Hello. I have been living in LA for almost five years now. it's almost my five year Los Angeles anniversary.
I grew up, if you didn't know, I grew up in Northern California near San Francisco.
And when I was 17, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my career in the internet.
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I feel like... Now that I've been here for five years, I can really finally discuss. whether or not I think living in LA actually helps your career or not.
Because the reason why I moved here was not because...
I was like, oh my God, I wanna go hang out at the Hollywood sign every day.
I want to go shopping on Rodeo Drive every day I want to experience hot and sunny weather every day.
Like, no, that wasn't the reason why I moved here.
I moved to LA strictly for my career and I'm not the only one.
You know that. We know that. I'm not the only one.
A lot of people. pursuing a career in anything entertainment.
LA is the spot, right? You make music, you're an actor, you're a podcaster, you're a YouTuber, you're a TikToker.
You are a comedian, whatever you are. LA is the spot.
I mean, New York is the spot too, but. LA just has the reputation of being the place where people in the entertainment industry can grow their career.
And, I've gone back and forth over the years trying to decide whether or not I think living in LA helps. or hurts your career long term.
I'm not talking about short term. I'm talking about long term.
And so today we're going to discuss that.
We're going to answer the big question. Does living in LA actually help your career?
To start, I want to talk about how I think living in LA has helped my career.
Number one, is obvious. Okay, living in LA is incredible for networking.
Oh, the word networking like meeting people who are in your industry who have connections, networking.
Listen, the word networking to me is so... There's something about it that I just despise.
You know, it just seems so douchey, I guess.
There's something to be said for networking.
I have met so many people. just by hanging out in LA who have ended up being incredibly helpful in my career in one way or another.
I think networking can be a negative thing at times if it's rooted in, selfish intentions, right?
Like if you go out and you, talk to people just because you think that they're going to get you somewhere in your career.
That's, Kinda gross, you know what I mean? you should always talk to somebody because you admire what they do or because they just seem cool and you want to have a conversation.
And then if five, 10 minutes into the conversation, you realize that, you two might be able to help each other out and it could be mutually beneficial.
Great. But you should never like go into a conversation with the intent of, ooh, how can I use you?
And that happens a lot in LA, but I have experienced a lot of great networking moments where I've met like let's say I met a photographer And I start talking to this photographer and we're just talking about, social media and stuff like whatever, like just, and then. they bring up, oh, I'm a photographer, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then I'm like, oh my God, no way. Like, I'd love to see your work.
I see their work. I'm like, wait, I love it.
Let's like do something together. That's cute and fun and harmless.
And now we're both benefiting. I get to work with a photographer, and a photographer... gets to have someone to take photos of, you know, like that's a great mutually beneficial thing. moments like that are frequent in LA because so many people here are working in this industry.
So it's like you meet people who are in the same line of work as you.
All the time. And nothing creates a better person. product if you will then collaboration you know working together with other people who have their own style of doing things and mixing that with your own style of doing things helps you evolve.
Working with other people helps you evolve and it is a really cool opportunity to have so many people. in one place that can all in theory help each other.
That's cool. And so I do think that the ability to network in LA can't be ignored because it is a valuable thing and it has helped me as well.
Living in LA is also great because Things can move faster here.
For example, let's say you have a business meeting.
Ooh, meetings. Let's say you have a business meeting.
Most of the time. Companies who work in the entertainment industry are based in either LA, New York, or both.
So most of the time, That's where meetings take place.
And obviously I know now we all take zoom meetings as much as we possibly can, but.
Sometimes you need to do an in-person meeting.
You want to meet someone face to face and truly read their energy, et cetera.
Living in LA is incredibly helpful when a meeting pops up. an opportunity pops up and you need to meet with somebody in person instead of having to schedule travel, you know, to get to LA or New York and,
If you live in LA, there's a good chance that you know, the meeting can happen in LA.
You see what I'm saying? So things can happen faster.
The time between Deciding that a meeting should happen in the meeting happening can be a 24 hour process. thing, you know?
Whereas if you live out of LA, you might have to schedule a flight, plan your travel, all of this.
And that sort of drags the process out. So there's this ability to be efficient when you're here because you're Everyone's here, it feels like.
And so everyone that I would potentially be working with is most likely here.
So there's like this ability to do a lot more, I guess.
And that's good. Because the quicker you can... get the ball rolling in anything, the better.
So if you have a big project you want to you want to start, like, for example, you want to make a movie, right?
The faster that you can meet with a potential producer.
I don't fucking understand how movies work.
Okay. I don't know why I use movies as an example.
I genuinely don't know how it works to make a movie, but you see what I'm saying.
The sooner you can have a meeting with a producer, the sooner you can have a meeting with a streaming company.
I don't know how this works, okay? But you get what I'm saying.
The process can expedite so you can get more done in less time and get to your end goal so much sooner.
If we're trying to answer the question today, does living in LA actually help your career or is that kind of bullshit?
The sooner that you can get shit in motion, the sooner... it can be out in the world for everyone to see.
And yeah, in theory, be successful. Because in the entertainment industry, you have to put things out.
And then they have to be perceived by the public and then. that determines whether or not your project worked or not.
And you see what I mean? So Efficiency is real.
It's real. The next helpful thing about LA is that there's a lot of resources.
Let's say you're a musician. There are endless studios. to record music in LA.
Endless, hundreds probably, thousands probably.
Let's say you want to film a short film with your friends.
You need to rent... a nice camera, like one of those big, bulky, fancy cameras.
Okay. There's 1,300 million camera rental stores online.
There's resources here. There's... a demand for these specific things that, are necessary for this industry, right?
There's a demand. And so then therefore there's a supply.
And if you live somewhere like. I don't know, Rhode Island or Connecticut. it might be harder to get those things because there's not a lot of people making music in connecticut you know who need a recording studio So the accessibility of resources is great.
You know, that's great. For me personally, I don't need resources.
Personally, I don't. I use... No resources.
Okay. To do what I do, I have a little recorder. that I use to record my podcast that I bring with me everywhere when I'm traveling.
When I'm at home, I put it on my nightstand and you know what I mean?
I bring it with me everywhere. If I'm filming a YouTube video, I use the same. camera I've been using forever and I don't ever level up.
I love my camera. I don't need to level up, you know?
And like, So for me, that's not necessarily necessary, but for some people it totally is.
And the fact that that's there is very helpful.
And last but not least, I think there is an element of support in Los Angeles because Everyone's in the same industry.
Everybody's sort of dealing with the same struggles or whatever that come with this particular job or career path.
And so, There is an opportunity for community.
I'm not saying that there always is because...
I would argue that the entertainment industry really does attract a unique type of person.
It attracts all different types of people. sometimes good and sometimes bad and so I wouldn't rely on finding a community in LA, but there is a potential for it.
It's not easy to find, but there is an opportunity to find people that are in your industry that you can relate to. that are good people and it might be challenging to find.
It might actually be impossible to find.
It depends. Um, but there is an opportunity there for that.
Whereas if you lived somewhere, again, like Connecticut, where maybe people aren't really working as much in this industry.
It might be harder to find people who maybe understand the anxiety and stress that comes with being in the public eye, for example.
Because most people in Connecticut aren't in the public eye.
You see what I'm saying? So it's like. naturally it might be harder to find people who you can relate to if that's what you're doing, you know, the last. thing about living in LA that's helpful.
And this is like so gross to me, like not gross, but. like talking about this is just so cringe to me, but whatever, it's true.
So we're just going to have to. deal with it.
The last helpful thing about living in LA is that there's more of an opportunity to be seen.
And I know that sounds disgusting. Like it really does sound just so kind of scummy.
Right. But. An important element of having a career in entertainment is being...
I mean, if no one knows who you are, then they can't enjoy what you're putting out into the world, right?
That's obvious. having an audience. is the biggest driving force of this industry.
If there was no audience, this wouldn't be an industry, right?
So a huge factor of becoming known. is being talked about in any way, shape or form.
And a big part, of being known is being seen on the internet, talked about on the internet. there are a lot of events and paparazzi and, opportunities to be posted to the internet by the media in some way.
And that can sort of help boost your career in this industry.
Personally, I don't really experience this.
I almost never get paparazzi. I actually did last night.
I was at a Halloween party and And I used to hate, hate. getting paparazzi, even though for me, it's always like not that bad.
You know what I mean? It's like not bad.
Like for some celebrities, it is so bad for little old me.
It's like, they're like, Who the fuck is that?
Okay. Well, I think I'm going to take a photo of her.
Like, it's like, I feel like I should, like she's, I don't know.
We'll see. We'll just take a photo and try to figure out who it is later.
You know what I mean? Nobody's like harassing, harassing me.
Like I've maybe been harassed once. It's really, I'm not, I don't deal with this in like a huge way.
And I also don't seek it out because there are ways that you can seek it out.
If you live in L.A. you know the spots where the paparazzi hang out.
There are certain restaurants, there are certain clubs, there are certain coffee shops. that everyone knows are like paparazzi hotspots where they just wait all day for the celebrities to go.
It's a whole thing. You know what I'm saying?
And so if you want to participate in that, you can.
If you want to call paparazzi on yourself, you can.
And there's a lot of paparazzi here. So there's a lot of opportunity to sort of be seen in that way.
I don't really utilize this personally. Because I just don't love that.
But if... you're somebody who wants to do that. and you like feel comfortable doing it and it doesn't exhaust you or, you know, whatever, then.
It's an option, and that is definitely helpful for a lot of people.
I mean think about the people that you look up to for their street style, for example.
How did they become a street style icon in your mind?
Probably from paparazzi images. that we're taken of them just being them, whatever, doing their thing in a cute outfit, right?
Now, they've built up a sort of identity in your mind of being like a stylish, a stylish person.
And, you know, you start, maybe you follow them because of that, etc., etc.
So it can help grow your career in that way.
And that is helpful, right? So I don't know, you know, That's definitely something, but also if you go to events all the time and like get dressed up or whatever. there's an element of sort of weird subconscious credibility, I think. that we give people when we see them going to events, you know what I mean? oh, they're at this event, oh, they're at this event.
It's a weird psychological thing. but it means something in this industry.
It like has this sort of, status attached to it, which is to me, listen.
I know that this is all just a game. you guys probably know that this is all just a game deep down, but at the same time, it doesn't mean nothing, right?
Like it doesn't mean nothing because for some reason, psychologically, When we see someone at a celebrity event who we don't – we've never seen before – maybe we don't know who they are, we might get curious and be like, oh,
What do they do? And then we might want to look it up.
We're like, this is a cool event and they're here.
But I don't know them. I want to know who they are.
And then you look them up. Maybe you're like, oh, they're really cool.
And then you follow them again. growing that person's career because there's something fascinating and entertaining about all the different celebrity events and what celebrities do on their day off.
Like there's something interesting about it.
I love seeing it. I go on my explore page all the time and I'm like, what's everybody wearing on the street?
Where is everybody going? What events is everybody going to?
What's everyone doing? You know, I'm fascinated.
I don't know why. but I am and I pay attention and I've discovered so many different people. from a paparazzi picture of somebody wearing a cute outfit or, photo of somebody taken at an event that I think is kind of cool.
And I've been like, who's that? And then I look it up.
The ability to be seen in LA in those ways. is powerful and available.
It's very available and it's powerful in the sense that it can make a difference in your career for sure.
If that's the way that you want to do it, right?
So yeah, I mean, I think that living in LA can be very helpful for growing your career.
There are a lot of reasons why it can be helpful.
And a lot of them are weird to talk about out loud because they're always the things that people don't talk about, you know?
People don't want to talk about networking.
People don't want to talk about the way that business interactions run.
People don't want to talk about calling paparazzi on themselves or going to specific events because there's a specific goal in mind of how they want to be perceived.
Nobody wants to talk about that because it's weird.
It's weird because it's supposed to be the thing that like, celebrities do intentionally maybe, but the public isn't supposed to know. the inner workings of how things run, but I don't care.
I'll air it all out. I will air it all out.
This is all a sort of... mirage. It's all sort of smoke and mirrors.
And I think living in LA can help. not only give you resources, but also give you the opportunity to play with your public image because there are so many opportunities here to do so. but this is when the plot thickens, right?
Because all of the things I just mentioned are helpful and, can be a game changer for someone's career in entertainment.
But. None of the positive things matter if. you're experiencing too many of the shitty parts about moving here for your career.
So... Let's discuss the ways that living in LA can hurt your career.
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I think the biggest one is that there are a lot of temptations.
In LA, there are a lot of parties. celebrity, Hollywood, juicy, crazy parties. in LA.
There are a lot of famous people that are put on a pedestal that are appealing to hang out with. there are, or try to hang out with.
There's a lot of people who wear expensive clothes and expensive jewelry and expensive bags and prioritize material. things.
There are a lot of people that are really focused on their appearance.
And so maybe there's, a lot of sort of focus on every little detail of how you look.
There's a lot of people enhancing the way that they look maybe by doing something as simple as getting hair extensions or something as surgically invasive as getting an entire facial reconstructive surgery.
You know, there's, this focus on appearance within the culture of this industry in LA.
And there's a lot of people who party really hard all the time. do a lot of drugs, drink a lot, etc., So my point of listing all those things was there's a lot of temptation here.
It's hard to, for some people to live here because there are so many opportunities. to deviate from your own moral code, right? there are a lot of opportunities to maybe slack off your work to focus on things that are not bringing you closer to your ultimate goal.
An example would be, let's say you moved to LA to be an actress or a to pursue your podcasting career.
I don't know. And you move here and immediately you get swept up into the party scene and you're hanging out with all these super famous people and you guys are going out every night and you're drinking every night and you're doing a bunch of drugs every night.
And then during the day you can't get shit done.
So you can't. make it to acting class and you can't record a podcast episode, whatever you're career goal, maybe you can't focus because you're focusing all your energy on a useless element of Los Angeles.
There's nothing wrong with partying and, you know, having fun every once in a while don't get me wrong but if you're doing that every night, which a lot of people here do because it's hard to say no. then you might get distracted and you might end up deviating from your initial goal.
Your initial goal was to come here to do all of the things that I brought up in the beginning.
Network with people in your industry and build your public image, whatever it might be.
You can't work on that and work on your personal goal career wise, if you're, you know, partying all the time, you just can't And a lot of people come here and get super addicted to partying because it's so available.
It is fun, you know? There are a lot of interesting people here, a lot of them in the public eye and stuff like that.
And there's something appealing about going out in LA because it's like, who am I going to see tonight?
You know, like, am I going to see Harry Styles tonight.
Am I going to see, you know, that's like a weird. opportunity.
So it's 10 times more appealing than just partying in general because there's this added intrigue of like who's going to be there and that's a really hard temptation to refuse.
And so it makes sense to me when I see people who get into sort of a routine of partying really hard all the time.
Because I'm like yeah it's kind of addicting.
It's addicting. For so many reasons, you know, I can't even begin.
There's so many reasons why it's addicting.
So it makes sense. It makes sense. It takes a lot of self-control for majority of people to not want to party in LA.
Because it's appealing. There's also accepted by the people here that are in this industry.
Because naturally, we as humans can sometimes put people on a pedestal. if we admire them, right?
And let's say you moved to LA to pursue whatever corner of the entertainment industry you want to pursue.
In LA, it's not hard to find people who have already made it, have already succeeded in that world. it's easy to find those people.
There's a lot of them here. And so there can be a sort of mind game of like whoa, there are so many people here who have made it and like they're, so accomplished and like, I'm intimidated by them because they already did it.
Like they are, they, have made it and I want them to like me, you know, and accept me because I, I, want to be friends with them.
And I think they're so cool and I admire what they did and whatever.
And that can put pressure on you to sort of try to morph yourself into a version of you that you think that they will like.
Right. And through that, you can lose yourself.
The temptation to fit in here can cause you to lose yourself.
And when you lose yourself... it's a lot harder to stick to your goal.
And one of the most valuable and important things in the entertainment industry in general. is being truly you.
It applies in everything. Every corner of the industry, if you will.
Music, movies, TV. podcasting, YouTube, TikTok, whatever it is.
You have to bring something uniquely you to the table or else. you don't stand out.
You know what I mean? If you're not, the only time that you can truly be unique and Interesting is when you're being yourself because the only person that can do that is you anyone can act like Harry Styles.
Anyone can pretend to be Harry Styles. They can copy a style. copies personality, copies lyrics, copies music, whatever, like copy him.
But the only Harry Styles that can succeed is Harry Styles.
So if you want to succeed in, you have to bring something new to the table, something that's uniquely you.
I think that people in LA find themselves trying to be something that they're not. to fit in and then that bleeds into their career.
And then there's also the temptation... to change things about your appearance.
And that kind of goes along with fitting in, right? there's this desire, we always have this desire to fit in.
And in LA, you know, there's a certain obsession with appearance here.
And I want to say, I don't judge anyone for doing whatever.
If you want to have... a bunch of hair extensions in and eyelash extensions in, in, you know lip filler and a facelift and do whatever you want it is none of my business that is Your choice and your prerogative, okay?
I am not here to judge. the only person that I can judge, I guess, is myself and whether or not I want to do that and whether or not that's something that I believe I should do.
Period. End of story. But I think that there's nothing wrong with wanting to enhance the way you look or. whatever, if that's really what you want to do.
Again, It's completely up to you. But here's where I think there's an issue in L.A. because it's so popular.
I think that people who maybe don't even really... feel like they need it, or feel like it's something that aligns with them personally, will end up doing it anyway because... they want to fit in and you know any choice made because of the desire to want to fit in is maybe not good.
If you want to go get lip filler because you want to get lip filler because you think it's going to look good and you think you're going to like the way you look, that's great.
But if you want to get lip filler because all of your friends have lip filler, that's not good.
You know what I mean? You see the difference there?
And that's the problem with living in LA.
There's a temptation to change the way you look because everybody else sort of is following this kind of trend.
There's like, trends in appearance here.
And it can be... And it's very... apparent and it's very strong.
Whereas elsewhere, I don't think that's as much of a thing.
For example, I grew up in Northern California. near San Francisco, as I said earlier, I think, or maybe I didn't, I don't remember. there was not a huge focus on what people look like.
I mean, of course, Naturally, we're human.
We judge people based on everything. the way they talk, the way that they look. the way that they express themselves.
We're constantly absorbing information about other people in appearance, is one of those things.
So it's not like we're not aware of it. It's not like where I grew up, oh, we're not aware of what other people look like.
But there wasn't this huge obsession with sex. having this sort of perfect wrinkle free, smooth skin, plump, perfect appearance.
Whereas here that is a lot more popular.
And again, is there anything wrong with that?
I don't know. I don't think that there is as long as the people who are getting the cosmetic enhancements that they're getting done are getting them done simply because they want to. and not because they're just trying to fit in, right?
The temptation that people experience in LA is, It's hard to fight.
It's hard to fight. I've fought all of these battles.
I've had to fight against all these temptations.
The temptation to party. And... I've never been, I don't dapple with drugs personally.
I mean, I have smoked weed before. And if you listen to my weed episode, you know how that went.
So. That's as far, that's where I draw the line.
It doesn't, it doesn't go well for me, but I don't.
I never was tempted to try drugs just because I just am frightened.
And it's just not something I want to do.
But, you know, I've been tempted to go out and just like drink. every night for a week just because it sounded fun to me.
And I was like, I've been tempted to change who I am to try to fit in.
I have had moments where I've changed who I am to fit in 100%.
I've been here for five years almost. And there have been many moments when I've sort of lost who I was.
Because I was trying to be something else. to appeal to people I wanted to be friends with blah blah blah and then that ended up bleeding into my career and it affected my career for periods of time.
I've also... felt the temptation to change my appearance in extreme ways.
And that's not something that I ever really thought about before.
And I don't really want it like deep down.
I don't want to do those things. I don't, I don't need to do those things it's unnecessary I am the way that I am and I
Who fucking cares? Of course I have insecurities, like I'm a human being, everyone does.
But I don't need like, I don't need to do that.
I don't want to do that. I want to just accept my own personal perspective is I just want to accept. who I am and figure out a way to love that the way it is.
That's my goal for myself. That's what I want to do.
And that's sort of my goal deep down. But there have been moments when I've been tempted to get my lips done or like, you know, whatever, get like, Botox in my forehead, like, you know, it's just, it's an LA thing.
I've seen other people do it and they're like, no, it's the best.
And then I've been like, Oh, I kind of like, what if I did that?
Because like everyone else is doing it, you know, it's, I would love to say that I haven't felt tempted. in a lot of ways since moving here.
And that I've been stronger than that and bigger than that and badder than that.
But that's not true. I've experienced all of this and everyone who moves here has in one way or another.
And it can really end up taking you farther away from your initial goal.
And it can... eliminate all of the good parts of living in LA, you know? if these temptations take over your life in one way or another.
And I'm not shitting on people either who... have struggled maybe a little bit more with these temptations and have not been able to fight against them.
I'm not, this is not at all saying anything mean about those people because I understand.
The pull is strong, it's really strong and it's hard to push against at times.
And for whatever reason, some people struggle with it more than others.
It's challenging. And so it's something to be super aware of.
You have to make an extra effort to... Stick to your own morals and your own values.
And your own priorities and you have to have discipline with yourself and you have to be honest with yourself in a way that you don't normally have to do because you're being faced constantly with from your goal and who you are.
And in this industry, your goal and who you are are intertwined because. this industry in particular is rooted in the individual, which is weird because Obviously, there are other jobs that are more rooted in your ability to do something, right?
But your personality, or who you are or whatever, it's not necessarily as important.
It's about how good you are at a skill.
But this is weird because it's like, how good you are at a skill being 50%.
And then. what your personality is being another 50%.
And so, If you lose yourself, you lose 50% of your career.
You know what I mean? and it's likely that the other 50%, which is your ability to be good at a skill will end up, falling away too.
You see what I mean? And then you have nothing and it's scary.
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I would say the other thing about living in LA that's tough is that For every person that you meet that is incredibly talented and is inspiring and has something cool and creative to bring to the table that they can share with you.
And maybe there's room for a collaboration of some sort for every person that you meet, that wants to work with you and you want to work with them for an organic genuine collaboration, you're going to meet five who want to use you for something.
Because this is just an industry where really hungry and determined. to succeed and they will do anything that they have to do to get there. and I know why this is, it's because again, for whatever reason, psychologically as humans, we associate fame and notoriety with power.
Not everybody thinks like that. but most people do.
And one of the most tempting things is, is power because power is like the ultimate force, right?
Having power. Everybody wants power in some way.
Some people just want it in a more toxic way than others. some people don't really care about power at all.
Like, I don't know, but there are a lot of people in LA who want power and they want it now.
They want to succeed. They want to get famous.
They want to have a lot of money. They want to, you know what I'm saying?
So there are a lot of people that will try to succeed in any way that they can.
And that might mean backstabbing you. That might mean using you for something.
That might mean stealing from you, copying you. spreading a fake rumor about you sabotaging you like who knows There's so many different gross ways that people... find a way to thrive in LA.
It's not everyone. There are a lot of people here truly who are good people.
But there are also a lot of people here that are bad people.
It's like the definition of yin and yang.
The balance, you know, there's definitely both.
And when you first move here, your spidey senses might not be as good and you can't tell from the good from the bad apart, it's harder.
I struggled with this in the beginning where I couldn't tell if someone was using me or not. or taking advantage of me and my kindness and my generosity. until it was too late.
And then it was like, oh my God, I've just been getting played for the past year.
You know what I mean? It sucks. But you learn eventually.
But in the beginning, it's tough and it's kind of icky feeling and you feel. isolated, which can affect your happiness, which can affect accomplishing your career goals.
You know what I mean? That's obvious. They all go hand in hand.
You can feel isolated because you can feel like you don't know who you can trust.
And that sucks. And that's very LA. Next.
I think that you can get sucked into the world of. the entertainment industry in LA.
In a way that's all consuming and it's hard to get out.
I'll explain it. So. I believe that our reality is... completely dictated by what we're surrounded by, what we see, what we... force ourselves to experience.
So for example, if you're going on Instagram all the time, every day, multiple times a day, and you're scrolling and you're scrolling.
Eventually, your Instagram feed will become a part of your reality because it's something that you're seeing every day.
So seeing your friend in Hawaii, that's now a part of your reality in your reality.
Seeing your best friend and her boyfriend kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Now that's a part of your reality. And if you decide to take a walk around your neighborhood. every day the little things that you see every day on that walk become a part of your reality.
But if you stop going on Instagram... And you don't even look at it anymore.
You delete the app off your phone. That no longer really is a part of your reality anymore.
It's gone. It's gone. The second you stop seeing it every day, all the time, it immediately removes itself from your reality.
It's almost like the world in your mind when you close your eyes and you just think about the world.
Right. That's made up of all the things that you see and experience every day.
So if you decide you wanna remove something, once it's been removed for a little bit, it's removed.
Like when you close your eyes and think about the world, you're not thinking about what you saw on Instagram. because you're not seeing anything on Instagram anymore.
That's removed from your reality. So yeah, it might exist out there somewhere, but it's not in your face and therefore. it's not really a part of your world anymore.
To bring this back to LA, when you live in LA, it's like you're living in your phone because LA is such an epicenter for the entertainment industry.
A lot of events happen here. A lot of people who work in this industry live here.
A lot of the sort of drama that we read about online happens here.
A lot of the people that you become friends with are people that you might also see on your explore page on Instagram later in the day, like, Being disconnected from the internet world is a lot harder in LA. you're so close to the source that it's like, even when you turn off your phone, you still feel like you're in it.
Do you know what I mean? So... Let's say for me, I'm having a period of time where I'm like, you know what?
I've been focusing too much on What's going on on the internet?
You know, what's happening? What's the drama?
What's everyone doing? Who's dating who?
What's happening? Where's everyone traveling to?
What are they wearing? What's happening?
Sometimes I hit a point where I'm like, I can't see all this anymore.
I don't wanna see all this anymore. I don't have the energy for this to be a part of my reality right now.
I want to sort of shift my reality a little bit.
And I don't want my phone to be a part of it.
I can shut off my phone, but then if I go out to dinner that night, I might see. four or five people that I also see on my Instagram feed, do you see what I'm saying?
So that's weird. It's harder to escape this bubble when you live here.
You can't just shut off your phone and immediately go immerse yourself in the real world.
Like when I'm on vacation, say in Northern California, If I want to shut my phone off and then go hang out at a cafe and go shopping and just... hang around a neighborhood all day, I will truly feel disconnected from LA altogether.
L.A., Hollywood celebrity business. culture, whatever.
It's all gone. It's all gone. The second I turn off my phone, put it away. and go for a walk when I'm not in Los Angeles or New York, I truly feel like I'm in the real world.
I'm back in the real world. I'm grounded.
This is what reality is. This is like truly what normal is.
This is just normal. You can't do that as easily in L.A.
You can't just shut it all off because even when you shut it off, it's still all around you.
And that can be weird and challenging. And it can be easy to sort of lose your footing and to feel not grounded. because you can't escape it.
It's just everywhere around you. To add on to that, I have to mention the fact that nobody should be too heavily focused on celebrities and, LA celebrity culture in general.
Like, That should not be 100% of your reality in your mind, the reality that you create.
No one should allow that to become too much of their reality. whether it's through Instagram, because you follow all the people who live in LA and do whatever, or you literally live here and are participating in it, no matter who you are.
That should be a very small percentage of what takes up the space in your mind.
You have to be rooted in. the real world, because if you start to believe that all of this celebrity shit really matters.
And all of this, LA fitting in whatever shit matters. you're living in a lie in a way because all of it's an illusion.
It's all smoke and mirrors. It's all just. one big show.
And when you live here for too long, you start to forget that you start to forget that it all is kind of an illusion and it's all kind of smoke and mirrors. you start to just believe that it's real because it's,
It's your whole universe in your mind because you don't see anything else.
You don't go for a walk alone. in the middle of Texas and just see what normal life is like.
You know, you're stuck in this bubble It's easy to get stuck in that bubble.
And I would say the last struggle about moving to LA for your career is the adjustment period.
The adjustment period is long. Like I'm just now five years later feeling fully adjusted. to living in LA.
I feel like I have my social situation finally figured out.
It's going to change again. It's going to evolve again.
Don't get me wrong, but. I feel really solid in that.
I feel really comfortable here. I feel like this is home to me in a way.
I'm not, scared or intimidated or tempted by the things that I once was and I have found all these different ways to keep myself grounded while I'm here and not lose track of. my goal and lose sight of my goal.
I've figured it all out. But it did take me five years.
And have I fucked up along the way? Absolutely.
Left and right. Of course I have. And did some of those mistakes maybe affect my career negatively along the way?
For sure, you know if I wasn't being myself or I was not motivated to make things to put on the internet you know like that there's definitely been times when Living in LA has hurt my career.
There's also been a lot of times when it's helped my career.
I think in conclusion. Living in LA can help your career.
And it also... can ruin your career. So in conclusion, there's no solid answer.
It just depends on you, really. For me, do I think it helped my career?
Yes, I do. I'm happy I moved here. I've... been able to utilize living here to my benefit without losing sight of who I am too much to a point where I couldn't Save it.
But also all of the negative. things that have come with living in LA have taught me something. and have made me who I am today.
I would not be who I am without all of those experiences.
And so. I don't regret moving here. Like it is what it is.
It was meant like this is what was meant to be.
And it happened. Do I think it helped? Yes.
Do I think it was the most important factor?
I don't know. I don't think so. No. the moral of the story is people moving here makes sense, you know, don't think it's all just hype.
I think that there is a good reason why people move here to try to develop their career.
It isn't just hyped up, whatever. There is a lot. that can be utilized here, but only if you can fight against all of the demons that are here as well too.
It's kind of a battleground. It's a battleground for your mind, body and soul.
And. if you push through and keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing and stay true to yourself, no matter how painful, or uncomfortable it is, there's a good chance that you might end up finding that LA is an incredible place for your career, but You got to fight off all those demons first.
You know what I mean? And you got to get through it. and come out the other side.
I feel like I'm finally just now coming out the other side, standing firm. in who I am and focusing 90% of my energy on what I need to be focusing my energy on.
The other 10%, who knows? I'm leaving 10% up for... weird shit that I decide to put my energy on at any given moment.
But I'm focusing 90% of my energy on things that are important for my own wellbeing and for my career in general, but it was a long journey to get here.
So I don't know. I'm not telling you to move to LA right now.
Trust me. I'm not, but I don't regret it.
And, I think you can do magical things.
Yeah. You guys, that was a journey. It's funny.
I am recording this the day after a Halloween party and I'm really hungover, but I was really inspired. to record this because I just haven't, Gone out in like done the LA party thing in so long.
And. I did last night and I was like, wow, what a spectacle this all is.
What a spectacle this all is. All of these people are not from here. they're all here to make their career happen.
You know what I mean? At least, Obviously, L.A. is massive.
So when I talk about L.A., I talk about the people everywhere. in the entertainment industry in LA, which is a big portion of LA, but it's also not at the same time.
So many people who are like staying far away.
From this world in general. But you get what I'm saying.
But yeah it was just interesting. And it sort of.
I was like, wow, all of these people live here for their career and I don't know.
I'll let you decide. I'll let you decide what you think.
Let me know what you think about all of this.
You can tweet me at AGpodcast. You can send me a DM on Instagram or comment on one of my Instagram posts at anything goes.
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Yeah. You know, you know the drill. That's all I got, you guys.
Thank you so much for listening. If I was talking super like.
Slowly today, I... Haven't partied hard in a while.
And I really did last night. And I loved every second of it, to be honest.
I actually had fun. It was weird. No, I actually had fun.
It was actually weird. I never have fun when I go out And last night I did have fun.
I had fun. I was dancing. I didn't care.
I drank tequila. I don't even like tequila.
I was drinking tequila all night. I was drinking tequila sodas.
I felt amazing. It was so fun. I had so much fun.
I was dancing. It was a Halloween party.
I was wearing a like... Ugly little dress I got online. a week and a half ago, last minute, just trying to make the Halloween costume happen.
I was letting loose. It was great. It was great.
But I'm you know, I'm feeling it today because I'm not.
I'm not... As resilient as I used to be.
And I haven't been practicing recently. I haven't been practicing my party lifestyle...
So like it's taking an extra big toll on me today because I don't know, I'm just rusty.
I just haven't been at this recently. You get it.
Okay, I'm going to go take a nap. Thank you guys so much for listening and hanging out per usual.
I really, really love... and value all of you who listen and share your opinions and perspectives with me.
It's my favorite thing on the entire planet.
And I'll talk to you guys next week. Bye.
