Kayvan Mashayekh: 0:03

Welcome to Producers Without Borders. We're very happy today to uh have a conversation with my dear friend Rick Davis of LOHAS in Austin, Texas. And uh I can't tell you how grateful I am for him to be uh able to be a part of this uh podcast today because uh Rick is not only a friend, I've known him since uh my college days, but he's also instrumental in the way we have been able to shape PWB's financial future through his organization called Producers International Foundation. Is that correct?

Rick Davis: 0:36

That's absolutely correct.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 0:38

So Rick and I went to Rice together years ago, uh as we say, umpteen years ago, and uh and and it's been an incredible journey so far as we have uh been able to kind of take PWB to the next level by creating this opportunity for filmmakers that uh want to know more about financing through charitable means because you never think about that. There's a lot of people out there right now that are trying to get their films financed through traditional means by going in uh after um equity or debt or incentives and all that. But there's one part of that puzzle that always re-remains a bit um in the fog for many people who don't know about it. And today I'm grateful to have Rick over here uh to tell us how uh charitable foundations and uh donor-advised funds can be utilized uh in a way to uh obtain financing for projects that uh would never even know how to avail themselves of that. So let's take it away. Rick Davis.

Rick Davis: 1:39

Good morning. Good to talk to you, Kayvan. And uh happy to answer whatever questions I can. I I I think you're right. It's not only that they can, but that they should. Uh that this is a a great pathway for charitable funding.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 1:52

Yeah, so let's let's walk through it. Um I'm a filmmaker and I'm trying to make uh a film uh around the one and a half to two million dollar uh range, and um I have like a 30% chunk of equity, but I I want to kind of mix it up and try to uh uh be able to access funds that otherwise I wouldn't be able to do through charitable uh means and uh walk me through that process. How would I go about doing that? What do I do? Step one, step two, step three.

Rick Davis: 2:19

Yeah, no, I I think what I would start with is that we focus, and this is a term that maybe is is not always heard, but uh and maybe not fully appreciated, but we talk about focusing on social impact entertainment. Um and often I think parties think that means documentaries and things of that nature. Um, but in reality, the arts uh in and of themselves have a great impact. Um, we love to see how messages and uh things with meaning can get woven into narratives and things of that nature, and it can mean a variety of different things. Uh it could be the underlying topic matter of the production, it could be um the kinds of filmmakers that are making it, uh, it could be any number of things. I I I as a very broad example, I always talk that, you know, was Avatar a sci-fi movie, or was it a movie about environmentalism and indigenous rights? Uh was Taken an action movie, or was it a movie to raise awareness about human trafficking? Um so there are lots of embedded ideas of impact that find their way into the entertainment space, and we'd love to see those get on screen. Um, and clearly they need money to do that. And so happy to explain that, but I do think it starts there about uh because when we're talking about charitable money, I think there needs to be some sort of mental connection between the donor and grantor and the and the idea that they want to see get on screen, you know, some sort of impactful notion that they would like to see embedded in in what they're doing. Uh and uh and entertainment has this amazing power to change hearts and minds, uh, even when it's just sort of subtly embedded in a in a production. Um uh our our our mutual friend uh Will Nix talks about uh uh you know uh filmmakers sneaking the spinach in the popcorn, uh, which I think is a wonderful way of thinking about impact. Um I I'm a I'm a big fan of the the Arthur Miller, the playwright Arthur Miller's uh term of felt knowledge, that you that you come out of something and you just know something, not because somebody hits you over the head with it in a documentary style necessarily, but because you know you sort of felt what happened there. Who were the good guys, who were the bad guys, why did what made them good? Uh and and if we can do that and ideally raise some awareness about some key issues, uh maybe change some hearts and minds of parties that didn't uh wouldn't have all all you know, wouldn't have known those things otherwise. I think that's a very successful production. Um so that so that's a long intro to your very uh uh simple question, which is how do you finance this stuff? You know, like uh what do we do? Uh how how do we how do we make how do we make it ideally easier for the filmmaker or the producer to raise that capital?

Kayvan Mashayekh: 5:02

Uh because well, what I'm hearing from you right now is the fact that story matters. Number one, the story has to be uh something that resonates within the confines of your the parameters where you can access those charitable funds. It just can't be some kind of you know uh thing that's thrown out there and say, hey, give me the money. So uh I think uh that's very clear from the way you described it in the examples you stated. Uh and those are those are fantastic films. The reason being uh the the story and the messaging was was tied into a lot of those uh social impact issues that you're talking about.

Rick Davis: 5:37

Yeah, absolutely. I I I think there has to be that bright line between the the the story that's told and the party who is providing the charitable funds. And so I think it starts there. And it could be, hey, uh we're a diverse set of filmmakers and you know we're we're not getting access to that kind of capital. And maybe that's the kind of thing that a donor or grantor wants to support in and of itself, uh, above and beyond the storyline. So it can be any number of things. But ultimately, the idea is how do you uh tap into that kind of financing? And and as you noted, um there's a lot of charitable money sitting out there to start with. Uh I don't think everyone's fully apprised of the fact that just within donor-advised funds alone, there's probably 250 to 300 billion in the United States just sitting there. Um it's already been allocated, someone's already received their tax deduction. It's just waiting for that donor who set it aside to decide how to deploy it. Um, there's also, you know, some 65,000 private foundations in this country. Each of them have a 5% allocation requirement, what's typically thought of as grant funding from foundations. Um and then parties just make ad hoc donations. We're we're we're coming up on the end of the year. The end of the year tends to be a time where a lot of just ad hoc checks get written for charitable purposes to offset your year's taxes. And all of those kinds of capital are good sources of funding for entertainment productions.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 7:03

Um, this pertains specifically for um uh filmmakers in the United States or somebody from outside the United States, can they access those too? So it probably becomes a little bit more complicated if you're outside the United States. But what we're talking about is really for U.S. filmmakers, U.S. based filmmakers.

Rick Davis: 7:20

It, not necessarily. Uh what I would say is it it it that's that's not the So LOHAS, uh we can accept donations and grants from anywhere in the world, and we can deploy investment in productions anywhere in the world. We do, however, use U.S. charitable vehicles to receive those funds, and so it tends to be parties that are comp um supporting are using uh you know ha are in the US or have operations in the US, so they have some U.S. tax offset appetite. Um so it's not the recipient of the funds that typically is in the U.S. uh they can be anywhere, and we deploy funds internationally weekly. But uh it is important that the parties you're from whom you're seeking the funding probably, if we're working with them, probably are in the U.S. And one of the great things uh about the United States tax code as it relates to philanthropy is we have a very progressive mindset on that in the United States that allows uh funds to be utilized in a variety of uh, I think, very innovative ways. The donor- advised fund in and of itself is a is a great innovation that allows parties to set aside money and get an immediate tax deduction and decide later whether it's what I'm seeing, it's it's very interesting.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 8:30

So what I'm hearing from you is that there could be a whole slew of new producers out there that could go out and just specifically specialize fundraising through these charitable means and just focus on that. I mean, if you're telling me that donor-advised funds are or have a what an allocation of 250 to 350 billion just sit in there, I mean there should be producers who are just focused on finding out what those donor-advised funds are and how to access them through companies like yourself.

Rick Davis: 8:57

So the check like that. Absolutely, and and we encourage parties to, you know, who are raising money to make sure they're asking about that. One of the things about DAFs in particular, and that's the common acronym for donor-advised funds, is that by law they're anonymous. Uh, and and what I mean by that is you you don't know who has one and how much money they have in it. Uh, so there's no database you can go to to look it up. It literally requires direct dialogue with that donor or maybe their financial advisor. Um, and donor- advised funds are set up by individuals and sometimes families. Uh, and so if you're seeking money from a you're raising money and go back to our hypothetical $2 million production budget, um, and you're talking to someone who you think might align with that in some capacity, uh, you should be not as an intro, but after you've told them about the movie and hey, you'd love your their support in it. If they're leaning in, say, hey, do you have a donor- advised fund? Um, or do you have by chance a family foundation? Or were you planning on making an end-of-year contribution? All of that money could be used to invest in my production. Um, and notably, if if you if you're interested in doing so, it can be structured such that when my $2 million turns into a very successful production and and makes a nice return, maybe get some nominations and things of that nature, um, that the money invested, those charitable funds invested in my production, can go back to that party's charitable pocket. Uh, meaning they can invest their donor-advised funds in that production and have the financial returns ff returned to it, or they can invest their foundation's grant funds in that production and have the returns flow back to the foundation.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 10:36

But that's after they've gotten their, if they've gotten their tax credit, I guess any income that comes back into it would be taxable then.

Rick Davis: 10:42

No, no, no. No, it's not because it's it's coming back to their charitable pocket. So no. Now, if it's coming back to a foundation, that foundation may have more money that it needs to give out the next year in its grant pool. I refer to that as a good problem to have. Oh, we have to, dang it, we have to do more good uh next year than we were planning on. Right. Um, but the the the important point is that if you're not asking when you're raising money, you're literally leaving money on the table because charitable money is a very common thing for parties with money. Let's be clear. We don't go to investors because they're poor. We go to investors because we believe them to have money that might be able to be put in our production. Uh while while they were earning that wealth, it's very possible, very likely in fact, that over the course of time they have set money aside to offset those taxes as they make money.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 11:29

But let's also let's make something clear. I mean, your your your organization, LOHAS, isn't something where you guys are receiving scripts and reading scripts and doing stuff like that. So I want to be very clear. No, that's great.

Rick Davis: 11:40

I really appreciate your idea because we're not.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 11:41

I mean, because I mean I know that after this podcast, people can say, oh, LOHAS, let me look them up. You know what I mean? Austin, Texas.

Rick Davis: 11:49

ell, uh, hey, and our partners are New York, Texas, and California based. Just me and Austin. They're everywhere. But uh we are not investors, first and foremost. Um, and that's it comes as a disappointment to a lot of folks. They think, oh, well, you know, they're you're sitting on X amount of charitable money for investment. Uh, and on some level we are, uh, but that bel that is at the direction of the donors. We manage a donor- advised fund, for example. Um, and it's it's exclusively focused on impact investing. So we have a variety of donors that that have money that is that that we help support in the in in that manner, but we're not placement agents, we're not matching deals to donors. That's not what we do. We're we're at our core, we're a philanthropic intermediary focused on impact investing. Right. So we we enable the flow of charitable money into impactful ventures like the productions that we're talking about, but it's incumbent on the parties raising the money to find those donors and grantors that want to support their production. And then we will enable that to

Kayvan Mashayekh: 12:47

And also when they go to your website, they see a whole panoply, uh a tile work of different foundations and and donor-advised funds that they can they can look into to see, hey, uh maybe this is the organization I need to be talking to. Well sub the subject.

Rick Davis: 13:00

Yeah, I mean, that's they probably see, well, for one, they see Producers Without Borders, right?

Kayvan Mashayekh: 13:05

They see Well, they see Producers International Foundation, they're not gonna be able to do that. And they see Producers International Foundation.

Rick Davis: 13:09

Right. And and maybe that that that's worth uh explaining. So one of the things that we do is, you know, what typically gets termed fiscal sponsor programs in the entertainment space, uh, we do that a little bit differently in that we're really creating these charitable programs to support the impactful missions of a variety of organizations. I I think it's well over a hundred now. Um and many of them are in the entertainment space. Produce Without Borders being one of them. As you noted, we manage, as you know, at the front, we manage Produce International Foundation, which is the nonprofit pathway to support the great work that PWB does. Um and we do that for a lot of parties in the entertainment space that slate funds uh in the social impact entertainment space, uh, you know, uh individual productions, holding companies that do a lot of things in the entertainment space where we are that nonprofit gateway for parties to be able to use charitable money to ultimately invest in the those those productions uh and and their various activities.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 14:11

So uh it just takes me back to our talk a couple of years ago during the Cannes Film Festival where we're at the American Pavilion, you and I, and uh you had mentioned something that was uh absolutely stunning. I believe if correct me, because I know it's it's I'm I'm uh my my memory may be a little bit foggy and my stats may be a little bit off, but I'm sure in today's world everything can be checked and double checked very quickly. So I believe there was a statement you made that within the next 10 years, there's gonna be what 20 trillion dollars of wealth transfer from one generation to another.

Rick Davis: 14:44

Yeah, it's more than that. But it's more than that now. But but nonetheless, it let's just say it's a big number. Um and the relevance of this generational wealth transfer to the conversation we're having, uh, and this isn't uh a knock on old white guys because I am one, but there is less uh focus in older generations towards social and environmental impact than there are in younger generations. And and and that data is overwhelmingly clear. Uh and so as money changes hands and and more accurately the control over funds changes hands, the expectation, we're already seeing this, is that there will be more and more focus on not just making a buck, but making a buck while ideally making the world a little bit better place. Um and what what you care about and what I care about and what others care, it could all be different, um, and that's fine. Um, but beginning to think of, hey, uh maybe that's the kind of message I'd like to see on screen, or the kind of company that I would like to support, or the kind of thing where I believe it could be financially successful, but also uh ideally, like I said, make, you know, have a have a people or planet uh filter to some extent. And so we we fully expect, and we're already starting to see it, more and more parties want to use funds in that way. And charitable money is really just the other pocket of funding.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 16:10

You're basically saying you're gonna be supercharging and turbocharging this creator economy that's uh that's out there that's uh putting content out directly, uh DTC directly to their consumers through or or viewers or however you want to call it, uh through the you know, the available channels that are you know a lot of young people go to, which is YouTube and and TikTok and and so on and so forth.

Rick Davis: 16:30

I think we're gonna see a huge proliferation of of that. And and from our world, I mean our focus, we're exclusively focused on enabling the flow of charitable money to invest in those kinds of things. Uh you know, we we fully expect to be supporting that for for many years to come.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 16:47

And uh and I think you know this brings up another subject because uh you every time you you you so eloquently uh lay this out for everyone, uh the issue of IP and you know, and and how this can also shape future IP. If you're doing social impact uh storytelling and uh the it becomes something that goes viral, then you want to be able to own that IP. And if you're an individual filmmaker, you want to be able to have control of it, not have somebody else who's distributing it say, okay, I'm gonna buy it out from you, and then I'm gonna control it and I'm gonna massage it the way I want. So I think my encouragement for future filmmakers is to really focus on that, you know, to focus on the fact that, okay, go after charitable foundations and donor- advised funds and all the things that you're talking about by by finding out who those people are and if they do have them, and if if so, can they support your storytelling vision that has a social impact? But remember that, you know, hold on to that because that's that's what that's how you build your brand. I mean, uh that's how we were able to build our brand with Producers Without Borders over a number of years. But you know, we're just a network of doers and not talkers, givers and not takers, and that that really puts together this uh uh this panoply, uh, this quilt of different ethnicities that are that are producers from all over the world that that create these opportunities. So I'm grateful that uh um you're able to give us that kind of insight. I want to know uh what other what are the three things you recommend to filmmakers today, uh the step by step um that that would help them enable them to understand what you're saying a lot easier and better. Because I think the way you you speak is just so powerful and so straightforward, but sometimes it could overwhelm people, it could it it could make them feel timid. Like I need to actually go learn have take a course to understand what Rick is saying because uh I mean I get it because we're both lawyers or whatever, but you know, I can is is there any like a 101 level way of trying to do that?

Rick Davis: 18:49

Yeah, no, it's a great it's a really great point, and and I'll tell you why it's a particular challenge is not only in in the vein of what you said, is it the parties raising money are you know ill-informed with regard to how to ask for, think about, incorporate that kind of funding. But overwhelmingly, the parties with charitable money have no idea any of this is possible. So that's worth pausing on for a second. That means of those half a trillion dollars sitting in charitable pockets, 99% of those parties have no idea that that charitable money can be used to invest in your hypothetical social impact entertainment production. So you're you're already up against it from a fundraising perspective, because uh, you know, you're you're you can't be sitting there expecting that funder to lean over and go, hey, can I use my DAF to invest in this? Because most of them don't know they can do that. Um, so it's incumbent upon you, first and foremost, the fundraiser, uh, you know, to educate yourself a little bit in the vein of what we're talking about, and then ultimately educate your funder. I I refer to it as a two-way street of ignorance. You don't know who has a DAF, and they don't know that they can use that money they have to invest in your production. And so the solution to that is for the fundraiser to take the initiative and say, hey, I just told you my production, by the way, do you have a donor- advised fund? And did you know you could be investing that in in my work? Um and that's that's first and foremost where it starts. Like if you're not educating the foundation that their grant funds can be utilized to invest in your movie or the party with the donor- advised fund, that they can take that money and invest, uh honestly, it's shame on you at this point.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 20:30

Well, uh, but let me uh uh expand on that a little bit. A lot of times they'll if you ask that question, so well, we need to talk to our lawyers, and the the lawyers don't even know.

Rick Davis: 20:38

Sometimes Oh no, they definitely don't. And the financial advisor doesn't, and the CPA doesn't.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 20:42

And that's just it.

Rick Davis: 20:43

So that that is a role that LOHAS can play. Right. So while we're not an investor ourselves, um, we are investing other parties' money. But uh what we do uh is we support our clients' fundraising activities, and that's how we do it, not by identifying a donor and grantor, but rather being free to talk with meaningful, with donors and grantors that have meaningful charitable money that are sincerely interested in supporting whatever that initiative is, but who have questions. And by the way, it's very common for parties to have very reasonable. If you've run a foundation for a hundred years and given out grant money every single year, and someone knocks on your door and says, Did you know instead of just giving money away, you could take that same grant money and invest it in Kayvan's, you know, uh social impact entertainment production. And when it's really successful, have that money come back to your foundation. I will tell you that melts their mind a little bit because they're like, What are you talking about? We've never done that. That can't be right. Our lawyer says that's not right. You can't do that. And what we always encourage is, you know what, let us talk to them. Um, because once they understand a little bit, then you know what we what we know, because we've now done this for a number of years, is once they've done it, they're like, oh, okay, well, now we want to do that again. It's a magical grant, suddenly. It's the grant that gives back.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 21:56

What I'm hearing is that what you're talking about is just bear with me. It's like it's a marketing and branding issue for on your side, because uh bear with me, because the it the anytime somebody it gets to this part time of the year, which is uh late October, November, December, that that the Q4 is what I call it, they start scrambling for that for that tax deduction. They want they want that certificate, that 501(c)(3) certificate that I'm able to use this. So they they think about the the big boys on the block. You know, the Red Crosses, the American Cancer Society

Rick Davis: 22:29

It's the house of worship, it's the university, and it's the hospital.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 22:32

Because those are easy. They don't have to think about it. That that brand is out there, they know it's legit, it's whatever it is, they don't look at the administrative costs of some of these, some of these, some, some of these 501(c)(3)s, but because it's a brand, they have that brand and and it's easy for them to understand. Yep. But whenever you're talking about Joe Schmo's foundation, is and and it's a 501(c)(3). Well, wait a minute, I can you you give my money to to them and they can invest it in a social impact. Yeah, they they don't know that. So that's it. So that becomes a marketing in my in my world, what because what you're talking about is it's what it's let let let us talk, let us talk to them because what we're doing is 100% legitimate, but we don't have that kind of name recognition of those big charitable organizations, and that's where the disconnect is. And I think

Rick Davis: 23:19

It's an education challenge. You can call it a marketing challenge, it's an education challenge. They're intermixed because how do you get the how do you get the message out there? And the path we've chosen is to work with parties raising capital for social impact ventures, um, including the entertainment space, to say you should know these things. So you become, if you will, our educational channel to the world of funders to let them know that, hey, those funds you have and then your donor- advised, and you that money you have at Fidelity Charitable or Vanguard or your community foundation, that same money can be reallocated to invest in that very cool movie or television show or play or cool company that's really trying to make the world a better place.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 24:03

So I think the way to do that is to go after the younger generation and let them educate them and know so that they know who to what kind of questions to ask. Uh so tell us about what LOHAS, what kind of like um educational programs LOHAS has to let people know about this.

Rick Davis: 24:20

Well, you know, uh we we tend to sit down on podcasts with old friends from Rice University. And ideally, no, I mean we we do the best we can. Um our partners at you know are in New York, Texas, California. We we're very active in the investment community and the impact investment community, trying to share this message and just make sure people are aware. Uh it you know, always feels glacial to me, but but we've grown considerably and we help a lot of people. So hopefully that that trend line will will continue. Uh but that but it is that that is our underlying challenge is that uh you know you just parties don't know that that this is a pathway to use charitable funds. And you know, we talk about rethinking uh how you use your charitable dollars and that you could be a more active participant in the impact world with it. And and and I'll take a step back on that. I I actually think, particularly as it relates to donor- advised funds, it's imperative because right now, of that 250 billion plus, almost all that money is sitting in the public markets. Um it's it's sitting in somebody's donor- advised fund account while they wait to decide what they're going to do with it. And meanwhile, that money is you know invested in fossil fuels companies and weapons manufacturers and things of that nature. So charitable money, money that was set aside for a charitable, impactful purpose, is instead being invested in a variety of things that probably don't align with most donors' visions and missions and things of that nature.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 25:48

Why? Because it has to be invested. It can't just sit and cash.

Rick Davis: 25:50

All money is invested, right? No, no, you know, with the exception of the the the eccentric that's digging a hole in their backyard, everyone's putting that money somewhere. And and those parties, Fidelity, is investing it in its own mutual funds and ETFs, uh, with the idea that, hey, we'll grow it for you, and then someday in the future you can donate it out, which is which is okay. I would argue, however, remember if I'm a donor and I have money in a donor- advised fund, no matter how well or how poorly that investment of funds does, I'm never seeing it again. It's gone. It's not my money anymore. I've set it aside, I've gotten my tax deduction. I would argue that is the optimal money, you know, sort of monopoly money for you, but very real to the recipient that you can go and be an impact investor with. Um, and in fact, going back to your original question on the three things, um, one of the things I would say, uh harking back to your hypothetical $2 million production, is where is that production? Like, is this your, hey, I got a great idea? Um, and we're gonna make a movie and it's about this, but I'm at the developmental stage. I think at the developmental stage, if you're not using charitable money, you're you're being unnecessarily bold with your investment portfolio. What I would say is, hey, we're we're at that developmental stage. We'd love the first, whatever it is, half million in that in that budget to help us get a script, get, you know, uh talent assigned, get a director, you know, maybe get a distribution deal, whatever it is. And then that next million that we're raising, maybe that is investment. Maybe at that point, maybe that becomes a better investment. And if I'm in the movie finance world or I'd like to get in it, that's the time that I might step in and write a check. Like, I think you can be both don the investor of donated or granted funds and the future investor in the same deal. Like you've you've seeded the deal, you've catalyzed the project to get it to a production equity stage where now you're like, oh, you may you got so-and-so associated with it, you got this amazing script now. Yeah, now I want to step in and I want to write a check out of my investment portfolio. And by the way, maybe I've done that a half dozen or a dozen times, and only some of them get to that stage. So I'm placing bets on different things using my charitable money. Remember, no matter how well or how poorly it does, it has no real impact on me financially. Um, but some of those are going to, you know, are going to get into that production stage. And and those are the ones maybe now that I really do get behind uh with with my investment portfolio.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 28:18

Okay. That was very well stated. I think that uh one of the other things that a lot of filmmakers in in America that are seeking capital, I mean, um they always go the 181 route, which you know, um, and that's something that um their advisors tell them to go because that's an available tool. Yeah, absolutely. That's another thing. So for for many, many filmmakers in the United States, they go to 181 route or they go the if they if they're seeking charitable funds, they go the now which you're telling me donor- advised funds or charitable foundations. First thing they need to do, contact LOHAS, ask them the questions that uh ask the the foundations the questions. Do you have charitable funds that then do you know that you can invest in in films with that? And and to and to talk to LOHAS.

Rick Davis: 29:04

And if you want a reminder on the questions you should be asking, you can absolutely go to our website, LOHAS.org. There's a thought leadership section, there's brochures and blah, blah, blah, that have those sort of questions that that you should be asking. The the time you you reach out to LOHAS is when you have a donor or grantor that's ready to do that or that is leaning in and has maybe the questions, like we were talking earlier. And we're happy to answer any donor or grantor questions about how they can participate with their capital in that way.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 29:32

And also to communicate with their professionals, their accountants and lawyers.

Rick Davis: 29:35

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, this is something that is poorly understood by the financial advisory world. It, you know, and and it's a shame because I will say that a lot of those financial advisors have clients that are talking to them about impact investing and maybe aren't well versed on it, and maybe you're uncomfortable thinking about, hey, I'm going to send my clients' investment portfolio funds into a deal. But this is a way for them to take money they've, you know, that they They've set aside, in essence, with their client and allowed that to be the at least the initial pool of impact investment capital. And I think that's going to become increasingly important for the wealth transfer, the generational wealth transfer aspect that you've mentioned.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 30:13

Alright, so let's uh as we wrap this up, um what what's the final thing that you want uh people to get from this discussion, which is going to be very impactful, I believe. I hate to use that word over and over again because it's just like it it's it's becoming uh a little bit too much where everybody just uses the same word. But I think the word I like to use is purposeful. Yeah. Um, you know, what's the purpose of all this? What's the why are we doing all this? And and I'd like for you to elaborate a little bit about that before we wrap up. What's the purpose of all this? And that that purpose is really to um uh to create opportunities at where opportunities would never have existed before.

Rick Davis: 30:55

That's absolutely the case. Uh I I am uh so happy every day to see the volume of filmmakers and company leaders and fund managers uh that we work with that are out really taking great stories, uh trying to do great things, and and that is uh you know is it makes all of our work at LOHAS uh that much more meaningful uh in in that regard. Uh I I I think it's it's a purposeful pathway in that respect. Um the the one thing I think I would leave uh your audience with is just a a reminder to ask the questions when you're raising money. Uh it is is so important to not sit down with someone and only ask about the money they have in one pocket and not ask about the money they have in the other. Um if you're not asking, you should not be expecting to raise that money. Uh and and you know, I think what you will find is there are a lot of people out there that would love to support your production if they only knew they could do so with money that they had set aside anyway, that they weren't planning on making any money. I mean, earn your producers' credit, get invited to the premiere, uh get to brag at the cocktail party um about this. That's a heck of a lot more fun.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 32:13

Get invited to Producers Without Borders.

Rick Davis: 32:15

Get invited to Producers Without Borders, very cool events globally. Um exactly. Uh you know,

Kayvan Mashayekh: 32:20

Shameless self-plug, but it's okay.

Rick Davis: 32:22

With charitable money that you had set aside anyway. Uh I think there's a lot more fun things parties can do than what they're currently doing, which is either sitting on it or going those more common pathways at the end of the year that you were talking about.

Kayvan Mashayekh: 32:34

Yeah, so uh thank you for that, Rick. It's been a great pleasure to speak with you. And uh, as we're coming to the conclusion of this uh podcast, uh uh the last one we did was also Texas-based. And so I'm I'm I'm trying to do as many uh of these uh in my home state because it's important to get the messaging out about how great this state is, because there's so many people like yourselves and like Alfred and like Charles that uh come that always want us to to do the best we can to get information out for the community so that they have access to to things that they don't they would otherwise otherwise not have. Uh and in conclusion, uh we're gonna wrap it up in London uh in a a uh in December uh with a talk about uh human intelligence versus artificial intelligence at the Focus uh London Conference with Dr. Edward Frankel and myself. And we look forward to seeing you there or at a future podcast. Thank you so much, Rick Davis.

Rick Davis: 33:31

Thank you for having me.