An Executive Producer and creative force, Sergio is committed to making culturally impactful content for leading networks. Responsible for the development and production of original programming, ranging from live events to specials and numerous critically-acclaimed reality series. Extensive knowledge and expertise in the areas of sales, finance, development and distribution. Production highlights include over 50 live specials and awards shows, including the Emmys, Grammys, American Music Awards, the 2008 Presidential Inauguration, and the Music Rising Concert, which benefitted the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Sergio has also produced shows such as “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City”, “Bringing Up Bhabie”, “Into Alaska”, “Chad Loves Michelle”, “LA Ink”, “The Rachel Zoe Project”, “The Next Big Thing”, “BBQ Pit Masters”, “Swamp People”, “Next 15” and more. 

Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Sergio Alfaro: There are no new ideas. I feel in our industry, the approach is like, if you think of all of the great shows as in like successful long term, they're all generally based around somebody's profession to some capacity, right? Like what they do and how interesting that is from, you know, Kat Von D, when she had LAE, Rachel Zhou, you know, doing design and like even the house, I was like, everybody's got something going on in their profession.

[00:00:25] And then you tell the storyline, so from a start-over perspective. If I could give anybody advice as if you have an idea and you're going to pitch it, make sure you have a good character to pitch it with because ideas now, like they're great. But to sell, you gotta have that character.

[00:01:08] My name is Sergio Alfaro. I am the CEO of InventTV.

[00:01:11] Jahn Karsybaev: Sergio, thanks so much for finding time to join us on the Ivy Podcast today. Great way to start the 2020. Well, with conversation with you, tell us a little bit more about your background, your career path, where you've been. And then I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about your, your current company.

[00:01:27] Sergio Alfaro: Sure. I started in the nineties with Ken Ehrlich and Ron Bacilli. A show called Motown Vibe. And from there really wasn't the live events space for a long time. Did the MES, we produced a fundraiser in New York after 9/11. Did the halftime show for the opening of the Superdome. I was part of a team that produced Obama's first inauguration.

Like we did a lot of, that one wasn't with Kenner Lake. That was Ricky Kirschner, Lisa Gears. But yeah, did a lot of live events and then transitioned at some point during the writers' strike into this new thing called reality TV that I really didn't understand. And I did this little sizzle with a really good friend of mine, Jay Peterson.

And he brought me over to this company called Original Media. And from there I learned what this reality business is, which is what I'm in now. It's great, great business to be in.

[00:02:24] Jahn Karsybaev: Wow. That's super exciting, you know, completely different spectrums, you know, from Obama to, you know, to reality TV, that's super exciting.

Tell us a little bit more about your current project, your current company. What are you guys focusing on and what are you guys building?

[00:02:42] Sergio Alfaro: Well, InventTV, we have a lot of unscripted programming and specials, so our focus right now is we actually have a new approach on some of the content that we're trying to do.

And I think what people need right now in general is just a change of pace, something that's, you know, going to make people happy when they're watching it. And you know, there's one project in particular that I'm very excited about that one of our partners brought, and Jeffrey Soros brought, introduced me to a guy named Arthur Brooks who writes for the Atlantic.

And he's a teacher at Harvard who teaches happiness. And this