Acting Business Boot Camp
Today I'm going to talk to you about the hazard of making excuses as an actor. And I'm going to start with perhaps something that if you were like me, or you are like how I used to be the idea of it's only me. So it's only me and therefore it doesn't count or, I'm tough, I can handle it. One of the things that making excuses as an actor does is it stalls personal growth. And anything that would affect me in a negative way, I used to be like, “Hey, I'm young. I can take it. Hey, no worries. I can overcome it.” Until I couldn't. And so the first thing I'm going...
info_outline Episode 311: Interview with Tim PhillipsActing Business Boot Camp
About Tim: With more than 60,000 coaching sessions and 40+ years in the business, audition coach and premiere acting teacher Tim Phillips knows what works. was written after 30 years of teaching and designed as a practical manual for the working actor. What Phillips is after are moment-by-moment, clear, specific, human truths that make you unavoidable on stage and screen, from character. Tim Phillips ignited the careers of Emmy award-winning Richard Schiff, Golden Globe nominee Wendy Malick, Nancy Travis, the excellent Robert Wisdom, James DuMont, Bruce...
info_outline Episode 310: Unsupportive Family & FriendsActing Business Boot Camp
Today I'm going to talk about what I find a sad subject, and it is about unsupportive friends and unsupportive family members. And I'm gonna give you a few points and things to think about. So that you can have the support, at least from me, and I'll talk about getting more support in a moment, that helps you when you're dealing with this. Now, the first thing, and I know because, man, I hated this word when I first learned it, was boundaries. Learning to set boundaries, clearly communicate your goals and values to others, and establish boundaries when necessary. This helps you to...
info_outline Episode 309: Interview with Risa Bramon GarciaActing Business Boot Camp
About Risa: For the past 4 decades Risa has worked consistently as a director, producer, casting director, writer, and teacher, and is a founder of The BGB Studio, a training space and artistic home for actors. She’s had the great fortune to have collaborated with some of the most talented, passionate, and groundbreaking artists in the world. She’s continued to move successfully from one arena to another – from theatre to film to television and back. With two feature films in her directorial body of work – the cult classic, 200 CIGARETTES, and more recently, THE CON ARTIST, made in...
info_outline Episode 308: Don't Quit 5 Minutes Before the MiracleActing Business Boot Camp
A subject that has come up with private clients of mine and in my weekly group class has been the subject of discussion of quitting. And the phrase that I have been coaching on, is don't quit five minutes before the miracle. Don't quit five minutes before the miracle. And I get it. Especially for those of us in the U. S. who have been struggling with the industry this year. Let's just be blunt. It's a bitch, okay? It's just been awful. I have a friend of mine who's a producer and he says the word he keeps using is brutal. It's been a brutal year. But here's the thing. We're...
info_outline Episode 307: Making a Pivot In Your Acting CareerActing Business Boot Camp
So today's podcast is going to be about making a pivot in your acting career. The first thing you want to do when you are making a pivot is you want to clarify your new career goal. I understand that the goal may be to be a working actor, but what exactly does that mean to you? And when you've made a goal, asking yourself that follow up question, that empowering question, what does that mean to you? What does that look like? How will it feel when you achieve it? You want to take time to identify exactly where you want to pivot, and I think those questions can really, truly...
info_outline Episode 306: Reframing Disappointment as an ActorActing Business Boot Camp
Today I'm going to talk about reframing disappointment. One of my favorite quotes. It's from Dr. Wayne Dyer, he says “Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.” And in reframing disappointment, we need to look at it in a different way. So I'm going to give you a few tips. I'm going to give you some Action steps to do when you face disappointment and hopefully that will help you to move through it because again, another one of my favorite quotes, again, a top five is Robert Frost, which is the “best way out is always through.” So this...
info_outline Episode 305: Quantum Manifestation with Jocelyn SandstromActing Business Boot Camp
Today I am talking with Jocelyn Sandstrom about quantum manifestation. About Jocelyn: Growing up in Hawaii, Jocelyn has lived and worked in 12 different countries. This experience has allowed her to realize that even though we may speak different languages or have different traditions, at our core, we are all the same. She has used this knowledge to help and support clients around the world in creating next-level success not just in their careers but in their personal lives as well. Since 2010, she has been providing Quantum Energy Sessions and teaching Neuro-Linguistic...
info_outline Episode 304: Nepotism & Keeping The Focus on YourselfActing Business Boot Camp
Okay, so today's podcast is motivated by someone writing to me, wanting to me to talk a little bit about nepo babies, nepotism. Of course, I'm going to say that nepotism and keeping the focus on yourself is the key. The focus because there's nothing you can do about somebody else is, birthrights or relatives, but you can do something about keeping the focus on yourself because that is your birthright. So my wonderful listener gave me this topic and she asked what my take on nepo babies and their advantages and disadvantages are in booking roles or projects. Again, what I...
info_outline Episode 303: Staying Tenacious as an ActorActing Business Boot Camp
Okay, so let's talk about being tenacious. The number one thing about being tenacious is actually embracing it. And I talk about this in terms of my own experience, which is that my biggest mistakes have been my best teachers. My biggest mistakes have been my best teachers. And really understanding, when you make a mistake or you have a roadblock, you don't get a role that you really thought you were going to, is looking at the situation and asking yourself, what can I learn from this? And if what you can learn from it is what my mom always told me when I was a little...
info_outlineToday, I'm going to talk about positive energy and energy and the actor and why it is so intensely important.
I have found positive energy and positive thinking to be one of the most important things for a happy life and a happy career.
So I'm going to start with a quote, which is Gandhi, which is “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Anais Nin, “We do not see the world as it is. We see it as we are.”
And so what I want to see the world is, especially in such tumultuous times, is I want to see the good in the world.
Not the bad, because the more I see good in my world, the more good is reflected back to me.
And because we see it as we are, that is why we want to have as much positive energy going through us as possible.
And when I talk about positive energy, I talk about anabolic energy.
I'm talking about that anabolic energy and that anabolic energy is growing, building, healing energy.
And it is who I Truly am and that's truth with a capital T, whether I believe it or not.
Another thing is that anabolic energy gives me a high chance for success.
It has me being fully conscious.
It has me in a state where I believe in myself. In me, but I also believe in that power greater than me, in that universe.
So now I'm going to move into my favorite text of The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie.
“It's so easy to look around and notice what's wrong, it takes practice to see what's right.”
The reason why it's so easy to see what's wrong is because that's what my motherboard, my limiting beliefs, have taught me, programmed me to look for the bad, not for the good, or to look for the negative instead of the positive.
That's the only reason why that happens.
It happens because I was programmed that way.
And there's that wonderful joke that your parents know how to push your buttons because they're the ones who installed them.
It takes practice to notice what's right.
Now, remember when just a moment ago I said it's easier to look around and see what's, what's wrong or what's negative.
I put that word easy in quotes because quite frankly, It is actually far easier to do this work and have a happier life than continuing to look at the negative and continue to build and foster that.
That just keeps me in that awful state of negativity and that awful area of status quo, where I know that pain that you know you could be doing so much better, but you aren't.
I'm sorry, but that is not easy.
Melody Beattie goes on to say, “many of us have lived around negativity for years. We've become skilled, we've become skilled at labeling what's wrong with other people, our life, our work, our day, our relationships, ourselves, our conduct, our core work. We want to be realistic and our goal is to identify and accept reality.”
However, this often is not our intent when we practice negativity. The purpose of negativity is generally annihilation.
I do not wanna annihilate. I do not want to annihilate a good life for myself because of the way I was programmed.
No, I want to create a good life for me, a happy life for me, a place where my life is in the position for a high chance for success.
And this is what I want for you as an actor.
“Negativity empowers the problem.”
The problem of not working as an actor. The problem of not knowing what to do next. The problem [ of nothing ever good happens to me. It empowers that.
I'm sorry, I don't want to go there. That's not what I want because negativity takes us out of harmony.
Negative energy sabotages and destroys.
How many actors have said to me, I sabotage myself. I sabotage myself.
I used to be someone who used to sabotage themselves. I no longer do that. I no longer do that.
Let's put it this way. I no longer choose that.
I choose to work for myself instead of against myself. And that is the far easier path.
“Negative thinking empowers the problem. It takes us out of harmony. Negative energy sabotages and destroys. It has a powerful life of it’s own.
and it has the power to enable our self sabotaging. But here's the catch, and here's the good news. So does powerful energy.
“Each day we can ask what's right, what's good about other people, about our life, our work, our day, our relationships, ourselves, our conduct, our recovery.”
And this is something that I truly believe. Negative energy comes from my ego. It comes from that thought system. That power system.
And positive energy comes from the universal. Thought system, the universal power system, that is infinite, that is positive.
And here is the thing, my ego thought system is finite, it only has so much energy.
But positive energy, when I hook up my pipeline to the positive energy, to the universal energy, that is much stronger than the negative energy.
That is why I say in my weekly classes, I talk to my clients, my students, my actors about this.
You put in one inch of core work, you put in one inch of effort, and you will get more than one yard back.
Because the positive energy is so much stronger than the negative. We just have to choose it.
“Positive energy heals, it conducts love, and transforms. Choose positive energy.”
I love that word transforms.
Because I truly used to be a very negative person. Mainly about myself. Every other thing I said to myself was, I'm not something enough. That is not the case anymore. There is truly hope.
If I can help myself, I can help you.
The other thing about Energy is that everybody wants that positive energy. Everybody wants that abundant life. And the thing is that living that abundant life begins with believing in focusing on that abundant world.
Practicing gratitude. Just even mentioning three times a day or three things in a day that you want to practice gratitude for, that is a phenomenal way to have positive energy in your life.