The Mercenary Podcast

There is no such thing as work/life balance. Your work is your life.

If you're like us, you're curious about all the different ways people choose to spend their time to make their livelihood. The Mercenary podcast is about how self-directed people choose to spend their time. What does a movie producer do day to day? What are the hard parts of the job? What are the fun parts? What parts make it worth it?

We ask our guests to reflect on what motivates them, how they define success and what makes them happy.

Who are we?

I am Matt Monihan, and I'm a software designer for venture funded business intelligence company, RJMetrics. I've designed software that helps hundreds of businesses run more efficiently by visualizing their data. I spend my time trying to find the common threads among the businesses we serve, and propose software that will save minutes, sometimes hours of time.

For most growing up, they choose an occupation from a list that their college advisor gives them without much research into what it's like to be that person. I don't just want to know what a person does every day, I want to know what it feels like. What it's like to be known as a doctor, a plumber, a software designer, etc. Without realizing it, how our work reflects onto our view of ourselves has a major impact on our well-being.

I've spent my life being fascinated by the most obscure ways that people spend their time and make a living. After 27 years, I still find people who make money in new and unexpected ways. There's so much to learn.

I know that there are some incredible jobs out there, and people that lead extraordinary lives. I created this show to document the lives of those people.


I am Dan Clifton. I produce feature films through my Los Angeles-based production banner Cliffbrook Films.

Since 2012, I've also worked for The Safran Company (Buried, The Conjuring, Annabelle) as a producer on their independent film projects including ATM, Hours, Best Night Ever, SuperFast, The Atticus Institute and The Choice.

I look for original and provocative material to produce, then find new and inventive ways of doing so.

Ultimately, I'm fascinated by what successful people do on a day-to-day basis. How do people working in completely different industries deal with similar challenges? How are different people pushing the frontiers of technology, creative and communication? Results matter but process is everything.

Although we now live on different coasts, Matt and I grew up together and have always had an inkling to gather as many interesting/bizarre people together in the same room and hit the “play” button. The Mercenary podcast is a closer, albeit more practical, runner-up to that scenario.