We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jack Kelley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jack below.
Jack, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
In the autumn of 2019 my wife Sigrid and I were vacationing on the Greek island of Santorini, checking out Akrotiri, a settlement buried by 20-30 feet of volcanic ash in an explosion circa 1600 BCE. While waiting for a cab in the lobby of the hotel, we took a moment to browse the bookshelf there – mostly the usual tourist stuff and local history guides. Abruptly, Sigrid handed me a book called something like “The Atlantis Conference 2008,” and said “hey, you might enjoy this.” Among other writers, I found papers written by George Sarantitis, a Greek researcher, who seemed like he might have actually cracked the ancient mystery of the “lost continent” of Atlantis. I was so stunned by George’s ideas that I kept telling my wife about them until she said “Why don’t you write this guy and talk with him?” I had no idea if there was any point, but wrote him nonetheless.
Fast forward two years: we’re living on another Greek island called Lefkada and I’m filming The Atlantis Puzzle, a new documentary just released on Amazon, Google Play, etc. in 2024. Lee Zlotoff, the creator of MacGyver, once told me that your big break always comes out of left field when you least expect it. He couldn’t have been more right. I don’t know if dropping everything to move to Greece and make a movie about Atlantis is for everyone, but go take that risk!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m lucky to work with a number of companies across several industries, but the two main ones are Empire Builder Productions (“EBP”), a film company, and 399 Partners, a real estate / finance company.
EBP was founded over coffee with Hollywood actor John Ruby ten years ago. We decided right there on Melrose Place to make films we wanted to make instead of trying to pitch ideas to producers. The challenge of doing this on budgets under $1 Million is immense, and it’s not tremendously profitable – for most people I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have other jobs keeping you floating. We tried everything on our first film “Solver,” a family-friendly mystery that eventually got global distribution, and made a ton of mistakes – but mistakes that taught us lessons. What makes EBP different is that we’re totally free to do any project we want, if we can raise capital. We’re not interested in being guns for hire. It’s not why we started the company.
399 Partners is a partnership formed to invest in commercial and residential real estate, primarily in the “Mountain West” and Texas areas of the US. When I finished college, I had a lot of loans to repay. My roommate went on to work for Ken Burns, the famous documentarian, and I… well, I went to work on Wall St. to repay my student loans. My job with an international Real Estate Investment Trust was what I’d euphemistically call drudgery. But I learned a tremendous amount about hard work, discipline, finance, and the business side of buildings and construction, as well as the fact that there are good and bad people in every industry – you can’t just lump them all together. Today we’re working on building interesting housing developments, and trying to find cool renovation projects in hospitality and retail. We have a unique blend of capabilities with a few people, and we all love buildings, design, and the art of getting a deal done that benefits all involved.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Unquestionably, the reason I work with the people I choose to is their integrity. I think this shows in our decision making, in quickly turning down projects that aren’t the right fit, and in being straightforward with collaborators and transaction counterparties. Everyone has probably been tempted at one time another to slack or be sneaky or manipulative, but we understand that a reputation is built one brick at a time, and can be destroyed by a simple moment’s weakness. If other people want to cheat, lie, or try to hustle others, that’s their choice. On both films we’ve produced to date, someone on the crew manipulated the project and took money they didn’t really deserve. On real estate deals, people are often looking to hustle others. When you find people you like and trust, hang on to them and work with them every chance you get. Passing this on, being an example of integrity, is the best thing you can do.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
With some kinds of work, it’s simply about work ethic and hammering things out. With others, especially creative work, sometimes you need to be sensitive and in touch with the Muse. The best outcomes seem to not emerge from one or the other, however, but from a skillful blend of weaving the two together. Knowing where, when, and how to employ different kinds of thinking is maybe the hardest part of decision making. It only seems to come from experience – like a time you hammered out a film script based on an idea that wasn’t that great, and had to rewrite it 7 times, or a time you endlessly revised your idea, structure, and “vision” on a business deal only to have the market pass you by, missing the opportunity in the end. If you can crack this, you’re ahead of 90% of people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.empirebuilderproductions.com/
- Instagram: @empirebuilderproductions
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empirebuilderproductions/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-kelley-395b009/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTvZUYfm3Jkh_5SuUwLoWg
- Other: The Atlantis Puzzle links: https://www.empirebuilderproductions.com/the-atlantis-puzzle
On Amazon: https://amzn.to/45Om4Ea
On Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/The_Atlantis_Puzzle?id=0H1r8zIrpGU.P
On YouTube Movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQVzsbV3L5QSolver streaming links: https://www.empirebuilderproductions.com/solver
Image Credits
Bryant Marcontel
Empire Builder Productions