Masterclass: Navigating the Next Act Pt1 | with Zack Arnold

Zack Arnold

It's been a long week, but I'm so excited to finally welcome all of you here to today's masterclass all about navigating the next act. So what we're going to talk about today is diversifying your skills, building your dream network, and integrating both work and life. And we're going to do our best to do all three without losing your mind or selling your creative soul in the process, which I know is a very tall order in today's day and age, but I'm going to do my best. So first of all, I want to make sure one more time to thank our generous sponsors for this week's summit. MPSC, the Motion Picture Sound Editors, ACE the American Cinema Editors, as well as ACE EditFest Connect 2025 and for anybody that might not be aware, ACE EditFest. This is the Super Bowl of networking for editing and storytelling and post production nerds. It's my favorite event of the entire year. So very quickly, before we get started, while we're still allowing a few more people into the room, I am going to encourage very, very active participation today. This is not going to be a sit back. This is going to be some second screen entertainment while I scroll my phone. So anytime you see throughout today's presentation where there's going to be a little pop up bubble, I'm looking for you guys to engage with me in the chat. This is not a I'm going to scroll and I'm going to kind of see what's going on, and maybe I'll listen in. I want you guys to be active participants today. And I want you to think here. Think to yourselves, today I am going to be in airplane mode. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be present. One of the most important skills that we teach in the Arnold Academy for creatives is how to develop the skill of presence, how to be there for others. All right, here is the master class agenda for today, and all these times are in the ish format, because I've been putting this together on the fly throughout the week based on everybody else's feedback, questions, takeaways and otherwise. So to be perfectly honest, I haven't actually rehearsed this entire thing. So I'm going to do my best to hit these times. I have a feeling it might go a little bit over. So first of all, going to have a few minutes of doing these introductions, and I'm going to introduce to you some of the prizes that are available if you stick around for today's call today, then I'm going to take just about 15 to 20 minutes, and I'm going to help kind of summarize the takeaways in this summit, which, by the way, is a nearly impossible task because there are so many good ones. I've gotten so much feedback, so many good comments throughout the week. So I'm going to do my best to create my version of the takeaways. But I want you guys to help me do this as well throughout today's presentation, then I'm going to take a little time, and we're going to talk about the three common myths that can derail your pivot. My guess is that most everybody on this call, maybe not everybody, but most everybody is thinking to themselves, I need to figure out a different way to do things, whether it's completely pivoting out of the career you're in, whether it's a pivot within your career, just changing roles, or if it's just a matter of, how do I stay where I am, or how do I level up in this climate and in this economy, we're going to talk about these three myths that might be stopping you from moving forwards, the first of which is this thought that I have to start over. I promise you are not starting over. And we're going to talk about how we can shift that mindset. Secondly, if you're thinking, well, it's all about who you know, and I don't know anybody, especially because I'm kind of awkward and kind of introverted. Once again, this is a myth you can absolutely overcome. And it is my belief that we introverts are actually much more effective networkers if we learn the right skills. And third, the myth that you have to be doing everything you don't. You just have to be doing the right things. And then lastly, we're going to talk about, if we've gone through all these three myths and we've had all these takeaways, what do we do next? So I want to make sure that you know how you can work with me and work with my team and work with our community if you're interested in doing so. And then, of course, we're going to do our prize giveaways. And then for an entire bonus hour, for those of you that want to stick around, I'm going to be demonstrating what an office hour session looks like. And I'm going to be doing three hot seats with members of our inner circle, as well as some open Q and A until I drop, which hopefully is 330 and not in 10 minutes. But we're going to find out if at any point today you have questions or you need support. Want you to reach out to either one of my team members, Barry winter, my other team member, Natalie Bucha, on and if you want to find either of them in the chat or in the participants window, just search for the A team, because that's what they are, the rag tag group of misfits that are just trying to figure shit out. All right, so here's where we want to go next. Here are the summit raffle prizes for today, first of which, at the end of today's call, we're going to be giving away a one year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, which, for anybody that works in this industry knows how essential this tool package is valued at 779 dollars. Secondly, we have a brand new summit raffle prize that we did not have during our Sunday kickoff, which is the go to editor course bundle, which is valued at 1,500 dollars and this is from of course spend Pape and This Guy Edits. And if you want to be eligible for either of these drawings, all you have to do right now is go to Zack arnold.com/prizes enter your name, enter your email, and we will draw those names live at the end of today's call. And as long as you are present, then you will win one of those two prizes. And in addition. After these prizes are drawn at the end of today's call, we also have discounts. These are not prizes or raffles. Everybody has access to use these right now through tomorrow night. Everybody here can get 75 dollars off at editstock.com So for anybody that doesn't know, edit stock provides film footage and daily so you can actually build your reels, and you can develop skills, as well as 35% off anything at this guy edits.com you can use the coupon code Academy, and these will be eligible and available to all of you until tomorrow, Saturday at midnight. All right, so quick survey question on Sunday, I asked all of you, what can you expect for the next five days? And here was the answer that I gave you.

Zack Arnold

So I'm curious, was I wrong? How many of you felt like this entire week? You're like, what is happening right now? If that's what happened, that was the goal. So what I want to do very, very quickly, I want to do a nice video wrap up of how things went this week and how you might be feeling right now. You get to drink from the fire hose. Okay? You ready? Open?

Zack Arnold

Wide. Hold. It's not me right? Isn't this how we all feel right now? Myself included? Yeah. So there were so many amazing conversations, so many amazing takeaways, so many amazing quotes, so many amazing insights. I frankly do not even know where to start, but I'm going to do my best. So I want to start by bringing everything together from this entire week into what I believe are the summit 2025, takeaways. And by the way, everybody's going to have their own version of this. So what I would love to know before we get started, let me know throughout today's session, what was your biggest takeaway from this entire event and why? What was the biggest mindset shift, what was the biggest aha moment. Are you walking away with more inspiration? And, dare I say, pun intended, more hope, that was the intention. So here we go. I would say, if I could narrow this down to one quote, this is a quiz question. How many of you know who said the following? The world was always uncertain. We just can't ignore it anymore. This one stuck with me more than anything else. Anybody let me know in the chat, who was it that said this? I want to see if anybody was paying attention this week. Oh, there we go. We got some winners. This indeed, was Annie Duke that said the world was always uncertain. We just can't ignore it anymore. So the first takeaway that I have from this entire week is that there is no such thing as going back to any version of normal. There are the before times and there are the after times, and we are living through the after times. But by the way, normal wasn't working anyway, so isn't it about time we fixed normal and made it into something better. Another quote that I really think encapsulates our current circumstances. If the whole house is crumbling down, we might as well do something. Walter Murch, the guy nailed it. We could sit back, we could do nothing. We could wait for things to go back to normal, or we can be proactive. And in case you needed another reminder, Christina Wallace reminds us that it is never coming back. So a big part of all this is understanding how we are going to adapt. All right. Takeaway number two is that our humanity is what is going to make us invaluable. However, we are still going to need to embrace AI tools, according to Chris Deaver and Ian Clawson, we know what feeling what human. We know what feeling like a human feels like more than any bot ever will. So that is going to be our corner on the market. That will be our differentiator, our humanity, our tastes, our interests, the quality of our decisions are what are going to separate us from our robot overlords? Just to go further down this rabbit hole, according to Maxim Jago, as AI becomes more valuable, what's going to become more scarce is human connection, emotional connection, and those that can tap into that in their creative work, they are going to rise to the top. Just hit this point home one more time. Kylie Pena of Adobe said that we need to go get hands on with these generative AI tools. They are evolving really quickly, and if you're not part of shaping it, we're going to get left behind. Could not agree more. All right. TAKEAWAY NUMBER THREE, the most important thing you must invest in right now is your network. Our leading publicity networking expert of the summit, Selena Su, says that when you are pivoting, you have to lean on your network for support. One rich relationship is more valuable than 100 casual connections. And I think this next quote might be one of my favorite networking quotes of all. Time, the problem is explicit language ahead. Who survives? It's not the people in the fucking dune buggies that have the crossbows. It's the people who form authentic communities and take care of each other and remember what is really important to go even further down this rabbit hole we have Brian merchant, our former LA Times columnist and author of blood in the machine, reminding us that we have to find ways to build more solidarity among workers, among creatives, to better understand the nature of the threats that we are facing. All right. Takeaway number four, I've been writing about this one for three years. Specialization is dead and diversification is the future. So according to Sean Cushing, he said that you've all Harari, who's one of the world's foremost experts on understanding the human condition, society, history, etc. You've all Harari says that you should get used to the idea of having, like, three or four careers. I'm trying to diversify myself, and I'm just not getting lost in the idea that you are going to do one thing coming back to Annie Duke once again, because it's hard not to quote her multiple times, what are the skills that I can acquire that work across the widest range of possibilities? Instead of just accepting that the world is narrowing my options, we have the power to expand our options. TAKEAWAY NUMBER FIVE, boy, if this wasn't one of my favorites, if not my favorite interview of the entire summit, and I really hope everybody has the chance to listen to it. The world needs our art, and it needs it now more than ever. According to Amy McNee, who is our guest this morning, art is how we survive. It is how we know ourselves, it is how we connect with each other, it is how we make sense of the world. And according to our other guests today that was also released this morning, we have Kalika Sharma, the founder, co owner of antidote effects, as well as a mom, as well as a husband as well as a daughter just trying to figure out how to navigate this messy middle. We have to keep giving. Don't hold back. You gotta let your freak flag fly. Love that quote, and you have to have fun while you do it, and that fun is going to impact people, and it is going to inspire people. And I would say, if there is one quote that just landed for me and said, This is really where we are going in the future, it was none other than Mr. Ted hope. We're going to get Ted hope again in a second. But his quote my favorite part of the process, I think it's the final 10% we are gathered here today because we care about these things, and it just feels true when we feel seen, when we are heard, when we are verified, all of this comes together, and this process is transcendent. And I would argue that everybody that's in this room today, are we not the people that care about the final 10% because if you didn't, you wouldn't be in this masterclass right now. We are the ones that want to make things that are not just okay or not, things that are good or not, things that are content. We want to make timeless stories. So to bring all this together, what do I think the future of entertainment is? I have a feeling you guys probably already know this, because I've been beating this dead horse the entire week. But I believe the future of entertainment lies in the epicenter of these two overlapping Venn diagrams. You guys know what belongs in these Venn diagrams? I'm curious, if you guys have been paying attention this week, what do you think I'm going to put in these two Venn diagrams? I want to see who's really paying attention right now and who's been paying attention throughout the entire week. Ah, we're very, very close. Yes, creators and creatives. Ooh, old Hollywood creators and creatives. Ooh, legacy media versus content creators. Oh, you're so close, so close. You're basically on just different, different nomenclature. I believe our future is the intersection of the Venn diagrams of legacy Hollywood and content creators bringing us together. I believe this is the future of entertainment. And as you saw throughout the week, I'm not the only one that's thinking this might be where we are going next. So according to Liz craft and Sarah Fain, the host of happier in Hollywood, I feel like over time, there's just not going to be a line between the two anymore. There will not be a line between legacy Hollywood and content creators. It's just going to be one thing, according to Jay Klaus, to this idea of creatives versus creators, we are really talking about people who are much more the same than they're different. So what this really comes down to? What are we trying to accomplish? What do we want to achieve together? What stories do we want to tell? Who are the people that we want to impact? Doesn't mean it has to be on Netflix or it has to be on HBO Max, or whatever the hell it's going to be called by tomorrow. Doesn't mean it has to be on YouTube or Tiktok. It's all about how do we get in front of the right people and have the right positive impact on all of them? Because, as Jay said, content creation is a transfer of emotion. And according to Nick Milo, the opportunities they are endless, and it's scary too. But as you dive in, they're always going to be there's always going to be more that you don't know the water's warm, and YouTube wants you to succeed, so I really encourage you to explore. Now, coming back to our keynote speaker, I think this one probably landed for me more than anything else, and really helped me feel better and more confident about where I think the future of entertainment lies. And that was Ted Hope, who wrapped it all up and said. We are at the garage band moment in cinema, where the 15 year olds, they have picked up the guitars. Now, we haven't done our Sergeant Pepper yet, but we are getting to that level. It is indeed a slow process, and we need better technology and better systems, and we will need better practices to get us there. But as soon as he that said that, I'm like, Yes, that is the perfect image of where I believe we are in this future of entertainment and content creation. All right, I realize I'm probably going to get a deluge of comments on this one, but I'm curious, what did I miss you like, oh my god, were you even here this week? Zack, how could you not have put up this quote or this thought or this takeaway? I've had a lot of conversations over the last month, and sometimes they all kind of blend together, and I do my best to keep them all in the same place in my head. But I'm curious, what did I miss if you were putting together a slide deck for today and you were going to talk about the five biggest takeaways, what have you got for us? I want you guys to share in the chat while I continue going forwards. So here's what I want to remind everybody of. What got us here is not going to get us there. Remember, there's the before times and there's the after times, and we are all squarely living in the messy middle of the after times. So what is it that got us here? What got us here was the belief that if we grabbed the bottom rung of the corporate ladder, that as long as we rose to the top, we of course, would be awarded our pensions, our retirements and our gold watches. Where did this begin? This begin a childhood.

Zack Arnold

If you've ever gone to any kind of a preschool event, little kids, whether it's a birthday party or otherwise, anybody that's parents, what is one of the first things that we always ask kids, what do you want to do when you grow up? What do you want to be? And we expect by preschool, we know what we want to be when we grew up. So as we grow up, we go to college, we go to Masters, we go to secondary education. We have to choose a direction. We have to choose one path, one path that defines who we are and what it is that we do. And then, of course, where do we end up? We end up in cubicles, because that's the way the industrial machine assembly line. It has pushed us through to be in this place where we are bots for the man. And just by the way, side note, what's with creeper dude like standing over there in the corner looking around? That's kind of weird. So since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have been trained to be efficient. We've been trained to be a part of a much, much larger system and do one thing we've seen, what has happened to the assembly lines, automation, robots, artificial intelligence? Well, guess what? Now it's our turn. We the creatives, are now in the process of being automated, being outsourced by technology, by artificial intelligence. Ultimately, we were trained to be cogs on the assembly line of somebody else's dreams. We were promised that specialization was going to be the predictable, it was going to be the safe and it was going to be the secure path. But unfortunately, according to our robot overlords, I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. Guess what? Specialization is now the riskiest path of them all. And here's the really shitty part, our educational system did not prepare us for this new world at all. Our creative survival requires a completely new approach, and that new approach starts with a mindset shift to what we will call the beginner's mind. Just to hit this point home, one more quote, think one of the best takeaways of this entire summit, once again, from Kylie Pena, we are all going back to school. But here's the thing, while everybody is terrified and focused on the Rise of the Machines. What we need to focus on is the rise of the generalists. I've been writing about this, I've been talking about this. I've been speaking about this for years. When I started talking about this in early 2023 people thought I was crazy. People don't think I'm crazy anymore. So another quote from somebody that was not a part of the summit, but PS actually did try to reach out and get him. Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, he was quoted as saying, earlier this year, your nine to five job is dying, and by 2034 it will be extinct. And at the speed at which things are moving, I think that prediction might actually happen faster than he said it was going to happen. Another quote from one of the world's thought leaders on understanding organizational psychology, understanding the workforce and otherwise Adam Grant in the past, people were hired and promoted based on ability. In the future, the more valuable currency will be agility. We should bet on people with the motivation to learn and the flexibility to change. So what does that mean that we need to focus on next? Here we go, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot.

Zack Arnold

Paper, shut up, shut up, shut up. Just in case I don't hit the point home enough today, I thought that would be helpful just to stick that in your brain as we continue. So now where I'd like to go is I'd like to talk about these three common myths that can derail your career pivot, and I mentioned them before, and we are going through the agenda. So now let's break each of these three myths down. Myth number one, I hear this all the time from my students, especially my new ones. You don't understand. I have to start over my career path. It has quit on me. I cannot find any more work. I've reached out to everybody in my network, all the people that I've worked with in the past. I've got no other choice. I have to start over. That is a myth. Fact. Instead, you are absolutely not starting over. However, your story needs to change. So I'm curious. Let me know in the chat. Whenever you meet somebody at an industry event, how do you describe yourself? You bump into them, you start chit chatting, you start a conversation. How do you describe yourself right now? Go ahead and let me know in the chat. I in the chat. I want to see some of these options. I want to see some of these answers, because I'm really curious. What is the current story that we're telling about ourselves? All right, so we've got assistant editor, post production editor, Josh is saying other people talk to people at networking events. Hey, man, I'm right there with you. I'm an introvert. Why do you think I'm doing this presentation for my presentation from my home? I'm seeing content creator, editor, Assistant, scripted AE editor, oh my god, you guys have completely and totally walked into my trap. Thank you so much. Perfect. Could not have planned this more perfectly. Here's the mindset shift that we need to start with. Is that you are not your resume, and by the way, you never were.

Zack Arnold

But we have been trained. We have been conditioned. It has been bludgeoned into our brains that our identity is defined by our job titles. Anybody else having an existential crisis over the last couple of years? It's not just about man. It's a hard time finding work, and I got to make money. It's Who the hell am I without my job, right? I know that I can't be the only one. I know there's a lot of other people, because I talk to you every single day. We are not our resumes. So here's where this mindset, mindset shift, really comes into play. Up until now, if you're looking at the past, you chose one path, but that does not mean you have to continue on the same path with no options. We are now at this crossroads, the before times, the after times. It's not just the past and the future. We are now living in the after times, and the choices are limitless. You just have to learn how to better tell your story. And I'm gonna give you just a little bit of a glimpse of one of the exercises that we do in our design your dream career program. And it starts with understanding Venn diagrams. Remember our human Venn diagram? Christina Wallace, well, she says that the more that our Venn diagrams intersect, the more specialized, and the more that we layer them on, the better chances are that we will be the perfect fit for somebody else. So step number one is figuring out what is in your Venn diagrams. So this is an exercise that I take my students through in design your dream career. It takes at least, I think the workshop is two to three hours. Don't worry, this is not going to be a three hour exercise, but I'm going to take you through just kind of the bare minimum so you can get a taste of how you can realize that you are not starting over. So we have these four Venn diagrams, and these are the four Venn diagrams that you are going to have for yourself. And if you literally just right now want to do this exercise on paper while I'm going through this. This would be a great time to test this out and see the power of this one exercise. So the first Venn diagram is going to be both your work experience as well as your life experiences. And we're going to break down what that means a little bit more in a second and why the differentiator is important. The second Venn diagram that's going to be your interests, your passions and your unique knowledge. The third one is going to be your skills and your abilities. And the fourth Venn diagram is going to be your character. Like, what our character? I thought it was just about our hard skills. Like, I am really good at workflows, and I show up on time, and I am a good team player, yep, you and everybody else. It's all about understanding how you are unique, including your character. And at the center of all these Venn diagrams, that intersection is what I call your asymmetric advantage. You find this place, and this is where you become a category of one. So I'm going to give you an example of what this looks like, using my own personal experience. First of all, I don't even know who this guy is anymore, because this picture was taken right before COVID lockdown. So this is the last time I ever actually worked in a real office. This was my office at Sony Pictures when I was cutting, I think it was season three of Cobra Kai, right before the lockdowns. So if you're like, man, he looks young, holy cow, he's a kid. That's because it's literally the last picture I have of myself not working at home in my pajamas. So talking about me as an editor in television, I would say that I've achieved a fair amount of success. I've edited the number one streaming show, the number one network show, the number one cable show at the time it came out, I edited the number one trailer downloaded in the world. I've done the number one streaming web series. I've got a whole list of things that I've accomplished throughout my career. I'm not the best in the world. I've done all right. Now let's look at another area of my life. For those of you that didn't know, I spent about seven years training to become an American Ninja Warrior, and I also run Spartan Races. Now, as an American Ninja Warrior, I suck. I am terrible at American Ninja Warrior. However, here's where this exercise gets really interesting. What if we were to take these two parts of me and we were going to turn them into Venn diagrams? You look at me as an editor, not the best in the world, but I'm pretty good. I've achieved some level of success over the last 20 plus years. Me as an American Ninja Warrior. I suck the intersection of these two Name one person that you know that is equally as good or better than I am at editing and American Ninja Warrior at the same time. And by the way, if you know somebody that fits that bill, please introduce me to them. I would love for them to be my new best friend. But by and large, I would argue that at the intersection of editing television and American Ninja Warrior, I am a category of one. I am the best in the world, the intersection of those two things. So I'm going to walk you deeper through this asymmetric advantage exercise, and we're going to rewind to 2018 and 2018 is when I discovered a show called Cobra Kai. And for many of you, you're like, Well, of course, I've heard of Cobra Kai in 2018 nobody had ever heard of this show because you may not even know it didn't start on Netflix. It started on YouTube Red. YouTube Red. The hell is YouTube Red? Exactly? YouTube Red. Literally went out of business while we were in post production on Cobra Kai season three, and we didn't even know if anybody was ever gonna watch that season. So the point being, when I discovered it season one, I found it right after it launched on YouTube, and I said, Oh my god, I would love to work on this show. It's perfect for me, but I also believe that I was perfect for them, and I had an advantage over everybody else, and I'm going to show you how. So here's the exercise we're all going to go through right now looking at those Venn diagrams. You're going to start with your work experience. So here's how I would fill this out at the time. As far as my work experience, first check box, I am a television editor, but as a television editor, I've also edited cable series, like I said, the number one show on cable television at the time Burn Notice. I've done action, I've done comedy, I've done drama, I've also worked on Network series and the number one show on network television empire. I've done drama, I've done musical, I've done comedy, I've also worked on the number one streaming series. Ie Cobra Kai, I've done action, I've done drama, I've done comedy in all of these different areas, but I also have extensive background in being a trailer and promo editor. I've edited theatrical trailers, I've edited TV and home video promos. I've done motion graphics and title design, but also, but wait, there's more. I'm really going to start digging into the past, because you're going to see how our work and life experience can actually start to broaden our horizons and diversify us. And by the way, this is where I'm really going to date myself. I was a manager at Blockbuster Video. Excuse me, sorry, something in my throat. Yes, I was an assistant manager at Blockbuster Video, and I even ran, and boy, is this going to make me sound old. I ran the soda fountain counter in the local hardware store in my hometown in Podunk, Wisconsin. So I'm going to come back to this in a little bit, little bit, and you're going to see why this kind of experience and all these things can potentially be important. So now it's not just about our work experience and our job titles on our resumes. What about our life experiences? Aren't those going to be important too if we want to figure out this new direction for our careers? So I ask myself a question, and there are a whole lot of other questions that I will prompt you with in the actual design your dream career course materials. But for the sake of the shortened version today, here's the question that I'm going to answer, what challenges have I overcome? Well, let's see. I moved to a new school. I was the new kid. I was incessantly bullied from as far back as I can remember, I would say at least kindergarten, all the way through about 10th grade, but then nobody picked on me anymore because I got myself a black belt and Kenpo Karate, and nobody wanted to mess with me. They still weren't my friends, but at least they didn't beat me up on a daily basis anymore. Also as an adult, one of the challenges I've overcome, I decided at the ripe old age of 38 I wanted to become an American Ninja Warrior, and I had zero people in my network, so I built a vast network of mentors in an area where I had zero connections. Two of my ninja trainers ended up being Tony Horton, the creator of the exercise program, P 90x and Jesse Graff, one of the most world renowned ninjas on the planet. She's on the 50 foot banners in all the superdomes. How did I do it? Cold outreach email. We'll get to that a little bit more a little bit later. I've also learned over the years how to become a mentor to others, and that, by the way, is despite my intense social anxiety, imposter syndrome, my introversion and my perfectionism, I always say that I am the founder of perfectionist and introverts, anonymous. All right, now we start to break down, what are our interests? What are our passions? What unique knowledge do we have? Creative people, man, they are into a lot of really, really cool stuff. So ask yourself, What are you passionate about? So what am I passionate about? Well. Love training for Spartan Races. I love training for American Ninja Warrior I'm also really obsessed with the neuroscience of peak athletic performance, and as you've seen throughout the summit, I've also just obsessed with creativity and cognitive science in general. I also am really passionate about understanding the complexities of human behavior and also learning how to conduct compelling conversation. So I didn't just naturally wake up one day and say, I want to be a podcaster, and I was a good podcaster. Go back 10 years to my very first podcast. I kind of can't listen to them, to be honest. I can't listen to the ones that I recorded last week, either. That's another thing, but I've specifically been passionate about and wanting to learn the skill of how to conduct compelling conversations. And hopefully you enjoyed this week because I decided to prioritize that skill. I'm also really interested in the psychology of storytelling, also passionate about the value of our time and how we perceive it and how we better manage it. PS, I also really love 80s hair bands and rock music. Yes, once again, I'm dating myself. So now let's talk a little bit more about my skills and my abilities. So we go back to the job titles that I had, but rather than it just being the obvious skills, let me break down some of the more nuanced skills and abilities that I believe that I can bring to the table. I'm really good at delivering broadcast ready editors cuts on a tight deadline. You don't believe me, ask anybody that's worked with me, one of the most common pieces of feedback I get from visiting directors on TV series is they will say this is the most polished, furthest along editor's cut I've seen in my career, and I have multiple people that can back that up. Other skills and abilities, I'm really good at totally switching between Comedy, Action and drama smoothly. So I'm good at working with a lot of different genres in one timeline, really good at cutting music, really good at cutting score, and I actually also really enjoy working with instrument stems. I'm also good at understanding the nuances of character and the nuances of performance. Now, as a trailer and promo editor, what do I bring to the table? Well, I'm good at telling a very clear story in a very short period of time. I'm good at editing music driven montages, and I'm good at being creative with very non linear, very complex story structures.

Zack Arnold

All right. Now, how about some of the skills and the abilities that I bring to the table from Spartan racing and American Ninja Warrior? Well, I've learned how to face my physical and mental limits, although, I gotta be honest, of all the American Ninja Warrior and Spartan racing I've done this summit might be the hardest thing I've ever done in my career. This has been a thing. Has been totally worth it, and I hope that it's been valuable to you, but holy crap, have I faced my physical and mental limits? I'm literally doing it right now. Also learned how to manage intense fear under pressure. I also understand the mindset of an athlete. Now, how about the fact that I've overcome bullying? How does that life experience translate to skills and abilities that can be valuable to others? Well, I've learned how to set boundaries, which is really good for me, so I can communicate those boundaries and not be taken advantage of. I've also learned how to mediate and de escalate conflict. Anybody that's worked as an editor knows that we basically work as the child between two divorced parents, director, producer, network executives. Everybody's got all their feedback. Who's always the calm and the center of the storm? It is always the editor. That is a skill that I've learned from overcoming bullying and all the other things that I have listed on this page. Also learned how to respect myself and make sure that others don't take advantage of me. Now how about what are the skills and the abilities that I developed from the fact that I've learned how to conduct compelling conversations well, I've learned how to organize and simplify very complex ideas that, once again, I would argue, was probably very valuable for the summit, or at least I hope it was. I've learned how to ask interesting questions, and I've also learned how to speak extemporaneously, and boy, how ironic is it that I just stumbled on the word extemporaneously, just for you know, little kind of peek behind the curtain. I've had multiple people that have watched these presentations in the past and have said, wow, like this is really overly rehearsed and this is totally staged. I have never given this presentation before I finished my slide deck seven minutes before I opened up zoom, I've learned how to speak extemporaneously over the years as a skill from deciding that I wanted to learn the skill of conducting compelling conversations. All right, so here's that hidden, secret level that most people don't think about when they're starting to figure out their Venn diagrams and how you can differentiate yourself from your competition, and that is your character. So again, we could go much, much deeper into this, in the design your dream career program. But just to keep it light, just to keep it tight, what words do I feel best to describe me as far as my character? Number one, I am resilient. It takes a lot to knock me down and keep me down. I'm also very, very focused. This is both a superpower and this is also a kryptonite. This is very much the superpower of those that have ADHD myself included. It can also be to my own detriment, but at least for the sake of this presentation, I would say that being focused is definitely a valuable character trait for myself and to all of you. If you can't tell from this week, I also. Have a tendency to be a bit intense. When I was dating years ago, the number one piece of feedback I get is, man, you're intense. I used to apologize for that. I don't apologize for it anymore. I'm also very, very analytical. And yes, Deb, me intense never thank you very much. See, I'm paying attention to the chat right now. This is not a recording. Now, on the flip side of all this, I'm also incredibly sensitive and very, very empathetic to the needs of others. I also have a tendency to be overly obsessive over details. Ask any member of my team and how important every level of detail and delivery to all of you is, and I hope the summit proves that I believe the quality of presentation is important. I'm also relentless. When I decide that I want to do something, I do it and I make it happen. And I also happen to be highly, highly creative. All right, how do we bring all this together into these four Venn diagrams? So let's break this down here again. Are the four Venn diagrams we have. The first Venn Diagram of work and life experiences. I've got 20 years experience as an editor. I have overcome bullying. I have earned black belts. Now let's head over to the skills, abilities, unique passions, etcetera, Spartan Races. I've done American Ninja Warrior I've learned more about the athletes mindset. I understand the value of mentorship. I'm a mentor myself. I've literally built an entire business model around the idea of being a mentor. I also understand what it takes to face your physical and mental limits. All right, now let's break down some of these skills that we talked about. I'm really good at managing multiple tones across action, across comedy, across drama drama. I also have extensive ability and experience and interest and enjoyment and cutting lots of music and score love music driven montages. Montages are my jam. I love montages. I also love being creative with non linear structures, and also very good at managing conflict. Bonus, 80s rock is the playlist for my entire life, and still is all right now. Finally, the fourth Venn Diagram of character. I'm resilient, I'm relentless, I am focused, I am creative. Let's take a second and look at those four Venn diagrams. Would you argue that there is anybody on the planet that has more of an asymmetric advantage to edit the show Cobra Kai than I do? This is not about me being the best editor in the world. This is about me being a category of one for the role of editing this one very specific show. So the idea of this entire exercise is for you to go through all these four Venn diagrams, literally. Just take post it notes, just take a piece of paper and just start to put all these pieces together and say, Where do these overlap? And where am I a category of one? Now here's a very quick and fun cheat code. Once you do this, these are actually all of the most important story points for your resume, for your portfolio website, for your about page, for your LinkedIn bio, for your social media bios, and for your elevator pitch, both at networking events as well as in job interviews, you're welcome. That's all it takes to start to differentiate yourself and tell a new story about yourself. So remember, nobody here is starting over. Which brings us to the second of our three myths. Myth number two, this one, this one is going to get me on my soapbox. Oh, you don't understand. It is all about who you know. Hollywood, this business, the creative industries, it is all about who you know. Fact, it is never too late to start getting to know people you know. What it is about who you know. It absolutely is about your relationships. But that doesn't mean if you don't know people, now you can't get to know people. When I moved out to Los Angeles 20 plus years ago and drove across the country, I literally still had straw in my hair. I knew zero people, and now I have a very strong network, because I chose to put myself out there and build genuine relationships that were driven by providing value to others, which we'll talk more about in a second. Now another fact to add on to this is that the quality of your career is determined by the quality of your relationships. I'll go even one step further. They've done extensive scientific studies. The number one determinant of the quality of your life is the quality of your relationships. Who you surround yourself with. It matters. All right. I love this portion of the program, let me know in the chat, what is the first thing that you feel when you hear the word networking? I want to start to hear hear what everybody feels about the word networking. Does it feel anything like this? Oh, my God. I'm already seeing a lot of Uggs. Immediately. I'm seeing no thank yous. I'm seeing blah, I'm seeing shiver, I have to pee already, schmoozing, cringe. Oh my god, this is going to be so much fun. So the reason that all of you right now, or most of you hiding behind your little cameras, is, oh my god, we all hate networking. It's just it's cringe, it's nasty, it's Ick. You're telling me all the things. That I already know, right? We're hiding behind our cameras. And even worse, when we go to in person networking events, what do we do? We sit in the corner. We think, oh, man, I really, I really hope somebody, somebody comes and says hi to me, right? I'm too cool to go out there, right? We're just not good at networking. So I'm going to take you through an exercise that I hope in five minutes or less, completely transforms your mindset about what it means to network. So I want to introduce you to a little guy that I call Sally mcsellerson. All right, so here is the exercise. You are Sally mcsellerson. You are a door to door salesman. You are in a random neighborhood, you stop at a random house, you get out of your random car, you go up to the random door, and you knock on the door. What I would like to know, how are you feeling right now, and what are the thoughts that are running through your mind? You are selling excellence. You are an in person door to door salesman. You're ready to knock on the door. What are you thinking? What are you feeling right now? Let me know in the chat. And by the way, yes, your dog is going nuts. I made the same mistake when I was rehearsing this section last night. Not a good idea to do this presentation around dogs. All right, so what do we got? Somebody says their stomach is clenching. I feel like I'm bothering. I'm interrupting them. Oh, my God, why am I here? I don't like talking about myself. God, I hope this homeowner doesn't shoot me. Ooh, that's a new one. I don't you know. I'm hoping that the door isn't answered. Oh, what's with the guns today? I hope they don't have guns and mental issues. Dear Lord, the world has gone dark since the last time I did this presentation. All right, so now we're going to change up this situation. One thing is going to change. You're still going to be standing at this person's front door. It's a random home in a random neighborhood. It's a random front door. But now one thing about this scenario has changed. Your job is to ask this person for 100 dollars now how do you feel about this situation? Standing there you have no idea who's on the other side, your job is to say, Hi, I need 100 dollars please for the following,

Zack Arnold

Oh, boy, literally, this person's gonna get shot outside their door. It's nuts. I'm frightened. Stop it, please. This is even worse. Why in the world would they give me 100 dollars I'm prepared for the door to be slammed shut. Can I call this in? Oh, my God. Like, yeah, nobody wants to be in this situation, right? So just a few of the things that I've heard from people in the past when they're in this scenario, oh, my God, I'm gonna sound desperate this person. They're just too busy for me. I don't wanna bother them. Oh, this feels dirty. It feels icky, right? They're gonna know that I just want something. I'm such an imposter. They're going to discover I've got no idea what I'm talking about, I feel like I literally want to throw up. Now, let me ask you this question. Doesn't this sound a lot like networking? Specifically, when you want to reach out to people via outreach emails or via social media, how many of you are starting to feel a lot of this is very, very similar, thinking, the same things, feeling the same things. Gonna change up one more thing, you're still at the random door, you're still at the Random House, and you lean in knowing you have to ask for 100 dollars and this sounds like a really crazy, busy mom that's running around with toddlers. Now, how has this scenario changed for you? I'm curious how many of you are even going to stick around at this point? Ooh, we've got somebody that says they're going to stick around. Somebody says they would stay. Somebody said they would dash away. They'd come back later. Somebody says they'll stick it out. Somebody's going to send me a recording of their dogs going crazy. Apologize for that. Should probably put a warning up beforehand. Most people are ready to move on. This is just too much, all right. So now what we're going to do is we're going to flip the script. Everything about this scenario is the same. You are Sally mcsolar son in a random neighborhood, you've driven up to a Random House, you've gone up to a random door. You've knocked on the door, and you can hear on the other side of that door is a busy mom running around with toddlers. But here's what's changed. You're there to give her 100 dollars what has changed about this scenario for you, you're standing she's really busy, she's running around. You don't know who she is, but now your goal is to give this woman 100 dollars I feel excited. I'm providing value. I feel comfort, right? I'm providing a benefit. I have something for them. There's a purpose to it. It feels easier. The transaction is reversed, right? We're giving instead of taking, ding, ding, ding, there it is. This is the mindset shift that there's one thing you walk away from, not only this presentation, but from this entire summit, it is not about you coming back to Selena sue our publicity and networking and relationship building experts, when you show up with generosity, people are going to want to support you and be grateful that you. Are in their world. If they know that you are excellent at your work, if they know that you've got great personal character and they care about you, people want to help you. You just have to know how to ask them in the right way. Which brings me to just a very, very brief introduction to my way of the networking ninja workshop. This is going to be a tiny, tiny piece, about a 10 minute section of what's otherwise about a four hour workshop. Now here's the thing, there is good outreach, and then there is bad outreach, and then, to be honest, there is bad outreach that is so god awful that I tag it in my email. And I collect these like baseball cards, and I use them as teaching tools for my students. Now, if you want people to respond to your cold outreach messages, here is what not to do. Gonna give you three quick examples. These are real messages, by the way, obviously I've kept them anonymous. These are very real messages, hey, Zack, it's good to E meet you. Thank you for opening the invitation to connect. Can I buy you coffee sometime and pick your brain. Let me know whatever time works best for you. You cannot make this stuff up. When I talk about this with my students, and I use that as an example, they're like, well, nobody actually does that. Do they? I literally have it here in writing. By the way I responded to this person, and I walked them through the process, and I said, this is not the way to approach me, but I'm going to give you another shot. I want you to take a slightly different approach. Tell me a little bit more about yourself and how I can be helpful. I've now known this person for years. We've had multiple lunches together, and he is somebody that anytime he reaches out and connects, I meet him in person, and I mean in my inbox, he and I have now become friends, but only because I was willing to respond to this by helping him better understand how to approach me. All right, here's another one. Dear Lord, I get these all the time. Hi Zack. By the way, my name was spelled wrong. Happy New Year. Congrats on all the success with Cobra. Kai can't wait to watch season three. Loving the podcast too. Hey. So I just finished working on insert name of project here. So it's now back to finding my next show. Attached is my resume. If you hear of anything, let me know if you're available for coffee. What is it with coffee? I drink one cup a day. You want to have coffee with me at 530 in the morning, maybe after that. I don't know what it is with coffee, but I would love to catch up. This is the only kind of message that I get from this person. I hear from them maybe every one to two years, and as soon as I see this person's name in my inbox, I know this is the message fill in the blank, and I know that 50 other people probably got the same message. I do not have the time to respond to these because these are not personal. You did not take the time to acknowledge me. You did not take the time to show I've done my homework. Now, dear Lord, it gets even worse. Hello, everyone. I thought I'd reach out to let you all know that I'm available and looking if anyone hears of shows or features that's needing somebody to cut if you hear of anything, feel free to hit me up or direct them to my website. Thank you for your consideration. Sent to UN disclosed recipients, get out of my inbox. You know what the worst part is? This is actually somebody that I've worked with. This is not a stranger. This is a former colleague that I have shared a wall with, that I've had lunches with. You. Send me this message. You're off my list. No job for you. Do not send group messages. Take the time to be personal. Take the time to do your homework. We're going to talk more about this in a sentence second. All right, so you might be thinking right now, Yep, I've done all those and guess what?

Zack Arnold

So have I, but I learned my lesson. So now, just so I don't have to make all of you feel super depressed, we're going to take a little bit more. We're going to take a quick look at good outreach. And this is going to follow something that I teach that is called the V s a formula. So this is a message that I workshopped with one of my former students. This one cold outreach message got her name is Marianna. Got Mariana a cold interview via zoom for a job that didn't exist, and they talked to her for three hours, and they loved her so much that she got her dream job because of this one cold message. And it follows the VSA formula, which means it leads with value. Then it goes to her story, and then there's a very clear ask right at the end. So I'm going to read through this very, very quickly. If you want to screenshot it, you could look at it later, but it leads with value. Hi, Zack, and by the way, not me. It's to another Zack, totally coincidental. I came across your post on LinkedIn where you talked about having set a goal to become a visual effects producer by age 30. Boom, right out of the gate. She's done her homework. Your words about the difficulty of your journey being on a new career path and feeling both nervous and excited, they really resonated with me. Wow. I did something that made you feel something I shall continue to read on. I made my way to your website, where I learned that you, like myself, started venturing into the film world at a later age. We have something in common. We're similar after attempting other careers, and as somebody with similar goals, who's currently trying to make a career transition into film, I was very inspired. Oh, my God. Left me little old me. I inspired another human being. Your drive and resilience left me energized and motivated to continue striving towards my dreams. I loved reading that you had accepted a position as a visual effects producer and attained your goal. Congrats. Boom mic drop that alone gets responses because at the very least this person is going to feel compelled to say that is the nicest message that I have received today. You made my day. Boom. Done leading with value story section. I could talk about the story section for hours. I'll talk about it for 60 seconds. There's three things that you need to accomplish in your story section. Here are the three components. And this is going to sound very familiar, because it comes from the hero's journey. Here's where I am now. Here's where I'm going next. Here's what's stopping me from getting there. PS, that is why I'm seeking your guidance and support. So I'm reaching out because I have about five years of experience doing project management and production coordinating and it telecommunications, yada yada yada. I have a deep love for film and television. It has long been my goal and my dream to join the ranks in this magical industry. Here's where I'm going next. That being said, with my lack of experience in visual effects, film, television, I've had a hard time convincing people I could do the job. This is where this person is struggling. Therefore, if I were to respond, I feel like I can be useful. The key here is that it is all about providing value. Your first paragraph is not just about providing value, it is also about providing unique value. IE, this cannot read like a copy, paste template, which requires doing your homework so very quickly before we move on to Myth number three, how is it that you do your homework? Number one, you have to dig deep into their work history beyond just their latest project. Hey, Eddie Hamilton loved the latest mission, impossible. He gets 100 of those find a reason to be unique, and then actually watch some of their work, read articles, listen to podcasts, and then make sure to quote something inspiring that demonstrates that you actually paid attention, and if applicable, mention whether or not you have mutual connections, because, again, that can provide value and familiarity. Most importantly, you need to stop over thinking what it means to provide value. Providing value, it's not about offering your services for free, mowing somebody's lawn, organizing all of their dailies for months on end, or becoming a kiss ass. It is simply about reminding somebody that the work they do for a living is having a positive impact on others. All right, we have covered a lot in the last hour, and I know after having just gone through this one little presentation, going through the presentation about how do we leverage our skills? This is usually where I find somebody just about now. All right, well, I guess I gotta send an outreach email a week, but oh shit. Now I gotta update my website. Oh, my God, my resume. My resume is not ready either. Now I have to do a LinkedIn bio, and I need to take a new photo. Oh, but hold on a second. It's all about wellness. I gotta do cold plunges twice a day, but I don't have time for any of that because I need a paycheck. Yeah, but now they're telling me, especially this stupid Summit, that I gotta learn all these AI tools, but, oh my God, I've gotta start a YouTube channel. I get it. I know how you feel. There is never enough time. Myth number three and yes, if you don't enjoy Gen X references, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Myth number three is that you have to be doing everything, and that is just not true. Fact, there's never going to be enough time to get it all done. As soon as you accept you're never going to get all the things done. Things get so much easier. So you know what? You might as well just do shit that matters. All right. Question for you. You're in conversation with somebody. You've known them for a while. You're catching up again. They ask you, Hey, how have you been what's the most common response that you give them? I'd love to see this in the chat. What is the most common response when somebody says, Hey, what's up? How have you been lately? Doing okay. I'm doing good. I'm surviving good. You. Here it is, I'm busy. I've been busy. Been great. Things are busy, right? Everybody is always crazy busy, but we don't have to be. And the craziest thing is we're crazy busy, and most of us are unemployed right now. What is going on? So here's our third mindset shift for the day. Your career is not a game of checkers, your career is a game of chess. Got to be honest. No offense, most of y'all are playing a game of Go Fish right now. You have to be willing to be patient. A portfolio life requires a totally different approach to time management, energy management and attention management. So back to Christina again. So many amazing takeaways from Christina Wallace. She is just like me in that everything goes on the calendar. If it is not on the calendar, it does not exist. Because when it is I can then visual. Ly, get a representation of my portfolio, and I see it as the portfolio of my values, and is my time in alignment with my values. I want to talk very quickly about this idea that's been going all around the productivity world for a few years. It's called the four burners theory. Now the four burner theories is as follows. We get to choose four burners, and they represent the four most important areas of our life. We've got the work burner, we've got the family burner, we've got the health burner, we've got the hobbies burner. Everybody can kind of decide what name makes the most sense for you, but everything you get in your life goes on four burners, and if you want to be really good at something, you got to turn one of them off, and you choose three. If you want to be great at something, you only get two burners, and if you want to be world class, you get one, and everything else has to be shut off. I call bullshit. I don't think that's true. I also don't think that work life balance is something that we should work towards, and I'm going to get to what I think we can be working towards in a second. But nobody ever says, oh my god, I'm so crazy busy. I have so many things on all of my burners right now. We might say I've got it on the back burner, but nobody says we got a whole lot going on on our burners. But you know what everybody says when they're super busy, they say, Oh man, I have got a lot on my plate right now. So we're going to take this general concept of the four burners, but instead, our lives are now going to be comprised of four spinning plates, and we don't want any of these plates to crash and fall and break. So it's not about turning one two or even three of them off. It's how do we integrate work and life so we can spin all these plates at the same time? So I'm going to take you through a very, very quick exercise that I call designing your ideal week. And again, this is a process that I work through in my workshops and my exercises with my students for hours, if not even weeks upon weeks, especially we go deep into this in my year long mastermind program. So for the sake of today's exercise, we're only going to spend a few minutes, but you get four plates. So right now, think to yourself, what would I name? Plate number top, plate number one, plate number two, plate number three and plate number four. Give yourself a few seconds and start throwing in the chat. If everything that was important in your life could only fit on four plates, how would you name those four plates to cover everything? I want to see what you guys have got here. Now, I kind of gave you the cheat codes, and a lot of these are going to be similar, but I found some really interesting, unique ones from some of my students. So anybody, what would you call your four plates? You're spinning four plates in your life. You got to make sure they're spinning at some speed, and you don't want them to crash. Anybody got something? There we go. We've got family, health, career, fun, money, time, relaxation. Career, good. All right. Now you guys are starting to get the idea. Somebody says, outreach, learn, exercise, health and family, I would argue that outreach is probably a subset of something larger, like your career, work, business or otherwise. So really think broadly, everything has got to fit on these four plates. So I'll give you an example of what this might look like for me, and then how we can actually take this and we can extrapolate it on our calendars, so we can better manage your time, energy and attention. So my four plates would be as follows, I've got my career, or as I like to think about it, my business. We've got family, because there is no way in which this is not a core part of my brand and a core part of my values. Then I have my hobbies, or I would say more accurately, for me, my obsessions. Because I don't have hobbies. I have obsessions. Ask anybody that knows me. And then, of course, one of the core values of the work that I do, that I've done for years on the podcast, would be well being so what do we actually do with this? So here's what we're going to do.

Zack Arnold

We're going to look at an empty calendar. And I want you to think right now about your empty calendar. It's almost like you're looking at an empty spreadsheet. And I know people hate spreadsheets and they hate budgets. But if you want to figure out what your monthly budget is, what do you do? You open up a spreadsheet and you budget your money on your spreadsheet. So now we're going to budget your values on your calendar. And again, this is a process that takes a while, but it's actually really simple. There's a big difference between simple and easy, but it's actually relatively simple. You just make four different calendars in any calendar program that you have, you can do this in Google and Apple. My preference is busy Cal, which I consider the Ferrari of calendar programs. But you can do this in any free calendar app. You've got an empty, blank slate. This is the budget for your entire life where you're going to spend your time, your energy and your attention. So I'm going to start with plate one. Plate one. I'm going to work around the edges, just like if you were putting a puzzle together. What do you do when you put a puzzle together? You start with the borders and the edges. So I'm going to start on the outside and the outside. Where do I want to sleep? What do I want to do in the morning? What is my my morning routine look like? What does my evening routine look like? So I'm building out the borders. So you can see I've got sleep on here when I'm waking up, when I'm doing a reflection and review exercise in the evenings, when I'm chilling out, when I have a shutdown ritual. These are the borders around my life, and this is how I'm prioritizing my well being. So now I have the next one, as far as well being, but also as far as exercise, as far as hobbies. As far as passions, this would be the current routine that I have as far as exercise. And when I'm in full on ninja training mode, there's a whole lot more green on the calendar than this. So that's two of the four plates visually represented in a budget. Now, how about family? How about relationships? When am I when do I have my dad hat on? Right? When do I have my husband hat on? This would be all the time that I'm prioritizing and where I'm putting my presence and my attention on my calendar. And then, of course, this big, giant chunk in the middle is when I'm in business and career mode. But you can see, I wear a lot of different hats. I'm wearing a writer hat, I'm wearing a coach hat, I'm wearing a podcaster hat, I'm wearing a giving, really crazy in depth, intense presentations, master classes, hat right now. So now what I want to do is I want to show you, given that this can be very, very, very overwhelming, how you can actually break this down into the smallest component parts. And one thing that I want to clarify before we go further, this is not what my actual calendar looks like. My actual calendar has a whole bunch of margins. I can see where my calls are. I can see what my deep work is. So it doesn't actually look like this. And I never actually achieve this. You're never going to put together an ideal week, wake up on Sunday morning, do all these things and cross them off. This is just about having a budget. So I know where to set boundaries. I know how to say this is important, therefore I put it here or this is not important, therefore it no longer belongs on my calendar. So now we're going to go through this exercise and make it very, very practical. This is actually from one of my students. This is something that I workshopped with one of my year long mastermind students no more than a few weeks ago. So we start with a blank slate. Now, all of a sudden we break down, where are you going to be prioritizing your career. Where are you focused and intentional about how you budget your attention? These would be all the places that this person focuses on their career. But now we start to zoom in a little bit deeper, because this is really broad. If you're like, Well, I'm goes from eight o'clock to four o'clock. I'm working on my career today, and then you wake up and you're like, I don't really know what I should be doing right now, so Instagram and Tiktok and emails, because you don't have priorities, you haven't clarified what the budget is for your attention. So let's get more specific when we ask, well, what are you actually doing? What different hats do you have to wear? Well, you got to wear the learning hat. Have to be learning new skills. Want to be wearing the networking hat? Going to have to build relationships. Build relationships. There's also just going to be some general admin stuff. And then, of course, we actually have to be advancing our careers, putting together our website, putting together our resumes, etc. So we said, how do we use this to write one outreach email? So rather than just put on a to do list, write outreach email, we break it into its component parts. Here are all of the component parts of being able to write one outreach message. First, you got to organize and do some research. Then you want to make sure before you get started, you actually have this person's email address. Then you have to watch stuff, because, remember, you have to do your homework. Then you got to write the first draft. But then, if you're a member of this community, you want to send a message to the community and the give feedback channel and say, Hey, what do you guys think? Do I provide enough value? Is My Story clear? How about my ask? I think my ask sucks. Can I make my ask better? See these questions and conversations every single day. Then there's the second draft. Then, of course, they're scheduling a hot seat with me so I can tear it apart even further, but also make it much better. Then there's a final polish, and then they're sending it. So how do we use this rubric? How do we use this budget? Well, we know already where you need to do the work, because the networking block is already sorted out. So boom, on Monday, you're organizing your research. You make sure to confirm that you have the email, and then in the afternoon, you're managing your energy. Things are a little bit lower, a little bit slower. That's where you're watching stuff. Tuesday, you got other networking stuff to do in the morning, but you do more watching in the afternoon. Thus that Wednesday, you're ready to write the first draft of the email and you're ready to send it to the community to get feedback, and then from there, you get that feedback. So Thursday morning, you couple that feedback by scheduling a hot seat with me 9:15am anytime between 830 and 1030 Tuesday or Thursday. As soon as you get off, you do your second draft of the email, and then on Friday, boom, you do your final polish. You send it at noon on Friday, because, as I always say when you're sending expert driven outreach, Friday at noon is the best time. Don't have all the time to get into the psychology of why. But this makes it very clear what you need to do this week, so you don't spin in circles for 12 hours looking for your pants. Now I want to make one thing very, very clear, this process is not about achieving work life balance. I hate the phrase work life balance. Work life balance is a myth. It is not a result that you were ever going to achieve this idea that, well, I have to be working just as much as I'm doing my health and my family like they're never going to be in balance. Now, what I'm not saying is that I don't value balance and I don't value health and I don't value wellness, but this is something that you're never going to achieve. Instead, this is about learning a skill, and that skill is work life integration. Yeah. All right, having said all of that, you now have the facts about what it is going to take to navigate the next act of your creative career and overcome these three most common myths. So what are these facts? Once again, first of all, just going to keep saying this. You are absolutely not starting over. However, your story does need to change. And yes, I realize it's all about who you know, but it's never too late to start getting to know people. Why? Because it is a foregone conclusion scientific fact that the quality of your life and the quality of your career is determined by the quality of your relationships. And I know there's a lot to do and you feel like you got to do everything, but there's never going to be enough time to get it all done. So what can you do instead? You might as well make shit that matters. All right. So I need some water. I need a breather for 30 seconds. Let me know in the chat, are you guys ready to start making shit that matters again? If you listen to my conversation with Amy McNee this morning. You know how passionate we both are about how important the creative process is right now. So tell me, have I given at least a little bit of hope, a little bit of inspiration and motivation throughout this entire week and through today's presentation so far? All right, I'm getting a lot of hell yeses and yes and good. That's exactly the energy that I'm going for. I'm just short of busting out some Katy Perry and doing some spirit fingers, but I'm not sure that that's exactly in alignment with my friend, but that's, that's, that's the vibe that we're going for. Now before we go any further, I want to make one thing very, very clear, one thing that I'm very, very aware of. We're talking about all of this amidst watching our entire world burning down around us, something I talked a lot about with Amy today. Most importantly, above all of these strategies, all of these workshops, all of these ideas, all these mindset shifts, I want you to know that the work that we do here is we want to be the helpers. So if there, if there were ever a favorite quote, this is probably my favorite quote of all time. When I was a boy, I would see scary things in the news, and my mother would say to me, look for the help. I can't see this quote without getting emotional. Really pisses me off, because I can't get through this without being emotional. Look for the helpers, because you will always find people who are helping.

Zack Arnold

We, my friends, are the helpers. So I invite you to come join our rag tag group of creative misfits that are defying the status quo in building more fulfilling creative careers on our terms. So I'm very, very excited to announce this, because we have been working very hard behind the scenes, not just for months, but literally, for two years. This is the very first time that we are opening enrollment for the Arnold Academy for creatives, literally opening right now. If you want to learn more, you can go to the Arnold academy.com. So what do we do at the Arnold Academy? Well, first of all, we do a lot because I have a lot of different interests. I have a lot of different skills that I bring to the table. But three core areas that we focus are, number one, helping you with career navigation, specifically midlife career pivots, specifically midlife creative crises. What do we also help you with? A core value and foundation of our work is helping you build meaningful, genuine, rich relationships, as well as helping you better integrate work and life so you don't completely lose your mind, because you can't just show up at a job anymore, punch the time clock, do your job, come home. Now, we all have to manage our lives at a completely different level of complexity, and the reason that we do all this work is so that you can live a more rewarding, a more fulfilling and have a more sustainable, creative career, with a very important caveat, without losing your mind or without selling your creative soul in the process. So what are just a few of the things that we offer in the Arnold Academy for creatives? Well, first of all, as I've already talked about some and you've seen a lot of the material from them, there's a whole lot more to come. We have a whole series of courses, workshops and master classes. So let's break these down. As far as the career design and productivity bundle, we have design your dream career, and that Venn diagram exercise is about 5% of that workshop. I've got a bunch of my students in here now they can let you know in the chat the difference that design your dream career has made for them. We barely, barely tip of the iceberg. Talked about design your dream career. Also my focus yourself program, which is all about better understanding. How do we set goals? How do we focus and prioritize? How do we take actions? How do we build better habits? Lot of good stuff from the work of Cal Newport, of you know, deep work, atomic habits, from James clear and many more, all of which, these are all people that I've interviewed for the podcast. And I also do a really cool thing called Becoming a calendar ninja, similar to the exercise I showed you today. Now for our premium networking and branding bundle, we have build your dream network, which I didn't even touch on, but it's like a three hour Deep Dive. And how do I organize? How do I research and find the right people based on my goals? And then how do I actually prioritize who I should be reaching? Out to next I showed you just a taste of the way of the networking ninja. And there's also my brand new master class, all about writing your brand story. How do I tell a new story about myself? How do I differentiate myself in this market? How can I be valuable to others? Now, in addition to all the self guided courses, workshops and master classes, I also, as I've alluded to, I am available for Live Office Hours every Tuesday and Thursday morning, from 8:30am to 10:30am Pacific. And I would argue this is the absolute heartbeat and soul of the Arnold Academy. So one of my favorite quotes about Office Hours comes from one of my students, Selena. And Selena has said, I've been feeling like I just want to hide under a blanket and cry lately, but being back here and listening into these office hours calls, it really helps for me to see more positivity and possibilities than I do from under the blanket. Is Selena, the only one right now that just kind of wants to hide under a blanket and give up and just be done with it all. That is why we have office hours. Yes, we talk about outreach messages, and I look at resumes, and I workshop websites, and I prepare people for job interviews. This is why we are here. So you know that you are not alone. So here's one of the really cool things. I was reading the tea leaves many, many years ago, and I was recording every single call all the way back to 2017 when people had no idea what zoom was. And I've been using AI to record and transcribe and summarize my calls since 2017 so as soon as you join, you get access to over 1000 hot seats that are all searchable by keyword, by topic, and now searchable via AI. I've literally tested this where I've said, Hey, based on all these hot seats, what are the three best tips you can give me so I can write a better outreach message, specifically my value paragraph. Boom, done. And this is without us even training this specific LLM. This is just using the basic LLM and a program called otter. We're now going to be in the process of training our own large language model on all of my content. So we can really specialize all of the work that you're doing. And we can be there both digitally, and I can be there for you in person as well. Now here's the other thing that we do, in addition to office hours in the office hour sessions, what I'm doing are 25 minute hot seats. And if you want an idea of what a hot seat looks like, I'm literally going to be conducting three of them as soon as I get through this and I give away prizes and no more than 10 minutes. So you can do hot seats whenever you need to. You can literally go the entire year and not use one, but if you literally want to use up to one per week, you can grab a 25 minute hot seat with yours truly. What do we talk about on the hot seats? Oh boy. How much time do you have? We talk about networking strategy. I have workshopped so many outreach emails in my life. I have lost count. I have workshopped resumes. I've workshopped cover letters. I've workshopped portfolio websites, I prepared so many people for zoom calls and meetings, many of whom I've actually seen in the chat. They will tell you that these conversations are game changers in the mindset that they bring to these meetings. And I've also done plenty of mock job interviews again, all of which are recorded and searchable. So if you've got a job meeting, job interview next week, oh my God, I don't know what to say. How do I structure my conversation? Search for hot seat. About preparing for job interviews done hours and hours of content that you can use to better understand how to better present yourself. We also talk about setting goals. We talk about, how do we prioritize our next steps? We have so many things going on. How do we prioritize what comes next without losing our mind? Do a lot of talk about time and calendar management. And here's where it gets a little bit deeper, a little bit more emotional. We talk a lot about overcoming procrastination, imposter syndrome, perfectionism and all of the barriers and fears that stop creative people from making cool shit. And when it really gets down to it, we've done a lot of conversations, helping people manage their existential crises and ultimately navigating the messy middle of life and all of the madness that comes with it. So another really, really heartening message that I received recently was from another one of my students who we said I was really disheartened at the start of this year. I was feeling like my outreach, it just wasn't making any impact. I changed my tactic thanks to a hot seat with Zack, I wrote individualized emails instead of generic messages, and I got a way better response rate than I ordinarily do, and meaningful responses too. By and large, the students that work through this program get about an 80% response rate, not eight, not 18, an 80% response rate when they change their approach to outreach. Another message you got recently, after listening to the hot seat about how to tailor a resume to the job that you're applying to, I decided to rework my skill section before I applied for a job. I mirrored what they were asking for in their job description, and I got an email back immediately. This is the kind of difference that I hope to make for everybody that is here today, but ultimately, beyond the office hours, beyond the hot seats behind you know, beyond all of the course materials. Ultimately, this is about our community. This is about people coming together, both virtually and IRL in real life, so we can support each other through this giant mess that we call. Life. So I would say, by and large, the most important feature of this entire Academy is our global community, including a student directory, so you can find exactly the people that you want to connect with. There's another one of my students said that's a member of my year long mastermind. This is an incredible hive mind of creatives that are bringing about the best in each other. This community has improved my confidence, and it has helped me realize that I can climb my Everest because of the skills that I've used to climb other mountains. You are not starting over. You have years, a lifetime of skills, experience, work, experience, life, experience, passions, interests, knowledge. You are not starting over. You have plenty of evidence that proves that you can do this again. Alright, so I want to break down all these features for you very, very quickly one more time. We've got the circle community, we've got the student directory, we've got in person, networking invites. We also have the vault in the office hours archives. You've got audio recordings of every single call transcripts, summaries of all future Office Hours calls to come. You have the career design and productivity bundle. You have the resource library. You can also attend live office hours. You can schedule one on one hot seats with me, and of course, you can limit them to up to one per week. There's also the premium networking and branding course bundle. And for those that are on the All Access tier, you get a 20% discount on future eight week classes and to all of our in person workshops, of which there will be many throughout the rest of the year and next year to come. So now comes the big question. Here it comes, what does this cost? All the things that you see here, 997, for the entire year, which I know it sounds like a lot, especially now, frankly, it sounds like a million dollars to a lot of people. I totally get it. That's why, because of, number one, the state of the industry, and number two, because we've just launched this brand new academy, and we've got a few kinks to work out here and there, and we really, really want to bring you inside, offering you a 200 dollar discount. You can join for only 797 for the entire year, you can use the coupon code grand opening for 200 dollars off, but if you enroll by Monday evening, you can lock in your 200 dollar discount for ever. Now, if you enroll after Monday, you still get the discount. You can still enroll for 797 but if you join, if you join us by Monday night, you lock in this discount forever.

Zack Arnold

All right, so looking at all these features, if you're thinking to yourself, This is a lot. I don't have the time to do all these things. I can't attend all the Live Office Hours. And frankly, even right now, 797 for an entire year of access to this, that is asking a lot. I totally hear you. I totally understand you. I'm very conscious of where people are financially. I've had countless conversations understanding how tight things are. So if you want access to everything on the left side, meaning you'd only lose access to Live Office Hours. You could not schedule hot seats, and you would not have access to the premium networking and branding bundle you can join for 497 a year using the community pass. But once again, because this is the very first semester of opening up our rebranded Arnold Academy for creatives, you can get started and have access to everything for only 297 a year, once again, using the coupon code grand opening. And the same applies. If you join by Monday night, you can lock in this discount for life. I want to leave you with a thought from one of my students, who said that I've never been unemployed for longer than three weeks in my entire career. The current slowdown has gutted me in a way that I had not anticipated, but I found comfort in a community where people understand exactly what I am going through, and without this program, I probably would have lost hope and I would have switched industries long ago. Now, if you want a little funny tidbit about sadika, sadika told me, after she joined, my plan was to join for one month, and my plan was to ask you for a refund. Sadika has now been with us for well over a year, and she's a member of my weekly yearlong mastermind program. Now, if even this is asking too much, if you want to join today, just to get started, just to feel like you are not alone, to feel like you have some guidance and support, and you want to dig right into my dream career materials, all of my hot seats, everything in the vault. You can literally get started today for 59 dollars a month with no long term commitments. And if you're thinking even that's a lot, this is a new, scary journey. I just don't know if this is the right fit. I will throw on a 30 day money back guarantee no questions asked. This isn't the right fit for you. You just let me know. You know why I offer this, because you're not going to need to ask. And how do I know? Because my refund rate is pretty much, statistically, as close to zero as you can get, because everybody that joins, they stick around, because they see the quality of the people that we have in this community. All right, one last thing that you need to know, enroll. Closes next Wednesday, July 9. But don't forget, if you want to lock in your discount for life, enroll by this Monday evening, the 30th, but enrollment for this semester closes Wednesday, July 9. I'm not sure when we're opening it again, but it's probably going to be a while.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai