211. Mark Ballas: Dancing with the Stars, Broadway, Musician, and more?! BTS of his insanely successful creative career, knowing when to pursue the next venture, and always being intentional

Summary

Podcast Summary: Trading Secrets Episode 211 – Mark Ballas: Dancing with the Stars, Broadway, Musician, and More

Release Date: December 2, 2024

In Episode 211 of Trading Secrets, hosted by Jason Tartick from Audioboom Studios, listeners are treated to an in-depth conversation with Mark Ballas, a multifaceted artist renowned for his extensive career in dance, Broadway, music, and television. This episode delves into the intricacies of Mark’s creative journey, his strategic career decisions, personal life insights, and the wisdom he has garnered over two decades in the public eye.

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1. Introduction to Mark Ballas

Jason Tartick kicks off the episode by highlighting Mark Ballas’s impressive resume, emphasizing his 20-season tenure on Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), his role as a judge, and his ventures in Broadway and music with his wife, BC. Jason underscores the value of Mark’s insights, promising that listeners will glean lessons applicable to their own financial and professional lives.

Notable Quote:

“Mark is just a true artist that has unbelievable discipline and meticulous energy. That is such a craft and you're going to learn so much about the success he's had and how he's gotten there.” — Jason Tartick [00:00]

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2. Mark Ballas’s Career Path

Mark Ballas provides a comprehensive overview of his career, tracing his roots from competitive ballroom dancing to becoming a staple on DWTS. He shares his transition from competing to being a judge, highlighting the differences and challenges inherent in each role.

Key Topics:

• Competitive Dance Background: Mark discusses his early years competing in ballroom and Latin dance, noting the demanding schedules and high level of dedication required.
• DWTS Journey: From his initial seasons to becoming one of the show's most successful pros, Mark reflects on the evolution of the show and his personal growth within it.
• Broadway and Music: Mark elaborates on his experiences on Broadway, specifically his role in Kinky Boots, and his musical endeavors with Alexander Jean alongside his wife, BC.

Notable Quote:

“I try my best to apply myself 100% to everything I'm doing. 200% possible.” — Mark Ballas [08:09]

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3. Transitioning to a Judge on DWTS

Mark delves into his recent role as a judge on DWTS, discussing the preparation involved, the responsibilities he bears, and the emotional aspects of judging while having a rich history as a competitor.

Key Insights:

• Judging vs. Competing: Mark contrasts the analytical and mentorship aspects of judging with the competitive nature of being a pro dancer.
• Preparation for Judging: He shares his meticulous approach to preparing for his judging role, including watching previous seasons and practicing scoring.
• Emotional Balance: Mark touches on the emotional strain of balancing personal hardships, such as a miscarriage during a season, with his professional responsibilities.

Notable Quote:

“As of now, I feel like the competitive side is closed. After Charlie, I kind of made... I'm retiring as a professional. Just from the 10 weeks of competing.” — Mark Ballas [13:14]

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4. Personal Life and Future Plans

Jason transitions to personal updates, focusing on Mark's family life, his recent move considerations, and future aspirations beyond DWTS.

Key Topics:

• Family and Parenthood: Mark shares the joy of becoming a father and the intentional steps he and his wife took to prioritize family over social media.
• Relocation Plans: He discusses potential moves to Florida and New York, contemplating real estate investments and establishing a hybrid living-working space.
• Creative Aspirations: Mark expresses his desire to return to Broadway, delve deeper into choreography, and continue his musical projects with his wife.

Notable Quote:

“What’s next, what do you see as next?... I would love to be a part of an original Broadway cast at some point.” — Mark Ballas [33:43]

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5. Overcoming Challenges and Personal Struggles

Mark opens up about the significant challenges he has faced, including periods of doubt, dealing with imposter syndrome, and personal loss. His candid reflections provide a raw look into the mental and emotional resilience required to sustain a high-profile career.

Key Topics:

• Handling Downtime: Mark discusses his struggles with periods of inactivity and how he learned to use these times for self-improvement rather than falling into self-doubt.
• Imposter Syndrome: He shares experiences of comparing himself to peers and how maintaining a supportive network helped him navigate these feelings.
• Personal Loss: Mark recounts the devastating experience of a miscarriage during a DWTS season and how it impacted both his personal and professional life.

Notable Quote:

“The mind is like a parachute, and it works best when it’s open.” — Mark Ballas [62:25]

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6. Philosophies and Trading Secrets

Towards the end of the episode, Mark shares his personal trading secret, rooted in an upbringing that emphasized openness and constant learning. He attributes much of his success to his disciplined approach and the support system around him.

Key Insight:

• Open-Mindedness: Mark emphasizes the importance of being open to new ideas and experiences, which has allowed him to diversify his career and remain adaptable.

Notable Quote:

“My dad said this to me all the time. It’s like the mind is like a parachute, and it works best when it's open.” — Mark Ballas [62:23]

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7. Closing Thoughts and Final Reflections

Jason concludes the episode by reflecting on the profound insights shared by Mark, highlighting the importance of intentionality, discipline, and openness in both personal and professional realms. He encourages listeners to implement some of these lessons into their lives to navigate the financial and career landscapes more effectively.

Notable Quote:

“Be open to communication. Be open to trying new things. Don’t let people tell you no.” — Mark Ballas [63:19]

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Conclusion

Episode 211 of Trading Secrets offers a compelling deep dive into Mark Ballas’s illustrious career and personal philosophies. From his disciplined approach to artistry to his heartfelt reflections on personal loss and growth, Mark provides listeners with valuable lessons on navigating success with intention and resilience. The episode serves as both an inspirational narrative and a practical guide for anyone looking to excel in their respective fields.

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Where to Follow Mark Ballas:

• Instagram: @arcbattance
• TikTok: @arcbattance
• Music with BC (Alexander Jean): @lexandercheanofficial

Trading Secret Shared by Mark Ballas:

“The mind is like a parachute, and it works best when it’s open.” — Mark Ballas [62:25]

Listeners are encouraged to embrace open-mindedness and continuous learning to unlock their own potential, much like Mark has throughout his diverse and successful career.

Transcript

[Jason Tardick]

Foreign welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host Jason Tardick and welcome to the pre market trading segment where I'll tell you a little bit about what you can expect today. A quick little market update or financial tip which would be a little bit different today. And then an update from my personal life. First and foremost, I'm going to tell you this intro is going to be quick because this episode is a little longer. But every single word that the one and only the 20 season legend of Dancing with the Stars and guest judge this past year, Mark Ballas has to say is worth it. I don't care who you are or what you do in life, there is going to be something out of this episode that you will take and you will think about long, hard and intentionally for at least a week or even longer. Mark is just a true artist that has unbelievable discipline and meticulous energy. That is such a craft and you're going to learn so much about the success he's had and how he's gotten there. Now we tell stories about, you know, he talks a little bit about his wife who wrote a massive song for Beyonce. We talk about Len Goodman. We talk about his family ties to Dancing with the Stars. We talk about Dancing with the Stars. We talk about behind the scenes as a judge on Dancing with the Stars Stars. We talk about the finances of Broadway in Dancing with the Stars. I mean, we cover A to Z. And if you don't know who Mark Ballas is somehow, some way, you're living under a rock. I can promise you after this episode, you'll never forget him. It's rare that we have Trading Secrets episodes where I say I'm going to take away something from this episode, incorporate it into my life in perpetuity. It's rare that I say that this episode. There's probably three or four things I'll be taking away and implementing into my life in perpetuity. And stay tuned to the recap, especially this one. There's just, it's, it's a, it's a great recap, David and I really, really get into it. Again. The best thing you could do to help this show is just hit the subscribe button on YouTube and wherever you're listening right now, please hit subscribe. It helps us out a lot. And again, we have some giveaways going. So make sure to give us five stars. And when you give us five stars, just put your @ symbol for your social media handles and we'll reach out to you if you want quick little Holiday shopping tip I'm going to give, usually I give a financial tip. This is a quick holiday shopping tip I'm going to give. People are getting dressed up for different events and holiday parties and all these things. And I have found that probably one of the highest profiting, biggest margin industry is apparel. So for some of these parties that you're just going for, once you want to get the quick picture, I have a suggestion for you. Go to Pinterest, go to Instagram, find the outfits you like, screenshot them, take that picture. You can actually upload that picture into Amazon and then Amazon will show you a list of apparel products similar to that that you can buy at about 1/5 the price. So you might see someone wearing like a sick Gucci coat and you could, you know, there's not all the stupid symbols everywhere, but it's just fresh. It's probably a $2,000 coat. Take that picture, put it into Amazon and you could find almost the same exact looking coat for 1/20 the cost. That's my quick little shopping trading secret. This episode. And for a little personal update, a lot of action was, you guys know I was in Vegas for F1 with some work stuff. I have been in Charlotte with my parents for the holiday which has been really, really, really nice. So good to be back here. It's also, you know, I think about like when I open up to you guys on a personal level, you know, sitting at Thanksgiving dinner with, you know, mom to my right, dad to my left and me and you know, this was like the quietest of Thanksgivings I've had, especially at dinner that I can really remember honestly. And even last year, obviously when things didn't work out, I did have the dogs with me, which was nice. But you know, it was, you know, it's just me that's no longer the case anymore. And for me a little bit of a wake up call is like, while I was so grateful for that, it was so good to have a healthy mom and a healthy dad and a healthy me. It was like, okay, this is great, but this is, I want more. And when I say I want more, I'm so ready for like that next step in life. And over like the future years of Thanksgiving, I want that picture to change and I want it to change a lot. So that's my little update. Now this week we are going to, I say we. I am going to Florida actually. So there's different areas in Florida I'm going to look at to consider buying a home on the east coast of Florida. Though I know it's probably some, some people turn their head. Excuse me, east coast of Florida. The thought process here is I want to establish residency in Florida. And my thought process is great place to visit, great place to rent the house out should I need to rent it. Real estate has, has been pulled back a little bit. And on top of it, obviously no state income tax is a great incentive. So that's kind of what I'm thinking. And then I'm thinking about getting a place up in New York that would be kind of a hybrid of like an office and a place to live too. So I could work there, podcast there, I could stay there should I'm up there for work. Because my God, prices of hotels in New York now are like, just ridiculous. So that's like a very early personal update. None of it is certain. It's very preliminary. But more to come, more to come. I think my time in Nashville, it's coming to an end as I have, you know, I have some friends there and stuff, of course, some good friends, but little to no reason left to be there. Okay, that's my personal update. Now enough of me. Let's ring in the bell with the one, the only, Mark Ballas. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by professional dancer, choreographer, singer, songwriter, musician, actor. I mean, I could just keep going, but I'll take a breather there. He's very well known for his time on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Mark Ballas. From 2007 to 2022, Mark has set and broken numerous records and established himself as one of the top dancers and choreographers in Dancing with the Stars history, having tallied three titles, season six, eight and 31, and four runner up finishes. So seasons 14, 19, 22, 25. Outside of his time on the show, he has gathered numerous acting accolades and also formed a pop rock musical duo with his wife BC called Alexander Jean. We are going to discuss professional and financial ins and outs of his career in dancing, acting, music and where he sees his future of his career evolving to next. Mark, I only touched the surface of some of the stuff you did in that intro, but thank you for being on Training Secrets.

[Mark Ballas]

Thank you for having me. You've done your research.

[Jason Tardick]

An artist in its pure, purest form. That's purest form. Now, typically what I'll do, Mark, is we'll start from like the ground up to get you where you are today. But there's so many moving parts in your life currently. I want to kind of start right now. You have this interesting career side of you that is so successful and so massive, but also a bit of a mystery. Right. You come in, you come out, you're hot, you're out. Social media, nowhere to be found. Now you got engagement off the charts. So talk to me just a little bit about the thought process of some of the breaks that you've taken.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

With social media, with dancing and what, you know, just. Why is that? Talk to me about it.

[Mark Ballas]

I think honestly, and I've talked about this in the past with friends and stuff, it's like I'm the type of person when I'm. When I'm doing something, I'm all in. I want to know everything about it. My buddy Derek, who's also on the show, we grew up together, we've trained together. We moved out here to do the show together. And that's something he'll always say, whether it's learning how to make the perfect vanilla latte or like, I was a big whiskey guy for a minute and I would make my own ice cubes, and they had to be super clear. And then from little things like that to even to dancing playing music, guitar playing, when I'm in, I'm all in. And then also when I'm taking a break, I'm taking a break, you know? So I try my best to apply myself 100% to everything I'm doing. 200% possible.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

Otherwise, I just can't. I just can't. Like, I have to be.

[Jason Tardick]

Is there. Is there, like, a little bit of perfectionist in there, then? So if you're doing it, it's got to be perfect. And if you're not doing it, I.

[Mark Ballas]

Don'T know if it's. It's about being a perfectionist for me, but it is giving more about applying myself to the fullest that I possibly can. I hate to look back and think, I could have tried harder. I could have learned more. I'm a sucker for information on whatever it is that I'm showing interest in and whether that's being, like, now I'll just use Dancing with the Stars as an example, like being a pro for 20 seasons and kind of seeing every possible outcome that there can be. Like, I've been eliminated first. I have won it before. I've overscored, underscored, I've been in the final. I've not made the fight, you know? Yeah, I still. On my last season that I did just two years ago, I still feel like I was learning. I trained intensely for it. I flew my mom out to get me in shape for it.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

So I try to think of myself as always learning no matter what it is and what the craft is. I never, I try to be intentional about. Oh, there's always new ways to do training. There's always a different way to look at it. Even though you've done the same thing on repeat, it may be the same 10 dances, but there's so many more ways to do them that I have yet to do. And there's so many more things about that that I'm still learning. Like, I'll have conversations with my mom, who is one of the best coaches in that field and one of the.

[Jason Tardick]

Best in the world, and we'll talk about your.

[Mark Ballas]

She'll give me tidbits like, after all these years, I didn't ever think of it.

[Jason Tardick]

I mean, she's referred to as Queen of Latin.

[Mark Ballas]

She is.

[Jason Tardick]

I mean, she is one of the most renowned and decorated dancers in the world. I'm gonna ask you about that. Before I do, though, let's stay on this topic of taking a break and knowing when to do it. I think, of course, artists like yourself struggle with that. I struggle with it. Anybody that's listening to this teacher, doctor, lawyer, attorney, whatever they are, whatever they're doing, that's the biggest issue, I think, especially this, like in 2024, these connections, these phones, they. They drain us. So season.

[Mark Ballas]

I agree.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So season 31, you win with Charlie D'Amelio.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

You guys absolutely kill it. You get, I mean, just. It was unbelievable, the finale. What made you decide that season that you're like, I'm going to take a break. I don't even know if I'm gonna come back. What was the breaking point? How do you identify?

[Mark Ballas]

I had taken a long break before that season and it was actually a five year break, which was the longest one I'd taken. And then before the season before that, I'd taken a year break as well. I wouldn't say I took like a social media break or any of that. It was just a break from competing on the show. So after Charlie, I was very intentional knowing that that was my 20th season going in. And when I came back into it, a big part of the reason I wanted to come back was because of the producers that were in charge. It was Conrad Green, which is. And Dina Katz, all the original, like the originals, who started it. And that was like, very exciting for me to go back to it.

[Jason Tardick]

But I was just question, have they cycled out and then back In.

[Mark Ballas]

Yes. So Conrad started it and then he did. He ran the show for a long time and made was a big part of the success, along with a fantastic team of other producers.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

And Dina Katz, who's been casting it from the get go, who is brilliant at what she does. So when I got the call about coming back for 31, you know, I was like, I was like, well, who's producing it? And it was like, Conrad. I was like, okay, I'm. I'm interested.

[Jason Tardick]

You know, did you get the calls the year prior? You just turned it down or did you not get the call?

[Mark Ballas]

I had been intentional about doing other things. Like I've done some Broadway shows. My wife and I do our music gig and we travel and we tour and play shows and stuff like that, and I was just doing other things. So there wasn't like the. The phone ringing every season. However, like, I always. I never felt like the door was closed, especially like I have great relationships with the producers, and I'm sure if we had got on a call and had an open discussion about, hey, do you want to come back? What are you thinking? Blah, blah, blah, blah, sure, that, that would have been there. But during those five years, I was very much on a. It's not retirement because I never formally said that, but a hiatus. I was doing other things.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay, so we saw you this year as a judge. Now the big question, I mean, when I said that I'm having you on the podcast, the number one thing I got was, will we ever see him as a dancing pro again? So what is your thought when you think about career navigation in the future as a pro. As a pro on the show.

[Mark Ballas]

As of now, I feel like the competitive side is closed. After Charlie, I kind of made. I voiced those words of like, I'm retiring as a professional. Just from the 10 weeks of competing. 20 seasons, I feel like was a. A lot and also like a monumental time in my life. You know, before Charlie's season, my wife and I had been trying for family and. And now we have a son. And there's just some. A lot of other things that I'm excited about right now. Number one, being a dad, you know, so as far as being a pro, look, I'm very much so a never say never person. And I'm always open to a conversation.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

But as of now, I couldn't see myself competing as of now.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay. When you say the competing side feels like that day is closed, is that something dj, as an athlete, do you just know that or is it Because I would assume that's been instilled on you since day one. You look at all your accolades like competitors. Probably one of your top 5 words to describe you does one day it just say, like, I did it?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. You know, like, before I did Dancing with the Stars, I was. I did compete in the Roman Latin world, which is a whole different world in itself, that, you know, our industry is very small, and people in that industry understand it and what the schedule is like and how grueling it is, because it is. And I'd actually decided to stop competing from that when I was, I think 18 or 19, because I just. I didn't really. I love the dancing. I love the creative part. I love choreography. I love creating, but I just didn't want to do that anymore. And I also. I went to music college and Music. Musical theater college, and I wanted to do theater, and I wanted to play music and then move more into choreography. And the creative side was something that was always really appealing for me. So.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

That said, on Dancing with Stars, you get to do that because, you know, as the pro, you have to choreograph. It also depends, like, on your get down. Like, some. Some pros like having their music given to them. Like, I'm hands on. Like, I got to. I got to love the song. Sometimes I'll do my own edits. I'm very hands on with designing the costume. I'm like, it's. It's got a.

[Jason Tardick]

Every week you're doing.

[Mark Ballas]

I am, yeah. All of them with the team.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, but that's. But not every pro is doing that. Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I mean, I think you can make suggestions, but because I've had such so much experience, and also coming up, you know, watching my mom and dad compete or being around it, I know what works, and I know what doesn't work. And I know what doesn't work, because I've made mistakes in dressing, wearing certain costumes and outfits and stuff like that. So I'll use Charlie as an example. Like, we were very hands on about what she was going to wear, how the hair was gonna be. But again, with Steven and Daniella, the wardrobe department, they are just. They're the best at what they do. And even sometimes I'll come in with an idea, and Daniella might be like, well, what if we did that? But like this. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. You know, so they are just some of the best. And also wanting to hear what Charlie was comfortable in wearing and how we can turn her creative ideas into something Appropriate for the dance style that week, you know.

[Jason Tardick]

Interesting. I get why maybe you might need a break from it. Like that is so taxing.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. For me to do it. For me to do it. Well, like it's all of it, you know, like. And yeah, I just got a, like 20 seasons. Is that's a good one.

[Jason Tardick]

Hell of a run.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, it's like almost half my life, I think.

[Jason Tardick]

Almost. And there's a lot of records that you broke. I have some here for all our listeners. You got the highest premiere score of a 27. That was on season six with Christy Yamaguchi. You are the pro with the most partners who received at least one score of a 9 on premiere night. Seasons 5, 6, 14, 18 and 19. Only male pro to place the same in finals twice in a row without winning. Season 11, 12 Pro to finish in second place with the most times. That's 14, 19, 22 Pro to make the finals the most times. You've appeared 11 times in the finals according to all of our research. So you're in the history books.

[Mark Ballas]

Wow. I'm a little, I was overwhelmed by that.

[Jason Tardick]

You like that. You're like, you're about to shut.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. It seems when I hear you say that, like, yeah, it's funny. It's just, it's, it's. I don't know, it's a trip. It's a trip.

[Jason Tardick]

It's unbelievable.

[Mark Ballas]

But you know, it's, it's a lot, a lot of time. A lot of hours went into that, you know. And you know, I think also when I started, I was 21, I was a, I was a kid, you know, just moved here from England. I had no idea about. If you'd asked me this when I was back in high school and college, I would, you know, you're going to do that? No way. No, like it's really quite overwhelming.

[Jason Tardick]

Somewhat surreal. We're going to get back into those days you came on. But the big thing again, kind of going back to it and congratulations on everything.

[Mark Ballas]

Thank you.

[Jason Tardick]

Is the judging element. People loved you as a judge.

[Mark Ballas]

Thank you.

[Jason Tardick]

What was probably the most eye opening thing is someone who's been on the show for 20 years and then went into the judge table and you know, it's fun. You know, even I look at one of my past relationships. You know, she was the bachelorette but then she was the co host for a season as a pro dancer and then someone as a judge table. Like what are some of the biggest differences or maybe even the most surprising things that you didn't expect I'd had.

[Mark Ballas]

A season when Julianne was a judge and then I took a long break and then I had Derek as a judge. And I think for me it's really cool because A, I grew up with both of them and so we know each other well. But B, it's nice to have someone on the panel that's walked this, who's been out there, who's broken a sweat, who's had to be in the trench, you know, because you get to, it starts, it's fun, it's exciting. And then you get to like week four and it gets a little more intense. Five, six, and then you get into the trench, which is seven, eight, nine and ten. And those weeks are, it's fun, it's exciting, you're in it, you know, you're rehearsing for all hours of the day. And having a judge that has experience, that I think is important. So I think it was cool to have two up there, myself and Derek, that have been on the show together the same amount of time, but also had very, two very different experiences. And look at, even though we were trained together, we have danced together our whole lives, we also see things differently and we help each other out. And I thought that was exciting, hopefully for the audience. And it was also an. I said this to Derek. I was like, wow, after 20 seasons on the show, still being able to find a new experience for me is tough.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Because I've, you know, you've seen it all.

[Mark Ballas]

Seen it all. So being at the judges table was again, a whole new experience. It was pretty cool. Like I remember when the show started, sitting up there and like, you know, at the table and just being like, really? Yeah. Because I'd never sat there before either.

[Jason Tardick]

You know, of course you think you're more nervous for finale going into it, like with Charlie or more nervous to judge.

[Mark Ballas]

There's such both intense, nerve wracking experiences in different ways. I think with Charlie, you know, Charlie's season for me, like there was a big turning point after her contemporary dance where, yes, she was gifted, she worked hard and we got to that dance. And after that one, like the improvement, like I started to see like massive improvement. And I think a big part of that is it is attributed to her attitude. Like she showed up every day, not just literally, I mean, shoes on, phone down, focus, like we were in it, you know.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And when we got to that finale, we had just come off a week, a really good week of the Viennes waltz, which is one of my favorite dances. I've ever done to the stage and the pasa doble where she got really great scoring. And when you have a week like that, you're like, oh, I got to keep the momentum going. So, like, that is definitely a set of nerves in its own. Yeah, Right. And also just staying focused.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

I can always say to Charlie, like, when we get out there, well, I think Michael Phelps. I always use Michael Phelps as an example. I don't know if you ever seen him in the pool. He's just dying where his competitors looking at him and he's just dead straight. Like, I always use that as an example.

[Jason Tardick]

That's a good one.

[Mark Ballas]

Whereas the judging thing, it's not nerves for me, because as a judge, I felt a responsibility to help the contestants. You know, I think when you're a judge, yes, you're up there, you're speaking, you're giving your point of view. Right, Whatever. But I. I always found as a competitor, when I had something to take with me into the next couple weeks, that was when I was like, okay, this is tangible. I can take this. I can look at this in the mirror. I can work on it. Versus, hey, you did this dance. This could have been better.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then you're like, but next time, do this. But there isn't a next time. Next time. I'm not doing this dance again unless I randomly get it in the redemption round.

[Jason Tardick]

Right.

[Mark Ballas]

So for me, it was like, okay, if I'm judging, I want to be able to give them something moving forward. Hey, here's a tip. This could have been better this week. You did this great. Moving forward. Let's try and do this because, you know, for the super fans, the show and people understand, there's five ballroom dances, there's five Latin dances. Yes, they're all different, but there are things that are a through line that work in all of them.

[Jason Tardick]

Totally.

[Mark Ballas]

So it was. I was very intentional about, like, I really want to give them something moving forward.

[Jason Tardick]

That's cool. I love it. It is tough to manage finances. Right. It's just hard. But let me tell you about the top rated app to help you do it. It's the all in one finance app called Monarch. Monarch has massive benefits that will help you manage your finances. They have budgeting tools to cut expenses and increase your overall savings. And it's easy to customize these dashboards so, you know, when you log in, you could see your budgets, you could see notifications, you could set up automatic rules for transactions notifications and so much more. And one of the Biggest things that I love about Monarch is the ability to share your account with your partner and even your financial advisor so you can see where your money is. You could see where it's going and then you could work with the people that you love most or trusted most to help you with it and that are, that's just like everything when it comes to money management. So Monarch is the top rated all in one personal finance app because Monarch helps you make smart money moves. And right now, listeners of this show can get 30% off your first year by just going to monarch money.com secrets. So after trying Monarch out for myself, I get why it's a top rated app. Like I said, listeners here going to get 30% off your first year, just go to monarchmoney.com secrets. That's M O n A R C H M o n e y.com/secrets. To get 30% off your first year, go to monarch money.com secrets for 30% off your first year. When you think about, you know, here's the thing I'll never forget is Derek's like, he was taking notes at your notes. You were providing while it was happening.

[Mark Ballas]

But I always think he's also switching my paddle.

[Jason Tardick]

He's always kind of messing with it. He's like, you're, we're boys. We're going to have a good time here.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, I went to pull an eight and it was, I looked at him, he was like, dude, come on, man. First time on the.

[Jason Tardick]

Give a breather like, like the senior with the rookie for a second. Even though you're far from that. But I always think about the judges have notes and then they take notes.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

So I'm wondering how many times do you get to see it before you're actually judging it? Do you get to see.

[Mark Ballas]

You're in it. You're. You're in it, I think.

[Jason Tardick]

Do you get to see the dance before their practice rounds at all?

[Mark Ballas]

You don't get to see any footage before show day. Oh, wow.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay. I didn't know that.

[Mark Ballas]

So you're not. You don't know what the week's been like. You don't know how.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

You don't know what dances they're getting until, I mean, they do press releases and everyone. And you can see those.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

However, you don't know what the week has been like or what struggle has been or this, that and the other. Like. So you kind of come in on show day, like having to give some sort of substance for them moving forward, you know, which was Interesting, because I went back and studied. I watched season 31, 32, and 33 to get ready for this because I just wanted to watch what people do.

[Jason Tardick]

You watched every episode?

[Mark Ballas]

I watched every episode to prepare for it. Yeah, the last three. Because that's me. Like, I'm intense.

[Jason Tardick]

You really do it. You do it.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, I gotta do it.

[Jason Tardick]

It's like your secret sauce. You just go all in.

[Mark Ballas]

I gotta go all in. Yeah. Otherwise I can't do it. So I went back and watched every episode that was available on Disney that included Charlie's season. And I would score. I scored everything before the judges would score. You know, just to practice.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then also you. You have to make quick notes. And like, on the day when I judge this season, you know, I would write notes down and I would have my wording. But if another judge hits the comment you're gonna make, you gotta move on.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Shift.

[Mark Ballas]

You gotta shift.

[Jason Tardick]

Can't copy himself.

[Mark Ballas]

You can't say the same thing over and over again. Like, not. Because you can't. Because that's not helpful.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure. It's not helpful.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, you just heard that already. So what can I. So I was constantly trying to make.

[Jason Tardick]

Moves on the fly.

[Mark Ballas]

On the fly. And there was. I still, like, at the end of the day, I was like, oh, God, I got a couple more notes. And then you've got the ticker.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Counting down. So I did my best.

[Jason Tardick]

You did a great job.

[Mark Ballas]

Thank you.

[Jason Tardick]

Do you think in the future, possibly full time judge, judge again? What do you think?

[Mark Ballas]

I mean, I'm not sure where they have had four before.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And I know in Strictly they have four and there's other countries they have four. It works great with three as well. But, you know, I would always, again, never say never.

[Jason Tardick]

Never say never.

[Mark Ballas]

Be open to the conversation. But I. I enjoyed it. And, you know, I do think that I have a lot of experience that could help. And, you know, we'll see.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay, we're gonna go backwards in a minute. Before we go backwards, you know, you kind of mentioned probably not pro dancer again, but maybe being a judge. We'll see. Yeah, but what are you like in a world where your craft is your art and your art is so many things? Between acting, dancing, singing, music, all the things, what do you see as next? And you're. Do you create a blueprint for like one, two, five years from now? How do you plan for the future with your career in a space that's literally a pure form? It's a mosaic. It's not A blueprint.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, it's. And it's also a different time. Like, I feel like with the powers of social media and, you know, when I was younger and up and coming, like, I felt like it was kind of odd to be multifaceted and almost not always accepted in the sense of, like, oh, well, you're on. You do this, so you can't possibly do that. But that's how I was raised. Like, I went to musical theater school, where half the day was academics and the other half was acting, music, theater, dancing lessons. Music lessons. So that was the school I went to. Derek and I went to the same school.

[Jason Tardick]

And is that, like, for, like, university or, like, are you saying as a child.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, it was high school and college.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow. So it was almost like a prep school, like, in high school.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. So, like, in England, high school. I started that school at 11 and then graduated high school at 16, and then I went to the college, which is 16 to 19.

[Jason Tardick]

Do people have to, like, try out to get into that school?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, you have to. Yeah. So you have to obviously try out for the academics, but then you also have to show an element of everything. You have to prepare a dance, you have to prepare a song, you have to prepare a monologue. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

And Derek and I went to that school in the UK together.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

So that's how I was raised. And my parents were also. If I had interest in something, whether it be guitar lessons or vocal lessons or rollerblading, you know, whatever it is, they were always very supportive. So my life growing up was I went to musical theater school during the day. And then let's say on a Monday night, I would have a guitar lesson. Tuesday night, I would have an extra ballroom in Latin lessons. Wednesday night, I'd have band practice with my buddies who would play guitar. So I was always doing something like that. And then on the weekends, we would compete. Ballroom dancing. That was my whole life. So my life wasn't just this.

[Jason Tardick]

It was never linear.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, it was never linear. It's always been, even from, you know, my dad's American. My mom's British. I was born in America. I moved to England when I was 2. I was there until I was 21. So my life has always been this, you know, And I feel like we live in a time now where with social media, you get to know people, and, like, seeing people have more than one talent or more than one dream or more than one skill set is very much acceptable now. So that's. That's exciting because I've always tried to be an advocate for that. Like, hey, you like to play guitar and sing and you want to dance too, and also ride BMX bikes.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Do it. That's okay.

[Mark Ballas]

One life, you know, like, one life, one shot.

[Jason Tardick]

Do it.

[Mark Ballas]

Do it all. Like. So that's always just kind of been the vibe of my life. It's kind of all of it all at once.

[Jason Tardick]

All right, give me though. We got a crystal ball here. You gotta predict what you think it might be. What is the two. It could be a year, two years. The future. The future of our house. Where do you see it possibly going? Like, what, do you have a dream or an idea, something you want to accomplish? What do you think the career move could be?

[Mark Ballas]

This is not going to be an exciting answer for you.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

No, let's hear it.

[Jason Tardick]

I want to hear it.

[Mark Ballas]

I tell you why. Because I. Whenever I've done this.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And mood board and stuff, which I do every year. Like coming up on. On. On New Year's, my wife and I, we. Mood board every year. Oh, we want to do this. And I would say 99.

[Jason Tardick]

Do you do that on New Year's Eve? We.

[Mark Ballas]

We do it around that.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I wouldn't say every time. But we sit down, we talk about goals and. And not just. Not just work and financial. We talk about life and trips and relationship and personal goals as well that we want to achieve. But it's great to set them. But I would always. I also say that, like, the universe just kind of takes you on the ride as well. And I read the Power of Now and after I read that, I'm just kind of like trying my best to be present at all times because I always had a tendency to be like, oh, I gotta get to.

[Jason Tardick]

That's my. That's my issue. Yeah. I'm always there.

[Mark Ballas]

And then I just noticed that when the things were happening, I was kind of like getting into the next thing.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Now, however, setting goals. I'm a big. I'm a big list maker.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I like. I love to make lists, whether it's my daily schedule or dreams or goals on. And now being a dad. But if you were to ask me now. Yeah, I would love to. My wife and I, when my son was born, we took a break from social media.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

Work. We were very intentional about being home.

[Jason Tardick]

How long of a break did you take?

[Mark Ballas]

The last time I had posts on socials was probably at the top of the year. I can't remember. And then I just recently got back on and he was Born in November last year. So after he was born, it was the holidays.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then we've just been immersed in mom and dad mode.

[Jason Tardick]

Right. Wait, this is. This is unbelievable. So your. Your son is born.

[Mark Ballas]

Yes.

[Jason Tardick]

And you and your wife take off from everything and pretty much just like spend in the present of being with your child for the first year.

[Mark Ballas]

Yes. Yes.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, that was very. We were intentional about that. That said, you know, when the pandemic happened, we built like a little home studio set up. Wife's a songwriter.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

So we built this home setup. So we had so much inspiration from being parents and also being home that we worked a lot from home when he was there. And when I say work, I mean creative work. Writing and creating ideas and this, that, and the other. And within that. Within this year, our hard drive is filled with lots of ideas. So one of my goals. The reason I'm saying that is one.

[Jason Tardick]

Of my goals in this year, though. You're very present.

[Mark Ballas]

Yes.

[Jason Tardick]

But you're also idea generating.

[Mark Ballas]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

But unbelievable.

[Mark Ballas]

But while being in mom and dad mode, you know, and like sitting with him and playing guitar and like, you know, just being present and not being on our phones and being outside touching grass, taking him on walks, doing all that stuff. But we were writing a lot because when we are in a creative space or like when we're in a place like that, it was inspiring, you know, like being home with our son. We've written so many songs. So the reason I'm saying that is that that is one thing I want to do within the next year is to go on that hard drive and see what we like.

[Jason Tardick]

That's cool.

[Mark Ballas]

Finish it.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Because it's like they could just sit there forever or we can initiative and finish what we started and get it out into the world. So that's one goal. You know, I would love to get back on Broadway at some point.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

And then also move into some creative choreography, kind of more behind the scenes. Not where I'm having to get out there and compete and do it. Like, I would love to do some other choreography work like that.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, I would love to be a part of an original Broadway cast at some point.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

And then just get this music out with my wife and tour the country with her and take our son on a wild adventure around the country or the world. You know, I love it. Some things that we'd like to do.

[Jason Tardick]

Those are just a few. And then you got a hard drive. About a thousand other creative in its finest form now. Your, your wife, B.C. she wrote if I Were a Boy for Beyonce. Right. And we've already talked about a lot of your accolades. There's also finance business, podcast. So of all these big things, right?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

Having, you know, Emmy nominations and being world choreographed award winner and writing songs for Beyonce. Between the two of you, you guys have done a lot, which financially, like, of all the different things you've done, which financially has been like your mirror ball, what's been the big thing that's like changed your life financially because you talked about the fact that it's a relationship. You sit down and kind of talk about all goals, even financial. Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

I mean, at some point I think you should have a conversation with her.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Explain how.

[Jason Tardick]

I would love to.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, the music industry is forever changing.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, back when that happened, it was like publishing and all that stuff was, you know, very lucrative in a different sense to what it is now with streaming. Like when she. We talk about this all the time. When BC wrote that song, streaming didn't exist. So now it's a whole different thing for songwriters with master splits. But yeah, you should have that conversation with her because it's quite fascinating. But for me, I wouldn't say there's been like one thing that was like, yo, this just changed the game for me. But it's been an accumulation of all the things again, my life, it's dancing Broadway, choreography, making music, and then also just being. Being. Trying my best to be as financially intelligent as I can, which I'm still learning, you know. And you know, I'm, I'm quite a. I wouldn't say I'm a spender.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, I'd like to treat myself. I love to treat my wife now my son, stuff like that. And that gives me more joy than buying stuff for myself. Hence why I'm always usually in the same white T shirt, pants and a leather jacket.

[Jason Tardick]

You know, there's some financial method to the madness.

[Mark Ballas]

I like it. I drive a Jeep, you know, it's all, it's all good.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

When I was younger, I drove an Audi and stuff.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Jeep. And I like it, you know, but I. Yeah. Like it's been years of keeping it moving.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

For me, you know, and. And then from years of keeping it moving, I was able to find stillness.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

At the time where I wanted it most. And that's when I became a dad. You know what I mean?

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Now his a full on little boy who's gonna walk any second. And now I have to. It's time to get back out there and work and be creative and exercise that muscle and have him see mom and dad doing these things that we do and. Yeah, but it's been just. I would say, an accumulation of just all of it.

[Jason Tardick]

I like it when you said the book that you read was the Power of Now.

[Mark Ballas]

Power of Now.

[Jason Tardick]

Give us the. Just one. One biggest takeaway from it. Because it's. Yeah. I've been hearing words. Stillness. I'm hearing words. Be present. We saw that you took a year off to be with your. Your wife and your newborn. Like, give us the biggest takeaway from that box. I think people can.

[Mark Ballas]

I. Like, it's literally the stillness of being in the. In. In this moment right now.

[Jason Tardick]

This, like, second nothing.

[Mark Ballas]

Like this conversation that we're having. Like, I'm not thinking about where I'm going tonight. Like, even, like, I try. Like, if I'm somewhere and there's friends or people, like, I'm. I'm here with you.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I'm not looking over your shoulder for what's the next conversation. I'm not thinking about anything else. Right. Than being present. And I've noticed that I read that book during COVID when I think it was a stressful time for everyone.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Because there was nothing but sitting with yourself and your thoughts and stuff like that. Right. And as a creative person, I'm sure any. Anybody, like, you want to do the thing that. That you love or you have to go to work and stuff like that. And it was such a different time. So when I read that book, like, just really surrendering to where you are, why you're there, and not letting the mind or your. The egoic mind, as it says in the book, like.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Consume you. You know? So when I was on the show with Charlie. I was on the show with Charlie when I'm writing with my wife or we're creating something where I am there 100% when I'm being asked to judge, like, oh, we're doing that now. You know, Like, I try not to think ahead or. And look, I'm not perfect. I have those moments where I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Bring it back, Bring it back, bring it back. Because that's human. Right?

[Jason Tardick]

Of course.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. But, yeah, like, that. I will say that book helped me a lot during a weird time.

[Jason Tardick]

All right, I'm gonna get that book. I know I haven't. And it's like, literally, my biggest struggle.

[Mark Ballas]

Bro.

[Jason Tardick]

Now commits. I haven't read either.

[Mark Ballas]

You got to read this, guys.

[Jason Tardick]

Everyone Listening. I'm gonna text you after. We're gonna read them and then we'll have the authors on, assuming they go to plan.

[Mark Ballas]

I downloaded it on my iPad. Yeah, I would just like highlight sections. Yeah, I would go back and read those sections. I still do it.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay. Interesting. All right, those books are happening. Parenting is filled with high pressure decisions, and it can be difficult to tell if you've made the right choice for your kid's future. But here's a simple decision you can make today that could have a meaningful impact on your child's future. Opening a Ugma Kids investment account with Fabric to start their investment journey early and give them a financial head start. Fabric by Gerber Life was designed by parents for parents to make it easy to plan for and manage your family's financial path. With a kid's investment account from Fabric, you can start investing in your child's future today. Join the thousands of parents who trust fabric to help protect their family. Start investing in your child's future Future [e-mail] TradingSecrets just go to meatfabric.com Trading Secrets. That's meatfabric.com Trading Secrets. What you should know is that funds can be used for nearly anything benefiting your child, from tuition and books to summer camps and after school activities. And when they're adults, they can use those funds for their first home, new car, or even to start a business. Check it out. Today I want to transition to Broadway. So you went on Broadway. We really don't know much about the business of Broadway.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

My understanding is you're paid a weekly stipend based on your role. You're under the union. Talk to me about just kind of the business element of the Broadway.

[Mark Ballas]

I mean. Yeah, you kind of. You kind of nailed it. You know, I think you have. And I'm sure the business has changed now because I feel like the business and everything is changing now.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, even with. With choreography or doing on the show or whatever.

[Jason Tardick]

Dancing with the Stars is changing now. Stars is like a tick tock competition and a dancing competition.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, like, we didn't have any of that. Yeah, I was coming up, you know, like, so. And it's funny to see there's lots of new fans and, you know, to see their. How they interpret it or what they're thinking about it and who they're rooting for and why they're rooting for it, you know, and they don't know the history of the show or why it works or why the Judges call certain things. Which is. That's what makes it fun.

[Jason Tardick]

Right.

[Mark Ballas]

Is that you can discover this at any age. And it's a. It's probably one of the only shows you can watch with every member of the family and. And have a blast doing it.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Which I. That's what I love mostly about the show. But, yeah, I would say with the Broadway thing, it's.

[Jason Tardick]

It.

[Mark Ballas]

It's. It's probably different. So when I was on. I was. I. Last time I was on Broadway in 2018, in Kinky Boots.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

But, yeah, you have your salary, and there can be certain deals. I think depending on ticket sales, you can get bonuses because, you know, shows goes like. It goes like this. It's like anything.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, of course.

[Mark Ballas]

But, yeah, you kind of have your. Your salary and you're hitting eight shows a week, and you're in the grind, which is more. 8 shows.

[Jason Tardick]

That's why I want to. So which is more difficult, would you say, one season, Dancing the Stars or Broadway, where you're doing eight shows?

[Mark Ballas]

Very different. Yeah, they're very difficult in two different ways. Like, Charlie's making her Broadway debut. Right?

[Jason Tardick]

That's right.

[Mark Ballas]

And we chatted heavily about her going into it, and I was like, you'll see. You'll get to. After your six weeks. Eight weeks of eight shows a week. That's when you're like, oh, the respect that I have for all people that perform on Broadway, like, the. The endurance, the energy, the discipline it takes, you know, because you always want to give the best show possible.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

Because you stop same audience every night, you know, so it's. It's incredibly disciplined craft, and you have to take it very serious.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Like when I was doing both roles, actually, Charlie Price and Frankie Valli, like, both big sings, big vocal roles, not just from the songs, but it's the scenes in between. You have to learn your pace. And you have to also know, like, when you hit the gas and then when you have to lay off because you don't want to, you'll lose your voice. You'll lose your voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll lose your voice.

[Jason Tardick]

There's just no way to do it.

[Mark Ballas]

When I played Frankie, I did six shows because their setup was six and two. Yeah, I know. Some other shows are like that, too, but Charlie was eight shows a week.

[Jason Tardick]

Damn.

[Mark Ballas]

And then it was like, it's. It's intense, and you have to.

[Jason Tardick]

And you want to go back to that.

[Mark Ballas]

I love it. Not only is it fun, the community out there, the people. Like, I've made lifelong friends. Yeah, of course. That we still like. When I'm in New York, I'll hit up some of my boys and they're like, yeah, what's up? My family and kinky boots from the factory, you know. But yeah, it's like my schedule was, you know, I'd get up, we usually wouldn't Talk until around 2pm, 3pm and I lived in a building that had a steam room, which is like, great, Your voice's best friend.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then they had like a small pool that I'd swim laps every day and then I would jog to the theater. Break sweat. No words till 2pm None. Literally none. Like some tea?

[Jason Tardick]

You're a very fascinating human. So you wouldn't stop at all.

[Mark Ballas]

And my wife's a singer too. She's a big rock singer, so she understands.

[Jason Tardick]

Is that a common thing for singers?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, I mean, just eight show week singers. Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, everybody's got their own system and their warm ups and their warm downs. But that was my like the as much vocal rest as possible. And then, you know, a very diligent warm up to get you ready. And then I like to break a sweat before.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then the thing that I think most people don't consider also is the cool down vocally. Like you finish a two hour show and then you want to warm your voice down.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, interesting.

[Mark Ballas]

Bring it down. God.

[Jason Tardick]

Then you're just silent for 12 hours.

[Mark Ballas]

You can talk, but it's, you just.

[Jason Tardick]

Keep the net keeping it down.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

All right.

[Mark Ballas]

Without whispering.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You're not like, you know, drying out.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. The art has taken in a lot of directions. If we go back to school, what is this like? I'm just curious, what does a school like that cost? If someone wants to go to a school that's like a prep and university and it's art and also academic. What is like, it's got to be expensive.

[Mark Ballas]

I imagine it was.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I, I, I was young at the time when I started it. And when I moved to the college, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship. Okay. On the college, I had a scholarship in the, I'm not, I'm not sure. My mom and dad are obviously taking care of me when I was a kid. Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

When you graduate 21 and now you're in one of the most internationally known schools and you have these unbelievable classmates and colleagues at your, you're working with. What did you like, what did, what did your peers. What'd you guys expect to do from that point where were you? Like, this is going to be the track. I mean, I remember the dreams of 21.

[Mark Ballas]

Oh, I was just being on stage.

[Jason Tardick]

Was it. But is it more like movie? Is it more Broadway? Like, what's the dream for a dance?

[Mark Ballas]

I think the cool thing about being at school is that everyone had a.

[Jason Tardick]

Big, wide, wide net.

[Mark Ballas]

Big, wide net of films. Like, we had songwriters at the school, we had dancers at the school, we had seniors. It's a big theater school, so everyone shared that love of musical theater and like, the. The dream of getting on the West End, which is because school's in England, so the West End is London's Broadway.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

That's like.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And like winning an Olivier Award.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And which is a Tony over here, you know.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

So honestly, as a kid, like, when I was at school, the thought of being on Broadway was not even reachable.

[Jason Tardick]

For me, like, too far.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. Because I grew up in the UK and I didn't. And I lived my whole life there. I never thought in a million years that I would move out here and then I would get to be in a Broadway show.

[Jason Tardick]

Like, that was like the dream come true.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. And I've had many friends from school who have also gone on to do big things in the West End, big plays, Broadway shows, so. But that was always a combo, like, sitting around, be like, oh, what show would you want to be in? Yeah, I'll be in this one.

[Jason Tardick]

You know, like, interesting. So when was it and how was it that Dancing with the stars at 21 finds you?

[Mark Ballas]

Okay, so when I was competing as a ballroom and Latin dancer, I competed pretty seriously from age 11 to 18. You know, it's really difficult. I would say it's almost impossible to do real competing and the show. Because back in the day, they had two seasons a year. There was spring season and the winter season. Now it's only one. So during the spring season, the biggest competition in the world, which is held at Blackpool, one of the biggest. There's a lot of big ones, but that's one of the most prestigious, is held at the same time. And then in the winter season, there's another one called the International, which is also held at the same time. So if you were competing on Dancing with Stars and trying to be a serious competitive ballroom dancer, like, the schedules.

[Jason Tardick]

You burn out, you can't do it well.

[Mark Ballas]

They just don't line up. Like, you wouldn't be able to do both. Like, so difficult. So once I Had stopped competing as a competitor. We got approached from the show through, you know, mutual connections. And then Derek and I both sent in tapes. I remember we went to the BBC in the UK and did a screen test, which they aired on the show. And it was hilarious. I mean, embarrassing in the best way possible. Yeah, hilarious. And then, you know, we did screen 10. Didn't. Didn't really think anything of it. Like, you know, Derek was doing Footloose in the West End, and I had just come off the Buddy Holly musical UK national tour.

[Jason Tardick]

Yep.

[Mark Ballas]

And then we got the call with, I think, five minutes apart. They were like, all right, we're doing it. Hey, we're interested. Would you be down? You have to relocate to Los Angeles, which. And we had a few days to make the decision, like, moving everything from England to there. Like, we. We flew out to Los Angeles. My dad helped us get an apartment. I had a backpack, guitar case and suitcase. And that was it.

[Jason Tardick]

That was it.

[Mark Ballas]

And then we just moved into our, like, little apartment.

[Jason Tardick]

Did you guys live together?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, for the first couple years. Yeah. Like, little apartment, like down by the grove.

[Jason Tardick]

That's unbelievable. That is good times.

[Mark Ballas]

But, like, again, like, no idea what the show was going to be. Knew what it was because, you know, we've seen bits and they have it in England, strictly, of course, but just didn't realize, like, at the time what.

[Jason Tardick]

It would do for everything in your.

[Mark Ballas]

Life, how much it would.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Impact our lives.

[Jason Tardick]

Are there any celebs that you dance with that you still are pretty close with?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, I mean, I have good relationships with them, you know, my partners. Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

Really? Who would you say, like, you're the closest with of all the years, if you look back on it, who you, like, keep in touch with the most?

[Mark Ballas]

I speak to Sean Johnson a lot.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, she's the best.

[Mark Ballas]

The best. Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

She's Charlie, obviously.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know. But I saw Christy the other day at. She came to the 500th episode. It was so great to see.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Mark Ballas]

Crazy, because she had brought one of her daughters who. The last time I'd seen her, she was, like, little.

[Jason Tardick]

Little interesting.

[Mark Ballas]

Taller than me now, but, yeah, I have good, good relationships. Like, when I. When we see each other, it's always good.

[Jason Tardick]

If they did, like, a superstar season.

[Mark Ballas]

Would you make stars?

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Like the All Star season, would you then be a little bit more tempted to get back in the ring as a pro?

[Mark Ballas]

I don't know. They did it once, you know, they did it in season. I don't know. I can't remember what the number, they all like bleeding into one. I don't know, it just, you know, never say never. But.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay. Never say never. Another thing I found fascinating. I know, it's just. I don't want to say just. But you were an extra in Harry Potter.

[Mark Ballas]

I was.

[Jason Tardick]

How do you land a gig like that? Like what haven't you done, Mark?

[Mark Ballas]

Well, you have done your research. So this is. I have to find the photo for you so you can.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Throw it at social media. Oh, Derek's extra too.

[Mark Ballas]

And Julianne. Oh. Get all into the school together.

[Jason Tardick]

Unbelievable.

[Mark Ballas]

So how it worked was Harry Potter was looking for extras. So what they ended up doing was hiring all the theater schools because all the kids are interested in film and theater and tv. So all the theater type schools in England were the extras.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

So we would, you know, we would show up at school, we. They would bus us all the way to Hogwarts. You know, we got.

[Jason Tardick]

So that's pretty sweet.

[Mark Ballas]

We got put into our houses. Derek was a Ravenclaw.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Julianne was a Gryffindor, I was a Hufflepuff. I'm Slytherin for sure. Gryffindor. And I was like got Hufflepuff. Which like, looking back, is actually pretty cool.

[Jason Tardick]

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[Mark Ballas]

I couldn't even tell you.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, we were little. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Mark Ballas]

May 14th.

[Jason Tardick]

Like a couple hundred bucks. Like, if you had to guess, maybe. Yeah, yeah. But it's just, like, I'm not sure.

[Mark Ballas]

How they divvy that.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

But I'm sure it goes through the schools and stuff like that.

[Jason Tardick]

All right.

[Mark Ballas]

It was funny. Like, you can't see me on it at all.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

However, at the time, I did have a mouthful of braces, and, like, I was really into Linkin park, so it had, like, this red. I was like, really? Like, I was a big metal head, so.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, I wore a lot of stuff from Hot Topic.

[Jason Tardick]

Right.

[Mark Ballas]

And, like, the one time I was like, oh, I'm in the shot. They moved me out of it.

[Jason Tardick]

We just popped out, like, all right, Lincoln park, dude. Out of here. Yeah, yeah. Unbelievable. I mean, what a wild.

[Mark Ballas]

But Derek, you see him clear as day. Yeah. They're playing wizard chess. Hermione comes through the doors.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And Derek walks past an hour. Like, you see him clear as day.

[Jason Tardick]

I love it on Harry Potter, too.

[Mark Ballas]

All right.

[Jason Tardick]

When you look back at your career through dancing, acting, singing, all of it, what has been the biggest struggle? Like, what has been the thing that almost broke you at one point or. It's the hardest challenge that maybe we don't see through our screens sometimes feeling.

[Mark Ballas]

Like I wasn't doing enough or if I wasn't utilizing my skill set to the highest capability or staying constantly moving. Like, I think having quiet times or lulls or being between work where you're not working or, you know, you're auditioning and it's not really happening. I think those moments can be very disappointing and make you feel small and not like you're doing enough. Right. And I look back on those times now and be like, oh, wow. I learned a lot of. A lot about myself in those times and ways to. Instead of, like, being like, oh, you know, it's not happening for me. Well, why? Why isn't it? Like, how can I dig deeper? How can I work harder? How can I get better? How can I see this from another angle? You would think I'm gonna use Dancing with the Stars as an example. Like, being on that show and, you know, having seasons where it doesn't go as well or.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Or taking a break from it.

[C]

Right.

[Mark Ballas]

It's like, you have to train on the off. Off time. You have to still apply yourself. You can always be better. There's Always another, like, again I said earlier, it's another way to do things. And I think when I was a little bit younger, it's like if I felt like it wasn't happening fast enough or I had downtime, like, like I'm not, I was never good at sitting still. And I think that's because my whole life I've been competing, keep going and going and going. And my wife helped me a lot with that.

[Jason Tardick]

Interesting.

[Mark Ballas]

A lot. Because like, I would have moments where I was like, I need to be busy.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, literally couldn't sit still without having some idea whether it's like, I gotta be doing this or I got this idea for this, I gotta execute. And yes, it's good to hustle and it's good to be proactive and it's good to chase that dream and, you know, Michael Phelps it and not give up and do all that stuff. But sometimes being able to sit with yourself and be in silence and spend that downtime, I felt like I've learned a lot more about my craft and myself as an artist in those times because it, it drove me to dig deeper. Well, why not? Why isn't this happening? What am I missing here? And yeah, like that I struggled with that. Having downtime. I really struggled with it. Or like, you know, I took a five year break from dancing, I did lots of other stuff, you know, but there was moments of just stillness that were at the time really difficult.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And now it's not till like later I'm like, oh, actually those times help me fall in love with it again or get better at it or see it from a different angle. And I think those type of things really kind of change the game for me. And they give you anxiety too, you know, like, which can be quite kind of.

[Jason Tardick]

Some of it.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

I mean like, enough is being enough is a big struggle. Imposter syndrome is a big struggle. And when you live in a world that's hyper competitive and everyone is extremely successful at what they're doing.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

You start to benchmark yourselves against everyone else as opposed to yourself.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah.

[Jason Tardick]

And when you're surrounded like these unbelievably talented people like ATH and Julian Huff and everyone else, if you have one step back and they keep moving forward, you that those things can get in your head a lot.

[Mark Ballas]

And, and, and the cool thing is with them, Derek and I have had long, extensive conversations about these types of as well. And like, we are really like brothers and we've been there for each other through each other's ups and downs and stillness and this, that and the other, you know, and, you know, during my season with Charlie, my wife and I had a miscarriage during the season.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, like during the season.

[Mark Ballas]

During the season. Yeah. So we talked about it probably a year later, but the Vienney's Waltz we did was very much dedicated to that.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Like that. Letting the balloon go.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And, you know, I just got goosebumps. I did too, actually, because, you know, we. I thought, decided to go back to season, found out my wife was pregnant. And then that week we found that we had a miscarriage. And I had to go to rehearsal and, you know, and that was a really heavy time. And I think at the time, Derek was one of the only people who knew, obviously my wife, my family. And I told Charlie and her mom and Heidi and stuff, and that was like the close group.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

That helped me get through that, you know, and that was very hard.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Very difficult time. Because you're on this. It just goes to show. Right. You watch these shows, like, whether it be Dancing Stars, the Bachelor, is it Cake, like, whatever. You know what I mean?

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great show.

[Mark Ballas]

And you just don't know where people are at. Totally. And even though we're providing this. This entertainment.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

I was. Top five hardest moments of my life. Yeah, I'll say. You know, and I showed so great with how they helped me navigate that week and stuff like that. But again, like, it's not just a week of grief.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know that.

[Jason Tardick]

Totally.

[Mark Ballas]

I still think about that and like.

[Jason Tardick]

Right.

[Mark Ballas]

The reason I spun to that is because there are those times during something that feels so. While you're on Dancing with Stars, oh.

[Jason Tardick]

You'Re on Broadway, you're doing this.

[Mark Ballas]

But we're all human, and we have human experiences. And that was a very wild experience for me from going from the heaviness of that and seeing the person I love the most go through that.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And then having to provide the highest quality of competition and dancing that I can provide at that time, you know, so those are. There are those moments, you know, But I feel like in those moments, you learn again, more about yourself. And I was lucky to have a good support system and Derek being one of them, who, you know, really had my back.

[Jason Tardick]

And I think too, that just perspective, like, you know, I brought up imposter syndrome and comparing yourself nonstop to other people. When something like this happens in your life, it's the perspective of, like, why am I wasting my time on dumb? Like that There are meaningful things that will just give you the perspective of, like, what life is. And that's one of those.

[Mark Ballas]

And I feel like later at the end of the day, you know, like, using dance. Co star. It is fun. Yeah, it's fun.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Right. I always say it's the. It's not that serious. Yeah, but it is.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not. But it is.

[Mark Ballas]

It's not. But it is. You know what I mean? And I enjoy watching the others.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, when I compete, I'm tunnel.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And I'm able to separate from a year of years and years of competing. Like, I can watch my friends do well and get great scores and.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, even when I. On the season with Charlie, like, when I went home and watched the show and I was watching Val and Gabby compete and I think so, I was like, bro, you're so good.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, this is when you're preparing to be a judge.

[Mark Ballas]

No, this is when we were.

[Jason Tardick]

Oh, when you were going back.

[Mark Ballas]

I went home and would watch it back to see what could Charlie do better at? What can I be better at?

[Jason Tardick]

Totally.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, what. Where. What do we need to do moving forward? And like, I watched the whole show and I was text Val. Yo, you're. You're so good. I love Val and I grew up together competing as well.

[Jason Tardick]

All you guys did. Yeah. It's like you guys are all, like, everyone came for. Unbelievable.

[Mark Ballas]

Where we've known each other for years.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

So, you know, there's always love there for me.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, I love it.

[Jason Tardick]

Well, we're wrapping up here and the one thing I got to ask about, especially as we're talking about memories and nostalgia. Len Goodman. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him. You have had a lot of time with him. What's like, one of your favorite memories of Len that maybe we don't know and would only know from you? Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

Well, if I. My. My parents had lessons with Len when she was pregnant with me.

[Jason Tardick]

You're your mom, so that's how I.

[Mark Ballas]

That's how deep it goes since, like, birth. Yeah. You know, there is.

[Jason Tardick]

You heard his voice while you were just growing away in that voice.

[Mark Ballas]

That's one of my biggest, like, things is his voice so charming and charismatic and funny and everything. That in cheeky too.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You know, we had so many memories with him. Like, when we were kids, every year at my mom's dance studio, which was called Starlight, they would host this big pre Blackpool, which is a big competition party.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And Len would be the emcee and you Know, we would do little performances of that. Like, I have video of Derek and I performing. We're. I don't know, we're like 15. And you can hear land on the mic, like, here's Mark and Derek, that classic voice, you know?

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

But so many memories with him. Like, just his cheekiness and. And what I love the most about him, and this may be the Brit in me, is just the straight shot. Like, no messing around. Like, it is what it is. He's not sugarcoating it for you. And look, there were weeks where he would let us have it. Like, if we missed, if we were in the rules, which we were, and then we'd be all upset. And he's like, sorry, it is what it is. It is what it is. And at the time, when you're young and you're coming because you want to be creative, you want to be different.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

But Len's a purist, and I'm also later, a little bit more of a purist. Like, I love creative freedom, but I also want to know what dance you're doing.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

Like, sure. From looking at it, you know? So I look back on those times from learning so much and, like, attribute to him and his feedback how to find the balance, how to not. Like, if we're doing a cha cha or a jive, like, it's got to look like one. You know what I mean? So. And when we would dabble outside of the styles a little bit more, him being so tough helped us rein in and find the balance of creativity and authenticity to the dance.

[Jason Tardick]

Wow.

[Mark Ballas]

So I love him. I miss him very much.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah. It's unbelievable that you were literally in your mom's belly when she was getting.

[Mark Ballas]

Lessons from still dancing.

[Jason Tardick]

You were starting to learn that. It's unbelievable. All right, Mark. Well, I mean, there's a million other things we can go into, but we got to wrap up here.

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah, man.

[Jason Tardick]

Got to get your trading secret. So it's special to you. Learn it from a professor textbook, only from your experience. What is one trading secret you could leave us with?

[Mark Ballas]

And it's just short and sweet.

[Jason Tardick]

I like it.

[Mark Ballas]

And my dad said this to me all the time. It's like the mind is like a parachute, and it works best when it's open. And he would say that to me all the time whenever I was like, I don't want to try that, or, I don't want to do that. And my dad would say that to me. The mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's open. Be Open minded. Be open to communication. Be open to trying new things. Don't let people tell you no. Like, if I listen to people, you can't do this and that. At the same time, I would have never have gone for the other things in my life. I would have only just done one.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

And you know, I attribute that to having great parents that supported me and friends in my. In my group that lift you up and that want to see you do well and vice versa. But whenever someone says, what's the advice you have for someone? That I hear my. I can hear my dad's voice saying.

[Jason Tardick]

It'S like, is that more? Is the alignment of that more? Don't be closed off to things. Or is it more? Just like keep everything.

[Mark Ballas]

It's open things, a conversation.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay.

[Mark Ballas]

At least, at least entertain the thought. At least think about it, process it before you say no.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah, but that even connects to when I'm like, what's next? The idea of being linear isn't being fully open.

[Mark Ballas]

Right. So maybe something will be linear.

[Jason Tardick]

Sure.

[Mark Ballas]

It might. It might.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

You might see it straight away, but you also might have to take some turns.

[Jason Tardick]

Yeah.

[Mark Ballas]

And that's okay. But be open to it. Ride the wave and enjoy the process.

[Jason Tardick]

I like it, Mark, that's genius stuff right there. Let everyone know. Where can they find everything you have going on?

[Mark Ballas]

Yeah. Just what is it on these days? Instagram.

[Jason Tardick]

Instagram.

[Mark Ballas]

And the TikTok.

[Jason Tardick]

And the TikTok. Look at you.

[Mark Ballas]

I'm trying just arcbattance and if you want to check out my wife and I's music, it's just Lexandercheanofficial.

[Jason Tardick]

Awesome. Mark, it was great to see on the finale. It was great to see you as a judge. It was great to see you this entire year. Back in Dance with the Stars just a little bit. We'll see where it goes from here. Congratulations on your journey and thanks for sharing all this wisdom.

[Mark Ballas]

Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

[Jason Tardick]

Ding, ding, ding. We are closing in the bell to the Mark Ballas episode. My God, David, there's a lot of action here. This episode was jam packed with inspiration, education, and a lot of discussions of a long and successful career. Before I turn it over to you, I want to make sure that I'm making this about the money mafia. So if you guys go and give us five stars right now and then let us know who you want on the podcast or a topic, we are going to give some stuff away from the influencer closet. You guys know what the influencer closet is? PR companies and Influencer companies send stuff to me and I have a whole lot of stuff going. So I got things to send out and I have three items I'm going to give away this week. Just go give us a review and put your at symbol and we will reach out to you. Our last review here was from Chrissa. I always enjoy listening to this podcast and learn quite a bit. Keep it up. And that's then she went into a long, long little piece of advice there. But with that being said, give us five stars. David, what do you got?

[C]

Well, I'm gonna start with where the episode ended and his trading secret. Anytime we're 200 plus episodes in and we get a trading secret we've never heard, that's that kind of eye opening. I'm gonna start there. He said, your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it's open. And I think if you take that mentality into this episode with the inspiration, with the insight, with the education, I think you'll get so much more out of this episode. I mean, he just sounds like a really humble, interesting, well thought out, well rounded individual. And I thought, I thought it was an amazing episode.

[Jason Tardick]

I love that quote. That is a quote that will stick with me forever. I think in this society we get so closed off, we get so down these, you know, just these different lanes that were put down or we either put ourselves on and we get stuck. And I like this idea of just openness. But I mean, David, between you know, his trading seat secret and his all in, all out mentality, or going to school with Derek Hough, from his, his wife BC to writing one of the biggest Beyonce songs, I mean, there's so much to cover in this one and it was a relatively lengthy episode, so I want to be cognizant of that in the recap. Where do we start?

[C]

Everyone can take something away from this episode. It would be the word intentional. He's so intentional about like he said, his all in, all out mentality. Whether it's when he's doing something for work, he's doing it all in. He started being a judge on the show and he watched back the last three season and practice, judged every single dance, whether it was him taking a break from, from work, him being all, all in on that break. When his son was born, he, he left socials and left work for a year because it was intentional. He wanted to spend the time. I just think that's so much easier said than done. And to see him do it like that for me was super, super inspiring. To try and add to my life. What about you? Any. Any hard takeaways that, that you, that you're taking away from him?

[Jason Tardick]

Well, I'm the, I'm the polar opposite. It like, I'm like, I'm definitely. First of all, when we talked about the book, power. Now, we'll get to that in a second. Yes, I am so I need to be so much more present in life. So his opposites were things that I'm trying to achieve in life. So those are things that I, I was gravitating towards. So the first one was the all in allout method. I am like the jack of all. I got chips everywhere. I got, you know, I've invested in a restaurant company. We got a. There's a freaking. There's a baby infant camera company. I have ownership in a financial services company. I have an agency. I got, you know, I got shit everywhere, right? So I'm so like, do as much as you can and just get it done and just keep moving forward. And I think to be a true artist and to be a true creative and to really achieve massive success in one field, you have to have his thought process of if I'm going to do it, I don't care how many hours, I'm going to do it. I will watch three seasons and judge every single episode. I will prepare for my finale dance by literally going through every single season to see what I could do different. I will pick the colors of the stars, socks for that episode. Right. It's such a precision, which is so different than me and I respect it in such a great way. And my takeaway is to start gravitating towards some of that stuff. But I want to talk about the power of now. It's so wild. David, he mentioned power of now. And you know, when things in life come up like, like you hear it and then they come up. This book came up, of course, and ever since he said that, I've been really trying to think about it. And then I was in. My dad and I were working out yesterday. And then after our workout, we did some hydro cold tub, hot tub. Then we did steam room sauna. And after we left the sauna at the end of it, you know, and of course you're not on your phone in the sauna. You gotta be present. I walk out and on the floor, which is the weirdest place ever, the book was sitting there and no one was there. And it was the power of now. And I'm like, I always find stuff like that kind of weird.

[C]

You know, that's very weird. That's like when you find a dime or a penny and it reminds you of someone or something. I mean, they just show up in the random spots. But just the fact that a book's on the floor in this kind of time in your life is really interesting. Have you purchased it? Do you own it? Do you plan on reading it?

[Jason Tardick]

Haven't purchased it yet. I'm going to listen to it on audiobook. That's been a big thing of mine lately. Falling asleep to either podcast. Podcasts are audiobooks and not tv. Or at least since I've been singing, you know, ever since I've been single, I guess, you know, fall asleep. I just fall asleep. To podcasts, I put in the headphones or whatever, I'll put on speaker and to an audiobook. So I'm going to do that. But for anyone that hasn't read it, I do have the. Just a quick synopsis of it and I want to hear if you're going to read it. So the Power of Now. It's a guide to spiritual enlightenment. It's a discussion about how people interact with themselves and others. The concept of self reflection and presence in the moment are presented along with simple exercises for the achievements of its principles. The book draws from a variety of spiritual traditions, and one reviewer described it as Buddhism mixed with mysticism and a few references to Jesus Christ. A sort of New Age reworking of Zen, it uses traditions to describe a belief system based on living in the present moment, which I found very. I don't know, I find that very interesting. And I will tell you to this day, because we went to Dance with Stars finale, right? And then after the finale, they have an after party. At the after party, Mark was there with his wife BC and I got to meet them. Obviously I've met Mark, but I got to meet his wife. And every interaction I've had with them, whether it's been a call, a FaceTime or in person, they are so like, you can feel their energy, how present they are. So there's something to that. Do you think you'll read it?

[C]

Yeah. I mean, just to build off that, he even said on the podcast he was just there intentional with you on the podcast was like the only thing that mattered. He wasn't thinking about anything else. And so that makes your interactions with them so much more intense. And. And obviously with his wife. I'm going to put something out there to you and put something out there to the listeners because I'm as, you know, kind of A freak when it comes to certain things true in life. And the concept of reading and implementing and interpreting is not something that I do. So I made basically a conscious decision.

[Jason Tardick]

What do you mean? What do you mean?

[C]

So I made a conscious decision a long time ago. And I don't know if this is out of stubbornness or not, but this.

[Jason Tardick]

Is gonna be so ridiculous.

[C]

So I chose not to read books, motivating books or power of now books or anything, because I never wanted my life to be lived out in a way that wasn't my own thought, my own decision, or my own experience. So as soon as I started. My fear was as soon as I started reading things for advice and instantly implementing them, I'm all of a sudden trying to chase the feeling or the purpose or the thing that really maybe does or doesn't apply to me. It applied to someone and it's out there, and I think that's good. But I've just been on this, like, my life journey, like, Lily Jay, I haven't read a book. Like, I don't. Other than, like, books that maybe we had to read in school. Like, I haven't read a single book in my adult life for any, like, purpose of, like, enlightenment or reading or anything. I've just always lived under the guise of. If I need to implement something from my life, it's gonna come from my own experiences and my own. My own life. Cause that's how I want them to become a priority or instilled in what I need to do. So I'm curious if anyone else out there is as weird as me and kind of has taken a stance on books. Books and taking advice in their life. But I don't know. I don't plan on reading this, but I want you to read it and convince me that I should read it.

[Jason Tardick]

That's the. Okay, that.

[C]

But that's fair.

[Jason Tardick]

Well, your take is wild. Like you're taking out. Hang on. Here's where I respect your take. Where I respect your take is what I think I'm hearing is you say, my intuition's my compass, and I never want to lead in a direction other than what my compass says. And I don't want anything to cloud that, which I respect that because I have a lot of things that cloud my. I agree, and I think my intuition's bang on. But where I would challenge you is, like, there are thousands of years of history, and there are experts in every single field that. And there are people with just really good takes that can inspire us through their research, their History, their experience, etc, that can help us shape, to grow in different, different directions. Similar to, like, let's say this, here's what I'll challenge. You're a hockey coach for the best kids in the world. Imagine if you're like, I'm not gonna look at nutritionists and what they suggest. I'm not going to look at other coaches to see what they're doing. I'm not going to look at the best coaches in the world to like, read their stuff, to then adjust and like, take ideas. You know what I mean?

[C]

It's a very good point. It's a very valid point. I just don't ever want to be in a situation where it comes to, like, life habits or, or things where, okay, I'm taking advice from this thing because I should do this. But, like, then I'm doing them and I don't even know if I'm doing them right or if they're having the right impact. I'm chasing. I'm chasing for the next thing. The next thing, the next thing. Well, for me, it's like, hey, this is your life. You have full control of all your decisions. You ha. You have to be able to sit and analyze what makes you happy and what doesn't make you happy. And then you have to find, you know, through what you know is going to work for yourself. You have to figure out, you have to give yourself your own advice. You have to be able to communicate and talk these things out through your. With yourself to find out what the solutions are. And I just have always been worried as soon as I go outward to try and find those solutions and implement in my life, like, now I've just lost, like, I've just lost it.

[Jason Tardick]

I feel like the. Here, here's where I think we can agree. I think customization. I think our brains and our everything, man, our hair, our brains, our nose, our lips, down to our freaking toenails on our pink, pinky, pinky toes. Everything in our own bodies, inside and out, is like its own machine. Like, we are all built so different. Nothing is the same. And I think that everything we do and how we do it has to be customized to what works for us. Something as simple as, like a doctor prescribing you and I a drug. We might both be perfect candidates for that drug. And my body's going to react to it totally different than yours is. And what I think the answer is, if there's advice out there, there's books to read or there's places to go and there's things to do. You have to be able to like, look at it and like you said, analyze it, consider it for a choice, and then if it doesn't work out, instantly customize what does for you. And I think maybe that's where a lot of people miss is. They'll digest the information and then they think it's like the law of the land. There's not. This person said it, so I have to do it. And I think the biggest thing is, like you said, decisions and then customization that works for your own little machine because we all have our own little machines.

[C]

And you know what? I'm going to take a page out of your book here and I'm going to, I am, I'm going to listen. I know people on this podcast have said sometimes I don't necessarily follow up on things that I say I'm going to do. I'm going to listen to this book because I've never listened to an audiobook and I actually don't enjoy reading and I don't think I retain a lot of things when I read. I get frustrated when I read. I am going to download this audiobook, the Power of Now and on gta at some point before the new year, I am going to give you my honest takeaways from this process of the Power of Now.

[Jason Tardick]

I. I have a challenge for you. I have a challenge for you and me. And let's actually fucking do it.

[C]

Okay?

[Jason Tardick]

The first two chapters, you are not your mind conscientious, the way out of pain. You and I listen to two chapters and through the week, let's keep each other accountable. And then next week you and I are going to have a longer recap. We have Joan and Chuck coming on. Okay. And it's a short episode. It's only like a 25 minute interview with them. So you and I have a lot of time to discuss all things. We'll just, I mean we have a to cover next week. It won't be a Jason tells all, but with only a 25 minute interview of Joan and Chalk, we will have a lot of time and you and I will talk about the power now the first two episodes. You in?

[C]

I'm in.

[Jason Tardick]

Okay, you're in. Sold. We're there. Now there's a few things we got to move to as we wrap up this interview there. You know, I, I thought was, I mean the Len Goodman, he's so beautiful, so touching. It's to me the history of Mark Ballas and professional dance from the lineage is remarkable. But that Also tied to the future or the current and potential future which is now after 20 seasons and all the success, which I thought was so cool that he was like coming to tears almost when we talked about it, this, this the judges conversation because I think for all the Dancing with Stars fans out there, there's a lot of controversy around the judges, especially Carrie Ann. So when it comes to judges and what he said, what do you think?

[C]

I mean I love, loved his take on what a judge should be and what he tries to do as a judge. I think he said as a pro he loved a judge that had been through it before. Right. He was, he almost respected their scores more because they have the full vision of understanding what they've gone through. And he also as a judge kind of puts himself in their shoes, which I really loved. I loved how he's like, well they're never doing this dance again in the show ever. So I'm not going to necessarily critique them on certain things about that dance fans but there are overlaying skills that may, may help them that I'll give more tips. He's like, I'm not really there to judge them, I'm there to help them. You know, obviously the fact that they don't see the footage to the day of is really, really good integrity I think from the show to get judges honest reactions. But yeah, I, I, I've, I've, I watched part par. I didn't, I wasn't like super loyal in the season but every time I'd see Instagram or I'd go on tick tock or I'd hear people talking about the show and when I have watched it religiously, Carrie Ann just gets like, she just gets dragged. Like she, I've, I've also seen that she's like really, really, really overly critical of the females and like gives all the guys like tens and there was like tick tock clips of like Derek's reaction sometimes to some of her scores being like, what is this lady doing? So maybe this is the first live petition of Mark Ballas replacement racing full time and getting Carrie Anne out of there.

[Jason Tardick]

I want Mark palace in there full time. Here's what I'm gonna say. I always like to give two perspectives. Big devil's advocate guy. What I like about Carrie Ann is that obviously like her history speaks for itself. Like she's, she's a professional. True and true in the space. But what I like about her is that she, she'll throw curveballs.

[C]

Yes.

[Jason Tardick]

She doesn't care about the popular stance she doesn't give a shit about being liked. Like, Carrie Ann knows she's gonna get the shit kicked out of her when she stuff she says, but she says it because she believes in it. And so like that I respect and I do think that every judges panel has to have someone like that, like a shark tank. You got to have Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful, who's been on the show on Simon Cowell. You get, you just have to. So that I like. What I don't like is exactly what you said. It feels to me that there's just a ton of inconsistency and it feels to me that she clearly has favorites and she plays into those favorites. And I remember when Caitlyn was on the show show, I, I believe her and Artem might add a little personal history. And I remember ever it felt like every single week Carrie Ann was just beating the out of Caitlin and Artem and I was like, I was getting pissed, you know. So to me, I like someone taking a view that's different than the norm. I just think you got to be more consistent with it.

[C]

Yeah. Hey, Carrie Anne, if you'd like to come on the podcast and debate, we would love to have you.

[Mark Ballas]

You.

[Jason Tardick]

We would love to have you, especially because you've had, she's had an incredible career and she's doing something different and she's, she's strong within her opinion and she's the only woman on the panel. So that's, that's a beautiful thing. She represents a lot. And so there we go. Carrie Anne, here's the invite, if you'll ever accept. Love it. Cool. David, anything else before we wrap?

[C]

No, I just, I just thought the, the whole episode was great. I mean, some of the moments that you talked about, the Len Goodman talking about his mom getting lessons from, from, from him while he was pregnant. I thought I have to touch the, the story of him sharing about the miscarriage that he had during the season. The Vietnamese waltz dance that was dedicated to that experience with Charlie. I just thought, you know, some really touching moments in this podcast. He seems like an awesome, awesome guy. And like we said from the top, very inspirational, very motivating. So all around, great episode.

[Jason Tardick]

I love it. Good stuff. Well, remember to give us five stars. You are now going to be in the holiday giveaway contest. Every single week. We are going to be giving some stuff out sponsors. So get ready for that. Get ready for Joan and Chalk next week. And we have a ton of great episodes coming up. And also Jason tells all. So if you have questions that you want David to ask me, make sure to shoot us an email. Trading secrets Jason tardick.com and yeah, we'll we'll see you next week for another episode of Trading Secrets. One you can't afford to miss.

[Mark Ballas]

Money money on me Making that money money Living that dream Making that money.

[Jason Tardick]

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[Mark Ballas]

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[Jason Tardick]

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