The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast

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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 Canada, Risa’s also directed in television, including multiple episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE for the WB, and several shows for HBO, Lifetime, and Comedy Central.

Risa has cast some of the most memorable movies of the past 40 years. Risa’s résumé includes decades of classics such as DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN,...

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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 not gonna quit. There is no plan B. 

So let's talk about the things that we need to do to motivate ourselves to not quit five minutes before the miracle. 

So I'm going to have five points that I want to make and I'll coach a little bit around each one.

So the first one is, and this is really true for someone who has been in this business for...

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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 help you.

Now, whether that is in a new area of the industry, or maybe with a new renewed energy towards a different area or a renewed energy towards an old goal? That is fine. The big thing I want you to think about is being specific. 

Really setting a clear goal for yourself of what you are looking to do.

Now one of the things that I always talk about...

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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 podcast is about moving you through disappointment. 

Number one, acknowledge the disappointment. And this is so important. One of my phrases that I teach is awareness, acceptance, and action. Obviously, you are aware of the disappointment, but you really need to accept it. And acknowledge it so that you can then move on through the rest of...

The Working Actor Road Map

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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 Programming, Neurological Re-patterning, and the Millennium Method to clients globally. 

In 2022, she founded Wellness and Metaphysical, a community-driven platform that promotes a higher level of consciousness through expos and retreats.

Jocelyn's mindset and energy work have propelled her career, allowing her to work with leading global...

Kick Your Acting Career in Gear

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 would say is this is not something that you can control. And I talk about this in terms of 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 what that means for me is to grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Means I cannot...

Kick Your Acting Career in Gear

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 kid, which is you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you start all over again. 

And sometimes the hardest parts of this business, I was going to get emotional about this, has really shown me how incredibly strong I am.

How incredibly strong and resilient I am. 

And what that teaches me is self confidence, and self esteem. 

Persistence...

This week we're going to talk about gossip.

Oh my god, I used to love gossip. 

I used to love to talk about other people, what they were doing. Ugh, it was so amazing. Can you tell I was a teenager in the 80s? 

But today I'm going to talk about why gossip is actually not that great. 

And I have really been the target of gossip as well, and maybe I had to burn through some karma there. 

It's really hurtful, so hurtful when you are the one being gossiped about and you find out that somebody else is saying something about you, whether it's good or bad. 

If it's good, it's nice, but if it's not so nice, it's not great. And I think we probably have all been on both sides of it.

If not, you're probably not human. 

But I want to talk about why it's not great as an actor. 

And it's something that I have really honed in on. 

It's been a long time now, but yeah, it's just something that I've really tried to curb. Because it's not nice. Gossip isn't...

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Today I'm going to talk about the abandoned actor and this is something that I have been really delving into on a deeper level in my private work, the private work I do with clients, but also in my weekly classes.

And it's the idea of when we audition, or when we go to a set, or anything, maybe it could even be in your personal life when some kind of pressurized situation happens. We abandon ourselves. 

And I'm gonna start talking about I, just to make this easier to explain. 

I would abandon myself. Meaning, I would abdicate my feelings, my point of view, my talent to everybody else but myself, and that's what I mean by abandonment. 

One of my weekly classes is in my sister coaching company called Chiropractor for the Mind. And what I teach is emotional self sufficiency. 

And it's emotional self sufficiency, by teaching you emotional intelligence and teaching you to raise your...

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This podcast is called what's at stake. AKA the most important podcast you'll ever listen to. 

There's that phrase that says that life is not a dress rehearsal. 

And for those of you who are in your teens, 20s, 30s, and I'll be even honest, your 40s, I didn't get that then. I didn't. 

I didn't get that life is not a dress rehearsal, but this is it. I didn't get that till 51.

It was the end of COVID, and I was sitting on the balcony in our then apartment, and it was a beautiful apartment, it overlooked Marina del Rey and the water. And I realized at that moment. That I was not living up to my full potential in my life, and I had just had a year off as we all did of being isolated, and I don't know maybe that's what it took, a year of slowdown, to have it really sink in that this is it.

There's not going to be another 50 again.

There's not going to be another 49, there's not going to be another...