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We’re super-pleased to be speaking today with respected actor, producer and coach, Joe Towne; welcome to Vents, Joe! How has your 2021 been treating you?
Thanks so much, I appreciate you having me. My 2021 has invited me to look closely at every aspect of my life. I’ve spent a lot of time challenging the stories I’ve been holding about myself.
It’s been uncomfortable, challenging and invigorating. I’ve made some big changes, I’ve taken some big leaps of faith and my word of the year was ‘Believe’ so while that means multiple things to me the upshot is: I’m seeing some of the harvest from all of this tilling and hoe-ing and planting and trust.
A hearty congrats and major kudos for the brand-spankin’ new podcast that you’re making serious waves with The Better Podcast! For those that may be late to the party, can you tell us a little about what The Better Podcast is about?
Thank you kindly! I appreciate that love and what I can say is that it’s never too late for this party. It’s rolling. So, the Better Podcast is about a few things: It’s starts with the idea that in life, we can flip on the switch that says “Let’s get better.” Better can be slow, and incremental, which is something that -as a stubborn Taurus- I have had a hard time accepting in my life. And the desire to improve contains within it some real-world magic. I love the phrase do things better than they have been done before. I also appreciate getting 1% better over time. Lastly, the idea of DOING better stems from BEING better. And then it’s not just an intellectual exercise. But taking action on this new perspective.
So, I’m hosting a dozen conversations with some incredible creatives, and I am hopeful that through this series of podcasts a perspective will start to take shape. A constellation perspective, if you will, that highlight similar themes and different takes on the same concept.
And it’s my hope that the spark that gets created will invite people to take these conversations and start affecting positive change in their lives.
I’m really pumped about it.
The response to The Better Podcast has been overwhelmingly positive from both audiences and critics. Have you been surprised by the warm welcome afforded The Better Podcast?
That’s very kind to say. I am surprised and delighted that this process that is so deeply personal is resonating with others. I am exploring these concepts because I so passionately want to be better. I’m so curious as to what others have learned and to share along the way. The fact that people are saying kind things is a validation to me about celebrating process over seeking result.
You’ve established a stellar reputation in the entertainment industry with The Performer’s Mindset. Can you talk a little about the genesis of this program and how it came to be?
Absolutely. So, before the company, The Performer’s Mindset was created it started with a spark of an idea about helping artists, specifically actors in Hollywood to get some tools around things that weren’t…in my opinion… being talked about or trained enough. Things that addressed our relationship with the chatter in our head, embracing nerves instead of avoiding or squashing them and training confidence. All backed by science and inspired by what’s happening in sports psychology. I collaborated with an actress and teacher named Hillary Tuck and together we created our first program.
We went on to address complementary tools for athletes around their media training and performing on the world stage. From there, we started to expand to our everyday habits and systems that help us optimize who we want to be in life’s biggest moments and stages. We started to travel and needed some help so we started to call in some collaborators to help out.
The Performers Mindset is now a collective of some incredible coaches and teachers. I am so fortunate to learn from each of then and to call them my friends. We have over 35 individual programs that we bring to artists, athletes, coaches, and executives in all sorts of fields.
Doing my due diligence on The Performer’s Mindset, it struck me as to how the key points you make in this program can not only be applied to the world of entertainment, but really to most walks of life. Was that always your intention, or is it more of a happy accident?
Total happy accident! A few things happened:
First, we realized that how we do small things is how we do all things. So, we couldn’t affect one part of how we do what we do without inviting systemic changes to occur. Sometimes a little shift went a long way in catalyzing and inspiring these shifts.
Then, we started being invited to different and varied groups. We went where we were led. Hillary and I spoke with the top 24 high school quarterbacks in the country at the Elite 11 competition here in Los Angeles and the next thing I knew I was working with corporations doing offsite retreats and gave a keynote address. Then we went to universities to offer these tools.
Lastly, we kept hearing the same things: This seems so simple. I wish I had these tools when I started. And this isn’t just impacting my craft, it’s affecting my whole life.
Why do you think so many people have difficulty maintaining a healthy work/life balance?
I think part of the challenge is the way we think about balance and the expectations we hold about it. There are such great words in there:
Difficulty. I think perhaps we are accustomed to giving up at the first signs of struggle. And perhaps that comes from the expectations that things aren’t supposed to be hard. I believe we can do hard things and that the edge of our growth is where the good stuff lies.
Maintaining. I think that things come in cycles and in seasons. We don’t have to do everything at the same time. During our busy periods, balance may happen on a micro-level. Small incremental moments of re-balancing and re-setting ourselves.
Healthy. I think often we think about health as simply being the absence of negative symptoms. So, if we are thinking about an illness model, we simply want to achieve “no surface level symptoms.” But when seeking the optimization of ourselves we must go deeper than that, and so health looked through that lens may invite us to explore deeper.
Work. I think our culture celebrates busy and hustle but even a car can’t drive forever without stopping. We are not machines. We are not batteries to be replaced by the next person up. The reframe, for me, is about finding ways to sustain our best efforts over time.
Balance. I think there is a difference between thinking of balance as equal lengths of time. For example, let’s say we work seventeen hours in a row. We may not be able to spend seventeen hours recovering. So, we may need to get more proactive about our recovery as elite athletes do. And that may require new ways of thinking of the way we use our time. This way perhaps balance is more dynamic than passive.
Has the worldwide pandemic actually made The Performer’s Mindset even more relevant than ever before, do you think?
I believe that this time has made us re-think everything: Where we want to be. Where we want to spend our time. What we are willing to tolerate. How we want to treat each other.
And I think that tools which help our relationships to the unknown, to stress, to our well-being to mental health and wellness all are impacted by this work. Not to mention things we may value like finding creative flow and doing things more efficiently since time is precious.
When putting together The Performer’s Mindset, did you discover anything about yourself that came as a surprise? Has your own program forced an inner-reflection for you?
Absolutely. Almost daily. The main thing being my fundamental relationship to growth and being a lifelong learner. I don’t want to phone in my life. I don’t want to rest on my laurels. Sure, it feels good to tell a story I know how to tell well or eat a meal from my favorite restaurant. But those things that are comforting or make my ego feel good are so fleeting. The good stuff seems to come from taking calculated purposeful risks, so that I can make mistakes and fail, and learn and grow. This has been a game changer in every part of my life.
What do you hope that people who use The Performer’s Mindset walk away with ultimately from the experience?
I hope that they walk away feeling empowered and deepening the trust of their own instincts. I hope that they realize everything they need is inside them and understanding the science of why and how that is true. I hope that they feel inspired to grow and improve and remember why they do what they do. I love the idea that they will be more confident, play more in all parts of their process and start to see that: when the process is working, the results start to take care of themselves.
You’re also a noted and respected actor – What inspired you to walk the pathway towards becoming a thespian?
Ha! You make me sound so fancy. Honestly, it was my love of movies that inspired me first. The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars were the first two I saw. I ran up to the screen and asked my mom how I could get in. I wanted to play in these worlds and, perhaps help make people feel what I felt. That the magic of storytelling can make us come alive.
Your first onscreen credit came in a 1999 episode of the television series The Practice. Any special memories of that freshman project?
Oh gosh, several. First, I locked my keys in my car the night before I went in to shoot. My car was in the shop, so I had rented a car and had an early call time. So, I was panicking. I think I set four alarms that night, just to make sure nothing else went wrong.
Second, my director was James Frawley who had directed the Muppet Movie. So, I wanted to do a great job for him. I confessed at the end of the day that it had been my first ever TV job and he told the crew who kindly gave me a round of applause. I was equal parts embarrassed and relieved.
Thirdly, my costar was the stunningly talented Marla Sokoloff, and I was playing her boyfriend. We had never met before, and the scene was about her asking me if I had bitten her breast during foreplay. She was great fun and it felt like being thrown into the deep end.
A producer approached me as I walked back to the garage at the end of the day and said he was in the room when I had auditioned, and he thought I did a great job which was so encouraging. Especially trying to make sense of the blur of everything that had just happened!
You’ve also plied your craft in the fields of writing and directing. Any plans to revisit those twin talents in the near future?
Absolutely! I’m currently developing a slate of movies that will allow me to write some stories into existence, and perhaps step behind the lens for one or more of them as well. The thing I am so grateful for is the opportunity to sharpen my skills as a writer and storyteller in these weekend intensives and coaching sessions. I also can step into the role of director for several of the workshops we do – I am actually getting my practice reps, so I’ll be ready when the time comes.
On a personal note, you did a neat turn in one of my all-time favorite series, Fringe. What do you recall about that experience?
Stillness. I remember the character had to be turned into dust and blow away. And I had to be so still during the scene where my wife finds me. I had to be so still as they did their special effects rendering of my head.
I also remember that there was just so much physical business in my phone scene, and it was hard to get into a flow.
I remember loving being in Vancouver and eating yummy sushi and riding a bicycle around Stanley Park. And I couldn’t wait to come back. I was invited back up a second time (for more effects on the same episode) and I felt so lucky to have a job I loved that brought me to beautiful placed and doing something I love.
What’s coming up for you in the near future? Any hints you might be able to drop for readers?
Sure! I just shot a movie this fall in Hawaii, and I can’t wait to be able to announce that once it hits the trades. I will say that it’s a sequel to a movie that came out a while back and that Zombies love brainz.
I’m also super psyched about the back half of my first season of my podcast: we have some incredible guests upcoming from the producer of Ted Lasso to amazing artist Malcolm-Jamal Warner and the photographer who took Kobe’s first photo in the league the last one ever in the league and about 10,000 in between. They created the Mamba Mentality book together.
Beyond that I can’t say just yet. But soon.
Final – SILLY! – Question: Favorite movie about the entertainment industry – Swimming with Sharks, The Player or Living in Oblivion?
Great question. Of the three… Living in Oblivion. It’s ridiculous, just as part of this industry is as times but also makes you laugh along the way.
