you've probably heard of the Kardashians. But did you know it's the youngest of the clan that surpassed all her siblings by a long shot, owning and operating her own business at just 22 years old?

Oh, and by the way, it's valued at over a billion dollars. Daughter of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, Kylie Jenner grew up in the spotlight, first appearing in E!'s Keeping Up With The Kardashians when she was just 10 years old, a reality show with 2.5 million viewers a week. As Jenner entered her late teens, she became insecure about the size and appearance of her lips. So she began using lip liners to overdraw them, faking the appearance of a fuller pout. Then something interesting happened. Many of her nearly 200 million social media followers began asking Jenner which lip liners she was using. And every time she'd reveal

the exact shade she had on from, say, MAC Cosmetics or Sephora, the product would sell out immediately worldwide. Even products Jenner never confirmed but was merely rumored to be using would go out of stock. And that gave her an idea. At the ripe old age of 18, Jenner decided to start her own line of lip products. She invested $15,000 of her own money into creating what she called Lip Kits by Kylie, makeup sets containing a lip liner and matching lipstick priced at $29. Jenner promoted the launch on social media alone, primarily Instagram, without paying a dime in advertising. And on the morning of launch day, November 30, 2015, the product sold out in 30 seconds.

Two months later, Jenner renamed her brand Kylie Cosmetics and restocked the site with another 500,000 lip kits in a range of shades. They sold out in minutes. It was a lip liner frenzy. The people who were able to get their hands on a lip kit were reselling them on eBay for thousands of dollars. Some even began selling knockoffs. In its first year, Kylie Cosmetics made over $300 million.

Over time, Jenner began offering a wider range of makeup products including eyeshadows, concealers, and highlighters, which she calls Ky-lighters. For the next three years, Kylie Cosmetics was sold exclusively online, until 2018, when the brand made its way into brick-and-mortar beauty chain Ulta. Jenner said moving into Ulta's 1,100 locations was a strategic decision. She had marketed to every demographic she could online, but she wanted to reach fans who either didn't shop online

or were too young to own a credit card. Six months before the launch, Ulta's stock price was around $200. After the launch, the stock price hit $316. Many experts believe Kylie Cosmetics was the driver for that increase. Then in March of this year, Jenner broke one of the most coveted records in the business world. She became the world's youngest self-made billionaire, raking in a 10-figure fortune at age 22. De-throning Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who was 23 when he hit the same milestone.

Many take issue with the term self-made when it comes to Jenner because of her famous family advantage. But her success speaks for itself. Jenner financed the company on her own and to this day retains full ownership. And she did it all without using traditional advertising. Regardless of your opinion of the Kardashians, their business savvy is undeniable. They're some of the most influential people on the planet, leaving other entrepreneurs merely trying to keep up. And we'll be right back after this message. The highest paid actor in 2018 was none other than George Clooney.

Which was interesting, because he didn't make a movie that year. He made something else. Tequila. It all started in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Clooney and best friend Randy Gerber had vacation homes beside one another in a community called Casamigos. Their favorite drink was tequila.

So in 2013, they began a search for the perfect tequila. They sampled many brands across Mexico. Some were good and some were bad. Then one day, Clooney said, why don't we create a tequila that's perfect for us? They wanted one that didn't burn going down, was super smooth and could be enjoyed straight or on the rocks. Plus, they wanted to drink it and not be hungover in the morning. So Clooney and Gerber began their research. For the next two years, the pair talked to dozens of distillers, did blind taste tests with friends, and ended up experimenting with over 700 different samples.

One day, they found the perfect combination. Clooney poured two glasses, they sipped it, then looked at each other and said, This is it. The tequila was never meant for the public. Clooney and Gerber just enjoyed their tequila and shared it with friends. One day, their Mexican distiller called and said there was a small problem.

Over the last two years, Clooney and Gerber had ordered over 2,000 bottles. The distiller said you're either selling those bottles or you're drinking way too much. Either way, they couldn't just keep calling that many bottles samples.

They had to get licensed and do it legally. While they had never planned on turning this into a business, the pair found a distributor in the U.S. to help them launch their tequila. They decided to name the drink

after their Mexican getaway, Casamigos, which roughly translated to House of Friends. With George Clooney's name attached, the tequila took off immediately via word of mouth. Then Casamigos started winning gold awards at spirits competitions in Los Angeles, New York, and Mexico. Clooney and Gerber ran the business. They assembled a staff of 80 people, they found a master distiller to oversee

production, and they tasted and approved every single batch before it was bottled. Late one night, they taste-tested a little too much tequila in Malibu. So Clooney and Gerber stumbled down the beach to Gerber's house. Clooney crashed in the guest room,

and Gerber, who didn't want to wake his wife, crawled into another room. Did I mention Gerber's wife is supermodel Cindy Crawford? At 2 a.m., Crawford realized her husband wasn't beside her, so she got up to check the guest room. There she saw a fully dressed man sleeping on top of the covers. So she slid in beside him, rubbed his back and said, Hey babe, why don't you get undressed and come to bed? That's when George Clooney rolled over.

First they screamed, then they laughed. That morning at breakfast, they all laughed again at the mix-up. That's our campaign, George said. Drink Casamigos and wake up with Cindy Crawford. Cindy said, uh-uh. Drink Casamigos and wake up with George Clooney. So, their first marketing campaign became a video that recreated that funny mix-up. To see it, search Casamigos Tequila. It could happen on Google. They did all the marketing in-house. In short order,

the brand sold 30,000 cases in 2014, then more than doubled to over 80,000 cases in 2015. It doubled again in 2016. Then one day, they got a knock on the door. Beverage giant Diageo wanted to buy their company. George Clooney and Randy Gerber ended up selling their business for $700 million, with an additional $300 million over the next 10 years. Not bad for a five-year-old company. Casamigos is the fastest-growing tequila in the country.

George Clooney, great-looking, Oscar-winning Hollywood superstar, just sold his sideline business for $1 billion. Must he have it all? In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative, and that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics hormones metabolism felix connects you with online licensed health care

practitioners who understand that everybody is different and compare your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals start your visit today at felix.ca that's f-e-l-i-ix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. A number of years ago, my wife and I were on vacation in the Napa wine region of California. We toured a few wonderful wineries there, but one in particular stood out.

It was Francis Ford Coppola and his family were living in San Francisco and began looking for a cottage in Napa as a weekend retreat, someplace where they could make a little homemade wine. The property they found turned out to be the famous Nebaum Mansion and Vineyard. Suddenly, the prospect of restoring the 1,500-acre estate sounded more exciting than making wine in the basement. So Coppola purchased the vineyard with the proceeds from his first two Godfather movies.

Unlike many other Hollywood stars who lend their names to wines or spirits, Coppola has been in the wine business for over 40 years. Over time, Coppola's Napa staff had trouble handling the crowds that came to the winery, especially on weekends. So, he decided to create a more tourist-friendly winery

in Sonoma. But the new Francis Ford Coppola Winery is not just a place to buy wine. It's an experience, because Coppola Winery is not just a place to buy wine. It's an experience. Because Coppola has applied his director's eye to the wine business. To begin with, he brought in production designer Dean Tavallaris to design the grounds and buildings. Tavallaris was the Oscar-winning production designer on the Godfather movies. The result is a kind of Disneyland for wine lovers. Tavallaris was the Oscar-winning production designer on the Godfather movies.

The result is a kind of Disneyland for wine lovers. There are elaborate wine-tasting bars, two restaurants, a spectacular pool and retail store. His company now makes a wide range of wines, and his flagship Director's Cut series is extremely popular. They are available in both reds and whites. It has been the official wine of both the Sundance Film Festival and the Academy Awards for the last few years. There is a performing arts pavilion on the property

modeled after the band shell featured in the beginning of The Godfather Part II, complete with the original mural from the 1974 film. Wine aside, that is the other interesting marketing aspect of Coppola's winery. He took his movie memorabilia from Napa and created a movie gallery in Sonoma that displays costumes and props from his impressive list of films. There you'll find, among the many items,

the car from the movie Tucker, the surfboard from Apocalypse Now, as well as his personal movie scripts and his five Oscars. But my favorite item was definitely the desk from the first Godfather film, the one Vito Corleone sits at while granting favors to the guests at his daughter's wedding. There it sits, one of the iconic props from one of the greatest movies ever made. Because Coppola is a storyteller, it only makes sense that he markets his wine with stories.

His company creates beautiful short films. One of them is titled The Red Stain. It's a film about a tiny laundry shop in Italy where the elderly owners try to figure out why a young man keeps bringing in a white shirt with mysterious red wine stains on it. As it turns

out, the story revolves around a glass of Coppola red wine. While my wife and I were on that tour of Coppola's winery many years ago, there were about six other couples taking the tour as well. We happened to recognize one of the other couples. It was none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger and his then-wife Maria Shriver. It was surprising, and a little disconcerting, to find them on the regular tour with us civilians,

as I'm sure they could have enjoyed a private one from the boss himself. Coppola's winery does great business because it's aimed at foodies, wine lovers, and, importantly, film buffs. It leverages the director's rich movie-making history to attract customers.

As Coppola says, movie-making and wine-making are both art forms. That combination offered him a marketing opportunity he just couldn't refuse.

Back in the late 80s, I was working for an advertising agency that was based in Los Angeles. In 1988, the head office invited us down to L.A. for a 20th anniversary celebration. There was a surprise guest speaker that day. His name was Ronald Reagan. In his speech, President Reagan told us about his long history with the advertising industry. He had endorsed many products, like Chesterfield Cigarettes and General Electric. For almost the entire history of the advertising industry,

celebrities have lent their names to the marketing of products. But in the 21st century, celebrities are not just endorsing products, they are creating products. Whoopi Goldberg wondered if medical marijuana could also soothe menstrual pain and started a company to do just that. Kylie Jenner decided to market her own line of cosmetics

at the age of 18. By 22, she was a billionaire. That exclusive club also has members named George and Randy. Born of the pursuit of the perfect tequila,

the duo ended up having to create a company in order to import their tequila and sold it for a cool $1 billion. And Francis Ford Coppola grew up in an Italian household where wine accompanied every dinner. He was able to start his own winery

when an Academy Award or two gave him the resources. Every one of these products was a passion for the founders. Their instincts create the products, their money creates the business, and their celebrity injects rocket fuel into the marketing. It's more than most entrepreneurs can hope for when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian LeFever. Co-writer, Sidney O'Reilly.

If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy an episode titled Billion Dollar Brands. Season 2, Episode 10. You'll find it in our archives wherever you download your podcasts. See you next week. Under the influence. It's not personal, Son podcasts. See you next week. Under the Influence.

It's not personal, sonny. It's strictly business. Hey, I like your style. I'd like your style even more if you were wearing an Under the Influence t-shirt. Just saying. You'll find them on our shop page at terryoreilly.ca slash shop.