Acting Business Boot Camp

Peter Pamela Rose
  • 4.9 (73)
  • Performing Arts
  • Weekly

Our goal is to break down the business of becoming a working actor into a simple, actionable, step by step roadmap. We'll cover everything from creative entrepreneurialism and mastering what we call the language of the agents and casting directors, to the importance of top notch training and tools for boosting your confidence in self tapes and on the set. Ready to take your acting career to the next level? Let's get started.

  1. 6d ago

    Episode 412: 5 Tips for Content Creation

    One of my students came to me with a question I think a lot of you are sitting with. They want to make commentary content. Real opinions under their real name. Maybe short form videos, maybe a Substack, maybe pitching some freelance pieces. But they are worried specifically about commercial voiceover. Not that the content would offend anyone. That some brands and higher-ups in production just do not want to work with anyone who reads as too political online, regardless of what the politics are. That is a very smart distinction. And I want to unpack it honestly. The Direct Risk Is Lower Than You Think A creative director is not watching a car commercial and thinking, who is that, let me go look at their TikTok. The odds that someone hears your read, Googles you, finds a heated video from last year, and pulls the job from you is pretty low. That argument is correct. But that is not really where the risk lives. Where the Risk Actually Lives The risk is reputational and relational. The industry is a small space. Agents talk to casting directors, casting directors talk to producers, producers talk to other producers. And the thing that travels through those conversations is not your demo. It is you. The one-line description of you. Oh that person? They are so great, super easy in a session. Oh that person? They are so talented, super kind. Oh that person? Yeah, I am not really sure what their deal is, they are kind of a lot online. That last one. Nobody even had to Google you and you still got filed in a drawer. And you will never know that happened. It is usually not about what side you are on. It is about how you are doing it. A lot of agents and casting people quietly prefer talent who read as a blank slate. Not because they disagree with you. Because a blank slate is easy. Any brand can project onto it. There is no friction, no extra conversation, no email to the client that has to explain something. Commercial advertising is one of the most risk-averse businesses on the planet. These are people who will hold twelve meetings about the color of a font. It Is Not Really Reversible You can delete posts. You can go quiet for a year. But impressions last. Screenshots exist. The person who filed you in that drawer is not going to check back in six months to see if you have changed. The question is not will this cost me a job. It is what do I want people to say about me when I am not in the room. Not All Voiceover Works the Same Way Commercial wants a blank slate more than anyone. But animation and video games are much more tolerant of public personality. In fact they sometimes want it because it creates a fandom. Audiobooks depend on the genre, but plenty of narrators have public opinions and a following because of those opinions. Indie narrative work, podcasts, documentaries, your own projects, a point of view can actually be an asset. It can be the whole reason someone hires you. So the first question is what work do you actually want? If your dream is national TV spots for a bank, your content strategy is different than if your dream is narrating climate nonfiction. Volume and Tone Matter More Than What You Post A voice actor who sometimes posts a sharp, well-written take on something they care about reads as a person with opinions. Totally normal, kind of refreshing. A voice actor whose entire feed is commentary starts to read as an activist who also happens to do voiceover. Not good or bad. Just a different drawer. Same goes for tone. Thoughtful reads differently than furious. Curious reads differently than dunking on people. You can hold the exact same opinion and come across as someone a producer wants in a session or someone a producer wants to avoid, purely on delivery. Which, if you think about it, is literally our job. What Cringe Actually Is Cringe is not having opinions. Cringe is not being earnest. Cringe is not posting about your kid, your dog, your divorce, or your garden. Cringe is a mismatch. It shows up in three ways. The first is unprocessed. Posting from inside the experience instead of the other side of it. There is a big difference between sharing a hard experience and live streaming your nervous system. The first builds connection. The second makes people want to look away. The second is performative. The post exists so people will see you having an opinion, not because you have anything to add. The audience can feel that. The third is engagement bait. The rage post, the hot take you do not actually believe in, the thing you know will get comments. It might grow your numbers. But followers are not clients. A thousand people arguing in your comments does not equal one producer who trusts you. Growth and reputation are not the same scoreboard. Five Practical Content Tips Build content buckets. Pick three to five topics you actually want to talk about. Every idea goes into a bucket. Buckets keep you from becoming one thing by accident and let you see the mixture of content you are making. Decide your ratio. Give yourself some loose structure. Maybe mostly voiceover, some personal, a little passion topic. Post on some kind of rhythm so your feed reflects what you decided and not what you felt at 1am. Match the platform to the message. TikTok is loud and fast and very public. Substack is slower with room for nuance. A small private account is different again. You do not have to choose between your values and your career. You can put your sharpest commentary somewhere with room for it and keep your professional facing feed more balanced. That is not hiding. That is choosing the right room. Give it a day. If you are angry or fired up, write it, film it, save it, and look at it tomorrow. If you still want to post it, post it. Most of the time you will edit it into something better. Sometimes you will realize it was a journal entry and not a post. Know what you want to be known for. Before you post anything, finish this sentence. When people think of me I want them to think blank. Then ask whether this post moves you toward that sentence or away from it. That is the whole filter. The Bottom Line Every post is a choice about where you want to be filed. You get to make that choice on purpose instead of letting the algorithm or your worst Tuesday make it for you. Have the opinions. Share the hard stuff. Just pick the room, pick the volume, and know what you want people to say about you when you are not there. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? The written version of today's tips is on The Actor's Index on Substack. And if you have a post sitting in your drafts that you are not sure about, reach out. Let's strategize together. mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com.

  2. Oct 21

    Episode 411: The Exhaustion of Shape Shifting

    Many actors believe that if they can just become what people want, they will finally book. And what happens is that shape-shifting becomes exhaustion. Full-on exhaustion. Actors walking into auditions disconnected from themselves, trying to perform what they think the casting director wants instead of just being truthful in the moment. As a casting director, I can read it so quickly. Whose Fault Is That I was maybe 17 or 18 years old. My manager told me I was not going to get a callback for a big project. And I said to her, but I did not get to show them who I really was. And she looked at me and said, well, whose fault is that? I still shudder at that. What a lesson. Why did I not allow myself to be who I really was in that room? Because I was trying to figure out what the casting director wanted for that project. And that sure did not work. The whole thing is that authenticity can be terrifying because you cannot control the outcome. Shape-shifting feels safer because you think you are going to get the approval. But when you go into an audition it is a collaboration. Here is what I think I can do with this script. Let us talk, let us change it around, let us have fun. You got into this business because it is supposed to be fun. And fun and joy is super high energy. That is where your dreams live. Fear is not where your dreams live. People-pleasing is not where your dreams live. Stop Asking Who You Should Be What happens over time is that actors stop asking who they are and start asking who should I be. How do you want me to be. If you have not seen Tootsie, go watch it. Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who says, you want me to be taller, I can be taller, you want me to be shorter, I can be shorter. That is exactly this. Authenticity risks judgment. It risks criticism. It risks visibility and vulnerability. Performing is often protection. But presence is vulnerability. And presence is what books the job. I have seen actors change personalities depending on the room they walk into. Trying to sound professional instead of human. Letting AI write everything for them without checking if it sounds anything like them. And in acting class, studying successful actors until they lose their own instincts. Those instincts are the most precious thing you have. Do not be another Dustin Hoffman. Do not be another Timothée Chalamet. Do not be another Viola Davis. Be you. There is only one of you on the planet. What I Remember as a Casting Director I remember actors who feel real and feel grounded. And authentic actors are easier to direct because they are connected instead of defended. The next time you do a self-tape or an audition, stop trying to sound impressive or actor-y. Be one degree more honest, conversational, and connected. Just one degree. See what happens. The Bottom Line That exhaustion you feel comes after performing a version of yourself that you think will be accepted. But sustainable careers are built on self-trust, not chronic approval-seeking. The goal is to become more of yourself. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? If you are not on the mailing list and want some free offerings, email me at peter@actingbusinessbootcamp.com. As I always say, stay safe and treat yourself real well.

  3. Oct 16

    Episode 410: LinkedIn Wake up Call

    How to Actually Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Voiceover Business I know. I can already hear you groaning. Mandy, I am an actor, not a business person in a blazer who posts about synergy. I get it. But here is what I need you to understand before we go any further. LinkedIn is not a social media platform. It is a business tool. And that distinction matters more than almost anything else I am going to say today. Instagram is for your personality. TikTok is for your content. LinkedIn is for your clients. Start With Your Profile If your profile is not optimized, nothing else I am going to say really matters. Your profile is the first thing a potential client sees when you reach out. It needs to say immediately and clearly, I am a professional, I know what I am doing, and you should hire me. Your photo needs to be a real professional-looking headshot. Not AI, not a car selfie, not an avatar. We are battling bots left and right and you need to prove who you are. A selfie in your booth is totally acceptable. Clear, well-lit, people can see your face. That is the bar. Your headline is prime real estate and most people waste it by either just putting professional voice actor or listing every single vertical that exists. Neither one tells me what you do for the people who hire you. Instead of commercial, e-learning, corporate, imaging, everything under the sun, try something like voiceover actor helping brands boost engagement through authentic storytelling. That is who you are and what is in it for the client. Set your custom URL so it reads linkedin.com/in/yourname. Make it cohesive with everything else you use. Fill out your contact info including your email address. Use the experience section to include voiceover even if you have another job. By leaving it out you are signaling that you are not taking it seriously. Use your featured section wisely. A link to your website first, then maybe a Canva graphic with some testimonials or logos, then a piece of content you rotate regularly. And do not skip the audio clip feature. You get about 11 seconds and you have an extraordinary voice. Use it. Every visitor to your profile will already know what they are getting before they even reach out. Curate Your Feed Like a Businessperson Stop using LinkedIn like social media. Stop following other actors. I know that sounds harsh but no one is going to complain that you unfollowed them on LinkedIn, and if they do, that is their problem. If your feed is full of actors posting about their bookings and their new mic you are curating for your ego and not your business. The people you should be following are creative directors at ad agencies, marketing managers at brands, producers, content creators, e-learning developers, HR managers. Those are your people on LinkedIn. When you fill your feed with them you start to understand what they care about, what problems they are trying to solve, and where you fit in. How to Prospect Use the LinkedIn search bar with Boolean combinations. Creative director and advertising. Producer and media production. E-learning developer and corporate training. Filter by industry and location. Find the people who can actually hire you. When you connect, write a personalized note. Not the default. Mention how you found them, something real about their work, get to the point. Something like hi Sarah, I came across your profile, I am a voice actor and I would love to connect. That is it. Not a novel. Not even a pitch. Just a human being making contact. And post in groups. Not voiceover groups. Not casting groups. Business groups, content marketing groups, e-learning industry groups. Where your potential clients are hanging out. Engage there. Comment on posts. Show up as someone who understands their world. LinkedIn rewards engagement. The more active you are the more likely you are to show up when people search for you. My Favorite Strategy I scroll LinkedIn intentionally looking for videos from companies that do not have voiceover. Brand videos, product explainers, company culture reels. All of it just sitting there with music or text overlays and no voice. That is an open invitation. I screen record the video, write a short script, record it, drop it into iMovie or CapCut, and send it back. The email is short. Something like hey, I loved your video but I noticed it did not have voiceover so I made one for you to test. Here is the link on my unlisted YouTube. A/B test it. If you like it, let's talk. You are not just telling them you do voiceover. You are showing them work you actually did for them. Something they can use and test. That has made a huge difference in my business. The Bottom Line This is the long game. Building a client base through LinkedIn prospecting is not a week-long project. It is not a month-long project. It is ongoing. Some of what you send will go completely unanswered. That is literally how direct marketing works. But you are collecting data. You are learning what subject lines get opened, what pitches get responses, what kinds of companies are most receptive to what you do. The actors who build sustainable voiceover careers are not necessarily the most talented ones in the room. They are the ones who treated it like a business from the ground up and kept showing up. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? If you want a step-by-step checklist of everything covered today plus some extra LinkedIn goodies, send me an email at mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com and put LinkedIn checklist in the subject line. I will send it your way. I also have free classes every month, AMAs with Peter, a Substack with resources, email marketing courses, and business courses for voiceover actors. I am here to help. You just have to raise your hand.

  4. Oct 7

    Episode 409: Why Fear Gets Louder

    Why Fear Gets Louder Right Before Growth Fear often gets louder right before growth. And sometimes it is not just loud. Sometimes it is a full-on horror movie. Because when I am on the verge of change, there is a part of me that gets angry about it. No, no, no. We like to keep it how it is, thank you very much. But actors mistake fear for failure when sometimes it means they are actually getting closer. The Blowback I call it the blowback. When I start to really go out there and do what I want to do, sometimes I get a blowback. The old stuff starts crashing back in. And the best thing I can do is stay prepared for that, because when I am taking really good actions that is often exactly when it happens. I need to stay steady in what I know to be true. Your Nervous System Is Wired for Familiar Suffering This is going to sound a little crazy but I find it to be true. My brain is wired for familiar suffering. The nervous system prefers what feels familiar, even if that familiar thing is struggle or self-doubt or self-deprecation. If it is familiar, that is what your nervous system wants. Think about actors who sabotage momentum after finally getting traction. You start to do really well and then you notice a part of you that wants to pull back. Or overthinking every audition after getting close to booking. Being pinged for a ton of roles and then suddenly getting in your own head. Your nervous system would rather keep you familiar than fulfilled. Fear is urgent and feels catastrophic. Intuition is usually quieter and more grounded. That is the difference. Journal Prompts What are you postponing because it feels uncomfortable? This does not have to be about your acting career. What have you been putting off? And this one is so good I have to say it twice. Is your fear protecting your future or protecting familiarity? Visibility and the Terror That Comes With It So many actors want visibility and fear it at the same time. Momentum can trigger imposter syndrome and fear of pressure. And those things are real. The move is to move before you feel ready. Take one action before your brain fully approves. I was watching an actor do a monologue recently and I noticed right away they were making sure they were ready before saying that first line. I told them, say that line when you are not ready. When you feel like you are falling off the cliff, that is when you say it. See what happens. The Thing I Want to Leave You With If you are afraid, it means that you care. And the bravest actors I know continue showing up while that uncertainty is still present. It really is that leap and the net will appear. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? I have a few openings for free consultations, one-on-one or through buddy coaching, where you and a friend work with me together at a significant discount. Email me at peter@actingbusinessbootcamp.com As I always say, stay safe and treat yourself real well.

  5. Sep 30

    Episode 408: The Numbers Game of 100 Touches

    The Number Nobody Tells You About Voiceover Marketing I need to have a real conversation with you. Not a comfortable one. Not a motivational poster kind of conversation. A lot of you are working really hard and wondering why it is not translating into bookings. You are auditioning, posting, emailing, doing the things, and it feels like nothing is moving. And instead of looking at the actual math and data of this business, you are starting to wonder if maybe you are just not good enough. You are good enough. That is not the problem. The problem is the number. Here Is the Number Industry veterans who have been in this business for decades are now saying that the old standard of 20 marketing touches a day is dead. That number used to be considered ambitious. A serious effort. The bar is now 100. 100 touches a day between auditions and direct marketing outreach if you want to compete at a serious level in today's market. I know how that sounds. But I would rather you hear it from me now than spend another year wondering why 20 is not cutting it. What a Touch Actually Is A touch is not a finished, polished, custom audition every single time. A touch is any meaningful point of contact within the industry. An audition submitted, a LinkedIn connection request sent, a follow-up email, a comment on a piece of content, a pitch email, a check-in with a producer you worked with six months ago. All of it counts. The Three Reasons Most Voice Actors Never Get Close to 100 The first is perfection paralysis. You spend so much time crafting the perfect audition, agonizing over every take, re-recording 17 times, and then you submit three auditions instead of 10 because you spent 30 minutes on each one. A solid, confident, well-directed audition submitted today beats a perfect audition submitted next week every single time. Done is better than perfect in a volume business. Full stop. The second is confusing being busy with doing the work. Being in voiceover Facebook groups is not a touch. Watching tutorials is not a touch. Reorganizing your recording space is not a touch. All of those things have value but none of them move the needle the way actual outreach does. You can feel very busy and be making very little contact with the people who actually hire you. The third is not tracking anything. If you are not writing down what you sent, who you sent it to, when you sent it, what subject lines you used, whether they responded, you have no idea what is working. Tracking is not optional. It is the infrastructure of the business. What a 100 Touch Day Actually Looks Like I am a big fan of time blocking. Here is one version of what this could look like. Morning block: 90 minutes on auditions. If you are working on a casting platform and you are focused and not overthinking, you can realistically submit eight to twelve auditions in that time. That is 10 touches right there. Then 30 minutes on direct marketing. Five personalized pitch emails to potential clients. Five more touches. Middle of the day: 20 minutes on LinkedIn. Ten connection requests to people in your target industries, five meaningful comments on posts from people you want to be on the radar of, one piece of content that demonstrates your expertise. Fifteen more touches. Next block: follow-ups. Anyone you reached out to in the last week who has not responded gets a brief non-desperate follow-up. Ten more touches. Then check-ins with your existing network. A quick note to a producer you worked with, a congratulations to someone whose project just launched. Another 10 touches. And then the auditions you submit through agents and other rosters throughout the day. Another 20, 30, maybe 40 depending on what is available and how efficiently you work. None of that requires you to be superhuman. It requires you to be organized, consistent, and willing to prioritize this work. The Thing I Want You to Sit With Most actors approach this business like they are waiting to be discovered. Passive. If they just get good enough, if they just have the right demo, if they just book that one thing, the floodgates will open. The alternative is you have to go get it every single day. It is relentless. It is consistent without waiting for permission. The voiceover actors who are thriving right now are not the most talented or the most popular. They are the most persistent. The most organized. The most willing to show up and do the unsexy things. A hundred touches a day sounds exhausting until you reframe it. What it actually means is that you are making yourself impossible to ignore. The math is on your side if you do the work. But you have to do the work. Your Homework Count your touches from yesterday. Actually count them. Auditions, emails, social media activity, follow-ups, all of it. Write down that number. And then be honest with yourself about the gap between that number and 100. Not to beat yourself up. This is a clarity moment. Because most of us have a significant gap between what we are doing and what we think we are doing, and pretending it does not exist is not going to close it. This is the long game. It is a hard game. But it is absolutely a winnable game for the people who show up every day and put the numbers on the board. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? Share this with another voice actor who needs to hear it. And reach out to Mandy at mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com. See you next time.

  6. Sep 16

    Episode 407: Feel the Fear and Audition Anyway

    Feel the Fear and Audition Anyway Working actors are not fearless actors. They have just learned how to move when they are afraid. This morning I woke up with what I can only describe as generalized anxiety. And I knew I could take a shower and stew in my own anxiety juices for a while, or I could just do something. So I attacked the email inbox. About 20 minutes later I was like, woo, I am ready, I am going. The anxiety was gone and I was zip-zopping through my day. That is the whole thing. It is not about feeling confident first. Confidence usually comes after the action. Fear Is Not Always a Stop Sign Fear can mean growth. Visibility. Vulnerability. Possibility. I have come to look at fear as an indication of what still needs to be worked on in me. For actors this shows up in a few ways. Avoiding self-tapes because perfectionism feels safer. And what do I always say about perfectionism? Perfectionism leads to procrastination leads to paralysis. Waiting to be fully ready before taking action. You are going to be waiting a long time. Shrinking after one bad class or one audition you feel you messed up. I cannot tell you how many auditions I walked out of thinking that is never going to happen, and then I booked the job. Fear does not mean stop. Sometimes it means you are finally moving. You are out of your comfort zone. And life and adventure begin outside your comfort zone. Perfectionism Is Just Fear in a Different Outfit Perfectionism often hides fear of judgment, fear of rejection, fear of being visible. It keeps you stuck in preparation instead of participating. And what we want to be doing is participating. In life, in our scenes, in the business. The 10 Seconds of Courage Exercise Sometimes you only need 10 seconds to send the email or upload the tape. Here is the exercise. Say to yourself, for the next 10 seconds I am going to do what I would do if I were brave. And then do it. Push the click. Send the email. Do the thing. You have 10 seconds. Journal Prompts What opportunities have you talked yourself out of lately? And what if discomfort was not proof that you were failing? What if it was proof that you were moving forward or that you had something to learn? The Bottom Line The entertainment industry rewards resilience. Rejection, waiting, and uncertainty are all built into this business. Emotional resilience matters just as much as talent does, because your talent is not going to get to shine unless you are emotionally resilient. Your dream career may live on the other side of that uncomfortable visibility. Feel the fear and move anyway. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? I am introducing something called buddy coaching. You and a friend apply to coach with me together at 50% off. It can be someone from your acting class, someone you want to learn and grow with. EMAIL ME and make sure to CC your potential buddy. If you want private coaching or just a free consultation, click that link too. We will take it from there. As I always say, stay safe and treat yourself real well.

  7. Sep 9

    Episode 406: Greed Is Making You a Terrible Actor

    Nobody in this industry ever says this out loud, so I am going to. Greed is making you a terrible actor. Not greed in the cartoon villain sense. I am not talking about people twirling their mustaches trying to steal jobs. I am talking about the low-grade background hum of financial anxiety and ambition that most of us are walking around with every single day. The constant calculation. The booking pressure. The way you think about auditions as transactions. That energy is getting into your work. Greed Makes Your Audition Sound Desperate When you need to book, you perform differently. Not better. Differently. In a way that casting directors, clients, and agents can feel even if they cannot name it. There is a quality that shows up in an audition when the actor is trying to win instead of trying to serve the copy, tell the story. You can hear when someone is pushing for the job instead of just doing the job. And that reaching makes complete sense. Bills are real. The pressure to justify this career choice is real. The comparison to other people who seem to be booking constantly is real. But the microphone hears it. It hears the wanting. And wanting the booking is not the same energy as serving the story. They feel different. They sound different. The actors who book consistently have found a way to separate those two things. The audition itself is not a transaction for them. It is just the work. Chasing Money Kills Your Instincts This is what happens when income becomes the primary lens through which you make career decisions. You start chasing verticals that pay well instead of developing the ones where your voice actually lives. I have so many conversations with actors who tell me they really want to do animation, and all they have to show me is a commercial demo they just spent thousands of dollars on. Telling someone who wants to be an animation actor to go make their commercial demo is like telling someone who wants to be a chef to go train as a race car driver. When you start taking every job that comes in, including the ones that are wrong for you, because you need the money, slowly over time you stop developing as an artist because you are too busy managing the business of being an actor. I have watched genuinely talented people calcify into serviceable performers because they optimized for income instead of craft. And the cruel irony is that the income usually follows when the craft is the priority. Your instincts as an actor are built through curiosity and practice and risk. They erode when everything becomes a calculation. When you stop taking the class because it does not have a clear payoff. When you stop experimenting in auditions because you need this one to land. When you stop listening to the copy because you are already thinking about the rate. Those instincts are the product. Protect them. The Industry Rewards Generosity The people who last, the ones who build real careers that sustain them, are almost universally generous. Not in a work for free and be grateful way. Generous with their attention, their craft, their presence. They make the director's job easy. They bring more than what was asked for. They stay curious about the client's actual need. And that generosity gets remembered. It gets you booked again without an audition. It builds the kind of reputation that no marketing strategy can replicate. Extraction gets noticed too. The actor who treats every client relationship like a one-time transaction, who is visibly thinking about what they can get instead of what they can give. People remember that. And this industry is a lot smaller than it looks. What to Actually Do About It I am not telling you to stop caring about money. That is an absurd thought. This is your livelihood and the business side of this career matters enormously. But there is a difference between running a smart business and letting financial anxiety run your artistic choices. Most of us, if we are honest, have let that line blur at some point. So here is one thing. The next time you sit down to record an audition, before you hit record, ask yourself one question. What does this script actually need? Not what do I need to do to book this job. What does this script need from me right now. That is it. It sounds small. It is not small. And on the business side, build your finances in a way that gives you enough runway that you are not auditioning from desperation. That might mean keeping a part-time income stream longer than it feels good to. It might mean building a marketing strategy that brings inbound work so you are not always chasing. Whatever it takes to remove the financial panic from your creative process is worth doing. Because the actor who is free from desperation is a better actor. Full stop. The Bottom Line Greed is a strong word and I used it deliberately. Because sometimes we need a strong word to name the thing that is quietly running in the background and affecting everything. Keep developing. Keep showing up fully. Keep being generous with your work. Keep trusting your instincts. The business will follow that. It really will. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? If this resonated, share it with another actor who needs to hear it. And if I can help you marry the business and the performance side of this career in a way that actually feels harmonious, schedule time with me. A 15-minute consult, a 30-minute coaching session, a website colonoscopy. Let's get you out of this cyclical state and into something better. Reach out at mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com. See you next time.

  8. Sep 2

    Episode 405: The Energetics of Allowing

    I want to start this episode with someone I lost recently. A dear colleague of mine, Riff Hutton, passed away a couple of weeks ago from a brain tumor. I am opening with him because I just used something he taught me. I came into my booth and my preamp was not working. And there was a part of me that just wanted to say forget it, record on the laptop mic, move on. And then Riff's voice came to me. Be curious. So instead of pushing through I got calm. I started looking at why. Turned out the power cord into my preamp has a lock position and it had gotten unlocked. A simple thing. But the old me would have forced it and missed the lesson entirely. Riff Hutton, if you are out there listening on some plane, thank you for teaching me to be curious. Forcing vs Allowing Today's episode is about attracting rather than forcing. And you are talking to a reformed forcer here. The times I have pushed hardest are the times I have created the least flow. There is an energy to forcing that is very close to frustration and anger. I am going to make this happen. And when I operate from that energy, things go wrong. Last night I was exhausted and forcing myself to make dinner and the glass lid to my frying pan shattered in the salmon. Everything was fine. But I said to myself, you are forcing. What I really needed to say was I am too tired to cook. Either we make a salad or we go out. When I gave myself permission to be curious instead, when my tech broke down before this recording, it created an opportunity to learn something and to teach you something. That is not magical thinking. That is nervous system reality. What Scarcity Actually Looks Like Scarcity is not just financial. Scarcity sounds like it is too late for me. I am too old. I missed my chance. Everyone is ahead of me. It shows up in actions too. Checking casting sites obsessively. Spiraling when someone from your acting class books a job. Treating every audition like something you have to survive instead of something you get to be curious in. Believing that rejection defines your self-worth. Scarcity is a clenched fist. Abundance, and that means abundance of love, opportunity, curiosity, is an open hand. Your nervous system affects your ability to see opportunity, stay grounded, and recover after rejection. If it is dysregulated you overthink, you chase approval, you lose your authenticity. And your authenticity is your superpower. Can You Receive Here is the exercise I want you to try right now. Imagine booking the dream role. Imagine finally being seen as an actor the way you have always wanted. Really sit with it. And then notice what emotion appeared immediately afterward. Was it fear? Pressure? Guilt? Fear of visibility? Because if it was, those emotions matter. They are showing you where you are stuck. So many actors become addicted to the struggle. If that is you, it is because struggle feels more familiar than ease. I want ease to feel familiar. I want flow to feel familiar. Because peace can feel threatening. Calm can feel unproductive. Stability can feel suspicious. But your nervous system dictates your success more than your effort. That is the truest thing I have discovered in 30 years. The Bottom Line Allowing is not passive. Allowing is staying open long enough for life to meet you. Your job is not to force every outcome. Your job is to become available for what you say you want. Your emotions are your inner GPS. They are showing you where you are going. If you feel good, you are going somewhere good. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? If any of this resonated, please click the link in the show notes and set up a free consultation over Zoom: email me at peter@actingbusinessbootcamp.com. This work is amazing and you get so many surprises along the way. As I always say, stay safe and treat yourself real well.

See All (312)

4.9
out of 5
73 Ratings

About

Our goal is to break down the business of becoming a working actor into a simple, actionable, step by step roadmap. We'll cover everything from creative entrepreneurialism and mastering what we call the language of the agents and casting directors, to the importance of top notch training and tools for boosting your confidence in self tapes and on the set. Ready to take your acting career to the next level? Let's get started.

Information

You Might Also Like