Phil Collins is on the speakers, and Dany Garcia is lying on a mat in her family gym in Orlando, doing V-ups.
She holds a medicine ball in the air, arms extended over her head and torso, which is angled about 45 degrees off the floor. Her legs also create a 45-degree angle from the floor. "It probably doesn't look like a V," she says. Oh, it does. Her body forms an unbelievably precise V. And she performs 30 of these, flawlessly. She moves on to bentover lateral raises, three sets of eight reps, and reverse-grip pushdowns. Over the next hour, she executes five other exercises-all this after 20 minutes of muscle rolling. It's Wednesday, and it's shoulder day.
Between sets, there are short pauses. Garcia might use each pause to dance a little, or sing a line along with Collins. "My dancing is unnecessary," she jokes. But the pause is not. It's prescribed; precisely 60 or sometimes as long as 90 seconds, which tick by on her iPhone timer. The pause, Garcia says, has "changed everything."
Her husband, Dave Rienzi, a pro bodybuilder and strength coach, created this training plan-it has a three-ring binder and a cover sheet that reads "Eight Weeks to Undeniable." But at 55, Garcia has been lifting for decades. She competed as a bodybuilder for eight years, and still calculates everything she does and ingests. She's up at 6:30 to do fasted cardio, and eats breakfast at 8:30. By 9, she's showered and in workout clothes, for some quiet time to research and think. By 11, she's at the gym for two hours of weight training. By 1 or 2, she's at her desk, ready to work. Two meals fit in the afternoon-she eats five times a day and dinner with Rienzi is at 7.
Discipline is central to Garcia's recipe for greatness. As chairwoman of her holding company, the Garcia Companies, she manages the fate of five brands. That's not counting the companies she's invested in, advised, or has product partnerships with which number more than a dozen.
Let's talk about the five. Garcia is co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions, which also has a marketing arm. Seven Bucks has produced films-such as Black Adam and Jungle Cruise-that have grossed $4.6 billion at the box office. She's a co-founder of tequila company Teremana, which just three years after launching surpassed sales of one million cases a year. In 2020, Garcia became the first U.S. woman with an equal-ownership stake in a pro sports league when she acquired the XFL out of bankruptcy. She's the founder and sole owner of a fashion brand called GSTQ and a co-founder of performancedrink company Zoa, which grew 18 percent year-over-year from 2022 to 2023. It's all-along with her investments, such as Salt & Straw ice cream-organized under the TGC umbrella.
Garcia didn't start out in spirits, fashion, sports, or beverages. She began her career in finance and film production-and during the latter, she became an expert in using storytelling to define a project. She conceives of much of her role as "creating a universe" for a brand. That means not thinking about a set of deliverables, or defining your customer as X, but inventing a conceptual world, inviting folks in, and showing up for them with great stuff and a fantastic experience, whether you'v made a film or a bottle of booze.
Garcia knows better than almost anybody that the relationship between a brand and its fans is sacred. She's lived it.
If you've heard of Garcia, that's because of the period in her life that began long before her chairwoman era. She was married to, and subsequently managed the multibillion-dollar career of, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. As such, despite her ascent in the business world, she's spent much of the past two decades being referred to as "the Rock's ex-wife." Put it another way: She's famous only because the Rock is famous. Which is sort of amusing as the common perception when you consider the inverse and equally true truth: The Rock is famous only because of Garcia.
Either way you look at it, Garcia's life and career are still entwined with Johnson's. They co-own the tequila, the production studio, the energy drink, the XFL. His fame is something she knows the power of-and, frankly, loves to harness. But can she turn her universe-crafting inward, and build up her own identity enough to get the public recognition for it? How will Dany Garcia create her own universe?
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1363631886/1701803887/articles/XjA7oAN_61702988333297/1900017018.jpg]
The middle child of Cuban immigrants living in central New Jersey, Garcia learned the value of hard work early on. At 12, she took on caretaking for an eight-stall horse barn. One day, a horse wasn't in its stall. She followed a blood trail and found the horse, its leg badly cut. She wrapped the wound and led the animal back to the barn. When she came home, her mother was shocked to see blood on her face, a splatter on her glasses. Garcia was proud. "The fact I had so much control over it really started to shape my understanding that I could do important and hard things. Different things," she says. "It really defined me."
By 14, she'd encountered the idea of extreme physical fitness ("I opened a magazine and saw a female bodybuilder. It hit me in the gut. She can look like that! I wanted it") and decided to become a millionaire to take care of her family ("Very Gen-X, I know"). International finance, she decided, would be her route to riches.
At the University of Miami, Garcia made the varsity rowing team. She also took a job at the executive education office, which sent her starry-eyed over the powerful CEOs her team interacted with. "I can do more," she thought. Her ambition shiftedthough she didn't print it on a business card right away like Mark Zuckerberg. She tucked "CEO" away, and took her ambitions where they were wanted: a steady job at Merrill Lynch.
She'd already met her future husband, Johnson, at the gym while lifting with her crew team. After college, while she fell in love with the intricacies of business, he got drafted into the Canadian Football League. Of course, he didn't stay with the Calgary Stampeders for long; he secured a WWF (now the WWE) contract and rose to prominence as an audience favorite, and eventually became a 10-time world champ.
In the early 2000s, the Rock set his sights on Hollywood, appearing in a prequel and a sequel to The Mummy. But The Mummy does not a career secure. Garcia, though, knew Johnson had something potent: a fan base. "Dwayne had been wrestling for years, and the consumer was used to consuming him, whether it was dolls or T-shirts or hats or underwear. That's rarefied air," she says. "This gentleman was a powerhouse. Could we build an entire business around him?" As Johnson shifted into acting, she tackled publicity. Merch. Licensing. Partnerships. Sponsorships. Johnson filmed Gridiron Gang, Get Smart, and The Game Plan. They divorced in 2008, after 10 years of marriage, and the work really took off from there-with Garcia the architect behind the scenes.
Existing simultaneously as the Rock's ex-wife and manager sat fine with Garcia. Studio executives, though, scratched their heads. "She is your what? Like, wait," Garcia laughs softly, from a place deep in her throat. It's the laugh of a woman who's had to do twice the work-and then some.
"Everything took a meeting or two to get through all the psychological biases of who I was and why, so they could get to the point where they could really hear what I was saying."
Garcia and Johnson began to hire up, and in 2012 they put a name on the thing: Seven Bucks Productions. It was the number of dollars in Johnson's pocket after he'd been cut by the Stampeders. Garcia had, in the years surrounding the divorce, let go of her finance career and begun producing (including the documentary Theater of War with Meryl Streep). With a company to support her, and a star to manage, in 2013 she produced the action film Snitch and the TV series The Hero. Soon, the Fast and Furious franchise came calling. Then, partnerships with Disney.
Walt Disney president Sean Bailey began working with Garcia in her role as producer and has since invested in TGC. "I was struck by her drive, which is evident to anyone," he says. "But I don't think it's understood the level of preparation Seven Bucks brings to the table."
Garcia was looking beyond Hollywood, though; as she saw it, she wasn't just a talent manager who'd started producing. She was an enterprise builder working on her second company-managing Johnson being the first-"and I just happened to get into the entertainment business," she says.
Today, the Rock is one of the highestgrossing Hollywood stars of all time-and among the best-paid actors. That trajectory began to emerge alongside a philosophy Garcia employs to celebrate success, which she attributes to Johnson: "How can we do that better and bigger?" Garcia, consistently introspective, began mulling the very system she'd built. What she'd created at Seven Bucks was, for Johnson, an "environment for greatness." In other words, the space to prepare. To do your best work. The infrastructure, and manpower support, to manage all the rest.
Could she do that for herself? "I absolutely want to create impact, I...
She holds a medicine ball in the air, arms extended over her head and torso, which is angled about 45 degrees off the floor. Her legs also create a 45-degree angle from the floor. "It probably doesn't look like a V," she says. Oh, it does. Her body forms an unbelievably precise V. And she performs 30 of these, flawlessly. She moves on to bentover lateral raises, three sets of eight reps, and reverse-grip pushdowns. Over the next hour, she executes five other exercises-all this after 20 minutes of muscle rolling. It's Wednesday, and it's shoulder day.
Between sets, there are short pauses. Garcia might use each pause to dance a little, or sing a line along with Collins. "My dancing is unnecessary," she jokes. But the pause is not. It's prescribed; precisely 60 or sometimes as long as 90 seconds, which tick by on her iPhone timer. The pause, Garcia says, has "changed everything."
Her husband, Dave Rienzi, a pro bodybuilder and strength coach, created this training plan-it has a three-ring binder and a cover sheet that reads "Eight Weeks to Undeniable." But at 55, Garcia has been lifting for decades. She competed as a bodybuilder for eight years, and still calculates everything she does and ingests. She's up at 6:30 to do fasted cardio, and eats breakfast at 8:30. By 9, she's showered and in workout clothes, for some quiet time to research and think. By 11, she's at the gym for two hours of weight training. By 1 or 2, she's at her desk, ready to work. Two meals fit in the afternoon-she eats five times a day and dinner with Rienzi is at 7.
Discipline is central to Garcia's recipe for greatness. As chairwoman of her holding company, the Garcia Companies, she manages the fate of five brands. That's not counting the companies she's invested in, advised, or has product partnerships with which number more than a dozen.
Let's talk about the five. Garcia is co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions, which also has a marketing arm. Seven Bucks has produced films-such as Black Adam and Jungle Cruise-that have grossed $4.6 billion at the box office. She's a co-founder of tequila company Teremana, which just three years after launching surpassed sales of one million cases a year. In 2020, Garcia became the first U.S. woman with an equal-ownership stake in a pro sports league when she acquired the XFL out of bankruptcy. She's the founder and sole owner of a fashion brand called GSTQ and a co-founder of performancedrink company Zoa, which grew 18 percent year-over-year from 2022 to 2023. It's all-along with her investments, such as Salt & Straw ice cream-organized under the TGC umbrella.
Garcia didn't start out in spirits, fashion, sports, or beverages. She began her career in finance and film production-and during the latter, she became an expert in using storytelling to define a project. She conceives of much of her role as "creating a universe" for a brand. That means not thinking about a set of deliverables, or defining your customer as X, but inventing a conceptual world, inviting folks in, and showing up for them with great stuff and a fantastic experience, whether you'v made a film or a bottle of booze.
Garcia knows better than almost anybody that the relationship between a brand and its fans is sacred. She's lived it.
If you've heard of Garcia, that's because of the period in her life that began long before her chairwoman era. She was married to, and subsequently managed the multibillion-dollar career of, Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. As such, despite her ascent in the business world, she's spent much of the past two decades being referred to as "the Rock's ex-wife." Put it another way: She's famous only because the Rock is famous. Which is sort of amusing as the common perception when you consider the inverse and equally true truth: The Rock is famous only because of Garcia.
Either way you look at it, Garcia's life and career are still entwined with Johnson's. They co-own the tequila, the production studio, the energy drink, the XFL. His fame is something she knows the power of-and, frankly, loves to harness. But can she turn her universe-crafting inward, and build up her own identity enough to get the public recognition for it? How will Dany Garcia create her own universe?
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1363631886/1701803887/articles/XjA7oAN_61702988333297/1900017018.jpg]
The middle child of Cuban immigrants living in central New Jersey, Garcia learned the value of hard work early on. At 12, she took on caretaking for an eight-stall horse barn. One day, a horse wasn't in its stall. She followed a blood trail and found the horse, its leg badly cut. She wrapped the wound and led the animal back to the barn. When she came home, her mother was shocked to see blood on her face, a splatter on her glasses. Garcia was proud. "The fact I had so much control over it really started to shape my understanding that I could do important and hard things. Different things," she says. "It really defined me."
By 14, she'd encountered the idea of extreme physical fitness ("I opened a magazine and saw a female bodybuilder. It hit me in the gut. She can look like that! I wanted it") and decided to become a millionaire to take care of her family ("Very Gen-X, I know"). International finance, she decided, would be her route to riches.
At the University of Miami, Garcia made the varsity rowing team. She also took a job at the executive education office, which sent her starry-eyed over the powerful CEOs her team interacted with. "I can do more," she thought. Her ambition shiftedthough she didn't print it on a business card right away like Mark Zuckerberg. She tucked "CEO" away, and took her ambitions where they were wanted: a steady job at Merrill Lynch.
She'd already met her future husband, Johnson, at the gym while lifting with her crew team. After college, while she fell in love with the intricacies of business, he got drafted into the Canadian Football League. Of course, he didn't stay with the Calgary Stampeders for long; he secured a WWF (now the WWE) contract and rose to prominence as an audience favorite, and eventually became a 10-time world champ.
In the early 2000s, the Rock set his sights on Hollywood, appearing in a prequel and a sequel to The Mummy. But The Mummy does not a career secure. Garcia, though, knew Johnson had something potent: a fan base. "Dwayne had been wrestling for years, and the consumer was used to consuming him, whether it was dolls or T-shirts or hats or underwear. That's rarefied air," she says. "This gentleman was a powerhouse. Could we build an entire business around him?" As Johnson shifted into acting, she tackled publicity. Merch. Licensing. Partnerships. Sponsorships. Johnson filmed Gridiron Gang, Get Smart, and The Game Plan. They divorced in 2008, after 10 years of marriage, and the work really took off from there-with Garcia the architect behind the scenes.
Existing simultaneously as the Rock's ex-wife and manager sat fine with Garcia. Studio executives, though, scratched their heads. "She is your what? Like, wait," Garcia laughs softly, from a place deep in her throat. It's the laugh of a woman who's had to do twice the work-and then some.
"Everything took a meeting or two to get through all the psychological biases of who I was and why, so they could get to the point where they could really hear what I was saying."
Garcia and Johnson began to hire up, and in 2012 they put a name on the thing: Seven Bucks Productions. It was the number of dollars in Johnson's pocket after he'd been cut by the Stampeders. Garcia had, in the years surrounding the divorce, let go of her finance career and begun producing (including the documentary Theater of War with Meryl Streep). With a company to support her, and a star to manage, in 2013 she produced the action film Snitch and the TV series The Hero. Soon, the Fast and Furious franchise came calling. Then, partnerships with Disney.
Walt Disney president Sean Bailey began working with Garcia in her role as producer and has since invested in TGC. "I was struck by her drive, which is evident to anyone," he says. "But I don't think it's understood the level of preparation Seven Bucks brings to the table."
Garcia was looking beyond Hollywood, though; as she saw it, she wasn't just a talent manager who'd started producing. She was an enterprise builder working on her second company-managing Johnson being the first-"and I just happened to get into the entertainment business," she says.
Today, the Rock is one of the highestgrossing Hollywood stars of all time-and among the best-paid actors. That trajectory began to emerge alongside a philosophy Garcia employs to celebrate success, which she attributes to Johnson: "How can we do that better and bigger?" Garcia, consistently introspective, began mulling the very system she'd built. What she'd created at Seven Bucks was, for Johnson, an "environment for greatness." In other words, the space to prepare. To do your best work. The infrastructure, and manpower support, to manage all the rest.
Could she do that for herself? "I absolutely want to create impact, I...
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Inc. (Digital) - 1 Issue, Winter 2023/2024