Hollywood is Dying: Inside Stay in LA
In this episode of Technically Creative by KoobrikLabs, Orlando speaks with Pamala Buzick Kim – creative producer, entrepreneur, and community organizer – about her work championing inclusion behind the camera and fighting to keep production jobs in Los Angeles.
Pamala reflects on her career journey from repping top-tier directors to launching tech platforms for creative talent, and how her role as a “bridge between art and commerce” has taken her from ad agencies to advocacy. She shares how Free the Bid evolved into Free the Work, why representation in production still lags behind, and what it takes to shift the needle at scale.
The conversation dives deep into her latest work as a co-founder of Stay in LA, a grassroots coalition tackling outdated permitting, red tape, and dwindling tax incentives that threaten LA’s status as a production hub. Pamala lays bare the human cost of a shrinking creative economy – from job losses to neighborhood impacts – and argues for a federal approach to supporting U.S. creative labor in the age of globalization and AI.
We also get a preview of mavenverse, her new platform aimed at professionalizing communities and fandoms for authentic brand engagement. And in a raw, honest moment, Pamala shares how perfectionism held her back from launching – and what finally pushed her to hit go.
Orlando and Pamala uncover:
- Why representation behind the camera still isn’t where it needs to be
- How Free the Work helped open doors for underrepresented creatives
- What Stay in LA is doing to cut red tape and protect production jobs
- The human cost of industry decline – and why it matters beyond Hollywood
- How mavenverse is rethinking community, commerce, and brand access from the ground up
Technically Creative by KoobrikLabs explores how technology and AI are transforming the creative industries.
CHAPTER MARKERS
Chapter markers
[00:00] Repping directors, building bridges, and the art of the pivot
[07:15] From Free the Bid to Free the Work: expanding the circle
[14:40] Red tape, lost jobs, and why LA’s creative economy is on the line
[22:05] Stay in LA: fighting bureaucracy with grassroots action
[30:45] Mavenverse and the future of fandom, community, and brand access
[39:10] Why perfection held her back – and what finally made her launch
[46:00] Creative values, civic grit, and launching in real time
TRANSCRIPT
Technically Creative by KoobrikLabs Podcast Transcript
Title: Hollywood is Dying: Inside Stay in LA
Host: Orlando Wood
Guest: Pamala Buzick Kim
Orlando Wood (00:00)
but it’s good to see you. I always, I was going to say that, you know, I’m glad you, you put in how to pronounce your name. Cause, I was like, it’s a Pamela Pamela.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (00:00)
But yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah.
Orlando Wood (00:09)
But in my mind, I always go first to PAMI!
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (00:13)
Pamy, I know. Pamy,
Pamy. Just so everyone knows, my mother is Korean and English is her second language. And the only reason why I’m named Pamala is because she couldn’t pronounce Pamela. But now that she’s been in the States for over 50 years, she’s always like, Pamy, what you do? Why are you not on TV? And I always have to explain. I’m like, I’m not an actor. She’s like, what do I tell my friends then? I’m like, just tell them I’m a doctor. It’s fine. Yeah.
No one’s gonna know.
Orlando Wood (00:39)
Yeah,
yeah, it’s certainly certainly better with a Korean mom than saying you’re in in media or advertising or film and television. Yeah, she’s still getting over that one.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (00:48)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you know what? In
some ways, yeah, in some ways I am a doctor, you know, I’m just a doctor of the heart and community. Yeah, different kind of. Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s what I’m just going to put my on my taglines now. Doctor of the industry for Orlando.
Orlando Wood (00:53)
Right, exactly. Yeah, you’re a doctor for the industries.
Yeah. Well, it’s true. It’s like, you know, I mean, I’ll actually use that as a jumping off point to kind of summarize, you know, your your experience. know, you you are a very kind of successful rep and, you know, people who don’t know what a what a rep and salesperson in the ad industry is, is somebody who works with commercial directors, lots of really great commercial directors. You were at Furlined, which.
you know, at the time was really doing some of the most industry defining work. and you then started your own business and you, you know, were very successful kind of repping lots of directors to advertising agencies and getting them on really big marquee projects. you know, that, that, you know, award winning work and really great industry defining work. What I find really interesting about the decisions you made then, you know, kind of after that is you’ve, you took on, you know,
What was clearly a, what was clearly a, gosh, I’m going to put this incorrectly. Right. Yes. It was an intentional pivot, but it was to tackle a real, a real problem in the industry where female directors were not getting put on, on briefs for advertising, you know, and, and, and you started free the bid. ⁓ Okay. Okay. Sure.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (01:58)
Intentional pivot. I would say an intentional pivot.
Yeah.
Well, I didn’t start it. I’m going to back up a little bit. Yeah. So
when I left, you know, being a rep in the business and really it’s just a talent agent, like the same thing you would have for like CAA and, you know, Brad Pitt or Steven Spielberg. So it’s the same thing in advertising. And I think one of the things that I learned from that experience was I’ve always been the bridge. I’ve always been the bridge between art and commerce. Even, you know, starting at CalArts and having been a stage manager and producer.
I’ve always just worked with creative people my entire life. And so when we decided to, when Camille and I decided to close Maven Label as a talent agency at the time, we went into different directions and I very purposely went into tech. So I went into, immediately pretty much into working, networking with those guys who had created it. And that marketplace was really to try to find talent, like copywriters, art directors for ad agencies and brands.
Orlando Wood (03:03)
Yes.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (03:09)
that were opening in-house and give them a marketplace to find some of the best talent all in one place. It wasn’t unlike a Behance, like a portfolio site, but there was some additional features to it to where you could book them and you would know their availability rather than calling everybody and their mother to see if they were available right now. So that was really where I cut my teeth and also just taking a ton of classes and have always been sort of digitally forward. And I just thought,
Orlando Wood (03:27)
Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (03:36)
being a woman in my late 30s at the time, I was like, what’s gonna last? So to me, I was like, okay, let’s get into the dot com and all of the things. So I got into that realm and then after that started consulting for other marketplaces. So marketplaces being where there’s a buyer and seller. So like eBay is a marketplace, Uber’s technically a marketplace, working, not working certainly was. And so I just started moving from there.
Orlando Wood (03:40)
Right.
And working while not working
solved a real need in the industry where agencies were starting to have production in-house and starting to do a lot more stuff directly for clients. And what they really didn’t have was the networks that production companies had where they were used to dealing with lots of crew, lots of different shapes of work and also ⁓ art buyers, know, and, and ⁓ photography producers. And as they were sort of getting that and then as well,
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (04:06)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (04:24)
What it meant was a lot of that talent was sitting on the sidelines, not working and waiting for production companies to call them. And so it amplified their market. It gave them agencies to work for, to increase their reels and get paid. And it gave agencies the ability to find those people who they hadn’t worked with before. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (04:40)
Yeah, it
was really brilliant and had great branding and I think the guys who started it had come from the inside so really understood the marketplace and it was really great growing up with them and that sort of business from that time and from there I started just working on more and more specific niche marketplaces and I think that like at some point I was doing women photographers and so that’s sort of how
Free the Work found me. They had started as Free the Bid around female bidders, getting one female bidder into every triple bid. So that was our sort of 2015, 2016 tour de force. And then when I came on board, we had just gone from Free the Bid and we were going into Free the Work, which was really expanding the circle representation. And so it wasn’t just women, it was everybody who was sort of underrepresented, but that depends on where your feet are.
because who’s underrepresented in the US at the time is very different than who’s underrepresented in India. So we really kind of had to look at it from a global perspective. And that’s when I kind of came on was about 2018, 2019 to kind of carry on that next phase of what free the work would be at a global standpoint and not just in advertising and film and TV as well.
Orlando Wood (05:34)
Right, right.
And I think that a lot of people who listen to this who aren’t in the ad industry won’t really understand the disparity that really existed. Yeah, it definitely, exactly. It definitely, yeah, yeah. It has gotten better. It has started production companies actively seeking out female directors for their rosters.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (06:05)
It still does. Two degrees. Yeah, it’s gotten better. It’s gotten better.
Orlando Wood (06:20)
Up until that point, even having one was an anomaly. mean, you know, if you count all of the production companies in the Advertising Producers Association in the UK or the Association of Independent Commercial Producers in America, you had rosters of 20 or 30 directors that didn’t have a single female director on them. And when a female director was on, it was very nominal. It was very puffy. was like, ⁓ exactly. It was one. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (06:24)
Yes. Yeah.
It was one and done. We got our one. We got our one.
We can’t sign any others. So was very, very much like that. So when free the bid, free the work, yeah. Yeah, jump in.
Orlando Wood (06:50)
⁓ And really, and it was sorry to just follow up one more thing
is it was really only to capture one type of work. That’s the other thing you guys did that I think was very important is it was only to capture L’Oreal or some sort of female based brand exactly. And it really, they didn’t treat it as, this person is a good director who can pitch on anything. Sorry, I just wanted to, yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (07:05)
or tampons.
Yeah, yeah, and I think we have evolved. Yeah,
no, absolutely. And I think we’ve evolved quite a bit since then. You know, we helped raise the percentage of women on production company rosters by over 25%. At the time, you know, at the time we had basically become sort of a stakeholder in the industry when it came to making sure representation behind the camera was involved. And I think what people need to understand is representation in front of the camera.
especially right now is doing quite well. We have a very diverse play and I don’t just mean ethnicity and gender. I across the spectrum of orientation, disabilities, military veterans. We’re doing quite well. I would say advertising is doing quite well in that front where we have the disparity still. And even though it’s gotten better, particularly for gender and ethnicity in some parts is behind the camera. And the reason why that matters is because it’s a point of view.
So when you’re behind, if you’re the writer of a book, if you’re the painter of a painting, it’s the same thing if you’re behind the camera. There’s going to be a very specific story that I tell. So Orlando, you and I, we’re going to tell a story the way you might tell the story might be completely different than the way I tell the story. And it’s just based on how we grew up and the things that we’re interested in. And some of that does have to do with our demographic background.
But also some of it just has to do with all the other things that tie in, social economic issues, needs, concerns, also just kind of a different sensibility of how you and I might’ve grown up, our favorite colors even. So I think that’s why it’s important for us to understand that we need a variety of folks behind the camera to showcase a variety of points of view on the same story. Like if I keep watching Spider, if I keep watching Spider-Man, it’s gonna, I can’t, like I just, it’s like the same.
story but until like Spider-Verse came, I was just like, oh my God, I can finally watch this series because it was a different take. It was a different point of view on it.
Orlando Wood (09:04)
Yeah, it’s interesting. think that there’s, mean, listen, we had one right at the start of this where we were talking about your very, when we first met you or you told me about your mom and whatever else. And, you know, that we joked at the start of this about, you know, like, is she disappointed? You’re not a doctor. And, you know, that’s something I can, right, exactly. That’s something I can only understand on that cliche level. And I can joke with you about it, but.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (09:14)
Yeah.
My mom’s Asian. ⁓
Right.
Orlando Wood (09:29)
I don’t understand that from a culture. I don’t deeply understand that culturally. I’m not, you know, and I’m not really, that’s not going to be in my bones in the same way. And so especially when you’re talking about creators and the people behind the camera, you want to know that they are reaching for the reality of the culture, not just the superficial top layer that, you know, can so easily be misunderstood or, you know, and misrepresented.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (09:34)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and that’s like a perfect example. know, we had a movie a couple years ago, I think it was Minari, where basically it was like a Korean family, Korean immigrant family trying to open and create a farm essentially in the South. And there was a bathroom scene with a big plastic bucket and he’s in the bathtub, but there’s this big blue bucket next to the bathtub. And you would only know to put that there if you grew up like in a Korean family household.
You know, and that is the fam. We always had a bucket next to our bathtub in our Korean family. So it’s just like, it’s those little touches. So it’s like to your point, like extending beyond the surface and really just seeing the details because I’m going to read that. I’m going to clock it right away. I’m watching a movie about a Korean family and I’m clocking those little details. It’s the same as if you’re in the South and you’ve got box fans in the window, you know, like there’s just different things and it’s not always necessarily about gender and not always necessarily about race.
but there’s just like regional things that we just need to be conscious of that we would just tell a different story around.
Orlando Wood (10:57)
Yeah, the experience I’m sure everybody has had at one point or another is a movie or a TV show that has somebody doing your job. And if you if you watch, you’re always like, well, that’s wrong. And that’s right. And that’s how it feels. It feels just wrong on so many levels. And it’s so, you know, and that I think is experience everybody’s had. And I think that culturally that that must be, you know, what it’s like to watch your culture misrepresented, you know, in film and television.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (11:25)
It’s just not even, it’s like
most of the time, most of the time it’s not even insulting. Most of the time you just consciously, like subconsciously clock it and just know it’s not for you. And if we’re in advertising, our whole job is to sell shit. So like we want to make sure it’s authentic and speaks to the audience that we’re trying to go for. And a lot of times in advertising we’re going for big and broad and sometimes that makes sense when you’re doing like a Super Bowl commercial with those millions and millions of eyes. But in other things, you’re usually trying to reach a targeted audience.
Orlando Wood (11:53)
Right. Yeah. I think, I think that, you know, first of all, I think it was, it was very admirable of you to, you know, to move that direction. think a lot of people, especially in advertising, they, they recognize that there are things that need to be changing in that industry and, advertising, you know, is a very serious part of culture. And I think that, you know, that first step in your activism that I think you’ve carried on now,
I think is very admirable and having been in the industry watching that occur, it was very powerful. And I had a female director that I was really trying to develop and it was right at the start of Free the Bid and I was kind of trying to get it across. I think that it was, I think that the tide hadn’t shifted yet. ⁓ And…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (12:30)
Mm.
Yeah, we
were, it’s always like two, we were always two steps ahead.
Orlando Wood (12:40)
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and I saw a lot of great young female directors hit their head against a wall for years and then actually crash out. I know a few of them doing incredibly well in other industries, but really that’s just a loss for the industry because they they had talent and were willing to apply it in advertising, but have gone on to apply it elsewhere. But yeah, and you know, and then it, you know, you’ve
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (12:53)
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (13:05)
You’ve now started Stay in LA, which…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (13:08)
Yeah, I mean, I’m one of the lead organizers and one of the folks who helped kind of get it off the ground. I’m thankful for my other, the other two partners, Ali Peshman and Sarah Dina Smith, who are both writers and directors, more on the like WGA, DGA, film TV side of things. But yeah, we sort of all came together after the fires and just sort of realized that we needed, something needed to happen quick because this was just another compounding.
post-strike, post-COVID for our industry here in Los Angeles and in California in general.
Orlando Wood (13:39)
Yeah, I think a lot of people have focused on the strikes as being the pain point, but actually it was COVID before. I when you consider the shock to the industry, sure, actors couldn’t work, crew couldn’t work, that’s the very obvious one, but even management companies couldn’t earn money. I mean, if nobody’s getting deals done, they’re not getting paid. so, studios obviously not earning any money mean, it was this…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (13:51)
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (14:03)
incredible shock and I think it exposed, or at least it seemed to me, it exposed the degree to which the California government had sort of taken, or certainly Los Angeles had taken the film industry for granted a little bit. It was, well, so much of the talent lives in LA, they’re always gonna wanna shoot in LA, so that’s the way it’s gonna go. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (14:20)
Yeah.
I mean, we’d like to think that. We’d
like to think that. I think, you know, I think California in general is considered overall red tape state for a lot of different types of industries. And that’s for protections of the employees and the people who live here. So I understand that. But I think over the years, because Hollywood started here, it’s just become a lot of layering of bureaucratic red tape. And some of it, think, you know, recognized. And some of it, to your point, is sort of taken for granted.
So I think what’s happened now is that once everybody else in other states and other countries realize the sexiness and the profit from, you know, from production shooting and commercials as well, now they’re rolling out their own tax incentives. And ours hasn’t been as developed or as quick to change as some of the others. So I like to say is that everybody else is rolling out our red carpet and we just keep rolling out red tape.
And so that’s what we’re trying to do with stay in LA is try to pull back some of that red tape, trying to get LA to be more focused on being a film friendly city. If we’re not going to be the cheapest city to shoot in, we at least got to be the easiest. And it’s insane that LA in particular is not the easiest one to shoot in because again, Hollywood started here. So those are the certain things. mean, have crew, have, you know, productions down by over 40 % across the board, including commercials. And we have crew losing their homes, losing their healthcare.
We have people in tears. and this doesn’t, you know, I’m not directly in production, but this affects my family. This affects my friends. This affects my neighborhood. This affects my schools, my home value. So like, you can look at, you can be from any part of anything in Los Angeles, and you have to come to realize that this is gonna touch you in some shape or form.
Orlando Wood (16:00)
Yeah. Right.
Yeah, I mean, I was in Burbank the other day and there was a pastry shop just across from one of the studios and went in and they said, listen, we referb… we put money into the place after COVID, thinking like, okay, everything’s gonna come back and we think we’re gonna have to close. I think that that’s the level at which it’s painful. And then it is on some level galling to watch how
I mean, Malta, 40 % cash rebate back into your account within 90 days post-wrap. You’ve got incredible tax incentives just in other states in America. You’ve got great tax rebates coming out of co-productions to the UK, Vancouver, all of these incredible places who are thrilled for the work, you know, and yet LA. Can you summarize, I mean, how, like, you know, I mean, the…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (16:39)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (17:01)
How bad is it and how far is Los Angeles lagging behind just in terms of its, I know there are two bills in the legislature. Can you just give me a lay of the land?
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (17:10)
Yeah.
Yeah. So the two bills in the legislature are at the state level. And what they’re really there to do is modernize our tax incentives. I mean, you named a bunch of different things. So what happens, we’ll talk about film and TV. So what happens on the producer side is that they are basically creating their budget and they are taking these tax incentives and essentially putting it in as part of their budget to determine where they’re going to save, where they’re going to like, where it’s going to be cheapest for them to film.
And so a lot of these tax incentives are guaranteed, like you said, or they’re rebateables within 90 days. Ours is a lottery. So it’s basically you may or you may not get it. And so when you’re a producer, you can’t, you know, or business owner, just like a business owner, you can’t be like, am I or am I not going to get payment? So that doesn’t really work.
Orlando Wood (17:56)
Yeah. And so the only people who
can wait for that are the studios. And that’s why usually they’re the ones who end up winning it.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (18:02)
Right. And most likely, yeah,
and most likely if the studios are here, it’s either because they’ve either greenlit a very, very specific LA, California based story, or you have celebrity talent, whether that’s in front of the camera or behind the camera, so fancy directors or fancy actors who are not going to go and shoot for eight months in another country and be away from their family or whatever. So most of the time, those are going to shoot here. So if they’re very heavily celebrity driven,
we have a better chance of keeping it here. that is, so part of the two state bills is modernizing our tax incentive, raising it to 35%, raising the pot of money from 300 million, 330 million to 750 million, also opening it up to long form competition shows. So right now you’ve got the show, The Floor, which everyone apparently loves as a game show, it’s shot in Ireland. They fly all of the contestants to Ireland.
film it and send everybody back. So that means Ireland’s getting the taxi, the taxi money, the coffee shop money, the dinner money, the tourist dollars. ⁓ So all that great per diem. And so it’s just like, that’s where it’s at. And when you talk about a city like Burbank, 51 % of Burbank are people in the industry, 51%. So.
Orlando Wood (19:07)
All that great per diem.
Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (19:17)
That’s sort what these two tax bills are sort of going up against is opening it up to more genres, opening it up to more independent films, a million dollars and over, relocating films and TV shows back to here has got a bigger cut. So it’s just like there’s all these little death by a thousand paper cuts is sort of the saying. So we’re trying to reverse some of that at the state level. At the local level, we’re trying to attack the permitting process.
because it’s filled with red tape, filled with you got to have 500 safety officers on set. No one really knows why they were there. They were just there from the beginning of time. So those are kind of the biggest elements that we’re working on.
Orlando Wood (19:56)
think that it’s funny because that red tape is really born of how much the legacy industry has been here. Because every single time somebody broke a leg on a set, there is now a new safety officer who’s looking out for people’s legs. And then there’s somebody bumps their head and there’s the head safety officer. I think that the wonderful thing is is that Hollywood has seen everything. So it’s prepared for anything.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (20:12)
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (20:22)
but we’re living in a different world where cameras are much smaller now, so that means they’re more dangerous, they’re less dangerous when they move at speed or around a corner or whatever else. used to be, if a camera was on a dolly and moving at speed, you could lose a finger if your finger went off that. And now dollies are used less. Cameras are getting so much smaller. Actually, modern production is safer, it’s quicker.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (20:33)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (20:47)
It’s it’s less cumbersome. And you’re right. L.A. has to respond to that in a in a meaningful way.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (20:56)
Yeah, I think there’s large industry things. Equipment and moves like that were never our number one issues as far as injury. More has to do with fatigue. It’s like hours that we require of shooting every day, 14 hours, and then turnaround times, and then another 14 hours. So you can only imagine kind of the fatigue that sets in. And that’s a whole other set of things. And I think one of the things we need to do is don’t try to boil the ocean.
really just try to start and do these small kind of things that we can kind of work on, the things we can change with city council, things we can change with the mayor, get those sort of things worked out. And then also we do have to take into effect the fact that production is changing. We do have AI coming in. It’s the same thing when we went from film to digital. And then to your point, we went from large cameras to your iPhone camera. We democratized filmmaking in a lot of ways and made it very accessible.
for a lot of people to now be able to have the dream to do it. But with that also comes with big shifts in the organization, the process. so besides, that’s why we’re trying to release the red tape as soon as possible and as quickly so that we can continue to do the production so that our folks can evolve with production as it’s moving along kind of these new landscapes that are gonna be coming in.
Orlando Wood (22:12)
Right. What are the primary blockers you’re facing? Is it the unions? Is it just the slowness of the state legislature? Is it, I mean, you were meeting just today with Karen Bass.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (22:21)
Just bureaucracy. Yeah,
we met today with Karen Bass for her press announcement, you know, and she just kind of gave the recommitment of trying to make it easier to shoot here. You know, honestly, it takes a phone call from the mayor to each department. There’s like 10 departments involved. So Public Works, Parks and Rec, LAPD, LAFD, you know, et cetera, et cetera. It really takes a call to just say, hey, make this faster, make this easier.
And that’s one element, but then the other element is exactly what we were talking about. It’s just like, hey, is this really necessary? We’re not doing a Marvel shoot. We’re doing an independent six person shoot. Can we just shoot on the sidewalk without a permit? As long as it fits within the parameters. You know, like there’s different things like in New York, you can shoot on the sidewalk. In LA, you can’t, but we have barely anybody who walks here. So why can’t we? So it’s just all these tiny little bureaucratic sort of little things that pile up.
that we just have to undo. And I would say lots of people don’t know who’s supposed to undo them. Is it city council? Is it the mayor? Is it the department head? Is it the state of fire chief who’s requiring that certain parameters go in? You’re like, I have a temporary stage. Why are we trying to do a fire alarm system? And we have a fire person on set every day. So it’s just like these.
Orlando Wood (23:24)
Right.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (23:43)
Well, that’s what the chief of the state of California for the fire department says. So it’s just like trying to find, it’s like a hornet’s nest, like trying to figure out like, okay, if I pull this thread, can I get it out?
Orlando Wood (23:58)
Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (24:00)
It’s exhausting, especially as a volunteer and as a citizen. I’ve learned so
Orlando Wood (24:02)
Yeah, I bet. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (24:04)
much about civic. I don’t even like I don’t like it’s insane.
Orlando Wood (24:09)
Yeah, no, mean, this is why I used the term admirable before. It doesn’t sound easy or pleasant or particularly, you know, or like you’re getting many pats on the back. I have seen you on the news quite a few times, but, you know, that’s, you know, yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (24:13)
Yeah.
Yeah, but that’s just like push the thing, you know, and it’s just like we’re
all volunteers. We all have day jobs. A lot of people are trying to find second jobs if they were in production. I have a full time job launching a business. so it is, you know, but again, it’s about my value system. My value system is it doesn’t matter that I’m not in production every day. It doesn’t matter that I’m looking for the next production job. I know how much it affects everybody around me and the environment around me. And.
I know how to get shit move. Like I know how to move shit. I know how to have conversation with legislators. I know how to assemble a team. I know how to help volunteers figure out what their purpose is and how to drive towards it and make change. So that to me is sort of my, that’s my, that’s a gift I’ve been giving that I’ve been given that I need to share. And that’s what’s important to me is just helping this entire industry that is our economy in Los Angeles.
Orlando Wood (25:19)
Yeah.
Yeah. Is, is the problem only a local one? mean, just to, to play devil’s advocate, mean, right. Okay. Well, I’d love to hear what, what do you think is kind of lost if, you know, broader, you know, in a broader cultural or, or industry context, if, production doesn’t move, you know, back or, these incentives aren’t done in the right way.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (25:24)
gosh, no.
Yeah, I think.
Yeah, absolutely. I think we have, to me it’s almost a shame that we’re dealing with this element and having to fight so hard with these elements because it’s actually turned into a team sport. So if we’ve got all these other countries offering incentives, we as the U.S. should be combining together to basically create a team sport of how are we making this across the board federally easier? How are we promoting to want to have filmmakers here? We’re not the only filmmakers in the U.S.
I don’t know if anybody noticed, but like all of the Oscars were independent films essentially, and a whole lot of them weren’t necessarily American based. And so there’s amazing filmmaking coming out from other parts of the country and we should be trying to lure them here. So it’s a little bit annoying to me that we have to deal with this on such a local issue because it’s taking up so much time and energy because the thing we really got to be looking at is how technology is changing these industries.
and how we are evolving our production and our crews and bringing them with us into this conversation and into these new processes. So I think what’s hard is that we have a lot of people who are putting their stakes in the sand and being like, no, we’re not changing. We’re not moving. This is what we’re doing. And that’s fine. There are always people who want to shoot on film and God love you. If you can make, if you got the money and the cash and the like, go for it.
Orlando Wood (26:59)
Mm-hmm.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (27:04)
Seeing the stuff on film is amazing. But as we continue to evolve, we have to address technology. It’s right there in the forefront. And when we look at AI so far, AI has only been a conversation about creative ownership, the creative IP of ownership. We’ve not really gotten into how this is becoming less and less people. I went to a new studio.
a daytime new studio at a major station, there were no cameramen. There was three cameras, but there was no cameramen because there was one guy with a remote control moving the cameras at the studio. And again, was, you know, interview to interview. So there’s not a lot of action happening there, but it also threw me, it threw me off because there was no energy in the room. There was no, there was no, no sizzle, no spark. It was just there. And so
Orlando Wood (27:31)
Bye.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (27:54)
If more shit like that’s going to happen, how are we shifting people? Where are we shifting them to? What are the opportunities? Where are the spaces that we could be looking for? And I just don’t know how many people are necessarily looking at that. And I, and I, and I can’t, I’m not necessarily one to do it, but those are the questions I have in my
Orlando Wood (28:10)
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s it’s it seems so incredibly short sighted and especially because anyone who’s been around the industry can see, I mean, the numbers speak for themselves, as you said, 40 percent down in the last couple of years. think just Q1 2025 was twenty nine percent less film shot than than the previous year, over 30 percent less television shot. And as you say, you know, it’s so much cheaper to fly heads of department out to
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (28:36)
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (28:42)
Budapest, UK, Prague, you know, and, and, and yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (28:43)
You’re not even allowed to do that. Some
directors, you can only bring the director or you won’t qualify for their tax incentives.
Orlando Wood (28:53)
Right, that’s interesting.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (28:54)
So
you can’t even bring a head of a department. You can’t, and to your point.
Orlando Wood (28:57)
Right. So it’s not only the US
economy that’s that’s suffering from the lack of the overall production spend, it’s US and, you know, the the the brain trust. Yeah. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (29:05)
This is a jobs issue. is 100
% a workforce jobs issue. Like forget all the studios, forget all the genres, whatever, whatever. This is a jobs, like we need to start creating, we need to start thinking about Hollywood and creative IP and creativity as if we were a Detroit car manufacturer. And we really haven’t because we’re dealing with technology, we’ve torn all the global fences down.
And so now we’re like basically can send out our creativity anywhere, which is awesome for some companies and it’s awesome for people to receive it. But that being said, we need to be looking at the kind of foundations of our industry from a little bit more specific jobs point of view.
Orlando Wood (29:48)
Detroit is a fascinating comp, isn’t it? Because, yeah, if you think of, know, yeah, that is a fascinating. I hadn’t even really thought about it like that. You know, that that was a one industry town that, you know, that was sent into the doldrums for, you know, what, 20 years ⁓ and and nearly didn’t recover.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (29:51)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (30:09)
You know, and as so much of that was to do with foreign manufacturing, losing a lot of the United States brain trust, you know, and, and capabilities, not, not upskilling as fast, not developing the industry, the physical, you know, industry fast enough. Yeah, that’s fascinating because I think that one of the things that I really noticed is obviously I’m a child of the eighties and, and
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (30:20)
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (30:31)
I ride around L.A. and I’m like, that’s where Axel Foley would like drove down Rodeo. And that’s, you know, and obviously then the newer comp is like La La Land and like, you know, the bench up at the up the top of the hill. And exactly. And, know, and and I I love those things, but I have nothing to compare them to now. I don’t. And I really noticed it when the when the Olympics
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (30:35)
Yeah.
Right. Once upon a time in Hollywood. Yeah. Yeah.
Orlando Wood (30:58)
when the Olympics came back after Paris and they did the performance here and they had the red hot chili peppers and they had Dre and I did think to myself, or is this the last time LA had been relevant from an entertainment standpoint? The Dre Chilli Peppers era, you know? ⁓
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (31:03)
Mm-hmm.
Well,
I mean, what do we export? Tell me what we export as LA. We export fame and we export Hollywood, essentially. And then the services around those things, I would say. know, those when you’re looking at, so what you saw was just our exemplary celeb culture of fame.
Orlando Wood (31:17)
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (31:35)
which is all fine and dandy until they decide to go move somebody else, move somewhere else because of X, Y, and Z reasons. So then we just kind of have to look at Hollywood. And it’s the thing that makes me sad is that the top two tourism places, because by the way, our tourism is down by over 30 % now as well because of all of these things tied in together. The top two tourism places are Disneyland, which is not in LA. Not sure if people realize that. And the second is The Grove, an outdoor mall.
Orlando Wood (31:58)
Yeah. Yeah.
Really? That’s very interesting.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (32:05)
Yeah, so
we have to really start to like tie all of these things together. And I think if we start like when we start to tie these things together, it’s going to end up in itself being a workforce program, a job stimulus, honestly, because we don’t show Griffith Park. don’t, you know, when we show the beach, we do show the beach for LA, but no one can really go in it right now. You know, so like
Orlando Wood (32:20)
Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (32:29)
Again, we have to develop these things that will be kind of go hand in hand with what we’re dealing with on the Hollywood front.
Orlando Wood (32:37)
Yeah, because I think that there’s it’s funny. I was I was looking I was just driving down Melrose last Saturday and I was like in the 90s when I used to walk down Melrose on a Saturday, it was heaving. I mean, people coming in and out and everybody checking out all the clothes and it was heaving with people. Same thing. I mean, you only have to look at, you know, Venice Beach in the 80s and 90s like look, just look at the shots they had in Baywatch.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (32:46)
Yes, yes, yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (33:03)
I mean,
just helicopter shots down a beach that you can’t see the sand. It’s all just people and umbrellas. you know, and I do think I do part of it, I think is, the reality of, you know, also like social media, which is also cannibalizing the film and television industry as well is also keeping people inside. like, there’s a lot of culture that’s just not happening around LA and
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (33:08)
Yeah.
Yeah.
and commercial industry. Yeah.
Orlando Wood (33:29)
And then add to that the fact that people are not earning enough money because the industry, you know, it’s just, it just becomes a downward spiral quite fast.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (33:34)
Yeah, I mean.
Yeah, I mean, ultimately all of this leads back to, know, people don’t, you know, I don’t think people always make the leap in their mind, but they feel it, especially in their pocketbooks. This all leads back to affordable housing and universal healthcare. So it does not matter how many things we do. We are not going to be able to compete with a workforce in another country that has their healthcare covered and has affordable housing. That’s just the bottom line. We live and I’m, and look, I don’t.
not at all trying to be political in this conversation. The bottom line is when you look at jobs and you look at infrastructure and cost, that’s what it kind of comes down to.
Orlando Wood (34:15)
Yeah, totally agree. It’s, yeah, I have thoughts on healthcare as well. I won’t get into them here. That’s another podcast. We could start a whole new podcast.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (34:21)
Yeah, yeah. like the thing is like these things are actually not political. Yeah, yeah.
And these things aren’t actually political. It’s just one of those things where I want people to start to see and understand like how these are all sort of tied together. And we just need to start demanding more from our from the people who represent us and from the companies that represent us. If we’re going to be able to survive in this beautiful state and then also this in a lot of parts of the country.
Orlando Wood (34:46)
I also think that, you know, on an international level, if anybody is going to be lobbying for, you know, more film and entertainment to happen in America in general, it’s going to have to come from LA. I mean, everybody realizes that the heads of the studios still are the five families that, you know, that one talks to if one’s going to make a deal. You know, and I think that, you know, there is an argument that, you know,
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (34:59)
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (35:09)
The stuff that’s happening in Atlanta, the stuff that’s happening in New Mexico, I there’s the, think that especially on an international level, people have looked in America a little bit as a monolith there, you know, or ⁓ a tri-lith or something, but it was, there were New Yorkers, there were LA people, and there was everything in the middle. And I think that one of the good things is we are seeing, I mean, there’s still the same amount of stuff shooting. So there’s the same amount of people getting those jobs and yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (35:12)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Globally. There’s the same amount of things
shooting globally. Agreed.
Orlando Wood (35:40)
Yeah, yeah. And but I think the good thing is we are seeing things like, you know, when Atlanta came out, unbelievable. And we are seeing things shot in Texas now. And we are seeing. And what’s nice is that you’re seeing, you know, you’re seeing American culture a lot more be a lot more nuanced. And I do think that is a net positive. But I still think that, you know, you’re right. A, we shouldn’t let.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (35:54)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Orlando Wood (36:03)
you know, what has historically been the jewel of our crown die on the vine. But also, I think that that this is the city that’s going to be lobbying for, you know, U.S. film at a national and international level. Yeah, I know. They’ve got to lead by example.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (36:13)
Yeah, a federal option. Again.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. just yeah, I wish we were kind of elevating this to be more of a federal conversation. And I know that those talks are in place right now. But again, we do need it is kind of Atlanta, Georgia. It’s like kind of it is kind of Georgia, New York and L.A. who would sort of lead this. And there’s, you know, so much rich.
locations and shooting happening all over the US. I mean, even the Cherokee Film Commission has incredible locations and incredible database of folks who can work in film. So there’s so much opportunity here that we just need to spend more time looking at it, promoting it and working as a team for sure.
Orlando Wood (36:55)
And what are the blockers now? mean, the two pieces of legislation going through the legislature are SB 630 and AB 1138. As you say, reduces the red tape, but also takes the $350 million rebate and raises it to 750, which to be honest, I still think feels a little low.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (37:15)
Yeah, raises it.
Orlando Wood (37:21)
You know, places like Malta, there is no cap. ⁓ I think, yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (37:21)
It is.
Yeah, I mean, look, we have
to be conscious of our economics in California, particularly right now, because we are in a deficit, including Los Angeles is in a deficit. So I think we just need to be very clear that this is not about a race to the bottom. But I agree with you about some of these things. You know, we’re doing this now. We’ll see how quickly that gets tapped out. And then maybe there’s another opportunity. I would say the blockers right now, it’s just there’s a lot of need in California. There’s a lot of need. It’s not it’s the UC system. It’s
You know, it’s the instability from the federal administration that’s affecting California. So there’s a lot of instability amongst a lot of different industries here. And again, all these things are sort of tied together. Our tourism is down, you know, and it’s people are having to leave the state because they can’t afford to be here anymore. So again, it’s a multitude of things. And so when you’re looking at legislators to back a bill and say, yes, you know, they have to look at $750 million and go, is that going to be?
the right place for me to put my vote. How does this help my constituents and I’m in Fico Valley? And I think the thing that we have to understand even within California is the last time we had a good wine country film, like proper wine country was like, think Keanu Reeves in like 2005 or something, 2015, like a romantic comedy. Each one of these regions could be promoting to writers and to the film industry.
Orlando Wood (38:41)
Yeah. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (38:49)
kind of what their settings are, what they could be doing, how great it is to shoot there. So there’s all this room, but again, I think the legislators have to decide like, is this one piece of the small pie of the whole budget worthy to save this industry or these people? How will this affect my constituency? And to be honest, when we shoot for every dollar spent, it’s a $24 impact, economic impact.
So that means it’s going to the dry cleaners, the coffee shops, the florists, the caterers. So I think that people understand this. This, our part of the pie does pay for itself. And if you do dollar dollar, one dollar equals a dollar 07. So it does pay for itself.
Orlando Wood (39:24)
Right. ⁓
Right,
right. And I guess the people in other parts of the state are likely gonna say, well, yeah, but are we just bailing out studios? And of course, that’s not the reality. You’re bailing out, yeah. And you’re not, you’re bailing out a city that needs that stimulus and you’re bailing out the people who are going to be on the receiving end of that. But also the legislation also has a…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (39:37)
Yeah, is it a handout? Yeah.
Orlando Wood (39:52)
an additional bumper for shoots outside of LA, right? So if you’re shooting anywhere else in the state, it’s 40 % where shoots in LA are 35%.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (39:57)
Yes.
Correct. So you get an uplift. So if you’re shooting outside of Los Angeles, so that’s definitely helpful because we do find that about 70 % of production happens outside of LA city. Obviously LA County still within that 35%, but just outside of anything outside of LA County is another 5 % uplift. So I think it’s just a matter of, you know, making sure that people understand this program pays for itself.
and that the people who are affected is not, it’s not the 1%. It’s not going to your celebrity fancy people. know, that’s, you know, 98 % of this industry is working class and they’re middle class and they’re generational. A lot of people grow up with this business with an opportunity to get in from the ground level without necessarily having all of the degrees that you need to have and for other types of jobs.
Orlando Wood (40:48)
That’s a really interesting point because I think a lot of people talk about the Nepo baby phenomenon with stars and directors and things like that, which a, I think that there’s a natural predisposition. Your parents have been very successful in one industry. It’s likely that you will learn from that. They’re like, I don’t know how to tell you to be successful in anything else. I can only tell you how to be successful at this one thing that I’ve been able to figure out how to do. So, but I think you’re right, know, that when you’re talking about
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (41:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (41:14)
Stan Winston Studios, or you’re talking about ⁓ John Williams, or you’re talking about these places, Industrial Light and Magic, you’re talking about people who have been jobbing workers and craftspeople. And they’ve learned it from their parents, and especially in dying arts, like physical matte painting and things like that. It’s, and…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (41:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Orlando Wood (41:39)
Yeah, that’s a very good point.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (41:41)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of this is generational. think if we’re like exactly to your point, it’s like, you know, my dad was a set dresser and I became a makeup artist or whatever it might be. I think that there’s a lot of folks in that realm who
are supposed to be a good pension job at the end of the day. You work hard, you gig it, so it’s job to job, and you prove yourself on the job every single day so they ask you back the next day, because it’s never guaranteed. And you work your ass off, and now it’s all just sort of falling out from underneath you. And so I think on the positive sides, I think we’ve seen a lot of solidarity. We had over 22,000 sign our petition, and I would say
Orlando Wood (42:10)
Yeah. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (42:25)
probably 80, like 670 to 80 % of it was people in the industry. And then the others 20 to 30 % were outside the industry. And the number one industry to sign our petition outside of being commercials, TV or film were teachers.
Orlando Wood (42:39)
interesting.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (42:40)
Yeah, so again, I think these things all sort of tie into each other and it’s all just, you know, at the end of day, this is all community based work. So when I look at my life and what I’m doing with it, everything I’ve sort of reached for or intentionally gone for has been community based work, whether it’s volunteering or the companies that I’m building.
Orlando Wood (43:02)
And have the unions, speaking of the pensions, mean, have the unions been a blocker or an ally in this?
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (43:08)
I mean, they want their folks to work. I mean, I think that’s the bottom line is that they also want their folks to work. They recognize that the business is down. They have to also be conscious that they represent, some of them represent not just workers in the U.S. in this industry, but also workers in Canada. So I think that they’re very conscious of, okay, we recognize the need in this particular region or area. What can we do there or what can we support? And then expanding it to sort of, okay, what does this look like overall?
Orlando Wood (43:37)
Yeah. Well, that’s fascinating. I’m conscious of not taking up too much of your time, but I do have one question. mean, first of all, I ask, is there anything we didn’t cover that you think that you’d really like to make sure people understand?
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (43:43)
No worries.
No, I think on these particular topics and fronts I think people understand you can go to stayinla.org. You can go to California, caunited.org, which is the other organization behind stay in LA. If you want to volunteer or donate or any of that kind of great stuff, that would be helpful. And then the only other thing I would say is look out for Mavenverse, which is the company I’m currently launching. Yeah. ⁓
Orlando Wood (44:15)
Great, and tell me about Mavenverse.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (44:17)
Mavenverse is basically standardizing and professionalizing communities, clubs and fandoms for brand access. So that means your book clubs, your run clubs, your knitting clubs, whatever it might be, we’re making them accessible for a sponsorship, affiliate, in-time drops, so for brand access. So really allowing brands to get in at the ground level where people are finding joy and finding joy voluntarily rather than being
Orlando Wood (44:24)
Okay.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (44:45)
rather than being algorithmed to.
Orlando Wood (44:47)
Well, that’s very good. So it’s sort of like a patreon for for I’m sorry if you want me to cut cut that out. I’ll happily I won’t plug patreon.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (44:52)
Yeah, it’s like, Patreon meets. No, no, that’s fine. And no, it’s like, no, absolutely.
Patreon’s done a great job of what they’re doing. It’s really like Patreon and Meetup had a baby in a way. ⁓ So yeah, we’re a bit more grass, like ground, ground level. And also, you know, Patreon really focuses on the influencer and their fans. We’re really focused on the communities themselves and trying to somewhat detach from a influencer who’s
Orlando Wood (45:03)
Right, okay, great.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (45:21)
Shocking shit every day who doesn’t know what things that they’re selling next
Orlando Wood (45:25)
Right, gotcha. Okay, well fantastic. Congratulations and good luck with that. ⁓ I do have one more question that I’ve been asking everybody and it’s that, you know, the great Dan Wieden the late great Dan Wieden had this quote where he said, you’re useless to me unless you fail big at least twice. ⁓ And I always liked that. It created a very supportive environment at Wieden and Kennedy. You know, you always…
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (45:26)
Yeah.
Thanks. Thank you.
Mmm.
Orlando Wood (45:48)
felt like your boss couldn’t really yell at you that badly when you messed up because his boss suggested that failure might be the making of you. Can you think of and would you be willing to admit any time that you failed and then what you learned from it? Fail big, ideally.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (46:01)
Yeah, mean, you’re literally,
yeah, I mean, you’re, you’re watching me do it right now, actually. You just happened to catch me on a day where I have been working on launching Mavenverse for, I had the idea and the inclination a few months ago, and I knew that it was going to be a big and important one. And so I’ve been very quietly just building it and trying to launch it.
Orlando Wood (46:06)
Ha ha.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (46:25)
And I think I made the classic mistake of living perfection, get in the way of progress. And, you know, having grown up in the advertising industry and grown up in the community business of also wanting to make sure you’re being empathetic, but then also being like high design, having a high standard for things. And I think what I’m doing is I’ve lost time because of it. And I would say,
You know, I always expect there to be competition, but I think it’s important to sort of be one of the first, you know, out to market. And I’ve sort of been so mired in, mired, mirrored, mired, in mired. Yeah. ⁓ in all of the, yeah, of all the, of all the things that I, I haven’t missed the boat.
Orlando Wood (46:56)
Yeah.
Yeah, mired, mired, yeah, go for it. Free format, nobody here’s gonna check you.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (47:12)
But I definitely today realized the fuck up and realized that like I’m being too precious. And also I think it’s a classic kind of woman thing. Like a lot of people would stereotype where it’s like women are so thoughtful and they’re trying to get it to that where a lot of like men are just like, no, I just fucking launched it and just told people I know how to do it already. So I think there’s a little bit of that stereotype happening right now. And so I think for me, this is like a
Orlando Wood (47:31)
Yeah
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (47:38)
I’ve had enough businesses. I’ve had a lot of failures. I’ve closed a lot of things off on purpose, but I think this is like today. I’m so passionate about what I’m doing on the advocacy front, and I think I need to move some of that expedition expediting speed and kind of grunt to my actual business because I always put myself last.
Orlando Wood (47:59)
Right. Yeah, you find that actually it’s the forward Momentum, 20 % forward Momentum is better than 100 % thinking it over.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (48:08)
Yeah, yeah. And I have a lot of people who are supportive, but want to like talk to me about it. And I’m like, I just need action people now. I need action people. I’ve done enough thinking. I’ve done enough throwing it at the fucking wall. We got to like, I just got to move. I have to move now. And I realized my huge mistake today. And so I’m before and after this call, I’m scrambling to just fix it and move forward.
Orlando Wood (48:15)
Yeah.
Yeah, somebody said to me once that it’s actually a of honor. If you put something out and it’s not perfect and people still use it, it shows that you’ve really solved a need because they’re willing to put up with the crapness of it. That’s how important solving this need is that you’ve made them, you know, deal it, you know, if there’s lag or it doesn’t work or the buttons are misaligned or whatever else and that that’s actually a good barometer.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (48:43)
Hmm. Okay.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s interesting. I’ve seen that happen and I’ve experienced that, but I guess I never put it into that perspective and that’s a great perspective to remember.
Orlando Wood (49:08)
Yeah, and probably just never let yourself. You’re like, yeah, that sounds like a great idea for other people. I’m gonna ship it perfect.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (49:14)
Well, the funny thing is, like, I’m not like precious. I’m not a precious person. Like, I don’t care. Like you want to go be in that press release, go, you go for it. Like, you, you messed up on that word with the client. I don’t care. Like I’m not a precious person. And for some strange reason, I’ve just fucked this up today or like fucked this up to where I haven’t launched already. And I should have launched by already for the, all the exact reasons that we’re saying. So I’m mad at myself, but it’s easily correctable.
And I just gotta have a little bit more of my own, like this, you know, when I’m talking to legislators, I just need to have some more of that energy.
Orlando Wood (49:50)
Right. Yeah. Well, that’s fantastic as well. That like, you know, doing one thing has completely shifted your thinking about another thing. It’s a it’s another great example that forward Momentum, no matter where it’s coming from, actually begets forward Momentum. Action begets action. Yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (50:04)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah,
absolutely. And I think that just your values, your every, like once you’ve really centered your values and understand, they kind of move through everything you do. And that’s sort of like a through line that I try to always like make sure I stay tethered to.
Orlando Wood (50:17)
Yeah.
That’s fantastic, I love that. And we’ve never asked a question and had someone be just the other side of the fuck up. I love that, I love that we’re fucking up in real time now, I love it. ⁓
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (50:24)
Yeah.
And to me it’s huge. I’m yeah, and
I’m sure like other people are like, it’s no big deal. Just like launch today and you’ll be fine. But like to me it was a huge fuck up because I consult for people. I, you know, I’ve helped people open businesses. I’ve opened my own businesses. So the fact that like I just got shaken this morning so hard, I mean, there was a point I was like, maybe I should cancel this podcast and then I was like, well, no, because I’m going to talk about me in verse.
Orlando Wood (50:40)
yeah.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (50:55)
And that is a helpful thing.
Orlando Wood (50:57)
Yeah, absolutely. Well,
the moment you launch, we’ll have you back on and we can have it just all be all about my. well, great, fantastic. If you have the next hour, we can we can fill it with that.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (51:02)
I I launched like five minutes ago while we were on.
Yeah.
Great. Just go to mavenverse.com. You can sign up, you know, be, on the lookout further. ⁓ Well, thank you for having me. This has been lovely and it’s been lovely to reconnect with you and meet your staff. So thank you.
Orlando Wood (51:17)
Fantastic. ⁓ Well, that’s amazing.
And with you.
Absolutely. I’m, you know, I’ve just been, been very, so impressed. mean, from as far back as well, I mean, obviously, you know, for Linden and you, you were always great. even before you started advocating for all the right things, but I’ve been exceptionally impressed with, with your advocacy from free the work to stay in LA. I think it’s incredibly admirable. I’m thrilled that you’re starting something new.
And just thank you for doing this. I really appreciate you giving us your time and it’s just been a pleasure.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (51:54)
Absolutely. Anybody can do it.
Orlando Wood (51:56)
Absolutely. Well,
that’s the message. That’s the takeaway.
Pamala Buzick Kim (she/her) (52:02)
Yes, exactly. Thank you.
Orlando Wood (52:04)
Awesome, well thank you so much, really appreciate it.
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