This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:12] Heather Vickery: Which one?

[0:14] Alan Seales: Um, I sort of hate myself for liking this as much as I like. That's a good thing.

[0:21] Heather Vickery: I like Shawn Mendes.

[0:22] Alan Seales: I took my ear because "When You're Gone" by Shawn Mendes.

[0:26] Heather Vickery: Dang it for the, yeah, with this voice.

[0:29] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[0:36] Heather Vickery: I don't know.

[0:36] Alan Seales: It sounds in the style of other music I like.

[0:39] Heather Vickery: And so I'm like, so it came up in my like, you may like this algorithm.

[0:43] Alan Seales: And I'm like, damn it, I do.

[0:45] Heather Vickery: Yeah, no, I like Shawn Mendes. His concert was incredible.

[0:48] Alan Seales: He's a great showman.

[0:50] Heather Vickery: Really?

[0:50] Alan Seales: The first and only time I've ever seen him was when he opened for Taylor Swift.

[0:55] Heather Vickery: And yes, I went to a Taylor Swift concert.

[0:58] Alan Seales: That wasn't a good one.

[0:58] Heather Vickery: In 1989 tour in Detroit.

[1:01] Alan Seales: No, not Detroit, Philly.

[1:03] Heather Vickery: God, this is probably eight years ago.

[1:06] Alan Seales: Well, I went to a Taylor Swift concert in Germany. I flew to Germany to go to a Taylor Swift concert.

[1:10] Heather Vickery: I saw her before she was mega cool.

[1:12] Alan Seales: Yeah, you definitely did.

[1:17] Heather Vickery: Oh, we made it.

[1:20] Alan Seales: Did we?

[1:20] Heather Vickery: I don't know, there's still like half a day left.

[1:23] Alan Seales: You do sound like you're on death's door.

[1:26] Heather Vickery: I'm on the tail end of the New York City superflu that like last week record number of flu admissions in hospitals.

[1:35] Alan Seales: It was insane in this area. I got my flu vaccine and my COVID vaccine.

[1:39] Heather Vickery: Why didn't you get your vaccines?

[1:40] Alan Seales: Because it be all of a sudden became 2026 and I didn't realize it.

[1:44] Heather Vickery: You gotta get your vaccines, baby.

[1:46] Alan Seales: I'm gonna get those kids' vaccines.

[1:48] Heather Vickery: Okay, I'll get my, well, I did get my baby kid vaccine.

[1:51] Alan Seales: I snip snip. No more, no more kids for me.

[1:53] Heather Vickery: Not that one.

[1:55] Alan Seales: Oh, that's not a vaccine, that's a procedure.

[1:57] Heather Vickery: That's what she...

[1:58] Alan Seales: Wait, no, no?

[1:58] Heather Vickery: That's what he...

[1:59] Alan Seales: Nope.

[2:00] Heather Vickery: Uh-uh.

[2:00] Alan Seales: Nope.

[2:01] Heather Vickery: Nope.

[2:01] Alan Seales: Nope.

[2:01] Heather Vickery: The, okay.

[2:02] Alan Seales: So we did. We made it through this year. My partner asked me this morning, like, how was your 2025?

[2:08] Heather Vickery: And uh, I go weird.

[2:09] Alan Seales: Weird and short, fast. Like went fast.

[2:12] Heather Vickery: This is scientifically proven now.

[2:16] Alan Seales: The older we get, the faster we perceive time.

[2:19] Heather Vickery: That's correct. We've had that conversation.

[2:21] Alan Seales: I don't know if we've had it on the show or if we've just had it between us, but yes, so the more experiences you have, the more neuropathways there are in your brain.

[2:30] Heather Vickery: And the more neuropathways there are in your brain, the faster you process time, which is why it feels like everything goes faster as you get older because you're processing time fast.

[2:40] Alan Seales: Processing time because your brain naturally deduplicates things.

[2:44] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[2:44] Alan Seales: So when you experience the same things over and over again, you just stop remembering the minutiae because you do it all over and over again, which kind of sucks.

[2:51] Heather Vickery: And which is why sometimes I do things like I'm left-handed. I will brush my teeth with my right hand, or I will take a different path to a different smart.

[3:00] Alan Seales: That's a smart thing to do.

[3:01] Heather Vickery: Because I'm always like, oh, I don't want to keep wearing down the same neuropathway in my brain. I'm gonna like, I'm gonna keep me fresh.

[3:09] Alan Seales: Yeah. Hey, should we do that intro to the show?

[3:12] Heather Vickery: Uh, yeah.

[3:16] Alan Seales: Hi everyone, welcome to Was It Chance, the podcast about embracing opportunity and taking intentional risk for your creative life.

[3:23] Heather Vickery: I'm Heather Vickery.

[3:24] Alan Seales: And I'm, excuse me.

[3:29] Heather Vickery: My Mallon's seals.

[3:31] Alan Seales: Heather and I started off as two perfect strangers who were healthy at one point and met by chance at a braced opportunity. And now you get to listen in as we chat with other successful people about the risks they've taken to put themselves in a path to creative success, except for this episode, because it's just us kicking 2025 into the dumpster fire.

[3:48] Heather Vickery: Yeah, we're like na na na na na actually we had a great year. We had some amazing interviews and conversations.

[3:55] Alan Seales: And this podcast has kicked out. This podcast was like the best part of 2025.

[4:00] Heather Vickery: I fully agree.

[4:02] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[4:03] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[4:03] Alan Seales: We should do more of this podcast.

[4:06] Heather Vickery: We should.

[4:07] Alan Seales: You want to move to weekly? Listeners, if you want to hear more of this podcast, we need to know you're out there. Share it with friends. Ratings, reviews.

[4:14] Heather Vickery: Anyway. Like and subscribe.

[4:17] Alan Seales: Well, listen though, folks. You know, we want you to listen to those ads because that's where we can make a dollar or two.

[4:23] Heather Vickery: It ain't big, but it's a little.

[4:24] Alan Seales: But our listenership did go up because I got a tiny check from BPN.

[4:28] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[4:29] Alan Seales: That's very exciting.

[4:30] Heather Vickery: Yeah. Well, let's see. So we started off.

[4:33] Alan Seales: Oh my gosh, shut it off. I'm just looking at our guest list.

[4:35] Heather Vickery: I know.

[4:36] Alan Seales: For 2025.

[4:37] Heather Vickery: Um little Maddie Price.

[4:38] Alan Seales: Oh, Maddie Price. That's a kid who's going places.

[4:42] Heather Vickery: She is, right? In the special school.

[4:45] Alan Seales: It wasn't just a theater school, but like where you get to.

[4:48] Heather Vickery: It was a progressive education school, which my kids all went to, where you get to like actually do the things that you're interested in and put your, you know, be hands-on with it. It was cool.

[4:56] Alan Seales: She's gonna be one to watch. She was, she'd written and directed a show, right?

[5:01] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[5:02] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[5:03] Heather Vickery: She was, she's like 10.

[5:04] Alan Seales: I mean, not really, but compared to us.

[5:06] Heather Vickery: I think she was 16.

[5:08] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[5:08] Heather Vickery: Like, uh, not legally able to do a lot of things.

[5:14] Alan Seales: The gosh, I just impressive Pepe Munoz.

[5:17] Heather Vickery: Oh, Pepe.

[5:19] Alan Seales: Did he just, he's just yummy?

[5:21] Heather Vickery: He's just sweet and kind and funny and I'm gonna pretend I didn't just say Pepe, but it is Pepe.

[5:28] Alan Seales: Pepe.

[5:31] Heather Vickery: I just glossed over it because I didn't want to make fun of my Broadway genius.

[5:38] Alan Seales: Pepe Mingo's. So Pepe, if you're listening, my bad.

[5:42] Heather Vickery: Um, I blame it on the DayQuil.

[5:50] Alan Seales: Oh my gosh, how much fun did we have with Jin Ponton and Deborah Unger?

[5:54] Heather Vickery: Uh, I mean they were so fun.

[5:57] Alan Seales: These ladies were hilarious.

[5:59] Heather Vickery: They're, yeah, besties, besties who will just always work together.

[6:04] Alan Seales: I don't know. I mean, scroll back, go to our website, wasitchance.com.

[6:07] Heather Vickery: It was just podcast.com.

[6:09] Alan Seales: That's our website, right?

[6:10] Heather Vickery: Yeah, okay.

[6:11] Alan Seales: No, it wasn't chance.com.

[6:13] Heather Vickery: Okay.

[6:13] Alan Seales: Yeah. Go to our website, was it chance? You can see everything.

[6:16] Heather Vickery: Um, but I mean, uh, I can't pick favorites.

[6:21] Alan Seales: We have, oh, I have favorites.

[6:22] Heather Vickery: We have such, okay, okay.

[6:23] Alan Seales: Uh, Tad Stro Stormer.

[6:25] Heather Vickery: That Tad is one of my favorites.

[6:27] Alan Seales: All right, I will pick one of those as my, I will pick him as one of my favorites.

[6:30] Heather Vickery: Big time.

[6:31] Alan Seales: And his book is officially coming. It's, but it was originally March. That's what he talked about in the episode. It's now June 2nd.

[6:37] Heather Vickery: I just saw him post something on TikTok the other day.

[6:41] Alan Seales: He said, how do you promote a book that you wish you didn't have to write? He was like, I didn't want to write this book. I don't want to be in this position. I don't want us to have to need this information.

[6:50] Heather Vickery: And but we need it and we need it now. It was really fascinating.

[6:54] Alan Seales: Um, really because he's doing a special deal with Barnes and Noble and he's doing a special deal with bookshop.org. And he's gonna, of course, you have to promote your stuff, but he was like, I don't want to because this sucks.

[7:05] Heather Vickery: It sucks that we're in this position. Tad was amazing. I have recommended the Victoria Christopher Murray episode to really many people.

[7:14] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, first of all, do you remember this conversation? So, first of all, I'm active, very active on BookTok.

[7:20] Heather Vickery: BookTok.

[7:21] Alan Seales: And her books come up a lot.

[7:23] Heather Vickery: BookTok.

[7:23] Alan Seales: Um, "Harlem Rhapsody," uh, "The Private Librarian." They come up a lot.

[7:27] Heather Vickery: And so here's, here's kind of my shtick is if somebody mentions a book and we've interviewed the author on like, hey, fun fact. We had that, we had so-and-so on Was It Chance Podcast. You should go listen.

[7:38] Alan Seales: Um, but I think her conversation, we, it barely happened. She was in like a dingy dark hotel room. The connection sucked, but her story of not writing her books until she was later in life and self-publishing and putting postcards in the books that are similar in the library.

[7:58] Heather Vickery: When she started now, she's, and now she's in her 70s.

[8:01] Alan Seales: Yeah, she didn't start this part of her life until like the second half. It was so cool. I loved that conversation and I recommend it all the time.

[8:12] Heather Vickery: Yeah. I also think we should talk about one of the coolest guests we had on the show.

[8:18] Alan Seales: If you guys have watched, um, my friends and neighbors, I was gonna say Alina Hall conversation was incredible.

[8:24] Heather Vickery: Yep.

[8:24] Alan Seales: Yeah. Well, that's what I was looking at. I was looking at this list. I was like, we've got authors and we've got thought leaders and TV star, TV movie stars and theater people. Like I'm just impressed with the amount of bullshit we can spend with so many people.

[8:39] Heather Vickery: I was gonna say I have an English and theater degree, so I say it's a degree in bullshit.

[8:43] Alan Seales: Yeah, pretty much.

[8:44] Heather Vickery: Yeah. I'm on, I'm gonna dipshit kick because of "Stranger Things."

[8:48] Alan Seales: Do you are you, oh, are you watching?

[8:50] Heather Vickery: So I've never seen it, but I did pay sixty dollars for three tickets to go see it in the movie theater tomorrow, January 1st.

[8:57] Alan Seales: Oh, the final episode?

[8:59] Heather Vickery: The final episode because my 12-year-old and her buddy want to see it.

[9:04] Alan Seales: This is interesting.

[9:04] Heather Vickery: Oh, I'm gonna pick your brain about this.

[9:06] Alan Seales: Okay, so this is really interesting. So she's like, can we go? And I'm like, sure. So I go to buy the tickets. I'm like, geez, I hope you like it because it's $20 a person.

[9:13] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[9:14] Alan Seales: Except then when I see the receipt, the tickets were zero dollars. You are required to pre-pay for a twenty dollar concession gift certificate.

[9:23] Heather Vickery: So now we've got sixty dollars to spend at the concession, but we weren't allowed to pay for the ticket. Is that something because it's a, it's a TV show and not a movie, and they can't, I, what is that? What is that?

[9:33] Alan Seales: I don't know. My guess would be that it is distribution rights, something to do with legal distribution rights.

[9:41] Heather Vickery: That's what I was thinking.

[9:42] Alan Seales: From TV and film unions or something, maybe SAG.

[9:46] Heather Vickery: Maybe it's some sort of SAG restriction that because the actors were paid on a contract that was TV or streaming. I don't know. That's my guess.

[9:55] Alan Seales: I think it's some union regulation.

[9:58] Heather Vickery: So they have to call it whatever.

[10:01] Alan Seales: Or maybe Netflix is just like, we want people to go see the show.

[10:04] Heather Vickery: I mean, it's probably maybe one of their, other than K-pop Demon Hunter, is probably one of their most watched shows.

[10:09] Alan Seales: Most popular shows right now.

[10:11] Heather Vickery: Well, everyone's like, you're not gonna understand it, you're not gonna like it.

[10:14] Alan Seales: It's probably all true.

[10:15] Heather Vickery: You know what's really interesting to me is that now at the very end, the stuff that they wrote for "Stranger Things," the first shadow on Broadway, the play, is all coming full circle because it's the same writing, part of the same writing team that writes the show, helped write the stage show.

[10:33] Alan Seales: So they, we should have someone on the show.

[10:36] Heather Vickery: That's a good idea.

[10:37] Alan Seales: Work those connections, Alan Z.

[10:40] Heather Vickery: Alright, alright.

[10:41] Alan Seales: I had, um, speaking of movies, I took one of my kiddos to see "Marty Supreme."

[10:54] Heather Vickery: What is that?

[10:55] Alan Seales: It's, it is, uh, brain.

[10:59] Heather Vickery: Um, I can see the smoke, springs are coming out of your ears.

[11:02] Alan Seales: Oh my god. Like when you have something and then it just goes, you played Willy Wonka, Gene Wilder.

[11:09] Heather Vickery: Timothy Chalamet.

[11:12] Alan Seales: It's Timothy Chalamet, and he is, it's in the 50s, he's a New Yorker, and he's a ping pong ball professional.

[11:23] Heather Vickery: Okay, but it's, it was a really fucking weird movie. Like it was a great movie, it was really well done, it was fascinating, but it was so strange. Things kept happening. I'm looking at her, I'm like, this is so weird.

[11:33] Alan Seales: The reason I'm sharing this story is towards the end. Guess who has a fairly decent bit part?

[11:40] Heather Vickery: Lena Hall.

[11:41] Alan Seales: Our pal Isaac Mizrahi. We had Isaac on the show in 2024, and I will tell you that's probably one of my most quoted things when I talk about our show and I talk about all the cool guests we've had. When you asked him, uh, what is your relationship with failure? And he goes, darling, every success I've ever had has been a failure.

[12:05] Heather Vickery: Because he won because he didn't want to be fashion designer because he wanted to be an actor.

[12:09] Alan Seales: So when I saw him on this, on the show, on the screen, I was like, oh my god, we've had him on the show. That's Isaac, his dream is coming true. It was very exciting. I was very excited for him.

[12:18] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[12:19] Alan Seales: Have fun editing this one.

[12:20] Heather Vickery: Yeah, there's gonna be so many jump cuts because of cough breaks.

[12:23] Alan Seales: We apologize in advance for the weird editing and jump cuts because Alan is trying not to die while we're recording.

[12:28] Heather Vickery: Whoa.

[12:29] Alan Seales: I try not to die every day.

[12:30] Heather Vickery: Almost every day.

[12:32] Alan Seales: Um, but especially right now. Yeah. I mean, again, one of those things where he just, somebody who says yes when the opportunity opportunities present, is like, alright, well, I'll try that. And then there's, there's, which is actually kind of related. I, I last week when I was out in, uh, Las Vegas, I have family out there, um, who has lived there for decades. So we're out there for the holidays, and uh, saw one of my friends from my theater days who lives out there now, works for, um, a show out there, and one of the most talented, unbelievably talented guys ever, and can't get out of his own way. And I, I'll say I say this to his face, uh, can't get out of his own way to try new things.

[13:14] Alan Seales: And he's one of those people who's just like, you know what? I d I'm not ready. I just I just wanna I just want to like make sure I'm I'm like, no, you're no one ever feels ready. I really want to work with him. I know like I could help him. I know, and and he's such a nice guy and so like one of the most beautiful singing voices I've ever heard. And he just like, you know, I'll just I'll just wait for something to come to me. I'm like, no, dude, no, because you gotta go get it because everyone like with a third of your talent is gonna go rush to the line before you will. I mean, that's manifestation, right? Manifestation isn't declaring something and then it magically appears, it's declaring something and then shifting the way you show up in the world to make it appear.

[13:50] Heather Vickery: Yeah, yeah. And I know somebody in Vegas who's done that, talking about old friends. We may have talked about this before. One of my friends from middle school is the world's leading prince impersonator, and he's in Vegas. His show is called Purple Rain.

[14:05] Alan Seales: Wow.

[14:05] Heather Vickery: So they used to be at the Hilton, he was in Elvis's dressing room. That was his room, his permanent dressing room. Then they went to the Tropicana, and now I believe they're at Treasure Island. But like he was telling me he's got this, I mean, huge production. They even have Morris Day in the Time and like this huge show. It's absolutely incredible. His expenses are eighty thousand dollars a month.

[14:30] Alan Seales: Personal or for the show?

[14:31] Heather Vickery: For the show. I mean, he runs the show. Like it's his. It's his business. He owns it. Um, he's had a couple goes at other princes, but nobody's as good as Jason. But Jason's getting awarded 51.

[14:40] Alan Seales: Well, for running costs of a show, that is nothing.

[14:44] Heather Vickery: It's a lot though when it's just one dude.

[14:46] Alan Seales: I think it's a lot of money.

[14:47] Heather Vickery: No, no. I mean, uh running cost for a Broadway musical can be can our But it's not a Broadway musical, it's a musical act in Vegas.

[14:55] Alan Seales: I know, I know, but I'm just saying, like, okay. So your point is it's okay. Okay, so sorry, scale wise. Your point is it's a lot. Why is it so much?

[15:03] Heather Vickery: I mean, I just think it's a it's a huge thing to take on, but he is so talented. We went on tour with him once, so many, many years ago. We flew into Vegas, we watched the show in Vegas, and then we went to Palm Springs and did a a show at a casino there, and we get to watch, you know, him set up and it I mean, he really transforms. He goes from Jason Tenner to Prince, and it's wild. And then he stays in his his Prince, you know, Jason Tenner to Prince Bariton. It's Purple Rain is the is the band um and the show, and then he does pictures. His picture people come over and do pictures, but he gets you know, he's it started because we should have Jason on this show.

[15:43] Alan Seales: There you go. Jason, get on the show. I could text him and be like, Jason, I talked about you in our podcast, you're gotta come on our show. Um like I haven't listened to a whole episode.

[15:49] Heather Vickery: Okay.

[15:52] Alan Seales: Jason's a great guy. He's he's really funny. It started because he dressed as Prince for Halloween like 30 years ago, and maybe 25. And people were like, Oh my god, you're the best. He was already a musician.

[16:07] Heather Vickery: Really? Was he impersonating?

[16:09] Alan Seales: So he he liked singing and everything and playing?

[16:11] Heather Vickery: Wow.

[16:11] Alan Seales: Yeah, and he he met Prince a couple times.

[16:14] Heather Vickery: Wow.

[16:14] Alan Seales: As he was such a good impersonator.

[16:16] Heather Vickery: Oh yeah, long, long time.

[16:17] Alan Seales: Yeah, wow. Long time. Well, I I like that we're just sitting here like context switching and bullshitting and recording the conversation we normally have when we get together anyway.

[16:29] Heather Vickery: This is an inside peek.

[16:30] Alan Seales: Well, that was the feedback we got this year was we would just want more of you and Alan, Heather and Alan, the banter, like so. Here it is.

[16:37] Heather Vickery: Here it is.

[16:38] Alan Seales: Well, okay, so back to 2025. Is that what we're here to talk about? Um, that's fine. 2025, like what what what was your peak in your peak and pit?

[16:48] Heather Vickery: Pig Peak and Valley, P Peach and Pit.

[16:51] Alan Seales: Peak Peach and Pit. Oh, that was that was Peach and Pit, uh, that's Stevie, right? Rone and Thor Rose and Thorn. My pal Stevie says Peach in the Pit.

[16:59] Heather Vickery: Yeah, Peach and Pit, Rose and Thorn, Peak, High and Low. Oh, I feel like that's really hard. I I spent m most of this year really practicing releasing and being present and not writing highs and lows because it's exhausting. Uh I'd not getting worked up about things that were challenging. I did just pay off uh two days ago. I paid off a massive, massive debt that I've been working on for two years.

[17:31] Alan Seales: Nice.

[17:31] Heather Vickery: It's the Costa Rica retreat, which is happening in three weeks. Right. I'm so excited. I was gonna ask you. So there's still time to register if you guys want to come wanna come to Costa Rica. I have a couple spots left. There's still time to register. But this was such a huge financial commitment on my part. And I've been paying it off forever. And I made that final payment and I got up and I danced. This is actually fascinating. I I posted on Substack Notes. Um please celebrate with me. I just paid off a massive debt that's been hanging over my head for two years, and I feel so good. And it has like almost 3,000 likes and almost 200 comments. Like you never know what's gonna go viral. But I'm like, thanks, gal. Yeah, so cool. Appreciate the support.

[18:10] Alan Seales: So cool. Very relatable.

[18:12] Heather Vickery: Oh yeah, I guess. Yeah. So highs. Um speaking of highs.

[18:18] Alan Seales: I know, right? That's that's not my jam. That's you, baby.

[18:21] Heather Vickery: No, I don't know. I'm not I'm not getting high that way these days. Not with this cough. Edibles. Anyway, you're high. Go ahead. You're head.

[18:27] Alan Seales: You know, I think that I think that was my high, actually, was just um really learning how to control myself and to not get worked up and to trust the process and to really surrender and be present. Like that was amazing. That was amazing. And then my low was there was a time where I thought I'm I'm not gonna be able to pull off this retreat. I'm not gonna pull it off. I'm not gonna have the I don't have enough people attending. I don't have enough money to pay this off. And uh there was about two weeks there where I thought, oh, I'm really fucking screwed here.

[19:00] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[19:00] Alan Seales: I heard you talk to me about it in those two weeks. Yeah. It was so stressful, but I stayed, but I stayed level and I stayed calm and I got creative and how I was gonna problem solve, and I found ways to work things out, and that's that's what you gotta do.

[19:14] Heather Vickery: Good. We're gonna take a quick break. Stay tuned for more of the episode.

[19:19] Alan Seales: And now we're back. I'm trying to think of what happened this year, but it was just like done.

[19:24] Heather Vickery: You did a lot.

[19:25] Alan Seales: You did a lot. I did a lot. I one of my highs is I became a Broadway lead producer. So that's that's in the works. Um we're gonna announce with an exclusive and a major publication in about two week and a half. So that's a week and a half as we're recording this on December 31st, 2025. Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, we shoot without a script. Um no, it's 24th. Sorry. December 24th, 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It's night before Christmas, not night before New Year's.

[19:59] Heather Vickery: Okay, you don't have to have a very good Broadway recall to get it together.

[20:05] Alan Seales: 525,600 minutes. The okay, so yeah, that was that was one of my highs. Um I spent a lot of this year consciously trying to stay connected with my good friends.

[20:17] Heather Vickery: Oh, I love that.

[20:18] Alan Seales: Because like my time, I was kind of realizing this, like my time goes to so much of as it should, like your family, your kids, the immediate problems of um uh being in your I'm now in my exactly in my mid forties, 45.

[20:34] Heather Vickery: Oh, yeah.

[20:35] Alan Seales: Yeah, babe. And like, you know, there we're be called we're being called the sandwich, the little sandwich decade generation now, so we're like taking care of our tween or young kids while our aging parents, if we're lucky enough to still have them, are having their own problems that we're taking. So we're like taking care of both ends.

[20:52] Heather Vickery: I'm still taking care of both ends. I'm sick.

[20:55] Alan Seales: And um the uh uh but yeah, like to m to keep myself sort of um from focused on and not letting like the beggar stuff sort of pull me around is is just to be like, okay, what's the through line? It's even though all of us are all feeling pretty shitty in the same way we can all talk to each other and complain about it.

[21:20] Heather Vickery: That's true.

[21:21] Alan Seales: But then there's also like Misery loves company. Yeah, so it's there's a couple there's like a couple of my really good friends that you know we go through our highs and lows together and we've shared some things this year that uh we haven't talked about before, and then like um yeah, it's it's just been so that's been good. Um that's probably my two highs. And then my valleys. Let's see, one of my valleys I'm also along I guess also age-wise, I'm you know, going through the existential stuff of like I'm not doing enough with my life. I'm not midlife crisis, like I really understand midlife crisis now.

[21:54] Heather Vickery: You do so much.

[21:55] Alan Seales: And it's and I never feel like it's enough. I really don't. I'm like, I could do more. My brain is amazing. Every like I feel like every week you share something new with me that you built or designed, and you use tools and resources, but you come up with these things to solve all these problems and to m make things work for people. It's like I think it's amazing.

[22:16] Heather Vickery: Thank you.

[22:17] Alan Seales: Thank you. No, I I I don't know. It's the it's like a car is a tool, a computer is a tool, a microwave is a tool. It's like the the amount of tools we have been thrust that have been thrust at us in 2025 alone.

[22:29] Heather Vickery: Yeah.

[22:30] Alan Seales: Yeah. Exponential technological growth and say what you want about AI, but it's here, and if you don't use it, you will be left behind. And I just need it to be more environmentally conscious.

[22:41] Heather Vickery: And it'll get there.

[22:42] Alan Seales: Literally killing fucking world.

[23:00] Heather Vickery: It'll get there. I agree. And you're using it in a really smart way. Um I think didn't you tell me yesterday that your next little project is gonna be giving us a fresh new website this year?

[23:12] Alan Seales: Yeah, I'm gonna start that I'll start that on the side of my side project.

[23:12] Heather Vickery: On the side of your side project. I can't wait to see.

[23:18] Alan Seales: I have been popping up websites left and right because I want to start building a portfolio. So I'm like, well, who can I what can I build? Who can I build this for? And all these little custom things. Um I I've got goals for 26, and that'll be what we talk about next. We can talk about our goals. But I've got goals of twenty six to like bring this technology into theater into the Broadway space.

[23:36] Heather Vickery: Yeah and start having because we can stand up applications that can help people become more social, more connected uh to the show, and and it's at the end of the day, it's still a marketing ploy, but it's it these things can be built so efficiently and so quickly, and I I still haven't s found anybody in the space that kind of like wants to push this like I do. And so I'm I've been making proof of concepts for uh for a couple producers that have gotten some some good feedback so far. So I'll follow up in the new year and and see where we can go. But um excited. There's a lot of stuff that we can do on the horizon, and there's just new tools being stood up every day that really, really can be helpful and help you become a more efficient person so you can do more.

[24:24] Heather Vickery: That's what I'm using.

[24:25] Alan Seales: But you have to know you have to know it's out there, and then you have to know how to use it to do what you want it to do.

[24:31] Heather Vickery: But I struggle with that.

[24:33] Alan Seales: You're very good at it.

[24:34] Heather Vickery: But no, no, no. Because yes and no, you have to know that it's out there, but but what I like legitimately, every time I start something new, I say, here's what I want to do. Here's the problem I'm trying to solve. And I'm literally like, I'm I'm there's no secret. I'm literally having a conversation with um, it was ChatGPT, now it's Gemini. Once ChatGPT releases a language model that's better than Gemini, I'll probably go back. Like I I I'm not married to one thing. I just want something I uh uh I ask I I ask these uh these bots. I'm I I talk to it and I'm like, here's the problem trying to solve. What am I gonna do? Um what are the best options for me to do accomplish this? List pros and cons.

And so it gives me a little thing of like, here's this, here's this, here's this. I'm like, oh I know about four out of those five of those, but what's that fifth one? And then I'm and so I constantly start learning. And then I'm like, okay, so give me a prompt for for the for that one. So everything we've talked about, give me an exact prompt to feed to Claude code so I can go out there and do this. And then it literally tells me how like I'm I'm it's it's Daisy Chain of constantly asking every one of these systems how to feed the next one, and it doesn't have feelings that get hurt. It it doesn't have any preference. It's like, okay, here you go.

[25:54] Heather Vickery: You do sometimes yeah, like you're so stupid. Why did you just make that up? Even though I've told you not to make things up, why did you just make that up?

[26:00] Alan Seales: Well, I yeah, one of my one of my things, I'm like, remember in everything I'm setting up, remember, always use verified facts. That is always what I say to every system I talk to. And so it and it it does, you know. I'm like, don't I'm like always be critical, always question my judgment, always use verified facts. I don't want a yes a yes person, a yes machine.

[26:22] Heather Vickery: A yes machine.

[26:23] Alan Seales: I want a yes bother.

[26:24] Alan Seales: I want a critical assistant.

[26:26] Heather Vickery: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's important.

[26:28] Alan Seales: Well, I just think it's brilliant what you're building. So yeah, let's talk about 2026 goals. My 2026 goals for this show, and I think we've already let one ship fly. It sailed right past us, but maybe we can reconfigure it. Is I want to do our in-person episode and party with past guests in New York.

[26:51] Heather Vickery: Okay. You got a venue?

[26:52] Alan Seales: We keep talking about it. We just never nailed this down.

[26:55] Heather Vickery: Yeah, let's do it. We need to do it. And I promised Tessa she could come back.

[26:59] Alan Seales: Let's do it after April, because my show will be open in April.

[27:04] Heather Vickery: And I get to go.

[27:06] Alan Seales: Yes, you will. You will so excited. Is your show opening on Broadway?

[27:09] Heather Vickery: No, it's on Broadway. We're doing our out of town in we're rehearsing all of March, opening all of April.

[27:16] Alan Seales: There's the dope. And we're walking through it, and then if reviews go well in our out of town, I can't say where it is yet, as we're recording. But then yeah, we've got some theater owners who are like, if it's good, let's talk.

[27:33] Heather Vickery: So exciting. Okay, so that's one of my podcast goals. And I just want to keep having cool people on. I love having the authors on. I do feel like we didn't have quite as many theater people this year, and I would like to get back to having a nice balance there. Although I loved all of our guests. I mean, I think they were amazing, but we should have some musicians too.

[27:54] Alan Seales: Have we had the like straight musicians?

[27:56] Heather Vickery: I don't think so.

[27:57] Alan Seales: Yeah, a couple, not maybe not only exclusive.

[28:01] Heather Vickery: We've had some crossover.

[28:02] Alan Seales: Right. Like we had Morgan James, that was years ago.

[28:06] Heather Vickery: Um, Lena Hall's a musician.

[28:08] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[28:09] Heather Vickery: She's in a band.

[28:09] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah, I think Morgan's probably the only one. Well, and Morgan comes from the theater world though.

[28:14] Heather Vickery: Exactly. Yeah. So if you know any artists, that'd be fun. Um, so that's for me with the show. Those are the two things that I really want to do. But I just want to keep doing it. Like, I just I agree with you. This was the highlight of the year. It's my favorite thing. Even if I'm tired or I'm dragging or I'm bored, I know I'm gonna come in and be with you and whoever our guest is, and I'm gonna be happy when it's over.

[28:35] Alan Seales: Me too. Um, and I love the feedback. Uh, one of the guests we had on, it was our 100th episode. We celebrated our 100th episode this year. We had um Bianca Delasio.

[28:45] Heather Vickery: Delecio, did I say her name right?

[28:46] Alan Seales: Delossi.

[28:47] Heather Vickery: Uh, she was neat. She's a neat person. And the feedback I got from listeners was that that was the most fun they'd ever heard me interact with again.

[28:59] Alan Seales: So I thought that was interesting. Why was that?

[29:02] Heather Vickery: Because it was the most memey in that conversation.

[29:04] Alan Seales: Like Mimi from the Drew Carey show?

[29:06] Heather Vickery: No, like me, me, as in the work that I do and then what I bring to the world. You remember Mimi? That was a great character.

[29:13] Alan Seales: Um, yeah. No, I like that a lot. And what so did you take are you carrying that forward? Like just in terms of how we've been interviewing since you you haven't mentioned that to me.

[29:24] Heather Vickery: Yeah, no, I'm trying. Well, this is the same uh listener who is uh also a friend of mine who fangirls out over you. So she's listening right now. She's like, You're talking about me again on the podcast, but it's my favorite thing because you're just Alan.

[29:37] Alan Seales: Well, I'm glad we have one consistent listener.

[29:40] Heather Vickery: Like, why don't you fangirl over me?

[29:42] Alan Seales: What? No.

[29:43] Heather Vickery: Like, well, I already know you.

[29:44] Alan Seales: Yeah, I'm like, okay.

[29:45] Heather Vickery: Yeah, she already knows you. You're not the special.

[29:47] Alan Seales: I'm nothing special either, I promise. But you know what? I've known a lot of people to fan over you. When we first that that podcast conference where we first met and we became instant pals, there was one man who was literally coming unhinged at the fact that I was gonna do a podcast with Alan Seales from the Broadway Podcast Network. He was like, what? What? BPN? What? You know Alan? He was like losing his mind.

[30:14] Heather Vickery: And I'm like, yeah.

[30:17] Alan Seales: So you're kind of a big deal.

[30:19] Heather Vickery: Well, I'll take it. I'll take it. Thank you. That's what I should do in 2026. Less eh, more thank you.

[30:27] Alan Seales: Yes. You should. Trust yourself more.

[30:29] Heather Vickery: All right. And allow yourself to feel successful. Feel success.

[30:35] Alan Seales: That's hard.

[30:35] Heather Vickery: It's gonna be hard, but I will do it. I will send this clip to me every time. Every time I'm like, I'm not doing enough. You're like, feel successful.

[30:43] Alan Seales: It leads to that's the thing about allowing yourself to feel successful is it leads to more success. Because when you just beat yourself up over not having done enough, you hold back.

[30:53] Heather Vickery: That's true. I like that a lot, actually. What's your 2026 goal for the show? And then we'll do our personal.

[31:01] Alan Seales: For the show? Um, I want to see, I want to see like 10x growth. Listener growth. That's what I would like. Yeah. I would I would like to have us moderate a panel or two at a conference.

[31:16] Heather Vickery: And then see 10x growth to put it quantifiable.

[31:20] Alan Seales: Let's fucking go.

[31:22] Heather Vickery: Let's fucking go. Yeah. It's on. And in the woo-woo spiritual world, we go, and so it is. It's already done.

[31:30] Alan Seales: Did you just spray like spritz water at me like I'm a cat?

[31:33] Heather Vickery: You just you just like release whatever's holding you back. Get rid of anything that's not that's that's in the way.

[31:41] Alan Seales: Sure.

[31:42] Heather Vickery: Okay. Shake it off. Like Taylor Swift.

[31:44] Alan Seales: Get it back to Taylor Swift again.

[31:46] Heather Vickery: Taylor Swift. T Swift. Remember the episode we did where with in the closing we spent a lot of time talking about her song with Travis Kelsey and...

[32:00] Alan Seales: Yes.

[32:00] Heather Vickery: That's funny. So what are your personal or professional outside of the podcast goals for the coming year?

[32:05] Alan Seales: I would like to have a very successful show. Um like a theater show.

[32:12] Heather Vickery: Can't you can't tell people the name of it yet either, can you?

[32:14] Alan Seales: Well, this is dropping no, not yet, because this is this will drop today as we're recording it. But I can't say it yet because we don't want to break the exclusive in this big publication. So um yeah, can't say the name of it yet. In two weeks, I can, and believe me, I will. And let's see. So I want a successful show. I want like the family to continue to be healthy, of course. The kids are just in a place now where they are so annoyingly beautiful.

[32:45] Heather Vickery: Just wait.

[32:46] Alan Seales: And smelly.

[32:46] Heather Vickery: And smelly. And I want them to be yeah, that's a goal for 26, less smelly. But let's see. Uh I uh professionally like I would like to have a steady stream of consulting business developing custom apps for people.

[33:05] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[33:06] Heather Vickery: And that's what that's why I'm building like these little websites and these little um like applications. And I'm doing a lot for BPN. I'm doing a lot for um Purple Acorn Network, the other podcast network that I consult with. Um, and I've developed tons of automation for them and built on top of Megaphone, which is the host or podcast host where everything is, source of truth. On top of like filling in Megaphone's missing gaps, filling in Spotify's missing gaps. I'm just making all these little automations everywhere. And I, you know, it's like one of those things just needs to get noticed, and then um, you know, brought I don't know, I just want to like keep making these things for people. I love to create and talking about you know uh satisfying both sides of the hemisphere to be able to create logically to use these tools to make automation and make people's lives more efficient. I just like making. So I want to be I want to have a steady stream of that.

[33:58] Heather Vickery: It's that generator in you, the response. I see this need, I can solve this problem. I can fix that, I can build that, I can do that, I can do something about that. Going back for the pharmacy, I had another idea in the car of an app, and I'm like, I can't I can't I need to finish the first 50. Anyway, what are your goals for 20?

[34:16] Alan Seales: My so I would like to actually write this next book, which has changed titles and topics several times in the last four months, but I would like to get it at least a messy first draft out. Really have to get my shit together to do that. Um I launched, okay. So, you know, I'm a little woo, uh or a lot woo. I get messages in my dreams right before it's time to wake up, I get really clear messages.

[34:46] Heather Vickery: Um if you get the lottery numbers, can you share them?

[34:50] Alan Seales: Yeah, no, I wish I got that. Um, but it's things that I'm told to do. Now, some people could say that could come from God or it could come from the universe. I really think it just comes from me. It's my inner knowing telling me, like, go do this thing. And throughout this year, when I've done it, I've seen really incredible results very quickly. But one of the things that showed up to me a couple of times, so I finally took action on it, was to create a Substack publication about books that I read. So I think I'm closing out the year at 173 books. I could finish the one I'm reading right now. It might be 1730.

[35:21] Heather Vickery: 173 this year.

[35:23] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[35:23] Heather Vickery: Wow.

[35:24] Alan Seales: Yeah. And I talk about it a lot on BookTok, but something said to do it on Substack. So the publication is called The Reading Well. And well is of course multiple, right? It yeah, it's like read well, healthy life expansion, and also a well as a reservoir, a place that you go to gather um nourishment, water, like knowledge.

[35:46] Heather Vickery: So the reading well.

[35:47] Alan Seales: So I just I did it. I launched it. I've had several posts come out about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it and why I'm doing it, and I don't know why, and it's gonna take a shit ton of time. AI will help with this because I can sort things, but um, something tells me that there's some big reason, whether it's profitable or not, like something exciting's gonna come from doing this. I just don't know what it is.

[36:10] Heather Vickery: So growing the reading well, I have at this moment I have nine subscribers. So if anybody would like to subscribe to the reading well, um, and but in in the process of doing that, I have updated um my bookshop.org store. So I have my own bookstore, and on that bookstore, we have Heather's favorites, we have the people who were on my old podcast, the Brave Files, and then we have the Was It Chance podcast guest library. So everyone we've had on the show that has a book out is there. We've updated the links. Alan's done this through all of his magical technical tools, just updated everything. I don't know how you do it. I just love it, you make shit happen. Um, if you want to get a book and you don't want to support the big Amazon machine and you want to support me in an indie bookstore, you can follow the link and go to bookshop.org. You can get all the books from all the people that we've ever had on the show.

And then I guess you know look. So I want that publication to grow. And I want um I want to continue with ease. I want um abundance that feels easy and fun and focused and where I can just trust myself and the process and leave room for abundance in amazing and unexpected ways.

[37:27] Alan Seales: I like that well wipe wipe spray spray and so thank you.

[37:33] Heather Vickery: I love that and so it is and so it is I'll probably plan a new retreat too but one that's not as daunting as this one. This was a big thing and you pulled it off.

[37:44] Alan Seales: Well paid for it you're going in three weeks.

[37:51] Heather Vickery: Well happy new year and prosperous 26 and get what what else do people say during this time?

[38:05] Alan Seales: Stay warm.

[38:05] Heather Vickery: I went to stay warm. I don't really follow um the calendar as far as goal planning and intentions all that I usually follow nature. So I do all my stuff in the spring instead of in the new year. Uh because it's cold and it's snowy and it's everything is resting. Nature's resting I'm supposed to be resting.

[38:25] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[38:27] Heather Vickery: So I rest. But yeah, but I you know I just hope that everyone who's listening, I hope you enjoy the show. I hope something lights you up, makes you laugh, gets you inspired or excited, and that you'll keep listening. Share it with other people. We work really hard. Um we have a lot of fun, but we put a lot of time and effort into it. Especially Alan.

[38:51] Alan Seales: He does all the editing.

[38:53] Heather Vickery: So if it sucks, you're welcome.

[38:56] Alan Seales: No.

[38:58] Heather Vickery: No. I'm grateful for you.

[39:00] Alan Seales: I'm so grateful for you.

[39:01] Heather Vickery: Me too. I'm grateful for you. Um that's just well you guys, this is Happy New Year. You've been listening to Was It Chance, the podcast about embracing opportunity and taking intentional risk for your creative life. Come back next year.

[39:12] Alan Seales: I'm Heather Vickery.

[39:15] Heather Vickery: That's tomorrow.

[39:16] Alan Seales: No. Come back tomorrow. Listen to past episodes.

[39:19] Heather Vickery: And I'm Alan Seales.

[39:23] Alan Seales: Happy New Year.