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Turning Stars into Empires ft. David Weintraub | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby
00:40:35
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- [00:00]
Host
He started as a teenage agent, repped some of the biggest names in music and reality tv. And now he's producing blockbuster films with a listers like Pedro Pascal and Too Short. If you're trying to make it in entertainment, pay attention. David Weintraub is the CEO of DWE Talent, the guy behind the scenes of reality shows, viral influencers, brand empires, and now one of the wildest, most relevant movies to come come out of Sundance this year. From managing legends like Too Short to launching the Hollywood Handbook, David's not just producing content. He's building the blueprint for the next generation of creators. Today on Coffees, we talk about the real game behind Hollywood, the future of content, building something that lasts, and why your moment means nothing if you don't have the right team. Welcome to Coffees.
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Co-Host
So let's talk about the moment before we get into questions. Cause you got the movie just was released.
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David Weintraub
So I'm making reality shows and now I'm making a huge movie. It's kind of like two polar opposite worlds. I was lucky enough to represent my client and my dear friend Todd Shaw, Too Short for the last 17 years. And some amazing filmmakers and writers, Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden called us and they had an idea to do a story about Oakland in the 1980s. And two shirt is such a prevalent artist of that time period, and his imagery and his sound and his music and his voice was going to be an initial part in developing this project that they were writing. And when I got the call from them, I was like, these are major, major, major A list Hollywood guys. They did a movie called Captain Marvel, which was at one time the highest grossing Marvel movie of all time. And they also won a lot of big festival films with movies like Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling. So they know how to do both. Two scales, great art house, cool indies. And they also know how to do big scale, big budget movies. So when the call came in, even before I even called Too Short, when I heard the pitch, I'm like, we're in no matter what. Whether Short was going to be in it or not, I'm like, we're in. But Short loved the idea, loved the pitch. It was like a cheers to Oakland. And we signed on, they wrote the script, they went out and wound up getting the financing. It got financed for a big, I would say a medium sized budget in the film world, but enough to make a really great film. And then some incredible actors came on. Pedro Pascal came on. Jay Ellis, Angus Cloud, Rest in Peace. It was his last movie Normani from Fifth Harmony. She's one of the lead singers with Camilla Cabello and that band. She came on two shorts in it. Ben Mendelsohn from every movie, huge actor. So we got a great cast together, made an incredible film, took it to Sundance, did really well at Sundance, and Lionsgate came on, did the acquisition, and then here we are a year later. So that's four years from pitch to this week when the movie came out.
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Co-Host
That's crazy. Is that typically how long a big budget movie takes? Four years?
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David Weintraub
That seems like longer. Some take less. I would say at a minimum, you're looking at a year. But I don't know. I mean, the fast track of the experience, I don't feel like it took too long. I wish it had come out a little bit sooner after Sundance, but we had to wait for everybody's schedules to work to do the promotion. And, you know, Pedro's obviously a huge star, so he's gotta have the right time to promote the movie and, you know, release it properly. So that is that moment. And here we are, we're ready to go. So we just hit all the theaters on Friday. And it's a wild ride, a wild, crazy ride. It's about underdogs, people that are seen as underdogs, basically taking back what's owed to them. There's some very bad people in Oakland in the corrupt cops, drug dealers, hitmen, you know, and you have, like, a rap group and a basketball star and a. You know, they're all intertwined into this amazing story of good versus evil. And it's. It's not quite anything like you would expect. It's. It's a. It's a roller coaster of a movie. And by the time it's over, you're like, wow, I can't believe it started in this one place and then turned into this one thing. Cause it's like, you know, it's an action adventure comedy in a lot of ways.
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Co-Host
The way you described it seems like it's more of a timeless classic theme. But if a movie takes four years and we're in this, like, hyper progressive society, how can something be culturally relevant four years later?
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David Weintraub
Well, what's interesting about this movie is that the subject matter of There's a robbery that takes place in this movie, and the robbery takes place while somebody is at a. It's about a basketball star, and he gets robbed basically while he's playing the biggest game of his life. And that is something that's happening all the time. You see a lot of people Celebrities going and going to concerts and going to the super bowl and going places. And when they leave, people see that their house is empty and they get robbed. So there's like a lot of very relevant stories to what's going on in today's world that was actually in this story when that wasn't so relevant 4 years ago when we were talking about it. So it's kind of a bizarre thing that would actually become such a hyper news activation that people are reading about.
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Co-Host
Four years ago. So you started filming.
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David Weintraub
No, no. So we got the pitch came in for. So the pitch comes in, script is ready, then you got to go get the movie finance. So that takes like about eight months. That's quick, though, because you have major writer and directors that now are at the table with a great package of producers. So people want to buy the movie. They know that these guys make great films, so they're going to buy it. So that's what I'm saying. A little bit of like, how you package a movie is the luck. You have to have the right elements, correct producers, correct writer and directors, and then money out there is going to see you and want to be a part of that project. So they finance the movie. So that happened in the first eight, nine months. And then pre production, then you shoot the movie, Then you got to cut the movie and get it ready, and then you got to take it to the festivals to then go get it distributed. So I don't think it was that long. I mean, four years. I feel the four years. But it's been a journey and it's been great. And luckily, like, everybody loves the movie.
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Co-Host
What's the biggest worry in that duration of time? Like, is it the anxiety of a big box office rollout? Is it, you know, is the relevance? What's the biggest fear when you launch?
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David Weintraub
I think if people are not gonna like it, if perhaps the studio doesn't market it correctly, if the, you know, if the budgets aren't spent properly to get the word out there about the movie. I mean, look, this is a passion project for a lot of people, the writers, directors, the producers, the stars of the movie. So people are going above and beyond at this point to really promote the movie. You know, as executive producer of it, you know, I'm out there with everything I can possibly do to get the name out there, to get the word out there. Do as many interviews, as many articles as possible. Because this is a big project and I want everybody to see all the work that we put into it.
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Co-Host
And I hear this all the time from thought leaders. It's like you're only as good as the marketing you put into your product. You could write the best book in the world, and if nobody knows about it, it's a worthless book. So when you talk about marketing, especially in this day and age, you got a guy like Pedro Pascal, millions and millions of followers, Big, big influencer as well as actor. What sort of efforts do the actors themselves put in in terms of getting the branding and the video out?
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David Weintraub
I mean, I think with somebody like Pedro, it's a very interesting place right now because he has so many huge movies that are coming out back to back, and he has a huge series on hbo. So it's all kind of like, where does it fit into the schedule? And how much do they believe in the final product? Pedro is an extremely busy guy with a lot on his plate being pulled in a million different directions. And he was at the premiere. He's doing the articles. He's doing the interviews. He loves this movie, and he knows that this movie is part of his brand. So he has been out there in a major way. And, like, there are some actors that could go and get their check, do the act, and maybe they're, you know, they're on to the next thing. Something could change in three years, and they're not gonna do it. But he's such a good guy and so talented, and he went above and beyond for this film, and he's incredible in it.
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Co-Host
He's incredible in everything.
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David Weintraub
I mean, he's one of those guys. He's. I don't know. It's hard to describe. We got to spend, you know, a good amount of time with him, and he's just a really cool, talented guy. I mean, it's crazy to see that, like, Two Short and Pedro Pascal are now have a movie together like that. To me, like, that, like, blows my mind, you know? And that's why I say I'm grateful that Ryan Fleck and Anna Bowden, who wrote and directed this film, that they saw the value in what somebody like, Too Short and somebody like myself, because as manager and producing partner with him, they saw that we were gonna bring something to the table with ideas and music and opportunity and marketing and, like, putting him in the game in such an important movie about Oakland. And that's not something that comes across your desk all the time. So I think that for us, it's about expanding the business now into more and more films. Too Short has only really been in two movies. I'll tell you, the two Movies that he's been in, and they're both big, big dope movies. He was in Menace to Society.
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Co-Host
That's a classic.
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David Weintraub
A classic. I mean, that's, you know, Menace, Society is a very memorable role. And if you look on the DVD of Menace to Society, he had a lot of scenes that actually didn't make the movie where he had all this other stuff he did in it, really cool stuff. And then he was in a big theatrical documentary called American Pimp, which was all about, like. It was, like, early, early in the documentary space of big theatrical movie documentaries. So he's in that one. So we've looked at a lot of films, but this one was the right time and the right place and the right people to go on this adventure back into the film business.
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Co-Host
That's awesome. Now, you've been around some of the greatest talents ever. Now, what are some of the things that you think really separate, you know, those that are super talented from those that don't make it in Hollywood?
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David Weintraub
I think that your work ethic and your ability to be grateful and recognize that you have to have the right team with you and the right spirit and treat people great. If you treat people really well and you have talent and people are interested in you, your career is gonna go way farther than if you get famous overnight and you're a big star and you treat people like shit, your career could tumble very fast. So I think that there's a couple different things that you need to have in place. It's your mind, your spirit, your ability, and your craft. But you also have to be grateful that you're now on the platform to be seen as a star. So make the right decisions. You know, I've seen a lot of people go high really quick and then burn out and crash. You never hear from them again.
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Co-Host
Yeah, and you. You always think of, like, these A listers as, like, these just egocentric people. But what you're saying is contrary to that. You're saying that A listers are really, like, they're humble and grateful to me.
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David Weintraub
Well, I don't know that all of them are. I'm saying that I think that that's a huge element that you need to take into consideration in life. That, like, you gotta be grateful that you have fans and that people want to see you. Yes, you're talented, yes, you're this, yes, you're that. But you're still a regular. You're a person, you know, and being a person, you have to have the talent and the craft. And then obviously, if you have the right material and the right projects. That's when superstardom happen. I have some clients that are very grateful and thankful for the business that we do behind the scenes. Because somebody does have to get the phone call, somebody does have to make the phone call, somebody does have to read the material, somebody has to find the project, somebody has to do the deal. The deal is so important, you gotta do the deal. So everybody gets paid and you make sure you do the deal correctly. So there's so much that goes into like it's not just, hey, here's the movie and it's here, or here's the TV show and it's here or here's the influencer and they got the huge brand deal, it's here. No, there's a million things that go into that. And if you do those things wrong, or the deals are done wrong, or the wrong people you're partnered with, then what are you gonna do? You're not gonna make money, the project may fail. And that's gonna impact all different sides of your life. So you gotta be fully structured. And I mean, that's something that we kind of, that's something that we're teaching you with my digital platform class, the Hollywood Handbook.
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Co-Host
I was actually gonna ask about the Hollywood Handbook right now. So it's a class, it's a course.
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David Weintraub
The Hollywood Handbook is basically like a digital video book. So there's reading involved, there's watching videos, and then there's outreach that you can have with me and my team if we feel like you want to go.
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Co-Host
To the next platform on school or WAP or anything.
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David Weintraub
No, we just have our own self sufficient website and everything is done there.
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Co-Host
Nice.
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David Weintraub
So basically, if you want to get into reality, you want to get into influencing, you want to get into branding, your own PR and marketing, that you kind of either want to create a project or turn yourself into a star. The Hollywood Handbook is sort of the really quick crash course into getting it back into the game. And this, this will teach you very quickly what you need to do. All the secrets that like my influencers and my reality stars, my rappers, everything that we've done for them to stay relevant or to even get in the game. This is like a play by play how to guide.
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Co-Host
I love it. See, the thing about any type of play by play how to guide to immense success that I've discovered, it's like people don't take action.
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David Weintraub
Yeah.
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Co-Host
You could literally tell people this is exactly how to get famous. And it's like, well, I mean, you.
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David Weintraub
Also have to have the ability to listen. I think that, I think that if you listen to your people, listen to your peers, listen to people that know what they're doing or have already done it, follow the direction, you're not going to reinvent the wheel. Especially today, you're competing with too many influencers, too many people that think they're famous, too many, Too much content, too many platforms, too many apps. It's a flood. So you gotta have the talent. The one thing I will say is that, yes, you have to have the talent. I just said that. But if you have the right formula and your talent may be mediocre, you still can reach an audience differently than the past because people like to see sort of bizarre talent now. You know, at one point it was like, you have to sing, rap act, dance, you know, play a music, play a musical instrument. Now it's like, you know, a guy who's like juggling knives and baking cookies and has some over the top personality in his kitchen, you know, wearing no shirt, he could be the biggest star in the world. So you have a different thing. And that guy may have a big fucking business. So if you're out there, maybe I can represent you. But that's the dichotomy of where you are today. You have really talented people, you have mediocrely talented people, and then you have talentless people. And some people fail upward. I'm in the business of taking people's businesses to the next level, so I will take any of those kinds of talent.
- [16:50]
Co-Host
Actually, no, we're in very similar businesses. I'm in the business of creating businesses or scaling businesses. You're doing the same thing. Yeah, just in that I do it with money, finance, and you do it with, you know, talent.
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David Weintraub
So we can, we can, we can trade off. You're gonna teach me a little bit about what you're doing, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'll bring you into my world. But that's kind of how my life has been. A lot of relationships and a lot of talent that I have. It's, you know, it's, it's, it's from meeting people that want to learn this space, and I want to learn about your space.
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Co-Host
Actually, what's funny about my space specifically is that now I'm teaching the people who work for me how to brand and how to be in your space. Because the reality is that if they don't build a personal brand, everybody in my space, actually any business, whether it's insurance, whether it's Mortgage, whether it's real estate. If they don't build a personal brand. Because of ChatGpt now making decisions for consumers. If they don't have a brand. ChatGPT can't, the algorithm can't decide.
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David Weintraub
Yeah.
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Co-Host
So now with everyone going to Chat GPT for everything, you have to build and establish a massive personal brand or ChatGPT can't decide.
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David Weintraub
Yeah. Yeah. So now I'm teaching my people what a world. Who would have thought that you would have gotten to that place where.
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Co-Host
So my world is now your world.
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David Weintraub
Yeah.
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Co-Host
And now your world now needs to be taught to my world. The Hollywood Handbook is imperative for anybody. And there's a lot of businesses now just teaching personal brand. Even myself, I'm teaching. I built a massive personal brand, the biggest in the space, in the course of like 14, 15 months, using every play possible. I have more resources than my loan officers, but, you know, and I'm always working on that, you know, because that's what's attracting talent to our organization. Like, I'm sort of like just, you know, the guy juggling the knives and dancing.
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David Weintraub
Right, right. I mean, coffee's for closers.
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Co-Host
And then I'm a thought leader on top of that.
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David Weintraub
And listen, I love the name of this show. And like I was telling you, I mean, I am such a huge. Glenn. I mean, I'm obviously Glengarry is. This is the. Put that coffee down.
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Co-Host
That's right. You know that I live by that. Love coffee too. I love the theme. I love the.
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David Weintraub
How many times have you seen that movie?
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Co-Host
Just a couple times. Not, not as, not as many as, you know. I know some people know every line in that movie.
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David Weintraub
Yeah. Alec Baldwin in that.
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Co-Host
Why don't you remake that movie, man? Make it more.
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David Weintraub
No, you can't remake that one. That's great. Like there's.
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Co-Host
But just rename it coffees with meat like mine.
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David Weintraub
My God, it's like I, I, I, I sometimes I just have to like go and watch that scene. Just watch it and just like, it gets you motivated for like, for the next day, anything. It's just so funny and so crazy. The faces that they're making when he comes in. Set of steak knives.
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Co-Host
So what's the best piece of advice that you can give the audience from the Hollywood Handbook?
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David Weintraub
Well, I think the Hollywood Handbook, you know, it teaches you a lot of different things. It's an entry point, starter. If you ever had a dream to get into the space of influencing reality TV show, music, entertainment as a whole, or just the market yourself, this is the entry point. So what you're gonna learn very quickly is tips to getting in the game. And that's the most important thing. So there's not one point, it's like 10 points of how to do it, but to do it fast.
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Co-Host
Nice. But if you were to take one point, what can someone do right now.
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David Weintraub
To actually hone in on what your talent is, hone in on what you're selling to your audience and hone in on how to get that out to the audience. That's what you're gonna learn how to do. Cause there's a lot of people like, oh my God, I'm a star, I'm this, I'm that. I have a great idea, I have a cool business. But how do you get people to know about it? It's marketing. You have to market it, you have.
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Co-Host
To open doors, you've built a massive career. Big, big brands. What do you think have been some fundamental things that you've implemented in the success of your business?
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David Weintraub
Well, look, you always have to do good business. You have to have a great team and you have to have, you know, the ability to reach out to people that you trust to do your deals with. I think there's a lot of people that are a lot of talk and you have to have experience in deciphering who's talk, who's bullshit, who's gonna pay you, who's the right person for this project or this product or this opportunity, or this PR moment. And understanding that you gotta make very rash decisions because all of that can affect your career, your life, your client, your show, whatever it may be. So it's really just having that gut instinct that you have. You're only going to build that after years of dealing with people and dealing with chaos and seeing things work and seeing things fail. I mean, I've had a. You know, I think that on my production side, in the non scripted space and the reality TV space, for like every 20 projects that I would sign or try to create and take to market, we would sell like four. So those are actually good numbers because you're not gonna sell all 20. It's not gonna happen. There's not enough, enough networks out there. They're like, this one's good, this one's good, this one's good. So you have to have a good amount of projects in your arsenal so that you have, this one might be right for this place. You take that one to Bravo. This One went to VH1, this one's going to Netflix. It's Organizing your content so you know what the buyers are programming to. But having enough different options of those 20, that four are gonna make it. So it's a little bit of a numbers game.
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Co-Host
Yeah, I like the numbers game, but. Okay, so you got 75% failure rate, 25% success rate, but you're talking about.
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David Weintraub
Doing what 1% of the world does.
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Co-Host
Yeah.
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David Weintraub
This is not buying a house. This is not buying a car. It's not buying jewelry. This is taking an idea from your head or a script or a person or a star and putting them out to the world and making their dreams come true. So they have to have the talent, you have to have the relationship. You have to have the buyer. You have to have it marketed and put out. There's a lot of different things. This is not like, you know, we're not building a box out of stuff. Something. So if you think about the numbers, that's actually really high. If you're, you know, let's talk about, like, an incredible, you know, someone who has the massive, biggest hits on the air. Somebody like Mark Burnett, who created Survivor, you know, like, even he has shows that don't get picked up, that they're like, okay, it's a good idea. They'll have 50 in their arsenal and maybe they'll sell 10. That's still a good ratio. They know that. They. And let me take you back one step, too. I've had shows that I. Pilots that I've made that did not sell when I first made them and then sold five years later because there was a hole in the market and they needed something that fit that hole. And I had the product and I had the idea, or I had the star, and I then served it to the market, and then it went. So even this great idea that may have gotten passed on originally or did not work at a certain time, that one may work.
- [24:10]
Co-Host
My question for you is, in that 25%, what are some key attributes to those 25% that always work? Because at some point you start to realize information, the common denominator, information and trends.
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David Weintraub
You have to follow what's hot, what's on the air. Where is that going? Do you have the right people that fit that bill? Do you have the right talent that can be in that project, and do you have the ability to create it in a way that the buyer and the distributors are gonna wanna see it and then push it out to the masses? So we have to decipher who is talented, what does that project look like, who is the correct buyer, and are they programming into that kind of content and then get it sold and then hopefully it's gonna come out. So it's a lot of variables. You know, we're in a little bit of an if come business. You know, if you believe in it enough, it's gonna come and the business is gonna happen. It's different than selling a product. So that's why my company dwe talent, we do stay diversified. We have management, which is the representation of people. We have production and creation, which is coming up with ideas and selling it to market. We have branding, which is taking people and like creating products and marketing them. And then we have pr, which is getting visibility for people. So those four branches of my company keep us diversified. So one day I'm working on marketing, one day I'm working on production, one day I'm working on a tour. Like, it's a lot of different hands that you have to keep your relationships in. But I've been doing this since I'm 15, so I've kind of seen a lot. I've seen the corporate side, I've seen the independent side, I've seen the studio side, I've seen the influencer side, I've seen the reality side, the rap side, the rock side. So eventually you're gonna have a lot of different relationships. So when the call comes in, they're like, hey, we got this, what do we do? You need to know who to make that call to and hopefully you're gonna get the deal and get the money.
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Co-Host
Yeah, I mean, those relationships are priceless. I mean, you've built them in every variable.
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David Weintraub
They're the whole, they're your entire life. And that's why I said you gotta be grateful and you gotta do good business and you gotta be a repeat person. You gotta be somebody that does good business with good people so that you continue to help people and you continue to make fair opportunities happen. You know, there's a lot of terrible people that you're gonna deal with. A lot of people are gonna maybe steal your ideas or do a bad deal or try to own your ip. You gotta be smart and like that's only gonna come in time.
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Co-Host
You said a word here that I really wanna hit on, which is fair. A lot of people think that nepotism is the reason for people's success in Hollywood. What's your opinion on that?
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David Weintraub
Well, that's a really interesting question. This might be the best question that you asked. So in the non scripted space, I was the guy that took all the sons and daughters of everybody that was, like, became the first reality stars, per se. And that is a prevalent business because the nepotism wasn't really there. A lot of the people that had really famous parents or really successful parents, the kids had to fight to get out of the shadows of their parents because they were so big in their scale that how are they going to compete? How are they going to top, you know, how are they gonna top their dad's work or their mom's work, whatever?
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Co-Host
Tom Hanks could beat Tom Hanks. It's impossible.
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David Weintraub
And I know Chet. He's a great guy, and he's created his own lane, but he's not trying to beat his dad. He's not trying to be bigger than his dad. He's trying to be his own celebrity, his own talent, his own thing, and he's doing a really good job in it.
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Co-Host
He's a big, buff guy with the tattoo.
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David Weintraub
Yeah, he's doing a really good job at it. And, you know, Tom Hanks is in my movie. He's in. He's in Freaky Tales.
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Co-Host
Tom Hanks is in Freaky Tales. You also have him. Why isn't he on the front?
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David Weintraub
You know, it's Pedro's movie. Yeah, Tom Hanks is in. Tom Hanks is from Oakland. And so he has, like. He's got a couple big scenes in the movie.
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Co-Host
Wow. Yeah, you got some big names.
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David Weintraub
But. But it's funny that you say that, because the. You're not trying to top everybody. A lot of nepotism is trying to get your own identity so that you're not always associated with your parents and what they may have done. And that was what a lot of subject matter of my TV shows are about. My first TV show, Sons of Hollywood, which I produced, created, and starred in with my two best friends, Randy Spelling, Aaron Spelling's son, and Sean Stewart, Rod Stewart's son. That was really what the show was about. It was about, you know, the three of us coming out of, like, into the business and trying to make it and what it was like to have the shadows of these huge figures.
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Co-Host
But your parents aren't Aaron Spelling.
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David Weintraub
They're not. I come from a family, but I created the show, and those were my two best friends. And that was the reality of our lives. You had a kid who wanted to be an actor, a kid who wanted to be a singer, and a guy who was a young agent. And I had the opportunity and I knew how to sell the show and create the show. And I brought my friends along for the ride.
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Co-Host
That's Awesome. I mean, that is a rad idea for another remake of that show.
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David Weintraub
Sons of Hollywood was on in. I created that show in 2006. It came out in 2007. We did 20 episodes for a and E. And, you know, ultimately, you know, the show didn't go past the 20 episodes, but it was a big show. I mean, it was everywhere. It changed my life because it got me out of being an agent and really made me a creative guy, you know. Then the following year, we helped develop celebrity rehab with Dr. Drew, and then that was our first number one hit.
- [30:14]
Co-Host
Amazing. Now, I have a major question that I think a lot of people want to know. With the rise of influencers, now you're seeing Mr. Beast is much more famous than Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. Now. Influencers have now taken over what we call modern day content. So given the rise of influencers, given the rise of AI and the things that I kind of mentioned earlier with ChatGPT making decisions for brands, what do you think the future is of content creation?
- [30:41]
David Weintraub
Well, it's evolving. I mean, influencers and brand deals and creating content that is pushed out into your, you know, into your home movie studio that's in your palm of your hands. You know, everybody is here, they're looking, they're buying, they're purchasing, they're getting their content here. It's not going to change. It's not going to be all of a sudden, okay, well, now we're watching it in our glasses. It's going to be that this is the medium, and how do you make sure that that medium is getting you what you want for entertainment, getting you what you want for your news, and actually pushing you to get information and products and purchasing. So the influencers really became, I think, the influencer business sparked from people aspiring to be reality stars and then realizing that they had their phone, which was a full television production studio, and getting good at that, and getting good at YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and all of these places created stars, created brands, and then ultimately it pushed linear television off to the side where everybody wants to be seen right here. So it's not gonna change. I think that we're in sort of that 10 year right now where this is the medium and it's only going to expand and people that are smart enough to exploit that and understand how to create businesses in those spaces, they're gonna win.
- [32:04]
Co-Host
Yeah, I mean, but that's so that poises. Does that poise more opportunity for your business more.
- [32:10]
David Weintraub
So bring the talent. Dwe talent. I want to sign influencers, rappers, rock stars, reality stars, you know, celebrity chefs, celebrity hosts, whatever you think your talent is, come to us and maybe we can create that vehicle, create that platform, create that moment. You know, there's a lot of people that create businesses off of a PR moment. Somebody could get famous for the wrong reasons and create a business. I'm going to give you a very poor example here. You could take this girl, Hailey Welch Hawk to a. The girl. Now, I don't think she had the best representation on some decisions that she made with doing this crypto coin and stuff that really backfired on her. But you take somebody who had a viral video, the video goes viral, it becomes a trend. It's everywhere. Everyone's talking about it.
- [33:03]
Co-Host
And.
- [33:04]
David Weintraub
And then to go and get the brand deals and go and get the TV show opportunity, go and get the podcast, go get those. You had a moment. You had one moment. One moment of 26 seconds of your life changed everything about you. You have to have the correct fucking team of people so that you don't do a bad crypto coin and fuck your whole career off at that moment. You're cool. Are you talented? Are you interesting? I don't know. You're all right. But, like, can you make money off of that? Can you create a business? Will opportunity come? Yeah, but you need to do it correctly. I don't think she did it correctly. And that's why she came and went so quickly. Because when everybody started calling me about this girl and like, oh, we should make a show with her, do a documentary or do this podcast, this and that, if you fuck it up in the beginning, you're toast. You're toast.
- [33:53]
Co-Host
You get one shot.
- [33:54]
David Weintraub
A good example of doing that. And not to, like, minimize this, but Bhad Bhabie. Bhad Bhabie's rich as fuck, okay? Bhad Bhabie makes millions and millions and millions of dollars. This is a girl who was a guest on the Dr. Phil Show. A guest on the Dr. Phil show became a multimillionaire household name, brand influencer, media mover from having a reaction from doing one interview. So a moment can happen in your life where you need to actually figure out how to create businesses. Exploit. And I don't mean exploit in a bad way. I mean exploit like gain visibility and market it so that you can create those opportunities selling T shirts, selling hats, opening a restaurant, whatever it might be that can happen from a viral moment. And we can go back the Hollywood Handbook. We're going to teach you how to do that. That's how you learn.
- [34:52]
Co-Host
I want to pivot a little as we close this show. And this is how I like to close all the shows. Three last questions. Okay. One, you got a daughter.
- [34:59]
David Weintraub
Yes.
- [35:00]
Co-Host
Eight years old. Now, you clearly are a super hard worker. Been that way since you were a kid. Your daughter is growing up in this, like, life of abundance. Right. How are you instilling the same level of grit that you have that you've been blessed with in your child?
- [35:17]
David Weintraub
Well, so I'm a single dad, and I have a beautiful daughter, Stevie Rose. She's 8 years old, and I'm teaching her to learn and absorb information. Read books, do sports, do music, do acting. She's really into beauty. Like, at 8 years old, she wants to be a beauty influencer. I'm teaching her at this time that she has to work hard for everything. And, I mean, listen, I've spoiled her a little bit, but, like, you know, I'm a daddy's girl. You know, I love her. So what are you gonna do? You know, like, a lot of things that I wanted as a child that I didn't have that I'm now blessed to have, you know, I wanted her to see them and enjoy them. So, you know, Stevie. Stevie's everything. Like, the business is all this stuff that you're gonna do. But at the end of the day, number one priority in my life is being a dad.
- [36:16]
Co-Host
I got really into sports cards with my son.
- [36:18]
David Weintraub
Yeah.
- [36:19]
Co-Host
Because you could do that when you're a young son. And I started a whatnot business for him.
- [36:23]
David Weintraub
Cool.
- [36:24]
Co-Host
You know, slanging graded cards on whatnot.
- [36:27]
David Weintraub
That's cool.
- [36:27]
Co-Host
So just, like, I'm always trying to come up with ways, and I always ask this question to.
- [36:32]
David Weintraub
I'm opening a business for my daughter right now. I'm opening. She wants to do clothing. So we're in the midst of developing our. Our clothing line right now. It's called Steve Steviesroses.com we already have the website. We're building it right now. We're gonna be doing some drops in the next couple month. Kids, clothing, special releases, some skin care. Yeah. So steviesroses.com coming soon.
- [36:53]
Co-Host
I love getting these kids, like, thinking about that stuff. And, you know, it's important because we have the opportunity to bless them that way, and it's not gonna come easy. And things are just getting so much more expensive. So they have to be like, when I was young, the road to success.
- [37:07]
David Weintraub
Yeah.
- [37:07]
Co-Host
Was. Was being a doctor.
- [37:09]
David Weintraub
Right.
- [37:10]
Co-Host
You know, or an engineer, lawyer. Wasn't even on, you know, now the road to success is like you need to own the medical facility.
- [37:16]
David Weintraub
Yeah, yeah.
- [37:17]
Co-Host
After your doctor.
- [37:18]
David Weintraub
But, but information is more readily available and if you can get to the information and you can get to how to simplify it, you can do it differently. And obviously it takes money to make money. So, you know, if you can invest or you have the ability to get people to invest for you, there are smarter ways to, you know, work smarter, not harder.
- [37:47]
Co-Host
Now a couple last questions. It's a three pronged question. What's a personal goal you have for yourself? Goal that you have for dwe talent and a goal that you have for Yun.
- [37:56]
David Weintraub
So for myself, you know, right now the goal is really to create more big budget movies. You know, on the dwe talent side, we really want to go after freaky tales, go into more of the movie space and you know, we've kind of mastered the art of the non scripted television space, reality shows, documentaries, and we'll continue to do that. But now I really want to make more movies. I got the bug for me as a personal goal, you know, I just want to be the best dad I can be and be a loving present father and just go on this adventure in life and raising this, you know, child. It's. It is probably the most wonderful thing I've ever done. Yeah, I mean, you know, for my family just to really, just to. At a certain point, we also don't want to work as hard, so we want to get to a place where we can maybe relax a little bit more. You know, right now we're, we're being pulled in a lot of direction, a lot of like touring and moving and staying busy, which is good. And you don't ever want to not be in that space. But it would be nice to take a minute and just, you know.
- [38:59]
Co-Host
Do you have to travel a lot?
- [39:00]
David Weintraub
Yeah, a little bit. Depends on what we're doing. But yeah, we have a big touring element with our, with our business.
- [39:05]
Co-Host
Like flying or touring here in la?
- [39:07]
David Weintraub
No, touring around the country.
- [39:08]
Co-Host
So you have to leave Stevie sometimes. Yeah, yeah, that's hard.
- [39:11]
David Weintraub
Yeah.
- [39:12]
Co-Host
I hate, I hate flying. I. It's like. Yeah, now I just make it like if I'm not taking the kids, it's. It better be a really good reason.
- [39:18]
David Weintraub
Yeah, yeah. Well, luckily, like we're going and like to do a deal, to do a show, to do it, you know, that's, that's the business. Because my travel is mostly for our concert business.
- [39:31]
Co-Host
Now. Last question. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's gonna tell you?
- [39:37]
David Weintraub
I hope. He said I lived a good, fruitful life and was a good person. And I know in my heart that I've done what has been asked of me. And I just want to make my mom and dad, who both passed away, God rest them, you know, I want them to know they raised a good boy who. Who is a good father.
- [39:55]
Co-Host
That's all we can ask. God bless you. God bless your family. I hope you hit all your goals.
- [39:58]
David Weintraub
Thank you.
- [39:58]
Co-Host
And I hope your movie just dominates.
- [40:00]
David Weintraub
Thank you.
- [40:01]
Co-Host
The box office. I'm gonna go watch this weekend. I hope everybody else watches you. God bless you, man. David Weintraub, Superstar, founder, CEO, dwe talent. New movies out. Make sure you watch it. We'll see you guys soon. Thanks, David.