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Tell me about your vision.

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Um, I, you know, I don't really love books that, um, tell you what to do, right? That sort of,

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uh, I like things that are prescriptive, but I don't necessarily like, I don't think any of

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us likes being told what to do. Um, but I wanted to, so I, you know, I always say, I don't have

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answers. I have experiences. And so my vision was to share my experience, to share the process that

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I went through to share the details of that process as intimately as I could. Um, so that

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people walked away with a, uh, I really like a map or a guide book or a, um, a field guide, if you

8
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will, for if they want to do this themselves, you know, this is a way to do it. It's not the only way,

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but it is a way to create great change. So, um, yeah, the vision I think has been, uh, pretty

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fulfilled and pretty, you know, pretty much came to fruition. I'm really proud of the book. Um,

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it's been the Barnes and Noble pick of the month. It's, uh, being published in five countries, um,

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or at least five languages. And, um, yeah, it's doing very well. So the vision has been pretty

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clear, pretty, um, fulfilled, which is, feels great. Yes, I bet. And, and I know that it says,

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it's a, it's a spin off. Is that correct? Of you writing in medium? Yeah, it's a followup, really.

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It's, it's, so I wrote an essay during the pandemic called prepare for the ultimate gaslighting,

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which was, um, on medium.com. It went around the world. It was a very, um, popular viral essay

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and, um, which I'm always very proud of, right? Cause it wasn't like a sex tape or something.

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Right. Right. Right. Right. That's good. I'm glad that's, that is what went viral. Um, it's, um,

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you know, the, the essay was, I wrote the essay about three or four weeks into

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the height of the pandemic. And the essay was really a call for all of us to think deeply about

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what we want to go back to. What is normal? How is normal presented to us by big business and by our

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government? Um, and how badly do we want to get back to it? And if we want to make changes,

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shouldn't we do it now? Um, so the book is really a followup. The book is really kind of the answer

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to the question now what, um, we find ourselves five years later, we kind of remember that there

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were lessons to be learned. We remember that we wanted to make some changes. Yeah. Excuse me.

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Individually, collectively. Um, where do we start? How do we do that? So, um, the book is, uh, my

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proposal. Yes. So during the pandemic, which is, I've always said, and so much, so many of our

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audiences will be like, she said it over and over again. I felt like those moments would make you

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or break you. And it, you know, just sitting down and being just closed in, truly thinking about life

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and then you choosing to write this. How long did it take? That's one question. And what was

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your mindset when you decided to write this? So it took a long time. And I say that because we

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went through about a year of the proposal when it landed with a publisher, it was probably another

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six to nine months of heavy writing, um, and then editing. So it's about a three year process, really.

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Um, yeah, it was a good three year process before it hit bookshelves, um, or, or bookstores. And, um,

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yeah, my mindset very much fluctuated, meaning that we just went through so many different,

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well, first of all, the creative process is an up and down process anyway, right? You,

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you believe in yourself, you hate yourself, you believe in your work, you hate your work. I mean,

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you sort of are all over the map emotionally as the creator. Um, and then the book, um, is not

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directly political and it's not directly necessarily about the pandemic, but so many things were

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changing in that period. Uh, the political landscape was changing the, the, you know, our

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willingness to talk about the pandemic was changing. Um, and so the book kept changing and

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shifting. And so my mindset kept changing and shifting with respect to sort of, you know, what

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is this need to be, to be something that people will buy, that people will read, that people will

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appreciate that will be meaningful for people. Um, so yeah, but specifically to mindset, I,

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I think that's always my focus with my creative projects. Like what is the audience going to,

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what is this going to do for the audience? Um, you know, I'm a movie maker in the rest of my life.

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And so I think about the audience all the time. Um, and the same is true for a book, right? What

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is the reader going to experience? What is the reader going to do with this information? How is

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it going to affect their life or not affect their life? Um, and so you have to be really careful

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with respect to all those things because you want to be thoughtful and considerate and bold, but you

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also want to be, um, like I said earlier, just sharing experiences so that people can make their

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own decisions about, you know, the actions they want to take. Yeah. Yeah. And I, that, that, that

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's a lot to think about, which tells me why it was a three year process. Um, and what eight to nine

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months, you said just complete writing. And I'm sure, um, since I guess you were used to shutting

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down, you were already there and in that place of mine and be like, Hey, let's make this work. You

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know, it's such a good point because I went from the shutdown into the essay, into the, into the

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essay, into the writing of the book. So for me, I was kind of shut down for about three years. Um,

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and when I sort of came out of that haze and out of that tunnel, you know, friends and family and

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colleagues were a little surprised that I had been shut down that long because they had been back to

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life. Um, but I had taken, you know, this extra time to write about it. So, um, I was a little out

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at a sink with the people around me and it took a little while to get back in the sink.

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So you said you were an actor director.

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So I'm a, I'm a film director outside of this. Yeah. So, um, I might actually, my first feature

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film came out during the pandemic. Uh, it's a family film called team Marco, which is on stars

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now. And, um, yeah, it was an Apple and Hulu and a whole bunch of other places, but it's, um, yeah,

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it was, it was, life was very different before this. So this is my first book. Um, and they're

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two very different creative processes, but both pretty, absolutely. And interesting enough,

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I sort of feel like they, they match the, I mean, you know, you're directing usually a story or

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a skit or, you know, something, but you just did it for yourself. You know what I mean? You do it

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for others and you see how it plays out. So you just went ahead and just exchanged. It was like,

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you know what, I'll do it for myself. How about that? Yeah. It's interesting because I always,

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I tell close friends this all the time, you know, what I loved about the book was it was just me.

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Yeah. Like writing, right. It was just, and I'm, I have, I think I was born an introvert and learned

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how to be an extrovert. So I'm always sort of fighting myself about how public or private I

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want to be. And, um, and this was wonderful because it was just me in a laptop and an editor

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and an agent and all the other people that come into play to make it happen. But of course,

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the actual process is just me and a laptop. And that's very different than a film, right? A film

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you are dealing with managing, orchestrating, you know, hundreds of people every day for months,

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and months and months. So, um, this was a different process and I really enjoyed it.

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Yeah. Yeah. And I think it almost sounds like it was therapeutic for you.

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No, I'm glad to hear that it was. Thanks.

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Yeah. You know, it's, it's like, uh, you know, during the pandemic, I think everyone was just

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a bit all over the place. Uh, and I'm sure you weren't alone, Julio, is the fact that we were

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just all over the place, but I love how you decided to take something that felt so different and

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didn't feel good and make it into something that was good, you know? And I truly, uh, I applaud you

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for that because some didn't choose to do anything. Like I said, it either made you or broke you. And,

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uh, it actually made you to do something completely different. And I did see the,

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the essay on media and I was like, look at all of these people. You never knew that this was

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going to blow up like that. Please share a little bit about the essay for me.

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Sure. It was surreal. Um, you know, all of us, you're, you're a digital creator. Uh, you know,

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the drill, right? It's, it's like, you, you, you make these pieces of content, which is always

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an offensive word to me as an artist, right? But you make these pieces of content and you never

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know where they're going to land or how far they're going to go or what they're going to do in the

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world. And, um, and so I had been used to writing essays. I mean, I was writing about the 2016

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election. I was writing about a number of things on medium.com and then I would post it to Facebook

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or I would post it to, you know, and like, you know, a hundred people would read it and I'd be

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so excited and like, whatever. And that's great. Um, this was very different. This was, uh, me

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alone, pretty angry and despondent in my apartment in Manhattan. Um, uh, I was single at the time.

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And so I was living in this, you know, 600 square foot apartment or whatever it was. Um, and, uh,

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and, and I wrote this essay and I posted it and like, you know, two or three hours later,

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I, you know, saw people liking it and sharing it, but two or three hours later, like,

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it was like this bizarre, like slot machine at a casino, right? We're just like,

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you're just watching these things spin. And I was just watching the number of people that were

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watching the number of shares go up and go up and go up. And like by six hours later, eight hours

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later, it had reached into the hundred hundreds of thousands. And then I got a phone call from

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or an email from medium.com saying like, this is kind of blowing up our circuits. Like what is this?

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And then they read the essay and then once it sort of broke through a threshold over there,

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they start promoting it. Um, and within a 24 hours, it had gone to 15 million people around the world.

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Um, and then, you know, to this day, it's, it's gone to about 21, 22 million. And,

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and it was wild. It was totally surreal. It was totally unexpected. And, and you know, like I said,

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like this wasn't just like some silly, stupid, you know, like dance video or something. It was

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a 2000 word essay about the state of our lives and our society. So I was really touched proud all of

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the above that it had done what it had done. Um, and, uh, and I was getting emails and phone calls

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from all over the world. Some, most of which were like very supportive, like priests and rabbis

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saying like, can I read this at Easter mass? Can I read this for, you know, um, services like, um,

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and then of course I got emails that just said like, F you, you know, like, like you get those.

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And of course those were coming, right? So it was a mixed bag completely. But, um, I always choose

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to focus on the, on the, on the good and the positive because the rest of it is, is kind of

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nonsense. Right. So, um, uh, anyway, that was the experience. It was wild. At least they read it.

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You know, it's so, it's so interesting how even the bad things become viral, right? Because now I

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need to, to actually take a look at it and what else is that? And so sometimes you can't have the

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good without the bad, right? That's, that's funny. And that's crazy how you was just like, you know,

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I'm gonna write this essay and I'm gonna just put it on there. Now, interesting enough, I wrote

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something on medium once, I don't even know what's going on with it, but I'm gonna just put it on

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and on with it. But it's just a great way, you know, just to get your writing out there or whatever.

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And so in 24 hours, you were all over the place. It was really wild. And it's not something that

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can be repeated. You know, it's like, it's so funny because my manager for film, you know, he's like,

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well, if you can do that again, I'm like, no, not again. Like, what are you talking about? Right. Or

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other writers on medium saying like, Oh, how do I do that? You know, it was a once in a lifetime,

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once in a moment where everyone was at home on their computers. And it was the right message at

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the right time at the right, it was just, it was, it was a strike of lightning in a way I could never

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have planned. And so I don't spend a lot of time trying to recreate it, because it seems like a

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fool's errand. So how does when you it is a follow up, please unsubscribe. Thanks. So it is a follow

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up. How have do you think that that has impacted the book to sell much quicker because of that?

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I think well, I'd love 21 million people to buy the book. That would be great. It has not had the same

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reach, shall we say. Yeah. But yeah, you know, I hope so. I don't think that I think the publisher

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has been clear that like that doesn't always translate over, right? Giving people like a free

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2000 word essay that, you know, they can read at home when they're stuck at home is very different

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than them going to Barnes and Noble or even clicking to them buy a book. But, you know, it's

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my hope, obviously, that the old people remember my name or remember the subject and want to read

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more. So, so yeah, I'm building a readership and building an audience for my work as best I can and

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you know, taking opportunities like this to talk to yourself and, and other people online about,

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about what the book is. Interesting enough, as I'm going to ask you, what's your why?

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What's your why? Great question. Well, in many ways,

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the answer is because I would be in a ball on the couch if I didn't, right, especially for this

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book and for the essay, right? You know, my mom used to say, if I don't laugh, I'll cry. Well,

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I'm, I kind of live by like, if I don't write, I'll die. It's like, there really wasn't a choice.

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It's like, it's kind of just the way that I express myself. And so if it wasn't this, I think I would

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have taken much, much longer to come out of the pandemic. It was obviously and for so many people,

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such a traumatic experience. And here in New York City, it was particularly intense. And I think it

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just would have taken a lot longer to come out of it if I had not sort of processed it this way.

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Yeah. And then in general, I think as an author and for readers, my why is just to share experiences

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and to kind of share the, the ins and the outs of the day-to-day human experience so that people can

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feel a little bit of comfort in the process. Absolutely.

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What was your most significant learning experience from writing this book?

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Oh, I thought you were going to say in life.

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Yeah.

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From writing the book. Well, interesting. Yeah, I learned sort of that, and it seems obvious,

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but it's like, once it's in writing, it's in writing. And that's very different than writing

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online where you have access to edit any, at any moment, right? Probably a little different for

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video, but for text, excuse me. So I think if I'm being really aware and critical, I would say,

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you know, maybe for the next book, I would take longer to edit longer to, and this was a long

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process, but I think I would take a little bit longer because I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

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And so now I read the book and I'm like, oh, that should have been this word or that should

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have been a period, not an apostrophe or whatever. Right. So those are kind of beside the point.

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That's just my own OCD, you know, but yeah. And I think probably more important note,

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the most significant learning experience was really that, you know, words have impact. And

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again, it seems obvious, but it's not real until you really experience it. But, you know,

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I write this document on my computer, it goes to an editor, it goes to a publisher. X months later,

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it's on a table at Barnes and Noble. People around the country read it, it's on a table,

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people around the country read it. And then they get in touch and say, thank you so much,

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this really, really impacted me. And not everybody does that, right? Like, yeah, but some people do.

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And so you get to experience this real sense of, you know, what have you been able to impact in

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the world, even if it's just for the five and 10 and 15 people who went and got in touch.

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And that's really meaningful to me and really important and has been really significant.

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Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite

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people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.