Acting Business Boot Camp

Free Month of The Weekly Adjustment I'm going to be talking about a real coaching tool called getting a buy in. And that buy in is about really getting a buy in from yourself, something that you need in order to commit to yourself and motivate yourself. So I'm going to be giving you some strategies to achieve buy-in from yourself and then tell you why I'm teaching this very valuable lesson. The first thing when you're trying to get a buy-in from yourself, you're trying to get yourself motivated, you're trying to get yourself committed to this thing of becoming an actor, is you want to clarify your visions and your goal. What that means is that you want to define clear objectives. Meaning, and if you've ever done any method acting, you want to find out, what do you want? What does that character want, but what do you want? You want to ensure that you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, and this is the biggie, and why it matters. Why it matters. Jen Sincero talks a lot about doing something because your life depends on it. But this is the thing, as she says, Your life does depend on it. This is what you want. Let's get clear on it. I also encourage you, after you have written down what your vision and your goals are, or your goal is that I want you to visualize that success. Even if you just write it down in a paragraph form, you're already a step closer to what you want to buy into. Picture what success looks like, and this is the biggie, and how it will feel. How it will feel. How will it feel when you achieve that award? How will it feel when you get what you want? Visualize what that would look like. The second thing I want you to do is I want you to assess the benefits, but also the challenges. I want you to list your benefits and all of this you can do by just writing down. You can listen to this podcast all the way through. Then you can pause and then listen. Listen to it again, but this time with pen and paper and pause when you want to write stuff down. Assess the benefits and the challenges. So you're going to list the benefits. Write down the positive outcomes that you expect if you buy in, if you say, "Hey, I am 1000 percent into this pursuit of becoming an actor," what would the positive outcomes be? And then I want you to identify the potential challenges. And that means you're acknowledging the obstacles and you're going to start considering how you're going to overcome them and where you may need to get help to overcome them. The third thing is I want you to align with your values and your interests. Now, what does that mean? Your values are what means a lot to you. Is it the arts? Is it self expression? One of my values is always showing myself I can do it. It's not about showing other people, it's for me. My biggest value is proving to myself that I can do it. So you want to align your values and your interests. interests. So you want to take a moment to really reflect on your personal values, meaning you want to ensure that the goal that you want to be doing aligns with who you are and the interests you have. So if I'm challenging myself as a coach which I actually did when I started this podcast 180 episodes ago. Actually, I think it might even be 190 by this point. I challenged myself to do something every week that I may or may not feel like I'm doing. It was in the interest that I obviously have in coaching, but it also was the value of not proving to all of you that I could do it, but proving to myself that I could do it. The other thing that you want to do around aligning your values and interests is finding personal value. Connecting your goal to something that is personally meaningful to you. I talk about how my trigger words a lot in my coaching and that weekly coaching group I was just telling you about. And my old trigger words are weak, stupid, incapable. So when I am aligning with my personal meaning, or I'm trying to find a personal meaning, that personal meaning will always be something that goes against those words. That practices contrary action to the words of weak, stupid, and incapable. It makes me strong, smart, intelligent, and, as I always like to tell myself, I am the most capable person I know. Number four, educate yourself. Educate yourself. Gather information, research, and learn more about the goal to build confidence. Now here I can help you. If you are trying to figure out the business of becoming an actor, please let me know. Shoot me an email, [email protected] so that you can get in touch with me. And we can talk about this because the business does not have to be complicated. Also, and I love this, seek inspiration, look for case studies, success stories or mentors that have achieved similar goals. Another thing that I think is really important is if you are a movie buff, watch favorite movies, watch movies that inspire you, performances that inspire you. Inspire you to become the best actor that you can be the best busine

Apply for the Terry Knickerbocker Studio's Summer Intensive by June 7th and receive a special discount when you mention the podcast. Apply HERE About Terry Knickerbocker: Terry is a graduate of The Experimental Theatre Wing in the Drama Dept. at New York University. After graduating from NYU, Terry trained as an actor and a teacher with William Esper. He taught at The William Esper Studio for 25 years, and continues as part of the core faculty at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He has also taught directing at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School and Yale University. Other essential teacher/mentors include Maggie Flanigan, Rina Yerushalmi, Steve Wangh, Terry Hayden, Nikos Psacharopoulos, Jackie Brookes, Mary Overlie, Ryszard Cieslak, Jerzy Grotowski, Pierre Lefèvre, Moshe Feldenkrais, Dr. Louis Ormont, and Dr. Harry Fogarty. He has coached actors on over 300 films, television and theater projects, both on and off-Broadway and regionally. He also consulted with playwrights and screenwriters on their scripts. Some of the actors he has worked with and trained include Sam Rockwell, Chris Messina, Boyd Holbrook, Natasha Lyonne, Leslie Bibb, Emmy Rossum, Yul Vasquez, Jordana Spiro, Gillian Alexy, Gretchen Mol and many others. A past recipient of the Drama League of New York's directing award/fellowship for emerging directors, Terry is also a former member of Circle Rep's LAB. His directing credits include many new works as well as contemporary and classical plays such as Measure for Measure, Tartuffe, The Normal Heart, Candida, All My Sons, and David Rabe's In the Boom Boom Room.

This week what I wanted to do was a breathing exercise for actors because I think in this incredible turbulent world that we live in, and yes, it's always turbulent, but it seems particularly turbulent right now. It is so important that for us as artists, that before we are about to perform, that we get to the center of us. As a little girl, I called it, go back to the source. And I believe that is connecting to that part of us that is connected to the Universe. So what I'm going to do I'm not going to breathe with you, but what I am going to do is guide you through breathing exercises. So what I ask of you is to breathe in through your nose and let out a big sigh, ah, and again, breathe in through your nose, and let out a big sigh,and that can be as loud as you want it to be. Pause. Stay still. Breathe in through your nose. And again, sigh out. You can even scream if you want. And pause. And just allow your breath to be where it wants to be. Whether that's breathing in through your nose or your mouth. As you do this, I can encourage you to do this for those of you who have subways on the subway, on the tube, or if you're on a bus, or you're riding in the back of a car, or you're at home, sitting on the couch, or maybe you're lying down. And if possible, see if you can wear an eye mask or put a gentle scarf on your eyes, just to block out that little extra light. As you breathe through this next set of breathing exercises, I want you to almost imagine your body expanding and contracting. Your entire body expanding and contracting. Expanding and contracting. Expanding and contracting. Exhale all of your breath. And take a deep breath in. Hold it. Two, three, four, five. Exhale. Pause, two, three, four, inhale. Hold, two, three, four, five, exhale. Pause, two, three, four, inhale. Hold, two, three, four, five, exhale. Pause, 2, 3, 4. One more. Inhale. Pause, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale. Pause. 2, 3, 4. Good. Now just allow yourself to breathe. So what you notice there is we did an inhale and I had you hold for five, then an exhale, and then I had you hold for four. I'm going to do one more set and this time we're going to go a little bit slower. Just allow yourself to breathe. This will probably be an exercise that you'll listen to several times. Each time if you can, really see if you can match your breath to my voice. What that does is takes the control out of you and surrender it to something else. You're not surrendering to me, you're surrendering to the Universe. Exhale all of your breath, and inhale. Hold, three, four, five. Exhale. Pause, two, three, four. Inhale. Hold 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale. Pause 2, 3, 4, inhale. Hold 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale. Pause 2, 3, 4, 5, Inhale. Hold, two, three, four, five. Exhale. Pause, two, three, four, five. Inhale one more time. Hold, two, three, four, five Let it all out Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa Rest. Just allow yourself to be okay. It's okay. It's safe. You are secure Love yourself in this moment It's okay to do that Be in this moment. Just for this moment. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Now at this moment you can pause and just allow yourself to breathe and stay in stillness. Or you can gently open your eyes, let them flutter, remove your maskyour scarf and feel your body. Sometimes when I can't sleep, which doesn't happen all the time by any stretch of the imagination, but it does happen, I find this breathing exercise to be very helpful. I hope it is helpful for you too, and I encourage you to practice it numerous times. It only takes a few minutes. And again, if you can. To the best of your ability, really see if you can listen to my voice and follow that. Obviously, I don't want you to strain, but work up to it. You can do it. You can do it.

Join our mailing list Today, I'm going to do something to follow up from what I talked about last week, which was prayer and meditation for the actor. I got a lot of emails about how many people enjoyed that podcast. So what I wanted to do today was focusing on centering, and centering for the actor. So this is going to be a little different. I don't recommend that you do this while you are driving a car or maybe even walking down the street. This would be a podcast episode that you want to be at home and in a comfortable place because I'm going to be going through different areas of your body and talk about centering them. So if you will, I have taken off my shoes. I am standing here in front of my mic and you can do this, I guess actually if you wanted to do this on a subway, you could or just somewhere you don't have to pay attention for a bit. Put yourself in a comfortable spot. That could be lying on the ground with your legs in the semi supine position, meaning they're bent at the knees and your feet are flat on the ground. Maybe put a book underneath your head or a small blanket and find a comfortable place for your arms, whether that be down by your side or stretched out. And if you're seated, locate where your sit bones are. And allow your spine to get real tall. Place your hands in your lap. If you're standing as I am right now, feel the ground beneath your feet and just take a deep breath in through your nose. Let it go. I want you to think of a cloud. A light blue cloud just above your head. Imagine how puffy it is. In this cloud, there is clear, light blue liquid. And imagine an angel coming with an arrow and pricking the bottom of that beautiful blue cloud. Slowly, gently, the liquid hits the top of your head and slowly goes down your forehead, the back of your scalp, to your ears, down the back of your head, to your eyebrows, to your eyes, down your nose and your cheekbones. Into your cheeks, top of your lips, down the sides of your face, your lower lip, your chin, slowly down the back of your neck, down the front of your neck, relaxing those throat muscles. As it does, breathe, and allow your face to relax. To be completely submerged by this magical blue liquid as it pauses right at your clavicle, your collarbone. Breathe and allow your face, the back of your head, your scalp, the hair on your head to completely relax and just be. Allow the liquid to continue down your collarbones, into your shoulders, down your arms, your biceps and your triceps, into your elbows, down your forearms, into your wrists. Take a deep breath here. Into your thumbs and that fleshy part of your thumbs. Into your palms down the front of your fingers and starting to drip gently off your fingertips. While the blue liquid goes from your wrists and down the front of your hands into those front knuckles of your hands, into your fingers, down the front of your fingertips, and meeting The back of your fingertips and dripping off. Now your head, your shoulders, your arms, and your hands, and your fingers are completely relaxed. Place your attention now back to the clavicle, and allow the blue liquid to rush down into your chest, your breasts, your shoulder blades, down your spine, down and around your torso, off your breasts, into your abdomen through your solar plexus, down into your buttocks and into your groin. It is now as if you are wearing a full bathing suit, and you are completely relaxed and centered in this moment. Just being here with your breath, and my voice, again, and again. Imagine that blue liquid being in your head, in your shoulders, down your arms, in your hands, in your fingertips, down your chest, in your breasts, in your solar plexus, in your abdomen, down your back, through the shoulder blades, down your back of your torso, the sides of your torso, and don't forget to let go of any tension. In your armpits, allow that blue bathing suit to just rest gently on your skin and allow that blue liquid to purify you and center you. With your breath, I want you to concentrate on your groin area and I want you to think of your right leg. Take a breath and allow that blue liquid to go from the right of your groin down your hamstring and your quadricep into your knee, relaxing it, nurturing it, loving it. We hold so much tension in our legs. And for right now, for our purposes, we don't need to. It is safe for us to let go and to center. From our right knee, we allow the blue liquid to go down into our shins and our calves and rest in our ankles, again, letting go and centering, feeling very grounded on our right side. Down into our heel, into our foot, into our toes, and out the tops of them. That can be the point of your toes, that can be the back of your toes, that can be where the little hairy part is of your toes. And yes, if you want to giggle, you can giggle. Our right side is completely relaxed. And we are centered. As we direct our attention into our left hip. Into our left groin. Where again we allow

So today I actually, I've been just so intensely busy with so many different things and I was in New York City today and one of the things I used to do when I was in New York more than I am now is I would go into churches and I just happened to pass by an old church that I usually would go into and I just walked in. And it was quiet, quiet. And I have been noticing this past, I don't know, week, that my mind has been racing a lot. Just tons and tons of talk and nothing negative. Just very busy. And it's disrupted my sleep and it's been so unpleasant. And then I went into that church and I noticed that in this church when I closed the doors and I sat in one of the pews and I've done this, you know, with other spiritual places of worship. So I sat in the pew and I just closed my eyes. and it was so wonderful. Because it was so quiet and almost instantaneously it was like my soul was soothed. My soul was soothed with silence. And so today, I wanted to do a podcast about prayer and meditation. Now I need to stress that I am not a religious person. My relationship is with the universe. And sometimes I do call the universe God, but for me, it is really a spiritual entity. I think of it as my higher self. Because I so strongly believe that the universe is a part of me and I am a part of the universe. So as usual, as per the usual, I am going to be doing a reading out of The Language of Letting Go. I'm gonna alter it slightly for our purposes. So the first thing that she says is she gives a quote by Emmett Fox The Sermon on the Mount. And it says, "as a matter of fact, prayer is the only real action in the full sense of the word, because prayer is the only thing that changes one's character. A change in character or a change in soul is a real change." And although I felt that today while I was sitting in silence, because I felt a change in me. And it's a change that I've kept with me for the rest of the day. And I said to myself, well, why don't you do this more often? But I don't even have to go into a church to do it. I just need to be quiet, which is something that I do. Not for as long as I was in that church. I probably was only there, I don't know, ten minutes. But again, it was very soothing to my soul. Melody Beattie goes on to say, "Erika Young has said that we are spiritual beings who are human. Prayer or praying and meditating are ways that we can take care of our spirit. Prayer and meditation are disciples suggested by the 11th step of 12 step recovery programs." And a prayer that I love, that I believe I, I shared with you recently, is I pray for the knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry that out. I pray for the knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry that out. And I can say that for my acting career, I can say it for anything, but you can also say it for your acting career, because sometimes we feel so lost and I want that word, I've told you before, it's my favorite word, wisdom to guide us. Prayer and meditation are not necessarily connected to organized religion, prayer and meditation are ways to improve our personal relationship with higher power or the universe to benefit ourselves, our life, our growth. And again, the, the, the phrases that come up for me are take care of yourself first and the rest will follow. Take care of yourself first and the rest will follow. And that means mentally, physically and spiritually. Praying is how we connect with our higher power, our universe. We don't pray because we have to. We pray because we want to. It is how we link our soul to our source. I remember when I was a very young girl, I wrote down on a piece of paper: go back to the source. And at the time, I did not know what that meant. But yet I felt it. I understood it. And it's one of those pieces of paper in your life that you cherish. Because at some young age, I knew there was something bigger than me. There was something out there that was bigger than me. I don't think I understood that I was a part of it and it was a part of me. But I understood that it existed. "We're learning to take care of our emotions, our mind, and our physical needs" Again, take care of ourselves first and the rest will follow. "We're learning to change our behaviors, but we're also learning to take care of our spirit. We're learning to take care of our soul because that is truly where all change begins. Each time we talk to the universe, we are transformed. Each time we connect with our higher power, we are heard, touched, and changed for the best." It's funny, I can't prove to you that I was changed for the best by just walking into that church today and sitting for ten minutes in silence. But yet, somehow, somehow I was.

Private Coaching Today, I'm going to talk about the subject of Wisdom. Wisdom is my favorite word in the American language. God, do I love Wisdom. The reason why I love Wisdom is because Wisdom gives me power. And sometimes it isn't even the power of knowledge, but the power of knowing what to do. And I don't have any script for this podcast or guidance for this podcast. I'm just talking to you about this subject because it is truly just the thing that I crave more of. This past week I turned another year older. I help people to adjust their thoughts and their lives to work for them instead of against them. And, that's a really crucial thing because it's certainly something that I did a lot when I was younger. I constantly worked against myself because I also was like, "Yeah I'm, I have so much energy and I'm so tough, I don't always have to be working for me." Oh, would I like to go back and talk to that 20 year old. Becoming emotionally intelligent. And how do I teach them to do that? By teaching them to be emotionally self-sufficient. In order to be emotionally self-sufficient, I need to be very wise. So I'm going to talk a bit today about a couple of prayers that I like that help me to become more wise. And the first one is very obvious. It is the serenity prayer. So if you're listening to this, I'm going to ask you to write the serenity prayer down. I'm going to give it to you as I'm writing. If you need to push pause, that's fine. So here's the serenity prayer. "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. So write that down and then skip a couple of lines. Then I want you to write down the next line, which is "courage to change the things I can." And then skip a couple of lines. And wisdom to know the difference. And wisdom to know the difference. And I always, when I'm writing down the serenity prayer, I always circle the word wisdom. Again, because it's something I want more of. So let's go back to that first line, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Underneath that, I want you to write this: I cannot change or control other people, places, things, or situations. So grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. I cannot change other people, places, things, or situations. I cannot change or control other people, places, things, or situations. Let's go to the second part. Courage to change the things I can. I can only handle or manage, handle/ manage myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. I can only handle/ manage myself, my thoughts, my attitudes, my actions. That's the second part. And the third part is, wisdom to know the difference. Wisdom underneath that, right? Wisdom to know the difference between what I cannot control, which is other people, places, things, and situations, and what I can handle, which is myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. So I am looking for the wisdom to be able to determine what I can do something about and what I cannot, because all anxiety, all unrest in me. It comes from my wanting to control something. But here's the thing, that may not be my job. That may not be my job. My job is to handle or manage myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. And here's the thing, when you really focus on that, your life is busy. You don't have time to control other things. You are not, you don't have time to control outcomes and other things like that. You gotta focus on your own life. You gotta focus on your own life. The Universe is the pilot. I am the co pilot. And every morning I wake up and I say, good morning universe, Peter Pamela Rose reporting for duty. And I invite the Universe into my day. And I ask the Universe. This, and this is what comes from the 12 step programs. I pray for the knowledge of your will for me today and the power to carry that out. I pray for the knowledge or the wisdom of your will for me today, and the power to carry that out. But understand, I am not asking for the power to control. No. I am asking for the power to manage and handle myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. See, my job isn't to control. My job is to handle. My job is to manage. That's what my job is. That's what my job is as co-pilot. So every morning I differentiate, using my wisdom that I have acquired. I use my wisdom to differentiate. Pilot, co pilot. Peter Pamela Rose, you're a co pilot. Reporting for duty. I pray for the knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry that out. Now the thing about wisdom is also there is a little bit of humility involved here because I need to acknowledge another little phrase I'm going to throw to you, which is, I can't. The Universe can. Let the Universe. I can't deal with this situation, but the Universe can. I'm going to let the Universe, but sometimes it's very difficult to admit to ourselves that there is nothing we can do. All of these things, especially that ability to different

Private Coaching Now I wouldn't say that I would sometimes call myself Peter Pamela Perfectionism Rose, but sometimes I've called myself Peter Pamela Perfectionism Rose. The biggest thing about perfectionism that I want to talk about today is that perfectionism leads to procrastination, leads to paralysis. The other thing that I think is so important about the lesson of perfectionism is to make your ears grow bigger, cunning, baffling, and powerful. I look at all the ways, in fact even this too, recording today's podcast, I was looking for the right time to do it. But do you know what the right time to do it was? Right now. Right now was the right time to do it. See, my wanting to, and this is just me but maybe you can relate, my waiting to just feel like it is perfectionism in a very cunning, baffling, and powerful way, trying to get me to not do what I most need to do to move my career forward, which is because for the past, I think over two years now, I have put out a podcast every week, even when my house flooded, even when my house flooded and that If you can start to override that perfectionism and let it go for just a moment so that you do that action now, bingo, we got some serious success about to happen. Now, I'm also going to lean into the fabulous Melody Beattie. The Language of Letting Go She talks about how perfectionism is an individual process that necessitates making mistakes. So recovering from perfectionism necessitates making mistakes, struggling through problems and facing tough issues. And it's especially when I have to do things I most don't want to do that my perfectionism kicks up. Again, waiting for the right time, waiting till I feel like it, waiting until somebody else tells me I should do it. Again, cunning, baffling, and powerful, how I get in there, how perfectionism gets in there or my perfectionism gets in there to prevent me from doing the things that I most need to do in order to achieve what I most want to do. "Expecting ourselves to be perfect slows down the process to our getting to the level of success that we want to get to in whatever area of our life. It puts us in a guilty or anxious state. Expecting others to be perfect is equally destructive. It makes others feel ashamed and may interfere with their growth. Keep the focus on yourself." It was one of the craziest things I've learned in core work. Is that once I finally got the focus on me and off of everybody else, I was like, how the heck did I even have time to focus on other people and try and control them and try and manipulate them? How did I even have the time? I'm so damn busy with me. I'm a freaking full time job. That's when the good stuff begins, when you start to really focus on you, that's when the good stuff starts. "People are human and vulnerable. We can accept and cherish that idea. Expecting others to be perfect puts us in a codependent state of moral superiority." And sometimes I find I do that with myself. I put myself in "Peter, you're just gonna have to do it better than everybody else." What the fuck is that? Oh, that's so much arrogance. That's so much moral superiority that I think I know what perfect is. IIt's really all about process and life being a process. "Expecting ourselves to be perfect makes us feel rigid and inferior." And also as an actor, I find it makes us rigid. We have to do the scene the way we planned it. No, you don't. In fact, mistakes are the best things that can happen. Mess ups are the best things that can happen. I was talking with my producing partner who told me about these mistakes that happened on the set and the actor was like no, I have to redo it. And the director, he was like, ah, no, you don't. Because that was comedic genius. Remember, there is that in imperfection, some of the greatest creativity can happen as an actor. "We do not need to go to the other extreme, tolerating anything that people throw our way. We can still expect appropriate, reasonable, and responsible behavior from ourselves and from others. But most of us can afford to loosen up a bit." Oh my gosh. I used to be so freaking tightly wound until I really gave myself permission to be me. And I am so much more fun now. I am so much more fun in my fifties than I ever was in my twenties and my thirties. "And we can stop expecting others to be perfect. We may discover they're doing much better than we thought." And that's, that's also where that arrogance comes in. Where my thinking, what you should, what my thinking, I know what you should do for your life. Hell, I barely know what the hell I should be doing for my life. Why am I putting that on others? Another cunning, baffling, stinky way that perfectionism comes into our lives. "When we stop expecting ourselves to be perfect, we'll discover that incredible beauty in ourselves, and also the beauty in others." Perfectionism. leads to procrastination, leads to paralysis. My assignment for you is to use your mind to govern your brain and notice

Today I'm going to be talking about something that I have been doing recently, which I've been really taking risks. It's been real. It's been an adventure. And I've said to myself, I remember earlier this year, I was in a foreign country. I was driving in a foreign country, on the opposite side of the road. And I went in my car. It was late at night and I'd been traveling for a while and I just said to myself, You are so brave. You are so brave. And I think one of the things that I've learned in taking risks is really to encourage, be your own cheerleader while you're doing it. Because taking risks is scary. It gets us out of our comfort zone, and of course there's that, saying life begins at the end of our comfort zone, but it really is true. And I don't think you are ever too old to take risks. I did a podcast, oh gosh, I guess it was over a year ago, with my mom where, she shared with you all that she finished writing her 10th cookbook on her 80th birthday. And it's funny because now she's 85 years old and she said, I have this great idea for a cookbook. I'm going to do this. And I'm just like, man, you go, mom, you just go. So today is where I'm going to be encouraging you to take risks, not only in your acting, but also in your life. And to encourage you and to help me along in the format of this podcast, I'm going to be reading from the fabulous Melody Beattie. The Language of Letting Go And the subject, like I said, for today is taking risks. "Take risks. Take a chance. We do not have to indulge in obviously foolhardy or self defeating risks, but we can allow ourselves to take positive risks in our life. We cannot afford to keep ourselves paralyzed." I really started to Up my game in terms of taking risks. About three years ago was right after I turned 50 and I don't know what it is about turning 50, but it's when you really realize, wow, I have less of my life in front of me, potentially, than I do in back of me. And I decided I wanted to have the best freaking second half of my life that I possibly could. And I was no longer going to let fear or judgment or other people's opinions, no matter how close they are to me, stagnate my life. I want to live. And the thing is that if you want to live, you've got to take risks. Or else, you'll be paralyzed. "We do not have to keep ourselves stymied and trapped out of fear of making a mistake or falling." And here's the thing. One of the things about asking. Somebody says it says I don't know. Do you think they'll do it? And I go let's just ask. Because no is survivable. Hearing no is survivable. "Naturally, we will make mistakes and fail from time to time." Again, that is survivable. "That's part of being fully alive. There are no guarantees. If we are waiting for guaranteed courses of action, we may spend much of our life waiting." I don't want to be at the effect of my life anymore. I don't want to wait for life to happen to me. I want to happen to life. I want to be at the cause of my life. "We do not have to shame ourselves or accept shame from anyone. Anyone else, even those who are close to us for making mistakes, the goal of life is not to live it perfectly. The goal of life is to live, learn our lessons, and make our own decisions. And make overall progress." There's a wonderful phrase that I love called progress not perfection. Progress not perfection. Remaining teachable, which I think is also just a wonderful phrase like progress, not perfection. Take a risk. Do not always wait for a guarantee. There again one of the things I've been thinking about recently is leap and the net will appear. Leap and the net will appear. Dust yourself off after a mistake and then move on to the success. Dust yourself off and move on to the success. One of the things my mom used to always say to me when I was a little girl and I would be disappointed because, I don't know, I didn't get a role in the play or something would happen, she would say to me, you dust yourself off, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you start all over again.

PITCH PERFECT MASTERCLASS Today, I'm going to talk about something that I've been feeling recently—vulnerability. Yeah. Vulnerability. Just feeling a little tender. Now, the thing I always think about with vulnerability is vulnerability and emotional availability is two of the greatest assets that actors can have. All I have to say about that is that can also be like your cross to bear, as it were when dealing with the industry. Because as an actor, as an artist, we wear our hearts on our sleeves. But how I like to approach the business is the business. When I go in there, I do my work, my good work. What I want to do is focus on that and not focus on the business. So that's what Acting Business Boot Camp is all about. It's about getting you to focus on the right things at the right time. But today, we're going to talk a little bit more about vulnerability. I'm going to use my dear friend Melody Beattie. The Language of Letting Go She says, "I've learned that the more vulnerable I allow myself to be, the more in control of myself I really am." Now, I don't really like to think about it as in control. In a lot of my work and in my more chiropractor for the mind work, and think about that, chiropractor for the mind, really adjusting yourself so that you understand how you tick. I talk about emotional self-sufficiency, and it's not that I want to control myself. It's that I want to know that I can manage and handle myself emotionally no matter what situation comes up, including losing my voice and feeling sick and feeling unwell. Tender. Melody goes on to say, "Many of us feel that we can only show our strong, confident side. We believe the face we have to show to the world should always be one of politeness, perfection, calm, strength, and control." But let's take a moment and let's take a step back and think about how incredibly unrealistic that is. I received some disappointing news the other day. And I just said to myself, Okay, it's disappointing. It's all right for you to feel sad. It's all right for you not to feel a hundred percent on, especially when I am someone who is on so much. It's okay for me to show a little weakness. It's okay for me to be vulnerable. And it's okay, or I should say, it's more than okay, for me to take care of myself when I'm feeling that tenderness. One of my favorite phrases is go as slowly as you need to in order to take care of yourself. And when you're feeling vulnerable, or you're feeling tender. Go as slowly as you need to in order to take care of that vulnerability and that tenderness in that day. This too shall pass. You won't always feel so vulnerable. You won't always feel so tender. My voice will not always sound like this. In fact, in a few podcasts, I hope it'll sound better. She goes on to say, "While it is certainly good and often appropriate to be in calm controlling and strong moods, there is also another side of all of us, that part of us that feels needy, that becomes frightened, that has doubts and gets angry." Because, hello, guess what? You're human. That part of us needs care. That part of us needs love. That part of us needs reassurance that things will be okay. And again reminding ourselves, go as slowly as you need to in order to take care of yourself. Expressing these needs makes us vulnerable, yes, and less than perfect, yes. But this side needs acceptance too. There's a wonderful phrase that says, don't go to the hardware store for lemons. When I am feeling vulnerable, needy, or frightened, there may be people who are more appropriate for me to go to than not. And the number one thing I want to do for self-care—make your ears grow bigger as I say this—is not to go to that person who is the hardware store for lemons. Because they are not going to be able to give me that comfort, that love, that reassurance that I crave right now. It may be better for me to leave it out. When in doubt with people like this, just leave it out. Get off the phone, get off the text message, nurture yourself, and reach out to someone else who will be a little more caring. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable will help us build lasting relationships. Sharing our vulnerabilities helps us feel close to people and helps others to feel close to us. It helps us grow in self-love and self-acceptance. It helps us become healing agents. And it allows us to become whole and accessible to others. Just today I finished one of my weekly adjustment classes. And a few people were just vulnerable enough to share. What the response was from everyone else was, Thank you for sharing. You made me feel like I was not alone. The Weekly Adjustment Group

NEW FREE MASTERCLASS I'm going to be talking about something that a listener sent me, and I thought it was a really interesting idea for a podcast, which is about nepotism. I do think it is yet another one of those areas of the industry where we can get our heads in the clouds and not on our bodies, and really allows us to make excuses for not showing up and taking responsibility. As a NEPO baby, I am not one. I do not come from anyone in the industry. You have an advantage in that you have those connections. However, you also have to have the talent, consistency, and persistence to back that up. The other thing is that, oh, you're so and so's daughter or you're so and so's child. Oh. Then you must be fantastic, and then you have to live up to that, or you can never be your own person. Now, I have a friend of mine who is the child of an incredibly famous actor, but that child chooses to use a different name because they don't want to be known as so and so's child. Now, that is very admirable. I may go about it differently. I would say use every advantage you have. But this is the thing, and this is the real key point because most of you listening to this podcast are not; do not have nepotism in your family. What do you do? And this is the best advice I can give you. You need to keep your focus. So often, I have actors who look at point A and point B, and instead of just drawing a line between point A to point B, they go up, they go down, they go around, they twirl around. They walk outside, they come back inside, and then maybe eventually get to point B. The question, the thing is that things like nepotism and a lot of things that I feel in the industry, try to get your focus from the three points where you need to be putting your focus, which is your acting training, your business skills and the core work, the work on you are the things that distract you from taking real responsibility for the job that you have been given to do on this Earth, because I believe the universe has given you given all of us a gift. The question is, are we going to nurture that gift and are we going to stay focused on pursuing that gift? Or are we going to allow our focus to go off into things that we cannot control again? My favorite prayer or affirmation is the serenity prayer that reminds us of this. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. I cannot change other people, places, times, things, or situations, and whether my competition has nepotism or not, courage to change the things I can. I can only change myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions, and keep the focus on myself, my strengths, my career, and wisdom… Wisdom, my favorite word in the American language, to know the difference, which is the difference between what I cannot control or change, which is other people, places, things, or situations, or change. Nepotism and other actors I may be competing against and what I can change, which is myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. So, that's my response to the first part of that listener's question. I'm going to read the second part to you because I think this is very interesting. Getting past the "what chance do I have?" misconception, ever having the opportunity to compete with a nepotism child. Again, what I would say about that is your job when you go into an audition is to focus on the work. It is not to focus on who your competition is. I joke about how I used to go into an audition room, and I'd sit in the audition room and basically pick the actor who I thought was going to get the job. That is so working against ourselves instead of for ourselves. What I think is so crucial here is that when you go into audition, that your focus is again on that courage to change the things you can, which is really, truly freeing. Focusing in on your work as the actor and living the life of that character in that space and time, whether that be in a self tape or be in the room. The listener goes on to say, my own personal Cher story. I consider myself a Nepo baby to an extent. I was raised in a theatrical household with family members who made their living in the arts and entertainment. When I was a child, they would say things to me that made it almost impossible to understand. And trust me, we were nowhere near the Barrymore status. If anything, that caused far more damage. And then validation. It is something I have struggled with on and off. I could elaborate so much more, but I think you get the idea. So grandiosity, let's just talk about that word. I have also experienced grandiosity in my life, whether observing it in other people or, sadly, myself carrying it out. Oh, what dress are you wearing? Oh, it's a Valentino. When, actually, maybe it was bought at Target. Oh, we're a grand theater family. It's just a small theater town in Connecticut or somewhere, but we are the family known as the theatrical family. Where has grandiosity played a part in your life? Do you have family memb

Work with me privately About Angela Mickey: Angela Mickey is the Managing Director of Casting at Liz Lewis Casting Partners, and has been working as a Casting Director for 24 years. Angela works across the board on commercial, voice-over, film, TV, and theater projects, with a concentration on comedy, real people, and theatrical casting. She enjoys working with both veteran and up-and-coming creatives, developing the best, unique plan for each project, and working as a partner to the producing process. Recent on-camera commercial projects: Spectrum, UberEats, DCU, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Tillamook, Door Dash, Woodbridge, NJ Lottery, Marriott. Recent real people projects: New York Presbyterian, Aleve, NorthAmerican Bancard, Redemption Whiskey, Chevy, Wells Fargo, JC Penney, as well as a variety of editorial projects for Condé Nast. Recent animation/podcast vo projects: Dee and Friends in Oz (Netflix), SuperKitties (Disney Jr), Get Rolling with Otis (Apple TV +), The Snow Globe (in conjunction with Chik-Fil-A), This Job is History (Wondery), Killer Questions with Daryn Carp (ID). Recent film projects include "Martyr of Gowanus", Lifetime's "12 Days of Christmas Eve", "The Legend of Lake Ronkonkoma: The Lady of the Lake", Filipino movie musical "The Girl Who Left Home", and Hallmark's "Where Are You Christmas" and "Mystic Christmas." Angela's got a treasure trove of tips, secrets, and stories that are pure gold for anyone in the acting game, whether you're just starting out or you've been around the block a few times. Here's the lowdown on what we covered: What You Need to Know: Reading Instructions is Key: Angela talks about how something as simple as sending the wrong file type can throw a wrench in your audition. She's all about paying attention to the details. Make sure you know what they're asking for and nail it. Ace Your Online Auditions: With auditions going digital, Angela shares the scoop on making sure your setup is on point. Good internet, good lighting, and a space where you can do your thing without distractions are your best friends here. Bring Your Flavor to the Role: Angela's not looking for robots. She wants to see what you bring to the character. It's all about showing up with your take on the role and being ready to collaborate to make something awesome. Self-Care for the Win: One of the big themes Angela hits on is looking after yourself. Acting's a marathon, not a sprint, and giving yourself permission to take breaks and live life outside the acting bubble is crucial. Top Quotes from the episode: "Making me work harder to fix your audition tape? Yeah, that's gonna make me think twice about calling you back." "Don't just show up expecting to be directed. Bring your own magic to the role. That's what gets noticed." "Worried about your online audition setup? Just do your best to keep things simple and stress-free. It's about what you do, not where you do it." "The industry isn't going anywhere. Taking a break for a bit of self-care or to just breathe is totally fine. You do you."

So, this week, I've received numerous emails from actors who have told me that they feel stuck. That's why I was like, if they're feeling it, maybe I should do a podcast about feeling stuck. So we're going to get to that. Private coaching Being stuck. I think being stuck has a lot to do, at least for me, about timing. Generally, it always comes down to timing—not my timing; it's the Universe's timing. And then that sometimes just doesn't work. If I'm not in the greatest place, that frustrates me even more because I'm like, "Why not now?" "Why not now? What the fuck is going on?" And then I think I'll go great guns and put a ton of stuff out there, and then it'll be like this. Yeah, you get it. It's silence, right? Or things just aren't moving as fast as I would like. And ultimately, being stuck has to do with timing. It's just where you are right now. And if you are in the entertainment industry—which, chances are, if you're listening to this podcast—you know that we are going through one heck of a correction right now. But this is the truth, and I don't think anyone is really talking about it. But the truth is, the Universal Truth is this, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass. The trick, and I really believe the difference between working actors and non-working actors, is what you will do with this time when things may not be as fast as you would like. Things are happening, but they are not happening at the rate that we were expecting. The other thing that I will say is I really want to fully recognize and validate this feeling because I've certainly been having it. We had COVID. The world stopped. My career stopped. Then we got all very busy. And then we had the strikes. First, we had the writer's strike. Then we had the actor's strike. And that went on for months. And now, that's all over with. Again, my career stopped. Nothing happened. And then, we had what we're going through in 2024. These first three months, where we're what the hell is going on. This is just, again, not what we were expecting. And then we hear rumors of the IATSE strike, and that's the reason: yes, the industry is contracting, but also, there's this threat of the IATSE strike, and, oh, wait a minute, their contract isn't up until July 31st. It's this feeling of stuck, and I feel like we're all in a collective stuck, and I just want to say, ah, yes, I'm so freaking frustrated by the whole thing. And when I feel this way. It is because things are out of my control. It's other people, places, things, and situations. And when it's another person, place, thing, or situation, I can't do anything about it. What can I do about it? I can change my life, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. That's where my power is. I can also consider what I can do to take care of myself spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. During what has been a very tumultuous four years of the industry since, quite frankly, 2020. When I say tumultuous, I also mean good because a lot of good happened between 2021 and 2023. We had two busy years. But let's talk about timing, and let's talk about getting unstuck, and there's this wonderful reading. The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie. "There are times when we simply do not know what to do." That's when you're stuck, right? "Or even where to go or what to do next. Sometimes these periods are brief, sometimes lingering." And what I just have to say, what I feel as an industry, or certainly, yeah, as an industry, is it was like, nothing. Obviously, the world stopped with COVID-19, then it was feast. And now it's, I don't want to say it's famine, but it certainly isn't abundant right now. "We can get through these times. We can rely on our disciplines of taking care of ourselves." We can cope by using our faith in the universe. Other people, good friends, and resources. And the resources are, for example, this book. And the resources are coaching. Just getting that extra little bit of hope and help. "Accept uncertainty. We do not always have to know what to do or where to go next. We do not always have to be clear. We do not always have to have necessarily a direction, but I certainly will say it helps." "Refusing to accept the inaction limbo makes things worse." I also just want to point out what I was talking about earlier, which is not accepting that we cannot do anything about other people, places, things, or situations. When we still don't accept that, things do get worse. Again, where we can do something, what we can manage is our own lives, our own attitudes, our own thoughts, and our own actions. It's okay to temporarily be without direction. In this moment, that is okay. Say, I don't know, and be comfortable with that. We do not have to try to force wisdom, knowledge, or clarity where there is none. While waiting for that direction, we do not have to put our life on hold. We can let go of anxiety and enjoy life." Another big thing I talk about in my private coaching is letting go of anxi

Work privately with David About David Cady: DAVID CADY is currently a professor of commercial and musical theatre performance at AMDA, NYU, and Pace University. Prior, he was a casting director for Donna DeSeta Casting for close to 30 years. In addition to countless commercials, his casting credits include the original Dirty Dancing, Disney's Enchanted, Michael John LaChiusa's The Petrified Prince for the Public Theater, and the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's Whistle Down the Wind, directed by Harold Prince. He was an original cast member of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along, and can be seen in Lonny Price's film about the experience, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. In an enlightening discussion filled with actionable advice and heartfelt stories, David Cady, a veteran of musical theatre, shares his extensive knowledge and passion for the art. This episode is a treasure trove for aspiring and established performers alike, offering guidance on auditions, the importance of self-awareness, and the intrinsic value of kindness and professionalism in the theatre world. Key Takeaways: Mastering Auditions: David discusses the crucial approach to auditions, emphasizing the importance of viewing oneself as a collaborator rather than just a hopeful applicant. The mindset should be about showcasing how you are the answer to a casting call, equipped with meticulously selected material that plays to your current strengths. The Right Material: The selection of audition pieces is paramount. David advises against reaching for material that's beyond one's current range, instead advocating for focusing on pieces that showcase one's abilities best. This includes having self-taped auditions with tracks designed in your key and reflecting your unique voice. Technical Savvy: The conversation turns to the technical aspects of modern auditions, highlighting the need for performers to become adept at using software like GarageBand and iMovie for editing self-tapes. This technical skill set is becoming increasingly crucial in a digital-first auditioning world. Confidence and Growth: Drawing from his own experiences, David talks about the evolution of confidence through the repeated cycle of auditioning, failing, and learning. He stresses that a failure is not a setback but an opportunity for growth. Building and Maintaining Relationships: One of the episode's most poignant messages is the importance of kindness, professionalism, and building lasting relationships in the industry. David shares personal anecdotes to underscore how your behavior and interaction with everyone, from the casting director to the monitor, can significantly impact your career. A Career for Life: The discussion concludes on a reflective note, with David reminding listeners that a career in musical theatre is a lifelong journey. The importance of cherishing and working with your current capabilities, continually learning, and building a reputation of kindness and professionalism cannot be overstated. Special Moments: David shares inspiring stories from his career, including his auditions and the lessons learned along the way. A candid discussion about the mental and emotional aspects of performing, emphasizing self-love and the journey towards finding and owning your voice. For More Information: To explore working with David Cady on your musical theatre auditions, click on the link in the show notes. Learn more about Acting Business Bootcamp and how it can advance your career by also checking the show notes. This episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about musical theatre, offering insights and advice that span the breadth of a performer's journey from auditions to professional growth and personal fulfillment.

The Working Actor Road Map I don't know about you, 2024 is not exactly what I expected it would be in this industry. And, I'm after the strikes and, after everything we went through last year, seriously? This is it? Now, of course, there are reasons for this. There's the potential IATSE strike and the industry contraction. But the problem is that I don't know about you, but I'm left with feelings. And I thought that, since we just moved our clocks, I thought I would make this episode about spring and new beginnings. In fact, I had friends over for dinner the other night, and my dear friend brought me this beautiful plant. It had hyacinths and tulips. Of course, she knows I'm a Dutch girl. I love tulips. You can't go wrong with tulips and daffodils. And every time I look at it, it just makes me smile and it makes me feel good because spring is a time of renewal. So today I'm going to be talking about new beginnings and renewal. And one of those things that I need to renew is the way I look at things and resentments. Expectations are premeditated resentments. And I guess that's what I had about the industry. I thought we'd all be running back to it in January, and it seems to be, just a simmer, hopefully into a boil later this year. So here we go. The Language of Letting Go "Resentments are the blocks that hold us back from loving ourselves and others. Resentments do not punish the other person, they punish us. They become barriers to feeling good and enjoying life. They prevent us from being in harmony with the world. Resentments. are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go." So there's a lot to unpack there. But this is the thing. It's like when I have a resentment against something else or the business at large, people, places, things, situations. What happens for me is it's I'm taking poison and I'm expecting something else to be affected by that. I'm taking the poison and expecting someone else to die or to suffer. When ultimately with resentments, what's really happening is I am the person who's suffering. And a lot of the time, and this is something I was talking about with a client the other day, is that really, the person I'm resenting and angry at is me. And that's the whole thing. I love this thing of resentments are hardened chunks of anger. That's not helping me. And it certainly doesn't help me as an artist. As an artist, I want to be movable, malleable, changeable. And resentment stops that. She goes on to say, "letting go of resentments does not mean we allow the other person to do anything to us that he or she or they want. It means we accept what happened in the past and we set boundaries for the future. We can let go of resentments and still have boundaries." Forgiving is not forgetting. It's letting go of the hurt because the only person that the hurt is hurting is me. And we can have boundaries and we can forgive. And a lot of times, like I said a little bit earlier is that the person I need to forgive most is me. For allowing myself to be treated like that, or for actions I may have done that may have not been in my own best interest. Because I find a lot of the times I get angry at myself, it's because I did not advocate for me. I abandoned myself. Sadly, in that moment, I wasn't emotionally intelligent enough to know how to take care of myself and to be emotionally self sufficient. "We try to see the good in the person or the good that ultimately evolved from whatever incident we feel resentful about. We try and see our part. Then we put the incident to rest." So there's this fabulous phrase, trace it, face it, erase it. I need to trace it. Then I need to face it and then I can let it go. It's also awareness. I need to become aware of the situation, accept that the situation is going on, and then I can take action. It's another couple other really important, fabulous tools. Praying for those or sending someone good thoughts for those people that we resent helps to asking the universe to take our resentments from us. A very powerful prayer that I use a lot is thank you for taking away, if it's like an anger feeling, a resentment feeling, a fear feeling, thank you for taking this away from me, whatever that feeling is, and showing me where I can be of service. Show me what you would have me do, rather than wallow in anger. "What better way to begin this new time of year than by cleaning the slate of the past and entering this new season free of resentments." I just I just love that because again, I feel expression fumbled the ball, I feel like 2024 in this industry, it's like we fumbled the ball somewhere and everybody's still looking around, like, where is it? And I think, again, another thing to remember is, and I'm going to give you another one of my slogans, is take care of yourself first and the rest will follow. There is work to be done. There's always work to be done. This business and being an actor is a marathon. Not a sprint. It is a m

8 Tips to Not Get Ripped off as an Actor Masterclass So today, I'm going to be going back to the fabulous Melody Beattie in her wonderful book, The Language of Letting Go, and I'm going to be talking about setting your own course. And it seems like the world is so turbulent. I know it sounds like we're always saying that, but it does feel like the world is so turbulent. And I think when it is very important for us to keep the focus on ourselves and how we do that is by setting our own course. I'm going to read a little bit. "We are powerless over other people's expectations of us. We cannot control what others want, what they expect, or what they want us to do and be. We can control how we respond to other people's expectations." Now, I did a podcast on when your buttons get pushed and if this is already starting to vibrate with you, resonate with you, I beg of you, listen to that podcast if you haven't already. So again, we are powerless over others, other people's expectations of us. We cannot control what others want, what they expect or what they want us to do and be. But we can control how we respond to other people's expectations. One thing for me to keep in mind about expectations is that expectations are premeditated resentments. But what happens when it's coming at you? One of my favorite tips and tools, I should say, about what other people think of me as none of my business is the following, which is the serenity prayer. "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." So let's just talk about that for one second. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. I cannot change other people, places, things, or situations. I can't, and when I say people, that includes their expectations. So grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. I cannot change people, places, things, or situations. Courage to change the things I can. I can change myself, my attitudes, and my actions. And that can be my attitude to their expectation. And wisdom, my favorite word. Wisdom. Wisdom to know the difference. That crucial difference between what I cannot control, which is other people, places, things, situations, or people's expectations, and what I can control, which is myself, my attitudes, my actions, and including my attitudes towards other people's expectations of me. Melody Beattie goes on to say, "During the course of any day, people may make demands on our time, talents, energy, money, and emotions." But here's the thing, we do not have to say yes to every request. As I always say, no is a complete sentence. And another thing about when no comes at me, no is survivable. We do not have to be feel guilty if we say no, and we do not have to allow the barrage of demands to control the course of our life, it's our life. And we have the right to live it the way we want to. We can set our own course. We do not have to spend our life reacting to others and the course they would prefer if we took in our life. Again, I beg of you, listen to When Your Buttons Get Pushed, that podcast episode. We can set boundaries. We can firm up limits on how far we shall go with others. We can, and this is so true, we can trust and listen to ourselves. It's so important because you learn how to be emotionally intelligent. And how do you do that by learning how to be emotionally self sufficient so that, when you make a decision, you're making the right decision for who for you, we can trust and listen to ourselves, we can set goals and direction for our life and we can place value on ourselves. If you want self-esteem, do self-esteemable acts. Buy some time. Think about what you want. Consider how responding to another's needs will affect the course of your life. "We live our own life by not letting other people, their expectations and their demands control the course of our life." Remember, no is a complete sentence. People can have their demands and their expectations, and we can allow them to have their feelings. They can absolutely have that, but we can own our power by choosing the path that is right for us. And this is something, I help actors with this all the time, because sometimes family members aren't that supportive about our dream to become a working actor. I'm always here if you need help.

8 Tips to Not Get Ripped Off as an Actor and the Three Pillars to a Successful Acting Career Let's start talking about those buttons being pushed, right? And I want to talk especially about how to help yourself. There's a little phrase that I love. It's one of my absolute favorites, which is "if you're hysterical, it's historical." I find that when my buttons get pushed, if I'm upset about whatever it is for longer than five minutes, it's not about that thing. It's about something from my past. The other really helpful thing to note about buttons, because it's generally family members who push your buttons, is that your family knows how to push your buttons because, hello, they installed them. Your family knows how to push your buttons because they installed them. So I want To help you so that when you have that moment, when your buttons get pushed, you can start to practice this particular formula. Now I need to also say this, when my buttons get pushed, I find it's better that I go by this saying, which is "when in doubt, leave it out." out. I also find it's best for me to remove myself from the situation so I can do that very valuable thing, which is stop and take a step back. But I want to describe the full process of what happens when our buttons get pushed. Something will be said to us and we will immediately react. Now this is important because remember our reactions are fine, but it's our second reaction that we really need to be paying attention to. There's this phrase, and I love this because I think this is so true, "we are not responsible for our first thought, but we are responsible for our second." So again, if you can split your paper into two sides, make two columns. On the left column, I want you to write, Something happens. Then, right underneath that, I want you to write, React. And then, underneath that, a couple lines down, I want you to say to yourself, "I am not responsible for my first thought, but I am responsible for my second." Therefore, we have the second column. That second column is that something happens. Now, that could be your mother saying to you, "Oh, you're going to wear that?" Or, "Oh, you're growing a mustache now." It's that, okay? Could be your father, too, or your brother, or your sister, or a friend, or an acquaintance, or an agent, or a casting director. So again, on this second side of the piece of paper, the same thing, something happens. And guess what? You are going to react. Especially in the beginning. You may not be totally reprogrammed yet, but after that reaction happens, you want to tell yourself this, "stop." And sometimes I literally say to myself, "stop it right now. Stop. Just for goodness sake, stop." And then I literally say to myself, "take a step back," and sometimes, while that person might be continuing to put their opinion of me on me, I literally will take a step back. Literally, a physical step back. And I always use this example, and if you've listened to this podcast a lot, you've heard me say this, is if you put your hand on your face, and you literally attach that hand onto your face, that's how it feels when somebody comes at you and they push that button right in your gut. It's like your hand is glued to your face. But this is the truth. No, it's not. And you can't remove their finger from your button. And that, again, requires you to take a step back. So if you keep your hand where it is, but you move your body back, that's what I'm talking about. Because now you can look at your hand. See, when it's right up against your face, while they have your finger in your button, as it were, you can't see anything. You just see potentially red, or hurt, or weeping. So it's important to get it out. If you are, God forbid, shot, what do they do first? They remove the bullet. That's what taking a step back means. You remove the bullet. And when you've removed the bullet, then you can observe. You have taken a step back. And you can observe what was said, and you can ask yourself if what you are about to do is healthy for you or unhealthy for you, and then you can respond. And that response is a reaction with a pause and a thought behind it. And then we have triage. We need to ask ourselves the following questions. Afterwards, later that night, the next day. I always encourage it to be within 24 hours of when the situation happened. We sit down with pen and paper and our journals and we ask ourselves how emotionally reactive was I to this situation? What was my button? Which is your interpretation of what got you so damn upset. And then ask yourself, what is really going on here? Let's be honest with ourselves. Practice rigorous honesty with yourselves so you can get better. So that you can heal this button. And then If this situation comes up again, or this comment comes up again, how will I handle it? How will I handle it? Always remembering we are never given more than we can handle but we are given more than we can control. Also remembering th

Thursday, February 29th, Live NYC Seminar Planting seeds for success. I call this a Foundation skill, and this is a skill I believe that you can use not only for yourself but also for other friends who need support. Who needs to be planting some seeds for success for themselves as well the idea is when you "plant a seed," you are setting out an expectation that you can do it or that your friend can do it. And more often than not, when you plant that seed of success, and you say, "Hey, you can do it. Hey, no, I can do this." You actually do it. That's why it's so important and why this is such a brilliant and useful foundation skill. You can think of it as almost the germination of an affirmation. So in other words, you plant that seed starts to germinate, and as you feed it with positive affirmations, it begins to grow. Then, as you add those action steps that support those thoughts and, of course, that ultimate goal, that's when the success happens. When you plant a seed with yourself or with someone else, you are expressing your confidence in yourself or for that other person to come up with something. And that can be either a thought or an action that will then linger and percolate in their mind, in their consciousness. The idea of what if I could run that marathon? All of a sudden, your mind starts to percolate and build up thoughts that make you think, oh, wait a minute, maybe you could. And with that could become the possibility of you can. So could becomes can. Now, whether you or that other person are consciously thinking about it or not, a part of you, like I just said, will be working on a solution. That's why planting the seed, allowing it to germinate, and then again, letting it grow into an affirmation, which then hopefully will grow into actions, those two things will support that goal. Now, this foundation skill of planting a seed can be used in many situations. I'm going to give you an example. Remember, or someone asks you a question, and you say I don't know. I don't know. This is when you plant the seed of "what would it be like if you did know?" That already is planting a seed of maybe you do know. So you're saying you don't, but maybe you do. What would it be like if you did? It also is an incredible way of empowering yourself. It empowers yourself or your friend to come up with their solutions alone. In other words, by planting that seed, we are empowering ourselves and our friends to fix it for ourselves or themselves. Planting a seed can sound something like this. "I'm gonna ask you in a little while because I have complete faith that you'll come up with something." Now, if you're saying this to yourself, you can write down those exact words. Say, you know what, I'm putting down my pen and my paper right now, and I'm gonna journal about it in 24 hours because I have faith that I will be able to come up with that solution. I will be able to come up with that. Another wonderful planting the seed question or empowering question is "when you figure that out, what would be different for you?" I love to ask my private clients this question. If you didn't have fear, what would your life be like? How would [00:07:00] you operate if you didn't have fear? And it's always so interesting to hear their answers. And if they say they don't know, I go, "okay I'll ask you in a few minutes because I know you're going to be able to come up with something." See, that is how I, as a coach, plant in you, the client, the potential solution. Also, ask yourself this or your friend, "if I figured this out, what would be different for me?" Or "if you figured this out, what would be different for you?" And this is what is so incredible about this tool. It is really saying to ourselves we know what we want. We know what to do. We just need to ask ourselves the right questions. It is so incredibly empowering. It is self-empowering. It's like what I talk about in life coaching. I call myself a chiropractor for the mind is I teach you to become emotionally intelligent. And while listening to this podcast, you are becoming more emotionally intelligent. Why? Because I am teaching you to be emotionally self-sufficient. You learn emotional intelligence by learning how to become emotionally self-sufficient and teaching yourself how to plant a seed for success. It's a big step in the right direction. Because planting a seed for success helps bring out a positive result or change. It helps bring out a positive result or change. And again, it empowers you or your friend or another person to figure it out on their own. Instead of looking outside of yourself to find the answer. Because the answers are always right within.

Private Coaching Today, I want to talk about self-love because it's Valentine's Day. And the thing about self-love that I have found in doing this work for almost 30 years is that self-love takes on a lot of different forms. Yes, it is ensuring that I bathe, brush my teeth, get adequate sleep, eat well, and exercise. But it's also about taking care of the things I think and the things I do. A big thing that has come up for me, mainly in the past couple of years, is that self-love is about working for myself instead of working against myself. And how often I would be like, "I love myself, and I approve of myself," I would say that wonderful affirmation, but then when a sticky or uncomfortable situation would come up, I'd be so eager to just give my power away. Ah, giving your power away. Yeah, that is not self-love. And that is why the core work, which is that work on yourself, is so incredibly important. It's about learning that you are your own best advocate. That you are there for you, no matter the situation. That is true self-love. Another way I practice self-love is my relationship with the Universe, God, Yahweh, Bob, Joe, or whatever you want to call your higher power, or a lot of people like to call it your higher coach or your higher intelligence. I like to establish that I am a part of the universe, which is a part of me. And I also like to acknowledge that the universe is the pilot. And I am the co-pilot. There's that wonderful prayer, the serenity prayer. "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And wisdom to know the difference." And that's grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, which are other people, places, situations, and issues. I can't control it. That's the Universe's job. Courage to change the things I can. I can change my own thoughts, my own attitudes, and my own actions. And wisdom to know the difference. The difference between what I can do something about, Which is my thoughts, my attitudes, my actions, and what I can't do anything about, which is other people, places, things, and situations. That is also practicing self-love. When I am worried about things, when I am tied up in knots about a situation or somebody or what other people think of me, that isn't practicing self-love. And this Valentine's Day, I encourage you, and I encourage myself to love myself as much as I possibly can by doing those deep things, like taking actions that work for me and thoughts that work for me as well. I understand this is not an easy thing, but it is actually quite simple. And it also is the best way to live our lives. Because the fact of the matter is no matter where I go, I take myself with me. If I please myself, chances are other people will be more pleased. One of the things I was thinking about as an actor was if I'm worried about pleasing the director or the producer or the writer or anybody else, all of my attention is outward, but chances are, if I work on that performance, excuse me, being as good as I can possibly make it focus on the work, do it so I know I did my best. Guess what? I pleased the only person I have any control over or manageability over. Chances are, other people will be pleased as well. It's all about practicing self-love. It's all about caring for you. It's all about you making sure that you work for you and not against you. You've done it long enough; it's time to let go.

The Voiceover Actor Road Map About Emma: Emma O'Neill is a multi-award-winning voice actor specializing in radio and TV commercials, TV narration, TV promo, and corporate training videos. Outside the booth, she's a fitness and wellness enthusiast, and has been a certified yoga instructor for more than 25 years. About Mike: Mike Tobin is an accomplished, Montreal-born, award-nominated voice actor, MC, and event announcer who has made his ultra-fluent bilingualism the cornerstone of his brand for more than 20 years. He also loves technology and is an avid Mac enthusiast. What it's like to be a voiceover actor in Canada. And it can be very isolating and very lonely. So when you have people that understand the business, they understand the hustle. They understand the self-doubt that can come with things during slow times, or, you know, I was talking to somebody yesterday, and it was, you know, why them and not me that you can get into these spins in your head. And when you have someone who understands all of the levels of that, it's just; it makes you feel less crazy, it makes you feel less alone, it makes you feel like, you know what, I can reach out to Mike today, I have a little bit, and with Mike and I, it's great because we work so closely together, we've kind of gotten to this place where if I'm losing my mind, he's calm, and if he's losing his mind, I'm calm, so it's like, oh, this works, this is great, thank you. The universe's wind blows at different times. Part of this comes from our leaning on using accountability groups, which is a big part of our experience. So we do have our accountability groups that we lean on, but sometimes you just need one person. Weekly accountability group: At the beginning of every session, I say, okay, what did you do from this last week to this week? And in the end, what are you going to do? And we get into that and how important that is. So, I love that you guys are talking about weekly accountability. There are the things that are there regularly. There are, of course, auditions. Audition has to play a big part in every voice actor's life. There's only a few things you're going to get. Unless you're getting direct clients, which is another part of it, which is marketing and following up and keeping on top of all the business aspects of it, it's so huge. Many people who are creative, artistic, and talented get into this industry and this business—all the things that put a voice to a microphone, but then everything else. It can be very scary and intimidating for them because, after all, it's the voiceover business. You can have clients around the world. It doesn't matter, especially now with the connectivity that we have with Source Connect and other technologies. So it comes from all over the place. I love that you said that voiceover is a global industry. I love that. It's just because there's so much possibility. What do you think is the most important thing starting in Voiceover? Coaching. I always say coaching is the most important thing. There's voiceover, and there's voice acting. And there are people who don't do commercials. They don't do video games. They don't do audiobooks. They don't do character-based work. They do e-learning and corporate and stuff like that, which is still character-based, but it's much more accessible to the average person. You're not necessarily fully fleshing out a character. There's a commercial promo TV narration, things like that; you are fully fleshing out a character, but you still need to understand the nuance. Acting is acting. Period. End of sentence. It's got nothing to do with the sound of your voice but everything to do with the connection to the story. So, you need to understand the story you are telling. Once you understand the story you're telling and who you are in that story, whether you're just the storyteller or actually participating in the story, you can do whatever aspect of voice. So I think that with that, with getting it telling the story, this is the difference between voice acting and voiceover, is that I think that with AI coming in, and it's not going to go away. We need to work with it and understand it that as a voice actor, to be able to connect with the story, that part of voice isn't going to be taken over by AI. Because a computer can't yet do that. Acting is key. Learning the craft is key. I will say that people need to have some foundations in business in general. So they need to educate themselves and train themselves on basic things. I was listening to a show on the radio recently. They were talking about how many people now entering the workforce force don't have what we call many of the soft skills that are just expected of people in business, how to write a good email, how to handle yourself on a telephone call, how to, handle yourself in a meeting, either face to face with a real person or over video conferencing. So, many of the soft skills required to have a successful business need to be the

Private Coaching Changing your career direction by asking Empowering Questions. I'm going to start with a quote from Anthony Robbins, "quality questions create a quality life." Successful people ask better questions. And as a result, they get better answers. And this is how I work as a coach. I ask you quality questions so that you can create a quality career. Because I do believe that successful actors are asking better questions of themselves. And, as a result, are getting better roles. So, let's unpack this a bit. What are Empowering Questions? They are questions. We all know what a question is, but these are a little bit different. These are powerful. These are open-ended. Now, what that means is it's not a yes or a no. How do you feel about going to the store? Why do you want to go to the store? Those would be open ended questions. Also, Empowering Questions are clarity seeking. They are clarity seeking, so they're looking for clarity. The other thing is that they are probing. They are probing questions. In other words, they're really trying to get in there. And this is a lot of the core work I do because this is the thing, I want to know what your motives are. And if you have some sort of a thing that you constantly do, put yourself down or something like that or have anxiety. My question is what is the payoff? So, see, if I ask you what is the payoff for your anxiety, or what is your motive for becoming a successful actor, those are very much Empowering Questions that are seeking clarity. They also are, I think you'll find, challenging. They're challenging. They're not easy questions necessarily. But that's what we unpack. That's what we figure out. And think of it when, you know that phrase, you've heard it so many times, you've heard me say it a lot of times, unpack. I want you to think of a duffel bag. Okay, think of a duffel bag with a bunch of stuff in it, but you don't necessarily remember or you don't necessarily know what's in that duffel bag. So, what we need to do is let's take out every item in that duffel bag and look at it, examine it and ask it Empowering Questions. The other thing is, and this is what I think to be one of the most valuable parts of Empowering Questions, is that it's thought provoking. In other words, it makes you think. Because one of the things that I have found around actors who are stuck, or just, quite frankly, people who are stuck, is they're stuck in that same cycle of thinking, and they're not getting out, and the problem is it's almost impossible for them to get out of it because they're stuck in their own head because they're not letting anybody in to say, "Hey, what if you thought of it this way?" The other thing is that they are future directed. In other words, we're always looking to improve upon where we are at now, looking at where we are at now, but more so where we are going. And I love this about Empowering Questions. They are solution oriented. Why am I not getting auditions? Why am I not booking? In other words, they're looking for the answers to those questions so that we can get some real movement going here. They cause you to search for answers. Because this is the thing, if you keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, that's the definition of insanity. So, what we do with Empowering Questions is that we help you to search for new possibilities so we can get new answers and new results. And this, I love this, and as an actor, we all would love this, is that they spark your imagination. Now, this is a really neat little thing about Empowering Questions. Once you start to learn how to ask yourself Empowering Questions as a human, you can start to ask them of your characters, which will spark your imagination. To open up a whole new world to your character. How exciting is that? How exciting is it that you can use the things that make your life better? Make your characters better, your acting better, your skill set better. And again, they get you to think. And in terms of an actor and asking Empowering Questions of your character, they get you to think like your character, which is one of the things, they talk about when you really understand a language, you start to dream in that language. You start to think in that foreign language. So that's what I'm talking about. So, if you think of a character almost in terms of a foreign language, imagine thinking like the character, like you would think if you were learning, I don't know, Japanese. So, you start to think in Japanese, but not think in English. How cool is that? The right questions at the right time for the right reason, in the right format to get the right response. This is what Empowering Questions are all about. Imagine having the right questions asked at the right time, asked for the right reason, asked in the right format. So, in other words, that your brain understands how to get the most out of them to get the right response. And you can think of response as being resu

On-Camera Class Costar Class I'm going to talk about illusion and illusion in your acting career in two different ways. The first way is I'm going to talk about how we have the idea that an acting career will go one way, but actually, that's just an illusion, and that's just me trying to control the outcome. So when I'm doing that, it is an illusion. And I remember this actually in terms of money. I always thought if I made X amount of money a year, I would be free. Oh, I'm going to be so happy. Oh, my life will be cupcakes and bubblegum. I will have no worries. Only to find out when I made that amount of money and much more. You don't get cupcakes and bubblegum. You get more decisions, and it becomes even more stressful. And really, the only thing money buys is convenience. And if you're not making much money right now, that might be difficult to hear. But money does not buy happiness. That was an illusion that I had. Another thing that I find as a coach in the industry, and to be quite frank, even more so as a casting director, is this illusion idea that actors have about what it takes to be an actor and what it takes to be a working actor. And it's difficult to explain, but I want you to think of something you have done in your life that was difficult. Okay, you're going to do this with me right now. Think of something in your life that you did that was difficult. And then I want you to imagine someone who has never done that before coming up to you and either telling you how that experience would be for them or how they would go about doing it. And you, having known how difficult that was and how that actually gets done, is listening, quite frankly, to this bunch of bullshit. And that's sometimes what makes it difficult to be a coach, a casting director, and meeting new actors, and having to break it to them and explain it's not that way. What is incredibly joyful for me, though, is the actor who goes, "Tell me more." "Tell me more because I want to make that illusion a reality. I want to make that illusion a reality more than anything else in the world. Say jump, and I'll ask you how high." That's exciting. That lights me up. So that is the first way I'm talking to you about illusion. "We do not see the world as it is. We see it as we are." This goes into that example I just gave you previously about the actor and the coach or the casting director. I want to remind you of the definition of consciousness. Now, the definition of consciousness is your awareness of who you are, as opposed to the you that you believe you are or are taught that you are. So, I think of it as my consciousness is how the Universe sees me. Because the Universe sees me as it sees itself, which is Infinite. I, on my own, in my ego world, is finite. So I can choose to believe the me that I believe I am or was taught that I am, or I can believe the consciousness and have an awareness of who I truly am so that I see the world more clearly with more reality. Now let's also talk about, because I think this has really come up for me a lot in the past couple of weeks, how this core work helps you to be a better actor. If I can see things and understand things more truthfully, with more reality, oh boy, that will help me when I start working on character. Because I'm tapping into Infinite Truth, Infinite reality, as opposed to my own finite truth, my own finite reality. Because when you're Infinite, people are attracted to that. Quantum physics proves that the world is a creation of our perceptions. So I want my perception to be as much in line with the awareness of who I truly am, as opposed to the awareness of who I think I am or how I was taught that I was. I want to see the world Infinitely. And I want my perception to be Infinite. We simply attract and then see what it is we expect to see and can actually create what we expect to happen. So that can work for us, or that can work against us. So, I want you to take a moment now just to write down this question: How do I see the world, and do I see the world in a way that works for me or against me? And then I want you to journal about that. We create our world. Through the interpretations we make. So, if we want to create a more enjoyable life experience, we can focus on finding peace, joy, and abundance. And that focus produces a more desirable perception of the world and those in it. So now we're talking, this second part, we're talking about how to create a world that is happier for us, that is more desirable for us, that makes us feel good. Dr. Wayne Dyer has this great quote, and I say this as an affirmation quite a bit: "I want to feel good. I want to feel good. I want to feel good." Dr. Wayne Dyer also has another quote that I love, which is all about illusion: "Change the way you look at things. And the things you look at change." And that is, again, why I want my perceptions to be as aligned with my consciousness of the awareness of who I really am. Meaning in line with the Un

New Voiceover Masterclass! About Spencer: Spencer Robinson is a literary and talent manager at Art/Work Entertainment who's been in the industry for over 20 years. He represents writers, actors, producers, and also a full book publishing company. Spencer's writer clients have been on the writing staff of shows for Netflix, Amazon, Max, HBO, Comedy Central, and many more. He's also sold clients' features to studios as well as brought in financing for independent projects. Spencer's actor clients have been in films with directors Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Clint Eastwood, Gore Verbinski, Jeff Nichols, and more. In the TV world, his clients have been regular cast members on shows for Netflix, HBO MAX, Amazon, Disney+, HULU, The CW, NBC, FX, Starz, Nickelodeon, EPIX, and more. Spencer's clients have also recurred on series for Peacock, Netflix, Freeform, TNT, AMC, Showtime and many more. I'm a manager. I'm a talent and lit manager. So I manage actors, writers, producers, and I actually also represent a fully functioning publishing company for all of their IP. How the heck did you get there? It was almost by accident actually, kind of accident when I was growing up I was a musician and I'm still a musician, but I played music And I love movies and television and I knew I wanted to do one of those two things. So I went to film school for exactly one year. I grew up in Los Angeles and I went to San Francisco, stayed for one year. And I was sitting in a class where they were teaching us how a camera works. And I was like, I don't care about this at all. Don't care. I was really bored. And I realized I don't want to actually shoot things myself. I don't want to, be the person that does that. And I don't really need to know how a camera works. So I actually ended up dropping out of school. And came back to LA and I'd realized at that point too, that I left Los Angeles to work in the film industry, which was probably pretty dumb. So I came back and I had no actual real connections to the film industry, even though I grew up here. My mom's an elementary school teacher. So I asked her, I said any of the parents at the school you work at, do they do any television or film? And she goes, one of them does commercials. I said, great. Can I have her phone number? It was okay. I called and I introduced myself and I said, please, will you give me a chance as a PA? Can you give me one day? And she said, okay. And it was a 23 and a half hour day on a car commercial. And it was very long. But it was cool. It was like, I'd actually never been on a set before. So for me, it was really cool to see, crane shots and very serious people doing very serious things and craft service and all that kind of fun stuff. And I liked it. And then for the next year and a half to two years, she hired me and everything she did. So I got, a lot of commercial work, a lot of independent film work. And I did anything that I could to pay the bills at that point. I think I worked in a costuming house for a couple of weeks. I just, whatever I could possibly do. And I realized after about two years that I did not want to be on set for the rest of my life. I actually wanted to learn how Television and movies were put together. So I wanted to get into an office. And I knew that like you could be an office PA or a mailroom person. I knew that was a thing that existed. So I entered an ad in the reporter, the Hollywood Reporter back when it was still a magazine, and it was a million years ago. And it was an ad in the back that said, looking for a mailroom employee at a management company. And I was like, I don't know what that is, but I'm going to go try. And because I've been a PA for a couple of years at that point, I've been delivering packages and then on set, I was actually qualified to sort mail and deliver packages. So I got a job at a management company called MBST, which is not around anymore. But at the time, they were a cool place to work. They had Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, they managed the Beatles affairs, and they had a development deal with Disney. So it was a great company to learn at for me. Just because I got a chance to see how it all worked. And the owners had produced a bunch of movies, and they represented all these very big people in their careers. It was really cool, and I learned what management was and I delivered packages all day and I build it at people's desks and did all the things that you do when you're the bottom of the wrung. And after being there for a couple of years, one of the partners broke away and started his own company and asked me to go with him. He liked me and he said, you do a really good job. I want to put you on a desk working for two mags X and I said, great. So I worked, I got put on a desk at that company working for a talent manager and a lit manager. So I was watching somebody pitch actors all day and watching people take out scripts and do the whole thing and give notes and it was really cool.

What's Standing in the Way of Your Voiceover Career? Masterclass About Mandy Fisher: Mandy Fisher is a NYC-based full-time voiceover actor with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has worked with brands like Crayola, Disney, Peloton, Coke, Walmart, and Kohls to name a few. Her passion for voiceover and genuine love of helping people inspire her to work with actors of all stages of their career. With a theater background, she brings her training to guide copy analysis and character creation. As an industry vet of 15 years, she has witnessed the changes and understands the ebbs and flows of the business. Mandy created her own voiceover business from the ground up and has a successful and replicable model to help actors build their own successful businesses. All of this adds up to a coach who can provide audition and career advice while helping actors become the best they can be! I am a professional voiceover actor, and I've been in the industry for a little over 15 years doing lots of different things across the industry. And I wanted to share with you some things that have happened to me in my voiceover career that maybe you can learn from so that you don't make the same mistakes that I did. The number one thing I think that I wish if I could go back tomorrow, right, if, if I could start my career all over again, the number one thing I would tell myself is to not rush the learning phase. You only have one opportunity in your career to be a beginner, to be a newbie, to be fresh into the industry. You have this one golden sweet spot of time where you don't know the answers. You don't have the training. You don't have the experience. You are a fresh baby bird, and it is a little intimidating sometimes to not know, to not understand, to not have the answers and to not know how to move forward. But that sweet spot of being able to learn and grow and ask questions and figure it out is so important. And I rushed that. I was always rushing from one thing to the next. I graduated high school early, I graduated college early. I was always just trying to move on to the next thing, and I wish I would've taken more time to just breathe in these moments of learning, breathe in these moments of not knowing and, and getting the opportunity to have different perspectives. Because also when I was first starting in voiceover, there was nothing, there was literally no resource, no people teaching voiceover, definitely no people on the internet teaching, no forums, no nothing. And nothing for anybody, but especially nothing for a child. So we were scraping, trying to figure out how to make this a business. And it was very, very difficult. And now you are exposed to more information than ever. There is so much information out there, a lot of free information out there, right? I always point people to www.Iwanttobeavoiceactor.com by D Bradley Baker. It is a fabulous resource. There's so much information there, but it can also be very overwhelming because there's so much information there. And while you can definitely read it over and over and immerse yourself in from the starting from zero point to checking out all of the myths, tips, and tricks and ways that you're going to be able to set up your business, it's not comprehensive enough because it's just from one person, you need to expose yourself to multiple people, to people who say things that maybe you don't agree with, to people who have only been in the business for X amount of time, for people who have been in the business for 10 times that amount of time, the new people, the older people, the vets, the people who are just breaking in. There's so many perspectives. There's so many people writing blogs, showing off TikTOK, showing their experiences in different ways because technology has evolved and the landscape of the industry has evolved. And it is so important for you to take this time to absorb all of that information. I've been doing voiceover for a really long time, for over 15 years. And guess what? I still, to this day, I will still take beginner voiceover classes. And you may be thinking, why would you waste your time? Why would you waste your money? Don't you know all of the things? Don't you have more important things to do? Hell, you're teaching voiceover. Don't you know what you're talking about, Mandy? Yes, I do. But the point is, the reason why I do that is because I need to keep my ear to the ground to understand what these teachers are teaching new actors. I want to know what the new trends are. I want to hear what an agent is going to say to new voiceover actors. I want to hear what a casting director is going to say to new voiceover actors. I want to hear what other actors are saying to new voiceover actors. I want to understand how the industry has changed from their perspective and, and adapt that, as it makes sense, to my business, to my craft, to how I am not only teaching, but how I am performing. So taking beginner voiceover classes,

Managing Anxiety for the New Year. Sometimes when I have something really large looming in front of me, like an entire year, I get anxious. I think, "How am I going to do this? How am I going to handle this? This seems like too big of a thing to tackle." And there's that wonderful phrase that says, "Anyone can eat an elephant one bite at a time." And that's what I like to help actors with, not only helping you in the business, in the basics, because I have this theory that really the business is something that can be learned. The problem is it's taught so poorly in so many places, and I have a tried true system that really works. And once you get on that system, it just chugs along in the background. It's like it works and it chugs along so that you can focus on the two other things that I think are the most important things, which is the ability to do your job, which is acting. So to become a better actor. Possibly, more importantly, what we're talking a bit about today, which is core work, which is the work on yourself. Because the more you know how you tick, the more you'll be able to apply that to a character. So the more you become emotionally mature and the more emotional intelligence that you have, the better you'll be able to translate that into a character. For today, talking about managing New Year's anxiety, or managing anxiety with an entire year in front of you. You will never be given more than you can handle, but you will be given more than you can control. And why is that? Because control is not your business. Handling is. That's also where that phrase, "Take the action, let go of the result," comes in. It's my job to show up and do the absolute very best I can. My job is to suit up and to show up and to be the very best I can be in every single moment. "I can handle this." It's something I say to myself quite often, especially when faced with such a big thing in front of me. Also, asking myself the question, "when the anxiety comes up, what do I think I can't handle?" The other thing that I find, and this is just magical, is once I take responsibility for doing something in the area that I have that anxiety in, the anxiety does start to dissipate. It starts to disappear. Why? Because I've taken responsibility. There's something else about fear and anxiety that I want to point out,fear is your anecdote to success. Let me say that again. Fear is your anecdote to success. It is a bridge. If you can, slowly, methodically, quietly, stealth fully, do those things that you are frightened of, you'll start to build real confidence, a real understanding of you. And that confidence that will carry you to the success that you want in your life. It becomes the road more traveled. That when that thing that comes up that you're frightened of, you do that. It's very important to stop, take that step back, and observe. And at the beginning of this year, I so recommend you taking that moment, sitting down and doing a lot more planning and organizing. And then, of course, doing that very difficult thing of following through. I want to be responding as much as I can to 2024 and not reacting. When I react, I go by my first thought, and my first thought generally is not healthy for me. But my second thought is, because my second thought is more of a response. And a response is a reaction with a pause and a thought behind it.

So today, we are going to talk about goals for the first quarter of 2024. January through March 31st is the first quarter of the year. We are setting 3 to 5 goals for the first quarter of 2024. Now, the other thing is that if you do the full yearly goals, you could break that down a little bit, baby-stepping into that first quarter. But what I want you to be thinking of is the first of the year through March 31st. That's where I want your focus to be because it's a much more bite-sized piece to apply your goals to and your positive thoughts and actions towards. I want to give you some questions to think about: The first question is, with these goals that you have, where do you feel you are at in achieving them? Talk about what you've done in the past and where that has brought you. And then the next thing I want you to ask yourself is, looking at where you are at in achieving them and what you've done in the past, how has that made you feel? What are your emotions around it? If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you will change. Now, the reason why I asked you where are you at in achieving them and how does that make you feel because if you did write something down, "I feel like I've let myself down, I feel like I just keep procrastinating, I feel like I'm such a loser…" I want you right now to feel that pain. I want you to feel it. I want you to get uncomfortable. I want you to recognize all of those things that you just said. Why? Not because I'm some masochist. No, but because I want to get you to change. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you'll change. And then I was hoping you could write this: Today is the first day of the rest of my life. There's that wonderful phrase "Do something today that yourself in year from now will thank you for." Use your mind to govern your brain. Perfectionism leads to procrastination leads to paralysis. Now, I have one more journal question for you: How do you feel when you do not do what you said you were going to do? When you have a thought, that thought leads to an emotion and then to an action. Which then goes back to reiterating that initial thought. I want you now to make three columns. I want you to put one of your goals in the first column. So you're going to put down one of your goals. And then, in the second column, I want you to write down some thoughts that support that goal. So, if my goal is to be a working actor, the thought or thoughts that you would want to write in that second column are I am a successful working actor. I go from success to success in my acting career. I love myself, and I approve of myself. So some good positive affirmations around that goal. Because your thoughts need to back up that goal. What else needs to back up that goal? Your actions. So, I want you to take a look at whatever that goal is, and I want you to think of one to three small actions that you can take towards that goal. What's your goal? What are the thoughts that support the goal? What are the baby actions that you can take towards supporting that goal? And that is the secret to success. It's your thoughts, and your actions must back up what you want. I want you to go back now and look at your goals, and I want you to put next to them, whether they are a habit goal or an achievement goal. So let's say I want to take a vacation in 2024, a two-week vacation in 2024. You need to save up for that. That's an achievement goal. But let's say you want to practice your voice five times a week for half an hour each one of those times. That is a habit goal. So take a moment and review all the goals you have written down and write down if they are habits or achievement. I want you to look at each one of your goals, and I want you to ask yourself, is it a goal that is actually achievable or attainable by the end of the quarter? Or is it a quarter/year project? It should make you just a little uncomfortable. If you babystep your goals enough so that those baby steps are something that you eagerly put yourself forward to do that help you to move in that direction, that is something that is great. Again, that is great because it builds self-esteem. It builds confidence. Now, I want you to look at your goals and I want you to ask yourself questions about them. What is my motive for making my first goal, second goal, third goal happen for me? What will I get out of making it happen? What is my motive? We do things because there is something in it for us. And it's okay to be selfish. When you get to those times when you really do not feel like doing the action step for your goal, you can remind yourself what your motive is. And that's when you can really start asking yourself. How bad do I want it? I consider that question to be the secret ingredient. I operate like this all the time because not every single day do I feel like doing things towards my goals. But when I remind myself what my motive is, I remind myself how it's going to feel when I achieve it. Ooh

Special Rate Life Coaching This is one of my favorite episodes of the year. Why? Because I recap the entire year, and it's like a play-by-play of all the podcast episodes. So, over 52 episodes, you can get a quick little like burst of what it's about and write it down and say, "Oh, I wanna listen to episode 210." What's so incredible is that we have over 160 episodes for you to listen to all free content. And it's a great little way to celebrate the holidays by just marking down which ones you want to listen to while you do that dreaded holiday travel. Money Mastery for Actors It's important to encourage yourself.

What do you get your reps for the holidays, especially this year? Because it is this year, the year of two strikes, after, let's see, a global pandemic, and a heck of a lot of other things going on in the world, I think we can be assured that it doesn't have to be some momentous gift. So let's say you had a Killer year, maybe in theatrical at the beginning of the year, or you had a killer print year, or a killer modeling year, or a killer commercial or voiceover year, again Wahoo! I want to hear about it because that sounds fabulous. If you did, you can be more generous in what I'm going to suggest. This year, I would go for a card. A card that says something sincere in it about how much you appreciate them sticking by you or how much you appreciate their sense of humor or something genuine. Now, that is if it is a very lean year for you. If it's not been a lean year and you really want to do a little something, I go to my old standard of Amazon gift cards and Starbucks gift cards. I know that's not that imaginative, but honestly, from the casting director's point of view, it's just a token. If you want to take it one step further, then do a little investigating. When you were there, What were they eating? Was it Chipotle? Was it Sweetgreen? Was it McDonald's? Whatever it was, they have a little thing. Maybe you know that they love VR games. If they do, then get them a gift card that's appropriate for that. If you know they love going to movies, get them a movie gift card to a movie theater near their work or their home. You can be imaginative with this. The other thing I recommend is A charity. You can say, listen, in light of this being a crappy year for a lot of people, I wanted to give a little donation to a charity of your choice. Ask them. ASPCA and Women for Women International are the two charities of Acting Business Boot Camp. We give a portion of our proceeds every month to those two charities. Broadway Cares, Equity Fights AIDS, that's always a great one for the industry. The Actors Fund is another charity that's fantastic for the industry. You can do stuff like that, too. I always feel these things are better than alcohol or cookies because then they get to choose and they get to have something that's special for them. And I also love those gifts where somebody gave it a little more thought. Do some homework on this. Think about it. What would your reps really like? And honestly, if it's just a card with something nice, that's perfect. Just take that moment. Stop and take that moment and think about what you most appreciate them. Thank you for noticing me. Thank you for seeing me, seeing my talent, and believing in me.

Radio Imaging Class with Mandy About Mandy Fisher: Mandy Fisher is a NYC-based full-time voiceover actor with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has worked with brands like Crayola, Disney, Peloton, Coke, Walmart, and Kohls to name a few. Her passion for voiceover and genuine love of helping people inspire her to work with actors of all stages of their career. With a theater background, she brings her training to guide copy analysis and character creation. As an industry vet of 15 years, she has witnessed the changes and understands the ebbs and flows of the business. Mandy created her own voiceover business from the ground up and has a successful and replicable model to help actors build their own successful businesses. All of this adds up to a coach who can provide audition and career advice while helping actors become the best they can be! The first thing is, what the hell is radio imaging? Radio imaging is when you are the voice of a radio station, not the DJ, but it's virtual branding for a radio station because they want people to when they turn on their dials to a specific radio station; they want that familiarity. They don't want it to be confusing. They want to have that brand recognition. And that is what is done through your voice. My next question is, how is one even hired for radio imaging? My first kind of foray into it was by accident. And I didn't realize I was doing radio imaging as I was doing it. I didn't realize that's what it was. I started this several years ago when I was a struggling voiceover actor trying to figure my stuff out. I was sending samples of my voice to different radio stations, like all over as many radio stations as I could look up and find on the internet. I would send them my voice and say, can I do anything for you on your radio station? Do you need anything? Is there anything I could do? And they would say, Oh yeah. And they would throw me a couple of lines, and that was radio imaging at the time; I had no idea that's what that was. But now you can still do that; by the way, you can still absolutely reach out to station managers and say, Hey, I like your radio station. I'm a big fan. I think I could fit in with your other radio imagers. So you can always absolutely reach out to a station manager, but I work with a specific manager, not an agent, a specific manager who handles my radio imaging career; that is definitely a way because he has all of these connections and has been in the business for a very long time. So, if you're really interested in forging a career in radio imaging, I would suggest trying to get a manager to do that because it's a close-knit group and tons of station managers know each other, and they've got this sort of radio world that they're in. It feels very different than other verticals of voiceover. So, if that's a passion, I would say try to get a radio imaging manager. So, let's actually talk about the difference between a manager for voiceovers and an agent for voiceovers. It's very similar to the theatrical world, where agents are in voiceover. You are almost expected to freelance with several agents in non-competing markets. I don't know of any full-time voice actors who only have one agent. And they're going to source auditions for you. They're going to help you in different verticals of voiceover, whichever kind of vertical you're interested in. A lot of people have a commercial voiceover agent. And if that agency doesn't have an interactive department, they'll find an agent who specializes in interactive or audiobooks or radio imaging or whatever, but a manager is someone who will really handle the career aspect of your voice-over world. So, very similar in theatrical where you have agents who source auditions for you and are less handholdy than, say, a manager who will craft some of the other things, help you with your pitches, help you with your demos, give you feedback, really be there to help you along your career. Interactive is all things animation, video games, toys and games, things outside of commercials, audiobooks, long-form, e-learning, or anything else. It is the umbrella of animation, video games, mobile, and that kind of world. First, is there anything you want to say more about radio imaging? Yeah, I would say, if you're interested in doing it, I wouldn't say it's necessarily hard to get into, but I would say if you don't have a lot of experience in voiceover, you should try to take like a promo class or a commercial class or improv class. Because you do need to provide a lot of variety, and usually it's short little lines that they're going to cut into what's happening on the air alongside the DJ and other people, other guests, whatever on the show and songs and what you're listening to. So they like to have a ton of variety. That variety is going to help you book with more stations because they don't want the plain, boring, or the overly kind of sticky sound that was of long ago and is no longer popul

Free Month of Coaching Heidi's YouTube Channel About Heidi Dean: Heidi Dean is known as the industry's top social media strategist for actors and the creator of Marketing4actors.com. She's a social media writer for Backstage Magazine and a frequent speaker at film festivals, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, conferences, podcasts and universities across the country. Her clients include Emmy Award-winners, Broadway stars, series regulars, directors, producers, casting directors, voice actors and audiobook narrators. Heidi turns social media rookies into ROCKSTARS! How the heck did you get into doing social media with actors? The tweetable version is well, I really got my start in social media marketing and I was actually running social for my husband who is a Broadway and television actor and now audiobook narrator. And a lot of the things we were doing for him and promoting his album and everything, just started taking off. And of course, working actors know working actors, and I started running social for other people, for actors, producers, and casting directors. What I started to realize is that I was not just running social media for them, I was acting like them, and the people interacting with me had no idea I was this person. They had no idea. So it was enlightening to me because I realized that actually, nobody was helping actors with their social media. You had to be like an A-lister and have media training and social media training and really have someone running your social media to actually get that kind of education. And so that's when I started my blog, Marketing for Actors, now 2015. And really just talking about the mistakes I was seeing every day, as people interacted with me when they thought I was this producer, this casting director, or this big actor, and that's when the blog just took off because no one was helping. And there was a need that nobody was fulfilling unless you paid thousands of dollars every month to have someone run it for you. How important is it for actors to be on social media? It's important for so many reasons, and I feel like the conversation gets stuck on followers all the time. I love that you're asking this because, like I said, I think this conversation of like, How important is it? Why is it important? It tends to get stuck on this conversation about followers and I think it's the wrong way to approach it and it's not even the most important reason to be on social media. So let me give you a couple of reasons why I think it's important and hopefully, that's going to help reframe some things for your listeners. Yeah. First of all, it's like almost 2024. You may be listening to this in 2024 and social media is just part of the world. It's, and it's becoming part of your job, right? Your next gig is probably going to have posting guidelines. They're gonna have some guidelines about when you can post, when not to post, what to post. There may even be posting requirements in your contract, which, just so you know, it's actually a powerful thing. If they require you to post, and you have any kind of audience, ask for more money. This is powerful, okay? So you may have guidelines, you may have requirements. Your next job could have an Instagram takeover or they could ask you to go live or do live tweeting. These are all just reality. So it's becoming part of your job. It's also part of your first impression. We know this business has gone virtual and people are looking you up all the time. It's a business of referrals and also, people, they need to know who you are. So they're going straight to social, they're going to Google, and guess what pops up for a Google search for your name. Your social media, your bio, you can read it right from a Google search. So if you're using social media, I want to make sure it looks professional because it is part of your first impression. Another reason I think it is so important is that it can help you get cast and this is not just about followers, but yes, whether you like it or not, having an actual, real live social media following can help you get cast. But I don't want to sit on that idea. I've witnessed it over and over again, social media helping actors get cast in so many other ways, from my students sharing a post with their special skills. Or creating a post that has a certain location hashtags or special skills hashtags and people went online and they were looking for an actor with that skill and now they're auditioning. It happens all the time or even now that we've been gifted vertical videos like TikTok and reels and Youtube shorts you have all been given a virtual stage to perform and yes actors are getting cast all the time because of it so you know It can help you get cast beyond the followers reason, right? Honestly, I think the biggest reason, it helps you build relationships and your relationships are your career. I always say your network is your net worth as an actor and social media can help expand this network and you can actu

Free Masterclass About Maribeth Fox: Maribeth Fox has worked with Laura Rosenthal Casting for fifteen years and has had the privilege of working alongside major talents like Todd Haynes, Paolo Sorrentino, Oren Moverman, Joachim Trier, Ed Burns, Mindy Kaling, Anton Corbijn, and Lisa Cholodenko as well as up and coming feature directors, Guy Nattiv, Olivia Newman, & Paul Downs Colaizzo. Favorite credits include Olive Kitteridge and Mildred Pierce both for HBO, Jay-Z's music video for Smile, Wonderstruck with Todd Haynes, A Quiet Place, Modern Love for Amazon and Liz Garbus' narrative feature debut, Lost Girls. Two of her three films at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival broke sales records, Late Night and Brittany Runs A Marathon. Most recent credits include Sharper for Apple TV, directed by Benjamin Caron, Bottoms, produced by Elizabeth Banks, Murder Mystery 2 with Happy Madison, and the upcoming A Different Man from Killer Films and A24. How did you become a casting director? I learned how to work with actors, what they need you to tell them, and what they don't need you to tell them about ego. And I just decided to spend five to seven minutes with actors instead of a career with them. So I switched to casting, and I worked for CBS primetime casting for two and a half years, which was a really good learning experience, but corporate wasn't for me. I wanted to do more film, and I wanted to be freelance so my eight-week job with Laura turned into 16 years. How does a casting director get a film job? So oftentimes, we are one of the first people hired and production companies hire us, producers that know us, that know what The material is that we're drawn to. Sometimes we're hired by our directors who you hope to get repeat business if you've worked with them before. The first thing we'll do is read a script to make sure we're creatively aligned and feel like we strategically know how to cast the job. And then we're offered one of two situations. The first situation is. Attach names to this to green-light the rest of the financing. So we do that side, and then sometimes people come attached to a film, which is wonderful news. And they're like, "We just want you to cast this movie if you like it. And this is who's doing it." So we're normally found by producers and directors, and we're one of the first hires. So, just a question I have: if you are asked to attach a name talent, and let's say it's one part, let's make this real simple, Sure. How long does it generally take to cast a film, would you say, to attach that kind of name talent if it's a good script? It's a long time. It's a long time, so much so that Laura has received producorial credit on quite a few of her features because of the time, attention, and effort it takes to get those attachments in place. You think about somebody, let's say you're offering something to somebody like Julianne Moore. It could take a month for her to read it. Not because she doesn't read quickly but she's got a lot going on. And somebody of that ilk, their whole team, has to read it. She has to read it. Everybody has to have an opinion. They have to have a discussion about it. And so we try our best to set respectful boundaries with agents and managers to say, "We really need this to be read by this time." But if a creative team is invested in a certain person, oftentimes, that deadline will stretch. So you could be with one actor for a month or more. We try to get them sometimes to line up like their top three for each part if we're doing more than one part so that if there is a pass, it's not an utterly crushing situation. The producers knew that a writer strike was imminent, and I was a little shocked to hear what you said, that you stopped getting calls about six months before. Can you talk about that and what that was like? It's helpful to know just in terms of our similarity to what actors go through that a lot of our business is independent film and that really continued. That was not a problem. We were still getting calls. We were still getting pings for that, but in terms of the book of business that would streamers and network, which is a lot of people's businesses, they anticipated the strike. And normally, we have no shortage of things to read, think about, sign on to, or not sign on to. And I think all casting directors experienced a similar shut-off. That was very different than the strike in 2008 where we were out of work for a little while, but no big deal. But yes, like the work has been. It's been different this time around. How has it been different, do you feel? So I think a lot of people feel, there's a lot of feelings this time around. Where, as there should be, right? I obviously heartily support the actors and what they're going through, and it's, it's time, right? It's time to do this and ensure everybody gets what they're owed fairly. And also, I think there is, within the SAG interim agreement, there's some stuff where I think we all need to work to

Private Coaching Today, I am going to talk about what is honestly sometimes a very painful thing to talk about, which is going home for the holidays. Because actually going home for the holidays for me is a joyous thing now. But when I was younger, it was harder. And it wasn't necessarily because of my parents, but it was things that triggered me, like the cold, like it being darker. And those kinds of things would bring up a lot of anxiety with me. One of the things I will be talking about is triggers and how to take care of yourself around triggers. So, what do I mean by a trigger? A trigger for me is it gets darker earlier. If you listen to my podcast episode 102, you'll hear that when it started to get dark when I was a child, that's when my anxiety would kick up. Guess what happens now? It gets darker earlier. Now, I will be honest with you: it still reminds me every year, but I also have come so far that it doesn't bother me anymore. But I'm not going to tell you that if I get emotionally ruffled, it's not going to get kicked up again, and that's what I want you to look out for this holiday season. Exercise: Either on your phone, while you're listening to this or pen and paper, I want you to think of three to five things that could potentially trigger you this holiday season. So for me, it's that it gets dark earlier. The other thing is that my family lives on the East Coast. And guess what? It's cold on the East Coast. It's freezing. That's why I live part of the year in Los Angeles because it's nice and toasty here. Those are things that immediately crop up for me. My parents also live in the country. And for some reason, even though in L. A. I'm in the middle of nowhere in the middle of L.A., and I, for some reason, get very triggered by the cold and the night and being isolated. So those are the three things that trigger me. And I want to ask yourself what your things are. Is it a family member who says, "Oh, wow, that strike? Hey, are you even going to still have a career?" Whatever Uncle, whoever Aunt, your mom, your dad, that older brother. I recently heard from a dear friend of mine that his older brother used to put him down a bit. And although time has passed, it's still a trigger. So, write down your three to five triggers. If you have more, that's fine. Then, what I want you to do is I want you to think of a contrary thought or an alternate thought that you can say to yourself if you start to get triggered. One of them, which is the ultimate Truth, is this too shall pass. Or reminding yourself, is there something soothing you can do for yourself? One of the things I like to do is have these special peppermints. My mom gave me them. They're Dutch peppermints. I like to have them in my pocket. It's just a little thing that comforts me. Also, sometimes, putting my hand on a particular area of my shoulder comforts me. So it's things that I can think of and things that I can do. You want to think of an alternate thought and an alternate action. With an alternate thought, as I said, "This too shall pass," but also, a good thought would be, "It's going to be okay. I got you. It's going to be okay." Reminding yourself that the Universe is on your side. One of the things that I do is light a candle that makes me feel safe because it reminds me of the presence of the Universe and that I'm not alone, that this too shall pass, that I'm going to be okay and that I love myself. I approve of myself and that I've got myself emotionally during that time. The thing is, and Melody Beattie talks about it in Language of Letting Go, for some people, it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever you celebrate; it's that time of year. And for some people, it's like the worst trifecta in the world, which is Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, or Thanksgiving, winter holidays, and New Year's, and they're like, "Oh God, I just want to get through." How can you take care of yourself this holiday season? One of the ways you can is to write down those potential triggers and create a plan. Create a plan of positive thoughts. Create a plan of positive actions that are going to help you. What are you going to do if you get triggered? Are you bringing a pet with you? Is there a pet where you're going that you can go to? Is there a relative who you know you're safe with? What can you do to take care of yourself? Remember, you also have this podcast. There are so many core messages. In this podcast, I've done over a hundred of them. Bring it with you. Bring me with you on your holidays. I'm more than happy to be your companion. Write to me if you get scared. I'm here. [email protected] The thing is, have your own back. Have a plan. If you need to, go a little late and leave a little early. And also remember, you can just listen. That's one of the best things somebody told me about triggering situations. When you're in a triggering situation, start asking the person about how they're doing. What's going o

Free Month of Coaching You Can Heal Your Life The Power of Intention An actor shared that they had turned down an opportunity because, ultimately, they felt that they didn't deserve it. And, I think that is an incredibly painful place, especially when she realized afterward what had been done and why they had done it. It brings up the question, how many times have I turned something down or walked away from a potential opportunity because I felt I didn't deserve it? And that programming that we have in our, as I put it, motherboard, in our belief system is so deep within us because that is what we operate out of. And yet, what I am trying to do in these weekly classes is to make you more conscious. And what do I mean by more conscious? What I mean is when you are conscious, you are operating out of what the Universe sees you as, who you truly are, as opposed to who you think you are or how you were taught to be. So there's who you really are, how the Universe sees you in all of your glory, in all of your greatness, in all of your incredible wisdom, and then there's who you think you are, or how you were taught to behave or to act or to think. And most of the time, that is two very different things. It's really about success and deserving success. You deserve success. And a wonderful affirmation that she talks about is every experience is a success. Now, why is every experience a success? Because I learn something for it. I either gain something in terms of a win, or if I don't is an experience for me to learn. "What does failure mean anyway? Does it mean that something did not turn out the way you wanted it to or the way you were hoping? The law of experience is always perfect. We out-picture our inner thoughts and beliefs Perfectly. You must have left us out a step or had an inner belief that told you that you did not deserve or you felt unworthy." What are you out-picturing, out-feeling, out-believing? Are you thinking positively and with the Universe's thoughts behind you and the Universe's strengths and Truths with a capital T behind you, or are you operating out of "the motherboard" because somebody told you only deserved "X" amount of success? Or you told yourself that because you are (fill in the blank), you only deserve Y. Your beliefs can be changed from someone who feels they don't deserve to someone who very much knows it is their right to. She says, "It is the same when I work with my computer..." If there is a mistake, it is always me, which I find very frustrating. It means that something has not been done to comply with the laws of the computer. And what it ultimately means is that there is something for me to learn. If you think of the Universe that same way, that is really powerful. Because there are laws of the Universe. My job is to get myself in line with them, but I can always ask for help in doing that. I can invite the Universe into making this podcast, guiding me to think more positively, guiding me to get on my own side so that I feel I am deserving of that success. And it takes attempts at this. I never did this perfectly. I have been doing this work for 28 years. And guess what? I've never done it perfectly, but I've always aimed in that direction. When a plane is on autopilot, It's only on course 10 percent of the time. The 90 percent it's trying to find its course. In my learning to be deserving of success, I've probably only been on course about 10 percent of the time, but ultimately, I have headed to a much more happy and successful life. Thomas Jefferson said, "The only time we ever really fail is our last attempt at trying." And the old saying that Louise Hay talks about here is, "If at first you don't succeed, try again." And it's true. It doesn't mean to beat yourself up and try this old same way again. It means to recognize your error and try another way until you learn to coordinate with the Universe. Adjust yourself to the station of the Universe if you think of a radio dial. Tune myself in to the station of deserving as opposed to the beating up of not. Which, again, is how I may have been programmed in my past. Louise Hay says, "I think it is our natural birthright to go from success to success all our life. If we are not doing that, either we are not in tune with our innate capabilities, because I so strongly believe. That we are smarter and more capable and greater and wiser than we think we are. That was today's lesson in the weekly coaching group. And if we don't believe that is true for us, We're not going to even recognize our little successes along the way, which is so important. I think another thing that I keep talking about in my weekly coaching group is this idea of being your own best friend, of having your own back. And that's when good stuff happens, and also when not-so-great stuff happens, but having your own back in all areas throughout the day. When we set standards that are much too high for where we are in this moment, standards we cannot possibly

Katie Flahive Film and TV Class $30 Classes Energy attracts like energy. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi Like attracts like, and we attract and create our world. If I am not treating myself well, that is what I am giving out to the world, and I will end up attracting people who don't treat me very well. By focusing not on what was but on only what can be, we create the world we choose. And we do this through the practice of affirmations. So again, by not focusing on our past but focusing and putting our attention on the now and the future we wish to create, that is how we create a better life for ourselves. Now, I'm not going to lie to you. When I first heard this kind of stuff, I was like, "That's a bunch of voodoo, voodoo, gobbledygook." Until I was, honestly, sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I was desperate enough to change. Until I was like, "I cannot stand my life as it is right now. I need to change things up." So, I started the practice of affirmations. I stopped putting my focus on my past and started putting my focus on now and the future I wanted to create. And here I am, decades later. And I have a life beyond my wildest dreams. Everyone wants an abundant life. Living an abundant life begins with believing in and focusing on an abundant world. I just finished teaching a class on Money Mastery. And one of the things I talk about is how I used to believe that there was not enough money. But that's the biggest bunch of bullshit out there. That's thinking out of my ego. That's thinking out of finite thinking. I need to be switching my thoughts, aligning them with universal thought, with infinite thinking. Which is there is always enough money. That's the way I think today. There's always enough money. If I don't have any at the moment, I will be making more. There's always enough money because there's always more money out there. Why? Because it is an abundant and infinite Universe. We are practicing gratitude and a gratitude list. It is so important because whatever we put our attention on will expand. So if I am putting my attention on abundance and the abundant Universe, whether that's even in this moment there is an abundance of air around me, if that's the only thing I can put my thought on that I can grasp in my brain, fine, we start there. It doesn't matter where you begin in this. It's that you begin. If we focus on lack, if we focus on failing relationships, if we focus on not finding work, if we focus on not having enough money, like I just explained, we start to live in those "realities." And I put the word realities in quotation marks. And what am I doing by doing that? I'm putting a label on myself that I always have failing relationships, that I'm never able to find work, that I don't have enough money. And then that is the world I find myself living in. But I don't want to live there. I gave that up a long time ago. I want to live in an abundant life. And I want to focus on an abundant Universe. Because it goes so much further than planet Earth, it's universal. The Universe is constantly expanding. And it wants us to expand. Why? Because we are a part of it. It is a part of us. Always remember the Truth is that the world is an abundant place with enough resources for all. There's a fabulous affirmation for you. "The Universe is an abundant place, and there are enough resources for all." And now, I'm going to move into the concept of truth and talk about how truth exists past my ego belief. I must understand the difference between Truth with a capital T, which is universal Truth, higher Truth, my intuitiveness, higher knowledge, and little t truth, which is ego's truth. Now, there's a wonderful acronym for ego, which is "easing God out." Now again, I consider this term God to be of your understanding. Someone once told me that God can be "good orderly direction." It can be nature. It can be the universe. It is up to you. You can think of it as higher intelligence. Or your higher intuitive self. It can be that. It's the part of you that knows what good, orderly direction is. Capital T Truth is Universal Truth. It is plants, it is nature, it is the wind blowing. And I want to be in alignment with that Truth. Because I don't want to be tuned into that ego truth. Because of that, I'm only then relying on finite amounts of information and wisdom. I want to have access to all the wisdom. And that is Universal Truth, infinite wisdom. And here's the thing: if everyone in the world still believed that the world was flat, would it be flat just because we believed it to be? Some things are the Truth, whether you believe them or not. Including there is enough. Including I am enough. The incredible thing is that successful people question everything. And they also do what they most don't want to do by noon. But successful people are curious people. Do not believe anything, and most importantly, do not believe anything you think about yourself that is limiting you in a

David Cady's Commercial Gym Work with Jason About Jason Figgis: Jason Figgis is an award-winning IFTA-nominated film and TV director who has had feature work commissioned or acquired by major broadcasters that include Sky One, Sky Arts, Channel Four, Hulu, RTE, Apple+, iTunes, KSM, SVT, Cinedigm, Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime, and Lionsgate Studios. This work has been placed in territories that include 150 countries worldwide. Figgis' work includes the IFTA-nominated Discovery Channel documentary THE TWILIGHT HOUR, the Sky Arts documentary A MAVERICK IN LONDON (featuring Alan Rickman, Richard E. Grant, and Joanna Lumley), SIMON MARSDEN'S HAUNTED LIFE IN PICTURES (featuring John Hurt), High Fliers Films / Pinewood Studios release THE GHOST OF WINIFRED MEEKS (starring BIFA winner Lara Belmont) and LOVE? (written and presented by Samantha Beckinsale). Figgis directed the official music videos for the QUEEN OF ENGLAND'S PLATINUM JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS IN 2022. He also restored the classic German horror film NOSFERATU for the 100th anniversary. Figgis is in production on the authorized documentary looking at the life and work of actress Olivia Hussey called THE GIRL ON THE BALCONY and has just completed an authorized series of films looking at the life and career of prolific writer and philosopher Colin Wilson under the title COLIN WILSON: HIS LIFE AND WORK. Other feature documentary work on the slate include A MAN FOR ALL REASONS, which looks at the life and work of former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, the Manchester County Council sponsored feature documentary SHIRLEY BAKER: LIFE THROUGH A LENS which looks at the life of the celebrated Mancunian street photographer, DIE STRONG which looks at Fallacy of Barriers founder Lily Brasch and FATHER OF DRACULA which looks at the life and work of Dracula author, Bram Stoker. Figgis started his career in TV and film in animation for Murakami-Wolf on the celebrated cult TV series TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. He went on to work for Steven Spielberg at his London-based Amblimation Studios on the feature classic AN AMERICAN TAIL 2: FIEVEL GOES WEST and for legendary animator Richard Williams at his studio in Camden, London, on the cult classic THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, which starred Vincent Price and Kenneth Williams. I started in communications and then decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker. As a boy, I'd always wanted to be a filmmaker; when the digital world opened up, and it became something feasible, I realized I could launch and start getting work done. So I moved into the field of documentary because I've always liked reality over artifice. Even when I write screenplays, I put my mind into a real situation instead of creating something fantastical. So I'm much more interested in relationships, other than big spectacles. In the film industry and writing, a lot of the things that happen, you don't plan for you. You have relationships with people that you feel simpatico with, and you start developing things. So I worked a lot with a writer called Simon Golding, and he's a real facilitator. He puts people together who he feels will work together. I like to write because when I write, I have to get my mind into a character as a real flesh and blood person. I always loved the idea of putting a camera on a real subject. And having people and letting it just unfold in an interview, for example, but the horror and the beauty, I always think the two of them can live quite well together and that a lot of the real horror in the world is what goes on behind closed doors and people's houses. Obviously, I don't mean everybody; I mean, even in ordinary couples where you might have an explosive argument and for that brief moment, there might be fear between the couple that it could escalate into something terrible. Thankfully, it rarely ever does, but there still is that how you can go from a really happy moment to a very dark moment in the blink of an eye, if somebody says the wrong thing or something happens, or even if a vase is dropped on the ground and suddenly this explosive anger. I just think that the light and the dark live very closely together, and to be able to show that on-screen and for people to see a beautiful couple, but then what they hear about, in the narrative or the narration, is the complete opposite to what they're looking at. So you can have beauty and horror right there simultaneously on screen. The discipline of documentary filmmaking has helped you with scripted content. When you're interviewing a real person for a documentary, when they're talking about their own real-life experience, I find that if you're really concentrating on the person and what they're telling you, you get a much greater understanding of the human condition all over because you're forced to put your attention on a subject when you want to bring it to life. For example, if you're directing narrative fiction, you're worried about all the different aspects. You're concerned about the ligh

About Joshua Lastine: Joshua Lastine, Esq., Entertainment Business and Transactional Attorney is the Founder and Managing Partner at Lastine Entertainment Law. A strategic negotiator, fierce advocate for talent, and a practical problem solver, Lastine strengthens his counsel with an ineffable passion for show business, its players, and creators. As a former Lionsgate and ViacomCBS attorney, Joshua Lastine launched Lastine Entertainment Law in 2021, formally Lastine Impressions, to protect the artistry and livelihood of actors, production companies, writers, producers, directors, animators, social media influencers, and podcasters. In his representations on behalf of entertainment talent clientele, including rights acquisitions, development/production deals, branding/commercial advertising deals, talent deals, and other contracts for new media, social media, and the Internet 3.0, Joshua Lastine has an intrinsic aptitude for structuring deals and closing contracts that are shaping the future of the entertainment industry. In addition to his legal negotiations, Lastine also serves as an adjunct lecturer on entertainment business law at The Los Angeles Film School, further impelling the future of the entertainment space and its novices. Joshua's production legal and talent transactions have spanned a wide breadth of media and projects from $100M+ Netflix series to $30K YouTube branding, endorsement, and commercial deals. To learn more visit, lastineentertainmentlaw.com. Follow on LinkedIn and Instagram. Let's talk about protecting ourselves and how the law can help us to do that. User generated content creators. It's anyone really nowadays with the creative backbone. I think that's one of the great things about technology and where we are. There's a lot of downsides and we can talk about that in a bit, but one of the great things about technology and where it's at today is that it really. Democratizes the creative endeavors. I'm a lawyer and I can now start to exercise my creative fingers in a way that I never could before because of the apps and because of the different technologies and algorithms. I think we've all become more savvy in how we figured out to, to express ourselves and create art. I think it's unfortunate now that art and entertainment is being referred to as content, but that's still really what it is. Whether you're creating content for YouTube, you're creating content for TikTok, you're creating content for Instagram or you're creating products and services that blend the line. User generated content refers to anyone with a creative backbone that wants to make something cool. And then try to maybe find a way to, to monetize, exploit, and expand on that idea. For every television show, there's a head of business and legal affairs, a head of production legal that supervises the day to day happenings of the show, whether it's the contracts for all of the actors showing up on set that day, getting the transportation in place, craft services. The visual effects deals, transportation of large scale assets, planes, trains, automobile pieces all the way through the final credit roll, watching the final credits and making sure that all the credits align with the deals that I had negotiated through the season. Doing that on a season by season basis for those shows, building a rapport and in a relationship with the shows themselves to make sure that we're getting what they need done to make the show because at that time, shows like Transparent, Man in the High Castle, I Love Dick which came on a little bit later. These were first of their kind in 2016, 2017 in terms of Amazon shows. They did a lot to push the envelope in terms of what we could do on TV. I was party to many a nudity writer negotiation with many stars, where we did, nude simulated sex orgies. And we did things like hang swastikas in Canadian subway rails to film scenes for Man in the High Castle. And it's my job as the attorney was to liaise with the line producer, the unit production manager, the guys on the ground to get all of the deals done, to make sure that filming stayed on schedule and that the company is protected and that, most importantly, in my opinion, that the people on set are protected. We do a lot with stunts, we do a lot with practical effects, prop guns swinging from buildings, insurance, putting people in helicopters. I'm also part of those discussions to make sure that those people are protected. So it's a lot that goes into overseeing a television show or a feature film through the production side. That's part of what I do at my law firm. The other side is the more traditional talent representation, representing actors, writers, directors to negotiate their contracts. Why does an actor need a manager, an agent, and a lawyer? We love our agent manager friends to death and we work very closely with them, but oftentimes there's a lot that gets left off the table. I myself, when I work as representing the studio or the p

Private Coaching Fear and Courage. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway "If everybody feels fear when approaching something totally new in life, yet so many are out there doing it despite fear, then we must conclude that fear is not the problem." Fear is not the problem. It's our attitude and our actions. One of the things I coach with people is I look at their goal, and then I look at their thoughts around that goal, or their affirmations, their affirmative thought around that goal, and then I look at those actions around the goal. So we make sure that the affirmative thoughts, or the thoughts that you are having around being a Working Actor, are not thoughts like, "Oh, I'm not good enough. It'll never happen. I'm too old for this shit." Whatever it is, that we start turning those thoughts around because we need to have our thoughts and our actions supporting and backing up that goal. That is how you create success in your life. But for me, when I started first to learn this work, I was like, "Yeah, but I'm fucking terrified, and I am filled with anxiety, and I cannot imagine calling my manager and asking, how come I don't have any auditions, or I haven't had any auditions for a couple of weeks." But yet, those were the things that I needed to do, either to get more activity or learn that manager was really not that into me and I needed to find someone else. Fear is not the problem. But what the problem is, according to Susan Jeffers, which I concur with, is how we hold and manage our fear. It's our attitude toward fear. So again, remember that fear is not the problem. How we hold and manage the fear is. Last week I talked about how you will never be given more than you can handle, but you will be given more than you can control. And manage is another word for handle. If how we hold and manage fear is the problem, guess what is the phenomenal, exciting news about that? Then there's something we can do about it. There is something we can actually do about it. Because if it's in our realm of being able to handle or manage. Hey, that's our job, remember, controlling is not. You're never going to be able to control your fear. Believe me, I spent a lifetime trying to do it doesn't work. But I can manage how I handle it. I can manage how I think about it and what I do about it. And the thing is that if I stay, in that belief, that fear actually is the problem, then I'm staying in that victim energy. Then I'm staying in that catabolic energy, that hopeless energy. "There's nothing I can do," bullshit. There is something you can do. Now I'm not going to say that it's going to be easy, and I'm not going to say that it's simple. But it is doable. In fact, it is simple. It's just not easy. So if we accept the truth that how we hold and manage fear is the problem, and I stress that is a truth, that is a Universal Truth, not an ego truth. That is an infinite truth. Then we put ourselves energetically of taking responsibility, and then we can move forward. So if we put ourselves energetically saying, "You know what? I understand I have fear. I, but I can manage it. I can handle it." By just doing that, we take ourselves out of catabolic energy, victim energy and in to anabolic energy, which is the energy of taking responsibility. But if we stay with the idea that fear is the problem, guess what? We stay stuck. So many people, I was at a networking event yesterday and it wasn't an actor. It was just a neighborhood networking event. The number one thing that everybody told me was "I feel stuck." The reason why you're stuck is that you are afraid. So let's get you unstuck. Now, if again, how we hold and manage fear is the problem, we can move out of fear and then we can accomplish our goals or our wants or our needs. So Susan Jeffers talks about a how we hold our fear, and she has a chart. When we hold our fear, we have some kind of what? Pain. And that pain is caused by feelings of helplessness, feelings of depression, feelings of paralysis. But when we move into that anabolic energy, we take responsibility of managing and handling our lives as opposed to controlling it or just not doing anything, then we end up with choice. We end up with excitement because "oh my god we're actually doing it now." And we end up with action. And when I talk about this power, this idea of power of how we get ourselves to do what we want. I am talking about the power within ourselves, which is ultimately building self-esteem. So if we have power over our perceptions of the world, we have power over our thoughts. We have good, affirmative thoughts. Then, we have power over our reactions. Let's say something happens. I spill coffee on my new blouse. My immediate reaction will then be, "Oh God, that was so stupid. Or I'm so stupid." But then I want to tell myself, "Stop." I want to stop. And then I want to take a step back from what I just said to myself. What just happened? Stop. take a step back. And I use that example of putting your hand on your

TV and Film Class Private Coaching Fear and Bravery One way to look at fear is that it is just a fact of life. And I remember when I had so much anxiety as a child. And I used to think to myself, I'd be like, "If could just get rid of this. I just wish somebody could remove anxiety from me." But remember that anxiety and fear were given to us for a specific reason: the sabertoothed tiger. Because a long time ago, we needed to rely on our fear instincts. I want to have some element of that ability to feel fear because, to be quite honest, I live near a mountain and these animals are around, and I need to be cautious; I need to turn on the lights, I need to make noise, I need not to be thinking about something else when I go outside at night and to be quite honest during the day as well. But really, at night, when I can't see anything. So, I think again to understand that fear is something that was given to us to protect us and for us to know that we don't want to get rid of it entirely, but we also don't want it to rule our lives. So Susan Jeffers, who wrote the fabulous book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, says, "the fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow." Again, I talk a lot about comfort zones and that a comfort zone isn't something that is bad. It's just trying to keep us "safe." And when I use the word safe, I'm putting it in quotation marks. I'm putting it in quotation marks because the fact of the matter is that life begins at the end of our comfort zone, but here's the biggie: so does success. And in time management, and all my coaching, my private coaching, my group coaching, I talk a lot about doing that one to three things every day that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit. Makes you just a little bit uncomfortable, just a little bit. Why? Because then you expand your comfort zone and you build the thing that will help you with fear more than anything else: self-esteem. One of the things that I also believe is that you can use fear to succeed. Now, this might be impossible; hear me out. If you start to look at or reframe the idea that fear is a bridge to success. It becomes easy to succeed. Just do everything you are afraid of, and then you will succeed. And the reason why I think that we know what our next step is, we just don't want to do it. We just don't want to do it. But the question I always pose to my clients is the following: how bad do you want it? How bad do you want it? Do you want to give in to fear, or do you want to go after your dream? Do you want to give in to that fear in that moment? Or do you want to choose the thing that will get you to the next level, which will get you to the success that you want? And to do those things you are afraid of, and I call it rule number one and rule number two. Rule number one is to do everything you are afraid of. Rule number two is when in doubt; go back to rule number one. In other words, you can't get out of it if you want to grow or succeed. So remember, the fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow. The only way to get rid of fear is to go out and do it, i.e., rule number one: do everything you are afraid of. Rule number two: when in doubt, go back to rule number one. Also, remember in that process of doing everything that you are afraid of or doing that thing that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit, remember this: you can babystep it. It doesn't have to be all-out frightening. It just needs to be that next little step until you can feel that you can take that next bigger step. And this can be done. Now, not only will I experience fear whenever I am in unfamiliar territory, but guess what? So does everybody else. And remember that doing things that you are afraid of makes you feel better about yourself and builds that phenomenal thing that only you can give yourself, which is self-esteem. Of course, the problem is that you have to earn self-esteem from the hardest person on the planet to earn it from, which again is yourself. "Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from that feeling of helplessness." So, that brings me to catabolic and anabolic energy, catabolic energy is energy that eats you, that kind of that works against you, that destroys you. Anabolic energy is energy that builds, strengthens, and expands. And again, that is the law, one of the laws of the Universe, expansion. The Universe wants you to succeed. The Universe wants you to expand. Why? Because as you expand, it expands. You are a part of it. It is a part of you. The lowest form of energy is catabolic energy and is the energy a victim. It's the "I can't. I can't. I won't. I'm not able. I'm helpless, and I'm hopeless." And your chance for success when you are living in that energy is so low. Then we have the energy of anger conflict. Now, that is stronger than victim. And I am a huge believer because I've used it several times in my life that the energy o

Co-Star Workout Commercial Workout Voiceover Workout Katie Flahive On Camera Class Today, I am going to be talking about wisdom and choice. A quote from William Jennings Bryan. "Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for. It is a thing to be achieved." In life, we always have a choice, even when we don't feel we do. When I forget that I have a choice, what happens is that I am making myself a victim to life's circumstances, or to even life itself. Choice is the freedom to see things as we desire, feel what we want, and live as we create our lives to be. So, the question is, are you happening to life or is life happening to you? Now, I firmly believe that I am the copilot in my life. But the chief pilot in my life is the universe. And I choose for it to be that way because the universe is infinite, whereas me, just of myself, am finite. In each moment, I can choose how I want to experience life. I can choose how I want to experience life, and I always want to be reminding others to do the same. Another way to think of this in terms of choice is when you choose consciously, you are at the cause of your life. And consequently, when you choose unconsciously, you are at the effect of your life. Jen Sincero from the Badass Books, she talks about the big snore, which is how so many of us are just going through our lives sleeping. We're not as I like to call it, using our minds to govern our brains to make sure that we are making the wisest and the most conscious choices in our life each day so that we can create the best future for ourselves. Victor Frankel, a survivor from the Holocaust, talks about in his book how, yes, he was a prisoner. But he still had freedom, the freedom within his head, and that's how he stayed alive. By choosing to choose, to open yourself up, you are moving, even just in making that choice, you are moving from catabolic energy, that energy that eats away at you, that is almost decomposes you, as opposed to moving into that anabolic energy, which is that energy of Expansion. And again, reminding you that the universe wants you to expand. The universe wants you to achieve. Why? Because as you get bigger, it gets bigger. You are a part of it. It is a part of you. So again, by choosing to choose, to make conscious choice, you open yourself up to moving from catabolic energies to anabolic energies. Now I'm going move into wisdom and the concept that each of us is greater and wiser than we appear. A quote from Bruce D. Schneider, who is the founding of IPEC coaching. He says, "Look past your reflection in the mirror and see the truth. I am always, and in all ways, greater than I think I am." So, what if you are only operating at 40 percent of your potential and your capacity? I think a lot of people feel that. They might even feel less than that. Just by, again, choosing to open yourself up, recognizing that you are starting to move into change. You're starting to move into greater wisdom. You have the ability to see, to sense, and to know yourself to be more powerful, more resourceful, and just a greater and more gifted human being. In terms of an actor, imagine if you were so much more talented than you thought you were. Because that's the truth. You have more talent. You have more gifts to give than you even realize you do. But what blocks you are those catabolic energies, which block us from that universal wisdom. Do not accept your limitation, whether that be physical, intellectual, or emotional. Think outside the box and know that you have unique gifts to share, regardless of how you have seen yourself in the past. It's incredibly empowering, to see the truth about ourselves. We are not helpless or a victim of anything. We're not helpless. We are in Infinite Energy and that propels us to do more than we normally think we could or should do. Now this new seeing of who you really are also helps you to set new standards. The comfort zone is constantly trying to keep us the same and comfortable. But tackling these challenges, whether it be running a mile or ten miles or tackling Shakespeare or starting a new career or a new relationship, it helps you to build self-esteem. Which leads to, if you want self-esteem, do self-esteemable acts. But I also need to say with this that we do not want to set ourselves up for failure, so I encourage the baby steps. I encourage going as slowly as you need to take care of yourself, but still challenge yourself. Because ultimately, you can figure this out. You can find a way. Do what you most don't want to do in a day first. Or as I joke do the thing that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit to get you closer to your goals. Because that will then give you so much energy for the rest of the day.

About Mandy Fisher: Mandy Fisher is a NYC-based full-time voiceover actor with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has worked with brands like Crayola, Disney, Peloton, Coke, Walmart, and Kohls to name a few. Her passion for voiceover and genuine love of helping people inspire her to work with actors of all stages of their career. With a theater background, she brings her training to guide copy analysis and character creation. As an industry vet of 15 years, she has witnessed the changes and understands the ebbs and flows of the business. Mandy created her own voiceover business from the ground up and has a successful and replicable model to help actors build their own successful businesses. All of this adds up to a coach who can provide audition and career advice while helping actors become the best they can be! Tell me about all the different types of voiceover that are out there today. There's more than one thing that you can do as a voiceover artist. And so often, I feel like when people ask me about voiceover, they just automatically assume that I'm an animation or like on cartoons. Or video games. And while that's definitely part of voiceover, a lot of my work is commercial and like what you hear on the radio or on TV and e-learning. Many companies I work with have videos that they need to show their employees, and that's a big part of voiceover that people don't necessarily like even thinking about, but then there's IVR, which is interactive voice response. So, when you call a business and you, they say, "Oh, thank you for calling Ikea, press one for the manager, press two for household goods." That's part of voice of real people who get hired for those jobs. And do that as voiceover. And I know a couple of people who do that only, and that's their entire career, and they make damn good money doing that. E-learning is a part of voiceover where a company will hire you for perhaps they want to teach their employees about some new policies at their workplace, or maybe a new product is launching. They want to tell the whole company who's not in product development. They want to educate the salespeople and the marketing people and all other kinds of people within the company; they want to educate them about the product or even sometimes it's. It's how to handle sexual harassment, go to HR with a complaint, or negotiate your salary. A company will want to have all kinds of modules so that their employees can learn, grow, and be better. And especially with remote working being such a major part of the corporate world these days. They rely heavily on these videos and voiceovers to educate their employees and keep their workforce culture booming so that they don't feel like they're on an island. There's anime, there's animation, there's commercials, there's radio spots, there's e-learning, and then the next one you were talking about was IVR. Interactive voice response and IVR and telephony are two different things, but they go hand in hand. Telephony is when you call a business and they have a message; maybe for they're on holiday or vacation. "Thank you for calling the law offices of Dunder and Dunder. we're currently on holiday, and we will get back to you as soon as possible." That's a message. That's part of telephony, and most of the time, if you get a client that wants telephony, you can upsell them on the I V R or vice versa. But they're two different things, but they often go hand in hand. There's looping, obviously ADR. And dubbing, many actors who are bilingual that's becoming its own vertical is bilingual voiceover because many people want to hire both the English speaker and the other language speakers for the same kinds of jobs. What's radio imaging? Oh yeah, radio imaging Is the voice of a radio station, not the DJ. So, not the one calling out the music cues, "you're listening to be 93.3." It's the voice that you hear between the DJ and the songs that makes the station recognizable. So, when you hear that be 93.3, that voice, that person calling out the radio station, it's recognizable to you. You're listening to that station and not Z 100. There's promo, there's medical, there's political. Let's start with promos. Promos are promotions for TV shows and movies, but not trailers. Trailers is a different kind of voiceover, but promo is like, "Join us this week for a new episode of Family Guy Only on CBS." Medical is complicated because it's all jargon. And a lot of times, you'll get a copy with all of these very technical terms or medications, and you have no idea how the hell to pronounce them, and you are rigorously googling, and yes, of course, you can ask the person that sent it to you, but nine times out of ten that person doesn't freaking know and then they have to ask the people that sent it to them, and there is this like long chain of response. Often, it is so specifically timed. ISI- important safety information, which is just the bottom half of that medical, of that medica

Private Coaching So, Rosh Hashanah, Happy New Year. I am married to a wonderful Jewish man, and this is the Jewish New Year. You can restart your day at any point. And I thought, you know what, it's Jewish New Year, and we could all use a bit of a restart. I also love that it's coming up right after Labor Day; I think of it being, as I mentioned before, summertime is over, and it's, the school year has begun. So, let's try and infuse some energy. So, what does restart my day, my week, my month, my year at any point mean to me? It means that there needs to be some sort of an attitude adjustment. Meaning that either I have been slacking on something I have been not aligning positive thoughts or positive action with my goals, which is one of the biggest things I talk about. And I need to make an adjustment. Free month of coaching As a Chiropractor for the Mind, I adjust your thoughts so that they are in line. In other words, getting you to do everything you can to work for you instead of against you. And how does that relate to restarting your day at any point or restarting your year? What we need is an alignment. An alignment to get us back on track to what it is we really want. So today, I decided to give you the opportunity to restart your day at any point: your hour, your 15 minutes, your anything, your year, your month. I think we could all use a year if you're an actor at this point, or a writer for that matter. And I'm going to give you some quotes on new beginnings. One of them is by Richie Norton. "Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes." What I love about that is a dear friend of mine would always say to me, "Peter, I am only responsible till I put my head on the pillow at night." That's The only thing I need to manage; the only thing I need to handle is from this moment till when I put my head on the pillow at night. Because when you put your head on the pillow at night, you reset. And when you wake up in the morning, it is every sunrise begins with new eyes. Again, this podcast, this particular lesson, is about resetting. It's about it being a new year. It is about new beginnings. It's about adjusting. Adjusting to what it is you want in your life. And adjusting your thoughts and your actions to your actual goal. Because remember what I say, I talk about if your action is, I want to be a working actor. I want to be a working actor. The thoughts of I'm not good enough. I can't do that. Ooh, that's tough. You know what? I'll do it tomorrow. Those kinds of thoughts are not working for your goal. And therefore, it's going to be very difficult for your goal to succeed. Last week, in the Weekly Adjustment, which is the Chiropractor for the Mind weekly group I do, I talked about an energy action model. And I talked about what your chances are for success in terms of mindset. When your thoughts and your actions do not align with your goals, you have a low chance for success. But every day, you have a chance to reset. And I'm asking you today to challenge yourself to reset your year. I love this one by Taylor Swift. "This is a new year. A new beginning and things will change." Another famous quote I love is from Joseph Campbell: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come." When you make plans, God laughs. Because if I look back at how I thought my life was going to be, as opposed to how it ended up being up to this point in my life, it's so different and yet so similar. I got to where I wanted to get to, but not in the way I ever thought I would. At some point, I just let go, followed what was in my path, and didn't force it. Do the next right thing. And that's another great slogan for you. Do the next right thing. Notice I don't say, do the next thing, but do the next right thing. What's in front of you? What is challenging you? The most successful people do what they most don't want to do by noon. Vincent Van Gogh. "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything." Here's another one that I love. "Holding on is believing that there's only a past. Letting go is knowing that there is a future." You can restart your year at any point. What is your future going to be? And that is Daphne Rose Kingma. J.P. Morgan, "The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." Getting out of your comfort zone. If you are having trouble getting out of your comfort zone, I ask you to baby step what you want to do. What is the tiniest thing you can do to move you in that direction? Because when you take a baby step, it's not, "Ugh, look, I'm so pathetic I have to take a baby step." It's not that. It's that, "Wow, I'm brave enough to move in the right direction. The direction that I want to move in." Remember, your desire to either be a working actor or accomplish whatever you want comes from the Universe. The Universe has to

Eight Tips Not to Get Ripped Off as an Actor and the Three Pillars to a Successful Acting Career Today, I'm going to talk about clear thinking in unclear times. And I think that could apply to so many things. It could apply to our industry, it could apply to AI, and what's going to happen, it could apply to strikes, it could apply just to the state of the world. So, let's take a second to talk about clear thinking and how to achieve it. The Language of Letting Go "Clear thinking. Strive for clear thinking." Already right there with that sentence. Strive for clear thinking. For me, what that means is to strive for wisdom. Strive for wisdom from the smartest part of me, my highest intelligence, because many of us have had our thinking clouded by denial or potentially our egos. Some of us have even lost faith in ourselves because we've spent some time in denial. In other words, just like pushing things away so we don't have to think about it. "Finances, career, love, life, so many things, but losing faith in our thinking isn't going to help us. What we need to do is lose faith in denial or lose faith in our coping mechanisms." So many times, I've heard so many people tell me that they shove their bills into the drawer and close the door because they just don't want to face it or put it in a pile over the other side of the room so they don't have to face it. Don't return a phone call because if they don't return a phone call, then it's just not happening. Again, we are striving for clear thinking, and we need to lose faith in those coping mechanisms, the hiding our face so you can't see me or the pushing the bills into the drawer so they don't exist. We need to lose faith in that kind of stuff and start gaining faith in our thinking. And in our ability to receive wisdom and clear thought from our higher selves, the universe, or whatever you want to call it. We didn't resort to denial either someone else's problem or our own because we were deficient. We didn't do these things because we were deficient. "Denial is the shock absorber for the soul. It protects us until we are equipped to cope with reality." Clear thinking doesn't mean that we're never going to resort to denial again. Of course, not because we're human beings; we're not perfect. Denial is the first step toward acceptance. For most of our lives, we are striving to accept something, and sometimes, we need to deny it first before we can look at it because we need that shock absorption. "Clear thinking means we don't allow ourselves to become immersed in negativity or unrealistic expectations." I have found that when I get negative, I am working against myself. I'm resorting to lower energies. I don't want to be operating in lower energies. I want to be operating with optimal energy. I want to deal with reality. What is so important is that we surround ourselves with other clear thinkers, which can sometimes be very painful because some of the people we love most in the world may be steeped in negativity, may not be clear thinkers, may not have a spiritual relationship with the universe, and that is fine as long as I continue to take care of myself when I am with those people. I always call it putting on my bubble suit, staying in my little positive bubble. But still being real and still being steeped in reality. "Seek peace of mind. Seek realistic support. Ask for help from the universe. Meditate. Thank you for giving me some clear thought. Thank you for clear thought. Thank you for helping me to think clearly on this matter." Thank you for helping me to think clearly on this matter. That's all you have to say. Just say it doesn't matter if you don't know who you're saying it to; just say it. "We keep our thinking on track by asking the universe to help us think clearly. Not by expecting the universe or another human being to do the clear thinking for us." We need to access our own clear thinking. Because when we do that, we stay out of victimhood, and we take responsibility for our thoughts because we need our thoughts to align with our goals so we can achieve them. And guess what else we need? We need our actions to align with our thoughts and our thoughts to align with our goals, and we need our actions to align with our goals. "There is so much to learn. If we can be humble enough to just ask for a bit of clear thinking, thank you for guiding me to think clearly on this matter."

Broaden Your Improv Skills Money Mastery for Actors Commercial Voiceover Workout Sesh Time Management Workshop TV Class with Katie Flahive Family and separating from family issues because when I think of back to life, back to reality, one of the things I think about is getting back to dealing with family issues and either the support or the lack of support or the lack of interest from family members in your acting career. The Language of Letting Go "We can draw a healthy line, a healthy boundary between ourselves and our nuclear family, and we can separate ourselves from their issues. And I think that's amazing because I don't think I realized that I could separate my issues or anybody else's issues from me. I thought anybody I spoke to their issue was my issue, and my issue was their issue. But that is highly codependent thinking and does not lead to a happy or successful life. "Some of us have family members who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, or you know what, anything else, and they are not in recovery from their addiction. And some of us have family members who have unresolved codependency issues." And I might also add those might be your unresolved codependency issues, which, when I think about the word codependency, I think of it in terms of I'm not all right unless you are all right. And I judge how I feel based on you and just Tom Dicker, Harry Sue, Evelyn, Peter, whoever doesn't matter. "Family members may be addicted, for example, to pain, misery, suffering, martyrdom, or victimization. We may have family members who have unresolved abuse issues or unresolved family-of-origin issues. We may have families addicted to work, eating, or sex. Our family may be completely enmeshed or may have a disconnected family in which members have little contact." And this is where it starts to hit. And I think the core issue here is that we may be like our family and love our family, but we are, and I want you to hear this because this is the biggest part. We are separate—human beings with individual rights and individual issues. One of the ways this was described to me is that if you have a highly enmeshed family, It's like a bowl of spaghetti, but nobody knows whose strands are who's. It's one piece of spaghetti. It's so enmeshed that it feels, smells, tastes, sounds just like everyone else's issue in the family. And also, when I say the word family, it could be community. Don't think that this has to be blood. It certainly doesn't. Or your adopted family, your friends, or group of friends, keep in mind that's true too. "One of our primary rights is to begin feeling better whether or not the other people choose to do the same." O M G. Hallelujah. Let's sing it to the rooftops. We have the right to feel better. We have the right to our future. Whether or not other people in our lives choose to do the same or not. We do not have to feel guilty about finding happiness and a life that works or going after a career that we are passionate about. I. And we do not have to take on our families' issues as our own to be loyal or to show them that we love them. I think that is also so huge and heartbreaking that on some level, maybe in the past, one has learned that I must go down that rabbit hole with that person to show them that I am loyal to them or that I love them. "Often when we begin to care for ourselves, family members or friends will reverberate with overt and covert attempts to pull us back into the old system and roles." So, one of the ways this was explained to me is that if you think of a bike wheel, all the spokes have a certain job. But when one of those spokes decides, you know what? Not my life, not what I want. I'm not going that way. All the other spokes of the wheel get angry, which can feel like a tsunami upon you. It can feel overwhelming, and it can feel desperately lonely. "We do not have to go." Their attempts to pull us back are their issues; we must understand that their attempts to pull us back have to do with them, not with us. And I reiterate we are separate human beings. "Taking care of ourselves and becoming healthy and happy does not mean we do not love them. It means we are addressing our issues." It also means that we are going after our dreams, our universe-given dreams we have every right on the planet to pursue. And the other thing is, and this is our part, we don't have to judge them because they have issues, nor do we have to allow them to do anything they would like to us just because they are our family, which means just because somebody is your family or your friend or someone in your life, you don't have to accept unacceptable behavior. You do not have to accept unacceptable behavior from anyone. We are free now. Free to take care of ourselves with family, friends, and everyone. "Our freedom starts when we stop denying their issues and politely, but assertively, hand their stuff back to them. Where it belongs to deal with their issues. So, of course, everything I've just talked

Learn More About Money Mastery for Actors About Rose Marie: Official "Auntie Bear," Rose Marie is Peter's right-hand woman at Acting Business Boot Camp. She learned the budget system and used it to completely renew her relationship with money. Moving from the kind of person who checked her bank account with her eyes closed every few months to knowing exactly how she wants to spend her resources to serve her goals. She learned this system from Mama Bear herself, which completely changed her relationship with money, empowering her to help others do the same. Rose Marie's history with money and how she came to the Money Mastery Budgeting program. I just felt hopeless. I didn't know what to do. Money was coming in very irregularly because I was working many different jobs. And I really didn't know how to manage my money at all. This system has completely transformed the way I look at money. I have like a 795 credit score; I'm able to save. I have zero debt. I paid it all off. I have savings. I have a retirement in stocks. The budget system has completely overhauled my entire life in terms of finances. I started coaching for the budget coaching in 2017. So can you explain what Jason Harris's budget system looks like? It's figuring out your predictable monthly spending and how much it takes to run us at a baseline. I'm not talking about any of the extras. I'm talking about rent, cell phone insurance. I include my gym membership in my nut because going to the gym is really important to me. And I cannot survive as a human being if I don't work out. And then also figuring out how much money you have left over for your unpredictable monthly spending. And putting it all together using the income you made the month before. So instead of trying to live with, "the money I made now gets spent now." Hand-to-mouth does not work. It really creates so much stress in your life in a way that is just unbearable. The amount of anxiety, stress, and yucky feelings about myself and who I am. I thought I could never make money. I thought I wasn't good at making money; I thought I was just not good. I had such a fixed mindset regarding income, spending, and finances. On the second night, Peter deals with all the yucky feelings that come up when it yucky feelings. We tie money up in so much of our own self-worth. You can think your way into Right Action, and you can act your way into Right Thinking. And I think your part of the course is acting your way into right thinking, and my part is thinking your way into right acting. So it supports the goal of financial freedom. More money not a problem. Less money problem. Gamifying your spending. "I am gonna have extra money left over in all my categories at the end of the month." But the other thing that you made me do, which is really revolutionary for me, and I know all of the world is such an internet, digital. We all live on our phones, and there are so many apps that let you do this: you made me carry a little notebook in my purse or my backpack everywhere through New York City, and I would write down every single thing I spent money on, and at the end of the day, I would subtract how much I spent money on, from how much I had left. And the act of writing it down just made me so much more aware of where my money was going. AND I didn't give up the first time I forgot to do it. And so the thing that I really tried to separate myself from was having to do it perfectly for it to work. The other thing I love about the budget system, you don't have to do it perfectly for it to work. The goal is to get 1% better at it and not give up the first time you hit some resistance. Because it's just numbers. I'll never forget the first month when I was in the green. I was like, "Oh my God, I can do this. This is not outside of my purview. I am capable of creating a financial abundance." Even if it was a hundred dollars, it doesn't matter. It was still a hundred dollars. The other thing that I love about this system, in terms of building confidence, is all you have to do is follow the steps. If it takes three months to get from the red to the green, that's fine. You're just working the system, waking up every day, doing it as we teach it, and eventually, you're like, "Oh, I'm a master at this." It becomes automatic after a while. When I started doing it, first of all, when Jason taught it to me, I started crying. I just burst into tears. It was humiliating that I didn't know how to handle my money. I felt like I was stupid. I felt like I was totally incapable, that I wasn't smart. These were all the things that came up for me around budgeting. And I just felt defective, and I had a tremendous amount of shame around it. And I told myself, "Swallow your pride, suppress your ego, and remain teachable and see if he's got something here that works." If I told you how much I have in savings now and how much, you know, abundance I have in my life because of his system, it's incredible. I'll never forget the f

Free Masterclass Today, I will read you something that a listener sent me, so thank you, Margaret. I absolutely love this, and I'm going to read it just as it was presented to me because I think it's so inspirational about not giving up and also just it's about tenacity. "Hi, Peter. I ran across this post on Twitter and had to share some good points. Didn't know any of this about the film Rocky. In 1975, Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay for Rocky. He shopped the script to every producer and studio in Hollywood but was repeatedly rejected. Eventually, one production company, Chartoff-Winkler Productions, expressed interest, but there was one condition… They didn't want Stallone to play Rocky. They wanted a "more marketable actor" for the leading role. In fact, they were so desperate for Stallone to *not* play Rocky that they kept offering him increasing large sums of money to go away. "It went up to $360,000," Stallone said, "to go away to get off my lawn, boy." Stallone didn't take the money for two reasons: 1) "I had learned to manage on very little money," Stallone said, "I had it down to a science. I really didn't need much to live on, but more than that…" 2) "There was something about the idea of unrealized dreams, Stallone said, "I knew that if I sold the script, even for $500,000, I knew that after the money was gone, I would've become very bitter if I never realized my dream." Money Mastery for Actors This course is just like what Stallone is talking about. It's really finding what your magic number is and what it takes to make that. Do that repeatedly so you're not living hand to mouth so that when oh, a strike happens, you are not panicking. So you have money. The money you make today is actually for the future, not for today. You're not living that hand to mouth, and you are cognizant of what is going on with your money. So that gave him the freedom to say, "You know what I'm, I'm good, how I am. I'm good. How I am." He goes deeper, and he talks about that money. Money comes, money goes, money comes, money goes. He said he'd be very bitter once the half a million dollars was gone because he would've sold out. He would've sold out his dream. Think about it, $500,000 or the career that Sylvester Stallone has had today. Tom Rothman, CEO of Sony, says, "Be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless. " The trick is to be fiscally responsible so you can be creatively reckless. Hollywood is a ruthless business. If Rocky failed, that likely would've ended Sylvester Stallone's acting career. But because he had his fiscal responsibilities down to a science, Stallone could make the reckless decision to turn down the money and gamble his career on Rocky. And this is the thing; if you are not worried about your money, you can be so free. Because you know you're taken care of. You have that safety net. Wouldn't you love to have that safety net? Now let's talk about the other takeaway. Stallone turned down the money because he feared the bitter person he would've become if he never went for his dream. This leads me to the core work question: Are you really pursuing your dream? And if you are not really going for your dream every single day, why not? Why aren't you going for it? What is standing in your way? Oh, so good. The screenwriter, Brian Kopelman, talks about why he finally started writing after many years of putting it off. "What I finally realized was that if I allowed these creative impulses to die, It would be like a real death, and like any form of death, it would be toxic, and this toxicity would ooze out of me onto everyone and everything." The core work has been fully responsible for me going after what I want to do. It's the core work. It's the work on myself. It's the self-confidence it's for; it's the part of me knowing in and of myself I am enough when I create. I can also do so freely because I'm fiscally responsible, and that is why I hammer time after time, after time, after time after time about core work in these podcasts, because that is the key to your success. So that you can say, "I am not gonna let my creative impulses die." Okay. The final quote for you. "If you don't take money, they can't tell you what to do. Kid. Money is the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive." –Bill Cunningham. If you didn't have fear, How would you go after your career? What would you do differently? Sign up for The Weekly Adjustment (first month free).

Today we're going to talk about a humbling subject: feelings and surrender. It encourages us to suppress our egos just enough. If you can, think of that game of limbo to get under the bar. Can you suppress your ego enough to get to the lesson that the universe is trying to teach you on the other side? And I think that that is so interesting as an actor because I always feel like a character is teaching me, but for the character to teach me, I need to suppress who I am a little bit. See what they are saying, and so allowing that character to come to me instead of putting myself on that character. The idea of that character allowing and suppressing that ego just enough so that that character can speak through you so that you can truly be a vessel for the character. The Language Of Letting Go "Surrendering is a highly personal and spiritual experience." And I just mentioned that because I think that surrendering to the universe is, is a very personal thing. Some people get on their knees and they pray. I love to light candles. Some people go for a walk, and I think it is really finding. That ability in you to let it go just a little bit to let go of yourself and be open to what the universe, the character, whatever is trying to tell you. "Surrender is not something we can do in our heads. It is not something we can force or control by willpower. It is something we experience." And when I surrender, I feel it inside. I also think that if you can connect it to an action like getting on your knees or going for a walk or whatever it is for you, it's very important that you find what is personal to you. So much of the core work that I teach is about teaching you how to have a relationship with a power greater than yourself or the universe, or whatever you want to call it, your higher intelligence, that will, in turn help you to solve your problems, But I also think this: surrendering takes practice. Surrendering takes practice. It's not something that happens overnight. It gets better with practice, and then it is truly like a key to a door that you can put the key in and open that up. The key to surrender, the key to willingness. They talk a lot about this in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is, I think, one of the most spiritual books ever written. And they talk about this surrendering. "Acceptance or surrender is not a tidy package. Often it is a package full of hard feelings, anger, rage, sadness, followed by release and relief. As we surrender, we experience our frustration and anger at God. Or the universe and at other people, at ourself and at life." Because what happens when we surrender is that we are giving up our control, and our ego does not like that at all. "Then we come to the core of the pain and the sadness. The heavy emotional burden inside that must come out before we can feel good." And I'm just going to share my experience with this. When I first started core work, I felt like I had a gallon of tears that needed to come out through my eyeballs, and I wasn't going to get through it until it reached empty. But am I glad I did it? The rewards have been incredible. "Often these emotions are connected to healing and release at a deep level." I notice that when I can truly surrender, so much energy is released, and it is that energy, that pent-up energy that you just heard released, that stands in the way of me receiving the good and the abundance. The universe is constantly trying to bring to me. "Surrender sets the wheels in motion. Our fear and anxiety about the future are released when we surrender." Because the reason why our fear and our anxiety about the future are released when we surrender is because we give up trying to control it and accept that our job is truly just to manage it. "We are protected. We are guided. Good things have been planned. The next step is now being taken. Surrender is the process that allows us to move forward. If you are stuck, surrender is the answer. It is how the universe moves us forward. Trust in the rightness of timing and the freedom at the other end. As you struggle humanly, we are humans through this incredible spiritual experience." If you need help, If you need help surrendering or feel stuck, I can help you. If money is an issue, we have a free month of core work coaching available for you with The Weekly Adjustment. Get a Free Month of The Weekly Adjustment

Learn More About The Working Actor Road Map About Juan Carlos: Juan Carlos Diaz is an actor born and raised in New York City. He began acting at the age of six in various school plays and musicals while in private school. While still in high school, he began working at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre under the direction of Miriam Colon Valle, which led to his first Equity production at the age of 17 at New Media Repertory Theatre, where he immediately became part of the children's theatre company there. Juan Carlos holds a BA in theatre from Bard College, where he studied under the tutelage of JoAnne Akalaitis and Liz Smith. His work can be seen in BULL, HALSTON, LAW & ORDER, LAW & ORDER SVU, The Last Thing He Wanted (with ANNE HATHAWAY), and many other TV shows and films. I've always been a good listener so I can figure out the homework later and take notes. I went for the audition, and then this went on for about two years. I would even get emails that he's pinned for this with just the name. And you start going, "Well, I haven't auditioned for that in months, if not a year. Okay, what's the name? Let me start doing homework." And then, eventually we got an offer, and it was a guest star spot. It allowed me to understand what our mentors try to instill in us. Sometimes it's waiting. I got a, "I can't let you go out on this, not this CoStar. I'm going to wait for something bigger for you." I don't care if I'm one line or a scene. You're soaking in so much that you're going, "Oh, okay. What is that? That's the gaffer. What's he doing? Okay. Because I need to know this, right." And be part of the collective. That show allowed me to connect with, it's one of its stars, Fred Rodriguez, and being a Latino. It allowed me to say, "Hey man, I came out of college, and I didn't have hope, and I would see you on this show," I think he was on Six Feet Under. And I identified. I thanked him because he is part of a seminal movement across the board in this disenfranchised world, and he helped open doors and be a part of his show in this capacity. Not to mention, I have scenes with him. Networking You know, you'll run into a friend who you haven't done a thing with in a while, and then you, that might be a thing, or at least you're like, "Hey, let's stay in contact." One of the things that you're bringing up is relationships. It's finding those pockets of the right people. And I think now I'm starting to understand networking way better, which is, I don't have to go and do this whole formal, like a date. It's my friend who has a film. I want to support that. Oh, now I have seen four other films. I'm going to reach out to the festival, and I'm going to reach out to the directors and say, "Hey man, love that thing. Identify with that." It's also about being genuine with it. In other words, if you see a director's movie and don't like it, that's not a director you'll reach out to. Only reach out to the people who you really, really like. Something that was taught to me very early in my career, and unfortunately, it's much easier to say than to do and implement, is it's one audition in a lifetime of auditions. So you bombed an audition, honey; there will be 10,000 of these after this. You may not think so, but there will be. The other thing that you said is that, when you were talking about the spokes of the wheel, you know, I think a lot, a lot of times, the actors think they have to be the whole wheel. You don't have to be the entire wheel; you just have to do your part well. One more brilliant thing that you said is this idea that you're coming in to a casting director, to an agent, to a producer, to a writer, to a celebrity as peers. You're not trying to get them to like you. There is no us; we are figuring out this thing and bringing our own ingredients. If you want to get better, you have to have those conversations either with somebody who sees it outside of you. And or with yourself. Remain teachable. Measuring your progress. I allow myself somehow to get back to the work, and because I'm so, in a good way, obsessed with it, it's what allows me to feel 100% truly alive. Watching movies and tv to all creativity to come. Read a play.

Improv Class I have a choice. I can get involved with the turmoil and, you know, continue to make it more miserable for others and for myself. Or I can stand for peace and reason and strength within myself. It's really about keeping the focus on yourself during the chaotic times, especially when there's so much chaos around us right now. The Language of Letting Go "Letting go of chaos. No good work comes from unrest. Unrest, fear, anger, or sadness may motivate us. These feelings are sometimes intended to compel action. But our best work emerges after these feelings have been replaced by peace." When I am too hot in my response or my reaction, I'm just getting into the problem and trying to control it. A response is a reaction with a pause and a thought behind it. And really, what I'm talking about there is when I have given myself a cushion of peace. Because I don't do my best thinking, I don't make my best choices when deeply embroiled in fear, anger, sadness, or some other huge emotion. And again, what I talk about in the core work is working for you instead of working against you. And I'm working against myself when I react because I'm hot, in flames, turned on by anger, fear, excitement, or any large emotion. But when I give that cushion of peace, I'm working in tandem with the universe. I light a candle before I coach, and I light a candle before I do a podcast. And I do that to create that cushion of peace, to invite the universe into something I'm going to do, or a situation that may be difficult because I'm reminding myself, I want the universe to be in charge of this, not me. And that is how I can let go of chaos. "We will not accomplish our task any sooner or any better by performing it out of a sense of urgency, fear, anger, or sadness." Now my ego will say to that bullshit. That is not thinking and acting and choosing my actions and thoughts with thought and intelligence, and with one of my favorite words, if not my most favorite word, wisdom. Whenever I act impulsively, I am reacting and want to respond to my life. I don't want to react to it anymore. Our reactions were given to us to save our lives. Fear was given to us to save our lives, not to panic about things we're trying to control. If you can understand how you are around these bigger emotions and be able to give yourself again that cushion of peace, wiser choices, choices with wisdom, can come out of that. "Let go of unrest. Let peace fill the void. We do not have to forfeit our power, our God-given personal power. Our universe-given personal power or our peace to do the work we are called upon to do today will give us all the power we need to do what we are meant to do when it is time." And again, that goes back to that serenity prayer I've talked about so many times in our podcasts. "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." Which is really asking for the wisdom to know the difference between what I can handle and what I'm trying to control. It is my job to handle this day. It is not my job to control it. "Let peace come first, then proceed. The task will get done naturally and on time." So basically, what that's saying is allow yourself to stop and invite the universe in. Invite that cushion of peace in and then proceed and trust that it will get done. Take the actions, and let go of the result. I have found in my past, in my early actor years, that when. Situations like a strike or a difficult situation on a set would happen. I could really get in there with the emotions, but I don't think that was really ever helping anything. My presence at a picket is enough. My chanting is enough. If I am involved in the board and with the strike committee, fantastic. But I cannot control the strike. I can't; I can support it. I can be there for it. I can thank my fellow members for participating, but I don't need to get so heated up. I need to stand up for what's right, but I can do that better if I let go of the chaos and insert that cushion of peace. I will stand a greater chance of being listened to if it's actually essential that someone listen to me because I'm only one member in an incredible, incredible union.

Inspiration from Martha Graham. Broaden your improv skills with Peggy Etra I take pride in this podcast that I just let you see me for who I am, a flawed human being. Cause that's what artists and characters are. I try to use these little mistakes I make as teaching tools on how to be kinder to ourselves. "I confess that I had a burning desire to be excellent but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me very quietly, there is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And because there is only you. And because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. As for you, Agnes, you have so far used about one-third of your talent." A burning desire to be excellent but no faith that I could be. Today, I taught a class for my core work coaching group, The Weekly Adjustment. And I was talking about how when we make mistakes, we are not responsible for our first thought, but we are responsible for our second. The first time I tried it, I was like, "Ugh, you're never gonna get it." "You're not doing it right. Oh, this is a waste." But somehow, I was able to say to myself, "Hey, this is the first time you've done it. Just get through it. Just take the action, let go of the results and see what happens." Then I was brave enough to try it again the second time, and the second time it was easier. And I was like, oh, wait a minute. I can do this. I can handle this. And not only that, and this is how it ties into the quote, I noticed where I was weak and what I needed to do to get stronger, or in the words of Agnes de Mille, be excellent. See, it's not in strengthening our strengths that necessarily make us excellent. It is strengthening our weaknesses that make us excellent. Great artists dive into what is difficult and try and solve it. Great athletes find what muscles are weak and try to strengthen them to get a greater performance. "Martha said to me very quietly, there is a vitality, a life force, and energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique." I want you to think about that. There is only one of you. There is only one of you. I remember I was going through a very, very, very tough time many years ago. And I made a decision to make it through that tough time. And I said to myself at that time, "If there is just one person I can help for even one second, my going through this will have been worth it." It was the universe saying you have a message someone desperately needs to hear. You are the only person who will be able to translate that message to that one person to save their day or their life, or their career or help them along in that difficult day. Well, I'm here to tell you that you have that too, and that's why you have a responsibility to yourself and the universe to express yourself uniquely. She goes on to say, "And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and it will be lost." Think of how tragic that is. Think of if Picasso never painted; if Monet never painted, if Martha Graham never danced, it would be lost. If Vermeer never painted. Suppose Rembrandt had never painted if Spielberg had never made movies. If Charlie Chaplin never got on the screen, it would be lost. The world would not have it. We wouldn't have E.T.; we wouldn't have Girl with a Pearl Earring; we wouldn't have Rembrandt's self-portrait. We wouldn't have the Night Watch. "It is not your business to determine how good it is, how valuable, or how it compares with other expressions." And, what it's saying, is it's your job to create it is your responsibility as an artist to create it is not your job to judge. When you get on a stage as an actor, it is your job to portray that character, their wants, and needs, and be in the moment with their situation. It is the most important thing in that moment. It is not what the audience thinks of you. That is your ego. However, it is your business to keep the channel open. You are on one side, and the universe is on the other side of the tunnel, and in the middle of the tunnel is all this junk. And what core work is about clearing that channel. That's all it is. It's about teaching you to have a relationship with the universe that, in turn, can solve all your problems and, in turn, can inspire you always if you are open. Now here she says something that I actually disagree with. Oh my God, I disagree with Martha Graham. Now this is how you know I'm confident because I can actually say that.

Yeah. Shit, we don't have one strike going on. We now got two. So, what are we going to do about it? Well, I think the first thing I'm just going to do is I'm just going to share with you my feelings about it. I do think this strike is necessary. AI is terrifying for the actor, and I am so proud and honored to be a part of a union that recognizes that. Having your image so that a company just can use it, however they want to use it is just unacceptable. I don't think it's worth it. So what do we do now? Free Masterclass The three pillars are the three things that I really think you want to focus on. Two of them in particular right now. One, you're acting training. This is not the time to slide. This is the time to ensure you are still going to the gym. This is the time to work out your actor body. I have the Acting Business Bootcamp Strike Challenge that I gave all of my Weekly Accountability Group actors. It's a monologue workout to keep you going as an actor. I'm asking for you to get six monologues on tap. Okay? That means, just like you would pour a beer, you would pour this monologue. So I'm asking for at least: One contemporary comedic monologue One contemporary dramatic monologue One classical comedic monologue One classical dramatic monologue One Shakespearean comedic monologue And one Shakespearean dramatic monologue This is one thing that you can do for your acting career. Another is reading the suggested books we recommend in our weekly newsletter. You can do these things to keep you lubricated, to keep you going as an actor, to keep you motivated, and to keep your skills so that you are hireable. The second pillar is the business skills. Now, again, in that Masterclass, I talk about which business skills you need to be concentrating on. And in this downtime, this is the absolute best time to get ready to go because, let me tell you, I can guarantee you two things. One, these strikes will end. This, too, shall pass. Two, I guarantee you this: when it happens, the floodgates will open. So you want to be prepared not only as a warmed-up, ready-to-compete actor, but you want to have all of your materials speaking the "Language of the Agents and the Casting Directors." So that leads me to the last pillar I want to talk to you about to work on while we have this quote-unquote break. That would be the work on yourself. And right now, I'm doing a free month of coaching. Free Month of Coaching That is teaching you self-confidence and self-esteem. This, too, shall pass. Everything is going to be all right, but let's use this time to get ready and prepare for those damn floodgates to open.

Peggy's Improv Class I'm just going to talk about scarcity. What is scarcity thinking? It's not enough. There's not enough. There isn't enough work out there. There isn't any work out there. Jealousy is a type of scarcity thinking because it is not acknowledging that there is enough for everyone. And this kind of thinking as an actor really only hurts you. The phrase is, you take the poison and wait for somebody else to die. And, you know, it's the same thing with scarcity thinking. First of all, it's not true. Scarcity thinking is based in your ego thought. It's not based in universal thought. And I always talk about kind of like turning your internal dial to universe as opposed to ego. The thing about me and my ego is that I know my ego. Even though you think by the word ego, it would want everything good for me. I have learned over many years of studying this work and practicing it that it's actually quite the opposite. If I need to choose between what the universe wants for me and what Peter wants, I'm going to choose the universe because I know that is the wider choice. My ego comes from a very finite amount of thought and intelligence, and wisdom. The universe comes from infinite wisdom, infinite abundance, infinite beauty, infinite possibilities, and infinite wisdom. So when it comes to something put in my face, like a writer strike and a potential actor strike. Because of that, because you know what I see as the quote-unquote reality, I must understand what it means. Take care of myself in this plane, but also remind myself to tune my thoughts into the infinite abundance of the universe. I'm not going to be destitute. I'm not going to be homeless. None of these things are going to happen. I won't lose all credibility in my business and the reputation I've built for over 30 years. None of that is going to happen. Strikes are survivable, and we can all manage what is happening in our industry today. We can manage it. We can't control it. We can't control it. It is far beyond us as an individual for us to control these strikes, the existing one and the potential one. But what I can do, what I can do is remind myself not to act out of scarcity. But tune my dial in to the energy of the universe, to the infinite abundance, to the infinite possibilities, to the infinite beauty and expansion, and again, the abundance of the universe. And use this time to create, use this time to reflect. Because isn't that better than worrying about something you don't have any control over? Recalibrating you to Truth with a capital T.