Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Hey, my friend. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. I've got a blue knot.
[00:00:10] Listen, there's a lot of places that your ears and your eyes and your mind could be right now. And I'm very glad that you're here with me because no matter when you are listening to this, I know you need to hear it. And I know that because there's never a bad time to think about how you're thinking or to be good at thinking about thinking.
[00:00:32] There's never a time when it's a bad thing to be good at this critical thinking thing. There's never a bad time to put your thoughts on trial. There's never a bad time to question the court of public opinion. There's never a bad time to feel your shit and put it into action.
[00:00:51] Riz, I've been having so many conversations with choreographers and dancers who feel very afraid right now. Afraid, by the way, one of my least favorites.
[00:01:05] Also, a lot of people feeling angry. I don't spend a lot of time angry. That's just part of my emotional flow. I don't know. But there's a lot to be afraid of right now and there's a lot to be mad about right now.
[00:01:19] But please be careful of making that mean that you should stop.
[00:01:24] When anger and fear turn into inaction, there's huge risk, especially as artists.
[00:01:34] So this episode is all about staying focused. Staying focused on the facts, the unchangeable circumstances of the world. And this episode is about separating those facts from. From your thoughts and opinions, from the thoughts and opinions about the facts, but also from other people's thoughts and opinions so that you can stay in the game, if in the game is where you even want to be. But most importantly, I want you to be able to do that so that you can live and act in alignment with your values.
[00:02:07] Of course, this is easier said than done. So many of us are walking around believing optional thoughts that leave us chained to feeling awful and living outside of our values.
[00:02:19] It is happening all the time. Maybe now more than ever, but also maybe not. I don't know the numbers. That's what we're leaning into today. But first, let's do some wins today. I'm celebrating. Drumroll, not roll, please.
[00:02:36] Guys. The Seaweed sisters are taking the steps, the actions, making the moves towards having a live show, an evening length live show here in Los Angeles that will tour. I hope I'm not ruining the surprise by saying that here on the podcast, but I don't think it's a mystery. So Many friends lately have been talking, asking us, have you guys ever thought about doing, like a live show? Yes, we've thought about it. We've thought about it for years, and now we're acting on it. You know, these things take time. We don't know how much time. We've never done it. But it's in motion and the emotion is in the ocean, my friends.
[00:03:19] Anyways, that's what's going well in my world. How about you?
[00:03:23] I love this knot.
[00:03:25] It's not a pillow.
[00:03:28] Okay, back to you.
[00:03:40] Yay.
[00:03:43] Congratulations, my friend. I'm so glad that you're winning.
[00:03:47] Okay, let's talk about it. Let's talk about separating thoughts from facts, why that's even important, how you do it and why you should be doing it now for sure. Especially if you're a person working in art and entertainment. Okay, let's dig in. A lot of us are believing rumor on the street, partially because it's what we've always done. I'm gonna give you a couple examples that I hear on repeat lately. Number one, the industry is slow right now.
[00:04:20] Number two, I've never seen it this dead. It's really dead. Number three, I've. I'm not working right now. And that's a super tricky one because it can seem like a fact. You can really think I'm not working if you're not on set. And I can get how that thought would appear to be a fact. But my friends, we are always working. We always have the opportunity to be working. I know it sounds strange, especially if you're a person who spends a lot of time on set. I can see how if you're that person, not being on set could feel like I'm not working. I get that. But every day that we're refining our tools, we're working, every day that we're turning our ideas into something a little more real, every day that we're exercising our craft, every day that we're managing our money, every day that we're managing our relationships and tightening our teams and expanding our network, we're working.
[00:05:16] Anyways, I digress. Another thought that a lot of people are thinking right now is that everyone is struggling. I've heard everything is going wrong. Just one thing leads to the next. Everything is going wrong. Or maybe this is just bad timing. I'm getting ripped off in LA right now. I moved here at the wrong time. This administration is making it hard for dancers. This isn't the time for self promotion. There's probably very real evidence that could support all of these thoughts that might even be able to turn them into truths. But if anyone could disagree about any of those thoughts, then they aren't circumstances, not provable facts. Not yet anyways. Maybe we could do some research, but I'm pretty sure all of those thoughts I just listed are thoughts someone could disagree.
[00:06:14] I'm going to give a download my own thought download and I'll separate some of my own thoughts from facts to show you how I like to operate. Here's what's going on in my mind.
[00:06:25] Okay, Many of us had a slow year last year and I've been at this a long time. I'm skilled, I'm connected. And even being a skilled connected person, there were three consecutive months, uninterrupted months, where my only income came from teaching and coaching.
[00:06:46] Nothing from the industry. On paper I had my lowest earning third quarter maybe ever, but definitely in the last five years.
[00:06:55] Yeah, I had never seen it that dead. A lot of my friends were in the same boat. The industry was the slowest I've ever felt.
[00:07:07] Seems like nobody's working in LA anymore. It seems like everybody's taking productions elsewhere because it's too damn expensive to get shit made in la.
[00:07:16] Okay, that's my download. Now there's evidence to support most of that, but the only agreeable by all cold hard facts about that are I've been working in the entertainment business for two decades. Three and a half months. My only income was teaching. Fact. Lowest earning third quarter in five years. Fact. Everything else was a thought, including the part where I said I'm well connected and skilled. I'm sure somebody could disagree. Anyways, let's continue to debunk. Not everyone is taking work outside of la. The Grammys are here today, the Oscars are next month. There are productions shooting as we speak also. Not everybody is struggling. I just had a free call and one of the lovely dancings who offered themselves up for coaching had just had their highest earning year ever and without even trying and wanted to be more deliberate about how they create value in the world.
[00:08:24] I mean, I know it can seem like the world is on fire, especially when the people you look up to are saying it, but a lot of those thoughts aren't true. Not necessarily true anyways.
[00:08:37] And most of those type of thoughts aren't useful.
[00:08:41] When we believe those threatening thoughts as facts, you can start feeling pretty shitty. And when you start feeling shitty, inaction takes hold. Negative self talk takes the wheel which starts this cycle of thinking shit and then feeling shit. And when most of us Feel shit. We try to fix it with our behavior. We try to change the way we're acting to try to change the way we're feeling. And that's not how it works. It's not an entirely bad approach because your actions do give you the results of your life. But you're only doing anything because you feel a certain way. And you only feel a certain way because you're thinking a certain way. So this episode is all about being watchful of your thinking, my friends.
[00:09:24] Because if you jump straight to trying to change your behavior with all of this shit going on, if you're trying to feel good to avoid feeling shit, I call this buffering, by the way. It's a very natural thing. I do think everyone has done it, or maybe we all do it on a daily basis. I don't know. But I know it's different from person to person.
[00:09:49] For some of us, it's social media. For some of us it's overeating or drinking. Some of us like to shop. Some of us like to pick up the phone and talk shit. Some of us hit the gym and just divert the focus away from feeling shit to taking positive action and feeling good, which, no lie endorphins, give you the feeling of being happy. I'm not that person. I don't know much else about that. I'm more of a person who will binge a series or start a new romantasy novel, which I keep saying I'm going to do. Fourth Wing. I know, I know. I'm days away. Anyways, most of the things I just mentioned, with the exception of fourth wing, give a temporary pleasure and can lead to overindulging that gives you a net negative result. Like over drinking leads you to feeling shitty, hungover. Overeating leads to being overweight. Overspending leads to being over budget. It's pretty clear that seeking those temporary pleasures can lead to an overall net negative experience of your life. Okay, whoa. Let's bring it back.
[00:11:05] In a world where so much is subjective, right? Our work, our value.
[00:11:10] I'm talking about the art world, the entertainment world. There are way more thoughts than there are facts. And because we're passionate and opinionated people, there are a ton of thoughts out there presented as facts. So many thoughts sneaking under the radar in costumes, very fancy, sparkly costumes, as facts. And if we aren't diligent, if we aren't really watchful, if we aren't critical, if we aren't focused, we can carry on believing those thoughts as facts forever. And we can make big decisions based on them.
[00:11:46] If we're not careful, we can make those facts mean that we should stop or that we're bad or that this won't work. And then off to the temporary pleasures we go. You see how this cycle ends? It's nowhere good.
[00:12:01] So we must put those thoughts on trial. The public opinions, believing in them without question is dangerous.
[00:12:11] What do we stand to lose if we can't separate the circumstances from our thoughts? We stand to lose a lot. We stand to lose, first of all, the ownership of our lives, the agency, to make our own decisions and to own them as our own, like our own choices, instead of the result of someone else's choices. If you can't separate thoughts from facts, you might become complacent with other people's thoughts masquerading as facts.
[00:12:40] We may lose the wherewithal to resist.
[00:12:43] And it is time to resist.
[00:12:46] We may lose the ability to make change.
[00:12:49] We may lose the ability to create. Period.
[00:12:53] And that's the big risk, my friends.
[00:12:56] That's a big one.
[00:12:59] Can you see how thinking the industry is just slow right now leads to you slowing down? Can you see that when you think it's never been this dead, you wind up killing your own plans and your own projects.
[00:13:14] And when you think nobody's working, you stop working on yourself. You stop working on your projects, you stop training, you stop being at work.
[00:13:25] When you think everyone is struggling, you sit there and you struggle with reality. I'm not trying to gaslight you. I'm just telling you the results of your actions when you think that way usually turn into you quitting on yourself.
[00:13:42] So let's start making it natural to challenge those thoughts.
[00:13:47] I think that's what I'm really asking myself to do right now and what I would encourage you to do as well. When you think everything is going wrong, you don't give yourself credit for what's going right and you gas out. When you think it's just bad timing, you waste your time.
[00:14:06] I hope that this is helping you to see how directly linked your thoughts are to your actions. And if you're a person who believes in action and as movers and shakers, I think you are action motivated. If you believe in action and you want to act deliberately and in alignment with your values, please watch your thinking carefully because your thinking leads to actions and in many cases, inaction. In most circumstances, inaction is not the answer. Certainly not in resistance movements.
[00:14:39] I think we'll cross that bridge in another podcast, but I'll underline how much we have to lose when we accept thoughts as facts. And I would also like to add, we stand to gain a lot when we put those thoughts on trial. For example, we gain facts. Like, for this episode, the first thought that I decided to put on trial for research purposes was this one. Every production is leaving la.
[00:15:09] I did some light Googling on that thought. All of the work is leaving la. And here is what I learned. Louisiana has indeed lost production. Some productions and some actual workers, like part of the workforce, are leaving for lower cost hubs like Miami and Atlanta. But the actual numbers that support this really, really surprised me. Film LA reports that Greater Los Angeles share of US produced TV and film declined from 23% in 2021 to 18% in 2023. The drop from 23% to 18% is 5% over two years.
[00:15:54] That's significant. But that's not what caught my eye, actually. My uninformed brain thought that like 60% of us produced TV and film was happening here in Hollywood. I thought I moved to LA because it was like, where all TV and film was made. Like, I thought 100% of it was happening here. But if I was going to be real with you, I would have guessed that more than half of TV and film production happened in LA. In Hollywood. Yeah, I would have probably said 60. And in my mind, just dropping from 60% to 18%. Yeah, that's staggering. That's pack up and go home. But 23%, not even a quarter of all US produced TV and film in Hollywood dropping to 18% in 2023, that doesn't feel like the Armageddon that I'm hearing about from my peers. Just me.
[00:16:45] If I just thought a thought about those facts, I would say, hmm, other markets are getting stronger. Good for them. And if I took it one step further, if I did the math and figured out how many years it would take for me to not be able to make a living wage if work kept decreasing at 5% every two years, I could make a decision in two years if I wanted to leave or not.
[00:17:13] Instead of just like thinking that this shit's on fire and I'm jumping, you know, I do think that if workers leave la, the work will leave la. But that's not a reason to stay. If you're gonna make decisions, make them based on facts.
[00:17:28] This is me encouraging you to separate the facts from your thoughts. Arm yourself with facts. Arm yourself with the ability to be a critical thinker. Give yourself the facts when you can.
[00:17:42] I know it's easier to consume lies than facts because facts require fact checking and lies just require a pie hole.
[00:17:51] I get it, it's a privilege to have the time to fact check. But please my friends, be vigilant in your pursuit for truth. And if you can't find the absolute truth, just know that what you are making things mean is what is making you feel and act, not the circumstances themselves. That's what I have for you today my friend. That and a lot of compassion, patience and love for this community. If there is anything I can do to help you navigate these unprecedented times. Which by the way are our fault. We always talk about changing the world and friends we are.
[00:18:29] Like it or not, this is a world that we've never had before. It's new.
[00:18:34] This is a first time moment. We've got a world that we've never had and that will require some new and very different thinking. I've got your back and your fronts and sides.
[00:18:46] Now get out there, keep it exceptionally funky and I will be here cheering you on. Talk to you soon. This podcast was produced by me with the help of many Big big love to our Executive Assistant and Editor, Riley Higgins. Our Communications Manager is Fiona Small with additional support from Ori Vajadares. Our music is by Max Winnie, logo and brand design by Bri Reitz. And if you're digging the podcast, leave a review and rating and please share. Also, if you want to connect with me and the many marvelous members of the Words that Move Me community, visit Words that Move me dot com. If you're simply curious to know more about me and the work that I do outside of this podcast, visit thedanawilson.com.
