Three words on the wall of the studio and what they mean in practice: act with passion, keep love at the center, and commit to a never-ending pursuit of mastery. Why the 10,000 hours number was never the point, and what is.
Joey walked in seven minutes before the show in a great mood and the room went weird. Nobody did anything wrong. What happened, why it happens in audition rooms every day, and the five questions I ask myself every time I cross a threshold: energy, my state, my goal, seen or invisible, and how can I help.
Joey and I at 11:43 at night after clearing thirteen years of paper out of the storage unit: why a clean space changes how a business feels, why we keep three backups, and the lesson Joey handed me on air. Ask before you get to seven.
Shea walked into the studio in the middle of a lesson, and the day she should have been on a beach in Barcelona turned into this episode. We made her sing the song she was scared to sing, Brian explained why a gift is a responsibility, and Shea told us how a honeymoon that did not happen became the most productive stretch of her life. Everything is a mindset and a choice, no matter the situation.
Nick, one of our adult students, came on the show honest about a stretch of sleeping in and pushing things off. What I gave him is what I use: decide tonight that you are getting up, lock in how good the early morning feels, cut the decisions you do not need, put a deadline on the thing that has none and tell somebody, set the old goals aside and write new ones for the world you are in, and act as if the change is forever.
Brianna asks how you know you are getting better when nobody hands you a grade, how to push through the days you want to sleep in, and which paid classes are worth it. Compare you to you, book it the night before, quadrant two and the audition that doesn’t exist, ten times the value, and the 6 a.m. call time you give yourself.
Jenna Del Pozo is graduating from ASU with a film degree, a new marketing job with a family of Phoenix restaurants, a food blog, and a fear about the future. Letting go of the timeline, the math I did when I left pre-med, combining the things you love into one profession, the pitch she prepared and never had to give, becoming a servant of all, and why she has to audition now, because she is afraid to.
Brad Sweeney, Brian and Joey’s father, joins the boys and me. The studio that started in a doctor’s office and then eight parking spots on McDowell Road in 2007, sign spinning with my new bride, the habits that go with you anywhere, why the television belongs out of the bedroom, Joey’s growth, and a thousand dollars in gift cards from two strangers.
My aunt, Vicki Sweeney, sat down with me a few days after I told her something hard: she is one of the most giving people I know, and she is not a positive person. This is the conversation that followed. The bunny question I ask every class, the sign on our barber’s wall, why bottling things up robs the people who love you, lunch at Zipps, the bike ride with my son that taught me what tough love is, and how to call someone you love so they want to pick up.
Shea was making slides for her first real speaking engagement and got stuck on one word: speaker. Yoga instructor, yes. Actress, yes. Speaker? She’d done it twice. This is about the two different I ams, the one you say to other people once you’ve earned it and the one you say to yourself before it’s true, plus Matt the friend versus Matt the coach, and Leeann coming back to teach the kids.
Joey fought through a day of roadblocks to get us live, and it turned into the best day he’d had in a while. That’s the episode: why finishing strong feels good whether or not you finish, Napoleon Hill on going the extra mile, a week of Valleywood, what Mercury in retrograde has to do with gratitude, why you choose what you spread, and two students who told strangers where they trained.
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