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More Actor Yapping! Days 8-14, baby! · The Aligned Actor

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to The Aligned Actor Podcast.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Amy Schloerb, your friendly fellow actor and mindfulness and mindset coach.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the podcast where I offer practical mindfulness tools
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: and mindset shifts designed to help us all thrive in our full actor lives.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because as we all know, actor life is a roller coaster.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We never know what's coming next.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Next, that's a word that I can say.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: We never know what's coming next.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just, it's unpredictable.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's rejection,
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: there's uncertainty,
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: there's unpredictable urgency that's just baked into the actor life.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way that we are going to survive in this profession long-term is
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: if we're taking care of ourselves as humans and if we're taking care
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: of our nervous systems and just helping ourselves get through it each day so
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: that we can stay at the table long enough that the chips start coming our way.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what this podcast is all about.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about how do we stay sane in a pretty insane business.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I have more things for you this week.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have your weekly roundup of my 100 days of yapping,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: aka Amy Yaps About Actor Mindset stuff on Instagram.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's awesome and fun.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm really enjoying myself.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm having a lot of fun doing it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully my ideas are getting clearer.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm getting clearer and really honing in on my overall message,
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: like what is it that I want to put out there for actors?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that I want to be inspiring my community?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that I want to show up in service to my community?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really what this 100 Days is about,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: is sort of figuring that all out and getting really comfortable with it
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: and just doing it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have all these ideas,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: all these things that I want to say,
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: and all these ways that I feel like I understand actors,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I understand us, and I understand how difficult this all is.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I still want to uplift and inspire and embolden us all to keep going.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is hard.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is difficult.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can keep going and we have to keep going because our dreams are worth it
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: and we're worth it and whatever we want in life it's worth some hard
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: but we can also make that hard I think easier with some practical things
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: with mindfulness and some sort of practical ways of shifting our mindset
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: and making it a more positive and healthy place overall for ourselves.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so today in the Actor Yaps world, I have days eight through 14 for you.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, I'm still having a lot of fun.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I do feel like I'm getting better at it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's feeling more comfortable.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's feeling more like a practice and like, yeah, it's just, it's cool.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm enjoying it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you're enjoying it too.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that it seems like online people are enjoying it, which is really great.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think this is a really good place to showcase them and put together like
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: a week's worth of them so that you get exposed to these ideas here
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: in case you're not following me on Instagram or if you already saw all the videos
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: on Instagram,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: you heard all of those messages,
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: hearing Having them again is not bad because that's how our brain learns and evolves
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: and how we improve our mindset.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's slowly over time,
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: it's just repetition and being exposed to these ideas over and over and over again.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: even if you've seen it all before,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: heard it all before,
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: stay tuned because this is good stuff and you should repeat it again and again
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: and again and again and again.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: so in this week's batch of videos I talk about,
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I give a little bit of a behind the scenes on how I've been handling the 100 days
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: of yapping challenge and the fact that it is getting harder.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: There are parts of it that were getting harder.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotten easier again because I kind of got over the hard Part that I anticipated
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: and I talk about how I navigated that with some life coachy type strategies
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: and mindfulness strategies and things like that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I also talk about The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, which is a fantastic book.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please do yourself a favor,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: if you have not read The War of Art,
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: please read it,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: because it is a kick in the pants,
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think is what it says on the cover of it,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: literally,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: but it's really,
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: really good for artists,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: and actors are artists, so yeah, go read The War of Art, it's fantastic.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I also, in the other,
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: the second video,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I talk about the fact that I always get startled by audition requests.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I realize that might sound bad that like, well, don't you like audition requests?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you like it when they come in?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Aren't you like happy and excited?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, yes, of course I am.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But initially when I get that ping of like a text for a C-mail or like I see it
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: on my email, I'm like, oh, Cause they're, they come out of nowhere.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: You never know.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you've had like five in a week,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: like another one, you're like, oh, like it's, it's unexpected.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: We never know when they're coming.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So in that way, I think of them almost a little like jump scares.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like you just, you just don't know.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good jump scare, but still I, I get startled by them.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I get like, oh, oh, okay.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have something to do.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have something like important that I have to figure out getting done.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's perfectly normal.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a perfectly normal human reaction.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I normalize that for us.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to check really quickly and make sure we are recording.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: We should be.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Are we recording?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: If we are not recording, I don't know what I'm going to do.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, we're recording.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you all so much for bearing with me for that.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was fun.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And now back to our regularly scheduled program.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: IPhones should really have like a light on them that tells you that they're recording.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: That would be nice.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: They don't.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, moving on.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here we go.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So then in another video,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I talk about how I actually go about the process
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: of calming my nervous system back down after it gets activated by
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: that initial self-tape request where it's like, oh, oh, okay.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: I have something I have to figure out now.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have a process for bringing myself back down so that I'm not caught up in
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: the urgency and I'm not caught up in like, ah,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta get this done,
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta get this done,
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta get this done,
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: and instead can actually focus on my work and bring my best acting to that work.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a process for that.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then in another video, I share the fact that we are always actors.
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  SPEAKER_00: No matter how often it's been since we've booked,
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: no matter how long it's been since our last audition, we are always actors.
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  SPEAKER_00: And ingraining that occupational identity so deeply within yourself is
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: the foundation of a strong and healthy actor mindset.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And ironically,
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: but I might not be using that word correctly because I know there's a whole thing
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: about that,
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  SPEAKER_00: The deeper you ingrain an actor identity within you,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: the easier it is to not have to do actor-y stuff 24-7 because you're so secure in
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: that identity that even if you go on vacation, even when I'm playing pickleball,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever else I'm doing in my life,
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I still know that I'm an actor and I don't then have to constantly be like,
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: well, the only thing I can do in my life is acting.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: The only books I can read are about acting.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing I can talk about is acting.
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  SPEAKER_00: The only thing I can do is just acting and actor stuff.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: But instead,
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: when I'm like, oh no,
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: this is just what I know about myself,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is my occupation,
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  SPEAKER_00: I know this is my career,
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: then it's much easier to have a regular full life,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: which honestly we need to have as actors,
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: because otherwise we will burn out and it's too much.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so it's...
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds like backwards to be like,
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: you're always an actor, so you don't have to always be thinking about acting.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: But it's very true.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: The more secure you are in that identity,
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: the easier it is to live your life and be a full, well-rounded human.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, that video is much shorter than that explanation that I just gave of all of that.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even get into all of that in the video.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of where all of those ideas around we are always actors is headed
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: in general in this work.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's the next one?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I also talk about the fact that it takes a lot of energy to be an actor.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, it takes a lot of energy to be an actor.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: In the past, we've talked about how exhausting some of the thoughts that we carry with us are.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it also just, it takes energy to put together a self-tape.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: It takes energy to, you know, my goodness, to get yourself ready to do a new batch of headshots.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of energy.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: To, you know,
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: constantly put yourself out there and then be rejected,
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: that takes energy from the system.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's just so much energy that goes into being an actor that,
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: you know, we need to first and foremost be taking care of ourselves as human beings.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So self-care is really, really huge.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about, you know, sexy, Instagramable self-care necessarily.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about, like, Are you sleeping enough?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are you drinking enough water?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are you eating food that works for your body?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like just basic, basic stuff.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Taking care of you and your instrument and how it likes to be in the world.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so it takes a lot of energy to be an actor.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's another video on how hard it is to deal with uncertainty in the entertainment industry.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: It is really, really hard to know like this might not ever happen.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: This might not ever go anywhere.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: This might be where it all is and that's it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that mindfulness has really helped me accept that and be okay with that.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And also realize that like,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: well, even if it's uncertain, the flip side of uncertainty is anything can happen.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Which is really cool and a really fun place that my brain has been going to recently
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: of being like, anything can happen.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anything.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Anything could happen.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a fun way to look at actor uncertainty.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We talk a little bit about that.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last video is about reconnecting to the version of you that decided,
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be an actor.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because that version of you had a really, really strong why.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, this is what I love to do.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to do.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I am going to do this.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely it's hard.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, let's do it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Bring the challenge on.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when we reconnect to that version of ourselves
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: and remember why we started this journey in the first place,
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: that's a really powerful place to be.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because we,
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: all of a sudden,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: we have all the knowledge that we've gained And the things that we know more about
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: the business, about how the industry works, things like that.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: But we then have the spark and the vim and the vigor of that part of us
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: that was like, yeah, we're going for this.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hollywood, here I come kind of thing.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that is, those are the videos for this week.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, awesome.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, without any further ado, please enjoy.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna let you in on a little behind the scenes secret of these yaps
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: that I'm doing, this hundred days of yapping.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's getting harder, but I expected that because I am trained as a life coach.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I understand some things about the brain and how Change can affect it and things like that.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew going into this that like days one,
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: two, and three, maybe even four, I'd be like, ooh, fun and jazzy.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing something new.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is like vacation.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I figured that like day five and six, which, yep,
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: day five and six,
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: a lot harder because my brain has started to go, Oh wait, we're really doing this?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: But this isn't how we've shown up in the past.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't what I expect out of you.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is not vacation time.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is now we're actually like, we're gonna keep doing this?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But this is scary.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't wanna change.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you start a habit and you're getting going with it and then all
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: a sudden you're like, I don't think I wanna do this anymore.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with you.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: But keep going.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Make it messy.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Make it imperfect.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But keep going.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is the only way that your brain will start to calm down again
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: and be like, oh, okay, well, all right, well, this isn't so scary.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't died.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess you can keep talking to the camera and putting yourself out there online.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because, I mean, no tiger has come to eat us yet.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess we're okay.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of just got to keep doing it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And to help with the uncomfortable feelings,
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: what Steven Pressfield would call resistance, A of all, read The War of Art.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have it?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I have it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I have it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: I can show it to you.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: This.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Read this.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because this will help you beat resistance,
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: which is what's coming up on day five, six, seven of building a habit.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: But also, mindfulness can also help.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So what I'd like you to do is breathe with that feeling that you're having
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: that like, I don't know if I want to do this.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I can keep doing this.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: This feels now uncomfortable.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Get curious about that feeling,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: breathe with it and notice how it shifts for you and decide, okay,
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: on the other side of this discomfort is a change that I intentionally said I wanted
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: to do and keep going.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am always startled by audition requests.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if I'm auditioning a ton or if I've had three auditions in
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: the past nine months.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always like, Gah!
• 14:28
  What?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Who?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ha!
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: What do I have to get done?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what is this?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ah!
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's no way to predict them.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: We never know when they're coming.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just another way that unpredictable urgency is baked into the life of an actor.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a task and you have to get it done and you have to get it done Pretty much now.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And even if it's an in-person audition,
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: here's a task and you have to get it going and you have deadlines for all
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: of this stuff.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a problem that my nervous system gets activated by this.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually just a natural human response to,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: oh, here's something new that you have to deal with right now.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I just wanted to let you know that that's a normal thing that happens.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Just because it makes sense why I would be startled by self-tape requests,
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: because they're so unpredictable and you never know when they're coming,
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: doesn't mean I want my body and mind staying in that stressed out,
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: activated nervous system response while I'm trying to actually plan and execute
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: the self-tape.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work to stay in that state.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's very hard to plan when I'm going to do it.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's very hard to make choices that are effective for the character.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: If I feel rushed and freaked out, I can't do a good job as an actor.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what do I do?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well I have to calm my body and my mind and the most effective way to do that is
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: through breathing.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll take some deep breaths with long slow exhales and those help my body
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: and mind calm down so that then I can approach the self-tape and put the work
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: into it that I know I can do and approach it in a way that feels good to me
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: and lets me honor the good work that I do as an actress.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you get a self-tape request and you're Take some deep breaths.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: You are always an actor.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care how many jobs you've booked this year.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care when your last audition was.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care how much money you've made as an actor this year.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: You are always an actor.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's just who you are.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's a part of your identity.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's likely tattooed on your soul.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's who you are.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the beautiful thing about an actor identity is you get to define it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: You get to decide, this is who I am.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I do.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I am alive in this world.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It takes A lot of energy to be an actor.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It takes a lot of energy to be a human being in general these days.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Life is stressful, it's exhausting, and then you add on a full-time acting career.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: With all of the rejection and the uncertainty and the urgency of
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: the entertainment industry, of course we're tired.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So go to bed early tonight, drink some water, have a snack.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you can take a nap today, Take a nap.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: We need to recharge because you can only show up as the actor that you want to be
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: if you are taking care of the human that you are.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uncertainty is just part of being an actor.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are no guarantees in this business, and that's really hard.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is so hard to want something so badly,
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: but know that there are absolutely no guarantees that any of us will ever get it.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Practicing mindfulness has helped me become so much more comfortable with
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: that feeling of actor uncertainty.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I feel way more neutral about it.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I feel way more comfortable with that uncertainty.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because when I sit with uncertainty,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: when I allow it,
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: when I get curious about it, suddenly I realize something about actor uncertainty.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's no guarantee that I will have the career of my dreams.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also no guarantee that I won't.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you've lost your motivation, your actors spark.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think back to that version of you that decided, I want to be an actor.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be an actor.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hollywood, here I come.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because that version of you had a really strong why.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: They knew why they wanted to get into this business.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They knew how hard it was.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: They knew and they loved it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were ready for it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: They were hungry for that challenge.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's hard.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you've been living in that hard for a while.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to go back to that hunger.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's time to go back to that fire.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's time to go back to that excitement and that why.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you an actor?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, real quick because I actually forgot to record this when I was recording
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: the previous episode because I was batch recording podcast today.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot to credit the sound effect that I use in between the videos for
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: the 100 days of yapping videos.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the credit for that goes to JW Sound Design and the name of
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: that effect is Woosh Long Cinematic and then in
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: the Substack article there are There's a website,
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: like a hyperlink,
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: if we were in the 90s,
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: but you know what I mean,
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: like a URL to freesound.org,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: and then there's some numbers and things that take you directly to
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: that specific sound.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Freesound.org,
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: by the way,
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: friends,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: is a fantastic website that you can go to and get all kinds of free sounds
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: that you might need to use in videos,
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: YouTube videos, short films, whatever you need free sounds for.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you do have to credit the people that you get your free sounds from.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm voicing those credits now,
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: here on the podcast,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: even though I'm wearing a different shirt because it's technically a different day
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: and episode that I was recording when then I realized I didn't do this.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, either bye and I'll see you later.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: If I put this right at the very end of the video,
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm going to do yet,
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: or
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: back to you, Amy, if I put this in the middle of it and we're going back to me.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Probably that's what we're going to do.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go back to me.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: So back to you, Amy.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you found those videos helpful and inspiring.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that they were long enough or longer than all the preamble where I talked
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: about the videos.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to now question if maybe the preamble about telling you what
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: the videos were going to be about,
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: that then the videos were not even as long as that.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it doesn't matter because you got to hear Multiple ways that the messages of
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: the videos can come across,
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: and I think that's actually really good, so I'm liking that.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're witnessing in real time me evaluating my work, so that's fun.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, I'm so glad that you were here today.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I really hope that you will share this with an actor that you think could benefit from it.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope that you'll check out my offerings below.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, today,
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: because I realized some people just listen to this podcast
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: and they don't ever go anywhere else with it,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you about all the stuff that's down below my Substack.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a free guided meditation that will help you get out of your head And
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: into your character so that you can rock your next audition.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to help you calm your nerves.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to help you let go of distracting thoughts.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: All that stuff that moozles around.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, that's a word.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: All that stuff that spins around in our brains about like, how can I book this?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: What does casting want?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do this scene right?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: That kind of stuff.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: The meditation takes you through a process of letting go of all of that,
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: acknowledging it,
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: but letting go of all of that,
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: and then focusing in on what your character wants,
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: and making that want really,
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: really super strong,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: and then keeping your focus there,
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: and then reminding you that while you're doing your self-tape,
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: if you notice,
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: you mindfully notice, oh,
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about what casting wants,
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about how I could book this,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can gently direct yourself back to what your character wants.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just a process of mindfulness.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's what mindfulness is.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're just constantly, gently bringing yourself back to Your chosen focus.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, so you can focus in on what your character wants,
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: what's going on in the scene,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: and so that that way with all of
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: that happening you can present your best work every time.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that is an absolutely free guided meditation that I put together
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: and you can go pick up a copy of that.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's on my website.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's, if you're just listening to the podcast, it's on my website.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's like a little button like at the top maybe of my website
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: that says You know,
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: get out of your head and rock your next audition, and you can get it there.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or follow the show notes, go over to my Substack.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's always there.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can get it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I also have The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the idea here is it's going to help you access your presence and feel empowered
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: in your actor life.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an e-book.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very short e-book.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's only like 10 pages or something, so it's a quick read.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's more of a guide, really.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a comprehensive collection of tools that will be the Dramamine
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: that you need for the actor life rollercoaster.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're dealing with audition nerves
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: or you're obsessively checking your email after submitting a self-tape,
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: hello, guilty sometimes.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Or, you know,
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: you just learned your series has been canceled or you're dealing with any other way
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: that the entertainment industry rocks our nervous system,
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: then this is something that can help you.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: All of these tools are things that can help you access presence again,
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: calm down, feel more grounded again.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you can go and pick that up.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's just $7 and yeah, you can learn all of my tools that I use for this kind of work.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, you can go to my website, and you can check out more about me in general.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can get all this stuff on my website, and so you can do that.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: The website is thealignedactor.com,
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: and you can check out more about me,
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: what I like to do,
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: how I feel about all of the industry and about being an actor and things like that.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you can pick up any of these things that are resources that you have liked,
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: that you're like, I want to know more about that.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for joining me today, and I will see you next time.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Bye!