INVESTFEST 8.7.22 TYLER PERRY INTERVIEW

 RASHAD BILAL, TROY MILLINGS

EARN YOUR LEISURE

TYLER PERRY, no one is doing it bigger than Tyler Perry.

Bring him out:

INTRO VIDEO:

a one man media empire.

homeless $20 would have made the difference between mme eating for a week or not.

If you can't shake it, and you keep dreaming about it that's God. 

Studio was once a confederate soldier base, all there to keep black people enslaved. now that land is owned by 1 negro. 

Drake playing: started from the bottom now we here. 

Tyler Perry comes onstage wearing a military print jacket, open with black shirt inside. black thick flame glasses. 

TYLER: I love me some black people, i'm so excited for this. give it up fro them. this is amazing, bring everybody here for financial literacy, something we all need. we applaud you all for this. 

RASHAD: is it still surreal? we know your back story, you used to sleep in your car. ever wake up and think how drastic your life has changed in a short amount of time?

TYLER: I don't take one moment for granted, one person holding the camera, one person clapping. it would have been anyone in this seat for some reason God chose to give it to me.

RASHAD: i'm history buff. always read on Egypt. went last year and didnt have value until i went there. saw the piramids. it cahgned my perspective because i went in person. I heard of your studio. i heard about it, and didnt get a full appreciation until I toured the studio. just to see the detail. mansion 4 different angle and each angle is a different shot, a different look. 

and a different interior look. best replica of the white house in the world. 

TROY: poeple said a better version of what the white house should be.

RASHAD: he has a replica of a St in the NYC. that's just outside. 12 physical buildings to film shows. to see that is amazing. person giving us the tour. what he has done hasn't been done in 100 years. last person was Warner Brothers.  In a century, no one has been able to do what he has been able to do.

you can fit all the studios in his studio.

It's a studio real estate business. Lease it to others so that they can make the movies there. Black Panther 2 was shot there. You made a studio that no one has now Hollywood can.

TYLER:  my dad was a contractor. He would build houses. he came home, so happy he had $800 dollar  for the week. But I saw the white man sell that same house and made 80k. I didn't get why my  parents  didn't think to build the house and sell it. 

payroll last year, was 154 million dollar. to own that land. I don't use those stages. I built them for purpose of leasing them. I named after black icons. made their mark in Hollywood, that makes me feel great to say that i was able to do that. 

TROY: at age 30 she invited you to an event that changed you forever. i had to dream more, dream bigger. what was that about that event?

TYLER: the level of exposure. if i can show you something great. i was 30 something, diary of a black woman was about to come out. i didnt feel worthy. i saw diana ross, all these people in the room. yolanda adams said you belong here. I belong in the room. and if i can get us to understand worthy to be in the room. no devil in hell that can stop you from being in the room. get it in your mind. get your mind right.

i was reading article about ppl survived the Holocaust. the DNA changed from all the trauma. what if there was a study on us? mentality from one to another, we think we are not worthy and we don't deserve. believing in your mind that you deserve it, i swear to you your life would cahnge.

what was happening in my life was supposed to happen i was supposed to be there.

meeting white folk and traveling, they don't apologize. they feel like they deserve it. once we get there too it's gonna be amazing the success. We gotta unwork all the voices in our head that tell us that we are not gonna make it, mom and dad said it. its a nail shutting every good door and opportunity.

That's what i had to work on.

Can i say this about Spike Lee? he had stuff to say about me. I wanted to dedicate that stage for him. you cannot negate what he had done. watch other races do they don't work from their heart, they work from their head. missing opportunity to come together. put head above your heart. honor them for what they have done. believe you will find yourself in a great synergy. 

RASHAD: What gave you vision to do 10x what you needed?

TYLER: Gotta talk God for a little bit, that's all I have.

I was filming a movie. neighbors were complaining. we were outgrowing the place. to have the growth happening. I was always running to catch up, trying to understand what was going on. you have tremendous faith. be as talented as you want, if God doesn't line thigs up for those things to happen. for me it took a lot of praying, a lot of honoring the people that I was working with all this time. 

I didn't want to build anymore. I don't care if ppl don't have parking. if i don't move when God is telling me to move, all hell breaks loose. hired a contractor. He didn't pull not one permit. lawyer told me to open gates, God if 

bible scriptures stuck to the gates. and favorite was there. Psalm 91. in 2 years, we had outgrown the place. BUILD FOR WHERE YOU ARE GOING, NOT WHERE YOU ARE. 

Don't be afraid of that. 

TYLER: Always a stickler for time. be there for the doors to open, that level of professionalism. Always said TYLER PERRY. they got a level of excellence the absolute best that i could do at that time. IS THIS ON BET?   WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THAT, THE WORLD SHOULD BE SEEING IT. 

RASHAD: NO ON BET, BUT IT WILL BE ON ANOTHER PLATFORM CALLED EYL.

TYLER: YOU CAN STILL BE ON BET AND STILL OWN. 

RASHAD: SHOUTOUT TO BET. LETS CUT THIS CHECK. YOU SAID YOU ONLY BELIEVE IN PAYING CASH

TYLER: NOT ANYMORE. THAT WAS FROM BROKE. THAT'S WHAT WE WERE TAUGHT, YOU CANT GET MORE MONEY UNTIL ALL THE MONEY IS GONE. I HAD TO PAY, I HAD TO PAY, DIDNT WANT THE DEBT. very beginning, was a good way to do it. never had issues. now, when you scale, the power of having the debt. the power of tax breaks in the debt. using other people's money and still owning.

TROY: WHAT POINT I need someone to educate me on taxes and all those things. i got a million, i dont have a million dollars. that's not how it works.

TYLER I went from no money made 100,000. end of year I had given it all away. guilt that comes when we have success if we don't carry everyone along with us. pile all these people on your boat and they all put a hole in that boat. I gotta build this boat myself. there's nothing wrong with that having understanding of money is not something that i had. taxes are due, bills. I didn't go to college. I didn't go to college but pay for Harvard many times over.

I remember this one guy. he worked for IRS and he was so adamant and what was i doing? wanted to come to my house. his boss was an audit. spending all this money in accounting. ok, something to learn here. the IRS owed me 9 million dollar. all accountants come running isn't that great? i said no, how did you miss m paying 9 million dollars?

so i had to stop going to H&R for my taxes. (I'm kidding). I learned in progress. It's okay to make mistakes. but do learn. Don't let it keep happening, over and over again. 

There's so many deductions after a certain tax bracket. They didn't know about those deductions so I had paid for all these things that were deductions for. I brought white people to work, they have the knowledge. you have to be open to working with everybody. Don't be 'only working with black people'. get the knowledge, then bring it back to the black people so that we have it. 

TYLER: my focus was on my goals. if i look up at the building, I don't focus on what's down. hardest thing to do is to keep your mouth shut when ppl are saying all types of BS about you. I can scrap with the best of them. to keep my eyes and mind focused on what God has, has always been the goal. you gotta be patient. 

RASHAD: YOU ARE creative. actor, director. you are also a business mogul. a lot of creatives don't get the business side of it. when you buy this lot of 380 acres, was financing you or private equity? how was it done? you have full ownership of this correct?

TYLER: 100%. making 80 million. from us. chipman circuit. What they are missing the power of the black dollar. when it shows up, it shows up in an enormous way. I didn't need to ask anyone for money. because I had us and I still have us. that's because Sistas, Ruthless, Fatima (soon to come). I didn't have to ask. self funded it.

TROY: 2017 you signed a deal with Viacom, 90 episodes of TV a year. where does the vision still come? at this level of success

TYLER: at this point, I have a 7 year old. I want him to earn it and know his dad did and he could too. Crystal, who plays Fatima on the show, stand up. having people like her who haven't had a chance or an opportunity. he was in jail for 7 years. he works on the show. he just brought his first house. Busiest i have been in my life. but all these people come to work, it makes me feel like you're good. Keep going.

RASHAD: the deal 150 million dollars a year. It's 2.1 BILLION. equity stake in bet. 90 episodes of new content. is that correct? what made you a deal with Oprah.

TYLER: same thing as deal with Oprah. I have loyal fan base and audience. BET had a need, I had a need. Oprah deal was up. I wanted to be with a corporation that could handle the scale that I wanted to bring. I always look for partners that can meet me where i am now but also where I want to go.

5 years you do 5 years. I did 5 seasons in 3 years. but they are working so its exciting so we keep going. 

TYLER: 8-8 SHOWS A WEEK. I was exhausted. I gotta find another way. i went to Hollywood. I couldn't walk down the St in a lot of cities without people screaming my name. I wasn't alone, I had the power of us. I was gonna go and do it, put it on DVD and sell it on my truck. bootleg like crazy but still doing it. I'm gonna write it and do it and they said okay. I'm not gonna change a thing. 

he was trying to do diversity. he saw people get out of the theater, out and laughing and he asked, "what are you guys seeing? they said Tyler Perry. he asked all the white executives in his company. you know Tyler perry? They didn't know. he went to black people he said do you know tyler perry? they said yeah.

DL Hugley do you know who Tyler Perry is? and that's how it all started. 

TROY: you get ppl back to work.

TYLER: I bought  a car, i bought a house. we met on set, we getting married. all these great things were happening for the people that i know wouldn't have happened. I had money, I would have been allright. i tested everybody. We housed 300 people. nobody left. not one positive case the entire tie we were shooting in that bubble. first studio that was up and running. everyone in Hollywood was watching to see if its gonna work. 

We gotta come together and do this thing right. they made me so proud. we had food trucks, slutty vegan sometimes there. movies on the lawn, a whole camp. 

TYLER: I SIGNED the deal and I was miserable. they said you can't say Jesus you cant do that. I was miserable. i didn't want someone to own my content. I came to ATL. House of Payne I recorded 10 episodes. the first 10 episodes were horrible. but same audience sent those ratings to number 1. House of Payne had hundreds of episodes. those people got paid millions of dollars.

What do you feel led to do? you can't hear God with noise and chaos and people around you. i go away, to get clear. to see what I feel. that's what gonna send you to a better place in your life. 

You gotta make the shift to ownership. if movie makes 10billion and i make 10 million that's not okay for me. Oprah did not own her show at first. renegotiate. get some ownership. eat a little, eat a long time. eat a little and realize you ate a whole elephant from the time you started. 

RASHAD: i never got to meet Walt Disney, Steve Jobs. people like that have a different type of wiring.

you said to me, this is amazing. what you have last year? 3500, next week 12k. i said as big as Essense fest. 50k ppl all over the city. he said that's it? what do you have in the vision board going forward and how do you keep that level of thinking better of what anybody can think is possible. 

TYLER: if you have a measurement for your life or dream then it snot big enough. God gives us specific dream that is specific to you. I tell you both this. I don't know if you fully know this. when you are my age is, when you are in it you can't see it. millions of people.. never despise humble beginnings. little shack on the corner selling hot dogs. that kind of grind, kind of grit. takes you to much higher ground. AS GREAT AS THIS IS, THERE IS MORE, THERE IS MORE. 

I would spin and spin, and every time people would fall off. let them go. you got to know how to let them go. spin go higher to a higher altitude. you will kill them or they will kill you trying to get back down. as you go, it's okay. 

TROY: Gospel, on a Sunday.

It's very rare you see someone's vision in their life. 

TYLER: POLITICIASN want to water down like slavery didnt happen. so that people can be okay with it. i wanted to do this piece now. landing for us to get us to understand our history is really important.

TROY: as content creator is taht the mission? to have this story to tell these stories?

TYLER: if i want to laugh play old man joe. i have a movie about katrina. i havea  zombie movie. a movei about Katrina. studio is established. now i can express all the other genres. eyes on the prize, strategic, step by step.

RASHAD: What do you think the future of Hollywood and content and the whole film industry?

shows 

TYLER: if i had a show of Scandal but millinos of dollars per episode. great show. to do that kind of show and own it its not gonna happen. okay give me 1 mil an episode and i make it a show and i'll own it. having these moments of having these things.. content and budget.

create a great show and maintain within a budget. so many streamers. cable is dying. movie theaters. kids watching all on ipads. look at them, who's kid is that? 

CAamera shows kid and mother. kid hides in mother's shoulder.

TROY: HE'S WATCHING THE LIVE STREAM.

TYLER: I BE KNOWING. 

RASHAD: THAT WAS A CLASSIC MOMENT.

ruthless #1 show on BET. all the queen's men. that's how you can tell what a hit is. 70 mil that's whe you had 3 channels. now there are hundreds of different channels. if you can get a million people to watch a show on cable, then you have a hit. 

RASHAD: This day in Youtube. we have a network. #1 episode is with 19 keys. 2.3 million views. How do you quantify that? if it's off television is that comparable?

TYLER: I'm generation there was no internet when i was your age. so idk how to quantify that. that's not a business I'm not in. I don't want another job. can i come on your show we will talk about some things?

TROY: SAYS TYLER PERRY.

WHAT'S THE VISION FOR THE 10 YEARS.

TYLER: prices for everything is 10 times higher. 10 more stages going to be built but there are tours, a hotel, a theater up front. that's the next phrase of it. definitely open to the public. 

TROY: the water fountain, the LED TV, it's amazing. 

TYLER: HOW MANY OWN A business? how many want it to be bigger? how many of you can see it in your mind as bigger? that's half the battle. Understanding the spin, sometimes let it go. hard for you to understand. It's okay to walk away.

I did not get here by not working hard, not making tremendous sacrifice and taking risks. if i hadn't taken them idk where I would be. every moment, every decision. even the awful one, i never failed. when I was homeless I didn't fail. when I couldn't eat waiting for 20 I didn't fail. every one of those was teaching me to get ready for when the great moments come.

when that thing is in you, doesn't let you go. the dream starts believing for you. 

Last thing: focus on one thing: I focused on the play. that seed grew and gave life to everything else I was doing. play then tv then studio. 

STEVE HARVEY COMES ON STAGE. He's wearing a black shirt custom made with Roses felt material on it.  RASHAD, TYLER, STEVE, AND TROY POSE FOR A PICTURE.

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