Mick Unplugged - Transform Anxiety into Creative Fuel: Insights from Josh Pais

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Josh Pais is an acclaimed Hollywood actor recognized for his dynamic performances alongside icons like Scorsese, Denzel, and Jennifer Aniston. Beyond his storied film career, Josh is the creator of the Committed Impulse method—a revolutionary approach empowering leaders and creatives to overcome fear, access their full presence, and perform at their peak. Drawing on insights from the worlds of acting and neuroscience, Josh helps people break free from mental roadblocks and ignite their aliveness, whether in the boardroom or on stage. He’s also the author of Lose Your Mind: The Path to Creative Invincibility, distilling his life’s work into practical exercises and guidance for anyone seeking greater authenticity and creative freedom. Takeaways: Transforming Fear into Fuel: Josh believes that nervousness, anxiety, and fear are natural human sensations and advocates for embracing them rather than suppressing them. By feeling these emotions fully, they can become creative or professional fuel rather than obstacles. Presence is Key: Through techniques like his “I’m back” exercise, Josh empowers people to break free from self-critical mental chatter and anchor themselves in the present moment, opening up greater creativity and impact in their work and life. Vulnerability as Power: Rather than viewing vulnerability or emotional intensity as a weakness, Josh asserts that welcoming every sensation—especially during high-stakes moments—creates genuine connection and power. Sound Bytes: “When actors step into the unknown and create in that moment, that’s what engages an audience.” “Feel the charge, it’s not good or bad—it’s just energy. Use it as fuel for whatever you’re doing.” “You have to be a little crazy to go into this and, you know, the thing with rejection is feel it like a bee sting, then clear the slate and be open for what’s next.” Connect & Discover Josh: Instagram: @joshpais Facebook: @CommittedImpulse X:  @JoshPais Website: Committed Impulse 🔥 Ready to Unleash Your Inner Game-Changer? 🔥  Mick Hunt’s BEST SELLING book, How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never Had One: The Blueprint for Modern Leadership, is here to light a fire under your ambition and arm you with the real-talk strategies that only Mick delivers.  👉 Grab your copy now and level up your life → Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million    FOLLOW MICK ON: Spotify: MickUnplugged Instagram: @mickunplugged  Facebook: @mickunplugged YouTube:  @MickUnpluggedPodcast  LinkedIn: @mickhunt  Website:  MickHuntOfficial.com Apple: MickUnplugged Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if I told you that your favorite teenage mutant Ninja Turtle could help you overcome fear and anxiety? Well, that's what this conversation today with Josh Pice is about. We go into a little bit of the history of him starting acting, but then we go into what he's doing with committed impulse, helping people overcome fear and anxiety. And then we end it with his book, Lose Your Mind, and we're going to talk about why being back and saying, I'm back, can solve a lot of problems. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my good friend, your favorite teenage mutant ninja turtle, Josh Pice. You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable.

I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Josh, how are you doing today, sir? I'm good. I'm good. Better now after that intro. You know, I should have also said he's a technical consultant who can fix all technical issues as well, but I don't want that huge bill, so I'm just going to let that go on. Yeah, we had a little glitch to get us going, but yeah, it just bonded us. Yeah.

There you go. Josh, man, again, huge fan of you of all the body of work that you've done. I mean, the things that you're doing now, I can honestly say I'm really passionate about. And we're going to get into that in this episode, man. But just honor to have you on, man. Your body of work is literally something that others can't say they've done, man. Like, I just, I want to give you your flowers while you're here, Josh. Thank you, man. I really appreciate that.

I really appreciate that. You know, I always ask my guest about something that I call your because, that thing that's deeper than your why. Like, if I were to say, Josh, what's your why? You tell me. And then I say, well, why are they your why? And you'd usually start that sentence with, well, because, A, B, and C. I care about the because. So if I were to say, Josh, all the crazy, cool things that you're doing to impact society,

to give the betterment of people, what's your because? What's your purpose today? my because is to have people get out of listening to how screwed up they are to get people out of listening to how screwed up they are to get people out of listening to how they're not good enough out of listening to how that person wronged me and spending in mental dramas and because i want people to access their aliveness their creativity their playfulness and really access what they have to offer the world, whether it's, you know, cooking a hamburger or solving, you know, a major scientific breakthrough that would handle global warming. Like, whatever it is, it's whatever that person wants to express

is in them to bring forward, that's that's where my that's where my passion lies and everything that I do I love that man and hearing that like like warms my heart because you know I'm just going to say it and go there with your background the things that you've done a lot of people don't have that be caught right like and I don't mean this in a bad way when I talk about Hollywood at all but people don't understand the grind of Hollywood, right? And the competitiveness of Hollywood. And so a lot of times it's, it's a me, me, me, me because it has to be me, me, me, and you're the complete opposite of that. When did you realize that this was your mission, that this was your purpose? Like,

when did you say, oh, I'm different? I mean, I remember telling my dad that I wanted to be an actor and And he was a physicist, you know, a kind of a well-known theoretical physicist. And he said, and we went away for the weekend. We were in upstate New York. And he said, you know, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And he said, and he said, but like, why? And I may have been the first time I really articulated it, But I just said that by creating different characters,

even characters that are really dark or really elevated, that it's going to make the world better, even if someone can see like a dark side in a character. And if they have that in themselves, like maybe they'll be like, yeah, you know, I have that too. you know and and it's also one of the powers of acting of watching a movie of watching theater when it's good it the audience ceased all their stories cease to exist like an audience comes to a

performance hoping that the actors will engage them so much that they will leave their life and they'll enter another world. And that that's, there's something really beautiful about, you know, about that. And so that's, you know, I told them that and he was like, he was like, okay, I'll pay for some acting classes, you know. And then you kind of took over the world, right? So talk to us a little bit about you take acting classes and then you get your first role. Like, what was that moment like for Josh Pice?

I mean, the first, the first movie I ever did was a movie called Jack Knife. And it was with Robert De Niro, who was, you know, especially for a young actor at that time, it was like he's, and he, not that he's not still, but just a god of this art form. Right. And, and I remember prior to that, I had done theater in little East Village basements, you know, where there was hard, you know, there were maybe 12 people in the audience and the director was like, always speak loud enough so that the back row hears you. But, you know, and there were often boilers running, you know, so we had to speak over that. And so I got this, you know, I auditioned. I got this movie and we do a rehearsal with me and De Niro in front of the whole crew just so they can see how to light the scene. And so he says his line to me and then I say my line to him like so loud so that everybody like the people making coffee 50 feet away could hear me.

And then he just spoke right to me and then I spoke to everybody and slowly. he started pulling me in to going from like an amateur and a professor to like two people talking to each other like he pulled me in and that was seems obvious but that was just a profound

lesson that of film that it's just you and that other person and it was very simple but it was a big learning lesson. And I feel like, I feel like, you know, that I'm such a student of this art form. Like every job I'm,

I try to learn, you know, I'm just trying to learn something. And so much of this craft is unlearning. It's like getting out of your way, knowing how to step into the unknown. Because if when actors step into the unknown and create in that moment, that's what engages in audience. And the trap is to come in preset of how you're going to do

something and then do it. And it's like selling, you know, yesterday's bread. It's just nobody's interested in that. Right, right. Talk to us to the listeners and viewers. You know, I talked earlier about the competitiveness of Hollywood. Talk us a little bit about that because, you know, I have friends and I've had guests on and I've got to learn, you know, you just think, oh, you go for a role and if they like you or you got enough resume, like it's yours, you don't even have to audition, you just get those things. But talk us about the competitiveness of Hollywood. Well, in a sense, I feel like I'm competing with myself of like, how can I bring it? Because the idea of competing with someone else for a role is just, it doesn't make any sense almost. Because you don't physically compete.

Yeah. I mean, it's not like if we put us both in the room and battled, like, then that would be. But it's really like, how can I bring a part of myself so honestly and so fully and so spontaneously so spontaneously so that I'm not. operating out of my mind but I'm operating from my gut from my core whatever that is so that it's spontaneous and if I can do that I feel like it's a win yeah and yeah I mean on some to some level it's like all I can do is be my best but I the notion of competing with another person is just an abstract notion in that sense because I'm just trying to do my best, they're doing their best, and then the creators have a vision and assuming I do my best,

that person does their best. If one of us fits the vision, then they're going to get the job, no matter how brilliant I was, if this other person was also brilliant and fits some vision, they're going to get the role. Yeah. Yeah, I heard a funny story a couple months ago just on how you can nail an audition. But then you're like three inches too tall or three inches too short when it comes to like the overall casting. And I was like, what? Yes.

Yes. It's just you have to be a little crazy, you know, to go into this. And, you know, and it's the thing with rejection is that I, when you get rejected and this really applies to everyone, when there's a rejection that happens, you don't get something that you really want it. It's really key to feel it like a beasting. Feel the hurt. Feel the, you know, if you have to curse, whatever, feel it and then be, and then clear the slate and be open as you can for the next whatever it is that you're going to do. And I've seen so many people, incredibly talented people, have a series of rejections and they start to armor up and they start to go into situations hiding on protecting themselves. and not letting people see them because they, you know. And so it's so key to feel it and then it's and and it may not, and it's not going to be pleasant and then it's done. And then you open your heart up again and and experiment. No, I love that.

And that's to me almost like the perfect segue to committed impulse. And it's, it's what I follow you most now for. And I've given your, your site, your material to several of my colleagues, to my peers, to my family. Thank you. Because you talk about something that I think is not just relevant, but we need to talk about it, right? Like, you talk a lot about fear and anxiety. And I think a lot of times for, and I'm just going to say it, us as men, like, we don't we're allowed to have those emotions.

Right. Right. And one of the things that I've learned from you is that, you know, our brain, the neuroscience of our brain, its first priority is to keep us safe, right? Like our brain is built to keep us safe. Yep. And so these emotions that we have usually are there because the brain is saying we're not safe, we're not safe, so let's get anxious.

Or we perceive things as anxiety. Yeah, and contract and withdraw. Right, right. So talk to us about, one, why it's important for us to start having these conversations. And this, I don't mean just as men. I just mean even as adults that when we're having anxiety, it's okay to talk about it. Yeah. But there's things we can do to correct it.

When we have fear, it's natural. Yeah. And then there's some things to do about it. So one, I want to applaud you for bringing that to the forefront today because it's needed. But two, I want to talk about why you decided it was important, you know i went to i went to acting school thanks to my dad and and i then i returned to new york where i grew up and i started auditioning and i had so much fear i had so much nervousness i had so much anxiety i had so many thoughts in my head of like i'm i can't do this i've made a

mistake what am i going to do so much and it was just disastrous auditions because because I would just go in there and be, you know, I couldn't, my whole system was jumbled. And if I can tell just a quick story about my dad, he was a theoretical businessman who worked with Einstein and Niels Bohr and Oppenheimer and all those guys. And when I was a little kid, I asked him about what his job was. and he's and I was sitting next to a table you may have heard this I've told this many times but I was sitting next to a table and he said and I said what is your job and he said you see that table I said yes do you see your knee yes he said the smallest part of that table and the smallest part of your knee are the same things atoms and he said that's what I explore the building blocks of the universe so I reflected on that story, that incident that happened when I was six, when I was, you know, in this panic of like, can I even be an actor? And I started to think, well, if my body is made out of atoms, then emotions

must somehow be integrated with atoms because it's all happening in this structure. And so I started experimenting, feeling the actual sensation of anxiety, of fear, of nervousness. Say nervousness, it was often like a pulsation energy, you know, behind my rib cage, you know, increased heart pounding. But when I just felt the actual sensation or anxiety like a swirling energy in my body, a little bit out of control energy. But when I just felt it without the judgment and the stigma and what we've all been, it's so immersed in a myth, which is that this is a good thing to feel and this is a bad thing to feel.

And that's what we have to undo because we are designed. It's in our DNA to feel all these different emotions. And so by just me feeling the frequency, the energetic pattern, I was still feeling it, but I was actually really feeling it as opposed to identifying it and then trying to suppress it. And then that started to become creative fuel. So regardless of what I was feeling, I could create with it as opposed to push it away, hold it as bad. pretend it wasn't there and then try to work you know while i'm trying to hide something yeah and that really opened up you know so much for me and really i's people started asking me to teach you know years ago wasn't my intent but the more we we have to welcome every sensation

none of it is bad if we can get the all it is is a frequency it's just an energetic pattern and it's not good and it's not bad when you really feel it it might be intense but you can withstand it and and if we feel what's there it will shift to something else and something else and something else i love that and speaking of filling it in in that shift what are some signs What are some visible signs or some feeling signs, some physical signs that people ignore that they shouldn't ignore when we talk about fear and incite? Well, if we're feeling, we've never culturally learned to increase our tolerance for living in a human body. and living in a human body is living in a system that's vibrating we've come you know we've come to call those vibrations this emotion or that emotion and we have to know if we ignore it we're

not ignoring it we're just suppressing it and pushing it into a part of our body and over time that part part of our body is going to get tight and then it's going to get painful and then it's going to be like a knot and it's all emotion it's just been i'm not feeling that because i've got to be you know whatever a powerful man or a powerful woman and right and that's i don't want to show weakness but the other thing is that when anyone rides the sensations that are there they are almighty even nervousness even fear if you just like feel that charge all it is is a charge it's it's magnificent it's so authentic and it just looks like power because you're honoring your humanity in that moment yeah yeah you know you hit on it a little bit earlier and one of the

things that I really took a ton of notes on when following you is you talk about riding the wave yeah you challenge us to ride the wave and so for people that are listening are watching, how do we ride the wave in the moment, right? Like, I might be in a boardroom meeting, right, if I'm a leader, or I might be doing a pitch if I'm an entrepreneur, or if I'm an actor or a comedian, I might be going on stage. And so that emotion, that vibration is going to be there. I love that vibration, by the way. How do I write it?

And why is it important to write it? Well, first I just want to say that when anybody in any of those situations that you mentioned, I call it putting your ass on the line. You know, you're standing up in a boardroom. You're giving a pitch. You're a lawyer doing a closing argument. Whatever it is, you're going on a date, whatever it might be. At Capital One, we're more than just a credit card company.

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Terms and conditions apply. Any of those situations, it's natural that the body is going to increase in vibration. As we extend further out into the world, we're going to vibrate more. And that doesn't mean that you're not ready. Like a lot of people are like, oh, I'm feeling this so I'm not professional. No, it just, this is what happens to the human system as you extend out, vibration increases. And it's really a matter of practicing not only in that high pressure system, situation, but practicing throughout the day of just feeling what's there and welcoming it.

And then when it increases in those high pressure situations, stay connected to your audience. See who's there as you're feeling this. Very often we start to feel it. And then it's, oh, no, we suppress it. As soon as we suppress it, we go into our head and our head tells us that we suck and it's not going well. or we feel the charge, but we stay with our audience, we breathe, and we use that as fuel to give our pitch. We use it as fuel to do our closing argument. And if we can look at it as our system is giving us energy for this task and that it's all good. Like, that's my message.

It's like what we feel, it's all good. I'm not talking. about, you know, a harsh situation or I'm just talking about the, you know, the range of things that our body generates. If we can hold it as all good, because this, you know, I, a lot of times in my classes, I'll say in a hundred years from now, you're going to be floating around and you're going to be like, oh, anxiety. I remember anxiety. Oh, that was so cool. You know. no i i love it man because through you i also realize that like our vibrations are telling us stories right or or giving us signals like yeah you know we call it nervousness like if i'm going on stage to to deliver a keynote i kind of want that nervousness or i don't feel right like it's almost

unnatural for me because you're right it's energy it's positive like i need that yes and i know i'm going to knell it. It's when I'm very calm that it's like, oh, crap, I have no idea what's going on. It doesn't feel good. And let me ask you, how did you make that transition? Because I would imagine early on that nervousness might have been like, oh, no. But at some point, like, how did you welcome it and use it? Yeah, because I realized that it was one telling me to take a deep breath and just pause in the moment and then too

that energy was more just excitability. It wasn't what I considered nerves. It was anticipation. It was the energy that I needed to make sure I was focused on the moments. And so you helped me understand

that, that hey, write it because it's probably good and like I told you, I got to a point now where I need it. Yeah. I need it. that feeling where I don't feel right. And, you know, same thing with the relationships, right? It's like, when you get butterflies around that person, that special person, like, that's supposed to be there. Like that's a thing. It's helped me, right? It's helped me understand a lot. So I owe you,

bro. Oh, man. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, you've been gracious with your time, but what else do you have going on? Like, One, I'm going to send everyone to committed impulse. We're going to make sure we send people there because there's much, much, much more that you offer and that you have there from a coaching perspective. I just happened to have this here, which is my book, which came out recently. It's called Lose Your Mind, the path to creative invincibility. And that's, you know, the past year and a half has really been my focus is really putting everything. that we're talking about and a lot more into the book so that it's not just ideas,

but there's exercises, there's different kinds of meditations that you can get, even with the hardcover book with the QR code. It's also an audible. And I feel like this is my life's work, like what, you know, you asked about my because. It's all in this book. And so that was going to, that was going to be my final segue. Okay. Going from the website to the book because you do give, it's almost like a manual, a workbook of tips, of strategies in Lose Your Mind. Talk to us, highlight one or two that you think are critically important that the book really goes into because I want everybody that's listening that's watching to go get a copy of the book and I'm going to have something cool for you in a moment too. But what are a couple of things that are in this book that everybody needs to know? One thing is there are four access points to presence.

And the key one, I can go over all four, but maybe I'll just for time, just touch on one of the key ones, which is there's a period when your mind take, and all the book is how to get out of so you're not listening to this nonsense all the time. and you may be in a situation and all of a sudden your mind has caught you and you're in some kind of a mental drama or you're thinking about later or you think about what happened before and you're completely left what's in front of you as soon as that happens well first of all there's a period of time that you don't know you've left like you're just like and then as soon as you realize that your mind just grabbed you in my classes I have people say I'm back and that is just training yourself to return to what is real because this is the same crap day in day out and as soon as it starts I'm back connect with what's in front of you increase

your breathing connect to your body and then as soon as your mind gets you again i'm back and the more that you practice that in the beginning it might be shocking as you'll be i'm back i'm back i'm back right but by simply practicing this and there's exercises like you said all throughout the book the window of not being caught up in your mind it starts to expand. And light becomes an adventure. You have access to your creativity. You have access to whatever it is you want to do in the world, as opposed to listening to how you can't. And how you can't is not accurate, but that's one of the things that our mind will always drop down. I'm writing that down. Yeah, I'm back. It's like back. I'm back. Yeah. Yeah. So here's what I want to do,

Josh, because I know this book is impacting lives right now, and I do this for books that I love. So the first 20 people that message me, whether it's social media or if you have my email or if you have my number, first 20 people that message me, I'm back, because I want to make sure that they were paying attention. I'm going to purchase a copy of the book for it. Oh, man. You're amazing. So 20 copies I'm purchasing for my listeners. I'm going to purchase 10 for myself. because I have some family members that I think this book is going to be dynamic for. So 30 copies in total, I want to make sure I purchase those.

But I'm back. I'm back. Message me, 20 people I've got you. Oh, man. That's beautiful. Thank you so much. That means the world to me, really. You got it.

Well, Josh, again, I know how busy you are, man. I'm honored to spend some time with you. Likewise. I love to have you back on so we can go deep. deeper into this because I'm totally dialed in on you, bro, like totally dialed in. I let me know. Let me know. I'm game. We can go into any area. Yeah, for sure. Let's do it. Well, Josh, I appreciate you, brother. More than you know, thank you for taking the time to spend with us. Thank you.

You got it. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen, share it with someone who needs that spark, and leave a review so more people can find there because. I'm Rudy Rush, and until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay unplugged.