June 12, 2025 • 28 mins
The founder and CEO of the production banner that delivers high-volume unscripted hits including "Dr. Pimple Popper" and "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" explains how he rose from humble beginnings to become a business owner.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcasts featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Sergio Alfaro, founder and CEO of invent TV.
Alfaro grew up in the Pasadena area in an apartment
(00:28):
that didn't even have a television. Now he produces dozens
of hours of TV every year. Invent TV is a
busy unscripted production banner that has handled production for a
range of shows. Invent TV is a busy banner that
has handled production for a range of shows from Doctor
Pimple Popper, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City to
(00:50):
numerous Oprah Winfrey TV specials over the years. He launched
the company about ten years ago in partnership with investor
and philanthropist Jeffrey Soros. Alfaro is truly a modern day
Horatio Alger. He started out in entertainment stocking dressing rooms
and cleaning up debauchery after live performances. Today he's a
(01:12):
business owner who was courted for prestigious board seats and
in the twenty five years in between, he had a
rise and a fall with the previous company. Alfaro explains
how he built it back up and what he learned
from the hard process of failure, and he gives us
a producer's i view on the unscripted TV marketplace. Right now,
(01:33):
that's all coming up after this break, and we're back
with a conversation with Invent TV founder and CEO Sergio Alfaro.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Sergio Alfaro, CEO of Invent TV, thank you for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thank you for having.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Me, and dear listeners. Sergio is from Pasadena, which is
my hometown, and he brought me a gorgeous pie from
Pie and Burger. That is a very sweet gesture and
a very Pasadena gesture. Thank you. You have a fantastic
backstory and inspiring You are a born entrepreneur backstory, and
I want to talk about that, but I want to
(02:21):
start by you are also right now in the trench's
selling shows. Right now, we are five months in to
the macroeconomic roller coaster ride that has been the second
Trump administration. What is your sense out there right now?
Are people still finding their way through the fog?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I think there's a lot of fear in general job security.
What's the next hit, and I think it goes globally.
It's not just the production company's feeling it. I think
the networks are feeling it as well. Their next bet
may be the wrong bet, and then that costs them
their jobs and everybody else's jobs. So I think people
are playing it safe right now. I think that eventually
(03:01):
somebody's going to take some swings again and get a
huge hit on the air, and that might rejigger things
again and put it back to normal. I think this
is cyclical.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In the business of pitching and getting show commissions from outlets,
we've seen a lot of consolidation. Now. We have in
many cases, not every single case, but of the major platforms,
you have single execs or single teams overseeing for broadcasts,
for streaming, for a cable. How has that been for you?
As a seller, we try and be a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
More focused on who we're pitching and selling to. I
think it's like buying a home these days. You can
name a network and know exactly what kind of programming
they have. So if you go in kind of open ended,
here's a general idea, it only works if you have
some major talent and a lot of buyers that are
going to go into it. You know, if you're going
(03:52):
to the NBCs of the world and CBS, then yeah,
you better come with big talent, big format, big big big,
and you can get a bidding war. In the unscripted world,
it's pretty tailored, you know, it's pretty well focused, like
here's something that suits you, the buyer, and then they
decide if they're going to put it on their linear
channel or their streaming channel if they have one. But
(04:14):
we try and be very focused and thankfully because of
the relationships we have, whether it's a Lane one of
my favorite executives in Angelo over Elane's at A and
E and Angelo's at we TV. We text them, you know,
we say, hey, here's an idea, and they're so wonderful
with us to just say not for us, or that's interesting,
(04:34):
tell us more. Then we focus in on that and
develop it further and further, and it's it's like anything else.
It's like a relationship. I feel like we are we
are trying to sell something like a real estate agent.
Let me show you a couple of homes. It's not
always going to be the first home you see. Let
me show you another one, and that kind of words
but put a pool in it. Okay, sure, but we
(04:55):
can't afford the pool.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's an interesting analogy, and all my years of talking
to producers, nobody else has ever made that analogy. But
that's a great one. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, that's what we do. We got to show options,
and we can be precious either. I think a lot
of people get precious about their idea, especially newcomers, you know,
people coming into the industry and here's my idea, and
it's so great. We've heard it before. We call it
a mop most often pitched. If I hear one more
person say this is the Anthony Bourdain of like, oh
(05:26):
my god, that is like a weekly thing. Still and
we all smile when they say it, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Rest in peace, Rest in peace, Love Kitchen Confidential, one
of the great books of the nineteen.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Ninety Yeah, these, I mean, but nobody's Anthony boardaining.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So but let me ask you, is the process with
the consolidation and the fact that there's fewer people overseeing credit,
over seeing more platforms, is that appreciably better? Yeah? For
a pitcher, is it appreciably worse?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I think it's much better because you know, you don't
have to pitch to a bunch of different teams, and
it doesn't have to go through so many more layers.
There's still plenty of layers, don't get me wrong, but
it's you're going to one person that could actually think
about multiple options. Oh, this doesn't work for this linear channel,
but this could work for our streamers. So I think
(06:15):
you're pitching into one person that has several options, you know,
So I think it actually works better quite frankly. But
the workload for them, I really that's tough. I mean,
the amount of hats that they're wearing now and the
things that they're juggling. I have a lot of respect
for the network executives that are just wearing too many hats.
(06:36):
In my opinion, it's tough. I have a really hard.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Job that the scarcity of executive jobs is definitely is
definitely notable. Let me ask you, is it still fair
to say that, you know, basically the kind of the
hierarchy of budget is broadcast, you'll have a pretty solid
budget because it's kind of got to be big streaming obviously,
because in some cases to print their own money it's
(07:00):
a little old school. But and then cable obviously is
very you know, very much the you know, stretch stretcher
dollars and make them work, but we'll give you a
sixty episode order. Is that kind of basically.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah, it all works the same and at the
end of the day, it's everything is manageable. It really is.
And I feel that again going to people being precious.
I think right now there's a lot of production companies
I don't understand why they do it, or they'll literally
pass on a network because it's not enough money. Like
roll up your sleeves, figure it out. You know, there's
(07:32):
you've got to change with the times, and the networks
are very accommodating to what those needs are and those
financial changes. You know, it's across the board, so the
showrunners know what's going on, the camera operators know what's
going on, the vendors know what's going on. So if
you want the business, you've got to change with us.
And thankfully we haven't had struggles working within you know,
(07:56):
tighter confines with some of the buyers and some of
the networks. We call our people and thankfully, I mean
I've been in the business a long time. We have
a lot of loyalty. We're good to our people. If
we have the money, we use the same people and
we take care of them and what we don't. It's
not even an ask, you know, I'm not asking for
a favor. I just say, hey, this is what we have.
(08:17):
We're incredibly transparent with our partners, our vendors, everybody, and
I think being kind, being honest, being consistent really works
long term. It does.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Do you are there sort of advantages Do you enjoy
working in the kind of three major mediums, whether it's
for streamer, broadcast, k but you flex different muscles for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
My favorite is still live. You know, I started with
Ken Rlick that way back in the day. But whenever
I'm on a live set, that's family. It's different because
unscripted projects and scripted projects are very contingent to the genre,
the network, and there are certain people that I would
consider family within those groups. Live events it's the same people.
(09:01):
The only person changing is on top the production company
and the executive producer Serjo.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
This is a great segue. Tell us what it was
about live events that that was your path into the industry.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
So I got offered a job in the mid nineties
on a show called Motown Live. So when I grew
up we didn't have a television. We had a radio
on top of a refrigerator and we played radio. It's
a Spanish station that was just always on. And I
(09:33):
was raised by a single mom, me and my brother,
and she was always working. She was an auditor and
travel a lot. My brother and I just kind of
raised ourselves. We play out on the streets and listen
to the Spanish radio. So when I got it, when
I got a job in television, I didn't know what
that really meant. I was dating somebody at the time
and the father offered me a job to do dressing rooms.
(09:56):
I didn't know what that meant. So I went to
this show a Motel live at Renmar Studios, and I
would work after college. I would work from i'd say
about four pm till about three in the morning, sometimes
two in the morning, and my job was to put
drinks and sodas and waters and towels in dressing rooms
(10:17):
of celebrities and motown Live if you know that was
like Snoop Dog and Bust the Rhymes and just all
kinds of rowdy groups in the mid nineties.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
These were live TV special live TV.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Specials, correct, and my job was to fill them with
supplies when they're there, and then hang out and at
the end of the night, which was the crazy part.
It was like the scene of sixteen Candles at the
end with the pizza on the record player and things
thrown everywhere, and I would walk in and scratch my
(10:51):
head and clean up. And this was my job, Like
I didn't like it, and I was making I think
it was like seventy five dollars a day. It was
bad then it's bad now twenty five cents a mile.
My car only started half the time. By the way,
I had a seventy one Volkswagen that to this day
I back in everywhere I go, not because I'm cool,
but because I'm just you know, I'm scarred. My car
(11:16):
never started, so I'd have to open the door, put
it in neutral. If you know how to jump a car,
push it down the hill, jump in, put it in second,
pop the clutch, and then I get to go.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So it facing front.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Are conduc always so at the end of the season,
you know, people liked my work ethic. I never complained.
I just did the job, kept my head down, and
they offered me another job to go work on another project.
So at the end of the season. I got offered
a job to do the Grammys. I didn't know what
(11:45):
that was. And I would be doing more dressing rooms
for more celebrities. And I was like, oh, I don't
know if I want to do that. That doesn't sound appealing.
But I would be now the coordinator, which is that's
the guy that was telling me what to do that
did nothing. Wow, that sounds interesting, and am I going
to make a little bit more money? And yes, it
(12:06):
was like twelve hundred dollars. Now I'm nineteen, maybe twenty
at the time, and I got offered twelve hundred dollars
a week. That was just out of my mind. I
mean I still remember to this day. I walked into
a bank called Washington Mutual at the time it's now
I don't even know what has transitioned into and after
taxes like eight hundred and seventy something dollars. I don't
(12:28):
know what my problem was, but I thought I was busted,
Like this check is not going to clear, this is
some sort of this is so much money. There's no
way that a bank that I don't even have a
bank account is going to cash this eight hundred and
seventy something dollars check. So I was paranoid walking into
the bank. They asked for my ID. I swear I
was robbing the place. I just felt so much anxiety
(12:51):
and stress. And then they counted out the money and
then I'm freaking out that I have eight hundred dollars
in my pocket and somebody's going to rob me as
if the world knows and I have eight hundred dollars
in my pocket. So then I opened to bank account
so I wouldn't have to carry around that kind of
large though.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And that was it.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I actually there are three moments in my life where
I feel I have had like this feeling of the
world changing. That was one of those moments. When I
was cashing that check and opening an account, I stopped
for a moment to think, this is a career, Like
I could actually do this for a living, and if
I'm making this now, And this is where that epiphany came.
(13:33):
I had this like flash of Kennerlick's house and his
cars and the people that I was around from Ricky Minor,
who now does all these major shows at the time, was,
you know, starting as a musical director. I don't know
about starting, but he was definitely on the come up
in the nineties to Paul Sandwise, who was a music
like I went to all these people's homes as a
(13:54):
as a runner, and I just saw everything and how
beautiful it was and the things that they had, and
I'm like, oh my god, if I'm this young working here,
And that was the epiphany, where will I be in
ten years? That's it? What does the next person do?
And what does the next person do? And just went
through that. The other two are pretty basic, not basic,
but equally as beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Don't go anywhere. We'll be back with more from Invent
TV CEO Sergio Alfaro after this break, and we're back
with more from Invent TV CEO Sergio alfarow.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The other one was when I got on my knee
to propose to my wife, and I knew I was
doing it. I bought the ring. She was out of town.
When she left town, I realized we had been together
two years. I can't live without her. That's what my
determining factor was. So when I bought a ring, and
I had this whole plan of when she comes back,
I'm going to take her to where we had our
first date. I'm going to propose to her, and when
(14:53):
I put my knee down on the ground, it was
like in the movies where like a sonic wave went
through my body went through the earth earth of responsibility.
This is it, this is my person for life. And
it was a great decision. We've been together twenty years.
Name Tiffany, Tiffany Alfaro, She's a love. And the third
(15:14):
one was when my first son was born. Not that
I don't love all my children, but I didn't know
what it was like to have a child. And I
think until you do, you really don't know the meaning
of life at all. You don't know true love. Not
that I don't love my mom and my grandmother. There's
something instinctual about having your own child that just changes
(15:35):
absolutely everything. And the moment my son was born, that
changed everything for me. And again that same wave of responsibility,
and it was instant. The moment I held that kid
in the emergency room, that was it. I knew love
in a different way. I knew responsibility in a different way.
And yeah, those are those are the big the big three.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I guess for me based on what she said, the
work that you grew up with, what would you say then,
in like the next five to ten years. What were
the steps that you took that led you to now
being the head of your own company and having juggling
this portfolio of multiple ventures.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So I was with Kenny for literally, I think it
was thirteen years. And in Kenny's house there was really
four people. You know, there was kennerlick Ron Vacilly, Lisa Gears,
and Paige Hapley.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
All names that you know from credits of a gazillion.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Show of a gazillion shows. And it didn't matter which
whether it was the Emmy's or and Grammy's was a
little different because I was always tied with Cosette. So
we we would build the shows, just a small group
of us and knock them down, and it was over
and over and over, and we would.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Do and you're talking about physical sets, every rigging cameras.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Every single thing. So, you know, a show would come
in and say here's the idea, and then you know,
Kenny would come up with, you know, some of the
ideas of the talent and who we're going to use
for staging and lighting and all these different things, and
then we would find those people, we would hire those people.
But again, like I said earlier, it's all the same people. Right,
(17:12):
It's literally family, and I grew up with all of
them like literally my entire career. So the transition really
came for me now running the companies is there was
a writer strike at the same time there was a
market crash. This was how many years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So at that time I had two kids. I now
had three at a house. I bought a second house
that I was going to try and flip because I
thought it was the right thing to do. Everything came
to a crashing halt at the same time. There was
no work for me anywhere. And it's not something I'm
proud of, but I you know, I'm the breadwinner of
(17:53):
my household. I don't have a family with wealth that
I could turn to. I lost my house and I
had a transition into this new smut business called reality television.
What the hell is that? I literally had no clue.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
There was this wonderful guy and in your mind it
had kind of used to call the smut business. It
had a kind of a negative connotation.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I mean, you're doing the Emmys and the Oscars, and
you're doing these huge shows with the biggest stars in
red carpet. You just think you're so cool. So there's
this wonderful human being, one of my favorite in the
industry named Jay Peterson. He brought me into do a
development tape for a company that he was going to
(18:39):
called Original Media, not Original Pictures of Original Media. People
always confuse that. And I came in and I did
this project. What was crazy is it was a development project.
And now, having gone through everything I went through, you know,
losing my home, you know, having losing both homes actually
because it was I couldn't make the payments, and I
(19:02):
got offered a job from Jay to be I forgot
what it was. It was some like development tape, like
just overseeing eight projects, a tiny little thing. And I
think I got paid twelve hundred dollars that many years
later to oversee this project. But it had hope for
this other job that he was looking at to bring
me in over to Original Media. So I did it.
(19:25):
I didn't care, like, look, I need I don't care
what the job is. I need a job I wasn't
proud to take less. I get this job and I
do it, and I'm asking Jay a lot of questions
that he's so polite and so kind that I'm sure
I irritated him because it was a development. Now I understand,
like it was just a sizzle like relax. I'm like, well,
(19:46):
who's doing the books? He's like the books?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You do?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
The books? You know?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And who's getting the insurance?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You get the insurance? Like you keep out? Just do it, like,
stop asking me all these questions. The good thing is
he saw what I was capable of and he offered
me a job to be a line producer at Original Media.
So I went over there and.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Edited by one Charlie Corwin. Charlie went an alumnus of
this podcast and alumnus of Imagine Entertainment and also in
the Maullshine.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, and they made me a line producer on a
show called La Inc. We had just brought over Kat
Vondie from Miami and we were doing this series called
La Inc. And they wanted me to just look at
the LA office. Let me know what I think of
how things are being run and how things are going and.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Kind of production logistics.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Christ I wasn't on the creative side yet. I was
just looking at the numbers. And I because I come
from a live events background, I tried to apply that
business acumen to the unscripted world, which worked well. I
felt there was a lot of waste in my opinion
that we were just doing I mean, we were just
(20:57):
there was a lot of I don't know if this
is appropriate to say, so, I don't know, it's kind
of great, it was very wasteful. So I was doing
LA Inc. They brought me into Light Produce la Inc.
And quickly they're like, hey, could you take on another project?
The way on scripted working, you can give me ten projects.
This is not a difficult job for me by comparison
(21:18):
of what I used to do, you know, even from.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Creating a big, gigantic live event to all come together
in one two hour time.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean like live events is, you're working on
it for a few months, you do it in one day,
and you knock it down in a week.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You get out and you get no second take.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
No, and you're out. And I'm looking at these budgets
and fourteen weeks of edit per episode, Like I was like,
what is it? That's crazy? Like I couldn't wrap my
head around it. So I was looking at the economics
of it, and I came up with a few business
plans and I presented them to Charlie and Jay and
ultimately I ran the LA office for a long time.
(21:55):
I started looking for some venture capital folks to see,
you like, put somebody back my company, and I found one.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You weren't scared off of jumping in some of the
shark infested VC waters.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I was scared. I'm always scared. So I partnered with
William Johnson from Demorest. William Johnson is Franklin Temple dit
Johnson's I'm still friends with him. I now help him
with his stem cell rejuvenation hospitals in Thailand. I am
not a doctor, but they're still friends. That company, you know,
it was a good stepping stone to learn wasn't the
(22:32):
long term company I was going to stay with. And
then I was fortunate enough to find somebody that was
also in media, Jeffrey Sorrows, who started Los Angeles Media Fund,
and we've been partners. I think it's nine years now
if I'm not mistaken, and he's great, I mean, just
(22:52):
solid human being. He believed in he believed in me,
he believed in the vision of what we were going
to do. We've done it. It's definitely ups and downs
throughout the nine years. But he's about as solid of
a person as they come. He's a good human, he's
a good father, and that's that's what I try and
(23:13):
look for now. I grew up in the world Don
Mischer about Baying great Sales, Kenderly, you know Lewis J.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Horror, that's a hall of fame of you know, big
TV events the last thirty forty years for sure. Let
me ask you about Jeffrey Soros, what is it about
your partnership and the way that that whether the how
the investment works or what level of input they have.
What is it about that partnership that works. We've seen
examples of times when private equity combining with creative people
(23:42):
doesn't work. What is it? What is it you think
that has allowed it to work in your case, in
the case of invent TV.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, he's very smart. So he's not you know, he's
not a passive investor that doesn't understand the industry. He
knows the business, he knows the trends. He's very well read,
not just in general, but like he's well read in
the industry. I mean, he knows he has a pulse
on the market. So when we're having conversations about ideas
or shows. We talk every week, sometimes more. But it's
(24:10):
not you know, here's money, go go do something. It's
you know, we're strategic with each other. We have conversations.
He asks smart questions. You know, he watches our sizzles
when we're going to sell a show. He gives good
input on those cuts. And he brings ideas as well.
He's like, hey, what if we do this project? And
he brings ideas to the table. And he's obviously well connected,
(24:32):
so sometimes he brings talent or relationships to the table
as well. So I feel like he's not you know,
Goldman sachs Or or Chase Bank or some lender that says,
here's money, let us know what the numbers are. He's
obviously interested in the numbers as well, but it's he's
very collaborative and he cares. It's not again and cares
(24:53):
in a different way. It's not just where's the money,
what's now? He cares about the greater good of the company.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So do your career path has been really interesting and
illuminating about how the media business works and where entrepreneurs
can find can find their ins Entrepreneurs and hardworking inventive
people what would you say your goals five to ten
years for invent TV. Do you kind of like where
you are? Do you want to grow?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I definitely want to grow. One thing that's working well
right now is you know, I'm on eight boards, soon
to be nine. It's learning. These boards that I'm on
teach me a lot of what we're doing, what we're
not doing, where things are going. There's a company I'm
on the board of right now called Partners in Kind
and going back to the you know, just doing kind
(25:41):
and doing what's right for the world. Like this is
a phenomenal organization. They're doing shows that have an impact
on the world. So they're co financing ideas and projects.
But it's not just like feel good projects. It has
to have an impact campaign that follows so that long
term we're actually making a difference in the world. We're
actually doing something that's going to better things, whether it's
(26:06):
climate change or awareness of certain issues, whether it's autism
or down syndrome, or I have a kid on the spectrum.
So that's very important to us. But they're not just
going to finance shows that's a one off, right. They
want to make sure that it has legacy and that
it follows and that people actually do something, And that
(26:27):
to me is just phenomenal approach on our industry. I
wouldn't it be great to watch a show that you
walk away a better person or that you make an
actual difference just by consuming it. Like I'm going to
watch this show and I'm going to binge watch it,
and unlike you White Lotus, I'm not going to go
kill somebody for their money, but rather, I'm going to
(26:49):
learn to live a more sustainable life. I'm going to
learn to be more appreciative of a certain ailment somebody
may have, whether it's Luke or anything, just to just
to be a better human in general. To be able
to get that from consuming goes back to like what
I said about Housewives. Right, you watch Housewives and it's
(27:11):
a mess, but you turn off the TV and you're like, oh,
I'm happy with what I have. I would love to
be able to create content that just brings hope, inspiration
and changes, you know, the out the outcome of something
that could have been negative. Like American Idol. I love
that show because somebody from Middle America with nothing stands
(27:32):
on a stage and sings a song that we all
fall in love with that person. How do we create
something that somebody falls in love with, doing right by
the world, doing right by a community, doing right by
by everybody, and in turn helping other people, keeping employment,
keeping ratings, keeping you know, investors in like I want
(27:54):
to keep growing and teaching as well. Like I love
being on these boards because they also, you know, learn
from each other. So long term, I hope to join
more boards that can benefit invent and that we can
help as well be strategic partners. I'm really getting a
kick out of that. I think it's a it's a
good education. It's a lot of work, but it's a
(28:16):
good education as well on both sides.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well. That is incredibly high standards. Sergio, thank you so
much for this conversation. Thank you, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts
or Amazon Music.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
We love to hear from listeners.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Please go to Variety dot com and sign up for
the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't forget to
tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcasts featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My
guest is Sergio Alfaro, founder and CEO of invent TV.
Alfaro grew up in the Pasadena area in an apartment
(00:28):
that didn't even have a television. Now he produces dozens
of hours of TV every year. Invent TV is a
busy unscripted production banner that has handled production for a
range of shows. Invent TV is a busy banner that
has handled production for a range of shows from Doctor
Pimple Popper, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City to
(00:50):
numerous Oprah Winfrey TV specials over the years. He launched
the company about ten years ago in partnership with investor
and philanthropist Jeffrey Soros. Alfaro is truly a modern day
Horatio Alger. He started out in entertainment stocking dressing rooms
and cleaning up debauchery after live performances. Today he's a
(01:12):
business owner who was courted for prestigious board seats and
in the twenty five years in between, he had a
rise and a fall with the previous company. Alfaro explains
how he built it back up and what he learned
from the hard process of failure, and he gives us
a producer's i view on the unscripted TV marketplace. Right now,
(01:33):
that's all coming up after this break, and we're back
with a conversation with Invent TV founder and CEO Sergio Alfaro.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Sergio Alfaro, CEO of Invent TV, thank you for joining
me today.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thank you for having.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Me, and dear listeners. Sergio is from Pasadena, which is
my hometown, and he brought me a gorgeous pie from
Pie and Burger. That is a very sweet gesture and
a very Pasadena gesture. Thank you. You have a fantastic
backstory and inspiring You are a born entrepreneur backstory, and
I want to talk about that, but I want to
(02:21):
start by you are also right now in the trench's
selling shows. Right now, we are five months in to
the macroeconomic roller coaster ride that has been the second
Trump administration. What is your sense out there right now?
Are people still finding their way through the fog?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I think there's a lot of fear in general job security.
What's the next hit, and I think it goes globally.
It's not just the production company's feeling it. I think
the networks are feeling it as well. Their next bet
may be the wrong bet, and then that costs them
their jobs and everybody else's jobs. So I think people
are playing it safe right now. I think that eventually
(03:01):
somebody's going to take some swings again and get a
huge hit on the air, and that might rejigger things
again and put it back to normal. I think this
is cyclical.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In the business of pitching and getting show commissions from outlets,
we've seen a lot of consolidation. Now. We have in
many cases, not every single case, but of the major platforms,
you have single execs or single teams overseeing for broadcasts,
for streaming, for a cable. How has that been for you?
As a seller, we try and be a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
More focused on who we're pitching and selling to. I
think it's like buying a home these days. You can
name a network and know exactly what kind of programming
they have. So if you go in kind of open ended,
here's a general idea, it only works if you have
some major talent and a lot of buyers that are
going to go into it. You know, if you're going
(03:52):
to the NBCs of the world and CBS, then yeah,
you better come with big talent, big format, big big big,
and you can get a bidding war. In the unscripted world,
it's pretty tailored, you know, it's pretty well focused, like
here's something that suits you, the buyer, and then they
decide if they're going to put it on their linear
channel or their streaming channel if they have one. But
(04:14):
we try and be very focused and thankfully because of
the relationships we have, whether it's a Lane one of
my favorite executives in Angelo over Elane's at A and
E and Angelo's at we TV. We text them, you know,
we say, hey, here's an idea, and they're so wonderful
with us to just say not for us, or that's interesting,
(04:34):
tell us more. Then we focus in on that and
develop it further and further, and it's it's like anything else.
It's like a relationship. I feel like we are we
are trying to sell something like a real estate agent.
Let me show you a couple of homes. It's not
always going to be the first home you see. Let
me show you another one, and that kind of words
but put a pool in it. Okay, sure, but we
(04:55):
can't afford the pool.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
That's an interesting analogy, and all my years of talking
to producers, nobody else has ever made that analogy. But
that's a great one. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, that's what we do. We got to show options,
and we can be precious either. I think a lot
of people get precious about their idea, especially newcomers, you know,
people coming into the industry and here's my idea, and
it's so great. We've heard it before. We call it
a mop most often pitched. If I hear one more
person say this is the Anthony Bourdain of like, oh
(05:26):
my god, that is like a weekly thing. Still and
we all smile when they say it, you know.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Rest in peace, Rest in peace, Love Kitchen Confidential, one
of the great books of the nineteen.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Ninety Yeah, these, I mean, but nobody's Anthony boardaining.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So but let me ask you, is the process with
the consolidation and the fact that there's fewer people overseeing credit,
over seeing more platforms, is that appreciably better? Yeah? For
a pitcher, is it appreciably worse?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
I think it's much better because you know, you don't
have to pitch to a bunch of different teams, and
it doesn't have to go through so many more layers.
There's still plenty of layers, don't get me wrong, but
it's you're going to one person that could actually think
about multiple options. Oh, this doesn't work for this linear channel,
but this could work for our streamers. So I think
(06:15):
you're pitching into one person that has several options, you know,
So I think it actually works better quite frankly. But
the workload for them, I really that's tough. I mean,
the amount of hats that they're wearing now and the
things that they're juggling. I have a lot of respect
for the network executives that are just wearing too many hats.
(06:36):
In my opinion, it's tough. I have a really hard.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Job that the scarcity of executive jobs is definitely is
definitely notable. Let me ask you, is it still fair
to say that, you know, basically the kind of the
hierarchy of budget is broadcast, you'll have a pretty solid
budget because it's kind of got to be big streaming obviously,
because in some cases to print their own money it's
(07:00):
a little old school. But and then cable obviously is
very you know, very much the you know, stretch stretcher
dollars and make them work, but we'll give you a
sixty episode order. Is that kind of basically.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah, it all works the same and at the
end of the day, it's everything is manageable. It really is.
And I feel that again going to people being precious.
I think right now there's a lot of production companies
I don't understand why they do it, or they'll literally
pass on a network because it's not enough money. Like
roll up your sleeves, figure it out. You know, there's
(07:32):
you've got to change with the times, and the networks
are very accommodating to what those needs are and those
financial changes. You know, it's across the board, so the
showrunners know what's going on, the camera operators know what's
going on, the vendors know what's going on. So if
you want the business, you've got to change with us.
And thankfully we haven't had struggles working within you know,
(07:56):
tighter confines with some of the buyers and some of
the networks. We call our people and thankfully, I mean
I've been in the business a long time. We have
a lot of loyalty. We're good to our people. If
we have the money, we use the same people and
we take care of them and what we don't. It's
not even an ask, you know, I'm not asking for
a favor. I just say, hey, this is what we have.
(08:17):
We're incredibly transparent with our partners, our vendors, everybody, and
I think being kind, being honest, being consistent really works
long term. It does.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Do you are there sort of advantages Do you enjoy
working in the kind of three major mediums, whether it's
for streamer, broadcast, k but you flex different muscles for sure.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
My favorite is still live. You know, I started with
Ken Rlick that way back in the day. But whenever
I'm on a live set, that's family. It's different because
unscripted projects and scripted projects are very contingent to the genre,
the network, and there are certain people that I would
consider family within those groups. Live events it's the same people.
(09:01):
The only person changing is on top the production company
and the executive producer Serjo.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
This is a great segue. Tell us what it was
about live events that that was your path into the industry.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
So I got offered a job in the mid nineties
on a show called Motown Live. So when I grew
up we didn't have a television. We had a radio
on top of a refrigerator and we played radio. It's
a Spanish station that was just always on. And I
(09:33):
was raised by a single mom, me and my brother,
and she was always working. She was an auditor and
travel a lot. My brother and I just kind of
raised ourselves. We play out on the streets and listen
to the Spanish radio. So when I got it, when
I got a job in television, I didn't know what
that really meant. I was dating somebody at the time
and the father offered me a job to do dressing rooms.
(09:56):
I didn't know what that meant. So I went to
this show a Motel live at Renmar Studios, and I
would work after college. I would work from i'd say
about four pm till about three in the morning, sometimes
two in the morning, and my job was to put
drinks and sodas and waters and towels in dressing rooms
(10:17):
of celebrities and motown Live if you know that was
like Snoop Dog and Bust the Rhymes and just all
kinds of rowdy groups in the mid nineties.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
These were live TV special live TV.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Specials, correct, and my job was to fill them with
supplies when they're there, and then hang out and at
the end of the night, which was the crazy part.
It was like the scene of sixteen Candles at the
end with the pizza on the record player and things
thrown everywhere, and I would walk in and scratch my
(10:51):
head and clean up. And this was my job, Like
I didn't like it, and I was making I think
it was like seventy five dollars a day. It was
bad then it's bad now twenty five cents a mile.
My car only started half the time. By the way,
I had a seventy one Volkswagen that to this day
I back in everywhere I go, not because I'm cool,
but because I'm just you know, I'm scarred. My car
(11:16):
never started, so I'd have to open the door, put
it in neutral. If you know how to jump a car,
push it down the hill, jump in, put it in second,
pop the clutch, and then I get to go.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So it facing front.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Are conduc always so at the end of the season,
you know, people liked my work ethic. I never complained.
I just did the job, kept my head down, and
they offered me another job to go work on another project.
So at the end of the season. I got offered
a job to do the Grammys. I didn't know what
(11:45):
that was. And I would be doing more dressing rooms
for more celebrities. And I was like, oh, I don't
know if I want to do that. That doesn't sound appealing.
But I would be now the coordinator, which is that's
the guy that was telling me what to do that
did nothing. Wow, that sounds interesting, and am I going
to make a little bit more money? And yes, it
(12:06):
was like twelve hundred dollars. Now I'm nineteen, maybe twenty
at the time, and I got offered twelve hundred dollars
a week. That was just out of my mind. I
mean I still remember to this day. I walked into
a bank called Washington Mutual at the time it's now
I don't even know what has transitioned into and after
taxes like eight hundred and seventy something dollars. I don't
(12:28):
know what my problem was, but I thought I was busted,
Like this check is not going to clear, this is
some sort of this is so much money. There's no
way that a bank that I don't even have a
bank account is going to cash this eight hundred and
seventy something dollars check. So I was paranoid walking into
the bank. They asked for my ID. I swear I
was robbing the place. I just felt so much anxiety
(12:51):
and stress. And then they counted out the money and
then I'm freaking out that I have eight hundred dollars
in my pocket and somebody's going to rob me as
if the world knows and I have eight hundred dollars
in my pocket. So then I opened to bank account
so I wouldn't have to carry around that kind of
large though.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
And that was it.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I actually there are three moments in my life where
I feel I have had like this feeling of the
world changing. That was one of those moments. When I
was cashing that check and opening an account, I stopped
for a moment to think, this is a career, Like
I could actually do this for a living, and if
I'm making this now, And this is where that epiphany came.
(13:33):
I had this like flash of Kennerlick's house and his
cars and the people that I was around from Ricky Minor,
who now does all these major shows at the time, was,
you know, starting as a musical director. I don't know
about starting, but he was definitely on the come up
in the nineties to Paul Sandwise, who was a music
like I went to all these people's homes as a
(13:54):
as a runner, and I just saw everything and how
beautiful it was and the things that they had, and
I'm like, oh my god, if I'm this young working here,
And that was the epiphany, where will I be in
ten years? That's it? What does the next person do?
And what does the next person do? And just went
through that. The other two are pretty basic, not basic,
but equally as beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Don't go anywhere. We'll be back with more from Invent
TV CEO Sergio Alfaro after this break, and we're back
with more from Invent TV CEO Sergio alfarow.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The other one was when I got on my knee
to propose to my wife, and I knew I was
doing it. I bought the ring. She was out of town.
When she left town, I realized we had been together
two years. I can't live without her. That's what my
determining factor was. So when I bought a ring, and
I had this whole plan of when she comes back,
I'm going to take her to where we had our
first date. I'm going to propose to her, and when
(14:53):
I put my knee down on the ground, it was
like in the movies where like a sonic wave went
through my body went through the earth earth of responsibility.
This is it, this is my person for life. And
it was a great decision. We've been together twenty years.
Name Tiffany, Tiffany Alfaro, She's a love. And the third
(15:14):
one was when my first son was born. Not that
I don't love all my children, but I didn't know
what it was like to have a child. And I
think until you do, you really don't know the meaning
of life at all. You don't know true love. Not
that I don't love my mom and my grandmother. There's
something instinctual about having your own child that just changes
(15:35):
absolutely everything. And the moment my son was born, that
changed everything for me. And again that same wave of responsibility,
and it was instant. The moment I held that kid
in the emergency room, that was it. I knew love
in a different way. I knew responsibility in a different way.
And yeah, those are those are the big the big three.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I guess for me based on what she said, the
work that you grew up with, what would you say then,
in like the next five to ten years. What were
the steps that you took that led you to now
being the head of your own company and having juggling
this portfolio of multiple ventures.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So I was with Kenny for literally, I think it
was thirteen years. And in Kenny's house there was really
four people. You know, there was kennerlick Ron Vacilly, Lisa Gears,
and Paige Hapley.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
All names that you know from credits of a gazillion.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Show of a gazillion shows. And it didn't matter which
whether it was the Emmy's or and Grammy's was a
little different because I was always tied with Cosette. So
we we would build the shows, just a small group
of us and knock them down, and it was over
and over and over, and we would.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Do and you're talking about physical sets, every rigging cameras.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Every single thing. So, you know, a show would come
in and say here's the idea, and then you know,
Kenny would come up with, you know, some of the
ideas of the talent and who we're going to use
for staging and lighting and all these different things, and
then we would find those people, we would hire those people.
But again, like I said earlier, it's all the same people. Right,
(17:12):
It's literally family, and I grew up with all of
them like literally my entire career. So the transition really
came for me now running the companies is there was
a writer strike at the same time there was a
market crash. This was how many years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
So at that time I had two kids. I now
had three at a house. I bought a second house
that I was going to try and flip because I
thought it was the right thing to do. Everything came
to a crashing halt at the same time. There was
no work for me anywhere. And it's not something I'm
proud of, but I you know, I'm the breadwinner of
(17:53):
my household. I don't have a family with wealth that
I could turn to. I lost my house and I
had a transition into this new smut business called reality television.
What the hell is that? I literally had no clue.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
There was this wonderful guy and in your mind it
had kind of used to call the smut business. It
had a kind of a negative connotation.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
I mean, you're doing the Emmys and the Oscars, and
you're doing these huge shows with the biggest stars in
red carpet. You just think you're so cool. So there's
this wonderful human being, one of my favorite in the
industry named Jay Peterson. He brought me into do a
development tape for a company that he was going to
(18:39):
called Original Media, not Original Pictures of Original Media. People
always confuse that. And I came in and I did
this project. What was crazy is it was a development project.
And now, having gone through everything I went through, you know,
losing my home, you know, having losing both homes actually
because it was I couldn't make the payments, and I
(19:02):
got offered a job from Jay to be I forgot
what it was. It was some like development tape, like
just overseeing eight projects, a tiny little thing. And I
think I got paid twelve hundred dollars that many years
later to oversee this project. But it had hope for
this other job that he was looking at to bring
me in over to Original Media. So I did it.
(19:25):
I didn't care, like, look, I need I don't care
what the job is. I need a job I wasn't
proud to take less. I get this job and I
do it, and I'm asking Jay a lot of questions
that he's so polite and so kind that I'm sure
I irritated him because it was a development. Now I understand,
like it was just a sizzle like relax. I'm like, well,
(19:46):
who's doing the books? He's like the books?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You do?
Speaker 3 (19:48):
The books? You know?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
And who's getting the insurance?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You get the insurance? Like you keep out? Just do it, like,
stop asking me all these questions. The good thing is
he saw what I was capable of and he offered
me a job to be a line producer at Original Media.
So I went over there and.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Edited by one Charlie Corwin. Charlie went an alumnus of
this podcast and alumnus of Imagine Entertainment and also in
the Maullshine.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, and they made me a line producer on a
show called La Inc. We had just brought over Kat
Vondie from Miami and we were doing this series called
La Inc. And they wanted me to just look at
the LA office. Let me know what I think of
how things are being run and how things are going and.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Kind of production logistics.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Christ I wasn't on the creative side yet. I was
just looking at the numbers. And I because I come
from a live events background, I tried to apply that
business acumen to the unscripted world, which worked well. I
felt there was a lot of waste in my opinion
that we were just doing I mean, we were just
(20:57):
there was a lot of I don't know if this
is appropriate to say, so, I don't know, it's kind
of great, it was very wasteful. So I was doing
LA Inc. They brought me into Light Produce la Inc.
And quickly they're like, hey, could you take on another project?
The way on scripted working, you can give me ten projects.
This is not a difficult job for me by comparison
(21:18):
of what I used to do, you know, even from.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Creating a big, gigantic live event to all come together
in one two hour time.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, I mean like live events is, you're working on
it for a few months, you do it in one day,
and you knock it down in a week.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You get out and you get no second take.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
No, and you're out. And I'm looking at these budgets
and fourteen weeks of edit per episode, Like I was like,
what is it? That's crazy? Like I couldn't wrap my
head around it. So I was looking at the economics
of it, and I came up with a few business
plans and I presented them to Charlie and Jay and
ultimately I ran the LA office for a long time.
(21:55):
I started looking for some venture capital folks to see,
you like, put somebody back my company, and I found one.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
You weren't scared off of jumping in some of the
shark infested VC waters.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I was scared. I'm always scared. So I partnered with
William Johnson from Demorest. William Johnson is Franklin Temple dit
Johnson's I'm still friends with him. I now help him
with his stem cell rejuvenation hospitals in Thailand. I am
not a doctor, but they're still friends. That company, you know,
it was a good stepping stone to learn wasn't the
(22:32):
long term company I was going to stay with. And
then I was fortunate enough to find somebody that was
also in media, Jeffrey Sorrows, who started Los Angeles Media Fund,
and we've been partners. I think it's nine years now
if I'm not mistaken, and he's great, I mean, just
(22:52):
solid human being. He believed in he believed in me,
he believed in the vision of what we were going
to do. We've done it. It's definitely ups and downs
throughout the nine years. But he's about as solid of
a person as they come. He's a good human, he's
a good father, and that's that's what I try and
(23:13):
look for now. I grew up in the world Don
Mischer about Baying great Sales, Kenderly, you know Lewis J.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Horror, that's a hall of fame of you know, big
TV events the last thirty forty years for sure. Let
me ask you about Jeffrey Soros, what is it about
your partnership and the way that that whether the how
the investment works or what level of input they have.
What is it about that partnership that works. We've seen
examples of times when private equity combining with creative people
(23:42):
doesn't work. What is it? What is it you think
that has allowed it to work in your case, in
the case of invent TV.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, he's very smart. So he's not you know, he's
not a passive investor that doesn't understand the industry. He
knows the business, he knows the trends. He's very well read,
not just in general, but like he's well read in
the industry. I mean, he knows he has a pulse
on the market. So when we're having conversations about ideas
or shows. We talk every week, sometimes more. But it's
(24:10):
not you know, here's money, go go do something. It's
you know, we're strategic with each other. We have conversations.
He asks smart questions. You know, he watches our sizzles
when we're going to sell a show. He gives good
input on those cuts. And he brings ideas as well.
He's like, hey, what if we do this project? And
he brings ideas to the table. And he's obviously well connected,
(24:32):
so sometimes he brings talent or relationships to the table
as well. So I feel like he's not you know,
Goldman sachs Or or Chase Bank or some lender that says,
here's money, let us know what the numbers are. He's
obviously interested in the numbers as well, but it's he's
very collaborative and he cares. It's not again and cares
(24:53):
in a different way. It's not just where's the money,
what's now? He cares about the greater good of the company.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So do your career path has been really interesting and
illuminating about how the media business works and where entrepreneurs
can find can find their ins Entrepreneurs and hardworking inventive
people what would you say your goals five to ten
years for invent TV. Do you kind of like where
you are? Do you want to grow?
Speaker 3 (25:18):
I definitely want to grow. One thing that's working well
right now is you know, I'm on eight boards, soon
to be nine. It's learning. These boards that I'm on
teach me a lot of what we're doing, what we're
not doing, where things are going. There's a company I'm
on the board of right now called Partners in Kind
and going back to the you know, just doing kind
(25:41):
and doing what's right for the world. Like this is
a phenomenal organization. They're doing shows that have an impact
on the world. So they're co financing ideas and projects.
But it's not just like feel good projects. It has
to have an impact campaign that follows so that long
term we're actually making a difference in the world. We're
actually doing something that's going to better things, whether it's
(26:06):
climate change or awareness of certain issues, whether it's autism
or down syndrome, or I have a kid on the spectrum.
So that's very important to us. But they're not just
going to finance shows that's a one off, right. They
want to make sure that it has legacy and that
it follows and that people actually do something, And that
(26:27):
to me is just phenomenal approach on our industry. I
wouldn't it be great to watch a show that you
walk away a better person or that you make an
actual difference just by consuming it. Like I'm going to
watch this show and I'm going to binge watch it,
and unlike you White Lotus, I'm not going to go
kill somebody for their money, but rather, I'm going to
(26:49):
learn to live a more sustainable life. I'm going to
learn to be more appreciative of a certain ailment somebody
may have, whether it's Luke or anything, just to just
to be a better human in general. To be able
to get that from consuming goes back to like what
I said about Housewives. Right, you watch Housewives and it's
(27:11):
a mess, but you turn off the TV and you're like, oh,
I'm happy with what I have. I would love to
be able to create content that just brings hope, inspiration
and changes, you know, the out the outcome of something
that could have been negative. Like American Idol. I love
that show because somebody from Middle America with nothing stands
(27:32):
on a stage and sings a song that we all
fall in love with that person. How do we create
something that somebody falls in love with, doing right by
the world, doing right by a community, doing right by
by everybody, and in turn helping other people, keeping employment,
keeping ratings, keeping you know, investors in like I want
(27:54):
to keep growing and teaching as well. Like I love
being on these boards because they also, you know, learn
from each other. So long term, I hope to join
more boards that can benefit invent and that we can
help as well be strategic partners. I'm really getting a
kick out of that. I think it's a it's a
good education. It's a lot of work, but it's a
(28:16):
good education as well on both sides.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Well. That is incredibly high standards. Sergio, thank you so
much for this conversation. Thank you, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts
or Amazon Music.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
We love to hear from listeners.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Please go to Variety dot com and sign up for
the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't forget to
tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.
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