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The Power of Intention

An actor shared that they had turned down an opportunity because, ultimately, they felt that they didn't deserve it.

And, I think that is an incredibly painful place, especially when she realized afterward what had been done and why they had done it.

It brings up the question, how many times have I turned something down or walked away from a potential opportunity because I felt I didn't deserve it?

And that programming that we have in our, as I put it, motherboard, in our belief system is so deep within us because that is what we operate out of.

And yet, what I am trying to do in these weekly classes is to make you more conscious.

And what do I mean by more conscious?

What I mean is when you are conscious, you are operating out of what the Universe sees you as, who you truly are, as opposed to who you think you are or how you were taught to be.

So there's who you really are, how the Universe sees you in all of your glory, in all of your greatness, in all of your incredible wisdom, and then there's who you think you are, or how you were taught to behave or to act or to think. And most of the time, that is two very different things.

It's really about success and deserving success.

You deserve success.

And a wonderful affirmation that she talks about is every experience is a success.

Now, why is every experience a success? Because I learn something for it. I either gain something in terms of a win, or if I don't is an experience for me to learn.

"What does failure mean anyway?

Does it mean that something did not turn out the way you wanted it to or the way you were hoping? The law of experience is always perfect. We out-picture our inner thoughts and beliefs Perfectly. You must have left us out a step or had an inner belief that told you that you did not deserve or you felt unworthy."

What are you out-picturing, out-feeling, out-believing?

Are you thinking positively and with the Universe's thoughts behind you and the Universe's strengths and Truths with a capital T behind you, or are you operating out of "the motherboard" because somebody told you only deserved "X" amount of success?

Or you told yourself that because you are (fill in the blank), you only deserve Y.

Your beliefs can be changed from someone who feels they don't deserve to someone who very much knows it is their right to.

She says, "It is the same when I work with my computer..."

If there is a mistake, it is always me, which I find very frustrating. It means that something has not been done to comply with the laws of the computer. And what it ultimately means is that there is something for me to learn.

If you think of the Universe that same way, that is really powerful.

Because there are laws of the Universe.

My job is to get myself in line with them, but I can always ask for help in doing that.

I can invite the Universe into making this podcast, guiding me to think more positively, guiding me to get on my own side so that I feel I am deserving of that success.

And it takes attempts at this.

I never did this perfectly.

I have been doing this work for 28 years. And guess what? I've never done it perfectly, but I've always aimed in that direction.

When a plane is on autopilot, It's only on course 10 percent of the time. The 90 percent it's trying to find its course.

In my learning to be deserving of success, I've probably only been on course about 10 percent of the time, but ultimately, I have headed to a much more happy and successful life.

Thomas Jefferson said, "The only time we ever really fail is our last attempt at trying."

And the old saying that Louise Hay talks about here is, "If at first you don't succeed, try again."

And it's true. It doesn't mean to beat yourself up and try this old same way again.

It means to recognize your error and try another way until you learn to coordinate with the Universe.

Adjust yourself to the station of the Universe if you think of a radio dial. Tune myself in to the station of deserving as opposed to the beating up of not.

Which, again, is how I may have been programmed in my past.

Louise Hay says, "I think it is our natural birthright to go from success to success all our life. If we are not doing that, either we are not in tune with our innate capabilities,

because I so strongly believe. That we are smarter and more capable and greater and wiser than we think we are. That was today's lesson in the weekly coaching group.

And if we don't believe that is true for us, We're not going to even recognize our little successes along the way, which is so important.

I think another thing that I keep talking about in my weekly coaching group is this idea of being your own best friend, of having your own back.

And that's when good stuff happens, and also when not-so-great stuff happens, but having your own back in all areas throughout the day.

When we set standards that are much too high for where we are in this moment, standards we cannot possibly achieve right now, then we're going to always fail.

But I'm a big one about teaching people how to baby step. Because with each little success, we get something that we cannot buy, and that is self-esteem, and that is confidence.

Self-esteem and confidence are magnetic. They are magnetic. People are drawn to them.

When a little child is learning to walk or talk, we encourage and praise them for every little improvement they make. Why are we not doing that with our life today?

And the child will beam, and they will eagerly try to do better. Is this the way you encourage yourself when you are learning something new, or are you beating yourself up?

Are you working for yourself instead of against yourself in your quest for success?

In your quest for knowing that you deserve all the good and the abundance the Universe has to offer you.

Or do you make it harder to learn by telling yourself you're a failure, or you're stupid, or you're not good enough in some way?

And I love this because Louise Hay goes on to talk about actors and actresses.

"Many actors and actresses feel they must be performance perfect when they arrive at the first rehearsal. I remind them that the purpose of rehearsal is to learn. Rehearsal is a period of time to make mistakes, to try new ways, and to learn.

Only by practicing over and over do we learn the new and make it a natural part of us."

When you watch an accomplished professional in any field, you are looking at innumerable hours of practice.

And it's the same thing if you hear truth in my podcast. If stuff is resonating, understand I have spent countless hours, decades, almost three decades of my life devoted to practicing this, to practicing opening myself up to Consciousness.

The Consciousness that I am a part of the Universe and it is a part of me. I deserve all the good and the abundance the Universe has to offer me. I am deserving of success.

If you say that out loud if you write that down, see what other things follow up.

It's taken me a long time to say I deserve success.

And the answer that comes right after it is yes because it used to be, "No, you don't. Are you kidding me? You're such a loser."

That is the kind of stuff that used to come up. Everything that I coach in the weekly coaching group and in these podcasts, everything that I coach, I have guinea pigged on myself.

And I share it truly because if I can help you, if I can share with you one moment less of the agony that actress I spoke about at the beginning of this podcast felt when she realized she turned down something because she felt she didn't deserve it.

But you know what? She learned something from it.

She learned that she actually does.

So that when that next opportunity comes up, she'll say, "Yes, of course, I'd love to."

This is why we refuse to try things that are new.

Because, on some level, they scare us.

I encourage you to try new ways of thinking and new ways of acting that are in line with that belief that you deserve success.

Affirmations to think of are, "divine intelligence gives me all the ideas that I need."

"Everything I touch is a success."

There is enough success to go around for everyone. It's not that if Jane gets success, I won't. It's not that if Bob gets success, I won't. There is enough success out there for all of us.

You deserve success.

"I am a magnet for success."

"Golden opportunities are everywhere for me."

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Energy attracts like energy.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi

Like attracts like, and we attract and create our world.

If I am not treating myself well, that is what I am giving out to the world, and I will end up attracting people who don't treat me very well.

By focusing not on what was but on only what can be, we create the world we choose. And we do this through the practice of affirmations.

So again, by not focusing on our past but focusing and putting our attention on the now and the future we wish to create, that is how we create a better life for ourselves.

Now, I'm not going to lie to you. When I first heard this kind of stuff, I was like, "That's a bunch of voodoo, voodoo, gobbledygook."

Until I was, honestly, sick and tired of being sick and tired, and I was desperate enough to change.

Until I was like, "I cannot stand my life as it is right now. I need to change things up."

So, I started the practice of affirmations. I stopped putting my focus on my past and started putting my focus on now and the future I wanted to create. And here I am, decades later. And I have a life beyond my wildest dreams.

Everyone wants an abundant life. Living an abundant life begins with believing in and focusing on an abundant world.

I just finished teaching a class on Money Mastery. And one of the things I talk about is how I used to believe that there was not enough money. But that's the biggest bunch of bullshit out there.

That's thinking out of my ego. That's thinking out of finite thinking. I need to be switching my thoughts, aligning them with universal thought, with infinite thinking. Which is there is always enough money. That's the way I think today. There's always enough money. If I don't have any at the moment, I will be making more.

There's always enough money because there's always more money out there. Why? Because it is an abundant and infinite Universe.

We are practicing gratitude and a gratitude list. It is so important because whatever we put our attention on will expand.

So if I am putting my attention on abundance and the abundant Universe, whether that's even in this moment there is an abundance of air around me, if that's the only thing I can put my thought on that I can grasp in my brain, fine, we start there.

It doesn't matter where you begin in this. It's that you begin.

If we focus on lack, if we focus on failing relationships, if we focus on not finding work, if we focus on not having enough money, like I just explained, we start to live in those "realities."

And I put the word realities in quotation marks.

And what am I doing by doing that? I'm putting a label on myself that I always have failing relationships, that I'm never able to find work, that I don't have enough money. And then that is the world I find myself living in. But I don't want to live there.

I gave that up a long time ago. I want to live in an abundant life.

And I want to focus on an abundant Universe. Because it goes so much further than planet Earth, it's universal. The Universe is constantly expanding.

And it wants us to expand. Why? Because we are a part of it. It is a part of us.

Always remember the Truth is that the world is an abundant place with enough resources for all.

There's a fabulous affirmation for you. "The Universe is an abundant place, and there are enough resources for all."

And now, I'm going to move into the concept of truth and talk about how truth exists past my ego belief.

I must understand the difference between Truth with a capital T, which is universal Truth, higher Truth, my intuitiveness, higher knowledge, and little t truth, which is ego's truth.

Now, there's a wonderful acronym for ego, which is "easing God out."

Now again, I consider this term God to be of your understanding. Someone once told me that God can be "good orderly direction." It can be nature. It can be the universe. It is up to you. You can think of it as higher intelligence. Or your higher intuitive self. It can be that. It's the part of you that knows what good, orderly direction is.

Capital T Truth is Universal Truth. It is plants, it is nature, it is the wind blowing. And I want to be in alignment with that Truth.

Because I don't want to be tuned into that ego truth.

Because of that, I'm only then relying on finite amounts of information and wisdom. I want to have access to all the wisdom. And that is Universal Truth, infinite wisdom.

And here's the thing: if everyone in the world still believed that the world was flat, would it be flat just because we believed it to be?

Some things are the Truth, whether you believe them or not. Including there is enough. Including I am enough. The incredible thing is that successful people question everything. And they also do what they most don't want to do by noon. But successful people are curious people.

Do not believe anything, and most importantly, do not believe anything you think about yourself that is limiting you in any way. That is just a limiting Belief.

Remember, we started this podcast talking about energy. Then we moved into Truth. Truth with a capital T.

And now we're looking at our beliefs.

The definition of consciousness is who we really are as opposed to the you that you believe that you are or we're taught that you are.

So again, we talked about energy. We talked about what kind of truth. Now, I am challenging you with what is your consciousness.

Are you operating out of your limited beliefs and thereby accessing little amounts of energy and little amounts of truth?

Or are you truly conscious?

Understanding who you really are from the universe's point of view, that you are infinite. Your success, your money, your abundance, your happiness, your achievements are unlimited.

I'm going to end this with a journal question, and it's a challenging one, so I encourage you to take pen to paper.

• If I did this, and then (fill in the blank), what would be possible for me?
• If I did (fill in the blank), what would be possible for me?

For me, it was if I solved the riddle of my anxiety, what would be possible for me?

And if you go back to the second podcast, now we are 150 podcasts in, more than that, but if you go back to the second one, you'll hear my story about anxiety.

It's even been in the journey of doing this podcast on a weekly basis that I've really started to see what the possibility is if I solved the riddle of my anxiety.

I'm now seeing what is possible. And it's infinite. And I wish the same for you.

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Work with Jason

About Jason Figgis:

Jason Figgis is an award-winning IFTA-nominated film and TV director who has had feature work commissioned or acquired by major broadcasters that include Sky One, Sky Arts, Channel Four, Hulu, RTE, Apple+, iTunes, KSM, SVT, Cinedigm, Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime, and Lionsgate Studios.

This work has been placed in territories that include 150 countries worldwide.

Figgis' work includes the IFTA-nominated Discovery Channel documentary THE TWILIGHT HOUR, the Sky Arts documentary A MAVERICK IN LONDON (featuring Alan Rickman, Richard E. Grant, and Joanna Lumley), SIMON MARSDEN'S HAUNTED LIFE IN PICTURES (featuring John Hurt), High Fliers Films / Pinewood Studios release THE GHOST OF WINIFRED MEEKS (starring BIFA winner Lara Belmont) and LOVE? (written and presented by Samantha Beckinsale).

Figgis directed the official music videos for the QUEEN OF ENGLAND'S PLATINUM JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS IN 2022.

He also restored the classic German horror film NOSFERATU for the 100th anniversary. Figgis is in production on the authorized documentary looking at the life and work of actress Olivia Hussey called THE GIRL ON THE BALCONY and has just completed an authorized series of films looking at the life and career of prolific writer and philosopher Colin Wilson under the title COLIN WILSON: HIS LIFE AND WORK.

Other feature documentary work on the slate include A MAN FOR ALL REASONS, which looks at the life and work of former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, the Manchester County Council sponsored feature documentary SHIRLEY BAKER: LIFE THROUGH A LENS which looks at the life of the celebrated Mancunian street photographer, DIE STRONG which looks at Fallacy of Barriers founder Lily Brasch and FATHER OF DRACULA which looks at the life and work of Dracula author, Bram Stoker.

Figgis started his career in TV and film in animation for Murakami-Wolf on the celebrated cult TV series TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES. He went on to work for Steven Spielberg at his London-based Amblimation Studios on the feature classic AN AMERICAN TAIL 2: FIEVEL GOES WEST and for legendary animator Richard Williams at his studio in Camden, London, on the cult classic THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, which starred Vincent Price and Kenneth Williams.

I started in communications and then decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker. As a boy, I'd always wanted to be a filmmaker; when the digital world opened up, and it became something feasible, I realized I could launch and start getting work done.

So I moved into the field of documentary because I've always liked reality over artifice. Even when I write screenplays, I put my mind into a real situation instead of creating something fantastical. So I'm much more interested in relationships, other than big spectacles.

In the film industry and writing, a lot of the things that happen, you don't plan for you. You have relationships with people that you feel simpatico with, and you start developing things.

So I worked a lot with a writer called Simon Golding, and he's a real facilitator. He puts people together who he feels will work together.

I like to write because when I write, I have to get my mind into a character as a real flesh and blood person.

I always loved the idea of putting a camera on a real subject. And having people and letting it just unfold in an interview, for example, but the horror and the beauty, I always think the two of them can live quite well together and that a lot of the real horror in the world is what goes on behind closed doors and people's houses.

Obviously, I don't mean everybody; I mean, even in ordinary couples where you might have an explosive argument and for that brief moment, there might be fear between the couple that it could escalate into something terrible. Thankfully, it rarely ever does, but there still is that how you can go from a really happy moment to a very dark moment in the blink of an eye, if somebody says the wrong thing or something happens, or even if a vase is dropped on the ground and suddenly this explosive anger.

I just think that the light and the dark live very closely together, and to be able to show that on-screen and for people to see a beautiful couple, but then what they hear about, in the narrative or the narration, is the complete opposite to what they're looking at.

So you can have beauty and horror right there simultaneously on screen.

The discipline of documentary filmmaking has helped you with scripted content.

When you're interviewing a real person for a documentary, when they're talking about their own real-life experience, I find that if you're really concentrating on the person and what they're telling you, you get a much greater understanding of the human condition all over because you're forced to put your attention on a subject when you want to bring it to life.

For example, if you're directing narrative fiction, you're worried about all the different aspects. You're concerned about the lighting, camera setup, exterior, and any extraneous noise, and it's quite stressful. But if you're doing a documentary, it doesn't matter about the other stuff happening around you. If something annoys the person while you're doing an interview, it's part of the reality and that real moment.

What are the key questions to get the best response instead of just the standard questions? I like to get to know the person before I film. So then you get an idea of how you can relate to them on camera. Will they be able to trust you in a given circumstance?

I'm working on one at the moment. An amazing thing called Gladiator School with a guy who was a former prison inmate and who decided that when he was in prison, he was going to change his life. He's come out of prison, and he's now setting up a thing called gladiator school for kids on the street to get them away from crime, motivate them to do creative things, and follow their passion.

But again, when working with the young man involved, I had to be very careful about the kind of questions, I had already spoken to him beforehand. I said, "Look, what kind of things can I ask you? Is there anything triggering that will throw you right off the page?"

And he was like, "Ask me anything you want. Ask me anything you want. I'm here to be honest. I'm here to be truthful."

So I did. So I asked him some searing questions about how he ended up in prison, what led him, what were those life choices, what were those experiences that moved on and rolled onto another experience that got him into a position where he ended up in drugs and prison.

But again, it's still essential that I get to know him first and have a few phone calls to build that between us so I can ask the right questions.

If you're passionate about something and put your mind, thoughts, heart, and feelings into something, it's amazing how the Universe works on your side and allows those things to happen.

But what's really important is to be yourself, be genuine.

Don't have somebody meet you and go, "There's an artifice there. I don't believe how he's dealing," because if you do that, they're not going to trust you. They're not going to work with you. One of my main things is I'm always myself. I never tried to be anything other than.

Just being yourself is highly important in anything you do because people know.

How do you come up with your ideas?

It could be anything. I could read a headline. I could see a little snippet in a book; it is a line that will lift off the page as an idea.

It could be a name; from that name, an entirely fleshed-out story could emerge just from the title, which has happened with several things.

I'm open to being inspired by absolutely anything.

Once I come up with the story and know who the characters are, I will allow the characters to speak to each other. And a lot of the time, I've no idea the direction they're going in, and I just follow it. I speed write with it, so I don't think, if anyone saw my notes, they're illegible, and I do have very neat handwriting, but when I'm writing a script, I always write freehand in notebooks, like A5 notebooks.

I'm usually excited by the characters' direction and the elements of their life that emerge just through a conversation.

What are the questions that you ask them to start getting, moving them in the right direction?

Decide on a character they're comfortable with and then get to know the character and allow the character to speak to them.

But if you're going to write a one-woman or one-person show, don't miscast yourself in the role, right? Write something that's going to suit you. That the people are going to look at you and go, "I believe this immediately, I believe this."

What's the story you want to tell?

Now, take that story and put it into the mouth of a character you can inhabit in that 45 minutes or an hour and a half on stage and grab people's attention.

The scripted content becomes a documentary because it's that real, or you know a character so well that it's not a character; it's a person.

It's taking what I've learned in making documentaries and bringing them into scripted, you know, narrative drama because if you listen and listen, the words will come to you.

Now, just find this character in a particular situation and let them tell their story.

When I started writing, I never knew I could write screenplays.

I realized that with honesty, you could write things that came across powerfully.

I believe that Characters exist in space, waiting for the right actor that they can choose to play them.

Creating the backstory for your character, you arrive in a scene, but who were you before that?

Acting is reacting to your environment and the people you're in the scene with.

People just need to get out of their own way.

Find the people who can see what you're trying to do.

About Joshua Lastine:

Joshua Lastine, Esq., Entertainment Business and Transactional Attorney is the Founder and Managing Partner at Lastine Entertainment Law.

A strategic negotiator, fierce advocate for talent, and a practical problem solver, Lastine strengthens his counsel with an ineffable passion for show business, its players, and creators.

As a former Lionsgate and ViacomCBS attorney, Joshua Lastine launched Lastine Entertainment Law in 2021, formally Lastine Impressions, to protect the artistry and livelihood of actors, production companies, writers, producers, directors, animators, social media influencers, and podcasters.

In his representations on behalf of entertainment talent clientele, including rights acquisitions, development/production deals, branding/commercial advertising deals, talent deals, and other contracts for new media, social media, and the Internet 3.0, Joshua Lastine has an intrinsic aptitude for structuring deals and closing contracts that are shaping the future of the entertainment industry.

In addition to his legal negotiations, Lastine also serves as an adjunct lecturer on entertainment business law at The Los Angeles Film School, further impelling the future of the entertainment space and its novices. Joshua's production legal and talent transactions have spanned a wide breadth of media and projects from $100M+ Netflix series to $30K YouTube branding, endorsement, and commercial deals. To learn more visit, lastineentertainmentlaw.com. Follow on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Let's talk about protecting ourselves and how the law can help us to do that.

User generated content creators.

It's anyone really nowadays with the creative backbone. I think that's one of the great things about technology and where we are.

There's a lot of downsides and we can talk about that in a bit, but one of the great things about technology and where it's at today is that it really. Democratizes the creative endeavors. I'm a lawyer and I can now start to exercise my creative fingers in a way that I never could before because of the apps and because of the different technologies and algorithms.

I think we've all become more savvy in how we figured out to, to express ourselves and create art. I think it's unfortunate now that art and entertainment is being referred to as content, but that's still really what it is.

Whether you're creating content for YouTube, you're creating content for TikTok, you're creating content for Instagram or you're creating products and services that blend the line.

User generated content refers to anyone with a creative backbone that wants to make something cool. And then try to maybe find a way to, to monetize, exploit, and expand on that idea.

For every television show, there's a head of business and legal affairs, a head of production legal that supervises the day to day happenings of the show, whether it's the contracts for all of the actors showing up on set that day, getting the transportation in place, craft services.

The visual effects deals, transportation of large scale assets, planes, trains, automobile pieces all the way through the final credit roll, watching the final credits and making sure that all the credits align with the deals that I had negotiated through the season.

Doing that on a season by season basis for those shows, building a rapport and in a relationship with the shows themselves to make sure that we're getting what they need done to make the show because at that time, shows like Transparent, Man in the High Castle, I Love Dick which came on a little bit later.

These were first of their kind in 2016, 2017 in terms of Amazon shows. They did a lot to push the envelope in terms of what we could do on TV. I was party to many a nudity writer negotiation with many stars, where we did, nude simulated sex orgies. And we did things like hang swastikas in Canadian subway rails to film scenes for Man in the High Castle.

And it's my job as the attorney was to liaise with the line producer, the unit production manager, the guys on the ground to get all of the deals done, to make sure that filming stayed on schedule and that the company is protected and that, most importantly, in my opinion, that the people on set are protected.

We do a lot with stunts, we do a lot with practical effects, prop guns swinging from buildings, insurance, putting people in helicopters. I'm also part of those discussions to make sure that those people are protected. So it's a lot that goes into overseeing a television show or a feature film through the production side. That's part of what I do at my law firm.

The other side is the more traditional talent representation, representing actors, writers, directors to negotiate their contracts.

Why does an actor need a manager, an agent, and a lawyer?

We love our agent manager friends to death and we work very closely with them, but oftentimes there's a lot that gets left off the table.

I myself, when I work as representing the studio or the production company, I'm the one negotiating against the actors, agents and managers. And I can see those deals. And I can tell you with experience that an actor may get 40, 50, 60 percent of the deal on the table with an agent or manager, but as soon as they bring in a lawyer and it's the three of them working in tandem, they're getting just about everything on the table.

But really, also the devils in the details with regards to the contract especially nowadays studios are taking a wider position in what they can do with an artist's name, voice, and likeness, what they can do with their image. And how it can be exploited.

And, I think even actors at a certain level, even series regular, reoccurring guest stars, special guest stars, people with speaking lines and stuff like that, they can ask for reasonable restrictions on how their name, voice, and likeness is used. And obviously that builds your precedent up as you move on in your career.

Obviously, the bigger you are in your career, if you're Margot Robbie or Anya Taylor Joy, it's a big fight to be had but there are small things that an attorney can ask for that just can up your game and make you seem a little bit more sophisticated and increase your precedent for your next gig.

I think when you start making some serious money and you start making a serious living off of being an actor, it would be wise to reach out and start building a relationship.

What we should be doing in this industry as seed planting, right? Every single job interview that I go on, in business and legal affairs with a studio, every time I have lunch with an agent, manager, attorney, an actor I'm planting a micro seed that someday we will potentially probably work together again.

You never know where these relationships are gonna lead and gonna go.

If, and let's say you take on an actor, what does that look like? Is there a retainer? How does the actor lawyer relationship begin?

So typically for my actors, we engage on a standard 5 percent deal, meaning I'll take a 5 percent gross commission for the contracts that I negotiate and work on myself. There's no form of exclusivity the way that there might be with an agent or manager. You don't have to keep coming back to me.

Although the better the relationship, the better I understand and know your needs, the better it is for me to be able to communicate and advocate on your behalf.

I'll give you a good example. One of the actresses I represent has asthma, and that's something that I didn't quite know. But she was on a film set and there was heavy smokers around and I found out way later, way after the fact.

And, that is an easy phone call or an easy conversation that a lawyer can make that maybe an agent or manager might not want to make or, oftentimes we get put in the uncomfortable position of being the bad guy.

If you are getting deals, you're getting engagements, you're getting work, that's just an easy 5 percent deal.

If you are wanting more help developing your behind the camera services, you want to be a writer, you want to be a director, you want to be a content creator in your own right. We will usually charge an hourly rate or a flat rate for something like that.

Once you become part of the law firm family, we have lots of dinner parties and receptions and meetups between clients. So plug into the lasting entertainment law rolodex and really just build that community, build that relationship.

A lot of, being an actor [00:13:00] is really the dedication to your craft and learning how to grow and show up to that position. I think a lot of people want to be actors, maybe not for the right reasons. You got to be truly talented in your own right.

But the actors that I do represent, the actors that are on my roster, I will try to, recommend or suggest them or help them take general meetings with my current existing clients, or if there's somebody that they want to build a relationship, they feel very strongly and I already have that preexisting relationship.

Maybe it's something we can work on together, but not as a general.

When do you know you need a lawyer?

Entertainment Law School 101. In America, in the United States, there is no protection for unexpressed, unwritten down ideas.

On the flip side of that, the beauty of how the United States copyright law works is if an original work of authorship is fixed in a tangible medium, that work of authorship qualifies for copyright protection and has copyright protection at common law. So the second your pen hits paper and starts writing, the second you start painting with a paintbrush, start creating with your keyboard, the ultimate creative expression of that work is going to have some level of common law copyright protection.

It behooves you when you have some more of a concrete final product to register for federal copyright protection, it's $65. It's not a lot of money, but in that instance, you qualify for what is known as statutory damages. If there is a lawsuit for whatever reason later on, you can bring it in federal court, and it's a little bit meatier than just relying on common law copyright protections.

But, at the end of the day I think it's Picasso who said it, good artists borrow, great artists steal. Deep Impact and Armageddon came out the same year, and anyone can rip you off at any time. Really, what you need to do to protect yourself is to grow and expand your brand on as many different platforms between your social media pages, between YouTube.

You need to develop that idea and make your brand as expansive as possible. And really, it's a tricky thing, but what Disney does is they rely more on trademark protection than they do actual copyright protection. The Mickey Mouse copyright is going to go into public domain in 2024.

So long as they're exploiting his image as a trademark in merchandising, it has more qualified protections. And really the best thing that you can do is plant your flag and say, "Hey, I'm here and make it known and open and notorious." This is your idea and this is what you're doing.

And do a little bit of due diligence to see if there's anyone else out there. Doing something similar because that is really a barrier towards monetization.

If I'm a buyer and I'm in, and someone brings me an idea and I'm looking at it and I'm saying, "Hey, there's a hundred of these other things just like it."

It's not original. I am not going to take the risk on it.

So, do due diligence yourself, make sure the idea isn't already exploited. B, make yourself as big and loud like a puffer fish as possible. So you can try to create and protect your brand, start to create merch and you can qualify for trademark protection in that, get your copyright protections and fill out your creative ideas in various medias.

When do you think it is a good idea for a creator to start thinking, "hey, maybe I need somebody on my side?"

When there's actual money on the table being had that starts to say, "hey, you know what, there are sophisticated players at the table. Maybe we should have someone relook at the paperwork. Maybe we should have things done correctly by a lawyer."

And then number two, I would say if this is your baby, if this is your project, if this is your investment, if this is your life's work, then it really is worth the $500, $1000.

I do free consultations, free 15 minute consultations, but to draft paperwork and make sure paperwork secure work for higher agreements, transfer rights, spending $1500 to make sure that your project is protected is a drop in the fucking bucket.

Talk to me about the current trends. Let me articulate it with a little story. I was at the variety marketing summit back in March. And, lots of executives in the advertising marketing space world.

That's not really where I do a lot of my business. I'm working with actors, I'm working with writers, directors, producers, and I'm making shows and making content. But the number one thing that I took out of that meeting is how they are blending these areas and how advertisers are striking back with a vengeance in kind of a way, since the Netflix and the streamers of them all have kicked them out for the last 10 years, they are interested in creating TV shows around more products and services like Chipotle and whatever.

If you look at the top grossing films this year, we had Nike, Blackberry, Super Mario Brothers, Barbie. These are products and brands and not the same IP temples like the Star Wars and Marvel that we saw in years past.

I think Gen Z and now Gen Alpha, who's coming up, have a very different way of interacting with entertainment.

So if you are an actor, Focus 100% on your craft and build that out first, but also look at ways that you can, monetize and do use social media, Tik TOK and YouTube and how you can start to think about yourself as a 360 brand business.

I don't like that idea per se, in a world full of Zendayas and Sydney Sweeney's it's what it takes to get there.

But you can capitalize on making content in a niche world for something that you like, say toy collecting and you're going to find your audience out there if you're true and authentic and it's something that you're passionate about and love.

I think that at the macro level, we're going to have to decide what we want to address as a society, as humanity because it is something that threatens every specific industry as it relates to actors and writers. I think it's atrocious. The idea that you could take an actor's likeness and decide that you're going to own it and reuse it in perpetuity for the rest of your life as it relates to the final embodiment in a film or TV project, of course, but you don't own that person's image It's something that I believe is going to have to take a fundamental shift in government and in legislation that maybe recognizes the individual right of self likeness.

Private Coaching

Fear and Courage.

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

"If everybody feels fear when approaching something totally new in life, yet so many are out there doing it despite fear, then we must conclude that fear is not the problem."

Fear is not the problem. It's our attitude and our actions.

One of the things I coach with people is I look at their goal, and then I look at their thoughts around that goal, or their affirmations, their affirmative thought around that goal, and then I look at those actions around the goal.

So we make sure that the affirmative thoughts, or the thoughts that you are having around being a Working Actor, are not thoughts like, "Oh, I'm not good enough. It'll never happen. I'm too old for this shit."

Whatever it is, that we start turning those thoughts around because we need to have our thoughts and our actions supporting and backing up that goal.

That is how you create success in your life.

But for me, when I started first to learn this work, I was like, "Yeah, but I'm fucking terrified, and I am filled with anxiety, and I cannot imagine calling my manager and asking, how come I don't have any auditions, or I haven't had any auditions for a couple of weeks."

But yet, those were the things that I needed to do, either to get more activity or learn that manager was really not that into me and I needed to find someone else.

Fear is not the problem. But what the problem is, according to Susan Jeffers, which I concur with, is how we hold and manage our fear.

It's our attitude toward fear.

So again, remember that fear is not the problem. How we hold and manage the fear is.

Last week I talked about how you will never be given more than you can handle, but you will be given more than you can control.

And manage is another word for handle.

If how we hold and manage fear is the problem, guess what is the phenomenal, exciting news about that?

Then there's something we can do about it. There is something we can actually do about it. Because if it's in our realm of being able to handle or manage. Hey, that's our job, remember, controlling is not.

You're never going to be able to control your fear. Believe me, I spent a lifetime trying to do it doesn't work.

But I can manage how I handle it. I can manage how I think about it and what I do about it. And the thing is that if I stay, in that belief, that fear actually is the problem, then I'm staying in that victim energy.

Then I'm staying in that catabolic energy, that hopeless energy. "There's nothing I can do," bullshit. There is something you can do. Now I'm not going to say that it's going to be easy, and I'm not going to say that it's simple. But it is doable. In fact, it is simple. It's just not easy.

So if we accept the truth that how we hold and manage fear is the problem, and I stress that is a truth, that is a Universal Truth, not an ego truth. That is an infinite truth. Then we put ourselves energetically of taking responsibility, and then we can move forward.

So if we put ourselves energetically saying, "You know what? I understand I have fear. I, but I can manage it. I can handle it." By just doing that, we take ourselves out of catabolic energy, victim energy and in to anabolic energy, which is the energy of taking responsibility.

But if we stay with the idea that fear is the problem, guess what? We stay stuck.

So many people, I was at a networking event yesterday and it wasn't an actor. It was just a neighborhood networking event. The number one thing that everybody told me was "I feel stuck."

The reason why you're stuck is that you are afraid.

So let's get you unstuck.

Now, if again, how we hold and manage fear is the problem, we can move out of fear and then we can accomplish our goals or our wants or our needs.

So Susan Jeffers talks about a how we hold our fear, and she has a chart.

When we hold our fear, we have some kind of what? Pain.

And that pain is caused by feelings of helplessness, feelings of depression, feelings of paralysis. But when we move into that anabolic energy, we take responsibility of managing and handling our lives as opposed to controlling it or just not doing anything, then we end up with choice.

We end up with excitement because "oh my god we're actually doing it now." And we end up with action.

And when I talk about this power, this idea of power of how we get ourselves to do what we want. I am talking about the power within ourselves, which is ultimately building self-esteem.

So if we have power over our perceptions of the world, we have power over our thoughts. We have good, affirmative thoughts.

Then, we have power over our reactions.

Let's say something happens. I spill coffee on my new blouse. My immediate reaction will then be, "Oh God, that was so stupid. Or I'm so stupid."

But then I want to tell myself, "Stop."

I want to stop. And then I want to take a step back from what I just said to myself.

What just happened? Stop. take a step back.

And I use that example of putting your hand on your face and you cannot really see your hand. But if you move back a foot and you look at your hand, you are then in a place of what you are in a place of observation.

When you are in a place of observation, you can ask yourself that valuable question, "is this healthy for me to behave, to think this way, or is it unhealthy for me?"

Then, of course, I'm going to realize it's unhealthy for me to have such a negative reaction to just what was it? A fricking little mistake.

So what am I going to do? I am going to respond. I'm going to respond with a loving thought. I love myself, and I approve of myself. And here's a genius idea. Go get some club soda. Go get a towel wipe off your blouse, and take it to the dry cleaner.

Was it worth beating up on yourself? For all of that?

For just spilling some coffee? No.

Because nothing is worth a dig at my self-esteem.

Nothing. I have a phrase that says, "A Response is a reaction with a pause and a thought behind it."

And when we have power over our reactions or our perceptions, we are using that process of stopping, taking a step back and observing, looking at it for what it is from a distance because, again, we're in that valuable place of observation and then responding to the situation.

Power to do what is necessary for our own self-growth and career and all of these things make you feel better about yourself.

It creates healthy self-love, and we need self-love to be in this business of show because the business is not going to supply you with that love.

And this is the biggie. As a casting director, I also [00:13:00] am letting you know you cannot ask it to. As a casting director, I cannot be the one telling you, "Don't be afraid; it's okay."

Now, obviously, as a coach, it is. But if I'm in a job situation, I cannot be the one nurturing you. That's not my job. My job is to cast the actor who knows they are doing a great job and who has assured me that they are in great hands.

That's what I need. I don't need to be validating your existence on this planet.

I have way too many other things on my plate. I need you to know you're good. And I need you to assure me. I'm in good hands.

This power that I've been talking about in the podcast before and in this one gives you the ability to get yourself to do what you want to do.

It gets you out of your own way.

It is empowering and ultimately, it creates a tremendous sense of serenity.

But guess what? It always. It always. is, it's always magnetizing.

It's like when in sports, when you see the person who breaks away and runs with the ball and crosses the finish line, or gets the goal gets the goal, or scores the touchdown.

That is so exciting. And it's also exciting when a casting director sees an actor be great at their work.

It just makes me want to cast them over and over again.

You do not have to be incapacitated by your fears. You do not.

TV and Film Class

Private Coaching

Fear and Bravery

One way to look at fear is that it is just a fact of life.

And I remember when I had so much anxiety as a child. And I used to think to myself, I'd be like, "If could just get rid of this. I just wish somebody could remove anxiety from me."

But remember that anxiety and fear were given to us for a specific reason: the sabertoothed tiger.

Because a long time ago, we needed to rely on our fear instincts.

I want to have some element of that ability to feel fear because, to be quite honest, I live near a mountain and these animals are around, and I need to be cautious; I need to turn on the lights, I need to make noise, I need not to be thinking about something else when I go outside at night and to be quite honest during the day as well. But really, at night, when I can't see anything.

So, I think again to understand that fear is something that was given to us to protect us and for us to know that we don't want to get rid of it entirely, but we also don't want it to rule our lives.

So Susan Jeffers, who wrote the fabulous book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, says, "the fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow."

Again, I talk a lot about comfort zones and that a comfort zone isn't something that is bad. It's just trying to keep us "safe."

And when I use the word safe, I'm putting it in quotation marks. I'm putting it in quotation marks because the fact of the matter is that life begins at the end of our comfort zone, but here's the biggie: so does success.

And in time management, and all my coaching, my private coaching, my group coaching, I talk a lot about doing that one to three things every day that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit.

Makes you just a little bit uncomfortable, just a little bit. Why?

Because then you expand your comfort zone and you build the thing that will help you with fear more than anything else: self-esteem.

One of the things that I also believe is that you can use fear to succeed.

Now, this might be impossible; hear me out.

If you start to look at or reframe the idea that fear is a bridge to success. It becomes easy to succeed. Just do everything you are afraid of, and then you will succeed.

And the reason why I think that we know what our next step is, we just don't want to do it. We just don't want to do it.

But the question I always pose to my clients is the following: how bad do you want it?

How bad do you want it? Do you want to give in to fear, or do you want to go after your dream? Do you want to give in to that fear in that moment?

Or do you want to choose the thing that will get you to the next level, which will get you to the success that you want?

And to do those things you are afraid of, and I call it rule number one and rule number two. Rule number one is to do everything you are afraid of.

Rule number two is when in doubt; go back to rule number one.

In other words, you can't get out of it if you want to grow or succeed.

So remember, the fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow. The only way to get rid of fear is to go out and do it, i.e., rule number one: do everything you are afraid of.

Rule number two: when in doubt, go back to rule number one.

Also, remember in that process of doing everything that you are afraid of or doing that thing that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit, remember this: you can babystep it.

It doesn't have to be all-out frightening. It just needs to be that next little step until you can feel that you can take that next bigger step.

And this can be done.

Now, not only will I experience fear whenever I am in unfamiliar territory, but guess what? So does everybody else.

And remember that doing things that you are afraid of makes you feel better about yourself and builds that phenomenal thing that only you can give yourself, which is self-esteem.

Of course, the problem is that you have to earn self-esteem from the hardest person on the planet to earn it from, which again is yourself.

"Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from that feeling of helplessness."

So, that brings me to catabolic and anabolic energy, catabolic energy is energy that eats you, that kind of that works against you, that destroys you.

Anabolic energy is energy that builds, strengthens, and expands. And again, that is the law, one of the laws of the Universe, expansion. The Universe wants you to succeed. The Universe wants you to expand.

Why? Because as you expand, it expands. You are a part of it. It is a part of you.

The lowest form of energy is catabolic energy and is the energy a victim. It's the "I can't. I can't. I won't. I'm not able. I'm helpless, and I'm hopeless."

And your chance for success when you are living in that energy is so low.

Then we have the energy of anger conflict.

Now, that is stronger than victim. And I am a huge believer because I've used it several times in my life that the energy of anger, yes, is a catabolic energy. Still, it can also be the thing that lights the match, that brings you into that first energy of anabolic energy.

Responsibility. It's like you get so sick of being sick and tired, you're like, fuck it, I'm going to change. And when you change, what happens then is you start to take responsibility.

With taking responsibility comes an understanding and a true learning that you can handle things.

You will never be given more than you can handle, but you will be given more than you can control.

And this a good exercise is, when you start to feel anxious or icky about something is, taking that step back and observing and asking yourself, "Am I handling this, or am I trying to control it?"

And if anxiety is involved, chances are it's control.

And again, when you are in that moment of anxiety, ask yourself, "What am I not taking responsibility for that could be causing me to feel this anxiety?"

Because you might be living under that fabulous line of the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness. Because you're not helpless.

You're not hopeless. It requires just a mustard seed of bravery. And the understanding of these principles around fear and around bravery to change.

You can change.

I only know it because I did. And I always say, "I never teach or coach anything that I haven't guinea-pigged on myself."

I want to remind you of two tools here that you can take away, and then I'm going to read you one of my favorite quotes about being brave.

I want to remind you that when you're feeling fear, if you can, take yourself out of the house or wherever you are. Go get yourself a cup of coffee or a cup of tea or an iced tea or whatever, just a nice beverage with pen and paper, and ask yourself, "Am I controlling? Or am I handling? How could I handle this situation?"

And if you need to, you can even make two columns: what am I trying to handle and what am I trying to control?

Because what you are doing when you do that is putting distance between you and the thing you are frightened of.

Is there something that you need to babystep in order to handle?

Again, take that step back, observing and saying to yourself, "What am I not taking responsibility here?"

You may find it might be something on the handle list, but you have been finding yourself just staying in that underlying fear from feeling helpless, in which case you are just making yourself miserable.

You're just making yourself miserable. And you are choosing to stay in that misery, and you don't need to do that.

Asking yourself, "Am I in victim? Am I in anger, or am I in the energy of responsibility?"

You are again stopping and taking that step back and observing where you are at with fear and where you are at with bravery.

My favorite quote of all time in my entire life and the most influential quote of my life is by Helen Keller. It says,

"To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable."

The fear will not win, but we need to do the legwork.

We need to go outside of that comfort zone.

The following quote, which I love, is from Jen Sincero from The Badass Books when she says, "You're going to have to push through your fears, fail over and over again, and make a habit of doing things you're not so comfy doing.

You're going to have to let go of old limiting beliefs and cling to the decision to create the acting career you desire like your life depends on it. Because guess what? Your life does depend on it."

Co-Star Workout

Commercial Workout

Voiceover Workout

Katie Flahive On Camera Class

Today, I am going to be talking about wisdom and choice.

A quote from William Jennings Bryan.

"Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for. It is a thing to be achieved."

In life, we always have a choice, even when we don't feel we do.

When I forget that I have a choice, what happens is that I am making myself a victim to life's circumstances, or to even life itself.

Choice is the freedom to see things as we desire, feel what we want, and live as we create our lives to be.

So, the question is, are you happening to life or is life happening to you?

Now, I firmly believe that I am the copilot in my life. But the chief pilot in my life is the universe.

And I choose for it to be that way because the universe is infinite, whereas me, just of myself, am finite.

In each moment, I can choose how I want to experience life.

I can choose how I want to experience life, and I always want to be reminding others to do the same.

Another way to think of this in terms of choice is when you choose consciously, you are at the cause of your life. And consequently, when you choose unconsciously, you are at the effect of your life.

Jen Sincero from the Badass Books, she talks about the big snore, which is how so many of us are just going through our lives sleeping.

We're not as I like to call it, using our minds to govern our brains to make sure that we are making the wisest and the most conscious choices in our life each day so that we can create the best future for ourselves.

Victor Frankel, a survivor from the Holocaust, talks about in his book how, yes, he was a prisoner. But he still had freedom, the freedom within his head, and that's how he stayed alive.

By choosing to choose, to open yourself up, you are moving, even just in making that choice, you are moving from catabolic energy, that energy that eats away at you, that is almost decomposes you, as opposed to moving into that anabolic energy, which is that energy of Expansion.

And again, reminding you that the universe wants you to expand.

The universe wants you to achieve. Why? Because as you get bigger, it gets bigger.

You are a part of it. It is a part of you. So again, by choosing to choose, to make conscious choice, you open yourself up to moving from catabolic energies to anabolic energies.

Now I'm going move into wisdom and the concept that each of us is greater and wiser than we appear.

A quote from Bruce D. Schneider, who is the founding of IPEC coaching.

He says, "Look past your reflection in the mirror and see the truth. I am always, and in all ways, greater than I think I am."

So, what if you are only operating at 40 percent of your potential and your capacity? I think a lot of people feel that. They might even feel less than that.

Just by, again, choosing to open yourself up, recognizing that you are starting to move into change.

You're starting to move into greater wisdom.

You have the ability to see, to sense, and to know yourself to be more powerful, more resourceful, and just a greater and more gifted human being.

In terms of an actor, imagine if you were so much more talented than you thought you were.

Because that's the truth. You have more talent. You have more gifts to give than you even realize you do.

But what blocks you are those catabolic energies, which block us from that universal wisdom.

Do not accept your limitation, whether that be physical, intellectual, or emotional.

Think outside the box and know that you have unique gifts to share, regardless of how you have seen yourself in the past.

It's incredibly empowering, to see the truth about ourselves.

We are not helpless or a victim of anything.

We're not helpless.

We are in Infinite Energy and that propels us to do more than we normally think we could or should do.

Now this new seeing of who you really are also helps you to set new standards.

The comfort zone is constantly trying to keep us the same and comfortable.

But tackling these challenges, whether it be running a mile or ten miles or tackling Shakespeare or starting a new career or a new relationship, it helps you to build self-esteem.

Which leads to, if you want self-esteem, do self-esteemable acts.

But I also need to say with this that we do not want to set ourselves up for failure, so I encourage the baby steps.

I encourage going as slowly as you need to take care of yourself, but still challenge yourself. Because ultimately, you can figure this out. You can find a way.

Do what you most don't want to do in a day first.

Or as I joke do the thing that makes you want to vomit in your mouth just a little bit to get you closer to your goals.

Because that will then give you so much energy for the rest of the day.

About Mandy Fisher:

Mandy Fisher is a NYC-based full-time voiceover actor with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has worked with brands like Crayola, Disney, Peloton, Coke, Walmart, and Kohls to name a few.

Her passion for voiceover and genuine love of helping people inspire her to work with actors of all stages of their career.

With a theater background, she brings her training to guide copy analysis and character creation. As an industry vet of 15 years, she has witnessed the changes and understands the ebbs and flows of the business.

Mandy created her own voiceover business from the ground up and has a successful and replicable model to help actors build their own successful businesses.

All of this adds up to a coach who can provide audition and career advice while helping actors become the best they can be!

Tell me about all the different types of voiceover that are out there today.

There's more than one thing that you can do as a voiceover artist. And so often, I feel like when people ask me about voiceover, they just automatically assume that I'm an animation or like on cartoons.

Or video games. And while that's definitely part of voiceover, a lot of my work is commercial and like what you hear on the radio or on TV and e-learning. Many companies I work with have videos that they need to show their employees, and that's a big part of voiceover that people don't necessarily like even thinking about, but then there's IVR, which is interactive voice response. So, when you call a business and you, they say, "Oh, thank you for calling Ikea, press one for the manager, press two for household goods."

That's part of voice of real people who get hired for those jobs. And do that as voiceover. And I know a couple of people who do that only, and that's their entire career, and they make damn good money doing that.

E-learning is a part of voiceover where a company will hire you for perhaps they want to teach their employees about some new policies at their workplace, or maybe a new product is launching. They want to tell the whole company who's not in product development. They want to educate the salespeople and the marketing people and all other kinds of people within the company; they want to educate them about the product or even sometimes it's. It's how to handle sexual harassment, go to HR with a complaint, or negotiate your salary. A company will want to have all kinds of modules so that their employees can learn, grow, and be better.

And especially with remote working being such a major part of the corporate world these days. They rely heavily on these videos and voiceovers to educate their employees and keep their workforce culture booming so that they don't feel like they're on an island.

There's anime, there's animation, there's commercials, there's radio spots, there's e-learning, and then the next one you were talking about was IVR.

Interactive voice response and IVR and telephony are two different things, but they go hand in hand. Telephony is when you call a business and they have a message; maybe for they're on holiday or vacation. "Thank you for calling the law offices of Dunder and Dunder. we're currently on holiday, and we will get back to you as soon as possible." That's a message. That's part of telephony, and most of the time, if you get a client that wants telephony, you can upsell them on the I V R or vice versa. But they're two different things, but they often go hand in hand.

There's looping, obviously ADR. And dubbing, many actors who are bilingual that's becoming its own vertical is bilingual voiceover because many people want to hire both the English speaker and the other language speakers for the same kinds of jobs.

What's radio imaging? Oh yeah, radio imaging Is the voice of a radio station, not the DJ. So, not the one calling out the music cues, "you're listening to be 93.3." It's the voice that you hear between the DJ and the songs that makes the station recognizable. So, when you hear that be 93.3, that voice, that person calling out the radio station, it's recognizable to you. You're listening to that station and not Z 100.

There's promo, there's medical, there's political.

Let's start with promos. Promos are promotions for TV shows and movies, but not trailers. Trailers is a different kind of voiceover, but promo is like, "Join us this week for a new episode of Family Guy Only on CBS."

Medical is complicated because it's all jargon. And a lot of times, you'll get a copy with all of these very technical terms or medications, and you have no idea how the hell to pronounce them, and you are rigorously googling, and yes, of course, you can ask the person that sent it to you, but nine times out of ten that person doesn't freaking know and then they have to ask the people that sent it to them, and there is this like long chain of response.

Often, it is so specifically timed.

ISI- important safety information, which is just the bottom half of that medical, of that medical promo that you're doing.

IPA is the International Phonetic Alphabet. , once you learn it, you can pretty much look at any word and break it down through these little symbols that help you pronounce words because they stand for the different consonants and fricatives and vowels and all that kind of stuff in a word, and if you use the symbols to write it out. You are then able to read the IPA as it applies to the words.

It's basically just spelling out the word the way that it sounds.

Trailers for movies most of the time. Sometimes short films but big movie trailers always have a VO. "Coming to theaters now, it's Spider-Man."

Video games and mobile fall under the same sort of category, but again, they're two separate things because video games for release on a console are different than a video game released on mobile, only in terms of usage, for performance, they're pretty much the same.

A lot of video games use actors for an entire franchise. I know one video game used 800 different voice actors for one game. So, it's a huge industry.

Toys and games. In the voices that you hear in those little books that have Press the cow. Moo.

A lot of Fisher Price or Mattel or little kid things that have voices.

Non-union and union work for audiobooks, which a lot of people don't realize that you can; if you are a union actor and voiceover, there are union voiceover audiobooks that exist out there to do, but I know a lot of people assume that most of that work is non-union.

So, let's talk about union versus non-union. Seventy percent of voiceover work is non-union.

So, many rules and things you might expect if you're a union actor doing non-union VO don't apply.

And sometimes, you find yourself negotiating a little bit more. It can be an education process, especially if you are getting clients on your own through direct marketing or social or outside of agents.

And I find that when I have to educate a client a little on industry-standard rates, they're receptive. But there is some pushback; that's just not in our budget, but maybe it will be for next year.

So that's something that you should keep in mind as recurring clients are how you keep your business going and how you scale your business is you want to keep them; you don't want just to have one client and then never work with them again.

So, suppose you can be a little compromising in those early stages of that relationship and understand that, okay, for the next time we work together. In that case, we're going to get closer and closer to those industry standard rates. That's one way to keep those clients in and scale.

So, you used a term that I don't know if many actors know, scale your business. Can you please explain what scale your business is? Grow it.

As a voiceover actor, if you are entering into this industry for the first time or if you have been doing it on and off part-time, it's making new connections, meeting new people, and finding out who needs to hire you, that changes the landscape of the industry has changed so much, especially when I first stumbled into it. So, keeping your ear to the ground and understanding how to grow continuously is important.

Guide to Commercial Voiceovers

VO Workout

The guide to commercial VO is for any voiceover actor who wants to learn more about commercial voiceover because there's lots of nuance in every single vertical of voiceover.

All the 15, 20, but they all have their own sort of ways of working, and what works in commercial is not necessarily going to work in video games and how you approach those different things. So, all of the skills behind the performance, as well as the skills behind the business, are in this course, and it's jam-packed with information at the end of it. One of my favorite parts of this is all of the people who participated asked so many amazing questions, and that right there is just, it is worth it to me, like those questions. That's why you want to get the replay.

Get up and work voiceover session; it's 90 minutes and quick and dirty. And it's ten actors we work with. TenI provide or so minutes at a time, and I provide commercial copy that they can use and choose whichever piece they want to work on and read through the copy.

I give them some notes in real-time, and we get to a place where we feel good about the work. Is it ready to send off as an audition? Sometimes it is. And sometimes we get to really great, beautiful places that we weren't in previously, but is it always that way? No, but it's about feeling good about the work, understanding the work, understanding the connections that you make, going through the copy, and being able to say, I know what story this is.

I know what I'm doing. I feel confident about what I'm doing. And that's the goal is to be able to look at commercial copy for the first time. No, history of looking it over for days and days, but seeing it and being able to make strong choices in the moment and then forgetting about it, letting it go, working in the moment, and then you're done and letting it go because that's such a big part of commercials.

And if I sat and stewed and thought so hard about every single audition I get every day, I would never make it through the deck. I would just be sitting here doing two or three instead of the 15 that come across my desk. And I would never get them out.

What keeps coming up when negotiating a non-union contract? In perpetuity.

What we're constantly seeing now in non-union VO specifically are exclusivity and in perpetuity, which again are two very different things, but we're starting to see them go hand in hand.

Now, in perpetuity means forever and ever. Exclusivity means exclusive to a certain category or product.

So, let's say you do a commercial for a toothpaste. And it's like a no-name toothpaste brand startup toothpaste. And they come to you, and they're like, "Oh my goodness. I would love for you to do our voiceover. We would like exclusivity in perpetuity."

This means you can never do any other toothpaste ever again for the rest of your career. So, they better be paying a big sum of money.

And if they're not, then you say, "I'm sorry, I can't work within those within those confines, but I can offer you 13 weeks at this rate or a year at this rate,"

But if it's in perpetuity for any kind of commercial, I stay far away from it. If it's in perpetuity for something like medical, I don't really care. Cause there's no competition there and there, the rates in medical are pretty good, so I don't really care, but in commercial.

Unless they're paying me some six figures for in perpetuity, then then I say no.

If you are trying to have a business, you must have the business mindset at the front and the performance mindset side by side.

What kind of mic do you like to work with, just out of curiosity? Yeah. I have Neuman U 87, which I love. It's beautiful and produces great sound, but I also have a Rode NT1, which is also great, and a DEDS mic, and I think that is just as good as the Sennheiser MK 14.

I use mics for different things for promo or medical. I usually use my shotgun deity for commercial. I'm usually using my Neumann for political and other things; I use my Rode; it just depends on where I'm sitting in my voice that day, what the work is, what I'm going to be doing.

What is direct marketing? Direct marketing is doing research, whether on LinkedIn or Google, or however you like to do research to obtain information about companies and people, and then reaching out to them and saying, "Hi, I'm a voice actor. Here's my shit. Listen to my shit. Do you want to work together?"

You are a salesperson, but are you a good salesperson, or are you a shitty one?

And that comes through trial and error and seeing what works and seeing what people respond to. But I find nine times out of 10, a lot of these people I'm reaching out to have a very good sense of humor. They don't have a lot of time, and they like to be sold to in a snappy way that gets to the point with maybe a little bit of cheek and humor and fun and call it a fucking day.

They don't want to go back and forth nine times about the last episode of Game of Thrones.

Maybe down the line, sure, but right now, they need to do what's best for their business, what's best for their company, their team, whatever. They don't necessarily want to go through a casting site, pay that fee, and then pay these people.

If they can work with you directly and you are good behind the mic, you're a good business person; you can do quick turnaround, you have good sound, they would rather work with you directly than going through all the fucking hoops through an agency or a casting site to find, and then scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of auditions to find the right person that they want to work with.

So, direct marketing is a great way for you to scale your business.

Your thoughts on AI. I think that AI has always been around for a really long time, not always, but for a very long time. And yes, it's getting better, smarter, and more capable, but I don't see it as competition.

I know this will be a controversial thought, but I think there are ways we can work alongside it, learn from it, and utilize it to better ourselves.

I don't think AI will replace voiceover actors in my lifetime.

Every person I've talked to who have at one point hired AI voices for their projects said that they regretted it and they would much rather work with a human being.

My father came up with a brilliant strike slogan, which is human stupidity is better than artificial intelligence.

Working with people in all sorts of stages of their career is not only fun for me, but it is exciting to be able to offer that wide variety of coaching to all walks of life.

Private Coaching

So, Rosh Hashanah, Happy New Year.

I am married to a wonderful Jewish man, and this is the Jewish New Year.

You can restart your day at any point.

And I thought, you know what, it's Jewish New Year, and we could all use a bit of a restart.

I also love that it's coming up right after Labor Day; I think of it being, as I mentioned before, summertime is over, and it's, the school year has begun. So, let's try and infuse some energy.

So, what does restart my day, my week, my month, my year at any point mean to me?

It means that there needs to be some sort of an attitude adjustment.

Meaning that either I have been slacking on something I have been not aligning positive thoughts or positive action with my goals, which is one of the biggest things I talk about.

And I need to make an adjustment.

Free month of coaching

As a Chiropractor for the Mind, I adjust your thoughts so that they are in line.

In other words, getting you to do everything you can to work for you instead of against you.

And how does that relate to restarting your day at any point or restarting your year?

What we need is an alignment. An alignment to get us back on track to what it is we really want.

So today, I decided to give you the opportunity to restart your day at any point: your hour, your 15 minutes, your anything, your year, your month.

I think we could all use a year if you're an actor at this point, or a writer for that matter.

And I'm going to give you some quotes on new beginnings.

One of them is by Richie Norton. "Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes."

What I love about that is a dear friend of mine would always say to me, "Peter, I am only responsible till I put my head on the pillow at night."

That's The only thing I need to manage; the only thing I need to handle is from this moment till when I put my head on the pillow at night.

Because when you put your head on the pillow at night, you reset. And when you wake up in the morning, it is every sunrise begins with new eyes.

Again, this podcast, this particular lesson, is about resetting.

It's about it being a new year. It is about new beginnings.

It's about adjusting. Adjusting to what it is you want in your life. And adjusting your thoughts and your actions to your actual goal. Because remember what I say, I talk about if your action is, I want to be a working actor.

I want to be a working actor. The thoughts of I'm not good enough. I can't do that. Ooh, that's tough. You know what? I'll do it tomorrow. Those kinds of thoughts are not working for your goal.

And therefore, it's going to be very difficult for your goal to succeed.

Last week, in the Weekly Adjustment, which is the Chiropractor for the Mind weekly group I do, I talked about an energy action model.

And I talked about what your chances are for success in terms of mindset.

When your thoughts and your actions do not align with your goals, you have a low chance for success.

But every day, you have a chance to reset. And I'm asking you today to challenge yourself to reset your year.

I love this one by Taylor Swift. "This is a new year. A new beginning and things will change."

Another famous quote I love is from Joseph Campbell: "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come."

When you make plans, God laughs.

Because if I look back at how I thought my life was going to be, as opposed to how it ended up being up to this point in my life, it's so different and yet so similar.

I got to where I wanted to get to, but not in the way I ever thought I would.

At some point, I just let go, followed what was in my path, and didn't force it.

Do the next right thing. And that's another great slogan for you. Do the next right thing.

Notice I don't say, do the next thing, but do the next right thing. What's in front of you? What is challenging you? The most successful people do what they most don't want to do by noon.

Vincent Van Gogh. "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything."

Here's another one that I love. "Holding on is believing that there's only a past. Letting go is knowing that there is a future."

You can restart your year at any point. What is your future going to be? And that is Daphne Rose Kingma.

J.P. Morgan, "The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are."

Getting out of your comfort zone. If you are having trouble getting out of your comfort zone, I ask you to baby step what you want to do. What is the tiniest thing you can do to move you in that direction?

Because when you take a baby step, it's not, "Ugh, look, I'm so pathetic I have to take a baby step." It's not that. It's that, "Wow, I'm brave enough to move in the right direction. The direction that I want to move in."

Remember, your desire to either be a working actor or accomplish whatever you want comes from the Universe.

The Universe has to give it to you for you to want it.

You have the Universe behind you. Have the courage to take that first step toward getting somewhere.

Decide that you are not going to stay where you are at. Restart your day, your year, your hour at any point. You can do it.

I know you can do it.

Eight Tips Not to Get Ripped Off as an Actor and the Three Pillars to a Successful Acting Career

Today, I'm going to talk about clear thinking in unclear times.

And I think that could apply to so many things. It could apply to our industry, it could apply to AI, and what's going to happen, it could apply to strikes, it could apply just to the state of the world.

So, let's take a second to talk about clear thinking and how to achieve it.

The Language of Letting Go

"Clear thinking. Strive for clear thinking."

Already right there with that sentence. Strive for clear thinking. For me, what that means is to strive for wisdom.

Strive for wisdom from the smartest part of me, my highest intelligence, because many of us have had our thinking clouded by denial or potentially our egos. Some of us have even lost faith in ourselves because we've spent some time in denial.

In other words, just like pushing things away so we don't have to think about it.

"Finances, career, love, life, so many things, but losing faith in our thinking isn't going to help us. What we need to do is lose faith in denial or lose faith in our coping mechanisms."

So many times, I've heard so many people tell me that they shove their bills into the drawer and close the door because they just don't want to face it or put it in a pile over the other side of the room so they don't have to face it.

Don't return a phone call because if they don't return a phone call, then it's just not happening.

Again, we are striving for clear thinking, and we need to lose faith in those coping mechanisms, the hiding our face so you can't see me or the pushing the bills into the drawer so they don't exist. We need to lose faith in that kind of stuff and start gaining faith in our thinking.

And in our ability to receive wisdom and clear thought from our higher selves, the universe, or whatever you want to call it.

We didn't resort to denial either someone else's problem or our own because we were deficient.

We didn't do these things because we were deficient.

"Denial is the shock absorber for the soul. It protects us until we are equipped to cope with reality."

Clear thinking doesn't mean that we're never going to resort to denial again.

Of course, not because we're human beings; we're not perfect.

Denial is the first step toward acceptance. For most of our lives, we are striving to accept something, and sometimes, we need to deny it first before we can look at it because we need that shock absorption.

"Clear thinking means we don't allow ourselves to become immersed in negativity or unrealistic expectations."

I have found that when I get negative, I am working against myself. I'm resorting to lower energies. I don't want to be operating in lower energies. I want to be operating with optimal energy.

I want to deal with reality.

What is so important is that we surround ourselves with other clear thinkers, which can sometimes be very painful because some of the people we love most in the world may be steeped in negativity, may not be clear thinkers, may not have a spiritual relationship with the universe, and that is fine as long as I continue to take care of myself when I am with those people.

I always call it putting on my bubble suit, staying in my little positive bubble.

But still being real and still being steeped in reality.

"Seek peace of mind. Seek realistic support. Ask for help from the universe. Meditate. Thank you for giving me some clear thought. Thank you for clear thought. Thank you for helping me to think clearly on this matter."

Thank you for helping me to think clearly on this matter.

That's all you have to say. Just say it doesn't matter if you don't know who you're saying it to; just say it.

"We keep our thinking on track by asking the universe to help us think clearly. Not by expecting the universe or another human being to do the clear thinking for us."

We need to access our own clear thinking. Because when we do that, we stay out of victimhood, and we take responsibility for our thoughts because we need our thoughts to align with our goals so we can achieve them.

And guess what else we need? We need our actions to align with our thoughts and our thoughts to align with our goals, and we need our actions to align with our goals.

"There is so much to learn. If we can be humble enough to just ask for a bit of clear thinking, thank you for guiding me to think clearly on this matter."