In this solo motivational podcast, Tony Suriano extends his filmmaking metaphor to illustrate how to direct one’s life. He begins by reminding listeners that personal growth and learning are never finished, warning against ego‑driven complacency. He recaps the first episode’s focus on story creation and then walks through the next stages of a film production—securing funding, cultivating relationships, assembling a crew, shooting, and especially editing—as parallel steps for life. Suriano shares his own journey from shy introvert to seasoned director, emphasizing the importance of healthy relationships, mentorship, and a supportive network to obtain resources and emotional fuel. He describes the editing process as an ongoing cycle of reviewing footage, receiving feedback, making cuts, color‑correcting, adding sound, and exporting the final product, drawing direct analogies to self‑reflection, continuous improvement, and sharing one’s contributions with the world. Core messages include the danger of ego, the necessity of humility, the value of feedback balanced with gut intuition, and the idea that life, unlike a finished film, remains editable until death. He ends with a call to action for listeners to write their own story, build a team, edit continuously, and share their work, while also urging them to subscribe, review, and spread the show.
Chapters
You're never done editing. You're never done growing in life. You're never done learning. If you ever feel like you're done learning or done growing, or you're like, oh, I learned that, I read that book, yeah, I know that, that's your ego talking. Because truly, when your ego comes up, it's saying, there's nothing more for me to learn. And no one wants to be around that person. So don't be that person. My wife says this intro sounds like a conspiracy mystery. So I'll stop that voice and tell you, this show is for you to get you on the track you want for your life. I'm gonna share encouraging educational content, hopefully entertaining, that will help you direct your life. Welcome back to another episode. This is part 2. Part 1 was the previous episode. If you haven't checked it out, please go and check it out. We talk about story, And how to create a story and write a script to get to the set of your life and how you can become that director of the film called your life. But in this episode, part 2, we're gonna talk about what happens when you're on set and how you get into the editing phase of a movie, but also the editing phase of your life. You ready? Listen up. Because this is my favorite subject. Filmmaking means a lot to me. I've been doing it for 20-plus years professionally since 2012. I'm Tony Suriano. I'm a director, I'm a producer, I'm a coach, and I'm excited to share this with you. And I hope you can adjust some of this to the direction you want for your life. So once you write your story and you have a vomit draft of a script You start fine-tuning it, you start sharing it around with people you trust, and you actually have to have a final draft. Now, it doesn't mean it's completely final because you then will get to set and things can adjust. But in order to get to set, what do you need to do? First, you need to convince people to give you some money so you can shoot the thing. So in life, you need to develop your relationships. I know this was so difficult for me. I was a shy introvert person for a lot of my life. I was just this creative artist making films by myself and with my one friend for years. Nothing, no progress. Finally, I realized I need to reach out more. I need to try new things with new people, and that helped me get to my next level. So where are you with your relationships in your life? Because you are Your relationships. That is one of the number one things besides health. It's relationship. First you got to make sure you're healthy and you're feeling good mentally, physically, spiritually, and then you have to have great relationships. So making a film that requires a budget, you need to influence the people to give you the money, right? And essentially them giving you the money is Them giving you the support to help push your vision into fruition. So in life, you meet those great people, keep them near you, help them in return, but they can help support your vision so you can stay on track, stay in alignment, have the emotional fuel and excitement that it takes to accomplish what you're going after. The things that matter in your life. So how do you do that? You meet more people, you share what you're doing, and the right ones will say, what are you doing? I don't know about that. Ah, this guy. But the right ones— did I say the wrong ones? No, the wrong ones are going to say, ah, who is this guy? I don't know. The right ones are going to believe in you and say, wow, tell me more. I want to hear about that. Those are the people you want to connect with. You want to go to the roof and say, hey, I have a dream, baby! And the great people will respond and say, please tell me, come down, tell me. And I am so happy to have my mentors and friends that support me because without them, I'd be that shy, introverted kid that never really got to make a living in filmmaking. And that would suck because it means so much to me to create art and put it on a screen, make Make a movement, help people's companies. I love that stuff, as you can tell. So moving on, you get your relationships going, you influence them to support you. And in this case, with making a film, you get the money. Then you have to hire a team we call a crew in the film industry. And that is more relationships, more people you have to influence, because sometimes they're like, yeah, give me this much money. And I'm like, I only have this. Can we make it work? And you have to back and forth and show them your enthusiasm, convince them that this is an important thing, this is something meaningful, and you have to get your team, your crew on board. Then the magic happens because you have your script, your story, you have your people, your funding, your support, you have the crew. Now you need to get the expression out. You got to get actors. You have to find the areas in your endeavor that are going to act in your best interest to help sell the dream, to make the vision, to make the film. You following? I love this metaphor because it's so true. Life is like making a movie. Now you have the relationships, you have the crew, you get the actors to express, and you capture it. How are you going to capture what you need in your life? What are you going to do to make sure this vision is being captured and you have it in your hands? Once you get there, that's not the end. That's just, I would say, maybe halfway, a little more than halfway through. Story, funding, shooting the film. Then you have a whole, whole lot of editing to do. And isn't life one just long edit? You're never done editing. You're never done growing in life. You're never done learning. If you ever feel like you're done learning or done growing, or you're like, oh, I learned that, I read that book, yeah, I know that, that's your ego talking. Because truly, when your ego comes up, it's saying, there's nothing more for me to learn. And no one wants to be around that person. So don't be that person. I know if you're listening, it's not you. I'm just saying that in case, because it creeps up on all of us and we have to just snap out of it and say, whoa, whoa, there's so much to learn, so many fun things to do. So back to the filmmaking process of editing, the life process of editing. When I get all the footage in, I'm so excited because we shot everything. We had the happy accidents on set. We had the amazing performances of the actor, the awesome crew support. Now I look through all the things I've captured. So this is what you can do in life. You can think, what is the end product I want? What have I captured? And how can all of this help to this next advancement in life? So all of these things, it's like a review, edit, review, share, get Get feedback, edit, review. That's the editing process in a nutshell. And there's so much— I'm not going to bore you if you're not too interested in editing filmmaking techniques like myself, but you have to color correct and you have to get the right depth of field. Sometimes you have to change things. They were shot this way, now you edit them this way because you forgot to do it over there. It's okay. You can't beat yourself up. You got what you got. Now you do the best with what you got. And you fine-tune, you put the layer down there of music, the sound effects down there, and it starts turning into this thing that you, you envisioned early on in that story back in part 1. If you haven't checked out part 1, please go back. It was a good one. So now you're starting to craft this scene, scene by scene. So you have all these scenes together to create the full film, and now guess what? You have to export it and share it, get the feedback. You have to be open to criticisms, open to help. You can't do it alone. You will do good things alone, but amazing, outstanding things takes a group effort. And this is why this is one of the best metaphors ever. And I love it. So now you have a product, you fine-tuned it, and you want to share it with the world. That's what truly part of life— on my wall back there it says one of the 6 human needs is contribution. This is what you're doing. And as a filmmaker, I'm contributing this art or this statement, this message to the world. Now I took all this time from here to paper to set to people to funding to making it happen, and now out to you, out to them. That's the ripple effect. That's why we do the work. That's why we make the movies. That's why we create art, to express and share. Because impression without expression leads to depression. That is one of my favorite phrases. I'll say that again if you want to write it down. Impression without expression leads to depression. I found a book in the park when I was 18. And that book, that's the only— I read the whole book. That's all I remembered from the book. And I've written it on my walls. I've written it on cards for the rest of my life. And it is powerful. And that's why I want you to direct your life, because you have impressions every way, everywhere, and you need to express it. You have an idea. You have something you know you want to get back in alignment with. You want to express it and you want to direct your life. So all of this is to get you motivated to take the action, to get the idea down, vomit draft, write the story, the script, and get people on board that want to support you. Find a team, a crew, close friends. Let go of some of the ones that aren't that, and that's okay. Or see them less and focus. And then Edit after you capture all of it, and then share, contribute, grow, and get that fulfillment you know you want. And you know it's good for you because then you're around other people and then they feel it. It's just this great ripple effect of goodness. You know what I'm talking about. And then you have a final product. Now, with the difference between life and the film is the film, once you release it, it's set in stone. It's Done. But with life, the only time it's really done is when you're done, when it's your time to leave this planet. But up until then, you can rewrite the story if it isn't going in the right direction. You can change up the scenes to be more serving to you. And that's what's cool about this, this life we lead. We get to focus and fine-tune and get feedback and, and also utilize our own truth. Uncover any blockages of your heart and actually trust your heart and your gut. I just said it before, get other people to give you feedback, but don't get lost in their feedback or their opinions. Ask for advice, but find a way to use your gut and heart to know where and what and when you should change things up for yourself. That's why I always say direct your life because it's yours, no one else's, and you have one here on Earth. So make the best of it, have fun, write your story, get on set, shoot it, capture it, and then give it to the world. That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed part 2. This was fun. I haven't spoken this deep on filmmaking and how I can apply it to life ever, so So you're the first to hear it. I'm excited to hear and read what you have to say about this episode. So check it out. If you're on a podcast, go to the YouTube, comment there. Or if you're on Spotify, comment there. Please leave a review, rate the show, share it, because I want to share this with everyone. I have to keep asking because how else are people going to know about it if I don't ask you to share with them? So you're doing me a huge favor. I hope that you enjoyed this free show. I do weekly. Mondays on YouTube, Mondays and Thursdays just on audio. So tune in however you want. I am excited to continue this, and I'm blessed to be here. That's it for this episode. Go and direct your life and make the story you want to serve you.
