Kira Kosarin: Balancing Success, Time Management, and Mental Health

Episode Transcript
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Austin Seltzer (00:01):
Welcome to the Grounds for Success podcast.
I'm your host, austin Siltzer.
Together we'll unveil the keysto success in the music industry
.
Join me as I explore my guest'slife stories and experiences to
uncover practical insights tohelp you align with your goals
more effectively.
Hey coffee drinkers, today Ihave Kira Kosteren on the

(00:31):
podcast.
After this episode you'll seewhy I love her so much.
She is wickily funny,incredibly intelligent.
She's just an all-aroundawesome person with great
knowledge.
Although most of you probablyknow Kira from her lead role as
Phoebe in the Nickelodeon TVshow The Thundermen's, she's

(00:53):
also an incrediblesinger-songwriter artist and I
got the privilege of mixing hernext single called Before the
Sad Sets In And we'll talk aboutthat some on this podcast An
incredible song produced by myfriend, dallas Katen, and I was
just stoked to be able to be onit.
Through that process, me andKira became friends and I was

(01:15):
lucky enough to have her on thispodcast to discuss so much more
than just that single.
But what really makes hersuccessful?
While on her TV show TheThundermen's, phoebe is known
for having to not allow peopleto know that she has superpowers
.
On this podcast we dive prettydeep into what I think you'll

(01:39):
find some incredible superpowersand what makes her so special.
In this episode we're going totalk about Kira's hilarious
relationship with Kofi andKaffeine.
We're going to talk aboutBefore the Sad Sets In.
Of course, we're going to talkabout how important her sleep
schedule and routine are justfor anybody, but she's going to

(02:01):
dive into that.
We're also going to talk abouthow her parents were in theater
and how she grew up as an onlychild, which you know.
You'll see how that can reallyplay into someone being
incredibly successful in beingan actor or an artist.
I'm sure that you'll find whyshe's successful in those

(02:25):
through this podcast.
Also, kira's time managementskills and how ridiculously cool
they are and how useful theyare.
We'll also talk about how Kirafound out she wanted to act It's
a cool little story with herand her father and how they
pursued that by moving to LA.
And we'll also talk about howKira deals with a condition PMDD

(02:48):
and how she still performs atthe highest level.
I'll let her explain that, as Ithink that she'll do it much
better than me.
Alright, let's get caffeinated.

Kira Kosarin (03:02):
Hi, everybody, are we recording?

We are.

Are we live?
We're live.
Did you tell the people what'shappened?
Tell them what's occurred.

I'll fall on my sword.

Technology did not agree with Austin this week.
No, we filmed for three hours,maybe three and a half, maybe
four, filmed a beautiful podcastand the Internet.
I mean the universe just said,no, that one's just for you guys
.
So we're back.

We're back.

Gonna try to be back and even better this time.
Yes, in all capacity, One wayto find out, And if this gets
wiped again, then we just knowsomething out.
there is like this is not thetime.

It's too good to be out there right now.

It could change too many lives.

Since we are doing this the second time, I
feel like there are certainthings that I just must do again
.

Yeah.

Like shit on you about not liking coffee.

You're wrong.
That's not a true statement.

That is a gross over simplification, classes
over coffee.

Of a complicated physiological state of being.

Please explain.

I have a tenuous relationship with caffeine.
I'm very sensitive to it, whichcan be a wonderful thing and a
terrible thing.
It is genetic runs on my family.
If I drink caffeine beyond likegenuinely 9 am, it will impede
my ability to go to sleep thatnight.
I try to go periods of timewithout drinking caffeine in my
life in order to avoid that, butthen there are also periods of

(04:44):
time where I simply do drinkcaffeine, because I do love it,
because it has such an effect onme.
I feel like a superhero when Idrink caffeine.
My workouts are fabulous and Ifeel so much more clear.
If I'm depressed, it helps mefeel.
That's depressed, like it'sgreat, but then I just simply
won't sleep and it gets into abad cycle.
So I will be fully transparentwith you.

(05:05):
I am actually drinking caffeineright now, which?
I was not when we met in themornings.
In the mornings, because I keepgetting PR boxes from energy
drink companies And I can't sayno when they taste so good and
they make me feel so strongabout workouts, but I genuinely
can't drink it.
It's three in the afternoonright now.
If I were to have a cup ofcoffee, i would go to bed
tonight at my regular time And 1am, 2 am, 3 am would pass and

(05:28):
be like why am I still awake?
Oh, it's from that cup of coffee.
I had it too.

But I am curious actually if your sleep schedule
has come back to where we wereon the last podcast.

Yeah.

Yeah, you were just like sleeping for like 15
hours.

Yeah, oh, that's right, Okay, so yeah.
so on the, I'll call it theghost episode.

The ghost episode.

On the ghost podcast that nobody ever saw.
I had just finished filming theThunderman's movie And then
subsequently, for the followingtwo and a half weeks, i was
sleeping 15 hours a night, whichis super weird.
I tend to sleep more than youraverage bear, but more than your
average person too.
Sorry, but I was really bad.

(06:08):
But yes, it has come back inthe past like week.
Finally I'm sleeping, you know,eight hours a night like a
normal person again.

Damn.
You're actually going to belike coherent and care about
this podcast.

I know I was in dude.
I was a grumpy, grumpy grumperlast time I was here I hit it
pretty well, but I was, i wasstruggling and I'm feeling a
little bit more like myself now.

Well, actually, i mean really just sleep
schedules, everything.

It really is absolutely everything.
That is my biggest.
I'm talking about grounds forsuccess.
Man, get enough fucking sleep,that's it.
That's it.
All of those things that arelike get up at four and
dooba-dooda.
Maybe that works for youEverybody's got a different
circadian rhythm but like getsome sleep.

I'm glad you know what that is.

What Circadian rhythm?
Oh yeah, of course.

I mean, yeah, you're into health.
Do you work out every day?

Yeah, i do, and sometimes twice a day.
But I have also learned thatdiscipline is not only working
out all the time, discipline isalso taking rest days when your
body needs them, and so I amtrying to get better.
I am somebody for whom workingout is really good for my mental
health, and so doing it everyday tends to be really healthy

(07:18):
for me.
But it does get your body, doesget to a point where, like if
all your major muscle groups arefatigued, your, your joints
start taking on load and you caninjure yourself and you're not
giving your muscles time torecover and like, uh yeah, so
I've had to learn how to getbetter at taking rest days.
But my rest days usually looklike, you know, walking around
the hunting and gardens, likelooking at flowers or walking

(07:40):
around the farmers market, orlike I'm still trying to move,
usually Unless I just need tosit on the couch for a day,
which I also try to let myselfdo.

Wait, what do you do whenever you sit on the
couch?

Um play video games.

What are you on right?

now I'm just gonna play, consume content, watch
you to videos, listen to music.
all the above, what?

just wait, what?
what game are you on?
You are a gamer.

Yeah, i just finished my second playthrough
of God of War, ragnarok, um,which is like my favorite,
probably my favorite game of alltime, um, on PS five.
And then I'm now on.
I'm now doing a secondplaythrough of Assassin's Creed,
valhalla, which I played like ayear and a half ago, and
sometimes I'll I'll just go onlike missions or walk around and

(08:22):
do things that I can domindlessly with it on mute and
sing just to like use my voice,cause otherwise, really, the
only time I'm singing is likewhen I'm in the car driving.
Um, it's nice to have somethingto do with your hands while
you're singing.

Totally.
I mean, i actually think thatvideo games are very important
to music.
I can tell you like my entirelife I've been deep into video
games, of different consoles,different games, whatever.
But I feel like the music andgames completely inspired what I
would listen to throughout mylife.

That's cool.
Yeah, it's very cinematic.

Cinematic.

it's storytelling, it's um, it's also just like
the neural plasticity requiredto like learn new controls or
combat or timing or whateverlike it's valuable.
You can definitely play yourlife away.
You can get addicted to thelike achievement the false
achievement that you get withina video game and like.
Stop looking for that in youroutside world.
I wouldn't recommend anybody tosit in a dungeon and play video

(09:20):
games all day, every day,unless it brings you endless joy
, in which case go for it.
Or you're a streamer.
You're making money from it, inwhich case go for it.

We can go into um.
You know, deja vu here.
Let's do it.
I would love to go all the wayback um to your childhood and
kind of figure out family lifefrom you know who your parents
are and kind of just what likeearly life looked like that
shaped little Kira and littleKira.

She was a handful man.
Well, deja vu it.
I was an only child, supertight with my parents, um, they
were Broadway performers, so Igrew up in and around music and
performing and just lively,huggy theater people, just loud
New Yorkers, um.
So any of my kind of, you know,liquidiousness or annoyingness

(10:11):
as a kid came from that.
I talked a lot, i had to hangout with the grownups.
I loved making the adults laugh, um, and I was very good at
being alone because I was anonly kid, an only child, um,
which I think is still often thecase.
I, i, i am my own friend, whichis which is a nice thing to be
able to say Um.
But I feel like probably themost interesting formative thing

(10:33):
about like my, my childhood wasthat I skipped several grades.
Um, my, i just come from afamily that just likes, you know
, academia and whatever, justvalues that, and so when I was
little, like my dad would dovocabulary flashcards with me or
like it was fun, it was games.
The games in my household werealways like somewhat educational

(10:53):
, whether it be music or or mathor whatever else.
So once I got into the schoolsystem, things were kind of
tricky for me because I wasn'tas engaged as the other kids,
because I had already learned alot of it just by virtue of my
dad teaching me things, um, andthat I was just kind of a
precocious kid, like I picked.
I picked up on things like that.

(11:15):
So my, my teachers in my earlyyears thought that I had like a
learning disability or likesomething was wrong because I
was acting out so much and Ialso just had so much energy.
I just couldn't focus.
And my parents, luckily, foughtback and they were like no, i
think that I think she's justnot engaged.
All's to say, for a good bit ofmy formative years, i was much
younger than the people aroundme and, um, there are some

(11:38):
things that were good about that.
You know, i was very driven andmotivated because I had that
constant encouragement offeeling like I was a good, smart
kid.
But I also, like, emotionally,was always way behind everybody
around me and I didn't likeconsciously really know why, and
a lot of the effects of that, ithink, like manifested
subconsciously.
So things like being notfeeling liked, being bullied,

(12:02):
not like why doesn't so?
and so how come the person Ihave a crush on doesn't like me
back Cause they're 15 and I'm 12and no 15 year olds like 12
year olds.

You know what I?

mean, or I would hope not, but yeah that's, i
don't know as much as I can like.
summarize here's my entireearly life and why I am the way
that I am now.
That's probably a good, a goodbit of it.
The only other thing I'll say isthat there was a point in my
early childhood, when I was likeyou know, five or six, where my
dad came to me and he was likeHey, we speak music in this
family.

(12:31):
It's like our other languageand you don't have to do it.
You don't have to pursue music,you don't have to have a career
in it, you don't even have tolike it, but you have to speak
it.
You have to speak this languagebecause it's part of our family
.
I'm very grateful for that.
I learned how to harmonize whenmy parents would perform at you
know, friend parties and I usedto sing.
I had a song I would sing withmy dad and a song I would sing
with my mom, or my mom and dadwould do a you know a number

(12:53):
together from a show she hadbeen in and I would be doing all
the dance moves and likesinging it in the background.
So yeah, i never stood a chance.
I was always going to end up insome something creative.

Yeah, have you read the book?
outliers.

No.

Basically what the book is about is it?
it talks about and it drillsinto why certain people become
so incredibly good at whateverit is that they do Interesting.
And the whole book really justoutlines it's how early in life
you get in those repetitions,those hours, those whatever.
It has things about Bill Gates,it has things about hockey

(13:32):
players, it has things about,like, great music artists, and
it really just comes down to howmuch time you're able to put
into a craft before life reallymatters.
Yeah.

Well, and also the way that you learn.
that's really interesting.
It's also, i'm realizing it'sthe way you learn discipline.
because I think the other thingis that when I was young, like
I said, i had so much energythat, you know, like I could
have been medicated.
I was like I was out there.
but my parents because my momwas a dancer knew what like
intense physical activity coulddo for a kid who had as much

(14:03):
energy as I did.
So she put me in ballet andgymnastics And for a long time
in those sports I just kind offlew by natural talent.
I flew by the fact that Ihappened to be flexible and I
happened to have, you know,strong Russian legs, whatever,
like, until I got to a pointwhere that wasn't carrying me
anymore and I wasn't trying ashard as I needed to be.
And I had two separateexperiences, one in gymnastics

(14:24):
and one in ballet.
One where a gymnastics coachcame to me and she was like hey,
you're way more talented thanso and so, and you're never even
going to come close to how farshe's going to go because you're
not working hard.
It means nothing, you need tobe working.
And I was like what?
And then in ballet.
there was like one teacher thatI had at a workshop who was
like you're not trying, andevery single day that your

(14:46):
classmates who are trying arecoming, they're growing and
developing and you're notbecause you're not trying.
And I started to realize like,oh, there's a direct correlation
between how hard I work and howgood I get.
And from then on it was justlike boom set me on the path of
being almost workaholic,something else I'm trying to
like dial back on now, but itmakes sense, it was a perfect

(15:06):
age.

So on that, i'd like to drill a little bit
deeper.

Get in there.

Where I know I've told you this that out of
everybody that I work withlegitimately, and today again,
of course, you're not just ontime, you're early, very
communicative, like I knowwhat's going on in your world
with the things that we'veworked on together.
You're just like very on top ofthings professionally time-wise

(15:36):
, and I know that that came fromearly in life and I'd like to
hear some about that.

My time management is definitely probably the
thing that it makes me the mostme And then I would say the most
proud of, or that has served methe best in my life.
I feel like it is almost theanswer to most things, or at
least a super helpful thing.
But yeah, again, we chattedabout this the first time around
but I think, as far as I canfigure out, I think that it was

(16:06):
just a really healthy copingmechanism for anxiety as a kid
And then it was something thatworked so well to set me up to
not be in anxious situations.
Being late, running late, superstressful for me If I'm
supposed to get out the door andit's five minutes past when I
was supposed to leave and Ican't figure out what I'm
supposed to wear.
Like once I get frazzled, I'mfrazzled And I hate that feeling

(16:28):
and I'm not making good choicesAnd, like you know, I don't
like going into a class beforeI've had time for my brain to
wake up or going into a meetingbefore I've had time to wake up
my like articulation skills andI flummoxed the whole time.
So I think I just learned overthe years like, oh, if I can
schedule my life out better, Ican be more prepared and
therefore I have to endure thoseuncomfortable situations less

(16:51):
frequently.

We started this process?

Why was I early today?

Yes, like.
can you tell me what wentthrough your head, like counting
backwards?

Sure, sure, sure.
So I mean, in short, the reasonthat I was early was that I was
going to wash my hair after myworkout and I just didn't have
it in me to deal with it.
So I just blow dried it fromsweaty.
Sorry, i know that's gross, butI know I was going to wash it
properly.
But I just dry shampooed it, sothat's.
But yeah, so, like I'll tellyou when we were planning today
out like what time we can bethere, it's like okay, i'll run

(17:19):
through this quick.
I've got to work out 11 to 12.
I know that by the time I'veshowered and got ready, blah,
blah, blah, i'm home by 12, 15.
Okay, cool.
So I know it takes me 45minutes to get ready with, you
know, no makeup, about an hourto get ready with makeup and
eating food, and about an hourand 15 if I'm going to wash my
hair.
Great, that's what I want.
I also know I need to stop indowntown to drop something off
first.
So then I did.

(17:39):
All of the ways is to see howlong everything's going to take.
But, for example, like a, likea work backwards would be like
okay, i need to be here at three.
It's 20 minute drive.
I need to leave the other placeat 240.
I need to get there at 230,leave myself five minutes for
parking.
225.
It takes me 45 minutes to getthere, so I want to leave my
place at 140.
I want to blow dry my hair.
I want it 25 minutes to do it,so 115,.
I'm going to do my makeup at 105, do my skincare at one, cause I

(18:01):
keep forgetting sunscreen.
I'm going to eat a snack at1250.
I want to leave myself fiveminutes to do emails and social
media, so let's say 1240.
Great, i need to be home at1230.
I need to leave the place at1215.
I need to end my workout at 12.
I need to start my workout at11.
Need to leave to go to theworkout at 1030.
Need to get up and hydrate anddo all of my morning things
around 10, alarm at 945.

(18:21):
You know that kind of stuff.

That's amazing.

So I was just early cause I got home from my
class at 1215 and was going towash and blow dry my hair and
then didn't.

I love how you just nonchalantly like that is
the most rapid fire thing.

Cause it's cause.
It's what I do in my headbefore I go to sleep every night
for the next day.

How do you go to sleep That?
sounds like caffeine brain tome, but it's not.

It's just my brain .
Now you see why I can't drinkcaffeine.
You know what's funny?
I I can't fall asleep unless Iam actively thinking about
something.

Like if.

I'm just laying there, My head feels like
painfully empty.
But if I can think about likeall brainstorm, like oh, I have
this event, what do I wanna wear, And in my head I'll go through
my closet, It can be likemundane, it doesn't have to be
interesting, but I'll just gothrough and kind of figure out
what I wanna be wearing And theneventually that'll give way to
more creative thinking.
That then give way intodreaming.
Like I have to get a transitionfrom conscious brain into dream

(19:16):
brain to fall asleep.

That's nuts.
Whenever I go to sleep, I haveto say that I think that's my
superpower.
You really get it fallingasleep, Yes.

That is maybe one of the most practical
superpowers to have.
I'm envious.
Can you sleep on like planesand trains and buses and stuff?

I can, but in my bed, like I have a routine that
if I do this certain thing, soit's basically you know, i'll
just brush my teeth, wash myface, blah, blah, blah, but I
put on thunderstorm sounds.

I love a white noise.

Yeah, so I got that.
And then I get this thingcalled a bed jet that blows air
into the bed.

Oh my gosh, I keep seeing videos of those with
dogs inside the covers beingcooled down in the summer.
Very cute.

That's cute Well .
So when you tell me that, youuse that My little feeder dogs?

Picturing a sheepadoodle.

I could be that And yeah, so what it does?
is it like pipes?
really hot air for a momentthat helps your blood rise to
the surface, and then cold airthat cools you down quicker
Crazy.
But as soon as the hot air isblowing over me, i am out.

I am done.
Well, there's like a Pavlovianresponse there too.
Like, once you get the thingsof your evening up and running,
i feel like whenever people askme like oh, what are your like
keys to success?
blah, blah, blah, i find myselfreminding people often of the
fact that, like you know, whenthere's a toddler right And they
need their nap at the same timeevery day and they need their

(20:42):
bedtime routine to start 45minutes early, no screens, then
a bath, then this and that, likethat doesn't change.
We just stop doing it.
Because when you're a kid, theconsequence is a tantrum And
when you're an adult, theconsequence is maybe you're a
little anxious or whatever.
But like, we need routine asadults just as much as we did as
kids.
My Spotify wrapped every year amess.

(21:02):
It's like you were listening toairplane brown noise sounds and
1940s jazz while you cookeddinner And I'm like I listened
to pop music.
Where is it?
I just spilled on myself.

Wow, i got hella stains today.
That didn't happen the firsttime around.

No, I'm using my hair to cover a sunscreen stain
on this straight that I'm verysad about.

Wear sunscreen kids.

I'm trying to be better about sunscreen.

I have mine on.
It's really bright in here.

Well, the sun finally came out today.

It did actually.

I've not been a good sunscreen user because I'm
not someone who burns, so likethe consequences are usually
feel pretty low.
But I'm like you know I'm 25.
Now I'm seeing my seeing cutelittle wrinkles in the mirror
that I'm like I should probablybe protecting myself from UV
damage.

Let's have a podcast in 10 years and see
where we're at.

Oh gosh, where do you think you're going to be at
in 10 years?
Just tangent, or five years?

Five years This podcast.
So the goal.
I do have a five year goal.

Of course you do, i love it.

Yeah, my five year goal is grounds for success
will be a coffee and breakfastspot.

I love that And I'll be a regular and I'll come
in and I'll say, hey, get me myregular.

I would.
I would love that so much.
We'll have a table for you.

Thank you.
Can I come and like put my handprint in the concrete when it's
wet?

Sure, we'll see if the city allows that, but if
they don't, we'll.
We'll designate an area inside.
But basically, the podcast thatwe're having will be live at
the coffee shop.

Love.

It'll be, you know, either once a week or
we'll do like batches of taping,but I think it would be so
awesome to like have an intimateconversation in front of a
couple of people that maybe wantto be in that zone, and you'd
buy a ticket and it'll come withcoffee and breakfast.
Wow.

Sorry, I'm dying you.

My dreams are so boring to you.

I was trying to yawn on such the low key because
I knew you were going to giveme shit for it.

Phil, do not edit that out.

I just needed air.
I forget to breathe.
I like live eternally in astate of exhalation.
And then sometimes I'm like, ohyeah, interesting, but I'm not
like steadily breathing in andout kind of ever, and maybe I'm
a vampire.
I'm just kind of like hereuntil I'm like, oh yeah, oxygen,
i need to breathe.

Yeah, you're so close to death all the time I
really am.

You have no idea.

And the other thing I want to be one of the
biggest mixers in the world.

Love that.

I really do, And what that means to me is just
like I want to work on thingsthat touch as many lives as
humanly possible.

That's cool Impact .

Yeah, that would be really cool.
What's your five year goal?

I don't know about goal per se, because my goals
are kind of constantly changing,because I kind of oscillate
between music and TV and filmevery few years.
it's hard to ever know whichone will really seriously hit
and sweep me up for a few years.
You know what I mean.

Kira.

What.

You have a humongous TV show.

No, that's not what I mean though, but I mean
in five years, i think thatthere is as much of a chance
that I'm on a world tour asthere is a chance that I'm
executive producing anddirecting and starring in a
multicam for Nickelodeon orNetflix or something.
I also have music coming out,and you never know when
something's.
I haven't really had a song hitbig yet.

(24:14):
I've been building, so I'lljust say in five years I could
be running a show or on a show Icould be touring.
I don't have goals necessarily,but I feel like predictions,
like I definitely will.
I mean, let's see, five yearsI'll be 30.
Probably be married and maybemoving into my first home,

(24:38):
potentially in five years, beenin my current apartment for five
years, i think another five,and we'll be ready to live in a
house.
I think I want to shave my headwhen I'm 30, because I want to
do that once in my life.
I just cut my hair the shortestI've ever done it And I was
like even that was liberating.
I want to have a proper shorthaircut at 30.

(24:58):
Yeah, i don't know, i'll be inLA still, probably.

Is the dream, one day to get out?

No, i love it here .
I'm going to move to hereintentionally And I still am
here for the same reasons that Icame in the first place.
It's interesting, i feel likewhen I think about where I want
to be in a few years.
It's not really circumstantialthings as much as, like, i want
to be a better decision maker.
I want to be less stressedabout decision.
I want to hear my gut morestrongly and be less afraid to
follow it.
I want to be less afraid tobook a vacation, in case I book

(25:30):
it wrong or I book a bad one.
I want to be less addicted to myphone.
I want to have the same closefriends that I have right now,
plus some more wonderful peoplewho I haven't met yet, and I
want more acquaintances And Iwant to have a better
relationship every day with foodand my body, things like that.
I want to just continue to be ahappier and happier person if

(25:54):
possible.
That's it.
I don't really care what thatlooks like.
I don't care if that meansbeing the biggest star in the
world or having completely leftthe internet and just living a
quiet little domestic life.
I could be happy either way.

I've realized pretty much everybody that have
obtained success where most theworld would be like that's
success.
Everybody just wants to behappy.

Yeah, if we're trying to pull things out from
our first attempt to thispodcast, now might be a good
time to bring back the Sims bars.

Oh, I did like that analogy.

Because that's thank you.
That is, i think, kind of agood way to describe success
outside of the traditional moneypower, whatever that people
think of as success.
I feel like I think of myselfas a Sims, with all these
different Sims bars, and it'slike excitement versus peace,

(26:51):
friendship versus solitude,indulgence versus health,
exploration versus stability,whatever, fitness versus sloth
and hanging out and doingwhatever.
There are all these differentkind of parameters And I feel
like all I ever want is forthings to be pretty balanced And
whatever one of the bars justdrops way below what it needs to

(27:14):
be.
I feel it really intensely AndI feel like that tends to then
be a catalyst for poor mentalhealth or whatever else.
And it's funny, once you startthinking of it that way, how
much it changes your perspectiveon everything.
There will be times where I'mlike, oh, things are really good
, but I need more of a workfulfillment bar.
I need more discipline, i needmore fun, i need more quiet, i

(27:36):
need more like my social bar.
It needs to be filled up, ineed to see people.
Or my solo bar needs to befilled up, i need to spend time
with myself, whatever.
So that's really my.
Whenever someone's like what'syour goal ever?
I'm like I just want to get toa point where all of my bars are
even Because they'll never allbe full.
There's not enough hours in theday for that And some of them
are mutually exclusive.
But if they can all be kind ofbalanced, i feel like that

(27:57):
success.

Yeah, i want to be financially secure enough And
also socially secure enoughmeaning I have great friends and
a great network that anyfucking idea that I have that
comes to mind I can execute.
I can jump off that cliffbecause I know that financially
I'm doing.

OK, such a block cliff.

I almost did when I lost the footage.

Yeah, that's good.

And then I also have the network that can help
me make these dreams a reality.

Totally.
Yeah.
It's funny that you say that,because even that kind of shows
the individualistic definitionsof success, which is that I want
to make enough money that I cantravel as much as I want, as
comfortably as I want.
That's what I'll spend it on.
Yeah, it'd be nice to have ahome eventually.
Yeah, I want a wedding with 150people and serve them nice food

(28:50):
.
There's other things that Iwant to.
I like my fancy gym and I likespending money on food and
ordering Fancy gym.
Thai food four nights a weekfrom my favorite restaurant.
I literally am in the top 0, 0,0, 1% of orders from my
favorite Thai restaurant.
They send me thank you notes.
It's very funny.

Oh my gosh.

But I just want to be able to travel and not worry
about upgrading to business ona 17 hour flight, because my
back will hurt if I don't.
That's the goal for me.
Whenever I have to do a pieceof work that I just absolutely
hate, and I'm just really doingit for the paycheck that's what
I'm doing it for.

Let's move on a little bit from childhood.

OK.

And just you know, we infant here.
Moving into first of all, wheredid you, where were you born?

Yeah.

And then because you said your parents are in
New York.

Yeah, so my family's from New York.
I was born in New Jersey andlived there until I was like six
or seven, at which point my dadstopped working in Broadway so
that my mom could retire.
He wanted to like go just finda way to make some money.
He was like I'm going to justspend a few years doing
something I'm not passionateabout and just try to make money
for my family, and ended upgetting a job that took us to

(29:59):
Florida and lived in SouthFlorida from like eight to 12.
And then we moved out to LA forme to pursue the entertainment
industry.

Yeah, we got to pause that.

Which was in because of a couple of things,
and I can kind of tell you thestory of how that happened.
But one of the reasons that wewere able to even consider that
was that when I was 10, my dadhad this crazy, freak accident
literally like dove into theocean during a hurricane to like
save a drowning child that hesaw out of the corner of his eye
and got picked up by a tidalwave and slammed into the ground

(30:34):
and shattered his shoulder andlike was paralyzed and was on
disability and had to stop work.
Like just a life-changing thingwhen I was 10.
And he also has an autoimmunedisease, so, like my dad just
had some really horrible healththings.
But what that meant was that hestopped working and there was

(30:55):
nothing tying us down to Floridaanymore And my mom loved the
weather.
But I can now kind of tell youthe story of what brought us to
LA, which is that when I wasprobably like 11, 10 or 11, my
dad got an email about like anopen casting for Nickelodeon in
Florida And he was like, hey,would you be interested in this?

(31:15):
And I was like, are you kiddingme?
All I do is watch Nickelodeonin Disney, like I love.
Yes, of course, and I couldn'tgo because I had a rehearsal for
the Nutcracker at my balletschool that I already committed
to.
I know.
And my parents were like, leigh, you have a commitment, you
gotta honor it.
And I was like, yeah, yeah, soI did.
And I was really beat up aboutit.
And my dad was like,interesting, I didn't realize
that was something that you wereinterested in, because at the

(31:37):
time I just assumed I was goingto be on Broadway like my
parents.
I was a singer, i was a dancer,i was a gymnast, i was an actor
, i did school plays, i playedinstruments.
I was like, yeah, i'm gonna doBroadway like my parents And you
know, Costa Run's a good nameto have in the Broadway world,
my uncle is a big Broadway guy.
I was like, great, this will beeasy, like I've got my whole
life planned out for me.
Not that Broadway would havebeen easy to get into, but as an

(31:57):
eight year old, I was like,yeah, that's what I'm gonna do,
obviously, But I had neverconsidered the possibility of
television.
And later on my dad ended upfinding something about like an
acting teacher who had been onDisney Channel who was coming to
Florida because he was goingaround the country teaching
workshops about like kids sitcom, multi-cam acting.

(32:17):
And I took it and I loved itAnd I never wanted to leave.
I just felt so instantly athome And I just it was like I
found my thing And I loved it.
And he, the acting teacher,invited me out to LA that summer
to do like a summer camp classacting workshop And I did.
And when I was out here I metmy agent doing like a showcase

(32:41):
and my then agent and she sentme on a few auditions and I got
callbacks for all of them.
It was like Aunt Farm on DisneyChannel and like Diary of a
Wimpy Kid.
This is like 2010.
And I just had the best timeever And my parents were like,
do you wanna try this for real?
Like it's?
you know we don't want you tobe a performer Like my parents

(33:03):
had seen too many kids playAnnie and go crazy and have
horrible lives.
But I really wanted it.
And they were like, if youreally really are gonna work
hard and do this, like we'llgive it a try, We'll come out to
LA for a few months.
And so we came out to LA and Istarted auditioning and I
started going to this highschool I was 12 at the time And
I started taking dance classesat a new dance studio and guitar

(33:24):
lessons, and I just dove intoit And I just I even loved the
training, and the training thatLA had to offer was so far and
beyond what I could get inFlorida, And so it was pretty
clear that it was working and Iwas happy and, luckily for me,
my parents like best friendsfrom childhood also happened to
live just right down the street,So they had some community here
, and my dad liked the weathermore than Florida, you know.

(33:46):
And so, yeah, after a fewmonths, my mom went back to
Florida, sold the house.
I never saw it again.
We bought a house here and,yeah, here we are, 13 years
later.

Yeah, that's so cool And it was just all off of
one email, that kind of set thattrajectory.

Yeah, i mean it was also off of.
You know, my dad has alwaysreally advocated for me and he
was looking for opportunitiesand I think, always for me,
especially, you know, given whathad happened.

More of that outlier.

Yeah, i mean luck is such a huge part of any
amount of success ever.
You got to be prepared, you gotto work hard, but at the end of
the day, i mean just the luckto be born into a family with
any amount of money, the luck tobe born.
You know the fact that I was awhite girl in a period in time
where it was probably a mucheasier, much easier, to get a
job as a leading role as a whitegirl than anything else.
That is changing now, thankgoodness.

(34:35):
But you know there's a lot ofprivilege involved in success a
lot of the time.
So I'm very aware of myprivilege and luck that I've had
over the years because it'sobviously a huge part of what's
gotten me to where I am but,yeah, i'm lucky and I'm grateful
And I got me here.
so here we are.

Wait, did you finish out high school or did
you do home school?
I?

did so.
I went to a real school I'musing that term loosely for
ninth and 10th grade.
I was auditioning.
It was like a school for kidswho were professionals in any
capacity.
So there were a lot of actorswho were auditioning or busy on
set.
There were a lot of kids inbands who were like touring.
There were some kids who wereathletes, like training for the
Olympics, or some like siblingsof celebrities who just needed

(35:17):
to be somewhere where the otherkids were not gonna like fangirl
whatever.
So it was core curriculum,pretty short days.
All of your extracurricularshad to be signed off by other
people in other areas of yourlife, but it meant that I was
allowed to go audition.
If I ever booked a job, i couldmiss three weeks of school or
six months or whatever.
So I went to that school forninth and 10th grade and then in

(35:38):
11th grade, i guess rightbeginning yeah, beginning first
month of 11th grade, i bookedthe Thundermen's at 14.
And most of the kids who I wasin contact with at that time
when they booked a show, theywould switch to online school so
you could go at your own rate.
Because of the child labor laws, the schooling is very specific
of when you can and when youare required to do school on set

(36:00):
.
So being able to go at your ownpace is advantageous, but I
really didn't wanna leave a realschool.
So for 11th and 12th grade Ihad a tutor on set for the three
weeks a month that I wasworking and then for the one
week a month that I was onhiatus I would go to school in
person.

But back to that .
Is that the most crazynetworking of all time?
It's only people who are doingshit.
You know it's funny.

I know I'm like I think about it all the time.
I'm like my high schoolyearbook is probably gonna be
worth so much in a few years.
I mean already there are a fewother kids kind of crushing it
in the industry who?
Sidney Sweeney I was in classwith Miley Cyrus' little sister,
noah Cyrus and her brotherBryson were there.
And Frankie Jonas he held theend of school year party at the

(36:49):
end of my ninth grade year.
There were a lot of really coolkids there doing really cool
stuff And yeah.

Okay, so wait for people who are not born into
a family of creatives orentertainment people You touched
on this earlier a little bit.
I would love to know, and forthe people listening, kind of,
what are some of the things thatmake people successful if

(37:16):
they're not given?
Or what are some things thatyou think make you successful as
a person, like bullet points?

Hmm, okay, i mean I'm going to take this on as a
couple part question.
I guess the first part is likewhat would I say to somebody who
doesn't live in a creativefamily and wants to have a
creative career?
I would say, like, takeadvantage of the fact that we
live in a time where the entireworld's information is at your
fingertips on your phone.

(37:46):
You can really learn a lot fromthe internet.
Granted, there's a lot ofreally great information and a
lot of really terribleinformation, and none of it's
labeled, which is the nightmarethat is the internet.
But, like, you really can learna lot just on the internet or
taking a course here and there.
What do I think makes mesuccessful as a person?

Geez, Your time management skills.

Time management, sure, i mean.
What's funny is I don't, idon't know.
Sometimes I feel verysuccessful as a person and
sometimes I don't feelsuccessful as a person at all.
I'm sitting here being like whyshould I be someone to tell you
how to be successful, like Idon't know?
But you know, i think, becommunicative, be kind, know how

(38:36):
to apologize and take apologies.
God, i don't know.
You know, work hard and justyou know, i don't know Have a
hobby that keeps you in shapeand makes you happy and listen
to good music.
How the fuck am I?
I'm talking on my ass.

(38:57):
Let me think Making some best,No really, i think the things
that make me successful forwhatever amount that I am
successful is time management, adesire to do everything that I
do to the best of my ability,whether it matters or not.
Like, even if it's a small,stupid job, i'm going to do it
the best that I can Because it'snot really worth doing.

(39:18):
I don't know being a littleneurotic, like caring about
details, caring about, like, doyou sweat the small stuff?
Because otherwise, if you onlysweat the big stuff, the small
stuff all builds up and explodes.
Like you do have to sweat thesmall stuff.
To an extent I'm a good talker.
I think that's probably mybiggest skill.

(39:39):
Which can get me in troublesometimes too, because sometimes
I fear that I'm a really goodsalesperson for myself And then
I feel like I raise expectationsreally high and then have to
like live up to them.

No, I've noticed that With people who have
obtained a certain level ofsuccess, they're incredibly good
at articulating things.

It got me in a lot of trouble when I was a kid,
but it served me well in mycareer.

Isn't it funny how those things happen.
All the things that you're toldnot to do or you're getting in
trouble for as a kid areabsolutely your greatest assets.

They are.
They are, although there's alot of things that I used to get
made fun of for as a kid Andthey ended up contributing to my
success as an adult And for awhile I really resented all of
the people who made me feelterrible about them.
But then I also realized, theolder I got, like no, those were
annoying, you do need to alsotemper things.
It was probably really annoyingwhen I was 12 years old saying

(40:30):
look at me, look at me, look atme.
Yeah, that confidence andfreedom and comfort on stage
served me really well in bookingthe lead in the TV show at 14
years old.
But probably was also good thatI had a few people in my life
to be like hey, it's not allabout you, turn it down a little
bit.
Unfortunately, i think I reallyinternalized those voices and
it led to a lot of self-hate formany years that I'm now working

(40:50):
through.
But it's all a balance.

I'm curious of all of the skills that you've
honed in.

Mad skills bro.

Mad skills, all the skills, all the bars.
It is one of them that you justwish you could throw away and
forget and not be good at Toughquestion.

But Yeah, i mean, i often find myself wishing that
I didn't care so much aboutabsolutely everything.
Actually, you know what's funny?
I think that one of my greatestassets as a human is like
self-knowledge Self-study inHindi I think it is.
I don't know how to rememberhow to pronounce it, i'm

(41:36):
embarrassing myself trying, butI have spent many years of
self-study in my life throughmovement, through meditation,
through psychology, throughstudying, through psychedelics,
through whatever it is.
I know a lot about myselfthrough nutrition.
I know exactly what kind ofsleep or food makes my body feel
a certain way.
I know about how my hormonalcycle affects my emotions.

(41:59):
I know how any amount of sleepI know myself so well and I'm so
hyper-aware of my state at anygiven moment which can be a
really wonderful tool, but itcan also be crushing.
I remember saying once how comethere are these people who are
able to just not get enoughsleep and function totally fine,
or drink and look totally thesame the next day and not be

(42:22):
bloated and this, this or that?
I think it was my boyfriend.
He was like.
I don't think that that's thecase.
I think you're just more awareof the minute differences in
your being.
I think you're more aware ifyou got a little less sleep and
you're a little less sharp thenext day, whereas other people
might just be like, oh, i'm justa little, i don't know, a
little foggy or whatever, whichis not to.
That sounds like I'm like, oh,i know more than everyone else,

(42:43):
which is not what I mean.
But I do think that I have avery intense awareness of my own
state of being, or where I amon the scale of my best, how I
feel at my best and my worst atany given moment.
Maybe that's one I might like tobe a little less aware.
Sometimes I have to just belike think less, bitch, just
think less.
Some people like the bestadvice they could get is like

(43:06):
you need to feel your feelings,you need to sit and think
through things.
For me, a lot of the times it'slike you need to just be okay
with the fact that you don'tfeel great and just keep living
your life anyway.

Yeah, so tell me some about sad, sad sin.
We're just going to call itthat, because that's what you
call it.

I know it's called before the sad, sad sin and I
only ever call it sad, sad sin.
At one point my boyfriend waslike you realize you only ever
call it sad, sad sin.
You should just call it sad,sad sin.
I was like I can't do thatbecause the last several songs
that I put out and EPs have beencalled something new songbird.
They all start with S's forsome reason.
I was like I don't want anotherS song.
I don't know why that keepshappening.

(43:44):
Yeah, so before the sad, sadsin is probably my.
out of all of the songs that Ihave made, it is probably the
closest in style to the musicthat I listen to or like I'm
listening to now, which is areally nice and be a really
weird coincidence, because thissong sounds like the music I

(44:07):
listen to now, but I made itbefore I started listening to
this music.
It's almost like I was likeaccidentally inspired by the
music I was about to find ratherthan like.
I also was directly inspired bylike songs that I had heard It
definitely pulls from like theone Moona song I liked at the
time and the one Caroline PoloTrek song I liked at the time
and the one 1975 song I liked atthe time and now it's all I

(44:28):
listened to.
But at the time I didn't knowthat that's where my music taste
was heading.
But yeah, it's a fun song It isabout.
I mean, i feel like it's prettyclear what it's about when you
listen to it.
But as somebody who loves tolike, like I was saying, get
deep and talk about life andthink about things I am very

(44:49):
good at thinking myself into ahole until I've convinced myself
that things are bad, especiallyif my mental health is not in a
good place.
I am such a happy, bubblyperson but there's a real deep
sadness that like lives withinme and especially at different
periods of my life that sadnesscan really take over.
And so Sunday best and beforethe sets.

(45:11):
It's in a both kind of aboutthat weird dichotomy of being
somebody who's happy and fun andbubbly and outgoing, but also
like deeply sad and kind of darkon the inside, behind the
scenes and in different periodsof my life.
Yeah that's kind of it'srepresented in there.
I just love the song though.
I love it feels like it givesyou a hug.
I just I like it.
It feels warm and rich and fullin the middle and soft and airy

(45:35):
and like it's got movement andenergy and sparkle and just like
all the things I like in thesong.

Yeah, i remember whenever Dallas, kate and the
producer just sent it over to melike his rough, and he was like
Hey man, i'd love for you tomix this track, and the first
time I heard it, that's exactlywhat I felt.
Thank, you.
I think you guys really nailedit.
How was the experience writingand producing with Dallas?

It was great.
I was with Dallas and then myanother co-writer, who I
absolutely love working with,named all, all all, nahoth Meyer
.
She's also one of theco-writers on my song, parachute
.
We've written a bunch of othersongs together.
We wrote a bunch of songstogether on an EP that didn't
come out because I missed ayear's release cycle because of
COVID and signing to Republic,though those between those two

(46:17):
things, i didn't end up puttingout the 2021 project, so I
called the ghost project and oneday I would love to put it out
Like an in the vault track.
But all in the rope, Most ofthose songs, and I just love her
.
But yeah, it was, it was greatIt was.
it was one of those sessionswhere it was just kind of like
you know, i don't know, i don'tremember, i think it was.
Probably we just started makingsounds and then eventually

(46:39):
words form and eventually I goOh, i know what this is about,
and then they came togetherpretty quick.
I think it was like a four hoursession or something.

I love that.
Dallas is incredibly good as aproducer.
I don't, I don't know thewriter.
He's great.

And then Alton and I usually write a song together
in 45 minutes.
Usually, once we stumble uponit, it's like and then we finish
it And yeah, dallas is great.
He, he just like started.
I remember he had all the thesynths and they were all really
pretty, and then I was like kindof vocalizing what I wanted the
drums to be like as he wasprogramming them, and we were
just totally on the same page oflike what we wanted that sound

(47:11):
to feel like.
So, yeah, he's great.
I love this song.
I'm excited It's going to beout, cause it's been a while
since we've made it.

Yeah, it has been.
I'm so excited for people tohear it And I really love it.

June 23rd.
It's also one of my favoritecover arts, not that that super
matters, but Oh yeah, i was justlike do whatever in the chair.
Oh yes, Sit in the chair.
that way Hearts your back.
I don't recommend it.

Funny enough in that photo.

You can't tell, but the way that we got that
shot was that I, like, posed,and then Max, my boyfriend, like
, spun the chair and then Zach,the photographer, like, took the
picture as the chair strings toget like get different angles
of it.
But it meant I had to likereally engage my core, because
centrifugal force is no joke.

Yeah, I want to dive in on two things with that
One.
I know that you have like astrong girl group of artists out
here, that you're all friendsright.

Yeah, i've got a group of friends, most of whom I
met through, like one of myclosest friends, emlyn.
She introduced me to a fewother artists It's me, emlyn, m
by Hold, King, mala and MA.
So MA, emlyn and M we call theempire, but we all went to
dinner one night and we likewe're talking about just kind of

(48:30):
what it means to be an artistin the TikTok age and kind of
all of the ups and downs of that, and we're all artists who have
kind of gotten somewhere.
You know, we've used socialmedia as a tool in that And we
kind of bonded and we formed agroup chat and it's like tech
support for like TikTok changes.
It's like emotional supportwhen the internet just makes us

(48:50):
want to drop off a cliff.
It's very cute.
We're all kind of in slightlydifferent genres but similar and
at slightly different points ofour careers but similar, and
I'm very grateful for thatlittle group of humans.
They're just absolutelywonderful and it's really nice
to have.

Yeah, I brought that up because I really, really
think that for anybodylistening, you should always
have a support group, especiallyin LA.
This place is very, very toughif you don't have close people
who understand what you're goingthrough.

LA is like 15 different cities all layered on
top of each other and they'rejust different networks of
people.
And if you get in with theright people it can be the most
supportive, inspiring, magical,creative landscape.
And if you get in with thewrong people it can be at best
kind of shitty and at worst anabsolute nightmare.
You gotta get in with the rightpeople And it takes time

(49:42):
sometimes to like find yourcrowd.
Absolutely, i know it took mesome time, but it also is
because I was moving throughdifferent industries.

Yeah, that does present a different curveball,
but I moved out here in 2016 andmy first time out here was just
so dark and depressing And I'mjust like you like super happy,
go lucky.
I'm always cheery and this andthat And that time of my life
was fucking brutal.
But I went back to Dallas for aperiod of time and then I moved

(50:11):
back out here in early 2018.
And all of my friends are great, Sport group great.

Love that.

And it's just a world of difference whenever you
have that, and so I just likestrongly urge people to find
your little crew.

Best advice I ever got when I was like seven years
old is like surround yourselfwith people who make you a
version of you that you likemake you the best version of you
, and everything else kind offalls into place.
It's really all about who youspend your time with.

Yeah, it's so true.
no-transcript, That's slightlyhappier.
I would like to dive into thesad, deep despair that sometimes
you feel.

Sure, why the hell not?

Yeah, i mean, it's incredibly relatable, i'm
sure, for so many people, and Ineed them to hear that, even
somebody who it seems like hasso many amazing things going on,
you're a human.

I mean?
first of all, i think it'simpossible not to have some sort
of anxiety, depression,dissociation, something living
in the world that we live in,like we live in a very weird.
We live in the future, right.
We have constant like dopamineoverload and stimulation from
devices That makes it reallyhard for us to live in the real

(51:29):
world and do tasks.
It lowers our you know, itlowers our tolerance for boredom
or pain or discomfort.
So there's that whole side ofthings.
We have less community thanever.
We have fewer tactile thingsthat you can do in the real
world.
I was reading something theother day about, like, how there
are no more third spaces.
So like there is your home andthere are places that you go,

(51:51):
but there used to be more placeswhere people would just be out
and about existing andsocializing them all the coffee
shop And now the third space isthe internet and that's where we
all connect And no can be wrong.

I love the internet sometimes.

I like that.
My brain moves more quicklythan older generations because
I'm taking in more stuffconstantly.
But it's also not what we were.
We were not meant to see otherpeople's lives and all of the
lives that will never live, andbe comparing, and we weren't
meant to live that way.
So that is one thing that I amjust as susceptible to as
everybody else.
I also have dealt with, you know, i don't know how to, i never

(52:27):
know how to describe it but kindof mental health, hormonal
cyclical disorder called PMD,since I was like 19,.
That's basically like what youthink of as PMS, of like, oh,
there's a week where the girlsfeel bad, like is that, but on
steroids It's basically, youknow, mood and emotions really
are hormones at the end of theday, and when your hormones are

(52:49):
off, your mood changes andpeople think of mood as like, oh
you're happy, oh you're sad,but don't realize that it acts
as like a filter on all of yourthoughts.
So you know, when your brainstops making, serotonin stops
making, like it leads to, likeyou know the web MD is like

(53:09):
hopelessness, self thoughts offailure, like self hatred, and
you're just like what, what doesthat mean?
But it really kind of is thatis this filter that makes you
feel like just empty and likeeverything is bad and will
always be bad, and it makes youat least for me it'll make I
won't sleep, i'll be nauseous,like the physical effects are

(53:32):
the craziest part, because whenyou think of mental health you
don't usually think of likephysical health, but they really
are the same thing.
So I you know, right now thingsare good, it's my good week,
i'm going to feel good for thenext 10 or 12 days, but then the
rug gets pulled out for meevery single month and it has
for the last 10 years.
It's the biggest struggle I'vedealt with in my entire life And
like, on one hand, i thinkthere's probably some good

(53:54):
things about the fact thatsometimes I'm really kind of sad
and melancholy And you knowthere's like music that I relate
to more in those periods And II think that I have a kind of a
more solemn understanding of theworld because I know what it
feels like to be in a really badplace.
But it also sucks, because Ifeel wonderful right now And
sometimes I do and I feelconfident and strong, like I can

(54:17):
take on the world.
And you know it sucks Andanybody who deals with any sort
of mental health thing like thisyou know bipolar, two, similar.
I have a close friend who goesthrough that same thing.
We're like everything's greatAnd then it just it is just
simply not kind of just being atthe mercy of your body, fucking
with you And it sucks.
So that that is kind of the thecore of where most of any of my

(54:40):
music about like mental healthor struggles or anything all
comes from that.
And I think that if you'resomebody who deals with that,
i'm sorry.
I know how much it sucks.
I never know what the rightanswer is.
Therapy works for some people.
Medication works for somepeople.
Just living with it works forsome people.
It's what I've done so far andit's it's been fine-ish, except
for when it's not, you know, butyeah that's that, yeah, i mean.

Obviously, that's incredibly difficult to
deal with, but you are.
You're kicking ass.
Thank you At the top level.
The thing that you talked aboutlast time is that one thing
that I know for sure is that itwill come and it will pass.

Yeah Well, so that is.
that is the interesting thingabout having having a mental
health issue that is so likecyclical and predictable.
Is that?
one of the things that made itso devastating in the first
couple of years was that everytime I would hit, i believed it
would last forever And I wouldsay that I will always feel like

(55:38):
this and I will always feellike this, which is truly with
every fiber of my being, like Iwill always feel like this and I
have always felt like this andI will always feel like this,
which were, of course, not true,but it it lies to you.
That's, that's how it feels.
And so once I got thatdiagnosis and realized like oh,
this is consistent, plus orminus four or five days every
single month, and it's bettersome months and it's worth some
other months There are variousfactors that can influence it.

(56:00):
Also, interesting to note Italso does have like
comorbidities I guess it'scalled or like.
It has a like an enhancingeffect on any other mental
illnesses you have.
So if you have ADD, adhd,anything else, like obviously
I'm not a doctor, but this isfrom my own extensive research
of my own diagnosis is like itcan worsen those, and that's so

(56:20):
unfair.
It just sucks, but yes, theknowledge that it is temporary
like the deep knowledge that ithas happened before and it will
go away And it always does iswhat gets me through.
I know, now I have the healthycoping mechanisms, i know how to
just like go to the gym, eventhough I hate it and it sucks,
because I know it will make mefeel better And just sometimes

(56:41):
distract myself until I know I'm, until I get better, or like,
let myself just like yeah, i'meating a shit ton of junk food
because it's the only thing thatmakes me feel okay right now.
But it's okay because it's fourdays and I'm allowed to eat
junk food for a couple of daysand it'll be fine.

Out of curiosity , because the Thunderman's
filmed for a while.
It clearly came up while you'reon set.
How do you deal with wheneveryou are?
best again, you are having tobe on the ball.

All right, i'm going to give you the funny,
whimsical answer first, so thatthis doesn't get too serious And
it's so stupid.
And the answer is hot chocolate.
Let hear me out on those dayswhere I wake up and I'm just
like there is no joy in my body.
Everything that I do feels likea chore, it's like major
depressive disorder, likeeverything feels like painful to

(57:32):
do.
I make myself a big ass hotchocolate and I just sip on it
all day.
It's just that little hit oflike something that brings me
back to childhood, somethingthat tastes really yummy,
something that's joyful, butit's, you know, still good
enough for me.
I'm not, you know, doing majordrugs, whatever.
It just raises the baseline alittle bit, so I'm just not

(57:54):
sobbing all day.
And there was one day where Iwoke up and I was like, okay,
here it is, i'm freezing.
I didn't sleep last night, myclothes don't fit, i'm nauseous,
i feel ugly, whatever.
But I got to go to work and Igot to go to set.
It was rehearsal day.
I'm going to make myself a bigass hot cocoa and I put it in a
different mug than usual and itexploded on me.

Oh fuck, I saw that posted.

And I got to work and I was like what happened?
And I was like my hot cocoaspilled and I was like you're
drinking hot cocoa and I didn'thave it in me to be like you'd
never guess.
This is a coping mechanism forfucking mental illness in it,
like it was just a silly thingto just be like yes, i'm
drinking hot cocoa, don't worryabout it.
But I got.
I really needed that.

(58:41):
I cried in my trailer for twominutes and I called my
boyfriend and I was like thecocoa exploded.
He was like I'm sorry And I waslike it's fine, i love you.
I just had to complain.

And you know, fuck, i saw that post and I had
no idea that that was.
But who would?

who would.
but you know, comfy clothes andthen, and you know you, just
you get through it.
You do what you can.
I got up.
There were certain days where Iwas like, okay, i'm going to get
less sleep than I need, becauseI know that if I can go to the
gym in the morning and get someendorphins it'll push me through
the rest of the day, or I'mgoing to skip my workout because
I know I need more sleep.

(59:16):
And you know, there were acouple of days where I went to
the makeup trailer and juststarted crying and my makeup
artist was really lovely andwould distract me with other
questions until I felt betterand then say, do you want to
talk about it?
And I would just say, yeah, i'mjust having a really hard day
right now.
You know, i would vent to thepeople that I felt safe to, but
then you know, just get on withmy day.
If I filmed my scenes, i wentto my meetings with the network

(59:38):
and the marketing teams andwhatever else had to be done And
I just like you know you do itlike anything else, you know,
yeah.
I'm sure that so many people, orI hope that so many people that
listen and watch this havesomething similar in any way,
shape or form and they can justhear Yeah, well, we'll say if

(59:58):
you are somebody who you feellike you're making progress,
you're making progress in anyway, and then it just all gets
ripped out from under you orlike you feel like two different
people and or like appeareveryone's in a while something
hits you where everything feelsbad and you can't stop eating
and blah, blah, blah, blah, likeTrack it.
If you're a person who has acycle like, track it to your

(01:00:19):
cycle, because there's a chancethat it is.
I mean, another one of myclosest friends, like, was
dealing with things like this,where they kept having this
awful thing.
And one day I was just like,could you do me a favor?
and just like track it againstyour hormonal cycle for like six
months and like get back to me.
And they were like yeah, it'ssuper consistent.
And I was like, yeah, youshould see somebody about that.

(01:00:42):
And they were like no, there'sno way.
There's no way I have this.
And then they stopped there.
But then they were like soguess what?
I got diagnosed and I was likecongratulations, because there's
nothing better than knowingyou're not just crazy, there's a
reason.

Austin Seltzer (01:00:54):
Yeah.

Kira Kosarin (01:00:54):
And it's not your fault.
It is a physical issue And nowyou know, with temporary and
every time it happens, you canget better at your coping
mechanisms and you know it willpass.
So look it up.
if you're somebody who you feellike you resonate with this.

Boom, helpful advice.
Boom.
Can you tell me what the fuckyou drew on the white board, the
chalkboard?

I would like to say first of all, watch your
tone, young man.
Second of all, I drew this waybetter the first time.
Third of all, I have a majorsensory issue with chalk on a
chalkboard.
It gives me the shivers likerepeatedly, So this time.

I will post the video.

Did it, just looking at it every time.
I drew it really light thistime because I couldn't put my,
couldn't put myself through thatfeeling again.
But so this is like a very baddepiction of the glitter tears I
make up that I wear when Ipromote Sunday best and before
Sadson's in and all of thecurrent music.
And I will just start off bysaying I am not the first person

(01:01:53):
to wear sparkly smudged mascaraShout out to Kesha in 2014,.
but lots of people do it.
It's very common now, all theway back from the Indie Sleaze
era to whatever weird futurehyper pop era we're in right now
.
But when I was making TikToksfor my last single Sunday best,
one of the lyrics is like mymascara running in my Sunday

(01:02:13):
best again to represent thejuxtaposition of being like a
happy person who's not always sohappy, and I smudged my mascara
and did some glitter and itjust felt like a really good
representation like A for me asa person and B for like the new
music I'm making right now,where it's sonically pretty
glittery and sparkly but likelyrically pretty raw.

(01:02:34):
And so, yeah, that's theglitter tears look and like I'm
a very kind of have historicallybeen a very buttoned up type A
kind of person, and so even justletting myself wear like smudgy
mascara or like anything evenremotely alternative is very
freeing and exciting and new.
So that's my glitter tears.

I love that.
Thank you, and I will post thevideo of the first time around.
Yeah, you absolutely should.

I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to teach you.
One more thing is your residenttelevision actor, friend.

Take notes.

On set.
Everybody communicates onradios, so there's radio code,
and one of the most importantcodes is 10 one, which means
it's time to go to the bathroom.
So 10 one back.
Like we never left.
Successful 10 one.
What's your 20.
You're sitting in a chair doinga podcast.

Yeah, I forgot.

What's your 20?
or like what's so, and so 20 islike.
where are they and what arethey doing?
So like what's awesome, 20.
Oh, he's down in the basementrecording podcast with curate.

My 20 is that I'm reading my show notes.

Yes, i feel like one of my other greatest skills
is I'm the world's fastest peer.

I did not be fast.

I didn't mean like physically peeing, i meant like
going to the bathroom andgetting back.
I'll be like I'm ready to therestroom and I'll come back and
people like, did you go already?
I'm just, i'm very efficient.

So a cool new addition to your I don't know
how busy you are Is that now youare an executive producer.
I am.
I'd love to hear what goes intothat on.
I know in music.

Super different in TV and film.

Yeah for TV, especially an IP that you're so
close to.

Yeah, it's been amazing.
I absolutely love it.
A lot of work, a lot of time, alot of responsibility, but it's
really wonderful and I love,i've loved every bit of it, yeah
, i mean.
So basically there are kind ofthree phases, right of
production.
There's pre-productioneverything from getting this

(01:04:37):
script to where it needs to be,hiring all of the people, blah,
blah, blah and then there'sproduction while you're on set
and then post-production.
So I've had different dutiesthroughout all of those.
So pre-production, like I said,started like a year ago.
At the very beginning.
It started with them coming tome and wanting to make something

(01:04:57):
with the Thunderman's IP and Ihad a lot of very strong ideas
about how I felt like it neededto be.
I have so much love and respectfor the show and what we made.
I'm so proud of it and I lovethe fans and I feel very close
to them.
I communicate with them onsocial media all the time and,
because I really was a fan ofNick and Disney, like, i feel
very connected to theirexperience as a viewer and I

(01:05:19):
really wanted to make sure that,if we were gonna bring the show
back, that it was what theywanted, like that it paid homage
to the parts of the originalseries that they loved and
didn't just feel like a quickcash grab, like a stupid rumor.

I mean rumor has it that you said no, oh yeah,
multiple times, huh.

I did.
I said no the first time andthen the second time and then
they basically were like, whatwould we have to do?
And that's when I said it needsto be multi-cam.
You need to hire the specificwriter, the specific director or
the specific people who I thinkare integral to making the show
what it was.

(01:05:56):
And luckily they liked theideas and they were amenable to
all of that and brought me on asan executive producer.
So, yeah, it started there.
So yeah.
So then pre-production was likehiring you know everybody from
writers, set deck, wardrobe, youknow hair and makeup, props,

(01:06:19):
cameras, sound like everybodybuilding up a you know 200, 250
person crew, which was really,really fun.
You know stunts, everythingcasting.
I've got to be in the auditions, going through the casting
process, which was really,really wonderful And I love
there's only a couple of newcharacters in the movie.

(01:06:39):
Mostly we brought back a lot ofcharacters from the original
series, which is also veryimportant to me, had a lot of
you know things that I felt likewe really needed to bring back
and see again.
But yeah, so that was.
I'm sure I'm forgetting things.
I think I tallyed it up at onepoint we had spent like 200
hours on Zoom or somethingstupid like that.
But we did all pre-productionand then we got into production,

(01:07:03):
at which point I was jugglingon camera and EP duties, which
was really interesting.
So, for example, i would go torehearsal and I would be in
scene rehearsal and stuntrehearsal on stage all day and
then we would do our run throughand then I would go into the
room with the network executivesand the other writers and show

(01:07:23):
creator and director and gothrough various rounds of note
sessions.
So the network giving notes tothe producers, being me and the
show's creator and the director,the show's creator giving his
own notes to the director, hisdirector giving notes to the
dialogue coach to then give tothe actors all sorts of things
you know, figuring out whatchanges to the script needed to

(01:07:45):
happen, and then on shoot daysit meant that if I wasn't on
camera I was in video village,like watching and being there
for any decisions and textingwith the wardrobe team for
whatever look is gonna be on setin a couple of days.
That was the other thing.
I'm sorry.
Last time we talked about thisI was much more cohesive.
This time I'm kind of jumpingall over.
But one of my favorite parts ofpre-production was working with

(01:08:06):
the wardrobe department toupgrade all of the characters'
looks in a way that felt modernbut also like the characters.
That's something that I feltreally like.
I was really glad to be able tobe a part of and I'm really
happy with the job that we did,and our wardrobe department is
wonderful and our head ofcostumes, candace Tupkowski, is
just fabulous and I adore her.

(01:08:26):
We also redesigned the supersuits for actors' comfort,
especially for the younger ones.
I really wanted to make surethat they felt good and felt
comfortable, and the super suitswere always a source of
physical discomfort andemotional discomfort over the
years, so we really wanted tomake sure it was a better
experience this time around,which I think it was.

Just from knowing you, i have a feeling
that you're very, very good withcontinuity as well.
Oh yeah, that seems likesomething that you were.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things,
absolutely Definitely.
And continuity was superimportant on this project
because we basically filmed themovie backwards.
We filmed everything, not onlyout of order, but from the end
to the beginning, and we shot itas kind of a hybrid multi-cam
movie structure.
so each week we would have afew days of rehearsal for
whatever we were shooting thatweek and then a couple days of

(01:09:13):
shooting On a multi-cam like ausual, a traditional sitcom.
You know think an episode ofFriends.
You would rehearse the scenesfor that week, you would
rehearse the whole episode.
You know, say, monday, tuesday,wednesday, each day getting
minute changes, and then you'dfilm it Thursday, friday On a
traditional single-cam movie.
You would it's called Block andShoot.
So you like, rehearse it andshoot it, rehearse it, shoot it,

(01:09:35):
rehearse it, shoot it.
What we did was we wouldrehearse whatever the scenes we
were shooting that week were fora few days and then film them.
But those scenes were pluckedfrom all over throughout the
movie.
So every scene we did, we hadto be like, okay, what came
before this, what comes afterthis?
And you're like establishingprops and wardrobes and things

(01:09:58):
in the later versions of themappearing.
So then when you go to shoot,you know the first time you see
that prop or the first time yousee that outfit like it can't
change.
You have to establish thingsthe first time you shoot them.
Post-production is where we arenow, so I'm supposed to see the
first cut of the movie, I guessby the time this is airing.
I have seen it and we're deepinto it on editing and
everything.

Yeah, 48 hours.

Yeah, and it's getting there.
I'm excited.

Yeah, i think that's so cool.
Also, it's your art, because Iknow that that takes a very
specific talent set to be ableto do that kind of comedy.

It's a very specific genre, for sure, and
it's a genre that I think, getsshit on sometimes, because
people think like oh, you'rejust acting badly, but like
there's a lot that goes, there'sa lot of technique.
There's just a different typeof acting just a different genre
.
It's not meant to be the sameas a dramatic film.

For sure It blew back up on Netflix.
Was it Netflix during thepandemic?

Yeah it blew up on Netflix during the pandemic.
It was number two worldwide.

Crazy.

I my theory as a kid who loved watching shows
like that.
I think that there is a lot ofcomfort and familiarity in shows
like the characters in a showlike that become like your
family, because our show isabout family.
I like to think that we becomekind of familial beings for the
kids watching.
But I also think it's just pure, unbridled silliness and joy

(01:11:21):
And we all needed escapismduring the pandemic.
And some people find escapismin darker, heavier topics
because it makes them feel liketheir own life isn't that bad or
they can get a lot Like.
That's my mother right.
My mother wants to get lost ina horror world When her life is
going badly.
She wants to watch some darkstuff.
I want to watch something silly.
I want to watch a rom-com.
I want to watch a sitcom, and Ithink that there were a lot of

(01:11:43):
kids who escaped into our sitcom.

I love that.
Now to something totally 180,.
What is the absolute worstcareer move that you have made?

Why would you ask me that?

Because I got to know the.
We have to understand that notevery move is a great one.
There's one that you're lookingat in your mind and you're like
damn, do I say that?
Do I say that?

No, i can't, I genuinely can't is the answer.
I mean, look, every decisionthat you make, you make the best
decision that you can with theknowledge you have in the moment
and hindsight's 20-20.
So yeah, there are things thatI've done that I would choose
differently now, knowing howthings turned out, but that's
not to say that there's anyworld in which I could have

(01:12:40):
known then.

You know what I mean.
So there weren't like baddecisions.
They were just-, but I want tohear it looking back 20-20.
Because there are moves that Ihave made.

Then why don't you , you tell me your deepest,
darkest in your senses?

Whoa, i didn't need the mirror.
Oh damn Well.

My podcast.
I don't have to get vulnerable.

I'm just gonna say it This is my wall.

I'm joking.
You have been very, verywonderful and generous.

I don't mean to be Damn, when somebody gonna do
that for me with coffee, i'mgonna do it with my hands, but
here this is my thing.

Tell me your regret And.

I'm gonna toss the literal mic back to you.
It's not a regret per se, butone of the biggest lessons that
I've learned now in hindsight isdo not try and move as fast in
your career as possible, andwhat I mean by that is jump
several rungs up the ladder at atime.

Mm-hmm.

Slow and steady absolutely wins the race.
Now there are moments where youcan see that I should do X and
I will progress my careerforward.
That makes sense.
But if you think it doesn'tmake any logical sense to be
reaching out to that person ortrying to get X work, or trying

(01:13:59):
to get to the top by cutting acorner, it will 10 out of 10
every fucking time, come back tobite you.
It will.

So funny, because now that you're saying that,
that is absolutely my answer too.

I took.

No, no, i know I'm sorry, let me just copy off
your paper.
No, it's true, though I, becauseof the position that I was in
coming off of a televisionseries, i had access to a lot of
people in the music industrythat I had no business having
access to at that point in mymusic career, and I sullied a
lot of potentially really goodand important relationships by

(01:14:36):
going too soon.
There was a producer whoproduced this artist who I was
obsessed with and I messaged himon Twitter and I'd never even
done a session, i didn't knowwhat I was doing, and he came
over like my parents' house toproduce this song and he could
tell I didn't know what I wasdoing and it was awkward and
embarrassing and it just wasweird.
And I'm sure to this day, ifanyone mentions my name, he's

(01:14:57):
like oh, that weird 15 year oldwho doesn't know what she's
doing, like which sucks, causenow I do know what I'm doing and
I just took that opportunitytoo soon.
But yeah, you know, there's,there's, it happens I've
forgiven myself for a lot ofthose moves, cause I was just
doing the best I could with whatI had.

Yeah, i don't know what my point is there, but
my point is like yeah, I knowwhat your point is And it
hilariously, almost invalidatesmy podcast, Which I've I've
thought about for a long timethat I legitimately think that
some of the best advice that youcould ever receive is don't
listen to advice If you in yourgut feel something like it's the

(01:15:35):
right thing or the wrong thing.
It is right so often and advicecould steer you away from
something that that other personis facing demons on, and they
give you advice and you don'tlisten and things work out.

I think that the, the the one of the biggest
things, though, in life is tolearn the difference between
like your gut and your fear, inboth directions.
Like we, we've heard the storyso many times of like oh like
your guts telling you to pullaway from it.
But that's just your fear,don't listen to it.
But there's also a lot of timeswhere it's like the other
direction, where, where therehave been a lot of times where

(01:16:14):
I've had a especially recently,like a really strong gut feeling
that I need to make a changeAnd the.
I've been told so many timeslike no, that's just fear, your
fear of failure, your fear ofsuccess, that I've shut that
voice up and white knuckled myway through something before
finally getting to a point whereI'm like no, maybe that wasn't
fear, maybe that actually was mygut telling me that I need to

(01:16:34):
make a change.
And that's almost harder, youknow.

Do you have a professional mentor?

I have lots of professional mentors in
different parts of my career.
I mean, overall, myprofessional mentor is my dad
and always has been.
But you know, i have a directorwho I connected with, who I
loved working with, and so hewas the one who I shadowed and
learned how to direct andlearned how to camera block and,

(01:17:05):
you know, learned everything Iknow about directing from.
You know, i've had variouspeople come into my life in the
music space that I've learned alot from, be it by watching and
observing or by actual lessons.
You know, my shows creator, jedSpingarn, who I worked
incredibly closely with on theThunderman's movie, has been

(01:17:26):
somewhat of a mentor to me andhas taught me a lot.
And you know I ask a lot ofquestions.
I take advantage of the smartpeople around me to learn as
much as I can.
So he's definitely beensomewhat of a mentor.
Yeah, i don't have a person whosits me down and life coaches
me, but I'm not afraid to askpeople who I know are, if not

(01:17:51):
smarter than me, moreknowledgeable than me about
something, and just pick theirbrain.

Yeah, i am very certain that probably 90% of
people who are quote unquotesuccessful have a yearning for
knowledge and just continuouslyIntellectual curiosity.
Exactly.
They just want to continue tolearn about anything and
everything, just want to absorbknowledge, yeah, yeah.

(01:18:18):
The last thing that I drawed itdown was if you are filming
today or if you're on set today,if you're in the studio today,
do you have something that, like, focuses you and puts you in
the zone, ready to perform?

Stretching.

That is your free.

Yeah, i have to stretch before anything I do.
If I'm acting, stretch my faceout like that before every take.

Wow.

I stretch my fat, I stretch my neck Before I
perform, before I sing, stretchmy pecs because it affects my
lung capacity, my ability tobreathe If I have to be standing
all day.
I stretch my hips and theoutsides of my legs and certain
things.
So I have a lot of injuries.
As an ex dancer and gymnast, Ihave a lot of things in my body
that require a lot ofmaintenance to continue working

(01:19:14):
well.
So, yeah, I mean I work out,get a good sweat, clean up, and
then I'm pretty much ready to godo whatever.
But yeah, when I'm on set onlong days, that's kind of the
thing that keeps me going.

Stretching.

Yeah, You'll see me walking around in a village
doing arms shoulders.
I'm always kind of adjusting mybody.

That's how you hone in your mind.

Kind of.
It is one of the preparations Ineed to do, i guess, before I
do anything.
I don't know, it's kind of asilly answer, but it's also kind
of true.
There's nothing really that Ihave to do to hone my mind in
necessarily I go on.
it's just my surroundings onceI step onto set.
the synapses in my brain thatare ready to act just are there

(01:19:57):
because I'm on set and it'saround.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, once I put on the Phoebeoutfit, it's pretty easy to act
as Phoebe and get into character.
You know what I mean?
Things like that.
Yeah, it's nothing really.
breathing, deep breathing.
I feel like a lot of peopledon't have the privilege of
having been taught how tobreathe.
I've done yoga since I was soyoung.
I've danced since I was soyoung.

(01:20:18):
I've done so many.
I've lifted, i've done so manyphysical things where you really
learn how to breathe deeply andeffectively.
That's a great skill to have.
I definitely do a lot of thatif I'm nervous, if I'm about to
perform or something I don'tknow.
Sometimes, if I'm going into animportant interview or a panel
or something early in themorning, i'll just wake up my

(01:20:39):
brain in the car on the waythere by just going through the
alphabet and thinking of wordsthat match each letter, or doing
tongue twisters or stuff thingslike that so that I can be
articulate.
I don't really have one thing.

That's cool.
I actually understand that.
I think it's because you'vebeen doing this for so long.
I bet in the beginning you hadsome certain things because
maybe you were slightly lessconfident in whenever you step
on set.
this is my thing.

Yeah, i was so much more confident as a kid
actually.

Oh really.

I was so confident as a kid.

Well, you did say that you wanted all eyes on
me too, yeah, and I was likewhat could go wrong.

I also feel like as a kid I got more.
I had more ideas for comedywhen people would look at me and
were watching.
I did a better job when thestakes were higher.
I think the older I got andbecame a real person and started
to understand the stakes oflike if I don't get this job, i
don't have to make money.
Or like if I embarrass myself,i have like an ego now that can
be bruised and damaged.
Or like wonder if I'm pursuingthe right career path.

(01:21:42):
Like the stakes change as youget older, so I got a lot more.
I was never nervous in my lifeuntil I was like a full adult.
That's so interesting, isn'tthat weird?

Yeah, but I get it.

Yeah, because stakes are higher.

Yeah, everything's real.
I just have to say, if you didnot stretch, and all of that
today before you came in here, iam so offended.

I did, of course I did.
I did a full workout.
I had a great workout.

But that's not stretching.
Like before you came in heredid you stretch your face and
like your pecs.

You'll see it.
If you go to the very beginningof this footage, i bet you'll
see me stretching my face Hellyeah, i think right before we
started Let's go.
Yeah.
This is as important asProbably looks insane Fuck.

I need, i need some TikTok reals of just that,
just me going, just looping.
Yeah, kira's Faces.
Kira Austin, thank you so muchfor Did we do it.

We did it.
Take two.
I mean I'm not going tocelebrate until the camera tells
us that we have the footage.
I mean we're still recordingand I can't freaking hope, so I
can hear myself So-.
That's good.

You know we're still going and thank you so
much for coming back and doingall of this.
And I actually I think that itwas actually more on track.
Maybe there were times thatmaybe you said my thoughts are
here and there, but I think thatit just it flowed naturally.

We did our.
Thing.

We did our.
Thing.
I'm proud I'm caffeinated.
You're not.

I am still from this morning.

What did you drink?
This is going to be my finalquestion, but-.

Probably the equivalent of like a cup and a
half of coffee, but in energydrinks.

Oh.

Celsius and Alani New beverages.

Yeah, those are good, but Celsius is like crack.
Yeah, yeah, i mean I'm likeYeah, i love it.

I love it.
I am my best self when I'mjacked up on caffeine.
It just I won't be my best selfthe next day.
And I like we were talkingabout long-term wellness over
short-term fun is often the way.

And on that note , yeah, all right, bye, bye.

Stream before the sad zeds in.

All right.
So I'm sure that you'velistened to this podcast.
I'm sure that there are plentyof takeaways that you can put
into your life to make you knowyourself more aligned with your
goals.
But I'll list out a few herethat I really resonated with.
I mean, she's just such awealth of knowledge, but I wrote
down a couple that I reallythought stood out.

(01:24:12):
So, first of all, kira grew upas an only child, two parents
that were in theater.
From an early age, kira wasvery into academia and you know
she was able to skip severalgrades in school, which is just
such a unique like culminationof things.
Being an only child, twoparents that were in theater

(01:24:35):
already you know well versed inthat world have friends in that
world.
Kira grew up going to plays andon stage and hanging out in
that environment And then shealso skipped several grades
which put everybody you knowolder than her.
So just a very interestingcircumstance.
So, yeah, it obviously led tobullying, but she had this sense

(01:25:02):
of being different, just likeshe stood out, and I think that
that really really led intowanting attention from others
and her parents, because she wasan only child, and that
attention was perfectly put intoacting and being an artist, you

(01:25:23):
have to put yourself on apedestal because you are putting
yourself in a position to be anidol to others.
You're in a position where allthe eyes are on you And from an
early age she already had that,which is just perfect for what
she is now doing.
Another point early on in lifeshe had a gymnastics and a

(01:25:47):
ballet teacher both tell herthat she had this incredibly raw
, amazing talent for movement,dance, gymnastics.
But her peers around her in herclasses were putting much more
effort into their craft.
Even if they weren't astalented as she was.

(01:26:08):
They were putting much moreeffort.
And so both of these teacherstold her that these people are
going to become better than herbecause they are working harder,
and that really flipped aswitch in her brain which made
her much more of a workaholic.
She said that her work ethicchanged whenever she was told
these things.

(01:26:28):
So that, right there, it'sabout the work ethic.
You may be the greatest raw,natural talent person in your
craft, but without that workethic, other people will
outshine you.
They will get the gigs becausethey will meet the people.
They will do the thingsnecessary to get the opportunity

(01:26:51):
to show off their craft, wheresomeone who's just has that raw
talent may not get the sameopportunities.
Obviously, after listening tothis, her time management skills
are on such a different level.
I was absolutely in shockwhenever she just started like
just rapid firing, working backthrough her day, just in a

(01:27:16):
hypothetical day, i mean it justboom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
You know, with what she woulddo in that typical day.
And having that skill, as shedeveloped whenever she was way
young, is for sure a cheat codefor her being able to be on time
, actually early everywhere, getmore things done in a day where

(01:27:36):
more hats, do more projects,just because she's able to slot
all of her things into a day.
Much better than I, certainlymuch better than me.
I don't know if you'relistening to this podcast, you
probably feel the same way.
She also said do sweat the smallstuff, and I think that that
resonates with me deeply.

(01:27:56):
As a mix engineer, i mean, myjob is to fine tune and sculpt
something to be the best that itcan possibly be, and while I
think that sometimes, ifeverything is under a microscope
, you actually never get workout there and you never really
see the full picture, whichpeople you're trying to resonate

(01:28:16):
with are only going to belooking at the big picture.
But everyone who I've talked tothat is really great at their
craft does care about the smallthings.
So, no, do care about those.
Never, ever, be afraid to askquestions from people who are
smarter than you or in aposition higher than you, as

(01:28:40):
long as you have some kind ofrapport with them.
Ask questions.
You're always going to learnsomething.
There's a reason that peopleare further along than you.
Maybe it's time, maybe it'sknowledge, maybe it's just sheer
opportunities that they weregiven, maybe they were born into
it.
Whatever it is, they're goingto have a different perspective

(01:29:01):
and information that you canprobably use in your life.
So do not hesitate to askquestions.
And the last point that I wantto make and I think that this is
a beautiful way to wrap thisepisode up is you will never
become incredibly great at yourcraft unless you're actually

(01:29:22):
doing it.
You need to do it every singleday.
And the beauty of being in acraft whether it be acting or
music making or writing books,whatever it may be to get into
this zone called the flow state,where time passes you by words

(01:29:47):
or music or whatever just flowsout of you effortlessly and
you're not even thinking aboutit, you're just channeling
whatever comes to you andletting it flow through you.
The only way to achieve that,from what I can tell and what I
heard from Kira and other gueststhat will be on this podcast,
is that if you're in the act ofdoing whatever your craft is all

(01:30:11):
the time, over and over andover and over, day in and day
out you will just be able to getinto the zone more quickly less
distractions, more focus,because you are used to doing
this craft, like your body likesthe routine of doing this craft

(01:30:31):
.
After having done it so much,you will just start to not
overthink every little move andnuance of everything.
You'll just do it.
And this came up whenever Italked to her about how she gets
ready to perform on set And shejust said that she stretches
and does not worry aboutperforming because it just comes

(01:30:54):
out of her.
And I think that that holdstrue for really any creative
craft.
So thank you for joining us forthis episode and I can't wait
for the next one.
Since this is the first podcastthat's gonna come out, i really
wanted to take a moment andthank everybody who has helped
me either with the room, withlighting, with the cameras, with

(01:31:16):
everything.
Just a special little shout out, a little time capsule for
everybody to listen back to, tohear the people who have made
Grounds for Success be able tobe a thing.
So first of all, i have to givethe biggest shout out to Cass
Huckabee, my rock, the personwho, if anything is difficult,

(01:31:44):
any little thing that I need tovent about, she's there.
She has helped me not onlypaint and hang up things, but go
pick out these chairs and thefabric and the color and the
rugs and everything that I lookaround in this room.
She was there to help, giveguidance or physical help or

(01:32:08):
just someone that I could ventto about if something broke in
here or something went wrong.
Like she would listen and shewas there to help out.
So this room and this podcastwould not be a thing without her
.
So thanks, cass.
After that, snakes of Russiamade the theme song for Grounds

(01:32:32):
for Success.
I'd fucking love his music andI reached out to him and I had
him over and he checked out theroom and was stoked to do it and
I could not be more happy withthe way it sounds.
Next is Ashley Von Helsing, anincredible photographer, and she

(01:32:53):
just I gave her the vision forthis place and she basically
made it happen.
She helped me source all of thepieces in here.
She helped me with thedecorating aspect of this room
and without her it woulddefinitely not look this way.
I could not be more stoked withthe way that it looks, and on

(01:33:15):
camera it's amazing too.
Thank you, ashley.
After that, sasha Pascal, dude,thank you for helping me with
the lighting and making surethat on camera, everything looks
the way that I want.
He came over here and justreally helped me dial in the
lighting, and I love themoodiness and everything about

(01:33:38):
it.
So thanks, dude.
Phil Roder, my editor.
He's editing this right now asI talk, but, dude, thank you for
being a friend for so long andbeing along with me for this
journey.
I can't thank you enough.
Dude, nico Fibito he is myaudio editor and also helps me

(01:33:59):
prep sessions.
He's my secret little weapon.
And, dude, thank you so muchfor being on board with this
project.
Then I'm gonna shout out a bunchof people who helped me
physically put this roomtogether and also as idea boards
just me bouncing ideas off ofthem, and one night, just being

(01:34:21):
honest, i smoked some and wasthrowing out some wild ideas and
this podcast idea that I've hadfor years came out and my guys,
cody Tarpley and Cy Huck, justsat there and listened and loved
this idea and we played aroundwith it and Grounds for Success
was born, and they alsophysically helped me put stuff

(01:34:43):
together in this room.
Then my dude, boy Blue, samBrant, helped me put things up
in this room but then also, justlike, came up with some very
witty ideas for podcast names somany of them and Grounds for
Success just stuck.

(01:35:06):
It came out from abrainstorming session and I mean
, without him coming up with allthese witty names and helping
me in this room, i wouldn't havedone this either.
And Larsen Dean as well.
Dude, thank you so much forbeing a friend and being there
to help with just literally likeany physical anything making,

(01:35:27):
breaking, building, putting upmy clouds in the other room.
You helped me with that as well, dude.
Thank you so much.
Kylie K she's gonna be doingall my social media management
and this podcast will reach somany more people with her help.
So I'm really excited to haveyou on board.

(01:35:47):
My guy Spencer he's my manager.
He has helped my career so much, since he's been managing me,
and I know that this podcastwould not be a thing if he
wasn't killing it on the mixingfront for me.
Also, i'd like to give a shoutout to my dear friend, brittany
Danielle.
Thank you so much.

(01:36:09):
I know that you don't manage mewe're just good friends but I
turned to you for advice and youhave given me all the advice
that I need, continuous guidanceand feedback, and I just cannot
thank you enough for alwaysbeing there to lend a hand.

(01:36:32):
So thank you so much.
Next, i have Stephanie Gerardfor my head shots.
My thumbnail is beautiful andit's because of her great
photography.
I thank you so much, chun, mydude who does my hair.
Dude, you're incredible.
You just keep me looking goodon camera.
Thanks so much, dude Hannah,who did my logo.

(01:36:53):
Thank you so much.
I found her on Upwork and shejust absolutely killed it.
I love the logo so much.
And last but not least, i wannathank all of my clients, my
mixing and mastering clients.
Without you guys, one would notbe able to afford to live in LA,
wouldn't be doing what I do fora living and loving it, i

(01:37:17):
wouldn't be able to afford theplace I live, with the studio I
have.
I wouldn't be able to have putmoney from those gigs into this
room and make this podcast athing without my clients and my
friends.
This just could not be apossibility.
I don't know where I would be,but I wouldn't be here, and so I

(01:37:42):
really.
I wanted to end this bythanking you all.
I can't wait to see what wework on in the future, but for
now, you're helping me withGrounds for Success and I thank
you for that.
I'll see you guys next time.

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