Adam Torres and Dillon Lawson-Johnston discuss the Milken Institute Global Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Milken Institute Global Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Dillon Lawson-Johnston, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Guggenheim Brothers Media, explore media and the Milken Institute Global Conference.
About Dillon Lawson-Johnston:
With over a decade of experience, Dillon has established an astute ability to identify and execute growth opportunities for a wide range of companies in the media and entertainment sector. At GB Media, he is responsible for capital raising, investor relations, deal sourcing, and cultivating strategic partnerships to fuel growth opportunities. Previously, Dillon held impactful positions at UTA, Sugar23, Untitled Entertainment, Anonymous Content, and Coast Productions. As a descendant of the Guggenheim family, Dillon is focused on continuing his family’s legacy of supporting talent and creating culture.
About Guggenheim Brothers Media
Guggenheim Brothers Media (GB Media) is a private investment firm focused on early to growth stage media and entertainment companies. Founded by two seasoned entertainment executives, GB Media is uniquely positioned to complement both creative-adjacent entrepreneurs and sophisticated investors. The company serves as a catalyst for innovation in an ever-evolving landscape, providing long-term financial support and industry expertise that bridges the gap between investors and operators.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today my guest is Dillon Lawson-Johnston, and he is the co-founder and managing partner over at Guggenheim Brothers Media.
And this particular episode is part of our Milken Global coverage, our global conference. 2025 coverage. We’ve been covering that as media now for our going on three or four years, if I’m not mistaken. And excited to because we always get topnotch guests from the conference. And there’s just, it, really is where you wanna be.
I, I like to think of it as the Super Bowl of the year , for the conferences , and events we attend. So I excited to have Dillon on the show today. So, Dillon , first off, welcome. Uh, Thank you Adam. I appreciate it. It’s great to be chatting with you here. So I know you attended the conference this year.
I didn’t, we didn’t get to meet in person. Maybe next year we will, but I mean, just for those that haven’t attended, like, I know, I understand. You’ve, gone multiple years. What keeps you coming back? what draws you back? You know, I think the answer to that is sort of twofold.
One, the ability to learn something new. I mean, you can’t go and not learn something fascinating and new. You really have the world’s. Most innovative thinkers on stages. And, and I encourage folks too that do go to try and attend some of the sessions that are sort of outside of what their day to day you know, industry and focus is ’cause.
It really is a fascinating way to learn. I think this year I spent some time going to some of, of the longevity ones, which is completely outside of where I spend my day to day. But, in my effort to live forever I learned a few, yeah, few things and. It was it was great. And then the other, the other side of the coin is just, you know, running into great people that you know or haven’t seen in a while.
It’s really a fantastic place to do that. Yeah, I agree with you. The longevity space has been, I mean, I know it’s been around for a long time, but it’s been hot in the last couple of years. I actually funny enough, you should bring that up. We have a longevity conference. My company’s throwing in the next what is it, next week, actually on the fifth and sixth that we’ve been planning for the last year.
Jesus, it’s already coming up, but I’ve been a big fan of the longevity space invite for that one. are you in LA by any chance? No, I am. I am in, yep. Oh, oh my gosh. Well, when we get off the line, I’m gonna, I’m gonna send you that invite. Yeah, definitely want to have you out as a guest. That’d be, that’d be awesome.
So getting back to Milken. You mentioned you know, going outside of the lines of what you, you know, you prep, you, you do on a day-to-day basis and getting to explore, which I use, the Milken conference for that too, especially because, you know, whoever’s on stage they’re vetted like, you know, it’s.
The right people, it’s the right information, or they’re not gonna, make it on that stage. So circling back to what you do on a, on a daily basis, so to speak Guggenheim Brothers Media, maybe start off with telling us a little bit more about the, organization and I see you’re a co-founder so why it was founded?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Guggenheim Brothers Media is an investment firm focused on investing in early stage media and entertainment businesses. I am a member of Guggenheim family. My great, great grandfather was SM in Guggenheim. My father was you, Lawson Johnson, who was one of the founders of Guggenheim Partners.
And, you know, Guggenheim Brothers Media is really the next generation of Guggenheim family businesses and with a focus on the media and entertainment space where I’ve spent the entirety of my career. And yeah, really supporting emerging businesses in a space that are looking to do things a little bit different, a little bit better.
Interesting. what drew you to that space? You mentioned you spent, you know, your career in there. Like , what interests you, what excites you and drew you to that space? Yeah. You know, I’ve always been very passionate around the power of storytelling and the reach that, you know, great storytelling has and the ability to shape culture and, yeah, shape who we are today.
And I think that is what drew it, drew me to it initially, and, now as having been in the industry for 10 plus years, you know, I think these. Storytelling platforms are getting more, more robust. The, you know, the voices of these creators are getting more robust and I think it’s a very exciting time to you know, be, be in the industry.
Yeah, I think so too. And I’ll tell you, so my background, it’s interesting you’re in the investment side. So I started in finance and I mean, I spent almost 14 years in that space and I managed a little under $200 million. So I, you know, I was in that business for a bit and I wasn’t a billion dollar guy, but I wasn’t exactly hurting.
And looking at. That I started just dabbling in media and like started, you know, launched a book and a podcast, some other things like that, and it started to grow and I just became so fascinated with the space over time and it really sucked me into the point where I gave my licenses. I’m no longer in that space anymore, and nine years later, by the way.
So this is a really shortening the story of course, but that being said I feel like this space is just, It’s the day, it’s like the a just the time. It’s what is most relevant. If we were, if I was living once upon a time when the automobile was being invented and that was what good, like, that’s what I would’ve been into, right?
Like I would’ve been Right now it’s all about media. It’s all about content. It’s all about ip. Correct. You have a unique, you’re a great example of a great storyteller. Well, thank you. Ba based on your vantage point, right? Like the access you have, your work on a day-to-day, even making decisions on investing in companies that, that you feel are gonna have, you know, some legs going forward.
What are some of the things that you look for when you’re looking at a, whether it’s ip, whether it’s a media asset, whether it’s a company, but what are some of the things you’re looking for where you’re like, man, this is special. This is, this is different. This deserves our attention. Yeah, absolutely.
You know, I think for us. That answer always comes down to the people, mm-hmm. And something that you hear a lot. But it, it really is a big focus for us. You know, every company that we look at and we look at things, you know, across the industry in a pretty wide breadth. But, looking at them, is this the right team to build this thing?
Do they truly have a long term vision here? Do they have the ability to shape culture? Mm-hmm. And, do they have, The tenacity and tact to really execute their goals. That is a huge part for us. So something that we spend a lot of time talking about is the team and, and their ability to execute.
Hmm. Talk a little bit more about, values, like obviously the, Guggenheim name, the Guggenheim family. Like what kind of uh, have these values influenced and or impacted the way that you build and invest today?
Great question. Yeah. I think, you know, my family’s been involved in so many industries, right? From mining, publishing, aviation to art, which most people know about. Yeah. Horse racing, financial services, philanthropy. And again, you know what really ties that all together is sort of. This combination of three things, right?
It’s supporting the world’s best people, which I mentioned. Mm-hmm. And then challenging these folks to really innovate to try to do things differently, to, continue to push the limits on what they think is possible. And then the last one is really perseverance. You know, I think. Having the right team around you from an investor standpoint as well as, you know, your co-founders and founding team.
Like you need the support system to keep going to, you know, when things are gonna get tough at any company. They always do. And you need to be surrounded by the right support system in order to, going back to longevity, but having the longevity to to succeed here. So those values, Those have been, ingrained in me from such a young age and something that has been passed down and is, you know, the, the family has had a lot of success in deploying that sort of formula, but combining those three things. Hmm. What kind of trends are you following right now in media or otherwise?
I don’t know. A lot of people are talking about ai, they’re talking about like generative ai, I mean, a lot of different things. Don’t wanna put words in your mouth, but what kind of trends are you following? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we’re obviously following what’s happening in the AI space very closely.
You know, we’re, we’ve made the decision to be patient on that front to watch mm-hmm. And to see what’s happening and to take it all in and make sure we’re learning as much as we can. But without, without diving too hard or fast into a single thing you know, and a thing that we do love and continue to love is.
the talent management space, but particularly as it relates to this next generation of talent. And by that I mean digital talent and there’s a lot of new companies popping up and that are really wrapping their arms around this sort of next generation of digital talent and helping, helping these folks build and monetize audience and do so in a way with, with real thought and real precision.
So that’s an area that we love. again, going back to that support system, you know these mm-hmm. These digital creators that have, have popped up and built something great for themselves. A lot of it happens quickly and then they need to professionalize that, their suite of offerings. And there’s companies out there doing that on a really high level.
And that’s an area that we love. Yeah. I love it. I think, I think it’s a great story. One I’m happy to bring to my audience. any particular projects you care to, you know, you know, you care to talk about you that you’ve either in the past worked on or that you have coming up. I’m just curious then like what’s next on the calendar for you?
Projects, events what do you got cooking over there? Let me into that inside Dillon . We spent the past year doing deals on a one-off basis and have made some great investments that we’re really proud of. Through SPVs, but going into, you know, this next 12 months we’re getting ready or we are raising our first fund.
So that is, that is project number one that we’re focused on. And happy to talk more about that another time, but that’s a big one. But an investment that we made. Just not too long ago that has been just amazing and really proud of is a company called Staple View, mm-hmm. Which is a talent management and digital content production company focused on the comedic space bringing comedians into their ecosystem, managing their careers long term, but also helping them produce content for, for the digital age.
And I think. they’ve just done such a great job at building out a full ecosystem to support this type of talent and could not be more proud of what they’ve accomplished so far. Hmm. How do you, I’m always curious about this, especially with when it comes to investors, how, do you manage your deal flow?
Like, I’m guessing a lot of things come across your, across your desk, like for what you can talk to us about like, talk to us a little bit about the process. Like how do you manage that deal flow? How do you make sure that you know you have the right things? How do you stay in the know?
Absolutely. No. I think one of our superpowers is our deal flow. I think, you know, I think we looked at 250 deals or something in the last year, so we, see a lot. That’s working. That’s working. Boy, no, no rest for you, Dillon. Yeah, exactly. And I have a great business partner as well who, who oversees that.
And you know, we’ve, we always say we’ve managed, we’ve both come from the entertainment space and I’ve managed to not piss off anyone in our careers, which, which goes a long way when it comes to deal flow. So it’s good to be a trusted partner. Yeah. But yeah, we, we, you know, we have a CRM that we love, that we use rigorously and, and have a lot of systems set up.
And, and I credit my, my co-founder on that front for setting up these amazing systems to track everything and manage everything, and manage correspondence. But yeah, it’s been working well so far and, and glad that we had that set up from day one because if we were trying to do that now looking back, it would, it would be a bit of a mess.
Yeah, especially those spreadsheets. Oh my gosh. It’s like, what’s that? What spreadsheet did I pull up? Wait, what? What conference? What year was that? Milken? It’s like, come on man, get a tag. Get a CRM. It’s fine. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we had that set up from day one and it, it works really well. Ah, that’s great.
Well, Dillon, I know we can go on and on, but we’re about running out on time here today. That being said, I wanna make sure that you have an opportunity if somebody’s listening to this and they want to learn more, whether it’s about the investor side and maybe they’re accredited investors and they want more information.
You did mention raising a fund, or if they’re on the, you know, entrepreneurial side and they got, they got some deal flow, they wanna send your way. How do people connect? How do they learn more? Yeah, absolutely. You can go to our website, guggenheim brothers media.com or shoot an in an email to [email protected], which we’ll get and respond as soon as we can.
And, and happy to, happy to talk with anyone who would like to touch base. All right, wonderful. And for everybody listening, just so you know we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes so that you can just click on the links and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way on your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Dillon, thanks again for coming on the show. Thanks. Good, Adam, appreciate it.
