October 30, 2025 • 63 mins
In this episode of JUST DO YOU., I sit down with Stephen Hallburn — a San Diego–based dancer, painter, and unapologetic advocate for authenticity. Stephen’s life is a testament to what happens when movement becomes your truth — when every step, every brushstroke, and every choice unveils the courage to fully be yourself.
Stephen’s journey hasn’t been easy. He has faced profound loss at a young age and endured countless challenges, with people and circumstances pushing against his dreams. Yet through it all, his resilience, courage, and unwavering heart have propelled him forward, allowing him to rise above adversity and finally bring his vision to life. It is a remarkable journey that I am honored to share with you today.
A proud member of the LGBTQ community, Stephen uses his artistry as a beacon of inspiration and hope, creating spaces where others can feel seen, celebrated, and free to be themselves. With a huge heart and a commitment to making a difference, he reminds us that living authentically is not just an ideal — it’s a practice, a choice, and a beautiful act of love.
Join us as we explore the intersection of art, identity, and courage, and discover how one person’s unwavering spirit can light the way for others to embrace their own truth.
To follow Stephen on Instagram, you can find him here: https://www.instagram.com/balletwithstephen
Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!
Remember to like, rate, share and subscribe to the JUST DO YOU. podcast in order to receive our weekly episode updates! If you like what you hear, please leave us a review at Apple Podcasts!
To follow us on Instagram, visit: https://www.instagram.com/justdoyoupod/
Want to learn more about our host, Eric Nicoll? Visit: https://ericnicoll.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Hello everyone.
Welcome to the JUST DO YOUPodcast.
My name is Eric Nicoll, and I'myour host.
If you are a first timelistener, welcome to the
conversation and if you're aregular, I'm honored that you've
decided to join me for anotherepisode.
The Just Do You Podcast iscentered around a network of
conversations, which are meantto connect us, to inspire us, to
find our own confidence, our ownvoice, and to live our own
(00:27):
truth.
And who knows, we might evenlearn a little something new
that ultimately allows us tolive in the sweet spot that I
like to call the Just do youspace of being.
Each week, I have the privilegeof sitting down for unscripted
conversations with friends,family, colleagues, community
leaders, and influencers thatall share their own personal
journeys.
(00:48):
I hope that you enjoy our timetogether as much as I have.
We are certainly going to laugh,and yes, we might even cry a
little, but in the end, we aregoing to know that we're not
alone during our life's journey.
So are you ready?
Great.
Let's do this.
Welcome to the conversation.
Alright everyone, welcome totoday's episode.
(01:08):
I am so excited to sit down withmy guest today.
I'm going to jump right in andintroduce everyone, but I have
to say, when I met this guest onInstagram, I was immediately
captivated by this, andhopefully you'll see it on
YouTube, but this killer smileand this radiant energy and this
height and this creativity.
(01:29):
And I went, oh, I gotta knowthis guy.
And thankfully he's my guesttoday on the podcast.
So I'm going to welcome everyoneto Steven Halburn.
Hi Steven.
Hello.
That was so sweet.
Do you know I say this a lot onthe podcast, but I think
everybody should wake up in themorning and be introduced like
that.
Right?
Yeah.
Like how great would your day beif you woke up every morning and
(01:51):
someone doesn't have to be aspouse, it could be a friend or
someone introduce you into themorning and introduce you to the
world as to who you are.
I think what a great way tostart the day, right?
Yes, love that.
Yeah.
You kinda wake up in the morningand you're like, oh, here's the
coffee and let the dog out andyou going to get your day
started and you going to rollinto the day.
But like, how powerful wouldthat be?
And it's really interesting tohear people's responses.
(02:14):
The podcast was designed, we'rein season two, we're about to
wrap our second season thisyear, which is crazy.
But the podcast was designedaround a network of
conversations that kind ofshowcase people's journey to
finding their space of beingauthentic, being truly
themselves, and.
In a current world in which onmany different levels, we're
(02:35):
being told that's notacceptable.
Yeah.
To be able to meet somebody whois not only the epitome of this
just do you concept, but wholives their life in such a way
that, as I was saying to youbefore we jumped on that we all
have things happening.
The world's a little heavy rightnow, but when you wake up every
morning and you go out into theday and you take it on with
creativity and that smile and apositive energy, that ripples
(03:00):
and it reflects.
So today I woke up and I waslike, oh, I've gotta get through
the day, but before I end upsitting down with Steven, and
that thought of sitting downwith you today is really what
helped propel me.
So you didn't know that, but I'mgoing to say thank you for that
right away.
Thank you.
Yeah, that is very sweet.
I yeah, it's true.
It's true.
I was not expecting that, sothank you.
(03:21):
Didn't think you were so again,for our guests, yeah.
I spend a lot of time flippingthrough Instagram.
It's my morning ritual.
I get up, I let the dog out, Ifeed her, I get my coffee, and I
come back to bed and I enjoy mycoffee and I sit and I flip
through because I'm reallylooking for inspirational
people.
And I have to say that socialmedia for me is really where I
(03:43):
find these amazing stories.
And I don't remember exactly howI came across your platform.
I did.
And like I said, it wasinstantly captivated by it.
Number one, you're incrediblytall.
How tall are you?
I'm, it looks different oncamera.
Okay.
I know my angles, but five 11,shut up.
(04:04):
I'm at the cusp.
I'm at the cusp of six foot.
I'm right there.
Okay y'all.
I would've said six four.
My hype.
You do know your angles, baby.
I know my angles.
I know my angles.
So a lot of your content on yourInstagram pages you're a dancer.
Yes.
You're also an artist, but I'mgoing to talk about the dancing
for a second.
(04:24):
Yeah.
Those angles make you look sevenfeet tall with legs for days and
the killer smile.
But I was really taken back bythe content because like I said,
it's just super positive andit's super engaging.
And so I was having coffee andstarted to watch some of your
videos.
And there was a consistency thatI noticed that was this constant
(04:46):
smile and.
I have to remind myself thesedays to smile a lot and to
continue to presence that joy.
And so I was flipping throughand I thought, God, I gotta know
this guy.
I gotta get to know him a littlebit better.
And I reached out to you and I'mlike, I don't know you, but I
think your content's prettycool.
I would love to maybe talk toyou about being a guest on the
(05:06):
Just You podcast.
And you instantly said yes.
It was like, I hit send andyou're like, yes, take it.
Yeah, take it.
And I was like, that's so great.
'cause you have no idea how manypeople do not respond.
It's crazy.
And so I was super excited.
And then we did an onboardingcall and we sat down and we
talked a little bit, and I thinkyou and I probably could have
talked for.
(05:26):
Couple hours longer.
Definitely a lot longer.
Yeah.
But I kept saying to myself, Iwant to be really respectful of
your time and also save a lot ofthe conversation for the
podcast.
So since then, you have alsointroduced me to your amazing
partner who is coming up.
His episode will air next week,so I'm not going to give it
away.
Okay.
So we're going to share a littlebit more about him next week and
(05:48):
his amazing project.
But I have to say.
You too in speaking with youseparately.
I've not been with you in personand I've not talked with you in
person, but you two make quitethe dynamic couple, so I am
quite impressed and happy andhonored to have you on today.
For sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
So let's spend a little bit oftime.
I want to get to know you and Iwant our listeners to know a
(06:11):
little bit about your journeyinto this self-discovery and
finding your path to just doingyou.
I'd like to take my guess back alittle bit to their childhood.
I want to know what the youngSteven was like.
I have a feeling, or I shouldsay an assumption, although I'm
not so sure if it's correct.
So give us a little, give us alittle glimpse into young
(06:31):
Steven, where were you born?
Okay.
Brothers and sisters, family,that kind of stuff.
Alright, let's take it back.
So I was born in Loma Linda,California.
But I grew up in small town.
So there's Nuevo, which is like.
A very small ranch ish styletown and then Hemmit.
(06:53):
Which is like a desert.
Most people know it as like aretirement place.
There's nothing to do there.
It's not really, it's not reallypopping.
But I grew up in Nuevo andHemmit most of my life until
about 17, and then I moved awayto go teach, or not to teach,
but to dance.
But Okay.
(07:14):
So I have, I'm the youngest ofsix.
Wow.
Yeah.
I have two sisters and fourbrothers.
One of'em whom passed away.
I never knew him.
He was the oldest brother.
He passed away at, I believe helived until he was six.
(07:34):
He had only a certain part ofthe front of his brain.
Was the only part that was made,or everything else was fluid.
I don't know how to say that inthe most medical way.
So it wasn't fully developed.
And he was only, he wasn'treally supposed to live, past
maybe six months, oh, wow.
Yeah.
He had to have 24 hour care.
He lived in a care facility.
(07:56):
But yeah, he ended up livinguntil he was six.
Wow.
And then, passed away.
But, and yeah.
And then after him with mybrother Matthew, my brother
Michael, and then me.
So yeah, I'm the youngest of sixI my childhood, I don't know.
I always go back and forthbecause there's what I remember
(08:20):
and then there was reality, so Iwould make up what my sister
told me, my sisters, that Iwould make up stories.
Like I, my parents were, kingsand queens and we lived in these
magical kingdoms and stuff, andI would tell people these
things.
I would make up stories becausemy home life wasn't, was very
(08:41):
drastically different.
So like my mom when I was fiveand a half passed away from
cancer.
That's right.
And my, when she passed away, mydad just it broke him to say the
least.
He just, he stopped.
He couldn't go further withhelping us.
He was there, but just, hedidn't give us what we needed as
(09:04):
kids.
So it was a very much like abroken home.
Even though I had my sisters andI had my grandma, my grandpa it
was just a broken home.
So I started going inward andmaking up these fantasy places
and stuff.
To shelter myself.
And I think that was like adefense mechanism to make me to
(09:26):
protect me in a way, Uhhuh.
But yeah, I would make upstories and be super creative.
So I was reading and writing andI would paint and I made up
dances before I even starteddancing.
So it was just like an outletfor me to be creative, and that
was my creativity, quoteunquote.
(09:47):
So that was when I was reallyyoung.
And then by the time I was 17, Iwas had been dancing a couple
years at this point.
I started at 14 and I was movingaway to a boarding school in
Connecticut to further myeducation or ballet.
I got a full ride of living anddancing as well.
(10:10):
And when I turned 18, which wasin October, my dad died in
November.
Oh my gosh.
And so we found out like a fewdays after Thanksgiving of my
18th birthday that he had passedaway, he'd fallen asleep and I
think, my sister said he had ananeurysm or something like that
(10:32):
in his sleep.
So he was really in his place ofliving for three days before
anybody realized that he wasgone.
So he'd been gone for a fewdays.
So that in itself was a weirdtime for me because I was living
away.
I was dancing, my dad passesaway.
(10:56):
I am in this strange place wherepeople were comforting me
because my sister had to getahold of the school director
because I wasn't picking up myphone or anything.
So she had to tell him what wasgoing on.
And then once everyone knew,they were like, are you okay?
Are you fine?
And it was in those moments, Ijust remember being super calm
(11:18):
and being like, it's normal.
This is normal to me.
Death happens.
I was very calm headed about thewhole thing.
But I think what was happeningto me was I was trying to grasp
the fact that I didn't have amom.
Then my dad dies at 18.
(11:41):
And I'm living away.
I don't really have anyconnections to like parents
anymore.
I'm trying to figure out my ownself in this like space of
living by myself and.
I just went inward again, so Iwas trying to focus on like my
dancing and what I could controlon the outside with my school
(12:05):
and everything.
But what that did was, and Iguess I wasn't that great
because they made me see apsychologist or a psych
psychologist.
Yeah.
Or a therapist.
From the school.
They made me see somebodybecause I was acting too calm.
Like I wasn't showing anyemotion.
(12:27):
I was, I I started to black outin ballet class where I'd be in
a combination, across the floor,whatever it could have been.
And I would find myself the nextsecond coming back to myself and
staring at a window.
I didn't know how long I wasdoing that for.
(12:47):
My teachers would say, I wouldjust stop doing whatever I was
doing and just veer off.
Like I just went someplace.
And it was in that moment whereI was like, oh yeah, like it is
affecting me in a way that Ididn't think it would was going
to.
Now, mind you, my mom passesaway at five and a half.
(13:12):
Then my grandpa, my mom's dadpasses away at when I was 10,
and then my grandma, my mom'smom passes away when I was 16.
And like my grandma and mygrandpa were like my rocks.
My people.
And so it was like boom, likeeveryone went.
Now I didn't have a greatrelationship with my dad.
(13:35):
And I had a lot of anger andresentment towards him because I
felt like he wasn't giving usanything, I wasn't getting the
father.
Because he just, he physicallyand emotionally was just gone,
he was doing his day to day, butit was like I didn't get what I
thought I needed from him, andso I held a lot of resentment
(13:56):
and anger at that time for him.
But when he passed away, it waslike I can't really hold onto
this stuff anymore.
He's gone, and so I decided, Ijust have to like, forgive him
for whatever he couldn't do, andjust think about the happy times
that I had with him and makethat more of a priority in my
(14:20):
mind, not the negative, becausethe negative.
He was a hurt person.
He was a broke person who wasjust trying to make it in life
and I was a broke kid who wasjust trying to deal with the
fact that I had a broken father.
And I just had to deal withfiguring out how that was going
(14:42):
to look like.
I think it's interesting becausewe all, if we really take a look
at it, yeah.
We're all broken and we all gothrough the same thing, but in
the moment you feel like you'rethe only one.
Yeah.
As an adult.
And you start to haveconversations about it.
And I've heard a lot of peoplehave 79 episodes in, and
everyone has, and I'm notdiminishing it from your
(15:02):
experience'cause it was yourexperience, but it's fascinating
to me that we all, it happens.
Yeah.
We all go through this.
Rollercoaster of life and haveto navigate not only through it
in the moment, but then navigatethrough it when we're adults.
So I can't imagine, that, justsitting here listening to that
(15:23):
is, is pretty shocking that as ayoung person, you went through
so much loss and yet you wake upone morning or at one point say,
I'm going to focus on thepositive and I'm going to focus
on the good memories.
Yeah.
And the resilience there ispretty remarkable.
That says a lot about who youare.
(15:44):
Are you at this time when you'reaway at school?
If you don't mind me asking, areyou questioning who you are,
sexuality, where you fit in allof that?
Did that come later?
Like, where is that all fittinginto this rather Yeah.
Circuitous route, it'sinteresting because I knew who I
(16:05):
was since I was a kid veryyoung.
I remember being five and juststaring at this one guy.
We were at a pool somewhere.
I was with my sister's sister.
I remember being with somebodyand I remember seeing this guy
in yellow board shorts, and hehad a furry chest, and I just
remember staring at him andthinking like I liked him.
(16:26):
But different than I, when Iwould stare at a girl and I
liked her.
It was more like I was intriguedby this man, intrigued by his
hair and I don't know.
So I just always knew.
Then, once you get into likemiddle school and people start
changing and everyone has to.
(16:49):
Really show who they are in aweird way.
You can't just be who you are.
You have to be straight or it'slike there's no Medium.
Middle ground.
And I just remember peoplealways saying to me,'cause I've
always been more of theeffeminate type.
My voice was always higher.
I was always just moreflamboyant.
And I didn't mind that I, itdidn't bother me, but it would,
(17:12):
people would call me slurs atschool, and I just remembered
when that would happen.
I would just be like, but I amso what's the problem?
It didn't take me down.
It was just like, you're sayingsomething I already know.
And I'm okay with it and are,you should be okay with it.
And at that, middle school agedmind, I, I didn't use those
(17:34):
terms, but.
I never really had a time whereI was struggling with my
sexuality of maybe figuring outwho I was.
I just knew that I was gay.
Yeah.
But I do have a funny storyside.
Side note, my grandma when I was12, she calls me one day outta
the blue and I'm always with herand she goes, so I have to ask
(17:59):
you something and I want you tobe honest with me.
Okay?
Are you gay?
And I'm like, on the phone what?
My whole body just went hot andI was all, this can't be
happening'cause like, why wouldshe ask me that?
And I go, yeah.
And she goes, okay, I figured Ialready, I was already talking
to everybody about it, but Ijust wanted to make sure that
(18:21):
like it was true, it's grandma,you can't be just asking pe
telling people this.
And not even asking me first.
She's I already know Steven.
I've known since you were a kid.
You just never said anything.
And came up to me and talked tome about it.
And I thought that was thefunniest thing.
I was like, granny.
Don't do that.
But it was the relationship thatwe had that, yeah, she could ask
(18:42):
me anything I want, anything shewanted, I could ask her anything
I wanted and she'd be honestwith me.
And vice versa.
I think grandmothers are likethat.
My dad's mom.
When I told her I was mucholder.
I was 24.
And when I told her I was sonervous and she said, she's tell
me something I didn't alreadyknow.
And I'm like, but grandma, howdid you know?
And I used to see her quiteoften.
(19:03):
She lived here in San Diego.
I lived up in LA and I said, howdid you know?
And she goes, honey, every timeyou came to visit me, you asked
to eat on the good China and thegood crystal.
And she's no straight boy wouldever care.
And my God, I guess it gaveanyway, which of course I now
own all of it and it's so yeah.
In storage.
But I think that's sointeresting, Steven is, you
(19:26):
again, such a common thread.
We all know at a certain pointin our life.
When we are different and wedon't know how to express it, we
don't know how to explain it.
We don't know that it's okaybecause we've been told that
it's not, or we've heardsuperfluous that it's not.
And our parents, God bless them,don't have the, there's no
(19:47):
school or class that they go tolearn how to raise an LGBTQ plus
child but there's no training.
And so I think they do the bestthat they can.
And yet I then say that was.
For me almost 30 years ago it'slike, why have we not come any
(20:08):
farther?
Why have we not been a placewhere I could come to my mom and
say, you know what, mom?
I like this guy and your guy atthe pool with the furry chest.
And the was my friend's dad whowas a swimmer.
Same thing, right?
Every Friday after a footballgame, we were at the house and
(20:29):
there was this guy, and I didn'tunderstand it.
I was nervous, I was ashamed.
But when I later told thatstory, which it's way too long
to go into now, but there's afunny story to it.
But when I later told the story,they were like why didn't you
say something then?
And I'm like.
I don't know.
I was terrified.
I was so afraid of being foundout.
(20:50):
And so how great though that ourgrandparents and our elders, as
I like to call them, knew allalong and, but just were like
waiting for us to come out andnot everybody is that fortunate.
There are a lot of people whodon't have the opportunity or
don't have that kind of warmresponse.
I want to make sure I make thatpoint, but she sounds like a
great lady.
I think our grandmotherswould've been good friends.
(21:11):
Yeah, no she was amazing.
She was a, she honestly was likemy best friend.
So like when I, when she passedaway and I lost her, it was
like, I think that's one of thereasons that I broke when my dad
died, was because it brought meback to a place where I had
(21:32):
another, I lost someone.
Even though I wasn't close to mydad, I loved him, he's my dad.
I think what brought up mydissociation and my self, going
inward when he passed awaynecessarily wasn't, I would say
him.
It was the, I didn't deal withthe death of my grandma.
(21:57):
And I was so young with my momthat I, how do you even process
who your mother is when you onlyhave a couple yeah.
Visions of what you think you'rea member of this person.
But my granny, it's no, I hadher all the way until I was 16.
I have so many memories,conversations just so much that
(22:19):
I could hold onto.
So when he died, it was, I ranaway to go to this boarding
school.
Once my grandma died, I waslike, I want to move.
Also I needed to, for mydancing, if I wanted to be
something, I had to get outtathe town that I was in.
And that was, there was no otherway.
But I know if I'm honest withmyself, I ran away.
(22:42):
'cause I didn't was part of itwas I ran away.
'cause I didn't want to dealwith the fact that she was gone.
I can understand that if I'mbeing honest.
No, that's great.
And I didn't want to believe itfor so long, even though I knew
she was gone.
It was the first person in mylife that like really loved me
and really wanted the best forme and gave me so much, like
(23:07):
outside of my sisters they'rewonderful.
They've always done so much forme and my best friend Lauren,
and obviously Paul, my, Pete, mypartner, but Granny was like,
that was my person, that was youknow who you're.
Yeah.
Your angel is, that was grannyfor me and I had a hard time
(23:29):
dealing with that.
So I left, and I left for thatand reasons to get better and
to, start my life and start mycareer.
But yeah, that, that was thereason I think I broke was I was
having to now face it again.
In a different person.
Yeah.
So it all collided.
(23:49):
But going back now, we're goingto come back to this.
So I never had a problem withmyself and my sexuality and
fitting out like who I was.
Outside of dance.
Now when we get to dance, my,that's where I was like, I was
fighting because I was toldevery day that I had a different
(24:13):
body.
I didn't have a ballet body.
I didn't have the lines and theproportions and the abilities
that you would associate withballet dancer or that would be
considered that would help youget professional or, be in the
world of ballet.
So pause there for a secondbecause te teach me'cause I am,
(24:36):
I'm confused.
So obviously you are almost sixfeet, you're incredibly
handsome.
You are physically fit.
What's not the ballet body?
Tell the novice or the, whatdoes that mean?
Okay, help me understand that.
'cause I don't get it.
Of course.
So in ballet, your body is yourinstrument we create lines.
(24:59):
Lines in ways.
So when you look at a dancer,they have to have.
Obviously now it's changing yourdifferent bodies.
Nobody has a perfect body, butat that time when I started, it
was still very much, you have tohave a shaped foot, very arched
foot, so you know, somethingthat really points at the top of
(25:20):
the arch.
Straight legs or hyperextendedlegs were a plus.
Flexibility turnout.
So flexibility and openness inyour hips to make a really nice
flat position with your legs andfeet.
And I don't have any of those.
I have, bent knees, justnaturally bent legs.
(25:42):
I've gotten them straighter asI've gotten older from dancing.
But when I first started it, Ihad bent knees.
I had.
Harsh arches that didn't bend.
So my foot really didn't give abeautiful line.
I wasn't flexible and I had avery tight back, so I had no
arabesque.
(26:03):
And I wish I could like, giveyou pictures.
It's hard to tell but how didthat make you feel when you were
going to do something that youobviously love and that you
wanted to do and you're toldthose things, what's going
through your head?
Because someone's in that momenttelling you that you're not
potentially able to be who youwant to be.
What does, how does that makeyou feel?
Where does that leave you orwhere did that leave you
(26:23):
personally?
Not personally.
At that time I was so stubbornand so focused on what I was
going to be, that I had theresilience to be like, you're
not going to tell me what I'm,what?
I'm not going to be like, I'mgoing to be this thing.
(26:45):
I've known since I was four fivethat I was going to be a dancer.
I didn't know how I was going tobe one, but I knew that was my
life's purpose was to dance andto be to create art.
And so I think that just thesheer resilience, and I was
prideful and I was stubborn, andI told myself, there is no other
(27:09):
choice.
Like you go away to school, youhave to make it like there is no
plan B.
Like this is what you're goingto do.
And I told myself that everyday.
'cause I was like, I'm not goingback to my small town.
I'm not going back to having nolife.
This is my life where I am rightnow.
(27:31):
This is my life and this isgoing to be my life.
And no one's going to tell mesome tell me different.
But again, it was, I think if Ididn't have that, I would've
crumbled.
Quicker.
Now them saying what they saiddid affect me subconsciously,
(27:52):
but I was so guarded and focusedfor so many years that I pushed
it and compartmentalized it, andthen it started coming out later
in my life.
Okay.
Before you get there, because Iknow we're going there, so I
have a question.
Yeah.
Okay.
So how does it make you feel?
What are the emotions that youfeel when you're dancing?
(28:14):
Tell me what that's like.
The good analogy is I feel free,I guess free.
Free of everything, free ofanger, free of resentment, free
(28:35):
of everything.
I guess you could say, I feel.
Bliss.
If I could put bliss intosomething and even on a bad day,
there's something, it could be abad day, but I still feel bliss
(28:55):
when I'm really dancing.
I just think too, it's, I'mfulfilling my purpose, my
purpose is to dance and tocreate and to use my body, and
I'm a vessel for my source, forhigher power.
(29:17):
And it's, when I'm dancing, Ijust, I don't know how to
explain it more than bliss.
Freeness free, freedom.
Even if I'm tired or I'm havinga bad day, or.
Whatever it could have been.
I'm still at, I'm still at thatbliss feeling.
(29:39):
I'm still that freedom.
That's what, I guess that's whatit would be for me.
Is there, I see this because Ilove dance.
I am not a dancer by any stretchof the imagination, but I love
dance.
I love dance.
I love watching ballet and justall kinds of dance.
There's a power in it for you.
So do you know what I mean?
Like when I watch you, you can,there's a power fullness in it
(30:01):
and it's a, maybe it's what'sthe word I want to use?
A what presence?
A posture.
And I don't mean the air bestposture.
There's a posture to your dance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I've been watching a coupledifferent dancers on social
media and.
To me, it's just, I get thefreedom, I get the bliss.
It's joyful.
But the empowerment that I seein people's dancing and what
(30:23):
it's doing for other peoplelittle bit different example
'cause it's not dance, but I amright this moment obsessed with
Ray, the singer.
Love it.
Obsessed.
Obsessed and good.
I particularly like her.
Where the hell is my husband'ssong?
Yeah.
Because it means a lot to meright now.
I was just listening to that inmy car earlier today.
It's on auto play in my house.
(30:43):
'cause it's just my, it's mymantra right now where the hell
is my husband.
But I'm watching some of thesedancers that I like to watch on
Instagram.
Using that song and watchingthem dance gives me not only joy
and not only that bliss, but italso gives me that empowerment.
Yeah.
Because it's expression in a waythat doesn't require words.
(31:05):
It doesn't require somedefinition or description.
They're just dancing and thereare some amazing dancers out
there, right?
That are just really inspiring.
So I want to just, I was justcurious kind of what you felt
and what words you were going tocome up with.
I see The Bliss for sure.
Yeah.
Because you can see it in yourdance.
You also are an artist.
You also paint.
(31:26):
I do, and I love watching yourpainting content because you
just paint do.
At least that's what we see.
There's no pretense about it.
There's no this is going to behanging in the Guggenheim.
Yeah.
Even if it could, I lovewatching your content when
you're like, I've created a newpiece, and you show it.
The pride that you have in thatpiece that you have created is
(31:48):
more about your journey and yourpride and how you feel about the
piece than anybody that'swatching it.
We all could like it.
We could maybe not understandit.
We could.
Maybe love it, but it's you andyour expression that the world's
seeing.
Yeah.
And that's what I love about it.
So I have a friend who teachespainting class, and I went to
one of his classes and they didthis poor technique where they
(32:12):
poured.
Levels of different paint colorsin a cup and then you basically
dump the paint and you adjustthe canvas and you're using
acrylics.
Yeah.
And it creates this.
Yeah.
And I realized in that moment,I've always known this about
myself, but I realized in thattwo and a half hours that I was
there is that I'm aperfectionist beyond compare.
And that painting had to beperfect where everybody else was
just messing with it and playingwith it.
(32:33):
And I, mine had to be perfect.
Yeah.
The second time was this realsense of expression.
I didn't care what anyonethought.
I didn't care how it looked.
It was just me getting this outonto the paper.
And I creative career, but notreally, like really, it's not my
full expression.
And so to be able to watchpeople enjoy that within
themselves is really cool.
What's the process for you whenyou paint?
(32:55):
Is it, do you have an idea ofwhat you're going to paint when
you sit down?
Or do you just create from thecuff?
What's that process for you?
And second question to thatfirst question is it a different
process than the dancecreativity?
Curious if it's different.
Okay.
That's a good one.
Ooh.
So when I'm a visual person,okay.
(33:19):
With dancing, visual music,visual, so I goes into my
painting is visual.
If I can visualize somethingbefore I've painted before I've
painted it, then I know my, whatI'm going to do.
If I can't visualize something,that's when I get stumped.
(33:39):
And then it takes me longer tobuild on something that I'm
doing.
Okay.
As, so yeah, my, my process forpainting is I visualize it
first, or an idea or it could belike a tree branch or a grain of
sand or, I literally could beanything and it will spark a
(34:01):
whole like.
Music video in my head of what Iwanted to see, what I wanted to
see with it.
Now with my dancing, it'sdifferent, I think, because at
least with ballet,'cause we havesuch, it's a regimented we have
the same kind of thing build upin class.
(34:23):
We have bar and then we havecenter.
The combinations can bedifferent, but it's a, they're
either a DU or a Deje or ranJean.
There's a sequence to it.
And I think now that I'm sayingit, I think that I use that
buildup in my painting.
There's my, I guess you couldsay there's steps.
(34:43):
Look at me just having thisepiphany.
It's, yeah, I have steps.
So I guess it does correlatesomewhat.
It's definitely different fordance than for painting.
I feel, for painting, I'm alittle more free.
Because I can create anything.
It can be as hideous as I wantit to be.
(35:05):
It can be as beautiful as I wantit to be.
And I don't have anyone tellingme that it should look either
or.
And ballet, with dancing,depending on the choreography or
what you're doing, you do havethat Yeah.
Yeah.
My listeners would be super madif I didn't circle back because
(35:25):
I took us off course.
I'm going to circle back for asecond because this is
important.
It just popped into my head.
See, I was like, Oop.
I derailed us and I'm pulling usback.
So you're told you don't havethe lines, you don't have.
The feet.
You don't have the legs, youdon't all of that.
So they're telling you what youdon't have.
You have this resilience whereyou're like, I'm going to do it.
(35:46):
It's my only choice.
There's no plan B.
What was that next step?
How did that go and how did youend up pushing past those
barriers of what people weretelling you could not do or you
did not have to where you aredancing now?
What was that journey?
It's interesting because asresilient and as focused as I
(36:11):
was, I made it happen.
But I again, I guesscompartmentalized a lot.
So anything negative, I justdidn't have time for in my mind.
At the same time, I was veryharshly critical on myself.
(36:32):
Overly critical.
I didn't allow myself to enjoywhat I was doing for a very long
time, even though I felt freedoing what I was doing.
It was this, it's this weird, Iwas unhappy with the fact that I
wasn't what my teachers and whatother people look like.
(36:56):
But I wasn't going to allowmyself to stop doing the thing
that made me the most happy.
Sure.
And living in my purpose.
And at the same time, I wasextremely negative and hard and
cri critical on myself to thepoint where I physically and
(37:16):
emotionally couldn't enjoy whatI was doing.
And this is not just, a coupleyears, this is like from school
up until three years ago.
And three years ago is when Ireally made a change for myself.
And so it was a very long timeof having this weird up and down
(37:42):
battle with myself.
Yeah, I I just had a lot ofresilience.
I knew that if I looked atmyself in the mirror, I wasn't
going to what I saw, so Idecided not to look in mirrors.
I didn't like people takingphotos of me or videos of me.
'cause I didn't want to see whatI looked like outside of what I
(38:02):
saw here, outside of what I sawin my mind.
Because I knew if I, if thathappened, it would break me
because I, in essence, believedeverything that my teachers and
others said about me, but Iwouldn't allow myself to
physically see it.
If I couldn't physically see it,it wasn't real.
(38:22):
And so it, again, it was a wayto, for me to protect myself and
to get through what I needed toget through with my schooling
and to do the thing that I wouldlove to do.
And that I, that it was mypurpose, it was my source
purpose to do.
Many people would wa many peoplewould walk.
Yeah.
Many people would give up.
Yeah.
Prime example I remember Iwanted to do, when I was in
(38:43):
college, I wanted to do printmodeling.
And I was really excited.
I don't remember where it was orhow it came up, but I remember
them saying, you'll never gethired'cause you're too tall.
That's so interesting.
He's very tall in high school.
And I remember Stephen makingthe decision that I hate being
tall, hated it.
(39:04):
In that moment, I madeeverything about being tall,
wrong for most of my life.
Wow.
And I didn't realize that untila couple months ago, really
realize it when it came up inconversation about people being
told that there can't be whothey want to be because of X, Y,
and Z.
And I remembered that moment andI wanted to be an architect and
(39:25):
an interior designer, but I'mcolorblind told, oh, you could
never do that because you can'tsee color.
No, that's not true.
But I believed that so manythings that I wanted to do and
that I really felt were apassion for me when I was
younger.
I didn't do because people toldme I couldn't do it.
And if you look at modeling now.
There is every shape, size,color, everyone.
(39:47):
Everybody.
Yeah.
Everybody interior designers,that's what teams are for,
right?
Yeah.
So I can't pick color.
You find a great colorist, so doI.
Don't regret it.
'cause I made an amazing choiceand I was able to re to have my
creativity and the work that Ido and creating and producing
events all over the world forthe past 25 years.
So I'm not, I didn't end up a, acall center, person.
(40:08):
No, there's nothing wrong withthat.
But I didn't take that drasticof a route.
Yeah.
But it's interesting when Ilisten to you, because a lot of
people would say I've been toldthis that the other, and I'm,
there must be something wrongwith me and so I'm just going to
go do something else.
And that's the part that painsme the most for so many kids and
so many young people, is becausewe just don't allow ourselves
(40:30):
to.
Grow into who we are and we thenhave to unpack it in our
thirties, forties, and fiftiesand sixties and go to therapy
over it because we believe thethings that people said.
And I'm, looking at the currentsituation that we're in now, and
I worry that there are going tobe a lot of young people that
(40:50):
are out in school, elementaryschool, high school, listening
to a lot of the conversationsthat are happening.
Choose to walk away rather thanto have that resilience and face
that conversation and moveforward.
So I think your story is superpowerful and will resonate with
a lot of people, especiallythose with kids.
'cause we have to support, wehave to support our young people
(41:13):
in finding themselves and torealizing who they are.
'cause they're beautiful, right?
Yeah.
They're unique.
And you talk about source andhigher power.
Some people will call it God.
But we were put here on earthfor a reason.
Yeah.
We were put here to be ofservice to others.
We were put here to be goodstewards of love and compassion
and kindness and all of thosethings.
And.
(41:33):
In a time where it's difficultto do that.
Even I at 59 next month.
Yeah.
Want to stop at sometimes andjust'cause it's a lot of effort.
And then I remind myself, Nope,I can't stop.
I have to be this steward ofkindness and love and generosity
and compassion and caring.
And that's why I continue onwith this podcast because I know
(41:55):
that there are people outlistening to these episodes,
they're going to listen to yourepisode and either see
themselves or see their child ortheir friends or someone that
they know in that samecircumstance and realize that
it's just time that we're ableto just be ourselves and live
our life.
And when you look at you now isafter all that, that they said
you couldn't do it.
It couldn't be this, it couldn'tbe that.
(42:16):
And I get the resilience partand all that, but you're dancing
and you're existing in paintingin your bliss.
And what you're doing and howit's showing up to the world is,
excuse my French, I don't give aF what you think.
This is me.
And you're also partnered withsomebody who has had a
(42:37):
remarkable journey to findthemselves and are now writing
books about it, which we willtalk about this week on the
episode.
And when I think of the two ofyou together, I'm just like,
holy crap.
Like what a journey.
Independently and now togetherthat can make such a difference
in the lives of even couplesthat are going to watch both.
(43:01):
'Cause I've had the privilegeand the joy of listening to you
separately.
And getting to know youseparately.
Yeah.
But knowing what I know aboutboth of you and how you feel
about each other is superpowerful as well.
Sorry for my rant, but I justhad to get that out'cause it's
super important.
No rant at all.
It's super important because.
I have a friend who's strugglingwith their child at the moment,
(43:21):
and this child is expressingthemselves so deeply and they
just don't know necessarily howto navigate it all.
And they were asking me if I hada resource of who they could
talk to.
And I made a couple suggestionsto them and how to deal and how
to navigate this conversationwith this absolutely beautiful,
brilliant child who is going tobe a change maker in this world.
(43:43):
I can feel it already.
I can see it.
And they had no idea where togo.
So conversations like this aresuper important.
I want to go back to a couplethings that we've touched on.
Yes.
Yeah.
So when you are dancing nowdoes, and I'm sure it does, but
(44:04):
does it pop up every now andagain, imposter syndrome for
you?
Or is it just, have you just nowresigned yourself to the fact
that this is who you are?
And that doesn't even pop intoplay.
I'm just curious if it everrears.
Oh God, no.
It still creeps in.
I just, I don't think it, itwill ever really go away.
(44:26):
It's just what I choose for itto be.
So I know now that I held on formany years to what people's
beliefs and opinions of whatthey thought I could or could
not do.
But now it's more, I think I'mjust happier with myself, so it
(44:47):
doesn't matter to me anymore.
And I have to tell myself that alot.
'cause in, obviously when I'm inclass and I'm in rehearsals,
you're never going to be goodevery single day.
You're going to have off days.
You're again with a bunch ofpeers who.
Have beautiful bodies, to whatyou think is beautiful.
(45:08):
And you have that comparison ofgosh, I don't have that, or I
wish I had that, but I have toreally be present every day and
every day I'm in class andrehearsal and be like, I am
beautiful.
The way I dance and how I look.
And because I think for yearspeople would always tell me
(45:33):
like, are you having a greattime?
Are you having fun?
Are you enjoying, did you have agreat time performing?
And I always said yes, and Ishined on stage.
But what I was giving on theoutside was just defeated ness,
it was very, it seemed veryinsecure and just not happy, but
(45:53):
inside I could be doing.
Whatever it could have beenballet wise and happy.
'cause I was dancing and Ididn't correlate that I had to
project that outwards because Iwas so used to projecting it or,
taking it inward.
And that was my safe space.
That what I was showing on theoutside was not what I felt like
(46:15):
in the inside.
So when I realized that I had tostart dancing from the inside, I
had to show that excitement andthat place that I feel, in my
heart.
I had to project that out.
And when I started doing that, Istarted getting a lot of people
telling me, wow, you look sohappy.
(46:36):
Wow, you danced so beautiful,like your presence and all these
different things.
And I'm like, but I've beendoing that for so long.
What's different now?
And it was the fact that Ireally went.
Inside myself and showed whatwas there and projected it out.
(46:59):
And I didn't do that for so manyyears.
'cause I was battling, and I Istill battle now, but I, the
voices are a little bit, softer.
They're quiet most times.
And if I feel like I'm goingdown that rabbit hole I just go
it's not that serious.
It's not that serious.
Dancing, I'm literally dancingaround in tights.
(47:23):
I have to put it in that way formyself because if I don't I take
it so seriously that it ruinsme.
'Cause I can't obtain thatperfectionism that perfect
anything.
And so I have to tell myself Iam a boy and tights.
Dancing around, and it makes itlighter.
It makes it easier for me, andit makes me come back to myself.
(47:47):
Yeah.
It's interesting, Steven,because I think we all, whether
you'll admit it or not you,Steven, but you'll Yes.
We'll ever admit it.
Yeah.
We are very hard on ourselves.
Yeah.
And we make ourselves sometimesour circumstances and who we are
not.
(48:07):
Yeah.
Are our circumstances.
Yeah.
Who Steven is in the world isnot his circumstances.
You were not your past, you werenot.
That journey that you took, youwere not The loss of those
people that you loved.
Who you are is this beautifulsoul who is out changing the
world with their crafts and justbeing who they are.
And if that is who you are meantto be by this source and higher
(48:31):
power is showing people thatthey just need to go and dance,
whatever that meant for them,then you're doing the right
thing.
And I think, I can relate.
I can totally relate because Iam incredibly critical of myself
as well.
I've been doing this career foralmost 30 years now, and I'm
coming to the end of thiscareer.
(48:51):
And with the podcast, it was atwo year procrastination of
every reason and excuse not todo it.
Yeah.
People weren't going to listenand I wasn't going to be a good
host.
And all of those things, wouldit resonate?
What do I have to say?
What do I have to say?
And are people going to care?
And how many clicks and how manydownloads and how many of this?
And it's a constant reminderbecause people will pop in to
(49:15):
your dms as the kids say thesedays, or slide into your dms and
just make these comments.
And it's it's interesting towatch, but I know that if one
person listens to this episodewith you, and it makes a
difference for them, that we'veaccomplished what we set out to
accomplish.
It's not about a thousanddownloads or.
25,000 likes.
It's about the content and theimpact that it's making.
(49:37):
Yeah.
And you're doing that, right?
I will tell you a little funny,'cause I think I like to bring a
little levity sometimes toconversations and I know it's
easier for someone to say thisthan to, for you to experience
it when you look at yourself andyou're having those
conversations.
I have this small little groupof friends that I share a lot
about the guests that I'm havingon podcasts and I will show,
(49:59):
Instagram and photos and stuff.
Yeah.
And I showed your content to afriend of mine.
She's she said a few expletives,number one, and she's oh my god,
this guy.
Gorgeous and stunning as shewould not stop talking about
you.
And she was just, and she's lookat, and he's just so lean and so
beautiful and dah.
And it was just fun to hearsomeone else say that.
(50:20):
But it's then really interestingto hear you say the things that
you say, because we don't seeourselves as others see us
sometimes because we are thatharsh critic.
And I sometimes feel just likethe intro earlier, is that we
need to really listen to whatpeople are saying about us.
Yeah.
And I struggle with that too.
In fact, I just had a sessionwith my coach about it two days
(50:41):
ago.
I was like, I don't know howpeople can say that when I don't
feel that.
Like how is that?
Like, where's the disconnect?
And we're in the process.
I didn't want a quick answer.
I didn't want to find out.
I didn't want him to tell mewhat the answer was.
Yeah.
I need to experience that formyself, just like you do as
well.
We need to unpack what we'vebeen told and what we've been
taught and learn how to turnthat.
(51:02):
Yeah.
And the people that are sayingit to us and the people that are
sharing there.
Love and their excitement andtheir what's the word I want to
use?
Their willingness to spend timewith us, whether it's you and
your dancing, or your paintingand me and the podcast and other
things, is that we have tolisten to them and we have to
(51:22):
take that in, that's just thereality.
That what we've created is notthe reality.
It's the story at which we'vecreated the reality.
But it's not true.
It's not true.
It's, and again, easier saidthan done.
And if that takes us ourlifetime to figure that out,
then it does.
But I'm super, I don't say thiscondescendingly, but I'm super
proud of you for having thisability to push through life and
(51:46):
to push past people's commentsabout you and about what you
have and what You don't have tocome to a place where you can
simply get up and do what youlove to do, and you've turned it
into something that for you isbliss.
And for others, it's going togive them whatever experience
(52:09):
that it gives them, but it'sgoing to ripple.
It's going to ripple.
And I'm, I said the same thingto your partner, Peter, about
his book.
It's going to ripple.
I love it.
It's going to ripple andeverything that we do, ripples,
and where I think we can becomebetter to ourselves, uhhuh is to
just let that all in.
Yeah.
It's called Just doing you.
(52:30):
Not to use a punt of my podcast,but just to do you, it's just to
do you.
Thank you.
So I have a couple lastquestions for you.
Yeah.
'cause I could talk to you allday, like I could did the other
day.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
I can imagine you and people aregetting together for dinner,
coffee is going to be a verylong experience, but I can't
(52:50):
wait for that to happen.
What's next for you?
What's on the horizon forSteven?
What's on?
Okay, so I am choreographing formy company we're doing crafted,
so it's local choreographerswithin the company.
And it's going to be the openingof our season.
So this starts I think theperformances are the 25th and
(53:12):
26th.
So that Saturday, Sunday.
I think that's a Saturday,Sunday, and.
I've choreographed a lot for theschools that I've taught at.
I've taught, I choreographed forkids, but this will be the first
time that I choreograph to peersor on peers.
And it's, the choreography isthe abstract version and what,
(53:35):
or what I saw or I see in mymind of my struggles.
And of what I'm talking to youabout with the, resilience, but
also the self-deprecatingnegativity on my own self.
But then the, I'm going to makeit no matter what, the constant
(53:55):
thing.
I'm creating that into a piece.
Which I'm really nervous about.
I'm really excited.
I.
It's just a big change for me.
I'm really putting myself outthere, and I think I have to,
because if I really want to growand make something happen for
myself to that next step, likethis is my next step, and then I
(54:22):
really want to get my art going.
And obviously the goal would be,I would love to be, doing
galleries and have a, have mywork being seen and resignated
with people.
That would be a wonderful thing.
So it's just, and I also havethe feeling that it's going to
be, just like with dance, I hadthis inherent feeling.
(54:46):
The second that I knew I wantedto be a dancer, I literally
could see my entire future.
I just knew there was no other.
Nothing else was going to stopme.
And when I started paintingagain, I knew I needed to do
something creative, the outsideof dance.
And when I started painting, Iwas like, oh my gosh, I'm having
(55:09):
the same feeling with mypainting.
Even if I'm, just started again.
I'm having the same just gutfeeling that something as big is
going to happen.
And I just have to be going onthe ride again.
It's like starting over like Idid with my dancing.
(55:29):
It's all the school and then youget professional and then you
know everything in between.
It's the same thing.
But now I'm doing with my art,I'm creating with my hands.
Not my body, but it's the same,yeah.
I'm still creating it andfeeling the source that is
telling me like, you need to dothis.
(55:50):
Those are the next steps for meis doing this piece, pushing
myself, pushing through the fearand the everything that comes
along with that.
And working on my art and justshowing it, showing my process
for my pieces that I do alreadyand having fun with it.
(56:11):
Because, for, a long time Ididn't show people anything.
I didn't show myself anything.
And so now I'm like I'm actuallyreally happy when I create
something because it makes mefeel happy.
So I'm like, if it makes me feelhappy I post it.
Yeah.
And I have stuff I haven'tposted that make me feel happy,
but it's just, I just know thatif I'm happy about it, people
(56:38):
are going to see it.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's where I am.
If I feel even iffy aboutsomething, no one's going to see
it.
I just know that.
But if I have an inkling thatyeah, something comes out of me,
that is what I think magic is.
It's going to be seen.
And nine times out of 10, I'malways, I'm always hitting the
(56:59):
nail on the head.
And I still get surprised everytime people comment and write to
me about my painting or my artor, I sold my first piece of art
to a really awesome guy who alsofound me on Instagram.
I was like, I love your work.
I love like your artistry andeverything.
And he bought one of my pieces.
(57:20):
And so just in that, it made merealize okay, I'm on the right
path.
Yeah.
If somebody's so early on inwhat I'm doing and random
people, I've never met thesestrangers to me, really through
social media.
Can write to me and be like, Ilove your art.
I know I'm on the right path.
Yeah.
(57:41):
Yeah.
It's so cool.
I love it.
If you, thank, you could giveone piece of advice to a young
person that's maybe sitting athome and wanting to do something
like dance or art or singing ortheater, and it's being maybe
told that they don't have whatit takes or they're too young or
too tall, or too short or toofat, or whatever the case may
(58:03):
be.
What would be your piece ofadvice to them?
My piece of advice would be,does it make you feel something?
Do you feel happy when you thinkabout that thing?
Do you feel excitement?
Of possibility, even if youcan't render what those words
(58:26):
are, if you can't render whatthe emotion is that you're
feeling when you think aboutdancing or painting or Broadway
or whatever it might be if itreally hits you with sheer
excitement and love and justanything that is powerful, you
(58:52):
have to do it.
Even if someone tells you, maybethey think that you can't do it,
that you don't probably, thatyou shouldn't do it.
I think if you feel somethingabout whatever it might be, do
it because your gut is alwaysright.
Your gut instinct literallytells you and guides you on what
(59:14):
you should do.
And I think I, I wish that Iwould've.
Told myself that during thetimes that I felt most down you,
your gut told you, Steven, thisis what you should do and you
need to be happy'cause you feelhappy doing it.
(59:35):
I wish I would've told thesethings or had the knowledge or
had the understanding in myselfwhen I was a little bit younger,
because now I do that constantlyand I have to, it's like a
regimen and it makes me happy.
And it's projecting to people Idon't even know.
So that, and right there tellsme that's what I should have
(59:59):
been doing all along.
And I think to anyone watching,that's what you should do.
You follow your gut, you followthat instinct, that feeling.
And you don't let it go.
Yeah.
No matter what.
I'm a big firm believer intiming.
Yeah.
And divine intervention.
Because we can say that theminute you declare something in
your life, doesn't matter whatage you are, I always believe
(01:00:20):
this.
The minute you declaresomething, the universe aligns
with that goal.
Yep.
And what happens is that theuniverse then tests you every
step of the way because italigns you with that goal.
And it's a clear path all thetime.
Straight ahead.
All the time.
All the time.
And then they're going to, it'sgoing to throw you everything it
can.
(01:00:41):
Yeah.
To take you off course.
And some people will fall offcourse and some people won't.
Some people will come back toit.
So I look at it similarly andsay that, yes, you could have
told yourself that, but wouldyou have been ready to hear it?
Perhaps the universe worked inthe way that it worked, because
(01:01:03):
look at you now.
Yeah.
So that's a whole other podcastepisode.
You gotta do another one.
I do.
I do hope you'll come back.
I have one, one last questionfor you before we wrap it up.
I love today.
Thank you.
I needed this.
I loved our time together.
Thank you for sharing.
I love your journey and forsharing your experiences.
I think you were a remarkablehuman being, so I can't wait to
see what's next for you.
(01:01:24):
So you have an open invitationto always come back, but thank
you.
You're welcome.
My last question is this, if youcould go back to that five,
6-year-old Steven what would youtell him about his life today?
Oh geez.
Oh gosh.
(01:01:44):
I would tell him you're exactlywhere you're supposed to be.
And you never need to doubt orunderestimate yourself.
(01:02:11):
Yeah.
That's it in a nutshell, theperf perfect way to end the
conversation.
I, again, thank you for beinghere.
Thank you for spending some timewith me.
Okay.
We're going to make sure thateverybody can follow you on
Instagram.
Yes.
Thank you.
Anything you want to share withme?
With Steven Vale.
With Steven, with Steven.
(01:02:31):
We're going to make sure that weactually get it up on our social
media when we launch yourepisode in a couple weeks.
But again, thanks for beinghere, Steven.
You're a delight.
And keep dancing safe.
Okay?
I gotta tell you though.
I gotta tell you.
Tell me.
You're my first podcast.
I've never done this before, sothank you for having me.
You were of course, and you'reamazing.
And you're always welcome back.
Thank you.
(01:02:51):
So, on that note, please comeback.
Thanks for being here, and we'lltalk to you soon.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Bye love.
Bye bye.
Alright, everyone, thank youagain for joining us on today's
episode.
I hope our conversationresonated with you like it did
me, and I cannot wait to sitdown with you all again next
(01:03:13):
week.
Remember to subscribe to theJUST DO YOU Podcast on your
favorite platform so you canmake sure not to miss a new
episode, which drop everyThursday.
If you like what you hear, youcan easily share the podcast and
episode.
Directly with your friends andif you would rate us and leave
us a review, we'd love to hearfrom you.
You can also follow us onInstagram at just Do you pod as
(01:03:35):
you go out into the world today.
Remember to just do you.
Alright, talk next week.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to the JUST DO YOUPodcast.
My name is Eric Nicoll, and I'myour host.
If you are a first timelistener, welcome to the
conversation and if you're aregular, I'm honored that you've
decided to join me for anotherepisode.
The Just Do You Podcast iscentered around a network of
conversations, which are meantto connect us, to inspire us, to
find our own confidence, our ownvoice, and to live our own
(00:27):
truth.
And who knows, we might evenlearn a little something new
that ultimately allows us tolive in the sweet spot that I
like to call the Just do youspace of being.
Each week, I have the privilegeof sitting down for unscripted
conversations with friends,family, colleagues, community
leaders, and influencers thatall share their own personal
journeys.
(00:48):
I hope that you enjoy our timetogether as much as I have.
We are certainly going to laugh,and yes, we might even cry a
little, but in the end, we aregoing to know that we're not
alone during our life's journey.
So are you ready?
Great.
Let's do this.
Welcome to the conversation.
Alright everyone, welcome totoday's episode.
(01:08):
I am so excited to sit down withmy guest today.
I'm going to jump right in andintroduce everyone, but I have
to say, when I met this guest onInstagram, I was immediately
captivated by this, andhopefully you'll see it on
YouTube, but this killer smileand this radiant energy and this
height and this creativity.
(01:29):
And I went, oh, I gotta knowthis guy.
And thankfully he's my guesttoday on the podcast.
So I'm going to welcome everyoneto Steven Halburn.
Hi Steven.
Hello.
That was so sweet.
Do you know I say this a lot onthe podcast, but I think
everybody should wake up in themorning and be introduced like
that.
Right?
Yeah.
Like how great would your day beif you woke up every morning and
(01:51):
someone doesn't have to be aspouse, it could be a friend or
someone introduce you into themorning and introduce you to the
world as to who you are.
I think what a great way tostart the day, right?
Yes, love that.
Yeah.
You kinda wake up in the morningand you're like, oh, here's the
coffee and let the dog out andyou going to get your day
started and you going to rollinto the day.
But like, how powerful wouldthat be?
And it's really interesting tohear people's responses.
(02:14):
The podcast was designed, we'rein season two, we're about to
wrap our second season thisyear, which is crazy.
But the podcast was designedaround a network of
conversations that kind ofshowcase people's journey to
finding their space of beingauthentic, being truly
themselves, and.
In a current world in which onmany different levels, we're
(02:35):
being told that's notacceptable.
Yeah.
To be able to meet somebody whois not only the epitome of this
just do you concept, but wholives their life in such a way
that, as I was saying to youbefore we jumped on that we all
have things happening.
The world's a little heavy rightnow, but when you wake up every
morning and you go out into theday and you take it on with
creativity and that smile and apositive energy, that ripples
(03:00):
and it reflects.
So today I woke up and I waslike, oh, I've gotta get through
the day, but before I end upsitting down with Steven, and
that thought of sitting downwith you today is really what
helped propel me.
So you didn't know that, but I'mgoing to say thank you for that
right away.
Thank you.
Yeah, that is very sweet.
I yeah, it's true.
It's true.
I was not expecting that, sothank you.
(03:21):
Didn't think you were so again,for our guests, yeah.
I spend a lot of time flippingthrough Instagram.
It's my morning ritual.
I get up, I let the dog out, Ifeed her, I get my coffee, and I
come back to bed and I enjoy mycoffee and I sit and I flip
through because I'm reallylooking for inspirational
people.
And I have to say that socialmedia for me is really where I
(03:43):
find these amazing stories.
And I don't remember exactly howI came across your platform.
I did.
And like I said, it wasinstantly captivated by it.
Number one, you're incrediblytall.
How tall are you?
I'm, it looks different oncamera.
Okay.
I know my angles, but five 11,shut up.
(04:04):
I'm at the cusp.
I'm at the cusp of six foot.
I'm right there.
Okay y'all.
I would've said six four.
My hype.
You do know your angles, baby.
I know my angles.
I know my angles.
So a lot of your content on yourInstagram pages you're a dancer.
Yes.
You're also an artist, but I'mgoing to talk about the dancing
for a second.
(04:24):
Yeah.
Those angles make you look sevenfeet tall with legs for days and
the killer smile.
But I was really taken back bythe content because like I said,
it's just super positive andit's super engaging.
And so I was having coffee andstarted to watch some of your
videos.
And there was a consistency thatI noticed that was this constant
(04:46):
smile and.
I have to remind myself thesedays to smile a lot and to
continue to presence that joy.
And so I was flipping throughand I thought, God, I gotta know
this guy.
I gotta get to know him a littlebit better.
And I reached out to you and I'mlike, I don't know you, but I
think your content's prettycool.
I would love to maybe talk toyou about being a guest on the
(05:06):
Just You podcast.
And you instantly said yes.
It was like, I hit send andyou're like, yes, take it.
Yeah, take it.
And I was like, that's so great.
'cause you have no idea how manypeople do not respond.
It's crazy.
And so I was super excited.
And then we did an onboardingcall and we sat down and we
talked a little bit, and I thinkyou and I probably could have
talked for.
(05:26):
Couple hours longer.
Definitely a lot longer.
Yeah.
But I kept saying to myself, Iwant to be really respectful of
your time and also save a lot ofthe conversation for the
podcast.
So since then, you have alsointroduced me to your amazing
partner who is coming up.
His episode will air next week,so I'm not going to give it
away.
Okay.
So we're going to share a littlebit more about him next week and
(05:48):
his amazing project.
But I have to say.
You too in speaking with youseparately.
I've not been with you in personand I've not talked with you in
person, but you two make quitethe dynamic couple, so I am
quite impressed and happy andhonored to have you on today.
For sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you.
So let's spend a little bit oftime.
I want to get to know you and Iwant our listeners to know a
(06:11):
little bit about your journeyinto this self-discovery and
finding your path to just doingyou.
I'd like to take my guess back alittle bit to their childhood.
I want to know what the youngSteven was like.
I have a feeling, or I shouldsay an assumption, although I'm
not so sure if it's correct.
So give us a little, give us alittle glimpse into young
(06:31):
Steven, where were you born?
Okay.
Brothers and sisters, family,that kind of stuff.
Alright, let's take it back.
So I was born in Loma Linda,California.
But I grew up in small town.
So there's Nuevo, which is like.
A very small ranch ish styletown and then Hemmit.
(06:53):
Which is like a desert.
Most people know it as like aretirement place.
There's nothing to do there.
It's not really, it's not reallypopping.
But I grew up in Nuevo andHemmit most of my life until
about 17, and then I moved awayto go teach, or not to teach,
but to dance.
But Okay.
(07:14):
So I have, I'm the youngest ofsix.
Wow.
Yeah.
I have two sisters and fourbrothers.
One of'em whom passed away.
I never knew him.
He was the oldest brother.
He passed away at, I believe helived until he was six.
(07:34):
He had only a certain part ofthe front of his brain.
Was the only part that was made,or everything else was fluid.
I don't know how to say that inthe most medical way.
So it wasn't fully developed.
And he was only, he wasn'treally supposed to live, past
maybe six months, oh, wow.
Yeah.
He had to have 24 hour care.
He lived in a care facility.
(07:56):
But yeah, he ended up livinguntil he was six.
Wow.
And then, passed away.
But, and yeah.
And then after him with mybrother Matthew, my brother
Michael, and then me.
So yeah, I'm the youngest of sixI my childhood, I don't know.
I always go back and forthbecause there's what I remember
(08:20):
and then there was reality, so Iwould make up what my sister
told me, my sisters, that Iwould make up stories.
Like I, my parents were, kingsand queens and we lived in these
magical kingdoms and stuff, andI would tell people these
things.
I would make up stories becausemy home life wasn't, was very
(08:41):
drastically different.
So like my mom when I was fiveand a half passed away from
cancer.
That's right.
And my, when she passed away, mydad just it broke him to say the
least.
He just, he stopped.
He couldn't go further withhelping us.
He was there, but just, hedidn't give us what we needed as
(09:04):
kids.
So it was a very much like abroken home.
Even though I had my sisters andI had my grandma, my grandpa it
was just a broken home.
So I started going inward andmaking up these fantasy places
and stuff.
To shelter myself.
And I think that was like adefense mechanism to make me to
(09:26):
protect me in a way, Uhhuh.
But yeah, I would make upstories and be super creative.
So I was reading and writing andI would paint and I made up
dances before I even starteddancing.
So it was just like an outletfor me to be creative, and that
was my creativity, quoteunquote.
(09:47):
So that was when I was reallyyoung.
And then by the time I was 17, Iwas had been dancing a couple
years at this point.
I started at 14 and I was movingaway to a boarding school in
Connecticut to further myeducation or ballet.
I got a full ride of living anddancing as well.
(10:10):
And when I turned 18, which wasin October, my dad died in
November.
Oh my gosh.
And so we found out like a fewdays after Thanksgiving of my
18th birthday that he had passedaway, he'd fallen asleep and I
think, my sister said he had ananeurysm or something like that
(10:32):
in his sleep.
So he was really in his place ofliving for three days before
anybody realized that he wasgone.
So he'd been gone for a fewdays.
So that in itself was a weirdtime for me because I was living
away.
I was dancing, my dad passesaway.
(10:56):
I am in this strange place wherepeople were comforting me
because my sister had to getahold of the school director
because I wasn't picking up myphone or anything.
So she had to tell him what wasgoing on.
And then once everyone knew,they were like, are you okay?
Are you fine?
And it was in those moments, Ijust remember being super calm
(11:18):
and being like, it's normal.
This is normal to me.
Death happens.
I was very calm headed about thewhole thing.
But I think what was happeningto me was I was trying to grasp
the fact that I didn't have amom.
Then my dad dies at 18.
(11:41):
And I'm living away.
I don't really have anyconnections to like parents
anymore.
I'm trying to figure out my ownself in this like space of
living by myself and.
I just went inward again, so Iwas trying to focus on like my
dancing and what I could controlon the outside with my school
(12:05):
and everything.
But what that did was, and Iguess I wasn't that great
because they made me see apsychologist or a psych
psychologist.
Yeah.
Or a therapist.
From the school.
They made me see somebodybecause I was acting too calm.
Like I wasn't showing anyemotion.
(12:27):
I was, I I started to black outin ballet class where I'd be in
a combination, across the floor,whatever it could have been.
And I would find myself the nextsecond coming back to myself and
staring at a window.
I didn't know how long I wasdoing that for.
(12:47):
My teachers would say, I wouldjust stop doing whatever I was
doing and just veer off.
Like I just went someplace.
And it was in that moment whereI was like, oh yeah, like it is
affecting me in a way that Ididn't think it would was going
to.
Now, mind you, my mom passesaway at five and a half.
(13:12):
Then my grandpa, my mom's dadpasses away at when I was 10,
and then my grandma, my mom'smom passes away when I was 16.
And like my grandma and mygrandpa were like my rocks.
My people.
And so it was like boom, likeeveryone went.
Now I didn't have a greatrelationship with my dad.
(13:35):
And I had a lot of anger andresentment towards him because I
felt like he wasn't giving usanything, I wasn't getting the
father.
Because he just, he physicallyand emotionally was just gone,
he was doing his day to day, butit was like I didn't get what I
thought I needed from him, andso I held a lot of resentment
(13:56):
and anger at that time for him.
But when he passed away, it waslike I can't really hold onto
this stuff anymore.
He's gone, and so I decided, Ijust have to like, forgive him
for whatever he couldn't do, andjust think about the happy times
that I had with him and makethat more of a priority in my
(14:20):
mind, not the negative, becausethe negative.
He was a hurt person.
He was a broke person who wasjust trying to make it in life
and I was a broke kid who wasjust trying to deal with the
fact that I had a broken father.
And I just had to deal withfiguring out how that was going
(14:42):
to look like.
I think it's interesting becausewe all, if we really take a look
at it, yeah.
We're all broken and we all gothrough the same thing, but in
the moment you feel like you'rethe only one.
Yeah.
As an adult.
And you start to haveconversations about it.
And I've heard a lot of peoplehave 79 episodes in, and
everyone has, and I'm notdiminishing it from your
(15:02):
experience'cause it was yourexperience, but it's fascinating
to me that we all, it happens.
Yeah.
We all go through this.
Rollercoaster of life and haveto navigate not only through it
in the moment, but then navigatethrough it when we're adults.
So I can't imagine, that, justsitting here listening to that
(15:23):
is, is pretty shocking that as ayoung person, you went through
so much loss and yet you wake upone morning or at one point say,
I'm going to focus on thepositive and I'm going to focus
on the good memories.
Yeah.
And the resilience there ispretty remarkable.
That says a lot about who youare.
(15:44):
Are you at this time when you'reaway at school?
If you don't mind me asking, areyou questioning who you are,
sexuality, where you fit in allof that?
Did that come later?
Like, where is that all fittinginto this rather Yeah.
Circuitous route, it'sinteresting because I knew who I
(16:05):
was since I was a kid veryyoung.
I remember being five and juststaring at this one guy.
We were at a pool somewhere.
I was with my sister's sister.
I remember being with somebodyand I remember seeing this guy
in yellow board shorts, and hehad a furry chest, and I just
remember staring at him andthinking like I liked him.
(16:26):
But different than I, when Iwould stare at a girl and I
liked her.
It was more like I was intriguedby this man, intrigued by his
hair and I don't know.
So I just always knew.
Then, once you get into likemiddle school and people start
changing and everyone has to.
(16:49):
Really show who they are in aweird way.
You can't just be who you are.
You have to be straight or it'slike there's no Medium.
Middle ground.
And I just remember peoplealways saying to me,'cause I've
always been more of theeffeminate type.
My voice was always higher.
I was always just moreflamboyant.
And I didn't mind that I, itdidn't bother me, but it would,
(17:12):
people would call me slurs atschool, and I just remembered
when that would happen.
I would just be like, but I amso what's the problem?
It didn't take me down.
It was just like, you're sayingsomething I already know.
And I'm okay with it and are,you should be okay with it.
And at that, middle school agedmind, I, I didn't use those
(17:34):
terms, but.
I never really had a time whereI was struggling with my
sexuality of maybe figuring outwho I was.
I just knew that I was gay.
Yeah.
But I do have a funny storyside.
Side note, my grandma when I was12, she calls me one day outta
the blue and I'm always with herand she goes, so I have to ask
(17:59):
you something and I want you tobe honest with me.
Okay?
Are you gay?
And I'm like, on the phone what?
My whole body just went hot andI was all, this can't be
happening'cause like, why wouldshe ask me that?
And I go, yeah.
And she goes, okay, I figured Ialready, I was already talking
to everybody about it, but Ijust wanted to make sure that
(18:21):
like it was true, it's grandma,you can't be just asking pe
telling people this.
And not even asking me first.
She's I already know Steven.
I've known since you were a kid.
You just never said anything.
And came up to me and talked tome about it.
And I thought that was thefunniest thing.
I was like, granny.
Don't do that.
But it was the relationship thatwe had that, yeah, she could ask
(18:42):
me anything I want, anything shewanted, I could ask her anything
I wanted and she'd be honestwith me.
And vice versa.
I think grandmothers are likethat.
My dad's mom.
When I told her I was mucholder.
I was 24.
And when I told her I was sonervous and she said, she's tell
me something I didn't alreadyknow.
And I'm like, but grandma, howdid you know?
And I used to see her quiteoften.
(19:03):
She lived here in San Diego.
I lived up in LA and I said, howdid you know?
And she goes, honey, every timeyou came to visit me, you asked
to eat on the good China and thegood crystal.
And she's no straight boy wouldever care.
And my God, I guess it gaveanyway, which of course I now
own all of it and it's so yeah.
In storage.
But I think that's sointeresting, Steven is, you
(19:26):
again, such a common thread.
We all know at a certain pointin our life.
When we are different and wedon't know how to express it, we
don't know how to explain it.
We don't know that it's okaybecause we've been told that
it's not, or we've heardsuperfluous that it's not.
And our parents, God bless them,don't have the, there's no
(19:47):
school or class that they go tolearn how to raise an LGBTQ plus
child but there's no training.
And so I think they do the bestthat they can.
And yet I then say that was.
For me almost 30 years ago it'slike, why have we not come any
(20:08):
farther?
Why have we not been a placewhere I could come to my mom and
say, you know what, mom?
I like this guy and your guy atthe pool with the furry chest.
And the was my friend's dad whowas a swimmer.
Same thing, right?
Every Friday after a footballgame, we were at the house and
(20:29):
there was this guy, and I didn'tunderstand it.
I was nervous, I was ashamed.
But when I later told thatstory, which it's way too long
to go into now, but there's afunny story to it.
But when I later told the story,they were like why didn't you
say something then?
And I'm like.
I don't know.
I was terrified.
I was so afraid of being foundout.
(20:50):
And so how great though that ourgrandparents and our elders, as
I like to call them, knew allalong and, but just were like
waiting for us to come out andnot everybody is that fortunate.
There are a lot of people whodon't have the opportunity or
don't have that kind of warmresponse.
I want to make sure I make thatpoint, but she sounds like a
great lady.
I think our grandmotherswould've been good friends.
(21:11):
Yeah, no she was amazing.
She was a, she honestly was likemy best friend.
So like when I, when she passedaway and I lost her, it was
like, I think that's one of thereasons that I broke when my dad
died, was because it brought meback to a place where I had
(21:32):
another, I lost someone.
Even though I wasn't close to mydad, I loved him, he's my dad.
I think what brought up mydissociation and my self, going
inward when he passed awaynecessarily wasn't, I would say
him.
It was the, I didn't deal withthe death of my grandma.
(21:57):
And I was so young with my momthat I, how do you even process
who your mother is when you onlyhave a couple yeah.
Visions of what you think you'rea member of this person.
But my granny, it's no, I hadher all the way until I was 16.
I have so many memories,conversations just so much that
(22:19):
I could hold onto.
So when he died, it was, I ranaway to go to this boarding
school.
Once my grandma died, I waslike, I want to move.
Also I needed to, for mydancing, if I wanted to be
something, I had to get outtathe town that I was in.
And that was, there was no otherway.
But I know if I'm honest withmyself, I ran away.
(22:42):
'cause I didn't was part of itwas I ran away.
'cause I didn't want to dealwith the fact that she was gone.
I can understand that if I'mbeing honest.
No, that's great.
And I didn't want to believe itfor so long, even though I knew
she was gone.
It was the first person in mylife that like really loved me
and really wanted the best forme and gave me so much, like
(23:07):
outside of my sisters they'rewonderful.
They've always done so much forme and my best friend Lauren,
and obviously Paul, my, Pete, mypartner, but Granny was like,
that was my person, that was youknow who you're.
Yeah.
Your angel is, that was grannyfor me and I had a hard time
(23:29):
dealing with that.
So I left, and I left for thatand reasons to get better and
to, start my life and start mycareer.
But yeah, that, that was thereason I think I broke was I was
having to now face it again.
In a different person.
Yeah.
So it all collided.
(23:49):
But going back now, we're goingto come back to this.
So I never had a problem withmyself and my sexuality and
fitting out like who I was.
Outside of dance.
Now when we get to dance, my,that's where I was like, I was
fighting because I was toldevery day that I had a different
(24:13):
body.
I didn't have a ballet body.
I didn't have the lines and theproportions and the abilities
that you would associate withballet dancer or that would be
considered that would help youget professional or, be in the
world of ballet.
So pause there for a secondbecause te teach me'cause I am,
(24:36):
I'm confused.
So obviously you are almost sixfeet, you're incredibly
handsome.
You are physically fit.
What's not the ballet body?
Tell the novice or the, whatdoes that mean?
Okay, help me understand that.
'cause I don't get it.
Of course.
So in ballet, your body is yourinstrument we create lines.
(24:59):
Lines in ways.
So when you look at a dancer,they have to have.
Obviously now it's changing yourdifferent bodies.
Nobody has a perfect body, butat that time when I started, it
was still very much, you have tohave a shaped foot, very arched
foot, so you know, somethingthat really points at the top of
(25:20):
the arch.
Straight legs or hyperextendedlegs were a plus.
Flexibility turnout.
So flexibility and openness inyour hips to make a really nice
flat position with your legs andfeet.
And I don't have any of those.
I have, bent knees, justnaturally bent legs.
(25:42):
I've gotten them straighter asI've gotten older from dancing.
But when I first started it, Ihad bent knees.
I had.
Harsh arches that didn't bend.
So my foot really didn't give abeautiful line.
I wasn't flexible and I had avery tight back, so I had no
arabesque.
(26:03):
And I wish I could like, giveyou pictures.
It's hard to tell but how didthat make you feel when you were
going to do something that youobviously love and that you
wanted to do and you're toldthose things, what's going
through your head?
Because someone's in that momenttelling you that you're not
potentially able to be who youwant to be.
What does, how does that makeyou feel?
Where does that leave you orwhere did that leave you
(26:23):
personally?
Not personally.
At that time I was so stubbornand so focused on what I was
going to be, that I had theresilience to be like, you're
not going to tell me what I'm,what?
I'm not going to be like, I'mgoing to be this thing.
(26:45):
I've known since I was four fivethat I was going to be a dancer.
I didn't know how I was going tobe one, but I knew that was my
life's purpose was to dance andto be to create art.
And so I think that just thesheer resilience, and I was
prideful and I was stubborn, andI told myself, there is no other
(27:09):
choice.
Like you go away to school, youhave to make it like there is no
plan B.
Like this is what you're goingto do.
And I told myself that everyday.
'cause I was like, I'm not goingback to my small town.
I'm not going back to having nolife.
This is my life where I am rightnow.
(27:31):
This is my life and this isgoing to be my life.
And no one's going to tell mesome tell me different.
But again, it was, I think if Ididn't have that, I would've
crumbled.
Quicker.
Now them saying what they saiddid affect me subconsciously,
(27:52):
but I was so guarded and focusedfor so many years that I pushed
it and compartmentalized it, andthen it started coming out later
in my life.
Okay.
Before you get there, because Iknow we're going there, so I
have a question.
Yeah.
Okay.
So how does it make you feel?
What are the emotions that youfeel when you're dancing?
(28:14):
Tell me what that's like.
The good analogy is I feel free,I guess free.
Free of everything, free ofanger, free of resentment, free
(28:35):
of everything.
I guess you could say, I feel.
Bliss.
If I could put bliss intosomething and even on a bad day,
there's something, it could be abad day, but I still feel bliss
(28:55):
when I'm really dancing.
I just think too, it's, I'mfulfilling my purpose, my
purpose is to dance and tocreate and to use my body, and
I'm a vessel for my source, forhigher power.
(29:17):
And it's, when I'm dancing, Ijust, I don't know how to
explain it more than bliss.
Freeness free, freedom.
Even if I'm tired or I'm havinga bad day, or.
Whatever it could have been.
I'm still at, I'm still at thatbliss feeling.
(29:39):
I'm still that freedom.
That's what, I guess that's whatit would be for me.
Is there, I see this because Ilove dance.
I am not a dancer by any stretchof the imagination, but I love
dance.
I love dance.
I love watching ballet and justall kinds of dance.
There's a power in it for you.
So do you know what I mean?
Like when I watch you, you can,there's a power fullness in it
(30:01):
and it's a, maybe it's what'sthe word I want to use?
A what presence?
A posture.
And I don't mean the air bestposture.
There's a posture to your dance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I've been watching a coupledifferent dancers on social
media and.
To me, it's just, I get thefreedom, I get the bliss.
It's joyful.
But the empowerment that I seein people's dancing and what
(30:23):
it's doing for other peoplelittle bit different example
'cause it's not dance, but I amright this moment obsessed with
Ray, the singer.
Love it.
Obsessed.
Obsessed and good.
I particularly like her.
Where the hell is my husband'ssong?
Yeah.
Because it means a lot to meright now.
I was just listening to that inmy car earlier today.
It's on auto play in my house.
(30:43):
'cause it's just my, it's mymantra right now where the hell
is my husband.
But I'm watching some of thesedancers that I like to watch on
Instagram.
Using that song and watchingthem dance gives me not only joy
and not only that bliss, but italso gives me that empowerment.
Yeah.
Because it's expression in a waythat doesn't require words.
(31:05):
It doesn't require somedefinition or description.
They're just dancing and thereare some amazing dancers out
there, right?
That are just really inspiring.
So I want to just, I was justcurious kind of what you felt
and what words you were going tocome up with.
I see The Bliss for sure.
Yeah.
Because you can see it in yourdance.
You also are an artist.
You also paint.
(31:26):
I do, and I love watching yourpainting content because you
just paint do.
At least that's what we see.
There's no pretense about it.
There's no this is going to behanging in the Guggenheim.
Yeah.
Even if it could, I lovewatching your content when
you're like, I've created a newpiece, and you show it.
The pride that you have in thatpiece that you have created is
(31:48):
more about your journey and yourpride and how you feel about the
piece than anybody that'swatching it.
We all could like it.
We could maybe not understandit.
We could.
Maybe love it, but it's you andyour expression that the world's
seeing.
Yeah.
And that's what I love about it.
So I have a friend who teachespainting class, and I went to
one of his classes and they didthis poor technique where they
(32:12):
poured.
Levels of different paint colorsin a cup and then you basically
dump the paint and you adjustthe canvas and you're using
acrylics.
Yeah.
And it creates this.
Yeah.
And I realized in that moment,I've always known this about
myself, but I realized in thattwo and a half hours that I was
there is that I'm aperfectionist beyond compare.
And that painting had to beperfect where everybody else was
just messing with it and playingwith it.
(32:33):
And I, mine had to be perfect.
Yeah.
The second time was this realsense of expression.
I didn't care what anyonethought.
I didn't care how it looked.
It was just me getting this outonto the paper.
And I creative career, but notreally, like really, it's not my
full expression.
And so to be able to watchpeople enjoy that within
themselves is really cool.
What's the process for you whenyou paint?
(32:55):
Is it, do you have an idea ofwhat you're going to paint when
you sit down?
Or do you just create from thecuff?
What's that process for you?
And second question to thatfirst question is it a different
process than the dancecreativity?
Curious if it's different.
Okay.
That's a good one.
Ooh.
So when I'm a visual person,okay.
(33:19):
With dancing, visual music,visual, so I goes into my
painting is visual.
If I can visualize somethingbefore I've painted before I've
painted it, then I know my, whatI'm going to do.
If I can't visualize something,that's when I get stumped.
(33:39):
And then it takes me longer tobuild on something that I'm
doing.
Okay.
As, so yeah, my, my process forpainting is I visualize it
first, or an idea or it could belike a tree branch or a grain of
sand or, I literally could beanything and it will spark a
(34:01):
whole like.
Music video in my head of what Iwanted to see, what I wanted to
see with it.
Now with my dancing, it'sdifferent, I think, because at
least with ballet,'cause we havesuch, it's a regimented we have
the same kind of thing build upin class.
(34:23):
We have bar and then we havecenter.
The combinations can bedifferent, but it's a, they're
either a DU or a Deje or ranJean.
There's a sequence to it.
And I think now that I'm sayingit, I think that I use that
buildup in my painting.
There's my, I guess you couldsay there's steps.
(34:43):
Look at me just having thisepiphany.
It's, yeah, I have steps.
So I guess it does correlatesomewhat.
It's definitely different fordance than for painting.
I feel, for painting, I'm alittle more free.
Because I can create anything.
It can be as hideous as I wantit to be.
(35:05):
It can be as beautiful as I wantit to be.
And I don't have anyone tellingme that it should look either
or.
And ballet, with dancing,depending on the choreography or
what you're doing, you do havethat Yeah.
Yeah.
My listeners would be super madif I didn't circle back because
(35:25):
I took us off course.
I'm going to circle back for asecond because this is
important.
It just popped into my head.
See, I was like, Oop.
I derailed us and I'm pulling usback.
So you're told you don't havethe lines, you don't have.
The feet.
You don't have the legs, youdon't all of that.
So they're telling you what youdon't have.
You have this resilience whereyou're like, I'm going to do it.
(35:46):
It's my only choice.
There's no plan B.
What was that next step?
How did that go and how did youend up pushing past those
barriers of what people weretelling you could not do or you
did not have to where you aredancing now?
What was that journey?
It's interesting because asresilient and as focused as I
(36:11):
was, I made it happen.
But I again, I guesscompartmentalized a lot.
So anything negative, I justdidn't have time for in my mind.
At the same time, I was veryharshly critical on myself.
(36:32):
Overly critical.
I didn't allow myself to enjoywhat I was doing for a very long
time, even though I felt freedoing what I was doing.
It was this, it's this weird, Iwas unhappy with the fact that I
wasn't what my teachers and whatother people look like.
(36:56):
But I wasn't going to allowmyself to stop doing the thing
that made me the most happy.
Sure.
And living in my purpose.
And at the same time, I wasextremely negative and hard and
cri critical on myself to thepoint where I physically and
(37:16):
emotionally couldn't enjoy whatI was doing.
And this is not just, a coupleyears, this is like from school
up until three years ago.
And three years ago is when Ireally made a change for myself.
And so it was a very long timeof having this weird up and down
(37:42):
battle with myself.
Yeah, I I just had a lot ofresilience.
I knew that if I looked atmyself in the mirror, I wasn't
going to what I saw, so Idecided not to look in mirrors.
I didn't like people takingphotos of me or videos of me.
'cause I didn't want to see whatI looked like outside of what I
(38:02):
saw here, outside of what I sawin my mind.
Because I knew if I, if thathappened, it would break me
because I, in essence, believedeverything that my teachers and
others said about me, but Iwouldn't allow myself to
physically see it.
If I couldn't physically see it,it wasn't real.
(38:22):
And so it, again, it was a wayto, for me to protect myself and
to get through what I needed toget through with my schooling
and to do the thing that I wouldlove to do.
And that I, that it was mypurpose, it was my source
purpose to do.
Many people would wa many peoplewould walk.
Yeah.
Many people would give up.
Yeah.
Prime example I remember Iwanted to do, when I was in
(38:43):
college, I wanted to do printmodeling.
And I was really excited.
I don't remember where it was orhow it came up, but I remember
them saying, you'll never gethired'cause you're too tall.
That's so interesting.
He's very tall in high school.
And I remember Stephen makingthe decision that I hate being
tall, hated it.
(39:04):
In that moment, I madeeverything about being tall,
wrong for most of my life.
Wow.
And I didn't realize that untila couple months ago, really
realize it when it came up inconversation about people being
told that there can't be whothey want to be because of X, Y,
and Z.
And I remembered that moment andI wanted to be an architect and
(39:25):
an interior designer, but I'mcolorblind told, oh, you could
never do that because you can'tsee color.
No, that's not true.
But I believed that so manythings that I wanted to do and
that I really felt were apassion for me when I was
younger.
I didn't do because people toldme I couldn't do it.
And if you look at modeling now.
There is every shape, size,color, everyone.
(39:47):
Everybody.
Yeah.
Everybody interior designers,that's what teams are for,
right?
Yeah.
So I can't pick color.
You find a great colorist, so doI.
Don't regret it.
'cause I made an amazing choiceand I was able to re to have my
creativity and the work that Ido and creating and producing
events all over the world forthe past 25 years.
So I'm not, I didn't end up a, acall center, person.
(40:08):
No, there's nothing wrong withthat.
But I didn't take that drasticof a route.
Yeah.
But it's interesting when Ilisten to you, because a lot of
people would say I've been toldthis that the other, and I'm,
there must be something wrongwith me and so I'm just going to
go do something else.
And that's the part that painsme the most for so many kids and
so many young people, is becausewe just don't allow ourselves
(40:30):
to.
Grow into who we are and we thenhave to unpack it in our
thirties, forties, and fiftiesand sixties and go to therapy
over it because we believe thethings that people said.
And I'm, looking at the currentsituation that we're in now, and
I worry that there are going tobe a lot of young people that
(40:50):
are out in school, elementaryschool, high school, listening
to a lot of the conversationsthat are happening.
Choose to walk away rather thanto have that resilience and face
that conversation and moveforward.
So I think your story is superpowerful and will resonate with
a lot of people, especiallythose with kids.
'cause we have to support, wehave to support our young people
(41:13):
in finding themselves and torealizing who they are.
'cause they're beautiful, right?
Yeah.
They're unique.
And you talk about source andhigher power.
Some people will call it God.
But we were put here on earthfor a reason.
Yeah.
We were put here to be ofservice to others.
We were put here to be goodstewards of love and compassion
and kindness and all of thosethings.
And.
(41:33):
In a time where it's difficultto do that.
Even I at 59 next month.
Yeah.
Want to stop at sometimes andjust'cause it's a lot of effort.
And then I remind myself, Nope,I can't stop.
I have to be this steward ofkindness and love and generosity
and compassion and caring.
And that's why I continue onwith this podcast because I know
(41:55):
that there are people outlistening to these episodes,
they're going to listen to yourepisode and either see
themselves or see their child ortheir friends or someone that
they know in that samecircumstance and realize that
it's just time that we're ableto just be ourselves and live
our life.
And when you look at you now isafter all that, that they said
you couldn't do it.
It couldn't be this, it couldn'tbe that.
(42:16):
And I get the resilience partand all that, but you're dancing
and you're existing in paintingin your bliss.
And what you're doing and howit's showing up to the world is,
excuse my French, I don't give aF what you think.
This is me.
And you're also partnered withsomebody who has had a
(42:37):
remarkable journey to findthemselves and are now writing
books about it, which we willtalk about this week on the
episode.
And when I think of the two ofyou together, I'm just like,
holy crap.
Like what a journey.
Independently and now togetherthat can make such a difference
in the lives of even couplesthat are going to watch both.
(43:01):
'Cause I've had the privilegeand the joy of listening to you
separately.
And getting to know youseparately.
Yeah.
But knowing what I know aboutboth of you and how you feel
about each other is superpowerful as well.
Sorry for my rant, but I justhad to get that out'cause it's
super important.
No rant at all.
It's super important because.
I have a friend who's strugglingwith their child at the moment,
(43:21):
and this child is expressingthemselves so deeply and they
just don't know necessarily howto navigate it all.
And they were asking me if I hada resource of who they could
talk to.
And I made a couple suggestionsto them and how to deal and how
to navigate this conversationwith this absolutely beautiful,
brilliant child who is going tobe a change maker in this world.
(43:43):
I can feel it already.
I can see it.
And they had no idea where togo.
So conversations like this aresuper important.
I want to go back to a couplethings that we've touched on.
Yes.
Yeah.
So when you are dancing nowdoes, and I'm sure it does, but
(44:04):
does it pop up every now andagain, imposter syndrome for
you?
Or is it just, have you just nowresigned yourself to the fact
that this is who you are?
And that doesn't even pop intoplay.
I'm just curious if it everrears.
Oh God, no.
It still creeps in.
I just, I don't think it, itwill ever really go away.
(44:26):
It's just what I choose for itto be.
So I know now that I held on formany years to what people's
beliefs and opinions of whatthey thought I could or could
not do.
But now it's more, I think I'mjust happier with myself, so it
(44:47):
doesn't matter to me anymore.
And I have to tell myself that alot.
'cause in, obviously when I'm inclass and I'm in rehearsals,
you're never going to be goodevery single day.
You're going to have off days.
You're again with a bunch ofpeers who.
Have beautiful bodies, to whatyou think is beautiful.
(45:08):
And you have that comparison ofgosh, I don't have that, or I
wish I had that, but I have toreally be present every day and
every day I'm in class andrehearsal and be like, I am
beautiful.
The way I dance and how I look.
And because I think for yearspeople would always tell me
(45:33):
like, are you having a greattime?
Are you having fun?
Are you enjoying, did you have agreat time performing?
And I always said yes, and Ishined on stage.
But what I was giving on theoutside was just defeated ness,
it was very, it seemed veryinsecure and just not happy, but
(45:53):
inside I could be doing.
Whatever it could have beenballet wise and happy.
'cause I was dancing and Ididn't correlate that I had to
project that outwards because Iwas so used to projecting it or,
taking it inward.
And that was my safe space.
That what I was showing on theoutside was not what I felt like
(46:15):
in the inside.
So when I realized that I had tostart dancing from the inside, I
had to show that excitement andthat place that I feel, in my
heart.
I had to project that out.
And when I started doing that, Istarted getting a lot of people
telling me, wow, you look sohappy.
(46:36):
Wow, you danced so beautiful,like your presence and all these
different things.
And I'm like, but I've beendoing that for so long.
What's different now?
And it was the fact that Ireally went.
Inside myself and showed whatwas there and projected it out.
(46:59):
And I didn't do that for so manyyears.
'cause I was battling, and I Istill battle now, but I, the
voices are a little bit, softer.
They're quiet most times.
And if I feel like I'm goingdown that rabbit hole I just go
it's not that serious.
It's not that serious.
Dancing, I'm literally dancingaround in tights.
(47:23):
I have to put it in that way formyself because if I don't I take
it so seriously that it ruinsme.
'Cause I can't obtain thatperfectionism that perfect
anything.
And so I have to tell myself Iam a boy and tights.
Dancing around, and it makes itlighter.
It makes it easier for me, andit makes me come back to myself.
(47:47):
Yeah.
It's interesting, Steven,because I think we all, whether
you'll admit it or not you,Steven, but you'll Yes.
We'll ever admit it.
Yeah.
We are very hard on ourselves.
Yeah.
And we make ourselves sometimesour circumstances and who we are
not.
(48:07):
Yeah.
Are our circumstances.
Yeah.
Who Steven is in the world isnot his circumstances.
You were not your past, you werenot.
That journey that you took, youwere not The loss of those
people that you loved.
Who you are is this beautifulsoul who is out changing the
world with their crafts and justbeing who they are.
And if that is who you are meantto be by this source and higher
(48:31):
power is showing people thatthey just need to go and dance,
whatever that meant for them,then you're doing the right
thing.
And I think, I can relate.
I can totally relate because Iam incredibly critical of myself
as well.
I've been doing this career foralmost 30 years now, and I'm
coming to the end of thiscareer.
(48:51):
And with the podcast, it was atwo year procrastination of
every reason and excuse not todo it.
Yeah.
People weren't going to listenand I wasn't going to be a good
host.
And all of those things, wouldit resonate?
What do I have to say?
What do I have to say?
And are people going to care?
And how many clicks and how manydownloads and how many of this?
And it's a constant reminderbecause people will pop in to
(49:15):
your dms as the kids say thesedays, or slide into your dms and
just make these comments.
And it's it's interesting towatch, but I know that if one
person listens to this episodewith you, and it makes a
difference for them, that we'veaccomplished what we set out to
accomplish.
It's not about a thousanddownloads or.
25,000 likes.
It's about the content and theimpact that it's making.
(49:37):
Yeah.
And you're doing that, right?
I will tell you a little funny,'cause I think I like to bring a
little levity sometimes toconversations and I know it's
easier for someone to say thisthan to, for you to experience
it when you look at yourself andyou're having those
conversations.
I have this small little groupof friends that I share a lot
about the guests that I'm havingon podcasts and I will show,
(49:59):
Instagram and photos and stuff.
Yeah.
And I showed your content to afriend of mine.
She's she said a few expletives,number one, and she's oh my god,
this guy.
Gorgeous and stunning as shewould not stop talking about
you.
And she was just, and she's lookat, and he's just so lean and so
beautiful and dah.
And it was just fun to hearsomeone else say that.
(50:20):
But it's then really interestingto hear you say the things that
you say, because we don't seeourselves as others see us
sometimes because we are thatharsh critic.
And I sometimes feel just likethe intro earlier, is that we
need to really listen to whatpeople are saying about us.
Yeah.
And I struggle with that too.
In fact, I just had a sessionwith my coach about it two days
(50:41):
ago.
I was like, I don't know howpeople can say that when I don't
feel that.
Like how is that?
Like, where's the disconnect?
And we're in the process.
I didn't want a quick answer.
I didn't want to find out.
I didn't want him to tell mewhat the answer was.
Yeah.
I need to experience that formyself, just like you do as
well.
We need to unpack what we'vebeen told and what we've been
taught and learn how to turnthat.
(51:02):
Yeah.
And the people that are sayingit to us and the people that are
sharing there.
Love and their excitement andtheir what's the word I want to
use?
Their willingness to spend timewith us, whether it's you and
your dancing, or your paintingand me and the podcast and other
things, is that we have tolisten to them and we have to
(51:22):
take that in, that's just thereality.
That what we've created is notthe reality.
It's the story at which we'vecreated the reality.
But it's not true.
It's not true.
It's, and again, easier saidthan done.
And if that takes us ourlifetime to figure that out,
then it does.
But I'm super, I don't say thiscondescendingly, but I'm super
proud of you for having thisability to push through life and
(51:46):
to push past people's commentsabout you and about what you
have and what You don't have tocome to a place where you can
simply get up and do what youlove to do, and you've turned it
into something that for you isbliss.
And for others, it's going togive them whatever experience
(52:09):
that it gives them, but it'sgoing to ripple.
It's going to ripple.
And I'm, I said the same thingto your partner, Peter, about
his book.
It's going to ripple.
I love it.
It's going to ripple andeverything that we do, ripples,
and where I think we can becomebetter to ourselves, uhhuh is to
just let that all in.
Yeah.
It's called Just doing you.
(52:30):
Not to use a punt of my podcast,but just to do you, it's just to
do you.
Thank you.
So I have a couple lastquestions for you.
Yeah.
'cause I could talk to you allday, like I could did the other
day.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
I can imagine you and people aregetting together for dinner,
coffee is going to be a verylong experience, but I can't
(52:50):
wait for that to happen.
What's next for you?
What's on the horizon forSteven?
What's on?
Okay, so I am choreographing formy company we're doing crafted,
so it's local choreographerswithin the company.
And it's going to be the openingof our season.
So this starts I think theperformances are the 25th and
(53:12):
26th.
So that Saturday, Sunday.
I think that's a Saturday,Sunday, and.
I've choreographed a lot for theschools that I've taught at.
I've taught, I choreographed forkids, but this will be the first
time that I choreograph to peersor on peers.
And it's, the choreography isthe abstract version and what,
(53:35):
or what I saw or I see in mymind of my struggles.
And of what I'm talking to youabout with the, resilience, but
also the self-deprecatingnegativity on my own self.
But then the, I'm going to makeit no matter what, the constant
(53:55):
thing.
I'm creating that into a piece.
Which I'm really nervous about.
I'm really excited.
I.
It's just a big change for me.
I'm really putting myself outthere, and I think I have to,
because if I really want to growand make something happen for
myself to that next step, likethis is my next step, and then I
(54:22):
really want to get my art going.
And obviously the goal would be,I would love to be, doing
galleries and have a, have mywork being seen and resignated
with people.
That would be a wonderful thing.
So it's just, and I also havethe feeling that it's going to
be, just like with dance, I hadthis inherent feeling.
(54:46):
The second that I knew I wantedto be a dancer, I literally
could see my entire future.
I just knew there was no other.
Nothing else was going to stopme.
And when I started paintingagain, I knew I needed to do
something creative, the outsideof dance.
And when I started painting, Iwas like, oh my gosh, I'm having
(55:09):
the same feeling with mypainting.
Even if I'm, just started again.
I'm having the same just gutfeeling that something as big is
going to happen.
And I just have to be going onthe ride again.
It's like starting over like Idid with my dancing.
(55:29):
It's all the school and then youget professional and then you
know everything in between.
It's the same thing.
But now I'm doing with my art,I'm creating with my hands.
Not my body, but it's the same,yeah.
I'm still creating it andfeeling the source that is
telling me like, you need to dothis.
(55:50):
Those are the next steps for meis doing this piece, pushing
myself, pushing through the fearand the everything that comes
along with that.
And working on my art and justshowing it, showing my process
for my pieces that I do alreadyand having fun with it.
(56:11):
Because, for, a long time Ididn't show people anything.
I didn't show myself anything.
And so now I'm like I'm actuallyreally happy when I create
something because it makes mefeel happy.
So I'm like, if it makes me feelhappy I post it.
Yeah.
And I have stuff I haven'tposted that make me feel happy,
but it's just, I just know thatif I'm happy about it, people
(56:38):
are going to see it.
Yeah, for sure.
And that's where I am.
If I feel even iffy aboutsomething, no one's going to see
it.
I just know that.
But if I have an inkling thatyeah, something comes out of me,
that is what I think magic is.
It's going to be seen.
And nine times out of 10, I'malways, I'm always hitting the
(56:59):
nail on the head.
And I still get surprised everytime people comment and write to
me about my painting or my artor, I sold my first piece of art
to a really awesome guy who alsofound me on Instagram.
I was like, I love your work.
I love like your artistry andeverything.
And he bought one of my pieces.
(57:20):
And so just in that, it made merealize okay, I'm on the right
path.
Yeah.
If somebody's so early on inwhat I'm doing and random
people, I've never met thesestrangers to me, really through
social media.
Can write to me and be like, Ilove your art.
I know I'm on the right path.
Yeah.
(57:41):
Yeah.
It's so cool.
I love it.
If you, thank, you could giveone piece of advice to a young
person that's maybe sitting athome and wanting to do something
like dance or art or singing ortheater, and it's being maybe
told that they don't have whatit takes or they're too young or
too tall, or too short or toofat, or whatever the case may
(58:03):
be.
What would be your piece ofadvice to them?
My piece of advice would be,does it make you feel something?
Do you feel happy when you thinkabout that thing?
Do you feel excitement?
Of possibility, even if youcan't render what those words
(58:26):
are, if you can't render whatthe emotion is that you're
feeling when you think aboutdancing or painting or Broadway
or whatever it might be if itreally hits you with sheer
excitement and love and justanything that is powerful, you
(58:52):
have to do it.
Even if someone tells you, maybethey think that you can't do it,
that you don't probably, thatyou shouldn't do it.
I think if you feel somethingabout whatever it might be, do
it because your gut is alwaysright.
Your gut instinct literallytells you and guides you on what
(59:14):
you should do.
And I think I, I wish that Iwould've.
Told myself that during thetimes that I felt most down you,
your gut told you, Steven, thisis what you should do and you
need to be happy'cause you feelhappy doing it.
(59:35):
I wish I would've told thesethings or had the knowledge or
had the understanding in myselfwhen I was a little bit younger,
because now I do that constantlyand I have to, it's like a
regimen and it makes me happy.
And it's projecting to people Idon't even know.
So that, and right there tellsme that's what I should have
(59:59):
been doing all along.
And I think to anyone watching,that's what you should do.
You follow your gut, you followthat instinct, that feeling.
And you don't let it go.
Yeah.
No matter what.
I'm a big firm believer intiming.
Yeah.
And divine intervention.
Because we can say that theminute you declare something in
your life, doesn't matter whatage you are, I always believe
(01:00:20):
this.
The minute you declaresomething, the universe aligns
with that goal.
Yep.
And what happens is that theuniverse then tests you every
step of the way because italigns you with that goal.
And it's a clear path all thetime.
Straight ahead.
All the time.
All the time.
And then they're going to, it'sgoing to throw you everything it
can.
(01:00:41):
Yeah.
To take you off course.
And some people will fall offcourse and some people won't.
Some people will come back toit.
So I look at it similarly andsay that, yes, you could have
told yourself that, but wouldyou have been ready to hear it?
Perhaps the universe worked inthe way that it worked, because
(01:01:03):
look at you now.
Yeah.
So that's a whole other podcastepisode.
You gotta do another one.
I do.
I do hope you'll come back.
I have one, one last questionfor you before we wrap it up.
I love today.
Thank you.
I needed this.
I loved our time together.
Thank you for sharing.
I love your journey and forsharing your experiences.
I think you were a remarkablehuman being, so I can't wait to
see what's next for you.
(01:01:24):
So you have an open invitationto always come back, but thank
you.
You're welcome.
My last question is this, if youcould go back to that five,
6-year-old Steven what would youtell him about his life today?
Oh geez.
Oh gosh.
(01:01:44):
I would tell him you're exactlywhere you're supposed to be.
And you never need to doubt orunderestimate yourself.
(01:02:11):
Yeah.
That's it in a nutshell, theperf perfect way to end the
conversation.
I, again, thank you for beinghere.
Thank you for spending some timewith me.
Okay.
We're going to make sure thateverybody can follow you on
Instagram.
Yes.
Thank you.
Anything you want to share withme?
With Steven Vale.
With Steven, with Steven.
(01:02:31):
We're going to make sure that weactually get it up on our social
media when we launch yourepisode in a couple weeks.
But again, thanks for beinghere, Steven.
You're a delight.
And keep dancing safe.
Okay?
I gotta tell you though.
I gotta tell you.
Tell me.
You're my first podcast.
I've never done this before, sothank you for having me.
You were of course, and you'reamazing.
And you're always welcome back.
Thank you.
(01:02:51):
So, on that note, please comeback.
Thanks for being here, and we'lltalk to you soon.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Bye love.
Bye bye.
Alright, everyone, thank youagain for joining us on today's
episode.
I hope our conversationresonated with you like it did
me, and I cannot wait to sitdown with you all again next
(01:03:13):
week.
Remember to subscribe to theJUST DO YOU Podcast on your
favorite platform so you canmake sure not to miss a new
episode, which drop everyThursday.
If you like what you hear, youcan easily share the podcast and
episode.
Directly with your friends andif you would rate us and leave
us a review, we'd love to hearfrom you.
You can also follow us onInstagram at just Do you pod as
(01:03:35):
you go out into the world today.
Remember to just do you.
Alright, talk next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com