Hi Reader,

Two things happened this month that won't seem related, but they are.

First: it was my birthday 🎉, and I celebrated by getting my headshots taken. 😂 Which is a wild thing to choose, when I really think about it — a camera three feet from my face at noon on a Wednesday, a very handsome photographer (Jackson Davis, if you're asking 🙋🏼‍♀️) telling me to "relax and look this way" while every cell in my body files a formal complaint. I say all the time that the discomfort is the work. Humbling to take my own advice — especially with all that gorgeous natural light pouring in through the old wire-glass windows, catching every one of my 40 50-ish years — while said handsome photographer says, "Beautiful… now give me that wide-open, the-whole-world's-ahead-of-you look." Kind Sir, I am a character actress trapped in an aging wannabe ingénue's body -- the light and I are both aged LA landmarks. But sure — bright-eyed and full of promise, coming right up! 😅

The second thing: my student Mitzi flew in from Colorado and shot four Professional Demo Reel Scenes for her Actors Access profile. Four. And she didn't do it because anyone invited her to nicely. Just the opposite — someone she respected (not me!) told her, straight up, that her current material wasn't any good. Ouch. 🩹 That's the kind of note that can send me straight to bed for a week! Instead, Mitzi took it, and decided to do something productive about it. She worked for months (not years) on four strategically chosen scenes. Then, she got on a plane, flew 900 miles, and built the proof to match what she knows she is capable of. And by the way, she made that plan before she felt ready, because she knew she was never going to feel ready, and "ready" was never the price of admission anyway.

Watching Mitzi on set, I kept thinking about how much of this craft is the part nobody puts on the call sheet.

And if I'm being honest — Mitzi is about to have the kind of demo reel it took me more than three decades to build. I got mine the traditional way: scene by scene, job by job, year by year. Mitzi's been in class a little under a year, and she shot these four in a single trip. I could let that sting — but here's what I've decided instead: those thirty years weren't the toll for my own reel. They were the toll for being able to teach Mitzi how to make hers in one. And that's a trade I'd make every time. Watching someone get there faster because of what my own long(er) road taught me isn't a loss. For me, it's the whole point.

Which brings me to you. For my birthday I gave away a few free 30-minute strategy sessions, and I loved them so much I've decided to extend the offer. 🥳 The conversations I got to have with some of you were the best gift I got all week — hell, all year. So if you didn't grab one, or you've been circling the idea, here's your second chance.

Bring whatever you're stuck on: the reel, the audition, the team you don't have yet, the next step you keep talking yourself out of. We'll untangle it together.

Then, go make the proof. And if you've already made it, make some more. This is what we do. ✨

With love,

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