2: The Broadway Blueprint: Ken Davenport’s Guide to Theatrical Success

Joe Simon [0:00 - 0:29]: This mythical place. Wow. How did it happen? How did it come to be? And the fact is, Broadway shows are businesses. They're medium sized businesses. They can be anywhere from a play to $4 million to $25 million to a big musical to get going. But they are just like any other business out there. The product is a player of music. The place to sell the product is the theater. We have marketing teams and advertising teams. And as the Broadway producer, I am the CEO of this startup.

Ken Davenport [0:39 - 1:07]: If you've ever wondered what it's like to be in the shoes of some of the most successful entrepreneurs out there today, look no further. Each episode, your host, Joe Simon, takes short walks with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the game today. These inspiring leaders have successfully crossed the coveted seven figure mark in their businesses. And these candid, insightful conversations will inspire you to look at your business and your life from a new perspective and get it to the next level. So put on your walking shoes, and let's skyrocket that success together.

Joe Simon [1:57 - 12:47]: Welcome to the millionaire mile. This is your host, Joe Simon. I'm with a good friend today, and the exciting part about this is it's an entrepreneur that has delved in musical theater, Broadway. We'll leave it as a surprise and have Ken introduce himself. Ken, please introduce yourself to the audience. Tell them a little bit something about yourself. My name is Kez Abenfort. I am a Broadway producer. I also help people who have ideas and want to take them all the way to Broadway. And the theater has been something of a passion of mine since I was five years old. My parents introduced me to the theater when I was a kid. I think they regret that at some times. When I was telling them I was going to be a lawyer, I switched ears my personal year and call what I did. But I pursued a passion, and it's so far, so good. That's awesome. I mean, I met Ken about. About a year ago, and probably the most outstanding thing that we were having a conversation about is of mouse Broadway, of how business. The business of Broadway, right. Shows. And it's something the average entrepreneur doesn't understand, right? Like, obviously, there's a lot of money that goes into putting the show together. Some are winners, some are losers. I think it relates to small businesses, basically, right? So somebody you have to put money in to start. Not something you can effectively bootstrap, but. Or can you. Can you actually bootstrap a formation on them? So. But I'm throwing it out there. I think perhaps a pretty good boots pretty well, feels literally. Thanks but no, you know, part of my mission is to raise the curtain. You'll excuse the attendant's hun on the business of Broadway. So most people, Broadway represents like Oz, right? It's this nitpick old place. Wow. How did it happen? How did it come to be? And the fact is, it is, Broadway shows are businesses. They're medium sized businesses. They can be anywhere from a play to $4 million to $25 million to a big musical to get going. But they are just like any other business out there. The product is a player of music. The place to sell the product is the theater. We have marketing teams and advertising teams. And as the Broadway producer, I am the CEO of this startup. I actually tell people I'm not only like a founder of a company or a CEO, but I'm like a serial startup guy. So if I do a new musical on Broadway every year, it's a new company, new round of capital, new management teams, new marketing plans, etcetera. It is high risk. It is an industry where, like venture capital, private equity, or any alternative asset class, one out of five of our shows makes their money back. But when one does just like any of those other asset classes, the growth could be pretty close. That's amazing. So let's take it back to beginning. People that are listening to podcasts, all right, trying to start the, trying to say, and I always say, the first million suits of the hearts, what advice can you give somebody? And probably, you know, they're chomping at the fit. Maybe they're trying to break through that March 4. They're just starting at the very beginning. They're like, all right, look, this is great. I would love to be on Broadway, but I want to do the business side of it. And I relate this to a lot of people I know in healthcare, where they love the action of being in healthcare, but then they fall in love with the business side, and then they do that instead, you know? So again, ten, the average person that goes to school for drama turn around and say, hey, the business of this, can it be super lucrative pathway? Yes. Listen, 90% probably, of people who get involved in the theater on any level, get involved first as an actor. Like my parents dragged me to that ship when I was five years old. My parents also got divorced when I was five. The theater was like the one place that they could get along. So I did it all through school. I gave it up. I was going to be a lawyer for a little while. I came back to it, and then I got fit by the bug. When I saw a show and then auditioned for the race for me, said, I'm going to be an actor. And then I say that acting or performing is like the Gateway drug to Broadway. You do it, and then you realize, for me, I was like, wow, I'm okay at this. But there's a lot of people better at it who love it more. And there are other aspects of the industry that I was attracted to, and they always say, in my business, and I think this is true, in healthcare or anything, you're unit competitive or difficult business. If there's another area of that business that interests you for the gateway drug, whatever that was, becoming a doctor, whatever the thing is, pursue that. So for me, all of a sudden, when I was a production assistant, getting lunch and walking dogs and doing those things, and I came into it saying, I'm going to learn from the actors, all of a sudden, the producer, the press rep, the marketing people, I was like, this is so much more interesting. And I said, and also, I'm not the best suited for that. I think that a lot of entrepreneurs coming up there is, you have to have objectivity. You have to look at the market and you say, okay, listen, I believe everyone should go after anything they want. But the question is, for me, I want to achieve great success. Yeah. And I knew I was more naturally seeking for the business of Broadway, for creating strength rather than transforming, and I had a pass. So I followed that path. And that quick shift of my career away from auditioning and all of that, I think, is what allowed me to achieve success much earlier than a lot of people wait on that decision. That's not great advice. And you touched on something. So obviously, during the pandemic, Broadway was not operational. And just like every bit, we had to figure out, figure out what else we can do. Entrepreneurs in general daily dealing with issues, and issues could be around, hey, I have staffing issues. I have, you know, funding issues. What are the. And Broadway, obviously, I gave an example of when Broadway goes dark or something like that, but what's an issue with that? And how did you get past that? That would relate to most hospitals out there right now. How did you live it? Or is there any side steps that were aids being able to be done healthy, create a distant pathway, and maybe a different reference to. Yeah, so the pandemic obviously was arguably the most challenging thing to be told. It's never impacted the theater. You know, we've had moments, September 11, stock market crashes, things that sort of take us out for a day or two and, you know, any world event sort of takes everyone's attention away from, like, going to see mamma mirror, right? So when you. If all of a sudden it shut it down. We broke everybody's habit of cedar. Gone for two years. You know, I related to the gym a lot. Like, you go to the gym for a month if you don't go for two weeks, getting back to the gym is very hard. Right. We broke everyone's theater going habit for two years. So getting them back to the theater is difficult. So what did we do in the pandemic? We streamed stuff. I was distributing all sorts of contents by investors, because what I was most concerned about was breaking the investor habit. The best thing is that theater is supporting the arts. If without investors, the arts haven't happened, I believe the world is a better place if there's more theater in it. There's only more theater in it. The better people invested. So I was communicating with them constantly, keeping them engaged and trying to find revenue sources through streaming in all sorts of other ways. But we face difference every day. You know, the pandemic actually amazed me as a producer, strong. Because now when I'm in negotiations or I face a challenge, I say to someone like, I'm a theater producer. If you survived the pent up, right? I'm not destitute. I'm not broke. My family's healthy, unhappy. I have a job. I figured it out. Yeah. If I can get too fast, one difficult association with an agent or an interarm issue, or I didn't get the rights to this show, that's nothing. That's. That is a very powerful and great point, by the way. We can look through something downstream. The economy, pandemics. We breathe in peripheral issues. You live to death, or whatever it may be. That means the right to the show. I think that's what you talk about, people just getting into anything. But when I just started out, and I coach people to do this in the Bearden, but the thing I hear the most about people just starting out is like, this show doesn't work. It's over. No one will ever invest in if this business doesn't work. If I don't get this job, I'm just like. And everybody goes through the space. It's with aid and going through, frankly, some very difficult moments, moments where I was on my shrink's couch years, because, oh, my God, my show that I just so believe in them. And I know people having a good time, just having trouble selling tickets for the shutdown or whatever it was, thinking, this is it I'll never do this, and this is my passion, so forth. You get emotional. The fact is, you go through enough of those with age. You put ten years in, you put 20 years, put 30 years in. You know, okay, this is just like the Stossnare game. We're gonna have a little down sits, and then in the overall, we're gonna be up. As long as we keep working at it, keep learning. Absolutely. I think one of the last questions I have the numbers on you, you had to give self advice for an 18 year old self, or even someone just came out of college looking, that's an entrepreneur, that's just starting up, advice that you give. I know you said law school is one of the things that the pathway you were going down, is that a starting point? Does everyone need to be the intern? Does everyone need to have the college pathway or the drama pathway or fail a little bit at first? What's, what's your opinion on it? No, I'm going to give some very general advice, which my father gave to and which is a very interesting story. My father was a doctor. He was born and raised in India and came over here and sort of an introvert and actually a fit agoraphobe. And the fact is, his advice to me was, show. Get out there, put yourself in communities of people. College is a great community of people. Masterminds like the ones that we're a part of or that I run are great communities of people. Shows are great communities of people. Find your tribe and get into it and succeed and fail with those people. The thing that I never do, that I learned from him, never did. When I was 18, I was a bit of an introvert and a bit of a studyer. I locked myself in my room, stared at my computer. I wrote a script I produced. I figured it all out myself. The best thing I could give myself advice would be to go back and invite about ten people in the room, ten people that I really knew were very much like me to come up together. I know that I would have succeeded fast using the resources around me, and now I'm trying to catch up on this. I think we all are. An absolute pleasure today. Hope everyone gets impressed with you. Will make sure we put all your contact information, absolute budget. Thank you. Thank you so much. My pleasure. Go. See you, Broadway show.

Ken Davenport [12:47 - 13:06]: Thanks for listening. We hope these walks with successful millionaires have inspired you to take the next step in your entrepreneurial journey. No two stories are the same, and it's inspiring to learn from those that have walked the path before to read full show notes for each episode, which includes guest contact information and ways to connect with Joe. Visit themillionairemile.com.