In this exciting episode of The Amberly Lago Show, I’m joined by the dynamic media personality Brian Sebastian, creator of Movie Reviews and More. Brian’s journey through the ever-changing landscape of media is both inspiring and insightful. Together, we dive into the power of storytelling, the importance of adaptability, and how consistency can pave the way for success! Whether you’re a seasoned media professional or just starting out, Brian’s wisdom will leave you feeling inspired and ready to take action!
Here’s what you’ll gain from tuning in:
- The Importance of Adaptability in Media: Brian takes us back to 1993 when he launched Movie Reviews and More, long before the rise of podcasts and streaming platforms. He shares how staying open to change and proactive about pursuing your goals can keep you ahead in a fast-moving industry. His advice? “If you don’t tell the universe what you want, how’s it going to respond?”
- Building Relationships Over Numbers: Brian’s approach to success isn’t about chasing followers but fostering genuine connections and creating engaging content. His focus on viewership has led to millions of views and a dedicated audience. He encourages content creators to prioritize authenticity and meaningful interactions over simply growing their numbers.
- The Power of Consistency: With over 129 live shows in a row, Brian’s commitment to consistency proves that showing up regularly can lead to substantial growth. He offers practical advice for aspiring podcasters and media personalities: “Pick a good name, pick a good date and time, and go for it.” His strategy is simple yet incredibly effective for building a lasting presence in the media space.
Let’s embrace adaptability, nurture connections, and stay consistent as we build our dreams. You won’t want to miss this conversation with Brian Sebastian!
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Transcript:
Amberly Lago:
Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, Stories of True Grit and Grace. Hey there, thank you for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. Today, we are recording virtually because my friend is in Atlanta, I’m here in Dallas, and I could not wait to have Brian Sebastian on the show. Y’all, he is a dynamic media personality and the creator, if I can talk, of movie reviews and more. He’s got, with an impressive platform that garners millions of views daily, Brian has carved out a unique space where entertainment, technology, and storytelling converge. I had the honor of being on his show. He’s amazing. He’s known for his engaging interviews and his magnetic personality, might I add, with influential personalities across industries, from film critics and tech innovators to artists and fitness icons. Through his work, Brian not only reviews the latest in entertainment, but also highlights inspiring stories, groundbreaking innovations, And now let’s dive into the world of media and movies and more with the man himself, Ryan Sebastian. Welcome to the show.
Brian Sebastian: Thank you. And I just love your accent.
Amberly Lago: So I’ve tried, I tried to lose it now. I’m like, well, I’m back in Texas. So I guess it’s, uh, it’s gotten thicker since I’ve been here. Um, I’m just like, I, you, blow me away with all the interviews that you have. And you don’t just do one interview at a time, you’re doing many. Like when I was on your show, there were two other ladies on the show with me. How did you get into doing all these interviews? And I think we originally met through Greg Reed, wasn’t it? Was it? Yeah, it was Greg Reed, who I just love. But how did you get into creating movie reviews and more?
Brian Sebastian: Well, I started it in October of 1993. I just knew that there was going to be more than movie reviews, which is why I called it that. I didn’t know what the more was going to be in the future, but I’m like, let me just call it this because it’s going to be less about movie reviews. And I was right. But I didn’t know it was going to be all of this. Now, how many people could have seen podcasts, you know, streaming services on companies? the changing of Paramount, Walt Disney, you know, Disney buying Fox, you know, Warner Brothers being Warner Brothers Discovery, all of these things. Well, I was in the thick of a lot of these things as I saw a lot of these things changes. So I was doing a lot of interviews, they called them junkets, back that time where a movie, you know, right before a movie opened, you get a chance to see the movie, you know, a week or two, sometimes a month or two months prior, and then you interview all the people in the movie. So if you’re doing this every single day and you’re doing all the bigger films every weekend, you learn a lot if you’re paying attention. Now, I was the smallest guy who was supposed to be syndicated. I was not. But I was good at watching movies because I was in video stores. So to be in video stores, I had to watch every single movie and see and buy those films. At that point, when you went into a video store, you made your money back. Six weeks later, if you’re lucky, it’s in reverse. So at $3.25 a rental, and people bring them back late, that same rental fee, that’s how you would make money. So you learn a lot of things if you’re paying attention. And the strangest thing was people were not paying attention. Everybody was out having fun. I was just looking at people like, how do they do this? Why aren’t they doing this? Oh, all of this alcohol is free? Well, what’s the name of the company? No one was really talking to a lot of those sponsors. So I said, let me take all of these things that they’re not utilizing and put them all together. And that’s what movie reviews and more is. So if I’m talking to you about your book, joy or true grit and grace, I can go to Tennessee because my southern mom, Edie Han, is about women of true grit and grace. And, you know, I may be in the dirt, but I’m going to wear my pearl necklace, you know, the southern traditional way. And so I learned a lot by all of my female friends, what they weren’t doing. And then the last thing was, I saw women in the world of fitness, in the world of dressage, they would go out and spend a lot of money on horse saddles, boots, bikinis, and getting tans, but they got no recognition. And I thought it was a travesty. I said, well, if they’re winning, and they’re not getting any exposure, and there’s no cameras there, there’s no media there, and if you’re lucky, you might have a few guys there. Where is everybody? So I said, let me do something. I don’t know this world, but I’m going to learn it. I didn’t know I was going to be on a horse ranch in the world of dressage. I know everything about that stuff now. I didn’t know I was going to enter the world of fitness and not be in the world of fitness, but I’m there. I know a lot of the people, some of the world’s best people in the world of fitness. They become my friends. So you start putting all this stuff together, and this is the more.
Amberly Lago: Yeah, that’s so interesting though. You’re so diverse in all the different arenas that you’re in, and you’re so right. I think that in the fitness industry, because I was in the fitness industry for 26 years, I never competed. I never had a desire to to wear a bikini on stage. But those bikinis are very expensive. And not only that, the amount of time that they put into their, their eating their routines, I mean, they eat, live, breathe, all for that competition. There’s so much and actually one of my best friends is Corey Everson. She’s six times. Yeah, I knew Corey. Yeah.
Brian Sebastian: You knew, oh yeah, she’s- Yeah, I would interview Cori because on the home video side of workouts, she was the god.
Amberly Lago: She was, yeah, she was. She was, in fact, my dad came to see me and I think he was more excited about meeting Cori than he was seeing me.
Brian Sebastian: Of course he was.
Amberly Lago: And I’m like, oh my gosh, yes. So now she’s so sweet. She will comment on some of his posts on Facebook and stuff like that. So that makes his day. But and then my daughter being a horseback rider, it is a lot. The horse world is a lot. And I don’t ever see media there interviewing.
Brian Sebastian: You won’t.
Amberly Lago: You won’t.
Brian Sebastian: I learned that from Hilda Gurney. Hilda Gurney got a bronze medal in the Olympics when the Dressage was first invited in. She was one of our trainers. Very tough woman, fair, very nice. And I learned a lot by watching how she trained, how determined she was. But when I would see a lot of these people perform, there was no guys there. And you’re lucky if you saw someone from Horse and Buggy Magazine, if you were lucky. And I thought that was a travesty, and it still is. I’m like, well, you spent thousands of dollars on your horse, on your whole get up, whether it’s your boots, your saddle, you know, every even.
Amberly Lago: It can be over a thousand dollars just for the boots. Like people have a lot of people have no idea just how crazy it is in the horse world. Yeah. But yeah. And so do you still do interviews for?
Amberly Lago: Oh, yeah.
Amberly Lago: Yeah. Yeah. For I mean, for interviews at
Amberly Lago: like for dressage and fitness as well. Oh yeah. I’m still in contact with everybody.
Brian Sebastian: I always say this. If it weren’t for the women that I was paying attention to, I was helping. I was that one guy. I was that one black guy out there. I was a single guy. I saw no guys out there helping all these women. I said, where’s all the guys. And then I realized what guy wants to give up their weekend when they can watch baseball during the summers. or hang out with the guys, go to the bars, but they’re not helping their wives or their girlfriends. And I thought that was something wrong. Yeah, is it a lot of work? Yeah, it is. But I learned from that. And I said, oh, let me take this and turn it around. Let me see how I can help them in a different way.
Amberly Lago: Wow. You started, you must’ve started when you were really young. If you started at 2003, you were like seven years old.
Brian Sebastian: Well, no, I started in October of 1993 for movie reviews and more.
Amberly Lago: But the thing about that- Oh my goodness, you look amazing.
Brian Sebastian: That’s because I’ve never been married, don’t have any kids. And you as a mom, you know what I’m talking about. I helped all my friends who were married going through divorces and had kids. I still do that. Yeah.
Amberly Lago: Yeah.
Amberly Lago: I know you’re getting ready to go to North Carolina to go help one of your friends with their kids. Exactly. They can’t wait. They’re like, you’re supposed to be here last week. I’m like, no, I wasn’t.
Amberly Lago: Well, how do you see the role of media evolving in the digital age? And how do you stay ahead of that curve?
Brian Sebastian: I, we started, we started Montecupo-Loboa with my colleague and my very, very good friend. We started seeing things change in 2017. And I started noticing it in 2014, 2015, when I was working with the Hollywood Film Festival. Now, I still pick a lot of movies. I’m still watching about two and a half movies a day. That’s, that’s an average, but it used to be more. I used to watch six movies a day on home video, and then I’d see one or two on the big screen, meaning going to the theaters, because I’d have to go to a private screening. or I’d go to pay to see something.
Amberly Lago: So let me ask you something. When you’re watching these movies, are you sitting there taking notes?
Brian Sebastian: Now, what I’m doing is I have a very, very good memory. What I’m doing is I’m analyzing things, but thoughts are coming to me at the same time. So for me to relax, I don’t drink coffee, I just get up and start doing things. But for me, when I go to the movie theater, that’s my way to relax. I know for at least two hours, I can at least turn my phone on. It may be ringing, it may be people texting me from around the world, but at least for two hours, I can watch a movie and get into it. If it’s a bad movie, I’m thinking, okay, I might not like this movie, but someone else may like it. And then if I’m watching the credits, because you got to watch the credits too. Oh, so who did this? Where was it shot? You know, if it says Georgia and the Peach at the end of credits, you know, it’s shot at Tyler Perry Studios. Well, I know Tyler. Well, he’s got one of the world’s best facilities there in Atlanta, Georgia, outside of the Hollywood system. It’s really good. So when you see these things, you understand and that’s minority Black owned. He created it. He went from being homeless to being a billionaire. So when you see these things and you watch those people like that, even on your story, you pay attention. What did these people go through? Everybody has gone through trials and tribulations. Everybody. Nothing is easy, but you have to learn how to work smart.
Amberly Lago: Yes, definitely working smarter than harder. So I’m sorry, I interrupted you. How do you stay ahead of that curve?
Brian Sebastian: by being able to adapt and adjust to the new new. So in 2015, when I saw things being done wrong with Hollywood film festivals and investors, got tired of waiting for money that never came to our festival. We put on, we had a really good team of like seven people and maybe 16 volunteers just for the festival. So really there was only five of us running a film festival. It takes hundreds to run a film festival. Great name. Internationally, people love the world of Hollywood and the name. Terrible film festival. So I learned what not to do. Never to rely on investors. And then if the investors come in, they own you. And then they can take it back anytime. So I said, oh, I’m never going to do that. So till this day, we’ve never done anything when it comes to investing. It’s always about people sponsoring or donating.
Amberly Lago: Wow. That’s huge right there. The difference between an investor and a sponsor.
Brian Sebastian: Absolutely. Yeah. A sponsor can’t take anything back. They could just not sponsor the next year or whatever, but investors always want to take something back. I always watched, I can’t remember his name right now. He was a corporate raider. He always wanted to buy in entertainment companies and break them up and split them. And I would see these things. And I said, why is this person doing it if it’s running well? Because they always wanted more, more and more and more. And I’m like, when is more too much? So I said, I never want to do that. I never want to be a greedy person, and I’m not. So that’s why companies started to falter. And if three movies or five movies didn’t do good, they automatically, the bigger company wanted to come in and break that small company up, had that had been doing well for so many years. Just because you have three or bad films, it’s like a sports team. And I’m not even into sports. But if you can keep a good team together for three or four years, that’s pretty much tops. Whether it’s Chicago Bulls, whether it’s Dallas Cowboys, it doesn’t matter what the team is. That’s hard to keep that team together. You’ve got to bring a new person in, trade somebody else out. And that’s when it comes when we have a co-host. Why I have 12 girls and myself and Howard Wiggins with the only two guys. And Howard, who you met, is because he’s royalty. His dad created the Grand Ole Opry with Eddie Arnold. So when you bring these people together like this, you start to see what’s the strength, what’s the weaknesses? Are they getting any publicity? Why not? Well, I can help them. Why isn’t anybody else helping them? So I see things differently than other people, if that makes sense.
Amberly Lago: Yeah. Well, how did you meet Greg Reed?
Brian Sebastian: I’ve seen Greg through the years, people had talked about him, and I’m like, okay, Secret Knock, okay, let me go to Secret Knock one day. No, I’ve never paid to go to Secret Knock. I’ve always been invited, and I’ve always looked at it this way. Why should I pay you if I have bigger numbers than you have? I’m not a celebrity, I don’t have a book, and I don’t have my website. So I learned how to do things differently. How many people tell you that? And the answer is nobody, because you’re supposed to have a book, be famous or become famous and have a website. No, I don’t have any of those. I learned how to do it the hard way by always having subscribers. I mean, not subscribers, having the views and having the sponsors. Yeah.
Amberly Lago: And people donating. And people donating. That’s huge. Okay. Think of PBS.
Brian Sebastian: What does PBS rely on? Donations. That’s true. The Three Sisters, Sea Shepherd. It’s about donating, getting people to believe in that cause. So I said, if that always works, No matter what administration comes in, you still need those donations. What is today? Giving Tuesday. I don’t just give a Giving Tuesday on one day of the year. Every Tuesday on my show is Giving Tuesday to your favorite charities. Why should it just be one day out of the year? Why can’t it be every Tuesday? Because I do it. Nobody else does.
Amberly Lago: Yeah, yeah. And actually, I had a friend of mine, he talks about give big to go big and talks about, you know, like when I had my first book, every dollar for my book went to Habitat of Humanity. I donated a dollar per each book that was sold. And I, and he said, well, you can use that to leverage it, to get people to stand behind your cause, your book, your launch or whatever. And I was like, oh, wow. I didn’t even think of it that way. I just was thinking of it as I’m donating a dollar per book. You know what I mean? He goes, no, you could have leveraged that. I’m like, wow. Mind blown. Didn’t even think of that. I was just thinking, okay, I’m going to give. And so. I love that you give every Tuesday and you have that a part of your show. And I love when you talk about the donations and the sponsorship and a question that I get a lot from my mastermind members is, how do you start making money on your podcast? Now, I knew for me, when I started, I didn’t even care about sponsors. I was like, for the first two years, I am just gonna do my show. consistently every single week. I’m never going to miss a week. I’m not going to have a bunch of ads that people get annoyed with. I’m just going to do the show. And you know what? It paid off because it actually got me to top 1% podcast, but. people are like, but I need to make money because it costs a lot to rent the studio and to do this or to fly this person in or to do that. And so what would you say to someone who’s like, well, I have a show, I’m ready to get sponsors. How do they reach out to somebody if they want a sponsorship?
Brian Sebastian: Well, here’s what you have to do, because I talked to a lot of the presidents and CEOs and founders and I’m sure you talked to a lot of these people also, they want to know what your viewership, they want to know what they’re going to get in return. They want to know how consistent you may be. And what are they getting for their buck. So I always say this, I’m going to take you to an event that you’re not invited to, we already have the viewership, you know, October 6 of this year, I beat Joe Rogan by 20, almost 21, 21 million views right now, because our numbers go up consistently. Because I focused for six years just strictly on the views. Now that they have the views, I can work on my followers on Instagram, which I didn’t care about. Or I can work on my subscribers on YouTube, which normally just go up. People just like our stuff. I was always afraid to ask people, Will you follow me? Will you subscribe? I didn’t. I never felt comfortable doing that. Why not? It wasn’t me. It was almost like begging. I didn’t want to do that. Let me just go here and put these things together how I know I can do it. Let me show you what I do and put the stuff up because no matter what it’s about content and being consistent. That’s how we were able to do the stuff. We never have a taped show on Tuesday. Today’s show will be 129 live shows in a row. Season five, episode three. Wow. We go straight through the year.
Amberly Lago: I have to say, I understand you not wanting to ask. It was really hard for me to ask. So for my new book, I’ve given praise for so many people for their books. I’ve written testimonials for people, no problem. I’ve written forwards for I can’t tell you how many books. But when it came asking for someone to write praise for my book, I was like, oh gosh, this was so hard for me to do. I’ll never forget when I wrote my first book, True Grit and Grace, there was one guest I had on the podcast and her book was out at the same time that my book was released. And I thought, I asked her, I said, oh my goodness, you have so many reviews. Do you mind me? How did you get so many reviews? And she said, I asked for them. And I’m like, oh, Novel idea. You asked for them. So I started doing something recently in the past year for my podcast. When I say thank you to people, I put in there and if you don’t mind, could you write a review for the show? Cause it really helps the show and it helps your episode get in front of more eyeballs. And I can’t tell you since I started asking how many people have done it and it actually makes them happy to spend, what does it take? You know, 30 seconds to write even a one-liner review. It has made all the difference. I started getting so many more reviews because I just asked for it. But I was like you, I was like, that’s not me. I don’t want to ask for it. But now I’m just like, You know what? I happily give testimonials and reviews and share things in my story on social media. I’m going to start asking. And Brian, I think you should start asking. I wait. My friend Brian Bogert told me, don’t ever use the word should. So I take that back. He said, that’s a shame word. You can. You can ask people. What do you need, Brian? You want me to write you a review or something afterwards? Let me know.
Brian Sebastian: Well, now I started asking as of this past weekend because I accomplished my goal. Well, yeah, because I accomplished my goals of the views because they just continue to go up. My question is, do I, I’m going to always say always in counting. So now, you know, we hit a thousand followers. For me, it was always about people could always unfollow. They can always unsubscribe. They can always unlike, but you can’t un-view a view. Views always go up. So that was my thinking. Now that I’ve achieved that goal, now I’m going and asking, because now I have the power behind me. They can actually see that I have two shows at 2 million views and counting still, not on YouTube. They can go to my YouTube channel and still see me.
Amberly Lago: So to get super clear for the audience, where are these views?
Brian Sebastian: Sorry, so we have over 21,000, over 21 million views on iTunes 247 out of Franklin, Tennessee and around the world. And the reason we have a such a good viewership because Don King was there. What did Don King do? He was a boxing promoter. Who did he promote? Every single famous boxer that he took around the world. Jimmy Adams who created the site was Don King’s bodyguard. So whenever he went anywhere around the world since 1982, He was there with him. He has a billion email list. Imagine that a billion person’s email list. If you’ve never heard of that before, how did he get it?
Amberly Lago: I’ve never heard of that. Like I have never. heard of a billion, I mean- E-mail list.
Brian Sebastian: One of my- From the world of boxing. So when you travel the world and you have all these people following Don King and the boxers, and he creates a site for that, that goes up against YouTube called IT247, and you bring country stars that aren’t getting the recognition, or, you know, a couple of boxers that now they haven’t, every twice a month, every other Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee. You put those words together, country and music, boxing, you’re going to get a big draw. And you put that on your site, and we happen to be the only person of movie reviews on the site. So imagine how many people around the world Go to that site. That’s how we get that.
Amberly Lago: Let me ask you something. What about YouTube? Are you against YouTube?
Brian Sebastian: No, no. I love YouTube. I’m a YouTuber, not a TikToker. So we have 2.1 million views on our TikTok and counting. In our shorts, if you go into the short section, our biggest one is 88,000 views. Okay.
Amberly Lago: So tell the, tell the listeners where they can find you on TikTok.
Brian Sebastian: Oh, no, not a TikTok on YouTube.
Amberly Lago: Oh, OK. Because I thought you said TikTok. You aren’t.
Brian Sebastian: Oh, no. No, I’m a YouTuber, not a TikToker.
Amberly Lago: OK, so they can find you on YouTube and tell them what your handle is on YouTube or your name is.
Brian Sebastian: Movie reviews, the letter like Nancy Moore, movie reviews and more. There’s a picture of me and George Clooney. Easy to find. Okay, see our radio section, you’ll see our TV section, you’ll see our TV interviews for all the new and returning TV shows, and you’ll see fitness section.
Amberly Lago: Okay, awesome. So I want people to be able to head over there now and just go check you out. So that that’s why I asked that. But yes, it is so important when you’re pitching anyone, all you podcasters out there when you’re pitching somebody that even I’ve actually had people that before this is when I actually first started my show. Before they would say yes to the show, they wanted to know how many subscribers, how many downloads, how do I advertise the show, all the things. And I’ve actually only had one person say no to being on the show so far. And I was like, oh, well. OK, awesome. Thank you for adding that to me for me. So out of all the people that you’ve interviewed, is there someone that you’re like that really touched you that was so interesting that you’re like, oh, my gosh, I am so glad I got to interview that person.
Brian Sebastian: Yeah, there’s a bunch of them. Martin Sheen was the only one Martin Sheen and Tom Cruise were the only ones that will walk into a room already around table rooms were basically between three and average of seven on a big huge movie junket depending on how many they would invite to be 23 that’s a huge one but the average was always between three and. five, seven people, our same ones. We were called junketeers, because we all were there every single day at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Every single weekend there at the Hilton, the Regency, the Huntington, and the Pasadena, we would be doing interviews. All the bigger films, always done on weekends. The smaller ones, like a Miramax or Ryan Pictures and stuff like that would be done during the week. So, I’m finally talking about- Martin Sheen and Tom Cruise. Yes, they were the only ones who would get up and go to each person and shake their hand and introduce themselves. Really? Imagine that. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the best marketer. Still to this day, he is the best marketer. Think of his thing. When you get a chance to watch Arnold on Netflix, watch his story. I’ve watched it.
Amberly Lago: I’ve watched it. And let me just tell you a quick story really quick, Brian, about Arnold, because I was a huge fan. I am a huge fan of Arnold, especially because of being in the fitness industry. So my husband wins or is a war. I say wins. I’m still thinking about fitness. My husband is awarded a medal of valor. He was a lieutenant commander with a highway patrol. And so they were flying us down to Sacramento and Arnold when he was the governor, was presenting and he would put the medal over my husband’s neck, you know, or over his head. And so I am like dying. I’m like, my husband and Arnold, like together. And so I had my phone out taking video. And I was so excited that my hands were shaking. I got no video. So afterwards, my husband comes down. I’m like, honey, I’m sorry. I got no video. I got nothing, because I was just so excited my hands were shaking. But it was so cool. And Arnold was really a cool, cool guy.
Brian Sebastian: Well, you think about this. So just take a regular small little round table. Every person that walked in the room, they always sat next to me. We know I would always be the first one there if I was invited to that junket. Always got there. I wanted to be prepared, because I don’t drink coffee. In my mind, I’ve seen the movie. I know what I’m going to ask them. But I’m going by energy. Because if you have a bad movie, you can’t pretend that this movie is not bad, because we’ve all seen it. Even that celebrity knows if it’s a bad movie. They don’t always know what’s going to hit. And then the publisher’s job is to make sure, hey, you’ve seen this movie. They might say, you can’t ask them a question or something like this, because they may be going to something. Nick Cage was a perfect example. It was for the bad lieutenant, and he’s about ready to come in. I just remember it was at 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning. Nick is about ready to come in. He goes, do not ask him about his uncle. His uncle had just passed away. Do not ask him about his taxes. He was just being audited by the IRS. Oh, wow. Now, Nick has known us for years, so he recognizes the face some people he knows. So he always, you know, my name is Sebastian. So I always say this, always remember the radio round table room. You always sat next to me. I could tell you what film it was. And if you didn’t know who I was, I was just a black guy, you know, cause I was the only person of color in the room.
Amberly Lago: That’s awesome. That is awesome.
Brian Sebastian: So there was always three ways you’re going to remember me. You sat next to me, always. Last name Sebastian. If you’ve ever seen the movie Little Mermaid, Mario, Sebastian are in that. Hey, I’m the guy. And if I was lucky, I would do TV interviews with you. So Arnold was the best marketer still to this day. The person that no matter if it was twins, he knew how to market a movie. So you learn from watching these things. And if you got this presence walking into the room, a Sidney Poitier walking in, who’s the guy that sang A Do D, I can’t remember his name right now. It’ll come to me. Brad Pitt, George Clooney.
Amberly Lago: Wait, wait, wait, let’s go back here. You met Brad Pitt.
Brian Sebastian: Oh yeah, I have a great picture with me and Brad. It was for Ocean’s 11.
Amberly Lago: He’s my crush. My husband knows he’s the only person that I would ever leave him for is Brad Pitt.
Amberly Lago: I’m kidding, honey, if you’re listening to this. Good for you. Good for you.
Amberly Lago: Yeah. Yeah. Brian, can you hook a girl up?
Amberly Lago: I mean, I think Brad Pitt should be on the Amberly Lago Show. I mean, come on. But as they’re growing, you start to watch what they’re doing.
Brian Sebastian: Brad is one of the best producers, and you know, when he had his Plan B. So a lot of the last couple movies that were Oscar winners were from Plan B, his production company.
Amberly Lago: Wow. So you’re very observant. You pay attention to, I think you think a lot different than most people do.
Amberly Lago: I always do. I’ve always said, you know, you’re thinking outside the box, I’m hovering above the box.
Brian Sebastian: Well, what are your future projects? are Dream Weaver Arts in a Dream Weaver Artist Ranch, which is helping things like what we’re talking about, those inventors, those artists, those authors, help to get their word out, get their books out, get their artwork out in a different way. Because there’s less media, which is what you were talking about earlier. There’s less people on the red carpets. A lot of those outlets have been bought up. Think of Disney, there is no more Fox Studios. There’s a Fox Searchlight, which is like hidden in the corner. They still make small little films, but Disney owns them. You know, you still have a new line still, which is hidden in the room, but Warner Brothers owns them. They’re like the Bastard Child, which is strange. On their own, they did well. But when you start gobbling up all these companies, you leave less jobs and less chances of people being able to speak freely. They’re coming up with great ideas. That’s why you see so many remakes. They go back in, they do a prequel, they do a sequel. because people can’t take chances or else they lose their jobs because it’s corporate. I never was the corporate guy. I was always the person fighting against the corporate guy to get in. I learned this when I was in video stores going up against blockbusters. Well, blockbusters idea was to have a blockbuster on every corner. Remember that? If you remember, that was their whole idea. I said, that’s not possible. That won’t work. So when you have a small independent store and you’re surviving, you know, fighting to stay alive, You have to get creative. So we did a thing called quarter dates. I knew they couldn’t drop their prices because of corporate, but we could. So when you got a quarter date, you can come in and you can rent as many as 10 movies. Now remember, I watched two and a half, six movies a day. There’s no way you’re gonna watch three movies unless you’re really movie person and that’s on a Saturday. Well, we did it either on a Tuesday or Thursday on purpose. So you got creative.
Amberly Lago: That’s the magic is getting creative no matter what industry you’re in. And while you’re telling me this, I’m like, my husband won’t even take me to the movies because I can’t sit. I don’t like to sit through a movie, to be honest with you. Like it’s hard for me. And actually by the time I finally get to a movie theater, which is once in a blue moon, I go to the movies. I sit in there and it’s all dark and cozy and you can prop your feet up and he’s like, I just paid $25 for you to see this movie and you fell asleep. And I’m like, well, I finally sat still and it was dark. And when we’re home, I’m up and down, up and down. And he’s like, do you want me to pause this? I’m like, oh, no, no, no. I’m just, it’s hard for me to sit still. So I really admire that you can sit through that many movies. That’s, you’ve got a lot of it. You’ve got like laser focus.
Brian Sebastian: Oh, I keep track of every single movie, every single, my numbers each day. What’s my notebook? My notebook is here, matter of fact. When I go through one notebook, I’m doing, I don’t know if you can see this, but these are numbers. This, just this one page is the numbers from the last nine days. Wow.
Amberly Lago: And you know what? I love that you do that in a notebook, by the way. I love that because everything that I do is through, I’ve got stacks of notebooks. I love writing it. Do you ever- It’s good for your brain. Okay. It forces you to be good. Thank you for saying that. I remember it more if it’s written down.
Brian Sebastian: Yes, because it forces you to keep your brain going. So when I’m watching every single movie since 1992, and the reason why I’ve been keeping track of every single movie, TV show since 1992, because in 1991, I don’t know how many movies I watched. Remember VHS tapes? I had a stack of tapes that would go up the wall. Oh my goodness. I would get, they used to send them in the mail. I would get an average of 23 tapes a week from the companies and from the distributors, because I had to know what to order. Marketing, we have three different stores in three different territories. In San Fernando Valley, we had a Latino area, that community, they like comedies, they were family friendly, and they like action movies. They didn’t like horror, they didn’t like foreign films, you know, they liked adult films. So I knew what to order there. Yeah, UCLA area, they were more tech, you know, they like foreign films, suspense thrillers, they hated comedy, they hated family, because they were more kids. And then in Brentwood, about a mile away, they were more sophisticated, foreign thriller comedies.
Amberly Lago: Huh. And now where did you live in the San Fernando Valley or where did you live?
Brian Sebastian: No, I lived in UCLA in that area. I got stuck there. I was going to go up to when I left Connecticut, I was going to move to San Francisco. I wanted to be next to my favorite drum corps, Santa Clara Vanguard up in Santa Clara. I never made it there because I ended up being in Los Angeles. I wanted to go up and then come back. I didn’t know what year was that that you were in 1987. Till when?
Amberly Lago: Until.
Brian Sebastian: last year. Yeah. Yeah, because I’ve been on the road, technically, like this, this last year was on the road for 10 months.
Amberly Lago: Yeah, I was like, over the place. Yeah. Yeah. But I can’t believe we lived in the same area. Because I moved there in 1990. And just moved three years ago.
Brian Sebastian: Oh yeah, if you think about it, I was doing every single film junket, almost invited to everything there. I’m surprised I didn’t see you.
Amberly Lago: When did you go to Secret Knock?
null: 22.
Brian Sebastian: I was there. Well, here’s the thing. I didn’t go to the secret knock. I was actually there for the opening party. That was enough for me. So I went to that. I’m like, oh, this is interesting. Wow. And I just remember the prices going up. I’m like, the good thing about Greg and how he does it, he will always sell that out. Good for him. what was the secret so I was learning what did they like now those guests that he gets that’s easy because I know all those people so I can have them on my show so I don’t have to pay to go do that because I have access to them because I deal with the world’s best publicists from doing all the junkets they had to know me when I still know them So Robinson, think about this, Arnold Robinson had Quincy Jones who just passed away about a month or so ago. He had Farrah Fawcett, he had Michael Jackson, he had Billy Bob Thornton. Who else he had? He had, oh, Nick Nolte, just that’s Arnold Robinson. He’s the only black publicist of Rodgers and Cowerns, you know, Stan Rosenfeld. Robert De Niro, George Clooney, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Danny DeVito, Gene Simmons. He had Charlie Sheen and he had Brad Pitt. No, he didn’t have Brad Pitt. He had Will Smith. Just those. These are all publicists? Yeah, just those two publicists. Those were their clients. So I had access to all of those.
Amberly Lago: It’s really hard to find a good publicist that’s honest. You got to find a good one. And I’m sure that they’re pretty pricey. Yes and no.
Brian Sebastian: It depends who you get and what you need for. So for authors, I know what the authors need. I also know where the authors need to be invited to, to meet those right people to make their future books into something. Hence the events.
Amberly Lago: Well, share, please.
Brian Sebastian: I have something for you. I have an idea for you.
Amberly Lago: I’m like, uh, share, please. I’ll have to tell you a little story.
Brian Sebastian: I was just waiting to do your show. I was just waiting to do this. And then I already, I already knew once you were on the show, what I was going to do with you. I knew when I met you, I knew what I was going to do. If you remember, I typed in, I know what to do with you. Remember?
Amberly Lago: Yeah, yeah. And you’ve been amazing. And you’ve been patient because I lost my voice and I had to change our interview time. So thank you for your giving me some grace. I’ve got my voice back. And I was telling you now, Johnny and Ruby are sick. Sorry. Sorry, family. Got y’all sick. Brian, we’re about out of time. And I feel like I could just talk to you forever. What is the legacy that you want to leave?
Brian Sebastian: I told you what I was going to do and I did it, but you didn’t believe I was going to do it.
Amberly Lago: Oh, I love that.
Brian Sebastian: Because people said, you’re not really going to do this. I always tell people what I’m going to do. If you don’t tell the universe, how’s the universe going to respond to what you want? If you don’t say your prayers out loud and meaning with intention and be specific, how’s anything going to come to you? And I believe in cause and effect.
Amberly Lago: Yeah. Well, um, what is something, if you could give somebody one piece of advice that wants to start their own podcast or interviewing people or just start anything in media, what’s one piece of advice you would give them?
Brian Sebastian: Be consistent, pick a good name, pick a good date and time. And go for it. And don’t worry about the money. Everybody wants that. That’s not how it works. You’ve got to have that viewership first, or those subscribers, or those followers. If you don’t have one of those three, it’s not going to work. But here’s the thing. The reason why I went after viewers is because if the NFL was doing it, World Cup was doing it, the Oscars were doing it, then I was going to do that. Because it’s based on viewership. NFL does not going by subscribers, they’re not going by followers, it’s viewerships. So don’t listen to what everybody thinks what it should be. Oh, you need to be on TikTok. No, I don’t. I’m on other outlets that people never thought of. If you’re an influencer, and I have 197 million followers in my network, Not me as not me brian sebastian in my network because they’re following what they’re doing when I walk into an event And I invite some of my influencers. They’re underneath me. See how it works When I went into the bill and melinda gates foundation that I was invited to 2019 I walked in with 55 million of my followers. I didn’t have any millions of views then I watched them They were a family. That’s a Collins family. I’m one of the few people that they that those kids and their mom and dad trust in the world. John and Stacey Collins. Yeah, I take care of their kids. I watched how they get them. He was known as weekly Chris started when he’s 12 Chris now, you know, or Christian is what 26 now. I met him when he was 19. When he was 21, he had 32 to 35 million followers.
Amberly Lago: Wow.
Brian Sebastian: Strong on all platforms. He was one of the few that I knew in the world that was, I watched him, still 21 year old kid, but what they know when it comes to the world of social media and grabbing followers, subscribers, how do you think I learned this? I learned it from them. Now I surpassed them. And I joke to them now, I tell them now, I learned from you guys. I just took it further because all the algorithms have changed.
Amberly Lago: Those companies- And they constantly change.
Brian Sebastian: It’s why- They don’t want you guys to make money. I was never relying on that. Again, that’s why I went by the viewerships, remember? As long as I can get my views up, I wasn’t being controlled by subscribers, likes, the followers.
Amberly Lago: Yeah.
Brian Sebastian: Makes sense?
Amberly Lago: That’s huge. That’s huge. Yeah, yeah.
Brian Sebastian: So that’s what I tell people. Is it too late to start a podcast? Yes. Is it ever too late to start a podcast? No. Can you do it? Yes. Do you want to work hard enough? That’s the question. Most people don’t want to work hard.
Amberly Lago: That’s exactly what it is. In fact, I just messaged one of my clients yesterday and she’s like, well, I want to, you know, I want to be in a studio and I want to do this.
Brian Sebastian: You don’t need a studio. I had a studio during, you don’t need a studio. I had a studio during COVID. We were one of the few in the world. We might’ve been the only ones during COVID because it was built up during COVID because I saw COVID coming before there was a name. I saw it coming. They build it up specifically me. I would come down from Vegas. I would take the mega bus down. I had my Segway so I wasn’t around anybody. There’s only three or four people on the bus. I’d sleep on the way down, do my show at 10 o’clock in the morning. I’d do four shows and I had these celebrities coming in and they were in the corner. It was a two-story building. on Quanger in Hollywood. And they were like, nobody knew what to do, but I knew what to do. I had my purifiers in there and Viaclent’s purifiers. So everything still to I do is always being sanitized and being cleaned off. Even my engineer, everything still to this day, when I’m flying, I have these devices that people don’t think of. It’s still about safety. That’s why I don’t get sick. I’ve still never had COVID. They call us Nova people. Stupid name. We have never had no COVID.
Amberly Lago: I like that. You know, I never heard that. I never heard that. So yeah.
Brian Sebastian: I don’t get sick because I found these devices at the Consumer Electronics Show. We’re the only ones that broadcast live on a Tuesday media day. Nobody else does it in the press room. We’ve done it the last four years. That’s amazing. So that’s what I say to the advice to anybody who wants to start a podcast. You don’t need a studio. It’s going to cost you money. Do it virtually until you find the right studio.
Amberly Lago: It is. It is going to cost you money. And it is. And my advice to her, I said, hey, look, doing a podcast is a marathon, not a sprint.
Brian Sebastian: Absolutely.
Amberly Lago: And it takes time, but it’s slow and steady. And then before you know it, all of a sudden, you have stayed consistent. Then you’re getting the views, whatever platform that you’re posting on. You’re getting the views, but you’re getting the downloads, and that’s when things start to really take off. So, Brian, it has just been such a pleasure to talk. Well, it’s always good to talk with you. Tell us the best way that people can find you, listen to you, watch your interviews, so you get even more views. Tell us the best way to do that.
Brian Sebastian: I always say, if you want to reach out to me, you can go to LinkedIn. We’re popular on LinkedIn. We’re in the top 15%, almost 10% now on LinkedIn. My Facebook, briansebastian169, briansebastian169 on Facebook. And you can find us on Instagram at moviereviewsandmore.
Amberly Lago: Awesome.
Brian Sebastian: And then if you know, anytime you have these events or anything like that, I’m easy to find. You have to be invited to them, but that’s how we work to get to that. And I’m always open to inviting things to certain events so they can see in real time how things are being done. Yeah, yeah.
Amberly Lago: Well, if you’re next time you’re in Dallas, you’ll have to let me know.
Brian Sebastian: I’ll be there for one of the toy conventions in June.
Amberly Lago: Oh, well, I hope to see you. I’ll come by and see you.
Brian Sebastian: I’ll invite you to a world that no one, they don’t get publicity. There might be three media people there. That’s it. And how do I know? Because I know the publicist on tonight’s show, Carrie Scanlon from Toyfish, which is the number two toy festival in the world. It’s huge. When I walked into that, I said, oh, this is a gold mine. What do you think Barbie came from last year? One of last year’s big films, G.I. Joe, all these things, these characters, wicked, you know, what do you think these, these, you know, figurines come from? They come from the toy world. I have access to all these toys and these inventors and these companies.
Amberly Lago: That’s amazing. You are like King Connector for sure. But anyway, thank you so much for being on the show. And y’all, thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate you tuning in each week. It’s because of you that we have become a top 1% podcast. And I say we because I couldn’t do this without you. I appreciate you tuning in each week. And we will see you next week. Thank you.
