Adam Torres and Sandy Climan talk entertainment, impact, and mentorship.
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Show Notes:
What drives a media visionary? In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Sandy Climan, Founder & CEO at Entertainment Media Ventures, Inc, shares insights from a career spanning venture capital and global impact from mentoring to media, Sandy explores how authentic storytelling builds connection and drives meaningful change.
About Sandy Climan
Sanford R. (Sandy) Climan is CEO of Entertainment Media Ventures, which he founded in 1999. EMV is active in media investment and strategic advisory work, with a particular focus on innovative technologies and entities currently impacting the traditional boundaries of business, media, and entertainment.
He is an investor, producer, and considered a media visionary. He previously served as part of the senior management at Creative Artists Agency, representing such talent as Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Danny DeVito, and director Michael Mann.
In addition, he was the founding head of CAA’s corporate practice. Throughout his career, Mr. Climan has held senior executive roles across the entertainment industry, including Corporate Executive Vice President and President of Worldwide Business Development for Universal Studios, and leadership positions in production and distribution for MGM.
His productions include “U2 3D,” the first digital live-action 3D film, and “The Aviator,” starring Leonard DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award.
He serves on several charitable boards, including the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, the American Cinematheque, and the World Arts Forum Foundation of the World Economic Forum. He holds a BA in Chemistry from Harvard College, an MS in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
To do this we are creating global entertainment properties (Documentary, Reality TV show and metaverse platforms) under the brand The Hacking Games.
About Entertainment Media Ventures, Inc
Entertainment Media Ventures is a strategic advisory firm operating at the intersection of entertainment, technology, and finance. With deep industry expertise and a uniquely cross-disciplinary perspective, the firm provides high-impact counsel designed to help clients successfully identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
By evaluating potential investments and crafting actionable growth strategies, Entertainment Media Ventures empowers clients to expand into new markets or accelerate success in existing ones. Their integrated approach ensures that every decision is informed, strategic, and positioned for long-term value creation.
Watch Full Interview:
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres and I am so excited about today. I, Sandy climbing on the show. We’ve been working on getting this interviewed done for a long time and getting him on the set. First off, Sandy, I just wanna say welcome to the show.
I am thrilled to be here, Adam, and what a beautiful studio. So here we are in Brentwood and at Studio Place and it’s. You know, it’s fascinating when you think about how real estate is being repurposed. In another era, I would’ve been having dinner in this spot, and today it’s this entirely new industry where people can come in and tell their own stories.
Mm-hmm. They can use extraordinarily sophisticated, not just professional equipment, but professional advice. The people who support the work here. Yeah. I think, you know, this is emblematic of the world we’re headed to, which is while we will probably be doing something more traditional, this space can be used for.
Everything and anything. Yeah. So, Sandy, you may not know this, but I gotta tell you, so Rag has been talking for everybody that’s watching and that you know, long time listeners, you know, our wa our viewers Rag Cigar, the other co-founder of Mission Matters. He’s been he is under your spell Sandy. He’s been, I know you’ve been mentoring him, you’ve been giving them some pointers here and there.
First off, I just want, as a, as a co-owner of Mission Matters, I wanna say thank you with your breadth of knowledge. But second off, like. He’s under your spell, like what do you attribute this to? Well, firstly, I’m under his spell and what will really put. Anyone where I am indebted to them is he has been extremely nice to my son Matthew, who has just started in venture capital and you know, just thinking through what you and he are doing to build the company.
Mm-hmm. And fa it’s fascinating to me in terms of what you are doing because, what you are helping people do is to, you know, there are terms that sound almost too crass, but it is personal branding, but it’s really, everyone has a story to tell. We are all running a marathon and a movie. Mm-hmm. But what we’re really doing is we, you know, we’ve gone from a place where.
Individuality, you know, could never be recognized to a place where individ individuality actually is there and can help you help others. And I think that’s the mission that you are on. The mission that is mattering for you is the sense of the fact that you are defining a new area, which in my opinion is personal branding, but it’s not.
Personal branding for the wrong reasons. It’s personal branding for the right reasons. Mm, and the only way to impact people. Is to communicate with them and you’re giving them new tools, new visibility, and a new platform to do that. Yeah, and it’s been a whole lot of fun. I can say that I started as a financial advisor.
I mean, when people see certain things right now about our platform or the brand or things like that, and if they have any. Semblance of saying, oh wow, this is something that they can do. But I can’t. A little fun fact, I didn’t, my first 300 interviews, I didn’t even use my name. I was so scared to be like, in front of camera or doing anything.
I had like a other name. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I feel inspired to help others to be able to do the same. And when I think about your industry and your background, which I. 100% wanna go into, let’s go a little bit further into like how you started in entertainment, where that got, and then I, we’ll, we will come present day too, and I want to talk about maybe some of the current projects and ideas you have going on as well.
But just to get us kicked off. Where did this start for you? Entertainment. Okay. Be Before we get to where it starts, let’s just comment then a couple of things about you. Mm-hmm. I’ve watched an enormous number of your interviews, and the reality is that actually it is a, it is an unusual skillset to bring out of people what you do bring out of them and how you do it.
And it’s part of it is great listening. And also part of it is allowing people, the comfort level to express themselves in ways they might not otherwise have. And you need a special personality for that. Here at Studio Place, Michelle, who is the guide to all things guiding is, you know, she may have started as an actress, but she is here to actually help people in this place, you know, open up.
Mm-hmm. And the reality is that in a world where people are. You know they are, they are sometimes feeling isolated. They feel embarrassed. They feel alone. Creating a safe space for that like you, yeah. Like you’ve done here, like this place has done overall is really important. Now for me, this is a very strange transition.
Yeah. Because when I was growing up in the Bronx and it was the Bronx, and it still is the Bronx. Yeah. Ogden Nash is shortest. Poem is the Bronx. No, th for which he once apologized and you know, I love the borough I come from, but as someone said, coming from the Bronx is exactly the right place. Going to the Bronx that said, I do love where I grew up and Edgar Allen Poe, but you know, my parents didn’t go to college.
You really, you know, you didn’t have a lot of role models and, and we didn’t have a lot of resources either, so you kind of were able to. I was, you know, I traveled the world through books and movies and television, and movies and television. Very impactful. And I still remember the things that I saw as a young person that helped shape me.
And I thought to myself, this is an amazing. World and storytelling was the way to bring, even then storytelling was the way to bring people together. The sense that you could sit and exchange ideas around great thoughts. History. Last night at two in the morning when I should have been asleep, I was on the internet and a 12 minute clip of the movie El Sid came up with Charlton Heston.
And I looked at it and it brought me right back to being a small boy. And what I thought about was I couldn’t go to Spain, but this movie took me to Spain. And I remember when I was in college I was in the basement of the Fog Art Museum at Harvard. Mm-hmm. And Radcliffe professor, the only professor in those days, Emily DT Romee, one of the world’s leading experts in ancient art.
Threw up a picture of the Acropolis. Mm-hmm. And you know, the people who had been there and you know, it’s a privileged group. And I had never traveled outside the US but I knew more about Greece. Mm-hmm. I knew more about Paris than people who had visited there on family vacations. Yeah. And the beauty of the entertainment industry.
Is that immersing yourself in different cultures? Mm. Meeting people from around the world. Being a part of that community, which, you know, I very much started as an outsider in, and I always think of myself as an outsider. It’s that sort of, you know, you’re never hurts, you’re always Avis, you try harder.
Yeah. And the sense of never being a tourist, but always being a participant is what I wanted. And the entertainment industry. Was the, the door that opened that up. Hmm. Who were some of the other young influences that the Young Sandy was watching on, on TV that just were interesting to you? Who, who did you watch or movies or otherwise?
Well, you know, when I was growing up and I know this will sound terribly antiquated for everyone here, there was something called TV Guide. Oh yeah. And you know. It was a magazine. It used to just have staples and it became perfect Google for the audience. For the audience, it Google it. And frankly, if you were on the cover of TV Guide, it’d vibe with being on the cover of Time Magazine.
Yes, sir. And you know, there were three networks. Mm-hmm. And I knew the channel lineup. Every night. Yeah. Of the week. ’cause you could read TV Guide and you knew that was, that was there. And whether it was westerns like Gun Smoker, Paladin, whether it was the Smothers Brothers who were crossing lines in Variety.
Yeah. In politics, whether it was camp run amuck, something that ran half a season or. Hank, which was about a college drop in, which I still think is an insane idea, where this young man who was, who desperately wanted a college education would find out. Who was absent sick that day in class, and then he’d impersonate them and go to class, and then finally after, again, less than a season, they canceled it.
But he was matriculated as a student, and that was my look at college. I said, wow, this guy who’s selling ice cream so wants this education. But you know, the influences were beyond that. I mean, when I was growing up, we wouldn’t be sitting here today. And if I had to give a message to people, it’s, there are the unexpected people who will do something for you that changes your life.
And you should never forget who they are, and you should always. Understand, appreciate, and pay it forward. Mm. So, you know, where I grew up getting a good education in New York City, you could still get a good education in, in the New York City public schools, which I hope you still can today. Yeah. But I was at is 1 44 in the Bronx, the Michelangelo school, and I got into a place called Bronx Science.
And Bronx Science Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, were specialized high schools that actually allowed you to be with. You know, sort of a peer group that was interested in, in areas that would, would change your life. And I got a letter before I was going in ninth grade and it said that I had to do a directed research project.
Hmm. And I thought. I misread the letter. It actually was about junior year, and I misread it and thought I had to do it right then. Yeah. And my mom was a ward clerk at Jacobi Hospital, where for the most part, gunshot wounds were the order of the day. Hmm. And it was affiliated with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine made now famous, more famous because the Goddess Men family endowed a billion dollars.
So. No one ever has to pay tuition at Einstein again. Mm. Which is a level of philanthropy that is unthinkable. Mm-hmm. And I took the number nine bus down East Chester Road and in those days there’s no security. It’s not like the world we live in today. And I walked into what was the sciences building and I walked up to the second floor.
I have no idea what prompted me to, to do this. And I walked down the hall. ’cause the second floor was the first floor that had. Yeah. Professors on it. Yeah. And I took a left into the office of a bearded be speckled pipe smoking professor William T. Norton, who was turned out one of the world’s leading experts in the structure of the myelin sheath and early work on multiple sclerosis.
Hmm. And this boden graduated PhD in neurochemistry and I. Had no idea who I was and I’m sure I looked disheveled as I do today. And I said, do you mind if I stay? And he said, okay. And I did six years in his lab or I wouldn’t be sitting here today. And you know, I was just corresponding with his son, who I actually did work with who runs a shipping company.
And I spoke at his memorial and everything that follows is started by something. And you know, he. Gave me a platform. That platform got me on sciences into Harvard. I was first my classic Bronx Science, and that gave me the opportunity to then expand my own interest. And I realized there that I’d make a horrible scientist, but probably wanted to tell stories.
The first book he gave me was a book on the stories of the Heroes of science. Mm-hmm. I remember that. We are working on a movie about Melva Einstein, Albert Einstein’s wife, first wife, who probably is as responsible for the theory of relativity as he is, maybe more so. Mm-hmm. But it opens up worlds and there are people who start with a very well-defined world.
Mm-hmm. And then there are people, and this is the bulk of humanity who need some initiative and some help to move them along a path that they otherwise might not have been open to them. Hmm. And a lot of people, a lot of successful people came out of these, these colleges. Like going back to the Bronx and that area, what do you think it was in that generation or that time period or otherwise?
Because I hear a lot of stories about these areas where people came out of like, what do you think that was? Well, you know, I can’t speak enough about the value of family and, and the sense, not that they would, my parents didn’t push and they certainly. Weren’t helicopter parents. Mm-hmm. But the notion of teaching values at home mm-hmm.
Teaching aspiration for the right reasons. Yeah. To, you know, to sort of inculcate in the next generation the thought and the opportunity to do better. And my parents sacrifice. I mean, when I think about, you know, going to Harvard, I mean, mom’s entire salary. My mom made about $10,000 a year. My dad probably made.
It’s similar. Yeah. And eventually he made 20 or $30,000. You know, again, he was working for the city. He was a civil servant his entire career. My mom’s salary and half my dad’s salary were supporting my education. It’s amazing. And it’s the sense of sacrifice, but sacrifice doesn’t just have to be financial.
When I, I was on the board for 20 years of the fulfillment fund, and I, and I watched the Milken Scholars and the sense of. Inculcating in people. The, not just opportunity, but the sort of inspiration to do more and to help to in, in the Jewish religion, Tik k Olam, heal the world. We should all be healing the world.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s interesting that you bring up this concept of paying forward, and also you mentioned platforms. So the way that I look at this, not not just mission matters, but this power that we have, that’s really from the work of others that come before us, whether it’s creating the infrastructure studios like the one we’re in or otherwise, like we’re all.
Building off of somebody else’s work. So paying it forward. I mean, we, for example, we cover everything from Milken conference to, I’m actually covering a a pitch competition for underprivileged for children that are, were underprivileged from underprivileged backgrounds. And it’s a high school competition.
There’ll be some money awards and things like that, but I think about like, sure, a hundred percent of them, this will be the first time they’re interviewed, let alone it’s, it’s distributed. They have a platform. Form, things like that. But to me it’s life changing because people in my lifetime and where I’m from in, in Michigan, southwest side of Detroit, like we didn’t, we didn’t grow up with anything.
Like, it’s not, there’s nothing special about that, but I can think about all the people along the way that built up to giving us, and the sacrifices that were made that to giving us the opportunity that we have now, like. I’m indebted to it. Well, but I mean, what you do and what you do here, I mean, as you know, the thing is that we always think that no, you know, it’s hard to make a difference.
It’s really not hard Yeah. To make a difference. So the entertainment industry, you know, I represent ma I represented Magic Johnson. Mm-hmm. Who’s done so much good. Yeah. And I, I used to watch when I was at CAA, you know, I, I remember we were screening something. Mm-hmm. And the projectionists somehow.
Miraculously, yeah. Brought his son that day to work and I watched Magic talk to him for quite a while. Yeah. And you could just see that it was gonna change his life forever. Mm. And you know, we think, okay, you have to be a, and it does. It does. You don’t have to be a celebrity to do that. The interesting thing is if you listen to a young person.
If you understand them, if you value them, if you give them encouragement. Yeah. And if you can advice that alone is gonna be memorable forever. Mm-hmm. And you know the sense that every time we are in an interaction, we can do something that actually is positive. Mm-hmm. Is in this world, sometimes forgotten because we’re kind of a mess.
But if we actually focus on that, yeah. It really does change the world for the better. You know, the funny part is. You know, you talk about the inspir, how you, you know, why people are motivated. Mm. I remember going with Alila and Wolfgang Puck to Ethiopia, and it was at the new year and they were.
They, they support many things, but they support an orphanage in ais, abba. Mm-hmm. And they have these young people, and they were Wolfgang particularly, and both of them. But Wolfgang, you know, had arranged with Kalila ’cause she is Ethiopian. Mm-hmm. A program to intern, train and intern these young people in this orphanage, in the hospitality industry.
Go work for the Four Seasons. Mm-hmm. Go work for any IHG, go work for many hotel, go work for restaurants. And you know, I remember going and visiting these young people mm-hmm. And they were just so excited. Mm. They were, you could see such enthusiasm and warmth in every one of them in their eyes and in their desire to move forward in their lives.
And to me, you know, the sense of. Creating opportunity like that mm-hmm. Is for everyone to do. Yeah. And you know, where you grew up? Detroit. Detroit. You know, I know lots about Detroit. Yeah. And you know, the thing is you are from there. Other young people are from there. Mm-hmm. We just move them forward. Now, the reason I love entertainment, so, you know, I, I started as I, you know, people go, oh, you got the entertainment industry.
You know how I got in the entertainment industry. I, I sold the Bar Mitzvah bonds and everybody else. Had jobs and I, I wanted to go work in the creative side of the business, which was hard to figure out how to do. I didn’t know anybody. There were no relatives. And I got on, I had never been west of West Virginia.
I was in, in high school, there was something called the National Youth Science Camp, and that was two kids from each state, and that was the first time I got to West Virginia. I’d never been west of there until my second year of business school. Mm-hmm. And then someone said, well, you, maybe you should go look at what a California is.
So I got on a plane and I moved out here because I couldn’t get a job. And I just did what it says in, you know, what color is your parachute or whatever. Yeah. And I just, anytime I met someone, I said, is there someone else you’d recommend I meet? And fortunately I had met the chief Financial officer at mgm.
Mm-hmm. Jason Rabinovitz on a school study. And actually the guys who I came out with snagged the more important interview, which was the head of production. I got the CFO and the treasurer, but that was the right person to meet. Yeah. ’cause he gave me about 20 people who were the top of the industry and they all met with me.
None of them hired me. Mm-hmm. And one of my dear friends who is a, an advisee at college two years behind me mm-hmm. Had introduced me to a. Wonderful Canadian television producer who was like having a mental breakdown, who had three friends in California, one of whom was supposedly the girlfriend of.
You know, a lawyer at Paramount, it turned out he ran the Guinness Film Group. Mm. And it was a small company. It was an independent distribution company that had owned, they had like no men working there. Mm. It was a rough place to work. And I didn’t start as a secretary. I started as a secretary to a secretary.
I started as the second secretary to the head of the distribution company. Wow. And eventually. Much like Joseph in the dungeon. The head of the chief financial officer at MGM said, you know, I called him up and I said, you know, I’ve got this job. And he said, well, how much are they paying you? And I said, well, it’s not, that’s the opportunity.
Yeah. He says, no, how much are they paying you? And I said, no, no, no, I’m learning. He goes, how much are they paying you? I told him I was like making $13,000 a year. He says, how are you going to eat? And I was selling records. I, you know, I had a friend from college who was a PhD student at UCLA. He would give me in the Daily Brew and they had like dollar coupons for Kentucky Fried Chicken, which is where the In-N-Out Burger is today.
Yeah. You could die eating that stuff every night. But that’s what I could afford. And he said eventually, why don’t you come here? Hmm. And they didn’t gimme much of a raise, but you know, it was just stepping on a studio lot. Mm. I ran paid television in the early days. I was the number two in foreign distribution at a very small MGM.
Mm-hmm. And then just got very lucky. I mean, I, I basically, CAA was a young agency at the time. Frankly, no one was paying attention to them or they were just beginning to pay attention. They didn’t have a budget. Mm-hmm. So I had a budget to run movies. So I met a number of the agents, or only 35 agents at the time.
Mm-hmm. And I, anytime they wanted to see a film, I would screen it for them on my account. Mm. And eventually, after six and a half years. I managed having run two small companies. I managed to convince them to give me a chance and started in a broom closet. As I told them, when I took a 50% pay cut to go there, I said, if you just let me sweep the floors, I’ll, I.
Show you that I I can, I can do more. Yeah. And so when I think about those days in CAA and thinking about the, the growth that was taking place, and this is all things I just read in that tome of a book on CAA, what was it like from you? Like what was the air like, what was the industry like? Like just during that time period to encapsulate?
’cause I only read about it. I obviously didn’t live and wasn’t part of the industry. What was that like? Well, part of it’s the same and part of it’s different. I mean, you know, we’ve. Corporatized the business over the years. Yeah. And things have grown. I mean, it was like open field running, but the biggest difference back then, and it may still be, it may be coming back to that now, Hmm.
Is in those days, talent. Mm-hmm. Really dictated relationships with talent. Black box, the voodoo of how real value was created as opposed to the corporatization. Yeah. Of where we are today and we were perceived as we rep, we. We’re signing major talent every week. Wow. And it could not have been more exciting.
And the other thing was that the again, it comes with scale. It’s a small company and it’s growing rapidly, which is why I love entrepreneurial business. And I’ve done venture and entrepreneurial business since the mid nineties, early to mid nineties. Mm-hmm. Is that the sense of, open field running where if you imagine it, you can achieve it.
And also they inculcated sort of the three Musketeers approach, all for one-on-one for all. Mm-hmm. It was a team effort and people shared freely, people. Were wildly, you know, that was new Right. During that time, by the way, for, well, the sense of, you know, at William Morris where they had come from.
Yeah. You know, the bottom of every paper said, put it in writing and you were compensated on, you know, your booking slips. Yeah. At CAA. It was you know, it’s a small company, much more holistic in terms of understanding that something that I, I still believe in, which is that the assist is. As important as the basket.
Hmm. It is important to get the basket, but the assists that get you there have to be rewarded as part of an extraordinary team effort. Yeah. And to me, we need more of that in life. Mm-hmm. I mean, you know, the sense of how teams work, the sense of sharing, the sense of you know, there was very little politics.
I mean, there’s always politics. There was very little politics at the company, and frankly, we had a lot of fun. Yeah. You know, it was a, it was a crazy business. Pranks were still, I, I, I was not good at pranks. But also it was, two things happened that today are I would say embedded in the business.
Mm-hmm. One is I started with OS in 87 1987, the corporate side of the business. Mm-hmm. And you know, again, because everybody has two businesses, their own business and show business, there were no doors that were not open, but, and because we were who we were, we would go see the CEO of IBM, which by the way was John Akers in those days.
And I remember Mike and I walking out of a meeting with John Aker just before IBM imploded at that point. And Mike looked into me and said, what was that meeting about? I said, I have no idea what he was saying. I said, this is a, either I’m an idiot or this is a disaster. Yeah. And and, but we would go see Bill Gates.
Steve Bomber was a classmate of mine and one day he said maybe we should get our bosses together. We were creating ventures. We represented Sony in the acquisition of Columbia Pictures Matsu in the acquisition of MCA Universal Universal Studios. We restructured MGM for credit. We created a joint venture between three of the largest regional bell operating companies.
Mm-hmm. Called tele tv. We did a flight of commercials for Coca-Cola that reset their creative direction and took them away from doing, you know, me too ads to, to doing something wildly innovative, creative, and really taking them back to their roots in emotion. Mm-hmm. And to me, one of the guiding lights of why entertainment is everybody’s second business mm-hmm.
Is because, the human element, the emotional element is often forgotten. Mm-hmm. And I guess in there are areas where it plays less of a role, but I was on a board call this morning on a business that is a very exciting business. Mm. A lot of what’s going on in that board call is human dynamics. Mm-hmm.
And you know, the sense of having a good human. Understanding. Firstly, it’s good for your family, it’s good for your marriage, it’s good for your business. And I, I would like to say I haven’t screwed that up, but you know, the truth of the matter is every time you make a mistake, the only mistake is not to learn from the mistake.
Yeah. You know, you can, you can regret the mistakes, but you would far more regret it if you didn’t actually step back and understand what you should do differently in the future. Mm-hmm. But it, it was, it was an extraordinary period. And I remember, you know, you know, I represented Redford De Niro, Costner, DeVito directors like Michael Mann.
I helped run the agency. The sense of the problems, the ideas, the opportunities that came up were astonishing. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, the, the, the blessing in life is to not have a job where you do the same thing every day. Mm-hmm. And every job I’ve had, and certainly. Being in a talent agency, you don’t do the same thing every, certainly, I didn’t do the same thing every day.
It was, I described it once as if people were throwing fastballs at your head. Yeah. And the question was how many you could hit back before one. Got you. And and it was an enormous challenge and every time you did something, there was just personal growth and some weird anecdote mm-hmm. That you could tell your kids later.
Yeah. So speaking of CA, a, or even just the business in general, if we look at entertainment, but ca a is just, since you mentioned it, a specific example, a, a billionaire buying, you know, a majority stake in 2023, a CAA, that own that has connection owns other brands. Well well it’s Louis Vuitton or otherwise.
What do you think about the brands? And, and to me, when I read and I was following this. It never occurred to me, the separation in the past. And I’m like, I always thought it was just like that. Is it an evolution? Like what kind of thoughts, what’s your thoughts on that? Well, there’s a lot of things that are, that are threaded together that go far beyond that.
And by the way, the wonderful thing about entertainment is you don’t have to be a billionaire to be interesting. Yeah. And, and you know, the, that, and obviously Pinot is wildly interesting. Mm-hmm. And it’s Gucci rather than LVMH, which is Bernard Ho. Yeah. But, you know, carrying, which owns Gucci and, and Artemis.
The holding company. Mm-hmm. But it’s an acknowledgement of a couple of things of which. Luxury brands and the sense of storytelling. Firstly, if you want to have some fun, I was just at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Mm-hmm. And there’s a, there is an exhibit called Sleeping Beauties, which I would encourage everyone if they have time to go see.
And it revives dresses. Mm-hmm. At some of them are older, some of them are new, and some of them are fragile, but they’re all unique. Mm-hmm. And what was wonderful about it and inspirational was, as I read. The narratives on the wall and, and the catalog’s even better in terms of having time to, you know, spend time in the thought process is that designers are telling stories through clothes.
Yes. And the sense of where we are today is very different than it once was in the, when I started in the business, we were in a unidirectional. Sales pitch to people to go see the product that we made and hopefully they would like it. Yeah. Businesses were different. Mm-hmm. Today because of social media, the way.
Everything is intertwined with media, sometimes in direct to consumer, sometimes not quite, but getting there. The sense of storytelling and inspiration is in every bus, is in many, many, many businesses. Mm-hmm. And I would say almost every business, but certainly the ones that relate to luxury goods. Yeah.
To lifestyle, to aspiration. And again, it comes back to the fact that we used to have silos where we would engage intellectually and emotionally today. We are having these platforms finally not just come together as a distribution platform, but really as a community platform. Yeah. Where communities form and they share far more than entertainment.
Although entertainment is always one of the great centers around which we create dialogue and bonds with each other. Mm-hmm. And I think what we’re seeing in the corporate world, not just with luxury brands Yeah. But in general is that the storytelling that goes on as to why you emotionally connect with a brand is highly related to what the entertainment industry and its legacy model.
Mm-hmm. You know, once did alone and now does with others and at at, at the end of the day. That’s a very good thing. Mm-hmm. And I think what we see is the fading of brands that have no personality. And we see the rise of brands and again, we see it with influencers and others. Mm-hmm. But we’d like to tell a story about.
Ourselves mm-hmm. Through the products that we associate with. And there is a sense of narrative in everything you do. The watch that I’m wearing right now, just to put in a plug is, you know, I’m not wealthy enough to buy the, you know, the watches that many of my clients ex clients would buy, but I love micro brands.
Mm. It’s not, you know, just. A Timex, and they’re not expensive, but they are craftsman made. Yeah. And whether the story is something that is communicated to others or it’s just something you tell yourself. This watch is a Rio. Mm. It is made by Judy and Ivan Chua in Singapore. Mm-hmm. They design these watches.
This watch is based on the Empire State Building and their love of art Deco. Mm. So it’s not. A quartz watch that has a brand on it, that doesn’t mean anything to me. Mm-hmm. In this particular case, I wear almost no jewelry and I’ve never been able to. But the one thing I do enjoy is, is having the sense of, I am participating in their journey as craftsman by supporting them.
Yeah. And I think we look at that, whether it is in cosmetics, whether we look at that in any number of different product care, food categories. Why do we buy Tony’s Cholon, which is. You know, I hope all chocolate is slave free, but it says it on the wrapper. Yeah. And you know, these are, these are the reasons that storytelling moves from this sort of unidirectional.
Mm-hmm. I’m selling you a movie on Thursday night, and I’m gonna buy a roadblock at nine o’clock across all networks. So, you know what’s opening. Yeah. Two, we are telling stories about everything every day. And in some ways that’s good. In some ways we are challenged by it because technology, everything good that technology does.
Mm-hmm. It does something equally challenging and sometimes, you know, destructive On the other side, we can find our communities. We need to find. The positives in community as opposed to the negatives. We need to find the positives in brands rather than the negatives. Mm-hmm. And you know, the challenge is for storytellers to reach for the best.
Yeah. Jumping around a bit here, so you once described yourself when we were kind of warming up for this interview. I, I haven’t been drinking whenever I said as it was, as a, as a, as a guy that gets things done. You said, I’m not, I don’t put myself out there as this. Big producer or doing this or that, but I mean, you worked on huge films like The Aviator, like what does it mean to be a guy that gets things done to you?
What does that mean? Well, you know, it goes back to the assist rather than the basket. Mm-hmm. You know, I’ve always, firstly, one of the unfortunate changes that, that we all go through mm-hmm. Is I like to be the guy. In the background. And I remember when I was gonna Universal, Edgar Broin was the CEO of Universal ran into my old colleague Ron Meyer and, and Michael Douglas at dinner, at, at, when Morton’s was Morton’s and is now Chaney’s.
And the industry went there. And, and you know, Edgar asked me, he says, you know, I don’t know this, I don’t know much about Sandy Clement. Which Michael Douglas said A lot of what you read. Yeah. He helped make happen. I didn’t need people to know, as Michael Douglas once said, and I love Michael. You know, when you think about, I had the opportunity to work with some of the nicest and most creative people in the world.
Mm-hmm. It is a gift. But what he was saying is you know, I, I was just, as he said, you, you know, the people who needed to know knew, and I didn’t need the people who didn’t need to know to know. Now we’re in a different world now where, you know, if you don’t have 5 million followers on Instagram, you know, which I don’t, but you know, it, it’s sometimes a handicap.
But to me the underlying question you’re asking doesn’t change. Mm. Is I’m happy to be behind the scenes and watch good things happen. And if I can help, you know, Robert Redford Get A River, runs Through It. Quiz show made films that will go down in the Annals of Film as groundbreaking films or the Aviator.
If I can help those who are truly talented, move their talents forward, if I can support someone, if I can put two, even in the simplest way of putting two people together. And they do something profound and you step away. Yeah. For me, that I, I don’t need more than that to feel as if I’ve left a positive impact.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. Speaking of, speaking of being behind the scenes, I think when me and Roc started the company, we just looked at each other like, who’s gonna do some interviews? Who’s gonna, I’m like, I’m not doing it. He is like, nah, you have to do it. I gotta do this other, I know everybody. I’m in la.
I’m a legacy US. C guy, you’ll do the interviews. So the first person I ever interviewed was Shara. And by def facto, that’s all that happened. But I prefer, like you’re saying, behind the scenes, SHA Shara drew that straw though, believe it or not. Well, but you know, the thing is what, what what you’re doing is what I used to do.
Yeah. With what we’re talking about is you, you are bringing out. Hopefully something that will leave a lasting impression. Mm-hmm. And, and to me, we all need to do that. You need to do that in your family. Right? I mean, the thing is, you know, you are with someone you need to. There is nothing that makes me happier than when my children succeed.
When someone actually walks up to me and says, oh, you’re Joe Kleinman’s dad. You know, that’s awesome. As opposed to, you know, oh, Joe Kleiman, you’re, yeah. You know, Sandy’s son. I, I’d much rather be the father who is referenced by that of a canid comment than anything else, and I think in each of our lives.
The more we give selflessly to elevate others, that’s the unseen elevation that you feel yourself. Hmm. What are you working on nowadays? I, I looked up some of the companies. You have a couple things going on that I know of that I could at least find online. Like what do you wanna talk about? What are you working on nowadays that’s interesting to you?
I know you got a lot, so what’s interesting top of mind right now? Well, you know, my world breaks down into a handful of different areas. So on the one hand, I. Have a venture portfolio and, and these are companies and sometimes, you know, you don’t have to do that much, you just have to do the right thing.
Yeah. So if, if you make the right introduction, you know, someone once said, you know, you’re so busy. I said, well, if I wasn’t busy, I couldn’t get anything done. Because there’s an old saying that if you wanna get something done, give it to the busiest person. You know, facts. But as someone I was just having lunch with said, how do you know all these people?
And the answer is, if you make yourself of service and you pay attention, I. It, there’s nothing manipulative about it, but it allows you to, I never make an introduction that I do not think is of value. Mm. Because then the door may close on you. Mm. But it allows you to see value where others have not seen value.
So that’s what I do in the venture world, and they, it runs the gamut. I’ve got one witch I just introduced to CAA and I hope works there because they actually love the platform. It’s called Roar Social. Hmm. And it is the, it is not TikTok, but it is TikTok like. Mm-hmm. But it helps raise money for charities and philanthropy, but it allows people to engage only in the most positive ways.
Mm-hmm. That to me is, is a gift. I started in science and health, so I spent, yeah, 20 to 30% of my time in health and wellness. And I have a number of ventures there that try to move things forward in science. I’m on the board of a fusion company, which is truly. To me, the sort of, if we’re gonna change the world for the better, there are truly transformative industries and fusion, which is a multiplier of what fishing can do.
Maybe the only way the future moves forward to create sustainable and, and affordable power given the needs that we’re gonna have with. How the world is moving forward not just with video, but with all communications. Mm-hmm. I spend a fair amount of my time, in fact, a disproportionate amount of my time with one investment bank.
And and, and also I am very committed to the growth of the entertainment industry in Saudi Arabia, where I think they are doing an amazing job of really bringing forward a next generation. Economy and, and in the next generation of leadership, thought leadership in the world. And I have interests there because if that continues and succeeds as I anticipate that it will mm-hmm.
It will dramatically impact the quality of not just the region. Mm-hmm. But I think the whole world, we need more. More places in the world, we are gonna have more production that comes from the Gulf States, from Africa. Mm-hmm. From Latin America that will rival Europe and the us. Hmm. And we’re already, you know, to me, the best way to bring people together.
Is to understand them through storytelling where you see people as people. You know, about 25 years ago, Abdu Hammi Juma, who ran the Dubai International Film Festival, invited me to come to the festival and, which under my own power I did, they did not pay for the trip. But I did go. And it was remarkable.
I was, he the, I think the only reason he put me on the panel I was on was because I had flown so far, but I was on a panel with the heads of either distribution or exhibition from the UAE, Kuwait and Egypt. Wow. And the only film they talked about in those days was a film by a brilliant Lebanese woman director named Nadine Leki, who’s also a great actress but has never left the region.
And it was called Caramel in Lebanon, in Lebanese, and I’ve given more copies of that film. Than any other film. It’s four women in a Beirut beauty shop, and they have the same issues as women would have anywhere in the world. Wow. Wow. But it is essentially Lebanon. And when you see even a film like a Separation, the Iranian film where you see the brilliant films that are now coming out of Saudi Arabia mm-hmm.
They show you a world that, you know, we, we spend too much time. Listening to sound bites. Mm-hmm. And the media industry, you know, news and information. It, it actually does not do justice to how people really are. Mm-hmm. But when you bring them into a culture and you spend time, whether it’s on film or with their families in real life, you realize people are pretty much the same all over the world.
Mm-hmm. And in fact, you learn from every culture. And the entertainment industry is that place that I had in the Bronx where the world was brought to you and you could understand why the human race should be. The most peaceful, harmonious, and supportive. You know, the wonder of what human life can be and to break down barriers is what we need to do more of.
Yeah. Well, Sandy, I have to say it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Really appreciate you making some time for us here at Mission Matters to the audience. As always, thank you for tuning in. Hope you got as much out of this as I did. If you haven’t done it yet. Don’t forget, hit that subscribe button or follow or wherever you’re watching, make sure you’re catching more episodes.
’cause again, this is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new stories, hopefully new inspiration that’s gonna help you along in your journey as well. And again, Sandy, thrilled to have you here. Well, Adam, I want to thank you and, and let me just. Sort of reinforce what you’re saying, whether I would highly recommend subscribing, but just go watch the interviews that are there and you will learn from the people Adam has interviewed and Mission Matters, has profiled, and when you’re thinking about actually launching your own media business.
You come to Studio Place in Brentwood and you find the great people here who can help you mold not just your story, but the stories you want to tell of friends and family. I.