Creative ambition, priced in real life.
What’s The Rate? follows Breon Lyons in candid conversations with artists and creative professionals navigating New York work, money, identity, and momentum. The show moves between personal career stories and practical resource episodes on contracts, production, DJing, creator tools, and getting paid.
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What’s The Rate? is an artist-to-artist record of creative life in New York, focused less on finished glamour than on the scramble underneath it. Breon Lyons hosts conversations with actors, filmmakers, DJs, musicians, models, founders, and entertainment professionals who can explain what the path feels like while it is still being built. The show is loose, warm, and direct. It listens for the practical details that usually get skipped. Guests talk about internships, unpaid setup work, self-tapes, post-grad uncertainty, film sets, social media outreach, crowdfunding, delayed payments, legal protection, and the small acts of nerve that move a career forward. One episode with Rugby Otis Productions turns indie filmmaking into a conversation about TikTok connections, Kickstarter guidance, flyers across Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the discomfort of becoming visible online. Another follows Merced, also known as DJ Mode, from teenage certainty to Scratch DJ Academy, where showing up early meant sweeping floors, setting up equipment, and waiting for a chance to teach. Jonathan Cruz’s acting story centers on family influence, SceneBot submissions, New York distance from Los Angeles, and the long patience of being seen. David Akinyemi brings the business side into focus through FaceCard, modeling work, big-brand campaigns, and the hard lag between booking the job and receiving the money. Marcy Cleary’s resource episode frames legal help as essential infrastructure for artists, not a luxury. Rebekah Strauss brings the set-level view, speaking as a writer, director, and first AD about leadership, gender expectations, and making the film happen. The show also turns inward, with Lyons reflecting on courage, self-trust, faith, and building a stronger relationship with oneself. It is not a celebrity-interview machine. It is a working notebook for people trying to make creative ambition livable.
Made for: For emerging actors, filmmakers, musicians, DJs, models, and creative founders who want honest career talk with usable context. It especially suits listeners navigating New York’s early-career arts scene.
What sets it apart: The show pairs peer-level artist interviews with resource conversations about money, contracts, production, and self-protection. Its perspective is intimate because the questions come from inside the same early-career creative pressure.
A show where we get into the raw and real of pursuing creative success as an indie artist in their 20s in New York City. This podcast is produced by Gotham Production Studios and is a part of The Gotham Network. https://www.gothamproductionstudios.com/
Breon Lyons asks the questions your self-funded creative career keeps adding to the group chat.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
TikTok reach, sidewalk flyers, and the grind of building a creative company in New York.
What's The Rate? follows Rugby Otis Productions in Brooklyn, with Sadie Prenda and Jacob Boatsman at the center and Chris Stucker in Los Angeles, and it keeps its eye on what it takes for a self-funded creative company to grow in New York City.
A grounded conversation about creative ambition, set authority, and the practical work of helping an indie film get made.
Rebecca Strauss's episode traces a path from NYU's dramatic writing program into the less romantic, more practical realities of making work as a writer, director, and first assistant director.
A sincere Season 2 opener about self-trust, courage, and an unsettled rollout plan.
Breon Lyons opens Season 2 with a clear aim: move into 2026 with more confidence, leave behind what no longer serves, and lean toward what does.
On What's The Rate?, Breon Lyons asks finance coach and former investment banker Julie Ferguson how indie artists can manage student loans, investments, insurance, taxes, and spending habits.
Rugby Otis Productions tells Breon Lyons how a Brooklyn roommate setup, a 52-Films challenge, and a refusal to wait for permission turned into a working indie company.
What's The Rate?
Actor Jonathan Cruz shares his journey from making home videos to pursuing acting in New York City, including his experience with the SceneBot app.
David Akinyemi discusses FaceCard, an AI tool that helps creatives get paid faster and handle business tasks, inspired by his own modeling experiences with delayed payments.
Piatt Pund discusses the release of his second studio album 'IDK' and the creative journey behind it.
Entertainment lawyer Marcie Cleary discusses the importance of having a lawyer for indie artists and entertainers to protect themselves.
What's the Rate?
["Breon Lyons opens What's The Rate?
Actress Chloe Mutebi discusses her journey into acting, the differences between theatre and film, and trusting one's talent.
A conversation with content creator Kate about her journey from PR professional to full-time creator and the realities of pursuing creative success in New York City.
Host Breon Lyons interviews multi-hyphenate artist Sydney Lolita Cusic about her background, artistic journey, and the themes of hustle, shame, and ego.