Meet Aesli Grandi: Executive Producer / Commercial Content @ The Media Mob

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aesli Grandi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aesli, what do you attribute your success to?
I owe my success in this business to my people. Every step on my journey has been taken alongside an entire network of skilled women and men placing the pavers before me, and guiding me along the path. No producer in this town can say they got where they are today without the support, dedication, and old-fashioned sweat from their crew members. I’ve spent nearly two decades producing content for the world’s most prominent multi-national brands, and despite how formidable such work might appear to be, it is only possible because of the individual people who show up to work as a part of my team. My job is simply to put the right people in the room and give them the tools they need to do what they do best. Their success is my success, and I’m forever grateful to each and every one of them.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My company, The Media Mob, is as intimate an operation as you can get…and I like it that way. I am the point of contact for every project from bid to delivery. On the occasion when I don’t line produce shoots myself, I only work with line producers who value fair and honest service above all else. When my clients come to me for help on a project, what they get is someone who has been in the trenches in this business for nearly 19 years. I take great pride in the fact that I’ve fulfilled every job in production from intern to Producer. As a freelancer, I’ve worked for so many commercial production companies across the country, that it would make your head spin. In my career’s formative years, I learned to keep my mouth shut and my ears open. With each project came new challenges. It is no exaggeration that there is something to be learned nearly every day. Have you ever had to put a dress on an actual giraffe? Strangely enough, I have. I discovered very early that this industry does not allow for complacency, and with every new experience, a new tool is put in your producer toolbox. Absorbing the experience of years in the trenches on set, is what makes an Executive Producer the most valuable to their clients. Being great at sales, effortless at the schmooze, slick with the social media presence is what makes an Executive Producer valuable to their own bottom line. I sometimes joke with my clients that if you take one look at my company’s social media presence, you’ll be able to tell which route I have taken. I’d much rather assist my clients in producing their image than producing my own. At The Media Mob, the key to great service is in creating a team and an environment that fosters the positive energy needed to execute our client’s vision. Being of service is our goal. We are driven by our clients’ happiness above all else. We’re dedicated to putting every last dollar in the right place to maximize the magic on the screen. I think what makes for strong client relationships is being frank and honest. When a budget cannot support the work that needs to be done, I don’t shoulder my freelance teams with the burden of the “just make it work and to hell with the quality” attitude. Instead, I have a network of production partners who shoot on a smaller scale. I have no problem passing along an opportunity to someone else who is better suited for it. My goal is always to ensure that my clients find the best team to do the best work for them. If that isn’t me, I’m ok with that. I’d never want to compromise a project and risk disappointing my clients just to throw a few more dollars in the bank. It isn’t easy competing with companies who underbid us. They can certainly land a project by presenting a rock bottom price tag, but the old adage “you get what you pay for” rings true more times than not. Churning out project after project is the goal for a majority of my competition. At first blush, you might think, “Of course! Landing job after job is what makes a successful company!” I guess that depends on how you measure success. Don’t get me wrong! I like to stay busy. But far too often I see production companies headed by suits, schmoozers, sales folks, and the fashionable but clueless, who have never set foot on a location scout, have never negotiated with talent agents, have never experienced what it is to DO production. They make backroom deals with vendors who set them up with kick-backs, squeeze their production teams and crew members to the brink of exhaustion, and foster a dog-eat-dog environment that serves neither their crews nor their clients. It’s practically commonplace for freelance line producers to be handed budgets that are 25%-30% smaller than what the client had approved for a project. Why do they do this? I guess these companies have to find some way to pay for their fancy offices on the Westside, and the salaries of their staffers. The sad reality of the commercial production industry as a whole is that our clients are sending us budgets that are tighter and tighter every day. It’s because their own budgets are being chopped into a thousand pieces in order to satisfy a need to reach audiences on a seemingly unending list of new platforms. A camera truck costs the same whether you are shooting a Super Bowl commercial or a Tik Tok spot. Something has to give. Unfortunately, too often it’s the production teams who bear the brunt of the financial hit. They have been groomed to accept that they won’t receive overtime, and will be paid only the number of days allotted to them in the budget, regardless of how many days of work the project actually requires. When freelancers push back on this practice, they fear they simply won’t be hired the nest time, so they accept this inequity in the name of self-preservation. These are awful, ugly industry truths, and very much the reason I worked so hard to create my own path. At the end of the day, when the dust has cleared, it’s the people who make a company successful. Happy people make better art, and better art makes for happier clients.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My goodness! There are so many wonderful things to do in LA. It really is a city with options for anyone. I could go on and on and on about all of what Los Angeles has to offer, so in the spirit of keeping things brief…I’ll focus on just a few of my personal faves. First of all…food. food. more food will be the focus of our journey with a few fun activities sprinkled in for good measure. Los Angeles has so many amazing restaurants and food trucks that we really are quite spoiled. Here we go! First off, we’d plan our entire week around my absolute favorite…a little underground invite-only pop-up restaurant called Foodshop. Named in honor of the woodshop it called home during its salad days (pun intended), it’s a family-style dining experience that is just too special to describe with words. You just have to go and you’ll know. As our week unfolds we’d hit some other choice spots that are crowd pleasers, especially for out-of-towners looking for a truly Los Angeles vibe. Nobu – Malibu, because delicious sushi, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in an architecturally inspiring space while drinking fruit infused Saki that goes down like juice…come on, mandatory! Plus an almost guaranteed celeb sighting here will satisfy that desire everyone has when they come to the home of the stars. Because just one visit to the Pacific isn’t enough, we’d take a day trip down to Dana Point to visit Captain Dave for a whale watching safari and end the evening wandering the boardwalks of Venice and Santa Monica for the full tourist experience, grab some corn ravioli at Capo, and finally land at Harvelle’s Santa Monica to soak in some live blues vibes. We’d satisfy our thirst for art by joining in on the Downtown Art Walk or taking a self-guided tour of LA’s street art. Visiting at least one wall graced with art of Tristan Eaton because, well, he’s my favorite and I’m in charge of this trip. ;0) Next would be a sound bath. After a day filled with art, we’d top off our souls by visiting one of Ana Netanel’s Shaktis Sound Baths and drift into auditory bliss before heading home for bed. After a day of cleansing our souls we’d make sure to dirty them back up a little with a visit to the Canabis Cafe on La Brea before an evening at The Comedy Store. I never hurts to grease up the funny bone a bit before a show. And on the way home, maybe we’d run into a food truck or two. Extra host points to me if we can pin down the Kogi truck or the Grilled Cheese truck. Finally, we’d spend our last day doing some shopping at some of our vintage/consignment stores. LA is a great city for landing hot deals, for sure. We’d start with a list of 3-5 and probably only make it to 1 or 2, because that’s how easy it is to get sucked into these for hours. And if we still had enough energy to go out with a bang, we’d hit the Greek or the Hollywood Bowl because if you’re going to listen to great music, doing it in a venue like these just heightens the experience tenfold. And when you’re not used to having such places at your disposal, it makes for a memorable time.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shoutout to my Mama for keeping me grounded and my Pops for teaching me to look toward the heavens.

Website: www.themediamob.com

Instagram: @missaesli / @themediamob

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/MissAesli

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMediaMob

Image Credits
main photo credit: Beth Cocuzzi Photography additional photo credits to: Attila Adam Photography Gary Rose Photography Ethan Swope and Tutu Lee