Episodios

  • Episode 284: Practice Builds Familiarity and That's Your Superpower
    Apr 8 2026
    Here's a myth that floats around the voiceover world. Once you have a demo, a decent mic, and a couple bookings, you can kind of coast. I want to dismantle that right now. Voice acting is a motor skill, an interpretive skill, and a business skill. And all three degrade without repetition. Athletes don't stop training after a good game. Musicians don't stop running scales after a sold out show. Your instrument works the same way. Without regular contact, reads become stiff, choices become generic, tension creeps into your jaw and neck, and your instincts start to feel shaky. That's not a slump. That's what happens when you stop practicing. What Practice Actually Is On the surface voiceover looks like you just talk. But under the hood you're coordinating breath support, articulation, emotional authenticity, pacing, timing, mic technique, and script analysis all at once. That's a lot of simultaneous processing. Practice isn't punishment. It's lubrication. It keeps the system fluid and limber. You want to be able to move your elbow without it popping and cracking. Same thing with your instrument. The Warmup (Five to Ten Minutes, That's It) Start with your body. Roll your shoulders. Stretch your neck. Shake out your arms. Do some exaggerated yawns. The voice lives in the body, and this signals safety to the nervous system and reduces vocal constriction. Then activate your breath. Inhale for four and exhale on a steady S or ZZZ for as long as possible. This builds the controlled airflow that's essential for conversational reads. Add some short burst exhales too, because your internal clock matters, especially in commercial work where you need to know instinctively what a 15 feels like versus a 30 or a 60. From there, do some articulation work. Over enunciate a short paragraph. Chew the words slowly. Feel where your tongue is, where your voice naturally sits. Then gradually return to natural speech, keeping the clarity without the stiffness. Finish with some gentle humming. Slide your pitch up and down like a siren, then speak a line of copy with the resonance in your chest. Feel the tonal flexibility you have. That range is crucial for casting. What to Actually Practice Practice is not just reading scripts out loud. Real practice has objectives. Here's what I recommend rotating through during the week. Conversational realism. Take a piece of commercial copy and intentionally underplay it. Record a natural take and then one slightly more energized. Listen back. Where does authenticity drop into performance? Timing. Work with 15 second copy and challenge yourself to hit clarity, emotional arc, and brand tone without rushing or dying in that window. Emotional specificity. Pick one subtle emotion per session. Amused. Intrigued. Conspiratorial. Practice letting your tone shift without changing your volume. We often assume volume is doing one thing when it's actually doing something else entirely. Mic technique. Record the same line very close, at mid distance, and slightly off axis. Hear how intimacy and presence change depending on where you are in relation to the mic. And then the one that tends to frustrate people. Listening back. I say this a lot: actors practice speaking. Professionals practice listening back. Where did tension enter? Where did you believe yourself? Was that laugh forced? Did pacing drag? You're training your internal director, and that matters because a lot of this business is self-directed. The Power of Micro Practice The biggest misconception I hear is that practice requires an hour. It doesn't. Three minutes of intentional reps is more powerful than one chaotic hour once a week. Micro practice can look like reading one piece of copy before your coffee. Recording one exploratory take before bed. Running articulation drills in the car. Practicing brand tone shifts while you cook. It doesn't all have to happen in the booth. You're building familiarity with your instrument wherever you are. That familiarity reduces audition anxiety because your voice feels available. It feels like you. And that freedom builds trust. The Cool Down (Yes, This Is Real) Vocal fatigue is very real, and almost nobody talks about the cool down. After heavy sessions, and sometimes mine run four to six hours, gentle humming, light lip drills, and soft descending pitch slides help tell your body that the performance demand is over. This prevents strain accumulation over time. Also, hydrate. And avoid jumping immediately into loud conversation or whispering. The Bottom Line If you've been waiting for motivation to practice, I want you to replace motivation with structure. Pick one focus. Five minutes. Today. Careers in this space aren't built in bursts of inspiration. They're built in quiet repetitions that no one else sees. Opportunities in voiceover don't give you a warning. They give you a script and a deadline. The actors who book consistently aren't the ones who feel inspired every day. ...
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    13 m
  • Episode 383: How To Motivate Yourself To Change Your Behavior
    Apr 1 2026

    I came across a Ted Talk by cognitive neuroscientist Tali Sharot about how to motivate yourself to change your behavior. And then I did what I always do. I took it, ran with it, and made it into something actors can actually use.

    And here's something I want you to think about before we dive in. This core work applies directly to character building too. How would your character motivate themselves to change their behavior? How do you motivate yourself to hit the behavior of the character you're portraying? While you're working on making a better life for yourself, you're also making yourself a better actor.

    1. Lead With What You Want, Not With Your Fear

    Fear might get your attention. Mine can be quite loud and annoying. But it rarely keeps you moving. What you want to do is focus on the version of you that feels lighter, calmer, more capable. Your brain is actually wired to move toward desire. So paint the picture so clearly that you can almost walk right into it.

    2. Make the Reward Immediate, Even If the Goal Is Long Term

    Your brain loves instant wins. So give yourself one. A tiny celebration after you train, take a class, do a warmup, send an outreach email. Just let yourself feel good. Put a gold star in your planner. Small rewards trick your nervous system into believing the change is actually paying off. This comes straight from neuroscience, by the way. Reward yourself. Don't punish yourself.

    3. Break the Habit Into Something So Small You Can't Talk Yourself Out of It

    When I decided to re-up my workout routine, I started with 10 minutes. I said, I can do anything for 10 minutes. Something that felt almost torturous at first became easy. Four and a half years later I'm still doing that same exercise.

    The principle is simple. How can you talk yourself out of one page of script work? Five minutes of meditation? One outreach email? Tiny steps create momentum because you stop negotiating with yourself. You're just doing the next doable thing.

    And on that note, stop negotiating with yourself entirely. Make a decision and stick to it.

    4. Surround Yourself With People Who Reflect Your Highest Self Back to You

    Inspiration is contagious. Support is contagious. Courage is contagious. Spend time with people who remind you who you are becoming, not who you have been. Let their belief in you rub off on you until it feels like your own.

    I see this every week in my classes. I'm teaching them, but they remind me what courage looks like. What consistency looks like. What it looks like to schedule your week so it reflects your dreams, not your fear.

    Let that one sit with you.

    5. Borrow Energy From Your Future Self

    And here's the thing that stopped me cold. This cognitive neuroscientist is saying the exact same thing I talk about in my future self work. Picture the version of you who lives this change effortlessly. The one who feels grounded, consistent, confident. Ask what that version of you would choose in this moment. Let them lead.

    When you act from your future instead of your fear, the behavior shift sticks.

    A Small Favor

    This is an unsponsored podcast. Mandy and I record these on our own time because we love it. If you've gotten something out of this episode, please leave a five star review wherever you listen. It means so much to us.

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    11 m
  • Episode 382: Professionally vs Personally
    Mar 25 2026
    There's a scene in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks tells Meg Ryan not to take something personally. It's just business. And she stops him cold. The business is her life. Of course it's personal. I think about that scene a lot. Because she's right. And also, she's stuck. Here's the shift I want you to make. Stop taking things personally. Start taking them professionally. Those sound similar. They are not. Why Actors Take Everything Personally Our instrument is us. That's the whole thing. A graphic designer can move a logo and it's fine. But when someone tells an actor to be warmer, edgier, younger, more authoritative, our nervous system doesn't hear direction. It hears: you're wrong. You're not enough. Go home. That's not what's actually happening. What's happening is market alignment. Casting is almost never about worth. It's about fit. Specification match. And actors who build long careers learn to separate identity from utility. You are a human being with inherent worth. You are also a specific service provider with a specific skillset. Those are not the same conversation. What "Taking It Personally" Actually Sounds Like They didn't like me. I embarrassed myself. Everyone else is better. I'll never book. Why do I even do this. That's emotionally fueled, identity based, and global. It turns one moment into a life narrative. I had someone say something to me in seventh grade about my glasses and I haven't put them on a single day without thinking about it. I need to let that go. And so do you, wherever yours is. Compare that to taking something professionally: interesting, that read didn't align with their brand direction. My tone might have been too strong for that buyer. Let me track this pattern. That processing is specific, curious, and contained. It asks what's useful here, not what does this mean about me. Rejection Is Not a Verdict It's feedback from a small sample size in a specific moment in time. It can mean the wrong vocal age for that campaign, a timing issue, an energy mismatch, budget politics, an internal brand shift, or just randomness. None of that equals not talented. When you take it personally, you collapse all that nuance into shame. When you take it professionally, you extract patterns that help you grow. Professional working actors are pattern analysts. They ask where they get traction most often, where they consistently stall, what adjectives keep showing up in feedback, and whether their casting lane is tightening or expanding. That mindset turns rejection into career intelligence. Criticism vs. Direction A lot of actors hear criticism when what's actually being offered is direction. And those are different things. Direction means someone is investing attention in your performance. They see potential. They believe you can pivot. They're trying to get you to the finish line. Personal thinking hears I'm failing. Professional thinking hears we're collaborating. Calibration is not humiliation. It's collaboration. Emotional Regulation Is a Career Skill You cannot eliminate emotional reactions. You're an artist and a human. But you can shorten the recovery time. That's the real work. You feel it. You name it. You move through it. You extract the lesson. You return to action. You don't feel it, become it, build an identity around it, and quit marketing for three weeks. There's actually some neuroscience behind this. Your brain doesn't distinguish well between a social threat and a physical threat. When casting says not this time, your amygdala activates the same alarm system designed to keep you from getting eaten by a bear. Your prefrontal cortex, the strategic thinking part, partially goes offline. That's why you catastrophize. That's why you spiral. That's not weakness. That's biology. But professionals train themselves to reengage the thinking brain faster. They create cognitive bridges. This is one data point. This is market feedback. There is no bear. That language literally helps regulate your nervous system. A Story About a Booking I Didn't Get Early in my career I had an audition I was really proud of. Multiple callbacks. Real connection with the casting team. And then silence. Weeks and weeks. Another callback. More silence. And then I found out who booked it and I spiraled. Not because that person wasn't good. They were. But because I had made it mean something about my personal trajectory. I sat in my apartment thinking maybe I'm just not castable. Maybe I missed my window. That's not professional processing. That's identity panic. Fast forward a few years. I ended up working with that same creative team on a completely different campaign. Nothing changed about my worth. My fit changed. The project changed. And that was one of the first times I understood: the industry isn't rejecting you. It's sorting for specificity. It's one giant Tetris game trying to fit everyone where they belong. If you don't understand that, you will burn through emotional ...
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    16 m
  • Episode 381: Future Self Work For A Powerful Career
    Mar 18 2026
    Close your eyes for a second. It's December 2026. The year is almost over. And there's a version of you standing there, the actor you've been working toward all year. How are they carrying themselves? How do they walk into a room? How do they talk about their career? That version of you is not a fantasy. They're a compass. Why Vague Futures Lead to Vague Choices Here's the thing I keep coming back to. If your future is fuzzy, your decisions are going to be fuzzy too. You'll take the class when it "fits." You'll do the outreach when you feel like it. You'll set the boundary when it's convenient. But December you doesn't operate that way. The clearer you get about who that person is, the easier it becomes to act in alignment with them right now. Every choice you make today is either a vote for that version of you or it isn't. That's it. That's really the whole framework. Let Your Future Self Design Your Schedule This is something I go deep on in my weekly accountability and time management class for actors. Your calendar will tell the truth long before your excuses do. Look at your week through December's eyes. Would that version of you have prioritized training? Outreach? Rest? Boundaries? Start building your days around what your future self considers non-negotiable, not what your current self finds convenient. That's how you move from wishing into actual structural change. Train Like the Actor You Are Becoming The old version of you took class when it fit. The December version shows up even when it's inconvenient. Think of it in terms of reps. Every class you take, every self-tape you submit, every email you send with intention, those are reps. And your reps today are your bookings tomorrow. You are literally building that future actor one choice at a time. Ask yourself: what would the actor I want to be be working on right now? That question will recalibrate you faster than almost anything else. Let Future You Choose Your Boundaries Too December you is not saying yes to every draining request. She knows what supports the work and what depletes it. When you feel torn about a boundary, when you're deciding whether to say yes or no to something, ask yourself: what would December me choose here? That question cuts through a lot of noise. And a lot of people pleasing. If a boundary protects your craft, it is not selfish. It's necessary. Celebrate Every Aligned Choice This part matters more than people think. Every time you behave like your future self, even in a small way, acknowledge it. Celebrate it. Good job. That was me acting from my future, not my fear. That's how you wire yourself for a new identity. You're training your brain to recognize, oh, this is who we are now. Every aligned choice is a vote for the actor you want to become. Also in This Episode: Healing Your Money Story I recorded a three-part class called Healing Your Money Story: From Survival Mode to Abundance, and I want to be clear about what it is and what it isn't. It's not about budgeting. It's not about discipline. It's about understanding where your money patterns actually came from and why they live in your body, not just in your head. Inherited beliefs. Nervous system fear. Shame. Identity. And what it actually takes to feel safe around money. If money has ever made you tense, avoidant, or stuck in survival mode, this class was made for you.
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    13 m
  • Episode 280: Redefine Success Before The Industry Does It For You
    Mar 11 2026
    Stop Letting the Industry Define Your Success (Before It's Too Late) I was 16 years old. I walked out of an audition without a callback. And I cried. Not because the audition went badly. Not because I wasn't prepared. Just because the answer was no. I had already handed my peace over to the outcome, and I didn't even know I was doing it. I think about that girl a lot. I wish I could go back and tell her: it's one audition. One. In a lifetime of auditions. You are going to be fine. The Problem with Letting the Industry Define Your Success Here's what nobody says out loud: if you wait for a booking to feel successful, you will spend most of your career feeling like a failure. Not because you're not talented. Not because you're not working hard enough. Because the odds of this business mean that even working, thriving actors hear "no" far more than "yes." The casting grid doesn't care about your growth. It doesn't see how far you've come. So if that's where your sense of worth lives, you're giving away your power every single day. Stop outsourcing your worth to your bookings. Let Success Be a Feeling Before It Is an Event Wayne Dyer said it well: change the way you look at things and the things you look at change. That's not just a nice quote. It's a real shift in how you experience your career every single day. When success is a distant event, like landing a series regular by a certain age, you spend most of your life waiting. And not-yet always feels a lot like failure. But when you redefine success as how you live the day? That's something you actually control. Did you train today? Did you take one step in your business? Did you care for your nervous system? That's success. Measurable, real, and fully yours. I worked out this morning and I wanted to quit about six times. But I didn't. And when I was done, I was genuinely moved. Good job. You did it even when you didn't want to. Nobody handed me that feeling. It was mine. Goals, Habits, and Identity Are Three Different Things Most actors blur these together. They matter separately. Goals are results you want. Booking a co-star. Getting new footage. Landing a manager. Habits are what you do consistently. Self-taping weekly. Taking class. Staying in touch with your network. Identity is who you decide you are. Not who you'll become if everything works out. Who you are right now. You can hold all three at once. Goal: book a co-star. Habit: self-tape every week. Identity: I am a working actor in progress. That combination is what actually works. When you stop tying your identity to your outcomes, you become more resilient. And in this business, resilience is everything. Consistency, persistence, tenacity. Those might be the three most important words in this industry. Your Habits Are the Bridge Something I wrote down recently that I keep coming back to: Your habits are the bridge between your identity and your goals. Not your bookings. Not your callbacks. Your daily habits. The quiet, unglamorous work nobody sees. That's the bridge. The industry will always be chaotic. Platforms change. Trends shift. But training, the real core craft work, that's where you go to remember who you are. When your craft is solid, you can ride out the storms without losing yourself. Check In With Yourself. Regularly. Update your definition of success on a regular basis. You grow. Your definition should grow with you. Ask yourself: what does success look like for me today? Maybe it's rebuilding your confidence. Maybe it's getting new footage. Maybe it's strengthening one relationship in the industry. If your definition of success hasn't changed in a while, you haven't let yourself evolve. One More Thing: Your Money Story Matters Too Everything we just talked about, identity, worth, fear, what safety feels like, it doesn't only show up in your career. It shows up in your relationship with money too. I created a 3-part class called Healing Your Money Story: From Survival Mode to Abundance. This is not about budgeting. It's not about forcing a positive attitude or shaming yourself into discipline. It's about understanding where your money patterns came from and why they live in your body, not just your thoughts. Inherited beliefs, the nervous system, shame, money identity, and what it actually takes to feel safe with money. Can you imagine that? Feeling genuinely safe around money. If money has ever made you tense, avoidant, ashamed, or stuck in paycheck-to-paycheck survival mode, this class was made for you. Click here to learn more.
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    16 m
  • Episode 379: The Art of Subtle Intrusion Influence Without Interrupting
    Mar 4 2026
    You walk into a networking event. You hover. You don't want to bother anyone. Or you send a follow-up email that says "just checking in." Or you audition without really framing who you are or why you're there. And then nothing happens, and you think, I'm doing everything right. Why isn't this working? Here's what I think is actually going on. It's not effort. It's orientation. What "Subtle Intrusion" Actually Means I want to unpack a phrase that sounds edgy but isn't what you think. Subtle intrusion is not manipulation. It's not loud. It's not ego. It's the art of placing yourself where opportunities happen, strategically, intentionally, and with respect for the room you're entering. Influence doesn't come from volume. It comes from clarity. As actors, we're trained to pour out, to express, to expand. But nobody really teaches you how to be seen in business spaces. So most of us figure it out by trial and fire, usually after a few cringe-worthy networking moments and a string of emails that went nowhere. The Two Traps Most Actors Fall Into Trap one: thinking that being loud and flashy gets you noticed. Trap two: thinking that staying quiet keeps you safe. Neither works. The people who build real careers are the ones who enter with intention, speak with awareness, and follow through with respect. That's not a personality type. It's a learnable skill. What Intentional Presence Actually Looks Like Before you step into any room, physical or digital, I want you to notice the rhythm first. Observe. Orient. Then insert. Your first sentence is not your line. It's your offer of value. And your follow-up? Never "just checking in" or "bubbling this back up." Instead: here's where we left off, here's what I suggest next. That's it. Clean, clear, useful. Be predictable in how reliable you are. Be unpredictable in your value. People remember consistency and clarity, not chaos. The Email Problem (Yes, This Applies There Too) I'll call it out directly. Most actors write emails that ask too much, ask too little, lack structure, or feel emotionally loaded. A subtle intrusion email is clear. It gives a reason. It gives an action. It makes responding easy without forcing a response. If your emails run three times longer than they need to, that doesn't read as thorough. It reads as anxious. And anxiety is not confidence. I have three email courses for exactly this reason. One for agents, one for cold leads, and one for casting directors and other entertainment industry contacts, because each of those relationships requires something different from you. The Real Reason It Feels Uncomfortable If subtle intrusion sounds hard, I think I know why. You don't fully trust that you're enough without all the effort. So you overcompensate. You flood the space. You over-explain, over-perform, overshare. And it doesn't land the way you want it to. Professional energy is steadiness. It means you don't emotionally offload onto strangers. You don't need immediate validation. You show up anchored, and anchored reads as competent. Your Homework Pick one area. Auditions, emails, meetings, content, conversations. Ask yourself: where am I adding noise instead of clarity? Then remove one thing. One extra sentence. One unnecessary explanation. One emotional hedge. See what happens. You don't need permission to take up space. You need awareness of how you take it. Want to Talk Through This? Set up a free consult with me. Reach out at mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com and grab a spot on my calendar. Let's talk clarity and systems.
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    15 m
  • Episode 378: You Missed the Call And That Was the Job
    Feb 25 2026
    The Thing Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud I get ghosted. A lot. Free consults, strategy calls, portfolio reviews. People who asked, people who booked, people who confirmed. And then? Nothing. No email. No reschedule. No apology. Just a no-show. This episode isn't about shame. It's about an honest question: if you're skipping the low-stakes stuff, what happens when the stakes are actually high? What Ghosting a Free Call Really Costs You It's easy to tell yourself a missed consult doesn't matter. It's free. It's casual. It's not an audition. But here's the thing. It kind of is. Every commitment you make, even a small one, is a chance to practice being the kind of professional people want to work with. Casting directors don't see your intentions. Agents don't feel your potential. Clients don't care how overwhelmed you are. They experience your behavior. And if your behavior says "unreliable," that's what sticks. Missed calls. Unsubmitted emails. Deadlines that slipped. Relationships that quietly went cold. None of these feel like a big break moment. But they add up. And six months later, when things feel slow, this is often why. Disorganization Is Not a Personality Type Being bad at time management is not a creative badge. Being bad at email is not a quirk. These are systems problems. And systems can be fixed. You don't need a $40 productivity app. You need a calendar, a reminder system, and one place where all your commitments live. That's it. I have ADHD. I know firsthand how hard this can be. And I also know it can be done. Memory is unreliable. Systems aren't. The Homework (Yes, There Is Homework) Here's a practical reset you can start today. Audit your commitments. Write down everything you've said yes to this month. Every single thing. Then cancel what you genuinely can't honor, and cancel it cleanly. Don't ghost it. Pick one system and actually use it. Google Calendar, iCal, a paper notebook. One place. Set reminders like you don't trust yourself, because right now, maybe you shouldn't. Practice showing up early. Early is calm. Early is professional. Early is power. I grew up hearing: if you're 15 minutes early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, you're fired. That habit has saved my career more times than I can count. The Real Question Can you be trusted to do your job? Not talent. Not range. Not training or demos or headshots. Can people trust you to show up, follow through, and be where you said you'd be? If the answer is no right now, that's okay. Give yourself some grace. But start today. Because no one is coming to rescue your career. You don't need rescuing. You need structure. Talent opens doors. Reliability keeps them open. Work With Me Want a free 15-minute consult? Reach out at mandy@actingbusinessbootcamp.com and yes, show up for it. Browse current classes and coaching at actingbusinessbootcamp.com Join the Discord and follow me on Substack at Astoria Redhead
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    12 m
  • Episode 377: The Spiritual Side Of An Acting Career
    Feb 18 2026

    There's a version of career advice that's all hustle. Post more. Submit more. Network harder. And look, that stuff matters. But there's something most acting coaches don't talk about, and it might be the thing that's actually keeping you stuck.

    Your inner world runs your outer results.

    In this episode, Peter Pamela Rose goes deep on the spiritual side of building an acting career, not in a woo-woo, burn-a-candle way, but in a real, practical, what-do-you-do-on-a-Tuesday-morning way. Five points to cover. Let's get started.

    Start the Year with Intention, Not Panic

    A lot of actors kick off a new year in a quiet state of dread. Will I book anything? Will I get reps? Is it going to be like last year? Intention sounds different. It sounds like: this year I choose grounded confidence. I choose courage. I choose to show up.

    Intention sets the emotional weather of your year. You still do the practical work. But now it sits inside something that actually supports you. And if you don't claim the energy of your year, your fear will do it for you.

    Strengthen Your Muscle of Choice

    When you practice making conscious choices, small ones, daily ones, you start building real faith. Not just faith in the universe, but faith in yourself. Maryanne Williamson says every thought creates form on some level. That's not abstract. That's a daily practice.

    Ask for Guidance Like It's Part of Your Training

    You wouldn't skip a vocal warmup. So why treat spiritual support like an afterthought? Spend a few moments each day asking: show me the next right step. Help me see what I am not seeing. Over time the static quiets. Ideas start arriving. Trust the quiet nudges that don't make sense yet. That's usually where the next opening lives.

    Choose Courage Over Comparison

    Comparison drains your spiritual battery faster than almost anything else. When you scroll and compare, you forget you are on your own curriculum. Courage sounds like: I bless their journey and I stay on mine. The industry responds differently when you are not silently begging it to prove your worth. You cannot build your career and obsess about someone else's at the same time.

    Show Up with Grounded Energy

    Casting directors, directors, producers, they feel your energy long before they assess your resume. Meditation, journaling, prayer, whatever your practice is. It is not the extra. It is the continued practice. A steady inner life makes you harder to shake in the room and on tape. A grounded actor is an unforgettable actor.

    Enjoyed This Episode?

    Acting Business Bootcamp is an unsponsored podcast. Peter and Mandy do it because they love it. If this episode resonated with you, please leave a five star review wherever you listen. It means the world and helps other actors find the show.

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    15 m