July 8, 2025 • 42 mins
✨ Show Notes:
In this profoundly moving episode of Captivate the Mic, Elaine Williams sits down with Peter Samuelson — Hollywood producer of over 27 films, founder of seven life-changing charities, and author of Finding Happy.
Peter opens up about the inspiration behind his book — part memoir, part mentor-in-your-pocket — written to guide young people (and honestly, any of us) through life’s biggest questions. He shares gripping stories from the movie sets of Hollywood and the racetracks of Europe, all the way to the powerful moments that shaped his passion for mentoring kids in foster care.
Highlights you won’t want to miss:
🌟 The wild story of Peter’s first film set at age 18 — and how a near tragedy changed his life.
🌟 What Finding Happy teaches about good risks, bad risks, and the power of pattern recognition.
🌟 The heartbreaking realities faced by foster kids aging out of the system — and Peter’s mission to give them family, structure, and a real shot at life.
🌟 A surprising truth about how the brain develops — and why young men especially need more support and second chances.
🌟 The simple, powerful gestures (like swapping trash bags for suitcases) that restore dignity and hope.
If you’ve ever needed a reminder that one person’s care really can change countless lives, this conversation will stick with you.
📚 Get Peter’s book: Finding Happy
💙 Learn more about First Star: firststar.org
Connect with your Host, Elaine Williams:
Check out Captivate the Mic Podcast on Elaine's YouTube Channel
Check out the Captivate the Crowd Website
Follow Elaine on Social- LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
Want to schedule a free chat with Elaine? Click here to book a zoom date!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
welcome to Captivate the Micwith Elaine Williams.
I am so excited for you to meetthis guest.
I have never been so inspiredlistening to a book.
This guy is amazing.
He has produced over 27Hollywood.
Feature films.
He's also started sevencharities, one for foster kids,
(00:33):
one for terminally ill kids, onefor the homeless.
I could go on and on, you'regonna love this guy.
He has amazing stories.
Please take a listen and sharethis with somebody you love.
You're gonna be listening toPeter Samuelson and he just
wrote a book called FindingHappy.
(00:53):
And I encourage you to getseveral copies.
Number one, it's going toinspire you and put a fire under
you in case you have been alittle distracted and
overwhelmed by what's going onin the world.
Number two, it's really good foryounger people.
He shares a lot of veryexciting.
Stories from his life as anunlikely film producer and that
(01:18):
whole evolution.
And then, he ties it in withlife lessons and he's aiming it
specifically at younger peoplewho are going through
transition.
Maybe it's junior high to highschool, high school to college.
Or college to life.
'cause I know all of thosetransitions were really hard for
me and I was especially lost, Iwould say 18 to 30.
(01:39):
That was a really rough time forme personally, I just can't wait
for you to meet this man andhear his stories and go by his
book Finding Happy.
Enjoy.
Hi everybody.
Welcome to Captivate the Micwith Elaine Williams.
(02:00):
You are in for such a treat.
Today I have the most amazingguest, Peter Samuelson, who has
produced 27 Hollywood movies,probably more, has started seven
charities, and he has thisamazing book called Finding
Happy.
Peter, thank you so much forjoining.
So honored.
(02:21):
Back at you and I'm so happy tobe with you.
Oh, thank you.
I have to tell you, I waslistening to the book'cause I
love your accent and listeningto your stories and I kept
choking up.
I was so inspired.
And what I love about the bookis it's very instructional.
The stories are fabulous and Ireally think it's, yes, it's
(02:43):
aimed at a younger generation,but I think.
Any age will get so much out ofit.
Can you tell us like whatinspired you to start writing
this book?
Sure.
So I would say it must be almosttwo years ago now.
I.
I realized that I've mentoredhundreds and hundreds of young
(03:06):
adults, one-on-one, one onseven, one on 30 through First
Start through the mentorproject, and just people I run
into or someone asked me to talkto them, whatever, and I
realized I've got patternrecognition, meaning there's two
dozen things that come up morethan anything else in all of
(03:31):
these conversations.
Things that perplex and confuseand bother and, I'm being
bullied.
I dunno what career I can haveand my teachers mean to me and I
can't communicate with myparents and this, that, and the
other.
I thought, these, if I wrotethese down.
They're chapter headings andmaybe I could do a book.
(03:54):
I'm always looking for leverage,do once and replicate many kind
of thing, right?
And I thought if I did a book, Ithought I'd have to self-publish
it.
So I started writing the book.
I think you have to have a bitof self-discipline'cause it's,
it's a bear of a job writing abook as well, I started getting
up at five o'clock every morningand making myself right for an
(04:16):
hour, and a book took form and Irealized I can illustrate.
I.
With so many crazy things havehappened to me.
A film producer, you work withso many bonkers people and funny
things happen to you and scarythings.
So for example, I, I realized,if I have a chapter and I do,
(04:40):
what is a good risk?
What is a bad risk?
How can you tell the difference?
Oh, I've got all four examples.
Risks I should have taken.
I didn't take, I did take, andthat worked out great.
What risks I, I took that werereally stupid and I nearly
killed myself.
Those kind of things.
So it I put these little memoirthings in and I wanted to make
(05:04):
the chapters fairly short sothat it's very palatable and
what I've been saying.
I've been discussing it now.
The publisher told me I was.
R mad to put my email address inthe book, and the compromise was
I did put it in, but it's nearthe back and it's buried in the
text.
So read the book to find theemail address, but I'm getting
(05:26):
these, really at the moment it'sa couple of dozen emails a day.
The publisher said, what are yougonna do if you get 25,000
emails?
I said I should be so lucky.
I'll hire people and we'llanswer them together.
But I've got this sort offeedback loop going now, and
it's really, it's my joy findinghappy.
Maybe the culmination of myfinding happy is to put it all
(05:49):
in a book and then.
Interact with the people who,honor me by reading it.
I love it.
I think so many times as we growand evolve, we miss the
connection.
And knowing that you're making adifference, you've done so much.
Gosh, I loved your stories.
I loved your stories about whenyou were gonna drive through the
(06:10):
Alps for your love.
When you were in high school,like that was hilarious.
And I love, so many greatstories.
I love the story when you had todo all kinds of crazy stuff to
get gas into Spain for a movie.
And how old were you?
Like you were dealing with allkinds of stuff and you were
(06:32):
pretty young, right?
I, I it's interesting.
It's a very perceptive question.
I look back on it now, and Ithink it's like completely
absurd how much responsibility Iwas given so early, and I
focused on that this Saturday.
Because my wife and I, we wentand saw with a couple of
(06:54):
friends, we went and saw the newfilm, the Brad Pitt film F1
Formula One.
Okay.
And that made me immediatelythink that my gap year between
high school and university.
I had 10 months on the SteveMcQueen Lamar Motor Racing,
which is film, but I it wascompletely absurd.
(07:16):
We, we had a, there was aterrible accident while we were
filming where a driver calledDavid Piper got trapped in a
car.
He couldn't get out, and thefire engine had been instructed.
It was not to drive against.
The direction of the cars, ithad to go all the way around the
track in order to reach him.
And while it was doing all ofthat, those were the, the six
(07:39):
minutes where he was burning andhe lost his legs.
And so it, it was the most awfulthing.
So what did they do?
They said, okay, we gotta, theyfired the track safety guy and
they said, oh, we've gotta getsomeone who speaks French and
English and that we trust.
So who did they choose?
They chose me and I was 18 yearsold.
(08:02):
Oh my gosh.
I was suddenly respon.
I was up at night worrying abouthave I, prepared this well
enough and that well enough, andnobody got, thank God nobody got
hurt.
But I remember my father visitedand when he realized what I was
actually responsible for.
In the making of the film.
(08:23):
He went to the producer andshouted at him, are you crazy?
He's a child.
Yeah.
And yeah, too much, too earlyprobably.
And but God bless, because I gotpropelled right into producing,
every time somebody on that filmgot fired, I got promoted.
(08:43):
Oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
But I love it.
Like you were there at the righttime and you had a good attitude
and you were like, whatever ittakes.
And that's such an importantmessage to young people and old
people, right?
Yeah, I think so.
I think, luck.
You can't make yourself have thelucky bolt of lightning, but you
(09:06):
can be in the right place at theright time and repetitively.
And in order to do that, youhave to put yourself out.
The metaphor that I use when I'mteaching and I put it in the
book is imagine if you weresitting cross-legged in an
envelope and it's dark.
But, and you have a pencil, youcan either just sit there and do
(09:29):
nothing, or you can explore, youcan poke in the dark with the
pencil and Sure.
If you do that once in a while,the point of the pencil will go
through and you'll say, I.
Whoops.
I will never be a concertpianist.
Okay?
But then you have the greatprivilege as a young person.
(09:49):
You haven't got a mortgage yetyou're not responsible for,
three kids and a spouse.
You don't have jobresponsibility as a young
person.
Your great honor and privilegeis you can pull the pencil back
and say, okay.
I'll just play the piano forfun, but I won't earn my living
doing that.
But you can then explore and gofind another, oh, maybe I'm an
(10:10):
engineer, maybe I'm anarchitect.
And that exploration, one of thereasons why I say I.
It one, one of my nonprofits.
First are we house, educate andencourage teenage Foster kids,
grades nine through 12.
And we do it on the campuses ofbig universities.
(10:32):
And we've got 17 of these thingsacross the United States.
Wow.
And a few are in the uk.
And one of the things that I sayis, why do you want to go to
university?
I'll tell you number one,'causeyou'll learn stuff and it will
help you.
Build the ladder to your careerif you choose the right course,
which of course I didn't.
But then, trial and error.
(10:53):
But the other reason to go touniversity if you're a foster
kid is you can't be homelesswhile you are in college.
Because First start won't letyou go to university unless
they'll let you stay in the dormthrough the vacations.
Don't get kicked out, don't haveto couch surf, and it gives you
an extra.
Four years to find yourselfwhat, what am I am I a pianist
(11:17):
or am I an architect, kind ofthing.
And to have a structure, and thestructure declines in its
pressure on you.
The older you get by the timeyou get to your senior year,
they actually don't care whetheryou go to the lectures.
They don't care if you go to thetutorials, whatever, because the
only person you're hurting ifyou don't climb up the ladder is
(11:39):
you won't get to the top.
But that's gentle.
They keep a good eye on you inyour freshman year and it
declines as you take onresponsibility for your life.
And I think also, especially foryoung men, you don't make very
good decisions right in, in, inyour late teens and early
twenties.
And it, there's a reason for it.
(12:00):
The frontal lobe of your brain,right?
Hasn't developed yet.
So you are making decisionsbased on the back of your brain.
The amygdala.
Which, amygdala, which is nevergood.
Yeah.
Which is never the, what I loveto say is it's fight or flight,
right?
The back of the brain, oh,there's a tiger.
(12:21):
It's about to eat me.
What do I do?
Do I run or fight it?
And of course what you don't dois to use the front of your
brain'cause it hasn't developedyet, which says to you, ah, I
don't have to run faster thanthe tiger.
I only have to run faster thanmy friends standing next to me
(12:42):
and the tiger will eat him andI'll get away.
So it the chess game of life,especially our young men, I
dunno why it is something inbiology, young women.
Are more mature earlier.
We know that.
Yeah.
And more self preserving andmore, friendships are easier for
(13:02):
them and so on and so forth.
Our young men who I'mparticularly focused on,'cause I
find in the mentoring boy, theyneed a lot of help and they have
aha moments.
If you are doing the mentoringwell, that first half of your
twenties.
There's a lot in this book thatstuff I've learned that young
(13:23):
men need.
We're cruel to our young men,it's so hard.
I think it's hard.
The way we socialize women andgirls and boys is so hard, and
I, what is the statistic offoster kids?
Because they age out at 18.
Yeah.
And then so many of them becomehomeless.
They're still babies and theyhaven't had structure and
(13:44):
support.
Yes.
I think that's exactly right.
Elaine, have you ever met an18-year-old where you.
Say, oh, have a nice life.
Let us know how it goes.
I was a complete disaster and Icame my, I came from a
dysfunctional family, but I wasa disaster at 18.
I can't imagine what it's likeif you've gone from foster home
(14:05):
to foster home, yeah it's acruel system which defines its
job in a very limited way.
And we use this phrase in locoparentis.
In other words, it's thegovernment saying, all right, so
there's been an allegation ofabuse or neglect.
A police officer and a socialworker will investigate, and if
(14:26):
they reckon it's true, they willremove the child and put them
somewhere.
Where they won't be neglected orabused.
Fair enough.
That hopefully.
Hopefully, right?
Yeah.
But more often than not theyaren't reused or Rene neglected,
but that's not what parentingis, if the system is putting
(14:49):
itself in instead of a parent oras a parent you don't stop
raising your child by makingsure they're safe crossing the
road.
You encourage them, right?
You give them unconditionallove.
You, you say, oh, you enjoyplaying the piano.
Would you like to have lessons?
We could do that.
Oh, you run really fast.
(15:10):
We gotta make sure you are onthe track.
Team.
Oh, let's get you that book.
Let's get you that.
Course or whatever you, I thinkyou're not doing too terribly
well in math.
That's okay.
I didn't either.
Let's get you a tutor.
Look how cool will it be if youare ahead of everybody else in
the class?
It's encouragement.
It's the cruelty of foster care.
(15:32):
I have an example every threedays in, in the mentoring.
I said to a kid the other day,we were having lunch and I said,
I've never seen such a mound offood on a plate.
You, you seem to be alwayshungry.
Why are you so hungry?
And he said I always go to bedhungry.
(15:52):
And I said, why?
And he said'cause I'm notallowed.
So Peter, you were talking aboutthe kid who was always hungry
who would go to bed at Hungry atnight, and you asked him why.
Yeah.
Because I, he's sitting there inthe commissary at UCLA with the
(16:16):
biggest plate of food you'veever seen.
And I said, why are you sohungry?
I've never seen someone eat asmuch.
And he said I always go to bedhungry.
And I said can't you just go tothe fridge, in your placement
and just get a sandwich orsomething?
And he said, no.
And I said why not?
They're getting paid to houseyou, feed you and clothe you and
(16:41):
take care of you.
And he said, I, no, I can't dothat because there's a padlock
on the fridge.
I said, they have a padlock onthe fridge, for goodness sake,
who have keys to the padlock.
And he says, the, the husbandand wife and their two teenage
kids, they all have keys.
I'm the foster kid, I don't getone.
(17:01):
And I thought to myself, this isso cruel.
This is such a, a squash of thisis blowing up self-esteem in a
young person.
It's an awful system.
So I'll give you anotherexample.
When a foster kid generally ismoved from one placement to
another, what do they give themto put their worldly belongings
(17:23):
into clothes and the diary andthe poems and the music and so
forth?
A trash bag.
What is the message to your soulof the appropriate receptacle is
a trash bag.
It means you are trash, right?
So on the first day in FirstStar my charity that works to
(17:45):
propel teenage foster kids intocollege first star.org.
I say to them, roller the drums.
And so they do this on theirdesks and the door opens and the
youth coach is push in a congaline of roller board suitcases,
brand new and gorgeous.
And they are stunned.
(18:07):
So in, at the very beginning oftheir ninth grade with us the
residential portion, they allget a laptop.
How can you tell who is a fosterkid in a high school class?
They're the ones who don't haveany technology'cause nobody
bought them.
People are getting paid to buyit for them.
They just don't do it generally.
Wow.
So it's a cruel old world, butgiven the opportunity of
(18:31):
reliable grownups, unconditionallove.
The kids build a family witheach other in a very real way,
and some of our oldestgraduates, our alumni, they're
off into careers and so forth.
They are still fully bonded assiblings with the scholars we
(18:53):
call them, that they first metin ninth grade.
I love it.
In your book Finding Happy, youtalk about the girl who was
performing and she got a littlestage fright and then her
fellow, came to support her.
Do you wanna tell that story?
Yeah.
My new theory, one of the thingsI am most bad, at least good at,
(19:17):
is hiring and my new theory ofhiring for any of the seven
charities.
Is if the per I try and ask aquestion about which child moved
your heart.
And if in telling me they don'ttear up, I think we shouldn't
hire them.
This is now my new litmus testof who gets to work for one of
(19:38):
my charities is they better havean emotional relationship with
the mission.
Yes.
The little story I put in thebook that you are talking about.
We had a talent show in theNorthwest Auditorium at the
University of California LosAngeles, and we had, 200 adults
sitting there in the bleacherseats, and one by one down on
(20:02):
the stage are coming.
Our must have been 10th gradersand they're singing a song or
they're, they've written a poemor they're doing, two of them
are doing little ballet orspoken word, whatever their
thing.
And it's going really well.
And down comes a young ladycalled Catalina, and the music
(20:23):
comes up and she's so frightenedthat she can't get the first
note out.
I'm thinking this is terriblebecause now the music's left her
behind and now the music stopsand she's just frozen on the
stage and I'm thinking, oh, Ican't believe that we put her in
this situation.
(20:43):
Maybe we didn't expect thiswould happen, but still this is
disgusting.
This is terrible.
We must never allow this tohappen.
You don't wanna add to her stuffalready.
Yeah.
And I'm seeing outta the cornerof my eye.
Carina, the director of theacademy is getting up.
She's gonna go down presumablyand take her off and we'll go on
(21:04):
to the next person and it'sterrible.
And then an amazing thinghappens in the same cohort as
Catalina is a young man who.
In football, he would be thelinebacker.
He'd be the big guy, and helumbers down there on the stage
(21:24):
and he plants himself betweenthe audience and our singer who
couldn't sing Catalina.
And we can't see her anymoreexcept her shoes.
And there's some whispering.
Then suddenly two girls from thecohort go down and now there's
four of them and they'rewhispering.
(21:44):
Now there's eight, and thenthere's 15, and now there's 22,
and now there's all 30.
And it's like this big littlescrum of teenagers.
Whisper, and a hand on theoutside does the upward movement
palm up?
Meaning.
Start the music again, and thankGod the person on playback knew
(22:07):
to go back to the beginning andout of the middle, invisibly
comes the little voice ofCatalina and she starts singing
her song, and the more shesings, the stronger her voice
gets.
And by the end of it sounds likeBeyonce and she's just belting
it out.
I cannot tell you what a momentthat was.
(22:29):
Every.
One in the audience, half theaudience were crying.
I had tears in my eyes.
EE everybody was cheering andapplauding and the kids didn't
know what to do.
They hadn't thought it through.
And they just put their armsaround each other and came down
off the stage together.
And I thought, we didn't dothis.
(22:51):
We, the grownups, we, theprogram, we first star, we.
College, we didn't do this.
We just created the opportunityfor them to do what humans do if
encouraged to do it, which is toshow empathy, to show
unconditional love.
(23:12):
And I just felt tremendous.
I was so overcome by emotion.
And I'm still British enoughthat, that's tricky for me.
So I went off and had a littlewalk and then came back.
And yeah, that's the story ofCatalina.
Oh, it's it's like you createthe safe container for them.
I love it's first star.org.
(23:35):
Yeah.
Correct.
Okay, Peter, and then tell usagain, I love your stories.
Can you tell us about meetingyour wife and having similar
values and how you that I justlove that story.
Sure.
I'm happy to.
So I had never organized acharity.
(23:56):
I'd occasionally given somemoney to other people's
charities, but as a young man, Iwas, being a film producer.
And then my cousin phoned mefrom the uk.
I was already in Los Angeles.
I'd immigrated and I had a workvisa and I was on my way to a
green card and all these goodthings.
And, my cousin said to me thatshe had met in Children's
(24:20):
Hospital, a dying 10-year-oldlittle boy called Sean, and that
she had asked him perhaps foolheartedly, what would make you
really happy?
And he said, oh, I want to go toDisneyland.
She said, I, what do we do?
And I said we do it.
Is the mother willing?
(24:40):
So she talked to the mom, Brendaand Brenda said, yeah, that
would be lovely.
And the doctor said, this childis dying, but if you think you
can get him to la God bless, gofor it.
The mother.
The cousin and the little boyflew to la we didn't put them in
a hotel.
They all moved into my flat.
(25:02):
It was back when I was single.
I just love that part.
You were in your twenties, wereyou in your twenties?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was upper twenties yeah let mejust think.
Yeah, I was like 27 or somethingand, we had a most wonderful
time and he did, and his momdid.
(25:22):
And it was like this big thing.
And what do film producers knowhow to do we call meetings,
right?
So I stood at the after work oneday, I stood at the end of the
conference room table and I hadinvited who I thought you might
need.
To start a charity, what wouldwe need?
A lawyer, an accountant, apublicist.
We need a person who understandshospitals and we need a doctor
(25:45):
or three and we need a graphicdesigner and we've gotta do
this, we've gotta do that.
And I just told the story.
I said, maybe we could do ithalf dozen times a year.
What do you think?
Everybody said yes.
The lawyer said, okay, I'll formit a as an entity.
I need to incorporate it and weneed to get a 5 0 1 C3, so
(26:05):
donors will get a tax deduction.
And he said, what do you want tocall it?
And I hadn't given it anythought, but I knew I would need
an accountant and I'd had onedate.
And then, terrible, I hadn'tcalled her.
And I phoned the accounting ladywho was very beautiful, by the
way.
So I was stupid not to havecalled her.
(26:28):
And I said, I, it's me.
I'm, I have truly apologized.
She said, yeah, I was verydisappointed in you.
And I said, listen, it's evenworse.
Because I'm having this charitymeeting and I need an
accountant, will you pleasecome?
And she came.
And when the lawyer said, whatdo you wanna call it?
I said, I haven't given it anythought.
And it was the accounting ladywho said you know that
(26:48):
Children's rhyme, StarlightStar, bright first Star I see
tonight?
I wish I may, I wish I mighthave this.
Wish, I wish tonight.
She said, why don't we call itthe Starlight Children's
Foundation?
We all said, yeah.
And the graphic designer said,oh, I can see the logo in my
head.
It's a child reaching up for astar.
And we all said, yeah.
(27:09):
So that was the beginning ofStarlight, and I won't tell you
any of the middle bit.
I.
We have raised and spent onseriously ill kids and their
moms and dads and their siblingsin Australia, Canada, across the
United States and in the uk.
In all those years since, wellover a billion dollars.
(27:31):
Wow.
But so that was my second datewith this very pretty young
lady.
And then we have more dates.
Then it was the Christmas party,which we threw at County USC
Medical Center in the children'sward, and we brought in a live
band.
I.
The kids were there all dancingin their hospital smocks and all
(27:51):
the rest of it.
But some of the kids were so illthat they had been wheeled in
into the auditorium in theirhospital beds, and one little
girl was dancing in her bed andSeaWorld the amusement park had
donated their used adult animal.
(28:13):
Sea creature costumes and one ofthose was a dolphin and there
was like a grill in its chestfor the adult inside to look
out.
And I looked at the kid in thebed dancing seriously ill, and I
looked into the grill.
Where was the face of theaccountant who I had been
(28:36):
dating?
And she was so moved by thelittle girl that all the mascara
had run down her cheeks, and Ithought, oh, thunderstruck, I
love this woman.
I.
Anyway, cut to the chase.
We've been married decades andwe've raised four children
(28:56):
together and we have threegrandchildren.
And that's Sarah.
That's my wife.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
The me the mess.
One of the messages of the bookis if you wanna find happy, help
someone.
Go either volunteer or startyour own or you could do it
full-time.
You can do it part-time, you cando it two hours a week.
(29:18):
But if you wanna find happy, andfor example, if you wanna find
someone to be loved by and tolove you, what are you gonna do?
Seriously?
You're gonna flip left and righton some app.
It's all eyes.
They did the photo with ai.
That's not what they really looklike and all their self
description is all nonsense.
(29:38):
It's what their friends toldthem they should say, and it's a
hiding to nowhere.
If you want to meet someone tolove and be loved by, go
volunteer somewhere and look tothe left and look to the right.
Who are these people who sharewhat you care about?
They care about also.
Go out with one of them, seewhat happens.
(30:00):
I did.
And it's one of the pillars ofme finding happy.
I love it.
I love it.
You have so many inspiringstories.
Peter, can you tell us one moreabout the work that you do with
the homeless e edar?
Yeah.
When I realized I mean I hadStarlight Star, bright and First
(30:22):
Star and they were, really doingvery well, power of a big idea
maybe, and the work of hundredsor thousands.
So I was looking for a anotherchallenge.
Because I'm a starter opera.
It's what film producers do.
Yeah.
It's like what my toolkit is youmake it happen.
Yeah.
(30:43):
And you don't just think aboutit, you actually do it.
You call the meeting and youhire the people and do the
business plan and work out howdo I pitch this thing that
doesn't exist yet so that peoplewill want to help.
So I came out of a businessbreakfast in a restaurant in
Beverly Hills called Nate Nas.
And a tall, smelly man, poorlydressed, came into my personal,
(31:11):
invaded my personal space andshoved his hand palm up into my
chest.
And I was, flummoxed and Ireached in my pocket and I got,
I don't know, a dollar or$5 orsomething, and I put it in his
hand and I.
Hightailed it off to my car andI sat there thinking, this is
(31:31):
ridiculous.
He has nothing.
I have everything and I'mintimidated by him.
What's wrong with this picture?
So I decided to lean into it andon weekends on my bicycle, I
went and found homeless peopleand I asked them two basic
questions.
(31:52):
How do you get money?
Where do you sleep?
And an old lady, when I said,where do you sleep?
She said come with me.
And she pulled me by the sleeveand she took me onto the
wasteland that's next to theinterstate freeway.
Freeway and Santa MonicaBoulevard.
And behind a bush was a hugecardboard box.
(32:14):
It had been raining and itdidn't smell good and it had a
bit of blue plastic over the topand she said, this is where I
sleep in there and on the sideof the box.
And I guess this was the kick inthe chest for me to my emotions,
my sense of injustice on theside of the box in foot high
(32:35):
letters, it said Sub-Zero.
And I thought, I'll be damned.
I got the refrigerator.
She's living in the box, thecardboard box.
So my first thought was I'llbuild a building.
I got an architect, a spaceplanner, and a budgeter.
Turns out to get a piece ofcheap land and put up a hundred
(32:59):
bed building is about$5 million.
If you divide 5 million by ahundred, you've got$50,000 for
each bed that you generate.
And that doesn't pay to run it.
That just pays to build thething and build the bed.
Build it.
Wow.
Yeah.
I thought, okay, how manyunhoused people are there in la?
(33:21):
So they, we know it's in thecensus.
It was a hundred thousand peopleback then who were unhoused.
Wow.
So I thought, okay, let's do themath.
A hundred thousand times$50,000.
That's$5 billion with a BIthought, I have no idea how to
put a dent in that.
I dunno how you,$5 billion.
(33:42):
It's ridiculous.
And they'll, the taxpayers willnever, I.
Go for that, right?
Stump, go for that.
Stump that up.
So therefore, neither will thepoliticians.
So I thought but for God's sake,we gotta be able to do better
than a cardboard box.
Yeah.
So in my head, I.
I had this idea for a thing thatdidn't have a name.
(34:03):
In the daytime, you push itaround, you do your recycling,
you put your panty or over thetop with the cans in, you put
your clothes inside it, and it'slike like a big shopping cart.
But at night, the difference isbecause of the design you put on
the brakes, you let the frontdown, you let the back down, and
now you have a cot raised offthe ground so you don't die of
(34:26):
pneumonia.
And it's got two doors and twowindows and I couldn't design it
'cause I honestly, I have thespatial design ability of a
tadpole.
Yeah.
But I found the Pasadena ArtCenter College of Design, where
they teach their undergrad andgrad students how to design,
retail projects and automobilesand stuff.
(34:51):
Three dimensional stuff.
I went off and met with DeanKorshe and I said, if I put up a
prize, could we have acompetition?
And he said, fantastic.
Let's do it.
What do you want to call it?
And I said, I don't know.
And he said everyone deserves aroof.
And I said, that's it.
The acronym, ED r.org, EDAr.org.
(35:17):
And we gave the prize to the twowinners, Jason Zza and Eric
Lindeman.
Eric is still on the board of EdA and we have hundreds of these
things around.
Primarily in the Sunbelt, fromLA to Florida.
It really, we have hundreds ofthese things with people
(35:37):
sleeping in them.
They get very my favorite ladyis Brenda and she uses one on
skid row and it, you could eatoff it.
It is so immaculate.
And she has a welcome mat infront of the Proud she's.
She's very proud of it and it'sgreat also for ex-military
people.
We're very cruel.
We don't do right by people whowould, we don't.
(35:59):
Who have served the countrywith, bravery and diligence.
And then so many of them end uphomeless.
But it's great for ex-militarypeople'cause they know how to
make a bed and they know how tokeep it spic and span and
they're very proud of it.
And they're 800 bucks.
And every time we raise 800bucks on e a.org, we order
another one from the factory.
(36:20):
And we're up to hundreds andhundreds now.
And that my dear, is e a.org.
And now a quick word.
If you are a business owner,especially a coach, speaker,
author, and you are not makingshort form video content about
who you are.
What you offer and what makesyou uniquely qualified, this is
(36:41):
your sign.
The internet is not going away.
Social media is not going away,and video is not going away.
And I know a lot of people havea lot of opinions and ideas and
theories about what it's like tobe on video.
Video, what it's like to beconfident on camera.
And you don't have to beperfect.
You don't have to have perfectteeth or perfect hair.
(37:02):
In fact, the more relatable andhuman you can be, the more
people are likely to lean in andengage with you.
Short form content is still thebest way to get in front of new
people who don't know about youyet, so that they can get to
know, like, and trust you, andlean in and sign up for your
(37:22):
email things and your freegifts.
And your channels so that theybegin to trust you and follow
you, and then come play with youin whatever you're offering.
So if the idea of doing videoscares you, or you know it's
time, reach out.
I'd love to have a quick call.
There's no pressure.
I work with all kinds of people.
(37:44):
I do one days, I have a groupprogram, I do one-on-one.
There's a lot of flexibility.
My mission is to help heal theworld with love and laughter.
One joke.
One video, one story, oneinterview at a time, and I can't
do it alone.
So let's connect and now back tothe show.
(38:06):
I love it.
Peter you've done so much.
You've started seven charitiesand the first star, the For
Fosters Kids, you've raised overa billion dollars.
Over a billion in Starlight,which is one for seriously ill
kids.
Okay.
And we, I mean we've raisedmillions and millions of dollars
(38:27):
for First Star and EDA and therest of them, it's the work of
thousands of people.
Producers don't make films ontheir own.
We put a crew of 150 peopletogether and that's who makes
the film.
You know how to surroundyourself with smart people,
right?
I.
That's what you have to do andyou are putting a team together
and you have patternrecognition.
(38:48):
Film to film.
Every script is different, buthow you do it.
You think, oh yeah I've met thischallenge before.
This is what I did last time.
That didn't work.
But what I'll do this time isthis.
So you get better and better atit.
You get up to 27 films and youworked it out how to do it.
Yeah.
But what I've done is take thattoolkit sideways, so the book.
(39:12):
Is like a self-help guide forteenagers, young adults, early
twenties, I would say Gen Z andthe lower millennials.
And it's called Finding Happy.
It's online, it's in bookstores.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble.
I also wanna say Peter, like I'min my fifties and I loved this
(39:35):
book and I'm going to buyanother copy for my.
For my niece, and I found it soinspiring.
I was listening to it and I waschoking up the whole, it took me
a few days to listen to all ofit.
So if you're looking for asummer read, if you need some
inspiration, get several copies.
It's one of the most inspiring.
(39:56):
Motivating books I've ever read,and I'm so honored to have been
able to interview you today.
And I apologize for thetechnical challenges, but we got
through it, we got we gotthrough it, we did the stuff.
It's called Finding Happy.
The website is, samuelson La,S-A-M-U-E-L-S-O-N la that's like
(40:20):
my site.
And right there you can see allthe retailers and so forth.
It's a audio book.
It's an ebook on Kindle andwhatnot.
And it is a paperback and Iwould love to get reviews.
No.
If you hate it God bless anddon't review it.
(40:40):
But if you, I don't see howanybody could hate it.
Yes.
We all need to buy it and rateand review and help push it out.
Yeah, because everybody needsthis book it's, it books in
bulk, which means orders of morethan 25 copies and you get them
kind of half price kind of idea.
We are number one for the monthof June.
So I'm hoping that what thatmeans is that maybe high schools
(41:02):
and colleges ordered it, inbulk.
Yeah.
Or some teacher for, as a courseaid or something.
I think also churches, any kindof youth organization any kind
of spiritual group would lovethis book.
Book clubs.
Yeah.
Part of my life is speaking inmosques and churches and
synagogues.
(41:23):
And if only everyone knew thatwhat we have in common is much
more than what divides us.
Oh boy, would the world be abetter place?
Ah amen.
Yes.
Amen.
Thank Peter.
I'm so grateful, Elaine.
And, send me all your links andwe will cross link this whole
new Wonderful.
(41:43):
Yes.
Where I have a young personhelping me on all the social
media stuff.
And we will push it on.
Yes.
X and absolutely.
Thank you so much, Peter.
Thank you for being this amazingguest and for your inspiration
and for all the people you'vehelped and the power of example.
You are.
(42:03):
Whew.
Thank you.
Okay, thanks everybody.
welcome to Captivate the Micwith Elaine Williams.
I am so excited for you to meetthis guest.
I have never been so inspiredlistening to a book.
This guy is amazing.
He has produced over 27Hollywood.
Feature films.
He's also started sevencharities, one for foster kids,
(00:33):
one for terminally ill kids, onefor the homeless.
I could go on and on, you'regonna love this guy.
He has amazing stories.
Please take a listen and sharethis with somebody you love.
You're gonna be listening toPeter Samuelson and he just
wrote a book called FindingHappy.
(00:53):
And I encourage you to getseveral copies.
Number one, it's going toinspire you and put a fire under
you in case you have been alittle distracted and
overwhelmed by what's going onin the world.
Number two, it's really good foryounger people.
He shares a lot of veryexciting.
Stories from his life as anunlikely film producer and that
(01:18):
whole evolution.
And then, he ties it in withlife lessons and he's aiming it
specifically at younger peoplewho are going through
transition.
Maybe it's junior high to highschool, high school to college.
Or college to life.
'cause I know all of thosetransitions were really hard for
me and I was especially lost, Iwould say 18 to 30.
(01:39):
That was a really rough time forme personally, I just can't wait
for you to meet this man andhear his stories and go by his
book Finding Happy.
Enjoy.
Hi everybody.
Welcome to Captivate the Micwith Elaine Williams.
(02:00):
You are in for such a treat.
Today I have the most amazingguest, Peter Samuelson, who has
produced 27 Hollywood movies,probably more, has started seven
charities, and he has thisamazing book called Finding
Happy.
Peter, thank you so much forjoining.
So honored.
(02:21):
Back at you and I'm so happy tobe with you.
Oh, thank you.
I have to tell you, I waslistening to the book'cause I
love your accent and listeningto your stories and I kept
choking up.
I was so inspired.
And what I love about the bookis it's very instructional.
The stories are fabulous and Ireally think it's, yes, it's
(02:43):
aimed at a younger generation,but I think.
Any age will get so much out ofit.
Can you tell us like whatinspired you to start writing
this book?
Sure.
So I would say it must be almosttwo years ago now.
I.
I realized that I've mentoredhundreds and hundreds of young
(03:06):
adults, one-on-one, one onseven, one on 30 through First
Start through the mentorproject, and just people I run
into or someone asked me to talkto them, whatever, and I
realized I've got patternrecognition, meaning there's two
dozen things that come up morethan anything else in all of
(03:31):
these conversations.
Things that perplex and confuseand bother and, I'm being
bullied.
I dunno what career I can haveand my teachers mean to me and I
can't communicate with myparents and this, that, and the
other.
I thought, these, if I wrotethese down.
They're chapter headings andmaybe I could do a book.
(03:54):
I'm always looking for leverage,do once and replicate many kind
of thing, right?
And I thought if I did a book, Ithought I'd have to self-publish
it.
So I started writing the book.
I think you have to have a bitof self-discipline'cause it's,
it's a bear of a job writing abook as well, I started getting
up at five o'clock every morningand making myself right for an
(04:16):
hour, and a book took form and Irealized I can illustrate.
I.
With so many crazy things havehappened to me.
A film producer, you work withso many bonkers people and funny
things happen to you and scarythings.
So for example, I, I realized,if I have a chapter and I do,
(04:40):
what is a good risk?
What is a bad risk?
How can you tell the difference?
Oh, I've got all four examples.
Risks I should have taken.
I didn't take, I did take, andthat worked out great.
What risks I, I took that werereally stupid and I nearly
killed myself.
Those kind of things.
So it I put these little memoirthings in and I wanted to make
(05:04):
the chapters fairly short sothat it's very palatable and
what I've been saying.
I've been discussing it now.
The publisher told me I was.
R mad to put my email address inthe book, and the compromise was
I did put it in, but it's nearthe back and it's buried in the
text.
So read the book to find theemail address, but I'm getting
(05:26):
these, really at the moment it'sa couple of dozen emails a day.
The publisher said, what are yougonna do if you get 25,000
emails?
I said I should be so lucky.
I'll hire people and we'llanswer them together.
But I've got this sort offeedback loop going now, and
it's really, it's my joy findinghappy.
Maybe the culmination of myfinding happy is to put it all
(05:49):
in a book and then.
Interact with the people who,honor me by reading it.
I love it.
I think so many times as we growand evolve, we miss the
connection.
And knowing that you're making adifference, you've done so much.
Gosh, I loved your stories.
I loved your stories about whenyou were gonna drive through the
(06:10):
Alps for your love.
When you were in high school,like that was hilarious.
And I love, so many greatstories.
I love the story when you had todo all kinds of crazy stuff to
get gas into Spain for a movie.
And how old were you?
Like you were dealing with allkinds of stuff and you were
(06:32):
pretty young, right?
I, I it's interesting.
It's a very perceptive question.
I look back on it now, and Ithink it's like completely
absurd how much responsibility Iwas given so early, and I
focused on that this Saturday.
Because my wife and I, we wentand saw with a couple of
(06:54):
friends, we went and saw the newfilm, the Brad Pitt film F1
Formula One.
Okay.
And that made me immediatelythink that my gap year between
high school and university.
I had 10 months on the SteveMcQueen Lamar Motor Racing,
which is film, but I it wascompletely absurd.
(07:16):
We, we had a, there was aterrible accident while we were
filming where a driver calledDavid Piper got trapped in a
car.
He couldn't get out, and thefire engine had been instructed.
It was not to drive against.
The direction of the cars, ithad to go all the way around the
track in order to reach him.
And while it was doing all ofthat, those were the, the six
(07:39):
minutes where he was burning andhe lost his legs.
And so it, it was the most awfulthing.
So what did they do?
They said, okay, we gotta, theyfired the track safety guy and
they said, oh, we've gotta getsomeone who speaks French and
English and that we trust.
So who did they choose?
They chose me and I was 18 yearsold.
(08:02):
Oh my gosh.
I was suddenly respon.
I was up at night worrying abouthave I, prepared this well
enough and that well enough, andnobody got, thank God nobody got
hurt.
But I remember my father visitedand when he realized what I was
actually responsible for.
In the making of the film.
(08:23):
He went to the producer andshouted at him, are you crazy?
He's a child.
Yeah.
And yeah, too much, too earlyprobably.
And but God bless, because I gotpropelled right into producing,
every time somebody on that filmgot fired, I got promoted.
(08:43):
Oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
But I love it.
Like you were there at the righttime and you had a good attitude
and you were like, whatever ittakes.
And that's such an importantmessage to young people and old
people, right?
Yeah, I think so.
I think, luck.
You can't make yourself have thelucky bolt of lightning, but you
(09:06):
can be in the right place at theright time and repetitively.
And in order to do that, youhave to put yourself out.
The metaphor that I use when I'mteaching and I put it in the
book is imagine if you weresitting cross-legged in an
envelope and it's dark.
But, and you have a pencil, youcan either just sit there and do
(09:29):
nothing, or you can explore, youcan poke in the dark with the
pencil and Sure.
If you do that once in a while,the point of the pencil will go
through and you'll say, I.
Whoops.
I will never be a concertpianist.
Okay?
But then you have the greatprivilege as a young person.
(09:49):
You haven't got a mortgage yetyou're not responsible for,
three kids and a spouse.
You don't have jobresponsibility as a young
person.
Your great honor and privilegeis you can pull the pencil back
and say, okay.
I'll just play the piano forfun, but I won't earn my living
doing that.
But you can then explore and gofind another, oh, maybe I'm an
(10:10):
engineer, maybe I'm anarchitect.
And that exploration, one of thereasons why I say I.
It one, one of my nonprofits.
First are we house, educate andencourage teenage Foster kids,
grades nine through 12.
And we do it on the campuses ofbig universities.
(10:32):
And we've got 17 of these thingsacross the United States.
Wow.
And a few are in the uk.
And one of the things that I sayis, why do you want to go to
university?
I'll tell you number one,'causeyou'll learn stuff and it will
help you.
Build the ladder to your careerif you choose the right course,
which of course I didn't.
But then, trial and error.
(10:53):
But the other reason to go touniversity if you're a foster
kid is you can't be homelesswhile you are in college.
Because First start won't letyou go to university unless
they'll let you stay in the dormthrough the vacations.
Don't get kicked out, don't haveto couch surf, and it gives you
an extra.
Four years to find yourselfwhat, what am I am I a pianist
(11:17):
or am I an architect, kind ofthing.
And to have a structure, and thestructure declines in its
pressure on you.
The older you get by the timeyou get to your senior year,
they actually don't care whetheryou go to the lectures.
They don't care if you go to thetutorials, whatever, because the
only person you're hurting ifyou don't climb up the ladder is
(11:39):
you won't get to the top.
But that's gentle.
They keep a good eye on you inyour freshman year and it
declines as you take onresponsibility for your life.
And I think also, especially foryoung men, you don't make very
good decisions right in, in, inyour late teens and early
twenties.
And it, there's a reason for it.
(12:00):
The frontal lobe of your brain,right?
Hasn't developed yet.
So you are making decisionsbased on the back of your brain.
The amygdala.
Which, amygdala, which is nevergood.
Yeah.
Which is never the, what I loveto say is it's fight or flight,
right?
The back of the brain, oh,there's a tiger.
(12:21):
It's about to eat me.
What do I do?
Do I run or fight it?
And of course what you don't dois to use the front of your
brain'cause it hasn't developedyet, which says to you, ah, I
don't have to run faster thanthe tiger.
I only have to run faster thanmy friends standing next to me
(12:42):
and the tiger will eat him andI'll get away.
So it the chess game of life,especially our young men, I
dunno why it is something inbiology, young women.
Are more mature earlier.
We know that.
Yeah.
And more self preserving andmore, friendships are easier for
(13:02):
them and so on and so forth.
Our young men who I'mparticularly focused on,'cause I
find in the mentoring boy, theyneed a lot of help and they have
aha moments.
If you are doing the mentoringwell, that first half of your
twenties.
There's a lot in this book thatstuff I've learned that young
(13:23):
men need.
We're cruel to our young men,it's so hard.
I think it's hard.
The way we socialize women andgirls and boys is so hard, and
I, what is the statistic offoster kids?
Because they age out at 18.
Yeah.
And then so many of them becomehomeless.
They're still babies and theyhaven't had structure and
(13:44):
support.
Yes.
I think that's exactly right.
Elaine, have you ever met an18-year-old where you.
Say, oh, have a nice life.
Let us know how it goes.
I was a complete disaster and Icame my, I came from a
dysfunctional family, but I wasa disaster at 18.
I can't imagine what it's likeif you've gone from foster home
(14:05):
to foster home, yeah it's acruel system which defines its
job in a very limited way.
And we use this phrase in locoparentis.
In other words, it's thegovernment saying, all right, so
there's been an allegation ofabuse or neglect.
A police officer and a socialworker will investigate, and if
(14:26):
they reckon it's true, they willremove the child and put them
somewhere.
Where they won't be neglected orabused.
Fair enough.
That hopefully.
Hopefully, right?
Yeah.
But more often than not theyaren't reused or Rene neglected,
but that's not what parentingis, if the system is putting
(14:49):
itself in instead of a parent oras a parent you don't stop
raising your child by makingsure they're safe crossing the
road.
You encourage them, right?
You give them unconditionallove.
You, you say, oh, you enjoyplaying the piano.
Would you like to have lessons?
We could do that.
Oh, you run really fast.
(15:10):
We gotta make sure you are onthe track.
Team.
Oh, let's get you that book.
Let's get you that.
Course or whatever you, I thinkyou're not doing too terribly
well in math.
That's okay.
I didn't either.
Let's get you a tutor.
Look how cool will it be if youare ahead of everybody else in
the class?
It's encouragement.
It's the cruelty of foster care.
(15:32):
I have an example every threedays in, in the mentoring.
I said to a kid the other day,we were having lunch and I said,
I've never seen such a mound offood on a plate.
You, you seem to be alwayshungry.
Why are you so hungry?
And he said I always go to bedhungry.
(15:52):
And I said, why?
And he said'cause I'm notallowed.
So Peter, you were talking aboutthe kid who was always hungry
who would go to bed at Hungry atnight, and you asked him why.
Yeah.
Because I, he's sitting there inthe commissary at UCLA with the
(16:16):
biggest plate of food you'veever seen.
And I said, why are you sohungry?
I've never seen someone eat asmuch.
And he said I always go to bedhungry.
And I said can't you just go tothe fridge, in your placement
and just get a sandwich orsomething?
And he said, no.
And I said why not?
They're getting paid to houseyou, feed you and clothe you and
(16:41):
take care of you.
And he said, I, no, I can't dothat because there's a padlock
on the fridge.
I said, they have a padlock onthe fridge, for goodness sake,
who have keys to the padlock.
And he says, the, the husbandand wife and their two teenage
kids, they all have keys.
I'm the foster kid, I don't getone.
(17:01):
And I thought to myself, this isso cruel.
This is such a, a squash of thisis blowing up self-esteem in a
young person.
It's an awful system.
So I'll give you anotherexample.
When a foster kid generally ismoved from one placement to
another, what do they give themto put their worldly belongings
(17:23):
into clothes and the diary andthe poems and the music and so
forth?
A trash bag.
What is the message to your soulof the appropriate receptacle is
a trash bag.
It means you are trash, right?
So on the first day in FirstStar my charity that works to
(17:45):
propel teenage foster kids intocollege first star.org.
I say to them, roller the drums.
And so they do this on theirdesks and the door opens and the
youth coach is push in a congaline of roller board suitcases,
brand new and gorgeous.
And they are stunned.
(18:07):
So in, at the very beginning oftheir ninth grade with us the
residential portion, they allget a laptop.
How can you tell who is a fosterkid in a high school class?
They're the ones who don't haveany technology'cause nobody
bought them.
People are getting paid to buyit for them.
They just don't do it generally.
Wow.
So it's a cruel old world, butgiven the opportunity of
(18:31):
reliable grownups, unconditionallove.
The kids build a family witheach other in a very real way,
and some of our oldestgraduates, our alumni, they're
off into careers and so forth.
They are still fully bonded assiblings with the scholars we
(18:53):
call them, that they first metin ninth grade.
I love it.
In your book Finding Happy, youtalk about the girl who was
performing and she got a littlestage fright and then her
fellow, came to support her.
Do you wanna tell that story?
Yeah.
My new theory, one of the thingsI am most bad, at least good at,
(19:17):
is hiring and my new theory ofhiring for any of the seven
charities.
Is if the per I try and ask aquestion about which child moved
your heart.
And if in telling me they don'ttear up, I think we shouldn't
hire them.
This is now my new litmus testof who gets to work for one of
(19:38):
my charities is they better havean emotional relationship with
the mission.
Yes.
The little story I put in thebook that you are talking about.
We had a talent show in theNorthwest Auditorium at the
University of California LosAngeles, and we had, 200 adults
sitting there in the bleacherseats, and one by one down on
(20:02):
the stage are coming.
Our must have been 10th gradersand they're singing a song or
they're, they've written a poemor they're doing, two of them
are doing little ballet orspoken word, whatever their
thing.
And it's going really well.
And down comes a young ladycalled Catalina, and the music
(20:23):
comes up and she's so frightenedthat she can't get the first
note out.
I'm thinking this is terriblebecause now the music's left her
behind and now the music stopsand she's just frozen on the
stage and I'm thinking, oh, Ican't believe that we put her in
this situation.
(20:43):
Maybe we didn't expect thiswould happen, but still this is
disgusting.
This is terrible.
We must never allow this tohappen.
You don't wanna add to her stuffalready.
Yeah.
And I'm seeing outta the cornerof my eye.
Carina, the director of theacademy is getting up.
She's gonna go down presumablyand take her off and we'll go on
(21:04):
to the next person and it'sterrible.
And then an amazing thinghappens in the same cohort as
Catalina is a young man who.
In football, he would be thelinebacker.
He'd be the big guy, and helumbers down there on the stage
(21:24):
and he plants himself betweenthe audience and our singer who
couldn't sing Catalina.
And we can't see her anymoreexcept her shoes.
And there's some whispering.
Then suddenly two girls from thecohort go down and now there's
four of them and they'rewhispering.
(21:44):
Now there's eight, and thenthere's 15, and now there's 22,
and now there's all 30.
And it's like this big littlescrum of teenagers.
Whisper, and a hand on theoutside does the upward movement
palm up?
Meaning.
Start the music again, and thankGod the person on playback knew
(22:07):
to go back to the beginning andout of the middle, invisibly
comes the little voice ofCatalina and she starts singing
her song, and the more shesings, the stronger her voice
gets.
And by the end of it sounds likeBeyonce and she's just belting
it out.
I cannot tell you what a momentthat was.
(22:29):
Every.
One in the audience, half theaudience were crying.
I had tears in my eyes.
EE everybody was cheering andapplauding and the kids didn't
know what to do.
They hadn't thought it through.
And they just put their armsaround each other and came down
off the stage together.
And I thought, we didn't dothis.
(22:51):
We, the grownups, we, theprogram, we first star, we.
College, we didn't do this.
We just created the opportunityfor them to do what humans do if
encouraged to do it, which is toshow empathy, to show
unconditional love.
(23:12):
And I just felt tremendous.
I was so overcome by emotion.
And I'm still British enoughthat, that's tricky for me.
So I went off and had a littlewalk and then came back.
And yeah, that's the story ofCatalina.
Oh, it's it's like you createthe safe container for them.
I love it's first star.org.
(23:35):
Yeah.
Correct.
Okay, Peter, and then tell usagain, I love your stories.
Can you tell us about meetingyour wife and having similar
values and how you that I justlove that story.
Sure.
I'm happy to.
So I had never organized acharity.
(23:56):
I'd occasionally given somemoney to other people's
charities, but as a young man, Iwas, being a film producer.
And then my cousin phoned mefrom the uk.
I was already in Los Angeles.
I'd immigrated and I had a workvisa and I was on my way to a
green card and all these goodthings.
And, my cousin said to me thatshe had met in Children's
(24:20):
Hospital, a dying 10-year-oldlittle boy called Sean, and that
she had asked him perhaps foolheartedly, what would make you
really happy?
And he said, oh, I want to go toDisneyland.
She said, I, what do we do?
And I said we do it.
Is the mother willing?
(24:40):
So she talked to the mom, Brendaand Brenda said, yeah, that
would be lovely.
And the doctor said, this childis dying, but if you think you
can get him to la God bless, gofor it.
The mother.
The cousin and the little boyflew to la we didn't put them in
a hotel.
They all moved into my flat.
(25:02):
It was back when I was single.
I just love that part.
You were in your twenties, wereyou in your twenties?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was upper twenties yeah let mejust think.
Yeah, I was like 27 or somethingand, we had a most wonderful
time and he did, and his momdid.
(25:22):
And it was like this big thing.
And what do film producers knowhow to do we call meetings,
right?
So I stood at the after work oneday, I stood at the end of the
conference room table and I hadinvited who I thought you might
need.
To start a charity, what wouldwe need?
A lawyer, an accountant, apublicist.
We need a person who understandshospitals and we need a doctor
(25:45):
or three and we need a graphicdesigner and we've gotta do
this, we've gotta do that.
And I just told the story.
I said, maybe we could do ithalf dozen times a year.
What do you think?
Everybody said yes.
The lawyer said, okay, I'll formit a as an entity.
I need to incorporate it and weneed to get a 5 0 1 C3, so
(26:05):
donors will get a tax deduction.
And he said, what do you want tocall it?
And I hadn't given it anythought, but I knew I would need
an accountant and I'd had onedate.
And then, terrible, I hadn'tcalled her.
And I phoned the accounting ladywho was very beautiful, by the
way.
So I was stupid not to havecalled her.
(26:28):
And I said, I, it's me.
I'm, I have truly apologized.
She said, yeah, I was verydisappointed in you.
And I said, listen, it's evenworse.
Because I'm having this charitymeeting and I need an
accountant, will you pleasecome?
And she came.
And when the lawyer said, whatdo you wanna call it?
I said, I haven't given it anythought.
And it was the accounting ladywho said you know that
(26:48):
Children's rhyme, StarlightStar, bright first Star I see
tonight?
I wish I may, I wish I mighthave this.
Wish, I wish tonight.
She said, why don't we call itthe Starlight Children's
Foundation?
We all said, yeah.
And the graphic designer said,oh, I can see the logo in my
head.
It's a child reaching up for astar.
And we all said, yeah.
(27:09):
So that was the beginning ofStarlight, and I won't tell you
any of the middle bit.
I.
We have raised and spent onseriously ill kids and their
moms and dads and their siblingsin Australia, Canada, across the
United States and in the uk.
In all those years since, wellover a billion dollars.
(27:31):
Wow.
But so that was my second datewith this very pretty young
lady.
And then we have more dates.
Then it was the Christmas party,which we threw at County USC
Medical Center in the children'sward, and we brought in a live
band.
I.
The kids were there all dancingin their hospital smocks and all
(27:51):
the rest of it.
But some of the kids were so illthat they had been wheeled in
into the auditorium in theirhospital beds, and one little
girl was dancing in her bed andSeaWorld the amusement park had
donated their used adult animal.
(28:13):
Sea creature costumes and one ofthose was a dolphin and there
was like a grill in its chestfor the adult inside to look
out.
And I looked at the kid in thebed dancing seriously ill, and I
looked into the grill.
Where was the face of theaccountant who I had been
(28:36):
dating?
And she was so moved by thelittle girl that all the mascara
had run down her cheeks, and Ithought, oh, thunderstruck, I
love this woman.
I.
Anyway, cut to the chase.
We've been married decades andwe've raised four children
(28:56):
together and we have threegrandchildren.
And that's Sarah.
That's my wife.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
The me the mess.
One of the messages of the bookis if you wanna find happy, help
someone.
Go either volunteer or startyour own or you could do it
full-time.
You can do it part-time, you cando it two hours a week.
(29:18):
But if you wanna find happy, andfor example, if you wanna find
someone to be loved by and tolove you, what are you gonna do?
Seriously?
You're gonna flip left and righton some app.
It's all eyes.
They did the photo with ai.
That's not what they really looklike and all their self
description is all nonsense.
(29:38):
It's what their friends toldthem they should say, and it's a
hiding to nowhere.
If you want to meet someone tolove and be loved by, go
volunteer somewhere and look tothe left and look to the right.
Who are these people who sharewhat you care about?
They care about also.
Go out with one of them, seewhat happens.
(30:00):
I did.
And it's one of the pillars ofme finding happy.
I love it.
I love it.
You have so many inspiringstories.
Peter, can you tell us one moreabout the work that you do with
the homeless e edar?
Yeah.
When I realized I mean I hadStarlight Star, bright and First
(30:22):
Star and they were, really doingvery well, power of a big idea
maybe, and the work of hundredsor thousands.
So I was looking for a anotherchallenge.
Because I'm a starter opera.
It's what film producers do.
Yeah.
It's like what my toolkit is youmake it happen.
Yeah.
(30:43):
And you don't just think aboutit, you actually do it.
You call the meeting and youhire the people and do the
business plan and work out howdo I pitch this thing that
doesn't exist yet so that peoplewill want to help.
So I came out of a businessbreakfast in a restaurant in
Beverly Hills called Nate Nas.
And a tall, smelly man, poorlydressed, came into my personal,
(31:11):
invaded my personal space andshoved his hand palm up into my
chest.
And I was, flummoxed and Ireached in my pocket and I got,
I don't know, a dollar or$5 orsomething, and I put it in his
hand and I.
Hightailed it off to my car andI sat there thinking, this is
(31:31):
ridiculous.
He has nothing.
I have everything and I'mintimidated by him.
What's wrong with this picture?
So I decided to lean into it andon weekends on my bicycle, I
went and found homeless peopleand I asked them two basic
questions.
(31:52):
How do you get money?
Where do you sleep?
And an old lady, when I said,where do you sleep?
She said come with me.
And she pulled me by the sleeveand she took me onto the
wasteland that's next to theinterstate freeway.
Freeway and Santa MonicaBoulevard.
And behind a bush was a hugecardboard box.
(32:14):
It had been raining and itdidn't smell good and it had a
bit of blue plastic over the topand she said, this is where I
sleep in there and on the sideof the box.
And I guess this was the kick inthe chest for me to my emotions,
my sense of injustice on theside of the box in foot high
(32:35):
letters, it said Sub-Zero.
And I thought, I'll be damned.
I got the refrigerator.
She's living in the box, thecardboard box.
So my first thought was I'llbuild a building.
I got an architect, a spaceplanner, and a budgeter.
Turns out to get a piece ofcheap land and put up a hundred
(32:59):
bed building is about$5 million.
If you divide 5 million by ahundred, you've got$50,000 for
each bed that you generate.
And that doesn't pay to run it.
That just pays to build thething and build the bed.
Build it.
Wow.
Yeah.
I thought, okay, how manyunhoused people are there in la?
(33:21):
So they, we know it's in thecensus.
It was a hundred thousand peopleback then who were unhoused.
Wow.
So I thought, okay, let's do themath.
A hundred thousand times$50,000.
That's$5 billion with a BIthought, I have no idea how to
put a dent in that.
I dunno how you,$5 billion.
(33:42):
It's ridiculous.
And they'll, the taxpayers willnever, I.
Go for that, right?
Stump, go for that.
Stump that up.
So therefore, neither will thepoliticians.
So I thought but for God's sake,we gotta be able to do better
than a cardboard box.
Yeah.
So in my head, I.
I had this idea for a thing thatdidn't have a name.
(34:03):
In the daytime, you push itaround, you do your recycling,
you put your panty or over thetop with the cans in, you put
your clothes inside it, and it'slike like a big shopping cart.
But at night, the difference isbecause of the design you put on
the brakes, you let the frontdown, you let the back down, and
now you have a cot raised offthe ground so you don't die of
(34:26):
pneumonia.
And it's got two doors and twowindows and I couldn't design it
'cause I honestly, I have thespatial design ability of a
tadpole.
Yeah.
But I found the Pasadena ArtCenter College of Design, where
they teach their undergrad andgrad students how to design,
retail projects and automobilesand stuff.
(34:51):
Three dimensional stuff.
I went off and met with DeanKorshe and I said, if I put up a
prize, could we have acompetition?
And he said, fantastic.
Let's do it.
What do you want to call it?
And I said, I don't know.
And he said everyone deserves aroof.
And I said, that's it.
The acronym, ED r.org, EDAr.org.
(35:17):
And we gave the prize to the twowinners, Jason Zza and Eric
Lindeman.
Eric is still on the board of EdA and we have hundreds of these
things around.
Primarily in the Sunbelt, fromLA to Florida.
It really, we have hundreds ofthese things with people
(35:37):
sleeping in them.
They get very my favorite ladyis Brenda and she uses one on
skid row and it, you could eatoff it.
It is so immaculate.
And she has a welcome mat infront of the Proud she's.
She's very proud of it and it'sgreat also for ex-military
people.
We're very cruel.
We don't do right by people whowould, we don't.
(35:59):
Who have served the countrywith, bravery and diligence.
And then so many of them end uphomeless.
But it's great for ex-militarypeople'cause they know how to
make a bed and they know how tokeep it spic and span and
they're very proud of it.
And they're 800 bucks.
And every time we raise 800bucks on e a.org, we order
another one from the factory.
(36:20):
And we're up to hundreds andhundreds now.
And that my dear, is e a.org.
And now a quick word.
If you are a business owner,especially a coach, speaker,
author, and you are not makingshort form video content about
who you are.
What you offer and what makesyou uniquely qualified, this is
(36:41):
your sign.
The internet is not going away.
Social media is not going away,and video is not going away.
And I know a lot of people havea lot of opinions and ideas and
theories about what it's like tobe on video.
Video, what it's like to beconfident on camera.
And you don't have to beperfect.
You don't have to have perfectteeth or perfect hair.
(37:02):
In fact, the more relatable andhuman you can be, the more
people are likely to lean in andengage with you.
Short form content is still thebest way to get in front of new
people who don't know about youyet, so that they can get to
know, like, and trust you, andlean in and sign up for your
(37:22):
email things and your freegifts.
And your channels so that theybegin to trust you and follow
you, and then come play with youin whatever you're offering.
So if the idea of doing videoscares you, or you know it's
time, reach out.
I'd love to have a quick call.
There's no pressure.
I work with all kinds of people.
(37:44):
I do one days, I have a groupprogram, I do one-on-one.
There's a lot of flexibility.
My mission is to help heal theworld with love and laughter.
One joke.
One video, one story, oneinterview at a time, and I can't
do it alone.
So let's connect and now back tothe show.
(38:06):
I love it.
Peter you've done so much.
You've started seven charitiesand the first star, the For
Fosters Kids, you've raised overa billion dollars.
Over a billion in Starlight,which is one for seriously ill
kids.
Okay.
And we, I mean we've raisedmillions and millions of dollars
(38:27):
for First Star and EDA and therest of them, it's the work of
thousands of people.
Producers don't make films ontheir own.
We put a crew of 150 peopletogether and that's who makes
the film.
You know how to surroundyourself with smart people,
right?
I.
That's what you have to do andyou are putting a team together
and you have patternrecognition.
(38:48):
Film to film.
Every script is different, buthow you do it.
You think, oh yeah I've met thischallenge before.
This is what I did last time.
That didn't work.
But what I'll do this time isthis.
So you get better and better atit.
You get up to 27 films and youworked it out how to do it.
Yeah.
But what I've done is take thattoolkit sideways, so the book.
(39:12):
Is like a self-help guide forteenagers, young adults, early
twenties, I would say Gen Z andthe lower millennials.
And it's called Finding Happy.
It's online, it's in bookstores.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble.
I also wanna say Peter, like I'min my fifties and I loved this
(39:35):
book and I'm going to buyanother copy for my.
For my niece, and I found it soinspiring.
I was listening to it and I waschoking up the whole, it took me
a few days to listen to all ofit.
So if you're looking for asummer read, if you need some
inspiration, get several copies.
It's one of the most inspiring.
(39:56):
Motivating books I've ever read,and I'm so honored to have been
able to interview you today.
And I apologize for thetechnical challenges, but we got
through it, we got we gotthrough it, we did the stuff.
It's called Finding Happy.
The website is, samuelson La,S-A-M-U-E-L-S-O-N la that's like
(40:20):
my site.
And right there you can see allthe retailers and so forth.
It's a audio book.
It's an ebook on Kindle andwhatnot.
And it is a paperback and Iwould love to get reviews.
No.
If you hate it God bless anddon't review it.
(40:40):
But if you, I don't see howanybody could hate it.
Yes.
We all need to buy it and rateand review and help push it out.
Yeah, because everybody needsthis book it's, it books in
bulk, which means orders of morethan 25 copies and you get them
kind of half price kind of idea.
We are number one for the monthof June.
So I'm hoping that what thatmeans is that maybe high schools
(41:02):
and colleges ordered it, inbulk.
Yeah.
Or some teacher for, as a courseaid or something.
I think also churches, any kindof youth organization any kind
of spiritual group would lovethis book.
Book clubs.
Yeah.
Part of my life is speaking inmosques and churches and
synagogues.
(41:23):
And if only everyone knew thatwhat we have in common is much
more than what divides us.
Oh boy, would the world be abetter place?
Ah amen.
Yes.
Amen.
Thank Peter.
I'm so grateful, Elaine.
And, send me all your links andwe will cross link this whole
new Wonderful.
(41:43):
Yes.
Where I have a young personhelping me on all the social
media stuff.
And we will push it on.
Yes.
X and absolutely.
Thank you so much, Peter.
Thank you for being this amazingguest and for your inspiration
and for all the people you'vehelped and the power of example.
You are.
(42:03):
Whew.
Thank you.
Okay, thanks everybody.
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