Podcasts about oscar wild

Welcome back to Oscar Wild's sixth season! Sophia and Nick are excited to premiere with a film they both love, one about responsibility and passion and art and rock music: Almost Famous. What do they love about it? In the famous words of Russell Hammond, “To begin with, everything.” In celebrating its 25th anniversary, they review the film and share their favorite scenes, quotes, and characters. Then, they discuss the film's award season run, including Cameron Crowe's win at the Oscars. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok @oscarwildpodFollow Sophia @sophia_cimFollow Nick @sauerkraut27More content including updated predictions @ oscarwild.squarespace.comMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

We are concluding our Women's History Month series: The Films of Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith with the return of writer and co-host of Oscar Wild, Sophia Ciminello. Sophia and Morgan dive into 2008's "The House Bunny," where they discuss the female journey, the interrogation of women aging, and the power of community amongst women.You can follow SophiaBlueskyLetterboxd You can find Sophia's workAwardsWatchYou can follow Oscar WildBlueskyInstagramLinktreeYou can follow Female Gaze: The Film ClubInstagramBluesky

And that's a wrap on the 97th Academy Awards and Season 5 of Oscar Wild! Listen as Nick and Sophia recap the exciting ceremony and relive all of the performances, surprises, and WTF moments. They share all of their opinions and fun new stats about the winners, hold out hope for the losers, and congratulate Anora, the new Best Picture winner and reigning 4-win champ!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok at @oscarwildpodFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Follow Sophia @sophia_cimMusic: "The Greatest Adventure" by Jonathan Adamich

There's something for everyone this episode as Nick and Sophia dive into three of the last and most exciting releases of 2024: Babygirl (12:45), A Complete Unknown (31:04), and Nosferatu (51:09). But before they opine and share a spoiler-free review of each film, they start with an update on the ten Oscar shortlists and what this could foreshadow when Oscar nominations are announced in three weeks! Thank you for listening to Oscar Wild in 2024 and here's to a happy 2025!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok @oscarwildpodFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Follow Sophia @sophia_cimMore content including updated nomination predictions @ oscarwild.squarespace.comMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

The boys are back this week to talk about the fallout of last week's election and lay the ground rules for another booking challenge. This booking challenge will run from Nov. 13th-Nov. 26th with the goal of booking at least one show per day. Join along and share your progress! Send in your questions and we'll answer them on the show! Email - MatandDwight@gmail.com! Be a pal and leave a review and subscribe!  Follow Mat! Follow Dwight!  

Fall festivals are about to begin which means it's time for Oscar Wild's biggest episode of the year! Nick and Sophia are excited to invite back eight extraordinary guests to compete in their fifth Awards Season Fantasy Draft: All-Stars Edition. Part competition, part movie madness, the draft showcases what they believe to be the biggest players throughout the coming awards season, possibly even taking home some Oscar gold come March. Each of their teams select films, cast and crew, and some fun creative picks that could earn them the most points via critics prizes, multiple guilds, and the biggest award ceremonies. Tune in for a lively, hilarious, enlightening, and all together unforgettable insider look at the year's biggest movies! Which team do you think will take home the win: Team Berger Kings or Team New Rochelle Bi-Coastal Champions?Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @oscarwildpod including updated nomination predictions @ oscarwild.squarespace.comFollow Erik Anderson @awards_watchFollow Cody Dericks @codymonster91Follow Chelsea Eichholz @chels725Follow Joyce Eng @joyceeng61Follow Kevin Jacobsen @Kevin_Jacobsen & @OscarRunnerUpFollow Ryan McQuade @ryanmcquade77Follow Bennett Prosser @BennettProsserFollow Morgan Roberts @msmlroberts & @femalegazethefilmclubFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Follow Sophia @sophia_cimMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

The movie at the heart of this week's episode deeply embodies the passion behind Oscar Wild's favorite mini-game, Smash or Pass. Men can be unreliable, deceitful, temperamental, or just plain old rude. But at the end of the day, they can also be charming, hot, upstanding, and in endless supply, and I know, my toast is burning.Sophia and Nick rewind to 1937 yet again to further discuss the contentious Oscar race for Best Actress. They previously highlighted Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas on “Stanwyck September” last year along with Janet Gaynor in A Star Is Born on “Always Remember Us This Way”with guests Connor and Dylan MacDowell. Listen to hear them break down Irene Dunne's Oscar nominated performance in The Awful Truth before critiquing Luise Rainer's poorly aged win for The Good Earth and providing an extensive conversation on their favorite acting category (25:57). Would they have awarded their one Oscar to Irene Dunne or does Luise get to keep her statuette?Who would you have awarded Best Actress this year?Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @oscarwildpodFollow Sophia @sophia_cimFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Music: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan AdamichMore content including updated nomination predictions @ oscarwild.squarespace.comListen to Sophia's guest appearance on “And The Runner-Up Is” with friend of the pod Kevin Jacobsen as they discuss the 1937 Best Actress race in even more detail: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/and-the-runner-up-is/id1358031226?i=1000543593068

This week on the season finale of And the Runner-Up Is, Kevin welcomes Oscar Wild cohost Nick Ruhrkraut to discuss the 2009 Oscar race for Best Actress, where Sandra Bullock won for her performance in "The Blind Side," beating Helen Mirren in "The Last Station," Carey Mulligan in "An Education," Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious," and Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia." We discuss all of these nominated performances and determine who we think was the runner-up to Bullock. 0:00 - 9:53 - Introduction 9:54 - 28:25 - Helen Mirren 28:26 - 55:48 - Carey Mulligan 55:49 - 1:17:33 - Gabourey Sidibe 1:17:34 - 1:35:34 - Meryl Streep 1:35:35 - 1:58:31 - Sandra Bullock 1:58:32 - 3:08:48 - Why Sandra Bullock won / Twitter questions 3:08:39 - 3:13:10 - Who was the runner-up? Buy And the Runner-Up Is merch at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/and-the-runner-up-is?ref_id=24261! Support And the Runner-Up Is on Patreon at patreon.com/andtherunnerupis! Follow Kevin Jacobsen on Twitter Follow Nick Ruhrkraut on Twitter Follow And the Runner-Up Is on Twitter and Instagram Theme/End Music: "Diamonds" by Iouri Sazonov Additional Music: "Storming Cinema Ident" by Edward Blakeley Artwork: Brian O'Meara

John's in his villain era, Oscar Wild is into Dudes, Eric's confused, Free Palestine

 we enjoy our life even more?This looks ridiculous? The great psychologist Prof. P. Wazlavic had done a research on this… The results are, that people who didn't get fulfilled their heart desire, could after they had recovered, appreciate the small things in their life much more. Because after this tragic experience, they know that the little things in life are valuable. And so they can enjoy their life more. Then every moment can be enjoyed.For me, it was very tragic, that first I could not procreate and did love to have a child. And then I procreate, and the baby was coming too early…. Life is life, - be happy in the here and now.  When we are driven by passion, then we forget to enjoy our life in the here and now. Then only our goal is important.Oscar Wild said we are the small things and not the big goals that we have accomplished… This means if we can only enjoy, when we accomplish something, then 99% of our time we are suffering… So that we are unhappy. A happy person enjoys nearly everything,… When he gets up, he thankful for the new day, enjoys his morning exercise, the small talk with his children and spouse during his breakfast, even he is enjoying his meal as a very delicate menu… And the unhappy person gets up fast, pushes the food into his mouth and don't want to waste his time on his family. For sure be friendly to ordinary people is a luxury for him. For what? It is not serving him….!!!! Everything becomes an obstacle for him!!!We can enjoy our life, only when we slow down and enjoy the small things in our life. Our passions have their place in our lives and when we are under the control of our emotions… Life becomes a suffering. And so is it with our heart/great desires, they become too important… And our life becomes unhappy. Prof. Paul Wazlavick (Author of the int.Bestseller: The situation is hopeless but not seriously. It is an amusing book about how stupid we are sometimes.)  My Video: When a great desire fails.  https://youtu.be/wDYXKN05MiAMy Audio: https://divinesuccess.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/Podcast.A/When-a-great-desire-fails.mp3

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Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema's greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you've got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 45 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by Oscar Wild co-host and film critic Nick Ruhrkraut to discuss the next film in their Sofia Coppola series, On the Rocks (2020). We needed places to escape to during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, and leave it to Sofia Coppola to deliver an easy, breezy father-daughter hang out movie. On the Rocks not only feature fantastic chemistry between Rashida Jones and Bill Murray, but it has Coppola going back to the ideas she explored within the beginning of her career; the relationship she had with her father and where she is at currently in life as an artist as well as a parent and a spouse. What she delivers is a hilarious, insightful look at someone's life who is seeking too much instead of appreciating the good things they have in front of them. Ryan, Jay, and Nick break down their reactions to the film, Bill Murray's charm, Rashida Jones's career, what it's like to pal around in New York City, where this ranks in Coppola's filmography, and if they'd like to see this story continue or not. You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. This podcast runs 1h45m. The guys will be back next week to conclude their series on the films of Sofia Coppola with a review of her most recent film, Priscilla. You can stream the film on MAX, as well as rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let's get into it. Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

This week on Female Gaze: The Film Club, Nick Ruhrkraut of Oscar Wild joins Morgan to discuss the 1995 film, "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" directed by Beeban Kidron. You can follow NickTwitterInstagramYou can follow Oscar WildTwitterInstagramLinktreeYou can follow Female Gaze: The Film ClubInstagram

"Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?" This week on Female Gaze: The Film Club, Morgan is joined by film critic and co-host of Oscar Wild, Sophia Ciminello to discuss Greta Gerwig's 2017 film, "Lady Bird."You can follow SophiaTwitterLetterboxdYou can follow Oscar WildTwitterInstagramLinktreeYou can follow Female Gaze: The Film ClubInstagram

First came Maria, then Oprah. Now, Sophia and Nick are here to share some of their 'favorite things' to celebrate an exciting milestone: 200 episodes! They've created 20 lists to capture everything from the best of the Best Picture winners, memorable Golden Age actors, most egregious snubs, movies they'd be excited to introduce future children to, and, of course, their favorite OW episodes. Thank you to everyone who has been along for the ride, and here's to another 200!

 If we understand Mozart then we can get a broader understanding of the divine. And we skip the morality about sexuality and profanity. Mozart was such rascal and genius to the same time.Mozart was obsessed with sex and cracked, dirty, profane jokes, without even thinking of the consequences of his bad behavior…Even he did openly sex in public toilets… There is no ending of his misconducts...  With 4 years he started to compose, with 7 years he had composed already a complete concert…Mozart composed also dirty songs, for instance: Leck mir den Arsch Fein recht schön saber. (I refuse to translate)Can you do such thing?And he never had corrected any note that he composed.Mozart could write entire concerts out of his mind, without correcting anything.Amadeus Mozart was a channel of the Lord…How does such thing work out…?If we are totally relaxed and open mind, only then the Lord can choose us as a channel.What I described in a previous blog, within an instance of a second, I got so deep insights and great solution when I was under the shower.I had designed the hardware for the satellite navigation system already and the software was missing and I was running out of time… Within 3/2 hours I wrote down the complete program in Assembler (microprocessor language) just so. For that task I would normally need 6 weeks… For sure, I had to correct this program, because I am not a genius… At this time, I had also an awesome sexual life, that made me so relaxed… I lived for 10 years in an Ashram and watched the absurdity of a perverse system…To create so many rules to live in chastity (abstinence…) a religious life…So, more rules so more the rules were broken, at the end who cared/cares in an ashram, monastery for rules? The Guru/Abbot looks that his disciples keep the rules and he/she is breaking the rules/morality by him/herself.Morality is for the others, never for yourself. (Oscar Wild)When I was attending a worship of God in an African church, then Jesus was coming.Did we chase purity? We were dancing and singing the praise of the Lord like crazy.The priest was yelling and even rolling on the ground when he broke out in anger…Such madness and divine…The church was filled with so much spirituality, that Jesus had to come.And that should happen in every church or temple.A religious system that is obsessed with absurd rules will never connect to the Lord/divine, even more it will prevent love and spirituality...And we can watch the religious fanaticism, that kills/killed so many people…For what are the Religions good for? My video: Can we understand God? https://youtu.be/uu_pFdsjhkQMy audio: https://divinesuccess.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/Podcast1/Can.we.understand.God.mp3

Il l'avait prédit : "je ne verrai pas le 20e siècle !". Effectivement, Oscar Wilde est mort le 30 novembre 1900 à l'âge de 46 ans. Personnage excentrique, à l'élégance tapageuse dans une société britannique frileuse et renfermée, il était comme un éléphant dans une boutique de porcelaine. Pourtant, il est devenu l'un des grands écrivains de son époque. Mais que s'est-il passé pour que cet auteur brillant tombe dans la déchéance et vienne mourir à Paris dans l'anonymat ? Du lundi au vendredi, Lorànt Deutsch vous donne rendez-vous dans la matinale de RTL. Chaque jour, l'animateur de "Entrez dans l'histoire" revient sur ces grands moments qui ont façonné notre pays.

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Well hello there listener, and welcome back to another edition of The AFA Podcast Interviews. On this Edition, we spoke with Robert Chandler who is the producer and co-director of the new adaptation of Oscar Wild's The Canterville Ghost, which is coming to US Cinemas for October 20. He spoke about his early career, the film's long journey to the screen and the challenges of adapting the short story for the screen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/animation-for-adults/message

Eu costumo lidar com as coisas com relativa tranquilidade e consigo administrar razoavelmente bem as várias fatias que compõem a minha roda da vida. As pessoas ao meu redor costumam dizer que eu transmito uma imagem de leveza e tranquilidade, mas devo dizer que essa imagem requer esforço. Na superfície as pessoas veem minha leveza e equilíbrio emocional, só que o que elas não veem é que sob a superfície tem muita agitação, muita cobrança e responsabilidade para que tudo seja tranquilo, equilibrado e leve.-A vida é uma jornada, com várias etapas e ciclos! E depois de muito tempo trabalhando com Coaching, eu aperfeiçoei a metodologia de coaching para ajudar você a encarar os desafios e promover o seu crescimento pessoal e profissional. Descubra a Jornada e seja Coach de si mesmo!A Jornada é muito mais do que um produto digital, é mais do que uma metodologia, é mais do que ferramentas, é a SUA HISTÓRIA! Acesse: https://ponteaofuturo.com.br/jornada/

It's back to basics for Oscar Wild's 4th Awards Season Fantasy Draft with Bennett Prosser returning to compete with Sophia and Nick in anticipation of this upcoming awards season. They craft teams of movies, directors, actors, additional creatives, and some fun wild card picks that will hopefully align with wins with critics, technical guilds, and major award ceremonies. This year, they hope listeners will play along and submit their own teams via the following link: https://forms.gle/CjNJH1DD22qgPAUx6. Stay tuned for festival reactions, award contender highlights, and updates regarding the draft board, always counting down to next year's Oscars on March 10th!

We dive deep into the career of actor/producer Margot Robbie! This just as her film 'Barbie' (which she produced and stars in ) is about to top one billion dollars globally at the box office. Sophia Ciminello (co-host of the Oscar Wild podcast and writer at AwardsWatch.com) joins Christina to talk about Robbie's fearless acting in films like The Wolf of Wall Street, I, Tonya & Birds of Prey. And as producer with films and TV like Promising Young Woman, The Maid, and of course Barbie. Follow Sophia on twitter @sophia_cim @OscarWildPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Shut up and deal."It feels so aligned that one of the Oscar's most nominated screenwriters would share a zodiac sign- and a birthday!- with Oscar Wild hosts Sophia and Nick, so they wanted to dedicate an episode to two of his award-winning films. First is Sabrina, with a decadent Audrey Hepburn showcasing what would become a lifelong collaboration with Givenchy. They share their favorite moments, address the many elephants in the room, and spill some BTS drama. Then they discuss the five-time winning Best Picture classic, The Apartment, aka What Would You Do For An $85 Apartment In New York City? (31:39). Stay tuned for another fun convo about this Cancer-esque gem!Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpodFollow Sophia @sophia_cimFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Music: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

This week on And the Runner-Up Is, Kevin welcomes back Oscar Wild cohost Sophia Ciminello to discuss the 1974 Oscar race for Best Actress, where Ellen Burstyn won for her performance in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," beating Diahann Carroll in "Claudine," Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown," Valerie Perrine in "Lenny," and Gena Rowlands in "A Woman Under the Influence." We discuss all of these nominated performances and determine who we think was the runner-up to Burstyn.  0:00 - 13:33 - Introduction 13:34 - 37:46 - Diahann Carroll 37:47 - 1:03:26 - Faye Dunaway 1:03:27 - 1:22:03 - Valerie Perrine 1:22:04 - 1:55:41 - Gena Rowlands 1:55:42 - 2:13:24 - Ellen Burstyn 2:13:25 - 2:53:45 - Why Ellen Burstyn won / Twitter questions 2:53:46 - 2:59:46 - Who was the runner-up? Buy And the Runner-Up Is merch at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/and-the-runner-up-is?ref_id=24261! Support And the Runner-Up Is on Patreon at patreon.com/andtherunnerupis! Follow Kevin Jacobsen on Twitter Follow Sophia Ciminello on Twitter Follow And the Runner-Up Is on Twitter and Instagram Theme/End Music: "Diamonds" by Iouri Sazonov Additional Music: "Storming Cinema Ident" by Edward Blakeley Artwork: Brian O'Meara

On this week's episode of the podcast, we tackle your screenwriting questions from the February Webinar, "Becoming a Professional Writer: 4 Things You Must Know."Show NotesFree Monthly Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/webinarMichael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAutomated TranscriptsMichael Jamin:That's the thing some people think because there's so much bad stuff on the air. Well, I can be bad. I can be just as bad as them. There's so many reasons why a show might be terrible. Some, not all of them come down to the writing. Sometimes you'll have a star and the star. This is what the, this is what they wanna do. And writing be their writers be damned. Sometimes it's coming from the network or the studio. This is what they want. And so they're paying for it. Sometimes there's so many chefs in the pot, executive producers giving notes. You don't even know what you're doing anymore. I mean, to me, it's almost like the business is designed to make mediocre shows. And only occasionally something breaks through. And god bless when that happens. You're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear This with Michael Jamin. Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin and welcome back to another episode of Screenwriters. Need to hear this. I'm here with Phil Hudson. He's back. Phil is back. I, Phil.Phil Hudson:Hi. Good to be back. And I got a new microphone for all of you concerned about my audio.Michael Jamin:That's a good looking microphone. I gotta say, Phil, if you looked better than mine, that's the one real podcasters use.Phil Hudson:It was very expensive.Michael Jamin:I feel like mine is like a tin can. Yeah. . Yeah. All right. It's fine though. So here we had a special episode. Yeah, I always say that, but I always mean it. Cuz we've been doing a lot of free webinars. Phil and I have been doing once a month. And, and so we get a lot of questions and so we couldn't answer all the questions. It's about an hour long. And we choose a topic we really dive in. The past ones have included, what are they included, how to write a good storyPhil Hudson:For things you need to know to become a professional screenwriter. There was a, yeah, one we got leaving me.Michael Jamin:We got Mon Mo. We got one once coming up as well. Kind of like how to get past in industry gatekeepers, how to get your material seen by Hollywood Insiders. All this kind of stuff. Each, each topic. One week, it's each month it's gonna be a different topic. And if you'd like, if you'd like to be invited you can go to my website, MichaelJamin.com and, and just sign up for there. We, you know, we do it once a month and it's free. Why not? And, but one thing I've noticed, Phil and I've noticed is that we do these things. We get a ton of signups and maybe only a quarter or so of the people actually show up, which is so interesting cuz it's free. It's not the money. It's, and, and I, and I know I'm preaching to the choir cuz anyone who's listening to this podcast is not someone, is the same kind of person who show up to a webinar. So I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I say this because there's so many people who definitely want to make screenwriting a reality. They wanna sell their screenplay, but they don't put the work in. Like, if they don't, like, if you're not gonna show up to a free webinar from a hosted by a guy who's telling you what you should do, then how are you going to make it? It's just not gonna happen. Phil. Like, what are you doing?Phil Hudson:I 100% agree. And it's also, it's interesting, right? But I think it highlights what I've been saying is there are a lot of people who are seamers. I think that's a term we talked about early on in the podcast. Mm-Hmm. people want to seem like they are a screenwriter. So they go to the coffee shop, they have their screenplay open, they talk about their screenplay. It's the same screenplay. They never finish it. They never move on. I can't go do that. I'm working on my screenplay and they don't show up. This is an opportunity to sit with a working showrunner telling you exactly what you need to do to break in the industry and how to write good stories, all of these things. And they're just nohow.Michael Jamin:But it's also, it's like, all right, so you wrote one screenplay, but that's not enough. Like, and, but for the people listening, if you are doing what I'm telling you to do or are suggesting, at least you're writing more, you're writing more, you're taking classes, you're writing, you're getting feedback, you're going to event like you're non, this is nonstop until you break in. And then once you break in, it's non-stop again. Because it just doesn't end. You don't, the doors, you know, I don't know. So anyway, I commend everyone who's listening to this. If you want to come to the webinar, you're more than welcome. Go to michael jamen.com and you'll see thePhil Hudson:Free webinar, MichaelJamin.com/webinarMichael Jamin:Webinar. And yeah, you'll get an invite and then it's free. And then we send you a replay within like 24 hours. It's also free then if you miss it after that, I think, we'll, it'll be available for a small purchase fees because there's, there's work involved in putting these things up. But yeah, go get it. It's free. It's free. Okay. Are we, are you ready, Phil? So we got a lot of questions. I couldn't answer all them cuz there's a time limit. So here are the ones that that I couldn't answer.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And, and this is for the February webinar because we've had, you've had a lot of great interviews coming up and we didn't wanna hold those back. And you got some good ones in the pipeline too. It was pretty exciting. Oh yeah. So February q and a, again, if you do get on that, we will answer your questions. Now, there are some questions that we've answered in previous q and a, so I'm gonna skip some of those. Some of them continue to come up, Michael. Yeah. And for your new audience members, I think we'll address those because they're important questions. And I think you're gonna prevent a lot of people from struggling and spending a lot of money in places they don't need to to be writers.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:One other note that I thought was pretty cool feedback for everybody. We did have someone sign up for your course and it was because they've attended three of these webinars and I thought it was pretty cool. He said he'd spent $4,000 on direct mentorship and your free webinars were better than that. And that's why he signed up for your course.Michael Jamin:That's, that's the problem. Where's he getting the, where's the mentorship? Like who's thePhil Hudson:What? We don't know. Four grandMichael Jamin:4K guys. So yeah. Come to these webinars, you'll get, you'll save $4,000,Phil Hudson:$4,000 value guaranteed. All right. I can't guarantee anything for Michael Jamon, I promise. Anyway, Norwood, let's go to question oh one, Norwood Creach, ask copyright. What is the status of writing a screenplay if it has a copyright?Michael Jamin:I don't know, , but here's the thing. I don't give legal advice on my at all. I guess it protects you in some way, but I don't, I don't, I've only registered one script I ever wrote with the writer Guild of America. That was the first one I wrote. But after that, every script that I make is copywritten by the studio that I sell it to. So there, it's their, it's their legal headache if someone wants to steal it. So if you want to copyright, you can. And, but I, I've done talks about, I don't know, your biggest problem is someone should wanna steal you. Your biggest problem is if your, your work is so good. Someone wants to steal it. That's usually another problem you have. Right? Here's the problems. Your work is so terrible, no one wants to steal it, so. Right,Phil Hudson:Right. Cool. And then are you concerned, there are a couple follow up questions. Are you concerned with AI screenwriting?Michael Jamin:You know, not right now. I, I, I'm concerned. I have bigger pro, I have bigger concerns with ai and that is destroying the world. That's why they want to do this pause on it. Of all the writing that AI is gonna take away, I think, I think creative writing will be last on the list. They will take away technical writing. Mm-Hmm. instructions and stuff like that. And maybe some forms of copywriting.Phil Hudson:Marketing writing is going away. I mean, I, that's a search engine optimizer for most of my digital marketing career. That's a real concern for us. And Google is leaning towards allowing that type of copy.Michael Jamin:Oh, okay. ButPhil Hudson:In terms of, so it would be authoritative and you have to know how to communicate with the machine. But anyway, Uhhuh .Michael Jamin:But in terms of ai, you know, I'm not, I'm not worried yet. Maybe I'm being Pollyanna, is that what word? But I'm not worried yet. Cause it's not, it's certainly not there yet. Maybe in five or 10 years, but right now it's not there at all. And it's not even close to being there. So, yeah.Phil Hudson:Okay. Awesome. And then do you have any suggestions for writing narratives for young writers?Michael Jamin:Yeah, I mean, it's the same suggestions for everyone else. I, I, I have that free lesson at michaeljamin.com/free. It's a, it's the same lesson I would give an older writer. There's no difference. The, the, the advantage that older writers have is that I think when you're writing, you have any two things, and I've said this before, but you need to have something to say and you need to know how to say it. And I teach people how to say it. That story structure, how to unpack it and having something to say that comes with, unfortunately that comes with age and wisdom and that, you know, it's not, it's, it's unusual when someone young really has a, knows what they want to say. My daughter, who's only 20, she's got something to say and it shocks me. Cuz when I was her age, I didn't have anything to say. So, but but don't, you don't have to worry about that yet. Just continue writing.Phil Hudson:Awesome. Annie k ask, what's the best way to know if your script is ready to be passed on or get you a job? Is it competitions, is it a mentor? Any other suggestions?Michael Jamin:Well, we've talked about competitions. I'd say there's, and you may know more about this than I do. I'd say about three of them that are probably worthwhile. Right. Yeah. And Austin Nichols and, and Sundance Sun.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Sundance has different labs. They shifted things a little bit prior to the pandemic where they're doing not just strict screenwriting labs anymore, but they have lots of different things. In fact, I'm, I'm attached to a screenplay coming out of Ecuador now because they have a fund Okay. Working with several fellows and things. And that's you know, I'm not writing the screenplay or anything, they're just attaching me as a script consultant because I have background there and been in the laps. But those are the only real ones that do anything. I mean, there, there are some other ones, like Big Break I think is a really good one that's on my final draftMichael Jamin:And you get to meet. Oh, okay. I hadn't even heard of that. I hadn't evenPhil Hudson:Heard of that one. Yeah. So there are some, and we've talked about that in other podcast episodes as well with what the list is. But I can tell you, and we did talk about this a little bit on our webinar this month, the lot of that is a, is a way of funding the rest of the film festival. Mm-Hmm. , it's getting the judges to attend. I was working with a guy who ran some film festivals and he actually had me reading the scripts and giving my opinion and deciding who would get the best and Right. You know, I was a studentMichael Jamin:And that's the problem. I mean, and if you're gonna, people say, whoa, I placed in the, like, you gotta, you gotta win or come in second or something. I don't think placing and then they still think it's gonna change their life. It rarely does. You still have to continue the hustle, you know? I was gonna do anotherPhil Hudson:Hmm. Go ahead, go ahead.Michael Jamin:Well, I was gonna do another talk about this. Some woman made a post, she's like, yeah, I've one, I placed at all these contests and I still can't get an agent. I'm like, even if you did get an agent, it wouldn't change. Move the needle. You gotta do all this yourself. So mm-hmm. and I, and I'm gonna do a whole webinar on that. I did, and I actually did that. I did one where we talked about it to some degree, but I'm gonna lean into it a little bit more. It's like, nah, you got, you're not doing enough, you're not doing enough.Phil Hudson:This is anecdotal, but someone in the chat in your last webinar said that they had a friend who placed on the blacklist mm-hmm. , and they were promised all this industry connection. Nothing happened.Michael Jamin:They didn't even get a meeting or, or what?Phil Hudson:No, nothing came about. Nothing came of it.Michael Jamin:Yeah. So, so it's, it's not enough. Like Winnie, you know, these contents are relatively new. They weren't around when I broke in. But then again, the industry's changed so much and things are, you, can, there are things available now that would help you that weren't available then? Namely the internet, namely making your own stuff on your phone name. I mean, namely, like learning so much from people who are around industry. When I broke in 90, well, I moved outta, I got outta college in 92. There was no internet, there was no, how do I get a job? I had to drive out to Hollywood just to meet people to ask the questions. Now you can find out the answers on the internet, you know, so there's way more access now. So it's not, I wouldn't necessarily say it's harder now, it's just different. Yeah. And in some ways it's easier.Phil Hudson:Yeah. And you've, you give out tons of free resources and most of your audience knows this by now, but you've got the free lesson. You've got your social media, which is great @MichaelJamin, and yeah, there's lots of good stuff out there that you put out that just didn't exist before.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Alright. Daniel will ask, what's the ideal job to pay rent and have the time to pursue screenwriting?Michael Jamin:The ideal job would be assistant to an executive producer. Perfect job. Because you're basically sitting at their desk answering the phones that don't ring. That's what I did for a couple years. And so during that time, I wrote, and I would ask them questions, and that's the ideal job. The next best job would be a writer's assistant. So you're in the writer's and you're, I mean, in some degree, in some sense, that may even be a better job. You're in the writer's room and you're listening to these writers. You're learning how they break stories, but then you don't have the time to write or you write, you have to write it on the weekends or at night. So the, the both are great jobs,Phil Hudson:But you're learning so much through osmosis just being in that room, listening. Yeah, yeah. And seeing it happen.Michael Jamin:Yeah. So that would be a fantastic job.Phil Hudson:All right. Follow up. How can I stay home and write while not making my girlfriend think I'm a bum ass?Michael Jamin:Your girlfriend isn't into you anyway, so you don't have to worry about it. How can you stay home and write? You know, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to make priorities. That's the, that's the thing. That's the, I I feel because you know, my my writing partner, I don't wanna talk about him. Well, it's not really, I don't wanna tell his story, but he, he was going through similar things. You know, he had a girlfriend and he had he had to write on the side. And it was, it was the struggle. How do you, how do you balance? Oh, you're just gonna have to make that happen. I didn't have a girlfriend at the time. I don't have to worry about it. Yep. Phil Hudson:For me, when I was dating, I had what I call the red carpet test. I, I was so fixed on knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life, which is be a professional writer. Yeah. That when things started getting serious with a a girl, I would ask them, how comfortable would you feel on a red carpet? Correct, mm-hmm. and no girl passed that test. They were all, they, I'd feel really uncomfortable. And then I asked my wife and she said that, and she said, oh, I, I wouldn't have a problem with that. And she's so supportive of me, like, so absolutely supportive of everything I do, that she understands that that's what I want to do. And she, I, I also prioritize what she wants though. It's, it's a give and take and a balance. Yeah. And, but that's, you just gotta find the right relationship. I think that handles that.Michael Jamin:Yeah, you're right. And if you're in the wrong one and they don't like you, then resentment's gonna your're bo 10 years from now, you're gonna resent her if she's gonna resent you. So, yeah.Phil Hudson:That, that's hard, hard advice to hear. But it's important advice is oftentimes your relationships, family and romantic will be the thing that holds you back from achieving your goals.Michael Jamin:Yeah. You know, my wife, she ran a, a, well, you know this for the girls. She ran a, a, a girl's clothing company and I, for, for it's 15 years. And I handled all the marketing and I wrote all the commercials. And then, then when she stopped doing that, she threw herself into helping me doing what I'm doing now. And she was like, I was like, well, you know, thank you for your help. She said, well, you, you supported me just as much, so now I'm just doing it for you. So it, it's that kind of thing. You, if you're not in a supportive relationship, you've got a problem. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Breakup. That's the answer. Yeah. Michael's not telling goesMichael Jamin:Back to, I told you she wasn't into you. .Phil Hudson:Alright. Delara, Casey, what would you consider a giant following on social media isn't requiring somebody to have a car? Oh. And then there's a follow-up question. So let's go with what would you consider a giant followingMichael Jamin:? No, I have no freaking idea. I have no idea. And I asked this of my agent on my book agent. I said, Hey, how big of a following do you need to have? I don't know. Okay. I don't know. I, I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. And I asked my you're gonna have to ask a kid. I told, I had a, I had lunch with my nephew a couple weeks ago, and his friends, you know, they're young kids. They're, they're twenties, they're in college. And we were talking about TikTok and I told him, he said, yeah, we had a, a visitor, a lecturer come guy had a lot of followings. He had like 800,000 following followers. I'm like, oh, okay. That's a, i I got I got 412 and they thought, , they thought I'm meant 412 , right? Like 412 followers. And I said, no, no, 412,000. And they're like, oh, that's a lot. . So I don't know what I,Phil Hudson:I have an answer for this.Michael Jamin:What is thePhil Hudson:Answer? So, so because of my, what I'm currently doing, and you know, I'm, I'm now posting things professionally on my social media about being a, a writer or a, an associate producer or an assistant to these guys. And they're currently having me help them run their social media and do the promotional stuff for them for their new film. Quasi comes out on April 20th on Hulu, and that means I'm traveling with them and I'm sitting with a, a publicist from Searchlight Pictures and their publicist, who is the publicist for about half of the top comedians standup comedians, 50,000 followers.Michael Jamin:50,000 is considered an influencer in that spacePhil Hudson:That allows you to, they want to engage with you to selfishly promote their product or their people. ButMichael Jamin:What platform, cuz 50,000 on TikTok is said, it doesn't an Instagram,Phil Hudson:She said it doesn't matter. So anybody who has over 50,000, she wants me to write 'em down so that they can engage them about helping promote the film.Michael Jamin:It doesn't matter. She says.Phil Hudson:Yeah. So I'll confirm. I mean, I'm going back on the road with them, you know, in a couple days and I'll ask that question as a follow up, but 50,000,Michael Jamin:But I wonder number because reach has really changed. I wonder if they're aware of, of there's no reach anymore. Yeah. ,Phil Hudson:It's, it's a numbers thing for sure. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Okay. Interesting. There's your answer. 50,000.Phil Hudson:All right. Follow up question from Delara isn't requiring somebody to have a car, a form of discrimination to be a production assistant?Michael Jamin:You know, is it required? Is is is having two arms form of discrimination to be a baseball player? Well, that's the, you gotta swing a bat. So, you know, I don't know what to say. I mean, I don't know what to say about that.Phil Hudson:There, there have been people, by the way, there have been famous pitchers with one arm who have done the job Yeah. And done it. Well, the, the, I think this is just my opinion, a hundred percent Phil Hudson's opinion here. Mm-Hmm. , I think that we're too focused on discrimination and less focused on what is the requirement to be able to do the function of the job. Mm-Hmm. , if you have to get from white Woodland Hills, California to Pasadena to hand a script to an actor, and that's an hour and a half in your car in traffic, you can't rely on a bus to get you there to do that job. No. No. And that is a function that is a requirement of the job. And so having the vehicle is, and, and they don't say quality of the vehicle, by the way. And they, they cover your miles for the car, which is the wear and tear and the gas in the vehicle. Right. So that you get compensated for those things, but you just have to be able to do the function of that job.Michael Jamin:I mean, it would great if the studio had a car, a beater that, okay, you gotta drive the car. You here's the car, here's the, here's the studio car, and now you gotta run errands with the car. That'd be fantastic. But you know, there's, they, I don't know. You still have to get to work, you still have to find a way to get to work. You still have to know how to drive. Yeah. There'd still be obstacles in your way. SoPhil Hudson:No, no. If you're set PA and you're on set all day, that's a different story. Cuz you can get two set on time. Someone can drop you off, you're there for 12 to 14 hours and then somebody has to pick you up and take you home. Yeah. It's a different story. You can carpool with other people at work, if you're in the camera department colliding, whatever those are, you can do those jobs. But to be like an office pa or writer's pa you're getting people's lunches. You're, you're like going out and running errands. You gotta have a vehicle to do that job. So I don't think it's discrimination.Michael Jamin:I mean, the at the bottom line is like, people who have some money are always gonna have it easier than people who have absolutely no money. Mm-Hmm. . And so that's just the way it is. Is it fair? No. It's just the way it is. So I, I don't know.Phil Hudson:Yep. Until the machines start picking us up and we just get in the car without knowing why.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Maybe that'll happen. That's right. They'll have self-driving cars and PAs will be outta work. SoPhil Hudson:I don't know. Yep. There you go. They just throw stuff in the back.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:All right. Ariel Allen asks, do you recommend starting with short scripts and just working those before moving to full length?Michael Jamin:Well, short, I mean, that's what I do as a TV writer. I, I write short scripts. They're 22 minutes long. I don't write features. So, and I think writing a, you know, a short script, a 22 minute script is takes much less time than writing a feature. So I recommend Sure. You know, that's why I write fe To me it's more interesting. I like the, the pace, the change than spending all this time on a feature, which could take a couple years in the same amount of time. I could bang out several epi several or, you know, on half dozen or so episodes of television. So,Phil Hudson:Yeah. And I think, and this is old data, so it might have changed, but I doubt it. The timeframe when being offered a script assignment for a feature is six months to turn in your first draft.Michael Jamin:Uhhuh probably defense. They want it yesterday, to bePhil Hudson:Honest. Right. But, but I think you have six months to get in your draft is, they'll push you for it. But that's what the Writer's Guild has is the timeframe Okay. To get in draft one. And then there's a time for the, for draft two. So that being said, how many pilots can you write in six months of tv?Michael Jamin:Me personally?Phil Hudson:You personally, as a professionalMichael Jamin:Screener. Oh. Oh, I don't know. I, I mean, I don't try to write that many pilots. I, you know, we write, we might do one a season, you know, one a year, youPhil Hudson:Know, because you, you're working writer two, so we gotta consider that.Michael Jamin:Yeah. But you could write, it's, it takes less time to write an episode of television on, you know, spec script than a, than a pilot.Phil Hudson:Sure. Okay. Another follow up question. I live in Texas and I'm nowhere near. Oh.Michael Jamin:But you know, hold on, Phil. One, one second though. I don't, I say yeah, if, if I find it very hard to tell a compelling story, that's if it's too short. If you don't have enough time, if you're only doing like five minutes, if you wanna write a short that's a five minute short, I would have, I would've a hard time telling a compelling story that amount of time. I think for me it's like 20 minutes is kind of the sweet spot. Maybe 15. But any shorter than that, it's like I, I, I don't know. I need time to get the plane up in the air. You know,Phil Hudson:When I was in film school, the assignments were your scr, your short could be no longer than like five minutes or three minutes depending on the professor. And yeah. Some of the professors were my age cuz I was a, a, you know, an older student and I talked to them after and they're like, yeah, it's just because I don't wanna sit through that much boring content.Michael Jamin:Yes.Phil Hudson:Right. Cause they couldn't tell a story. And, and that was, I've talked about it before, amazing cinematographers, great camera work, but nothing happening and it's just boring to watch, even if it's pretty. Yeah. So they would have those caps and then I had to hit that restraint for my final project. And because of your mentorship and the work that I'd been putting into writing, I knew that my script needed to be 12 minutes long and it was a 12 minute script and I cut it down to a five minute. And after my professor in my directing class was like, yeah, you, that story needs to be longer because there was not enough time to breathe and to fill those moments. And so, yeah. Yeah. I, it's definitely, and the formatting was very different too. Writing a short, we, we talked about that all the time as students is there's just not a lot of ramp up time to get across the information you need. And when you talk about those three fundamental things you need to know in a story in your, you talk about that in your free lesson. Mm-Hmm. hard, hard to get that across super fast and finish that plot in three minutes.Michael Jamin:Well it's also cuz you wanna make that end, if you want that end to be impactful, to really hit somebody, it's like, it's not even so much about getting all the exposition out. It's about like, what do I need to do to make that ending feel like a payoff to really feel emotional. And like, if you don't have enough time to do all the other stuff, the ending is just gonna feel unearned. It's gonna, you know, it's gonna feel un unearned, which is the, you know, bad writing.Phil Hudson:Right. Alright, follow up question from Ariel. I live in Texas and I'm nowhere near quote the industry. Yeah. How do you actually gain connections in the film or TV industry?Michael Jamin:Well, I think, I think the problem is you need to be in Hollywood. You, you, you're Ariel's saying, I wanna work in Hollywood, but I don't want to work in Hollywood. Yeah. Like, well, there's a problem. Yeah. And so, andPhil Hudson:There is an industry in Texas. There are a lot of filmmakers in Austin and a lot of people are moving to Austin. But what do you want to do in the industry? And this is the question I have from a lot of people. Would you stay in la Why are you in la? It's cuz this is where the writing happens. Yeah. If I could live in another state and do it, I probably would. Yeah. Taxes are better, A lot of reasons why. Less traffic, less pollution, all those things. But yeah, this is where the writing happens. And so this is where I am until I achieve that. Or I'm at a level where I can move somewhere else and then, you know, do the job from elsewhere. And, and I know that's like feature writers at a really high level, like in years in, in Academy Awards mm-hmm. , it's not something that's,Michael Jamin:And even they have to come back in for meetings. Although maybe with Zoom it's less and less, but they have to, you know. Yeah. But that's the, I mean that's the thing. It's like, I know she doesn't wanna leave Texas for whatever reason cuz she likes it there. She has friends, family, she, you know, whatever reason she doesn't wanna leave. But there are people who will leave and those people are gonna have a leg up. Mm-Hmm. . Those people want it more. No one wants to move away from their friends and family. No one wants to. And so the people who come out here like yourself are hungry because they're uncomfortable. They wanna make it happen because they've already sacrificed. So those people have an, have an advantage. And to be honest, I think they should because they've already given up more. They want more.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Sacrifice.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yep.Phil Hudson:Justin, via, you mentioned early in your career you started working under a working writer who helped show you the robes. How did you approach that relationship? I think this referring to the the book writing for Doe what's his name?Michael Jamin:Oh, well I had Bill Addison mean, I had, I had a writing teacher and he was a retired guy and he lived in the Pacific Palisades and he had a class once a week in his, you know, dining room. And we all drove there. That, so yeah, I studied under him. He gotta study. You gotta, I always felt like you gotta study. There were, there were classes offered. I could have taken a class at UCLA Extension or something like that, but I wanted to be sure of who I learned from. And I found him a guy I wanted to learn from, the guy who had the job that I wanted. And so he was retired sitcom writer. Perfect. I didn't wanna learn from professional teacher, which many of them are, some of them are not, but many of them are. SoPhil Hudson:This is a question leader. How did you find him? What did you do to find that?Michael Jamin:You know what I, I heard, I don't remember who told me, but I moved to la moved to Hollywood. Now I'm in the circles, now I'm hanging out. I'm, this is where everyone comes here because they wanna become a screenwriter or actor or whatever. And so you're meeting people at parties who wanna do, who want the same thing that I want. And then you're talking, and then someone mentioned this guy, someone, he, he wasn't in the phone book, he wasn't on the internet. There was no internet back then. Someone mentioned his. And then I, I met, I learned it from someone who I was talking to. This is why people come to Hollywood. And I was like, great. Gimme his number. And then I went. So I, I don't remember who told me, but that's how I found out.Phil Hudson:Did you develop any kind of relationship with him? I think that's ju Justin's second part of that question. How did you approach that relationship? Or was it really just a teacher-student relationship where you show up, you kind of listen, he dictates down that kind of thing, orMichael Jamin:Yeah, it was teacher student. He told me, I, after reading some stuff that I would never make it as a professional writer. He thought he was doing me a favor cuz he thought, well, don't waste your time trying to do this. Do something else with your life. He, he wasn't trying to be mean. He was trying to do me a favor, but he didn't know me well enough. He didn't know me, that he didn't know how hard I work and how I tenacityPhil Hudson:There, there's a tenacity there that most people don't have. And so he saw where you were and said, this is as far as you will go, not knowing Yeah. You'd hit the wall until it broke down. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Right. SoPhil Hudson:Huge lesson in that for everybody listening by the way. Like, that's what you have to do. Yeah. Hit the wall until it falls down.Michael Jamin:Yeah. In, in college I wanted to be a creative writing. I just wanted to study, wanted to be in the creative writing program. I was good enough to take classes, but I wasn't good enough to get into the program where I, that was my major. And so they told me I wouldn't be a writer either. Yeah. Who cares? No one's, no one's gonna tell me what I get to do with my life.Phil Hudson:Look who's laughing now?Michael Jamin:No one's laughing. not even the audience.Phil Hudson:Michael doesn't make anybody laugh.Michael Jamin:Phil Hudson:When you say, okay, and then follow up, when you say it doesn't matter whose hands your script gets into, would you go as upload your script to online?Michael Jamin:I I, I, not necessarily. I I would be really, you know, I wanna know who I was giving it to. Not, but, you know, I wouldn't upload it to the, to the interwebs. And I, I meant it in terms of a great script. Ha has legs the same way a great show has legs. This like, here's the thing. I saw this great show, and I was gonna talk about this in one of my upcoming webinars and made a note of it. There's this guy named Derek Delgado, and he put on a show, he had a one-man show, it was on Hulus called in and of itself. Someone told me about it and I watched it and I was blown away. It was so original and so creative. I was blown away. I stopped when I was done. Let's go back to the beginning start. I've never do this.I never go back to the beginning when I just finished it. Let's watch it again, forget it. But I did that. And then afterwards I started telling everyone, you gotta watch this show. This is amazing. And and, and, and I was doing it. Like no one asked me to share it. I was sharing it because I was giving a gift. Like, go watch this. This is amazing. You're gonna love this. And I would look good in that person's eyes because I was the one who discovered this precious gem that no one else was talking about. I'm the only one who's, this is my little thing and now I'm giving it to you. And I felt like a gift. And that's what a great script could do. Like, you show it to someone and they're blown away if they're like, oh, it's okay. You're, nothing's gonna happen. But if they're blown away, they will tell people, not because they're trying to help you, but because they're trying to help themselves and make themselves look good to the, to their friends and family. And, you know, look what I just gave you this great recommendation.Phil Hudson:You might have literally just equated it to this, but could your audience equate it to finding that, show that water cooler talk, the one everyone wants to talk about and share with their friends?Michael Jamin:Yeah. Right. It's, and it's not, it's not like, you know, at the end of the whatever water cooler, white lotus or whatever, whatever's big right now, it's probably not white lotus anymore. But no one there wouldn't say, Hey, did you, no one says, Hey, if you enjoyed your show, this show, please share it with your friends. There was none of that at the end of HBO's episode of White Lotus. It was, people loved it and they just went to work the next day. You gotta watch this show. Yeah.Phil Hudson:So what, what was that moment for you, for the audience? What is that moment for you when you were watching a show and that's the level you want to be at to be a pro.Michael Jamin:Oh, well, but when you, when you, what, what are you saying? When you get,Phil Hudson:What I'm saying is for the audience member, think about a time when you watched a show and you well felt this is something I need to go tell Joe about or Mike about.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:That moment, that quality, that's what you're striving for, to work at a professional level at the upper echelons of Hollywood. Yeah. And when someone has that experience with your script, that is what's gonna happen in script format.Michael Jamin:Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They'll, that's, that's when I say give it to, it doesn't matter who you give it to you, if you give it to someone and it's amazing, they will give it to someone else and they're not gonna give it to some idiot on the internet. They don't know they're gonna give it to a friend who can help someone who's further up the ladder. They're just gonna pass it along. You know, they give it to someone who knows someone who knows someone in the industry. And if it's great, it'll find, it'll, it'll, it'll start walking. Cuz little good scripts have legs. Yeah. And if it's not, if it's mediocre, it won't.Phil Hudson:Yeah. I, I put a script online, but it was also very well documented here on this podcast with you giving me notes that I wrote that script. So there is a paper trail of authority and ownership that goes back to me and logged IP addresses when you download it so that if someone stole it, I feel legally protected enough to do that. And it's of service. And I got great notes from a professional writer, Michael. So it was absolutely worth me doing that. I don't think either of us are suggesting you do that.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not gonna spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michaeljamin.com/watchlist.Phil Hudson:The question you've answered many times before but continually pops up because everyone focuses on this. At first, do you need an agent?Michael Jamin:Well, you do need an agent to get submitted to a TV show, to get the meeting, to get a pitch meeting. You do, you do need an agent, but an agent, an agent is really not gonna get you work. Mostly agent's, field offers agent will do the 5% of the work that you can't do. You still have to do 95% of the work. And so yes, you need an agent, but the agent is not the answer to your problems. And there's a lot you can do without an agent. So. Yep.Phil Hudson:And you've said before, any script you get when you're staffing a show, those people have come from someone with an agent. Yes. And you're still hoping for a good writer out of that batch.Michael Jamin:Yeah. If I get, if I'm staffing a show, and let's say I got three dozen scripts to read, which is not an exaggeration. All of them come from agents, all of them come from managers. You know, you can't submit to me, you can't, I won't touch it. So it all comes through a rep, a rep, and of those 36 scripts, maybe only one or two are any good. SoPhil Hudson:Yeah. Okay. this was a comment specific to the time, but I think it addresses something that happens on your website. Jeff says, so I'd love to take Michael's course, but it's currently closed. Sad face.Michael Jamin:Oh,Phil Hudson:Sad face. So the course is closed now. Yeah. you are now doing an enrollment period on the course. Do you wanna talk about that?Michael Jamin:Yeah. So once a month we open it up and it's brief. It's like three days or something fell, right? It's, it's like three or 40 or something like that. It's not a lot.Phil Hudson:A lot of people join which is great and a lot of people are getting a lot of value out of it, but we close it down so that we can provide a better experience to those people. Because when it's open all the time, it's a little crazy for both of us.Michael Jamin:Yeah. It was cra Yeah, it's, so we got on a row par, we onboard everybody, shut the door, take a breath, do it again nextPhil Hudson:Month, answer questions in the private group, the people in there help you out. All that stuff. So if you're wondering why the course is closed here's a hint. Maybe attend the live webinar.Michael Jamin:Yeah. You'll get a better, actually, if you attend the webinar, we, we give you a better deal. . Yeah. So come the webinar, you got a special deal. If not just get on my email list and you'll know when it's open. And when it's open, get in. And then if you miss it, get in the next time. You know, it's every month.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Got it. PJ works, and we've addressed this as well, but I think he phrases it really interestingly. Just curious, how do we have bad movies and TV shows if you have to be really good to be in the industry?Michael Jamin:That's the thing. Some people think because there's so much bad stuff on the air. Well, I can be bad. I can be just as bad as them. There's so many reasons why a show might be terrible and some not all of them come down to the writing. Sometimes you'll have a star in the star. This is what the, this is what they wanna do. And writing be damn writers be damned. Sometimes it's coming from the network or the studio. This is what they want. And so they're paying for it. Sometimes there's so many chefs in the pot, executive producers giving notes. You don't even know what you're doing anymore. I mean, to me it's almost like it, the business is designed to make mediocre shows. And only occasionally something breaks through. And god bless when that happens. But you know, why, why?Just because that's how it, this is the, the business. This is the, it's a business. So everyone wants through chasing the same thing. I read a book, but I think it was Charlie Hawk, he described it as everyone wants to make a hit show. Everyone's in a, in a life raft. And so you have the director, the actor, the writer, the studio executive, the production company, everyone. And everyone's got an org and they're paddling as fast as they can, but the raft is circular. And so everyone's paddling, but the raft is going around in circles because, you know, that's what the problem is. When you have all these, they all want the same thing though, which is to get to the other side. But they're paddling. And so that's what happens. You start spinning around.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Unless you have a, you get lucky it's lightning in a bottle or you have a really strong showrunner who has enough f you minor to say no, but, and that's, and by the way, that's not me. So it's some people who have the clout,Phil Hudson:You know, there's a really good book on this called Difficult Men. And it's about the showrunners, A difficult man behind scenes of a Creative Revolution from The Sopranos by Brett Martin. And it talks about this, these showrunners who were those guys and they wrote Mad Men and mm-hmm. , all these shows that you know and love. And it, they just had the chops to do the job and the attitude to say no. But the chops were so good. They HBO and these companies just let them do their job.Michael Jamin:Once you start making a successful show, they usually back off. Once they learn to trust the showrunner, they back, they usually back off. But in the beginning, everyone's scared. And the bigger budget, the budget is every, the more scared everyone is.Phil Hudson:JJ Abrams just had a show canceled on h HBO this year.Michael Jamin:What was it?Phil Hudson:I, I can't remember the name of it, but it was like a massive budget. It was like one of the first things Discovery chopped. Like they just cut theMichael Jamin:Budget. Oh yeah. Well, becausePhil Hudson:They were cutting budgets everywhere. So, yeah. Two questions similar, gonna combine them. So she, Shea Mercedes and Leonte Bennett. How do we learn, or how can I practice screenwriting every day when I don't have an idea for a screenplay? And let me combine it with another, yeah. Bark bark 4 35. How can a beginner start to be a screenwriter? What are the first steps? So what, how do I write if I don't have any ideas? How can I learn to write and, you know, what are my first steps if I want to be a screenwriter? These feel very new to me.Michael Jamin:Well, if you don't have an idea, you're screwed. I mean, you know, but you don't have to have a good idea. You have to have, you don't have to have a great idea to have a good idea. And there's, it's the execution, which is which matters. I talk, one of the modules we have in the chorus and I, and trying to through one of the most popular ones is minding your life for stories. How, how to mine your life. Cuz you all have stories. People wanna, I think new writers think that let's create a world and let's create all the characters in this world. I'm like why bother? Why not just write what you know? And that way you, if you come, you take the story from your life. You don't have to create a story cuz it ha already happened to you. You don't have to create a character.You're the character. All you gotta do is figure out how to unpack the details of the story and that story structure. And that can be learned, that can be taught. That's what we teach. And so that's what I would do. I, you know, that's what I would do. Start writing what, you know, and what, you know, there's a misconception. You know, this guy on Paul Guillo, he, you know, he's a another writer on, on, you know, on the internet, on the social media. And he, you know, he talked about this the other day and I was like, he said it perfectly, which is people say, write what you know, but they don't really understand what that means. They think, well that means if you're a plumber, write about plumbing. Right. About a, your character is a plumbing plumber. No, no, no. Right. What you know means the internal struggles that you face.So if you are insecure about your education, your character write about a character who's insecure about that. If you're insecure with, about your looks or if you were abandoned as a baby, write about that. I mean, so it doesn't have to be the outside, it's the entire, it's the internal struggle. What you feel on the inside. That's what you know. And, you know great the Great Gatsby, you know, a great American novel, F Scott Fitzgerald wrote it. And so that's, that was about a guy who felt poor. He felt poor. And and he wanted the girl. And he, he always felt he would never have any self worth until he was rich. And then he'd be worthy enough to get the girl. As much as he loved the girl, being rich was more important to him cuz he always had the emptiness.And if you know anything about f Scott Fitzgerald's background, that was him. That's how he felt. And even when he had the, even when he earned money as a, as a novelist in the screenwriter, he couldn't keep it in his pocket. He had to spend it because that's how he felt. That was, that's how he felt whole on the, on the, you know, on the inside. And that's why he had a drinking problem. That's why he died at the age of 40 something because of an of alcoholism, because he had that hole. But the character of Great Gatsby's pretty close to him.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Yeah. Episode 39 of this podcast, A great writing exercise. There are some ideas in there and some other things that you can do to learn more about how to practice your skills and, and develop those things. But the other thing we talk about on this podcast often is being okay with yourself and being okay with your emotions and being okay. Being vulnerable. But you also talk about the dichotomy of when's, what's too far, what's oversharing. Yeah. So dive into the podcast a bit more if you're new and there's maybe we'llMichael Jamin:Do, actually that's a good point. Maybe we'll do a whole webinar on oversharing and stuff like that.Phil Hudson:Yeah. All right. So, so again, lots of questions about do I need to live in LA to be a writer? How to make connections with people outside if I'm not there. We've already addressed these LA's where the writing is, but you can make connections in your area and online. Your, your screenwriting course is a great place to do that. Mm-Hmm. , outside of that, there are Facebook groups. Lots of reallyMichael Jamin:Popular. Yeah. We have a private face. We have a private Facebook group just for the students and those guys. I gotta say Phil cuz I don't do this. Those guys are, they're, they're hitting it hard. They are having table reads. Mm-Hmm. , they're having script swaps, pitch sessions, pitch set, and like what? And like, I'm not in charge of that. They are. And it's because they're freaking focused and they just wannaPhil Hudson:Make happen. Like they're beginning guests too. Like one of, one of the writing members, Laurie, her, her husband is a pretty well known writer. Mm-Hmm. . And he came in and did a guest pitch session where people, writers pitched to him and he gave feedback.Michael Jamin:Good for him. Yeah. He,Phil Hudson:He's, he has famously one of the, I think it's the most valued script sold. And he came in and he did it to help you because that's a student. That's not a connection you or I have.Michael Jamin:Nope. Nope. There's a connection with another student. So like, I'm impressed and that's why we, and you know, we keep a close. It's like, you can't join. I get, we get people every day they want to join. Like, no, no, no, no, no. It's only for students because I don't want this turning into a cesspool of of trolls and, and idiots. Yeah. Like every other screenwriting group on, on Facebook where the people are just mean and stupid and and awful to each other. It's not what's going on in there. So Yeah.Phil Hudson:Absolutely. Cool. Gary Hampton, what would you say it's beneficial to volunteer to be a writer's assistant or producer's assistant to gain some practical experience?Michael Jamin:Well, you can't volunteer. I mean, it's a paying position. It's not an internshipPhil Hudson:And you can't intern anymore because some interns sued. And so no one wants to do that anymore.Michael Jamin:Right. So it's a paid position. It's not a, it's not a well paid position, but, you know, so you can't volunteerPhil Hudson:For it. That, that being said, personal experience with this. You, I remember I got a text, I was sitting in my office and you were like, Phil, there's a PA job on Tacoma fd. Do you want it? It pays horrible and the work sucks. And I said, I would do that job for free. And you said right answer and you told me that's exactly what you did. Like you volunteered. Isn't that how you got your job? You or your first one of your first Yeah, myMichael Jamin:First job, this was on a show called Evening Shade. This was a long time ago with Bet Reynolds. And and who else was in it anyway? Mary Henry. But I sent out resumes. I'll do, I'll please, I'll work for free. Finally, some someone said, fine, you wanna work for free, you can start tomorrow. We'll give you $300 a week. And I was like, 300, you know, now $300 a week is nice. Nothing , but I jumped at it. It's better than free. I jumped at it.Phil Hudson:Yeah. butMichael Jamin:It's only because he only offered me the job because I said, I'll work for free.Phil Hudson:You were willing to do it. Yep. So you had the desire follow up question. What's the best way to get into a writer's room? And I know that's a crap shoot.Michael Jamin:Get as a Well, the best way to get in as a writer's assistant, you know, but you, that's hard. You have to get in first. You get start as a pa.Phil Hudson:And the, and the answer to this, having done basically all of this over the last several years is bust your butt. Mm-Hmm. , serve, serve, serve. I remember. And I think I've, I think Seavers aware now. I remember there was one point where Seavert was like, yeah, Philip Burnout. And you were like, no, he won't. Cuz you've known me long enough. ButMichael Jamin:Did he say that? I conversationsPhil Hudson:There's a level, there's the level at which I was like putting out in the writer's room and I, I remember I overheard that conversation. You're like, not fell. I appreciate you having my back. But it gets, it gets exhausting at a certain level and you just have to keep putting up it.Michael Jamin:It gets emotionally exhausting too. That's probably the, that's probably even harder than the physical. It's like, cuz you're so close, you're five inches away from the seat that you want to sit in.Phil Hudson:You're sitting outside the room.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Phil Hudson:Yep. I, I would literally have to remind myself when I would get overwhelmed with like those thoughts. I'd say, this is the job I would've killed for two years ago, isMichael Jamin:The job. That's exactlyPhil Hudson:Right. I killed for three years ago.Michael Jamin:That's exactly right.Phil Hudson:That's how I kept going. It's not fun. And a lot of people are like, oh, isn't that beneath you? Like, nothing is beneath me as long as it helps me progress. Nothing.Michael Jamin:Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. So.Phil Hudson:Alright. How do you so love Leah Ann Clark. How do you stick to your story when people tell you that is not sellable because they have not lived through the events?Michael Jamin:Well if it's not sellable, like, I mean, I don't know who's telling you It's not sellable. No story sellable, just to be clear. You know, even if you pitch a two of i, I pitched stories. That's like, that's, I can't sell that. You know why? It's only the minute it sells, it's sellable. But if you tell a story authentically and truthfully, that's the only thing you can hope for, is to write a great story. That's what I say. I if you're gonna look for the, the market, oh, this is what the market's looking for. What's the market looking for? Forget it. That's a moving target. The minute you fire that hour, the target is gone. It's twoPhil Hudson:Years old too, soMichael Jamin:It's always changing. It's just like, you know, so, but all you get, all you can do as a writer is write a great story. That's the only thing that you have control over and not worry about selling it. Can you write a great story? And if you can, then it becomes a calling card. People will hire you to write something else. Just focus on writing a great story.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Another really good piece of advice in the industry is if there's a story that you feel in your soul you need to tell, don't put that one off. Write that one.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Write that one immediately,Phil Hudson:Right? Yeah. Yep. Jeff Rice Studios ask, could you talk about some of the staff management process of Showrunning or being the quote captain of the ship quote?Michael Jamin:Well, as the showrunner, you know no one becomes a comedy writer or even any kind of writer to even drama writer because they want to be a manager. They don't become, they don't, that's not why we go into it. They, if you did, you go into middle management, you get a job in the corp in a corporation. So you're, we all do it because you want to be creative. Then you rise to the level where you have your own show, or you're running someone's show for them. And and now you have to keep everyone motivated. And so the way you keep motivated, you know, is not by shutting people down. You have to lead, but you also have to make 'em feel like they have a voice. And this is tough. It's like, it doesn't make me comfortable at all. It's not why I went into it anyway, so I was to, was to do this. So, but you have to just be a decent human being and hopefully you know, but, but your job, by the way, is when you're on staff, your job is not to be creative, per se. Your job is to give the showrunner what they want. Mm-Hmm. is to help them make their show.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Awesome. Raven Wisdom when in a groove riding a scene and as happens, life interrupts the flow and you lose the moment. What has helped you to return to that moment or scene and continue that thought?Michael Jamin:You know, I, I, I guess, I dunno how long life is putting you on hold, but you should be, be, hopefully you're making time every day, even if it's only 15 minutes to, I mean, we all have 15 minutes. Right. You know? Yeah. I hopePhil Hudson:Famously, I think it was Hemingway would stop purposefully mid-sentence mm-hmm. so that when he sat down at his computer or his typewriter, he could pick up his thought. Yeah. And so I think that's something you just have to train out. And it's actually a good thing cuz facing a blank page, not knowing where you're gonna go next is far worse than reading the last sentence and then continuing typing.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.Phil Hudson:All right. We've got a lot of questions here still, Michael. So we're gonna get through a couple of the last ones, and I think couple more. A lot of this is repetitive, so I'm just gonna pick probably four or five more, and then we'll wrap it up. Does that sound good to you? Yeah,Michael Jamin:That sounds good.Phil Hudson:Okay. If you're a writer hoping to staff on a traditional network, procedural style show, do you specifically need a procedure, procedural style sample, or just a great sample that shows your unique quote voice?Michael Jamin:I've never written on a procedural. Don't even don't like 'em. I don't watch 'em. I, I would assume it's probably both. They're gonna want more than one sample. They're gonna want a sample of a procedural, and they're gonna want a sample of something else.Phil Hudson:That's always the case though. It's always two, right? Yeah. You need a, you did it and it's not a fluke. You can do it again. Yeah.Michael Jamin:So I have won Beach. Yeah. Yeah.Phil Hudson:Yeah. Okay. All right. And Kay Films, do you remember shadowing a writer that is currently in the film industry?Michael Jamin:I don't know about shadowing. I've worked for many writers. I never shadowed anyone. I, I i that like, there's no such thing as shadowing a writer. A writer is just in front of a computer, and if you were to shadow them, you'd, you'd be standing over their shoulder watching them type, like, it'd be horribly uncomfortable for everyone. It's not like a, it's not a visual job to How do you open, how do you open final drafts? Like that's what you'd see. Yeah. but I, I, I've worked for our writers and I've talked to him about story. I've had conversations, I've worked for a guy named William Masters Simone, this is when I first breaking in. And he wrote a great movie called The Beast. He wrote called another one called Extremities with, I think it was Farrah Faucet. He was a playwright. He was a playwright out of New Jersey who worked as a grave digger. He was a grave digger, and he write plays, literally. And brilliant writer. That'sPhil Hudson:Fascinating. Like, I want to Yeah, that's a fascinating backstory right there.Michael Jamin:And he was such a sweet guy. So down to earth. And then he got brought on, I was working on a, I was the writer assistant on a movie called What's Love Got Love What's Love got to do with it? The Tina Turner story. And so he would come and he got, he flew in for I think three or four weeks to rewrite the script. Then I don't think he, yeah, I don't think he got any credit for it, but he got a boatload of money, I'm sure. And he came down to LA and he type up the pages on his old typewriter. Then I'd retyped them and put 'em into the computer and format it correctly for for the movie. And such a sweet man. He's like, let me buy you lunch. Here's pizza. What can I do? He was just so nice. I, I really loved his attitude. He was kind very down to earth. That's it. ButPhil Hudson:You've adopted that attitude too. I mean, I've, I've done things to, to help you because I want to help you and you've Yeah. Repaid in kindness beyond what I feel I've done for you. Well, thank you. I've seen you do that for other people as well, so,Michael Jamin:Yeah. You know, because no one, I don't, no one goes into screenwriting cuz they think it's gonna, they're gonna be in charge of the, the world. Yeah. You, you take another profession if you have a giant ego. But yeah, he was, he was a super nice guy.Phil Hudson:On those lines, Aaron ha has asked, what is the best way to approach someone who you want to mentor you or learn from them? Is there any specific things you did in that relationship or others?Michael Jamin:I don't know. I, I would imagine that's a question probably for you. I think what you do is you give first. Yeah. That's what you do.Phil Hudson:Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and that does two things. One, just naturally I feel of, I feel good and feel of value when I serve other people. Yeah. Like there's a, there's a feeling. For me it's very physical. It's like a kinetic, kinesthetic, like tingly feeling of good, right? When I do something for other people, it's a selflessness that I just, I think it comes from being very poor and not having, and knowing how valuable that little bit of help really moves the needle for people.Michael Jamin:And that's, so that's, that's the point then. So it's like when you approach someone as a men, when you want someone to be your mentor, you're basically saying, I, I want you to gimme something. I what you have. I want, can you give me what you, what you have? And so that's not the attitude. The attitude is what can I give you mentor to make your life better. What can I give you?Phil Hudson:I'm in the broken lizard social media right now, helping them with t

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[00:00:00] Lindy Black: I know in my own life having seen that the test is not when things are smooth. The test is when the road is bumpy and the water's choppy to really see what you're made of and how deeply you can dig to the place of learning to love as well as listen and respond with character and quality.  +++++++++++++++++++++++++ [00:00:22] Tommy Thomas: Today, we're continuing the conversation with Lindy Black of The Navigators that we started last week. In my research for the conversation with Lindy, I read about the impact that journaling has played in her life. Let's pick up the conversation there.  In my preparation for the conversation, you indicated to me that you practiced journaling. Yes. How did that get started?  [00:00:51] Lindy Black: When I was in college, a long time ago I was taught how to have a daily time with the Lord. You answered three basic questions. So what did I read? And what did the passage say? What did I learn from it and what did I want to do? Now it can be framed in all different ways, but those three questions and the encouragement took a whole year, and I had this lovely little book that had every day of the year, and so I, they said if you do this for a year, you will gain depth. In your relationship with God, you'll also begin to observe things, patterns you can go back through and read it and see what God was teaching you that year. That was a long time ago, but that was the seed of where I am today in journaling. Now, I do not journal every day. I don't record everything. I use my journal to hit highlights of something God has done. It's a place where I process things about our children, our grandchildren, or other people who, as I'm writing things out, I'm praying and I'm dialoguing with the Lord. Things become clearer. I also learned, I don't know the first person to tell me this, but they used a multicolored pen and their thoughts were always in black ink. But when a specific verse or a key insight that they felt was significant from the Lord, they would put that in red. So, when you flip back through your journal, it's pretty apparent when something very significant popped up. So, my journals are very much a place for recording progress. I generally put the hard things in my journal.  I don't know if that's good or bad, but I find that's a place, a safe place for me to process what's going on.  [00:03:02] Tommy Thomas:   When you're mentoring someone do you encourage them to journal? [00:03:06] Lindy Black: Sometimes. It depends on the scenario. Some people are averse to writing. It is not a place that brings blessing and joy and you have to find that out. I'm thinking of a woman in particular, she is such an external processor to have to sit and write is just brutal for her.  And so you don't want to put that on somebody who doesn't like it. The thing though that I do try to encourage all people that I engage with is by at least recording the high spots of what you're learning and you're hearing a theme all the way through this, the word Learn, Learning, Learner. You just can't remember, oftentimes those really spectacular moments when you had a breakthrough. You either have an insight into a person you're working with or supervising or an experience with one of your kids, an engagement with your spouse, or a team event that really, may have just gone horribly, but by writing it out, did those big things. Then you can go back. Someone encouraged me to read through my journal at the end of each year and see what themes were there and what I was, what was going on, and what I was learning. That has been a very valuable discipline for me because it, on the one hand, encourages me that I'm not the same. I've been growing, I've been becoming more of who God intended me to be. And it also lends to having concrete pieces, meaty pieces to share with others to encourage them on their journey.  [00:04:55] Tommy Thomas: In some of the material I read about you that at some point you got involved in Trueface Leadership Catalyst. And I wonder if there's a short story behind that, and then how has that impacted you as a leader?  [00:05:07] Lindy Black: We had what we called a mentoring intensive, and that was the first time I met Bill Thrall, one of the leaders at that time of Trueface Leadership Catalyst.  And I had also read The Ascent of a Leader, which is one of their books from, I guess it was written about 30 years ago now.  So, there were principles there that about you want to continue to grow in competence and character. If you only grow in character but not competence, you're going to be a truncated leader. If you grow in competence, but your character doesn't continue to make progress, you will implode. You absolutely will implode. So I'd read the book and then Bill Thrall was part of our mentoring intensive and there were some key things he introduced me to. And one of those was a definition of humility, trusting God and others with me. That definition right there changed my life. So, for me to walk in humility with God and others meant I entrusted, I trusted myself, who I was, my good, bad, and ugly. The whole thing was humility, particularly with God and then also with others. So, there were some jewels that began to change me both from that book as well as from those early meetings with Bill Thrall that went on to be a part of the High Trusts Leader course they offered and a number of other things. I did some teaching with Bruce McNichol and that has been a great privilege for me. And today I am two and a half years in of being a board member. And my greatest motivation there was to be able to give back to a ministry that has really meant a great deal to me.  +++++++++++++++++++++++++   [00:07:04] Tommy Thomas:  You stepped down at Christmas from your role on the national leadership team.  What's it been like so far, to let go of that and look toward this next season?  [00:07:15] Lindy Black: It's mostly been good, but there have been some harder things too. So, the good is that I have a whole new level of flexibility and freedom that I haven't for quite a while, and that is, I think I just have deep joy in that and not having to race out the door early most mornings to make it to a meeting. Just not having the volume of work to do brings that about. So that's been really good. I've found that we've been able to do a little bit more with our family. We have three married children and 12 grandchildren. Have some flexibility there. I also think just not getting up so early has been great. I'm averaging about an hour more of sleep, I think, than I have. That does wonders for the soul. That's the good part. And I'm having a few more different kinds of opportunities that are bringing a lot of blessing and satisfaction to my heart. That's some of the good, alright. The other part is, it's probably twofold. One is I really miss the intense and challenging dialogues. I mean that positively with my teammates. I miss that. I still, of course, can see them and have relationships, but it's just not quite the same. And there are days when I just really miss the team interaction, and I miss not having the consistent time I did with the individuals.  And most days I'm able to handle the fact that I'm not in the center anymore and I don't know everything going on. And being content to let go of that is largely okay, but sometimes there's that feeling of being left out and I'm not in the center where I've lived, especially for the last 13 years.  So mostly good and some hard.  [00:09:27] Tommy Thomas: Occasionally I do some speaking on succession planning, and I guess one of the things I've observed, and maybe this is more true for men as they begin to think about transition and next season, is that they don't realize how much of their identity is tied up in the job.  Did you face any of that?  [00:09:44] Lindy Black: I can't speak for all women, but my observation is that I've had a little easier time than some of the brothers in stepping out. I don't know if part of that is because my leadership opportunities came a bit later. Some of my real significant opportunities came after our kids were, they were graduating from high school and beginning the journey to college. That may be a factor there, I think.  I never thought I would've had the privilege to do what I'm doing, so I really feel like I'm the most blessed to be able to have had those opportunities.  And I just love, I love being home.  I love it. I don't even mind doing laundry and cooking. I actually enjoy all that. So, there's so much of my life that is still present and rich and growing. So, I love working.  I don't think I'm a workaholic, although I've bordered on that sometimes in the past. But I love being active and working, so I can still do that at this stage. And I don't feel that my identity was wrapped up in a career in the same way that some of the men that I'm working with have walked through that. ++++++++++++++++++++   [00:11:07] Tommy Thomas: That's encouraging.  I want to go to a section of the podcast that I always enjoy, and that's getting people to respond to some quotes.  I'm just going to go through some quotes and maybe you'll speak from experience or observation, but so the first one let's go. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of convenience, but where they stand in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis in controversy”. [00:11:36] Lindy Black: Wow. I That rings so true. And I know in my own life having seen that the test is not when things are smooth.  The test is when the road is bumpy and the water's choppy to really see what you're made of and how deeply you can dig to the place of learning to love as well as listen and respond with character and quality.  [00:12:04] Tommy Thomas:  Ben Zander, the Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, said, “The conductor doesn't make a sound, the conductor's power depends on his ability to make other people powerful”. [00:12:17] Lindy Black: Wow. I love that. I love it. If I were to give you a little one-sentence job description, it's been to be able to see that happen with our children.  But also, with those I've worked with. [00:12:36] Tommy Thomas: Frederick Wilcox said, “Progress always involves risk. You can't steal second base and keep your foot on first.” [00:12:47] Lindy Black: Whoa. As I'm listening to that and I immediately went in my head, it's Lindy, where do you have your foot on first base, but you're wanting to be on second? [00:12:59] Tommy Thomas: President Eisenhower said, “In preparing for a battle, I've always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.  [00:13:08] Lindy Black: That pokes into, if you are not as a leader, willing to adjust, adapt, and move with new circumstances piling in, in other words, I'm going to work my plan no matter what. You are going to be one disappointed, frustrated leader, but having done your planning.  Wow. I love that one.  [00:13:30] Tommy Thomas: Here's one from Thomas Edison. “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.” [00:13:42] Lindy Black: Oh yes. I mean it building what is on your heart in your dream? Or a new idea. Oh, it is like privilege, but that 99% sweat and labor.  [00:14:01] Tommy Thomas: “When you're sitting around the table with your leadership team, you never want to be the smartest person at the table.”  [00:14:08] Lindy Black: I've never heard that before.  But see, that to me ties into this whole aspect of humility and also of drawing the best of each other, out of others.  [00:14:22] Tommy Thomas: Let's see here. So, here's one from a guy, Warren Benes. He was writing back when I was in graduate school, so this comes from days gone by. “Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they're not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.”  [00:14:55] Lindy Black: See I really agree with that. My question or challenge to that would come in that you have to do a variety of things, much of which you will not be great at before you can get to the place where you do know who you are, what you're made of, and where your strengths are. So, if you introduce that to someone who is 25 years old that may be difficult because they need some real-life experiences and leadership opportunities to understand what they're made of.  [00:15:26] Tommy Thomas: Booker T. Washington said, “ Success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life, but by the obstacles he's overcome.” [00:15:35] Lindy Black:  Wow. I think sometimes it's hard to remember some of the obstacles, perhaps that one. Yeah, to be able to know and be able to give. Give great things. Have a heart of gratitude for those things.  [00:15:52] Tommy Thomas: So I'm not going to be able to pronounce this person's name. I know she was from France. Let's just leave it at that. “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood, and don't assign them tasks and work. Rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the open sea.” [00:16:10] Lindy Black: Yeah. Keep focused on the vision as opposed to the nitty gritty detail.  [00:16:16] Tommy Thomas: “Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up” from Oliver Wendell Holmes. [00:16:24] Lindy Black: I wonder what he was picturing when he said that. If he was Ricky recognizing the reality that sometimes people who can dream dreams may not be able to have the know-how to see it actually come to be.  [00:16:41] Tommy Thomas: That's where my mind went when I read that. Some people, yeah, they're dreamers, they're vision casters, they're vision setters.  That same notion, I think needs to be planted into minds as somebody that can execute.  [00:16:53] Lindy Black: That's interesting you say that Tommy because I feel like that describes where my best contribution has been, particularly these last 12 years because I've worked with some incredible visionary leaders. And so you have this incredible vision, this motivating, charismatic personality, and then you have people who are going to be the most impacted. But how do you bridge from the people who are in everyday life living out the vision to the grander of what they're presenting? You don't just need a detailed plan, but you need to know how to win hearts all the way along the way.  And I think that's something I've really enjoyed being able to do. [00:17:42] Tommy Thomas:   “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Burns. [00:17:53] Lindy Black: I love that because you, because most people think, I said it, so therefore it's been communicated, and you have no idea what was heard. [00:18:04] Tommy Thomas: “No matter what job you have in life, your success will be determined 5% by your academic credentials, 15% by your professional experiences, and 80% by your communication skills.” [00:18:20] Lindy Black: Wow - I have not heard that one before, but that is very true. And understanding communication is always two-way.  It's never one way. [00:18:27] Tommy Thomas: Here's one from Peter Drucker. “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said.” [00:18:35] Lindy Black: Oh yeah. So how do we help people grow in that skill? I don't know. Do you think that can be learned or is it innate? What do you think?  [00:18:46] Tommy Thomas: I don't know. I guess I got to believe we can learn to become better listeners. But to hear something that's not being said, that's got to have a little bit of intuition. A group is a bunch of people in an elevator. A team is a bunch of people in the elevator, but the elevator is broken.  [00:19:09] Lindy Black: Because they have to be a team at that point. They can't just be their own people stuck together. [00:19:14] Tommy Thomas: Leadership is engaging other people to deliver desired results.  [00:19:19] Lindy Black:  And I think if it's only about you determining the desired results, it will be limited. But if it is the group deciding what the results need to be, it'll put you further down the road.  [00:19:33] Tommy Thomas: There's great power and authenticity. Oscar Wild said, “Be yourself. Everyone else has been taken”. St. Catherine of Sienna, put it this way. “Be who God meant you to be, and you'll set the world on fire.” So maybe think back and maybe get off the response and maybe get a little deeper here. Give me some things, some of the things that you've learned about authenticity over the years. [00:19:57] Lindy Black: There are two words that I think are significant here. One is transparency and one is vulnerability. I can be transparent and be very honest, but there's a glass wall up. So you can see who I am, that's a way to describe it. You see me, but you can have no connection or impact or voice with me. But vulnerability is being honest with others, an individual or others. But you give, but you're vulnerable. But as you're vulnerable, you actually open the way to engage with other people and not just, oh, you can see me, but you have no access or entrance into my mind, heart, or life. So, authenticity in and of itself means being real, but I think you can be real and transparent and alone and isolated, and you can be real and be vulnerable because you're opening up your heart to the influence of others. I think that's part of humility.  Can I go back to being authentic? I think you have to be careful not to entrust the deepest parts of yourself to people who will not handle that carefully. And that's probably been one of the things that I would say has been a hard place for me, and that is I so much enjoy knowing others and having them know me, having been hurt a couple of times with offering more of myself than what that person was able to hold. In kindness and love and carefulness, that's been, that's a hard one. You don't want to become jaded. You don't want to put a wall up. But you do have to learn to be wise in how much you share with different people.  ++++++++++++++++++++   [00:22:05] Tommy Thomas:   What do you understand today about your life that you didn't understand a year ago? [00:22:15] Lindy Black: I would say not at a level 10, but at a very middle of the road. I have learned that I really am dispensable. I am not indispensable. Other people can do things. They may not do things the way I would do them, but it doesn't mean they're not able to do things in a way that to carry. The function, having just stepped out of my role, that's a really big deal to me. So, I think I've been able to move from, I'm like, picture your hand clenched. I must do this. I know how to do this. I am super critical to the process, the future, whatever. And little by little, I've been able to feel my hand opening up over the course of this last year in a way that it doesn't go to the place where I am not valuable or needed or important, but being able to say I trust others carrying this baton forward and I can let go. And that's been probably, I would say it's on some days that's been a little harder than I would care to admit, but it has been.  [00:23:32] Tommy Thomas:   If you could go back in time, what would you tell a younger version of yourself?  [00:23:37] Lindy Black: I would say a couple of things.  First, failure is rarely fatal. That failure is a normal part of growing up and maturing. That's one thing I would've needed to, I wish I had heard that often, and maybe I did hear it, but I didn't receive it and I didn't believe it. I would say secondly,  learn to be kind to yourself. I've been driven in a variety of ways most of my life. And I've grown up in some ways being able to not take myself quite as seriously but learning to be kind to myself and taking care of myself. I would've benefited to have heard that more often in my younger years. I think I've learned to do that, but it has been, I feel a little later in life than I wish it had been. I'd say the other thing is because when God opens doors, say yes and walk through those. Don't hold back even if you have no idea where this open door is going to lead.  [00:24:48] Tommy Thomas: Thinking about younger women in leadership, Lindy, what are your observations there about the ways that we might can improve that as a society and as a culture? [00:24:59] Lindy Black: Yes. Great question. I feel my number one encouragement is to pay attention to the emerging women leaders in the span of your business or your organization. Most of them lack confidence in what they think they can bring. And some of that, it's a very interesting ambiguity that can go on. I think in women want to lead, they want to make a significant contribution, but they hold back or they're fearful. My number one encouragement is to pay attention to the emerging women leaders in the span of your business or your organization. And that could be for a number of different reasons, but it's that push-pull, and wise leaders, wise mentors and coaches will be able to pay attention and help emerging women leaders be able to understand more about themselves.  It is my experience that these emerging women leaders may need a bit more, I would call it a more defined pathway to run in. And you could really serve them by saying, this is what I would like for you to do. I believe you can do it, go after it. As opposed to just prove yourself and it is wide open. I would think emerging leaders need a bit more of a defined pathway. They also need a great deal of emerging women leaders of affirmation and feedback. I find that in general, women don't get as much of that in the workplace as perhaps their male counterparts and they need it, I'd say even more so keep those things in mind.  [00:26:43] Tommy Thomas:  Can that come from a male supervisor as well as a female supervisor?  [00:26:48] Lindy Black: Yes, definitely in my own life, most of the most significant influencers in terms of supervisors, they've been men. I don't even know, Tommy, in the last 20 years, I haven't had a supervisor that was a woman. And their paying attention to what I need to develop to bring the best contribution possible has been invaluable. And my observation is not many women have that in the workplace, especially in higher levels of executive leadership, there are just many more men in those roles than women. And so, I've had the incredible privilege of serving under several. So yes, absolutely, male supervisors can do that. Now, the best combination would be to have an excellent supervisor, be they male or female, but then also have a woman being able to walk alongside in a coaching, mentoring capacity. So both. What comes through to me is often insecure. I don't know my way; the world has completely changed the landscape for women in their jobs and careers. It's new. Women haven't walked in the place that the world is today. And I think that landscape, we're going to need to understand more and more how do we help women in their season that they find themselves. How are we going to meet them where they are and bring them the development they need because they're hungry to receive that training and development? ++++++++++++++++++++++++ You can see from these two conversations with Lindy, what a blessing she's been to The Navigators. I'm sure that the leadership there is glad that she will continue to walk along the side of their emerging leaders.  Our guest next week will be Caryn Ryan.  Caryn spent 20 years with Amoco Corporation and BP Plc.  And then later with the merged organization BP/Amoco. She held key finance positions in London, the Soviet Union, Chicago, and Houston. She was recruited by World Vision International, where she served as their Chief Financial Officer. She will be sharing her journey from BP/Amoco to World Vision to her current role as Founder and Managing Member of Missionwell. [00:29:16] Caryn Ryan: I was a mediocre boss at best.   I didn't see the role as servant leadership initially. I really saw it as leading a production team to goals. And in addition, I had a boss at the time who was a great example of how not to treat people. But as my time in that seat progressed, I learned that every boss has to protect their people. They must advocate for them, and they have to develop their staff. And these are the things that allow people to flourish. And to this day maybe just based on how tough that job was one of my joys is mentoring young people and bringing them along.    Links and Resources JobfitMatters Website Next Gen Nonprofit Leadership with Tommy Thomas The Navigators TrueFace - Lindy Black The Assent of a Leader   Connect Tommy Thomas - tthomas@jobfitmatters.com Tommy's LinkedIn Profile Lindy Black's LinkedIn Profile  

It's time to take a trip up to the San Fernando Valley, as Bryan is joined by Oscar Wild co-host Sophia Ciminello to discuss their favorite films directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Follow Sophia: Twitter: @sophia_cim Letterboxd: @sophiacim Oscar Wild: @OscarWildPod Follow Film Fragments: Twitter: @FilmFragmentsPC Instagram: @FilmFragmentsPodcast Follow Bryan: Twitter: @BryanSudfield Instagram: @BryanSudfield YouTube: @BryanSudfield Letterboxd: @BryanSudfield Credits: • Theme music by Eugene Rocco Utley• Artwork by Eugene Rocco Utley• Edited by Bryan Sudfield

The wonderful, amazing co-host of the Oscar Wild podcast, Sophia Ciminello, joins David & Devon to present Ingmar Bergman's bittersweet masterpiece WILD STRAWBERRIES and how this master filmmaker's rich tapestry of self-reflection, cinematic inventiveness, and concise storytelling is her "back pocket Bergman"! 

Dylan and Connor are joined by dear friends Oscar Wild Podcast co-hosts Sophia Ciminello and Nick Ruhrkraut. It's a podcasting family reunion to celebrate awards season! Listen in as longtime friends Nick and Sophia FINALLY guest on DRAMA. They discuss Oscar Wild, their top-notch film podcast, the aftershocks of the Golden Globes ceremony, and being “well” in January. Hear about Sophia & Nick's friendship/podcast origin story, Cate Blanchett v Michelle Yeoh, favorite Oscars categories, Amanda Seyfriend and Evan Rachel Wood in the Thelma & Louise musical, VHS tapes, retiring “the slap,” Austin Butler's Elvis voice, seeing Oscar winners onstage, Jessica Chastain in A Doll's House, the Sweeney Todd revival, the gift that keeps on giving: Kate Hudson, and MORE. Subscribe to Oscar Wild at the links below. Happy awards season!Subscribe to DRAMA+ for bonus episodes, Instagram Close Friends content, and more!Listen to Oscar Wild here and follow on Twitter & InstagramFollow Sophia on TwitterFollow Nick on TwitterFollow DRAMA. on Twitter & Instagram & TiktokFollow Connor MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramFollow Dylan MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramEdited by Dylan

Morgan and Chels are joined by Sophia from Oscar Wild, Kenzie from Oscar Central, and Jenn from The Community Rewatch Podcast to share their Top 5 Favorite Films of 2022. These films are not your Godfathers or Citizen Kane, but more of your Mean Girls and Girls Trip. The films that made us feel seen, that we'll pop on on a rainy day, and we will hold in our hearts for all of time. Let us know what your favorite films of the past year were! 81st Academy Awards Best ActressTilda Swinton Directed Music VideoTilda Swinton/Joanna Hogg latte TikTokFind SophiaAwardsWatchOscar Wild WebsiteOscar Wild InstagramFind KenzieLetterboxdOscars Central WebsiteFind JennJust About WriteCommunity Rewatch InstagramSubscribe and leave us a review!Follow us!TwitterInstagramCover Art by the incredible Grace Aki

Dylan and Connor are joined by 2022 Tony Award Winner Joaquina Kalukango (Paradise Square, Slave Play). This week, the twins are giving thanks for this queen's visit to DRAMA. On the heels of her upcoming starring turn as The Witch in Into the Woods on Broadway, they discuss Joaquina's relationship to the piece, her recent Tony Award win for Paradise Square, and “Let It Burn” already appearing in drag mashup roulettes at gay bars across America. More topics include Oscar Wild, the film podcast by Sophia Ciminello and Nick Ruhrkraut, the breathtaking Danielle Brooks, asking Cynthia Erivo for leading lady advice, The Color Purple, Julliard, Rihanna, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. See Joaquina in Into the Woods starting December 16!Subscribe to DRAMA+ for bonus episodes, Instagram Close Friends content, and more!Follow Joaquina on InstagramFollow DRAMA. on Twitter & Instagram & TiktokFollow Connor MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramFollow Dylan MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramEdited by Connor

Does anyone remember the time where we didn't know something and you had to be OK with it?  Seems like ages ago, or maybe I'm feeling my age. But thanks to the advent and growth of technology, it's easier than ever to obtain facts. The issue I have with this, is that we may be sacrificing wisdom for convenience.  The more we know, ironically, drives anxiety. It lessens curiosity. It quashes our desire to learn. Quite frankly, it makes life boring. If we have all the facts available to us, what's the point in asking questions?  It's one thing to know a fact. But you can get facts anywhere. What's more important, I would argue, is how to think. Reasoning, logic, deduction, interpretation – these are the skill sets that will help us move past just repetition and boredom.  It's a focus that will translate well to the workplace. What I come across often in the coaching world is that most people have insecurity and anxiety, and many of them try to cover it by giving advice or spouting facts. But the fact of the matter is, those who embrace their insecurity, ask really good questions and learn to focus on their ability to continue to learn are the best leaders in an organization.  Solutions will vary – but I'd say a good start is to begin by asking yourself questions, and going deeper beyond just the basic answer. Figuring out a belief system, why you believe things and understanding why others can believe the opposite, is a fun and productive philosophical exercise that will translate over into other areas of your life.  It's too strong to say facts are worthless, but without context and understanding, they don't have multiple legs to stand on. It's our understanding and interpretation that give facts meaning, and we only understand and interpret through questions.  Happy week! Your Title Goes Here Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings. Click Here for an Unedited Transcript Welcome to Bellwether. Thank you for being here this week. As always, I appreciate your attention and your time, and your listening, and your follows and all of that good stuff. Today we're talking about the joy of not knowing. That's right. The joy of not knowing. We don't need to know all the answers to all of our questions. I was wistfully thinking the other day about how nice it was back in my, my fellow Gen X listeners. 0:28 I'm, I'm at the tail end of Gen X, but I identify with Gen X. I like my Gen X people. Gen X will remember this. Do you remember a time back where you just didn't know the answer to something and you had to be okay with it? It was almost this freeing kind of . It was, it was so nice to just not know. And we're, we're living now in a place where we're inundated with information. 0:51 We're inundated with facts. Everybody's got a fact. Everybody wants to tell you what they know, and they can find the study or statistic that shows it. But without context, the facts are irrelevant. And I'd argue that we're, we're sacrificing wisdom and intelligence for the, the idea of just knowing facts that anybody can find when they Google something. And I would argue that the need for reasoning, logic, understanding context, being able to think is far more important as we move forward in the society than it is to just no facts. 1:31 Cause anybody can get facts anywhere. And that's what I'm gonna talk about today. I'm gonna talk about how knowing everything like we do today, having information on our fingertips is actually driving more anxiety. Anxiety, um, it lessens our curiosity, it impacts our ability to be leaders. I'll talk about workplace impact and then maybe at the end of this, if I remember, and if I have time, um, and I'm so inclined, I'll give you some, some tidbits maybe that can help us get thinking about, um, how to think, thinking about how to think rather than, uh, just knowing facts. 2:02 So, um, like I said, I think my gen gen Xers will appreciate this and older, there was that time where, you know, you'd think of something and, and you would just never know it. And the only, you had to take a trip to the library, go through the Dewey decimal system to find some kind of book or an atlas or an encyclopedia to find it out. You actually had to do research. 2:22 And most of the time you're like, I just don't care enough to do that. And so it just went away. And that was nice. It was nice. You could focus on more things, more pertinent things, more impressive things, more relationship things. And you just, you didn't know when your friends were gonna show up. You didn't know when, uh, you know, your parents were gonna pick you up from the movie theater or anything else. 2:43 You could talk about it in general, uh, in in general context. But we, you know, there was a mystery to it. And there, there was a lot of fun to that. Um, now granted, having information on our fingertips has its benefits. I will say that. But, um, I, I would say we, we have this fake knowledge now of knowing facts. And you could find any fact online. Any fact that you wanna find, you could find it. 3:07 And there's true facts, and there's fake facts, and there's half true facts. And there are, there are facts that are only facts when included with the proper context and . So, so facts. The idea of a fact is, is almost subjective at this point. And so knowing facts, and, and you see this a lot in the coaching industry, um, people who try to present themselves as experts, everybody wants to be an expert. 3:35 Okay? We get this. Everybody wants to be an expert. Everybody wants to be wanted, everybody wants to be intelligent and seen as such. And that's great. So they spit out knowledge to almost present themselves in this way that they are intelligent. But without context and understanding the context or making it real for people to know how to implement these facts, it's almost irrelevant. The facts are pointless because it doesn't change behavior or doesn't drive home the message you're trying to drive home. 4:03 It just, you know, it's this false supporting of some BS statement so that we can present ourselves as experts in some particular type of way. And especially on, you know, you see this on TikTok all the time. I love the psychologists who come out and the psychiatrists and the neuroscientists who say, that's not what that means, right? To, to correct all these people. Or just say, the hippocampus does this and you, that means you're gonna do this. 4:27 And, um, it's such a misinterpretation of, of knowledge, um, to the point where it's damaging and it, it makes people change behavior in a very negative way. And, and you look ridiculous. I want you to know, you look ridiculous. . Um, there is, ironically, I think the more knowledge we have, the more anxiety we have. Um, ignorance is bliss. I do believe that to a certain extent, there is, uh, a certain bliss of ignorance. 4:57 It's why when people turn off social media, it's a cathartic experience. It's why when people turn off the news, it's cathartic. Not knowing what's going on and not being a hermit. I'm not talking about being a hermit, but there's, there's a scale of knowledge and information. We're being inundated with constant ads and information and facts on, on why you need this medication that you didn't even know you needed. And, uh, let me come in with this article and why you're doing things wrong. 5:25 You're shoveling your driveway wrong, and you're like, what the hell are you talking about? This is ridiculous. So, so the more facts were given, uh, I would say it is impacting us in a very negative way. Um, even right on down to the weather. Do we need to know that the storm's coming in a week when you're know, start, say, ruins your week, right? Well, it's gonna, you know, nice day. Yeah, but it's gonna rain this weekend, right? 5:48 We can't enjoy the moment we're in because we have so much knowledge as to what's coming down the pike, that, that we actually can't be present and we can't enjoy the people that are around us. And it drives this, this type of anxiety. And at the same time, it lessens our curiosity. And we need a sense, you know, I've said this before, multiple times. The reason kids are happy is because they're learning. 6:11 They have this sense of wonder. There are things that are new to them. When we have all these facts, we lose that sense of wonder. We have to have the facts, we have to have the answers. We have to do all this stuff. It drives more anxiety, and we care less. We're less curious. The last time you got really lost in something, it's probably because you were curious about it and learning, and you wanted to know a new answer. 6:32 And that's why we read things, and that's why we get into things. And that's why we, you know, I, I speak to so many Gen Z people and say, well, what are you reading right now? They're like, oh, I, I don't read books. I don't read books. Because they have all the facts that they need at their fingertips and what they're sacrificing. And this isn't a Gen Z, this isn't everybody challenge, okay? 6:52 I'm not, I'm not bashing Gen Z. Um, they don't have to read, right? Because they have all their information. There is a benefit to learning and reading and being curious, and that's your developing the capacity to think. And that's what's so important. We have to develop a capacity for reason. We have to develop a capacity for logic. We can't just repeat facts. You see this very much in politics, right? Let me tell you why this is so important and why you're wrong. 7:19 Facts are all about giving somebody, uh, i I bucket facts into this category of just giving advice and for coaches to be good. Again, I'm going back to my coaching. We never give advice. Good coaches never give advice, because advice is just an exercise of feeling superior to somebody else. Telling facts is just this false sense of superiority that we wish to have. And it's trying to mask our own insecurities and our ability to ask questions. 7:46 We don't want to be known as someone who doesn't know, but yet, ironically, the most secure people we know and the most effective leaders we know are those very people who could say, I don't know the answer to that. Tell me more. Ask me. You know, can I ask more questions? This is really good. Let's get curious. Let's dig more. Let's learn about the logic, the reasoning, the interpretation of this. What can we deduce from all of these facts that we find? 8:10 And how do we make that relevant today? The ability to do, you know, do that cognitive exercise, to do that thinking. That's what we need to really embrace and drive and, and really look for. And we can only do that when we don't know. We only have that, that desire to do that. When we don't know the facts, we don't know the answers. We don't stop at just knowing this ridiculous fact here. 8:36 And we say, all right, well, we did our job. We just told everyone how smart we were, and then we can move on. We need to deduce and make things real. Things evolve over time. Facts change over time. Facts change with context, right? You can make the same statement in two separate places. One time it's true, another time it's not. And depending on interpretation, that's one of those big muscles that we really have to learn and drive. 9:01 And, and if we wanna bring this to the workplace, uh, that's gonna separate the, the adults from the children, your ability to deduce. That's how you bring value, right? I, I've gone through this exercise at a few places, um, depending on the size of your company, right? But I was working at a company or working with a company, had about a thousand employees. I said, if you wanted to get rid of everyone, 200 employees, what would they be doing? 9:30 And they know that they could survive with, you know, one fifth of their employees. They'd be thinking very differently. They'd be doing very different type of work, much more cognitive. And they know those 200 people, they would keep those people who could think, right? That's gonna be, we're, we're not moving to a knowledge economy, right? Or maybe that's what we've got. We've got a knowledge economy. A knowledge economy is irrelevant, right? 9:52 We need a thinking economy that's very, very different, right? You have all the information you could want at your finger fingertips, but what makes you uniquely human is the ability to deduce and think and interpret, right? AI is gonna blow you outta the water of just pulling facts. It's got mountains amount of facts and can make decisions and do all of these things very quickly based on fact and trends and everything else. 10:17 But to be uniquely humanist, to think and to be cognitive. And that comes from not knowing. That's where we need to focus. That's learning mindset, that's asking really good questions. When we think about our best leaders and the most productive individuals, the people who are creating new things, the people who are bringing value to work, the people who are, uh, creating new processes. And those are the thinkers. They're not just repeating the way we've always done things. 10:45 They're not repeating, well, this is how it works. This is fact. They can interpret deduce question, ask really good questions, and be really, really curious. If you've worked with me. You know, I always talk about the, the question, does anybody know what a real question is? And most people don't know what a real question is. A question is a request for information where you legitimately do not know the answer, and you want the answer. 11:11 Very, very important to make that distinction of, I'm really curious. Otherwise, it's just a judgemental statement. And when we're trying to mask anxiety, when we're trying to spit facts, when we're trying to just tell people why they're wrong, why we're trying to tell people, uh, advice and say, this is what you should do, and I think you should do that, and this is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's our own insecurity. 11:32 It's, it's trying to feel superior over other people. Everybody sat in a meeting where somebody asks someone for feedback, they're very quick to say, well, we can't do it because of X and we can't do it because of y. Right? That's their own insecurity. They never go first to Well, it's possible, but right? They, they're never open to that. That's a stressor. They're insecure. It's the first thing that you notice about ineffective leadership is they always tell you why something can't be done. 12:00 And so not knowing, um, is a blessing. It's a blessing. I don't fully appreciate, I I didn't really fully appreciate the blessing until recently. And the more I've been talking about it with people, you know, I don't watch television. Well, I do a little bit, but not, you know, in, in the other way. Um, it's nice to not know what's going on in general. You know, as a matter, I'm still engaged in my community. 12:24 I've got my people, I've got my clients, I've got my family. I, you know, I'm not a hermit, but I don't need to know everything. Although I do love spitting facts. I do love the random facts. Everybody does. But the reason we love the random facts is because we've learned something, right? We say, oh, that's shocking that I wouldn't have thought of that. And oh, that's very interesting. It's a curiosity thing. 12:46 And we, we tap into our learning and that's why, why we like to do it. So, um, a few episodes go, I would encourage you to do the believability episode. Listen to the believability episode. If you haven't done it, that one resonated with a lot of people, because that's a differentiator in the workplace as well. And that comes from not knowing believability. There's an authenticity to believability. In order to be believable, you have to build this capacity to be believable. 13:12 It's not just enough to be authentic, it's not just enough to know things and how things work. We have to be believable. And we become believable by, by connecting with other people and asking really, really good questions. And then that gives us some credibility. It brings authenticity to say, oh, I don't know everything, but I can deduce and bring more value to the fact that you actually know that's real value. And that's something that we should focus on. 13:37 So what are the solutions? How do we do this? How do we become a person who knows, but doesn't know a person who is valuable, not knowing everything, but can ask really, really good questions. And that's, you know, it's odd. We, we wanna be curious. We wanna know facts are fun, right? I love spitting facts. I love it. Um, I should have prepared some random facts, right? But I'm not, uh, , I didn't do that for this episode, so I'm sorry. 14:02 But the first one, the way to start is, you know, we have to learn to become philosophical. That's the first. And we have to, to work on our questions. And so I had asked, you know, what's the most interesting question you could come up with? And I'm not talking about, you know, does a straw have one or two holes? Um, although those are fun little conversations to have with your people. But what are really, really good questions you could ask yourself about anything that's going on in your world where you legitimately don't know the answer and you want to know the answer. 14:33 And if there's nothing that you want to know the answer to, we have a lot of thinking to do, right? Asking why, why do we do the things we do? That's part of self discovery, it's part of personal development, it's part of everything. And that's ultimately the meaning of life. The aim of life is self development. Uh, who said that the aim of life is self development. Dorian Gray, Oscar Wild said that Oscar Wild said, I think he did. 14:59 The aim of life is self development. Um, but, but how do we exercise reasoning and logic, our belief system, pure curiosity, just for the purpose of being curious. That is how we become a, a, a proponent of not knowing, not to just get to the end answer. Cuz there are no end answers, right? But how do we continue to exercise this muscle of being curious and asking questions? That's, we don't want to be the one who just knows all the answers. 15:28 That's boring. It's so boring. Life gets so incredibly boring when you have all the answers. So let's go find something to be curious about. That's my advice for the weekend. my advice, I always give advice, um, which is the opposite of what you actually want to do. But that's my thing when I go for a run, it's always asking questions. My reasoning, my deducing, why do I think this? Well, if I think this, well what does that mean for this? 15:55 And if I think that, well, what does that mean for this? And what do I believe in all of these questions? It's, it's a very heavy exercise. It's a very difficult one. Uh, but it's a, it's an awesome one. It makes life so, so interesting to not know. So let's get a little exciting. Let's get a little crazy. Let's not know something this week and get a little curious. That's just tons of fun. 16:15 So have a good week. I hope it was helpful. It's my wistful kind of going back to the, um, I mean, I guess it was late eighties when I was just kind of running around with people and, um, just not knowing anything. Like mid, mid eighties, late eighties, just run around, doesn't matter. Don't know anything. Um, but you had a lot of fun and part of it was a maturity cause you're a kid, right? 16:39 Um, but also it's, there's, there's some credibility to it. So have a great week. Enjoy. Thank you for paying attention. Thank you for your time. And uh, with that, I'll see you next week. Thanks.

Mariah Carey may already be getting out her stocking but here at Oscar Wild, it's time for Noir-vember. With so many titles to choose from in this fatalistic genre/style of femme fatales, crime, and sharp lighting, Sophia and Nick decided to cover two of Billy Wilder's shining noir films: Double Indemnity and Sunset Blvd. In the former, Phyllis and Walter come up with the perfect plan to defraud and murder her husband. Listen for a full discussion on what happens when things go awry, favorite scenes and performances, and why Barbara Stanwyck's wig is more than just a sore subject. Then, it's all about an out-of-touch silent film star in the shockingly narrated Sunset Blvd. What makes Norma Desmond one of the most memorable performances of all time? Find out what Paul Hollywood would have to say about her dilapidated mansion and if her astrology actually holds true (37:20).Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpodFollow Sophia @sophia_cimFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Music: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

With Halloween upon us, what better way to celebrate the best of the horror genre than to host our very own Horror Oscars! It's no secret that scary movies and performances aren't usually recognized at The Oscars, so Nick and Sophia decided to right some wrongs and share their own picks. The only rule is that you can only choose a movie three times among the six major categories. First are all four acting categories, ranging in terrific performances from a faithful priest dealing with his own inner demons to a tortured wife trying to survive the terrors of a secluded hotel. Then, onto Best Director and Best Picture (39:40). Which masters of horror will make the cut? Can they agree on a Best Horror Film of All Time? Enter if you dare…Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpodFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Follow Sophia @sophia_cimMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

WTOQ?! Ep 57 - Pecific RimRecorded Monday 17th October 2022 Tommy is back in the Throne room with Bernie and there gorgeous and talented special guest is Dickie Beau. Together they talk about his new theatre piece SHOWMANISM which will be at the Ustinov Studio in Bath from 11th Nov to 10th Dec this year.  Other topics covered are the transcendence of theatre performances, Molly Houses, Oscar WIld, Quentin Crisp, Neil Gaiman and so much more At the Top of the show Bernie and Tommy discuss this article 21 top tips for rimming by Alexander Cheves:https://www.advocate.com/sexy-beast/2018/6/13/21-rimming-tips-everyone-should-know?utm_source=out.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_module#media-gallery-media-23 And the Quandaries in the Queens of agony section cover changing sexual tastes with age, masc subs, are Queers naturally artistsic and what's agreat date. Let the Old Queens quintessential Queer chat wash over you...Get WTOQ?! Without ads, early access and extra features via ACAST+https://plus.acast.com/s/what-that-old-queen Or you can support in other ways by making a donation via paypal, buying some WTOQ?! Merchandise buying us a Kofi or by becoming a Patreon.Follow the links below:https://ko-fi.com/thatoldqueenhttps://teespring.com/stores/what-that-old-queen https://www.paypal.com/donate/hosted_button_id=ZUP5YXG874H4Qhttps://www.paypal.com/https://www.patreon.com/Wtoq Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/what-that-old-queen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dawn DeKeyser on IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0215245/Dawn's Website - https://www.dawndekeyser.comMichael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistTranscripts Are Auto-GeneratedMichael Jamin:I've made a number of posts about this that yeah, put yourself in a box. People are like, But I don't wanna be in a box. Put yourself in a box and you'll worry about getting outta the box later. But right now, you need to sell yourself as who? This is what you are. What do I do? That's right. That'sDawn DeKeyser:Right. And, and so many new writers are still struggling with that. And I said, People cannot help you if they don't know where to put you.Michael Jamin:You're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear This with Michael Jam. Hey everybody, this is Michael Jamin and you're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear this. Mike cohost Phil Hudson. He's got the day off again. He's doing some more work behind the scenes, but I'm here interviewing the amazingly talented Dawn de Kaiser. And, uh, Dawn, let me tell, tell everybody who you are. Let me also you, I need to remind you who you are.Dawn DeKeyser:Okay? Please doMichael Jamin:So. You got a long history of writing some pretty great shows. So first you started, I guess, on All American Girl. That was the Margaret Cho show you did Ink Ted Danson. Remember that one? I remember that one. News Radio you wrote a news radio you wrote on All right, already, which I did not know. I guess you wrote with Steven Engel on that one. I didn't know that. Conrad Bloom, you know, I went to, uh, I went to uh, college with him. We were friends in college, Mark Fostein. Um, but I haven't talked to him since. And then the Gina Davis show starring who, who started that? Uh, the Becker Becker again. Ted Danson. Let's listen to these credits you got there was amazing. Uh, just for kicks. Ugly Betty. We know Betty Lafa, Samantha, who if I were on that show, I would've been insufferable because someone would've said, Yeah, I I have an idea. What if Samantha goes on a date? And I would've been like, Samantha, who? That would've been my joke all every day. Sign sealed. Oh, I skip on the client list. Sign sealed, delivered, hit Streak. The Gourmet Detective Summer. Love the Good Witch. Thank you, John. Thank you so much. Look at me. Are you impressed with how much work?Dawn DeKeyser:I am so impressed at. Who knew? I had no idea.Michael Jamin:You've done a lot of you. So anyway, I thank you so much for joining because, uh, is, we've never worked together. I always, even though I've known you for years, I always figured we would work together at some point. We just never did. And I blame you for that.Dawn DeKeyser:I, uh, I, blame me, we were on the same studio a lot. We were like, Yeah. Next to we had bungalows next to each other. Mm-hmm. . So that counts completely is, Yeah.Michael Jamin:Yeah. You were always a familiar face.Dawn DeKeyser:But before we start, can I curse?Michael Jamin:I don't Sure. Why, why would you, Is there something you wanna get off your chest? ?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. No, just that in the course of talking, it's gonna play a part of describing my path in life and Oh yeah. I don't think I could do it without some gods and fucks. SoMichael Jamin:Do it. Do it up.Dawn DeKeyser:Okay.Michael Jamin:Cause I we're getting to the truth again. So let's begin. How did you become? Where did you start? How did you get into sit? Everyone wants to know how people get into sitcom writing or TV writing. So how did you get in?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, so, and we all come from different angles on different paths. And in order to get to my TV days, I'll just say a little bit about my background. I was raised in a military family and my dad was a fighter pilot. And I grew up in a very great Sani kind of house. Um, I, I say I was the best son my dad ever had because I was tough and competitive. And I weighed 92 pounds and I was pious.Michael Jamin:Wait, did, were you the only child?Dawn DeKeyser:No, I had two sisters. So my mom, who was lovely, she would dress my sisters and I all in matching dresses, hats, gloves and shoes. And we would march out onto the tarmac and salute the F four phantoms as they landed.Michael Jamin:Wow. And so, and so you moved around the country then? Probably?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, I was born in Japan and I lived in England.Michael Jamin:Oh my. And so your Okay. Military brat. And then when you say Great Santa, cuz your dad was strict. Oh, is Now, do you wanna start cursing now? What did you want to curse?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, well, let's see. He, we did have a flow chart of our chores on our bedrooms. And when we were, I think starting at three and four and our beds had to be made with hospital corners really. And we would have to stand in a line, add attention and get, you know, understand what our chores were gonna be for the day and for the week.Michael Jamin:Because you are so not that you're so, you know, kind of almost soft spoken, very gentle. You're very warm energy. You're not , you're not a, you know, uh,Dawn DeKeyser:It's taken a long time to get this outta my system. So when I was in junior high, we moved from England to Texas and I went from riding English, um, horseback to competing in rodeos. And I then started racing sailboats. And by college I was on the varsity team. And, um, by the way, I paid my way through college, working two or three jobs each semester. And I started working when I was 15. That's a little Rob Cohen of me. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Wait, where did you go to school?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, which time? Uh, I went to, so in college I went to the University of Texas and I studied international business, Uhhuh. And then I dropped out of UT and moved to Belgium where I worked at a division of NATO for, for,Michael Jamin:I feel like you might speak a lot of languages. Do you speak how many languages you speak?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, I used to speak French when I worked in the warehouse with the Belgians. Right. Um, and then, you know, when my other girlfriends were cheerleaders and all that, I was treasurer of the Latin Club. I don't mean to brag.Michael Jamin:Wow. So you speak Latin. I knew you spoke. What?Dawn DeKeyser:And, and so then I, after dropping out, I went back and I finished up my degree in, uh, appropriately named a BS in advertising. And that's, that's really when I started my writing career. And, um, let's see, what did I do? So I started,Michael Jamin:You worked in advertising.Dawn DeKeyser:So I got to work on tv, radio, and print. And in fact, my first assignment was writing, uh, dozens of scripts for David Brener for TacoMichael Jamin:Bell. That was your work. Now I, now I know your work. .Dawn DeKeyser:That's what I'm known for. Um, so getting closer to the TV part, I was living in Dallas. My boyfriend was discovered by a talent manager, and he immediately moved out to LA and became a successful actor.Michael Jamin:Do we know his name?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. I went, I'll I'll say it. I mean, it was a long time ago. So Tom Hayden Church.Michael Jamin:Oh, I did not know that. Okay.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. And so he, his confidence and his uniqueness was just like he broken right away. Mm-hmm. . And I went on to New York and in advertising, which I loved. And you know, after a while, after about two years, I thought maybe I could write something longer than 30 seconds. Mm-hmm. . So I took writing classes at night. I did improv, which I was terrible at because of that. Let's revisit the military background. I am not spontaneous.Michael Jamin:You're not supposed to go off script when you're in the military.Dawn DeKeyser:Oh. Oh, no. And I'm very methodical and you know, by this time I was like mid to late twenties and I guess I was having a quarter life crisis and thinking, what, what am I, what do I wanna do and what do I love doing? I loved writing and I loved sitcoms more than anything. Um, I didn't know how to do that. I called Tom, who was at the time on Wings, that was his first series. And I said, Could you send by now my ex-boyfriend? And I said, Could you send me the writer's draft through a producing draft? I wanna see the transition mm-hmm. of how this writing is done. And so then I started taping my favorite shows and then doing the stop and pause on the VHS tape.Michael Jamin:Like really studying how long a scene would be, how what the act breaks are everything. Huh.Dawn DeKeyser:All that. The dialogue, the, and I would map out the beats on a notepad, which by the way, I still write on old fashioned paper notepads for everything. And then I transfer it to the computer. Wow.Michael Jamin:That's old school.Dawn DeKeyser:That is old school. And it is all about the ritual. And like, I think there's something about the the brain to the heart to the hand that gets on paper that I, I don't get when I write.Michael Jamin:But you could, you must be able to read your handwriting. Cause I can't read my handwriting. I couldn't even try.Dawn DeKeyser:I no, I can't. I can get the gist of it.Michael Jamin:Oh, really? Okay.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Um, so Tom sent me a series of one of one script and, um, I was writing my own two spec scripts. And then I moved to LA with $3,000 in cash.Michael Jamin:And where, what I always, I I have to What part in LA did you live at first?Dawn DeKeyser:I lived Endless Field, which was being hailed as the New West Village of LA and it is not. And I was living right on Vermont Avenue and I slept on my bathrobe for the first two weeks until my stuff came from New York.Michael Jamin:But you had a place all by yourself or you have roommates?Dawn DeKeyser:Uh, no, I had a place to myself. I mean, it was $700 for one.Michael Jamin:Mm-hmm. . That sounds about right. That's a good deal actually. Uh, even then, that's a good deal. So, okay. And then, and then how did you find a, how did you finally get work?Dawn DeKeyser:So I was writing these spec scripts and I sent them them to Bill Diamond and Mike Sal. Mm-hmm. . And when I moved out to LA, they were my first meeting.Michael Jamin:But How did you know them?Dawn DeKeyser:Through Tom? Because they were baby writers on the show. Oh,Michael Jamin:Right. Yeah.Dawn DeKeyser:And they said, you know, we thought you were just gonna be some gal who want, who had this idea of writing for sick homes, but you know what you're doing. Right. And I was very happy about that. They didn't give me my first break,Michael Jamin:But they, but they weren't, they were just staff writers at the time.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, yeah. Which is fine. You know, I thought the first thing I needed to do was build a community. So I took a UCLA extension class at night and on the last day of the class, everyone was filing out. Someone turned around and said, you know, the deadline for the Disney Writer's Fellowship is tomorrow. You have to have your work postmarked by then. Okay. And I ran home and got my stuff in the mail the next morning. And, um, I sort of like that intro that I just talked about my life, I sort of put some of that in the essay that you write for what's your unique background. And, um, and then sent in a, uh, a Murphy Brown, maybe. Mm-hmm. , I'mMichael Jamin:Not sure you had a bunch of specsDawn DeKeyser:Probably. No, I had, because I'm very methodical, I would spend six months writing each of them. Okay. And that's night and day work shopping, doing writers groups, doing punch up mm-hmm. , um, until I felt like every page that your eyeballs land on made sense and was good and had a joke and you knew where the characters were going.Michael Jamin:Before we skip ahead, you said something I thought was really smart, you said you wanted to build your community. Right. Because a lot of people don't even think about that.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:So you knew you wanted by, you knew you wanted help or you wanted, like what, what were you looking for?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, I knew that I didn't know anyone here. Tom was off on his own, uh, fabulous life. I knew a girl from Dallas from years before, but, um, there was, there was no one that I could send my stuff to and I did cold calling to the agents and that didn't work. Doesn't do anything. Yeah. And so in the UCLA classes, I would usually, if you've got a group of 20 people, there's two that get it, let's say 10%, they'reMichael Jamin:Get what get you or what do you mean get it?Dawn DeKeyser:I mean, they get what the, they are really there to learn and to be in that field. Mm-hmm. some others, you know, just they, it's a fun class to take. Right. But you can tell the two or three people that are very, um, interested in moving their career forward. Right. So I ingratiated myself and said, Let's form a writer's group. And that was okay. You know, that was fine until you start meeting people through them, they bring in their set of information that you don't have access to mm-hmm. and then it just starts growing.Michael Jamin:Right? Yeah. You gotta be there. And you, you were there now, how were you making a living? You still working in advertising now?Dawn DeKeyser:So I was still in, I wasn't in doing advertising. I was temping and I had this job at, uh, Disney on the lot where I was answering phones for the head of marketing mm-hmm. . And I thought, I'm advertising and marketing. And because, um, at, on the second day, he came out of his office and he said, Who are you and why are you so bad at answering phones? Like you're dropping calls and you're, you're sending in the wrong people. And I was like, Yeah, cuz um, this is really what I do. I actually love the One Sheet movie posters that you guys are writing, so I'd like to write headlines for that. And I had secretly gone into the files to see what their freelancers were invoicing them.Michael Jamin:Interesting.Dawn DeKeyser:And he said, Yeah, I don't think you're right for that. So I brought in my portfolio the next day and he said, I think you're right for this. So I started picking up freelance for movie posters,Michael Jamin:But that was not, See some people think that that's how you break in, but I wouldn't think that that's how to break in. That's just how to make a book. Right.Dawn DeKeyser:What do you mean? Like,Michael Jamin:Well, like that wouldn't, working in that advertising side for Disney wouldn't get you, you know, you're on the Disney lot, but it wouldn't get you as a sick, you know, get you work as a sit home writer.Dawn DeKeyser:That's right. So that predated getting into, so I got in the Disney Writer's Fellowship, Right. Um, that was over the course of like a two, two month process of interviewing and meeting with their executives. And I went into that meeting thinking, this is what I moved out here for. And they said, So what is your plan if, if this doesn't work out? And I said, This is going to work out. I really can't imagine y y'all finding someone better or more dedicated to doing great work. I really wanna do this. I wanna work with my heroes. I wanna work with people that will make me a better writer.Michael Jamin:And who were your heroes then?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, weirdly enough, um, I had top a top five. One was Diane English, one was Chris Lloyd, the, the writer. HowMichael Jamin:Did you know Chris Lloyd? But yeah, I was so surprised you from, how would you know, how did you know Chris? Like how was he? He, Diane English? Yeah,Dawn DeKeyser:Diane English. Um, Chris was,Michael Jamin:Was he running, He wasn't running Fraser then?Dawn DeKeyser:He was like higher up on Fraser.Michael Jamin:Wow. Okay. Yeah. I'm surprised you even thought of him. But I mean Yeah, he's great. He's a he is a great writer forDawn DeKeyser:Sure. Yeah, he is. And I can't remember the other three, but within the first two years of breaking in, I worked with all five of them.Michael Jamin:Wow. Wow. Now, what was the fellowship like? Cuz we did the Warner Brothers Writer's Workshop.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:I'd rather you talk about it. What was the Disney one like? What was your experience there?Dawn DeKeyser:It was so great. They picked five people. I think they had in that year, um, 3000 applicants. They picked five of us and Wow. That's it. Pardon?Michael Jamin:That's it. That's, I can't, I I didn't, I didn't know it was that small.Dawn DeKeyser:Well, it's, I think it's bigger these days. I think they take on 10 or 20, which is good. And they have a, they had another five fellows that did only film. And our five, you know, I'm still in contact with today. We would meet, um, twice a week at each other's houses. And then usually once a week or every two weeks we'd go to Disney and we would pitch where we are with our specs script. So it was a small, like a small stipend that paid the rent. OhMichael Jamin:Wow. And those five, all five went on to work?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, not consistently. Not really. Okay. But that again, was just, I think it has everything to do with focus. Mm-hmm. . Um, and I'll talk about that a little more of like, if you, if you are not, if you don't pick a lane, I am a sitcom half hour multi-camera mm-hmm. writer. That's what I wanna do.Michael Jamin:That Right. I, I so intriguing. Cause I say that I've made a number of posts about this that Yeah, put yourself in a box. People like, but I don't wanna be in a box, Put yourself in a box and you worry about getting outta the box later. But right now you need to sell yourself as who this is what you are. Why do I do? That's right.Dawn DeKeyser:That's right. And, and so many new writers are still struggling with that. And I said, People cannot help you if they don't know where to put you. Yeah. And so if you say, Oh, I write drama and comedy and romance, it's like, that's great for you, but I only know comedy writers. Right. So I don't think I'm gonna even help you because I don't know if you're really connected with that or with drama orMichael Jamin:How serious you are about it. Yeah, exactly. Market yourself. Make it easy for people. Yeah. You know? Yeah. What, See, it's, so sometimes I, sometimes I wonder, am I just bullshitting? Am I making this up? You know, am I the only one who feels this way? No, I don't, I don't think, I think I'm saying stuff everyone else thinks, you know, agrees withDawn DeKeyser:You are not alone. And you're getting such great information out there to so many people. It's really spectacular.Michael Jamin:You're very kind.Dawn DeKeyser:You're fan Michael Jam. ButMichael Jamin:That's me. So then, okay, so then okay, then what you have. All right.Dawn DeKeyser:So then I was in the fellowship and they put, they don't promise, but they say, we may place you on one of our Disney shows. And that's where I went onto All American Girl. Mm-hmm. . AndMichael Jamin:It, Were they paying you? Cuz I'm Warner of Brothers. If they staffed you in one of their shows, you get, at least back then you would get, you work for like a third of scale. A third. But was that the case on Disney?Dawn DeKeyser:We didn't get paid, but we got paid for the scripts that we wrote because they were already paying. Like, more brothers doesn't pay youMichael Jamin:To pay. Right. No one of those you pay to get in.Dawn DeKeyser:Oh yeah.Michael Jamin:We paid. Yeah. We, we paid like, I think it was like $400 each or something. But I think it's way more than now. I think it's a lot more now.Dawn DeKeyser:Hmm. No, they, they would place you as free labor on their shows. And it was my first experience in the writer's room. It was hard. I had trouble being heard. And I did end up, we had an order for 13 episodes. I ended up writing three of them.Michael Jamin:What was your three? That's that's a lot actually for a staff writer. I wonder why weren't you, you must have been scared.Dawn DeKeyser:They liked my writing. They liked, like, I spent again, it was like, I really sweated it. This is another thing that I, that I stress to writers is sweated, you can't make a lot of money if you're not putting that amount into your writing and your own career. SoMichael Jamin:Yeah. So 13, that's a lot. And but what was it like? I mean, were you okay? I always think that when we first kinda just shoot me, I was like, I'm in over my head. I am in over my head. Yeah. How did you felt? The same wayDawn DeKeyser:I am in over my head. Um, I, yeah, I, it was terrifying. And I realized that I wasn't a match for people who had been in writing rooms that were louder funnier, more obnoxious, mostly just louder. Mm-hmm. . So I sat next to this one writer and I, I'd whisper things to him to see if he could pitch them for me.Michael Jamin:And did he? Yeah. And, and they went over and then did he give you, did you say as dope? OhDawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Yeah. He would gimme credit. But you know, I said I don't even wanna push that. I just wanna see.Michael Jamin:Right. IfDawn DeKeyser:You're on the right game. Well, I wanna be part of this game, but I don't know how to play.Michael Jamin:Yeah, right. Exactly. Right. And it takes several, How long did it take you before you felt like you knew how to play? How many years?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, well that's the interesting thing because my next job was on news radio. Right. And I, I have all, I had felt like an all American girl that I was getting my, you know, sort of getting my feet under me. But that was, they were kicked out from under me on this, on the next actual staff job that I have. Right. That I had. And it took me, um, quite a long time to feel okay in the room. And it really wasn't until many years later when I was in the ugly Betty Writers' room because the, you had drama writers there who were so great about staying on focus with the story and not performing and the performance of the comedy when you do a comedy pitch. I was scared ofMichael Jamin:Oh, interesting. So cuz they don't have, obviously when you're doing the drama you don't have to be funny. So they're basically just talking about the story points. Cause I haven't really worked on it and they're not, Yeah. They're not hoping the joke will land cuz there is no joke.Dawn DeKeyser:It was so weird to, um, go out on, on an act with no joke. It was like, what? Wait, we can just cliff hanger like that. .Michael Jamin:Do you feel like these drama rooms are more civilized because of that?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, definitely. They were also, they were just more writerly and, um, more mature. And I, you know, I say that sitcom riding was a full contact sport. Mm-hmm. . And I didn't realize that when I started I wanted to be around really funny people. And it was so much work for me. There was the whole other aspect of being a female writer and oftentimes the only woman in the room.Michael Jamin:Why? Talk about that experience a little. What's that like?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, it sucked .Michael Jamin:It, it sucked. It sucked.Dawn DeKeyser:It wasMichael Jamin:Sucked. But not all the time. Just sometimes or all the time?Dawn DeKeyser:Every timeMichael Jamin:On every show. Every show.Dawn DeKeyser:No. If there were other women in the writer's room, it was a little less terrible,Michael Jamin:But still terrible.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . It wasn't until I got into dramas and then dramas that I just felt like, okay, I can, I can do my work. I could be funny. I'm much funnier on the page and I would just think, Oh God, I gotta get out of the writer's room so I can be funny. Right. So that was not the best strategy.Michael Jamin:Right.Dawn DeKeyser:Um, and I was the only woman on news radio that year. Andy and Eileen were there and they left after a few episodes.Michael Jamin:Right. But Right. But you overlap with him. Right. Cause that's how I, that's how I met you through Eileen I think.Dawn DeKeyser:Oh, probably. Yeah. Yeah. That's right.Michael Jamin:And you know, they were both very, I remember I'd just shoot me, both of them. They'd pitch a line, like a story, uh, idea and then, you know, people Oh, that's good. And like, how do you know it's good? How do they, like how are they doing this? Like how do you know? You know, Anyway, but I thinkDawn DeKeyser:That's, I don't know. Would you say that it helps to have a partner? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Michael Jamin:For sure. It helped a lot. I mean I, you know, the two of us were clinging to each other for, you know, for dear life. . Um, I think definitely it's that way more intimidating to do it all to it on yourself. But how do you, what do you like, what do you experience even now or like lately when you have a staff writer who feels the same way that you felt like what, you knowDawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:What goes on there?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, um, working on pilots, there was one young girl who came in and just to sort of observe mm-hmm. and I just took to her because she was so, um, she had a script in a big binder with all of it color coded with all of her nose. I was like, Oh my God, you're after my heart. Um, becauseMichael Jamin:She's so prepared. People, young writers come in prepared sometimes. I'm alwaysDawn DeKeyser:Yeah, they do. And I just said, You are after my heart. I will help you in any way that I can. And she was working for, for quite some time. I think she lives on the East coast now. Right. It's that, um, it's that showing up prepared and really earnest. Like, I love that. I kind of love when people try a little too hard and sometimes it can be cringy. I'm like, Yes, I get it. That's me.Michael Jamin:But do you have you also, cause I've experienced young writers who kind of don't under, they don't know what they don't know as well, you know, as well and they kind ofDawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:Argue or overstep and, you know, have you experienced that?Dawn DeKeyser:Oh yeah. And the, one of the first things I say is, do not litigate. Do just, just take it in. And it's also the, um, once you learn how to take notes on your script and realize that it's not personal, get out of your own fucking way. Get outta your way. Because after like being in writer's groups, we had rules about how we gave notes to each other. And the person getting the notes has to shut up. You cannot explain why you put something in a script. It's like, I don't care why you put it in there. Here's me as a reader is not getting this part of it. Right. And there's been plenty of times I'd be giving people notes and just like in classes or writer's room. Um, Yeah. Classes a writer resume. And I could tell that they didn't want the note.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Oh well no one wants a note. . Yeah. I mean,Dawn DeKeyser:I mean just like basic stuff, especially in writers' groups where if, if they are arguing their stance and their reason for why they wrote something, it's like, Oh, I get it. Okay. You're good. You're good to go. All all's good.Michael Jamin:Right. Right. And so this, see, it's so funny how we have the same, like we've never worked in the same show. We've had so many the same exact experiences.Dawn DeKeyser:Yes. Although I would, I would, Oh you said venture to mention that. Um, you know, and some writers' rooms, it's like, I was not safe. I was commented, my body was commented on when I would walk into a room and when I would leave a room and I was told to suck it up by my agents because it was a really good show. OrMichael Jamin:Do you think they were trying to be funny or were they're being sexual harassing? Like, you know, what were they trying, what was the Oh,Dawn DeKeyser:Sometimes it was just trying to be funny. But, um, it was funny at my expense I say I was humiliated for sport on a particular show. Right. And they were cruel. And they were also like, my agents came in after one of our show tapings and they looked around the office and went, Oh, I see what you're talking about. It smells like rancid cheese in here. The guys were walking around in boxer shorts. They had brought futons to their offices cuz they were just staying there.Michael Jamin:So like, cuz the hours is terrible. Yeah,Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. And they also had jars of their pee in the offices because I thought that was hilarious.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Dawn DeKeyser:So that's, that's not just being like, IMichael Jamin:Dunno. And it's interesting that you, you were able to speak up about this because this was before people were really speaking up about this. You know what I'mDawn DeKeyser:Saying? I didn't, I didn't, I mean, I didn't until more recently. That's a really,Michael Jamin:To your agent at least you did. You know?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, I just said it's so hard. I mean it's so Yeah. And that my agents were womenMichael Jamin:And they still, And you're, they still,Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:I can't, I want, What do you think if that were today though? I can't imagineDawn DeKeyser:It wouldn't happen today.Michael Jamin:Yeah. You'd be taking a lot more seriously, you know. Yeah,Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. It, it, it, yeah. It wouldn't happen today. Um, that, that show ended up not hiring a woman writer for the rest of its run for like three or four more seasons.Michael Jamin:And, but from what I understand, well maybe, maybe I shouldn't say which show it was. Do we say which show it was? I know some,Dawn DeKeyser:It may have earlier, butMichael Jamin:I know some of the, like some of these shows that you were on the hours were absolutely terrible. Terrible. Like, what were those, what was that like?Dawn DeKeyser:That was like being held hostage by a crazy person. Right. And that sometimes the showrunner would be on medication and they would not be able to focus and they would just kind of keep us there. A lot of times you'd hear about showrunners who just didn't wanna go home to their wife and kids, which is terrible,Michael Jamin:Terrible, terrible. Right. Wow.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Wow. So that was, that was hard. I mean, driving home at four in the morning and then getting up at around 10, um, and then getting back to the office by 10 30 or 11,Michael Jamin:Was there a lot of sitting around and waiting? Or was it all work?Dawn DeKeyser:No, it was a lot of sitting around and waiting and storytelling galing each other. Mm-hmm. , you know. Geez. But, but things are not, they don't work that way anymore. Which is,Michael Jamin:Yeah. I don't think so. You gotta, yeah. When you get, that's a bad situation. Uh, sometimes like we, you know, we did a couple bad hours like on just shoot me, but it was never, cuz we were dicking around, it was because like a story blew, blew up and we had to work till four in the morning. That was a couple of those. But it wasn't, cuz it wasn't ill behavior. It was just, that's just the, you know, sometimes that happens.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, for sure. And you know, people like Steve Levitan and some of the other guys you've worked with, they are not there to make a point or single someone out just for fun. Yeah. And you guys, you and Sea were as showrunners, you would never do that. You would never write that.Michael Jamin:No. Our goal was always to go home early. That was, how could we go home early today, , what could we do to get the work done, Have a, have a good hour. Um, but what about developing when you, you know, come up with your own ideas? What's that? How does that work?Dawn DeKeyser:That was, um, that was usually, uh, someone that I'd be in the writer's room with. They would come to me and say, I've got an idea. Do you like this? Or we would pair up just for the pitch.Michael Jamin:So most of your develop, Okay. So people ask me about that. Can you, can you work independently or can you work with team up with people? Cuz we, we, you know, that's what you did mostly.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. And when I was, um, like I'd say mid-level writer mm-hmm. , it would behoove me to go in with a showrunner or a co p Right. And, um, just so that I could to have those meetings and kind of get the lay of the land until later when I would writeMichael Jamin:Around.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah.Michael Jamin:But in the beginning, were you, were you kind of working under them or were you literally together.Dawn DeKeyser:Together. Okay. Together.Michael Jamin:And, and then now, okay, now when you come up with an idea, how does that work alone? I mean,Dawn DeKeyser:Oh, it was, it was great. So we're, we've been talking mostly about the nineties and then after a few of the shows, like I, I went to work through the rest of the nineties, but I did definitely get the comedy knocked out of me. Um, I went on to do a series of shows and over that time there were less and less options because we had the game shows coming in and reality tv. And by 2000 I went to rehab and it was very helpful. I mean, you know, I got this shit kicked out of me and I was no match. I was not cravenly ambitious. I was just always grateful to be there, which doesn't give you any control. And with, with my, it was a short stint and I was able to piece things together. I also took jobs for shorter amounts of time. Like if they had a full year season, I'd say I'll work the first 13.Michael Jamin:What if they pick, what if they wanted you for the back nine or whatever.Dawn DeKeyser:Then I said, I'm not available. And I'd move to New York and just kind of in between each show I had to do a lot of repair. I just had to sleep.Michael Jamin:Interesting. I I, I didn't even know that was an option. Like that's kind of, I that's kind of unusual to kind of good for you. Like, you're calling the shots, you're saying this is what I'm willing to do. I don't know anybody who does that, who can do that, I guess.Dawn DeKeyser:Well I wasn't, um, I couldn't, I mean financially it was not the thing to do, but mentally I knew that I had to not put myself in harm's way. Right. And, um, I always, it also had advertising to go back to occasionally. Right. So, um, you know, by, I would say, so I continued to work. I'd pick up an episode here, um, less staff drops available, but I just kind of eked out a living. It wasn't the trajectory that I'd started on. Right. And I was okay with that.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not gonna spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michael jamin.com/watchlist.Michael Jamin:Basically this is the, the interesting part, which I don't really talk about a lot on anything is the economics of really being a writer. Because I don't know, we don't just talk about it, but cuz we were saying, you know, you kind of, you kind of, you were calling the shots. You're saying, this is what I'm willing to do. I don't want, I'll work this much, I don't wanna work that much because it's not , it's not good for me, my mental health. And I get that. Um, but so then to kind of to, you know, had to make, to make ends meet, you also have this other project that you've been working on and I wanna talk about that.Dawn DeKeyser:Yes. So I think we, uh, we were talking about 2000 rehab, excellent. Mm-hmm. very helpful. And so it was on the heels of that that I was starting to piece together what I wanted my life to look like, which was not working 18 hours a day with difficult people. Yeah. So I would, I would take my jobs for shorter amounts of time. Like if a, if a show had an order for 22, I said I'll work on the first 13. Right. And then I would generally go to Texas or New York and then just repair in between shows. And it, financially it was not a strong way to do it. But, um, I wanted to circle back a little bit on the, the rehab stuff. Um, you had asked at one point about did I, was I an AA and I wanna say that that never worked for me.Dawn DeKeyser:And there was this book a few years back called Quit Like A Woman. And it's about, it was by H Whitaker and it's about smart recovery. And one of the things that just made so much sense to me was that AA is a AAL system. And one of the first things that they ask you to do is give, give away your power. And the thing is, we women are rendered powerless in so many situations already. Why the fuck would I wanna go into a meeting and, and not have any agency over myself and my decisions? So that's a part of smart recovery and I love it. I think it's reallyMichael Jamin:Do do you meet as as often as, as somebody you know, in, in the group or, you know?Dawn DeKeyser:No, and the thing about it is, um, I'm sort of a social drinker. I don't have an issue with that anymore. And it's really about like, if you have a drink, you don't start at day one. You just, you figure out if you wanna manage your use of anything or, um, if you don't want to . Right. And, and it's just, um, it's just less, um, punishing Right. Say so. Um, and I know that, you know, we're writers, we're tender souls and we feel a lot. And I just wanted to get sort of, get that out there. That's something that's really helped and resonated withMichael Jamin:Viola Davis said something like that, you know, obviously not a writer but an actor, but she said, I guess I can't remember what it was about, but she's basically saying someone criticized her for having thin skin. And she goes, I'm supposed to have thin skin. That's, I'm an artist. Like I, you know, I'm not supposed to have thick skin . I'm supposed to feel things and express things. YouDawn DeKeyser:Know? That's right. That's right. I mean, that's what we do. We do. And um, we feel things and then we express them and we write them and we get it out there and people get it. They understand that. Um, you can't be general in really good writing. You gotta be specific.Michael Jamin:Right, Exactly. Specific. Yes. Yeah. Well tell but tell me about your summit.Dawn DeKeyser:Okay, so sumMichael Jamin:It up.Dawn DeKeyser:Sum it up. Um, one, sum it up. One of the things we don't talk about as writers is all that dead air, that space between gigs or the fact that the seasons are shorter now, and there's the writing staffs are smaller and the industry expands and contracts and the summit called writers making money. Lose the ego, tap into your talent and bring cash in during these weird ass apocalyptic times. I'm said that earlier. And, um, it's really about what are you doing for passive income investing? How are you keeping the lights on mm-hmm. and these, So I talk to money experts and mindset coaches and, um, we talk about things like cash machines, which is how do you bring in a little bit just in passive income? It's not hard. Um, if you have lazy assets, like my IRA's been sitting there doing nothing for a long time. And, um, we talked about what types of entities as a creative person you need to set up and forget it'll run on its own without you. But just getting all of that in place. And so, uh, in 2020 my life imploded mm-hmm. . And after that, and I'll just say a little bit like in 2020 my house flooded and I lost about 50 years worth of furniture, clothing, art, stuff like that. And then my husband, um, emailed me d divorce papers.Michael Jamin:Right. And then it gets worse,Dawn DeKeyser:And then it gets worse. And then covid hit. And then while the house was being torn apart with asbestos, tenting, my daughter and I moved into one corner of the house during, while she was in virtual school, I lost my dream job. I lost the house. And then we just decided to go and spend time in Woodstock, New York with friends, which was good. And then we came back in November and about that Thanksgiving, my husband passed away. Right. So that was very hard. And, um, I spent after, you know, we went through the grieving process and then after we , just after we got that done, after we were cured of that , I started into just figuring out again, what do I want my life to look like in my career? And I still wanna write. And so I started taking business classes, business coaching, leadership training, um, and talking to money experts and just like, what, how am I setting myself up for generational wealth? Which is something that I didn't look ahead, I didn't look to, excuse me. And then my daughter got into college, which was amazing, and she's in New York now. She's at the number one design school in the country, Parsons. And we said yes. And then I looked at the, how much it was gonna cost and out. Oh. And also in 2020, all my money kind of evaporated, unbeknownst to me. So I was really starting from scratch with no home address. Right. And, um,Michael Jamin:What do you mean your money evaporated? What hap what do you mean?Dawn DeKeyser:Well, um, my husband was, um, he was not, well, he was very troubled and very ill. And that kind of went with him. SoMichael Jamin:He, Okay. So he learned,Dawn DeKeyser:He found out that we were a few hundred thousand in debt. So again, all that doesn't matter, it's just money. So we find out that Ava's college is 80,000 Right. Thinking, you know what, we're gonna do this. We'll just figure out a way. So for the last 18 months, I have been figuring out ways to set our lives up and start bringing in money in a different way outside of tv, outside of just writing as a creative person. And it's working and I wanna, and I just want people to know that there's, IMichael Jamin:Share that that's important cuz you know, creative people, like, we don't go into this profession, at least I don't think, you know, we don't go into the special to become middle managers. We don't go to become to know about money because like, you know, I think that's part of, also, I'm not excusing any of the bad behavior in TV shows, but no one becomes a writer because they wanna manage people. They go because they just wanna goof off and be creative and do whatever and that. But the problem is that can, that can affect people, other people working underneath you, you know?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah, for sure. You know that as a showrunner. Yeah. And you work up through the ranks because of your writing talent and then you're suddenly in an administrative position, Right. As a showrunner, right? Yeah.Michael Jamin:Yeah. It's like, I don't, I didn't want, I don't wanna be the boss, I just wanna be a writer. But, but this is how it is now. Now you have to manage people. So anyway, so, but, but so that's why I think what you're talking about in your summit is important. So Yeah. Tell us more about it. Yeah.Dawn DeKeyser:So I think it's really important because we are, this is gonna talk about, um, using your left brain in a right brain industry mm-hmm. . And it's not that hard. It's not that scary. I talked to this one woman who's known for her millionaire maker series, and I started working with her this summers. Like, what am I, I'm doing everything wrong. I know that, and I've made money and I've spent it, and I would kind of like to not do that anymore. And her team is, you know, they're talking about how to get me set up and any of their other clients and it's been just a complete game changer. Right. Like, it just, um, and she's very intense and very complex in all of the knowledge that she has. She's not a Susie Orman or Dave Ramsey where they talk about saving mm-hmm. and don't have that latte in the morning.Dawn DeKeyser:And she says, Oh, you know, fuck all that live. You're like, make money and do the right thing with it because we just aren't ever aware of what to do. Like lazy assets. My IRA sitting there, and now I'm going to instead take some of that out and put it into a, an investing group that will, will put money into apartment buildings and real estate. And y'all who have houses out here are, you know, that is great, but it's not a financial strategy. Mm-hmm. . And anyway, so I was excited about learning all of this, especially on the heels of having to reconfigure my whole life. And I just wanna get it out there.Michael Jamin:Yeah. You had, you did a giant reset. A giant reset. Yeah. Very overwhelming. I I'm getting nervous just thinking about what you did .Dawn DeKeyser:It was, um, it was weird. It was, yeah. It was really hard. And, um, yeah, I am grateful. Like I'm grateful for my life. There's one of two ways you can go when tragedy happens. And that is, you can stay in it and think of the all the other bad things that are right around the corner mm-hmm. or, um, you can pick yourself up and get going in a completely different way. That's the, that was the, the real impetus for me is like, I wanna do things differently and Oh, and there was something you said about h hustling. Yes. Yes. Um, so I'm, I'm now putting questions out there and answering them and not even giving you any air time . Like, we all hustle, we all get that, get the work done. One thing that I wanted to do in this new reset was to not hustle as much what I do. I'm working a lot, but at home on my own schedule. And if it feels like it's getting stressful or sense of urgency, I take a nap. Right. I just slow down and I wanna do it in a more peaceful way.Michael Jamin:Right. That's so interesting. And so people can learn more about your, the summit@dawntokaiser.comDawn DeKeyser:Slash writers making moneyMichael Jamin:Back slash writers making money. And so then when is the next one?Dawn DeKeyser:It's going to be October 17th through the 19th. So for three days we have, Oh, sorry. For three days we have nine speakers. Right. And each day we'll talk like one, I talk to an actress who is now writing this really fabulous, um, children's book series. She loves that. She's like, I still act, but here's something that fills my heart. Right. Um, talking to Laura Lang Meyer, who's intense, she's still intense. Um, and she is all, she's, she talks about money in a way of let's get everything. Let's not have your bookkeeper talk to your cpa, talk to your business manager. She's like, We just do everything and, and all in one place, which is what I,Michael Jamin:And we should mention, this is all free for people who want to join the summit. Right. It'sDawn DeKeyser:All free. It's free, free, free. So you just sign up, give me your email and your name, and you'll get access to all of that.Michael Jamin:Right. Right. Yeah. And then, but then you and you also have a consulting business, a script consultingDawn DeKeyser:Business. I do. So all that's gonna launch to, I am all about putting everything off to the last minute. So that launches next week, and that'll be on my dawn de kaiser.com website. I'll do, I'll be doing script consulting, um, coaching for creatives and the writer's room. We're going be, we'll meet once a once a weekMichael Jamin:About,Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. We'll do guest speakers and q and a and then writing sprints.Michael Jamin:Once a writing sprintDawn DeKeyser:That is kind of a Pomodoro style I put on a timer and heads, pencils up, heads down.Michael Jamin:Oh, okay. And then you give a little short assignment. PeopleDawn DeKeyser:Not even, you know, I'll say, set your intention at the very beginning of what you wanna accomplish in the next 25 minute sprint. Okay. And, um, and we just do check in. It helps to get online or, you know, to check in with other people. Your Facebook group is really going strong and people are finding each other there. Mm-hmm. . And that's been really helpful for them.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. You got a lot going on.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Um,Michael Jamin:Now I wanna talk about when you're, when you're on a a show, like what's, what's your experience like working with new young writers and and what do you see? Dos and don'ts?Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. I see the ones that really, that just grab my heart are the ones who try really hard. Mm-hmm. , they are like, to a cringy point, like I love that. I was working on a pilot and this one young writer came in, she was gi given a shot and she had her script in a big binder, three reading binder with all of her color coordinated post-it notes. Mm-hmm. that. And, and I just thought, she's after my own heart. Like I, that's She was prepared. She was prepared. That's right.Michael Jamin:Because sometimes new young writers, they'll look at the boss and because the boss very often isn't really prepared because, you know, they got a million things going on. Or even some of the upper level writers are kind of play it loose. But, uh, and so some of 'em think, well, if the boss has got his feet up on the, or her feet up on the desk, so could so can I, I'll just do what the boss is doing. . But you're not the boss. YouDawn DeKeyser:Know, you have not earned the right to put your feet up on the table yet.Michael Jamin:Right. So you, But when you see people come in prepared, uh, you know, I like that. I like, sometimes they'll, like, they'll say, I have a pitch. I'm like, Oh good. I, they'll say like, I have five ideas. Well let's hear 'em. I don't have any ideas.Dawn DeKeyser:That's right. . That's right. Yeah. It's just, it's just sort of, um, you know, not taking it personally mm-hmm. . And uh, I see a lot of writers who litigate their script. Mm-hmm. ,Michael Jamin:They overstep. Right.Dawn DeKeyser:They do. And they just argue for the, they don't need to argue. Mm-hmm. , they, their work is on the page. It either is working or it's not. And you are in a room with professionals who will tell you mm-hmm. and you don't need to explain to them what you put in the script and why, because they don't care. It's not working. Right. Right. So yeah. It is that losing the ego part of it.Michael Jamin:Yeah. It's, it's hard for people to, it's hard for young writers to accept that. Um, and they don't see it yet. And then as you get older, and then sometimes I feel like, ah, I, I'm like, crouchy the old guy. Um, but I, I don't, I don't think so. I think like you just, you have the experience. It's like, I don't wanna argue with you. I, you know, I know from experience that this is how, this is how it's gotta go. This is what this is. What you presented is not gonna work. I just know. I just know that, youDawn DeKeyser:Know. Yeah. You've, you've done your time.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Um, and do you feel, But how do you, and I think I I I, we talked about this a little bit. How, how do you think people are breaking in today?Dawn DeKeyser:Oh, that's right. I said I do not know. I have no idea. Yeah. I have no idea. Um, what you and Rob Cohen talked about was just coming in from all different angles. Like mine was a winding road getting here. And um, some of it worked, some of it didn't. But, um, that, yeah. It's like no one is going to give you a career. They will give you a shot. Right. And that's why your work has to be outstanding. And I say, not good, not great. Outstanding. And you'll get work. You know, I, I just, um, and there are so many,Michael Jamin:Cause some people think, well, it's good enough or it's better than what the garbage that I see on tv. And they think, well, you know, Okay, okay. Maybe it is, but it's, you know, that's not good enoughDawn DeKeyser:That, But people have been saying that since I started in tv. It's like, Oh, it's better than what's on the air. No, it's not .Michael Jamin:No,Dawn DeKeyser:No. You, you are competing with a room of 12 professional writers who have each other to bounce it off of. And there's a reason that they write all of that. It may not end up great. That may be for all these reasons that you have no access to, which is network notes or, um,Michael Jamin:Acting notes. The actor you can get it from. Yeah. Um, there's a lot of reasons even, you know, I haven't really talked about this a lot, but even writing a bad television show is hard. Even writing bad TV is hard, You know,Dawn DeKeyser:, it's so hard. I worked on this one show that was a drama but just inadvertently a comedy. It was so terrible. And I think we got written up in the Hollywood Reporter for it just being so campy. We weren't going for campy, we were just trying , We're just, just trying to get the scripts to the actors.Michael Jamin:Right. How funny. Do and, and do you find, I think we, we've talked, I don't remember we mentioned this, but do you find working cuz you kind of transitioned to from comedy sitcom to DRM or, and even drama, like, um, and I think you were talking about even more chill. Like what? Cause I hadn't worked in drama, really. So what are the differences in the writing room, the writers' room forDawn DeKeyser:That? Yeah. It's a, it's a's a huge difference. So, um, 2017 Me Too movement mm-hmm. , um, that was a game changer for people like me who had been dragged around a few rough corners. And, um, it did change the, it changed the personality of a lot of writers' rooms. As, as you know, for me, um, comedy was always kind of a full contact sport. Mm-hmm. , you'd be in the room with comedians, performers, writers, and there would be jumping up and down and just, it was a lot of performance. And so Right.Michael Jamin:Because you gotta sell that joke.Dawn DeKeyser:You gotta sell it. Right. You gotta sell it. No one else is gonna sell it. Um, so I, my first job in drama was Ugly Betty, but they had, half of the staff was comedy writers, which hadn't been done a lot or before. Right. So what I noticed was that the drama writers were so writerly and they were so not worried about selling the act break and getting the big joke out on a beat or a scene. And it was, it was so great. It was so great to talk about the story and not about not worry about how you're gonna sell the joke for me. Right. I, I liked that part of it. And then I went on to be in other drama rooms that were just very respectful.Michael Jamin:And how did you make that transition? You had basic, cuz it's not like you could just jump from comedy writer to drama. You ba you're kind of starting overDawn DeKeyser:Kinda, you know, I didn't look at it that way. I will say that drama writers don't tend to become comedy writers.Michael Jamin:Right. Right. It's, it's a one, right? You, if you can write comedy, you could probably write drama, but not necessarily the other way around. Right.Dawn DeKeyser:Right. I mean, it's just a whole different muscle. Um, I don't know. I think I got this shit kicked out of me in comedy, so I thought, I wanna be . I'm now more serious.Michael Jamin:But now you started writing sample, you had to write samples. You gotta start as if you'd never done ob cause you'd never done it before. You had start writing drama samples.Dawn DeKeyser:That's right. And I found that the agents did not want to marketing me that way. You know, I've already established myself and, and they would then have to hand me over to a different set of agents.Michael Jamin:That's interesting. Right? Cause I talk about this. Well, so many people think that soon as I get an agent, how do I get an agent? They say this all the time. How do I get an agent as if that's gonna help at all? You know, that's not gonna change your life. Once you've, you know, once even when you become at your level, you know you're in charge,Dawn DeKeyser:Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I didn't get an agent until I was, I'd won some script writing contests. I was in the Disney Writer's Fellowship. I was writing all those scripts on one of their shows, and I still couldn't get an agent. StillMichael Jamin:Couldn't get an agent. Yeah.Dawn DeKeyser:And so I called, I contacted CAA and uta and they're like, Yeah, no, we're very interested. And no one would pull the trigger. So I called CAA back and said, Yeah, I'm going into UTA this afternoon. And that's when I got the offer. And then I called uta. I said, Yeah, I'm gonna go on, go ahead and go to CAA this afternoon.Michael Jamin:And Wow. So you were just bluffing? Yeah. Wow. Interesting. Yeah, we, for a while when we, um, God, where were we? I think we were at, uh, Endeavor. Mm-hmm. . And we weren't getting much. Um, we, I guess we weren't getting to kind of help the support we needed then as soon as, but as soon as we threatened to, to go to uta mm-hmm. , like everyone was called suddenly, suddenly they wanted to talk to us. .Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. Yeah. That'll get them sitting up straight. Yeah.Michael Jamin: good for you. That's hard. That's, that's, uh, gutsy. But, okay. So then, um, but in terms of breaking stories, it, is it kind of the same on a, on a drama forDawn DeKeyser:Yeah. It's kind of the same. Instead of going out on a big blow, you go out on a big cliff hanger. Right. AndMichael Jamin:A pregnant moment.Dawn DeKeyser:What?Michael Jamin:That's, that's what I was told. It's called, It's, it's a pregnant, a pregnant moment. Like, OhDawn DeKeyser:Yes, that's right. Yes. What next? Yeah, and I, I just really liked it. I had this lovely experience working with Martha Williamson, who created Touch by an Angel. Mm-hmm. . And she's one of like the top Christian women in the country. And she was interviewed on 60 Minutes and she had quite a big career. And I had never been in a respectful writer's room before. And so I was like, Oh, we can't say fuck. And they, the two other guys, it was just like four of us. Mm-hmm. said, Oh, no, no, no. And so I thought, okay, no, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna give it a go , andMichael Jamin:I'm gonna hold my tongue when I don't have to say be crashed. Weird.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. I'm not gonna be disgusting. So, um, it was a really great experience. Right. That's interesting. And yeah. And the other, the dramas that I've done, and then, and then things sort of went, like I was able to write, um, episodes of Hallmark shows that's, I call that the women, the women writers ghetto. Um, cause we all, we all sort of end up there doing our cozy mysteries, which, um,Michael Jamin:It used to be, I guess children's shows, but I guess now you're saying for it's, it's home, It's, uh,Dawn DeKeyser:Hallmark has always been the family network. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Dawn DeKeyser:Family. Family.Michael Jamin:But when you develop, are you develop on your own? Are you, are you mostly doing comedy or drama?Dawn DeKeyser:Um, comedy, No, I would say both. And I'm not developing a lot. I have had this one idea that I love so much that I'm afraid to write it. I just, I just can't seem to do it.Michael Jamin:Why? Why?Dawn DeKeyser:Because I want it to be really good.Michael Jamin:Well, why don't you make, Write it as a book then?Dawn DeKeyser:No, it's a great series.Michael Jamin:Yeah. But if you sell it as a book, then, then you can turn it as a TV show. No.Dawn DeKeyser:Mm. Book writing. That's hard.Michael Jamin:Book writing. What would I know?Dawn DeKeyser:What writingMichael Jamin:? What do you mean book writing? ?Dawn DeKeyser:What is this book thing you talk about?Michael Jamin:Um, so interesting. But, okay, so I wanna make sure everyone knows more about, I guess I, when we talked about it, I wanna make sure before we sign off, but everyone knows more about how they can get in touch with you, how they can find you and learn more about your summit and your, your consulting services and all that.Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. So that's all coming out next week and maybe by the time this runs, Yeah, probably it's, yeah, Hope. Um, Instagram @dawndekeyserwrites TikTok @dawndekeyserwrites website DawnDeKeyser.com. And I will tell you, you know, you use your name and all of your stuff. I would, I just was so uncomfortable doing that. I was calling it everything else, but what I am doing. So now it's just my name.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I know. I was, I was a little in the beginning. I was, uh, you know, it was uncomfortable cuz writers don't, we're not actors. We're behind the scene. It's, it's weird for us to, uh, promote ourselves this way. That's not what we do. We're not act, That's what the actors we write for somebody else put them in front. So that was a hurdle for me to, I had to get over, you know?Dawn DeKeyser:How did you get over it?Michael Jamin:Um, you know, I I I'm always reminded of the Oscar Wild. There's a wonderful qu I think he said, but I'm not sure cause I can find it again. But he said you'd worry, I think he said you'd worry less about what other people thought. Think about you if you realized how little they did. Which works on two levels, which means they already think you're garbage. So what are you worried about? Or they're just, they're just thinking about themselves. And so, yeah, I just, at some point I was like, I screw it. If people wanna judge me, let, let them, they're, they're gonna forget about me anyway. I'm not on anyone's, you know, why does no one's staying up late to think about me .Dawn DeKeyser:Right, right. That's good to know. I mean, that's, that is liberating.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I, I, I do actually, I've thought about it a lot and especially as a writer, cuz I started, you know, writing more like personal essays, more stuff about my life. And, um, and then I kind of realized that there's like a paradox about judge being about judgment and that, cause I, you know, I, I did this show and then I didn't want people to think like, my biggest fear would be to perform my work and have people think, Oh, this guy's not a good writer. You know? And to be a good writer, you have to expose yourself. Yeah. And that's the paradox. So if I don't want people to judge me, I have to put my, allow people to judge me. I have to make myself vulnerable so that they might judge me ironically. And if you do that, they ironically won't judge you. You know,Dawn DeKeyser:On your website you talk about vulnerable, being vulnerable. Yeah,Michael Jamin:Yeah,Dawn DeKeyser:Yeah. It's hard. It's hard because that's exactly right. You put your yourself out there, your heart and it can hurt.Michael Jamin:But to me, the bigger pain is having someone say, Oh, you can't write . So like, that would hurt harder . So I'd rather just ex be vulnerable. And that people Wow. Cuz people walk away, they go, Wow, how'd you do that? That was pretty brave. I'm like, whew. No, it would've been brave if I gone up there with my less than adequate work then, you kno

The Times calls it “ingenious and clever”, the Daily Mail declares it “mind-bendingly clever”, “Psalms for the end of the World” is a sprawling jigsaw of a story that propels its characters through time and space as they explore and discover the relative nature of love and reality. And… Dani Vee wasn't content merely to create a podcast, Words and Nerds, that attracts 50,000 listeners each month, she's also written a picture book and presides over the “slush pile” at edgy Aussie children's publisher, Larrikin House. So, what books does Dani rate as “classics” and does she have any advice for aspiring picture book writers? Guests:  Cole Haddon, author of “Psalms for the End of the World” Dani Vee, author of “My Extraordinary Mum” and presenter of Words and Nerds Podcast Our Random Reader - Monique Other books that get a mention: Monique recommends “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy, anything written by Haruki Murakami and “Middlesex” by Geoffrey Eugenides Cole Haddon refers to the authors Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and David Mitchell. Dani Vee mentions “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wild and Judy Blume (author of books including “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and “Blubber”), “Charlotte's Web” by E.B White and The Baby-Sitters Club series by Anne M Martin. She mentions two other Larrikin House books; “My Shadow is Pink” and “My Shadow is Purple”. Michaela mentions “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde.  Dani Vee's next picture book is titled “My Epic Dad!” Music composed by Quentin Grant  SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES INSTA - @hachetteaus INSTA - @colehaddonwashere INSTA - @DaniVeeBooks-Words & Nerds INSTA - @larrikinhouse FB - @HachetteAustralia FB - @DaniVeeBooks FB - @Larrikin House Twitter - @colehaddonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Times calls it “ingenious and clever”, the Daily Mail declares it “mind-bendingly clever”, “Psalms for the end of the World” is a sprawling jigsaw of a story that propels its characters through time and space as they explore and discover the relative nature of love and reality. And… Dani Vee wasn't content merely to create a podcast, Words and Nerds, that attracts 50,000 listeners each month, she's also written a picture book and presides over the “slush pile” at edgy Aussie children's publisher, Larrikin House. So, what books does Dani rate as “classics” and does she have any advice for aspiring picture book writers? Guests:  Cole Haddon, author of “Psalms for the End of the World” Dani Vee, author of “My Extraordinary Mum” and presenter of Words and Nerds Podcast Our Random Reader - Monique Other books that get a mention: Monique recommends “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy, anything written by Haruki Murakami and “Middlesex” by Geoffrey Eugenides Cole Haddon refers to the authors Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and David Mitchell. Dani Vee mentions “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wild and Judy Blume (author of books including “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and “Blubber”), “Charlotte's Web” by E.B White and The Baby-Sitters Club series by Anne M Martin. She mentions two other Larrikin House books; “My Shadow is Pink” and “My Shadow is Purple”. Michaela mentions “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde.  Dani Vee's next picture book is titled “My Epic Dad!” Music composed by Quentin Grant  SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES INSTA - Hachette - @ hachetteaus INSTA - Dani Vee @ Dani Vee Books-Words & Nerds INSTA - Larrikin House @ larrikinhouse FB - Hachette - @ HachetteAustralia FB - Dani Vee @ Dani Vee Books FB - Larrikin House @ Larrikin HouseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special guest Oscar Wild drops by to talk everything twitch and to chop it up with us, also 2 other surprise guests but you'll have to listen to find out who dropped in... --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michael-mireles8/support

Kevin welcomes back Oscar Wild host Sophia Ciminello to talk about Jane Campion's 'The Power of the Dog,' the presumed runner-up in the 2021 Oscar race that lost to 'CODA.' 0:00 - 1:35 - Introduction 1:40 - 59:09 - 'The Power of the Dog' review 59:10 - 1:40:48 - Why 'The Power of the Dog' lost Best Picture 1:40:48 - 2:43:49 - Assessing the other eight Best Picture nominees 2:43:50 - 3:05:13 - Shoulda been a contender 3:05:14 - 3:10:24 - Did 'The Power of the Dog' deserve to win? Support And the Runner-Up Is on Patreon at patreon.com/andtherunnerupis! Follow Kevin Jacobsen on Twitter Follow Sophia Ciminello on Twitter Follow And the Runner-Up Is on Twitter and Instagram Theme/End Music is "The Virtue" by Jonathan Adamich Artwork: Brian O'Meara

Literatur, frisch zubereitet vom Autor Peter Faszbender, zuweilen gewürzt mit Texten von Gästen oder einem Klassiker. Spontan aufgenommen in der Küche des Autors, ein wenig improvisiert - auf jeden Fall mit Herz, Spaß und Humor. Alle Genres sind möglich, lasst euch überraschen... In dieser Folge blickt Peter Faßbender zurück auf das 2. Jahr von Peters Literaturküche, eine kleine und feine Auswahl von Texten aus Folgen der letzten zwölf Monate. Diesmal mit Texten von Hermann Harry Schmitz, Frédéric Boutet, Selma Lagerlöf, Eduard Pötzl, Oscar Wild, Anton Tschechov und Peter Faszbender. Dazu noch Musik und Gesang von den Gästen Mimmi Nilsdotter und Eric Rundholz.

In this episode, we journey back to the 70s, 80s, and 90s to discover the fantasy glam-rock biopic Velvet Goldmine. We talk about the history and political climate of the 70s and 80s regarding glam, the enigma of Kurt Cobain, and try to pretend we know about Oscar Wild. But, there is something else you didn't expect under all that glitter; fascism. Support us on Comradery Give to Lambert HousePlaylist: Velvet Goldmine - David BowieRock and Roll Part II - Gary GlitterChance Meeting - Bryan FerrySuper Paradise - Romy Haag Needle In The Camel's Eye - Brian EnoMr. Soft - Steve Harley & Cockney RebelLife on Mars - Mick RonsonCriminal World - MetroTotal Eclipse -Klaus NomiMy Unclean - Ewan McgregorThe Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana Space Clown - Jobriath Additional film sound clips from The Linguini Incident and Fitzcarraldo 

t's all about Kate Winslet in this next installment of ‘They Won For That?'. Sophia and Nick break down her illustrious career, from her rich domestic dramas such as ‘Revolutionary Road' or ‘Little Children' and blissfully romantic fare in an Oscar Wild favorite, ‘The Holiday,' to pinpoint exactly why they love Kate as an actress. Then, they talk about her Oscar win for ‘The Reader' (14:54) before they each give their own picks for what they think should have won her an Oscar, either instead of or in addition to her deserved statuette (30:18).Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpodFollow Sophia @sophia_cimFollow Nick @sauerkraut27Music: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

If I smack you, does that make you Chris Rock?

Recorded: 04-05-2022 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/life-is-hard/support

Sean Whelan, Washington Correspondent, reports from Hollywood where the Oscar Wild's took place.

Sophia, from the Oscar Wild podcast was gracious enough to join me for a fantastically fun and fascinating conversation on all things Daniel Day-Lewis including his 1988 epic, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (06:24). Spoilers: he's doing an accent. Don't pass up the trivia either to hear how this super-fan scored (25:50). We also couldn't pass up the chance to discuss the lukewarm Best Picture selection of the same year which all things considering made for great discussion... The Accidental Tourist (34:50) Dangerous Liaisons (50:25) Mississippi Burning (1:00:24) Rain Man (1:06:44) Working Girl (1:14:58) Sophia on Twitter | @OscarWildPod | @sophia_cim James on Twitter | @outofoscarpod | @jimmykunovski

Tonight, tonight…we're joined by Connor and Dylan MacDowell of the DRAMA podcast to chat about all things West Side Story! First, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the classic movie musical that took home 10 Oscars, including Best Picture.Then, the twins join us for an Oscar Wild classic, Smash or Pass. This time with men from some of our favorite movie musicals! Plenty of shade and tea to spill (41:53).Finally, we review Steven Spielberg's brand new adaptation. Does it live up to the original? We discuss that, Rachel Zegler's “A Star is Born” moment, Rita Moreno, Oscar potential, and more (56:40).Follow DRAMA. on Twitter and Instagram at @TheDramaPodcastFollow Connor MacDowell on Twitter and Instagram @ConnorMacDowellFollow Dylan MacDowell on Twitter and Instagram @DylanMacDowellFollow Oscar Wild on Twitter and Instagram @oscarwildpodFollow Nick on Twitter @sauerkraut27Follow Sophia on Twitter @sophia_cimMusic: “The Greatest Adventure” by Jonathan Adamich

FOR FIRST TIMERS:If you are a writer of anything——be it copy, novels, academic papers, whatever——then this website is the best thing you could check every day. However...That statement is true IF, AND ONLY IF you're interested in producing genius-level work. That means the pursuit of challenging growth.You won't find that in The Lazy Man's Guide to Getting Rich, and you won't find riches, either. Here, you'll learn things the right way. The old way. The hard way. The only way.If this interests you, great! But one more thing: I'm only for people who enjoy shows like Family Guy. Here's why: "Life's too important to be taken too seriously," as Oscar Wild put. I'm for people like that.If that's not you, no big deal! Let's part ways before things get serious.[Now's the time to get up and leave...]...(awkward silence)...OK, for the person still here, here's the deal: My name is Scott Scheper. I write every day specifically for you.Why am I doing this? For one reason...I do this because...I actually fricken' like you!And, why shouldn't I? It means you're a writer committed to mastery——without——being a buzz-killington!. That's why I consider you a friend. Therefore, I will address you as Friend.This website is where I share early versions of my work. I welcome you on the quest for growth in the craft. The route we're taking is the hard way. The objective? Simple...WORLD DOMINATION!In the name of Stewie Griffin!Let's go.Dear Friend,OK, so where did we leave off yesterday?Ah, that's right, I was revealing how much of a p*ssy I was. Yes, indeed. It was in regards to my decision of how to organize my life. I was resisting the idea of switching from digital to analog. The thing holding me back was not the atomic workflow[^1] distraction. It was even more of a waste of time. It was the custom theme I had spent an entire weekend designing for my note-taking app, Obsidian.[^2] I was majoring in the minor, as they say. This is what I call, productivity junk food.The decision rested between the comforts of productivity junk food vs. creating genius-level work that I otherwise wouldn't be able to.Thankfully, I made a wise decision. I had the self-awareness to know why I was resisting the switch to analog.In the end, I made the switch. I decided to switch to analog for organizing my thoughts. Each day I became more convinced by analog's superiority to digital. I discovered hidden advantages of analog. These were things I had overlooked initially.Yet, I still continued to use Obsidian for my daily writings. A few weeks went by. Then one day, I decided to explore the idea of switching to analog for my daily writings. I decided to list out the pros and cons of analog vs. digital.But since it's a Saturday evening right now (and it's gonna take some time to convert from the notecards they're written down on), I'm going to save them for tomorrow.Plus, it seems like a perfect place to stop and tease you to force you to show up tomorrow!So until then,Always remember...To stay crispy, my friend.P.S. One last thing! It's regarding the subject of how analog requires more time and effort to share content online. There's an extra step. It forces one to convert text written on paper to digital format. You can't just copy and paste... Now here's the question: Do you think this is an advantage or a disadvantage?P.P.S. (For digital degenerates, workflow warriors, and hotkey junkies....For the rest listen to podcast