Finish Strong: Many Start Fast and Few Finish, the One More Rep, and Why People Remember the End

I literally read it so many times, I'm reading it backwards now. I think this is a good note for everybody out there. This is Mornings with Matt, the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. All righty, good morning, everybody. Today is a great day. It's Saturday, and we're going to be talking about finishing strong today. So, it's exciting. We sat down, and Brian's microphone needed some adjustments here.

So, what am I going to do? Oh, Brian, dude, you got another chair. Yeah, because you're sitting in Joey's seat. Do you know how to cut to yourself? Yeah. Can he cut to himself, do you think? Um, sure. Do you think he's capable? I'm already cutting myself right now. Look at that. Brian. Hey, guys. Wow. This is Joey's. Man, there's so much going on here. There's a lot of, like, really cool tech.

Do you feel powerful over there? I do feel pretty powerful over here, yeah. I got a lot of control. Back to you. You look good over there. Thanks. Let me see. Let me see how you're looking, Joey Light. Wow. Joey Light is just very flattering. It is. It's very flattering. It's not an accident. And, I mean, there's some Joey headphones here, too, I think. Like, this is just a Joey world over here.

Some Joey Chewy Bars. all right bro we got to start off with a daily devotional since you switched over there i was worried you weren't going to be able to do it do you have a paper or no i got one right here yeah you mind uh you mind hitting us up with some daily devotional let's do it all right so our first one here today is second chronicles 15 7 it says but as for you be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded.

I'm going to read that one more time. So that's, but as for you, be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded. Boom. And that goes right into finish strong, right? Well, yeah, I mean, and who are they talking to? In this exact verse? Yeah, but as for you, who's you? I think you would be specifically just like the person who's becoming weary, probably, in this situation.

I think it's you, Brian. I think they're talking to you. To Brian Sweeney? Yeah. What makes you think that? Because it says you. It says, but as for you. Oh, I get what you're saying. I think they're talking to me, too, directly to me. See what I'm saying? I get what you're saying. I feel like God's saying whoever's reading this right now, as for you, which is all of us, but it's only all of us if we're reading this, right?

But as for you, be strong and do not give up. Yeah. How many times you wanted to give up in life? Like 10 billion. 10 billion probably. Me too, dude. Me too. I mention this a lot. i don't think there's any person out there that hasn't struggled with the truth of wanting to give up you know as a um as a business owner i know that there's there there's these times that it feels like why am i doing this or am i capable of doing this you know should i keep doing this yeah why do i put myself through all this torture you know but i know the same thing goes for anybody working in any business or or any job the same thing you're like you know what i just want to i just want to give up yeah or or this project or this homework assignment i know there's been so many times where when i was growing up that you know i wanted to give up or even did give up where like good was enough yeah you know what i mean totally totally you know you're capable of like so much more but you just yeah go with the bare minimum for sure but as for who for me for you and for you out there that's why it's your day really devotional also yeah yeah yeah but as for you be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded so the the the reward is going to come from not giving out. The reward is going to come from the other side of being strong. And there's no doubt that's tough. This is not the easy road. This is the hard road. But that's good stuff. All right, we do have another Bible verse, Brian. It is James 1, 4. I'll go ahead and read this one. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1.4. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This is an interesting one. I saw you put this one down. Talk to me about about what really, really got you excited about this verse this morning.

Can you turn me on? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. So the idea of one thing sort of leading to the, I really like verses and things where it shows like what one thing to do and what ends up happening at the end of that. Okay. Because if you go into the idea of quitting, it becomes so much easier. It's still challenging, but to finish something and complete something when you know, like, what's waiting for you on the other side, right, when you know what's happening.

So this verse I really like because it says, let perseverance finish its work so that, and anytime there's one of those, I'd really like to hear it, is so that you may be mature, complete, not lacking anything. It's interesting, though, what you get. You know, the last one said reward. Mm-hmm. this one doesn't say you're going to get a reward this one doesn't say you win yeah so so what do you get you get what you get maturity you get growth yeah basically maturity yeah maturity like um understanding you get you you you get it says complete so you know there's something that happens when you finish something like when you get to the end that you that you feel complete you know what i mean yeah we're gonna definitely be talking about this today so that's why i love that you grabbed that one because it's it's like we're constantly trying to get away from the reward mentality even though we believe that if you live in this particular way and you think this particular way that you will have more rewards than you ever thought possible yeah but it's not about focusing on that right right and here it's saying that you may be mature and complete like you may you may understand like what does it mean to be mature in your mind what do you think um just i guess somebody who's like respectful somebody who has like an understanding under their belt um and is like i guess just like grown you know what about you joey you're on the edge of of uh you know transitioning from childhood to being a man what does it mean to be mature like what's the difference you know what i mean because there there's a thought process i think there's a there's a mental shift that happens and you become more mature and if you're honest with yourself all of us we all have maturing to do you know absolutely yeah i think maturity like getting mature um being mature in faith in life um it's it's different for each asset right so i'm like oh yeah i'm getting mature in this i'm getting mature in this i'm getting mature in this you know but it's not like this big overwhelming like for instance you meant to say aspect not asset huh like for each aspect of life yes right yeah and you accidentally said asset oh which is like something that you um that you have like so one of your assets like your car your house or whatever cool thanks for bringing that up i think that was an important well no actually my point my point was my point was you you said one thing you meant another but as you're maturing honestly you're you're learning and developing in your language truthfully yeah like that i i i actually said it to lift you up because because your your vocabulary has already in the last couple years like multiplied sure yeah a hundred times over yeah how many times do we hit that that moment and let's again talking about maturity even me bringing this up six months ago no offense would of derailed you because you weren't mature enough to handle it yeah and now you're now hopefully you've matured to the place where you're going oh if I said a word wrong not only does it not offend me if you correct it because like other people probably heard it too but I want to know the truth I don't want to I don't want to repeat the same wrong word twice like that that's a mature perspective to have yeah yeah totally that's uh that's so that's what i was saying is like it's different for every compartment of your life right um but i think that the idea of like all-encompassing maturity that comes from um understanding life better yes right understanding that other people are not out to get you even though sometimes it feels like that you know it goes back to we talked to this a bunch on the show but about you know 99 of the time whatever is going on isn't about you but we want to make it about us well that's selfish you know and it throws you into a pit because then you're like i'm in the middle of this like i don't know why they're doing that to me and it's like no they're just struggling right to make ends meet and you happen to be the person that was in the way at the moment right when they exploded yeah you know you hold it back you hold it back you hold it back eventually you're gonna explode and most of the time it's gonna be on somebody you don't want to explode on somebody you really love right so it goes back to that idea of I think understanding life better understanding people better understanding how to have a conversation better, right?

And that's one thing that the new generation has lost a little bit is being able to have a conversation with one another. Yeah, or they've either lost it or they haven't found it yet. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Because what's one thing, not one thing, okay, let me just ask you guys this. When you're young, and really any time, but when you're young, how much, Brian, you were doing the old Brian look.

You're back. Brian was like. I was like, dude, I'm like on edge. I know, exactly. You were worried that I was going to throw something at you. No, I was excited. Yeah, no, he was on his phone, like, about to do a social video. I know, I know. You can do a social video. It's okay. No, I want to hear this first. He's going to go to me.

Oh, no, oh, no. I tried to even give a subtle hint that, like, hey, I'll go first. Yeah, right, right, right, right. I was like, yeah, yeah. Okay, so, and this isn't even something thrown at you guys. You're probably just going to agree immediately. But one of the things that we take the most offense to, I feel like, is when someone's like, you're so immature. I agree immediately.

Oh, yeah, 100%. Right? There's something you just want to be like, what? And what's funny is if you are immature, that's how you're going to react to hearing that. Yeah. So by you reacting like that, it's just confirmation that you are super immature. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. So let me ask you this. Joey, what is something that I'm not good at but maybe that I know something about but I'm not good at?

Can you think of something? Yeah. I'm trying to – I had something – oh, letting, you know, you helping other people but then letting their – if they have a negative reaction towards it or they're being rude or pushing you off or taking things for granted, like that gets under your skin pretty quick, which is tough as a coach. So, um, so releasing, so, so maybe like releasing and not carrying other people's baggage is something that I'm still not great at.

Yeah. Okay. So then what you could say to me is in that area, Matt, you are immature. Sure. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I would need to be able to take that and, and agree with it and listen to it and go, okay, like, how can I grow in that, in that area? And, and, and I, if, if I want to, you know, whatever it is, I would have to want to grow in that area, you know?

But either way, you're thankful for the truth. Right. Like you said, yeah. Like, like you've, you've actually played quite a bit of basketball and I would say you're still an immature basketball player. but that you've matured like tenfold what you were a couple years ago. No, 100%. But as far as basketball IQ is concerned, you're still immature, but you're learning and learning and learning, and you're a sponge.

Anytime we get on the court, you always want to hear like new ideas and tricks and strategies and why particular things are the way that they are. Yeah, 100%. No, it's funny because that's exactly right. I was playing with our cousins, and they're all better than me, but I tended to win the most games after working with you. Why? Because I just told whoever was on my team, I'm not good, but I'll get you the ball, and if I'm open, I'll shoot, and I'll probably make it.

Makes you – so even though your skill set is where it is, that attitude toward the game makes you both mature and complete. Therefore, you lack nothing in the game because you are what you are. Whereas where it used to be, because you weren't good or you were feeling insecure, what do a lot of players do? They grab it and they'll just shoot or they'll panic or something, right?

And then all of a sudden, like that comes to light more. Whereas if I'm already telling you the way that it is and I fit my position well, then people will respect you. It happened to me all the time with pickup games. I would go and I'd play with players that are way better than me, players that are, like, college level that could jump out the gym.

And I was this, like, little scrawny kid, and a lot of times they would be, like, five, ten years older than me, and I'd go out there and get on the court. Well, I would have two goals in mind. I'd be like, okay, don't screw it up. Like, you know, set other people up for success. Don't be selfish. And do the little things that make these other guys better.

Yeah. So I would just be annoying on defense. You know, I would look for, is there a way that I can go steal a rebound? You know, and then get it to the guy, get it out of my hands quickly. Because the truth is, four out of five guys on the other team could steal the ball from me. Yeah. because they were that much better than me.

Therefore, it's not in my best interest to try to dribble it up the court to try to prove that I can get around them because the truth is they're just going to take the ball probably. Yeah. And if I were trying to prove myself, that would be me being immature. But the mature basketball player is going to know where they fit in the team, where they fit in this particular game, and then play to their strengths.

Totally. And then that's why, having that attitude, Joey's going to win the game nine times out of ten because he's not trying to do more than what he can do. And I'm sure you saw this in your game, Joey. But for me, what would happen during those games is by being the unselfish player, by being that complete player that's like grab it, pass, move, all of a sudden the guys could see, oh, he's got a decent basketball IQ.

And these strangers then within, say, 15 minutes would then, guess what, start passing it back. You can always feel the guy who's like the leader on the team or the person who's got the alpha skill set all of a sudden would be like – he'd kick it. Somebody else would pass it back to me around the horn, and you'd hear him go, go ahead, shoot it. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And then it's like boom, and then you make it. And then all of a sudden he looks at you and he's like, all right, now I know I can trust you in that position. But guess what? That doesn't mean shoot every time you get the ball. Yeah. Right? And again, that's like the difference between mature and immature. Well, and it goes back to listening on the court, right?

So, you know, if I hear my teammate now say shoot it, I don't second guess them. Yeah. I just jump. And then I take the shot. And if it's a brick, it's a brick, and I go get the rebound. But if they say shoot it, I just trust that they see something I don't, and I'm like, cool, I'm going to just jump. I'm not going to look around because in the second it takes me to look around, somebody's on me.

So if they say shoot, I'm just going to pull up. Nice, nice, nice. All right, so this idea of finishing strong, it's something that maybe we take for granted a lot of times in life, And we don't realize how powerful this is to finish a game, to finish a project, to finish a day. And so we're going to talk about that today. The first segment is going to be a feel-good segment.

It's like, ooh, it really does. It feels so good to finish strong. We're going to talk about that, the positive side of finishing strong. And then in the second segment, we're going to talk about just the mental strain and how much of a mental drain it can be to do that extra rep. When you're working out and you're at the very end, can you push through? Can you just do one more repetition with all your strength?

So we're going to talk about that. And then lastly, we want to talk about this idea of finishing strong is something that will provide a good last and lasting impression, which is so very important for you to be successful in life. So we've got a great show for you. It's packed. We'll see you right back after these messages. for everything to come. Truman Hendricks, Astrid Gabriel, Sia Luke, and Vicki Sweeney.

All righty, welcome back. First segment here is, boy, oh, boy, does that finish line feel good. And the picture that I got in my mind for this was the end of a great performance, especially at something long like a play. And you get to the end and it's like, whoa, I'm exhausted, but that felt so good. You know what I mean? Yeah. I remember feeling that when we did The Lonesome West.

Exactly. It was just like feeling. It felt amazing. And truthfully, even during that run, which was a short run for us, but during the run of the play, there was a night that felt the best, and there were other nights that didn't feel as good, maybe for each of us individually or for all of us as a team. And the reason was probably on the days that it didn't feel as good, we probably lost our concentration a little bit and therefore didn't stay completely connected so that we weren't able to finish as strong as we had on the night that it did feel really great.

You know what I mean? Totally, yeah. The other great picture here is a runner who's running any kind of long distance. And you know that, like the tape or whatever, the rope that they run through? Yeah. And they put their chest forward and they, you know, they hit the finish line there? Yeah. It's that feeling of finishing strong there at the end and hitting that rope. There's like just nothing like it.

It feels so good. Yeah, and in that sport too, there's like this, you're going like three miles, right? Because I used to do like cross country. which isn't as long, but it's like three miles or so. And when you're in the last, like, 100 yards or so, that's exactly it. It's like you sprint. So you've been, like, going at a good pace throughout, and then you get to the last, like, last little bit, and you put every little bit of what you got into that last, like, few moments.

As a matter of fact, I ran cross country as well, and I think that that's one of the places that I learned this life lesson of going harder at the end going harder when when you when you think you've got nothing left because the interesting thing is you think you've got nothing left and the guy next to you thinks that he's got nothing left and the question is who's right yeah you know and as you see the guy next to you and you're like thinking to yourself when is this jerk gonna slow down but then you remember he's thinking the same thing about you yeah right 100 and and it's like the person that's gonna win is the person that's basically willing to throw up that they're that they're ready to run so hard and so so you're at the end of say a three mile or six mile or however long these some of these cross countries are and you get toward the end and you know you're toward the end and it's Like, the person who wins or is going to win for their position, because, honestly, there's also athletes in every sport, and cross country is no different.

So I was, like, a number three runner. So there was, like, the number one guy who was also a freshman, and he was going to win for our team every time. He had longer strides than I did. He was a better runner. This is my first time ever running, so I didn't really even know what I was doing. But he was supposed to be out front. Well, I needed to win the third position.

That was sort of like the idea, right? And it's not like I wasn't allowed to get second, but that kind of was my pecking order. So if I'm there in like the number three spot someplace, ideally our team is going to take first, second, third, right? We're going to win all. So I'm in that bunch. So I'm surrounded by two, three, four, five, six positions no matter what team they're on.

And the idea is you get to this turn, and you know there's about a half mile left, and you kick on the jets. Yep. And you run. Like you said, you sprint. Mm-hmm. And everyone's going, like, who's going to give up? And people do. Yeah. People start dying off. Yeah. And if you can just hold on, it's like holding on to a bar or something. Like, what do you do when you're holding on to a bar and it's a competition, like two kids, right?

Whoever can hold on the longest. The person that's usually going to win is the person that can calm their face and make it look like it's not hard. Right, yeah. Even though they're dying. Even though they're dying, yeah. And they're just going like, I could go here all day. And the other person's like, oh, my gosh, he looks so calm. Like, he's never going to drop. Oh, I give up, you know?

But truthfully, the other guy was going to give up, too. Yeah. He just didn't show it on his face. Right. All right, so we've got a quote here. Many will start fast, few will finish strong. That is, Gary Ryan Blair said that. Many will start fast, few will finish strong. This idea of finishing strong is something we talk about a lot around here. It is difficult to do.

But the idea is, like, you know, it all comes back to, like, quitting, right? So you can fail often. You just can't quit. Right. You've got to finish strong to the end. And, you know, for instance, I'm really proud of one of our students, Sia Luke. She's a chaos comedy player, by the way. She's going to be performing tonight. And she created a student film or a short film, I should say, and it was pretty good.

She sent it to me. I watched it. I told her I would critique it. You know, I was like, I'm offering my time up to critique it. So I've already watched it. That was a good 15 minutes of my time, and now I'm going to sit down with her and actually break it down. It'll probably take another half hour or whatever. I'm just doing that for free.

Why? Because she finished. Yeah. Because she finished. Had she started it and not finished it, I'm not going to waste my time. There's no way. There's no way I'm going to donate my time to somebody that's not finishing their project. But she got to the end. Is she happy with all of it? She's not. And I told her that. I was like, your goal is not to be happy with the project.

Your goal is not to do a perfect project. Your goal is to finish the project to the end. And if you do that, then you can learn from it on the next one. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And she did super well at even just within that, like, asking people for stuff, you know, and, like, just pushing it forward and, like you said, making stuff happen.

And that's, like, I mean, doesn't, like, sound like as big as you'd think, but it's a big deal. Of course. Like, it's a big deal. Like, she used up this favor, whatever, like, and it was purely because of, I think, her initiative, you know, and willingness to go out and ask. And I think sometimes there's the fear of doing, like, whether or not someone will follow through and she proved that she's someone who will.

So, like, if there's another opportunity, I'm sure that my mom or whoever, we would, like, be extra, like, willing to do something for them because we know she's proven herself. You know? Absolutely. I mean, same deal. She used the parking lot here for one of the scenes. Yeah. Because she needed a car scene. And she was like, hey, guys, can I use the parking lot? And we were like, yeah, why not?

We're here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and this is funny, too. I remember that day, and her crew was outside. And this one guy was like an AD or something. and i needed to back out and leave and i and i mentioned to the guy hey could you could you move the uh extension cable out of the way i don't want to run it over with my car and so he runs and tells another guy the other guy comes over and he's like oh yeah you can just you can just back up it's okay just just you can just back right over it and i was like no i'd prefer not um if you could just move it real quick that'd be great basically it was just pick up the cord move it it over right well the easier thing to do was to just leave it there and have me run it over the harder thing taking actually you know 30 seconds is to pick it up and move it so that my car doesn't run it over but what's funny is in his mind he's like oh it's okay you can just run over the cord like the cord will be fine and in my mind he didn't know this he didn't know who it was but in my mind i'm going yeah well that's my cord so of course you don't care I agree with you, the court will be fine if I run over it once, but I don't want it to be run over.

I want to set the standard that we take care of the court that we have outside. I was about to say, I bet it wasn't his court. Exactly. And whether it was the director's court or Sia's court or my court, But the point is that person wasn't willing to finish strong because why? Because it wasn't theirs. Right. And that's the key to success. That's the key to moving forward in life is to treat things as if they're yours.

I've taught you guys that since day one. We treat this building like we own it. Even though we don't own it, we treat it like we own it. We treat outside like we own the parking lot. And you guys catch me all the time. If I see trash, I pick it up. Yep. You know, and it's not my trash. I didn't do the trash. It's not my fault.

Who cares? Pick it up. Like, pick up the trash. It needs to look good when people come here. You know, it'll look as good as it can look. It's not the Taj Mahal, but it doesn't need to have trash out front. Yeah. Yeah. You know? No, how many times have you emailed and been like, yeah, you need to turn our lights on 30 minutes earlier because it's Arizona and the sun goes down at different times, you know?

Right. That one's happened a lot of times. Because you're like, yeah, we don't need a dark party lot. Right. But a lot of people are just like, yeah, it'll fix it eventually. And you're like, no, send an email right now. Sent. All right, so let's finish this topic, this segment here with another quote here. It says, when we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. And we've talked about emotions and the danger of those.

When we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. Then when there's a period of waiting or we hit a plateau, we find out how committed we really are and whether we're going to see things through to the finish or quit. And that's Joyce Meyer who said that, Joyce Meyer, who's very well known. So good. And so this point right here is the idea of – and we've seen it so many times.

We see it happen. We can see it a mile away, and there's nothing you can do for these people. But they want something new, something fast, something shiny all the time. And it's so hard to sit and wait and let something mature, let yourself really dig in and not just give in to the next easiest thing, fastest thing. And, you know, and, and again, Joey was talking about the, this next generation of people, the idea, and I taught him this early on, the idea of popping around from job to job, to job, to job, it does not pay off.

But that's, that, that became like the millennial, like anthem, which was like, you know, who's, who's going to give me the best benefits. I'm moving. You know, if my boss is not nice to me, cancel them. I'm going to the next, you know, the next business. And over time, that attitude really hurts you because all of a sudden, guess what? If you're hiring somebody, Brian, let's say you're looking at somebody's resume, and I'm like, hey, I'd like to be hired.

And you're like, okay, great. And you look at their work resume, and in the last two years, they've got eight jobs. Yeah. What does that tell you? That they can't stick with anything. Yeah. So definitely not going to stick here. That's right. That's right. And why they leave, I don't know, and I kind of don't care. It was either your fault, but there can't be, like, eight bosses who all are bad.

So what's the common denominator? You. Yep, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I had that happen with a teenager that I was talking to, and they were talking about a job that they had lost. It was based on, like, their boss had asked them to, they were scheduled to come in, and then there was something they wanted to do. And so they just didn't end up coming in. And then they lost the job, and then they were upset about it.

And the lesson, I was like, you should thank them, like seriously. And you're next – you know what? You're probably not going to go back there. It's probably not going to happen. But for your next job, understand that that's the adult world. That's how it works. Like you don't just get to leave because you wanted to. So that's so good. I just thought of like – and this is going back to maturity.

The only win for that person that you're talking about, and it's sort of like it's almost an impossibility for someone at that age to have this kind of maturity, but the only win would be to either email or write a letter that says exactly that, that says, thank you, you were right, I didn't see it, didn't understand it, I'm going to take this lesson with me, I really appreciate your guidance, I appreciate this job.

I was clearly taking it for granted, and I was being immature in this moment when I didn't come in. I am going to move forward, but I just wanted you to know that I got the lesson and I appreciate it. That would be a win because guess what? Five years from now, if that boss that they had who fired them was in a new position, that boss might rehire you if you reapplied someplace Or would definitely give you a good recommendation someplace else.

Totally. You know? 100%. And that's finishing strong, even in the face of adversity. Yep. That's great advice, dude. You are quite the mentor, Brian Sweeney. Thank you. All right. We are going to go to a commercial break here. When we come back, we're going to be talking about powering through, doing just that one more rep. Got to power through. else and it just has been such an amazing experience and I'm so grateful and excited for everything to come.

Corinne Fries. Isabel Ramirez. Dakota George. Truman Hendricks, Astrid Gabriel, Sia Luke, and Vicki Sweeney. All righty, we got to power through. What does it take to do that one more rep? Here's the deal. When we are working out, and in all of life we're working out, we want to be getting stronger. Don't you think, Joey? Yeah. We were just talking about this yesterday. she says uh starting strong is good finishing strong is epic epic that's awesome i like that one starting strong is good finishing strong is epic and you know um and when i saw that quote I thought immediately of Tom Brady's last Super Bowl.

It was, I believe, the most epic comeback in Super Bowl history. The Patriots were down. Everybody thought, oh, finally they're going to lose. It might have been four or five touchdowns, something crazy in the second half. Really, if you looked at it, it was an impossibility that they were going to win at that point. And yet they come back, come back, come back, and you just see this guy on the sideline, and he never quit.

And as the leader of the team, because he never quit, and he believed, everyone else was like, all right, Tom, we'll give you our all. And then all of a sudden, you know, now they're within three touchdowns. And you see him going, what did I tell you? And he's, like, angry about it. And they're like, okay, Tom, we'll do it. And then they're within one touchdown. And they're like, you were right, Tom.

And they won the game. And it's like now epic. Epic. And so you probably know, Joey, because you're more of a fan. But I don't even know who the other quarterback was. Matt Ryan. But this is also, I was just going to point this out. This isn't his most recent Super Bowl. This is his second most recent. Because in his most recent Super Bowl, he got beat by Nick Foles, and I loved it.

Okay, so it was his most recent Super Bowl win, then. Yeah, there you go. But it was the biggest, most epic comeback in Super Bowl history. Yeah, absolutely. It was unheard of, you know, and there's still memes about it. There you go. Because the Falcons choked. They did. Or Tom Brady finished strong, and they didn't, right? I mean, that's really what it was. Yeah. And, yeah, it was Falcons, Matt Ryan.

I mean, no one's talking about the epicness of Matt Ryan. Yeah, that's because they choke a lot. It's exactly that. And that's kind of the definition of choking as, like, a team is, you know, there's a lot of teams that go out and light it up in the first half, but there's still another half. Right. You got to show up. You can't just, like, oh, we're sitting on this 28-point lead because I can't tell you how many times in the last two seasons they've blown a 28-point lead.

Yeah. A lot, a lot, because they do. They have the pieces on offense to go light it up in the first half, but they have to come back for the second half, and there's a lot of teams like that. Well, and in that kind of sport, obviously, like, at the end, you don't do that and you totally lose, right, because the other team flies. And then there's, in, like, a lot of regular life formats, You do that and you're just finishing good, not great.

So that's why I like the word epic there. Finishing, because to finish really strong, that one more rep, might necessarily mean you could have finished and it still would have been good. But you know that you have a little bit left in you to take it next level. Right. Like you do in the gym or that kind of setting. So, yeah. And I purposely put this on here and say power through.

That's something I wrote on the whiteboard the other night because it was a long day, and there were two things I really wanted to get done by the end of the day, and I wrote up there, power through. I talked to myself. I was like, power through. And the point was, like, there's always going to be a time when you want to quit. There's always a time when you want to quit.

And I believe that right on the other side of that is when you see exponential growth. Facts. Right on the other side of that moment is when you do extraordinary things because almost anybody can do up to the point that they want to quit. Yeah. So if you look at your competition, just know that whatever you're doing, they can do it too up until the point that you want to quit.

And then after that, there's only a few people that keep going. And so if you're one of those people, you will rise above everybody else in whatever your sport or your thing or your job or acting. It doesn't matter. If you continue to push past that place, you're in a very, very small company. Absolutely. And that's why I say I don't care what your skill level is as an actor.

I could care less. I care about do you have that thing. And when I see that thing in somebody, I go, well, as long as you decide this is what you want to do and you maintain that attitude for life, 10 years from now 20 years from now i don't know when but you'll win you'll you'll be better you'll have more skill than everybody who has more skill than you now because you have that particular type of attitude yeah it's that um i'll say this to students a lot like i don't know when it's gonna happen but if you're doing that then it will happen yeah it will it's a guarantee and that goes in into just like falling in love with the process of the whole thing yeah that's which we talk about a lot it goes back to blind faith too you know yeah you you trust that the things you're doing you know you can feel it like oh this is good this is gonna set me up but especially in an industry like ours like you're never gonna get a guarantee ever so like don't expect one that's so silly right you know i brian and i watched the show swat it's fairly new it's pretty good but the lead guy in it was in Criminal Minds for the longest time and Brian knew it I didn't and I used to watch that show all the time but it's because he came in and he was clearly working on his craft sure and so he got this lead role went off the show that he was known for and he has a totally different demeanor about him interesting you know and it's fun to watch actors like that because I like it if I can't recognize you yeah from one piece to another sure that means you did your job right otherwise you're just you're just you in every part and there's certain actors that are that way that are hilarious but eventually it's like how many movies we're gonna cast this guy in where he's the same thing yeah you know yeah you get you you uh you become typecast then you you kind of ride that out for a while and then all of a sudden it's like okay we've seen it it's it's you same you same character same twist just now you're a cop and the last time you were a security guard yeah yeah and i'll and i'll throw out another name steve corral's one of those yeah you know he's time hilarious so funny plays comedy but also is one of the few actors that plays drama really well too and people didn't even know that and then he drops these tv shows and movies that are not comedic and everybody's like why aren't you making me laugh if if i can if i can actually rebut you here do it i think steve carell is excellent at comedy and i don't think he's excellent at drama i think he's i think he's good yeah but i commend him for doing the dramas because he's getting good he's getting better sure and that's the problem is a lot of comedic actors will not put themselves out there because they know they're gonna be scrutinized yeah will ferrell same way will will ferrell did that movie that we were a part of um everything must go everything must go that was a movie about an alcoholic that was a movie it's not funny it's not supposed to be funny and and yet you know i'm in a will ferrell movie and everyone's like that's a downer yeah you know and and he's fine in it he's fine he's you know he's not great he's not daniel day lewis okay other actors could play the part better truthfully yeah but this is will ferrell working on his craft doing something that that honestly probably he knows is never going to go anywhere never going to be like a big hit success something but but this is the back to your point working on your craft working on like doing the thing that it takes to get better and you'll never become a good dramatic actor unless you do some dramas yeah well what's interesting is i feel like actors like that right who have already made it already been experienced in the industry uh i didn't hate that movie you know you're right it wasn't one of his best a lot of people did i didn't you know what movie everything must go i didn't say you should hate it i didn't say it was terrible oh yeah i'm not saying yeah no i know but that's like the that's the picture that a lot of people get it's like he's not doing his thing this isn't as good of a movie well it actually is if you're willing to put aside like will ferrell's not going to be regular him in this like he's challenging himself like you said but there was a lot of good things about that movie yeah but you know so I I look at an actor like um you know I don't know um Tom Hanks or like I said Daniel Day-Lewis or you know Meryl Streep or you know people who are very known for those dramatic roles you know Tim Robbins people like that And if you put one of them in Everything Must Go, the movie's better.

It's better than Will Ferrell being in the movie. Sure. It wasn't about that for Will Ferrell. That's my point. And I agree. It's not a bad movie. It's not a terrible movie. It's not like, oh, I can't watch a movie. It's fine. I'm just saying just because he did the movie doesn't mean that he's a good dramatic actor. Sure. But I am willing to commend him because he did it, he finished it to the end, and he's willing to take whatever criticism comes his way because it's not about that.

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like he could do another Anchorman 7, you know, with his eyes closed, and it's probably going to be funny, you know, and people are going to watch it, but is that making him grow? Is that really expanding who he is as an artist? Yeah. And probably not. Yeah. Probably just like that's the same old, same old. Facts. Absolutely. Baxter! I had to do it.

I had to do it. You said anchor, man. So this gets us to that place, okay? This is the end of this segment here. But it takes us to this place of what is your particular mental attitude when it comes to that time when things get tough? And like I said, there's a select few people who can rip through the muscle because you've got to rip the muscle, and then the muscle's got to heal.

That's the only way to grow. That's the only way to build muscle. This is facts. If you don't push yourself to the place where the muscle actually rips, it's the healing process that makes it bigger. That's how it is. That's the science, okay? So life is the same way. So most of us, and I would just venture to say all of us, every person has that quitting point, which is why coaches exist.

Yeah. Facts. That is why you have a physical trainer. That is why you have an acting coach. That is why the people who are the best of the best in acting will still have an acting coach because they need someone to push them through those pain points. Yeah. I don't care how good you are. There's a time when you want to quit, and that's what a coach does.

A coach is going to go, no, you're not going to quit. One more rep. Yeah. Then as soon as you do the one more rep, depending on how good you do, they're like, oh, looks like you had a little more energy in you. Actually, two more reps. Yeah. And you're like, oh, I hate you. but then when you're done you're like thanks coach yeah yep it goes you know we got a student jared um and he's been here for what a year or two jared michel and uh owns altered athletics is a personal trainer right he showed up to our place he didn't want to be an actor he just heard about it heard about the personal development and was like yes and then he kept diving in and he was on the troop and he was here three times a week and and all these things why he's already a coach because of what you said because brian helped him out right you know and pushed him through those those points where he wanted to quit as a business owner because it's hard this is a great time joey for um a little segment that we like to call brian sweeney's shameless plugs can we hit that It's time now for Brian Sweeney's Shameless Plugs.

Shameless Plugs. Weird. There's the end. That was really weird. Yo, Matt, what's up? There, it was on you. That's what I was doing. Go, baby, go. We've got acting is my day job, seven strategies to market and make money as an actor and or as anything else. If you substitute the word actor for whatever the heck you do, you can get it on Amazon. We've got a show tonight, ladies and gentlemen, 7pm, you can get your tickets at LighthouseTheatre.org and/or you can get them on Eventbrite, you can find them basically online, come see the show tonight.

If you can't make it, there is a YouTube link you can check out and watch us live and donate through that so that you can help support our theatre here. As a side plug, since Joey already mentioned it, we've got a student here, Jared Mishlove, does altered athletics you can check that out on instagram and see some of the stuff he's got going on as well and help all of us finish strong good job brian that was a great plug um and i'm gonna sit on jared for one second because i'm gonna i'm gonna tie this into our segue into our next our next bit here yeah he'll probably do a rep while you sit on him he's currently doing squats yeah So here's what's interesting, okay?

We put something out about that you can advertise on this show. It's something that you, you know, we're like, hey, you know, Joey, make a commercial for you. And Jared immediately was like, I'll do it. I'd love to do it. And we haven't finished that process yet. But he's like, yes, I'm in. Yeah. Jared, the last few weeks, I've noticed he wasn't here in class. And Joey's like, yeah, he did communicate with me about that.

He said he still wants to pay. He's going to try to be here. He's starting up the new gym, and sometimes he's going to get pulled over there, but he needs to have this available to him because of what it does for him mentally. So he wants to contribute to the studio, have it available to him and ready to go, and that's just something he wants to be a part of his life.

Okay, yeah, love that. Then, if I look back truthfully, Jared is one of the most outspoken fans of this place because of what we've done for him. He's willing to admit that this place has helped shape him, shape his mind to the place that he's seeing more success because of it. And what has he done? He has brought in a ton of clients, a ton of referrals, have become students here.

Why? Because he believes that if it did that for him, it's going to do that for his clients. And he wants the best for his clients. Yeah. Okay. What has that attitude of his done for him? There's nobody else we recommend. Yeah, for real. Right? It's like he owns a gym. He's a physical trainer. He's gotten a ton of clients from us, but I don't believe, at least it doesn't come across, that that's why he does what he does.

You know? And here we are. we offered commercials, we're giving him a free commercial, a long one. Why? Because of his mental attitude toward giving, his mental attitude toward finishing strong, being willing to commit, stay committed, even when he can't be here, stay committed. So it is Altered Athletics. Is this the new gym? It's called that? That's his brand. His brand is Altered Athletics. I love that, and I know that there are plenty of our students who have benefited from Jared and benefited from Altered Athletics, so if you are watching right now and you're one of those people, give Jared a shout out.

And it's Altered underscore Athletics if you're looking it up on Instagram. Yeah, give him a shout out. I think this is always nice to do. Give some love to the people that take care of you, so I think it'd be a great day for you to um tag back to the studio say jared saw you on the show this morning love what you do thank you for doing what you do we love you something like that and just give him some love today pour into jared's um instagram i think that would be awesome all right so we are now gonna uh go to a commercial break and when we get back we're gonna talk about making a good Corinne Fries.

Isabel Ramirez. Dakota George Truman Hendricks Astrid Gabriel Sia Luke and Vicky Sweeney Oh, yeah, we're going to talk about the end here, okay, how to make a good last and a lasting impression. It's the end. Your titles are just so good. Thanks, dude. They're so great. It just comes to me. But, yeah, it did. It hit me this morning. Make a good last impression. Cool. But a lasting impression.

Something that stays. Something that sticks. You know? And I know you guys could agree with me here. There are students that we've had come through that they made a lasting impression. Yep. And what's interesting is I said make a good last impression or lasting impression. There are also students who have left a bad lasting impression. Totally. Or a bad last impression. And I'm sure that I have left a bad impression at some point in time or a bad lasting impression.

And that's why this idea of finishing strong is so very, very, very, very, very, very important, okay? I'm going to dive into a couple quotes here. This is a great one from David Goggins. He says, I'm different than most people. When I cross the finish line of a big race, I see that people are ecstatic, but I'm thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow. It's as if my journey is everlasting and there is no finish line.

So I just talked about that, the run and the feel, like how good it feels, right? Mm-hmm. And this guy's going, I watch everybody else celebrate, and then I start planning. While they're celebrating, I'm already planning my training routine for next time. But unlike yesterday, you're not picking back up the seed afterwards. You're leaving it in there, right? Yeah. You're leaving it in the ground to grow.

That's right. You know. That's right. That's exactly right. Good job, Joe. You leave it at the finish line, and then you just let it grow. Yeah, okay. For the next time. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. All right, good. This next quote is Julian Smith says, No one has a problem with the first mile of a journey. Even an infant can do fine for a while, but it isn't the start that matters.

It's the finish line. I can run the mile. For sure. so it's basically like anybody can start something yeah right you know we take up take up a new instrument we take up whatever it is anybody can start and that and so are you one of those people who has started a hundred things or are you somebody who has finished three yeah totally yeah and and that's where i like i want to put our focus right now is going okay how do we finish strong in a few things instead of being a starter in everything yeah you know that's that's great And you see that even in the beginning process of, like, if we go to running again or whatever, like, somebody starts super fast, right?

And we would see this in that world where, like, somebody was, like, going at, like, full speed in the beginning. And you lap them. Yeah. You finish. And they're some of the ones that end up in the back and or, like, the middle. But you pass them because they used all this energy on something and they didn't commit to, like, the whole process of it, right? Yeah, absolutely.

and and and a lot of people do this too where they give everything they have they start off really fast they give all their energy and and a lot of times it's like because because what happens in the beginning of a race where is everybody on the like rows and the lines to go out they're all at the same place they're all together yeah there's there's there's a crowd Everybody can see you.

So because you're being seen and because it's fresh and because it's new, you run, you start, and you're like, look at me. Yeah. Look at me, everybody. But what do you do when nobody's watching, when nobody's around? And are you giving your all or are you getting lazy? And a lot of times that's what happens. We just get lazy. We run out of energy and we get lazy.

Okay, and unfortunately, the truth is people remember the end. They remember how you finished. And this particular concept right here, this is one of the biggest things that I strive to impart on people when they come to work here. I always want to help people learn how to finish strong so that when they leave here, if they leave here, and they go someplace else, this is a skill set that they have.

it's it's important to me and and so um i'd like to talk about you know the connecting into this going the extra mile when somebody goes and does a little bit extra the the extra mile is exactly what david goggins just said the race is five miles i run the five miles and one person goes the extra mile that's what an extra mile is an extra mile is like everyone does the does the race who who continues to run michael jordan continues to run do you know what i mean yeah like that's that's the that's who continues to run when the race is over tom brady continues to run like there there are very select few people who are like okay when the when when the race is done whatever we had to do now i do more whatever that thing is and and it's it's a it's a skill set that can be developed to think of this way and be this way it's not just like you are that person It's you learn how to be that person and how to make a difference in a particular way.

So I'm going to use Dakota George right now as an example. And speaking of Dakota George. Did you say steak? He's got his own sound effect now. And so he started interning here. And we kind of put him through the nines like we normally do when somebody applies. And we can't talk about it. No, we can't. top secret yeah and uh and we brought him on and the truth is i'm gonna be very honest with you dakota if you watch this that we had our questions about you yeah about you know your your dedication and this and that or whatever but but you had the heart and and we believed that we were going to give this a shot right and there's been ups and downs dakota truthfully and and there were times that we we caught you maybe wanting to look for the shiny thing wanting to move on to the next thing, wanting to like not stay consistent and steady and loyal. Right. And yet we, we stayed persistent in our pursuits. We stayed persistent in our teachings of this philosophy. And over time, I can tell you that he has adapted it and become less sporadic and less like, Oh, I want to go do this. I don't want to do that. I want to do this right away, but just sort of like, I'm going to just be, and he's become a steady force for us. Something that we can rely upon something that has become a gift somebody who communicates somebody who's not trying to get attention anymore yeah and and this thing so this thing happened just the other day where i didn't i i forgot that he was going to come in or i didn't know he was going to come in or whatever and and he texts he's like i'll be in to clean the studio and this was on a thursday there's no in-person classes here on thursdays and he knows that but he was going to clean up and make the place look beautiful because there was in-person classes the day before and that was a part of the internship that he has brought brought on and and part of the thing that he has learned to do very well well he shows up with bags full of cleaning supplies that he purchased with his money and he said i bought the pine salt because i i'm sick of smelling vinegar he doesn't like the smell of vinegar i don't like the smell of pine salt it doesn't matter it doesn't matter he's like thinking to himself well if i don't like the smell of vinegar maybe other people don't too and maybe you guys are out of this particular cleaning supply and so i'm gonna i'm gonna do this he did this and he he bought several different cleaning supplies he just bought it on his own he stayed he cleaned he cleaned well anything else we can anything else i can help with he's he's always looking for ways he can he can you know make our lives easier and and more joyful etc and so so we do that and then um and then joey's like hey we got the voiceover coming up for this uh this chaos comedy deal and he's like you know who you want to do it i was thinking maybe dakota and i was like you know joey truth be told i wanted to do that voiceover i thought it'd be fun i love the snl voice like i i thought it'd be a lot of fun to do it i actually wanted to do it personally but i was like dakota's been going above and beyond i want to give this to him let's let's do that i want i want dakota to have the job let's let's call him if he's uh if he wants to do it let's give it to dakota so joey does that he calls him so he comes in last night and records but before the before the chaos show or rehearsal i'm sorry before the chaos rehearsal and um joey mentioned something he's like you know we were listening to it he's like he really did do a good job, and I was like, yeah, he did, but he went the extra mile, actually, because he was, he even mentioned this, he was here for two and a half hours to record that.

I gave notes, Joey gave notes, Joey was willing to come back in, you know, you know that what it takes for Joey, like Joey went the extra mile, because it's not fun to come in and re-record somebody all joey's doing is making him making dakota look good it was good enough many many takes ago you're right yeah right and i even joked around and you and i laughed because we know how we feel around here i was like well it's good enough dakota yeah yeah and we're like okay we'll see if we've planted the seed in dakota he's like well good enough not enough like it's good enough we gotta redo it what's wrong and so then and it got better and it got better and it got better and it's like it's really neat now whatever wherever it's at doesn't it doesn't really matter because it's not about the result but it's about the idea of going the extra mile now and what you get and now dakota did you say steak literally has his own sound effect yeah on our show because of him going the extra mile in something as small as cleaning what did that cost him 10 bucks yeah you know well and and and the other thing is he has a sound effect not because we were in here because when we were done he was like is there anything else i can record oh yeah i was like i don't think so and then i peed and then i came out of the bathroom and i was like you know what i i have an idea well he totally thought that it was about the thing because that's what he was asking about so like like he thought he had another idea to like do another voice a certain way or something like that and then joey brought him in here and did the button and it was just like it was so cool to see that like light up face like yeah that surprise of like a button and and i don't sugarcoat things you guys know that so so i'm gonna i'll reverse this on dakota for one second there were there were times when he didn't have this selfless attitude. He learned it through the job. He learned it through the internship. He learned it from soaking it up. He wanted it and he learned it, but he had to adapt. He used to ask me after class, Hey, uh, so I was going to go. Is there anything else I can do before I go? Which is what he's really saying is, can I go and not do anything else? Yeah. And I would joke about it. I was like, if you ever ask me that I'm going to give you something to do so don't ask me that if you want to go ask to go right don't sure don't don't try to hide it under like oh i'm trying to be helpful but really can you please make me feel better about leaving yeah right he used to do that to me all the time and i had to teach that right because because i'm like what's the lasting impression that you're making and i i've done this with joey a couple times too where i'm like it doesn't matter that you worked super hard all week it doesn't matter that you had a great day if you end your day lazy or as a jerk or you do something bad at the end it's like you still did something bad at the end and i'll compliment all the good you did but it doesn't the it doesn't the good doesn't erase the end and so be careful because the end is what people remember yeah right that lasting impression so so dakota in this particular case and it's a small thing but this is something that's been adding up and adding up and adding up and adding And it wasn't the fact that he spent 10 bucks, but it was like, there's sometimes you do a special something and it leaves a lasting impression upon you.

And it's like, all of a sudden, when you think of that person, there's something that's like, it's lasting, you know? Like, I remember that gesture. I remember how you finished in such a way that was so strong that it's like, I have an impression of you and who you are for forever. And people are going to have that for good or for bad. Totally. Right? Big facts.

So good job, Dakota Banana. Thank you for being our example. Good job, Dakota Banana. Yes. Did you say steak? I did say steak, Dakota. I did. And you know what? You the man. All right. So that's our show, guys. Finish strong, please. In life, finish strong. It's going to hook you up. Make sure that you are doing what you got to do. Don't quit no matter what.

And then get a coach because you got to do that extra rep. You got to do that last push in order to get stronger. And then strive to leave a good last impression and a good lasting impression. Something that's just going to stick in people's minds for a long time because you never know when you're going to need that person again. All right. Thank you so much for watching.

God bless. 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 Dearing Day, everyone. Have a champy day, everyone. Ruff.