1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,360 Do you have a story behind your why? 2 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:09,680 I have a story of what led me here 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,580 that feels like it's the illustration 4 00:00:12,580 --> 00:00:15,140 of my life's journey to this why. 5 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:20,280 I have been an actor since I was seven years old 6 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:27,040 and theater and speaking are incredibly similar. 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:32,040 My acting journey and this journey to what I now do 8 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:37,880 began when my mom found me in the backyard 9 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:39,160 talking to myself. 10 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,040 I had been playing with friends, making up a story. 11 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,360 We were making up our very own episode of the Brady Bunch 12 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,240 and kids being kids, they got bored 13 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:52,600 and went off to go to the pool 14 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,080 and I said, okay, I'll meet you there later. 15 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:55,700 I'm gonna finish the story. 16 00:00:55,700 --> 00:00:58,920 My mom walks into our garage in the backyard 17 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,920 and instead of saying, what are you doing? 18 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:03,340 Stop that. 19 00:01:03,340 --> 00:01:04,440 She said, what are you doing? 20 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,180 And I said, I'm finishing the Brady Bunch episode. 21 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,520 And she immediately took me to an acting class 22 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,720 and theater like speaking, like many things in the world 23 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,480 has a light side to it and a dark side to it. 24 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:24,280 The darker side often feels like the movie Mean Girls. 25 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:26,880 There are older movies out there. 26 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:28,900 I think one of them is called The Understudy 27 00:01:28,900 --> 00:01:32,280 where it's a very backstabbing, competitive, 28 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,220 scarcity driven environment and that is true. 29 00:01:35,220 --> 00:01:37,440 There's a light side also. 30 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,200 There's a dark side and there's a light side. 31 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:44,320 In the lighter side, which I've surrounded myself with 32 00:01:44,320 --> 00:01:47,200 and created myself now as an adult, 33 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,240 it's a community of people that are holding a mirror 34 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:55,520 up to humanity, that are incredibly creative 35 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:59,480 and that are able to be present with each other 36 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:04,480 and connected deeply in a way that most of the world isn't 37 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:09,120 and definitely was not as I was younger and growing up. 38 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:14,080 And fast forward 20 years, I was acting at night. 39 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:16,840 I was doing theater during the day 40 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:18,740 and working way too much overall. 41 00:02:18,740 --> 00:02:21,400 I was an executive assistant in the Silicon Valley 42 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:23,200 here in California. 43 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:27,240 And I started feeling this call to go live 44 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,480 a more aligned life, but I was resisting it. 45 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:34,920 And there were real voices in the world saying, 46 00:02:34,920 --> 00:02:38,080 theater, how are you gonna make money doing that? 47 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,520 I am making money using my theater degree. 48 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:44,000 Just in case there's anybody out there 49 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,460 who has people in your family. 50 00:02:45,460 --> 00:02:49,480 I had no idea where it would lead at that point. 51 00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:52,560 And I had a very powerful experience 52 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,760 in my favorite acting class ever, 53 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:58,640 where everyone was focused on me, 54 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:01,760 whereas normally you would do your acting work 55 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:03,480 with one to three other people. 56 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:08,000 Everyone was focused on me 57 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,920 and I kept kind of pulling myself together 58 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:14,200 and kind of putting an energetic armor in front of my heart 59 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,600 and that I'm fine emotional mask 60 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,520 on between these little sections. 61 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,160 And my acting instructor, Richard, stopped the exercise 62 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:26,320 and said, whatever that is that you're doing 63 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,320 in between the vignettes, stop doing that. 64 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:31,940 And I said, I'm not that comfortable 65 00:03:31,940 --> 00:03:33,840 having everyone's eyes on me. 66 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,280 And he said, then you've picked a strange set 67 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,160 of careers for yourself. 68 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,200 You're an actor, a leader, a speaker. 69 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,480 Part of you knows you're meant to be here. 70 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,960 And it was like, it cut through all that static, 71 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:52,960 my inner critic, my inner protectors 72 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:56,920 to the soul part of me that knew he was right. 73 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,320 That I'd known since I was like five years old 74 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:00,920 that I was here to do something, 75 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:02,920 to bring a vision to reality. 76 00:04:03,780 --> 00:04:08,780 And I trusted him and this intimate lab studio space 77 00:04:09,260 --> 00:04:10,100 that he created. 78 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:14,760 So I jumped back in and I was actively releasing 79 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,480 the jaw tension, the emotional I'm fine mask. 80 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:23,360 And it felt like I was on fire and I was ice 81 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:25,180 somehow at the same time. 82 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:31,240 And I believe layers and decades of protection 83 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:33,640 was melting away. 84 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:36,760 And by the time the exercise was over, 85 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,600 I was in tune with everyone in the room. 86 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,480 After the acting had stopped, 87 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,220 I could see and feel what kind of emotional state 88 00:04:45,220 --> 00:04:48,260 they were all in, what kind of day they were having. 89 00:04:48,260 --> 00:04:52,440 And I now say it was my first moment of oneness 90 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:55,520 that lasted beyond the acting and that didn't happen 91 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:56,900 in the playing of a sport. 92 00:04:56,900 --> 00:05:01,000 When I was in high school, I played basketball, 93 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,680 volleyball, softball, soccer. 94 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:05,200 You can have moments of oneness 95 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:06,880 when you're really connected to the team 96 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:09,280 and you're focused on the goal together. 97 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:12,400 This was a moment of oneness. 98 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:17,400 And I realized that in order to see others, 99 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,920 we have to actually allow ourselves to be seen. 100 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:24,400 We have to choose to be seen. 101 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:30,440 And some people think that charisma, AKA presence 102 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,480 is something that you can't put your finger on. 103 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:36,660 It starts there. 104 00:05:36,660 --> 00:05:39,880 It starts by actually letting down anything 105 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:43,960 that we're consciously or unconsciously hiding behind 106 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,940 or protecting ourselves with. 107 00:05:46,940 --> 00:05:51,940 And then from there, we can allow our energy to expand 108 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,420 and for people to see us and understand us and feel us. 109 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:02,280 And that's the kernel of what I want 110 00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:03,900 for the people that I work with. 111 00:06:03,900 --> 00:06:06,760 And it's a kernel underneath all of the work 112 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:34,000 that I do to this day.