Richard ‘RB’ Botto, Actor - Producer, Speaker, Author, and Founder & CEO of Stage 32.

 And what I learned from my tech background is that when things catch on a broad level,
 there will only be so many companies that can compete in that space. You realize that while
 all businesses are tribal and all businesses run on relationships, the entertainment business is the,
 I mean, legitimately the most tribal business in the world. So this teaches you how to build that
 audience, how to make sure you're not wasting time trying to just make everyone your audience.
 You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan
 Alfred. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. It's radical today, folks.
 We've been creeping down the entertainment path with celebrities and the other way,
 but we're kind of going down the tech and other highway, I would say, of the entertainment industry,
 both the tech, even though this guest is both an actor, an writer, and a speaker, and all those
 things. He's also the founder of a badass platform called Stage 32, Richard RB Vado. What's up,
 brother? What's up, Ryan? Great to be here. My friend. Thanks for having me. Hey, man. I'm excited.
 Been talking with your team. I got to learn a lot about you. And I was like, all right,
 I want to talk to this guy. I want to learn more about Stage 32. And I'm excited for
 audience to hear more about your journey and really the nuts and bolts because, you know, look,
 the entertainment industry is, and I don't have to tell you, has gone through this evolution
 the last 10 years. The streaming wars, if you call them of Netflix and Disney and peacock and
 everybody's, I mean, there's so much content being developed, but it's, it's different, you know,
 because of not only the volume, but just the avenues with which they go, the democratization
 of the industry, which I know you've been a big part of, and I want to talk about that as
 fascinating to me. So I just was thrilled to have you on to kind of talk about that journey.
 It's a thrill to be here. Big fan of the show. Big fan, everything you do. I mean, I think, you
 know, it's been wild to see and impressive to see everything that you've grown. So, uh, yeah,
 it's, it's fantastic to be in my friend. Well, cool. I know you're in New York. You're in my
 old stomping grounds there, right? Right there, uh, uh, Tribeca where I lived for a number of years.
 So I'm a little jealous because I miss some parts of Manhattan. Some parts I don't miss with
 what's happened with COVID. I'm going like, I don't think I would have been there. I wanted to be
 there during that, but hopefully if we ever get at the hell out of this thing, well, I want to get
 back up there. But, uh, let's talk, let's get down the positive road. I, uh,
 well, for everybody listening, let's talk RB story. Um, let's start there. Let's kind of give them,
 you know, your professional journey, uh, and, you know, leading up to, of course, stage 32.
 Sure. Yeah. I, you know, I actually grew up here in New York and started as an actor in theater.
 Always loved the arts. Always as a writer, you know, was involved in everything film early on,
 theater early on. And, um, you know, was also involved, you know, to pay the bills. I got involved
 with a few technology companies, particularly in the software space, the billing space, and,
 you know, helped exit, helped a couple companies exit. So it did pretty well there. And then an
 opportunity arose to start a magazine, which interested me a lot because it was, you know,
 at the time, print was having this sort of resurgence. And the men's lifestyle category,
 to me was lacking, you know, everybody was following the maximum mentality. GQ and Esquire
 had kind of, you know, dumbed down a little bit, you know, GQ had gone from, you know,
 athlete to Michael Jordan on the cover, you know, in a $3,000 suit standing in front of a Bentley
 to Lindsey Lohan in panties and standing in front of a barrel of cherries, you know, with the
 very subtle, the very subtle, you know, messaging. I call that the race to the bottom.
 The race to the fucking bottom, man. I was like, you know, what it needs to be, you know,
 a men's lifestyle magazine that long form journalism, you know, men, like I used to joke,
 you know, when you've done with your maxing years and not ready for your Esquire years,
 what's that magazine that fills the gap? So, you know, started a magazine called Razor,
 which was a men's lifestyle magazine. It was national, uh, competed right in that space.
 And we routinely outsold GQ and Esquire. It was amazing for a single title publisher,
 but that was our problem. We were a single title publisher competing against the kind of
 NASS and the, you know, the Hurts of this world. And also at a time where, um, especially after 9-11,
 even though this was years later, what started to happen was that the, um, a lot of these,
 a lot of these companies, a lot of these brands were taking their $1 away from print and putting
 it into digital. They weren't creating a new budget. And so we, it was a problem for us,
 but during that time, even though we were routinely outselling everybody, our ad dollars were
 pretty good, but it started to level off and you could see the decline. And even though we tried
 to transfer it to digital digital side, nobody was really ready for that. In fact, you could see
 even today the paywall type situation is still a challenger, you know, a lot of big media companies.
 So, but during that time, the, the blessing of that time was not only, I mean,
 credible experience and obviously meeting a ton of people, but getting to know a lot of people
 in the industry and in entertainment and, um, being able to segue back into, you know, a writing
 and producing career, uh, because, but because I started meeting people in the business, and now,
 of course, there's a new proving ground that approved that I could do this. So the journey took me
 back into film, um, started producing some films in, and one of the first ones I was involved with
 was Barry Levinson, the son Sam Levinson, who of course now does euphoria and on HBO. And as,
 you know, fortunate, amazing career, but his first film was a movie called Another Happy Day,
 and I got involved with that. And it was during that, you know, it was a typical independent film
 experience where you're in the middle of nowhere. We had some great stars, you know, we had
 Ellen Barking, Thomas Hayden Church, Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, you know, a lot of good, a lot of good
 people. And, you know, everybody's just staying at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, and that's the,
 like, doing the indie film guerrillas style, nobody above it. But when it's over, everybody kind
 of goes their separate ways. And when the tax incentives dried up at Michigan, which is where we
 filmed it, everybody was looking to me to come out to LA to, you know, say, how, you know, can you help me
 get a job? Can you help me, you know, help me? And, you know, you realize that while all businesses
 are tribal and all businesses run on relationships, the entertainment business is the, I mean, legitimately
 the most tribal business in the world. And that got me thinking about what was the embryonic idea
 of stage 32. At the time, Facebook was blowing up. Twitter was just launching. They just had
 that big stop by Southwest, they knew I was starting to get rolling. And what I learned from my
 tech background is that when things catch on a broad level, there will only be so many companies
 that can compete in that space. And we've seen that born out over the last 12, 15 years where you
 have your Facebook's and you have your Twitter's and you have your TikTok's now and everyone's
 in the wild want to pop up Instagram and so on and so forth. But I figured that what would happen
 was these things would filter down to niche levels. And so what I wanted to add was the first platform
 for film, television, and digital content creators and professionals worldwide dedicated to the
 business. And, you know, I just went about building it to be perfectly honest with you. I did
 it backwards. Not a way I would recommend anyone else or that you would read in a book. I just put
 my money in my mouth was built the first iteration of it and then went to 100 of my people,
 100 of my friends in the industry and said, you're going to use it. And you're going to tell me
 what you like and you're going to tell me what you don't like. And I said, you're going to help
 me build a community. We're going to invite people. And that sort of mantra has stayed there today
 or is still there today. And we've gone from our original 100 members to over 800,000 people worldwide.
 And now we're also the biggest education platform for film television and digital creatives and
 professionals and also a marketplace. Hey, it's a lot, brother. A lot to impact there. And,
 you know, exciting. I remember Razer. You said that. And I may have skipped over that or like
 pleased over that. I didn't know you were involved with that. I remember that magazine. I like
 that magazine. I thought it was a great ride. I mean, it was so much fun. You know, it's it's
 you know, it's I'm sure this people that are listening to this because I know you have a lot of
 entrepreneurial minded people and you like that, you know, it's interesting when you enter a
 space and you're successful. But the space doesn't support the success in a way. Like, you know,
 we had to we had two masters, right? The readership and and the ad the business, the ad dollars,
 the readership at the end was the highest it ever was. Every issue was outselling the last. And
 but the the advertising, you know, was challenged because again, hers could go out and sell seven
 titles at once and discount against my one. So that was the challenge there. Interesting. Is, uh,
 let's I want to explain for people because if you're not in the inner entertainment industry,
 I think it can be overwhelming and and also some ignorance just because there's not,
 you're not in it. You don't know how complicated it is to make these films, to make the,
 the TV shows from production to writing to all of that. I'd like to do a little 101. Like,
 talk to me like the layers of the of the the 800,000. Like, what are the main categories of people
 that are that are on the platform and what they're doing? Yeah. Well, I mean, a bulk it's everybody
 above the line and below the line. There's a home for you on on the platform. Yeah,
 everybody from managers and agents to craft services. I mean, you know, you you name it,
 you could be on the platform. I would say the majority of our members fall into the acting,
 screenwriting, filmmaking, producing arenas. But, you know, we work with now close to 5,000
 executives in the business and that those are development executives. Again, producers,
 people that can make the content, managers, agents, financiers. So it really has become sort of
 this marketplace between the content makers and the I mean, the content creators and the content
 makers. And that's what we when you talk about democratizing, this was always the idea was how do we
 level the playing field for all because, you know, if you're just starting out and you're a writer,
 it's true. I'm glad you said it that way that people don't realize how difficult it is.
 There are no overnight successes. Everybody believes that this is a very much very much a brick,
 brick, brick, business and a marathon business and a rippling like I said earlier,
 relationship and tribal business. But the way that you can shorten your path is if you can get
 your material or your talents in front of those decision makers. And really before this platform
 existed, the only way to do that was, you know, sometimes through a contest or sometimes through,
 but really it was through your champions. It was through people that, you know, if I come up to you
 and, you know, you're a manager and I say, man, my, you know, my writing's fantastic,
 that manager is getting in, you know, just inundated with material day up to day. They're like,
 yeah, sure, you and everybody else. But one of their clients or one of their peers or somebody comes
 and says, no, no, no, you got to read RV stuff. It's really good. It goes to the top. That used to be
 the way, the only way it really worked. This platform allows you to literally be able to
 get in front of those executives that we work with. And it's a perfect two-way street because
 those executives in this era of an amazing amount of content being produced and the need for content
 and the need for speed, they want to get in front of material that nobody else has seen.
 Because in this business, you know, people go, how come there's so many shitty movies that get
 made? And I'll tell you, the more reasons why. One is because there's so much interference from
 people that the business people don't understand the creative. But they think they do. That's one
 problem. But the second problem is that good material goes to the biggest place as first. You know,
 it goes to the studios and the Netflix's and the streamers and everything. And then when it gets
 passed on, it filters down and filters down and filters down. And then, you know, eventually, if
 you're a small production company, you got to make something. You know what I mean? And you go and
 you make it, and it's not at a higher level. This helps those companies as well get in front of
 material that they're getting a first look at. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it sounds a lot
 like the advertising industry. The business gets away in the way of the creative. Oh,
 if I write a book about that, every good ad we've ever written gets watered down by the business.
 But at the same time, hey, we get it. Everybody's got to get paid. And they think they,
 they think they're doing what's best. And I'm like, hey, if you get out of our way, we can actually
 do some good workout. But so if I'm a, so if I'm a writer, a screenwriter or a production
 company or something like that, I come sign up on the platform. I start engaging with content,
 educational stuff, some of your writings, some of your team stuff. And then
 everyone's just kind of cross pollinating, like, you know, sharing their book, their real or whatever
 it is, responding to posts that might be looking for stuff like that. Am I kind of breaking it down
 to how it works? Yeah, I would say there's, you know, the way we look it internally is what we say,
 we have three divisions to stage 32. So the first division would be the social networking,
 natural relationship building part, which is sort of the same way you would sign up for Facebook or
 LinkedIn or whatever you create your profile. In our case, you know, like you said, you upload
 your reels, your screen labels, all your work, your bio, and then you go about networking within
 the platform. We have all these types of forms that we call the lounge. We have a million different
 resources. And this is the way that you can do this. This is all free. This is a way that you
 can just go about and control your own destiny, the more work you put in, the more you get out,
 right? The second division is our education division. And what was really important to me when we
 launched the platform and it took a few years to get there and we knew it would was we wanted to
 build a library of education and have tears, you know, webinars classes and labs, the labs having
 tears where people can graduate up and, you know, and get, but being taught by people that are
 professionals in the industry working right now. So the whole idea is, okay, we're connecting them,
 we're training them. And that brings us to the third division, which is the marketplace or
 we call development services. And in that instance, we have executives that say, we want to be a part
 of what you're doing. We will offer these services, whether it's mentoring, whether it's, you know,
 looking at scripts and doing coverage and consulting calls, whether it's doing line
 budgets on projects, whether it's doing producing, mentoring. This is how I would go about raising
 the money. This is where this project fits in the marketplace. And then you, as the content maker,
 get to come in, choose the executives. So if you have a horror film, for example, we might have
 three development executives, five development executives or producers from some of the top horror
 producing, horror production companies in the world. And you will get to put your material
 in front of them and talk to them about it. So it's a straight line to the people making the content.
 Let's transition a bit to the business of stage 32. I think it's fascinating. I think what you
 just described is actually true community. It's what you've built, you know, it's like that's what
 it is. Like if people talk about it all the time, but that's actually what you've built when you
 are adding value, it all layers. And you know, like that's community. So I applaud you for that.
 But let's talk about like how does stage 32 make money? Like what is, what is the, you know,
 you've built this amazing community. You're doing it the right way. You're adding lots of value,
 giving, giving, giving. But at the end of the day, it is a business. So how, what is,
 what is the kind of revenue channels for stage 32? So I first of all, I appreciate you saying
 that about the community. It's not easy. People say, you know, what was the most difficult part
 about building this thing? And in a lot of ways, you know, building a community of 800,000 has not
 been easy, but it has been all about we always look at everything about the value we're bringing
 and what we can bring to the community. And the fact that you can come on for free and you never
 have to pay for anything is some, and you still get the tremendous value is, you know, something
 that we're very proud of. However, of course, as you say, we are a business and we do have to make
 money. So the three divisions that I broke out, division two, division three, education and
 development services for that marketplace, those are premium. So the webinars, the classes and
 the labs are all premium products. We do offer a lot of free education, but our webinars, classes
 and labs, you're paying for them. And those, like I said, are, you know, just world-class training.
 It's almost like going to film school at 1,000 to the price in a lot of ways. And then the
 development services, you get in front of those executives that we talked about. If you want
 mentoring from somebody at, you know, I'm throwing out a name, Warner Brothers and Netflix. And
 with partners with all these companies, with partners with Netflix. And, you know, so if you want
 to get in front of them, there is also, you know, this is going to be a premium. But you're getting
 back value, of course. You're getting back mentorship. You're getting back feedback. You're also
 obviously paying for the access, which is, you know, tremendous. And, you know, to be quite
 blunt, I mean, a lot of our executives who even teach for us are so, and this is the power of
 the community that we've built. They're so blown away by what we've built. They, a lot of them
 don't want to get paid. A lot of them want it or they want us, you know, we offer to donate
 feed a charity and a lot of times they accept that because people in this business really do want
 to get back, but even more importantly, again, in this, what I've been calling the great content
 goal rush of 2021, they need material. They need the access as badly as the content creators need
 the access. So that's, that's where we make the money. The content creators, the people looking for
 the education, they pay for that education and they pay for those development services.
 That makes sense. And you guys just make a percentage or a fee on what those things are, right?
 Yeah, we handle everything and, and, you know, we, yeah, that's our revenue stream right there.
 Yeah. How have you grown, you know, I know in talking with your team and I see that this platform
 could, I mean, you know, 10X, 20X in the next few years with everything going on. I'm sure
 that's the vision. The, but how have you grown the 100,000? What, what, call it, and I know it's been,
 you know, community building is not easy. Yeah. And there's been marketing involved and there's
 been, you know, natural word of mouth. I'm sure about, and I don't want to put words in your mouth,
 but like, I'd love to know like some of the marketing that, that, that it took and or tactics and
 or community building, what, what's you had to do to get it to this point? Yeah, sure. It's funny.
 It was a lot of decisions that were made immediately early on. And one of them was that I was going
 to stand out in front of the company and be the face of the company because I was working as an
 actor, writer, producer. So basically the messaging was going to be, look, I'm not just some business
 guy that had an idea and I'm coming into this industry and filling the need. Yeah, I'm filling a
 need, but I'm doing it just like you are. I am just like you. We, I have a joke that if you've
 been in this business for more than five, you could tell somebody has been in business for more than
 five minutes because of their cynicism and somebody that hasn't been in business for more than five
 minutes because they're optimism, right? So, so the first thing we knew we had to do is cut through
 the cynicism. I mean, it's a tough business. It's a lot of know. It's a lot of rejection. So the
 welcome letter that you see today on stage 32 is almost exactly the way, the almost exactly words
 for word, a couple of little changes that was there in there, there on day one. And this was the idea
 that look, we're all in this together. We're going to build this together, okay? We're not going to,
 if there's going to be no trolling, there's going to be no HPH, there's going to be no, you got to
 stand in front of your own name because in this business you do, you can't be Joe12345, like you
 could be on Twitter, okay? And we're going to build this thing together. And if you like what we're
 doing and at the time, it was crowdsourcing, although I didn't realize it at the time, but that's,
 I didn't realize that was the word that we were going to be using. But the idea was if you like
 what we're doing, my ask to you is invite at least five fellow creatives or professionals.
 And people started inviting their whole film crews, their whole acting classes, people just
 started inviting, you know, community and their communities in droves. And they would become
 in champions of the platform. So to be quite honest, we went quite quite honest, we went from
 that 100 to 800,000, mostly through crowdsourcing, mostly through word of mouth. Now over the last
 couple of years, have we done some Facebook advertising stuff like that? Of course, we have
 partnerships with Netflix, we did a gigantic global, how to, how to pitch to Netflix, how to do a
 TV pitch deck for Netflix, that of course boarded a ton of people as well. But most of our community
 has been built through word of mouth and through crowdsourcing. Yeah. Which actually is a great
 lead into a book you wrote. Crowdsourcing for filmmakers. RB, you are natural. I got to tell you,
 like you lead a guy and interviewer straight into it, man. I love it. The crowd sourcing for filmmakers,
 the power of the crowd. I know you wrote that book. Let's talk about that. I know it gave a lot
 of notoriety and popularity in the industry, but it's right down that avenue, right? Yeah. It's
 a book for everybody. I kind of hate that, you know, I like wrong word hate, but I kind of wish
 that it would have been, it was published by Folkl Press, which is their specific to film mostly.
 And I was asked to write it after giving a talk at the American Film Market in 2000. I think
 13 and took me about three years to agree to do it. But it really is talking about, it really
 fits any business. It fits everything. It's more important today than when I wrote it in a lot of
 ways. And it really is all about how you identify, engage, and move a crowd on behalf of the brand
 of you. And everybody listening, you do have a brand. And if you don't know what it is, you have
 to start thinking about it right now. And probably begins with what you're putting out there on
 social media, by the way. But it's also for the brand of your products or in this particular case,
 the brand of your film. So it was, you know, it was a fun experience to, you know, to write the book
 and to show people that is very, very possible in this day and age, in this business that, you know,
 it's a dinosaur business, I like to say, although that's changed dramatically over the last
 few years, because you do have the disruptors, we always knew this convergence between at the
 entertainment and tech was going to happen. We just thought it was going to happen a little bit
 earlier. The thing that has accelerated it tremendously has been COVID, you know, I mean, because,
 you know, with day and date and with Netflix committing to so much original content and putting
 out 42 films in the fourth quarter, which is insane, the bottom line is there's no way the middle
 can hold. There's no way that the standard ways of doing things can operate anymore. So what crowdsourcing
 for filmmakers teaches you is that you have more control than you realize you have and you can
 control the process, but you can't control the process without champions and without an audience.
 You know what I mean? So this, this teaches you how to build that audience, how to make sure you're
 not wasting time trying to just make everyone your audience, because that's not the way the world
 works. You got to identify your audiences, engage them in the proper way by bringing them value,
 like you said earlier, being selfless, you know, I have a rule of three, which is I give three times
 forever asked for anything, right? So you're building that trust and you're building, you know,
 that community. And then once you built that trust, you get them to go, then you go for your
 rest, then you ask them to go move on your behalf. And you know, we've seen this throughout history
 that this is how businesses are built. And especially in this day and age, we've seen how brands
 all across the world are asking their communities to move on their behalf and to grow and to help
 help them grow at Peloton, for example, is a great example of this. They've gone from, you know,
 hardware to software to really everything that they talk about is community. This is our pride,
 this is our people. So we're seeing it everywhere. But that's all the crowdsourcing is and the book
 has done exceptionally well. And it's been one of the focus best selling books over the last 30 years.
 I mean, I couldn't be more thrilled about it. I wish you would have, I wish mainstream audiences
 would read it because it fits any pursuit, any business. Well, I mean, there's so many principles
 you just described there. I love the power, you know, the rule of three. Hey, how we say there's
 the powers in three. And that in a good and bad thing seem to happen in three. But the, but it's
 so true. Like you started talking about brand, you know, building your personal brand, which I
 am near and dear in my heart for anyone out there listening in RVs doing this. He has a great one.
 You need to go check him out. We'll link to all that and we'll talk about that at the end. But,
 you know, whether you're a production company, a person or whatever, there's so much opportunity,
 you know, we talked about the democratization of content, but you have these social media
 channels. You have places like stage 32 or you can start building your brand. The opportunities
 are so much more wider than they used to be. There's certainly, it's certainly crowded. But
 there's just so many channels that you have to kind of start laying the foundation of relationships
 before you even have them. And it sounds like you got a lot of great principles in the book that
 might be, you know, towards that end. It definitely does a ton in the book towards that end.
 And we preach it all the time. I mean, a lot of what, you know, if you do look at my social media,
 like my brand is inspiration, aspiration, motivation. That's the way I look at it. You know,
 certainly I put up some things that are, you know, more personal. I don't want it to be so business,
 business, business, but there's some perspiration.
 The point of the matter is is that you do your 100% right. You have more opportunities today,
 especially given the fact that you, you know, you're basically carrying around a connector
 all day long, right? And you have so many opportunities in a given day to be able to give
 and to be selfless and to be empathetic in a manner that allows you to build your brand
 and build your audience, right? And to get you to really where you want to be. And I'm not saying
 that in a manipulative sense, like with being Machiavellian, like, like, let's make these connections.
 And then, oh, my God, I'm going to come back behind you. And I'm going to like be like, okay,
 now you're going to give me what I'm asking for. No, it's not that. It's building relationships
 in a community that lasts over time so that you're able to accomplish your goals, but you're
 able to help other people on that path and on that journey as well, which of course is the
 priority really or it should be the priority and audience building. So yeah, I think people
 are hindered. Look, and I understand there's probably people that are listening to this right now.
 There's a few things that we run into all the time. One, you may be introverted. I totally get
 that. Two, you may be a little paralyzed by being in isolation for the last year, year and a half.
 And, you know, dealing with COVID, clearly, we talk a lot about mental health on stage 32,
 very, very often, artists in general create alone. And then they have to go out and collaborate.
 It's, it's much worse now. There are a lot of people that haven't been able to get off the couch
 or get off, you know, or get into the proper mindset to do it. All I would say to you is is that
 this is a life's work or a career's work. If that's the way you want to look at it, you don't have to
 win the war in a day. Yeah. But, but if you could just take steps every day, you know what I mean?
 And if you could just put out good stuff, put out, put out good vibes, you know, like I always say
 to introverts, like here's three ways that you could step out today because a lot of people are like,
 I'm afraid that, you know, to pause the syndrome. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm new. How do I
 thank people for posting great content? You know, just thank them. That's value. Share things. If you
 read something this morning, you know, that is intriguing or something that you found really interesting,
 just share it, you know, and never be afraid to ask people questions. Never be afraid to say,
 why did you try that? Why did you say, people are going to respond to you. Maybe not everybody,
 but just dip your toe in and before you know it, you'll be swimming. And really, it's so vital that
 you can, that you do that today in this world. It's so vital that if you're looking to accomplish
 something that you're utilizing those tools and that you're making a part of your action plan
 on a daily basis, it just has to be. Yeah. And it's, it's can't hide behind the computer, like,
 when I say that, like alone, not all those, like I'm not, you don't have to like, I don't know.
 You don't have to be Gary Vee, but like, it's like, but there's somewhere in between,
 you know, like, you have to kind of put it out there. I mean, like, you're building relationships,
 whether we like it, love it or hate it, with between COVID and just the realities of technology,
 you've got to use these platforms in a way that you've got to look so behind the curtain a little bit.
 And, you know, if you're, if you're not leveraging that, you're leaving a lot on the table.
 And, you know, I do want to ask you though, like, you're an actor and you're involved in some
 projects and things like that. I mean, some of your passions, like, like, if, if you had your
 brothers, I mean, do you like the nuts of bolts of stage 32 business building? Or, I mean,
 if it was up to you, would you just be making movies and writing or all that? Or is it a combination?
 That's such a great question. I mean, I do more screenwriting, producing how than I do acting.
 I love the business end of it. I love, you know, putting projects together. I mean,
 certainly love stage 32 and I love the business. I've always had an entrepreneurial mind.
 And I always say, if you're an artist, you're an entrepreneur, you just are. It doesn't matter
 if you come together to make that film. When you're done making that film, everybody goes this
 separate ways and you're back to creating again. You know, so artists are entrepreneurs,
 you're the CEO of you. I love both is the answer. You know, I mean, I really, really do.
 And I love the fact that they, they mesh, you know, I mean, obviously my personal interest
 and my creative interest align perfectly with a platform that, you know, services that industry.
 So I wish I had sometimes a little bit more time to be working on the creative because stage 32
 is behemoth and takes up, you know, my 70, 60, 70, 80 hours sometimes a week.
 It means so it is a lot of, you know, it's a lot of work and, you know, and the growth that we've
 had has been so tremendous that it's, you know, it's the demands on your time are massive.
 But I still get to be around people that are creating all the time, get people that are
 around making projects all the time, you know, working with the upper ash line as far as the
 professional end all the time, you know, to be able to have a direct channel to, you know, the,
 you know, the development heads of Netflix, you know, on the television and film side.
 That's, that's fantastic. But it's also, but it's much more in service to the community
 than it is to myself, you know, right? My creative gets a little sacrifice than the mix of that.
 That makes sense. Is, uh, what is your thoughts on all that? Like the Netflix and the 42 films and,
 you know, the purists say the movie business is dying, you know, the movie theaters have been around
 and I, I'm going to get that perspective. The, you know, when Quan Tate goes up,
 Quan usually goes down. Yeah. What is your perspective on all that?
 It's, it's a tough one. I get asked this question a lot and it's a really, really tough one
 because I see it from two different perspectives. I've always been a theater guy. I like, you know,
 I have never been sort of the big blockbuster temple type fan. So I'm the guy that's usually in
 the theaters. When I do go to the theaters, usually between like, you know, October and December for
 the prestige films, you know, I'm going to win these, I'm going to win these. Are you icons? Are you
 icons? What's in from ears? But you know, here's the thing. To me, do you want opportunity
 or does everything have to be excellence? Because I think there is going to be a place for all of it,
 right? You're still going to have prestige films. You're still cans not going to go away. You
 know, Venice is not going away. You're still going to have all these prestige films. And in fact,
 you may end up having more of them because the desire now to make lower budget films and to try
 to make more personal stories has over some become much greater. It's not that Netflix is doing 42
 films in the fourth quarter that are all 100 million in a bar. They're doing smaller movies as well.
 The problem is, of course, you know, and the argument that I always hear back is that the quality
 has gone either the quality has gone down a little bit. You hear that often. Or you hear, how do you
 find them? Like there's just so much content. Like, you know, I spent all these years putting this
 film together, but like, you know, the algorithm has pushed it to, you know, page 10. And I, you know,
 nobody can find the damn thing. I get that argument too. But would you rather be in a position where
 you have the opportunity to get things made and it's a stepping stone to the next thing and the
 next thing and the next thing you actually have longevity? Or would you want to hold out and hope
 that you get a 3000 stream release that doesn't really exist anymore unless you're like 485, you know what I mean?
 The Avengers and Superman attack Batman on Planet Wonder Woman.
 I know. And, you know, I like to get Star Wars movie, but, you know, it's
 I don't watch. But, uh, where's it all going, man? I mean, what's, what's, uh, I know your head is,
 I think it hits South Africa. You're, yeah, and like, but it's both short term and long term.
 Where, where's RB headed? Well, you know, I mean, as far as, as far as just kind of piggybacking on
 the answer to the business, yeah, one of the things that I'm going to South Africa is, you know,
 to me with the South African Film Commission. What's happening with the business that I also think
 is interesting. And I think where the opportunity lies is that, you know, Netflix, for example,
 is looking to do foreign language productions that play to an American audience, right? So,
 you're looking at Lupine, you're looking at Separa, Narcos, things like that, right? How do you train
 those people? How do you, you know, how do you cover the earth, you know, basically? And
 fortunately for us, they're kind of turning to us to help them do that. So that's part of,
 of where, I think the industry going, it's going on part of where we're going, you know,
 on a personal level, you know, for me, right now, it's, it's all about creating an atmosphere,
 continuing to create an atmosphere where both, where this marketplace can thrive, where these
 content creators, you know, can capitalize on this need for content. Netflix is not going to
 stop spending money, which means that all these other streaming platforms are going to start
 up and they're spending as well, which means that more content is going to be created,
 more opportunities are going to be created. We want to be that bridge and, and we have been. So,
 that's a big part of where we're going and where we're spending a lot of our time. We are certainly
 as well, you know, the education aspect of it demands for that because, you know, it's a
 affordable education. Again, why would you go to film school and put yourself in tremendous debt
 for years and years and years when you can learn, you know, the same skills from people that are
 doing it right now, and then have access to those people. So that's a lot of where we're going.
 And then, you know, personally, I have a few films in the works and a television show that I'm
 out there that we have some interest in, which is really, really cool, something that I wrote.
 And, you know, you just keep pushing the, you know, the proverbial rock of the fucking Hill,
 man. You know what I mean? You know what I mean?
 Brick by Brick, brother. Brick by Brick, man. And, you know, I hope if you're listening today,
 you know, or listening to this at any point, that's such a lesson. It's probably one of the biggest
 lessons I've learned in life, man, in business is that it is a brick by, I hate, you know, I hate
 all these clichés and everything like that. You know, you can't run before you can walk and
 everything like that. But, but really, if you kind of embrace that mentality alone, if that is
 your sort of home base, that all I really need to do today is win today, and I keep winning today,
 and I keep winning today, and all of a sudden I look back and it's like, holy shit, look what I built.
 Like, if you can embrace that as a foundation for everything you do, even when we talked about
 earlier about stepping out on social media or stepping out and building your brand, you really
 will, your whole entire psychology changes, your whole mentality, your whole perspective changes,
 and suddenly you look back and you've been doing this, you know, we're in our tenth year,
 and it's amazing to me, and I remember sending out those hundred letters to, you know,
 hundred emails to my friend saying, you're the first hundred I'm inviting, and now to know that
 we're, you know, closing in on a million, you know, and have all this. I mean, it was a brick by
 brick approach, man, and, you know, so don't give in, don't give up, but get up and use something.
 I love it, brother. Where can everybody keep up with all things RB and all things stage 32?
 Sure, so I mean, look, if you're in the business at all or want to be in the business,
 if you're anything like I said, actor, writer, producer, filmmaker, have any interest, you know,
 like I said, if you, if you could be in the credits or if you're on the professional side,
 you have a place in stage 32, just go to stage32.com and you can create a profile.
 As soon as you do, you will see me on your wall. That isn't what I made a message,
 but everything after that will be me. I respond to everything. It's not my team.
 So, but if you're not and, you know, you're on the entrepreneurial side and want to follow what
 I do business wise and everything like that, my Twitter and Instagram is RB, my initials,
 RB walks into a bar on Instagram and on Twitter. And of course, you know, I'm on LinkedIn and
 other places as well. I love it, brother, and I love the platform. I'm on it and I'm looking
 forward to collaborating and sharing some marketing knowledge with some of your great subscribers
 and followers and community. Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing some more stuff with you too,
 my friend, because I love what you're doing. Yeah, man. I'm excited. I think this is the start
 of a great friendship partnership and I can't be more appreciative of you coming on the show,
 sharing your journey, being transparent and I love your energy, man. Thank you, brother. I
 didn't write back at you. I love what you're doing and I love what you're giving back to the
 community. You bring value every day and I mean, that's what it's all about. If you listen to
 this podcast regularly, I hope that's one of the lessons you take away is the value that Ryan
 brings to the community with every show and everything else he does.
 Appreciate it, brother. Hey, guys, you know where to follow us. We're at theradcast.com.
 You can look for all of these highlights. We aggregate everything. Search for RB, search for stage 32.
 You'll find all the highlight clips from this episode. You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan
 Offert. I'm on Twitter. I'm on TikTok. Fairfied on the platforms. Go find me. Go find some
 motivation. You know where to find us. You know where to find RB. We'll see you next time on the
radcast.