#77 - 5 Lessons I Learned From a Year of Conversations (2025)

0:00Welcome back to the Creative Gap Podcast. This episode is the last one of 2025. And I thought I'd go ahead and make a sort of reflection episode based on this year, the guests that I've been able to have on the show. And, you know, all year long, I've been able to sit across from people, whether it's in person or virtual, from people that I genuinely admire, you know, whether that's career or just life. and I was able to listen to their stories, their struggles, their wins, you know, the parts of their life, the parts of their careers that they don't really talk about ever, especially publicly.

0:42And I've been grateful to have that opportunity to talk to a lot of really amazing people and selfishly be able to gain a lot of insight into my own life and what I can take from a lot of these conversations. And what I thought I'd do is take what I learned this year from all of these conversations and compile it into five lessons that I learned in 2025 to hopefully enable not only me to walk into 2026 feeling better, more prepared, but also to help you feel better and more prepared walking into 2026. So somewhere along the way of having these conversations, I noticed that they started to really shape me, my thoughts, and the way that I wanted to move, especially going into this new year.

1:28And when I look back at a lot of these conversations, I noticed a lot of the same lessons, a lot of the same topics coming up again and again. You know, even though that they were different people, their career levels might have been at different stages, different phases of where they are in their life and their career, different paths. But among all of these differences, there were a lot of commonalities that I thought were really interesting and part of the reason why I wanted to share because the more that I noticed some of these commonalities, the more that I realized that they're more human and natural and innate within us than we believe.

2:01So this video, this podcast, whatever you're, if you're watching, if you're listening to it, if you're heading into this new year, feeling a bit tired, unmotivated, a bit scared or nervous or anxious going to this new year, or if you're feeling a bit hopeful for what it's going to be, but you're unsure what that next step is, this episode is for you. So these are the five lessons that I learned in 2025. Lesson one, there is no linear path, only commitment. One of the clearest patterns this year was how non-linear everyone's path was and everyone's journey. Almost nobody followed a clear path that resembled the next person.

2:41Everyone's was unique and everyone's was their own. Some people moved countries, some people moved cities, some people moved away from friends and family, some people switched roles, different places within their career, they tried transitioning jobs, different, you know, crew positions. Some people had to start over, some people tried new things, some people started new businesses, some people failed, some people succeeded, some people wanted to express themselves in certain ways. And there were so many different things that I learned about people throughout this year. And one of the biggest things that I really learned was that the people who I found were doing meaningful work or more importantly, meaningful work to them, weren't the ones that had that sort of clearest roadmap or path in their life or their career.

3:30But they were the ones that stayed committed to that vision or that goal, even when that path or that vision didn't make sense or wasn't clear anymore. I think that was one of the things that I realized was so prominent in a lot of the people that I talked to was their ability to stay committed to that goal that they had, regardless of how clear that path looked for them in that current moment. And something I learned or something I heard over and over again was something along the lines of, I didn't know how it would work. I didn't know how I was going to get there, but I couldn't stop. I believed that I was going to get to that place.

4:15I didn't know how, couldn't see further than next week, but I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop figuring out how to get to that place. So throughout this year, I've gone through many growing pains myself. And oftentimes I would fall back into that sort of mindset of, you know, what if this isn't going to work? You know, I'm not good enough type of mindset. And after reflecting on this year's episodes and hearing the stories of those who I had the privilege of talking to and sitting across from, this is not uncommon. And to be even more honest, I found that as part of the process of getting to where you belong.

4:55The road to that place, wherever that is for you, is not going to be easy. It's going to be difficult. It will be very bumpy. You may not be able to see very far in front of you. But as long as you keep taking that next step, taking that one step after another, moving towards that goal or dream, those bumps, those hurdles, those blind moments where you can't see that next step in front of you, it will not stop you from seeing that bigger vision that you have for yourself. And that to me is what I really learned from a lot of these people is regardless of how scared you are, regardless of how fearful or anxious you are about something that you're pursuing or you're doing, the only way through that is to stay committed and taking action and moving forward through it, even in those times where you can't see right past your next step.

5:46So we put so much pressure on ourselves to have that sort of clear path before we move and do something. To know where something is going to be before we start. But that clear path or clear path almost always comes after movement, not before it. So the lesson here is you do not need certainty to begin something. You do need direction and the willingness to keep walking when that direction isn't always as clear as when you initially started. Lesson two is kindness is not optional. It's a career advantage. I think, you know, something I have always believed in was the basic practice of kindness and compassion.

6:32I think that it is a human thing working with people, regardless of what industry you're in. working with human beings requires you to be a good kind compassionate human being regardless of if you're a leader of 500 people or three people it is still the same thing and after 365 days of this year i'm leaving this year even more convinced that that is true leadership is truly about the environment that you create to allow people to thrive within when you create that thriving environment everything that you have built everything that your team has built becomes amplified in the best way possible across so many of these conversations that i've had people didn't just talk about only the projects that changed their lives they talked about the people that they worked with the experiences that they had with these people who they trusted who they wanted to work with again which environments made them feel safe or creative or excited to show up for the day and which ones did the exact opposite of that.

7:43A common theme that was always the same was how people made others feel. At higher levels of any career, especially film, most people have a general level of talent. Everyone is capable of doing a really good job at a high level. Skill itself can get you in the room, but the one thing that will keep you in that room, the one thing that'll keep you getting hired, the one thing that'll keep you working with people and building relationships is your character. The strongest leaders that I've heard from in these episodes, people that are leading sets of 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 people, were that they were not intimidating people.

8:23They were not demanding people. They were not forceful people. They were calm people. They were very thoughtful. They were present. They were human and they were kind human beings towards other human beings. And they created environments where people could do their best work without the fear of being judged. So the lesson for this one is kindness does not make you soft as a leader. It makes you a trusted leader that people want to support, get behind, and work for. Lesson three is sustainability is the real measure of success. so this year for me was very reflective in terms of what my definition of success is for a long time my idea of success was only about how much money you were able to acquire how many assets you had how financially free you were how many days a year you were working and not that any of those things are bad i think for a long time i just realized that my goals were really around those things and I say things for a reason but the more that I leaned into sort of that thinking and felt that my goals and ambitions were leaning into that direction the more I felt a bit lost in who I was naturally.

9:37Success was a big topic for me this year on the podcast and for those of you that have listened to a lot of the episodes I'm sure you can attest that you know one of the questions I would always ask is like what does success mean to you now and what did it mean to you? Or like, how has your definition of success changed over the years? For me, that was a really important question to ask throughout this podcast this year. To be able to really gain insight into what people believed and what they believe now and understanding human change, because I think that's really important as well. And I really wanted to know what each person's view on success was at this moment in time, in this moment in their career, in this moment in their life.

10:23Regardless of where they are, what does it mean to them right now? And what did it mean to them maybe when they didn't have what they have now, perhaps? So again, the point is I understand that people's views change over time, which is important and which is, I think, correct. But where they are now at their current level, their family level, the relationships, what was important to them now. What I've come to realize is that not many people, not really anybody talked about hustling forever. People didn't really glorify burnout. People didn't say that their goal was to push harder and harder at the cost of their life.

11:05You know, I think society today promotes this sort of success as, you know, work until you die type of thing you know work 15 hours a day and i think that's valuable to some people and i think that's valuable especially if you are in a current season where you're growing a business you're going like there's nothing wrong with that but i think a lot of it has to do more with their goals and their view on success when it comes to sustainability they talked about the value of their health their relationships specifically with their families as being extremely valuable to them and as a measure of success is how strong is their relationship with their family.

11:45They also talked about the importance of their mental health, their mental clarity, their peace of mind and calmness that they have within them. And they also talked about still loving the work that they do years down the line. And I think that is sort of the combative sort of opposite of burnout, you know, pushing for burn, you know, pushing hard to feel like you're accomplishing things only to receive burnout for me does not result in the ability to love what you do years down the line and, and do this long-term. And what I realized for me specifically is that money alone should not be the goal.

12:26Yes, money is good. It helps a lot, but money by itself should not be the goal. But what I have always been sort of seeking in me is freedom and peace. That may come with financial freedom or being able to live in a way that does not stretch me with this sort of constant burden or obligations or bills or debt, whatever that is. But what I truly value, I believe, as being successful is being able to realize that I am living my dream life right now. Yes, I may not have all the things that I want. I may not be, you know, as financially free as I dream of being, or I might not have, you know, fill in the blank, whatever that is.

13:12But the more that I can put focus on where I am right now, what I'm doing right now, what I'm building, who is surrounding me, who's next to me on this walk that I'm in right now, the freedom that I do have now, the more that I can sit back and realize that I am living my successful life to me at this moment. I'm living it currently. I'm walking in my own path. I am building something. I am trying to do something with my life. I'm building, I'm working within the vision that I have set for my life. I am working towards that what value does not recognizing that have for me to be honest nothing it only prolongs my ability to feel peace and joy in the current moment and allows me to only focus on the future and the sort of waiting for that successful moment to happen which inevitably most likely will never happen because as soon as you cross that threshold of that successful moment, there is that next one.

14:21And that is a beautiful thing though, being able to find success, reach that goal, hit that pinnacle that you've dreamed of, only to then reach that next one after that. And that is that balance of ambition versus understanding where you are in your current life and where you were a year ago compared to where you are now. So I think for me, it's a balance of wanting to be ambitious, goal-oriented, but also wanting to spend time with my friends, my family, be around loved ones, and simply just live my life now and not wait for that successful moment to live my life. Not just for money, but to actually just be here present in my life right now.

15:14So the lesson for this one is fear doesn't disappear when you quote unquote make it in life. What changes is whether you let fear keep you from appreciating the life you're already living. Confidence isn't about the future. It's about trusting yourself in the current present moment. Lesson four, fear never leaves. You just learn to lead anyway. This one, this one was quite comforting to me, actually, once I realized how common this was, not only for me and people that were, you know, around my circle and people that I am close with or people that are at my skill level, but also people that were 10 years above me, 15 years above me that I really look up to.

16:01The simple fact is that fear does not go away at all. We all experience fear of work drying up, fear of saying no to the wrong thing, or even fear of saying yes to the right thing or the wrong thing. You know, just saying fear of making a wrong decision, fear of being replaced, fear of being forgotten, fear of being ignored, fear of being a failure. You know, there's that list of fears that we all feel at any point in our life. And even the people that were way ahead in their careers admitted that fear is something that they also feel in their life, even at that stage of where they are in their life.

16:40But what I noticed is not that fear is there or absent, but their relationship to fear. They stopped letting fear be the decision maker in their life. They learned to act despite uncertainty. And they trusted experience more than panic. So something I really learned is how invaluable time and experience really is. The more that you move through fear, failure, and even success, the more you build a personal library of moments that you could return to, a sort of catalog of experiences. and when you're anxious or uncertain again which you will be those experiences remind you that you've been here before and somehow you've made it through and that's what i believe is the perspective that all of us are sort of seeking is that time and experience is going to help you overcome those fears and anxiety because you have built that library that catalog of experience prior.

17:47That was something that was really interesting for me and it sort of reframed what confidence also meant for me. You know, confidence doesn't necessarily mean that you feel like you're ready. It isn't having all of the answers. It's choosing not to let fear take over and drive. So the lesson for this one is that courage isn't the absent of fear. It's the conscious decision to move in spite of your mind telling you to retreat. The last lesson is people matter more than projects. This might be one of the most important ones of all the lessons, but when people look back on defining moments in their career they rarely talked about the job itself this i noticed this was very common they talked about their crew their team the people that were around them their their significant others their partners the the conversations that they had the shared struggles that they had with people and the feeling of just being a part of something, which is so valuable and so important, especially for us creatives or filmmakers.

19:05We have to be and feel like we are a part of a team, a unit, a unified group that it's hard to feel joy, success, or just feel positive when you're in isolation. I really don't believe that it's impossible to build relationships in isolation. relationships are built in rooms over dinner over food on set late night conversations over a drink a shared moment of vulnerability and in moments of trust that is where relationships are formed that's where they're strengthened that's where they're built and the reason why i love film so much and the reason why i continue to pursue this career is not only because i love the the act or the art of creating images and storytelling.

19:55But it's because I know that I will be getting on set and I'll be greeted by people that I'm excited to see, people that I love, people that I love working with, people that I just genuinely enjoy being around. I get excited the night before a shoot, not just because of what that project is going to entail, the images, the lighting, all that. Of course, I get excited about that stuff. but what really gets me excited is knowing that I'm going to be able to see some of my friends and talking about and thinking about the laughs that we're going to have on set the problems that we're going to solve the challenges we're going to overcome and the ideas that we're going to create to be able to actually make that project happen and that to me is the reason why I'm able to continue to build in this career and it's not just for myself it's for everybody that I'm surrounded by.

20:48I really believe that your career is a network of human relationships that require us to help each other climb our own ladders together through opportunities, through small wins, through overcoming failures, mistakes, and challenges. We need to help each other climb our ladders. It's a team effort. The work will always come and go, but it's up to us to be able to continue to cultivate the relationships that we want in our life. The lesson here is the trajectory of your life or career, both, is very much determined by the relationships you cultivate and honor daily. As we close this episode, I don't know exactly what this year is going to hold.

21:31and I think this is probably the first year in a couple years where I, that feels okay for me. Each year, I tend to feel this push and pull of motivation, inspiration, but also fear and anxiety as well. And I know I'm not alone in that sort of tug and pull, that battle between inspiration and anxiety about what it's going to be. So I not only want to encourage you, but I also want to encourage myself to go into this new year with the expectation that there is no expectation. Go into this new year excited about the possibility that anything is possible. Set goals, write down your dreams, but be excited about the possibility of anything happening.

22:25and being able to be grounded in who you are enough to be able to thrive in successful moments, be humble enough to recognize those successful moments, but also be able to overcome those moments where you feel nervous, a sense of failure, struggle. Anything that comes your way, you will be able to overcome. If you're heading into this new year without all the answers, you are not behind and you are not alone. This is just a new beginning again. Yeah, thank you for all of you who constantly, you know, consistently listen to this podcast episode after episode. This podcast has truly become an amazing thing, you know, for me personally, but I know how much it is helping those of you who listen.

23:25And I'm just, I'm grateful for all of you who enjoy the podcast, support it. Yeah. And this new year, we have some amazing episodes already lined up that are ready to go. So definitely not slowing down with this podcast, only growing stronger and getting some new, amazing guests with some better conversations, some more in-depth conversations, and hopefully continue to be able to have fruitful conversations that make you think and get you feeling good, inspired, and relatable as well to a lot of these people that I have on the show. That's my goal. And yeah, that's it for today's episode. I'm grateful that you're here.

24:11Happy New Year. I will see you in the next one. Peace out. Thank you.