Episode 8 / Allisyn Snyder

Feb 14

Learning How To do The Small Things: Allisyn Snyder’s Creative Process Will Change Your Daily Routine

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

The importance of supportive partnerships
How to foster curiosity and authenticity in your journey
Why a daily routine grounded in writing and meditation is pivotal to your mental wellbeing
The fun new trick of birdwatching meditation - who knew?!
How to navigate industry changes within creative fields, especially during unforeseen circumstances and world upheavals

The multi-talented Allisyn Snyder tackles personal and professional growth, creative collaborations, and maintaining balance in life and relationships in this week’s episode of Who Made You The Boss? With Lindsey Epperly. Throughout the discussion, Allisyn shares her journey from an actor known for her YouTube persona Astrid Clover to a writer and director, co-founding Watch the Footage (WTF) Productions with her husband, Dylan Snyder. Lindsey and Allisyn dive into setting boundaries, the impact of morning routines, and filtering the noise of social media, all wrapped in an exchange filled with humor, vulnerability, and wisdom.

“I was so unapologetically myself… He asked me, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” I was like, me? And it was just this thing where it was like—What are you talking about? What do you mean? Who do I want to be when I grow up? I'm going to be me."

Allisyn Snyder

Lindsey Epperly [00:00:12]:
Welcome to who made you the Boss? A podcast for recovering workaholics. I'm your host, Lindsey Epperly, and I invite you to embark on a transformative journey. Our mission on Who Made You The Boss? Is clear. We're here to tackle the unique, unique challenges that today's professionals face. We're bringing you insightful conversations with a diverse range of entrepreneurs, executives and creatives, all who have forged their own paths. And I'm sharing some of the stories of my decades long career as a leader of my company, Jetset World travel. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out on your journey, join us each week as we unravel the mysteries of leadership, self discovery, and the pursuit of fulfillment. It is time to redefine what it means to be the boss of your own life.
Lindsey Epperly [00:00:54]:
Let's dive in and together we'll discover who made you the boss.
Lindsey Epperly [00:01:07]:
Hey listeners, and welcome back to another episode of Who Made You The Boss? A professional podcast that's all about how we show up in the careers we love without sacrificing our whole selves. One industry I have been particularly intrigued by has been the entertainment world. I have a few friends that exist in this space and I just see the way that they hustle because of their passion for the craft.
Lindsey Epperly [00:01:27]:
And since we celebrate versatility and creativity on this podcast, I wanted to bring that unique perspective today. And I was fortunate enough to connect with the fascinating writer, artist and director Allisyn Snyder. You might actually know Allisyn as Heather Wilmore from NBC's AP bio or as Zora from Disney's Sunny with a chance and so random. Yet what truly sets her apart is this relentless pursuit of creativity. And we really dive into that today. We talk a lot about it. Based off of her 21 year tenure in the entertainment industry, she literally began this career when she was four years old. She was under the name Allisyn Arm, and she had early roles in shows.
Lindsey Epperly [00:02:05]:
Like Friends heard of it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:02:07]:
In 2014, she launched the YouTube Persona Astrid Clover, which then led her to producing over 350 episodes and amassed a huge following. In 2016, Allisyn and her husband, Dylan Snyder, ventured into film production. They created watch the footage WTF productions. Their work has gained distribution through fun size horror, and that has landed on Amazon's Shockdale party series. And we talk a lot about what it means to work with your partner, which is something I can totally relate to, and how we evolve personally and professionally and how we support one another's in that evolution as humans. So join us today as we explore the multifaceted journey of Alison Snyder artist, actress, writer and director whose creativity knows no balance as she teaches us what it means. And who made you the boss?
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:01]:
Awesome. I am so excited to welcome Allisyn Snyder today. Allisyn, thanks for being here on who made you the boss.
Allisyn Snyder [00:03:08]:
Thank you so much for having, you know, Cody put us in touch, and he said we were very similar, and I'm sure he's correct. So it's very nice to meet you.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:17]:
You as well. Yes. Cody, for those who don't know, is my brother in law, who I adore, who lived in LA for, gosh, over a decade and is still working as an actor. And you guys probably connected, I'm sure, in that.
Allisyn Snyder [00:03:29]:
Yeah. Same manager.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:31]:
Yeah. Oh, wonderful. Okay, cool. Yeah, he didn't tell me the specifics. He just said, you two have to meet. And so here we are, meeting and recording it for the world to see. So I'm excited to dive in with you. Absolutely.
Allisyn Snyder [00:03:40]:
Same.
Lindsey Epperly [00:03:41]:
Yeah. Well, I shared with the listeners a little bit more about your background, but I think it's important to note that everyone listening to this is going to be coming from a different background themselves. Right. We've got some people in just various fields, but I've always been really intrigued by the entertainment industry and the art of the hustle that you have to do in this specific industry. And you began your career at such a young age, so probably know this industry well. From what Cody has told me about you, it sounds like from an early age as well, you kind of decided to take the reins of your own life and say, I'm doing this thing. I'm making me the boss. I want to be the leader of my own life.
Lindsey Epperly [00:04:20]:
And now you're calling the shots at your production company, all the fun stuff. So can you tell us just more about that journey? What brought you into the place where you could say, like, all right, this life is mine, I'm taking control. I'm going to be in charge of what I'm doing next.
Allisyn Snyder [00:04:34]:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's a funny thing. I never sat down and said, I want to be someone's boss. I just had ideas and wanted to pursue them. And then as I gathered people to help me, whether that was help from friends and family or hired creators, I just sort of circumstantially ended up becoming people's boss. And that has actually stressed me out. Like the chain of command.
Allisyn Snyder [00:05:07]:
I much prefer collaborative work. I think I've been an artist this whole time, kind of stepping into random work here and there. And the way that I'm approaching my production company and just kind of my work in general is just doing what I love and then trying to get enough other brilliant minds on it that maybe we can actually make some money at this thing. I just kind of take it one day at a time, and I just try to trust myself that, hey, I have a wealth of knowledge, and I always have that. Liam Neeson. Like, I have a very particular set of skills. And it's like sometimes I'm just like, oh, gosh, should have gone to college. What am I doing? But I'm like, no, it's okay.
Allisyn Snyder [00:05:50]:
I know things that are going to get me to that next level of know. Just want to be around friends and family and creating all the time.
Lindsey Epperly [00:06:00]:
I love it. Well, I think that's honestly and honestly, it's why I named the podcast who made you the boss? Because I think for the better leaders in the world. They're not the individuals who are on a power trip that were like, I am making myself the boss. Here's my crown. It's exactly what you just said. You've got kind of something in you. You're listening to that, and it just so happens that by proxy, you're now leading people because of it.
Allisyn Snyder [00:06:22]:
Yeah, absolutely. I've always been called a leader. My dad has always told me, don't speak unless you have something to say.
Lindsey Epperly [00:06:34]:
And.
Allisyn Snyder [00:06:35]:
And I definitely believe you can gain so much by just listening. And I consider myself a listener. But then when it comes to, like, okay, now we're doing a group activity or team thing, or somebody needs to step in and take charge of this. I can definitely step into that public speaking kind of role.
Lindsey Epperly [00:06:52]:
Yeah, it sounds like he's been a very big influence on you. I was listening to some of your other podcast interviews, and, oh, my God, I can relate to that. My dad is my mentor, but was he in the entertainment industry?
Allisyn Snyder [00:07:03]:
Yeah, he's a musician, and, yeah, that dude. He's the coolest person around. Everybody who meets them is just, like, blown away a that he's my dad because he just looks like my older brother. He always makes jokes about being a vampire, which people don't always get sometimes because the people are like, oh, my God, you look so young.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:23]:
How do you do it?
Allisyn Snyder [00:07:24]:
He's like, I just try to stay out of the sun and stay away from garlic. And people are like, oh, interesting. Didn't know garlic was it. He's like, don't worry about it. Never mind.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:33]:
Well, so it's creativity that runs in the family, really. Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:07:39]:
He'S just an artist. He's kind of a goofball, and him and I just loved doing silly voices with each other and writing down ideas, drawing pictures. It was just a constant collaboration of art, and acting was something that I kind of stumbled into. Happened to take an acting class, and the teacher there loved my work. He just was always bringing coloring pencils and paper, and we were always writing scripts in the waiting room. And I'm still pursuing many, many things.
Lindsey Epperly [00:08:11]:
Well, it sounds like the creative process itself is kind of what you love. Is that safe to.
Allisyn Snyder [00:08:18]:
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And I've been learning to trust that more. My therapist actually recommended this phenomenal book, Julia Cameron, the artist's way.
Lindsey Epperly [00:08:29]:
Oh, my God. Yes, 100%. So have you gotten through it yet?
Allisyn Snyder [00:08:35]:
I'm working my way through it, but I started the morning pages, like, at the beginning of this year. Yeah, life changing. I started reading the artist's way, and right before that, I read the life changing magic of tidying up. Funny. What an interesting game changer, too. That is a game changer, too, those two books. And then there's another one. Many lives, many masters.
Allisyn Snyder [00:08:58]:
And those are, like, the trifecta that I always recommend to people of, like, have your ego desk, get rid of everything, and then start anew. Start your.
Lindsey Epperly [00:09:08]:
Think about the life changing art of tidying up being mentioned in the same sentence as the artist's way. I will definitely take your recommendations on this because I could not agree more on the artist's way. That's a struggle that I've personally had, because I started as a creative writing was my first love, and then I kind of was like, well, I can't figure out a way to make money by this. And my dad is very funny. He's, like, super business minded, and he'd always give me a hard time because I was getting my english major. And at one point, the cocktail was essentially, like, English major with an emphasis on poetry, with a minor in French. And he was like, so are you going to write, like, french hallmark cards? How are you going to turn that into a living? And so I wound up going into business because I love it as well. And there is a creative aspect, especially at the start of a business, but it actually took the artist's way for me to start pulling back out that part of me that was like, all right, there is a steady heartbeat here of creativity, and how do I get back to it?
Allisyn Snyder [00:10:01]:
Yeah, that's funny. My brain, I heard that, and I was like, oh, making french greeting cards. That sounds awesome.
Lindsey Epperly [00:10:07]:
Sounds lovely.
Allisyn Snyder [00:10:09]:
Because I make greeting cards. I'm like, I can draw, and Valentine's day is coming up, and then I'm looking up, like, print greeting cards, and I'm like, oh, there's, like, next day flyers is nearby.
Lindsey Epperly [00:10:18]:
I'll just sad to somewhere. Someone's got to do it.
Allisyn Snyder [00:10:22]:
Yeah, that's the thing, is that I kind of realized there's so many niche jobs and so many jobs that just require exactly what that person can do. So you just got to figure out what your resume actually looks like, rather than trying to think of the job and be like, okay, well, what do I have in that field? It's just like, I don't know, come up with what your resume looks like and then say, okay, what jobs can I do with this?
Lindsey Epperly [00:10:47]:
And that's so true, but you've been literally working since you were four years old, so I feel like you've gotten some time on figuring this part of life out that most people don't get until they're in their teens, if not early 20s.
Allisyn Snyder [00:10:59]:
Yes. My dad definitely did a really good job of keeping us grounded, in a sense. We were always doing it for fun. And the money that it brought in and the kind of career that it was building was definitely a plus. But he was always paying attention and tuned into making sure that I was having a good time.
Lindsey Epperly [00:11:23]:
That is super important. Well, and I think probably on the same interview that I heard you talking about your dad, you mentioned kind of like taking time yourself to step back and evaluate even your time management because you had totally at that grind for so long. I'm just kind of curious. It sounds like it led to burnout for a little while. Is that correct?
Allisyn Snyder [00:11:42]:
My God. Yeah. So the artist way, something that I realized by doing the morning pages because I was starting the book, because I was trying to read every day, was like a New Year's resolution. I was like, at least just like five minutes every day because I had a book club going during quarantine. And it was fantastic being kind of forced to read a book every month because there's a whole group of people. But, yeah, this year, I wanted to make sure that I was putting dedicating my time into my films were in post production for two features right now, and so it's just a lot of screen time, which just drains me. I was having trouble with the work life balance, trying to be like, okay, if I can at least read five minutes. And it recommended the morning pages, and it's three full pages of stream of consciousness, handwritten journaling.
Allisyn Snyder [00:12:33]:
And I'm using binder paper and it takes me a long time, and I have nice handwriting and my thoughts. I write pretty cohesively and it genuinely takes me a good hour and a half to get through like three pages of journaling just the way that I do it. And I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or I haven't finished the book yet or anything. But what it made me realize was just like it was so hard to set aside time for myself to do anything other than what I feel like I'm getting emailed about and all these kind of floating deadlines, I guess I started getting paying more attention to. Deadlines are all made up by people. And so who's making up the deadline and is it important or did they just pick a random day? Because when people ask me for deadlines, I'm typically kind of picking a random day.
Lindsey Epperly [00:13:26]:
Totally.
Allisyn Snyder [00:13:27]:
So it made me rethink how I schedule and prioritize and just being like, if I'm feeling way too tired and it looks like tomorrow is going to start getting stressful, it doesn't matter what I had on my plate. Like, I need to go to bed and I'll figure it out in the.
Lindsey Epperly [00:13:43]:
Morning kind of thing. Completely. It's so interesting just kind of picking up what you're talking about in starting a company. One of the early rules that I learned was instead of trying to work in your business constantly, is take some time to work on your business. And that requires intentional carving out of time. But for you, you yourself as a creative are your business. So you've got weird world.
Allisyn Snyder [00:14:07]:
Yeah. It's like if you're not eating and sleeping, your business suffers. But I think that goes for anything. I think every business is creative in a sense. Anybody that I talk to who's any sort of entrepreneur and just the way that they have to approach things, their whole world, it's a lot like film production in any way. You're hiring similar types of people and making phone calls and constructing emails. And I think all of that takes brain power. And you're not going to have brain power if you're not eating and sleeping.
Lindsey Epperly [00:14:39]:
Good point. This is the basics, right? I'm curious to camp out too, because we haven't talked about this yet, but I feel like it's so rare to meet other people who have this scenario in common. But you work with your husband and I also work with my husband. And I think when people find that out, they usually are like, oh, God, they immediately imagine themselves in that scenario and they're like, never. I could never.
Allisyn Snyder [00:15:03]:
Yeah. People's questions make me question their relationships.
Lindsey Epperly [00:15:08]:
Okay, that's a good way to put it. They kind of project on you, don't they?
Allisyn Snyder [00:15:11]:
Totally. It's really interesting to kind of get a quick sneak peek into their marriage just by seeing the way that they interpret, like, oh, you guys work together. But the reaction is different if people are talking with Dylan and I when they find that out or if they're just talking with one of us. Because if you see us together, just our body language and the way we move and the way we finish each other's, it's. People just kind of get it when they see us. If they're like, oh, that makes sense.
Lindsey Epperly [00:15:44]:
That makes sense. Wait, at what point did you decide to start working together and. Or was that before you actually decided to be together? What did that timeline look like for you?
Allisyn Snyder [00:15:53]:
Everybody who knows me works with me, and I feel bad about it sometimes, but as a creative, I guess not. It's just like I'm constantly creating and working on things. When I was little, I would invite friends over on the weekends to film short movies and constantly doing photo shoots. And I'd randomly just bring a camera to school, take pictures of my friends because I heard that people Photoshop magazines. I remember looking at magazines as a kid, my mom being like, oh, they make this look like their lips look bigger and they change their hair, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, that sounds fun. So I got into Photoshop as, like, a small child, and I'd make my friends lips really big, and I put crazy. I'd look up celebrity hairstyles and put them on them.
Lindsey Epperly [00:16:38]:
So by proxy, dylan was destined to work with you is what you're.
Allisyn Snyder [00:16:42]:
I had my Astroclover web series. A lot of my friends and family and even some people who have passed away have all guest starred on it. And it's kind of this video diary of my life in this wild way because it was just something where when I started it, I had just started selling sketches to awesomeness tv, who was airing them on Nickelodeon. And it was kind of this, like, oh, I can write comedy, know, get it out there. And I started this YouTube channel. I originally wanted it to kind of be more of a variety show and doing different characters, but I really liked the Astrid Clover character. And then I just kind of kept going with it. And then I kept going, and it was several years later and it was just every single week.
Allisyn Snyder [00:17:30]:
I was like, well, I can't stop now. I've got this streak going. And it was just something where it was like, I would have these fun ideas because my dad and I would brainstorm. It'd be Monday or Tuesday. We'd call each other up, be like, do you have any asterisk ideas? And be like, okay, hold on, let me open the notes on my phone. I wrote a couple of things down. It was always like, okay. So we'd be pitching ideas, and I'm like, all right, well, that requires, like, ten people and a dog.
Allisyn Snyder [00:17:57]:
How are we going to get ten people and a dog by Thursday? Of course, Cody is one of the people that I'm always calling up for those kinds of things.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:05]:
That sounds like the perfect Cody phone call, to be honest.
Allisyn Snyder [00:18:09]:
That's the thing, is that I attract the right people by living this lifestyle. And the people who tend to not like it or they don't show up or they don't come back, it's like, yeah, no, I don't want anybody here who's not having fun. The whole purpose of this for me is to create and have fun with my friends. And so please come and enjoy it if you're going to be here and create with us.
Lindsey Epperly [00:18:36]:
Well, you know what? I think it was even the artist way that talks about synchronicity and the idea that we're constantly putting out what we want to attract if we are being open to it. It's almost like you've just created this vortex that you've pulled the people into, and they love it as well, because they love you and they want to support you. And I bet you're bringing out the fun side of them that they may not have even known they had.
Allisyn Snyder [00:18:59]:
Yeah, it's the kind of thing where. Okay, I'll give you an example of a shoot that I just. I. It's so fun to see how connections get made. But basically, through a film that Dylan and I worked on as producers, we met this actress and her boyfriend who loved working with us, and they were producing this large scale short film out in Iowa that they recruited us for. And while I was out there, one of the production assistants who then became kind of, like, in an art department position, she was phenomenal. And she was in a punk band called Bigby woods, and I pulled them up on Spotify, and they have this song called Nun Fight, and she's screaming like, it's a fun night for a nun fight. I was like, this is so funny.
Allisyn Snyder [00:19:50]:
This is wild, because she's got so much of my build, my frame over, just like these little kind of bird people and she's just, like, screaming, screaming punk music. This is so fun. I was like, do you have a music video for this? She was like, no. And I was like, okay, hold on. I was like, I have people who would definitely be in a nun fight video, and my friend Melanie, she has a play that she wrote called nothing special that's all about Edie Sedgwick and kind of like the 1960s and Andy Warhol's factory. And so she's renting this big warehouse space for a couple of months, and we've been working on the play. I'm directing it, and we have a couple other people in it and a band, and in this warehouse space that she's renting. I was like, oh, this would be a great place for a nun fight.
Allisyn Snyder [00:20:43]:
I was like, melanie, would you dress up as a nun and can we use your warehouse and film this video? She's like, absolutely. And just like, every person that I called up, there was only, like, a couple people who were like, I have family who would be deeply offended. And it sounds so much fun, but can't do this one, but please call me up for the next one. Los Angeles is just, like, a playground for creatives of just everybody wants to go out and have fun, and it's really easy to just be like, hey, guys, you want to do, like, a sunrise photo shoot on film, like, this Sunday? And people are like, sure, I'll set my alarms.
Lindsey Epperly [00:21:19]:
It's just. Yeah, I'm so curious, because a concept that we talk a lot on this podcast is about impostor syndrome. And to me, it sounds like you have none, because you're just like, I'm going to go for what I want to go for. But have you ever even struggled with that? Or what does that look like to you? Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:21:33]:
Well, okay, so as a kid, I had no such thing as imposter syndrome. I was so unapologetically myself. My dad always talks about when I went in to speak with agents at Buckwald, when we sat down with Matt Jackson, who's also my agent now as well, when we sat down with him, he saw that I was wearing Lizzie McGuire shoes, and I had never seen the show. I just loved the blue coloring, and they lit up, and they had flowers on them. I thought they were so cool. And so he asked me, he was like, oh, you a Hillary duff fan? And I was like, oh, yeah, sure. And he was like, well, who do you want to be when you grow up? I was like, me? And it was just this thing where it was like, what are you talking about? What do you mean? Who do I want to be when I grow up? It was like, I'm going to be me. I've tried to come back to that.
Allisyn Snyder [00:22:30]:
I think social media is what kind of sucks me into that state of, like, you start, it's like just this direct comparison of yourself to others, and you're just the endless scroll, and it's really easy to kind of get into dark places through social media. The more I cut that out, just like, the scrolling, the more I cut that out, the more I started actually reaching out to my friends and going and seeing people, because it's like, oh, I don't know what people are doing unless I actually go out to lunch with.
Lindsey Epperly [00:23:03]:
Actually, this is so fantastic timing because I was actually just having another interview with another guest, Carlos Whitaker, who wrote this book, how to human, and his whole thing is about seeing people, meeting them where they are, and actually being present. And so we were talking a lot about this exact topic. Know, the idea of technology really pulls us away from what it actually should have been intended for, which is connection. And it's no longer actually making us feel connected, but it's making us feel very isolated and no longer human with each other.
Allisyn Snyder [00:23:34]:
Yeah. No, absolutely. As a teenager, I had a long string of bad boyfriends, but one of them wanted me to constantly check in over text with him of just like every five minutes. Wanted me to text him to make sure that, I don't know, but it created this feeling of, like, I didn't want to see people or go out anymore because I was like, I don't want to be the person who's just absorbed in my phone and texting all the. And I'm very, very conscious of that now. Dylan and I don't bring our phones on sets, and we don't take our phones out at, like, it makes me uncomfortable to even have phones on the.
Lindsey Epperly [00:24:10]:
Wow, that's a. I can learn a thing or two from you on that because I feel like even though I try to be conscious of it, I have such a circular relationship with it when it comes to, I'll delete all of the social media apps from my phone, but then I'll be like, well, all it takes is just, like, my face to bring them back, right? Do the quick face scan, and then they're back on there, and it's like I need another layer of accountability, almost.
Allisyn Snyder [00:24:32]:
Yeah. It's really difficult these days because business and social life and just safety and calling the hospital, everything is all connected in the same device that also, I don't like being accessible.
Lindsey Epperly [00:24:50]:
Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:24:50]:
And especially as a creative, too. It's like if I'm in the zone or in a headspace and I have not been diagnosed with ADHD, but I definitely find tendencies. When you get in the zone of something, the last thing you want is just like, the notifications going off completely.
Lindsey Epperly [00:25:09]:
It's very smart to stay in tune with what your kind of pulls are and knowing that that would take you out of it completely. That's actually something I really want to explore more. And maybe I'll have a guest on here one day about ADHD in women and how that is more and more frequent, that women are getting diagnosed later in life because it manifests so different than it does in what the typical stereotype that has it is like a young male and totally. It's one of those things I've often wondered, too, where, my gosh, is multitasking actually a sign of something more. The fact that I can't focus on one single thing at any given point. And then your phone rings and it just pings these days and it takes you away from that flow state.
Allisyn Snyder [00:25:52]:
Yeah, no, 100%. I love going on walks without even bringing my, like, just the freeing feeling of, like, occasionally Dylan and I will be like, going to the grocery store and we're like, do we even need our phone?
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:06]:
How rebellious? Isn't that kind of crazy, that that's even a thing that you feel rebellious for, just leaving your phone behind on a walk?
Allisyn Snyder [00:26:14]:
Right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:14]:
Feels like that's the point of a walk.
Allisyn Snyder [00:26:16]:
That's the thing, is that occasionally I'll leave my phone behind and I'll go on a walk, and I'll go a little further than planned. I'll be like, oh, I'm running to the corner store to grab this, and then I'll be like, oh, it's a nice day. I should go around the block. And then I'll be going around the block and I'm like, I don't know what time it is, so I don't know how much time has gone by. And if Dylan's worried about me and my phone's at home, but I'm like, if 30 minutes went by, he might get a little concerned or text me and see that my phone's at home, but I'm not going to be gone for hours. It'll be fine eventually.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:52]:
So I'm curious, kind of changing gears a little bit as we talk more about meeting people where they are and as humans. And I feel like you being in the entertainment industry, something that the pandemic did was make me realize when industries are greatly impacted by specific events. Right. And I own a travel agency, so having that during COVID was not really. Not that a benefit. Right. And my husband and I are both in it together. And it was like, oh, this thing is leveled.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:19]:
And granted, everyone had their stuff that they were dealing with during this time. Everyone's lives got leveled in some way or another. But there's something about when it's your industry and you can no longer actually perform the functions and be fulfilled in the way that you're used to. And I feel like entertainment has been hit, like, kind of back to back in that way. Between the pandemic and now the writer strike that's going on, I don't know how much you feel comfortable talking about that, but I wanted to bring it up and just like, how are you?
Allisyn Snyder [00:27:43]:
Absolutely.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:44]:
Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:27:44]:
Well, thank you. The pandemic, definitely that whole leveling effect. It's funny because I definitely have magical thinking and definitely shooting. I I was like. Was like, oh, man, I caused this to happen because I'm always sitting around wishing, like, man, I wish everything shut down for several months so I could just work on my scripts. Just, like, paint and work on my scripts. With no one in the world. Nobody would.
Lindsey Epperly [00:28:13]:
You're like, but not like that. This was not what I meant. I'm like, no, I didn't want people to die. Oh, God, this is horrifying.
Allisyn Snyder [00:28:21]:
Yeah, no, the lifestyle was sweet. The atmosphere was nightmarish.
Lindsey Epperly [00:28:33]:
Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:28:35]:
So the art was strange.
Lindsey Epperly [00:28:37]:
Yeah. Well, what about right now, too? Do you feel like a similar cadence, or are you able to go on a little bit more when it comes to actually fulfilling your kind of professional endeavor?
Allisyn Snyder [00:28:47]:
Well, we were geared up to just. So Dylan and I, when we first started dating, we were doing astrid Clover together, and he brought his photography gear, which was, like, dsLrs, nice cameras. He started bringing an audio gear. It just leveled up the show. It kind of made me realize, like, oh, we can actually make things that look a little bit more professional. We started doing short films, and we started submitting those to festivals. And through that, we were able to kind of get enough belief in us that we started fundraising for our first feature film, one that I wrote and Dylan directed, and we're in post production for it now. And it's absolutely beautiful.
Allisyn Snyder [00:29:34]:
I'm so, so excited about it. But putting myself back in that headspace of early 2020, it was like we were getting out on the tarmac, like, getting ready to go wheels up, like, shoot this thing in the spring. And we were talking with actors about scheduling, and then I was working on the show AP bio at the time, and I remember everybody being like, we're going to take a two week break. And just kind of the lead up of my mom had been saying for several weeks, like, oh, you should start buying canned food and water. She had been listening to some podcasts. She's very, like, a health nut.
Lindsey Epperly [00:30:11]:
Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:30:12]:
And she had been listening to this podcast, and it's the kind of thing where she was like, we're about to go into quarantine. Everything's going to shut down. And I was like, do you know what that would do to the economy?
Lindsey Epperly [00:30:20]:
We're not going to shut down.
Allisyn Snyder [00:30:23]:
I was like, oh, crap. Yeah. It's like the two weeks went by, and it was like, oh, no, this is going to be a lot longer than two weeks. And we started looking at what productions had to actually jump through in order to shoot. And it was pretty much like, if you are Lionsgate or a celebrity with your own production company and capital that you can put into it, like sunshine or something. People were pretty much, like, renting out soundstages and camping everybody there. So it was kind of like, okay, everybody comes into town, they all quarantine for 1020 days kind of thing. And then we're all working and kind of camping together.
Allisyn Snyder [00:31:03]:
It was, like, intense. An indie project can't afford that. You're trying to put every single penny on screen. And it's like, when you can barely figure out how to pay for the props and the actors and the set pieces, it's like the price of COVID tests at one time, when that first became a thing, it sounds like you are pretty scrappy.
Lindsey Epperly [00:31:25]:
So I'm curious, when you encounter that kind of adversity, what comes of that for you? Because you don't strike me as a type. That's like, I'll just sit and wait for it to pass. It feels like you would just say, all right, I'm going to turn my ship in a different direction and take advantage of this in a different way.
Allisyn Snyder [00:31:42]:
Yeah. So kind of what I ended up doing was I knew that this film that we had been working on, it was this thriller that takes place out in the middle of nowhere. We wanted it to be very our love letter to old school cinema and to the shining big Kubrick fans. We're like, this film requires budget, and we have such a blessing by being able to have gathered this much of a budget for our debut feature like mine as a writer and his as a director. And we're like, we don't want half of it to get eaten up by Covid just because we're impatient. And so I was like, let's put this one right over here. I tried to just look at it as like, this is perfect timing because we have money in the bank and it's just going to sit there and all we have to do is just be patient. We didn't put deposits down anything.
Allisyn Snyder [00:32:39]:
It's not like contracts are lapsing with actors and we're losing whatever. We didn't have a location or something. It just gave us more time. And I ended up working on the script over the course of two years of just really maturing the script and really delving into it, deconstructing it, and it would have been a great movie, but now the layers are there and it's something that I can be really proud of saying, like, oh, I wrote this and I thought about this, and it's a time bending thriller, so I had to think through a lot of timelines and make sure. Poke it for plot holes through it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:33:22]:
Now I'm trying to remember. Was it you that I read as a big Chuck Palanuk fan? Yes, I just finished. Consider this. Have you read that yet?
Allisyn Snyder [00:33:31]:
Not yet.
Lindsey Epperly [00:33:32]:
Yeah, it's his writing memoir and advice. And so, yeah, it was very good and then done. Very true polynock style, where he's giving examples that are just totally out of left field. And you're like, well, that makes sense for the work that you create, but then also it's applicable to what we're doing. Sorry, that just made me think of, as you talk about the layers and leveling the script, like the writing element of it.
Allisyn Snyder [00:33:56]:
Absolutely. I have to add that to my very long reading list, which I've been prioritizing. The morning pages and the drawing. And then the reading has my little. I'm like, at least, if I can at least read two pages. And I'm like, I'm never going to get through it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:34:12]:
Totally. No, I feel the same way. But plus, with kids running around, so it's like, how am I ever going to.
Allisyn Snyder [00:34:17]:
I don't even know these days. I don't understand how you do that. People ask me about kids and I'm like, my production company is my baby. My movies are my baby. Every painting is my baby. I don't have time.
Lindsey Epperly [00:34:34]:
I felt that really strongly with my business, and then it felt like this really interesting identity shift. And that's also kind of why I was curious, what did the adversity make you do? Because with me, adversity and motherhood came at the exact same time. And I feel like it very much made me decide, like, okay, I'm going to evolve. I'm going to go to this next layer. And oftentimes, I think we think evolution is like this thing outside of us. And really what it was is I'm actually going to go a layer deeper that I know is within me, but that I haven't been tapping into yet. And it sounds like you are pretty well versed in the art of evolution.
Allisyn Snyder [00:35:11]:
I love everything you just said. I 100% agree with. That's very cool. Yeah, we've been meditating a lot lately. We meditate every morning together. That's, I think, a big anchor of how we work together. That would probably be my first step to any couples who ask the question of, like, how do you guys work together? It's like, you need to meditate together.
Lindsey Epperly [00:35:36]:
You guys need some time together, but not talking. Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:35:40]:
Because we can have an adult conversation with each other.
Lindsey Epperly [00:35:43]:
Yeah. Beautiful.
Allisyn Snyder [00:35:45]:
We can just take the emotions down, do our deep breathing, say, sorry, I'm a little hungry.
Lindsey Epperly [00:35:52]:
Totally. I love it. Well, and that kind of usually leads to. That's the working on yourself or on your business instead of in yourself.
Allisyn Snyder [00:36:03]:
Yeah. It's been such a wonderful way to kind of evolve simultaneously with him. I always tell him that's one of my greatest joys, is just getting to watch him grow up. Well, grow up.
Lindsey Epperly [00:36:20]:
I love it.
Allisyn Snyder [00:36:22]:
Yeah, we've known each other since we were kids, and, yeah, even still, it's like we look back at our marriage photos, the babies. Like, babies got married. This is crazy.
Lindsey Epperly [00:36:32]:
That's an amazing partnership to be able to support one another as you are both kind of like becoming that next version of yourself. I think that's incredibly important to have.
Allisyn Snyder [00:36:40]:
And you get to see things come full circle because, like I said, we got into filmmaking together because he had the camera gear from photography. And now, as the filmmaking industry has kind of stumbled a little bit, we've still been able to. We ended up pivoting because during the quarantine, my former castmate, Matthew Scott, he wrote a film, and we ended up doing it like a quarantine movie because it was kind of written during that time, and it was very. So we were able to pivot and put our energy. And another pivot that we've done is, because of the strike, we are putting our time into this play. It's like this immersive theater experience. I was talking about nothing special that my friend Melanie wrote. And Dylan's doing all the photos for it because it kind of started out where we just needed poster photos and Melanie, and we're doing it with our friends Aparna and Kristen, the three of them, they're all playing Edie Sedgwick.
Allisyn Snyder [00:37:45]:
They had been looking up, like, Edie photos and showing me the style of photos that they wanted, that black and white and grainy, like, 65 look. And I show it to Dylan, and Dylan just has the brain for, like, he's done all the research and the reading, and he's picked up all the cameras, and he knows everything about the film and the lenses. And, of course, if he heard me say that, he'd be like, I don't even know, close to, like, I haven't even moved on to medium format cameras yet. And I'm like, the fact you know what that is? It's just like, you're a photographer. He suffers from the imposter syndrome with photography, but it's cool because through doing nothing special, it's the first time that he's not just photographing, like, landscapes and birds and showing me and kind of posting them quietly to a little Instagram page that he doesn't tell people about, but it's like he's showing them these photos, and they're blown away, being like, oh, my God, that's exactly what we asked for. How did you just understand the assignment?
Lindsey Epperly [00:38:51]:
Execute.
Allisyn Snyder [00:38:51]:
And it's the kind of thing where it's like, he shows up to the warehouse space, and he knows how to hook up his camera to the lighting gear that's there. And so he's got the big flash units going off, and he knows his stuff in that realm, and it's cool to watch him become a photographer. And so I was saying, watching things come full circle in a relationship, it's like, oh, he wanted to be a photographer from the start. So it's like, I'm not even focused on the strike and the film industry and whatever, because I'm like, oh, yeah, we've got our movies, and of course, I want to make more movies one day, but I'm in no rush. And in the meantime, we're developing our painting and writing and his photography, and we're set. We just kind of ebb and flow with the waves. And I try to be a master of some, but at least a jack of all trades.
Lindsey Epperly [00:39:39]:
Yeah, right. But also just supporting what you knew he was capable of doing all along. And so this gave you the time to strip that back and say, this is actually kind of who you were meant to be, at least in this next phase and iteration. Yeah, that's really cool.
Allisyn Snyder [00:39:55]:
100%. Yeah, no, it's really cool to watch him get more into photography and do photo shoots and talk about, like, oh, we'd start talking about business plans. And he's like, what do you think I could charge? And I'm like, I don't know. What do you think you could charge?
Lindsey Epperly [00:40:09]:
Such a special feel. It's so unique. It's so unique to be able to actually work with your partner and to do it in a way that makes you each better. That is completely something that I've learned from Jeremy, from Cody's brother, and just that level of support where you feel like you can take risks because you have the safety net of that person's love and support to fall back on. That's why I'm doing this podcast. Even this is an out of left field activity compared to our normal day to day. And I've been working behind the scenes between this and writing and just kind of like moving into thought leadership. And Jeremy, every step of the way has been like, awesome.
Lindsey Epperly [00:40:48]:
You've got this. Go for it. I will be the place, your platform, essentially. And it's just so special, I'll tell you, I have this cheesy question that I ask every guest, but it's because it's inspired by mine and Jeremy's relationship, which was during these times that were very difficult for us. We would call them our lfWs, our little effing walks every day. When the world was shutting down and we were having to make very difficult decisions in business, and we're like, all right, time to go on our walk. So it was like all you could do. And every time on those walks, we would ask each other the question of, like, what made you smile today? And at first, that question, you're kind of like, well, it's really not my.
Allisyn Snyder [00:41:26]:
Gratitude journal in that time is not a gratitude journal.
Lindsey Epperly [00:41:29]:
Totally. It's kind of like just event session, right? Well, it made me smile that you didn't come in the room when I wanted to have space.
Allisyn Snyder [00:41:36]:
But in all, like, I'm glad I didn't die.
Lindsey Epperly [00:41:41]:
So it is, though, something that stuck with us and it stuck in our family and even our little three year old Mila. She's like, what is your happy today? She's evolved into it. But I am curious. It's early in LA right now, so maybe nothing necessarily has made you smile today, but, like, 24 hours. What's made you smile lately?
Allisyn Snyder [00:42:01]:
Absolutely. Well, I think actually within this past year, I've kind of unlocked the cheat code to life of what the morning pages are supposed to be. Is setting aside a morning routine for yourself. Because I don't know about you, but it takes me a little while to feel like myself. I kind of got to go through kind of, like, get some stuff out of my brain. Waking up from a night of sleep, it's like getting out that kind of stream of consciousness, taking a second to stretch. I just took a yoga class with somebody that I've been working with for three years, and she told me that my spine was leaning just ever so slightly to the right. I was thinking like, oh, that's probably from the morning pages.
Allisyn Snyder [00:42:41]:
I was like, what can I do? Because she was like, yeah, she was.
Lindsey Epperly [00:42:45]:
Asking me physical tutor a lot.
Allisyn Snyder [00:42:47]:
Yeah, she's, like, asking me if I work on the computer a lot, asking me about the mouse, maybe try to switch hands or something. And so I've been trying to become ambidextrous.
Lindsey Epperly [00:42:54]:
Yeah, well, you longer, totally. But you also have chosen binder pages. Like, I made a little mental note of that when you were like, my.
Allisyn Snyder [00:43:02]:
Pages are really long.
Lindsey Epperly [00:43:03]:
You chose a very long object to write on. Yeah.
Allisyn Snyder [00:43:07]:
And the stack is like this big now inside you. I just have this drawer building of paper, and I'm like, that's hilarious. Wild.
Lindsey Epperly [00:43:13]:
I choose these journals so I feel.
Allisyn Snyder [00:43:15]:
Very accomplished when I'm so tempted. But I allow myself to. If there's a particularly stressful day and I only get out one page, it's fine. But the challenge of the three pages and the accomplished feeling I have when I get to the end of three binder pages is pretty wild. But, yeah. Setting aside that time, it's like I've now, because of my slight curve to the right, am doing my stretching every morning. Because she just recommended a real simple kind of lay down on the floor in corpse pose and just look to the side. It's like small movements.
Allisyn Snyder [00:43:52]:
Her whole thing is, she says, you already know how to do big things, so practice doing small things.
Lindsey Epperly [00:44:01]:
That's like a major takeaway, right? For overachievers, I think we might both.
Allisyn Snyder [00:44:06]:
Fall into that category 100%. And so she's got this little stretch that she taught me, and it was actually just a couple of weeks ago of just like, you lay on the ground in corpse pose, and it's just like, you look to this side and there's just like a subtle shoulder movement of, you just kind of push this shoulder into the ground and you raise this one, and it's just like a neck stretch and then the whole spine kind of stretch and just arching your back a little, like pushing your pelvis into the floor. It's just like real subtle, but it makes you feel longer afterward. And then right after, Dylan and I meditate, because it's usually he needs to brush his teeth in the morning. So I do my little stretch and he brushes his teeth. And then we sit down on the floor and we meditate together. We find some little five to ten minute YouTube video that's just like a guided morning meditation. So already lots of smiles.
Allisyn Snyder [00:44:55]:
But the first real joy of my day, where I feel that kind of kid at Disneyland feeling, is we have.
Lindsey Epperly [00:45:05]:
A bird feeder outside.
Allisyn Snyder [00:45:06]:
And so every morning, going out and checking the bird feeder is the joy, the joy.
Lindsey Epperly [00:45:13]:
Are you getting to meet different types of birds every time? Are you, like now ornithology expert?
Allisyn Snyder [00:45:18]:
So I've learned so much about bird watching over quarantine. Audubon has been doing bird meditations. And bird sits.
Lindsey Epperly [00:45:29]:
What?
Allisyn Snyder [00:45:30]:
Oh, my gosh, they're so cool. You learn all these little things. Like she talks about how when you sit down, the bird activity you're going to see, you get to watch them in their comfortable habitat and they're moving around you and they come to you. Whereas if you're walking around and you're making all the noise, you're scaring them away before you even get there. And there's all these cool things you can learn from just listening and being still. One of the things that she talks about is rubbing your fingers together, getting that kind of, like, papery sound really close to your ears and then just slowly bringing it away from you as you keep making that sound. And you try to focus on the sound, because by the time you get really far away, your ears are just, like, tuned into the space around you a lot more. And so you can hear.
Allisyn Snyder [00:46:21]:
Yeah, it's really cool. And so you can hear bird sounds from a lot further away. There's also a fun trick she taught us where if you listen for where you don't hear birds, like, if you close your eyes and you're like, I don't hear any chirping in that direction, and you point and you look that way, you'll see like a cat or a dog or some sort of threat, something that, oh, the birds all went quiet over there.
Lindsey Epperly [00:46:47]:
Like, incredible that you're tuning it. It's really interesting. It reminds me now that we're going on this bird tangent. It reminds me of own a travel agency. I've done a lot of traveling in my life. Have gotten to go to Africa a few times and do safaris, which are like, life changing and just the most incredible experience all around. But most of the time when people are going on a safari, they're like, I want to see the big five. They're literally named the big five, right? Like, we want to see the largest elephants and the lions, like, the largest animals out here.
Lindsey Epperly [00:47:15]:
And all of the guides who have now been doing this for decades, I noticed, would be like, those are great. Those are great. But look at this bird over here. And at first you're like, okay, now take me to see a leopard, please. I need to see the big things. But they've started learning the big things are not necessarily what is so amazing about this world and about what surrounds us. Start paying attention to the small. It's what you just said.
Lindsey Epperly [00:47:38]:
I love what your yoga teacher said. It's like you already know how to do the big things. Start paying attention to the small.
Allisyn Snyder [00:47:43]:
Absolutely. 100% synchronicities all around.
Lindsey Epperly [00:47:46]:
My takeaway. That's my takeaway. Okay. All right, cool. Well, with our limited time left, I want to hear a little bit more about how our listeners can kind of stay in touch with what you're. What. It sounds like you've got some really cool projects in the hopper. What should they be looking out for? How do they know when it's like, what's the best way to follow you? Can you tell us more about all those things?
Allisyn Snyder [00:48:06]:
Absolutely. Yeah. So my Instagram page is always Allisyn. Same thing on. It's not called Twitter now. It's x, right?
Lindsey Epperly [00:48:17]:
Oh, that's right. I don't know. I've been looking when it comes to social media, but, yeah, I think you're right.
Allisyn Snyder [00:48:23]:
Oh, my gosh. Well, I'm always Allisyn on everything Instagram, I update the most. Again, I don't really check it. I just kind of post little updates of what I'm doing, what I've got coming up in the works. Yeah, my name is spelled A-L-L-I-S-Y-N. So if you just type that and.
Lindsey Epperly [00:48:43]:
What you've got coming up is an immersive theater. Is that what it.
Allisyn Snyder [00:48:47]:
Yeah. So nothing special. It's happening in Los Angeles in November, November eigth through 11th. Go on the nothing special show Instagram page and make sure you're tuning in and subscribing to the newsletter so you can find out more details and be notified when tickets go on sale. It's going to be a trip. I'm really pumped about it. It's going to be kind of a party meets immersive theater.
Lindsey Epperly [00:49:20]:
Sounds like an obvious.
Allisyn Snyder [00:49:25]:
Come, come to.
Lindsey Epperly [00:49:26]:
The factory, come to the factory. Noted. All right, Allisyn, you rock. I'm really glad Cody put us in touch. Thank you for this conversation today about how we can be better at working.
Lindsey Epperly [00:49:35]:
On ourselves and how that makes us.
Lindsey Epperly [00:49:37]:
Better, not just leaders, but better humans. You have really enlightened me. Thanks. Thank you.
Allisyn Snyder [00:49:41]:
Absolutely. This was a very wonderful way to start my day.
Lindsey Epperly [00:49:50]:
And that lovely listeners brings us to the end of today's episode. We truly hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the world of leadership and professional development with who made you the boss? If you've gained some valuable insights today, we would love to hear from you. Please take a moment. Go to your favorite podcast platform, search for who made you the boss and leave us a five star rating and review. That feedback helps us tremendously as we're creating content that resonates and empowers. Stay connected with us too by visiting lindseyepperly.com and there you can subscribe to our newsletter and ensure you never miss an episode or an exciting update. You can connect with me personally as well on Instagram and LinkedIn. And let's continue the conversation with ourselves and other like minded individuals who are redefining what it means to be the boss of our own lives.
Lindsey Epperly [00:50:35]:
So thank you listeners for being a part of this journey. And until next time, remember, you have the power to shape your destiny. So keep leading, keep learning, and most importantly, keep being the boss of your own incredible story.

Lindsey Epperly https://www.lindseyepperly.com

Episode 8 / Allisyn Snyder

Learning How To do The Small Things: Allisyn Snyder’s Creative Process Will Change Your Daily Routine

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What You'll Learn in This Episode:

ABOUT Allisyn Snyder

Allisyn Snyder

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Episode 9 / Darrah Brustein

Episode 7 / Samara Bay