How to Be a Multi-Hyphenate Creative and be the CEO of Your Creative Career | with Nelson Paredez-Parks

About Episode

My guest today is Nelson Paredez-Parks who is a Hollywood talent manager, entrepreneur, and a life & business coach. Nelson has been helping actors shape their careers by equipping them with an entrepreneurial spirit. He has also been sharing his business strategies to help businesses and entrepreneurs grow.

In our conversation, Nelson and I will help you learn how to view your creative profession as a thriving business, with you as the CEO. Nelson shares his secrets for managing your time and energy so you can grow your business while also running your business. Then he shows you how you can craft your own business plan to help fuel your creative passion.

I highly recommend that you listen to my conversation with Nelson as it is packed with a lot of actionable strategies that translate to any career path.. The tools and mindsets he shares will equip you to become the CEO of your creative journey and take your career to the next level.

Key Takeaways

Your life is dictated by the questions that you ask yourself

Transcript

Zack Arnold: I am here today with Nelson Paredez-Parks. He's a Hollywood manager, he's a business coach. He's an entrepreneur. And frankly, if I were to go through everything that you've shared in your biography, I wouldn't even know where to start. And I'm not even sure in the next 80 or 90 minutes, I give you time to speak. So needless to say, I'm very excited to have you here today, to help us better understand the mindset of an entrepreneur understand how to navigate this new and crazy world of the entertainment industry, or, as you say, show business and better understand our new place. And so Nelson, an absolute pleasure to have you here today.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Great, thank you so much. I'm very excited to dive into this conversation and talk a little bit about what we really all need to be doing in this day and age.

Zack Arnold: Yeah. So before we get into what we need to be doing in this day, and age, and where we go going forwards, I essentially just want to, I really want to exploit the fact that you have this knowledge that is so valuable to so many people in my community, given that so many of us are on the craft side of things, and below the line, this world of above the line and Talent Management and agents and managers and all this. It's just this mystical land that just feels like it has this giant wall and moat and these giant gates that nobody can get through. So just to get us started, can you give us a basic understanding of what the world looks like from your sector, the management, the talent agencies, and just kind of help us better understand, at a very, very basic level how all of this works, because probably the most common question I get is, Do I need an agent? Do I need a manager? What's the difference? There? There's so many of these questions that I'm sure you feel that over the years. So I just kind of want to start with a basic lesson. And then we can go into how we can better navigate all the moving parts,

Nelson Paredez-Parks: You got it? Well, I've been managing talent now for over 30 years. And as a talent manager, you know, my job is to develop to mentor to help a client go from point A to point B in their career. And again, this doesn't happen overnight. This is you know, management is a long term journey, we're on the flip side, agenting is a little bit different, you know, agent has two jobs to procure employment and to negotiate contracts, until a client ends up having an attorney in their deals, you know, so I work with at different agencies here in Los Angeles. And also I have a lot of agents that I work with in other markets in Chicago, Atlanta, Texas, all over the map. But as a manager, I'm there too. And I really worked like an old school manager, I'm like, in the weeds with my talent, developing more than a human being, you know, my perspective has always come from the perspective of like, I also have been a business and life coach for many years now. And so the way I manage my actors is I develop them from the ground up, I want to make sure that they're good with their time, they're good with their money, they're good with their boundaries, they have a system and structure and they built a business plan. Again, it's called show business. So I want to make sure there's an actual business model that we're actually trying to move forward with our talent is not just about throwing whatever at the wall that's gonna stick. So management is a is a delicate process, depending on where you're at with your career. You know, when you're first starting, it's about just the basics. Like let's get the right headshots, and resume and understand the tools and make sure you're in the right acting classes. But as you start growing and developing as an artist, it's really about finessing. It's about like, Well, how do I build my network? Where should I spend my time? You know, what film festival should I go to what publicity is needed in my brand. So as a manager, I really guide a talent through everything. Now, as far as the lay of the land right now. I think it's changing at such a fast pace. You know, I mean, I remember the days when I first started telling managing breakdowns would actually come underneath my door, and I would go to again and pull out headshots, and one by one stack up headshots in my room and figure out like who I wanted to present, you know, to, to casting directors and producers, directors, and I would actually go in person with a stack of headshots and pitch the old school way. And obviously now everything's online, everything it's instant, you have to be living on a computer immediately to be able to push a client for some, you know, sort of project. So it's a different world. And now with what's going on with AI, there's even more changes that I think are going to hit our industry, you know, Drew right before the pandemic, I think we had like 12 series regulars on the air. And all of those people are were talent that we built from nothing from their first co star to like them being series regulars. And so that's a very exciting journey when you get to that point. But again, it doesn't help but it happened overnight. And it goes as a talent manager, it's my job to guide and develop. And that's what I've been doing now with talent for years.

Zack Arnold: Alright, so now you've already piqued my curiosity, and I had a feeling that what happened because I love to get into the weeds on how all this works. And you said that you're both a manager and a life coach. And my immediate thought was when you were sharing all the things you do as a manager, minus the actual pitching to studios and agencies and casting directors and like, but that's what I do all day long because I help people better than manage their finances and design? What's it? What's a business plan for the career path that you want to take next? How do you build your network? How do you reach out? How do you present yourself? So what's the difference with what you would do strictly as a manager versus as a coach?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: So for example, I don't I don't coach actors that I manage with my business coaching program, like, the people that I'm actually business coaching are more like entrepreneurs, business owners, and they don't necessarily have to even be an entertainment, you know, but what I found, especially especially during the pandemic, my one of my business coaches said, Nelson, you've been mentoring all these actors for years and just pouring into their lives and helping them get better at everything that are up to in their life to be brands, because again, I only make money with them on commission. So like, I only make money when they're actually working. So I can be working for a talent for like, a year, two years, three years and barely make a penny, you know? So in that sense, like, I've always just done that. So my business coach said, during the pandemic, why don't you reinvent the model, you have all the I have over, you know, I have a couple 100 sheets that I hand out as like helpful Forms and Sheets that like help you get your life in order. And my my business coach said, Nelson, why don't you take the same sheets that you've been using and giving out for free to your actors for years, and actually create another program where you're helping a whole nother market of people, which is entrepreneurs and business owners that actually have the budget to pay for business coaching and mentoring. So with my with that sort of client, which again, is under my help and answers brand, that is a little bit more systemized, on like, what the client's goals are of like, what they're trying to do with their business, how are they trying to scale up, I have a 12 week program that like goes through every area of your life, we go through your time, your money, your boundaries, every space in your life, we look at the spaces in your home, your spaces in your car, your digital spaces. In essence, we create a master business plan structure, so that you as an entrepreneur, have a business plan for you, you know, every company in America has a business plan. So my theory was, well, if I can help actual people have business plans for themselves as entrepreneurs, so they can learn how to scale their business up. And inside of that, really my commitment with help and answers is like, my belief is that you your life is dictated by the questions that you ask yourself or the questions you don't ask yourself in your life. So it's really about asking the right questions. So again, I've been doing that as just what I do for all my talents. But again, now I'm, you know, scaling up and you know, I've been managing for 30 years now. So is it as anything in life, you want to evolve, you want to grow? And so this is, you know, over the last couple years, have have developed this other, you know, curriculum and program for entrepreneurs? Well,

Zack Arnold: I can, excuse me, I can already tell less than 15 minutes into our conversation that we're kindred spirits. And here's why. Because what I what I preach all the time, almost to the point of eye rolls for my students, because they're like, Oh, my God, here we go. Again, I always tell them, the quality of your life is dictated by the quality of your questions. Yep. 100. Right. If people like like, I keep getting all this bad, generic advice. When I reach out no excuse. You're asking horrible questions. Yeah, learn to ask better questions, you get better answers, right. And I always see it as my goal to be able to conduct unique and interesting conversations, whether it's with an official podcast guest, whether it's with somebody at lunch, and the quality of those interactions comes from the quality of the questions. And one of the things that I've been eternally trying to dig deeper into where there just aren't enough resources. And I'm curious what resources you might use or what you've developed. It's one thing to say you need to ask better questions. The response is always how, yep, so if you want to tell people or you want to teach your, your students, your clients, your mentees to ask better questions, how are you teaching them to ask better questions?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Well, I first will break down the questions into a couple different categories. And before I even get there, let me go down to like some of the important things that I think any business owner or entrepreneur or creative person should should have in their life and schedule. Again, we all have 168 hours of our week, you know, no one has any more time. Like that isn't a lot of time that we all have. And again, you know, money can come and go, you can make money, you can lose money, but time, once it's passed, we're done. So it's like, the most important thing you have to do is manage your time effectively. So in doing that, you know, there's like eight meetings that I make sure that I have to have with myself on a week to week basis. So I have my powerful question hours. So that is an hour during my week that I asked myself questions. So in my Google Calendar, I make sure that once a week I have my power question our time and I'm asking questions and five domains and I'll get into that in a second. Second sort of thing that I do is my co planner hours so my co planner hour is that hour that I'm talking about that I'm looking at, like what I'm really up to so I'm working you know on my business, not in my biz Notice that there's a distinction there. And so I'm looking at like, what are all the high level things that I need to make sure that I incorporate into my week that week, and that, again, is going to be called My co planner hour. Then I have my financial hour where I'm looking at my finances where I'm looking at, like, what moves do I need to make financially? Do I need to invest in something this week? Do I have a lot of extra bills that I have to manage this week? Like, how do I have that set up for this month, this quarter this year, so I'm powerfully set up financially, then I'm looking, then I make sure that I have what's called my client fishing and mining hour. And I like to do at least two of those a week. And what that is, is like dedicated time that I'm making sure that I'm outreaching for new business for new leads, because I feel that and I find that so many business owners, they get busy when they're busy doing their thing. But they're not always outreaching for new business and new blood. And if you don't do that, you're only as strong as that next client. So you need to make sure that you're always fishing, you're always creating new opportunities and developing that. So I'm always developing that list on a weekly basis. Then from there, I have a social media hour that I'm planning out my social posts. I was never the guy that wanted to do socials. But again, my business coach said, we represent a lot of actors, a lot of influencers that are doing socials. And so get over it. Like my concern was like, Oh, I'm losing my hair, I don't look good. I like had all these excuses of like, why I didn't want to do socials. And then finally I'm like, You know what, we're in a world now that you have to get your name out there and market what you're up to. So again, I have my social media hour that I'm planning out that, then I have my organizing hour, which is like, making sure that I have everything organized in my life. Because with everything I'm up to my desk piles up, my papers pile up. So I need to make sure that every week I'm maintaining everything that I'm really doing, so I gotta clean that up. And then I have my team meeting with my team to make sure that we're all on track with our with the team goals and the team agendas. And then I will break everything up into what projects I have. And I schedule out project hours. So like that's like the structure to make sure that I'm set up as a business owner and as an entrepreneur to make sure that I can manage my week, the weeks that I do all those meetings, or the weeks that I have a lot more effective results in my life, the weeks that I forget to do some of those things, or I just don't or I get busy, or I just come at like what's urgently like coming at me, I've failed to stay on track. So like that, to me is something that I just consistently focus on. And for anyone that wants me to send them that list, so they're clear, if you just go to add help and answers and put in your information in your email address, we will send you out a free resource link to that information. So that like it helps you you know, and there's bullet points on steps in that as well. So that's what I do there. But back to the original question that you had about, like what questions to ask, I will ask myself questions in the area of like, action minded questions. So I want to make sure that I'm asking an act, you know, a question that's about action. For example, it might be something like, one what one step or action should I take to best set up my day for productivity? Another question could be, what activity do I need to spend the majority time on my day? So again, that's that's an action based question. Then there'll be a financial based question, what one call that I made today, that if I made would increase my income today, this week or this month? So like, what is that one power phone call that you could make that could impact your week? Another question? What bill should I pay today that if I don't pay today could cause me a problem in the next month or two? Again, that's a financial question. A relationship based question would be, what one way of communicating? Could I be doing that is hurting my relationships? You know, so what? What one way of communicating? Am I communicating in a certain way that could be hurting, you know, some of my relationships? Then I'll take a look at my habits and routines. And I'll ask myself a question on habits routines. What one new habit? Can I start today to increase my daily productivity? And then the final category that I'll focus on his problems and challenges, you know, and again, the question may be something like, what one step can I take today to address my biggest problem or challenge in my life today? So the days that I asked these things of myself, it then gives me my to do list and then I put it in my notes section and I plan it out so that I have a real clear attack of like what I'm trying to do. So I think at this point in my life now, I'm just so used to asking questions all day long. Every day I wake up I like see how much I don't know like right now in the AI world. I could spend 24/7 researching every single new tool and app out there and I would never get done. So so it is about like like creating a lifestyle where you're just asking deeper questions, you're asking questions to other people. So for me, it's just a way of life. And so that's one of the things that I do with a lot of our clients, I just helped them identify and organize their systems and structures in their lives. So they actually have a system and structure for what they're really up to in life.

Zack Arnold: And I was just listen to that. Goodness. And that

Nelson Paredez-Parks: was a lot. I know, that was a lot. But

Zack Arnold: that was great. I saw that. But it's the it brings up a two part question for me. The second part of that question, which we'll get to later, and we're gonna put a pin in it? Where the hell do you get all the energy to ask all those questions and have all those power hours, but that's part two. So here's part one. And my, my response to that not coming from myself, but coming from so many of the people that I think are listening, whether it's actors, whether it's writers, whether it's editors, directors of photography, Ardra, we we have, we have a whole slew of people that are working largely below the line or in a very specific specialized craft at the moment. And my guess is many of them are saying different variations of the same thing. All that's great. I don't own a business, I just do one job. I'm just a craftsperson. I just need to get my next gig. So how is any of this useful to me? How would you respond to that? Well, I think

Nelson Paredez-Parks: we're in a day and age that if you don't figure out how to keep up with the times your position, or your job is gonna get lost to someone that is a little bit more thoughtful, and what they're up to in their life. So like, you know, my messaging on the AI thing. And again, I represent a lot of actors. So I'm actually concerned with like, what that will do to actors and artists. But at the same time, I have to be a wise business owner and say, If I don't understand how to use AI, as a business owner or entrepreneur, I'm going to be left behind. So I don't think AI is necessarily going to replace every person, but I think it will replace people that don't know how to integrate AI into their expertise. So if you're an expert at whatever you do, and then you figure out how to integrate AI into it, those are going to be the people that are constantly in demand, and that stand out in the market. So for the person that's just like focused on, you know, their particular job that they have, that's a fine place to live, if you're happy with that, and you're not wanting to expand or grow. But I feel like the industry in the world is changing at such a fast pace, that it's important to stay learning, it's important to find better effective ways to lead your life, you know, so I think, for everyone out there, if you're not growing, you're dying, you know, like like this, this cup, okay, so when I, when I pour water into this cup, it's going to overflow. So if I don't continue to grow my cup, and grip, grow my capacity, at some point, I'm always then living at capacity. So this cup actually says, always have full. And I like to make sure that I keep my glass half full. So I have enough space and room and capacity to be able to grow it. But I need to make sure that I'm growing with my education, I have to make sure that I'm learning something new, I'm growing, I have mentors. And if I don't do that, that I feel like in any industry, no matter what you do, you're going to be left behind. And so for me, I like to just make sure that I have a proper balance of that in my life. And it is a challenging thing to create everything I'm up to right now. But again, I just feel like I'm playing all day long. You know, to me, this is just a game. I'm just playing chess each day and creating and an out of that. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. Yeah.

Zack Arnold: And I think that that's the funnest place to live. I'm my guess is that we're you're probably reading a lot of the same authors and a lot of the same areas. You're familiar with that Gay Hendricks and the idea of the zone of genius, and the idea of the upper limit problem, etc. Yep. Yeah. So I recently had gay on the podcast and what you were just describing right there, like, I feel like I'm playing all day long. And I'm playing chess, that's the zone of genius. That's where you really enjoy yourself. But in order to get there, you have to better define here are the goals that I'm working towards here are the different I you and I have all the same values and that you have to constantly be learning and growing and iterating. But the way that we were taught and trained was you go to school, you get this very specialized degree, you're done learning once you graduate. Now you need to apply your knowledge to the real world, grab the rung of the bottom rung of the ladder, and then climb up to the top. But not only does that model no longer work, the ladder is gone. And the wall that it was on has completely disappeared and gone somewhere else. Yeah. So I like you. I tell my students all the time. This is the first thing that I do when I do a new workshop or you know, whether it's online or in person. As I say, raise your hand in here. If you're a small business owner. It's usually like 567 hands and like I'm sorry, once again, raise your hand if you're a small business owner, and then I get like 10 I'm like, wow. How many of you are business owners and all of a sudden it clicks and I see every hand go up. It does not matter. are what you do what your craft is nowadays, especially in the creative world, you are the CEO of a business of one. Yep. Right. And that's why you need all of these systems in place, whether it's the power hour for finances, or this or that or the other thing. But I have a feeling that for you similar to me, there are steps that come before that, because it for me, there's a huge difference between efficiency and effectiveness. And if you get really good at time management, and all these other things, but you're not working towards the right goals, you're just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic 100%. So before we get to all of the more nuanced specifics of these better questions, and all these different ways to manage your time, and let's really talk about the business plan, and the business plan is what direction do I want to go? What does the path look like? And why am I pursuing so let's talk more about this business plan that you're creating.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I mean, I feel like you really do need to get to the why you need your Why should actually make you cry, it should, it should be a it should really inspire you to grow whatever it is you're doing. So that on the journey, when you get stuck or confronted, or like you deal with problems, you don't just get off the horse and just stay there, you know. So I think it's important to get clear with the why. And so with my business plan, I go through everything from your time, you know, again, I want to plan out all 168 hours a week, not so that you feel controlled by it, but so that you have like, some parameters or boundaries of like what you're committed to in your life. And I think when you see it on paper, and it's like right in your face, you're like, wow, okay, I'm actually spending 10 hours a week driving in my life, like, okay, like, is that what I really want to do in my life? Okay, so like, Could I be more productive? But what am I going to do during that time? Am I going to listen to a podcast is this the time I'm going to meditate, meditate and pray is this the time so you want to look at everything in your life. And, you know, years ago, I actually wore a stopwatch around my neck for two straight years to time, everything in my life. So I know how long it takes me to walk a city block how long it takes me to take a shower, how long it takes me to eat lunch, just for the perspective of it, I want to understand how I use my time effectively. So part of your business plan is gonna go through your time, another part is going to go through your money, and I break down money in a couple different categories. You have today money, you have future money, and you have future future money. Today, money is like I have a job. And a job stands for just over broke. So you cannot get ahead and you're stuck in that rat system, and you can't get ahead. Now, I'm not saying for everyone that's out there, go quit your job. That's not what I'm saying. But I am saying you got to look at how to manage your time if you want to have the kind of freedom you want in your life. So today, money is one category, then future money is something like as an actor, you book a commercial, you make your today money for the day that you work that day, and then you make residual income. So I call that future money, it just continues to come as a commercial airs. And every time it airs on, you know, whatever time and network and all that you get residual income, then I have another system or another category that I call a future future money and future future money is like book royalties, something that you create once, and then for 1020 years, it'll keep you know, if you put it up on Amazon or you get the book out there, it continues producing results or like real estate. So you want to make sure that you're spending your time in today money activities, future money, activities, and future future money activities. And as you don't have to have that job per se anymore, then you don't even spend your time anymore on today, money activities, you spend your time and future money activities, and future future money activities. So again, we go through your time we go through your money, then we're gonna go through your boundaries, we're gonna go through like what boundaries do you have in your life with yourself with others with your systems and structures, then we'll look at your marketing plan, like what is the plan to market what it is that you're up to, you know, we want to take a look at that. Then we're gonna go look at your relationships and with your relationships, I see relationships in a couple different tiers. You have people that are your peers, you have people that you're mentoring, and you have people that are mentoring you. And you want to find a fine balance to that. If all you do is hanging out with your peers and just party and have a good time again, you're just gonna party and have a good time in life. If all you're doing is mentoring people and giving, giving, giving, giving, you're gonna be exhausted, you know, because you're all you're doing is giving. And if all you do is have people trying to help you, you know, over time, I find that you can become a selfish person. So I like to make sure that I have a plan a realistic game plan of like, how many people can be your peers, how many people can be your mentors and how many people can you be mentoring yourself? And so when you find that equilibrium, I find that again, your life becomes more rewarding more, you become more successful. So these are all the many kinds of Things that we have on the business plan structure. And there's a couple other things on there as well. But I think if you don't have this master plan, and you don't like kind of put a mirror to your face and your life, you just kind of like live in this like urgent, doing whatever comes at you. And so for me, I like to take a step back, ask these deep questions, build a plan on paper, and see if it makes sense. So that's my process generally with working with someone to help them develop a vision, a plan for their life.

Zack Arnold: Alright, so I'm gonna dive into a time machine right now. And I'm going to travel back about nine years, because nine years I was desperate for any help that I could find whatsoever, because I was stuck nine years ago, where I think the vast majority of craftspeople are today, which is that nine years ago, I was at the very top of my very small sector of the industry. I was editing television, and I was editing Season One of empire which was, as you know, breaking decade's worth of ratings records and was one of the last few appointment television shows on network TV before streaming took over. That was something that everybody made sure that they watch when date Wednesday nights at 8pm. Right? So I was part of that whole zeitgeist, and I had the realization, this is the only way that I can make a living. And it wasn't in alignment with my values with my boundaries, like the values that I have behind me that very easy to maintain that value of being a present father with a job like that. Just just the nature of the industry, right? You see this all the time, especially for actors? Yep. So the thought process was, I can only do one thing. I'm just a craftsperson. And I only have one job. So I feel like so many people are trapped in a similar position now where I kind of have a nine year Headstart and figuring out my life business plan. And I've developed multiple different streams of income, whether it's coaching, whether it's podcasting, whether it's teaching online, all kinds of different ways. But nine years ago, on my mind, I have one job, that's all that I do. And here's I've got one skill, I've got one job, and I don't even know where to start, what's the first step for me or anybody else listening that feels like, Yes, I'm stuck in the same place.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I mean, I hate to say, I feel like you got to get a coach, you know, you got to get someone to help you on that journey, you know, along the way. Because without having someone help you and support you in that process, it can be daunting. I mean, you can read books, there's also a lot of programs you can go to, I mean, for years, like in my 20s, I did so many, you know different classes of workshops, I did Tony Robbins and I did the Warrior, warrior weekend thing with Tihar. Becker, the wrote the millionaire mindset, I did the landmark forum. And I did that for eight or nine years. So I did lots of, you know, higher level education and critical thinking sort of education. So you got to get educated, you got to read, you got to connect with other people, and then you got to get a coach, if you're gonna go to the Olympics, you would have a coach that helps you win at whatever it is that you're up to. And so you might just get a coach just because like, you're stuck, and you don't even know where to start. So that's why you'd get a coach and you'd start talking with them and figuring out okay, well, how do we design? What what, what should I be looking at our day to day basis, and we got to get yourself dreaming. So like, dream and figure out, like, what are those things that you really want to have have happened in your life, and then it's about then connecting the dots, you know, and just taking your weekly meetings that you have with yourself and, and setting a structure for it. So that like every week you're meeting with yourself, and or your coach to really design and create the plan have the kind of life that you want to lead, you know, in the future and presently,

Zack Arnold: Alright, great. So I want to go even deeper down this rabbit hole. And just for anybody that might be wondering, this is not shameless self promotion for the coaching industry. But given that both you and I have decided that we want to mentor and guide and help others, and we've turned it into a business model, clearly, we have something to gain from convincing people to find a coach. But I'm so glad that you mentioned this, because nine years ago, that's the very first thing I did. I said, I don't even know where to start or how to navigate this. I need to get help from somebody. And ever since I've had some form of a coach and multiple mentors for every step of the way. Because there's so many knowledge gaps. And it's one thing to say here are the things that I know that I don't know. And I can use an internet search, I can use chat GPT, whatever it is, the the world at large is has no lack of information. So if there are things that I know that I don't know, I can take it upon myself as a self motivated individuals to fill those knowledge gaps. What I know that I don't know is about 5% of my problem. The 95% are the things that I don't know that I don't know. And that's where I found having a coach for myself as invaluable and the service that I provided for them as well. So here's where I'm stuck now, nine years ago, I realized I'm not going to be able to figure this out myself. There's no way I can read the label from inside the jar. It's not going to happen. I don't even know where to start. There are so many different types of coaches. I wouldn't even know where to look. I don't know that helps them I needed it comes back to kind of this core idea. I don't know what questions to ask. So if I am that person that's thinking, I've done one job, I've been specialized and trained to be one cog in one assembly line. And that assembly line is completely imploding in front of all of us right now, on a very global level. I don't know where I fit in anymore, and I don't even know where to start, what are some of the questions I can ask to help me find the right support?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Well, I, you start with things like this to start with. It's like one, how many hours a week can I dedicate to this inquiry? You know, so like that you like, first, give yourself like a goal of like, okay, I can spend five hours a week researching. So that would be a question I would ask myself. Second question, how much money in my budget? Can I dedicate to my self growth? So that I make sure that I'm putting something into that bucket per se? You know, another question, what people do I have in my life, that might know something? In an area that I'm interested in and making a list of all those people that like could help you in that area? What would day this week, could I go to a bookstore and find five books that I can pick off the shelf where I could learn one new thing from five different books to actually start stimulating my thinking, you know, I mean, I could do this for hours, you know, I would just go after your question after question. You know, so So I think it's like, it's a mindset, it's a training thing. Like if you're going to, you know, accomplish any great goal in life, you have to dedicate the time to be on that inquiry and ask those questions. And again, that's why I came up with the name of help and answers.com. Because it's like, you know, and I actually couldn't believe when I found that still domain still available. I was like what, you know, because it was just a couple years ago. Because again, I My passion is to help people answer their questions that they may not know how to answer in their life. And I think we're in an age, I mean, look at what, like what's going on with chat. GPT. You know, it's like you ask it any question, and boom, people are needing more and more answers for the vast amount of things that you're trying to get accomplished in the world and life right now. So we're positioned perfectly in a day and age now. It's like that where we needed to start asking deeper, more meaningful questions to then be able to have the kind of life that we want to have.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, so anytime you're building a system, and this is very much a system that we're building the idea of an input and an output, I always think to myself, and this pertains very much to this idea of asking questions, garbage in, garbage out. And I've heard so many people that have experimented with the chat, GBT, this is it gives me such crap answers. Again, just because it's aI versus the human being, you ask it a shady question, you're gonna get a shitty answer. That's where again, I think the system is so important to make sure that you're asking those better questions, because I've had some really engaging, really interesting conversations and responses. But I was really thoughtful about the prompt that I used to ask that had a lot more detail that was guiding it more towards a better answer. Yeah,

Nelson Paredez-Parks: and I think we have to become, in this day and age, we have to become more critical thinkers, you know, there's gonna be a lot of negatives that come with the whole AI thing. Like right now, we don't even know who to trust, you know, you can create a video right now putting out a message. And it's actually not even real person. And you need to ask yourself, is that message true or not? Or what is this mean? Or should I believe this, you know, so I think we're going to be, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to actually really be hurt, and emotionally, create a lot of other problems in their life if they don't know how to become a critical thinker in this day and age. So that's going to come down to just, you know, taking the time that you need to have by yourself to just ask more questions.

Zack Arnold: And you're now you're tapping into what I call my soapbox mode. We're talking about this idea of the educational system, and how we have not been trained how to think we've been told what to think about right now, I think there's nothing more valuable than knowing how to think and how to think critically, because what to think or what to say or what the output is, those are the things that the AI is going to take over. It's our ability to be able to think critically and think on a much broader perspective. And I don't think we've been trained to do that. So what I actually want to do is I want to go backwards a little bit. Okay. There's one of the things that I'm fascinated by, is I'm fascinated by people that have when you look at their resume or you look at their website or in our industry, their IMDb list. I'm fascinated when you look at and you're like, this makes no sense whatsoever. How the hell did this happen? Right? And I feel like you're squarely in that category of wait a second from from talent manager and specifically talent management. For younger kids. I know that you've got a whole organization around talent management and mentorship for kids that are getting into the industry. But I'm wondering both What the Why was behind that, because I would presume that after 30 years of being a talent manager in the industry, there's no reason that you need to become a coach and a mentor and be focused on the development of AI and how to help others with AI. So what does it really drives you to do all the different things that you do to to help others identify what their why is I want to dig deeper into yours.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I mean, I mean, to start with, I think I'll just give you a background of like, you know, how I got into management and the process of that, just so you know, a little bit about that, to get to that answer. So, you know, I started as a kid actor in Chicago, I toured a second city youth company, as a teen, I moved out to Hollywood, I went to USC, I went to Columbia, Chicago, Columbia, in Chicago, and then USC out here, and I was in the acting conservatory. And then, um, you know, I worked in casting, I worked for four different casting offices out here in LA. And then I started teaching as an acting coach and taught 1000s of kids over the years, and then I started talent managing, I think, you know, as an eight is anything like you just start evolving, and you start wanting different things. And, you know, I want different freedoms, where I can travel even more and work anywhere in the world, the talent management business, you know, is a challenging and hard one, because again, I'm only making commission when someone makes money. And, you know, actors sometimes can be fickle, depending on the talent, like, you can build a client, and then suddenly, they think the grass is greener on the other side and want to leave you as a manager or agent. And it's like, so I think it's a hard business to really be successful at. And I've been very fortunate that I've worked really hard and built a lot of great relationships over the years and have a lot of working people. But at some point, when I started working with actors, I started thinking, I really just want to help the average person that like is in another industry. And it's interesting, because I've been doing that I'm just meeting so many other interesting people in other industries. Like I'll give you example, during the pandemic, I didn't know what I, my, my staff should be doing a lot of the time. So I started just creating AI projects, like I did a thing called I built a website called the AI expert. And it's just a website now that I'm developing that just has information about AI and entertainment and emerging the conversation into one conversation. But what I did is, I reached out to five or six different people that are experts in the AI space, because I knew nothing about it. I barely knew the word out GPT. But I did this, I don't know if six months ago, seven months ago, something like that. And I just created a zoom, and I had 90 agents and casting directors on the Zoom. And we just did an inquiry on like AI and the implications. And when I called a couple of agents that I do business with, there were a couple of agents that six months ago I called that did not even know the word Chachi. Btw, they're like, what, what is that? And then I'm like, wow, we better like as a community, like get invested or you know, so again, that was just something that like, me, like wanting to give back to the community. And I just thought, you know what, I'm a leader, I should connect people that I know. And out of doing that you're giving back. And when you give back, it always comes back to, you know, then I had breakfast with a friend of mine, I was telling him the situation about my team, what do I do with my team? And then I have a friend of mine that said, Oh, well, you know, why don't I have you market a book, you know, and and so I got into the book space, you know, and I started marketing this book called conflicting loyalties. It's a book about a guy that was in the mob as a kid. And then when he became a teen, he became a DOJ informant, he was put in a position where he had to make a decision. And again, like this was I book, the book world was not something I was an expert in at all. But you know, in life, I just say yes to things many times. I'm like, Let's go for it. Let's try, let's give it a shot. And it's been a great run and experience. And we you know, the book is a you know, best seller on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. And you know, we've we've been creating that initiative. So again, like, I'm a problem solver, like so if I find a project or an interesting thing that I can be a part of, I just jump in and say, Okay, great. Let's figure out how to do it. And I think with a lot of creative types, you know, you got to figure out how to create new business, and you got to be a yes, person in life. Sometimes. I mean, you also have to be a no person, because the more that you're up to, I actually have to say no to a lot more things now. But you have to find that balance of the yeses and noes in your life.

Zack Arnold: Right? Well, that's exactly what I was going to ask next. And I could probably come up with four completely different podcast interviews, just based on the questions that I have from the last five minutes. But the first one that I want to go to is that many would argue that you could say that these are contradicting statements. I'm very clear about how I spend my time and I have all these power hours, but I'm saying yes to so many different things. And I think both of those can be possible but It all comes back to I need to be able to ask the right questions about what's an opportunity and what isn't. And why do I do the work that I do? So that's what I want to dig into deeper Is that you, there's so many different things that you do that many would say, Oh, he's doing all this random, different stuff. He's a talent manager. And he does this mentorship thing. And he's got this AI expert thing. And he's, you know, he's telling somebody to publicize a book about the mob. You look at that from an outside perspective, where you don't connect the dots, and you're like, This is scattershot. It's all over the place. I've had people that have described me and my career path that way very many times. But when you can read the matrix underneath the surface, there's a connective tissue. And it's often the why. So if it's a matter of the AI expert website, that help and answers website, publicizing this book, you know, the talent management industry, specifically focusing on kids, you talked about connecting the dots, let's connect the dots for you, what's the connective tissue that you see where you're not just a jack of all trades, but you're also a master of one?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Well, I'm a problem solver. So that's my, that's my third line. You know, I help people solve problems in life no matter what it is. And I like to impact people. And I love to work with people that I like to work with. You know, it was interesting, one of my early on coaches said, in my life, you should only focus on one thing. And

Zack Arnold: I did just got that advice last week, it's so hard to take that advice.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: And I took that advice for many years. But then you have to look at the human. And you have to look at like who you are as a person. And to me, that was stifling me. And it was keeping me in a box. And I mean, if you look at like actors, now actors, like, are acting, they're producing, they're directing their writing. So I think as you become more more successful, you get to choose what you want to spend your time on, you know? So I think that yes, it's from the outside perspective, things can sometimes look like Oh, my goodness, there's so much scatter and going on. But at the at the same time, if you don't look at the person's business plan, there is a methodology that on paper of exactly what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. And I think you got to look at your life and go, like, what is it that you're wanting to create in your life, and for me, it keeps it fun that way. And if I were just doing the one thing, see, this is what I was only doing my talent management company. There's been so many times in my career that I wanted to quit. And I got just, it was frustrating. And it's just like, I got stuck in a box. And now that I've opened up all these other things that I'm doing the last five years, I have so many more opportunities, I have so many other people coming into my life for this, that and the other and they all help each other. You know me doing this book thing is helping the you know, clients that I have in the acting space, then that's helping me like with podcasts, and that's helping me. So it's just, I think you have to just take a step back and figure out for your life, what is it that you want to create? And for me, like with the talent management thing, it's great given me a great lifestyle. I've traveled all over the world. I've been to Africa and India, and Europe, and and it's been a fun journey. So to me, I haven't seen it as a job again, it's been a lifestyle. So the question I ask anyone out there is like, what do you want your lifestyle to look like? And what does that look like and finding that fine balance where you have your family time and your fun time. So like when I go you know, I have a I have an Airbnb in Mexico, that's been in our family for 125 years. And during the pandemic, I turned it into an Airbnb. And that is like my haven that I go back and like create and it's like a lovely, the garden is in the center of the house goes all around it. It's like this typical, just Mexican hacienda. And it's like, I live love that project, you know, and I designed every area of the house and pick the tiles and did all that stuff. And again, I just find ways to incorporate all of this stuff into my life. So if you just, you know, get to your why. And for me, it's like helping people and having fun. You know, like, that's what I love to do. So every day, that's all I'm doing. And then opportunities just come my way because I'm showing up authentically, and not caring about what other people are, you know, I have coaches that helped me see certain things because again, I have many blind spots as well. But I'm just out there, you know, living life, we were all going to be here, maybe 100 years, maybe a lot less. So we got to just get out there and play and enjoy the process of what we're up to. All

Zack Arnold: of which I think we could easily extract him into about 10 or 15 Amazing Instagram posts about how to how to live life better for sure. Now, this might even get a little bit more existential, but you're tapping into something that I talk about a lot as well. You can either agree or disagree. I'm assuming you'll probably agree on some level, but I want to get into the nuances. That is that I it's impossible to live a life that's devoid of problems. And I feel like so many people are trying to eliminate all the problems from their life so then their life becomes easier and I think that's the worst way to live. My My belief is that what leads to a more fulfilling life is being excited about the problems that you have have to solve all day long. And more importantly, those problems have purpose and helping others. And I think that you and I are very much on the same page there, where you've decided I want to dedicate my entire life to being a problem solver, and also helping other people solve their problems. I want to come back to this world of where you were focused on your one thing, and I also want to put a, we're gonna put a tangential link in the show notes. I'm guessing you probably read Jay Pappas adds the one thing because

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I haven't that I haven't that's still on my list of ones I gotta read. But thank you for that.

Zack Arnold: It's funny, because every single question you shared earlier is what's the one thing that dot dot dot, and it's very much about focusing focusing it down and prioritizing to the one thing, so I think you'd appreciate it. But at the same time, you're already practicing a lot of what they're preaching. The point being, that I want to come back to this world that you were living in for a while, where you said I was only focusing on talent management, and it was making me want to quit my job, and I was miserable. I would presume that you lived in a world, especially in the world of Hollywood, especially in television, where you probably saw the more successful people were becoming either as a manager like yourself, or his talent, the more successful they became, the more unhappy they became.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: You know, 100%, and I think, you know, I've had other companies that have wanted to hire me to go over to their place, and I just, I can't, I couldn't do it. It's, you know, even if you paid me a lot more money, I want to have a freedom of lifestyle where if I want to go on vacation for a week, I'm gonna go, you know, and I'm not I'm not dictated by this job that keeps me constricted into doing one thing. So yeah, I mean, what's the question? I got to ask me the question,

Zack Arnold: the idea what I'm trying to do is compare and contrast. There are so many people that are myopically focused on one thing in this industry, I'm gonna be the most successful director, the most successful actor, the most successful editor. And what I find, and I don't have the science to prove this, but I have plenty of anecdotes and you know, decades of experience in the industry, it's an inverse proportion, the more successful they become, the more unhappy and miserable they become, which is why so many celebrities that reach these top levels completely implode?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Well, that to me, and I'll tell you my theory of why that happens. It's a boundary issue, what they do is they surround themselves with a bunch of yes, people that just tell them what they wanted to hear. And for example, like one of the things that I'll tell my talent, when they're first booking their first couple jobs, is let's say you're on set. And then someone comes up to you and says, Oh, let me get your water. Oh, let me get you to your lunch, your let me do this. If you can get your own butt up and cross the room and get your own water, then do it. That's where it starts. Like it starts with like, and at first, when you first book, your first job, your first big thing, it feels kind of special, like oh, wow, like everyone's serving me like how cool. But I'm going to tell you that is the moment that you actually have to do the opposite of that and say, You know what, no, I'm good, I can get my own water. So I think it starts there. And then it just continues. And then it's everything is always about you know, you and what you need, and then you start to not have to pay for things. And then you start getting invited all these things and you you're on this cycle that just has you not take the time to ask those deep questions of yourself. And you surround yourself with a bunch of people that they don't want to lose you as a client. So they just, you know, and again, that's why I think as a manager, like I'm really strict with my talent, and I'll even tell them, if if an actor of mine starts to get arrogant, I'll bring them to my office, and I'll say, what is going on, like when I signed you, like you weren't this person and now like what's happening. And so every once in a while, when I'm that straight with a client, I may lose them. But I don't I hate that I don't care. Like if, if, if my job is to impact and help people get to the next level their life. And if someone is gonna get so ruffled by me being honest, and helping them for their big purpose vision, then they can work with someone else that like, you know, all they care about is money. You know, so I think I've seen that phenomenal happen, you know, a lot as well. You know, I've seen it happen with my wife's business, my wife is one of the top estheticians in Hollywood, she has a business called Touch of faith aesthetics. And she is, you know, one of the most successful estheticians and she has all these celebrity clients. And you know, some of them are amazing, but then also when I've worked with celebrities, too, you have those celebrities that like are, you know, there's just so much drama around them, and they just, you know, they don't know who they are. Um, so I think for me, I'd rather just work with people I'd rather work with people that are just, you know, not necessarily famous, and yet I do have some famous people on our roster that we built there, but that keep it real, you know, like life is too short to become a miserable person. Life is too short. You know, to not love what you do and if you surround yourself with just a bunch of people that just want money from you. You have to ask yourself is this truly the right team do they really have the higher purpose calling for my life. And so you need to keep yourself in check. And that's why again, you need a coach, you need someone in your life. It's like keeping your real keeping your humble, keeping us straight, you know, so that you don't make unwise decision. So you need community, you need mentorship, and you need those guidelines for yourself, so that you can continue to thrive and not become one of those people that like you look back in your life and go like, what the heck did I do? I don't even like my life. Well,

Zack Arnold: having said that, I would guess that the majority of people that are listening right now we're saying I would love to have the problem of being so successful that I get to be arrogant, and other people get my lunches for me, because as I'm sure in your experiences, it didn't, you know, far reaches of the industry and with coaching, when it comes specifically to the creatives behind the scenes, it's usually the opposite problem is not so much Oh, I'm so important. It's nobody wants to hire me. Nobody likes my work. I don't want to put myself out there, I'm not good enough. And one of the things that I find fascinating that you said about 510 minutes ago that I want to tap into now that I think is relevant to everything we're talking about, is that you created a website called AI expert, knowing nothing about AI. And then I'm not saying that as a bad thing or a judgement. I'm actually really excited about that, because you gave yourself the permission to just put myself out there so I can connect others to talk about this idea, because it's so important to us. So how did you overcome even if it maybe it wasn't there, because you've done this for so long? But so many people would say, Who am I to think that I can create a website that's called the AI expert when I'm a talent management that's barely opened up chat GPT? Because so many creative people feel that way right now?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Yeah, well, I mean, that just came from, I knew nothing about AI, you know, and I just thought, well, if I want to be an expert, what do I do? I need to surround myself around experts? How do I do that? I just thought, let me go online and see if I can find a website. And it was called the AI experts with an s.com. And then I thought, Okay, well, I'm looking at my team in my office right now. And I'm like, I don't have enough for one of the employees for what they need to do with their time. So here Your job is to build a site, you know, build a site, get some knowledge about it, teach me more about AI, let's find a couple of people that are great at AI. Let's just create a zoom. And then I just started calling a bunch of agents and casting people be like, hey, you know, do you know much about AI? No, I know what it is like, tell me more about it like, Well, do you use GPG? No, I don't? Well, would you be interested in having like a zoom to learn more about it, like, and I said, Listen, I know not much about it. But I do have a bunch of people that are going to be on the zoom that are going to teach us about it. And so I just want to help and give back to the community. And everyone just said, oh, yeah, that sounds great. Let's get on the Zoom, you know, and then we had 90 people that joined it. And you know, it's just a deep conversation. So, again, I think it's in life, you've got to just see if there's a problem, where your life like it was a it was one of the best decisions I made. Because I've now been learning all these extra tools, you know, like have a list of like, you know, chatting up tea is just one of the very basic things, there's all these new things I'm using right now that are helping me be more effective, with my time and I didn't even know that existed. So that goes back to what you said about what you don't know that you don't know. So you know, that's where the gold is, you know. So if you can figure out what you don't know that you don't know, on a day to day basis, every day, you are exponentially going to grow and reach your capacity and really enjoy your life a lot more.

Zack Arnold: So you said something in there that I want to go way, way deeper into that I think is so important. It comes back to this idea of I've done this one thing I've been on this one path. Now all of a sudden the world is completely gone to shit the industry is imploding. The industry doesn't even know what it is right now. It's trying to figure it out itself, right? Nobody has any answers. Even the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world don't have the answers to this problem. Right. So I feel like I'm starting over and what you said, I just I want to hit this point home times 10. If you want to be an expert, surround yourself with other experts, because you never starting over. You just need to surround yourself with experts, mentors, and also peers. But this is really, really hard for creative people. Because creative people are really introverted, and we're scared of people. And we don't want to put ourselves out there, myself included. But I've also learned the value and surrounding myself with peers and experts. And you are really, really good at this. So I want you to talk about something that was called a break for breakfast and other initiatives that you've done to very proactively decide to build your own communities.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: So break for breakfast came out a while even tell you where it started beforehand. I started this group. I don't know if I started a couple of us as friends started it and it was called sole purpose. And what it was was five of us that every morning would get up and get on this accountability call. all as a group, and we would talk about, like what miracles we're creating in our day that day, and we did this call for two years. And every day, wherever we were in the world, we knew we had to show up for this 8am phone call. And we would just check in, what are you up to today. And there were many days that I didn't want to get out of bed and have to report back because I didn't think I was up to too much that day. But it was a great just training in like, accountability. And once a month, we'd actually get together one of our houses, and we just have breakfast or lunch and just bond and just connect. And just, it was a great group. Out of that thing. One of my other projects I started out of it was called break for breakfast. And breakfast breakfast was just a time where I thought, You know what, let me take a break from my week, every week, to actually just connect with friends. And the group started as like three or four of us just getting together for brunch, we needed a couple different locations, I think our ultimate location we ended up with was Jerry, Jerry's deli years ago. And it's grew from five people to 10 people to 20 people to 50 people to 100 people. I mean, it was a large networking group that came out of just like having some time to connect with friends. And I think that's where I got to learn how to just be a great connector and connect with people. And it really just started with three or four of us getting together for brunch once a week, and then it just kind of grew. And then we had a board of directors that helped manage it and grow it. After two years, I was a little tired. So I took a break, you know, I'm actually reinventing and another version of that right now. We're still working on the name and all that, but it's gonna be but again, like I wasn't always, you know, I think years ago, I had to really learn how to get out of my comfort zone. But that just took practice, because I would go to events, and I would just not want to go up to people and talk to people, you know, I would just be like, oh, you know, it looks like they have so much more going on. You know, so for me, I had to just like, create a new context in the way I looked at it. Even the word networking, sometimes when I talked to some of my talent, or even people that I talked to, they don't like the word networking, they think it's slimy, they think it's like, and I reshift the conversation and I'm like, Look, what is networking at its core? It's building a friendship, it's building a connection with someone. And I'll ask them, Do you have friends? Sure. Well, how did you make those friends? Oh, just hanging out just talking. Great. That's all it is. So when you go to an event, you know, and I just make it a game. Now before I go to an event, what I do is I'll make an objective or goal and say, out of today, I'm going to connect with 10 people that I'm going to have their phone numbers and my phone by the time I leave the event. And it's just a game. And then I have a system and structure for it. And I go to the event and I connect and I you know, you know, get their information, I make a note on my phone of where I met them and all. And so you know, there's going to be people that you're going to want to continue the relationship with. And then you'll meet some people that you're like, that's not really someone that I want in my life. So I'm not going to necessarily pursue that situation. But I think like anything, what I was going back to the the kind of eight hours that you want to make sure that you have in your life, I have the fishing and client fishing and mining hour, you have to get out there and share your message and or make friends and connect with people. And I think that I've now lost I love going to events, you know now and connecting with people it's like that's where you make lifelong friends. So I think it's just like getting out of your comfort zone and just pushing yourself to say, You know what, I'm gonna get out there. And you know, there's some times where I don't feel like going to bed, but nearly every single time I go, after I went, I always think, you know, I'm really glad I went, I met some great person or I learned some new thing, or I made some new connection that's going to help me in life. So I think it's just like anything else is getting on the field. It's getting out there. It's connecting with people, and we're here on earth to connect with others. So it's like, that's what it is. So to me, it's not like networking is not a nasty word. I just look at it as like relationship building. You know, like, that's how you thrive in life by other relationships. So get out there and, and practice you're only going to get good at it if you do it, you know. So the other part of that is I started training myself that sometimes I'll go to a networking event or some sort of event with someone and sometimes I would go by myself, because I want to get good at being able to do both. I want to be able to show up in a room and be able to have the confidence to just walk up to people and talk to them. And then sometimes if you know maybe when I first started I would have a friend come with me always because that way it was just a little easier to break into conversations. And now you know I'm a little bit more strategic with it and like when I go to into an event a look around the room when I get there, and I'll assess it and be like, Okay, I want to meet the oldest person in the room, why they have the most knowledge they've met, the most people I haven't met to learn something new from the oldest person in the room, I'm going to look for the person that seems to be the most popular in the room, they seem to know everyone, they're a good connector, they'll introduce me to other people. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna meet that person. So, you know, I'll go to an event and I'll just, you know, actually point out and target people that I feel like I'd like to talk with, and sometimes I'm, you know, blown away and have a great new friend out of it. And sometimes I'll meet someone that yeah, you know, who they are, as human beings. When I hear them talk a little bit, I'm like, Huh, that's not really kind of the person that I'm gonna keep in my life. But it's about getting out there and just continuing to connect.

Zack Arnold: Again, you and I are definitely kindred spirits. And we're, we're teaching and living from very, very similar playbooks. Just to emphasize this idea of connecting as well. I'm about as antisocial as antisocial gets. But at the same time, I've also realized that the quality of my career is dictated by the quality of my network, which is why I've learned how to get really good and strategic about networking. In person networking events are still my eternal struggle. But one of the things they use that I want to reframe it slightly, because I think it'll, it'll help make more sense from a slightly different perspective. I'm, I'm very, very lazy when it comes to in person networking, and I want to get in and out and fastest, as fast as possible. So when you said, you're looking for the most popular person in the room, I have the same strategy from a slightly different lens. And that is I'm looking for the super connector. So the example I always share with my students is if you don't like in person networking, if you're in a room with 500, people, your best friend needs to be the person that knows all 500 people in the room, and there's always at least one person. Yep, that whoever was there, organize the event that hosted the event, whatever it might be, there's one person that knows all 500 They become your new best friend. Because if you're gonna play the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, if you know that one person now by default, you've provided them enough value. And it's a mutually beneficial relationship. It can't just be take take, take oo in or connect me with that person and that person or that person. But if you learn how to build a genuine relationship, now you build 500 potential new relationships.

Nelson Paredez-Parks: 100% love. I love that analogy. That's awesome. Yep. So

Zack Arnold: having said that, I want to go back to what I think is one of the fundamental issues that all of us are facing in this new world, is that there's so much new information, there's so many events, there's so many communities, and it all comes back to this business plan. So let's say I want to take all of your advice. And I'm like, You know what, I've been sitting here, I'm staring at the wall and waiting for jobs to come back. Not gonna happen. When they do come back, this industry is going to look completely different. I want to put myself out there, but I don't have a business plan that tells me where to even start. I don't want to just throw a bunch of spaghetti against the wall. I want to get the most out of my time. So how can you help me figure out what information I should start learning what experts to surround myself with and what communities to ingratiate myself at?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I mean, well, specifically for anyone that would want that sort of connection. As far as through my systems and structures, it would just be connect with me through an email. So you're in our, you know, email distribution lists. And, you know, for anyone that's like, really committed to want to have a coach, you know, I would have a conversation with them to see kind of what they're up to. And then I would help them build out their business plan, I would send them templates of what that looks like. And then you know, to have a conversation on like, does that is that something that they can incorporate into their life?

Zack Arnold: Alright, so having said all that, now, I have not forgotten about the part two of my question from the beginning where I put a pin in it. Nana must take a lot of energy to do all these things. And there's got to be a block of time that you're allowing that's creating the energy to manage all the other blocks of time. So where does all the energy and focus come from, to do all the things you're talking about?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I mean, I hate to say I'm like my mother. I mean, my mother is like the Energizer Bunny, like, for me, it's like I wake up and I'm like, excited to start the day because it's a game you know, I start my day like 10 minutes in the morning, like when I wake up, I'll go out and do a 10 minute power walk. And during that power walk, I'm speaking to myself and praying and and asking God for like anything I should see that day. Like I'm also doing like, grateful comments and saying what I'm grateful for. I'm doing a lot of affirmation. So I'm setting up my day so that I just am in the space. And then I'm also like letting go of negative belief systems. So I'm saying someone said that comment to me yesterday that hurt me like I let that go. I released that I'm not I'm not going to own that sort of conversation. Now then I like 10 minutes of like, using bad like, I just got a health coach recently because I was just like, I realized that I was really letting go that area in my life and I'm like, I cannot with everything I'm up to right now. I can't afford not to have a health coach and someone has helped me with this. So like he asked me on a on a process and Hour regarding both my eating and my working out. So I have like some routines like that, that just set my day up that I have my quiet time or have some reading time, you know, where I'm just reading things to make sure that I'm positioned, you know, for the day. And then you know, every day is a little bit different. You know, some days, I have a lot of meetings, some days I have, you know, more like meetings just with myself and things I need to get accomplished. So every day is a little bit different.

Zack Arnold: So given all of that, you mentioned a whole bunch of strategies, a whole bunch of questions, we talked about the value of questions. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go meta on you for a second, there might even be a good answer to this. And frankly, it might even be a bad question, but we're going to find out. If you could only ask yourself one question to start your day that led to all of the other things you're going to doing? How do you boil this down to the one most important question to start a conversation with yourself? That dictates the quality of your day? Hmm,

Nelson Paredez-Parks: that's a good one.

Zack Arnold: Because you've got a lot of what's the one thing in this area? What's the one thing in that area? But if we were to go meta and find the question that drives all the questions, do you have one of those? Because you're very much a questioner, which is another area where I think you wouldn't? It would be? How do I best impact my day? That's a I'm going to add to that, because I think that, from what I'm hearing from you, if I were let's say that I were going to repurpose that question for myself. I think that you're also asking your version of this as well is how can I best impact others today? 100%. It sounds like there's there's a ton of that going on with you where it's not just what's the best thing for my day? It's how can I impact others?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: 100%? Yeah, because it's really like, that's how you move anything forward in the world. And so it's always about the other person and like how you help others. So, yeah, that's it. I've never been asked that one. That's a good one.

Zack Arnold: Good. Well, that's my job is if I can't come at it to a fellow question or that ask good questions. And as a good one to return, then you know, I can't, we're not in the same conversation. So glad I brought a new one forever. Yeah, hear that. So you've essentially distilled this down over the last 75 minutes. But I want to come back to the essence of today's conversation and what we what you really want to take away to be so we can summarize this. So we're going to summarize all of this into one or two really solid pieces of advice and also action steps to move forwards. If I'm in the place where I've realized I can no longer sustain my living, or, frankly, my sanity doing one thing for one job for one company or one studio, and everything is changing around me, What's the best advice you can give to me

Nelson Paredez-Parks: build a plan, you need to have a plan, you know, you need to have a vision of what you're up to, and you got to get it down on paper. And then you have to print it up. So you have it somewhere on your wall, and you have to look at it daily. And then as it continues to progress, you need to keep tweaking it, you know, and then you have to have someone to hold you accountable to it, whether that's a coach, whether that's a best friend, and then it's about looking at your team and looking at how to create team around you in your life. Because again, Rome was not built by one person, you know, and it wasn't built in a day. So you need to find ways to like, inspire others to help you on this journey of what you're up to. And you got to take some quiet time to yourself so that you can actually take the time to process and figure out how you're going to do what it is that you're up to. So checking out watching a bunch of television is not the answer. You know, like you're not, you know, that may help you like, you know, take a little downtime for yourself. But you have to be intentional with what you're really up to. And I

Zack Arnold: couldn't agree more with all of that. Now, let's turn that advice into a next action step. What's the first thing I do after I get off this call to figure all this out in my life?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: Well, the got to tell you, selfishly I'd say go to my help answers website, you know, and, you know, connect with me. So I can try to like give you more information and tools and resources to help you. The thing that I would also do is I would sit down with yourself and build a mini version of a business plan for yourself, you know, with everything that you think that should go on it to start with, like just get the stuff done on paper, maybe make a list of five questions that you're going to ask yourself daily moving forward, to help you just impact your life a little bit more and a little bit deeper. So ask those five questions. Put it down on your phone, so that you have that and every day wake up and say okay, these are my five questions. I'm going to start with three start with three questions. I these are the three questions I'm going to ask myself on a daily basis moving forward. And then each week, us three more questions and then just keep a running to do list on your phone of all The questions that you keep asking yourself in your life. And then when you have little breaks in life, or when you're standing in the bank, or where you're standing in a line somewhere in a grocery store, you can always go back and look at these questions and ponder these things, you know, while you're driving, but I think it's like creating those habits. So I would say start those three daily question, started those three weekly questions, and look at it daily.

Zack Arnold: I love it. So creating the intentional habit of asking questions, and not just mindlessly filling the space between your ears with information and podcasts, and phone calls, and television and social media, news and everything else. That's great. And by the way, that segues perfectly into the shameless self promotion portion of the program, which is now that we've shared all these tips and tactics and strategies, where's the one place that we can send our audience if they want to learn more about you and all of the various different work that you do in the services that you offer?

Nelson Paredez-Parks: I would just go to at help and answers you know, follow me there. Which platform and on Instagram, Instagram story best. They are Facebook, you know, but go to the actual website login so that we can actually get your you know, your email and be able to connect with you so that we can at least continue to, you know, send you you know, tips and articles and show helpful Forms and Sheets that would help impact your life. So just go to the Help and answers website and start there.

Zack Arnold: Does that help an ampersand or help a nd answered help? No, it's

Nelson Paredez-Parks: help. And a n d answers.com.

Zack Arnold: All right, help and answers.com I'm going to make sure we have a link at the top of the show notes front and center to make sure that people can find you. But having said that this was a tremendous pleasure to basically talk shop about all things life, career design, business plans mindset. And otherwise, I had a feeling this is going to be very much a an I say in a good way a scattershot kind of hodgepodge of different conversations, which is exactly where I think both you and I specialize, ironically enough, is being able to talk a little bit about everything and I love this conversation. So can't thank you enough for your time and we'll let we'll make sure to get this out into the world so you can

Nelson Paredez-Parks: help impact others. Awesome. Thank you so much, Zack, appreciate it more than welcome. Yep,

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Zack Arnold

How to Be a Multi-Hyphenate Creative and be the CEO of Your Creative Career | with Nelson Paredez-Parks

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