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Shine On Success
Shine on Success is a dynamic, story-driven podcast where extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and resilient change-makers share their journeys to success, revealing both the challenges and the strategies that led to their breakthroughs. Each episode offers a unique blend of inspiring personal stories, practical business insights, and actionable advice, allowing our guests to connect with an engaged, growth-oriented audience ready to be motivated and uplifted. By joining us, you’ll not only have the opportunity to showcase your expertise and inspire listeners but also to be part of a powerful platform that celebrates ambition, innovation, and the courage to turn dreams into reality.
Shine On Success
Overcoming the Odds: A Journey to Impact a Billion Lives
In this episode of Shine on Success, host Dionne Malush sits down with Evan J. Cholfin, the inspiring CEO and founder of Luxhammer, to explore his remarkable journey in the entertainment industry. From using a video camera and Legos as a child to producing content that reaches over a billion people, Evan’s path has been filled with both creative triumphs and personal challenges. Listen as Evan shares how overcoming obstacles, such as his father's illness and his own health scare, led to unexpected success and growth. Discover the powerful lessons he's learned about resilience, the importance of creativity, and the joy of helping others. Tune in to hear about his unique projects, including a record-breaking GPS artwork campaign and a superhero adventure film that makes kids excited to brush their teeth. Join us for an inspiring conversation that proves the power of pushing through adversity and following your passion.
Connect with Evan here:
Website: https://www.luxhammer.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luxhammer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxhammerllc/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/luxhammer/
Connect with Dionne Malush
- Instagram: @dionnerealtyonepgh
- LinkedIN: /in/dionnemalush
- Website: www.dionnemalush.com
- Facebook: /dmalush
- LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/dionnemalush
Have you ever faced a significant challenge in your career or personal life that seemed overwhelming at first but ultimately led to an unexpected success or growth opportunity? Think about Evan's journey in the entertainment industry, overcoming obstacles to produce award-winning content. Share your experience with us in the comments or on social media.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Shine on Success.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, dionne Malish. Today we have an incredible guest with us, evan J Cholfin, the CEO and founder of Luxhammer. Evan has an extraordinary background in creating and producing film, tv and branded entertainment reaching over a billion people globally One billion people. Let's dive into his journey and learn how he's made such a significant impact in the entertainment industry. Welcome, evan, I'm so excited to have you on my show. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much, really happy to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm excited. It's so nice. I'm so glad that we met. It's been a little almost a year now since I started my first Super Connector and that's where we met and I'm very happy to know you and you know, I'm glad that you took the time today because I know you're very busy just to spend a half an hour with me. So thank you for that. So let's get started. My very first question for you is what is one thing you would like people to know about you?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question. I would love you know, for folks to know, that throughout the years of everything that I've worked on, Everything that I've worked on, I've been very fortunate to work on some pretty amazing projects that I really ultimately enjoy the creative process. I enjoy working with creative people and that's really what gets me up in the morning, that's my drive and gets me excited about doing what I do.
Speaker 1:So I'm very creative. I don't know if you know that about me, but I actually went to Art Institute in 1989. I graduated, so I'm very creative. But this last year, since dealing with grief, I feel like my creativity is through the roof. I don't know what's going on, but it's attracting me to people like you, right, with this incredible creative energy, and you've had a lot of success in this business, and being creative, I'm sure for you, is important, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it's definitely gotten me through my own journey and some challenges as well. I can definitely connect with you on that.
Speaker 1:So take us. Can you take us through something where you've been through adversity and push through to get to the other side?
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Well, I can name a few things. One I was running the international arm of a company called Stories, a joint venture between Sega, the video game company, and Hakuhato DY Group, which is the seventh or sixth largest advertising agency globally, and running three different divisions of the company.
Speaker 2:And at the time my father actually got sick. He was diagnosed with cancer and then he ended up having a stroke, and so I was going back and forth between San Diego and Los Angeles trying to take care of him. I was responsible for taking care of him both financially and medically, and it was very challenging to see my father go from really a brilliant man, who could probably tell you any sports stat imaginable about any sport, to really just I would say, a kid, and seeing that degeneration was very challenging. And having to take care of him while I was running this company and I was facing my own health challenges at the same time, I was actually diagnosed with this rare sleep disorder called REM sleep disorder, and I was told that it's actually a marker for Parkinson's, that somewhere around 50 or 60 percent of people who have this disorder develop Parkinson's within somewhere around 10 years. It was kind of a big wake up call in my own life in terms of what I was doing and what I wanted to do so?
Speaker 1:how old were you when you found that out? How long ago so?
Speaker 2:this was. I was about 39, I think. When this happened and when I was diagnosed, my father got sick. He passed away about four years ago, back in February, and so that was about six years ago. I started taking care of him. That was definitely taking its toll and it was certainly a challenge on both fronts. And then when my father passed away, right after that happened, he passed away on. It was the Super Bowl of. It was February 2nd 2020. So you can imagine, about a week later, covid hit.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know, so fast right there.
Speaker 2:It was an extreme challenge for me and I still was able to continue to work on some pretty big campaigns from branded side and work on some film and TV based on Sega's properties, and but I realized that I needed to take a step back and take care of my health. I realized that you know, you can't help others if you don't take care of yourself in your own life, and I actually went on leave and decided to actually to leave permanently my position and after about a year or so I restarted my own company and it was about time to do that. And now I'm working on some pretty incredible projects. I'm working with the producer of Jerry Maguire and Greta Shoman on a movie called you have Arrived, which is aptly named and that's written, directed by Daniel Robert Cohn, who's an incredible filmmaker in his own right too overcome, who's an incredible filmmaker in his own right too. So I feel very fortunate, very blessed, to have the opportunity to work on some really great projects with him and some other very talented filmmakers.
Speaker 1:So you have been through a lot and you know one thing I've learned through adversity is there is always something amazing on the other side if you push through right. And so, for me, losing my father was, in my whole 56 years, the hardest thing. To see your tough guy get weak, you know, he got so weak, he was so sick, he wasn't eating and he loved to eat and he loves sports too, like we used to have sports talk all the time and he would live 600 miles from me. So during all the Steeler games and the Penguin games when they were playing, we would call each other and play by, play and scream and holler, and at Super Bowls we cried Like I miss him so much.
Speaker 1:And so you know I feel your pain too, because you know, as a guy with his dad like and I'm a girl with my dad like, dads are important and you know I don't know how people don't love their dads as much as we do, but some dads don't treat their kids right. But I know my dad. He was the coolest guy and I can't even. It's coming up on one year and I have to be honest with you. I don't want the one year to end, because when I say like it's only been 10 months or it's only been, you know, 11 months, and then all of a sudden it's a year, and so when people see you grieving, they might look at you like, oh, it's been, you know it's been long enough. Is it ever long enough, evan?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I don't either. I just don't. Life is crazy. I'm lucky to have had him for 56 years. So I look at that and think I'm so lucky that I had him for every minute of my life until that point. So let's talk about some good stuff. So what defining moment made you realize you wanted to pursue a career in the entertainment industry?
Speaker 2:Well, it actually goes back to my dad a little bit. I was using his video camera and my Legos when I was five years old.
Speaker 1:Are you kidding me? Legos, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was when I started, when I was pretty young.
Speaker 1:That is so cute. I think Legos. If you hear this, you should.
Speaker 2:You know they should make a little video out of you as a little boy.
Speaker 1:That is adorable, because you never know what you're going to. You know what somebody's dreams are and Legos are playing a part in your dream. I love that. So what motivates you on a daily basis? I know you said you like working with creative people, but what motivates you to get up now? Are you feeling sick at all? Like, do you feel okay through this diagnosis? Are you okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am fortunate to take some medicine to help me control it, which helps, and I haven't been experiencing any symptoms further than that the end of the K Parkinson's or anything like that. So I've been fortunate on that front too, and there's a good chance that I won't get it, so I'm remaining very positive about it.
Speaker 1:There's 40% chance that you won't get it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a big percentage, so you got to focus on that side.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, and I've chosen to focus on that and to answer your first question. You know, the thing that gets me out of bed. It's you know I mentioned that creativity and work with creative people before, but you know it's also helping other people. You know, I really that's something that I've always done since I was little, and I really enjoy just being there and being of service to other people.
Speaker 2:Throughout my career I've done that both from a hobby side, but also, you know, and philanthropy side, but then also from a career perspective as well.
Speaker 1:So what's one of the favorite projects you've ever worked on, like you've been on projects like the Irishman and Moneyballing, what is your favorite?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard to choose. It's like picking between your children, right? Yeah, yeah, but maybe one or two that you may not know about. I got the opportunity to work with Japan Airlines and I was a creative director on this campaign, and they wanted to raise awareness about the airline, and so I had this idea to create this global artwork. Idea to create this global artwork. And so I came across this artist named Yasan, who's Japanese, and he became a perfect brand ambassador. So we asked him to get involved, but back before our campaign, he traveled all across Japan by bus, by train, by foot, by however he could, and tracked his GPS data on his phone and he uploaded that GPS data to Google Maps that spelled out the words marry me across all of Japan, and that's how he posted his girlfriend at the time, which is incredible.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness. I never heard of anything like that. That is amazing.
Speaker 2:He set a Guinness World Record for world's largest GPS drawing, which was awesome. So we gave him the opportunity to break his world record 14 times over, this time traveling from city to city, and he went to 19 cities across six continents and met people in each city, and they each pushed a button to activate the next leg of his journey, basically tracking his GPS data on his flights. And then he got home and showed his wife and his two beautiful children. This was a couple of years after, and on Google Earth he uploaded the GPS data and it basically spelled out the word peace on Earth, and so that was the campaign Peace on Earth.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible. That's something you have to be in love with. That whole idea. How cool is that Wow.
Speaker 2:How we pulled it off. It was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:So it's all a story, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really cool because and we learned quite a bit, you know, in detail, working with Japan Airlines and we learned quite a bit, you know, in detail, working with Japan Airlines.
Speaker 2:You know they were such great partners in helping us to figure out the flights, even, you know, and getting from one place to another, sometimes you could only fly, you know, at certain times during the week and so we had to really plan what cities and adjust. You know the E and the P and you know the different letters and we learned we couldn't fly over China or Russia because you're not allowed to track GPS data over, I'm sure, and so you know our sea is kind of like this. You know it was really fun, yeah, despite the challenges, and we sent a documentary team real small team basically follow him, document his whole journey, and we got probably 3,000 hours of footage and pictures and all kinds of content and we had to distill a lot of the footage into a five-minute basically highlight reel to showcase what we accomplished. And that was essentially a holiday card that we released during the holidays wow, for the airline yeah for the airlines.
Speaker 1:That is such a great story. I love that can we? Still find it online on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you look up the Japan Airlines YASAN Peace on Earth Y-A-S-S-A-N.
Speaker 1:Y-A-S-S-S-E-A-N. Peace on Earth. I'll definitely share that link in the when we post it. That's incredible. I've never even heard of it, so I'm so excited just to watch it myself. So, let me ask you about another question, about do you have a mentor?
Speaker 2:I am fortunate to have and have had some incredible mentors. The late Larry Terman, who produced the Graduate American History Acts, was a mentor of mine for many years, and then Ed Saxon, who produced Silence of the Lambs an adaptation, kathy Shulman who produced the Woman, king and Crash Definitely some mentors that I really look up to and have learned so much from. I've been fortunate, you know, I was able to meet them through my master's program. That I did at usc, the peter stark producing program wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:So I know we talk about thinking on our show a lot and one of my favorite parts is they say seek expert counsel. So for you, as successful as you are, why do you continue to still seek counsel and coaching and mentoring in your career? Why do you do that?
Speaker 2:Well, it's a Japanese word I love, called Kaisen, and it's basically the idea that you're always learning and growing. It's an iterative process throughout your entire life, that you're a little, you're improving yourself a little bit each day, and I subscribe to that concept. I think it's very powerful and you can always learn new things and grow.
Speaker 1:And I do it all the time. I feel like I'm a forever learner, but I love learning and I feel so good about it all the time because I'm always better than I was yesterday. So I saw something the other day. Something said when you're looking at life like you can't see the changes, but when you look back at it, you realize how much you've changed and grown. You know like right now everything still seems like, oh, you're doing all this stuff, but you know two, three, five years from now you look back and think, wow, look, how far I've come. It's such a great way of looking at life. So I want to talk to you about a strategy for success in producing unforgettable content that resonates with audiences that you're working with. So what is a strategy that you use?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, one of the strategies my company and I'm known for working on some strategic PR campaigns that have a video component to them that have been very successful, or branded entertainment campaigns as they're known within our industry, but they essentially are movies that are entertainment first and advertisement second. They're not trying to sell you something, they're trying to entertain you, and so, you know, I worked most recently on one with a startup, this incredible company called Supermouth, and they're an oral health care brand, and so we wanted to inspire kids to brush their teeth and make parents' lives a little easier in the process, of course, and so we made this incredible film, and, you know, it was really this kind of like a Guardians of the Galaxy for kids and a fun adventure. The superheroes happen to be dentists.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and the bad guy is named Cavitar and he's spreading sugar bugs throughout the universe.
Speaker 1:That's great. You're so creative, so much creativity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It was a blast to work on, and so we we created the film and we launched it just like a movie premiere.
Speaker 2:We had a premiere at a film festival called Dances with Films here in Los Angeles, which is a top 10 film festival, and we had a live event actually, where we actually had kids come to the event and watch a movie and then afterwards Cavatar shows up and he's hijacked the theater and spread sugar bugs throughout the lobby, hijacked the theater and spread sugar bugs throughout the lobby, and so the kids, the superheroes, are there too and they help recruit the kids to find the sugar bugs and capture them and put them in a containment unit. It's really cute filmed all that so they got to be part of this interactive show that we kind of made for them. And then we also did a music video based on a song that was in the movie and some other content as well that we released. And then we put all of that in the press. We had a PR release, a press release, and that really hit kind of big and we reached just over 1 billion unique visitors monthly across media with that, and so it was pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:1 billion per month yeah.
Speaker 1:Massive exposure, amazing, and something that you can have fun with and be super creative.
Speaker 2:That is amazing creativity.
Speaker 1:I love this so much I feel like my cheeks are starting to hurt from smiling. It's just, it's so cool to hear your story and you know, realize that you can do whatever you want to do and our audience knows that's something that I love. Sharing is that people that do push through things. We all have stuff right. Everyone goes through some. Some are worse than others and you know some are just. You know they can't get out of their own way. They stay in that space all the time, but we are proof positive that you can push through even the hardest times of our lives. So do you have any daily habits or routines that help you be successful and keep a positive mindset?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things that I try to do just to well daily habits I always have my coffee in the morning.
Speaker 1:I'm loving the caffeine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I like to organize my schedule by blocking out time on my calendar and I think that really helps just to stay organized because I have a lot going on and it helps me to just offload so I don't have to remember every single thing I have to do. I could just look at my calendar and, okay, now this is the next task I need to accomplish. So that that helps. And then when I finish a task, I add it to my quote unquote win list and that's basically a list of things you know, my little wins to big wins that I've accomplished, and those are the things I like to share. You know we're in a group together and like to share and we celebrate each other's wins, so that's something I really like to do each day.
Speaker 1:It's a great idea I'd love that, because I think the people don't give themselves credits for all the things they do in a day there's a lot to do in a day in our lives and I think, think that I love that idea.
Speaker 2:I might have to borrow that.
Speaker 1:That's the daily wins Cause I know Chris had posted that a lot. What are your wins? But your daily wins Because I have a lot of them, like today. This is my win I'm I get to talk to you for a half an hour today. It's the best part of my whole day. I love it and it makes me feel really good. So how do you define success for yourself? What is the next thing for Evan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, success to me really is about. To me it's really you know I've defined it in different ways, but I think it's really about connecting with other people and building relationships with other people. I really think that you know being here on this earth, you know it's pretty amazing to get the opportunity to meet so many people and you know there's so many definitions of success. But I really think that getting that, having the opportunity to meet, sometimes you know whether you work with them or not is really exciting to me.
Speaker 1:We get to meet some pretty cool people as we network throughout the world. So, what's next for Luxhammer? You have any new exciting projects on the horizon that you can share?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll mention you have arrived, which we're really excited about. I'm also working with some really great brands right now on some projects. A special shout out to Tortoise and Hairsports. I'm really enjoying working with them and coming up with some great creative for some of their projects as well. A couple other things that haven't been announced yet. Oh yeah, one animated series actually based on my wife's book series that I'm really excited about as well.
Speaker 1:That's called Kitty oh, I love that. That should be very fun. So, just, I'm so excited. How do our listeners find you? How do they? Oh, I want to ask you one more question. So, how small a project to how big. So we've seen you have japan air right movies. You've been a part of. How small a project do you take? Do you take individual projects, like if I wanted to have?
Speaker 2:create a video for my business or someone I knew wanted to. You do that. Going to move the needle for your brand is what we love to work on. That's going to help grow your company or your brand. I think that's where we excel. So if there's individual videos or if there's content that we can work on together over a longer period of time, it really just depends on what the needs are and what the goals are. Ultimately, you know, most people are looking to grow their businesses somehow, so that's what we're focused on doing, and you can definitely do that through content.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? I have not.
Speaker 2:I've been to Pennsylvania, but not Pittsburgh specifically, I need to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Silence of the Lambs house was recently listed. I literally grew up about 15, 20 minutes from that house. Wow, it's kind of a scary house. Yeah right, there's a lot of film happening in Pittsburgh throughout the years and I think they've grown a lot in the city. There's a really cool background, a lot of great places to go, so I just wondered if you had ever been there, so make sure, if you ever come here.
Speaker 1:you let me know, I'll take you to dinner. On Mount Washington you can see the most amazing view of the city. I would love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be amazing Great locations out there, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. There's some crazy places and there's some amazingly beautiful ones. So, just like every city, we have our thing. You know, the three rivers coming together is so unique and it's such a cool thing. The best thing I think about living in Pittsburgh is the rivers boating. If you take advantage of it, you can have such a wonderful summer because it's so fun to be on the rivers here in Pittsburgh. We don't have the ocean, but we at least have that.
Speaker 2:Thank you for being on here with me today, and sharing your journey with us.
Speaker 1:For our listeners, you can find Evan online and stay updated with his latest projects. Can you share with us how they can get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, latest projects. Can you share with us how they can get ahold of you? Yeah, if you go to luxhammercom and the contact info should be on there. So it's L-U-X, the word hammercom, all one word, and you can just hit us up. And you can also follow us on Instagram at luxhammer LLC.
Speaker 1:So, for our listeners, don't forget to like, subscribe and share. Shine On Success with anyone you know who's going through adversity. If we can help just one person, this podcast is a success. Thank you, evan. I appreciate you coming all the way in from Santa Monica, california, one of my favorite places in the whole country. Thank you.
