The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

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What to get your reps for the holidays:

$25 gift is fine

Avoid food and alcohol

Who to give to:

• Casting Director who you’ve booked a few jobs through over the years
• Agent and/or Manager
• Casting Director Agent or Manager who you’ve gotten a lot of stuff through get something a little more expensive

What to get:

• Movie Tickets
• Amazon Gift Card
• Find out if they like something
• Favorite restaurant
• Donate to a charity
• Flowers

Holiday Triggers:

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie:

"There are many positive triggers that remind us of Christmas (or Hannukah): snow, decorations, songs, wrapped packages, a nativity scene, or a star, stockings hung on a fireplace. And these "triggers" can evoke in us the warm, nostalgic feelings of the holiday celebration.

There are other kinds of triggers, though, that may be less apparent and evoke different feelings and memories.

Our mind is like a powerful...

About Judy:

Judy Henderson has been honored by The Ross Reports as one of the top 20 US Film Casting Directors.

Highlights include Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting in a Drama Series. 2 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Casting in a Drama Series. 4 Artios Awards for Outstanding Achievement TV Series and Theatre Drama Casting. Artios nomination for Independent Film Feature Casting, and 8 Artios nominations for Off-Broadway Theatre Drama Casting.

She has cast innumerable national on-camera and voice-over television commercials. She is a member of the Casting Society of America and Local 817 of the Teamsters Theatrical Union. Select Film credits include Before Midnight, Paranormal 2, 12 and Holding, L.I.E. (6 Independent Spirit Award Nominations, Winner of Best Debut Performance Award), and Before Sunrise. Select TV credits include Homeland-(Emmy Award and 2 Artios Awards - Showtime Series), Love And Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story (Fox), and Land of Little Rain (PBS). Broadway credits...

What is the fear of failure?

Just like the fear of success, the fear of failure is about taking responsibility, but it’s a little bit different.

The fear of success is about will I be able to handle that success and all that responsibilities when it happens.

With the fear of failure is will I be able to handle the responsibility that is in front of me now?

Will I be able to handle the success and the responsibility of what is in front of me now?

Remember you will never be given more than you can handle but you will be given more than you can control.

The fear is survivable.

You are not responsible for your first thought but you are responsible for your second.

When all the negative thoughts come like a freaking freight train, stop scaring yourself.

You can handle this.

Use your mind to govern your brain.

You are scaring yourself, and you need to understand why.

There is a part of you that is trying to keep you “safe” and comfortable.

No one ever ever EVER got...

What is required in this Industry: persistence, consistence, and tenacity.

Episode 101: The 6 Business Tools Every Actor Must Have

Episode 102: What is Your Strength Story?

Episode 103: 3 Tips to Up your Voiceover Auditions with Roger Becker

Episode 104: What to Get Your Reps for the Holidays & The Crucial Follow up List

Episode 105: What Would You Do if You Were Brave?

Episode 106: The 3 Must-Knows Before Beginning Your Content Creation Journey with Bill Timoney

Episode 107: Social Media for Actors - The 5 Things you Absolutely Need to Know with Heidi Dean

Episode 108: Goal Setting for the Actor

Episode 109: How to Maintain Your Actor Goals

Episode 110: Why Your Sound Sucks, Common Mistakes Voice Actors are Making from Home with Frank Verderosa

Episode 111: Affirmations, Energy and Truth & Our Consensus

Episode 112: Three Steps to Learning an Accent with Amanda Quaid

Episode 113: Your Life's (and Career's) Potential

Episode 114: How to Get the Most out of Your Acting Class...

About Adrienne:

Adrienne is a renowned Independent Casting Director.

Her films have premiered at Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, Tribeca, Berlin, South by Southwest, Seattle, and many other prominent film festivals, many taking home prestigious awards. She is always working and always keeping an eye out for new talent. She cast both film and TV Union and Non-Union. Please check out her IMDB and her website www.AdrienneStern.com 

U.S. Theater Programs that Adrienne feels put young actors in the industry right out of the gate:

• Carnegie Mellon
• Point Park
• BU
• NYU
• Howard University
• Elon
• Temple

Tips for finding the right school:

• Look at alumni
• Think about what you want and what’s the best fit for you
• Have a second thing that makes you just as happy

How do creatives contact you?

• Often work with a lot of clients
• Don’t want to turn down a project, because they will find someone else and they will become part of their family
• Writer, director, or...

About Jen:

Jen Rudin is the head of the animation department at ICM Partners. She joined ICM in July 2020 following two decades as an award-winning casting director. Rudin grew up in New York City and began her professional acting career at age eight. She is the author of Confessions of a Casting Director: Help Actors Land Any Role with Secrets from Inside the Audition Room published by HarperCollins. 

Jen spent seven years as a Casting Executive at The Walt Disney Company. From 2002-2007, Jen served as head of casting for Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California and she won the 2006 Artios Award for casting Chicken Little and the 2010 Artios Award for The Princess and the Frog. From 2007-2009, she served as Director of Casting and Talent Development for Disney Theatrical Productions in New York City.  

"As a casting director, if you’re good, we will bring you back because we depend on...

SAG AFTRA Panel on Performance Anxiety

When things are going well, feelings of unease can come up.

“You are not responsible for your first thought but you are responsible for your next thought.”

The fear of success is really more about the fear of responsibility that comes with being more successful.

Remember you will never be given than you can handle but you will be given more than you can control.

Whatever level you are at in your career now, it is essential for you to take responsibility and show up and do the things that make you scared.

Go just a bit beyond your comfort zone every day.

Go back to feeling good.

It’s ok to feel good.

“I want to feel good.”

“Give me the strength to feel good.”

I am willing to show up and take the responsibilities that are required for me to feel that success.

Do you scare yourself out of good feelings?

Do you find stuff to worry about?

Do you sabotage yourself out of feeling good?

We do this because the...

About Jason:

Jason has been head of the commercial voice-over department of Stewart Talent NY for 15 years. He initially trained as an actor and screenwriter at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts before making the shift to the business side of entertainment. His first job was at the William Morris Agency where he served as booth director for their commercial department, able to draw upon his creative background to effectively interpret copy and direct talent. When Stewart Talent was looking to start up their own voice-over department in NY, Jason jumped at the opportunity.

The last 15 years have seen huge amounts of growth for the division, including the hiring of additional voice-over and on-camera agents, and he represents a flourishing roster of clients.

The massive importance of networking as an actor is equally important on the agent side.

Jason's Advice to Actors:

• Be honest about your skills
• Communicate book outs
• Be aware of your commercial exclusivities
• Knowing your type is...

The problem is perfectionism is a good thing up to a point.

When it crosses that line of paralysis, the excitement burns off, or it becomes too late.

A story about learning imperfectly.

If I was trying to do it perfectly, this podcast wouldn’t exist.

When it's imperfect, it’s exactly the way it is meant to be.

Perfectionism is what stops me from getting the really important things done.

Full Focus Planner

Every day you do three things that are towards your goal.

Allow yourself to be an imperfect person, and allowing yourself to show your imperfections to the world.

Allow yourself to be brave.

The process of being comfortable with yourself while you’re not doing it perfectly.

Learning to soothe yourself, when you get scared or uncomfortable.

• Having the presence to feel those feelings, and feel safe and good to feel those feelings inside that.
• Feelings aren’t facts.
• “What other people think of me is none of my business.”
• Seeking balance.

98.6 is...

 About Melissa:

Melissa Berger Brennan has been an agent for Theatrical (Film and Television) since 2002 and is Senior Vice President of the Young Talent Voiceover Department at Cunningham-Escott –Slevin-Doherty, (CESD), a talent agency with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Founded in 1967, CESD has been one of the most prestigious and popular agencies for commercial and voice over talents as well as a pioneer in the theatrical representation of young talent in all areas of the entertainment industry.

As a theatrical agent, she has placed clients on such diverse projects as PAPER GIRLS, EXPATS, LIGHT YEARS, GOOD GIRLS, BLACKISH, THE GOLDBERGS, GRIMM, GLEE, SHAMELESS, MAD MEN, PARENTHOOD, and THE WALKING DEAD.

Melissa is also the Senior Vice President of the Young Talent Voiceover department. Her clients have voiced leading roles in animated movies such as TURNING RED, MOANA, BIG HERO 6, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (2 & 3 & 4), GOOD DINOSAUR, PEANUTS, KUNG FU PANDA 3,...