Masterclass: Navigating the Next Act Pt2 | with Zack Arnold

Zack Arnold

So as promised, for the bonus portion of today's program, we are done with the formal presentation, but I'm going to be conducting three hot seats with three of the members of our inner circle, and you're going to get a better sense of what do things look like during office hours. This is not rehearsed. I have absolutely no idea what we're going to talk about other than just some of the basic information that they'd shared with me in the intake form. So give me one second to get this in front of me. And the first of our three hot seats is going to be with Ed, is it? Ed kozer, is that how you pronounce your last name? Are you with us? Ed, you pronounced it correctly. All right. Awesome. So listen, very good to see you again. You've been very, very active in our inner circle Q and A's this week. So very excited to see you on the hot seats. So it's really simple. What's the topic of today's conversation? And how can I help you?

Ed Kulzer

I perhaps am in a very peculiar situation among everyone here, among everyone not here. I am strategically disadvantaged by being incredibly strategically advantaged.

Zack Arnold

Hmm, interesting. Tell me more.

Ed Kulzer

For the past 10 years of my 25 year career, I have been an editor at Sesame Street, salaried contract editor, day in, day out. And that just does not exist in the industry anymore. Yeah, the only reason it does exist is because it's a 56 year old show. Yes, I heard of it. Yeah, you know, have you ever heard I can tell you how to get we walked into a corporate meeting couple months ago with not, with five editors. We left the meeting with two Wow, and we just recently lost both of our assistant editors during a second round of finance, and basically that completely fractured and exploded any sense of security that we were deluded enough to think we were in our band of brothers, us against the world make the deadlines, right? Do you remember that scene in Batman Begins where Liam lease, Liam Neeson, is out on the ice, and he throws the sword down on the ice, and he says, You are not responsible for your parents death or for your parents deaths. Your father is Yeah, everyone right now in the world is is suffering from this lack of security, yeah, but I have to do every single thing in my power to to make a footprint of security for my family, and I'm disadvantaged in that. Being at Sesame for 10 years, I haven't been cutting a bunch of films or other shows. Yeah. I've been working in Premiere while the rest of the community is cutting in AVID.

Zack Arnold

That's not true, but continue.

Ed Kulzer

But it's what it feels like true. So what I've been doing since that time, I actually am in Sven's go to editor course. Oh, great. I am in Larry Jordan's master the workflow and and given that I have 10 years in and I've edited 100 episodes, I have the time in to be applicable for as ace and Larry was super awesome enough to give me my first nomination letter, which is unbelievably cool. Issue, is it sesame with everyone who knows me, there's there are no ace editors, and so I kind of have to, like cold outreach to someone who does not even know me to be able to access all the networking and the the amazing seminars and everything that ace brings with it, all the talks and The access to directors and editors, and I lust for that, but right now, the biggest thing is that having a full time job, I can't shadow anywhere. I can't accept an editing position where you're required to work every day, so I don't know how to help position myself strategically to be able to prove myself and walk into another gig should the AX fall and the sesame ship sink, right?

Zack Arnold

All right, that is a great, great way to lay this out for everybody, just to quickly summarize, and I'm sure that there's at least one, maybe even two, other people in this call that can relate to this, where you thought that what you were doing was the secure path. You thought you were taken care of. And what we've all realized, just like Annie Duke said, things have always been uncertain, the only difference is now we're actually aware of it. So show of hands. How many of you can relate to where Ed is right now, where you felt like you built these skills, you built this path you should be all taken care of. And then all of a sudden, you realize yoink, it has all been taken away. And the challenge for you, and like you said, you're both strategically advantaged and disadvantaged, and the fact that you have this full time job, but your full time job. Job, in a way, is kind of a set of handcuffs. It's a set of golden handcuffs where it's preventing you from putting yourself out there, from doing the work. But here's what I don't want you or anybody else to fall into the trap of this is similar to the mindset of I'm starting over. Everybody thinks that it's all or nothing. It's either I'm totally all in on this or I'm all in on this, and well, now I have to quit everything and start over, and I gotta start a YouTube channel. No, this is what work, life integration is all about. You're gonna have to pick away at things like, I'm still I'm other than for the last year, I spent eight years balancing editing television shows, launching a podcast, building an educational program. Like I, for years have bounced back and forth, which is why I essentially have a decade's head start on learning work, life integration strategies and networking strategies. And how do you balance it all? Because I've lived as a generalist, diversified for over a decade, and if you're thinking to yourself, either I'm all in on Sesame Street or I'm all in on another job, you're never going to get out of that trap. So as long as you're at Sesame Street like, oh, man, hold on to that Oh, hold on to that job, man, because so many people want it, but at the same time, you now know they could call you Monday morning gone. So you need to start shoring up your defenses. And where I the two areas that I would start, the first and most important, shameless self promotion. Build your network. Expand your network. There is no reason that you should not be expanding your network, as if, right now your network, or all the other people working on Sesame Street, you're all just on the same life draft that's got a big, giant hole in it. So what I always advise to my students when they say, Well, I know I should be networking, but who am I supposed to be networking with? I want you to network with what I call your quote, unquote, experts, not the world's best at something, but your experts are the people that are doing now what you want to be doing next. So knowing that you're you might be at Sesame Street for another 30 years, but given the current climate, you know that you can't count on that. Where would you like to go next? What do you like? Is it a matter of, I'd love to, you know, cut indie features, or I like to work on TV, or maybe it's just other kid shows you want to work at Nickelodeon. We're not talking like the ultimate dream job someday, but if you were to make a pivot, where would you want to go next?

Ed Kulzer

It's almost a thing where I have the dream job that the dream job might

Zack Arnold

What's another version of the next dream job

Ed Kulzer

I'd love to cut shows. I would love to cut a fun feature. And I have been reaching out per Sven's group. I just spoke with Jason Ballantine. I just had an amazing talk with Steve Fauci. And so there's, there's a list that I'm in like you said, you have to do the research in order to make the worthwhile letter. So I'm not trying to rush them out the door, yeah, but everybody wants to cut features right now.

Zack Arnold

And yeah, I was gonna say the market's quite the market's gonna be quite saturated. And that's where you have to be really careful to differentiate between the ultimate dream job and the next dream job, because for a lot of dream job would be shorts. Yeah. Okay, so there you go. So the next dream job is shorts. And here's why this differentiation is so important. This is something that I talked about during the summit with Matt Nix, where he said that everybody has taken a notch down. Everybody's been taking a notch down. So wherever you were before you're one step lower. It has nothing to do with our skills, our abilities, our credits, our experience. It's just the nature of the industry right now. So if you're staying where you are, and you're making lateral moves in this economy, you're doing really well, like, you're very, very successful if you've just stayed where you are. So you think about, what are the lateral moves, where, if somebody were to say, Holy crap, Ed is available. Like, we could get Ed those are the opportunities where everybody's gonna have the most possibilities. So for me, for example, let's say that I were still interested in looking for TV shows to edit. What I would not do is say, Man, I would love to edit the next season as severance. Like, severance, mind blowing the first season. Like it was so good, like, I gotta get Dan Erickson on my podcast and picked this guy's brain. So anybody that loves severance, you want to listen to the guy that created it. I had him on my podcast. I was so obsessed with it, what I would not do in this climate is say my next dream job is going to be severance. Why? Because my resume doesn't speak for itself. Apple TV will look at that and be like the coworker guy, he can't cut severance. I know that I could knock severance out of the park. It's totally the kind of thing that I would love, but on paper, it doesn't make sense. But if I just needed a job right now, you know what I would look for, a lower budget show about teenagers and warring karate dojos. Why would I do that? Because they would say Zack Arnold is available, like he would even do our show, that's the sweet spot for people. When somebody says, I can't believe they're available, that's where you find the opportunities. And yes, you got to be taking a notch down, and it sucks, and it is so not fair. But that is the game that we are playing right now, and if you want to stay in the game, those are the opportunities that you look for. So if you can start building a network around you. Of people that are doing now what you want to be doing next, where, at best, it's a lateral move, but it might even be a little bit of a step backwards, where you can find your asymmetric advantage. How about shorts for kids, shorts for kids with puppets. Are you kidding me? The Sesame Street guy wants to cut our short like you are the world's best person on the planet for that job. Those are the opportunities you're looking for. That is the network that you want to build right now. Then from there, with all that extra free time you're going to have, you got to start developing your skills. You got to branch out of here's my portfolio. Look at all my clips from Sesame Street. And by the way, I'm not devaluing the work that you've done at all. I mean, Sesame Street is like, just a part of our culture, like, there's few more important shows than Sesame Street. The point being that your work is only going to speak for itself in a very specific context, which is why getting more shorts is going to be important, which is why programs like the go to editor edit stock. I mean, edit stock is invaluable for this. And edit stock is not a sponsor. The guy that founded it, Misha. He's a good friend of mine. I just want to support him. I get no money from recommending it, but he solved the problem of, well, I need somebody to hire me so I can build a demo reel. So I have a demo reel to get work solved. He fixed it. You want to buy all of the raw dailies for feature films, documentary, sports, action, drama, comedy, edit, stock.com. Solves that problem. And remember, use the Code Academy, get 75 bucks off by tomorrow night, I get nothing for saying that, other than maybe Misha will buy me lunch. But that's where I would start. You got to focus on developing and broadening and diversifying your skill set, diversifying the kinds of work that are on your portfolio, so you're not stuck being the Sesame Street guy and making sure that the right people know that you're doing that, and know that you are available, and then you just got to start to pick away at it, because you're right. You can't just say, Well, I'm only doing this thing now, but now I'm only doing this thing. You got to do a lot of things at once. That's That's why these, these work life integration strategies, are so paramount, to not lose your mind with how fast everything is changing. Thank you. So does Zack give you some solid action steps? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Okay, good. So the whole point of these office hours is not just to pontificate and not to give me a platform to do a lot of TED Talks and soapbox rants, of which I do those a lot, but I always make sure that at the end of office hours, whomever I'm working with knows exactly what they need to do next. And I don't mean this year. I mean, what can I do by four o'clock this afternoon? What can I do today to move myself forwards? And I see a whole lot of faces. I haven't had a chance to look at all the names in the chat, but I see a lot of faces of my students. Am I wrong? You guys have been here before. You guys have been on hot seats. Let people know in the chat, like these hot seats, you walk away and you're like, I feel 1% better about my life. I feel 1% clear about what I need to do today to just keep moving forwards. So that's the point of this. Is that, Ed, if you're like, I don't really know yet. Like, I love these ideas, but I don't know what to do tomorrow. Like, then we need to keep digging in. But if you're like, all right, I got to start finding the people that are doing now what I want to be doing next. I got to put them on a spreadsheet, and I got to start reaching out to them. That's where you start. And shameless self promotion. If you need help with that, we have all the resources in the academy to help you do all those things. So thank you so much for volunteering to be our very first hot seat victim. I mean student, sorry, I don't know why that slept out. You're more than welcome. So second on my list of our inner circle past members, we have Alyssa. Alyssa, are you still with us? Hello, hi. It's so nice to finally meet you after the emails back and forth.

Alyssa Royce

Yeah, nice to meet you. Thanks for the opportunity.

Zack Arnold

You're more than welcome. So tell us a little bit more about yourself and what it is that I can help you with on the hot seat today.

Alyssa Royce

Okay, my first disclaimer is that, like I'm not technically in the film or television industry,

Zack Arnold

How did you get onto my Zoom call? I don't care if anything, I encourage that. I want to bring all kinds of voices from all kinds of industries, so I'm very glad to have you.

Alyssa Royce

Okay, cool. So I mean, my craft is basically the same, but if I use terms differently, that's just from not being sure in that industry. But yeah, so I actually began my career as an editor at the San Francisco Giants. So I worked in sports. I started as an intern. I stayed and kept working my way up, editor, Senior Editor. By the time I left, I left, I was director of productions, so I was in charge of the whole in house team. I had like a dozen people, editors, cinematographers, designers under me. So kind of took, like an editor to more Producer Director path where I was, you know, actually coordinating and directing a lot of content. By the end of it and doing less editing. And then in 2021 I was like, I think I need to get out of sports, because it's very easy to get stuck in sports, and it's actually not very lucrative, which a lot of people are surprised to hear, because it's lucrative for athletes, but

Zack Arnold

Not so much for the people in the truck. Yeah. Know, it's funny, I actually started, I started in sports and had an internship with the Detroit Tigers, so I know all the inner workings of what the post production looks like in sports, but continue

Alyssa Royce

Right, right? So I was like, I think I need to see what else is out there. I ended up taking a job with Simon Sinek, who you probably heard of.

Zack Arnold

Wait, what

Zack Arnold

Simon is on, like, my short list of dream guests to be on my podcast. Anybody that doesn't know Simon Sinek, he wrote the book starts with why he is on my short list of, holy shit. Of all the people I want to get on my podcast, we might have to talk afterwards, but continue very aware of Simon Sinek,

Alyssa Royce

Yeah, he's super cool. So I got to work for his online he has, like, a digital company where they do classes, I guess, kind of like this. So I did some producing for him for a little bit, and I actually did a lot of his social content while I was doing that, I was kind of freelancing on the side with a software company called Air table, which I actually love the software, and I knew someone who worked there, and she was like, oh, we need someone to make videos, and we need someone to understand the product. Can you help us out? And through that, they were like, we're going to hire you full time. So I jumped over to tech, and so now I'm in the tech world, but what I did was I went from kind of like a management position to like an individual contributor position, and kind of went back to just kind of went back to just kind of editing, which is what I was doing at the beginning of my career, but I was making more, had better balance, so I was like, this is fine. And then I'm getting into this place where I'm like, Oh, actually, now my resume starts to look like I'm just an editor again. And I don't want to say that in a derogatory way, of just an editor. No, I'm just proud of being an editor. But it was like, I kind of was liking, like doing more coordinating and project management and all that after air table did, like, the danger of tech is there's a lot of layoffs that happen all the time. So they gutted our marketing. I ended up taking a job with another tech company box, which is Cloud Storage. Some of you may have used box, so I just did a year contract with them, and now I'm in this place of like, I am trying to interview for producer, and when I say producer, it's kind of a weird loose term, especially in tech, every company kind of thinks a producer is something different, but I'm looking for more of that, like, project management, coordinating position. My issue now is it looks like, like, editing is what I'm good at, and so, like, that's kind of everyone starts to, like, look at that, and they're like, oh, but it seems like you're really good at editing. Like, why are you trying to do this? So I'm having a hard time like, selling the fact that I can do it, especially when I don't have as much experience. And if I try to call back on my giants experience, a lot of these tech companies are like, well, that kind of doesn't matter. That's not tech they really want to know that you've produced. So I'm having that kind of conflict. And then what I also alluded to in my application was part of me just wants to be a freelance editor, if that's what. And I think you kind of answered it on that, on Ed's thing, which is like, maybe we're all just taking it a step down and like, maybe I just need to find those editing jobs where people want me, because I definitely do get gigs as an editor. Maybe this is not the time to try to, like, get someone to take a chance on me or see me as something else. So,

Zack Arnold

Yeah, all right, good stuff. I'm so excited to talk about this one, because this is a very, very common challenge. One thing that I want to clarify right off the bat, what I am not doing is trying to say to all of you, you need to set your sights lower. You got to be realistic like that is the polar opposite of everything that I believe. Like I am the one that will say, believe in yourself. Shoot for the stars like go for the craziest goals that you want to achieve. But caveat.dot.if, you need a paycheck right now and you need to survive, you have to be willing to take a slight step down. But as soon as you say, Well, I just want to be an editor. I always have an aversion to when people say, jest, oh, I'm just an assistant. I'm just an editor. Nobody is just anything. You don't have to be just a janitor. You can be the best janitor ever. Absolutely love the job that you're doing, and you're providing value to others, and you're providing a service, right? It's all about putting yourself into the job and really believing in the impact that you're making. But in this case, if you're thinking, Well, you know, I kind of feel like I've been pigeon holed. I'm either pigeon holed as the sports person, I'm pigeon holed as the editor. One thing that I want to say first, and then we're going to talk about how we actually start to reframe the story for others, is that nobody gets pigeonholed. I get in trouble when I talk about this. Nobody gets pigeonholed. We allow ourselves to be pigeon holed. And we allow ourselves to be pigeon holed because we take the same job over and over and over and over. So if you worked for the Giants, but then you work for the A's, but then you work for the Dodgers, but then you work for the angels, you didn't get pigeon holed. You allowed yourself to be pigeon holed once we can take back control on the race. Responsibility that our choices are going to help shape our story. And you decide, I don't want to be pigeonholed as just an editor. I don't want to be pigeonholed as just working in sports or whatever it is. Now you change the narrative of your story. Your problem is that you have experience when somebody looks at you on paper, they're like, Yeah, we don't need somebody in sports, because the story that you're telling is about you. This isn't about you. On your resume, in your cover letters and your job interviews, on your website. It's not about you. It's about the people with whom you want to work and how you solve their problems. So if we were to look at these new jobs that you would want to do in tech, if you want kind of a quasi hybrid, producing, editing, coordinating management position, if you were at your next dream job, what's your level of confidence that if you got hired on Monday morning, you'd knock it out of the park by Friday?

Alyssa Royce

It's it's like 50%

Zack Arnold

50% which is more than enough to not get fired by Friday, right? Yeah. So what's your confidence that you can not get fired by Friday, and that you're the kind of person, going back to when we talked about character, you're the kind of person that can figure it out. You're a problem solver, you'll make it work, and you'll be valuable to them. Yeah, 100% right? Which tells me that you already have most of the necessary skills and the experience that just doesn't look like it on paper. So that's the narrative that you have to thread. Once you better understand, what are the problems that you need solved, you can say, Oh, I've actually solved those problems, and I've solved them at a very high level, but if it is about you, and you say, Well, you know, my background is that I've worked for the San Francisco Giants, and I was an editor for them, but then I did some producing stuff at this company, and then I've been a freelance editor for a while. Like, yeah, you're not for us, but if instead, it's all right, I understand that these are some of the most pressing challenges that you have in your tech company. You don't need somebody that can just cut you need somebody that can coordinate, somebody that can manage, somebody that understands story, but somebody that understands how to manage people. Yes, oh my god, yes. That's exactly what we're looking for. Let me tell you how I've solved these problems in other contexts before. Now I realize, yeah, I was working for the Giants, but this was the kind of work environment that I was in. These were the problems that I solved. You guys have any situations like that? Oh my god, yeah, it's like that all the time. Now, let me tell you a little bit more about my storytelling abilities. I would presume these are the kinds of stories you want to tell. Yes, they are. I've told these kinds of stories before, so you just need to change the narrative of your story, and you didn't make it not about you. So whenever I workshop resumes, cover letters about pages on websites, I can set my watch to somebody's existential crisis in seven minutes or less in their first hot seat. Because when I ask them the following question, when they show me any of these materials, I always ask, okay, great, let's get started. Who's the audience of this? I don't understand. What do you mean? The audience, like the people that are gonna watch it on TV? No, who's the audience that's looking at your resume? Who's that ideal person that's looking at it? I don't know, producers, producers of what directors of, what creative directors of, what you have to better understand and crawl into the brain of this person, so that you can make it about them. This is exactly what I did when I discovered Cobra Kai. And I say discover like I'm Christopher Columbus. There are already people watching it on YouTube, but nobody had heard of it yet. I found the show, and I said, I am perfect for them, not it's perfect for me. I said I'm perfect for them. So I researched them in my job interview. By the way, it's the paradox of being really good at job interviews is that you never actually do them. I've done 20 interviews in my entire career. I've gotten 18 of the 20. The 19th, I was this flipping close, and the 20th was just not a good fit. So I actually haven't done a lot of job interviews in my last interview was seven years ago. One interview got me seven years of work. But I walked into my interview for Cobra Kai, and they said, so Zack, tell me about yourself. And I leaned in and I said, Cobra Kai and the Karate Kid. That was my Star Wars growing up, and that was it, because they're like, oh my god, like he loves Karate Kid. And then I spent the entire meeting saying, Tell me more about season one. What are some of the challenges that you dealt with in post production, what really frustrated you? And they started to talk about their challenges, it wasn't well. So I've worked on Empire, and I've cut glee. I worked on a show called shooter. I always show up on time. Really good at collaborating. I'm really great at working with music. I never made it about me. The whole meeting was tell me more about the challenges you faced in post production with this show, and with every challenge, they said, Here's what I can bring to the table. You had a challenge season one, getting a really polished editor's cut, and you felt like they had a long way to go. I guarantee you watch my first cut and you're going to say we could finish this now. We've got a million and a half notes, but it's always going to be broadcast ready. Another thing that they said, well, we just we really had a hard time finding the sound for it. And I said, basically hair bands and 80s metal was the soundtrack of my childhood. Like, I'm gonna know all the obscure songs that you guys don't even know. And then I follow through with that promise. There are a bunch of choices throughout the show. They're like, we didn't even know the song existed. But it's perfect for the show. So it wasn't here's why I'm awesome. It's helped me understand your problems, and let me tell you why you why I can be the solution to your problems and I can make your project better. Because it seems to me, at least 50% of the way you have all the skills that are necessary, you have the experience necessary, you have the character that's necessary, they just don't know it because they're judging you based on one piece of paper. So what's one example of how you can shape the narrative and you can make it about them, and how you're valuable to them, even though you don't technically have the experience yet?

Alyssa Royce

Yeah, it's tough. I feel like we have opposite experiences, because I've done a million interviews and and it seems like I'm always getting in the final round. And then what is interesting is that the a lot of interviews that I've had, they call me back a couple months later asking for freelance work. And so that's that's the funny thing that indicates that, like, editing is my sweet spot is because they didn't want to give me the director job, they didn't want to give me the producer job, but they're like, but they're like, but we like, we still need some editing help. Can you come back and work on that? So yeah,

Zack Arnold

Do you know why they made that choice? Because I bet I do, and I know nothing about you, and I know nothing about your experience, but you know why they made that choice?

Alyssa Royce

Because I looked like an editor on paper,

Zack Arnold

Because it's the safe choice, because if you don't work out your fault because we're like, Yeah, her her resume said she could do it. It's not our fault. She sucked, right? But if they take a chance on you, they're like, We want her as a director, and it doesn't work out, they fall on the sword. That's why you have to overcome the barrier. Why should we take a chance on you? And you make it very clear, there's nobody that understands your project, your needs better than I do now. They're willing to take the chance, but they're doing it because it's safe, because they know you can do it, because you've done it before. But part of that, I would argue, and again, never been in any of your interviews. I've known you for all about 14 minutes, but my guess is that you're also making the safe choices in the interview, and you're really selling what you're good at with editing. And they're saying, well, she'd be good for this, but I don't think you're making it very clear here's why I can be an amazing director for you, or an amazing coordinator or producer or whatever the title is. I think it's more, well, I'd really like to do this thing. It'd be really cool. I mean, I have done this other stuff, but man, if I could have that directing job, that'd be awesome.

Alyssa Royce

Yeah, probably, yeah. And it seems like I do need to be a little more focused, as to, like, not just kind of spraying applications and resumes, which is where I'm at right now. I'm just taking freelance gigs and trying to get anything just for the paycheck. Exactly. I have to be a little more disciplined about it.

Zack Arnold

Not only discipline, but I think you also need to be more focused about interjecting relationships into there, because right now, you're putting yourself out there like a commodity. The commodity of here are the services that I offer. If you need these services, I am available. Here's everything that I've done on my resume. But if instead, you find the companies that you really want to work for, and you build one on one relationships. That's when you get advocates. Somebody says, You know what? Like, I know that Melissa doesn't make sense on paper, but I just, I got a feeling we got to give her a shot. She'd be great for this versus, well, this is who you're on paper. We've got 478, more candidates. We've got to meet with 17 of them, check all the boxes. All right, sure. Are you available next week, you're a commodity. Right now, the only way you transition to somebody really being your advocate is you have to build one on one relationships. And I always say that the way that I teach networking is the most inefficient process on the planet. But dear Lord, is it effective, but it takes time, because you have to personalize it, and you have to provide value to people if you were to start focusing on the time to connect with the right people, rather than, well, I could get another 20 resumes out today. That could be the game changer.

Alyssa Royce

Fair enough. I mean, yeah, I guess that's how I got the air table job in the first place, was through a connection that took three or four years develop. Yeah, yeah.

Zack Arnold

It just takes time. That's why I said that this is a game of chess, not a game of checkers, and because everybody's so desperate, people are playing. Go fish out there right now. And it takes patience, and it's a little bit scary, but if you really invest in the time to build these rich relationships, they will pay off 100x in dividends, not even close. I don't remember the last time I actually, I do remember I take this back the last time I sent out resumes and demo reels, and this was when it was like mailing DVDs. I'm aging myself, but the last time I mailed out cover letters, resumes and demo reels was maybe 2007 2008 and I remember it because I had a stack of, like, 150 of them, and I spent days getting all these together, like you literally had to print it all the cover letters, you have to print all the DVDs. All the DVDs. I think each package probably cost me like 1015 bucks. So it cost me hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I sent all of them out. Take a guess how many responses I got and how many jobs it led to none. Two people responded. Zero. Opportunities. Why? Because I was selling myself as a commodity when I instead decided I want to find the right people that I want to connect with, and I want to build relationships to them. It took longer, and it was a slog, and it's like, man, is this ever going to work? But then I found the show. I'm like, this is the dream show. I know I can walk in on day one, and I know I can cut Burn Notice they never give me a shot, because who am I? With no TV experience, but I found the right people. I connected with one of the editors on the show. He and I developed a relationship. Lo and behold, about three months later, he was going to be working on a new pilot. He needed somebody to fill in him for one episode, and here's what he called me. I'll never forget when he called me, I know exactly where I was. I'll never forget it, sitting at the 76 gas station at the corner of Ventura, just west of where the 101 and the 405 intersect. I'll never forget it. He's like, Hey, you should go in for an interview for Burn Notice. I was like, Oh my God. And then he said, Now I just want to, just want to set the record straight, like you don't have enough experience, you don't have the credits, they're not going to hire you, but it'd be really great experience to get the interview. And I hung up the phone and I said, I'm getting that job, and I did, but it all happened because of a relationship, and it took time to build that relationship, and it took effort. Took way more effort than sending out 50 resumes, but it literally changed my entire life. Awesome. So that's where I would start. Did I give you something concrete enough that you can walk away and you know what to do next?

Alyssa Royce

Yeah, I think I need to focus on what company I want to work for, versus just kind of waiting for someone

Zack Arnold

Exactly waiting is going to get you and everybody else nowhere. Right now, the time for waiting is over. We have to be proactive and we have to go over, go after what we want to now. More than ever.

Alyssa Royce

Awesome. Thanks so much. Excellent.

Zack Arnold

Yeah. Thank you so much for submitting. It was so nice to chat with you and nice to meet you. Alyssa, likewise, all right, so third on my list from our inner circle that applied is David. David, have you stuck with us? Are you still here?

David McErlain

Here I am.

Hey, good to see you again. Thank you. Good to be here. Sure, it's been a great week. I'm happy to hear that. I'm nervous now, because now I know I have to talk about myself and all this stuff.

Zack Arnold

This is why it's not called the tepid seat or the lukewarm seat. So what are we talking about? How can I help you?

David McErlain

Well, I feel really stuck, and I feel like a lot of the stuff that, like, what Amy was talking about today, where, like, you know, when the when the pandemic hit, and there was all this time, and I was like, Oh, well, you know, it'll be a great time for me to tackle this and that, but instead, I found myself distracted all the time and procrastinating. And

so that's, yeah, that's

where I'm at. And then also, just in my career, I feel like it was slowly going up, and then at a certain point it's been going down, and so is my sort of, you know, mental state about my career, you know. So, yeah, that's where I'm at.

Zack Arnold

Well, I can say, like I did in the previous hot seats, I would presume there are a lot of people that are on this call right now that can relate to this. Is there anybody else? And this is something that, again, I talked about with Amy, a little bit Amy McNee McNee in today's summit interview. How many of you are stuck in the middle of this paradox where you have all the time in the world and yet you're doing nothing with it? Is there anybody that feels like that right now? It's totally okay to raise your hands, because I think a lot of people feel this way, where you you We always think to ourselves, man, when I just have the time, once I have the time, that's when I'm going to get healthier, that's when I'm going to work on my resume, that's when I'm going to update my reel. I my reel, that's when I'm going to run a marathon. Then all of a sudden, we're given the gift of time, and what happens we watch Netflix. Don't believe me, look at what happened during COVID lockdowns. Everybody always said, Well, I just I need the time to do these things. We were handed the gift of nothing but time, and clearly time wasn't the problem, because we had all of it and we still weren't getting anything done. So I want to talk a little bit more about procrastination broadly. Then I want to zoom in very, very specifically, David, because procrastination, by and large, is not a laziness response. It is a fear response. We procrastinate because we're afraid of something else. We're afraid of feeling some certain emotion or thinking something that we don't want to think that makes us makes us feel uncomfortable very rarely, is procrastination about laziness. So let's get really, really specific. Give me an example of something you know you should be doing the you're procrastinating on right now.

David McErlain

So, you know, I joined the master the workflow program and I. I sort of stopped in the middle of that. And I downloaded, you know, I also bought a bunch of the, like, Film Editing pro things like the, you know, the music course, and like, I stopped in the middle of that. Every time I sit down, you know, I just, I get into something else. I start looking at other things, or, you know, or like, start organizing my file. I start becoming my own assistant editor. Because I've been an assistant editor for so long, or, you know, and I enjoy it, but like, so now, you know, I'm like, instead of like, actually banging out a tutorial or a project, you know, I'm like, I better organize all the files on my drive.

Zack Arnold

Yeah, I am never more organized and clean than when I need to write something, yeah, oh my God, when I have to write a newsletter, I'm like, All right, I'm gonna write the newsletter. Hold on. Gotta clean that up. Oh, dishes. I have to go clean the kitchen. So if I ever need a clean kitchen. I just need to write 1000 words and it will be the cleanest kitchen ever. But then I always ask myself, yeah, but what am I afraid of? There's a fear there of something. So let's use one of these as an example. So you said there's you have a lot of assistant editing experience. Clearly, you want to get more editing experience. Let's dig into film editing Pro. Film Editing Pro, again, self promotion for them. They're not an affiliate. They're not a media sponsor, but I do know Chris, the guy that founded it. They have probably the best courses on really zooming into the very hard skills, learning, sound learning, visual effects, learning story. So you have all the tools at your disposal to walk away with something really, really cool. So you sit down, you're going through the materials. You know that it's good for you, and you know you should do it. So what is it that pulls you away to organize the shelves, or that pulls you away to mop the floor, or whatever it is, what are some of the thoughts and the feelings that you're having?

David McErlain

I don't even know. I That's a tough question, because, yeah, I feel like I know I need to be doing these things. I guess I hit some sort of, like, obstacle where I'm like, oh, you know, like, they're, they're teaching the, like, how to do a ring out. And I'm like, you know, I'm messing around with it. And I'm like, I don't know, my ring out doesn't sound as good as theirs. And then, you know, I get up to go do the dishes or whatever, and I just don't come back to

Zack Arnold

it. There it is. We found it. And by the way, for anybody that's thinking this is just about writing outreach emails and updating resumes, this is the real shit that we do here in the academy is digging into all the fears, the imposter syndrome, the procrastination, this is the stuff that's stopping us more than anything else. So full disclaimer, I do not have any of the degrees to say I'm a licensed therapist, but the most common people say the most common title that my students use, they say, You are my career therapist, and this is why. So here's what we have identified. I think this is a microcosm of something much larger. You said I work on the ring out, but it's just not as good as everybody else's. So there's a fear of putting your work out there and realizing maybe I'm not an editor, maybe I'm not good enough to do this. Why did I spend all this money on these courses when I'm not finishing them? Because I don't want anybody to see my work, and here's why, because when somebody sees it, they're going to confirm that I'm not good enough to do this. Does that voice sound familiar? Very familiar. Now, do you see why I invited Amy McNee to our summit?

David McErlain

Yeah, because I was really at the point of almost giving up last night. I wrote it in the in the thing, but like, I woke up at 3am last night going like, Ah, shit, because all yesterday was about, you know, socials and content creation, and that's where I hit the wall. That's where I'm like, Ah, you know, I don't, I haven't posted anything to socials in a long time, even like, just person, you know, occasionally personal stuff, or when I'm pissed off at what you know is going on in the news or whatever. But like, yeah, so all yesterday was about posting on socials and content creation, and I hit that wall again, going, like, I'm that. I'm never going to do that, you know. And I, I woke up in like, I said, at 3am feeling all those things, and I wrote down my feelings and but it was essentially like that, like, like, I, you know, maybe this isn't for me. Maybe I'm not for this.

Zack Arnold

Well, first of all, as somebody had alluded to in the chat, this is universal to the creative process. This is not about the transition from assistant to editor, anybody that needs to do creative work and put it out there. This is a natural barrier. And this is why I talked about, I think it was with God, I have so many conversations in my head. I don't even remember who it was with any. More, but I talked about the difference between being creative and being a creative and this is a conversation I also had with Dr Scott Barry Kaufman, which is in the bonus resources, who's literally known as, like the number one psychologist, and like the world's expert on creativity. And everybody is creative. Everybody creates. I think it was actually Amy I had this conversation with, but not everybody identifies as a creative, and I feel that those that identify as a creative, we have this need, this compulsion to put something out into the world and leave things that are concrete, whether physical or digital, that says I was here, and I want that work to be seen, and that comes with a tremendous amount of fear, because the fear is that we are in our work. So I'm gonna go off on a little bit of a tangent. I promise. I'll come back around. But there is a very well known study, and I'm totally blanking on who was. I think it was the Bureau of Labor and Statistics us, News and World Report. I don't remember I quoted in the design your dream career workshop, but they surveyed the highest stress, highest anxiety, worst jobs of all of the fields, not creative, like all of them. We're talking judges, policemen, firefighters, like, what is the most stressful job on the planet? What do you think number one was

David McErlain

doctors?

Zack Arnold

Doctors, not even close, but specifically, anesthesiologists. No, actually, it was urologist, not urologist, which is mind blowing. Guess what? Number two was,

David McErlain

directors, editors, editors,

Zack Arnold

Of all of the jobs. And I think there were like, 678 like, it's hundreds and hundreds of professions, the number two most stressful job as editor. And I thought to myself, what is happening? But I've been thinking about this for years, and I think there's two reasons for this. The first reason is because when you're an editor, they decide that we're going to give you the most complex cognitive tasks imaginable. We're going to ask you to do the most cognitively, cognitively demanding thing, which is making decisions. And your entire life, for 1214, 16 hours a day is making 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of micro decisions. But wait, there's more. Now we're going to put you in a small, dark room with no windows, and at best, we're going to slide a pizza box underneath your door. But here's where I think is the kicker, when you're an editor, you're literally putting yourself into your timeline. When you're a writer, you're putting yourself onto the page. When you're a director, you're putting yourself onto the screen. You're a painter, you're putting yourself onto the canvas. And our entire careers are people dismantling our identities. Here are all the notes. Here's everything that's wrong with everything you're doing, and if you don't learn how to develop a thick skin and separate yourself from the choices, it will destroy you. So this is a really, really difficult career path, and right now you don't have the confidence to say, Nope, I actually think these choices are pretty good. This sound ring out. It's not the best one, and I'll get better. But this is pretty good. You're instead comparing yourself to the people that created Film Editing Pro and saying, I'm not good enough. So what you have to do something that's called fear exposure. This is the exact same process that I used when I was training for American Ninja Warrior. I am deathly afraid of heights. Like heights freak me out. So yeah, I'm gonna choose a sport where you're swinging on stuff. The other thing that freaks me out water. I hate water. I don't like swimming. I don't like going to the beach. I don't even like going in pools. So I've chosen to go after a sport that's probably one of the most physically demanding sports there is. And what do you do? You swing in the air over water. So what I had to do is constantly expose myself to the right amount of fear. And it wasn't I'm gonna swing from one bar to the next and Lachey 10 feet over 20 feet of water. That's not what I did on day one. I exposed myself to very, very small amounts of fear. So in this case, you can ask yourself, and we'll use the microcosm of the ring out right? And it could be like cutting a scene or whatever it might be, what's the safe amount of exposure, where I take this and I show it to somebody else and it's scary, but it's not me showing it to Walter Murch. It's not me showing it to Eddie Hamilton. It's, I'm going to show it to another colleague and be like, hey, what do you think of these ring outs? What do you think of the way that I cut the scene? Oh, that's actually really interesting. I might have done something different. Maybe I would have chosen the close up instead of the wide shot, but you're onto something. So if you can surround yourself with people that you trust, where they can give you positive criticism and they can help you get better, but it's in a place of less judgment, would that give you just enough motivation to be like maybe I'll just try cutting one more thing and I'll show it to somebody, and then it can build the positive momentum, rather than you stop yourself in your tracks.

David McErlain

Yeah, that would be great too, because I feel like it would get me outside of myself, where, like, feeling like, even if I, even if I do this whole tutorial, and I'm like, whatever you know, like, doesn't matter, you know, like, nobody's gonna hire me because I. Finished this tutorial, you know, but I do like, you know, reaching out to friends and colleagues and being like, hey, what do you think of this? And getting feedback. And then I'm starting to collaborate more, which is something I also feel like I don't do a lot of, you know. I feel like I'm supposed to know everything. And so I just sit there in my edit bay and, like, try to make it as good as I can, even if I'm stuck or whatever. I just, like, try to make it happen. And then turn it in, and then face, you know, the, you know, the like, I'm giving it to Walter Murch and saying, Here, look at this. And he's like, No,

Zack Arnold

Yeah, exactly. So then how do we break this down into something really, really tangible where you can actually make a micro commitment? An example being, I've got this one minute thing. I've got a buddy of mine that I could send it to over the weekend.

David McErlain

I mean, I can't think of anything that's also part of a problem. But like, I mean, I could just finish that film editing pro thing, and then send it to a buddy,

Zack Arnold

Exactly. And this is also the kind of stuff that we workshop all the time in the academy. Somebody wants to get feedback on something that they cut, or an outreach message, or whatever it is. Like we're I've created a very, very safe space where we help each other grow and we give very, very candid feedback. Like when I say it's the hot seat, it's the hot seat, like I will tear somebody apart. I will rewrite every word of an outreach message, and the response is, Thank you, sir. May I have another I'll come back next time, because they know that I'm doing it from a place of I want you to grow. I want you to achieve the potential that's inside, but it's also very uncomfortable to get to that space. So you need a safe place to be uncomfortable and to be able to show that to others. So that's that's the kind of environment that we've created here. So if you're looking for other peers that can give you that feedback, that's definitely what we do here. Okay, so is this, I hope, a little bit helpful, just kind of gets you a little bit over the hump, a little bit of momentum?

David McErlain

Yes, yeah. And, I mean, I obviously want to get to the point of doing outreach to you know, so

Zack Arnold

Yeah, and outreach is going to be a little bit of a heavier lift, but I can, I can help you get there as well, for sure. Okay, so, all right, well, so, so nice to talk to you and have you on the hot seat. Thank you, David, thank you. All right, so now we come to the open Q and A portion of the program, and we've got exactly 12 minutes, because I promised I would wrap up at 330 and we're going to wrap up at 330 so if you raise your digital hand, because I have three panels of people in front of me, I'm not going to be able to see physical hands. So if you just go down to the React button and say, raise hand, I am, we can talk about anything and everything for the next now, 11 and a half minutes. David, is it? Kat wisinke, close. Kotwazinski. Kotwazinski, all right, close. So nice to see you.

Dave Kotwasinski

You too. So I just had a question for if you were starting your career now, what do you what would you focus on, in terms of, like, exercises or projects or and given that, obviously, like, like, money, yeah, the courses and whatnot, probably, I can maybe do one, but most of them probably gonna be very affordable. So kind of like, yeah, what can I do? Kind of DIY,

Zack Arnold

Gotcha. Well, parts of a lot of that's gonna depend on what your goals are. So if you're asking me what I would do at the beginning of my career, I'm actually very much at the beginning of my career now in the context of I now want to do public speaking. The next major phase for me, like if we're talking about diversification, the next major phase for everything we're building is going out and doing public speaking opportunities for major corporations and then turning that ultimately into also having a book. So I'm at the very beginning of two different careers right now, a public speaking career and a career as an author. It's the same advice that I give everybody. The first step, you have to surround yourself with the people that are doing now what you want to be doing next. I knew years ago that on my bucket list is that I want to be a published author. So what I did is I started building relationships with authors. A lot of the people that I talked to on my podcast, that's just me building my network. You want a good excuse to build your network start a podcast. So I've started building relationships with authors, and I've also built relationships with some of the top named authors in their industries, where they become super connectors. For me, the reason that I start with my network before I start with skills is I don't want to spend years learning the wrong skills that aren't going to get me anywhere. So if it's a matter of, well, I'm going to spend a couple years and I'm going to learn that I need all my footage to be black and white with blue polka dots. So I'm going to make sure that I use all the tutorials and all the plugins, so I can make the best blue polka dots on all my footage, and then somebody's like, the hell's with all the blue polka dots? You're like, oh, but I'm the best in the world of blue polka dots. And they're like, Who gives a shit? Nobody needs that skill. So I always start with network, because when I start with them, and I can say, How did you get where you are now? But more importantly, what did you. Do when you started. I'm always asking those questions first, so then I can figure out what I want to work on next. So now I come back to your question. You're asking me as somebody that's an editor, you tell me what you want to do next, and that's going to help me better identify what you should be working on.

Dave Kotwasinski

Yeah, yeah. I just want to be a creator. It's so it's Yeah, producer, writer, editor, like, yeah, just want to be part of the creative process.

Zack Arnold

All the things you want to do, all the so let's get more specific. Because right now, without specificity, I don't know what to tell you what to do next. What kind of content creator Do you want to be? And you don't have to know what the answer is for the rest of your life, but you have to have specificity for where you want to go next. So if it's like, well, I want to do, you know, 10 minute videos about mountain biking, like, just off the top of your head, what are you excited about being a content creator for now?

Dave Kotwasinski

That's a great question. Yeah, I'd probably be videos that are, like, video essay type things on YouTube that are, you know, entertaining but informative. You know that, like, you know, to tackle, like, you know, current, like, political or social things that like that are entertaining but also, like, explain to people, like, Oh, here's, here's what's going on, or here's why it's going on. Or, yeah, entertainment form too,

Zack Arnold

Great. All right, now we've got some specificity. Now we have something that we can form. So I'm walking you through a couple of the steps of what I call the go far framework. The go far framework is based on a documentary film that I produced, directed, wrote, years ago about the first quadriplegic to become a licensed scuba diver. This is somebody that had no business achieving anything he's achieved. He achieved more in his lifetime than most able bodied people do, and he had this five steps framework that was called go far, that was goals, obstacles, focus, act and review. So I always take my students through this five step process, and we start at the top of the stream, which is goals, because everything is downstream from goals. So the goal right now, and there is more form to this. But for the sake of this conversation, the goal is that I want to be a content creator. I want to be talking about politics, current events, kind of, vlog, video essay, style, great. So now I ask you the obstacles question, what's stopping you from doing that?

Dave Kotwasinski

It seems like a really flooded space where everybody seems to have a, you know, be on YouTube or Tiktok or a podcast, or have one or all the above and it just yeah, how do you even get noticed? So yeah, if I put Yeah, 323, months into a video, or a series of videos, and nobody's watching it, it's like, yeah, what am I doing?

Zack Arnold

All right, great. So what's stopping you is you, yeah, you deciding, well, everybody else is already doing it. So who am I to think that I could do it, that's a limiting belief. So now we know that one of the obstacles you need to overcome is strengthening the belief that you do belong in this space. Are you going to get a million views on day one? No, but as long as you believe I am somebody that could be in this space, and I just want to try, similar to what I was talking about with David, you don't have to have your first video get a million views to be considered successful. Most everybody's views, when they start as a content creator, are garbage like look back at Mr. Beast first videos. He spent years and years nobody knew that. Jimmy Donaldson, the guy that's Mr. Beast, he had a YouTube channel for years that nobody ever watched. And then, boom, the pandemic hits. All the 11 year old boys are stuck at home with nothing to do. Boom. Now he's got 400 million subscribers, that is more than the population of the United States. Years he made videos that nobody watched. So for you to immediately assume, who am I to think that I could do this, that's your obstacle. So now let's assume that I can just flip a switch and you believe in yourself. Now it's stopping you from putting these videos online, is it? Well, I don't have an internet connection. I don't know how to use a camera. Like, get really specific. What are your obstacles?

Dave Kotwasinski

Yeah, it'd be I had, yeah, I've done, like, basic short form videos in film school. I was only in there for there for a couple of years, though. So I only basic skills for, yeah, camera work, editing. I don't really have much of, like, a, you know, a film crew that I would know. Who did you know, get to help me out with, like, you know, all the various things I would need to do a project together.

Zack Arnold

All right, great. So now we know more tangible obstacles. Don't really have a lot of knowledge with setups and cameras. Don't have a crew. So this is one potential next action step to take two of these ideas and put them together. Number one, surrounding yourself with the right people. Number two, asking the right questions. If you were to find somebody in this space, not the biggest name in there, but if you were to find somebody that has a decent amount of views, somebody that you really respect, you like their content, you reach out to them and you say, Hey, I'm in the process of learning how to do what you do. I'd really love to be able to create more video essays about politics. What's stopping me? I'm not really confident yet my ability to use cameras and lighting setups. Would you mind if I reached out with a question or two to learn a little bit more about how did you get started, and what kind of lighting setups and equipment did you have? Did you have a film crew when you first started? The more you understand. Learned about the people that are doing now, what you want to be doing next, and where they were, where you are now, then it's going to be much clearer to answer the question, what should I be working on next? So if you're going to find one thing to walk away with, just start doing research on YouTube and find the people who are my experts, who are the ones that have the channels where this is the kind of work I'd like to be doing next where I feel like they're reachable.

Dave Kotwasinski

Amazing. Thank you.

Zack Arnold

Yeah, you're more than welcome. Ooh, Monica, somebody is zoom bombing our conversation. Hello there. How are you?

Monica Daniel

Oh, how do I lower my hand? Lower

Zack Arnold

You're good. I lowered it for you. And by the way, of all the weeks that I was doing this summit, I cannot tell you how sad I was that I missed Wednesday night. There was this. There was no way I could make it happen. But all the weeks

Monica Daniel

Swamped and I had to be at the last lossy folks

Zack Arnold

Of all the weeks, but to miss the last create a Pro user group, that one's gonna hurt. But there was just, there was no possible way for me to be there. I was bummed anyway. How can I help you.

Monica Daniel

Well, I'm going to start with extreme sarcasm. The question I'm going to ask, I'm sure, is something that you have no familiarity with. Sometimes I am too ambitious for my own good.

Zack Arnold

No, that doesn't surprise me whatsoever coming from you.

Monica Daniel

So I finally, I've had a pretty low point the last several years, both professionally and personally, and things are finally starting to turn around for me now, and it's I've, you know, in that process, I've developed, like, era aerial dancing and the Spartan training, and that's all a regular part of like, a must have in my life now, and I'm going to be Going back to work very soon, but there's still all the stuff I want to do, and it's like, oh, I have to work for a good chunk of the week now, and I got to make sure I do a really good job with that. But so all the things I want to do with some you know, I have to keep Ariel and Spartan training in there as I'm working. But also on top of that, which is something I'd like to do, but I'm trying to figure out how to do it without making my brain explode. Is I've have friends now I because I post all my reels of, like, all of my training and stuff I do out there, just, just because I want to, you know, friends of mine are like, can I train with you, when you go train and I'm like, Oh yeah, I'd be totally open to that. They're like, I'm like, I haven't scheduled the time to go to Muscle Beach yet because I've been so busy. It's like, I want to do stuff like that. I'm also on multiple ace committees that one of the Internship Committee I'm part of that's gearing up, so a lot of that's going to be moving forward. I've also taken steps to start becoming involved in the Television Academy committees. And this is all stuff like, you know, it's volunteer I just like to do for myself, and that would be coming into play next year. And there's just also personal time with friends, and I could try planning stuff on a calendar, but I am a single mom of two teenagers, one who has special needs, and they like to just create chaos in my life and just throw a wrench in any planning I do at any given point. What point they might they could just come through like a Kaiju and just like, well, I need to adjust my day now. So it's just trying to accomplish all these things I want to accomplish without burning myself out. And you know, I got to take care of myself. A lot of personal difficulties I've had I also have to deal with just outside of career and hobbies and just fun things and just trying to figure out how to, I guess there's no real balance, but just manage it, especially as I, you know, get back into the workforce full time, just doing All these things I just want to accomplish. Right?

Zack Arnold

Yeah, so that's a that's a big matzo ball to to start at the very end of this conversation. So I'm going to do a very, very small version of it. Here's where we're going to start. Step one is really easy, except that you're not doing all the things that you just said you're going to do, until you accept that this is going to be a nightmare, because you're going to try and force it. You're not going to get all the things done that you just said you're going to do. Ask me how I know that?

Monica Daniel

Oh, I know you've burnt out several times over,

Zack Arnold

Many, many times. I'm still wondering what the hell am I going to look like on the morning of July 10, when enrollment closes? We're going to find out, because this is the hardest six months I've ever had, rebuilding this company from the ground up and everything else is going on the world. And yeah, this has been a lot. I love every second of it, but it's also very exhausting. So we start with, you're not doing all the things that you said. Here's what I want to hone in on. This is and again, we could easily talk about this for 30 minutes. We could talk about this for a semester. We could talk about this for a whole year in our Mastermind program. And we do. But here's the five minute version. I'm going to go for a couple. Extra minutes. Anybody that was planning on leaving at 330 you're welcome to stay. You're also welcome to go. You're not going to offend me. But here's the thing that I think we can make a mindset shift. You said, Well, I could try a calendar, but my kids, it's just chaos. Here's what you need to do. You need to have a calendar so you know what you're being distracted from. You need to say this is what it should look like, and I accept it's probably never going to look like this. But rather than saying, well, what's the point? It's just going to be chaos anyways, that's a self fulfilling prophecy. If you assume it's going to be chaos, then it's going to be chaos, as opposed to, ideally, here's what I think I can fit into a day. Here's what I can fit into a week. Every time that I have my students go through this ideal calendar exercise, they hate it, by the way. It's not about the it's not about the result. It's about the questions they're forced to ask themselves in the process. Just I think it was, it was this morning, actually, in our year long mastermind group, you know sadika, because you're at her in person retreat, she finally had the revelation that I've been waiting for her to have for a year, and she finally said, When I tried to put all this on my calendar, I realized I am trying to do too much. And from my perspective, I was like, no offense to sadika, but dur, like everybody saw it, but as soon as she had to put it on her calendar, she's like, the math doesn't add up. I have 24 hours in a day. I have seven days in a week. And when you have to put the blocks on the calendar, not because that's actually what you're doing for the day or the week, but you say, here are my priorities. Here are my values. And you start to put the math on there, you're like, there is no way for me to do the aerial and the Spartan and all the committees and work as an assistant editor on a show for, you know, 50 plus hours a week and be present for my kids. All the things that are in your life are important. That's a really, really great problem to have. But now the things you want to do are going to have to start going. Most people have a whole bunch of shit on their calendar that they don't want to do. So the fact that everything in your life are things that you do want to do, minus, you know, you've clearly been through a lot of challenges and a lot of chaos that I would never wish on anybody, but for the most part, now, all the things that are on your calendar are things that you want to do, but there's still not enough space.

Monica Daniel

And I think the thing for me is trying to figure out, Okay, what's my priority of like, the lower priorities, you know, maybe not add, but definitely, you know, my kids will be up there. And of course, my my training is, is vital, actually, for my mental health and keep my body healthy, because from editing for so long, I actually have chronic pain if I don't train regularly. So it's like trying to work that out. And just like, train at least two to three times a week, try to find that time.

Zack Arnold

And what you just did, you just identified your one thing you said of all the things, the one thing I cannot give up is the training for two to three days a week, because that is the foundation for everything. That's what you build on. You're like, all right, this has to go on the calendar. Time with the kids has to go on the calendar. Work goes on the calendar. Now look at all the space that's left over. That's the budget for everything else, and now you have to make difficult choices.

Monica Daniel

Yeah,

Zack Arnold

I don't call it the tepid seat. You can't because there's not enough room. It just doesn't exist. That's the problem. Yep. So this that we might have talked about this in the retreat, but this is why I don't talk about work life balance. What we talk about is being strategically imbalanced right now. For the last few months, I've been very strategically imbalanced, putting all of my time, energy and attention towards this week. I wanted this week to be a success. I wanted to put this work out there. I wanted to inspire people. I wanted to have all these interesting conversations that we weren't having, I've been very strategically imbalanced. There has been no work life balance in my life, but it was strategic. So it's not like I've sacrificed all of my relationships, but I've set proper expectations for the people around me, knowing that these were the goals. Now, when this is over, now I'm going to reprioritize, I'm going to rebalance, and I'm going to find strategic imbalance with something else, because that's the way that I do things. So you're very much the strategic imbalance type. You just need to get clear on your priorities, what can't go and then look at the amount that's left over, and then what can you fill that space with? That's what I would do.

Monica Daniel

Okay, yeah,

I do have my calendars, because I don't remember anything where it's the basics, but it's like, oh, but what now that I'm going to be working full time that's going to just take away huge chunks of time,

Zack Arnold

Yeah. Well, the good news is that the the editor that you're going to be working with is learning right now how to get really, really good at time and calendar management. You can definitely pick her brain on calendars, because she, too, is in the year long mastermind so, well, cool. Well, thank you for bringing this up. All right. Well, on that note, I appreciate all of you that have stuck it out until the bitter end. I had a lot of fun today. I hope you guys had a lot of fun as well. And again, one more time, if you didn't already catch it, you probably know this, but we're very excited to. Open for the very first time the Arnold Academy for creatives. And would love to see all of your faces and more. You could literally be on office hours doing this kind of stuff by this Tuesday morning. So the Arnold academy.com. If you have any questions, reach out to me. Reach out to my team. I hope you enjoyed today. I hope you enjoyed the summit. Everybody. Take care of yourselves and be well. I hope to see all of you soon.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai