Mastery Mindset: Get To Instead of Have To, Why Every Day Is Father’s Day, and the Routine That Carries the Off Days

This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. All right, welcome back, everybody. I am Matthew Dearing here with Shea Toepel and Joey Sweeney. What's going on, everybody? What's going on, you guys? Happy Monday. Shea, you having a little trouble with the microphone, Stan? I figured it out, though. We're good. Okay. So we are here at a Monday. That's crazy.

It's post-Valleywood. Oh, man. You know what's interesting is the both of you started just about this time last year. Yeah. Was it the second Valleywood? Yeah. Okay. For me, it was, yeah. It was the first for me. First for you. So really, this was the first Valleywood for the two of you going through the process of what we do as actual team members, right? From beginning to end.

How was that? Well, when I first came in, I was directing a play at a community for a kids' community program over on my side of the world, and I was, it was me and one other director with about 50 to 75 kids every day, and it was a very different experience, and then I came in, and as this team does, they just so lovingly threw me in and said, go take care of the kids, and it was such a different experience because everybody was so loving and having a great time, and it was such a positive, light experience, and I remember thinking, like, that I really wanted the kids and the teenagers to like me, and by the end of the week, I had made tiny little human friends.

This is last year. Yeah, last year, and it was such a cool experience because I was only there for a couple days just helping out, trying to do whatever I could to be an extra set of hands, and it was crazy last year to, to say, even my tiny bit of help made a difference in somebody's, um, somebody's camp experience, and this, this year was, and now, and now a year later, have you gotten over that idea of wanting to be liked?

Oh, totally. By the kids? Yeah, it was totally different. Well, I was coming from an experience where I was put in a position to be kind of like the, the bad guy, um, and I probably had made myself that, like, in the… What are you talking about? Like, I was in the, in the other play that I was directing, some of the kids were, and remember, I had shared that with you, like, the kids had kind of, um, grown to be a little bit scared of me because we had to get stuff done.

We were doing a musical in four days, like, an entire full-length musical, and, and I felt like the kids had kind of been a little bit freaked out by my authority, and I didn't want that to be the case here, um, and it wasn't, and I was just able to help out and do what I do best, which is just make kids smile. No, but, but how did the kids feel about you at the other camp?

At first, um, I don't, I, they, honestly, I'll, I'll be really, really honest, and a lot of the kids did, like, speeches at the very end in front of this group of 300 parents, right, and they were like, oh, Miss Shea was really scary at the beginning, but we just absolutely love her, and, and she really got us working and stuff like that, but that was my experience with kids.

That was it. I had also taught on the reservation where I was dealing with kids that came from a really rough place that needed a lot of authority and a lot of, um, discipline, so I was coming from that very high up, like, kind of, have to, I had to be bad cop a lot. See, I love that, and the thing is that what people don't understand, and I'm glad that you now get this, is kids love discipline.

As a matter of fact, adults love discipline, and they think they don't, and they want to rebel against you or whatever, but they need, they need some sort of boundaries, and they want someone to set those boundaries. So, yeah, they might hate you on day one, but they love you by day four, and that means you're doing your job. So, if we think about our place, uh, if, if last year you made a couple of tiny human connections, this year you were running the show, and the kids here needed to just do what they were told, and they all loved you universally, 110% of the kids, because I'm including Champ in that as well.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and part of the big thing that I came into with this camp, because this camp, it's, it's a fun summer thing, but we make a movie in three and a half days. Like, there's no time for messing around, like, this is still a huge experience. They're getting teaching six hours a day, um, from either one of us, or the, the collective team of us, five people, and, um, I wanted to be the same Shea that they saw in the classroom as they did in Valleywood.

Nothing changes. You know what I mean? They're still getting that same amount of discipline and fun, um, and learning experience. Well, and, and you're, you're just your authentic self though, too. Right. You know, I always, I, I always caution Shea when you say the thing where you're like, I wanted to be this, or I wanted them to see this, because the, the truth is like, I want you to release that completely and just realize that like who you are is incredible and you just have to be you.

Yeah. And, and it's a win. Thank you. Go ahead, Joey. So I'm learning that. I'm, I'm slowly learning that, that you don't have to kind of, cause that was the hardest thing when I first started teaching was like, I need to be at this level or I need to be down here or I need to go in and put on a, a show essentially. Yeah. And that's just not where I'm at anymore.

And it's, it's sort of like just, just understanding that you don't want to set that goal. Like it shouldn't even be a goal that I want the students to think of me a certain way. Lose that. Yeah. And I actually think you have, you just accidentally say it still sometimes, but, but that's something I've noticed in your teaching and where you've just expanded completely, where you let go of what people think of you and that, and now all of a sudden everyone loves you because you don't care.

Right. You just want them to get better and that they're just all over you. It's amazing. Yeah. Okay. Can I, I want something up for debate here. So Brian and I were sitting, um, we went to two of our students, um, Bella and Azra, um, in our kids program were a part of the production of once at Phoenix theater company. So I got the chance to see the show twice and which is kind of a big deal, right?

I mean, they're the only, were they the only child actor in the play or only child actor. And there was three girls who played the part and, and two of our students were two of them. And this is a professional level theater company from what I understand and what I saw online. And absolutely one of, one of the most magical shows I have ever had the chance to see.

And I got to see it twice and it was even better getting to see it and watch it the second time. And the fact that our, our students were there, um, was, was amazing. And so I went and saw it for the first time by myself day one. And then I went with, uh, Brian day two. And I sat, I said to him, I said, do you, would you go to like a play or like a movie like by yourself?

And he goes, yeah. And I've, I've done it. And I said, so have I, and people think it's weird to go to a performance or a movie by yourself. And I just wanted to bring that up for discussion and see what you guys think about that. Joey. Oh, geez. I would say it's not weird, but I wouldn't do it. I hate being alone. Because of the fear of what?

Okay. Yeah. Because of the fear of being like alone. Yeah. I absolutely hate it. Gotcha. And I love having somebody to talk to, having somebody around and the human connection. Like, I don't even know. I think I went to a movie once, tried to go by myself, walked out right after the previews and was just like, nope, not happening. No way. It was, it was Jurassic Park.

Oh, come on. I mean, you were, how old were you? Uh, I was like 15. Jurassic World, the first one with Chris Pat. Oh, okay. So that's when you felt like you needed to have like friends. Joey's like, I can do this by myself. Yeah. And he's like, yeah. Did somebody, you probably couldn't drive, so somebody dropped you off? No, I was, I was probably 16 because I, because I remember driving there.

Um, yeah, it wasn't a good time. It wasn't a good time. Well, Joey still has a thing with this. We were just talking about it today. Excuse me. He's, he's not a huge fan of being alone, right? Not a big alone guy. Nope. Not. For sure. Not a big alone guy. So what do you do, Joey? How do you, how do you deal with things? I mean, aren't there times that you want to or need to be alone to, to like process a feeling of some kind?

Nope. I mean, I'm talking during the day. I'm not talking about at night when it's dark or you're going into a dark theater and there's dinosaurs. I'm just being like, you know, aren't there times you're like, I just need a minute to be by myself? Not really. No. You know, I can back that up. Honestly, honestly, like I, I just don't like people say like, oh yeah, I need my alum time.

And I'm like, oh, that's like a weird thing to say. Cause I don't need that. Like you called me, he called me this morning and I sent him one of those automated messages cause I was on the phone with my mom and I was on my way here. And I said, I'm on my way. And he said, oh, no worries. I was just calling to say good morning and like talk to you.

And it was, it was so sweet. It was so sweet. And he does it like, we, we, we will just finish like a half hour conversation about something deep. Right. And then we'll be like, okay, good night. And I'll be on my way home. You're talking about you and Joey? Yeah. And he'll call. Sounds like you and Jay. No. And he'll call and he'll be like, just, just wanted to finish our conversation.

Like he just doesn't enjoy being by himself. Yeah. It's, it's awful. It's the worst thing ever. Okay. All right. That's totally fair. That's, that's why I brought it up. Cause everybody has a different feeling about that. And I mean, I mean, I get that like some people are totally the opposite and I respect that. But for me personally, I don't know if it's like from my past or whatever, but I just, I, I hate it so much because like it's time that you could be spending with somebody else who you care about or who is close to you.

And instead you're sitting there like by yourself, just like chilling. And that's like, like why, you know? But don't you feel like more productivity gets done when you're alone? Not necessarily actually. Really? Yeah. I mean, of course it depends on the person. Yeah. So like if I hang out with my five-year-old cousin, of course I'm not going to get anything done, but I'll be spending time with them.

You know what I mean? Like having someone else around that's like in your realm of people. Absolutely not. To use your, to use your phrase. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So, so my opinion is I think that going to a show by yourself is not weird. Um, it's, it's sort of a luxury that I have not been able to even think about for a really long time. Right.

Um, but, but then again, I'm with Joey on the, on the sense of, I don't know that I would want to if I had the choice. Right. So if, if I thought to myself, okay, I could go to this show by myself or I could go with my wife or one of you, I, I would prefer to have the other person. Totally. Sort of like, sort of like watching a game.

If I was watching a sporting event and I'm by myself watching it, it's sort of like, okay, it's fine. You know what? That's the only thing I could do alone. I was just thinking about that. But hold on, but hold on. Would you rather though? Would you rather watch the game by yourself or would you rather watch with another fan who's just as excited and into the game as you are?

I mean. Or would you rather be at the stadium with a bunch of other fans and everyone's cheering and you get the energy of the people? Here's the thing. No one is excited as I am. Is as excited? However, I still enjoy being with people more, but that is the one thing where I can like, I can turn on a TV and watch a Cardinal game and be like, all right, we're chilling.

And, and, and actually maybe that's the thing because you're so into it that other people ruin that experience for you. Yeah, probably. We smashed the glass. All right. Very cool. Yeah. So, so that's amazing though. The two of our students were in that show. Tell us about the show really quick. Is it still running? No, it closed yesterday. And I think it opened on May 24th. So they had like a, a really good long run and such a great show.

And what the coolest thing was, is there were probably, uh, 12, um, maybe less cast members and everybody had, um, every single person played an instrument or two. Wow. So there was no orchestra. And I asked, um, one of my students' moms, I said, there, is there no orchestra? Is all that acoustically them? And she said, absolutely. So every single, all the kids, even, um, and every single adult, there were cello, there was bass, there was violin, there was flute, there was, um, the, the organ, the accordion, the accordion, um, just on unbelievable.

Just for our audience's sake, Shea was like getting her hands in and out from the microphone. I could not figure it out. Trying to play little charades and Joey won. And it was, you know, and coming from a co an acting coaches and students perspective, you know, I'm watching everything I'm watching, um, for, I'm watching these very specific looks and how they, cause obviously it's seeing it twice.

They're, they're blocked a certain way. They're blocked to move to this spot at this time. Obviously it's a musical. Um, but there was still that amazing listening and they took their time. And I think that's, what's so cool about being a part of a show that's all acoustic. There's no, you don't have a million different places. People waiting for you. What a good point. Yeah. So they could just happen.

The, the blocking, the dialogue, it could all just happen. And there was one part I want to point out where she said a line. She said, Oh, what should I play? She was talking about playing on the piano. And she named a bunch of, um, talented musicians. And then she said, maybe I'll play something of my own. And she goes on to play a, um, a super famous, um, composer.

And the first time I didn't notice it. And the second time I said to myself, I say, watch if she makes the decision to actually, I want to see her go through it in her head, what she's going to play. I want to see her make that decision. And the first time I said, I have to watch for that second time. Cause I missed it. And she did.

She took the five seconds to think about all the names that she just said and have the, and make the decision and show the audience, the thought life she was having to, to say, okay, I'm going to play this composer. And I, it just, it was the smallest moment that I could have been the only one who caught it, but it was magical for me. Cause I got to see the actor go, you know, say a line of dialogue, think about the line of dialogue, have a thought, have a moment before, and then land it on her next line, which is what we do.

Absolutely. And that's, and that's, that's the blessing and curse to be an acting coach and to know what we know. Cause when I couldn't just enjoy it, right? Well, but when it's done well, you get to appreciate it next level. Yes. But when it's not, you have to painstakingly experience the moment and go, Oh, you didn't really think about that. No, no. And it was, it was beautiful.

It was a really cool and, and going, going to see a show for me. And it was funny because it was, there was a lot of things going on this weekend. Right. Um, and no, okay. I'm sorry. A ton of things. I'm going to back up for a second. So we just got done with our Valleywood camp, which is a marathon. It's, it's a monster. It's like for our staff here, we, we go like 15, 16 hour days, five, six days in a row, maybe longer, including all the sets and things that we build for the kids.

So by the time we're done on Friday, I mean, our legs are jello. Yeah. Right. You're just wiped. And, and Shea goes to two shows that our students are in that they've invited her to go to these shows. And I mean, that's a testament to you and your dedication to our people here. And I want to tell you that, that a, that's amazing. And thank you. And, and B, I just think that that shows an incredible, um, amount of heart to be a person that's going to go and show up for our students.

Well, and that's where my, my perspective shifted, right? Because, and I'll be a hundred percent honest. I was thinking about all the things I had to do this weekend and that those two were kind of a part of that. Well, here's the deal. You love our students. You love our students. But after the week we had, you couldn't have wanted to go to a show until you got there.

Right. And I sat there in the audience, Matt, and I literally was like, this is my job. This is my job. And I get to, but by the, the wonderful grace of these parents who, who allow us and ask us to come, they don't have to ask us to be there. And they, they made a special thing to ask me and Brian, these two teachers who love their kid to come watch him.

And I'm sitting there going, I get to see a wonderful story happen. I get to see it twice. I get to see it with one of my coworkers who enjoys it as much as I do. And we're just two little kids in a candy store watching all this happen. And we're getting all these ideas for our theater. And, and it was, it was just two and a half hours where I was just like, this is so cool that I got, that I got to do this.

And it turned into a, how, how am I going to fit this into my schedule? I have to bake mac and cheese at nine o'clock and get to the show on time. And it was those two and a half hours where I was like, this is what we do it for. I got to say, Joey and I are both very grateful that you made that. Oh, it's freaking amazing.

It's let me just give you a round of applause for that. I mean, it was, she brought in some leftovers for, for us and we fought over the Southern girl. Yeah, it was a, it was a lot of breadcrumbs. A lot of breadcrumbs and it was awesome. A lot of breadcrumbs. Yeah, yeah. So, so I should give a shout out because I've been going to the Phoenix theater shows for a long time, having been involved in, in the theater industry here and they really are great.

Phoenix theater puts on some professional shows. And if you have a chance to go see any of the Phoenix theater shows, we highly recommend going, supporting them. We want to make sure that Phoenix theater is thriving for, for a very long time in this community because they're doing some really, really great work. They are in their hundredth season. See, there you go. They are in their hundredth season.

And what a big deal. And you know what? There, there are so many ups and downs that came with coming on to your hundredth season and so many times they probably almost shut their doors. For sure. And they fought through it, you know, and, and that, that is, that is saying a lot. So I'm really glad that you went and I'm glad that they were thriving and that they had a great show.

Yeah. Go support Arizona theater. Absolutely. So, um, I, I want to just say this really quick. Well, I want to say, I want to tie this in really quick. Cause I love what you said, Shea. And you know, we talk a lot about thought life and acting and this whole show is about how connecting acting to life is so powerful. And this idea of you framing your mind, cause you really can make a choice as to how you experience life every second of your life and that very small word of get to versus have to, I get to watch these shows versus I have to watch these shows.

I get to support my students versus I have to go support my students and doing that for yourself mentally changes the experience completely. Okay. And I'm just feeling sad for a couple of seconds and something amazing happened. Um, I think, I don't remember if Joey called me or I called Joey, he texted me or something. And so I called him and I just, I did what I preach.

I just laid it out there and I go, dude, here's how I'm feeling. And I just gave him the information and Joey share, would you like summarize a little bit about what you told me? Because it, it, it shifted me immediately. And I was so grateful that you were the one on the other end of the phone. Well, I started out by, uh, showing sympathy because I know how much it means to you to play ball.

You know, it's something we've done as a family for a really long time and, um, and it's a big deal. But then I was diving deeper into it and I think the spirit was speaking with, through me too, because I could feel that something was off. And I was just explaining to you that like, it really sucks in the moment and there's no, no getting around that.

But you just proved the importance of mind over matter, like you were talking about. And then on top of that, you know, we're, we're going next level with our company and, and your public speaking and all that good stuff. And this is a story that will set you up to have success in the future because you get to talk about the truth of that situation. And you'll come back and you'll come back quicker than they tell you.

And you'll come back better because of that mindset. And, um, it's just something that in the moment it sucks, but God has a plan for everybody and you just don't know how he's going to use that story for you, but it's going to be used in a big way. Boom. I mean, come on, this is coming out of the mouth of babes over here. Yeah. How old are you, Joey?

19 years old. Now you know why he's on the team. I mean, the kid's unbelievable. So, so I hear that information and the reason I was home, cause as you know, I get up at three 30, I, I have to take a nap on certain days. And today's one of those days cause I I'm teaching tonight. And so for me to be my best, I have to gift my students later with a nap early so that they get, they get the best of me later on.

And so my, the reason I'm home is to nap. Well, I get this news and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm not doing, you know, I'm not doing my servanthood work for my students by taking a And, um, and so I get this news from Joey and it was like, snap, my whole, my, my, my mind shifted. I, I put on a meditation.

I went right to sleep and I, and I got a good hour and a half just like recharge. I woke up just full of life and excitement. And you saw me when I walked in, I was just pumped to be here, like really excited to be here and be back and be, be, um, you know, surging forward. And it's, it's that easy. And it's also that easy to fall backwards if you don't bring it up and seek help.

Right. And to Joey's, um, credit, when I reached out to him and he knows this, I didn't want sympathy, sympathy, really. No, he says he gave me sympathy. You didn't really give me sympathy. You gave me empathy, which is you understood where I was coming from. And that's, that's a powerful thing and very good, but I didn't want, oh, you know, Matt, it's okay. Oh, you know what?

Why don't you take the day off? You know, whatever. Now, I mean, I wanted it, but I didn't want it, you know, humanly, yeah, humanly in the flesh. I'm like, oh, I want this thing, but the spirit wants someone to kick me in the butt and go, dude, get out, go do your thing. So then I woke up and then beyond that, I then became motivated to give.

It's effortful. And I was just about to leave. I opened up the trash and it's full. And I'm like, you know what? I don't want my wife to come home to this. So I took that out and then I'm walking around, I see the dishes. I'm like, I'm going to do the dishes. You know, she didn't have time to do that this morning. She, she was doing something else.

So I did that. And so the, this whole feeling of being sorry for myself turned into let me help and give to other people. Yeah. And it all came from you, Joey. So thank you. Yeah. And, and thank you. I was about to say, it's really cool how it revolves like throughout the day. Cause obviously everybody's day can be long and like you go through a bunch of different emotions.

Right. And, uh, right before we were about to do this podcast, I was going through stuff and I just, I had made a huge mistake and I lost some footage from stuff that we had shot. And, uh, I was like looking for it, looking on our drives. And I just knew I was like, oh man, I definitely lost that. And so the first thing I did when you came in the door was I told you, and it was really hard for me to do that.

Cause I haven't done that in the past, like in any aspect of my life. And, uh, you've just been like hard on me in that way of like, release it cause it'll make you feel better. And once I released it, like it was still there for a second, but then I was like, oh my gosh, like that's off my shoulders. We're going to figure out how to fix it and we'll learn from it and we'll have better processes next time.

So it doesn't happen again. And that was something where immediately after I helped you, I needed the same help and you were there for me. And if I, if one, if we didn't have one, we wouldn't have had the other, which is cool. It's a domino effect. Well, you know, it's funny. I mean, our team must be so broken because the morning started with me helping Brian through the same stuff.

Right. Because he woke up. We were all feeling it this Monday. And so he, uh, you know, he reached out to me the same way I reached out to Joey and I did the same idea. Like I kind of, kind of smacked him around a little bit and I said, you know, you got this, you know, this, there's a reason for this, et cetera. I mean, the same type of stuff Joey was telling me and, uh, and Brian got on his A game.

Yeah. And how inspiring is he now that he's doing that? Yeah. I mean, that's an incredible story and talk about stories, Joey. Now that becomes his story where it's, it's not, it's not the adversity. It's how you handle the adversity. Right. Yeah. So what do you guys think? Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. He's, uh, he's, he's been on the line. He's just listening. Oh, is he? Is he?

Yeah. Let's, let's, let's patch him in. All right. I didn't know you already called him. Oh yeah. He's been on the line. Just. Oh crap. Now he heard me talking about him. He heard the compliment. Now he's never going to listen. All right, Brian, you're, you're on. They can hear you. Hi, Bri. Hi everybody. Yo, Bri guy. So, so, so how long did you hear everything? Hopefully you didn't hear anything bad I said about you.

Um, just like a little bit of the bad. So I assume there was a lot worse. He only heard the bad half then. Hey, so let's, let's hear, let's hear your take on, uh, on what we're talking about here. No, I, I love what you were saying, man. Um, and I, I'm feeling the same way over here in that, like, it's so much about, about mindset and letting yourself shift, uh, into something.

Cause it's like, well, I'm resting or whatever. Um, and this is the first time that I've, thanks to the help of you and the team and, and of God gone, nope, I'm not going to do that. Like, I'm going to just keep surging forward from where I'm at and give a hundred percent of what I have where I'm at. And obviously my a hundred percent when I'm in a different situation, it looks different than it does right now, but I'm giving a hundred percent of where I'm at right now.

And it feels pretty dang good. That's awesome. And, and it, it starts from a willingness to reach out immediately, reach out early. And honestly, if you, if you reach out to me, you know, you're not going to get the easy answer. So you've sort of already done the hard work, you know, just by reaching out to me in the first place, you go, all right, well, it's going to be Matt's opinion on this thing.

Well, that's, that's what I love about, about you, about our team. It's like, you're not, you're not going to get that, you know, we're going to get full truth out of each other and push each other, which is really great. I wish there were, you know, more people, more teams doing that. Yeah. And, and just to, just to segue off of that, it's really cool because I know when I go to you for advice, you're not going to give me the answer I want to hear, but you're actually going to play into both sides of whatever argument, opinion, whatever happened.

And you'll give me the lesson and you'll say, these are the good things you did. Here's where you're right. Here's where you can grow. Here's where you can prevent this in the future. Yeah. And that's the difference because the truth is it takes two to have an argument, right? Yeah. And a lot of the time it comes from love, just saying it in the wrong way. So that's something powerful that I've been taught by you.

You know, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm reading a book right now on vulnerability and it's really great. I'm, I'm sorry that I can't remember the name of it. I don't have my phone on me right now, but, um, I'll, I'll bring it up in the next podcast so everyone can know the name of it and go read it. This, this lady, her name is Dr. Brené Brown. Have you heard of her?

I know that name. She's, she's crazy good at what she does and what we're doing, what we've been doing is so right on. Like we are living this stuff that, that she's talking about and she has the research to back up what we've been doing and been working toward and the power of vulnerability, the power of being able to admit you're wrong right away, the power to admit I was weak to, to show weakness, to show vulnerability and your emotions and whatnot is transformative across an organization and it's transformative in our own lives.

And, um, and it's an exciting book to read because we, we get to see the statistical, um, analysis that will back up the work that we've been doing here and that we're doing with our students. And, and really like today, today's is really fun Testament of, um, of the work that we're doing and how we bounce this stuff off of each other three or four times today.

And all of us are better because of it. Right. And it's so cool that it's all happening on a, uh, on a Monday, you know? And I hate that. I hate that Mondays have such that I feel like they're the, you know, they're the, they're the, they're the pasta in the bot in the pasta box that got forgotten about that didn't get cooked. Monday is, you know, Monday is, yeah.

You know what's interesting though? Monday's got, Monday's disappeared for me. It doesn't exist. See, they're getting, it's getting, it's getting there for me, but I still have like this morning I'm on the phone with my mom and like had this great week and great weekend and got so much done and was so productive. And I used to get, I call them the Sunday scaries and part of it, part of it's a lot of my And the Sunday scaries are a big thing for me.

And Monday mornings I wake up and my mom said, she goes, you know what, what's up? And I said, it's just Monday. Mondays freak me out. They make me worried and I don't know where it's coming from. And that's even more frustrating that I can't pinpoint it. And then we got here and my mom called again at about noon and she said, I just wanted to make sure you were feeling better.

She goes, I can hear it in your voice. Your day is better. And I said, yeah, I make it up in my head. Mondays did nothing wrong to me at all. And it's what we do in our head. So the thing I, the thing I want, the place I would like you to get to, and I'd really like everyone listening here to get to is, um, this commitment to every day is just as important as the next day and therefore there isn't a day that you're going to look forward to that's more valuable than another day.

Totally. It's just a day. So to me, Monday is no different than Saturday and I do this same ritual every day. And that includes father's day, which was Sunday. I still get up at three 30, come in here, do my work, do my thing. Uh, that includes my birthday. That includes Christmas. That includes every day. There really isn't a difference. And so to me, every day is father's day.

And, and so, um, um, we need a mic drop soundtrack. Yeah. That'll, that'll, uh, mic drop coming soon in the next podcast. Joey just set a time limit and I'll limit on himself. But anyway, if you wrap your mind around this, Shea, Monday won't be a thing. Right. I want you to know because you need to know, but it's almost this, this deal where you, you should almost need to remind yourself like, Oh, today's Friday.

Cool. Today's whatever. Cool. But therefore the work never ends and it never starts. Like it's, it's, I, I don't want there to be an end on Friday. Yeah. I don't want there to be an end on Thursday. Yep. It should just be, you know, I'm moving into the next thing and, and I'm, I'm working as hard as I need to work on this day for these particular things.

And that type of energy and excitement and work ethic is placed into every area of your life. Cool. So it doesn't feel any different. And if you set those bookends, like I've talked about, and every morning you do the same thing, then Sunday feels no different than Monday. Yeah. That's a great, no, it's a totally great perspective. How are you feeling, Brian? I couldn't agree more. I love, I love, um, what you were saying about Monday.

Cause I, I've done that before so many times, uh, where I worry about like, uh, for me, it's like expectations, literally, and story. Should I say your birthday, Brian? Yeah. My birthday. Yeah. Yeah. I love my birthday. And I always think my birthday is a big thing. And a lot of people there, different things. And now this last year, I had an amazing time on my birthday and we worked all day, like literally all day.

And we went to the film festival and I got to be surrounded by truly the people who I care about the, and yet, and yet, like, like Shea said about her, her show that she went to and that you, that both of you went to, um, that day of work. I mean, come on, that's our job, but we had so much fun. I know. Oh, it's awesome.

So good. Oh. Yeah. Like straight up. Um, and so it was just really cool, really exciting to not be in that place and be able to even look back and go, wow, there's that bit of growth and I can't wait to just keep growing and, and keep, keep doing that, you know? Yeah. That's awesome. Um, and I want to like, just as we wrap up here, I want to, I want to just mention for everyone, I am not a proponent of not sleeping.

I just want everyone to know that because I, like I said, my, I was begging my wife to take a nap. I was begging her to sleep because it was what was right for her. Right. So there's a, there's just a difference between lethargy, lethargy and, um, is that right? Lethargy? Being lethargic. That's gotta be lethargy. I think it's lethargy. Um, so there, there's a difference between that and just sleeping when you need the sleep and, and people really do need different amounts of sleep.

That's, that's totally fine, but it's a matter of, of you, you should have something set and you should have prepared the day before so that whatever your time is, no matter what day it is, you burst out of bed and you cannot wait to start your routine because it means that much to you. It should be life or death. And you look at it and you go, if I don't do, I'm afraid not to do this thing because this is what's propelling me to greatness.

And, and it's really important that you do it every day consistently so that on the off days, which happen more often than the good days on the off days, you have something to fall back on, which is your routine. Right. And all that can happen through the bird. And on the other side, take care of yourself and listen to the bird. No, here's the thing, Brian. It's, it's all about through the bird.

It's all through the bird. Everything that you do is through the bird. Did you hear that? Someone's got to share that with me at some point. Yeah. We're going to wrap the podcast here by just acknowledging so that everyone knows on the podcast, we all have an inside joke here. Um, me discussing this idea through the bird and Brian just still hasn't figured out what it means yet.

No idea. Nope. Yeah. And, and, and, and he should, before we wrap really quick, I just want to speak into him because, um, for those of you who don't know, we just got an apartment recently, the two of us, and it's been really, really inspiring for me. Um, it's my first place and he's just been really good about his routine. And that's like a new side of Brian that I haven't seen.

And he's pushed me in that way to get better myself. So he'll straight up tell me like to do certain things that will make our place, our environment a better place. And he's living by example, by doing those things before I do them. And he'll get up at five 30 and then some mornings, not going to lie, I sleep in and instead of letting me fall, he'll come in once and he'll be like, Hey, get out of bed lazy, you know, and it helps me because, uh, I, I shouldn't need the kick in the butt, but the fact that he's living by that example, I want to rise to his level and it's really cool.

It's been an awesome experience. So thanks, Brian. Thank you, bud. I love living with you. You're an amazing kid. You guys are so cute. I love you all. All right, everyone. So, uh, take the steps necessary, change yourself. And when you change the people around, you're going to change or the people around you are going to change. This has been the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. Thanks so much for listening.

Peace out.