IFH 287: How To Have Your Best Year Ever in 2019!

Alex Ferrari 0:00
So today's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about what happened in 2018. But we're also going to talk about how we can help you get to your goals next year. And what you're going to have to do to change that mindset, or to put yourself on the right path to follow that dream that you've been chasing all those years. So first and foremost, I want to review a little bit of what indie film hustle has done over the course of 2018. This was a stellar year for the podcast for the indie film hustle brand in general, we, we were I was able to shoot Personally, I shot my first my second feature at the very beginning of 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival called on the corner of ego and desire. And I know many of you have been asking where and when will I be able to see this film. And the film will be out in the first quarter of 2019. And it's going to be definitely on ifH. tv. But it will also be on iTunes, Amazon all those places as well. So you'll be able to watch it everywhere. Coming up in the first quarter. And I'm very excited to have that movie come out so you guys can see it. And it's really a love letter to to you guys to filmmakers, independent filmmakers, and to the craziness that we do as filmmakers. And also in 2018, I was able to launch indie film, hustle, television or nickel hustle TV. It's the streaming service. And if you guys have not checked that out, please head over to ifH tv.com. It is the first streaming service dedicated to filmmakers. And I'm so excited that it's grown as much as it has, and has provided more and more value to the tribe and to the members of ifH. tv. I have so many amazing things coming out for ifH. tv. In the new year we will be changing over to a weekly release date, meaning that every single week there will be new movies, new content, new courses, new interviews, all this amazing content we'll be continuing to add to the ifH TV library as we continue to grow in 2019. Also in 2018, the podcast has grown exponentially. The downloads and people listening to ifH podcast and also the bulletproof screenplay podcast have grown just in ways that I could not even believe it's gone up probably 25 to 30% this year alone, and I'm very very humbled and blessed that you guys are finding so much value in the podcast. So thank you again so so much for all the support and spreading the word because I know you guys are spreading the word about ifH and the podcast and Everything we're what I'm doing at indie film, hustle. So thank you for that. And I also did something else this year, I wrote a book in 2018. And I'm going to have an episode coming up, either later this week or early next week, and I'm going to be discussing the book. And the book is about the toughest and most brutal time of my life as a filmmaker. And it is a hell of a story, my friends, it is, it's got everything you could ever want in a story. And it is based completely on true events. And I don't want to spoil anything about it. But I will tell you the title of the book, and the title of the book is called shooting for the mob. I'll leave it at that. You guys listen to the episode coming up later this week or next. And I'm going to break everything down about the book it is, it is the toughest thing I've ever had to do. And I really hope it does some good out there in the world. And I did that all in 2018, I'm very, very excited about that book, it's going to be a big launch. And it's going to be everywhere. So I'm going to be hopefully doing book tours and, and workshops and things like that around the country, and hopefully around the world, eventually, but that's coming up. So that happened in 2018. So I'm very excited for it as well. And this was the first year that I was able to finally dedicate 100% of my time to indie film, hustle indie film, hustle TV and everything I'm doing for the tribe, I am so blessed and humbled and honored to be doing this kind of work for you guys. It allows me to go off and shoot a movie at Sundance when I want to. And it allows me to continue to help as many of you the tribe as humanly possible. And I have a lot of things coming up in 2019. That's going to be mind blowing, to say the least. So thank you so much for all the support. Now that's a quick review of everything that I have had happened to me in 2018. And I wanted to talk to you guys about what you guys can do to get to your dreams to get to your goal for 2019. And I've got a few things I want to talk to you about in regards to that. I want you guys to do me a favor. Now. When you review what you've done in 2018, ask yourself this question, what did I do to move myself forward to more to move myself towards my goals, my dream to getting to that mountain top? What did I do in 2018? To do that, and you have to be really honest with yourself. Because if you didn't do everything you possibly could, then you have no one else to blame but yourself. You need to do the work to get to where you want to be. I hate to tell you this, guys, but you have to pay the price for your success. And you have to pay the price in advance. That means you're gonna have to do a lot of work for free. Meaning that you're going to be doing a lot of sweat equity, and writing and learning and educating yourself and reading books and listening to podcast and taking courses and all this stuff and going out and shooting stuff. But you're gonna have to put all that work in at the beginning of this journey to get to the goal. So you're gonna have to pay the price for your success up front with no guarantees. But I do promise you one thing I do guarantee one thing, if you go for it every day, and every day, you move forward a step or two every day, I promise you, at the end of 2019 you will look back and go Holy cow, I was able to do this, I was able to do that. I put these tools in my toolbox. I'm this much smarter. I'm this much more experienced. I made these contacts. I made these films, I wrote those scripts, all of those things will be at the end of 2019. But you have got to put in the work in advance for your success. What is the price you have to pay to achieve the success that you desire? That is a question you have to ask yourself. Okay, that's the question you have to ask yourself, you know, no matter where I'm walking to anywhere in the world, when I'm out there doing errands when I'm at the supermarket, when I'm you know cooking, I have earbuds in my ears and I'm listening to podcasts. I'm listening to audiobooks constantly. I'm constantly educating myself and using the free time that I have while I do other things to listen, to learn to grow. You know while I'm working on my computer all day, I have courses running in the background. I have masterclass dot Calm stuff going on. I've got things from ifH TV that I haven't even gotten a chance to see all through, as well. I'm constantly watching things, documentaries, things in the background, constantly moving me towards the goals that I've set for myself. And you guys have to do that as well. And if you have an iPhone, you're listening to this, obviously. So you either have an iPhone or, or you listen to a podcast somewhere, wherever you listen to a podcast, you can listen to it on your phones, you can put it on your smartphone, and listen to podcast no matter where you walk into. And it's free, podcasts are free. But if you want to take it up a notch, then you get audio books. And you start listening to audio books and start growing every single time you have free time. And I promise you, you will go so much farther, and get so much closer to your goals by doing that, than if you just sat around watching TV or, or did nothing during that time. Use every hour every minute of the day, to move yourself towards something sure you get to relax sometimes and decompress, watch a little TV, watch some movies, you know, play a video game, things like that, but read as much as you can listen to as many audiobooks as you can listen to podcast, take courses, educate yourself, because that is the key to getting you closer to your goal. I also want to talk about the story that we tell ourselves. We all tell ourselves these stories that we believe these illusions sometimes about who we are what we're capable of. And those stories that we tell ourselves are the stories that hold us back. Those that sometimes are if you're if they're negative stories, those are the stories that hold you back. Those are the stories that that create doubt that you become super critical of your work or what you're trying to do. Because you're afraid you're afraid of putting yourself out there. You're afraid of failing. I hear that so much. You know about people who are who are deathly afraid of failure. And like we fail as often as you can, man, that's that's the best teacher failures. The best teacher success teaches you nothing. Failure is what teaches you so fail and fail often is what I always say I failed. So so so many times in my life. I can't even tell you how many times some are epically fail failures. I wrote a whole book about it, about my biggest failure in my life. And it's okay because I learned a lot. It makes me It made me who I am. It'll make you who you are. But you can't be afraid. And you've got to change the narrative in your own head. You've got to change the story that you're telling yourself. Okay, change that story in 2019. You know, you are good enough. You are smart enough. You have the experience. And if you don't, you'll get it. Okay? We're not all going to be David Fincher. Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino, we're not. It's just, it's just not going to happen for everybody. At that level, I promise you, but what can happen is you can be the best of who you are. Your goal should be the best person, the best version of yourself. Okay, that's who you should be aiming at. That is who you should be focused on every day is becoming the best version of you. Because I promise you something. When you're on your deathbed, you're not going to be worried about Oh, man, I wasn't, I didn't make it to to be as good or as big as, as Hitchcock. Or as Scorsese, or Spielberg or as Coppola, or any of these big guys, directors. Or I didn't write screenplays like Sorkin or Goldman or Shane Black. It's okay. Because at the end, when you're on that deathbed, the only race that you're running is a race with yourself. At the end, you go out the same way you came in alone, alone. And all you can look back is like I did I give it my best. Can I do the best I could? Honestly ask yourself that question. Am I doing everything I can to get to where I need to be. And I don't want to hear excuses. I don't want to hear like Alex I work. You know, a lot of hours a day. I'm like, do you have a commute? Do you do have an hour commute every day? Well, listen to a book. listen to a podcast during that time. I don't have money to go make a movie. How much can you make? What do you have to do to get the money to make a small movie, but I want to make a movie that costs a million dollars like Dude, you can't Yet, you haven't made a movie that costs $1,000, why would someone give you a million, you need to take baby steps towards things, man, you got to take steps towards the goal, you know, no one's gonna give you a $200 million movie, your first movie out. If this doesn't work that way it doesn't. You've got to earn it, you've got to work your way up that. So as opposed to trying to chase that million dollar dream at the beginning of your journey, then man, why don't you chase that $10,000 movie, or the $5,000 movie first, then graduate to the next level. And the next level, the next level, it's like, I'm gonna be a construction guy, I'm gonna, I'm gonna build houses in the very first day before I even know how to pick up a hammer. You're trying to build a house. And not only a house, but like a half a million to $2 million house. But you've never even built one house that small, you haven't built a shack yet. You've seen other people do it. But that's the mistake that so many of us make, we go after the big goal right up front. And, and that's, it's hard, because you can fail. And you can often feel very badly by doing that. Where you could actually go after smaller goals upfront, and move yourself forward, you inch yourself forward every time you do that. So in 2019, set up goals for yourself that you know, you can achieve today, you know, you can achieve today, and tomorrow. And next week and the week after and the month after. And sooner or later, you're going to get to the point where like, you know what my next goal is going to be the million dollar movie. And the next goal after that's gonna be the $10 million movie, and so on, and so on, and so on. But you've got to work every day, you've got to change the narrative. In your head, you've got to change the story, you're telling yourself for so many years, I told myself the story that I wasn't good enough, or I wasn't smart enough. Or I couldn't make those type of movies because I didn't have the technical skill, or whatever the reasons were, I didn't have the money or whatever, whatever those excuses were, you can't do that to yourself. You've got to tell yourself, you know what, I may not be at the level where I want to be today. But dammit, I'm going to be at that level in a year or two years or five years. And not only am I going to put those goals out there, but I'm going to, I'm going to set up a system, I'm going to set up a way to get those bowls every month, every week, every month and every year. Because goals, without setting up ways to get to those goals are called wishes. They have no power. If you set a goal, like you know, at the end of this year, I'm going to make a movie, well, how are you going to do it? What's the plan, you've got to set up a plan to get to that goal. If not, it is a wish. It's a wish. That's a goal without any power without any gasoline, without any juice, it's useless. If you're going to set up a goal, set up a plan on how to achieve that goal. Okay. And that's when I get you through 2019 that's going to get you to the goals that you're trying to achieve. And the dream that you're trying to achieve. You have to also create new habits, habits that are going to get you to your dream I've done in my own life, I now wake up at 4:30 in the morning, to go workout at five every morning. And ever since I started doing that, my body has changed, I have more energy, I can actually produce more, I can actually create more, because I feel good on the healthy. You know, that's a new habit. I started listening to audio books constantly, and podcasts constantly throughout my day. Because that's a new habit I've created to get me towards the goal I need to get to. You need to create new habits in your life, whatever they might be, whether they be working out eating better dieting, because that's all part of this journey. Guys, you've got to take care of yourself, whether it's meditating every day, 30 minutes, you know, instead of watching or playing that game or watching TV or playing a game, you take 30 minutes out of your day, and you meditate because it's going to help you center yourself. ideas come out of that the grid some of my best ideas have come out of my meditation session, the sessions. most creative stuff because when you go in is where a lot of the good stuff is. When you meditate to create those new habits, create those habits that are going to get you towards your goal. And I promise you at the end of 2019 you will be much farther along than you were when you first listened to this episode. And there's a book I want to recommend to you actually two books I want to recommend you guys listen to or read. At the beginning of 2019. Okay, the first book is called the Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and is a practical guide to personal freedom. Sounds great, right? In the book, Don Miguel reveals the source of the self limiting beliefs that rob us from joy and create needless suffering in our lives. It's based on ancient toltec wisdom. And the Four Agreements offers a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform your life. And you knew experience of freedom, true happiness, and love in your life. And I've read this book many times in his amazing book, and it's a great book to start your year off with. And if you have to done after you're done with that book, read the fifth agreement. That's one book all about the fifth agreement. And it is a great companion to the Four Agreements. And it's just an amazing book as well. If you read these two books, it might change a lot of things that you have going on in your own mind, and a lot of things that are holding you back, I promise you. So I'll put links to those two books in the show notes at indiefilmhustle.com/287. And of course, I appreciate that you click on those links, because if when you click on those links, it helps support indie film, hustle, and what I'm trying to do for the tribe and for the filmmaking community in general. I really hope this helped you guys out. And I hope 2019 is an amazing year for you guys. I really, really hope that nothing I swear in my in my in my soul, I want nothing but the best to everyone who listens to this podcast, to get to the dreams that you need to get to, that you want to get to. I want you to be the best version of yourself. In 2019. And onward, I need you to figure out what you need to do to get to whatever that dream is. If your dream is to write a screenplay, great, write a page a day. And in 90 days, you'll have a screenplay. Write one page a day, and you'll have night and 90 in 90 days, you'll have in three months, you'll have a screenplay. If you do that four times, you'll have four screenplays by the end of the year. It's doable. It's done many, many times over. You can do it. You see how you, you don't go after the entire screenplay. And one time you go after a page a day, can you do a page a day, two page a day, outline it, plan it out. And then do a page a day. And don't look back. That's that's that's setting up a plan and goals. And there's many other ways that you can move forward after that after you have your first second, third, fourth screenplay. You know, maybe take the year to hone your craft and not try to get yourself out there. Make a short film a month, make a short film every three months. Learn grow. Get as many sets as you can read as many books as you can just make a plan to get to the goal that you want to get to guys because I really want everybody in the tribe to have an amazing 2019 All right, I hope this was of service to you guys. I hope this helps you on your journey. It comes from the deepest parts of my soul. This episode. I've been thinking about it for a long time. And I really want to put something out there like this for you guys to start your year off. Great. Again, I want to wish you nothing but a happy and healthy 2019 Happy New Year. And I wish you nothing but the best in this new year and moving forward on your filmmaking, screenwriting or just your general journey through life. As always, keep that hustle going. Keep that dream alive. And I'll talk to you soon.