No Map Included

In this episode of No Map Included, I sit down with actress and producer Nina Seul for a conversation about identity, intuition, reinvention, and what happens when a lifelong calling begins to shift.

After spending more than twenty years building her life around acting, Nina opens up about the gradual realization that the career path she had centered her identity around no longer felt aligned in the same way. We talk about moving to Los Angeles, navigating the industry as a European actress, the emotional impact of rejection, and the pressure of constantly trying to prove yourself in a career that often feels deeply personal.

Nina shares how the pandemic, burnout, aging in the industry, and years of instability slowly changed her relationship to acting, and how she eventually found herself asking the universe for a new path entirely.

We also talk about intuition, immigrant experiences in the entertainment industry, finding joy outside of acting, and the difference between giving up on a dream versus allowing yourself to evolve beyond it.

More than anything, this episode is about realizing that identity doesn’t have to stay fixed forever, and that sometimes moving in a new direction isn’t failure, but growth.

And if you’ve ever questioned the path you built your life around, struggled to separate yourself from your career, or felt afraid to outgrow an old version of yourself, I hope this conversation makes you feel a little less alone.

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Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I talk about what it means to stop living entirely for the outcome.

After spending years attaching my identity to achievement, momentum, and long-term goals, I’ve been trying to rebuild my relationship to creativity, ambition, and uncertainty in a way that feels healthier and more sustainable.

I talk about stepping away from acting professionally, navigating rejection with Stay/Away, returning to writing, and realizing how much of my life had become focused on chasing outcomes instead of actually experiencing the present.

I also get into identity shifts, background acting, books that found me at the right time, building new habits, and the difference between creating from pressure versus creating from genuine curiosity.

More than anything, this episode is about making room:
for new dreams, new versions of yourself, and a life that feels aligned even without a perfectly clear roadmap.

And if you’re currently in your own messy middle, trying to let go of an old identity, rethink success, or figure out what comes next, I hope this episode reminds you that you’re not the only one navigating that transition.

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I talk about what it feels like to let go of a dream you built your entire life around.

After more than a decade of pursuing acting professionally, I finally made the decision to step away from it as a career. Not because I stopped loving storytelling, but because my relationship to the industry, the instability, the constant hustle, and the version of life I had built around it no longer felt sustainable.

At the same time, the restaurant I had been working at suddenly closed, forcing me into an even bigger period of uncertainty and transition.

This episode is about identity shifts, burnout, social media pressure, survival jobs, and the emotional reality of realizing that something you once wanted deeply may no longer fit the person you’ve become.

I also talk about the complicated relationship between creativity and visibility, the pressure to constantly market yourself as an artist, and what it means to make room for a completely new chapter even when you don’t fully know what comes next.

This episode doesn’t really end with answers. It’s more of a snapshot of being in the middle of a major pivot while trying to trust that something new is waiting on the other side of it.

And if you’ve ever outgrown a version of your dream, or found yourself questioning the life you built around it, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

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Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I sit down with student Emmy award winner Jacqueline Rosenthal for a conversation about what happens when the path you’ve been on no longer feels right.

Jacqueline started out as an actor, then decided to pivot, because acting never seemed to be fully aligned with her. We talk about building your identity around acting from a young age, and how validation can shape the choices you make without you even realizing it.

Jacqueline shares what it looked like to step into directing, how she reframed success and recognition, and why staying grounded became essential in a career built on highs and lows.

We also get into the parts that are rarely talked about: Working other jobs while building a career, navigating how others perceive that, and the reality of sustaining creative work over time. 

This conversation is about choosing the work that feels right even if it means letting go of something you’ve held onto for a long time.

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Jacqueline Rosenthal

Yessi Sanchez

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Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I talk through the next phase of building LOVE/HATE, and everything I’m learning as I move into Season 2.

Season 1 was an exploration. Testing format, structure, and how a vertical series can live on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

Now, I’m looking at what’s working, what’s not, and what I want to adjust.

I talk about the challenge of building something for a platform that isn’t designed for the way the story is meant to be watched, and the tension between believing in the project and not seeing the level of engagement I expected. 

This episode also gets into the practical side of making the series:
 scheduling without a budget, writing within real constraints, simplifying locations, and finding ways to keep the process sustainable.

At the same time, Season 2 is already in production with new approaches to structure, distribution, and filming.

If you check out LOVE/HATE, I’d love to know what you think. You can find it on Instagram @thisislovehate (start at “Start Here” and scroll up).

And if you found the show through this podcast, comment “podcast”. I’m really curious how this process translates.

If you’re building something in real time too, feel free to share what you’re figuring out.

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

A few months ago, things were slow. Now, there’s momentum. Work, projects, responsibilities. It’s what I’ve been asking for.

And still, I feel burnt out.

Not overwhelmed in the way I used to be, where everything felt like too much, but a quieter version of it. The kind where you keep going, but you know something needs to shift. 

This episode is a real-time reflection on time management, boundaries, and trying to balance multiple paths at once without dropping the things that actually matter.

I also talk about the tension between that and the good things happening at the same time: new opportunities, creative work, and moments that remind me why I’m doing this in the first place.

If you’re going through something right now, feel free to share in the comments, on Instagram, or on LinkedIn.

Sometimes just hearing what others are navigating can make it feel a little lighter.

And if you know someone who might need this, send this episode their way.

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I sit down with actress Zari Rose for a raw and honest conversation about grief, and what it means to find your way back to acting through it.

We met in 2018, at a time when acting felt more straightforward. Since then, the industry has changed, and so have we. What started as a clear goal slowly turned into something more complicated: pressure, expectations, and trying to follow a timeline that didn’t hold up.

We talk about falling out of love with acting while still pursuing it, and what it takes to come back to it from a different place.

Zari shares how grief reshaped her connection to the work, and how acting became less about proving something and more about understanding people. 

If you’re in a phase where things feel unclear, or like you’re holding too tightly to something, maybe this is your reminder to step back, let it breathe, and trust what’s unfolding.

And if you know someone going through a difficult moment while still trying to hold onto what they love, send this episode their way.

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Zari Rose

Yessi Sanchez

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Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this episode of No Map Included, I share what the early development stage of Stay/Away actually looks like, after the proof of concept is written, but before anything is financed or produced.

I talk about moving into pitch decks and grant applications, and how those materials don’t just present the story; they reshape it. Writing loglines, synopses, and a writer’s statement forced me to get clearer on what the film is really about.

I also get into the practical side of development:
researching grants, deciding where to apply, translating materials between English and German, and building a full package before funding is in place.

This episode is about a stage that’s mostly invisible:
rewriting, refining, second-guessing, and making decisions without knowing where they’ll lead.

If something in this episode sparked an idea, shifted your perspective, or made you rethink your own project, I’d love to hear from you.

You can reach out on Instagram or share your thoughts directly.

And if you know someone who’s in the middle of building something, send this episode their way.

Connect

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

What does it take to make a series with no budget, no crew, and no roadmap?

In this episode of No Map Included, Yessi Sanchez breaks down the creation of LOVE/HATE, a vertical fiction series filmed entirely for Instagram.

Shot in POV style and produced with a small group of collaborators across Los Angeles, the series became an experiment in building narrative storytelling outside traditional production systems. Yessi shares how the idea evolved, how the cast came together, and what it looked like to direct, act, produce, and edit the project at the same time.

From filming on buses and city streets to shaping episodes for social media attention spans, this episode explores the creative and logistical challenges of producing something ambitious with almost no resources.

LOVE/HATE is a vertical fiction series set in Los Angeles, following a group of friends after one of them suddenly disappears.

Watch on Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/thisislovehate

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.

In this first episode of No Map Included, I share how the journey started, from touring European film festivals as an actor to discovering filmmaking and writing as the form I was meant to pursue.

I talk about the story behind Stay/Away, a deeply personal feature film now in development, and LOVE/HATE, a zero-budget vertical series built entirely outside traditional systems.

This episode is about beginnings that don’t look like beginnings: imposter syndrome, scrapped drafts, creative pivots, and learning to create without waiting for permission.

Projects mentioned

Stay/Away — feature film in development
LOVE/HATE — vertical series now releasing on Instagram

Watch LOVE/HATE:
https://www.instagram.com/thisislovehate

Send us Fan Mail

Listen to No Map Included

No Map Included is a podcast about life's unexpected chapters—through honest conversations about creativity, identity, uncertainty, and the stories we tell ourselves while we're still figuring things out.

If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to hear what stayed with you. And if you know someone navigating the highs and lows of a creative career, send this episode their way.