The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...