I’m really grateful for this year.

I want you to think of a few things that you are grateful for. 

• What's number one? Fill in the blank.
• What's the number two? Fill in the blank.
• And what's the third thing you're grateful for this year, in 2022? Fill in the blank.

Also, start to look forward to 2023.

• Are you looking to this year coming up with anticipation and excitement? Dread? Worry? Fill in the blank.
• What are the three emotions you are looking at 2023 with?

Feelings aren't facts.

Take your emotions out of your to do list. 

When we are worried or anxious, the real question is, “what are we not taking responsibility for?”

So if you have some sort of negative feeling toward 2023, ask yourself, “what are you not taking responsibility for?”

Ask yourself, How can I baby step and take responsibility?

Once taking responsibility, especially when you're frightened, especially when you're scared. When you're able to do that, you build so much...

Time Management Workshop

About Geneva:

GENEVA CARR is best known for her portrayal of Marissa Morgan on 6 seasons of the CBS television series BULL.  

Additional TV credits include Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Intent, Rescue Me, Younger, The Mysteries of Laura, Royal Pains, Elementary, The Good Wife, and Sex and the City.  

Film credits include Wonder Wheel, Love and Other Drugs, Ava’s possessions, It’s Complicated, College Road Trip, and the upcoming Asian Persuasion.

Geneva earned a 2015 Tony Nomination for Lead Actress in a Play for her performance as ‘Margery’ in Broadway’s Hand To God. 

Additional NY theatre credits include Trevor, Just Sex, I Wanna Destroy You, Finding Claire, Rose’s Dilemma, Clash by Night, Betty’s Summer Vacation, and Boise. 

You have to create a space where you can find work for yourself.

Bull was my eighth pilot, which I like telling actors about because it doesn't...

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Time Management Class

What to get Casting Directors, Managers, and Agents over the holidays. 

This year I’m suggesting one of two things: a thoughtful gift card or a charity donation.  

So a thoughtful gift card would be that you contact someone else in the casting office or agency and ask what their fellow employees like. 

“Hey, are they a Starbucks person, or are they a Costco person? Are they a McDonald's person or a Dunkin Donuts person?” 

And then, you can send them an electronic gift card.  

If you're booking a lot. Yes. You want to be thinking more $50, $75, $100.  

But if you're a new client or you haven't been booking that year, or there's a casting office that has maybe thought of you a few times throughout the year. A simple $20 gift card. A $25 gift card is fine.  

Defaults: 

• Amazon, you can buy anything there.  
• Starbucks, you can get food, you can get coffee, you can get tea 

Or, the...

Time Management Workshop

About Andi:

Andi Matheny is a 25-year veteran of Hollywood who started the Andi Matheny Acting
Studios in 2010 and has coached hundreds of actors to book their first roles in TV and
film.

Andi has had a recurring role on The Resident as Dr. Kelly Whitley, starred
opposite Sara Rue in The Hallmark Channel Movie True Love Blooms, opposite Kelsey
Grammer in the film High Expectations, opposite Phylicia Rashad in the Oprah Winfrey
production David Makes Man and opposite Ryan Phillippe and Patrick Duffy in the
comedy Lady of the Manor, written and directed by Justin Long. Other notable credits
include Devious Maids, The Mentalist, Ugly Betty, Zoey 101, The Suite Life of Zack and
Cody, and The Shadow Effect.

Andi hosted the talk shows Friends or Lovers, Essentials, Fit Resort and Spa, and Kwik
Witz. She appeared in dozens of commercials, including a worldwide campaign for
Olay.

Andi won the Jury Prize for Best Florida Film for her directorial debut The Newest
Member at the...

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Marianne Williamson

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

My manifesto for my life is to inspire.

It is the one word that I feel describes what my purpose on this planet is to do. I wake up, and I show up for duty.

...

Ask Me Anything

“I was 35 years old the first time I spoke up to my mother and refused to buy into her games and manipulation. I was terribly frightened and almost couldn't believe I was doing this. I found I didn't have to be mean. I didn't have to start an argument. But I could say what I wanted and needed to say to take care of myself. I learned I could love and honor myself and still care about my mother the way I wanted to, not the way she wanted me to.” 

Take a step back and observe. 

I tell myself, mouth shut.

If you are using your mind to govern your brain while you are with family over the holiday and you start to spot the stuff going on.

You can simply remain quiet and just observe it:

• Maybe go to the kitchen.
• Make yourself a cup of tea. 
• Make yourself a cup of coffee.
• Go to the bathroom.
• Say, "You know what? My legs are a bit stiff. I'm going to go for a walk."
• Understand that you don't need to be trapped into it.

You can observe it and can...

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Control versus trust.

“There was a time in my life when I felt so afraid of and overwhelmed by the very act of living. That I actually wanted to make out a schedule for each day of my life for the next five years. I wanted to include all the chores I had to do when I would do them, even when I would schedule relaxation. I wanted to get some order into what felt so incredibly overwhelming. I wanted to feel like I was in control.”

How many times have I woken up in the morning and just gone, "Oh my God, I don't know how I'm going to be able to face this day?" How many times have I woken up going, "How am I going to take a step forward?"

And the fact of the matter is, I can't control anything.

The only thing I can change is myself and my attitude.

And the whole thing I think about anxiety is that anxiety is about control. 

Remember, we will never be given more than we can handle. But we will be given more than we can control.

“Controlling is a...

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Have some fun.

How important that is, for your instrument as an actor, but also for you as a human being.

“So have some fun. Loosen up a bit, enjoy life. We do not have to be so somber and serious. We do not have to be so reflective, so critical, so bound up within ourselves and the rigid parameters others and often ourselves have placed around us.”

One of the things when I was starting out as a young actress, I would always be quite somber and serious.

It wasn't until doing this work that I allowed myself to be a little bit more silly because it was almost like I felt like it wasn't safe for me to have fun.

I think that I had this idea that I had to work, work, work, and I had to be miserable, and it had to be hard. And that's just not the way it is.

Because when we relax and we have fun, and we play, that's when we enjoy our lives the most, but also how we enjoy a scene or acting the most.

The best actors are so relaxed and in the moment.

“This...

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Letting go of timing

Be humble to the moment

“Time thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me untie.”

That nagging feeling of like, “why isn't it moving faster?”

That's what this is all about.

The Language of Letting Go

“When the time is right. How often have we heard those words from a friend? From the universe. From anyone. We sometimes want things so badly: that job, that check, a relationship, a possession. We want our life to change. So we wait sometimes patiently, sometimes anxiously wondering all the while, when will the future bring me what I long for? Will I be happy then? We tried to predict, circling dates on the calendar, asking questions. We forget that we don't hold the answers. The answers come from the universe. And if we really listen closely, we will hear them. When the time is right. When the time is right. Be happy now.”

And when it comes to being uncomfortable, meaning being in process, that...

About Michael:

Michael Kostroff is an established TV and stage actor best known for his role as unscrupulous gang attorney Maury Levy on HBO's legendary series, The Wire. In addition to his many television gigs, he's toured with The Producers and Les Misérables, appeared on regional stages all across the country, served as an advice columnist for Backstage, created the popular workshop "Audition Psych 101" (which focuses on the psychological side of auditioning), and written four books, including his recently published manual, The Stage Actor's Handbook: Traditions, Protocols, and Etiquette for the Working and Aspiring Professional.

The gospel of low expectations. My philosophy is very different from the popular philosophies—no one's entitled to a career. If you decide this is what you want to do, then you're signing on for the unemployment, the insecurity, the inconsistency, and you don't get to...