Podcasts about ventura boulevard

As we noted last week, highlights of Floodlandia's Decembers are holiday visits with Charlie Bowen's cousin Kathy Castner, who usually can be persuaded each time to sit in with the band for a special night.Jam sessions with Kathy are always chances to revisit favorite old tunes, like “Loving Arms” and “The Rose,” but they also can be opportunities to explore some new material too.For years now Kathy and Charlie have been doing a duet on Graham Nash's classic song “Our House,” but it was last week during Kathy's Christmas 2023 trek from her Cincinnati area home to Huntington that the band also got in on the fun. Moreover, we're fortunate that our manager/videographer Pamela Bowen had the camera rolling to catch that moment for the video above.About the SongNash wrote “Out House” in time to record it with his band mates on the 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu album. Hitting No. 30 as a single on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the song — which has been characterized as an ode to the 1970s' counter-cultural domestic bliss — was written while Nash was living with singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell.Graham had come from England to America in 1969 and was staying with Crosby, who threw a party to welcome him to Los Angeles. Mitchell, whom Graham had met earlier when he was still playing with The Hollies, came to the do.“After that party, I went home with Joni,” Graham said, “and spent a couple of years with her in her home in Laurel Canyon.”Capturing the MomentAbout the song's creation Graham said, “One day Joan and I got up and went to breakfast at a delicatessen on Ventura Boulevard, and a few doors away there was a little antique store. In the window she saw this vase, went inside, fell in love with it, bought it and brought it back to the house.“It was a kind of a cold gray morning as it sometimes can be in Los Angeles, and I said, ‘Why don't I light the fire and you put some flowers in the vase that you just bought.'”Bingo!“My and Joan's lives at the time were far from ordinary,” Nash said, “and I thought, ‘What an ordinary moment.' Here I am lighting the fire for my old lady and she's putting flowers in this vase that she just bought. And I sat down at her piano and an hour later, ‘Our House' was written.”Going ForwardThe song has been covered by other artists — Helen Reddy and Sheena Easton come to mind — but curiously, Nash has said he "was bored with 'Our House' the day after we recorded it,” though he still plays it occasionally "because it does mean so much to so many people.”Notably, in March 2019 Nash performs the song on the album Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration, the recording of a tribute concert by various artists to observe Mitchell's 75th birthday. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

We're back! It's been a while. Drea stammers, but tells our best story ever, Mike ask questions, Jack tells a bad joke, and our guest Tyler Ventura tells the spookiest story we've ever had.

Covino & Rich are having fun talking Old-School sports duos! The crew & callers come up with some amazing pairs + Ramos gets a stalker-call. They have interesting audio from Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, after being asked about Dalvin Cook. Pat Summerall's voice lives forever & the Rock has an awesome Iron Sheik story! Plus, in real time it feels like the Yankees choke a game away & the guys tell you how they both almost died on Ventura Boulevard!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

C&R tell a couple of fun stories from the crew watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals together at BWW's! The show reacts to the Heat disappearing in the 3rd quarter last night while hosting the Nuggets. Is it okay to ask someone if they've had "work" done?  'OLD SCHOOL WHEN 50 HITS' gets fired up & is all about the greatest sports duos, ever! The crew & callers come up with some amazing pairs! They have interesting audio from Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, after being asked about Dalvin Cook. Pat Summerall's voice lives forever & the Rock has an awesome Iron Sheik story! Plus, in real time it feels like the Yankees choke a game away & the guys tell you how they both almost died on Ventura Boulevard!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If RuPaul, Rose Nylund and Julia Child had a baby, she'd be Bertha Mason, a Midwestern pie-baking drag queen with a killer sour cream and raisin pie recipe. Shanita Nicholas and Amanda-Jane Thomas put their legal careers in the rearview mirror to open a coffee spot in Inglewood to inspire community.  “Fresh is boring,” according to fishmonger Liwei Liao, who operates the only market dry-aging fish in the country at The Joint along Ventura Boulevard. Neither rain nor hail can stop chefs from frequenting the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market.

Award-winning, writer, director, actress Christina began her career acting in such cult films as Suburbia, Boys next door and Dudes. She was one of three women accepted into Fox Searchlights new director s program, her IFP nominated Best screenplay, debut feature, PERFECTION was part of their rough-cut labs, Independent film week and winner of The Adrienne Shelly female directing award.PERFECTION screened at The Oxford film festival where Christina won Best Actor and Best Narrative feature and also screened in the San Francisco International Women's film festival, the USA film festival in Dallas, Texas, The Egyptian theatre in Hollywood, CA, premiered at the RIO cinema London, The Quad cinema, New York and screened at The Laemmle' s Monica 4plex in Santa Monica, CA.Christina has sat on the juries for the London feminist film festival, the Eastern European film festival, the 100 word film festival, NC and has served head of the jury at the USA film festival, Dallas.Her upcoming projects include, EXPECTING GRACE set in Marseilles France, her short, HOOKER #2 and the punk rock pilot, POSEUR. Christina has lectured at The New York film academy, The Met School, London, Harvard Westlake, Cal State Fullerton and is an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in the film and television department.Show NotesChristina Beck's Website - https://www.christinabeck.comChristina Beck on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cbrubylee_xtinabeck/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistTranscripts Are Auto-GeneratedChristina Beck:I always say to my students, Pick stories that you love. Pick stories that you feel like you have to tell because you're gonna be living with that story and pitching that story way beyond the script. You're gonna be pitching it for grants, you're gonna be pitching it for festivals, you're gonna be pitching it for people to watch it online. You're forever pitching these stories. But to say something visually is powerful. I think it can change minds and hearts.Michael Jamin:You're listening to Screenwriters Need To Hear This with Michael Jen. Hey everyone, this is Michael Jamin and you're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear This. We got a special guest for you today. If you are an indie filmmaker, an aspiring indie filmmaker, you're gonna wanna listen to this. You're gonna wanna meet Christina Beck, who I've known forever. She's an old friend, independent filmmaker, but she's you. She also teaches at Loyola Marmont University and the Fame Stella Adler Theater where she teaches screen screenwriting as well as film producing filmmaking, all that stuff. Well Christina, welcome to the big show.Christina Beck:Thank you. Thank you so much. I was gonna call you Mr. Jam and it's a habit. I can't help it.Michael Jamin:It's a habit. There it is. Cause cuz Christina briefly worked for me as an assistant for me and my partner on a show. And then I force you to call me Mr. JaminChristina Beck:. it just kind of fell into this thing. Yeah, no, you did not force me. You didn't force me at all.Michael Jamin:I never did that.Christina Beck:But I will correct you Mr. Jamin. So I actually don't teach at Stella Adler. I teach at least Strassburg, but I could see where you would choose that. Oh, at least Strasberg. Yeah,Michael Jamin:Just I would think,Christina Beck:Right. Well, they're all,Michael Jamin:They're East Strasberg. Go to that one.Christina Beck:Yeah, but sad. They're not around anymore. But the legacies are for sure.Michael Jamin:I haven't been to West Hollywood forever. Yeah. And you guys see, you got your one sheet from, That's from Perfection. Let's talk about what you're at, some of your movies that you've done, cuz Christina is an indie filmmaker. She's a hustler. She makes her movie, she writes your stuff. You also started as an actor, right? Where, let's take me back to the beginning. You basically started, you wanted to be an actress, right?Christina Beck:Yes, yes. Yeah. So I grew up here in Hollywood, actually not in Hollywood. I grew up in the Valley. Let's get real about that. So I like to call it the main streets of Studio City. And although it was very different back then, I know today it's a unaffordable, you can't even get in there. But back in the day it was the suburbs, basically. And my folks were in show business. My father was a screenwriter and an actor, and my mother was an actress, a model kind of actress. She ended up studying in New York with some very significant people. Sandy Meisner had a full scholarship for the Neighborhood Playhouse, which was a big deal back in those days. But my beginning with acting really started just as a kid. being extremely bored in the valley and putting on shows. I was that kid. I was putting on shows, arranging the stuffed animals. If we ever had company, they were held hostage to my extravagant. Really? Yeah. It was Cabaret 24 7 and . I know. Yeah. You didn't know that about me. Yep. I didn't know that. Yeah.Michael Jamin:I also didn't know your dad was a screenwriter. I didn't know that as well. Did he work aChristina Beck:Lot? Yes, he didn't work a lot as a screenwriter. He worked a lot as an actor. So when he came out to Hollywood, he's from Texas originally, and he came out to Hollywood and straight away got signed to William Morris, got put under contract at Universal and did a bunch of movies. But then he did westerns. I always played the bad guy on Bonanza andMichael Jamin:Yeah, Christina, I didn't know your Hollywood royalty Well,Christina Beck:A little bit, yeah. Yeah. Oh wow. Definitely the lineage is there. Yeah. But his real love was screenwriting. He didn't love acting. He really did fall into it. And he had a great look and he was a cowboy, so he played a cowboy, but he wasn't even really a cowboy. He's just from Texas. But yeah, there's this really great story. So Robert Blake, who some of us know strange stuff all around that guy. But that said, back in the fifties, he was friends with my father was friends with him, and Robert Blake had a part where he had to ride a horse. And my dad said, All right buddy, I'll take you out. And they went to, I think probably, well, I don't know what it's called now, but it used to be called Pickwick, which is in Burbank near Disney. They went out over there and not only did he teach him how to ride a horse, he helped him learn his lines. And because I heard this story later after my father passed Robert said, Your father, he really sat with me in this tiny little apartment and he had me drill my dialogue and I got the roof because of him and just very sweet old school. Wow. Hollywood, stuff like that. But that said, when my father wasn't working as an actor, he was always in his, it was dad's den type, type type, type type. He was always working on screenplays and he loved writing.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Do you feel the same? Do you acting more, writing more for you? Well, are you like your dad orChristina Beck:Not? No. Yeah. No, I'm not like my dad. I, there's bits of me that I like him, but it's more acting was definitely the first bug. And like I said, putting on shows at home. But then I got kind of lucky, I was in the valley still. So on Ventura Boulevard near Vineland there was this place called Moral Landis Dance Studio. And my mother used to go and take a jazz class there. This is the late seventies. And next door was a place called the American National Academy of Performing Arts. So I kind of wandered over there and at this academy place, and I ended up joining an acting class. And my very first acting class, an acting teacher, was a man named Francis Letter. And I didn't notice at the time, so I'm like nine years old, 10 years old, and he is about 80 or maybe seven in his seventies. And so I joined this acting class and then he asked me to be in the adult acting class, and I gotta play all the juicy, the bad seed and just fun stuff like that. Oh wow. And so it turns out that later on I found out that he was a big deal and he was in Pandora's Box, the silent film starring opposite Louise Brooks. And he's, and he did a ton of stuff for a long time. And then he was part of the actor studio in New York, and he was from Eastern Europe, but came over here right before the war, I think, . So that's when I really just was in heaven as a kid acting in this class. And then I also did some commercials with my brother. We were in some commercials. And then I became a teenager, , and then I became really rebellious and mm-hmm got into the punk rock scene and completely fell in love with music and artistry. I mean, really at that time too, this was the early eighties when punk rock wasn't necessarily vi What's so funny,Michael Jamin:Cause I can't picture you doing being into punk rock. I guess it,Christina Beck:I got pictures. I got pictures, and I've actually written the whole show about it. Yeah, I . But all that to say, yeah, I, I never wasn't like the punk rock chick. I more, I liked the artistry of it. I liked the right, And when I say that, I mean there were a lot of wonderful, cool artist people that I'd met mostly, much older than me at the time, but they were musicians and writers and actors. But they were on this kind of rebellious thing where we don't need permission to do anything, we just get to be creative. And that's what I loved mostly about that whole scene. And then there were different facets of it that were cuckoo and, and intense and lots of drugs and lots of alcohol and lots of inappropriate stuff. But then I got cast in a movie, so now it's my late teens.And my best friend, she was well there is a woman named Penelope's Theorists who has made films that we know of Wayne's World and different Hollywood films. But at that time she had made a documentary called The Decline of the Western Civilization, which is a really amazing film even to this day because she really got into that la punk rock scene at that particular time in space. And it was an incredible film. And she wanted to make a narrative film. So she wrote a script and got it produced by a furniture salesman guy. And I think Roger Corman of course. And so I got cast in that. And like I said, I was in my late teens and at that time I was kind of over punk rock and I was like, Eh, don't wanna, this is stupid. But I ended up doing it. And that is where I really was like, okay, this is the way I wanna spend the rest of my life.I loved being on set. And to answer your question, it's really tricky. I love in the realm of all that we do in terms of writing has its moments and then the pre-production, but being on set to me is definitely my favorite. And post is a whole nother exploration. But yeah, so it was from that moment on that I was just like, Okay, this is what I wanna do. And I did a couple more films with Penelope and then I moved to New York City and I wanted to be a real, I also felt like, okay, I didn't really, I need to be a real actor. I really have. And soMichael Jamin:A theatrical actor, is that why you moved toChristina Beck:New York? Well, yeah, I mean I love theater and my very best friend, you might know her, Cynthia, Man. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's Shannon. Familiar . Yeah. So we wereMichael Jamin:Frozen. That's how I met my wife. That's how I met her. I met you through her. I met you honestly, Christina. That was the first time it was really, I met you really on real early on, but go on. When I was with Cynthia. Really? Yeah. Tour or something.Christina Beck:I know, it's so great. Michael Jamin:But go on. AndChristina Beck:So Cynthia was in New York and at that time, for me, I felt like I really wanted to study and be a serious actor because I come from more of a film background. I did study a bit with Francis, but I really wanted to pay my dues as an actor. And I, I studied with a bunch of different great people. I auditioned for everything that was there at the time. AndMichael Jamin:Tell me, I'm gonna interrupt for a second, hold on. But tell me what your thoughts are, the difference between acting for film or television and acting for the stage.Christina Beck:Well, in my experience and what I'm also kind of revisiting lately, well when you're acting in film, it's very subtle. There's a camera and the camera picks up everything. And so when you're on stage, you are playing to the back row. People in the back need to see and understand what's going on. And it's just a very different, and I think most actors can do both. Some are, I guess more comfortable doing one or the other.Michael Jamin:But when you study and you train, do you sometimes study specifically or did you specifically for film versusChristina Beck:No, no, I didn't. No.Michael Jamin:Are are classes like that? Yeah. Just forChristina Beck:Fun. Yeah. Yeah. There's like on camera classes where people, it's for auditions I think, but also to get to practice how you come off on camera. Yeah. I never did that . I never, yeah. Really did that. But here's a weird, maybe creepy thing. Ever since I was a kid though, I always felt like there was a camera on me. , I would visualize, I could almost disassociate a little bit, this is a psychological thing here, but I felt, I would kind of imagine walking to school, what would it be if this character was walking to school? I almost was above myself a little bit watching myself. And that's a weird thing to say cuz actually when you're acting in a film, you really shouldn't be watching yourself. But that's where I am also a director. SoMichael Jamin:In other words, you were visualizing visualize how you would shoot yourself or is it more of Yeah. Was it more of a fantasy thing or how would I appear on, I wanna shoot myself if I was walking down the street?Christina Beck:Yeah, it's more the that one. And of course a little bit of fantasy, but it was escapism. But it was also, I was sort of able to take myself little Christina walking to school fifth grade out of it and see it from this other angle. And I don't know what that's about, but I do now I I see things that way all the time.Michael Jamin:Really How you would shoot it, where you would place the camera Christina Beck:Or where is the camera? Yeah. And it's such a funny thing cuz we live in a world now where everyone has a phone and everyone is documenting, everyone is shooting themselves. And that's a little different. But I guess it's similar in a way.Michael Jamin:Did you have film equipment when you were that Young? Christina Beck:I mean, Well my dad I none. We really didn't. My dad, no, my dad did my made some super great films and actually. Yeah, we did a lot of home movies when I was little. So I was usedMichael Jamin:To with sound.Christina Beck:No, no sound. No, it'sMichael Jamin:Interesting.Christina Beck:So yeah, yeah, being tied up on a tree and then my brother coming up on a horse and all sorts of me crying. Yeah, I got it. I got it all.Michael Jamin:Wow. Then so after New York, so how long were you in New York?Christina Beck:Three years. I was there for three years. AndMichael Jamin:Then what made you decide to come back?Christina Beck:Well, I wrote a play and that's kind of what happened. So I'm in New York, I'm studying, I'm auditioning for Everything film. I remember that there was one year where I really went out for everything that was shot in New York or anywhere around there and didn't get anything. And at the time I was studying with a woman at Playwrights Horizons who was a writer and an actress. And she said, Listen, you guys really should start writing characters that you feel you could play or just more of an empowerment in terms of instead of waiting around for everyone to give you a role, write something. So a bunch of us did, and it really started out by writing monologues. So I was in a group of women and we formed a little theater company and so we wrote characters and monologues for these characters and then we put it up and that was really great. And then I gotMichael Jamin:You. Don't skip that step. How did you put it up? How do people stage playsChristina Beck:You a lot of time? Well, at that time, at that time, which was a long time ago we raised a little bit of money, kind of similar to a lot of independent film stuff. But we raised a little money, family and friends type of thing. We actually did it at the Samuel Beckett Theater, which was where Playwright Horizon, I think they're still there on 42nd Street, I think eighth and ninth, 42nd Street, . And we put it up for a weekend and we got reviewed and we got in. It was great. It was super fun. And it also felt like I started to feel more complete as stuff that I could do as an actress. I always, I didn't, waiting around, I don't waiting for, I just felt like I have more to do and I was always journaling and stuff as a kid and as I got in my teens.And so writing to me didn't feel that far off from what I was already doing. And coming into it as an actor, I knew I've read enough plays and I've read enough monologues to understand how to write in that form. So I ended up when I was living in New York, I'd come back to LA and visit in the summers. Cause summers are horrific in Manhattan. So there were some musicians that I met that were doing some kind of cool stuff. And this one guy played, he had a character that he did. And so I wrote a play. I kind of inspired me to write this play about him. He was playing a lounge singer and he, his friend had this group and it was kind of rock and roll stuff, but then they would go into a lounge sort of thing. And I thought, oh, that would be funny to, what would it be if these lounge singers had a kid and tried to live their life? And it was a little autobiographical, the father's alcoholic and the mother's sort of obsessed with her beauty. And so these themes started to come up in my work. So I wrote this full length play and there was music in it too. And then we also shot some video footage, so it was sort of like a multimedia thing. So I kind of had to come back to LA to do that.Michael Jamin:So you staged it?Christina Beck:Yes. I didn't direct it, so I wrote it and I starred in it. But a friend of mine this woman named Modi, who I met from the punk rock days, but also she was Penelope's assistant on some of the film stuff I worked on with her and was a video director in her own. And so she came in and she directed it and it was great. It was amazing. It was.Michael Jamin:And how do you even get the theater to put it up?Christina Beck:We raced a little bit of money and then we got producers and they put it up up.Michael Jamin:What do you mean? How does that work? You got producers, what doesChristina Beck:That mean? Yeah, so the woman who played my mother in this is an amazing singer, artist, actor. Her name is Jane Cotillion. And so she loved the play and she said, Oh, I know this guy Billy DeModa and he's a casting director and maybe he could produce it. And he didMichael Jamin:. This is just from being out here, just from honestly, just meeting people, being in circles, taking acting classes and because that's the thing about la everyone's trying to do something right?Christina Beck:Absolutely, yeah. I mean think it's now because of Zoom and different things in the world and there's so much more accessibility. I think it's possible to collaborate and not be here. But all that said, especially at that time, you had to be here. And I do think it's still important to be in the place where you wanna be if you can. And these people I knew, so I knew about the guy, his name is Manny Chevrolet and he and his friend had this act and they were opening up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I knew them from suburbia, which was the movie I did with Penelope I knew. And so it was kinda a group of people that I already knew. And then the musical directors, this guy named Tree, who's good friends with, and they were just all these people that kind of organically came on board.Michael Jamin:Interesting. And tell me, but how do, you're also, obviously you've written and directed and produced a bunch of movies, indie movies, some are shorts, some are full length, but do you go about, alright, so you work on the script. How long do you work on the script and when do you know it's done?Christina Beck:Yeah, that's a great question. And then everything's a little bit different. So with short films, well I'm teaching a course right now, so I feel like I already have this in my mind. Short film is one idea and that script can take a long time to write. It's not easy to write a short film because basically you're trying to squeeze in this one idea in a way that has a beginning, middle, and end. So you don't have the luxury of necessarily three acts, but you have to have this.Michael Jamin:How long is it short for you? Well,Christina Beck:Okay, so that's another great question because what I have learned now, I think a sweet spot for a short is anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes. I think if you can sit, do it in a shorter amount of time, even better because depending on what you wanna do with it. So there's a whole film festival world, which is pretty much the best place for your shorts to be seen if you can get them produced. So it's a matter of programming these films. So if you have a film that's 20, 25 minutes, that obviously takes up more time. And most film festivals, they program the short films in a block. So they're literally trying to pack in as many as they can and good ones. And it's all different too because the academy nominated films, they can be up to 40 minutes. But even again,Michael Jamin:When you say program, when they're looking for blocks, what is their intention?Christina Beck:Well, they'reMichael Jamin:Showcasing what I mean, you have to understand that right as well. How does the film festival, how do they make money so that they would want you?Christina Beck:Right. Well that's a whole other thing. So there's different kind of aspects to that. So there's short films that are star driven, meaning you can put a star name in it. Now that always brings money and cache to a festival but not you can make a great short film and not have a star in it, is really what I wanna say. Because a good short film is something that has a very original idea. Again, it's short enough where you want more basically. And it's not making a feature and then picking a scene from the feature and making a short out of it. Sometimes you can create characters or create a separate script. So I made a short film for Fox Searchlight, I got in this new director's program with a feature script and they would not let us just take us a scene from the feature.They were like, no, no, no, you have to make a short on its own, but with the same characters and the same relative premise. So that's kind of how I learned about that trap. But to answer your question the short films that get noticed at festivals or can even get into a festival are ones that are very authentic to whatever the genre is and the writer's vision. What are you talking about? Is it something, And that's also a weird trap too, because as a writer, I don't wanna be thinking about a festival, you know? I mean that's way down the line. But you have to live in both of those realities in a way. Because if this is a calling card as a writer or as a director of Indy films you have, it's good to keep in mind, okay, I'm not gonna write a 45 minute short film and expect it to be programmed. That would set myself up to fail if I could write. WhenMichael Jamin:You say programmed, you mean, what do you mean by programmed? Are they gonna play for that weekend?Christina Beck:Yeah, so in a film festival, they have a program of films they have, whether the festival is a week long or a weekend , depending on what festival it is. But for instance, let's just say Sundance, I believe a week. So there's some pretty intense statistics that I just found out from a friend of mine. So they had the largest amount of submissions of short films this past year than ever over 10,000 short films. And they only program 59 films. So wow. like, oh my God. And Sundance is wonderful and amazing and if you can get in, great, It's not the only festival. There's a gazillion festivals and anyone is a great experience to get in and go to have that festival experience. But to answer your question about programming , are we there? The people that program the festivals are people that watch the films and decide, we have a three short film programs, A, B, and C. This is just making this up, but it's kind of how they do it. We have 30 minutes in each block, so I gotta squeeze. It all depends. Sometimes there's a film that's a little longer, but they really like it, so they're gonna put that in there. And then there's less room for other films.Michael Jamin:. And how much does it cost to submit to a festival? Usually?Christina Beck:It varies. It definitely varies and it varies. Sometimes they have early submissions that are always a little cheaper. Also depending on you can always ask for a waiver. Sometimes they give them to you, sometimes they don't. So it can be anywhere from 20 bucks to 75 to 150 bucks. It definitely can add up.Michael Jamin:When you make a film, how many festivals will you submit to?Christina Beck:Again, that all depends. There's certain festivals that you can target for. Again, there's the big five seven festivals, Sundance and Berlin and Toronto Telluride and then those are kind of the biggies. But then there's everything that tears down from there. So yeah, it can get very expensive and super daunting. And that's a whole other conversation. The film festival world. Huge, big.Michael Jamin:Now let's say you get into a festival into a big prestigious one. What is the goal? Eventually I And what is the goal? You got, you're short, eight minute film is in Sundance. What are you hoping?Christina Beck:Right, right. Well you're hoping for Eyes on the Film and that's a really also interesting question that you asked because back when those festivals, especially Sundance is a very different festival today than it was when it first started as most things are. But those, that would be the eyes, all the, everyone would be there and you would get would just get the cache of this is a Sundance film. It would give you opportunities to meet agents and if you don't have representation it'll help with that. And it's still, those things can still happen, but now you can get eyes on your film, on the internet, you know, can generate that if that's what you really want, if that's your goal. So know we need those things, but we don't as much anymore. It's a very different business today. But initially you wanna get eyes on your film people to see your work, hire you for more stuff.Michael Jamin:And when you say on the internet, you mean YouTube or Vimeo or what's the platform? Both.Christina Beck:Yeah, I think YouTube is, I don't know if Jimmy I don't know how many people, I mean you can certainly send people there, but I think YouTube a little more, right,Michael Jamin:People find right. But what do you tell your kids in your class today? Are you telling to do more on social media? Are you like a TikTok or what else are you telling to get found?Christina Beck:Well don't more talking about the actual craft of the work, whether it's directing or screenwriting. I don't come up with all of that in terms of my work is as a writer director when I made my feature, I was very fortunate to I submitted the script to well I got into that Fox Searchlight program, which no longer exists. But there are other programs, there's lots of diversity programs, different studios have programs for emerging writers. And that one at the time I was one of two women, there were all men. There was like 40 men and two women. And nowadays it's definitely even doubt a lot. But all that to say that helped with, oh she was in that program, so let's take a look at her script. And then I submitted to an organization in New York called the If P, which now is called Gotham, but they do the spirit awards and Filmmaker magazine, which is something that I started reading very early on and I got nominated for best screenplay. So from that I got on their radar. So it's kind of just taking steps to be seen. It's always about people. Knowing what you're doing and what your vision is for this work,Michael Jamin:Do you go to a lot of film festivals even when you're not in them? Do you go just to watch or to meet people or anything?Christina Beck:I do in town. Yeah, in LA I will. I went to right Berlin when I didn't have anything in Berlin sadly. But I was there, I for a meeting with some European producers and then just happened to watch some amazing films. Film festivals are great cuz you meet like-minded people, whether it's people in the industry but also you meet other filmmakers, other writers, other directors, people that are maybe a little above you, maybe you've done a little more than them, but it's a really cool, cause the energy at most festivals I went to Can God, when was it 2006? I was trying to get my feature made and I was very naive. I made a short film version of my feature and I went to Can and I had my DVDs and I had my little pitch idea and I didn't really know that these meetings that they have, cuz there's a film market, some festivals have a film market and that's always really great. Berlin has one there's a film market here at afm. Kind of different energy though for sure, but can, it was like, oh my god, I was so lost. I was just like, what am I doing here? It was amazing and it was horrible and it was like that within each hour I just felt like I was in, was so over my head and yet really cool, wonderful things happened and I met people there that I'm still in touch with today.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael Jam. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You could unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not gonna spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michael jamin.com/watchlist. People ask me this a lot, but do you find from where are that, it's that right meeting writers and actors and directors. Do you feel it's like collaborative or is it competitive?Christina Beck:Well, I think it's collaborative and you can kind of sniff out people that are competitive. I, I've been in quite a few groups of women especially, so back a couple, one when my first short film screened with the American Cinema Tech, not my very first short film, but the first short that I directed. And I met a woman there named Kim Adelman and she's amazing. She's written a book about short films. She's incredible and she supports a lot of female directors. And her and this guy named Andrew Crane created a program at the cinema tech. And so through that we made this thing called the Female Filmmaking Collective. And so we would bring other women directors and this was kind of, well this is like 15, 16 years ago. And then there's been other women's filmmaking groups. The film Fatals, a member of the a w Alliance of Women Directors.So all that to say there's, for the most part, the energy is very much like, yay, how can I help you? And then there's a few people that are anywhere in the world. It is, it's their personalities, the spirit of, I try to stay in the spirit of that there's enough for all of us. Cause otherwise that makes me uptight and I don't wanna be uptight. But definitely, yeah, I think I don't write with other people. I haven't yet. I've tried to in different increments, but it just hasn't quite felt right. But I do collaborating for sure. And especially filmmaking when you're actually getting in production that's like all about collaboration,Michael Jamin:Especially with the good dp, you know, What are you shooting? What do you like to shoot on? Or do you care that much? What kind of camera?Christina Beck:Well, I like things to look like film . I mean, we shot my first short that I wrote Disco Man that was shot on 16. And my dp, I found him at USC Film School and he's a really good friend and we just shot something this last spring. So that was a long time ago. He became chair of the film school that I teach at now. But all that to say, yeah, again, it's the people that you meet here, you meet them there, we're all still here and still love film making. So that said, my DP for Perfection, my feature, his name's Robert Psal and he's amazing. Cause this guy, not only is he super talented, we shot that film for two years on the weekends, two and a half years. So to get someone to literally, okay, we got a little more money, Rob, come over, we gotta shoot this other would. And then a lot of times just he and I would jump on a bus and I'd borrow a camera from a friend. We had prime lenses, which if you put that on digital cameras, it gives a more cinematic look. So we had those for a while. We shot that film literally in four different formats, meaning four different cameras. And I DidMichael Jamin:You find it matched? Okay, Did itChristina Beck:Worked for the film? I don't know. Recently someone asked to see it, this wonderful DP that I was talking to, he lives in France and I felt a little self, cause I'm like, Oh my God, he's gonna see how, And he is like, Oh, it's shot so beautifully. And I'm like, wow, nobody knowsMichael Jamin:All this.Christina Beck:Yeah,Michael Jamin:Why you don't have to worry about that stuff. Well, and what aboutChristina Beck:It's gotta be in focus, let's put it that way, . Yeah. And sound is a big deal too,Michael Jamin:For sure. Absolutely. That's huge. It's hugely important if you can't hear it. Right. But what about how concerned are you when you shoot the stuff crossing the line or the cameras? Are you relying your DP for that, making sure that you know, don't have these jump cuts because the character's looking the wrong way? AndChristina Beck:IsMichael Jamin:That your concern or you let the DP handle that?Christina Beck:Well, because so far I've been mostly acting in the stuff that I've shot. I definitely rely on my DP as well as my script supervisor. . I mean, I can tell myself when we're setting up a shot and then sometimes you can cross that line and it's okay, it's not gonna be an editing nightmare, but you sort of have to gauge it. And I don't make those kind of decisions by myself. And I really do rely so much on my DP and my script D because it's, it's that funny thing for me. What the reason I became a director in film was because I made a short that another different short besides Disco Man that it's called Blow Me. And I didn't direct it. And I did a lot of directorial stuff on that project. And my director at the time was busy with other things.And so we weren't really able to finish the film for a long time. And actually my co-star was an editor as well. So he kind of got the film and he edited and we worked on it together. And what I learned, and this goes back to the film festival thing. So in film director has the say in everything in terms of how final say on music and different stuff. And being a screenwriter and an actor and even a producer, I didn't have the same access to the vision that I had. So I thought, ooh, I need to direct this stuff . SoMichael Jamin:Yeah,Christina Beck:That's how that shifted. HowMichael Jamin:Do you go about, but how do you go about fundraising for all this stuff and what kind of budget do you usually try to get?Christina Beck:Well, it's tricky. That's the hardest part. And I just was at a film festival here in la, it's the American French Film Festival. They have it every year at the dga. And I was listening to a panel of producers and directors and from Europe and the UK and Los Angeles. And the thing is, those foreign countries, they have film funding built into their system, literally the government. And there are different types of ways that those more character driven films. This is what I'm pretty much more interested in what we would call art house films. , especially right now, there's just this huge divide, which is very mm-hmm , much like the whole world that we're in right now. So there's tiny budgets and huge budgets and the middle size budget isn't really around anymore. No support for it. And it's happening in Europe too right now. So I was listening to see, okay, are they going through it too? So that said, yeah, there's different ways. And I would say for first time directors that are making a feature or a short film for the first time, Crowdfunding's great, there's amazing platforms. I did that with a company called Seed and Spark and they were really supportive and helpful. And we haveMichael Jamin:Some, Well what do they do? What do they do that's better than putting it up on what's some crowdfunding site?Christina Beck:Well they are a crowdfunding site, butMichael Jamin:Why not just use your own, I don't know what's the difference between, well go fund me or whatever.Christina Beck:Well I don't, yeah, get, well go Fund Me I thought was more for donations. Yeah, so there's fiscal sponsorship, which is something you'd need so that people that are donating to your project get an actual tax write off that's properly done. So you wanna do that but they help curate and they have a platform. I mean, look, you've written the thing, you're doing all this work. Are you gonna set up a website so people can give you money? So, and maybe you're really good at that. Places. Well indeed, Gogo and Kickstarter, and I mentioned Student Spark because they're someone that I did it with, but all those places haven't already. It's like, why reinvent the wheel? They've done all that work. So literally you can just send people there. They take a small percentage of whatever you get and different platforms have different things. I don't know. I know there's one that if you don't make your gold then you don't get any of the money. So I didn't do that one , butBut going back to someone who's starting out and wants to make something a short or a feature and hasn't already exhausted their family and friends, there's nothing wrong with doing that. Also there's grants and And those aren't easy to come by, but they're there. And depending on, there's different places. There's like in San Francisco, there's the San Francisco Film Society has very specific grants for people that shoot in the Bay Area. And a lot of films have gotten made through that grant. They give a significant amount of money. So there are ways, and it's not easy. I mean really, ideally a private investor is great and there's gonna be a loss. So now most of the indie films, and these aren't Es, and I'm not an expert, I'm just speaking from my own experience. But an indie film may not get a theatrical release. I did not with my feature. What I did get is I got the theatrical experience in film festivals and I was lucky to be programmed in Los Angeles through the American Cinema Tech. And I got to see my film at the Egyptian Theater, which was heaven. And I was there for that. You were there. So, and now it's available to stream. So most projects go to streaming and huge projects go to streaming now. So it's just in this very differentMichael Jamin:World. Is it, where is your playing, where is the streaming now?Christina Beck:On Tubby? Tubby . AndMichael Jamin:This is per perfectionist. Which one isChristina Beck:Yes. Perfection.Michael Jamin:Which, yeah,Christina Beck:Yeah. Okay. And all that's on my website. Christina Beck do com.Michael Jamin:Christina beck.com. Interesting. Wow, that's interest. ButChristina Beck:This is, and my shorts are on there too.Michael Jamin:All your short. Is there a down, getting to a big festival, that's gotta be a game changer. But can a little festival help you?Christina Beck:Well, yes, because again, you see your film on a big screen, you see your film with an audience, you meet other filmmakers and yeah, as you know, Mr. Jamin, everything in this business is preparation and luck. So you're honing your craft , you're doing what you love. There's no slam dunk guarantee. Even with the bigger festivals. I know people that have gotten into huge festivals and got big representation and then a year later nothing. So it's like nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I always say to my students, pick stories that you love. Pick stories that you feel like you have to tell because you're gonna be living with that story and pitching that story way beyond the script. You're gonna be pitching it for grants, you're gonna be pitching it for festivals, you're gonna be pitching it for people to watch it online. You're forever pitching these stories.But to say something visually is powerful. I think it can change minds and hearts. So I come to it with that. And it is frustrating. I have a feature that I wrote last year that I have not made yet. We shot a few scenes in the spring with some of my students and my first dp, me, Kyle to kind of see where it lands and figure out do we wanna do a crowdfunding thing? Do we wanna try to get in Grant? Like what? And I don't know honestly, I don't know if I have the bandwidth to go through that hustle for getting financing right now. Right now. BecauseMichael Jamin:If not that, Oh well I was gonna say, if not that, then what? You know.Christina Beck:Well, right. Well, I mean look, ideally if we were all Henry Ja or somebody who has a trust fund, independent filmmaking is for people that have a trust fund basically.Michael Jamin:Or can fund, right? Or you,Christina Beck:Yeah, I'm teasing, right? Yeah.Michael Jamin:, how many, when you shoot, how many people on set, How many crew members do you wanna have? What's your skeleton crew?Christina Beck:My skeleton is probably 12 peopleMichael Jamin:That I'm surprised it's that big. So who,Christina Beck:WellMichael Jamin:Let's walk. You mean you've gotta skip supervisor DPChristina Beck:Happens fist. Yeah. Okay. Scripty, dp, ac sound mixer, boom. Makeup, hair. That could be one person blah. Who am I forgetting? Producer. Of courseMichael Jamin:You're gonna want someone with the lights.Christina Beck:Well, right. Lights, gaffer, grip. Then we have,Michael Jamin:How many cameras are you rolling at once?Christina Beck:Oh, one . Yeah, one. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This isn't like tv, but I did actually, I made a short film with three cameras. Once I did that one I did for search site. Yeah, that's true. But that was a, people were like, Why did you do that?Michael Jamin:But that's still not even year 12. That might be, I don't know. I lost count.Christina Beck:Well, I'm missing people. I'm on the spot here. I'm trying to think. I'm totally missing people. I mean, there's craft service,Michael Jamin:Right?Christina Beck:Oh my God. Probably like the most You got people person, Yeah. Anyways, yeah. 10 to 12. It just adds a pa. You need a pa you need, yeah. Yes. But yes, you can do it with five people. I've done it with three. I mean,Michael Jamin:Are you pulling any permits or are you sort of shootingChristina Beck:That? I do permits when I am renting equipment. And I have, I've also completely gorilla so many things.Michael Jamin:Wait, if you have, why do you have to have a permit if you rent co equipment they requireChristina Beck:Because yeah, you have to have insurance and there's film LA and yeah, there's a whole thing that needsMichael Jamin:To happen. Yeah. People get paid off. Yeah.Christina Beck:. Well, it's kinda a, Yeah,Michael Jamin:It's hard and happens. Yeah, it's hard. It's a hustle. But you do it cuz you love doing it, right?Christina Beck:Yes. Yes. That is true. Right? That is true.Michael Jamin:And how many scripts do you have that are just sitting around that? Are you, I guess I won't even try with that one or,Christina Beck:Yeah, I know that breaks my heart cuz I was at a ratio of, at one point having everything produced. I was like, I don't remember everything's been produced. But now I've written more scripts. I like, Yeah, I have probably, but not a ton. I have a couple features and I've written a few series, so yeah, Not yet. Not yet. ButMichael Jamin:What about just something you could do and now we'll wrap it up cause I don't wanna keep for chill up. But what about doing something where you could just shoot it in your apartment? Write it specifically for your apartment?Christina Beck:Yeah, well I would still need to get permission from my landlord. I'd still need to get equipment. Cause you can't shoot without permission if you wanna have insurance and you have to have insurance. Now look, my , my feature perfection in my old apartment, I actually did have permission from my landlord, but we shot so much of it just really running gun. And that can be done. That can have, But you still, And also I wanna pay people. I'm at a place where I can't ask people to work for free. Now if it's your first project and stuff, I encourage everybody to ask people to work for free if you treat them well. And if they're newbies too and it's a shared experience of discovery and stuff and they feel connected to the work and you feed 'em well, you gotta feed well. You gotta giveMichael Jamin:'em some very, But it seems like you have the perfect person for that because you have a bunch of students who wanna just get their names on stuff.Christina Beck:That's true. That's true. Yeah. Well, and I would probably and probably will end up shooting this feature with, And look, my students are amazing. They are so talented and professional when I get on their set. So this year I've had two students cast me in their short films. So I got to show up really as an actor on these. That's fun. Well, it's great because I was talking to the other film professors, because we work with them on the scripts and we sign off the scripts and then they go off and shoot. So these, they're kind, they're on their own, they're chaperoned and then they come back and bring, and we work on the edit and stuff, but we don't know what really goes on in those sets. So I was saying to this other professor the other day, I'm like, Yeah, I was there. I gotta be there and see what, And the truth is these students are wildly professional and I wouldn't really honestly wanna work with anyone else. But then they are so good. SoMichael Jamin:Someone called me up a student, I don't wanna say where they needed a 50 year old man. Now I don't play 50. We all know that. I play mid thirties ofChristina Beck:Course.Michael Jamin:But I was like, right, I didn't really wanna do it. I was like, all right. And then he goes couple weeks later he's like he's like, Yeah, well we're gonna need you to read . I wasChristina Beck:Like,Michael Jamin:I'm off only . Oh my God. I didn't want it that bad. But I think that was part of the experience that they wanted to have was they wanted actors. I'm not reading dude Christina Beck:Great. Well they're trying out their stuff I guess. Who knows? In terms of, Yeah, but wrong guy. They got the wrong guy with you.Michael Jamin: offer only.Christina Beck:That's right. That's right. Mr. Jam .Michael Jamin:How funny. Yeah. So, alright. This is so fascinating cuz this is a world I know nothing about this whole people cause people ask me all the time I got India. I don't know, Ask Christina. So where do people follow Christina back on? How do they learn more about what you're doing?Christina Beck:Well, like I said, my website and then myMichael Jamin:Give it to you again so that,Christina Beck:Okay. It's christina beck.com. There you go. And yeah, and then I'm on Instagram X Beck. AndMichael Jamin:What do you mean wait, X dyna? How do you spell that?Christina Beck:X I don't remember that. T I n a.Michael Jamin:Oh it. So it's X.Christina Beck:Yeah.Michael Jamin:I dunno why you said Ina. We'll work on this later. Christina Beck:Put a little thing up there. We don't have to talk about it. Yeah, yeah. And I just wanna say lastly, I am so not an expert on this. Please. I've been just finding my way as I go. But you know, I've watched other writers, The path is just, it's just not a straight line. And I think to stay connected to purpose and okay, I feel like I gotta tell certain stories. And when I talk to my students about this, okay, why do you have to tell this story? And we ask ourselves those questions and why now and all those things. Which in as far as indie film goes, I feel like we're in a little bit of a dip right now where the character driven independent films, at least in America, are not being celebrated as they once were. . And I believe that that'll shift.And I talk, I've talked to many people about this and we've gone through so many different, you know, can look back in the 1970s where Paramount was like studios were making beautiful character driven films. And I don't know if we'll ever go back to that, but I do think like you said, you can have a tiny crew and you could make something. I could make something in my living room. Absolutely. And one of my favorite filmmakers is a woman named Barbara Loden. She sadly passed away a long time ago. She was an actress. She actually was married to Ilie Kaza and she made a film called Wanda. And it's an amazing film and you can find it online. It's on the Criterion Channel and different places like that. But she had a tiny crew. She had maybe six people. And , sometimes people besides the attacks right off, they wanna contribute. They wanna be a part of it. They wanna be a part of this passion storytelling.Michael Jamin:Sometimes they also wanna give you their notes. Right?Christina Beck:WellMichael Jamin:Sometimes that money goes and comes with strengthsChristina Beck:Or here's the other thing. Yeah. Find an actor who really wants a great part that has some dough that wants to coce or something. And you guys can collaborate on that and you can write something that's really great for them that they would never get cast in. There's a lotMichael Jamin:Of you recommended. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. You recommended to me to watch Thunder Road. Remember that? Oh yeah,Christina Beck:I watch that. The short.Michael Jamin:And I loved it That and I loved, and I didn't realize I didn't, it was actually, I watched the scene from it, but it was actually, I guess a feature or whatever, but the scene stood on its own. I go, this is a beautiful it short. But it was a beautiful scene.Christina Beck:Oh, so you watched from the feature or did you watch the short film?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I think you gave me the link to Vimeo or something. OhChristina Beck:Okay.Michael Jamin:I just watched that one church scene where he wasChristina Beck:Like, Yeah, yeah.Michael Jamin:So over,Christina Beck:Yes. That guy is amazing. He's the real deal. He's a guy to follow. Cause he's Joe Independent film. He, Jim is his name actually . And he makes stuff and he works as an actor. He'll do commercials, whatever. And then he'll take that money and that's what caves did. Caves made whatever he was working in television stuff he wasn't crazy about. And then he would take that money and then he would just make the films he wanted to make. So maybe it hasn't changed at all. It just goes back to that thing again where if you have this story you gotta tell and it does start with theMichael Jamin:Story. What kinda stories do you feel you have to tell?Christina Beck:Well I feel like I almost keep telling the same story, but I, I'm reallyMichael Jamin:Love different versions ofChristina Beck:It. That's right. That's, as I get older, I get this different perspectives of it. But I do, I love the story of people, characters that have perceived limitations or real ones and they slowly find their way out of that predicament. And yeah, I like happy and things. I like to see the journey of someone of starting off in a place where they don't feel and they get a little better.Michael Jamin:And you said before I cut you off, you was, it all starts, the focus has to be on the script.Christina Beck:It's all about the script. That's the blueprint. That is the blueprint. Especially if you're shooting with no money and no time. And because you don't have the luxury and we never have the luxury. You see it all the time and any budget level. But the truth is, the script really is everything starts there. That's how you get anybody on board. That's how you can refer if a DP who's maybe a great DP and wants to do something small because he loves the story or he loves the subject matter and that script should be tight and ready to shootMichael Jamin:. Right. And because you could shoot something and you get the biggest crew and the biggest budget and it looks like a movie. But if the script sucks, so what? No, it's not anyone's gonna wanna watch it, but it may look like a movie. Yeah,Christina Beck:Yeah, that's right. And then it won't get programmed really in festivals cuz there's so much competition. I just think that thing that we kind of all know, make it a personal story, doesn't have to be autobiographical, but make it something that you really connect to or a topic that really you do have some experience in that you can bring something that maybe we haven't seen yet or we haven't seen from that angle, like you said. Yeah. That's the stuff that's really gold. I love that Thunder Road short. It's such a great example of a guy who just took a very, very simple premise. And the other kind of novelty of that short is he shot it in one take, which is pretty cool. That's not easy to do.Michael Jamin:That's not easy. What I'm saying. He did it and that's a novelty. But as you pointed that out, I forgot. I like the story of it.Christina Beck:Well that's the thing, you should just be looking at it like, oh, where's the cut? No, we wanna be engaged. And that was very engaging and that was a very personal story. I mean, I don't know about his personal story, but I know that I felt that in his work. Yeah,Michael Jamin:Yeah. It's all about that. It's all about being vulnerable and about sharing something that's that only you can do, right?Christina Beck:Yeah. Yeah. I mean hopefully, I mean, I don't know, I think it's two, there's too many topics now that people are dealing with in terms that need to, voices that need to be heard in the world, I believe. And yeah, this is a powerful way to get our voices out,Michael Jamin:But that means writing. So that's what I think cuz everyone's looking for diverse voices and voices that have been underrepresented. So that means writing about, I think your experience, that's what we want from youChristina Beck:Because Well, I think so too.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Now's your shot.Christina Beck:Yeah, I think so too. No one can steal your idea. That's a whole thing too. Sometimes people are like, Oh no, someone's gonna steal this idea. Well there's real, there's not that many ideas really when you think about it, the same story over and over. I'm still telling the story of someone overcoming. I love characters that overcome their limitation or their perceived limitations or their background. I come from alcoholism and all sorts of other things. And that doesn't mean that I'm gonna keep getting it on the nose with those topics, but it informs the way I look at the world growing up in that environment. And today I'm really grateful for that. But when I started writing, I was still very tortured by that. So , but keeping it, that process of keeping it personal and having that point of view with those circumstances makes it only something that I can sayMichael Jamin:I Christina, I think everyone should start taking your class one of either your classes, but the LMU one is a little difficult cause they have to enroll, but the other one Yeah.Christina Beck:Well, yes, is different. Yeah. I mean, I'm also, I do workshops too sometimes, so,Michael Jamin:Oh, you do private workshops?Christina Beck:I do screenwriting workshops.Michael Jamin:And Is that on your website as well?Christina Beck:Yeah, not right now, , but it was, Oh,Michael Jamin:How would that basically work? Yeah.Christina Beck:Well, I've worked, so I've done six weeks workshops where we really start off with, Okay, what's the story you wanna tell that's most personal to you? And so it's literally creating a character or that story from the point of view of the storyteller and the steps to take, whether it would turn into a series or a short film, or a feature or a play.Michael Jamin:And it's six weeks and it meets once a week or something.Christina Beck:Correct.Michael Jamin:That sounds really good. How many people are in that course, or outta time?Christina Beck:Well, it's different times I, It's been usually pretty intimate. Not a ton of people , but now we can do stuff on Zoom, which is great. Right.Michael Jamin:Wow, that sounds pretty cool. Yeah, people should check you. Yeah, you better put that up once this, IChristina Beck:Guess. I guess I'm Do that. Yeah, I guess so. ButMichael Jamin:Tell people where to find that again, so in case that you make that happen, that sounds like a beautiful thing.Christina Beck:Oh, thanks. Yes. Christinabeck.com.Michael Jamin:Christinabeck.com. Christina, thank you so much for joining me. This is a good talk. I thought this wasChristina Beck:Really helpful. Thanks, Mr. JaminMichael Jamin:Now I wanna be an independent filmmaker.Christina Beck:No, you don'tMichael Jamin:. No, you don't.Christina Beck:If you wanna make money. No. There are some that make money. There are some that make money, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes. But yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. It's so fun to talk with you, Mr.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna sign up, right? Everyone, Thank you for listening. And yeah, for make sure you get on my free weekly newsletter michaeljamin.com/watchlist. What else we gotta talk about? We have a course. Yeah, we can check out my course at michaeljamin.com/course. And if we post this in time, I don't know, but I'll be doing two shows in Boston, November 12th and 13th from a paper orchestra. It's my stage reading, and then two shows in December 10th and 11th. And for tickets, go to michaeljamin.com/live. All right. Thank you again, Christina. Wonderful.Christina Beck:My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for asking. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael. One more thing. Come see me perform. I'm going to be in Boston area, actually, Amesbury, Massachusetts on November 12th and 13th at the Actor studio, performing my show, a paper orchestra. And then I'm gonna be back in Los Angeles on December 10th and 11th again at the Moving Arts Theater Company. So tickets are on sale. Go get 'em at michaeljamin.com/live. It's a small, intimate venue. I'm gonna be performing for my collection of personal essays, and each one's gonna be followed by like a 20 minute q and a. We get to talk about the work. It's a fun event. So I hope to see you there. Go get them tickets again are at michaeljamin.com/live, and of course, sign up to my weekly newsletter that's called the watchlist at michaeljamin.com/watchlist.Phil Hudson:This has been an episode of Screenwriters. Need to Hear This with Michael Jamin and Phil Hudson. If you'd like to support this podcast, please consider subscribing, leaving a review ,and sharing this podcast with someone who needs to hear today's subject. For free daily screenwriting tips, follow Michael on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @MichaelJaminWriter. You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @PhillaHudson. This episode was produced by Phil Hudson and edited by Dallas Crane. Until next time, keep writing.

In today's episode, our guest is Amberly Lago. She is a leading expert in resilience, transformation, and health wellness. She is the best-selling author of ‘True Gift and Grace' and empowers people worldwide by sharing how she turned a tragedy into triumph. She is a former professional dancer and athlete, bringing a new perspective on what it takes to persevere. [4:10] Why should I listen to you? I love connecting with people. I love talking to strangers and anybody that I meet. It's my favorite part of my whole journey. And you should speak to me because I've been through so many different experiences, overcome many challenges, and could probably relate to one thing or another. [7:30] Can you share with us your journey?   I was probably the healthiest place in my life mentally, spiritually, and physically in every way. I had a successful fitness career doing fitness videos and fitness modeling sponsored by Nike. I recorded a fitness video the day before and thought life was good.  I'm married. I've got two kids that are healthy things. One day, I was coming home from work and driving down Ventura Boulevard, and an SUV shot out of a parking lot. It boned me, and I was thrown 30 feet sliding across the asphalt. When I stopped, I looked down at my leg, which was completely broken into pieces. And what's so crazy is, well, I immediately had pain. But I looked down and thought one of the first things I thought was, wow, this can't be good. I might have to train clients on crutches for a while. I had no idea how to adjust because it would completely change my life. So I rushed to the hospital.  My organs started shutting down because I had lost so much blood. I was in so much pain that they couldn't control it, so they had to put me in an induced coma. And when I woke up from a coma, I learned you have a 1% chance of saving your leg. This is basically like a war wound. There's not much we can do for you. We're going to have to amputate. There was a 1% chance, and that was my glimmer of hope that I held on to that got me through 34 surgeries and months in the hospital. A lot of pain, and they saved my leg. But then I was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, which is a supposedly incurable nerve disease. I've tried every kind of treatment for it. That's one of the reasons we had, you know, $2.9 million worth of medical expenses.  [11:30] What was the thing that made your mind go like, there's a shot, like when most people would get rid of it? Growing up as an athlete and a dancer helped me with my mindset. And so I was like, if I want something, I will have to work for it. I was never the best dancer. And so I knew I could be better if I took more dance classes. So I just knew that we get to define our future, and it's up to us if we want to be resilient or thrive in life. I was little when my stepfather sexually abused me. After my parents divorced, my mom remarried, so I learned at a young age that if I focus on the things that bring me joy, life tends to get better.  If I focus on the results that I want instead of the ones that I don't, then I will do better in life. So I think that some of the challenges that I went through helped me. [14:20]  Who are the people around you to help you climb out, or were you kind of solo on your own?  I couldn't do it alone. I had an army of people that came to support me.  First of all, my husband was my rock. He was doing everything except paying the bills. We learned a valuable lesson concerning our bank account.  We had two separate bank accounts, and my bank account did not have we didn't have our names on each other's bank accounts. So, when I was in a coma, he couldn't pay the bills because he couldn't access the report.  So we learned to put each other in everything we own. We're both on the bank statements. During that time my clients showed up for me. I needed my clients more than they needed me, and they were there for me. They showed up for me in the hospital, bringing me food and flowers, and then I was still able to give them exercise. I was still being of service, and that helped me to be able to provide the nurses with exercise tips. When they learned, I was a trainer. They came to me for help on what they could do to work on their body. I was in service even though I was stuck in a hospital bed, Even though I didn't know if my legs would be amputated or if I would make it through surgery. They gave me a purpose and allowed me to keep pushing forward. [17:19] Can you walk us through the points where you felt it wouldn't work out? Like I said earlier, I survived this horrific accident only to be diagnosed with a nerve disease. I had never done a drug in my life, and all of a sudden I'm being induced with ketamine to try to reboot my nervous system. I was doing Eastern Western medicine at one point. I was on 73 homeopathic pills and 11 different prescription medications. I was on oxygen. I was on every kind of pain pill you could imagine. I even had a spinal stimulator implanted in my back. Nothing was working. I felt I hated myself and hated a four-letter word and our family. I hated myself for what I had become. I felt worthless shame and drinking was helping me numb. I didn't want to live anymore, but I was just too afraid to die. I thought of starting a podcast and I didn't even own a computer. I accepted that I needed help. I went for my first meeting when I heard the word, “hope”. I cried for the first full year but little by little I dove into self-development. I started going to therapy. I worked on myself every single day and started to heal. I decided to write a book. I hand-wrote 90% of the book and bought a computer to type it.   [23:30] Can you unpack the book, how it has gone into the world, and who it serves? I had no idea. Like I wanted to write a book to give some hope and inspiration to others struggling or feeling stuck or dealing with pain or shame. Whether they've been sexually abused or in a horrific accident or lost their careers or they've, you know, had a lien on their house, whatever it may be. I was like, there is a way through this.  I had no idea about the journey. One day, my husband told me that I was pacing myself and I felt bad. I didn't want to be resilient so I wrote down on this notepad all the different things that I do to be resilient and I wrote down Pacer. First I just wrote down the word pace and then I had to add the last letter. So Pacer stands for perspective, acceptance, community endurance, and rest. And so, perspective is something that I still have to do every day and every morning from the moment that I step. I took my first step when I woke up out of bed in pain. I didn't know how to be grateful so I started a gratitude practice.  [32:30 What are your thoughts around helping people develop like called muscle of discipline or endurance? I don't depend on motivation. I depend on my healthy habits. I think it is essential to focus on oneself. It's so important to build your confidence, keep promises to yourself and fulfill them. You build your endurance and confidence. I think that endurance can be really simple. It starts with setting your alarm in the morning, not pushing snooze, and getting up. It is setting a small attainable goal and accomplishing it.  [36:50] At what point did you know that this is something you need to take to the world?  I believe that I can provide more value than my words and story. I worked with people for 26 years in the fitness industry. I worked them through a process of workouts and coaching sessions. People started asking me questions about my growth and how I was able to move forward despite my challenges. I started responding to several messages as best as I could and I started paying attention to my audience, I decided to open a playbook and help other women do the same thing as me except for the mistakes that I've made and the money I've wasted along the way.  [45:37] What promise did God make to the world when he created you?  That I would always make people feel loved, welcome, and accepted.    How to connect with Amberly Lago  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberlylagomotivation/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmberlyLagoSpeaker/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amberlylago/with_replies  

A Los Angeles homeless man known for openly defecating on Ventura Boulevard is seen on video obtained by FOX 11 hurling a bag of feces onto the hood of a business owner's SUV. "Every single day, every single morning, I'm wiping that off my property before I have to do business," Paul Scrivano, owner of The Blue Dog Beer Tavern, told the news team at the scene. LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos everyday. https://bit.ly/3KBUDSK

Adam and Mark reunite in studio and get right to a long list of stories. Starting with a wild murder for hire scheme from their supposedly sleepy La Cañada neighborhood that has been anything but sleepy as of late. They also give an update on the Sheila Kuehl saga and the continuing misleading reporting on the topic. They also watch some tape of a judge in the Nicholas Cruz case that's gone viral in legal circles and Adam shares an anecdote about the FBI from his recent interview with Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. Watch this episode & subscribe on YouTube at YouTube.com/ReasonableDoubtPodcast Please Support Our Sponsors Geico.com Cigora.com, Promo code: Doubt10 PluralSight.com/Vision

You are going to be blown away by the story of Amberly Lago, and that's why I'm so excited to have her on the podcast today. One unexpected event changed everything for her, and what she learned is powerful. As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly Lago was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard that breezy, sunny day, Lago was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg. Months in the hospital and 34 surgeries, along with plates, pins, and sheer will eventually spared Lago's leg and severed femoral artery, despite the initial recommendation to amputate. However, as a sexual abuse and divorce survivor, Lago determined to save not only her leg, but her career, her dreams, and her dignity. This Texas girl at heart dug deep to find the hope and faith needed to face her life's greatest challenge. Amberly's unwavering commitment to regain her active lifestyle of training clients transformed her tragedy into victory and she motivates her audiences to find resilience in their own difficulties. She is a fierce advocate for others who suffer from CRPS and proves that any challenge can be overcome by the support of others as well as a determination and belief in oneself. Amberly is an author, speaker, and all around amazing person. So, how do you connect with her? Well, here's a few ways: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amberlylagomotivation/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AmberlyLagoSpeaker/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/AmberlyLago Amberly's Website - https://amberlylago.com/book/ (check out and buy her book!!!) True Grit & Grace Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-grit-and-grace-with-amberly-lago/id1488420537 And, if you want the free guide she mentions in the interview to build your resilience, just text the word GRIT to 818-214-7378. Enjoy this interview!! If you are ready, and need help building out your Leadership Philosophy, please check out www.mattphillipscoaching.com/membership for info on becoming a Member of the High Performance Leadership Membership…because we are here to grow you as a leader and a person! We hope you join us today!

In this episode, Steve sits down with former LA Times Music Veteran Randall Roberts to chat about the power of music in our lives, why we should be carving out time to listen to music, and they even swap some behind the music scene stories as Randall shares what it's like to sit down with the likes of Mick Jagger, PJ Harvey, Danny Elfman and others.Randall Roberts is an award-winning writer, editor, music freak and disc jockey who recently left his post covering music and culture for the Los Angeles Times. During his 12 years there -- at various points as music editor, pop critic and staff writer -- he explored the layered history of L.A. music, from Rosecrans to Sunset to Ventura Boulevard and beyond. His 2020 project on the early Southern California phonograph industry helped identify the first-ever commercial recording made in Los Angeles. For his acclaimed 2010 story for the LA Weekly, “On the Road to Burma,” Randall traveled to Myanmar with L.A. band Ozomatli and wrote about its role as State Department-sponsored cultural ambassadors. The story was included in the book Best Music Writing 2010.A two-time Getty/USC-Annenberg Arts Journalism fellow, Randall has witnessed and adapted to the profound changes in journalism and storytelling since his start in the 1990s. He has edited and reported on quick-turnaround deadlines and in extreme conditions such as the backstage artists' camp at Coachella, behind the scenes at the Grammy Awards and in a terry-cloth-robed Axl Rose's dressing room after a Guns ‘n Rose concert. Now editing and consulting for the University of Missouri communications department, Randall lives in Columbia with his wife Jenny and their daughter Liza.For more information on Randall, please visit:Ballparkvillage.comInstagram: @LileditTo stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:Website:https://www.betterplaceproject.org/Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj  To follow Steve & Erin on Instagram:@SteveNorrisOfficial @ErinorrisFacebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcastTwitter: @BetterPlaceProjEmail: BetterPlaceProjectPodcast@gmail.com

Amberly now regularly shares the stage with people like Ed Mylett, Trent Shelton, Bedros Keulian and more..but it wasn't always like that. As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly Lago was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard that breezy, sunny day, Lago was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg. Months in the hospital and 34 surgeries, along with plates, pins, and sheer will eventually spared Lago's leg and severed femoral artery, despite the initial recommendation to amputate. However, as a sexual abuse and divorce survivor, Lago determined to save not only her leg, but her career, her dreams, and her dignity. This Texas girl at heart dug deep to find the hope and faith needed to face her life's greatest challenge. Amberly's unwavering commitment to regain her active lifestyle of training clients transformed her tragedy into victory and she motivates her audiences to find resilience in their own difficulties. She is a fierce advocate for others who suffer from CRPS and proves that any challenge can be overcome by the support of others as well as a determination and belief in oneself. Join the Growth Now Community Today!

“Casa Vega is an iconic Mexican restaurant that has been operating in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles for over 65 years. Casa Vega is located on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and is one of the longest continuously … Continue reading → The post Show 477, June 4, 2022: Restaurateur Christy Vega, Casa Vega, Sherman Oaks Part One appeared first on SoCal Restaurant Show.

Today we're talking about the transformational power of clothes with Jen Principe. Jen has worked with hundreds of clients over the past 12 years as a personal stylist in Los Angeles, California. She is the host of Los Angeles' KTLA TV's “How to be Your Own Personal Stylist” segment, and her work has been featured on Hallmark's “Home & Family,” in the Associated Press, Focus, JMG, Calabasas Style, Ventura Boulevard and Sherwood Life magazines. In 2021, she was featured as a top celebrity LA stylist on the BBC Network's “Inside Beverly Hills.” Jen's debut book launches June 7th, titled “A Common Thread: A Fashion For The Soul Book.” It's a a one-of-a-kind fashion memoir that documents her life journeys -- a “soul” stylist with a “sole” purpose: to help transform lives from the outside in. She is donating a portion of the proceeds from the book to The Phoenix Effect, Jen's non-profit, in which she and her team provide personalized photoshoot experiences for those suffering from debilitating diseases and/or trauma. Learn more and preorder her book at jpstyles.com.Next, we are so happy to have our dear friend, Shawn Wells, back to talk about Blue Zones. He's lived in several of them, and can tell us just exactly what they do to live longer than any other population on the planet. ·     Shawn Wells is the world's leading nutritional biochemist and expert on health optimization. Shawn has formulated over 500 supplements, food, beverages, and cosmeceuticals and patented 10 novel ingredients. Formerly a Chief Clinical Dietitian with over a decade of clinical experience, he has counseled thousands of people on innovative health solutions. He has also personally overcome various health issues including Epstein-Barr Virus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, depression, insomnia, obesity, and a pituitary tumor. Learn more about Shawn, and order a copy of his book, “The Energy Formula” at shawnwells.com.Thank you to our sponsors!enviromedicaThe Weston A. Price FoundationChildren's Health Defense - Order Robert F. Kennedy's latest book, "The Real Anthony Fauci" today!sunwarrior - Use the code OLR for 20% off your purchase!Ice Shaker - Keeps drinks ice cold all day!Vegworld MagazineWell Being JournalThorne - Get 20% off your order and free shipping!

There were three important happenings today relating to the Mass Casualty Commission. Two of the three took place within the Commission proceedings, while the third occurred across the harbour in the Dartmouth Provincial Court. In Dartmouth this morning, Crown Prosecutors advised the Court that they were referring Lisa Banfield's criminal charges to restorative justice. She had been scheduled to go to trial later this month on charges of supplying ammunition to her spouse, Gabriel Wortman. That trial will now not take place. In the Commission proceedings itself, the day started off with a presentation from Commission Counsel, Roger Burrill, addressing the Commission's findings on the perpetrator's movements overnight, when he left Portapique and drove to Debert. Video surveillance from businesses along the route show that Wortman drove north into Debert, took a right down Ventura Boulevard, then drove into the Debert Business Park. It was there where he parked behind Brian MacDonald's welding shop for nearly six hours. The next video evidence is of him driving west on Ventura Boulevard at 5:42 AM. The final matter of significance the proceedings today was a decision by the Commissioners with respect to witnesses who will be called to testify. To their credit, the Commissioners not only returned with a decision in a timely fashion, giving it now, rather than when the proceedings come back on at the end of March, and they also approved nearly every witness that was requested by the parties. That means that Lisa Banfield, the first responding officers, all of the involved Staff Sergeants and other supervisors, as well as the commanding officers for the Province and the head of the RCMP. This was the first clear indication from the Commissioners of what ‘trauma-informed' means in the context of this inquiry. There will be witnesses, and they will be subjected to cross examination. This is a key moment not only for the families, but also for the public confidence in the MCC. The first witnesses will be called on March 28th, and they will be the three officers who were the first ones in Portapique after the initial 911 calls. Cst. Stuart Beselt, Cst. Adam Merchant, and Cst. Aaron Patton will testify together as a panel, and there will be other witnesses that week. The supervisors are expected to testify in late May, when the MCC takes a closer look at the command decisions that were made during the mass casualty.

{{ Click the play button above for an immersive audio experience, and/or READ along below }}Bobby Fraley scoured public police records through the Van Nuys public library internet system, seeking out anyone convicted of art theft in the past few years. He struggled to find a single report on this matter. He mentioned hiring a private investigator to the photographer who took Bobby’s portrait, but he balked at the idea, stating to Bobby that, “It was just a photo.”It was rumored that Bobby Fraley took that comment personally. So personally, that he vowed to ruin that very photographer’s local business, by training himself the art of photography over the next ten years, opening up a portrait studio right next door to the photographer’s place of business, and running session discounts so attractive, that Bobby would steal all of the portrait business in the area, ending his long time rival’s career, and putting his shop out of business. One of the problems with that long term plan for Bobby was that the only building next door to the photographer’s business was a McDonald’s. Bobby claimed that he would find a way to partner up with the burger company in his scheme to make things right for the community. After almost three months of mediocre investigative work by Bobby, he had decided to purchase advertising space on a large billboard, located at the corner of Fulton and Ventura Boulevard near the Casa Vega restaurant. The sign simply had a photo of the stolen portrait with the words: Have You Seen Me?, as well as Bobby’s cell phone number at the bottom of the bright yellow signage. There it was, Bobby’s face, with his phone number, for the entire Valley to see.The calls came pouring in. Day after day, Bobby sifted through the hundreds of voicemails that he received, most of them prank calls made by vulgar tongued teenagers, a few odd characters claiming they were with Bobby on the UFO craft that had abducted them in ‘83, and also some that had a love interest toward the man with the sunburned photo, which by now had faded from his everyday look. Bobby soon became such a local legend, that the neighborhood’s small companies would offer free merchandise to him, in hopes of some needed exposure. One clothier even began making Bobby Italian silk capes, free of charge, but in exchange for some word of mouth advertising when folks asked him about his eye-catching style. Bobby enjoyed the exposure at first, but felt that all of the attention he was receiving was steering his investigation in the wrong direction. He let people know, on 4” x 6” flyers he had printed, that the purpose of all of this hubbub was not about him, but about the famed portrait of him. Through Bobby’s efforts, he was able to raise a reward for information leading to the reacquisition of the stolen photo. The sixty-eight dollars could be all that was between Bobby and recovering the object. Bobby’s background in mathematics allowed him to calculate the prize money into a tangible offering so that the common person could see the value that it stored. One would be able to purchase eighty cans of tuna, if done so during the Tuesday sale, when the price dropped to .79 cents a can. This would leave the buyer just four cents short of purchasing the eighty-first can, when including the California sales tax rate. A metric, according to Bobby Fraley, that could “easily be found in the cracks of sidewalk, underneath the parking meters along Ventura Boulevard.”One evening, while Bobby Fraley sipped a mint tea in the cozy confines of his 650 square foot apartment, he received an interesting phone call. A woman spoke to him on the other end of the line, claiming that she knew where the stolen portrait was. She told Bobby, that her name was Janice. She told Bobby, that she was the one who had stolen the framed artwork the night of October 29th, 2011. She told Bobby, that she wanted to meet him in two hours, at the laundromat on Moorpark Street, when the clock struck midnight. - Part Two. Get full access to ArtWalk Newsletter at artwalk.substack.com/subscribe

{{ Click the play button above for an immersive audio experience, and/or READ along below }}Bobby Fraley was a person of interest. No one was quite sure how he arrived at the position. His whole life was spent doing the right things; saying hello to the strangers he passed on the sidewalk, cleaning the dishes at home, and even cutting his neighbor’s lawn. Twice in one week back in June. Bobby woke at 6:00 a.m. every day, including Sundays. His morning routine consisted of the usual bathroom stuff, and he drank his coffee black from the machine he was gifted at the end of the year party for Stewart, Kilner, & Glaxo, where he worked as an accountant. He made his bed daily, and even washed his car at home, using the finest cloth to dry it, so as not to scratch his 2006 white Toyota Camry that he purchased from a man named Caesar, who owned a used car dealership on the Northside of Van Nuys. Due to his early waking schedule, Bobby was often tired, and he refused to take naps, as he claimed it would ruin his energy later in the day. He normally dressed in khaki slacks, brown Steve Madden dress shoes, and a short sleeve button up shirt, colors varying from white to cream. He combed his hair twice a day, parted left to right, and wore brown framed glasses that he found at the local thrift store, for which he never changed the prescription of. Bobby Fraley was the usual man, an everyman of common status, living out his life in the hopes that his lunchtime bagel would stay fresh in the Saran Wrap he folded it in early that morning. But Bobby would never get to eat his plain bagel on the day of October 2nd, 2011, for he was punched square in the face by a teenage misfit who was robbing the gas station market Bobby had gone in to retrieve some change, four quarters for a dollar, so that later that day he could purchase a Nestle Crunch bar from the vending machine on the third floor of the office building he worked at just one block south of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.Bobby eventually quit his accounting job that same month, declaring to his boss that he lacked the patience for numbers. He said that numbers acted like children; stubborn in their way, always mocking him behind his back. Bobby’s boss thought this was an interesting perspective, and accepted Bobby’s two week notice. Bobby Fraley never executed the remaining two weeks of work. He simply started waking up whenever his body wanted to. Bobby started to put his morning toothpaste into his dark roasted coffee, claiming that he found a process to quicken his morning routine, meanwhile giving his breath the much needed minty boost that he strived for. Bobby Fraley started to enjoy wearing capes, and eating spicy tacos at lunch from the various Mexican food trucks that The Valley had to offer. He was never one for the “hot stuff”, but had somehow morphed his eating habits to include the likes of jalapeno, cayenne, and innumerable sorts of hot sauces. Those seated at the outdoor tables near Bobby, would often hear sounds emanating from his direction while he ate. “Yip yip yeeeooowww!” Bobby would yell, after taking several continuous bites of his fiery dish. And if there were less than seven people eating near him, he would usually buy the lot a round of horchata on his way out. “Interesting,” said the middle-aged Mexican woman, sipping her milky drink, as she watched Bobby walk away while his red and black plaid polyester cape waved through the air behind him. Bobby began taking long naps in the park after his lunchtime meals, letting the sun’s UV rays dive deep into his epidermis. Sometimes Bobby slept so long in one position, that the sunburns he developed left him days later with peeling skin across his forehead and nose. A devastating blow to many, but Bobby carried on in all confidence, even once getting his portrait taken from a local photographer while his face looked like a crab shell. The photographer asked Bobby if he could use the portrait in his upcoming art show. Bobby obliged the man, telling him his image was “fair use,” and to, “use at will”. The portrait was such a hit, that Bobby’s photo was featured on page five of the Van Nuys Tribune. And in even greater news, the 20 x 24 inch framed portrait of Bobby Fraley was stolen from the art show just a day after that publication was released. A sad day in the art world for all. A sadder day for the sunburned man, who vowed to track down the thief of he, himself, in print form, Bobby Fraley. - Part One. Get full access to ArtWalk Newsletter at artwalk.substack.com/subscribe

Rick and I recently had dinner together, and had a very interesting conversation. We used to be neighbours, he moved, and we had a lot to catch up on. Between the traffic on Ventura Boulevard and the people in the background, we talked about life in general, food, motorcycles and female comedians. Rick's new special, Set List with Rick Overton, is incredibly funny. Its unscripted improv, and can be found on Amazon Prime, Hulu and Comedy Dynamic. Pop some pop corn, pour a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, and be prepared to laugh for an hour! Rick is a multi-talented actor, voice actor, writer and comedian. He can be reached through his website is rickoverton.com or you can always send me a message at studiocitynow@gmail.com and I will pass it on to him. He a funny guy :) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michelemarotta/support

 Hey Dude, I reminisce about being a goofy 13-year-old during the Summer of 1979, and the time I made Molly Ringwald's stunning older sister Beth laugh at my expense.AUDIO LINKQUOTE: "OP shirt, corduroy pants / If you had feathered hair / You had half a chance" - Gluey BrothersPEOPLE: Steve Schirripa, Michael Imperioli, Molly Ringwald, Bob RingwaldPLACES: Walter Reed Junior High, Israel, Toluca Lake, Louisiana, Ventura & Laurel CanyonTHINGS: Summer, Labor Day, The Sopranos, Talking Sopranos Podcast, 1979, 1980, 1960's, 1970's, 1980's, Annie, Facts of Life, BMX bikes, 7-Eleven, Slurpee, interferon, 21st century, Sawdust FestivalSOUNDS: wind, footsteps, gravel path, Laguna Sawdust Cowbell Chimes, airplane, birdsGENRE: storytelling, personal narrative, personal journalPHOTO: "Beth Eyes" from the 1979 Walter Reed Junior High School yearbook, shot on my new iPhoneXSRECORDED: September 6, 2021 from the "Wawona Lawn" under the flight path of the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CaliforniaGEAR: Sony ICD PX370 digital voice recorder and Sony ECM CS3 "tie-clip" microphone.HYPE: "It's a beatnik kinda literary thing in a podcast cloak of darkness." Timothy Kimo Brien (cohost on Podwreckedand host of Create Art Podcast)DISCLAIMER/WARNING: Proudly presented rough, raw and ragged. Seasoned with salty language and ideas. Not for most people's taste. Please be advised.

It's 1-15-98 and the news is a real déjà vu moment if you happen to be a time traveler! Plus, El Farto's dark past reveals that he's banned in more than one quality auto parts retailer, we hear a happy ending to a BackStack® Cold Rack injury claim, The Raddest Morning Team campaign rolls out on bus stops along Ventura Boulevard, Machine Bolt tries to get his nuggin' under control, The WetSack® Sleep Cap, and more! EPIC! WELL DONE!

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Fortune is very excited about her new business, the Barbie-Q restaurant that she has been dreaming about this and it finally came true. "DREAMS DO COME TRUE." We talked about the great foods she serves in her restaurant and they all sounds delicious. She puts her heart and soul into this restaurant and I know this restaurant is going to be amazing. ALL ABOUT FORTUNE: Fortune Announces Encino's First Authentic Midwestern Soul-Food Restaurant called the "Barbie-Q." Fortune finds pride in doing something commonly attempted but rarely perfected, serving called the "Barbie-Q." Fortune finds pride in classic comfort food with a doing something commonly attempted modern twist in the heart of Encino, LOS ANGELES, CA; November 1, 2020 - Fortune Southern, founder and CEO, announced that her Midwestern cuisine Barbie-Q restaurant open its doors on November 1, 2020, at 15928 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA. Southern invited all her friends and family for the grand-opening of her new business with outdoor seating and activites during the first two weeks in November, all with safe social distance. “The secret's in the sauce.” - Southern revered as one of the only black female owners to find success in a male dominated street food world, Southern found strength to transition her long-running food truck business into a full-service takeout restaurant. Her inspiration blossomed from the unique and homestyle flavors of her childhood. Through the adversity of 2020, Southern flourishes upholding her strong beliefs in the pillars that define her business: Bold Flavors, Consistent Quality and Unmatched Customer Service. The perfect lunch and launch family-run designation in Encino, Barbie-Q welcomes customers of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy their tasty midwestern style cuisine. Ingredients are sourced locally to create the authentic and unique American flavors we all know and love. Barbie-Q builds on familiar Midwestern favorites - offerings including Ribs, Reuben Sandwiches, Chicken Wings, Bacon Mac-n-Cheese Fries and more. Southern has a proud tradition of working and operating restaurants for over 15 years and this well established excellence manifests in their tasty recipes. The new Midwestern restaurant is officially open now with delivery service will be accepted on website coming soon. And so Barbie-Q is born. The name tells a version of the restaurant's story: Southern is a striking Black woman (a pageant contest first brought her out to LA as a child) and she moves through her small storefront and attached outdoor seating areas with a graciousness of movement. The aptly-named restaurant's menu also leans into traditional barbecue territory, though it's far from a Texas-styled joint. Again you can find the restaurant Barbie-Q is at 15928 Ventura Boulevard in Encino, keeping hours from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily, with an extension to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. If you want delicious food go to the website at https://barbieqla.com/ or you can email at Email: barbieqmarketing@gmail.com you also find them on Instagram and Facebook Barbie-Q

We open this all L.A. show by cruising down Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks to pioneering restaurant, Anajak Thai. Justin Pichetrungsi is Anajak’s second-generation chef-owner, having joined his family’s nearly 40-year-old business a few years ago. Since coming onboard, Justin’s updates to the menu, which include adding a taco night and stellar list of natural wines, have made Anajak the buzziest Thai restaurant in the Valley.  Musical guest singer-songwriter Henry Hall has been known to weave a good bit of humor into his work, and perhaps that’s no surprise given his parents are comedians Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall. Henry’s dreamy pop sound first caught everyone’s attention back in 2016 with the release of the single, “Frenemy.” Since then he’s played The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and released his first full length album, Neato.. Snacky Tunes: Music is the Main Ingredient, Chefs and Their Music (Phaidon), is now on shelves at bookstores around the world. It features 77 of the world’s top chefs who share personal stories of how music has been an important, integral force in their lives. The chefs also give personal recipes and curated playlists too. It’s an anthology of memories, meals and mixtapes. Pick up your copy by ordering directly from Phaidon, or by visiting your local independent bookstore. Visit our site, www.snackytunes.com for more info.Snacky Tunes is powered by Simplecast.

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We had the pleasure of interviewing Annika Rose over Zoom video! Rising artist and LA-based singer-songwriter Annika Rose has released her new single “Butterflies” via TaP Records. Annika teamed up with Erik Hassle (Rihanna, TV On The Radio) and Tim Randolph (Imagine Dragons, Whethan) to write and produce the new single. Inspired by a late-night conversation with a friend about the pressures of their futures and the transition from adolescence to adulthood, Annika shares, “I found myself reflecting deeply on childhood naivety and the freedom from the realities of the world and growing up, back to what often feels like a simpler time. Catching butterflies is a metaphor for that lost innocence and purity of life when we’re young. Especially lately, the intensity of this feeling has grown with everything happening in the world and I want to use this song and my music to connect with others who may be feeling a similar way.” Listen to “Butterflies” here: https://awal.ffm.to/butterfliesIn tandem with the new single, Annika has shared the official video for “Butterflies”. The video finds Annika alone on a ranch and emulates the single’s themes of a teen who has just reached adulthood and is saying goodbye to a simpler rainbow-filled life without responsibilities. Directed by Luke Biggins (Stefflon Don, Stormzy) with Creative Director Rebekah Bird (MNEK, MO), the UK-based duo co-directed the nostalgic and at times trippy visual virtually via Zoom.“Butterflies” is the latest single Annika has released this year and follows previous releases “Bittersweet” and “Naïve,” which Billboard featured as one of “10 Cool New Pop Songs.” Annika made her debut last fall with singles “In The End” and “Fly To You” from her first EP, Ventura Boulevard. Since making her debut, Annika has been featured as Apple Music’s “New Artist of the Week” following the release of her first single, “In The End,” and she has been featured in the Evening Standard’s “20 Musicians Under 20 to Know for 2020” and Grimy Goods’ “20 Los Angeles Bands/Artist To Watch in 2020.”Born into a musical family—her mom’s a songwriter, her dad plays guitar and piano — Annika first started honing her songcraft as a little kid growing up in Southern California. Raised on an eclectic mix of singer/songwriters and artists like Stevie Nicks and Alanis Morissette to Fiona Apple, The 1975 and Hayley Williams. At just 18-years-old, Annika embodies a clarity of vision that’s rare even among the most established artists. Strong-willed, self-driven and bubbling with charisma yet disarmingly sensitive, the rising singer/songwriter has devoted most of her adolescence to music, spending countless nights alone at the piano and carefully unearthing her most authentic voice. She possesses a lyrical identity that boldly deviates from the usual pop milieu, revealing a seldom-spoken truth about the emotional chaos in coming of age.We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.www.BringinitBackwards.comAmerican Songwriter Podcast Network#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod  #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork​​Listen & Subscribe to BiBFollow our podcast on Instagram and Twitter! 

Amberly Lago - Meet and listen to the women who turned tragedy into triumph. @amberlylagomotivation Amberly is the author of the best selling book TRUE GRIT & GRACE. She is a resilience expert with appearances on The Dr's, Fabfit fun, Evertalk tv, Today show on NBC, Hallmark channel, The Forbes factor with Forbes Riley, the Lorna Jane inspired series. She is a TEDx speaker, host of True Grit & Grace podcast and recently featured on the cover of "keynote speakers" magazine. Amberly was living the Californian dream. She was a busy model, dancer, runner, personal trainer and a mum, until her dream turned into a nightmare in 2010 as she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard. While recovering from 34 surgeries to save her leg from amputation, diagnosed with CRPS an incurable disease dubbed the suicide disease, she lost her business and self confidence. Amberly spiraled into depression as chronic pain was taking over her life. This tragedy tested Amberly and her resilience turning tragedy to triumph. In this episode, you will learn and hear about:There is no guarantee of tomorrow. What is it like to make decisions when all bets are against you. How positive mindset can save your life in the most critical situations in life. Acceptance.Extreme measures in decision making against all the experts and how it could play in your favor. How adversity unveils your inner resilience. CRPS. suicide disease.Sexual Abuse. Being an overachiever and its challenges and rewards. Alcohol, pain and depression. Accountability. Shifting perspective. Asking for help and community support. Having a purpose. How to deal with haters and negativity. Not everyday is a success , but going forward is. Connect with Amberly Lago:Amberly's websiteInstagramFacebookTwitterAudible book

In today's episode, we talk about the 1993 missing child and murder case that shook Woodland Hills. On November 21, 1993, LAPD found Nicole Parker’s body in Hooman Askahcapana’s apartment, which is in the same Ventura Boulevard complex where the girl stayed with her father, about 11 p.m.   Askahcapana, 22, was booked on suspicion of murder and was found guilty in 1995 for the murder of Nicole Parker.  Fast forward several decades later, new DNA and serology evidence surfaces to contradict those suspicions. The Paranormal aftermath, Angela moves into the apartment complex where the Nicole Parker crime took place in 2017.  Angela begins to experience unsettling energy that surrounds her apartment.  Soon Angela begins to experience blackouts, trances, and items that disappear and reappear in her apartment.  Is it possible that something was left behind in Angela's apartment complex from that fatal day in 1993?

Robert Orfino, real estate investor and expert, joins Casey Eberhart on the "Expand the Business" podcast for an incredible interview about the present state of real estate, real estate investing, and even house flipping. Robert is a master at leveraging traditional media and social media to expand his brand and marketing message online. Born and raised in New Jersey, Robert spent countless summers on the Jersey Shore.  When not vacationing, Robert worked with his father doing construction. Robert later attended Kean and Rutgers University, and set out to find a “good job.” Aside from his knack for creating things, he has a life-long relationship with education and is constantly seeking self-improvement.  He also readily admits he is a die-hard NY Giants fan and a long-suffering Mets fan.  At the age of 42, Robert had been working for someone else’s fortune for 20 years and began to understand the importance of wealth and how to create it. In 2007, Robert caught the entrepreneurial bug and left his job to start his own green consulting firm. Within the first year of business, the firm was directly impacted by the financial crisis in 2008. However, Robert persevered through the major financial setbacks that followed and began working as a So-Cal contractor rehabbing Freddie and Fannie Homes.   In 2012, Robert took an opportunity to work on flipping homes for private investors. During this time, he flipped almost 200 different homes. Robert continued to work in the So-Cal Real Estate Market until 2014 when it made a major comeback and deals became scarce.  By 2015, Robert sought out a market gap for flipping houses in New Jersey, the number one foreclosure state in the country at the time, and proactively assembled a team to build business back up again. Although the market had been tumultuous for quite some time, Robert saw an opportunity to raise capital for the New Jersey and New York Real Estate Markets and founded a Distressed Real Estate Investor Fund.   Here is the transcript of the podcast interview between Casey Eberhart and Robert Orfino: Casey Eberhart: (00:01) And welcome everybody to today's episode of expand the business. My name is Casey Eberhart. I am your show host for this hour of amazing insight in helping you, the business owner expand the business. So we are super excited to bring to you guys, everything that we can come up with to help you expand your business. Whatever business you're in, whether you're in traditional business, brick and mortar, business, network marketing, investing, whatever businesses you this show is designed for you. So as an upfront, if you want to download a quick audio, on getting more referrals, just head over to www.ExpandTheBusiness.com. Oh, we've got some goodies over there, some surprises for you over there. And I'm super happy to have you do that again, go over to expand the business.com so super excited today because we have an amazing interview with one of my favorite people on the planet. Casey Eberhart: (01:00) Robert Orofino is one of these guys that you just can't help but to learn stuff from because number one, he's super open and willing to share his ups, his downs, his wins, his breakdowns. In order to help you and I expand our business and really kind of create the life that we all dream of. He is a real estate investor. I've happened to be friends with and have known Robert for several years. I know that Adam, and ask him to go a little bit in depth in this, but you know, one of the things that he and his partners have been able to do in the real estate game as they've made, as far as I know, at least three moves. They've moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Houston. And then from Houston they've really expanded out. They have a radio show that's on drive time in Houston, Texas. Casey Eberhart: (01:47) Every single day they've got podcasts, they have webinars, they have meetup groups, they hold live events, they hold live meetings. They've created a real estate investing fund for investors. Maybe you have a little extra money that you're scared of a scaredy cat. I've been in the real estate market. You don't want to, you don't want to get too much exposure. You can talk to Robert and they've created a fun. So people that are scared still have an opportunity. They have their fingers in every piece of the pie in the real estate market that you've probably or possibly could come up with. And if they don't, they're going to go out and really create the network and the relationships to be able to bring that into the fold. So I thought, well we would do today is really have kind of a deep dive in sort of the structure, the blueprint, the layout, the architecture of what Robert has been able to do in the real estate game, especially in the market he happens to live in at the moment. And I say at the moment, which is Houston, Texas. So He's a partner in Mr Texas real estate, which we'll talk about. He and his partner in a minute. And he also runs and owns Dana point marketing. So with that being said, Mr Orofino, welcome to the show was a Robert Orfino: (03:00) pretty amazing introduction. I'd like to meet that guy. Right? So that was, thank you very much for all those kind words. And it is certainly, um, I always point out that Steve jobs speech we talks about, you really can't connect the dots looking forward, turn around and look back. You can see them. Well, you're one of the dots. Casey Eberhart: (03:21) Well I appreciate that. I appreciate that. But those dots are created by all of us being just connecting, right? So thank you for saying that. You're also one of the dots all and my network, but also many, many others. So Robert, take me back, uh, in the wayback machine to when you were in New Jersey and when I first met you, you were a contract investor slash flipper in, uh, and for those of you that don't know the term flipper, it's somebody that buys a piece of real estate, put some equity into it in terms of capital as well as um, um, not only capital but sweat equity contract or build it out, make it pretty, and then turn it back on the market and sell it off from there. Kind of walk me through how you got started as an entrepreneur back in the flipping days. Robert Orfino: (04:10) Sure. So back in New Jersey, I was a, I was a consultant. I was a green consultant, energy efficiency, that type of renewable energy. Um, you know, I was uh, back in for anyone understands it, uh, the uh, green building. But that was, that was I did right. So the US GBC am original member of that. Um, and I did a lot of consulting out there and I said, okay, I want to become an entrepreneur and the green industry's taking off in southern California, so I need to get the southern California. So I left my job there and I started my own consulting business and within the first six months I booked over $300,000 worth of consulting. It was great. And then September, 2008 hit and the whole world got turned upside down financial world. And I was out there alone with not a lot of, of safety net underneath me, just a couple of retirement accounts. Robert Orfino: (05:10) And I, uh, I found myself in a very large hole very, very quickly. By 2009, we had some bad deals and we had some bad partners and um, we had a lot of the projects just stopped. There was a bond on those projects, which means you're going to eventually get paid, but the eventually it could be 2012, 13, 14. Right? So here I am, entrepreneur trying to figure this stuff out, working both coasts and it, it wasn't working and we're going down a slope in a whole very, very fast. I remember 2009, everyone's still sort of in denial, right? And in 2010, now, everyone's like freaking out. In 2011 was the bottom of the market. So in 2011, I had no more consulting gig. So maybe one or two right here. But I had a buddy who was doing construction for Fannie Mae at the time. Robert Orfino: (06:06) There was tons of foreclosures. They're fixing them up. He says, I have too much work. Can you help me run it? So I came out to California full time, took over the San Fernando Valley, and I started with doing deals, doing rehabs for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, um, all those FHA stuff. Um, but by that time I was already 450, $2,000 in personal debt in the, I owed for $52,000. And next to every single one of those, those dollars was my signature. So you can imagine how panicked we were and how crazy everything was. And we got into real estate and started climbing out of the hole. So 2011 wasn't a bad year for us. But then 2012, Fannie Mae says, we're not rehabbing homes anymore. Now back out of business. But I have a construction business. I've gotten loans on that business. I've got employees. And um, I'll just tell you the, the low point for us is we're, I was down to $6,000 in my bank account and I have a $12,000 monthly nut, right? Robert Orfino: (07:10) And I don't have any jobs on the horizon. And I think to myself, I'm not the smartest guy. And from this moment on, I'm just going to do what smart people do. So I did a little mantra about wealth and all that stuff coming to me and I won't bore you with that. Um, but right after I did the mantra and I was driving down the four oh five, you know what I'm talking about, I got to go to, I got to get to Ventura Boulevard. That's where my po boxes, I go to the Po box now 10 minutes after the mantra about all good things of being positive and wealth coming to me. I opened up the Po box and there's a check for $6,000 exactly what I needed to get through the month of February. And from that point on, I do not want to figure it out or double think it or overthink it. Robert Orfino: (07:59) I just do the mantra. Right? And that turned me on and I got through the month of February, I got a kitchen job, I got a bathroom job. And then later on that year I got picked to work for the best way to call as the clearing house where the hedge funds and for those who don't know the hedge funds, Blackstone is a big one, call me homes. There was another one who worked for, they put billions of dollars of capital on the street buy houses and so we literally could have as much construction work as we can possibly handle. We are doing now 11 jobs, nine 11 jobs a month and we're running through that in 2012 was great. Um, 2013 slowed down, but we had made a name for ourselves. So we are the top two contractors in that clearing house and we kept working all the way through 2013, 2014 I started doing some more green work, slowly climbed out of that hole, but I had always now around real estate business, I'm trying to network with these folks and try to figure out how to get more work. Robert Orfino: (09:01) And I started reversing engineering how this whole business works. And in 2015 I said, hey, I'm going to go do this myself, except I go back to New Jersey to do it. And I go and do it in New Jersey for two years. We did fairly well. We flipped a bunch of houses out there. Um, I was all about just creating cash to pay back my debt. They create a little nest egg so that we felt secure. Right? So just like everyone else in 2013, 2014, 2015, everyone's thinking security, right? They want to have security. We're no different. Um, then I started networking and meeting a lot of people we carry on. And then in 2017 I met some friends from Houston. They introduced me to the marketplace. Um, we had a hurricane that came and I was working the opposite and the, all of the leftover deals in New Jersey from superstorm sandy. Robert Orfino: (09:58) So I understood how flooded houses and when a wind damage houses work. Uh, when the hurricane came here, I already had a base here I'd already done and started doing some education stuff. So we decided we were going to move to Houston and I moved there about 14 months ago. I've, I've been here in Houston for 14 months. Since then, we're able to acquire about $3 million worth of properties. I've doubled my net worth. I'm using all the things that I learned from quite frankly, failure on my, on my last 10 years of being an entrepreneur. And so we, we definitely believe there's no such thing as failure. It's only learning. Sometimes the lessons are very expensive. Sometimes you can shrug them off, right? But there's only learning in coming out of failure. And, uh, with that mindset, I was able to partner up with Jason Bible out here. Robert Orfino: (10:53) He had been very successful. Now we started this new venture and like you said, we have a fund. We have our, our own rehab crews. We have a real estate office, a team that we bought. We work with Keller Williams platinum. So we're able to work on all that stuff, uh, in this marketplace based on all the things I learned. And when I say learn, I'm mostly saying I failed in the past. And I can remember sitting in the lobby in, uh, Gora hills. There's a company out there that nobody knows about. They don't have a website, they don't advertise, but they do $1 billion in real estate transactions every year. They touch every single piece of it. And I sat there and I said, if I ever have the opportunity, meaning of the market opportunity, this is what I'll build. And now I'm here in Houston with the opportunity and we're building a very massive real estate machine. Yeah, it is unbelievable to watch. So I have several that I kind Casey Eberhart: (11:54) of want to push in and, and drill a little bit in on. So when you first moved from New Jersey out to Los Angeles, you said that in your first six months or first nine months, I think that you had $300,000 worth of consulting gigs on the books. How, how did that come about? How did, how did moving from New Jersey to Los Angeles, just because we, you know, I live in Los Angeles, we be, we are, uh, we are very, and I'm doing air quotes. For those of you that are listening green out here in California, what, what allowed you to get in the door? What allowed you to book that kind of book of business? Because I think a lot of people are, you know, get so stuck on, oh it, I'm afraid, I'm scared. I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. I'm terrified of failing. So on and so forth. What allowed you to like break into that $300,000 market? Robert Orfino: (12:48) I want to say within the first 90 days of me having my own business, I picked up two mentors, both sales and marketing and Robert Orfino: (12:58) they said, Hey, forget this, forget this 30 page proposal and all that. There's all the, all there, all the folks that are collecting those proposals are making do is free work. Yeah. And they said, we've got to figure out a way to get to the decision maker. Once you get to the decision maker, have an honest conversation and they'll say yes or no. And that's, that's where I learned from, from two folks. And so we were able to get to some very big decision makers in the automotive world. Dealerships were one of our bigger clients. We are able to meet with again, really, really big companies like sonic automotive, Penske automotive, auto nation. We want to treacly the manufacturers like Mercedes Benz. Um Oh we worked directly for a Volvo and a lot of those, a lot of the green companies that wanted that for that we were able to go right to the manufacturer and talk to them Hyundai and get real honest conversations. What do you, and then ask them, what are you looking for? How can I help? So going out as an entrepreneur, I learned within the first 90 days to forget what I, what I want and ask how I can help and just give me that. Just how can I help? What are you looking for? Do you want a green, a bigger green footprint rate, I can help you with that. And that's how we land that we forgot the forget the whole sales process, finding the decision maker and help them. Casey Eberhart: (14:25) So it was really about building, I mean essentially, you know, uh, I think a lot of people, um, skip the part of building relationships and building out a network of people that you yeah. You know, sir, um, service that network for lack of a, for lack of a better word. You also said something that I think is really interesting and I think a lot of people kind of Miss Nuance, um, because they are being trained and taught by people that went about it the hard way. So you could write a bunch of proposals and you know, you are absolutely right. The people that are receiving those proposals. If you don't know a lot of proposal type, um, work that's given out, the reason those companies send out requests for proposals or RFPs is so that they can get a bunch of ideas from a bunch of different consultants all for free. Yeah. They may ultimately hire one or they may not hire them, but at the end of the day, they've essentially allowed the bigger game players too, give them free advice and may not ever even call them. And what I loved was that you bypassed all of that and really went in and tried to have conversations with people that were meaningful and figure out how to help them when I'm assuming not every single person you are able to help win. But in that event you then went off and figured out how to help them when once they were done. Speaker 3: (15:51) Yeah, no, we got, we got, um, a very, um, polite thank you's, but not very many followup calls. Yeah. Casey Eberhart: (15:59) Yeah. And so, so Robert, as you were, as you were kind of building out that network with the automotive dealers and, and putting those folks, how important in your success today, if we go all the way back in the wayback machine, how important was it or is it, do you think for entrepreneurs, even if they're just a marketing, not just say, but a marketing firm or a sales firm, or they've got a specific product or maybe somebody just a network marketer or whatever, how valuable is the skillset of building an actual network of people? Speaker 3: (16:37) It, it's everything. Well, you know, we all, we hear all the cliches about the network, right? There's a ton of business cliches and we love to post it on Instagram and Facebook, but you have to actually do it right? And you know, your network is your net worth. That is absolutely true. Um, and we just kept building out and out and out. We, we, we would, we would take meetings from seven o'clock in the morning to 11 o'clock at night and we'd be in crazy places. I'd be at five star hotels smoking a cigar on the beach front deck at 10 o'clock at night, and the next morning I'm at someone's, uh, auto body shop, right? And, but it's just constantly taking these meetings and networking and what can I do? Right? Um, what can I bring? How can I bring value to the folks in my network? Speaker 3: (17:29) How do I connect people in my network? Right? How do I make them, I mean, I've gotten, I've sat down in front of the general manager who complains that he doesn't have a good sales manager. I go to the, three days later, I'm sitting in front of a sales managers saying, I gotta get out of this, this place. I'm like, Hey, do you know this new tire? And over here, why don't you give them a call? Low and behold, I got a a sales guy, right? Well, let me just connect. And so when you start playing that person, that connector in the middle, it becomes extremely valuable. But here's the key, Casey and we, we just went over to this with our real estate team this week. We said, someone will come up to you and say, uh, Hey, do you have an inspector? Speaker 3: (18:11) And what a lot of these big real estate firms do like Keller-Williams and remax on, they say, here's the sheet, here's all our our vendors and just go ahead and call them. And I'm like, that is such a great way, because it took someone time to put all that together to build that relationship with those vendors. And you're just about to just share it and throw it out there. Like it's meaningless, like it's worth nothing. And so, you know, I have a personal rule and I've extended that now to the real estate teams really simply. I just had a guy sitting right here in my office before we got on here worth several million dollars. He's an investor of mine. He's given us money, he works with us, he wants to work with us more. Just told me he's going to invest in my next project. And he said, hey, I need a property manager over here. Can you just text me a number? I said, no, email me. And then I'll do the warm introduction Casey Eberhart: (19:07) because here's the way, hang on a second. That's gold. Go go by. W if you, if you are listening to this, I want you to listen to what Robert just said with a, a very cleaned out here because this is probably the best or biggest lesson we're going to have on this. Go back and let's say it again. So you've got a guy that's, these were sort of several million bucks. He's going to invest in your fund, he's going to do some projects with you. He needs a property manager. And instead of just giving him the sheet of, of, of people saying, hey, Robert Orfino: (19:37) or texting it to them, I said, no, email me and I'll do the warm introduction. And what, what, what does that means is I'm in, it's like I'm collecting interest on the currency. He wants an introduction to a property manager for his third ward and, and, and cashmere gardens. I mean he, nothing too. You are, you know, it's a section of town that's a little rough and he wants to find the right guy. And I said, I have the right guys. He's a good guy. And so I'll just give me his number as I know you mean the email and then I'll do the introduction. So I'll introduce both of them so they both understand the value that I'm doing, bringing them together. Here's the most important thing. If I just gave him the number, he may say, Hey, I got the number from Robert Orofino. Right. But that will be soon forgotten. Casey Eberhart: (20:29) Yup. Robert Orfino: (20:29) That email and that warm introduction, we'll sit there and when the property managers got to go back and find John's email address, he's going to look for my email. I don't remember that I handed that over. Now I'm happy to exchange the currency of my network, but I want to get a little interest Casey Eberhart: (20:48) when I do that transaction. They'll both remember me for it, hopefully. Absolutely. And so it's so funny. Um, obviously you and I work together. Um, and I know this, I know this, I'll call it a strategy, although I don't really even think as a strategy. I think it's just at this point for both of us, just kind of a way of being, but you know, here's the thing I used to, I used to, when I would get on stage and present my first slide on every slide deck was a slide that says, if you learn nothing else, it's this connectivity is today's new currency. For sure enough people who will argue as Bitcoin, some people argue that it's real estate. Some people are gold bullions and people will argue that's oil or dollars or whatever connectivity. Your network is. Today's new currency. And so let me take what Robert said and kind of expand it one more layer deep so that like a social bank account. Casey Eberhart: (21:38) When you meet somebody, you have some in your network, you have a social bank account. It's, it's like you've opened a joint checking account with someone. Every time you deposit something into that account, it gives you the ability to withdrawal later down the road. If you try to withdraw out of a checking account that there is no money in or there's nothing in, you're in the deficit, you're in the hole before you ever start. So let's go back to Robert's example of the property manager. Where I would, where I would do it is I would leverage it out even further. So, so I've got a guy in front of me, he says, I want a property manager in the lower ward. Is that what you called it? Lower Ward. So what I would do is I would say, okay, listen, Bob, or Sally sue or whatever the investor's name is, I'm going to make a few introductions of the top three property managers that I would recommend. Casey Eberhart: (22:29) So what I would do is I would call all three of them ahead of time and tell them, hey, you're going to get a call from Sally sue or Bobby investor. I'm going to send an email, but I want to make sure that you know that I vouch for them. They're great guys. I know a little bit about them. So when you call you when they call, you have a little bit of backstory. Then I would do a warm introduction just like Robert said to all three property manager firms knowing full well that the investor is going to pick one, but what the other two are going to get out of it is they know now that Robert's working on their behalf. Number one, it gives him more bank account, more bank account juice in that social bank account. The other thing does is it also psychologically limits the liability that Robert has if something goes wrong with the investor and the one person he introduced him to, so let's say Robert Introduces Bob the investor to a property manager a and something goes to hire a Toro horribly wrong. They get in a lawsuit they hate each other for what Robert is looking for is that extra interest that could also come back to bite him if something goes gets crazy or unravels or they're not great personalities or whatever. If Robert only gives him one investor or one property manager. Then Speaker 3: (23:46) the other thing that that does is if that property manager is not a good fit, then we leave the investor high and dry. He's going to go find somebody else to give him another referral for another property manager. So I always like to give two or three referrals on the same thing so that way all three people know I'm out working on their behalf. But also it gives them the ability to pick the one that works best for what they're looking for. And it's psychologically go, I can go back to the investor or Robert can go back to the investor and say, Hey, I know the property manager Adan work, but you've got B and c here. Or if something goes haywire, you go, hey boss, that's why I gave you three. Let's go back to the other two and see if those, one of them is the better fit, don't to work. But the leverage is massive. Speaker 3: (24:36) So Robert, I know that you used, um, I know that here in Los Angeles you really built out meetup as a platform and started to build your network using meetup. I talk a lot about meetup, I work very in depth with meetup groups and people that organize meetups. Talk to me a little bit about kind of how that worked for your business and how that helped you grow the network here in Los Angeles. So you know, probably listening understands what meetup is and if not, it's, it's a, it's a platform that allows you to organize an event and use that platform to broadcast out. It is a little labor intensive. Um, they don't have a really good email CRM set up internally for you to use. That's probably by design. Um, however, here's the trick. Like I've done it. I, we have many, many meetups across the country. Speaker 3: (25:33) We, a lot of them are webinar based, some are acts or are, are in-person based. And I've, I've seen a lot of the folks in my industry say, well, I'll just do what Robert's doing right? And then three months down there meet up is gone. Right? I pick a lot of those meetups up Soto. I absolutely. So do I. We, we, we pick up these old, these you said meet up all the time, revive them and put them into a webinar based meetup. So you really, really, really have to have thought on content, right? Like you can, you can get your friends to come out to the first one and the ones, your friends who didn't make the first one will probably come out to the second one. The third meetup is really are you getting any traction? Right? And the third meet up might be as small as three or four people, but don't freak out, right? Speaker 3: (26:26) Is the ones that get traction are the ones that stay. People will go to meet up and look at all the past meetings to say, oh look, there was that. This guy knows what he's doing. This guy has traction. You've got to build out the traction. You've got to stay with it for six months. Once you do that and you'll have three, four, 500 contacts, maybe a thousand after six months, um, that you can tap into, that you can work, that you can make introductions to, that you can rely on. And um, you know, in that world, you're gonna find some, as you call them, raving fans and your raving fans will support you in no matter what you do. And so that's a really, really good way to do it. Again, it becomes a little labor intensive. So we've hired someone just to sort of Julian house stuff for our meetups, but it is a very good platform that caused, I don't know, a couple hundred bucks a year. Speaker 3: (27:19) It's nothing much that allows you to start positioning yourself as an influencer or an expert. Right. And at this point, you know, the joke is that me and my partner, it's like we're not going to any room that we're not on stage for now that might sound egotistical and all that other stuff, but we understand at this point in 10 years of doing this that it is much better to the beyond stage than it is to be in the seat. Right? And so meetup allows you to position yourself to share your expertise to the marketplace. Um, and it's a, it's a very, without paying a lot of money to the coaches and all this other stuff, you can positioning yourself as an expert, share your expertise, share with say what you need to say, share too, because people want to know the things that, you know, I don't care if you're a florist or a real estate investor, people want to know. Speaker 3: (28:14) And so you can position yourself as an expert in the delivery, your expertise to that room versus trying to figure out how to get on everyone else's stage. And then when you figured out that a lot of these stages are revenue driven, you're never going to get on that stage. So if you could just deliver your expertise to the marketplace or meetup, we find it to be, and the very, very exciting platform for us to use. Yeah. So let's, let's unpack that a time a tiny bit. So if you're not aware of how meetup works, you guys as an organizer of a meetup, they will basically play matchmaker. So you have a whole bunch of people that are out in the, in your local community that are looking to be around likeminded individuals. And so they go to meetup and they search on criteria, real estate or network marketing or you know, I want to go hikers, florist, whatever. Speaker 3: (29:03) Yeah. I want to go hiking or wedding professionals or photographers or you know, motorcycle riders, soccer players. It's, it's basically a place for people to go find people of likeminded. Well, as an organizer of meetup, it allows you to say, Hey, my meetup is based on these 15 search terms or these 15 categories or criteria. So when you start a meetup, meetup is gonna send out an email to the millions and millions of people that have said, hey, notify me when a meetup starts with this particular topic. You know, I, I'm, I'm a, I'm somebody that wants to knit and quilt and I'm a beekeeper and love hiking, right? Casey Eberhart: (29:42) So it'll, it'll start to match make and it is essentially a free or almost free lead generation machine. Yeah. So what Robert is talking about is he can start a meetup group on real estate investing in San Fernando Valley. Meet up is going to put a bunch of people in there. Now he could email all those people individually. You could email them all as a group. He could set up a Webinar to let them all come to a webinar. He could, um, create an environment for him to bring in other speakers, other folks as well. So if I take this step, take a half step further. If you are afraid of public speaking and you don't want to be on stage, use it to leverage and bring in other folks that might have more knowledge in the particular area that you have. You could say to Robert, hey, um, come on in, come on in. Casey Eberhart: (30:31) Uh, I want to have you do a half hour to my real estate group and he will because he wants to be onstage right now. The reason you want us to be on stage is because there is a phrase in the world of business, um, that not a lot of people use anymore. It used to be used quite frequently back in probably the seventies and eighties, but it goes like this. He or she who has the marker, makes the money. And essentially what that means is most of the time, all things being held constant, the person doing the presentation almost always as the expert and that expert is going to be positioned and seen as the guru, if you will, more than somebody that's just sitting in a chair. Right? So if Robert is doing a presentation in front of 40 people or 30 people or 20 people or 400 people, he is at that point perceived as somebody who has the marker, who's making the money, the, the, the cache and the influence goes to him. Casey Eberhart: (31:28) Now, one other, one other thing that is, uh, a great meetup strategy is Robert said they don't go to events if they don't, um, if they're not in the front of the room, well, here's the thing. A lot of events, they're either going to have to pay to sponsor to beyond or they have to do a big revenue split, so on and so forth in order to get on those stages. Well, what if somebody, like you has a meetup group and you've got 50 people that are all about real estate and you're kind of the guy or the Gal in your local market, and then you look at Robert and you're like, Robert, wow, he'd be amazing to come have speed. Well, here's the thing. He also has rooms where there are people. And so you could do what's called in the business a stage swat. You know, Hey Robert, you come speak on my stage, I'll come speak on your stage. And then, um, it's a great way to leverage of those folks and give the content or give the audience the best possible experience. Yup. That's how it works. Well, you got to put your time in. It is a little labor intensive when you, you've really got to deliver expertise to the marketplace or people won't come. Casey Eberhart: (32:39) Absolutely. And here's the thing, the number of people that aren't consistent, aren't willing to put the work in are super lazy. Those people won't survive, but their meetup groups will survive. So those lazy folks that come in and start it and they do one and two people show up and they're like, ah, this is stupid. I'd rather just go sit in an audience somewhere and listen, um, and network better. Well, here's what happens, guys, like Robert and I, as soon as that organizer gets so lazy that they don't pay their bill or they stepped down as an organizer, meetups are going to actually send an email. I'll say, hey everybody, that's a part of this group. We're desperate to have somebody step up and step in as a leader. Robin, we'll own that group before the end of the day. He's just, if there's 200 people in that group, he's just generated 200 leads in his ideal absolute market with, with, with not being lazy with one click of a button. Speaker 3: (33:33) Yeah. And we think them all the time. We pick them up from, uh, it's, you'd be surprised how many, how Vegan influencers that people are. They let these things drop and you know, guys doing million dollar slips up and down the, the, uh, Pacific coast, that's one drop. I pick it up. I started doing my webinars six months later. He remembers he had a meetup emails me and says, Hey, what happened? I want to, I want to do some more. And it's like, hey man, you let this thing go now, normally if it's in the first 30 days case, I just give it back. Yep. Yeah. Here you go, man. That, that's fine. Sorry. Hey, how's it going to keep it going? This what I do. But if you want to do it, if it's just a real oversight, but I'm met people come back to me a year and a half late. Speaker 3: (34:19) I used to own this meetup. Where were you when you have an obligation? Well if people are, are, are taking the time they're picking you, they're subscribing or allowing you to enter an email box, which is a pain in the ass for everyone. You have an obligation to deliver. And if you're not delivering then you know, meetup season in my way. Yup. See who say, hey you, you didn't respond. This is too bad. But again, it usually in 30 days, okay, you can have it not a problem if it's six months or a year. People coming back to me cause they see the, I've grown the group from 265 to 1500 people. No, he can have that back then. I'm looking, I'm working at now. These people are getting value and expertise for me so we don't, uh, we don't hesitate to jump on some of these meetups when they become available. Casey Eberhart: (35:10) Well, you brought up a really valid point is that number one, um, the labor is really you guys, the Labor that Robert's talking about is, is not as heavy duty burden as most of you are spending on your business anyways. It's about finding a, a banquet room at a local restaurant or a small hotel meeting room or go talk to your Keller Williams franchise and see if you can use their conference room or you know, your insurance agency that has a training room. Heck, we have here in the valley, in the Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. We have a Ford dealership that has an amazing training room where they train all the reps that you can, that you can rent. And then being able to provide as much value as possible. And if you become the person that provides value to the network, the reality is then your influence in that network is going to be huge. Casey Eberhart: (35:59) Right. You know, and it can be a super old school. Like I was just showing my little nephew, I have a 17 year old nephew who, uh, just graduated from film school camp and direct and he wants to be a director and I showed him my own, my old networking book. I used to back in, in the wayback machine. I used to have my network in a three inch binder and that binder had sheets in front of it that had names and phone numbers on it. Then there was business card sheets where I'd put business cards and I'd write notes on the business cards. Then there were sheets that were profiles of people so that if I knew Robert's wife's name was Katherine and he was in my network, I'd write Catherine, what is she interested in? She has an amazing life insurance business where she can help you create a bank for yourself, um, as an investor using the, using the tool of life insurance. Casey Eberhart: (36:48) So I'd write Katherine Orofino Life Insurance, I'd get her phone number, and then I would literally my daily activity that would be to work that notebook. How can I connect people? How can I make connections? How can I introduce Catherine to somebody else's if it's somebody else's network. Right. Because the better off you get at staying in touch with your folks. Staying connected. Now I have been to use a greeting card and gifting platform to be able to do some of that in conjunction with a CRM system in conjunction with kind of old school. Um, your network is so unbelievably valuable in terms of expanding the business. Robert, what tools do you guys use down in Houston? Oh wait, before you answer that, let's, so let's move to Houston. So you basically said, hey, I've got an opportunity in Houston, I'm going to pack up the fam, we're going to move down to Houston and we're going to kind of make our mark in Houston. What percentage of the architecture of your marketing plan in Your Business Plan did you take from Los Angeles and basically start to recreate down in Houston? Robert Orfino: (37:58) Oh, Robert Orfino: (38:00) everything at work. So we immediately started doing meetups for sure. Um, and, and what I was, what I was able to become in, in La, the little niche that I built, cause I was the guy who told you all the dirt, right? All the inside baseball stuff. There's no secrets with me. I, I'll sit up there and tell you, hey, I'm going to sell you a product products, not 1000 bucks. I'm going to make $400 for everyone I sell and it should work for you. And if it work, call me up and I'll give you your money back. Right. I was able to sit, just go, just completely honest with everything we did open books, right? And that was a lot easier, uh, to, to deliver to a marketplace like, like Houston, I was, everyone else is doing the whole, you know, you can become a millionaire and lot, you'll be, have this great lifestyle and all that stuff. Robert Orfino: (38:59) I'd stand up there and say, that's nonsense. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. This is what works. But oh by the way, you've got to put in 35 hours a week. So if you don't have 35 hours a week, it's going to be very difficult for you to do this. And we started breaking things down. This is the real amount of time. This is the real cost, right? And you know, my joke is if, if you can really do real estate for no money down and bad credit, why does the guru won $1,000 on your credit card, right? Because they're making money off of that. Then it's, you're in real estate. Guess what? You need money, right? So you may have a dream of doing this for no money, but I'm, I'm the dream crusher when it comes to it. And then I can really explain why this can work this certain way, what you really need and how your resources need to come together. Robert Orfino: (39:56) And we, we've had people come to our rooms and say, I don't want to do this. I want to do. And I'll say, great, what's your, what's your phyto? How much money did you make a year? How much money you have saved? And they're all bad answers, right? And I turned to him, I'll say, Casey, I'm going to give you the best advice you're ever going to get, that you're probably not going to take. You need to get in your car and drive Uber for the next year and save every dime that you made from Uber so that you can then have a deposit to go buy a house, or you have enough money to start a marketing program. Or You have the money so that you can do a flip. But you're gonna have to put the time in. Most people, you know, come to us and in our world I'll say, hey, what are, how are your sales and marketing skills, right? Robert Orfino: (40:44) These are like the real conversations we have. I'm not very good at, I'm a bit of an introvert. Okay, well you're not going to do well. You've got to break down that wall. And I would highly suggest you just go spend $500 with a, was an organized multilevel marketing business direct sales program where they've got tons of marketing and sales coaching already up on the website, make a small little investment. And I don't care what it is, candles, pills, lotions, oils. I don't care what it is, bottle that program. Because when you follow that program that someone's put a lot of time and effort in, just follow that program so you can get better at marketing one yourself and your expertise and products and too you become a better person on the clothes. And so you can break out of that for $500 versus going down in real estate, man, I feel a charging 25 $50,000 for coaching program. Robert Orfino: (41:42) Stay out of that rabbit hole and for $500 just work on your skills. Know that I'm going to go sell post it notes for the next six months so that I can hone my skills and move into this other space. So we, we give the hard truth and some people respect it. Some people don't. We don't have big rooms of a thousand people like some of these other events because we tell people once they come in the door, hey save here Saturday, there's, there's no magic here. There's no pixie dust. This is all work and resources. And if that's not what you're looking for, I tell him straight up, Casey, you should probably leave right now. Go to the park. It's a beautiful Saturday. Enjoy the day. Casey Eberhart: (42:31) Yeah, you know, you, you brought something really, really valuable and it's obviously near and dear to my heart as well in that, you know, somebody that goes, if somebody comes to me and I'm in the same situation, I have a lot of people come to me and say, Hey, I want to.dot, dot. Finish the sentence. Right? And what it really comes down to is they want to have what somebody else has, but they don't want to do what that person did to get there. They want to leapfrog it or, or, or take the, shortcut it with somebody that understands the power of investing. And I always go back to rich Dad, poor dad, Rich Dad, poor dad, the cashflow quadrant. You know, you want to own businesses, you want to invest in businesses. You know, something like a network marketing business is one of the best investments in terms of return on capital that you could ever get. Casey Eberhart: (43:28) Not only the entry point is not millions or hundreds of thousands, it's usually a few hundred bucks. It's going to teach you skills like marketing, Internet, social media, shaking hands, getting nos, building up your thick skin and the money that you make can be astronomical and it can also be zero. But if you go into it looking at what is the skill I'm going to get out of this experience and not focused on the money piece, it's huge. You know, like I've, one of my best friends, uh, this was when I very, very first started my coaching career. He was one of my very first clients and he said, I, um, I want to start a consulting firm. And so we have this conversation. And He, I said, well, what skill do you think you need as a consulting firm? And he understood the market that he was consulting in, but he had zero skills in sales, right? Casey Eberhart: (44:23) So we didn't really know how to talk to people. He was a super nerd computer. He can write code, he can be total nerd, um, nerd and geek, but he can know interpersonal skills. He had no um, no experience and so I was like, look, let's go find out. This was in Seattle who is rated the best sales training program in the country and let's go to work for them. And it just so happened to be xerox as though he went to work for Xerox for a year and he basically cold called high rise building offices trying to sell them copy machines. The skillset that he generated out of that was massive. Yeah, right. Same with people that, that that you know will say, oh, I'm broke. I'm working in a whole foods for 13 bucks an hour. I have no money. I'm super in debt. Casey Eberhart: (45:16) What do I do case? What do I do? I'll say, go join a network marketing company that the products or services or something that you can kind of get behind and understand that you are there to learn the skillset of building a network, interpersonal communications, how to maybe play a little bit on social media and focus on the return on that dollar for dollar investment and Start Your Business Mind in how do I look at a balance sheet? How do I look at a profit and loss statement? How much money do I put in every month? How much money do I get out every month? The the network marketing space is a mimic of real life business. Robert, you and I have both owned brick and mortar businesses. You know, I've, I've owned a bunch of businesses. You first off, you don't go buy a business for under 500 bucks. Casey Eberhart: (46:05) Number one with employees that have already taken into account websites and insurance and customer service and shipping product development, you're going to do that all on your own. You're into millions of dollars or you can go tap into a company or in a firm that's done all of that. And your job is simply to bring customers and other distributors to the table and then run it like a business. So you've got your goals, you've got at the end of the month, you look and you go, okay, well this month I spent $400 on vitamins, but I was able to move $300 worth of vitamins. So I'm now in the whole 100 bucks. And then I got paid $400, I'm net 300 up and run it and get into the habit of running that business like a business. And so often I think most people will start a business and then they run it like a hobby and then they get irritated and agitated that it, it throws off hobby money and then all entrepreneurial is bad or network marketing is bad or real estate investing is bad. You know, Robert Orfino: (47:04) it happens all the time. And that is one of the key things is to run like a business. Um, you know, we, I'm a big believer, there's a book out there by a Michael Kollwitz a the pumpkin plan. It's a really good sort of, hey this is how I'm going to start and make sure I'm putting the things away. Make sure I understand what a balance sheet is. Difference between a balance sheet and a p and l, right. Cause there is a difference. Um, make sure you understand those things and run it like business for sure. Um, it's almost like you're playing in my head. I, I have a webinar coming up this Saturday called run it like a business because too many people get into the real estate game and don't understand, um, Robert Orfino: (47:43) all the benefits you can get from running like a business. I always say, hey, there's five ways to make money in real estate. It can be a wholesaler between, you can pedal paper contracts around and wholesale a contract, one person to another. You can flip a house. That's HDTV. Look at all the, how beautiful my kitchen is and I'll make some money there. It could be a landlord. Everyone knows where the landlord is. Um, you could be just an investor, a person who just what's funny out and owns the notes or a mortgage, right? Private mortgages, there's a fifth way. If you get to the fifth way, you're doing really well. That's called depreciation. And a lot of people will buy large apartment buildings or are expensive properties just for the depreciation. But we understand that there's a massive tax benefit for real estate and you have not prepared yourself to take advantage of that tax benefit. And you're right, it's a hobby. It's just a hobby. And so when you start running it like a business man, there are two types of tax codes in this country, one for individuals and one for businesses. I'll let you decide which one you think is better. Casey Eberhart: (48:55) Yeah, yeah, Robert Orfino: (48:56) and if you've read that it's the business passcode is better than why don't you own a business? Why aren't you running your hobby like a business? Casey Eberhart: (49:05) We've kind of touched on real estate and network marketing is kind of cool that way. You know, I always crack up. It's like if you're going to buy products or using network marketing company, you guys understand that that's a business you have. You get open up to just a little taste of what Robert's talking about in terms of tax deductability things like your haircut, your, your clothing, your office. Did you use your Internet, your cable TV, your magazine subscription has all become tax deductible for 50 bucks or whatever your distribution distribution thing is. You have been fantastic at attracting and doing deals with partners and I know that a lot of times people get scared from partners. They had a bad partner or their mom's brother's girlfriend's dog catcher was a bad partner. How, how do you help? Not a, do you, I'm assuming that you like doing deals with partners. What makes a good partner? How do you, what, what are some pitfalls? What are, what do you look out for when you, when you are looking to partner with someone? Robert Orfino: (50:04) Yeah, so this is that learning process, right? It was $125,000 lesson. Um, I had a bad partner and I use a lot of my own capital to push a deal forward. Only at the end of the realize that, um, what was being told to me wasn't reality. And so I had spent over $125,000 for some green energy projects and I lost as at all. And then we're going to do that again, obviously. Right? And so I much prefer a joint venture and illimited joint venture, meaning there is a clock ticking. So the most I'll stay married to any one partner at this point is about five years. Right. Even even my, my partner would've been everything. Everything we're doing. Jason is a partner or mine. I've already told him, Hey, I'm done. Like I got a five to seven year horizon. I'm done. You're 10 years younger than me. Robert Orfino: (51:04) You want to keep going. God bless you. Keep me on as a, as a consultant and I'll let me own a little bit and I'll sell my share to someone else. And you feel that you want to bring in, we can get, you can walk away clean on this stuff, but I'm done. I have a number in my head, I'm very close to that number and I'm done. Right. I'll go start a little cafe will be my next business. I like making breakfast. Um, so I, I would tell people that you are going to do jvs joint ventures, you're going to have a really defined the roles in which people are supposed to do. Um, and then have a time limit for the partnership. That's really important. And the big thing is what happens when it hits the fan. Yup. And the way we do a lot of it is we have an attorney journey that we both respect and we say he doesn't like you, the one who was anymore. Robert Orfino: (51:59) So let him in him, let him do the, uh, the wisdom of Solomon move. And I don't have to pay for arbitration mediation or lawsuits. Right. And if he, if he says, Robert, you're wrong. And Jason is right, I can accept it. Right. And so we have the worst case scenario decided upon while we're still friends. Yep. And that's, that's the thing with partnerships and, and you know, be careful, I'll just tell you, in a real estate world, a lot of people will call it a joint venture, but it's really not. It's a, it's another form of passive investing, which is kind of illegal. You got to make sure you're, you're really have a role responsibilities for folks and what they're going to do. And we have, um, you know, and making sure your partners are taken care of is really, really important. I'm making sure that all the goals are laid out moving forward. Robert Orfino: (52:53) It's very hard for partners really to move forward at the same pace you all to beginning and then something happens and this happens. So you've really got to define the roles and what the expectations are. I would be spending probably, I mean, I would literally probably go to a hotel or something and just shut my cell phone off and sit down with my potential partner and stay there for three days and work out every detail. Who's gonna, who's this role? What's this role? Who gets hired first? Who gets hired last? Who through all of it. Really, really planned that business. It's still, when there is a problem with an event, Evan, there always will be. Yeah. Well what does our agreements say? Oh Lo Casey, you're supposed to be doing this. Are we changing the agreement now? Dude, I'll, I can take that onto, I get a little bit more of the, of the ownership. I get a little bit more of the cash. How are we feeling about that? Uh, so having very good partnership agreement. I like to do a joint venture limited five years sort of maximum. Um, then that's the best way to do it. Casey Eberhart: (54:05) Yeah. I was actually listening to, I've become recently, I've become obsessed with a real estate podcast other than do a ever, ever, I try to listen to an episode or so every day, especially as we grow the, expand the business podcast here, and the guy that was being interviewed today was talking about joint ventures and partnerships and that there's essentially a real estate delta, which is three prongs to a triangle. And it is, somebody needs to come and show up with the hustle. Someone needs to come and show up with the knowledge and someone needs to come and show up with the money. And good partnership is when you can come with at least two of those three, those, those three things. But the key is that you don't want to find a partner that has the same two of three or the same one of three of those Delta points that you do Robert Orfino: (54:57) for sure. And most importantly, when we're starting out, be aware of the person who has none of the three be the partner, right. That's, that's a, that's a red flag right there. Casey Eberhart: (55:08) Awesome. So Robert, I want to touch on one last area before, before we let you run. Um, and that is the idea of the importance and maybe you don't think it's important, but maybe you do a of how important is it for you since you guys, since you and Jason are kind of the pinnacle influencers in your ecosystem in Houston. I know you have a, a radio show you do every day, you guys are doing tons of Facebook stuff, tons of Facebook lives. You kind of become the B guys that have been able to cherry pick some of the deals that come through just by your influence. I know that in a lot of situations you're the smartest guys in the room. So I want to flip this and ask how important is it to you to have coaches or advisors or mastermind people where you have somebody that's pushing you guys that's making you stretch, that's making you think rather than, you know, I'll say it differently rather than you always being the smartest one in the room. You're involved in scenarios and situations where you're not necessarily the smartest one in the room, Robert Orfino: (56:14) right? So I will tell you that I wake up every single day and one of my quick little mantras is, is you know nothing Speaker 3: (56:25) and we're going to learn something today. So I take life in general as I'm the dumbest guy in the room and everyone here can teach me something. And it's because when I get caught up with being the smartest guy, I have failed. I have absolutely failed. Now My, my partner, Jason is very smart. He is clearly, Eh, it's clearly 10 IQ points or more higher than me. I could see it in the conversation. I become a very good reader of prison. I can see it in the conversation. I have to ask questions about the formulas in the words. I'm like, Hey, can you go over that? And a little bit different way. And he has the patience to work with me on that. Um, he, he's a genius when it comes to this stuff, right? Um, no I don't. He can't do what I do on a lot of places and we wouldn't be successful if we tried to do this alone. Speaker 3: (57:24) Um, but for sure he's a genius when it comes to business and real estate. It looks at things much, much differently. Comes up with a lot of great ideas. Just being around him is very humbling. Uh, but it's also a very exciting, every day when his outside the box thinking hits my, I've been punched in the face many, many times. Practical thinking we can come up with something that no one else is doing. And so I get coached every day by my partner. We pay for coaching. Um, we are in, we've, we, and I'll tell you, um, I've been asked to coach a lot. Uh, I don't have a for you. Say yes, let's have a chat. Yeah, let's, let me put it this way. I don't cook, but I don't say no. Someone who says, Hey, I could really use a couple hours of your time and I'll say, great, I'm at $7,000 an hour. Speaker 3: (58:23) And they're like, whoa. I'm like, yeah, okay. So you can just join my membership where I kind of give all this stuff away anyway. Or you can join my mastermind, which is where I really like to work. What I have found over this last 10 12 years does that that mastermind format is where I excel because I can walk into a room again with that mindset. I'm a dummy and I'm going to soak up so much knowledge today. Right now I enjoy the one on one hour with my coaches. It's absolutely critical. I need it, but for me, I would rather present a mastermind to the public for real estate and to do coaching because here's the reality of Real Estate Coaching Siren. Good job. I'll get back to, but on the reality of, I know I'm all over it, and the reality of Real Estate Coaching is 90% of everything you need to be a landlord, a house flipper, wholesaler [inaudible] is on the Internet the last 10% really the loading order, how you do things and when, which order is what you will pay people to learn. Speaker 3: (59:33) And in that case it could be a coach, but I would much prefer a mastermind, um, masterminds and maybe have lots of Q and a so you can get your questions answered, throw it up on a Facebook page, like your groups have a question to ask them for the group. And a lot of people give you that wisdom of the group. It's really important for me. Um, I will, I will take on a coach when I have a very specific problem, right? How do I get more contact through Facebook platform, through Instagram, through youtube. And I'll sit down with you every month and an hour and we'll go over it. Are you doing this? Are you doing that? Hey, I just heard someone do a speech on this. You guys go look it up and see if that applies to you. So we'll, we, we like that coaching but in a mastermind event and I know you also run a mastermind, um, those are phenomenal and those masterminds you want to walk into and absolutely take on the understanding that I am the dumbest guy in the world. Speaker 3: (01:00:36) Casey, you mentioned a name to me, Roland. Yep. And I was like, boy, that name sounds familiar. And I went back and I was like sure enough, I'm in his, I was in his mastermind, I paid him, he and Ken Colder did a mastermind together in that room. I was in that room with him when he had just bought the survival opening survival life.com and he was giving my all these knowledge bombs and I was like, for sure I'm a dummy in that room. Well man was I getting my money's worth right now? And being in that room with that mastermind, having access to those people, being able to call an email and text them is critical. I don't think you can do it on your own. I think it's, I think one, it's just foolish. It's, it's, it's, it's foolish to think you're going to reinvent the wheel. Casey Eberhart: (01:01:30) I think there's a lot of people that have the personality type. Well if I'm going to do it, I've got to do it myself. Cause it's the only way it's going to get get really done. And in these mastermind groups, what really occurs is that you're paying or you're investing in access of the people, not only in the group, but access to the person who are running it in terms of who their network is. I mean, you know, Roland now, um, is one of the owners of a mastermind room called the war room. That is phenomenal. I mean, Roland, Roland Frasier is, is one of the most astute business people on the planet. And uh, uh, I can't wait for him to know that this has come up. He'll get it, he'll get it to kick it off and just let me get his podcast a huge shout out. It's called the business lunch. You, you, if you're not subscribed to it, go subscribe to Roland Fraser's business lunch. It is phenomenally Leery, sits down with guys that most people would never have access to and just kind of has a conversation over lunch. It's fantastic. So, um, Robert, before we wrap this up, Robert Orfino: (01:02:34) okay, Casey Eberhart: (01:02:34) last kind of words. I want to give you kind of the floor for a minute or so and just kind of give some advice to the listeners on the show and kind of how they can help expand the business. Robert Orfino: (01:02:45) Uh, I will tell you that obviously we talk a lot about networking and that's a really big thing for us here. Um, by becoming, dropping ourselves into a lot of existing networks and saying, hey, we're here. We're going to tell the truth. We're going to give you sometimes the ugly truth, sometimes good truth, um, just okay. You know, the Internet, the Internet and Facebook and that whole world, that whole social media world is, you know, they're filled with people that look like they're leaving a good life and looks like their business is killing it. But I always say, Hey man, give me 20 minutes with any real estate investor and I'll figure it out. You know, how close they are to jumping off a cliff, right? Because there's a reality there. Um, and I think what happens is people look at this and say, Oh my God, am I, why am I failing? Robert Orfino: (01:03:38) Right? And it's, here's, here's the reality of it. They've all failed. Some of them just fell a lot faster than you. And so they race ahead of you. Um, we think that being in this business is a fantastic way to create wealth. And if you're not in this business for ego boost, you don't need to post. You're, you're betting in Vegas full of cash or pose in front of a lambo or a private jet and you can just go about your business and doing it. So in the Internet world, right, there are people that are creating wealth and growing their business and there are people that are positioning themselves in the marketing world. You don't need to do both. Casey Eberhart: (01:04:24) Yup. Robert Orfino: (01:04:25) You can just put your head down and say, I'm gonna retire in five years. And those are the folks we love to have around us. Um, I'll also say that a big thing for us was, uh, multiple streams of income. I know you hear it all the time, Casey, if you could just focus on one thing, you'd be a billionaire, right? Yeah. I to thy own self be true, understand your limitations. And what motivates you to get out of bed every day and follow through on that. And I know that I cannot focus on one thing at a time. Casey Eberhart: (01:05:03) Me Either. Robert Orfino: (01:05:04) I can focus on being a really good manager

(Originally released on 10.23.18. See ThanksForSittingIn.com for complete show notes & photos)Amberly Lago is the author of True Grit and Grace where she shares her true story of how her life was forever altered by a devastating motorcycle accident and the victory she discovered through her recovery. She inspires all to thrive and delivers hope to others who suffer from chronic pain.As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard that breezy, sunny day, Amberly was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg. Months in the hospital and 34 surgeries, along with plates, pins, and sheer will eventually spared her leg and severed femoral artery, despite the initial recommendation to amputate. However, as a sexual abuse and divorce survivor, Amberly was determined to save not only her leg, but her career, her dreams, and her dignity.Amberly was diagnosed with a nerve disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (formerly known as RSD) and deals with chronic pain daily. This chronic pain has led her to develop positive, healthy ways of coping with pain and all the emotions that come along with it, and pass it on to others in any kind of pain.This life altering experience inspires Amberly to communicate how you can turn tragedy into triumph. She demonstrates how you can hit rock bottom and still find the strength to get back up. She instills hope to keep moving forward by sharing different tools and strategies that have worked for her.“Everything we go through in life, prepares you for your destiny.” – Amberly LagoNOTE: Since our interview, Amberly has fulfilled her dream of being on a live TedTalk. See her video here.SHOW NOTES:Growing up in TexasGetting involved in sports and danceLessons from a tough track coachDreaming of dancing in L.A.Welcome to L.A. !“Can’t Touch This”The move to being a personal trainerThe accidentLife in the hospitalDr. Wiss and hopeLife lessons for her youngest daughterInspiring the world one person at a timeRAPID FIREDeterminationDepressionFavorite type of danceFUTURE!A TED Talk and a future bookLearn more about Amberly on her websiteFollow TFSI on Instagram

As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly Lago was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard on that breezy, sunny day, Lago was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg.   After months in the hospital and thirty-four surgeries later, Amberly’s leg and severed femoral artery were spared, despite the initial recommendation to amputate. Amberly found the hope and faith needed to not only save her leg but also her career, her dreams, and her dignity.   Truly facing the greatest challenges that any of us could even begin to imagine, Amberly has found the ability to walk again while continuing to live with chronic pain after being diagnosed with CRPS. Her unwavering commitment to regain her active lifestyle of training clients transformed her tragedy into victory and motivates her audiences from all walks of life to find resilience in their own difficulties.   I consider myself to be blessed to have the honor to welcome Amberly on today's show, and you've got a front-row seat to this inspiring conversation. Learn how taking one day at a time in even the worst of circumstances has allowed Amberly to persevere and realize personal victories again and again. Discover the PACER technique and how you can use this very same technique to accomplish your goals, do more in your life than you ever thought possible, and significantly reduce stress and anxiety.   Hear Amberly discuss how she has reinvented herself against unimaginable odds and how she has truly come out on top (and continues to do so). Discover why community is so incredibly important and why all of us need to embrace community in order to truly succeed in whatever we set our sights upon.   Learn more about Amberly and her inspiring book, "True Grit and Grace," at amberlylago.com, follow her on Instagram at amberlylagomotivation, on Twitter at amberlylago, and on Facebook at amberlylagospeaker. God bless!

As a personal trainer, wife, and mother, Amberly Lago was living the California dream until it turned into a nightmare in May 2010. As she rode her Harley down Ventura Boulevard, Amberly was hit by an SUV, throwing her thirty feet down a busy street and shattering her right leg. Despite an arduous recovery process, being a former professional dancer and athlete she was determined to walk again and return to work as a fitness trainer. After a lengthy hospital stay and 34 surgeries, doctors were able to fuse her leg together and repair her severed femoral artery despite the initial recommendation to amputate. However, Amberly was diagnosed with a nerve disease called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (formerly known as RSD) and deals with chronic pain daily. This chronic pain has led her to develop positive, healthy ways of coping with pain and all the emotions that come along with it, and pass it on to others in any kind of pain. This episode is all about turning tragedy into triumph. In This Episode, You Will Learn: How your whole life can change in the blink of an eye How she has undergone 34 surgeries to save her leg Why Amberly asked for a chin up bar to be installed in her hospital bed Why having a purpose is essential in your recovery How she discovered the power of gratitude How accepting her scars and new self-image gave her freedom Why you need to embrace your vulnerabilities What it is like living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) on a daily basis Why we need to stop comparing ourselves to others How To Get In Touch With Amberly: Instagram Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Website

"Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show" - November 27, 1953. "The Traffic Problem In Los Angeles," or "Dante's Inferno." Phil and Elliott start to paint a crosswalk on Ventura Boulevard and wind up in jail. Hearing their case is Judge Julius Abruzzio!

A galaxy of beautiful adult film stars will be joining us on Inside The Industry for a very special LIVE radio broadcast and store signing from "69 Adult" 14510 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks with host James Bartholet, and co host KiKi Daire . The stars include; Raven Bay, Misty Stone, Mia Li, Cassandra Cruz, Mia Austin, Rilynn Rai, Liv Aguilera, Sarah Vandella, and more to be announced. The girls will be discussing their new projects, and they will be taking calls “live” from listeners nationwide on the air, and remember this is also an autograph store signing, so fans are invited to come and attend. As always, the talk is hot, lively, and informative. Inside The Industry is continuing their weekly on air contests. this week's contests include a chance to win a free promotional item from Pipedream Products, an autographed DVD or an autographed 8X10.

A galaxy of beautiful adult film stars will be joining us on Inside The Industry for a very special LIVE radio broadcast and store signing from 69 Adult at 14510 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks with host James Bartholet, and co-host KiKi Daire. The stars include; Raven Bay, Misty Stone, Mia Li, Cassandra Cruz, Mia Austin, Rilynn Rai, Liv Aguilera, Sarah Vandella, and more to be announced. The girls will be discussing their new projects, and they will be taking calls live from listeners nationwide on the air, and remember this is also an autograph store signing, so fans are invited to come and attend. As always, the talk is hot, lively, and informative. Inside The Industry is continuing their weekly on air contests. this week's contests include a chance to win a free promotional item from Pipedream Products, an autographed DVD or an autographed 8X10.

A galaxy of beautiful adult film stars will be joining us on Inside The Industry for a very special LIVE radio broadcast and store signing from "69 Adult" 14510 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks with host James Bartholet, and co host KiKi Daire . The stars include; Raven Bay, Misty Stone, Mia Li, Cassandra Cruz, Mia Austin, Rilynn Rai, Liv Aguilera, Sarah Vandella, and more to be announced. The girls will be discussing their new projects, and they will be taking calls “live” from listeners nationwide on the air, and remember this is also an autograph store signing, so fans are invited to come and attend. As always, the talk is hot, lively, and informative. Inside The Industry is continuing their weekly on air contests. this week's contests include a chance to win a free promotional item from Pipedream Products, an autographed DVD or an autographed 8X10.

I welcome author and motivational speaker Amberly Lago to the SoCal podcast studios to tell her amazing and inspiring story. Amberly is the author of True Grit and Grace: Turning Tragedy into Triumph. Amberly offers a message of personal potential, acceptance, and living life to the fullest. Unlike the next motivational speaker or peak performance advocate, Amberly comes across as authentic, vulnerable, and overall the real deal. She offers up empowering insights and in the next breath describes how tough it is to use the tools we know we have at our disposal in daily life. Her story is going to blow your mind and give you a fresh perspective about managing whatever challenges you face each day with a little more sensitivity and gratitude. One day in May of 2010, Amberly was coming home from another great day as a personal trainer and fitness enthusiast (hitting a PR for an 11-mile run that day!) and sustained a terrible motorcycle accident. She was T-boned by an inattentive driver, thrown 30 feet down busy Ventura Boulevard in LA. Her right leg was nearly shattered and the femoral artery was severed. Refusing the option to amputate her leg, Amberlyendured 34 surgeries and a severe complication of contracting the dreaded condition of Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. As Amberly details her story of suffering and recovering, beautiful insights arise from the nuances of the conversation and her speech patterns, so listen carefully! She talks about how her husband’s support carried her through the dark times, and came in different forms—including setting her straight when she was complaining too much. She talks about the “toolbox” she has developed to deal with her chronic pain and other life challenges, which consists of keeping physical, mental, and spiritually fit each day. She realizes that the chronic foot pain she deals with to this day serves as a natural governor for her to keep her Texas-tough competitive intensity in check, and emphasize downtime and stress management techniques. Amberly talks about the importance of mindfulness—staying focused on the present and redirecting any “coulda, shoulda, woulda” ruminations from the past, or stressing about the future. She talks about how her morning routine gets her into a healthy mindset to tackle her day, especially the practice of expressing gratitude for three things in your life as soon as you wake up. Amberly offers up some memorable quotes, but in her case, it’s not just a pithy quote, it’s how she really lives her life. “Start where we are, use what we have, do what we can.” Can it get any better than that for direction on how to live a happy, healthy life?! Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-get-over-yourself-podcast/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands