Lessons - Creating Blockbusters & The Importance of Family | Kevin Makely, Actor & Producer

Welcome to the lessons episodes of Success Story. These lessons episodes will be shorter clips from past guests, accomplished value community members, and myself. In each short episode, we'll feature concise and insightful, actionable conversations and tactics, providing you with real-world strategies and tips to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. If you're seeking a no-nonsense approach to growth and progress, you've come to the right spot. Settle in, take notes, and enjoy. I'm the kind of guy, you know, like I said, once I'm also a competitive natural bodybuilder. I've been working out and I said, you know, my whole life, since I was 14, my mother this same year, my mother bought me a weight bench and a basic guitar. And you know, I did both of them. I wanted to be Getty Lee from Russia and I wanted to be Sylvester Stallone. So you know, my two heroes. And you know, and I worked so hard to achieve that for myself personally, and I never thought of it to do it for gain elsewhere. And then one day somebody said, hey, man, you should be, you should be competing bodybuilding, you know, this this natural circuit and you, I don't know why you work out as hard as you do. But I do, I don't, you know, so I wound up competing in my first competition. I won the whole thing and I went professional and, you know, so I, I was in that circuit for a little while. And it was because of all the hard work I did prior to it. It wasn't I decided to get in a bodybuilding worked hard and won the competition. I had worked hard, obviously training for bodybuilding, my whole life up until that point. And then somebody opened my eyes to something else and I was like, oh, wow, yeah, I guess I could do that. And, you know, so the same thing. I've been working so hard for, you know, 20-some-on-years in this acting world and, and everything I've been doing. And if I was guided into working hard to make my own thing, bodybuilding is very personal. There's no team. It's you. And, you know, and, and filmmaking is, it's a team effort, but somebody has to make the decision to make the film. Well, you know, that's what we did. You know, one common theme that I pick up in all your stories. So the bodybuilding story, when you actually pivoted, not pivoted, but created your first piece of film and you created it yourself as opposed to just relying on a studio. It's like you prep, you prep, you prep, and then after five, ten plus years of prep, then you execute. And it's the same saying, right? It's a theme that's, it peppers into your entire life. It's when they say that, you know, that overnight success is never overnight success. You always put reps in, you quite literally when you were, when you were trying to become a natural bodybuilding champion, but you also put reps in when you're producing a film. You put reps in in terms of the time spent learning the craft and executing the craft repeatedly to the point that when you do go for the big hurrah, the final production, then you execute with exceptional ability. But to the outsider looking in, it seems like it was overnight success, which we all know it wasn't. Yeah. I agree. And that's it. I mean, take, take it into your own hands, you know, that if I give advice, I'm not if you're going to ask that question, well, I'll take it in the next one, but if it's not just advice to me, if it's advice to anybody, I like to tell people, you know, there's no expiration date on a dream. And I've been in LA for 15 plus years, I've been in the acting world for 20 plus years. And I've never stopped, you know, and it wasn't until I took matters into my own hands to make my dreams come true. But, you know, I've seen people come and go, people come along and come out for pilot season, they're out here for six months, nothing happens, they give up, they go home, they do whatever they're going to do. You know, people give it five years, people give it 10 years. And I'm not saying you can't shift, you know, whatever, but I've never stopped doing this. You know, and now I'm living proof that there is no expiration date, 20 plus years I've been working at this. And, you know, no expiration date on a goal on a dream, you just keep plugging along, you just keep doing what you do. I don't take no for an answer. And when, you know, if you have the opportunity, take it in your own hands and do it yourself. I love it. And last question I wanted to ask before we close this off, where do you go to improve yourself? Like is it a mentor, is it a book, a podcast, an audible, like what's your thing to sort of grow as an individual? Ah, my wife and kids, I mean, I mean, you know, they just inspire me, you know, every day of those faces and that I never knew, you know, the level of love and deep connection and respect, it's my safe place, you know, I'm out there taking chances every day. And I take chances on their behalf that might have a detrimental effect on them. And yet, you know, I take time away from the family and I go out and I make a movie and I take time and I might not get paid, I might not get what, who knows, it might not be food on the table. And yet, no matter how long I work, how long I'm away, how aggravated I am, I come home because I'm, you know, I've been falling off a horse for 15 hours or, you know, these sales weren't good, whatever the, whatever it, this crazy business brings, I come home and they're there, smiles on their faces and hugs and kisses and my wife is my rock, she's my biggest supporter. I mean, if this grows and becomes something, you know, which we're hoping it will, you know, she was a huge component in supporting me through the thick and the thin and keeping me going. So if I didn't have that support system, you know, I would be lost. I don't know, I hope that's not a cliche answer, but I'll allow my name. I don't care about cliche or not, I care about honest and I think that's a good answer.