We recently had the chance to connect with Paul Guyot and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Paul, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Golf. The game is incredibly frustrating and rage-inducing while at the same time being meditative and calming. The 4 or 5 hours spent on the course is a time when the rest of the world ceases to exist and you are truly one with what you are doing. It can be done alone or with a group of friends or total strangers.
The game brings out people’s true nature better than anything else. You can learn more about a person playing one round of golf with them than working next to them for years.
It pushes your patience, integrity, and focus like no other endeavor. It teaches humility and acceptance, and depending on how you respond can level up your self-esteem or completely destroy it.
Most people on the planet will never be able to throw a baseball like Clayton Kershaw, a football like Tom Brady, or shoot a basketball like Steph Curry. But every single golfer, no matter how awful they might play the game, can, when the stars align in one perfect moment, strike a ball in the exact center of the clubface or hit a putt at perfect speed on the perfect line, and thus do the exact same thing a Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy does – perform at the absolute highest level.
There is no joy like it.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’ve been a professional screenwriter for 25 years. I’ve written and produced over 200 hours of television, and written movies that have grossed nearly half a billion dollars. I published a book on screenwriting (Kill the Dog) which was an Amazon bestseller, and am currently working on my first novel, my first play, and a collection of short stories.
All that is to say I make stuff up for a living. I’m a storyteller. I write to entertain, to educate, but mostly to learn about myself. I set my own hours (when I’m not a TV series staff), and work at my own pace. I’ve been blessed to stay employed for 25 consecutive years in an industry where there is over 70% unemployment for writers. I don’t take that for granted.
In the last several years I’ve turned more to teaching and mentoring through my website and various writing conferences and events. There is so much misinformation out there about my industry and screenwriting in general that I am dedicated to getting the truth out there, and helping people embrace the artist inside them.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
I believed I wasn’t good enough. That I didn’t matter. That I was simply a replacement part.
When I was eight years old my mother began regularly telling me that the only reason she had me was because she knew my older brother was not going to live. He had been born with a heart condition that took his life at age nine. She told me multiple times that I was simply his “replacement.”
I had no idea that belief would be the single driving force behind all my trauma and anxiety and torment growing up and through adulthood. It took years of therapy and the love and support of a dedicated partner to lead me to my emotional and psychological breakthrough. That and my faith in God. After decades of self-abuse, bad relationships, and dozens upon dozens of poor decisions, I finally got healthy, and realized that I am good enough, and I do matter.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
In 2016 I was thrown into the Showrunner position of a TV series. The Showrunner is the Executive Producer, head writer, and basically the leader of the entire production. At the time I was still reeling from a nasty divorce, estranged from my children, living and working in an unfamiliar city, and absolutely convinced I was not qualified for the job – and was not only going to fail miserably, but in doing so would bring down a multimillion dollar production. The one positive thing in my life at the time was a new relationship – someone I was convinced was my soulmate.
About 48hrs after I was given the Showrunner job she called me from an airport to inform me she was leaving me for a younger, wealthier, “better” man.
I wanted to give up. To run away.
But I learned something then that changed my life… you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have. I had no choice but to do the job. More than 200 people were counting on me, expecting me to lead them. And so I did.
I would toss and turn all night, getting maybe two or three hours sleep, get up, go to work, and lead this production in all facets. Every so often I would have to excuse myself to the restroom – I’d go in and bawl my eyes out, then splash water on my face, look into the mirror and in my best Joe Gideon say, “It’s showtime, folks!” And I would go back out and do my job until I had to excuse myself again.
That season I brought the show in on time and under budget, and with some of the best creative storytelling of the series. It lead to me believing in myself as a writer and producer like never before, and my career took off after that.
Because I did not give up.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
For me it’s my relationship with God, and the belief Christ died for all of us, and we are saved by His grace. For me personally, it is THE foundational truth of my life, but I rarely articulate it because there is so much white noise and rage and fear and angst regarding the idea of God that I find it’s better if I just my life the way I feel I should live it, and through my own actions and behavior be a positive example.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Hollywood gives and takes like nothing else. At one point in my career I had “everything I wanted” – note the quotes. I was an in demand writer and producer working on a Top 10 TV series. I was making over half a million dollars a year, and I was so miserable I wanted to kill myself. I was on multiple prescription drugs and nothing was helping my depression. I did not want to go on.
Now, when folks who are struggling to make ends meet hear “rich people” talk of being miserable, they react with great umbrage. But unless you actually experience someone else’s life you have no legit frame of reference.
From the outside, most people believe “Oh, if I just had this much money or had this job or that lifestyle” than I’d be happy. But what I learned was none of that has anything to do with happiness. Happiness is not something you achieve or buy or earn – you create it yourself. From the inside. It has zero to do with your job, your income, your relationships, or any other outside factor.
Every relationship we have is defined by the relationship we have with ourselves. And if we aren’t truly at peace with our authentic selves, no relationship will satisfy us. And no job, no paycheck, no lifestyle can replace what we must create from within.
In 2018 I walked away from that huge job and huge paycheck. I turned down other “fancy” work. My agents were livid with me. I fired them. I began to do what I wanted to do for myself regardless of what it cost me. And while my income dropped exponentially, my joy increased tenfold. It was only through living this way that I finally exorcised those demons from my childhood and began to appreciate this amazing gift of Life.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://screenwritingtruth.com
- Instagram: p.guyot
- Linkedin: Paul Guyot
- Other: TikTok: screenwritingtruth
