From Hollywood to Hustle: Unpacking the Entrepreneurial Mindset
28:48 Share

Today we're going to dive into the bridge between entertainment and entrepreneurship, and I couldn't think of a better couple to do this with. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much. I'm excited. Rosalind Sanchez and Eric Winter are a dynamic Hollywood power couple celebrated for their enduring partnership on and off screen. Rosalind is a multi-talented Puerto Rican actress, singer-songwriter, producer, and writer, while Eric is a respected actor and former firefighter who has built a multifaceted career in television and media.

Together, they co-host the popular podcast, He Said, Ayo Diho, where they share candid insights on family life, parenting, and navigating the entertainment world. You have zero control over if you'll be successful or not. All you can do is put in the work. I understood hard work, equal results. And that's just not entertainment.

And at some point you have to fall in love with the process, otherwise you will never survive. But what are three entrepreneurial lessons you've learned that you would either tell yourself if you were restarting or someone starting a business or even one or two? So my advice to people doing business

My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Today we're going to dive into the bridge between entertainment and entrepreneurship and I couldn't think of a better couple to do this with here with a

Two people you'll probably recognize if you're on video, Rosalind Sanchez and Eric Winter, very well-known actors in many movies and shows. Some of your favorites, I'm sure. And I got the pleasure to become friends with them over the last few months. We filmed season two of 60 Day Hustle and connected ever since. And yeah, I'm excited. Welcome, guys.

you for having us thank you so much i'm excited so i know when we met we got chatting two things stood out for me number one was a shared passion for dogs that i'll always remember and and the discussions about what you were doing overseas there i'd love to dive into but then also the entrepreneurial ventures that you're diving into if you're not busy enough acting you're trying to start brands and businesses so i want to talk about both but

If people don't kind of maybe know who you are, do you mind just giving an overview of what you guys are up to and have done in the past? So my name is Rosalind. Like you said, Rudy, I am from Puerto Rico. When I was raised in Puerto Rico, moved to the States when I was almost 22 years old with a dream of doing Broadway. My main goal was to do music and theater.

And then, you know, life has a really funny way of doing things. I booked my first job in English was as the world turns a soap opera while I was in New York. And then after that, continue doing TV and movies. I never went back to Broadway, but we'll, we'll be good doing it soon. Um,

And then, you know, almost 30 years doing this thing that I love very much, like any business, ups and downs, but very blessed and excited. And I've been, yeah, movies and TV and now a podcast with my husband. We have two kids. We've been together for almost 20 years now. And just trying to continue growing as an entertainer and now getting into branding and businesses and loving life.

Yeah. I mean, listen, I have a very opposite journey when it comes to my path. I'm LA born and raised, but I went to school to be a doctor. I was at UCLA, a pre-med student, and I thought that was my journey, but got wrapped up in entertainment through a random way and went down a path of modeling into acting. And I've been on various TV shows and movies, currently on a show called The Rookie on ABC.

And I've always had a mind for business. I mean, since we've known each other, it's just something that's been passionate to me, probably instilled by my father, to just learn and try to grow. But I've never really...

Until the past year and a half, other than investing in little things, I've never taken the leap to try to start a business. And this past year has been a big growth process for me as I launched my first brand with a partner. But from the early stages to now, we're about a year in. And it's been a lot of fun, a lot of ups and downs and learning, but it's been great.

Good. Well, I would love to start with, and I, you know, I get to hang out and chat and work with and partner with a lot of famous people and people that most people get to watch on TV and admire. But I would love to start with like, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, right? We were just talking about this offline. Yeah.

And people know that in entrepreneurship, most of my listeners are entrepreneurs with businesses. But is it the same in TV and Hollywood? And if so, can you talk about that? In my opinion, one of the most difficult businesses, and here's why I'd even say it's more difficult than most things out there, is even if I'm in business, right, and I'm starting a brand and a product,

The product, it's still subjected to people liking it or not. But there is something that you're putting out that either people, it's going to be sort of black and white in a lot of ways. It works, doesn't work. It's good or it's bad. Any kind of thing in the creative arts space, it's all subjected to somebody else saying it's good enough or it works for them or you have zero control.

Over if you'll be successful or not. All you can do is put in the work. And I grew up as an athlete my whole life. I understood hard work, equal results. And that's just not entertainment. I mean, you can... Sometimes it comes down to like one audition, right? Like I've heard that, you know, you press... And then it's like this one thing, they just...

maybe don't feel like you're a good fit this time, they want to go with someone else. It's a lightning in a bottle. I'm going to give an example. We're doing this podcast, Rudy, and after this, I have to go to a lunch with a director. I've never met him. I read this script last night. He's going to be shooting in Brazil. Really, really good material. Really great leading actor. And listen, I've been doing this a long time. So you'll think that at some point,

Maybe, just maybe you don't have to do the song and dance and just go and meet somebody and be like, hi, y mover el culito. You know what I mean? I like just trying to convince somebody within an hour. It's not even an audition. It's just a meeting. And you just go, listen, OK, it is what it is. Let me take a little bit of like, eat some humble pie, Ross. There's thousands of women that would love to do this ball.

bigger names than you not as big as you in terms of awareness or fame and we're all competing for the same thing but it does not nothing changes it's like I am a mother of two I've been doing this for so long and here I am at 52 years old one more time

going to meet somebody that I might remind him of his ex-wife and he says, you know, I don't want her. Or he might think my accent is not suitable for the role. And you're like, oh my God. When is it going to end? It's part of the process. And at some point you have to fall in love with the process. Otherwise you will never survive.

I think that part's so key, because it's the same in business, right? We were talking about how to fall in love with that process. And part of that process is a lot of failures and heartache. 100%. There's a lot of crossover in business for sure. Granted, you can put a product out that people will agree with or not. But you're taking a chance on yourself, believing in something. There's no guarantee, a lot of failure. You know, a lot of other professions, I would talk to people, it's like, you go to school to be a doctor, you'll be a doctor.

You know what I mean? If you, you'll eventually be there. If you're going to be a lawyer, you'll have a law degree. You go, you know, there, there are certain things that are just a linear path where you will get to the end point and you'll have a job. But there are other things like entrepreneurship in the creatives where there's just zero control. There's zero guarantee that you will ever be what you've signed up to be. You get a theater degree. It means nothing. It doesn't mean you're going to be a working actor. You got a degree. It doesn't mean you're going to pay your bills.

I guess that's kind of like you get a business degree. Doesn't mean it's going to work. Yeah. It's funny. I was just talking to a friend about this. He's an investor actually in my company. He's a very successful data marketing company. And as you know now, I mean, before when I was asking, when this started, did you even know this was going to be a thing? And like data marketing when we started wasn't a big deal. People weren't paying attention. We were like the early sending mailers out to people's homes.

He went and got a standard business degree, learned nothing about what he does now in this company that they're about to sell and make a ton of money on. But it shows you a business degree is the foundation, but there's a lot of evolution in that process to get to be successful.

Yeah, well, I think we have about 100 staff. And I don't think I think maybe one of the staff has like a marketing or business degree just for con. Wow. It's like this. It's like the experience, right? There's probably a lot of famous actors have no like, follow, you know, they just they just practice and they become great. Right. And it's just 100%. Yeah, especially nowadays with the because social media is so huge. And you get these kids, right?

Some of them are very, very talented, you know, but they just become TikTokers and they do crazy stuff. And they get offered a role to be the lead of a movie when you have 2,500 super highly qualified, talented kids that deserve that role. You know, so it's a very ungrateful, it's a trip. This business is a trip.

What is one like, I'd love to ask before I go into the business side, one time where you had to have the mindset to keep going, one failure or one doom and gloom that maybe people don't see right in Hollywood, they see the movie you make or the show you make and how awesome that is and the red carpet event. Was there ever a time where it was like, oh, this sucks? I mean, I can speak for myself. There's many times when it sucked. I walked away from the business

in my 20s and I always wonder like where I would have been now if I didn't walk away for a couple of years because I got again, I'm used to hard work equals results. That's just how my brain was wired. And I got very tired of putting in all this hard work and not getting the results that I wanted. And I didn't want to just struggle and not make money. And there was a point where I never forget it was a I don't ever forget. I don't remember what the exact

role was, or maybe I do, but it was for Dawson's Creek. And I auditioned. I got all the way down to the wire. I was like, this is a role that could game change my career. Didn't get it. I finally said, I'm done. I'm not going to do this anymore. I took a break, called my agent, said I'm out. They're like, what do you mean you're out? I said, I'm not coming back to acting. Went down the path to be a firefighter, paramedic, was actually through every step of the LAFD process to just basically getting my letter to go to the academy.

And 9-11 happened. I had a very good modeling career. I wasn't able to travel overseas anymore right away, like easy. Clients stopped booking the big international travel. So I was out. I wasn't making the money I was making to survive as a model. And out of nowhere, my agent said, there's an audition for a soap opera. I'm not doing a soap opera. Well, there's two soap operas, Passions and Days of Our Lives. And I go and I read. I was like, fine, whatever. And as a first time, I probably didn't care at all.

I was just like, I'm going to go do whatever I do, but I don't care because I don't really want to do this. And I think that weight of not caring is what got me over the hurdle. And I ended up booking both of them, had to pick which one I was going to do and ended up on days. And from then on became a working actor, which is wild. I quit and came back.

Do you have a story like that to share? I think it only happened once. I was already with Erica. I don't know if we were married. Do you remember Cutthroat, that pilot? Oh, yeah.

The thing with me is like Eric wanted to be a doctor. Like he didn't grow up like wanting to be like an entertainer. You know, my, my, my life journey was very different because I have a, I have very much a stage mom. I had a stage mom growing up. So at four, I was dancing ballet at six. I was playing piano at 12. I was doing commercials in Puerto Rico. So it's like, it's all I knew. So my entire life,

this is what I wanted to do. You know, to this day, I absolutely love, I love acting. I love singing. I love dancing. I can't see myself doing anything else. So my north was always very, very clear. And I've been really lucky and really blessed because I have worked consistently my entire life. But there was one specific moment that I,

I was dying to finally have my own show and be the number one on a call sheet on a TV show. And I get that opportunity. The network, the head of the network, didn't see me doing it. They don't want an accent, even though it was a Latino role. He just didn't want me. He didn't see me. And I fought for that really like you wouldn't believe, because the more you tell me no, the more I'm going to prove to you. No, it's me.

They wanted me to test. My agents are saying, you know, you shouldn't test. It should be an offer. I'm going, you know what? I guess I'm going to have to fight for it. And I fought for it. And I got it because I knew I'm the right person for this. To make the story short, three days before we were about to start shooting, they let me go. He just couldn't. Couldn't get over the accident. Couldn't get over me. He just didn't see me doing it. It was, to this day, the most devastating blow of my life. I was like.

I don't understand. I don't deserve this. I'm a good person. I know I can kill this role. I worked so hard. It was really bad. I was in bed. She went through a slump like I'd never seen. But not once did it cross my mind to be like, I'm out. I know it was about this sucks. I hate life right now. Oh, my God. God, explain to me what is the lesson?

But I know that I'm going to move past this. And I did. It still hurts. But it was, yeah, I've never been to the point that I just go, I'm out. You know, I'm just going to take a couple of years off. I don't want to do this anymore. And I'm done. You know, I'm always like, and I think it's something, it's a learning mechanism, maybe because of my upbringing as well, that I just, I call it gringolas. You know how horses have, the things that you put on a horse, what do you call them? Liners. Liners.

My life is that I don't see it. It doesn't affect me. I think she takes hits harder than I do, though. I did quit and I came back. But I think every hit in the business hits you harder. When she gets laid out on something, doesn't get a part, doesn't get something, it affects her more deeply. I'm usually like, oh, I'm bummed out for a little bit. Because I really care. You say I don't care? Oh, my God. I don't care as much.

I really, I really, I'm getting much better though. I get it. I'm getting much better. And there's something that I'm going to have. And this is, you know what, Rudy, and this is something that is going to translate into business. And I don't know if it's related, but I was able to have a business venture with a big, big, big department store that we thought, oh my God, this is going to be amazing. And this is going to translate into all different departments. And I'm just going to be the next Latino Martha Stewart. You know, like I'm just going to, it's going to be huge.

And it looked like an incredible business opportunity. And it was until I realized I have zero say. They're using my name. They're doing everything. They're designing. They're doing everything. And they're saying they are making me a part of it. But the second I will give any kind of feedback or like, guys, I wouldn't wear that. It doesn't speak to me.

Can I do it this way? I was met with resistance and you don't know what you're doing. To make the story short, this is something that I'm going to advise people like us that are, we're not born entrepreneurs, you know, that we're doing something completely different to businesses. And now we're transitioning into businesses. You have to stay true to your identity and who you are and what you believe. Because when you allow anybody else to use your name and do whatever they want and you go to bed unhappy,

And you go to bed going, but I will never wear that. Why am I lying to people? You know, it was such a learning experience. And I wanted to see the big picture, Ross, and you shut up, shut up, shut up. It can potentially make a lot of money. Just shut up. Just follow the experts. Just shut up. But I was going to bed unhappy. And at the end of the day, you know, the universe has a way of working that God got me out of it. Because he was like, you know what? This is not for you.

This is not for you. So my advice to people doing business, it doesn't matter what line of business you want to do. If it's your face, if it's your likeness, if it's your name, if it's your baby, just stay true to yourself. Love that. Yeah, love that. And I think...

I think that, you know, it's funny we joke about this, you know, entertainment versus entrepreneurship, but the blend, it crosses over so well. And so that leads me to the last part of this. Tell us about the entrepreneur ventures, what motivates you to get into those, but also like, how do you find that? Is it like starting back at ground zero now? Like you're learning this whole new industry? A hundred percent. I mean, I would say my journey into entrepreneurship started with just little investments and

and believing in other companies and I lost. All my early investments failed. All of them? The first few, I think I lost my mom. Not that they were bad investments. It was just, I didn't understand the business side of things. I was trusting in something that I had no, again, I didn't have control of. I was just sort of an investor and I didn't know what to look for and what could work or not work. I'd hedge my bet.

since then I learned, I've learned a lot. And I would say, you know, just this past year and I credit Rosalyn as being the one that convinced me to even go do, uh, uh,

a startup business and which is, you know, Palmer public rum. Uh, I've got, I love, I love alcohol, not like an alcoholic, but I enjoy drinking casually. Um, but I enjoy rum and that was due to her and meeting her, um, dad for the first time and sipping on a premium rum and realizing, wow, this is not what I thought rum was. Um, but her giving me the belief to say, Eric,

go do something that you enjoy, build a brand. You can find people to work with that will help educate you. And that's what happened. I took those chances.

And it was a lot more nerve wracking because I was putting my face on something. I was putting my back, you know, my brand, so to speak, that I built behind it. My capital was obviously going into it as well. And it was stressful. She was there. I mean, it's still stressful, but every step of the way, it's been a learning experience and putting what I've learned enough is I need to put great people around me that are

can make up for any weakness I have. I'm definitely not somebody that will say, I don't have any, I have plenty of weaknesses. I know my strengths and I know where I need help. And by putting great people around me, I've been able to learn a lot more, bring the company to a place where we're doing well and we're going to continue to grow. But that's, I think in anything, you got to put great people around you.

I think so. You know, and I see myself when it comes to Palm Republic, I don't drink alcohol. I've never have. So but I but I knew that Rome was something that he was going to be able to do really well. And I see myself as I think I'm a producer at heart. You know, I'm a great connector. I love producing. I love I love bringing people together. And I'm under the philosophy that when you're going to start anything, you need a great operator.

to guide you through. You need people to elevate you. You need people that know more than you. Like I directed my first movie. I never went to film school to direct. And for years I was like so intimidated going, but I don't have the technical language to communicate with a DP, director of photography. So for years people, Ross, you should direct, you should direct. I just feel ignorant. Like I know exactly the story that I want to tell. I know the movie. I have it edited in my mind, but I don't know how to communicate with an editor or a DP.

until I was like, you know what? That's why I have somebody that is better than me. And it's the great DP. All I have to say, this is my vision board. This is not vision, but this is my storyboard. These are the shots that I want. I might not tell you, get me a 150 lens. I don't know what a 150 lens is, but I know that I want to hear what I want to hear. So once I was able to understand when I don't know something, let me surround myself with people that know more than me and they can carry my vision through.

And that's what I think I've done with Eric is like, I saw the potential that his name, his likeness had before he did.

And I was like, you know what? We need to, it's like a cheerleader. You know, let's put a team together that can actually understand your value and let's just fly with it. And it's been incredible to see you do it and believe in yourself because you were like, I need a partner. I need somebody else to be the face as well. I don't know if I can get it. Being the only face on the brand because if it fails, it's obviously you blame yourself.

It's like you're putting yourself out there. When I was a model, you get the job or you don't get the job based on how you look or who you want. And that's what I felt. I felt so much pressure. But at the end of the day, I knew I liked rum. I knew we had a good product. And I knew I believed in my partner and the team that we were building.

So I was observing from the sidelines, seeing the popularity of the show, the show that he's doing, the rookie and how big it was and the response of people when he's walking out in the streets and the social media awareness, it's massive. So I was like, there is no way in hell that you cannot carry this brand all by yourself.

You can, because I see it. I'm seeing it from the outside. You don't see it because you're in, but I'm seeing it from the outside. And it's been incredible. And it's been incredible to see him grow. And it's a full-time job. You know, Eric has two jobs. He has his TV show playing Tim Bradford and he has Pan Republic. His life is all consumed with this product.

and his acting world. And I've seen you not know nothing to now speaking to people that run multimillion dollar, that have sold companies for 500 million dollars, and you're speaking to them two by two, like at the same level. You know what I mean? I try to carry it as a conversation. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Yeah, no, it's been a fun journey.

And what about, you know, last question on this as we come to a close, can you give the, you know, you've come from a totally different angle, right? Very successful in one realm to now moving across kind of like athletes, but what are free entrepreneurial lessons you've learned that you would either tell yourself if you was restarting or someone starting a business or even one or two? Authenticity, like being just true to yourself and what you're, what you're doing. Um,

I, again, this goes back to my own lesson learned from acting, never quit. You got to grind, grind. And probably when we just talked about is if you, if you don't know something, don't be afraid to say it and surround yourself with somebody who does. Don't be so selfish that you think you have to do it and understand it by yourself. You know?

It's a good one. Any more to add on your side? Listen, you're going to get so many people saying, are you sure? But really? But it's so crowded. And, you know, there's so many of those. And you have to be a disruptor to be able to make it, which I believe in that. I believe that you have to think outside the box.

But if you're doing it for the right reasons, and if you truly believe whatever you're selling, you know, if you believe that this is something that the public needs, there's a need for it, or it simply makes you very happy. It's something that makes you happy and you want to share some happiness with the world. Just go for it and don't allow, because you're going to get out of 10 people, eight are going to say, are you sure?

But just say yes, I'm sure. Yeah, love that. And I think it's kind of similar. You know, acting is a potluck shot, right? Like trying to get a hole in one in golf, you know? So I mean, like you said, almost harder than entrepreneurship, at least in your business, you get a few sales here and there. But yeah, you have to, I think the two in common, or if it's an athlete trying to win a world championship, I guess the three in common between all three areas, you got to believe. Right.

Right. Go believe in yourself. And a lot of people won't believe in you and they'll question it. But the ones that make it, I say we're delusional enough to believe we could make it. Yeah. Or still do. Right. Yeah. 100%. It is delusion, but it's amazing. It's delicious delusion. You know, just go for it. Yeah. Good. All right. Last question as we wrap. Where do people learn more about you? What's maybe the big thing you're working on right now? And where do they find it? Wow.

I would say with me right now, obviously, Palmer Public Rum. You go to our website, which is just as I said, palmerpublicrum.com. Go to our social handles. Follow us. I think we sell to 46 states. You can sell liquor now, direct-to-consumer. And then we're also in market in Florida, California, and Texas. So I would say that's where you find us. Otherwise, go to my socials, ebwinter at Instagram and ericwinter676 at TikTok.

With me, Instagram, Rosalyn underscore Sanchez and TikTok, Rosalyn Sanchez Official, I believe. I'm more of an Instagram girl. And any on the entertainment side? I know The Rookie, anything else big they should be watching for, waiting? Oh, let me see. I have a lot of stuff coming out, guys. I have Spicy Will, the comedy with Harviti Jain. I have one that I just finished in Budapest, Rob Lowe and Crispin Glover.

- Third child? Third parent? Do you know any other names? - Oh my God, it's called "The Third Parent." Thank you, Eric. It's a, "Blicker Street" is gonna distributing. It's a massive IP called Tommy Taffy, people that like horror. And I play Rob Lowe's wife. And then I have one more, which I haven't read. - The big one, it's directed and rec...

Diario Bojera Café, on the card with Wanda Sykes. Her first time by tackling drama. And then I directed my second film, Diario Bojera Café, a movie in Spanish. I directed in Puerto Rico. We're opening in theaters August 14th. I'm very proud of that one. That one is my third baby. Yeah, you know.

keep it moving i'm going to meet a director now to see if i can get enough maybe maybe you'll have another one after lunch maybe that'd be amazing

good well guys uh it's been a pleasure um eric i know the rookies i hear my i haven't had chance to watch it yet but my staff rave about it when they knew we came on this too um so there's another one to add to my list um but yeah guys it's been a pleasure and i i love the connection of entrepreneurship and entertainment and

um you know i love diving into the there's a lot of glitz and glam in hollywood arguably the biggest industry with the glitz and the glam so i think it's really cool to peel back the layers and show that it's just like entrepreneurship if not worse right months of waiting or years of waiting and auditioning and

you might get one shot. And I mean, it's the same with business. Months of pitching your product, trying to sell your product, trying to get a viral ad to go live. And then one day it happens, but you got to keep believing. So thank you for sharing those stories. And guys, go obviously check out the socials, the shows, and obviously the entrepreneurial ventures they're in. And as always, keep living the red light. I'll see you guys soon. Amen. Thank you.