Oct 25, 2026 · 28 min · 13 segments
John Lewis is an entrepreneur, producer, and mixed martial arts pioneer whose career spans sports, entertainment, and aerospace. As founder and CEO of NovaCorp Aerospace, he leads the Genesis X…
Now, besides the obvious, what does producing for a vertical mobile first audience require that's different from producing from a traditional film or television project?
It caters to that kind of like telenovela mentality, right? I think it's very...
It's more... emotionally driven than it is genre driven where like we may sit and want to watch as men i mean not every man but me you know john wick or blah blah blah this is not like you're not watching from a voyeur's perspective you're watching from being wanting to be the character in in the show and it fills a gap in people's lives that they wish they could be or at least a moment away but they look at themselves as being those characters so if you understand what it's about which really is like why do you think i don't have to pay any attention to these titles which are ridiculous um i try to do better you know i'm going to be really ridiculous pregnant by my billionaire ceo you know in love with my alpha so-and-so male if you think about the consistency between all these shows ceo billionaire uh I'm trying to draw on a blank, but some of these powerful positions, it's women that want to be taken care of, want to be protected.
You know, it's our natural instinct, right? Which is like the alpha, not just the werewolf, but the alpha werewolf, right? That's being with that one.
hero right that and and that's and if you think about who we are as human beings that's very normal so this kind of the billionaire ceo right the billionaire why because our normal all middle class lives they were which are great and what we're working hard but then you look at you oh man it'll be so nice to you know to be a billionaire like all those all these tropes all feed into the same root nature of humanity which basically is security, protection, and being to be on that part of the spectrum.
So I find that all these shows kind of fit that narrative and they drive people to want to watch because it's like a moment away from their reality.
You literally can go to the bathroom for a minute while your kids are yelling out in the other room.
And you can look for a couple of seconds at a couple of minute episodes and you can pick up later where you left off.
Now you've spent much of your career, as we've talked about, looking at the intersection of entertainment, sports, and live experiences.
You know, I mean, those things are going to be around forever, but I think the mediums that we're watching things on now are changing.
And I think we're trying to find ways to organically speak to our viewers as opposed to just putting together some production now it's trying to engage it's engaging you know so you see when people are getting stuck on tick tock or or instagram or any of these these things they're trying to like make things more natural, you know? And if you notice for a long time in marketing, you know, in the old days of marketing, I mean, very old days of marketing, you literally would have someone pick up a bottle and say, buy a Coke, right? Because I am Michael Jordan, right? That's not how it is anymore now.
Now it's like they put the bottle in the back on the side and, you know, now I'm doing a project for, well, one project I want to do for a company called Waymo, whereas you're talking about the product, but instead of being about the product, What I put together for them is why is a product interesting? And I integrate it into a story that has nothing to do with the product, right? It has nothing to do with it.
Now, besides the obvious, what does producing for a vertical mobile first audience require that's different from producing from a traditional film or television project?
It caters to that kind of like telenovela mentality, right? I think it's very...
It's more... emotionally driven than it is genre driven where like we may sit and want to watch as men i mean not every man but me you know john wick or blah blah blah this is not like you're not watching from a voyeur's perspective you're watching from being wanting to be the character in in the show and it fills a gap in people's lives that they wish they could be or at least a moment away but they look at themselves as being those characters so if you understand what it's about which really is like why do you think i don't have to pay any attention to these titles which are ridiculous um i try to do better you know i'm going to be really ridiculous pregnant by my billionaire ceo you know in love with my alpha so-and-so male if you think about the consistency between all these shows ceo billionaire uh I'm trying to draw on a blank, but some of these powerful positions, it's women that want to be taken care of, want to be protected.
You know, it's our natural instinct, right? Which is like the alpha, not just the werewolf, but the alpha werewolf, right? That's being with that one.
hero right that and and that's and if you think about who we are as human beings that's very normal so this kind of the billionaire ceo right the billionaire why because our normal all middle class lives they were which are great and what we're working hard but then you look at you oh man it'll be so nice to you know to be a billionaire like all those all these tropes all feed into the same root nature of humanity which basically is security, protection, and being to be on that part of the spectrum.
So I find that all these shows kind of fit that narrative and they drive people to want to watch because it's like a moment away from their reality.
You literally can go to the bathroom for a minute while your kids are yelling out in the other room.
And you can look for a couple of seconds at a couple of minute episodes and you can pick up later where you left off.
Now you've spent much of your career, as we've talked about, looking at the intersection of entertainment, sports, and live experiences.
You know, I mean, those things are going to be around forever, but I think the mediums that we're watching things on now are changing.
And I think we're trying to find ways to organically speak to our viewers as opposed to just putting together some production now it's trying to engage it's engaging you know so you see when people are getting stuck on tick tock or or instagram or any of these these things they're trying to like make things more natural, you know? And if you notice for a long time in marketing, you know, in the old days of marketing, I mean, very old days of marketing, you literally would have someone pick up a bottle and say, buy a Coke, right? Because I am Michael Jordan, right? That's not how it is anymore now.
Now it's like they put the bottle in the back on the side and, you know, now I'm doing a project for, well, one project I want to do for a company called Waymo, whereas you're talking about the product, but instead of being about the product, What I put together for them is why is a product interesting? And I integrate it into a story that has nothing to do with the product, right? It has nothing to do with it.
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