1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,970 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:00:05,950 --> 00:00:07,210 We love writing. 3 00:00:07,210 --> 00:00:08,560 It is a fun process. 4 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:10,540 Yes, it is frustrating at times. 5 00:00:10,540 --> 00:00:11,590 It gets scary at times. 6 00:00:11,590 --> 00:00:12,650 You get stuck. 7 00:00:12,650 --> 00:00:15,910 It doesn't feel like you're ever going to get unstuck sometimes. 8 00:00:15,910 --> 00:00:19,990 But what we try to do with this class is show you our process, 9 00:00:19,990 --> 00:00:21,970 because this is the process that we found, 10 00:00:21,970 --> 00:00:26,810 for us, made the writing process as smooth as possible. 11 00:00:26,808 --> 00:00:27,848 And as fun as possible. 12 00:00:27,850 --> 00:00:28,890 And as fun as possible. 13 00:00:28,892 --> 00:00:31,182 And of course, there are bumps along the way. 14 00:00:31,180 --> 00:00:32,990 We've written outlines that don't work. 15 00:00:32,990 --> 00:00:34,780 We've written scripts that don't work. 16 00:00:34,780 --> 00:00:35,650 But that's okay. 17 00:00:35,650 --> 00:00:38,410 We at least now know when stuff isn't working. 18 00:00:38,410 --> 00:00:41,710 We know how to go about solving those issues. 19 00:00:41,710 --> 00:00:44,770 That makes it a lot less stressful and a lot more-- 20 00:00:44,770 --> 00:00:46,270 less pressure on us. 21 00:00:46,270 --> 00:00:48,550 And that allows us to enjoy it a lot more. 22 00:00:48,550 --> 00:00:50,800 In fact, I would say there was a point in our life-- 23 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,880 there was, like, a two to four years part of our lives where 24 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:56,860 writing was really painful and not fun. 25 00:00:56,860 --> 00:00:58,030 It felt like torture. 26 00:00:58,030 --> 00:00:58,870 Pulling teeth. 27 00:00:58,870 --> 00:01:00,330 Yeah, it felt like pulling teeth. 28 00:01:00,328 --> 00:01:03,428 If it's feeling like torture to you, 29 00:01:03,430 --> 00:01:05,480 you may be doing something wrong. 30 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:07,150 And so that's what we realized. 31 00:01:07,150 --> 00:01:10,000 It was like, it's not that we didn't enjoy writing. 32 00:01:10,003 --> 00:01:12,173 It was that we were approaching it in the wrong way. 33 00:01:12,170 --> 00:01:14,180 So if it is feeling like that to you, 34 00:01:14,183 --> 00:01:15,853 that doesn't mean you're not meant to be 35 00:01:15,850 --> 00:01:17,350 a writer or anything like that. 36 00:01:17,350 --> 00:01:20,860 It just means that your process should probably change. 37 00:01:20,855 --> 00:01:23,235 Hopefully, our process doesn't make it feel like torture. 38 00:01:23,230 --> 00:01:25,000 But if it's not working for you, you 39 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,520 will find, hopefully, your own process that works. 40 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:30,300 [MUSIC PLAYING] 41 00:01:33,550 --> 00:01:37,460 Before we get into you doing anything writing related, 42 00:01:37,455 --> 00:01:38,835 I think we have to talk about one 43 00:01:38,830 --> 00:01:40,660 of the least fun parts of the process, which 44 00:01:40,663 --> 00:01:43,663 is writing habits. 45 00:01:43,660 --> 00:01:46,030 But I cannot tell you how many people we know, 46 00:01:46,033 --> 00:01:47,953 how many people, aspiring writers or whatever, 47 00:01:47,950 --> 00:01:49,360 this is the downfall in that. 48 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,900 It's so easy to just not write anything. 49 00:01:52,900 --> 00:01:53,610 It's so easy to-- 50 00:01:53,613 --> 00:01:54,283 Procrastinate. 51 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,520 --procrastinate, to delay, to stare at a blank page, 52 00:01:57,520 --> 00:01:58,630 to surf the internet. 53 00:01:58,630 --> 00:02:00,880 And before you know it, you've lost two years, 54 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:02,270 and you have 10 pages. 55 00:02:02,270 --> 00:02:04,420 So it is important to develop something 56 00:02:04,420 --> 00:02:07,280 of a routine for yourself. 57 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:10,360 It's very, very difficult to focus. 58 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:12,490 I'll tell you a little bit how Ross and I do it 59 00:02:12,490 --> 00:02:13,420 and how we focus. 60 00:02:13,420 --> 00:02:16,000 We certainly don't stay focused throughout the entire day. 61 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:17,020 But we do our very best. 62 00:02:17,020 --> 00:02:18,370 We keep each other in check. 63 00:02:18,370 --> 00:02:18,910 That helps. 64 00:02:18,910 --> 00:02:22,240 But if you don't have a writing partner, that's fine, too. 65 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:24,820 We like to start really early in the morning. 66 00:02:24,820 --> 00:02:27,010 Like, we think-- if I'm not going 67 00:02:27,010 --> 00:02:29,870 right away, if my brain isn't locked into writing mode, 68 00:02:29,870 --> 00:02:33,560 whatever that is, early morning, then I'm going to fall apart. 69 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:35,590 I'm not going to be able to start mid-afternoon. 70 00:02:35,590 --> 00:02:36,730 I mean, sometimes we'll have stuff 71 00:02:36,730 --> 00:02:38,500 now with "Stranger Things" where we're 72 00:02:38,500 --> 00:02:40,480 trying to start writing at, like, 2:00 PM. 73 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:41,710 And it's always a disaster. 74 00:02:41,710 --> 00:02:43,480 So we've got to get started right away 75 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:44,650 with that cup of coffee. 76 00:02:44,650 --> 00:02:47,380 And then we give ourselves a long time to write. 77 00:02:47,380 --> 00:02:51,130 Like, we write from roughly, like, 9:00, 78 00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:53,710 and then we stop around 6:00 or 7:00, 79 00:02:53,710 --> 00:02:55,630 which is a really, really long writing day. 80 00:02:55,630 --> 00:02:57,460 To me, it makes the day less stressful 81 00:02:57,460 --> 00:02:59,540 because I feel like I have a lot of time. 82 00:02:59,540 --> 00:03:01,540 I have a lot of room to make mistakes. 83 00:03:01,540 --> 00:03:05,300 And then if my mind wanders, it's not the end of the world. 84 00:03:05,300 --> 00:03:06,910 And there are other writers-- 85 00:03:06,910 --> 00:03:09,490 I always think about Stephen King, right? 86 00:03:09,490 --> 00:03:10,850 I know we all look up to him. 87 00:03:10,850 --> 00:03:12,980 He's one of the most prolific writers in the world. 88 00:03:12,980 --> 00:03:16,330 I think he has a 2,000 words a day goal. 89 00:03:16,330 --> 00:03:19,300 And as soon as he accomplishes that, he's done for the day. 90 00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:20,710 He writes 2,000 words, he's done. 91 00:03:20,710 --> 00:03:23,470 Sometimes he's done by, like, 11:30 AM, sometimes he's 92 00:03:23,470 --> 00:03:25,600 done by 2:00 PM, whenever he hits that goal. 93 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:27,220 And that really works for him, right? 94 00:03:27,220 --> 00:03:29,890 And then he goes and watches, like, baseball games 95 00:03:29,890 --> 00:03:31,510 or whatever it is. 96 00:03:31,510 --> 00:03:33,620 So everybody has something very different. 97 00:03:33,620 --> 00:03:35,440 Some people like the morning to themselves 98 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,090 without having to think about writing. 99 00:03:37,090 --> 00:03:39,280 So I think the important thing is figuring out 100 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,330 what works for you, but setting goals for yourself, setting up 101 00:03:43,330 --> 00:03:45,250 a routine for yourself. 102 00:03:45,250 --> 00:03:47,240 Try to stay off the internet. 103 00:03:47,240 --> 00:03:49,540 We like working out of our houses. 104 00:03:49,540 --> 00:03:52,810 Some people prefer being in a public space like a coffee 105 00:03:52,810 --> 00:03:55,810 shop, right, because that forces them to focus. 106 00:03:55,810 --> 00:03:57,790 They find it's less distracting. 107 00:03:57,790 --> 00:03:59,650 I find it more distracting. 108 00:03:59,650 --> 00:04:01,810 Whatever it is for you works. 109 00:04:01,810 --> 00:04:04,210 Maybe you have a day job, and you can't do it. 110 00:04:04,210 --> 00:04:07,090 Well, maybe two hours every night when you come home, 111 00:04:07,090 --> 00:04:08,750 and you just sit down and you do it. 112 00:04:08,750 --> 00:04:11,940 And you just find whatever time you have and go, 113 00:04:11,937 --> 00:04:13,267 this is when I'm going to write. 114 00:04:13,270 --> 00:04:15,640 And you spend that time actually writing. 115 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:16,860 And you try to focus. 116 00:04:16,860 --> 00:04:19,270 You could have the best big idea in the world, 117 00:04:19,269 --> 00:04:20,769 but if you don't have the discipline 118 00:04:20,769 --> 00:04:24,849 to sit down and actually spend the time to write it, 119 00:04:24,850 --> 00:04:26,080 it's just going to sit there. 120 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,860 [MUSIC PLAYING] 121 00:04:31,755 --> 00:04:33,635 Another downfall we see is that people just 122 00:04:33,630 --> 00:04:34,350 get frustrated. 123 00:04:34,350 --> 00:04:36,870 I mean, they are working, and they are putting in the hours, 124 00:04:36,870 --> 00:04:39,060 but then they just get lost. 125 00:04:39,060 --> 00:04:40,380 A script just seems broken. 126 00:04:40,380 --> 00:04:41,940 The script isn't working. 127 00:04:41,940 --> 00:04:43,630 And you just kind of throw it away. 128 00:04:43,630 --> 00:04:45,990 It's so easy to get, like, lost in the woods 129 00:04:45,990 --> 00:04:47,280 is kind of what we call it. 130 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:50,310 It just feels-- like, 60 pages, 100, 131 00:04:50,310 --> 00:04:52,580 if you're doing a show, 120 pages, roughly, 132 00:04:52,580 --> 00:04:53,580 if you're doing a movie. 133 00:04:53,580 --> 00:04:55,030 It doesn't seem like a lot. 134 00:04:55,030 --> 00:04:57,630 But it's very easy to get lost in there, 135 00:04:57,630 --> 00:05:00,100 lose sight of the bigger picture. 136 00:05:00,100 --> 00:05:02,220 And I think that happens more often than not 137 00:05:02,220 --> 00:05:04,470 to writers, every writer. 138 00:05:04,470 --> 00:05:07,170 It certainly happened to us when we were starting out. 139 00:05:07,170 --> 00:05:09,390 I mean, we toiled around with a script forever. 140 00:05:09,390 --> 00:05:10,620 I mean, we got really lost. 141 00:05:10,617 --> 00:05:11,697 And nothing ever happened. 142 00:05:11,700 --> 00:05:13,860 It just ended up wasting a lot of time. 143 00:05:13,860 --> 00:05:16,710 What we're going to try to do with this class is kind of walk 144 00:05:16,710 --> 00:05:20,640 you through kind of a step-by-step process 145 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,700 that will hopefully allow you to avoid that, 146 00:05:23,700 --> 00:05:26,220 avoid that sense of being completely lost. 147 00:05:26,220 --> 00:05:28,620 When we wrote "Stranger Things," or "Montauk," 148 00:05:28,620 --> 00:05:30,750 as it was known back then, we wrote it on spec. 149 00:05:30,750 --> 00:05:32,710 And what spec means, if you don't know, 150 00:05:32,710 --> 00:05:35,190 is that we developed it on our own. 151 00:05:35,187 --> 00:05:36,267 There was no one attached. 152 00:05:36,270 --> 00:05:39,000 There was no guarantee of it selling or much less 153 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:39,860 getting made. 154 00:05:39,857 --> 00:05:41,937 We were just doing it completely on our own, which 155 00:05:41,940 --> 00:05:45,750 is very freeing because we're the only opinions at this stage 156 00:05:45,750 --> 00:05:46,610 that really matter. 157 00:05:46,613 --> 00:05:48,033 It's scary, because you don't know 158 00:05:48,030 --> 00:05:51,660 if you're putting in all this time and it won't go anywhere. 159 00:05:51,660 --> 00:05:54,090 So that's the trade-off. 160 00:05:54,090 --> 00:05:56,620 But we enjoy just developing stuff on our own. 161 00:05:56,620 --> 00:05:58,470 And so that's what we were doing with this. 162 00:05:58,470 --> 00:06:00,870 The other danger, though, of working on spec 163 00:06:00,870 --> 00:06:04,740 is if you're getting paid to write something, 164 00:06:04,740 --> 00:06:07,770 generally you're going to be given deadlines 165 00:06:07,770 --> 00:06:08,610 by that company. 166 00:06:08,610 --> 00:06:10,650 They're going to expect things at a certain date. 167 00:06:10,652 --> 00:06:12,872 If you're writing it on spec, well, there 168 00:06:12,870 --> 00:06:16,270 are no real deadlines unless you create deadlines for yourself. 169 00:06:16,267 --> 00:06:17,847 And I think that that can occasionally 170 00:06:17,850 --> 00:06:20,130 be something that helps people. 171 00:06:20,130 --> 00:06:24,450 Now, I'd be lying to you if I said that Matt and I were 172 00:06:24,450 --> 00:06:26,310 great at hitting deadlines. 173 00:06:26,310 --> 00:06:28,860 We create deadlines for ourselves all the time. 174 00:06:28,860 --> 00:06:30,870 We rarely make them. 175 00:06:30,870 --> 00:06:34,830 But I do think it is important to set goalposts 176 00:06:34,830 --> 00:06:37,800 for yourself and go, okay, well, I'm 177 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:40,950 going to work on this outline for the next two weeks. 178 00:06:40,950 --> 00:06:46,530 And then I'm hoping that by Saturday, July 13, 179 00:06:46,530 --> 00:06:49,050 I'm going to be moving on into the script stage. 180 00:06:49,050 --> 00:06:52,020 Now, what this does is it gives you some structure. 181 00:06:52,020 --> 00:06:53,520 And I think that that can be helpful 182 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:54,930 if you're writing it on spec. 183 00:06:54,930 --> 00:06:58,800 The danger of it being, you may be moving onto a stage 184 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:00,300 before you're ready. 185 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:03,330 And that's why when I say Matt and I blow past our deadlines 186 00:07:03,330 --> 00:07:05,410 all the time, we do not want to do that. 187 00:07:05,410 --> 00:07:08,100 We have done that in the past, where we jump in the script 188 00:07:08,100 --> 00:07:11,200 or we jump into fleshing out an outline too early. 189 00:07:11,202 --> 00:07:12,662 And then what happens is you end up 190 00:07:12,660 --> 00:07:15,990 wasting additional weeks continuing 191 00:07:15,990 --> 00:07:19,380 to work on something where you've just gone too far ahead. 192 00:07:19,380 --> 00:07:21,570 And like Matt's saying, you get lost in the woods, 193 00:07:21,570 --> 00:07:23,940 and you have to go backwards in time, 194 00:07:23,940 --> 00:07:26,040 throw all that out, and start from scratch. 195 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,290 And that is a much bigger time waster. 196 00:07:28,290 --> 00:07:31,710 Just make sure not to move on to the next stage 197 00:07:31,710 --> 00:07:33,540 until you're feeling very confident, 198 00:07:33,540 --> 00:07:36,420 because, as Matt's saying, it's not like we just 199 00:07:36,420 --> 00:07:39,390 wasted a few weeks on projects. 200 00:07:39,390 --> 00:07:42,810 We wasted at least a year on projects 201 00:07:42,810 --> 00:07:47,370 where the issue was actually all the way back to this big idea. 202 00:07:47,370 --> 00:07:49,920 It was missing some key element. 203 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:54,670 And maybe we knew it in our gut, but we needed to move on. 204 00:07:54,670 --> 00:07:56,910 We felt we needed to move on to those next stages. 205 00:07:56,910 --> 00:07:58,560 And we just went too early. 206 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:00,450 So we'd advise you not to do that. 207 00:08:00,450 --> 00:08:02,700 No, it's good to create sort of artificial deadlines 208 00:08:02,700 --> 00:08:03,360 for yourself. 209 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,630 And sometimes, the real world will hit you 210 00:08:06,630 --> 00:08:07,810 with a deadline of its own. 211 00:08:07,812 --> 00:08:09,272 So in the case of "Hidden," I mean, 212 00:08:09,270 --> 00:08:15,330 that happened because we were extremely low on money 213 00:08:15,330 --> 00:08:16,570 at that point. 214 00:08:16,568 --> 00:08:17,608 We were about to run out. 215 00:08:17,610 --> 00:08:19,630 We had about a month? 216 00:08:19,625 --> 00:08:20,505 A month and a half. 217 00:08:20,500 --> 00:08:23,040 A month and a half in order to get this script written. 218 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:24,780 And it felt like we kind of had a gun to our heads, 219 00:08:24,780 --> 00:08:26,070 that we had to get this script written. 220 00:08:26,070 --> 00:08:26,850 We had to write a script. 221 00:08:26,850 --> 00:08:27,810 We had to sell it. 222 00:08:27,810 --> 00:08:30,270 It felt kind of like an impossible task. 223 00:08:30,270 --> 00:08:32,190 But it gave us this sort of urgency 224 00:08:32,190 --> 00:08:35,610 and adrenaline that we didn't have in some of the earlier 225 00:08:35,613 --> 00:08:36,783 scripts that we had written. 226 00:08:36,780 --> 00:08:38,700 And that really helped us. 227 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:41,130 The same if you end up working for a studio or whatever, 228 00:08:41,130 --> 00:08:43,380 you're going to have these scary deadlines that you're 229 00:08:43,380 --> 00:08:44,040 going to have to hit. 230 00:08:44,039 --> 00:08:46,289 A little bit of urgency and a little bit of a deadline 231 00:08:46,289 --> 00:08:47,429 is good. 232 00:08:47,430 --> 00:08:52,320 Don't-- I think something we did early on is we just indulged 233 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:52,860 too much. 234 00:08:52,860 --> 00:08:54,300 We spent too long on stuff. 235 00:08:54,300 --> 00:08:56,120 It's good-- a little bit of speed is good. 236 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:57,120 A little bit of speed. 237 00:08:57,120 --> 00:08:58,850 A little bit of speed is good. 238 00:08:58,845 --> 00:09:01,815 [MUSIC PLAYING] 239 00:09:04,290 --> 00:09:06,810 One thing that helps us as we're working on ideas 240 00:09:06,810 --> 00:09:10,650 is that we work with each other, so we have a writing partner. 241 00:09:10,650 --> 00:09:13,950 So we're able to bounce ideas off of one another. 242 00:09:13,950 --> 00:09:15,880 We're very honest with each other. 243 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,180 We also grew up, obviously, together, 244 00:09:18,180 --> 00:09:20,430 so we've watched all the same movies and the TV shows. 245 00:09:20,430 --> 00:09:22,050 We have the same references. 246 00:09:22,050 --> 00:09:25,650 We have mostly the same things that we love. 247 00:09:25,650 --> 00:09:26,440 So that helps. 248 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:28,950 We have, obviously, quite the shorthand. 249 00:09:28,950 --> 00:09:31,620 But I think it can be helpful if you 250 00:09:31,620 --> 00:09:34,860 have a sounding board, someone else that you can bounce ideas 251 00:09:34,860 --> 00:09:35,590 off of. 252 00:09:35,590 --> 00:09:37,030 You go to someone that you trust, 253 00:09:37,030 --> 00:09:39,330 whether it's a friend or family or someone you've 254 00:09:39,330 --> 00:09:40,140 met in school. 255 00:09:40,140 --> 00:09:41,940 And you can go, hey, I have some ideas, 256 00:09:41,940 --> 00:09:44,610 and I want to see how you respond to them. 257 00:09:44,610 --> 00:09:46,500 I think that that's also something that can 258 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:48,070 work as part of your process. 259 00:09:48,068 --> 00:09:50,608 One thing that helps Ross and I in terms of staying focused 260 00:09:50,610 --> 00:09:52,860 is that we have the other one to check. 261 00:09:52,860 --> 00:09:56,280 So if suddenly I'm on the internet, Ross will go, Matt, 262 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:57,230 what are you doing? 263 00:09:57,225 --> 00:09:59,435 I don't see you on my Google document with me. 264 00:09:59,430 --> 00:10:01,110 Like, where are you? 265 00:10:01,110 --> 00:10:01,980 Focus back in. 266 00:10:01,980 --> 00:10:04,530 So it does help to have a writing partner. 267 00:10:04,530 --> 00:10:06,720 We know most people don't have a twin, 268 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:09,060 so we're fortunate in the sense that we have twins. 269 00:10:09,060 --> 00:10:11,380 Oftentimes, we know people who find-- 270 00:10:11,375 --> 00:10:12,755 who do have a writing partner who 271 00:10:12,750 --> 00:10:14,580 find someone who shares their sensibilities who 272 00:10:14,580 --> 00:10:15,640 they enjoy working with. 273 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:18,480 But we also have a lot of friends who write on their own, 274 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:20,350 and they don't have that partner. 275 00:10:20,350 --> 00:10:24,750 So to sort of refocus them, I think if you're working alone, 276 00:10:24,750 --> 00:10:27,450 then that means it's more important than ever 277 00:10:27,450 --> 00:10:32,640 that you have a routine and structure and deadlines, all 278 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:34,080 of the stuff that we talked about, 279 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:36,540 because you don't have someone else checking in with you. 280 00:10:36,540 --> 00:10:38,420 Maybe you're going to say, hey, in two weeks, 281 00:10:38,415 --> 00:10:41,025 I'm going to send this outline to my friend for feedback. 282 00:10:41,020 --> 00:10:43,020 And maybe they'll check in with you in two weeks 283 00:10:43,020 --> 00:10:46,140 and go, hey, how's that outline coming? 284 00:10:46,140 --> 00:10:46,770 That helps. 285 00:10:46,770 --> 00:10:48,720 So there are ways around it. 286 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:50,790 But whatever you do, and this is very personal, 287 00:10:50,790 --> 00:10:52,620 but come up with a way to give yourself 288 00:10:52,620 --> 00:10:53,730 a little bit of structure. 289 00:10:53,730 --> 00:10:55,560 If you are working with a writing partner, 290 00:10:55,563 --> 00:10:57,153 you may both have your own strengths. 291 00:10:57,150 --> 00:10:59,580 For Matt and I, for instance, I'm 292 00:10:59,580 --> 00:11:01,610 generally trying to keep pushing us forward. 293 00:11:01,610 --> 00:11:02,610 We got to get this done. 294 00:11:02,610 --> 00:11:03,570 We got to write this outline. 295 00:11:03,570 --> 00:11:04,740 We got to get to this script. 296 00:11:04,740 --> 00:11:04,980 Right. 297 00:11:04,980 --> 00:11:07,320 Matt is very good at going, well, wait a minute, 298 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:08,700 this isn't figured out now. 299 00:11:08,700 --> 00:11:10,770 It's a little bit like checks and balances. 300 00:11:10,770 --> 00:11:13,890 So I think we sort of push and pull each other, 301 00:11:13,890 --> 00:11:17,560 and we find a good balance there where we are making progress. 302 00:11:17,563 --> 00:11:19,233 We're not getting too lost in the woods. 303 00:11:19,230 --> 00:11:21,180 But at the same time, we're making sure 304 00:11:21,180 --> 00:11:23,860 that everything is up to par. 305 00:11:23,860 --> 00:11:25,870 MATT (VOICEOVER): So in this next assignment, 306 00:11:25,870 --> 00:11:27,850 find someone you trust who can serve 307 00:11:27,850 --> 00:11:29,980 as your sounding board for your ideas 308 00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:33,450 or to help keep you accountable to your deadlines.