The Power of Thank You: The Text That Lit Up My Night

This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. Okay, welcome everybody to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. I am Matthew Dearing here with Shea Toepel and Joseph Sweeney. Hello there. I feel like I have a different name every time. I know, dude. It's like I want to call you Joey, but you changed your email to Joseph and it drives, it messes with my head.

Well, I actually didn't change my email. I think when we did the Google My Business, it switched. Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. So you're, sorry, your email then is Joseph. Correct, yeah. And I've called you Joey my whole life. Yeah. So my mind starts to tell me to stop halfway through Joseph and then I'm like, well, you already said it that way. It just really feels like a different person.

Anyway, this is going to be called our Speedcast. Speedcast. Speedcast. Because we don't have much time, but we still wanted to do a little podcast for you. So, and our man Brian Sweeney, I think we have him on the line. And I am grateful you're still including me. So, so this, this funny thing happened the other day. Shea sent me this text message and it lit up my night.

It was, it was like the awesomest text message of all time. It made me so happy and grateful for her and immediately I brought Leeann over and I was like, babe, it's been a, it's been a little bit of a tough week. I've been pouring into the team and then I look at a text message like this and it makes it all worth it. Like it just, it just, everything kind of melts away.

And the funniest part of this story actually is the next day Shea comes up to me and goes something like, like thanks for, thanks for leaving me on red, leaving me on red. And I was like, what does that mean? Leaving you on red response is a, just a Brian knows obviously. So I, I'm learning these new terms and while leaving you her on, yeah, thank you, Joey leaving her on red.

I apparently read the text, but didn't respond and she can, how do you know that I read the text? It's called a read receipt. I don't have my read receipts on, but I know that you read the text and I know that. How do you know? Did you look at my phone? No, because it was at 7 27 PM. Oh, so you just assume. Yeah. I'm like, he's going to see his, his phone and then we'll talk about it tomorrow.

Like it wasn't like, well, no, cause I think my, I, I thought I turned that off on my phone cause I don't really want people knowing when I've read their text. No, me neither. No, because people get butt hurt about it. And like, I think you're way smarter where you kind of think it for a minute. So yeah, I am now going into my, so, so anyway, I think you got more words in on this podcast than you did on the last one.

Thanks for being on the speed cast, Bri. Yeah, this is a great speed cast. So, so going into this really quick, Oh, is he leaving? Is he out of here? Yeah. Brian Sweeney signing off. Right. Cool. Peace, Brian. So, so going into this idea here of, um, yeah, I guess what's funny is that Leeann got all this like understanding of how much I appreciated it and Shea didn't.

And isn't that life, right? Like how many times have you given this, this great audition probably and they loved you. They thought you were the favorite, but the client cast somebody else instead and you didn't get the job, but you never get to find out how much they loved you. They never call you and say, Hey, you were so great. Like that doesn't happen. Right. Right. Absolutely not.

So anyway, let's, why don't we launch into the text? You can share, share what you want of the text. Shea, you don't have to give everything if you don't want to. This is what's funny about the, the text messages that like Matt and I and Brian and Joey communicate all day long. Like we have like seven different text chats. Yeah. Like all day long. I, I, how many times do I leave here and then call you in the car while I'm on my way to my next thing?

Yeah. It's like every time. And we do that all the time. And Blue's here too. Blue, come over here. Hey, Blueby. That's my dog. I think she's fine. Um, and so we'll talk all day long, but especially Matt and I, and we'll communicate all day long, whether it be through email or text or phone calls or whatever. So, um, so it's usually just like, what's next and what are we doing?

And we're talking about, tell me I didn't forget something, please. Yeah. Whatever the event is. So like if I texted him, I would know that he would take a quick peek at it or whatever and decide if, if we needed to talk about it at that moment. So, so, so basically just to throw back to last week, we, uh, we, we, we what? We went from, uh, Matt replying with K to Matt just not reply.

Right. So, and what's funny about that is me and him were, were texting the other day and I sent him something about something. I was like, Hey, I need you to open the Dropbox app or whatever. And he goes, K and then puts in parentheses, ha, it was so funny. Um, so this is what I said in the text message. And, and it was funny because I was sitting there and it was, I think it, let's see, it was a Saturday night.

Oh, Friday night and 7 27 PM. I said, Hey, just dropping in to say, thank you for everything you've given me, set me up for, and most importantly taught me. I recognize the person that I am in this moment right now because I'm slowly becoming the person I want to be. Then I'll become someone new after that. Someone even better. I believe in you and your vision.

Thank you for the big and small and everything in between. I'm so extremely blessed to know you, Leeann and your beautiful family. Wow. And I was so grateful and then didn't respond. You know, but I was having this moment. So I do this a lot and I started doing this a couple of years ago where, um, if I'm having like a thought about someone in that moment, whether it be people I used to be friends with or, you know, random students or just anybody, my aunt, like whatever, but especially the people I'm closest to, I will shoot them a text message really quick because, and part of it is my weird paranoia.

But the other part of it is like, if you're feeling something about somebody, you got to let them know right then. Especially if it's positive, you know? Oh, that's what I'm saying. Well, and I mean, either way, but, but that's what you, that's what you say. Like tell them like, Hey, I'm thinking about you or like, it's the smallest things. Like I loved what you were wearing today or I love, you know, whatever, like those tiny little compliments or, or just saying, Hey, I wanted to take this moment out of my day to tell you how much I was thinking about you and I appreciate you is huge.

Well, and, and to that point as well. So you're, you're totally right. And I, and we should all do that. And I think it's a really good habit that you're in Shea. Um, but what, what got me so excited is, is you, you probably remember me saying this a while back. I wanted this for you for so long. It's, it's such a, it's, it, I can tell you, I can tell you from my perspective, you are different.

Like what you wrote in the text is not, you weren't being nice. You, you are a different human being with a different viewpoint on things and you're carrying yourself different. And therefore you are leveling up just as a human being, which is, which is applying to, I would imagine all areas of life and applying to obviously your work. And it's going to apply to the success that you're going to see in every area, including business and acting and whatever else you choose to do for the rest of your life.

Um, it's all been impacted in a positive way from what I've seen. Totally. And, and we were talking about this earlier and I think it's really interesting because I always tell people kind of like the way that, that you guys found me, you know, I always tell people that you don't find this job, this job finds you. And this job dropped out of the sky, um, for me.

And that day, you know, I went home and told my husband, cause I always, I remember being a student here and being like, man, wouldn't that be the dream? Like to, to work there. Like how cool would that be? Like if I was like getting paid, like to work there, it'd be so cool. And my husband jumped on board. I quit my job the day after. And, but what was funny is like when I started this job, you know, being changed as a person was just something that you got in the deal.

And, but I remember a year and a half ago now, not knowing that or expecting it or probably even wanting it. And I think that's, what's been the biggest change is realizing that like that was, that was a gift that was being given to me that I didn't know was being given to me because the growing pains were so hard. And because I didn't know it was coming and I didn't know how to evaluate and kind of execute the different things that were happening within my mindset.

Um, and then you look a year and a half later and it's like, what a gift that was given. Well, I want to say that the, to me, the most important thing you just said was that you didn't know you wanted it. Right. And now, you know, you want it. And that shift alone. Yeah. Causes exponential growth. You have to want the critique. You have to want to get sharpened, right?

So you take a knife. If the knife doesn't want to get sharpened, it'll stay dull. Yeah. But if you want to get sharpened, you can be sharp every day and get sharper every day if you want it. Yeah. And that's what I think has happened. Right. With you. And, and that's this big change. And I, and I remember telling you, and I tell everyone this, you're, you're going to be more valuable when you leave this place.

Right. Because I won't have it any other way. If you come in here, I, I believe in the 10X mentality of, we need to give you more than you come in with. You, you have to leave a better person or I'm going to, or it's a fail for me. Yeah. So I, I dedicate everything I have to making sure that that happens. And then what's funny is you create all this value for yourself and then we got to pay you your new value.

That's the whole point. But, but you're going to be this thing. And I, and I look at, I honestly look at being like a part of our team right now. And I think any, any one of us could sell out in a, in a way, right? So you could go, Hey, I've gained all this value. I am more valuable to the market. I could probably get a job.

Any one of us could go out and get a job and get paid more than what I get paid here. Yeah. Because of the skills I've learned here. Oh, a hundred percent. Okay. So then you go, okay, if you look at it like a stock and you think what I'm, what I'm doing is I've invested in this stock and I can sell out anytime I want. But I, but I, if I believe in the longterm vision, if I believe in, in, in sticking this out all the way to the end, there, there's, there's going to be this big pot of gold for the people that are there at the end and pot of gold, whatever that means, whether it be financial or, or every other thing you ever wished or dreamed.

We, we all know where we're heading and it's really, really cool. Yeah. It's cool. The rollercoaster of it, I think that's the cool part is like Shea said, she didn't even know she wanted it. And then it became this thing. And I had a very similar experience. We were brought on sort of the same time and I was in a dark place as well. So that's, that's just something that's really cool is to be able to have these ups, have these downs, but have the same, um, why between all four of us when we're doing it, because that's, that's what it comes down to.

And when you're a united front, you can do so much more than when you're by yourself and you get yourself into that self mentality. Yeah. Absolutely. All right, everyone. Thank you for listening to our speed cast. That's all we have time for today. The big lesson is when you read your text messages from Shea, make sure you respond. Reply or she's going to be so sad. All right, everybody.

Have a doing day. Peace.