Creating Consistent Content: Find Your Why, Treat Acting Like a Business, and the Seven-Day Media Fast

Welcome to Mornings with Matt, personal and professional development training that connects the art of acting with critical life skills and self-mastery. Presented by the Dearing Acting Studio. Mr. Tyler Weeks, welcome to Mornings with Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's a good spirit to have. You got the grateful heart going, yeah? Yes, sir. I'm trying. It's a beautiful day. I hear the birds chirping over there. You know, it's like 65 right now. We got birds. I have a pool going off. I feel like I'm like outside again, you know? It's pretty nice to do.

Excellent. So, all right. So, let's talk about what you got going on and how I can help you. those kind of things. And I feel like for me, I've just lost some of my motivation on like to do certain things because I'm a personal trainer. I'm a basketball and track coach. And, you know, those are like things I look forward to, those leadership kind of things where I can be a big brother. And now, all of a sudden, I don't get my kids like I used to. I don't get to talk to them like I used to.

So, it's kind of hard for me just like keeping that motivation because I absolutely love acting. There's no doubt about it. But I don't feel like I'm as consistent with practice and with like monologues and that kind of stuff that I used to be. So, what's interesting, what you're telling me is you have more time on your hands. Yeah, exactly. And yet, you're not spending it on the thing that you, that you, you know, are dreaming about. So, the question is why?

I don't know. I feel like, like once I get the ball rolling, like when I go to personal training, then all of a sudden I have track, then I have acting. So, it's when I'm go, go, go, it's a lot easier to like keep that momentum and push it a little bit further. But I guess just being bad at my time management when I have nothing to do, then rather than training and coaching, I'm now playing video games and like scrolling through TikTok endlessly, you know. So, it's like, it seems like my routine's changing and I'm not managing my time like I should.

100%. Yeah. It was cool for like three days. And I was like, you know, this is, this is just not the life I want to live. Right. So, what you need to do is jolt your system and go hardcore heavy into a schedule. The hard part for you, and this is just because you worked, you worked for the school, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. So, because you, because you worked for somebody else, essentially, they, they would tell you when you had to be there.

So, they were helping with some of your time management. When you, when you open your own business and you run your own thing, that's the very hardest adjustment to make. Is not having somebody tell you where you have to be and when you have to be there. Because technically, when you're running your own business, you can just sleep in. Technically, you can take days off anytime you want to.

But if you do that, then all of a sudden, you run your business into the ground and you don't have a business. Yeah. So, you need to, right now, you have to go, this is my business. Acting is my business. This is my job. How do I fill eight hours? And it's going to be unique for every person. Part of acting is your body. Part of acting is your mind.

Becoming smarter is definitely a part of acting. So, you're going to want to find a way to increase your mind, body, and spirit every single day. And then, you need to just create this regimen for yourself. Down to lunchtime, you should have everything down. And something's got to pop you out of bed. So, I come back to this question, and this is the most important question anybody can ask themselves.

Why? Absolutely. Is that like why for acting? Yeah, why for acting? Why are you going to get out of bed? Because I'm not convinced you will. You've already proven to me that you won't, which means to me that it's not actually that important to you. So, my big why for acting, you know, I'm really glad you brought it back up. Because when I started, it was really, really strong.

I knew exactly why I was getting in. I knew exactly why I was staying with it. February, I had basketball playoffs, so my priorities became just straight basketball. And then, starting up in March, I started improv, which was completely new. I've never done it before. And it was cool doing that, but it was online doing that. So, just getting that different feel for it. I was like, you know, it just doesn't feel the same.

So, I lost my why. And one of my big things is my faith. I'm really strong with my faith. I pray every night and every morning. I talk to God a lot. And a couple nights ago, something that came back up was definitely my athletes. It, like, brought up why I started this. And, like, as a coach, I believe in being a servant leader and being yourself and being free and happy and loving the things that you do.

And it brought back, like, my first time at Dearing, just the family atmosphere, the opportunities I was given with. The talking stick commercial and just, like, seeing those kind of things. And it really brought back that fire that I made it so much about myself and, like, I lost a lot of my joy because I made it about me rather than making it about the people who actually look up to me.

And I can be like, look, if you want something, go get it. If I'm going to preach it, then I better live that way. Yeah. And see, and this goes back to something you asked me about a while ago, which is the when do I get an agent? How do I do this and all that? And the truth is any time, but it doesn't really matter. That cannot be your why.

If that's your why for getting up, it might drive you until you get an agent. And then you have nothing left to drive you. It was never real from the beginning. So I love that you're making it about other people. When you can drive your passion and make it about everybody else or whoever you want to serve, that will definitely drive you to get out of bed.

Yeah, for sure. It definitely feels better. You know, that's a that's something that like it's literally two nights ago. So, I mean, it hasn't been long at all. And since then, like I've been back on like an actual schedule, you know, like I need to incorporate acting more into doing that. I'm I'm doing some things. I'm creating content on TikTok. I'm writing down scripts for things I might like to do.

But I need to, like, actually fulfill my time, like you're saying, eight hours, like if I'm actually invested in doing this, I got to invest my time wisely into doing. Absolutely. So what you have to do is shock your system. I believe somebody and this is not for everybody, but somebody like you needs to shock your system. So I would do something drastic. I would say no video game fast, TV fast, seven days.

That's hard, right? That makes you like, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah. And then you got to include social media. You have to include social media in that. You know, you could go on there to contribute, but you can't scroll like whatever it is. You're going to protect yourself and you're going to say, I'm going to go on this massive fast. Then what's going to happen is you're going to get bored.

Then you're going to have to fight with your own thoughts, your own feelings, and you're going to have to get through being bored. And that's tough. Right. And when you get to that place, that gray space, that's when you get to hear God and talk to God even more. And that's what's exciting. But you have to fight through it. I like that. You got it? I really like that.

Yeah. So if you do that, then all of a sudden you're going to, you'll, you'll start getting creative with how are you going to fill your time? It's going to be this, it'll be this, uh, super interesting experiment for yourself to say, I have seven days to fill. I like to think of it this way. What if they were the last seven days that you had on earth?

Would you wake up early every day or would you sleep in? Right. You'd wake up early. You'd find a way to contribute. You'd find a way to connect. You would do things at a whole next level attitude. And you might be hoping maybe it's not your last seven days, but you're just in case you're going to make sure that you go out with a bang. Right. The other thing that happens when you get bored is if you allow yourself to just meditate and work through all those thoughts and just breathe through them, you can start to get used to it.

Most people right now are really struggling with the same thing you are. And, and that is that this idea of just being bored of what I do with my time. And the next thing you know, you fill it with something you didn't want to, and it feels good for a second. And then you go down this path of, oh, I wasted a day or a couple of days and you start to feel bad.

So the big, the big thing for you is get on a schedule and realize that if you ever wanted acting to be what you do, if you want acting to be your day job, you've got to treat it as such. And, and, and, and you have to understand to be an actor is to be an entrepreneur. So you are running your own company, which is your brand, which is you and influencers are, are entrepreneurs as well.

Anybody who, who is a presence online and gets paid to do it, that is, that is someone running their own company. And you have to look at it the way that it is, which is a startup. So you have a startup company and it's going to take a massive amount of energy and a massive amount of time and money and focus and absolute no excuses. Nothing can get in your way.

You should be saying, everyone should be saying, oh my gosh, wow. Thank you. I get, I get to still train. Thank you. Instead of online's not as good. Why is it better? That's what you have to ask yourself. Why is this actually better? What can I learn that I couldn't learn in the classroom physically? That's what we're focusing on here. When we're developing and designing our courses, we're, we're adjusting lights.

We're figuring out all new ways of creating this energy and this connectedness and saying, okay, here's what we can't do because we're not in person. But since we're used to these things, what, what, what advantage actually is there here? Is there a time when people have to audition over FaceTime? Yeah. All the time. Is there a time when you're probably going to have to talk to a casting director or another actor?

Of course. And that's actually the show. I bet that's going to happen. Yeah. So you got to act as if. So literally training online, training on your phone, you're, you're setting yourself up for next level success that may or may not, you know, that, that opportunity may or may not come. But if, and when it does, you're ready. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. It's just a flip of mindset.

That's like a, yeah, yeah, for sure. That's, that's a complete twist. Um, as you're saying, that's one of the cool things, like the experience of still being in the class, but have it be online. Is that kind of experience, you never know when it's going to happen. But, um, rather than excuses, you got to find the solution, I guess. That's right. And think about this. So you need to get good at auditioning just like you are right now.

You have to figure that out. So every time you get into class, you should be treating it as, as this is my opportunity to take my, my career to the next level. I mean, you've got to really focus on it that way. Gotcha. Okay. I like that. Thank you. All right. What's next? Um, let's see with kind of going back to what I was saying earlier. Like I've been writing down scripts.

I've been doing TikToks, like little skits here and there kind of by myself. Um, I'm having a hard time. I don't know if it's mental or just like being timid with it or not like having anyone else to do it with. It's like uploading that content and like posting it, being consistent with posting. Um, those are just some things that I'm struggling with right now. Just being at home.

Yeah. Yeah. So this all goes back to your why. Mm-hmm. If it's important, you don't miss. Mm-hmm. How many days in the last year have you missed praying in the morning and at night and talking to God? Very, very, very few. Very few. Yeah. Very few. How many have I missed? Zero. Mm-hmm. That's one of my non-negotiables. I read my affirmations in the morning. I read my affirmations at night.

I do not miss my time with God and the programming of my mind. Other things I have fallen on. My healthy eating has gone up and down. So there have been variations. And then, of course, there's life that comes and we will get a big casting. It throws us off and we love it. We're excited about it. It's, you know, monetarily great. But if we're focused on something, the way that the acting world works is it's hurry up and wait.

So we'll be waiting and we can't just wait for the next casting. We got to be on to the next thing. And then we'll just get thrown something at usually the worst timing because we're super busy with something else. So the idea is you just got to make this a non-negotiable for you. And I don't know how to do that. Because I can't do it for you.

It's all about your why. If you connect something, whatever it is, to whether or not you live or die, to whether or not you fulfill your dreams. And you can really believe it. If you can talk yourself into it and understand that if this doesn't happen, you're not going to get your dreams. So that's what I did with my mornings. So that's what I did with my mornings.

Waking up now, I am terrified of not waking up early enough. Because I saw such a huge, drastic shift in my life. It's something I committed to. I didn't miss for two years. Now I'm on my third year and I missed a couple days here and there. But every time I did, I would shock my system like crazy. So instead of 4.30, I would commit to 3 o'clock for a while.

Just to be insane. Because then I would feel great. Because I'm doing more than I expected. I'm almost catching up from the day before mentally. It's this little game I play with myself. But it's something that can shock my system. So I can tell you right now, my why for doing what we do is so strong that I am committed. I cannot wait to wake up in the morning and take things next level.

My son left me notes all over the house that said, wake me up in the morning. He's like, wake me up. Wake me up. So I couldn't miss. All right. So I get up at 3 and I wake him up. He's actually asleep right over here. In the studio. He came in at 3, fell asleep about 4.30. I've been resetting the lights and the setup here to create this new studio format that I'm just so excited about.

And we're not even close to being where my vision is for it. But I didn't have this vision. It didn't exist before we had to make it exist. Gotcha. What happened, though, is I got off the couch and I said, I don't know how this is all going to go down. But I can tell you what. I'm going to go down swinging. This studio, what we do is not going to end unless I get knocked out.

Gotcha. Well, that's awesome, man. So that's what you do. That's your consistency. It's got to be every day, no matter what, you do what X, whatever that is. And if it's TikTok, you'll be successful. If it's an Instagram post, a sketch. And don't use other people as an excuse. Because you can easily do what we're doing. Write a sketch. You can be doing this and this could be very funny.

Mm-hmm. I got you. I got you. Okay. Yeah. I mean, once again, thank you. Thank you for daring. Because your vision, I mean, just I can speak for myself and I'm sure other people watching this as well. Well, you guys provide just like how you treat us, how you like show that you actually love by not like just being nice about everything, but like actually giving us what we need to hear.

Yeah. About a lot of things because that actually shows that you care about us as the individual and like what we try to do. So going back to your vision, thank you. Like genuinely thank you for what you do for us. That's very nice of you. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the hope. And we are here to serve. It's the number one thing in our vision is we will be known for our dedication to service.

It's number one. And then right there, inside there. Man, that's completely awesome. Dude, this has been the most exhausting two and a half weeks of me being off. I've never been, I've never been, I've never been more tired. I've never worked more hours. I'm working 14, 16 hour days. My kid is here sleeping because of how much I love you guys and I'm connected to you and I just want to deliver a product that we can be proud of and that will really impact the world.

That's, that's our heart. But if we don't grind like this, I, I, because I don't know the future, I just got to listen to God. He tells me what to do and I'm like, I don't know how to do that. He goes, well, learn. Yeah, right. All right, dude, you, I, I'm, I'm excited to see your stuff. Okay. So how can we follow you on TikTok? Um, all right.

So my, my TikTok is Tytanic, T Y T A N I C, 32. Tytanic 32. All right. And what kind of content can we look forward to over there? I'm, I have, I have so much. So many notes and ideas I just got to put together. Um, I, I honestly feel like a teenage girl on that app because I'm just constantly going through it. And I just got to put these ideas that I have down into like actual action rather than just talking about it all the time.

You know, you know, you got to, you got to, you got to, you got to fail, you got to fail, fail hard. Don't worry about watching everybody else's stuff and figuring out what's what let go, all that. And you do, you do it quickly, get it up and get it consistent. But it's, but it's only come from failure after failure after failure because we're, we're not going to stop.

We are not going to take a day off. It's not okay. Gotcha. No, that's, that's extremely inspiring. It's something I need to do right now. So just, I'm getting too comfortable with kind of day to day moseying on through. So that's definitely something I got to get back into. And it's easy to not put something up today because you don't feel like it's good enough. Absolutely. You can always take it down later.

Right. But you can't undo the chain of you didn't follow through your commitment of doing it once a day. So if you do it, you post it, it's up and you do that for enough days in a row. I think people really like watching the progress. They might look at something great. You do a week from now or a month from now or six months from now or a year from now.

And all of a sudden you've popped and then they might like to go back and see how, how much you sucked way back when. Right. It's fun, you know, so document the experience, document you figuring it out. I got you. No, thank you. I appreciate that, man. All right. Here's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to slap Tyler Weeks here with a massive challenge.

You ready? Yes, sir. All right. We talked about this. It's going to be a seven day fast for Tyler Weeks. No media, none. No news, none. Zero, zero news, zero TV, zero social media, unless you are putting up this, unless you're putting up content. Okay. And I'm talking about even responding. Don't even, don't even let yourself and no video games. Seven days. You do this. Seven days.

You do this seven days. I want you to reach out about four days in and tell Brian how much, how great you feel right now. Cause you will, it's going to be really hard. The first two days, really hard. The third day you're going to feel great. The fourth day you're going to be on fire. And my system is going to be shocked. It's going to be amazing for you.

It is going to be amazing. The first two days are going to be miserable. I promise you, because you're not going to know what to do with all this time. But once you figure that out, once you figure out how powerful time is, then you realize I always had all this time. I could have easily been getting up two, three hours early before work. I could have done that.

Why wasn't I doing that? I could have already been living my dreams. Okay, cool. Well, I'm not going to feel bad about it. Now I'm just going to do it. So if you do this, you're going to reach out to Brian. He's going to have you on his show in seven days and you're going to get to do the thing you say you're about. So we're going to find out how strong your why really is because you're going to get to get to be on his show and talk about your experience that you're going to journal.

And his entire audience is teenagers. So you're going to get to reach the kids. You're going to get to speak to the kids, connect to them, and you're going to talk about your failure. And then you're going to talk about how you fixed it and how you felt and how you feel now. And you're going to inspire a lot of people. Okay. I got you. No, thank you so much, man.

Like, honestly, thank you. It's a, this, this has been my cup of coffee for the morning. Boom. Boom. So this is, this is awesome. I appreciate you. Well, you can do it every morning here on the Dearing Acting Studio YouTube page. Please subscribe to that and share it. We are doing these kinds of motivations every morning and we want this to be your cup of coffee, actually.

100%. If you're going to consume anything, it should be something positive, uplifting, something that gets your, butt in gear. Absolutely. I appreciate you, man. Love you, bro. I can't wait to see you in class. Love you guys. Yes, sir. All right. Take care. Thanks for listening to Mornings with Matt. Please like, subscribe, and follow us at Dearing Acting Studio to keep up with the latest content. For more information on classes, private lessons, or professional development coaching, visit www.dearingstudio.com.

Have a deering day, everyone.