Embracing Purpose and Persistence in the New Year: A Heart-to-Heart on Goal-setting and Indie Filmmaking Success

Welcome to the Heart of Show business. I am your host, alexia Melochi. I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society. Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together. My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works. We will cover dreams come true, the road, life's travel, journey, beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between. I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams. Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world? Then let's roll. Sound and action. All right, all right. Welcome to the Heart of Show business, 2024 edition. Well, first of all, happy new year. I can't believe a new year has started. Hopefully it's going to be a magical one, because the total sum of 2024 is a number eight and number eight is the infinity number, and we all know that number eight brings good luck in general to everyone. So I just wanted to come on here because I feel that you can move forward without taking a look at what's behind you, right? So the year just ended. For some of you it was a great one. For some of you it was so-so, for some of you it was really a shitty one, I would have to say. For me personally, it was a combination of all of those three things. And yeah, it's resolution time, right? We're always thinking the first of the year, or the first week of the year, is where we all get rallied up and are excited. We've written our notes, we put down the list of our dreams, our goals, everything that we want to attain in the year. We go through so much list writing and so much inventory, and I know that it is a little bit how should I say challenging to stick to the New Year's resolutions. I think 90% of the people who say I'm having a New Year resolution, they fail at it within the first week or two. So I think it has to do a lot with the past catching up to us, right? How many of us look in the past and then I'm feeling like shit, right? We say, well, I said I was going to do this and then I didn't do it. Therefore I'm a failure, therefore I suck. So what's the point? So we were kind of like a little drunk because of New Year's Eve and we've had a little bit too much to drink, or we partied, or we're on this high of the year having ended in a new one beginning because who doesn't like beginnings? Right, we all love beginnings. And then the past catches up to us and we start putting really high demands on ourselves and all of a sudden those resolutions don't feel that great anymore, like they did the first week. And then we don't meet the things that we said we were going to do within the first week. And then we start saying that we are no good, that we don't know what the hell we're doing, and then we quit. And so I'm a little bit guilty about myself. I must admit I am also have been guilty of not enoughness. Like what if I try to do something this year and then it's not enough? What if all the things that I did last year were really not enough? But by whose opinion, really, if you think about it, why do we care so much about the opinion of others, and why do we constantly feel this need to be perfectionist and, instead of deciding, to just flow with it? So I invite you to think what if, instead of New Year's resolutions, we call those conscious choices. What if we call those New Year's decisions or New Year's choices? I think it has a better sound to it than a resolution. And also one of the things that we need to remind ourselves is when you're writing all those lists of all the things that we plan to accomplish. And, of course, for artists, I'm going to sell my script, my movie's going to get made, I'm going to be represented, I'm going to be famous, I'm going to make a lot of money, I'm going to find a distributor, I'm going to find financing, somebody's going to, like you know, want to work with me. There's so many things that we want as artists and as Hollywood people, and what I like to say is that are you ever asking yourself why you want those things? Because the what without the why does not really work. Yeah, so that's what I want to say. You know I'm going to go fast on this one. It's going to be a short episode, but I think that if I look at all my screw ups, as I say, of the last year because they were a few I'm not perfect. They all had to do with what Lacking a why. So, for example, I'm just going to say some of the things. And again, I'm not defeating myself, I'm just doing an inventory so that I can be better here in 2024. Saying yes to too many things I say yes to too many things. You know social business. I just say yes to so many things and the reason is because I fail sometimes to ask myself why. So if you want to go somewhere, the what is the party, the event, the dinner, what is the really why behind that? The same thing as with a business venture yeah, I want to do this. This is so great. Is there really why we want to do that? Can we be honest about it with ourselves? Is it because we need money? Is it because we heard that that's the thing to do? It's just so interesting that the why tends to be the reason why we mess up on whatever we set out to do. So remember that what without a why does not work, and make sure that your why is a really good one, not just one that you just come up without really digging deepest to why. This is a good why. And there's some other reasons that I say yes to too many things. I'm just doing a little TMI, too much information, but I like to be vulnerable and I like to be raw because I am real and I want all of you to listen because maybe you will learn something from it. For example for me was I did not fact check when I said yes to some business adventures let's call them that didn't go as well as planned. So, by the way, the fact checking part is something that is contained in my book, which just dropped last year on Christmas day. There is a whole chapter dedicated to that, about fact checking, and I stuck my nose in drama. It's true, I'm an empath, so I stick my nose in a lot of drama and then it eats me up and then it drains me and then I'm not able to finish what I started. So I talk about that in my book as well Shameless Self-Lug. But at the same time, is what do I do about this? Fuckups? How do I solve that? What are my solutions to coming to terms with those things, so that I can actually enter the new year with a clean slate, with a different attitude and not a resolution, but make a different choice, which is a big difference resolution versus choice, conscious choice, even better. So what I would say is the first thing that you can do is to just see the F-Ops. I know I said F-Bumps a lot, this episode, pardon, so I'm gonna be engerated this episode, but anyway, you begin with just seeing things for what they are. It's important, you know. So that's something that is necessary for all of us to tackle. It's just sit with our flaws, without mistakes, with unfeeling of not enoughness, and see it for what it was. Okay, we're not perfect, and here's the thing we also want to celebrate our wins, and so I just want to go here and brag a little about myself and all the things that I did accomplish, and I invite you to also do an inventory of all the things that are worth celebrating, the things that you did accomplish, versus just focusing on the ones that you didn't. For me, a few come to mind. First is I joined the producers Guild of America, pga. It's been many years in the making, not that I was not illegible, because I have produced over 30 movies by now, but I never felt the need or desire to be part of a group. But then I realized that community is what makes us stronger. Right, we just went through a strike and then we were able to rally up as a community to create some change. So community is very important and being able to be around your peers. So I joined the producer Guild of America and I'm voting this year, so very excited about that. I spoke on a very important panel at ITTV, the Italian television festival Now it's called International Festival, really Content Festival in Los Angeles. I was a speaker and I was on the panel with some powerhouses. We're talking heads of streaming companies and major major studio heads and showrunner producers and again there was a moment where I had a feeling of nonenoughness, like what am I doing here? I don't run a studio, I don't run a streaming company, I don't have a hit show. This moment I will. I haven't done an Oscar movie I will. Why am I in this panel? I'm in this panel because I have longevity. I'm in this panel because I have knowledge. I am in this panel because I've been at it for 30 years and there's nothing that my eyes have not seen. So I stood my ground in a panel of old men as a woman and I was able to connect remember the heart of show business. So I showed up with my heart and it was quite a big success and accomplishment for me and I'm going to be doing a lot more of those this coming year. I've already been invited to quite a few. Third accomplishment is I produced four or five low budget movies with my Italian directors, who I love and adore and have been with me forever. Did anybody ever tell me that I would be making genre films for low budget? I would have said you are crazy, because you know I don't like horror, I don't like genre and I don't like low budget, but I do believe in talent and I believe in geniuses and these filmmakers. I think they are amazing at what they do, which is why I represent them to begin with, and therefore I produce four low budget movies that, lo and behold, are also going to be coming out in the theaters in different international territories. So I'm quite proud of that and that I put that connection together between the financier and distributor and my filmmakers and I was able to make the magic happen as a true super connector that I am. And the last drum roll. I'm not going to go through all this because you're probably going to be bored. It's the first month of the year. I'm sure there's lots on your mind, but I did want to come here to inspire you and uplift you and tell you how excited I am that I finally published my book. My book is called An Insider's Secret Mastering the Hollywood Path. It's an e-book. It's also going to be a hard copy and it will come out sometime in April the hard copy but please do check it out. It's a combination of many blogs that I've written for the industry, put together in a really nice, concise, flowy way, and also some transcripts of my past podcast guests that I've had through the years Amazing people that have inspired me and uplifted and have so much information to share. So I wrote this book and, gosh, I can call myself an author now. So it's the first of a series. So I said I was going to do it. I did it. It took me a year, more than what I thought it was going to do, but I accomplished that because my why was more important than my what. My why was not an ego trip. My why was I have knowledge. I know how to put it together in a way that is gonna be easy and understood, and I'm gonna use this reason to publish something that I'm proud of. And so please check out the book and listen as we talk about again with the past and talking about the why is more important than the why. What I'm just gonna say to you is you're just gonna have some times to burn the boats, and what I mean by that and it's been spoken by many motivational leaders. I did not invent the sentence, but I love it. Burning the boats means basically going forward without looking back. You've done the inventory, you looked at your F-ups, you looked at the things that you can celebrate, that you accomplish, and then you burn those boats and you move forward. Okay, and in order to do that, you have to know three things. Whatever that it is, you want to accomplish your goals, your dreams, your vision, your plans for 2024, you have to believe that what you want is out there. You have to believe that you will find it, which is very important, and you also have to believe that it was all worth it, and that's the most important part, which again is tied to your why. So what will you create for yourself this year? Sometimes, it's not just the thing, it's the feeling. So the feeling is what drives the what. The feeling is the why. So I just wanted to say that those are my little beginning of the year Woo-hoo, let's go, let's go, people, let's make it count, let's make it great. I have some great guests coming up this season and I am so excited. I mean, they're huge people and it took a while to get them to say yes to me, but I made it, I manifested it, I attracted it. I can't wait for the new season to come and, as far as my prediction is, I don't have a whole lot to say beyond the fact that I think where the business is going is going to be the year of mergers and alliances. That's what I believe that there will be less clutter and more quantity as a result of the strike, because people are becoming more choosy and more picky, and that's a good thing. And we're gonna have to weather the storm, because a storm is still here, even if there was a strike that just ended. We just lost about six months, right, and now we have to catch up on the six months. And then what's happening? And then there's gonna be more of direct contact with your audience. So make sure that, whatever it is that you're doing, whether you're a startup, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're an artist, producer, it doesn't matter, whatever it is know your audience and make sure that you have a direct connection with them, and that's what I wanted to say. I owe some quite excited that my mother and I were featured on a podcast by two ex-clients called A Couple of Interpreneurs really, really good. If you wanna check it out and listen to it, it will give you a little bit of a background on my amazing, famous and infamous mother-daughter relationships as business partners and why we have so much magic together when we work together. And that's all. So I wish you all a very, very happy new year. Stay tuned for the new guests that are coming up this season. Don't forget that your why is more important than your what, and just burn the damn boats right. Burn the damn boats, move forward, believe it's out there, believe that, whatever it is, you will find it and believe that it's all worth it. I hope you enjoyed this little mini podcast episode, the beginning kickoff of my new season. Happy new year everyone. Thank you for listening, thank you for sharing, thank you for the great compliments, thank you for buying my book. And that's it Over and out. The heart of show business. I will see you in my next show. Bye. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the heart of show business.