The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

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, wh...

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 i...

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...

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, n...

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 run...

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?

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 tel...

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 a...

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...