Hope & Hard Work...& Hype? Trudeau Launches Film Production Company

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1:01Every choice, deliberate. With Bose, you'll hear it all. Your music deserves Bose. If you paid attention to the launch of Justin Trudeau and Katie Teleford's new production company, Hope and Hard Work, over the weekend on Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival, you might have earned you when you heard Justin say, we often used to say those, whoever can tell the best story wins an election. I was like, okay, I would have preferred to be, you know, the policies, but okay, sure. And I'm not saying this is a good idea or a bad idea. It could be either one, depending on how it's executed. But here to talk more about that and Mr. Beast joining old Navy, we're joined by Tony Chapman, the host of the award-winning podcast, Chad of the Matters. And the founding partner of Chadder AI, Tony, welcome. Oh, it's a pleasure. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Look, I think a lot of people reflexively want to vomit when they hear about anything that

2:03has to do with Justin Trudeau, but let's not do that. Let's look at this impartially. And because I think it could be a good thing. It could, where a guy who can get, who can get, he could get a, his phone calls returned pretty easily by the powers that be because he put a lot of them in place. He could be, he could be a really good conduit for the creative class who want to see their content put in front of everybody. I totally agree. I mean, he is someone that could make his network work for all the reasons you've cited. I think that, and I said this on your show about a year ago, that if we took some of the money we just put into CBC and repurposed it to create Canadian content that the world would have want, it could be a phenomenal place for us to build this sort of creative content studio. I mean, there's a documentary at TIFF, you had to be there talking about God's spell at place and all of a sudden, you know, Martin Short and Eugene Levy and everybody showed up.

3:04It just shows you how much talent we have in Canada. And I think that it's smart for him to do this. I think it's, it's trading on his celebrity. It's, he's got certainly got context within the liberal party. And we know that if you are in that inner circle, yeah, there's a great financial and benefit to you. And I'm not saying that in a, not saying that in a criminal way, but you certainly have access to their attention and with their attention, the money. So for what I understand, there's absolutely nothing wrong with, you know, he's been out of the, out of power for a while. I think the, the year of, of the rest period between the time both of them were in office and are, are left office is done. So the cooling off period, if you will. So there's nothing on toward there. And, and yeah, you're absolutely right. They signed with a big US management firm, three arts entertainment. And they, so they get, they don't have eyes on just having stuff broadcast on the CBC. I think they want to take these stories global and that, that could be good. I do see two potential problems.

4:06I, one is if they get caught up in sort of the self importance, mind virus, that others have had where they want to change the world with their production, right? And, and doing so, they end up producing stuff that nobody wants to watch. You know, it's not about that. It's about giving people entertaining content. And if you're going to make stuff that lectures people and, and it brings your politics into their homes when they think they're going to be watching something entertaining, you're not going to get a whole lot of chances with those people. And so it really depends on, it really depends on, and I agree with you, by the way, whether it's funded by the public service or private sector, the private sector is going to very quickly go. You're not capable of creating stories that we can monetize. Yeah. And, and you will, you'll be able to business. You look at, you know, what, what happened with, it, you know, when the, I print the address and I can't even remember a name. Sorry. It, it, you can't, just because you're a celebrity, just because you get access to stories.

5:07If you're not creating stories, the world wants, you're going to, the capital dry up. And also that's the sector. No, but that's, that's the thing. The world, right? I have to, that's another question I'm going to have a watching them build out this content. Are they going to, this was, this was, you know, they, they launched it in Toronto at the film festival. I saw the people who were at the party. These are all the people who've been, it's a small bubble. It's a small cultural bubble in Toronto. Are they going to be telling stories for that small group and for themselves? Or are they going to recognize that in order to tell stories for everybody, they may have to bring people in who don't share their politics and don't share their values, but, but, but can, but appeal to a different group. And that's, and that really comes down to what you're saying, which is if it's public sector funded, which is just another storytelling arm of, you know, feel good Canada, Canada is in great space. They don't have to, you don't need an audience. Yeah.

6:08They're going to be able to make a living in a place where you can produce content. If they want to survive in a world where we are drinking content from a fire hose, you got to be very, I mean, some of the most amazing contents on TV that you'll never even hear about. Let alone watch because you only got 24 hours a day. So if they're going into one of the most competitive gauntlets in the world. So they're going to try to do it by raising capital and actually delivering content. They better have some very compelling stories or no one's going to take their call because it's not that we don't owe audiences. Justin Chuto, anything. And certainly not our time. So you better make it worth it. Well, if they can pick good projects and highlight really great creatives of all walks of life, right? Not just, you know, people who all look different, but all think the same way. Then they have a real shot at benefiting Canada's cultural community writ large. But if they if they fall into the same trap that others before them have fallen into, yeah, they'll get a few kicks at the can and then that'll be it. But I do, I mean, you're right.

7:09There's the possibility that the two of these people can do something that really could benefit our reputation internationally. And that would be a good thing. We don't have a couple of minutes left, my friend. Let's move on to a guy who can move the needle on anything he does. Mr. Beast working with old Navy. Yeah, this is a great example. I mean, here's here's somebody that has 500 million followers. He's created this community mostly using gamification. Yeah. And on the side of that, he also has a very strong charitable side. So when he takes on projects like this more often not nowadays, he no longer sinks for a supper. He goes and actually buys the business. Remind us what he did. So what he's done is he's created this whole empire that's all around a community of people coming together as underdogs. And Mr. Beast, what he does is he offers you a chance to ever hold on to the car the longest we've got a million dollars. Right. Yeah, like just crazy crazy stunts. But what he's built is he's built these people they believe that we're a community.

8:12We have purpose. We don't need the world the way we thought we needed it. And he's created so much money just raised over a billion dollars private equity. He bought a bank called staff. He's buying a mobile company. What he's doing with obviously what he's doing with old babies. He's saying to him, I will create content for you. Yeah. I will create content. People will watch my 500 million people will watch in exchange. You're obviously going to pay me a lot of money. But in turn, you're going to do some charitable things like free lunches for equity deserving neighborhoods. Wow. And that's people that resonates with that young audience. They want to know they're having fun. They want to know they have a chance to win. But they also want to know you're taking care of the little guy. And I think that's what Mr. Beast does better than anybody else. He's in touch with his audience. Can I also say something that I like? He knows that his brand is Mr. Beast. But everyone calls him Jimmy because that's his name. Like I refuse to live in a world where I'm going to I'm going to refer to an adult human male as clavicular. That's not your name. And then then then people turn that into a nickname and they say, Oh, did you hear what Clav said?

9:16I'm a 50 year old man. That guy's name is not that. I'm not calling him that. And I totally respect that a guy who's built a brand is big as Mr. Beast still goes by his name Jimmy. And it's a small thing, but it's a telling thing. And that's why he calls it Mr. Beast Enterprises. Yeah. And he has a very smart way of differentiating himself between who he is and why his empire matters. And I think again, authenticity is very important, especially on YouTube where he lives and breathes. And he does an amazing job. I look at I've said it major corporations. Don't take him seriously. If he starts a bank and only one percent of his 500 million people. So I did join that bank. His cost acquisition is zero. Yeah. All right. Well, you're spending three or four hundred dollars per customer. We got to leave it there, my friend. Hey, thank you so much. Tony Chatton, everybody.