Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1562: How to Produce a Hit HBO Show With Archie Gips

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin speak with Wahl Street & McMillions (HBO Max) producer Archie Gips. Archie is the president of Unrealistic Ideas in which he is partnered with well-known film star M...ark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson.   Municipal is CRUSHING! (1:58) The hard work it takes to own a business. (4:04) A peek behind the scenes of scripting a reality show. (5:22) What is a ‘soft script’? (7:30) How to structure an effective story. (9:07) The value of focus groups. (12:21) Why non-scripted business models aren’t as sexy as people would think. (13:21) How the pandemic impacted the production of Wahl Street. (17:37) The importance of being a problem solver. (19:45) The value of improv training in being a better leader. (21:21) The pivotal moments that shaped the person he is today. (23:21) The project he is most proud of. (27:41) Why great ideas can come from ANYONE. (31:43) The weeding-out process of creating a hit show. (37:16) Why he is a HUGE fan of editors. (39:45) The treacherous process of selling and pitching a project. (41:01) Not all buyers are created equal. (45:31) Are there particular challenges working with talent? (48:02) What future projects are on the horizon? (50:18) The common mistakes new producers tend to make. (52:49) What drives him to continue to do what he does? (54:35) How does he balance work and home life? (57:39) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Paleo Valley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “Mindpump15” at checkout for 15% discount** May Specials: MAPS Aesthetic & the Extreme Fitness Bundle 50% off!  **Promo code “MAYSPECIAL” at checkout** Wahl Street | HBO Max Originals MUNICIPAL Sport Utility Gear UNREALISTIC IDEAS | Burbank | Premium Television & Film McMillions: Official Website for the HBO Documentary Series Wahlburgers Blind Date | Bravo TV Official Site Amazon.com: Watch Chloe and Keith's Wedding | Prime Video Director: 'Chloe and Keith's Wedding' video is a hoax Who Is The Hedge Fund Priest? Meet Emmanuel Lemelson, The Reverend Of Wall Street Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg)  Instagram KATY PERRY (@katyperry)  Instagram Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)  Instagram Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson

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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pup, right? In today's episode, we interviewed Archie Gips. He's an American filmmaker and producer, most well known for his recent reality show Wall Street, but he's also helped produce Justin Bieber's Never Say Never, Katie Perry's part of me, and even the popular show Duck Dynasty, he's been nominated for
Starting point is 00:00:38 Emmy Awards. This guy's really, really good at what he does, very smart, great conversation. He talks all about how to create good stories, what it's like to make some of these stories and get them in front of people and to get popular with them and convey messages. It's a fun, very interesting episode we know you're going to enjoy.
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Starting point is 00:01:47 You can find those at mapsfitinistproducts.com. Just make sure to use the code MaySpecial with no space for the discount. Well, I can't wait to talk to you about all the different companies. I know that Mark is running alongside with you, but municipal, I know a clothing line. I've tried to start three different clothing lines in my... That's a rough one. Lifetime, and that's such a headache business. I was curious to how that's going.
Starting point is 00:02:14 Well, I mean, it's from the show. It's the only thing business at Mark has that you can just go online and buy something in that regard, like from the show, and it's actually crushing right now. Oh wow. I mean it's ridiculous. Yeah, because people are, I mean it's amazing. It's really comfortable stuff too.
Starting point is 00:02:35 It's probably because of the show, right? People watch the show, it's like it was straight to it and get it. Yeah, I don't know if you can see me. This is probably too dark. Anyway, we were actually speculating off air after we were talking about that show, which was a great documentary, by the way, that that business would actually be the one that would be struggling the most. And we thought what you do with Mark was probably the best business idea of all the ideas that he had because I felt like one, I mean, you guys had incredible success with Mcmillions. And I just feel like that's more of his wheelhouse. And you guys, I thought of all the partnerships he's got going on. We thought
Starting point is 00:03:12 that you guys made the best team. Well, I appreciate that. And obviously I feel the same way. I mean, you know, that's why I was so tremendously honored when Mark wanted to be in business with me because his lifeblood, he's known as an actor and a producer, right? That's how he made his fame and fortune. So the fact that he's willing to get into business with me in that same field was a tremendous compliment to me. And we have a lot of great stiff going on. So, but it's a grind.
Starting point is 00:03:43 I'll tell you, it's the most, the entertainment industry is so competitive nowadays. And you think because there's so many streamers and placed content is always a demand, but it's still a really, a doggy dog world out there in this industry. Yeah, it seems like it's changing a lot too. Hollywood is going over into the streaming, streaming is the biggest interest these days.
Starting point is 00:04:11 And also, it seems like a lot of people are trying to get insight into a lot of these Hollywood stars' lives and what they do and how that all plays out. And I think that was what was so fascinating about you know that whole documentary you guys just did yeah i mean it it's look uh... the great thing about is mark you know i've worked on wallbergers with mark which of course was on a netch that focused really on uh... that the wallbergers restaurants but it was more of like a family sick
Starting point is 00:04:42 common away you know and it dealt with the it dealt with wallbergers but was was more of like a family sitcom in a way, you know, and it dealt with the, it dealt with wall burgers, but it was much more lighthearted. And Mark was like, I mean, he was the one. He came after we wrapped that and we started on realist ideas. He's like, Archie, the next show I want to do is Wall Street. He had the name, he had everything all set. And it was really kind of figuring out what this, what the style and tone would be is what we worked on, but he always wanted to be able to show viewers exactly what went into all of his businesses and the hard work, and it's like, it's no joke. As you guys see, I mean, that guy grinds just the most incredible work ethic that I've ever seen in my life.
Starting point is 00:05:21 Talk about that, though, Archie. What does it like to take like a true story, like reality, like what you're talking about right now, and tell it in a way as a story? What does that, the process look like? He comes to you, hey, let's do Wall Street, and then from there, I would think that it's kind of a hand off to you, like, okay, now how do I piece this together
Starting point is 00:05:40 and make it entertaining? Yeah, that's exactly right. And then I've worked in the industry as a showrunner and a creative for many, many years. So I had very specific ideas that I balanced by Mark. And I was like, hey, what if we use movie clips from, you know, and use them in a way where it kind of gives insight into what you're thinking. So giving us some levity to some scenes.
Starting point is 00:06:04 Like, yeah, that's cool And what about that we we live in I we're like we love the idea of having real CEOs that could give Informed viewers and inform mark like this is bit this is sort of how you do business because the key is always that mark is a great business man But it's all instinct for him. It's not like he never went to business school and we love the idea of having these real executives that did go to business school. And this is how things should run. And Chuck's supposed to that again with Mark
Starting point is 00:06:35 and just how he does things. And it's not always going to be right. But in the end, hopefully Mark's always going to win it, win out. But so we put together a team of people. We hired an incredible group, a crew with an amazing DP. Mike Peppin, our showrunner, Sarah Sibitsky, a lot of creative people come in and we start to work on the stories. But it all comes down to what's really happening in Mark's life. This was not like, I'll tell you back in the
Starting point is 00:07:03 day, I worked on a lot of shows where it was much more so off scripted. This was not like, I'll tell you, back in the day, I worked on a lot of shows where it was much more so scripted. This is just like Mark's like, I'm doing this, turn the camera on and let's see what happens, you know? So we shot 400 hours of material, basically, for, what was it? They're three hours.
Starting point is 00:07:24 I mean, that's insane. You don't think about it. Explain a little more detail what you mean by soft script. So you're back in the day I worked on the show Duck Dynasty. You know I was just one of the creative consultants and I helped come up with story ideas and then they would kind of live those out. So, but they're all organic to what's really happening in the person's life. So, for example, and with Wallberger's are sort of the same thing. So, in episode of Wallberger's Mark was going to Italy. He's filming a movie in Italy. So he's there. So we're like, Hey, when you're in Italy, he loves wine. It's like,
Starting point is 00:08:12 do you maybe want to go to a winery and maybe meet up with someone and do some business for Wallburgers at a winery? He says, yeah, that sounds great. So it's soft script because you're creating a scene in the sense that we're going to film this. But once he gets there, it's not like they're lines or anything he says. It just whatever happens happens. But it wasn't, it's not like Mark organically, excuse me, was automatically going to go to that vineyard. But once he went there, he kind of just did what he does. Does that make sense? No, no, totally.
Starting point is 00:08:48 So, so in no, it makes total sense. And so when you saw a script like that, how often do you end up having to scratch it because it just doesn't play out the way you think it's going to play out? 99% of the time. That's what I need for $100 of film, right? Yeah, it's exactly. And this is kind of a selfish question because we have a media company. So we're always trying to figure out
Starting point is 00:09:10 how to tell a story effectively. And you know, you say something like, you know, we shop 400 hours of film and we brought it down to three. There's, I'm sure there's a structure like, how do you see that? Cause that's what makes you so good at what you do versus Somebody else that would just film everything and then try and piece it together. What does that structure look like? What are you looking for?
Starting point is 00:09:33 Well, it's just it's tracking story that's really what it is is like you see characters like with Lisa saidler You know that was she was the woman who owns green zebra the healthy you know that was she was the woman who who owns green zebra the healthy grocery store in Portland area that they're just trying to expand she just was a great character and if you really when you met her when you meet her you're like she's really dynamic and you were like let's track her let's follow her more and we kind of knew we kind of knew the characters that we were going to want to follow I do not think that I was going to be one of the characters, but it just so happened that in that regard, the crew, when we were in the edit, they were like, Archie, you have to
Starting point is 00:10:14 be in this. You and Mark have such a real relationship that comes across, you have to be one of these characters that we're tracking in this. And I was like, okay, well, you know, so be it. Which is very weird to be someone that's creating the content and then having to see yourself in it is, was very bizarre for me. Because in my entire career,
Starting point is 00:10:33 I really never had that experience. Now when you do that, are you tempted to like make yourself look, you know, a certain way? Yeah, put you in good lighting. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I will say the one thing is I did have them, I looked a little pasty in one of the interviews, and it was a bit of a more color in my face, you know.
Starting point is 00:10:51 But for the most part, no, I didn't, I actually recuse myself in some of the editing of that, and I said, guys, I'm too close to this, edit how you see fit, I'm not, I can't, because, and they did, you know, and I, they, they, they did a great job. Um, I'll tell you what, not to, you know, get, this is not about me. It's about Mark and it's, well, it's just about Mark, but I have shocked about the number
Starting point is 00:11:14 of dads that have DM me, you know, contacted me through email and what have you, like, hey, man, like such an inspiration to see you as a dad, working your ass off and stuff. It really gets me emotional because it's just, you know, to have other dads reach out to me and be like, dude, like, I really appreciate what you're doing with your kid and working hard. It was really cool. I've never experienced anything like that. I'm the celebrity. I'm the regular guy, you know. So it was cool to get that outreach. And then of course, the outreach has been crazy on social media for, you know, people just loving Mark's work ethic, really inspiring people. And dozens of people have written, you know, I went to business school, but I learned
Starting point is 00:11:58 more watching Wall Street than I learned in business school. And that's just like really very powerful things that people are saying that I, again, none of us really expected. We all knew that it was going to be interesting to follow Mark's life, but we never thought to that degree that it was, you know, from a business aspect that it was really, really inspiring people in tremendous ways. You know, due to the nature of social media and how quickly people can give give you feedback Like you said with DMs does that help drive new potential stories? For example, you talked about so many dads that were talking about how great it was to see
Starting point is 00:12:34 Hardworking dad that's also dedicated to his kids does something like that kind of spark your imagination say Huh, I wonder if a story that revolved around, you know, a well-known celebrity dad and what it's like to raise kids and stuff like that. Yeah, that's called the focus group. You're exactly right. You're just taking that information and you're, you know, that's 100% correct. And the timeliness of when it airs,
Starting point is 00:13:01 it's, or you've already made your editing decisions, but in future seasons, if we're to get Wall Street to come back and we're hopeful that we'll get a season two, nothing is set yet. But in that, we would probably entertain some of those stories that we know that really resonated with viewers, for sure. Can we talk a little bit about the financials of what that looks like, right? So right now, you guys create something, HBO Max picks it up, it gets out there.
Starting point is 00:13:28 What does the first season look like as far as revenue wise and how much of a bigger deal is it if they pick it up a second time? What's that like? The business model is very less sexy than people would think when it comes to limited documentary series like Wall Street if you want to make big bucks you're making like survivor you're making the
Starting point is 00:13:53 amazing race those are the highly repeatable formats that you crank out you do twenty a year you know twelve to twenty a year they're on for fifteen years seasons those are you know, chitching. The more, you know, we put a lot of money, the what you see on film, that's like high quality camera, like the best cameras in the business,
Starting point is 00:14:14 the best DPs in the business, amazing editors, amazing, you know, crew. So we're from a dollar standpoint, it's really not a windfall of money to us But it's really just about building up our brand is saying hey unrealist ideas creates Amazing premium content. That's great to look at their great stories and that to us is like Sort of where we see the value so that we could continue to build and grow and sell more and more shows And then it becomes more of a numbers game of having
Starting point is 00:14:47 selling multiple multiple projects. So are you saying like a docu series like mcmillions, which was one of my favorite documentaries that doesn't produce a ton of money even as as amazing as it was and as viral as it went. Yeah, sure netters know it doesn't it doesn't produce a ton of money. It does open up other avenues, revenue potentially where we could turn Macmillions into a scripted project and you can make an ancillary ways and to flip into other things. We did a podcast from it.
Starting point is 00:15:16 I mean, look, don't get me wrong. There's some money made, but it's definitely not. I mean, especially in the scripted world, the amount of money that you make in scripted TV and film dwarfs what you make in the non-scripted space. That's interesting. So, when you guys did Wall Street, it was part of the strategy to use it to also spin off and maybe boost some of these businesses that are highlighted.
Starting point is 00:15:40 For example, you talked about municipal and how it's an online business and obviously it makes sense. People watch the show, boom, they can go online by the clothes right away. Is that part of the strategy? Like, okay, it's gonna maybe make this much money, but it's also gonna allow us to like a marketing vessel. Yeah, highlight some of these businesses that we're doing together. Well, yeah, I mean, look, Mark's got on the record that he said he did wall burgers because he wanted to promote wall burgers, the restaurant chain, right? Through that, he was able to build up that brand. So, yes, that is definitely a consideration.
Starting point is 00:16:13 Again, it doesn't, we as the creatives and, you know, Mark's separate, like we, we kind of look past all that and it's like, look, we're not creating a commercial here. We want to do some of its highly entertaining. These are not puff pieces for these brands at Mark's own the Mark only. But yes of course it's it's natural branded integration right people are seeing these things they see Mark wearing some of the municipal gear like oh that looks cool how am I to check it out and buy my own so that is inherent to it. I don't think it's a yeah there's a degree I don't think it felt that way at all I did such a phenomenal fact
Starting point is 00:16:47 I remember seeing it a couple times being recommended to me on HBO I passed on I didn't watch it and then I finally clicked on an episode and what hooked me was the fact that you guys went so deep into the behind The scenes of the business and and even though you did that it didn't feel like you were selling me on the business It felt like I was really getting to peer in and see what it's like to make the decisions that Mark's making on a daily basis. Yeah, it's kind of funny because my brother doesn't really have any idea. We're entrepreneurs all of us in here ourselves. And I've always tried to kind of explain what I do on a daily basis.
Starting point is 00:17:21 And he actually stumbled upon Wall Street and was like, oh wow, he was getting an insight as to what that might actually look like in terms of closing deals, in terms of the hard conversations, and there was a lot of hard conversations in Wall Street that I think were great. Yeah, speaking of which, as you guys are doing this pandemic hits, and that's I mean, talk about wrench right in the machinery. Where's there any? Were there any discussions where you're like, okay, we might need to stop this or was it like, okay, this actually is a nice twist and let's keep going. I wish you were a producer at HBO Max. I'll tell you why we had these quick, we were documenting
Starting point is 00:18:02 I'll tell you why. We had these, we were documenting how are we going to make this show and we didn't, you know, it's a text message credit, they made some great decisions, but we were tracking that. How are we going to make this show? And we were filming our Zoom meetings of the production company where like, how do we get it, you know, it's not, you know, remember the first day of the pandemic, people didn't know and knew anything. So it took a good two months before we could sort of figure out a game plan that was safe. There was, there was a,
Starting point is 00:18:34 you know, a COVID protocol as far as wearing masks, social distancing. So essentially, one of our producers who is a friend of Marx as well, would, you know, and Marx was comfortable enough they have had him around because they're in the same sort of bubble. He would just go over with his iPhone and film stuff. And that's how we sort of started tracking. So if you notice, if you're really like breaking down Wall Street, the first few episodes are shot beautifully on
Starting point is 00:19:01 a mirror cameras, like these are the best cameras in the business. And then all of a sudden it digresses to iPhone footage and zoom footage because that's really all we could do to capture it for a while. And then it goes back to really once things eased up and we could get the crew in there safely and people were getting tested, we started getting more of the nicer shot, you know, stuff that was shot. But yes, to your point, it was a huge undertaking. That's part of all the stuff that we cut you never saw was that
Starting point is 00:19:31 behind the scenes of our company, how are we going to produce the show? How are we physically going to produce it? And I would have loved to have had it in there, but it's just, you know, it's just, there's only so much you could put into this stuff. Yeah, now the beauty is when it switches to iPhone and to that kind of zoom, it actually, it feels more real, right, especially since all of us kind of went through that whole situation.
Starting point is 00:19:54 How important is it to have, I guess, and what you do, I would imagine being a positive, solution-based type of person. That's gotta be like a huge component to being successful at what you do because of so many things getting thrown at you all the time. You're guessing awesome questions, by the way, I must say. No, yeah, I That's literally how I get paid. I am When when you have something that happens on a set and people are freaking out. Oh my god
Starting point is 00:20:24 We're supposed to shoot this at this pizza location. They're not going to let us shoot it. We're screwed. We can't do anything. It's like, we're not screwed. Let's think for a second. Okay. It all comes back to story.
Starting point is 00:20:36 What are we trying to do here? What is this scene about? Mark is meeting with this pizza guy blah, blah, blah, making this up on the other. Mark's meeting with this pizza rea is going to start a pizza company now. Well, it doesn't really have to be a Pizzeria. What if we shoot this, the essence of it really is that Mark is convincing this guy that he's going to the hammer group business. Again, I'm making this all up, but just for the sake of this conversation, you have to pivot on every single time you're, you're feeling something in non-scripted world. Things are falling apart and
Starting point is 00:21:05 you have to be a creative, you know, problem solver. And on the spot make decisions because time is money and there's literally a crew of like 15, 20 people waiting for you to make a decision of what do we do next? You know, Archie, you know, here at what we do, we just incorporated an improv instructor to help us develop that skill. I mean, are we doing the right thing? Does that kind of training help with that on the fly, kind of thinking like, okay, what next? What do I do from here?
Starting point is 00:21:40 Well, look, if you look up, if you look up, Archie, yet, you'll see, I was at the second city conservatory I have a you know, I grew up with improvisational training So yes is the answer to that. It's always yes and is the way that You win in the improv world. That's how it goes and there's no there's no point in in freaking out And that other key thing is to keep just keep your calm and that's something that I pride myself to it as as a as an owner of this company right as one of the partners
Starting point is 00:22:11 of this company is I never yell I never raise my voice at any of my employees it's and and people that work under me if there's like say a you know a producer a camera operator that's acting very aggressively or yelling at people on the set. I take them aside very privately, very calmly and I'm like, you can't behave that way because it's like you're a leader on this thing and you, no one is going to, you're not going to get more out of people screaming at that. You know, you're going to get it out of just being a patient listening person. And again, the thing with Mark is one of his greatest assets is he motivates you.
Starting point is 00:22:52 And it's a little bit of tough love because he's like, hey man, let's grind. Like, let's do it. Like he inspires you to work harder, but he's not yelling at you. He's not like, you know, you suck. You didn't sell something. He's just like, come on, man, we've got one more in us, you know. So that helps. And I try to, again, as an example to my team, I always try to get people to sort of, you know, work as hard as it can, work as smart as they can. Now, Arch, have you always been this guy? Now you, for the listeners that you've been in OG in this space for a long time time and you've done a lot of projects, one of the things that we talk about,
Starting point is 00:23:28 we've been trainers for two decades and we always share these paradigm shattering moments in our career that really evolved us as trainers and coaches. What about you in your career? There've been like very pivotal moments that changed your character or how you did your craft. very pivotal moments that changed your character or how you did your craft. Yes, definitely. I actually before I was a pretty outgoing guy and then I kind of like in my 20s,
Starting point is 00:23:57 I came a little shy. And so I just went on this crazy road trip by myself to kind of reinvent who I am and figure out who I wanted to be. And that kind of shaped the person I am today. And so that was a very pivotal moment in my life, but also then coming to Los Angeles. And understanding sort of, I went to NYU for graduate school for film and my professor was an amazing, my mentor, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., who's passed away, but he was an incredible screenwriter. And he basically said to me, you have to move to Los Angeles if you really want to make
Starting point is 00:24:39 it in this industry. And a lot of people that live in New York don't want to hear that because New York's in, I love New York, I'm in New York or I love it but you need to be around creative people that you literally walk down the street, you go to a house party, you go to a restaurant and you're meeting other directors, other writers, other actors and that creative space you cannot replicate unfortunately. You could make it anywhere. You literally can. You just can't have to work that much harder. And my first job that I got out here, I was at a party, I was wearing a Metz-hat, a big Metz guy in Jets, as you
Starting point is 00:25:19 can see, Mark loves to give it to me about being a Jets fan. And I was at part wearing a mid-set and some guy comes up and is like hey your meds fan We started shooting the shitty was in New Yorker and he goes I'm a writer on this TV show I'm actually leaving. I got a new job. You sound really cool You want me to put you up for this position. I was like hell yeah, and I went in Monday I got an interview and I got the job was that blind date. So that was that blind date. Oh nice. Yeah, very nice Yeah, I found out your I was always for the bubbles, right? Those those thought bubbles that were above the guys. Yeah, that was the best part of the show, bro Yeah, that that was amazing. Thank you
Starting point is 00:26:00 Well, we have a hilarious story about About this I don't you know, but I was at it. So when you want, can I digress? Of course, absolutely. Please do. Okay. So I was out at a bar. And when you are doing blind date, those dates last like seven hours, the actual raw date is like a seven hour date. And you cut it down to six minutes. And then you write thought bubbles to it. Like I would write, you know, literally like come up with creative ideas. And so one of the, I'm out at a bar and because you spend so much time editing these things,
Starting point is 00:26:36 the people when you see them out and about, you're like, how do I know that person? You're because you do so many of them, you can't remember. And I'm like, did I go to high school with that guy? Did I, how do I know him? He's like my brother's friend, whatever. So I'm out at a bar and I'm just these big guys, like six foot two, like hockey player guy. And we're talking, we're shooting this shit. We're having a great time.
Starting point is 00:26:57 And I'm like, how do I know he was like, dude, you don't know him, I'm telling you, I know you from somewhere, and we started to listen off all these people, do you know that finally hit me like a ton of bricks I'm like oh my god and he goes what I'm like I now I remember I remember who you are I now I know I know who you are and he goes what what I'm like you were on blind date in episode that I wrote and the guy just gets up and he's big guy and he goes dude you made me look like an asshole.
Starting point is 00:27:25 Had I come I go dude. He was nice. Oh my god. That's great. What a great story. What's what's what's what's what are you most proud of in your projects? What which one is the one that you're mo that you look back and you go, okay, that's the one I think that's that I'm most proud of. I will tell you this, it was well, Macmillan just as a tremendous success, but you know, I
Starting point is 00:27:56 we obviously had a tremendous amount of, you know, the creative and but I really brined Lizartane James Hernandez with the directors on that were just their fantastic. So I kind of don't take that as my own win because those guys put so much of their blood sweat and tears into it, even though I'm extremely proud of that and what I gave to that project. I would say it's a scripted project I did, which was called Chloe and Keith Wedding, where I had a video that I created purposely that I said,
Starting point is 00:28:29 I told people, I'm like, I'm going to create a video and it's going to go viral. And people are like, you're out of your mind. You can't just do that. And I created a video that has over 100 million views, which is insane. And it was, I don't know if you guys remember this, but I guess like 2009, 2010, just just really the internet was sort of getting going and viral was
Starting point is 00:28:49 just becoming something i did a video about a bride who gets knocked into a pool by the best man trips and knocks into a pool her and the priest get knocked into a pool and it was everywhere. It was on the today's show. It was on Ellen Good Morning America. Went viral. It's been in TV commercials, Coca-Cola commercials. I mean, it's out in same. How did you call it? If you actually go, if you go on to Wikipedia and they have the word hoax, you guys pull it up or? Yeah, I'm gonna have to pull it up. Well, so I know exactly what you're talking about. I've seen that video a million times in different places.
Starting point is 00:29:29 So that wasn't an actual wedding where she, it was, oh wow, I had no idea. I actually made that, that is a completely staged event. In fact, if you go to Wikipedia and you look up the word hoax, one of the definitions is that clip for my movie. Wow you look up the word hoax, one of the definitions is that clip for my movie as like, this is what a hoax is. Wow. I had no idea.
Starting point is 00:29:51 How did you call your shot? How did you know that you could make something that was going to go viral? Did you think you had the formula down? I mean, what made you call the shot? Yes, I did. The formula was, and I did two videos for this movie, by the way, this thing. One was with a pet, because people love their pets, silly pet videos, and the other was, people love wedding mishaps.
Starting point is 00:30:13 They love things that happen with weddings and people slipping up, it's like, you know, and that's when I was like, okay, I'm going to have a bride get knocked into a pool. And the funny story is, when we, the first time, and these are all trained actors, every single person, the guy who is the best man who slips, he's literally wearing knee pads and is in like gear so he doesn't hurt himself. The bride, we had practiced it.
Starting point is 00:30:38 The first time we did it, she gets knocked over and she instinctly takes her nose and pinches the not her nostrils as if she's falling back. And we saw it as a director. I was like, we can't use it. Yeah, do that. Because there's no way you would do that. Your instinct, you would just fall back. Natural, yeah. And so we had a, we had actually we had rented two identical wedding dresses. So she got into, we dried her hair off, we got her to the fresh gown, we did it, take two, she nailed it, beauty.
Starting point is 00:31:11 Put it up online. I put it online, thinking I'd get like 10,000 views. And within a day it had a million views. It was on the homepage of AOL, this is dating, they're not being dated, but AOL Yahoo homepage, it blew up to such a crazy magnitude that I never anticipated. Wow. Well, I mean, it looks, again,
Starting point is 00:31:34 actually right now, Archie, I thought that was a real wedding. I didn't know idea to tell us that was scripted, so that's gotta be part of that formula. You know, earlier you mentioned the, the how competitive the space is, earlier you mentioned the, the how competitive the space is and you mentioned streaming. And obviously now we have social media. And you know, the, I guess the, the good of that is that the barrier to enter
Starting point is 00:31:54 is so much smaller. Anybody can produce a video, but the, the challenge now is so much more competition. What are the, like how much has changed in terms of being successful today with all these new I guess media, you know methods of delivering media versus the old, you know way where you just had TV movie and that was it Yeah, I mean you're exactly right. It's so it's so much more competitive because literally anyone You know an 18 year old kid in you know, Kansas can
Starting point is 00:32:25 because literally anyone, you know, an 18 year old kid in, you know, Kansas can create something amazing, put on the internet, and a week later he could get a Disney plus deal, you know? I mean, there really is, the entry into this industry now is so low, but again, you really have to stand out, you have to make amazing content. And look, it all comes down to experience in my opinion. And you know, we've done this for a long time. Mark, of course, and Lev are absolute rock stars in the industry for decades. I have a lot of experience in the non-scripted space. So, you know, that's why great ideas can come from anyone. And our production company, you know, we get hit up all the time about pitching ideas
Starting point is 00:33:09 or documentaries and we're open to them, you know, we listen to them and if there's a great idea that could come from anywhere. So, and we'll partner with people. What do you think the percentage is of those ideas that get pitched to you that you take versus ones you're out seeking. It's very slim that so it does pitch us and we go for it. The thing that's amazing is before the pandemic, you know, I was traveling a ton and I will be traveling again soon. But I would take ubers or lifts a lot of places and I would just like to chat with the driver and say hey
Starting point is 00:33:45 I know you're just not like a lift driver. What else or Uber driver? What else do you do and they would be like oh? I'm a just you know shoot the shit with them and like you know They were artists or musicians or writers or whatever and many times they would they would be like what do you do as a go? I have a production company and They would it's oh my gosh like I have a screenplay, can I give it to you? I'm like sure. And I give it my business card that has my personal email address on. Here it is. When it's ready to send, I'm going to give you one shot. Please
Starting point is 00:34:18 don't send it to me and be like a work in progress because it doesn't help me. But if it's ready to go, send it to me, and I'll see what I could do. I did that about a hundred times. I've done that over the last several years. How many people do you think actually emailed me? Oh, wow. Don't tell me. None, they're all.
Starting point is 00:34:39 They're all. How many? One person. Wow. You know, that's like as trainers, we figured this trick out a long time ago. Obviously, once everybody in your family and friends find out that you train people,
Starting point is 00:34:50 they want to ask you a million questions about nutrition and exercise. And so I learned this hack, like halfway through of weeding out all the people that aren't serious and say, okay, what I need from you first is for one week, I need you to track everything you eat then bring it to me, and I'll help you.
Starting point is 00:35:06 And I can give you the same stat back of, yes, how many people? Exactly. Wow. 100%. And, you know, I would love to get tips from you, God, but I get a lot from my friend Mark Walper. So, I'm like, there's actually a hilarious, this is, we, so Tom Dowd, who does performance inspired, he's in Wall Street as well as one of the characters.
Starting point is 00:35:27 Mark wanted him to lose 30 pounds in three months. And I was supposed to gain 15 pounds in three months. And we had a competition. And it was a hefty amount of money that we bet. And literally, I gained 15 pounds, and it was the day of that, the lockdown happened. And we had a cancel the bet, because it was like for fairness reasons, whatever.
Starting point is 00:35:57 And we were, that was actually part of Wall Street. We had some of that as being tracked as well. So that's just another so I My people always ask me like alright because I'm a slender guy and Mark is like come on Like he wants me to get ripped. He's like you got the perfect frame for it And I had many I know you guys know marks training method all too well You know waking up at three in the morning working out 4 a.m. You know Would be for the three-am workout the three a.m. workout club
Starting point is 00:36:25 or the 4 a.m. workout club. I was the 2 a.m. workout club because I have to wake up at two to go to Mark's house to film him work. Oh my God. So speaking of which, I have a question for, I don't know if you know the answer to this, but I noticed that every time Mark works out,
Starting point is 00:36:41 he wears what look like bicycle gloves. They put the long finger gloves up with that. Do you know why he does that look like bicycle gloves they look like a long finger. What's up with that? Do you know why he does that? Is that just the ritual thing for him? Yeah, I think his hands got his hands are really, you know, you know, he his one of his fingers through like when he was one of his movies who he's doing a I guess must've been the fighter and he like dislocated his finger a bit.
Starting point is 00:37:03 So I think he just does it now. It's just almost like a ritual, you know, for, and getting the calluses and stuff. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's because it's just as used to it at this point. Now, Archie, we talked about the project that you were most proud of. Is there a project that you're least proud of of or is it how often does it happen where you start something and you scratch it halfway through? Well look I mean I yeah there's definitely you there's we developed so in our with our company we've been around now for three years. I would say we've internally developed 600 ideas, of which 50 have sold or 60, let's call it 60 have sold, and of that, 10 of them have actually made it to air.
Starting point is 00:38:01 So it's really a weeding out process. So there's just been so many things. I wouldn't say I'm not proud. Like for example, like blind date. Like some people would be like, you know, oh my God, that's like, you know, such a cheesy show. But people like, dude, I love that show. It's my guilty pleasure. So beauty's really in the eye that beholder. You know, like I said, I worked on duck dynasty. People love that show. Some people think it's corny and they hate it. The shows that I've done that I've made it to air.
Starting point is 00:38:29 I'm pretty proud with all of them. I've worked on some pretty cool shows too. I did two of the projects. I'm really proud of two are the Justin Bieber feature film. And the Katy Perry feature film both were paramount pictures. They released both of those. And I had really a big part in making those films what they were, so I'm really proud of that. It's a really cool, you know, but the whole industry, it's really collaborative, you know, and it's really important that I never want to take credit for things wholly because it's such a team,
Starting point is 00:39:04 you know, thing, and really one of the things that drove me as an entrepreneur to start my own company, So take credit for things wholly, could just such a team thing. And really, one of the things that drove me as an entrepreneur to start my own company was I was tired of owners of some of the places that I worked just not giving me any credit for things. And I'm not even talking about even just like, hey, let me take you out to dinner because you did a great job. And so I try to publicly, that's why I even said it to be giving this podcast,
Starting point is 00:39:28 I was trying to give some shout out to some of the people that worked on Wall Street, and there's dozens of people, you know, because it's not just me. It's obviously if centers are on mark, but there's a team of people that put this together, and I think it's really important that you acknowledge those people. Is there a lot of shadiness and politics in your space?
Starting point is 00:39:53 When you say shadiness to what degree? I mean, just people, I mean, people stealing credit or not giving credit where it's due or people stealing your ideas and running with them. I think I will say this this not to name any names. I think there are a lot of people in this industry that are either they own companies that they take credit for things for people underneath them that are doing the hard work. I see. And a lot of directors in this space, you know, might be across multiple projects,
Starting point is 00:40:25 and there are people working under them that really don't get the credit that they should. I am a huge fan of editors. I love editors. I try to, our company prides ourself on trying to elevate editors into becoming directors, because we feel like they're the lifeblood of the documentary space. You know, those guys and gals are in the edit bay,
Starting point is 00:40:45 shaping stories and stuff, and a lot of times they're really not given the love that they deserve. People just see a documentary, like that director was awesome. The first thing I look at is who edited it. That's literally the first person I always look at. And I want to be in business with those people.
Starting point is 00:41:00 You had talked about selling some of these ideas where you were talking about the weeding out process What is the process of sell let's say you get an idea you put it together now? You got to go sell it. That's a whole another monster What does that look like? Yeah, and you said something about selling and not airing. I did what's the difference? I didn't understand what you could sell something but then not air. What does that look like? Oh Yeah, first of all, it's treacherous. It's not to the faint of heart. I mean Rejection is a daily daily thing. You're getting rejected. Like, you're getting rejected at every
Starting point is 00:41:33 20 things you pitch, you're selling one, you know. And so, you put together sales materials. So what will happen is, let's say we come up with a great idea and look at this is awesome. RV variant was a perfect example if you remember Wall Street Towards the end. We were pitching the show called RV variant So that was about Marks it was it was think of like the amazing race But in RVs across the United States with families where you had a list of things you had to do with your family It was like a scavenger hunt
Starting point is 00:42:04 Okay, and you drove around in your RV all around the United States States with families where you had a list of things you had to do with your family. It was like a scavenger hunt. Okay. And you drove around in your RV all around the United States and then you came back to Columbus, Ohio, which is where Mark Walberg Chevrolet hit an RV. And then the winner would win like an RV. So we put together an amazing sale, like a, it's called a sizzle, which is like a two to three minute video representation of what the style and tone and the concept of the show is.
Starting point is 00:42:31 And we put that together with an editor, you know, Katara, who is our amazing editor, he's on our team. So he, he cut the video. And then we put together a deck, which explains exactly what the show is, what episodes look like. So these, and this usually takes weeks takes weeks if not months to put this material together. Then you go and you pitch it you have you identify certain buyers you think oh I can't I think you know HBO or Netflix or discovery plus or hulu whatever like who are the the networks the streamers the buyers that are going to want this. who are the networks, the streamers, the buyers that are going to want this, and then you go on pitch it. And now, because of the pandemic, all of the pitches are over Zoom.
Starting point is 00:43:10 It used to be you go into their offices and you schmooze and then you pitch, which has made the entire pitching process very different and much more difficult, way harder to read the room when you're in a Zoom than if you're sitting next to someone. So, yeah, so to finish up this very long-winded answer to your question, at that point, they'll be like, we love the idea. We're not 100% sure if we want to go to series with it, but we'll give you a chunk of money to create a presentation or a pilot. And if we like it, we really love that, then we'll buy it and then we'll air it and we'll go to series.
Starting point is 00:43:46 So that's what I mean. You could sell something and they're going to buy it, but then it doesn't make it today. Now, it doesn't make it to air. Now, who's the closer for your team? Are you the one that goes, because I know that there's people that are good at putting things together, but then there's also people that are good at selling the idea. Is that you or are you the one that also also goes and sells it or do you have other people that are good at selling the ideas that you have go do this for you?
Starting point is 00:44:11 Well, the ultimate closures, Mark Wahlberg, let's not kid ourselves, right? But, and Mark does appear, you know, sometimes he's able to be part of the pitch, pitch process and projects that make sense to him, you know, to be a part of. But yet I'm on that team. We have an amazing development team, Liza Keckler, is our head of development. Lauren V.C. is our director of development. They're both awesome in pitches, incredibly dynamic women. Prince Vaughan is also part of our development team. He's awesome in casting and he's a part of some of those pitches as well. But yeah, it really depends on the project. If it's a documentary and David Wendell as well, I can't leave him out, he's also one of my theorist friends.
Starting point is 00:44:54 He's a part of our development team. So depending on the project, if it's like a format, which is more like, again a a four-meted series like again the amazing race or uh the uh survivor something that is a competition show Lauren and and and and lies us specifically are experts in that so they'll be forward in those pitches i might come on to but really i'm more on the pitches for the documentary series the premium doc space like the mcmillian's the wall street those type of shows david and i are overseeing those now this this question might put you in a little bit of an awkward position but i got to ask it um working with all these you know hb o hulu netflix and you're pitching all these ideas
Starting point is 00:45:41 are there certain companies that are that are notorious for being assholes and other ones that are like great to work with? There are certain ones that are like, oh man, we're going to go pitch, we know what a pain in the ass they are, or certain companies that you're like, man, if we hit with them, they're so great to work with. Are you saying on the buyer side or on the buyer side? Yeah. Yes, there are assholes.
Starting point is 00:46:07 And great people. I got nothing but love for HBO. I got nothing but love. Not all kidding aside, though, there are a lot of amazing buyers out there, but there are a few, I would, I would be lying if I didn't say there are a few places that you just are like, it's not worth it. And we don't pitch those places, be honest with you, because it's just very a very frustrating process with the select few. And now is that because some of these buyers
Starting point is 00:46:32 are just shrewd and they're about themselves and trying to angle down a money wise, or what makes one an asshole to work with or paying the ass? One of the things is the expectation. So it's like, hey, here you go. Here's $30,000 to make a sizzle, and we need you to fly to Brazil to shoot this thing. We wanted to look incredible. Which is basically they're saying, we expect you to take $100,000 out of your pocket to make
Starting point is 00:47:02 sure that this thing looks good. So some of that is some of the expectations are not fair in my opinion. They might think it's fair, but I'm like it's really not fair because the outlay of, if you're really, if they're really into it and they really earnestly want to put the money behind it and they're not, they're short-change it, that kind of makes it tough. But it's also just not seeing eye to eye. There's some people, again, I'm again, I don't want to speak poorly of people in general, but there's some people that really
Starting point is 00:47:27 are creatives that are in this space that are really great. And there's some people in this industry that don't have the experience creatively. They literally have never, they literally have never been a part of a production. And physically made a production. They just kind of have made their way up through the ranks in different ways, and now that they're in a position of power, where they're talking
Starting point is 00:47:50 creatively to you about things, and when you have this conversation, it's very clear from the get go, you know, this person is not clear about what really goes into this, and it becomes frustrating. You know, speaking of creative, obviously you work with Mark and he's a good friend of yours, but you mentioned Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. Are there specific types of challenges working with those types of people?
Starting point is 00:48:14 Because I can imagine that they're all, I mean, they're all so creative that they probably have similar personalities. I mean, this is my guess. Are there particular challenges with working with people like that? Yeah, for sure. I mean, definitely not with Mark mark i mean i i think i'm gonna sound like a complete kiss ask but it's all true i mean mark
Starting point is 00:48:31 is literally one of the most down earth guys you'll ever meet like i'm shocked that he's an international celebrity the the way that he treats people is insanely just down earth you know i've seen him especially like that the blue-collar guys. If Mark goes golfing, he's talking to the caddies and the greens guys. He's not really hobnobbing with other people. He's such a down-earth guy. He's like moving him from this whole thing. Everyone's different. There's certain people that are really down-earth and cool celebrities and the others that are much more difficult.
Starting point is 00:49:06 You know Katie was a very intense Person she's brilliant. She literally when we're editing that that film She came in and sat into the editing bay and was like working side by side with the editors Wow, so she really was invested in that film and brought I'm clearly was about her So she brought everything to it, but she really brought a lot creativity to creativity to the edit itself. But we that's also the really cool thing which is I feel so blessed and really happy that I'm in marks universe because we get to I get to meet so many cool people were We're doing so many cool projects with athletes and celebrities.
Starting point is 00:49:48 And again, not all these shows are potentially ghosts. I can't really drop names or anything. But for the most part, all these guys and gals are like really, I mean, clearly, immediately of through Mark. So there's that whole thing where there's that, you know, them coming to me from that angle, where they're gonna be nicer to me, but for the most part, a lot of these folks are really cool down-earth people.
Starting point is 00:50:13 And there's a few that are more demanding and difficult, but speaking about other projects, what are we gonna see something with the, the priest that's the headfung, headfung of fudge, fudge, fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Fudge Yeah, yeah, we are we're development. He is an incredible. The guy is just I off the charts at how how we have very spirited conversations at the father and I and he's opened my eyes up to a lot of stuff. Financially, first of all, the guy is just brilliant when it comes to to analyzing financial statements. The guy guys literally it's like what is it the
Starting point is 00:51:07 A beautiful mind that sort of thing, you know He just is is is credible with with that dissecting it and really being able to analyze Companies and stocks and so forth. So yeah, we're we're excited about that one. It's um It's been a little bit tricky again because of the pandemic and he's based in the East Coast. And so trying to do some of that. Now we're easing out of it. It's going to be much, much easier coming into the summer. We're going to sort of ramp up that project. No, he's an interesting character. One of my favorite parts, actually, of the series was when he, he breaks down the zebra business, man, and just, just rips it apart. And
Starting point is 00:51:44 you just don't see that coming from a father like that I thought that was so good Oh, and that was edited down because He is you know when Mark goes you know I you need to be machine gun Kelly Like he he he's like and he says like it doesn't say where the Bible you have to be nice I was like what? like and he says like it doesn't say the bible you have to be nice i was like what what i mean
Starting point is 00:52:05 you know he it was crazy and he's again he's a really smart guy i have nothing but respect for him and he he is who he is he's a really unique character you know what to get this is what these things come down to me think about it guys it's the characters in our lives that make these things so that's why you know father stands out so much it's why in mcmillan's Doug Matthews that FBI agent. I mean that guy is so like that was the one note that I kept giving more Doug more Doug more Doug because
Starting point is 00:52:37 these are the things that really take stories and put them over the top or the storytellers that are telling you this story. If there's any, you know, aspiring producers watching this, do you have any tips or how about this? Common mistakes. Where's some common mistakes that new producers tend to make? They come, great question again, you're killing it here. A lot of times producers will come to us with an idea that is either not fully baked or more importantly, it doesn't, they're bringing no skin to the game. What I mean by that is, let's just say they say, hey, I've got a great
Starting point is 00:53:20 idea of this, you know, I'm completely making this up by the way, okay? But say, there's an ice hockey team that's all women in Minneapolis and they're great characters and I wanna do the show with you. Okay, cool. Have you engaged with them? No, no, no, no, no. You guys could do all that,
Starting point is 00:53:41 but I know of them, I've identified them and you guys could get them. I was like, no, you have to bring value. You need to go. You need to bring me, you know, videotape them. Get, you know, iPhone, zoom. Show me the characters. Put together a little bit of a sizzle or a casting tape
Starting point is 00:53:58 and present something. So you come into this with us with a value. If you don't have access, you need to have exclusive access. So the first thing they need to do is they need to go to that, the coach of the hockey team or whatever. Again, this is all hypothetical. And go, hey, I really think we can make a TV show out of this. I'd like to, you know, get an agreement with you to lock it up. Like I want to develop something with you. And then they need to have tape on them and they need to write something up
Starting point is 00:54:28 Way too many times people just throw ideas out Lazily to us and not bring the goods themselves. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense Now Archie a little bit of a personal question What what drives you? Are you are you motivated at all by financial success? Is it all purely creative like Like what really drives you to continue doing what you do? It's an amazing question that I it's definitely not money. I'll tell you that. I feel very blessed. I have a very nice home. I mean it's mod it's not a mansion. It's nothing crazy. I'm a beautiful family. It's really just being I'm passionate about creating projects that people relate to. I mean, again, not to break my empire myself on the back, but if you look at my resume,
Starting point is 00:55:11 I've been a part of a lot of really cool, non-scripted shows. And I will say, I'm my passion now, work with Marcus to get more involved in scripted material, too, because I have a deep love and passion for scripted. I mean, of course, I want to make money but it does not drive me in the least. It does not drive me. It's really... The thing that really makes my day is like when you guys say, hey, I watched Wall Street, it was awesome. When I watched, make millions, it was awesome. When I go on, you know, like I said earlier, when I go on Instagram and someone DMs me and is like, dude, you're an awesome dad from what I, the show is awesome.
Starting point is 00:55:48 That to me, if you could inspire people and entertain people and specifically make people feel better about life, tough, man. Life is tough and especially now at the pandemic. If I could, in some small way, create some bit of content that's going to take people's minds off of that and let them enjoy life and learn from it That to me inspires me and motivates me to create and I also I don't know how I was hard-wired to with my drive. It's Mark is the youngest of nine kids So I know and I know his family very well. I literally am friends with, friendly with all of his brothers.
Starting point is 00:56:29 And he is so motivated to succeed because he was the youngest of nine and his motor is running because it's like, I got to compete with my brothers. Now it's not that anymore. He's not compete with his brothers anymore, but he's found other people to kind of internally motivate him. And I had five people, kids in my family as well. And so I had that competitive spirit with my siblings. So I think there's something in that too with me,
Starting point is 00:56:56 but I don't know, it's hard to say. I mean, you guys all are certainly motivated, guys, and crushing it. Like, you're just hardwired that way, you know, like, and I have friends who are like lazy and they're not doing things that are really talented guys. And I'm like, come up with the show idea. Pitch me a script. I will, I will sell this.
Starting point is 00:57:15 I promise. I mean, there's more guys. They don't do it. I just, and I, for the life of me, I'm like, what's going on? Like, I'm not wired that way. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how like, what's going on? I'm not wired that way. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how someone can't be excited and driven to do things in life and feel good about creating things.
Starting point is 00:57:34 I don't understand. Yeah, I appreciate that answer. One more question. We mentioned dads, and we mentioned how that really strikes. It seems to resonate with a lot of people, balancing being a father and balancing the drive that you have to do what you do, because what you do is, I mean, it's a lot of work.
Starting point is 00:57:53 Oftentimes, I'm sure you're not home, you're at other places, like, how do you balance those two out? What does that look like? It's wrong, I mean, during the pandemic, which you got a little glimpse of in Wall Street, I mean, it is, it's impossible when the kids were at home. My wife and I, my wife got blessed. She is a full-time lawyer at a very big movie studio out here in Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:58:15 She's one of the head lawyers in the film department. And so we're both working from home. And we had our two, a five-year-old two year old. And we had to have break things up, or we had classes. So we each took half our shifts, where we'd have a drawing class, and we'd have a dance class for our kids. Because we had no nanny, there's no nanny here, there's no other people, I'm not like,
Starting point is 00:58:42 it was just my wife and I. So we had a divided day from doing our jobs. And again, I don't want to sound, because to me, it's not work. My, I love what I do. So when I go wake up in the morning, I'm like, I'm living life. And that just so happens, my life is my kids
Starting point is 00:58:56 and my wife and my work. So I think really the one place where I, I, is a very important in Hollywood, especially post pandemic is the schmooves. Like you go out for drinks, you go out for dinner. That's where a lot of business gets done in Hollywood. And I will not go out for drinks or dinner until my kids are asleep.
Starting point is 00:59:21 So normally people go out from six o'clock to eight o'clock is like happy hour dinners whatever i've told my you know my assistant knows and my team knows like from six to nine. I am home with my family i'm having dinner i'm reading stories my kids were playing i'm talking to bed what have you and then i'll go for late night drinks if people want to meet nine to nine to 11, a midnight, whatever, I burn the midnight oil. That's the thing, like markets is goes to bed at seven, to get up for his workouts, I go to bed at 2.30 in the morning. That's where my grind is late at night because I got so much stuff to go through. Again, I don't want to sound like I'm talking up my life here,
Starting point is 01:00:02 but it's a grind. You've got to make those sacrifices for me. The sacrifice is to be with my family. I got to work late hours to catch up on watching. You know, I got tons of things I got to watch. I got emails to return. And that sweet spot for me is like 11 to like one, 130 in the morning. Well, Archie, we appreciate what you do and thank you you very much for coming on the show this was a lot of fun
Starting point is 01:00:27 i appreciate it guys thanks for having me and uh... let's keep in touch and uh... let's uh... you know good luck with everything you do thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted rgbundle at MindPumpMedia.com.
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