Filming Something Every Day for 365 Days with Matteo Farinacci

In this episode we're joined by Matteo Farinacci (@filmedbymatteo), a videographer from the Bay Area in California. He has embarked on a project to film a video every single day for 365 days straight, a true practice of creativity, commitment, and time management.

Expect to learn:

-how to work on becoming a committed and disciplined person
-how and when sacrifices need to be made
-what comes from taking on a hard task that requires daily effort
-why "good enough" is a must sometimes
-how reps, not time, are what makes you improve

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Thanks for listening!
Go get shooting, go get editing, and stay focused.

@sethmacey
@mantis_photography
@thephotographermindset

Transcript

INTRO:

00:05.36
smacey
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the photographer mindset podcast. I'm your co-host Seth Macey

00:09.33
aaronmannes
I'm your co-host Aaron Maness.

00:12.59
smacey
365 days in a year. And our guest today is doing one video every single day for a year straight. Sounds simple, very difficult. Great interview today. What can people expect to learn?

00:27.68
aaronmannes
I just think there's so much to be taken from consistency and creating a habit which is non-negotiable. If it's a full year of anything, it just has to happen. There's no days off. So you have to figure out a way to make it happen, whether it's an A plus video or a C plus video, you're still doing it every single day. And from that, you're going to learn an enormous amount.

00:56.97
smacey
Couldn't have said it better myself. We're from our sponsor and then right into the episode.

INTERVIEW:

00:00:49.75
aaronmannes
So Mateo, welcome. Welcome to the photographer mindset.

00:00:54.43
smacey
Yeah, welcome.

00:00:56.24
aaronmannes
ah I saw you probably a month or two ago we first connected. I saw a little feature on Rode microphone. We we love the Rode stuff. We have a bunch of it that we're using on our show as well. So we follow them. I saw a feature about you creating just cinematic ah videos for 365 days. I don't know if it's in a row or at least 365 videos. They're trying to just put out there. um You're on you said 120 ish.

00:01:27.09
Matteo Farinacci
164 today.

00:01:29.50
aaronmannes
160, I'm off. that shoot Scratch that. 164 today of of videos. And not just like quick videos, like cinematic, thoughtful, sound effects, music, plots, narratives, ah cinematic videos, one after another. And that struck me as you know something that Seth and I talk about every, I wouldn't say so often, pretty often. of picking something that's hard, discipline, creating a routine, setting a time schedule, time management, just pushing through some struggles to try to get to another side and invited you on the show. And that's what we want to kind of dig into and and talk about. So welcome. Why don't you give a little intro to yourself and kind of where you started and and where you are and we'll jump in from there.

00:02:22.19
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, absolutely. So thank you guys for having me. My name is Mateo Farinachi. I'm filmed by Mateo Online. and Basically where this all started is around New Year's, I wanted to set a challenge for myself. So right now I'm on a gap year. I graduated high school class of 23. And so for this year, I really want, I didn't a hundred percent know what I wanted to do. And I started filming a lot. I originally came from a photographer background. Actually, I took photography class in high school, got a camera, super stoked about it, but video was like my true passion. I just didn't know like where to start. So.

00:02:53.30
Matteo Farinacci
ah dabbled with it like the first half my gap year and then right around when new years came i got an fx3 it was like my big jump i got the camera like i have no excuses now i really want to learn how to do this and so i had this year i was applying to film schools um and i was like you know what i'm go like what's the hardest goal like the gnarliest goal like i want to learn every day so i'm going to set myself to the goal of filming every single day i think there hasn't been a day where i haven't had a camera in my hands and i haven't been on premiere just editing something so

00:03:24.82
Matteo Farinacci
It really started with me just going around my town. I'm from the Bay Area. I'm so thankful for all the stuff I have around me. It's it's really an amazing place to film. And so there hasn't been a day where I haven't gone out to some random spot and explored, brought my camera, filmed something small. And it started with like two or three clips and I just got so into it. I'd start doing like 15, 20 second videos, then minute long videos. And yeah, I mean, not every day is the same, but I'm now creating a video every day.

00:03:52.89
aaronmannes
Now is every day a ah completely different narrative or do you film like, let's say ah in premiere you have a three minute narrative and then chop it up?

00:04:02.69
Matteo Farinacci
Every day is completely different. So yeah, just, I think it helped me stay like on track to, I'd set an hour or two aside every single day to go do something new.

00:04:04.29
aaronmannes
Completely different.

00:04:16.49
Matteo Farinacci
There are days where I do have to plan ahead if I know yeah I'm going to be busy this whole day or on my recent trip to Africa, I'd have like a 20 hour traveling day, which is super hard to film. So there there are days where I have to film ahead. And if I have a whole free day, I'll go and film like three completely different videos. But I really try and do something new every day.

00:04:36.24
aaronmannes
I mean, it's amazing, just conceptualizing it for myself. I just feel like, oh, that would be... I think I could get started, but I think after a while I would be... it would just catch up to me. So I'm curious like the... How have you learned the process? what What's changed from the beginning? Like you must have at this point a pretty lockstep process in terms of filming, edit time, ah looking ahead at your schedule even, like really trying to efficiently take a look at your time and make it all work because Seth and I know film is no easy task, especially in Premiere.

00:05:15.38
aaronmannes
um I've been doing it for a while and I still don't feel even close to fluent. ah there's There's like, just learn every day, like these little tricks where I was like, oh my God, I was doing it that way. Like synchronizing audio. I would stand there and like look for peaks for hours. I tried to do it and then you find out there's a button for it. But ah what's changed in terms of your preparedness or from video one to video 162?

00:05:42.05
Matteo Farinacci
I'd say workflow has been the biggest thing just being as efficient as I can because there's days where okay I finished my whole day it's 10 p.m. I have to get a video out so I It can suck sometimes, but I really like to have the mindset it's like, I get to film today, I get to film today, like it's not, I have to film today, I get to film today, so that's been huge.

00:06:01.02
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:06:02.39
Matteo Farinacci
And I think, especially with Premiere, I have a very like similar workflow, like I have all my projects day 100, 200, like I have all my projects like really organized, I think it just makes it super easy for the um and when i'm out filming like I'm super thankful for the Bay Area again it's like been best backyard ever there's cool things all around me so it's like okay do I want to go to this spot this spot this spot I have backup spots I have like a huge list of spots and a great network of people who I can ask if they have any cool spots I can go film so it's usually a lot of my videos consist of like a lot of very simple shots very static shots and I'll just cut them up to like a ah song and just try and create a vibe that's really really what I try and do minimally

00:06:44.93
Matteo Farinacci
and then have the time i try maybe create a little story out of it.

00:06:49.25
aaronmannes
Yeah, and they they come across, I mean, there's there's definitely an our artistic sense to your videos. Like, they they definitely come across not just as, you know, someone grabbing their phone and and videoing, or whatever. they there You can tell there's a thought and a creativity to it. They're fun to watch, you know, and I think that's that's what caught me with Rode, ah that little feature. getting into your page and kind of getting lost in terms of yeah great great musical selection, sound design, color grade, just sort of cool effects, transitions. When you're looking at your your process as a whole, do you do you find that you're going through trends of like,

00:07:29.04
aaronmannes
i I really want to work on transitions this week, or I really want to work on sound design this week, or is it sort of a holistic improvement day by day, or do you feel like there is that sort of, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to really dig into some wacky transitions just to see put that in my tool belt.

00:07:48.99
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, I'd say, oh, it's a little bit of all of it. So like when Rode hit me up, I got a bunch of microphones from them. I had so much fun with sound design, Foley, like all of that. And then I got a VHS camera one day. That was super cool. So it's, it's really like what I'm feeling that day. But, um, there's like, I'll definitely abuse certain transitions if I'm just super psyched on them. So depend it depends, it depends what I'm feeling really. Yeah.

00:08:13.94
aaronmannes
Awesome.

00:08:16.12
smacey
Yeah. I want to rewind a bit. You, there's certain sentences and things that catch my attention in every interview. And then I always try to backpedal. You said, uh, you know, sometimes your day's finished. You've had a busy long day. It's 10 PM. I, you said I have to get a video out. It's, it's not an option. What's the e mental chatter, the mental talk going on in your head? When you're trying to make that decision between I could just get it out tomorrow and go to bed now, or I really need to get this out. I mean, what where does the rigidity come from? And is that good for you? Are you enjoying that level of discipline?

00:08:56.01
Matteo Farinacci
yeah i'd say there's definitely days where i'm just like i just want to relax today i don't want to have to do this i don't want to have to dedicate four hours of my day to go find a spot don't edit but I think there's there's just so many times where, like I said before, it's like, I get to go film. Like, that's so awesome. I get to go film. Like, I psyched myself up about that. And I think the discipline just comes to like, it's getting stronger and stronger because of how far I've gotten. So it's like, I'm 160 something days strong. Like, this is awesome. I just need to keep going. I'm almost halfway there. So I think another part of it is this kind of off topic by surf a lot and

00:09:36.71
Matteo Farinacci
I'm getting up early a lot and so there's a lot of discipline there. It's like get a five in the morning, go surf. It's a really similar concept. It's the best times that Golden Hour is really nice in the morning. so It's just, I think for me, it's something that I've built up over these last couple months of filming. It's just a mindset of, this is something awesome I get to do. And it's still all about learning for me. I started this challenge to learn and learn every single day. And now I've had great feedback. So I'm just super stoked on it and its keep all of that keeps pushing me every day. Yeah.

00:10:09.73
smacey
Is it fair to say this is when you say learning, people may think, Oh, learning how to film better or learning how to color grade better or learning how to storyboard better. Would you also say it's a personal, and like an experiment in personal discovery? Is that fair to say? I mean, I'm i'm speaking for myself here. Like I've tried to do a lot of hard things as a means to find out who I am. Does that relate to you?

00:10:36.18
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely. Like 100%. I think putting myself in like a, okay, I'll make a video every day for a couple of weeks versus a year is, I'm learning a lot more during a year. Like that is pushing me to like boundaries I've never thought I could be pushed to. And I've learned a lot about myself.

00:10:50.10
smacey
Right.

00:10:53.47
Matteo Farinacci
It's, it's

00:10:53.62
smacey
Right. So what are some things you've maybe learned about yourself that were surprising or like, huh, I didn't know I had that capacity.

00:11:00.15
Matteo Farinacci
I think for myself personally, like my relationship with procrastination is completely different now. I choose to procrastinate. Every procrastination is on me. and So learning like my time is on me has been the biggest thing.

00:11:14.60
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. And I'm on a gap year, so I do have a little bit of leeway there. Like I have a lot more time than people who are in school or working a full-time job. So it's been like, like this is my first year out of high school.

00:11:22.91
smacey
Right. Wow.

00:11:27.32
Matteo Farinacci
First year, like as a real adult, so I'm just kind of throwing myself into managing my time, managing myself fully. Yeah.

00:11:34.24
aaronmannes
And you said you're applying to film schools. So I love the sense of I'm going to do this every day until I'm in film schools, essentially. And that's what a better way to figure out if you really love this thing, that you're going to pay tons of money to go study.

00:11:46.15
Matteo Farinacci
Exactly.

00:11:48.80
aaronmannes
There's so many people that right from high school, think a ah gap year so important, or can be utilized in such a good way. But so many kids go right from high school just with like this. I should be a doctor because my parents told me I should, or I should be, whatever it is, whatever they're going to study, it's just like this imaginative idea that it's what they're going to be doing. ah And sometimes it works out, and sometimes it's great, and sometimes kids know from day one, but how many kids get to really try what they're about to go pay thousands of dollars to learn?

00:12:22.36
aaronmannes
Not not many, so.

00:12:22.50
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. I realized that was on me. Like I could totally not be doing this, but I'm deciding to do this. It's just that film, like film school is big. It's also like going to an art school that like artists objective, you know? So I think really putting myself as deep into this the film environment as I can coming from scratch. Like I made my first video a year ago, like a year, 13 months ago. So really throwing myself out of this, because this is a big decision. Yeah.

00:12:53.34
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:12:53.40
smacey
Right. Right. Let me ask you this in your opinion. So 365 days, I'm going to film every day, 365 days of the year. Very simple concept, right? Why in your opinion is that hard? Like why is that probably, and it is difficult for most people. Like why would that have been difficult to the old version of you in a previous chapter or the different version of yourself?

00:13:22.57
Matteo Farinacci
Um, I think really the beginning is the hardest part. I think anyone could do, I really think anyone could do this. Just sticking through the beginning is so hard because it's like, you're really, it's, it's becoming like, it's become a lifestyle for me. So it's, I'm going from like filming when I feel like it to filming every single day. And I have no choice. Like to myself, I have no choice. I have to go do something. That's just what it is. it's what i've set myself up for and it's public it's out there in front of 36 37 000 people so i yeah i'm 100 accountable um like i started my account had like 600 followers um just from like i did a lot of photography like i said before i threw that all on there so like everyone i kind of knew was already on that account watching it like close friends family and so um throwing myself in that super like not stressful but like there's a lot of eyes on me

00:13:55.00
smacey
So you're accountable.

00:14:17.69
Matteo Farinacci
throw myself in that position.

00:14:18.63
aaronmannes
you

00:14:19.18
Matteo Farinacci
I mean like oh man like now I have people like when's like you haven't posted your video yet today like what's your video so um that's something like I set myself up for that which I knew would definitely push me um but I think anyone could put themselves in that situation.

00:14:33.33
smacey
Yeah, I've gotten some people really disagree with me when I because I'm a um like I suggest that you tell people your big audacious goals or the project you're about to start. Because especially if you're somebody who lacks self accountability, like if you're having an honest honest conversation with yourself and you say, Hey, I lack discipline, I lack self accountability. And when you tell somebody, hey, I'm going to post publicly like on your Instagram, I'm going to post a video every single day for 365 days. If you're not going to do it for you, you're going to do it for those people.

00:15:05.60
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely.

00:15:06.19
smacey
Because especially if you care about your reputation, now there's there's a difference. This isn't making, this isn't caring about what other people think, but your credibility is on the line when you publicly state you're going to do something.

00:15:10.68
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely.

00:15:18.99
smacey
Right? So I feel, I feel you. that that's a very good way to kick yourself in the butt. People are watching me. I made a promise publicly to myself and I need to live up to that. And you learn so much about yourself along the way. People have disagreed with me in the past that it's not very beneficial to tell people your goals and the things you're doing, but I really think it is, especially in that regard.

00:15:42.77
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely. so I think that was one of the most important things. and um Like I'm not gonna name any schools or anything, but I did not get into like almost any of the schools I wanted to get into. So I was like, what is every kid applying not doing? Like making a video every single day. Like that was for me just like as a, I guess for a bottle to my applications getting rejected. But I was like, all right, this is what it is. Didn't get into the schools I wanted. I'll make a video every single day because I know like at school I'm not gonna be getting a video every single day. And my dream film school is I'm not gonna be making a video every day. so

00:16:15.86
aaronmannes
Yeah, and what a way to deal with, let's call it failure. I mean, failure is not talked about enough, I think. And and so you don't get into your schools, you can say like, screw this, I'm gonna go, whatever, ah you know, ah but instead you go, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna double down, um double down on it and like really get after I'm gonna make my own way. And who knows what happens with schools come, you know, September, is it September that you're looking to go or next?

00:16:37.28
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:16:44.62
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, so um I actually did come into a school and like September 3rd is my orientation.

00:16:48.96
aaronmannes
There you go. You know, but who who who knows what could have or will even at this point, come out of this, you know, road noticed you, it's a big company, some other big companies might notice you come knocking, you're putting yourself out there ah for for success.

00:16:57.57
Matteo Farinacci
yeah

00:17:04.85
aaronmannes
And even though there was a potential, you know, quote unquote, setback, like, Oh, I didn't get into schools, I didn't get to the schools I wanted to. sort of like talking your tail you just kept trudging and I think I see we've talked about it before Seth I'm laughing because I'm not really laughing that was figurative not figurative but in my head I'm laughing because there's skateboards behind you and surfing and

00:17:17.17
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:17:28.11
aaronmannes
we've talked about is like any kid that I see skateboarding and like accomplishing tricks as long as they stay on the straight and narrow like they'll be fine they understand the blueprint of I think everything which is practice over and over and falling and hurting yourself and finally getting that kickflip and being like oh after 10,000 attempts I finally got it and I think kids that skateboard or surf or those those sports that you just You get crushed in the beginning, like literally crushed.

00:17:59.41
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah,

00:18:00.99
aaronmannes
You learn like this is actually what it takes to do anything to pick up a guitar. It sucks. It hurts your fingers. You just keep going. You keep going. Like learn one chord every day. And before you know it, you know every chord, you know? And I think, I mean, it's right on your wall, that sort of work ethic that it takes to get to a spot.

00:18:17.75
Matteo Farinacci
no 100% I think I mean I served a

00:18:23.89
Matteo Farinacci
yeah hundred percent i think i mean i served yesterday i'murfing after this like i'm doing serpping every day and i'm filming every day For me, surfing definitely played like the biggest role. Actually, the reason a huge amount of my motivation is I had a really gnarly surf accident around a year ago, completely threw me off. I was out for months, months. Everything came to a halt, months. It was the end of my senior year, and it's kind of the reason I started of the gap year as well.

00:18:51.49
aaronmannes
Hmm.

00:18:52.17
Matteo Farinacci
just It was a super hard year. I was literally just in bed for months and months and months.

00:18:56.92
aaronmannes
Wow.

00:18:58.36
Matteo Farinacci
And so not being able to go out and finish off high school with my friends, go surf every day, go film, go do the things I love, like that I just wanted, I would do anything in the world to just go to the beach, bring my camera and go surf and film. But I had that taken away from me like in an instant for for but for half a year or even more. And then I guess I kind of have that in the back of my ring all the time when I go film. It's like, this is great. Like I'm good. i can go do this

00:19:30.16
Matteo Farinacci
psych to be able to do that. So that's where a lot of motivation comes to. too

00:19:35.32
aaronmannes
Yeah, it's a really important perspective, um you know, and we talk about like comfort and talk about the opposite of that is an accident like that or something that happens traumatically is often a incredible motivator to to make something of it and have the perspective and the appreciation, the gratitude to be able to be back out there, to be able to do those things, to be able to, you know, day after day, chase a dream without, ah you know, a setback.

00:20:05.53
aaronmannes
you you've You've had the experience of a setback. You've had the experience of everything being taken for a minute, not a minute, months, could have been years, could have been forever, you know, and sometimes that's a matter of inches. Who we had um was the surf photographer we had on Brianna?

00:20:22.22
smacey
Brianna Bradley.

00:20:23.27
aaronmannes
Yeah. who talked about the the board hitting her square in the forehead but missed her temple by like an inch and it was such a traumatic blow that I mean, one inch could have been the end. ah So it it sometimes does take those things in life to kickstart this sort of passion or ability to have this perseverance with the gratitude, ah Perseverance Gratitude Sandwich. Let's call it that.

00:20:50.91
Matteo Farinacci
That's great. ah love like obviously like I I keep saying like I suck myself up. I'm always hyped to do like film every day, but there's like, like we talked about a little bit before, there's definitely days where it's tough. But I think

00:21:04.13
smacey
So what makes you film anyways on those days?

00:21:05.86
aaronmannes
Yeah, what are those days like?

00:21:08.02
Matteo Farinacci
yeah i mean oh man coming back from i was in kenya for three weeks the jet lag just sucked um and just i had so much i still i'm still editing like i'm simultaneously so like putting together a documentary with a couple of my buddies while filming every day that was really tough like when we were in kenya we're in the middle of nowhere no wi-fi nothing like You know, I'm worrying about mosquitoes. I forgot my malaria pills, all this stuff. Like there's a lot of stuff on my mind. And then at the end of the day, I still need to go film. I still need to go make a little video. I still need to edit. There's just days like that which sucks, but I don't know what it is. I just, I have to go film. I just have to. I think it's a buildup of all of this. Yeah.

00:21:52.02
smacey
Well, let me ask you this. So it's, it's quite obvious just with your verbiage that you've made a ah promise to yourself. I think promises are different than goals. They're very closely related.

00:22:02.10
Matteo Farinacci
Mm

00:22:03.74
smacey
When you promise yourself something, there is, it's much more difficult to let yourself down and let things slide. In my opinion, there's a reason for promises, but I want to know, is there maybe not obvious, but is there a covert consequence to missing a day?

00:22:22.94
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, I mean this is the thing like there's but like when I was in Africa there's been a couple days where I didn't get to upload because of wi-fi but I still was filming I'm still uploading those videos like every other day I'll post like two when I'm catching up but um to me it just feels like a failure and I feel like that feeling before a failure when you know a failure is going to come is worse than actually failing like it's like dreading

00:22:35.19
smacey
Right.

00:22:46.50
Matteo Farinacci
but you're gonna fail like i'm gonna miss I hate that feeling and it's just like, I can fix that feeling by going...

00:22:53.06
aaronmannes
Yeah, something in your control, right?

00:22:54.97
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. um I think it's having a super polarizing mindset of just like, I'm making a video today or I'm not making a video today, keeping myself accountable. Like, okay, you didn't make a video. Like, come on dude, lock in, go make and go make two tomorrow. Like, that's just, I think it's important to be hard on yourself in some, like there's some times in your life where it can be important to be hard on yourself as long as you're taking care of yourself and it's productive.

00:23:20.06
smacey
Yeah, I think what you're talking about is there's two kinds of failure, right? There's inevitable failure, like what Aaron was talking about. You have to go through the reps before you can get the kick flip, right? It's just, it's a part of it. And then there's times where you can see the failure coming, but there's things you can do to not have that happen.

00:23:40.69
Matteo Farinacci
yeah

00:23:41.24
smacey
Right. I mean, not filming as a failure is not the same as having to do a hundred attempts at a kickflip before you get it. Right. There's two different kinds. I think we can get kind of confused with, Oh, failure's good.

00:23:53.95
aaronmannes
Hmm.

00:23:55.36
smacey
Well, I failed today. Yup. Like, yay. But like you had the ability not to. Right. Uh, so when you say it's good to be hard on yourself and your opinion, how are you able to be hard on yourself without getting, cause I think a lot of people struggle with this without getting to a place where it beats down your confidence or you feel like you're not good enough because going back to your story about you didn't get into a lot of the schools you applied to and you said, that's okay.

00:24:25.93
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:24:26.83
smacey
I'm just going to go, like Aaron said, double down. I'm just going to film every single day. That takes a mindset of someone who really believes they have the potential and the capability. Not everyone has that. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that.

00:24:43.14
Matteo Farinacci
I think there was definitely a time where I think I definitely couldn't do this. And I think really in the beginning of this challenge, I was like, let's just see how far I get. Um, I think the discipline of every single day pushed me so hard that because it's tough. man its It sounds simple. It's a video every day. It's tough, dude.

00:25:01.64
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:25:02.45
Matteo Farinacci
And I think showing myself that, okay, I did it for a couple of weeks. Let's do it. Let's just do it for a couple more weeks and let's do it for a couple more weeks that was That's the most important kind of flip in my brain.

00:25:14.58
smacey
Yeah, you're chunking things, right? You're not saying, Oh my God, I have 364 more days. You're saying, let's get to the end of the week. Let's get to the end of the week. Let's get to the end of the week. It's the same. I've used this example before, like when I'm doing a hard run, it's let's get to the next telephone pole. Let's get to the next telephone pole. Let's get to the next telephone pole, right?

00:25:31.93
aaronmannes
yeah Yeah.

00:25:32.52
smacey
It's the same concept.

00:25:34.61
Matteo Farinacci
Exactly. So that's big. Kind of pause for one second. I really hate to do that. I know podcasts, you hate to cut. My phone just ran out of storage. Can I run and get my brother's phone to record?

00:25:44.30
aaronmannes
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no problem.

00:25:44.91
Matteo Farinacci
I'm so sorry.

00:25:45.39
smacey
Yeah. Do you know when it ran out?

00:25:47.85
Matteo Farinacci
Here, let me see. Yeah, I got you. I think it was like during the last question. I'm so sorry about that.

00:25:53.77
smacey
It's okay.

00:25:54.95
Matteo Farinacci
At like 24 minutes.

00:25:58.08
aaronmannes
Okay.

00:25:58.76
smacey
Aaron, you know what you can do. You can just, his phone will cut out and just put like a technical difficulty thing.

00:26:02.98
aaronmannes
Right.

00:26:05.17
smacey
We'll be back in a minute.

00:26:06.40
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:07.58
Matteo Farinacci
i did not expect that to happen

00:26:08.71
smacey
No, it's okay.

00:26:09.80
aaronmannes
No worries.

00:26:10.89
Matteo Farinacci
sorry

00:26:13.32
smacey
OK, break is around the 26 minute mark.

00:26:18.48
smacey
I'm flying with my internet, huh?

00:26:20.34
aaronmannes
Yeah, it's working.

00:26:23.98
aaronmannes
Mm hmm.

00:26:23.98
smacey
Young kid.

00:26:29.86
Matteo Farinacci
I did not expect that to happen.

00:26:30.20
smacey
I should take this opportunity to pee. So we keep everything rolling, right, Aaron?

00:26:36.43
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:38.52
Matteo Farinacci
So, I'm so sorry about that guy.

00:26:39.61
aaronmannes
It's all right, bud.

00:26:41.56
Matteo Farinacci
Let me set this up.

00:26:51.46
Matteo Farinacci
Alright.

00:26:55.07
Matteo Farinacci
New phone acquired.

00:27:03.19
Matteo Farinacci
Thank you guys.

00:27:04.30
aaronmannes
Yeah, no worries. is His internet often clicks out, so we're used to these little breaks.

00:27:12.09
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, so now I got a new phone.

00:27:15.12
aaronmannes
And he's going to use the bathroom, so it all worked out.

00:27:18.34
Matteo Farinacci
Where are you guys located?

00:27:19.35
aaronmannes
I'm in Connecticut, um and he's in Toronto, or like outside of Toronto, Canada.

00:27:21.03
Matteo Farinacci
Oh, sick.

00:27:26.70
Matteo Farinacci
That's awesome. My best friend, the Yukon. That'd be cool.

00:27:30.05
aaronmannes
Oh, nice.

00:27:32.66
Matteo Farinacci
Awesome, dude.

00:27:33.35
aaronmannes
See that area is awesome. I went out last April and it was like, I was not there long enough. Anyways, we'll talk about that after.

00:27:41.68
smacey
Should I re-ask that question, Aaron?

00:27:43.91
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah.

00:27:46.29
smacey
What did I ask?

00:27:49.41
aaronmannes
Was it?

00:27:49.53
Matteo Farinacci
Yes.

00:27:50.89
aaronmannes
Yeah. on ah On the hard day.

00:27:51.41
Matteo Farinacci
Oh, I can do that.

00:27:51.46
smacey
and Mateo needs to clap again.

00:27:55.08
Matteo Farinacci
I can definitely put this on that. Sorry. All right. Ready?

00:28:02.19
smacey
Yep.

00:28:02.39
aaronmannes
Yep.

00:28:04.21
Matteo Farinacci
All right.

00:28:05.08
aaronmannes
Nice.

00:28:05.37
smacey
Okay. What did I ask Aaron?

00:28:06.53
Matteo Farinacci
Cool.

00:28:08.58
aaronmannes
Was it on the hard days? How do you? Were we at that part?

00:28:14.52
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:28:14.76
aaronmannes
On the hard days?

00:28:15.05
Matteo Farinacci
How do you?

00:28:15.62
aaronmannes
What? How do you keep? I don't know. Exactly.

00:28:19.58
smacey
Yeah. Um, ah papa turning this week, it's showing.

00:28:28.68
aaronmannes
Yeah, don't ask me. I'm 43.

00:28:31.62
smacey
You're supposed to be sharp on the hard days.

00:28:31.74
aaronmannes
I don't fucking know.

00:28:35.67
Matteo Farinacci
I think it was just about like keeping in a consistent mindset.

00:28:39.93
Matteo Farinacci
Something like that.

00:28:39.91
smacey
Yeah. Okay. So let me ask you this on the hard days. What is it that

00:28:49.61
smacey
gets you to go film those videos. I mean, we all have those days where we don't want to do it, right?

00:28:56.56
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. I mean, in my brain, I think it's the repercussion of failing myself. Just sounds terrible. Just being like, you got it this far publicly. There's a little bit of, like I'm scared of a little bit of failure out there in the world. Like, I guess I have 30 something thousand people watching me and expecting videos every day.

00:29:16.39
smacey
Right.

00:29:17.26
Matteo Farinacci
ah being like, oh, you didn't post, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. Not that I think it like ah anything bad would happen, but it's just for me, for me, just that little slip up would suck. And I think it's, I'm breaking a consistency that I spent so many hours building up.

00:29:34.21
smacey
Right. And how do you, so you have to be hard on yourself. How are you able to be hard on yourself without getting to a point where it beats down your confidence and what you think you're able, your capacity, right? Cause some people are so hard on themselves that it ends up being toxic and counterproductive. What you're talking about is a balance. And I'm curious to know how you don't let that go too far.

00:30:05.65
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, I think I definitely have had smaller waves of burnout. But when I feel that coming, I do have to remind myself of

00:30:18.08
Matteo Farinacci
I have to remind myself of, like again, like you got this far, and you're like you're doing the same thing. You're doing the same things. You're filming the same like very similar videos every day. You were psyched about it before. it Just like be psyched about it again. I think forcing myself into a good mindset has been kind of changed the game for me, just because I could totally... At the end of the day, I could just stop the challenge, and it is what it is. But I think just that goal of like, there's an end goal, like 365 days.

00:30:50.63
Matteo Farinacci
I can do that. That's fine. I've gotten this far. I can get there. Um, pushes me through enough of those like burnout waves. Like they definitely come. I definitely have weeks, weeks at a time where I just really don't want to do this right now. I'm probably on the backend of one right now. Um, I can feel it, but it's just so important to, cause that's going to always happen in your life. Like my whole life.

00:31:14.50
aaronmannes
Yeah, it becomes a, it becomes like a puzzle that you figure out.

00:31:18.14
Matteo Farinacci
Awesome.

00:31:18.65
aaronmannes
Seth and I have to, or we get to, I should say, Mateo. We get to put out a podcast every week and Seth's done that for a long time. I'm on two years now, three years.

00:31:32.67
smacey
Well, every episode you do, you get exponentially closer to the beginning, right?

00:31:33.00
aaronmannes
You're three.

00:31:36.42
smacey
It's an asymptote.

00:31:37.91
aaronmannes
Yeah, ah but you figure out little puzzles, little ah little keys and there's there's burnout at everything. um Sometimes Seth and I feel it and we're like, let's let's double down this week and let's get four episodes in so we can take a break. like a mental break, let's record four times. And then we have ah a three week period where we can kind of breathe. ah And that gets us going for like the next set. So there's these little, hes these little puzzles or like keys that you figure out that you can

00:32:10.69
aaronmannes
Create you can put in your toolbox to be able to reach into every once in a while and go like hey this is one of those times that we need to do three this week because I'm going away or we need a mental break or whatever it may be ah you know, so I Think it's interesting. Do you have any of those keys those little tools that you found for yourself? I give you a little bit of a reprieve because again film is like no it's no easy bargain like you have to go film which is hard on its own and then in the same day edit and put something out so if you're doing sound design color design like all that stuff like it takes a really long time anyone that's watching like a ah little real or a little thing out there and goes like oh that's cool if you're saying that's cool it probably took hours probably really took like hours you know

00:33:01.40
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. yeah I mean, I think the best analogy I have is... this is really this comes back to the beginning i guess it's another surfing analogy but i love to like say this to my friends my friends always talk about this if you go surf some big eight ten foot waves some big waves some scary waves those scare me like those waves that big scare me every wave under that seems fine every size wave under that seems fine if you go surf some 15-20 foot waves some huge waves like

00:33:16.90
smacey
you

00:33:36.32
Matteo Farinacci
and then the the eight to ten foot waves seem way less gnarly. So I think filming every single day I think is also preparing me for a great life of filmmaking because like after doing that, making the time, putting a couple hours away every single day, I think whenever I have responsibility, I'm lucky I'm 19, I don't have a crazy amount of responsibility right now.

00:33:59.72
Matteo Farinacci
I think I'm preparing myself my whole life but for i just like a great mindset as long as I keep it up. Yeah.

00:34:08.30
aaronmannes
Yeah, makes sense.

00:34:10.57
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:34:10.69
smacey
Do you ever, do you ever feel like you fall into the trap of, cause you keep saying i've I've made it this far. I've made it this far. And that's motivating for a lot of people to continue. But then there's the flip side of that. The sunken costs fallacy where people are like, I've done 162 days. I can't quit now because of that. Right?

00:34:32.17
Matteo Farinacci
yeah

00:34:32.20
smacey
Like I've put so much time or so much money into, into X, I have to keep going. And then you're in a place where you can never quit or you can never walk away on your own accord. Do you feel you have ever tiptoed on that line or is it, is it sheerly, is surely the past investment you've put into this motivation moving forwards?

00:34:49.73
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. I definitely thought about that I mean every every outcome crosses your mind especially when you're like dreading going out um but honestly like it hasn't been super gnarly like it hasn't been as crazy as I thought it would be because it's so ingrained in my lifestyle that I'm thinking like I'm almost halfway there like I just need to double what I did and I'm good

00:35:22.40
Matteo Farinacci
And I accomplished this great goal I set out to accomplish. But there's 100% days where it's like, I already did all of this. like ah There's 100% days where I'm dreading going out, like you're like you're talking about. But I don't know.

00:35:36.78
aaronmannes
Yeah. And some, no one's really grading it either. In a sense, like some days, if you make it a non-negotiable, if you you say, I'm going to go to the gym 365 days out of the year, you're going to have great workouts and you're going to have workouts where you're exhausted and it wasn't there, but you still. When and the habit still goes and the the results still come something comes from it like, oh, I can't eat like that the night before because then my output is gonna be terrible in the gym analogy, you know, and you learn something from every day that you're doing it and you're putting yourself in a position to

00:36:12.98
aaronmannes
Learn, even if you ah you do like this really was a C minus job. I just had to get something out fast today. Like I had to, I had no choice. I had to go to my ah my cousin's wedding. Like i was I was completely busy. It had to be a quick video. I give it a D plus C minus, but I did learn a ah quick little trick on how to export it a little bit faster and it still did all right. You know, like you learn all these little things even from the the half-assed jobs, you know, it's to be honest. And I think more of the non-negotiable, like, I have to go do this process, you're you're going to get hit with these these cool moments, these cool lessons, these cool opportunities that you potentially wouldn't have. It's the same in wildlife, like,

00:36:57.94
aaronmannes
you got to put yourself out there a lot to get the really cool shot. Like you got to really dedicate to it and some days suck, but you're still out there, but you're not going to get the good days unless you are out there.

00:37:09.50
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely.

00:37:09.81
aaronmannes
You know, so I think there, there's something to be held from just making it a non-negotiable, whatever your goal is, like a daily non-negotiable, it becomes less painful. You know, if you work out, if you say like, I have to work out three times this week, Well, there's always tomorrow to make that the third time or second time. And then there's the next day.

00:37:30.66
smacey
friday saturday sunday

00:37:32.34
aaronmannes
Yeah. You know what I mean? If it's, if it's every day though, and even if it's I've got a busy life. like Even if it's a ah quick mile walk where it's like, hey, like you have to do something active every day. Even if it's a mile walk, like I still said, put on your shoes, ah go do it. It'll take you 15 minutes. Just go do that walk. like At least you can check it off. it's not ah It's not a check plus, but you can check it off and keep that thing going versus saying, like I got plenty of time.

00:37:56.98
smacey
Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

00:38:01.75
aaronmannes
you know, to to, to make this happen. So I do think there's, there, it goes from like, a I have to do just like an automatic sort of like, all right, what's the process?

00:38:05.48
smacey
Right I

00:38:13.60
aaronmannes
Then it becomes like, how far do I want to drive for this video? Like that, it's, you're already going somewhere, but it becomes like, it's the next step, the next level of like,

00:38:17.45
Matteo Farinacci
you

00:38:22.44
aaronmannes
Do I want to go all the way up to Point Reyes today? I don't know if I'm feeling that.

00:38:26.06
smacey
do.

00:38:27.33
aaronmannes
I do, too. um I don't know if I'm feeling that, but I'm going to just go down to the, you know, the Bay Area and do some street stuff like whatever, whatever it may be. You know, so I think making it a non-negotiable eases the mind a tad with ah those sorts of goals.

00:38:45.11
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. And even the people in my life, like my family and everything, they know what's coming. They know like, all right, like we're trying to go do something with you. Like when's your couple hours where you need to go do that? Um, just like ingraining in my life, just like, like when I went, when I had my surfactant and I had to go make time, go PT, go to the doctors and stuff.

00:39:01.25
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:39:03.09
Matteo Farinacci
So, um, yeah, it's just putting it out there. Um, making making it a habit, a routine, psyching yourself out to do it. And definitely, like I do have those conversations a lot. Literally the Point Reyes conversation I had yesterday. It was like, don't want to drive all the way to Point Reyes. That's crazy that you brought that up. And I didn't, but those conversations happen every day because I'm kind of like explored like probably like 80% of like the Bay Area is like most of the spots here.

00:39:27.23
aaronmannes
yeah

00:39:37.67
Matteo Farinacci
So yeah.

00:39:40.52
smacey
Well, Aaron, what you're talking about is a practice in breaking the friction of starting right to the start of our conversation.

00:39:47.33
Matteo Farinacci
Hmm.

00:39:50.31
smacey
You said starting was the hardest part. And you know, what's interesting, Aaron, in your example about the gym, I'm going to go to the gym 365 days a year. That's, that's not the most optimal protocol to build strength and muscle.

00:40:00.53
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:40:04.50
smacey
Obviously like you need to rest like maybe 250 days a year is the best, but that doesn't matter in your example because the practice is in breaking the friction of starting something.

00:40:08.15
aaronmannes
Hmm. Hmm?

00:40:15.13
smacey
Right. It's, it's kind of like, what is your intent? Like what is like, again, back to why are you doing this? What are you trying to self discover or improve upon or work on or find out about yourself?

00:40:27.12
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:40:27.67
smacey
Right. And I think what's also interesting is so I think starting is difficult. Yes. For many people, I feel like once you get to a point where you've really built a disciplined mind and a committed mind and you're, you're able to reduce the amount of friction. When starting something, the hard thing becomes when the energy, the initial energy, the excitement and the enthusiasm wanes naturally, maybe halfway through what you're starting or little like when things slow down, maybe the metrics of the.

00:41:05.88
smacey
the views on a video, they they start to dwindle a little bit and you really feel like it's it's routine now. And that's when I think it's the most important part. And that's when I think most people quit and stop doing what they're doing. When when the sexiness has kind of rubbed, it's faded. You know, and that's why you hear so many, so many times that it's the boring stuff that gets people to where they want to go.

00:41:28.46
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:41:35.48
smacey
Showing up, driving to the place.

00:41:35.55
aaronmannes
Thank you.

00:41:38.43
smacey
Then this stuff that's just like not sexy. It's not color grading. It's not writing a really cool caption or finding a new sweet pack of transitions. It's the stuff that's boring.

00:41:49.89
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:41:50.00
smacey
that takes no skill, but that you have to pound through like you just have to push through. And that's where when things are slowing down, people are like, Oh, I don't know if I can continue this. And that's okay.

00:42:02.91
aaronmannes
yeah

00:42:03.06
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:42:03.55
smacey
But I feel like that's a critical moment.

00:42:06.92
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely. And people.

00:42:07.40
aaronmannes
Yeah, it's pretty rare. It's pretty rare to see someone ah just adding to it.

00:42:11.34
Matteo Farinacci
Sorry.

00:42:13.80
aaronmannes
It's just pretty rare in, in, in persons, in personalities to see someone set a goal like that and really push through. I mean, if I were a company that needed like content, let's say, and I came across your page, I mean, beyond the content, I would go This kid can create like day after day after day. He has discipline. can He can get things done. ah He's proven it already. Like that's ah that's a huge question mark answered whether I like your content or not. I mean, there's there's plenty of people that can get motivated for a solid week and then they're kind of burnt out.

00:42:50.62
aaronmannes
you know, like, oh, this was a, I'm so excited for this project. And then when it's done, they're like, I need a break. You know, I might even be that person really like he, yeah, you dive into something and you're like, Oh, okay.

00:43:00.47
smacey
Well, that's natural.

00:43:04.26
aaronmannes
Like, ah let's move on to something else to to really stick through it is, is impressive and on its own. So just to add to what Seth said,

00:43:11.41
smacey
Right. That's the thing about the, let's say this 365 day challenge again, back to intent when you're feeling burnt out and you're feeling, I don't want to make a video today. Usually when you're burnt out and feeling that way, you can take a step back, recharge, and go at it full throttle again, but you don't have that option when you've made this promise and commitment to yourself. And that's when things get difficult. And that's when you find things out about yourself, you find where your limit is, right?

00:43:43.64
smacey
And that's the point, right?

00:43:44.00
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:43:45.04
smacey
Like, that's the intention is what I'm getting at.

00:43:48.90
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, no, absolutely.

00:43:49.46
aaronmannes
Okay.

00:43:50.78
Matteo Farinacci
I think that has been the most important time. That's where I've learned about myself as a filmmaker. I've learned about myself when it sucks. when i'm like i'm simultaneously promoting ah

00:44:05.11
Matteo Farinacci
and it's summer like I'm still with like a lot of friends we all live in the same town and I still have to go make my videos I still have to catch up on some videos because I didn't have Wi-Fi so it's it's a lot to balance and that's just that can drain me but it just comes back to like I gotta do it like

00:44:24.34
smacey
Right. And that might not be the best protocol for you in terms of, let's say, but let's say mental health or just like overall energy. It may not be, but it's a season of life. And what you're trying to do is prove something to yourself and find a new limit. Right.

00:44:40.32
Matteo Farinacci
yeah

00:44:41.40
smacey
Like where, where is my potential? It's a good question. Right. And I think what you're talking about this, this is a formula I feel like you can use anywhere in life across the board. Right.

00:44:51.91
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely.

00:44:53.08
smacey
I did this 365 day video, this thing I'm doing now, or I'm attempting to do is equally as hard.

00:44:53.55
Matteo Farinacci
Absolutely.

00:44:58.63
smacey
I have the track record. I have the. Inarguable evidence that shows I am capable of this outside of the photography or videography world, right?

00:45:04.82
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:45:07.93
smacey
I feel like for me personally. Uh, again, using the running, like I'm a runner, that is a experiment and a formula that I can develop for every other area of my life.

00:45:16.86
aaronmannes
Mm

00:45:19.77
smacey
Right. Doing a very difficult thing for you. Like here it's the video. I'm going to do a video every single day. It's about learning what you're able to do.

00:45:26.10
aaronmannes
hmm.

00:45:27.76
smacey
Right.

00:45:28.62
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. And a big thing is looking at all of that and then even just like looking at the times of my life that I've gone through during this challenge. Like I won't go crazy into it, but I have like pretty gnarly like chronic pain, which every day I just like I have to deal with that. And like, oh, I don't take any meds or anything for it, but it's like there's days where just walking sucks and I'm still pushing through those videos. I'm still making those videos and I like refuse to take any meds before and it's just, I'm doing PT every day for hours, so I gotta put that time away, and then I gotta go make a video. I did those videos for hours, so um'm I'm really pushing myself, and I'm so happy I've done it. like Looking back, a lot of those moments sucked while I was there, but I'm so like proud of like what I've accomplished, and I know I'll be even more proud like down the line.

00:46:13.55
Matteo Farinacci
so

00:46:14.50
smacey
Let's say somebody listening or looking in at this story goes, well, like you're not prioritizing your health. Like, why aren't you doing that? Like just take a day off. Like, what would you say to that person?

00:46:27.09
Matteo Farinacci
I'd say instead of like for me there's definitely a lot of moments where I could sit and I could just be pissed about my situation but I think going out and making a video just going out and doing just the action of going out somewhere even if it hurts and it sucks it's like that's a small win and just having I mean now I'm on 160 small wins so it feels great and it's something I can anticipate, something I can always look forward to. And I'd say like for my health this has helped my mental health which is a huge part of it because it's a long ride um of like getting better. So it's helped my mental health so much because I'm not sitting like in my room all day just like oh this hurts like this sucks like I'm in pain but I get to be like I want to push through I'm accomplished this day and I'm gonna be so proud of myself at the end and it's helped me.

00:47:17.43
smacey
So what you're talking about is Aaron, this theme we've spoken of where you're, you're creating your outcomes as opposed to reacting to life.

00:47:26.28
Matteo Farinacci
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. I think it it's all in my hands now. it's been a This has all happened like just as I turned 18, around 19 now. So in the last year, this is like my whole life's changed. I've completely revamped my um mindset. I'm ready for the real world. Yeah.

00:47:44.75
aaronmannes
And I'm sure you've had to, for those listening that go like, ah like the kid's 19. He's in ah in a gap year. He's got no real responsibilities. Of course, he has time to make all these movies, um these little movies, being all sour grapes about it. But in I mean, even at my age with responsibility as well, a full-time job, a kid doing stuff with Seth, like with the everyone, everyone's busy. Everyone's busy. You're sacrificing, I'm sure, parties and hangouts. You live in the Bay Area, like going out on the boat, fishing, whale watching ah all the food and eateries in San Francisco. Point Reyes, come on. I mean, there's got to be times

00:48:29.48
aaronmannes
over and over where you're like, no, guys, I can't. Like, no, I can't. No, I can't. I got this thing. I got this thing. And if you want something, I think this is ah an important point for everyone to look in the mirror and accept that if you want something, there's time. First time.

00:48:47.72
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:48:48.36
aaronmannes
I don't care if it's four in the morning. If you want it, you'll wake up. If I really want to go running for 10 miles, it's going to take a while. um I can wake up at four if I really want to and get it done before my son wakes up. There there is time. And I think that's an important realization that a lot of us go like, I don't have time for that. I don't have time for this. I don't have time for a long workout. I don't have time for cooking my dinner tonight.

00:49:18.38
aaronmannes
I got to get taken. Like if you want to, there is.

00:49:22.62
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:49:22.79
aaronmannes
And I don't mean to be curt about that. I just really believe that if you want to have something or do something, there's plenty of time. So to the question is as a 19 year old, like what, what are you sacrificing to get this done?

00:49:41.05
Matteo Farinacci
so yeah i mean that's that's huge and i think that that's definitely something that i'm thinking about all the time there's absolutely times where there's parties there's events i was able to sneak in a concert two days ago like that's the first concert i've gotten to and i don't even know how long i saw don dala at stamford it was amazing yeah that was really good concert like the best concert of my life really fun i enjoyed that um but yeah i think

00:49:55.61
aaronmannes
What'd you say? Nice. Good. Awesome.

00:50:11.13
Matteo Farinacci
like I have to 100% say thank you to my family and my friends. I'm super thankful for my family for supporting all of this. They're super happy. They love watching my videos. like My family group chat, they're like, oh, Mattel, your video is so sick today. So that keeps me going. And my friends, I definitely do miss out on things, events, trips, even if it's like a trip with some friends. I miss out on stuff like that all the time. Um, but it's, it's okay because those same people will come with me and go shoot. And we make, we make cool opportunities.

00:50:43.03
Matteo Farinacci
We turn this into something great. And it all works out in the end. Like I have so many amazing memories just cause I decided to go drive some art shoot. I've met so many people just by going out to like a cool event to go shoot or.

00:50:51.85
aaronmannes
Mm hmm.

00:50:55.67
Matteo Farinacci
like yeah I have some restaurants sometimes ask me to go like shoot videos for them, and I'll do that for my day. So I create great relationships, meet amazing people, and make like awesome memories through this process. So i it's not really I'm sacrificing like opportunities, but i'm I'm also creating opportunities as well. And I think it's important to look at it like that.

00:51:13.95
aaronmannes
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:51:15.56
smacey
I was just going to say that it's like building, building what you want to do into your routine in life, building your outcome into that.

00:51:16.95
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:51:24.09
smacey
And Aaron, to your point, you know, people listening, Oh, he's eight, he's 19. I'm however years old, or maybe you have a kid at home or a full time job. I mean, it doesn't need to be 365 videos, 365 videos, you know, one every day for a year.

00:51:34.10
Matteo Farinacci
you

00:51:37.57
smacey
It doesn't have to be that if you're looking to do a similar experiment could be, I'm going to walk every day this month.

00:51:38.49
aaronmannes
Yeah. Mm hmm.

00:51:44.41
smacey
I'm going to read a book every month. Like that is still a practice in committing to something. I'm going to show up for my son every week and do something with him every week. Aaron, let's say in your case.

00:51:55.75
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:51:56.34
smacey
like it It doesn't have to be, um, this grandiose 365 videos is very, very difficult and impressive, but you can have this. You can, you can participate in the same practice by doing something that fits your current lifestyle, your season of life.

00:52:10.63
aaronmannes
Yeah. and

00:52:14.84
aaronmannes
and to And to those parents, and we just had Linden on, and to those parents out there, what better message to show your kids that actually to accomplish stuff you have to put in time every single day. ah My son's, eight he loves soccer.

00:52:28.44
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:52:32.51
aaronmannes
ah We have this conversation all the time about I showed him this Kobe Bryant clip that's like, if you go to your, he's talking about basketball, but if you go to basketball practice once a week for an hour and a half, you that's it that's that's not even close to enough to be great if you want to excel, if you if you're just having fun, fine. But if you want to excel at something or learn something fast, you have to put in the time. And what better message I think to show your your kids out there that like,

00:53:03.87
aaronmannes
Hey, this is the thing that I'm into. I'm going to put in an hour a day ah to something I love. And that's how you learn. That's how you get better. That's how you actually practice at something. It's not just showing up for the games. It's not just showing up when it's easy. it's not just running because the coach said so it's doing all the stuff beyond to to make something happen and and grow from it and no matter what that is i think it's an important message to show that there is time for things you do have to move stuff around to make things happen and good things come from it

00:53:40.09
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, I think there's a quote. I have no idea who said it. I think I heard Adam Sandler say it at one point. But it was like, obsession beats talent every time. And then I heard that, and I ah kind of like pondered on it for a bit. And I got ah got really into the idea of obsession. Like, I'm obsessed with this. And I'm literally living it every single day. And and that's just like what it takes. Kobe Bryant is a perfect example of that like he's there before everyone obsessing over something that can take you so far.

00:54:14.34
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:54:14.42
smacey
I think the interesting or the important parts I mentioned too is often people who are the most successful paid the most. Like there's a large cost. So Aaron, in your example, like you're teaching your son at an early age to have an honest conversation with himself. How much do I enjoy this thing? And if I enjoy it a lot and I want to be really, really, really good, I understand that I need to put in a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of time. hit And I think for everyone listening, Even if you're not obsessed, you just have to properly align where the skill level you want to be or what you want to achieve with how much time you're willing to pay, right?

00:54:54.96
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:54:55.45
aaronmannes
Yeah.

00:54:55.71
smacey
Like the cost has to align with, with where you want to be.

00:55:01.22
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, definitely.

00:55:02.42
smacey
We don't all need to be great, right? I think there's this weird, there's this weird culture today where everyone thinks they need to be great and spectacular and the best. Like, no, you don't have to be.

00:55:12.12
Matteo Farinacci
You don't.

00:55:14.67
smacey
You don't even have to be, you don't even have to reach your full potential if you don't want to. But I think there's a hunger in a lot of people, especially in the creative field to say like, who am I? Like how far, what can I learn about myself throughout this 80 some odd years, right?

00:55:28.61
Matteo Farinacci
yeah i mean I had to have a lot of honest conversations with myself about that. like I think it comes a lot from the Bay Area culture too. like You have all these like tech billionaires, like the best of the best. like Everyone here is like Yale, Harvard, sta like literally Stanford, 10 minutes from me. like There's a culture here where you just... it's a lot of being the best doing the best and and growing up in that that just burnt me my wife out like that's just That's just so draining. And then looking back and just learning and taking away what I could from that concept and taking a step back. And now I'm on a gap year. I really don't have that many responsibilities, which I'm super thankful for. um Taking like that, that kind of grind set mindset of like, like have to be the best this have to be the best of that and just like thinking you might'd be like i don't need to be the best anything but something I can do for myself is learn every day and do something every day, which I see people like I've grown up seeing all the time. And so being able to see both ends of that. leg i want to get here I could probably just do nothing. Maybe go like work at a coffee shop. That's all I do.

00:56:41.58
Matteo Farinacci
Or I could like I had an honest conversation with my parents too is like, Hey, I really want to do this every single day. I'm going to work. I'm going to make videos every single day. I'm going to just work as hard as I can. And they're like, yeah, let me know how you can help or how we can help. So, um, just. looking back at yourself and reflecting on every action has been huge because there's been there's been a day a couple days where I was just so stressed out like the video is just knocking me out like it just sucked and looking back and like what what happened there that was huge that was huge because then when I feel that feeling coming on again it's like okay let's look back yeah that's like it that's huge for me

00:57:21.63
aaronmannes
I have one um to use Seth's running analogy. ah Seth's a runner. I'm not really a runner. I've i've dabbled in it, and I hate it. I absolutely hate it. But that's something. I don't have time for that. I don't have time for running. ah But no but ah in doing running,

00:57:37.17
smacey
because you don't like it enough.

00:57:42.38
aaronmannes
ah Let's say your goal is like, i want to get just ah I want to get to two miles. I just want to run two miles, have a healthy run and move on with my day. That first couple of weeks is really tough ah to get to those two miles.

00:57:52.29
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah.

00:57:55.77
aaronmannes
Then you get to the two miles and you're like, all right, it's part of my system. Like I'm i'm good. um I'm just increasing my time slowly. This is good. It's hard to move up to the next step. It's easy to be like, this was my goal ah and get complacent with the sense of like, I just want to run two miles. In terms of film and video, I feel like Where, where are you taking these steps? Is there, are you at the two mile mark where you're like, I just want to have a 15 second video that has like a quick narrative or are you constantly trying to go to three miles to four to five to a marathon? Are you, are you working your way up towards something in your mind, whatever that may be, or is it just a matter of the, I want to do two miles every single day and, and I'm good with that.

00:58:47.41
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah. Um, so this is a huge kind of debate and conversation I've been having because I went from zero to 200 really quickly. And I've accomplished a lot with this challenge, but it's been, it's become quantity over quality, I feel like a bit. And so just like with my videos, like I just got to shoot an amazing document. I had a great, um, couple of weeks where I like, I was working on a large form project project, which was completely different for me.

00:59:17.48
aaronmannes
Mm hmm.

00:59:18.13
Matteo Farinacci
I loved it. I loved, I had a great time. But at the same time, I'm still doing these videos every day. um So it's it's tough because I feel i don't wanna feel like I'm sacrificed. Like I could be, with all the time I'm spending on these short videos, I could be making a couple of huge projects. And that's enticing because I've had a lot of fun on this big project. So for me, I think making the videos every day and then when I can on the backend, Like in my free time, besides making these videos, if I can work on larger projects, for me, that that's going from like two miles to three miles.

00:59:52.98
aaronmannes
Mm

00:59:53.62
Matteo Farinacci
um Just accomplishing more big form stuff because I think long-term that is the goal.

00:59:58.87
aaronmannes
Yeah. It's like you're, you're be, you know, again, i'm I'm running two miles every single day. I have a really nice foundation. I have my stride. I have a pair of shoes that I like. Uh, I know the times of day that work better for me. I know what food I can agrees with me on my runs. I know my hydration schedule, whatever it is. Sounds like I'm a runner, right? Seth, but I'm not.

01:00:17.95
smacey
Uh-huh, okay, you go.

01:00:18.72
aaronmannes
Uh, but you, you create a foundation where you go, okay, now I want to train for a 6k. You're right. And I know I got the two miles in me. I know my. my ja I know i know how to how to work with this whole thing. I'm not starting from couch to 6K. I got a good foundation. I think that's essentially what you're doing.

01:00:36.27
Matteo Farinacci
you

01:00:37.44
aaronmannes
Like you said, you just pretty much started film and video um not too long ago and you're you're getting an education daily on... How's Premiere work? What's the, what are the effects I like? What transitions do I really like? What am I savvy in in terms of color grading or color correcting? What are the plugins I need? Like you're, you're learning all that stuff that will make your long form video, not couch to long form video. It's, it's all these videos every single day to now let me apply them to something bigger.

01:01:08.45
aaronmannes
And I think. Again, in a way, you are working on the long form videos by doing these short videos every single day. You're increasing that aptitude to do well there. Just as, you know, if I'm running two miles every day, I'm closer to doing a 6K than if I wasn't.

01:01:25.79
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, absolutely. And I also look at, it like like what you just said, I really did just start making videos. This is just the first year of me really just dialing in with it. um and like I can remind myself, because a lot of the time, like oh like I spend probably 30-40 hours a week making all these videos like per week. like What if I spend 30-40 hours like making huge projects that could get me to a great place? like What if I made a cool project like ah cool short film that I got into a festival for or something?

01:01:59.20
Matteo Farinacci
then I have to like remind myself like I still have so much to learn and I'm meeting so many great people like through Instagram I've built a great community on there still meeting so many people that are in places where I see myself that I want to be at and I see myself getting closer to those like those levels just doing what I'm doing every day then debating what what should I be doing because I think I'm doing the right thing it's just getting repetitive and I'm doing the right thing I'm confident

01:02:27.24
aaronmannes
Good. I'm curious if you go out and are you videoing for like Instagram or Tik TOK, like vertically and like, or do you crop it afterwards?

01:02:36.72
Matteo Farinacci
So I shoot horizontally, like I'll shoot normal like 9.16 and then I'll drop it to like 4.3.

01:02:44.19
aaronmannes
Yeah.

01:02:45.38
Matteo Farinacci
I'm in love with that ratio. and I think it looks really good on on Instagram as well.

01:02:50.51
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

01:02:55.43
aaronmannes
Um, yeah. And I, I think, you know, ah we've been on for an hour. I think that gives the, the, the vibe of the show and why we wanted to have you on. Uh, you are young. Usually we ask this question, uh, but we can reverse.

01:03:10.08
smacey
Can we reverse the question?

01:03:12.25
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Reverse the question.

01:03:14.85
smacey
Well, we usually ask like, what would you give, what advice would you give your younger photographer in this case, like videographer self? How do you reverse that question?

01:03:26.73
aaronmannes
Where do you hope in 10 years from now, this dedication and perseverance, discipline, what do you hope in 10 years? So you're 29, let's say 30, you're looking back and going, what, blank, fill in the blank.

01:03:47.68
Matteo Farinacci
Oh man, that is, that is a question.

01:03:49.15
aaronmannes
That was a waste of time when I was 19. Did holy, no, just kidding.

01:03:54.72
Matteo Farinacci
I think I hope that I exponentially grow this momentum. I think um I'm really happy that I started this now and I hope that then I'm happy that I started this now and I did this. I think I see myself obviously still creating videos. Like I just started this. I don't know. I'm um'm always asked, like especially when I'm applying to film schools, it's like, oh, do you want to go into documentary? Do you want to do advertising? Do you want to make like feature films? Um, I hope I have a clear answer on one of the, what's the niche and what's the route that I take? Cause right now I like all of it. I don't know how sustainable that is, but I hope I have a clear, clear direction. And I think eventually a goal would be, this is more of a, and like a physical goal, but working for a company or having a company where.

01:04:47.91
Matteo Farinacci
I can work with people, similar mindsets, creating great videos for great reasons. And I don't know what form that is in documentaries, advertisements, but yeah, that's what I want to be doing.

01:05:01.75
smacey
We'll come back, set your, going to your Google calendar, mark it down 11 years from now and, um, put in the notes to play the last five minutes of this episode.

01:05:04.13
aaronmannes
Yeah. Yeah.

01:05:12.64
aaronmannes
Yeah. ah That's great. you' you've You've got great potential and I think a bright future if you're as a 19 year old starting off like this. So keep it going. Keep it going for sure. I'm excited to keep watching and and see where it goes and see if you actually stop at 365.

01:05:27.65
Matteo Farinacci
I really appreciate it.

01:05:31.01
Matteo Farinacci
Yeah, I have a feeling I won't. We'll see.

01:05:33.28
smacey
Well, you just added some pressure here today and that's what I'm saying.

01:05:35.37
aaronmannes
Yeah.

01:05:35.89
Matteo Farinacci
I'm okay. That's what I needed.

01:05:38.94
smacey
Yeah.

01:05:39.28
aaronmannes
Yeah.

01:05:40.81
Matteo Farinacci
Awesome.

01:05:41.39
smacey
All right.

01:05:41.79
Matteo Farinacci
That's so great. That's so much.

01:05:42.71
smacey
Until next time, guys.

01:05:43.12
aaronmannes
Thanks. Enjoy the California weather.

01:05:46.17
Matteo Farinacci
Will do.

01:05:46.89
aaronmannes
See ya.

01:05:47.21
Matteo Farinacci
I really appreciate you. Thank you for having me.