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Someone wiring money into a film isn’t just making a transaction. They’re handing you trust. I close out the season with a solo, from-the-heart conversation about what that trust really means for filmmakers, producers, and investors and why it should shape every choice you make on set, in the edit room, and in your distribution strategy. This is also where I clear up a big misunderstanding about my book Hollywood Money Traps: it’s not a cynical “Hollywood exposé.” It’s a practical guide built on decades of producing, consulting, acquiring, and selling films, designed to help people avoid the same painful mistakes that cause projects to collapse.  

Some pages of my last chapters are read for you!

We talk about the patterns I see over and over in independent film financing: investors saying yes without understanding how movies are funded, filmmakers entering partnerships without grasping the business implications, and teams building plans on unrealistic expectations. When that happens, everyone loses the filmmaker, the investor, and the story itself. I share why creativity deserves good business practice, and why understanding pitching, positioning, deal structures, and distribution isn’t optional if you want a sustainable career in film and media. 

You’ll also hear two big announcements. I’m working on an expanded edition of An Insider’s Secret: Master In The Hollywood Path, updated for the realities of AI, shifting studios, theatrical headwinds, and a crowded streaming landscape. And the podcast is evolving: The Heart of Show Business is becoming Chasing the Extraordinary, a wider conversation about the people behind the work, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, founders, artists, and adventurers who choose courage over comfort and keep evolving. 

If this season has helped you think bigger or move smarter, please subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more creators and investors can find it. What’s one partnership or decision that changed your path?

The Book HOLLYWOOD MONEY TRAPS is available on Amazon worldwide and Barnes and Noble. 

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Someone once told Deborah Kobylt, “You look too ethnic. Go dye your hair.” That moment didn’t end her career, but it did reveal the quiet rules women were expected to follow in local broadcasting. We sit down with Deborah, an award-winning journalist whose path runs through CNN, KCAL9, Fox 11, and decades of high-pressure reporting, to talk about what it really takes to last in a male-dominated media world without losing your voice.

We dig into the craft behind her interviews: why curiosity is the most underrated journalism skill, how print reporting trained her to hear the story underneath the headlines,  and the practical strategy she uses with powerful guests. Her Atlantic City coverage of Donald Trump becomes a sharp lesson in power and performance, and she explains how she built trust, stayed professional, and still got the answers she needed on the record.

From there, we zoom out to the changing media landscape: shrinking local news audiences, younger listeners choosing on-demand audio, and why she believes “opinion” is not the same thing as journalism. We also talk about instinct and safety on dangerous assignments, the emotional toll of hard news, and how podcasting opened a new lane where she can follow real curiosity, spotlight voices that matter, and keep storytelling human. If you care about broadcast journalism, media trust, women in media, and the future of podcasting, this conversation will stick with you.

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Deborah on the Pod

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The moment you realize you can’t “out-strategize” your nervous system is the moment everything changes. We sit down with thought leader, speaker, and former on-camera powerhouse Michelle Soro to talk about the deeper path that opens when visibility and achievement stop working the way they used to and a spiritual awakening demands honesty.

Michelle shares what it felt like to fully wake up in August 2021, how that shock can register as trauma in the body, and why the following years became an unplanned retreat into truth: seeing the masks, the performance, and the patterns built around love, acceptance, and safety. From there, we dig into presence as something you can feel, not perform. When the agenda drops and the nervous system settles, leadership changes. We explore what “quiet leadership” looks like in real life, why impact matters more than big stages, and how reciprocity replaces hustle as the measure of aligned work.

We also unpack Gene Keys in plain language: a contemplative system rooted in the I Ching and your birth data that maps an arc from shadow to gift to highest expression. The key insight is embodiment, which is why somatics, trauma-informed work, and attachment awareness matter so much for entrepreneurs, artists, and high achievers who tend to overcontrol and self-audit. Michelle closes with a mantra for hard days drawn from Wu Wei: “Easy is right.”

Get to know Michelle

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Most Hollywood heartbreak stories end with the artist. I want to talk about the people who quietly absorb the real damage when a film doesn’t sell: the friends who wire money, the parents who max out credit cards, the “mom and pop” backers who believe in someone they love and never get a real explanation when the dream collapses.

After a personal crisis that forces me to slow down and get painfully honest, I connect what I’m seeing in my own life to what I’ve witnessed across 35 years in the global entertainment industry as a producer, distributor, consultant, sales agent, and financier. The passion is real. The charm is real. But the sparkle is not a business plan, and flattery is not a contract. We dig into why filmmakers can be devastated by the art while investors are left with silence, and how that imbalance keeps repeating in independent film finance.

I also share why I wrote my book, Hollywood Money Traps: what every investor needs to know, as a plain-language field guide for anyone about to say yes to a pitch. We talk realistic film budgets, inflated projections, confusing distribution deals, and the questions every backer should ask to protect their money without becoming anti-artist. You’ll hear why I believe the money needs the art, the art needs the money, and why both sides win when everyone finally speaks the same language.

If you know someone considering a film investment, share this conversation with them, then subscribe, rate, and review the show so more backers and creators can make smarter deals together.

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A live TV director doesn’t get the luxury of overthinking, because the show keeps moving. That’s why this conversation with three-time Emmy Award-winning director and author Mary Madeiras hit me so hard: she’s spent 30 years making split-second decisions in news, sports, talk shows, and daytime drama, and then life delivered a pivot she didn’t plan for. When her contract isn’t renewed on a major production, the floor drops out and a different kind of directing begins, one focused on clarity, intuition, and spiritual truth.

Mary walks me through what Akashic Records actually are in practical terms: not a fantasy “library with floating books”, but a divine quantum field and vibrational imprint of the soul’s journey. We connect the dots to modern consciousness language like the “field of possibilities”, and to older traditions that describe a Book of Life. The heart of it is simple and grounded: when you raise your vibration through intention, prayer, or meditation, you can access guidance that feels steady, loving, and free of judgement.

We also go straight into the questions people are afraid to ask. Can you change what’s in your records? What role does the ego play in suffering, self-doubt, and feeling stuck? Mary explains the difference between a larger soul theme and your day-to-day free will, and we talk about transmuting trauma by reclaiming the energy it locked away. You’ll also get an easy practice you can do even in a busy life: write down what brings you joy, no judgement, and use imagination as a clean portal back to your power.

Get Mary's Book here

If you love conversations about Akashic Records, intuition, spiritual growth, creativity, and personal transformation, you’ll feel right at home here. Subscribe to The Heart of Show Business, share this with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more people can find it.

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The ideas that haunt you are often the ones you never tried and that’s a 100% failure rate. Pen Densham joins us to unpack a creative life built on persistence more than certainty, from early hardship and foster care to a career in filmmaking that eventually expands into intimate, almost meditative nature photography. Along the way, we keep coming back to one practical question every artist faces: who are your allies when your idea is still small and breakable?

We dig into the behind-the-scenes story of pitching Robin Hood and hearing “that’s the stupidest idea,” then watching one person’s encouragement flip the script. Penn explains why a clear purpose matters in screenwriting and filmmaking, how writing on spec can unlock your boldest work, and why “life scripts” sometimes need time, secrecy, and patience before they can emerge. If you’re wrestling with creative confidence, self-doubt, or the pressure to be commercial, you’ll hear a grounded approach to taking risks without losing your center.

Then we shift into photography, curiosity, and what it means to capture what nature feels like rather than what it looks like. Penn talks about breaking free from dogma, leaning into abstraction and motion, and trusting the body’s instincts with a camera. He also shares free resources for creatives, including Writing The Alligator and his PDF coffee table book Qualia, plus where to find them at pendentiumphotography.com.

If you’ve been looking for a deeper creative process conversation about storytelling, artistic voice, and making art that lasts, press play and come think with us. Subscribe, share, and leave a rating and review so more storytellers can find the show.

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A monkey tears a seasoned primate trainer’s lip off, and the story isn’t told for shock value. It’s a warning about what happens when we mistake wild animals for pets, props, or content. We sit down with Stacy Gunderson, founder of the Animal Tracks sanctuary near Los Angeles, to pull back the curtain on Hollywood animal training, the real welfare challenges behind the “magic,” and why even well-meaning people can create dangerous situations by treating exotic animals like domesticated ones.

We trace Stacy’s path from a childhood inspired by Jane Goodall to years working around film and animal shows, including how productions have shifted away from wild species as CGI becomes cheaper and safer. From there, the conversation turns to what most audiences never see: the long hours animals spend confined between jobs, what happens when they age out, and why on-set oversight cannot replace lifelong responsibility. Stacy also shares how Animal Tracks builds a different model by blending rescue, advocacy, and high-impact wildlife education without encouraging petting or ownership.

The episode expands into bigger-picture conservation, from coyotes in neighborhoods to wolves in Yellowstone, showing how predators keep ecosystems stable and why “nuisance animals” often hold the whole system together. We also confront wildlife trafficking and the exotic pet trade, explaining how trends can strip entire regions of animals and why human demand is the engine behind it all.

If you care about ethical animal tourism, wildlife conservation, animal sanctuaries, and the future of humane storytelling, listen now and then help us spread the word. Share this with a friend, subscribe, and leave a rating and review so more people can learn how to keep the world wild.

For more information about ANIMAL TRACKS 

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He turned down a sure thing with Sam Peckinpah and said yes to a script with a strange title: Flashdance. That single choice reshaped Michael Nouri’s acting career, and the way he tells it makes you feel how fragile “overnight success” really is.

We talk with Michael about the long road behind the iconic roles: discovering theater in school, chasing work in New York, handling early on-camera fear, and learning how craft evolves when Hollywood keeps changing the rules. He shares what it was like to realize Flashdance had become a phenomenon, right down to the moment audiences stood up cheering and then poured out to buy the soundtrack. If you love filmmaking, film history, and the behind-the-scenes reality of casting, negotiation, and timing, this conversation delivers.

Then we go deeper into the heart side of show business. Michael opens up about depression, the value of therapy and support systems, and how grief forces a recalibration after losing loved ones. At 80, he reflects on time speeding up, the fear of feeling irrelevant, and why a sense of purpose is non-negotiable. We also get one of my favorite Hollywood stories: how an eggplant parmesan sandwich led to Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews and a life-changing path to Victor Victoria on Broadway, plus what he’s doing now in television and the memoir and charity book projects that keep his creative engine running.

If this moved you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more artists and story lovers can find The Heart of Show Business.

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Your phone may be the next movie studio, and the proof is hiding in plain sight: vertical series built from 90-second episodes that people binge in public, then happily pay to keep watching. We’re joined by Mier Liu, an international producer who’s building real momentum in the verticals world and producing at a pace traditional Hollywood rarely matches.

We talk about her journey from actress and author to producer, and the moment she stopped letting casting outcomes define her path. Mier shares what it looks like to “create your own yeses,” how she discovered the micro-drama boom in Asia, and why this is more than a trend report. You’ll hear how vertical storytelling is designed for mobile viewing, how the “before paywall” model drives retention, and why speed, clarity, and emotional hooks matter even more in short-form content.

We also get practical about the craft and the business: what “viral actors” are, how casting differs from traditional film and TV, and which genres are winning right now, especially YA romance and bingeable soap-style drama. Finally, we zoom out to a five-year forecast, including why mainstream players like Netflix and major studios may accelerate the adoption of vertical video into the global entertainment mainstream.

If you’re a producer, writer, actor, or creative entrepreneur looking for new pathways, press play, then subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more storytellers can find the show.

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We close season seven with hard-won rules for creative living, covering energy exchange, boundaries, time as cycles, niche growth, aligned relationships, the power of slowing down, and how to make your work undeniable. A short pause follows as we recalibrate for a bolder 2026.

• defining the show’s creative-business-mindset mission
• season milestones across publishing, books, clients, and podcasting
• recognizing burnout and choosing a reset
• reciprocity as a filter for help and access
• believing people’s actions the first time
• treating time as cyclical to reduce anxiety
• choosing a niche to create depth and scale
• selecting communities that energise, not drain
• slowing down to find clarity and timing
• crafting undeniable work that earns the yes
• gratitude, shout-outs, and an intentional pause before 2026

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If you have any questions or comments or feedback for us you can reach me directly at theheartofshowbusiness.com

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