In this ~10‑minute episode of the 5 Questions podcast, host Dan Schawbel interviews Jeremy Zimmer, co‑founder and CEO of United Talent Agency (UTA). Zimmer explains why he left Boston University at 19, describing a mutual decision and a personal mismatch with traditional education. He frames the enduring entertainment challenge as the tension between creativity and commerce, emphasizing that talent must find avenues to tell original, large‑scale stories. Zimmer discusses UTA’s strategy of building capabilities before artists even realize they need them, enabling multi‑hyphenated careers (e.g., podcasts, shoe lines, books) and serving as a retention tool. He separates NFTs, blockchain, and digital talent, arguing that blockchain can become a direct‑to‑fan distribution platform, NFTs capture unique art, and digital talent—creators native to platforms—are the forebearers of the creator economy. Zimmer stresses the importance of understanding the consumer relationship to evolve distribution and engagement. He concludes with career advice: use a metaphorical mirror to honestly assess one’s strengths, weaknesses, and willingness to give up certain things to excel.
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This is Jeremy Zimmer, and you're listening to 5 Questions with Dan Shaubell.
You're listening to the 5 Questions Podcast, and I'm your host, Dan Shaubell. In fewer than 10 minutes, my goal is to extract the best advice from the world's smartest and most interesting people by asking them just 5 questions. My guest today is United Talent Agency co-founder and CEO Jeremy Zimmer. Jeremy helped build UTA from a boutique literary agency into one of the 3 major talent agencies that represent celebrities like Chris Pratt, He's worked with Timothée Chalamet, Kevin Hart, and Bad Bunny. We talk about his motivation for joining a talent agency at age 19, developing talent, and more during this episode. Jeremy, welcome to 5 Questions.
Well, thank you. It's great to be here.
What motivated you to leave college at age 19 to join a talent agency?
It was sort of a mutual decision between myself and Boston University, where I think we mutually decided that continuing there was not the best path for either of us. So, uh, I'd say that I was never a particularly good student. My time in formal education had run its course.
I was always very happy to graduate elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. I was like, this is not for me.
Yeah, I didn't end up graduating. I just ended up a mutual decision. It was time for me to move on.
Yeah. I wonder if it's like more common for people who are more entrepreneurial-minded to just not like the school system because it, you know, it's like very status quo. So for me, I was like, oh, I can't wait to get to this next phase of my life so I I could do my own thing.
I mean, some people say that one of the best definitions of an entrepreneur is that they're otherwise unemployable. Yeah. And I think, you know, college, the structure of it was, was not easy for me. I'm sure today I'd be diagnosed with ADHD, and it'd probably make it easier for me to deal with.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities across the entertainment landscape? And what role does talent play in how the industry evolves?
Well, the biggest challenge and opportunity across the entertainment landscape today— and it's been really the challenge across all entertainment and art forever— which is, how does the intersection of creativity and commerce— what happens at that intersection? And how do we continue to run it as a business while at the same time fostering and encouraging talent to do their best work and to dream the right dreams. And so what role does talent play in how the industry evolves? They play an essential role in the middle of it. And the hardest thing for talent right now is finding the avenues to tell original stories that have size and scope and really can move an audience. And I think that that's the challenge talent is facing, particularly in movies and television right now.
Yeah, I've heard also that a lot of people have said there's fewer big action heroes than there was decades ago. And so it's harder for maybe one person to just carry a movie.
I can't remember. I think it was Bette Davis who said, the stars didn't get smaller, the movies did, something like that. I think that's part of it is right now, the definition or the sort of default definition of a powerful movie is a small movie that's all driven by a social issue as opposed to a big, powerful, sweeping drama. You think about movies like Out of Africa and Reds and some of the movies that really powered the industry for so long, they're not making those kinds of movies.
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We operate from the artist, the talent. So our talent wake up on any given day and say, you know, I'd really love to do this, or I saw so-and-so had created a shoe line. I'd love to do that. I, I have a real passion for that. Or, you know, I love telling stories. I'd love to tell stories in the audio format. Are you guys capable of helping me build a podcast business? So our challenge, our process is to build the capability ahead of the client's awareness to know that they might want it so that when they wake up and say, you know what, I had a dream last night, I had this incredible idea for a book. Great, we can help you do that. So that's what our mission is, is to always have the capability to help our clients do the things they want to do, and sometimes even before they know they want to do it.
That's smart because it's a retention play too, because if you can't do it, then they're like, oh, you know, my talent agency doesn't offer this. I don't know what they're doing. They don't have the capability, so I'll go to another talent agency. So—
Yeah, I'd like to think it's Purely aspirational and not defensive at all. But maybe there is a bit of a retention play in there, as you say.
You and UTA have done so well as you're staying ahead of the curve, like you're saying, like you've signed a series of NFT projects like Proof. What role do you think NFTs, the blockchain, and digital talent have in the future of entertainment?
You can kind of separate those things because the tendency is to put them all together. I do think the blockchain as a new distribution platform can be— has the potential to be a very potent and differentiating force where artists can create content and monetize that content directly to their fan, their consumer without an intermediary. The potential of that, if realized and unlocked and not subsequently intermediated, I think is really, really potent. NFTs are a brilliant way to capture that, whatever that story is, that art is, whatever that is in that form and capture it in that non-fungible token and allow that to be distributed to people through an And digital talent, which is, you know, this massive bucket. And the idea that these are all put together in the same sentence is digital talent is really the forebearers of the creator economy. And, you know, we've been in the digital talent business for a very, very long time before it was a thing. You know, we've seen the evolution and the power of digital talent, those people who have grown up natively on platforms where they have a direct relationship with their consumer. And we're huge believers that their role in the future of Entertainment is going to be very significant.
Yeah. When I was growing up, no one was talking about how many times did an artist's song get streamed, right? And now you hear that way more than how many CDs were sold.
How many records did they sell?
Yeah, I know. So that's very transformational. And so it seems like you're also looking at this from the consumer perspective too, because in terms of distribution, in terms of their needs, maybe they're looking for music in other forms like NFTs and different ways to get that music, like social media, TikTok, and everything like that. So it's both from the talent perspective as well as consumer behavior.
To be a great To be an advisor to talent, you have to understand the consumer and their relationship with the consumer and how to evolve that relationship. Because if the tree's falling in the forest and no one's hearing it, who knows if it makes any sound? So that's how artists have to understand their relationship with the consumer ultimately.
Absolutely. And what's your best piece of career advice?
Well, I always say that the greatest business tool available to you is a mirror. But you have to be willing to really use it, which means you have to really take a look at yourself. And what are you bringing to the party? And what are you doing well? And what are you not doing well? And what are you willing to give up in order to do something really well. And the mirror becomes this sort of very unfiltered reality that if you can dare to really use it, can be a really powerful tool for advancing your career.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, Jeremy. To watch the full extended video version of this episode, go to youtube.com/danschaubel. And please remember to rate and review the 5 Questions Podcast on iTunes.
