Momentum: The Result You Get Today Came From Something You Did Six Months Ago in the Dark

We. Are. Live. That was good. Thanks. This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Yo! What is up everybody? Midweek Wednesday pick up. No wonder our numbers are down. I have been missing that song and so has the rest of the world. Yes. Absolutely. So Joey comes in to a meeting. He's like, guys, I just want to show you a little something.

Just a little. I just want to show you something. Here's the chart. Okay, boom. And I got to tell you. Sets it down in front of each of us. I was real worried. I was like, what is this? Well, it's a really cool chart because it goes up, up, up, up, up, up, up, down, down, down. And these are our podcast numbers. And I was like, I'm thinking to myself, did something big happen between, like, I don't know, April and May?

I don't know. Nothing changed for me. Oh, yeah. The world turned upside down. So we have an idea. But the truth is, okay, we reacted. We reacted well. We pulled our booties out of our booties. And we came around here. Is that bad? We took our booties out of our… That's the worst. No, you take our… I'm talking about booty socks. We're ran out of your booty.

No, no, I'm talking about sock out of another sock. Like a booty sock? No. All right. He put my booty out of my booty, yo. What? You know what? He leaned into it and we just… I almost let it go, but I was like… No, we couldn't let that go. If you let it go, I would lose all respect for you. Thank you, Joey. I deserve that.

Whether it's on time or late, I deserve that. I want it and I will take it. He will take it. All right, big booty, what were you saying? So the idea here… No, it's not big booty. It's booty booty. Booty booty. Yeah, booty booty. Booty booty. Booty booty number one. Booty booty number two. So we're on a Wednesday and it's like, boom, what are we going to do?

You know? And we have all this crazy momentum going right now. And then Joey's like… Numbers. And the truth is, here's the deal. These aren't the only numbers that look like this. Right. Correct. You know, we got numbers across the company that look like this. And our numbers are probably better than a lot of other companies out there, depending on who you are. Like the arts are getting crushed right now.

Big facts. Arts are getting crushed. But let's talk about the poor trampoline parks and, you know, whoever else. There are places that got it worse than we do. Much worse. And so we're trying to stay grateful, stay humble, stay, you know, hungry and push. And we realize just by doing that, it creates this like visceral energy, you know? Visceral? Visceral. Is that good? Is that good? Yeah.

I actually don't know what that means. That's why I repeated it. Yeah. Yeah. Visceral is a great word. I just pulled my booty out of my booty there when I said visceral. Yeah, but can you give me a description of what that means? Like visceral. Yeah, go ahead. Visceral is visceral. I mean, I can say what I think it is, but Brian can just read it. Related to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect.

So it's like instinctual, visceral, like to bring clarity to like this, right? Like this like crystal clear, like feeling. Ball. A crystal clear ball. The voters' visceral fear of change. So we have this feeling, right? And I mean, this kind of makes sense to the word now, and I didn't know how great a word it was, but it turns out, dang, it was really usual. Really good word.

Really, really good choice there. But we're feeling the momentum. We're not seeing it on the chart here, but we will see it on the chart three months from now, six months from now. You have to remember, you always get the result from something that you did six months ago in the dark. That's where you get paid, you know, and it's so easy to get focused on the wrong things.

And I think sometimes, even just a Wednesday in general, for whatever reason, people can be like, hump day, like sad day, you know. It's Wednesday. Midweek. You know, and when you figure this stuff out and you decide it's time, I'm not going to do that to myself anymore. Every day, every single day becomes important, becomes exciting, becomes something that you can make a visceral decision about. Right.

Yeah, it's interesting because I was just talking to Shea about this this morning, and this is what I was going to pull you aside to tell you, but now I can just tell you on here. I have to interrupt. You're so handsome, bro. I told him that this morning. Like, look at that. I told him that this morning. You know what it is? He got all the handsome genes?

It's the beard. Oh, and he shaved the mustache. I was waiting for her to do that. Hey, you took Shea's critique. You took Shea's critique. It looks so good. Yeah, but it took about, like, three hours. Worth it. I'm sorry. Worth it. Ladies, he is single. Okay, go ahead. Now, tell me what you were going to tell me. He winged awkwardly at the camera. It's what I do.

Did you wing at the camera? No, I did. He did. I looked right at it, and I just went, oh. All right, handsome, tell us what's up. I was just going to tell you that the leadership, since we came back in, like, all the time. It all came together is, like, crazy from you. Like, the energy is there. The leadership is there, and it's a different tone.

So, for me personally, it's been a motivating tone, a do what you can every single day in a positive way. Don't let everything that's not getting done drown you. Instead, focus on what you can do, not what you can't do. And before, I was drowning in that, of, like, everything that's going wrong, everything that's that we're not doing versus what we are doing. And I just wanted to, like, shout you out for that, because I literally talked to Shea about that this morning.

Like, it's been a whole different feel around here, and it starts with you, and it's because of the president that you started with when we came back all together this past week. So, it was just really, really cool for me. Yeah. Well, thanks, dude. He meant precedent, but he said president. Yeah, I was wondering. It's okay. I know. And I was like, it was such a beautiful speech.

He wanted to say something, or let him listen to it back. Yeah, so it's precedent, not president. I love it if people are watching, like, instead of listening to this podcast, whenever something gets dissed on me, Shea always just reaches over. I do. It's okay, bud. I just give him a little, like, it's okay, bud. We love you. We love you so much. Hey. It's okay. But we wouldn't be guardians if we didn't say something about it, you know?

It's true. No, and a little foreshadowing. This is something we're going to talk about on Friday, and I just put it out into existence. Matt doesn't know that we're talking about it, but we're going to talk about it on our podcast on Friday. Sweet. Is this idea that there's so much that goes on at the studio that people don't know about. And one of the biggest questions that we get asked is, so, like, what do you guys do during the day at the studio?

And just because so many people know us to have classes from four to ten at night, and it's, like, common knowledge that they, I think they wonder, like, so, what do you guys do, like, during the day? And that's something that we're going to talk about on Friday, so we want you guys to listen to that podcast, because it'll be really fun. That's good, because I'm interested, too.

Like, I can't wait to find out, like, what we do during the day. Matt, Matt, as our boss, is really interested to see what we do during the day. Like, I'm still just mind-blown that we get to do what we do. A lot of videos and stuff just get out there. Like, I don't even know. I'm not even sure. I think it's magic. I think there's, like, elves around here.

It is. It is magic. Is that what it is? It's elves. It's elves. Tiny elves. Yeah. Especially now, probably when there's not class, people are just like, what are you guys, like, gone? So, here's what we're going to do. Here's our, just a very quick podcast here. We're talking about midweek energy. And, you know, thank you, Joey, for saying that. That was so kind of you to mention that the new feel.

And I can tell you that I agree. Like, it's been different. And it did. It started with a decision that I made. So, I'm going to go ahead and make, I'm going to go make this statement here as far as what I did to clear my head. Because I had, I had all the same junk going on. Everybody else did. And I just said, okay, Matt, what's going on with you right now?

What are the top things, the big guys that are weighing you down? Pick one. And just go after it. Hard. Yes, yes, yes. So, I picked the table that I had started working in the beginning of the shutdown. And this is a woodworking project. And I was not a woodworker until Shea told me I am now. But this, it was a big, hard, long project. There was this big old table and bench outside that I completely stripped, sanded, stained from, did everything.

I didn't know how to do it. I learned how to do it. I made a lot of mistakes. And this took me probably six hours a day for about two weeks. I spent on that. In the heat. In 100 degrees, 95 degrees, 110 degrees. I got a sunburn on my back from the last day that I was doing it. And I felt so good. I told myself I was going to do it.

I was going to do it by that date because I thought we were going to have Valleywood. So, I had already set that date in advance. I followed through. Even though we didn't have Valleywood and it was hard, I did it anyway. And I looked at myself and I was like, dude, look at what you can do. With what? Momentum. And that word came to me. I'm like, dude, it's momentum.

It's like, it's daily practice on the little things, doing the hard things, doing the things you don't want to do. And it creates energy. So, I told myself, that's all I'm going to focus on is that. And I came back and I preached that to you guys. And you bought in, thank goodness. And I did. I do. And I did have a different energy and a different mindset because I'm going, there's so many things I cannot control.

I got to take what we preach and hold on to that idea of I'm not going to focus on what I cannot control. Instead, I'm going to go, what are the little things that I can do? I can lift you guys up. I can send motivational text messages. I can be kind. I can honestly ignore some stuff that bothers me. Like, I can forgive you without you saying sorry.

Like, I can do all those things. And I can have a positive mental attitude. And I can just grind and push and be focused. Those are things I can control. And that creates momentum. It creates energy. And that's what you can do right now. It's Wednesday. If you want some mid-week energy, choose to do those things. Yeah. Choose to look the other way and to create an energy.

Go ahead, Brett. Or Joe. Joe, go ahead. It's so interesting you say that because I totally see that where, like, before we were getting to this point where we sort of pride ourselves on the radical transparency, the radical honesty with one another. But I think it got to a point where, like, then we were just overdoing it a little bit, you know? It was like everything that bothered us about somebody on the team or the other person, we would bring it up every time.

And at some point, that gets overwhelming. It gets tiring, especially with a workload on top of it, right? And it makes it an experience where you're like, okay, you're trying to look out for that thing, but sometimes it just comes out. And that idea of, hey, I can forgive you whether you say sorry or not. If it's something that bothers me, look inside first. Is it with me?

Like, is it something that I can change? Is there something that I can do about it so that it wouldn't affect me in that way? Look inwards first. That's such a huge idea. And I definitely see where me, I would call out things that were just a pet peeve of mine that didn't really even have to do with, like, the self-development of the other person. Because, like, the way you say something or the way you react to me actually sometimes won't make you a better person.

It just makes me less irritated. Sure. That's just the difference between being honest and being petty. Yeah. Which is a tough line. Like, that's a tough line to cross because if I think in the why from that, like, talking back to momentum, you're thinking about, okay, am I, like, the other week, and I hope it's okay to talk about this, but the other week, me and you, you were upset.

And I asked you to go really deep because you were frustrated with Brian, and I asked you to go really deep and make sure you knew why you were frustrated. Because was it you were annoyed or were you trying to help him because, and your attitude changed because I said, when you have this conversation with Brian about a mistake that was made, you need to make sure it's coming from a place of, hey, I want to help you because, you know, A, B, and C makes D and not because I'm annoyed because you're my brother and you made me mad.

Like, those are two very, very, very, very different things, especially because you guys are our family, and that has to, it just has to come from the right place. And I think that's, that gets hard sometimes, and there's a line that gets crossed, and then, then the, the honesty comes from a place of making you feel better rather than making the other person grow. Yeah. You know, which is kind of interesting, and I wanted to bring up, Matt, the other day, I told you about that video I saw about using the word love, that we use it too much.

Ah, yeah. Yeah, and it was, so I saw this video, and it was this really cool lady that does little TikTok videos on kind of self-development and in the business world, and she was saying, we overuse the word love. And if you think about it, and she made this example, and it just blew my mind. She said, you know, I love your dress. I would love to take you out for coffee.

I'd love to tell you about my new products, whatever it may be. I love that color on you, and it makes it about you. And that blew my mind. Like, never in a million years, like, is it really a compliment? You know what I mean? Well, yeah, and this is the stuff, so I, 100, first of all, I agree with this lady completely. And secondly, before I get there, Brian, go ahead.

You were going to talk. Oh, I'm sorry, Brian. No, that's okay. No, I cut him off, not you. We're right here at the wrap-up as well, but I just wanted to say that I had a recent discovery also that really helped, as you were teaching me through a book that you read on extreme ownership. And I think it comes into just, like you said, owning yourself. Like, really, like, going and blaming you first, you know, and starting to take accountability for how you could have changed the situation or what you can do to change it.

And it does give you so much power. Like, you've been trying to tell me that for a while, but then, like, it just clicked. Like, there was this click, and it was, like, everything has been so much easier for me personally. It was really hard to get there, but now by just taking accountability for everything all the time, it has just made life so much easier for me.

Yeah. And so that's something I think viewers can, coming into midweek, like, there will be all kinds of annoying things that come at you. And if you can humble yourself enough to go, like, okay, true, but, like, what am I accountable for and what can I control even? So even the things outside of that, I can control how I react to you. I can't control what you do to me or don't do to me, but I can control how I react, how I decide to move forward, how I decide to even let it affect me.

Yeah. So that was just really cool. Totally. And when it comes to this idea of radical truth, I did take it to an extreme because I believe in this extreme ownership. I believe in this radical truth. I try to live by it in everything that I do and say. And so going back to, like, this lady, we overused the word love. I totally agree. And it bothers me because it's changed my life being radically truthful and radically honest and just being willing to be me and be honest with me that I want it for other people.

And that's where it came from. But sometimes I'm saying, like, I'm learning to let go of a bunch of stuff because if I can read it quickly and see, okay, it's all right. You're just not ready for this particular lesson right now. I don't need to bring it up. Instead, I can just not be phased. I can take a different approach to this thing and let you figure some of these things out for yourself.

And then maybe one day you ask me about it and then I can teach you about it. Yeah. So you take this idea of love and you're like, I love your dress. Well, the truth is that's a lie, actually. It's literally a lie. You don't love that dress. You're speaking a lie. Because you didn't pick it out. Maybe you wouldn't even pick it out for yourself. Maybe you don't even like it.

But they look pretty. Yeah. That's the truth. The truth is you look pretty, not I love that dress. I love the dress. Right. So those were the little type of things, though, that I would pick people up on because it's like, you're lying. And then they'd be like, no, I'm not. But they were. But at the end, like, why am I doing that? I had to ask myself, what am I doing?

Because I'm trying to help, but it's not helping. So try a different approach. And that's part of the new me, too. The new me. Always learning and growing. Boom. That is your Wednesday pickup, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. Would you like to say it, Shea? Because you were repping it. Do it, Shea. Shea. Shea. Shea. Shea. Shea. Shea. Have a deering day, everybody.