Pete [00:00:09]:

Welcome back to not a straight line with me, Pete Daly-Dickson. This is the show that explores the non linear journeys of artists and entrepreneurs to inspire you as you zigzag through your own non straight line life. And this week, I'm joined by the. What's the adjective? I guess the one she uses for herself? Spunky. Izzy Stevens. Izzy is a Hollywood actor. She's a director filmmaker, and she's an incredible coach. Izzy wanted to be an actor performer while at school, and she found that she needed to represent her own interests much sooner than anyone would expect, really.

Pete [00:00:51]:

She managed to convince her parents to send her to the right school, and she found success in acting roles, a Netflix trilogy, no less, and also directorial debut. In really quite a short time, she made the move from Sydney to LA. That's a zag that we explore in the conversation. And as it turned out, her ability to advocate for herself became a skill that she recognized was really, really needed in her industry. And she now coaches other actors and artists to get what they want from their careers. I've known Izzy for a couple of years. When I first met her on a Zoom Zoom call, she showed up exactly as she does in her emails. Spunky, zesty, full of life, and she's just an incredible human being.

Pete [00:01:37]:

It's a very, very deep, insightful conversation. I got a huge amount out of it, and I'm sure that you will, too. Let's get going. Izzy Stevens.

Izzy Stevens [00:01:52]:

That's me.

Pete [00:01:53]:

Welcome to the not a straight line podcast.

Izzy Stevens [00:01:57]:

Stoked that you invited me on. Thank you for having me. And also, congratulations on starting this podcast. I'm so proud of you. I'm so excited.

Pete [00:02:04]:

Yeah, well, we're going to have lots to talk about with it when I come back from Canada and we start one to one coaching.

Izzy Stevens [00:02:13]:

That's right.

Pete [00:02:13]:

I can't tell you how stoked I am about that as well. So it's great for me to be on the other side of the questioning for once. I'm used to being grilled now.

Izzy Stevens [00:02:22]:

Oh, yeah, I drive a hard bargain.

Pete [00:02:28]:

It's great. So where to start? So when you from where you are now, looking back on your life with all the zigs and the zags and the twists and the turns, is there any particular zag that jumps out as particularly well, you're nodding already. So where do you go when I ask that question?

Izzy Stevens [00:02:50]:

I'm such a zagger. I feel like generally I would describe myself as a zaga because I'm very curious about what I'm curious about and I want to try. So I think one of the biggest, I don't know, zags or moments in my life that from the outside probably looked like, oh, really? That's what you're doing? Was when I started my business. But inside of it, it made total sense to me. It was. And I think that that's kind of been the case. Something has always led me to the next thing, and I've built upon it because I'm following intuitive nudges and I'm curious and I'm inspired and I'm excited.

Pete [00:03:34]:

So when I, so let's start right there, then. You said from the outside, it might have seemed a big zag, starting your own business. So what were you doing just before that that led into that zag?

Izzy Stevens [00:03:47]:

So I had moved to Los Angeles in 2018. I moved to Los Angeles off the back of a film I directed and also a film I was acting in separate projects. And it was a moment that was, you know, very, it was like a moment of high success. And so I came over to LA with both of those projects, doing meetings. I was, you know, auditioning for projects. I was, I signed with new rep.

Pete [00:04:13]:

Where did you move from?

Izzy Stevens [00:04:14]:

Oh, from Australia, from Sydney, Australia. And it was one of those moments where I felt like, okay, my life is pretty sweet in Australia. I can keep doing what I'm doing, but if I don't go now, there's a part of me that believes that I'll never go and live somewhere else. I'll never go and live in Los Angeles and double down on these projects or this part of my career and see what's going to happen. So I went, let's just do it. Let's see what happens. I moved over. There was some career momentum building, and I was also actually, at the time, I was both promoting a project and also that same project I was in on the behind the scenes having litigation issues with about my pay.

Izzy Stevens [00:04:55]:

And that was something that was very difficult. It was. I really had to advocate for myself. I didn't feel comfortable doing that. There's a lot of conversation in the industry about, like, you know, don't ruffle feathers and don't give people a reason not to book you again. But I also no longer prescribed to being quiet about things. And so I had to really go to bat for myself. And through that process, it was very, very difficult.

Izzy Stevens [00:05:23]:

And also it really gave me a sense of, wow, so many of us feel alone in this industry. And so I've always been entrepreneurial in my mind. That's also how I approach my film and acting career and I realized that there's probably a lot of people in the industry that feel quite alone with the battles that they have. And I wanted to bring that my experiences in this decade of working in film and tv into a community space where people could get the answers that they needed, whether from me or from a guest I bring in and build their careers intentionally with a community around them. And so that's really what ended up being the foundation of what ended up being a business that does multiple things, works with businesses and builds brands, works with actors and filmmakers to build their brands and make their projects, was really from that core place of, we need to be better advocates for ourselves. And, yeah, just that I was meditating one day and I just came to the point of, I think this is really important that I turn this into.

Pete [00:06:26]:

You know, a business that's a pretty significant zag. When is a zig a zag? I don't know. Even that move from Australia to Los Angeles, I mean, that's literally on the other side of the world. That's a pretty significant zag in itself. I mean, had you ever been outside of Australia?

Izzy Stevens [00:06:45]:

Oh, absolutely. I had been to la multiple times, and I was working in television when I was 1819, and that's also when I first had interest in american. Rep was interested in bringing me over and signing me and putting me out there for pilot season. So I went over at 19 for my first pilot season that was off the back of a television show that I was working on. And also my dad's side of the family is american, so I am a citizen as well, which made it so simple for me to travel to and from. And so it was familiar to me. But also I would say that change is the easy. I actually think change is much easier for me than sustaining and keeping doubling down.

Izzy Stevens [00:07:27]:

That's a skill I've really had to learn. I'm really good at change. I'll change in a heartbeat. But the sustained sitting with something and building it, that's been a skill that I've cultivated over a couple decades now.

Pete [00:07:43]:

How have you done that? Specifically?

Izzy Stevens [00:07:45]:

What has come into focus for me, I guess, over the past few years has been that everything I do is under sort of one umbrella. If I really inspect it, and if we all really inspect what makes us multi hyphenates, why we're so attracted to multiple projects, why we're attracted to building businesses, why we're attracted to working with other people and collaborating, there tends to be an underlying theme that when you identify it, it suddenly creates more meaning in your life. So for me, everything I do, whether it's the films I'm making or projects that I'm working on, courses in my business, all manifest from this place through the lens of authentic visibility. I'm teaching people how to be authentically visible. I'm sharing stories about characters who crave authentic visibility and struggle to get it. There's something so universal in my body of work that relates to visibility and showing up and creating purpose through that lens. Through that lens of authentic visibility. And when I come from that place, there's an umbrella that everything falls under and creates this purpose in me of, I want to help, and I want to help more people feel this way in their life.

Izzy Stevens [00:08:58]:

And I also want to inspect this. I'm curious about this. That mindset zooms me out from any one particular project, any one success, any one failure, because it's not about those. It's actually about the bigger picture of what I'm building as a brand that helps me sustain myself, that helps me show up in, you know, intentional ways and not get so fucked up about the numbers or, you know, whether or not it's working because there's a bigger purpose here. There's a bigger reason I'm existing here. Does that relate?

Pete [00:09:30]:

Absolutely. Where does that come from, do you think?

Izzy Stevens [00:09:33]:

As in me? Where does that desire for authentic visibility come from? In me?

Pete [00:09:37]:

Yeah. Yeah. Where do you recognize it?

Izzy Stevens [00:09:41]:

That's a great question. I think it comes from this real desire to see more empathy in the world and on the other side of that coin, to see more people own their unique self. I think people are beautiful in their idiosyncrasies and their imperfections, and there's something so sanitized about the way that people feel like they're allowed to show up now, and there's a lot of fear around that. There's so much power when you get to own who you are and show up in that power in that space and say, this is what I stand for, this is what I believe. So for me, I mean, now I have to ask you a question. Where does that come from in me? It's a great question. I think we all want to be seen, though. And I'm sure that there's some childhood memory I could draw from where that suddenly was implanted in me.

Izzy Stevens [00:10:38]:

But I think, truthfully, I've just always been the kind of person who's ready to give someone the benefit of the doubt more than a judgment. That has been a gift for me. And I think when we stop judging others, it's because we've stopped judging ourselves.

Pete [00:10:54]:

So you started off talking that you had some success in tv and film.

Izzy Stevens [00:10:58]:

Yeah.

Pete [00:10:59]:

Do you think that desire to be seen was the impetus to get into that world, that you wanted to be more visible to more people?

Izzy Stevens [00:11:09]:

So, yeah, you're hitting on something. This relationship that I have with my acting career and in the beginning, so before I start, before I started professionally working at 17 in television, I was very expressive. I was very experimental. I was a little bit rebellious, outspoken, but so into learning, into school, I was both called into the office all the time for where? Too much makeup or whatever. And on the other side of that, I was also, like, a student body representative. So it didn't like, that's kind of the dichotomy of who I was. I was like, I'm just expressive by myself, but I also really give a shit. And so that very passionate, outspoken person walked into a room, did an audition, booked a lead in a television show as a series regular, and walked out of that feeling like the stakes are so high and that I needed to be quiet and that I needed to be a good girl and that I needed to not, not have anyone question why I was there, because I suddenly cared so much about it.

Pete [00:12:15]:

After you'd booked the job?

Izzy Stevens [00:12:16]:

Yes. Yes.

Pete [00:12:17]:

Wow. So you got. So you got what you want. You got what you want. I mean, had you always wanted it, or did you just do it for shits and giggles?

Izzy Stevens [00:12:23]:

Well, I was in a conservatory for acting in high school, so, yes, definitely. Like. But I wasn't. When I went into the audition, I wasn't, like, thinking about what it all meant. I didn't have. I was like, cool, this will be fun. And I tried it, and it was one of the first auditions. It was like, one of the first two or three auditions I'd ever done.

Izzy Stevens [00:12:41]:

And I was like, oh, this is amazing. And then suddenly it was like, oh, I really care about this. And so walking on set, plus, I was the youngest on set. It was a very adult television show. Everyone had been in the industry for a long time. There were all of these reasons that I felt like, okay, don't ask questions. Just show up and observe and see what's happening and fit yourself in. And that mindset continued to permeate through my career because, you know, especially as a young woman, you get told things like, you gotta lose some weight.

Izzy Stevens [00:13:09]:

You gotta, you know, change your hair color. You need to be more Hollywood when you do, you know, american tapes, there are all of these different things that get in your head. And so you start thinking, okay, to be successful, I must mold myself into all of these different things that people are telling me and you and my, I felt like I started to lose that spunky self that I, that I was that outspoken. The person that booked the jobs, right? The person that booked the jobs was this, like, I don't id gaff, like, I'm here. This is who I am, you know, and you can take it or leave it.

Pete [00:13:41]:

It seems so ironic that in one sense you got what you wanted, but at the same token that somehow psychologically made you become not who you were.

Izzy Stevens [00:13:50]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Pete [00:13:51]:

What was that like? What was that like for you inside?

Izzy Stevens [00:13:54]:

Really, really isolating, I think. Isolating and confusing because everyone tells you different things. So when you try and listen to everyone else's rules about who you should and shouldn't reach out to how you should and shouldn't represent yourself, you second guess always. And so I think a lot of performers and people in the industry, they probably live in this space, too, all the time. Like, oh, I'm not enough. There's a worthiness thing here. There's no one's going to get me or get it. So I have to be what they say I need to be.

Izzy Stevens [00:14:22]:

And then you lose yourself, and then you, people tend to, like, model their success based on what they've seen other people be successful doing, and then you just end up not really living. You're a replica. You're not really living an authentic life and sharing yourself authentically. And I do believe so fast forward, right? So I went through, I had this experience where I changed, how I was showing up, how I looked, all of that. And of course, I didn't book anything. I didn't, because inside I'm like, I'm trying so hard. And it's not like, that's not sexy energy to the universe, that's not sexy energy to Hollywood, you know what I mean? So what was sexy energy was when I walked into that room and I was just fully myself not giving a shit. Yeah, exactly.

Izzy Stevens [00:15:11]:

Exactly. So I realized I needed to get my, a creative hit back, my mojo back, and I went through film school. I started directing. I really fell in love with it. And I hadn't booked a role. You know, I had booked some significant roles early in my career. 17 1819. I was working different television shows, and then I didn't book a role for a while.

Izzy Stevens [00:15:31]:

And I went through film school and I went, I said to my agent, I'm done now I really can't do this anymore. It's breaking my heart. I don't want to audition, and I think it's time for me to step away. And she, God love her, said, wait, wait. Just do one more. We've just had a director reach out about you. Can you just put this one tape down? I said, fine, fine, I'll do one more. And it was so funny, because the tape was, like, me having an argument with my father.

Izzy Stevens [00:16:05]:

And I was like, ah, piece of cake. Which is hilarious, because, you know, the scene that I auditioned for years prior for the television show was. It was an argument I was having with my mother. And I was like, yeah, a piece of cake. I'm 17. I know how to argue with my mom, right? I'm doing this tape in my mid twenties, and I'm having an argument with my father, and supposedly there are aliens shooting around us, but the stakes are real, and I'm really there. And it was such a fun fuck it tape because I didn't have steak. I was like, I'm out.

Izzy Stevens [00:16:35]:

I'm done. I'll just do this for fun. And of course, you know, it was fully myself. It was fully embodied in who I was at that moment in my life. Two days later, we get a call. She's booked a Netflix. Gonna be a trilogy. And they're gonna fly her across to this place and put her up in a five star hotel and shoot.

Izzy Stevens [00:16:56]:

And it was like, are you joking? Like, why do we have to get to the place of, like, fully giving up? But there's something about that, right? There's something about that release, about that, you know, come back to yourself and trust yourself, and just don't be there for anyone else. Just be there for yourself. That is so powerful and magnetic. And I realized, okay, I see my special source. I see where. Where I was lacking in that ownership of who I was and how the world responds when I do show up as myself. And that's, you know, why I'm so into this piece of authentic visibility, because it was so difficult for me to show up before that and own my success, talk about myself, share myself authentically. And now it's like, me doing that gives you the permission to do that, too, and build something that is, build a career, build a brand, build a business that has longevity, that is only unique to you.

Izzy Stevens [00:17:51]:

You might be talking about the same things that someone else is talking about, but only you can talk about it your way, and that's what makes it powerful.

Pete [00:17:58]:

I mean, this podcast, I'm talking not only to artists and entrepreneurial artists, but also entrepreneurs and business owners. And it's really interesting that you use that word authenticity, because that's the thing that's coming up over and over again. It's a universal thing. It's like, I don't know if it's ever not been that and it's just been hijacked by the latest marketing trick or whatever, but I think there's a definite sense of who are you? Who are you as a human that I'm thinking about giving my money to, or in the artistic world, the acting world, thinking of giving this part to. It's about authenticity. That's amazing.

Izzy Stevens [00:18:41]:

Yeah, it really is. I think that it's more and more and more and more important in our current moment because we've got replicas everywhere and we've got AI and we've got things that can spurt information, and information is useless if we don't have a grounding and we don't have a lens through which to understand it and a lens through which to digest it and learn from it. So that's what I find so fascinating about why I talk about my own success in business. I'm not doing anything outlandishly different. Right? There's nothing truly so original except for who I am and how I be. The more I lean into that, the more people are so excited. They could google. They could google some of the things that I'm talking about and get their answer.

Izzy Stevens [00:19:33]:

That's not what people want anymore. People want my experience, your experience, the wisdom that you've gained, the way that you see the world, that is what gets people to say yes and buy in and want to invest in themselves. With you as a business, it's always about you. And so, yeah, I think that authentic visibility is the answer.

Pete [00:19:56]:

So we've got to 20 minutes in, we've got back to kind of where we started, which is what I love about these conversations. They go off and then they come back. My AdHD brain, I think I do these just to kind of keep my AdHD brain happy. It's like going off a tangent, but we're kind of calling back to what you said about your biggest argument from the outside Washington, starting your business. So you just touched on it. On it there. So you got this trilogy, this Netflix series. You did that.

Pete [00:20:27]:

That was before you started your business.

Izzy Stevens [00:20:28]:

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Pete [00:20:30]:

So you're kind of back. You're back on the successful acting career, but then you zag to starting a business. So I want to dig into that a little bit.

Izzy Stevens [00:20:38]:

I moved out to LA, as I said, after these different projects, and I'd also directed my own project, and I basically went so into developing out my acting career. And there was something that happened in that sort of second chapter of my acting career where I really felt. I really felt impacted by the shift from the shift that had happened within me from that place of, I don't want to do this traditionally anymore. And then seeing myself again pursue acting in a traditional sense, coming out, doing meetings, doing auditions, you know, those things, and feeling like, you know what? There is a better way here. There is a better way. And I don't because my brain works, like, in business. Before I even started a business, it has always worked this way. I like to know how things work very quick to understand the system that's going on, you know, between people or between, you know, functions of a system, whether it's, like in a restaurant or, like in a business, I kind of tend to figure it out pretty quickly, the puzzle pieces.

Izzy Stevens [00:21:42]:

And so I'm looking at this, like, cost verse time with what's going on with my acting career, thinking there's a lot of energy that I'm pouring into this, and it's not giving me a ton back. So what does it look like for me to pursue this in my spunky, rebellious way at the core of who I am? How do I go about this? So starting a business was from that place, and it was also from the place of. I was in a serving job working in Los Angeles. I was working as a host, sorry, in a very nice, fancy LA spot. That was just not fun to work at. It was like very titled people. Not everyone, of course, but that was sort of the energy. It was a nice place to go, and people just felt like they owned you.

Izzy Stevens [00:22:34]:

You know, standing there at that host end feeling like, what the fuck am I doing? This is. This is not in my power. This is not in my element. I don't want to do this. And I walked away from that job saying to myself, that's the last time I'm going to work for someone else without, because I need to. That's the last time.

Pete [00:22:52]:

And did you have anything to go to?

Izzy Stevens [00:22:53]:

I didn't have anything to go to. I didn't have a backup plan. I didn't have. I just knew that I wasn't going to get another job like that. And I didn't know, truly at that point that I would start a business. But about a week or two later, that clarity hit me through a meditation and I went, oh, that's what I want to do. And it also was born out of this place of the first iteration of my business. Now I work with building brands and businesses.

Izzy Stevens [00:23:18]:

The first iteration was helping filmmakers make their films. We're using the same skills in a lot of these different areas. That's how I teach. I had created these films, and I had directed stuff, and I started to see opportunities come my way for acting because I was directing, because I was producing, because I was working on these projects, and a lot of people coming my way saying, hey, I'd love to. Could you read my script or could you check this out? I had had this, you know, success and traction as a director. So that is what brought me to this place of, you can create the opportunities yourself, and you can do it in a really intentional way that highlights who you are and attracts more of them by how you show up, by how you build yourself the project and talk about the project and now how to build yourself the brand and talk about the brand so that people refer you and understand who you are and you teach them. Right. Like, we teach everyone how to know us and how to refer us.

Izzy Stevens [00:24:13]:

So that's what brought me into wanting to start this business. And, yeah, I suppose I hope that answers your question. I feel like I'm going off on a tangent.

Pete [00:24:25]:

No, it was just that, yeah, it kind of seemed that we'd come back to. We started with you starting your business, then we came back to it. So I kind of just wanted to. Wanted to explore the motivations. And just in terms of timeline, did you get the Netflix trilogy in Australia? And then after that, you came. That was after you got it. Got it, yeah. So part of me wants to.

Pete [00:24:46]:

I mean, I've been working with you for, I don't know, about a year now.

Izzy Stevens [00:24:51]:

Yeah, almost like nine months, I'd say. Yeah.

Pete [00:24:53]:

Stalked you for a long time before that. And you're right. It was the way you come across face to face a bit, virtually, is like you come off the page, the virtual page, on an email. You know, there is something very congruent and integrated about you. It's authentic. That's the word that we're looking at. So we've kind of spent quite a bit of time looking at where Izzy is now. I'm really curious about the young Izzy at school.

Pete [00:25:22]:

I mean, you spent a little bit about, you know, being, you know, rebellious and top of the class, but what lit the spark in you? What floated your boat? What were you into? Did you have siblings growing up or were you only child?

Izzy Stevens [00:25:35]:

I do. I have an older brother. Yeah. And I was. I mean, I was a ballerina for many years, so I started ballet when I was three, and I was very serious about it for a number of years until high school when, you know, so my parents went through a divorce when I was four years old, and through the process of, you know, my mom is amazing. She raised us as a single parent, worked her way from being, you know, an assistant, essentially, at a big tech firm to becoming an executive over, like, 15 years. And so I had this, like, model of someone who could but could do that, could do all of that and then still have, you know, a home cooked meal on the table. So she set very unrealistic expectations for my life.

Izzy Stevens [00:26:27]:

She's a superwoman. So. But through that time, I was very independent. I was always a very independent person. And when I was coming up to the point where it was, you know, the transition from primary school to high school, we didn't have a lot of extra. Like, we didn't have. We weren't, you know, super well off. Of course, I come inherently from privilege, but we were not, like, super well off as a family.

Izzy Stevens [00:26:50]:

And so when it happened, it was like, oh, we can take. We can go to this catholic school. This catholic high school, or, you know, you can go to. Really? That was the option. It was like, you can go to the catholic high school. We can afford that. And I said, I don't know. Want to go there.

Izzy Stevens [00:27:06]:

I do not. Like, it was just like, this pit in my stomach. I did not want to go there. And my dance teacher, my ballet teacher said she should audition. They give scholarships, and she should audition for this conservatory. She's a brilliant dancer. That's what she wants to do. You should go and let her audition for this very nice private school that you do 2 hours of performing arts every single day.

Izzy Stevens [00:27:28]:

And, God, I was looking at that option going, that's my dream. And then looking at the hell of going to catholic school, I was like, I have to figure out how to get there.

Pete [00:27:38]:

Is that if you look in the dictionary and ask for, what does a no brainer decision mean? It's like, that's it exactly.

Izzy Stevens [00:27:44]:

And so every. All my eggs. Like, all my eggs in that basket. And this isn't the first time that I really went to bat for myself, even when I was younger. My dad tells this story where he gave me $5 and he said, go and buy yourself something. You know, they're all sitting out at a market fair situation. My dad and my stepmom were probably sitting and having a drink, and they gave me $5 to go and explore and buy something for myself and busy myself. And I'm probably seven or eight years old, and I walk into a bookshop, like a chain bookshop, not an independent bookshop, and I pick up this book that's like an exercise book that you would give to a class, to a fourth grader.

Izzy Stevens [00:28:26]:

That's math. And those. Fill in yourself. You fill it in these big books. And so I was like, I want to do one of those books that looks fun. Of course, I probably picked something that was slightly lower for me, so I could just fucking kill it. Be like, I know math's so good because I've learned it already. So I said, I want this book.

Izzy Stevens [00:28:46]:

And I said to the attendant, the worker at the shop, I have $5 for you. And he said, the book is $30. And I said, no, but I have five, and I want this book. Basically, within a matter of ten minutes, argued myself to basically have him say, yes, just take the book. You know, take the book. And I paid $5 for it. And I just get. Just get that out of here.

Izzy Stevens [00:29:15]:

And I think that that's pretty indicative of, like, the spirit of who I am. It's like I'm gonna. I want this thing, and I'm gonna figure out how to get it, whether it's through words, through strategy, through, you know, whatever it is. I'm gonna. I'm gonna argue my case, and by the end of it, you'll probably, you know, my dad always, you know, says, like, by the end, whenever we argue, he's like. He always said, you should be a lawyer. Like, when we argue, I sometimes don't even know how we. I'm like, yes, yes, you're right.

Izzy Stevens [00:29:41]:

Like, I don't even know what's. What's. What's up and down anymore. And so I think that's always been, like, a skill for me to get to be very specific about what I want and go after it and, you know, definitely have better ways of. More wise ways of doing that in my adult life. But there are a lot of. There's a lot of evidence to the fact that I've always been that kind of independent thinker and want to do things my way.

Pete [00:30:06]:

Wow. And at the risk of going too deep, where do you think that comes from? Because, I mean, that is a. There's not many seven, eight year olds that, you know, it's a fascinating story and. And speaks to me of something that's almost not. It's not been taught. Did you have it modeled anywhere?

Izzy Stevens [00:30:26]:

I think my boat. I say all my parents, like, I have my mom, my stepfather now, not at that time, not at that age. And also my father and my stepmom. And I think all of them, in their own ways, really allowed me, really fostered a place of allowing me to be who I am. And I'm so grateful for that. I also feel like that's nurture. But I think there's always been something in my nature that has been, I don't know, firm about what I want. And once I know what I want, I will get it.

Izzy Stevens [00:31:00]:

I will go after it, and I won't. I'm not afraid to sweat. I'm not afraid to work really, really hard. I don't know. I think that's just been. That's who I am. So. And, oh, to finish the story that I was telling you earlier, I did end up getting a scholarship into that school, and that's where I ended up going for high school.

Izzy Stevens [00:31:19]:

And about a year and a half in, there was a conversation in my family about, like, can we actually, even with the scholarship, can we actually afford to have her here? And so there was this threat of I might need to leave. And that was also when I started to fall in love with acting, and I wanted to move over to the acting stream, and I wanted to really go into that move from dance to acting. And there was this threat of I might need to leave. And that's when, again, like, the gal who's gonna get. She's gonna figure out how to get what she wants, you know, and do the work, do the hustle to make sure it happens. I started, like, drawing up charts of how the finances could work, and my parents were like, you have no idea what you're talking about. I'm like, listen, listen, let's figure this out, because I'm not leaving. And I think ultimately what ended up happening was I spoke to a teacher of mine about it, and she went, oh, no, you can't go anywhere.

Izzy Stevens [00:32:14]:

And discussed with the principal. It ended up having a whole meeting with my family and then ended up awarding me an extra scholarship so that I could stay in the school. And it was just this. It's interesting now that I'm even actually putting pieces of this together right now, because I spoke about advocacy, advocating for myself on film and how scary that was and how it used to just be second nature to me to advocate for myself. So it's almost like I had to relearn that skill through my twenties to be able to come out the other side and teach it.

Pete [00:32:43]:

There's so much in what you've shared just in the last half an hour, because there's a part of me that on one level, and maybe this is, again, just from looking from the outside, it seems that your life up to that point was a straight line. You're really clear about what you wanted and you went for it and you got it. I mean, you created that conversation at the school, which then resulted in. But if we zero in, something seen from space might look straight. But when you come into it, there's going to be things like, even in that little period of time of your life that we looked at there, do you recognize that there were zigs and the zags? That.

Izzy Stevens [00:33:30]:

Definitely, yeah. I mean, it's so easy in hindsight to see that one thing after the other, and it all made sense.

Pete [00:33:38]:

I did this and then I did this and I did this and then.

Izzy Stevens [00:33:40]:

Yeah, I feel like. I don't know. I think that it's been intuitive. My zigs and zags have always been intuitive. And I. I believe that. Like, I love that you're saying this, you know, zigzag. Painting the picture of zigzagging your way to success.

Izzy Stevens [00:33:56]:

Right. And I use air quotes because what is success? I feel like success is fulfillment and happiness and joy. Other people, you know, we want to put a quantifiable number to that, but I don't think that's possible. It's just. Yeah, it's so easy to see it. It's so easy to see it as now it all making sense. But I think I was scared a lot. I think I was scared and yet so itchy to experience life and coming from that perspective just made me take risks.

Izzy Stevens [00:34:30]:

And I hope I still, you know, I want to hold. I want to be able to continuously take risks in my life and see what happens and not take it too seriously, because I think that's what creates an original experience, a feeling of connection to the world. But I will say that the clarity I have now over my. This is why I'm such an advocate for building personal brands and businesses that, you know, it, I guess, like, ultimately allows you to act from a place of curiosity and try something that isn't necessarily, like, I love this, not a straight line. Isn't necessarily a straight line to what you want. I'll give you an example. So one of someone I'm working with is pursuing acting, and they're also looking to build themselves in this one space in the food industry, looking to build a reputation in the food industry through content and showing up and talking about the things that they're passionate about, the places they've gone to see, foodie experiences and my idea of nothing pursuing a traditional road in the industry as an actor, this is how this person is going about that. This is how we're defining that for them, is basically through going all in, not worrying too much about the traditional success in acting, but instead really going in on their curiosities and building a reputation for that whilst talking about acting.

Izzy Stevens [00:36:03]:

So that people see you as these are, as a specific niche that then leads to television, it leads to television spots, it leads to partnerships, it leads to people knowing who you are and how you be, and then they can slot you into things. And then suddenly you're getting referred to for projects like allowing your curiosities to guide you into different places in the industry that you wouldn't expect to go, rather than thinking that it needs to be fit into some perfect box and. And function like a checklist. But that's not what an original experience or something that actually drives you and excites you and turns you on and inspires you to do every day looks like.

Pete [00:36:44]:

So where does that come from, this box thing as an actor?

Izzy Stevens [00:36:49]:

I think it comes from what the rhetoric is around how to participate as an actor or get work as an actor. You know, go to auditions, go to casting director workshops, and spend your money on casting director workshops like pay to play or putting your, you know, trying to get a rep, trying to get an agent, putting all your work and getting an agent, and then you get an agent, you're like, well, what now? Nothing's happening. It's like you're, you know, constantly putting the power in other people's hands unconsciously, because that's what the industry says is the way. I just don't believe that. And that's. So you asked me with acting. Where am I now? Right? I'm not actively pursuing acting in a traditional sense, but just yesterday I had a DM come through from an old client saying, hey, I'd love to. I wrote this script with you in mind.

Izzy Stevens [00:37:40]:

Can you read it as the lead? It would be amazing. And we've 50% funded. Da da da. It's like these opportunities come to me because I'm staying in my lane and I'm talking about the things that I'm passionate about and I'm allowing them to attract to me, and I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful for that. And I want other people to experience that rather than feel so disheartened by constantly putting themselves out there, trying to get something in that traditional sense and feeling defeated and deflated and not in the driver's seat of their career.

Pete [00:38:09]:

Do you see a world where what you've just described is the norm?

Izzy Stevens [00:38:14]:

In my world, yeah, I see it for my clients. This is what happens to my clients all the time. This is the, that's, that's really what we're doing. Using authentic visibility to attract the opportunities that you want, the clients that you want, the, the way that you want to live your life and allowing your curiosity to guide you. Not needing, not needing having. Sometimes, of course, other people and community is a big part of it, but not needing anyone to validate you first, you get to validate yourself first. That is what attracts. And so, yeah, that's definitely the world I live in.

Pete [00:38:46]:

A, it seems to me that there are a lot of small business owners that fall into the same mindset of I've got to do things the way I've got to do LinkedIn in a way that LinkedIn experts say, and I've got to do marketing in the way that marketing experts say. Do you see that there's any crossover, if you like? Do you see parallels? Do you see that, what you teach your actors as relevant to the world of business?

Izzy Stevens [00:39:13]:

Yeah. So this is a great question. When I first started my business, I invested in different mentorship and I worked with different coaches and business strategists, and I learned a lot of different systems, and I burnt myself out trying to show up for all of them, because I'm also a filmmaker, an actor, a director, you know, I'm also creating projects all the time. And so I needed my business to be much simpler. I think there's a lot of rules out there very similar to what you're talking about with the acting rules with business. There are these things put on you that if you want to be successful, you must do this. And I just feel like with everything, it can be so much more simple. And that's what I've really learned through the process, especially the beginning, sort of 18 months of my business.

Izzy Stevens [00:39:56]:

I went, this is actually not working the way that I need my business to work. I need it to feel fun. I need it to feel consistent. I need it to feel simple to show up for. I need to be really connected to my people. I need to be really intentional about my time because I don't have a ton of it, which means that everything I do needs to be simple and potent. And I looked at everything that I was doing and went, oh, my gosh, I've just built this funnel out and I've got this whole big email sequence and all of these different pieces of the puzzle. And I'm one person with an occasional assistant, and we're working really, really, really hard, and I'm like, hold on, this is, what can I eliminate? How can I do an audit of this? And I basically, that audit that I did through my business and went, what do I need to keep? What do I need to get rid of? What do I need to reformulate? What do I need to burn down and rebuild? What are the pieces here that is actually going to make my business sustainable in the longevity sense of it? And that's how I came up with my freedom formula.

Izzy Stevens [00:40:53]:

That's how I came up with my whole program, freedom creator. That's what I teach inside that program because it's a essentially like the blueprint of building a business and a brand that has longevity is sustainable and rooted in your authentic visibility. I don't see any other people talking about that because none of my other business mentors, my other coaches, these other people that I had invested in were also functioning at this level in their creative career, in a creative career at all. So their full time gig is business. It can't be everything on my calendar. So I really had to rework a lot of it. And I just don't prescribe to, you don't have to do anything you don't fucking want to do in your business. And for it to work like, there's a different way, there's a better way for you.

Izzy Stevens [00:41:35]:

And that's always what I'm curious about finding for my clients.

Pete [00:41:39]:

You could argue that, that it shouldn't be like that for anyone in business in terms of it being your business. It's like if you're, if your whole life is spent in your business because of whatever reason, you're trying to do what you think you're supposed to do, or you've made it too complex and it more complex than it, than it needs to be, like, why the hell do you have a business?

Izzy Stevens [00:42:00]:

Exactly.

Pete [00:42:00]:

It's not just to have a business.

Izzy Stevens [00:42:02]:

It's funny because I actually think that we overcomplicate it because there is sometimes an unconscious fear of success. So the spinning your wheels. I mean, you know me, I really get into a lot of the mindset work because a lot of the way that we show up in life is rooted in an identity we've adopted that isn't fact necessarily. It's not true. It's just the belief system that we've built that creates an identity that helps us operate or gives us reason to operate in a certain way in the world. And so when you shift your identity and when you shift your way of seeing yourself, you shift your way of showing up in the world and you start to realize, oh, I am overcomplicating this, oh, I am making this more difficult than it needs to be. I think a lot of it starts internally, but we manifest it externally through overcomplications and making it bigger than it needs to be because were afraid of what will happen when we actually get what we want.

Pete [00:43:04]:

You mentioned earlier that lets keep the word zag. Your zag into business came from an Isaac Newton moment when you were meditating. So even then it was mind work that you were doing in a way that led to it. So it's not surprising that you invest so much energy in talking about mindset.

Izzy Stevens [00:43:24]:

Yeah, it's everything. I mean, our subconscious brain fully rules the show and we can set all of the goals that we want consciously. But if our subconscious brain does not feel safe around receiving that goal, or if our subconscious brain doesn't believe it's possible or doesn't believe we're worthy, it will stop us. We won't be able to show up for it, it won't happen.

Pete [00:43:48]:

It wants to keep us safe, doesn't it?

Izzy Stevens [00:43:49]:

At the end of the day, yeah, exactly. It's survival. It's survival for sure. Yeah.

Pete [00:43:54]:

So what do you do or have you done?

Izzy Stevens [00:43:58]:

Yeah, so, I mean, the identity work that I've gotten into over the past few years has really changed. You almost have. You have to do this work to see your business succeed. That is my belief. To see anything succeed, I think, is to look inward and heal the parts of ourselves that have belief systems that are detrimental to the goal.

Pete [00:44:22]:

Can you talk about any, can you give us an example?

Izzy Stevens [00:44:24]:

Yeah, absolutely. A big one for me is visibility. A big one for me has always been visibility. What does it mean for me personally? I really had to heal my relationship with showing up and being visible, allowing people to feel however they felt. Because early on in my career, when I started working, I felt like everyone was going to hate me, that I was working, that I was booking work, that I shouldn't talk about it, that it was embarrassing. And maybe that just seems like so counterintuitive because people dream of this, but it was scary for me to have that possibility, that I was suddenly looked at and I wanted to do the work, but I didn't want to be looked at. And I was afraid of what that meant. So I had to really look at my relationship with visibility, my relationship with what it means for me to show up in the world, how I actually feel about things and really heal my relationship with it through journaling, through hypnosis, through different books, and self development.

Izzy Stevens [00:45:24]:

And so much of the reason that my business is successful is because I'm constantly in a place of recalibrating my energy, recalibrating my mindset. Every day. Every day I have a system for myself, and it doesn't, it no longer is like, you don't have to have, like, a million hour morning routine to be able to adjust yourself, but you do have to have clarity over how to recalibrate in a moment where you have a thought that isn't helpful to you to identify it. And it starts with self awareness. I think that's what meditation gave me initially. And then that self awareness moved into, okay, great. I have, let's get tools to work through this. Let's learn tools, and let's understand how to actually move myself through the phases of.

Izzy Stevens [00:46:08]:

Oof. Interesting. My body, when I think about that goal, doesn't believe I can have it. I can feel that my brain wants it. When I think about the feeling in my body, when I think about it, I don't believe it. Why? Why have I believed that? And then going back through and figuring out where has that belief come from? Where have I believed that? Somewhere in my past created a belief, usually from the age of zero to seven, you're basically just operating out of your subconscious brain. So in those years, there is something that I have identified as a reason to believe this way. Let's look at that.

Izzy Stevens [00:46:46]:

It's no one's fault. It's not about self blame. It's about understanding your patterning. So going through and seeing how that pattern began and how it occurred and what happened gives me the freedom to say, okay, great. And this is all happening in my journal. Ah, I see. That's what. That's an experience I went through.

Izzy Stevens [00:47:03]:

It helped me adopt this belief. This belief is not actually helpful to me. So what's a better belief and what will I choose now to move into? So that I feel, yeah. That this goal is a possibility for me. I am worthy of it. I'm ready for it. Let's clear all of that stuff. Say goodbye to stuff we no longer need.

Izzy Stevens [00:47:22]:

Understand where it came from. Say thank you I love you. I'm sorry. I forgive you. And let's move on and let's move forward. And that very intentional, sometimes painful work has helped me constantly clear the clutter and clear the space to step into the next level of my business, of myself, of being safe around my visibility, showing up in the world. And now it's, you know, what I teach is a lot about visibility.

Pete [00:47:46]:

It's what attracted me to you in the first place. There's a couple of things you mentioned there. Firstly, you said, if I remember rightly, that if you're not getting the results that you want in life, you need to do identity work. Would you say that there is a causal relationship there?

Izzy Stevens [00:48:04]:

100%.

Pete [00:48:04]:

If someone isn't getting in whatever sphere, whether it be artistically or entrepreneurially, if you're not getting the results in your endeavors that you want to get, then the root of it will be how you see yourself.

Izzy Stevens [00:48:18]:

Absolutely.

Pete [00:48:19]:

That's pretty fucking profound.

Izzy Stevens [00:48:21]:

It's mind blowing and so simple. We have this part of our brain called the reticular activating system, right? It's a little piece of your brain that lives near your ear, and it filters through. It's basically the, it's basically the communication tool between your subconscious brain and your conscious brain. It tells your subconscious brain what's important, and it basically relays these messages. So this is why, basically, your reticular activating system is the reason why, in a loud, crowded bar, you will be able to hear your name called across the room, even though it's so loud, hear it and respond. Because your reticular activating system has filtered through all of the noise that's going on and told your brain what's important to, to look out for. It knows your name is important. It knows when it's called, you need to go and turn.

Izzy Stevens [00:49:14]:

So it's given you that information. It's filtered out all of that other noise and given you that piece of information.

Pete [00:49:20]:

And I guess why? If you're about to buy, if you're about to buy a blue mercedes cla, every car you see on the road is a blue mercedes cla.

Izzy Stevens [00:49:27]:

Everything. Yeah. You're like, oh, look at that. Blue. Yeah, exactly. So. And that's a really good example, because that's a really great way to look at identity work. When you start doing this identity work and you start creating evidence for your subconscious brain that what you're doing is working, you start seeing more clues, and then you start being able to see the opportunities that are in front of you that you wouldn't have been able to see before because of your limited mindset around what you're worthy of.

Pete [00:49:54]:

So hang on a second. You just. Sorry, before we go on, you said there about you'll give your subconscious evidence that something's working. What do you mean by that? What does that mean?

Izzy Stevens [00:50:05]:

So let's use your blue car analogy, right? You buy a blue car and then you suddenly see blue cars everywhere. Let's use that as a belief system. Let's say your blue car is a belief system. You've adopted this new belief system. You've adopted this belief system. Say you've purchased, your purchase is actually a success. You've experienced. So you've just received this success.

Izzy Stevens [00:50:26]:

Say you've signed a client in your business, and your subconscious brain goes, amazing. Signed a client. You start seeing. Signed a client everywhere. You start seeing reasons that that is something that you do, that you have, that you have the ability to do. You've now created evidence. If you don't celebrate that, if you instead were to say, oh, I just signed one client, right. You create the belief system that it's never enough.

Izzy Stevens [00:50:54]:

And you see it's never enough. Everywhere you go, you see it's never enough. All the time. If you prescribe, if you instead say, I signed one client, I'm so freaking abundant, it's happening. I see it. Signed that client. There it is. So proud.

Izzy Stevens [00:51:07]:

Celebrating it. Cheers. Intentional celebration. I'm going to buy myself a cookie, or I'm going to buy myself that nice pair of earrings to say, hell, yeah, you did that. Congratulations. Celebrating your subconscious brain saying, here it is. Here's the thing to draw evidence toward. Then you start seeing opportunities to sign more clients.

Izzy Stevens [00:51:25]:

It starts to feel easier. It starts to feel simpler. It starts to feel like that's just what you do. And then that success builds. So the belief that we prescribe to, the belief that we decide to take on, creates more of it because your.

Pete [00:51:39]:

Reticular activating system says, oh, this is relevant, this is useful. This is important.

Izzy Stevens [00:51:46]:

Yes. And this is who I am. This is who I am. Because, you know, you hear people say, like, I'm not the kind of person who does my bed in the, like, makes my bed in the morning, or, I'm not the kind of person who can, you know, get the garbage bins out on time, or, I'm not the kind of person who cleans the kitchen before I go to bed. I just can't do that. I just have never been able to. It's just not. I'm just not the kind of person that's such a decision that you've made.

Izzy Stevens [00:52:10]:

I'm not the kind of person that's a decision. You've decided. You've implanted that. The more you say that, the more you become that. Whereas if you start to say, I am the kind of person who makes my bed every single morning because that's how I'm showing up in the world, I'm always preparing myself. I'm always treating myself nicely. Deciding like witnessing, first of all, just acknowledging and witnessing where that language is coming up in your life. Just acknowledging.

Izzy Stevens [00:52:36]:

Oh, I do say that. Or I say that about myself. Interesting. What are you saying about yourself to yourself all the time? Because you create more of that. What thoughts you think consistently get into your subconscious brain, and that is who you be. And that is how you know how to live in the world and how you decide to be. Because part of you thinks that it's unsafe for you on some level to make your bed in the morning. Because what does that mean for you? What does that mean about who you are? What does that mean about what you're claiming and what you want and what you are worthy of? A lot of this comes back to worthiness.

Izzy Stevens [00:53:05]:

A lot of my clients will say, oh, I realized what this is, is I don't feel worthy of it. The second that they realize that, they shift around it and they start to receive more of what they want. When you realize, like, you are worthy, you are absolutely worthy of what you want. Because you are. It's like, I heard, I saw this the other day, this quote, and I wish I could remember who said it, but we don't blame the moon when it's less shiny one night to another. We just see it in its completeness, knowing that it has phases of shine through the month. We are like that too. We don't always have to be so perfect.

Izzy Stevens [00:53:37]:

We don't have to have every single thing to be able to be worthy. We have to step into our worthiness now in order to allow these things that we want to happen into our lives.

Pete [00:53:48]:

It sounds straightforward. It sounds easy. Anything's easy. To say yes.

Izzy Stevens [00:53:54]:

To say yes.

Pete [00:53:55]:

But if you've had a lifetime of not feeling worthy, not feeling that you're enough. I've been around the sun a few more times than you. And part of me is like really happy and pleased for you that you came to these realizations that you have so young. So to people like me, and I'm not saying that I do feel like that, but for someone who's coming to these realizations later because we. We learn the lessons at the time that we need to learn the lessons. And how do you inculcate that sense of self worth that leads to being able to do more and be more?

Izzy Stevens [00:54:38]:

I believe that time, in this sense, is not linear. It is about massive, rapid shifts that happen when you acknowledge, when you become more self aware and when you start to adjust these little patterns in your brain. Tomorrow could be completely a different experience for you. It is. You could say that it's harder. It's harder to readjust yourself at an older age, right? If you've had certain experiences and certain patterns existing in your life for some time. But I also. I don't believe that's the case.

Izzy Stevens [00:55:18]:

I believe that, as you say, you can call bullshit.

Pete [00:55:21]:

You can call bullshit if you want.

Izzy Stevens [00:55:23]:

It's not that I think it's bullshit, because I get it. Like, I get it. I think that it's impossible for me to say I'm 30 years old and I have my own experiences with my own life. But I will say that I've seen these shifts happen in older people than I am.

Pete [00:55:41]:

You're being unnecessarily politically correct, though. Older people, it's fine. Old farts like you, Pete, not old people.

Izzy Stevens [00:55:48]:

But I've worked with people from the age of 18 in their mid to late fifth seventies, and the work still relates. It's not about age.

Pete [00:55:57]:

It's all the same.

Izzy Stevens [00:55:58]:

Yeah, it's the same. It's the same. It's not about age. Again, I'm saying, like, of course I'm not in their skin. I'm in my skin. And I recognize, I mean, even I could be. I could be like, I wish I came to this a decade ago. My acting career could have been completely different.

Izzy Stevens [00:56:13]:

But what has led me here has been such an important journey for me, spiritually and through my life, the experience of my life, that it's all been a gift. We're always on purpose. We're always right on time. Every single thing that has happened previous to what we are now, in this moment, deciding can shift, has led us here. It's all a part of the journey. There is no you're late. There is no you're behind. You are right on time.

Pete [00:56:42]:

I'm so happy you've gone there, Izzy, because I'm reinventing, rediscovering, whatever my life at the moment. You know that. That's why we're about to love what you're doing, the work that we are. And I think it's ultimately part of the impetus behind this podcast is I want to find stories, I think, ultimately, and it's also an example of just starting not being clear about what the end is. I just knew that I wanted to start as I was starting to increase my. Become more visible after hiding away after what happened at the end of 21. And that I knew, partly with me being me, that I just needed to talk to as many people as possible. So this is.

Pete [00:57:22]:

I said it to the guy that I interviewed this morning. This podcast is a purely, 100% selfish endeavor. It is just for me.

Izzy Stevens [00:57:29]:

And you know what? Because it's just for you, because it's just for you, it is now for so many other people, because it's so intentionally specific to you and your growth, you have now created something so valuable to your community.

Pete [00:57:40]:

Yeah. And it's that thing that you'd. Sorry for pointing. Um, it's that thing there about. About reinvention.

Izzy Stevens [00:57:46]:

About.

Pete [00:57:46]:

About, um. Did you use the term reinvention? It's about.

Izzy Stevens [00:57:50]:

Yeah, reinvention's a great word. Shifts.

Pete [00:57:53]:

Rediscovering shifts.

Izzy Stevens [00:57:54]:

Yeah.

Pete [00:57:54]:

Yeah, that, and you. You did say it's never too late. And I know for myself that I was fortunate enough, after what happened at the end of 21, to create space, which has allowed me to step onto this new path. And I think as we've been talking, I think this podcast is, and I've been talking to other people, this podcast is starting to find its own feet in terms of having stories that inspire people, that it's not too late. Whatever you are, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, if you're not, when you were eight years old or 15 years old or whatever, and you had a dream about what your life could be or might be or you wanted it to be, and there is a part of that that is still inside you somehow, that when you just stop, you talked about spinning the wheels. If you've got your own business, if you just stop spinning your wheels, just for a fucking second, just stop. Just create some space for yourself and think, is in my life, in all of its richness and weirdness and whatever, is it what I dreamed my life would be like? And if it isn't, that's not failure. That's you being on a journey to where you are now.

Izzy Stevens [00:59:14]:

Yes, absolutely.

Pete [00:59:15]:

But recognize that, you know, you've been zigging and zagging to this point. You can continue to zig and zag. So to zig somewhere else and keep moving towards what that younger version of yourself was looking for. Because it's never too late. It can't ever be too late. I can't cope with a world where anyone thinks that it's too late to be who they want to be. And it just sounds so kind of. Oh, my.

Pete [00:59:38]:

Sounds grandiose or whatever, I don't know. But that's.

Izzy Stevens [00:59:41]:

No, I get it. I so understand. And that's also, why should I come.

Pete [00:59:45]:

Down off my soapbox now?

Izzy Stevens [00:59:47]:

But it makes sense, right? Because it's why you're attracted to the work that you're doing in this business and helping people get to the root of their purpose and live that so fundamental. I think that it's the most important work. I think that it's the most important work to be able to find your own purpose, live your own purpose and help others do the same. Because that's what creates harmony, that's what creates peace even in the smallest ways. And so I say, you know, when you have landed in a sense of authentic visibility and that's how you're showing up in the world. You show up the exact same for one person that you do for 1000, 2000, a million people. It's the same. It doesn't change because your message is that specific to you, is that real, is that potent and that you believe in it so deeply.

Izzy Stevens [01:00:41]:

So when you find that that's freedom and then, yes, I love what you're saying, then you can zag anywhere. You take that purpose with you and it manifests into different iterations of things and projects and people that you work with, collaborations, businesses like films, whatever you're doing, that's how that manifests. Clearing the limiting beliefs, the worthiness. Clearing the stuff that stops us at the identity pieces that have been implanted there to keep us safe. Looking at that and clearing it is the most powerful work you can do towards your goals.

Pete [01:01:15]:

I'm reminded of a book that I read years and years ago, psycho Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz, have you read that?

Izzy Stevens [01:01:25]:

No.

Pete [01:01:26]:

So he was a plastic surgeon who, this is back in the forties or fifties, I'm sure a listener will correct me. And so he was doing facial. He did kind of emergency surgery, but he also did facial reconstructions. You know, people wanted a nose job or whatever. And he became fascinated that some people, even after they came in the nose was too big and they wanted it to be reduced in size, that they still saw themselves as having a big nose or being ugly and whatever. Psycho cybernetics, I highly recommend you read it. He's kind of recognized as the godfather of the self development movement. There's one phrase in that book that sort of keeps coming back to me, and I'm reminded of it now.

Pete [01:02:10]:

You're talking. He said, it is impossible. Impossible means it is physically, intellectually, mentally impossible for a person to behave consistently in a manner contrary with how they see themselves.

Izzy Stevens [01:02:25]:

Absolutely. Yes, yes, yes.

Pete [01:02:28]:

And you've been talking about that and you found that on your own. And I just think that's so, so powerful. Almost makes it all the more true, if you like. Two separate people from different eras in different ways have found the same core sort of kernel of truth, if you like, about the human identity.

Izzy Stevens [01:02:52]:

I think that this is. You can see this evidenced in so many different people's works and studies, and it's not original. You know, the power of the mind is unbelievable. I was just hearing this story about a physician who gave their patient the diagnosis or the prognosis that they had cancer. They had esophageal cancer, and they had less than three months left to live, and a few weeks later, that person passed away and they did an autopsy and they didn't find any cancer. That person did not have cancer. The physician was incorrect when they diagnosed that person, and they believed, this is the power of the mind. They believed so wholeheartedly that they had cancer, and everyone around them believed that the environment that they were in, everyone believed that they were going to die.

Izzy Stevens [01:03:45]:

It's just a miraculous, amazing heartbreak. I mean, it's a heartbreaking story, and it's a miraculous story because this is the power of our mind. We do have tools to be able to shift it and change it geared towards what we want and how we want to experience life. It's phenomenal that we have this tool, and it's also phenomenal how powerful our brains really are, how amazing they are.

Pete [01:04:13]:

At the risk of. I was worried about going too deep earlier and the risk of turning this into a coaching session, because I don't go for it. I don't want that. Just a question that comes to mind. You mentioned that when you first started your business, you had mentors and coaches. Is that something that you've always done, sought help from the outside? Is that something you're still doing now?

Izzy Stevens [01:04:33]:

No, not something that I've always done, something I have maintained to do since I started doing it a few years ago. But this is what is so hilarious. I'm glad that you asked me this. When I was meditating in that moment, dreaming about my business, I was, like, thinking about how I can turn my skills and the way that I see the world into a service for people to transform themselves. And I have this, like, bing, oh, my gosh. Creative coaching. That's genius. I've never heard of that before.

Izzy Stevens [01:05:05]:

Did I just create an industry that's literally how allergic at that time I was to getting help. I was so independent. I've always been very independent and not really great at asking or receiving help. Like, that's just the way that I've always operated. So it was out of, I was like, this is amazing. Now, has anyone ever thought of this before? And so open up Google creative coach and realize, oh, there's, you know, however many million. And so, yes, I burst that bubble. Definitely.

Izzy Stevens [01:05:35]:

The answer to your question is, like, I was not, I did not live in a place where it was normal to receive support like this or mentorship, and I didn't even know it was available. And now opening my brain, my experience up to mentorship and I working with people and learning from other people and investing in my self growth through working with other people, it has changed. I mean, it's made me a better coach, of course, and it's made me a smarter business person, and I've learned a ton. And it's just you need people around you. You need people in your orbit that are doing what you want to be doing and that you can learn from and adapt to your life. So it's definitely something that is fully ingrained in my life now, but previously, absolutely nothing.

Pete [01:06:15]:

Is it possible to do it on your own?

Izzy Stevens [01:06:17]:

I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is. I think it takes longer, but absolutely. I mean, I did everything on my own up until that point. Really? Yeah, you can. What's that old adage like, you can do it on your own, but it's faster with team, you know, it's a much more poetic way of saying that, but it's the same. It's that principle.

Pete [01:06:40]:

So I came up with that saying that I remembered from reading Maxwell Maltz's book way back when. And just as you were talking there, another quote came to mind. You may well have heard it. Whatever the mind of man can conceive or believe, the mind of man can achieve, you know, whether that's Napoleon Hill or someone of that ilk. And there's a part of me that thinks so, Peter, you've known these. Whatever the mind of man can conceive or believe came to mind directly in relation to what you were talking about earlier. Part of me is thinking, so, Peter, you've known this stuff that Izzy's been talking about today because it's reminded you of stuff that you've learned and it obviously registered with you because 20 years later, 30 years later, yeah, probably 30 years later, you're able to quote the meaningful bit from that book. So how's it? She obviously didn't apply it then when you first heard it.

Pete [01:07:44]:

So what makes you think that this time is going to be any, any different?

Izzy Stevens [01:07:48]:

For me personally?

Pete [01:07:49]:

No, for me. I'm talking about. I'm talking about for me. Yeah.

Izzy Stevens [01:07:52]:

So you're saying, okay, let me. Let me make sure I'm clear. So you're saying you heard this principle a few years ago and now you're realizing that you had this tool all along or you had this knowledge all along and you didn't utilize it to your full capacity.

Pete [01:08:06]:

Yeah.

Izzy Stevens [01:08:07]:

Okay, great. So great question. What makes you think that now is different? Tell me.

Pete [01:08:12]:

I'm asking, I guess. I guess I'm asking on behalf of the listener that what they're hearing on this podcast is not the first time they've heard.

Izzy Stevens [01:08:20]:

Totally, totally. We've all heard this. Yeah.

Pete [01:08:22]:

Yeah.

Izzy Stevens [01:08:23]:

Okay. So I guess what I want to ask you is what makes you feel like it's different?

Pete [01:08:30]:

I knew you'd put it back on me. Your voice is so predictable, I think, and I can answer it, is that after, and this is getting quite vulnerable for my own podcast, it's like it's my job to get vulnerability out of my guests is after I. I knew after working with you, although I didn't do all of the work with the script to screen, just with the. When we first started working together, and I had like a half hour with you once a month for three months, I think. And although I didn't do the work for whatever reason, I knew in the way that you and I were interacting, that there was something about you that made me want to work with you more closely. And I couldn't really afford it. And definitely want to make sure that my wife hears this episode like a few months down the line once it's all worked out, is that I couldn't really afford it. But I signed up for your as you were making the shift from screen stuff you've already spoken about in this podcast to business.

Izzy Stevens [01:09:42]:

To business.

Pete [01:09:43]:

Yeah, I sign up and I made a down payment. I'm going away on holiday, so we're going to start when I come back. And there were times. There have been times. There were several times, particularly early on when I thought, Pete, what the fuck have you done, man? It's like, you cannot afford this. It's like, I already knew that I'd have to put it on the business credit card. And it's like, you're going to have to find a way to get in touch with Izzy and just pull the plug. You've got to look after yourself, man.

Pete [01:10:17]:

It's like, no. And I checked my contract with you. That's not going to fly. That's not going to work. So there's a lesson there as well in terms of all the bases that you should cover in business. And I thought you gonna. I guess, going back to the 13 year old Izzy that thought she might have to leave the conservatory, it's like, you're going to have to find a way to figure it out to make this. To make this work.

Pete [01:10:50]:

And you can't wait until the middle of July when you start working with Izzy. You're going to have to do something about it. About it now. And you released your podcast. You started your podcast, I think, about a month ago. About a month ago. That first one was all about, funnily enough, was all about mindset. It's so boring.

Pete [01:11:13]:

You just keep talking about the same thing over and over again. Like a stuck record. No, but listen, if you hear something more than once from the same person, it's for a reason. You know what I mean?

Izzy Stevens [01:11:26]:

Yes, absolutely.

Pete [01:11:27]:

And I reminded my. Just talking about hearing stuff and not doing anything with it. I remembered that in the become visible workshop that you ran separate to script, to screen, you had a couple of meditations, you had a morning meditation, an evening meditation. And I thought, okay, all right, I'm going to start there. That's going to be, you know, it's different to what I'm, what I'm normally doing. And the sense of starting to reprogram my subconscious was there. And then I don't know how, but YouTube showed me a video of Paul McKenna. Do you know who Paul McKenna is?

Izzy Stevens [01:12:04]:

Yeah.

Pete [01:12:05]:

So Paul McKenna, a famous hypnotherapist in the UK, popped up. Seven days to change your life. Change your life in seven days. It's his 28 minutes morning hypnosis thing where he's talking in both ears at the same time with different things. And he's got a very, very hypnotic voice. And I'm listening to that every morning, the first thing I do every morning. And I just have a sense that. And I'm going to come back to answer your question in a second.

Pete [01:12:28]:

I have a sense that I'm doing that mind reprogramming work in a way that I've never done before.

Izzy Stevens [01:12:37]:

Absolutely.

Pete [01:12:38]:

Yeah. Interestingly, just another piece of the puzzle reconnected in terms going back to becoming visible. I plucked up the courage because I did feel a little anxiety about it. And I recorded and sent a personal video message to people that I used to know in my old software days, people that I just basically, like, I didn't abandon them, you know, because we weren't closely connected. But I kind of just. I just walked away. And the responses I got back were, Pete, man, so good to hear from you. But I try to find you, and you disappeared, but no one knew where you were, and you weren't on social media.

Pete [01:13:19]:

And it's like, oh, man. How you doing? Yeah, let's book a call. Let's book a call. And one of those calls I booked with was just a lovely, lovely human called Daniel Bushes. And he shared with me his journey. And all of them. It's like, we think that it's just us. We think that we're bad shit.

Pete [01:13:39]:

And not that it's really bad, but we think that it's only us that's going through it. And all these conversations with all these people that I hadn't really had anything to do with, hadn't really thought of them in the last three years. They've all been on these journeys which are just like, oh, my God, I wish I'd been there. I could have been there for you, and kind of got out of my own head and stuff and just stayed connected. And that is also a really powerful, powerful lesson to me. Anyway, part of Daniel's story that he shared with me was that he went to this hypnotherapist in San Diego, and on Friday, I've got a session with her.

Izzy Stevens [01:14:18]:

Oh, exciting.

Pete [01:14:19]:

To get customized subconscious reprogramming based on me. She had an hour conversation with you. Daniel said it was just like this. It was just like talking with someone on Zoom.

Izzy Stevens [01:14:30]:

Yeah.

Pete [01:14:31]:

And then she records. She records a tape. It's not a tape. She records.

Izzy Stevens [01:14:35]:

Yeah. Like a hypnosis recording for you.

Pete [01:14:37]:

I hope it's really recorded just for you based on. On what you've shared. And he said it was just almost like magic. Almost like magic.

Izzy Stevens [01:14:45]:

I love that. I feel like it's. Oh, yes. Got a little purring.

Pete [01:14:48]:

And to answer your question, that's why I think this time it's going to be different.

Izzy Stevens [01:14:54]:

Yes. Oh, I love it. And what I also want to highlight from what you shared was you doing some of this work. Right? Like you moving into the mindset work you're doing the Daily Rei, call it like, you basically recalibrating your daily recalibrations. And that led you to follow, not deny it, but follow a gut nudge to reach out to somebody and or reach out to multiple people and reconnect and then have, like, further develop relationships that you hadn't developed, you hadn't been in touch with for a long time. That led you to have these conversations that assert these beliefs, like, you are basically creating this reality for yourself because of the recalibrations that you're doing. Your identity is shifting.

Pete [01:15:42]:

Would you say that I'm giving my subconscious evidence? Yes, I'm giving the subconscious evidence for sure. Okay. That's what you mean by that.

Izzy Stevens [01:15:49]:

And also to touch on what you said earlier about investing in yourself, working with me in this business sense, right? This closed one on one container that we're about to go into in July, you put your money where your mouth is. You said yes to your goal. You said yes, this is possible for me. You said yes, I am worthy of this. You said yes. I know what I want, and I'm not afraid to go and get it. And it's a risk, and it's fucking scary, and I have no idea how it's going to work, but I just trust that it's going to work. That is the most powerful evidence that you can give yourself in your subconscious brain.

Pete [01:16:22]:

Wow. So it's probably no surprise to you to hear that stuff has changed for me since we last spoke.

Izzy Stevens [01:16:29]:

I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised that you went, hey, I'm going to start working with you in July. And I love that you sent me updates throughout being like, hey, this has changed. This is happening. Starting a podcast, like, all of these different things that you're doing because, you know, like, it's time to show up, it's time to shift. It's time to change. So that idea that implanted into your subconscious, that never went away years ago when you first read that book and you felt so connected to it hasn't, it wasn't like it didn't work. It's that it was manifesting.

Izzy Stevens [01:16:58]:

It was living there. It was in your subconscious. And it's our allowance to see that come through and acknowledge it and allow it and build on it and do the work to continue to remember the truth, the ultimate universal truth that we knew in our bones when we read that, when you read that information. And it's the reason why you'll start to see this same message. Even though we have talked about so many different things. The message that you're hearing is the belief that you have now said yes to and have created as a part of your identity. This is how I believe the world works. And I'm seeing evidence of it all the time.

Pete [01:17:36]:

Yeah, I like the way the world works at the moment.

Izzy Stevens [01:17:41]:

Yes. Yes. And will continue to and will grow upon. That's how we build it into layers. And it gets fun. I used to say, before I realized this stuff, very specifically, I used to say, imagine that life was pre business, right? Pre business. Isabella, what if life is like the matrix? What if it is this game? And we get to experiment, we get to play, we get to see what happens just because we get to see what happens. And I think this is similarly like it is a game in a sense.

Izzy Stevens [01:18:12]:

You're creating evidence for your subconscious brain. You allow more of that in, down.

Pete [01:18:16]:

To even experimenting with. Someone here in this might think, oh, you know, listening to half an hour hypnosis recordings every morning. Well, that's a load of bollocks, isn't it? Well, okay, yeah, it might be. And it might be that it's only worked for me. But why don't you experiment? Why don't you give it a go? Why don't you. Why don't you try it and see?

Izzy Stevens [01:18:36]:

Why not try. Yep, I agree. I think that it's powerful work. Or at least find your way into your own patterning to understand yourself. That is such an impactful. A lot of people are so afraid to look at themselves genuinely because they think that that's going to require them to blame themselves. But what if that means that it's requiring them to forgive themselves for all of the unconscious patterns that they've been a part of, regardless of whose fault you're a part of. A pattern.

Izzy Stevens [01:19:09]:

Let's look at that. Let's understand where it's come from. Let's heal it through whatever means makes sense to you. Whether it is a 30 minutes hypnosis in the morning, whether it is journaling, whether it's working with a coach, whether it's whatever that looks like, whatever that means for you, finding ways to adjust yourself back into that space of, this is what I want. I'm allowed. I'm worthy. So powerful. It's powerful work.

Izzy Stevens [01:19:31]:

I'm obsessed.

Pete [01:19:32]:

This is who I am. This is who I really am.

Izzy Stevens [01:19:34]:

This is who I really am. Yeah.

Pete [01:19:36]:

That's amazing. Well, like life, this conversation has zigged and it's zagged and it's gone forward and backward in time. Like any good. A Netflix show. This linear timeline stuff as parameters we want to bounce around, don't we?

Izzy Stevens [01:19:51]:

Absolutely.

Pete [01:19:53]:

It's been a joy, privilege, just immense amount of fun to spend this time with you. It really has.

Izzy Stevens [01:20:01]:

The feeling is so mutual.

Pete [01:20:03]:

Looking forward to. I was going to say more of the same. The conversations will be different, but in terms of spending that time with. With you in July for the next six months, is it. I think from there, yeah.

Izzy Stevens [01:20:14]:

I can't wait. I'm so excited to get to work.

Pete [01:20:18]:

So just kind of wrapping up, kind of starting to bring everything together. We recognize that your life has zigged and zagged and twisted and turned to this point. Do you have a sense that those zigs and zags are evening out? You've got more sense of certainty for a straight line path from here, or. Or is the certainty that life will carry on the same in terms of taking you in different directions?

Izzy Stevens [01:20:43]:

Yeah. I'm curious to see where it goes. I'm curious to see what happens next. I know what I want. I have plans for the business and the brand that is being built, but I'm so ready and open for.

Pete [01:21:00]:

What do you want? Can you describe it for us?

Izzy Stevens [01:21:02]:

Yeah, sure.

Pete [01:21:03]:

Because somebody, we can help you get that.

Izzy Stevens [01:21:07]:

So this business is building into a place, a community for people to come to be educated, be held in a space where their dreams are validated and strategized. And I see this as a complementary brand to my filmmaking. And I want to be able to have branches of a production company. I want to be able to. You know, I'm about to go into development on my feature film, and I'm ready for it all to work together in harmony. I don't know what's to come otherwise. Like, it's filmmaking. It's directing on my own terms.

Izzy Stevens [01:21:45]:

It's working with people, scaling the business. You know, going from working with 100 people a year to 500 a thousand. Who knows what happens? We'll see. But I. I can't wait to. I'm very open to the process. I don't know where it will go. So I'm excited.

Pete [01:22:04]:

I love the way you described that. You've got a. Whether you call it a vision or an idea of something in the future that is almost. Would you describe it as pulling you? Would you describe it as kind of exerting a force, as pulling you?

Izzy Stevens [01:22:18]:

And then I would say, I think it more feels like an invitation. Yeah. Instead of a pulling feeling, it feels like there is a constant invitation for me to show up. There's a reason that I get up in the morning and do what I want to do, because I'm invited to live this purpose.

Pete [01:22:37]:

And what. I'm just curious, Dave, with what you said, what do you love to do when you're not building a business and directing film?

Izzy Stevens [01:22:44]:

Spending time with my people, my family, my friends, spending time with the kittens, living slow speak. I mean, this is definitely part of the business, but speaking on stages, speaking in podcasts, I love this stuff. Like, I haven't, you know, I woke up this morning, I had such a crazy morning, and I had to, you know, I had pages of my film to write. I had a bunch of things I needed to do. And then, you know, we. I had a session before this, and then here we are on this podcast. It's noon, and I have had a coffee. I haven't eaten.

Izzy Stevens [01:23:12]:

This is unusual for me, but I haven't even. You know, it's like I love what I'm doing so much, but it doesn't matter if one day is off balance and the next day is fully in balance, because it's all in harmony together. And I'm so passionate about what I get to do. So definitely filmmaking is my love language. And being slow and hanging with friends and family and traveling. Traveling is such a big part of my life, and I love it. So, I don't know, just living and dancing. I still dance.

Izzy Stevens [01:23:41]:

I actually went to a dance class the other day and got back in touch with that part of myself, and that was really fun, I got to say.

Pete [01:23:48]:

I love to. I'm so glad you're back to podcasting again. I wasn't connected with you the first season, but I eagerly await Tuesdays when your episode drops. And I was driving at the time. When you're talking about how you had a dance before you got into recording last week's episode, I just. And the great thing is, now I can now kind of visualize where.

Izzy Stevens [01:24:13]:

Visualize. Well, here I am. This is where my office swear the magic happens.

Pete [01:24:18]:

That's so great to kind of get into the mindset, I suppose, of what you wanted to talk about.

Izzy Stevens [01:24:24]:

That's amazing, Kate, I have so appreciated you and this time we've spent together. Thank you so much.

Pete [01:24:30]:

Yeah. You and me both. So, obviously, apart from your own podcast, not a straight line will become your most listened to podcast once we launch.

Izzy Stevens [01:24:40]:

Hell, yeah.

Pete [01:24:40]:

And I just want you to imagine a time in a few months time your episode's already been out, and it got raving reviews, and people loved it, and people are talking to you about it. But one morning, you get a notification on your podcast app that a new episode has just come into not a straight line. And you go, oh, great. Because there's another episode, and you look at it and you see who it is. You see who's being interviewed, and you go, oh, man, I really want to listen to that. Really want to listen to that one. Who is it?

Izzy Stevens [01:25:13]:

Oh, my gosh. Oh, that's such a tough question. I'm, like, stuck between someone really important to your life. Like, maybe you and your wife, like, having that, like, a conversation between you and your partner. That would be. I think that would be very interesting because it's very. It's like, okay, you know, real, very real. Because there's so much in evidence and vulnerability in, you know, talking like this so blatantly with people in your life about these things.

Pete [01:25:41]:

So maybe mom or dad.

Izzy Stevens [01:25:43]:

Yes, definitely. Yes. Yes. Yes. That's what I want to hear.

Pete [01:25:49]:

Online therapy. Jesus Christ.

Izzy Stevens [01:25:51]:

It's so funny because my partner and I were just talking about this. I was like, I want you to. I want you to interview me for my podcast, and I want to interview you. And he was like, okay, I'm scared. Well, let's do it. So I'm gonna do it.

Pete [01:26:05]:

Such knowing you as I. As I do and the limited weather I do, that doesn't surprise me. That's your answer. But that's really, really insightful. Yeah, that's it. That's a wrap.

Izzy Stevens [01:26:14]:

Thank you so much, Pete. I really enjoyed this. Thanks for having me, and thanks for inviting me on.

Pete [01:26:19]:

No, it's a pleasure. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of not a straight line. If this conversation helped to reorient your internal compass or inspired you in any way, please let us know by heading to podcast Dot, not a straightline life forward slash rate and leave a rating and review. Thanks as always to Matthew Bliss of MB podcast services for his exquisite engineering of this episode. If you'd like him to help you with your podcast, contact details are in the show notes. And if you'd like to be a guest on the show or there's someone whose non straight line journey you'd just love to hear, then please visit podcast Dot, not a straightline life forward slash guest. Thanks for being here with me, and I'll see you next week for another amazing, deep, inspiring, non straight line journey. Love you.