From the Mailroom to Agency Chief, Ben Press Is Still Top of His Hollywood Class

[inline:press] While Bros hold down jobs of all types, there is no career aspiration more common among us than the prospect of becoming a successful entrepreneur. What Bro hasn't had an idea for a new business and dreamed of making it big -- and yes, striking it rich? And so, every Wednesday, BroBible picks the mind of a successful Bro entrepreneur and discovers what it takes to turn a simple idea into a thriving business. You've already met Maverik Lacrosse's John Gagliardi, Tap'd Founder Craig Zucker, New York party promoters Derek and Daniel Koch, TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, and sports agent Doug Eldridge. Up next is another agent, though one of the Hollywood variety. Fresh out of college, Ben Press left D.C. in the early '90s to take a job at legendary Los Angeles agency ICM. He rose through the ranks there and at other agencies in town, building a reputation as one of the most powerful -- and stand-up -- agents in town. A few years ago, Press and his good friend Michael McConnell struck out on their own to launch Fortitude, a powerful boutique agency with big ambitions (that's Press on the right in the photo from Sundance above, McConnell on the left). Press spoke to BroBible recently about his career path, why Hollywood is like one big fraternity, and why he's a lot more like President Obama than Ari Gold. Here's Part 1 of the interview. Check back later today for Part 2. BroBible: How'd you get your start in the industry? Ben Press: I got into this business by happenstance. My very good friend was in this business and he said, "Oh, you should be an agent," and this literally was while I was pursuing another career in politics, working on the Hill. And I thought that was going to be my career to be. I had just graduated from Middlebury College and moved right to D.C. and hit the ground running. But my friend said, "Oh, you should be an agent. It's a great career." And I knew nothing about agenting. So on a whim, I flew to Los Angeles and I met with at the time CAA, ICM, UTA. I met with 12 people at CAA for the training program and did the same thing elsewhere and the first people to say, "When can you start?" was ICM. And I thought this was serendipity. Why not? I'll take this offer and run with it. It was an entirely different career path but I was kind of in the mood at that point, especially at all of 22 years old, 23 years old, to be a little bit more open to things than if it had been down the road and I had gotten trapped into a career I wasn't into.

And how did you move up at ICM? Ben Press: So what I did was start in the mailroom, the proverbial mailroom. I pushed the mail cart for four months. I knew the desk of the agent I had to get was -- what you do from the mailroom is you get promoted to an assistant -- I knew I had to be the assistant to this guy Ed Limato, who is a godlike agent, just an extraordinary talent list and amazing mentor. And I end up getting his desk, which was a real plum gig coming right out of the mailroom. And my desk was attached to his in his office, and I was there for two and a half years. And it was an amazing learning process. I was then promoted off of his desk after two and half years being his first assistant to be a head talent agent at ICM. And it was a great experience. I learned from the best. It got me my relationships with, at the time, the people who were starting out like me in the studios and networks, and those people grew into the current presidents of production, the current heads of studios, so it really bore fruit. It's almost like my fraternity class around town in this industry became the leaders that they are today. And look, that's an inspiration for me. I knew for in my career, as much as I was an employee at ICM, which I was very thrilled to be, and then I went to go co-head the talent department at Paradigm, which was a smaller agency but a great, powerhouse operation, where I got to learn slightly different skills. Instead of being at a slight larger agency, I got to learn how to maneuver in a smaller setting. I actually went from Paradigm after three years there to Innovative Artists, which was a mid-sized agency, where I got to sort of learn to bob and weave in that kind of environment. So I really got to learn all different aspects of the agency business: How to operate in different environments, how to operate amongst different sizes of agencies, how to work it with buyers to that end outside the agency and get their attention for wherever I was at. And it was just a great experience. Why was the time right to start your own agency? Ben Press: I realized -- like the people I grew up with in the business who were on the buyer side [and had been] promoted [and had] become heads of production -- that it was time for me to graduate to become a leader in my side of the business. And I launched Fortitude, my agency, with my partner and very good friend Michael McConnell, who is an extraordinary agent, and we had a like vision of what we wanted to do. It wasn't just to have something to run it. That in itself would be hollow. We knew that there was a need in this business amongst these factory-like agencies, which by the way now are really definitive, because Endeavor and William Morris were both very big unto themselves, have now merged. And there's CAA and there's UTA and you have these large places with multiple agents, multiple coasts, international. We wanted what would be equivalent, and this is my vernacular, is the NetJets of agencies. I wanted an operation where unlike flying let's say first class on a jumbo jet, you could come with us and have the brand of representation that was like NetJets: streamlined, very effective, highly powerful operation connected to the highest echelons of the business, anyone who runs the studio, runs the network. Those are all relationships, my partner's and mine. So we were almost able to have a wholesale operation. Instead of dealing with middle management or starting with the bottom, we go right to the top, connect our clients directly to the people who have the power to pull the lever and kind of make something happen. And it's been extremely successful and it's been really rewarding because we're a boutique size with a very powerhouse kind of demeanor. How big are you guys? [inline:f2]Press: We have about 40 clients. There are four full-time employees here, including myself and my partner. We're going to grow in a very measured fashion. First of all, the business has really picked up now that there's no labor strike. Things have really kind of quelled in that area. It's really nice. We launched amidst the atmosphere of a writer's strike. And then immediately after a de facto actor's strike, so all these things, we still grew, and we still managed to really put our roots down during this very turbulent period in the industry. Now we have for the first time in our existence, full wind in our sails, and we can take advantage. I guess it all worked out for the best because now we're so much more mature and grown than where we started and now to be able to take advantage of this trend in trajectory the business is going on. Even though there's a crazy economy, luckily the entertainment industry is still a repository of so much success, they say entertainment, alcohol, and firearms -- sometimes those industries tend to still chug very powerfully. What kind of clients do you guys mostly go after? Press: We represent actors, directors, writers, producers. We really like to have clients who want to have careers in multiple areas of expertise. We love it when an actor client wants to direct. Or a director client wants to produce. We think that in this industry, no one pathway should be the only pathway of exploration. We want to mine areas of not just artistic success but obviously monetary success for our clients and anywhere they want. If they don't want to, that's fine, but we foster that. We really want that to be a big point of definition of how we represent our clients. Can you give us an example of one of your clients who are doing? Press: Absolutely. We have a client named Mario Van Peebles. Mario is a director who directed a feature film this past year for Bob Yari's company, the Yari Group. He also directed three episodes of "Damages," two episodes of "Law & Order," had a recurring role on "Damages," and has a vital career behind and in front of the camera that is an extraordinary in these times to be working on those full pistons in those areas simultaneously. We're very proud of that. [inline:joss]There's also our client Joss Stone, who is a Grammy-winning singer and we've crossed her over theatrically to she now has an extraordinary career recurring role on "The Tudors" for Showtime. We're packaging a feature film for her in which she'll star in, and again, like I said, a Grammy-winning singer, but now a really recognized artist-actress. Again, we're very proud of that. People in Hollywood always tell us that at some point in your career, something happens where everything just clicks and you suddenly say to yourself, "Oh, I get it. This is how this town works." Have you had that career epiphany moment? Press: For me, personally, it's when we were up and running as Fortitude, in which I'm a founder and partner, when I realized that I had the helm and was, granted with my partner, in steering the fortune of this agency. Steering our path. Not being under somebody else. Not relying on somebody else. Truly having both hands, white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. That was an epiphany that the course of action on behalf of clients, on behalf of garnering offers, on behalf of packaging projects that I had wanted for so long as I was growing up in the industry, now I was endowed with that power. It's not to use lightly. It is such a turn on and so exciting to lay down the course on behalf of your clients and your career, my career. I knew that every decision I made every morning I walked in the office would help define where we'd be in five years, 10 years, and that's a very heavy prospect but one that I was very proud to have in my grasp. It's really ownership and guidance of the agency, I tell ya that's when it all came in crystal clear. UPDATE: Click here to read Part 2: Why Press is not Ari Gold, how to get started in the industry, and his favorite restaurant in L.A.