Ryan Seacrest, Emmy-winning television and radio host, producer, entrepreneur, and
philanthropist
 Interviewer: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

Impact Initiative 2023: Wheel of Fortune's Ryan Seacrest on prioritizing philanthropy

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Wheel of Fortune's Ryan Seacrest on prioritizing philanthropy

So as I mentioned, just before we started the Food. Tonight's guest is a name we see in here pretty much everywhere. In addition to becoming the host of Wheel of Fortune, one of the longest running game shows of all time and posting and producing some of the most popular television and radio shows around. He somehow also finds the time to be the founder and chairman of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation here to talk about the future of the foundation and the work it is doing to bring state of the art media centers to pediatric hospitals across the country. Please welcome Emmy winning television and radio host, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ryan Seacrest together with Fortune Ceo Alan Murray, Brian. Thank you so much for, for being here, Alan. No pressure. Yeah, we didn't plan on that. Alan, no pressure that um I'm very happy to be interviewed and not having to ask the questions and I'm happy to do it. I got to tell you, I have done hundreds of interviews at these Fortune events. This is the first time I've had to do an interview in front in front of the interviewee's mother. Well, that's a that's that about a particular pressure tag, by the way, brag her about all those interviews. But uh mother OK. Would you like you can chime in my mom is here. She, it's like I can't ask you a tough question. Sure you can, she'll answer them. We can put, we can put a chair up here for you. No, no, no. She had her hair done but she's fine right there. You look at you. Look beautiful mom. Good to see you. My parents live here. So uh well, it's great to have you here. We're, we're uh we have a lot of questions about this guy which we'll get to in a minute. Yeah, thank you. But I, but, but I, but I want to start with secret studios. Tom introduced uh his son got an experience of it. What is it? And why did you do it? So, through my work, I had spent time in different children's hospitals around the country and after I would visit some of the patients, I'd spend time with their parents and I would ask them questions and the story I heard most often was um my son, my daughter run out of things to do or things to look forward to or reasons to get up out of their bed and even walk down the hallway. And as I left it really resonated with me that potentially there is an idea here that we could create a nucleus a heartbeat, a real destination within, inside the walls of the hospital. And then I asked myself the question, what if and is it possible for kids at some point to actually look forward to coming to receive treatment at a hospital and what would draw that excitement out of them? So the idea, as I talked with my mom, my dad and my sister that night at dinner, we were all together. The idea was to build multi media content, creative spaces inside children's hospitals that are fish bowls where the patients and their families can come to interact and, and really come alive inside the hospital. It's a great idea and I want to go into it in a little more depth. But before I do, I mean, you do and have for a long time, done a five hour radio talk show every day. You were doing Kelly and Ryan every day. You've been doing American Idol for 21 years. It's not like you needed something to do. Why, why add this those things are important? But this is really important. Um This is something that is, um it's, it's very meaningful to me to hear and see the stories from, from parents, from patients. There's a, there's a story from a Dallas patient. Um there was a young girl who was in the hospital and she was working on her self confidence and she really wanted to be a part of the Sea Crest Studios. But she didn't want to be seen, she didn't feel good about herself. So through the technology that we have inside these studios, which are live broadcast studios, we create an avatar for her. And she developed this personality through her avatar. Well, after she gained more and more confidence, she finally said I want to go in the studio and I want to host the show and she became a star inside our studio at the Dallas Seacrest studio and hospital there. Well, I think we have a picture of the studio maybe. Yeah, there you go. Um And so these are in the hospital. So these are mainly in the lobby in the atrium of the hospitals. And if you think about any, if you think about GMA in the morning or you think about a sound stage where you think about a green screen, a radio studio, a podcast studio. I know you do a podcast, all of those capabilities can be executed inside these studios, all of the content that is created inside hosted many times by the patients. All of that content is then broadcast into the rooms of the hospital. So the patients who are in their beds can partake in it and interact with it. Do you, does it have, do you think it has medical effect, health effect? I definitely think it helps with the healing process. We know that it helps with the mental health of these patients when they are going through difficult things. But, you know, to have a young patient tell their mother that they wake up in the morning, excited to go for treatment because they're going to be on TV, and they're going to see their friends inside the studio. I mean, that's why this is important to me. Yeah. Yeah. And, and by the way, it's not just the studio. Can we pull up the other picture? You, you, you bring in people to Russell and Sierra? Yeah. Yeah. They get to meet people that the rest of us don't get to meet. I mean, that's part of the magic. It's, it is, uh, just 10 days ago, Ed Sheeran stopped by and, and these celebrities just do it. Ed Sheeran came by our studio in Colorado that he played, he played two songs and that habit and perfect. He sang with the kids. He let them ask every thing and they're great at creative questions. I mean, they ask what we want to know and they're not shy about it. And so they had a chance to interact with him. Taylor Swift opened our Nashville studio with us. The Jonas brothers have come through recently and that electricity, even the anticipation of these celebrities coming through. That's part of the programming as well. That's part of the excitement. Then of course, there's the payoff, then there's the after effect of talking about it, sharing those stories with other patients. I, I, but I want to go back to this question of why on top of everything else that you do, did you do this? I mean, everybody in this room you got a bunch of very busy corporate executives sitting in this room, they all have very busy. Talk faster. Yeah, they all, they all, we are in Atlanta. It's ok. You can say that they, they, my own town careful. They all, uh, struggle with work life balance. You don't struggle with work life balance, you have none. You can't possibly have any. I mean, five hours a day doing the radio show, you know, I really do. I segment my days to be very heavy and efficient in terms of production. I am very um focused on what meetings are most important to have for me. When I'm in a meeting, it's very efficient and when there are phone calls or conference calls that we need to have, I strategically take those when I'm in transit to another job. Uh so that I know in my head space that between, you know, by, by four o'clock, I've got free space to exercise to take a walk, to play with my dog to eat dinner. But the front end of it is efficiently and strategically. Um Do you ever just say I gotta, I gotta take the next five days off? I'm sorry, you know, I'm checking out. I say I want to take two weeks off. I mean, and I do, you know, over the summer I get my breaks and I, I take that time and it's important to see this is where I want your mother on the stage. I mean, like, was, was he always like this always? Right? And the, you know, the other thing I've always this, I've wondered this for a long time. Your business. There are people who are, who want to be famous, they are talent and there are people who want to get rich who want to be moguls. Um You're doing both, you're doing both at the same time. Did you set out the dude? No. Listen, did you set out? Did he know he wanted to? I, I really would rather it next year. Always want to do both. Mhm She says yes, I always wanted to be able to go out for dinner and afford to have what I wanted on the menu. Even when I was a little kid. I thought that was cool. Um We would go when I was, when I would do well in school, we'd go to La Paz Mexican restaurant or dos Amigos in Sandy Springs. And I thought, wow, this is living like three cheese enchiladas. I want three cheese enchiladas with two sauces on the side. Like that's what I want in life. You, you, I think you have achieved that. Well, I, I, but I, I also looked, I, I looked at Dick Clark, I looked at Merv Griffin. I looked at these legends in, in broadcasting who were not only in front of the camera, they were also behind the camera. They also understood the dynamics of production and ownership and having assets as well. And I, I studied that and I wanted to do that. Yeah. Uh something we were talking about earlier, that is another thing everyone in this room struggles with. Uh uh because these are people who are really trying to drive companies to social purpose, to do social good. And the problem that they faced in the last couple of years is they're getting pulled into a political ring that they don't want to be in. You've done an amazing job in your career. You talked to everybody about everything all day long, but you've done an amazing job staying out of politics. How do you do that? Why do you do that? Who, who taught you to do that? Well, the, the, the programs that I front and the programs that I have produced in the past are general broad mainstream programs that appeal to large audiences and we want everybody to tune in. We want all ages to feel welcome. We want all ages to feel included. I'm thinking of the radio show that I do in the morning, which is broadcast back to Los Angeles on a station called Kiss FM. Um, you know, we look at the ratings from, you know, six plus, right? You know, we, we're, we're trying to make sure that this is a destination and this is a place that when you're commuting with your kids in the car, you will hear a conversation that you'll be interested in that they will also not be turned off by it or there will be nothing that is offensive to them or have to be explained to them about a conversation that we're having. So I do look through that lens of appeal. I mean, what if someone calls up and wants to talk about, you know, should, should people be able to play sports and uh in a gender different than the one they were born in? I mean, the, the all the controversial topics that everybody's getting pulled into every day. Do you screen those out? I mean, I don't screen them out. Um That's probably a caller that wouldn't come, call into our show because if, if they're familiar, if they're familiar with it, they know it's not our show. I mean, um we are talking to do and this morning Demi Lovato, you know, it's like, and, and, and if any of those conversations come up with some of those artists, then they are fluid and they happen. But we do want everybody to feel welcome and comfortable and appeal to large audiences. What I want to. If anyone else has questions here, we do have microphones of somebody. I have 100 questions I could keep and Sasha is going to come out in a minute and cut me off. So I, but I, I'm happy to take questions from anyone else who mother. Yeah. Go ahead. Is there anybody question you've been dying to ask him? Yes, ma'am. I don't want to say your favorite book, but a book that you gift most often or a couple of books. Great question. Yeah, I just started reading. Well, so one I've fallen in love with recently, which is maybe a little bit bizarre, is unreasonable hospitality. It's this book about uh 11 Madison Park and the story of it and exceeding expectation when it comes to entertaining people or hosting people or being hospitable hospital, hospitable. Um And I see myself as someone that is in the hospitality business. And so that's a book that I really gravitated towards. And the other one we were talking about back backstage is, is uh Second Mountain by David Brooks is Second Mountain. I love that book too. Yeah. Have you read Second Mountain? You have, you're in favor. I, I heard that. Yes, you have a, a question right here. Yes. How do you manage your energy? Not? Well, um I, what, how have I always been like that? I guess so. Yeah, I fortunately I, I wake up with energy. I absolutely love the opportunities that are in front of me. I like people. I enjoy it when someone says, do you mind if I, I mean, someone said to me, I'm so sorry to bother you for a selfie. I'm happy. Like I, I love that. You know, you sleep? How many hours do you sleep at night? I sleep well, you do you, I don't know how many hours I get it. My ring is off right now. But you're right. Yeah, I sleep. I sleep well, I'm tired by the time I go to bed and then I, how about diet? What kind of a diet do you? I eat a plant based diet. I don't eat no meat. I eat a little bit of meat when I'm traveling. If it's a great place and it's authentic to the region, I'll have something. Um, but generally fish and, and a plant based diet and I don't have breakfast in the morning, but I do have coffee. Question mark here. Hi. Hi, my name is Carmen and I wanted to ask because impact when you think about impact many people think is always good. But have you gone through a tough moment that was decision making in your life and change you for the better and change through that time by going through that time? You really ended up in a good place. Well, I mean, I, I think that for me, um, fortunately, I've, I've known what I wanted at a very young age and I've had a very ferocious appetite to try and achieve that. And I've been focused on that. But one of the most difficult things for me just in terms of career we're talking about here was at the beginning when I was at the University of Georgia here. And I come from a very traditional family. My father is here. He's a lawyer. My parents have been married. I'm sorry, not to mention your father. I was focused on your mother. That's just the thing we got, he got his hair done today too. Um, but, and you've been married 53 years. Yeah. And so when I was at the, that's pretty good too. Not married another topic. And you're 54 48. Um, but to go back to your question, I was, I was at the university. I knew that traditionally in my head, you're supposed to go to school, get your degree, get your job. But I was losing sleep at school because I wanted to so badly drop out and pursue my dream in Los Angeles. But I didn't have a contact, I didn't know how or who or, or really what I was going to do, but I knew if I didn't try and do it, I would regret that for the rest of my life. So I packed up my little Honda prelude. I drove down to Atlanta from Athens and I told my mom and dad, I'm dropping out of the University of Georgia. I'm going to go pursue this and I said, I really hope that you will support me, but I want to know no matter what I'm going to do it and it was a very difficult you guys ever doubt he would succeed. No. Oh, sure. Now you say that. So, so that was, that was a very difficult at 19 years old moment for me. I I've saved the really big question for last. Yeah. Are you gonna keep Vanna White? So I am going to, I'm fortunate enough to take over for the legendary Pat next year, which I am. So my energy is gonna go up sir on that. I'm telling you. Um I have been the biggest fan of that show forever. I love Vanna White. I've known Vanna for a long time. We sat in important places next to each other and I hope for nothing more than to be able to walk out on that stage and host with her. That's cool. So I have a present for you. You don't know about this. Um uh This is the very first issue of Fortune magazine February 1930. You were not there then. I was not the CEO at that time. How did he get you back? Feb February 1930. You know what this is? Yes, that is the Wheel of Fortune, is it? That is the first cover, the first cover of Fortune Maggie. So we're kind of like brothers. I'll call her mom. It's so funny. I thought this was like from Six Flags. I was like, oh, that's the Ferris Wheel of Six Flags. Uh Thank you. That's very kind. Yeah, you can put that. You can put that in one, by the way, the subscription annual, you know what it was $10 a year. You can do it. Yeah, anyway, thank, thank you so much very in what you do. Really great to have you with us. Thanks man. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for, thank you guys.