Hello, and welcome to the first ever episode of Strictly Business, a new podcast from the most authoritative brand in media and entertainment news, Variety. I'm the co editor in chief at Variety, Andrew Wallenstein, and in just a minute you're gonna hear me interview the very special guests of this podcast premiere, Kevin Hart's, recorded on stage March twenty one, the Variety's annual event, massive, the Entertainment Marketing Summit. But first, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what you can expect from Strictly Business. The title says it all, really, this podcast is squarely focused on the biz part of show biz. Variety journalists, including myself and our managing editor of Television, Cynthia Littleton, we'll sit down with top decision makers from TV, film, digital and other areas of the media world for interviews. They give insights into how they conduct their businesses and how they see the trends shaping the industry at heart. Now you might be asking yourself, sounds great, Wallenstein, but why on earth does a comedian like Kevin Hart belong on a podcast like this? He's just talent. But that's where you're wrong. In addition to being a box office sensation, he's quietly built at a growing range of businesses in Hollywood, and as you're about to hear, Heart aspires to be a bona fide mediamocal. So thanks for checking out this first episode of Strictly Business, and make sure you subscribe to this podcast after you're done listening to Kevin Hart. Thanks for coming over. Kevin really appreciate it. No problem, out of busy schedule, no problem. I like how you just hop right into it. Hello, everybody, very very intimate room. I like it. Good. Good. Now, Look, we all know you Kevin Hart, the movie star, JUMANGI, the Riot Along movies and all that, the big deal, the big well you've got. You've got some big deals going on. On the side, we want to explore the side of you as a businessman. You are doing so much in so many places, from touring books, the laugh Out Loud Network, Heartbeat Production Company. Serious, Yes, am I forgetting anything? And uh yeah, you know, I getting a lot of stuff. Um No. The brand of Kevin Hart, uh you know, has become a larger one. You know, so from the laugh Out Loud Network to having a laugh out Loud channel serious like you said. Um, also you know the Heartbeat Productions and the growth of my company now um having Heartbeat Digital. Also underneath the Heartbeat Productions Umbrella New Generations Promotion, which is a marketing company that I started. Um, you know my touring which acts as a separate entity because I own that as well. It's just I've I've just put myself in a position to try to control as much as I possibly can. And I want the business side of Kevin Hart to catch up to the actor and the comedian. And I think these are all things that are putting me in position to do that. And when they do, they all service one another. You know. The goal is to have a complete circle that just continues to go around and round health services each other. Was this your vision and was it division from the beginning or was it once you got to a certain level of fame you said, Okay, I gotta capitalize on those Um. You know you I don't think it was an immediate vision of mine. I think it's something that I discovered. You know, when you when you're working, you realize that your work for hire. You know, you're you're contracted, uh entertainer. You know you work when they need you to work, or if something comes along and they feel like you're the right person for it, then you're hired. Uh, you're gonna hear a bunch of nose. Ultimately that gets you to the one yes. But these things weren't consider And I said, you know, I want to put myself in a position where I can have consistency, and the only way to do that is to control. So the start, the starting, the starting conversation behind the production company is one that I had with my team, my manager, and I told him, I said, you know, I want to be a partner. I don't I don't want to just keep being the guide that they're hiring. I would love to put myself in a position to be a partner with these movie studios. How do I position myself as a partner? How do I how do I have that type of value? How can I bring that value? And the conversation of development and creating um was one that we had and I said, you know what, then I can in a similar team that acts as my creative team, and we do things unneath the heartbeat umbrella, and we take these products and we sell them, but we sell them in a way to where studios understand the partnership behind whatever it is that I'm doing. Ultimately, as that grows, production company grows and you know, you're doing movies with it with Kevin hard in him. But I have an opportunity to just use my star now to be the driving force behind the movies that I'm selling, which is making my company that much stronger. Now when we're talking and driving force, I want, I want to get real because I've talked to talent like yourself that have talked about businesses, but from what I understand that they're not really that involved. They've got guys who do that. What I hear you are truly involved, hands hands on. So what do you find the time because you're doing a lot, You're on social media a lot. That's the whole other thing we gotta get to. Oh I don't I definitely don't have a time. I don't have time to take a ship I uh. Um. You know what I've learned is that you you prioritize, you know, and this and this. Uh in this business, you make time for what's important. Um. I don't want to be a guy that has these things and not know what's going on. I don't want people to run my my destiny. I don't want you to come in and do all the world and then tell me that this is X, Y and Z and I I go and I wave and it looks like I'm the guy when I'm really not the guy. Um. I love knowing. I love being informed, I love being aware. I love the fact that you know I have these conversations with CEOs and presidents and I'm respected and looked at the same way because I know what. I'm truly doing the work. So when it comes to actually having my hands in it, they're in it. You know. I'm not just reading the scripts. I'm developing. I'm finding the writers. I'm in the meeting with the writers to get the script to where we wanted. I'm talking to the studio about promising X, Y and Z, justifying what I need. This is a budget versus this, telling them why we're choosing side A versus Side B. I'm having those conversations because the bigger the bigger that I get, the bigger these conversations gets, and the bigger that the conversations get, the easier it is for me to get things done because the trust that goes along with the business and the brand of who I am becomes an immediate trust, you know. And I think within the relationships that I have in partnerships, within the studios that I've worked with, from Universal, from Sony to Warner Brothers, they now have a trust that Kevin he does the work. You know, he's he's going to do the work. He's he's such a perfectionist that he's not going to bring anything back half asked. So let's invest in him. Let's invest in his company. So it sounds like you're kind of in the middle of this journey in terms of the empire that you're building. I mean, where does it go next to there? Or what mountains are you looking to conquer? Areas of content you haven't even gone to yet. Man, Well, I mean, look, I'm I'm The goal of being a mogul is a real one, you know. I want to be a mogul. I want to be a billionaire. I want to get to a point where you look back and you go, damn, this is a little dirty kid from Philadelphia that had no idea, uh you know, where his life was going to go. And once I got an inklet of what I could do, I made a decision to give it a hundred percent, and you get one life, you know, out there, one life. You can make it mean something. You can be content with wherever you are, or you can be the person that says, I'm gonna maximize my time when it's earth and when it's all said and done, I want a story. I want people to tell an amazing story. I want to be able to look back and go, holy sh it, look at what I created. Look at the people that are now really really affected by this creation. You know, I I gotta I gotta forty people on staff right now. You know when I look up and I'm responsible for people's lives and livelihoods, And that's a That's a big thing to me, the fact that I know that I'm in position to do that and that these people believe in this vision. These people are giving me a hundred percent because they say we're gonna follow you, keV to the wilds all off, because the passion behind your drive and dream is real. To me, that's the biggest thing in the world. So you know, when I when I have these meetings with my team, with my staff, I'm not just selling you on today's work. I'm selling you on the future of what we can be. Heartbeat Productions will be a big partner. Heartbeat Productions will do big studio work. Heartbeat Productions will be tomorrow's future company when it comes to development and and producing for for any type of films from comedy to to you know your dramas. I want to do it all. I can't sit back and watch other people be successful and give me a blueprint and not do it. I just can't. I have too many relationships where they let me know how they got there, from Oprah to Tyler to jay Z too, Ellen. I have too many people in front of me that are doing too many amazing things that say this is how I did it. For me not to do it. I got tons of times. By the time I'm forty five, you guys are gonna be telling a completely different story. It's gonna be holy shit. You remember at the Variety thing, he said he was gonna do it, and I'll be damned if he didn't do it. He did it. H sounds great. So let's see, We've talked about various pieces of the puzzle. I want to get into it, and starting with not to say it's the most important piece. But social media does seem to be almost like the hub that a lot of these different spokes that we're talking about is connected to. That's where your brand is in front of people every single day. You seem to have really embraced that in a way that I think most mainstream celebrities kind of came late to. Uh. Look, there's a there's a gift in the curse behind it, you know, and and that's expected. The gift behind social media that I've realized a long time ago is it's access. You know, today's star in today's celebrity. Um, you're you're big, and you become bigger when your fans feel like they see behind the closed door. You know, there was a there was a time where there was such a mysterious mystique about you know, your stars. You only saw him when it was time to see him. You saw him on a billboard, and you saw him when they did a talk show to promote whatever they had. Outside of that, you didn't see him. That's when the pictures that were taken by these magazines, that's why they were so they were celebrated at the highest level. Oh my god, we just saw camera Cameron Diaz at the coffee shop and she's got a coffee and she's looking at you, and everybody's like, oh my god, look at her doing regular people's stuff. Look at this. Uh you know it was those pictures were so that's what made that business so big. It was who can capture a regular moment of a celebrity? And I think and in our society, we've got to these are people. Social media has allowed these stars to show that there are people. Hence, when you do that, you're following growths because the authenticity behind the person that we're supporting, it's real. Yo, he's brushing his teeth on Snapchat. Oh my god. Did you see the video of Kevin with his kids and they're doing regular stuff. Oh my god, look at Kevin playing with his dog. Do you see it. It's it's showing that you're real. And that's why I embrace it. I don't ever want there to be a disconnect. I feel like, you know, these people have invested in me. You've invested in my life. I've grown because you've grown with me. So I do owe my fans are service I I do. I want you to see I want you to see the normalcy behind who I am. I want you to see that I'm a grounded, real guy. I love hard, I am about my family, and you know, good and bad with problems. You put it out there. You let people go through the problems with you, because when you relate to it, you understand that we're all human and it's one We all handle problems ultimately different, but the same, good, bad, negative, positive. You're human. Social media allows you to show that I like that I can talk to my fans getting the media reaction. I don't just want to take. It shouldn't be a take relationship. It should be a give and take. So those moments where I take ten minutes to do a video just saying I'm so excited about X, Y and Z, I just want to tell you guys to go out put passion behind what you're doing. Have a level of excitement about the way you approach your days. There's people that watch that and go, fuck, yeah, I was I was dragging the day. I didn't feel like doing this, but I just saw Kevin do this little thing from the car. He right There's you would be surprised at the effect that this has on the generation. It really does. Man, some people need to push some people need that motivation. Social media allow me to give it to you, real, raw and in your face every single day. And you know those numbers don't lie. I'm I'm at like a hundred and thirty million people attention to media. Yes, it's me, it's me on there, me every day. Me. It's a job every day. I wake up, good morning, I'm up every day. I stayed true to it. You know, There's been days where I didn't post and I would go check my timeline and people think I'm dead? What the fun? Where? Where's Kevin? Has anything? Like I've honestly checked and people have like a certain did anybody is Kevin? Okay? He hasn't posted anything like you feel. People feel a void. So I make sure that I'm that I'm on it. I'm very adamant about doing it. And that's just a piece of the puzzle. In terms of what you're doing in terms of digital content, talk about the Laugh Out Loud Network, which you know we talked earlier about Heartbeat. You could just be producing TV and film and making some good money off that. What is it about going to digital where monetization could be a little more difficult? Well, it. Uh, it's very difficult. First and foremost. I mean, look, this is a world where a lot of people have attempted to find success and a lot of people have failed. Um, which is which makes it even more intriguing for me. You know, how can I do it correctly? I got to see people crash and burn? What mistakes that they make? What did they do? What didn't they do? Um? I wanted to follow a blueprint that was more artists friendly, I said. Right now, when it comes to laughter, there's no one destination that people have to go that's just for comedy, like multicultural all types of comedy. There's not one hub, I said. I want to create a multi cultural platform where we celebrate comedy. We celebrate uh, you know, from from comedians to content creators to your future writers, your future directors. This is a place where we can go and give opportunities to those people that don't get them right now to go and shoot for the stars. Is it's hard, you know, it's very far. A few and in between people are gonna walk into HBO and get deals at HBO. You know, there's there's a limited access to get there. But when you look at the Internet and you look at what drives the Internet, it's content. So you have these people that are making content on a day to day basis with their phone with a little five D camera and they cut these videos up themselves and they put it up, but it lives and it goes. I said, what if I go get those people? What if we're artists friendly? What if those people can come here and we service them correctly, give them pieces of ownership within the content, but they can grow. What if laugh Allowed becomes a space where we grow with the artists, almost like title. You know what jay Z did his title. It was pretty amazing because he said, everybody's taken from the artists. I want to give I want to give something to the artist. Instantly, that made artists say I want to go over there man, because they're not trying to do what everyone else is doing. People try to wrap all this talent up and they try to own you. I don't want to do that. What if I'm giving a different opportunity and I make it. I make it much more comfortable for these future comedians of tomorrow to come here. But you know what, some people look at what jay Z went through with title, and it's not exactly a smooth road for him. Were so when you look at doing digital content, were you at all intimidated about like, how do we get this right? Jay z is at his sered roll. But no, you're gonna nothing's gonna be perfect. I mean, that's what separates the greats from them that great. You know, it's not going to be easy. You're gonna get some some cobble stone that you gotta go over. It's how you maneuver and how you handle it. You know, you take your punches in the stomach and you learn how to defend after that. Within this, I notice is a crowded space. I know it is the one thing that I have within my digital platform is Kevin hard Kevin Harker is stand in front of it, and I can say I stand behind it. I can say I'm involved. I'm putting a personal stamp on this business. I'm putting a personal stamp on deliver bring some of the best comedy that I feel that you can find on the internet. Why can't I say that? Because right now I sit as the number one comedy star in the world. So I think that I have a little bit of I think I have a background where people are gonna go I believe him. I think people are gonna say, I'm gonna follow him, I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna watch it. But the way that this works is you have to get a partner that believes you. You need somebody to see a vision as clear as you do. John Felt Harmer at lions Gate saw the vision. He said, do you want to do this? I said, I want to run it. Sitt fifty with me. Let me be a real CEO. Let me approve the budgets, let me do this. If anything goes against crazy, we meet and we discuss it as businessmen. Let me show that I'm more than capable of putting a team together, structuring what I feel a digital network should be and should look like, delivering funny daily and not only delivering funny, talking about it, engaging, being authentic behind it. And after I get to a certain point where we're happy, and right now we are. I mean, we have over eight hundred thousand active users on our platform. When we do flip the switch and go subscription, you'll see that those users will be happy because we'll go premium with our content. I'm following a band. I'm following a brand that's been proven. You know what is considered premium, what premium works, what doesn't work, what's quality over quantity? What can I do that can be a clear example for what we can deliver. Having those meetings, having those conversations, getting the understanding I got it now, I'm doing it. Once I do it, and I do it at a high level, you'll see that people will continue to come aboard. And when they do, you'll look up and go, holy sh it. We started off is just a small idea. It's now a big brand, a big business. Kevin Hart sits at the head of it. Well, not only you sit at the head of it. The thing I was amazed by when I looked at laugh At Network is you're on a lot of these shows. You are really putting yourself in it. Is there a risk there though, where people come to associate with you and then when they see people who are not you, you've let them down. Well you have to you have to learn balance. You know, right now, you don't see me on TV. I'm not on the TV show. I don't have a TV show. I haven't had one for years outside of Hub's Hollywood when that was on I haven't done TV, but what you're able to do on the Internet is is do different content, but be real within the content. You know, I keep I keep pushing authenticity. A talk show with Kevin Hart is an amazing talk show. Coldest Balls. I mean, we didn't describe what Coldest Balls is. Just nobody thought I was talking about my balls. Good y'alls. Sorry, Uh, Coldest Balls is a talk show that was created for me, Um and whoever it is that's my guests to do an interview while sitting in a cold tub. Um, the whole interview with us in the cold tub, and I get to I get to ask questions that nobody else would ask. Its center around me and athletes and the show. We did it, and we just wanted to do it. Where we did six, We do six, and we got some people that we know will want to watch. But I wanted to see the response Um overall. I mean they probably had like two hundred million views between the six. We beat television, you know, within our viewership and within the numbers. And what I got to see was there's a want to see me and these other entertainers. There's a want to see Kevin have a conversation. So this is going to act as premium content for us because we've done a test. So now let's go out and will roll out the red carpet. Let's throw a real budget behind it. We do twelve. Now on those twelve the guests get bigger, but the guests not just get bigger, the conversation gets better. And then I now have a real form of a talk show that's only available on my platform. So the things that people want to see, I have held out from doing it so I can make it available where I ultimately want you to go. So when you say Kevin doing all these things is at a risk, not really, because you can't see me anywhere else. The movie business is separate from what this is. Kevin having fun and putting on makeup and prosthetics, being an old man driving a lift car for a day. You're not gonna get bored of that. You're not gonna that. You're not gonna go that's too much. It's funny, filler content. You're gonna go look at Kevin stupid as in the car talking to these people. It's things that I can do to drive traffic. And once I get you there, you now see that there's so much stuff and you fall in love with the world of laugh Out Lot that we created. But I have to be the reason you come. After you came and you saw, now I feel like I've conquered. I need to keep you there. Getting you there is one thing keeping you there is another Kevin harton my content. Just get you there. The things that you'll see outside of it, that's what's going to keep you there. So I don't I don't think it's that much of a risk for me. Um. You know, I make sure that it's not overdone. I'll make sure it's done correctly, and the pieces that I do decide to do it all quality. It's interesting here you talk about you know where you want to be versus where you don't. He just kind of staying off TV. I just saw you on Instagram this morning with serious xm CEO Scott Greenstein recusally taking satellite radio series. Why they're um, why not? You know? It's something else that exists, Uh, something else that I can have my hand in. You know, how do I how do I service each engine? You know? How how can I put the pieces to this puzzle together and make that circle go round and round. Is there any delution risk where you're spreading yourself in so many different directions, you exhaust yourself, you exhaust the content. Any risk there? Now? Do it all? I don't understand why people work hard to get comfortable. Do it all? Why not? Man? Listen? Howard Stern makes eight to ninety million dollars a year on the radio. Ninety million dollars a year. Howard Stern is in net radio booth for an hour and a half out the day. Hour and a half Howard Stern comes in the booth, does his interview, puts his code on, grabs a coffee, gets in the elevator, says goodbye. Five days a week, ninety million dollars on the radio. Do you people do not understand these numbers. I can't look at that and go I want some of that. I can't. I can't say I have a talent. I have a voice. I also am able to open up so many different doors because of how maneuver some some entertainers do it, some don't. I just I will be a fool to not go and have a serious channel within the conversation that I can have, because they have to be different conversations with me at the level I am. So my conversation with Scott is I don't want to show, I want to channel. I want ownership within the channel. If you give me that, you get a hundred percent of me bringing you more people, so you ultimately get more subscribe bibers. Within that level of ownership, I'm going to bring the advertisers. I'm gonna bring other people here that give you a different bang. Because now you have a Kevin Hart. You have a Kevin Hart ran channel where Kevin Hart actually has a show. So having that that makes you look better because now you've got big stars coming too serious. It makes you look like you're doing things like you switching it up. More other stars may come because of me coming here. You having that knowledge and understanding. Give me what I want, and I'm gonna give you what you want to return, which is success. Now think about it. If my radio show does grow and does get big, how do I promote my tour? I do it to social media. I can do it on my show. I don't have a budget that I go out and and spend on X, Y and Z. I am new generation promotion, I am my marketing. Holy shit, I got a movie coming out. Uh, I can now have a studio go through new generation promotion to buy time on laugh Out Lives. Serious chance. You know, you can run your promo, you can run commercials. Holy shit, Kevin is just taking things and passing it to himself professionally. It's it's it's a it's a thing that you have. When you get it, you get it. For example, I went out and I bought stages. Okay, I know that. Within laugh Aloud, I said, we're gonna be doing this content. I said, we go out. We always renting from these different studios, you know, Milk Studios, Hollywood Studios, whatever. But the budget within renting this space becomes a large number when you look up, if you go and look at your year, how much of you spending running X, Y and Z. That's a lot, Kevin, So why not why not look for stages? So this way we built whatever the sets are, we own them. They're interchangeable, and we can just keep keep things in this environment. Can we find them? We can go look found two stages. Let's remodel the stages and I don't know stages. I have a budget here on laugh out Loud. Laugh Out Lout can do that and pay for it. But then I'll take the money back from the work that we're doing and get it back to laugh all loud they recoup. But now all of that talent that I'm finding go to my stages, Guys, I got stages and everything set up for you to go. I don't have the service other people to do what I'm doing. I'm servicing myself. So in return, this stage is now a real, real, real, real positive, positive positive investment because guess what. As laugh Out allow grows, the stage continues to grow. Now everybody finds out about the stage, guess what people want to go and shoot. If you're in the valley now, Kevin Hart has a stage right there, guys, let's see if we can access to use Kevin stage. Now people end up paying for my stage because you're gonna rent it from me. How do you rent it? You got shipped to do, you got photo shoots, you got other stuff. You got it all here unless you guys gonna go drive all the way to Hollywood if you don't want to go right here in the valley, man, that makes sense, unless you use Kevin sage. Even lying gate now knowing that I have a stage lions Gate now would do business at the stage. Hey, guys, we can do this and we can do that. It's now another business, it's now something else once again, that's feeding the other engines. Everything has to hand it's it has to hand something to something. That's the circle that I'm talking about. When I look at Tyler Perry and I have these conversations with Tyler Perry, I'm blown away by what this man's vision is. Tyler Perry took land and built the stage on the land, and Atlanta is the biggest, the biggest attraction to doing any movies. They gotta go to Tyler Perry. If you're a studio, how do you as the as the head of the studio. You can only laugh at the fact that you're now shooting on Tyler perry stages. Mcdea, he got stayed. You gotta go shoot on his stages. That that blows me. I'm like the fact that they did Black Panther on Tyler Perry stay age. You had to rent that ship from Tyler. I can only laugh at that level of success. How do I do that? Tyler? Tell me what you did? How? I want to know how? Why? Why not? How did you do it. As soon as he told me, I'm going to go do it. I would be a fool not to. How do I make real opportunities? How do I put myself in a position to give this younger generation which I didn't have. I got here. Took me eighteen years, but I got here. I can make it easier for those that aren't going to have the same opportunities, which which leads to one last question. I hear you talking about Tyler Perry, Howard Stern. Do is there anyone mobile out there who gave you a piece of advice that is just sort of your true north, the thing that guides you as you build this empire. The biggest piece of advice came from, uh, not a mogul, but my mother. My mother's advice was, you can be great or you cannot be great. Sounds so simple, but so much under that you can be great or you cannot be great? Do you do things to do it half ass? Do you do it to go a hundred percent? This came when I was swimming and I was going to practice every day, and I half asked, everything is swimming? Everything I was. I was fine with being last. Then want to do it? And then I got to the swim meets and all these other kids were amazing kids, getting awards left and right. I'm the kid with no award. I'm sitting there with a goddamn participant ribbon and and my mom we're in the car because we didn't have a car, so we had a car pool, and she she says to me, you like your ribbon, and I was like yeah, and I I look over at Doug, and Doug had trophies. Doug has so many goddamn trophies and he was my friends. So we tried to make me feel better. He's like the ribbon is nice, like he's just trying to be and my mom just was like, next year, maybe you get another ribbon, and that's when they clipped. I was like, I want trophies. I want to fucking trophies, man. So that mindset from that day on was the one that I had. It's I don't do things to not get the trophy. I want the trophy, the trophy and entertainment. It's success, its ownership, it's a brand. These other actors and entertainers are fine and comfortable with being worked for hire. I'm not comfortable with that. I'm not comfortable with doing movies when they feel like it's a good idea for me to do. I'm not comfortable knowing that these things are being created and developed by people that are hungry, that know that if I do, if I do twenty scripts, I'm gonna sell for you. Got writers that think like that. I'm gonna right ten, hopefully I sell one. But they're hungry. How do I find all those hungry people and put them underneath my umbrella? I just hired John Chang. I think John is Are you here? John? Are you here? John shot? So if he is, he probably okay, he's over the back. I just hired John Chang to come over and uh be my head of development for film and TV right now Heartbeat Productions. And I had a conversation with John and I said, Dude, I know you can go anywhere you want. I know that people know what you're capable of, they know the work that you had put in. I want you to come and start over, and here's why, because I'm gonna be with you. I'm gonna be by your side, and I'm gonna help you get the things that you want to get done. But you will be solely responsible for coming believing in the vision and taking Heartbeat Production from step one to step whatever. You would be responsible for standing by my side, and I will not let you down. I will invest in you to simply invest in my dream and vision. He said, I'm in. I do the work. I don't need nothing else. What you just told me sold me. I'm sold on your vision. Me and John have been in this office every goddamn day vetting out our plan to take over Hollywood. And it sounds so crazy. It sounds so crazy. But if you don't have that, if you don't have the mentality of takeover, do everything, you're not gonna do nothing. I align myself with somebody that had the same vision that grasps my dream, and I'm telling you people, mark my words. Within this year, you're going to see so much activity from Heartbeat Productions. Within two years, Heartbeat Productions will live with or without Kevin Hart. Heartbeat Productions will be producing movies that are being done all over Hollywood, with or without me, because I got a team of people that understand that that's our goal. Our goal is to not lean on the back of the star to create opportunities for the other stars. We're gonna be a hub that people want to come and that they want to deal with because of who stands in front of it. Now, mark my words, laugh Aloud will be a major force within this digital space. It's been two years, eight hundred thousand users actively on my app. You give me five years. You watch were laugh out Loud is. You watch the conversation behind this digital platform. You watch how the multicultural aspect becomes a real one. You watch how I find a discover comedians globally Indonesia, Asia, Australia, and I bring them on this platform and be celebrated. You watch the reaction that that has. You watch the growth that we have festivals, laugh Allow comedy festivals. Simply creating opportunities and using my stardom to make other stars. I don't want to do it by myself. I want to see other people make it too. That's what I'm about. You're not gonna lose when people see your heart and understand the real drive behind your business for people. I'm a people person. Some make people win. That's why Kevin Hardys thank you. Kevin, appreciate you coming out today. We're really impressive what you've done so far can't wait to see what's next. Thank you. Well that's all for this week's edition of Strictly Business. Tune in next week when I sit down with Marvel's Mindy Hamilton's senior VP of Global Partnerships, as she talks about the marketing muscle behind huge films like Black Panther and the upcoming Avengers Infinity War

Hello, and welcome to the first ever episode of Strictly Business, a new podcast from the most authoritative brand in media and entertainment news, Variety. I'm the co editor in chief at Variety, Andrew Wallenstein, and in just a minute you're gonna hear me interview the very special guests of this podcast premiere, Kevin Hart's, recorded on stage March twenty one, the Variety's annual event, massive, the Entertainment Marketing Summit. But first, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what you can expect from Strictly Business. The title says it all, really, this podcast is squarely focused on the biz part of show biz. Variety journalists, including myself and our managing editor of Television, Cynthia Littleton, we'll sit down with top decision makers from TV, film, digital and other areas of the media world for interviews. They give insights into how they conduct their businesses and how they see the trends shaping the industry at heart. Now you might be asking yourself, sounds great, Wallenstein, but why on earth does a comedian like Kevin Hart belong on a podcast like this? He's just talent. But that's where you're wrong. In addition to being a box office sensation, he's quietly built at a growing range of businesses in Hollywood, and as you're about to hear, Heart aspires to be a bona fide mediamocal. So thanks for checking out this first episode of Strictly Business, and make sure you subscribe to this podcast after you're done listening to Kevin Hart. Thanks for coming over. Kevin really appreciate it. No problem, out of busy schedule, no problem. I like how you just hop right into it. Hello, everybody, very very intimate room. I like it. Good. Good. Now, Look, we all know you Kevin Hart, the movie star, JUMANGI, the Riot Along movies and all that, the big deal, the big well you've got. You've got some big deals going on. On the side, we want to explore the side of you as a businessman. You are doing so much in so many places, from touring books, the laugh Out Loud Network, Heartbeat Production Company. Serious, Yes, am I forgetting anything? And uh yeah, you know, I getting a lot of stuff. Um No. The brand of Kevin Hart, uh you know, has become a larger one. You know, so from the laugh Out Loud Network to having a laugh out Loud channel serious like you said. Um, also you know the Heartbeat Productions and the growth of my company now um having Heartbeat Digital. Also underneath the Heartbeat Productions Umbrella New Generations Promotion, which is a marketing company that I started. Um, you know my touring which acts as a separate entity because I own that as well. It's just I've I've just put myself in a position to try to control as much as I possibly can. And I want the business side of Kevin Hart to catch up to the actor and the comedian. And I think these are all things that are putting me in position to do that. And when they do, they all service one another. You know. The goal is to have a complete circle that just continues to go around and round health services each other. Was this your vision and was it division from the beginning or was it once you got to a certain level of fame you said, Okay, I gotta capitalize on those Um. You know you I don't think it was an immediate vision of mine. I think it's something that I discovered. You know, when you when you're working, you realize that your work for hire. You know, you're you're contracted, uh entertainer. You know you work when they need you to work, or if something comes along and they feel like you're the right person for it, then you're hired. Uh, you're gonna hear a bunch of nose. Ultimately that gets you to the one yes. But these things weren't consider And I said, you know, I want to put myself in a position where I can have consistency, and the only way to do that is to control. So the start, the starting, the starting conversation behind the production company is one that I had with my team, my manager, and I told him, I said, you know, I want to be a partner. I don't I don't want to just keep being the guide that they're hiring. I would love to put myself in a position to be a partner with these movie studios. How do I position myself as a partner? How do I how do I have that type of value? How can I bring that value? And the conversation of development and creating um was one that we had and I said, you know what, then I can in a similar team that acts as my creative team, and we do things unneath the heartbeat umbrella, and we take these products and we sell them, but we sell them in a way to where studios understand the partnership behind whatever it is that I'm doing. Ultimately, as that grows, production company grows and you know, you're doing movies with it with Kevin hard in him. But I have an opportunity to just use my star now to be the driving force behind the movies that I'm selling, which is making my company that much stronger. Now when we're talking and driving force, I want, I want to get real because I've talked to talent like yourself that have talked about businesses, but from what I understand that they're not really that involved. They've got guys who do that. What I hear you are truly involved, hands hands on. So what do you find the time because you're doing a lot, You're on social media a lot. That's the whole other thing we gotta get to. Oh I don't I definitely don't have a time. I don't have time to take a ship I uh. Um. You know what I've learned is that you you prioritize, you know, and this and this. Uh in this business, you make time for what's important. Um. I don't want to be a guy that has these things and not know what's going on. I don't want people to run my my destiny. I don't want you to come in and do all the world and then tell me that this is X, Y and Z and I I go and I wave and it looks like I'm the guy when I'm really not the guy. Um. I love knowing. I love being informed, I love being aware. I love the fact that you know I have these conversations with CEOs and presidents and I'm respected and looked at the same way because I know what. I'm truly doing the work. So when it comes to actually having my hands in it, they're in it. You know. I'm not just reading the scripts. I'm developing. I'm finding the writers. I'm in the meeting with the writers to get the script to where we wanted. I'm talking to the studio about promising X, Y and Z, justifying what I need. This is a budget versus this, telling them why we're choosing side A versus Side B. I'm having those conversations because the bigger the bigger that I get, the bigger these conversations gets, and the bigger that the conversations get, the easier it is for me to get things done because the trust that goes along with the business and the brand of who I am becomes an immediate trust, you know. And I think within the relationships that I have in partnerships, within the studios that I've worked with, from Universal, from Sony to Warner Brothers, they now have a trust that Kevin he does the work. You know, he's he's going to do the work. He's he's such a perfectionist that he's not going to bring anything back half asked. So let's invest in him. Let's invest in his company. So it sounds like you're kind of in the middle of this journey in terms of the empire that you're building. I mean, where does it go next to there? Or what mountains are you looking to conquer? Areas of content you haven't even gone to yet. Man, Well, I mean, look, I'm I'm The goal of being a mogul is a real one, you know. I want to be a mogul. I want to be a billionaire. I want to get to a point where you look back and you go, damn, this is a little dirty kid from Philadelphia that had no idea, uh you know, where his life was going to go. And once I got an inklet of what I could do, I made a decision to give it a hundred percent, and you get one life, you know, out there, one life. You can make it mean something. You can be content with wherever you are, or you can be the person that says, I'm gonna maximize my time when it's earth and when it's all said and done, I want a story. I want people to tell an amazing story. I want to be able to look back and go, holy sh it, look at what I created. Look at the people that are now really really affected by this creation. You know, I I gotta I gotta forty people on staff right now. You know when I look up and I'm responsible for people's lives and livelihoods, And that's a That's a big thing to me, the fact that I know that I'm in position to do that and that these people believe in this vision. These people are giving me a hundred percent because they say we're gonna follow you, keV to the wilds all off, because the passion behind your drive and dream is real. To me, that's the biggest thing in the world. So you know, when I when I have these meetings with my team, with my staff, I'm not just selling you on today's work. I'm selling you on the future of what we can be. Heartbeat Productions will be a big partner. Heartbeat Productions will do big studio work. Heartbeat Productions will be tomorrow's future company when it comes to development and and producing for for any type of films from comedy to to you know your dramas. I want to do it all. I can't sit back and watch other people be successful and give me a blueprint and not do it. I just can't. I have too many relationships where they let me know how they got there, from Oprah to Tyler to jay Z too, Ellen. I have too many people in front of me that are doing too many amazing things that say this is how I did it. For me not to do it. I got tons of times. By the time I'm forty five, you guys are gonna be telling a completely different story. It's gonna be holy shit. You remember at the Variety thing, he said he was gonna do it, and I'll be damned if he didn't do it. He did it. H sounds great. So let's see, We've talked about various pieces of the puzzle. I want to get into it, and starting with not to say it's the most important piece. But social media does seem to be almost like the hub that a lot of these different spokes that we're talking about is connected to. That's where your brand is in front of people every single day. You seem to have really embraced that in a way that I think most mainstream celebrities kind of came late to. Uh. Look, there's a there's a gift in the curse behind it, you know, and and that's expected. The gift behind social media that I've realized a long time ago is it's access. You know, today's star in today's celebrity. Um, you're you're big, and you become bigger when your fans feel like they see behind the closed door. You know, there was a there was a time where there was such a mysterious mystique about you know, your stars. You only saw him when it was time to see him. You saw him on a billboard, and you saw him when they did a talk show to promote whatever they had. Outside of that, you didn't see him. That's when the pictures that were taken by these magazines, that's why they were so they were celebrated at the highest level. Oh my god, we just saw camera Cameron Diaz at the coffee shop and she's got a coffee and she's looking at you, and everybody's like, oh my god, look at her doing regular people's stuff. Look at this. Uh you know it was those pictures were so that's what made that business so big. It was who can capture a regular moment of a celebrity? And I think and in our society, we've got to these are people. Social media has allowed these stars to show that there are people. Hence, when you do that, you're following growths because the authenticity behind the person that we're supporting, it's real. Yo, he's brushing his teeth on Snapchat. Oh my god. Did you see the video of Kevin with his kids and they're doing regular stuff. Oh my god, look at Kevin playing with his dog. Do you see it. It's it's showing that you're real. And that's why I embrace it. I don't ever want there to be a disconnect. I feel like, you know, these people have invested in me. You've invested in my life. I've grown because you've grown with me. So I do owe my fans are service I I do. I want you to see I want you to see the normalcy behind who I am. I want you to see that I'm a grounded, real guy. I love hard, I am about my family, and you know, good and bad with problems. You put it out there. You let people go through the problems with you, because when you relate to it, you understand that we're all human and it's one We all handle problems ultimately different, but the same, good, bad, negative, positive. You're human. Social media allows you to show that I like that I can talk to my fans getting the media reaction. I don't just want to take. It shouldn't be a take relationship. It should be a give and take. So those moments where I take ten minutes to do a video just saying I'm so excited about X, Y and Z, I just want to tell you guys to go out put passion behind what you're doing. Have a level of excitement about the way you approach your days. There's people that watch that and go, fuck, yeah, I was I was dragging the day. I didn't feel like doing this, but I just saw Kevin do this little thing from the car. He right There's you would be surprised at the effect that this has on the generation. It really does. Man, some people need to push some people need that motivation. Social media allow me to give it to you, real, raw and in your face every single day. And you know those numbers don't lie. I'm I'm at like a hundred and thirty million people attention to media. Yes, it's me, it's me on there, me every day. Me. It's a job every day. I wake up, good morning, I'm up every day. I stayed true to it. You know, There's been days where I didn't post and I would go check my timeline and people think I'm dead? What the fun? Where? Where's Kevin? Has anything? Like I've honestly checked and people have like a certain did anybody is Kevin? Okay? He hasn't posted anything like you feel. People feel a void. So I make sure that I'm that I'm on it. I'm very adamant about doing it. And that's just a piece of the puzzle. In terms of what you're doing in terms of digital content, talk about the Laugh Out Loud Network, which you know we talked earlier about Heartbeat. You could just be producing TV and film and making some good money off that. What is it about going to digital where monetization could be a little more difficult? Well, it. Uh, it's very difficult. First and foremost. I mean, look, this is a world where a lot of people have attempted to find success and a lot of people have failed. Um, which is which makes it even more intriguing for me. You know, how can I do it correctly? I got to see people crash and burn? What mistakes that they make? What did they do? What didn't they do? Um? I wanted to follow a blueprint that was more artists friendly, I said. Right now, when it comes to laughter, there's no one destination that people have to go that's just for comedy, like multicultural all types of comedy. There's not one hub, I said. I want to create a multi cultural platform where we celebrate comedy. We celebrate uh, you know, from from comedians to content creators to your future writers, your future directors. This is a place where we can go and give opportunities to those people that don't get them right now to go and shoot for the stars. Is it's hard, you know, it's very far. A few and in between people are gonna walk into HBO and get deals at HBO. You know, there's there's a limited access to get there. But when you look at the Internet and you look at what drives the Internet, it's content. So you have these people that are making content on a day to day basis with their phone with a little five D camera and they cut these videos up themselves and they put it up, but it lives and it goes. I said, what if I go get those people? What if we're artists friendly? What if those people can come here and we service them correctly, give them pieces of ownership within the content, but they can grow. What if laugh Allowed becomes a space where we grow with the artists, almost like title. You know what jay Z did his title. It was pretty amazing because he said, everybody's taken from the artists. I want to give I want to give something to the artist. Instantly, that made artists say I want to go over there man, because they're not trying to do what everyone else is doing. People try to wrap all this talent up and they try to own you. I don't want to do that. What if I'm giving a different opportunity and I make it. I make it much more comfortable for these future comedians of tomorrow to come here. But you know what, some people look at what jay Z went through with title, and it's not exactly a smooth road for him. Were so when you look at doing digital content, were you at all intimidated about like, how do we get this right? Jay z is at his sered roll. But no, you're gonna nothing's gonna be perfect. I mean, that's what separates the greats from them that great. You know, it's not going to be easy. You're gonna get some some cobble stone that you gotta go over. It's how you maneuver and how you handle it. You know, you take your punches in the stomach and you learn how to defend after that. Within this, I notice is a crowded space. I know it is the one thing that I have within my digital platform is Kevin hard Kevin Harker is stand in front of it, and I can say I stand behind it. I can say I'm involved. I'm putting a personal stamp on this business. I'm putting a personal stamp on deliver bring some of the best comedy that I feel that you can find on the internet. Why can't I say that? Because right now I sit as the number one comedy star in the world. So I think that I have a little bit of I think I have a background where people are gonna go I believe him. I think people are gonna say, I'm gonna follow him, I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna watch it. But the way that this works is you have to get a partner that believes you. You need somebody to see a vision as clear as you do. John Felt Harmer at lions Gate saw the vision. He said, do you want to do this? I said, I want to run it. Sitt fifty with me. Let me be a real CEO. Let me approve the budgets, let me do this. If anything goes against crazy, we meet and we discuss it as businessmen. Let me show that I'm more than capable of putting a team together, structuring what I feel a digital network should be and should look like, delivering funny daily and not only delivering funny, talking about it, engaging, being authentic behind it. And after I get to a certain point where we're happy, and right now we are. I mean, we have over eight hundred thousand active users on our platform. When we do flip the switch and go subscription, you'll see that those users will be happy because we'll go premium with our content. I'm following a band. I'm following a brand that's been proven. You know what is considered premium, what premium works, what doesn't work, what's quality over quantity? What can I do that can be a clear example for what we can deliver. Having those meetings, having those conversations, getting the understanding I got it now, I'm doing it. Once I do it, and I do it at a high level, you'll see that people will continue to come aboard. And when they do, you'll look up and go, holy sh it. We started off is just a small idea. It's now a big brand, a big business. Kevin Hart sits at the head of it. Well, not only you sit at the head of it. The thing I was amazed by when I looked at laugh At Network is you're on a lot of these shows. You are really putting yourself in it. Is there a risk there though, where people come to associate with you and then when they see people who are not you, you've let them down. Well you have to you have to learn balance. You know, right now, you don't see me on TV. I'm not on the TV show. I don't have a TV show. I haven't had one for years outside of Hub's Hollywood when that was on I haven't done TV, but what you're able to do on the Internet is is do different content, but be real within the content. You know, I keep I keep pushing authenticity. A talk show with Kevin Hart is an amazing talk show. Coldest Balls. I mean, we didn't describe what Coldest Balls is. Just nobody thought I was talking about my balls. Good y'alls. Sorry, Uh, Coldest Balls is a talk show that was created for me, Um and whoever it is that's my guests to do an interview while sitting in a cold tub. Um, the whole interview with us in the cold tub, and I get to I get to ask questions that nobody else would ask. Its center around me and athletes and the show. We did it, and we just wanted to do it. Where we did six, We do six, and we got some people that we know will want to watch. But I wanted to see the response Um overall. I mean they probably had like two hundred million views between the six. We beat television, you know, within our viewership and within the numbers. And what I got to see was there's a want to see me and these other entertainers. There's a want to see Kevin have a conversation. So this is going to act as premium content for us because we've done a test. So now let's go out and will roll out the red carpet. Let's throw a real budget behind it. We do twelve. Now on those twelve the guests get bigger, but the guests not just get bigger, the conversation gets better. And then I now have a real form of a talk show that's only available on my platform. So the things that people want to see, I have held out from doing it so I can make it available where I ultimately want you to go. So when you say Kevin doing all these things is at a risk, not really, because you can't see me anywhere else. The movie business is separate from what this is. Kevin having fun and putting on makeup and prosthetics, being an old man driving a lift car for a day. You're not gonna get bored of that. You're not gonna that. You're not gonna go that's too much. It's funny, filler content. You're gonna go look at Kevin stupid as in the car talking to these people. It's things that I can do to drive traffic. And once I get you there, you now see that there's so much stuff and you fall in love with the world of laugh Out Lot that we created. But I have to be the reason you come. After you came and you saw, now I feel like I've conquered. I need to keep you there. Getting you there is one thing keeping you there is another Kevin harton my content. Just get you there. The things that you'll see outside of it, that's what's going to keep you there. So I don't I don't think it's that much of a risk for me. Um. You know, I make sure that it's not overdone. I'll make sure it's done correctly, and the pieces that I do decide to do it all quality. It's interesting here you talk about you know where you want to be versus where you don't. He just kind of staying off TV. I just saw you on Instagram this morning with serious xm CEO Scott Greenstein recusally taking satellite radio series. Why they're um, why not? You know? It's something else that exists, Uh, something else that I can have my hand in. You know, how do I how do I service each engine? You know? How how can I put the pieces to this puzzle together and make that circle go round and round. Is there any delution risk where you're spreading yourself in so many different directions, you exhaust yourself, you exhaust the content. Any risk there? Now? Do it all? I don't understand why people work hard to get comfortable. Do it all? Why not? Man? Listen? Howard Stern makes eight to ninety million dollars a year on the radio. Ninety million dollars a year. Howard Stern is in net radio booth for an hour and a half out the day. Hour and a half Howard Stern comes in the booth, does his interview, puts his code on, grabs a coffee, gets in the elevator, says goodbye. Five days a week, ninety million dollars on the radio. Do you people do not understand these numbers. I can't look at that and go I want some of that. I can't. I can't say I have a talent. I have a voice. I also am able to open up so many different doors because of how maneuver some some entertainers do it, some don't. I just I will be a fool to not go and have a serious channel within the conversation that I can have, because they have to be different conversations with me at the level I am. So my conversation with Scott is I don't want to show, I want to channel. I want ownership within the channel. If you give me that, you get a hundred percent of me bringing you more people, so you ultimately get more subscribe bibers. Within that level of ownership, I'm going to bring the advertisers. I'm gonna bring other people here that give you a different bang. Because now you have a Kevin Hart. You have a Kevin Hart ran channel where Kevin Hart actually has a show. So having that that makes you look better because now you've got big stars coming too serious. It makes you look like you're doing things like you switching it up. More other stars may come because of me coming here. You having that knowledge and understanding. Give me what I want, and I'm gonna give you what you want to return, which is success. Now think about it. If my radio show does grow and does get big, how do I promote my tour? I do it to social media. I can do it on my show. I don't have a budget that I go out and and spend on X, Y and Z. I am new generation promotion, I am my marketing. Holy shit, I got a movie coming out. Uh, I can now have a studio go through new generation promotion to buy time on laugh Out Lives. Serious chance. You know, you can run your promo, you can run commercials. Holy shit, Kevin is just taking things and passing it to himself professionally. It's it's it's a it's a thing that you have. When you get it, you get it. For example, I went out and I bought stages. Okay, I know that. Within laugh Aloud, I said, we're gonna be doing this content. I said, we go out. We always renting from these different studios, you know, Milk Studios, Hollywood Studios, whatever. But the budget within renting this space becomes a large number when you look up, if you go and look at your year, how much of you spending running X, Y and Z. That's a lot, Kevin, So why not why not look for stages? So this way we built whatever the sets are, we own them. They're interchangeable, and we can just keep keep things in this environment. Can we find them? We can go look found two stages. Let's remodel the stages and I don't know stages. I have a budget here on laugh out Loud. Laugh Out Lout can do that and pay for it. But then I'll take the money back from the work that we're doing and get it back to laugh all loud they recoup. But now all of that talent that I'm finding go to my stages, Guys, I got stages and everything set up for you to go. I don't have the service other people to do what I'm doing. I'm servicing myself. So in return, this stage is now a real, real, real, real positive, positive positive investment because guess what. As laugh Out allow grows, the stage continues to grow. Now everybody finds out about the stage, guess what people want to go and shoot. If you're in the valley now, Kevin Hart has a stage right there, guys, let's see if we can access to use Kevin stage. Now people end up paying for my stage because you're gonna rent it from me. How do you rent it? You got shipped to do, you got photo shoots, you got other stuff. You got it all here unless you guys gonna go drive all the way to Hollywood if you don't want to go right here in the valley, man, that makes sense, unless you use Kevin sage. Even lying gate now knowing that I have a stage lions Gate now would do business at the stage. Hey, guys, we can do this and we can do that. It's now another business, it's now something else once again, that's feeding the other engines. Everything has to hand it's it has to hand something to something. That's the circle that I'm talking about. When I look at Tyler Perry and I have these conversations with Tyler Perry, I'm blown away by what this man's vision is. Tyler Perry took land and built the stage on the land, and Atlanta is the biggest, the biggest attraction to doing any movies. They gotta go to Tyler Perry. If you're a studio, how do you as the as the head of the studio. You can only laugh at the fact that you're now shooting on Tyler perry stages. Mcdea, he got stayed. You gotta go shoot on his stages. That that blows me. I'm like the fact that they did Black Panther on Tyler Perry stay age. You had to rent that ship from Tyler. I can only laugh at that level of success. How do I do that? Tyler? Tell me what you did? How? I want to know how? Why? Why not? How did you do it. As soon as he told me, I'm going to go do it. I would be a fool not to. How do I make real opportunities? How do I put myself in a position to give this younger generation which I didn't have. I got here. Took me eighteen years, but I got here. I can make it easier for those that aren't going to have the same opportunities, which which leads to one last question. I hear you talking about Tyler Perry, Howard Stern. Do is there anyone mobile out there who gave you a piece of advice that is just sort of your true north, the thing that guides you as you build this empire. The biggest piece of advice came from, uh, not a mogul, but my mother. My mother's advice was, you can be great or you cannot be great. Sounds so simple, but so much under that you can be great or you cannot be great? Do you do things to do it half ass? Do you do it to go a hundred percent? This came when I was swimming and I was going to practice every day, and I half asked, everything is swimming? Everything I was. I was fine with being last. Then want to do it? And then I got to the swim meets and all these other kids were amazing kids, getting awards left and right. I'm the kid with no award. I'm sitting there with a goddamn participant ribbon and and my mom we're in the car because we didn't have a car, so we had a car pool, and she she says to me, you like your ribbon, and I was like yeah, and I I look over at Doug, and Doug had trophies. Doug has so many goddamn trophies and he was my friends. So we tried to make me feel better. He's like the ribbon is nice, like he's just trying to be and my mom just was like, next year, maybe you get another ribbon, and that's when they clipped. I was like, I want trophies. I want to fucking trophies, man. So that mindset from that day on was the one that I had. It's I don't do things to not get the trophy. I want the trophy, the trophy and entertainment. It's success, its ownership, it's a brand. These other actors and entertainers are fine and comfortable with being worked for hire. I'm not comfortable with that. I'm not comfortable with doing movies when they feel like it's a good idea for me to do. I'm not comfortable knowing that these things are being created and developed by people that are hungry, that know that if I do, if I do twenty scripts, I'm gonna sell for you. Got writers that think like that. I'm gonna right ten, hopefully I sell one. But they're hungry. How do I find all those hungry people and put them underneath my umbrella? I just hired John Chang. I think John is Are you here? John? Are you here? John shot? So if he is, he probably okay, he's over the back. I just hired John Chang to come over and uh be my head of development for film and TV right now Heartbeat Productions. And I had a conversation with John and I said, Dude, I know you can go anywhere you want. I know that people know what you're capable of, they know the work that you had put in. I want you to come and start over, and here's why, because I'm gonna be with you. I'm gonna be by your side, and I'm gonna help you get the things that you want to get done. But you will be solely responsible for coming believing in the vision and taking Heartbeat Production from step one to step whatever. You would be responsible for standing by my side, and I will not let you down. I will invest in you to simply invest in my dream and vision. He said, I'm in. I do the work. I don't need nothing else. What you just told me sold me. I'm sold on your vision. Me and John have been in this office every goddamn day vetting out our plan to take over Hollywood. And it sounds so crazy. It sounds so crazy. But if you don't have that, if you don't have the mentality of takeover, do everything, you're not gonna do nothing. I align myself with somebody that had the same vision that grasps my dream, and I'm telling you people, mark my words. Within this year, you're going to see so much activity from Heartbeat Productions. Within two years, Heartbeat Productions will live with or without Kevin Hart. Heartbeat Productions will be producing movies that are being done all over Hollywood, with or without me, because I got a team of people that understand that that's our goal. Our goal is to not lean on the back of the star to create opportunities for the other stars. We're gonna be a hub that people want to come and that they want to deal with because of who stands in front of it. Now, mark my words, laugh Aloud will be a major force within this digital space. It's been two years, eight hundred thousand users actively on my app. You give me five years. You watch were laugh out Loud is. You watch the conversation behind this digital platform. You watch how the multicultural aspect becomes a real one. You watch how I find a discover comedians globally Indonesia, Asia, Australia, and I bring them on this platform and be celebrated. You watch the reaction that that has. You watch the growth that we have festivals, laugh Allow comedy festivals. Simply creating opportunities and using my stardom to make other stars. I don't want to do it by myself. I want to see other people make it too. That's what I'm about. You're not gonna lose when people see your heart and understand the real drive behind your business for people. I'm a people person. Some make people win. That's why Kevin Hardys thank you. Kevin, appreciate you coming out today. We're really impressive what you've done so far can't wait to see what's next. Thank you. Well that's all for this week's edition of Strictly Business. Tune in next week when I sit down with Marvel's Mindy Hamilton's senior VP of Global Partnerships, as she talks about the marketing muscle behind huge films like Black Panther and the upcoming Avengers Infinity War