Episode Highlights

• The origins of Fitness in Post
• When is it worth it to take career risks?
• Maintaining your energy and presence while working a full-time job
• Knowing when sacrificing your time is worth it
• Addressing the confusion surrounding the FiP name
• Developing an awareness of your long-term goals
• Balancing work opportunities and family life
• The end of Fitness in Post and the future of Optimize Yourself

Useful Links

• Optimize Yourself Rebrand Blog
• Enjoying The Show? Leave A Rating And Review HERE
• FiP Amazon Link
• Athletic Greens

Transcript

Zack Arnold: I’m here today with none other than me. Natalie Boschan, Natalie, welcome to yet another episode of the Q and A podcast. And as we will get to a little bit later, this will be the final Q and A episode of the fitness and post podcast. And for those of you that are like, wait, what does that mean? We’ll get to it later. So don’t panic, but we’re going to talk about that a little bit later. Yeah. Well, no, want wants. It’s all good news. It’s all about change and progress, and we’ll get to that a little bit later. But as a loyal podcast listener that chooses voluntarily to listen to the Q and A podcasts, I commend you for doing so you’re going to be the first to hear the big news is coming before anybody else does, because the first place we’re announcing it is here. But anyway, we’re going to get to get to that a little bit later, but I want to start with a question that I received recently from one of my optimize yourself Program members. His name is Daniel, and this is one of those kind of deeper life questions, which is why I really, really liked it, because a lot of the questions that people submit are very specific and tactical, and we’ve answered quite a few of them, and some of them are like, Why would I put a task in Omnifocus versus Trello? Like, those are good questions, but I really enjoy the deeper stuff. I really enjoy the things that make a real difference, as opposed to the like, tiny, tactical things. So I wanted to get to this question because I know it’s a conversation that you and I have had many, many times, and you’re thinking, read the question, because I don’t know what the hell yeah,

Natalie Boschan: I don’t even know what this question.

Zack Arnold: Yes, you have no idea. It’s not funny. This is one that was sent to me via email, so you don’t even know what I’m going to ask

Natalie Boschan: I don’t even know what it is

Zack Arnold: So i’m going to read through, not in its entirety, but I’m going to try and read most of it, because it is kind of a deep question. But I know this is something that a lot of people face, and I get email similar to this. So this is the paraphrased question from Daniel, and he says, I have a career decision to make, and I was hoping to get your thoughts throughout this process, the process meaning being in my program, I’ve noticed your commitment to your family and how that has impacted your career decisions, and I share in that value. I mostly work on Docu reality projects, and I’m living in New Jersey with an average of an hour and 15 minute commute each way to New York City. And because of that, I make it a point to always leave on time as long as my work is done so I can be with my kids at bedtime. And anybody that knows me knows that this is the number one driver of all the decisions I make, is, can I make it home for bedtime? So this is a big thing for me too. I now find myself with a tough decision, and after several days of thinking about it, I’m stuck. I’ve been offered a show that I’ve done a few seasons of already that allows me to work from home that would take me through several months, and this was an amazing quality of life job that I did last year. I was home when my kids got home, and I spent a lot more time with them. But I have also been offered a job on a new show my and he says who the filmmaker is in the network, but I don’t want to divulge Zack, because I don’t know if that’s private or not, so my original gut feeling was that working from home and more time with my family was the right choice. But the more I think about it, the more I worry about passing on a great career opportunity. So have you had to make decisions like this? So funny that we, I mean, you and I off the record. Right before this, we started recording, we’re having very similar conversation about an opportunity that maybe has come up. So yes, this is a conversation that you and I have had quite a bit, where I’ve, as you know very well, because it’s affected your life directly, I’ve had a lot of different zigs and zags in my career path the last two or three years, most of which you’ve had to suffer through. And

Natalie Boschan: They’re good zigs and zags.

Zack Arnold: They’re good zigs and zags,

Natalie Boschan: But they ended up in the right place.

Zack Arnold: But at the same time, it’s still a zig and a zag and it’s still a change, and there’s still a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety because you don’t know how it’s going to turn out right. And I would love your thoughts on this as well, because I know that. I mean, granted, I’ve kind of not voluntarily, but I’ve kind of put you in the position where you’ve had to make this decision a couple of times, but you’ve also talked about having to make this decision hypothetically in the future once you also have kids. Because, you know, I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn that someday you do plan on trying to have a family.

Natalie Boschan: Yes,

Zack Arnold: So I definitely want to, you know, I’m gonna let you answer first, because I had an answer that I sent to him, but I want to hear your thoughts first and then I can piggyback on it.

Natalie Boschan: Well, my thoughts would be a little different, because I don’t have the exact, I feel like you’ve had the this exact situation or not exacted, but, like, similar, I mean, I have, I sort of make this decision almost every day, actually, because right now I’m really trying hard to sort of transition to the editing chair. And so every day I’m sort of given the opportunity to, kind of like, stay late, cut as many scenes as I want, if I want to, which is great, and like, sit in with directors and producers and just really put it like, if I wanted to put in every weekend, like staying till 10 every day to do more stuff with editing, like I could, but I sort of been picking and choosing not to do that every day, even though, Like, I know that that’s supposed to be what advances my career, but I just I don’t want to get burnt out on it. And so because of that, I sort of choose to only do that occasionally, and I choose to do that and I plan for it basically. So you know, when the weekend comes around, I look at my week and I say, Okay, well, two and three days this week. I’m going to dedicate those two three days of my career, but the other couple days of the other two three days of the week, I’m going to go home and have dinner with my husband, and I’m going to be, you know, or I’m going to go out with friends, or I’m going to see family who are in town, and that’s going to be important to me. And I had like, you know, like one of my best friend’s birthday one night, and I could have stayed and cut more scenes, or, you know, done exercises on scenes and whatnot, but I I wanted to go see her. I was pretty, you know, it was a guest list of three people, and so it’s just was important to me not to miss that. And as much as I don’t know how much that’s going to slow my career trajectory by not staying every single day or going in every weekend to just putts around with editing. I just the quality of life sometimes just takes, you know, they’re just, they’re I’m really dedicated to this idea of having a balanced life. And if I’m going to be doing this, and if I’m going to be, you know, in this career, there’s got to be a reason for it, and the reason can’t just be because editing is cool, like, editing is cool, but it’s like, I’m not saving anyone’s life. I’m not, like, making a huge impact, like, I’m not sending food and water to like, Sudan right now, but I’m doing a job that I really love, and in order to keep loving it the rest of my life has to be. In good shape, too. And so I’ve sort of almost every day make those decisions that Well, I just, I need, I need that balance. I need that sort of otherwise, like, in two months when I am, like, if I do get that job to be an editor, whenever, like, I’ll be too burnt out to even enjoy it. Anyways,

Zack Arnold: One of the words that I want to extract from what you said is this idea of balance, because this is the most elusive thing, not only in our industry, but I feel like in the 21st Century workaholic culture that we’ve developed in many, many industries, I really feel that balance is just this elusive thing that nobody knows how to find anymore. And recently, I had a conversation with a very young filmmaker, and to be completely honest, I don’t know, As of recording where we are right now, where this episode is going to land, so it may have already aired before the Q and A episode. So people are like, Yeah, we already know that story. But basically, he’s still in college, and he interviewed me for a documentary that he’s making, because he had the same realization that I did about health and wellness, but he had it way earlier, like, 20 years old. Is like, why am I pulling all nighters and not able to function and all these things? So he’s, like, been traveling around the country, interviewing people that are in the industry, learning like, is it still like it is in film school? Is it that bad? I’m like, Oh, son, it gets so much worse. You have no idea. So build the habits now. But we talked about the idea of balance, and what I had told him was that one of the realizations that I’ve had is that people think about balance, is this 5050, thing. You think balance, when you achieve it is a scale. You know you have the scale balance evenly on both sides. And if you’re working, let’s say 45 hours a week, that means you’re spending 45 hours a week with family, and I just don’t think that that’s feasibly possible. And

Natalie Boschan: Who would want to No, I’m kidding,

Zack Arnold: Well, but, but that’s the thing, is that it’s people that are in our industry. We didn’t choose it because it was our fallback. You know, we chose it because we’re passionate about it, and that’s one of the main reasons that I think our hours get taken advantage of because we spent so many years pursuing it that we’re willing to kill ourselves without getting paid because of the sake of the work. So that’s taken advantage of. And we’ve had that conversation before, and I could go down that road forever, but the thing about balance that I’ve realized is that it’s not about 5050 balance. It’s about being able to maintain your energy and your presence, even if you’re working 60 hours a week, if you find a way to give your family 15 or 20 hours a week, but you’re able to be present with them. In my mind, that’s as close as you’re going to get to balance in this industry.

Natalie Boschan: Yeah,

Zack Arnold: Where? Where? Like, for example, if my wife knows that I’m going to be working a lot of hours, and as of the time that this comes out, I’m going to be knee deep, probably neck deep, working on a TV pilot, which means that it’s going to be very long days, probably a lot of Saturdays. I even have a seven day week on the calendar already, but she knows that when I am home, I’m home like I’m not one of those parents that’s, you know, at the soccer game, but I’m tweeting and I’m on my phone texting people like, I am present. I’m with them 100% I don’t even have my phone in the same room usually. And when you have those conversations that can make a big difference, where they understand that you’re doing everything you can to support the family and be with the family. But when an opportunity arises that you simply don’t want to pass up, they get it. So the piece of advice that I would give to Daniel, based on the specific question, is that I’m always talking about playing the long game instead of the short game. So the short game in this case is, well, I want to continue spending time with my family. I want to be home when my kids come home from school. I mean, that’s something I’ve gotten used to a lot over the last five to six months, because I haven’t spent a lot of time in the editing world. I spent a lot more time in the web world and the, you know, personal development and the health space, just really learning how all this works. So every single day when my kids come home from school, I’m there, so that’s something I’ve become really, really used to. But if I know that I have an opportunity that might allow a lot more of that time down the road, but short term, I kind of have to suck it up, and I have to put in the long hours, because I know that it pays off in massive dividends, because it’s a game changing credit in my career, then it makes a lot more sense. And that was the one of the decisions I had to make with Empire is, I mean, you, you remember how much that drive killed me. I mean, I was doing two hours every morning going through traffic, trying to get to Beverly Hills. But in my mind, it the payoff was worth it, because the conversations that I was having with potential jobs down the road, with producers, with just every facet of my career, it just completely changed, not before the show came out, but once the show came out and became what it was. It’s the perception of what I was able to do. And the kinds of shows that I could be considered for, night and day, even though it’s not like I magically had twice as much talent as I did the six months before, I always knew that I could do the job, but now other people knew it, but that meant that I at least season one, I basically gave up seven months of my life to that show, and barely, if ever saw my kids, which is where the that blog post that I did about putting my kids to bed via FaceTime every night, that came from season one of Empire, but I looked at it playing the long game, knowing that, yep, this is really going to suck on a personal level. But I had a very frank conversation with my wife and said, Listen, this is why making this decision, why long term is better for the family, why long term is better for my career and better for my well being? Because the other position I don’t think that somebody wants to be in is wondering, What if so, for example, if Daniel, if you’re listening to this, or anybody else is in a similar situation where you have a fairly steady job, that’s pretty much a lateral move you’ve done before. The chances are very high those offers are going to come along again. They’re going to be out there. They’re, you know, it’s not like they’re going to go away, unless, you know, some weird thing changes. But you know, in without anything odd happening, those offers are still going to come. But if you have this kind of game changing show or opportunity, unless it’s the demands are so ridiculous, like, if it’s like a four year project, it’s a little bit different. But if you’re talking about a season of six to nine months, and you know it’s going to be tough on the family short term, but you see what it can do for you for the next five years, then that’s worth it. But when you have young kids, like I’ve this is a conversation I’ve been having in my head, like, I know I’m basically going to lose two months of my kids lives when I’m on this pilot. I’m just going to be gone, I’m going to be absentee dad, and that’s very, very hard to handle. But this is enough. In my opinion, I could be wrong, because you never know what will happen with pilots. But in my opinion, this could be another one of those things where, like, Empire made a huge impact, this can make a huge impact. So it’s worth it down the line by making this, you know, the short term sacrifice

Natalie Boschan: Well that, and I mean, to speak to just being able to put in the quality time while you’re, you know, working hard, like I had, like, my dad was very hard. Like he worked all the time, and he was always, like, never home before eight, like, that kind of thing. I don’t know. I just remember as a kid, I think because whenever he did come home, he was very concerned. He was very, like, cognizant of, I want to talk to you right now, tell me all about your day, like he was, like, very focused on our one on one time. And so whenever he had the opportunity to just be with me one on one, it was like, he was, like, very present and very there and like, didn’t really, I mean, he didn’t see, like, all my sports game stuff, but like, making it to, like, at least 90% of it and stuff like that. I think that that quality time, I think when you spend that quality time with kids, they become more understanding of like, okay, well, this is the time that’s for me. And sometimes you can’t have that time all the time, but I think that that really makes a big impact, at least it did in my childhood. So, I mean, everyone’s different, but um, I feel like that was like the one thing that he always did that made, that made all the difference in our relationship. So I think spending that quality time when you have it is a is a really important thing too.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, and that’s it really makes all the difference in the world with the relationship that you have with your kids or with your spouse as well. Because, let’s say that I were a bank teller and I were working 40 hours a week. If they even work 40 hours, I don’t even know if they work full 40 hours.

Natalie Boschan: And all kinds of holidays,

Zack Arnold: Right? All kinds of holidays like, let’s say I was a postal worker, and I had all this time with my family, but as soon as I walk in the door, I’m grumpy, I’m exhausted. I hate my job. I hate my life. Well, my family gets to see plenty of me being a miserable human being, and if you know you’re in a position where you’re just accepting another one that was lateral moves, it’s like, are is all you’re going to do is resent your family because you’re like, Well, I’m here spending time with you. But this other show I could have taken, like, who knows where I could be right now,

Natalie Boschan: Right?

Zack Arnold: So it really just depends on I mean, it’s just one of those where you have to kind of weigh the pros and cons, and you have to take a little bit of a leap of faith, but if you’re fairly confident this is something that can change the complexion of your resume, it’s a boost in pay, and it builds more connections, like, there are a lot of different factors that go into this equation, but at the end of the day, if you’re making a short term sacrifice for long term payoff, I say go for it, because those other types of jobs most likely aren’t going to go away,

Natalie Boschan: Right, right?

Zack Arnold: So yes, that would be my advice. And I’ve had this exact conundrum to deal with more times than I care to admit, over the last two or three years, so I know. What this feels like, very, very much on a personal level. And it’s, it’s tough. Like, I mean, I’ve, I’ve had a lot of time to spend with my kids over the last few months, but then there’s always that part of me that’s like, man, well, what if I had taken that one opportunity or done that? Like, I even go through that, even though I’m so firmly confident and the decisions that I made, I’m still thinking like, yeah, just where, where would it be if I hadn’t said no to all these opportunities? And that changes the complexion of things. So it’s if it’s something that you be stupid to pass up. I don’t think that just immediately disregarding it because you want to be home for your kids. I would think a little bit deeper well,

Natalie Boschan: And it’s hard. This industry does ask for a lot of sacrifice. It’s hard to find the not just the balance, but also like, how much you can, I don’t say, push an employer, but how much you can, sort of like, you know, as much as you want. If you do have a new opportunity, do have a good opportunity to like, go to go to a job and say, I’m gonna, you know, work my hardest at this job. It’s hard to figure out, you know, what can like, how hard is hard? Like, how you know, when can you start? When are you when’s the line of being taken advantage of? And, like, working hard? You know what I mean, like, so I feel like this industry has a tendency to do that a lot. Like, it’ll take from you as much as you’ll give. And so it’s hard to find the line of, well, I’m not going to give any more, because I need part of me back, you know. So it’s hard in this industry.

Zack Arnold: It’s like the episode I did with Walter merch, where he was saying, back in the 60s, or the 70s, I don’t remember the project he was on, but they went to the studio executive and said, people are dropping like flies, and they’re like, Okay, get more flies. Yeah, yeah, you know. So the only person that protect you is you. I mean, that’s, that’s really the whole genesis of where all of this came from. Was that realization, and, I mean, you were with me on day one when this whole idea and journey came up, it’s like, oh, well, what if, instead of waiting for the world and the industry to figure out that, you know, we’re being burned out and worked to death. What if we started taking care of ourselves? Oh, that’s an interesting concept. And that’s kind of, you know, that’s kind of where all this started coming from. Was this kind of elusive search for the holy grail of, is there some form of work life balance in the filmmaking industry?

Natalie Boschan: Well, in any industry, because at the end, like, even if you get those really good jobs, you’re working for a big company, and you’re working for a big corporation, and the company is out for the company. Company does not care about you. It cares about it cares about profit

Zack Arnold: Exactly. Well, on that note, that’s going to kind of transition us to the little surprise that I was alluding to at the beginning of the show, and so this will I believe, this is gonna be the first time that I’m announcing this publicly, but fitness and post is now going to officially become optimizer self. Wow, great. Great little fake response there. I love it.

Natalie Boschan: That was totally real.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, totally real. So yes, before people are like, Wait, I don’t understand what’s going on, I want to kind of clarify what this transition means, why I’m making it, what the genesis of this transition is, because I have pretty much devoted every waking hour that I haven’t given to my family or to my job, to this program over the last three years, and at least once, it has almost killed me. And that is pretty literal. The amount of time, effort, energy that I put into this has pretty much leveled me, and that’s how dedicated I am to this. So I don’t want people to think, Oh, well, you know, he doesn’t care about editors or doesn’t care about our health or well being anymore. It’s has nothing to do with that, but I wanted to talk through why I’m making this official transition from fitness and post to optimize yourself, and how it’s going to work. The funny thing is that when I first started fitness and post, and you’ve been with me since day one, I pitched the idea to you, so you’ve seen this whole genesis, I mean, more than anybody in my life, I’ve had in depth conversations about how to develop this program, who it helps, how it’s going to work. What does the model look like? Like? You’ve been there for more conversations than anybody. And when it first started, I had no plans. I had no idea what I was doing. It was like, Oh, that’s a clever name, because, you know, fix it in post and fitness and post, that’s genius, right?

Natalie Boschan: I already have the logo, yeah,

Zack Arnold: And I had the logo. And just to be very, very clear, I didn’t actually come up with a name fitness and post that was my podcast partner, Canaan flowers, so I had actually pitched a worse name. And he’s like, Well, dude, why don’t you just call it this? I was like, oh, that’s genius. But not a whole lot of thought went into it. It was just a really cool name, and part of it, like you said, I don’t know if many people know this, but years ago, I had my own post facility, a boutique post facility that I built from the ground up, bootstrapped with my own money. It was called fix it in post. So once again, clever name and like, ooh, that’d be a natural transition. But what I. To realize very quickly is that the name fitness and post is very limiting, and it’s limiting first, because the vast majority of people that come to the website, the first thing they say is, what the hell is post? I don’t get it because I actually have a lot of people that find the site from other industries, not just post production that live the exact same lifestyle. So whether it’s finding me via SEO, like via Google, and it’s like they put in sitting as the new smoking, or find a better desk chair, or whatever the topic may be, they’ll find it and they have no idea what it is. And I’ll get feedback either via email or, you know, via social media, and people don’t really get it, but the message really resonates. Or like, you know, your story is really authentic. I’ve been through burnout. I’m trying to raise a family. I work crazy hours in front of a computer. I love your story, but I don’t get the name. So that was the first issue. But

Natalie Boschan: You say you do here?

Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. And my first response was, Well, listen, it’s great that you found me, but this is all about doing this for editors and people in post. But then where this really started to come together for me, realizing that this name didn’t work, is I got more confusion from the editorial community than I did from people outside of our industry. And they would say, well, listen, I found your show. I really enjoy the topics. But why is it called fitness? Like, you just had a whole show about how to transition from reality editing into scripted and you interview editors and you like, I don’t get it. Like, are you a fitness program? Do you do office exercises? Like, I’m totally confused, and I’m like, oh my god, now I’m confusing editors with my name. Like, could this get any more frustrating?

Natalie Boschan: Everyone’s confused,

Zack Arnold: As you know, behind closed doors, I’ve been having this conversation for a long time, and where this all started was when I was building my first online learning course. I was figuring out, all right, what is, how is this going to be designed? What is it going to do for people like what’s, what’s the burning pain that I really need to solve for people so I can improve their lives? And overwhelmingly, it was, I’m tired of sitting all day long. I just want to move more. I feel so trapped in my little prison of an edit suite. Can you give me some type of system or program so I can learn how to be more active and move more throughout the day, because there’s no way I’m going to the gym.

Natalie Boschan: That’s exactly how fitness and post started,

Zack Arnold: Right? hat’s exactly

Natalie Boschan: Full of people being like, I sit too much and I feel terrible.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. But then I was thinking to myself, I’m like, Well, this fits perfectly for editors, but there are so many other people that this can serve, and I don’t want them to immediately feel disqualified. So that’s why, when I was, I mean, the tagline for this podcast, I don’t even know when it started. It was like 70 episodes ago, and really it started from day one. Was this idea that we should be treating ourselves better than our technology. Like, then that was the very first iteration of the website. Was a picture of a guy sleeping in front of a computer. And it’s like, you need to stop investing in your technology, start investing in yourself. And we spend so much time optimizing hard drives and render speeds and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then like, oh, well, maybe we should optimize ourselves. And like, Hmm, optimize yourself. That’s great. Oh, that’s what I’ll call the program. That’ll be a great name for the online learning program. So as soon as I released that, the number one question I got was, I don’t get it, is it fitness and post? Is it optimize yourself like, Are they together, like? I’m so confused. And I was getting that from people in the editorial community. So again, this wasn’t about a broader audience that was confused. It was my core listeners and readers that didn’t understand. And it’s the most common question that I’ve gotten on the live workshops where I do free training, when I do Q and A, they say, I’m confused. I thought you were fitness and post, what is optimized yourself? Is this something you’re still doing? Like, and I’m like, Oh, my God, this is just painful.

Natalie Boschan: Well, it’s hard because fitness is and, like, doing exercise, it’s such a narrow way to look at being healthy, you know. So it’s hard because, yeah, the first thing you know, we said when we do, when you first, like, came up with fitness and post, was, yeah, I just want to move more. And let’s get a pull up bar in the office, and let’s, like, stand up and go for walks and get Fitbits. Like we just, we need to just feel better and and maybe feeling better means, means moving more. And I think that as we keep going on this, you know, the more you go on the journey, the more you’re like, I think I need more than just walking. You know, there’s more to this, like feeling good stuff than just taking walks at lunch. And so it’s hard to, you know, it’s hard to just say it’s all about, you know, moving more when there’s just so much more stuff, and there’s so many people out there who have because it’s, I mean, I know you have people that are international, but it’s also kind of an American epidemic with how stressed we are. And how sedentary we are, and how, you know, how unhealthy we are, and editing is just, you know, the post community is just a microcosm of that sort of extreme.

Zack Arnold: And what I’ve learned, in spades is this not America, because that’s what I thought at first, because everybody always makes fun and, you know, the Stupid fat Americans. But I’ve had people that I’ve worked with on all six continents. Well, technically, there’s seven, but I don’t have anybody signed up from Antarctica.

Natalie Boschan: Get some penguins on the list?

Zack Arnold: Yes. So of the six livable continents, I’ve worked with people on all six of them now, and I if you took away the location in the information that I’m sent, it’s the exact same response over and over and over, same lifestyle issues, same problems, same cultural issues. Like nothing’s any different anywhere. It really

Natalie Boschan: Visits France when they’re working six hours a week.

Zack Arnold: Well, I don’t know. I don’t actually know if I’ve had anybody from France. That’s a good point. But yes,

Natalie Boschan: We did when they work like six hours a day. This was six hour work day,

Zack Arnold: But I definitely hear this everywhere. So it’s not an American thing. I mean, it occurred to me a long time ago that if I’m going to really sustain this and help the people that I want to help, I need to broaden beyond this area of fitness and really where I kind of branched out first. Because if you look at the first episodes of the show going, and I don’t even know if you can see most of them on iTunes anymore, but they’re still on the site currently, but it is mostly fitness, because that was the name of it, and it was about moving more. And I interspersed some nutrition, because nutrition and fitness go hand in hand. But I even remember having the conversation with you at one point where, like, I wanted to get Norman Hollen on and Walter merch and these other editors. And like, Yeah, but that’s not fitness. Am I even allowed to do that? Like, can I, can I talk about making a career transition if I’m supposed to talk about fitness? So really limited my ability to find topics that I thought were relevant to people’s overall well being right? So really to me,

Natalie Boschan: How are we kind of fitting career advancement? I’ve got that conversation so many times. how does this fit?

Zack Arnold: And see, and that’s the thing, is that it didn’t fit. But despite the fact that it didn’t fit with the name at all, the message resonated with people. So I’m sure that there are people

Natalie Boschan: Well being in post.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, that name sucks. And trust me, I did the number of name iterations that I have gone through in my mind about how to make this work. It’s exhausting, but optimize yourself always stuck. It’s super simple, and it resonates and it applies to people that work in a technology based industry where you just feel like you’re an extension of your technology in that kind of sense of being human is almost taken away from you in a sense where, and I’ve, you know, talked about the idea many times, where we just become extensions of our workstations. So I’m trying to shift that mindset. And, you know, one of the things that’s come out recently, and I can put a link to this in the show notes, but there, and I think it was Wired Magazine, it’s been, I think, syndicated in several places, but a post, lengthy article that came out about how people that work in technology and in front of computers, we are now the new blue collar workers. So yeah, blue collar workers are no longer people in the steel industry, and they still are, because we still have people that work in steel, in the auto industries and factories. But if you look at the amount of people now that are living in front of their computer, typing on keyboards, it’s vastly, vastly more people that are now in front of computers, and we’re essentially becoming the new blue collar sector of society, and there’s really no clear system for how are we going to manage people’s health in the future, right? So to me, I just the it’s in you’ve you’ve been hearing this conversation for over a year now, but it’s the first time I’ve really expressed it to my audience. Is that I’ve just literally lost sleep over the fact that the name fitness and post and the brand now means a lot to people in the editing industry and the post production industry as a whole, but it’s mostly editors, which I think has actually been, I think the name is actually limited, even though I was hoping it would mean people in audio and composers and visual effects, but really it’s, it’s really just been editors, but I’ve lost sleep over the fact that it limits my ability to really bring on the right types of guests and have the right types of conversations where people will be like, well, this isn’t fitness related, and that’s why I’m here. And I don’t know if that’s a legitimate thing to think about, but I’m just being totally honest that I was very self conscious of staying on brand, staying on topic, and there are a lot of potential conversations I could have had with guests where I’m like, it doesn’t really fit what I’m doing now, but if I rebrand it, it fits perfectly, I can still help the exact same people. So for anybody wondering, Well, does this mean you’re ditching editors? Absolutely not like this is, I’m still focusing on the same audience, but I want to welcome in a new crowd of people, because the amount that I’ve learned from branching out to another industry and really starting from the bottom is. Is, everybody has the same problems. They all have the same environmental issues. They all have the same limiting scripts in their head about why they can’t achieve certain things. But I’m disqualifying so many people because they look at the name, they’re just confused by it,

Natalie Boschan: Yeah. Well, then, and I mean to some people, they’re like, Well, we talked about, what does wellness mean? But like, their wellness isn’t necessarily being fit, you know, like for me, for example, like I I like to go running in the morning. That makes me feel good for the rest of my day. But someone else might think, well, that doesn’t make me feel good for the rest of the day. That makes me feel tired. I don’t want to do that, and so maybe they want to do something else that’s not necessarily fitness related, like, like, taking a walk or, I mean, I guess you can say taking a walk is fitness related, but I mean, just stuff that’s not so rigorous. And like, if I guess, on who you know, the you know, who become, like, cycling racers and trail running racers and all kinds of like, stuff that maybe some, some other people just, they’d rather do yoga, and they’d rather take walks and just do things that are like a little bit less impact on your bones. And maybe, like doing exercise for them is stressful. And so the whole point is not to make yourself more stressed. The whole point is to make yourself feel good about your life. And so maybe doing, like, rigorous fitness activities, and like, having a fitness regimen just isn’t something that makes someone happy like that isn’t something that makes them like, get up in the morning and be excited. So there’s so there’s no need to exclude those people, you know, they want to be happy and healthy, just like everyone else. And so I think, you know, making it a broader sort of program brings in more people and makes it more accessible to everybody, and doesn’t like exclude people by saying, Well, this is only for fitness, anything like that,

Zack Arnold: Well and also with this specific audience. I and this is not me, you know, trying to speculate. This is me getting hard, very verifiable emails and survey responses for people that say, I don’t give a crap about fitness, all I care about is Trello, You know, like, I love the work you’re doing with Trello. It’s amazing. I love the boards. Like, I want to be more efficient and I want to get my work done faster, because I want to get home to my kids too. But I don’t give a crap about fitness. Like,

Natalie Boschan: Yeah,

Zack Arnold: I don’t care if you gave me the move yourself program for free. Not interested. And that was another one of those revelations where I’m thinking, huh, like, there are people that can find very different paths and avenues that allow them to better their lives, but they too, feel like, if I’m using the word fitness, I might be disqualifying them or making them feel like they don’t belong. So, you know, it’s, it’s about making sure that I can, I’m still going to be reaching the same audience, but I can reach a broader subsection of that audience that doesn’t feel like fitness is the place they want to start. And ultimately what I love to get everybody moving. Of course I would, but at the same time, I want to be able to bring somebody in that genuinely says, You know what? This is a tool that can really help me, and it doesn’t have to be related to fitness. It just for me. Is all about I’ve made that shift in my mind. I’m tired of giving all of my time and my money to my technology. Now I’m going to invest in myself, and that’s, trust me, go back to the way back machine. If you think that I’m kidding about this, go to the Wayback Machine. Look at the very first iteration of the awful, terrible website. I cringe at how awful it is, and I now know people are going to look at it, but it’s the very first tagline I ever wrote, and it’s still the foundation. Like you spend so much time and money investing in your technology or whatever it is, now it’s time to invest in yourself. So that’s always where this started. And it just veered into fitness and post because that was a cool name and it was about a cool name, and it was about activity. But, you know,

Natalie Boschan: There’s different ways you can invest in yourself. There’s a lot more ways you can invest in yourself than just, you know, exercise.

Zack Arnold: And the other huge revelation that I had about this transition, because I have, I mean, I’ve been very authentic and open with this audience. From day one, you guys know more about me than my wife does. I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this transition, because I become so emotionally attached to the name and the brand and the people that I’ve met like this has been such an amazing experience, but I know that this is just kind of one of those growing pains. But for me, the biggest hindrance that I’ve had, and this is another challenge you know that I’ve dealt with for years, even before fitness and post, is the journey that I’ve had with my go far documentary and my go far program. And what I realized is that if I’m going to start incorporating this idea of disability, whether it’s physical disability, mental disability, whatever it is, I really have to shoehorn that in. If this continues to be fitness and post right? It doesn’t really fit. And there are a lot of interviews that I have on my list, and I’m like, I just How do I fit this into this podcast and have it make any sense? But under optimize yourself, it fits perfectly, and it’s a way for me to finally blend the two great passions that I. Have, which are filmmaking and post production and goal attainment and the world of disability, I can bring them into one space. So that was the other huge revelation that I had, that this finally allows me to not have these two completely separate passions. They can become the same passion.

Natalie Boschan: Yeah, it’ll be great. It’ll be it’ll be just another chapter in the long optimize yourself book.

Zack Arnold: Well, either that or this is going to be my last episode of a podcast ever. Could be that too. So I’m

Natalie Boschan: Well, you got a lot of episodes that you can rerun so

Zack Arnold: Well, it’s so funny that you transitioned. You had no idea that you were you just gave me the perfect segue into what I was going to say next, which is when people are like, All right, well, what does this mean from here? The short answer to that is I don’t know for sure, because even though I’ve now been doing this for almost three years, I still don’t know what I’m doing. I’m still figuring it out as I go learning every single day, but I’ve now done and I don’t know exactly what episode number this is going to be, but in the neighborhood of 120 episodes for the show like it like I’ve been this has just become a rote habit that every week I just have to do a podcast, and I have to write a script, and it needs to get online like it’s it’s no different than I have to wake up and eat breakfast like podcasts are just now a part of my life, no matter how busy my schedule gets. But what I realized is that there, if I am going to branch out and I am going to try and reach a broader audience in both the filmmaking community and in other industries, for me to just start from scratch and pretend like these episodes never happened, like that’s a lot of wasted work, right? So what this means is that for anybody that has been a die hard listener since episode one, when the rebrand happens, I will be transitioning to a new show. So it’s not just like I’m going to change the artwork and it’s going to become episode 121, 122, 123, this is going to start brand new from episode one, branded under the new name, optimize yourself. And what I want to do is go through and find the most flagship episodes that I’ve done the best interviews that have impacted the most people, and I want to rerun those as the like, foundational episodes for the new show. So that way, like, if I were to just continue on, and somebody brand new comes to episode three, and they’re like, but wait, what is this about? I don’t get it. I want to make sure they understand in the first four or five episodes, this is really the foundation of the whole program, and I have interviews that already serve that purpose. So basically, what I want to let my listeners know that have been with me for a long time, that there are going to be a few episodes that you probably have already heard. Does that mean that it wouldn’t hurt to listen to them again, like I learn a lot when I go through stuff the second time, I always hear things I didn’t hear the first time. So I don’t feel like it’s wasted effort for anybody that is already a die hard fan, but for the vast majority of people that are going to be either sticking with the show or new people coming to the show, it’s going to be brand new content anyway. So I just wanted people to understand up front that are the Die Hard listeners. Because most likely, anybody that’s still listening at this point, only the die hards are left. So So I really, I want them to understand that I have thought through this. And when you’re seeing a quote, unquote new episode, but you’re like, Well, wait, he did that episode three months ago. I don’t want them to think, Oh, well, that’s just lazy, like the rebrand is just repurposing old content. It’s me strategically choosing the best, most helpful interviews that get people started so they understand the foundation of the program, and then I can build from there with a whole bunch of new interviews and new guests and new topics that help broaden what I can do with this show far beyond the things that I’ve been able to touch so far.

Natalie Boschan: Well, that sounds great. So you have a plan. You’re not totally in the dark. No, no, you have a plan.

Zack Arnold: Well, the the area where I don’t have a plan is, how in the world do I make all of this happen while I’m cutting a pilot? That’s the magic sauce I haven’t figured out yet.

Natalie Boschan: Well, that’s why you have a backlog of episodes,

Zack Arnold: Yes. So that’s the part I don’t know like. So I don’t know when the exact date is that this episode will air, and I don’t know when exactly the podcast rebrand is going to happen, but most likely, if I get all my ducks in a row around the time this episode is airing, the website will have switched over. So that’s another thing I haven’t mentioned. As far as the website is concerned, it’s going to be exactly the same website, same content, same overall look, organization, same blog posts. It’s just going to be rebranded. And, you know, it’s going to be the Optimize yourself logo instead of fitness and post. So it’s not going to be this. It’s not like I’m restarting from scratch and deleting everything like that would be crazy. As far as the website is concerned. Very little is going to change people that are on the email list, you’re still going to be on the email list. You’re going to get all the same emails that you do every week with all the content updates. So really not much is going to change, other than the name is going to change, and I now have the ability to bring so much more great content and great interviews that just wouldn’t have fit within the scope. Of what I was doing with fitness and post so that’s kind of the summary of why all this has happened.

Natalie Boschan: So I have to get rid of my fitness and post folder in my Gmail. Is what you’re telling me.

Zack Arnold: Yes, you’re gonna have to rebrand your Gmail folders. That was not that was not really something I thought through extensively. But yes, for anybody out there that has the email folders and the filter setup, I apologize you’re going to have to switch over. And that’s actually one, one good thing to know, because I know the only people that are left are my die hards. If you get your emails from contacted fitness and post Comm, add contact at optimize yourself.me, because that’s another thing that’s going to change, is all the URLs are going to switch over, and I don’t want to end up in your spam folder. So unless you want me here, I will admit I have been called a spammer before. It’s just a side effect of getting into the world of online business is that you send anybody more than one email and you get a response in all caps, stop spamming me. But But you you opted into my email and I sent you a bunch of free stuff. So I’m not sure I understand.

Natalie Boschan: People just like to yell about things.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, it’s like that. You know that that document that I sent you for free that took me like 15 hours to put together, and I

Natalie Boschan: Don’t care,

Zack Arnold: And I gave it to 1000s of people for free, but I’m the spammer anyway. That’s just

Natalie Boschan: No one cares. No one cares about your time.

Zack Arnold: Nope. Nobody gives a welcome to the 21st Century in technology. Yeah, everything needs to be free. Everything needs to be now. Give me more. I don’t have enough.

Natalie Boschan: It’s on a computer that didn’t take long. No, computer

Zack Arnold: On the computer machine.

Natalie Boschan: Yeah, you did it on the computer. It didn’t take long at all.

Zack Arnold: On that note, it’s been a wild ride up until this point, it’s been a super fun learning experience. This is the point in the show where I would be using green days time of your life if I could pay for the rights. So just imagine that song in your head. But I don’t want it to feel like this is a wrap up or the the end of something. This is just going to be the transition to something similar, but better. So I’m very excited about the transition. I’ve been waiting to make this transition for a long time, and I’m very excited to see how it can continue to help people, and, you know, continue to inspire them and really bring this to a much, much broader audience.

Natalie Boschan: Yeah, most definitely. And it’s been fun. It’s been fun,

Zack Arnold: And it will continue to be so I thank you for putting up with me so far through this point in the journey, and most likely, you and I are going to be working in the same confines of the same office building again. And I promise I will continue to not shut up about all of this

Natalie Boschan: Good.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Episode Credits

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, the show notes were prepared by Jakin Rintelman, and this show is executive produced by Kanen Flowers. We are a member of the THAT STUDIO podcast network.

The music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Dorian Cheah from his brilliant album ARA.