Transcribed by Descript
Erin Marcus: All right. Welcome, welcome to this episode of the Ready Yet podcast. And I'm already laughing. I'm looking at you and I'm already laughing because I'm thinking the hardest thing we're going to have in this entire conversation is speaking in a way that other people actually can You'd be like,
Raquel Bruno: what's going on with the joke?
Erin Marcus: What is with these two? So, okay, here's the deal. My guest today, Raquel Bruno. I've only known you for, what, three weeks or my entire life. It could go either way. But it is, right? Sometimes we are so, so lucky. So lucky to just meet people that you instantly connect with and you can have fun and laugh at the ridiculousness that is ourselves.
Erin Marcus: Because if we don't have a sense of humor about this, we're all gonna crash. But before we get into all the things, because I have like a million questions. Tell everybody who you are and what you're doing now. Let's, let's do that way. What are you focusing on now?
Raquel Bruno: Well, first of all, Aaron, I adore you and I thank you for and I love that your podcast is called ready yet.
Raquel Bruno: The energy of that alone makes sense. Since my company is called drive entertainment, which is totally both of our personalities. So my name's Raquel Bruno and I am a talent producer, talent booker, executive producer by trade. I have been in the entertainment business for over 30 years. And so with the last few years being that we were in the middle of pandemic and a lot of us work in live television and then of course we had the strikes.
Raquel Bruno: A lot of folks have been found being in a place of a downturn. There's always room for entertainment through, you know, through wars and the worst times it still exists, but there's a lot of changes that are going on. And so I took the opportunity in the last. Month or so to finally say, okay, I've been doing this a long time.
Raquel Bruno: And as someone very brilliantly said to me, maybe it's time to get off the battlefield a little bit and become the general. And so that is what I'm doing. My company is called drive entertainment group. And I've been known as in the talent producing field, working everywhere from MTV, which is where I got my start through American idol and films.
Raquel Bruno: And what have you. To now starting a new arm of my business called thrive with drive and it's one on one coaching and mentoring those that have either been in the business for a long time and want to move in a different direction or those that are just starting and want to figure out how to navigate the business.
Raquel Bruno: A field right now, which is changing every day.
Erin Marcus: I love it. I love it. And what's so interesting to me, and I think this is another parallel is I have a similar story just with a different bat, like mine's just corporate. And it never, this is so weird. Like we're, this is such a good example of how myopic we all are.
Erin Marcus: No matter how open we think never occurred to me that your industry. Would be going through the same thing, the exact same thing that I see in corporate where you're on the hamster wheel, you're in service to others, which is not a bad thing. You had a great career. I had a great career. I worked with great people.
Erin Marcus: I learned amazing things, but at some point, I don't know if it's age related. I don't know if it's external. You get to this thing where like, is this a all there is and be what I still want to do.
Raquel Bruno: Exactly. And I think, you know, I'm now a mom of two having time with them. I mean, I was at a point in my career where I was going back and forth to Los Angeles once a month.
Raquel Bruno: And a lot of my work, I could be really busy. If I lived in LA, I chose to be a New York producer because I, I just feel that that's more my speed and who I am, but I also want to make a difference. And. Everything I do has to go in line with my North star. It always has. And so, you know, there's a lot, a lot of, sometimes there's toxicity that's being worked on in this industry right now with a lot of people.
Raquel Bruno: I think there's a certain enlightenment if we want to go into the spiritual realm that you and I've talked about offline, I just think that I, everything I do has to be in alignment. And sometimes I've worked on things that weren't necessarily in alignment, but then there's other things where I've been able to work on logo, new, no next awards.
Raquel Bruno: I'm working with my LGBTQ plus community and, and, and make it, and also working on projects for the underserved, the under voiced, you know, so that is still my MO always, but I also now have two littles that are in the mix and I want to be able to be there for drop off and pick up. But I also want them to be proud of what mommy does.
Raquel Bruno: So it's figuring out that life balance where I'm able to really love what I'm doing and make, make great money at it. But at the same time, I really want to, I'm reading a book right now about with Ken Honda and I adore it. It's called happy money. And it's really figuring out like, what's my happy money.
Raquel Bruno: And at the same time, how am I serving a lot of people where I love, I'm a, I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher's kid. I'm my kid, my parents are musicians and teachers. And so that's been instilled in me, like, how do I help those that are creative, but also teach? And it's something I've always loved doing. So it's, it's figuring out that life balance, which we always strive for.
Erin Marcus: Yeah. And I think it's like, I know for me and we've chatted about you, the question that I always ask Because the truth of the matter is, when you make a shift like what you're making, when I left corporate, and then when I left my franchise, I call it, you're falling off the cliff. Now you could jump off the cliff, or you could be pushed off the cliff, but the bottom line is, you're falling off a cliff.
Erin Marcus: You're choosing to jump, which to me, by the way, and I, I haven't said this to you, but one of the things I've seen in all the years at what, with what I do is if you choose to jump off the cliff in order to create something, you're much more likely to be successful than if you're being pushed and you're doing this with a chip on your shoulder.
Erin Marcus: And I get. I totally get what you're talking about with the freedom and the kids and the atmosphere you want. What makes you, what has allowed you to be brave enough to do it? Because you totally have the option. You've totally had the option to say, I need the money to pay for the kids. I'm going to double down on the thing that I know.
Erin Marcus: Right. No matter how much I don't like it.
Raquel Bruno: Right. So I went through this when I left MTV. I saw the writing on the wall and I could have stayed and I, and I loved what I was doing. I finally was in my dream job working with music and talent and, and it defined who I was. I finally was at MTV radio. I loved it.
Raquel Bruno: I loved all of Viacom. Like I really, I had the best experience. I have, I have nothing but amazing things to say about my, my colleagues, my bosses, my mentors, but I saw the writing on the wall, oddly, oddly enough. Similar to what's going on right now at Paramount, one of the largest folks over there is now stepping down and they're going through a little bit of turmoil.
Raquel Bruno: What I saw then is kind of what I'm seeing now, where is if you don't adapt and change, then you're going to become extinct
Erin Marcus: 100 percent
Raquel Bruno: every time. And I. We had, I had a little bit like my, my, I'm very lucky drive. Entertainment has been very successful for 18 years and it still continues to be successful, but I see the winds of change coming.
Raquel Bruno: And I, in order for me to adapt and change with it, mind you, I'm terrified. I'm not going to sugarcoat it at all. It is. It is frightening going, okay, got two little ones that I have to be on this planet for, for a long time. I cannot be stressed out. I need to take good care of my body, my mind, my spirit.
Raquel Bruno: However, if I don't, and I'm not good with change, I'm terrible with change. Let me add that. I love it.
Erin Marcus: It's horror. Right now it's a little, I'm going through a thing as well. I, I was the kid who rearranged, like, I remember so many times my mom would have company and she's like, what's that noise? It was me rearranging my bedroom again.
Raquel Bruno: I, I I'm, I'm, I'm a classic hoarder. I need to admit that. Like I just have stuff everywhere. So I'm working through all of the things that bind you and hold you generationally to other things. So I'm working through that. Finally, allowing abundance to come in and not try to force putting like being Sisyphus.
Raquel Bruno: And just pushing a boulder up a hill because that's not working right now. It's just not, I don't
Erin Marcus: think it's working for anyone anymore. And
Raquel Bruno: no, I'm
Erin Marcus: so surrounded by people who, and it's my own story too. Everything that I did that worked really, really well by hitting the nail really, really hard with the hammer.
Erin Marcus: Yeah. Stopped working.
Raquel Bruno: Right. Right. And it's stopped working for me. So I went, okay, I'm stressed out at the end of the day. It's never enough. Like the money is, it's just never enough. And it's like, do you need more time? Need more money? And I said, okay, I don't want to be so stressed out that I can't enjoy the time I do have with my kids.
Raquel Bruno: And I also don't want to keep waking up in a panic going, what am I going to do in my later years? I need to set. Set the table now and I'm at a crossroads and figuring out, okay, well, I either can work against the wind or I can go with the flow and finally figure out what that means, educating myself, going with the change, the changes that are happening, understanding chat GPT, which friends of mine around me have been helping me out with like, just learning the tools of the trade, like what, going back to college in my own brain and going, okay, now I need to be fertile ground again.
Raquel Bruno: And that means allowing the. What does that look like? And that has taken, this last month has been transformative. I'll tell you, it started probably going to Japan for Crunchyroll. I loved every minute. I felt like I lived another lifetime there. And I went, this is what it's about. It's being present in the moment, having a cup of matcha with a friend and really enjoying that conversation and not going, not looking past them going, okay, what time is it?
Raquel Bruno: What event? Really being in the moment with Japan and that culture of what it represents. Like, mind you, they work hard, but they also love everything that they do in that moment. They enjoy it. They don't take it too seriously when it comes to the cute, the Kauai, what they create. And it's just, there was something about that trip that was very transformative and I loved it.
Raquel Bruno: And I took full advantage and it brought me back to when I was backpacking through Europe and. Even though I was working when I had moments in the afternoon or at night. I said, okay, sky's the limit. What am I going to do today? What part of town could I explore? And being that explorer, which I have not allowed myself to do in a very long time.
Raquel Bruno: So I took that, harnessed it and went, okay. Let's not get stuck on the hamster wheel, which I just gave that, that that same definition recently,
Erin Marcus: especially in your world. I mean, in the entertainment and I was in corporate in financial services, you can call it a hamster wheel, but we got the sec, we got, we have oversight that, you know, nothing happens very quickly.
Erin Marcus: Just because we've lived in your, I mean the entertainment industry. But one of the things that I want to point out for people, because I think As odd as it is, like, you and I, we both talk to a lot of people, we're both pretty open about what's going on with us and pretty transparent, so we find out that we're not alone, and yet we still feel very alone, and to me, meeting your group, because you've invited me to participate in your world, and meeting your group of people.
Erin Marcus: In the entertainment business and hearing the names that all of you have regularly interacted with and then to find out that you're no different than me. I think it's so important for people to know that they're not alone in their struggles and what they're trying to figure out, regardless of success level, regardless of who you know, regardless of how much money you've made, which to me is just more proof that it's never about the money.
Erin Marcus: Right,
Raquel Bruno: right. It's, it's about the respect for yourself. It's about the respect of your colleagues. I am honored to know some of the best of the best in this industry. Look, I've dealt with some of the worst of the worst as well. I'm not gonna lie about that. And I'm very honest. Every industry has it.
Raquel Bruno: Yours is just more, the names are just more publicly known, right? Exactly. But the ones that have been true blue ride or die. I have to tell you, you know, one thing that, you know, people in my inner circle will laugh at me. They're like, you just put it all out there. I'm like, I do, because I know that by, whether it was my struggles with IVF, or if it was my struggles with my weight gain or turning a certain age, or if it's, you know, I'm in a business right now as a woman trying to figure it out.
Raquel Bruno: Then I know that because I've had people send me notes on the side going, I honor you for how honest and open you are because it's helped me in my journey. And even though they want, don't want to put that out there. I respect that because I was able to help them. And that is the thing, especially as a solopreneur.
Raquel Bruno: Producer not working at a network anymore. You feel dreadfully alone, especially when you're used to being on a product. That's why we get, there's a real thing. When a production ends, there's a, like an end of production depression. We don't always talk about it, but it's there because you've spent so much intense hours for months leading up to building up something that was literally out in the ether brought to this planet.
Raquel Bruno: And then goes back into the ether after you've created it. And, but you spend so much quality time with these folks that become your family on a production set that you really go, wow, I'm going to miss talking to them 300 times a day and being in that creative zeitgeist of craziness. And then going back to, oh, here we go.
Raquel Bruno: What are we going to do next? And so there's a few people that I try to keep in the orbit. That lift me up. And I think I lift them up. And you are one of those people now where I just really enjoy my time with you because you find fellow spirits that you go, wow. Okay. I see you. I really see you for what you're doing.
Raquel Bruno: And I want you to feel elevated after a conversation. And I think that. When I put together in the mix and the amount of people that came forward, I realized we are not alone in this. People really are feeling it. And I think the pandemic, that's when I started DJing again, because I wanted the connective tissue of people to feel like, okay, I have my folks that I can depend on.
Raquel Bruno: And that is so important. Not no money in the world can create community.
Erin Marcus: Well, and one of the things that We haven't called out, but it's, it's been in this conversation, is this, if you're gonna get through, if you're gonna keep growing, if you're gonna live life on your terms, which is my whole thing, like, create the, you know, stop waiting for the world to change, go change your world.
Erin Marcus: Exactly. You have to let go. Of these attachments, like, like you said, the production ends. You were not in control of that ending. It was there. You were effectively forced to find a new path, and I think this is where people get stuck, right? The industry, your industry change technology, you know, your industry of production is one of those industries that has been drastically changed by technical tools and the technology.
Erin Marcus: access to platforms, right? It doesn't have to be bad. It just, right. If you're so attached, this is such a great example of, yes, it's terrifying, right? But I can take my skillset. I can take what's important to me. I can take my decades of experience and the people that I, and I can take my network and I can Adjust how I serve instead of holding on so tight to a process.
Raquel Bruno: Right, right. The music industry went through it, you know, it was those that adapted well to it that are thriving. But when you're holding on for dear life and there's only like a handful of people at the top who were making it happen. Guess what? Eventually it's going to catch up with you. You have to be willing to adapt.
Raquel Bruno: And I think that people sometimes find that out the hard way and then they get thrown into a situation and then they're desperate. And that, you know, we we've talked about when you come from a desperate place, nothing fits right. It's just like a lint roller of, of travesty.
Erin Marcus: Hey, that's going to be my new favorite.
Erin Marcus: Putting down my lint roller of travesty. That's our highlight reel. Are you, are you brushing yourself off with your lint roller of travesty? But it's so, and this is why, right, this is why we get along because it's so You have to laugh at this. You, the other thing you're describing is following. There's like a million things here for me.
Erin Marcus: Number one, you're following a calling. You're continuing your path by following a calling, number one, and number two, And this is what I don't understand. I left it a long time ago and I can't wrap my head around it. Giving somebody else control over your outcome, whether it's a company, whether it's an industry, whether it's a technology, right?
Erin Marcus: Like you can. As I say, be mad that the world changed around you.
Raquel Bruno: Well, you have to, and I say this all the time when I'm mentoring, especially young young professionals. Don't let someone else write your song. Don't let someone else write your script. You are the pilot of your own plane. Don't let anyone take that away from you.
Raquel Bruno: And You know, I was in a part of the industry where I talent booking. I mean, a lot of it depends on the outcome of someone else showing up. And because I love working with talent, I really truly do. But it also is the fact that you have to take You have to put your hands on the wheels. That's the only way it's going to work.
Raquel Bruno: And
Erin Marcus: it's scary. And it's
Raquel Bruno: scary as hell.
Erin Marcus: Right? I think people don't give it permission to be horrifyingly scary. I think that, right, I think the fact that it's terrifying and that's
Raquel Bruno: okay. Yes. And it's, you know, you think of a lot of parents and I'm a parent now and I'm trying to make sure, and my, thank, thank God I had parents that were actually creatives that said, you do what you want to do, but have a backup plan, get educated in what you want to do and do it full on.
Raquel Bruno: Don't do anything half assed. If you're going to do it, right. That's huge. It's huge. And I have other people in my orbit. That you have to be practical. You've got to get a job. You have to, and then it's a, it's a spirit killer, literally is a spirit killer, because then you turn back and go, I never wanted to have a life of what ifs and regret, honestly, and I'm sure you're the same way.
Raquel Bruno: And so I sit there going, okay, if I don't do this, then I'm going to turn around and be like, goddammit, why didn't I do it? I'll be pissed.
Erin Marcus: Well, and why in the world, if we've learned nothing from the last five years, if not before that, but seriously, in the last five years, having a job has nothing to do with security.
Erin Marcus: Right. Nothing to do with security. I don't care what level from the top to the bottom. I mean, you were watching these TikToks, these kids with who are moving across country to accept jobs that are laying them off 30 and 60 days later, right? Right. That's not
Raquel Bruno: security. No, it's not. But if they went. And, and decided they wanted to move to a state that they loved, that they've always dreamt of, and then they're going to build their own brand and business at that place, then it was worth it.
Raquel Bruno: But if they go and then they have to go, I mean, you have to, you literally have to make lemonade out of lemons. And, and it, and it is a really true thing and say, okay. This did not work. And I, I said this on a the other day on, on another podcast I was talking to, sorry, I was not cheating on you, but But I was basically The podcasting world is a I know, but it was, but we, you know, we were just basically saying that, you know, you have to go after what you want to do and don't let anyone else define what, what your history and legacy is going to be.
Raquel Bruno: You have
Erin Marcus: to Because I don't have kids. And I have a question for you. I'm curious, do we think this mess, that, that message of going after what you want and creating your world, to me, from the boomers, like Gen X, we kind of did that. My, I told you my favorite t shirt now is Gen X raised on hose water and neglect.
Erin Marcus: Because that's so true. And a lint
Raquel Bruno: roller
Erin Marcus: of travesty. And a lint roller of travesty. Like, are we I think we're moving more towards that. And I, as much as I've removed myself from day to day news and things like that, to me, the horrible pushback we're seeing, the more control, more control, more control, limiting rights, limiting, like, is almost testament that of the awakening of the spirit because the powers that be are pushing against.
Erin Marcus: They're in fear. They're in fear, which is why we, you know, people only push that hard out of fear because really like, I don't care. Like let people be people. 90 percent of the things that they're, it's disgusting. It's crazy. Like who wants to be in control of other people to like, I don't get it or another gender PS.
Erin Marcus: So odd. Like it doesn't even register. And yet at the same time, like I keep wanting to ask, how could it possibly be getting better and at the same time be getting worse?
Raquel Bruno: Because, well they, I mean, you know, in the spirit realm, it's like when you really do the work, it's, you see the darkness before the light every time.
Raquel Bruno: So it is break it down, disrupt it, see the ugly and mess so that you never have to see it again on the next journey. You would hope so. You would hope so. But listen, as a mom of a daughter, I'm furious. Terrifying. I,
Erin Marcus: I have to tell you right now, even more than white privilege, allowing me not to have to worry about certain things.
Erin Marcus: I think the fact that I'm past having children and don't have a daughter is currently a certain type of privilege. Like, I don't have to. It
Raquel Bruno: is, it, not only is it, against human rights, but it's bad for business. It's bad for everything because as a woman walking into the room, well, I'm sorry, you took away my rights and I'm supposed to expect you to respect me because other older white men don't.
Raquel Bruno: How am I supposed to make a living? I mean, I talk about this all the time. We still, you know white women make 80 cents on the dollar. My black and brown sisters are making 60 cents on the dollar. I had this conversation with some friends in the industry and it's, It's terrible. It's awful at the fact that we were still having to start out behind the starting line.
Raquel Bruno: We're not even at the starting line with our, you know, and that, that is,
Erin Marcus: I think as much as we talk about, I think that's a really important point because as much as I talk about, don't wait for the world to change, create your own world. It doesn't mean that the world doesn't need to change. And it also doesn't take into account that your journey.
Erin Marcus: To be in control and change your old world might be harder than mine. It might just inherently be harder than my journey just because of who I am. But, but, but, but, I call this give yourself a break but don't let yourself off the hook. Right. Right. Like, In full acknowledgement that there's groups of people whose journey are much harder than mine, just because of who they are.
Erin Marcus: And I have my own, you know, I'm Jewish, so I have my own version of that. Same, same. It doesn't take away from, you know, it doesn't add or take away from anybody else's journey. Don't let it stop you. No. Don't let having to fight harder be an excuse. legitimate as it is, to stop you from creating your own
Raquel Bruno: 100%.
Raquel Bruno: And I think that's why I work so hard to always create opportunities for those that may not have the opportunities, those that are not allowed in the room, like it don't want to get me started, how angry it makes me on so many levels. So the projects I work on the people I work with, I'm always making sure that I'm opening a door for the next generations behind me.
Raquel Bruno: So they never have to deal with this again, because we have a lot of work to do on this planet. And so and like, again, the fact that my and that's an everyday. thing I think about is that my daughter is going to have to fight for freedoms that I, that her grandmother and her mother had. And that is a scary notion that in 2024, this is where we're at.
Raquel Bruno: And the point also is
Erin Marcus: these success. And conscious behavior are not mutually exclusive. Right. Right. Exactly. Somewhere we've created this idea in too many places in this country that the only way to get success is to completely conform and it just goes back to who has control, right? You have to do success this way.
Erin Marcus: And by the way, I think for entrepreneurs, small business owners, that's one of the things that we screw up all the time, right? This is not even about gender or color or anything. Chasing somebody else's just do this one thing. And that's what works. Instead of going internal and saying, okay, what's my path to success.
Erin Marcus: Right. Every time I've done that, it works for a little bit. Right. And then it all falls apart because it wasn't
Raquel Bruno: for me. I think, which I think you and I had bonded on when we first initially met, we need to normalize, especially for women. We need to normalize talking about money. We need to normalize. Are worth around money, understanding, you know, building up generational wealth, like really having those conversations.
Raquel Bruno: Again, I was very lucky to have two parents that had two careers, but they also taught me the value of money. I mean, there's, you know, I've talked about it, but basically like also allowing the flow, abundant flow of money too, but also understanding. the work ethic that goes with it. And for me, it's still continuing to fine tune the balance of what that is.
Raquel Bruno: So you're not also killing yourself with work and then not enjoying the time. And I
Erin Marcus: think the more that I keep looking at all this and it kind of goes back to where we started the conversation. Why is this happening for us now? Is it age? Cause we're about the same age. Is it external circumstances? But I keep looking at money and then keep remembering who I grew up with because I grew up with people from 22 different countries in the city of Chicago in the seventies and eighties.
Erin Marcus: And I will tell you, most of them had no money and yet, and yet they felt amazing, they felt freedom, they felt excitement. And so is money truly the access to that? And I would argue, no, I would argue when we get in a chasing the money, right, as
Raquel Bruno: opposed to relationship to money, it's what it, you know, does money provide, I'm telling you this Ken Honda book, I can't more recommended for folks, happy money.
Raquel Bruno: It's fantastic. It just talks about the relationship with money. It gives you freedom. It gives you, you know, it's, it's how you react to it. Not thinking in a scarcity, you know, when is it ever enough? You know, are you, it's a total show
Erin Marcus: game. I love that, again, it's just a, you know, if you're thinking, if someone's listening to this, and they're thinking about leaving what they're doing, like what you've, to do something else, and they're not sure what it is, because there's nothing, to me, there's nothing worse than feeling like I don't know what to do.
Erin Marcus: Right. Yes. It's a brutal. But what you've done, because eventually we have to wrap this up, I can just keep talking, but what you've done for people as not just what you can help them do, but what you're leading by example with is that where is that intersection between the group of people you care about, the difference you want to make, the experience you can help people with, Like, where do these things collide?
Erin Marcus: Right. And then what's your calling around that? So, I absolutely love that. So, we're just going to cut it off, because seriously, we'll just do this again. If people want to continue that conversation with you, because it's such a pivotal, pivotal point, that, as we know, is massively torturous, but that's okay.
Erin Marcus: How do they find you? How can they reach out to you?
Raquel Bruno: They can find me at my website, which we're updating as we speak, but I am on LinkedIn Raquel Bruno, and you just look for drive. I'm on Instagram. Raquel loves drive. You can find me through there. And my email is Raquel at drive entertainment group.
Raquel Bruno: com. Anyone who was seriously thinking about making a move, especially creators and creatives. And when I say creators and creatives, it's any aspect doesn't have to be entertainment because we all create every day. I think people lose sight of that. So they can find me there, but drive entertainment group is my website.
Raquel Bruno: And I'm looking forward to connecting with people that, that sometimes feel that they're not sure where to go. And they, they're, it's, they're stuck in analysis paralysis, which is a real thing. And I, and it's sometimes you just have to jump in and I joke around and say, build the plane as it, as we're flying it, because that's what you have to do sometimes.
Raquel Bruno: Otherwise you'll just get, you'll, you'll try, you go into a perfection mode and it just never will get launched.
Erin Marcus: And no, I absolutely love that. So thank you for spending your time with me today.
Raquel Bruno: Always. I adore you and I'm super excited. And I, I hope that No matter what the outside noise is, is doing, I'd love to help, especially women find their worth and voice and strength and stand in their light and not apologize for asking questions and not apologize for getting what they're worth.
Raquel Bruno: Whatever I can do to help. That's what I'm here to do. I love it. Love it. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, my friend.