The Confidence Shortcut with Niki Sterner

#8: Izzy Stevens | Walk In Like You Belong | Make the Industry Pay Attention

• Niki Sterner • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Ever wonder how some creatives seem to make massive progress while you're still waiting to feel "ready"? This conversation with Izzy Stevens blows the lid off that myth. As an award-winning director, Netflix trilogy lead, and founder of Indie Spunk, Izzy has mastered the art of taking bold action before confidence arrives.

"Walk in like you belong there," Izzy advises about entering intimidating spaces. She shares how she crashed Sundance Film Festival without an official selection, armed only with a bold pitch that started with "The world operates like a sex cult for women." By confidently presenting her feature film concept, industry professionals assumed she belonged—creating connections that would have been impossible had she waited for an invitation. That's the magic of authentic visibility.

Fear of judgment once paralyzed Izzy, who admits she used to nearly have panic attacks before sending business emails. Now she runs a thriving multi-six figure mentorship business by embracing what she calls the "Freedom Formula"—focusing on five daily priorities instead of endless to-do lists. This approach allowed her to complete multiple drafts of her feature screenplay in under 12 months while still nurturing client relationships and maintaining creative flow.

The most powerful revelation? Confidence isn't a prerequisite for success—it's the byproduct of action. "Just take the steps. Invest in yourself, invest in mentorship, invest in moving forward," Izzy urges. She suggests a practical approach to quieting the inner critic: identify limiting beliefs, thank them for their protective intention, then consciously choose new beliefs that serve your goals better.

Ready to stop overthinking and start creating momentum in your creative career? This episode provides the permission slip you've been waiting for. Your belief system might be lying to you about what's possible, but as Izzy demonstrates, walking through fear is the ultimate shortcut to confidence.


You can follow Izzy Stevens on Instagram: @indiespunk


For more information on Izzy's Freedom Creator Mentorship Program: 

https://niki_sterner--indiespunk.thrivecart.com/freedom-creator/ 


For more information on Izzy's Script to Screen Program:

https://niki_sterner--indiespunk.thrivecart.com/script-to-screen/


For more information on Izzy's Watch Me Make A Movie Program: 

Watch Me Make A Movie


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Niki Sterner:

Welcome to the Confidence Shortcut, the podcast for ambitious creatives and entrepreneurs who are ready to stop overthinking, take bold action and finally step into the life they've been dreaming about. I'm your host, Niki Sterner. Mom, actor, comedian and producer. After years of playing small and waiting to feel ready, I went on a courage quest and found a shortcut to confidence. Each week I'll bring you real stories, simple steps and conversations with experts in mindset courage and confidence, plus heart-to-hearts with fellow creatives who are turning their dreams into reality. It's time to get unstuck and start showing up. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Confidence Shortcut. I'm your host, Niki Sterner.

Niki Sterner:

Today's guest is Izzy Stevens, an absolute powerhouse in the creative industry. She's an award-winning director, a film and TV actor with serious creds we're talking two-time network series regular and lead in a Netflix trilogy kind of vibe. Izzy has been featured on ABC Network, amazon Prime, at the Cannes Diversity Showcase, fantastic Fest and the Oscar-qualifying Holly Shorts Film Festival. But that's not all. She's also the founder of Indie Spunk, where she helps fellow creatives become the name everyone knows, without the exhausting hustle of constantly proving yourself. If you're looking to master authentic visibility, build a bold personal brand, make bank and wake the industry up to your magic. Izzy is your girl. I cannot wait for you to soak up her wisdom.

Niki Sterner:

Welcome to the show, Izzy Stevens. Yeah, hi, I mean even more than that, though, Izzy. You mean so much to me because you were the reason that I was able to have a breakthrough, because I started out in your filmmaker breakthrough group when I was really confused and didn't know what path to take in this industry, and so I will forever be grateful for your mentorship on my path, and I think of you almost every day, so I'm so thankful that you could be here on the path, and I think of you almost every day, so I'm so thankful that you could be here on the podcast.

Izzy Stevens:

So, but I love you. I was we were just saying before we we started officially that just witnessing you and how far you've come and what you've been able to achieve in your career in such a short space of time, I am floored by you. I'm inspired by you. I just have loved mentoring you and working with you. It's been such a highlight for me. So you know, this is a two-way street, and what you have brought to the table and what you've constantly.

Izzy Stevens:

I would just remember moments that I love that this is a confidence podcast, all about confidence, because there is no one better to teach it. I just remember moments where you would come to the table and be like I am feeling vulnerable, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm not sure how to do this and how to move forward, and yet you continued to ask the questions, apply yourself, move forward, trust yourself and understand that like it is a process. And look at you now. I am honestly just blown away by you and I love that you're doing this and sharing your wisdom with more people, because you have so much to give and so much to share and, just like, in so many ways, you're just getting started.

Niki Sterner:

Thank you, Izzy, thank you for saying that. And you just witnessed the magic of Izzy Stevens right there. You guys, she is the person who pulls you out. When you are second guessing yourself and you're in tears and you're wondering, I don't know how to do this. She gives you the next step and she gives you the confidence. She, like, holds your hand and feeds you. This stream of words just lifts you up and so I just I can't tell you how many times you did that for me. Or I was just like I don't know if I can do this. And you were like, yes, you can, and here's how we're going to do it. And this is. And you would even ask me for what? What do you think is your next step? And you would listen to it. Wasn't like you were just telling me what to do. You were there like holding my hand, saying what do you think? And then you would. You were just so there. Bit about Izzy Stevens right now. Oh, okay. So right now I am in the development process of my debut feature film.

Izzy Stevens:

So, as you mentioned, when you read such a glorious version of my bio, I'm like this is amazing, ultimate hype, feeling so good. I am juggling right. I'm juggling my business as a mentor and in my mentorship business, I help creatives make films. I am juggling right, I'm juggling my business as a mentor and in my mentorship business, I help creatives make films. I help creatives build businesses that sustain their creative careers, and I also am a filmmaker and an actor in my own right as well, and so multiple projects going on all accounts, which is forever and always my.

Izzy Stevens:

I guess my kryptonite is many ideas and then, as I've evolved over the last, I would say I've been in the industry almost 13, 14 years professionally now, which is wild to me. It has been a learning curve of not telling myself I'm wrong for so many ideas, and I know so many creative people are going to relate to this. You're not wrong for having so many ideas. You just need to know how to handle them, delegate, build a team, understand what's important for your energy and what's not important for your energy, and I think that that has been the biggest strength over the last few years in my life has been knowing how to be specific in my energy, potent in my moves and like really focusing on the moves that move the needle, and so my business is thriving and I'm obsessed with it. I love working with people just like you, nikki, who are building creative careers, building businesses. They're my favorite, you're my favorite people to work with always, so that is a place I love to pour into.

Izzy Stevens:

And, of course, my filmmaking, which is a very different flavor of me. I make psychological thriller films with fierce female protagonist leads that are unapologetic and often unlikable, and I just am having so much fun in the development process of this feature film. So that's where we were just talking about my new program, Watch Me Make a Movie, which is basically an inside look of how I'm doing every single step along the way. So my business and filmmaking really do blend together in so many ways. I love to draw all of the wisdom that I gained through my film career and my business and pour into my clients so they can get further faster. That's like the whole reason I started the business and that's, yeah, that's what I also. I'm a human and I like to drink wine and travel and hang out with my friends and my family and my people and everything like that. So yeah, all the above.

Niki Sterner:

Tell me more about what you do, cause, like even today, I was like brainstorming. I want to learn how to write songs and I want to learn how to work the camera. Actually, I have a camera and I don't know how to run it yet. So there's like things that I want to do as a creative. How do you balance and juggle all of those? Are there methods that you have?

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, definitely so I. There's something that I teach in my mentorship program, which is called Freedom Creator. You have been a part of that program. That is the freedom formula, right, which is the way that I think is just the fundamental practice of my days, of my life, and it's essentially I just think that, like we can die on the list of our to-dos right? It's so easy for us to sit down and write a to-do list Like, oh, how am I going to get all of these things done? And so I am anti to-do list. I am pro setting the standards before the list comes, which means that I have basically five things that I do every day, five, a formula of five different areas that I need to serve and show up for every single day, and once I've done those things, my day can be done if I want. Anything else is extra, and so that's how I really run things.

Izzy Stevens:

The five things are I take care of. What am I going to do to take care of myself? What am I going to do to take care of my clients today? What am I going to do to take care of my community today? What am I going to do to take care of my business sales today, and what am I going to do to take care of my creativity today? And sometimes those things blend, but for me it's about we are all so busy. We are all multi-hyphenate, creative people that have many pots in the boil. As you're saying, you're getting your film in festivals right now. You're going and winning awards, you're doing panels, nikki, you're building this business, you've got a podcast. Like you've got a lot on your plate, and so it's not about doing everything perfectly. It's about doing the right things intentionally and potently with the limited time that you have.

Izzy Stevens:

And I just find that for me, I thrive creatively when I have a tight space of time. Like I know I have 10 minutes to do a pitch for my program. Like I'll sell and talk about my programs on my instagram stories, on email all the time every day, and if I know I only have 10 minutes, that task will take 10 minutes, and that has been a process of discipline. It's not as easy as like go and do the thing. It is sometimes about learning the process and understanding how to do that effectively, which is why I always have mentorship and I am a mentor because I like helping people do things in a more specific, potent way, and that's really how I have all of these things on my plate.

Izzy Stevens:

My days don't feel stressful, my days don't feel overwhelming, and that is a choice we get to make. I, a long time ago, really identified with oh, I feel overwhelmed, I'm over. It's overwhelming the amount of things that I want to do and witnessing, recognizing and holding myself to the standard that no, no, no, overwhelm is a choice. I don't have to feel overwhelmed by this. I get to feel empowered by this and I get to say no to what doesn't need to be done right now, and not everything needs to be done to the height of perfection in order for it to work. That mentality and belief system has been instrumental in me being able to do all of these things in my life.

Niki Sterner:

It sounds like you're taking messy action forward. You're not going back through and redoing something 10 times before you post it. You're just being real and authentic.

Izzy Stevens:

A hundred percent done. Done is always yeah. Done is always better than perfect. And because that's been my mentality, my ability to do something in a short space of time but at a high level, has improved because I'm constantly doing it. So in the beginning of learning a new process or learning a new skill, you're not going to be the best in the world at it.

Izzy Stevens:

That 10 minutes that you have it might not prove to be creating something that's perfect and impactful, but you do that 10 times, 20 times, 30 times. You get to a point where it's like really simple and really easy and effective. And that's how, in my business, I can put a quick little story sequence up and then have a few inquiries from dreamy clients in my DM saying, oh, I'd love to work with you. That's not happened overnight. I've been working in my business as a mentor for almost five years and it's now gotten to the place where that gets to be really simple. It was not simple in the beginning, right, it wasn't the easiest thing in the world in the beginning, but you get there and you learn the skill to be able to show up for those things and follow through in a way that's effective.

Niki Sterner:

If you're a creative craving momentum in your business and your art, you need to check out Freedom Creator by Izzy Stevens. Izzy was my breakthrough mentor when I made my short film Sweet Body. She helped me show up online, own my voice and build real traction. That film went on to win four awards, including Best Director and Best Dark Comedy. Inside Freedom Creator, you'll master authentic visibility, personal branding and spunky business strategy. So you become the name everyone knows, without constantly trying to prove yourself. Click the link below to join the program that helped me go from stuck to unstoppable. I'm curious, izzy do you set aside certain hours of your day where you're checking those DMs and stuff?

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, so you know I have gone through phases of that. I'll be very transparent. I am not your typical like type A scheduled person. I'm definitely a creative person that likes to feel that my day is flexible. So there have been seasons I like to talk in seasons because I think that's just a more approachable way to understand our energy types. There have been seasons of my life and my business that I have absolutely needed to schedule things out or it wouldn't get done, and there are seasons of life where just that has been effective for me.

Izzy Stevens:

Yes, but in this very moment, like, for instance, I'll use the example of my film, my feature film. I think it was this time last year. I'm just looking at the month, what month are we in? June, okay, so last beginning of last April I started writing my screenplay and I don't know if you remember this, but we talked about this in filmmaker breakthrough, where, because my thing as a mentor is, I'm not going to give you a one size fits all it. There is no such thing as a one size fits all structure or approach to making your life, your career, your business work, which is why I like mentorship in an intimate setting, because we need to find out what works best for you and so you can thrive within that structure.

Izzy Stevens:

I used to say you probably have heard me say this I'm just not the kind of person that can write every single day, because I like my energy to feel specific and concentrated in a specific area, and so I'm someone who can write for a long period of like. I can write for five hours or six hours on one particular day, twice a month, say. And that was really a story that I was telling myself and I knew I wanted what I know about myself and like I had done a lot of mindset work around all my belief systems and shifting the ways that I see the world and see myself to support me better and I decided that's actually a belief that I have been telling myself. That's not true, necessarily. So I'm gonna change this. I'm gonna write every single day. I'm gonna watch. I'm going to now set the standard that I am someone who can write every single day, and so five days a week actually, you know what I wasn't, I was writing seven days a week. So now that I'm recalling, I decided, great, I'm going to do this and therefore, yes, at that point I needed to schedule that. I needed that to be the first hour of my day. I needed to keep that just for creative work. So I very strictly scheduled an hour every single day for my writing process and that's how, in under 12 months, I had four or five drafts of my feature film done and we're moving into development, which is actually very quick for feature filmmaking and the writing process.

Izzy Stevens:

Most people will spend many years perfecting their script, but I knew I wanted to get it. I wanted to move into production this year and so I went. I'm just going to go for it and do it, and in doing so, the belief changes with action. Right? This is such an important thing to remember that for everyone, your belief system isn't going to change overnight by you deciding and you saying the affirmation in the mirror just like I can write every day, I can write every day. The belief changes when you actually do it. When you say I'm going to write every single day. I'm not just going to tell myself I can, I'm actually going to do it and in doing so now I have so much more flexibility and malleability in my creative process. So that was a situation where, yes, I scheduled it.

Izzy Stevens:

In terms of the DMs and talking with clients, I have definitely gone through phases where I've needed to give myself boundaries. It's really especially in the beginning part I would say the first few years of my business so easy to just be reactive to. Oh my God, someone messaged me. Oh my God. Oh, I got to be in there and recognizing that's actually not helpful for my energy, for my productivity and for my concentrate. It just doesn't serve anyone. So there have been times where I've been like you know what, I'm only going to check it three times a day. These are the three times I'm going to check it and otherwise I'm not going on social media with all of these things.

Izzy Stevens:

Now I feel like in the beginning, having that real discipline was so formative and effective for me that I can now I don't need the specific scheduling in for those things to feel good and thrive in the structure. I can actually feel it's like intuitive eating right. Like if you need to reteach your body, how to not a nutritionist, love what I'm saying suddenly giving food advice, but it's similar, right. Like if you need to reteach your body how to not a nutritionist love what I'm suddenly giving food advice, but it's similar, right. It's a great analogy where, if you feel like out of touch with your body, you need to relearn how to listen to its hunger signals, and then you can get to a point where you're eating intuitively and you stop when you're full. It's the same thing. You just have to learn to. You give yourself that structure and then you can learn to be flexible within it.

Niki Sterner:

Yeah, I would love to ask you about two different things that you've done recently, and the first one is the Sundance festival that you went to, oh yeah. And then also the event that you just held.

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, absolutely yeah.

Niki Sterner:

If you could talk us through like the preparation and like your mindset that you had to do before going.

Izzy Stevens:

Yes, Okay great, yeah, amazing, okay. So yeah, I remember that you wanted to talk through this Sundance piece. I'm so excited, excuse me. So, as I said, I started writing the feature screenplay last year around this time and when it came to the end of 2024, I knew I wanted to test the waters with how I was going to pitch this film. So most people, especially in a creative process, will instinctively want to wait for validation before they make the thing right. They want to wait for people to invite them to the festival. They want to wait for people to see your value and tell you, yes, you should make this or have the script land at some festival or some award or competition. That gives it credibility, whereas that's a. I think that there is time and a space for that and we're doing all of those things as well, but I know for me, the best way to understand if something is landing with people is by going and seeing. If it's landing is by opening my mouth and talking about it and seeing if people glaze over or people lean in. And so going to Sundance was a choice that my producer and I made and, of course, like we go into such depth around the pitching process and how I actually do that in Watch Me Make a Movie. So if anyone's curious about that, that's definitely the place to join and hear about this process.

Izzy Stevens:

Okay, so my producer and I were on the phone. We're talking about this version of the script. We both were like it's ready, like let's do this, let's go. And I will say also because I think there will be questions naturally around this bringing on a producer was something that happened quite organically because again and these are skills I have built over a long period of time I was able to sit down at a casual brunch with a client and great producer, another someone who came through my programs I helped make films and now they're making films. And they were sitting down in front of me. We're having a catch up and they're like tell me what you're working on right now. And I said, oh yeah, I'm writing this script and this is what it's about. And they went I don't want to jump the gun here, but I want to produce it Like how do you feel about that? And I went you know what? Absolutely let's go. And I trusted this person already had a great rapport with them, worked with them as a client, worked with them in my business as well knew that that was a fit. So that was something that happened really organically and they wanted to sign on even before they'd read the script.

Izzy Stevens:

And that is the power of knowing how to talk about things and it's so important. I think artists really want their work to speak for itself, but you need to give your art a voice. You need to know how to pitch it, talk about it casually, in a way that makes people lean in and go tell me more. I want to know about this, I want to be a part of it and time and time again, like that's why I know that you were a part of filmmaker breakthrough that's so much of the skills that we were honing in that my mentorships is not just making great art but knowing how to talk about it. So people are excited and just having someone come on board in the process of the right the script was still getting written.

Izzy Stevens:

We come to the end of the year last year and we both went. What about Sundance? Like what if we just went? And I said this is so genius because we just I just need to walk into rooms where people are operating and making films at the top of their game and see if this film resonates, see if the way that I'm talking about it, the way that I'm pitching it, resonates. It gave us a really great deadline. I love deadlines because it helps me thrive, like that structure helps me thrive. It gave us a deadline to lock down a specific tone of pitch way that I was talking about it and it's so, like everyone do this. Just go and put yourself in rooms where you feel intimidated and walk in like you own it and walk in like you're supposed to be there and walk in like it's meant to be because walking into.

Izzy Stevens:

So here's what happened. We went to Sundance. We were game planning. How are we going to talk about it? Who's going to say what in the conversation? And we get there and my producer gets so sick, so sick, couldn't actually attend most of the festival. It was just me and we laugh. Now we're like I think that this happened all by kismet, because you got me here. I probably wouldn't have gone by myself in this situation.

Izzy Stevens:

So we went to Sundance. We didn't have tickets to any films. This is the thing about Sundance too, and for many festivals all of the panels are free. We, because of a certain like credit card I had, I could get into a specific lounge. There were other lounges that you can go into for free. So I was like I'm just going to show up on the strip in Park City and walk into rooms and talk to people and bring this pitch that I've got in my bones and see how it lands.

Izzy Stevens:

And it was the strangest blessing that of course, I wished she was next to me the whole time, but walking into a room by myself, I don't have a crutch, I don't have a fallback, I just have myself and I have my hand that I'm outstretching to the first person that I see and I'm saying hi. And they're saying, oh, what are you here for? Right? And I say I'm here for my film. Oh, amazing, what's your film? The fact that you're here with a film at Sundance means everything to the person that you're talking to, even though you're not necessarily here with a film in Sundance, right? So I'm like I said I'm here pitching a film.

Izzy Stevens:

Everyone was like, oh, are there pitch labs here? We didn't know that they did. I said no, no pitch labs. There's no reason.

Izzy Stevens:

I'm just here talking about my film and watching, purely not because I needed to get anything from this, except watching how people responded to what I was saying and this is also just a superpower I happen to have. I'm very intuitive, yeah, emotionally intuitive, like I can kind of read energy pretty well, like if you're blinking a lot or if you're looking away or if you're scratching your head, it's like okay, they're tuning out, maybe they're not interested, or if they're leaning, some of the most fascinating responses to my pitch, which is quite bold, it's like a quite a quite an intense, um, I guess like way to talk about the world is how I start talking about the film. I basically say you know, I believe that the world operates like a sex cult for women. It's like a very, a very intense beginning and that's specific and that's how I was starting the pitch. And so some people would be like huh, okay, and some people like oh my God, what Tell me more? And it was always fascinating seeing who reacted in what way and what was resonating.

Izzy Stevens:

And it was so funny because we actually it got to a point where people were introducing me as this is Izzy, the sex cult director, and people just assumed because of the way that I was owning myself, owning the story, talking about it confidently and making quite bold statements and telling stories. People assumed that the film was already off the ground, which in my mind, it is, even if you know at that point you don't have funding or anything. Film was already off the ground, which in my mind, it is, even if you know at that point you don't have funding or anything. Films off the ground. The film's supposed to be at Sundance. The I'm connected. It was like people are starting to introduce me.

Izzy Stevens:

I'm saved in all of these different industry contact phones as Izzy sex cult director just happened to be something that resonated a lot and I went great, that's really interesting, that this is a marketable piece of the film. We're going to go home and highlight that it was something that we realized. Okay, this is a marketable piece of the process, of the pitch, not necessarily the most important part of the narrative, right? Not necessarily the thing that you're going to take when you actually read the script or watch the film. It's not going to be the thing that you're left with. You're going to be left with the emotional resonance, the slap in the face that the film leaves you with in a, we hope, a really empowering way. But in terms of the pitch, you need to know how to talk about it in a way that gets people's attention and holds people's attention and wants them to and helps them want to learn more. So it was fantastic.

Izzy Stevens:

We walked away from that festival with multiple connections. I would not have had people that I met randomly in line for things or in lounges that have now been become a part of the process or helped us on our way just incredible connections. And most people would say, oh, I'm going to go to one of those top film festivals when I get in, but I because I said that to myself for years oh, I'm not going to go to Sundance until I'm in Sundance. But truthfully, it's the best place to go to meet like-minded people. Every single person in all of those rooms wants you to win, cares about you, are excited to hear your ideas and when you walk in like you belong there, people assume you do. And that's exactly how your film can build momentum and how your film can get made. And it gave us so much momentum.

Izzy Stevens:

Seemingly nothing on the page of what our film had except the script and a verbal pitch to very quickly become something that was getting serious meetings and people who I was seeing have films in the festival say how can I help you? How can I be a part of this? I love the idea. I want to help you. I want to see how I can be involved. Your energy, the energy that you bring into the room, has everything to do with your success. I will die on that hill forever.

Niki Sterner:

If you've got a film idea but no clue where to start, or you're tired of trying to figure it out alone, Script to Screen by Izzy Stevens is the course you need. I actually worked with Izzy and used this exact roadmap to make my short film Sweet Body, which went on to win four awards, including Best Director and Best Dark Comedy. She guides you through the entire process writing, directing, producing and even getting into festivals. It's the most down-to-earth, actionable system I've ever used. Click the link to join Script to Screen and finally bring your film to life. Join script to screen and finally bring your film to life. I'm wondering, Izzy, did you do like visualizations of yourself, like in the pitch room at Sundance, before you actually went there, and that kind of thing?

Izzy Stevens:

So I love that you asked this question because I do visualizations for my clients all the time. Like I run, I walk people through meditations and hypnosis and I do all of those things intermittently through my life. And I say intermittently because I'm not perfect, I'm not every single day doing a hypnosis or a visualization, but there have been times where I've done a big mindset shift boost in my, in myself, where it has been every single day and my clients do our hypnosis tracks every single day. But in this situation, if you're asking about the actual prep that was involved, I can talk till the cows come home and talking to people hasn't been a difficulty of mine. Walking into rooms hasn't been a difficulty of mine, but the prep that I did do was get the verbal pitch out of my mouth as many times as possible in different ways, with.

Izzy Stevens:

That's what I will always say to people in terms of preparing to go into something like that just know how to talk about yourself, because we've all experienced the cheesy, awkward networking event where it's like what do you do? I'm an actor, I'm a director, what do you do? And it's like what do you do? I'm an actor, I'm a director, what do you do? And it's dry, and so for you to be able to, off the cuff, have something prepared by rote that you can then be organic and flexible with is so incredibly important to know how to talk about yourself and your projects. That's what I focused on. If I was someone that struggled with walking into a room and talking about things, then, yes, I probably would have done a lot of visualizations of feeling that confidence and shaking the hand and basically mentally rehearsing and visualizing that conversation going well. But I'm very grateful to have been someone who's naturally good at that. But it's something that you can absolutely learn. The skill of Many of my clients do.

Niki Sterner:

Which program? Because I've done the Freedom Creator and the Filmmaker Breakthrough. Which one is that in that or is it in both, where you come up with your pitch and what you're going to speak?

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah. So Freedom Creator is the live mentorship program. We do both filmmaking and business growth in there, and so that that's really the place where we talk about your visibility. I have a course on this as well, called become visible. If you're like, I don't want the live mentorship piece, I just want to go through modules and understand this piece of it, like how to become visible, how to talk about myself, how to feel confident in that space. There's meditations and hypnosis is in that course as well. So that's a great program if you just want to go through and like learn the foundations of these things. But Freedom Creator is the place where we hone in on your messaging, on your personal brand and how to talk about it and be about it so that people are excited about the work that you're creating and want to be a part of it. Yeah, freedom Creator is the only live long-term mentorship that I do now and I just love the incredible results that my clients are getting from that. It's so exciting, that's so good.

Niki Sterner:

Okay, I want to hear more about how you took the idea of the event that you just held and made it possible. Oh yeah, can you walk us through that?

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, absolutely Great question. So we last week had a live event and I have done which you guys, nikki is so the greatest. I just Nikki is just like slight segue, but we I will intimately hold live events throughout the year for my community and extended community. Not just my clients are invited, everyone's invited. And Nikki reached out to me last year and said I'm coming to LA, like, can we do something? And literally because of you, put this, put one of the one of our live events on last year and I just love that about you. You're just, you're like you're a manifesting queen. I love that. So that was that. You know, for the most part, we've just done pretty casual things like oh, we'll all meet at this place and we can grab drinks or food and just hang out and chat.

Izzy Stevens:

This was a very different event. This was akin to another live event that I did, which was my podcast launch party. Yes, I have a podcast. You go check it out. Go listen to me ramble on over there as well. Yes, so it's called Indie Spunk Unfiltered.

Izzy Stevens:

We, I had a podcast launch party, and I guess it's actually important to talk about the difference, because that podcast launch party was I'm using air quotes, trying to do it right. Trying to do it right, trying to do it professional. We had press. I I hired a pr company who I will continue to work with and love very much, and we were doing a guest podcast, live taping, and it was this incredible location but because of the way it was organized, it didn't feel as indie spunk. The spunkiness of this company, this brand, my brand that I've built in this community is really about community and using resources, and so this event was such a different experience.

Izzy Stevens:

I knew I wanted to highlight my clients. My clients have made many award-winning, incredible films. It's like, just like yourself, gone from never having made anything before to now you're an award-winning filmmaker, I'm so proud of you. And so I wanted this to be an event that highlighted my clients. Also, my producer and I, who has her own business as well, we were like let's do this as a collaboration. Let's do and with Jumpsuit Pictures is her business, beck is my producer and her company is called Jumpsuit Pictures. Shout out to the bee's knees of producers. So we went you know what? Let's do an event. But okay, here's the thing.

Izzy Stevens:

It was an opportunity that we decided to take advantage of, because my partner manages one of the distillers at this cafe in Los Angeles and we, for months and months and months before the film even had happened we've been talking about doing an Indie Spunk event there, because the space is available, and so the biggest takeaway for anyone on this is what's around you that you can take advantage of in a positive way for your community. What resources do you already have available? And that's what I will say is the difference between the podcast party that I did and this event. The podcast party was how do I make this happen? And this event was oh, look at the resources that are around me, how do we utilize these resources? How do we actually enjoy these resources? Versus like how do we utilize these resources, how do we actually enjoy these resources? Versus like how do we find a location? How do we make this happen? It was like, oh, look, a location's available, and we really wanted to put something together for awareness of the film. We kind of just made it up as we went, I think for two months. We knew we were going to put it on up until the event, and in that moment we went okay, let's see if we can get some sponsors.

Izzy Stevens:

We got incredible sponsors. We had Final Draft gave us multiple copies of the script writing software. We had Vacation Sunscreen. That sent us a big box of stuff. We had the actual location was fully sponsored at Regent Coffee in Los Angeles, which is the best coffee shop ever. Everyone go to Regent on York. It is seriously so good and like just they have amazing events. They fully sponsored us. So the location was complimentary. We had who gives a crap, give us all of this toilet paper. We had Element, which is my favorite hydration sticks. So incredible sponsors. Body Data we had a few others. Did you reach out to them, izzy? Yes.

Izzy Stevens:

So we had a specific and again, like in Watch Me Make a Movie, I have given everyone the template of how we pitch to sponsors. I literally give you everything in that. I need to get in there yeah, get your butt in there. And even down to talking to investors and like sending screenshots of what investors are saying to us and the meetings that we're getting on the books. I'm I literally am sharing everything in that program because I really want people to see how simple it gets to be to make work happen, make your films happen and have connections and visibility in the industry. So we put together a one sheet but it was two pages of information about myself and my company, beck's company, the partners that we've had before, sponsors that we've had in other areas of our businesses and what we can offer them. And we got, I think, eight, seven or eight sponsors and we probably sent out maybe a hundred pitches.

Izzy Stevens:

So that's just to give people an awareness of no isn't no right. It's like you kind of have to be pretty diligent If it's not right for them right now, it's probably going to be right for them at a later time. I always say, like, nurture your relationships in the form of planting a seed to grow a tree, versus trying to pluck fruit from a tree and take in a transactional way with networking and with people saying yes or no to you. They're not saying no to you, they're just saying no, not right now. So giving I'm like sprinkling in all of this advice for people. I hope that's supportive. So, yeah, that's how we did it, yeah, that's.

Izzy Stevens:

And we had three short films play and then we had a teaser pitch for our feature film, play. It acted as this event was to bring awareness around our film and hopefully to fundraise. But we didn't know that we know very rarely do live events make money and we actually made 1.3 thousand dollars with just the, which was incredible with after all of our mini expenses. Most of the things were donated, so that's great. I mean, it pays for some of our feature film, legal fees of forming the company and all of that stuff, and we're so really, more than anything, we just wanted to have a launch event for the film and talk about it and it was very effective and we had so much fun.

Niki Sterner:

So did you basically do a pitch for the audience that was there for your?

Izzy Stevens:

film. Yeah, we had a another thing that I've I'm sharing and watch me make a movie is the. It's three minutes and 17 seconds. You'll, when you watch it, nikki, you'll be like oh I see, because I'm literally using the exact pitch video formula that I teach in Crowdfund, hero, my crowdfunding course. Same thing, it's always the same. You're setting the tone, you're bringing yourself credibility organically, you're telling a story, you're talking about the project and when you watch that three minute and 17 second pitch video, maybe 10 seconds of the whole pitch is actually talking about what the film is about. Right, the rest of it is tone setting and engaging story and you know sharing the why behind the film and that's really, at this point in time, what's important for people to know.

Niki Sterner:

Confidence doesn't come first. Action and habits do. That's why I created the Confidence Kickstart Morning Routine, a 15-minute free guide to help you build habits that actually work. You'll get powerful journal prompts, a guided audio meditation and my three-part Confidence Shortcut System, mindset Path and Action. It's the exact routine I use to get up on stage and speak up. No more shrinking or second guessing the link's in the caption. Grab it now and build the confidence to move forward every single day. That is so good. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Thank you so much, izzy. I want to go into the confidence quickfire round with you now before we end, but I mean I could talk to you all day on this.

Izzy Stevens:

I know, me too. I'm like wait. Oh my gosh, this time has flown. I adore you. This is so fun. I know, oh, okay, so the first question is I want to know your definition of confidence Walking into any room fully in your skin, not needing a thing, but knowing that you belong there.

Niki Sterner:

I love that Because, yeah, we're. When we don't have that, we're looking for approval.

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah.

Niki Sterner:

Yeah. Second one is what's one bold move you made before you felt ready?

Izzy Stevens:

Oh, my God, every single day of my life how many do you want to list here, geez? I mean wow, how about most recent one? It's like second nature to me. One bold move Let me think we have an investor meeting on the books that we were like we could live forever in perfecting the pitch moment. But let's take this meeting and see what happens. And I guess that I guess the conversation that we're currently having with this person who's expressing massive interest in our film, because this is something that's second nature to me.

Izzy Stevens:

Now I don't think twice about it, but what I did think was when I started my business it was so scary, it really scared me and I did not feel ready and I did not feel qualified and I did not feel that I was allowed to and that the imposter syndrome and the mental screaming in my head frequently when I was doing outreach and starting the business and doing all of the things was loud and I thank myself and could cry with gratitude every single day that I moved through that period of my life and have become the person I am now, because you just can't always see the results of your efforts until later and it did take me years to really see when I saw other people starting businesses and taking off immediately and I thought what's wrong with me, what's happening? Why isn't this working? And I'm so grateful for that period of struggle because it made me a better mentor and it made me a better business teacher and it made me a better filmmaker and it made me a better human. And I just you know your mind will lie to you. Your mind wants to keep you safe. Your ego wants to keep you safe and secure in doing the thing that feels safe and secure and it's because it's trying to protect you. But you know best, your gut knows best. You know what you're here to do. You know what you're here at Born to do and you can stretch yourself and challenge yourself and you don't have to listen to that fear voice. You can keep moving.

Izzy Stevens:

I would have moments when I started my business, I'm telling you, I remember sending the first 11 pitches out to people to try and get referrals for clients and every single time having almost a panic attack, crying on the couch with my partner. Panic attack, crying on the couch with my partner, feeling so anxious to put myself out there and call myself a coach and like what am I even doing? People are going to think X, y and Z about me, like all that noise, and I'm just so grateful that I kept moving and kept going and I was so scared and I'm so grateful, because having a thriving multi-six figure business that supports people is just. I wake up and I think, thank you, thank you me, thank you, we did it, we made it happen, and everyone that's listening, you can do what you want to do. Just take the steps. Take the steps, invest in yourself, invest in mentorship, invest in moving forward. Take the step.

Niki Sterner:

Okay, the next one is how do you quiet your inner critic?

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, take the action, and maybe a more practical way of doing this, because I think everyone says that I'll just go. It's yeah, sure, but what? How do I take the action? The one of the processes that I teach in depth in Freedom Creator that I'll talk in a shorter space of time here is understanding, witnessing your belief and then choosing that you change it, which I talked about early on in this call Self-awareness of what your belief system is telling you, and your belief system is built from a very early age. Regardless of what happened to you or didn't happen to you.

Izzy Stevens:

We all build an inner critic that is based on something or things that have happened or conditioning that we had. That's no one's fault, but it is our responsibility and our job to change the story in our brain. And so for me, it's about witnessing oh, there's a belief system here that actually isn't supportive of me, that isn't serving me, and first of all, I need to get really self-aware of that. I need to see where that's coming up. I need to witness it and say, oh hi, I see you. That's the belief right there. That's what's happening and that's perpetuating an action that I'm taking that is not productive and not supportive to me and what I want. So recognizing and witnessing. There it is, there, I see it, and not meeting it with oh, you did it again. You're so bad. Look at you Like you're having this thought and it's bad Instead. Oh, I forgive you, I love you, thank you, thank you for trying to protect me. I witness you and I see you and I love you and I forgive you and I thank you. And also we now get to change and having that conversation with yourself. That's really honest writing that belief that is not serving you and then writing down a belief that will serve you.

Izzy Stevens:

Saying what would, what would a belief that serves me? Look like you write it down and then I like to say you try it on like a pair of pants. You try that belief on like a pair of pants, walk around your house with it and just see what it feels like and practice that, rehearse that, rehearse that belief and take action from that belief. Ask yourself if I believed this, what would I then do? How would I move? How would I take action? And that is how you take action, despite your inner critic. That is how you take action and do it anyway. Right, it's about putting yourself in the situation of you don't have that inner critic. What if you didn't have that voice? What would you be saying to yourself and what action would you take from that place? And then going and doing the brave thing and taking that action yeah, the brave thing.

Niki Sterner:

I love that you said like we as in, like you're taking your inner critic with you, like you're not just throwing them away, like that's a part of you. Yeah, loved it, accepted it, thanked it, and we are changing together.

Izzy Stevens:

Yes, I love that Okay.

Niki Sterner:

The next question what's one habit that's helped you build real confidence?

Izzy Stevens:

Okay, so I talk about. Historically, I've had a quite a fear of visibility, which seems probably the antithesis of who I am, because I teach visibility. But the reason that I'm able to teach it is because I used to feel very, very scared and very caged around showing myself authentically, and that has to do with growing up in a film industry that asks you to be perfect, that asks you to look perfect and present well and, as a woman, be quiet and be polite and don't ruffle feathers. And so I think for me, the biggest shift has been learning how to put myself out there online. I can be very real and authentic in a one-on-one conversation. I've always been that way. But in a situation where I can't see your reaction, I can't see how you're going to feel about this. I can imagine it and, of course, my fear and ego wants to tell me that everyone's gonna hate me, right? But through showing up online, talking about my services, selling programs and services in my business, talking about my films, talking about my creative career online, the process of doing that every single day for five years has turned me into someone who it doesn't matter to me what you think like with love. Here's the door. You don't need to love me, you don't even need to like me and if I'm not for you, that is so okay. Like, go find your people. If it's not me, that's fine.

Izzy Stevens:

I now feel so socked into myself, my belief system and who I'm here for and who I love to work with.

Izzy Stevens:

That is what I get to show up for and who I make content and who I make programs for and who I make films for are those people and so recognizing that the people pleaser is just that fear of not being liked, and recognizing and healing that part of myself over the last five years, I would say definitely my business taught me, has taught me so much Like you will face with filmmaking as well, and business like you face your ego and you can choose to let the ego run the show or you can choose to say no, I'm evolving past this and I don't need like not needing everyone to like me, feeling like I'm now Okay If you go and disparage me or talk badly about me to someone else, not my business, I don't care and because I do, I know who I'm here for and knowing that and trusting that and trusting myself, the ultimate lesson for me is that I've got me and that I get me, and that people other people will make it their full-time job.

Izzy Stevens:

Not to understand you, that's just what will happen. Like people will, and that's their stuff, that's their ego. And with love like that's not my business, that's their ego, and with love like that's not my business. My business is moving with integrity, moving with what I believe to be the truth of the world and how I see myself, and showing up with full love for that person and these people in this community. So that's what I always focus on and that's a big part of the healing of my visibility that I have gone through to now become who I am today. I love that.

Niki Sterner:

That's such a great story. That's such a great share, izzy, because, yeah, I would not picture you being someone who was afraid to share yourself because you're so authentic and it's such your vibe. So it just goes to show you that you can change with the growth mindset, like who you are now does not have to be who you are down the road.

Izzy Stevens:

Yeah, a big, big one. I mean, even when we in the beginning of Freedom Creator, the first one of the first lessons is to script out a story and go live on social media, and it scares everyone. Some people are some people oh, I've done this all the time, I know how to do this, I can do this but talking about yourself and sharing a story like that in a live setting is incredibly vulnerable and it's the first kick in the pants step to really showing up authentically for a community and for yourself. And it's just one of the most liberating things that you can learn to do for yourself is to show up, and now I get to show up without a script and talk about things that are important to me and authentic stories that gosh, 10 years ago never, never, would have done, ever.

Niki Sterner:

I remember doing that. Yes, yeah, it was so nerve wracking. And look at you now.

Izzy Stevens:

Oh my gosh, on a podcast, your own podcast, you going live your presence on social media and beyond. I think this is. I probably I imagine that you would really resonate with this when you realize that it's actually not about you. Even though you're talking about yourself and you're showing up, it's actually about who you're talking to and your community and positively affecting the world in that way. And so that when you can get into that, when you remember that part that this isn't actually about you, it's about the movement that you're building, the brand that you're building that inspires, whatever it is that you want to inspire, it's a really easy way to get out of your own way and stop identifying too much with it and instead pour into your community.

Niki Sterner:

Yeah, you do such a great job of reminding us about that. I do remember you saying that over and over again to me and the group. Yeah, it's so such a great reminder. Okay, we're going to wrap this up with your favorite book or resource. That changed how you think.

Izzy Stevens:

Oh my God, there's so many. Okay, I really loved changing the Habit of being Yourself, which is Dr Joe Dispenza. Yes, thank you, that's brilliant and it did. I read that a few years ago and it really did change things for me. But I would say Elaine Welteroth's More Than Enough is such a beautiful book and I love it so much. I love her. She's a genius. A beautiful book and I love it so much. I love her. She's a genius, she's brilliant and I highly recommend that book. Yeah, beautiful, yeah.

Niki Sterner:

All right, well, thank you so much, izzy, for coming on here. How can people keep up with you Come?

Izzy Stevens:

find me on Instagram at IndieSpunk, and DM me if you listen to this interview and anything resonated. I'm obsessed with hearing from people. Dm me and I'd love to connect with you and hear all about you. So that's the best place. And yeah, we can drop any other links that people want from this as well. So, yeah, everything's available. But yeah, indiespunk I share a lot of stuff on that page. And come over, come join us, come over.

Niki Sterner:

Join definitely.

Izzy Stevens:

Thank you so much, izzy. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, nikki. This is amazing.

Niki Sterner:

Thanks so much for listening to the Confident Shortcut. I hope today's episode woke something up in you, reminding you that your dream matters and you can start now. If this sparked something, share it with a friend who needs it too. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Nikki Sterner and join our Facebook community at the Confidence Shortcut. Ready to take the next step? Check out my free guide, the Confidence Kickstart, linked in the show notes. Keep showing up, keep taking action and remember the shortcut to confidence is courage.