Steve Harvey Explains How He Stopped Giving Away His Money in Hollywood

So let's talk about this. Steve Harvey Global. So all your companies are underneath that, right? So I want to talk about the family feud, Africa. But first, I'll pick up on a conversation that we just had as far as you realizing that you wanted to change things up how usually Hollywood is done, where you wanted to eliminate the traditional agent route, hiring a full-time attorney.

Shout out to Brandon. Uh-huh.

And and actually, you know, doing the deals yourself, negotiating the deals with yourself, you and your attorney and not having to pay the percentage and not having to go through all of the hassle of dealing with the traditional. So can you talk about that a little bit?

Yes. It took me years to come to this because Hollywood is a system. They have an ingrained system out there, man. You come out here, you get an agent. Then a lot of them got a manager, too. And then when you sign a contract with a Hollywood attorney, they 5% of your contract for the duration. So if you sign a five-year deal, they get 5% of your money for five years. And everybody falls into that deal, man, because they lock you in. And then what's crazy, what I found out was, is not a lot of agents that's beating the bushes to procure you employment. They simply list you on their roster, And when somebody wants you, they go online, and your name is under this agency's roster, and they call these people. Now because they picked up

the phone, now their ass is in for 10%. Now when they come in for 10%, then you want to go do the deal They pick up their phone and call their favorite lawyer, who is their boy, who they.

Work in conjunction.

Steve, we got the guy that's gonna cut your deal. You so busy being happy to be on TV, you say, okay, cool, because you don't have that lawyer normally. And now, right there, you 15% of your money gone.

Now, if you real stupid, You got a manager. Who is this dude?

That's some dude that's usually your homie that you started out with and you make him your manager. Now he can be anywhere from five to 20%, depending on how you cut your deal with him.

Now, you're looking up at your money, man, and you could.

Be out of anywhere from 15 to 25 to 30% of your money off the dribble.

Before taxes, anything. You ain't got nothing.

So if you make $ 1 million, $ 300, 000 of that is gone.

Yo, man. And you're doing it in California.

Yeah, and then you got to pay taxes.

Bro, and now you got that franchise tax. So now you're sitting up here going, then the government, they want $ 40, 000. Now you sitting up here, man, 70% of your money gone. And that's real, man. That's real talk. That's why, man, Hollywood is the land of illusion. Most of us, man, are not making what y'all think we making. We just not, man, because we in that system. And it's not that's cause you stupid or nothing. It's just you get caught up in the system. So as the years went by, And I'm just not.

Getting free of this. You know what I mean? It took me a long time to figure it out. So I said, wait a minute, man.

So I had this lawyer that was doing some deals for me with a business I had. This guy named Brandon Williams.

And he was black.

And he was with this huge law firm, acquisition merger firm, right? And he used to come up to Chicago and do deals for me. And I just liked him, man. So one day I was sitting up there and I was watching Godfather. And I was watching my favorite movie, man. And Tom is the conciliar or whatever that name is for the family. Right. But he's not Italian and he's not he's not a made man or nothing. But he cut the deals for the Godfather. And I was sitting up really watching that movie, one of my favorite movies.

I said, man, that's what I need. I need a Tom. Somebody just cut my deals. So Brandon Williams, some years ago, we hooked up, and I just approached him one day. I said, man, you ever thought about doing something else? And he said, no, I'm really good where I am. But that's because, you know, you in the system too, bro.

So just let me talk to you for a little bit. And we talked about it. I said, man, I'm going to travel. I'm going to travel the world, man. I'm going to be global. I'm going to take my brand and spread it across the world. I ain't going to just sit here. on United States TV. I want to go be global. I said, man, we can travel, we can do this. And he said, and then he went home and talked to his wife. And like, we often joke about how much smarter our wives are than us.

And y'all don't get to see them in the background, but them women, man, because they know who they really are. She said, it's a no brainer. And he had a conversation with a mom who's a lawyer. And next thing you know, he came back and we formed a relationship. And it took me some while to get out of some of the contracts I was in. But after a while, as contracts was ending, I got.

Rid of the lawyer.

I said, hey, man, you read that paperwork and tell me what it said. Because the only section I can really understand is compensation. Once you type in the word wince, I get lost because I don't know how to make. Now I'm reading the Bible.

Wince furthermore.

That's why my Bible is the New Living Translation. Because I need just regular English words, man. Because once you say furthermore. Quince, hence after.

I'm out. So I got him and then slowly but surely over the years.

As contracts would expire, I would take the lawyer out of this, take the lawyer out of that. And then I got smarter and I said, I don't really need an agent.

You know, I got some agents that do.

IMG does some stuff like we're in partnership with Miss Universe and stuff. And that's a whole nother story. But we in business with some stuff and I'll allow you to package the deal for me. But that's between you and the network. But as far as now, in my life now, nobody. Ain't nobody getting 10. Ain't nobody getting five.

I found a way to just keep them out.

And that ain't bad business, man. I'm just, why would I? You're not doing nothing.

I'm the one that got to put these suits on and turn these corners and create these jokes and solve these problems and be entertained.

And not you, man.

So, It was a really blessing from God, man, that taught me that side of the business. And it's brought a lot more of the money to my side of the table.

And so when you do things like that, it obviously allows you to pay more to the people that you have. Why do you think that more people in Hollywood, the beast of Hollywood, are not taking that approach?

Well, I just think, man, you get caught up in the system and it's comfortable and it's easy. And, you know, look, man, you got to look at some of these big boys out here. They're making so much money. You know, you look at Tyler and Denzel and Samuel and these boys and Will, Will Smith, these dudes is really making money, man.

You know, I mean, they, listen to me. They making, they scraping it.

So, and I don't really know their particular business, but you know, if you make an X amount of dollars and you know off the dribble and you comfortable and you got a team, sometimes comfort, because you don't want to have, you got to get a lawyer. You do have to get a lawyer. I'm just not finna pay you 5%. You know, why don't you tell me what your hourly rate is, how many hours it take you to cut this contract, and then let that be your money.

But you get in the TV business, it's like that. Now, I would think of.

Denzel, because he's such a brilliant dude, man. And his wife, Pauletta, I'm pretty sure she done sat down and figured this out.

So, and Tyler, Tyler's a gangster too.

Because Tyler, I think, has done more In our lifetime, man, in this generation, I don't think there's been anybody black that's been more successful than this dude in terms of ownership. Now, the queen was Oprah for a long time. Oprah ain't no joke. But she teaches it to us. She done told me, Steve, got to get ownership. That's Tyler's whole mantra.

But I think what Tyler fitting to do of late going to change the game. He's fitting to go past everybody.

So just really quick. So even like the shows that.

had your name as a title, so we had the Steve Harvey Show, which was on WB, and obviously you had the Steve Harvey Show on NBC, talk show. Did licensing the name, or how does that work? There was no ownership of those?

See, I didn't get, I wasn't a businessman when the Steve Harvey Show was out. I was just happy to be on TV. I just took my check and went out and said, I own 12% of the show back end. But I learned real quick in Hollywood, you never see back end. They got a different type of arithmetic. It's like the music industry. The only people that you make true back end with is book people. Book people are the most honest people I've ever done business with. Books, they're honest. Music and TV.

You're not going to get no back end partner.

How? Man, by the time they get through doing their arithmetic, I ain't made back end on none of my shows ever.

Because they're saying they didn't hit the numbers that it was supposed to hit.

Even in syndication.

Bro, Steve Harvey's show. Never saw back in, never. It's just crazy, man. So I started figuring that out and I went, okay.

You know, my business with Fremantle, which.

Is one of the best companies I've ever dealt with, they're very honest and forthright. But when I signed a deal to do Family Feud, you know, look man, Family Feud was a 20 year franchise and they had ownership and they couldn't get, you know, I was going.

Through tax problems back then.

I just wanted a check. So I took the check. Over the years, I still couldn't get ownership. But since I can't get ownership, I'll tell you what, though. I tell you what, I might not have ownership, but you're going to feel like I'm one. And so we've negotiated really nicely with them.

I mean, you're the longest running host in the history of the show.

And it's the number one syndicated show on earth.

Steve Harvey Explains How He Stopped Giving Away His Money in Hollywood

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