Summer Camp: What Can I Do, the White Spots on a Freshly Painted Floor, and Letting Go So People Can Come Back

This is the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast, where we discuss the connection between life and acting. All right, everybody, welcome to the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. We've got some big news today, boys. Big news! But we're going to wait a minute to tell you all about the big news. You're going to hang on here tight. So why don't you guys talk into, for a second, the difference, then, of how I approach this?

Because you've got to admit, I grabbed this thing, and I polled you guys for a while. Oh, 100%. 100%. Yeah. You know. I'll jump on that. So first, I think it's not just this. I mean, it's in general, sort of the way that you approach things. Yes. And it's just that it's no matter what's going on, it's the idea of switching from what can't I do to what can't I do.

So yeah, we can point out things that aren't going to work, and at least for me, I know that was a thing that I do a ton. You know, I'll look at something, and I still do it, and I'm trying to get better at it, but I'll see something, and I'll see the things that are wrong with it, and then focus on that instead of, like, okay, this is wrong.

What can we do to make it better? How can we grow? How can we use this for something really great? And I feel like that's what you really did, and that's what you do. And so when you do that, and then pull the people up, those who are doubting, and in that other space, you're able to lead them into seeing the vision, seeing the vision of that thing, which is really hard for a lot of people to see.

Well, and like I've mentioned before, this, you know, my take on leadership is you put yourself in the thing first before you ask anybody else to do it. So I wanted you guys to believe, of course, but I had to believe. And so, I mean, I'm talking, I was working 18, 19-hour days, and sometimes just, you know, you guys would come along some of the time. Sometimes you'd be in a good mood, sometimes not.

But I was like, I'm a believer in this thing, and I'm not going to stop grinding until we find something that kind of hits. And then as it started to groove, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, the momentum's there, and now we can jump on board. And ideally, like Joey said, we start to get there quicker as a team because we want to be nimble. Like, we want to be known as a company for being excited about change, willing to change.

We see something new. And we're not going to change because of change, like not at all. We're going to change because if there's a better way to do it, we're going to find it, and we are going to deliver that thing. Because you see it firsthand, and you're like, oh, my goodness, like, to think that, and you pulled me aside the other day, and you were like, because we've been working on our digital presence.

We talked about that a lot. I think we talked about it on our last podcast, too. But you said your videos need to be seen. They need to be out there because you're working on that. You're getting good at that. Dude, you're crushing these edits. Your edits are really good, and I've seen the content that's out there, and there's a lot of content that's much better than ours, a ton.

We can get way better. But we are better than our views, much better. Yeah. And your editing has gotten extraordinary to the point where I'm like, okay, I don't believe we're the best in the world yet, but I do believe that your edits are really good, and they need to get seen. I do believe that. Yeah. So that sort of ignited my competitive spirit a little bit because, you know, there's always been this is something that you beat out of me in Masterclass the last time we did it in person, and I was with Jay, is this self-doubt that I have, you know, and I had walked away from it for a while where I was, it wasn't affecting me.

And I think- Dude, and I gotta, let me interrupt you for one second. That is one of the things that just drives me through the wall is when people are, that I love especially, when I love a lot of people, but people that beat themselves up. I mean, it just kills me because, and I mentioned this this morning on the show. I was gonna say, you just talked about it today.

Yeah. Yeah. And the greatest example is my wife. Like, when the thing, we don't fight often, but when her and I are gonna have an argument, 99% of the time, it's because she's beating herself up, and I am literally defending her against her, and she gets mad at me like we're in a fight about it. But the point is very simple. I love her too much. I love you so much that I don't want to be around the person that's beating you up.

And if that's you right now, stop it. Stop beating yourself up because I care about the person that you're talking bad about. Yeah. And the same, so the same thing goes with you guys. And when you, when you say something, Joey, like you can't do something or you're not capable or, or, you know, whatever, like it drives me up the wall because I'm going, dude, you're, you are selling yourself so short.

You have no idea what you're capable of. Like, you are capable of a hundred times, a thousand times more than what you're doing right now. You know, you think you're working hard. Dude, you're capable of more, 100%. You know, you're capable of being more efficient. You're capable of being smarter. You're, you're capable. Yeah. So just don't say those things because they ain't true. Yeah. And, and the, I mean, I can speak for both of us, but I'll speak for myself first.

Like, I'm so thankful that you do that. Yeah. Because it's, it's, uh, again, like it's one of those things where I felt like I had, I had distanced myself from that a little bit. Like you said, I was showing up and it was the hard thing to do. It really was because I know when I come in here, you're expecting me to be on my A game.

You're expecting me to lift you up and I expect the same thing out of you. So if I'm in a place where I'm not in a place where I can lift you up or I feel like I can, or I'm in a weird mood or whatever, like I'm, I already know that I'm expecting, I'm working with Matthew Dearing. Like he, he's going to know it and, and we're probably going to talk about it, you know?

Yeah. And so, and then, and then, so, so moving forward and you're going to, you're going to continue to get better at this, but everybody needs to just get better at this. And that is stop trying to hide it. Yes. You're working. Okay. You're working with anybody, but you just say you're working with Matthew Dearing. You walk in the door. I know he's going to know, and I know we're going to talk.

Don't make me bring it up. God, it drives me nuts. Okay. Just, you just say it, like lay it out there quickly. And then, and then you use all the tools we talk about it, get yourself through it and then get the team under you. Yeah. You know, like, cause we, we say this a lot, but we want to be your hero. You know, the people around you that are your support system, they want to love you.

Let them. Yeah. Please, please stop trying to be, you know, the everything and to hide it and, and pretend like you can. And I think it's interesting because we think we can hide things or maybe we don't. Yeah. Maybe we know we can't hide it, but we just want to wallow for a minute and we want people to feel sorry for us for a minute. And then we want you to ask us about it.

And then we kind of want to fight because weirdly we want to bring you down. Like, cause I, it's like, it's like, if I'm doing a drug, it makes me feel better if you're doing the drug. Yeah, sure. If I'm drinking alcohol, it makes me feel better if you're drinking alcohol. So therefore, am I holding myself accountable for the fact that my mood, my, whatever I'm going through, if I don't say it and admit it and I'm adding all this negativity in that I literally am, am infecting the people around me.

But I mean, for, for all of us to just say, okay, if I'm going after something ever for the wrong reason, I gotta, I gotta question that. Why am I doing this thing? And it can come down to the tiniest little details. You know, what am I, what am I doing right this minute? And is it actually glorifying God and is it lifting me up? Is it, is it taking me up or is this, this, is this lifting up maybe this place that's supposed to lift up more people?

You know, am I putting others before me or am I, am I putting me before, before everybody else? Absolutely. Sorry, but go ahead. I actually want to jump in to sort of a question here, uh, morning with Matt style in a sense. Sure. Um, so in that, yeah, we did, but because there was all this other stuff and the stuff that was going on right then felt the most important.

And so we were focusing on that one thing, you know? Right. Um, but you, you needed the other, like it had to happen. You're a hundred percent right. And think about where we would have been if, if that, if we just said, let's go, you know, but I think we get distracted. I know I do where I'll get on just the thing that's right in front of me and not the other things that are so important and figure out how to balance those hours a little better.

And, and if we had just done that, then I just can't even imagine where it would be. So we figured out all the systems you, you and Joey spent a week, literally like six, eight hour days, just setting up all of this. Dude, I redid the setup. Multiple times. 12 times. Yeah. 12 times. I redid all the cords, redid all the lighting, redid everything because why? Because I didn't want to have to do it again.

Yep. I did it that way to that degree because I didn't want to have to do it again and I didn't want to break things. And, and, and, and, and honestly, like I kind of want to do it again right now. A hundred percent. You know, like we're about at that place where we've been using it for about three weeks and I'm like, yeah, this could be cleaner.

Like there's a, there's a way we could tighten things up a little bit. I mean, put it this way, we tried to start today and, and this XLRK, cable was giving us feedback and we had to switch it out. Why? Probably because things are all tangled up in there. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like that's probably why we don't know exactly why, but that's probably it.

So, so it goes back to that idea of trying to get better, like looking for ways to get better. So I'm going to tell you right now, if your question is, how do we push ourselves? You have to give in fully 100% to this idea of, I am going to be working on mastery for the rest of my life. I will not settle for anything. Like it's not, it's never good enough.

And it doesn't mean that's not, people can hear that and think it's a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. You say, I celebrate the crap out of where we are, man. But I also celebrated the very first day we went live. I celebrated that day. I was like, dude, we did it. Awesome. You know, I celebrated the very first, you know, virtual class we had. I was like, that was great.

Like we did it. We did it guys. Like, but then what? The second that was done, I'm like, how do we get better? Yeah. How do we make that class better? How do we, how do we up this experience to make sure that students are being, you know, connected with us and they are really feeling that same experience that they, that they deserve when they come to our studio?

Yeah. This is a great time to bring up the analogy that you use all the time with me specifically is our floors were really, really bad after one of our masterclasses. Yeah. Yeah. And so I went out and I was like, I had, I had no clue what I was doing. I had worked with one of our students, Jason Jackson, a couple of times on just painting hardware.

He's a, he's a contractor. So he taught me a little bit of the ropes and I got to work beside him on his construction sites a couple of times, which was really, really cool. Um, but it came a time where it was like, we had nothing after that masterclass weekend. And I was like, all right, I guess I'm going to paint the floors. And I didn't tell anybody about it.

I just like did it. And then you came in and you were like, Oh, this is so cool. And you were like, Oh, but, but, but we should, we should touch over these couple of spots. Cause there's a couple of white spots. And at first I was like, Oh, you gotta be kidding me. But, but that analogy is so great because I, I get it now and you've, you've used it.

So did you, did you explain the analogy completely here? No, I'm about to. Okay. Yeah. But the analogy is when you do something great, like you take a lens and you look at it and you see the tiny white spots where you could just make a little bit of improvement that will make so much of a difference. Right. You know, but, or you could just leave the tiny white spots there, but then you're not, you're not getting better.

It's like, okay, I painted the floor. Now what? Right. And it's also, if you don't do the work, if you don't lay down the foundation, here's the thing. When, when the floor is not painted, I don't know that the white spots exist. I can't see them until we get there. And that's the thing. Like, like when I ask, when I ask us to push something and I, and so this is, this is sort of, it is my role in this company really is like, I'll ask you, guys to push.

And I, sometimes I need to step back and watch you guys push in a particular direction. Okay. And you've got to see me as the CEO, as this like drill sergeant, who's going to pull back in times of war. And I'm going, you guys go push. Trust me. Okay. The best thing I see is we go right, go hard now. And you've got to listen and you've got to go and you cannot question.

You've got to go. And then you have to trust that I am fully engaged 100% of the time pulling back so I can look and go, stop left. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, and then so, and that's okay. But if you don't push hard like that, like that night you did, you pushed hard, you painted the floor. It didn't need, it didn't, no one asked you to do it.

You just did it. You walked in. And so that was your gifting was you exposed the white spots. Yeah. And I couldn't see the white spots without you doing that. Mm-hmm. So then we don't get mad that I'm bringing up the white spots. We, we, we celebrate the fact that that's my gifting. Yeah. My gifting is to find that, that tiny 1% and improve it. That, that's why I've worked with celebrities and, and billionaire CEOs and people because those people want somebody to point out the white spots.

And there are very few people in the world that walk into a brand new painted floor and can see that. That's what masterclass is all about. That's what masterclass is all about. You're right. That's literally my favorite part about it. And it took a while for that to be my favorite part. At first it was the performance part because I was, I was a stage actor and I liked kind of like Brian said, I liked the attention.

I enjoyed, I, I knew that I was a good actor. I knew I could be a good actor. And so because of that ego, I wasn't able to push in masterclass like I was this last time and the time before that, uh, we've earned that trust, but, but that's my favorite part is when you point out the white spots in the scene that I couldn't see, you know?

Yeah. So, well, and I think again, that's a, that's a sort of life thing that you do as a leader that I think is so, so important for leaders to just notice that and, and start to realize it's okay to do that. Um, but program wide it happens. So I'm thinking back like Valleywood, which we have coming up, right? Um, Valleywood as a, as a like program, I think back all the way to the beginning when we started right at the doctor's office lobby first ones to start doing movie camp here.

And they were like just a few kids. We did a movie camp back in 2007 out of a doctor's office with, with, with an old camera. Well, it was a newer camera at the time with, with a camera we didn't know how to use the two of us and just like a lot of hopes and dreams. Yeah. That's pretty much what we had going. Yeah. You know, and we, and now we've been doing it ever since and making it better ever, ever since.

So, um, Hey, I want to talk about something really quick. So we have a, we got a, I've got a big announcement coming, like a big announcement. We mentioned that at the beginning of the podcast that we're going to be talking to you guys about something big, some, some huge announcement that we have here. But before we get to that, I want to talk about this idea of letting go.

All right. And right now we're going to be in a place where things are shifting. And I believe with my whole heart, the best thing you can do is to let go, find a way to stop trying to control anything other than you and your own thought life. And I'm going to talk into my own weakness here for a second. I'll begin there. I used to really struggle with this idea of letting go, especially when it came to students, because I fall in love with people here.

Like I really do. And I put my whole heart and soul into people. And then when, when they leave or leave on an uncertain term sometimes, and, and it can get weird. And, and for me, it can get like unsettling because you know, I'm, I'm clearly a passionate dude. Like there's no way around it. Like I am passionate and, and I'm going to tell you the truth one way or the other.

And I'll even apologize. Like if, if I, if I'm wrong, I'll tell you I'm wrong. And I will say sorry. And you guys can, you guys can attest to that. I am, I am known for saying sorry, right away and, and right away and, and being willing to be wrong. So therefore I, I did, I think I did, I've earned the fact that then speak the truth.

And if you bring something up that's a, that's counter to what I'm saying, I'm not going to tell you that that is a hundred percent not right. I'm just going to tell you, okay, what I'm speaking to you is my truth. Let me try to explain it and help you understand that thing. And so anyway, by doing that, people have, people have really been drawn in here who want that, who seek that, who are just desiring this, this like burning light that we have going on here, but it's also repelled some people away because it can be hard to hear the truth.

It can be hard to have somebody hold the mirror up to your face and say, Hey, by the way, this is what you look like right now. And, uh, you might want to change the way that, that, that put them looks on, on that mirror there. And, um, and so anyway, this process of letting go has been very interesting and we, we got to experience the, the comeback, the beginning of the comeback of, of, of, of a, uh, a student that I love very much.

Uh, Jason Jackson, he's somebody who, who I hold, I hold very, very special in my heart. He's a guy who's, he's done so many things around here. Um, I, I could get teary eyed about it. I mean, he, he built our kitchen. He built, he, he, he sewed the curtains that are behind us. Um, he did electric. I mean, he's, he's a general contractor. Um, if you don't know Jason Jackson, follow him on, on Instagram and different things.

He, he's a wonderful, wonderful dude, a really great craftsman. And, and he left for a while and, and thank goodness I was at a time in my life then where I had really figured this out and I was able to let go and I let go. I let him free completely from, from me, you know, like I didn't do anything, but, but I'm just saying like, I didn't hold any resentment.

I didn't hold any, I held nothing. I was so, I told him this even, I said, dude, when you're ready to come back, I will just have my arms will be wide open and I cannot wait for that day. If it comes, I just can't wait for it, you know? And, uh, and that day came and we did an improv podcast today and it was so fun and he was so good and, and it was just such a delight to have him, you know, be back here.

And I, and I have this feeling that this, this massive, monstrous wave of human beings coming through here, being drawn to the lighthouse, to the, to the nonprofit theater, lighthouse theater, that's just a beacon of light pulling people in. We're going to, we're going to see this huge wave of people coming through and, and wanting to be a part of what we're doing. And because we've got a very specific vision, we are going to be impacting millions and millions of people with light driven content through movies, through TV shows, through talk shows, through podcasts, through our acting classes, through all that we're doing.

We want to inspire people to get closer to God, to become better themselves. And, and we want to inspire them to be better actors, which therefore makes them better people. And so the training works for, for actors, it works for CEOs, it works for mothers, it works for fathers, it works for kids, it works for anybody in any profession. It just works. The training works because it's all about truth.

So when I, when I say this to you, if you are feeling repelled, that's okay, turn off the podcast. But if you're feeling drawn, if you're like, yeah, that sounds like the truth to me, like that sounds exciting to me. I want to, I want to know more about that. Then that means there's something burning inside of you. That's like, I don't know why I need to go there, but I feel like I need to go there.

If that's you call, pick up the phone, go to the website, do whatever you got to do. Get into a class because I don't know either. I don't know why you'd be drawn, but there's a reason for it. And then that's a part of what happens here is people figure out why they were drawn here. I mean, people celebrate their anniversaries here. Happened just yesterday. It happened.

Yeah. And it's like, it means something to them because when they came here, they needed something. There was something missing in their lives and we're not it. We just are the catalyst for helping them find it. Yeah. You know, we are just guides along the path. That's all we are. So when you're going through this time right now, listen to the spirit, but also be willing to let go.

That's, that was the big concept there I wanted to get across is find a way to let go. And, and, and when you do love through the process, that's the hard part. I don't care if you said something nasty to me. I don't care if you did this. I don't care if you did that. I'm going to let go and I'm going to love you as I do it.

And I'm going to love you where you are. You can be there, but I'm going to let go of you so that I can keep moving forward. Yeah. And I think there's a, there is, there's a lot of people that need to hear that. You know, there's a, you think about, you talk about everybody. They always come back, right? There's that idea. And you, the idea of like, even Jason is emotional.

It's so, so powerful. And I think about even me and my story and, and all the way back, you know, from the beginning, we've been together. Well, I was in a rough place, like a really hard place. I was in a life that, that didn't belong to me is the best way I can describe it. And, and so I, I didn't belong here. It wasn't right for me to be here.

It was bad. And it was scary to come back. It was scary to come back. Um, and it gets me emotional just thinking about it because that's, it's the prodigal son story. You know, when, when I came back, there was, there was nothing from the whole, like you've been gone. There was no, like none of it. It was like, it was like a day had never passed in the time here.

And for anyone listening to this, there's, it's just, that's the way that God works. That's the way the spirit works. And so trust it, trust it because the phone call isn't easy. The, the walking in isn't easy. That's the hard part, but, but you will not regret it. You will not regret it because I'm speaking right from, from my truth here. I've learned so much and I'm right where I'm supposed to be, where God has me.

And, and it would have never happened if the, if that, those calls didn't happen. And, and so it's just crazy. It's just cool. So, and, and when you come here, mark my words, it will be hard. Yeah. I'm not saying it's going to be a cakewalk because it ain't going to be a cakewalk, but when you show up here, you are going to grow and you are going to experience something inside of you.

You are going to change in some way, shape or form for the better that is going to happen. But growth change can be hard. It can be sticky, you know? And so that's why I say like, you're going to be called here because you're going to be ready. And if you're ready, I got to tell you, we are ready for you and we are growing. And I, and I demand it.

I demand it of myself and I demand it of the people around me to be growing at all times because we have to be prepared for you when you're ready to grow. We can't be the year old version of us and we never will be. That's why our program is built the way that it's built. There are no cookie cutter classes. There are no levels that are just arbitrary.

It is like everything is custom to each individual that walks in the room. And, and we see you that way. So, so you, if you walk in, it doesn't matter your experience. You're in the class. It doesn't mean you're in the beginning class. You're in the class. If you have no experience, you're in the class and we push you and you develop yourself in different ways. And our goal is to make sure everybody grows, everybody, wherever they are, they just got to get better.

As long as that's happening, we're doing our job. Yeah. Shall we, uh, give me a drum roll, will you? Drop the news. Here we go. News! That's a short drum roll. It is a short drum roll. I was like, I was like, yeah, it's like, you're like, you're kind of like just, but it's good for class. You know what's funny is, yeah, I had a really long one and then you had me cut it.

So it's funny that you say that. I got it, I got it. Yeah. So, so probably you should have a long one that you just bring down or something. Yeah. That's a good idea. Or turn off or, yeah, I don't know. Cause now it's like, I mean, that's the drum. Have two buttons. Cause I mean, that's a great one for just like, let me, Matt Dearing. Brian, why don't you do the drum roll?

Okay. No, no. I mean like you do it with your voice. Ready? Sounds like a, I don't even know. He sounds like a platypus. I don't know. Sounds like Perry the platypus. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, there have been kids out there. There have been teenagers out there. There have been parents out there who are dying. They are begging. They just like, guys, you got to tell us what is going on with your summer because we love Valleywood and we're like, guys, we know, we get it.

We love it too. And they're like, but you know, it's coming up June 1st. Right. So if you haven't signed up for Valleywood, which by the way, we had three signups yesterday on the website. And I was worried about this, about us filling up too quick. And Joey, Joey's the believer in this subject too. But the idea was like, we hadn't even told everybody we were going to have the camp 100%.

And three people bought online. It was like, okay, all right. Well, we're having the camp, guys. We are having the camp. The kids are going to have an amazing time. It's going to be the number one camp. Movie camp. Movie camp. Number. Number one. Do it, Joey. Number one kids movie camp ever. The number one. I don't think this works as well for me when I do this thing.

It doesn't. It doesn't feel the same. Brian, let's end it here. Take off your headphones, will you? Oh, gosh. Hey, Joey. Where's my super suit? Honey, where is my super suit? What? Where is my super suit? We are going to have a blast together. We are the Incredibles, you and us together. Let's find our super suits, and let's go get this thing. Have a Dearing day, everyone.

Japan. Japan.