← The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
562: The Billion Dollar Woman Behind The Rock & Henry Cavill | Dany Garcia
00:44:13
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- [00:00]
Dany Garcia
You absolutely have to have an obsession. The amount of will, the amount of inertia that you need to create to make fantastic things happen. There's a reason why I've been fortunate enough to have great success and there's a reason other people don't have that. You have to be able to run through a wall for this vision. The business powerhouse behind some of the world's biggest brands. Teremona Tequila, Zoa Energy, Seven Bucks Productions just built a billion dollar business empire and built the careers of the Rock and Henry Cavill, Danny Garcia, Dwayne and myself. We didn' enter Hollywood with any type of film connections or theatrical background. We had to earn every step, every comment, every note that went into a script. We had to earn by having incredible success, but also by giving a perspective and a point of view that no one had ever heard before.
- [00:48]
Nathan Chan
You've done this with an extreme successful track record. What are the things that you look for in like your next opportunity?
- [00:54]
Dany Garcia
You need to deliver at a level that's undeniable. We have always gone into entertainment with two tenants. All creative has to live in a return on investment box. It makes us great partners for the studio. But the second and most important tenant is hear the stories, learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder podcast with Nathan Chan.
- [01:27]
Nathan Chan
The first question we ask everyone that comes on is how did you get your job, AKA how did you find yourself doing the work you're doing today?
- [01:35]
Dany Garcia
That's a good question to start with everyone. Nathan, you know, I'd like to say I created my job, really the position that I'm in today. I mean it was a journey that started in finance a little more traditionally with Merrill lynch, and then moved into a wealth management position and then moved into independent production and then in 2008 moved into sort of architecting Dwayne Johnson's career and having official move into Hollywood. And then all along that period, my approach had always been building enterprise. My decision actually to go into finance was because you know what, the time I spend there is going to give me a fantastic understanding of what I need for companies to be built fundamentally. And even when I was working with, you know, when DJ asked me to take take over, Dwayne asked me to take over. My approach was looking at his career and, and he in particular as a brand at IP Property and building a corporation around him. So all along I have been building companies until this position where I'm in, where now I have this beautiful portfolio. I'm the chairwoman I'm the chairwoman of a few of my other positions within the portfolio. And that sort of created the picture today, but I was building it year after year after year.
- [02:54]
Nathan Chan
And do you think entrepreneurs are built, made, hardwired?
- [03:00]
Dany Garcia
I do think it's a skill that can be acquired, but I think the majority of entrepreneurs are hardwired. I think they, you know, we tend to look at the world in a different way. The rules that sort of apply feel uncomfortable. And I think the idea of creating something new and being the leader of that creation, that usually comes from inside. Luckily there are mechanisms that can be built so you can take that position. But I find most of my entrepreneur friends and peers were, were born.
- [03:31]
Nathan Chan
You have many different companies, right? And you've got a whole portfolio. You've, you've achieved incredible success. I just love to know, kind of like, how do you find balance? Like what does a typical day for Danny Gassy look like?
- [03:45]
Dany Garcia
You know, the, the days they do have a few anchor structures, which is really wonderful. So training is actually a very big anchor for my day. So all my days start getting up early, spending time with my Frenchies and my husband and a cup of coffee and having a quiet moment. I do a lot of centering because since I do have such a broad portfolio, being very centered in what my philosophy is and understanding how I want to interact the world and how I want my companies to interact in the world is very important. And then I spend my mornings, I actually get my training block out in the morning. If I'm on the east coast, I get to cheat for all my west coast. I get three extra hours. And then after that it's really spending time on what are the most important decisions across the portfolio. You know, depending upon the city, I'm sort of a different activity. The training is always the same and that morning is always the same and the evening is the same. The evening after the long hours has a wind down period, has time with my family, quiet moments before, you know, going off. But if I'm in New York, then I'm usually very active with individuals, but all with purpose. And my company is up there and I'm from on the west coast, so a little bit more production oriented. I do spend a lot of time not actually having appointments or having scheduled calls. About half of my week is unscheduled intentionally so that I can stay at a very high perspective and I can look at what these companies are doing and understand where they need to be. So I try never to get too much into the Soup of anything. Because then I lose my perspective. And all of my companies, while they are very varied, they have one thing in common. They're all consumer facing. They all have relationships with the audience or consumer. So that means that part of my responsibility is actually staying in tune to the consumer and the audience. And if I'm too deep into these companies, I lose that perspective.
- [05:46]
Nathan Chan
Have you ever experienced, like burnout or anything? Because. Because you have so much going on.
- [05:52]
Dany Garcia
2016 was, you know, it was an incredible growth year. And we ended the year my husband took and I went to Hawaii in January. And I think I slept on a sofa outside every day for about two weeks straight. You know, I would wake up, he would get up, he would go work out. I fall asleep on that sofa. And that's where I had recognized that everything had accelerated so quickly. My process had not adjusted for it. So I became really good at that point after 2016 of continuously firing myself from positions so that I could move higher in my perspective. So. But always the. It's not. It's not a moment, you know, managing or keeping balance of this. It's not a set sort of process. It changes as the portfolio changes and grows every year. So again, I have to put that investment into looking at how I'm working to make sure I can continue to work.
- [06:50]
Nathan Chan
You sit around firing yourself, like, can you tell us more about that?
- [06:55]
Dany Garcia
If I'm going to do more, I can't do the same thing, right? Because whatever I'm doing, the more doesn't live in those activities. So if I want to move up, I began to realize I need to kick myself out. So I literally would fire myself. I remember when we hired our chief marketing officer, Maya Lassary, who's amazing for seven bucks marketing, that was a fired position. I had taken a lot of the responsibilities of marketing as I was working with our production companies and dj. And finally I was like, okay, there is someone who's going to live in this world 247 and she's going to do it so much better than I can because I need to do all these other things because she's greatly skilled. The last firing of myself was probably from the official role as Dwayne Johnson's manager. I fired myself. He was very gracious as I because I needed to move into a strategic advisory position over his enterprise in particular, which is ginormous. So, yeah, I've become really comfortable once I start to have so much friction in the positions or I'm feeling a lot of frustration or even I'm Spending a lot of time on minutiae and details that I've begun to realize is the signal that it's time to fire myself and see if I can move up and advance my skills.
- [08:14]
Nathan Chan
So love to start delving into some of these companies first. We'll start with gstq.
- [08:20]
Dany Garcia
Sure. Gstq. I'm so glad you asked about that one first. It is my oldest brand IP property. It was conceived when I was a young teenager and I was. You know, we talked about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs being born. Well, I think many of them were probably, like me, very angsty in their young age and sort of looking at the world differently and not understanding why things happen the way they happen. And as a teenager, I had pretty strong aspirations for what I wanted to accomplish, but I had nothing that reflected that back to me. So one day, in orchestra, I was a French horn player, we played the Royal national anthem, God Save the Queen. I did not know that that was God Save the Queen was the title of. Of the British national anthem. I was so touched. I was so blown away by the idea that an entire nation is praying to God for the Queen that I was like, this is an amazing title. And so I would say to myself, I would just start writing gstq, gstq, and then created and that, and I would consider myself the Queen, and I would say, there's something bigger, and you know what? God saved the Queen, and that's me, and I'm going to get there. And it became a mindset mantra which actually carried with me all the way through to the initiation to the birth of gstq. So GSTQ was my idea of a fashion relationship that was built upon mindset and philosophy. That was built upon the idea that you will be polished to perform. That was built upon the idea that fashion could not only beautify you, but could be a support mechanism to get you to where you wanted to be. Another aspect of GSTQ was for myself personally, as a bodybuilder and a woman who had to do so many different things, I had a passionate relationship with fashion. Things didn't fit. They were constricting. They were tight. I'm trying to move from one thing into a production meeting to meeting with my fellow CEOs, and I didn't have clothes that could move with me and also celebrate my athleticism. So that went into a lot of the fundamentals that are behind GSDQ and how we service our clients.
- [10:34]
Nathan Chan
Yeah, I love it. And can you tell us about kind of the early stages of bringing that to Life.
- [10:40]
Dany Garcia
We started it, as I'm thinking now in 21, probably three years ago, was the process where we began with the ideation very similar to building out a franchise where a Marvel universe. We spent a lot of time on what I call the GSDQ Bible, the birth of what this brand is, the relationship, the fundamental principles. How does it make people think, feel. So we had a very long philosophical period of time and then we moved into the ideation of clothing and creativity and then we smack, ran smack into Covid. So Covid allowed us to continue. We had to pause, but we continued to refine and then we were able to release the product just recently. But it was, it was something that was overriding and sort of just quietly moving along as I was working on these other companies until we could finally bring it to fruition.
- [11:35]
Nathan Chan
Why did you spend so much time there on that piece?
- [11:38]
Dany Garcia
Well, the, you know when founders are going, going, which they're going because they internally know the idea. Right. But they many cases haven't articulated it clearly. And GST Q was going to be a. First of all, it's a lifelong project for me, but was also going to be something that needed a tremendous amount of expertise and support from other individuals. So that time, that time articulating and really pulling the philosophy and creating examples of what the philosophy looked like was vital so that all the team members could be very, very clear. The mindset approach to fashion is extremely rare. It's very, very unique. And to blend that in with the art and have them be rooted together or even have that philosophy be the platform that the art has to live on, you know, that feel. And I wanted to make sure that all my team members were extremely comfortable and understood what that commitment meant. So that is really. I think that is extreme. That is absolutely the payoff when you do spend so much time before you actually start running.
- [12:47]
Nathan Chan
Yeah, I see. And talk us through the challenges so far.
- [12:51]
Dany Garcia
I think the challenges have been challenges that individuals know. Factories shutting down deliveries, getting, you know, the design force and not being able to meet in person, not being able to meet our incredible manufacturing partners overseas in person and slowing down a bit. But that luckily the pacing. I actually am pleased to have a startup occur during a very constricted time forces us to be conservative and cautious and really measure, measure. So it's almost like we have a quiet period to launch before everything is up and running and we've utilized that. So we tried to take advantage of all the moments. Yeah.
- [13:34]
Nathan Chan
And around the business model, direct to consumer. What's what's the vision? Is that the vision to stay a direct to consumer brand? What was 10 years look like talk us through it?
- [13:46]
Dany Garcia
Totally. So the, you know, the direct to consumer, I think that's for us, it's very important. I like the mediums, my mediums are comfortable, are very much rooted in storytelling. And this company in particular has a very strong film theatrical element to how we're communicating what this brand is. And that experience happens best on a media platform. So it's actually very aligned to direct to consumer. I see us naturally evolving to an experience where it's brick and mortar, but it won't occur until I can easily translate the theatrical moments of experiencing this brand and put it into a brick and mortar position. I want to bridge that. I don't want the experience to go in to our stores to be just like going into any store or a Neiman marker. So it needs to be something that flows through. So that's going to take a little bit of time. But I'm not in a rush. I mean we, we know how to communicate. We know how to, we do create experiences that are very grassroot, whether it's trunk shows or you know, intimate sort of invitation only so people can experience and we can, we can get that groundswell. But it's not something that I'm immediately rushing to. I do they see the expansion of our line. I'd love to tackle men next, which actually has come back to me often from my peers is, you know, when do we bring our philosophy into men's clothing? And I think very importantly, you have to strongly win in women's and men's before you would then extend into, for example, children. I see GSTQ as being a brand that will meet the needs of the consumers where they want to go. We want to build the credibility, have that design element, have sustainability in our process. But I'm very excited about continued expansion.
- [15:40]
Nathan Chan
Awesome. Well, look, we have a few more companies to go through. I'd love to talk about the xfl.
- [15:46]
Dany Garcia
First of all, I've been an athlete all my life and the XFL acquisition is one of my most exciting acquisitions to date. So the XFL, the second version of the XFL that happened in 2020, I was saddened because I wasn't a part of it. I have a great relationship with Vince McMahon and when he actually launched it, I was like Dar. I really had wanted to be and I was very, very pleased with the product they attempted to put on this field because they had a five week run and Then unfortunately, Covid really came and shut them down. And as a live event startup, they didn't have the financial to support it. But the those five weeks and the ethos and what they were able to capture and the innovation, the technology they were able to put on the field was very, very exciting to me. So when I found out that the company had been going through bankruptcy, you know, I pulled together the team, we started to do some analysis. I called Dwayne Johnson up, my partner, and I said, I have a crazy idea. And he says he actually tells the story as well. And he's like, I love crazy. Tell me. You know, I've called him numerous times with that. I have the crazy idea and it's taken us on great journeys. And then I shared with him the XFL and the. The full scope of what we could do with that incredible property in our hands. Not only for Dwayne personally, not only is the XFL something he could see himself in, because he did, he did attempt to go to the NFL. Wasn't successful. Went up to the cfl. Wasn't successful. If the XFL had been there, he would have gone. That would have been his next step. We always say this career was his plan B, but he did really well with plan B. But for us, we were looking at an opportunity to be the stewards of football in a360 sort of viewpoint, multidimensionally looking at everything that surrounds the football and taking responsibility for that. So how are the athletes experiencing it? How are the fans? How are our partners? How are our sponsors, our production partners? And we have a very specific point of view on how the storytelling and the interaction and how the XFL should be experienced and not watched. So we have in fact, just came back last this Monday from a full intensive in New York City as far as our XFL and our XFL rollout. So we're very, very excited. I would say, historically, if you look at everything I've done, everything I've done in my last 28 some years has led to this moment when it comes to the xfl, it demands all of my expertise in all of the different areas to be able to do what I want to do with this property.
- [18:36]
Nathan Chan
It's quite a complex play. So, like, yeah, I'd love to. Can we delve a little bit more on that?
- [18:43]
Dany Garcia
First of all, you have the complexity of the game of football in the United States, which you need to deliver at a level that's undeniable. So right there, those expectations and executions are its own sort of company in itself. And then what we're doing is we're wrapping around it the. We're taking control of the entire universe that lives within football. And we're wrapping around it various elements of entertainment and media and expression and live events so that not only do you have the game and dynamic play, but you have football being a catalyst to other experiences. And in that you start to garner great complexity and that's all about execution. So I think one of the great things that I recognize, especially in partnership with Duane and in partnership with Redbird Capital, who are other partners in ownership of the xfl, is that we clearly bring a skill set that doesn't exist in major league sports. And that is where I see incredible opportunity. And that's where we have been building out the business plan to really take advantage of that expertise. So you've got to have an ace team, right, for the game, for the players, for how they're experiencing life. And then you have to overlay that with an additional set of skills to take care of every other aspect that touches the fans and touches your partners and touches how the game is being experienced. How is it being experienced with gaming? How is it being experienced on your phone? So, you know, the challenge is great, but it's been an incredible experience. I love the relationships, I love the people we have on board, the quality.
- [20:32]
Nathan Chan
To take on like a, you know, an acquisition like that and an industry like that. What, what kind of obsession is required to really understand it? Because it's like a totally different world. You need to immerse yourself, right?
- [20:46]
Dany Garcia
For the scope and size and the enormity of what the XFL is. It's a very loud project, right? It's very public facing and we're not even launched. But there's football in itself. You absolutely have to have an obsession. You have to have the fundamental tenets of entrepreneurism, of drive, drive, drive, create something new. There's not a model, but I'm going to go ahead and create a model. So though you have to have comfort in that skill set so that you can then look at the property fearlessly and be comfortable saying, okay, these are the directions and these are the elements we're going to add to football, which will not affect the institutionalization of the game, because that's the other thing. This is not a property that you can just change dramatically how the game is played. You have to honor that, but you still need to bring the elements of today and tomorrow. So the amount of brain burn, I like to say, is great. And it doesn't have to be all my brain, but where I. That, that 40% that only I can deliver or Dwayne can deliver. We have to be 100% focused on that. So the rest of the, you know, the rest of the tenants of the game and a fantastic game and football operations and player personnel situations, you've got to have the best of the best in those positions so that there's nothing there but excellence. And then that allows you to focus in the areas and you have to be able to bridge it over. I have fantastic partners and I have an incredible group of individuals who believe in how I see the game and how Dwayne sees the game and is open to a point of view of female leadership. So I'm the chairwoman of the xfl, so my philosophies and my leadership fall over the entire sport of football, male dominated sport. So you know that, that, that position is a major position, but it also allows me to bring incredible value to the game. So yes, when you say, do you have to be obsessed? You absolutely have to be obsessed and that's okay.
- [23:02]
Nathan Chan
I think, you know, to, to, to build anything of true worth and significance, it has to be an obsession.
- [23:08]
Dany Garcia
Absolutely. It can be a balanced obsession, but it still has to be obsession. I used to say early in the sort of Dwayne Johnson build out as I would bring team members in, I would have to say you have to be able to run through a wall for this vision. You've got to be that person who can love even more passionately than maybe the other, the individual you're focusing like that. You. The amount of will and the amount of inertia that you need to create to make fantastic things happen. There's a reason why, you know, I've been fortunate enough to have great success and there's a reason that other people don't have that. They literally this space that you just talked about, very few people want to enter into that space. And then if they enter, they don't recognize, they don't want to stay there. But that's the difference maker.
- [24:04]
Nathan Chan
I have to move to seven bucks. Can you talk us like, first off, like, how does it feel to kind of produce some of the most successful films in the world?
- [24:15]
Dany Garcia
It is so satisfying. It's been a long, you know, it's been a long journey. I think we're 42 films in. I mean, we have quite a slate, but it is, you know, we are a unique production company. We have always gone into entertainment with two tenants. The tenant that I brought into sort of our 7 bucks world is that all creative has to live in a return on investment box. Like we never move away from that. It makes us great partners for the studio. Very few producers come in with that point of view saying we're going to speak to the bottom line before we even begin shooting. But the second and most important tenet is that we are audience first. So anything creative, we never just do it for ourselves. We make the decision as if the audience member is sitting right there next to us. That has allowed us to make decisions that have led to global success, that led to this sort of four quadrant appeal that we love. We love reach and extension. And I'm so proud of what the company has done, I'm proud of our team members and I love our projects.
- [25:26]
Nathan Chan
Can you talk us through kind of, I guess the challenges that like an industry like that presents that others don't.
- [25:33]
Dany Garcia
The greatest challenge. I was actually, I was speaking with an independent producer or a journalist who covers a lot of independent and they said, isn't it much more difficult to do an independent film than to do a major blockbuster film? And I shared with them that it's actually so much more complex. When I do a $230 million budget film, I sign my name on that budget, as does Dwayne, as does my president production, Hiram Garcia. We literally sign our names authenticating that budget and the enormity of those dollars. You know, when you're, when you're doing a little bunt to first base or a single to first base as compared to you need a grand slam, a walk off grand slam, you know, those are two different things. So I think the major challenge has been getting because the numbers are so great, because the risks are so high, you know, getting studios comfortable with your point of view as to filmmaking. And Dwayne and myself, we didn't enter Hollywood with any type of film connections or theatrical background or I came from finance. His entrance into entertainment was the wwe. We were not the norm. So we had to earn every step, every comment, every note that went into a script. We had to earn by having incredible success, but also by giving a perspective and a point of view that no one had ever heard before. So you know, this audience first mentality, sort of articulating it and letting it be a why when we were talking about the marketing, so even though we weren't producers, we were in marketing meetings, you know, we hadn't earned that spot yet. We always continuously over delivered so people could understand that our philosophical filmmaking approach had true merit. So yeah, that was a slog. When you're coming in as such an outsider and such a different individual to finally get the industry to embrace that, yes, you have tastes, you know how to speak to the audience and you have reach and you know how to come in at budget. Close to. It was. It took some time.
- [27:52]
Nathan Chan
So why did you decide to kind of stop producing films?
- [27:56]
Dany Garcia
The decision was controlled. Creative control. First of all, there was also a decision of I want to. As far as enterprise build out. Let's what. How are we going to professionalize around our creative skills and our audience first approach. So a production company is the absolute best way to do that. Simultaneously, it allowed us to set up so that we could have more control over the films and we could inject our philosophical point of view into how these films were being made. So it was a natural progression. You know, there it's. And then if you think about me as an entrepreneur, you can see that at some point I'm not going to be comfortable in this position until we can get control. So it was. It was just another natural progression of building out the portfolio.
- [28:44]
Nathan Chan
I have to ask as well, you know, you've produced some really successful films. Do you have any kind of crazy stories behind the scenes, anything you can share with us?
- [28:54]
Dany Garcia
You know, it's. I do have a crazy. I will. I do have something that. And it. It's one of our first films. It was actually the first time Dwayne was. So we weren't producing this. It's the first film Dwayne had ever done. So we were still married at the time. And he was wrestling with the wwe and so he went out to film the Scorpion King. Not the Scorpion King, it was the. It was one of the mummies, but it had the character of the Scorpion King. And he had to go out and he had 103 degree fever the entire time and was running in the deserts in California shooting these scenes because it was his first opportunity and he was not going to miss it. And I specifically remember, I wasn't on set with him. I specifically remember the back and forth about hydrating. Okay, you shot the scene. Okay, are you in the tent? And he would just. Just not stop. He, he. There was no way he was going to miss this opportunity to be in this film. And. And that always. And that was such a mark about someone. For me, it was. It's more of a personal story because it was such a great example of no matter what, just taking advantage of an opportunity with your own two hands and making it happen. Even if you have 103 degree temperature in the desert.
- [30:19]
Nathan Chan
Yeah, that's wild. So look, we have to keep moving, but I want to talk about talent management. So you know, you've managed, you've managed Wayne, you've managed Henry Cavill, you know, what are the sorts of things that you have to consider when wearing that hat?
- [30:36]
Dany Garcia
You know, the, the, you'll, you'll appreciate this very much. So the, the talent management, management in particular and even my title of manager. If we were not in Hollywood, we would have a different title but for the entertainment industry, for them to understand why I was in the room and why I was giving all the strategic advice and why I was positioned films and why I wanted these licenses to come in. And here's the overarching theme, we needed a word so that everyone could understand why I was there, because I was doing unique things. So the idea of management and letting the industry look at me as a manager came from that. But really in my approach, because there's many different type of managers and managers who are focused on how the bills are paid and what's happening at the house. My goal as a manager was to make sure the talent I worked with could not only have successful far reaching careers, but could then have capital structures built around them to experience capital events that were fueled by all of the work they had done in film or television or production. So really translating a non tangible, an intangible asset into a tangible asset. So with that there's an incredible amount of fiduciary responsibility. Right? So you're not only talking about the business plan build out, you're talking about a core that's an individual and understanding what that individual needs to not only sustain and be a huge success, but to be a balanced success with family and live a life that can also have the enormities of being a leading man and still have downtime, but also carry the weight of what happens when you now own corporations. So you know, there's a lot lot less of ego and you know how agents and managers are looked at in Hollywood, sort of those Hollywood esque stories and really much more of stewardship and a thoughtfulness to the approach. I mean, and when we talk about obsession, you have to become obsessed with your client's success and their vision. And in many cases you have to hold what they want to achieve, achieve greater than what they want, greater than what they can. Because when they're in the soup and they're filming and it's every day and it's 12 hour days and you're holding that final vision. You know, you almost have two different perspectives and sort of bridging that perspective becomes very challenging. So in my approach, I would say it's very heady and it's very thoughtful and strategic, but you never can lose sight of the individual at the center of this experience, which is the talent.
- [33:24]
Nathan Chan
Yeah, managing talent has, has really changed over these past, I'd say, even five years. Can you talk us through kind of your take on the landscape at the.
- [33:34]
Dany Garcia
End of the day, the quality of what is being created. If you are an influencer, but you're what's considered a thin influencer, you have a moment and that moment is maybe just one character, and it's on, you know, that platform and you just. That only character. That's all that you're delivering. You begin to minimize yourself because the audience has a consumption rate that is ginormous now. So, you know, looking to the individuals I work with now, they have deliverables on multiple platforms and they always have a very large overarching story, something that's bigger than what they are, that they pull from to grip the intimacy within social media. Influencers kind of have one conversation right now. You know, they're, they're, they have. The social media is their television show and they're a TV star, and it's one thing. And it's sort of developing that skill to say, how am I broadening this one lane into 10 lanes so that people can experience different parts of me? And the equality of what they're experiencing is as good as that one character that's on Twitter, that's on, you know, any one of the platforms, you know, so I think, I think keeping that expansive point of view today, especially with content creators, and knowing that you want as quickly as possible move from one thing into two things to give them depth and breadth leads to longevity. I think that's for all management, though. That point of view has to stay all the time. Yeah.
- [35:15]
Nathan Chan
No, thank you for sharing. It's, it's a fascinating, really growing space. Right. Like the rise of a personal brand. Personal branding. More than ever, people are buying from people, not companies.
- [35:28]
Dany Garcia
And I'll say one last thing, Nathan, which I think is really wonderful, is when you say people are buying for people, the truth of that, it also speaks to you can no longer be just a facade, like the accountability of who you are. People will find you, they will find the other angle. So I do like that there's greater transparency and it's, you know, I think influencers would like to Think that there's not greater transparency and no one's finding out. But the truth is someone is going to find out. So there is a bit of a demand for some authenticity and self growth. If you're going to have a very large relationship with a large audience, you have to be responsible to that relationship and be responsible to who you are. So that relationship is authentic and it's real. And I think that's really interesting. I think that's a huge difference than 10 to 15 years ago where you could keep the shadow, you know, you can keep the space.
- [36:23]
Nathan Chan
Well, look, I could keep going, conscious of time, few more things we have to go through that I'd love to kind of delve into the Garcia companies in the future. Kind of like what what is? Like what is, what is. I guess you've done this with, with the, with an extreme successful track record like all the different companies that you're bringing to your portfolio. I'd love to know kind of what are the things that you look for and you're like you look your next opportunity or the next investment or the, or the next thing that you're going to work on and add into the portfolio.
- [37:00]
Dany Garcia
Even though the portfolio is very diverse, if you actually go up I would say 50,000ft, you will see that there's strong similarities. There's a strong philosophical arc, there's, there's a tone that are very similar within all the companies. So that's going to be very important. Any addition is going to complement what's already in the portfolio and cross comp in it. So I, I look for my companies to elevate the other companies that are within the portfolio. That's really important to me. It builds community and it builds a sense and it gives me one plus one equaling three or maybe five or ten which would be great. I'm going to continue my, I'm going to, I'm going to continue my consumer facing investment. I would like now and the XFL has given me this incredible opportunity and I think there are other opportunities in sports. I also just have ownership in a minor league baseball team in Staten island with the Yankees and a few other partners. I'm very intrigued by sports and women's sports now and I'm intrigued by not only properties that have obviously a consumer deliverable audience facing but that allow me to work with a group of individuals like sports does to elevate their experience, to elevate their lives. So I'm looking for greater impact within my investments to not only just here's what you're consuming or this is what you saw. But how is the impact actually influencing more of a larger audience? Sports is an incredible mechanism to do that when you do the right storytelling and just as important importantly when you take care of the athletes in the right way. So I, you know, any property that comes in is, is going to give me multiple influential points. That's what I'm really looking for. I mean, of course without saying the business model, return on investments, you know, the normal, the normal assumptions of what we need. But when you're, when you're looking at it philosophically, I'm really looking for investments that with their success, their success beyond just a transaction, there's actually domestic or global success and influence in a positive way.
- [39:25]
Nathan Chan
You said something very interesting to me around kind of it has to, you know, one plus one equal three with a, with a company you'd look to bring into the portfolio. Can you give us an example around how they all kind of intertwine or complement each other?
- [39:38]
Dany Garcia
There's a very linear approach. For example, if you were to look at that, let's take a look at Zoa Energy, right? Our energy drink. It is the number one fastest, the number one new energy drink, fastest growing energy drink, which is exciting. But if you speak, you know, the basis of that company is positivity. That company is based upon positivity. That brand is positivity and it's an energy drink and it's better for you and it's about achievement and goals and how are you connecting, what are you doing? And we went into a white space where the deliverable is not premium, they're not delivering the best quality ingredients and we consume energy drinks. Now if you look at that property and then you look at Project Rock or you look at the XFL or you look at for example, the life Athleticon experience that's still in development, you begin to see that there, there is a flow or not just from oh, you know, Zoa can sponsor XFL et cetera. But there's a conversation about how is being lived. And then if you look at these different properties and then you look at seven Bucks productions, right? And audience first reach, you actually begin to see themes where they all actually do make sense. If we do for example a black, our Black Adam movie which is coming out next year and got to see if we announced our date, but our Black Adam movie, you have a conversation, you have a Project Rock conversation there. You have a Zoa energy conversation. It's Black Adam. So you have a Taremana Tequila conversation. They all. You can. It's not so direct, but you can actually speak to them. They make sense. There's a universe where they all live together that is very, very important. And then you have the success of one property elevate the conversation and the awareness of other properties. So there's the. The direct line. Right again, as we said, Zoa XFL sponsorship, super easy. And then there's two or three or four steps away where you have a halo effect of the success of one property influencing another property. And that becomes very, very important. And now how we highlight it and how we actually tie that into the consumer is secret. But that is actually very important, is to then blend the conversations because individuals will be aw of it. But you do have to do. You do have to use certain mechanisms to say, hey, these do make sense. And they make sense in a way that's better for you and actually enhances whatever you're experiencing. And those are, you know, that's. That's a whole other class.
- [42:22]
Nathan Chan
Well, look, Danny, this was an incredible interview. Thank you so much for your time. We've gone a little over, but yeah, thank you so much. This was like, really, really interesting and fascinating. I learned a ton, too, and super inspired. So, yeah, congratulations on all your success and I'm sure you can do more big things.
- [42:40]
Dany Garcia
It was a pleasure speaking to you. I'm glad you told me Friday is going well. I look forward to my Friday tomorrow.
- [42:46]
Nathan Chan
If you love this episode, make sure to check out my interview with Emma Greed on how solving a problem she was so passionate about led to the creation of skims and Good American.
- [42:56]
Dany Garcia
And so I do think it's. So much of it starts with, like, addressing things that.
- [43:00]
Nathan Chan
That bother you that you find, you.
- [43:03]
Dany Garcia
Know, you've got to create a solution.
- [43:05]
Nathan Chan
For because, you know, at the end.
- [43:06]
Dany Garcia
Of the day, you've got to be.
- [43:07]
Nathan Chan
Passionate enough and sometimes crazy enough to go round and round and round to.
- [43:13]
Dany Garcia
Actually solve a problem.