From MTV Executive to Emmy Award Winning Producer: Go Behind the Scenes with Vinnie Potestivo

SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and I'm excited to welcome you inside.

This is the kind of place where your glass will never be anything other than half full because we choose to focus on the positive side of life.

Now, this doesn't mean that we shy away from the real talk.

No, not a chance.

Matter of fact, we explore all aspects of life, from the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But all of that is done with one purpose.

unknown: One purpose.

SPEAKER_00: To inspire you to never give up on life, even when it may seem like life has given up on you.

Now I get it, life is hard.

But starting today, you've got grit, grace, and inspiration.

What's going on, my friend?

How are you today?

Welcome back to the podcast.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, of course, as always.

And hey, I'm just glad to have you joining me today.

Today, I am hanging out in the studio with Vinny Podestivo.

And Vinny is one of those guys who just kind of gives me a renewed sense of hope for the world.

This renewed sense that there are still amazing people out there.

Because the media tries to fill our minds with this idea so often when we watch the news that everything is doom and gloom.

Well, sometimes we need a reminder.

Sometimes we need a breath of fresh air.

Sometimes we need a conversation with Vinny Hippotastico.

When you look back on your childhood, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Do you remember?

You remember when you were real little?

What did you think you wanted to be?

Well, whether that idea, that dream came true or not, it was a dream.

And the dream is worth chasing.

And Vinny Potestivo, his life has taken many twists and turns, but it's kept him on his journey.

And his journey has taken him through an impressive career at MTV, where he had a hand in hit shows like The Osborne, The Hills, Laguna Beach, and of course TRL.

But the thing that I came to realize while talking to Vinny is that Vinny Potestivo has spent his entire career shining light on others.

He makes stars out of nobody.

He turns a nobody into somebody.

Well, I believe that Vinny Potastivo is the star of the show.

Because I don't think that he's been in front of the camera nearly as much as he should be.

And I am so thankful that he's obviously realized this to a degree because he actually has his own podcast called I Have a Podcast, which I highly recommend you go check out and start following.

But that's just a start.

And my goal with today's episode was to shine the light on his story, on his life's journey, on what makes him him, and what makes him so freaking awesome.

I hope today's episode blesses you, inspires you, motivates you, and empowers you while you are reminded that anything is possible, that your dreams are worth pursuing, and well, because you deserve those dreams to come true.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

And hey, with that said, here's the star of the show my interview with Vinny Potastivo.

Vinny Potastivo, man, what a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02: Yo, of all the places I can be, I really appreciate being invited to get to speak to you.

Kevin, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, well, thank you.

Well, so I'm excited to dive into a lot of aspects of your life, but I want to give me and my audience some background.

So before MTV, before celebrities, before podcasting was even a thing, give me some background.

What was life like for you growing up?

Where did you grow up?

Kind of leading our way to understand what led you on this kind of career path.

SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.

What a loaded question.

Thank you for that opportunity to go back.

And any chance I get to go back this deep into my story, it gives me an opportunity to reframe.

And uh, you know, the characters don't change, the facts don't change.

The story always changes, though, depending on the audience and the person who's asking questions.

So I really love getting to go back.

And I was born and raised in Staten Island, the oldest growing up.

I'm the oldest of four.

And TV was a big part of my fascination in maybe what I wanted to do in the future.

I actually thought I was going to be TV and VCR repairman.

To be really honest.

Yeah, right.

There was a commercial.

I love it.

I really want to know.

There was a commercial that said, you know, you could do this, you can be an accountant, you can be a this, you could be that, or TV, VCR repair.

And I was like, that sounds like I love that.

I was fascinated with ways to get on television.

I loved it.

I'll never forget when I got our first VCR and I realized all you need is to be on a VHS tape, and that's how you can be on TV.

So I need a camera because I need to be on VHS tapes.

Like that's like how my mind started working.

And even when we got cable and in Staten Island, the cable boxes look a little funny, if you know what I'm saying.

We had all the cable boxes, all the channels all of a sudden, and I thought, wow, all I need to do is get on cable.

And then if I can get on cable, then I can get on television.

Like there's so much power.

And being on TV, what happened on TV seemed to really matter in my social life, at church, at work, out in the play field.

Like what happened on television resonated.

So I always had this like goal.

Now I'm saying it's really funny.

I really did want to be a TV VCR repair.

And I'm I was that guy and still am in my friend group when it comes to wiring VCRs or or your tech setup.

Like I'm I'm usually the first friend that people go, Oh, thank gosh, you're here.

Can you hook up the wire?

And can you put me right to work and that's they know my specialty?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

I love so basically, if you were a modern age kid, you'd be the one like doing some crazy computer stuff.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'd I'd figure out how I would be all about decentralized social media and I'd be in that deep web three server space.

I well, I mean, I was that guy in the late 90s.

I was at in school and I went to college from 95 to 99.

And what an awesome four years to have access to a computer center that allowed me to work there overnights and have, you know, unfettered access to the internet when most students didn't even have internet in their dorm rooms.

And it was hours of fixing people's Microsoft Word documents and Excel sheets and learning Microsoft Excel and what macros were and how they can do things in Excel and what databases, the power of databases.

I had this really strong tech background.

I loved being surrounded by talent.

In freshman year, I'll never forget being in my first computer sciences class and looking around the room and really kind of figuring out, you know, quickly who I wanted to be aligned with.

Like alignment, collaboration, there's always been a part of my life strategy that relied on collaborating with somebody else.

I got through the deepest, darkest parts of my life thanks to someone else, an adult who probably knew better, or uh a peer who somehow got me through it.

And um I think that I I I learned a lot how to get out of and how to get into uncomfortable situations and and grow and learn from it.

And uh and I I was saying about technology, it was cool to be, you know, have access to that level of internet and technology at a point in time where media is changing where we're going from hard disk to floppy disk to no disc.

You know, it's like for one year, it's like, can you scan my pictures in so I can, you know, get them on my GeoCities page?

And then the next year it's can you take my my album and scan it in so we can get my uh my music on iTunes so I can play it on, you know, I was like, I was that guy.

And and I learned how people communicate and I learned how people use media and share media, and it was that act of knowing how to manage content that helped me break into an industry when I knew no one.

And I mean, like when I tell you Ugats, there was not a single person my family was connected to or I knew of in the entertainment industry.

So I think it's fascinating to know that I became, you know, a talent development executive and a casting director and responsible for bringing people into that network when I started my whole career not knowing a single person.

And the coolest part is is because my job in casting wasn't to know the people, it was to meet the people.

And that's one thing that I got really good at was meeting people and I made some really lifelong friendships out of those opportunities.

When you focus on meeting people and connecting with them versus versus the opportunity at hand, I think that that really allowed me the space to have a a really deep relationship and connection with some of the people I worked early with.

And I'm lucky to get to have them back on my podcast now and have them still in my life helping me make my creative decisions now that I'm finally on this side of the mic.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

I mean, it was rather than networking, it was forming genuine relationships with people.

Yep.

You know, exactly.

You know, and I I mean so now what did you go to college for?

What was your degree in for college?

SPEAKER_02: I have a business degree in theater management and arts administration, actually.

SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.

So so you go to college, where we're talking about all this tech stuff that you're into.

Yeah.

So how does the evolution evolve that gets you into this entertainment industry that led to, I mean, I don't know the timetable and stuff, but that led to MTV and all of that.

How did that all come about?

SPEAKER_02: There was someone in my life who told me that the a version of the story that, like when I would meet people, the version of myself, as they were there and I was explaining who I was or what I did, they pointed out that that was a pretty dastardly version of the story.

Like I would never talk about anybody else the way I was talking about myself and the power that comes in that story and the reframe of that story.

And uh that really like shook me.

And I changed the spelling of my name from Vinny with a Y to Vinny with an I.

E.

I.

I never in in a in a million years did I ever see the rights that I currently have coming, you know, in this lifetime, just based on my experiences of growing up in the 80s and 90s.

And it was a really important, powerful opportunity for me to be in my truth.

I felt so empowered and like a thousand feet taller and a million pounds lighter.

And and then the next bit of information that person told me was to for me to be successful and for me to realize my dreams and to be surrounded by talent, I'd have to stake it and claim it.

So, like the the way to be a casting director would would be to say, I'm a casting director.

And I was like, But that's like literally step that's like a that sounds like a lie.

That sounds like you're making me, you just made me speak my truth and now you want me to speak my not truth.

And I was upset about that information.

I was I was torn.

That's how at least I received it was that way.

And and so that night I did what I felt called to do, which was take out an ad on something called Backstage, which is a magazine for a non-union talent that are aren't represented and have the ability to work on non-union projects.

And I said, uh, if you want to send me in your headshots and resumes on looking to build my files for future work, one campus road, student box five seven seven, attention, Vini Padas Diva.

Like I didn't even have my company in place yet.

And uh about a week later, I had just under 700 submissions sent to school.

It was a pretty cool, yeah, pretty cool moment.

And it happened in like October, November, so it totally felt like a miracle on 34th Street, you know, like the USPS boxes of just mail cascading everywhere in my dorm room, eight by ten photos that cost four dollars to get to me, a little under 700.

I started doing the math on that.

I had a responsibility with this information that I had asked for.

I mean, I was lucky to have gotten a response.

Yeah.

I learned that the universe listens and that, and that, but I I also felt a responsible for for figuring out now what to do with it.

And and then in response to that, I decided I would continue buying Backstage magazine if they if they saw me in Backstage magazine.

And at that point, Backstage magazine was available at a certain amount of kiosks in Times Square, but it was a really small circulation.

So I would take a copy of it and I would scan it in because I worked at the computer center, and then I would email it to people.

I would email opportunities to people that I thought were right for them, just based on like what they, you know, said they were looking for and what they what the information they provided on their headshot and resume.

And that database caught the attention of a producer at a brand new cable network called Fox News.

I'm obsessed with cable, and now I know cable and VCR is on the way into TV.

It's also here at where I learn how to wire two VCRs together so I can start editing, so I can start editing like my own content almost.

Oh because I didn't have access to like a video editing bay.

And I worked on a show called Hannity and Combs on Fox News, where I I got to tour the country and organize the audience list.

So hundreds of people on an audience list, and I would understand what political party they were affiliated with, and if they had questions that they wanted us to answer on air, did they fill out a release, you know, all the information that's required to track people that participate in being on camera?

And then that experience led to MTV News when MCV News was looking to hire its political coverage for the year 2000, and that was called Choose or Lose.

And I got bit by the bug, you know, when you create content in front of a youth culture that is watching television and engaged in what's coming out of MTV in the late 90s, you too would stay forever because I felt heard and seen, and it wasn't even my voice and it wasn't even my likeness, you know, that people were looking at, but I still felt like a huge connection in part to the content we were creating.

And I'll never ever, ever, ever, ever be able to replace the energy that happened at MTV because the audience is so special.

Platforms can be new and exciting, but the audience is what made that place magic.

But it was that.

It was a mixture of some tech.

And I had no clue that also in the late 90s, you know, you have to start a company to get health insurance and to be able to get different types of insurance to work with networks and liability and all that.

So I knew I needed to start a company because I wanted to provide a service.

And I to provide a service to the people I wanted to provide it to, I also had to had to have insurance.

So I started my company in October of '98.

And then in '99, for the next 10 years, I helped MTV scale their business and brand globally, and came back in 07 and just picked up the reins and helped other networks and cable companies and businesses.

And now that we have the ability to own our own content, podcasting is a brilliant way to create intellectual property that's so leverageable.

And I love helping business owners, people who are stepping into this creator economy by way of trade and not by way of training, you know?

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_02: I love helping them figure out how to be successful in this without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars the way that we we did in TV learning.

And I'm here, and I was in the room when certain questions got asked, and just here to help share the experience and insights that I have from the many different types of projects that I've worked on in my past.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Okay.

So how how just awesome.

And what I love is just this really cool, just natural evolution that you've kind of been on in this journey that I just think is really phenomenal.

And now, like when you're working at Fox News or working at MTV in these capacities, what exactly like was your role?

Because I mean, you weren't like on camera, right?

SPEAKER_02: No, I was like a casting coordinator or audience coordinator.

And then that would turn to audience producer and casting producer.

SPEAKER_00: Okay.

So talk to me for somebody like me who's an idiot for that stuff.

What do those titles mean?

SPEAKER_02: Oh, the coolest part about casting is that we're the only people in the industry paid to bring people in.

SPEAKER_00: Okay.

SPEAKER_02: Like producers are paid to elevate a storyline or finance or creativity or to implement or execute.

Managers are also, well, managers are also the one of the people in the beginning of anyone's industry that are there to help help you get into the industry.

But agents are there to help you get paid.

At that stage of the game, the agent is fiduciary responsible to you and the agency that they serve.

And their bottom line is in their department.

So they're looking to make money in their department more so than make you money globally through all the different ways that you know you can you can sort of make money.

Anyway, a bit of a tangent there.

But but I kind of get hit up, you know, casting gets a little bit of agent, a little bit of manager, a little bit of producer, a little bit of executive producer.

It turns into um I'm a little bit of a copywriter because I'm interviewing people and then creating a very concise one-page story that the network, the executives read and see.

And that turned into helping people become hosts of TV shows and participate in TV shows as experts into owning their own reality TV shows and and participating in their own reality TV shows and other formats that talent were able to get created and participated in the creation of at, you know, during my time at MTV.

But it's a people job.

I meet people.

It's about meeting them and then organizing information, seeing opportunity both for them and for the platform or project that you're working on and being a steward to make that happen.

Yeah.

I was lucky at MTV to have tech skills at a point in time where they already had a brilliant head of casting.

Ru my boss, Rod Asa, is like it was him and Sharon Osborne that came up with the Osborne, and it was him and Joe Simpson and Jessica Simpson and Nicola Shea that came up with new newlyweds and him and Ashton and the team that came up with Punked.

I honored to have worked and supported him my entire 10-year career at MTV.

But I have very strong tech skills.

You know, I see opportunity, I know how to support it in a sustainable way.

I learned a lot of my fortitude from Rod, and uh I don't take that lightly.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Oh man, that is just that is really awesome, especially coming from like my perspective as the kid who grew up watching TRL, all the shows on MTV, you know.

I mean, and and to hear you talking about that, I mean, shows like Punk, like you're talking, just all of it.

I'm like, my man, we got we got like an insider here.

This is awesome.

So it punked was fun.

SPEAKER_02: Punk was fun.

Casting Punk was was fun.

I got to help, you know, cast Dax Shepard and Al.

SPEAKER_00: Okay.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: The people who were the original sort of improv actors in there.

But then then my job on the end of season one and all of seasons two, three, four, whatever, because this is a Punk was a very serious Punk.

There was no no one got punked who, if we were not aware of anyone who was aware that they were getting punked.

And we, if Ashton, first off, if Ashton found out that they were aware, he would a hundred percent call it off.

Yes.

Whereas maybe, I gotta be honest, maybe in production we'd be like, uh, let's just fake it and get it just so we have it.

He'd be like, No, it's not right.

You know, I love that man for his integrity.

Showed me so much.

She showed me so much about how to have a vision and and create it and.

Believing in it.

And it was a trifecta.

It was Punked and Newlyweds and Osborne's that put this format on the map.

And and what that format was was a shift from from what MTV launched in in the early 80s.

It came up with the music video.

And it said, hey, artist, we're going to pay your labels some money, and then they're going to give you some money.

And then you go make a video.

We're going to air it.

It's going to be video marketing for your music in a way that's never been done before.

And then ultimately more screens became really valuable places for those music videos to be shared.

And ultimately, there are now more places to watch music videos outside of MTV than on MTV, which is the actual platform that created a music video genre.

Right.

So what MTV did was say, hey, artists, here's three to four minutes.

Unless you're like Aerosmith and you get 10 minutes for your 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

SPEAKER_02: In the mid-90s, there was a very public conversation about Michael Jackson's videos that weren't allowed to air during a certain period of time because of advertising and who the advertisers were.

So it was really cool to be part of a network that had had already been shocked by culture and had the opportunity to learn.

So I was stepping into sacred halls as you know, MTV was 20 years old when I got there.

And I don't know about you, but like a lot of us tend to be, you know, in our creative prime, at least in our 20s, where we have the power to execute and match the vision or impact that we can internalize, that we can now, you know, make make happen.

And MTV was a place that let me do that.

SPEAKER_00: Yes.

SPEAKER_02: I felt heard and seen by that network.

All because I can organize information.

And MTV did, you know, want to be a VJ, like thousands of people nationwide auditioning.

It was my little spreadsheets that organize all that conversation.

Cool.

It's really funny now because every once in a while someone will take a picture as especially during the holidays.

I'll take a picture of like some like old memory box and is like, here's the facts that you sent me for my MTV audition.

And it's in like a pristine, I know the grid.

I know, I remember when I drew it.

It even says like asterisk.

It's that schedules can and will change.

I'm rolling my eyes right now at myself.

The but I was so serious about it, but also I was kind of making it up as I went along.

Like I just, it's just what I wanted.

I hate to say it, but it's just like it's just what I wanted.

And I got I got someone else to see what I wanted to do, also.

I wanted to organize talent.

I want to meet talent.

I didn't want to produce shows forever and ever.

That's not what I wanted to do.

If I did, I'd I'd be a production company where I get paid per episode.

But that's not what I love about the TV industry.

I I like the people.

I like show people more than show business.

Show business is ruthless.

And also, I'm very lucky to have worked at MTV at a point when I didn't need to have deals with the people that I was developing shows around because we were the only platform that was providing that type of content.

So, like to be honest, even after 2007 and professionally, I've had obstacles where I'd love to create shows for people, but they were under a different deal, or I was competing with them against somebody else who wanted to do a deal with them.

And like, by the way, Spielberg and Brad Pitt, and like there are giant, giants in the unscripted territory of reality TV programming right now.

I'm not a producer.

What I do do is bring out the best in people.

And if I can do that for small business owners and us, people who can create content and reap the rewards and benefits of owning our own content that that provides us as a foundation for our own media platforms, for our services and our products that make impact the way we know they can, then like I'm fully leaned in to that energy and those results of media versus being hired by a network to go find some group of people based on their socioeconomic status or their dating status or their

family status or some of the other, you know, story organizing principles that reality shows have been come to be known for.

And it's great that I can meet people.

I'm happy that I can put people first.

It's a defense mechanism that I turned into a superpower.

And if I'm gonna do it, I want to make sure I'm making the most impact I can.

I really believe that small business owners can make more impact right now than mass media can.

But we need each other.

They need podcasts as much as we need broadcasts.

So I'm here to bridge the gap.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.

Last kind of question for you about like the time at MTV and even and even I guess we could even take it back to when you got hired on at Fox News.

What was the moment?

Is there a moment that you can think back when you were like Vinny, you made it?

You're doing what you wanted to do, making an impact.

Was there any particular moment that happened that like is the first thing that pops in your head when I ask you that?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Yeah.

So I grew up watching TV, and I think we all grew up watching like red carpet and and award shows.

And and and if you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you know how cool it was those liners, you know, the liners for albums and the in the in the CDs, there would be this little booklet with little thank you notes in there.

So it was pretty neat for me at MTV to start getting included in the liner notes and the thank you notes for some pretty big albums that many people in my life have stored away in a in a box in an attic or or so.

So it that had almost been normalized for me because of the access I had, and I thought it was so cool.

I thought it was so cool, but the moment I felt like I had arrived was when Mandy Moore won her first award for acting.

It was the MTV Movie Award breakthrough performance, and she thanked me on stage and it heard my name in a thank you speech.

And then I I thought that I, to be honest, I thought thank you speech.

I thought the people whose names were in thank you speeches.

I I'm like, they must be old because, like, for you know, for people to be thinking they must have gone through so much, there must be so much wisdom and there must be so much experience that that the people in thank you speeches, they must be like, you know, old and smart and the best of the best.

And then my name was grouped in.

And I remember thinking, like, wait, I never thought like I'm as impactful.

I didn't degrade, by the way, I didn't degrade the people before me who I know the artist truly loved and adored.

I just assumed that I would never hit that caliber until 20, 30, 40, 50 years in the future.

And I think that that was the moment, and I'm so happy it happened during my time at MTV.

I think it was 2003 or 2004 for her work in A Walk to Remember.

And it was uh she had done Princess Diaries, A Walk to Remember, and it was just right in that break where I we knew something cool and magical was happening, and I felt like such a part of that journey.

And just to have a friend give that to me, you know, like that's that's the part that I think really sunk in as success was like, wait, I'm getting thanked in a speech and I know the person and I love her.

And like I'm and I and like, you know what I mean?

Like I thought there was, I thought there was a separation from celebrities and we don't really know them, and they don't know us.

And they're one of my best friends in the whole world was on stage, you know, bringing me into that moment with her.

And I thought that's that's what it was about.

It was about it was about finding really awesome, talented, impactful friends that I believe in that I love putting before me because they paved the way for me and also I them.

And it's a very reciprocal relationship.

And I'm lucky to get to share that story.

So thank you for that question.

SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.

Well, I'm so glad I asked that question because literally your answer, you totally gave me goose bumps.

Because I'm just like vetting, how freaking cool is that to be this guy who you know, you just kind of felt like at times, I'm sure, what am I doing?

Is it all gonna work out?

Am I gonna make it big?

Am I gonna do something?

And then all of a sudden, you get that moment.

And I mean, that's just really, really freaking awesome.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it was a really cool, it was a really cool moment.

In fact, I told her that if I ever won an Emmy and I had the opportunity to thank her, I would.

And last year I won my first Emmy and she's the first person I thanked.

And everyone's like, Does Manny, what does Manny Moore have to do with this project?

I'm like, nothing.

Like, I didn't mean to I didn't mean to con I mean she's just like my life inspiration, but like, so she's the alchemy of every project I've ever created, to be honest.

But like I just love, I just love creating with great product and and good ingredients.

And um, if if you got them, use them.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.

So I have to ask, tell me the story behind winning an Emmy.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, I realized 25 years in my media career, I didn't win an Emmy because I never applied.

SPEAKER_00: You know how frustrating lifeless hashtag lifelesson apply.

SPEAKER_02: I have to apply.

Imagine it's like I thought, you know, I don't know.

I I'm in this industry and I know.

I know no one taps Beyonce on the shoulder and says, Hey, great tribe with your album.

Here's nine submissions.

We hope you're happy this time around.

No, she's you have to specifically pay and for each person attached to the bid, and you have to put categories and there's a time.

And and I realized that I would, I hadn't worked on a project that qualified in a role that qualified for an Emmy.

There were not casting roles for unscripted.

There were not Emmy Emmys for unscripted casting for many, many years, up until about like four or five years ago.

Casting wasn't a service or a category in the awards, but now it is, which is super cool for the people who have the ability to win those awards.

And many of them are big shows that you all know, the ones that change TV.

I felt like, you know, when I realized the reason the thing that was holding me back from winning the award was that I hadn't applied.

It drove me bonkers.

So I put a strategy together.

I said, actually, I'm not gonna win just an Emmy because I know to go national, you got to start local.

I know that.

So I had to start looking at some other awards that weren't competing me against people, but were competing me against myself, like the Teles, the Communicator Awards, the W3 Awards.

I came up with a list of like a hundred awards, digital awards that I know marketers, podcasters, business owners, newsletter owners, website owners, marketers, copywriters, that all of those are skill sets that have awards.

And I spent some time doing some research on that.

Um, if you're interested in that list, it's it's on my website.

And then so is the what I learned about the Emmys.

And I went out specifically for short form documentary in lifestyle category.

I specifically targeted a topic or a group of people that I really wanted to be aligned with.

I put out some energy.

I was able to hop on a project as a media advisor to a television show or a documentary that was already in progress with Kevin Harrington and Jeff Hoffman attached as executive producers and Brandon T.

Adams and Samantha Rosine as our executive producers in charge.

And long story short, was able to win my very first Emmy with an awesome group of people on a project called Red Flags, which focuses on the journey post-rehab.

So where most shows start with intervention and end with rehab and and then the you know 60-minute show ha ends with happily ever after.

This is a series that ends that starts with rehab and follows the first 60 days out of rehab and the red flags that we can be looking for to support, you know, our brothers and sisters and and and people who are siblings who are coming out of rehab in the way that we can also, you know, support ourselves.

Just there's a fascination in sharing my experience with that world.

I don't know.

I think I think after these last three years that we've had it specifically in this pandemic, we can we can all use a little bit more understanding in the process.

So it's cool to get to leverage, you know, what I've learned in the the mass media space to the private sector, which allows us to get, you know, ownership over a project and distribution of a project.

Um I learned how to win Emmy Awards from someone who had nothing to do with the first 20 years of my career in television.

But there's a halo effect, you know, that little Emmy award that I went, well, I shouldn't belittle it, but my lady Emmy that I just met last year, you know, she puts her golden halo over my entire 25-year career of TV.

Yes.

If I let her, if I want her to, you know, if I put, if I say Emmy Award winning media advisor, if I'm leading with that.

But as I said, the best part about winning that award was the thank you speech.

That's what it was all about.

It's always, it was always all about that, by the way.

And and when you know how to leverage the thank yous and you know how to leverage the wins, that's that's where the growth comes.

Yes.

Does not come in winning the award.

It comes in what happens next.

And if you know how to leverage it, and I I certainly love showing people options and opportunities and ways to leverage it, especially if you're looking to grow audience or grow brand, how do you to leverage awards?

And they're not just celebrity awards, like business, you know, best sales and best company, and even like some of the fun social business, you know, uh Bachelor of the Year.

Like we find ways to come up with business structured and social structured awards.

And all of those are for one reason only to be shared.

And if no one shares it, then who's the real winner?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Well, I mean, first and foremost, congratulations to you.

I mean, not only for winning an Emmy, but for the perseverance involved to go after that goal.

Yeah, I won.

You know what I mean?

I mean, I mean, I mean, that's what I think.

It's one thing to win the award, but it's the work, the hustle, the effort put into winning it that is what truly makes it.

SPEAKER_02: I told my friend Barbara, Barbara Barna Abel, she has a podcast called Camera Ready Enable.

I told her, I said, actually, I told her at the beginning of last year, I said, I want an I want an Emmy this year.

It's like the one I don't have it.

It's like one thing that I don't have.

And I just went to see Christmas Carol with my nieces and my family, and I was so inspired by a McCarter Theater, and they had this huge Tony Award out there, and I was like, uh-oh.

Oh am I getting an itch?

Am I getting the itch?

Oh man, oh my gosh.

Better get your tap shoes on.

We're going to Broadway.

SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.

Dude, oh my gosh, you're the best.

You're the best.

So, so switching gears a little bit, talk to me about.

We've alluded to podcasting through our conversation.

How did the realm of podcasting enter your life?

SPEAKER_02: At MTV in 2006, as podcasting became uh a viable form of creativity, a lot of artists and radio personalities who had access to microphones were in podcasting.

So if you had access to professional gear, whether you worked someplace that had that gear.

So I had access to a lot of people because of MTV.

I had I'd really built a strong Rolodex of radio outliers.

Radio networks, national or local, were the ones that were getting all the interviews of all the cool celebrities and people that ultimately would come to MTV that like MTV was getting pitched.

If I knew the program directors and the stars and the people at radio, especially in New York, I was able to get those pitches from them without needing to go through through MTV's Intel.

It's weird to say this, but like, because there's some competitive nature at uh when you work at a company and a one, you know, departments have goals and they need to have ownership over certain wins.

I leveraged my access to MTV outside of MTV, I think, more than anyone, to be really honest.

Yeah.

I think most people would say that too about me in a good way and a bad way, I think.

Because I was like, hey, we're good.

Everyone's like, Vinny is the guy that works at MTV.

I'm like, thousands of people work at MTV.

Thousands of us.

I just made sure everyone knew I worked at MTV because I didn't want to go out looking for the stars that I had to hire.

But if I told you I was working on the next, I want to do a show about a young female artist before she writes her album.

All I have to say is that in front of 15 people that are already in my inner circle who are going to repeat it to their 15 people, we're all in music.

And quickly that returns a short list of five, 10 people max.

And then we pick Ashley Simpson and we do that show.

And then when Ashley Simpson went away, I really wanted to do Katy Perry, but MTV didn't think Katie Perry was going to be a star.

So Katie was one of those people that I couldn't get.

I wanted to do her reality TV show and I was unsuccessful at that.

I was also unsuccessful at um the LMFAO reality TV show at VH1, which was a bummer.

You get no credit for being too early, only on time.

And I was too early for podcasting at MTV.

Uh I tried to, in talent development, I tried to create like a showcase around podcasting in 2000, early 2007.

Podcasts were always on the iPod, but in 2007, I or 2006, I remember they put podcasts on the iPhone when the iPhone came out about a year after the iPhone came out, is when podcasts is now on our iPhones.

And I remember making a really big stink about wanting to do like a talent showcase around it.

And some of the executives wanted me to cast the new version of TRL and they wanted it to be a YouTube star.

And I was like, YouTube is going to be based on popularity.

What I wanted was access, and I felt like podcasting was a better space to focus on finding people who have access and opinion versus finding the most popular person, which was, I thought, what made my 10-year time at MTV different in terms of talent.

They weren't the most popular talent.

They became popular.

They certainly, you know, there Jessica Simpson and Mandy.

I'm Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears in the 90s or early 2000s.

Mandy was not the number one, you know, she was not ranked in the top three of those four people in popularity, at least, if you were to look back in time.

So, but she gave us access.

She gave us access to growing up honestly and authentically as a 15-year-old, as a 16-year-old.

And man, did I try to big brother her in a good way, you know, like protected her from everything I possibly could have, gave her as much information as I could have.

So I found the show Man and Wife, a DJ called Fat Man Scoop, and his then wife uh Shonda had recorded this podcast in the studio.

And I said, This is cool, you know, not to be a perv, but I think you have like the equipment.

I feel like you should be you should be able to record this from like your bedroom.

And it it feels a little sterile, it feels a little bit like you're in in a con in a booth talking to your wife about sex.

And something about that feels awkward, just because I know where the equipment is, but like bring the equipment home and like like I don't want to hear I want to hear the springs move, but like not too much.

I remember.

And we um we actually tried it in a couple of rooms.

It was we the the bathroom was one of the rooms, kitchen was one of the rooms.

We tried recording in all these different rooms, the podcast, and the bedroom was really like the most the easiest space.

And we took that idea and I went to MTV development and they didn't understand the concept.

So I pitched it to New Business as a podcast.

And MTV New Business understood what we were doing and put in $100,000 into helping us build the infrastructure for the dot com.

And then I came back around to production development and showed them that we had already made an that, you know, MTV had made an investment in this podcast and would they like to take it into be their first podcast or broadcast show.

And for me, it was in 2007 called Man and Wife, a late night sex talk show between a married couple at a point in time where those were not the faces of sex ed.

And I felt like they really, they really needed to be.

And it was a really cool opportunity.

And it took 15 years for me to finally, you know, step into my own and get behind a mic and put these stories out there and contribute to the very economy that helped, you know, create my career.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I absolutely love it.

So talk to me a little bit about the process of creating your own show.

How did that come about?

What took so long?

SPEAKER_02: Options, too many options, so many options.

I I didn't I didn't have time.

You know, I also I I love being able to inspire next moves and ideas, and I'm a sort of creative sounding board.

And and some of what I missed in being in casting a director and a for higher creative, where my services were gated and then targeted by an employer who told me when and how I could do the thing that I.

Love doing.

And when I when I realized that if I create the structure of I have a podcast of my podcast in a way that allowed me to open the doors to the people who who I love inspiring, like I'm blessed to get to call Mandy Moore a friend.

I'm honored that she's inspired my career and I've inspired hers.

And we put ideas in each other's heads and we execute them.

Like I'm inspired to have friends like that.

It doesn't matter that they're celebrities.

That just sort of heightens the stakes, if anything.

But what I what I set out to do was have people that I learned from and who I can learn from and who could learn from me in this reciprocal, you know, relationship.

So I have a podcast was built to go back and get some of the stories that I know aren't on social media because social media wasn't around when a lot of these stories happened for me in the early part of my career.

It would be fun to go back to the same 12, 15 people every year, not to have to book a podcast episode, different episode, different guests, different week.

I don't want to show the world who I know.

I want to show them what I know.

I already showed them who I know.

It's already on TV, and you can look at all the people I worked with if that if that's the version that you want, but I don't want to do that service.

So I didn't want to put that on display.

Or I could honed in on a dozen or so people that I know I can call at any time of the year, people that I do call and have creative conversations with them about processes, about understanding the yeses and the no's and the ebbs and flows of being creative and talking to Mandy more about how the input dictates the output and how it's okay to watch TV when you're making TV, because you have to know the words that people are using to be able to connect and use their language to

communicate with them and to understand who the stars and then the the new energies and the topics that matter and and the ones so that you can you can participate you know in the community conversation.

And then I realized that if I'm just gonna sit there and go back and interview people I already know, then I'm missing out on the thing that everyone talks about, which is like getting to meet new people.

But I already got to meet new people through reality TV.

I got really good at meeting people in reality TV.

So I lean into the one-on-one, what we're doing now.

This is, I mean, I've done this my entire this is how you want to know how I built my career at MTV?

This way, exactly what I'm doing right now.

SPEAKER_00: Yep.

SPEAKER_02: Some every once in a while, somebody who turned into a Mandy Moore or a Lauren Conrad or a Hillary Duff or a Nashley Simpson or like Kelly, it turns in later on.

But what I focus on now is the people part.

That's the part that feeds me.

And I know it does because there's a zero part of me that's exhausted at the end of these and at the end of these interviews.

Like I am so amped up.

And I know what it's like to work for a company and have no energy at the end of you know the day.

My Maya Angelou said that creativity, the more you have, the more you spend, the more you have.

The more you spend, the more you have, the more you spend, the more you have.

Warren Buffett says, money, the more you spend, the less you have.

The more you need to make because the more you spend, the less you have, the less you have.

So then why do we want content that's an that we know has two ingredients creativity and this drive for conversion, this financial component to it?

Why do we need success to happen at the same time when we know they're different ingredients?

Like one, one is better in hot conditions, one's better in cold conditions, one's better in the now, one's better in in the then.

So, like helping set people up for that nonlinear success that comes with creativity, some of it is mindset.

I'm not gonna lie.

I make my decisions today based and predicated on what I want tomorrow to look like.

There are many people who will say, don't live for tomorrow.

Tomorrow isn't promised.

And I'm just one of those people who says, I'm not saying that it's promised, but I'm not gonna not set tomorrow up to be better than today.

And I think that that's kind of some of that mindset that helps me stay in the front of the gate, you know, in front of the curve or whatever that saying is in front of the line.

You know, when it comes to technology and communication, um, I know what I want to do.

I like helping people be impressive and stand out.

And you do it by leveraging new technology and new ways to connect with people, but you have to say the same old thing.

So I I got my eye out for new technology.

I got my, you know, Pinterest TV.

That's a big addition to the social media universe this year.

Pinterest TV, and it's kind of been a pretty slow chat release.

But I can imagine I'm gonna I made pins 10 years ago that have gotten like 70,000 views.

And I'm like, what?

I don't understand how Pinterest works, but if those numbers are right, then something, you know, some someone's doing something.

So you know, shuffles comes out or or or LinkedIn audio lives, the ability to to get credit on IMDB as a podcaster.

There are just so many different ways now that we can stand out that I like helping people do all of it.

But I just know I can't do it all at the same time.

So yeah, steps and steps.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.

So I have to ask you one question that you've you've mentioned this relationship between you and Mandy Moore.

And I'm curious from the time that you started working with her, did you ever see her in a role like she took for This Is Us?

SPEAKER_02: Oh, no, no, neither neither did she, by the way.

No, okay.

No way, no, and a bazillion, no, like when you play someone so much older, it's so funny.

I don't even think I know because when we used to talk about getting old, uh, this is funny to say, I'm laughing.

When we used to talk about getting old, we would be like, are you gonna become Amanda Lee Moore?

Like, are you gonna change it from Mandy?

Like, am I gonna be Vincent Salvador Padostilo?

And she's gonna be Amanda Lee Moore.

She actually went through a phase, she went through that Amanda Lee Moore phase, by the way, uh, a couple of years ago.

So, but what's crazy about it is that she went through that phase at exactly the point in time, I think, when we thought getting old was.

Um what's so cool is how Rebecca, how that character helped her step into this woman that she has been called to be and has the power to be and and proves every single day is because I I worked with a very young Mandy Moore who her who learned those lessons individually and and personally the hard way.

And not to say fought for her ability to stand in the shadow of herself, but to accept that shadow that her her bright light, you know, sort of creates and to fill that space with grace and energy.

And um, man, she's just taught me to show up for myself in ways that it's it's easy for me to show up for other people.

I mean, by the way, look at who I show up for.

So it's easy for me to show up for other people.

She taught me the power of showing up for myself.

And not I don't think she would have ever thought this this comes.

And when it, when it was all happening, it just seemed like, you know what though, when you get called, when it's when it's someone else's idea and it's someone else's vision, and you have the skill set and the ability to comply and to be open to outcomes that you didn't you know know were even possible.

That's that's where sort of the the beauty lies.

I love hearing her talk about being on This Is Us because she's like, Vin, I'm like one 500th of the equation of like what's on TV.

Like as a 15-year-old, it's like it's just me and the mic, and the entire world is looking at me, and we're live, and there's a room full of adults that I don't see, and there's a room full of adults that I do see, and there's a Times Square is full of adults screaming at me, and it's all on my shoulders.

And when I'm when I'm on set with you know 200 people doing what it takes to to get this is us recorded, and and what that it just sounds like what a what a cool journey to an unfortunate way to get there, but what a fun way to get there.

And yeah, and we're we're we we will both say we're very lucky to have gotten to do it together.

And yeah, the story always gets a little bit better in hindsight, by the way.

There's some weird things that happen, you know, but to get here between here and there, you know, there's a lot of weird New Year's Eve and weird Marilyn Manson stories and those crazy things, uh, you know, just you what you would imagine, Fred Durst, like weird, you know, weird people, that energy around MTV back then.

But um that's why I feel like so blessed to have gotten to do it with someone who I just who I think stands creatively so much for what I love about being creative, taking people to other places and and and showing them respectfully, showing them the the benefits, the costs, the responsibilities that come with you know having the skill to connect with people.

It's been it's been powerful to watch her.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Look, if a 15-year-old version of her can write a song that no one asked for and then put it out and it'd be hit.

I mean, then the least I can do is record a 45-minute conversation.

By the way, I'm I'm such a coward.

I record a 45-minute conversation with her, because like then in my mind, no one's no one cares about my questions because they're good, they're gonna hold on to her answers.

But I but I was wrong.

Actually, I didn't realize I I took for granted my ability to ask questions.

I've been asking questions in interviews for 25 years.

I know the power of a question.

And most of the bad answers that are out there in this world were constructed by poorly crafted questions.

So I know the power of a question.

But it isn't until I got to go back and listen to me chatting with Mandy, which I'm actually releasing some of those episodes in smaller pieces because I've enjoyed going back to hear what she's saying.

Because, of course, as the host, I go back and listen to my questions.

I put more weight on my questions than her answers, you know, which is the exact opposite of how most people will experience the podcast.

So it's been a cool, it's been a really cool ride though.

And yeah, podcasting has allowed me to do something that I couldn't do in TV, which is own my show.

And I have a show that I can put on TV and I can put it on radio, and I got it registered, so I have it trademarked, and then I created I have a podcast.com and I have like a whole news site going on there and education, and it's been it's been a really rewarding process.

SPEAKER_00: Well, I just love that so much.

I have one final question for you.

Yeah.

When you look at kind of this whole journey you've been on, and you look back though at the start, and you look back at you as that boy who fell in love with TV and cable, what would you tell him today based on what you've known now?

SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't tell him too much.

I would tell him that people are watching, that they're watching.

They're watching me, they're not just watching what I'm doing, they're watching me.

I wish I wish I would have known that.

I've always felt successful in the projects.

And I mean, who doesn't feel successful when people are talking about your shows or your your the results, you know, of your work?

But I set myself up to have a collaborative win in a in a big team environment.

There's there's no part of casting or development that relies solely on me.

I gotta find someone that person has to do what I thought they could do with the people I think they can do it with.

You know, there's a lot of collaboration that happens after me.

So I learned to separate the win from my action because of how many other people have to have success and how many wins they have to have to set me up for success.

And sometimes my wins are subjective, you know.

If I'm casting, then me finishing the casting and getting someone hired technically should be where the success happens.

But no, it becomes about the launch of the show and was it the right person to launch the show with?

And then it becomes, was it the right person to put in the anchor position of the show to be the star of the show?

And then it turns into was it the right person to get us the award that we wanted as a network so that we can elevate the conversation, you know, it becomes about the next, the next.

I get really caught up sometimes on trying to make myself, I don't want to say make myself small, but like trying to remove myself from an edit or I have to remove my voice, I have to remove my presence in the room, like in television.

And and that that was something that like, I don't know, just sort of made it hard to celebrate my wins and also mm to really feel my losses.

You know, when something didn't pan out, I would say that's what happens.

When I sold a show, I would say that's what happens.

Like that's what you're supposed to do.

Sell shows when you're in show business.

So, you know, let's see if it gets on air and then it gets on air.

And you go, well, let's see if it gets the full order and it gets the full order.

Let's see if it gets a season two.

And there's uh always that what if part, but all of that to say I'm looking externally for validation and reaction on those actions.

And and those actions I I allow and I see being you know connected to the projects.

I just wish that I would have, you know, reminded myself that that people are watching me also.

People I don't know are watching me, people I do know are watching me, and they're they're looking at me because of who I am, not because of what I can do.

That can be as a friend, that can be as somebody who felt like maybe because of their background, they could never have a certain job or work in a certain field, but they saw someone like me in the room and and knew that it was possible that they could be in the room.

And um, I wasn't aware of that.

But I'm I'm lucky to have been in this industry long enough to have stayed in it long enough to get to hear that feedback from people who felt that way.

So that's just a tip for early adopters and people who who tend to be first, first in.

You gotta make sure you're last out.

You really want to understand the full spectrum of of impact.

And I'm lucky to have had a couple of people come up to me and and share that experience with me.

Cause um, you know, most most creatives like artists, you know, they're I know I want to be around when my stuff is appreciated.

I want to be like Van Gogh, where my my my art is worth a lot more when I'm gone.

Come on, don't do that to me.

Come on.

SPEAKER_00: Oh my Vinny, dude.

I just gotta say this.

Yeah.

First and foremost, you know what?

In my eyes, you are the star of the show.

Oh, I appreciate that.

And I mean that wholeheartedly because of your heart, because of your passion, because of your drive, all of that combined together, along with your wisdom, along with just all these qualities that you have.

And I think to myself, you're the star.

Even when you think you've been in the background, I think you make a bigger impact than you ever could realize.

And I admire you tremendously.

I appreciate you for doing what you do, for being here with me today.

It just means the world to me.

And all I have to say, man, is just onwards and upwards to you.

Because I don't think the book's finished.

I think you got a lot more to shine on this world.

SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I appreciate that.

Thank you much.

Yeah, I don't think those I do not take those words lightly.

And I agree, onwards and upwards.

That's my direction as well.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll see you all there.

SPEAKER_00: Fantastic, fantastic.

Well, Vinny, again, man, just uh one final thing of uh thank you for being here today.

Where is the best place for audience members to check out the podcast to learn more about you?

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I haveapodcast.com is the podcast site.

Vpe.tv is the site if you're looking for uh a hundred awards worthy of winning.

Creator platforms that pay how to get your podcast on IMDB for free.

Visit VPE.tv and say hi on LinkedIn.

Like come say what's up.

What's up?

Before you have to, like, come be my friend before you start picking my brain to see what what what direction we should go in and and how to help you stand out.

I really appreciate this time, this space, and Kevin, everything you've done to make this happen.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00: But yeah, of course, of course, for you listening today.

I hope that you have, as always, enjoyed the guest here on today's episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Now it's your turn to take what you've heard today, to put it to action in your own life, and make today a little bit better than yesterday, and keep that eye on tomorrow because make tomorrow even better than today.

Hey, real quick before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with.

I of course hope that you've enjoyed today's episode, but more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to share and think, wow, I wish I could be like them.

I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing, but I just can't.

Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

unknown: You're wrong.

SPEAKER_00: You are capable, you are able, and you darn sure are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life.

There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast.

We are all just normal people trying to make it in this life.

And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you know what?

I can do it too.

Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me.

Whether that's as a listener of this podcast, a friend, or if you'd like to work with me as a coach.

My contact information is inside of every episode's show notes, just like this one.

So go down, check out my contact information, and reach out to me today.

With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day with great grace and inspiration.